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by a san juan.
Original Post: The selfish "java gene"
Feed Title: small devices in my dandelion patch
Feed URL: http://sedoparking.com/search/registrar.php?domain=®istrar=sedopark
Feed Description: J2ME, emergent software and other tiny things.
I realized recently that my strong bias towards Java has been manifesting itself in some ways that I never imagined.
The first time I noticed something was when my wife said I had a tendency to go to Home Depot for my home supplies, rather than Loews, a close competitor of Home Depot. This even when Loews had better prices for a particular product! After some heated discussion, I finally admitted I had recently read that Home Depot was very Java-centric, using desktop and server-based java to increase efficiency in its popular stores.
After that, I sat down and analyzed some of the consumer choices I have made that were seemingly influenced by my own Java-centric world-view.
There's my really cool-looking American Express Blue Card and Target Visa, both of which provided less incentives to owners in terms of rates and credits, but which sported java smarts in the form of embedded smart chips. Then there's my choice of Nextel as my first cellphone. Nextel did not exactly compare favorably to other carriers in terms of rates and features, especially since it caters to businesses and not mainly to individuals consumers, but Nextel did do something that I liked - it promoted the first J2ME (MIDP) phones in the United States. Now, of course, almost every network operator carries J2ME phones, so I'll probably switch to something like AT&T Wireless.
As I delved deeper into my psyche, I finally admitted I was consciously or subconsciously "rewarding" those companies that promoted Java or shared my own world view, sometimes even at the cost of paying higher prices. I was voting for Java not only at work and with my writings, but with my hard-earned cash.
In the end, of course, I may be doing these things (which at first glance seems somewhat crazy) for ultimately selfish reasons. The success of Java in general contributes to my own success, much in the same way that the success of individuals within a species are in reality the success of the genes that compose them.
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