Hard News: Mac Ouch
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Thanks Jake, someone to talk me out of this is probably a good idea - but once I sell off that wireless keyboard and mouse, the Dell, and my webcamera it practically buys itself!!!! Along with a thousand-odd dollars...
And I still like the classic white plastic. It's just more iconic. No! Stop it! -
George, how do you suggest we set the rate for the NZ currency? By government fiat, with the rate determined by whether farmers or Mac buyers currently have the ear of government?
What about a small transaction tax on currency speculation? I don't know if that's practical, but that presumably would discourage it.
there is no way to cancel images and just get a compact listing of headlines (too much stuff to have to scroll down past)
You're looking for an RSS reader, not a web page, surely.
Incidentally, my RSS feeder picked up about half as many new stories this morning as it normally does from stuff. It did however no longer pick up 'doubles' of the one story, which it used to do sometimes as well.
Can I just say, having brought three for work just recently, the new macbook pros, aluminium case that they've been advertising on tv are very nice machines.
I had a staff member coming into my office to touch her new computer while she waited for me to finish setting it up.
The only thing I don't like about them is they've taken the buttons off the touchpad, and made it clickable. But unlike the really nice touchpad that you'll find on any windows PC machine, this one you actually have to click, rather than just lightly tap. If you normally use an external mouse, it would have to be the nicest computer I've ever had anything to do with (which is a few).
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Any ideas?
We broke the RSS feeds. Not deliberately. We will have them up and running asap. Apologies for that.
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We broke the RSS feeds. Not deliberately. We will have them up and running asap. Apologies for that.
Thanks for that Don. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking it, but I think major kudos is due to you for hanging out on this thread and giving us the feedback to our queries (and we don't mind too much being your gamma testing posse, do we PA folk?).
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Sigh. I miss buying cheap things from America. Plus we're planning a mega-Christmas-trip around the USA and even a Holiday Inn (!) in DC for three days is starting to look like a major financial investment.
I earn USD these days so the pain was only temporary but my cards are all still in NZDs so the statements were very, very painful to read after three weeks in the US and the Gulf (the Arabian one, which makes NY look like a complete bargain destination...$200 for lunchtime sushi anyone?).
That said, we found the deals on hotels, at least in NY right now are never before in your lifetime kind of things, especially if you avoid the agents and do it all online, using the the likes of WeGo. Managed to a place in SoHo for $140 a night which is nuts cheap for that city.
And there 75%+ off sales all over the place too which somewhat tempers the cost of a Pastrami sandwich (even if it does contain most of a cow).
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(and we don't mind too much being your gamma testing posse, do we PA folk?)
Course not, although I don't know how much longer I'll be able to suppress my smarmy side and refrain from asking "is there anything you can do about the crap articles?" It'll burst out of me any minute now.
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Maybe an analogy for the trading limits idea - slowing the flow of money introduces a potential lag between traded value and true value.
Sometimes lag is good, sometimes not. In a car, it's often good to have a laggy accelerator, which responds maybe half a second after you push it, and pretty much averages out the push, so if you go over a bump and push it, you don't end up doing a burnout by mistake. But you don't want a laggy brake. It should respond instantly, in direct proportion to how hard it's being pushed (to the point where antilock kicks in, and that absolutely needs to have an instant response).
I'm not sure if we want currency controls to tie real value to traded value with the immediacy of a brake or of an accelerator. Having a lot of lag on the currency seems to me like the idea of attaching a trailer to a vehicle with a spring rather than a metal shaft. On the one hand, the acceleration of the vehicle is smoothed out in the trailer. But on the other, it could end up bouncing crazily if the vehicle changes speed quickly. Even more crazily than the vehicle.
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Jake, is the camera still in one piece?
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Yes. It still works too -- you just can't see what you're photographing. That got broken ages ago though. I could buy a replacement screen and repair it, apparently, but I don't know anyone with a soldering iron.
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I found a camera, so here is my smashed iPod.
Kewl.
I couldn't help but be reminded of someone who smashed a fully functional set of rosary beads with a hammer, back in their early adolescence, by way of proving to themselves the non-existence of the vengeful god of Catholicism. No consequent deadly bolt of lightning, therefore no God.I wonder, has this changed whatever feelings you might have had about Steve Jobs?
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Surely if you came across an iPod on the beach, you'd assume a wise and benevolent mind must have made it?
