Posts by David Evans 345 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Aug 2007
Yes the IoM isn't part of "England" (or the UK), but Jagger was talking to Americans, so "England" means UK (get over it celtic types, Americans don't care), and I think explaining IoM is a Crown Dependency and not part of the UK proper would probably have blown their minds (lets be honest, most Brits can't get their head around the make up the country). So give the addled old man a break.
...any commercial exploitation of the BBC is bad? Or the world service remit should be broadened? Or non-specific beeb-bashing? I'm not getting it.
My view is the BBC should be sweating the assets commercially as much as possible because the money returned keeps the licence fee down, and screw Murdoch and commercial media rivals because its clear, that it may be "unfair", but our media is better than other countries' media (with obvious exceptions like the bloody Daily Mail) because the BBC curbs the worst of their commercial exploitation instincts. Imagine a UK without a BBC and a free hand for Rupert. If I was in charge of BBC Worldwide I'd offer the an annual sub for foreigners that gave them exactly the same content as they deliver in the UK, for the same price as the licence fee. They'd make a killing.
Why yes, yes I think it is. So why have a video that can't be shown in the UK?
NB. While DeGeneres' "apology" was clearly tongue-in-cheek, the fact that Apple even bothered to get hot under the collar about it shows the sheer levels of control-freakery they employ these days.
"In all, one in five sessions opened up on shots of young men masturbating, with a further three apparently preparing to do so."
South Park was right on the money then?
I can't believe I'm saying this, but it definitely sounds like Omegle needs a report or ban function. And parents should be blacklisting the hell out of this site.
I like this, if only because WebOS is too good to be allowed to die and Nokia are probably the only ones who could give it the audience it deserves. Its better than the other suggestions I've seen elsewhere, that HTC should buy Palm (for the IP to counter their suit with Apple) or Huawei (because they have money).
"It's a choice between rights holders and the general public. The record industry is squeezing money out of consumers and avoids any change that could mean fewer profits. The general public is starting to resist them through mass disobedience."
Oh yeah, that's what it is, a civil disobedience campaign. Not just downloading stuff because they don't want to pay for it, oh no, of course not, its a moral calling.
Give me a break. If people really want to protest at the music industry's methods, stop CONSUMING music. If everyone did that for a week, no consumption of music, legal or pirated, didn't even listen to the radio, the music industry would forced to change its ways with no ambiguity and no arguing about whether piracy, cost or general shittiness of product is what's killing music. Of course this will never happen because file sharing has NOTHING to do with protest and everything to do with just wanting free shit. So yes, Freetard is as Freetard does. Proceed with downvotes ACs.
Your logic applies only if the ISPs don't have a piece of the action, but if OnLive cuts deals with them to put the kit inside their networks (which would also have benefits from a latency perspective) then the ISPs will be more inclined to discount OnLive from their data allowances. Would you pay more money to your ISP for an uncontended service that delivers gaming (and VOD etc.) in an environment where you wouldn't have to worry about all your bandwidth being gobbled up? I have to admit I'd be tempted.
I don't think OnLive will work as advertised right now, because too much of the network is too flaky, but I certainly can see how certain threatened companies (ISPs and media owners) would be really incentivised to make this work. And there's no reason why consoles couldn't be part of this ecosystem; just because they generally do more than gaming these days doesn't mean the current consoles can't be replaced by 'thinner' versions in the next generation; (indeed "PlayStation" could just as easily be a service embedded in a Bravia TV with an ethernet port and wireless for controllers as a device in its own right).
I don't know if OnLive is the service of the future, but if its not, something not unlike it will be.
Kind of reaching here aren't you? There are a couple of big problems with gas-giant moons, rather than planets, as life-bearing candidates; first of all, tidal forces would be a bitch, which doesn't make life impossible, but certainly makes it harder; but more difficult would be radiation from the gas giant, which would overwhlem the magnetosphere of any moon (assuming it has one in the first place), making it a rather unwelcome place for anything biological.
Actually, I have, and I ran into an awful lot of nervous middle class people who were heading for the exit; mainly to Panama. I met one girl who worked for a (at the time) recently nationalised telco; who basically told me they were doomed, and the only people who were looking forward to nationalisation were all the Chinese contractors they were bringing in.
As for Chavez spending money on weapons systems; what's the point? Certainly not to defend against the US, who'd be slowed down by any arms buys Venezuela could make for about 30 seconds.
While be libertarian instincts scream "foul" on this one; the damn things do seem to work. However, there's also the small matter of cost; at £500 a pop I'm guessing it will be the poor bloody motorist who pays (again) for these, rather than the insurance industry who reap all the benefit.
