Posts by Sphinx86

Technology is murdering customer service - legally

iiNet - best customer service ever

For anyone in Australia (or I think New Zealand and South Africa also) I can't recommend more highly iiNet as your ISP/Phone/Mobile carrier due to the awesome customer service.

24/7 Phone support, no phone trees (or at least so unobtrusive that I can't remember them), genuinely helpful support staff, and even the people on their Sales line have enough Tech savvy to help out with problems.

For those talking about the size of the company being a problem - they are Australia's 3rd (2nd??) biggest ISP and they have offices in NZ and SA for support, hence why they can offer 24/7 support.

Every contact with them ends with an email to rate the customer service you have received from.

The Old Reader evicts Google Reader refugees

Digg It

Feedly isn't too bad, but I've got on board with Digg Reader (https://digg.com/reader). Currently free, looks and smells like Google Reader - well worth a shot.

Why are scribes crying just 'cos Google copied their books? asks judge

Re: The issue to me is...

I second this.

Is is the authors who have the issue or the authors guild?

Theoretically if authors are getting more eyeballs on their books directly (which for arguments sake = more sales), to the point where the need for a publisher is reduced, doesn't this also reduce the need to a guild to represent these authors with the publishers?

Potentially Google are on solid legal ground with the 'this shouldn't be class action lawsuit' because if they are being sued by the Author's guild on behalf of their members, are they being sued by the one entity that is the guild, or truly by all the authors.

I doubt that if the author's independently launched the class action suit Google would be able to make the same argument.

In the end I am all for authors being able to control their works, but I also like the idea of Google keeping a copy for posterity's sake.

Maybe the answer is to allow Google to hold the copy, but allow the author to decide on which snippet to show. You search for something, Google matches it to a book and the approved snippet is provided.

UltraViolet: Hollywood's giant digital gamble is here

Worth a go...

If this works as described in the article then I'm willing to give it a shot. If all the major studios and Tech companies are on-board so that this is all seemless then why not give it a go.

I would still very closely check the licencing agreement to be sure I'm covered if they decided to discontinue the service, but if I'm buying it on DVD/Blu-ray and getting the stream/cloud copy 'for free' (assuming no markup) then I still have the physical copy anyway.

As long as the cost and licencing is right then I'll be all on board - when it finally hits Oz that is.

Kinect 2 said to read lips, sense mood

Hmmmm.

While I know this type of ability is possible, I'm not sure that its really going to be avialable in the next Kinect. I'm wondering whether this is a fake marketing leak to create more hype about getting on board with the current model.

I'm prepared to be wrong.... just wont get my hopes up

Apple gets patent for ‘unlock gesture’

Unless you mean a real phyiscal button, this would still require a touch. Pressing a touch button can still be considered a 'gesture'.

Essentially if your design constraint is 'Only use a touchscreen' then 'unlock button on the touchscreen' is a pretty obvious invention.

As is using different logos to denote different methods of unlocking - I'm sure 'prior art' could be made from video games where they use different methods to show how you have to open the door. Maybe a slight strecth but proof enough it is not an entirely unseen idea.