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Comment: Re:Block or ignore IE7 perhaps? (Score 1) 365

by xav_jones (#40331093) Attached to: Aussie Online Retailer Impose IE7 Tax

Apple also successfully stopped them from selling grey import iPads at international prices. (we get quite stooged on electronics here)

They may have been true in the past and likely still true in many areas but iPads aren't one of them. I bought our new 16GB iPad from Big W for AU$498. It sells on the Australian Apple website for AU$539 incl. shipping. Less sales tax (GST, in this case) makes the price AU$490. The new iPad sells on the US website without sales tax for US$499. Given the US and Australian dollars are hovering around parity with each other and have been for months, I don't think your argument is valid in the specific case you cited.


+ - Major Australian ISPs Propose Piracy Education Not->

Submitted by xav_jones
xav_jones (612754) writes "The ABC is reporting that "Australia's five major ISPs have revealed their plans to crack down on online piracy by sending warning notices to suspected illegal downloaders while assisting rights holders to pursue serial offenders through the courts." The idea is that "[d]uring an 18-month trial, rights holders would send copyright infringement notices, including evidence of copyright infringement and the IP address involved, to ISPs who would then send "educational notices" to the internet users concerned." Further action would entail that "[u]sers who are suspected of further copyright breaches would then receive up to three warning notices before rights holders are able to pursue court action."

This seems a gentler approach than other countries. Will it prove more effective and/or cost efficient?"

Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:A comment from a recent repatriated Canberran (Score 1) 154

by xav_jones (#37488546) Attached to: Canberra Police Want Drones To Track Cars

The actual incident that triggered the request for UAVs was the death in Fyshwick earlier this year - where a serial car thief who delighted in baiting police (because the courts kept letting him off) hit and killed some of his friends after calling them to help escape the police pursuit.

Really? Because the article is a report on minutes from a meeting held in June 2010.


by xav_jones (#37488526) Attached to: Canberra Police Want Drones To Track Cars
Thanks for the back story since the article obviously didn't mention any of that. Using speed camera pictures in court seems like a perfectly reasonable idea but was never mentioned -- so that's extra information you bring to the table. Thanks for calling me a moron even though you didn't address a single point I raised. Again, Canberran roads are the safest in the world and measures that have been discussed, as mentioned in the article, are an over-reaction to a non-existent problem.

Comment: A comment from a recent repatriated Canberran (Score 1) 154

by xav_jones (#37486668) Attached to: Canberra Police Want Drones To Track Cars
I returned to Canberra 8 months ago after 6 years overseas, living in both Germany and the US (well, California!). Some things we are very glad to be back to and some leave me with a slack jaw. This is one of them. Here is the comment I --usually politically apathetic, like most Australians -- posted to the article linked to in the summary.

Irrespective of whether we can trust the AFP, the installation of point-to-point speed cameras which have "relatively low infringement rates" seems like a gross over-reaction to a non-existent problem. The data --crazy I know to look at it when considering emotionally driven issues -- does not bear out the expense

Suggesting that reducing tolerances to increase infringements (in this case, I see no other reason than for revenue) to pay for a system that is not needed is abusive. Will it reduce deaths?

The short of the data is that the ACT has about half the traffic accident-related fatalities of the western world, including those countries noted for above-average driving abilities. Indeed, one might argue that Canberra has the safest roads in the world. It makes one ask the question, what is the target death rate? Zero? As always the last 10% takes 90% of the effort and in this case, I believe, such a low rate can be accepted as part of the inherent risk of driving.

Comment: Re:Canucks & kiwis get price gouged as well. (Score 1) 440

by xav_jones (#37149478) Attached to: Pricing: Apple Defies Australian Government
You are, of course, correct -- it just made it hard to make the statement dramatic :) And I thank you for being a thinking American. Since I was living there at the time (SoCal), I noticed a difference in my commute time as well. The reactions from other people over the 'horrendous' cost of gasoline only made me smirk and point out how incredibly cheap it was to obtain, refine and burn dead dinosaurs.

Comment: Re:Canucks & kiwis get price gouged as well. (Score 5, Insightful) 440

by xav_jones (#37138830) Attached to: Pricing: Apple Defies Australian Government
Part of the problem is that they are small markets and as such have less competition. All the people erroneously claiming shipping costs, government taxes and consumer protection laws just don't seem to have a clue about how companies fix their pricing based on what the market will bear (i.e. what they can get away with). And of course, this is the essence of capitalism. In the case of Australia, since the market is smaller there is less competition and some companies -- I'm looking at you Canon -- go to great lengths to keep their fat profit margins that they cannot sustain in other markets.

Case in point, "the average price of a movie ticket in Australia for 2010 was AUD$12.98. In the United States, though, the average ticket cost just $US7.89 (approximately AUD$7.40)" [1]

Having said all that, I don't mind the government looking out for it's people who are being priced gouged.

Oh, and any American who thinks this kind of complaint seems a bit whiny (and are under the delusion that there is much a consumer can do about it) you all squealed like stuck pigs when your gasoline hit $4 a gallon for goodness sakes.


Comment: Re:Follow the data! (Score 2) 954

by xav_jones (#36917166) Attached to: New NASA Data Casts Doubt On Global Warming Models

Computer models were based on the data. Apparently, they were based on insufficient data.

There is input, output and logic. Input, in this case was the collected data from weather stations, satellites, ice cores, tree rings, etc. The model is a computer simulation program. It is a set of logic rules (algorithms) we feed the input to produce the output. The output is the climate prediction.

The output, or the global warming prediction is flawed because the logic (the model) is flawed.

Of course, there are many that will challenge the data (input) as well (weather stations located inside an active volcano, etc).

It appears as though it is not so much the logic as the magnitude of one of the input variables of the model looks to be incorrect. In this case, the incorrect input is the size of the Earth's energy loss. I believe the new data will allow for a correction on this input magnitude.

Comment: Re:What about other needs? (Score 1) 950

by xav_jones (#36522514) Attached to: Man Robs Bank of $1 To Get Health Care In Jail

However, your comments on tort reform are dead on. As a resident of Illinois (one of the worse states for medical malpractice insurance), I completely agree that the first step toward fixing any healthcare system in our country is malpractice tort reform. I feel that an acquaintance of mine put it best: "You expect a bunch of lawyers to fix tort law to make it harder to sue? Ha!"

All I know about the benefit of tort reform came from two US doctors -- both familiar with their industry -- who both said it would not amount to much difference, money-wise. I am all for tort reform on a matter of principle but I don't think it will fix the myriad of problems that is the US health care 'system'.

C for yourself.