It looks like you need one. The BBC are funded entirely through tax money, just like any division of government organization. It is also controlled by a government board.... just like any other division of government.
Nevertheless, the BBC is independant of the government and posts whatever news it wants to. It frequently posts bad things about the government without fear of being shut down.
The BBC has a charter to say what it can and can't do, the government doesn't get a say in how it is run outside of that charter. The charter is reviewed every few years, see http://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/
This isn't a fair question, support.bbc.co.uk is probably hosted on some cast-off machine on someones desk, not on the servers that they are talking about - of course it can be brought down by Slashdot.
Just try that on news.bbc.co.uk, Slashdot won't even make it break a sweat.
I doubt England, Iraq, or Brazil are pre-empting their programing either.
Actually in the UK the 3 main news channels (BBC News 24, Sky news, ITV News) haven't left the earthquake / tsunami / asia story at all in the last 48 hours apart from the occasional 2 minute headlines roundup. CNN europe and CNBC are barely touching on it, but that's all I would expect from US owned channels. Our main channels also show news occasionally, and when they do it's 90% about the disaster.
I would say that's enough coverage of the disaster for everyone to know about it, and for anyone who wants it to get round-the-clock coverage. What more is needed?
Somehow that still ends up being less than you'd pay at the motorway services for a cup!:)
At the motorway services is where I usually see these things. Presumably because drivers are more likely to pay the price for the convenience of self-heating coffee.
Although PalmSource did end up winning in the end, they decided to stick with it because they claim it's easier on users.
As far as I'm concerned Palm have no excuse for not putting Graffiti 1 back on their products. If they really are worried about making it easier for their users, they should give a choice at setup time of Graffiti 1 or Graffiti 2.
The other 50% who might, will need special hardware besides an over-the-top digital-only video card (such as a cable/digital signal decoder/decryption adapter) to even think of making this thing work.
Not quite. In many european countries we have DVB-T and all that is needed is a simple DVB-T card, available cheaply and easily. Where DVB-T isn't in use, it soon will be.
Would you care to comment on the number of people who actually subscribe to slashdot vs. the number of people who just use the free version, ads and all?
Well I'm not in any position to comment, being just a Slashdot user, but as you can see I'm also a subscriber. Perhaps there should be an option, pay for all adsense sites, view adverts for all adsense sites, or give me the choice for each site. I probably would pay for my regular sites, even though it wouldn't make much difference to me because I use adblock.
Of course that wouldn't solve the problem of fraudulent clicks.
So you're happy to enter your credit card number on Google and any sites that use AdSense adverts to fund themselves?
That's a little excessive. How about I enter my card number on Google, and any site that currently carries Google adverts instead charges my access to Google and Google agregates the bills and charges my card?
"Hi! This is the Save Small Kittens from Cancer fund, will you give us money?"
I always find it more fun to get into an argument with them about the fact that I give money to save people before I give money to save animals. Since I don't have enough money to save all the people, I'm never going to give money to animals. They really hate that.
Why would I want to pay for cat rescue when there are homeless people and starving people who aren't getting any help?
Well gaim is what I use (I connect to 4 messaging services) but I think it might be easier to convince the parents in law to use software from Yahoo because they already use Yahoo for email. I'll have to ask when I get there.
This christmas I'm installing Mozilla Firefox on my wifes parents computer. I tried telling them to before, but they didn't bother because they said they didn't have time to learn it. This time I will be there for 3 days, so I can move all their bookmarks and settings across, make them use it for a few days and then tell them they get no more help with problems caused by internet explorer.
I will also be installing Yahoo messenger, because they are always complaining that we never answer emails - now they can see when we are at the computer. Perhaps I shouldn't do that one...
(apart from hoping the same people who programmed the Child Support Agency computers are doing ID cards)
I think the government has proven time and time again that it simply cannot do large computer systems. Or even small computer systems.
Child support agency: failed. Passport agency: failed National Health Service: failed Firearms register (A pitifully small database in this country!): failed
Given the history of failure of large and small computer systems commisioned by the government, I have every expectation that they will be completely unable to build the National Identity Register (NIR) for ID cards.
Yeah, this is scary, I found myself actually agreeing with my most hated politician on something.
Nectar is indeed the most insidious loyalty card out there. The data protection act in the UK means the companies that are collecting data on their customers aren't allowed to sell the data to other companies, they are only allowed to hold it for the purposes of their own trade. So several companies from different industries got together and formed Nectar, an independant company that is there just to deal in data about customers.
Now, for example, when you top up your O2 mobile phone at Sainsbury's supermarket, Nectar could tell Vodafone about it, and Vodafone could send you a special deal just for you that undercuts O2. It wasn't legal before, but it's just about legal this way. (Hypothetical example, before Vodafone gets lawyer happy.)
I have to conclude that people in general are too stupid for their own good, or they just wouldn't sign up for these things. When I get asked if I have a Nectar card the answer is no, and when asked if I want one, the answer is "like a hole in the head."
