Posts by John Stirling
149 posts • joined Thursday 29th March 2007 00:36 GMT
I'm interested to see. ..
...that one person being an ass has sufficiently destroyed good will that the consensus on here (a generally liberal rational forum) is that whistle blowing is bad and governments should keep whatever secrets they like.
after all if wiki leaks had taught us anything it is that authority can be trusted. ..
colour scans?
I believe it is a breach of crown copyright to make colour copies of a passport. Apple encouraging copyright theft. sounds like a headline to me.
@ hardened?
About as well as my pc. My TV. My laptop. My fridge. My phone. Please don't use emp as an anti smart meter campaign device. I liked the 20th century. I like the 21st century. I don't want to live in the 19th century. Even without smart meters.
Not so much a sledgehammer as a steam roller to crack a nut.
Re: Fantastic
You are entirely correct - these fast data services are just a clever ruse. I have refused to use any phone capable of more than GPRS - everything else is just a clever ploy to confuse me. 114 Kbps should be (more than) enough for anybody. I'm still using 14.4 at home, and that allows me to surf almost without restriction. Of course I do have to stop the browser downloading anything except text, but really what advances have there been in the last 15 years which don't simple detract from a good 'all your bases are belong to us' meme?
Re: "They did not invent."
and yet it is the rounded corners which are worth $22 dollars per machine.
Since we agree that the rounded corners are not special we must therefore agree that the litigation is largely (in financial terms) baseless, and that the company pursuing baseless litigation is therefore being 'bad', and is nothing special.
Then we can subsequently agree that they should get out of the courtroom, and get back to marketing products peerlessly.
Glad we're all in agreement
Re: bloody ridiculous...
Apple did well with the iphone for two reasons, 1) it was an Apple product, and they have seriously loyal (to the point of irrational) customers - how lucky are they?, and 2) the technology had reached the point where it worked. There were many smart phones previously, I owned some of them, reasonably large screens (but not as big, or hi res, as they weren't practical), reasonably functional (but not as functional), and a bit heavier.
The iphone was a fairly obvious improvement in terms of hardware and design tailored to a tightly designed, and highly quality assured user interface - which now looks rather dated, but at the time was revolutionary - but let us remember, it was the software that made it an iphone not the hardware.
Re: "They did not invent."
Hmm, methinks you don't understand the difference between 'design' and 'function'. I will grant you that the function is different, but the opprobrium being heaped upon Apple isn't about function it is about design - specifically rectangular with rounded corners.
The thing could be used to make toast for all it matters in terms of function, it is a rectangular tablet with rounded corners, that is the intellectual 'property' Apple sought to protect, and that is the IP that they clearly did NOT invent.
whether they are due the pennies for the function around fumble fingers, I don't know, maybe, but they can sod off for the design.
Re: Fandroids at it again....
Hmm, if only 99% were different, then presumably Apple copied the other 1%, and are therefore guilty of trying to protect prior art?
Design patents are crap - Copyright is there to protect how things look - Patents are there to protect how things work.
To be honest, Samsung's tab does look like Apple's - there are significant differences in functionality, but the form is similar - whether that was deliberate or not is both currently uncertain (I mean in fact rather than histrionic opinion), and irrelevant - a judge should decide whether the appearance is derivative (fine), or copyright infringement (bad), and that should be that. Design patents are a bad thing and restrict consumer choice.
Regardless of how and whether patents actually work, they are not a law of nature, and their purpose is to promote innovation not stifle it, and design patents can only stifle innovation, not promote it, and should be banned.
Apple is entirely within their rights to use a design patent to protect their turf, that is the law after all, but no one should be confused about the morally shitty territory they are inhabiting to do so. If you're an 'end justifies the means' sort of chap, and like Apple you'll be cool with it, if you have absolute moral rules beyond which you think it is not cool to travel, then you should be critical of Apple's actions, regardless of whether you also disapprove of Samsung probably being blatantly guilty of deriving their design from the ipad, and possibly making infringing copies of Apple's quite frankly beautiful AND derivative design.
