rustynails77

As a parent of an autistic child, I found this article very disturbing.

I have spent the last several years working with my child: to engage people and to establish empathy (among other skills) - empathy with real people. My child exhibits obsession with topics and we cover this using the Internet and other resources (eg. books, magazines). However, I have worked hard so that my child can relate to others and to learn essential skills to cope with life. My young autistic child has gone from avoiding eye contact, hitting and punching and general "fuck you if I don't like the look of you" to somewhat synthetic behaviour that's been learned - it now comes across as fairly natural... but it's been a lot of work. This was achieved by focussing on real people, both with similar issues and those without. It also came through honest and open communication about autism and autistics vs Neuro Typicals (NT).

Interestingly, my autistic child used siri briefly and poked holes through the AI and found it severely limiting.

As a parent of an autistic child that has read text-books, worked in class, spoken at length with specialists, attended support groups and training programs, and supported my child's turn-around that fellow parents/teachers/specialists described as "amazing" etc... I am horrified at an approach that diverges from constructive social behaviour. The younger you learn to engage others, the easier it is and more readily it will stick.

I'd encourage any parent of an autistic child to research this area thoroughly before going down the "Siri as BFF" path.

"it would be like saying war is really a good thing because of the (possibly good) ending side effects."

>it would be like saying war is really a good thing because of the (possibly good) ending side effects.

War can be a good thing for that very reason. It can be a form of politics that is used to avoid further and larger loss of life. However, this only works if the war is not drawn out.

Art of War (and relevant analyses) are good references on this topic. Art of War specifically talks about avoiding long and drawn out campaigns, and let's just say that a few recent examples come to mind.

I'm very disappointed with people that share your attitude. He gave up a lot to disclose unethical (and downright illegal) behaviour - for the betterment of society, knowing full-well the consequences. He also explicitly stated that this was not about him - so your flamboyant statements are WAY off the mark.

Here's the tip: research a topic before posting misinformation, unless you endorse breaching the 4th amendment, and lies all the way from Obama down.

But ... i'm heartened that very few people share your view.

Let me tell you how that turns out ... first hand (from a real experience).

An entity in Australia called DSTO started thrusting women into management positions back in the early 90s - so they could say they had 50% (or as close to 50%) of women in management roles. I had the misfortune of working with a few of the bad ones.

The ones that were capable (ie. competent) were great to work with, but there were some that were REALLY, REALLY bad. People laughed (or cringed) when the bad ones did their job - and it was obvious they were inept. It was so bad that I would consider these few women to be the worst I have -ever- seen (in 20+ years of a working career).

After a period of time, these women cracked and left because they could not cope with the situation. If anything, I blame the management for putting the wrong people in these roles and emphasising their inability. If anything, it may have backfired and created a perception that women just can't do the job (which is far from the truth). I remember them being away frequently on training, so there was no apparent lack of support that I could see.

Unfortunately, that's what you get when you play numbers games. You should NEVER, EVER promote anyone because of their race, religion, colour or gender... Nor should you discriminate against someone for those reasons.

I just don't share this vision. You either have -real- friends, or you have acquaintances. Facebook is not for real friends. If people are your friends and want to stay in contact with you, they will - like they did before Facebook existed.

This year, I've engaged schools at length to discuss computer based systems. There are a few recurring threads that I have seen that would support this article.

* Real-world examples are not favoured. I'd go as far to say they are unpopular. There is an over emphasis on theory and rote learning, without providing context. This may be a result of "stove piping" mathematics to be "pure math only", rather than having "real-world applications".

* Children are shoe-horned and given little opportunity to pace themselves and their learning. The theory may be that kids that progress quickly may become bored.

* Technology is praised/shunned in the wrong ways. Tablets are generally praised, and in my view, offer limited opportunity and creativity. PCs are shunned, or treated as "toys".

* Over emphasis on rewards. There seems to be a common thread that kids continually need to be bribed. Avatars/humourous or cute animations/etc. There may be a good reason for this, but I find that it actually distracts students rather than helps.

I could list other things that have concerned me, but these are the first ones that come to mind.

