Posts by Equitas

Now that she's raised the question of stereotyping of Mexicans...........

Was the individual referred to as "a lazy, feckless and flatulent oaf with a mustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat" allegedly a male -- or was it perchance a female?

Paris -- because she isn't Mexican and doesn't wear a moustache

Isn't this the same legal system ....

that allowed a sheriff to publicly name individuals he had never seen and had never been charged with any offence, but nonetheless declared to be conspirators to pervert the course of justice?

And why do we ....

still have QWERTY keyboards, when the mechanical reasons for them disappeared about forty years ago as mechanical typewriters were dropped from manufacture? People will stick with what they're familiar with unless there's some advantage so enormous that it's instantly apparent.

In the real world out there few secretaries regard word processing as anything other than a glorified typewriter and even a mouse is regarded with suspicion. Gestures? It would take decades to convince them!

Feet of clay ............

Bill Gates may be a scoundrel peddling operating systems and software of dubious value (as well as a small amount of hardware which is actually rather good), attempting to lock governments and the world's public into exclusive use of his products and keeping users on an upgrading treadmill for his own financial benefit. In other words, a very successful businessman. And he'll no doubt die unlamented by the world at large. But at least he's never presented himself as a quasi-divine figure.

And there's the difference. Steve Jobs has presented himself as, and has been regard by the fanbois as, a quasi-divine figure with a vision to which he has sought -- and gained -- what appears to be an absolute loyalty from his followers. What's the world expected to do when Jobs' feet of clay are exposed? The fanbois will still look at the head of gold and ignore the realities of the situation.

Of course Jobs has been a major influence on the computing world, as a representative -- and for decades the leading representative -- of the "my way or no way" approach. And, frankly, if Jobs' way had prevailed, I for one wouldn't be using computers to the extent I do in everyday life. And I say that as someone who was machine-code programming in the 1960s and can remember making very extensive use of the very first IBM word processors in the 1960s.

It's the openness of the IBM PC which has made customised hardware and software, relevant to the actual work we need to do, economically feasible for countless millions of people around the world. I don't like Microsoft and I don't like Bill Gates, but if I were tied to the Jobs approach to hardware and software I wouldn't have either the hardware or the software I need because (a) the hardware I need would be out of my price range (which is at the top end of the custom-built PC range) and (b) the software would never have been written or, again, would be totally out of my price range.

Jobs has been the enemy of the very things that have made it possible for me to make very extensive use of computers in my work setting.

If he expects privacy, he should stop presenting himself as a messiah-figure -- then we can show him sympathy as a mere man overtaken by illness. He can't have it both ways.

Changes -- hormonal and otherwise

It's a little bit different now from what it was fifty years ago -- sewage of human origin contains very high levels of oestrogens and sundry assorted potent drug residues.

Add the percentage of pre-menopausal women on the pill to the percentage of post-menopausal women on HRT and you've got about half the female population swallowing -- and duly excreting -- enormous quantities of oestrogen which thus goes into the food chain .......... with consequent effects on males.

Paris, because she prefers males to be males.

At least .....

Kate looks vaguely female and doesn't seem to get all her physical pleasure from riding horses. Wills could have done an awful lot worse -- the girl has potential.

What's more, while we're on the subject of "royalty," even a republican like myself can readily admit that Will's father's not daft in the way that the press make out -- in the flesh he's a genuinely-interesting conversationalist.

I don't quite see

why, when virtually every other component has increased in reliability over the past eighty years, capacitors should remain such unreliable components.

It's not simply a question of "Made in China" -- it's surely a question of being inadequately specified and inadequate quality control. It's not the cheapest computers that were worst hit with these problems, either, so there's even less excuse.

Do they not realise .....

that from Streetview to satellite view is only two clicks? Paranoia is clearly alive and kicking in Germany.

Don't know about pilots ..............

but what on earth do they do when they come across a female passenger with a procidentia?

Paris, because it's one thing that everyone knows she certainly hasn't got

Don't make me laugh ............

Have you looked at their own published coverage map? It seems to cover less than half the landmass of the UK.

Sorry, I use a mobile phone to receive and make phone calls wherever I may be in the world. Coverage matters. And no, it's not enough to have coverage of cities and major towns -- it's often necessary to drive through rural areas in order to get to the said cities and towns. Serving the areas where most of the population live is something vastly different from serving most of the country. Three are an "also ran" when it comes to coverage of the landmass of the UK for basic mobile phone communications.

No-one pretends ...

that other companies use facilities any better than Apple do. However, what Apple are selling, at a premium of about 100% over the cost of comparable equipment, is image. But then we already knew that the fanbois are narcissitic -- why would we ever have expected them to care about anything or anyone other than themselves?

Suspicion, Spies, Lies and Injustice

Calm down! Nothing's changed. All males are still paedophiles and dangerous. Or so the official line is. Other that is than any who may be teachers, doctors, social workers or police officers.

All teachers, doctors, social workers and police officers (of whatever gender) are duty-bound to seek out evidence of such paedophile activity and some are employed with that as their primary role. The child "protection" legislation under which they operate allows them to do so without evidence which would ever stand up to judicial scrutiny.

To change the system meaningfully would require the dismantling of the entire current "child protection" system with its network of suspicion, spies, lies and injustice.

I could understand it better

if it were some other country involved.

OK, so the iPhone is a girly item bought by girly boys and presumably by girls.

