I can’t tell you much about the EU, but I can tell you that all they do is cripple Windows for their citizens. The EU, amongst other countries, has sued MS calling their tactic of “forcing” IE upon the user by making it the only browser available, and also making their OS require IE for certain functionality to work.
My question is, why not also sue Apple? Apple forces Safari on their users, and not only that, has intertwined Safari.. sorry Webkit… upon the end user throughout the OS. You can’t use full functionality of iTunes without Webkit (the iTunes store requires it). And I’m finding out today that one of the features of iPhoto 09, Places – touted by Apple to be revolutionary, but as is always the case is merely Apple playing catch up – requires Safari for the Places feature to work. Not only that, but Safari 4 breaks Places, but Safari 4.0.1 apparently “fixes” the issues.
What makes no sense to me is – Google offers an API to Google Maps, the core piece to make Places work in iPhoto 09. Why not use that instead of using your browser, sorry – forcing your browser to be used by the end user?
When is the world going to finally see that Apple is everything it accuses Microsoft of being?
This is actually a couple months old, but I guess I missed this episode of Conan where Jerry Seinfeld comments on the Blackberry, iPhone and their users.
By far one of the niceset features of the iPhone OS 3.0 is Find Me and Remote Whipe. If you have a MobileMe subscription, you just log into our account, if you have an iPhone, you can locate it, initiate an audio alert so you can locate it (or if you lost it, hope someone finds it and calls you based on contact info that will display), or if it is a lost cause – remote whipe.
All without requiring a server app like BES, in the hands of the average Joe – assuming you pay the absorbent fee for a MobileMe subscription.
Despite Apple’s lies about them being the only ones with face recognition technology available on their computers, I do like the Faces and Places feature of iPhoto 09. The coolest part for me personally is being able to drill down to photos by location easily on a map.
I stumbled across this comment on Digg.com by user Phalanxia, and felt it was a good commentary on where the focus should now shift – what is the Sri Lankan Gov’t planning to do to address the problems which led to the LTTE forming? Without addressing this, there is no solution. See below for the comment from digg.com:
This war isn’t over.
Oh, sure, the Tamil Tigers are dead and gone, but at what cost to the Tamil population? And exactly how has the Sri Lankan government gone about attempting to resolve the problems which led to their formation? Whoever said “not much” take a gold star. Problems that don’t get resolved have a habit of popping up in another 5-10 years.
Also, it doesn’t matter if the entire Tamil High Command got wiped out. Velupillai Prabhakaran was a paranoid narcissist who brooked no opposition or questioning from within his ranks. More than a few commanders of his defected, while still pledging loyalty to the overall Tamil cause. They still exist, and they’re not stupid enough to take on the Sri Lankan Army in a straight up fight (indeed, by the fact they managed to defect from the LTTE and are still alive, you should assume they are both intelligent and capable).
Basically the Sri Lankan Army took the “kill ‘em all” approach, which makes them as bad as the LTTE in my book. There have been numerous human rights violations and even possible war crimes committed by both sides, and in a just world, we’d throw the comamnders and politicians on both sides in a dark cell somewhere and lose the key.
For more information, check out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/tamil-tigers-killed-sri-lanka
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/17/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-analysis
Today Sri Lankan President Rajapakse announced the death of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran, and began a series of celebrations in the country’s capital city Colombo. A part of me does have sorrow for the death of Prabhakaran, but another part has its fingers crossed that this means the President’s very public and global claims that the bloodbath he has led over the past several months were for peace for the nation and safety for Tamils in the nation are about to become reality.
The World is well aware thanks to global protests held over the past several months of the dire situation, and the neglect of the Sri Lankan Government to provide basic necessities for civilians caught in the middle of this bloody battle. The World has also heard time and time again that the President wouldn’t back down until the Tigers were defeated. He today claimed that the Tigers are defeated – it is now time to back down.
It is also time for him to finally be a leader for his nation and bring safety to the Tamils in the Northern and Eastern areas of the country. And, to at least regain some karma for the attrocities he has led in the past few months – should allow for equality in his nation. Something the forefathers of the country took away from Tamils, Muslims, and other minorities in the nation.