Edited to add comments about "rewards".

Extend that concept of choice to things like support for FLAC, mkv and a host of other formats. How is this a bad thing? The absence of these things is limiting, but having the choice is bad?

If choice is bad, why not prune the App Store and remove the multiple calendar apps, or the multiple memory mapping tools, navigation tools, etc - and allow one choice only.

I believe Apple do a good job in many ways. They also show more responsibility than Microsoft did 15 years ago.

But...

Apple do fail in a number of key ways, and despite your attack on most geeks, I will defend them.

1. Compatibility. Apple really drop the ball here. As one example, they don't support FLAC .. why? No reason at all, except maybe it threatens ALAC. For people with FLAC collections, moving to Apple is a pain in the ass. The same can be said for many other audio and video formats. Apple's support is lousy and is locked in for no good reason. In fact, it forces you to limit the choices you can make ... again, for no reason. If anyone wanted to share my content and they were Apple users, I'd say "sorry, go for an open platform and then we'll talk".

2. Apple excel at the basics, but fail with more complex activities. Some simple examples: iTunes went a little funny at one stage. It was impossible to get any music onto my iPhone because iTunes wouldn't allow it. I used 3rd party tools - which would put the music on, but as soon as I started iTunes, it corrupted those newly copied songs... Now, if I were using Android, i'd just copy the files to my phone - just like i'd copy files from one folder to another ... This is an example of something fundamentally basic being made very, very, VERY hard because ... of ... no good reason. note: since fixed.

3. Apple provides minimal settings. In many ways, this is great, but... at one stage, my iPhone 4s lost the plot with the audio volume for music and videos via the inbuilt speaker. I could not get the audio volume to work using the "physical" switch, nor by adjusting the volume up or down ... it took me M-O-N-T-H-S to solve this ... others reported the same problem, and Apple said "factory reset" or "return the phone, it's a hardware fault". It turned out to be two things... (1) a software bug in IOS, and (2) it was caused when you plugged audio devices into the interface port, but switched the external device off while music was playing. note: since fixed.

The reality is that I have been burnt by 1. 2. and 3. - and I would not have had those problems on Android. I also believe these problems impact geeks and non-geeks alike.

The good news, problems 2. and 3. have been solved. Apple introduced a "reset all settings" option which takes care of "magic settings" ... it fixed my broken keyboard when I updated to IOS7 (as an example).

In my view, blame the geek doesn't cut it.

I come from a unique environment that has allowed me to draw some very interesting conclusions.

I am from a family of 3 children. Two adopted and one "unexpected" natural birth.

One of the three of us has been in prison many times (and we have no other relatives that I know of that have ever been in trouble beyond the occasional speeding/parking ticket).

The other of the three of us is a carbon copy of their biological mother (dress sense, social sense, taste in music/books/films, mannerisms, extreme anti-social behaviour, etc) - they hadn't spoken until my sibling was 25 - so that was 25 years without contact, visibility, etc - and they still turned out to be a near carbon copy.

I followed in my parents footsteps in many ways, more than I realised at the time.

All three of us agree that we got the same toys, the same lollies, same schooling, same opportunities, etc... so we can only put the differences down to nature - and I can tell you that I'm a big believer that nature plays a BIG role in defining what we are...

I've often said "we don't just LOOK like our parents, it's also the nuances in the structure and wiring of our brains".

I have a few kids of my own, and while they are quite different (nerd v/s jock, introvert v/s extrovert, etc) - there are many similarities, unlike my siblings and I.

That view would also line up with Pirates of Silicon Valley (that Gates stated was reasonably close to the truth). Gates was a "wheeler and dealer" rather than being a geek. The way he played Apple and IBM was the sign of a business genius.

I second your comments on Pirates of Silicon Valley. I always thought it was a spoof, but it's actually quite a good film - it's definitely a lot better than the new Jobs movie ... it gives you much better insight to what sort of man Steve Jobs was (good and bad).

One of the things that stood out from the movie was just how much Microsoft "stole" from Apple. I'm not making that comment as flame bait - it's common knowledge that Microsoft copied Apple ... but I didn't realise that Jobs gave Gates the actual computers before they were released ... including operating system and all.. It gives you an understanding of just how much copying actually happened.

