Democracy?

I do loathe the influence that big money seems to wield over British Governments (and the last lot were not so clean themselves, I seem to recall). I'd much prefer the influence to be primarily from our own elected politicians, idiots though a lot of them are.

And on that score I'm not inclined to care much about the minister's complaints - not an MP is he?

Surface RT

Saw my first one yesterday, in Curry's. Wonder why it took so long for it to appear?

It looked nice but for some reason they didn't think to switch it on and show off Windows 8. The salesman seemed more interested in blocking access to it and yacking to another waste of space.

So if you wanted to see Windows 8 in action you were pretty much restricted to non-touch laptops, which of course show off the pointlessness of the UI without touch. And the fact that the store is a ghost-town these days tends to suggest I'm not alone in that opinion.

I think the 'Fail' icon would be redundant.

Not much to crow about

I note that the UK scored worse than the Philippines and is 5 points aways from being only 'partially free' itself.

And likely the Communications Data Bill, if it or a future re-branding ever came to fruition, would push us over the edge.

Surely

If the beer's good enough, it won't need to be long-life?

Apparently, dog's milk lasts for years as well.

Facebook Standards?

Ye Olde Face-Booke Emporium

Purveyors of the Finest Snuff *, for the Delight and Delectation of the discerning palate.

[* For a modest consideration : we require no coin of the Realm, merely an infinitessimal portion of your own Immortal Soul.]

Words at the bottom of the screen

They don't even have to be legible - their mere presence indicates that the words spoken are probably a lie. I've yet to see small print that says "actually the deal is much much better than the bloke said".

"We know perfectly well when we're doing churnalism..."

And you'd be told sharpish by your readers.

No danger of that here - a useful and informative article, though I'm not sure if the connection between the Sunlight Foundation and Hacked Off is really ironic. Both organisations, for apparently different reasons, seem to want to but a brake on free reporting.

The nature of the filter

We are informed that The proposed request filter will further protect privacy by discarding all data not directly relevant to an investigation, which implies some clever (and I dare say impossible in practice) data processing before the info is handed out.

I would hope that the filter is really a human being who will say "fuck off you're a local council and are operating way beyond your brief". Or something like that.

Way too complicated for me

I'm inclined to agree with jake that (at least for the consumer) it's over the top and it's down to your own approach. I have backups all over the place cos I never like to destroy information, but in truth I don't know what I really have.

Which leads me to an important point : sometimes you want to wipe something out and start again, or get rid of all copies of something that you really wish you hadn't created (embarrassing/compromising etc.). Does this thing come with a "flush all copies of this file away throughout the system" button?

[I recently came across the Windows 'Restore Previous Versions' facility and was surprised to find that you can resurrect files from previous restore points. 'Cool', I thought. Then 'What a security hole!']

"Slide to unluck"

I'm not really up on all this bollocks so I'm confused : what's the difference between that and the Samsung S3's "Swipe to unlock". Or am I using an illegal phone?

Anyway, in response to the request for opinions on gestures 'most useful in controlling my technology', my favourite is the meaningful stare while holding a hammer.

Aw come on

Leaving aside the article treading a fine line on the border of taking the piss, and the usual insulting comments that Welsh topics generate, the issue is simply one of puzzlement. Why are Amazon, a global mega-corp whose basis for existing is selling stuff, seemingly incapable of publishing books in a language which, despite speaking numbers, is well-established and requires no special fonts?

Reassuring

But I hope the FAA and other AAs aren't just going to rest on a quick expert response. At the very least it has been shown that there is altogether too much information available on the inner working of flight systems. It would be wise to quietly demand a detailed analysis from all providers of such systems as to why this exploit cannot work.

"Really, what did these people expect?"

That pretty much sums it all up.

It seems to be exactly what it was intended to be - something to attract die-hard facebook users, not something to attract the outcasts into the fold.

The real test will be when sufficient numbers of the true targets get their hands on it. Then we'll see if Facebook have judged their users right.

I'm confused.

KB2823324 installed on my machine on the 10th and I haven't noticed any problems - no crashes and startup is fine. Should I uninstall it anyway?

Gone quiet

'Seeing the future' = 'Divination'. Smells like the work of the Devil to me. Perhaps he thought better of it.

Or perhaps he's gone quiet because no matter how far forward he looked he could never find a time when the whole world was embracing the One True Religion.

"...digital copies of books should "deteriorate"..."

OK, provided that the rate of deterioration is set to match what Libraries find in practice, not necessarily what fits the publishers' business models.

And while we're talking about deterioration, the publishers should give an initial discount to reflect the piss-poor proof-reading that seems to have crept into digital formats.

"This enormous purchasing juggernaut will devour us all"

Er - shouldn't that be "... will bankrupt us all"?

Might be useful. Or might not.

The presence of a word in Hatebase is pretty meaningless on its own (eg 'Taffy' is there, but I don't feel particularly threatened by its use). What counts is how words (any words) are used. When a derogatory term is applied to a well-defined group and that use is encouraged or approved by those in power (or those who aspire to it), then it's time to get worried . That's the first step - labelling them. To be followed by demonising them and defining them as non- or sub-human. Then the genocide can begin.

The world has so obviously missed these indicators or not responded to them the past. It hasn't been for lack of a database of 'Hate Speech' - just the will to notice and do something about it.

This database may help, but unless it is accompanied by intelligent analysis of the trends for usage of the terms, all that it'll do is add another level to the push to sanitise discourse - 'Pre-Genocidal Speech' being a much more serious accusation than 'Hate Speech'.

Interesting figures

Perhaps one shouldn't read too much into graphs, but it does seem that the Win7 share dipped for a short time when Win8 hit the streets, then started to rise again - a clear indication of the failure of Win8 to capture anyone's imagination.

It would be safe to predict, I think, that there will be an upsurge in Win7 sales as people and businesses migrate while they can.

Leaving Win8 languishing, going nowhere - until someone works out what it's for. Or until MS concede their failure and upgrade it to something that is attractive to those who want a tool, not just a window on a world of consumption.

I believe 'em

There does seem to be a strong similarity in concept between Facebook Home and Windows Phone.

Not that I give a shit really - I'll not be entertaining either implementation of the concept any time soon, barring an inexplicable depletion in my quota of brain cells.