Our Govt. sure loves a database...
It's been playing on our fears of terrorism and identity theft and immigration to try and push it's ID card and it's database on us all for a while now. But that's not enough - it's now using the populations fear of paedophiles to get anyone who goes near children to pay an extra £65 for a Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) on top of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check they already have to undergo every year...
I think the real clowns are the ones behind this stupid scheme.
let's advertise our monolopy superfast broadband
Karoo - "Our new generation, up to 24Mbps broadband isn't just fast - it's superfast and reliable, so you can download films, music and photos faster...
But if you do - and we arbitrarily decide that we don't like what you're downloading - we'll cut you off without warning. Then charge you again to reconnect you. Well, only after we've got you to come into our offices to sign a piece of paper admitting you were bad and promise you won't do anything naughty ever again. And if you don't like it -tough, because there isn't another ISP you can go to in Hull.
It all seems a bit harsh and totally unfair.
Even the local MP there has put his oar in. Good for him.
- and anyway, what happened to all this competition that was supposed to happen as part of the telecommunication's privatisation that happened back in the 80s? Hmmmm? Oh wait -it's up in Hull - nobody cares what happens up there.
And another thing - what is the deal with ISPs constantly whining about how they can't provide a certain level of service if people are -you know, actually using the internet for anything more than a bit of web browsing and email of a evening... aren't they just admitting that they can't actually provide the service people are paying them for? But they do this while advertising constantly improving speeds, and charging more for those speeds? There's something fishy going on here.
But if you do - and we arbitrarily decide that we don't like what you're downloading - we'll cut you off without warning. Then charge you again to reconnect you. Well, only after we've got you to come into our offices to sign a piece of paper admitting you were bad and promise you won't do anything naughty ever again. And if you don't like it -tough, because there isn't another ISP you can go to in Hull.
It all seems a bit harsh and totally unfair.
Even the local MP there has put his oar in. Good for him.
- and anyway, what happened to all this competition that was supposed to happen as part of the telecommunication's privatisation that happened back in the 80s? Hmmmm? Oh wait -it's up in Hull - nobody cares what happens up there.
And another thing - what is the deal with ISPs constantly whining about how they can't provide a certain level of service if people are -you know, actually using the internet for anything more than a bit of web browsing and email of a evening... aren't they just admitting that they can't actually provide the service people are paying them for? But they do this while advertising constantly improving speeds, and charging more for those speeds? There's something fishy going on here.
into the memory hole...
Owners of Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader have received a nasty surprise, after discovering that copies of books by George Orwell had been deleted from their gadgets without their knowledge.
I can see the Chinese and other oppressive regimes suddenly taking an interest in this... a book that can be remotely censored. They must be salivating at the potential.
ordinary man takes photo of fish and chip shop - and gets arrested for terrorism for it
well, of course we all know that the Taliban are plotting terrorist attacks against our high street fish and chip shops don't we? No? Because that's the only way this story of how Alex Turner got arrested under section 44 of the prevention of terrorism act makes any sense.
But when it's so easy to intimidate a police woman merely by being 5 foot 11 inches tall and taking her photo - then I think it's time to give up - the terrorists have won already. Obviously she'd simply die of fright if ever a taller man - with a beard were to go "Boo!" at her.
Of course - there's another law altogether for the police - whenever they feel like it they can take pictures of whoever they like, whenever they like: Police photograph anti-airport campaigners talking to MP.* Yes, you read that right - don't you dare go and talk to your MP - lest you want the police to suspect you of being one of those evil terrorists and put you on their lists.
The war on street photography
*oh noes - I linked to a Daily Mail article. I feel dirty.
But when it's so easy to intimidate a police woman merely by being 5 foot 11 inches tall and taking her photo - then I think it's time to give up - the terrorists have won already. Obviously she'd simply die of fright if ever a taller man - with a beard were to go "Boo!" at her.
Of course - there's another law altogether for the police - whenever they feel like it they can take pictures of whoever they like, whenever they like: Police photograph anti-airport campaigners talking to MP.* Yes, you read that right - don't you dare go and talk to your MP - lest you want the police to suspect you of being one of those evil terrorists and put you on their lists.
