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The always entertaining John Welch rips the Scobleizer a new one when Robert Scoble, media darling, has a hissy fit because an update didn’t work out the way he thought it would.

Just how out of touch do you have to be to start acting like you have the right to special treatment. What level of entitlement do you have to possess to think this way? Make no mistake, that’s what this is: the pouting of the biggest, most spoiled entitlement queen in the “blogosphere”. This is what happens when you start thinking of yourself as better than everyone else. This great swollen ego is what happens when you start believing the sycophants who tell you that your shit really doesn’t stink, and that anyone telling you different is just a “hater”.

Of course, Scoble’s comments field is filled with Windows guys shouting about how he’s finally validated their choice in Windows. What? You mean that before the rant you were unsure and insecure about your lifestyle choices and needed that kind of positive validation? Wow. Some people need to work on their self-image a lot. I wonder did it hurt to realise that Scoble seems to have just been impatient and the system sorted itself out? (Something that was left to the depths of the comments rather than adding an [UPDATE] to the main text.

I like John’s writing a lot. And spotted him on FaceBook though I’d never add anyone without actually having spoken to them in some real sense.

What’s worse about this stink is that Scoble follows up with an anecdote about how Mac-savvy tech people refused to go on record saying there were problems with their Macs. This, he points out, is because we’re all brainwashed by Apple. I’ve been on TV and radio (and dead tree matter) a few times now and every time I consider my options.

Robert. Your post was whining and self-serving. You moaned about something breaking and then added quietly in the depths of your comments that it started working again. He ALSO says he expects this of his Windows machine. What? You’re lowering your standards because it’s an ex-employer? Does he still get paid by them because that, to me, is worse shilling than the work he did when he worked there. Anyone remember Mira? Scoble said it was the best. I think it shifted about 12 boxes.

In his followup, however, he accuses Steven Levy and Walt Mossberg of being Apple shills. Is this the privilege of being a blogger? He’s seriously telling us that he is morally better than senior writers at the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek?

I’m exasperating every time I read more of this “I’m Robert Scoble and you must pH34R me” garbage.

In his latest fit of pique he’s publishing twitter updates from anyone who had an issue with an upgrade. I’ve said before, upgrades tickle existing issues. I do take some issue with one that says “Killed my powerbook too. I had to erase & install.”

No, you didn’t.

There’s an astounding amount of free ( the real free by the way ) community support for your Mac. Nearly a decade ago, I started NiMUG because there was no company that seemed sustainable in the Northern Ireland marketplace. My main interest was trying to stabilise the market, give local Mac users somewhere to go that wasn’t filled with bluffers. I had my own issues with SX3 and EOS systems and their support of Mac users which is why I left Nortel in the first place. A detour via Macinni for six months and Mac-Sys was started. I think I’ve ben fair to NiMUG in this respect by trying to fix problems which are easy via the NiMUG discussion forum and letting people make up their own minds about where to take their repairs. Sure, SX3 (now Northgate) and EOS are now competitors of my company but I honestly feel competition is good and on the face of it, the recent news of an Apple Store in Belfast is going to hurt Mac-Sys more than it would either of the other two, yet still we welcome it.

The beauty about being an A-lister is that Scoble only had to ask for help, rather than whining for special treatment in order to inundated with free offers of support. Imagine being the guy that fixed an A-listers laptop? I’m sure there’s a hundred guys in the Bay area willing to strut their stuff like that. And if he’d gone to ANY Mac user group he’d also have gotten more help than he could cope with without being patronised.

I’m not an A-list blogger. To be sure I’m not even a Z-lister. I don’t have any fame (and fewer readers). I don’t expect anything I’ve not earned, through services bartered. No-one rolls out the red carpet for me.

I hate agreeing with John Dvorak. I hate it because it usually means I’m wrong. Not just “Oh well” wrong but seriously, dangerously, life-threateningly wrong.

Article

Until now, Microsoft could sell code better than anyone, but it seems the company would rather sell services: software as a service, ads, search engine results—you name it. This is like the local storefront that opens as a knife-sharpening business and is soon selling junk jewelry, moose heads, toaster repair, and cheap chocolate. In the meantime, the knife-sharpening business goes by the wayside. This is what has happened to Microsoft, and Vista is the result.

Worse, he threatens to switch to Linux or the Mac.

I don’t have an anger problem. It’s been said to me recently that I get annoyed or frustrated but not angry. But then PJ reckons I write angry posts.

Am I angry?

I think I display some symptoms of Passive Anger (Dispassion and Evasiveness) but these can be explained (or perhaps justified). Both are linked – mostly in the desire not to have the situation escalate any further. I was told I am slippery – not quite Clinton slippery – but certainly eel-like. I just tend to avoid saying things that will make people angry or sad or which will not add to the resolution of issues. I’ve spent enough time looking at myself, using cognitive restructuring theory, to realise that my anger is not really an issue any more. Sure, I feel angry at times but again looking at the big picture I’ll stay outwardly calm. As I told Sean the other day, “You really have to laugh.”