It's still insurance if as *nominally* in the UK you are paying into the general pool for the whole country for everyone, not just your own sweet self.
So, even while your house is burning down you are nominally paying taxes to have the fire brigade paid for. That used to be a private insurance matter too, each insurer providing its own fire crews and only putting out fires for people paying its premiums. Seems that scheme didn't work very well.
I print out a handful of sheets per month on average; often because a legal document is involved and hard copy is required or sensible.
I take notes and sketch ideas on recycled paper, but even that is of the same sort of total volume.
For clients I usually have a paper note/log book, but even that is generally no more than about a page per working day, and on recycled stock where possible.
OK you can behave this way, just so long as we're able to rudely dismiss as "balls" anything clever you ever do that is not immediately relevant to us. And your music collection and wardrobe and taste in partners too since we're on a roll.
Some demand control is emergency stuff and not to be used too often, but *normal* everyday demand control is stuff like peak shaving/shifting and frequency response and is run-of-the mill non-emergency management and could be extended and would make the grid 'stiffer' and more stable, eg:
"What we DO know is that every single wind power station is going to need gas turbine backups for when a) the wind doesn't blow, b) demand is high and c) storage is depleted."
The amount needed depends on many factors such as the amount of demand control too.
So it's a grave error to think that all wind supply needs 100% callable backup, IMHO.
The Nationwide device/scheme appears to be heavily flawed in that it is trivially susceptible to a very simple form of replay attack it seems.
It is better than the previous scheme that Nationwide had in place, that required me to invent and remember a favourite colour for example, which is why I haven't whinged about this, and it could work very well with more intelligent programming at the server end (ie I think the current hardware already issued is fine).
But I do hope Nationwide realises how broken the current scheme is, and fixes it soon.
However much I despise the politics involved in the UK's rough equivalent, "IR35", that would not grant me one iota of dispensation to kill and maim civil servants just carrying out their jobs, however annoyingly (and I have some top annoying-tax-inspector stories of my own I can assure you). These are average Jo(e)s with families and what have you, not snarling special army corps with their bodies and minds pumped full of evil setting out to eat babies every morning.
I've just tonight sent another angry letter to our Prime Minister (responsible for IR35 when he was Chancellor) and the head of the opposition (who is quite likely to be PM in a very few weeks) with the link to the NYT item pointing out that IR35 remains oppressive *and* ineffective at raising more taxes, hoping that there is a chance that they'll think again. Do you think that maiming innocent third parties would be more effective in *any* way?
The rough equivalent in the UK is known as "IR35" and essentially starts from the premise that if you are running a small business in this area then you may not be allowed many of the expenses/deductions that a larger employer of yours would be.
I actually wrote to and visited the ministers concerned, but due to the feuding between the Treasury as then run by Gordon Brown and the Prime Minister of the day Tony Blair, reason wasn't allowed in.
The effect on me has been to have to reduce the hours I work, fire almost all my staff as I could have become liable to over 100% tax on the money I paid them, earn less revenue from foreign companies, pay less tax, etc, etc, even though I do not evade tax and indeed understand its utility.
I was annoyed enough again by this to write this evening to both Gordon Brown and the Leader of the Opposition urging them to actually prevent evasion rather than tormenting real consultants/freelancers and indeed fairly smart people bringing in good (tax) revenue.
The official view from the US and the UK does not seem to be that these measures have increased revenue at all.
I know that I was some measurable fraction of 1% of the entire target for IR35, and I know that it drove me away from paying work entirely for a while, made all the more ironic by the fact that I survived by borrowing money from someone very publicly associated with the Inland Revenue. That made my tax inspector choke, I think!
The fact still remains that any time up to about 7 years after you've filed returns that the Revenue has agreed with, it can change its mind, disallow entirely reasonable expenses, and bankrupt you, even if you've acted entirely in good faith and in accordance with the law.
I think an entire class of politicians and Treasury/Revenue civil servants fail to understand that there is an entirely legitimate world other than 9-5 with guaranteed pension.
I'm *not* assuming that the school staff *were* looking at dodgy images of children in their bedrooms. Not relevant really, though if they *have* been doing it...
It's the *ability* to do so, and the fact that the parents found out post hoc that is the issue IMHO.
If I discovered that our school had done this to our child I'd withdraw my child from school immediately AND call the UK Information Commissioner to start an investigation pronto AND ask the school governors to suspend all the staff involved until it was clear *who* tried to sneak this in without parental approval and indeed to check that nothing untoward had been happening.
US society is often prudish and (over)conservative and fairly prone to violence compared the the average of its western peers. This kind of jape will not result in lynchings since I expect the rule of law to prevail, but don't the people instigating this ill-thought-out scheme go to sleep imagining pitchforks and flaming torches, and if not why not?
