Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Why Apple will remain a hardware company (abridged version)
...because it's much harder to make a copy of a iPod, iPhone or Mac than it is to copy a DVD or CD with software on it.
Friday, June 13, 2008
British political idiocy
I had thought David Davis was one of the vaguely capable Tory (Conservative Party) politicians in the UK. He waffled on a bit when he was trying to become the leader of the party a few years back but as a shadow minister he seemed a bit more realistic than many of the party's parliamentarians.
Yesterday however, he resigned from his parliamentary seat to force a by-election - and to fight the by-election on the one topic of his opposition to the 42-day detention law that has just been passed (only barely) through the UK parliament. Given that the seat is probably a safe seat (i.e. he is unlikely to lose) this is just a waste of tax-payers money (I am one and the Tories are suppose to be the ones reducing taxes) just to do a stunt that will not effect anything (if he was serious he'd put in a private member's bill to reverse the law).
I actually agree the law is bad (it increases the time a theoretically innocent person can be held without charge by the police - with the excuse that you may be a terrorist) but waiting until it has been voted in and then pulling a stunt that will have no effect is stupid to say the least.
To make matters worse, the former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie is going to contest the by-election against him (itself a bad idea as Davis losing it would be ironic) BUT he's contesting it on the idea that increasing the detention time is good:
"I have been associated with The Sun for 30 years. The Sun is very, very hostile to David Davis because of his 28 day stance and The Sun has always been very up for 42 days and perhaps even 420 days."
Someone should lock him up for 420 days on the suspicion that he is a terrorist (didn't I see him talking to "arabian looking people" and loitering suspiciously around an airport?!). You'd soon see that the original 28 days (which I think was only introduced - and increased to 28 - last year) is a very long time to be incarcerated especially when you're innocent.
We don't need Guantanamo in the United Kingdom, thank you!
Yesterday however, he resigned from his parliamentary seat to force a by-election - and to fight the by-election on the one topic of his opposition to the 42-day detention law that has just been passed (only barely) through the UK parliament. Given that the seat is probably a safe seat (i.e. he is unlikely to lose) this is just a waste of tax-payers money (I am one and the Tories are suppose to be the ones reducing taxes) just to do a stunt that will not effect anything (if he was serious he'd put in a private member's bill to reverse the law).
I actually agree the law is bad (it increases the time a theoretically innocent person can be held without charge by the police - with the excuse that you may be a terrorist) but waiting until it has been voted in and then pulling a stunt that will have no effect is stupid to say the least.
To make matters worse, the former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie is going to contest the by-election against him (itself a bad idea as Davis losing it would be ironic) BUT he's contesting it on the idea that increasing the detention time is good:
"I have been associated with The Sun for 30 years. The Sun is very, very hostile to David Davis because of his 28 day stance and The Sun has always been very up for 42 days and perhaps even 420 days."
Someone should lock him up for 420 days on the suspicion that he is a terrorist (didn't I see him talking to "arabian looking people" and loitering suspiciously around an airport?!). You'd soon see that the original 28 days (which I think was only introduced - and increased to 28 - last year) is a very long time to be incarcerated especially when you're innocent.
We don't need Guantanamo in the United Kingdom, thank you!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Incredible Hulk 8/10
I saw the new Incredible Hulk at a press preview on Monday and liked it even more than I liked Iron Man.
It had good acting (Edward Norton as David Banner), a good story tightly edited, great special effects that don't look too fake (or I was just so carried along with the story that I didn't notice), and nice touches of humour (a great take on the "don't make me angry" line).
I liked it a lot - seemingly Marvel Studios is doing a good job of making these films now they've taken them in house.
Well worth a look.
We saw trailers for a few more Universal films when we were there and the style in the one for Wanted made me realise that it was by the same guy who did Night Watch and Day Watch so it has the potential to be very cool. Also very keen to see Hancock (with Will Smith) and Hell Boy 2. A lot of fun :)
It had good acting (Edward Norton as David Banner), a good story tightly edited, great special effects that don't look too fake (or I was just so carried along with the story that I didn't notice), and nice touches of humour (a great take on the "don't make me angry" line).
I liked it a lot - seemingly Marvel Studios is doing a good job of making these films now they've taken them in house.
Well worth a look.
We saw trailers for a few more Universal films when we were there and the style in the one for Wanted made me realise that it was by the same guy who did Night Watch and Day Watch so it has the potential to be very cool. Also very keen to see Hancock (with Will Smith) and Hell Boy 2. A lot of fun :)
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