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User: serialdogma

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Comments · 214

  1. Re:No retrial... on Pirate Bay Retrial Denied, Judge Declared Unbiased · · Score: 4, Informative

    A minor correction, the ECHR isn't a part of the EU, it is part of COE (Counsel of Europe) and rules only on the basis of the European Convention of Human Rights not any EU or EFTA law.

  2. Re:Available in certain areas in the Netherlands n on BT Shows First Fiber-Optic Broadband Rollout Plans · · Score: 1

    The FTA BBC channels are available on satellite also, across all of western Europe, you just need a dish pointing at Astra 2 and a DVB-S receiver. The BBC has done this since the late 90s, but have just recently branded it Freesat.

  3. Re:The UK may be coming a police state... on UK Government Wants To Bypass Data Protection Act · · Score: 1

    You haven't dealt with the police lately have you?

  4. Re:Oh really? on Phantom OS, the 21st Century OS? · · Score: 1

    I was thinking more along the lines of

    void doSomething(){
        iMyObject obj = (iMyObject)MyObjectCollection[ObjectThatIWant];
        obj.append("SomethingHasJustBeenDone");
    }

    No need to explicitly close or to save anything, just dealing with persistent storage as if it were any other object.

  5. Re:Freedom of the press? on Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Again · · Score: 1

    It is not that they didn't cooperate, but rather the police didn't think they where cooperating, at least not fully.
    The problem the police has is that can't believe people when they say they don't have something. Imagine if someone killed somebody with a gun then gave the gun to some other-person, and when the police asked that other-person if they had the gun they said no. The police acting on a reasonable belief that they might have the gun, could get a warrant permitting a search for and the seizer of that gun, they wouldn't need to get a warrant if that other-person just gave them that gun. Of course there is still a problem that the other-person might never of had the gun but the police shouldn't just take them on their word.

  6. Re:Freedom of the press? on Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Again · · Score: 1

    They wouldn't of needed seize the servers in the case of Auntie. The BBC would cooperate with (and likely be the ones to report it to) the police and hand over logs, there would be no need to seize servers.

  7. Re:Same judicial system on Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Again · · Score: 1

    They might both have common law, but both France and the former USSR used civil law. Having the same general legal system doesn't mean that they have the same laws or same legal process for that matter.

  8. Re:But the "real press" does it all the time! on Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Again · · Score: 1

    In the UK they don't normally publish addresses, and they tend in the cases of Judges not to publish their first names even.
    If an address was published it would generally be because a crime was committed there, or the police are having problems identifying somebody and are looking someone to come forward with information.

  9. Re:Freedom of the press? on Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Again · · Score: 1

    The data protection act comes to mind, they are only use the information for the propose it was obtained, if instance if you obtain someones address to send them personal correspondents, you can't then go around and sell it to junk mailer, or for that matter give it to a lynch mob.

  10. Re:Freedom of the press? on Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Again · · Score: 4, Informative

    Judges aren't elected in England, they are appointed. Also activist judges don't really exist in the UK, if a judge makes a ruling that is incompatible with law, and gets overturned on appeal then the judge could find their job on the cutting board, and if they had a conflict of interest that they didn't declare they could be tried.

  11. Re:Yes. on GAO Reports Bailout and Tech Firms Love Tax Havens · · Score: 1

    I think we run the risk of exaggerating what the EU does, the EU does some trans-national transport funding, and more general funding of transport system extensions - particularly in the new eastern member states - but it doesn't run the railways.

    The railways in Europe are generally owned by state-owned companies and tend to operate in opposite of the US model. The US has IIRC lots of privately owned companies that own and operate the tracks, stations, and freight; and with one state-owned (called am-track or something) that does passenger services. European countries tend to have one state own company that owns and operates the tracks and stations, and in cases like Germany also do passenger and limited freight services, but most rail services are provided by private companies that bid for franchise rights.

    But, anyway this is going rather off-topic and dragging on quite a bit.

    In short Americans tend to have a large empathise on the individual, whereas post-Enlightenment Europe tends to take the view that society is more important than the individual, and that a powerful state is necessary for a good society.

  12. Re:Yes. on GAO Reports Bailout and Tech Firms Love Tax Havens · · Score: 1

    Well the EU likes competition, that is the very reason that the ECC (a precursor to the EU) was created, but only the right sort of competition.

    In terms of tanks and bombs, those are mostly made through the same sort of military industrial complex that the US has. I was thinking more along the lines of railways and the likes of EDF.

  13. Re:Yes. on GAO Reports Bailout and Tech Firms Love Tax Havens · · Score: 1

    It's not unreasonable because otherwise the single market wouldn't exist because member states wouldn't want to expose themselves to so much competition.

