I just remove the tops then take the hammer to them. Brilliantly cathartic, let me tell you.

I've read the book by her handler, Roger Fouts, about Washoe and the other chimps he worked with.

Much as I am a proponent of medical research going forward, I can't help but feel strongly that testing on chimps/great apes is one of the biggest mistakes we could possibly make.

Really the best remedy would be homeopathy. What better way to treat an imagined allergy than an imagined cure?

On a lark, I created a username and accounts on both Yahoo and Google, then using a name something along the lines of "Honeypot", created an account on Facebook using one of the email addresses (Y! I believe). I then added a bunch of contacts in the address book of both Yahoo and Gmail, different people in each address book. In short order, I began seeing ads within Facebook while logged into the honeypot address suggesting I friend people from the address books of the account NOT tied to the Facebook account. Can't recall which email service I'd done this with first, but I am pretty sure that a Yahoo account was associated with Facebook. In other words, I would log in to Yahoo, then to Facebook, then to Gmail. Yahoo was associated with the Facebook account. After a few days, I began to see names of people whose names were in the GMail account (and I knew were email addresses associated with real Facebook accounts) suggested as friends in Facebook.

I then repeated the same; creating a new address in Gmail then a Facebook account. Few days later of going back and forth, I started seeing names in the second Gmail account popping up when I logged into the new Facebook account.

Certainly none of this is a shock to anyone, but I don't get why Google feels the need to come up with G+ and compete with Facebook. Stick to fscking search, stick to what you're best at. I don't understand this Microsoft mentality of "Oh, we didn't have this first and make money with it? Lets do one of our own! And fire the people in charge of marketing and precognition. They should have known social networking would become such a huge hit."

I don't know if I would entirely agree with this. As someone who services both Macs and PCs, across the board I would put the percentage of ignorance as roughly the same. Consider how many PC users willingly click on the popups that say "Your computer is at risk! Click here to clean" or "Your computer has detected spyware. Click to clean". As well, consider how many PC users visit video sites which claim that in order to view this video of Lindsey Lohan and a great dane getting freaky, you need this "special" video plugin. On both sides of the home computing world, there is at least as many gullible people on Windows as on Mac, it's just that Fruit Heads seem to have this foolish idea that they're somehow immune. As noted by many, the Safari exploit alone is an issue, but there are decidedly more.

Frankly what goes up my nose sideways is this statement: "One of those features is the introduction of the Mac App Store, an Apple-controlled storefront for selling and distributing applications"

So allowing Apple to have final say on what I do and don't get to install on my computer is somehow better? This is precisely what will make me jump ship again; I've used them since the mid 80s, jumped ship with system 7.5 ("Error type 11 has just occurred, please kiss your ass goodbye") then came back at around system 10.2, and while I really enjoyed the OS, this idea that somehow putting all my "trust" in Apple's hands, that somehow Mr. Jobs and crew must know what's best for me, that boggles my mind. Again, as noted by others perhaps not in this thread, Apple has become the Big Brother their ads once suggested they broke away from. If, now don't get me wrong I do mean "if", Apple decides that they want to make the app store the singular method to install apps as it is on the iPad and iPod, that'll be the end of it for me. Which is a pity, because it is a rather nice desktop OS.

The worst IT job I ever had was with Jayne Mansfield. You know, she was a fantastic bird, you know ..... big tits, huge bum, and everything like that, but I had the terrible job of retrieving routers from her bum. Bloody hell, that was a task. Well, it was quite a task 'cause she had a big bum ... But I had to, used to go round, you know, of an evening ... when Jayne was sleeping or sort of comatose, like, you know, you know, just lying there, and, er, I had to retrieve these routers from her arsehole.

(and if any of you get that ref, you're a very sick person)

Oh come on. It's not like he created something that *clicks the link* JEEESUS CHRIST!

Well they could tell you, but then they'd have to kill you.

They're tempted to have a big nose and be immensely popular with homosexuals?

/me ducks

Ah, a zealot I see.

First, I have a MBP right here in my lap, less than one year old. If I have the screen at a reasonable brightness for the time of day, am using the intertubes (as I am quite clearly right now), I get perhaps, maybe 2-3 hours at best. And, by the way, MBA and MBP are two decidedly different devices, and ... yes, reading back I talked about the MBP. KTHX.

As noted, I am one of those people who remembers when Apple had, you know, good service. I called Apple because in the past I had called about an iTunes issue and received good service.

"Even if that did really happen".... Pardon, but are you suggesting I'm fabricating? Let me guess, you have a poster of Steve on your wall that you kiss nightly before bed. Apple's "customer service" is in the toilet. Let me put it to you this way: I call Dell, not the greatest of manufacturers, mind you, at 9am on a Monday telling them that a drive has failed on one of my servers, or a keyboard on a laptop, or the power supply on a workstation. By 3pm at the latest, I have a replacement in my hand. My last XServe, when a drive failed in the array I was told I would have to get it serviced by an "authorized technician", and that the drive would have to go back to Apple or I'd pay top dollar for the replacement. I work for a law enforcement agency, giving back the hard drive intact is not an option, even if the drive has failed. That was, of course, the last XServe in our building.

Look, don't get me wrong. I absolutely have loved the Mac OS since 10.2. Time Machine is a thing of beauty. In that time I've had three MBP as my primary workstation and have had several users on them as well due in large part to the security, ease of use and greatly reduced support I've had to provide to those users. That said, when I've had to get parts replaced, it's been comical. 1-2 weeks to wait for a part, a simple part that a lobotomized baboon could replace blindfolded? Come on. That's not service. The only people who give high ranks to Apple customer service are those who are blinded by the rainbow.

Google, Apple, Microsoft. They do all seem interchangeable these days.

