This ad from Apple dropped into my inbox yesterday with the subject line: "Experience life on the go with a Mac". I naturally assumed before opening it that this referred to the MobileMe sync service that replaced .mac earlier in the summer. If you've been on Mars for the last few weeks, MobileMe has been an unmitigated disaster for Apple.
The synchronising of iPhones and Macs did not go smoothly
Launched as a service to sync everything on your Mac and iPhone, users complained early on about being locked out of their accounts for days on end while more recently many peoples' contacts simply disappeared from their supposedly synchronised devices. Apple recently extended everybody's subscription to the service by 60 days as recompense for the disastrous launch.
Despite the subject line, the advert makes no mention of MobileMe, instead concentrating on the fun to be had with a MacBook, iLife and some accessories. Having waited for over a week for a contact entered into my iPhone to appear in my MacBook Pro address book, Apple's retreat from its recent hubris over MobileMe at least saved my blood pressure.
If I set all these things below me : The birds, the beasts, the rivers, mountains high ; The sky, the moon, the sun, the stars themselves ; And contemplate what beauties shine above me ; I see thy spirit radiating nigh. If I may wrench my sight from this fair vision, Does not my understanding reach beyond The seeming topmost bound that has been set To inward senses? perceive the transformation That completes the promised holy bond? Then stay, fair soul! Stay high in my domain Where neither time or declination reign! And trust our God will grant us peace again.
This was a reply to an article, in a South African newspaper where the previously disadvantaged (Blacks) stated that it's not too late for the previously advantaged (including whites, Indians and Coloureds) to apologise for apartheid.
It's not too late for whites to say sorry for apartheid.
‘To the Previously Disadvantaged:
We are sorry that our ancestors were intelligent, advanced and daring enough to explore the wild oceans to discover new countries and develop them.
We are sorry that those who came before us took you out of the bush and taught you that there was more to life than beating drums, killing each other and chasing animals with sticks and stones.
We are sorry that they planned, funded and developed roads, towns, mines, factories, airports and harbours, all of which you now claim to be your long deprived inheritance giving you every right to change and rename these at your discretion.
We are sorry that our parents taught us the value of small but strong families, to not breed like rabbits and end up as underfed, diseased, illiterate shack dwellers living in poverty.
We are sorry that when the evil apartheid government provided you with schools, you decided they'd look better without windows or in piles of ashes.
We happily gave up those bad days of getting spanked in our all white schools for doing something wrong and much prefer these days of freedom where problems can be resolved with knives and guns.
We are sorry that it is hard to shake off the bitterness of the past when you keep on raping, torturing and killing our friends and family members, and then hide behind the fence of 'human rights' with smiles on your faces.
We are sorry that we do not trust the government. We have no reason to be so suspicious because none of these poor hard working intellectuals have ever been involved in any form of corruption or 'irregularities'. We are sorry that we do not trust the police force and, even though they have openly admitted that they have lost the war against crime and criminals, we should not be negative and just ignore their corruption and carry on hoping for the best.
We are sorry that it is more important to you to have players of colour in our national teams than winning games and promoting patriotism. We know that sponsorship doesn't depend on a team's success.
We are sorry that our border posts have been flung open and now left you competing for jobs against illegal immigrants from our beautiful neighbouring countries. All of those countries that have grown into economic powerhouses having kicked out the 'settlers'.
We are sorry that we don't believe in witchcraft, beetroot and garlic cures, urinating on street corners, virginity testing, slaughtering of bulls in our back yards, trading women for cattle and other barbaric practices.
Maybe we just grew up differently.
We are sorry that your medical care, water supplies, roads, railways and electricity supplies are going down the toilet because skilled people who could have planned for and resolved these issues had to be thrown away because they were of the wrong ethnic background and now have to work in foreign countries where their skills are more needed. We are so sorry that we'd like this country to fulfil its potential so we can once again be proud South Africans.
