iSmoke #not

Okay, i am calling this blog notjusthitech. Which means it is not just about hi tech. So please, dear reader, hop on aboard a low tech ride to the limits of human stupidity. Yeap, you had it right. This post deals with my smoking addiction and the way out of it (for the time being). While preparing for the ride, i am  asking you to think about your biggest success so far. Or maybe about a hard choice that you have had to make. Or a sacrifice for your most beloved: You.

Smoking related facts

Let me first set some things straight by providing the bellow facts:

1. Smoking is bad for your health. No need to elaborate on this one.

2. Smoking is bad for your wallet.

3. Smoking is bad for people near you (people you love/care about are included).

4. Smoking is bad for your, uhhmmm, bedroom performance.

5. Smoking sometimes feels awesome.

6. If you have never been a smoker in your life, chances are you are happy and do not even know it.

7. The level of addiction to smoking is different among different people.

8. There are people who have managed to quit smoking.

9. Only about 4% to 7% of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without medicines or other help.

10. The government does not care about your health. All they care about is how much your smoking related health issues will cost them. And it is true that it will cost significantly more  than they make in smoke related tax money. That alone explains the antismoking propaganda we are now experiencing, whereas fifty years ago governments had no objections whatsoever.

11. Young people are getting smarter and they can understand the risks of smoking.

12. Tobacco companies are evil. Pure evil. They use additives to make smoking even more addicting. Yeap. 

13. It is really hard to quit smoking and stay out of it for prolonged periods of time (best case scenario: rest of your life).

Personal experience

14 years of smoking

I started being a professional smoker when i was 19 years old. Of course i had been smoking a little even when i was in high school but it was not systematic or actually quite enjoyable. I did it just so that my pals could see me. Mostly on a Saturday night, when i was out with friends. All i wanted to do was make sure i was counting as a true member of the "hip" group of adolescent idiots that were considered trendy/socially succesful back then.

It was while wasting my second year as a technical student that i really took up smoking. This is when i became addicted. It did not happen overnight, but i could sense it after it happened. Cigarettes became something i really had to regularly "enjoy". I have never been a heavy smoker, since i used to top out at about 15 cigarettes a day. Every day, that is. And i needed each and every one of these God damned cancer sticks. Did i enjoy them all? By far, no. But some felt (the word "felt" was very carefully chosen - it will all be clear if you keep reading this) great. No reason to lie here.

There were however many nights (early mornings if the night was succesful) i would come home after hanging out for a few drinks with friends, that i really hated myself for smoking. It had to do with that particular taste and smell that only smokers can identify with. A feeling of "no more" before you crash into bed that is replaced by "i want one" by the time you wake up.

I had twice tried kicking the habit when i was about 25 years old. 

1. The first time it was on May 31 (can't remember the year though) which is the World No Tobacco Day. I managed to stay away for 45 days and then i smoked again. Oh God, it felt so good!
2. The second time i had a respiratory infection which rendered smoking an impossibility for a few days, so i grasped the chance and managed to quit for a month. And then i smoked again. And it again felt good!

 I was not ready to quit. Simple as that. My attempts were half hearted and doomed to fail. 

The decision to quit

It is the 15th of March, 2012 and a dear friend of mine (who had been smoking two packs a day for five years) calls me and the following dialog takes place:

- Know what? I quit smoking today!

- No way!

- No, i did and i intend to keep it this way.

- You won't do it.

- Wanna bet?

- Yeap.

- Okay, if in one month i am not smoking then you too quit. Deal?

- Okay. (I was thinking that she would not manage to quit, so i felt safe...)

But unfortunately she did quit and on April 15 she called again and reminded me about my part of the deal. That was it. It was a matter of pure luck that i also decided to try quitting. In the photo you can see the last pack of cigarettes i have ever purchased and hopefully it shall remain the last one. 

Is it easy to keep on living after you quit?

The first days

Well, for the first few days which may stretch up to a month, the sincere answer is no. No. No. No. It is very difficult. You are trying to win one of the most powerful addictive substances in the universe (nicotine, that is) as well as the additives (599 of them last time i checked) that tobacco companies use to hook you up for good. It feels very bad. I am not going to go into details, but it feels like when your girlfriend that you are very much in love with unexpectedly decides to break up with you. Only worse. Because when you break up you can smoke (and drink) all the way out of your misery, whereas when you quit smoking your girlfriend cannot really help you. It is a battle you have to fight against yourself.

The above stands if your try to quit cold turkey. There are also other ways to try quitting, but i cannot testify about them.