The State of Oracle
You're missing the big picture - Hawaii and any of it's component islands have the constitutionally protected right to secede from the US by way of a referendum where more than 80% of the population vote for it. Wait a while while Larry gets the islanders onside then watch him declare independence, and move Oracle there as the first pure corporate state...
Ok, I am completely making all that up - but how cool (and scary) would it be?
unity
no, but I have, and do. It has one of the steepest learning curves of any UI I have ever used, but you have to climb it quickly, as until you have you can't even switch the bloody machine off. Once I climbed it, I found that unity slunk into the background, and I could get on with work.
Do I like unity - hell, why not. Did I like it immediately. Hell no.
My 'perfect' interface is windows XP, skinned down to look as close to win98 as I can make it, i.e. no themes, narrow menu, task bar, small icons, personalisation switched off.
Why is that perfect? Because I have used it for bloody years. Can I manage anything else? Of course.
The world moves on. Unity apparently offers advantage to Canonical, and theoretically to developers, so cool, I'll learn, I'm relatively technical. I have managed to migrate from nokia to blackberry, and thence to android, I can manage unity.
The question about whether Ubuntu is succeeding is not whether a bunch of hardcore linux heads like Ubuntu, it''s how many paying customers Canonical has for Ubuntu - and those are (apparently) growing, so by the metric that conveys survival probability things are improving.
Posted in Battlefield Earth ruled worst film EVER
ha, youngsters Get off my lawn
For the youngsters - Reign of Fire - appallingly awful.
But for those who remember the great days of poor movies (no, not the 40s/50s/60s/70s, but the 80s!)
Creepozoids.
I doubt you will find any trace now.
Wait, oh my god, I am wrong, IMDB & wikipedia both have entries. Wikipedia is even nice about it. Go look, this makes anything on that list or subsequently mentioned, and I mean anything, look like high art indeed.
Mind you, if I remember correctly there is quite a good nude shower scene (with out ANY justification in the plot) so perhaps it isn't quite so bad.... No, even that can'r save it.
Re: @AC 11:22
No, that should be "w'hat a pr'ick"
If you cannot randomly insert apo'strophe's into your pro'se - e'specially before every ''s' - then plea'se dont bother ['sic]
Re: novel
Hmm. Casually vacant judgement whilst confirming a complete lack of basis to do so.
Ok, they aren't great, but my 7 yr old daughter is utterly hooked. On reading. Real books.
Think about that for a moment. Of course perhaps I should insist that if she wants to read real books she read nothing less complex than Dostoyevsky but I am of the opinion that might cause her not to be so keen on books. So thank you JK - and good luck to you.
Of course I might be picking the wrong alternative here - perhaps you could provide the list of books that you deem acceptable. If you could also confirm the ones you have actually been arsed to read, so I know whether your opinion is fictional or based in reality that would help too.
Anyway - sorry for the strong attempt at a defence of Harry Potter - not really in character - but you set me off. If you'd said you had read them and thought them shit I wouldn't have blinked - it's the casual (that word again) ignorance I detest.
Re: AGW->more moisture in the air->more snow->more glacier
ya, because doubling rainfall, and increasing the temperature at 15,000 ft from -40 c to -30 c would cause much melting.... not.
Re: Here we have
Disclosure: I think AGW (anthropic global warming) is probably real. I think the solution with be geo-engineering rather than going back to an agrarian culture, or reducing population by 40%.
There is money talking on both sides. The AGW mob have (generally ) more dedicated zealots who lie because they care. The non AGW mob have more money, and more willingness to defend the money.
I think characterising the AGW lot as money grubbing because they are paid is an ad hominem attack which reflects more on how the attacker views the world than those they are attacking. However some of the AGW lot are crap scientists despite making their living doing that, because they 'interpret' data which is of insufficient quality and quantity to be reliably interpreted, and make unwarranted (not necessarily incorrect, but insufficiently robust) assertions.
