"who labelled the provocative billboard "appalling" and said it demeaned the holiness and meaning of Christmas." Oh give me a break! - Sofia Gkiousou
As a strictly non-religious person, I say; "Hell yeah that's offensive". It's not like it's challenging creationism or anything, it's just needlessly offensive to a lot of people for no good reason. - Sean
Sean this is just all too politically correct for my taste. sorry. - Sofia Gkiousou
As a Christian, I'll say my jaw dropped, then I chuckled, and then I thought. Probably what they were going for. I wasn't offended, but I can see how people would be. And I'll agree with Sean that it does seem needless and pointless. - Ladybug Heather
Considering how "christmas" has been an marketing ploy for who knows how long now.. its got less about christ than ever... I am not religious, but but even if i was, i doubt it would offend me. Whats "Tui"? Is that a company or something over there? - Rob Sellen
Several things could be offensive to different people (discussing what is offensive or not leads to quite hypocritical and contradictory conclusions). I would comment it's good enough to attract attention, thus meeting it's purpose as an ad. - Cωνσtantίnoς
That's true... controversy works for getting attention... as prooved here. ;o) - Rob Sellen
That's hilarious! Ah, Tui. Did it again... - kirsten
IMO, it's a condescending remark and that's offensive. - MikeAmundsen
As a Christian, I took it as a way of saying Christmas has lost its meaning, which is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. However, I can truly see why some would be offended. I am not. True intentions and emotions are not always express properly in writing, but in this case maybe so because here we are talking about it. On the other hand, this is coming from a beer company. - Valley
ah..beer... lol.. :o) Smart marketing if you ask me... - Rob Sellen
@Rob, @Gregory, @Clay. condescension is not a plus. no matter the source or the target. fun is fun. making a point is appreciated. beliefs are handy. an 'I'm better than you' attitude detracts from all those things. - MikeAmundsen
Who said "I'm better than you"? Noone.. who said it was a plus? no one... it just IS what it is. - Rob Sellen
You have to understand that this is not in the US, it's in New Zealand where the sense of humour is entirely different from the US. People don't get offended as much by things that are true but otherwise seen as taboo. Like saying Christmas is not all about Christ these days. It may be for some, but not the majority by a long shot. Tui is one of the biggest beers in NZ. You'll get the idea of their irreverant marketing by going to their site where they have a *cool shit* section. http://www.tui.co.nz - Scott Lockhart
“Just curious. Anyone else having problems with MS Office Live websites today. My 'beta' (and customer feedback form??!!) at anzmanconsulting.com has been down all morning.”
"The trick in each cycle is to fight complexity, so the growth can keep going. But you can't keep it out, engineers like complexity, not just because it provides them job security, also because they really just like it. But once the stack gets too arcane, the next generation throws their hands up and says "We're not going to deal with that mess."" - Dave Winer
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Then I am an odd engineer -- I can not stand complexity. - Robert Miller
Everone seems to like this piece. Guess I'm getting pretty good at it, been writing it in one form or nuther for abt 30 yrs!! :-) - Dave Winer
Lol Bob i dont think Larry & Sergey will be sleeping like babys...the N97 seems good competition for android in my opinion - Eldon
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Eldon, there is no, and there will be no competition in near future for Android. If you want functionality, a open world of apps, there is no alternative. When you want to have a lifestyle gadget get an iPhone. Android (which is a whole platform, not a single device) is for tech guys and Google users, not for snobs. If there are some who can sleep like a baby, it's the one from Google. There will be new Android phones, when the iPhone is already history. - Ryo
@Scobleizer I have a "disagreement" in point of view, to me, S60 application development is up to Symbian not Nokia, at least that's my take on it. Nokia develops it's own software, but they're not in the same "genre" (bad word choice) as Apple... - Sociosophy Reviews
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Sociosophy: Nokia owns Symbian now and is open sourcing it too. - Robert Scoble
Holy moly! That's huge news to me... Nokia owns Symbian? I had to jump to Google News just to verify that's so awesome. Ok, yea - Nokia needs to step their friggin game up on dev now for sure then... That's... I'm excited - Enrique Gutierrez
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@robert; But there are serious differences. Android is a real open system, a nice gui and infinite possibilities. The iPhone is a closed, very cool gui for snobs, running from a insane genius with a lot of disciples. And Symbian is simply a pile of shit. - Ryo
Androids short comings are the fact that the phone feels like a pile of under developed garbage. The iPhone has a large dev base, but once Adobe releases mobile Flash & god forbid AIR, that game is up. Symbian needs work, but if anyone can make an improvement, it's Nokia - Enrique Gutierrez
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Aren't we all too focused on the US? Mobile phones are fast proliferating in other parts of the world where Nokia has a strong base and market share.I believe that means a strong Symbian developer base too? Thinking aloud... - kamla bhatt
Kamla: It's been that way forever too. Back in the early 2000's GSM was all the rage with 140+ countries adopting the technology, partly due to poor land line services. Nokia's been ahead of the curve (globally) for ages. - Sociosophy Reviews
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It's true Nokia has a massive footprint. But many people who have even the S60 smartphones don't even know how to install apps, and you can forget about the S40 users :-). - sixbit
sixbit: I'm assuming you've never used the Nokia Application Installer via PC Suite or Ovi? It's mindless and fast. Also, apps can be installed from the phone-based browser. - Sociosophy Reviews
@ryo I couldn't agree more with you. Apple has done a great job with making apps available but Apple's characteristics limitations restrict it from achieving it's true potential. Android on the other hand has limitless possibilities which will only truly be displayed from 2010 onwards when a lot more devices start coming out without necessarily outdating current gen Android devices. - Bhavishya Kanjhan
What I like about S60 phones is their ability to sync with Lotus Notes (what I use at work). So, I think I will stay with Nokia. - Olivier CASTETS
@sociosophy I install apps on my S60, but not nearly as often as on my iphone or android phone. but thats besides the point, i'm a mobile developer, and my point is the the average person who has a Nokia doesn't even bother with the PC Suite or Ovi. - sixbit
@Enrique. I don't have any confidence that Adobe can sufficiently optimise Flash/Air on mobile devices so that your phone's battery wont sucked dry in minutes. If they can't even get decent performance on Mac or Linux, then I don't see how Adobe can magic up some decent performance on mobile devices. - Paul Grav
@ryo I like Android but love iPhone. Just plain easier. And, IMHO, limitations can be liberating. A sonnet is difficult, but satisfying. It is early in the game. Apple might get more open (the kernel is there,) if the competition demands it. It is easier to open a closed system than to close an open one. - Phil Boiarski
"For the past few weeks I’ve been using PeopleBrowsr. Very cool. It’s the most significant thing to happen to social networking since FriendFeed came on the scene a year ago." - Kol Tregaskes
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