Have’t Apple always been higher end niche products?

What a stupid bloody question.

You don’t get to be THE BIGGEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD by making niche products.

All this press attention, blogging and forum posting is another sad reflection on our consumer and celebrity obsessed society.

As one who is frequently concerned, perplexed and depressed by our consumer and celebrity obsessed society, I would have to completely disagree with you.

If you can’t see the incredible impact that Jobs has had on our society then you’re not looking hard enough.

In Jobs’ case he actually does merit all of the press attention he is getting (but which actually he never seemed to court for it’s own sake).

Like it or not, the man, his company and its products have had a big impact on all our lives over the last few years.

– written on my imac.

Toptastic vid.

To paraphrase Hannibal Lecter “The world was a more interesting place with him in it”

I think this is a fitting tribute – magazine front covers with him on them. [/url]

Have you tried taking this up with the school, or just moaning about it on here?

As much as I like.

It’s all unpaid though.

A voucher for 6 photos.

Got a Tesco Cars advert now.

Anyone else getting an ad for Scala Anti Cellulite Shapewear on the right-> since this thread started?

OK, just to redress the balance.

Tesco, Netto, Waitrose, Lidl, Asda bicycle credit.

Or maybe they are that clever, which would actually be pretty stupid.

How much advertorial do you think Sainsbury’s would have to buy in order to get their links higher than all the companies that actually do have some legitimate reason to link the words “bicycle” and “credit”?

you do know this has only been placed on stw to get Sainsburys some high ranking links on Google if anyone searches for ‘bicycle’ and ‘credit’, don’t you?

I’ve worked in marketing. They’re not that clever.

everyone knows what Advertorial means, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t them that got the country in “a bloody mess”

I think this is a perfect example of why the country (OK – western world) is in a mess.

We are constantly being bombarded with messages about “increasing productivity” and the importance of growth and increasing GDP.

This LITERALLY POINTLESS crap probably took someone a couple of days to put together, went backwards and forward between the creatives and the client a bunch of times. Needed negotiation between media buyers and media. Is likely currently being monitored for effectiveness and yet….

… all that could have been avoided, by someone with a scintilla of common sense pointing out early on in the process that it was sheer futile desperation on the point of all concerned to take it from a witless idea thrown out in a brainstorming session by a junior account exec who’s brother works at Halfords to the fully formed work of utter banality that currently graces the home page.

But…

… the several thousand pounds no doubt expended on the way all counts towards GDP (so hooray).

There was an incident where some 21yr old lad squared up to my 55yr old mother, then referred to her as “a stupid old bitch”.

You’re not telling us the full story.

So if you really do want advice, why don’t you?

Ooh… just had a flashback to reading Viz Top Tips

Talk to your neighbours and get everyone to park their cars out on the street on alternate sides of the road so anyone coming down it has to do so by weaving between them. After a while people will probably work out that it is quicker not to come down the road.

Using that axe you’ve got there is the equivalent of cleaning a floor with a toothbrush. I know as I spent many hours in my youth using the one my Dad supplied in order to split his logs.

Then I found out that what you actually need is one of these:

… and having received the arcane knowledge of our forefathers I completed my journey from boy to man.

What you have is a felling axe, and it is almost useless for splitting logs, especially dried out old gnarly ones.

You might also do well to have a small sledgehammer to hand to drive the splitter in if it gets stuck in a big bit.

“Hold it away from me and set fire to it.”

Sensible suggestion alert!

If your house faces the right way, get the roof covered with solar PV. Better return than any bank account. Might cost 15-20 k

Congrats on your public service of keeping him away from people who might actually get scammed.

Climate change and it’s causes being an obvious example.

Oh dear… 8O

THM

I am less persuaded by some of the more Malthusian-type predictions.

Can you expand.

We are going to have to accept lower returns, pay more for them and ultimately work for a lot longer than previous generations.

Don’t agree with this bit. In particular, the idea that we all need to work harder/longer.

