Archive for the ‘Encouragement’ Category
Lighting a candle versus cursing the darkness
A friend I respect asked me today why I write here about some of the subjects (and people) I do. What do I hope to achieve? Coincidentally, I saw this (below) in the latest Parachute music festival magazine just this morning: That’s a different spin on Edmund Burke’s much-quoted saying: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph […]
Confusing jingoism with patriotism.
From a good profile of actress Claire Danes, currently gripping segments of the intelligentsia/viewing public (including me) with her role in TV drama Homeland, this excellent distinction. “The first time I realised I was patriotic was after September 11,” she says. She was living in Sydney at the time. “I couldn’t have been farther away, […]
A second apology (this time from Apple)
Apple’s iPhone Maps application (in iOS6) was delivered half-baked. That seems obvious. Here’s Apple CEO Tim Cook apologising for (shock, horror) ‘the debacle’. Good on him. Will it pull the sting? My first reaction to the shortcomings was to install a bookmark on my home screen for the web app of Google Maps (see below). […]
Scratch testing an iPhone5. Gulp.
Holy cow. I’ll be getting one of these phones … but I’ll treat it a little better than THIS: I don’t expect my gear to be literally bulletproof. But wow, the internet is FULL of drop-tests-to-destruction … is there a name for that? Shiny-gadget-bashing-porn? – P UPDATE: From 9to5 Mac Shocker!
Ruby Sparks. A nice story, beautifully told.
I loved this movie. It’s deft. Trust me, see it. – P
‘The problem with any ideology’ — Bill Clinton
I heard this in Bill Clinton’s interview with Jon Stewart 20 Sept 2012 talking about finding solutions for economic challenges. ‘The problem with any ideology is it gives you the answer before you look at the evidence. So you have to mould the evidence to get the answer that you’ve already decided you got to […]
Parasitic bloggers – yes, John Armstrong is right. Exactly
It was good to see some ‘pushback’ from the NZ Herald‘s veteran political columnist John Armstrong against second-guessing armchair critics (who happen to be bloggers). In an article originally titled:Blogging parasites don’t let the facts get in the way with the subtitle: Cheap shots at press corps based largely on ignorance and show no regard […]
Learning from Mat Honan’s disaster (Apple & me)
I mentioned that I’d taken a lesson from fellow geek Mat Honan’s experience getting hacked and, temporarily albeit expensively, having his personal data remotely wiped (shudder) from his MacBook Air when hackers compromised his Apple ID (read all about it at Mat’s blog). So, I did not enable ‘Find my Mac’ on my new MacBook […]
A photo of himself every day for 12.5 years
via Jason Kottke …
Well done Cameron
By chance, I caught a few minutes of The Nutter’s Club on Radio LIVE last night. Normally hosted by comedian Mike King, blogger Cameron Slater took the chair. The interaction I heard — a discussion with a talkback caller worried about the side effects of her prescription drugs, and concerned that her doctors weren’t listening […]
Happy in Apple’s ecosystem, thanks.
I’ve had two experiences in the last week which have confirmed my satisfaction with life in Apple’s ecosystem. The first was the morning after I got back from my visit to Wellington last week. I woke up and went to switch my iPhone on and found the power/sleep button on top VERY stiff. This phone’s […]
