You do know you can get debit cards on the VISA network, right?
I don't know about prepaid, but that's what my bank gave me, and I've never had a situation where it's been rejected online for being a debit card rather than a credit card.
That's even worse as they can then clean out all your money from your main account. A credit card is preferable as then the credit company is jointly liable with the merchant if it is not delivered and if there is fraud for which you are not liable then the card company in theory stands the entire loss.
Prepaid value cards where you load it with a specific amount and you can then only spend that much are available but thier use online is limited to who will take them - the Post Office do a travel card in this vein for example. http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/jump1?catId= 19300207&mediaId=26800661
As you say, the other obvious alternative is to allow the public to initiate direct legal action against those breaching the data protection or freedom of information legislation. I'm not sure I agree with going down the regulatory route instead -- any law where a breaker cannot be taken directly to court by a damaged party has questionable value -- but on the other hand, I can see some sensible reasons for it as well. For example, while organisations should be required to meet reasonable data protection obligations, they're also entitled IMHO not to suffer a "DoS attack by court", where an aggrieved party can file repeated claims against them at relatively little cost, just to keep their resources tied up.
You have to have a lot of money in the UK to actually get anywhere with a private prosecution. While nominally all prosecutions are under the auspices of the CPS on behalf of the Crown there is nothing to stop anyone launching a private case and it doesn't seem to get abused in other situations.
I don't doubt that they are understaffed and overworked but the simple fact is that there are plenty of cases for abuse of personal information where they simply don't care. They essentially said recently that they will just go after the big guys/cases and the little ones will be left by the wayside due to the staffig problems. They've ignored it would seem proven cases of information being sold from both overseas and UK call centres as well which to me is more worrisome than accidentally leaving information in a bag that's due to go to be burnt/buried.
They either need to get more staff and start kicking some backside or other people need to do it was well.
What I would love is for people to be able to bring private prosecutions under the Act. Currently the only person who can prosecute is the Information Commissioner IIRC and they seem reluctant to do so.
If the average Joe could instigate actions then the banks would have no way of controlling this, save from cleaning their act up and not actually screwing up.
Me since I bank with two of the offenders will be making my displeasure with them felt Monday lunchtime, and I won't be taking their offer to discuss in a private room either.
As an EU citizen I can wander around the entireity of Europe more or less without even needing a passport. Most border roads are unpoliced - hell some of them don't even tell you you went from France to Germany and they only clue is the roadsigns are suddenly in a different language. I doubt that's going to change in a hurry as it would totally shaft the economies
The planning is simple. Just don't go to the US anymore - I've stopped holidaying there purely because of the appalling attitude of the border thugs^H^H^H^Hguards.
I wondered the same. A quick FC between my RC3 install and the newone gives only a hundred or so hits which will probably be all text changes from RC3 to 2.0 I suppose....
Seriously, who the hell cares about digital records or fast counts? I don't care how fast the results come in, I want them to be RIGHT.
I kind of agree, except with practice you can do it fast as well even without electronic counting. I mean in the UK we can vote in 650+ MP's in one evening and have a good idea who's formed the next government by next breakfast, yet the US can needs weeks with electronic machines and mucking about trying to recount.
Like you say, keep it simple and it'll work just fine.
The Supremes have even turned to decisions made on similar cases by English judges (note Scots law is entirely different to English - the UK has *three* legal systems) to provide guidance. I've seen references to judgements made by Lord Denning and he only retired in 1982.... after all since the legal systems are broadly similar and if the cases are similar why not borrow someone elses work? British Admiralty law often cites US law for the same reason.
There is no such thing as British Common Law.
The laws of England and Wales are distinct to Scottish Law as they two were seperate countries until the Act of Union in 1707. The system of English Common Law, that of binding judicial precedent is the one that prevailed throughout most of the Empire and it can be seen today as having shaped in the US legal system and Australian and NZ law.
Scottish law system is subtly different in many situations - juries have 15 members not 12, the legal process of buying a house is different, the director of public prosecutions (roughly the same as an AG) is called the procurator fiscal. It has it roots all the way back in Roman public law from the time of the Roman Empire.
Can someone explain to a poor Brit just *why* you need to keep your SSN safe - which being as it's publicly accessible seems to be an impossibility. Is it the only thing needed to apply for credit in your name or just a convenient stepping stone to a little social engineering to get what info you would need?
I've been required to show two forms of ID just to use a freaking CC in the US in a store (Barnes and Noble, Circuit City, even buying petrol). That's being anally retentive. As for swipe cards, most uk POS is now set up for PIN only as they merchant is liable for fraud on a signed chip transaction.
Natural gas is considerably lighter than air in fact (oxygen is 32g for 24 litres at RTP, nitrogen is 28g, methane is 16g) and the reek of mercaptans made it abundantly clear that we were spewing large amounts of flammable gas everywhere so we punched the fire alarm and got out.
Do what we do in the UK. You get given a map when you buy the property - you know where everything is and don't have to muck about calling people up. Of course the map of the plot has to be accurate.....
Plus if you do goof up and find the gas main household cover usually pays out.
