If HR got with the times they could avoid that instead by operating each person's holiday year from their date of joining. Wouldn't work for graduate mills which take 90% of new staff in the same month, but for companies with more regular turnover it would spread the panic usage fairly evenly.
I'm actually neither a pure prescriptivist nor a pure descriptivist. Some words or phrases I care about, and others I don't. But people who claim that to use the phrase "to beg the question" as a transitive verb is incorrect because it has a technical meaning when used as an intransitive verb get my goat. No-one would object to the transitive phrase "to demand the question", and nor would they call it a technical phrase, so to substitute one word in it with a synonym can hardly be incorrect.
I'm sure you've heard the one about the linguist who was walking across campus with his girlfriend when they saw six descriptivists beating up a prescriptivist. She turned to him in horror and asked, "Aren't you going to help?"
When I was at school they replaced the old network with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows, and they set up new accounts for us all. Every single pupil had the initial password hspupil.*
I don't know how whether any pupils had their passwords changed by other people before they could change them. However, I do know that a week later someone mentioned that they'd found out that the teachers had all had their passwords set to hsstaff.
At this point, it occurred to me that just maybe the headmaster's password could be hshead. I tried it. It worked.
Fortunately I wasn't stupid enough to change it, but I did send a couple of messages on Winpopup to one of my friends. I was young and foolish - nowadays I wouldn't have sent the messages and I would have informed the head, which I regret not doing - but the people who installed the system and didn't ensure that such a sensitive account didn't have an easily guessable password, or at least ensure that it was changed, were even more foolish.
You're on/., so of course you wouldn't have problems with the word "screw", but normal parents don't want their children to grow up to be naval engineers.
Tool support for debugging still has a way to go. And since weak vs strong typing is a religious war it would be nice to have an alternative for those on the strong typing side.
You missed checking your post for accuracy. You don't need an NI number to apply for a British passport. I don't think you need one to open a UK bank account, although I haven't done that for several years so I'm not 100% sure: if you do then it's only to pay taxes. You don't need one to apply for a job, although if you get the job you will need to obtain one, if you don't have one, and supply it so that they can pay taxes. You don't need one for hospital treatment - there is an NHS number, but that's administered entirely separately. And finally, yes, you need it to pay taxes: that's the only purpose for which you need it.
It's partly a cultural thing (although the things other people have said about the specific problems of the current scheme are also important). You're used to carrying an ID card. Here in Spain people will show their ID card when they use a credit card in a shop, even though legally they don't have to and the checkout operator isn't allowed to ask to see it. In the UK they were introduced during World War II, but once the war was over and there was no longer a need to detect German spies resentment began to grow and they were retired in the 50s.
In terms of identifying yourself: here you can be arrested if the police stop you in the street and you don't have your ID card. In the UK they can ask you to tell them your name and address, but can only arrest you if you refuse or if you appear to be lying.
The reaction of the public is always interesting and shows that many users do not understand the goals of such a system, probably because the politicians that buy those systems do not know what they are either.
FTFY. From the politicians' point of view the goal of the system is either a) to protect against every possible threat to individual or national security; or b) to help them keep their seats - depending on how cynical they are.
"You are all individuals." I've now had at least one recommendation for each of the (former) broadsheets.
Back in secondary school I used to read the news over in the school library. Sometimes I would have time to read two newspapers, and because there was no guarantee that someone else wouldn't have bagged one I didn't always read the same ones. I couldn't tell you now how much my tastes were influenced by design work, writing style, and political point of view, but I can say that my preference, in order, is Times, Indy, Telegraph, Guardian. I used to read New Scientist and Scientific American as well, so maybe the science and teach coverage wasn't a relevant factor.
Do you know what the brand/product name is? My previous handheld trackball broke, partly because its design encouraged placing it on a desk in an unstable position, so I'm interested in alternative (and preferably cheaper) models.
Compare that with The Times. The Telegraph is using a print newspaper column layout, which I find unsuited to a browser window with a scrollbar. With the Times I can read down a single column, opening new tabs for stories I find interesting, and then scan up the sidebar as I scroll back to the top. With the Telegraph, and most other newspaper sites I've seen, I have to do a lot more work to track which sections I've scanned for interesting stories.
The column approach works for print because I can fit the whole page in my field of view and there are only a few stories per page anyway. For web it's too cluttered.
It's a newspaper. The traditional newspaper financial model is to lose money on distribution but make it back with advertising. The problem isn't the cost of servers, bandwidth and content: it's that advertising on the web doesn't bring in much money any more.
Slashdot Mirror
If HR got with the times they could avoid that instead by operating each person's holiday year from their date of joining. Wouldn't work for graduate mills which take 90% of new staff in the same month, but for companies with more regular turnover it would spread the panic usage fairly evenly.
I'm actually neither a pure prescriptivist nor a pure descriptivist. Some words or phrases I care about, and others I don't. But people who claim that to use the phrase "to beg the question" as a transitive verb is incorrect because it has a technical meaning when used as an intransitive verb get my goat. No-one would object to the transitive phrase "to demand the question", and nor would they call it a technical phrase, so to substitute one word in it with a synonym can hardly be incorrect.
I'm sure you've heard the one about the linguist who was walking across campus with his girlfriend when they saw six descriptivists beating up a prescriptivist. She turned to him in horror and asked, "Aren't you going to help?"
