You are entitled to see any footage recorded of you at any time - not that this is (yet) commonly done, but there was a politically/comedy-orientated issues show (forget the name, could have been Gorman) where a host filmed his attempts to get the camera footage that he knew he was caught on.
You can't just walk into the records office and say "I want all camera footage of me at any time in any place", but you can obtain footage if you're more specific - how specific I don't know. Perhaps if more people did this (and then sued if the footage wasn't forthcoming) the authorities would be less likely to be so keen on them...
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only way I'll be happy with continual surveillance of such overwhelming magnitude is if *all* the footage from *all* the cameras are available online - the average MP is going to be a lot less happy about cameras being used left, right, and centre if he knows he'll be caught speeding at 4:00am by some anorak
That said, the vast majority are in London (which visitors to the country think is typical - it couldn't be farther from the truth!), and a huge percentage of the headline figure are the CCTV cameras in shops that point at the counter, all privately owned and I don't have a problem with them if they help prevent robbery.
Simon
OS at odds with MS again, no surprise there..
on
Ballmer on Linux
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It's interesting to note the arguments on groklaw that an OS strategy might actually have *less* to fear than a closed-source one, compared to Mr Balmer's "It's not really FUD, honest" intellectual property FUD.
Also, reading the article, either the writer is unsympathetic to MS, or Balmer is really putting out some mixed messages... eg: "Ballmer scoffed at arguments that his company's operating system creates a computing monoculture" vs his statement "Microsoft's platforms offer better interoperability with the company's other technology".
Sounds like he's been spinning so much, he's dizzy:-)
I wish I had mod points, but I don't. Always the way when you really want them:-(
Heat = Energy More energy/km^3 = more phase-space for the atmosphere more phase space = more extremes extremes in the phase space = nasty stuff.
Premise: It's not the probability of something happening that is important, it is the product of the probability and the consequences.
Problem: humans as a species are less likely to plan for infrequent problems or long-term goals than frequent problems or short-term goals. Combine with premise and consider asteroids, global warming, oil dependence, etc.
Result: we're screwed if the weather-scientists are right:-(
There's a few cable companies out there - I'm on NTL, my brother's on BlueYonder, and work is on Telewest... All at different rates, but all cheaper than BT...
Not to mention that BT may be the common carrier for most of the gazillion xDSL services, but there's still a lot of competition for prices/services, and at least the services are relatively unrestricted in terms of bandwidth use and what you do with the connection...
I feel sorry for 'Haley' and others with their Quicken files being shown to all of/. and presumably friends etc. I wonder what the 'reach' of the slashdot crowd is when it's a "You're not going to believe this!" story...
Not to be arrogant about prices or anything, but $700k ( =£390k) would buy you a small 2-bed terraced house with a tiny garden in London. Silicon Valley may be expensive by US standards, but it's small change by UK (well, London) standards. There's a garage (not including house) just been sold in central london for 17 million pounds (30.6 million dollars),,,,,
I'm aware that Silicon Valley is an expensive part of the US, but I've taken that into consideration. I ought to be able to put down a decent deposit (because they're buying my company) and I'm looking forward to a far higher standard of living for my money:-)
As for melting pot - I can't actually believe there's anywhere more 'melring pot' than London, but I'm willing to be surprised:-) 40% of London's population is non-indigenous. It's supposed to be the most multi-racial society in europe, and benefits from the UK's traditional accceptance of other cultures:-)
I'm not *from* London, but I've lived here all my adult life (ie: tyhe last 20 years). I don't consider myself to be an arsehole. I hope the border guards agree.
I've been in and out of the US every year for the last 10 years or so (trade shows mainly) and I've never come across any real hassle - I've been asked to have my suitcase ripped apart once in all that time - I reckon that's par for the course...
Each to their own of course. From what I hear, the UK immigration authorities are complete arseholes for anyone not completely crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i', so maybe it's just roundabouts and swings. Of course, as a UK citizen, I never have any problems...
It may just be me, but I'd hesitate to tar any large group (like the 25 million people living in greater London) with the same brush. We tend to think that's not on.
