My iPhone dreams are shattered

Are you planning to buy iPhone 3G?

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Just like the majority of students, I'm poor, but I have dreams.

My latest dream was to get an iPhone.

Why I want iPhone? Because it has many features not found in other commonly available/commonly known phones. It's more like a fashion statement than a machine of need. That makes it hot for any student.

The only thing that was preventing me from buying it was a prohibitive price tag of $400. It's now been taken off, and it's down to $200, though it continues to be advertised as $199 by the respective companies in hopes that many will not feel the pinch by seeing the number start with 1 rather than 2.

But I do feel the pinch, and I have decided not to buy an iPhone despite waiting for it for a long time. Here's why:

I worked out the total yearly cost of ownership of iPhone:

Item

One-time cost

1-year cost

iPhone handset	199	199
Tax	16.4175	16.4175
Minimum monthly rental	69.99	839.88
"Activation" fee	36	36
SMS	5	60
Total		1151.2975

Total cost of ownership of an iPhone is $1151.30.

I'd rather invest that money in books, food, rent, and paying other bills.

I'm sorry Apple and AT&T but you have disappointed me by first showing me a glimpse of reduced cost, but eventually not doing it at all.

No iPhone for me.

Edit: I'm deviating from my usual policy of including pictures in posts, because I don't want to see an iPhone pic now.

Steve Jobs' 20 rules of success

Steve Jobs' rules for success:

• First thing: As soon as you join/start a company, make a list of strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your company on a piece of paper.

• Don't hesitate in throwing bad apples out of the company.

• Don't worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones.

• People judge you by your performance, so focus on the outcome.

• Success generates more success. So be hungry for it. "I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do."

• Ask for feedback, from people with diverse backgrounds. Each one will tell you one useful thing.

• If you're at the top of the chain, sometimes people won't give you honest feedback because they're afraid. In this case, disguise yourself, or get feedback from other sources (Steve Jobs actually called Apple Customer Care disguising himself as a customer, just to check on them).

• Focus on those who will use your product - listen to your customers first.

• Advertise. If they don't know it, they won't buy your product.

• Pay attention to design. "We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them." "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

• "Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower." If there's a better technology available, use it no matter if anyone else is not using it. Be the first, and make it an industry standard. “I think this is the start of something really big. Sometimes that first step is the hardest one, and we've just taken it.”

• “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

• Learn to criticize your enemies openly, but honestly.

• If you partner someone whom you don't like, learn to like them - praise them and benefit from them - "Ecosystem approach"

• Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

• Do your best at every job. No sleep!

• Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. “I want to put a ding in the universe.”

• There's always "one more thing" to learn!

• "Better be a pirate than to join the navy"

• "Think different"

MacBook insomnia

My MacBook bought 7 months back was working flawlessly until recently, when it started failing to sleep when I close the lid. This used to happen once in a while, and I had to reboot it to fix it. But the problem returned after some time of use.

The failure to go into sleep mode took some serious turns two weeks back when the MacBook would never go to sleep whatsoever, reboots after reboots. I didn't install any new applications as far as I remember, nor did I change any hardware in the MacBook.

I repaired permissions, repaired the disk, to no avail! I even reinstalled the entire Mac OS X and updated it completely, didn't work either. I reset the PRAM etc. as described on Apple support website, even that didn't solve the problem.

Now the status is, the MacBook can go to sleep if it's rebooted freshly. But as I keep using it, it fails to go to sleep, and the only way I can transport my MacBook to school is by turning it off completely, which is quite like a Dell notebook (in fact, worse) and I don't like it.

The Apple website doesn't mention anything about MacBooks failing to sleep. Searching on other Mac help sites has revealed that several people have this problem, but there is no solid solution.

Can someone help me?

Reality Distortion Field

Reality Distortion Field (abbr: RDF) is a term first heard in the Star Trek series. This term referred to optimism being taken to great heights, so that mere mortals could do things way beyond their reach. But this term went almost unnoticed, unpopularized, until Budd Tribble used this term again. Budd Tribble was an MD, PhD working at Apple Computer as a manager of the development team. Being a trained physiologist, he noted Steve Jobs' ability in keeping his team highly motivated by an intriguing mixture of his charisma, charm, exaggeration and clever marketing.

Steve Jobs made his programmers believe that they could "just do it", and his team then put in enormous amounts of effort in their work, leading to heightened productivity and efficiency. The result was Apple Computer passing milestones of success, non-stop.

How to create Reality Distortion Field:

1. Be optimistic yourself.
   
2. Present small achievements as "breakthroughs", interesting developments as "turning points" and "huge leaps forward".
3. Use your personality and charisma effectively for convincing others "you can do it"
4. Be funny about your ideas.
5. Be ready to bend the facts to fit the purpose at hand.
6. Make others follow you, and then make them dream of success.
   

Notes:

1. The effect of RDF is quite volatile. It stays only as long as the initiating force (Steve Jobs in this example) is around the subject, and withers off in his absence.
2. RDF works effectively even when the subject knows about it.