The terrorists have definitely won

They have got us all at each others' throats. They have poorly educated recruits from the criminal classes patting down little old ladies and treating our external hearing aids as if they might be bombs.

They win! No more flying vacations. Driving to Cape Cod is going to be the extent of my vacation plans. I only have to watch out for poorly educated recruits from the criminal classes driving trucks and SUVs on the interstate highways.

Second Great Depression

When we studied the Great Depression in school, nobody could explain how it happened. Like, why did there all of a sudden stop being employment for so many people? It was like explaining how a guy could be alive and then suddenly dead. What left him?

What President Roosevelt (FDR) did was try to employ as many people as possible in government jobs under programs like WPA. It wasn't enough, though. The way the depression ended was with Extreme Government Employment, also known as World War II. There was so much employment available that they had to hire WOMEN (imagine that!).

Throughout, the Republicans hated FDR and referred to him as "that man in the White House", with "man" probably a euphemism.

In the United States

We have enough idiots who will love this. It is once again embarrassing to be a Yank. They want to repeal our poor substitute for NHS. But -- do they buy iPads?

Lovely, lovely, lovely

Made my day - 7:22 AM in NYC and getting ready for Friday. I'll smile (menacingly) all day.

Nasty organisation, however you look at it

Exists for the main purpose of wiping out Israel. A puppet of Iran mostly. The rest of the Moslem world is Sunni, generally, except for half of Iraq.

Wikipedia article:

Hezbollah[1] (Arabic: حزب الله‎ ḥizbu-illāh(i),[2] literally "Party of God") is a Shi'a paramilitary group and political party based in Lebanon.[3][4][5] It is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds,[3] and is supported by Iran and Syria. Multiple countries, including Sunni Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan,[6] have condemned actions by Hezbollah. The United States, United Kingdom, Egypt,[7] Israel, Australia, and Canada regard Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, in whole or in part.[8]

Hezbollah first emerged in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, during the Lebanese civil war.[3][9] Its leaders were inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini, and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards.[10] Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its four main goals as "Israel's final departure from Lebanon as a prelude to its final obliteration," ending "any imperialist power in Lebanon," submission of the Phalangists to "just rule" and bringing them to trial for their crimes, and giving the people the chance to choose "with full freedom the system of government they want," while we not hide our commitment to the rule of Islam."[11][12][13] Hezbollah leaders have also made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel, which they refer to as a "Zionist entity... built on lands wrested from their owners."[12][13]

Meanies!

Separating bonded friends is just meanness to birds, who (like people) have relationships. Although it is only since March, so maybe they should get out more...

PFY scored well this time

Excellence in project planning for contingencies:

"The door’s razor sharp and can cut through a drip line, a monitor and a patient call cable....”

It's 7:57 AM across the pond and I am giggling my head off as I get ready for work.

How about read-only or half-duplex or input-only cell?

If a jammer could be set up to disallow talk and output texting while the car is moving, that would take care of it. Anyone needing a map or a conversation could be expected to pull over, request the download, text and talk as needed, then hang up and resume driving. It would not interfere with OnStar. 911-type calls could be permitted. Incoming voice could be permitted, if people could accept an automated reply that the person is busy driving but can hear your message and will call back when it is safe. Sort of halfway between voicemail and full duplex,

Tell me nobody could hack something like that! (Of course, then someone would hack a work-around, but not everybody.)

Most of us can handle hearing the radio or people in the car. Having to create a message of any sort uses much more of our limited CPU and attention.

As for kids, how about a nice cage in the back seat?

Thanks for the Pointers

This is my first exposure to FitWatch, as I am in the USA. We have our own issues with police and their scoutmasters. Attacks on CriticalMass rides and on the peaceful demonstrations against the Republican National Convention a few years back may be familiar to those across the pond.

Yes, we want the police to stop muggings. We really don't need them to mug us when they or their bosses disagree with our politics.

App Container Rogue Hog

I follow Ustream.tv birds (theOwlbox) and eventually the Flash App Container hangs the whole system (I can see it on the PC, but it happens on the Mac also). Killing FF doesn't entirely fix it - have to kill Container also to recover memory.

Flash has its uses! Needs rewriting (Open Sourcing) to become well behaved.

Rape in those countries

There are plenty of rapes in those countries where the women are veiled head to toe. Only the police won't respond to complaints, and the women's relatives respond by killing the women. Morality has nothing to do with dress and everything to do with taking responsibility for one's own actions.

As long as the crass morons with Imaginary Friends make the rules, they can focus on fake morality and ignore the real thing. This goes for the Vatican also, now doesn't it?

Accenture history, huh?

New Delhi, huh? Leaving waste and ruin in their path.

Nuff said. That's a combination everyone should avoid.

