The only thing is to avoid BBC1. Most of it is utter shite.
The thing is, BBC1 has to exist for the masses. Like it or not, millions of people like Eastenders/Changing Rooms. Personally, I think it's terrible.
However, if the BBC did the "proper" TV only, like opera, great history and offbeat comedy, they would not be able to have the same general respect from the public. When the BBC was opera and history in the 1950s, and ITV arrived with Beat the Clock etc, they completely dominated the BBC and made them look a bit useless.
What's important is that the BBC makes quality and diverse TV, popular or otherwise.
They said "we will not increase the basic rate of income tax".
Your posting proves just how such lexical mutation can occur, and exactly why government does what it does. It promises, something, people understand it to mean something else, then when they don't deliver they can point to what they actually said.
Of course, in the long term, people feel cheated by it. Just wait for the overdue house price collapse and see people flee to any alternative to this government.
I give you one thing, Google's mission statement:-
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
An excellent web-based calendar fits in perfectly with that. I can get my calendar from anywhere at anytime? Great. Maybe I could share my calendar with a buddy regardless of what PC he uses. Maybe the calendar could optionally SMS my cellphone just before an appointment. Perhaps it could integrate with Gmail, so that if a vCard arrives, it gets added.
I think Google are exceptionally smart. They realise that the future is managed information. Not having to be your own sysadmin for your PC, but letting someone else do the job.
There's another side-effect. One common complaint I hear about not switching to OpenOffice.org is that people still need Outlook. Let's say there's a web based replacement. Bang! people start switching. That means less Microsoft revenue, which means less Microsoft investment.
A business I deal with (I pay them!) was talking to me today and I mentioned that I ran OpenOffice.org which was free.
The guy asked me "what's that"? I think I may have a conversion of maybe a couple of dozen PCs coming.
Where OOo will start to grow isn't the big corporations. It's little guys where the guys making the software selection decisions see spending hundreds of dollars per PC as affecting their bottom lines, because its their money.
Now, how do we all learn who is running OOo and not Word formatted from OOo? Should we maybe put OOo in the document properties or something?
I buy a few reasonable sized artists as well as quite a lot of small or independent artists.
I never buy at full price. I wait for someone to offer me a good deal, and then I buy it.
There's is tons of great independent music out there - and sites offering great value downloads for it. Emusic.com sells tracks at 25c or less per track.
Freedom to innovate, for me. I can take a program and make it do what I want it to, or pay someone to do so.
Closed formats generally mean lock-in. What you may want to do with a file may logically be simple to understand, but as you are locked in, the manufacturer has you by the balls. You may have invested thousands in software, and really depend on them for this bridge between their format and another format. They know it's worth $100K to you, so will charge you $20-30K. Not enough to piss you off, but enough to gouge you.
That's not to say that I'm necessarily a total OSS convert. Some projects that I've spoken to people about have some pretty poor support, and I've emailled folks and had no reply. I'd rather pay $500 for something and have the support. Zealots who don't think that way should be treated with caution. Businesses use computers to help them deliver a service.
It's one reason I avoid putting my money into companies with parachuted in CEOs. If people have founded a company or still own a massive stake, they can do things like that.
There's a big difference between managing something that almost anyone can understand vs really tricky stuff.
If you've never worked in the pharmacutical field, can you be dropped in and know how to run it?
I've never worked for anyone with any talent running a computer team who didn't have at least some experience working as an analyst or programmer, even if they failed. The rest were just bureaucrats.
I've had people telling me that I can't do something because it's "against the law" only to find that once I ask them to name the statute, that it's actually just company policy.
Add to this that the boxes from Shuttle which are tested with Mandrake. I've read a review of one and the guy reckoned a Linux install outran a Windows install on one.
Speaking of the grandmother question - I think grandmothers are actually quite an easy Linux switch. It's gamers and home power users that aren't. Grandmothers need to write the odd letter, view digital photos and use email and the web.
I haven't had a BSOD for years. The last time was when I tried to run some software that wasn't Win2K compatible and then had to go buy an equivalent - about 4 years ago.
I also try not to buy things based on for instance USB when I can use something like Ethernet. I've always found ethernet far more reliable as a connection for printers etc.
I'm still on Windows, and always used to buy "mainstream" devices so that I knew that when I changed OS, that all my kit would have a driver. A lot of off-the-shelf boxes from major manufacturers don't do that. They often get a driver shipped, and it's for the OS sold.
Now, I check out Linux compatibility, and will pay slightly more to have that. I'd rather pay £5 extra now than have to throw it away when I want to run Linux.
