Jul 2008 15 th
If you use MySQL….
If like me you use MySQL yet don’t pay for commercial support (There is nothing wrong with that!), there is another way to contribute. A MySQL developer finds himself in an bad situation and needs a little bit of help from us all. Normally I would not bother with such things, but then again, I do use MySQL a lot and I am dependant on it and this guy helped devlop it! But there is also a kid involved, if it were your kid, you’d do anything to save them. Anyhow, if you can give a donation as little or as large as you like, every little bit helps. Think about it, if every Wordpress blogger gave just $1 dollar, the medical fund would be rasied very quickly. Decision is yours, just my little nudge :). Ta
Add a commentJul 2008 15 th
So much for a global company. How Apple & Others treat Europeans
Reading Pat Phelan’s blog yesterday about Apple and how it restricts the rest of the world as to what it can purchase through iTunes got me thinking. I’ve long known that Apple deploy such practices as do many other organizations. I don’t think its right at all, yet have thought I would have been a crackpot for thinking same. If I buy an iPhone to have access to all the applications and Games, that means I want access to ALL the games and applications and not a limited subset. Alas they (Apple) cannot be fooled by the use of a mere proxy server, you need to supply a US address too, thus making it impossible for us Europeans to but such games as “Insert desired super cool game not currently available in Europe”.
Another thing Apple engage in which I am also not a fan of, is over charging or taxing their European customers. For example, I recently bought an iMAC 24″ With the 3.06 Proc. Its US cost is $2,199.00, yet its Euro Price is €1,919.00. If the exchange rate were taken into consideration it would be €1,377.43 Euro (15th July 08 - 08:00). This sort of thing is not confined just to Apple, recently I’ve experienced the same sort of practices with Adobe, so I am guessing there are others too.
You could argue that its not possible to keep track of exchange rates. I say balderdash. I know many smaller companies that deploy either daily adjustments or realtime adjustments in order to be as competitive as possible. Yes, Apple don’t need to be competitive to an extent, however they do need to start looking after their customers in Europe and not discriminate against them based simply on where you are coming from. Currently a European customer in not as equal as a US customer to Apple it would appear, from my recent use of iTunes anyhow.
I don’t subscribe to the content licence argument either. If it could be arranged with the music companies it can be arranged with the TV,Film and Software houses. Then Apple may be really disruptive, changing EU broadcasting too.
Calling for a boycott of such products from their vendors is at best a pipe dream. Yes I know they are discriminating against me, but I still want to use their products, or indeed in some circumstances I may need to use them. So how do we register our complaints, how are we heard? Is blogging about it going to be enough? I don’t know, is my answer, but hell I’ll give it a try and add to the growing choir.
So back to the thinking, here is one for someone with a bit of time on their hands. Setup up a buinssess selling proxy serivces Not only web based proxy services, but also real world proxy services, where people order stuff they can’t get in their location so the end up purchasing through you. Yes it would be a pain, to do, but then again I don’t care, I just want my cool iPhone game…. NOW!!!!!!
1 CommentJul 2008 13 th
Just in case you have not guessed, yes I am busy
Well yes I have been away for a while. No good reason apart from being very busy. So whats been happening…
- Hooked up with Adam, Walter (Yes Walter I found your blog), James and are planning world dominaiton
- Near the end stages of yet another video app for the web 2.0 kids. Heavily dependant of EC2 & GoGrid and its shaping up nice. All written of course using the Zend FrameWork
- Bought some .me domains but not allowed to say anything more yet, sorry.
- Want to work with some cool tech I came across recently, hope it goes through as it is kick ass
- Druid Dns is go in about a month or so I hope. Further tech to sort out. MySQL cache issue, nothing serious but needs a bit of time to work around
- Bought an iMAC 24″. Yeah it just works. Needed something with a large screen and that was not gonna bug me with crap breaking all the time and did not want to use a Linux box as I am too busy to set it up at present. Just use it to code ZF stuff
- Adams wedding is coming up
- So too is my sisters
- Miss France terribly especially because of the crap weather we have had this summer
- Am using twitter on a dailiy basis
- Am anaylising twitter on a daily basis to come up with ways that don’t make it so sucky (Its still great, but I think their user base is getting tired of excuses)
- Went to Gorbys for the first time, with Walter, James and Damien… weird place
- Am running out of Cuban cigars
- Will have to travel to Spain soon
- Will have to travel to France soon
- WIll end in the UK sooner!!!
Thats it for the moment. Need to sort out this blog as well, its a disaster. Rght now its not viable. Got a question, call me is probaly best, otherwise, mail is fine.
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