Nine Reasons why Apple sucks

It’s customary in our society to gripe and bitch about things that we don’t like. Even though as a rule, I prefer not to do that, it’s still therapeutic to be able to exercise this right from time to time.

I love my Mac. I got my MacBook over one and a half years ago, and using a Mac has been a largely wonderful experience. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been perfect. Perhaps it’s because my experience has been so close to perfect that I feel the need to whine about the things that make it not so.

The MacBook is a lovely machine from the outside. It feels crafted, a single sculpted piece of polycarbonate (plastic to you and me) that feels like it’s actually been designed, and not just pieced together like Frankenstein’s monster, like most other laptops. Though this causes it to be hot under regular use, I like the lack of vents on the bottom; the MacBook looks just as beautiful from underneath as it does from any other angle. I can’t understand why other notebook designers don’t follow Apple’s lead in this front. I’d like my laptop to be perfectly symmetrical, as my Macbook is.

Having said that, Apple’s design isn’t perfect, and if an EEE PC, Sony TZ (or SZ) , Dell XPS 1330 or LG’s T1 (my original first choice for a laptop) were running OS X, I’d have gladly taken one of those for practical reasons. Despite their excellence in design, Apple still has much room for improvement. It’s still really a bit too heavy for my liking, and the screen’s brightness is really rather mediocre (I hadn’t really noticed until I had it hooked up to an external monitor, though.)

Lately, however, my Magsafe power connector is playing up, and now only connects after repeated jiggling. I feel it’s on its last legs, that’s for sure. I can’t say I look after my electronics equipment like a museum piece, but I haven’t dropped it, or anything crazy like that. I should like to think that this isn’t my fault. This sort of thing is really a minor issue, but when you look at the connector itself, you see that this sort of thing was always liable to happen. It’s the sort of thing that Apple will allow because they value style over practicality. My old Dell has a beefy mother of a power brick, that was never going to fail on me. The Apple one is a light, elegant, dainty little thing, that unfortunately should have its delicate parts carefully protected against clumsy people like me.

I’m tempted to blame myself for this, however, this is just the latest in a long line of problems with my MacBook.

I have experienced, in my short time as a Mac user, the following:

1. random shutdowns (full logic board replacement required),
2. ‘dirty’ palm rest (also replaced)
3. a faulty battery that wouldn’t charge (replaced free by the Apple store)
4. five keys have fallen out (replaced at my own expense in Taiwan)
5. a faulty CD drive which generally cannot read CDs (but DVDs seem okay),
6. an Ethernet socket that no longer works (I haven’t really needed to use it, so I guess I support Apple’s decision to remove it from the MacBook Air),
7. a flickery screen,
8. the aforementioned Magsafe connector.
9. godawful battery life (see below)

Taking the MacBook back for repair at my own expense and time (Apple charge ridiculously for repairs) is just not a realistic solution for me, and I live on with these niggles. The CD drive, ethernet and screen are still faulty, but I can live with them (I barely use the CD drive at all). I can’t even understand how the keys snapped and fell out, but they weren’t too expensive. The other stuff is really pretty terrible though, if you think about it.

However, I have one more frustrating issue, and that is with my battery life. The Magsafe connector may have been slightly my fault, even if the design is generally poor, but the battery problems are something else. The Macbook’s battery life out of the box was probably below average for this sort of laptop; around 2 and a half hours. I just expect better from Apple, which prides itself on its quality. After the first battery failed inexplicably, I’ve had the second battery now for not much longer than a year. I now have 1610 mAh from an original 5200 mAh. Around 30% battery life after 18 months! I don’t use the Macbook exactly as Apple says. Battery advice is contradictory on the Internet, and sources say you should run the laptop from battery as much as you can, or just from AC. In any case, I’m pretty sure I haven’t done anything abnormal. I’ve recalibrated the battery fairly often (which is inconvenient to say the least), and installed updates.

Here’s a screenshot below.

My battery performance has been pretty much atrocious. I’d say I’d been unlucky, but my iPod also has terrible battery life. It leads me to conclude that there must be something fundamentally wrong with their battery production. Even before it failed, my first battery had already fallen to 85% after a month. Now, the laptop lasts barely 40 minutes, which makes working on the go pretty much impossible. This is already with screen brightness at the minimum. Not to mention that the laptop usually cuts out at around 10% anyway for no real reason. After it cuts out, charging using the current Magsafe connector is not always a reliable option. I think I’m entitled to a free replacement, but I don’t think I can get one in Taiwan anyway. Having to pay for all of this stuff is not fun.