For those who stopped digging into the reasons why the civil war started in the country in 1983, here are a few key points to note in Sri Lanka history which led up to the students forming their own freedom fighter movement which we now know as Tamil Tigers:
1948 – 1 million Tamils declared non-citizens. Why is this important? Tamils and Singhalese have lived in the nation Ceylon since 500BC. A series of takeovers by the Dutch, Portuguese and British led to the final unifying of the nation by the British, and leaving control of the country in the majority Singhalese hands. This despite the fact that since the early days of the nation, Tamils occupied the North and East of Ceylon, while the Singhalese inhabited the West and Central areas of the country.
1949 – Singhalese colonization in traditional Tamil homeland. Why is this important? Same as the last item, historically (and this is documented in non-Singhalese and non-Tamil written history, please do search the internet for information) the country was occupied by both, and the Tamil kingdom had the North and East.
1956 – Sinhala made sole official language of the country. Why is this important? By taking away the language of a significant portion of your nation, you take away their culture. For example, you can not have an official birth certificate in Tamil, even if you were born and raised in the Tamil portions of the country. For Canadians this should make perfect sense – Quebec for all intents and purposes is French, despite the rest of the nation being English. They are the minority, but have equal rights. Don’t Tamils who occupied the country for just as long have the same?
1970 – Ethnic Standardization acts become legislation. This slashes university entrances of Tamils because Tamils receive a more difficult entrance exam and are required to score 30% higher. Singhalese get an easier test, but have to score 30% less than Tamils do for the same seat. Also, fewer seats are allowed in University for Tamils.
1972 – New constitution written without Tamils participation. This led to a unilateral name change of the country from Ceylon to Sri Lanka. Declaration of Sri Lanka as a republic, and Buddhism was made state religion. Why is this important? Imagine if the majority English Christian Canada changes its name to something else and made Christianity the country’s religion?
1977 – Prevention of Terrorism Act. Sounds nice, but this was actually State (Sri Lankan Government) sponsored Anti Tamil violence which the country had seen in 1956, 1958, 1961, 1974. The only difference, now it was legal. If you do a bit of Googling, you will without a doubt find a very famous photograph that is engrained in the memory of every Tamil. It is an image of a naked Tamil man after he had been tortured and murdered by civilian Singalese individuals. These individuals are seen in the photograph cheering and celebrating the torture and murder of the Tamil individual. This type of act was made legal through this Act.
Now that President Rajapakse has achieved his goal of bringing safety to his nation through the capture and death of the Tigers, will he know bring peace and equality that his forefathers took away from the Tamils?
If you would like to actually know more about why Tamils, especially those in Toronto and London are spending every bit of their free time protesting in front of Consulates and Parliamentary buildings – the next time you are walking by trying to ignore the noise, take just 3 minutes, find an elder Tamil, wrinkles, white hair, whatever – choose the oldest person you can find who speaks a language you understand – French, English, German – whatever. Ask them why they left their homes back in Sri Lanka.
As my very first post in this blog states, I was lucky, I left Sri Lanka thanks to my dad before the age of 3. I didn’t have to witness atrocities to mankind. Then there are others like a colleague of mine, who left Sri Lanka and his home in 2001. When he was in college, he didn’t get to attend classes much of the time due to fighting. He spent most of his time in bunkers trying to stay alive as shells exploded around him. His house was flattened (literally) as he and his family were in a bunker a few meters away. As a student in his free time he helped in the hospitals (white sheets fashioned into tents) and helped sort out burnt feet and hands by the truckload that were salvaged from mine fields.
I on the other hand, had the luxury of having a dorm, apartment, job, text books, bars and clubs, DVDs, Playstation – …
My point is, instead of ignoring the protest that I admit must be annoying you, take just a few minutes out of your day and ask someone who is protesting why they are there.
