And I agree about the media being a problem. we need to take steps to reduce the likelyhood of a successful terrorist attack. But the media screaming about "terror" is exactly what the terrorists want.
Oh boy am I sick and tired of the damned hand-wringing and wailing frenzy that the British media have entered into. Their job is to tell us the bloody news, not try and tell us how to feel.
All the vox-pops of sooty and bloody faced people being asked "how do you feel" and "describe what you saw" is totally pandering to the masses and everyone's car crash morbid interested in disasters. It does no one any favours.
Just report the incidents, the counts of injured and dead, but let's not follow grief stricken relatives around the hospitals hoping for news of lost loved ones. The only people this serves is the terrorists themselves, by "bigging up" their escapades, when what we should be doing is showing them out disgust and contempt, by carrying on with our lives.
If we, as a nation, shrug our shoulders, and carry on we, as a nation, will have won this round. The opening of a condolences books here there and everywhere is just encouraging people's recreational grief. Let those who have lost loved ones grieve in peace, and let those of us who have not lost people in this outrage simply be outraged.
Let's open an Outrage Book instead! Now that's something I'd sign up to.
The purpetrators of this attrocity are the faceless, and I would suggest faithless (because no one could truthfully commit such acts in the name of any God) terrorists, and their aim is to spread, rather obviously, terror.
If serious actions are now taken to try and prevent them succeeding again, then two things will happen:-
1) Our freedoms will be eroded and we _will_ be terrorised by the spectre of metal detectors, exposive sniffers and body searches when untertaking any normal, day-to-day, things like getting on a bus or entering a shop.
2) We will NOT stop them from doing it again, because it is simply not possible to prevent someone hell-bent on suicide from blowing themselves up!
Therefore, at least on the "home front", we have to not impose restrictions on our freedoms in the futile attempt to curtail the movements and actions of the terrorists. This will be the most difficult thing for the Government, who apparently believe that "taking action" is always the answer because if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail!
We in London and the rest of the UK do, however, have to return to a vigilance akin to the height of the IRA campaign and should watch out for unattended packages. Let us not start suspecting each other as we remember that the bombs did not target any religion, race, creed, or colour, but were an indisciminately blunt weapon affecting any and all in its path.
We need to know what they are hoping to achieve. We should not simply capitulate like the Spanish because that sends the message that terrorism works, and simply passes the problem on to our neighbours. We can try and make sure it becomes more and more difficult for them to recruit new terrorists. We must simply stop pissing people off, and use our power to make life easier for the down trodden and huddled masses, for it is amongst their ranks that the recruiters have the most success.
To this end, it is right that the G8 conference continued, and it is right that we should help Africa, but we should also finally put to rest the Isreal/Palestine problem and give aid to Palestine to help them rebuild. We should then finish the jobs in Afghanistan and Iraq by rebuilding their countries and handing them back to local governments when we can offer aid, be it monetary or military, fiscal or physical and we can be invited to help, rather than imposing our solution.
But I'm still waiting for Our Tony to use this as a reason for the introduction of ID Cards and GPS transponders in our cars, because it can't be far off now.
The British Government eh! You've got to admire their gall. They're only now trying to put GPS black boxes in everyone's cars so they can see where everyone is as well as who everyone is! The spin for this is to charge per mile of road, rather than charging per gallon of petrol!
The BBC can tell you more
Either they are dim-witted buffons who have no idea about technology, or they are trying to fool us into allowing them to track all our movements. Either way, frankly, it scares me, and it's likely to be both!
I don't know about the person, but a culture that perpetuates female mutilation is indecent. Anyone coming from a disgusting culture such as that should leave that culture and its horrible indecent practices behind.
And anyone who replies with a "what about male circumcision?" line can have their dick cut off and leave the bone at home in a jar (women excepted, of course).
OK.. First off, I agree totally on the female circumcision. But I have to ask you about male circumcision (even with the risk of having my dick cut off etc). If the male circumcision is just done as part of some religious ceremony (no names, no pack drill), then how is that any different?
I understand that in the US it is usually done, under some general hygene kick, whereas in the UK it is ONLY done if there is some medical reason (apart from the aformentioned religious types).
I don't really have an axe to grind here, it was mostly the threat from the parent if anyone dared to question the practice that raised my hackles, and while we're on the subject, if it's deemed cruel to dock a puppies tail or clip it's ears, how is it OK to circumcise anyone (male or female) for any reason other than a medical one until they are old enough to choose the procedure for themselves!
What I wonder is why they don't take large pieces of space junk and just send those down toward the ground to counterweight the lifting of the mass?