That the issue is 'nothing less than crucial to the future of humanity' is completely irrelevant. That humanity finds it perfectly sensible to take a 'precautionary principle' approach to genetic modification, and yet finds nothing weird about conducting a global experiment on the very habitat we need is simply an example of why we are all such interesting conversationalists, and generally crap logicians.
To address Mad Mike's point that I am answering - whilst at the same time making my own point about the quality of the debate;
You attack the previous poster for quoting numbers without references, and then without references say 'yeah, but they don't care anyway' - in your opinion. At least the numbers are checkable (or uncheckable - in which case call BS) - whereas your assertion that power companies are unthreatened by tax rises and AGW furore is simply that, an assertion, and frankly not a very credible one.
Your sister may be an excellent scientist, and she may be well aware of her terms of employment, but that is purely empirical data with no reference point. Again, useless for furthering debate.
Finally - my own assertions are entirely opinion (except when they aren't), and I have done no fact checking whatsoever, but at least I already know this, and won't get upset when someone (hopefully) points it out.
Re: And then...
After 65 million years even the slow tectonic plates are going to have moved a couple of thousand kilometres, and the quick ones double that. That means most of the evidence of an industrial civilisation is going to have been subducted back under the crust.
Sort of a clean up and start again system - a complete renewal every 100 million years or so.
Death of Commodore/Amiga
I vaguely remember Commodore proudly announcing the appointment of the man behind the PCJr to head up their commercial proposition shortly before they destroyed their market by cost cutting all their best new products into uselessness.
He single handedly destroyed IBM in the PC world for years, and then destroyed Commodore completely. I can only assume he interviewed well.
I can't remember his name, but I do remember being rather annoyed at the time, as I was a proper Amiga fanboi - long before these apple fanbois, or fandroids got going. The real war was Amiga/Amstrad or C64/Spectrum before that.
These modern fanbois don't know they're born....
Somewhere I probably still have reams of 'C' containing the entire Amiga OS. Well the GUI part anyway.
And this product (to provide some vague justification for a rambling rant)?
Nah, don't think I'll bother thanks, but good luck to them if they can get some money out of punters.
To A J Stiles, getting the point
'what do you think some of these people are going to do, now they can no longer get their jollies with a few pictures and a box of Kleenex?'
Hmm, Mr Stiles; the report mentions 100GB of images. Not illustrations. 100GB of images of children. Whilst it is theoretically possible these are all harmless holiday snaps of children in swimming costumes on a beach with their families - it is more likely (based on the average prosecution) that some at least involve rape and sexual murder of children, real and genuine physical violence of the worst kind against some of the most defenceless members of our society.
So I am afraid I do not accept your 'aggregation' argument - presumably that if one child is raped and murdered 50 pedos can get off, and therefore 49 children are 'saved' - there is a recognised problem of dehumanisation, and whilst in many areas I am an utter libertarian (my limits are pretty much that if you are a competent adult, and consensual then anything goes); using children to sate a paedophile, who will in any event likely escalate his needs next time is never acceptable, not to mention ineffective.
If, as previously mentioned in these comments these pedo sites seed their data with false positives then there will be problems with public disclosure (proving you 'didn't do it' to a raging mob would present a significant challenge); but taking these arseholes down by any means and providing the data to law enforcement so they can get the individuals is a worthy use of anonymous members' excessive spare time.
Disclosure; I have two small children, and may not be the coldly logical thinker on this issue that I like to think of myself as.
(non) anonymous
Isn't the fact that he was known on the internet by his real name rather good circumstantial evidence that he isn't actually guilty?
Surely the anon/lulz lot all have names like l33t h4x0r and sp00n 04 d00m and other cool stuff like that?
Posted in Go Daddy sued over email alerts
Go Daddy go!
Please, for the love of all things 'obvious' fight.