I'm on the verge of moving to the US from the UK, to work in silicon valley. The salary is very attractive too, so there's obviously *some* improvement happening. The same company wanted the same thing to happen roughly 18 months ago, and it just wasn't on back then... This is all assuming I can get an H1B in time, of course...
I am beginning to suspect that the whole idea of sci-fi is in fact a future society time-travelling back every now and then to make a new 'Star Trek' film to nudge society onto a slightly different path:-)
The number of Star-Trek-driven ideas that have become reality is astounding -
phasers. We have wireless tasers that use a laser to ionise the air then an electric current jumps towards the victim from a battery. The battery is currently an issue)
communicators - hell mobile phones are far better than communicators
voice recognition - lots available these days
transporters - well we've done with an entangled photon. One down, seventeen quadrillion to go. Hey, it's a start!
now, transparent aluminium.. someone's having a laugh!
Ok, we're missing the big one, warp drive, but apparently we have to have a war that more or less wipes out humanity first, so I'll be happy to give it a miss in my lifetime...
Oh yeah, FOR [insert deity]'s SAKE, STOP THE WHALING!!!
Given the difference in rate-of-evolution in the two camps, it can't be long before PC clusters, probably running Linux / with PVM or BSP (that's bulk-synchronous parallel rather than 3D graphics:-) are perfectly capable of doing what supercomputers do today. Of course, there'll be new really-super computers then, but that's a different story:-)
It's all very well to mock the I/O of PCI, but that's why we're all imminently moving to PCI Express, at a rather more respectable (current) maximum of 8+GBps rather than 133Mbps... Run a few gigabit ethernets in a hypercube formation and you have some rapid data transfer...
I notice he hasn't quoted the data-transfer rate on these new super-duper chips. The whole article does rather look like a piece of advertising on the cheap, speaking of which, the cluster solution is (relatively) CHEAP. Did I mention that ITS CHEAP...
Everyone remembers the (somewhat unfair) 2nd line of the stanza and forgets the extension, but I think it applies here, with no disrespect really intended to teachers...
Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. Those that can't teach, administrate.
Optical (ie: laser detection) SETI has been up and running for a while now (see Optical SETI overview for example). Drake ought to declare an interest though, since he's one of the investigators on the project.
It's a reasonable argument, but it's far harder to set up optical "listening" posts than radio ones. It cost me about 1000 uk pounds (WHY is the pound symbol banned from/. ?) to set up a SETI listening post, including all the costs from dish/low-noise-amplifier through receiver and PC. Setting up an optical one is waaay more expensive. Optics in general are far more expensive than radio components, and large-scale ones are extortionate:-(
The counter argument of course is that to detect laser light, the remote civilisation have to be pointing their laser at us, whereas with radio it doesn't matter since it's not a directed beam. Against that you have to offset the time-period over which transmissions of either kind could be made...
The chances of getting a radio contact may be a few orders of magnitude lower than getting an optical contact, but since the chances of me setting up an optical SETI station are precisely 0, the chances of getting 'the' signal with radio is infinitely greater than with optics, at least for me:-)
These work well for the QFP packages, but aren't reliable enough for the BGA packages that larger chips come in - the 'pins' are in a square array under the chip, similar to an Athlon or P4, but not as extended. Bridges are a definite no-no, and once it's attached you can't alter which 'pins' have been bridged...
To do fine-pitch QFP, you only need to run the solder all along the pins anyway, then use braid to remove the bridges - no need for an oven. Flux helps:-)
These places may be 10-a-penny around your way, but they're rarer than hens teeth, as far as I can see.
There's lots of places that'll do you a PCB. No problem there. There's fewer places that'll add assembly of SMT components (BGA arrays can't be done without the specialist equipment:-( There are very few places (at least in my experience) who will take on a small quantity (like, er, 1:-)
The guy who responded first has found one such, and a 1 dm^2 PCB with a single BGA device attached is £180, or ~$300. That's actually very good:-) Most will be slightly cheaper (say £150 / $240) but require a minimum run of 10 pieces. Ouch.
that's difficult (at least for electronics), it's the realisation. If I have a spartan-3 FPGA in an FG456 package, I need it professionally soldered onto the board - finding that facility for small runs (ie: 1:-) at reasonable rates is a far harder proposition than firing up Eagle and creating a design.
