Unless Douglas was playing with an early Whitesmiths edition of course, but then rule #42 is quite different and I fail to see how it could apply to your comment concerning Fenchurch St.
Did you just here a whooshing noise by any chance? Adams is continuing the joke about the answer being corrupted by the arrival of the Golgafrinchans. Fenchurch St doesn't actually have a London Underground station, and clause #42 of Whitesmiths restricts the "10 minute walk" rule to two-tailed games played under the Hammersmith bidding protocols (which obviously rarely happens). Trying to play "Fenchurch St" as a terminating bid is a sterotypical mistake by amateur players in much the same way as "6 x 9 = 42" is a common arithmetic mistake by stupid people.
Plus, "Pancras" would have been a rubbish name for a sexy female character (and "Paddington" is already taken).
Uncannily, if you do multiply 6 by 9 and look up clause #54 in the Roseby edition you will find a paragraph apologising for the inconvenience caused by the ommission of clause #53.
...is that Adams was referring to the pivotal clause #42 of the official rules for the game Mornington Crescent (using the pre-Livingstone concordance, obviously, since Adams was writing in 1978) - which also explains the significance of Fenchurch Street Station in the later books. Regular listeners to BBC Radio 4 (on which the original radio versions of HHGTTG were broadcast) will immediately grasp how following this philosophy allows the follower to confidently navigate the complexities and contradictions of life - but slashdotters from the USA and elsewhere may need to look it up.
Of course, it could be that Adams was merely satirising humanity's strange obsession with seeking simplistic answers without actually understanding the question - but that seems unlikely considering the masses of evidence for a deeper numerological significance.
Let's turn it around, eh? When Apple cut the cost of the iPhone, quite a few people were screaming bloody murder about Steve Jobs and his evilness. So where is the outrage over the Vista price cut?
Price cuts happen - the iPhone price cut caused a kerfuffle because it came only a few months after the vastly hyped launch.
Apple have a disproportionate media presence - MS may get column inches for major Windows releases (or when they get their arses fined off by the EU) but Apple seem to hit the front page if they introduce a new colour for the iPod nano. MacFans get all hot and sweaty at the thought of the MacBook Pro getting a 0.2 GHz speed-bump. This is mostly great for Apple (they must be doing some pretty effective media schmoozing) - but it comes at a price.
Its quite simple - as genetic tests become more powerful and reliable, either you either introduce mandatory state-funded free healthcare or you have Gattaca.
You can't prohibit insurance companies from minimising their risks and still call it a free market. If you did there's bound to be some offshore haven from which insurers can offer preferential deals to the genetic elite.
Plusnet is actually owned by British Telecom, the monopoly telecoms provider.
No idea if you are right about PlusNet's ownership - however BT owns the "last mile" wiring and exchanges, so most ADSL ISPs in the UK rely on re-selling British Telecom's wholesale broadband packages for that part of their service (see Local Loop Unbundling for the "yes, but..." story).
(Sorry for the "and another thing" post - workus interruptus)
They don't understand to have a public TV service (a fantastic thing in my opinion, and most Britons agree with me)
The other snag is that "media convergence" - the point in the not-too-distant-possible-future when there ceases to be any meaningful distinction between a networked computer and a TV set - completely and utterly buggers the BBC's "levy funded public service broadcasting" model.
At that point, the only business as usual solution is to extend the TV license to computers and/or broadband connections: and that my friends ain't never going to happen because not only would it be genuinely unpopular but you'd also have MurdochCorp (who see the BBC as a govenment-subsidised competitor) lobbying and astroturfing against it like mad.
The BBC is trying to be pioneering in its use of the internet (and even multi-channel digital TV) so that they don't appear "obsolete" but there doesn't seem to be any new income stream to support this. Without root-and-branch rethink on how they are funded, I think they are doomed in the long term. Sadly, the political solution seems to be "what elephant?" and death by a thousand cuts - which is a shame.