I am pretty sure I still have a few examples of prior art from when my dentist used to remind me to get my teeth scrubbed every 6 months.
Also HMRC infringe this patent every year by reminding me to file a tax return.
And finally - my BOFH alert from El Reg - could be costly for us all.
evening out windpower
A bloody great big flywheel at the bottom of every windmill (or group of windmills). The mills power it up, the grid draws off power at a steady regular pace - even out the supply from 'anywhere between nothing and loads' to somewhere in the middle.
Quote this as prior art if you like when someone patents it.
Daily mail readers unite
When my family was burgled it took almost as little time to work out who the little scrote was. He was suitably punished. Being about 14 (I was 16 at the time) he was not 'set for life' and as far as I know he has gone straight (as of a few years ago, some 20 years later) It was upsetting, he was quite 'disruptive' in the mess he left, but once the shock had gone we bore him no malice.
This poor loser sounds like he really doesn't know anything else - the comments on here about 'obviously rehab hasn't helped him' are probably misspoken, it has almost certainly never been tried - and as a thought, why would someone take their personal possessions with them when burglaring? The only reason I can think of is homelessness.
If I was fresh out of prison, homeless and hopeless I think a quick non violent burglary would be just about the best outcome for all.
It is all very well pointing out what a hopeless loser he is (and let's face it he is), but he probably has no options now - jobs are not exactly falling from trees for those who do not have to explain big gaps in their work history, the recently incarcerated are stuffed. If we want to get ex cons to go straight we have as a society at least to make it no more difficult than for those of us with a natural disposition to play by the rules.
Just making prison less pleasant (and I don't personally relish it as it is) isn't going to make a difference, other than to allow the daily mail set to make tutting sounds about recidivists, and how it's 'in their blood'.
blackberry for android? that would be barking mad
Wouldn't that just be a not very good email client? Like all the others on Android and ios?
I've moved from blackberry to android with my last change, and in so many ways I love my new phone, sorry palm size computing platform with phone capability, but blackberry email rules, and rules really really hard. The reason for that is because they control the platform, so all the little design compromises that slip in are there to improve email, whereas on android/ios it's all about the 'user experience' and screen, and multi touch, and market place, and multimedia and and and. With the result that there are no good email clients. Not the way blackberry is a good email client.
You can see the difference by adding a 'imap to a normal server' email to a blackberry - it's also crap.
The magic is the combination of knowing the hardware inside out, controlling the server software, and writing the client.
If Blackberry want to play in the wider space they need to get better at the 'everything else', but email (and messaging, bb messenger is cool too), they have sorted. I miss the email, and it might on it's own be enough to push me back, even though in every other way my new galaxy s is worlds better.
@rjf
Ah then since there have been no liquid recombination bombs then clearly the 'no liquids' rule isn't just for looks. I have elephant repellers in my garden, and indeed have not seen an elephant since I started using them - clearly they work.
Ho ho ho
Merry Christmas
6 trillion miles is all very well,
but can we have that in SI units please?
How many football fields is that?
Or is it aircraft carriers for length, I can never remember.
Posted in .XXX domain deal stripped bare
@Network Manager
You are clearly not a refugee from a religious upbringing. Lucky you.
The religious mind relies heavily on ignorance. The faithful are not persuaded by logic, or reasonable dialogue to avoid sin. They are scared into virtue, and scared into ignorance. An enquiring mind is rarely a religious mind.
The religious mind must object to this - not to do so would be tacitly admitting it has a right to exist, and that cannot be admitted. The religious solution is not for .xxx to stay .com, it's for porn.com to be banned and cease to exist.
It is an amusing irony that the religious right and the porn industry all agree on what a bad idea .xxx is - none of them for particularly good reasons however.
Personally I'm all in favour - and welcome our .xxx overlords.
