A small, but important, point: 'blotches and broken characters' are precisely what interest bibliographers and researchers, for whom these scans will be of immense value.
When Indonesia went into financial and social meltdown back in 1998 the Indonesian Chinese community was singled out - as ever - for horrendous attacks. Many fled to Malaysia and Singapore. They never returned. This exodus included a large number of highly qualified and very talented people, many of whom were IT managers in big companies and key organizations. This flight, coupled with Indonesia Telkom's virtual monopoly of Internet access and a chronic lack of infrastructure investment, left the country in an IT stone age from which it's slowly emerging. Prices are high, service is poor, breakdowns are frequent - and even in Jakarta many areas don't access to cable broadband.
Abbottabad is about 50 km north of Islamabad, and 150 km east of Peshawar. It's also the location for a number of major military establishments. Which, of course, raises a whole lot of very interesting questions about the Pakistani government's knowledge of, and possible complicity in, his holing up there.
Equally bad are online traders. I use Paypal because of the security and convenience - but twice over the past three months I've been asked to fill in two or more pages of ludicrously detailed information (including a zip code) after hitting the 'checkout' button. When this happens I leave a note for the company sales people: "Congratulations. You have just lost a customer. You have also lost any sales that might have resulted from my personal recommendation."
Samsung has a reputation for not providing OS updates in the hope that Galaxy owners will fork out for a new phone. Visit any of the Samsung user forums around the web and you'll find this to be the hot discussion topic. In spite of producing good phones (mine is a Galaxy Spica/Tab) there are annoying idiosyncrasies that Samsung has persistently refused to address - such as limited Bluetooth functionality, driver issues with USB-PC connection, and no easy way to hook up a keyboard. My next phone is very unlikely to be a Samsung.
"Of course, back in the old days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and tests were written out by hand, people who could write faster with better penmanship had an advantage in a similar way."
The writer should be aware that in most countries examinations are handwritten on answer sheets; examinations answered on computers via keyboards are not yet widespread outside the USA.
The exam regulations of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) are a good model to follow. No digital gadgets of any sort are allowed. Calculators must be simple - no graphic or programmable ones are allowed. Digital dictionaries are not allowed, but book dictionaries (simple translation, language to language), are. At the end of the day, the examiner (institution or course teacher) sets the rules. As long as they're announced at or before the beginning of a course, students have no cause for complaint.
Here in Jakarta we have bit of a puzzler. The advertised speed of First Media's 'FastNet' service is "up to 6mbps", so I monitored the connection for a day. For 30 minutes you get just under 6mbps, as advertised. Then, for the next 37 minutes, you get just under 4mbps. And so on, throughout the day. I'm annoyed because there's no mention of this in their account agreement - even in the small print. So although I'm getting 6mbps for some of the time, the maximum that I can get over a period of time is significantly less. Do other ISPs in other countries pull this one, or is it an Indonesian one-off?
Like it or not, "the team were" is now an accepted and widely-used form. The only 'rule' I have come across is that usage depends on whether we think of the team as a single entity, or a group of individuals.
Take the word 'class', for example. "The class was dismissed", vs "The class were interviewed one by one". Or government - "The government was defeated", vs "The government were forced to increase interest rates".
I've just checked it in the OED. Actually it did have meaning 5 - in the mid-nineteenth century. It's now archaic/obsolete. Mongrel online dictionaries are no substitute for the real thing.
I lived and worked in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the early nineties, initiating educational projects across the Arab/Jewish divide. I also worked with the Druze and Bedouin communities, so I have a pretty fair knowledge of both the history and the contemporary reality of the place.
I agree that Jaffa, Akko and parts of Jerusalem have harmonious mixed populations. And, yes, some Arabs who fled the country after the declaration of the state of Isreal did leave properties empty. But there are so many cases of blatantly illegal land-grabs and quasi-legal evictions that they will be a permanent stain on Israel's reputation.
Oh, really? Which history books have you been reading? Have you ever visited the parts of Jaffa and Jerusalem (to name but two places) where Arab properties were stolen? Have you visited agricultural areas where land was simply grabbed from Arab farmers who had owned and worked it for many generations? A clean slate indeed!
"I hate to be the one to break it to you, buddy, but your country's shit stinks, too."
I fully agree with you. That's why I left the wretched place eleven years ago, and haven't been back since. I do admit to feeling a little smug - but only for getting out of Blighty before the rot really set in.
After reading this (and other comments in a similar vein) I can see more clearly what is wrong with commercialised healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry in the USA. For all us non-Americans out in the real world, the title of that patriotic song "God Save America" might be changed to "God Save Us From America".
So Douglas Adams had an English degree. Do you have the faintest idea of what studying for an English degree entails these days? Have you seen a recent syllabus from a good UK university? The notion that the study of English is simply reading great literature from Beowulf to Virginia Wolf died long ago.
I'm puzzled. As I understand things, *anybody* with diplomatic status (and thereby protected by the articles of the Vienna Convention) is exempt from such regulations - not just heads of state.
Slashdot Mirror
A small, but important, point: 'blotches and broken characters' are precisely what interest bibliographers and researchers, for whom these scans will be of immense value.