Once you come to terms with the fact that you don’t need to replace your kitchen every 5 years, replace the car every 2 years, replace your phone every year etc etc. then you can get by on a lot less money than many people seem to think you need. Every time I don’t buy something I mentally celebrate the fact that I won’t have to earn the money to pay for it. We’re pretty lucky in that (IMO) we’re reasonably well off, but all around me I see people making lots more money than us who still seem to think that they aren’t well off and need to make more of it. What’s needed isn’t more work to afford the same lifestyle, but a more realistic view about what things are and aren’t important.

kb

However, the mouth-breathing conspiracy theory nonsense from inter cut & paste merchants is absolutely of the same stable as Jews/Lizards/Bilderberger rubbish. I see you’ve mentioned Peak Oil too. I reckon if you can just squeeze in some “freeman on the land” reference, you’ll have the whole set.

What do you suggest then? That people don’t talk about peak oil, because some people will use it as evidence of “conspiracy”.

Actually, just went to the oil drum to see what was new and came across this article, which talks about “peak debt” and ties it to peak oil. Also makes a few suggestions as to how the economy might be changed in order to create a more sustainable future (-ve interest anyone?):

Oil Drum Article

Forgot also to mention the economic effects of of peak oil, which are/will be massive, but are still being ignored by the “business as usual” policies of governments around the world.

A good source of info on this phenomenon is:

The Oil Drum[/url]

(plenty of reading matter for you there THM)

bainbridge,

Like many things, it’s bad in excess. And that is what we have had – runaway creation of money as debt. And now we’re in the sh1t.

Konabunny,

Please don’t try to lump fractional reserve banking in with all that other stuff. It is part of mainstream economics and its use/abuse has led to many of our current economic problems. You will find plenty of mainstream economists saying so.

THM,

The key “take away” (or point, as I prefer to term it) is that the economics that have “worked” since the war won’t work anymore as we reach the limits of population growth and resources such as agricultural land, fresh water, fish, timber etc.

THM

But JY made a fairly clear point that banks lend money they don’t have.

You then went on to say that you agreed with him, but giving the misleading (your favourite word) impression, but alas the one that most people seem to have, that banks merely take money from depositors and then lend it out, when of course that is nothing like what they do.

JY – Of course, banks lend money that they do not have. That is their function – to intermediate between those that have excess savings (eg depositors) and those that have a deficit (borrowers).

You seem to have missed out any mention of “fractional-reserve banking”. You know, the bit that means banks really can lend money that doesn’t even exist.. It is quite important.

Isn’t Greece actually just an example of people wanting good public services etc, while not wanting to pay any tax?

Or more akin to the US subprime situation?

Maybe they shouldn’t have been allowed to borrow loads of money?

THM,

What’s your point?

Quite happy to debate ad infinitum, but I’ll go elsewhere for comedy if you don’t mind.

If you’ve got 38 minutes you might want to have a look at this:

Crash Course

I think he talks a lot of sense.

(if you can get over the production values of the video)

Greece shows us what happens if you don’t have growth.

No. Greece shows what happens when a small agriculturally based country where everyone is getting on quite nicely gets conned into thinking that growth is the answer to everything and that it should borrow loads of money in order to enjoy the same access to consumerist gewgaws as its “rich” neighbours.

Z11

By the measure that its one hundred and fifty **** billion quid more than total government income
expenditure more than income means debt, borrowing is, be definition, never a “sustainable” financial position, as, sooner or later, you have to pay it back.

I explained this to you yesterday (or was it the day before?)

NO, YOU DO NOT PAY IT BACK – it’s impossible. Our global economy only works by the creation of debt.

BTW, the country with the biggest national debt isn’t a socialist country.

Z11

Can you please go away and find out what GDP is, because you clearly haven’t a clue.

GDP has sod all to do with national debt or balance of payments. In fact, it doesn’t measure anything useful at all.

What country has the biggest GDP?

What country has the biggest national debt?

Notice anything?

Who’s point?

bainbridge,

Wwwhaaaaattttttt?

I didn’t quote you at all. I quoted THM (admittedly I accidentally refered to him as TBH) from about 3 hours ago.

Don’t you remember what you said yourself? :D

Quite ironic n’est pas?

Not much point having black out curtains and a night-light!

If it were me, I’d get rid of the night light. Obviously this might be difficult if he’s used to it. But that’s what I’d do.

Who did I misquote?