Posts by Chris Malme28 posts • joined Monday 18th August 2008 17:30 GMT
I've used a GPS for years - my first was a garmin black and white model. In that time, I've only once been badly misdirected; it was my fault, and I didn't follow it, so no harm was done.
I'd been in Glasgow for a few days, and was driving back to Peterboroough. On approaching a roundabout, it directed me the wrong way around it. Of course, I ignored the directions. It then appeared to randomly direct me around some roundabouts the right way, and some the wrong way.
When I finally hit the motorway, it immediately directed me back off again. Ignoring that, it then directed me off the next junction, and the next. Thinking something was wrong, I switched off navigation, and for the rest of the journey just used the GPS to tell me where I was.
A couple of days later, I decided to take a look at my "broken" GPS, and soon found the mistake. While in Glasgow, I had used it in pedestrian mode, and had forgotton to switch it back. So it tried to direct me the quickest way (to walk) around a roundabout, and tried to guide "the pedestrian" off the motorway.
Fortunately, I've long had the attitude that I treat my GPS just like a passenger with a map. I listen to what they say, but then decide if what they are telling me to do is safe and appropriate.
As far as I can tell, this is another new feature for Amazon Prime users, alongside streaming of video and other goodies. That is, if you are a user of Amazon.com in the United States.
UK users of Amazon.co.uk who sign up for Amazon Prime get neither of these goodies, only free one day delivery on all orders. For that they pay £49, compared to $49 dollars for the feature-laden US Amazon Prime.
So while this is certainly interesting (as indicating the way Amazon UK may go in the future), it really isn't that exciting.
"Who told the press that a Mr A Coulson was to be arrested on the following day ?
Is this going to be standard procedure ?"
It already is. His arrest wasn't a case of a van pulling up outside and them breaking his door down.
Coulson made himself available at a station, by appointment, to be formally arrested, so he could be questioned under caution.
Nothing unusual about that, it happens all the time.
The problem with giving users configurable challenge/response questions is that too many people would set it up as:
Challenge: What is my password.
Response: *********
I agree with Billy Whiz - the FOI is not there to be a marketing tool. Absolute Software hits my list of companies who I would not touch with a bargepole.
It would also be more interesting to see the level of theft/loss expressed as a percentage of kit owned/used by the BBC (including all the various subsidaries).
Besides, is it really the case that the BBC, and therefore the licence payer, would be footing the bill? Surely the BBC has insurance?
... identified themselves as jokers who lie humorously to stupid surveys.
A copy of the indictment can be found at http://www.securityprivacyandthelaw.com/uploads/file/Janosko%20Indictment.pdf and has a more detailed description.
Among other things, a piece of paper was found in his cell containing a username and password to the prison management system.
Because it was stated that the servers he accessed were "used in interstate and foreign communications", it became a felony offence.
nexus [ˈnɛksəs]
n pl nexus
1. a means of connection between members of a group or things in a series; link; bond
2. a connected group or series
I think (1) makes a clear case for it to be used as a name for a communications device.
After you've scanned all the world's books, then they can be recycled into bog roll.
Simples.
So, in a simulated museum, with clearly delineated edges, and bright colours, the technique fails. Big surprise.
Now try the same exercise with a shed in the middle of the countryside, with a gradation of different surfaces and colours.
After all, if you put a camouflaged tank in the museum, you would probably spot it pretty quickly.
The important thing to remember is that the role of chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, from which David Nutt was sacked (or told to resign) was UNPAID. He was not paid to sit on this advisory council.
On the other hand, the speech that landed him in trouble was given in his official capacity as head of the Psychopharmacology Unit at the University of Bristol, and holder of the Edmond J Safra chair in Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London. These are his real jobs, for which he gets paid.
So Professor Nutt was sacked from a voluntary, unpaid job, for carrying out the duties expected of him from the work he gets paid a salary for. Then he got slagged off for it. No wonder he is a little miffed.
"They sacrificed their anonymity by turning up at the protest"
Wrong. There is no guarantee these people were at the protest in question, only that "police intelligence" thought they might be. After all the police spotter card was printed before the arms fair took place.
To show how accurate such police intelligence can be, at the same time he was on the spotter card, as a possible protester at the arms fair, Mark Thomas was actually legitimately *inside* the arms fair, researching a book.
So nothing should be inferred from anyone's image being on the spotter card, with regard to this (or any other) protest.
Addressing the main issue, the Guardian was in the wrong here. They could have easily shown the spotter card with the faces blurred, with possible exceptions of anyone that had given permission, such as (one presumes) Mark Thomas, who has commented on this issue in Guardian's own "Comment is Free" pages
The subject line is a bit ironic, as a straightforward upgrade from Windows 95 to Windows 7 is one thing MS didn't make provision for.
So in the same month that prison governors call for the scrapping of short sentences to relieve pressure in the prison system, and a Ministry of Justice spokesman acknowledges the inappropriateness of prison for "less serious offenders"; the government wants to introduce jail time for non-violent offenders such as tabloid journalists.
