Posts by JackElder
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I don't necessarily want to upsize my bag so I can have both a cheap phone *and* an iPad in it.
Who said anything about a cheap phone? My favourite phone ever, bar none, is the Nokia 8210, mainly because it did everything that I every other phone did but was stupidly small and light (79 grams? That's just silly). It certainly wasn't cheap.
Then phones started to get bigger again, as they turned into very small, special purpose PCs. The first-gen smartphone I upgraded to after the 8210 was three times the size and twice the weight.So I'm kind of saying, if this niche takes off, people might start making some nice sleek phones again. It also might move the rapid model churn in personal electronics away from the mobile phone and up to the tablet PC, as per Russell's comment above.
Hellfire, now I'm getting phone nostalgia.
At the moment I'm kind of undecided. I think I want one, but I'm not sure why. Lack of multitasking is a bit of a shocker - no iTunes while cruising the net is simply astounding. Can the current iPod Touches multitask?
Although I don't own a Touch, everyone I know who does raves about it.
$10 for pages and keynote and numbers??? Good grief they really are saying those products are trivial now.
Not trivial; just that it's better to aim wide than high. Those three apps cover the main "serious application" space that most people need - and for which people will shell out several hundred bucks to Microsoft. I wonder how much of this is due to the impact of OpenOffice and variants, which are slowly convincing people that an office suite isn't necessarily something that you have to actually spend bucketloads on. I reckon that price point is really interesting: it's not a throwaway purchase, but it's not going to make anyone really balk either. And given that many non-serious computer users I know (yes, I am talking about my parents) pretty much automatically buy MS office when they purchase a new PC, the fact that you're looking at another $30 rather than $300 could help swing some undecided buyers.
None of our kit is obsolete. This is the big buy-in into perceived obsolescence, all agreed I'm sure.
My main PC at home is a Dell box running XP that we bought around June 2004. It runs Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice just fine - which is pretty much all we use it for. So very much agreeing with the "none of our kit is obsolete" line.
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If this does fly, I'll be interested to see if it starts a move towards more minimalist phones. Think about it: if you've got a tablet PC in your bag, why would you spend silly amounts of money on a phone that lets you watch movies, access the internet, etc? The integration of media players/internet browsers with telephones has always struck me as a bit odd - two trends pulling in different directions (anything displaying visual info wants to be a reasonable size, phones want to be small so you can hold them up to your ear nicely). Frankly, if I could have a simple phone that does phone calls, texts (which in time would be supplemented by email on the tablet), and which I can sync my contacts up to an external device (such as the iPad), I'd be perfectly happy with that. Most of the other functions currently being larded onto mobile phones strike me as a better fit for this sort of larger form factor.
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In my experience, guys like that are all mouth, no trousers. They like to talk big and boast online, but in reality they wouldn't actually knock you into the gutter - that would ruin the paintwork on your big tossmobile. Hostile drivers in general don't worry me - I do get buzzed occasionally, but I've never actually been hit. And a driver who's swearing the air blue about how you're taking up the road is, at least, a driver who's seen you. Don't get me wrong - I've been swerved at quite deliberately, and it's fucking terrifying. But, at the end of the day, most people aren't actually going to deliberately run into you.
What really worries me is the drivers who haven't seen me. The only times I've had accidents involving cars have been where drivers either didn't see me or underestimated my speed. As a cyclist, the safety factor that I'm most concerned about is being visible and getting noticed by drivers. Riding out from the kerb, making eye contact, and the like all help.
Agree on the broken glass. What's with that?
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But isn't the recommended solution generally to treat bicyclists like first class road users, not funky semi-pedestrians?
That's my preferred solution for day to day cycling - but it can intimidate people a bit. Personally, I find cycling on the road much safer (though usually more hair-raising, I'll admit); you can go faster, and you don't have to watch out for kids.
Anecdata: of the bicycle accidents I've had in the last decade, I can only think of two that were not either on a cyclepath or at the intersection of a cyclepath and road. Corollary: none of the accidents that I've had have been serious.
A cycle route that is constantly crossing a well-used road is a major FAIL.
Or as we call it: the Old Hutt Road/Thorndon Quay!
Jack: what's granny gear like on those hubs? My interest is piqued, but for me gearing needs to be suitable for a good Mt Vic hill climb.
According to Saint Sheldon, the lowest gear on a Nexus hub with 50t front ring and 24t rear sprocket (as spec'd) is about a 29" gear... which is pretty low. It's roughly equivalent to being in the lowest rear gear on the middle chainring on a mountainbike. For reference, I don't normally drop below about a 45" gear cycling up the Ngauranga Gorge, and my road bike has a lowest gear of 32".
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I have a lot of time for hybrids; for most people, I think they're the kind of bike best suited to the riding people actually do. I'm currently putting the odd quid aside here and there to pick up one of Avanti's new belt-drive bike - should be the perfect all-weather commuter, I reckon.
Most of my riding these days is on my commute. But since my commute involves half of Wellington's two best cycle routes (round the bays and the Makara road loop), that's not much of a problem.
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I had a nutshell once.
Couldn't find anything to put it in. Had to get rid of it.
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Cameron's attempt to redress his countries disgraceful history toward the indigenous tribes.
James Cameron is Canadian. He has no more to do with the battle at Wounded Knee than you or I.
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Hands up who WOULDN'T love the chance to sit in some kind of throne drinking out of a skull cup like some kind of prehensile dwarf king or troglodyte or something.......
I've seen those skull mugs in the flesh. I'll put my hand up and say that I wouldn't want one, and that I find the thought of drinking from one deeply disturbing.
If you get a good quality beer,price doesn't have to be an issue because one can savour the flavour, and generally their strength allows one to drink slower and less.
True, but it's not always about sitting down with your taste buds for a dedicated half-hour of subtle flavours. Most of my drinking these days is with meals, where I'm probably not going to appreciate all the delicate flavours, etc. And given a choice between a six-pack of Monteiths for $11 (discounted as a supermarket loss leader) or a single bottle of Epic Pale Ale for $5, I submit that for anyone not on an unlimited budget, price is always going to be somewhat of a factor... even if it is just that little voice in your head saying "Yeah, it's nicer, but is it twice as nice?"
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The Radler dispute has made me switch to Mac's (usually Hop Rocker) as my keep-in-the-fridge-for-drinking-with-sports-and-chips beer.
Yeah - I know I should probably avoid Monteiths, but I do generally prefer them to Macs. I find Macs Gold a bit tasteless, but their Celtic Red and Hop Rocker are most nice.
Though I must admit, I'm rather annoyed to find that the Macs Brewery on the waterfront in Wellington is going to cease functioning as a brewery. Was lovely to sit on the waterfront on a sunny day, drinking a pint brewed ten metres away.
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Wow. Am I really the only person who likes Monteiths? OK, it's mass-produced, has no "soul", etc. But it's also a perfectly drinkable pint. Personally, I don't really have the budget to be swigging Emersons or Epic right and left. And while I do make a point of getting outside some of the very nice beers available on tap in the Fill-yer-own section of Regional Wines & Spirits, I do rather like some of the "premium beers" available from the big brewers. Monteiths, despite being evil with that bollocks about Radler, are pretty good day-to-day beers.