Indeed.
It's way off target to label the British ASA as a government body. They are a self regulatory organisation...
The Advertising Standards Authority is the independent body set up by the advertising industry to police the rules laid down in the advertising codes. The strength of the self-regulatory system lies in both the independence of the ASA and the support and commitment of the advertising industry,
Indeed. Reading your post I was reminded of a conversation I had with a photographer many years ago based around the old saying, "the camera never lies". His responce was that the camera is the biggest darn lier you'll ever meet.
I guess modern Photoshop techniques which largely reflect age old darkroom techniques, are just adding a little embelishment to the story.
Most big US companies will have an office near you in Europe. Maybe an easier option is to contact them first: "I'll do 3 months for you if you get me 3 months un the US".
Adding the even handlers after the page has loaded. There may be a technical reason, but it's just creepy.
This is known as "unobtrusive" JavaScript and generally considered as best practice in any script deployment these days.
Nothing creepy about it at all.
"You need something user-level with immediate and very visible results"
I'd agree with that, start them out with something that is relatively "simple" and instantly cratifying such as JavaScript, PHP or ActionScript perhaps?
At that level it's all about getting used to writing code, getting a grip on some of the logic and experimenting a bit. For god's sake leave the kernel hacking until later.
As I said I don't know enough about the science involved to have an opinion of my own but it does seem odd that they felt the need to bury this experiment 100m below a mountain if it's so completely safe.
p.s. modding my original comment "Troll" was a bit harsh wasn't it?:(
Sure it's a nice upgrade but... By adding the encoding type to HTTPRequest returns they have foobarded several poorly written applications.
For example the Microsoft Maps App used on the website I support is completely broken & I'm getting it the neck:(
The only thing that gives me pleasure is that the stuff I wrote still works and the stuff Microsoft wrote doesn't.
Either way, it's a big hassle for me and surely could have been introduced "softly" rather than forced in knowing it would break stuff.
Like good/.ers we seem to be mostly deriding the fact that theatre is used instead of "proper" security. As is not wrong. Though I beleive that good theatre is actually one of the best forms of security.
By giving the impression that a security breach is difficult to acheive you will deter 99%+ of people. By implying that breaching the security will incur severe penalties; you will discourage 99.9%+ of people. That leaves the very small percentage that you would probably have been dealing with anyway but you spent less money.
Take the Houses of Parliament in the UK as a great example. I've seen men dressed in super hero outfits and pregnant women unfolding banners from the roof on national televison, so obviously security isn't that great. But when walking past the place with 10,000 camera's pointed at me and machine gun toting police every 5 yards I don't feel particularly keen to test it.
"People just randomly click OK"
It's not random. They have been trained to do this.
I've watched my mum using a computer and she is constantly jabbing "okay" buttons far faster than I can tell her to stop and actually read what it says; whilst she complains to me that her computer is running real slow and throwing up a bunch of annoying "pop-ups".
The "are you sure?/do you want to?" pop-up is just another annoyance to her.
I've worked on a number of large sites such as that:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ = hand coded.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/ = hand coded.
http://www.nhs.uk/ = hand coded.
http://www.metrofrance.com/ = hand coded.
I could go on but I think you get the idea.
Sure those sites use CMS systems and templates that spit out the HTML but it was all hand coded in a text editor before being added to the back end.
I would guess that this is actually far more common than using a WYSIWG editor for HTML & CSS creation these days.
Slashdot Mirror
That means I can get my nice shiny super slick iPhone running a cluncky UI from the early 90's. Where's the install button?
Just hope they didn't forget the "Internet-Style Forward" option.
and you can hear the sound of 141 legal teams laughing all the way to the bank.
The Advertising Standards Authority is the independent body set up by the advertising industry to police the rules laid down in the advertising codes. The strength of the self-regulatory system lies in both the independence of the ASA and the support and commitment of the advertising industry,
source: http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/about/
Makes it a far more powerful judgement: "Guys, we are in the business of twisting truths all day every day but that's a step too far".
I don't mean to nit-pic but magpies are crows. http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/families/crows.asp
Indeed. Reading your post I was reminded of a conversation I had with a photographer many years ago based around the old saying, "the camera never lies". His responce was that the camera is the biggest darn lier you'll ever meet.
I guess modern Photoshop techniques which largely reflect age old darkroom techniques, are just adding a little embelishment to the story.
