Strange. At the time (and in retrospect, unfairly) the Spectrum always seemed like a toy machine to me. The BBC Micro, on the other hand, seemed like a serious machine. All I can truly say is that I owe a lot to my BBC micro and the people who made it. Although I learned elementary programming on a Trash-80, the BBC was the machine on which I really started to do useful stuff. At college I used it to analyze the results from my lab classes (and later fake them with a nice spread of errors), word process my reports, visualize diffraction patterns, work out square well potentials. I even used it for (small) neural net simulations written in ISO Pascal for my post grad project. Oh, and then there was Elite and Revs and Adventure.... oh and I still miss my Music 500 synth box.
Like inhaling toxic smoke is going to be your big worry if the PLANE is ON FIRE.
Well, actually it is. Here's an example for you: In 1985 an Boeing 737 belonging Airtours suffered an uncontained engine failure during the takeoff roll, which punctured a wing fuel tank causing a fire. The aircraft stopped just off the runway, never having left the ground, but 55 of the 137 people on board still died, 48 of them from smoke inhalation.
There's been a fair amount of progress towards removing potential sources of toxic fumes from aircraft cabins in the last 20 years. However, I find it truly depressing every time I sit though the "this is how to put on your life vest" part of the safety demonstration when what I really want under my seat is a smoke hood. It's far more likely to save my life.
This might just possibly be refering to plans close a loophole in English law that (IIRC) means that if you have a mental disorder that makes you violent toward others, you can only be detained if your condition can be treated medically. If the docs can't fix you because you have a "personality disorder" (whatever the blue rubbery duck that is), they can't keep you in a secure hospital and and you get to roam the streets until the voices tell you to knife someone.
Unfortunately there have been a number of cases in the UK where someone who fell into the untreatable catagory ended up killing people, for example Michael Stone who was convicted of killing Lin and Megan Russel in 1996.
Slashdot Mirror
Strange. At the time (and in retrospect, unfairly) the Spectrum always seemed like a toy machine to me.
The BBC Micro, on the other hand, seemed like a serious machine. All I can truly say is that I owe
a lot to my BBC micro and the people who made it. Although I learned elementary programming on
a Trash-80, the BBC was the machine on which I really started to do useful stuff. At college I used it to
analyze the results from my lab classes (and later fake them with a nice spread of errors), word
process my reports, visualize diffraction patterns, work out square well potentials. I even used it
for (small) neural net simulations written in ISO Pascal for my post grad project. Oh, and then there
was Elite and Revs and Adventure.... oh and I still miss my Music 500 synth box.
Like inhaling toxic smoke is going to be your big worry if the PLANE is ON FIRE.
Well, actually it is. Here's an example for you: In 1985 an Boeing 737 belonging Airtours
suffered an uncontained engine failure during the takeoff roll, which punctured a wing fuel tank
causing a fire. The aircraft stopped just off the runway, never having left the ground, but 55 of
the 137 people on board still died, 48 of them from smoke inhalation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airtours_Flight_28M
There's been a fair amount of progress towards removing potential sources of toxic fumes
from aircraft cabins in the last 20 years. However, I find it truly depressing every time I sit
though the "this is how to put on your life vest" part of the safety demonstration when what
I really want under my seat is a smoke hood. It's far more likely to save my life.
This might just possibly be refering to plans close a loophole in English law
0 ,,836476,00.html
that (IIRC) means that if you have a mental disorder that makes you
violent toward others, you can only be detained if your condition can
be treated medically. If the docs can't fix you because you have a "personality
disorder" (whatever the blue rubbery duck that is), they can't keep you
in a secure hospital and and you get to roam the streets until the voices tell
you to knife someone.
Unfortunately there have been a number of cases in the UK where someone
who fell into the untreatable catagory ended up killing people, for example
Michael Stone who was convicted of killing Lin and Megan Russel in 1996.
The Guardian has a FAQ on the proposed changes in the law:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/mentalhealth/story/