Posts by Duncan Hothersall

And so we continue to do precisely the opposite of what we should do

Anyone who remembers the IRA's bombing campaigns in the UK will know that the governmental response at the time, whilst often hugely overblown in its treatment of Irish people, was essentially to ensure "business as usual" for as many people as possible.

Since 9/11 the US, and by extension the UK because we now apparently take the lead from them in this area, have operated quite the opposite policy, and it is a disaster. They and we now jump at the slightest squeak, talk up every threat, and promote the idea that if one terrorist attack is prevented then this policy is justified.

No, it isn't.

We need to say to anyone who wants to change us via terrorism that while we will do our best to stop them, we will not change our lives to achieve that. We need to say that you can continue to blow us up, but you will not change our minds. We need to tell them that they will not make us run scared by threat alone. To make a difference they will have to penetrate our defences every time. A threat, or a failed attempt, should have no impact on our lives.

It seems cliched and obvious to say it, but terrorists win when we react to them, in any way. Yes we should continue to act to prevent acts of terror when we discover them; but we must get far better and facing down the threat, telling and showing them that we are not scared of them, and that we will not capitulate.

Otherwise we have already lost.

@ system

You really don't understand what XML is, do you?

You think it's a replacement for CSV, a container for passing data between processes? Dear me, I hope you don't work in IT.

I work with XML every day; huge streaming quantities of it. I publish books and web sites and online courses and assessments from XML master files. And I only use one application of XML for the purpose.

I can understand why you might think XML was crap if you thought all it was was a CSV replacement for data passing; but if you knew anything about XML at all you would know that it isn't.

Like I say, I hope you don't work in IT.

@ Ralph B

Well done there son. You managed to respond to this story without even understanding it; perhaps, even, without reading it at all.

You're not an SNP politician are you?

The reason I ask is that that they too have difficulty distinguishing between "a decrease" and "a smaller increase than we were expecting". They talk about amounts "dropping" when in fact they have increased. Perhaps you can give some insight into this condition. Is it permanent? Your friends in the north would thank you.

So much misunderstanding in one thread!

HTML 5 *is* XHTML which is an XML document type.

Being XML it is also Unicode, meaning that it is of course compatible with any text editor (was this a joke?).

As far as criticisms of W3C's standards work go, I find it extraordinary that the one organisation which has been consistent and successful in promulgating useful standards for the web should be subject to criticism on the basis of how others - browser vendors and SVG vendors - have responded in the marketplace. Adobe's decision to dump SVG was a commercial one, nothing to do with the standard's efficacy. And surely we all know by now that the problem with CSS 2 support was IE's implementation, IE-specific web development, and the commercial interests of browser developers in general.

Web users need to get behind W3C's efforts to ensure wide and full implementation of web standards, and stop moaning about issues that, apparently, half of us don't even understand.

Well that's all very nice

... but this is 2008! I want it to automatically unfold into an A5 size full colour screen, and I want it to make a zhoom noise when it does it. And would a transporter function be so hard? Jeez.

the "other format"

Ah, I see, ODF is now the other format vying for acceptance; funny, I thought it was the already widely supported ISO standard. That's the great thing about FUD - even if it is demonstrably rubbish and immediately exposed, it can still have an effect.

OOXML is nothing more or less than a spoiling tactic. Sadly it appears to be working tremendously well.

@ cor

There is no pun so bad that it cannot be made worse by explanation.

Ooh

Arr

@Vulpes Vulpes

Hmm. You quoted two remarks and described them as "sarcastic and innaccurate". (Incidentally, I love that sort of sub-editor fun - it's like complaining about "bad speling", or "inappropriate apostrophe's".)

Anyway, you claimed the two statements ("recently-minted corporate line" and "the BBC was forced to act swiftly under pressure from its own Trust and Downing Street") were "sarcastic and innaccurate": .

I pointed out that they in fact appeared to be entirely accurate. Your response was to say that it was in fact the tone of the article you objected to. Perhaps, if that was the case, you should have said so, rather than claiming "innaccuracy". Do you see?