Two sides to the same coin: Gates was most probably the more shrewd operator, but with little tech skills - he bested Steve Jobs who was much more of a visionary, but let his guard down with Bill Gates, and paid the penalty.

The Mouse That Ate The Public Domain http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20020305_sprigman.ht...

Good thing about karma. I've brought my kids up telling them the evils of Disney and their harm to society. Suck it Walt!

It depends on the device. Some Android devices are very snappy. For example, Samsung's 7" tablet appears to be very snappy to me - and I'd be hard pressed to pick the difference between it and my iPad 3rd gen.

However, there are a few Android phones that are particularly laggy. The Galaxy III comes to mind - when I last used one. It didn't feel anywhere near as responsive as my iPhone.

And what are the stats for delays in mag-lev ecosystems? Given that you know how unreliable flight ecosystems are and can quantify the delays, I'm assuming you have a basis for comparison in making such a confident statement.

I don't agree with it, nor do I understand it. I see the same behaviour in corporate bankers are are earning many millions per year. It's OK to steal because I deserve more. People like this are common thieves - and nothing more. Growing up, my family went from poor to middle class. We did the hard yards. We never stole. Why? Because its about principals and ethics. Never, never excuse a thief. If your statement were true, i'd rip off the volunteer organisations that I _volunteer_ in ... because they don't pay me enough.

Just to be clear, this rule doesn't work for McDonalds - as it's an established brand. Their food is awful, but the place tends to be clean and tidy - with a toilet. Interestingly, where I live, Burger Kings tend to be filthy and poorly maintained, with slightly better tasting food. They are also popular - so cleanliness doesn't seem to be a major contributor.

The article is vague on whether or not he made, or just distributed the videos. Will this open the doors to be able to catch the monsters abusing young children, or is this just a game of whack-a-mole?

I have used Android for about 6 months and iPhone for about 3 years. I find using IOS like being in hand-cuffs. Let me give an example. For about 6 months, there was an audio bug in IOS (that now seems to be fixed). If I plugged in my iPhone to a car charger/music player, and removed it while a song was playing, the audio would switch off. Now Apple, being a hip company, had about 6 volume settings, of which you can't see the settings for most of these volume settings. The volumes I know of are :- 1) the volume level through the headphones 2) the volume through the speaker, when the audio is switched on by a physical switch 3) the volume through the speaker, when the audio is switched off by a physical switch 4) the volume through the headphones when the phone is plugged in through a 30 pin connector 5) an application specific volume (eg. playing a movie through a web browser - which does NOT use volumes 1-5) 6) ring-tone volume

Now, for some reason, Apple got the volumes mixed up so that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get any sound (except 6.) without plugging in a 30 pin connector and increasing the volume.

It took me MONTHS to work this out. All of the Apple "experts" I knew swore that this was not possible until I showed them. Even Apple said there was no bug and that it was faulty hardware, which I knew it wasn't.

The problem is that I keep on having similar issues with IOS. It's just "too clever" for its own good. Settings that you need are just not there (eg. accessing WIFI settings with a single click or slide).

There was also the time that iTunes REFUSED to copy music to my iPhone. If I used a 3rd party tool, songs would be copied and could play, but as soon as I used iTunes, it knew the new songs were "corrupted", and put the broken versions of the music on my phone. Thankfully, this bug only lasted a week.

I also find my iPhone 4s laggy. As an example, if I load a web page in the background, and try to scroll the current web page, the phone locks up for about 1000 milliseconds (ie. a VERY long time). It really infuriates me.

As for the Android lag, I am not sure what people are referring to. the Google hardware has not been a problem that I have seen - ever.

I think the best summary I can think of is that IOS is for people that don't want choice (eg. no FLAC, no 1080p MKV, no volume settings, you can't copy music files directly - you need iTunes, etc). Android has more that you need to know about, but at least you CAN find it if you want to.

I have a love/hate with IOS. But, when IOS pisses me off, it REALLY pisses me off. I can't say the same for Android.