Generally speaking when you buy property in the UK a search is done that will show you all main services *close* to your property (and other things like a coal mining report, radon etc).
The seller is *required* to advise you of anything else like a wayleave or easment for things like electricity mains or water pipes. You consent to this when you purchase the property and have to leave them alone, in return for which yoou get paid rent. I have a large 400kV pylon out back that makes me a modest amount each year.
Anything else is under common law a trespass and you are entitled to chop it off at the boundary. Not recommeded if you find a 275kV cable in the cellar (another delight I encountered in rented property...)
Over here in Blighty I've been digging with a little mini backhoe for foundations for a greenhouse and found pipe - rusty iron about two feet down which for an 8 inch main is actually shallow. Put a crack in it, but no leakage fortunately. So we called round and Transco (gas infrastructure) reckoned it was theirs and sent a man out.
A short period of digging later and he came out the hole at some speed looking very pale. The said "pipe" had fins on one end and was delivered 60 years ago by some Germans who failed to stop and advise my grandparents of the delivery.....
As a geologist I can safely say that sticking it into a subduction zone is damn near ideal.
Melting in a subduction zone is not caused by heat but by the water saturation of the rock carried down. You have to get quite deep before this happens as well.
High level waste decays quickly as these things go, and the time between something starting subduction, at maybe a couple of meters a year, and starting to melt, at maybe a few kilometers down is more than enough for a considerable amount of the radioactivity to dissapear. Combine that with the fact that the magma itself is radioactive (magma is molten partially due to it's actinides and transuranic radionuclides) and you can see a small barrel of waste is not really any real problem.
The biggest problem is missing the subduction zone and having the barrel sit on the sea floor. Since you would have to engineer it for this eventuality it's simpler and safer to just engineer it to those specs and stick it in Yucca mountain or a similar site in Europe and let it decay there instead.
They will be needed on a cold engine, even on a balmy 25C day in the UK mine will not start from cold with the plug relay removed.
Warm engine though will start fine even in the depths of the Alps - I've had mine down as low as -45C and the biggest problem was super thick transmission oil. Once started in the morning it was fine for restarts. (this is a Focus diesel - something I understand Ford don't market in the US?)
I've been told (variously) that plugs are needed to heat the expanding cloud of diesel as it cools by adibatic expansion, and more beleivably that the glowplugs heat the incoming fuel so it atomises correctly. Since it seems related to block temperature rather than inlet air temp I tend to the latter explanation.
If the US is going to go to low sulphur diesel then biodiesel would be a very good idea. There was a lot of problems in Europe as the removeal of sulphur reduced fuel lubricity and the pumps wore badly. You need about 0.4% trans-esterified biodiesel to maintain the same lubricity as high sulphur dio-diesel, one reason why France sells nothing but 5% bio-blend diesel at the pumps.
As to a Prius - how often does the combustion engine kick in? Diesels tend not to like a lot of starts and it does rather hammer glowplugs as well.
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Maybe because they are spectacularly so good that no-one even notices them which is kind of the idea that any would be terrorist would want.....
They'd be screwed without electricity though. Mind you governments managed without that as well.
I don't doubt that they are understaffed and overworked but the simple fact is that there are plenty of cases for abuse of personal information where they simply don't care. They essentially said recently that they will just go after the big guys/cases and the little ones will be left by the wayside due to the staffig problems. They've ignored it would seem proven cases of information being sold from both overseas and UK call centres as well which to me is more worrisome than accidentally leaving information in a bag that's due to go to be burnt/buried. They either need to get more staff and start kicking some backside or other people need to do it was well.
What I would love is for people to be able to bring private prosecutions under the Act. Currently the only person who can prosecute is the Information Commissioner IIRC and they seem reluctant to do so. If the average Joe could instigate actions then the banks would have no way of controlling this, save from cleaning their act up and not actually screwing up. Me since I bank with two of the offenders will be making my displeasure with them felt Monday lunchtime, and I won't be taking their offer to discuss in a private room either.
As an EU citizen I can wander around the entireity of Europe more or less without even needing a passport. Most border roads are unpoliced - hell some of them don't even tell you you went from France to Germany and they only clue is the roadsigns are suddenly in a different language. I doubt that's going to change in a hurry as it would totally shaft the economies
Boot to XP, hibernate and recover from that. When you are done, re-hibernate - never see the other OS installed.....
The planning is simple. Just don't go to the US anymore - I've stopped holidaying there purely because of the appalling attitude of the border thugs^H^H^H^Hguards.
I wondered the same. A quick FC between my RC3 install and the newone gives only a hundred or so hits which will probably be all text changes from RC3 to 2.0 I suppose....
Seriously, who the hell cares about digital records or fast counts? I don't care how fast the results come in, I want them to be RIGHT. I kind of agree, except with practice you can do it fast as well even without electronic counting. I mean in the UK we can vote in 650+ MP's in one evening and have a good idea who's formed the next government by next breakfast, yet the US can needs weeks with electronic machines and mucking about trying to recount. Like you say, keep it simple and it'll work just fine.