Britney wants to present with Michael Phelps at this year's MTV VMA's. CLICK HERE
MTV is reportedly going after Michael Jackson to show up at the VMA's (crickets) CLICK HERE
CLICK BELOW TO FIND OUT HOW TO WIN A TRIP TO THE MTV VMA'S
Michael Phleps is hosting the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live this year. Lil Wayne is the musical guest CLICK HERE
The Pirates #1 draft pick, Pedro Alvarez, might be the biggest a-hole in Pittsburgh sports since HOSSA left for Detroit CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT WHY
Diddy made a video blog about how he has grounded his private jet because of high gas prices WATCH IT HERE
Chris Brown and Rihanna are looking for a new house together CLICK HERE
Heidi and Spencer from "The Hills".....grocery shopping!!!! CLICK HERE 4 PICS
Austrailian pastor tells everyone he has cancer but really it's just a front so no one finds out his secret that he LOVES porno CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY
Albuquerque man breaks into an animal shelter....to BANG a dog CLICK HERE
Thursday, August 28, 2008, 09:43 AM GMT [Politics]
Now that Russia has formerly recognised South Ossetia as an independant country, will we see them similarly throwing their weight behind Scotland, Wales, the Basques, or even advocating the same for Chechnya and Kosovo?
Hi my name is Devin. I'm knew to coven space. I found out about this from a friend. I'm still trying to find her on here. ADRAN WARE ARE YOU!!!!! I hope she seea this
For those of you who don't read Guido's blog (www.order-order.com) I have to repeat this, which was sent to him
"I was one of the lucky BA passengers who got to fly home with the Olympians - an incredible honour. We were thrown off first and after we walked down the steps and past the paparazzi I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the Prime Minister standing in the doorway shaking hands with my fellow normal pasengers. I walked up to him and shook his hand and asked where we went to collect the bags. He was dumbfounded and the wifey minister* standing beside him with the t-shirt said rudely to me "that is the Prime Minister, ask someone inside". It wasn't as though I asked him to carry my bags. She is one ugly cow."
Thursday, August 28, 2008, 09:21 AM GMT [My Telegraph]
If we stop and think about the wonders of the technology that enables us all to gather here on My T we will not fail to note that not very long ago this luxury, so freely available now, was in its infancy.
It is safe to say that for the majority of bloggers here on My T the computer became a household name in adulthood. Unlike the current generation we were not born amidst hard drives and suchlike. We had to acquire the knowhow of this phenomenon, as life suddenly seemed to depend on it, well into adulthood and do quite a bit of catching up. Some people went on extensive courses while others taught themselves, learning by trail and error.
I remember my initial encounter with the world of computers; of course at work. Having done some mindless ‘VDU' work I was keen to learn more. This was noted by a lady at work who had, taken the initiative and taught herself quite a bit. Anne introduced herself to me as a Russian Jew, spoke of her difficult early life and said she would understand how I may at moments feel like an outsider. I had no real idea what she meant at the time. Anne was of the age I am now, give or take a few years. IBM was the rage in those days, no one had a clue of Bill Gates. I rather aspired to be like the very few people who knew how to operate the system DOS, I think it was. Work was a multinational corporation with state of the art equipment so I would proudly tell friends and family that our screen display was in green on black and not the boring white on black. Anne offered to help. She ran one to one courses after work. It was winter and she was just by Old Street tube station. I have a rather hazy memory of a broom cupboard of an office in a rather dingy looking office complex. Anne charged rather a lot of money for her lessons, but then her knowledge was so new, so cutting edge! She would provide photocopied notes on whatever was taught. Once a week, we would leave together for Old Street after work, have the lesson and then I would leave for home across the entire city of London on the tube in what seemed the middle of the night. I remember I preferred to be the only person at Old Street station at that time of evening; it was very unnerving to have the odd another person lurking around. This was in the early eighties. I have no idea what Old Street station looks like in the evening now. Regardless, I would not have the nerve to make the journey I did then. I used to be petrified but my enthusiasm to learn surmounted. The course only lasted a few weeks. It would be churlish to admit but I do not remember what Anne really taught me, but I know she gave me the confidence I needed to move ahead.
Some of you here are such experts at IT. Despite trying I still lag behind. Would you like to share your story of how you were introduced to and embraced the world of computers? How and where did you take the steps to incorporate this technology into your daily life? Pray tell.