You can see that I like choice. I also agree with others that I'd rather see Apple do well than Samsung. Samsung have a highly unethical history. If it weren't for Apple, Samsung would still be churning out rubbish handsets.

The car makers seem to be under the impression that only 1 person would be able to crack the code.

I just can't look past the poor resolution of the iPad mini - and on that basis alone, I would not recommend it to anyone, except people with very poor eyesight. I agree that DPI isn't everything. I think of it as like "stock" to a soup. Without stock (or with awful stock), you have no soup. The rest of the ingredients are important, but stock is king. iPad mini has foul tasting "stock" ;) Brightness is important, but not fundamental, viewing angles are less important when you're looking straight on or from a slight angle (ie. 99% of the time). I didn't notice a huge difference on contrast ratio (eg. differentiating dark colours readily). I would not recommend the current iPad mini to anyone with reasonable eyesight.

Who will now want to whistleblow on the government for illegal activities, when the NSA will strongarm any media that you speak to?

This will actively encourage corruption.

Do you remember the blue ribbon internet campaign back in the late 90s? At the time, I went into Australian #irc channels raising awareness. I was assuming that most Australians on the Internet (back then) were technically literate and would care. I had quite a few people who said "go fuck yourself" in different forums when I raised the issue. I hate to say it, but I do consider many of my Australian bretheren to be "redneck" like, but not quite like the "stereotype" you see in the movies. Hoping for the average Australian to "give a fuck" is not going to happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ribbon_Online_Free_Speech_...

I have been somewhat of a Google fanboy (alright, too strong-a-term, but you get the idea). I encourage people to leave Google - because you know what? If enough people leave, Google will fight EVEN harder to stop blanket monitoring. When I hear Google scream from the top of their lungs "innocent until proven guilty" and "burden of proof required" then I will believe they are doing enough. Maybe Google should change it's background color to black? Until then, I fully support anyone who looks for alternatives.

Most of the West has free healthcare - and it works pretty darn well, considering. I would imagine many people are still shocked that healthcare is not free in the US. This is yet another reminder of how lucky we are ... those of us who are covered by free health (eg. in Commonwealth countries).

It's unfair to say the reverse when Amazon were only making a loss to monopolize the market. However, Apple didn't care that book industry were gouging the consumer - no printing costs, no shipping costs, no packaging costs .. why should eBooks be the same price? Greed! I don't buy eBooks on principle. If the price was reduced accordingly, so that the book industry maintained its profits - that would have been fair and equitable. From my perspective, neither Apple nor Amazon had this goal in mind.

This is an ideal time to bring up the Mongols. Anyone in Eastern Europe that paid the Mongol tax still exists. The inverse can be said for those that didn't pay, or decided to fight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_under_the_Mongol_Em...

I respect Kipling's quote - but history shows YMMV. If in doubt, just ask why you don't hear of the Khwarezmid Empire - who were one of the biggest empires around at the time of the Mongols.

As an engineer, my personal experience is that most feature creep actually comes from engineers. Marketing usually have the least idea, but engineers usually cause the "death by 1000 cuts".

Noone should see this as Apple copying anyone. There are designs that work well with phones - and to be honest, there aren't too many of them within today's technology. If something works, designers use it.

There should be no better argument that software patents (in most instances) are idiotic.

It's not just about the internet. Most other western countries blindly copy most US laws - whether they be good or bad. There's a vested interest for us all to support the EFF.

I've been in the software industry for a several decades (I have a grey beard if that helps). I have never encountered any man that I felt had a gender bias against women in computing, other than if he was an ass in real life. My wife is also a software engineer - and she has never had an issue (to the best of my knowledge). What I find frustrating is that some people choose to identify themselves as a gender. Gender becomes a convenient excuse. I can't tell you how strongly I oppose this "I define myself by my gender" view. Feminism, chauvinism, the works - I strongly oppose the lot of them. I'll say it simply ... you either see yourself as a person or a gender. If you don't see yourself as a gender, then you'll let equity (ie. NOT equality) drive your view of yourself and others.