
"Guidance" is not law
The anti-terrorist legislation was not ever designed to be used by councils against parents trying to get their children into better schools.
A politician's word is not worth much these days, about as much as a banker's.
186 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Nov 2007
"Lax employment protection in the UK..."
Well maybe that is true. But also costs, in the form of just about everything we buy, are higher here too. Taxation, which Unite is keen to increase, is higher here than in other countries. I wonder if they realise that. By supporting additional and higher costs here, they are causing jobs to be sent overseas.
I suppose Larry loves his database, and that's enough for him. But Oracle, the database, just seems to be getting bigger and more cumbersome with every release. Automatic Storage Management is hardly automatic. Not a lot about Oracle makes we say "I'm glad to be using it".
Solaris, OTOH, is grrreeeaaattt. Some things on Solaris are done extremely well. It is a pleasure to use. It reflects the quality of the staff who put it together.
Oracle need to show some very public support for Solaris, as well as internally too.
Linux is crap compared to Solaris. Linux = reinvention of the same old wheels time and time again, then pretending it is new.
Every "good" thing about Linux has already been done elsewhere. Linux devs then just implement the same thing on Linux. That is neither original nor inventive.
If it removes morons like this.
It is time to simply sack them. Get rid of them. No more "words of advice" or any other weasel words. Sack them. And sack the morons who keep on making excuses for them. We don't need them. They serve no purpose whatsoever.
There was me thinking that freetards could fix everything. What about the 10th rate heap of nonsense called gnash? Like GNU Hurd, it'll be ready some time next century.
Understand this: Adobe doesn't have to build a product for you. Your market share is miniscule. Don't like it? Too bad. Pay up, like Sun did for a Solaris version of Flash. Or shut up.
"the open-source Radeon and Intel drivers in Fedora and together the three open drivers pave the way for a more complete 3D stack."
In other words, use the open source 3D drivers for an incomplete 3D stack. Any sane person would stick with the excellent proprietary Nvidia drivers and not bother wasting time on the open source incomplete foobars.
OK, the standard port for HTTP is 80. But I've occasionally visited sites running on other ports.
So is Robert "RSnake" Hansen saying that should no longer be allowed? I suggest before making such statements he does a quick Google search for "inurl:8080". It returns 203 million results. And that is just for port 8080, a common non-standard HTTP port.
And what about FTP? All the web browsers I use have built in FTP clients. So would that be disallowed too?
What makes a port "related" to HTTP? Until the browser actually makes a request, it can't know that site it is connecting to is not running HTTP.
I will state up front that I am a very liberal person. What two people (or more) get up to with their own bodies and their own money is their business, if there is mutual consent. And if somebody charges for a "service" and somebody is willing to pay, so what? That is no different from buying another professional "service", like legal advice.
Now to some practicalities. Prostitutes rent houses and flats, and the owners of those flats turn a blind eye to what goes on within them. Perhaps they are libertarians like me. But the difference is, they are receiving money while turning a blind eye. The landlords are living off immoral earnings, to use that nasty phrase. (Why is banking, or arms manufacturing, not considered immoral?)
So perhaps Harperson, if she really wants to do something about prostitution, should prosecute the landlords for living off immoral earnings. If there is no existing law which does this, I am sure this legislation-hooked government can pass one. The properties could be seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
But I think this would be a step too far for Harperson. Big chunks of the central London are still owned by very wealthy aristocrats. Like the Earl of Onslow and the Duke of Westminster, and they let out their properties, almost never sell freeholds, turning their blind eyes towards the tenants. I don't suppose that the Earl or the Duke let their properties personally, of course not. But the money ends up in their pockets. There is no way that Harperson would dare to upset bigwigs like them, even if she wanted to. Instead she tries to cause a ruffle about a lurid web site, because that is a very easy target.
If Harperson has any moral integrity, let's see her go after the really big boys. Otherwise, live and let live.
Who remembers the IRA bombing Heathrow with mortars back in 1994? It's only a matter of time before somebody repeats it. I'm surprised it hasn't been so far.
I have no idea how large the perimeters of Heathrow, Gatwick, etc., are, but they are not small. What next? Nobody will be allowed near an airport without having a gun shoved up his nose.
I must be honest and admit a slight sadness that the IRA didn't hit an American airline at the time. It might have shut up all those Americans who spoke up (and still do) for the IRA, who gave them money and support.
It's all part of the "big plan". The government makes laws in this country, which are alien to our way of life. We appeal through the courts and get nowhere. We go to the European Courts and get a result. Therefore we all fall in love with Europe, the EU, etc. Eventually we will actively want to throw away our courts, our parliament, etc, because we see they don't protect our rights.
”Stop and search under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is an important tool in a package of measures in the ongoing fight against terrorism."
So please explain why there has not been a single terrorist conviction as a result of the hundreds of thousands of people who have been (illegally) stopped and searched.
”we won all other challenges in the UK courts, including at the House of Lords."
Yes, because they are all your placed men. Who appoints judges in this country? That's right, the government.
I can't actually remember a time when I have updated Mozilla and one or two add-ons are not available for the new version at that time. Alas I find out the hard way - update Mozilla, then get a warning that so and so add-on is kaput.
Perhaps the Mozilla people should add something to the update process that informs users before updating that George's or Bill's add-on won't be available. I could do this myself, by why should I need to?
Of course, some of the blame for this shenanigans is down to the add-on writers. As I look now, Mozilla Firefox is at version 3.5.7. Adblock is shown as "not compatible". I wonder what a straw poll would show for incompatible add-ons.
that "open source" is not the be all and end all that some people make it out to be? If open source is so good, why can a fork not be made and development carry on there?