As I understand it, the site in question is not being sued - they're being bullied into revealing the identies of the Twits who made the posts.
When Indonesia went into financial and social meltdown back in 1998 the Indonesian Chinese community was singled out - as ever - for horrendous attacks. Many fled to Malaysia and Singapore. They never returned. This exodus included a large number of highly qualified and very talented people, many of whom were IT managers in big companies and key organizations. This flight, coupled with Indonesia Telkom's virtual monopoly of Internet access and a chronic lack of infrastructure investment, left the country in an IT stone age from which it's slowly emerging. Prices are high, service is poor, breakdowns are frequent - and even in Jakarta many areas don't access to cable broadband.
Creationists and intelligent design saps are living proof that evolution can work in reverse.
Abbottabad is about 50 km north of Islamabad, and 150 km east of Peshawar. It's also the location for a number of major military establishments. Which, of course, raises a whole lot of very interesting questions about the Pakistani government's knowledge of, and possible complicity in, his holing up there.
It never fails to amaze me that anyone can take seriously an organisation founded by someone whose name is an anagram of L Don Rhubarb.
Equally bad are online traders. I use Paypal because of the security and convenience - but twice over the past three months I've been asked to fill in two or more pages of ludicrously detailed information (including a zip code) after hitting the 'checkout' button. When this happens I leave a note for the company sales people: "Congratulations. You have just lost a customer. You have also lost any sales that might have resulted from my personal recommendation."
How on earth was this trite (and questionable) analogy awarded a score of 5 for insight?
Samsung has a reputation for not providing OS updates in the hope that Galaxy owners will fork out for a new phone. Visit any of the Samsung user forums around the web and you'll find this to be the hot discussion topic. In spite of producing good phones (mine is a Galaxy Spica/Tab) there are annoying idiosyncrasies that Samsung has persistently refused to address - such as limited Bluetooth functionality, driver issues with USB-PC connection, and no easy way to hook up a keyboard. My next phone is very unlikely to be a Samsung.
The writer should be aware that in most countries examinations are handwritten on answer sheets; examinations answered on computers via keyboards are not yet widespread outside the USA.
As a matter of interest, a DDos of a fax number isn't half as effective as just sending one fax consisting of half-a-dozen sheets of black paper.
"putting all your eggs in one basket (facebook) will never lead to anything good."
For one moment I misread that as "putting all your egos in one basket."
The exam regulations of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) are a good model to follow. No digital gadgets of any sort are allowed. Calculators must be simple - no graphic or programmable ones are allowed. Digital dictionaries are not allowed, but book dictionaries (simple translation, language to language), are. At the end of the day, the examiner (institution or course teacher) sets the rules. As long as they're announced at or before the beginning of a course, students have no cause for complaint.
You mean you've never met any wine buffs?
Here in Jakarta we have bit of a puzzler. The advertised speed of First Media's 'FastNet' service is "up to 6mbps", so I monitored the connection for a day. For 30 minutes you get just under 6mbps, as advertised. Then, for the next 37 minutes, you get just under 4mbps. And so on, throughout the day. I'm annoyed because there's no mention of this in their account agreement - even in the small print. So although I'm getting 6mbps for some of the time, the maximum that I can get over a period of time is significantly less. Do other ISPs in other countries pull this one, or is it an Indonesian one-off?
Take the word 'class', for example. "The class was dismissed", vs "The class were interviewed one by one". Or government - "The government was defeated", vs "The government were forced to increase interest rates".
I've just checked it in the OED. Actually it did have meaning 5 - in the mid-nineteenth century. It's now archaic/obsolete. Mongrel online dictionaries are no substitute for the real thing.
Ah, I understand now. You mean they're like the government.
I agree that Jaffa, Akko and parts of Jerusalem have harmonious mixed populations. And, yes, some Arabs who fled the country after the declaration of the state of Isreal did leave properties empty. But there are so many cases of blatantly illegal land-grabs and quasi-legal evictions that they will be a permanent stain on Israel's reputation.
Oh, really? Which history books have you been reading? Have you ever visited the parts of Jaffa and Jerusalem (to name but two places) where Arab properties were stolen? Have you visited agricultural areas where land was simply grabbed from Arab farmers who had owned and worked it for many generations? A clean slate indeed!
Conductive? Conducive!
I fully agree with you. That's why I left the wretched place eleven years ago, and haven't been back since. I do admit to feeling a little smug - but only for getting out of Blighty before the rot really set in.
After reading this (and other comments in a similar vein) I can see more clearly what is wrong with commercialised healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry in the USA. For all us non-Americans out in the real world, the title of that patriotic song "God Save America" might be changed to "God Save Us From America".
So Douglas Adams had an English degree. Do you have the faintest idea of what studying for an English degree entails these days? Have you seen a recent syllabus from a good UK university? The notion that the study of English is simply reading great literature from Beowulf to Virginia Wolf died long ago.
I'm puzzled. As I understand things, *anybody* with diplomatic status (and thereby protected by the articles of the Vienna Convention) is exempt from such regulations - not just heads of state.