Found this fascinating and yet frustrating bit of insight into market psychology:
“The price you pay is always wrong. If you sell then by definition you are lowest price in the market. If you buy, then your bid is the highest… [P]rice is what you pay while value is what you hope and pray for.”
That… is just depressing to think of. And why you have to take emotion out of major purchase decisions.
Following the recent massacre at a US Army base in Texas by a psychologist gone crazy, (emphasis mine)
The Pentagon has responded… by deciding to screen all United States defence services for staff who are unstable and potentially violent.
Pause for effect.
You’re looking for people who are potentially violent… in the Army.
(sauce)
Gizmodo reports that, looking at the laws governing use of hand held device in a car, using a phone based GPS system is illegal in Australia:
According to Traffic Services Commander of the NSW Police, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley:
Under Rule 300 of the Australian Road Rules, which prohibits the use of a hand held device while driving, if the unit is a mobile phone then any function connected to the phone would be classified as use and this includes GPS.
Rule 299, of the Australian Road Rules permits a GPS but not one connected to a mobile phone. A smart phone is still a mobile phone regardless of what else it may be capable of.
That means that even if you buy TomTom’s iPhone bracket and stick your iPhone in it to use the device as a satnav, because the iPhone’s still a phone, using it is against the law. The same rule goes for any Nokia device offering turn-by-turn navigation, any Telstra phone with WhereIs. If your satnav has a SIM card or mobile phone capability, then you run the risk of being fined.
[I]n NSW you’re looking at a $253 fine and three demerit points. The penalty in other states might be different, but the law is the same across the country.
Urrk. Watch out for that before you drop a hundie on the TomTom app for the iPhone.
Tom Toles - 31/07/2009
The Victorian Centre of IT Excellence website warns that the site is best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 at 800×600. This is not the centre of excellence you’re looking for.
A tribute to Michael Jackson, Web mashup style: Oh Internet, how you surprise me daily.
Fallen Princesses is a series of images imagining Disney’s Princesses post-”Happily ever after”. Some great juxtapositions, especially Belle of Beauty and the Beast.
If you haven’t yet been seduced by the brilliance of Mad Men, you can now watch the pilot episode, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, online in pretty damn high quality for free. Even better, they haven’t got that stupid geographical restriction so many other streaming sites have. Americans only. Others need to look, uh, elsewhere *cough*piratebay*cough*
In case you haven’t heard of Google Wave, or haven’t had the time to watch the video and realise how it really will change just about everything to do with the internet, Andy Ihnatko has written his take on it, and it pretty much lines up with mine – this is genuinely new, and if it’s not revolutionary, it’s certainly evolutionary on the same scale that Homo Sapiens is.