(in)finity
To answer;
1. Infinity, e.g. as in the existence of an infinite number of primes, is proven.
2. Finite sets do not contain infinite sets.
The set of the digits zero to nine has exactly 10 members, and yet all numbers (an infinite number of them) can be constructed without going outside members of that set.
Make it the set containing the digits zero to nine and the set containing the period (1 member), and then an infinitely larger than the previously infinitely large number of numbers can be constructed from members of these two sets, both of which have finite (and precisely defined) numbers of members.
Ok, so it isn't a proof, in fact it's bollocks, but it's AT LEAST as rigorous as the other bollocks.
For a slightly more rigorous answer to 2 above; yes that is correct, and your fallacy is that the universe does not contain the set of all possible primes, or indeed any infinite set (that we are aware of). It does contain symbols which allow you to manipulate infinite sets, and this (as my counter argument does robustly demonstrate) says precisely nothing about the infinite (or otherwise) scope of our universe.
IANAMAPOAWOWOWP (I am no a mathematician a philosopher or a wanky old weirdo obsessed with plato)
ifever
It is a phone.
It is cool, and it's users are generally enormously happy, and can on occasion be slightly smug. They are expensive products, if I spend that much on something I will generally be happy with it, and will have programmed myself to believe it is excellent. Most people do this.
Those of us who don't like the Apple business model can sometimes react negatively to our perception that Apple are smug, over bearing, and ethically questionable.
Quite frankly those who are advocates of Apple products, or even evangelists may appear to those of us who are not as perhaps not entirely rational, and we may even react to what we perceive as being manipulative big corporate tactics, but actually they are just reaffirming their purchase decision, and by doing so reconfirming their positive reasons for making that decision.
However I just wish WE COULD ALL just recognise that none of us, the 'lovers' the 'fanbois', the 'haterz', or the 'rationalists' are entirely rational in our views, we are all over reacting and falling into silly flame wars.
Look at me, most rational post on here by far, and yet....
...was it rational for me to spend 30 minutes reading an article, and comments, and then another 10 writing a reply regarding a subject that I am at best vaguely equivocal about.
mad, all of us
Prove there is/isn't a God
To anon @ 10:51 - I believe the 'flying spaghetti monster' answers this old chestnut more than adequately.
You do not need to prove the absence of something for which there is not only no reliable or repeatable experimental evidence, but not even a decent theory. I'll accept that there is a hypothesis, and that it has evolved continually since we as a species were complex enough to conceptualise, but that hypothesis has never qualified itself as a theory, because there are no testable predictions, and no prospect of any.
Believing in God is no less ridiculous than believing in Solipsism, or simulation theory - indeed at least simulation theory has a statistical argument on it's side, and the prospect of testability as science advances. God cannot be tested, by definition, if we identify an entity in a 'heaven' then by definition it isn't God.
Sorry for going even further off topic, but I cannot let God apologists go without at least a polite challenge to their intellectual credibility.
It's probably because I am envious of their smug certainty or something...
Posted in Labour manifesto changes a byte bit
I'm not a fan of labour
and that is an understatement.
But on this occasion I'm going to stand up for them.
This is a minor correction, and an example of using digital media well. If you can come up with a substantive example then do so, and let's hang the evil minded lying bastards by the yardarms.
Otherwise please desist from whichever form of made up argument this is 'and if they did something else much worse than what they have done that would be bad, so they are bad'.
-gate suffixes
Stuff a scandal about water being complicated for journos. I want the original Watergate hotel to be in a scandal, because by the rules of extension that would now be a Watergategate.
@Haydies
You misunderstand the point of anti trust actions.
You are also clearly pointing at Apple in terms of illegal actions.
Microsoft are a convicted monopolist. Many of the practices they carried on would put an individual in prison if conducted on an individual basis. This is not MS bashing, or an opinion, it is a matter of historical fact, and formal legal finding.
Apple are in some ways equally evil - but have never been convicted of blackmail (or whatever the corporate version is). Apple own the whole stack, hardware and software, therefore they have more legal clout in how they influence your use of your machine. They also only own around 10% of the market - if people dislike their practices there are realistic, widely available, cheap alternatives.