Seriously though, as was said on the previous/. thread on this topic: who could seriously have thought that the ability to spy on kids in their bedrooms was (a) a good idea and (b) something to brag about.
When 'ass rapist' is being used to intensify 'rapist' just like a schoolground use of 'gay' to mean useless/bad/unwanted and intensify an unrelated insult then *there* is the implicit homophobia.
1) There is also misogyny the implication that 'rape' for a woman is somehow less bad.
2) There is homophobia in suggesting that all anal sex is always the worst possible thing that could happen to someone. Maybe have a chat with someone on the Castro in San Francisco sometime. Eight pints of beer is said to be the difference between 'straight' and... not referring to 'ass rape' any more.
Never mind the fact that in British spelling 'ass rape' is something involving equids, and I hate to think what bias that might be exposing. %-P
Nah, not you. If the only thing twidarkling can conceive of that is worse than rape is 'ass rape' (which in any case in UK spelling implies horses not people) then there is the implication.
And what does this say about the unimportance of women being raped (misogyny too).
This is akin to using 'gay' instead of 'bad' as a general playground insult intensifier.
Whackjob isn't a great word, but so far as I know too it has no implicit homophobia.
Slashdot Mirror
Something about ursine relief in woodland?
Rgds
Damon
It's still insurance if as *nominally* in the UK you are paying into the general pool for the whole country for everyone, not just your own sweet self.
So, even while your house is burning down you are nominally paying taxes to have the fire brigade paid for. That used to be a private insurance matter too, each insurer providing its own fire crews and only putting out fires for people paying its premiums. Seems that scheme didn't work very well.
Rgds
Damon
I print out a handful of sheets per month on average; often because a legal document is involved and hard copy is required or sensible.
I take notes and sketch ideas on recycled paper, but even that is of the same sort of total volume.
For clients I usually have a paper note/log book, but even that is generally no more than about a page per working day, and on recycled stock where possible.
I'm almost paperless now.
Rgds
Damon
-5 narrow-minded sour grapes.
OK you can behave this way, just so long as we're able to rudely dismiss as "balls" anything clever you ever do that is not immediately relevant to us. And your music collection and wardrobe and taste in partners too since we're on a roll.
Rgds
Damon
No, not at all.
Some demand control is emergency stuff and not to be used too often, but *normal* everyday demand control is stuff like peak shaving/shifting and frequency response and is run-of-the mill non-emergency management and could be extended and would make the grid 'stiffer' and more stable, eg:
http://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-dynamic-demand-value.html
Rgds
Damon
"What we DO know is that every single wind power station is going to need gas turbine backups for when a) the wind doesn't blow, b) demand is high and c) storage is depleted."
The amount needed depends on many factors such as the amount of demand control too.
So it's a grave error to think that all wind supply needs 100% callable backup, IMHO.
Rgds
Damon
But that would be THEFT!!!11!1!!!
Amazingly my small sample is to the contrary.
I fix small errors of syntax/grammar/fact when I run across them, have never created an account, and almost all of my edits seem to stick.
Rgds
Damon
Yes, indeed, you've hit the nail on the head.
A very sloppy shallow unworkmanlike solution to a very high profile legal issue.
Almost as clever as the 'messing up pages shown to Opera' issue, though I suspect that that was deliberate and this not.
Rgds
Damon
I think that the EU *might* take a view about that algorithm... %-P
Rgds
Damon
Hmm, there's a nice shuffle implementation in Java that Microsoft could use... Oh, wait...
Rgds
Damon
Are you quite sure that it's only valid for a single transaction?
Rgds
Damon
The Nationwide device/scheme appears to be heavily flawed in that it is trivially susceptible to a very simple form of replay attack it seems.
It is better than the previous scheme that Nationwide had in place, that required me to invent and remember a favourite colour for example, which is why I haven't whinged about this, and it could work very well with more intelligent programming at the server end (ie I think the current hardware already issued is fine).
But I do hope Nationwide realises how broken the current scheme is, and fixes it soon.
Regards,
Damon
If only even the "6 month" thing were clear...
If *any* of it was, the whole regulation would be less oppressive to normal people without deep pockets for fancy lawyers and accountants.
Rgds
Damon
Don't be idiotic.
However much I despise the politics involved in the UK's rough equivalent, "IR35", that would not grant me one iota of dispensation to kill and maim civil servants just carrying out their jobs, however annoyingly (and I have some top annoying-tax-inspector stories of my own I can assure you). These are average Jo(e)s with families and what have you, not snarling special army corps with their bodies and minds pumped full of evil setting out to eat babies every morning.
