Posts by JimmyPage

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Let's party like it's 1989

Rabbit

Are analysts really *that* thick ?

of is there an element of keeping themselves in work ?

I am heartily sick of responding to every piece of demographic research that "the 50 years of today, are not like the 50 years of 10 years ago."

Now this may sound like it comes from the school of the bleedin' obvious, but it has deep ramifications for the IT industry and those who work in it.

Here's one example, from *my* crystal ball. Phones/Tablets (and their apps) will evolve to take account of the fact that someone who was (say) 45 when they bought their first iPhone, back in 2007, is now 52. With slightly poorer close-vision. They are not going to stop using their new shiny. And given they will be the richer demographic - you can sure as hell guarantee they will be catered for.

We're not stuck in some stratified society. Bear in mind, *some* of todays "silver surfers" were systems programmers in the 60s.

The most hilarious thing is the fact that politicians seem to have missed this ... they seem to base their campaigns on some idea of what society looked like 40 years ago.

Bleeding obvious ?

I thought the Goldiliocks zone was specifically that which allowed liquid water, which kinda implies oceans (that water has to be somewhere).

Is there anyone reading this who *didn't* think this ?

In 2006 ...

I bought a new phone, and they threw in a "free" bluetooth headset.

Free.

Since then, it never ceases to get my gander up to see people in £40,000 cars, on £600 phones, yakking away with no bluetooth.

I'm not a big fan of Draco, but I would happily see offenders cars seized and auctioned. If you can't obey the law, you shouldn't be allowed a car.

Only this Saturday, MrsP and I were shopping, and noticed a car (ironically it was BMW Mini - see above ;) ) which seemed to have a lot of problems parking ... in, out, in out. As we walked past we saw the reasonl The dozey woman driving it was yakking on her phone, so had to take her other hand off the wheel to change from first to reverse. Then she clamped the phone between shoulder so she could use 2 hands to steer, but then she couldn't turn her head properly, so couldn't see when she was lined up into the space.

On most non-trivial (longer than 20 minutes) journey, it's rare not to see at least one person yakking away.

False positive

As Jean Charles de Menezes [unwittingly] demonstrated, a false positive can be a lot worse than a little inconvenience.

And since nothing has changed, and no one held to account over that state execution, it *will* happen again. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in 20 years time.

It's worth repeating ...

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

Alexander Fraser Tytler (although disputed)

Long shot, I guess, but any chance

of getting a bare android phone, with no ****ing Facebook. Or Twitter. Or G+. Or any of the other battery/data draining apps that I don't need or want, and didn't ask for ?

Why should the Swedes come here ?

Their legal system doesn't allow for interviews to be held outside Sweden, which is fair enough. I would wager the UK system is the same.

Why should *Assange* get to make the rules ?

See ...

We *needed* those emergency powers ....

but still subject to US data laws

so what's the point ?

Wiki "inaccuracies"

Watching the excellent Richard Herring Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (or, as all the cool kids are calling it: "rhlstp") he was chatting with Dara O'Briain about Wiki inaccuracies, and it was suggested that *some* celebrities deliberately leave inaccuracies in Wikipedia, as it gives them a quick handle on the calibre of journalist they are dealing with.

On a similar theme, there used to be an story about Van Halen insisting on a bowl of M&Ms in their dressing room with the brown ones taken out. How we laughed at precious stars and their whims. Then one of the band confirmed it, but crucially explained it. Apparently the same rider gives instructions on setting up bits of kit and stage layout. After an near-fatal incident where some equipment wasn't properly secured, they inserted the "no brown M&Ms" clause at the end of the rider as a quick check that the rider had actually been read.

If it wasn't for ****ing cheques

I'd never need to go near a branch.

Last offender ? HMR ***inng C, who decided that my tax refund had to be a cheque. No asking how I'd like it. No choice of supplying a bank account and sort code.

Since MrsPage and I rarely if ever visit high streets (last time was 4 months ago), it's a matter of supreme inconvenience to have to deal with paying cheques in.

Just love it ...

especially since it kinda suggests we need some sort of in depth analysis of beers at altitude ...

Out of curiosity ...

How many synonyms does Rogers Profanisaurous give ...

Hang on a minute ...

from my memory of the law, for the offence to be complete, it has to be shown the defendant was *able* to break the crypto, and that a forgotten password would not lead to jail.

What made the cops so sure - after being provided with 50 possibilities - that the guy hadn't forgotten his password ?

Otherwise we're back to the situation posited when the law was first proposed. Just send someone an encrypted (or sufficiently non-random) email, then call the cops, say "child porn" and sit back.

What's David Camerons email address ?

e2a: Just read that he refused to hand over the keys. One wonders how bright his legal team were ?

My son (who left home a few months ago) called me up a few days ago, asking for the passcode I had set on his TV, when he was younger. No way could I remember, despite going through all the obvious ones I use. And this is just a 4 digit number. Imagine a randomly generated password ...