Posts by Fogcat 198 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Oct 2007
Ahh.. I remember watching this when I was a youngster, Jacob Bronowski even sounds like a boffiny name. (I have the book as well, presented at school prize day, for being a swot)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Man
That was when documentaries weren't afraid to have someone TALK to you and show the person doing the talking and didn't feel the need to have actors dressed up to do a historical re-enactment.
As someone who has had to deal with with these numpties (two children who have been through degrees and one now working overseas) I'm not in the slightest surprised that they they can't keep confidential data under control. They can't even find information you've already given them.
Plus the fact they are very keen to send out letters from what appears to be the Smith Lawson & Company debt collection company but is actually part of SLC.
They're a monopoly why isn't there a choice?
"If as Elstein posits, 20 per cent gave up paying altogether, 40 per cent paid double and 10 per cent paid treble, then it would have over £5.1bn a year."
Do they really believe that if 30% were to pay the same as the current licence fee (simple arithmetic on the above) that 50% of people would voluntarily and happily pay more3?
I really can't see that happening.
Running up to Christmas that was a perfume ad, black and white, male with a chiselled jaw driving and open topped sports care and so on. It was so utterly full of cliches I was waiting for the end of the ad for the punchline seriously believing it to be one of those spoof ads that appears glamorous but is actually for soap powder.
The those sneaky ad men fooled me - it was actually an ad for perfume!
If wasn't (only) the viability of the technology that opponents of the "Star Wares project" objected to. It was to a greater extent about what it would do to the stability of the global political climate.
The Russians saw the project a a means whereby the USA could stage a first strike without having to worry about the retaliation and resulting "Mutual Assured Destruction" (Don't forget Regan had already called them an evil empire. If the "shield" even *looked* as if it was getting close to being viable it would have put the pressure on the Soviet hawks to lobby for their own first while that was still a possibility. It would have made the world a much less stable place, Perestroika would probably never got off the ground.
Of course in these days of asymmetric warfare you don't need ICBMs to totally change a countries culture.
I heard her interviewed on the Today program on Radio 4 and as usual it seems a nice headline opportunity has obscured what she's actually doing. It is all related to combinations sounds, what type follows what and so on and it's aimed at look how ideas get vocalised, what can interfere with it and has applications for rehabilitation of stroke suffers and other speech problems.
"Hell, most people if you play their won speech back at the with a few milliseconds delay will find it near impossible to talk."
This is true, sometimes when Skype-ing if the user at the other end is using speakers rather a headset you hear your own voice coming back delayed. When that happens I can only get half way through sentences..
"So, based on anyone's real knowledge of the systems in place, which bank(s) are least likely to have serious IT problems? Serious question, because I want to change and this is one of my important criteria."
From a purely customer service point of view I'd recommend First Direct. Always been very helpful and have sorted out things for me that weren't actually their problem. The phone even gets answered really quickly.
I can't answer about their IT systems, but they're a part of HSBC so there is probably some reliance on that".
No, I don't work for them or have any connection, just been with them since soon after they opened and found their service good.
"That "quadcopter decapitation" story would appear to be an amalgamation of two different stories:"
I'd just done my own research on that having wondered how big a quad copter must be to have rotors that could decapitate. And I'd come to the same conclusion - that it hadn't happened. Tsk tsk Reg, I don't expect urban legends from you.
First I'll declare that I currently own an Original Wii, an XBox 360, a PSP and a PS3.
The Wii hasn't been turned on for months and was mostly used for Zelda games.
The Xbox360 also hasn't been turned on recently and that's mainly used for platform exclusives.
I can't remember the last time the PSP was turned on, that's really been superseded by smartphones and tablets.
The PS3 (original fat model with hardware PS2 compatibility) is my main gaming machine (primarily because I "know" more people on PSN than XBox live) and is currently getting used for GTAV. It also gets used as the BluRay player so since I've had a 3-D TV for about 9 months I was rather startled the hear the PS4 doesn't support 3D BluRays. I never really used the PS3 for media as Sony never provided .MKV support.