President Rajapakse – I hope you keep your word. Don’t forget, the World knows what has happened, the World has been watching. And unlike your predecessors who covered up a lot of what they did, you have the burden of the Internet. The internet records everything, including video footage of the words you have spoken time and time again, claiming this was all to bring safety to your nation, and safety to the Tamils from the Tigers. You took away the Tigers – now lets see that safety.
During some random surfing last night, I stumbled across the Flickr album for the White House contianing pictures of President Barrack Obama. One of the most meaningful pictures to me in the entire collection was one of Obama gazing at a painting of JFK.
People always ask me why I am pro-Obama. Whether or not there are lasting changes, or resolutions to the problems caused by previous administrations, and the American people themselves – Obama is a sign of hope for many, and they have faith in him. The last time this was seen was the presidency of John F. Kennedy. It speaks volumes for a nation to have such blind faith in an individual. Lets face it, had someone assassinated George Bush (Sr. or Jr.) I doubt that outside the circle of family there would be many tears shed. However, when JFK was assassinated the whole country mourned. Since JFK, Obama is the first president where the same could hold true.
All that aside, I felt this was a very powerful image, and have added it to my collection of memorable images.
Today marks the last day of operations as the Oshawa GM plant shut down after the last Sierra pickup truck was assembled in it. As much as the loss of approximately 2,600 jobs for the Oshawa region is a grave matter – I can’t help but think yet again, greed leads to failure. We all know the staff was overpaid, there is no arguing that – except by those bringing in the inflated wages. The CAW did not look out for the best interest of the employees, if they did, they would still have jobs. That aside – it is a sad day.
One of the many hats I have worn throughout the years was as a call center rep in the GM support center in Austin, TX. On the one hand, I learned of all the great innovations in road safety GM as brought to the world – for example the metal barrier before a cement road divider that cushions the blow in the event of an accident, instead of crushing a car and its occupants when rammed into. I also learned of the ineptitude of GM as I had to take call after call from frustrated Oldsmobile owner as they got letters from GM apologizing for the abrupt end of the Oldsmobile brand, dealerships, and even making of parts.
In the end, hopefully the rest of the big three, Ford and Chrysler, learn from Chevy’s mistakes and focus on what the consumers want. Fuel economy, affordability, and quality. There is a reason the consumers have made the Civic the number one car sold year after year, and why Camrys and Accords flood our streets. They last. Fords, Chevys, and Chryslers don’t. In the event they do, its probably a fluke.
Good luck to the former workers of the Oshawa GM plant, I hope you have other skill sets, and realize what the average hard working Canadian actually makes for a job well done.
If it hasn’t hit home how much GM, and the population, doesn’t care about the demise of this plant and those to come – take a look at GM’s website, there is no mention of any of the closures, or even a sign of sympathy from the head offices.
Today, the New Democratic Party of Canada has launched an online petition, urging all Canadians to sign and show their support to stop the violence in Sri Lanka.
The petition, at http://www.ndp.ca/srilanka demands the Government of Canada urge the international community and the UN to protect all civilians and to create a commission of inquiry into the crimes committed by any person or entity.
“We have heard the voices of Tamils and Canadians who want an immediate ceasefire,” said New Democrat Leader Jack Layton. “Canada must act as a leader and help Sri Lanka establish peace and stability. We need all Canadians to sign this petition so we can show the Conservatives and Liberals that this issue is serious and needs our attention now.”
New Democrats are the only party in the House of Commons pushing the government for action. On April 29, they ensured a debate in the House of Commons regarding the plight of Tamil refugees and those Tamils in Canada facing deportation to Sri Lanka, and in February, moved an Emergency Debate in Parliament. They have also been demanding a special envoy visit Sri Lanka and finally, the government has agreed to send a Minister, although no details are being confirmed.
During the mass two-week protest last month in Ottawa, Layton was the only federal leader and elected MP to speak before the 30,000 people gathered peacefully on Parliament Hill, demanding stronger action by the Canadian government.
I can’t tell you much about the EU, but I can tell you that all they do is cripple Windows for their citizens. The EU, amongst other countries, has sued MS calling their tactic of “forcing” IE upon the user by making it the only browser available, and also making their OS require IE for certain functionality to work.
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