When MS were really naughty there weren't any realistic alternatives, and they owned over 90% of the personal computing market.
There are differences.
In relation to the whole 'it's all a long time ago' argument - if something is a crime it needs to be pursued, if a company (or individual) can get away with it y fighting it until it becomes 'no longer relevant' then the incentive not to commit crime evaporates for those able to afford expensive lawyers who can run the clock indefinitely. That is not a world I would like to live in, it's bad enough as is.
sorry, hopelessly offtopic, but time does not make these things irrelevant - other than purely technologically.
Oh, I own no apple devices (never have, hate job's lockdown, although they are mostly gorgeous and well designed), and am writing this on windows XP. Hypocrite, moi?
I was ruined by the Catholic Church
As a choir boy and altar boy in the Catholic Church, I grew up with a stain on my conscience.
I was broken, distraught, and upset.
The local priests never touched me, leaving me with the unanswered question...
...what was wrong with me?
And you thought the 'sky fairies' comment was inflammatory... not anonymous, because unlike you lot I don't herd cows.
funny though...
...that some of the proponents of eternal copyright (EMI/BMG etc) have been bitten by the idiocy of it.
Plus, 2:24, Christopher Ecclestone, or just my imagination? Presumably from when he was Dr Who.
@The Guv
You are taking an ironic position here aren't you?
Or are you also in favour of not prosecuting ANY crime where no harm is done?
In which case, I think that is 99% of parking tickets gone (with lack of evidence of specific harm), all speeding which doesn't result in an accident, drunk driving on the same basis. After all by your own measure systemic harm is not sufficient, specific harm is required.
Some things are crimes because of the potential for harm - not necessarily because of harm done, and this is one such crime.
We have privacy laws because if large corporations, and the state are allowed unbridled access to the secrets of their customers/citizens they have a 100% record throughout history of abusing that power.
In the case of corporations, over/monopoly charging is generally the outcome, in the case of states, totalitarianism.
Of course because you have no sense of history, no awareness of the wider world, and apparent faith in 'the authorities' you will decry me as a tin foil hat wearing loony.
Believe me, we tin foil hat wearing loonies sincerely hope you are right, but fear you are simply uninformed.
Posted in Angels can't fly: Official
useless research haters
To be sure this isn't what we are paying for, I think he does the real research the rest of the year - this is just a bit of seasonal frivolity - for a laugh.
I'm sure those who dislike such rubbish research will say that he should not be allowed to have fun occasionally, and perhaps their own lives reflect this commitment to serious discourse.
Oh, wait, they have posted here - that's pretty frivolous.
Posted in Secret neo-Nazi documents published
nazi vs left wing 'outing'
I think the criteria should probably be something along the lines of;
Has this political view ever resulted in tyranny, war, or mass murder?
Which pretty much leaves out non political views (so 'Jewishness' won't get outed Mr Anon Coward)
The greens probably escape (although I will admit not having real light bulbs does smack of tyranny)
But the Nazis, and the Communists both get their lists published.
Personally I'd also out all and any religious groups on the arbitrary basis that I'm not a fan of religion, but I can't come up with an objective justification, other than perhaps the Scientologists on the basis of attempts at tyranny, if you count hundreds of nutjob lawyers attempting to stifle debate and criticism as tyranny.
BNP - well that was just funny.
@Dave Cradle
Outstripped MS? - arguable at least, after all despite not being a convicted monopolist they have indulged in some questionable practices on occasion.
Outstripped Exxon? - well, I suppose in some heads using a pop reference for your phone is worse than allowing millions of gallons of oil to flood the oceans through poorly maintained tankers, and trying to duck responsibility for cleaning it up or compensating the victims (human and otherwise)
Outstripped Union Carbide - Yes, I'm not quite sure when Google was directly responsible for the direct deaths of hundreds and the permanent harm to tens of thousands, but I'm sure it's happened, otherwise you wouldn't make such a bloody stupid comment.
