Why not Surface Go or Surface as a rental?

This is a highly-requested product/service?

While it is true that I don’t have the number that Microsoft probably has, it seems unreal.

If you look at Microsoft’s hardware inventory, what product, or products scream out for a subscription service?

Did you utter “Surface Go”? And/or scream “The Entire Surface line, dodo!”?

Aaah! So, you know.

I have been totally verklempt trying to understand why an LTE-equipped Surface Go was not offered on Day One, and at that same price.

(The glacial pace of hardware developments and refreshes from Microsoft expose it as a software company. Nothing is wrong with that, for Microsoft mints more bars of gold-pressed Latinum than many sovereign countries. However, it does not show an undeniable commitment to hardware.)

In fact, is there any reason why the entire Microsoft Surface line does not have LTE-equipped models at launch?

And subsequently bundled with a rental+cellular subscription?

Even if you remove LTE from the devices for cost reasons, why aren’t Surface/Surface Go subscriptions available?

If low enough, it would be a fantastic K12 offering.

But, nooooo.

Xbox.

Unless this is a test case for Microsoft coming up with a Surface Go subscription service, or a completely BS rumor, I wouldn’t

© 2002 – 2018, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The Circle of Trust Reject: Uber

Confession: I have only been in an Uber as a guest of a rider once.

Just once.

I have never basically, Uber’d.

Initially since I never had to, as I have always had the privilege of riding in town cars and the like whenever I need a ride, and primarily because well, LA.

Friends who lived in highly urban areas such as London, Silly Valley, New York etc., loved them.

Uber provided a service, and it both exposed, and disintermediated the municipal scams we know as taxi medallion licensing.

In all, Uber was a Good Thing!

Initially.

As they got more successful, they got a lot more nasty, more despicable, and finally – just before Kalanick got run – went completely cray-cray!

I mean, they checked all the boxes: they were nasty to customers – “surge pricing” during natural disasters; utterly disrespectful to their employees/drivers/’contractors’, stupidly an unnecessarily combatant with regulatory authorities, and more. They veered into criminality by developing a virtual environment overlay for city officials charged with possibly regulating them.

They openly yearned for the day when they’d finally be rid of the very factor that got them to success: their drivers. They talked up their foray into autonomous vehicles, thoroughly discounting current employees.

But, they stepped on the live wire of the Otto buy, which came with supposedly fraudulent proprietary IP belonging to Google.

When the merde hit the aerator, Uber realized it had no friends.

Every few days seemed to bring another revelation of dubious criminal, or outright unethical behavior.

So much so, that sometime last year, I started using the hashtag #YearOfLivingDangerously to describe Uber’s failings, and predicting an implosion.

I also made the decision never to use Uber.

Neither personally, nor professionally.

Uber’s co-founder Travis Kalanick was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi who seems to be a more level-headed guy.

He smartly helped resolve Uber’s London mess, and adroitly steered Uber through the autonomous vehicle fatality disaster in Tempe. I seriously shudder to think of how Travis would have reacted to that!

While Uber’s future still looks bright, I am still a skeptic.

As a result, I will leave them in my NEVER List until I am convinced.

I want Uber’s good works and corporate citizenship to show me.

Once Uber presents as a company with good ethics as part of its corporate DNA, I’ll reconsider.

Then, and only then, will I be a Belieber!

My tweets about Uber, from January 1, 2017 to now can be found here.

© 2002 – 2018, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The Circle of Trust

Every day, we entrust our private and professional lives in these United States, and for most of the world actually, to basically these 6 companies, namely Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft and Starbucks. To a lesser extent, Snapchat, and Twitter. I have to add Uber and AirBnB as well. Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp will also be talked about under Facebook, as would YouTube under Google.

We do so mostly willingly, but mostly because of some vestigial connections still using that specific service or resource.

However, are these companies deserving of our trust, and our business, at all? Are they practitioners of ethical computing? Is our data safe with them? Can they be trusted in the future?

Over a series of blog posts, I will give you my thoughts on the firms listed above, and why I either have increased, stagnant, decreased, or zero engagement with them.

Believe me, some of these companies are not, and will NEVER be, in my Circle of Trust!

© 2002 – 2018, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The incredible madness that is 'dockless personal transportation'

Why would any municipality agree to this nonsense?

$10 to start. But, how do the batteries get recharged?

How also, would they be paid for it?

Listen, spare me the horsecrap explanations, and just solve this for me: if a legally-rented bicycle is left dockless by a paying customer at La Cienega & Rosewood, and then ridden illegally by someone else to Sunset & Fairfax, who is financially responsible for that additional ride?

Right?

Now, we come to dockless EV conveyances.

In addition to the previous question, I have just one more: how and where do these dockless EV devices get their catteries recharged?

Solar?

While cities have all these visions of millions of dollars from startups in this field dancing before their eyes, the reality is, these schemes have every indication of being just this side, legally, of a con.

And not even a long con, either.

Mix in cultural differences, and now, you have a problem.

Just because a pilot program worked in some Euro nation, doesn’t mean it would work here. Not at all.

Then, you have the ridership.

In every promotional media for these ‘creations’, it seems to target a certain demographic.

And unless that demographic can produce profits, these schemes are doomed.

Now, let us move on to societal concerns.

Ride this bike in certain gang territory, and you're just asking for it!

Can you see some rando millennial safely tooling around on an EV scooter in the C-P-T, Compton?

Or on the Eastside?

Me neither.

The perp of this flagrant millennialness would probably get #$%@&^ for being a complete doofus in the neighborhood, bringing down home prices in the process.

Homie just won’t survive.

Source: Citylab.

© 2002 – 2018, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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