The normal way to do things, is you would rent your line from BT (They now force you to take one of their BT together options for between 10.50 and 25.50 pounds per month) and then you would pay an ISP for your ADSL. BT could also be your ISP, but it would be a separate payment, so you would pay one part of BT for the line rental and another part for the internet. On top of that, you can choose to pay someone else for your phone calls, and you can choose to route some of your calls to them by dialing a code before each call, or all of your calls by setting your provider at the exchange with CPS (but your rental still goes to BT.)
Some companies like Onetel now offer a deal where you pay them for a package of cheap calls via CPS and internet with ADSL at the same time, but aren't too sharp at pointing out that you still have to pay line rental to BT.
Other companies like Bulldog can rent you the line, the ADSL, and charge you for calls all at once although you then lose the ability to pick and chose your ADSL provider and your calls provider like you can if you rent your line from BT.
That isn't the deal that this news story is about, you are just look at the standard BT communicator package. Have a look at the bt.com front page, it's advertising a deal where you get free calls for more than a year if you take a certain broadband package.
Yes, I was a bit too simplistic in my summary. LLU is starting to take off, and is available from several companies now, but still only in a very limited number of places. (By which I mean not where I live, of course!) The deal with Cable and Wireless buying Bulldog to roll it out further affield looks quite promising.
I have been frequently checking the Homechoice website to see when I can get unbundled broadband with video on demand but it's still only in London.:-(
If you phone Orange on 150 from your Orange contract phone it's free. If you have a Pay as you go phone, it's a one off charge of 25p to talk to them on 450. I admit the waiting sucks, but Orange don't have a premium rate line.
You will also find a lot more intelligence at the Data help desk on 156 than from the standard customer services drones.
There's a large number of posts further up this discussion just not getting it. Here is my summary of what is different about this:
BT communicator is just Yahoo messenger with VoIP software in it, that's nothing new. BT offers a gateway to the real phone network that they have been charging to the customers household phone bill at standard rates. That's nothing new either.
What is new here and news worthy is that BT is giving away FREE PHONE CALLS TO THE REAL PHONE NETWORK from the VoIP phone until the 31st January 2006. That is what makes this story interesting.
Slashdot Mirror
Nevertheless, the BBC is independant of the government and posts whatever news it wants to. It frequently posts bad things about the government without fear of being shut down.
The BBC has a charter to say what it can and can't do, the government doesn't get a say in how it is run outside of that charter. The charter is reviewed every few years, see http://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/
Steve.
This isn't a fair question, support.bbc.co.uk is probably hosted on some cast-off machine on someones desk, not on the servers that they are talking about - of course it can be brought down by Slashdot.
Just try that on news.bbc.co.uk, Slashdot won't even make it break a sweat.
Well firstly, I am a Slashdot subscriber, and secondly I do use Firefox and Adblock. I just didn't have fastclick.net in my blocked list. (I do now.)
Does anyone else think it funny that the advert at the bottom of this review is for Smiley Central, a well known piece of computer-invading crap?
That price only sounds bad to Americans because the Dollar is doing really badly against the Euro. It's Not that bad for those of us in Europe.
The exchange rate is even better for me here in the UK, my pounds buy me a ton of stuff at Thinkgeek!
I doubt England, Iraq, or Brazil are pre-empting their programing either.
Actually in the UK the 3 main news channels (BBC News 24, Sky news, ITV News) haven't left the earthquake / tsunami / asia story at all in the last 48 hours apart from the occasional 2 minute headlines roundup. CNN europe and CNBC are barely touching on it, but that's all I would expect from US owned channels. Our main channels also show news occasionally, and when they do it's 90% about the disaster.
I would say that's enough coverage of the disaster for everyone to know about it, and for anyone who wants it to get round-the-clock coverage. What more is needed?
Steve.
Somehow that still ends up being less than you'd pay at the motorway services for a cup! :)
At the motorway services is where I usually see these things. Presumably because drivers are more likely to pay the price for the convenience of self-heating coffee.
Although PalmSource did end up winning in the end, they decided to stick with it because they claim it's easier on users.
As far as I'm concerned Palm have no excuse for not putting Graffiti 1 back on their products. If they really are worried about making it easier for their users, they should give a choice at setup time of Graffiti 1 or Graffiti 2.
Steve.
My school had a network of RM Nimbus 80186 machines which could run MS Windows 1.0 with Pagemaker. Still got the copy I took somewhere...
The other 50% who might, will need special hardware besides an over-the-top digital-only video card (such as a cable/digital signal decoder/decryption adapter) to even think of making this thing work.
Not quite. In many european countries we have DVB-T and all that is needed is a simple DVB-T card, available cheaply and easily. Where DVB-T isn't in use, it soon will be.
Would you care to comment on the number of people who actually subscribe to slashdot vs. the number of people who just use the free version, ads and all?
Well I'm not in any position to comment, being just a Slashdot user, but as you can see I'm also a subscriber. Perhaps there should be an option, pay for all adsense sites, view adverts for all adsense sites, or give me the choice for each site. I probably would pay for my regular sites, even though it wouldn't make much difference to me because I use adblock.
Of course that wouldn't solve the problem of fraudulent clicks.
