The View from Down Here

Steve Jobs is back at work, Apple says – CNN.com

This is very good news. Mostly for him. Apple still needs him, and not just behind the scenes. Phil and the others did ok at WWDC but the charisma was not there nor was the sparkle.

They probably do need to start thinking about “the next step” though

The hard rock bottom of my drive

I am writing this post on the iPhone app for Wordpress. It is 1 am on Monday morning and I have had a bad tech week!

I am sitting here watching a fairly clever graphical representation of my hard drive bring scanned and (hopefully repaired) by Disk Genius 2. A set of cats hair like they use to locate the target in a gun I gather are seeking out bad blocks. The graphic spins around on a focused area and zooms in every thousand blocks or so to reveal a computer like screen up close and personal with 1 s and 0s scurrying through and after 5 or so seconds that feel like forever a reassuring little tick appears. Phew! Then off we go again.

Let’s hope this works. Otherwise I’m going to have to get better at the iPhone keyboard

Amazon wish list

I was browsing Amazon and Dymocks Booksellers websites for ideas for upcoming birthdays, and decided that I have a potential weakness for all book-related websites.

As a result, and as a small project that will hopefully resolve the “what can I buy you for ….?” question (mostly from family) I’m going to build a book-centric Amazon list. Button in the sidebar.

Activists demolish Steve Jobs’s house plans

Apple boss housing issues

It seems to me that if the heritage of a house that is in such a dire state can still legally require an owner to maintain it because it is considered a landmark, then the same level of responsibility must be required to provide access for people for disability.

Californian law prohibits historical landmarks from being destroyed if there are feasible ways to preserve them.

In my view the argument put forward by the heritage lobby, both here and in other places is a well constructed one for their cause. They tend to argue that regardless of the owners’ wishes, if it is possible to maintain the heritage fabric then this is required, regardless of cost or preference. Based on this case it seems that the argument is indeed now a legal one, thus providing a strategic response to their issue . It would seem that the argument runs that if you don’t want to bother with maintaining heritage – don’t buy a heritage property!

Uphold Our Heritage rejected this argument, writing on its website that “the owner’s unwillingness to pay does NOT equal infeasibility”.

It’s important that we up the ante on requiring access of all sorts in much the same way as OH and S laws, if we are serious about respecting our discrimination laws and the UN Convention on the Rights of people with disability.

Connections people…..

Quote of note

In oculis animus habitat

The soul dwellis in the eyes.

via Classical bookworm