Megalomania.me

The iPad will get Siri in iOS 6, according to CNET:

Citing “trusted sources,” Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac says the voice assistant will land on the tablet this fall with nearly all the features currently found on the iPhone 4S, short of making phone calls.

“Music playback, iMessaging, Calendar managing, Reminders, Weather, Maps integration, E-mailing, Notes, Contacts searching, Safari integration, Wolfram-Alpha searching, and more are all present,” the report claims.

Not so fast. Siri requires an internet connection to be useful. For the iPhone, Siri makes sense because, in theory, an iPhone always has an internet connection available – preferably wifi if it’s an option, but a cellular connection if not – 4G, 3G, EDGE. iPads aren’t like that. Many iPads are only wifi-capable. Of those that have cellular data capabilities, many of them don’t have data plans in any given month.

How do you think an old person who doesn’t know a lot about computers would feel if he took his wifi iPad to a public place and then tried to use it to ask Siri for directions, but Siri told him to fuck off because she couldn’t access the maps information online?

Siri on an iPad would have to address the reality that many iPads are not connected to the internet much of the time. By including Siri on iPads in iOS 6, Apple would be sending the message that you shouldn’t buy a wifi iPad, or a cellular data iPad without a data plan. But then, why make wifi-only iPads available at all?

I use the person-to-person payment feature on ING Direct to send and receive money every month. To accept a payment, I need to visit a page on their site and enter my receiving account’s number and routing number (twice each). This month, ING Direct stupidly and obnoxiously installed some crap javascript that prevents me from pasting the account number and routing number into their page.

Why?

It seems they’re trying to degrade my banking experience further, perhaps because they’re now owned by Capital One, which recently lost me as a customer when they attempted to convert my 20-year-old VIP no-fee checking account into an ordinary account that costs $8.95/month or some comparable figure to maintain.

But ING Direct makes or saves no additional money by diminishing my ability to use person-to-person payments, so I can only assume that they are consumed with the desire to put up as many obstacles to outgoing money transfers as possible.

I easily out-maneuvered their shitty website by installing the Kill Evil extension in Chrome, but I also think this is a shot across the bow and that ING Direct’s new owners are resolved to ruin it the way they ruined Chevy Chase Bank, which Capital One also bought.

Who can recommend a free online checking account (not Ally) that has a great person-to-person payments system?

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdUf3jXqcko

CNET on cannabis without THC:

A group of Israeli scientists decided that they should pursue this joy-dampening experiment… they wanted to dampen the effect of tetrahydrocannabinol, the pot element that makes you feel so very good. But their aim was to increase the effect of cannabidiol, a substance that has been shown in some studies to help not only diabetics, but also those with some psychiatric disorders. “It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant — it’s all the same — but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared.”

At least one comment sarcastically calls for the mullahs’ regime to attack Israel with nuclear weapons.

Leave it to the Jews to ruin this for everybody.