JK Rowling poor? Puhlease. As much as I (guiltily) enjoy her books, the only reason that the myth of her being a destitute single mother is propagated is lazy journalism whenever she is mentioned in the press.
Rowling came from a wealthy family and as far as I remember gained a first in Classics at university. It's true that she ended up being a single mother, which is never an easy situation, however she lived with a well off member of her family in a fairly salubrious part of Edinburgh and the cafe she wrote Harry Potter in was, again, owned by a relative.
While she's done well for herself, an upper-middle-class-fashionably-yet-comfortably-slumming-it to riches story just doesn't have the appeal of a rags to riches story. And don't get me started on that donation to New Labour.
You'll notice that the user above posted anonymously. If he'd logged in then thousands of Slashdotters would be on his case trying to find out which website he ordered his hot Asian wife from.
Access to my Bank of Scotland business account is authenticated with a "doohickey" and it's also being adopted for personal banking by various companies too.
Having RTFA, I'd like to point out a few things. Firstly, this is a consultation paper, so it hasn't happened yet and it's unclear whether this would require additional legislation to through Westminster. Assuming it does, I'd like to remind you what a precarious state the Labour government is in at the moment.
There have been a few articles posted recently about various horrible draconian laws being proposed in the UK (and quite rightly so), however most Slashdotters seem to forget that the current Westminster government is incredibly unpopular and is likely to lose power in 2010, if not before as Gordon Brown's leadership might not last much longer than the end of the year, and that could trigger an election. While I don't trust David Cameron and the Tories any further than I could throw them, they're trying to be as populist as possible and IMHO, they'll hopefully be a little less trigger happy with our civil liberties. Any general election is also going to mean an increase in support for other parties such as the SNP who are arguably have more of a Social Democratic leaning than any of the big UK parties. While traditionally they haven't had enough seats to make much of an impact at Westminster, this could change in a Parliament with a fairly small Tory majority.
Speaking of the SNP (who are the minority Government in Scotland), this paper only affects courts in England and Wales - as it also mentions, Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate legal jurisdictions with their own devolved Governments. I can't remember offhand (and can't be bothered checking), but I've a feeling that legislating for these penalties would be a devolved matter in Scotland at least (although not in NI) and I'm not convinced these proposals would go down well in the Scottish Parliament (at least with pretty much every party except Labour, who are possibly in more severe in Holyrood meltdown than in Westminster).
In summary, just because our totalitarian friends in the Labour party are trying to salvage votes by being tough on everything, it doesn't mean it's going to happen.
...in Northern Ireland at least. All PSNI officers carry a Glock 17 and until recently they were also given MP5s as standard issue (although they're still used around marching season and at some checkpoints, but these are less common now too).
Hang on a minute though, before you moderate OT, it's true in this instance. Here in the UK, we're becoming more and more dependent on Russian gas, and any changes to the European energy market have implications for our economy as well as futher afield.
"Hey guys, I found this post on Slashdot suggesting we'd stoop so low as to describe our new line as creating a Holocaust of flavor, can you believe that?"
"Terrible, terrible."
"Wait a minute, isn't denying the Holocaust illegal in Germany?"
"Yeah..."
"So if our new line has a Holocaust of flavor, no one can deny it!"
And I forgot about Belarus! I suppose we can forgiven for being Capitalist Pigdogs of the Corrupt West. After all, the Former Soviet Socialist Republic of Cowboynealistan slipped both our minds.
Apologies for the rambling, put it down to the fact I watched Red Dawn again last night, and hunger. I'm going for lunch.
Most former sovjet states are still having a hard time because of this
I think this is a bit of a sweeping generalisation. True perhaps for Russia, the Causcasus, ex-Soviet-astans and to an extent Ukraine (although most of their problems are down to Russia), but the Baltic States and most of the other former Bloc countries such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak republics are flourishing.
In fact I'd rather live in any of the above than the US, and on a bad day the UK.
Do you know what? I was joking around with that comment, then I read your reply a bit further down and realised that you are actually in Australia. You couldn't make that cunting shit up!
Also, in the UK at least, copyright is automatic, there's no need to "copyright" something. I'm fairly sure this applies in the US too, at least to some extent, (although IANAL, and there's that stuff to do with registration and the Library of Congress), although of course it makes sense to have as much proof as possible that you're the owner of your IP.
Slashdot Mirror
Their service is wonderful, their support wanks.
I'd check what the call costs are though, any phone line involving wanking usually involves a premium rate number.
Weird who? My ADSL gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.
The fact is tax avoidance is a key part of keeping taxation in check.
Shouldn't that be tax avoision?
...doesn't mean that he should.
JK Rowling poor? Puhlease. As much as I (guiltily) enjoy her books, the only reason that the myth of her being a destitute single mother is propagated is lazy journalism whenever she is mentioned in the press.
