Posts by qwertyuiop
78 posts • joined Monday 15th June 2009 15:37 GMT
But since the metal Kg is de facto the "accurate one" at the moment, surely your question should be "...how inaccurate the new standard will be when compared to the existing standard"
Re: jobs
And presumably they want all those people they employ to be able to read and write, count, and have other skills obtained at school? And when their employees are ill they'd like them to be able to see a doctor or go to hospital? And to be able to drive to work on a road, or get a bus which also uses the road? Presumably they'd also like some framework of laws and people to enforce those laws so that their goods don't get stolen from their warehouses, their PCs don't get stolen from their offices, etc. I could go on...
Now, who are we going to get to pay for the schools, teachers, doctors, nurses, hospitals, roads, police, judiciary, prison system etc.
Oh! I know! It could come out of taxation...
Re: Great but oversold?
But when you haven't got taxpayers breathing down your neck about "wasting" their tax dollars you can just go ahead and do it. When you're the biggest single shareholder then you don't have to worry about other shareholders either.
And let's not forget that they are "standing on the shoulders of giants". Without all the (government) expenditure on Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle missions (plus numerous others) to do the basic research and then turn it into reality then Musk would have needed even deeper pockets.
None of which is to diminish in any way what he has accomplished. I am in awe of his vision and all that he has achieved. As a boy I grew up watching the space race, and I sat up late to watch the Apollo 11 landing. This impresses me every bit as much.
Re: NO FUCKING P IN HAMSTER!!!!!
...and in the right situation there *could* be an apostrophe in "1980s"
Re: Pizza deliveries - New York to London
Why would you order your pizza from New York? If you want REAL pizza then you order it from its birthplace - Naples.
Re: Both candidates?
I totally agree, but the fact remains that there are seven candidates, not two.
</pedant>
Both candidates?
"Londoners vote tomorrow in the capital's mayoral elections, but both candidates..."
and there was me thinking I had to choose between seven candidates! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_mayoral_election,_2012)
Re: Change the iPad's name?
You forgot something - "...and has rounded corners."
Re: Always the same mistake.
So how does this actually work out? We all leave our jobs and start our own companies which can never grow to any size because they can never employ anybody - because everybody has followed your advice and doesn't want to be a wage slave.
Re: Re Modern vs. Traditional crime
Oh, I totally agree. I was just making the point it was extremely naive to think the banks would ever absorb the cost themselves.
Re: Modern vs. Traditional crime
How charmingly naive!
Do you really think the banks will absorb the cost of fraud and lose a few quid off their profits? Get real! These are banks remember? Their profits won't suffer, they'll just pump up bank charges to make up for any losses to theft or they'll find a way to pass the blame, and therefore the liability, on to the customer.
Re: Re: Re: On the positive side...
"she was referred to as 'Ms', so clearly she is unmarried"
I'll tell that to my wife and the three other married women I know who prefer to be known as Ms.
Re: Well it could have been simple
UNIX timestamps are only OK up until a date (can't recall from memory) in January 2038...
Who made you buy it?
Whilst I agree that this is a pretty sh*tty thing to do, why is anybody surprised? This is just the basic rules of economics - when the demand for something increases then the seller can increase the price.
What I don't understand:
- if you were a big fan of Whitney Houston surely you would have her albums already?
- if you weren't such a big fan of hers that you already had the albums and it's taken her death to prompt you to buy them then what are you complaining about? You went to iTune$, saw the price AND DECIDED IT WAS A PRICE YOU WERE PREPARED TO PAY. So what's your complaint? Nobody FORCED you to buy at that price.
You're forgetting The Rules.
Rule number one of data storage: If you don't have your data in at least TWO places then you don't have your data.
If you stick everything that's precious on a disk of *any* size made by *any* manufacturer and don't back it up then you deserve all that you (don't) get when the disk fails. All disks will fail eventually.
I'm not being holier than thou either - it has happened to me, cost me a lot of money and time, but I've learned my lesson.
Breaking the law?
If I was a Google shareholder I think I might be consulting a lawyer. Schmidt has come out and said that Google isn't necessarily trying to maximise profits - but surely it's the legal duty of a corporation to maximise the return to its shareholders?
So RIM shouldn't give out information?
A lot of people seem to think that RIM shouldn't give out information they hold which may help to solve a crime unless there is due process. Firstly, I read their statement as suggesting that there is due process, but let's assume I'm wrong. Let's see if you take the same stance in an scenario that is different in detail but the same in principle.
Imagine you're walking down the street one day and somebody leaps out of an alleyway, viciously assaults you and robs you. I happen to observe the whole crime from my window and can provide a very good description of your attacker - maybe I even managed to grab my camera and take some pictures. You are unaware that I exist, let alone that I witnessed the crime.
