Awesomeness : A layperson's guide

Apple & Tax

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:39:04 -0400

So there is all this kerfuffle about Apple not paying their due tax…

First of all, they are. If they weren’t, they would be prosecuted accordingly.

Second, if a company pays more tax than they are legally obligated to, the accountants aren’t doing their job. Theoretically, they might be breaking the law if they did pay more tax than they had to, as a company cannot do anything that is against the interests of it’s shareholders.

Here is a novel thought… How about the US becoming tax competitive with other countries? This is why Ireland has low corporation tax, because it needs to be competitive. Ireland is maybe a special case as it’s so economically fucked they need to try something.

Or, you could even change the law to make Apple pay more tax, rather than depend on some ‘moral’ imperative.

Is it moral that a government takes 30-40% of your income and spends it on wars and weapons of spectacular destruction?

Anyway, I say to governments, make your taxation more reasonable. You are better of with 10% of something than 40% of nothing.

The Walled Garden

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:27:36 -0400

I was doing a bit of work on an Android phone in the last few days, rooting it, setting it up with certain apps, etc…

I’ve come to appreciate the walled garden environment of the iPhone and iPad. Often, when I wanted to download an app, I need to find the .apk file for it, as it was not available on the ‘Market’, this lead me down a path of linkbait, ‘pay for faster downloads!’ and all that crap.

Now, if you have freedom, this is the price we have to pay, it’s up to the user if it’s worth it I guess…

Love Lust Faith + Dreams

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:06:14 -0400

“This is War” was always going to be a difficult act to follow, it is an outstanding album, Love Lust Faith + Dreams is not.

It’s not shit, it’s just not that good, 30 Seconds to Mars are capable of so much better, this album is devoid of any real life. The single from the the album ‘Up in the Air’ is good, not great, but good, and it’s possibly the best song on the album, which is a great shame.

I’ll keep on listening, maybe I just need to get into it, it *is* growing on me, it’s not nearly as accesible as their earlier albums.

iTunes auto downloading movies...

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:12:34 -0400

Ones, I watched on my AppleTV, despite my iTunes preferences, iTunes insists on downloading them. I’m beginning to just resign myself to it now.

The Place beyond the Pines

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:06:00 -0400

A great movie, a sprawling, brooding epic of a film. Very well shot, great script and story. Over a couple of hours long, but it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome.

My one criticism is that Eva Mendes is mis-cast, nothing against the woman, but Rose Byrne in same film does a lot more with a lot less screen time.

Of course, as usual with movies these days, do not watch the trailer, it’s a summary of the whole story, of course, taken out of context, a lot of the scenes don’t mean anything, but some do.

Coopers DIY Beer Kit

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:01:19 -0400

Coopers is one of the less bad Aussie beers, don’t get me wrong, Australia makes some fantastic beer, White Rabbit, etc.., but the mainstream stuff, like the mainstream stuff in the UK, is, well, piss.

Coopers make a DIY kit, so you can make you own ‘OK’ beer, I’ve brewed and bottled it, so the verdict on taste will be in 2 weeks time…

The kit itself costs very little, less than $100 for everything you need apart from the water. The components are maybe a little leaky, just plug in plastic stuff, but they do the job. You even get enough plastic bottles to contain your brew.

The kit is good value, and can be used again and again, you just need to buy more ingredients, which I plan on doing.

iOS 7

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:42:00 -0400

Reading a lot of articles about what people want from iOS 7, I think people are very excited that Jonathan Ive is charge, I have higher expectations because of this, if nothing else, it’ll be a change.

Apple won’t make iOS substantially more powerful, they want to sell you an iPad AND a Mac, not just one, if they make an iPad a serious replacement for a Mac, you won’t buy both.

I’m really only looking for one feature in iOS 7, cursor keys on the keyboard, it would make text corrections less infuriating. That’s all.

iPad

Tue, 07 May 2013 07:32:12 -0400

Just saw a headline that Bill Gates says that iPad owners are frustrated that they can’t create document with thief iPads, I’d disagree, but Jesus, just typing this Article on the iPad was a exceed I’d frustatn. (that’s “an exercise in frustration”, I just let the iPad ‘correct’ it)
The iPad is a consumption device, as most people are consumers, that’s why it..

Oh fuck it, I’m sick of writing on this thing.

Adobe Fireworks

Tue, 07 May 2013 04:35:53 -0400

Adobe canning Fireworks? Seems like one of the more stupid ideas they’ve ever had.

Fireworks is probably the only Adobe app I actually like (Acrobat Pro is kind of OK though, Photoshop is fine.*)

This is the sort of problem that happens when companies get too big, anything that isn’t ‘strategic’ gets canned, profitable or not. If Fireworks wasn’t profitable, then it’s been very badly managed. If I was in charge of Fireworks, staff it with a good, small team, take it out of the Adobe Ecosystem with crappy updaters and nasty carbon code, get some good Cocoa guys in, make a proper Mac app, charge a reasonable sum for it. Fireworks is a great app, possibly Adobes only great app.