PS: On the DRM front, remember that the BBC doesn't "own" most of its content either - it faces a rats-nest of licenses and agreements with production companies, actors, composers, writers and other broadcasters (a lot of the good shows are co-produced with Canada, Australia or the US). I wouldn't be surprised if the incentive for using DRM is pressure from some of those groups - with whom the BBC needs to do business to survive.
I am a linux user, who pays the three-figure license fee every year. How dare they say I can't use BBC content I have already paid for how I like?
Reality check: You haven't paid for any BBC content! You've paid a government-imposed levy on the ownership of TV reception equipment which was introduced to fund a national public broadcast television service.
"Broadcast" means that you find out when something is on and sit yourself down in front of the TV and watch it, and are grateful for it. Allowing you to record and re-use the content was never part of the deal - hell, when the system was set up even the BBC didn't have video recording facilities, let alone Joe Public. When pre-recorded videos and DVDs became popular, I don't remember any serious suggestion that the BBC should *give* them to us - or even sell them at cost. The only reason we have some of these high-quality dramas now is that the BBC can supplement the license fee with the income stream from selling DVDs and overseas rights.
PS: If you buy a DVB tuner card for not-a-lot-of-money-really, install MythTV/Freevo/whatever on a Linux PC and let it grab the MPEG2 straight off the air - you can then do what you like with it. - and if its Dr Who your after its on near-continuous loop on BBC3!
GPL != EULA as you don't have to agree to the GPL.
Except you make a copy when you install the program to hard disc, and you make a copy in the computer's memory when you run it.
Some countries have updated their copyright laws to exempt such actions or have "fair use" doctrines that cover this - others haven't. In the UK we're not even technically allowed to rip our own CDs to our own iPods or make tapes for the car (although not even the record labels are bonkers enough to try and enforce that).
I do, however, think that rather than present the full GPL (especially the more legalistic and superficially scary version 3) as a click-through on end-user products the FSF should produce a "GPL EULA" that just tells users what they need to know - i.e. "Go ahead and use it - no warranty but hey you got it for free - you have other cool and important rights - go see the full GPL for details".
Uhmmm, *producing* and *transporting* biofuel emits CO2, so it's not really viable as a non-CO2 emitting technology.
Only if you use coal and oil as the power source for producing and transporting it!
Honestly, this one gets trotted out so often that you'd think there was some sort of thermodynamic paradox behind using a biofuel-powered tractor (or solar-powered or hydrogen-powered - or even a fricking horse provided it was fitted with a fart afterburner to kill the methane) to harvest your biofuel.
The problem is the half-baked rush to promote a uniquely expensive and inefficent biofuel (corn alcohol) without first building the infrastructure or ensuring sustainable supplies.
I use another CO2 storage technology in my house already. It's called WOOD.
Hopefully sourced from any trees which were cut down to make space for your house...?
But seriously, the other neat trick is that even if you cut down the wood and burn it for power, you're only putting back the CO2 which the tree took out - not releasing carbon that has been safely out of the equation for millions of years.
Sadly, though, it looks like the idea of biofuels is going to get discredited by the lamebrained alcohol-from-corn debacle.
I agree. --And the whole process would be sped along if somebody were to write a game about an old ship captain obsessed with killing a whale which plays like a collection of the most pedantic
Think yourself lucky that you come from the USA where you only have the one "classic" novel to worry about and not England where we've got hundreds of the buggers:-) At least you can engage kids interest by telling them that the author's second-great-grandnephew does half-decent dance music.
NB: OK, USA-bashing is fun but, honestly, if you form your impression of the USA via the popular entertainment it exports then you would be forgiven for thinking that "Moby Dick" is the only notable work of classic American literature. I guess if Hollywood wants a character to pick up a "good book" they pick the one that everybody has heard of (for reasons explained in the parent post) but which doesn't raise uncomfortable issues about slavery or mental illness.
learning to play videogames is considerably easier than developing an appreciation for literature of any kind.
Odd - since quite young children seem to enjoy being told stories (which sounds like "developing an appreciation for literature" to me).
So, perhaps the translation is "The videogame industry has yet to fully develop a parasitic industry of critics who 'appreciate' video games by writing pretentious deconstructions of them".
