Fuck digicatalog.com

This morning my boss sent me a link to digicatalog.com and asked if this was something we could do with our online catalog. Upon visiting the site I hit my limit break on rage and my scorn increased by +A LOT.

You see, the website I maintain allows users to view our catalogs as .pdf files. digicatalog.com, too, displays catalogs as .pdf files. The difference is that digicatalog.com employs Flash in their presentation and so includes some aesthetic differences. Which basically means that when viewing a catalog utilizing digicatalog.com one can cwick on the widdle corner of a page and make it fwip just like a weal catawog!

And that right there can go FUUUUUUUUUCK ITSELF!

Employing technology to create minor aesthetic tweaks, to find convoluted and needless means by which one may get jackasses to say "Well aren't that neat!" is simply fucking retarded. And if you dedicate you life to the pursuit of creating stupid fucking aesthetic tweaks for the sake of novelty then you can suck my asshole and feast upon the real world equivalent of what you've done with your life: SHIT!

What the internet basically does, greatly simplified, is allow users to store and share information. That's it. What some have done since its inception is to continually drop aesthetic bullshit onto that fundamental structure. People like those at digicatalog do not make something new, they simply modify what already exists. Any jackass can put a .pdf file of their catalog online and allow users to view it; this is not difficult. What digicatalog.com has done is employ Flash to change the presentation of the catalog. So while on some sites users can click on the down arrow to view the next page digicatalog.com allows users to click on the visual representation of a page and virtually mimic the phenomenal, joyful experience of turning a god damned page.

And in my estimation that's just fucking stupid and a waste of time.

Moreover I do not understand why users find this sort of thing to be compelling. We can turn the pages on real world catalogs and not give a shit. But now that digicatalog.com has replicated this action on the tubal interwebs it is suddenly fun and interesting? Go ahead. Go to the site. Load one of their sample catalogs. Now click on the corner of one of the pages and turn the page. See? You can, like, turn the page! It's like turning a real page only online! Isn't that cool?

NO IT'S NO COOL YOU PHENOMINAL DOLT! It's the same thing as pressing an arrow key. Only instead of pushing a button you have to click your mouse on a point and drag it. There is no utility in doing this; there is no advantage to it. It's just an aesthetic difference.

It's just like the fucking Wii. "Hey look! Instead of pressing A I have to shake this thing! AWESOME!" "Hey look! Instead of clicking the down arrow I can click and drag a visual representation of a page! AWESOME!"

GOD!

It's not useful. It's not advantageous. It's not progression. It's just fucking stupid.

Sure, maybe there is some use for this which is advantageous, sensible and useful. Perhaps this ability to click and drag may one day have a beneficial implementation which is actually more useful than its button clicking equivalent. But turning pages in an online catalog? That's not some awesome, inspiring, breakthrough use of technology.

It's just fucking stupid.