Posts by Rampant Spaniel

Re: Apple are another amoral company

samsung have only themselves and google to blame. Apple rightly lost their idiotic look and feel suit, but won on patent infringement for clearly defined (bounceback and pinch to zoom are not vague) non essential patents. They are nice to have but not essential to making a phone so there is no legal requirement to allow access to them.

Apple and MS cross license patents because they both have valuable non essential patents each other wants. The way forward is simple, google and its android partners need to invest more in developing features people want that will drive Apple back to the table. I'm really shocked that google didn't have more patents to whack Apple with tbh.

The judgement was far more sensible than I expected it to be. I thought Apple would finally win a ridiculous look and feel (that we copied from elsewhere) suit. The judgement was high, but sometimes when you hold onto bad cards too long it costs you dearly.

I hope this leads to more innovation and development. I'm slowly beginning to like Android, playing with 4.0 is much nicer than 2.3! Google has the potential to out develop Apple, but it needs to sit down with htc, lg, samsung etc and say liten, just because their isn't a license fee doesn't mean it's a free lunch.

@ turtle

Don't waste your time, there's none as blind as those who won't see. Apple must be wrong (they didn't help their cause by trying to claim they owned rectangles) because they are doing well. Samsung used and refused to pay for some valid and non essential, non standards based patents. They didn't develop anything Apple wanted in trade. They got screwed in court. This is the way of the world.

The reason Apple won't go after MS is because MS has patents (from many many years of smartphone os and desktop os development) Apple needs and therefore they have cross licensing agreements. These are the same patents Android handset makers pay MS for already. MS can bring something to the table so Apple plays ball with them. That and Apple got burnt before sueing MS.

Theres a bunch of bitter android fans out there, hitting the downvote button makes them feel all powerful, but frankly they can't change shit. FWIW I actually have a samsung phone lol

Re: The joys of capitalism

Or how about, we install a water meter, but charge you an extra fee on top of the per pint charge if you want to fill a swimming pool.

Was he acting like a douchebag? I don't think its a case of protecting royals, but a case of granting them the same rights we should all have. The right to a private life. He was doing nothing wrong. Now if he was snorting coke off a 13 yr old hooker and wearing an SS uniform, then thats newsworthy. Playing strip billiards is not.

A certain son of a fascist motorsports bod was caught by a tabloid in a compromising video with vaguely germanic military undertones, the courts said it wasn't public interest, so how is it different for the ginger tit?

Re: America...

There i some truth in that, its closer to a center right and far right. There is no mainstream left wing parties.

Politics as a whole has become corrupted by donations, lies, lobbying and vested interests. Just look at the people we put forward, can republicans honestly say Palin was a good candidate? She accused Obama of being a drug smoking dog eater. Really, thats the person you want to show the world? Republicans have some great ideas and some piss poor ones, just like the democrats do.

Re getting your car keyed over a bumper sticker, thats frankly pathetic. If you don't agree with a persons political ideas, assuming they aren't a tin pot dictator, then vandalism has no place. Not all people, republican or democrat, are as loony as the folks we see on TV. And for gods sake put Fox news on the comedy channel where it. belongs.

A lot could be solved by compulsory voting and a none of the above box.

Yes often, although perhaps I experience it in a less commercial setting. I can imagine in mass slaughter houses it is probably done with no care and a focus on speed. I have no problems personally killing my dinner, some of my dinners killed other things along the way, such is life right? We just happened to luck out to the top of the chain. It might disgust you, and I assume you are a vegan and applaud you for having the courage to stand by your convictions, but bambi tastes nice. It's not something I get enjoyment from, it is just part of life.

Re: arab nations

not a chance. At least not the real culprits. They would likely blame it on their wife or the office cleaner and have them executed whilst continuing to download porn. Remember some (not all) of these countries don't let their women drive or leave the house unescorted because some of the men are such rampant perverts with no self control the women won't be safe, or at least I think that was the explanation. I always thought that was a much neater solution than something as absurd as punishing perverts.

@ mad mike

Very true. You have a right to an opinion and a limited right to express it. The 'pub banter' exemption in slander law. It also comes down to the difference between expressing an opinion and making a claim of fact and how explicit the details are. For example I could say I beleive the house of lords a bunch of gin soaked coffin dodgers and probably be fine, its a vague opinion and mildly defamatory. I could say that I heard X mp liked a bit of sheep action and probably be ok, but if I made a very explicit detailed comment such as X mp shagged Y who was 12, then I would likely end up in trouble. It is an explicit accusation that has passed from opinion into an alledged statement of fact. Now if I said that to you after 12 pints of old peculiar down the fox and hare I might not end up in too much trouble, if I published it in some form i.e. widely disseminated it, I would likely be judged to be willfully making an attempt to defame. Writing on facebook for all and sundry to see fits that bill.