The war on street photography
*oh noes - I linked to a Daily Mail article. I feel dirty.
why are we in Afghanstan ....
With the news full of how a few more British troops have died in duty in Afghanistan - Newsnight had tonight's whole program dedicated to asking 'what are we doing there...'
Throughout the whole program (and incidentally in the Prime Minister answers in Parliament's question time) not one person bothered to mention the real reason we're there, and why the US is there and why the Soviets where once there... it's all because duh the place is steeped in oil and gas. [But Gordon Brown couldn't say that - he just mumbled some nonsense about protecting us from terrorists. Which is the standard threadbare blanket excuse for everything these days.]
Which is all the more ironic considering that in the same question time the Prime Minister was patting himself on the back that the G20 where supposedly all pulling together to agree to maybe possibly vaguely do something about climate change... one day. Because yeah, if they ever do get to extract all that oil and gas - that won't increase carbon levels one jot will it. *eyeroll*
Throughout the whole program (and incidentally in the Prime Minister answers in Parliament's question time) not one person bothered to mention the real reason we're there, and why the US is there and why the Soviets where once there... it's all because duh the place is steeped in oil and gas. [But Gordon Brown couldn't say that - he just mumbled some nonsense about protecting us from terrorists. Which is the standard threadbare blanket excuse for everything these days.]
Which is all the more ironic considering that in the same question time the Prime Minister was patting himself on the back that the G20 where supposedly all pulling together to agree to maybe possibly vaguely do something about climate change... one day. Because yeah, if they ever do get to extract all that oil and gas - that won't increase carbon levels one jot will it. *eyeroll*
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wash care label? -what's that?
Soooo - the bf is currently on a whole big trying-to-be-domesticated kick. Which would be great if he wasn't so bad at it, and he's very bad at it. Sometimes I can't help wondering if he hasn't spent most of his life living in a cave.
This morning he did the washing. 'Oh that's good' I thought. But then noticed - 'ooooh no - he's washed my current new favourite black t-shirt in with the bath and pedestal mats'. I mean, first things first - pedestal mats - eurgh! They're a mat that is designed to catch piss. I mean - if you've had an accident - surely it's much better that it goes on the floor where it can be quickly and easily mopped up? Not left to soak into a mat and lie there stinking until it gets washed? Secondly, they're fluffy and so now I've got a black t-shirt and black boxer shorts that are now covered in a thick layer of bath mat fluff. Ew.
Now I've got to find me a big roll of sellotape to get the worst of the fluff off...
This morning he did the washing. 'Oh that's good' I thought. But then noticed - 'ooooh no - he's washed my current new favourite black t-shirt in with the bath and pedestal mats'. I mean, first things first - pedestal mats - eurgh! They're a mat that is designed to catch piss. I mean - if you've had an accident - surely it's much better that it goes on the floor where it can be quickly and easily mopped up? Not left to soak into a mat and lie there stinking until it gets washed? Secondly, they're fluffy and so now I've got a black t-shirt and black boxer shorts that are now covered in a thick layer of bath mat fluff. Ew.
Now I've got to find me a big roll of sellotape to get the worst of the fluff off...
some bookmark dumping
Ken Livingstone: Privatisation has been a train wreck
Here's some out of date video podcasts for Creative Zen players... If it was such a good idea they should have kept it up...
I'm tired of seeing so many promising ideas just wither and die on the vine through neglect.
"The attempt of National Express to avoid any consequences for their other franchises from their abandonment of the east coast service is just another example of the privateers trying to take the public sector for a ride. As Lord Adonis says, "It is simply unacceptable to reap the benefits of contracts when times are good, only to walk away from them when times become more challenging."
Time and again, we have seen the nationalisation of losses and the privatisation of profits."
Here's some out of date video podcasts for Creative Zen players... If it was such a good idea they should have kept it up...
I'm tired of seeing so many promising ideas just wither and die on the vine through neglect.
Dollhouse episode seven: Echoes
Dollhouse season one, episode seven: Echoes | Anna Pickard | Culture | guardian.co.uk
Choice quotes:
At this point the programme-makers just threw a whole bunch of syllables into something pharmaceuticalish. The student had ingested "a psychotropic modification of ridiculouslongmadeupnamix".
