Americans, why do you have to keep pointlessly inventing new words, when there's an old word, understood by everybody, that means exactly the same thing? Metric? You mean 'measure' - MEASURE!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metric?s=t

Honestly, it really doesn't make you sound more clever.

Oh Lord, another costly and doomed attempt to push 'technology' into the classroom, as if that'll somehow transform education (yes, I get the cynical bribe bit as well). If a technology is useful for education, it'll just get adopted. The most important technology for teachers and the one that transformed teaching is practically invisible (like all truly successful technologies): the photocopier.

I don't know if this is a trend, but phones I've bought recently just haven't proved to be as rugged as old phones (including, ahem, a 'Defy' that couldn't 'defy' normal use). So, like the previous poster, I keep an old phone around for when the inevitable happens.

Anyone else get that sinking feeling that within five years this whole project will quietly disappear?

I work with Chinese all the time, and there is a cultural attitude that you don't pay for MP3s or films, for example. This attitude persists even amongst wealthy Chinese, who can afford to pay. The Government enjoys a large degree of trust amongst the people, and if the Chinese government truly wanted to tackle this issue, then they could change those attitudes.

Sadly, the fact that this label managed to get onto the display without anyone noticing says all you need to know about Comet.

Did he really say...

...'we're all *pushing down* these design principles'? Says it all, really.

The right to free speech

...your right to say anything I agree with.

Surely the 'civil' reaction would have been to argue against the video and explain why it's wrong and offensive. Decent people would understand. That would be in the spirit of free speech. These people pretend to like free speech but, it seems, they only like it when it suits them.

an update 'soon'

This is Motorola! It will get one (very late) update, then get abandoned:

https://forums.motorola.com/pages/00add97d6c

But, of course, it'll break before it has a chance to get a second upgrade anyway. Really, really do not buy a Motorola. I mean really.

Google don't help themselves

My first tablet was an android, but I pretty quickly went out and bought an iPad. Why? First of all, Google makes it b*st*rd hard to find tablet apps as, unlike Apple, it doesn't seem to put them in a separate category in their store (or at least it didn't). The fact that people couldn't find tablet apps (from a company that made its money in search!) probably didn't encourage developers. Secondly, Android is just fiddly and less intuitive to use. Despite being a touchscreen OS, Android isn't particularly gesture-based, and it isn't particularly intuitive. Try handing each tablet to a 70 year old. Oh, and I'm with Apple in thinking that 4:3 screens are better for tablets.

PS Not a fanboy - I bought the Android *first*.

Oh dear...

The headlines calls Peter Hain a minister - he is not.

The headline says that Peter Hain likened Anonymous to fascists and racists. He did not. He merely said that he's suffered attacks from those people in the past in the same way that he's suffering attacks from Anonymous now.

The story says that the OAS condemned British 'threats'. It did not. It actually issued a rather bland statement about the inviolabiltiy of diplomatic premises and urged the UK and Ecuador to come to some agreement.

Are you proud of your journalism, Natalie?

As for Pinochet, there are some facts that seem to be forgotten here. The first is that he was arrested in the first place. This was unprecedented. The second was that he fought a 16-month legal battle against extradition. Who do you think he was fighting? Have a good think about those two facts. He was finally released on medical grounds. Admittedly that was a bit convenient, but it was done by a party and a minister that are not in power now, and was fully compliant with the law.

Social scentists confirm their own prejudices

This shows all that's wrong with the social sciences - research which is interpreted to confirm the prejudices of the researchers (or maybe journalists - hard to tell here). It's sometimes startling to see this at work. Back in Victorian times and before the war, for example, women were believed to be the more empathetic and caring gender. This was used to claim should stay at home and be housewives. Now exactly the same argument is used to show the superiority of women in some jobs. See what they did there?

I bet that I could come up with a bunch of questions that would show that stupid people are socialist. In the UK, for example, I could ask questions about entitlements to benefits, and how much rich people should be taxed. I plead with people to read such reports critically, even if they rather like the results.

Well, if it's anything like the Isle of Dogs...

...don't hold you breath. It seems that here *all* housing built in the last 10 years (and a hell of a lot of it was - all built wired with copper, by the way) won't be wired up to FTTC, even though the exchange is enabled. The old council estates are being enabled. Funnily enough, Virgin Media isn't available in this area either.

This is an area of high density housing (my block's 17 storeys, and it's a small one round here) with prosperous demographic. Now why would this not be a main chance for one of the operators to make a pile of cash? I really don't know the answer to that question, but I suspect it's because BT are already getting our money, and Virgin are too skint to do the job. Barriers to entry for other operators are simply too high. Until BT have a *real* incentive to do the job properly, I suspect they won't.

Neo-Colonialism

How would you feel if a bunch of people from, say, Japan, turned up all over your country? They're impossibly rich by your standards, but they'd come to 'help'. They're young and idealistic, and more than willing to spread their ideals. Their ideals don't seem to involve giving you the lifestyle that they have, but rather a 'pure' and 'better' lifestyle that more suits 'your people'. And I thought colonialism was dead.

You, sensibly, prefer to do business with the Chinese.

If I want help from someone, I tell them what I want, and ask them do it. I wouldn't be happy if they decided I needed help, and then told me what I want doing, and then did it.

We'd be doing the poor many more favours if we treated them like adults. We should open our markets, help to educate their future generation if necessary (and not in a political way), invest in them (yes, and allow "corporations to be corporationy") and let them trade their way to wealth.

@Chris 23, You're absolutely right...

"Which was the worst act of terrorism? 9/11 or the 'Shock and Awe' bombing of Bagdad followed by the invasion and near destruction of a country whose innocent people died in much greater numbers despite having had nothing to do with 9/11?" I'm not sure, but I know America's innocent, because they haven't been found guilty in a court (your logic).