I have a lot of interest in the placebo effect, dunno why, it's just one of those things that interests me
A study by a knee surgeon http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2119999.stm reported that common surgery was no better than the placebo procedure. Now while that may prove more that the surgery is often unnecessary, the reported benefits and improvements by many of the recipients of the placebo procedure surely demonstrate some effect
A recent Discovery channel series on this introduced another doctor who stated that simulating the operation with manipulation and audio recordings enhanced the statistics of the placebo group even further, but I can't find the data to cite
You can't be charged with libel, it's a civil matter. Any person, or organisation, can sue for libel, and I believe the situation is the same in the US. Unfortunately here jaywalking is not an offence. Having any window shutters at all, let alone crooked ones, probably soon will be though, lest it impedes the ever increasing surveillance of us all by government
Here in the UK, especially since the advent of 'Chip & Pin' security, card skimmers and other intercept methods have become increasingly common, and fuel pumps are among the most common targets of all. The reason why is ease of access. You're stood at the pump for quite a long time (in the UK you have to keep the handle squeezed to pump fuel, no latch) with noone paying any real attention to you. Since you're stood for so long you have ample opportunity to install your device, and since there are no attendants, just a couple of cashiers, the chances of detection are minimal. Since automatic number plate recognition technology was added to aid in apprehending fuel thieves, the cashiers have no reason to look at the CCTV screens either, so they don't.
I was had by just such a device a couple of years ago, but here the banks are so confident in chip and pin as a security method they weren't exactly sympathetic - and bank fraud is now a matter for the banks, not the police. It took a long struggle to get my money back, and in the end the best I could manage was about 50% of it.
Personally I agree with the guy, and he holds a powerful position within the EU, but in reality it's not that powerful in comparison to the collective interests of the US government, the RIAA, MPAA etc
Representatives and Senators will keep big business happy, that's who puts the dollars in their campaign funds after all.
It's probable that it'll just be like all the rest of the recent "international" laws - there'll be safeguards to ensure no US citizens have to answer to any non-US IP holder, while US IP holders get free reign to stomp all over the rest of us in a similar fashion to how the USA doesn't hand over suspects wanted in other countries but on pain of sanction and embargo demands we all hand our citizens over to them without due process in their country of origin
Yes it certainly does. Unfortunately our country's laws are now changed at the behest of a semi-hostile foreign power, the USA, or an unelected foreign government, the European Commission, rather than the citizens of the country
As a British citizen with direct experience of two such cases, I would argue (with some degree of authority) that what's wrong with your argument is interpretation of what you've read (and the posters above too)
In the UK civil courts, both sides must prove the veracity of their arguments. Thus the plaintiff must show that the respondent's utterances were defamatory, and the respondent must must prove the veracity of his defence, by showing them to be truthful, justified or whatever defence he has chosen to employ. If you can prove the statement is true you will not be found to be guilty of defamation. The difference between the allowable and the absolute defence of truth in the UK & US courts respectively is merely this; in the US truth is an absolute defence and the justice systems explicitly forbids the court from finding in favour of the plaintiff, in the UK it is an allowable defence and historical precedence guides the court that in such cases the plaintiff cannot claim slander if the utterances were truthful.
Civil actions are not about proof as criminal cases are, they're more about putting forward a convincing argument.
Journalistic freedom is highly prized in the UK, and, though journalists' employers may run scared of litigation on occasion, it's very rare for such actions to be successful, and those which are are more often than not overturned at appeal.
The cases discussed here are viewed entirely differently (and rightly so) from the tabloid rumour-mongering which abounds in our newspaper industry
Indeed, the human can think creatively. It's true a computer is faster and to a degree better in many things, but not at making creative decisions based on unforseen events. This is why I believe it won't be possible to persuade large sections of the public that autonomous aircraft are a good thing - a ground programmer is unlikely to forsee, and code solutions to, any event beyond the extents of current flight training.
It's no triviality, the exporting of data. It's a serious breach of UK & European law. If they survive long enough to be hauled over the coals by each data commissioner they're unlikely to survive that process.
One of the great annoyances is that the quoted refund is so much more here - 40GBP is about US$66. So why are Microsoft charging us $66 for the same thing you can buy in the US for $40?
Why capitalize Lord? In UK English one would only do that if Lord were an acronym, not a proper noun as it is here. I believe US English follows largely the same rule, though I may be wrong not being an American.
Probably true in the US where most cars have auto-transmission, less so in parts of the world where manual gearbox is the norm, such as Europe. At least some form of hands free system leaves you with free hands to change gear and steer. Been in quite a few taxis where the driver's let go fo the wheel to change gear 'cos his other hand's full of phone
We used to blame immoral living etc, say these phenomenon were a demonstration of God's wrath etc,
Now we do seem to blame every small shower on global warming.
