So in NZ we had a fee for TV licensing but they scrapped it when the number of payers was so low and estimated cost of enforcement was impractically high.
In the UK where I am now, they're still enforced with rapid enthusiasm -- their ads are scary (No TV license? Fine. £1000 with scary white bold letters on the Underground etc), guys drive around with vans detecting residual signals emanating from TVs on and receiving a signal.
With the fee being so low, and given it's a fee retrospective to use (i.e. suddenly people have to pay for something they got free before), I'll be super impressed if the whole thing is practical.
Also, if it's location-based, what do they do about mobile phones?
True, there is some great stuff coming out of their audio and signal processing universities of late.
But a country that still considers feminine hygiene products as luxury goods (and therefore is subject to a premium tax) is a little less then progressive IMHO.
An almost-related observation linked by geek factor:
http://www.learnkorean.com/lesson/lesson1.asp
"Who loves Jenny? Bob does. Who is loved by Bob? Jenny is. In Korean this sentence will be in the the word order:
Bob Jenny loves."
Coool! : )
Yeah I've been (inadvertently it seems) 'plogging' for several years now, all started from wanting to 'blog' but in projects.
The core of what I do involves some simple macros and tables in MS Word. In about 15 minutes you can construct something that inserts a new entry in a table at the top, inserts a date, and moves the cursor to the right place. Then assign it to the key 'alt+enter' and you get this wizzy little portable plog.
With the Document Map feature, you can even have 'tracking items' constructed in a hierarchy. Absolutely brilliant use of Word.
Now where the hell to find Google for word. Sheesh it's crazy that I can search the internet more easily than the file sitting and staring at me on the screen!
I agree. My mate Zack lives for this; he used to be the Director for Origin/Electronic Arts and now spends his time constructing educational visualisations with shadows and infrared.
His site is at http://www.mine-control.com -- you -have- to check out the videos for 'Moles' (with Brian Sharp, for visualising how molecules react under heat, pressure and magnetic field) and 'Calder' which allows you to construct 3D mobiles on a wall... wild stuff, really.
(disclaimer if not already clear; he's a mate that I collaborated with a while ago on a music project)
Slashdot Mirror
So in NZ we had a fee for TV licensing but they scrapped it when the number of payers was so low and estimated cost of enforcement was impractically high. In the UK where I am now, they're still enforced with rapid enthusiasm -- their ads are scary (No TV license? Fine. £1000 with scary white bold letters on the Underground etc), guys drive around with vans detecting residual signals emanating from TVs on and receiving a signal. With the fee being so low, and given it's a fee retrospective to use (i.e. suddenly people have to pay for something they got free before), I'll be super impressed if the whole thing is practical. Also, if it's location-based, what do they do about mobile phones?
True, there is some great stuff coming out of their audio and signal processing universities of late. But a country that still considers feminine hygiene products as luxury goods (and therefore is subject to a premium tax) is a little less then progressive IMHO.
Off topic -- but what about the heavy newspaper censorship imposed by China in HK then?
An almost-related observation linked by geek factor: http://www.learnkorean.com/lesson/lesson1.asp "Who loves Jenny? Bob does. Who is loved by Bob? Jenny is. In Korean this sentence will be in the the word order: Bob Jenny loves." Coool! : )
Yeah I've been (inadvertently it seems) 'plogging' for several years now, all started from wanting to 'blog' but in projects. The core of what I do involves some simple macros and tables in MS Word. In about 15 minutes you can construct something that inserts a new entry in a table at the top, inserts a date, and moves the cursor to the right place. Then assign it to the key 'alt+enter' and you get this wizzy little portable plog. With the Document Map feature, you can even have 'tracking items' constructed in a hierarchy. Absolutely brilliant use of Word. Now where the hell to find Google for word. Sheesh it's crazy that I can search the internet more easily than the file sitting and staring at me on the screen!
I agree. My mate Zack lives for this; he used to be the Director for Origin/Electronic Arts and now spends his time constructing educational visualisations with shadows and infrared. His site is at http://www.mine-control.com -- you -have- to check out the videos for 'Moles' (with Brian Sharp, for visualising how molecules react under heat, pressure and magnetic field) and 'Calder' which allows you to construct 3D mobiles on a wall... wild stuff, really. (disclaimer if not already clear; he's a mate that I collaborated with a while ago on a music project)