Posts by Mark 65

@Tim Bates

Although you are no doubt correct in your statement about padlock visibility I would wager that, as journalists, they relied on whether a padlock was visible for their work.

Re:@Harmony

Although they may not be a master of all fields I would happily wager that most physicists at CERN have a greater grasp of mathematics, statistics, modelling, time-series analysis etc than most of the climate science monkeys out there whose experiments and modelling outputs cannot be reproduced. Mainly because that reproducibility is at the core of what they do.

FYI Pierre

In Australia they get a tax break for it, and I think you'll find that in the UK charities and churches (believe latter effectively become the former) get a good deal on tax.

Best clean up on your knowledge before replying to others about things you obviously know nothing about.

RIPA

The perfect defence is Truecrypt FDE, hidden partition. Do nothing of interest in the outer partition, everything of interest in the hidden one. Compelled to decrypt? Fine. Here officer, have this meaningless shit. Can't prove the hidden partition exists, then you cannot have the key.

Uncontended

"I had 20mb uncontended for £18 in London"

I'm sure people would want to know who from as the contention ratio on ADSL business connections is still around 20:1 and they cost more than £18/mth. Cable, if that's what you had, is almost certainly contended, as is BT infinity.

@yeahyeahno

"I wonder what Windows users mostly use?"

The reset button?

@AC - running a mail server

Doesn't this rely on

1. A very stable, reliable internet connection.

2. No power interruptions.

otherwise emails get lost in the ether or kicked back to the sender? Running your own server might be great but most ISPs don't allow it on anything but a business connection and getting too many server cannot be reached messages might put off senders.

Or are you doing things differently?

@Charybdis

Totally agree.

1. This is just Socialist wealth redistribution whereby the middle classes just get fucked over.

2. The pass-through will never be 0.7%, this is just a bullshit marketing ploy.

3. It will not change a thing. Large emitters are not being suitably punished or are getting a free pass and the general public be damned. We do not waste power as a family (use way less than the average household) but we're going to get fucked over by this.

4. Watch out for the tax tweaking regarding raising the tax free rate. That money will be coming back down the line.

5. There is a floor on the market price when it freely trades so you can tell where that's headed. Haven't seen whether the market is open to speculation or not either.

6. It is being brought in very cynically. People believe it's fantastic that the tax free allowance is being lifted. This is not a altruistic endeavour for the Government it is to make it as hard as possible to repeal the tax.

7. Talk of clean power without inclusion of modern nuclear (MSR etc) is just crap. If it is sustainability you desire then let the shite that is solar (never recoup the energy cost of production) and wind (just crap full stop) stand on their own feet without subsidising them from my power bill.

8. Could this be the trigger that gives Australia its own little recession? Nobody else is bothering with this shit - read a piece today stating that China has 800 steel mills and Australia has (had) 2. They must be laughing their arses off.

No

Not when it is obvious that a mistake has been made.

Re: deflation

I have recourse if my bank account is emptied and I gain interest on my deposits so I'll happily swap that for the inflationary part

Quaint

"The only thing missing to make it the ultimate British experience is if it were a mass arrest, and you had five suspects all in the waiting room in an orderly queue waiting for their turn to be arrested."

All drinking tea, very civilised.

Be interesting

to see if the fit-and-proper test falls on its arse now.

Re:30 -> (nearly) 50 is young?

Some people never grow up. Pay more attention and you'll see plenty of old guys in major cities driving soft-top sports cars with a titty-bird in the passenger seat.

@AC

"When will they sell the laptops with the touchpad asimetrically placed?"

So you want to sell right or left-handed laptops?

Hmmm

Me thinks Clare was taking the piss and either everyone is going along with it, tongue in cheek, or you've all been suckered.

@AC

Point still stands. You cannot take someone to court saying that they "infringed something" without stating what that something is and how they infringed it. That's kind of a basic premise of an "allegation". This sounds more like that old "you've been caught downloading music illegally so pay £500 and we'll forget about it" ruse. Except the numbers are much larger.

CTP is what you're after

This is about the only smart thing I've seen regarding transport in Australia, or at least the part I live in. When you pay your annual vehicle registration you also pay your compulsory third party insurance. Same rate for everyone. If you then go on to fully comprehensive that's your choice and you shop around for it.

@EyeCU

But would it be more financially viable to setup better recycling rather than sift silt? I'd have thought so myself but I have no knowledge in this area.

Why shite screen?

600? Really? That is just utter shite. It's almost as if netbook manufacturers are trying to die a death by a thousand cuts with some of the crap they release. If Intel or MS are hamstringing you then use ARM or AMD and/or Linux. I can no longer see average Joe who can't install an OS getting one of these as they'll invariably want a tablet, hence Linux should no longer be the issue it once was. Put a sticker on it that says "Would have Windows 7 and Intel inside but they said no" if need be.

Indeed

Be interesting to see the ramifications for those using Amazon's services which have backup in multiple zones. For instance what is controlled by elements in the US and how does data move around their networks? If it touches their US datacentres in any way there's the possibility of a quick slurp. I seem to remember an article about a European bank (Paribas maybe?) using Amazon's services (I think) for performing their risk calculations. You wouldn't touch them with a shitty stick after this statement.

I can see a need for the RAF

In fact just a very small need for it - air defence of the UK. The rest can be subsumed into the Army and Navy as required. That way those that need air support of whatever kind are ultimately in control of their own destiny and not left swinging in the wind when some Whitehall Biggles decides to piss the budget up the wall on kit that cannot be effectively used whilst important needs go unfulfilled.

As for the defence industry, the minister should tell the lot of them to fuck off and get a banking license if they're after a persistent bailout.

It's not the size..

It's the average power consumption of 500W - that is truly monstrous. Kind of like regularly boiling the kettle whilst watching a normal TV. The picture will undoubtedly be beautiful but in these days of sky-rocketing power bills this is the major disadvantage of plasma over LED.

Phone Cameras

In perfect conditions a phone camera may look like it comes close but full size photos in anything but and the difference becomes obvious. You cannot cheat the laws of physics and the pinhole lens and microscopic sensor are the limiting factor unless you want a phone as thick as a camera etc.

Re:Huh?

Primarily I guess because the price of gold is massively over-inflated and destined to collapse at some point.

@AC

I'd have thought the main problem with the validity of a fax when a signature is necessary is that you have no proof that it wasn't just copied onto the document. Without sight of the original you just do not have that ability hence I'd consider faxes where signatures are required as a pretty insecure and shitty way of doing things.