Currently, so-called "reviews" of video games are just descriptions of what the game entails, whether the gameplay is compelling and the quality of the technical execution. Anybody who has "developed an appreciation for literature" knows that proper reviews are smug little essays designed to impress upon the reader the reviewer's extreme wit and cleverness while scrupulously avoiding saying anything informative about the actual work under review, but citing myriad other obscure works in the clear expectation that any worthy reader will be familliar with them all.
Once the videogame industry has evolved such critics, all that remains is to ensure that all 5th graders are forced to write 1000 word reports on the influence of the depiction of dwarves in "Colossal Cave" on the works of Scott Adams then videogames will be accepted into the pantheon of true art.
Granted, the long term causes of these issues need to be addressed, but the fact remains that these gangs of "young people" are causing criminal damage and are at best a serious concern and in some cases a genuine threat to the safety and liberties of regular members of the public.
(my italics)
Except these devices don't magically target "these gangs" (whoever they may be) - they indiscriminately affect anybody under the age of 25, anybody over the age of 25 with above-average hearing, babies (who's parents have no idea why they are acting up). Gods know what they do to guide dogs.. and if you believe that these things are going to be used as per instructions and only turned on when there is a problem then you really need to take something for that naivete!
There's no doubt that teenage yob culture is a problem. The trouble is with things like the mosquito is that they promise easy, quick responses to problems that can be slapped on like elastoplast instead of tackling the problem - part of which is that adult society has no place for kids who are too old to be cute and too young to have mortgages.
We keep then in school forever so they won't show up on the unemployment stats, and wonder why they truant.
We let the drinks industry produce sweet, sticky vodka and cider drinks that appeal to kids who would not otherwise like the taste of beer or spirits and wonder why under age drinking is a problem. OK, we make some feeble rules that the muck can't be advertised in a way that "appeals to underage drinks" so all the advertising is pitched at young adults (Duh! first rule of appealing to kids is to use kids a few years older than the target audience!).
We build huge new housing developments with no recreation areas - or if there are, they're either totally unsupervised *or* so strictly regimented that they're no fun - and as soon as there's trouble they get closed down anyway.
To repel rowdy young ruffians, just pipe in classical music.
Methinks, my droods, that the parent has not seen/read "A Clockwork Orange" and knows not the role of good old Ludwig Van as an accompanyment to the 'ol ultra violence...
Only they play shitty dance-pop and hip-hop specifically for their own enjoyment rather than to make you uncomfortable,
Come on - which generation of kids since 1950 hasn't regarded "driving mum & dad insane" as a key requirement of "their" popular music?
Good idea, play either some classical/baroque/romantic orchestral music at a moderate volume, it's not offensive enough to make anyone irritated or uncomfortable but will chip away at the hang-out factor to the sorts of teens you don't want.
Aha! Every year, most shops in the UK have the same 12 fracking inane Xmas songs (or, if you're really lucky, 11 inane Xmas songs + "Faritytale of New York - but even that gets old eventually) on endless loop starting from about October. I had always assumed that this was down to chronic lack of taste and contempt for customers - I hadn't realized it was a cunning plan to reduce youth shoplifting over the Xmas period.
However, remember - if you try and use decent 70s rock to deter kids you run the risk of them actually *liking* it - next thing you'll know the charts will be full of bad cover versions by size-zero supermodels that can just about carry a tune or dance tracks where some thug raps about how big he thinks his dick is over a loop of some classic riff.
Ethics(n): A system of arbitrary and simplistic rules and practices designed to protect professionals from having to exercise any sort of human judgement when faced with difficult decisions. Usually founded on the bizzarre assumption that someone intent on doing something self-evidently immoral, dishonest and possibly illegal will be stopped in their tracks simply because it violates some "code of ethics".
I have been told by airline personnel that the real reason for the liquid ban is to restrict use of the bathrooms
I think your leg was being pulled - they're still serving coffee and beer on the plane & you can take all the bottled water you want if you buy it after security. Actually, since the DVT scare they've been coming round with trays of water on long haul flights.