I've just tonight sent another angry letter to our Prime Minister (responsible for IR35 when he was Chancellor) and the head of the opposition (who is quite likely to be PM in a very few weeks) with the link to the NYT item pointing out that IR35 remains oppressive *and* ineffective at raising more taxes, hoping that there is a chance that they'll think again. Do you think that maiming innocent third parties would be more effective in *any* way?
Rgds
Damon
The rough equivalent in the UK is known as "IR35" and essentially starts from the premise that if you are running a small business in this area then you may not be allowed many of the expenses/deductions that a larger employer of yours would be.
I actually wrote to and visited the ministers concerned, but due to the feuding between the Treasury as then run by Gordon Brown and the Prime Minister of the day Tony Blair, reason wasn't allowed in.
The effect on me has been to have to reduce the hours I work, fire almost all my staff as I could have become liable to over 100% tax on the money I paid them, earn less revenue from foreign companies, pay less tax, etc, etc, even though I do not evade tax and indeed understand its utility.
I was annoyed enough again by this to write this evening to both Gordon Brown and the Leader of the Opposition urging them to actually prevent evasion rather than tormenting real consultants/freelancers and indeed fairly smart people bringing in good (tax) revenue.
The official view from the US and the UK does not seem to be that these measures have increased revenue at all.
I know that I was some measurable fraction of 1% of the entire target for IR35, and I know that it drove me away from paying work entirely for a while, made all the more ironic by the fact that I survived by borrowing money from someone very publicly associated with the Inland Revenue. That made my tax inspector choke, I think!
The fact still remains that any time up to about 7 years after you've filed returns that the Revenue has agreed with, it can change its mind, disallow entirely reasonable expenses, and bankrupt you, even if you've acted entirely in good faith and in accordance with the law.
I think an entire class of politicians and Treasury/Revenue civil servants fail to understand that there is an entirely legitimate world other than 9-5 with guaranteed pension.
Rgds
Damon
Or, alternatively, a light which comes on or blinks when the cam or mic are activated, and which cannot be disabled in software.
I think/hope that my ancient MacBook already does this.
But this primary issue here IMHO is still the bad intent and poor thinking ahead of people with power who should know better.
Rgds
Damon
Hi,
I'm *not* assuming that the school staff *were* looking at dodgy images of children in their bedrooms. Not relevant really, though if they *have* been doing it...
It's the *ability* to do so, and the fact that the parents found out post hoc that is the issue IMHO.
If I discovered that our school had done this to our child I'd withdraw my child from school immediately AND call the UK Information Commissioner to start an investigation pronto AND ask the school governors to suspend all the staff involved until it was clear *who* tried to sneak this in without parental approval and indeed to check that nothing untoward had been happening.
US society is often prudish and (over)conservative and fairly prone to violence compared the the average of its western peers. This kind of jape will not result in lynchings since I expect the rule of law to prevail, but don't the people instigating this ill-thought-out scheme go to sleep imagining pitchforks and flaming torches, and if not why not?
Rgds
Damon
...of common sense.
Seriously though, as was said on the previous /. thread on this topic: who could seriously have thought that the ability to spy on kids in their bedrooms was (a) a good idea and (b) something to brag about.
Rgds
Damon
If they wish to be. Some of us, even at the ripe old age of 42, want to stay closer to the technology...
Rgds
Damon
Not you, not "whackjob".
When 'ass rapist' is being used to intensify 'rapist' just like a schoolground use of 'gay' to mean useless/bad/unwanted and intensify an unrelated insult then *there* is the implicit homophobia.
1) There is also misogyny the implication that 'rape' for a woman is somehow less bad.
2) There is homophobia in suggesting that all anal sex is always the worst possible thing that could happen to someone. Maybe have a chat with someone on the Castro in San Francisco sometime. Eight pints of beer is said to be the difference between 'straight' and ... not referring to 'ass rape' any more.
Never mind the fact that in British spelling 'ass rape' is something involving equids, and I hate to think what bias that might be exposing. %-P
Rgds
Damon
Nah, not you. If the only thing twidarkling can conceive of that is worse than rape is 'ass rape' (which in any case in UK spelling implies horses not people) then there is the implication.
And what does this say about the unimportance of women being raped (misogyny too).
This is akin to using 'gay' instead of 'bad' as a general playground insult intensifier.
Whackjob isn't a great word, but so far as I know too it has no implicit homophobia.
Rgds
Damon
Thanks for the unnecessary implicit homophobia.
Rgds
Damon
I don't recognise your notion of a "EU Government" and I live here.
There are some institutions such as the Commission and Parliament, but they aren't to my mind a 'government' in the sense that you imply.
Rgds
Damon
Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell want their set theory back...
Rgds
Damon