Beautiful Monster

My Front Door Monster - Harvestman (Opiliones)
My Front Door Monster - Harvestman (Opiliones)

Moth Infestation

We supposedly are experiencing an infestation of Hemlock Looper moths. They are pretty though.

Phantom Hemlock Looper Moth - Nepytia phantasmaria
Phantom Hemlock Looper Moth - Nepytia phantasmaria

Review Bias

It is not uncommon to hear somebody, perhaps yourself, comment that a certain product on Amazon got really bad reviews and therefore you will avoid it, or reviewing the comments about a doctor or RMT and seeing 10 negative posts and 2 positive posts, then concluding the person should be avoided.

The problem with taking online reviews about anything seriously is that without additional, hidden data the statistics just do not work the way you may think it does.

Firstly, there is obviously the problem of bots and hired guns that try and skew the reviews by getting paid to post positive or negative reviews. Ignoring this for a moment, the second issue I am addressing here is the fact that you normally do not know the total size of the population that interacted with the product or service.

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Car Review: BMW M235i Gran Coupé

Make/Model: BMW M235i Gran Coupé 2020
Colour: Boring Alpine White
New?: New (Demo)
Engine: 2.0l I-4 Turbo
Power/Torque: 224kW (301 BHP) / 449Nm (331 lb·ft)
Average Fuel Consumption: 7.6 - 10.3 l/100 km (Highway - City)
Performance: 0-100km/h in 4.8s, 250 km/h top speed
Transmission: 8 speed automatic
Owned: September 2020 - October 2023

BMW M235i 2020 - Front View
BMW M235i 2020 - Front View
BMW M235i 2020 - Rear View
BMW M235i 2020 - Rear View
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Apple, Apple, Apple...

If a small company with limited budget and resources releases a product or enhancements to a product, I am fine with the odd bug here and there. Not because I like bugs, but I thoroughly understand the challenges that go in to developing, testing and deploying code. The fewer resources and budget you have, the harder it is to eradicate bugs.

However, if your company is worth USD2,000,000,000,000 then you have NO excuse to release iOS 14 / tvOS 14 with these major bugs:

  1. Airplay from an iPhone 11 Pro on iOS 14 to the latest Apple TV with tvOS 14 no longer works reliably - I get disconnected every 5 seconds, with the tvOS crashing and rebooting every time. This worked perfectly for months on iOS/tvOS 13 with no issues.
  2. With the new sound detect accessibility feature turned on, it fails to recognise my cat miaowing. This system is supposed to aid hard of hearing people, but it discriminates hard against my Bengal cat. Did Apple not test this on different breeds of cats? So way-cist.
  3. When receiving a new sound notification alert, if you fail to unlock the screen properly the notice disappears and there is no history of it anywhere - so you do not know what sound caused it.
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