Friday, August 14, 2009

The Experience


"Palm Pre phone secretly used GPS to report user's location to company". (Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2009). This appears to be in support of the company's alleged "great user experience."
Yes, according to software developer Joey Hess, his mobile phone has been reporting his whereabouts to "Palm Inc."; likely a CIA shell corporation aiding in the TIA(Total Information Awareness) program. Imagine what it must feel like - being stalked by your own phone! Of course, that is probably exactly what is going on in your case as well, though perhaps your phone is reporting to a different "Company". After all, as Dick (Undisclosed Location) Cheney and Don (Remember Him) Rumsfeld would say, it's a part of the "Freedom Experience" that's the birthright of every American Citizen.
Just how we came by this annoying euphemism "User Experience", an offshoot perhaps of Bill Gates' "Compute Experience" I cannot say. But it does seem a little... umm... racy. Is a "Phone Experience" perhaps something like a "Sheep Experience", or maybe a "Donkey Experience"? Really, I'd rather use a phone than have an experience with it. Though it does look a bit as if some people are "Going Steady" with their phone. Almost to the point where it might be appropriate to suggest that they "Get A Room".
In any case, while not wanting to appear in any way speciesist, I think I'd prefer to confine my "Experience"s to friends of the Human persuasion. or at the outside, at least to the Class Mammalia

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