*Sorry, forgot that Lightroom is an Adobe app, it doesn’t feel like one, I’m a paid up user for Lightroom, I prefer Aperture, but Aperture didn’t support Sigma files, so I couldn’t really use it.

iOS 7 Rumours

Wed, 01 May 2013 07:47:27 -0400

The rumour mill has it that the new iOS 7 interface will sport a new design, a really flat design, one similar to the Windows Phone ‘Metro’ design.

Firstly, I don’t believe it’ll be a direct rip-off of Windows Phone, Apple does rip off ideas, look at iOS notifications, but they be more subtle about it.

Second, I really hope this rumour is true, the iOS UI design is getting a bit, weil, embarrassing. It’s difficult to push Apple as a design leader when their flagship product looks a like a StarDock theme. Don’t misunderstand me, the design is *very* well executed, it’s drawn very well, but the idea behind it is just tacky, cheesy, like a rich mans Android*.

* If you really want to understand Apple phone design, think about an Android phone with a few million dollars more spent on it.

Margaret Thatcher

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:01:56 -0400

I’m getting a bit sick of the whole, she was evil, dictator, pro-apartheid etc… Just because you don’t like someone, doesn’t mean you can make up shit about her, it just makes the rest of your (maybe) accurate criticisms look stupid and wrong.

She wasn’t evil, serial killers may be evil, Thatcher was not. She wasn’t a dictator, far from it, in fact she was voted in 3 times, she can’t be all bad if she gets a substantial majority in the Commons even after almost a decade in power.

Nobody likes people being unemployed, but how long do we subsidize industries that aren’t profitable? It’s not the government that subsidizes, it’s YOU! The government doesn’t invent money (the Bank of England sometimes does, but it’s a last resort…), the money the government uses is YOUR tax money, and before you say TAX THE RICH!, there really aren’t that many rich people in the UK, and there certainly won’t be if you tax them at 80%.

We’d all like low taxes, great benefits, and no cuts, but where does the money come from? The UK is not a wealthy country anymore, it has reasonable potential, but the glory days are gone.

In summary, you may not like something or someone, but you can’t invent facts or corrupt history to support your argument, it just makes you look like an idiot.

Afloat

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:48:40 -0400

As part of my life as a developer, I often need to visually compare documents, usually PDFs, side-by-side is OK, but being able to put one on top of the other would be awesome, kind of like a light box, spot the differences kind of thing.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22237/afloat

Afloat is perfect for this, I can make one Preview window semi-transparent so I can put it on top of another to see the differences, perfect, and it’s free!

It has keyboard shortcuts too! Makes my workflow a lot faster.

Nikon 35ti

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:04:27 -0400

I now only own one camera, and it’s a film camera, it’s the Nikon 35ti…

Things I like… The dials, they are just so lovely, and actually very practical, very clear, much nicer to look at than a crappy LCD screen. It’s pretty responsive to changes too.

The lens is great, I’m not really one of these people who talk about micro sharpness etc.., but it’s very good, even wide open (which is only 2.8, but again, I’m not really a crazy bokeh guy).

I thought I’d miss the feel of a manual camera, I used to use a Leica, but I’ve really not, in fact, the auto-film loading and autofocus works well for me, the film loading it particularly useful, a Leica needs to be disassembled to load a film, so it’s a lot better than that.

The built-in flash is very useful, but it’s use is the only real problem I have with this camera. You can’t turn it off, you can hold a button to disable it on a shot by shot basis, but you can’t just switch it off. It’s not a major issue, I’m mostly a daylight shooter, but at night, it could be a real pain.

It’s got T mode, which is like B, but it’s push to start, push to stop, this is better for a camera with no cable release socket, B wouldn’t be practical. Shake can be avoided with the old black card trick, or just hold your hand over the lens when starting and ending the exposure. The Konica Hexar is probably better for long exposures, but it’s not as sexy as the 35ti.

Like many compacts, the top shutter speed is low, leaf shutters usually are, and with a 400 speed film, even f/22 results in over exposure like the image above, not a big deal, but something to be aware of.

I like this camera a lot, the finder is clear, it’s smallish, lightish, but not so that it feels cheap. I like being restricted to a single lens, makes me think more about the photos than the next gear purchase, which is a better way to be. It’s also not super-expensive (compared to Leica, you could obviously get a 35mm compact for a 10th of the price if you wanted to.) If I break it, it’s not the end of the world, carrying around a Leica made me feel uneasy sometimes.

