I'm not, nor have I ever been, a big Apple fan. In fact, I dislike the company and its products so much that I lovingly call them Crapple.

Oh, make no mistake, some of their stuff over the years has been good. I bought an iPod back in 2004, and then another one for my wife a year or two later. Mine lasted well over 10 years (I did have to replace the battery once but it was a DIY thing so not a big deal)…solid.

But when I was in customer support and also a network administrator, I just hated working on and with them. They just weren't intuitive like a PC (to me–I know, YMMV).

My recent brush with Apple's customer services wasn't stellar. Their support actually sucks. It took WEEKS to get them to make good on a product that was under warranty.

Computing speed has a lot to do with DISTANCE

But this new M1 chip? Good god, that thing is amazing! In short, it houses the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other stuff too techy for me to try to explain into ONE SINGLE board. This chip will revolutionize PCs for the foreseeable future. It's badass.

I wish Intel or AMD (or somebody) would fill in the gap. Windows may be left behind shortly. And I don't like that one bit.

To Podcast or Not to Podcast…Is that even a question any more?

I've dabbled with podcasting in the past, having run three shows and been on a few others. What is your experience? Like doing them? Or loathe doing them?

I often think I should be running a podcast but then I realize I don't have anything to say. LOL.

If you're thinking about starting a podcast, or want to improve what you're already doing, make sure you read this from the folks over at Buffer.

Monopolies

What are your thoughts about the current, seemingly significant and numerous, lawsuits being brought by the feds and multiple states against “big tech” like Facebook and Google?

I've thought for a long that this sort of thing was long overdue. I remember the break up of “Ma Bell” back in the 1980s. I also remember the suits against Microsoft that wound up making them “unbundle” Internet Explorer from Windows.

Both took a very long time, ate up a bunch of money and resources, and…maybe resulted in no long-term benefits.

I mean, all the Baby Bells merged into two or three companies. The rise of wireless phones (cell) probably would have been AT&T's downfall a decade or two later any way.

And all that happened with the “browser wars” was that Google's Chrome was given an easier path to (now) dominate said wars. Of course, Chrome may be a part of the lawsuits against Google at some point (if not already).

Does this “break down and build up” legal maneuvering really accomplish anything? I don't know. To end users like you and me, it may not seem significant or even helpful.

Have a great weekend! Christmas is one week away. Hopefully, you have safe plans to keep from getting COVID while still enjoying your family and the holidays.