One man's "Space Junk" is another man's "Space Resources". Seems kinda silly to expend so much money to boost stuff into orbit to just trash it! Why not collect the bits up and use them in orbit for building the space station at the end of the tether. There's gotta be a better use for it than just using it to help drive the regenerative brakes on the downward journeys!
Lies. I suppose you want to attribute freeze-dried icecream to the Germans then?
As part of the Nazi V2 project in 1945, as it happens, by Hans Freeze and Otto Dried, both from Ulm and Helmut Icecream of Munchen.
Helmut did invent his own flavour of Icecream, but it was never that popular, although it did give rise to the popular term often used to describe one's boss - Head Cheese.
Oh, whitelists. And I suppose you can tell me who controls the whitelist? A central server for the whole world? Anyone who sets up a mailing list (including spammers themselves)?
Ah, I was assuming it would be a personal white list, AKA your address book (or some subset of).
This idea has nothing to do with spam. It's just another attempt from third parties to turn free email into their cash cow - remember, someone is going to charge you for handling all those payments.
Yes, this would be a problem. I had assumed that the ISP would provide such a service and I guess it would be one of the things they (or whomever does provide the service) could compete against other ISP on.
Also, most of the people you (Joe Public) email are likely to have you on their white list, so you wouldn't generally need to attach a bond to emails anyway!
Under this plan, I could just subscribe to a bunch of mailing lists and get paid (by mailing list admin) for declaring the emails as spam.
Er... no. I'm guessing that any such mailing lists would insist that you add them to a white list of some sort to bypass the fiscal gateway. That's certainly what I'd do, and it's hardly rocket science!
Especially when the proposed solution has been debunked numerous times and is completely Redundant. Too bad entire topics can't be moderated. In this case, the only way such a scheme could work is for spammers to cooperate and pay to send mail.
I'm not sure this is true (but then I didn't RTmFA).
Let's assume that M$ (or whomever) makes a new version of Outlook that somehow hooks you into your account at your ISP and can micro-charge for every email you send, but you have the option of NOT using this service, and sending for free.
Now lets also assume that when you are using the same program to recieve emails you can automatically allow emails from anyone in your address book (white list), and set a value upon unsolicited emails, where, for example, you only accept them if they carry a 'voluntary fee' of 10p (or 20c for you US-ians).
OK, now let's run this system...
All yer friends and relatives can email you for nothing. People can send you legitimate emails about car magazines or whatever your interest is, and you will decline the fee (or I guess they'd stop emailing you - perhaps an automatic way to ask them to stop sending!). If people try and spam you without attaching sufficient funds (the level of which is your choice) then you don't even see them, and if they attach more money to grab your attention, you can keep it if it pisses you off.
This would also allow people to upgrade to the new versions of the email clients as they feel the need. Obviously, if you're picking up email without the new software, it automatically declines the payment on your behalf.
his daughter played on the same field hockey team as my sister, so we spent many an hour pretending to watch th games while discussing physics. (Discuss may be the wrong word- it consisted of me asking questions, and him explaining.)
So, Professor, prey tell me, how does the sight of your athletic looking daughter running about in a short skirt act like a magnet for my eyes, and yet the very same behaviour and apparel on my sister almost has the opposite affect (beer notwithstanding)?
That's where the ST:NG folks were clever you see. No more holding the device near your head where it might be dangerous to your grey matter. No they cleverly chose a far less dangerous place by clipping it on their tunics, right over their hearts!
Hmmmm. OK. Point taken. I can see that there may well be hidden costs of ownership that perhaps were factored into the initial purchase price. It's not as if I had access to any contracts that might have been in place, let alone the inclination or fortitude to read through them!
But as I recall, I could have got a PC with a considerably better specification for half the money!
I would also nod to the inflammatory use of the word "cartel", but it was certainly how it looked, as an IT person peering into the apparently murky world of NHS IT spending!
... hospitals need computers and those computers need to be bought from a PC supplier like, say, Dell. But I would alaways hope that in such a curcumstance, the best deal possible has been negotiated.
WA WA OOOOOPS!
My brother is a GP (General Practitioner, which is like a US "MD") and his practice _has_ to buy from pretty much a single supplier which means he pays well over the odds for out-of-date PC equipement, and I'd put money on it being much the same for hospitals! There's an approved supplier list (AKA "cartel") and they know that the Government pays, but ONLY if they buy from companies on that list. It is also not easy to get on the list in the first place!
It might well be better now, but it certainly isn't a free market!
Directly after the astronauts arrive at the ISS they ditch the old, probably damaged shuttle
Dumping the old one has got to be the craziest idea ever! Even if it can't be fixed in orbit to return to Earth, surely the 'stuff' on board (air scrubbers, etc etc) are worth hanging onto? Perhaps some gizmo should be taken up with it which would allow it to be fastened to the ISS after docking - then a short Space Walk for the Valet Parking guy and NASA can send up spares to try and repair it, or canabalise it for spares for the ISS.
Exactly! For example, no one has explained how you can stop your flying car to put on your spare wheel in the case of a puncture! Even if you could stop it, there'd be nothing to stand the jack on! You fools!
Slashdot Mirror
Oh boy am I sick and tired of the damned hand-wringing and wailing frenzy that the British media have entered into. Their job is to tell us the bloody news, not try and tell us how to feel.
All the vox-pops of sooty and bloody faced people being asked "how do you feel" and "describe what you saw" is totally pandering to the masses and everyone's car crash morbid interested in disasters. It does no one any favours.
Just report the incidents, the counts of injured and dead, but let's not follow grief stricken relatives around the hospitals hoping for news of lost loved ones. The only people this serves is the terrorists themselves, by "bigging up" their escapades, when what we should be doing is showing them out disgust and contempt, by carrying on with our lives.
If we, as a nation, shrug our shoulders, and carry on we, as a nation, will have won this round. The opening of a condolences books here there and everywhere is just encouraging people's recreational grief. Let those who have lost loved ones grieve in peace, and let those of us who have not lost people in this outrage simply be outraged.
Let's open an Outrage Book instead! Now that's something I'd sign up to.
If serious actions are now taken to try and prevent them succeeding again, then two things will happen :-
1) Our freedoms will be eroded and we _will_ be terrorised by the spectre of metal detectors, exposive sniffers and body searches when untertaking any normal, day-to-day, things like getting on a bus or entering a shop.
2) We will NOT stop them from doing it again, because it is simply not possible to prevent someone hell-bent on suicide from blowing themselves up!
Therefore, at least on the "home front", we have to not impose restrictions on our freedoms in the futile attempt to curtail the movements and actions of the terrorists. This will be the most difficult thing for the Government, who apparently believe that "taking action" is always the answer because if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail!
We in London and the rest of the UK do, however, have to return to a vigilance akin to the height of the IRA campaign and should watch out for unattended packages. Let us not start suspecting each other as we remember that the bombs did not target any religion, race, creed, or colour, but were an indisciminately blunt weapon affecting any and all in its path.
We need to know what they are hoping to achieve. We should not simply capitulate like the Spanish because that sends the message that terrorism works, and simply passes the problem on to our neighbours. We can try and make sure it becomes more and more difficult for them to recruit new terrorists. We must simply stop pissing people off, and use our power to make life easier for the down trodden and huddled masses, for it is amongst their ranks that the recruiters have the most success.
To this end, it is right that the G8 conference continued, and it is right that we should help Africa, but we should also finally put to rest the Isreal/Palestine problem and give aid to Palestine to help them rebuild. We should then finish the jobs in Afghanistan and Iraq by rebuilding their countries and handing them back to local governments when we can offer aid, be it monetary or military, fiscal or physical and we can be invited to help, rather than imposing our solution.
But I'm still waiting for Our Tony to use this as a reason for the introduction of ID Cards and GPS transponders in our cars, because it can't be far off now.
I didn't see it in the rules, but does the new Monopoly allow straddling?
Either they are dim-witted buffons who have no idea about technology, or they are trying to fool us into allowing them to track all our movements. Either way, frankly, it scares me, and it's likely to be both!
And anyone who replies with a "what about male circumcision?" line can have their dick cut off and leave the bone at home in a jar (women excepted, of course).
OK .. First off, I agree totally on the female circumcision. But I have to ask you about male circumcision (even with the risk of having my dick cut off etc). If the male circumcision is just done as part of some religious ceremony (no names, no pack drill), then how is that any different?
I understand that in the US it is usually done, under some general hygene kick, whereas in the UK it is ONLY done if there is some medical reason (apart from the aformentioned religious types).
I don't really have an axe to grind here, it was mostly the threat from the parent if anyone dared to question the practice that raised my hackles, and while we're on the subject, if it's deemed cruel to dock a puppies tail or clip it's ears, how is it OK to circumcise anyone (male or female) for any reason other than a medical one until they are old enough to choose the procedure for themselves!
One man's "Space Junk" is another man's "Space Resources". Seems kinda silly to expend so much money to boost stuff into orbit to just trash it! Why not collect the bits up and use them in orbit for building the space station at the end of the tether. There's gotta be a better use for it than just using it to help drive the regenerative brakes on the downward journeys!
I really hope they put stuff back in for the DVDs when they come out!
And don't forget the handy Sunday repeat (BB3 or 4 at 7pm).
As part of the Nazi V2 project in 1945, as it happens, by Hans Freeze and Otto Dried, both from Ulm and Helmut Icecream of Munchen.
Helmut did invent his own flavour of Icecream, but it was never that popular, although it did give rise to the popular term often used to describe one's boss - Head Cheese.
Ah, I was assuming it would be a personal white list, AKA your address book (or some subset of).
There you go again! It's spelt felching!
Not yet it isn't ... see also party!
Perhaps those manning Abhu Ghraib should have been spoofing pop videos as well?
Er ... Can I suggest perhaps one or more of the following ...
Hit Me Baby, One More Time
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
These Boots Are Made For Walking
Flash Bang Wallop What A Picture
Girls On Film
Stayin' Alive
Yes, this would be a problem. I had assumed that the ISP would provide such a service and I guess it would be one of the things they (or whomever does provide the service) could compete against other ISP on.
Also, most of the people you (Joe Public) email are likely to have you on their white list, so you wouldn't generally need to attach a bond to emails anyway!
Er ... no. I'm guessing that any such mailing lists would insist that you add them to a white list of some sort to bypass the fiscal gateway. That's certainly what I'd do, and it's hardly rocket science!
I'm not sure this is true (but then I didn't RTmFA).
Let's assume that M$ (or whomever) makes a new version of Outlook that somehow hooks you into your account at your ISP and can micro-charge for every email you send, but you have the option of NOT using this service, and sending for free.
Now lets also assume that when you are using the same program to recieve emails you can automatically allow emails from anyone in your address book (white list), and set a value upon unsolicited emails, where, for example, you only accept them if they carry a 'voluntary fee' of 10p (or 20c for you US-ians).
OK, now let's run this system ...
All yer friends and relatives can email you for nothing. People can send you legitimate emails about car magazines or whatever your interest is, and you will decline the fee (or I guess they'd stop emailing you - perhaps an automatic way to ask them to stop sending!). If people try and spam you without attaching sufficient funds (the level of which is your choice) then you don't even see them, and if they attach more money to grab your attention, you can keep it if it pisses you off.
This would also allow people to upgrade to the new versions of the email clients as they feel the need. Obviously, if you're picking up email without the new software, it automatically declines the payment on your behalf.
Any thoughts?
So, Professor, prey tell me, how does the sight of your athletic looking daughter running about in a short skirt act like a magnet for my eyes, and yet the very same behaviour and apparel on my sister almost has the opposite affect (beer notwithstanding)?
Relativity perhaps?
That's where the ST:NG folks were clever you see. No more holding the device near your head where it might be dangerous to your grey matter. No they cleverly chose a far less dangerous place by clipping it on their tunics, right over their hearts!
But as I recall, I could have got a PC with a considerably better specification for half the money!
I would also nod to the inflammatory use of the word "cartel", but it was certainly how it looked, as an IT person peering into the apparently murky world of NHS IT spending!
WA WA OOOOOPS!
My brother is a GP (General Practitioner, which is like a US "MD") and his practice _has_ to buy from pretty much a single supplier which means he pays well over the odds for out-of-date PC equipement, and I'd put money on it being much the same for hospitals! There's an approved supplier list (AKA "cartel") and they know that the Government pays, but ONLY if they buy from companies on that list. It is also not easy to get on the list in the first place!
It might well be better now, but it certainly isn't a free market!
Dumping the old one has got to be the craziest idea ever! Even if it can't be fixed in orbit to return to Earth, surely the 'stuff' on board (air scrubbers, etc etc) are worth hanging onto? Perhaps some gizmo should be taken up with it which would allow it to be fastened to the ISS after docking - then a short Space Walk for the Valet Parking guy and NASA can send up spares to try and repair it, or canabalise it for spares for the ISS.
Simply dumping it is totally barmy!
Exactly! For example, no one has explained how you can stop your flying car to put on your spare wheel in the case of a puncture! Even if you could stop it, there'd be nothing to stand the jack on! You fools!
Gor blimey Gov'ner! There's a septic wants a butcher's at me Berkeley!
Obviously this rarely applies on Slashdot...
Unless it is a "menage a un" of course.
Board with the same old Scrabble(tm) every evening ... try new Babble(tm).