The advantages of being a Mac user are probably outweighed by the disadvantages of being labelled as one. I love my Mac, as I said earlier, but their quality control leaves something to be desired. Yet there are probably many who say I should have got AppleCare. That’s just rubbish. This is basic hardware failure; a fault in Apple’s design and/or manufacturing processes, and I shouldn’t have to pay a premium to have any problems fixed on time! How about having no problems instead, with or without Applecare?! Not to mention Apple’s service is pretty poor if you don’t have AppleCare – it seems just like another source of revenue for them. It’s incredulous to see Apple fanboys defend the company blindly against manufacturing defects. It makes me want to disassociate with the company, even go to another manufacturer. But, the problem is, even with these issues, my Mac is a joy to use, and I can’t see myself ever using a Windows machine again.

Don’t you just hate that?

My Method of Madness for Learning Chinese

I underestimated the difficulty of reading Chinese characters, and for some reason, it takes me a few seconds, maybe three, to read one of the characters that I may have learned. I usually try to split up the Chinese character into a bunch of separate characters, turning it into a story or strong theme that only really makes sense in my own head. I’ll try to look for an example…

For example, the Chinese character 尖 is made of 小 and 大 – representing something that is sharp/pointed, i.e. small on top, and big(wider) on the bottom. This is a traditional example that teachers like to use, because it effortlessly highlights the beauty, simplicity and elegance of Chinese characters. Similarly, the character for peace is 安 which is made up of a roof/house 宀 over a woman 女. Unfortunately, these particular characters are simple enough that I knew them already. The bastard characters in Chinese that we’re learning now, particularly in Taiwan where they use traditional characters, are an unforgiving bunch.

Now for my own example. 摩 is the character for ‘rub’, mó, most commonly met in 摩托車 mótuōchē or motorcycle.. (On a side point, mótuō is very close to the English motor, which makes it easy to remember). Anyway, how I remember this word is that when you’re in your house 广, you will have a pretend motorcycle, made up of two pieces of wood 木. You hold these two pieces of wood in your hand – 手.

Unfortunately, 广 is actually the Chinese radical for cliff, which may prove to confuse me in the future. I’m sort of using my own definitions for the Chinese radicals at the moment. With any luck, I’ll be able to remember the word itself instead of the story by then. This method makes it a lot easier for me to remember writing characters. When it comes to reading characters, the method works in the other direction.

It works eventually, but working through this whole thing in my head takes a couple of seconds at least, and I often can’t manage to unravel it all in time. I look pretty stupid in class. I haven’t been using ProVoc that often for reading, so I’ll need to practice reading characters too.

ProVoc – Perfection with Language Learning?

ProVoc is one of those Mac applications, like Quicksilver, OmniOutliner and TextMate that makes me want to cry like a girl every time I use it. It’s using these applications that make me feel strangely privileged or lucky perhaps, to be a Mac user. I’m trying not to sound elitist, but it is difficult to imagine such a program on a Windows system. If only Apple would sort out their hardware - I’m not sure how much longer my poor MacBook’s battery will last…

Anyway, ProVoc is really the primary tool I’m using at the moment for learning Chinese. For 聽寫 tests, which we have usually around twice a week, we have to learn a lot of words in a short period of time. I suck at learning to write words; I confuse similar looking words very easily. Provoc is like having someone sitting right next to you, continually testing you, asking you how to write a certain word, but it’s even better than that.  The algorithm is nicely designed in that it builds up slowly from just a couple of words, and then it won’t add new words until you have learned the previous ones.

The similar program Genius has a similar algorithm, but ProVoc is much better featured. As a Mac user, I’m probably a sucker for eye candy. And if you like that sort of thing, ProVoc’s testing mode has a truly beautiful Quartz backdrop. It looks stunning.

I’m having a little trouble getting the program to ignore the diacritical marks I have on my pinyin. Thus I can’t get the program to accept my typed pinyin as correct unless I also type in the tones. It’s a little slow – I usually sound out the word in my head, and mark my answer as correct.

