Posts in the Rants category

I have plenty of respect for Kenny Dalglish and what he has done and means to the fans of Liverpool FC. Not just that, but what he means to the club.

I am too old to remember him as a player and even as a manager the first time round, but I know he was successful. A quick glance at the history books will tell you that.

For me, it's not the wrong decision, but possibly not the right time. For those in favour of him going, it had to be now rather than later so that anyone new has as much time as possible to get in before the start of the 2012-13 season. Maybe though, he should have stepped aside when there was someone more suitable available.

Replacements

Right now, there are only 3 names that come to mind of managers that are available and I believe could do the job.

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So much anger has been directed at Liverpool Football Club as a result of their unrelenting defence of a player who has apparently been found guilty of racially abusing a fellow professional. Rightly so really, the club could have handled things in the Liverpool way but it's the way in which the punishment was determined and dished out that has caused so much hurt.

For Suarez to have been 'probably' guilty just isn't good enough for me. That's the equivelent of saying that Evra 'probably' didn't lie about it. Calling Evra a credible witness, and it seems that he and Suarez were the only witnesses to an event that happened between the two of them, is also ridiculous. And to just let it slide that Evra also used derogatory words towards Suarez (which he says he never heard) and threatening to assault him is also baffling.

I really wish things had been handled better by my beloved LFC and their statement announcing that they would not be challenging the decision was welcome if only to draw a line under the matter. As Oliver Kay suggested yesterday on Twitter, a more dignified, Liverpool, approach would have helped the situation so much more.

One thing I don't undestand is how the 8 match ban was justified for Suarez, but the FA were happy to appeal against a 3 game ban for Rooney which was the result of him physically assaulting a fellow professional, while playing for England. It's a disgrace and stinks of double standards, but then what's new?

All I'm looking forward to now is seeing Suarez back in action and the > 8 game ban for the obviously guilty, John Terry.

I have read a lot about different tablet form factors since the iPad was first announced. Yes, Apple got the iPad almost certainly spot on. The iPad 2 that has been just as, if not more, successfull.

Samsung, as well as HTC, Motorola and almost every other tablet manufacturer has tried to release a variety of tablet sizes to help match Apples incredible output and sales. Hoping that demand catches up with devices on offer, rather than trying to fullfill demand. A dangerous game to play in what I would class as a, admittedly large, niche market.

Habit

Unfortunately, it seems that, especially in Samsung's case, releasing a number of different sizes has become a habit of what might be seen as their core business. The humble TV.

For decades now, television manufacturers have released any number of sets with almost identical features (if not identical), just in different sizes. Walk into any electrical or department store and you now see walls of the things. Gone are the CRT offerings, but now you have plasma, LCD and LED. 22, 32, 36, 42, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 58, 59, 60 inch and beyond in terms of diagonal screen size. This is one crowded market space.

Just take a look at Samsung's current D range sets which come in 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 series configurations, each a slight step above each other, then the different types of technology powering within each series. The range is further widened with the multitude of screen sizes available. On their website, you have the choice of 148 televisions. 148. An insane number of devices to have on offer.

If this is your common approach to selling your devices, it is probably a natural step to take into new spaces. Their mobile and tablet offerings don't offer as many choices, but compared to Apple's solitary device, it looks like a lot.

Apple were not always the experts at just giving users one choice, take the iBook (5 different colour options) as an example. Or the iPod Mini (5 colour options) or iPod Nano (4th and 5th generations had 9 colour options). Admittedly, colour options are less serious than different screen resolutions, but then their iMac and MacBook ranges also give a multitude of options... the difference? Configurability. Whether that's space, screen size, RAM or the type of input devices, Apple makes their devices either personal or configurable. One thing their iPad competitiors do is give too much choice.

A few months ago I was one of more than 6,000 people to sign a petition that asked the UK Government to encourage departments to upgrade from IE6 to better browsers.

Unfortunately, the response was as expected. Unlike other EU countries that have discouraged the use of IE6, the Government felt it necessary to fall in line with the infinite number of lazy IT departments around the company that feel that the time spending upgrading IE6 to be expensive and unnecessary.

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When it comes to the web, surely your location (language permitting) shouldn't exclude you from being able to access a site, app or service. It makes the world wide web a lot less world wide.

Off course, governments and organisations may wish to block you (for political reasons), but that's a slightly different story.

Why are those of us in the UK blocked from using services like Pandora and Hulu? Similarly, non-UK visitors not allowed to make use of the BBC's iPlayer? I really want to download the Pandora app but being outside the US makes this impossible to do, let alone actually make use of the app!

It looks like an excellent app and I really miss being able to use Pandora.

This isn't the only case of this either. In this day and age, anything served up as a digital download should really be released simultaneously across the globe, shouldn't it?! I don't think I'd be far off if I touted greed as the main reason, but how much money do record labels and film studios not make by not having a fixed and simultaneous international releases date for digital media? Would consistent availability help in their fight against piracy? Who knows?

DRM for music seems to have gone the way of the Dodo, but who's to say it won't be back?