Thursday, August 28, 2008, 09:17 AM GMT [Business]
The Government is going ahead with plans to enable parents of children of sixteen or younger to ask their employers for flexible working hours, as from next April. It is not a ‘right', but employers will have to give good business reasons for denying an application. The belief behind this move is that ‘flexible working makes employees happier and more productive'. If that were true, why have employers not themselves introduced flexible working hours as a means to improving productivity? Perhaps it is because the belief is cobblers.
As someone who has employed staff, unlike the politicians responsible for this tosh, I have discovered many employees who were perfectly happy being unproductive. It was only when they were asked to be productive that they became unhappy. Furthermore, one has to ask which employees will be happier with this move. The number is unlikely to include those who do not have children of the qualifying age, but whose workload increases because a colleague does not work on Fridays perhaps.
When will politicians, who support economic globalisation, recognise the implications of that support. Capital is now footloose and firms can move to anywhere that offers better conditions for their enterprise. By loading firms with this sort of legislation as if they were branches of Social Services the Government is discouraging direct investment in Britain at a time when they should be working to attract it.
Blind faith: West Brom fans sing at The Hawthorns despite loss
Soccer is not normally associated with acoustic excellence, but the West Brom support seemingly turned The Hawthorns into a cathedral with their soaring songs on Saturday.
Seduced by the intoxicating excitement of a return to top-flight football, the sound of booming terrace anthems reverberated throughout the stadium all game. And yet, judging by the worrying way West Brom's defence capitulated in the second half, and Tuesday night's Carling Cup calamity at the hands of Hartlepool, their supporters will need blind faith this year.
Baggies fans, do you feel like your team are living on a prayer this season, or will West Brom prove the doubters wrong and survive to sing about another season?
I heard today how the Duke of Sutherland is kindly offering some of his paintings to the Nation at half price - fifty million pounds each.
No painting is worth that. To a great extent they are, and always have been, mere status symbols. A form of snobbery.
Art Galleries should have images of all these great paintings. These days, the standard of photography is more than capable of providing information on the brush strokes of the genius who created the artwork, so modern artists can learn how it was done.
These images could be produced at any time, anywhere, providing the necessary information for which the galleries are required. The enormous costs of security and insurance would be instantly removed permitting the museums and galleries to expand without an unseemly one-upmanship scramble to beat each other for one item, denuding themselves of funds for others.
I know there are reasons for having the originals at times - I enjoy having originals by my grandmother and great-grandfather, both 19th century professional artists. But my satisfaction is from the fact that they are by my forebears hands as well, not from just enjoying the subjects of the paintings.
As I say, most artwork is held as merely status symbols. A bank clerk couldn't afford to have one of these, they wouldn't even have the wall space for many of them! You would struggle to put a 20 x 16 foot painting on the outside wall of many of today's houses, let alone the cost of insurance. The painting is on the same lines as a Lamborghini - the clerk would not be able to put the damn thing on the road.
They are often owned in a dog-in-the-manger mode. I've got this, you have to come to my museum, or be a friend of mine, or you don't see it.
Art should be for those who appreciate it and understand the value of it, not solely for those who appreciate the cost of it!
"Dear Herr Hitler, Love is the greatest thing in the world: so will you accept from me these (poems) that you may allow the young people of your nation to have them?" These gushing words from an ardent fan (she was lucky Unity Mitford did not scratch her eyes out) were written in August 1939, just a month before this country went to war with Nazi Germany, by Marie Stopes, the "woman of distinction" who will ornament our 50p stamps from October.
Is Marie Stopes really an appropriate icon for Britain's stamps?
Sending the Fuhrer a book of her sentimental poems was an appropriate gesture. This keen advocate of eugenics and subverter of family life had a long career of activity in the politics of human reproduction. In 1919 she urged the National Birth Rate Commission to support mandatory sterilisation of parents who were diseased, prone to drunkenness or of bad character. In 1920, in her book Radiant Motherhood, she demanded "the sterilisation of those totally unfit for parenthood be made an immediate possibility, indeed made compulsory". Her 1921 slogan was: "Joyful and Deliberate Motherhood, A Safe Light in our Racial Darkness."
As a letter writer to yesterday's paper pointed out, her organisation was called the Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress and her clinics were situated in poor areas, to reduce the birth rate of the local residents. Not that Stopes wanted the working class to stop having children altogether. On the contrary, she was also a supporter of child labour: "Not many years ago the labourer's child could be set to work early and could very shortly earn his keep... The trend of legislation has continuously extended the age of irresponsible youth in the lower and lower middle classes"...
