This is proper retro, not steampunk made-up retro, and is possibly even cooler through being subtle.
A digital camera replica of a hand-cranked Rolleiflex. I'm a little disappointed by the 'mere' 5MP sensor, but the square images it produces are neat, if not entirely pointful.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Congratulations, we're doing better than the UK. Edit: More added
About bloody time too:
Tougher complementary medicine rules would 'protect consumers'. (ABC News Online)
What a beautifully uninformed and misleading statement that article contains: "New research indicates that some top-selling alternative drugs that claim to treat arthritis and help weight loss are ineffective."
Yes, they are. Repeat after me: Complementary medicines aren't effective, that's why they're complementary and not mainstream. The best that can be said is that, in cases like St John's Wort, they're not ineffective if you only have mild problems, and the worst that can be said is that, in cases like St John's Wort, they're hideously dangerous if actually used to "complement" prescription medications.
Later in the day, the ABC added this:
New Controls Considered for Complementary Medicines.
Which is actually a reasonable story. But I still have major reservations about this comment from a spokesman for Choice magazine:
"There is no reason why complementary medicines should not be treated with the same, if not similar, scrutiny as other pharmaceuticals and something else we would like to see is that those medicines who do not choose this opting system with a green tick, have some sort of label on their packaging which says this medicine has not been evaluated by health authorities for efficacy," he said.
Actually, there is every reason why they should, including the fact that any substance which claims to be bioactive needs to be evaluated for safety, and consumer protection laws. But what is this about a green tick? "Not evaluted ... for efficacy"? How many are evaluated for efficacy? And do health authorities evaluate for efficacy or just safety? (I'm actual unsure about that one, please enlighten me). I'm more concerned about evaluation for safety first, and efficacy second and, you know, if Pfizer decide that they can make money from refining echinacea extract they're certain to be able to get some sort of patent. They've got clever lawyers.
Tougher complementary medicine rules would 'protect consumers'. (ABC News Online)
What a beautifully uninformed and misleading statement that article contains: "New research indicates that some top-selling alternative drugs that claim to treat arthritis and help weight loss are ineffective."
Yes, they are. Repeat after me: Complementary medicines aren't effective, that's why they're complementary and not mainstream. The best that can be said is that, in cases like St John's Wort, they're not ineffective if you only have mild problems, and the worst that can be said is that, in cases like St John's Wort, they're hideously dangerous if actually used to "complement" prescription medications.
Later in the day, the ABC added this:
New Controls Considered for Complementary Medicines.
Which is actually a reasonable story. But I still have major reservations about this comment from a spokesman for Choice magazine:
"There is no reason why complementary medicines should not be treated with the same, if not similar, scrutiny as other pharmaceuticals and something else we would like to see is that those medicines who do not choose this opting system with a green tick, have some sort of label on their packaging which says this medicine has not been evaluated by health authorities for efficacy," he said.
Actually, there is every reason why they should, including the fact that any substance which claims to be bioactive needs to be evaluated for safety, and consumer protection laws. But what is this about a green tick? "Not evaluted ... for efficacy"? How many are evaluated for efficacy? And do health authorities evaluate for efficacy or just safety? (I'm actual unsure about that one, please enlighten me). I'm more concerned about evaluation for safety first, and efficacy second and, you know, if Pfizer decide that they can make money from refining echinacea extract they're certain to be able to get some sort of patent. They've got clever lawyers.
"Damn, I hadn't thought of that, said God, and disappeared in a puff of logic"
I rather like this. If any theists wish to argue it, their challenge is to define "faith"
God is an atheist (Too Much Coffee Man).
God is an atheist (Too Much Coffee Man).
Monday, 9 June 2008
For added effect, drink blood
Hey, here's something new: I desperately, desperately want a set of these, and they're not made out of brass and wood!
Seven Deadly Sins wine glasses. How is Lust supposed to work, exactly? Like one of those water bottles you get for rat cages?
Seven Deadly Sins wine glasses. How is Lust supposed to work, exactly? Like one of those water bottles you get for rat cages?
Sort it by smell.
Why is hearing the only sense that deserves mention when acting on impulse or without plan? "Play it by ear." Don't carpenters or safe-crackers ever say "Fiddle it by fingertip"? Don't cooks ever say "Cook it by tongue"?
Apart from the potential sexual confusion, of course.
Apart from the potential sexual confusion, of course.
Notes from the N95
A collection of random notes from the new smartphone, composed on the phone:
Entering the key combination 3-8-7 in predictive text gives me 'ftp' first, not an actual word like 'fur'. This may be because I added ftp to the dictionary, and it went to the front of the cue. Which leads me to question: does T9 learn from experience and re-sort priorities based upon usage frequencies? Because that would be, like, really smart and handy (update: yes, it seems that it does. After typing 'red' several times in a row further down in this post, 'red' became prefered over 'see'. Well done, Nokia, well done).
T9 really goodness: when cycling through options, you get the option of going backwards. I have not previously seen this, and it is GOOD.
No micro-USB charging. Most USB devices are powered or charged though the USB cable. The N95 is not. This is currently only eyebrow-raising, but could quickly become a nuisance. That facility allows the USB cable to become a smaller, more convenient and much more portable charging cable that I can take to work in case I need it.