The Supremes have even turned to decisions made on similar cases by English judges (note Scots law is entirely different to English - the UK has *three* legal systems) to provide guidance. I've seen references to judgements made by Lord Denning and he only retired in 1982.... after all since the legal systems are broadly similar and if the cases are similar why not borrow someone elses work? British Admiralty law often cites US law for the same reason.
There is no such thing as British Common Law. The laws of England and Wales are distinct to Scottish Law as they two were seperate countries until the Act of Union in 1707. The system of English Common Law, that of binding judicial precedent is the one that prevailed throughout most of the Empire and it can be seen today as having shaped in the US legal system and Australian and NZ law. Scottish law system is subtly different in many situations - juries have 15 members not 12, the legal process of buying a house is different, the director of public prosecutions (roughly the same as an AG) is called the procurator fiscal. It has it roots all the way back in Roman public law from the time of the Roman Empire.
Can someone explain to a poor Brit just *why* you need to keep your SSN safe - which being as it's publicly accessible seems to be an impossibility. Is it the only thing needed to apply for credit in your name or just a convenient stepping stone to a little social engineering to get what info you would need?
I've been required to show two forms of ID just to use a freaking CC in the US in a store (Barnes and Noble, Circuit City, even buying petrol). That's being anally retentive. As for swipe cards, most uk POS is now set up for PIN only as they merchant is liable for fraud on a signed chip transaction.
Natural gas is considerably lighter than air in fact (oxygen is 32g for 24 litres at RTP, nitrogen is 28g, methane is 16g) and the reek of mercaptans made it abundantly clear that we were spewing large amounts of flammable gas everywhere so we punched the fire alarm and got out.
We reversed a backhoe over one at work a month back and smashed the control valve off. Does that count...:-)
Do what we do in the UK. You get given a map when you buy the property - you know where everything is and don't have to muck about calling people up. Of course the map of the plot has to be accurate..... Plus if you do goof up and find the gas main household cover usually pays out.
Generally speaking when you buy property in the UK a search is done that will show you all main services *close* to your property (and other things like a coal mining report, radon etc). The seller is *required* to advise you of anything else like a wayleave or easment for things like electricity mains or water pipes. You consent to this when you purchase the property and have to leave them alone, in return for which yoou get paid rent. I have a large 400kV pylon out back that makes me a modest amount each year. Anything else is under common law a trespass and you are entitled to chop it off at the boundary. Not recommeded if you find a 275kV cable in the cellar (another delight I encountered in rented property...)
Over here in Blighty I've been digging with a little mini backhoe for foundations for a greenhouse and found pipe - rusty iron about two feet down which for an 8 inch main is actually shallow. Put a crack in it, but no leakage fortunately. So we called round and Transco (gas infrastructure) reckoned it was theirs and sent a man out.
A short period of digging later and he came out the hole at some speed looking very pale. The said "pipe" had fins on one end and was delivered 60 years ago by some Germans who failed to stop and advise my grandparents of the delivery.....
What ball? Looks like the pop out centre is the changeable weight - it specifically says in TA that it's optical...
"I am as constant as the Northern Star." Always though Caesar was a little unstable and went round and round in circles....
As a geologist I can safely say that sticking it into a subduction zone is damn near ideal. Melting in a subduction zone is not caused by heat but by the water saturation of the rock carried down. You have to get quite deep before this happens as well. High level waste decays quickly as these things go, and the time between something starting subduction, at maybe a couple of meters a year, and starting to melt, at maybe a few kilometers down is more than enough for a considerable amount of the radioactivity to dissapear. Combine that with the fact that the magma itself is radioactive (magma is molten partially due to it's actinides and transuranic radionuclides) and you can see a small barrel of waste is not really any real problem. The biggest problem is missing the subduction zone and having the barrel sit on the sea floor. Since you would have to engineer it for this eventuality it's simpler and safer to just engineer it to those specs and stick it in Yucca mountain or a similar site in Europe and let it decay there instead.
They will be needed on a cold engine, even on a balmy 25C day in the UK mine will not start from cold with the plug relay removed. Warm engine though will start fine even in the depths of the Alps - I've had mine down as low as -45C and the biggest problem was super thick transmission oil. Once started in the morning it was fine for restarts. (this is a Focus diesel - something I understand Ford don't market in the US?) I've been told (variously) that plugs are needed to heat the expanding cloud of diesel as it cools by adibatic expansion, and more beleivably that the glowplugs heat the incoming fuel so it atomises correctly. Since it seems related to block temperature rather than inlet air temp I tend to the latter explanation.
If the US is going to go to low sulphur diesel then biodiesel would be a very good idea. There was a lot of problems in Europe as the removeal of sulphur reduced fuel lubricity and the pumps wore badly. You need about 0.4% trans-esterified biodiesel to maintain the same lubricity as high sulphur dio-diesel, one reason why France sells nothing but 5% bio-blend diesel at the pumps. As to a Prius - how often does the combustion engine kick in? Diesels tend not to like a lot of starts and it does rather hammer glowplugs as well.