Write to your MP. He will probably be a technical illiterate too, so try and spell it out very plainly without using jargon.
I'm lucky - my local MP replies to every letter/fax/email, sends out monthly email 'blogs' of what he's been doing/involved with, has sensible ideas about most things and manages a good grasp of the real issues. He's very active with local issues, actually turns up at meetings, voices his views, goes away, reports back and all that good stuff. He's even able to say 'I was wrong, here's my new opinion based on the latest information' which for any politician is almost unheard of. Quite how someone competant got voted in is a mystery as we tend to vote in idiots. James Duddridge is the man in question.
My partner and I drove 3500 miles in 5 weeks and stayed in pubs and B&B's
Can I just thank you for not going down the usual route of visiting a few select London locations, Edinburgh and maybe Stratford upon Avon and declaring you've 'done England'. Good work and hope you enjoyed it!
>Britons should stop thinking of themselves as "subjects".
Clue for Americans here, we don't revere the Queen as much as you think we do and we def. don't think of ourselves as subjects. We also do not live in quaint country cottages, say 'What ho!' a lot, have 'pea-souper' fog in London anymore or doff our caps every time a horse & carriage goes (rarely) by.
>What happens when it's scratched, I wonder
You lose 8 movies, 3200 MP3s and 6800 photos. On the plus side, you still have another 314 movies, 789,543 MP3s and 142,323 photos.
I've just had a scary thought - a Mel Gibson Movie starring Harrison Ford. Basic plot would be English (gotta get some English hate in there, right Mel?) Jewish terrorists kidnap Harrison's family. Harrison tracks them down and skins them alive, crucifies them for good measure over an hour or so before nuking all the oil wells and driving off in to the sunset in some crazy truck ala mad Max. Oh, and it would be in Latin.
>Carrie Fisher! And have you seen her lately?! YIKES!!!
Give the poor woman a break - she has manic depression (bipolar to you foreign types). There was a 2 part documentry on BBC TV last year about Stephen Fry's depression and he interviewed many famous people about there's and some rather bravely were interviewed when clearly not having a good day. Fisher's piece was quite sad as she really came over as being a tad 'out there' when interviewed.
My understanding is that in Texas, arranging to meet someone for sex who you believe to be under the age of consent is a crime in itself whether or not you actually show up.
Probably accounts for why that state avoids anything that doesn't involve some sort of Bush.
After reading most of this, I can only say there is somehting very, very wrong and uncaring with the US job market. I always got the impression it was a bit brutal but Jesus...
You could always give them feedback because, well, ya know, it would be a nice thing to do? You shouldn't go through life doing what you *have* to do, sometimes it's good to do things because it's *nice* for someone else.
I knew the Neutron bomb wouldn't do the trick. It was the ensuing all out nuclear knees-up with proper go-bang-make-hole bombs that I thought may help save us from global warming. Probably.
>The earth has ways of regulating itself, and that is just what it will do.
Oh the Earth will be fine no matter what, pretty much. It's us human's that are going to have a real bad time. Well, for a while anyway. After that we'll be gone except for the few that live near big hairy animals for furs & lunch and nice caves to shiver in.
Global warming is making everything hotter, ice is melting, seas are rising. We're all in deep doodo. Now, back in the 80's we were all panicking about Nuclear Winters which would freeze us all in the case of a nuclear war (as if the radiation and big holes in the ground weren't enough hassle).
I notice in the news that Israel is thought to be preparing a nuclear strike on Irans nuclear facilities with Neutron bombs. That ought to kick of a nuclear war quite nicely so we're all saved!
Well, it sort of makes sense...
> I guess there were a lot of "conversion errors" then too.
Damned right. It's a little known fact that the entire Apollo program was supposed to go to Mars but they got the trajectory wrong and ended up on the moon.
I came home from school and told my mum there was this replacement for yards called the metre but there were two sorts, one a bit bigger than a yard and one a bit smaller. My mum thought this sounded odd so enquired at the school. Seems I'd taken rather it rather too literally that a metre was 'more or less' a yard.
Moral: Mixing and matching is a world of pain. Good work NASA for finally getting with the program.
At work we have processes so that if I fall under a bus or whatever, people can get hold of the passwords etc. The processes are all properly documented so the only hassle they'll have is a bit of short term cover whilst they recruit a replacement.
As for family & friends, I guess they'll find out the same way people always have and as for special messages, if it's that important they already know and if it's not, why hassle them when they've got more important things to do like get me boxed and shipped out.
Sorry but I just don't get this whole dead man switch idea at all.
That'll be the Youtube that the corporate firewall here blocks along with every chat room, blog, forum etc (except this one, obviously but oddly). For me, it made a nice change having a video online I can actually access.
I'd just have loved to be a fly on the wall when Senior Exec #1 and Senior Exec #2 had a chat along the lines of 'you know that DRM thing which all our customers said was a dumb idea but we did anyway?'