To be honest, how much of a cost is a new wi-fi card? OS card costs what? New version of Windows costs what?
And that upgrade means you'll be on a driver that will keep working as you upgrade your versions of Linux distros.
I'll tell you something else. A lot of people get a lot of hardware in their Windows boxes that is tied not to the OS but the version of the OS. I had a friend lose his whole hdd due to a virus crash, and we couldn't track down the modem maker on the web. Likewise, I had a scanner which I couldn't get a driver for due to an OS upgrade.
I think I speak for many people when I say that I really don't mine ads on the page I'm in. I often click ads that are for either companies I've never heard of, or new services/products, just to see what the offering is.
Just no popups and none of these Floaters. All I think when I see a floater ad is how much I hate the company doing the ad.
It's all getting a bit like selling petfood on the web. Sense will prevail and most of the blogging will die out. Look at my URL and you'll see a guy with a blog who got bored updating it!
In a lot of cases, blogging is little different to message boards, and lets face it, 10 years ago we had something similar with personal home pages (most of which were built in some sitebuilding tool). Personal home pages were full of people's top 10 favourite Trek episodes and pictures of their cat. People did it and told their families about them and then when they changed ISPs, they dropped them.
If that's his point, he's dead right, and I can point you to people talking up blogging like it's The Next Big Thing. It's another tool, and let's face it, not that much more useful to most people than an email newsletter.
Right, because books never get published on the strength of the writer's name;)
Is what you are saying that when someone signs up a well-known gardener like Alan Titchmarsh as an author, that they've done so on the strength of his writing, and not at all influenced by his name as a selling point? (Don't know what his books are like).
Get real. Publishers produce a lot of junk. I've got some terrible computer books, that I'm sure the publisher hired someone to rush out a book in time for the launch of the next version.
I think the thing with the Gandhi quote is that if you look at campaigns or ideas that have been revolutionary and succeeded, the pattern is true.
What it doesn't say is that some things that people laugh at (like many of the stupid dotcoms that cropped up in the late 90s) simply aren't a good idea.
Most people like to read and watch what reinforces their views.
Fox News is watched by pro-Bushies, Fahrenheit 9/11 by anti-Bushies. Both, in my opinion are junk journalism serving their audiences. Truly great journalism investigates, seeks out the truth and reports it and make a difference.
I don't get Fox News (nor does most of the UK), but I know people who saw Fahrenheit 9/11. Not one who paid to go that I know was someone that I'd describe as being on the right or centre. They were all people being reassured of their world view.
Slashdot Mirror
change NI (as you said)
change the tax thresholds (or freeze them, thus putting more income into higher tax brackets as inflation takes effect).
tax things never taxed before (eg when IPT was introduced).
raise the rate of VAT
raise duties on booze/smokes/whatever.
fine people hard for non-compliance with the law (eg automatic fines for not having a tax disc if you forget to get a SORN).
Re-interpret existing tax laws to grab money.
The government are probably spending a ton of money on people in order to raise the tax take without touching the basic rate.
The thing is, BBC1 has to exist for the masses. Like it or not, millions of people like Eastenders/Changing Rooms. Personally, I think it's terrible.
However, if the BBC did the "proper" TV only, like opera, great history and offbeat comedy, they would not be able to have the same general respect from the public. When the BBC was opera and history in the 1950s, and ITV arrived with Beat the Clock etc, they completely dominated the BBC and made them look a bit useless.
What's important is that the BBC makes quality and diverse TV, popular or otherwise.
So, certain information that would have weakened the government's case, and added doubt to it was not added, and you don't think of it as a lie?
Your posting proves just how such lexical mutation can occur, and exactly why government does what it does. It promises, something, people understand it to mean something else, then when they don't deliver they can point to what they actually said.
Of course, in the long term, people feel cheated by it. Just wait for the overdue house price collapse and see people flee to any alternative to this government.
These are the people who have done more than any government in the UK since the war to "manage news" (during the war was understandable).
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
An excellent web-based calendar fits in perfectly with that. I can get my calendar from anywhere at anytime? Great. Maybe I could share my calendar with a buddy regardless of what PC he uses. Maybe the calendar could optionally SMS my cellphone just before an appointment. Perhaps it could integrate with Gmail, so that if a vCard arrives, it gets added.
I think Google are exceptionally smart. They realise that the future is managed information. Not having to be your own sysadmin for your PC, but letting someone else do the job.
There's another side-effect. One common complaint I hear about not switching to OpenOffice.org is that people still need Outlook. Let's say there's a web based replacement. Bang! people start switching. That means less Microsoft revenue, which means less Microsoft investment.
How about developing some and publishing them yourself?
