Digital Diatribe

You know how some places charge upwards of $100 for a haircut? You might only be in there for an hour, and you’ve forked over $100 and your hair is now only slightly shorter.
Well over at Sun, they have devised the ultimate haircut. For several thousand dollars you can be certain that for however many months it takes you to get Sun Java Enterprise Communications Suite working, you will have almost no hair.
And if you’re not the one paying for the license fee, that basically works out as being a free haircut. Only, it’s kinda like when you were 7 and you thought getting your dad’s clippers out and trying to trim your own hair was a good idea, but instead you looked like you’d gone through chemo because the length of your hair was now all patchy.

Installing Sun Java Enterprise Communications Suite is kinda like that, because rather than Sun actually sitting sown and doing a nice job on your head, you end up pulling out your own hair. Repeatedly. Until you give up and call tech support. And then you do it again when you realize that they have no idea what you are talking about.
And then again when you try to tell people what you now do for a living and they have no idea what you’re talking about either.

I’m undecided as to what the Enterprise tag entails when it comes to buying software, but I’m pretty sure it means “Here there be bugs, if you manage to fix one please let us know how you did it”.
Buying a license for this software is essentially agreeing to beta test it for as long as you decide to keep it in production. And that’s fine if your the type of person who enjoys hunting bugs.
If you’d rather your software actually worked and provided the basic feature set that you require from a communications suite I’d suggest that unless you are already a Sun expert you avoid it entirely.

Unless, of course, you’re after a new hair style.

Whoever would have imagined shopping for bread to be quite so exciting? Not me. Not until I actually had to go into a supermarket with the sole intention of purchasing bread.

I seem to remember a time, and this may well be due to false memory syndrome, where the bread department in the supermarket consisted of at most 3 different kinds of bread.
You had your white, your brown, or your multigrain. That was pretty much it.
At our house, we had multigrain. Which made for really rubbish fairy bread, but that’s another post altogether.

These days, if you actually took the time to read just the name of every type of bread on offer you’ll be dead from starvation before you reach the end of the bread isle. Which would be terribly ironic because you’re in a supermarket surrounded by food.

If you ever find yourself so bored you cannot think of anything else to do, for a challenge try to find a loaf of sliced white bread that doesn’t have vegetable oil as one of it’s ingredients. A prize to whoever can get me a photo.

The number of possible choices when it comes to such a simple task as shopping for bread is mind boggling.
What is the advantage of added omega 3 over the goodness of DHA and folate? Why can’t I have both? Or should I go for an organic spelt? Or perhaps some Soy and Linseed? Which makes better toast? Is it good for sandwiches or will trying to spread butter on it tear it to shreds?

None of these questions can be answered by looking at the packaging. Which gets me to thinking if there is actually anyone out there who could possibly make an informed choice when buying bread.

I’m led to thinking the answer is no, and that most people go with whatever looks good, is cheapest, or vaguely fits the description given to them buy the person who decreed that the bread should be bought.

Which is why I’ve decided from now on I’m only going to buy my bread from a bakery. At least they can tell me for sure what’s in it, what it tastes like, if it makes good toast and any other annoying and idiotic questions I might have about bread which they would only be more than happy to answer but which would otherwise see me being escorted out of woolies in trendy white jacket with straps at the back.

Until next time…