So, knowing that "liquid explosives" are DEFINITELY NOT the reason for the liquid ban, tell me what YOU think the reason is?
As the man said - never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence.. Politicians are under a lot of pressure to "do something" about a threat which is quite small and very hard to actually "do something" about.
The difference is that the FBA/TSA/BATFE/etc. lab researchers tried doing it without terminating themselves.
ISTR from one of the initial TATP debunking articles that the proper procedure is essential to actually getting an explosion powerful enough to do significant damage to anything other than the poor shmuck trying to mix it. There's a big difference between a "foom" that will leave the person holding the test tube with less fingers, eyeballs and blood than they are comfortable with and a proper earth-shattering "kaboom" that will cause structural damage.
As the TSA article said:
it took several tries using the best equipment and best scientists for it to even ignite
Of course, ISTR also that TATP doesn't, strictly speaking ignite, but... (TATP was the main example cited elsewhere in the TSA response).
But that complexity, from what I can gather, is precisely the point (according to the TSA blog post) of restricting the liquids in secure areas of airport terminals.
Except the argument went something along the lines of:
Q: Why can't we take more than 100ml of liquid on board?
A: Because its possible you might mix up a binary liquid explosive on the plane!
Q: So why can't several people work together and each bring 100ml of binary explosive makin's?
A: Because you need the other people to carry the ice bath, liquid nitrogen, bunsen burner, pipette, magnetic stirrer, thermostatically controlled heater, fume cupboard and all the other lab gear you need to successfully mix up a binary liquid explosive; so making them carry the ingredients in several 100ml bottles is going to be the last straw that makes them abandon their dastardly plan!
Q: But they could all bring on small quantities pre-mixed explosives?
A: No, because liquid explosives are too unstable to carry pre-mixed.
Q: So you're confirming that its nigh-on impossible to blow up a plane with liquid explosive?
A: (mumbles) - we've found several bad 'uns manufacturing TATP.
Q: Correction - you found pieces of several people who attempted to make TATP in the comfort of their own homes - oh, PS, TATP isn't a liquid.
A: Oh look - butterfly!
It may be that someday, Apple really can't "afford" carrier exclusivity. And you know what? I'd imagine we'll see a change, then, won't we?
Probably if/when sales of competing music-enabled phones actually start to eat Apples iPod/iTunes cash cow.
Or maybe if MS comes out with a version of Windows Mobile that isn't a complete train wreck.
Who knows? Maybe they'll give up on the phome market per se and come up with something sensible like an iPod Touch with bluetooth that can use any compact flip-phone as a 3G modem?
Agreed, but that's more an issue with our legal system than an issue with the RIAA itself, right?
True - of course - although some organizations seem to be particularly creative in exploiting the flaws in the system!
However, there's also the related propaganda campaign to promote casual copyright infringement as a crime against humanity. Don't be surprised if the next special DVD edition of Se7ev is re-named 8ight and features a new horrific scene in which a gibbering victim is found strapped to a table with iPod phones superglued into his ears and an inferior quality 'torrent download of "The Best of Boy Bands" on infinite loop...
The way I see it is: If the content is so terrible, don't download it. As you will not be infringing on anyone's copyright, you will not get sued.
And an innocent man has nothing to fear from the Police... Good luck with that.
The issue is not that people who download music without paying for it should get given a lollipop and a pat on the back.
The issue is that people who are accused of downloading music should get a fair hearing, the chance to defend themselves (mistakes do happen) and face a punishment proportionate to the "damage" done to industry and society by their "crime".
They should not be faced with a "Hobson's choice" of "Confess, and pay this meerly ruinous fine - or defend yourself and hope your parents don't mind selling their house & one of your little sister's kidneys if you loose."
So how much damage is done? Well, look at your CD collection: how of them are only there because, once upon a time, someone gave you a tape (remember those?) or MP3 of the artist, and when their next album came out you bought it? Hmm...
that fixes any of Python's design decisions that couldn't be resolved while keeping compatibility.
