The Yes Men take on Apple | Hacker News Reader

The Yes Men take on Apple

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63 pointsmjgoins24 comments

Apple requires all their suppliers to sign statements that the source materials (such as minerals) they're selling are 'conflict free'.

However, according to Steve Jobs, there's no way to be 100% sure that the materials aren't from the Congo or other war zones. Apple has no technique to inspect minerals and find out which mine they came from.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/jobs-no-way-to-be-sure-iphon...

"Yes. We require all of our suppliers to certify in writing that they use conflict few materials. "

That's quite an unfortunate typo!

I'd say that's definitive proof that Steve Jobs does indeed reply to customers' emails via iPhone.

Also: http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

I am just amazed that people do not turn this feature off. It is probably the first thing I do when I encounter software that tries to correct what I write.

It makes typing on the phone quickly much, much faster on average.

Reading and understudying, however, can be slightly imp haired. I guess some people think that's sediment, but I have no farming clue why. You and I probably donut have to worry about that, but my dyslexic fiend might.

"Dyslexics of the world, untie!"

> I am just amazed that people do not turn this feature off.

I'm just amazed that you'd be amazed: it generally get things right (90~95% for me, I'd say) and this means it's very good at avoiding phone-typos. It gives the writer the ability to be slightly less attentive (since the phone will catch and correct most small errors) and to type faster and with a lower cognitive burden.

One word: Swype. I find less typos than standard auto-correct and faster anyways.

And how well does it work with languages full of diacritics?

It is generally a bad idea to turn features off when you're responsible for those features actually working.

After reading that I feel like putting out a fake news release reading "Yes Men vow to check facts before launching future campaigns".

This is amusing, more so because I could almost see Apple itself attempting to use this concept. But, it's less cutting than several of the past Yes Men campaigns, possibly because of the congruence between the satirized and the satirical premise. Apple is not particularly egregious in sourcing their materials, nor are they particularly hypocritical about their use of rare-earth elements.

Umm.. Surely they meant 'hardware' here.. or else this is a double-troll..

As you probably know the minerals that are used in the production of various software products have largely been extracted from mines in Africa, especially the Congo. For the most part this mining has gone...

To me this just seems like a Greenpeace-style attention-grab by using Apple's name.

Yes this is totally unlike Yes Men at all.

I'm waiting for the Yes Men to take on airport security.

The Yes Men are about more fundamental issues than some measly symptom of globalisation happening to the people who benefit the most from it.

What is the connection between globalization and airport security, exactly? Are they outsourcing the TSA now, or do you have another explanation?

I believe it goes something like this, globalization has led to the increase gap in wealth between the 'west' and the 'rest', resulting in a socio-economically motivated hatred, combined with other wonderful aspects of geo-politics, history, and religion, resulted in 9/11 attacks, and the overall rise of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. And then TSA.

Of course in any real analysis of the world, something as sweeping and far reaching as globalization will certainly have some effect on whatever events occurred in the previous ~10-20 years.

According to Wikipedia, globalization describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade.

I'd say air travel plays a big part in facilitating that process. A case could be made that because of globalization, airport security was needed in the first place. Back in the thirties, when air travel was reserved for the happy few, airport security wasn't as much of an issue as it is now.

Me too. I'm waiting until someone invents a cavity searching robot and tries to sell it as mandatory given the fact that the TSA claims that the current machines cannot detect items hidden in body cavities.

If I had more graphics skill, I would be tempted to draw out exactly what it would look like, but I'm envisioning a metal chair with straps and a hole in the bottom, through which a chrome tube emerges. The end of the tube then expands to make its passage wide enough, creating a loud, sharp, metallic noise. Finally, a camera comes out from the center of the tube and a red LED on it blinks.

"It wont hurt as much if you try to relax."

If you are going for effect, a chair is too dignified. Maybe somthing along the lines of a breeding stand that clamps you into a bent position "for your safety" prior to probe insertion.

Conflict free iPhones made by Chinese slave labor. There is absolutely no way to get past the fact that someone may have died to bring you that shiny gadget. As disconnected as people are with their food supply, they're even more disconnected to everything else in their homes.

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