Yet Another Byte

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Also, if I can be a bit of a computer snob for a moment, the use of a simplified interface has lead to a whole generation of people who own computers, but who don’t really know much about using them beyond double-clicking icons and dragging stuff onto the desktop. If you were to go into someone’s Windows system and rename the Desktop and Start Menu directories so that the system couldn’t find them, leading to all the shortcuts disappearing, 99% of the computer owners today would have to pay someone to fix it for them. They would be completely at a loss as to what to do, despite the fact that they can still open a window from the My Computer icon and browse the contents of the entire system.

Why does this matter? Because most users today don’t have a clue what they’re doing. They install so much crap like toolbars and junk, that even if they manage to avoid getting infected with a virus, the system takes 10+ minutes to boot and requires a 45 second drive access just to open a window. Then they throw it out because it’s too slow, buy a new one and the cycle starts anew. Check the computer of anyone with a digital camera and I guarantee that you’ll find at least three copies of every photo, in different directories. Most people’s idea of computer gaming is going to Pogo.com and playing flash games. Hotmail is the only form of email they know and they wouldn’t be able to setup a dedicated email client if their life depended on it. When using one person’s computer, Zone Alarm firewall popped up asking if I wanted to allow a connection. The owner told me “Oh, just keep clicking ‘Allow’ until it goes away.”

See if you can find ten people who know what speed internet connection they’re paying for. See if you can find even 3 people who know what the actual speed they’re getting is. Hell, see if you can find even one person who knows what resolution their desktop is set to without having to check.

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"The entertainment industry seems to forget the file-sharing elephant in the room, perhaps due to Industry-Vision™ corrective lenses rendering it as a “scapegoat”."

"the mathematics we have today is something that is a direct historical consequence of ideas that existed in ancient Babylon, arithmetic and geometry and so on, that got sort of generalized to give us the mathematics we have today and that is the mathematics that we use to kind of make our descriptions in physics and do our engineering and so on."

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So where the bloody hell are you?

The advertising campaign caused controversy in March 2006 when it was banned by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre in the United Kingdom, which would not allow the word “bloody” in television versions of the commercial. Following lobbying by Tourism Australia, including a visit to the UK by Australia’s tourism minister Fran Bailey and Lara Bingle, the ban was lifted, although a 9pm “watershed” was imposed on television commercials in May.

In March 2007, the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK ordered the removal of roadside billboards bearing the slogan. The ASA stated that it had received 32 complaints and warned Tourism Australia to refrain from using profanity in future billboards.

The advertisement has also been banned by regulators in Canada, owing to the implication of “unbranded alcohol consumption” by the opening line, “We’ve poured you a beer”. There was also concern in Canada at the word ‘hell’ being used as an expletive. It has been allowed to run with no adverse action in countries such as the United States and New Zealand. In Singapore, the advertisement campaign is presented as “So Where Are You?”, with the words “bloody hell” removed.

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