I am not saying that the offences in question aren't serious - I think they are. But at the same time, given the choice between a mugger and a hack, I know which I would prefer locked inside.
The prison population is at an all time high, why send more people there, where there are more appropriate options such as community service and home detention and/or curfew. Sentence the hacks to a thousand hours of community education, like teaching English to asylum seekers, in order to help them settle in.
Lets face it, by locking them up, all we are doing is giving them material for a year's worth of boring articles about it. Make them sit at home, instead, with an electronic tag.
a) Because they get paid by their client if they are successful in obtaining the injunction.
b) Because they get paid by their client if they are not successful in obtaining the injunction.
c) Because they don't get paid for doing bugger all.
So if I wanted to find out the identity behind a Google account, all I have to do is accidentally send it some confidential data, then demand that Google puts me in touch with the recipient?
I have been using SatNav for years - long before they became popular - and have never had a problem. I have always told people that you should treat the SatNav exactly like a passenger beside you reading map directions. Listen to what they say, and then apply that to what you see ahead of you. If what the passenger/SatNav doesn't make immediate sense to you, ignore it and follow your instincts.
This sometimes mean you *do* drive past the turning you should have taken, and have to go around the block (or to the next motorway junction). But that is far preferable to following the passenger/SatNav instructions slavishly and driving down a one-way street the wrong way, leaving a motorway to "shortcut" through a tiny village or driving down a railway track or off the edge of a cliff.
It's not the fault of the SatNav - it is the moron using it.
Funny, I always understood it was the "Ernest Saunders Strategy". Saunders, it should be remembered is the only man ever known to have recovered from Alzheimer's.
"What sort of constituency office is she running there?"
Playing devils advocate. One router providing connectivity for her constituency office, and one for her sister in Dorset, to enable her to do her job as remote secretary. The other two purchased as backups.
I'm not saying that's what happened (I doubt it, in fact), but I don't think that would be unreasonable. Certainly, I have a spare router in my home office, as the expense is far less that the cost of a router blowing and leaving me unconnected.
"is google pulling wolfram's leg with this calculator?
http://www.google.com/squared"
I hope it is a joke, as it definitely isn't a calculator. Try using it to square "123456789" - it gives a result 1 less than it should.
Note that although the WPC's face is blurred, it didn't quite work for the other chap. The blurring missed his face, and is over his weapon instead.
Does this mean Google have fallen foul of the pseudo-law forbidding photography of serving officers?
They're a bit casual, though, for a protection detail, aren't they? Leaning against the wall, the WPC with her hat off?
At least the guvnor was in when Google drove past.
That should be "*We* Can Remember It For You Wholesale", and it was a (long) short story, rather than a book. Not to be mistaken for the novelisation of the film, by Piers Anthony.
You are right that it was far superior to the film (which stuck close to the original for about the first 20 mins, up to the first attempted memory implant). However, it (the short story) was really a bit of a shaggy dog story, so I reckon it would have been pretty much unfilmable in the original form.
... that I hadn't already sworn off of doing any business with Ryanair, so I could say that because of this, I would no longer ever do business with Ryanair.
If Word is not a valid format, isn't it strange that "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack" part of the software authorised for installation on the moderator's computer?
If nothing else, seeing the words "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack" might give some folk the impression that Microsoft Office (including Word) *is* a permissible piece of software to use.
Pipex could possibly make life easier by not automatically creating a mailbox for every customer, or allowing customers to delete unused mailboxes.
I quickly came to the opinion my default Pipex mailbox was useless - their practice of naming it after your pipex username apparently made it easy for spammers to harvest them. I have never made proper use of it - I use Pipex for connectivity only, and handle mail through my own domain. This does not stop my Pipex mailbox being continuously filled with unwanted spam - I occasionally clear it down out of the goodness of my heart.
EDI standards do not change. New standards are certainly developed and introduced, but it is totally up to the companies trading with each other whether to adopt a new standard or stick to the old existing one. In my experience very few companies chose to change an existing working system, without good cause; and many of the requirements I see specified are still based on standards developed 10 years ago, or more
Secondly, speed of payment is seldom related to speed of processing of invoices. It is more likely to be dictated by company policy, terms and conditions, and cash flow.
"Most of the time it really won't matter, but when the engines are falling off and the landing gear won't come down, he'll be the one with the sheer determination to do whatever it takes to get the plane down in one piece."
No, he'll be the one with an exit strategy.
The version of "Get Back" that Mark talks of actually appears on at least one Beatles album, the "Let It Be" sessions.
The initial idea of the song was to lampoon the growing anti-immigrant opinions of the day, referencing Enoch Powell's "River of Blood" speech. Unfortunately, there were plenty of folk too ignorant to recognise satire, just as there seems to be today. So it was rewritten to the largely meaningless lyrics we know today.
And rather than having been written before they were famous, the "Let It Be" sessions were recorded leading up to the album "Let It Be", which would have been towards the end of the Beatles time as a band.
