fairwweather
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Apple says hidden Safari setting led to flawed Consumer Reports MacBook Pro battery tests
This is absolutely stupid. And the condemnation has been posted on news site every where - including those such as CNN that do not accept reader comments.
I stopped trusting Consumer Reports a long time ago. The did a head-to-head test between a Mac and a couple of PCs. The Mac had Gigabyte Ethernet built into the mother board. As was typical, the PCs had to have an Ethernet card. Being the PC-heads that they were, it never occurred to them to look at the ports on the back of the machine. They just looked at the cards and decided that the Mac did not support networking. They also included this supposed lack of networking in the text of their condemnation and in their feature comparison grid. Naturally, they had a photo of the back of the machine and there was the RJ45 port, as plain as day.
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Apple dissolves Mac automation management post, Sal Soghoian to leave company
I've used AppleScript and Automator many times over the years - setting up watched folders and actions, etc. AS and A have been problematic from the start. A very narrow range of tech heads have been able to do a lot with scripting on the Mac but I doubt they represent more than one out of five thousand Mac users.
The AS / A thing is far too ungainly to attract the masses. Most everyday people who have tried it out have been totally stumped by it - "here's a list of selectable terms, here's a window where you're supposed to do something, have fun". The interface was not vetted by normal people and it turned normal people away. I was motivated, so I figured it out and used it for many things, most of which were not particularly high level.
It is like a master mathematician trying to teach math to an elementary school kid. 90% of the kids are left behind. Just because someone is a master of something, this doesn't mean that they have one iota of teaching skills or that they understand how kids learn and interact with things.
While other factors are clearly at play, AS / A has been a victim of Apple-itis: it was created to appeal to the creators. It's like when Apple rewrote iMovie to suit video pros; removing a powerful but drop-dead-easy interface that amateurs flocked to in the millions and replacing it with a screen filled from top to bottom with a dizzying array of frames. It was great for a certain group, but it drove millions away – the millions of amateurs that it was specifically designed to serve. As it is now, people use it if they are really intent on using it. The percentage of normal people creating movies with it is nowhere near the percentage before the interface rewrite.
The scripting interface is far too mysterious for mere mortals. I'm not surprised that Apple eliminated the post. As for me, I'm annoyed that this issue was not addressed properly and did not offer a leg-up to normal everyday people.
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Didi Chuxing president says Apple deal closed in 22 days, talks in progress in several areas
This is a huge investment. Obviously, China wants foreign investors and they would be much more willing to grant a favored status to and approve other initiatives from a company that is willing to spend this kind of money. The connection to automobiles is obvious and it certainly ties into China's massive smog issues. No doubt, this not really about ride scheduling but about technology and manufacturing. My guess is that in addition to the business of transportation, this will involve a deal to design and manufacture key systems for Chinese-manufactured vehicles.Is there corruption in China? Sure, but the government is more likely to pay attention when this kind of money is on the table. The real issues with corruption would most likely be related to nickel-and-dime stuff - small components for complex systems; such things as wiring, floor mats, fasteners and fixtures.
I've dealt with Chinese vendors. Some are honest and some try to pull things, but they are much more likely to try something when their customer is an ocean away than when the customer is a buddy with the government. (Example - one outfit swapped white card stock for product packaging for lower-quality yellowed stock. Then they sat on it until the last minute, aware that we had certain release dates. At that point they shipped the packaged product, knowing that there was no way that we could reject the shipment. As a result, the packaging had a yellowy tinge, which cut our sales by around 10% - 15%. All they had to do was change the description of the cardstock, then pocket the difference. They knew that we would not be in a position to take them to court (or have the patience to do so, or be willing to bet that someone will not bribe the magistrate). If Apple is doing a billion-dollar sweetheart deal with the government, the crooks will be wary.