Khymer Rouge, National Socialists - hmm, you are leaving me slightly behind here to be honest.
Current UK Gov. Well, despite considering them a bunch of nasty, controlling, uneducated (in anything useful like history, science, engineering or mathematics), smug gits, I'm forced to accept that they are probably no more evil than Google, so I'll give you that one.
You sir are either a better ironicist (please consider this word a new trademark) than I am, or need a sense of proportion.
@RegisterFail
No, that would be a competent store person, who shouldn't be sacked.
You seem to be arguing that a grandmother isn't equipped to make an informed decision, and the store clerk should unilaterally decide that a person younger than the rating should be allowed to own the game. Or are you suggesting that the store clerk should conclude that the grandmother would be playing the game because she handed over the cash, after saying 'give the man your pocket money?
I'm guessing you feel this way because it affects you personally?
I'm in favour of enforcing such limitations, rather than having mature content banned, which was firmly the bandwagon prior to the introduction of age limitations on games. Just ignoring the limits through technicalities (my gran bought it) will bring back that bandwagon. Not that it ever entirely left...
@ac 15:33
Let's indeed hope justice prevails. Unlike you I am willing to let justice take it's course. Out of interest how do you combine your view that he should go to jail for 50 years with your view that justice (innocent until proven guilty in a court of law) should prevail.
Even the Americans uphold innocence until proven otherwise.
Perhaps your justice is that of Stalin or the Daily Mail instead?
@ElReg!comments!Pierre
Obviously I'm not going to do my own research, but are you saying we have a category of immigration where people are allowed to stay, but are legally prevented from working to support themselves. Presumably these would be people applying for some form of asylum? In which case unlikely to be capable of supporting themselves from existing means?
That is a broken system.
we either need to make a decision within weeks regarding asylum, or if that CANNOT be done because of identity information being tricky to confirm then we need to allow them to work (and pay taxes etc).
So these folks were illegally contributing to the finances of the country they have come to - bastards, should have carried on sponging. Surely the law needs changing not enforcing.
@ac 17:21 - the law is indeed blind, and occasionally stupid. but the evidence (yes, evidence, not hyperbole, strawmen, or emotion) is that economic migrancy adds to the GDP per head, rather than detracting. Of course if you prevent the migrants from contributing the numbers will come out slightly differently - and it is only bloody silly rules which prevent asylum seekers from becoming economic migrants too.
I know we need some way of controlling immigration, and there are other issues than purely economic (cultural xenophobia being the main one, from all groups) but the problem is controllable through incentives, rather than using a drawbridge and pulling it up (although some measure of that is useful while the incentives permeate through).
Gah, whole bloody debate annoys me because people use anger rather than logic. Oh, wait, bugger.
Win 7 a success?
I would imagine Vista SP3 will be quite a success. General comments have been positive from users, even users which you would expect to be fairly negative, with linux and apple users being at worst a bit smug about their systems still being better in certain respects.
I've never run vista, taking the micky out of my brother in law for being an early adopter of 'fistula' over the last couple of years, but I am giving serious consideration to finally upgrading our little fleet of a dozen or so machines here at work to win 7. Of course I'm also experimenting with linux, and I think that will continue, as the tools for interoperability with win only apps get better and better for us non it specialists who have to manage it resources. So for us it is a tough decision, whereas a well executed vista would have been a 'no brainer' - which is bad news for Microsoft, as a certain number of small businesses will make the jump to linux instead, and I very much doubt many will come back - 'free' is quite compelling, as is 'no vendor lock in'.
But at least MS is a consideration again, whereas if 7 had been another vista, well we'd have continued buying licences from ebay for XP until we couldn't, and then moved to linux - no question. Which for MS isn't just windows licences gone, it's office licences, it's SQL licences - we've already deserted exchange - but without windows the rest aren't even an option.