I know pad2pad will assemble some of the more commonplace components, but I can't see them running to large-sized chips, and anything up to a QFP100, I can do myself anyway...
Simon
The empire was a force for good as well as bad
on
That's Sir Tim to You
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
It's not often said, but the British Empire was one of the first to enshrine the rights of man on a global scale. Slavery and all its connotatations came late in the empire's history, and frankly stood against almost everything the empire originally stood for (but by this stage, the money-men had taken over:( There are no noble actions in the enslavement of continents, but let's be clear here - the UK sold slaves from Africa to the USA, nowhere else. To deride the 'empire' for it's failings is to deny the good whilst celebrating the bad about the political system of the time.
The empire was a good thing during a time when war was commonplace, it brought stability to areas of conflict, it imposed Pax Britannia in the same way that the USA imposes Pax Americana today - the UK ruled through trade and prosperity within its territories, as opposed to the other colonial powers which tended to be more.. austere. Tell me the difference between what happened then and what happens now, As far as I can see, it boils down to 'the US allows countries their own government as long as it does not interfere with US foreign policy'. Not too different from 'The UK allows the locals to do their own thing, subject to overall control from the governer'
If you look at the evolution of the colonies that the UK had, compared to those that the other world powers at the time had, I think you'll see a more liberative and free society within the ex-UK colonies than the others. Even those countries that were our competitors at the time must concede that the model of democratic and fair government by the people of the people has its roots in the UK's parliamentary system. If you doubt me, look it up. See how nepotism and favouritism were rife in the politics of the day. Like it or loathe it, the rule of law was a rule imposed on *all* British subjects, since the Magna Carta enshrined the right of the common man to be treated with the same dignity as the Lord.
This is not to say that the British Empire was inherently good (or bad), you only have to look at 4th July to see most Americans attitude [grin], but consider what the situation would have been if the British sense of 'fair play', (and the system of law that it created), the English language, and the idea of Democracy as a fair form of government were never spread around the globe. This is the legacy of the Empire that you denigrate so tritely. Consider. Would you have done so well in different circumstances ? Consider that seriously for a moment.....
To get back more to the parent post: we (the Brits) honour those who serve more than is typically asked. We give them a title, a mark of distinction, a way of marking them as 'better' than average. If you don't like that, well, that's your privilege. Personally, I think ole Tim deserves every honour he gets. It's a distinction that goes back several hundred years, and I think he stands tall in the company of his peers. Well done Sir Tim.
Simon
Yes, but the 'report' has been roundly condemned
on
That's Sir Tim to You
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The UK political system has 2 houses, the commons (to which I could aspire) and the lords (in which only the gentry may vote). This may (at first glance) look incredibly stupid - the establishment having a hereditary vote that can interrupt the process of democracy. In the traditional sense of UK government, this is of course not the case....
The commons has to vote, and when a majority decision is reached, it goes to the Lords for ratification.
The Lords act as the 'public conscience' (and hey, it actually does work like this). Despite their allegiance to any party, there are myriad examples of the Lords sending a bill back to the Commons saying 'it has to cope with X better', where X could be any under-privileged group you care to mention. The Lords are *not* elected, They have a duty of *moral* care - and frankly they do a good job, despite the privilege that the system inherently (no pun intended:-) gives them.
In fact the Commons (the elected representatives) have the ability to over-rule the Lords if a bill goes back and forth 3 times. This is 'the voice of the people', but the Lords can raise an almighty stink (and have done), saying *why* they rejected the bill. This has been an unbelievable embarassment to governments in the past, and it takes a strong-willed government to push a bill through regardless. The last was Thatcher, and I think she paid a heavy price for not negotiating a compromise.
The take-home message is simple - the UK has 2 houses. One is elected and needs to justify its existence. One is not, and acts for those who cannot speak out for themselves. At least that's the idea, and although it's not perfect, it does seem to work reasonably well when you couple it with an independent media, at least IMHO...
