Posts by Graham Marsden
4077 posts • joined Friday 19th January 2007 17:59 GMT
Page:
Hear hear!
For all those stories from the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious!
Posted in Doctor Who's Elisabeth Sladen dies at 63
A lovely cartoon tribute from Dork Tower...
http://www.dorktower.com/2011/04/19/dork-tower-wednesday-april-20-2011/
"mix with other prisoners"?
Whilst the move to a new facility following his abominable treatment by the Marines is welcome, I have to wonder whether putting him in the same room as other prisoners is going to be a good idea because there's more than a chance that at least some of them will consider him a "traitor" and decide to try to mete out their own version of "justice".
Posted in Wills and Kate to wed live on YouTube
I'm hoping it will be fine weather for the wedding...
... not for the Royal Couple, but because whilst everyone else is indoors watching it, I'll be out having a blast on the motorbike on virtually empty roads :-)
@fridaynightsmoke
I think you mean "Ad Hominem Tu Quoque" rather than just "Ad-Hom", however the point is that the attack on Nick Clegg at the end is just the No campaign going beyond the bottom of the barrel because they've already scraped a hole in it...
Posted in US proposes online IDs for Americans
"Although the system proposed is voluntary..."
Ah, "voluntary" a word that is liable to mean "if you don't volunteer, you're screwed, because without this you're not going to be able to do business online"
Slightly off topic, but...
Like many people I've just received the No2AV campaign's latest missive through my front door.
Now read this and see all the lies, half-truths and misinformation it contains:
http://imgur.com/a/hgmbQ
I think what they meant was...
... "Microsoft should be held to a lower burden of proof than anyone else, but only when *they* are the defendants..."
@Ivor 1
"I think maybe you just sleep easier when you can write it all off as childish mythology?"
Err, WTF? What makes you think that I lose any sleep over this at all?
It's the "believers" who worry because they have been convinced that if they don't do X or say Y or behave like Z that they're they're damned to some Nasty Place(tm) instead of going to some Nice Place(tm)
PS Try looking at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sky%20fairy for definitions of "sky fairy" dating back at least 5 years.
"Man should abandon hopes of being like God...
"...if he wants to have a relationship with God."
So Man should abandon hopes of being like someone's mythical sky fairy in order to "have a relationship" with said mythical sky fairy?
I sense a circular argument here...
Posted in Sony Pictures opens wallet for Bond 23
I think some people...
... need to go back and read the original Fleming stories before they start talking about "Real Bond(tm)"
At least in Quantum of Solace they got the drink right!
Why didn't Cellan-Jones just ask...
... if Lazaridis had stopped beating his wife...?
Reminds me of...
...Dana Lyons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI
Posted in Amazon splatters ads to cut Kindle price
"The addition of adverts...
"...brings the price of a Kindle down to $114, a shade over £70, though it will be US-only for a while"
That obviously explains why there was an advert on the back of one of the Sunday Paper magazines yesterday plugging the Kindle for the new low price of £111...
Howls...
... of derisive laughter, Bruce!
Yet another hypocritical politician who thinks that it's one law for them, another for everyone else.
We should introduce him to Wacky Jacqui...
Was one of the mice...
... called Algernon?
I have some flowers here :-)
@Sarah Bee
No, I'd want the default option to be "Don't include me on your database" unless I *agree*, whether I have a public profile which makes em "vulnerable" or not.
Even if that wasn't the default, I'd prefer the opt-out to be clear and unambiguous rather than my having to opt out of the NHS Spine *and* the Summary Care Record and any other way they can try to find to sneak my data onto their systems without my knowledge or consent.
Still, as you say, I'm not famous, so why should I worry about my data being put on a USB stick or a laptop which is then left on a train or in a taxi or sent through the post or...?
Posted in Windows 7 gets the Star Wars treatment
Windows 7 was my idea...
... but I gave away the IP to Microsoft who patented it...
The police cracked the case in "seconds"...
... but what it doesn't say is how long it took them to actually *get* to the scene of the crime...
"politicians and celebrities will not get an automatic exemption from inclusion"
However all they have to do is say "I'm famous, don't put my records on the system with all the little people" and job's a good-un...
So a few thougths...
"putting up snorkel or 'snort' masts (to run diesels) is suicide as airborne radar can sweep huge stretches of ocean"
Right, so how about creating a bunch of mini-torpedos which you set to quietly motor off in various directions and, after a set amount of time, they stick up a mast with a radar reflector on the top and suddenly you've got snorkels everywhere! (Oh, and add in a sound generator to confuse the Sonarman Jones's of this world ;-) )
As for "Responding manned units starting from the "flaming datum" of the destroyed ACTUV would soon find and destroy the sub as it crept away - all the sooner if it surfaced or put up masts in order to flee more quickly."
Right, another mini-torpedo, but this one's job is, for instance, to latch onto the ACTUV with a magnetic grapple and then steer it off in another direction or just apply reverse thrust to keep it in place for a while then, after a set period of time, explode.
For every "cunning plan" that someone comes up with, there's an equally cunning counter :-)
You are free to vote for...
... any party we approve of.
If you vote for anyone else you're DAMNED TO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY, SINNER!!!
Does the number...
... 601 ring any bells...?
Is anyone else thinking...
... SkyDiver: Prepare to launch Sky 1...!
Vun...
.... bounced e-mail. Ah-ha-ha-haaa!
