The UK is a backwards country when it comes to politics. No elected leader for the House of Commons, and we use First Past the Post (FPTP) to elect our Members of Parliament. Our second chamber, the House of Lords is no elected at all, but reform was included in the Queen's speech to have elected peers using Sing Transferable Vote (STV).
The House of Commons using FPTP and Lords STV is ridiculous. One chamber elected by the most worst and unfair voting system, the other by a fair proportional representation.
The Commons are totally autonomous to the Queen. The Queen has no powers when it comes to government.
That, my friend, is why our economies are in such a mess. People buying things on credit (a phone contract can be seen as credit too, as you owe the money over the length of the contract) that they cannot afford. If you know you cannot afford the product outright, then you shouldn't be buying it in the first place.
Too many poorer people buying 60 inch TVs on credit cards, a £25,000 car on a store loan, too many buying in to £1,000+ contracts for phones.
It's the poorest who suffer the most. They could buy the phone and save £300, that £300 would go to putting food on the table or be needed in an emergency. Or it's that £300 they fall short on and have to take a loan at an interest rate of 4000%.
I still do not know why people in the UK (any many other countries) bother with mobile phone contracts. Everyone needs to wake up.
I have an iPhone 4S that costs £599, contract free. For £10/month I get 250 mins, unlimited texts and true unlimited data (even no FUP) using Giffgaff which uses O2's network:
599+(10*24)= £839.
On O2, same network as Giffgaff. Only difference is 300mins and 1GB data:
£269+(36*24)=£1133.
Yet, O2 being one of the cheapest, people still go for contracts.
A big sigh of relief from Mozilla I think. This is exactly why they wanted to keep out of h.264. It wouldn't be the patent payout for either licensing or fines, but the cost of lawyers that would cripple Mozilla.
I don't know why Mozilla didn't just "move" the development from the USA to a European country where software patents do not exist. Rich people do it with money to avoid tax, surely Mozilla could do it to avoid patents.
Just want to point out that dead tree books are in fact VAT exempt. There is also Low Value Consignment Relief that makes any product under £15 VAT exempt, it is soon to be abolished and it was £18 last year. Did you notice that Amazon sold DVDs at £17.99, now they are £14.99 or lower.
That's called VAT. VAT is 20% of the price in the UK. Not everything is classed as VATable , dead tree books are not for example.
The UK has 'Low Value Consignment Relief'. Anything that is imported that is priced less than £15 is VAT exempt. This is slowly being abolished in the UK. It was £18 and stores like Amazon got around not charging VAT by making products such as DVDs priced at £17.99. As soon as LVCR was reduced to £15, Amazon reduced their prices to £14.99. Amazon at £14.99 can make a profit, brick and mortar stores cannot at that price as they have to charge 20% VAT.
Basically, he's created an ALU found on a CPU, but operates like something Charles Babbage would have made. Even the gates for memory are mechanical, the input and output are all mechanical too. Truly amazing!
It's far more fun to have a physical device in front of you that you can programme yourself. Kids can see the hardware and the components, that ethernet controller that they are compiling the code for, they can see it. It's far more satisfying having a device that at first have nothing on it, then for a kid to write a small programme to get text to appear on to a monitor, or a tone to play out of the headphone socket, that's the level most will aim to do. We had this back in the day when BBC or Acorn Computers were in schools. This got lost when schools switched to x86 PCs and the only thing they teach children about computers is how to use Word or Excel.
I'm a sound engineer. Writing DSP algorithms in Matlab is boring. Yep, you can test them in Matlab too, snooze! Then, get that same code, compile it to work on a SHARC dev board, and for it to work in real-time. I can't think of anything more satisfying.
Kids in schools love it when they see an Arduino or Pic boards. Getting a bunch of LEDs to flash does entertain and inspire the Xbox/PS3 kids of today.
I've never seen magazines sold in book stores, such as Waterstones in the UK. Most people in the UK buy from news agents, as the name suggests, they are shops that mainly sell newspapers and magazines (plus milk, perhaps stationary and sweets (candy)).
Not quite "refresh" like in TFA, or like OS X's archive and install. Windows never works well after a reinstall, usually ends up with a ton of error messages and apps crashing. Let's hope it works for Windows 8.
Slashdot Mirror
The UK is a backwards country when it comes to politics. No elected leader for the House of Commons, and we use First Past the Post (FPTP) to elect our Members of Parliament. Our second chamber, the House of Lords is no elected at all, but reform was included in the Queen's speech to have elected peers using Sing Transferable Vote (STV).
The House of Commons using FPTP and Lords STV is ridiculous. One chamber elected by the most worst and unfair voting system, the other by a fair proportional representation.
The Commons are totally autonomous to the Queen. The Queen has no powers when it comes to government.
Not as bad as Belgium politics though.
That, my friend, is why our economies are in such a mess. People buying things on credit (a phone contract can be seen as credit too, as you owe the money over the length of the contract) that they cannot afford. If you know you cannot afford the product outright, then you shouldn't be buying it in the first place.