This program has been the main reason I’ve been able to learn the characters I’ve learned so far. Writing out new words continuously has never worked for me, neither as an adult or as a child. I think this form of ‘teaching’ Chinese words is surely outmoded, yet many teachers still insist upon it. For me, it’s just a waste of time for me to do this continual writing, and it’s pretty much the main reason why I grew up despising Chinese. It’s just a completely unstimulating form of learning, and completely emotionless. I believe, and there have been some studies to show this I think, that emotion and at least creativity is necessary to pick up language, as well as providing a decent context.

I think the advantage of ProVoc will come in time, when my database of words is built up a lot more. ProVoc has a feature that rates the difficulty of words, so you can filter your tests to only include those words you have difficulty with. There are also some additional features, that I’ll just briefly describe here. As well as the customised tests you can set for yourself, you can also colour label your words, and also make voice recordings for each word within the program. Using this feature myself only goes to remind me how awful my Chinese accent is though… *sigh*

I think ProVoc is better for other languages than Chinese, simply because Chinese input is a little awkward. There are three categories, Chinese, Pin Yin, and the English, which shows as a comment, which makes testing a bit weird. I can’t wait to use it with French!

The best part of all, and the thing that I still have trouble believing, is that this program is free. It boggles the mind, and makes me think there might be a God after all. He probably made this program, after all.

You need a Mac to use ProVoc. Get it free, here.

Sleep Disrupted

Nothing is going all that well with my sleep these days. I went on a camping trip at the weekend, and combined with watching Arsenal’s miserable capitulation at the hands of Chelski, I find myself sleeping a lot more. Today, I woke up at around 10.30, and my energy levels have been pretty weak.

I’ve also been a little grumpy about the afforementioned match. I’ve been somewhat out of the loop regarding football, but still I’ve been tracking Arsenal’s progress, whilst at the same time, not having had the chance to see that many games.

For this game though, it seems like I’d seen it before. Arsenal dominating possession in the early stages, while not really creating that many chances. However, somehow we grab a (possibly undeserved) lead, and try to defend it. Unfortunately, Arsene Wenger’s team doesn’t know the first thing about defending a lead, and once the opposition make the breakthrough, the defeat is inevitable.

This sort of loss is the worst to swallow.

The horrible defeats of this sort have tended to come in cup games, and the Champion’s League Final against Barcelona, and the quarter final loss against Chelsea in seasons past are games that have left me cold. I can also remember being Michael Owened in the FA Cup Final; indeed, being shot down by two late goals is one of the most bitter tastes in football. I can only imagine what those Bayern Munich fans must have felt, though I’m not too sympathetic – they did get to win that damn trophy in the end, after all!

Some thoughts on the game (even though this isn’t going to be a football blog):

1. Alex Hleb – it’s okay to shoot once in a while. I’m probably his biggest fan, but his passing has been pretty loose in recent weeks.

2. Theo Walcott has an amazing ability to run straight into the opposition, bettered only by his uncanny knack of overrunning the ball out of play.

3. Nickas Bendtner – even more ineffective than Walcott, can’t run, can’t dribble or shoot. Presumably he can head the ball, but remember, Arsenal don’t cross the ball…

Watching him come onto the pitch, when off the Chelsea bench comes…

4. Nicolas Anelka, who should surely have been signed up by Wenger. Netting in £3 million every home game, I’m getting sick and tired of waiting for the Arsenal team to ‘mature’. Anelka is certainly no Henry, but ironically, he is probably more of a team player now he has grown up a bit. It’s time for Wenger to get some experienced pros into the side.

5. I’m more impressed by Cesc Fabregas every time I see him.

Players like Gallas and Rosicky are the players I’d like to see more of at Arsenal, and not to disrespect some of the other players that have come in for peanuts, Wenger has built a team that is always one step away from perfection. The inconsistency of this team will seem to always frustrate the fans who know that one proven goalscorer, or one quality winger would make the team complete.

Thread Number Two: Chinese

I’m currently studying Chinese at the Mandarin Training Center (MTC) at Shi Da in Taipei. Thus it’s natural that my second thread is to improve my Mandarin. Hmm… a somewhat vague sort of goal. I’ve yet to make any clear definition of how I will know when my work here is done. Indeed, learning Chinese is not my main priority. Yet most of my time is taken up by Chinese learning at the moment, whether it be time spent in class, homework or revision for the copious number of tests we have here.

