total.pardo

what exactly is “iHate”?

first, what is hate?  webster’s says:

Pronunciation: \ˈhāt\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hete; akin to Old High German haz hate, Greek kēdos care
Date: before 12th century

1 a: intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury b: extreme dislike or antipathy : loathing <had a great hate of hard work>

2: an object of hatred

when we add an “i” in lower case to the word hate, we add an interesting, multi-layered double entendre (and conundrum) to the mix.

it could mean the possessive – as in capital “I” meaning myself.  That is, iHate this website, or that person was filled with iHate.

it could be aversion to all things apple and the “i” revolution (or, better, evolution – the obsession with “i” has become more than the selfishness and conspicuous consumption to which most in our society feel entitled). so, you could be cleverly saying you have iHate for iPods, iPhones, or iMacs, or iLife, etc.

it could refer to “internet” Hate – a pervasive sense of anonymity and power to become a hurtful arrogant ass whilst on the internet, vis a vis, web posting, etc.  take for example this tragic story:

http://tinyurl.com/6dq6fg

FTA:

One of two devoted St. Louis Cardinals fans hit by a car Thursday after the Cardinals-Phillies game died yesterday of head trauma at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. The other remained hospitalized in critical condition.

the typical (or topical) similarities are peppered throughout the piece – young kid, driving recklessly and drunk, low bail, dead mother/teacher from out of town, grieving family – the usual tragedy which should sadden all of us with hearts in our chests.  the amazing peculiarity of this story is not the story itself, but the ability of anyone who reads the story on the above site to “comment” on it.  and so it goes, for ever 5 “oh so terrible” responses, there’s the indifferent ‘”iHater” who lays responsibility and fault on the dead woman, on other drivers, on uncalibrated lights – are you serious? deplorable.

then you have ol’pardo – the “side swiper” poster.  i will post on message boards regularly but usually to attack the attacker.  i will “hijack” a thread to attack a poster who himself posted about the original issue.  i find a curious sense of righteousness in that – a facet of “iHate” in and of itself. 

a funny example, previously posted in this blog:

the xkcd webcomic says it best:

whole blogs have shut down due to the proliferation of “iHate” in the comment spaces.  social aspects of the web are being overcome with “iHate” and its derivatives of selfishness and righteousness.  america online started all this, and since has lasted this Eternal September – the proliferation of next to free web access, the suspicious, ever-increasing desire for web based social software/sharing, and the continuing dumbing-down of the internet population promulgates this deleterious effect everywhere you surf.  post a picture of something which you are looking to get an opinion from others on – for every two constructive comments, there is one that wastes the bandwidth.

tommyv2 puts it directly:

You fucking kids have turned the Internet into a zoo. You can no longer find an opinion, you now have 100 million kids’ every aspect of their lives to wade through. I feel sorry for every writer in the world – you now have 100 million more reasons to quit. Sometimes I get depressed writing tommyv2.com knowing that it won’t get 1% of the hits Joe Blow gets daily from his blog about his travels to Best Buy. He can’t write, spell, describe or get creative – all he has to do is put some picture taken by his $69-10-year-contract RAZR phone and he’s a celebrity.

since i enjoy living my life vicariously through his, i quote him often.  he is the frackin’ mohammed ali of bloggers – but don’t tell him i said that.  if i had a sister, not only would he steal her hair tie, he’d try to have time with her…his “iHate” is the kind i understand.  wisdom lies behind every self-indulgent, gloriously entertaining word.  so for him, its negative in a positive way.  like this from a recent post:

its just wrong – but its brilliant.  laugh out loud brilliant.  the kind of wit that kicks wisdom in the balls.

but “iHate” can take on less comical forms – take for example this glaring gem of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt):

http://tinyurl.com/64ff37

in this scathing review of the iPhone, the blogger isn’t satisfied with ripping the device, no, his MO is to rail away against the entire infrastructure as evil – comparing the phone and all things apple to prison.

yes, i typed prison, folks.

FTA:

“…The iPhone is an attack on very old and fundamental values — the value of people having control over their stuff rather than their stuff having control over them, the right to freely communicate and share with others, and the importance of privacy.

…It’s also a tracking device, and like other proprietary GPS-enabled phones, can transmit your location without your knowledge.

…Of all the technology people use that could be turned against them, this is one of the most frightening possibilities.

…The iPhone is broken, on purpose. It is in theory capable of running many different kinds of programs, but software applications and media will be limited via Apple’s ironically named Digital Restrictions Management technology — "FairPlay".

ironically, this “iHater” (i shorten this to “iHatr”) posts his FUD on the free software foundation blog – whose on “a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users.” pardo is all about free and privacy and yadda yadda.  but to claim the iphone is an attack on fundamental value is hogwash.  its about a company trying to make money in a market more than willing to buy their product.  the tracking portions can be turned off. and, frankly, i’d rather pay for software than download a bunch of unsupported crap put out there by “serious developers” that wouldn’t be upgraded even if you paid them.  this “iHatr” goes on to rail against the use of drm music.  what the hell is ogg vorbis and why is it of any advantage to me?  a less lossy open format?  frankly, i can’t hear the difference.

but i can hear the iHate in the FUD post – i hear it all over the internet…