After the first month

After the first month things are getting significantly better. The craves are not that frequent, the nervousness recedes, sleep quality improves. Still, in my case, a mild depression was present. It felt like my world was drained of it's colour. Like suffering from a hunger that was present all the time, one that could not be satisfied. Like a dark cloud preventing the sun from warming my heart. Like the new iPhone is out and you do not have the money to buy it, while being a fanboy at the same time. Or something like that. Hope you get the meaning.

These are the symptoms that you are winning the battle. Perhaps the most astonishing thing i have read about the effect of nicotine on the brain is that the "good" feeling you enjoy when smoking (let's say the first cigarette of the day after a nice breakfast) is the result of the shock that you force your organism to endure by poisoning yourself with nicotine. 

The first thing that a quitter notices is the sense of smell that returns with a vengeance. Dear smokers among you, believe me. You cannot smell anything at all. If you manage to stay away for some months, the respiratory benefits are also becoming obvious. Best way to measure that is by exercising regularly.

After the first year

Let's assume that you have managed to stay clear for one year, one month and nine days. Are you through yet? Nope. It may take another half a century before you are completely free. But all you have to do is "never take another puff" as Joel Spitzer put it.

The craves come and go every once in a while and they are not that intense. But it's easy to believe that you have killed the (immortal) nicotine monster and that may lead to just one cigarette which will definitely renew your daily subscription to the "Lung cancer, heart attack if you're lucky or C.O.P.D. to say the least"  Times special edition for big time suckers that are hooked in the "pay2die" service the tobacco companies are offering.

The hi tech aspect

Maybe you are too young to be actually motivated to stop smoking by the health related benefits. How about an annual bonus of a thousand Euros then? How does that sound? As you can see, i have saved 1.054,84 Euros so far and i was smoking an average of 13 fags a day while one pack cost 4 Euros. If you are doing two packs a day, please do the math. It is a serious amount of money. How about a vacation abroad every year for free?

Even better, how about the latest iPhone and iPad for free? Or a hi end laptop? Or a 46 inch 3D smart TV?  Or whatever it is from the gadget universe that your heart desires and costs a grand (or even more)? How about that? Why not kill the iSmoke app you have been running (non stop) for years? It is not easy, but you can at least try. Starting today.

iRestmycase

iRestmycase

Why is my phone an iPhone?

Why does the sun rise from the East, people? How bad is it when you have the flu and your respiratory allergies at the same time (i hate spring because of my God damned allergies - #fact)? Is eggs and bacon tasty? Is the earth flat? Does the planet spin? You get the meaning? Not yet? O.K. let me use the big guns: Do rock stars age like the rest of us? Google "neil young neil old" and find out yourselves. And finally, does Lemmy drink a lot? Come on people, it is obvious.

That is why i will keep it plain simple. I use the "look mom, i now have a slightly longer screen that actually killed my former good looks but who really cares when they get an additional row for icons" iPhone 5 as my primary phone (if the phone=smartphone statement does not always return TRUE to you, you are reading the wrong blog (heck, you might as well be living in the wrong century) - you were warned) because it still delivers the best possible experience money can buy in the form of a normally sized (by now you should have been aware that size does matter)  mobile phone.

I could end this post right now, but i've never been the "homme fatale" kind of guy, you know the type who speaks little and impresses women with his air of mystery. My hit/miss ratio before i open my mouth is way too bad, but after i say what i want to say it gets significantly better (don't know maybe they just want to make me stop and give me their phone numbers - can't really say). Okay, i admit it, i babble all the time. That's why i keep the blog in the first place, i just need to get these out of my system otherwise the voices will drive my crazy. There is the Apple fanboy voice as well as the Apple hater one, that simultaneously speak inside my mind. Let's see what they have to offer, while both are still crystal clear.

Fanboy perspective

It just works. As it should. All the time. Let me put it this way: If i had to remote control a nuclear plant with a smartphone, i would demand that it was the iPhone 5. Moreover, if God Himself remote controls the universe with a smartphone, it has to be an iPhone, since no restarts have been performed over the last 14 billion years. One word: stability. Another one: speed. And the last one (okay, it's three words): ease of use.

The performance is stellar no matter if it is fresh out of the box or you have installed 41 apps (being the average US iPhone user)  or 1400 apps (which possibly means that your unlimited free time is your main problem). The damned phone runs smoothly. Always. The multitasking philosophy (with apps being suspended after some time - read this, it is very enlightening) is the child of a superior intelligence. It is the best possible implementation (android memory management used to suck big time) on a small screen where you do not want to have multiple windows.