You call the police and they arrive. Clearly the correct thing for me to do is to stay in the house, say nothing, and wait for the police to (somehow) discover that I witnessed the crime and have valuable evidence. After all, it would be wholly wrong for me to volunteer information without due process.
Of course, I will now be shouted down by the nay-sayers who will declare that the situation is entirely different, but it isn't. RIM are "witnesses" to several crimes because they hold evidence of how they were organised. Why shouldn't they be responsible citizens and give their evidence to the police?
New "solution" - same old problem
I share all the concerns voiced above about the likes of Facebook being trusted with this information so I won't reiterate them.
My other concern is the same one that I had over the scrapped ID card system. Put simply, it is either impossible to guarantee the accuracy of such a system OR it's redundant.
In order to have an ID on the system I have to prove who I am. This is, apparently, impossible because allegedly we currently don't have a means of adequately proving our identities, hence the need for such a system. If no such adequate proof exists then how can I prove who I am in order to be put on the system?
On the other hand, presumably if I produce some form of existing government ID such as a passport, driving licence, etc. this will be adequate proof of my identity in order to get put onto the system - in which case the system itself is unnecessary because there is already something in existence which adequately proves who I am.
Even better exploits!
Surely this means that exploits will now get even better? Effectively the code has now been made open source, so with lots of people reviewing it any bugs or weaknesses will be removed and it will become even better!
Interesting comparison
Estonia popn. 1.3m, UK popn. 62.6m
Or by way of an analogy:
My corner shop manages to function perfectly well without ANY form of computerisation, so why does Tesco need so much IT infrastructure?
Posted in Israeli couple dub sprog 'Like'
Could have been worse
...he could have called her Farmville!
But they didn't!
Shame you spoil your argumnet by regurgitating an urban myth. Try Googling "urban myth space pen" and you'll find *LOTS* of entries like this one - http://space.about.com/od/spaceexplorationhistory/a/spacepen.htm.
Fact is both the Russians and Americans used pencils until Fisher developed the Space Pen speculatively and at their own expense and persuaded NASA to use it.
You may laugh...
...but apparently some of the images he was looking at were really extremely pornographic. I mean, NONE of the women had headscarves on!
"You can wind up literally running your whole business off of an iPad or and iPhone."
My employer's business is a web-based application that handles typically c.2,000 concurrent users at any one time and has demonstrated the ability to scale that up to 4,000 concurrent users at peaks. So, apparently, we can dispense with our server farm and replace it with an iPad?
Posted in Pavement hogging Segway rider convicted
Novel idea
How about *WALKING* the 400yds to the shops? Then we wouldn't need to create pollution producing the electricity to charge your poxy Segway.
Posted in Oh noes – they've stolen the internet!
I doubt it
I'm guessing that you're not really familiar with the geography of London and where Stepney Green (East London) is relative to Shepherd's Bush (West London)?
Shock news!
"if own an iPod you are almost forced to use it!
ermmm... no, actually. I reluctantly bought an iPod a couple of years back because Creative were no longer making a decent sized PMP and haven't used iTunes once. I download music (legally) from a variety of vendors and sync with Media Monkey. Who needs iTunes?
I doubt they "proscribe" it...
...as that would mean MS are telling you NOT to use that hardware. Perhaps you meant "prescribe"?
</pedant>
Am I missing something?
The Scots accent is apparently the second most popular - so they're going to give us Geordie, Cockney, Brummie and Mancunian. Why no guttural Glaswegian or refined Morningside (posh part of Edinburgh)? It also begs the question of which accent it will switch to when you cross the border.
Where's the rest of the article?
I mean, here we are with a defence piece by Lewis describing how crap the latest piece of British defence kit is and no details of the US kit we should have bought instead. Restore those redacted paragraphs now I say!
Posted in Facebook royal rant bishop suspended
They really are cheapskates
- 'cos they won't be paying for it! Leave that to us poor "subjects".
Doesn't that cut both ways?
"If the Americans ever decide to cut off the supply of spare parts, the A400M will not keep flying for long"
Whereas if we bought American planes in the first place and they decided to cut off the supply of spare parts...
Bit of a specious argument I think!
Posted in Xbox Kinect costs just £35 to build
And your point is?
So the components cost £35 and it retails for £130. And your point is what exactly? Take your £35, go out and buy the components and there you are you've got your Kinect for a massive saving. OK, there's the small point of assembling it (and knowing HOW to assemble it), and then there's the software that is what this device is really about but hey - it wouldn't make a good headline then would it?