    For Ireland having a low rate of tax is good because it it attracts multi-nationals looking for a tax heaven, and so still provides higher revenues than a higher rate would. But if everybody had the same low tax rates it wouldn't work because it wouldn't attract multi-nationals, it would just mean lower revenues for all member states concerned.

    In Europe people might not like high taxes, but they do like high government revenue, and the public services, and national industry they provide.

  14. Re:Yes. on GAO Reports Bailout and Tech Firms Love Tax Havens · · Score: 1

    His not, EU law state that member states must have a VAT (the EU's sales tax system) rate of at least 15%. It also has a minimum rate of corporation tax, which is what we are talking about in the context of Ireland.

    In an economic union, like the European single market, it is not unreasonable to stop members from taking advantage and have overly-competitive tax rates.

  15. Re:Why bother on the Mac? on Chrome On the Way For Mac and Linux · · Score: 1

    Yes, but on Linux you have Konqueror using either KHTML or QTWebKit, you don't really need Safari on Linux.

  16. Re:Free speech on UK Culture Secretary Wants Website Ratings, Censorship · · Score: 1

    The Commons can't use the Parliament Acts to force an extension of the term limit, but with the consent of the House of Lords they can, for instances of this look at the War Parliaments that existed for the First and Second World Wars.

  17. Re:Free speech on UK Culture Secretary Wants Website Ratings, Censorship · · Score: 2, Informative

    Constitutional monarchy doesn't really mean that, Sweden and the Netherlands are constitutional monarchies, and they have a proper constitution.
    The UK doesn't really have a constitution but a collection of old laws, statues and treaties, such as the English Bill Of Rights, the Magna Carta, and the Act of Settlement; and the concept of Parliamentary Supremacy.
    Under Parliamentary Supremacy anything can be changed by a mere act of Parliament, it is only because of convention and tradition (and of course threat of electoral defeat) that stops Parliament from imposing things like the death penalty for speeding.

  18. Re:Sea Boundaries on Has HavenCo's Data Haven Shut Down? · · Score: 1

    Yes, but you seem misunderstand the relationship that Switzerland has with the Vatican state. The Vatican's Swiss Guard is composed of a few hundred Swiss mercenaries. The only real relationship that the Swiss Confederation have with the Swiss Guard is that they hold Swiss citizenship, and enjoy an exception to the no-swiss-citizens-are-allowed-to-be-mercenaries rule.
    A war with the Swiss Guard wouldn't be a war with Swiss Confederation.

  19. Re:Fist Prose on President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar · · Score: 1

    One of the problem for European countries is that the ECHR views assisting in the death penalty (for instance, by extraditing somebody to face it), to be the same as if the country itself killed them.
    This doesn't strike me as being a bad thing personally. And what if somebody renounces or surrenders their citizenship, does the US keep its prerogative to punish them however they see fit?

  20. Re:They pay photographers on Wikileaks To Sell Hugo Chavez' Email · · Score: 1

    Not anymore, it is now life+75 years for written works throughout all of the EU, UK included.

  21. Re:AMD is in the Best Position on Nvidia Claims Intel's Larrabee Is "a GPU From 2006" · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The 386SX clone is from their acquisition of ULi, formerly a part of Acer. Also there 3dfx x86 licenses might not be much help -even if they haven't expired- because modern x86 is quite different with all the extensions like x64.

  22. Re:Spider platform on Nvidia Claims Intel's Larrabee Is "a GPU From 2006" · · Score: 1

    That was back in the early K8 days, they have since brought ATi. And they have shown no signs of stoping the ATi marketing game.

  23. Re:Not useful in 30 years on If Linux Fails, Blame Jim Zemlin · · Score: 1

    No, Notepad was rewritten for Windows 2000, and then later changed for XP to comply with UI guidelines, and was changed for Vista to comply with yet another guideline change.

  24. Re:Russia's ressponse was reasonable and justified on Russian Invasion of Georgia Might Jeopardize Space Station · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They only became a part of Georgia in 1921 under the Soviet Union. Pretty much since the fall of the USSR and Georgian independence the South Ossetians have expressed their wish though referendums (in 1992 and 1998) and a full-blown war in 1992 to seek independence from Georgia and reunite with North Ossetia which is currently a part of the Russian Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.
    They only fell into Georgia proper with end of the Soviet autonomous oblast of South Ossetia in 1990. There was only two years that they had been in Georgia proper before the start of their fight for independence from Georgia.
    Really the border should of been redrawn with Georgia independence in late 1991.

  25. Re:An the solution is.... on MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support Linux · · Score: 1

    Because the BIOS for this board is based of the BIOS for a different board, they presumably made sure the supported operating systems' APCI DSDT table was correct and don't occur to them to fix the Linux one as it wasn't on the "supported OS's" list?