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It has mostly changed my feelings about trying to read, listen to an iPod and use a stairmaster at the same time.
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It has mostly changed my feelings about trying to read, listen to an iPod and use a stairmaster at the same time.
I'm impressed that you had original feelings of such specificity to change.
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Re: Stuff
Was a little unnerved initially by the floaty whiteness, but dig down into the content and the reading area is serenity+.
Customisation is a meh for me, but my measure is how quickly I can burn through a bunch of interesting articles and still like the site I'm reading them on.
This new Stuff works for me, it seems someone, or a collective miracle of willpower took a stand and kept it clean, clear and uncluttered? Ups for that - many have tried but few succeed in pulling off that trick.
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Course not, although I don't know how much longer I'll be able to suppress my smarmy side and refrain from asking "is there anything you can do about the crap articles?" It'll burst out of me any minute now.
It occurs that if the *content* on Stuff were miraculously fixed, that might be evidence towards the existence of God.
Or a really righteous and vengeful editor, which from some points of view is basically the same thing.
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fully functional set of rosary beads...
Out of interest, which functions are we talking about? Was it like, before the beads were smashed, God could hear you fine, but after they'd been smashed He kept having to ask you to speak up?
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Out of interest, which functions are we talking about.
Can I second that with a small warning? I don't want to know about everything you can do with rosary beads.
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I think there are a number of problems with trying to stop currency trading:
- It would remove liquidity from the market. For instance, if AirNZ buy a 777, that's a huge amount of NZD to convert to USD in one hit - there are unlikely to be enough businesses wanting to go the other way that day, so it's likely to send the NZ dollar down while the big deal is unwound.
If you want an example of an illiquid market, look at houses. Your house could be worth $200k or $300k depending entirely on circumstances. If somebody turns up who's always wanted to live there, it's worth a lot - if you're forced to sell it to the highest bidder, it probably isn't.
- It would be near impossible to enforce. How does New Zealand stop someone in Switzerland trading with someone in Luxembourg? Or, even if they can control the actual currency, from making a bet on the currencies future value?
- It wouldn't make people any happier with the parity. The NZD is at USD0.49 for several reasons - one of them being that small countries currencies are seen as at high risk of fluctuation and our interest rates aren't high enough to compensate for that risk. That wouldn't go away if there was no speculation.
People on here are unhappy with the parity because they can't buy cheap toys any more. Exporters are unhappy with the parity because their businesses aren't structured to pay first world wages and still produce goods people want to buy. That'll nearly always be the case - actually, both being true probably indicates the parity is about right.
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to be honest George, i think the main problem is not so much the currency speculators (although they are a problem) but more the Reserve Bank Act and the way it is implemented. it seems to me that if it weren't for this Chicago-boys inspired piece of Thatcherite Rogernomics, the currency speculators would have little incentive to buy and sell NZD and it would return to its former status of sleepy backwater South Pacific currency used for buying lamb and butter...
anyway, the financial meltdown is sure to get worse, so gadgets and petrol are sure to get more expensive.
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I think that partly we had an carry trade bubble on top of our real-estate/full employment bubble. Our $ went up because of all the money moving into the country because of our high interest rates. Our interest rates were up because our economy was moving along really well and the RB was trying to slow it down, esp. the money moving into the obvious real estate bubble in order to avoid inflation.
That's why my income has been going down the past 4-5 years (along with the farmers - who have been moving to dairy partly because the returns from all the other types of farming have sucked) - even though demand for their products have crashed the exchange rate is giving them some cushion
When the real estate bubble burst and the economy moved south the carry trade moved elsewhere - as quickly as they possibly could - because part of their profits have been due to the rise in the NZ$ caused by their own trading, once their bubble started to burst they ran for the door, last one out gets the low end of the exchange rate and earns the least
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it's called a "pyramid scheme" i think, Paul.
-overpriced property version
-carry trade version
-dairying in unsustainable places version
-ad nauseum -
it's called a "pyramid scheme" i think, Paul.
This isn't one of those shady pyramid schemes you've been hearing about. No sir. Our model is the trapezoid...
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And yet, it appears no-one has coined Simpsons' Law.
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and just remember, the largest pyramid scheme of all eternity goes by a very simple code mane:
USD
last one to unload a worthless trillion or two is fu..., well let's just say that it would be preferable if they don't have nuclear weapons at their disposal when they see how much the casino has ripped them off...
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