From this point on, whenever you read iPhone you may assume it is the iPhone 5, unless the context leads you to understand that it means the iPhone line in general. Okay?

The iPhone has countless apps, most of them ranging from just good to plain outstanding. Most new apps that are not yet multi-platform are iPhone only. The camera is more than great. No manual settings, but who needs them when it manages to take decent pictures most of the time? Day or night, that is. The battery is enough for a day of very heavy use. There are more accessories than you care about.

If you happen to own other Apple hardware, you may enjoy a great degree of integration (iCloud is a great cloud implementation) that further simplifies your life.

The build quality is indeed fantastic! The industrial design that was launched with iPhone 4 is a case study on it's own. It is obvious that Apple takes care of even minor details both in the hardware manufacturing process as well as on the OS side. The size of the iPhone is "small enough to be comfortable to hold one handed", which is a claim few hi end smartphones can boast about nowadays.

To sum up, the iPhone provides an extraordinary ease of use for the vast majority of things the average  Joe (not the ultra geek propeller head type) does with his smartphone on an average day. That is also the reason many geeks (myself included) eventually fell in lovewith  the iPhone "peace of mind" after a whole second career in custom android ROMs and tweaks of the kind. Of course JB (note to self: do a dedicated post about this in the future) is a vital part of the iPhone experience for lots and lots and lots of people.  All in all, the iPhone makes your life a little better and that alone justifies it's heavy price tag.

Hater's corner

The iPhone 5 is ugly. Especially if you consider it's roots. It is quite a feat going from A to B in one step, where A is one of the most elegant smartphone designs ever and B equals A minus all it's grace plus an extra row for icons. Yes, it looks like a God damned TV remote control that costs 739 EUR to start with. It represents the Darwinian nightmare of de-evolution in the smartphone species. Take smth beautiful and twist it into ugliness while preserving 99% of it's original DNA. Once more: The iPhone 5 is ugly.

The OS is pretty simplistic. No widgets, notification bar still needs a lot of improvement (note to Apple engineers: see the various Cydia implementations or at the very least take a look at how android has been handling that for years now), and some minor but still very annoying bugs that Apple promotes as features: No SMS report for Christ's sake, no bluetooth file transfers, no easy way to mass delete emails  - these are just a few. Thank God for people like these who still manage to break the chains of Apple induced absolute control efforts. Thank you guys.

The iOS is not the platform developers tend to choose when we are talking about highly experimental implementations. That is because of Apple limitations, of course. See for example the Pebble smartwatch community. The watch barely works on iOS (although there is a certain guy who managed to overcome some of the Apple barriers for jailbroken iPhones at least), whereas connect it to an Android smartphone and it really shines. Same thing with the Metawatch Strata, as i have already told you about.

Last but not least, the iPhone screen could be much bigger if only Apple would stop avoiding the effort and cost of totally redesigning it in order to kill the home button and minimise the now huge margins above and bellow the screen. Don't even start doubting that. Of course it can be done. It was done in 2009 with the HTC HD 2.

The final verdict

Yes, despite it's bad points the iPhone still is the best phone money can buy. That is normally sized, that is. This is the sole reason i have an iPhone. I am not a fanboy and i am not a hater. I am just seeking the best user experience out of my smartphone.

But times change.

We have seen the HTC one which is the first non Apple device ever to boast a stunning design and top notch build quality. It would be my phone (instead of the iPhone) if it were a little smaller. Thank God for the HTC one M4 then, the rumoured 4.3 (perfect size, that is) inch little sibling of the HTC one.

We have also seen the Sony Xperia Z which is absolutely waterproof (see what these guys do to the Xperia Go that also offers same level of water resistance) and i think that manufacturers have to start thinking about this. It can be done. Why not do it, then?

Oh, one more thing. What about the next iPhone? Is it going to be a 5s with a slightly improved camera, faster processor and the same chassis? (God, spare me this torture!) What about iOS 7? Will it be more "open"? Will we be praying for the next JB as well or is there any hope that the best Cydia tweaks will become part of the OS? 

Nobody knows, people. But it all will probably be revealed this summer. Till then, i rest my case.

War of worlds: Apple fanboys vs haters

Apple fanboys vs haters

Had a little heated conversation a few days ago with a good friend of mine who has recently migrated from iPhone/iPad zealot to Samsung territory. The same guy who used to brag about how his iPhone 4S provided everything he needed (and how happy he was with that and how it changed his life) was trying to convince me that his Galaxy Note II is way superior to my iPhone 5, even though he does know how and for what i use my smartphone.  To be fair though, he only barely mentioned the whole iPad vs Galaxy Note 10.1 thing. Which means his brain is still working. There might still be hope for him.