I like the idea of a warmer globe, was raised in Scotland which is too cold most of the year. I like the idea of California sinking beneath the waves, and London too and many other places. In fact, try as I might, I'm hard pushed to see the downsides of it at all
I think in this example it would be. We do have an extradition treaty with the USA (which they sometimes honour, though most times not), so assuming a successful application for extradition they would be prosecuted under UK law - just as the Lockerbie bombers were, who in essence instigated their offence from Hamburg with the loading of the luggage containing the barometric triggers bombs
The "how dare you suggest a US citizen be subject to any foreigner's copyright retrictions" attitude from many of our American contributors puts a whole new perspective to me on the US administration's concerns about software piracy in the far east, particularly China, and on the American RIAA's continuous battle to empty all our wallets for committing what are often Fair Use infringements.
In Europe we have two sets of pertinent directives, one on waste electrical equipment (WEEE Directive), one on packaging. Both are designed to make the producer of the end product (not the components therein) responsible for the costs of disposal and recycling
Since the EU is an huge market for all producers of such products, the design requirements are already built in to comply with this and several other directives, notable recently is RoHS, which banned amongst other things, lead in most solders, and certain bromide fire retardants. It's not economical for manufacturers to produce multiple versions of products, so they will seek to minimise the number of versions as much as possible, and indeed, most electrical equipment sold in the US today complies with all pertinent EU directives on waste management, recyclability, chemical composition etc. I can buy servers from the US and they'll arrive CE marked with RoHS compliance statements in the box.
How the compliance with WEEE Directive works varies between the various EU states, but in the UK collection and recycling is done by local authorities who bill a central pool of money on a per unit basis. That pool of money is paid into by the producers of equipment on a per unit sold basis. in some other EU states it's done by the retailers.
Point is, it can be done, and has been done already - the system's not perfect, but at least it's a start on forcing manufacturers to consider what happens to their products at end of life. The EU's next target for this concept is car manufacturers.
Incidentally, we saw no price rises at consumer level when this directive was enacted, electrical equipment continued it's natural downwards price trend unchanged. We just got the same rip-off prices we always have had
Yes, but does Wikipedia apply this safeguard only to those whose family or employer have some link back to the powers that be within Wikipedia? And if so, what does that mean for it's standing as an unbiased collective work
It's been pointed out many times above that their normal policy is the more usual journalistic one of "publish and be damned".
It's unarguable that publication would have served the kidnappers' ends more than those of his victim, but that is true of all such kidnappings, and it seems that Wikipedia has no qualms publishing them normally.
True, but even that wouldn't electrically damage the camera. The charging circuits are current controlled so even they wouldn't be damaged by such an event.
Leaving marketing mythology aside for a moment, what damage could a third party battery do?
A battery cannot overvolt, so the only condition where it could supply too much current would be in the event of a fault inside the camera shorting it out. Exploding, leaking etc shouldn't be a concern to Panasonic since to claim against them you'd need both the camera and the remains of the damaged battery, which if not a genuine Panasonic item wouldn't be their liability or warranty expense.
This is surely just a ruse to get us to buy a new camera every couple of years since the battery will need to be replaced after a year or two and will be "obsolete" and unavailable by then.
Traditionally the UK military have had very little faith in GPS. Perhaps it's the selective availability controlled by a (sometimes hostile) foreign power which makes it look less than attractive from this side of the Atlantic. That's why they pushed ahead with development of ring-laser-gyro based inertial nav clusters even after GPS became a reality in the mid to late 80's.
Most modern systems such as Eurofighter Typhoon use the two devices in tandem, but since, if align settled before use, RLG IN systems can even track the wobble of the Earth's orbit, they should be adequate in the event it was felt useful to scatter a few thousand GPS jammers around a particular theatre.
The great advantage of GPS is not needing to nav align it before use, it's almost instantly available. Still, like all systems, errors in it's use can have disastrous consequences.
In my experience though that's more a big company problem, than a small company with a one man IT department.
Having done both, and currently being a one man IT dept, it's a completely different relationship with users. I think I am much more likely to be helpful and flexible towards our users here in this smaller more intimate company than I was in the super large corporation I inhabited before.
Users also are different, in the large company software and network access policies were much more respected by the user base, or it was considered a waste of time in that situation to fight against them. In this small company sometimes it seems every user considers themselves a special case and wants a policy written just for them.
User behaviour can be part of the problem. We've all come across users with 40 apps open whining their pc is slow. It's just not practical to give every user the latest greatest PC on the market with a super fast processor and oodles of memory - economics dictates that in business good enough is good enough.
