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User: fmackay

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Comments · 45

  1. Re:GNU your life ... on Philip Greenspun Answers · · Score: 1

    This is rather amusing hehehe. Wonder if someone could change that to GNU, BSD, Linux, or heck lots of things apply there.
    Well, I just knocked this off. The lettering's a little wonky, and perhaps someone more skilled with the gimp could get rid of the headphones, maybe put tux where the imac handle is...
  2. Re:HTML Books on New GIMP Book Under Open Publication License · · Score: 1
    How many people actually write books (that are more than a few pages) directly in HTML? This GIMP book was originally in TeX.
    Is the TeX source available? I'd rather have that than HTML.
  3. Re:About Banks and Culture on Inversions · · Score: 1
    Sadly, I read an interview where Banks claimed he was abandoning Culture for fear of being pigeon-holed into it.
    Banks' next book (out this summer in the uk) will be a Culture novel. It's called "Look to windward", these being the words immediately preceding "consider phlebas" in the poem which the latter title was lifted from.
  4. Re:Legality on UK Decryption Law Pushed Through · · Score: 1
    The UK proposal seems so totally screwed. What happens if someone sends a person (like an MP?) encrypted mail that he's NEVER had a key to decrypt. Does that mean unless he can PROVE he never had a key to decrypt email, he can go to jail if he fails to turn over something he never had and has no way of proving? How in hell is one suppossed to prove THAT?

    The STAND folks did exactly this; sent an encrypted copy of a criminal confession to Jack Straw (UK Home Secretary). See their website for details.
  5. They want money? on The \year=2000 TeX calendar · · Score: 1

    Was I the only one who clicked on this story expecting to see "...click here to download the Postscript file, here for the TeX source..."?

    Guess I'm confusing free speech/free beer again...

  6. Re:The Greatest Hack of All Time on CNet's "Top 10 Hacks" · · Score: 1

    I saw a documentary on this the other day. Not only did Welles have a pretty good idea what might happen (the programme started as a straight dramatisation, then the fake news reports cut in just when there was a commercial break on another, more popular station, when he knew people would be channel surfing), he knew about the hysteria while the broadcast was still going on, and steadfastly refused repeated pleas to announce that it was just a dramatisation. Footage of the press conference the next day, with Welles faking contrition ("deeply shocked", "had no idea what was going on") highly amusing.

  7. Re:Ken Macleod on Snow Crash · · Score: 1

    although they're all in the same universe and tied together, each of the four has a very different feel.

    Actually The Sky Road isn't in the same universe as The Cassini Division and most of The Stone Canal - the futures diverge in the 2080s part of Sky Road. Very highly recommended. Great value for money too; since they're all connected in convoluted ways, you have to read all of them at least twice to get the references from the other books :)
  8. Re:This is silly on Time Doesn't Exist · · Score: 1

    If something "rings true", and has anything to do with quantum mechanics, then it's probably wrong :)

  9. Re:How about the LuserTool... on Victorinox Announces Cybertool · · Score: 1

    Also, maybe a pen laser to blind them from afar.

    Wenger do a knife with a laser pointer in it...
  10. Re:oddity on amazon.co.`uk on The Big U · · Score: 1

    Well, it has the same page count as Cryptonomicon...

  11. Re:Ether.... on Space Probes Too Slow - Scientists Ask "Why?" · · Score: 1

    They (international astronomy community) had a vote; Pluto stayed a planet.

  12. pedantry on Haptic Feedback Nanomanipulator · · Score: 1

    Quantum mechanical effects are not generally observed in lego, so no tunneling. Nice results from the thing, tho'.

  13. Hear hear! on Grow Your Own Plastic · · Score: 1

    This is just PR. It has nothing to do with Monsanto's core business of selling GM food plants and pesticides. Monsanto has a terrible image in .uk at the moment ( although mostly for "eek! Frankenstein food" reasons, and not it's appalling business ethics); this is the second pro-Monsanto story that's made it into the uk press in the last week or so (search at the Guardian for "Monsanto hints at u-turn on GM food in Britain" for another); looks like they got themselves some new PR consultants.

  14. Interesting link on Face Recognition (Cool or Privacy Threat?) · · Score: 1

    Check out this site. Lots of stuff on CCTV, privacy.

  15. Re:I'm old. Help me out. on Sony to Release Digital Walkman · · Score: 1

    CD-RWs can't be played on most CD players. And the blank media are really expensive. MDs are smaller and far cooler. I'm getting one next week :)

  16. Stephenson's Pseudonym on The Diamond Age · · Score: 2

    Stephenson has 2 other books out, written in collaboration with someone else (his uncle?) under the pseudonym Stephen Bury. There's The Cobweb, which I haven't read, and Interface, which I have, and which is a chunky (700 pages) and pretty good techno-thriller. Synopsis; Candidate in 2000 presidential election suffers stroke, has experimental brain implant, his backers use it to control his thoughts/actions. Plenty of ramblings on politics, neurosurgery, etc if you like that sort of thing.

  17. On the other hand... on PBS Goes Digital · · Score: 1

    ...with on digital you don't have to

    -plug the box into your phone line so it can phone up Sky and tell them what you watch.

    -give any money to Murdoch

  18. Re:Already in UK on Retina-Scan ATM Machines · · Score: 1

    Yup, I remember seeing it on "Tomorrow's World" several months ago. In Swindon I think - every new technology seems to get trialled there, the demographics of the population map almost exactly onto the national population, or something. Anyway, I seem to remember that you still needed a card - you didn't have to remember a PIN tho'. You'll still need a card anyway - debit/credit card, or cheque guarantee, so why bother?

  19. Re:USA Today -Export Restriction on Neal Stephenson on Linux, Crypto and More · · Score: 1

    I just had a look round some of the .uk online bookshops, and none of them seem to be listing a forthcoming uk edition. However, bookshop.co.uk and bookstore.co.uk are both offering the american edition for UKP 17.05 and $29.50 respectively. Doesn't seem to be anywhere on amazon.co.uk. HTH.

  20. Frames... on Jargon File v4.1.0 · · Score: 1

    The new format is terrible. The jargon file is a perfect example of a document which is enhanced by the use of hyperlinking, but now in this broken up form browsing in the proper sense is impossible. OK, so some of the pages were getting big and slow, but not with a text browser, which is really all you need for a document like this. In fact, I'd say lynx is the preferrable interface to the jargon file. Who wants to reformat and host the new version then?