Keep Calm...
... and Don't Blink!
Unfortunately...
... those little guys come up with some great idea and then find that the Big Guys have trolled every single possible permutation of patent even (or especially) ones that are so bloody obvious that they should never have been granted a patent at all or which are clearly based on prior art, but the little guys can't afford to employ a big enough legal time to defeat the Big Guy's financial muscle, so the little guys have to fork out big chunks of money that should have gone into R&D to get a licence...
How to make science classes interesting...
... show your pupils Mythbusters!
The default position for science is scepticism. You start with an hypothesis and then test it to see if it's valid, if not, it's Busted.
If it comes out appearing to be Plausible or Confirmed, then you put out your results to Peer Review (in the case of Mythbusters, the online forums where fans can comment on what was done and, possibly, things that were missed) and re-evaluate your conclusions and perhaps test again (ie revisit) the myth to check your conclusions.
What's most important, of course, is that you shouldn't get so wedded to your conclusions that you refuse to accept that they may be wrong.
Now *that* is science!
@f111f and laird cumings
Just try thinking for a moment: If you were kept under the regime that Bradley Manning is and you weren't a suicide risk at the start of it, you'd sure as hell be one by the end of it!
Google "Physics: The Problem with Motion"
Thanks for that, Louis, I was in need of a good laugh.
@of course... and Er...
"Google's argument will have no weight until google as some weight in that same arena - i.e. it is a wolf - or as we may hope, a sheep in wolve's clothing - or with a wolfs jawbone as a weapon..."
"If they fall in to anyone's hand but 'ours' we might end up paying more than the patents cost."
The current system of Patents and Licensing in the US is akin to the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction in nuclear war! Big Company A amasses lots of Patents, so does Big Company B, each agrees not to sue each other and, instead, swaps Patent licenses.
The only problem being that it only works for those Big Companies, meanwhile everyone else is shut out or ends up being forced to pay and pay and pay in order to be able to compete in the marketplace with the "big boys".
Advocating Patent Reform whilst, at the same time, amassing big chunks of IP sounds more than a little hypocritical.
Story arc - again?
So you'd prefer a whole bunch of episodes where what happens this week has nothing to do with what happened last week and will be forgotten by next week?
"Google has long been an advocate of patent law reform...
"...but it has come to realize that before such reform occurs, it needs a hefty portfolio for defensive purposes"
Of course. Gods forbid that such patents should fall into the wrong hands (defined as "any other hands but ours...")
@Ally J
Don't you know, he was Thinking Of The Children! That's all the reason he needs!!!
@Publicity....
... yes, I can just see the News of the Screws putting out the headline "Man falsely accused of Child Porn acquitted" followed by "Derisory amount of compensation paid"...
In other news: Moon Found to be Made of Cheese, Jim Gamble Apologises to Innocent Victim of His Actions, How to Nail Jelly to the Ceiling...
Meanwhile...
... I have just had a letter from HMRC threatening to send in the Bailiffs for an unpaid PAYE bill despite the fact that my accountants have told them *TWICE* that I don't owe them anything!
Of course when they tried to tell HMRC *again* they were told "The computer system is down, call back on Wednesday".
So now I just have to hope that the left hand tells the right hand that I'm in the clear...
(Yeah, right....)
Meanwhile...
... the real victims of Operation Ore, ie the innocent people who were coerced into accepting Cautions (effectively admitting guilt for something they didn't do) are still suffering the shame and damage to their reputations that this witch hunt has caused.
Dear Lewis...
... why not just Emigrate to the USA?
Posted in Email compromised at Epsilon
@And yet another
I also had an e-mail from AbeBooks about this, but when I tried to log on to their site it didn't recognise my e-mail address!
Posted in Small business denounces extra red tape
"Queue" - a line of people...
... "Cue": In this context a signal that something is due to or going to start now.
Thank you.
@strictly speaking.
In the Dredd Comic Strip when Dredd was Marshall of Luna City it was actually the Sov Block who first had "range dependent" energy weapons that could even shoot through walls and explode inside the target's body.
Dredd and a colleague managed to figure out how to defeat these weapons by running full speed at the Sovs because the weapons were unable to adjust to the changing range fast enough meaning the energy wave would go through the target and explode harmlessly behind them.
Hang on...
... is this an April Fool or not...???
Re:Who would have thunk it
"The Home Secretary, Theresa May, who has hitherto shown herself refreshingly reluctant to take on new police powers where existing ones would do,"
Who would have thunk this either!
I think you mean...
Please God, let this be an April Fool...!!
"it isn't feasible to get a sufficiently large sample."
Why not?
The BARB TV audience figures are (according to their site) based on 5,100 households scattered across the country to represent all regions, why can't they (or a similar selection) be used to ensure that any possible bias from the "I'll vote for Party X come hell or high water" people is negated?
@What exactly are the ASA's powers anyway?
They can firmly wag their finger at you and say "Naughty! Don't do it again...(pretty please, otherwise we will look foolish and people will realise we're totally impotent)"
@Odd
If you're running an army, navy or airforce, knowing what the weather is likely to be (pouring rain, high winds, fog etc) tends to be rather useful...
"According to the report...
"...Google has also tried to prevent partners from bundling rival services such as Microsoft's Bing search."
Err, guys, remember how people got the option to install Chrome on their PCs instead of having IE as the default...???