Currently, I’m around an intermediate level in Chinese. Although I speak pretty fluently, and with generally accurate tones, my vocabulary isn’t great, and I have a fairly strong Western Chinese accent. Furthermore, I can barely read or write, although that has improved dramatically over the past week. Reading just isn’t a priority for me, yet it, along with writing, remains the focus of the classes here. I don’t really like that, but at the same time, I don’t mind learning how to write either.

For some reason writing Chinese feels somewhat cathartic. I’m doing okay in tests, a lot better than I expected. I can generally hold a conversation in Chinese, and if the other person knows some English, I’ve had some great conversations.

Since my reading and writing will generally improve from following the course here, I’m really looking for ways to improve my speaking and particularly my accent. Class isn’t helping much with that at all, and we hardly get any opportunities to speak at all. I can’t say I’m enjoying it all that much.

Not to worry. I’m looking at learning more from language exchanges and a personal tutor. Although it sort of goes against convention, I believe it’s more time efficient, as well as cost efficient too. I have to remember to look up the new words I learn each day and enter them into my database/dictionary in ProVoc. I’ll definitely blog a little about this incredible application in the future.

More thoughts on sleep

Although I’ve said that I’ve been sleeping too much in recent weeks, the converse has also applied in the past, both in my own life, and, as it happens, to most of working society. Most people in the world are sleep deprived, and this phenomenon is as true in Taiwan as anywhere in the world. People sleep freely on the Metro system, buses, park benches, libraries, pretty much anywhere goes. I’m thinking only half seriously about taking candid pictures of people sleeping in Taiwan…

It’s just so difficult to get the balance right.

Our bodies will bring us to sleep almost as much as we can, if we allow ourselves the opportunity, but our society also seems to force us to our absolute limits, despite the fact that our performance will no doubt suffer as a result.

Right now, my apartment is often attacked by what seems like swarms of vicious mosquitos (though in all likelihood, it’s only about one or two at a time). Nevertheless, they’re biting me while I sleep, which is sort of disruptive. I’m not quite sure what to do about it all.

Anyway, disappointingly, I woke up at about 10am today, which is really not good at all. Today, it’s Election Day in Taiwan, though as a non Taiwanese, it doesn’t really make a difference to me, apart from screwing up the transport system. The complete inability of Taiwanese to walk at anything faster than a shuffle has really frustrated me, and when trains are delayed left, right and centre, it makes me want to scream!

Thread Number One: Sleep

The first thread I would like to concentrate on is sleep.

I think that sleep is an area in which many people struggle, and especially myself. Though I have been able to get up early in the past, in recent weeks, I’ve found myself struggling. Being a student doesn’t help this – having a regular motivation to get up is extremely important, and my classes don’t start until late in the afternoon. Having a job is a great motivator!

Having said that, motivation isn’t the be all and end all to this particular thread. Ideally, I’d like to be in the position where getting up at a particular time is automatic – it just happens. There are many advantages to this, and I’ll talk briefly about them in the coming weeks. Mainly, I would hope that I’d be able to wake up at the same time at the weekend. Those early morning weekend hours are very valuable. Also, I find myself to be far more productive in the early morning, despite rarely managing to get up early on a regular basis.

Ultimately though, it’s clear to most people that sleep is a huge waste of time, and I hope that by waking at a very regular time, I’ll be able to cut down on some of that waste!

Waking up early is something that I feel will implode if I don’t manage to keep myself busy. As well as increasing my susceptibility to those infernal naps, a loss in a reason to wake up makes it difficult to sustain the desire to wake up early over time. I hope that writing this blog will provide another area in which to focus; another area in which to stay busy.

I’ve found that Steve Pavlina’s extremely popular article and also HowToWakeUpEarly.com have a variety of techniques and methods that have really worked for me in the past. However, I think this core motivation is something that has never been that constant in my life, and is the main cause of failure. That and the occasional staying up to watch football matches

So, this, my first thread, is a priority for me. I’ll be blogging frequently about it over the next few days, and perhaps that alone will lead to better results.

Hello world!

There’s a strange desire I have that the first post that I ever write has to be something hugely profound. I need to keep telling myself that it doesn’t need to be so. Such is the battle against perfectionism and procrastination. I’m sure this battle will continue through many of the posts that I come to write in the future.

In any case, this is my new blog. The five threads of the title refers to the five key areas of focus in my life, the areas in which I must continually strive to improve myself over time. The threads themselves will change as I continue to grow. I hope it all doesn’t sound too pretentious

That’s enough for now. I’m looking to write a little more later on today.