Even with a 'designer' bio-machine, the components will be similar/identical to already existing ones in normal life-forms. We know just how adaptable life can be, so even an unintentional slip-up could produce a noxious result:-(
The problem is that a nuclear weapon needs an enormous number of things to be 'just so' before it'll go bang. You may be able to bodge together a 50% solution far easier when your building blocks are so much more adaptable...
To draw a parallel with FPGA's, it's relatively easy to write a few hundred lines of verilog, which synthesize the gates wthin the adaptable fabric of the FPGA into a 60-80% solution. The hard bit is squeezing the last nanoseconds out of the device using technology mapping and hand-placement.
The creation of tools to make bio-machines similar to verilog/VHDL would indeed potentially have grave consequences, but I can't see it going any other way. In both cases (Biology & chip-design) you have an enormous task to create something from scratch (enzymes/bases for biology, LUTs/LC's for FPGA's), so you write a description language and model in that instead. Far far simpler once you can map from the description to the reality...
You know, paying lip-service to the demands of your 'enemies' (hey! they're not going to see us as friends) is a time-honoured "solution" to a sticky problem. So if the MPAA comes out with 'Linux users can be legitimate users if they do X, Y, and Z", even if this only applies to Linux *vendors* , they could claim a certain amount of brownie points in a courtroom.
"They refused the compromise we offered", "They steal (sic) our IP", "We demand the death penalty", (with the exception of the latter, at least I hope) these are reasonable "court" arguments. Consider the case of the clueless judge (sorry your honour, but it's a fact that most of your kin aren't technically aware), the "industry expert" (read: paid shill), the "compromise offer", and the cold hard law.The 'rock and a hard place' doesn't come into it. Yes I'm aware I'm mixing my metaphors, it's late:-)
Let's hope they continue to deny us a 'reasonable' way of doing what we want - at least then we have a reasonable argument that they're being unreasonable. This is more important than most realise, I think....
Slashdot Mirror
You are entitled to see any footage recorded of you at any time - not that this is (yet) commonly done, but there was a politically/comedy-orientated issues show (forget the name, could have been Gorman) where a host filmed his attempts to get the camera footage that he knew he was caught on.
You can't just walk into the records office and say "I want all camera footage of me at any time in any place", but you can obtain footage if you're more specific - how specific I don't know. Perhaps if more people did this (and then sued if the footage wasn't forthcoming) the authorities would be less likely to be so keen on them...
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only way I'll be happy with continual surveillance of such overwhelming magnitude is if *all* the footage from *all* the cameras are available online - the average MP is going to be a lot less happy about cameras being used left, right, and centre if he knows he'll be caught speeding at 4:00am by some anorak
That said, the vast majority are in London (which visitors to the country think is typical - it couldn't be farther from the truth!), and a huge percentage of the headline figure are the CCTV cameras in shops that point at the counter, all privately owned and I don't have a problem with them if they help prevent robbery.
Simon
It's interesting to note the arguments on groklaw that an OS strategy might actually have *less* to fear than a closed-source one, compared to Mr Balmer's "It's not really FUD, honest" intellectual property FUD.
... eg:
:-)
Also, reading the article, either the writer is unsympathetic to MS, or Balmer is really putting out some mixed messages
"Ballmer scoffed at arguments that his company's operating system creates a computing monoculture" vs his statement "Microsoft's platforms offer better interoperability with the company's other technology".
Sounds like he's been spinning so much, he's dizzy
Simon.
I wish I had mod points, but I don't. Always the way when you really want them :-(
:-(
Heat = Energy
More energy/km^3 = more phase-space for the atmosphere
more phase space = more extremes
extremes in the phase space = nasty stuff.
Premise: It's not the probability of something happening that is important, it is the product of the probability and the consequences.
Problem: humans as a species are less likely to plan for infrequent problems or long-term goals than frequent problems or short-term goals. Combine with premise and consider asteroids, global warming, oil dependence, etc.