Do not worry George, a new post is on it's way and it will try to explain to you (and everyone else who may (hopefully) be interested) why the iPhone 5 is still the best cellphone money can buy. Our whole debate (over WhatsApp for Christ's sake - we need to be locked in permanently) brought to my mind the Apple fanboy and hater stereotypes though, on which i will try to elaborate right away.

Fanboys

Yes, there is lemma for that. These are the people who would remortgage their house or stop eating out (or at all) in order to be able to have the latest Apple offering. There have been noted extreme cases of people offering their kidney for an iPad or negotiating their virginity for an iPhone. But please let's stay sane for the time being. 

Definition: A loyal fanboy as a soldier of Apple, (s)he has taken the oath to always buy stuff Apple sells and never look elsewhere. Sometimes the fanboys/girls are clever people, sometimes they are fashion victims, sometimes they are just trapped within the damned "Apple ecosystem". 

Details: They are the people you show the latest android smartphone flagship to and they are not willing to even start doubting Apple. They just hold it in their hands like Eve did the apple before biting into it. And then they give it back, because they can resist all other temptations since they already have the apple. Get it?

How to discern them: They are very easily spotted and the reason is very simple: They want to be seen. Ever noticed the complacent smile after they open the lid of their beloved Macbook Air? Or the way they are trying to count how many heads turned when they are flashing their iPhone 5 out of their pockets while waiting in the subway station? Do the mating attraction technics gorillas use come to mind? 

Territory: Trendy spots are their thing. Everything from cocktail bars to art installations, from ski resorts to Facebook rebel/warrior meet up places. The highest concentration of Apple fanboys may be found in Starbucks. 

Haters

If only i could get a cent of a Euro for every Apple hater (see this guy, here) i know. I would be rich man instantly and then have an indefinite unpaid leave from work and travel all around the world and of course sleep late tomorrow morning. 

Definition: The hater is a fairly straightforward kind of person. (S)he may be smart, funny, caring husband/spouse, good parent, valuable partner in work, a passionate lover even. That is until (s)he spots an Apple branded smth or the Apple brand is dropped into conversation. That is when the hater changes/goes berserk, putting even the  mightiest Alpha male werewolf shape shifter to shame (full moon is not mandatory though it sure is nice to have - adds a cinema like quality to the scene if you see what i mean). (S)he starts trembling, eyes grow bigger, verbal abuse is quite frequent, spittle is forming in the mouth, even cases of actual physical assault have been reported.

Details: The hater will never reach out and touch or (to make matters even worse) hold an iPhone. The hater has brainwashed (lobotomy is another possibility) himself for so long that he would not admit that the iPad is by far the best (the only one worth using - one might add) tablet even if his own survival was at stake. 

How to discern them: They are quite good at disguising themselves, so beware. Always perform the bellow test when in doubt: Throw towards them (not in an offensive action - a provoked hater may be dangerous) an iPhone and see if they just stare at you while the device crashes onto the pavement. If they can defy normal human physiology and control their reflexes to that extreme point they sure qualify as true haters. Also note that a strong statistical correlation has been found to exist between long haired males and Apple hating individuals.

Territory: Technical universities are hot spots, as well as corporate IT departments. Rock bars/clubs and alternative stages seem to also be their thing.

Warning

If you do not identify with one of the above categories, please try your best to keep it that way. It has been proven that individuals who keep their options open (regarding Apple products, that is) tend to make better choices of cellphones, tablets, computers and other electronic devices. They are rumoured to be living off better lives as well.  

Growing up a to be a tech addict/gadget freak (Part ΙI)

The long path to maturity

The day the earth stood still

It is October of 1996 and i am at the local newsagent's looking at the magazines.  And then my eye catches this: T3 magazine, issue 01.  A magazine called "Tomorrows Technology Today".  Have you ever felt this "love at the first sight" thing?  Now really, have you?  Well i have not, but i think that this moment of apocalypsis was as close as it can get.  I can only liken this experience to what a smoker feels when he smokes the first cigarette after fortyfive days of (obviously unsuccessfully) trying to quit.  For all you smokers (an ex-smoker is always a smoker) out there, this is what it felt like.  You know like a little window suddenly pops open through your misery and you can take a quick peek at he gardens of Heaven.  Instead of incoherently mumbling about how much i miss smoking right now though, i think it will be better if i get back on this one with a dedicated post.  That's a promise.