Currently neither the XBox One or the PS4 have me thinking "I want one". If the PS4 was backwards compatible I *probably* would have gone for it after Christmas, just to have the new shiny. But with a backlog of games and several new ones due that I fancy playing I'm happy with the PS3. And I don't want to run a PS3 and 4 - there are enough wires and plugboards round the back of the tell as it is.
So.... until the next Uncharted gets released as a PS4 exclusive I'll probably be sitting on my hands; I can't see the sales being massive.
Mr Baker is the one for me, Saturday tea times at university the TV room in hall (we didn't have computers or even TVs in our rooms in those does youngsters) were a fun communal time (and of course there was Leela!)
In answer to "which would you have liked to have seen more?" I'd would have like Christopher Eccelston to have done more, he brought a darker, angry tone which I liked and I thought he was just hitting his stride when he left.
I don't know much about this game yet but I have played Heavy Rain and that had multiple different outcomes possible. It was also a "game" that some family members wanted to watch be "played". I had to wait until they were available before I could continue.
"the de-funding of all faith schools"
I'd give you more up votes if I could. I'm for banning all religious "education" for under 16s. I know you couldn't do anything about in the home, but Sunday schools etc. could go and school RE lessons could stay as comparative theology at the secondary school level.
"Capitalism isn't ideal but being told what you can or cannot believe or say in a public arena is a very slippery slope and this is slowly happening :("
I don't get where this Christian sense of persecution is coming from (yes I realise I'm making an assumption it was written from that point of view). It seems to be coming more and more commonly voiced and I'm not sure if this is some organised tactic or believers are getting upset that they no longer have the same influence when telling other believer or non-believers that they're wrong.
When I first read that I thought you were actually posting from Gorky Park; they do have free public Wi-Fi in the park. Just on the other side of the main road from the park is the Fallen Monument sculpture parke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Monument_Park
That contains a lot of the old Soviet era statutes, Stalin with his nose broken off for example, very very interesting place.
Stalin seems to have been removed from public places but Lenin is still pretty popular.
(Yes I know this is getting well off the original topic)
The first thing to note is that since April 2012 the Post Office and Royal Mail have been separate entities. and the Post Office just has a ten year contract to issue stamps and handle letters and parcels for Royal Mail. The Post Office is effectively now just a commercial business; probably why you have to put up with all those video ads when you're queuing.
What ever it's faults the big plus with Royal Mail is that it is a universal service. I will cost me the same to send a letter to my next door neighbour as it does to send a letter to eccentric Uncle Hamish on his remote Hebridian island. If the Royal Mail is privatised I wonder how long that will last? I can't see DHL, UPS et al clamouring to provide a rural service.
I know RM is making profits (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22605734) but think how much bigger board bonus would be if they didn't have to send a van out into the snow covered dales with one Christmas card for a remote farm.
I went to a talk a little while ago by a guy who was a professional magician. He had been on a show on local radio where three "psychics" did reading on various volunteers and the listeners voted on who was the best/most accurate. He (as a self confessed fake) beat the two "genuine" psychics.
Apparent their response to that was "But you ARE really psychic, it's just that you don't realise it.
Surly there must be some old un-replealed witchcraft laws floating around we could use.
(devil obviously appropriate)
"If you're going to pay £1800 for a laptop then perhaps you shouldn't baulk at £20 to make it compatible with older hardware."
As I've written in these comments before (to many down votes) at that price and mark up the £20 adaptor should be included! It won't cost the manufacturer £20 probably something closer to the fancy folded packaging.
Surprised that there seems to have been no mention of the following on El Reg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22079232
As some one with cats named after Blake's seven characters I'm not sure what I feel about this...
The fact that it's bound for the SyFy channel and that one of the Heroes writer is on board doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.
On the other hand Freemantle seems to be a British company so maybe it won't be a feel good, buddies against the bad guys that it could be with an American company in charge.
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