Posts by Graham O'Brien

I'd have been really unimpressed ...

... if my travel arrangements had been disrupted by this. I was flying back to the UK through Logan (fortunately terminal B).

Having lived in London through the bombings in the '70s I can understand the reaction of both the authorities and the public at the total idiocy and lack of thought of this kid. Anyone walking through an airport at the present time with a bunch of electronics and a handful of Play-doh has obviously not thought through the consequences of their actions and should be left in no doubts as to the magnitude of their stupidity. "She's kind of counter culture. She's prone to do whimsical things" the news article puts it. No, not whimsical. Just stupid, thoughtless, ill-judged and offensive.

Help!

I think I understood what amanfromMars posted. I need therapy!

Retail advice needed

Where can I buy a red scarf?

Problem with US mains supply

This highlights one of the big problems with the US 120v mains: there's just not enough poke to help Darwin. Also, it makes electric kettles a problem: a 3kW kettle would pull 25A ... no wonder my American friends use old technology gas hobe for their cuppas.

I'm not common!

I'm another dentist who wouldn't touch Vista with a barge-pole. However, I take great exception to be referred to as a 'common person' by Rob.

Scope creep - never a good thing

A card for charging small-value transactions is a good idea (though with the price of second-rate coffee in some of the chains in London it can hardly be classed as 'small-value') but why Oyster? I wonder how many people top up Oyster cards for their teenagers to make sure they can always get home in the evenings and will find they are paying for coffee, burgers, possibly booze and other stuff?

Will there be an 'opt-out' for categories of purchase and how long before tech-savvy kids find ways of getting round it?

Think again, tfl.

Re: Do the math....

Surely in this case the correct dialogue is:

<whisper> "Can you keep a secret?"

<whisper back> "I could answer that one but then I'd have to kill you"

Pigopolists' goose to be killed for golden egg - surprise, surprise

I've been a Pandora listener for a while now and as a result of introducing me to new groups that I had not heard before I have bought several CDs that I would not otherwise have considered. And from someone who buys only a few CDs per year, that represents a large increase in my music purchases, new money coming into the industry. Multiply that by the number who have done the same, it's an industry gain, not loss.

Typical of the unimaginative, uncreative approach beloved of a supposedly creative industry who are unable to distinguish between piracy and legitimate listening.

Or perhaps they are worried that if we listened to moreof the music instead of watching the videos and absorbing the hype we'd never buy anything?

yes, we should really thank Microsoft...

"MSDN is a gift to you. You should be honored to have access of any kind."

Let's see who benefits most from this: after all, the more applications are written for their OS, the "better" it looks. Microsoft derives huge revenues from its operations, and if there were few third-party apps produced, would it have such a large user base?

I would say that, contrary to the above comment, Microsoft is almost totally dependent for its market position on the efforts of third-party producers, and it makes sound business sense to assist them in every way possible, including decent software development information and tools.

So it's not an honour: the development community is keeping Microsoft in business.