>If Sony made toasters:
You forgot:
* And if it ever went wrong you'd not see your toaster for 6 months and have to pay $100 for someone to even look at it even though it only cost $80.
* It only works with Sony bread which is twice as expensive but has slightly smaller slices
Slashdot Mirror
>Britons should stop thinking of themselves as "subjects".
Clue for Americans here, we don't revere the Queen as much as you think we do and we def. don't think of ourselves as subjects. We also do not live in quaint country cottages, say 'What ho!' a lot, have 'pea-souper' fog in London anymore or doff our caps every time a horse & carriage goes (rarely) by.
>It's essentially England
No it isn't.
>What happens when it's scratched, I wonder
You lose 8 movies, 3200 MP3s and 6800 photos. On the plus side, you still have another 314 movies, 789,543 MP3s and 142,323 photos.
I've just had a scary thought - a Mel Gibson Movie starring Harrison Ford. Basic plot would be English (gotta get some English hate in there, right Mel?) Jewish terrorists kidnap Harrison's family. Harrison tracks them down and skins them alive, crucifies them for good measure over an hour or so before nuking all the oil wells and driving off in to the sunset in some crazy truck ala mad Max. Oh, and it would be in Latin.
>Carrie Fisher! And have you seen her lately?! YIKES!!!
Give the poor woman a break - she has manic depression (bipolar to you foreign types). There was a 2 part documentry on BBC TV last year about Stephen Fry's depression and he interviewed many famous people about there's and some rather bravely were interviewed when clearly not having a good day. Fisher's piece was quite sad as she really came over as being a tad 'out there' when interviewed.
>I would sleep with two women at the same time. ;-)
Each to their own. I'd be wide awake and loving it
>It's the idea, not the delivery
But if the delivery isn't clear because the author can't construct a meaningful sentence, the idea is kind of lost.
>If PayPal wants to continue pretending to be a bank, they should be regulated like one.
They are in some other territories - UK for one.
After reading most of this, I can only say there is somehting very, very wrong and uncaring with the US job market. I always got the impression it was a bit brutal but Jesus...
You could always give them feedback because, well, ya know, it would be a nice thing to do? You shouldn't go through life doing what you *have* to do, sometimes it's good to do things because it's *nice* for someone else.
I knew the Neutron bomb wouldn't do the trick. It was the ensuing all out nuclear knees-up with proper go-bang-make-hole bombs that I thought may help save us from global warming. Probably.
>The earth has ways of regulating itself, and that is just what it will do.
Oh the Earth will be fine no matter what, pretty much. It's us human's that are going to have a real bad time. Well, for a while anyway. After that we'll be gone except for the few that live near big hairy animals for furs & lunch and nice caves to shiver in.
So you're saying that because it's cold near *you*, *global* warming isn't happening?
Global warming is making everything hotter, ice is melting, seas are rising. We're all in deep doodo. Now, back in the 80's we were all panicking about Nuclear Winters which would freeze us all in the case of a nuclear war (as if the radiation and big holes in the ground weren't enough hassle).
I notice in the news that Israel is thought to be preparing a nuclear strike on Irans nuclear facilities with Neutron bombs. That ought to kick of a nuclear war quite nicely so we're all saved!
Well, it sort of makes sense...
> I guess there were a lot of "conversion errors" then too.
Damned right. It's a little known fact that the entire Apollo program was supposed to go to Mars but they got the trajectory wrong and ended up on the moon.
I came home from school and told my mum there was this replacement for yards called the metre but there were two sorts, one a bit bigger than a yard and one a bit smaller. My mum thought this sounded odd so enquired at the school. Seems I'd taken rather it rather too literally that a metre was 'more or less' a yard.
Moral: Mixing and matching is a world of pain. Good work NASA for finally getting with the program.
At work we have processes so that if I fall under a bus or whatever, people can get hold of the passwords etc. The processes are all properly documented so the only hassle they'll have is a bit of short term cover whilst they recruit a replacement.
As for family & friends, I guess they'll find out the same way people always have and as for special messages, if it's that important they already know and if it's not, why hassle them when they've got more important things to do like get me boxed and shipped out.
Sorry but I just don't get this whole dead man switch idea at all.
You could certainly use it to make 'toys' in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Damn, shoulda patented that one. Doh!
s
Continued in slashdot.org/yet_more_arguments_about_dumb_patent
That'll be the Youtube that the corporate firewall here blocks along with every chat room, blog, forum etc (except this one, obviously but oddly). For me, it made a nice change having a video online I can actually access.
I'd just have loved to be a fly on the wall when Senior Exec #1 and Senior Exec #2 had a chat along the lines of 'you know that DRM thing which all our customers said was a dumb idea but we did anyway?'
>If Sony made toasters:
You forgot: * And if it ever went wrong you'd not see your toaster for 6 months and have to pay $100 for someone to even look at it even though it only cost $80.
* It only works with Sony bread which is twice as expensive but has slightly smaller slices