Win7 is a big deal for Redmond.
A No.10 petition is the answer
Demanding an independent commissioner of lying. Any minister or senior public servant found guilty of substantial distortion is automatically put on probation - 3 strikes and they are barred from holding public office for life, and their name is entered on a 'register of liars' for 10 years.
Include the stocks, and rotten tomatoes as well.
The commissioner for lying themselves will hold enormous power, but everything they investigate should be a matter of public record (regardless of outcome), which should keep them mostly honest. Further they should report to parliament, not the Government.
What's not to love about that as a structure. a million supporters for sure.
Those number 10 petitions, they are the way to change the world...
why don't they just...
...up the rate of VAT on telecom connections - from the current 15% to 20% - the collection infrastructure is already there, as is the payment structure, so whilst it is still gently bending over the electorate and inserting a broadband connection where there is no sun, at least it would be doing it honestly, and with less disruption.
Although this is a pointless tax, and will be wasted and fail to achieve it's stated ambition, this is what Government is for - to raise finance to achieve societal goals which are not commercially viable.
It's just a shame that in recent years Governments have forgotten that, and decided to try and control every aspect of our lives.
Oh, and @No, I will not fix your computer; it makes sense for Governments to nationalise natural monopolies (water, gas, sewage, the rail network (not necessarily the trains on them), the road network. Other services which can be subject to competition are better left in private hands - provided there is genuine competition that will usually deliver a better and cheaper service to the user. Telecom physical infrstructure is not necessarily a natural monopoly, but it is only with the advent of wireless that genuine competition has entered the market for the whole package - this is because the physical infrastructure was paid for by public subsidy (other than Virgin, which was paid for by very stupid and optimistic investors - probably the same ones who paid for the channel tunnel). What should have happened as soon as the technology caught up was a nationally owned company owning the lines, and doing the maintenance, and private companies providing the calls.
However that would be a pragmatic solution, rather than one which suits any particular ideological slant, so no chance.
post offices
I thought the one's under threat were the little local ones serving a community.
Just as a thought - I'd like to know the correlation between post offices serving as IPS centres (or which have the potential to so do) and those which fail to make a profit, and are thus under threat.
Would the correlation be -1 by any chance?
i.e. no overlap whatsoever.
In which case this saves post offices how.
Filthy, lying, low-life, manipulative bastards.
Posted in Average Brit shags 2.8m people
@Dubiety of sexual preference
Other...
Asexual (preference for no sexual contact - as opposed to no preference, which would be bisexual)
Then there are all the specialists - leather, discipline, etc, where it isn't the partner that drives the participation, but the tools.
Which of course might be where Boots' 'plug' comes in.
Oh, I've chosen the icon, because the alt text starts with 'man the pumps' which seems appropriate somehow.
Posted in Handset makers, the criminal's friend
how interesting...
...that's the first time I've heard a compelling reason to buy a product from Sony Ericsson for a while.
tracking and identifying mobile phones
If you have it in your pocket when you travel through a zone with more than one aerial, then even if it is switched off (with some models) you can track roughly where it is, then if there is a camera nearby (and where is there not these days) there is a good chance of identifying you.
If you keep the battery out then your odds are improved. I would suggest acquisition should be at a car boot sale - you might buy a couple of duds, but as a busy terrorist you can probably live with that.
With the added bonus that instead of 'no subscriber information' the first info request will identify an innocent person (well, I say innocent, aiding and abetting a terrorist by selling them a phone is probably a crime).
Provided you only put the battery in out of camera sight, and add credit on a similar basis (having obtained the voucher off camera for cash) then you should be ok. Never ever put the battery in at home. Provided there isn't too much of your voice on tape to do a stress analysis against.
Of course, I think identifying the terrorist might take more than £60 of resources in that scenario, and I'm sure I've missed some stuff, so there is probably a better chance of identification than that. Anyway, surely every good terrorist uses a satellite phone?