Don't get me wrong. I use a lot of open source software, and most of the time it is good. I know I am using the labours of other people and paying them nowt. What I don't get, and never have done, is people like Richard Stallman and his intolerance. MySQL is available under Stallman's beloved GNU licence. Stallman keeps telling us GNU is like the word of God. So what is the problem?
Now we have Monty, the man who walked away from MySQL (or Sun, at least), telling us his baby cannot be sold to the big bad wolf called Oracle. Even though he doesn't own this product, he doesn't want somebody else to own it either.
Why doesn't Monty simple work on a fork, proclaim to the world "MontySQL is based on an old release of MySQL", and move on?
Or is the truth that a lot of "heavy" open source programming only happens when a fairly large company is involved? Would Linux be where it is without RedHat taking a gamble that paid off? If RedHat walked away today, I guess Linux would shrink. Being put together by volunteers, no matter how well, would not result in it being certified by certain application vendors (including Oracle). If IBM didn't spend a reputed $1b, where would Linux be? I am not saying that the work of volunteers is worthless - far from it. But without commercial backing it's a different story. Stallman knows it, so does Monty W.
Religious arguments aside for two seconds, FreeBSD and Linux are both good OSs. Why would some netbook vendors (and mobile phone makers) choose Linux rather than FreeBSD? Cos Linux has the backing and FreeBSD doesn't. It has that nice cosy feeling that if IBM supports it, it can't be that bad.
I use MySQL, and have done for years. I don't want to see it disappear.
"perceived heavy-handedness". No, you flipping morons, it's just "heavy-handedness".
I've been stopped by some moron (my new name for the police) who wanted to search my bag. He was very rude, acting as though he owned me. He asked if there was anything sharp inside. I told him he'll have to find out for himself.
The police do not have a difficult job to do. And they often do it very badly.
A very good question!
I have seen successful backup power working at Level 3's building in Goswell Road several times. I have also seen a 7 hour outage there.
Telehouse, seen a power outage there. Telehouse reps said it didn't happen, but couldn't explain why every piece of our equipment, in several racks, suddenly decided to turn itself off and on at the same time.
Harbour Exchange Redbus (as it was then), seen a loss of power during "testing of the backup power system". Not successful, I would say. This was after another power outage when the backup systems didn't work. I recall several power outages at this site.
Power outage at BT's Ilford POP. We were the first to notice and call in about it. Not sure if they have backup power, but I would be surprised if they did not.
Basically at every site where we have equipment, where backup UPS and generators are supplied, I have seen outages. I think it's fair to say backup power works sometimes.
"Officials said they believed it is unlikely the powers will be used". Yeah, right.
Here's the future for Nominet:
1. Some minor thing occurs, something like a fire extinguisher is out of date.
2. The government steps in because "Nominet is not functioning properly".
3. Government cronies get the top jobs.
4. Government crony IT companies are called in as consultants. Let's have a big cheer for EDS.
5. Prices of domain registrations now cost £200, because they are a scarce resource. As such, only people with lots of money should have them. And MPs, who are specifically allowed to put them on expenses.
6. Some years later, Nominet is sold off to government cronies who keep milking it.
7. Ofdom, that is the Office of the Domain Regulator, is formed. It has a staff of 500, headed by numerous government cronies. It costs millions a year to run.
Nominet works, it is cheap and it is efficient. All things that the government is incapable of delivering.
"Fedora developers participating in the online discussion have so far defended their action." That's a major problem in itself. It's major because they just don't get it. Not only do they not get it, but they are defending something they don't get.
Then they have dug their heels in, because can't bring themselves to admit it is so horribly wrong. No amount of polishing will change that turd into gold.
"It amounts to around 150 binaries, and requires 25MB disk space ..."
A little way to go yet, Microsoft. I remember a QNX demo FLOPPY a few years back that had a windowing system, TCP/IP, a web browser, etc. On a fricking floppy.
I always like playing around with minimal installations. I've wasted countless hours doing trial and error Solaris minimal installs. Just for fun. I wouldn't know where to start with Windows.
What do you call a man with a piece of wood on his head? Edward.
What do you call a man with two pieces of wood on his head? Edward Wood.
What do you call a man with three pieces of wood on his head? Edward Woodward.
What do you call a man with four pieces of wood on his head? I don't know, but Edward Woodward would.
RIP.
Did I say it was a religion or a political movement? No, a choice is a choice. When you bought your car, if you have one, you presumably CHOSE one brand. Was that a religious or political decision on your part? Were you glad you had the CHOICE? Or would you prefer that there was only one make and model of car? Painted black, naturally.
I use the same browser on my desktop and laptop. That is what I CHOOSE to do. If I had a GodPhone I might CHOOSE the same browser there too.
I would suggest that in almost every industry our foreign competitors enjoy tax advantages. Or state handouts, which is much the same thing. Or lack of enforcement of costly rules and regulations. Or no such regulations in the first place. Or cheaper fuel, which means cheaper products across the board.
The games makers haven't smelled the coffee yet. They don't understand that we aren't meant to make anything any more, we are supposed to outsource it. We are here to be taxed so our MPs can enjoy hanging baskets, bookshelves and moat cleaning. And second houses. Oh, and to bail out the incredibly wealthy but stupid and greedy bankers. So they can pump up the London house prices with their bonuses, so nobody but bankers and MPs on expense fiddles can afford them.
Sorry guys. I see your point, but you are no different today from the foundry workers of yesteryear. They just want our money.
the American legal system is extremely vindictive. It is quite easy to see a sentence of 60 years being imposed.
Let's all keep in mind that America has 2 million prisoners, about a quarter of the world's total. It has 5% of the world's population.
America should be re-nicknamed "the land of the unfree".