Back to day zero, then.  I see the cover of T3 magazine and focus on the Casio TV remote control watch on the top right corner.  And i think: "This magazine will change my life".  No really, i did think exactly this.  And my prediction was true.  For anyone laughing out loud, let me briefly remind you of the dark ages of 1996 (in Greece, at least). 

Internet access was a privillege of 53% of the population, as of last year! One can only imagine the situation back in 1996.  I looked around but could not find any stats.  My guess would be a maximum of 1% penetration and that would be univerisities and large corporates mostly.

But even if you look at the big picture: no Google, no Youtube, no Amazon, no eBay, you name it - it was not there.  Can you imagine this?  So where could a gadget lover find his beloved gadgets?  How could one get to even know what there is out there?  Magazines.  Yep.  T3 was there first.

The happy days

I really loved this magazine. Period. I have bought (and enjoyed from cover to cover) every single issue for more than a decade and then migrated to the zinio version on the iPad. I devoured the sacred information that was provided.  Gadgets i could not even believe existed were there for me to grasp.  Being held by gorgeous girls.  What else can a man want? (My big brother's opinion regarding the whole T3 / cover girls thing is a family secret i dare not reveal. Still, one may hypothesize...)

Walking (or rather sleeping late) through my early years as technical student i started indulging into my passion for small electronic things with an LCD screen, making no discriminations. I wanted everything. Especially cellphones and later smartphones. Greed was my middle name. I even had to get a job in order to satisfy my tremendous appetite for handheld beauties. Which was not a bad thing after all, but you know, once you start it is not easy to get back to the "relaxed days" of the student life...

But still i was (more or less) happy. Those lucky few who truly are "sick enough" among you might confirm that the best thing about getting a new gadget is not the gadget itself but rather the anticipation after you decide you are buying it and before opening the box. The all too familiar rash that powers us from deep within and turns us into true superheroes who will do anything in their might to manage and buy their object of desire before the stores close for the weekend, if you know what i mean...

I have to admit it, i have enjoyed more than my fair share of gadgets over this happy decade. Bear in mind though that trying to satisfy my addiction (with a limited budget) actually meant that i had to make choices. Hard choices. Including not only gadgets, but also experiences one may share with other people. I still remember skipping a very nice vacation when one of the first ever smartphones  - the infamous Nokia 7650 - was introduced, because uhmmm you know, i needed the money. Still, things were good, life was good and gadgets kept coming and going.

Dies Irae

The year is 2006, well before the economic recession that plagues Europe and especially Greece the last three years. Have i told you that T3 mag changed my life? Well that is when i stop reading it for a whole bunch of reasons including the following:

1. I eventually/unfortunately reached the age where the commodity of free time became scarce.
2. The internet (web mostly, but also youtube and forums) provided a great amount of gadget related info.
3. I had not enough storage space for the print version, while the electronic one i did not devour the way i used to with the mags. Can't really say why, since i am an ebook kind of person (absolutely love my Kindle paperwhite which actually is the only device - other than a phone -that i use EVERY day) and i certainly have no objections reading a mag on the iPad. It just happened i guess, kind of like the way relationships tend to deteriorate over a sufficient time period. Or like Windows tends to become "heavier" after some months of not formatting the hard disk.
4. My available budget to be spent on gadgets required a rather serious "reconsideration".

Above all though, i think i just  grew up (just a tiny bit) a little. I of course still enjoy gadgets but these days there has to be something really good in order to justify the urge that drills a hole in my pocket. It's not about features only, it's about design also. It may also have to do with my conversion from "vicious Apple hater" to "someone who appreciates fine devices no matter who manufactured them". After all, everything is made in China nowadays, isn't it?

A device needs to be good looking, simple to use and solve (instead of create) problems in order to deserve a place in my life. Now that i think about it, the same principle could possibly apply to women also. Nuhhh, just kidding. With women it's infinitely more complicated than that. Simple laws of logic do not apply. All deterministic theories were proven insufficient. No man ever understood women. Ever. Ask Al.

It is not about just me, either. The world over, consumers have become more demanding and intelligent, environmentally conscious and sceptical. The economic recession has indeed helped here, by forcing the average consumer into maturity.  Competition is fierce and this same consumer is the ultimate winner. It is not just about products, it is about life changing devices that provide a great experience and represent great value for money that is not being carelessly spent, not anymore. Beware manufacturers, you have to try your best, to innovate, to even anticipate our needs, to provide great after sales support. That is the only way you will succeed in taking our hard earned cash.