Stephen Fry on the iPad
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From: Dorian Gray on 1 Feb 2010 14:46 In article <1jd8ys6.gna7mbp8544eN%usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk>, usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk (Woody) wrote: > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > > Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > Indeed, You do seem to read a lot more hostility in text that to me > > > seems entirely unemotional, especially where those things have anything > > > to do with americans > > > > Eh? > > > > <puzzled> > > > > I've no idea what that's all about - but you should be aware that you've > > demonstrated a lack of understanding of emotional expression and > > communciation. > > Obviously. > > > Whereas I'm hypersensitive to that sort of thing - I see things that > > most other people don't. > > This is clear. > > > What I sniff out really is there - that's > > confirmed by reliable real-life verification that I've done, which > > relies on opinions other than mine. That's how I can be *sure* I'm not > > imagining all this stuff that most others fail to see. > > Well, I have observed you observe stuff that is clearly not there more > times than I have seen you get it right, so I can't really take your > word for that. Let me make a comment here to Rowland: you *are* hypersensitive to this sort of thing, and you are *NOT* right to be so. What you "sniff out" is *not* often really there, and you cause yourself a lot of problems and do others a great disservice by incorrectly assuming so. In my own dealings with you, I was being factual, entirely unemotional, fair, without any malice and with total good will, but your reaction was everything the opposite, and completely uncalled for, and frankly, made it clear you were a net detractor from the group from my pov, hence I added you to my kill-file. When others have replied to you since, I have seen you make what seem like the same mistakes with them - I can't tell for sure that they weren't secretly being snide and that you've "sniffed it out", but it certainly didn't seem so, and certainly in my case you were 100% incorrect. A far more logical and reasonable stance that you should take would be to read them at face value unless they give you reason not to. Of course, your attitude encourages some people to respond maliciously/provocatively whenever you say anything that allows them to, and while I do not support what they do, and they are often unnecessarily insulting (in fact their posts are unnecessary entirely), they might say they are holding you to task about your unjustified insults to others (about which they would be right). But I am afraid that you use these posters as justification of your original attitude, which it is not, and confirmation that you were right all along about everyone else, which you weren't. > > Hell, I grew up mistrustful of foreign things, faintly xenophobic - I > > know a *LOT* about how to spot the signs, because I know what's behind > > various facades having used the same facades myself, not to mention > > observing others doing their thangs. Rowland, you should really, really not project your own (past) deficiencies onto others. Not everyone has the same baggage as you. Until you give people the benefit of the doubt (and in your case you actually create doubt where there is no reason to), you are part of the problem, not the cure. > > I don't much like people. Or the human race. > > This much is clear! ....and it is very very sad. :( I just hope you might think about what I say above, and change your world-view.
From: Woody on 1 Feb 2010 16:02 On 01/02/2010 19:44, Rowland McDonnell wrote: > Woody<usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > >> Rowland McDonnell<real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: >> >>> Woody<usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: >>> >>>> Rowland McDonnell<real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Woody<usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: >>> [snip] >>>>>> I am seriously interested in buying one. >>>>> >>>>> Ah. A gadget-sucker. >>>> >>>> I love tablet devices. >>> >>> The only tablet device I've ever met was a old-tyme manual pill-making >>> machine. >>> >>> I've never heard of a modern high-tech computery tablet device that >>> could be of significant use to me. None of those on the market appear >>> to have the slightest point in terms of what I'd like to do. >> >> So I guess. They have been very useful for me, but I am still waiting >> for that specific device that is going to be more useful. >> >> Most of them have paid for themselves. > > How? Because I wrote software for them and got money. Being how I make money. > [snip] > >>> What I sniff out really is there - that's >>> confirmed by reliable real-life verification that I've done, which >>> relies on opinions other than mine. That's how I can be *sure* I'm not >>> imagining all this stuff that most others fail to see. >> >> Well, I have observed you observe stuff that is clearly not there more >> times than I have seen you get it right, so I can't really take your >> word for that. > > Well, I've observed you denying the existence of stuff that's clearly > there, plain as the nose on your face, so I can be sure that your > judgement on these matters is deeply flawed due to your inability to > understand this sort of thing. So we are both deeply flawed in a different way > Certainly you're wrong when you judge me as above - totally wrong, > because you are blind- so you judge me as seeing things that are in fact > there, but you can't see 'em. And I have seen you ranting about things that weren't there. OK, i am sure that in your head they were there, and you will rage against the world swearing they were there when they weren't getting more and more into a pit and an anger against everyone saying that they weren't there. Because they aren't. > Your vision is not a reliable guide to reality, Woody - you need to bear > that in mind. Stop being so damned arrogant and pigheaded. Open your > mind for a change, why not? My mind is very open. I can accept other peoples points of view, unlike you. I can even go out in the world and talk to them, and relate to them, laugh and joke with them and generally get on with the world very well. I can see what they see, they can see what I can see. Maybe we are all wrong, and you are the one that is right, but if we are wrong we are all sharing the same delusion of what reality is, and ultimately it doesn't matter what it is as long as your reality is based on the same things as most other peoples reality. > > Oh, give up Rowland, the man's a bigot: he'll never change his mind on > anything. That is nice coming from one of