If you're worried about it just post your email address here and we'll do our best to get normal service resumed for you.
"preventing all but the most inquisitive of people to miss the fact that the code was ever there."
Sorry dude but if you're viewing source you are already "the most inquisitive" and you can see the calls to the .js files there in plain text.
Most big US companies will have an office near you in Europe. Maybe an easier option is to contact them first: "I'll do 3 months for you if you get me 3 months un the US".
As Ted said... If you have any doubts about the effects we have on our environment, take a look out the window.
Oh dear, do you realise what you've started?
Asking geeks to work out how to verify that "2 messes are equally messy" in a discussion about the geekolypmics?
Let the unintentional humour begin...
Adding the even handlers after the page has loaded. There may be a technical reason, but it's just creepy.
This is known as "unobtrusive" JavaScript and generally considered as best practice in any script deployment these days. Nothing creepy about it at all.
"You need something user-level with immediate and very visible results"
I'd agree with that, start them out with something that is relatively "simple" and instantly cratifying such as JavaScript, PHP or ActionScript perhaps? At that level it's all about getting used to writing code, getting a grip on some of the logic and experimenting a bit. For god's sake leave the kernel hacking until later.
As I said I don't know enough about the science involved to have an opinion of my own but it does seem odd that they felt the need to bury this experiment 100m below a mountain if it's so completely safe.
p.s. modding my original comment "Troll" was a bit harsh wasn't it? :(
Okay, I don't really understand the science behind this but recreating the conditions of the "Big Bang" sounds potentially risky to me.
I have a tendency to empathise with Dr. Adrian Kent in a related BBC article ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7468966.stm ) when he says:
"How improbable does a cataclysm have to be to warrant proceeding with an experiment?"
It's been a hell of a long wait, bring on the mindless hack & slash.
yes 4.2 million times by me alone.
Sure it's a nice upgrade but... By adding the encoding type to HTTPRequest returns they have foobarded several poorly written applications. For example the Microsoft Maps App used on the website I support is completely broken & I'm getting it the neck :(
The only thing that gives me pleasure is that the stuff I wrote still works and the stuff Microsoft wrote doesn't.
Either way, it's a big hassle for me and surely could have been introduced "softly" rather than forced in knowing it would break stuff.
1: Hack your competitiors coffee machine.
2: Set it to only serve decaff.
3: Sit back and watch their productivity go through the floor.
It's a bit of a strange one for me The House of Lords. As a concept it's deeply flawed but for the large part it actually works pretty well.
Like good /.ers we seem to be mostly deriding the fact that theatre is used instead of "proper" security. As is not wrong. Though I beleive that good theatre is actually one of the best forms of security.
By giving the impression that a security breach is difficult to acheive you will deter 99%+ of people. By implying that breaching the security will incur severe penalties; you will discourage 99.9%+ of people. That leaves the very small percentage that you would probably have been dealing with anyway but you spent less money.
Take the Houses of Parliament in the UK as a great example. I've seen men dressed in super hero outfits and pregnant women unfolding banners from the roof on national televison, so obviously security isn't that great. But when walking past the place with 10,000 camera's pointed at me and machine gun toting police every 5 yards I don't feel particularly keen to test it.
"People just randomly click OK" It's not random. They have been trained to do this. I've watched my mum using a computer and she is constantly jabbing "okay" buttons far faster than I can tell her to stop and actually read what it says; whilst she complains to me that her computer is running real slow and throwing up a bunch of annoying "pop-ups". The "are you sure?/do you want to?" pop-up is just another annoyance to her.
I've worked on a number of large sites such as that: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ = hand coded. http://www.thesun.co.uk/ = hand coded. http://www.nhs.uk/ = hand coded. http://www.metrofrance.com/ = hand coded. I could go on but I think you get the idea. Sure those sites use CMS systems and templates that spit out the HTML but it was all hand coded in a text editor before being added to the back end. I would guess that this is actually far more common than using a WYSIWG editor for HTML & CSS creation these days.
I'm just trying to work out if this is "the best worst job ever" or "the worst best job ever".
It's a bit like asking the post office to open every single letter they deliver to check whether they have any illegally copied DVDs or CDs in there.
Driverless cars... http://sugiero.blogspot.com/2007/12/video-driverless-car-at-top-gear-bmw.html/