@AC 09:11

Christ almighty, you're flaming Stern? Are you insane? Have a pop at Haines, sure - he's always outrageous. Lettice is full of political nonsense, flame away. Orlowksi is pure flamebait, go for it. And Ashleeee deserves everything s/he gets. But Otto? Are you mad? He is the only decent, hard-working, God-fearing, eyes-open journalist here! He speaks the truth, man. Jeez.

Speaking of people being a little disingenuous

"Pandora is of course not alone in attempting to exploit structural deficiencies in the way recording rights are licensed."

Indeed it isn't. Others include the state51 conspiracy and Playlouder MSP.

I've said it before and I'll say it again

Those who take offence on behalf of an unknown other are worse than those they criticise.

I AM OUTRAGED

And I wish to register my outrage here. Thank you very much for your time. Happy Christmas. Oh, and if I don't get a flying car this year I am going to be OUTRAGED ALL 2008 TOO.

Geographic issue

As they surely must already know, the issue is geography. Because of the Welsh support for the blond one and the Scottish support for the dark haired one, there were pockets of high call frequency in specific areas, and it was in those "home town" places where reports of failed calls were highest. So the problem is self-evidently one of local capacity of whatever telco people were using, rather than anything at the receiving end.

On a related note, though I wouldn't dare to criticise how the great unwashed choose to waste their money, it seems to me the ultimate display of stupidity to pour cash into the coffers of a TV company in order to enable another pop act to be manufactured for the sole purpose of extracting more of your money from you.

England, France and Germany?

So Dell are introducing this in England, but not Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland? Interesting...

@ Joe Stalin

Given that you seem to be aware that the problems with the Scottish elections were nothing whatsoever to do with the machines that counted the paper ballots, I wonder why you brought it up? If anything, the Scottish elections demonstrate that if we could guarantee secure and verifiable (i.e. open source) electronic voting systems, then many people would benefit from being led through the voting procedure, rather than getting presented with two sheets of paper with misleading names on them and some slightly unclear instructions.

Phew

I thought they had redesigned BBS News for a minute there, and was going to get quite upset. The main BBC homepage has been in need of an update for quite a while, looks good.

@ steve

Please tell me you are joking about having been an English teacher.

Aweful... arguement... grammer... there clout ...

And you've missed the point too. Dear me.

@ AC

A garnishee is someone whose wages have been garnished. The original poster was entirely correct to use the word garnish to describe the docking of wages. I'm afraid you have broken the cardinal rule: better to stay silent and be thought an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

DSGi's support service eh...

Oh well, never mind.

Wait a minute

Maybe my DNS has been compromised, and that is why when I read news sites I keep getting made-up stories about terrorist plots interspersed with normal news, to try to subdue me with fear. Very clever! I better go and check my settings...

Don't know if I'm a typical consumer

but despite having invested in an HD TV this year (simply because we wanted to move to a flat screen that could hook up to a PC) I have absolutely no intention of buying an HD disk player. DVDs look and sound great to me, the films currently available on HD formats are uninspiring, and my cable box allows me to watch on demand for a fraction of the price.

The shift from VHS tape to DVD video was worth making for speed, convenience and quality improvements; the move to an HD disk is simply not attractive enough for me.

@ Will Leamon

Never mind a thesaurus, you need a dictionary son. Look up "cult". Merriam-Webster says "a system of religious beliefs and ritual". Certain cults don't like being called cults, but that doesn't change what they are.

Chinese Taipei?

First time I've seen El Reg use that political sidestep to describe Taiwan. Any reason for it?

@ Colin Millar

Ah, pisspoor DTD design is at the heart of so many problems. Content in an attribute? This is very short-sighted. And what happens just after a trip to the loo when <myarse /> actually IS empty? Is the user manual going to tell me I have to shove a gerbil up there just to be able to parse?

Okay, I'll stop now.