Posts by BenWilson
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and really, yet another Apple review? Come on Russell, you're better than this.
I found it interesting. It wasn't "the iPad could be good for this". It was "it was good for this". That's actually a lot more interesting than speculation.
You can do those things on resistive touch screens but they won't work on capacitive touch screens like the iPad, iPhone, and other smartphones have these days.
So a stylus doesn't work? Bugger there was me thinking they could be useful for some kinds of art. I guess they still can, you just have to blow the area up you're working on.
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Perfect screenplay for the intro to a new series.
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But one thing remains clunky and difficult in a multi-touch interface -- selecting (and, therefore, copying, pasting and formatting) text.
One trick that I found useful on my PDA which has a touch screen - turn your finger upside down and point with your nail. You get a much smaller, more precise point that way. It takes a little while to get used to. You could use a stylus too, but that's something you have to carry. Mind you, anything will do for one, a plastic fork or toothpick from the plane would have helped.
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The section related to entering and leaving the industry (which includes figures on drug addiction) is here, but the table formatting is borked and it's giving me headaches.
It also gives me a headache when the go for "reasons" rather than "main reason". I mean who isn't going to use their prostitution money for household expenses? Only people who have no household, right? And the 8% who didn't do it for money, not even as a minor reason? WTF? Why didn't they do it for free then?
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For those interested, Ben Wilson and others who've lived here before particularly, you might want to read this analysis on the future of Australian federalism.
Heh, their politics bemuses me mightily. I had several disconnects in my first years there. One girl got real bitter on me when I said I had liberal values, when I felt sure she'd be much the same. Only later did I realize Liberal values are something quite different there. On the subject of federalism, I remember talking to some socialists, and thinking I was agreeing with them about something saying "The state should pay for that". They blinked, then said "Yeah, keep those federal bastards out of it". I had actually meant those federal bastards, completely forgetting they don't refer to the nation as "the state".
But mostly I couldn't really get their sentiments, the politics seemed weirdly backwards and conservative, whilst at the same time far more socialist than NZ. This might have changed. I was there during the referendum on becoming a republic and was quite astonished at how deeply they did not want it, considering how nearly everyone hated the government (no matter who was in).
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Cheers Russell, but I'll still apologize for the use of language that could be called emotive about the prostitutes, like 'sucking cocks' and 'whorehouses'. It's just so common when I put myself in the mindset of the conversations. Working girls don't tend to hold illusions about themselves, even if they insist on better language from their customers. I guess I should have considered how I tend to feel about being called a 'code-monkey'. Yeah it's actually what I am and what I tend to call myself, but it's not my job title nor something I want my bosses saying, except perhaps as a joke.
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Dude, I've never said it's morally wrong. I wouldn't have been associating with these people and making friends with them if I felt that way. I'm just giving my perspective, which is actually mostly their perspective, on the matter. It's not just like any other business, it's a pretty unique one. It's not even so much like businesses that are apparently quite close to it, like stripping. There's something very different about actually fucking people. Sure that's a societal prejudice, but it colors everything about the game.
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Gio, I'm only aiming for a slightly more balanced view of this business than focusing entirely on the people who got something good out of it. There's a shitload of people who suffer majorly at the hands of it, and if you can't see that, you're not being honest. I wish it weren't that way, but it is.
I'm also talking about my direct experiences of the places and people, which actually are quite a lot of people because I've got some extremely dodgy mates who've had a lot to do with prostitutes, and I've socialized with them (the prostitutes) extensively, talked a great deal about their experiences. I've actually been in a wide sample of the places I'm talking about, either meeting up, or because that's where the people (both mates and prostitutes) live. I've seen them cracked up out of their minds, heard about the sick shit (as they put it) that they have had to do, the difficult and violent customers they've had, the exploitative bosses, the constant run-ins with the law, the deportations, the diseases they've caught. I've heard their crazy talk, their criminal plotting, their attitudes to their co-workers.
I'm yet to meet any that have said it's something they wanted for their own kids, and they're hardly in a position to be judgmental. They just happen to know from personal experience, that it is a business that grinds a lot of people down real hard.
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But society's unhealthy attitude to sex notwithstanding, that doesn't reflect badly on them.
I don't think it's a given that feeling prostitution is an undesirable outcome for people is an unhealthy attitude to sex. That's like saying that feeling stink about them working in a coal mine for peanuts is an unhealthy attitude to work. Or that being ashamed to have a mad gambler for offspring is an unhealthy attitude to gambling. Or that feeling bitter on your son for being a pisshead is an unhealthily attitude to alcohol. You can tolerate something whilst still disliking it heartily and wanting to take steps to lessen it's impact on society.
It's not like being gay, which doesn't sound like something people choose, and the denial of which is a virtual guarantee of lifelong unhappiness. Being denied to work in a whorehouse is something you'd probably get over.
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Yes. I wouldn't tell anyone if mine were a banker. Hell, it's embarrassing enough having family that has a Realtor!
Heh, OK, so the nation doesn't need any more bankers, either. But they should be allowed, and helped to get out of it if that's what they want. I saved my wife from a life of banking. She used to do it all, withdrawals, deposits, transfers, but she's put all that behind her for the kids' sakes. I have, I shamefully admit, abused her accounting services, getting her to do stuff with files I just wouldn't do myself. But she loves it. Or she just grins and bears it - what do I care?
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