Result: we're screwed if the weather-scientists are right
Simon.
"honours" is correct. It is *our* language, the rest of the world just borrows it. No charge :-)
I'd expect 'mooving' to be a pun (at least that's how I read it), given the noise that a cow makes, and that the correct spelling is 'moving'
Simon
There's a few cable companies out there - I'm on NTL, my brother's on BlueYonder, and work is on Telewest... All at different rates, but all cheaper than BT...
Not to mention that BT may be the common carrier for most of the gazillion xDSL services, but there's still a lot of competition for prices/services, and at least the services are relatively unrestricted in terms of bandwidth use and what you do with the connection...
Simon
I feel sorry for 'Haley' and others with their Quicken files being shown to all of /. and presumably friends etc. I wonder what the 'reach' of the slashdot crowd is when it's a "You're not going to believe this!" story...
Simon
Not to be arrogant about prices or anything, but $700k ( =£390k) would buy you a small 2-bed terraced house with a tiny garden in London. Silicon Valley may be expensive by US standards, but it's small change by UK (well, London) standards. There's a garage (not including house) just been sold in central london for 17 million pounds (30.6 million dollars),,,,,
:-)
:-) 40% of London's population is non-indigenous. It's supposed to be the most multi-racial society in europe, and benefits from the UK's traditional accceptance of other cultures :-)
I'm aware that Silicon Valley is an expensive part of the US, but I've taken that into consideration. I ought to be able to put down a decent deposit (because they're buying my company) and I'm looking forward to a far higher standard of living for my money
As for melting pot - I can't actually believe there's anywhere more 'melring pot' than London, but I'm willing to be surprised
Simon
Well thankyou and goodnight.
I'm not *from* London, but I've lived here all my adult life (ie: tyhe last 20 years). I don't consider myself to be an arsehole. I hope the border guards agree.
I've been in and out of the US every year for the last 10 years or so (trade shows mainly) and I've never come across any real hassle - I've been asked to have my suitcase ripped apart once in all that time - I reckon that's par for the course...
Each to their own of course. From what I hear, the UK immigration authorities are complete arseholes for anyone not completely crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i', so maybe it's just roundabouts and swings. Of course, as a UK citizen, I never have any problems...
It may just be me, but I'd hesitate to tar any large group (like the 25 million people living in greater London) with the same brush. We tend to think that's not on.
Simon.
I'm on the verge of moving to the US from the UK, to work in silicon valley. The salary is very attractive too, so there's obviously *some* improvement happening. The same company wanted the same thing to happen roughly 18 months ago, and it just wasn't on back then... This is all assuming I can get an H1B in time, of course...
Simon.
I am beginning to suspect that the whole idea of sci-fi is in fact a future society time-travelling back every now and then to make a new 'Star Trek' film to nudge society onto a slightly different path
The number of Star-Trek-driven ideas that have become reality is astounding -
Ok, we're missing the big one, warp drive, but apparently we have to have a war that more or less wipes out humanity first, so I'll be happy to give it a miss in my lifetime...
Oh yeah, FOR [insert deity]'s SAKE, STOP THE WHALING!!!
Simon
Given the difference in rate-of-evolution in the two camps, it can't be long before PC clusters, probably running Linux / with PVM or BSP (that's bulk-synchronous parallel rather than 3D graphics
It's all very well to mock the I/O of PCI, but that's why we're all imminently moving to PCI Express, at a rather more respectable (current) maximum of 8+GBps rather than 133Mbps... Run a few gigabit ethernets in a hypercube formation and you have some rapid data transfer...
I notice he hasn't quoted the data-transfer rate on these new super-duper chips. The whole article does rather look like a piece of advertising on the cheap, speaking of which, the cluster solution is (relatively) CHEAP. Did I mention that ITS CHEAP...
Simon.
Everyone remembers the (somewhat unfair) 2nd line of the stanza and forgets the extension, but I think it applies here, with no disrespect really intended to teachers...
Those that can, do.
Those that can't, teach.
Those that can't teach, administrate.
I think that sums it up...
Simon.