...but which is clearly intended as a direct replacement for Python, developed by the same team, with the same general design goals and programming paradigms. C++ was (AFAIK) produced by a third party and layered a completely new and radical (to C programmers) programming paradigm on top of C. Not the same thing at all.
(Python 2-to-3 sounds more analogous to the transition from K&R C to ANSI C than C to C++)
(PS: remember we're talking about the nature and implications of the transition, not comparing C and Python - life is too short!)
Python allows multiple interpreters to be installed at the same time and for programs to specify the interpreter version they want to use. Linux distributions have been packaging it that way for years.
...and that has to be set up, using exactly the same conventions, on every machine which will be running your code - not just the machine on which you write/compile the code. If you're writing for your own use, or have your own dedicated/virtual web server then fine. If its going to be deployed on independently-managed machines - possibly running third-party python apps - then its a headache. Not a deal-breaker, perhaps, but the sort of added complexity that will persuade, say, a commercial shared web-hosting service to stick with the old version (as happend with PHP5).
Slashdot Mirror
Did you just here a whooshing noise by any chance? Adams is continuing the joke about the answer being corrupted by the arrival of the Golgafrinchans. Fenchurch St doesn't actually have a London Underground station, and clause #42 of Whitesmiths restricts the "10 minute walk" rule to two-tailed games played under the Hammersmith bidding protocols (which obviously rarely happens). Trying to play "Fenchurch St" as a terminating bid is a sterotypical mistake by amateur players in much the same way as "6 x 9 = 42" is a common arithmetic mistake by stupid people.
Plus, "Pancras" would have been a rubbish name for a sexy female character (and "Paddington" is already taken).
Uncannily, if you do multiply 6 by 9 and look up clause #54 in the Roseby edition you will find a paragraph apologising for the inconvenience caused by the ommission of clause #53.
...is that Adams was referring to the pivotal clause #42 of the official rules for the game Mornington Crescent (using the pre-Livingstone concordance, obviously, since Adams was writing in 1978) - which also explains the significance of Fenchurch Street Station in the later books. Regular listeners to BBC Radio 4 (on which the original radio versions of HHGTTG were broadcast) will immediately grasp how following this philosophy allows the follower to confidently navigate the complexities and contradictions of life - but slashdotters from the USA and elsewhere may need to look it up.
Of course, it could be that Adams was merely satirising humanity's strange obsession with seeking simplistic answers without actually understanding the question - but that seems unlikely considering the masses of evidence for a deeper numerological significance.
Price cuts happen - the iPhone price cut caused a kerfuffle because it came only a few months after the vastly hyped launch.
Apple have a disproportionate media presence - MS may get column inches for major Windows releases (or when they get their arses fined off by the EU) but Apple seem to hit the front page if they introduce a new colour for the iPod nano. MacFans get all hot and sweaty at the thought of the MacBook Pro getting a 0.2 GHz speed-bump. This is mostly great for Apple (they must be doing some pretty effective media schmoozing) - but it comes at a price.
Its quite simple - as genetic tests become more powerful and reliable, either you either introduce mandatory state-funded free healthcare or you have Gattaca.
You can't prohibit insurance companies from minimising their risks and still call it a free market. If you did there's bound to be some offshore haven from which insurers can offer preferential deals to the genetic elite.
Get him hooked on a videogame himself and he'll soon change his tune. You just need to find somethinmg he'll relate to...
How about:
Grand Theft Auto VIII: Ambulance Pursuit!
No idea if you are right about PlusNet's ownership - however BT owns the "last mile" wiring and exchanges, so most ADSL ISPs in the UK rely on re-selling British Telecom's wholesale broadband packages for that part of their service (see Local Loop Unbundling for the "yes, but..." story).
(Sorry for the "and another thing" post - workus interruptus)
They don't understand to have a public TV service (a fantastic thing in my opinion, and most Britons agree with me)The other snag is that "media convergence" - the point in the not-too-distant-possible-future when there ceases to be any meaningful distinction between a networked computer and a TV set - completely and utterly buggers the BBC's "levy funded public service broadcasting" model.
