Whatever this is, it isn’t democracy.

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Did the 1.1.1 update “brick” your iPhone?

Even if, like ours, it wasn’t hacked in any way?

In other words, even the saintliest of customers are getting fucked by the Sony that Apple pulled. I predict a class action lawsuit…

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A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago.

For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden out and then fled in late 2001 after U.S. forces drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan cities. Ultimately, however, U.S. forces failed to find Bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, even though their attacks left dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban dead.

One of the officials interviewed by NBC News, a general officer, admitted Tuesday that it was “possible” Bin Laden was at Tora Bora, saying, in fact, “I still don’t know if he was there.”

[..]

Michael Sheehan, a former Army Special Operations colonel and counter terrorism ambassador, says he is not surprised.

“Our response is normally too big, too slow, too cumbersome and too risk adverse and those factors normally come from Washington,” said Sheehan.
“The operators normally want to go in much smaller, much more low profile in order to be able to get to the target without being identified and as those plans go up the chain of command they normally get much bigger and much more cumbersome.”

But the bigger part of the picture is the question of allocation of resources from Afghanistan to Iraq. All Delta Force and “dark side” Rangers were moved to Iraq, said a special operations officer involved in the Afghanistan operation. Left behind in Afghanistan were SEAL Team Six and some Rangers. But apparently in this case, not enough “dark side” were available. The 82nd, said a second special operations officer, “is a poor substitute … [it is] a blunder to use them on an op with dark side operators.”

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On the edge of the Himley Estate lies the The Glynne Arms (more popularly known as the Crooked House or The Siden House). It is a house that has suffered badly from mining subsidence. It lies on what was the divide between Sir Stephen Glynne’s land and that of the Earl of Dudley.

Glynne removed too much of the coal that lies underneath with the obvious result. As the result of an optical illusion, without even taking a drink, beer bottles can really be seen to roll up the table!

Some years ago, the pub was shifting and sinking but buttressing prevented further damage but left it tilted some 15 degrees out of true. Doors, floors and windows all sit at odd angles to one another, causing patrons difficulty upon entering the pub and walking to the bar.

The sloping floor creates an eerie illusory sensation, making drinkers feel drunk after only a pint or two.

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I guess Apple was telling the truth.

I decided to try the 1.1.1 iPhone update on my unlocked and hacked phone. The process went along just fine until the iPhone restarted. Then I got a message on the screen that I had an incorrect SIM. I took the SIM out of the iPhone and put it in my old Treo, and it worked—I called my phone and it rang as expected.

Guess I’ll be headed to an AT&T store soon to try and get a new SIM card…

[Update]

Walked (well, more like ran) over to the nearest AT&T store. I told them my iPhone stopped working and that iTunes told me I needed a new SIM card (both true). The guy said no problem, and handed me a new SIM. He told me to install it, connect to iTunes, and activate the SIM with my existing account. Just got back, popped in the SIM, and no luck—getting the same errors.

Great work, Apple. Waging war on your own customers. You’re about to join the music industry on people’s shitlist.

Apple has a movie about the new features in an iPhone software update here.

About three quarters of it is lauding one feature: they now take up precious real estate on your home screen with a button for the iTunes Music Store. No, let me rephrase that, with an advertisement for their store. The rest of the new features fall in the “extremely minor” category, such as the ability to view your email attachments in landscape, and don’t add enough value to offset the advertising attempt.

So thanks, Apple, but no. I’ll skip.

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Creep everyone out in your guest bathroom. Each soap is shaped like a little hand! The soaps range from 1/2” to 2”.

You will get at least 10 hands (at least/about 100 grams of soap). This soap is made from goat’s milk and vegetable glycerin with a light scent. Your hands come packaged in a pretty bag…all ready for gifting to a friend with dirty paws!