If everything on the page was true, which is unlikely but possible, the only other issue that a very well paid council may look at is breach of confidence but thats a huge stretch.

Without seeing the comments it's impossible to say for sure. My feeling is basically they googled for any law that might vaguely be applied in an attempt to cut the head off the snake. I think prison is harsh, a fine disbursed to those that could prove defamation would be more appropriate imho.

I'm no expert in law, I could be entirely wrong, thats just my understanding based on discussions with council re protecting a company from comments.

Re: Spreading it about

Exactly. TUPE just means we 'outsource' firing them so we don't look bad.

I understand the logic behind outsourcing and pooling, but companies (and public bodies) only look at their own immediate situation i.e. we can save x% if we do this. Ignoring the fact it is an admission that they are shit managers and cannot run an effective organisation, the issue comes not with 1 company outsourcing but 1000 companies doing it. Nobody counterbalances to gain from outsourcing against the loss of jobs on the whole economy. Those employees buy your products (or pay tax in the case of councils) as well as products from other companies. If lots of companies outsource, thats lots less money to spend, slowing the economy and constraining growth in these companies. At which point some halfwit with a pie chart has the bright idea to outsource everything else because that has to be the answer.

In limited instances, where there is high employment levels and high living costs, it makes sense to outsource some work. In areas that already have high unemployment and where the economy is stagnating it makes little sense, if anything it makes things worse.

I wonder if any other the higher level managers will be taking a pay cut now they have less work to do?

Re: You need a reliable ISP service

And a fricking huge wad of cash. I think the authors point is valid for people in his situation, but not everyone. I don't have a reliable net connection and I have approx 20TB of video and pictures (all legit before you comment, ex pro photographer) and this grows at about 3TB a year. Right now it costs me about 200 bucks a year in external drives and about 40 a year for a bank deposit box to put a copy in. I haven't a clue how much that would cost for cloud storage but it would take a while to upload!

The cloud will work for some (those without huge amounts to store, with reliable connections everywhere they go, and with multiple devices), and not for others (those of us with lots to store and piss poor connections).

Stating that the cloud is the end of domestic hdd sales is highly amusing. I don't eat at mc donalds so they must be going out of business!

Re: Insurance with 'computer monitored driving'

Well said, nothing wrong with spirited driving when conditions allow. I like to get my elbow down when the roads clear and the weather is good. Nobody will get hurt other than me. Far more problems with fricking tourists driving 20mph UNDER the minimum posted speed limit (as an aside, blighty may wish to import the concept on minimum speed limits on certain roads, very good idea!).

I enjoy riding, others enjoy driving, for some of us it isn't just a way of getting from A to B, I can ride for 12 hours and get off grinning like an idiot and wanting more. Nor are we inherrently irresponsible. I recently purchased a new bike, I nearly picked up zx14r until I test rode on and realised to really wring it out I needed my own small country, it's cheap compared to a car but to really push it you are doing well over 200mph. I tried a ninja 650 and realised much the same, it might be 150mph instead of 220mph but still way too much for these roads. Ended up with a 250 twin to go with my 400 thumper. To put it into normal terms, its a bike that tops out at about 100mph, just because I like to have fun doesn't mean I don't have any brains. Most yoofs in their corsa's with baked bean can exhaust screw on things from Boyes have a higher top speed then my bikes these days. I find it more fun pushing the hell out of a smaller bike than risking death or a long time in the klink by even half stressing a bigger bike. Not exactly the thinking of an irresponsible fool no?

As I said, 6 inch spike on the steering wheel will solve most problems.

I don't excuse them for a second, and those starting such schemes usually are crooks. Most of these wonderful investment oppertunities are absolutely scams. Hence I haven't ever invested in any of them. When I have made investment it has been in companies like nvidia, amd. skb etc, companies where I know the market reasonably well. I've made some nice change from that, not exactly enough to retire but I didn't get greedy. If there isn't an oppertunity I don't try and create one. Others are less cautious.

The reason most MLM companies operate there is because Americans seem not to know better. I was just attempting to suggest, politely, a reason for their optimism.

@captain daft

What are you on about man? We will be able to tell our grandkids with pride that after being inspired by our fathers and grandfathers generations walking on the moon and building concorde (then laughing at concordski) our generation gave the world big brother, idle american and going to asda in your pj's.

