Posts by Yet Another Commentard

hang on

He was at work, was threatened, got shot at, was hit by a bullet (well, his phone was) and you call all that LUCKY?

That's a bad luck day at the office by anyone's standards.

Re: David Braben's supposed to be quite litigious, isn't he?

Well, Frontier is available as shareware - http://www.sharoma.com/frontierverse/game.htm and Ian Bell has just about every version of Elite on his website.

Emulators required, natch.

@James

"Maybe there should be a standard placebo 'antibiotic' for these cases"

It's an interesting idea, but ethically dubious. Your doctor would have to lie to you when prescribing the placebo because (s)he would obviously know it's a sugar pill. This applies to all prescriptions of placebos, not just here. Having your doctor lie to you, even if it's in your own and society's interests erodes the trust that should exist between the two parties.

Once this "got out" that "apoxylalacillin" is a placebo there would be a backlash against the medical profession, claims of "big pharma" conspiracies, and possibly the movement of people away from medicine and towards alternative therapies because "doctors lie about medicines". Now the latter is fine if it's a self-correcting problem like a cold, but could be fatal if the patient had a serious condition that really wasn't going to be helped by a nice cup of herb tea and a dangling crystal.

Education has to be part of the solution. The general lack of knowledge of basic medical matters is appalling. I'm not advocating that everyone should be a doctor, just that there must be room on the curriculum somewhere to teach about antibiotics, anti-virals, why most drugs will not resolve the problem instantly, why to always finish the dose of any drug course, how to deal with simple injuries, why going to casualty with athlete's foot is a dumb idea etc. etc.

there also needs to be support for doctors refusing to prescribe where it is not necessary. Maybe upon refusal to prescribe the patient is given a form where the doctor writes on it "viral infection, no suitable medication" and the patient can send it off as a complaint. The patient then gets back from NHS Complaints Central a letter saying that no prescription would help, and have they noticed how they now feel better as their very own immune system has sorted it out.

Re: Optional

Vince

Maybe we need a sort of "notfacebook.com" website full of alternative things to do, a bit like a "why don't you... " on the internet.

May I add as a couple of suggestions "brew beer", "sort out the loft and play with your old lego", "learn to speak Arrapahoe" etc etc.

Re: Just curious ...

Actually let's face it, we need the cash here in Europe, so let's just take that. If Apple wants to hand some in too that's cool; we're not fussy who gives us the cash.

Re: How useful!

My car has this, and does not react to plastic bags. Mind you, I have not noticed it do anything, ever. That may be because I've already taken the action needed or because it doesn't work. It seems churlish to test it by getting my wife to jump in front of the car and see if I run her over or not.

Don't forget these things are only set to do stuff at relatively low speeds, reducing the possibility of the rear-ending.

A rear-end shunt is always the problem of the tailing car. The driver should leave an adequate gap. Of course, no consolation to you if you are the chap up front.

Re: Details please.

Exactly, like this bit here:

"GCHQ intelligence has played a vital role in stopping many of the terrorist plots that MI5 and the police have tackled in the past decade. "

MANY of the PLOTS - I only seem to be aware of at most a couple, the water on planes nonsense being that one. How many have been stopped? What about those without GCHQ input?

We only ever seem to be trying to prevent the last terrorist attack, not the next.

Re: It's a good start. @Khaptain 05:47

Blimey Godwin already.

Anyway, a few things:

1) 59% saying “Christian” means nothing on the census other than they were born in the west and told by their parents that’s what they are, and they tick the box. How many were Jedi? Does that make Jedi a religion?

2) Atheism by its very definition is not a religion, it is the absence of one.

3) “Got mit uns” – Hitler was a Catholic in at the least the same way all of your 59% are. Even if you now choose to distance yourselves, then why did all the Catholics follow him, surely they would have seen at the time what an evil thing was happening. Or was god too busy to point it all out to them?

The Scouts have done something very correct here dropping the god bit. Of course, they could keep it, in which case I suggest non-religious types head for The Woodcraft Folk. Like Scouts, but no religion.