Bring back hanging

just for proven fraud. It's much more serious than murder of a single person, as it affects a lot of people. That goes for Enron executives and all those rotters on Wall Street as well.

I love Wikipedia

I use it all the time, to write explanations for health questions on Yahoo Answers. I always point to the Wikipedia articles I use. They are generally fabulous!

If I knew anything in depth, I would contribute. Perhaps when I am retired I will be able to contribute rewrites to pieces that are clumsily written.

Kudos to the solid editors, and good riddance to the ones who aren't up to the standard.

Fascinating

and evidently the stuff of George W. Bush's wet dreams. Now we know what he was trying to emulate here in the good ol' USA. The Yale Cowboy is an Anglophile - who woulda thunk?

Shoot if you must this old gray head...

but spare my Apple systems! I swear that if they so much as start the implementation of this crapola, I will ditch my beloved Mac and iPhone and use nothing but Linux!

So that's what happened

to all those laid-off financial district programmers!

Too rich for our blood now - but oh what a great tool it was

I loved Domino. I think I started developing in Notes 3 something. When it went webified, in 4.6 I think it was, I went crazy over it.

I haven't used it in about 8 years. Last time I looked into it for the non-profit I now work for, it was just too complex and too expensive for us. We are using Drupal. But Domino -- now that was a rapid development tool. Never mind how it looked!

Looks are way over-rated.

Priorities

We are definitely fourth-rate in a lot of ways.

Until everyone is fed and housed, and has access to a doctor when needed, and can be educated, broadband has a rather low priority. Watching movies on a computer is what most people use it for anyway.

I live in New York, where Verizon FIOS is not available everywhere, and I got DSL just to manage servers remotely. Otherwise broadband is just another pretty face. Like that dopey person shown here.

First time I have ever rooted for Texas...

particularly a Texas judge. If they can just forbid saving Word docs as HTML, I would be happy. Also that stupid application that lets idiots create Web pages that are impossible to fix and will not render in other browsers.

Word is hideous in general. I am a pretty heavy user of Excel at the office, although I use OO elsewhere. So I am not totally anti-MS. But Word just has a bad attitude.

Dogs in every doctor's office?

It wouldn't be particularly cheap, or easy, to train enough dogs. And not every doctor or diagnostic lab would have people who can work with a dog. Dogs get tired and stop being interested after a while.

Not to mention the contamination. They are still dogs! Do you want them in your clinic or hospital?

Any chance of marketing this in the U.S.?

It looks lovable. For cities (at least NYC), it would need an extra set of battery packs for charging, as one does not park near one's house, generally.

It would be very popular with teachers, who travel to odd places where their schools are located, rather than to downtowns. Likewise, nurses.

INERTIA

is the tendency of moving objects to keep moving and static objects to remain static. There is no need for Microsoft to come out with "new improved" user interfaces and data formats for such commonly used tools as Excel and Word. It drives our support staff crazy to have to navigate the different locations of normal functions in Excel. We hate getting docx/xlsx formats from frustrated users who received them in e-mail.

Just about everyone here uses XP. All our copies of Office are licensed. While there are a few Office 2007 users, most of us use Office 2003 and Access XP, with Access 97 available for developers who have to communicate with FoxPro data. (MS really messed up with their FoxPro support. We have actually gone back to programming for Visual FP, for distribution to other agencies.)

Whether Microsoft like it or not, there is enormous variability of hardware and software even within an organisation, not to mention in inter-agency communication. This is true even for all-MS environments.

We use Google Docs for the odd tracking application that requires cross-agency participation. But in general we are not ready to put our data into the hands of some unknown entity, especially one with such poor security as MS.

I'm writing from home, on my Mac. I use OpenOffice.org applications here.

Friends...

don't let friends drive Windows. Especially one holding their dissertation.

Fixing a PC can ruin a friendship.

The kind of friends who can run Linux, get Linux.

The English majors get Macs.

We all win.

I use Windows at work, and someone else fixes it. I just manage MS SQL Server (groan).

Magnifique!

Et vachement formidable!

Flamebait -- but she has a point!

Since women have been underpaid relative to men doing the same work, it is only fair that they should benefit from this fact by being kept on while the men are made redundant. This would lower the average cost for the company much faster than laying off women.

In addition, think of the time saved by not having sports pools, sports talk (for the most part), and fart jokes!

@John Smith, @Steve Swann

Diebold have been making reliable ATMs for at least 30 years. Of course, when I last dealt with them, the software was NOT Microsoft, and the programmers are long since retired. I'm sure the current ones are less thorough and less professional!

And management were not likely to have been friends of the Bush family (feh).

Great idea - Bravo Israelis!

But (hee hee) Americium? Anyone else think it's funny that we Yanks are going to declaw weapons?

Hmm, I wonder...

if Diebold had a delete audit log button on its ATMs! (The ATMs are rather good, by the way.)