The ISS is a decent achievement, if for no other reason then so many nations managed to vaguely work together long enough to get it up there.

I have a question (vaguely related to the topic!), wondering if you smart folks know the answer? When they canned the shuttles they stated cost of replacing them with newer designs as a huge barrier. Could they not just make new shuttles using the old design or a moderate revamp? A huge portion of the cost must have been r&d right? I doubt one or two more shuttles would have been cheap, but neither is renting russian launches for years.

sorry, 2000-2002 :-)

Re: remind me what "freedom of speech" is

I agree with the vast majority of what you say, but the practical implementation of the freedoms differs somewhat from the original intention.

Freedom of speach except in cases on libel, fraud, defamation, racial hatred etc etc. The vast majority of what I mention is quite sensible, giving people the right to open their mouth but making them responsible for what they say. The problem is who draws the line and where it is drawn. It isn't abolsute nor is the right to free speach. I'm not sure it should be because that would divorce people from being responsible for their actions. We have an ideal, but in practical terms we do not have free speach just as we do not have a true democracy. For as long as the line is drawn by vaguely sane, well motivated people it is not entirely bad that people be allowed to say what they think but are made responsible for untruths and hate, but if the line is manipulated by vested interests then there is a problem.

Right now I can pass comments on our political leadership. say for instance there is a party called the pachyderms, and say perhaps they haven't put forward a presidential candidate in 20 years that could string together a coherant sentence. Now say their current leader (G Shrub) is involved in some shady things. I can pass comment on his leadership under most circumstances without fear of retribution. I cannot, without very strong evidence, suggest he has commited a crime or any other defamatory comment that isn't covered under exemption. In times of war the line is moved further. One view is that allowing people to speak but making them responsible for that speach is a way of keeping things honest and fair. However, truly free speach it is not.

With rights come responsibilities, this is no bad thing, but it isn't fashionable these days to make people responsible for their actions.

Re: Fusion might work someday. Fission works *now*.

Quite to the contrary, many of the experiment sin the last 20-30 years into fusion has met or exceeded its goals (JET as an example). The goal of these experiments was not to produce an excess of energy but to take steps towards that. The excess energy comes with scale, small scale test tokamaks wouldn't generate an excess or a sustained reaction. ITER will be the first fusion reactor designed to produce a surplus (generating 10 times more than it uses), DEMO (generating 25 times more than it uses, and on an continual basis) will be the first fusion power station (ITER generates an excess but it isn't harnessed for electrical generation). The scientists have been playing it safe and working up to a surplus, because if they had built a commercial scale 2000-4000MW surplus fusion plant theres a fair chance there would be a smouldering hole in Oxfordshire. The problem they have encountered is the delays in all the politiking between countries.

With respect to who should be in charge of the operation of Nuclear plants, you are entirely correct. We are screwed. Companies will seek profit over safety to the point of buying politicians to allow them to cut corners. Politicians will be bought so they are out. The general public (which not exactly stupid) will make decisions based on FUD, gut instinct and potentially greed. Scientists by and large (as can be seen by expert witness testimony in courts) can be bought and sold just as politicians can. Frankly (and this is by no means meant to be disrespectful) I would rather see you in charge, you seem to have a balanced and realistic outlook.

The only other way I can think of dealing with it is creating a solid link between the management (C level + board) of the company and the results of any disasters. i.e. if you want to have a nuclear power plant the entire management will live next to it, go for a swim once a week by the outflow and eat the local shellfish. When it is their families and their well being on the line I think they may pay a little less attention to suggestions about cutting corners to save a quarter of a percent in costs. If you look at windscale, fukushima, 3 mile island and chernobyl, all were preventable or manageable. Windscale piles were built in a hurry and no one went back to fix errors, fukushima didn't have a wall high enough (and the placing of nuclear reactors next to the shore in a country prone to earthquakes and tsunamis is dubious), 3 mile island could have been prevented by better training, the list goes on.

The people making the decisions, those with oversight, don't have to live with the consequences. They don't end up with cancer, they don't end up paying out of their own pockets for clean ups, yet they get the financial benefits from cost cutting. The sooner they do the sooner we will see a rapid improvement in safety. You can bet the minute that law came in there would be a hell of a lot of meetings and site visits from suits the normal workers had never seen before.

