I worry about A.I
The Hoyts theatre chain has an appalling website.
I'm hanging out for an Android phone
Telling people they deserve the laws they get for not paying attention to politicians is just short hand for saying only politicians have rights.
Apart from being annoyingly awkward, Bliuetooth has one particularly annoying facet....
The nonsense the media says
Markup and styling are inseparable in web technologies, so they ought interact appropriately
The pace of technical developement is ferocious, and the diffilculty in keeping up is especially troubling for computer Operating Systems.
Prescriptionists who insist 'man' is gender neutral as talking bollocks, not English
Is it economic competiton that drives quality down?
Bloody Ldap nonsense!
What sort of ignorant coward advises others not to go to Gallipoli because it scares them?
Eclipse sucks.
I just checked out Firefox 3.5's geolocation feature, expecting it to maybe get my city and it pinpointed my home address.
It's quite easy to compel standards compliance
A long time ago I took Economics 101 at university and dropped it as a load of bollocks.
Websites that rely on flash should be added to a black list so we can all go about blissfully ignorant of their existence
Pricks tugging on a knee jerk rope of patriotism annoy me again
Doesn't patronising parochialism get your goat?
Every computer language has flaws.
I chose Ruby over Python
I'm thinking people who bang the Law and Order drum do it to drown out the voice of dissent and liberty.
NATO's aid to a successful rebellion does not give it ownership of the success.
Would someone, please, pay a good designer to work on desktops for Linux.
Android has a bit of a problem in it's variety of hardware.
I've just been watching a program about the future of media consumption, and it made the same old mistake about TV/Computer convergence that people always make.
How many movies do we see that end satisfyingly?
Troops killing civilians, no matter what rules they follow, are murderers...
New Zealand has the worst government it's had since the nineteenth century.
Aren't some of the connections between some scientific studies a bit obvious?
The very concept of patents on software is ridiculous, even more so the preposterous idea that prior art means anything.
Fantasies about reality and authority may comfort some, but have no place in civil governance
What difference is there between my ethical position and anothers' religious practice?
The mainstream media keeps whining that the world needs them to keep a check on power.
Mother Earth can be a real Mutha
Companies that abuse openly available standards (even if proprietary) really get on my wick. For instance...
Remeber the Jetsons? A world where automation meant people only needed to work an hour or two a day to afford a comfortable life. Who ever thought economics could work that way?
The National Party of New Zealand wants to make NZ citizens bitches for wealthy people; peasants servile to their needs.
The single most important thing for civil society is the rule of law and repression of corruption.
I am not scared of the wider world attacking me, my government oppressing me is the more credible danger
What's the point of news snippets for the brain dead?
Why did Fox's attempts to emulate Jon Stewart fail?
People eager to constrain their identity within a recognisable national sterotype are pissing me off
I've just learned something quite interesting - in Auckland there's recently been a big contest between bus drivers and their employers over pay.
The bus drivers, who's income has fallen some 35% in real terms in the last twenty years (I'm told) have decided to press for a healthy increase. Unsurprisingly management is begging poverty in refusing.
The company in question boasts that they aim to return 20% profits to shareholders. Times are pretty good if you can manage that.
Times aren't so good. Apparently the increase the staff want adds up to about $4 million per annum. Shareholders got some $32 million last year, a return of 18%. So staff demands represent (assumming no other changes in income or productivity) 2% of shareholds profit, returning some 16% to shareholders. 16% is still a good return for doing nothing but putting up cash in a well proven and trodden market.
So management, who sees their duty to be returning as much profit as possible for their shareholders and who think 20% is reasonable is supported by the facts - they aren't returning the profit they want so they can't afford more expenses.
The staff, who probably don't see it as their dutry to return maximum profits to shareholders think a 2% reduction in profit to 16% is reasonable. And they're right (if they don't see maximising profits at their own expense their duty). So the facts support both positions.
And it becomes a simple matter of competing desires negotiating with their respective strengths.
But really, where the hell do companies get off expecting to be able to deliver 20% in what ought be tightly competitive industries? They should count themselves fortunate to be able to do better than 5%. I'd be well pleased with myself to get it up to 10%. Being in a position to contemplate amounts like 20% is an indictment of the society they're functioning in. I'm all for a freedom to invest ones capital - but the idea that simply doing so entitles one to handsome profits purely off the back of labour where the investment isn't a risk or in innovative technology or service but simply providing backing for a well established service is untenable.