Re: I'm sure

That's not very original.

Re: Most fun I ever had

...and that is one reason why having differing sized notes is such a good idea...

Re: Reminds me of programmes for schools.

... and a five minute countdown clock where the marks slowly vanished before the programme.

Re: Solar must be reaching some level of profitability

Some farmers by us are seriously considering stopping farming and installing solar in suitable fields. Seems there is more money in making power than actually feeding people.

Re: "Oops. Did hitting that mess something up for you?"

Esc stopped the programme (error 17, easy to stop) Break did a "soft" reset, ctrl+break did a "hard" reset IIRC.

The Amiga had a similar one I think - was it ctrl+amiga+amiga?

Re: From my position of ignorance - this seems a fine idea.

Again, a position of ignorance here...

Am I reading this correctly that the Steam Box would be essentially a dumb terminal streaming the game to the TV with all the computing, rendering, whatnot done on the big, ugly, hot gaming PC elsewhere in the house?

If so, I'm in.

Re: The problem here is

Sack the finance department.

A good finance department is a little like Loren Dean's character in Apollo 13 where he is talking about remaining power saying "I'm telling you what we have." In other words, cash is a scarce resource and those guys and girls should be trying to get together whatever management decides it needs. If the answer is "You can't spend that because management believes the cash is better spent on X" then the finance department is doing a better job. Saying "If you can convince management to do this we'll arrange the finance" is actually the very purpose it exists. An FD should be making sure the business has all the finance it requires, when it requires it. (S)he should be part of the decision making process, but not the arbiter. How can an accountant know the relative merits of a backup system or a marketing campaign if both want the same cash? They can't, but management can discuss it and which one should be done. If they call backup but lose the work, that's the risk they take. If they do the marketing and suffer a fatal data loss event, that's the risk they take. They are in charge, they take the risk.

TL;DR - finance departments should not make spending decisions, management should.

Re: Somewhat pointless?

@deshpherd

He was a journalist just coming back from a senior meeting at Scotland Yard, so maybe not the average victim.

Re: Oldest, not closest

I thought Canada would have the "closest Ally" tag, longest unprotected border and all that. Mind you the Canadians did invade and burn the capital to the ground once. Or twice.

Re: If it makes you feel any better

Also it would be a sizeable interest free loan to the <host nation's> national bank too, helping to reduce the deficit.

My favourite

Was a Court Action nearly taken against me for the non-payment of a credit note. That's right, the company owed me money and demanded I paid -£150 and when I said "can't you send me a cheque?" they threatened to take me to Court. I said "Go ahead!" thinking it could be a laugh, but sadly someone there saw sense and stopped the whole thing.

Re: Democracy by Mumsnet

Well, seeing as Mumsnet has several forums dedicated to sex (about getting pregnant, natch, as well as more cosmo type relationship ones) I would suggest it is on the far side of the filter "to protect the children". After all, it has a cuddly website name, so a child would assume it was a safe place that mum would approve of after all.

Who will protect our children from the filth peddlers of Mumsnet eh?

And don't get me started on the Daily Mail sidebar...

Re: Does anyone remember

I believe there is also a psychology website called therapist.com too.

Re: Literary reference FAIL

Maybe it's the missing chapter from The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism?

Re: written by someone who clearly has no idea about science or technology

Paul

I understand your point, but I don't feel "smug" at all. I feel let down that much reporting aims simply for the lowest common denominator rather than somewhat higher. I keep being told that A Level results are higher each year (this year excepted), and more and more people have degrees, so why not smarten up journalism too?

I think, for example, that The Economist gets the balance right, it explains well but adds enough technical detail to keep readers interested. If everything in broadcasting is aimed at the lowest point we just end up with the lowest point being perpetuated.

I also forgot the Channel 4 "Equinox" series, which was also quite challenging but very good. Pop science had things like QED too, which taught those of us with some knowledge something, and held the interest of those without.

That's a long ramble to say that many writers take the lazy route of the lowest reader. It is harder to appeal to a wider audience, and some do it, and do it well.