In 1926 Stopes stipulated that the boy she would adopt as a companion for her son would be "completely healthy, intelligent and uncircumcised". In 1935 she was present at the International Congress for Population Science in Berlin, held under the auspices of the Third Reich. On her death she bequeathed her clinic and much of her fortune to the Eugenics Society. Today, Marie Stopes International has nearly 500 centres in 38 countries, performing more than half a million sterilisations a year, and is a major abortion provider.
Considering the hysteria nowadays attaching to issues of race, at first sight it seems extraordinary that Stopes should have earned commemoration on a stamp. To the PC establishment, however, even racist peccadilloes can be ignored to honour a pioneer who helped promote the anti-life culture and relieve women of the intolerable trauma of giving birth to a child with a cleft palate. Eugenic abortion accounts for an increasing proportion of the 7 million "terminations" in Britain since 1967. Poor old Josef Mengele was not eligible for a stamp, being a dead, white male. Perhaps in 2009...
So Bill has uttered the necessary words at last: "Barack Obama is ready to be president". The only trouble is that he has been saying - almost explicitly - the exact opposite as recently as a few days ago. He had a memorable riff earlier this week comparing a hypothetical candidate with whom a voter agreed "on all the issues" but who seemed unlikely to be able to achieve his objectives, with another candidate who, while one might only agree with "half" of his opinions, appeared able to deliver on his promises. Given that choice, he implied, who were you likely to opt for? Now, who do you suppose he had in mind there?
Bill Clinton: In the limelight at the Democratic convention
But never mind - he has said it. Very slowly and deliberately so nobody would miss it - thereby underlining the fact that there has been a question in everybody's minds about Obama's readiness to, as Bill put it, fulfil the oath of office. By offering the statement as a form of incantation, he also underlined the notion that he - Bill Clinton - is competent to make such a judgment by virtue of his experience in office, and that he has the king-making power to bestow a magical transformation, turning a not-ready candidate into one who is ready for the presidency. He and Hillary have pulled it off: on the podium, which is the recorded history, they have done and said nothing that was not proper and helpful to Obama. But in fact they have made it absolutely clear that they are the ones who hold this convention - and this Democratic party - in their hands while seeing to it that, if and when Obama loses, no one can say it was their fault.
Last month I got my Uncle's DNA Results back, and decided I wanted to do more than just send THAT to him. ;-D
In the last 2 months, as a member of the pay side at Ancestry, I took advantage of this access to make several startling discoveries regarding not just the Wells/Hesson side of my lineage, but the Daugherty/Fraze/Tanner side.
This mainly involved marriages, and deaths.
Anyway I spent the money to make copies of documents, and over 50 photos (Covering 1915 to 2003), most of which my Uncle had never seen.
I made Genealogical Care Packages for him, and his 7 children, my cousins, many of whom I had not seen in over 30 years before a visit to Va. in March.
My Uncle got his DNA Report, the Pictures, and copies of documents.
He also got a 36 page Descendant Report. ;-D
With the confirmation of the DNA Report I was finally able to lay claim to names, and dates sent me by another researcher 7 years ago, which traced our Wells Line back to PA. in the early 18th century.
I spent the last 2 weeks adding names and dates to my Genealogy program, and made a report.
The Cousins got copies of documents.
I wrote a letter, explaining what I'd been up to, Genealogically, since my last report to them 6 years ago, and let them know that if they wanted copies of the DNA Report, photos, and Descendant Report, they'd have to take it up with their Dad. ;-D
I also encourged them to share the names of their wives, and husbands, and kids, for a future edition of the Report, and offered to use my access to Ancestry to look up stuff on the ancestors of their spouses.
With over 90 Family Groups, and about 300 names, even with the notes from that old Wells Researcher, I've got my work cut out for me. ;-D
My Uncle will be going thru his records, and photos, looking for anything that might be of interest to me, and sending me copies, in the hopes that I can use the stuff to help illuminate that confusing, mostly unknown, 50 year period from 1890 to 1940 in the lives of our Ancestors.