At that point, the only business as usual solution is to extend the TV license to computers and/or broadband connections: and that my friends ain't never going to happen because not only would it be genuinely unpopular but you'd also have MurdochCorp (who see the BBC as a govenment-subsidised competitor) lobbying and astroturfing against it like mad.
The BBC is trying to be pioneering in its use of the internet (and even multi-channel digital TV) so that they don't appear "obsolete" but there doesn't seem to be any new income stream to support this. Without root-and-branch rethink on how they are funded, I think they are doomed in the long term. Sadly, the political solution seems to be "what elephant?" and death by a thousand cuts - which is a shame.
PS: On the DRM front, remember that the BBC doesn't "own" most of its content either - it faces a rats-nest of licenses and agreements with production companies, actors, composers, writers and other broadcasters (a lot of the good shows are co-produced with Canada, Australia or the US). I wouldn't be surprised if the incentive for using DRM is pressure from some of those groups - with whom the BBC needs to do business to survive.
Reality check: You haven't paid for any BBC content! You've paid a government-imposed levy on the ownership of TV reception equipment which was introduced to fund a national public broadcast television service.
"Broadcast" means that you find out when something is on and sit yourself down in front of the TV and watch it, and are grateful for it. Allowing you to record and re-use the content was never part of the deal - hell, when the system was set up even the BBC didn't have video recording facilities, let alone Joe Public. When pre-recorded videos and DVDs became popular, I don't remember any serious suggestion that the BBC should *give* them to us - or even sell them at cost. The only reason we have some of these high-quality dramas now is that the BBC can supplement the license fee with the income stream from selling DVDs and overseas rights.
PS: If you buy a DVB tuner card for not-a-lot-of-money-really, install MythTV/Freevo/whatever on a Linux PC and let it grab the MPEG2 straight off the air - you can then do what you like with it. - and if its Dr Who your after its on near-continuous loop on BBC3!
Except you make a copy when you install the program to hard disc, and you make a copy in the computer's memory when you run it.
Some countries have updated their copyright laws to exempt such actions or have "fair use" doctrines that cover this - others haven't. In the UK we're not even technically allowed to rip our own CDs to our own iPods or make tapes for the car (although not even the record labels are bonkers enough to try and enforce that).
I do, however, think that rather than present the full GPL (especially the more legalistic and superficially scary version 3) as a click-through on end-user products the FSF should produce a "GPL EULA" that just tells users what they need to know - i.e. "Go ahead and use it - no warranty but hey you got it for free - you have other cool and important rights - go see the full GPL for details".
Only if you use coal and oil as the power source for producing and transporting it!
Honestly, this one gets trotted out so often that you'd think there was some sort of thermodynamic paradox behind using a biofuel-powered tractor (or solar-powered or hydrogen-powered - or even a fricking horse provided it was fitted with a fart afterburner to kill the methane) to harvest your biofuel.
The problem is the half-baked rush to promote a uniquely expensive and inefficent biofuel (corn alcohol) without first building the infrastructure or ensuring sustainable supplies.
Hopefully sourced from any trees which were cut down to make space for your house...?
But seriously, the other neat trick is that even if you cut down the wood and burn it for power, you're only putting back the CO2 which the tree took out - not releasing carbon that has been safely out of the equation for millions of years.
Sadly, though, it looks like the idea of biofuels is going to get discredited by the lamebrained alcohol-from-corn debacle.
Think yourself lucky that you come from the USA where you only have the one "classic" novel to worry about and not England where we've got hundreds of the buggers :-) At least you can engage kids interest by telling them that the author's second-great-grandnephew does half-decent dance music.
NB: OK, USA-bashing is fun but, honestly, if you form your impression of the USA via the popular entertainment it exports then you would be forgiven for thinking that "Moby Dick" is the only notable work of classic American literature. I guess if Hollywood wants a character to pick up a "good book" they pick the one that everybody has heard of (for reasons explained in the parent post) but which doesn't raise uncomfortable issues about slavery or mental illness.
Odd - since quite young children seem to enjoy being told stories (which sounds like "developing an appreciation for literature" to me).
