Apple v Samsung - a rant (sorry)

Do you remember the stunning "1984" advert Apple ran to promote the Mac against the then-ubiquitous IBM PC?

Well, now that Apple is the biggest company in the world, and has the biggest market share in tablets and smartphones, it seems it won't stop until it owns the WHOLE market for tablets and smartphones. Sounds like IBM used to act.

Surely, Mr Cook, you can leave some space for other manufacturers? We customers do like a little choice, and I don't mean how much memory our iPad has. Patenting absolutely everything AND THEN REFUSING REASONABLE LICENCING TERMS doesn't make sense.

Nokia earns over $500 million a year for licensing patents to companies like Apple. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/14/nokia-falls-back-on-patents)

Nokia won against Apple in court over licencing and Apple agreed terms. So Apple is prepared to come to agreements over licencing patents. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13759612) 

It is rumoured that Nokia now makes more profit when Apple sells an iPhone than it does from selling one of its own phones. If Apple agreed reasonable terms with companies like Samsung, say $5 per device to cover all patents, it would be very lucrative for Apple too. 

The whole patent litigation action in the IT world is making ordinary users very fed up. It is just a serious waste of money and a distraction for these manufacturers who should be spending their time and money on innovation and bringing new products to market.

My job, a poem

I work as a temp in IT.

(That doesn't spell 'it' but 'eye tea'.)

That's computers and stuff

And it can be quite tough

To get home on time. Dearie me!

Johnny and the meal prayer - joke

Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When little Johnny received his plate, he started eating straight away. "Johnny, wait until we've said our prayer," his mother reminded him. "I don't have to," the little boy replied. "Of course you do," his mother insisted. "We say a prayer before eating at our house." "That's at our house," Johnny explained, "but this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook."

Future Apple products?

- iGlass - Apple optician service
- iScream - Apple horror-movie, frozen-treat mixed franchise
- iDeere - an Apple-branded tractor
- iKnow - Apple encyclopedia
- iWant - Christmas gift planner app for kids
- iDunno - Apple teenager speech translator app
- iExpectso - Apple future-event predictor
- iCan - Motivational thoughts app
- iCan'tBelieveItsNotButter - buttermilk/margarine spread
(sorry, that last one is real)

An old apple limerick

There was a young lady from Rhyde,
Who ate loads of apples and died.
The apples fermented
Inside the lamented,
And made cider inside her inside.

The Talking Dog Joke

A man visits a theatrical agent, claiming he has a talking dog. "Show me!" says the agent.

The man turns to his dog and says, "Rex, what do you find on trees?" The dog responds, "Bark!"

"Do you like biscuits?" asks the man. The dog says "Yep!"

"What is on the top of a house?" the man next asks. "Roof!" replies the dog.

"That's terrible, get outta here!" shouts the agent.

As they leave, the dog looks up at his owner and says, "Should I have said chimney?"

Is the London 2012 Olympics countdown clock correct?

With a great fanfare on March 14th, the London 2012 Olympic Games organisers unveiled a clock counting down to the start of the games.  The clock was supplied by Omega, who have been official timekeepers at the Olympics for 25 years, so they know their stuff, or do they? As I watched the countdown, I noticed something strange. It went something like this:

Days - Hours:Mins:Secs
500 - 00:00:03
500 - 00:00:02
500 - 00:00:01
500 - 00:00:00
500 - 23:59:59
500 - 23:59:58
500 - 23:59:57

The clock counted down to midnight when it got to 500 - 00:0:00 and rolled round to the next day, 500 days to the Olympics!

Now, am I being dense here? Surely 500-days-and-one-second "to go" is less than 500-days-23-hours-59-minutes-59-seconds "to go".  500 days is 499 days and 24 hours, so anything LESS than 500 days isn't 500 days plus some hours. Shouldn't the number of days decremented when the hours, minutes and seconds went through zero?  I would have expected this:

Days - Hours:Mins:Secs

500 - 00:00:03
500 - 00:00:02
500 - 00:00:01
500 - 00:00:00
499 - 23:59:59
499 - 23:59:58
499 - 23:59:57

So how many days left should be shown on the clock now? The number on display, or one less than that?
What do you think?
Links:
London 2012 official news about the unveiling of the countdown clock

News report on the breakdown of the countdown clock the day after it was unveiled

Daily Telegraph's daily countdown to the London 2012 Olympics