Optical (ie: laser detection) SETI has been up and running for a while now (see Optical SETI overview for example). Drake ought to declare an interest though, since he's one of the investigators on the project.
It's a reasonable argument, but it's far harder to set up optical "listening" posts than radio ones. It cost me about 1000 uk pounds (WHY is the pound symbol banned from
The counter argument of course is that to detect laser light, the remote civilisation have to be pointing their laser at us, whereas with radio it doesn't matter since it's not a directed beam. Against that you have to offset the time-period over which transmissions of either kind could be made...
The chances of getting a radio contact may be a few orders of magnitude lower than getting an optical contact, but since the chances of me setting up an optical SETI station are precisely 0, the chances of getting 'the' signal with radio is infinitely greater than with optics, at least for me
Simon
These work well for the QFP packages, but aren't reliable enough for the BGA packages that larger chips come in - the 'pins' are in a square array under the chip, similar to an Athlon or P4, but not as extended. Bridges are a definite no-no, and once it's attached you can't alter which 'pins' have been bridged...
:-)
To do fine-pitch QFP, you only need to run the solder all along the pins anyway, then use braid to remove the bridges - no need for an oven. Flux helps
ATB,
Simon.
These places may be 10-a-penny around your way, but they're rarer than hens teeth, as far as I can see.
:-( There are very few places (at least in my experience) who will take on a small quantity (like, er, 1 :-)
:-) Most will be slightly cheaper (say £150 / $240) but require a minimum run of 10 pieces. Ouch.
:-))
There's lots of places that'll do you a PCB. No problem there. There's fewer places that'll add assembly of SMT components (BGA arrays can't be done without the specialist equipment
The guy who responded first has found one such, and a 1 dm^2 PCB with a single BGA device attached is £180, or ~$300. That's actually very good
I've bookmarked his suggestion
Simon
that's difficult (at least for electronics), it's the realisation. If I have a spartan-3 FPGA in an FG456 package, I need it professionally soldered onto the board - finding that facility for small runs (ie: 1 :-) at reasonable rates is a far harder proposition than firing up Eagle and creating a design.
I know pad2pad will assemble some of the more commonplace components, but I can't see them running to large-sized chips, and anything up to a QFP100, I can do myself anyway...
Simon
It's not often said, but the British Empire was one of the first to enshrine the rights of man on a global scale. Slavery and all its connotatations came late in the empire's history, and frankly stood against almost everything the empire originally stood for (but by this stage, the money-men had taken over :( There are no noble actions in the enslavement of continents, but let's be clear here - the UK sold slaves from Africa to the USA, nowhere else. To deride the 'empire' for it's failings is to deny the good whilst celebrating the bad about the political system of the time.
.. austere. Tell me the difference between what happened then and what happens now, As far as I can see, it boils down to 'the US allows countries their own government as long as it does not interfere with US foreign policy'. Not too different from 'The UK allows the locals to do their own thing, subject to overall control from the governer'
The empire was a good thing during a time when war was commonplace, it brought stability to areas of conflict, it imposed Pax Britannia in the same way that the USA imposes Pax Americana today - the UK ruled through trade and prosperity within its territories, as opposed to the other colonial powers which tended to be more
If you look at the evolution of the colonies that the UK had, compared to those that the other world powers at the time had, I think you'll see a more liberative and free society within the ex-UK colonies than the others. Even those countries that were our competitors at the time must concede that the model of democratic and fair government by the people of the people has its roots in the UK's parliamentary system. If you doubt me, look it up. See how nepotism and favouritism were rife in the politics of the day. Like it or loathe it, the rule of law was a rule imposed on *all* British subjects, since the Magna Carta enshrined the right of the common man to be treated with the same dignity as the Lord.
This is not to say that the British Empire was inherently good (or bad), you only have to look at 4th July to see most Americans attitude [grin], but consider what the situation would have been if the British sense of 'fair play', (and the system of law that it created), the English language, and the idea of Democracy as a fair form of government were never spread around the globe. This is the legacy of the Empire that you denigrate so tritely. Consider. Would you have done so well in different circumstances ? Consider that seriously for a moment.....