So you're happy to enter your credit card number on Google and any sites that use AdSense adverts to fund themselves?
That's a little excessive. How about I enter my card number on Google, and any site that currently carries Google adverts instead charges my access to Google and Google agregates the bills and charges my card?
"Hi! This is the Save Small Kittens from Cancer fund, will you give us money?"
I always find it more fun to get into an argument with them about the fact that I give money to save people before I give money to save animals. Since I don't have enough money to save all the people, I'm never going to give money to animals. They really hate that.
Why would I want to pay for cat rescue when there are homeless people and starving people who aren't getting any help?
It is the default start page if you install Firefox for the first time.
If you have used it before then it doesn't change your existing start page. The windows version does ask you if you want to change it, however.
Well gaim is what I use (I connect to 4 messaging services) but I think it might be easier to convince the parents in law to use software from Yahoo because they already use Yahoo for email. I'll have to ask when I get there.
This christmas I'm installing Mozilla Firefox on my wifes parents computer. I tried telling them to before, but they didn't bother because they said they didn't have time to learn it. This time I will be there for 3 days, so I can move all their bookmarks and settings across, make them use it for a few days and then tell them they get no more help with problems caused by internet explorer.
I will also be installing Yahoo messenger, because they are always complaining that we never answer emails - now they can see when we are at the computer. Perhaps I shouldn't do that one...
(apart from hoping the same people who programmed the Child Support Agency computers are doing ID cards)
I think the government has proven time and time again that it simply cannot do large computer systems. Or even small computer systems.
Child support agency: failed.
Passport agency: failed
National Health Service: failed
Firearms register (A pitifully small database in this country!): failed
Given the history of failure of large and small computer systems commisioned by the government, I have every expectation that they will be completely unable to build the National Identity Register (NIR) for ID cards.
Yeah, this is scary, I found myself actually agreeing with my most hated politician on something.
Nectar is indeed the most insidious loyalty card out there. The data protection act in the UK means the companies that are collecting data on their customers aren't allowed to sell the data to other companies, they are only allowed to hold it for the purposes of their own trade. So several companies from different industries got together and formed Nectar, an independant company that is there just to deal in data about customers.
Now, for example, when you top up your O2 mobile phone at Sainsbury's supermarket, Nectar could tell Vodafone about it, and Vodafone could send you a special deal just for you that undercuts O2. It wasn't legal before, but it's just about legal this way. (Hypothetical example, before Vodafone gets lawyer happy.)
I have to conclude that people in general are too stupid for their own good, or they just wouldn't sign up for these things. When I get asked if I have a Nectar card the answer is no, and when asked if I want one, the answer is "like a hole in the head."
Ah, I see. Some more details then.
The normal way to do things, is you would rent your line from BT (They now force you to take one of their BT together options for between 10.50 and 25.50 pounds per month) and then you would pay an ISP for your ADSL. BT could also be your ISP, but it would be a separate payment, so you would pay one part of BT for the line rental and another part for the internet. On top of that, you can choose to pay someone else for your phone calls, and you can choose to route some of your calls to them by dialing a code before each call, or all of your calls by setting your provider at the exchange with CPS (but your rental still goes to BT.)
Some companies like Onetel now offer a deal where you pay them for a package of cheap calls via CPS and internet with ADSL at the same time, but aren't too sharp at pointing out that you still have to pay line rental to BT.
Other companies like Bulldog can rent you the line, the ADSL, and charge you for calls all at once although you then lose the ability to pick and chose your ADSL provider and your calls provider like you can if you rent your line from BT.
Pay attention. This story is about the fact that if you sign up for BT broadband they will give you those free calls for more than a year.
That isn't the deal that this news story is about, you are just look at the standard BT communicator package. Have a look at the bt.com front page, it's advertising a deal where you get free calls for more than a year if you take a certain broadband package.
Yes, I was a bit too simplistic in my summary. LLU is starting to take off, and is available from several companies now, but still only in a very limited number of places. (By which I mean not where I live, of course!) The deal with Cable and Wireless buying Bulldog to roll it out further affield looks quite promising.
:-(
I have been frequently checking the Homechoice website to see when I can get unbundled broadband with video on demand but it's still only in London.
If you phone Orange on 150 from your Orange contract phone it's free. If you have a Pay as you go phone, it's a one off charge of 25p to talk to them on 450. I admit the waiting sucks, but Orange don't have a premium rate line.
You will also find a lot more intelligence at the Data help desk on 156 than from the standard customer services drones.
There's a large number of posts further up this discussion just not getting it. Here is my summary of what is different about this:
BT communicator is just Yahoo messenger with VoIP software in it, that's nothing new. BT offers a gateway to the real phone network that they have been charging to the customers household phone bill at standard rates. That's nothing new either.
What is new here and news worthy is that BT is giving away FREE PHONE CALLS TO THE REAL PHONE NETWORK from the VoIP phone until the 31st January 2006. That is what makes this story interesting.
Steve.
its free calls for the first month,
How do you work that one out? The 31st of January 2006 is well over a year away.