Entries from September 2009 ↓

If Apple spent as much time on fixing their bugs as they do on this sort of nonsense, I’m sure I (for one) would be a much happier Apple fan boy.

Seriously, after the stupid problems I had with basic things on my Snow Leopard update, now my wife’s iPhone shutting down randomly after the 3.1 update, and my own iPhone starting to do other funky stuff (like constantly lose my wifi settings), I think Apple should stop wasting time on stupid stuff like this and get back to their knitting.

Daniel Kokin has spent the last nine years, off and on, working on a design for a video projector. The unique shape of the design is, according to Kokin, best described as a pod, so it’s no surprise he decided to call it a “Video Pod.” When he tried to file for a trademark for Video Pod in 2007, Apple filed an objection with the USPTO.

“Like Apple’s iPod registrations and applications, the Video Pod application covers a device that is or will be used to transmit video for entertainment and other purposes,” Apple wrote in its filing. “As a result the similarity between Apple’s marks and Applicant’s Video Pod mark and the highly related nature of the parties’ goods and services, Applicant’s Video Pod mark is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in the trade and among purchasers.”

What a joke!

Honestly, am I really beholden to Apple every time I use the word “pod”?! Ridiculous! This is where some of this trade mark and IP stuff gets a little nuts… the word “pod” has been used for a very long time to mean a whole range of things that aren’t necessarily related to an iPod. That Apple should suddenly feel it owns the word is just stupid. That a guy can’t create a device totally unrelated to a music player and use the term “pod” in its name is so ridiculous I would hope a judge would throw it of court and charge Apple with punitive damages for wasting everyone’s time.

Methinks Apple should hire less lawyers and more software people to fix their problems. This would make me happier, especially since I know in about 15 minutes my iPhone is going to ask me for my WEP key again…

I totally love my Apple stuff, but right now, it’s NOT just working…

Every place has its culture. It usually shows up in the rules and regulations. Take a look at the rules and regs governing any group (spoken or unspoken), and you begin to get a feel for what has carved and shaped the culture.

So, on a Life Group retreat this weekend, I smiled as I read the signs posted almost everywhere, and specifically mentioned by the caretakers in the sign-in briefing…

Two things about this list…

Firstly, what was it about the talcum?! What terrible event had involved talcum powder, that it now was specifically banned? Who did what to whom? It must have been devastating, and perhaps even a repeated cataclysmic event, that resulted in a non-talc culture. Interesting, I can’t remember the last time I touched talcum powder since our kids left nappies, so I felt a little confused… asides from parents of babies, are there lots of people wandering around with talcum powder?

Secondly, and this was rather fiendish, but look as I may, there simply weren’t any mats to hang up. Should I have supplied my own, or did I misplace the other ones unknowingly?! Did someone forget to put the mats out, or was this rule a remnant of past sins that had now passed into obscurity because of the decline in mats?

Hmmmmm…. culture is interesting stuff.

Seems like everywhere you go, cancer of some sort has a grip. It’s kind of like this invasive weed you can’t get out of your lawn. Perhaps it’s always been this way, and nobody knew what it was, but it just seems like cancer is a growing concern for us all. And, in all it’s horrible forms, cancer is just a terrible disease.

Rodney is doing something about it. I applaud his efforts. I also believe that pain shared is pain halved, and so I encourage you to check out his blog post and share your story. You might just be a huge blessing to someone else who is struggling with the impact of cancer, and the telling of stories is a very powerful thing.

Rack this one up in the “Duh!” category, but it just seems so obvious that a group of over-tired and fatigued people operating in a critical function are going to make serious mistakes. Do they not read some of their own research literature on the effects of sleep deprivation?!

I still do not understand why this persists, except for my experience in too many places where “doing what we had to do” is the rationale for continuing very stupid practices.

I was reading a bio piece by a former SAS guy recently, in which he talked about sleep as being a key factor in survival, and how he was fully aware that his lack of sleep was affecting his judgements and he made specific plans to ensure that he could safely sleep to get himself in good shape to do what he had to do.

I’ve yet to hear a good argument for allowing medical staff (both docs and nurses) to work in ways we would never allow airline pilots to do.

[Update... here's the official advice on what to do about fatigue if you're a doc who's exhausted... just drink 6 cups of coffee a day... :-)]