Re: @ Hasham

His family have been and will continue to be well taken care of. His decision will not cause them hardship. There is more to teach and gift to our children then money. Culture, morals and outlook on life are also important. Your success as a parent is not measured solely by your bank balance but by how happy your children are and how they interact with the world.

My kids aren't going to be swimming in pools of gold coins and I kark, but they will speak their language, understand their culture and its protocols and inherrit their ancestors lands and responsibilities. Money can be nice, but it is only a small part of being a whole person.

There is a difference between selling a song (even via a label), which is a statement by a person that they like your music, and your music being used to endorse a product especially after death. If he had allowed it when he was alive then that is different, but if he is ensuring his choice is continued after his death then that is his choice. Trying to make out he is depriving his kids is wrong. They have been left with money and a continued stream of revenue, he has just asked that one area of sales continue to be prohibited. Perhaps teaching his kids to have the courage of their convictions is a greater gift than the money? It depends if you value money more than morals.

I like cats but I agree with the sentiment that owners should be responsible. When I was younger I lived in an area where we could let our cats and dogs out and they wouldn't bother anyone, way too far to travel to get to another property and pretty dangerous on the way (badgers would decimate a cat). I did see our cat try to take on a deer which was fairly amusing, the deer won. It never did try a horse or cow (although i did see it thinking about attacking their tails).

Now I live where I cannot have dogs and we have neighbours close so our new cat stays indoors. A tropical environment and nearby fields provides plenty of targets in the house for the cat and failing that stealth attacks on any feet protruding from duvets seems to be good enough. If I let it out, it will crap in our neighbours gardens, I cant realistically stop it, so I don't let it out, my choice to have it, my responsibility.

Ledswinger for pm

I vaguely remember the last election (the US doesn't really cover foreign things unless it's related to an upcoming invasion), for me it really highlighted the problem. There were shouts about who would cut and tax, but upon closer inspection some of the cuts turned out to be slower growth (although there have been cuts, usually in the wrong places i.e. less police and nurses, why cant we just get rid of mep's? and all msp's and welsh assembly members should double up as mp's) and as for tax increases, wasn't Dave recently wittering about lowering the top tax bracket? I remember theem going to great pains to state that they could reduce the deficit in a manner which we wouldn't really notice. None of them turned round and said, taxes are going up 10%.

I would add another to your list, placing more people back into taxation / reducing benefit levels. In the US, nearly half of everyone pays no federal tax. Thats truly staggering. Even if they only paid a small amount each it should help.

Also restricting what you can spend benefits on. The US actually gets a few things right, their WIC program (for mums and kids) actually gives out vouchers for specific things, they cannot be used at Gala bingo. Some benefits like 'food stamps' also called SNAP can be dispensed onto a debit card that cannot be used for booze or fags. I love wine but if I had to resort to the public purse I would not expect to be able to spend it on mad dog 2020.

Another good idea they have is unemployment payments are related to how much you paid in tax and limited in duration so if you get canned you can actually afford to carry on living and you are encouraged to find work. Exceptions on duration are made like during the current crisis. The US gets plenty wrong but having lived in both the UK and US I do like a few of their ideas and a few of ours.

Overall I'd be happy to see your idea's implemented. You'd probably be voted out in about 10 seconds, but thats the nature of the beast. Politicians have to walk a fine line between appeasing the companies that own them and us lot who vote for them. Thats why we continue borrowing. As it stands here, our property taxes are going up (in reality the 'allowance' is decreasing rather than a rate change) but shock horror all the rich folks with mc mansions on agricultural land still dont pay a fair rate because the local slime squad know who pays for their reelection campaigns.

Re: Jesus

Erm, no. The update cycle for major updates on top level bodies is about 3 years. There have been exceptions for updates such as canons 1d mk2n etc, however these are rare exceptions and have been around the 18 month mark. They have usually also come at the demand of pro photographers who have 10's of thousands of dollars invested in the cameras being replaced.

They also hold their value very well on the used market. Go check keh or adorama and see. For a commercial photographer these are solid investments. It might not make financial sense to the wife when you want one for holiday snaps but to somebody with 50-60k a year capex they make sense.

I have stood on a beach in a torrential storm shooting a wedding because the bride HAD to say her vows at a specific time. If you don't deliver you either don't get paid or you have to enforce your contract which creates bad blood. Why not just pay for decent equipment that gets the job done. Look at how expensive toughbooks are, now go tell an engineer in the field he's being ripped off and he should be using a consumer laptop at half the price. Now see how long the cheaper laptop lasts when it has to do more then check facebook from the garden bench.

Re: Dangerous suggestion

it did have a knob on the end!