So, perhaps the translation is "The videogame industry has yet to fully develop a parasitic industry of critics who 'appreciate' video games by writing pretentious deconstructions of them".
Currently, so-called "reviews" of video games are just descriptions of what the game entails, whether the gameplay is compelling and the quality of the technical execution. Anybody who has "developed an appreciation for literature" knows that proper reviews are smug little essays designed to impress upon the reader the reviewer's extreme wit and cleverness while scrupulously avoiding saying anything informative about the actual work under review, but citing myriad other obscure works in the clear expectation that any worthy reader will be familliar with them all.
Once the videogame industry has evolved such critics, all that remains is to ensure that all 5th graders are forced to write 1000 word reports on the influence of the depiction of dwarves in "Colossal Cave" on the works of Scott Adams then videogames will be accepted into the pantheon of true art.
Except these devices don't magically target "these gangs" (whoever they may be) - they indiscriminately affect anybody under the age of 25, anybody over the age of 25 with above-average hearing, babies (who's parents have no idea why they are acting up). Gods know what they do to guide dogs.. and if you believe that these things are going to be used as per instructions and only turned on when there is a problem then you really need to take something for that naivete!
There's no doubt that teenage yob culture is a problem. The trouble is with things like the mosquito is that they promise easy, quick responses to problems that can be slapped on like elastoplast instead of tackling the problem - part of which is that adult society has no place for kids who are too old to be cute and too young to have mortgages.
We keep then in school forever so they won't show up on the unemployment stats, and wonder why they truant.
We let the drinks industry produce sweet, sticky vodka and cider drinks that appeal to kids who would not otherwise like the taste of beer or spirits and wonder why under age drinking is a problem. OK, we make some feeble rules that the muck can't be advertised in a way that "appeals to underage drinks" so all the advertising is pitched at young adults (Duh! first rule of appealing to kids is to use kids a few years older than the target audience!).
We build huge new housing developments with no recreation areas - or if there are, they're either totally unsupervised *or* so strictly regimented that they're no fun - and as soon as there's trouble they get closed down anyway.
Methinks, my droods, that the parent has not seen/read "A Clockwork Orange" and knows not the role of good old Ludwig Van as an accompanyment to the 'ol ultra violence...
...when kids started using it as a ringtone so they could txt each other during school without the teacher hearing...?
Come on - which generation of kids since 1950 hasn't regarded "driving mum & dad insane" as a key requirement of "their" popular music?
Good idea, play either some classical/baroque/romantic orchestral music at a moderate volume, it's not offensive enough to make anyone irritated or uncomfortable but will chip away at the hang-out factor to the sorts of teens you don't want.Aha! Every year, most shops in the UK have the same 12 fracking inane Xmas songs (or, if you're really lucky, 11 inane Xmas songs + "Faritytale of New York - but even that gets old eventually) on endless loop starting from about October. I had always assumed that this was down to chronic lack of taste and contempt for customers - I hadn't realized it was a cunning plan to reduce youth shoplifting over the Xmas period.
However, remember - if you try and use decent 70s rock to deter kids you run the risk of them actually *liking* it - next thing you'll know the charts will be full of bad cover versions by size-zero supermodels that can just about carry a tune or dance tracks where some thug raps about how big he thinks his dick is over a loop of some classic riff.
Ethics (n): A system of arbitrary and simplistic rules and practices designed to protect professionals from having to exercise any sort of human judgement when faced with difficult decisions. Usually founded on the bizzarre assumption that someone intent on doing something self-evidently immoral, dishonest and possibly illegal will be stopped in their tracks simply because it violates some "code of ethics".
I think your leg was being pulled - they're still serving coffee and beer on the plane & you can take all the bottled water you want if you buy it after security. Actually, since the DVT scare they've been coming round with trays of water on long haul flights.
So, knowing that "liquid explosives" are DEFINITELY NOT the reason for the liquid ban, tell me what YOU think the reason is?As the man said - never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence.. Politicians are under a lot of pressure to "do something" about a threat which is quite small and very hard to actually "do something" about.