"No," he replied, "I think six is enough."
What does "No soliciting" mean where you live? In British English, soliciting (intransitive*) is an activity carried out by prostitutes.
* I.e. not to be confused with soliciting e.g. an opinion.
Terrorism isn't creating terror: it's creating terror for a political purpose. Creating terror for fun doesn't count.
Then again, the use of "Olympiad" (where -cs would finally have been indicated instead) is probably just as questionable.
That one's easy: they want to avoid lawsuits for trademark infringement.
And if it turns out that P != NP then verification of the answer will always be substantially faster than computing the answer itself.
When I was at school they replaced the old network with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows, and they set up new accounts for us all. Every single pupil had the initial password hspupil.*
I don't know how whether any pupils had their passwords changed by other people before they could change them. However, I do know that a week later someone mentioned that they'd found out that the teachers had all had their passwords set to hsstaff.
At this point, it occurred to me that just maybe the headmaster's password could be hshead. I tried it. It worked.
Fortunately I wasn't stupid enough to change it, but I did send a couple of messages on Winpopup to one of my friends. I was young and foolish - nowadays I wouldn't have sent the messages and I would have informed the head, which I regret not doing - but the people who installed the system and didn't ensure that such a sensitive account didn't have an easily guessable password, or at least ensure that it was changed, were even more foolish.
* H.S. being the initials of the school's name.
You're on /., so of course you wouldn't have problems with the word "screw", but normal parents don't want their children to grow up to be naval engineers.
And the only problem is that JS is too forgiving.
Tool support for debugging still has a way to go. And since weak vs strong typing is a religious war it would be nice to have an alternative for those on the strong typing side.
Time to head down to my local zoo and see whether I can obtain a DNA sample from a specimen of Grus grus.
Sounds like a nice way to accelerate RSI.
Although you can't really blame Apple for denying Google Voice and similar apps
You can't really blame Comcast for denying access to hulu.com or tnt.com or scifi.com.....
Hmm. Let's test this. "I blame Comcast for denying access to hulu.com, tnt.com and scifi.com". Myth busted.
"I blame Apple for..." Excuse me, some guys in a black helicopter just landed in my back garden. Excuse me while I go and see what they want.
You missed checking your post for accuracy. You don't need an NI number to apply for a British passport. I don't think you need one to open a UK bank account, although I haven't done that for several years so I'm not 100% sure: if you do then it's only to pay taxes. You don't need one to apply for a job, although if you get the job you will need to obtain one, if you don't have one, and supply it so that they can pay taxes. You don't need one for hospital treatment - there is an NHS number, but that's administered entirely separately. And finally, yes, you need it to pay taxes: that's the only purpose for which you need it.
Anyway, what's all the fuss about ID cards?
It's partly a cultural thing (although the things other people have said about the specific problems of the current scheme are also important). You're used to carrying an ID card. Here in Spain people will show their ID card when they use a credit card in a shop, even though legally they don't have to and the checkout operator isn't allowed to ask to see it. In the UK they were introduced during World War II, but once the war was over and there was no longer a need to detect German spies resentment began to grow and they were retired in the 50s.
In terms of identifying yourself: here you can be arrested if the police stop you in the street and you don't have your ID card. In the UK they can ask you to tell them your name and address, but can only arrest you if you refuse or if you appear to be lying.
The reaction of the public is always interesting and shows that many users do not understand the goals of such a system, probably because the politicians that buy those systems do not know what they are either.
FTFY. From the politicians' point of view the goal of the system is either a) to protect against every possible threat to individual or national security; or b) to help them keep their seats - depending on how cynical they are.
Perhaps GP should have spelt things out thus: Whoosh.
"You are all individuals." I've now had at least one recommendation for each of the (former) broadsheets.
Back in secondary school I used to read the news over in the school library. Sometimes I would have time to read two newspapers, and because there was no guarantee that someone else wouldn't have bagged one I didn't always read the same ones. I couldn't tell you now how much my tastes were influenced by design work, writing style, and political point of view, but I can say that my preference, in order, is Times, Indy, Telegraph, Guardian. I used to read New Scientist and Scientific American as well, so maybe the science and teach coverage wasn't a relevant factor.
It's a mouse which also serves as a model of the Time Cube and can be hung from a key chain.
Do you know what the brand/product name is? My previous handheld trackball broke, partly because its design encouraged placing it on a desk in an unstable position, so I'm interested in alternative (and preferably cheaper) models.
Your first computer had a mouse? Get off my lawn!
At 3 minutes to load each page, no-one is going to click through 20 times.
Most bicycle commuters have a somewhat flatter ride than the Alps.
Compare that with The Times. The Telegraph is using a print newspaper column layout, which I find unsuited to a browser window with a scrollbar. With the Times I can read down a single column, opening new tabs for stories I find interesting, and then scan up the sidebar as I scroll back to the top. With the Telegraph, and most other newspaper sites I've seen, I have to do a lot more work to track which sections I've scanned for interesting stories.
The column approach works for print because I can fit the whole page in my field of view and there are only a few stories per page anyway. For web it's too cluttered.
It's a newspaper. The traditional newspaper financial model is to lose money on distribution but make it back with advertising. The problem isn't the cost of servers, bandwidth and content: it's that advertising on the web doesn't bring in much money any more.