» Famous people I hate

Steve Fucking Jobs
I hate him. He's everything that's bad about uttlery disingenuous corporate figureheads. A smiley face and a "Hey, I'm just one of you geeky guys!" persona masking a ruthless, egocentric desire to rinse as much money as possible from the often unquestioning captive audience that worship his overpriced products.

A man who did nothing but marketing and shouting at people in the early days of Apple. Now he just shouts at people. Admittedly, that's behind the scenes, yet he pretends to be everyone's favourite geeky uncle in his public appearances. Like Disney and Nintendo's public image, Steve represents the very worst kind of consumer-exploiting capitalism.

He promotes ultra-locked-down 'appliances', that just happen to spew revenue directly into his pockets, as being what people 'actually' want, when really his approach just creates a population of dumb users who still have no clue about the potential of the machines they buy - because Steve tells them exactly what they 'should' use those machines for. He wants to promote goods for people that are scared of computers, yet he doesn't take away that fear. He just gives them dumbed-down devices, because according to his methodology 'it's what they need'. It's dictatorial. It's patronising. It makes Steve even richer.

Contrastingly, I love Bill Gates, even though Windows is still horrific. Why? Because Bill still reviewed code, even when he was running the richest company in the universe. He also pays for something 30% of global malaria research. He's just committed billions to vaccinations in the third world. IMO, whatever wrongs Bill did with MS, he's righted them all a thousandfold.

I doubt we'll ever see Steve doing the same. Mostly because he doesn't care as long as you PAY MORE MONEY and LOVE HIM.
(Fri 5th Feb 2010, 13:21, More)

» Ouch!

Toenails and doors and dentists causing pain through kindness
I once opened a door in such a manner that it caught the nail on my right big toe, lifted it up and snapped it horizontally with such force that the flesh underneath exploded. Blood everywhere and the pain, for a brief second, was beyond description. HOWEVER, this was bettered by a dental abscess. Obviously these involve pain on scales broadly comparable to an aircraft carrier when the average toe stub is a stick in the water, and this one had got to the point where I was happy to shell out obscene amounts of cash for a private emergency dentist.

Once I was in the chair, he set about administering the injections and knowing that this particular abscess was gunning for the ULTIMATE PAIN AWARDS that year, he decided to give me an extra one, right into the heart of the broken tooth that was infected.

With consummate skill and impressive accuracy, the dentist injected a rather large amount of liquid right into the pus-pocket of the abscess itself.

You know in Star Wars when they engage lightspeed? Imagine that, but the image of PAIN HAPPENING in your vision. I actually went blind from the raw pain impulses cascading through my brain and my head flipped out with such violence that the syringe needle bent into a semi-circle. Worst of all was the weird, bubbling popping sound that came from my upper jaw. I literally cannot describe what the pain felt like. It was powers of ten beyond anything I'd felt before and I've had a lifetime of dental abscesses and a couple of bone breaks.

Thankfully the abcess was now full of hardcore anaesthetics and the pain mercifully receded at a rapid pace, but fuck me that 1-2 second eternity of pure pain was truly mindfucking.
(Thu 5th Aug 2010, 17:57, More)