ISTR from one of the initial TATP debunking articles that the proper procedure is essential to actually getting an explosion powerful enough to do significant damage to anything other than the poor shmuck trying to mix it. There's a big difference between a "foom" that will leave the person holding the test tube with less fingers, eyeballs and blood than they are comfortable with and a proper earth-shattering "kaboom" that will cause structural damage.
As the TSA article said:
it took several tries using the best equipment and best scientists for it to even igniteOf course, ISTR also that TATP doesn't, strictly speaking ignite, but... (TATP was the main example cited elsewhere in the TSA response).
Except the argument went something along the lines of:
Q: Why can't we take more than 100ml of liquid on board?
A: Because its possible you might mix up a binary liquid explosive on the plane!
Q: So why can't several people work together and each bring 100ml of binary explosive makin's?
A: Because you need the other people to carry the ice bath, liquid nitrogen, bunsen burner, pipette, magnetic stirrer, thermostatically controlled heater, fume cupboard and all the other lab gear you need to successfully mix up a binary liquid explosive; so making them carry the ingredients in several 100ml bottles is going to be the last straw that makes them abandon their dastardly plan!
Q: But they could all bring on small quantities pre-mixed explosives?
A: No, because liquid explosives are too unstable to carry pre-mixed.
Q: So you're confirming that its nigh-on impossible to blow up a plane with liquid explosive?
A: (mumbles) - we've found several bad 'uns manufacturing TATP.
Q: Correction - you found pieces of several people who attempted to make TATP in the comfort of their own homes - oh, PS, TATP isn't a liquid.
A: Oh look - butterfly!
Probably if/when sales of competing music-enabled phones actually start to eat Apples iPod/iTunes cash cow.
Or maybe if MS comes out with a version of Windows Mobile that isn't a complete train wreck.
Who knows? Maybe they'll give up on the phome market per se and come up with something sensible like an iPod Touch with bluetooth that can use any compact flip-phone as a 3G modem?
True - of course - although some organizations seem to be particularly creative in exploiting the flaws in the system!
However, there's also the related propaganda campaign to promote casual copyright infringement as a crime against humanity. Don't be surprised if the next special DVD edition of Se7ev is re-named 8ight and features a new horrific scene in which a gibbering victim is found strapped to a table with iPod phones superglued into his ears and an inferior quality 'torrent download of "The Best of Boy Bands" on infinite loop...
And an innocent man has nothing to fear from the Police... Good luck with that.
The issue is not that people who download music without paying for it should get given a lollipop and a pat on the back.
The issue is that people who are accused of downloading music should get a fair hearing, the chance to defend themselves (mistakes do happen) and face a punishment proportionate to the "damage" done to industry and society by their "crime".
They should not be faced with a "Hobson's choice" of "Confess, and pay this meerly ruinous fine - or defend yourself and hope your parents don't mind selling their house & one of your little sister's kidneys if you loose."
So how much damage is done? Well, look at your CD collection: how of them are only there because, once upon a time, someone gave you a tape (remember those?) or MP3 of the artist, and when their next album came out you bought it? Hmm...
...but which is clearly intended as a direct replacement for Python, developed by the same team, with the same general design goals and programming paradigms. C++ was (AFAIK) produced by a third party and layered a completely new and radical (to C programmers) programming paradigm on top of C. Not the same thing at all.
(Python 2-to-3 sounds more analogous to the transition from K&R C to ANSI C than C to C++)
(PS: remember we're talking about the nature and implications of the transition, not comparing C and Python - life is too short!)
Python allows multiple interpreters to be installed at the same time and for programs to specify the interpreter version they want to use. Linux distributions have been packaging it that way for years....and that has to be set up, using exactly the same conventions, on every machine which will be running your code - not just the machine on which you write/compile the code. If you're writing for your own use, or have your own dedicated/virtual web server then fine. If its going to be deployed on independently-managed machines - possibly running third-party python apps - then its a headache. Not a deal-breaker, perhaps, but the sort of added complexity that will persuade, say, a commercial shared web-hosting service to stick with the old version (as happend with PHP5).