But look at the female population of Switzerland -- the typical Swiss Mädchen is hardly very girly either in looks or behaviour..

The first question to ask .........

with regard to technical support is "Where is it based?"

Of course, it's not politically correct to ask such a question, but the bottom line is that though experience with a majority of call centres worldwide tends to be negative, negative experience with those in India seems to approach 100%.

I have not the slightest doubt that most Indian call centres are probably staffed, in the main, by "graduates," but there is a consistent pattern that they seem to be either unwilling or unable to listen, to think, to speak European English to a satisfactory level or to act on any matter which is outwith their script. If they're incapable of giving a reasonable level of customer satisfaction, it makes no sense to use them. But of course if we complain, we're then accused of being "racist."

I have no problem with the concept of technical support being offshore. Some of the best service I've had has been from a call centre in the Philippines. I have no hesitation, however, if I get an obviously-Indian voice asking me to spell my (rather common) surname or using Indian English in a sense in which it differs in grammar or syntax from European or American English, or otherwise jabbering away incomprehensibly, in telling the individual concerned to slow down, that I can't understand them, that I speak six languages and that they'll need either to speak a language I can understand or to pass me on to someone who does. If I really believed they were listening and genuinely attempting to interact with a view to solving my problem, then my response would be different. Sadly, however, experience suggests that solving my problem is very low down on their priorities.

Outsourcing of technical support -- or sales support -- to call centres in India is about the most negative advertising any company could have.

What's the use if they're not real?

Of course guys are interested in nipples, as more daring flat-chested girls have known for decades. A flat-chested girl with good nipples can attract every bit as much attention as a busty girl can, if she lets her nipples be seen through her top or wears a loose open-necked top that gives the occasional glance of a nipple.

False nipples don't sound like much fun.

Of little significance

I thought that the average equipment size among the population of PNG was amongst the smallest in the world. It doesn't seem to be any major disadvantage to them.

A suggestion for the self-appointed guardians of public morality

Some eight-year-olds have obvious early breast development

Other eight-year-olds want to look as if they have

Some mothers of eight-year-olds like dressing their kids as if they were teenagers

Almost all adult women emphasise their breasts to a greater or lesser extent -- even those who don't have any seem to see a need to create the appearance of breasts.

Is it surprising that someone should market a bikini top for young girls to do for them what it seems is deemed relevant for older females?

If the self-righteous would-be guardians of public morality were really interested in modesty they might be better campaigning against tops and bottoms without padding or interlining to conceal anything at all when they get wet.

Bring the country down quickly!

One communications centre down

Very restricted telephone communications in that area

Credit card transactions blocked through much of country

Bank systems down -- no cash available

Sounds like a good recipe for a terrorist plot.

Too many young IT persons with plenty of knowledge but very little sense and too many senior managers who don't live in the real world and are incapable of asking "What if?"

Start stockpiling food and keep your cash in an old sock under the mattress, anyone?

Some teachers don't even need to be drunk ....

LateNightLarry wrote "The guy couldn't even explain how to get the answer with the textbook in his hand." No doubt that's just how it was. However our maths teacher, sober, even though the son of a licensed grocer, managed to get into a bit of a fandangle with a class of 16-year-olds. In particular with one pupil who wasn't really getting anywhere with solid geometry. In utter exasperation, he lost the rag: "Really, Catherine, I fail to see your problem; all you need for solid geometry and a good figure." The class took due cognizance of his comment and assessed the situation rapidly. Catherine had neither of the attributes required, and quite apart from any failures in draughtsmanship on paper she had failed totally to develop any Buglarian air bags whatsoever. Great hilarity all round with the exception of three persons:

1. Teacher -- who didn't understand the reason for the hilarity -- he'd never made a class laugh before in several decades of teaching

2. Teacher's daughter -- who was one of the class, who was herself equipped with large Bulgarian air bags and who, we're reliably informed, explained to him at home the reason for the hilarity.

3. The said Catherine -- who wasn't in the least embarrassed by her lack of a clear head but was no doubt somewhat mortified by the fact that her front was parallel to her back.

Paris, because she's like the said Catherine in her head even if not with regard to parallelism of back and front.

Who costed

rural installation of fibre optic cable? I strongly suspect that the figures being used bear little relation to reality. It's proved quite possible to bring electricity, water and phone connections virtually everywhere. In many areas of the countryside installations have been done using nothing more sophisticated than some variation of a mole plough -- a vastly cheaper exercise than digging up and reinstating roads and pavements. What's more, the massive installation programmes of the 1950s and earlier have almost all been re-done at some point in the last 50 years without any crippling expense. The cost per mile in the countryside is tiny fraction of the cost per mile in urban and suburban areas, and as has been pointed out, with fibre optic cable, it's the connections that really up the cost. Is it possible that the accountants have been distorting the picture more than a little and producing rather skewed figures?

Should I hand over my passport

... to anyone who demands it at passport control in the UK? Last time I came in to Heathrow one of the lanes -- the slowest-moving one -- was being staffed by an individual in a hijab. No uniform. No obvious identification as a passport control officer.

As far as not handing one's passport over to persons who demand it for seconds or days in Israel the answer is simple -- avoid the country completely. Israel is a country where ethnicity matters overwhelmingly. However, if you don't fit as one of the "chosen" ones, there's no great reason to visit the country.

Is she not

the same Maggie Shiels who in days long gone by notoriously referred several times in the same news bulletin to a "holicepter?"