In the world of the one man IT dept, managing expectations is perhaps the greatest skill of all.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a lot of interest in the placebo effect, dunno why, it's just one of those things that interests me
A study by a knee surgeon http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2119999.stm reported that common surgery was no better than the placebo procedure. Now while that may prove more that the surgery is often unnecessary, the reported benefits and improvements by many of the recipients of the placebo procedure surely demonstrate some effect
A recent Discovery channel series on this introduced another doctor who stated that simulating the operation with manipulation and audio recordings enhanced the statistics of the placebo group even further, but I can't find the data to cite
You can't be charged with libel, it's a civil matter. Any person, or organisation, can sue for libel, and I believe the situation is the same in the US. Unfortunately here jaywalking is not an offence. Having any window shutters at all, let alone crooked ones, probably soon will be though, lest it impedes the ever increasing surveillance of us all by government
Here in the UK, especially since the advent of 'Chip & Pin' security, card skimmers and other intercept methods have become increasingly common, and fuel pumps are among the most common targets of all. The reason why is ease of access. You're stood at the pump for quite a long time (in the UK you have to keep the handle squeezed to pump fuel, no latch) with noone paying any real attention to you. Since you're stood for so long you have ample opportunity to install your device, and since there are no attendants, just a couple of cashiers, the chances of detection are minimal. Since automatic number plate recognition technology was added to aid in apprehending fuel thieves, the cashiers have no reason to look at the CCTV screens either, so they don't.
I was had by just such a device a couple of years ago, but here the banks are so confident in chip and pin as a security method they weren't exactly sympathetic - and bank fraud is now a matter for the banks, not the police. It took a long struggle to get my money back, and in the end the best I could manage was about 50% of it.
Personally I agree with the guy, and he holds a powerful position within the EU, but in reality it's not that powerful in comparison to the collective interests of the US government, the RIAA, MPAA etc
Representatives and Senators will keep big business happy, that's who puts the dollars in their campaign funds after all.
It's probable that it'll just be like all the rest of the recent "international" laws - there'll be safeguards to ensure no US citizens have to answer to any non-US IP holder, while US IP holders get free reign to stomp all over the rest of us in a similar fashion to how the USA doesn't hand over suspects wanted in other countries but on pain of sanction and embargo demands we all hand our citizens over to them without due process in their country of origin
and, well, forgetting about the UK helps too
Yes it certainly does. Unfortunately our country's laws are now changed at the behest of a semi-hostile foreign power, the USA, or an unelected foreign government, the European Commission, rather than the citizens of the country
Old it might be, but it's still hilarious
Just been to Slovakia and mine was connected to Orange's network all the time I was there, so I guess they must have reinstated it
As a British citizen with direct experience of two such cases, I would argue (with some degree of authority) that what's wrong with your argument is interpretation of what you've read (and the posters above too)
In the UK civil courts, both sides must prove the veracity of their arguments. Thus the plaintiff must show that the respondent's utterances were defamatory, and the respondent must must prove the veracity of his defence, by showing them to be truthful, justified or whatever defence he has chosen to employ. If you can prove the statement is true you will not be found to be guilty of defamation. The difference between the allowable and the absolute defence of truth in the UK & US courts respectively is merely this; in the US truth is an absolute defence and the justice systems explicitly forbids the court from finding in favour of the plaintiff, in the UK it is an allowable defence and historical precedence guides the court that in such cases the plaintiff cannot claim slander if the utterances were truthful.
Civil actions are not about proof as criminal cases are, they're more about putting forward a convincing argument.
Journalistic freedom is highly prized in the UK, and, though journalists' employers may run scared of litigation on occasion, it's very rare for such actions to be successful, and those which are are more often than not overturned at appeal.
The cases discussed here are viewed entirely differently (and rightly so) from the tabloid rumour-mongering which abounds in our newspaper industry
Or surely you would outsource it to someone you trust?
Indeed, the human can think creatively. It's true a computer is faster and to a degree better in many things, but not at making creative decisions based on unforseen events. This is why I believe it won't be possible to persuade large sections of the public that autonomous aircraft are a good thing - a ground programmer is unlikely to forsee, and code solutions to, any event beyond the extents of current flight training.
It's no triviality, the exporting of data. It's a serious breach of UK & European law. If they survive long enough to be hauled over the coals by each data commissioner they're unlikely to survive that process.
One of the great annoyances is that the quoted refund is so much more here - 40GBP is about US$66. So why are Microsoft charging us $66 for the same thing you can buy in the US for $40?
Why capitalize Lord? In UK English one would only do that if Lord were an acronym, not a proper noun as it is here. I believe US English follows largely the same rule, though I may be wrong not being an American.
Probably true in the US where most cars have auto-transmission, less so in parts of the world where manual gearbox is the norm, such as Europe. At least some form of hands free system leaves you with free hands to change gear and steer. Been in quite a few taxis where the driver's let go fo the wheel to change gear 'cos his other hand's full of phone
We used to blame immoral living etc, say these phenomenon were a demonstration of God's wrath etc,
Now we do seem to blame every small shower on global warming.