"hippocampus randomwordus"
"the psychotropic notawordamol."
(except my boyf. -who's a Doctor, recognised some of those words and stuff... so ha! do your research you sad journo.)
..."some big cheese in the Rossum Corporation (whatever that is)"...
Oh come on! Am I the only person in the world who gets that reference? Rossum? As in "Rossum's Universal Robots" - as in R.U.R. - the play by Karel Čapek. The play where we got the word 'Robot' from?
Oh well, everyone will know soon enough - I've just read in my googling that's there's a film been made of it - and will be released sometime next year.
Choice quotes:
At this point the programme-makers just threw a whole bunch of syllables into something pharmaceuticalish. The student had ingested "a psychotropic modification of ridiculouslongmadeupnamix".
"hippocampus randomwordus"
"the psychotropic notawordamol."
(except my boyf. -who's a Doctor, recognised some of those words and stuff... so ha! do your research you sad journo.)
..."some big cheese in the Rossum Corporation (whatever that is)"...
Oh come on! Am I the only person in the world who gets that reference? Rossum? As in "Rossum's Universal Robots" - as in R.U.R. - the play by Karel Čapek. The play where we got the word 'Robot' from?
Oh well, everyone will know soon enough - I've just read in my googling that's there's a film been made of it - and will be released sometime next year.
mini
For a long while now - I've thought if I ever where to get some money I might buy myself one of those mac minis. Not for any good reason - I just thought it'd be handy and I could see first hand what the fuss about the damn things was. Because to be honest I can't see what the fuss is about from the admittedly limited experiences I've had with macs*.
Anyway that aside - I had a look at them on the Apple store today and jesus what! the prices! £500 for the meh spec'ed one and £650 for the one I'd be more interested in. And for that they still don't come with a keyboard and mouse.**
Well sod that - I think I'll manage to live on in a mac free world for a bit longer yet.
A cheap netbook with some form of linux on it might be nice... (and a LOT more affordable.)
[*IE - when I was on a college course a year so back - they had macs and the damn things kept crashing on me - and had to be constantly rebooted. I also hated that you couldn't just plug in a thumbdrive in and just pull it out again when you'd finished like you can on XP and Vista - what this business where you have to drag it to the trash bin before you unplug it? Jezus - that was how it did things back with floppy disks in the bloody Eighties - has it not progressed beyond that yet? That drove me insane then too. Still nannying the user who's too thick to see when the drive is being written to or something?]
[**not that I'd ever want a 'mighty mouse' - that was driving me mad at college too. Oh, that stupid nipple thing on top - that you had to paw like crazy to scroll through anything. And then it would gunge up and is totally impossible to clean. What is wrong with Apple? Why the hell can't they make a decent mouse. Ever. I mean they look nice - but no doubt they would crucify any other manufacturer who would make a mouse that looked as good as a Mac one - but had proper functionality - like pretty much any other mouse in the world.]
Anyway that aside - I had a look at them on the Apple store today and jesus what! the prices! £500 for the meh spec'ed one and £650 for the one I'd be more interested in. And for that they still don't come with a keyboard and mouse.**
Well sod that - I think I'll manage to live on in a mac free world for a bit longer yet.
A cheap netbook with some form of linux on it might be nice... (and a LOT more affordable.)
[*IE - when I was on a college course a year so back - they had macs and the damn things kept crashing on me - and had to be constantly rebooted. I also hated that you couldn't just plug in a thumbdrive in and just pull it out again when you'd finished like you can on XP and Vista - what this business where you have to drag it to the trash bin before you unplug it? Jezus - that was how it did things back with floppy disks in the bloody Eighties - has it not progressed beyond that yet? That drove me insane then too. Still nannying the user who's too thick to see when the drive is being written to or something?]
[**not that I'd ever want a 'mighty mouse' - that was driving me mad at college too. Oh, that stupid nipple thing on top - that you had to paw like crazy to scroll through anything. And then it would gunge up and is totally impossible to clean. What is wrong with Apple? Why the hell can't they make a decent mouse. Ever. I mean they look nice - but no doubt they would crucify any other manufacturer who would make a mouse that looked as good as a Mac one - but had proper functionality - like pretty much any other mouse in the world.]
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