To get back more to the parent post: we (the Brits) honour those who serve more than is typically asked. We give them a title, a mark of distinction, a way of marking them as 'better' than average. If you don't like that, well, that's your privilege. Personally, I think ole Tim deserves every honour he gets. It's a distinction that goes back several hundred years, and I think he stands tall in the company of his peers. Well done Sir Tim.
Simon
The UK political system has 2 houses, the commons (to which I could aspire) and the lords (in which only the gentry may vote). This may (at first glance) look incredibly stupid - the establishment having a hereditary vote that can interrupt the process of democracy. In the traditional sense of UK government, this is of course not the case....
:-) gives them.
The commons has to vote, and when a majority decision is reached, it goes to the Lords for ratification.
The Lords act as the 'public conscience' (and hey, it actually does work like this). Despite their allegiance to any party, there are myriad examples of the Lords sending a bill back to the Commons saying 'it has to cope with X better', where X could be any under-privileged group you care to mention. The Lords are *not* elected, They have a duty of *moral* care - and frankly they do a good job, despite the privilege that the system inherently (no pun intended
In fact the Commons (the elected representatives) have the ability to over-rule the Lords if a bill goes back and forth 3 times. This is 'the voice of the people', but the Lords can raise an almighty stink (and have done), saying *why* they rejected the bill. This has been an unbelievable embarassment to governments in the past, and it takes a strong-willed government to push a bill through regardless. The last was Thatcher, and I think she paid a heavy price for not negotiating a compromise.
The take-home message is simple - the UK has 2 houses. One is elected and needs to justify its existence. One is not, and acts for those who cannot speak out for themselves. At least that's the idea, and although it's not perfect, it does seem to work reasonably well when you couple it with an independent media, at least IMHO...
Simon
Your MAC address doesn't make it out onto the internet, AFAIK. The MAC is used to deliver packets on the same ethernet segment.
Simon
... but it has big plans to be - see my sig :-)
Simon
... yes I know, space is big... [grin]
Simon
I wouldn't mind one of those :-)
simon&@&hostip,info
Cheers,
Simon
Even with a 'designer' bio-machine, the components will be similar/identical to already existing ones in normal life-forms. We know just how adaptable life can be, so even an unintentional slip-up could produce a noxious result
The problem is that a nuclear weapon needs an enormous number of things to be 'just so' before it'll go bang. You may be able to bodge together a 50% solution far easier when your building blocks are so much more adaptable...
To draw a parallel with FPGA's, it's relatively easy to write a few hundred lines of verilog, which synthesize the gates wthin the adaptable fabric of the FPGA into a 60-80% solution. The hard bit is squeezing the last nanoseconds out of the device using technology mapping and hand-placement.
The creation of tools to make bio-machines similar to verilog/VHDL would indeed potentially have grave consequences, but I can't see it going any other way. In both cases (Biology & chip-design) you have an enormous task to create something from scratch (enzymes/bases for biology, LUTs/LC's for FPGA's), so you write a description language and model in that instead. Far far simpler once you can map from the description to the reality...
Simon
subject says it all :-))
Simon
You know, paying lip-service to the demands of your 'enemies' (hey! they're not going to see us as friends) is a time-honoured "solution" to a sticky problem. So if the MPAA comes out with 'Linux users can be legitimate users if they do X, Y, and Z", even if this only applies to Linux *vendors* , they could claim a certain amount of brownie points in a courtroom.
"They refused the compromise we offered", "They steal (sic) our IP", "We demand the death penalty", (with the exception of the latter, at least I hope) these are reasonable "court" arguments. Consider the case of the clueless judge (sorry your honour, but it's a fact that most of your kin aren't technically aware), the "industry expert" (read: paid shill), the "compromise offer", and the cold hard law.The 'rock and a hard place' doesn't come into it. Yes I'm aware I'm mixing my metaphors, it's late
Let's hope they continue to deny us a 'reasonable' way of doing what we want - at least then we have a reasonable argument that they're being unreasonable. This is more important than most realise, I think....
Simon.