Today was the first day I can say that the winter is behind us.
This is the Northwest sky over Bangor, from Ballyholme. Using Gawker to take a single frame every 10 seconds which is then played back at 24 frames a second.
This is the same kit used to capture The VI Paint Party.
Mike Cane is perfectly lucid when he says:
If you’re sitting around applying for jobs and waiting for Something To Happen, you’ll be on the street before long.
If you have some manual skills, start thinking about making stands for the iPad. Especially if you have a woodworking shop.
You can sell them on etsy and even auction them off on eBay.
I think there’s a real opportunity for people who are good with their ‘hands’.
I’m bollocks with things like that. Well. I never studied ‘craft’ in school and I’ve more or less avoided being ‘handy’. It comes as no surprise that Arlene is delighted when I have a screwdriver or a drill in my hand – it’s infrequent enough to be a novelty.
But I’m interested in drawing something and it’s related to Mike’s recent lucidity (which has been a habit of late). I’m interested in drawing my ideal iPad case. And then maybe finding someone who can make it. It’s a new experience for me.
From Malcolm Moore in the Telegraph.
At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.
…
Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. “In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment,” Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.
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In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple’s rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week.
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Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly.
“When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work,” Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory.
Apple’s taking a lot of flak in the media for this from journalists, pundits and ‘bloggers’ who obviously are not seeing the bigger picture. Writers who are guffawing and retweeting these misleading headlines to the frenzied joy of their advertising managers who love to get an Apple headline in. Apple voluntarily undertakes these supplier reviews. They dutifully apply Western standards of working practise to their suppliers, regardless of region, with regards to employment laws, minimum wage and local standards of holidays and benefits. Re-read the areas I put in bold from the Telegraph article. Are they the actions of a company which is trying to hide it’s association with offending suppliers?
Which other Western tech companies are using those suppliers and why are they not being named and shamed? Why was it left to Apple to be the whistle-blower for these suppliers when they are used by dozens of tech companies around the world?
From the comments in that article:
According to the Wikipedia article, Foxconn – the people actually using child labour in the story – also make PC motherboards for Dell, HP, AMD, and Intel. They make Wii’s, XBox 360’s, and PS3’s. They make cell phones for Nokia and Motorola. They make the Amazon Kindle.
My guess is that Apple is the only one that draws headlines. My guess is that it’s another example of the poor quality of tech journalism in the world. My guess is that finding out who else uses these suppliers would be ‘work’.
What can I say. It’s an amazingly fun game. It sold $1 million in 9 days.
Nearly 500 5-star reviews on the UK iTunes store. Nearly 5000 5-star ratings on the US iTunes store.
The gameplay is simple. It’s a relatively mundane tower-defence formula. But what I like is not just the quirky graphics or the fun subject matter. It’s simply the massive variations on plants, zombies or even arenas. You’re on the front yard, or the back yard with the pool, on the roof, there’s daytime, nighttime and fog – the whole idea is to mix it up.
My Sunday was spent sweeping the floors, painting the walls and lifting rubbish for the further preparation of the “StartVI” (pronounced Start 6) virtual incubator opening in Belfast ‘real soon now’.
See more, including the list of contributors at http://startvi.com