Of course, we all know what is more important than counting votes.

Remember Nixon's secretary Rosemary Wood, who erased 18 minutes of critical tape? Don't they wish they had nice software like this!

OOPS!

Kindle is easier to use - especially for elders

I love books dearly, but they are heavy, take up a lot of space, and have a fixed size type. This is not wonderful for some of us whose vision is a bit weak.

A pure text on Kindle can be read in 14 point if I like, takes no space at all, weighs hardly anything, and goes with me wherever I want. A whole volume of whatever (quite a few volumes actually) will fit in a purse! And there are lots of free resources in addition to Amazon's inexpensive downloads.

I am a big fan!

Love it anyway

The new one looks much easier to use - mine is always turning pages since the buttons climb up the sides and there isn't much space to just pick it up.

The way you read it in bed is use a small booklight and change the typeface to Large, so you don't use enough light to disturb the other half. It is much less tiring as you don't raise your arm to turn pages, and it is so light.

The network connection is one way for Amazon to hold the rights to market the e-books. However, you can get other ones on your PC and load them also. It just takes a bit more work, which most people avoid. Plus the publishers provide the media to Amazon so as to collect royalties.

Yes, I have a nice little library of French classics from the Gutenberg Project and other resources.

Much less clutter in my already book-filled flat, too.

There are way too many of these...

in New York State and throughout the Northeast of the US. There have been sharpshooters assigned to cull them. Yes, people complain about them, and other people feel sorry about it.

Bambi is not your friend, now that we don't have enough predators (except us) to keep the population down. Hitting a full-grown deer at highway speed can be fatal to the driver as well as the car.

Get 'em, Google!

(ducks a thrown organic tomato)

Ban them for pedestrians too

I live in New York City and work in downtown Manhattan. The sidewalks are a menace. People who walk while yakking on cells have glazed eyes and will run right into you. There are also the ones who stand at the top of the subway (Underground) stairways and yak, or walk back and forth on a step and yak. They also stop short in front of you to YAK!

They seem to have lost sight of anything outside their language centres (the new solipsism?). A lot of them are women, but not all.

Language is the most complex thing we do. It can't readily be multi-tasked.

It's a good thing most New Yorkers never drive. They're enough of a menace on foot.

Blokes' idea of fun

Hey, I'm a big BOFH fan! Never "witter on" about celebrities/clothes. Started in the punch card days, and wear my feminism proudly, along with lower pay.

Must say, we had a brief IT management meeting today, and predictably, the BOFH Dept Manager suggested paintball. He was not exactly rejected by the CIO guy or the other guys, although we won't do it because most of our folks, being women, would not appreciate it.

Now I'm not saying that he doesn't read The Reg. He may do so. But it is just as likely that he is swimming in the same ocean as the Honorable BOFH of The Reg. Thus, blokes. In the current universe.

I share in the general joy at fantasies of electrocuting lusers with rigged test equipment, locking them in the tape safe, etc. I live in that alternate universe too.

I was astonished, however, to hear all the reminiscence of real paintball participation! Thus my conclusion that blokes have a strange idea of fun, especially if it hurts.

Men are strange

I'm not going to your office party!

Whatshername because I don't think she would attend either. Blokes have a STRANGE idea of fun!

Survival of the Fittest

Hey, if your data centre is still alive, running COBOL etc, with the economy going as it has been, your employer is a winner surrounded by losers. Had you blown all that investment by trying to rewrite it for whatever was hot in 1990, trying again in 2002, and so forth, you might now be amongst the losers.

Some respect for legacy, please!

You need this stuff in dictionaries

because 50 years from now, someone will be reading an archive and need to know what these things meant.

Not to speak of English learners abroad now, or here about 5 years from now.

I am delighted to have definitions of "twee" and "take the piss" in some dictionary, even now. Apparently "twee" entered the English language around 1905. The approximate Americanism is given as "corny", which appeared at about the same time, it seems, though it's hard to tell.

ALL domain parking/squatting should be illegal

If you type in a word and see this:

<<1000 EUR This domain is available FOR SALE

Please contact us for further instructions or click here for detailed description of sale process.>>

or something similar, the registrar should be alerted to remove the domain. No, of course they won't -- someone pays for these registrations. Well, the registrar should be able to keep the fee!

Good domain names are a scarce-enough resource and should not be grabbed for speculation. How do you feel when someone gets all the good seats by putting something on them for later arriving friends? How about if they did the same and didn't have any friends, just the intention of selling you the seats?

BTW, if you type moncul.com (myarse.com) you get French Google! If you type myarse.com, you get an actual page, dynamically generated, and the following:

<<This domain may be for sale>>

which points to celticdomains.com which is a domain-name "mart". Professional squatting!

vive la difference! I think.