Saturday 29 November 2003

Time for the iTablet? Robert Cringely thinks Apple may be ready to launch a TabletMac despite Steve Jobs' dismissal of the concept. Neil McIntosh over at Onlien Blog isn't so sure. Cringely's vision is an entertaining one. But we can certainly expect speculation about this January's announcements to be even worse than normal. Apple always launches something in January - Jobs has to have something to uncover at the MacExpo in the second week of the month - and this time around, it's hard to see what he could be about to do. All of Apple's existing lines have been refreshed recently - speed bumps for the G5, PowerBooks and iBooks, and a new 20-inch iMac. Well only a few weeks left until we find out. [onlineblog.com] 11:05:54 AM    comment []  Google It!

Breach of copyright no crime under draft E.U. law The European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee has made major revisions to the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement directive. Most notably copyright and patent infringements are to remain in the civil sphere rather than become criminal offences, as proposed under the original draft. The directive will probably be debated in Parliament sometime in the New Year. [InfoWorld: Top News] 10:51:58 AM    comment []  Google It!

Deadlock So the predictions have come true. The DUP is now the largest political party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Sinn Fein has out performed the SDLP. Personally I blame Trimble for the whole mess. His refusal to live up to his side of the bargain meant that the Unionist electorate never really got to see the advantages of devolved power-sharing. His insistence on making decomissioning a precondition for powersharing when ultimately it should have been a product made Sinn Fein the victim and elevated its status within the nationalist community. At the same time he tried to appease the anti-agreement rump of his own party when what he should have done was purge them. Now we're stuck with the very real prospect that the Assembly may never meet again before the next elections in five years time and that the Executive will never be formed. My worry is that the political vacuum will be filled by even more extreme elements and that we will go back to the violence and mayhem that was the trademark of Northern Ireland for so long. 10:40:37 AM    comment []  Google It!

© Copyright 2003 David Stewart. Last update: 01/12/2003; 00:07:30.