Year: 2011

Damn you, Autocorrect!

Automatic spelling correctors are well known for their weird understanding of the world.  People had troubles with them for years, and it won’t be soon until the problem will be completely solved.  But from all those applications and devices, Apple iPhone stands out.  Maybe it has something to do with the popularity of the gadget, or maybe it does indeed has a weird auto correct program.  The reasons aren’t that interesting.  Interesting is the fact enough people got caught by it and had enough fun to create a website devoted to automatic correction mistakes – Damn You, Auto Correct!

There are tonnes of fun there!  Go, have a look, and subscribe to their RSS feed.  Don’t forget to share the best ones.

Police or economy? Police.

Cyprus Updates reports:

According to an article in Phileleftheros newspaper almost four thousands of aliens who were illegally in Cyprus last year left on their own, while many others were deported by decree of the Ministry of Interior.
According to Immigration Department figures from the last year 669 illegal immigrants presented themselves voluntarily at airports in Cyprus and asked to return to their countries. All of them had come to the free areas though illegally occupied North and nobody knew about their presence here. The majority were mainly Syrians and Moldavian, while the rest were from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and China. Another 3,332 illegal aliens who either came to Cyprus through legal channels but their residence permits expired, or were asylum seekers, but their request was rejected and remained illegally on the island, also left voluntarily.

The phenomenon of voluntary departures large wave of illegal immigration is mainly attributed to lack of employment and increase unemployment, but also the fear that sooner or later be arrested by the Police.

I am somewhat familiar with illegal alien situation in Cyprus.  And in my personal opinion, police has not much to do with it.  Police was never effective enough to scare people off the island.  I think pretty much the only factor that is involved here is economy.  When people from poorer countries could get in here, get a job, and earn enough money in summer season to take them through winter, when jobs are less, or enough money to survive in Cyprus and support their families back home – that was a good enough reason to break the law.  After all, what’s going to happen in the worst case?  They’ll put you in jail for a few days until they figure out where you are from and arrange the deportation, and then they will send you back home.  Oh, boy, that’s scary.  Right.

In the last few years the situation in Cyprus changed quite a bit.  Tourism is down.  Businesses are closing.  Jobs are less.  And life is getting more expensive.  These are the factors that make people leave.  Not the police.

Day in brief

Fair Game

Went to see “Fair Game” in the cinema.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointment.  It felt like the filmmakers couldn’t really decide on what kind of movie they are making.  There is a bit of a spy movie, which sucked.  There is a bit of political conspiracy interlinked with a bit of documentary.  That sucked too.  There was a brilliant part of family drama.  But it was only a small fraction of the film without really being linked to the rest of it.

The film is not really fulfilling.  After all that time watching it, I had to ask myself – “what did I really get out of this film?”.  And unfortunately I had to answer – “Nothing”.  It’s not entertaining.  It’s not thought-provoking.  It’s not education.  It’s not emotional.

That’s too bad really.  Because both Naomi Watts and Sean Pean were involved and acting, trying to make this film better.  But there was just no base for their acting.  The storytelling was so bad.  What is even more surprising is that the director of this film – Doug Liman – for sure knows how to make good movies.  He proved that with directing both “Bourne Identity” and “Mr. And Mrs. Smith”.

Overall, I’d give this film a 3 out of 5.  If you really want to see it, don’t waste your money on the cinema.  There is nothing there that you won’t see on a smaller screen, in the comfort of your home.