Posts by Mike Crawshaw 508 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Nov 2007
"causing a large amount of swelling".
A-ha!!! He had recently received a number of e-mails from companies touting penis-elargers, telling him that he was insufficiently-equipped. Believing these (which incidentally he got through Outlook Express, which explains a lot), he decided to implement his own method.
There. An IT angle.
I used to work at O2, and still know a number of people in the biz, both at retail and network. iPhone sales are low, and a lot of users don't know what they're doing with them, so they're sucking up resource @ O2 customer services and the retailers trying to figure out how to use *insert feature X* or why they can't use a feature they had on their last phone, that they just "upgraded" from. Want to know why you can't get through to O2? Because their reps are explaining how to use iTunes to more important customers. Waiting forever in Carphone Warehouse to get your phone repaired? Yep, well, someone is trying to figure out why they can't use MMS on their iPhone.
* sells for $399 in the US, which is about £190 (last time I checked). Sells in the UK for £269. Nuff said.
* the calling plan is crap. £35 a month for 200 mins and 200 texts??? I get more free on my PAYG! Normally a £35/month contract with O2 will get you 600 mins and 500 text. Oh, and you pay for voicemail with the iPhone, which you don't on a standard £35pm contract with O2. Nice.
* PAYING for a mobile phone with an 18-MONTH CONTRACT???
* Lack of features - my 2yo Nokia has features the iPhone lacks, and mine wasn't a top of the range at the time of purchase. Little things that people like. Like being able to send a text to more than one person at a time. Like being able to delete a text message without erasing everything in the "conversation". Like being able to use MMS and 3G. Like...
Overall, yeah, it looks ok. Wonderful. But it doesn't do the job, is poor value for money, and costs a damned sight more here than it does in other places (over 40% above US price). I get that over in the US, people jumped for joy at this, because of the low-tech cellphones they're used to. But here? In terms of functionality (leaving aside presentation), it's years out of date.
Move along, nothing to see here....
"As someone previously remarked - wikipedia is about as trustworthy as what some person tells you in a bar, but I have often got good ideas and suggestions while having drinks with experts in my field."
Problem being that a lot of the Wikipedia articles are edited and controlled by people who are NOT experts in the relevant fields. Or even amateurs. More frequently, they seem to be people who once read a Reader's Digest article about something a bit similar some years ago in a waiting room. Whenever an edit appears that doesn't agree with their existing bias, or corrects an error made by them or their friends, an RV occurs.
I've got a fair knowledge in *some* fields. When I look at Wikipedia, I see glaring errors. Big ones. Out-and-out fabrications and unsubstantiated opinion in some instances. Do I care enough to bang my head against a wall by trying to correct it, knowing I'll get nowhere? I do not.
There should be a disclaimer at the top of every article: "For Entertainment Purposes Only".
Surely natives can't do things better than the White Man? They only just found fire?? How are they beating us? They must be cheating. Yeah, that's it. Just like when they bought out Hard Rock Cafe*. Let's take all their money away, just like we did their land, water, buffalo, dignity... that'll show 'em.
(*now owned by the Seminole tribe)
(for the love of God, please nobody tell me that </sarcasm> tags are really necessary here.....!)
Hear hear AC!
It's absolute tosh that our players are crap because of video games, and that our kids are inside playing X-Box rather than playing out. Every kid I know (I have nephews & nieces so I know plenty) wants to be a footballer. Why? So they can get paid £x,000 per WEEK to piss about for a few hours a day with a football, rather than getting a real job where they actually have to work. Oh yeah, and have an automatic entitlement to a model girlfriend. Very few of them give a toss about the game. And that's why they're crap.
If we take away the stupid amounts of money that players are paid, we would see:
* less foreign players (because foreign players won't be as tempted to come here if they're not getting paid as much)
* the English players will be the ones who want to PLAY THE GAME - not the ones who want the new ferrari.
<pipe dream>
* Players acting less like total tosspots when out and about, because they will be there for the love of the game and need the job, rather than being able to retire in comfort after a year of playing.
* prices will be able to come down, so terraces will have more "real fans" and less corporate boxes - because the "real fans" will once again be able to afford to buy the bloody tickets. And the shareholders and boards of directors will give up their bonuses for a "job well done", as they realise they have no impact on a club's performance.
</pipe dream>
(OK, so I know the last two won't happen, but hey. Leave my imagination alone.)
This is ridiculous.
OK, before we start: here's my "credentials" to avoid any charges of intolerance/KKK membership etc.
I'm a Canuck living in the UK, born to Limey Mom and Canuck Dad. I was brought up Christian, but "went agnostic" at the age of 12 because it just didn't make any sense to me, especially the parts that were obviously nicked from other religions (look up the Roman God Mithras, for example). My girlfriend is Indian/Pakistani heritage, brought up a Muslim who turned her back on it all and lives agnostically, but still retains many Muslim values (e.g. doesn't eat pig meat). She was born in Manchester, but please don't hold that against me.
OK, the beef.
<rant>
For thousands of years, religions of various types have been hammering "you must believe this!" down our throats, and anyone who doesn't believe (or at least publically profess to believe) faced various censures - from social exclusion, to exile, to corporal punishment (e.g. mutilation), to capital punishment (stonings, burnings, beheadings). Even if you DO believe, you still don't get away with it (female circumcision, anyone?)
So the backlash has begun. People are saying "y'know what? This is cobblers." - but the religious leaders, of whatever stripe, are hanging on by their fingernails trying desperately to retain their temporal power over their followers. In some countries, thankfully, their ability to do this is limited by law. In countries like Saudi Arabia, it's not. In Afghanistan, a man who converted to Christianity was tried for blasphemy, and his family mounted a defence of mental instability on his part to try and get him off the death penalty (they failed) - and this was AFTER the ousting of the Taliban.
I've only known two Turks - one was a nice guy, the other was a tosser. Same sort of ratio as most nationalities, and religion didn't come into it. But I have nothing against the Turkish people.
I do, however, have a hell of a lot against a country where you can be charged with criminal offences for expressing a religious view that goes against the "official state religion" in the same way as happened in Russia under Stalin or happens in Saudi now.
You have your right to religious beliefs. I have my right to mine. I'll happily discuss them with you, our shared ideals and conflicting notions. If you're happy to do that, I look forward to talking to you. If you're not, because you're sensitive about it, then that's ok too - though I suggest you might want to reconsider your faith, as it's obviously not very strong. But the day you arrest me for expressing my religious views is the day I go up the clock tower with a rifle...!
</rant>
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