I'm no fan of capitalism, least of all when it comes to massive international corporations like Microsoft, Apple, etc. but get real eh?
Posted in MS hits back in Security Essentials row
Equal opps for all!
I bought a new PC recently which came with Trend AV preinstalled on a free 30 day trial.
Strange thing is, when the trial was coming to an end I got frequent reminders that I needed to upgrade to a proper licence, but not once did the reminders give me an option to choose which AV product I wanted from a list of several. Explain to me why this is OK but why MS providing an opt-in service isn't?
We'd go quite happily!
Although since most of the UK's offshore oil and gas fields are in Scotland's territorial waters you might find it not quite so easy to pay off your debt without the tax income!
Hardly!
Please explain how the Data Protection Act applies in this case?
The Act makes "provision for the regulation of the processing of information relating to individuals". It defines “personal data” as meaning "data which relate to a living individual".
This guy was looking up the registration numbers of buses to find out which Companies owned them. Who do you suggest the "living individuals" were - the buses or the Companies?
The Data Protection Act is a far from perfect piece of legislation and is badly in need of a radical overhaul, but the fact remains that its biggest problem is that people who don't understand what it is about cite it in totally inappropriate circumstances.
Am I missing something?
I know I'm not as clever as those slimeball politicians (and I mean ALL political parties), but I'm struggling with the logic here.
Apparently we really need to have aircraft carriers, so much so that we are building two but unfortunately they won't be ready for a few years. In the meantime we are scrapping the one true carrier we have got. This is because we need carriers...
If we can manage without a carrier between now and when the new ones are ready, do we really need them?
If we DO really need them, then how can we manage without one until the new ones enter service?
Yes! Your location!
You're perfectly correct that for 7 - 8 hours a day, five (I'm guessing) days a week your location will be the same as numerous colleagues and people in neighbouring businesses. But add that to the several hours a day and at weekends where your location is the general area of your home and suddenly you're not so anonymous.
@MD Rackham
"Just like all the iPod killers... ...why can't they just create their own product..."
You mean like Apple "created" the iPod? More like copied all of the personal music players that were already on the market!
1999 - "Personal Jukebox" by Compaq
2000 - "Creative Nomad Jukebox" by Creative
2001 - first iPod
iPhone? - too many existing mobile phone manufacturers to list
iPad? - hardly the first tablet PC in the marketplace
Great innovation by Apple? They have rarely, if ever, been truly innovative. What they ARE good it is making a better-looking version of somebody else's idea and giving it "must have" status.
*NOT* in uniform I hope!
Any sensible member of the Forces WON'T be in a pub in uniform. I think you'll find it's an offence against Queen's Regulations to be drinking on licensed premises in uniform.
There was a case recently where one of our more rabid tabloids was laying into staff at a Weatherspoon's (I think) for refusing to serve two squaddies in uniform. Wetherspoon's pointed out they were doing the guys a favour as they were preventing them breaking the rules.
@Dale 3
"...without any real difference being made to anything..."
So you don't think the bits of dead robot plane falling out of the sky will hit anything or anybody?
We need to know!
Is it waterproof? Can I buy a harness to fit it to my sharks?
Posted in Internet 1 - England goalkeeper 0
Not difficult to fix?
I agree completely - the complete absence of "normal" crowd noise, chanting, singing, etc. has completely killed the atmosphere for me. Surely this isn't difficult to fix? It seems to me that the vuvuzela produces a sound in a very specific frequency band which means it could easily be eliminated from TV sound feeds with a notch filter whilst having little or no effect on the rest of the sound.. Or am I missing something?
Loud hailer so that you can hear me!
According to pilots...
...it's a good landing if you (ie. the pilot) can walk away from it. No information available about other crew members, passengers, bystanders, etc.
Posted in Action day targets callous conmen
They deserve to be cheated?
My wife is a Social Worker in a Community Mental Health Team. One of her current clients takes everything that is said to him at face value, because of his condition. If you tell him that you'll do something in a minute he expects you to take exactly 60 secs, if he receives a letter or an email telling him that he has won a luxury cruise, the lottery, etc. he believes it.
Clearly he's just greedy eh?
Will no-one think of Paul?
PLEASE sort this out QUICKLY! Poor, poor Macca needs the money!
</sarcasm>
...not the same thing
Apple is (allegedly) running a retail operation whose purpose is to sell things; supposedly they carry stock for the purpose of selling it. My server farms has never been presented to the public as being for sale, so anybody wanting to buy it has an unrealistic expectation.
Sorry...
Presumably if it *had* passed through him it would have been a flash in the pan...
I'll get my coat as well.