I've been using Apple computers since I first got my grubby, sticky little fingers on an Apple ][ yonks ago. It's been a love / hate relationship, and until somewhat recently the "hate" times were more due to issues I had with the computers and OS themselves more than the company. Think IIfx, nubus, Appletalk and "The Error Of Type 11 Has Just Occurred, Please Kiss All Your Stuff Goodbye". During the hate times, I would go to Windows, then back to Mac, then to WinNT, then on to Linux (so I suppose I should in some ways thank Microsoft). I came BACK to Apple / Mac with Mac OS 10.2, and found I really enjoyed it, so I've stayed with it most of the time until recently with two big issues:

- Apple deciding to make the new MacBook Pro so that you need to be Apple Certified in order to change the damned battery. That's just evil and stupid IMO. I can take one of the things apart in my sleep and put it back together before I'd had my coffee, but I need to get certification just to replace the BATTERY? Or hard drive? I can't even ORDER the battery to keep on hand?! "Oh but the battery lasts for 7 hours!" Horse pats. It lasts for perhaps 2, at best, when brand new, and you'll only see anything even remotely resembling 7 hours if you are ONLY working on a text document and have disabled AirPort and half the other features of the computer. Apple simply wants control, as usual, of all aspects of its computers and wants you to shell out the dosh needed to work on them.

- I had a simple issue with one of my users and his iTunes accounts. After going through what I thought was all of Apple's knowledge base on iTunes, I called with my question and got a person relatively quickly. I explained what I was trying to do, and then that I'd already been through the tech articles. The Apple service rep asks me to go to their support site, to which I tell him I'm already there. He ignores what I'm saying and starts to read off the URL. I say "Yeah yeah, /support/itunes, I'm there already and ..." he interrupts me and tells me to click here, click there, and directs me to a web submission form. Then, he proceeds to tell me to put my first name into the field for the first name, my last name into the field that says last name, and then explain to me how to fill in all the fields and then "See the big button that looks like an envelope? Click that to send the message." All the while, his tone is that of one trying to explain to your dottering old intoxicated uncle that in fact you really shouldn't put your Metamucil in your trousers. I was stunned to silence. 20+ years of customer service work, both as manager and agent, and I'd NEVER talked to someone that way. While managing customer service, and even helpdesk, if I'd heard one of my employees speaking to even the most vapid of customers that way, I'd have sacked 'em. I was fucking livid. I thanked him, told him this was the LAST Apple product we'd have in my office, and essentially that he'd provided the worst customer service experience I've ever had to deal with, and I'd dealt regularly with Intuit and Adobe so that's saying something.

Yes yes, TL;DR The upshot is I'm sick of them. Rude, contemptuous of their own customers to a staggering degree now. Used to be I could call Apple with an issue and my Mac had free tech support for as long as the machine ran. Getting service for hardware, while slow and you certainly had to have an Apple certified person work on it, things were done at quicker than a glacial pace and something as simple as a laptop battery replacement were things you could do yourself. Add to that what I've seen when getting my hands on the next gen of the OS, and no thank you. Back to Linux desktop for myself, and Windows for all my users.

Considering the love-fest for Google around these parts, but they've been effectively dodging taxes for a few years. Why would it be a shock if politicians, celebrities and sundry millionaires / billionaires do the same?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_44/b4201043146825.htm

While I am all for businesses making a profit, I am NOT all for a multi-billion dollar company paying effectively 2.4% while I continue to pay nearly 30% of my income. The argument "Well, that gets turned into research and good pay for employees" still doesn't float IMO, when you have the higher executives of Google being paid millions. Reduce the salaries of those PHBs down to something reasonable, pay the rank and file programmers and researchers that money, and pay taxes like everyone else.

...This is one of the more accurate uses of the age old expression "My head a'splode".

One of my co-workers, a police officer himself and someone who trains SWAT and special operations units, is ALL FOR recording by the public and feels there should be more recording on the part of officers themselves. During his training, he shows a video wherein an officer pulls a man over for speeding and reckless driving. As he goes back to his patrol car to run the man's license, the driver gets out of his car and refuses to get back in the vehicle, becoming verbally abusive. The officer instructs the man to come to the back of the stopped vehicle, as he is trained to do so that every word and action can be captured on video. The man begins to comply, then starts to dance and laugh. During one of his oh-so-creative dance moves, he pulls a gun and tries to level it at the officer. The officer, fortunately, stops the man's arm, and two rounds are discharged. The two then fight for a good solid couple of minutes and more rounds are discharged any time the gun gets near the officer. Now, I don't know about you lot, but let me tell you... When you're in a fight, 15 seconds seems like a year, but when you're in a fight where your life could very well end if you don't do something that same 15 seconds could seem like an eternity.

In the end, the officer manages to get his own firearm free, and fighting the whole time, puts his gun to the back of the man's head, and "Goodnight Gracie". Had that video not been there, imagine the court room drama. Imagine the inquiries. A bullet to the back of the head? Regardless of the number of rounds discharged by the guy, regardless of the injuries the officer sustained, there would have been a very good chance that officer could have faced court or even jail time. In the end, the video showed that the officer was justified in his use of deadly force. The man he'd pulled over had a litany of priors as well as jail time, nearly all related to acts of sometimes extreme violence.

Officers should be held to a higher level of acceptable behavior, it should be expected that they respect the populace and, you know, actually UPHOLD the constitution as stated in their oath. To help insure that they do just that, and to protect THEM, officers should embrace video surveillance on their own part, and on the part of citizens. The problem is the number of bad eggs out there who have, for so long, abused power that they don't exactly like the idea of being caught at it.

How about you just pay taxes, and stop ratting people out to the Chinese government. Any bugs in your software will be a lot more readily forgiven.