Posts by Matthew Poole
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Russell, I will point out that I explicitly stated that they were my reasons for not buying Apple products. I know a lot of people like what Apple does, and that's fine, but I'm pointing out that there are very valid reasons for not jumping on the bandwagon. Those of us who treat interoperability as non-negotiable will never be comfortable with Apple as it currently exists, no matter how amazing their products may be.
Also, this is the same Apple that's being sued for misleading marketing over the displays in 20" iMacs. Not everything they produce is top quality, even though they charge like it is.
-
I presume you don't own any gaming consoles or mobile phones then?
Gaming consoles, no. I own a mobile phone that's so old that nobody develops for it any more, but the apps that are available can be run at my choosing without having to hack the phone and void the warranty. I will make similar choices when I finally upgrade, namely that I choose what runs, and the manufacturer says to developers "Here's the API, here's the phone's specs, now develop to your hearts' content". No need to work around imposed limitations that deny access to full functionality.
It's ironic, given the implication that Apple's customers are starry-eyed loons, how much of the argument against the products comes down to emotion.
A lot of Apple's customers are "starry-eyed loons", though, Russell. Look at how many people queue in the shittiest possible weather for hours, if not days, just so that they can get "The next Apple gadget", even though history says that the first release will be buggy, glitchy, maybe even have sub-standard hardware. That's some serious dedication to a product that you can be nearly certain will be defective to some extent.
-
It really grates when you have paid good money for a machine that has been deliberately crippled and the software is locked down to stop you doing what you want with something you have paid for.
Precisely. A friend just bought an iPhone, and commented that she's seen lots of problems with stability with jail-broken phones with some of her friends. I couldn't say I was surprised, but jail breaking happens for a reason. Apple's insistence on absolute control means that a really good experience and really good functionality are pretty much mutually exclusive. That's something of a fail, but they get away with it because people love the UI experience so much. However, because they insist on absolute control, people who want to get most of that UI experience but also get extra functionality are left out in the cold. That is, IMO, pretty shitty customer service.
-
A pretty good PC World summary of what's wrong with the iPad.
Including my number one reason for not ever giving Jobs any of my money: openness. For me, it's an absolute deal-breaker. I object strongly to anyone telling me what I can and cannot do with things that I have bought. The concept of "There is only one true way - the way of the iJobs - and no other way shall be made in the least bit convenient" is anathema to how I view tech. For as long as Apple is run by a control freak, producing control-freak products, no matter how beautiful (I fully heart the top-end Apple displays, and am quite happy to admit it), they're not the products for me.
-
But it's actually not registered under the Charities Act
Even better, under s37 of the Charities Act 2005 it's not permissible to hold an entity out as being a registered charity if it actually isn't. McVicar's on mighty thin ice, with a potential $30k fine in the offing.
-
The policy will deter criminals from committing further crimes, keep the worst offenders behind bars for longer and bring certainty to sentencing of the most hardened offenders.
Two distortions and a half-truth in the one sentence, and she only makes three claims. I hope Judith gives that PR lackey a pay increase.
It's a long-established fact that harsher sentences don't act as a deterrent. The murder rates in most states in the US that have capital punishment are higher than in most states that don't. Indeed, last time I checked 60% of the 10-least violent states didn't have capital punishment but 100% of the 10-most violent states did. How's that work, exactly? The deterrent comes from the likelihood of being caught, not what will happen to you if you do. Better to put more money into policing that corrections. The bang-for-buck is higher, and the effect on crime is higher. Instead, we get a cut in the police budget and this bullshit "three strikes" policy. Fucking awesome.
Maybe the policy will "keep the worst offenders behind bars for longer", but maybe it won't. What of preventative detention? What of that harshest judicial tool, the open-ended sentence? Precious little has been said about that, which I consider to be somewhat telling. The media certainly doesn't appear to have been asking the question.
As for certainty of sentencing, umm, what? All that you know is that, if you get convicted, you'll get the maximum time for whatever it is you're convicted of. Given that the maximum sentences for qualifying offences range between seven years and life, I wouldn't call that too much certainty.
I found it very interesting that neither Burton nor Bell would've been prevented from carrying out their murderous rampages had this law been in effect.
-
even better is the resolution rate.
That is certainly one of the stand-out things about homicide in this country: very, very few go unsolved. It helps that murder is frequently domestic, and the perpetrator is usually immediately identifiable or, even better, still there and sobbing over the body when the cops arrive. Also helping is that we don't tend to have pointless drive-by shootings where there are innumerable possible suspects, no apparent motive, and no clues.
-
XKCD is the new Simpsons. No longer is it "There's a Simpsons quote for that", now it's "Here, have this XKCD link."
-
That XKCD has a great mouse-over text, too.
-
Got references for those figures?
This article is the one from Granny that says the long-term trend is down.
Other than that, not handy. It took me a fair bit of Googling to hunt down the things that I found, particularly when I started looking at murder rates in US cities to try and find ones that had murder rates lower than NZ's. They do exist, but not until the population is significantly smaller than ours.
One thing that I cannot immediately find is a chart that had nearly the whole world by murder rate. The stuff I'm finding now is only selected countries, which isn't so useful.