Rowling came from a wealthy family and as far as I remember gained a first in Classics at university. It's true that she ended up being a single mother, which is never an easy situation, however she lived with a well off member of her family in a fairly salubrious part of Edinburgh and the cafe she wrote Harry Potter in was, again, owned by a relative.
While she's done well for herself, an upper-middle-class-fashionably-yet-comfortably-slumming-it to riches story just doesn't have the appeal of a rags to riches story. And don't get me started on that donation to New Labour.
...the sound quality from those new Bose Einstein Condensates is awesome!
PC makers are selling the damned things like hotcakes.
Surely you mean wildcakes.
You'll notice that the user above posted anonymously. If he'd logged in then thousands of Slashdotters would be on his case trying to find out which website he ordered his hot Asian wife from.
Hey, can you stop going on about your Italian girlfriend's naples and tell us where you live already?
Well, shit, if he can count on /. still being here in 25 years...
/. will still be around in 25 years. After all, in the event of a nuclear war, your Mom's basement is probably the safest place you can be!
Of course
Access to my Bank of Scotland business account is authenticated with a "doohickey" and it's also being adopted for personal banking by various companies too.
You don't like it? I find that it's rather gen-teal. Ho ho.
Having RTFA, I'd like to point out a few things. Firstly, this is a consultation paper, so it hasn't happened yet and it's unclear whether this would require additional legislation to through Westminster. Assuming it does, I'd like to remind you what a precarious state the Labour government is in at the moment.
There have been a few articles posted recently about various horrible draconian laws being proposed in the UK (and quite rightly so), however most Slashdotters seem to forget that the current Westminster government is incredibly unpopular and is likely to lose power in 2010, if not before as Gordon Brown's leadership might not last much longer than the end of the year, and that could trigger an election. While I don't trust David Cameron and the Tories any further than I could throw them, they're trying to be as populist as possible and IMHO, they'll hopefully be a little less trigger happy with our civil liberties. Any general election is also going to mean an increase in support for other parties such as the SNP who are arguably have more of a Social Democratic leaning than any of the big UK parties. While traditionally they haven't had enough seats to make much of an impact at Westminster, this could change in a Parliament with a fairly small Tory majority.
Speaking of the SNP (who are the minority Government in Scotland), this paper only affects courts in England and Wales - as it also mentions, Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate legal jurisdictions with their own devolved Governments. I can't remember offhand (and can't be bothered checking), but I've a feeling that legislating for these penalties would be a devolved matter in Scotland at least (although not in NI) and I'm not convinced these proposals would go down well in the Scottish Parliament (at least with pretty much every party except Labour, who are possibly in more severe in Holyrood meltdown than in Westminster).
In summary, just because our totalitarian friends in the Labour party are trying to salvage votes by being tough on everything, it doesn't mean it's going to happen.
...in Northern Ireland at least. All PSNI officers carry a Glock 17 and until recently they were also given MP5s as standard issue (although they're still used around marching season and at some checkpoints, but these are less common now too).
Borders define you!
Hang on a minute though, before you moderate OT, it's true in this instance. Here in the UK, we're becoming more and more dependent on Russian gas, and any changes to the European energy market have implications for our economy as well as futher afield.
I just met her!
"Hey guys, I found this post on Slashdot suggesting we'd stoop so low as to describe our new line as creating a Holocaust of flavor, can you believe that?"
"Terrible, terrible."
"Wait a minute, isn't denying the Holocaust illegal in Germany?"
"Yeah..."
"So if our new line has a Holocaust of flavor, no one can deny it!"
"Randy, you're a genius. Get Klaus on the phone!"
And I forgot about Belarus! I suppose we can forgiven for being Capitalist Pigdogs of the Corrupt West. After all, the Former Soviet Socialist Republic of Cowboynealistan slipped both our minds.
Apologies for the rambling, put it down to the fact I watched Red Dawn again last night, and hunger. I'm going for lunch.
Most former sovjet states are still having a hard time because of this
I think this is a bit of a sweeping generalisation. True perhaps for Russia, the Causcasus, ex-Soviet-astans and to an extent Ukraine (although most of their problems are down to Russia), but the Baltic States and most of the other former Bloc countries such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak republics are flourishing.
In fact I'd rather live in any of the above than the US, and on a bad day the UK.
It has one button but it's a 5, since that's the number you use the most, yeah? It's gonna be total fucking Mexico.
A good engineer always has a backup
Would that be Welshy?
Do you know what? I was joking around with that comment, then I read your reply a bit further down and realised that you are actually in Australia. You couldn't make that cunting shit up!
Perhaps cunt is an everyday word in your part of the world, but we don't all live in Australia do we?
...next they'll be trying to tell us Reality Distortion Fields cause cancer!
Also, in the UK at least, copyright is automatic, there's no need to "copyright" something. I'm fairly sure this applies in the US too, at least to some extent, (although IANAL, and there's that stuff to do with registration and the Library of Congress), although of course it makes sense to have as much proof as possible that you're the owner of your IP.