"Outrageous Tales From The Old Testament"; I think Neil Gaiman was one of the contributors; comic book retelling of a lot of those Old Testament tales. It was done pretty much straight from the bible and was certainly eye-opening if you haven't read some of the dodgier stuff in "the good book". The story of Jael and Sisera from the Book of Judges was particularly unpleasant as I recall.
Oh boo hoo. Cry me a river. You're nothing special and the South East you sneer at is full of people in exactly the same position as you; couldn't get a decent job or home in their home locale (Welsh, northern, Scottish, you name it) so the went where the work is. How on earth do you think having a pop at students, who at least bring in some income, will improve the lot of the Cornish one iota? And what would independence get you? A bunch of new bureaucrats and sod all else.
I often drive from London to Holyhead to get the ferry to Dublin; guess I'll be taking the long route via Liverpool from now on as constantly keeping my eye on the speedo to keep my average speed legal is just too dangerous; I'd prefer to concentrate on the road.
I've just skimmed the document and while it mentions "no CEOs" twice, it doesn't say why a distributed, social-networked organisation can do without a Head Honcho. Is that just thrown in as some kind of bizarre wish-fulfilment or because it will make a good headline for lazy journos who won't actually read the report? Because frankly, its bollocks.
I tend to dislike the idea of present governments apologising for the deeds of people long dead from a different culture,but I do think there should be some more overt tribute to Turing's legacy; and something more concrete (and useful) than a pointless apology or a useless knighthood. A substantial research grant or student prize perhaps, or a nobel prize equivalent for computing or AI.
"With regard to this specific incident there was a need to establish the identity of the man in question"
What "need"? This is the crux of the matter, the Kent police don't seem to understand that law isn't there so they can do what they like. The day is fast coming when we're all going to need cameras on at all times just to protect ourselves from our so-called guardians.
All this seems to be based on the idea that Ireland will let anybody who rolls up to customs into the Republic, from which they can easily visit the glorious sunlit uplands of Britain via NI. First of all, Irish passport control are the same set of miserable bastards you'd find at any other passport control around the world (so it isn't that easy), and secondly, as Ireland has far more generous social welfare provisions than the UK (although after today that looks like its going to change), its by no means a given than Mr. Illegal immigrant wants to get on the M1 up to Belfast anyway.
"To all of those who think that technology alone wins wars, have a look at the history of the Mongols. When they took on the Chinese, they took on a foe who was numerically - and technologically - superior. The Chinese had gunpowder and the Mongols did not. The Mongols won. Oh, and at the beginning of WWII, the Japanese had the best air force in the world."
No one said technology alone wins wars, superior strategy and tactics are fairly helpful, and tech is part of that. And you're making the fatal mistake of assuming that technological superiority automatically means bigger guns; the mongols actually had two technological advantages over the Chinese, the stirrup and the recurve horse bow (far more useful than gunpowder at the time). And your Japanese example only serves to confirm the point; their superior technology helped them win until it wasn't superior any more; by 1943 the Americans had superior numbers AND superior technology, which made for a pretty compelling argument.
I've actually visited a place where there were no combustion vehicles, only electric golf carts and bicycles; Caye Caulker in Belize. It was LETHAL. Every vehicle was silent and fast moving, but at least being open there was the option for drivers to shout at soon-to-be-run-over pedestrians. With real electric cars there were be no such option. This isn't just about blind people; entire populations have been trained to use their ears at least as much as their eyes in traffic.
Lovely, now where exactly is the electricity to power all these electric cars coming from again? I was under the impression we faced a power generation shortfall as it is. I'm also unimpressed by the green credentials of this; maybe not having a second car as a local runabout at all might be a tad more environmentally friendly?
The Cult Of Carbon isn't going to like this one...
Also, does no-one else find it ironic that the report suggests "climate engineering" as the solution to an obviously poorly understood problem that was caused by "climate engineering" of a poorly-understood system in the first place?
Proof if it was needed that anyone who wants to be in politics should automatically be disbarred from office. Universities would be the ideal place to try new democratic models (like picking students at random) rather than encouraging the kind of tossers who love interfering in everyone else's lives.
"They do. That's the whole point of the 'single economic community' aspect of the EU- if they sell it in the EU, it is purchasable from anywhere in the EU- it's no more complicated than that. You might have to use a French web site to get one, but there's nothing stopping you from doing it."
You'd think so wouldn't you? Doesn't actually work that way in practice. I've been blocked from buying items of amazon.co.uk here in Ireland (logitech stuff last time it happened) which I thought was illegal.
...big fuckoff nets over buildings. Can you imagine the impact of these things once they get civilianised? A paparazzi's dream, never mind all the nefarious uses our wonderful police forces will dream up. I look forward to the first court case for damages when some C-List celeb is smacked in the face by a badly piloted nanocopter.
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