Posts by SteveH
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to bmk,
This is a common problem with future technology. Standard cost-benefit analyses don’t work as for example when the copper phone network was put in New Zealand fax machines, dial-up internet, broadband didn’t even exist. And so these huge benefits wouldn’t have shown up in a cost-benefit analysis.
This is true, but going from nothing to copper is not the same as going from copper to fibre. Fibre is an incremental improvement, not an entirely new thing. And it's not like it hasn't been done elsewhere - fibre has already been rolled out around the world. So a cost-benefit analysis should be entirely doable.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Robert Urquhart,
"The person who invents a thing, is not necessarily the same person who discovers it’s use."
The internet (and services built on it), especially enabled by broadband, has proven to be one of those things in spades.
I see this sort argument a lot. "We don't know what use faster internet will have but we're sure something valuable will turn up". I don't buy it. It's not hard foresee the impact of higher bandwidth. People were dreaming of downloading music and video well before it was practical. People were trying to steam media and make video phones before the bandwidth was there. If there is a revolutionary application that requires massive bandwidth then why hasn't it appeared already in the places which have massive bandwidth?
I realise you're talking more about indirect benefits, which are harder to point to. But FTTH is already available in many countries, so why haven't we been shown the economic impacts from those countries?
As for collaboration, as someone who works from home in NZ for an office in Sydney I think it's pretty practical now, even with the ridiculous 1Mbit upload limitation of ADSL2+. Yes, more bandwidth would be nice, but I'm not convinced it's worth $1B of public money.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Sacha,
It simply won’t be an optional part of any modern economy. High-resolution videoconferencing and suchlike will be a standard part of working with other countries and with one another, across all parts of our economy and society.
Much as I'd like faster Internet access, I'm still not sure there has been an economic case made for it. Is high-resolution video conferencing really going to bring money into the economy? And is it actually going to work given that we have a single 1.2Tbit/s pipe to the rest of the world? That's only 12,000 simultaneous 100Mbit/s streams. I would have liked to see some money go to addressing that situation. Pacific Fibre are looking for $400M USD...
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Hard News: Like being there, in reply to TracyMac,
I don’t deny the design is often fabulous, but design is not everything
It’s not everything but IMHO it is the most important thing. And there are very few companies that understand that. Apple is not successful because they’ve brainwashed the masses into buying their stuff. They are successful because good design makes their products nicer to use, less frustrating (even with limited functionality).
There was no technical reason for the first iPad not to have USB or SD or HDMI slots, cameras of a reasonable resolution, etc etc right from the outset.
The first-to-market advantage in tech is huge, almost insurmountable in fact (provided your product is good enough). So it’s more important to Apple that they get a good enough (feature-wise) product out than to add all the bells and whistles. There are plenty of people who wait for the second version of Apple products because it’s well known that they operate this way. Other companies try to put in every feature they can but let quality or usability suffer. That way doesn’t work – look at how poorly all the other tablets have done.
On those specific things you mentioned, the only one I really think they should have done in the original iPad was a front facing camera. USB sounds like a good idea, but having a USB port implies that most USB stuff will work – keyboards, mice, webcams, cameras, storage, etc. That’s a lot of driver development. Limited USB support and SD is available via the camera connect kit so people who really want it can get it. Same with HDMI – there’s a dongle available. I don’t think the dongles sell all that well and that indicates that Apple made the right call on how important those features are.
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Hard News: Chasing the Trans-Pacific Express, in reply to Sacha,
can imagine that being really great, slower, for surfing/boarding, etc too
And it's often quite amusing with music videos.
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Hard News: Chasing the Trans-Pacific Express, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I tried Myth TV but settled for GBPVR in the end, much nicer UI and the EPG problem was easily overcome.
How long ago did you try MythTV? The UI has improved a fair bit in the last year or so. It still sucks for music though.
One of my favourite features of MythTV is that you can adjust playback speed. It's surprising how much time you can save by watching TV at 120% of normal speed and skipping all the ads.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Paul Williams,
My understanding is that, in Australia, you are required to vote if on the Register but you are not required to be on the Register.
No, you are legally required to be on the electoral roll if you are eligible to vote and you are required to vote.
ETA: I think it's actually one of the reasons many of the Kiwis over there never bother to get citizenship.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Russell Brown,
It feels like a John Key patented "wait for the polling before taking a position" play. But yeah, the position seems to be lacking internal logic.
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Hard News: Kittens and puppies for happiness, in reply to johnno,
Owls - they're cuter than unicorns. And ponies.
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Hard News: Kittens and puppies for happiness, in reply to Mahal,
Friend of mine has a polydactyl cat.
We’ve got a polydactyl maine coon. He’s a big cat: 7.5kg, very long legs, and his paws are twice the size of most cats' paws. When he doesn’t want to be picked up he anchors into the carpet and is very difficult to shift. Pics here.