Posts by Edward

Why the iPhone's megapixelage alone won't matter

A truly useful phone....

Photos schmotos - I want to know which phone is best at picking belly button lint!

Apple Mac Mini (Early 2009)

I got one

OK, I admit I got one. My old digital audio G4 (with an upgraded CPU) just wasn't cutting it anymore. I needed a new home media server and this mini can both drive my 1080p HDTV and a monitor for productivity work. I was displeased that there had been no price cuts in the previous gen mini, and I was looking at Windows and Linux alternatives. However, when I looked at the costs of switching from a mac to something else (cost of new software for a windows system, time to properly configure a linux system), it seemed like the Mac mini was a better deal. I did spring for the upgrade to 2GB for the base system. Yeah, the memory is somewhat overpriced, but I figured it was worth it not to void the warranty. Is it the best possible system? No, but it is a versatile little computer that does a great job as a HDTV media server. In this function, I would not want a laptop. I ordered it the day the new models were announced and I've been using it for about 2 weeks and am very happy with it.

Parallel importer jailed for up to nine months in Microsoft case

Protecting prices vs. wages

Multi-national companies have no problem shifting jobs to wherever wages are lowest.

Providing "inexpensive" copies of software in "poor" regions of the world seems to me to be more about keeping wages down and protecting market share than anything altruistic on the part of the corporation. I'm sure this "parallel importer" was no saint, but I think if corporations are allowed to shift jobs wherever, people should be able to buy and sell goods wherever too. Sauce for the goose being sauce for the gander and what not.

Apple anti-virus advice was nothing new

@Daniel B. - OS X virus versus Mac Classic virus

Mac OS X, introduced in 2001, is a completely different OS than the classic Macintosh OS. The Classic OS did have a few viruses. I have yet to hear of a native Mac OS X virus.

In general, it is good to exercise caution. However, Norton Anti-Virus, for example, has been known to cause crashes (along with loss of data) by itself. Thus, it really is open to debate whether an OS X mac is safer with or without software to protect against viruses that are not yet known to exist.

Music biz proposes 'iPod tax' in return for format-shift freedom

Obviously Unfair to FLDS!

Such taxes would obviously be unfair to fundamentalist polygamist sects like the FLDS- they are only allowed to listen to the sermons of their imprisoned leader on their iPods. If they had to pay this tax, they would be forced to support evil heathen satan-spawn musicians!!!!

Scientology tries to discredit BBC documentary

Power is the problem, not religion

Faith and spirituality are not the poblem, it's people who, for their own advancement and wealth, use (abuse) the faith and spirituality of others. Scientology was, if the stories I've heard are even half-true, founded to enrich its priest-class, making it one of the worst of the worst.

However, not all religions brain-wash or even ask their members to believe some specific stories. Unitarian Universalists and Quakers, for example, encourage their members to think for themselves and look at things from multiple different perspectives. Early Quakers decided not to have any clergy, partly because they felt that clergy were in the faith business to make money.