The guy asked me "what's that"? I think I may have a conversion of maybe a couple of dozen PCs coming.
Where OOo will start to grow isn't the big corporations. It's little guys where the guys making the software selection decisions see spending hundreds of dollars per PC as affecting their bottom lines, because its their money.
Now, how do we all learn who is running OOo and not Word formatted from OOo? Should we maybe put OOo in the document properties or something?
I never buy at full price. I wait for someone to offer me a good deal, and then I buy it.
There's is tons of great independent music out there - and sites offering great value downloads for it. Emusic.com sells tracks at 25c or less per track.
Closed formats generally mean lock-in. What you may want to do with a file may logically be simple to understand, but as you are locked in, the manufacturer has you by the balls. You may have invested thousands in software, and really depend on them for this bridge between their format and another format. They know it's worth $100K to you, so will charge you $20-30K. Not enough to piss you off, but enough to gouge you.
That's not to say that I'm necessarily a total OSS convert. Some projects that I've spoken to people about have some pretty poor support, and I've emailled folks and had no reply. I'd rather pay $500 for something and have the support. Zealots who don't think that way should be treated with caution. Businesses use computers to help them deliver a service.
It's one reason I avoid putting my money into companies with parachuted in CEOs. If people have founded a company or still own a massive stake, they can do things like that.
If you've never worked in the pharmacutical field, can you be dropped in and know how to run it?
I've never worked for anyone with any talent running a computer team who didn't have at least some experience working as an analyst or programmer, even if they failed. The rest were just bureaucrats.
I've had people telling me that I can't do something because it's "against the law" only to find that once I ask them to name the statute, that it's actually just company policy.
Speaking of the grandmother question - I think grandmothers are actually quite an easy Linux switch. It's gamers and home power users that aren't. Grandmothers need to write the odd letter, view digital photos and use email and the web.
I haven't had a BSOD for years. The last time was when I tried to run some software that wasn't Win2K compatible and then had to go buy an equivalent - about 4 years ago.
I'm still on Windows, and always used to buy "mainstream" devices so that I knew that when I changed OS, that all my kit would have a driver. A lot of off-the-shelf boxes from major manufacturers don't do that. They often get a driver shipped, and it's for the OS sold.
Now, I check out Linux compatibility, and will pay slightly more to have that. I'd rather pay £5 extra now than have to throw it away when I want to run Linux.
And that upgrade means you'll be on a driver that will keep working as you upgrade your versions of Linux distros.
I'll tell you something else. A lot of people get a lot of hardware in their Windows boxes that is tied not to the OS but the version of the OS. I had a friend lose his whole hdd due to a virus crash, and we couldn't track down the modem maker on the web. Likewise, I had a scanner which I couldn't get a driver for due to an OS upgrade.
The thing most people would be wise to do is to find new hardware as stuff that scores high for linux compatibility - HP Printers for instance.
Just no popups and none of these Floaters. All I think when I see a floater ad is how much I hate the company doing the ad.
In a lot of cases, blogging is little different to message boards, and lets face it, 10 years ago we had something similar with personal home pages (most of which were built in some sitebuilding tool). Personal home pages were full of people's top 10 favourite Trek episodes and pictures of their cat. People did it and told their families about them and then when they changed ISPs, they dropped them.
If that's his point, he's dead right, and I can point you to people talking up blogging like it's The Next Big Thing. It's another tool, and let's face it, not that much more useful to most people than an email newsletter.
Is what you are saying that when someone signs up a well-known gardener like Alan Titchmarsh as an author, that they've done so on the strength of his writing, and not at all influenced by his name as a selling point? (Don't know what his books are like).
Get real. Publishers produce a lot of junk. I've got some terrible computer books, that I'm sure the publisher hired someone to rush out a book in time for the launch of the next version.
What it doesn't say is that some things that people laugh at (like many of the stupid dotcoms that cropped up in the late 90s) simply aren't a good idea.
Fox News is watched by pro-Bushies, Fahrenheit 9/11 by anti-Bushies. Both, in my opinion are junk journalism serving their audiences. Truly great journalism investigates, seeks out the truth and reports it and make a difference.
I don't get Fox News (nor does most of the UK), but I know people who saw Fahrenheit 9/11. Not one who paid to go that I know was someone that I'd describe as being on the right or centre. They were all people being reassured of their world view.
Anytime someone uses the term "left" or "right" I ask them why they use the term "left" or "right" and they just don't have a clue.
Philosophically, what do you mean by "left" and what do you mean by "right"?
Also, the term "liberal" is a stupid term. Why would someone want to align themselves with people who are not liberal?