The new iPad

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/03/15/pogue-ipad

The new iPad does seem to be something and nothing in terms of an upgrade and John Gruber is right to defend the newness. It is however Apple that has spent years getting us to move on from tech spec numbers and look at features, and the new iPad can be viewed as a spec change as it doesn't have a new OS version that the iPhone 4S got over the iPhone 4.

Article: The Top Idea in Your Mind

Fascinating ideas, well worth remembering.

The Top Idea in Your Mind
http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html

(via Instapaper)

Something vile is growing in America

Arizona:

"The mood has changed, too, among white Americans, who have interpreted the increasingly aggressive language used by politicians as a green light to express their own prejudices. Incidents of harassment towards undocumented Latinos from employers, landlords and neighbours have increased. Should the victims protest, they are frequently taunted with the refrain: "So what are you going to do about it, tell the police?"

"

Ninjawords: iPhone Dictionary, Censored by Apple

Just reading the linked story, Apple really do have to do something before their reputation is sunk.

A couple of key quotes:

"In other words, the App Store reviewer(s) explicitly searched for curse words they already knew, and found them."

"Every time I think I’ve seen the most outrageous App Store rejection, I’m soon proven wrong. I can’t imagine what it will take to top this one.

Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day."

Banned from school for not going to school?

I love the logic:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/06/snow-britain-weather-travel

"Fifty pupils have been suspended after they went on strike because their school stayed open through the snow. The year 10 and 11 pupils at Nova Hreod school, Swindon, refused to come back in from the playing field after morning break on Wednesday.

Headteacher Julie Tridgell said she had to give a tough response, as ringleaders encouraged the students to stay out. The pupils, who cannot return to school until Monday, had been using the strike as an excuse for bad behaviour."

"The false choice between our safety and our ideals"

Executive Orders of Barack Obama (http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing_room/executive_orders/)

- Ensuring Lawful Interrogations
- Review of Detention Policy Options
- Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities




Thank you Barack for this sanity.

Retailers push the MP3 format with new logo

I would prefer a logo that promotes DRM-free regardless of format. I personally prefer AAC, but I think it is retailers that don't understand different formats; I downloaded and AAC file from 7digital and it turned out to be wrongly encoded as a MP4 video file.

Microsoft fingers Apple and Real for Vista insecurities

Yep, security is not the problem with Vista. :)

Why does Phorm concern you?

Trust is always a concern, but a key issue for me is control. With Phorm I feel I have no control. An example of good control is Amazon's recommendations, if I buy a book for someone else I can tell Amazon not to use it for making recommendations, I have control. With Google, I agree to their adverts and find them unobtrusive and helpful, but I can not use Google as and when I choose.

My analogy of Phorm would be if my water company examined my sewage to see what foods I had eaten, and then added 'flavours' to my drinking water to tempt me to buy new food and drink.

Telegraph: Mixed evidence for black sprinters' monopoly

It is even easier to dismiss when you realise that Olympic champions, whether it be Steve Redgrave or Carl Lewis, are 'freaks', outside the norm. So drawing conclusions from the edges might be hard to apply to the flat-footed kid sitting next to you.

Guardian: When Google owns you

Yet more FUD.

Storing electronic data offline could also mean it is lost at any moment, through fire, theft or accident.
Don't right tabloid headline stuff unless you real numbers that back this up.
How many times do people lose all their information from their own computer, compared to how many lose it online? Before computers how many lost all their paper work?

Jack Schofield;"Beware the Internet bogey man!"

Guardian: AOL says it will 'sunset' Xdrive

You're serving up a degree of FUD.

Any company that has a dependence on a single supplier, or supplies to a single source is at risk from the other company going bust or pulling the plug on their key product. This risk is as old as the hills, and is not new to cloud computing. It is fair to say the cloud computing is immature, but there was a time when relying on a single computer was common place, but now it is normal to deliver a service from several computers across a network.

XDrive itself was primarily a consumer service, and it was unlikely many companies had it at the centre of their business.

This time, the joke's on Apple

Whilst the video is funny, mostly at the Mac's expense, the funniest part is that some people think that there is a real comparison between these two machines, they are completely different in their purpose.

Woman 4 times more likely than men to give passwords for chocolate

Wow, men are so stupid that they can't work out how to get free chocolate by giving false information.

Guardian: Got Vista's SP1? Some people have and would rather not

Microsoft could buy Dell and stop licensing Windows. That would clear up the support issues.

Film of the year 2007

I didn't get to see so many films this year, and I can't remember all that I did see, but I do remember these:
Hot Fuzz
Bobby
Apocalypto
The Last King Of Scotland
300
Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix
Sunshine
Die Hard 4.0
Hairspray
Run Fat Boy, Run


Of these Hot Fuzz was the funniest, and worth re-watching. Bobby did a superb job of recapturing the excitement and shock of the time. However, my film of the year is The Last King Of Scotland, simply because it has one of the best acting performances I have seen. Forrest Whitaker is truly terrifying as Idi Amin, whilst still showing how captivating he could be, his terror was so convincing that I was scared for the camera crew filming it.

Guardian - Apple kills Think Secret blog

This, alongside the TorrentSpy ruling, is a case of shooting the messenger. Our laws are clearly in need of review if providing information is illegal.

The Miracle of iTunes

So England will meet France in the semi-finals after fantastic victories, and as I sit here reading the morning papers eating my very French croissant iTunes selected a track - John Coltrane Live in Paris "A few of my favourite things"

Perfect.

Film of the year 2006

Another good year for films, from those I saw at the cinema the best film would be Good Night and Good Luck. The film perfectly captured the mood and style of the era, yet spoke about our own time.

Deja Vu
Casino Royale
Miami Vice
Pirates of the Carribean
Superman Returns
Ultraviolet
Fearless
X-Men III
Da Vinci code
Syriana
Good Night and Good Luck
Munich
Underworld: Evolution
Memoirs of a Geisha

Guadian: Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils

I for one am glad that we are finally banning body covering, for years the young and attractive have been forced by archaic social pressures to cover their bodies in an misguided attempt at achieving privacy and modesty. The very idea that we should cover ourselves to prevent another being aroused or disturbed, is totally unmerited. Many young women are forced to cover up because their fathers or boyfriends don't like blokes looking at them like that, well tough. In a free society we should be able to look at other peoples naked bodies whenever we want, and I am glad the Netherlands, the home of porn and prostitution, is leading the way to total nudity. All we need to do now is free ourselves of the "politcal correctness gone mad" anti-discrimination laws that prevent us from forcibly covering the fat and ugly. Jack Straw was right to call for the removal of clothing when people come to visit him, I know I would want my MP to be able to encourage vistors to overcome their primitive modesty and removing clothing that covers their natural beauty. I know Jack Straw claims he was more interested in the importance of body-language, but as he was at the home office and allowed unseen witnesses to give evidence, I am not sure of his motives, but I am sure that when he speaks on the phone he is always quick to ask what other person is wearing. Of course there are concerns about security, I can easily imagine how hard it is to identify a suicide bomber who wears a veil, so I fully support all attempts by our legislature to determine what others wear, it is what freedom is all about.