The red key is inconsistent! Most phones have a red key which is used to cancel things or close applications or hang up calls. Useful little bugger. On Symbian with S60, however, they decided that because Symbian is multi-tasking they would use that key to send applications into the background instead of closing them, which is a really quick and neat way to get back to the home screen for a text message that just came in, or open a different application, or check the time or what have you. But people didn't realise this, and thought that they were closing the application, and would end up with too many open on an old device without enough working memory (RAM: I find the psychology term more useful), and their phone would start running at a crawl and they would get grumpy. So the red key became the close key. Now most devices have PLENTY of working memory on hand, and the red key is becoming a send-to-background key again. Which I prefer, except: it's not consistent. One or the other I could get used to but both mixed up together is really annoying. I keep hitting the red key, then not finding that application listed in the task manager when I want to get back to it. Which makes ME grumpy. Stick to one option and, if necessary, make it globally configurable.
Have you ever owned a vehicle equipped with a fuel gauge which would hover around full for a hundred kilometres or so, meander downwards to half and them suddenly plummet vertiginously to empty? The battery indicator on my N95 is a bit like that. Very annoying.
There must be a way to put a lot of control buttons in close proximity to each other and make it easy to hit one rapidly without danger of getting the wrong one and ending up killing the application or, at the very least, having to exit out of another menu. I'm just saying. Frighteningly, the fractionally larger screen on the N95 8GB results in an even smaller set of control buttons. I would hate to have to use the touch-sensitive "hidden" music control buttons embedded in the N81 keypad.
It has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on it. Which means that I can use my set that actually clicks over my ears and stays on. Oh, thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!
Nokia provide a very neat little cable that sits between the phone and the earphones, with the standard play/pause/skip buttons and volume buttons on it. Very handy. BUT, and this is both baffling and infuriating, the fucking thing only works with the single built-in music player. Third-party software? No. Not so surprising, you may think. BUT the little bugger doesn't even work with Nokia's own audiobook player! Aargh!
Entering the key combination 3-8-7 in predictive text gives me 'ftp' first, not an actual word like 'fur'. This may be because I added ftp to the dictionary, and it went to the front of the cue. Which leads me to question: does T9 learn from experience and re-sort priorities based upon usage frequencies? Because that would be, like, really smart and handy (update: yes, it seems that it does. After typing 'red' several times in a row further down in this post, 'red' became prefered over 'see'. Well done, Nokia, well done).
T9 really goodness: when cycling through options, you get the option of going backwards. I have not previously seen this, and it is GOOD.
No micro-USB charging. Most USB devices are powered or charged though the USB cable. The N95 is not. This is currently only eyebrow-raising, but could quickly become a nuisance. That facility allows the USB cable to become a smaller, more convenient and much more portable charging cable that I can take to work in case I need it.
The red key is inconsistent! Most phones have a red key which is used to cancel things or close applications or hang up calls. Useful little bugger. On Symbian with S60, however, they decided that because Symbian is multi-tasking they would use that key to send applications into the background instead of closing them, which is a really quick and neat way to get back to the home screen for a text message that just came in, or open a different application, or check the time or what have you. But people didn't realise this, and thought that they were closing the application, and would end up with too many open on an old device without enough working memory (RAM: I find the psychology term more useful), and their phone would start running at a crawl and they would get grumpy. So the red key became the close key. Now most devices have PLENTY of working memory on hand, and the red key is becoming a send-to-background key again. Which I prefer, except: it's not consistent. One or the other I could get used to but both mixed up together is really annoying. I keep hitting the red key, then not finding that application listed in the task manager when I want to get back to it. Which makes ME grumpy. Stick to one option and, if necessary, make it globally configurable.
Have you ever owned a vehicle equipped with a fuel gauge which would hover around full for a hundred kilometres or so, meander downwards to half and them suddenly plummet vertiginously to empty? The battery indicator on my N95 is a bit like that. Very annoying.
There must be a way to put a lot of control buttons in close proximity to each other and make it easy to hit one rapidly without danger of getting the wrong one and ending up killing the application or, at the very least, having to exit out of another menu. I'm just saying. Frighteningly, the fractionally larger screen on the N95 8GB results in an even smaller set of control buttons. I would hate to have to use the touch-sensitive "hidden" music control buttons embedded in the N81 keypad.
It has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on it. Which means that I can use my set that actually clicks over my ears and stays on. Oh, thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!
Nokia provide a very neat little cable that sits between the phone and the earphones, with the standard play/pause/skip buttons and volume buttons on it. Very handy. BUT, and this is both baffling and infuriating, the fucking thing only works with the single built-in music player. Third-party software? No. Not so surprising, you may think. BUT the little bugger doesn't even work with Nokia's own audiobook player! Aargh!
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Like making a moto purse out of a sow's tractor.
Now, this is just plain wrong. If you're going to make a female robot out of a sports-bike, not only is a Buell with a Harley Davidson tractor engine in it an entirely inappropriate choice, but it means that you passed up the Ducati 1098R and the MV Agusta F4 as options!
Buell Firbolt transforms into Transformer.
Buell Firbolt transforms into Transformer.
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