Too many poorer people buying 60 inch TVs on credit cards, a £25,000 car on a store loan, too many buying in to £1,000+ contracts for phones.
It's the poorest who suffer the most. They could buy the phone and save £300, that £300 would go to putting food on the table or be needed in an emergency. Or it's that £300 they fall short on and have to take a loan at an interest rate of 4000%.
A house or student loans are exceptions.
I still do not know why people in the UK (any many other countries) bother with mobile phone contracts. Everyone needs to wake up.
I have an iPhone 4S that costs £599, contract free. For £10/month I get 250 mins, unlimited texts and true unlimited data (even no FUP) using Giffgaff which uses O2's network:
599+(10*24)= £839.
On O2, same network as Giffgaff. Only difference is 300mins and 1GB data:
£269+(36*24)=£1133.
Yet, O2 being one of the cheapest, people still go for contracts.
Java has been running on ARM platform since Acorn RISCOS days. How is this news?
I'm guessing the RISCOS port for Raspberry Pi will run Java too?
A big sigh of relief from Mozilla I think. This is exactly why they wanted to keep out of h.264. It wouldn't be the patent payout for either licensing or fines, but the cost of lawyers that would cripple Mozilla.
I don't know why Mozilla didn't just "move" the development from the USA to a European country where software patents do not exist. Rich people do it with money to avoid tax, surely Mozilla could do it to avoid patents.
Can we have a slashdot Apple fanboi variant, an iPhone that has been in Woz's sweaty crotch for a few days?
*sniff*
Just want to point out that dead tree books are in fact VAT exempt. There is also Low Value Consignment Relief that makes any product under £15 VAT exempt, it is soon to be abolished and it was £18 last year. Did you notice that Amazon sold DVDs at £17.99, now they are £14.99 or lower.
That's called VAT. VAT is 20% of the price in the UK. Not everything is classed as VATable , dead tree books are not for example.
The UK has 'Low Value Consignment Relief'. Anything that is imported that is priced less than £15 is VAT exempt. This is slowly being abolished in the UK. It was £18 and stores like Amazon got around not charging VAT by making products such as DVDs priced at £17.99. As soon as LVCR was reduced to £15, Amazon reduced their prices to £14.99. Amazon at £14.99 can make a profit, brick and mortar stores cannot at that price as they have to charge 20% VAT.
Amazon, Play.com, HMV online are laughing.
Prefer to use iWork. For regular work it is far better to use than Office.
Does this bring back the chat roulette feature?
Basically, he's created an ALU found on a CPU, but operates like something Charles Babbage would have made. Even the gates for memory are mechanical, the input and output are all mechanical too. Truly amazing!
I wish some TV broadcaster would re-commission 'Yes Minister' or 'Yes Prime Minister'.
Go back to Wikipedia, copy your post there and link the source back to your original slashdot posting.
Best way to win edit wars too.
Humm, best thing since Gordon Brown's cabinet of "all the talents" maybe. That had plenty of notable advisers.
Also remember most of the House of Lords is made of people like Jimbo (not personality but success).
Linking from google search always works.
https://www.google.com/search?q=new+york+time+japan+shutting+down&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Li
It's far more fun to have a physical device in front of you that you can programme yourself. Kids can see the hardware and the components, that ethernet controller that they are compiling the code for, they can see it. It's far more satisfying having a device that at first have nothing on it, then for a kid to write a small programme to get text to appear on to a monitor, or a tone to play out of the headphone socket, that's the level most will aim to do. We had this back in the day when BBC or Acorn Computers were in schools. This got lost when schools switched to x86 PCs and the only thing they teach children about computers is how to use Word or Excel.
I'm a sound engineer. Writing DSP algorithms in Matlab is boring. Yep, you can test them in Matlab too, snooze! Then, get that same code, compile it to work on a SHARC dev board, and for it to work in real-time. I can't think of anything more satisfying.
Kids in schools love it when they see an Arduino or Pic boards. Getting a bunch of LEDs to flash does entertain and inspire the Xbox/PS3 kids of today.
I'm sure Denon will have a "faster than light" TOSLINK cable for sale for $1,000+ in no time. Better to get those audio bits before time itself.
I'm English, ignorant when it comes to my own language.
s/anyone/anyway.
But you would have done that anyone, just without using Siri.
I've never seen magazines sold in book stores, such as Waterstones in the UK. Most people in the UK buy from news agents, as the name suggests, they are shops that mainly sell newspapers and magazines (plus milk, perhaps stationary and sweets (candy)).
http://xkcd.com/932/
At least 3 PS3 models, 1st generation that supported PS2 titles, the other 1st gen that didn't, and then the slim model.
99% of them reformat the drive.
Not quite "refresh" like in TFA, or like OS X's archive and install. Windows never works well after a reinstall, usually ends up with a ton of error messages and apps crashing. Let's hope it works for Windows 8.