the most bigoted people on this group, with your constant tales of how foreigners, women, people from the north, programmers, doctors, politicians, police are all criminals. Everyone it seems, apart from you. >>> But you can't argue that American's aren't generally xenophobic and >>> mistrustful of all things foreign, because they are. Just like Brits, >>> but *MUCH* more so. I suspect you're on about that when talking about >>> my comments about Americans. I can spot the mistrust and xenophobia. >> >> I can argue that there is no way of generalising these things. Yes, >> there is a lot of lot of xenophobia in the states, however, nothing like >> the level in the UK, > > Oh no? That is exactly the opposite of what I've met. But that is the point - you appear have met nothing and noone and understood even less. You don't interact with people, you say yourself you don't like people. Have you ever even been to the states for any length of time? there are 300 million of them you know yet you claim to know how they think! In fact, outside of the rarefied atmosphere of a university, have you ever worked with people who were not like you? (not that I believe there are many people like you). >> but still there. However, I wouldn't say it was the >> general case. Obviously it is hard to say what the level is as there are >> regional variations. Americans (as in the individual not the state) >> reactions to me as a foreigner is much better than I would expect to >> receive if I was an american in the UK. >> I never noticed until I lived in the states and came back how bad the UK >> was. > > Our culture is under threat so of course we're more resentful of other > cultures than are USAians. I think you're mistaking two different > things. Their culture is just as under threat as ours. Assuming their is such a thing as 'a culture' which I really don't believe. > Take a case in point: it's much easier to get a UK firm to buy foreign > that it is to get a US firm to buy foriegn, due to the greater > xenophobia in the USA than in the UK. That is a government thing as I said. And anyway, having worked for US firms, and in the states buying things, it is pretty easy to buy anything from anywhere, just that in the US there are more companies to buy from, and it is easier to buy (not for protectionist matters, just a lot faster to get it). > The average idiot on the street in the USA is less xenophobic than his > counterpart in the UK, but the situation is reversed when dealing with > the educated professional classes and the aristocracy - UK aristos are > almost all liberal in social matters; US aristos are mostly the > opposite, from what I've gathered. Maybe true but they are a tiny fraction of the people of the UK or the US. >>> Hell, I grew up mistrustful of foreign things, faintly xenophobic - I >>> know a *LOT* about how to spot the signs, because I know what's behind >>> various facades having used the same facades myself, not to mention >>> observing others doing their thangs. >>> >>> I don't much like people. Or the human race. >> >> This much is clear! > > And you don't understand 'em. Quite a bit more than you, and not only that, I can deal with them. More importantly, most of them are worth dealing with -- Woody
From: zoara on 1 Feb 2010 18:14 Pd <peterd.news(a)gmail.invalid> wrote: > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > > James Dore <james.dore(a)new.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > > > [snip] > > > > > <cough> Blackberry might disagree. A significant slump in the > > > sales of > > > their touchscreen device was attributed to his execrating of it on > > > twitter. > > > > <cough> > > > > Excoriating, dear boy. > > execrate > verb (used with object) > 1. to detest utterly; abhor; abominate. > 2. to curse; imprecate evil upon; damn; denounce > > Seems perfectly reasonable use of the word to me. > > <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mansplain> > I like the linked definition: flounce. -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 1 Feb 2010 18:14
Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > On 2010-02-01, Rowland McDonnell > <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > >> > > >> > What do you mean, `quite'? I don't see that there's a lot of > > > > point > >> > paying attention to anyone's views of the gadget for a bit, not > > > > unless > >> > you're seriously interested in buying one. > >> > >> I _am_ seriously interested in buying one. So much so that I'm now > > > at the > >> "which one?" stage, rather than the "shall I?" stage. > > > > Fair enough. > > > > I'm not a sucker for the latest new gadget. > > Neither am I, or at least not to the extent you might think. I'm in a > position where my laptop is starting to fail and I'm looking at one of > these > to replace it. 400quid vs 1400quid makes financial sense to me, > providing it > can do what I use the laptop for. Which it can, or at least it hits > about > 80% of what I use it for. > > >> Stephen, unlike 99% of > >> the rest of the people writing about the iPad, has actually used > > > one. > > [snip] > > > > Yes, but so what? So he's got a few things to say about it that are > > useful if you want to buy one. > > > > But only if - and I'd not buy one without trying it out for real > > first, > > because I've learnt that someone else's review of a gadget always - > > ALWAYS - gives me a misleading impression. > > As will I - plus I'll also be waiting for some more reviews by people > who > have used them for a few days, to make sure there aren't any hidden > 'gotchas'. > > > I'm not interested in buying one - can't see any possible use. I am > > interested in what's said about them, though - from a sociological > > point > > of view, analysing the analysts, sortathing. > > Did you read this? > <http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html> > > > However, if it were the case that I had an iPhone and had played > > with it > > heavily, and if I could see a potential/possible use for an iPad, > > I'd be > > more interested in getting my hands on one to try it out than > > reading a > > review. I think. > > I agree that nothing beats actual hands-on experince of a device, but > realistically the best I'll be able to do is play with one in an > Applestore > for five minutes. I reckon I spent over an hour in total playing with in-store iPhones before I was happy it was the right gadget for me. Sounds like a lot but I simply saved up "things I want to check" until I was passing by an Apple Store, then spent 5-10 minutes checking. I can imagine the same with an iPad, if Hannah doesn't get there before me (she has a habit of doing first and asking later; polar opposite of me). -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm |