Yep - we've got the Information Commissioner (it used to be called the Data Protection Registrar, but since RIPA allowed anyone from the Security Services to the dog pound supervisor at your local council to ride roughshod over the Data Protection Act, perhaps the change in title is a rare glimpse of honesty from the Bliar junta.
OK - so maybe dog pound supervisor is perhaps hyperbole, but the list of people able to access your information does extend as far as, for example, any local authority, any health service trust, even the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
So yes, we have a law, and even an authority set up to protect citizens from the misuse of data, but at the same time we have RIPA, which drives a coach and horses through any privacy we may have felt entitled to under the Data Protection Act.
Be assured, under RIPA the Home Secretary can add whoever he wishes to the list of people authorised to access information about citizens, and if the current atmosphere is anything to go by, business will be allowed to check the database for any of their employees.
I call BS. Many Europeans could read and write Latin, but it was never ever taught as a spoken language, other than pronunciations used for rote learning, which tended to vary across Europe anyway (and were the subject of furious and fruitless debate in the 1920s and 1930s, as I was taught in my Latin lessons at school).
And how the lingusitic genes have withered in your lineage, from polymath grandfather to barely literate (ffs learn to spell) grandson.
Thanks for lend-lease by the way - if ever there was a reason for British anti-Americanism, lend-lease is it, forcing British economic policy to be geared to repayments for some 50 years.
It's Europe. Any cases against European companies would be held in European courts.
Guess what?
A European court would likely hold that Microsoft does not have the right to arbitrarily terminate a license, so the only companies Microsoft could sue would be US based companies, or the US arms of EU based companies.
Either way, it would be US jobs that suffer, so perhaps it's not such a neat idea after all.
Europe would crumble? Crease with laughter, more like.
Or 'The Breast Men' - he was better than I thought he could be, based on my limited experience of avoiding watching Fiends in its endless reruns over here.
I'm against GM foods of the type that we have seen so far - does that make me ignorant of the subject?
No - my partner works with GMOs every day in her job, and these GMOs are used to produce all sorts of useful products, from medicines to enzymes that are used to maximise the benefit animals gain from their feed, even enzymes that make your daily wash cleaner.
These are good things, and the genetic modification of the organisms used in these processes isn't a worry, because they aren't out there in the wild in quantitiy. They are grown and harvested in closed systems, with little likelihood of extenal contamination.
GM crops, on the other hand, can crosspollinate with other crops of the same species, creating several problems, not least legal (see Monsanto's record on trying to claim ownership of the results of such cross-pollination), but also technical problems for organic farmers due to the contamination of their crop.
While it is possible to use genetic manipulation to benefit the third world, the current state of play is that Monsanto are using it to benefit Monsanto, and to lock in farmers to using Monsanto pesticides and Monsanto seed, without the right to save seed for next season.
If GM technology is used in a good way, I'll be all for it. At present, though, it's just a profit engine for pesticide firms, and no use to anyone.
That's true, but the Brits released tell an entirely different tale.
Mind you, they may well be a bunch of lying Pakis - the three from Tipton were apparently overheard planning to go and train in Afghanistan, but of course the authorities over here won't send the bastards back to Pakistan where they belong.
Yes - I am a British nationalist. It's my country, and my right to object to it being diluted by multiculturalism.
Nice to know Norton has done something right - as an observer from over the pond, all I ever see of the DOI is the litany of cock-ups and incompetence that this court case brings to light.
Mind you, I bet she's used Windows Wallpaper for the decorating...
The SIS (Selective Inhibition of Sintering) process later on the page looks more interesting - the rapid prototyping of ceramic diesel engines (which could run hotter and more efficiently) is one use that immediately springs to mind.
To make the contouring process work, the concrete would likely have to be very fast setting, so you'd have to hope the kit didn't break down and gum up the works - unless they find an air-cured building material, the whole concept looks dumb.
They also invest in Indian Motorcycles (no - not that India, you fools!), and as such are doing A Good Thing keeping kludgy old fashioned US mechanicals alive.
Fie, I bite my thumb at thee for thine implication of cheapness and superstition!
We don no pewter chamberpots in this place - none but the finest spun silver thread, fine woven to a veritable bishops mitre of protection, shall grace my noggin!
The network snapshot shown is from the end of Act 4, Scene iv, where Rosencrantz has recently been given the majority of the Rozencrantz/Guildenstern lines, with Guildenstern only having had one line in the previous three scenes (since R&G reappeared in scene 2).
If you read the site, you'll see that weightings are set to decay with time, so if a character is quiet, he/she will fade from the current network.
It's an artefact, but highlights an aspect of the analysis that might not be otherwise obvious.
Infinitesimals (OK, not rigorously developed as they are now, but infinitesimals all the same) are at the heart of Newton's development of the calculus.
That's one of the reasons why Newton is a true genius - not only were his instincts about the world substantially correct, but he actually developed the mathematical techniques to deal with the world as he saw it, and he did it the hard way.
My question is - what are people doing waiting until university to learn calculus?
We did it (in the Leibnitz formulation) for O-level (now called GCSE - exams taken at 16 or so), in enough detail to cover most of the current first year university courses.
And that was only twenty-five years ago.
I can't believe that the average teenager has become four years more stupid in the last quarter of a century - if it carries on at this rate, the average graduate in 2054 will know as much as I did for my scholarship exams in 1974, when I was 10.
I think the ultimate goal in this is for full VR glasses, with my patented PHB-cancelling technology.
Not only will the correct antinoise be generated to eliminate those irritating whingeing noises that PHBs make, but advanced image processing will remove the unsightly image of the PHB from my field of view, allowing me to continue surfing in peace.
From what I've read about the number of poor Hispanics 'volunteering' to go to Iraq, I think the UK-Spanish translation module may need some extra resources.
There aren't significant numbers of anyone other than US, UK, Aussies and Poles over there anyway, and the Poles probably speak the best English of the four, so what's the point?
(OK - I know Aznar has sent a couple of dozen troops, and there are maybe a few Italians knocking about, but 'coalition'? Jeez...)
I think that may be a bit unfair to compare the materials used to produce a PC and a car against their respective final weights.
I think you're absolutely right.
How about using the expected useful life of the goods as a measure of utility?
Then a PC, with an expected useful life of say 3 years (given the pace of software bloat), would be responsible for approximately 80kg/year of fossil fuel depletion.
A saloon car would have to have an expected useful life of around 12 years to justify its production costs in terms of fossil fuels, and a H2 Hummer would have to last some 50 years.
Now I'm no expert, but I can't see a Hummer lasting as long as a Landrover - hell, if most of them aren't in the scrapyard inside 10 years, I'll eat my hat collection.
Now that isn't to say that throwing away 80kg of fossil fuels per year for each PC manufactured is a good thing, but it does put things in a little better perspective.
Slashdot Mirror
OK - so maybe dog pound supervisor is perhaps hyperbole, but the list of people able to access your information does extend as far as, for example, any local authority, any health service trust, even the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
So yes, we have a law, and even an authority set up to protect citizens from the misuse of data, but at the same time we have RIPA, which drives a coach and horses through any privacy we may have felt entitled to under the Data Protection Act.
Be assured, under RIPA the Home Secretary can add whoever he wishes to the list of people authorised to access information about citizens, and if the current atmosphere is anything to go by, business will be allowed to check the database for any of their employees.
Now I can be a bear of little brain, and not suffer.
Just keep on sleeping while your currency goes to shit, following your economy and the IQ of your leaders.
I'll keep my pounds, thankyou very much.
I call BS. Many Europeans could read and write Latin, but it was never ever taught as a spoken language, other than pronunciations used for rote learning, which tended to vary across Europe anyway (and were the subject of furious and fruitless debate in the 1920s and 1930s, as I was taught in my Latin lessons at school).
And how the lingusitic genes have withered in your lineage, from polymath grandfather to barely literate (ffs learn to spell) grandson.
Thanks for lend-lease by the way - if ever there was a reason for British anti-Americanism, lend-lease is it, forcing British economic policy to be geared to repayments for some 50 years.
Guess what?
A European court would likely hold that Microsoft does not have the right to arbitrarily terminate a license, so the only companies Microsoft could sue would be US based companies, or the US arms of EU based companies.
Either way, it would be US jobs that suffer, so perhaps it's not such a neat idea after all.
Europe would crumble? Crease with laughter, more like.
Come and argue when you've got a name, Mr nonentity.
One of my best mates happens to be a Jamaican Muslim, and his views on Pakistanis are roughly the same as mine, only more extreme.
No - my partner works with GMOs every day in her job, and these GMOs are used to produce all sorts of useful products, from medicines to enzymes that are used to maximise the benefit animals gain from their feed, even enzymes that make your daily wash cleaner.
These are good things, and the genetic modification of the organisms used in these processes isn't a worry, because they aren't out there in the wild in quantitiy. They are grown and harvested in closed systems, with little likelihood of extenal contamination.
GM crops, on the other hand, can crosspollinate with other crops of the same species, creating several problems, not least legal (see Monsanto's record on trying to claim ownership of the results of such cross-pollination), but also technical problems for organic farmers due to the contamination of their crop.
While it is possible to use genetic manipulation to benefit the third world, the current state of play is that Monsanto are using it to benefit Monsanto, and to lock in farmers to using Monsanto pesticides and Monsanto seed, without the right to save seed for next season.
If GM technology is used in a good way, I'll be all for it. At present, though, it's just a profit engine for pesticide firms, and no use to anyone.
Send the buggers back, there are plenty of PIA flights every day.
Mind you, they may well be a bunch of lying Pakis - the three from Tipton were apparently overheard planning to go and train in Afghanistan, but of course the authorities over here won't send the bastards back to Pakistan where they belong.
Yes - I am a British nationalist. It's my country, and my right to object to it being diluted by multiculturalism.
Mind you, I bet she's used Windows Wallpaper for the decorating...
Thrills for you and for her - with the optional audio input, you too cam throb to the music of lurrrve gods such as Barry White or Motorhead!
To make the contouring process work, the concrete would likely have to be very fast setting, so you'd have to hope the kit didn't break down and gum up the works - unless they find an air-cured building material, the whole concept looks dumb.
It's a chat analysis bot - feed it the actual lines from the play, and it tries to figure out who is talking with whom and generate a network.
There might be a need to format the script specially, but other than that, the data should be the plays, verbatim and unsullied by preconceptions.
Fie, I bite my thumb at thee for thine implication of cheapness and superstition!
We don no pewter chamberpots in this place - none but the finest spun silver thread, fine woven to a veritable bishops mitre of protection, shall grace my noggin!
The network snapshot shown is from the end of Act 4, Scene iv, where Rosencrantz has recently been given the majority of the Rozencrantz/Guildenstern lines, with Guildenstern only having had one line in the previous three scenes (since R&G reappeared in scene 2).
If you read the site, you'll see that weightings are set to decay with time, so if a character is quiet, he/she will fade from the current network.
It's an artefact, but highlights an aspect of the analysis that might not be otherwise obvious.
Will there be a typesafe (non-firing, perhaps) version called Raymond#?
Or is he going all retro and considering forming the Raymones?
The email address, by the way, came from the University of South Carolina Research Foundation, of which he is a director.
It was such a nice email, too ;)
PJ - Yes, Darl - the legs get it - full depilation for your disinformation.
Darl - My bikini line! Aaaaaaargh!
That's one of the reasons why Newton is a true genius - not only were his instincts about the world substantially correct, but he actually developed the mathematical techniques to deal with the world as he saw it, and he did it the hard way.
My question is - what are people doing waiting until university to learn calculus?
We did it (in the Leibnitz formulation) for O-level (now called GCSE - exams taken at 16 or so), in enough detail to cover most of the current first year university courses.
And that was only twenty-five years ago.
I can't believe that the average teenager has become four years more stupid in the last quarter of a century - if it carries on at this rate, the average graduate in 2054 will know as much as I did for my scholarship exams in 1974, when I was 10.
Not only will the correct antinoise be generated to eliminate those irritating whingeing noises that PHBs make, but advanced image processing will remove the unsightly image of the PHB from my field of view, allowing me to continue surfing in peace.
Ah - the joys of inner space!
There aren't significant numbers of anyone other than US, UK, Aussies and Poles over there anyway, and the Poles probably speak the best English of the four, so what's the point?
(OK - I know Aznar has sent a couple of dozen troops, and there are maybe a few Italians knocking about, but 'coalition'? Jeez...)
I think you're absolutely right.
How about using the expected useful life of the goods as a measure of utility?
Then a PC, with an expected useful life of say 3 years (given the pace of software bloat), would be responsible for approximately 80kg/year of fossil fuel depletion.
A saloon car would have to have an expected useful life of around 12 years to justify its production costs in terms of fossil fuels, and a H2 Hummer would have to last some 50 years.
Now I'm no expert, but I can't see a Hummer lasting as long as a Landrover - hell, if most of them aren't in the scrapyard inside 10 years, I'll eat my hat collection.
Now that isn't to say that throwing away 80kg of fossil fuels per year for each PC manufactured is a good thing, but it does put things in a little better perspective.