Category: Uncategorized

BBC News:Child-Friendly Pubs:

The company appears to be responding to changes in the law that are transforming Britain’s pub culture.

New rules introduced in 2005 allow publicans to choose whether or not they admit under-14s. And the ban on smoking in public places have made pubs even more welcoming to families with children.

I’ve never really understood the insistence on making alcohol consumption only for adults, not only to do but also for viewing. We’ve had draconian alcohol control laws here for years and the result has been our parks filled with teens bearing cider, binge drinking before closing time and people wanting to get a “few in” before they “had out”.

But some people want to keep the local boozer for adults only, presumably so they can spend an afternoon dribbling into the sawdust. That’s fine. But there’s not really any way to play both fields. Some places, like Wetherspoons, think that limiting the adults to two drinks will force them to push off with their unwelcome offspring. Charming. Compare this to, for example, La Mon. They not only have a childrens area but they dig out a bouncy castle and face painting. I find that infinitely more appealing than being treated like cattle: come on in, eat, drink, pay your money and get the fuck out.

Keeping alcohol away from children is no way to protect children. We need to be opposed to alcohol ignorance (and let’s go one better and instead of promoting sex education, let’s try to stamp out sexual ignorance). I was the only one of my friends who didn’t drink and the drinking started at 11 back then. Christmas 1983, I spent a week in Bulgaria on a school trip. One of the lads from my class brought a bottle of wine in his luggage. We were first years in a Grammar School. Ridiculous I know but that’s the facts. Even with alcohol criminalised, we had access to it. There was always booze in my parents house too, growing up. I firmly believe that because my parents had a open attitude about alcohol that I didn’t see it as anything special; it wasn’t to be my area of rebellion.

Can we get over it now? The treatment of alcohol as something mystical?

What is it about the laughing baby?

Made me smile. Her indoors had the giggles…

Sure, we had a barney about the OpenMoko and other devices the other day but one thing that’s cool about Linux is the way that it proliferates in embedded devices.

I’m quietly lusting after a Chumby as an internet appliance for the house. Though I’d not be developing for it, it’s the kind of device that I think my kids would use. I’ve been trying to find something that would give them a “limited” internet experience with a tactile approach. The fact they’ve all been able to use my iPhone to view pictures, movies and music shows the utility of it.

Chumby is a static counter-top device. A recent competitor to it might be the wizPy which suffers from an awful camelCase name. The selling point seems to be that it’s a mobile Linusx handheld that also seems to allow you to boot an x86 PC over USB and provide you with the same environment. That’s neat.

Google has updated their interface for the iPhone. Unless you’re not in the US. In that case you’re stuck with the boring old interface.

48 600613!!!!!!!

Oliver Rist from PCMag on Leopard

Before Apple makes any more smug OS-related attacks on Microsoft, it ought to take a good look in the mirror.

Troll, -1

Just like any update, Leopard will tickle existing issues if done as an upgrade. System updates are the biggest turmoil you’re ever going to create for your system.

But the article is fluff, ignore at will.

JESUS H CHRIST.

How can an unannounced product be “delayed”.

Earlier in the year, Steve Jobs said they were looking at 3G iPhones but the technology wasn’t there to give you decent enough battery life. When the silicon and the battery technology allowed it, they’d re-examine.

Then AT&T say the iPhone will be out in 2008.

Now an analyst says iPhone delays will hurt the oversupplied NAND market?

Talk about the blind leading the blind.

From the BBC:

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to launch a joint on-demand service, which will bring together thousands of hours of television programmes in one place.

No mention of the dread iPlayer?

Ridiculous!

Opinionated pundit Bill Thompson says:

Yet I only found out about the problem when a kind reader e-mailed me to tell me that Google was warning prospective visitors that my blog might “harm” their computer.

as opposed to their lives. Reading some of his material you have to ask yourself “Will I ever get those two minutes back?” Like todays article which is kindly syndicated worldwide by the BBC at license payer expense.

Turns out some hacker or bot compromised his version of WordPress and left him spreading software malice around the world. As a result his Google rank had an advisory that his site may include malicious software). This turns into a negative advert for a company that removes bad rankings from Google. On the BBC. Don’t I pay a license to avoid this shit?

He’s pissed with them because:

I had to e-mail them three times before I got a reply, and had to wait 10 days for that, and even then there was no information on exactly what Google had found on my site, so I had to search myself.