Conclusion, a lovely camera, with only one real flaw (the flash).

Windows 7.8

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:13:05 -0400

Thanks to VirtualBox, Microsoft Windows 8, and ‘Seven.Eighter’, I have actually installed Windows Phone 7.8. Small cosmetic changes, don’t see anything else yet…

It wasn’t worth the effort, but it’s done, and the stupid, stubborn, angry part of me is satisfied by that.

Say what you like about the Apple closed system, I’ve NEVER had any trouble updating their stuff, even the AppleTV. Apple doesn’t trust people to get it right, and they are correct to think that.

More hassle than it was worth

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:03:08 -0400

I have a Windows Phone, just accept that, I don’t have an iPhone, although sometimes I wish I did.

I wanted to update it to windows 7.8, old phones like mine don’t get Windows Phone 8, so it was the best I could hope for.
Unlike Apple, Microsoft offloads update responsibilities to 3rd parties, needless to say, this doesn’t work, and the update was not pushed to me.
To force an update, I needed a windows pc, which I don’t have. I do have virtual box and a will to succeed, more will than is good for me frankly.
I don’t own windows, so I got an evaluation version, Microsoft does that,who knew?

I downloaded a hack executable to force the update, it’s running as I type this… Lets see it goes….

Technology Addiction

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 22:53:49 -0400

I’m reading a few reviews of the Pebble Watch and speculation on if Apple is going to make a similar product. What concerns me is the impact this will have on individuals, and society as a whole.

I was recently at Philip Island, Melbourne, watching the penguins, and despite repeated signs, verbal requests, verbal warnings, the spectators continued to take photos of the penguins, one chap, unable or unwilling to properly control his camera, fired his flash, for a moment, I though we were going to witness a spontaneous lynching, but it unfortunately wasn’t to be. The problem is, these people don’t, or can’t, consider others.

My point is, if I have a coherent one, is that products like the iPhone have allowed us to be online all the time, very useful, but it’s also bred a generation of self-centered pricks who cannot control themselves for the benefit of others. Apple has made some amazing products, but the responsibility to use them with consideration lies with the user, and users generally cannot be trusted.

Apple, if they do create this watch, will make a society changing product, and it’ll be a change for the worse, considerably so.

Ask yourself, has the smartphone made society worse or better, I’m really not sure. (Yes, we could check email on our Nokias years ago, but it was such a painful and frustrating experience, nobody did. The Crackberry was the start of it of course, but that was really just email until recently.)

Imagine being on a date with your wife/partner/friend, and this person is constantly check their ‘watch’, not for the time, but every single fucking vapid tweet and facebook update.

Don’t get me started on Google Glass…

iPad as a work tool

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:36:16 -0400

There is a lot of talk about the iPad as a desktop alternative, about using it for work. If you have extremely low requirements, maybe it’s possible, but I really don’t see how, I struggle to write this blog on it, my fingertips start to hurt.
The iPad is a content consumption device, it’s not a creation device, it just isn’t, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Philips Fidelio 7000

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:20:00 -0400

I decided I needed some kind of sound system for the new house, and as a true scot, automatically selected the cheapest option I could find. I like music,but I’m not one of those gold plated cables, valves and $10k speaker types, I just like half decent sound quality, and in this day and age, no CDs or anything.

The Fidelio meets all those needs, it’s small, good sound quality, AirPlay compatible, and very well priced.

AirPlay is one of Apples lesser known and better technologies, it just works, if you can use iTunes, you can use Airplay. I’ve used it on the AppleTV for a while, and it’s good. An XBMC system would be more flexible, but I’m lazy, I don’t want flexible, I want the least possible amount of effort, I work with computers everyday, I don’t want to be installing the latest kernel on my telly.

Fidelio was easy to setup, as easy as it could be really, it works perfectly from the iPad and the mac, which is what I needed.

I’m trying to think of a flaw in it, but I honestly can’t. If you are hifi enthusiast, maybe the sound isn’t amazing, but it kicks the crap out of the MacBook or my telly.

Nokia Lumia, one year on...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:00:19 -0400

I’m still using it, it’s good, the SatNav capability is actually very good, better than the dedicated unit I used to have, it’s not proper TomTom awesome, but it’s certainly good enough for me. SatNav is a killer feature for me.

Multitasking during phone calls doesn’t really work, or not all the time, this is poor, but I can live with it.

I don’t plan to change it, if it broke, I’d probably get another one.

Hurts : Exile

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:11:39 -0400

The second album from Hurts, the first album was always going to be near impossible to better, and I don’t think Exile does, but it is a bloody good effort, which is all Hurts could realistically do.

Hints of Depeche Mode in some of the songs, and generally more of the same (this is a good thing)

Listening to it on my new Philips Fedelio, review to follow.