I like the idea of a warmer globe, was raised in Scotland which is too cold most of the year. I like the idea of California sinking beneath the waves, and London too and many other places. In fact, try as I might, I'm hard pushed to see the downsides of it at all
I think in this example it would be. We do have an extradition treaty with the USA (which they sometimes honour, though most times not), so assuming a successful application for extradition they would be prosecuted under UK law - just as the Lockerbie bombers were, who in essence instigated their offence from Hamburg with the loading of the luggage containing the barometric triggers bombs
The "how dare you suggest a US citizen be subject to any foreigner's copyright retrictions" attitude from many of our American contributors puts a whole new perspective to me on the US administration's concerns about software piracy in the far east, particularly China, and on the American RIAA's continuous battle to empty all our wallets for committing what are often Fair Use infringements.
In Europe we have two sets of pertinent directives, one on waste electrical equipment (WEEE Directive), one on packaging. Both are designed to make the producer of the end product (not the components therein) responsible for the costs of disposal and recycling
Since the EU is an huge market for all producers of such products, the design requirements are already built in to comply with this and several other directives, notable recently is RoHS, which banned amongst other things, lead in most solders, and certain bromide fire retardants. It's not economical for manufacturers to produce multiple versions of products, so they will seek to minimise the number of versions as much as possible, and indeed, most electrical equipment sold in the US today complies with all pertinent EU directives on waste management, recyclability, chemical composition etc. I can buy servers from the US and they'll arrive CE marked with RoHS compliance statements in the box.
How the compliance with WEEE Directive works varies between the various EU states, but in the UK collection and recycling is done by local authorities who bill a central pool of money on a per unit basis. That pool of money is paid into by the producers of equipment on a per unit sold basis. in some other EU states it's done by the retailers.
Point is, it can be done, and has been done already - the system's not perfect, but at least it's a start on forcing manufacturers to consider what happens to their products at end of life. The EU's next target for this concept is car manufacturers.
Incidentally, we saw no price rises at consumer level when this directive was enacted, electrical equipment continued it's natural downwards price trend unchanged. We just got the same rip-off prices we always have had
Yes, but does Wikipedia apply this safeguard only to those whose family or employer have some link back to the powers that be within Wikipedia? And if so, what does that mean for it's standing as an unbiased collective work
It's been pointed out many times above that their normal policy is the more usual journalistic one of "publish and be damned".
It's unarguable that publication would have served the kidnappers' ends more than those of his victim, but that is true of all such kidnappings, and it seems that Wikipedia has no qualms publishing them normally.
True, but even that wouldn't electrically damage the camera. The charging circuits are current controlled so even they wouldn't be damaged by such an event.
Leaving marketing mythology aside for a moment, what damage could a third party battery do?
A battery cannot overvolt, so the only condition where it could supply too much current would be in the event of a fault inside the camera shorting it out. Exploding, leaking etc shouldn't be a concern to Panasonic since to claim against them you'd need both the camera and the remains of the damaged battery, which if not a genuine Panasonic item wouldn't be their liability or warranty expense.
This is surely just a ruse to get us to buy a new camera every couple of years since the battery will need to be replaced after a year or two and will be "obsolete" and unavailable by then.
Traditionally the UK military have had very little faith in GPS. Perhaps it's the selective availability controlled by a (sometimes hostile) foreign power which makes it look less than attractive from this side of the Atlantic. That's why they pushed ahead with development of ring-laser-gyro based inertial nav clusters even after GPS became a reality in the mid to late 80's.
Most modern systems such as Eurofighter Typhoon use the two devices in tandem, but since, if align settled before use, RLG IN systems can even track the wobble of the Earth's orbit, they should be adequate in the event it was felt useful to scatter a few thousand GPS jammers around a particular theatre.
The great advantage of GPS is not needing to nav align it before use, it's almost instantly available. Still, like all systems, errors in it's use can have disastrous consequences.
Now might be the time to switch to lead free, more environmentally friendly ammunition then.
At the time of its inception I wondered, but never dug far enough to find out, if the EU RoHS directive would make lead-free ammunition a reality
In my experience though that's more a big company problem, than a small company with a one man IT department.
Having done both, and currently being a one man IT dept, it's a completely different relationship with users. I think I am much more likely to be helpful and flexible towards our users here in this smaller more intimate company than I was in the super large corporation I inhabited before.
Users also are different, in the large company software and network access policies were much more respected by the user base, or it was considered a waste of time in that situation to fight against them. In this small company sometimes it seems every user considers themselves a special case and wants a policy written just for them.
User behaviour can be part of the problem. We've all come across users with 40 apps open whining their pc is slow. It's just not practical to give every user the latest greatest PC on the market with a super fast processor and oodles of memory - economics dictates that in business good enough is good enough.
In the world of the one man IT dept, managing expectations is perhaps the greatest skill of all.