Yes, god forbid that a self-describing technology critic should actually have to find the problem himself and be required to maintain his own servers. I visit my own sites regularly, Bill, in order to make sure that I’m not spreading malware. Make it part of your routine.

Your article is whining that they didn’t treat you as a celebrity. And so you take the time to shout and scream on your blog, syndicated onto the BBC, about the poor service you received? Aren’t we feeling a little bit self-important here?

Now I’m not a journalist. I don’t get paid to write this (indeed, who would pay for this drivel) and I’m certainly not invited to wine and cheese parties with Apple and Microsoft. MY big mouth and stupid opinions have gotten me into hot water before and I’m sure they will again.

In addition, he calls for official processing of spam and malware listings too

Part of me would like to see this sort of listing done by the appropriate authorities, perhaps even the police, with some degree of judicial overview and a formal appeals process.

Hang on, that’s taxpayer money. To help do the thing that private companies are already doing?

P.S. The net vigilantes are the people who added the malware to your blog. Not the people who offer to help you clean it up. They’re providing a service that you can do yourself, but choose not to

A couple of years ago Mac-Sys got a commendation for their working practises with regards to work/life balance and teleworking. We did bend over backwards to assist employees who had children and also in some cases were able to allow people to work from home. It’s something that I valued when I was at Nortel and something I miss a lot now. $BIG_COMPANY has positively archaic policies when it comes to home-working, teleworking and catering (technology as well as in terms of human resources) for people who work the 9-5 and are also expected to pick up the telephone when it rings.

From The Times:

“You think that just because you have lovely babies or terrible teenagers you have a God-given right to leave the office any time you like, to go to their nativity plays or their parents’ days, while the rest of us do your work for you and keep your lovely job warm for you, without any thanks, until you see fit to come back from your blissful maternity leave or your half-term holidays.”

It’s a fair point but can equally extend to just about anyone who’s not in the office every second from 9 am to 5:30 pm. It’s easy to start with the parents – people who need to work but also want to spend quality time with their kids. Attack their insistence on a good work-life balance. Question their dedication to the job when their ex-wife dumps the kids on them early in the day and they have to leave work early. And when little Jimmy needs to go to the hospital, then again complain in muted tones about how you have to do all of this extra work.

Downing Street announced last week an inquiry into extending the right to flexible working (currently restricted to parents of children under six) to parents of children under nine, 12 or even 17. About 6.25m parents have the right to request conditions such as flexitime or working at home; if all parents of schoolchildren were included, 4.5m more would have this right. This would include the right to time off to help teenagers with their exams.

When done with the parents, turn your baleful eye to coffee breakers and extended lunchers. Better to be sitting at your desk and be unproductive than actually having time to enjoy your food. Or is it better just to resent the fuck out of people who seem to be getting more out of life?

While we’re haranguing people, spare a thought for the social leper that is the smoker. Relegated to hanging outside your building fulfilling a crippling addiction that is slowly killing them. They’re laughing it up of course because they’re working less and they won’t have to worry about the shit company pension plan going tits-up.com because they’ll be long dead of something pink, grey and heinous. Worry more about the growing heap of fag butts that end up piled outside your building because it’s a proven fact that someone who doesn’t mind inhaling tar into their lungs wouldn’t think twice about littering with the scrag ends of their disgusting habit. At least they should have the decency to die rather than clogging up hospitals with their addiction-induced illnesses whether these be cancer, punctured lungs, bronchitis or any other shit. Oh, no, that’s right – they expect the same care as the rest of us. It becomes obvious that they’d spit on you, they’d litter on you and given the chance they’d force you to breathe their smoke and justify themselves with nonchalant phrases like “Oh, I was outside” or “Sure it’s just a little bit”. Stick it up your ass you sanctimonious bastard.

A Florida company has just banned smoking amongst its employees whether they are on the clock or not.

“If you are too stupid to understand that smoking is going to kill you, then we are going to tell you that if you want to work for our company, you will not smoke,” Seigel said.
…
Seigel said when the non-smoking policy initially went into effect he gave employees a year to stop smoking and opportunities to receive counseling, patches and other smoking cessation programs.

Right on. It’s one thing to take time out of work to eat or spend time with children and another thing entirely to indulge a stupid addiction.

% defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
% killall Dock

[This is a hint to take away the daft reflections in the Leopard Dock]