* Posts by Susan Ottwell

8 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Nov 2007

Foreign Office changes tourist advice after Israeli inquiry

Susan Ottwell
Black Helicopters

They must have done it!

Since UK police found no links to any country other than Israel, which had an obvious motive for taking out al-Mabhuh, the British government has concluded "that there are compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of British passports," Miliband said.

Forget that Egyptian and other Middle Eastern countries where know to be having him followed. Forget that he was involved in criminal smuggling and money laundering. We can't think of anybody else who might have been able to do this, or who might have wanted to do it, so it must have been Israel. Of course, we have no proof at all, but let's bash them anyway!

Actually, most Israelis are finding this whole thing hilarious. The surveillance videos released are so absurd that they have been used in comedy routines already. I especially like the supposed female operative who wears big, floppy sun hats. I collect those, and wear them all the time!

More than 40 people sneaking into a tiny little country to whack one bad guy? Any semi-professional spook agency wouldn't send more than half a dozen.

EU court rules 11-word snippets can violate copyright

Susan Ottwell

Not from free sources

According to this, they were not gathering this information by searching the Internet. They were actually scanning physical newspapers using OCR software, then searching the resultant text. That does seem to put a different slant on the whole idea. Wouldn't it be a copyright violation to scan books or other written works for commercial use?

Firefox 3.5 patch coming soon as Mozilla cranks up downloads

Susan Ottwell

Those little + marks

Those little + marks are for opening a new tab. Not everyone finds this useful; as a web developer I use it all the time.

Susan Ottwell

New Tab button botheration

And if that little + mark to the right of your tabs really bothers you, here's how to get rid of it. http://joe-riggs.com/blog/2009/07/remove-new-tab-button-from-firefox-3-5/

Teachers give toilet CCTV top marks

Susan Ottwell

Shared Toilets

I saw this first-hand attending a small 4-room school, with two toilets, an office and a kitchen. The principal was the 7/8th grade teacher. The hall was the cafeteria; everybody (including the teachers) took their chairs out at lunchtime to the long table built against the window side of the hall and got their lunch from the kitchen window at the end of the hall.

Then they added an extension, consisting of a teacher's lounge and toilets. The teachers took turns supervising lunch while the rest ate in the teacher's lounge. The teachers took turns supervising the schoolyard during recess.

Immediately harassment and bullying became epidemic, there was smoking, drugs and sex in the student bathrooms. And the teacher "on duty" made it very clear that they resented not being with their buddies in the lounge. The last two years I spent in that small-town school were pure hell.

Students win appeal against cyberjihad convictions

Susan Ottwell

Freedom fighters vs Terrorists

Ok, people, it's not that difficult. A freedom fighter fights against military and/or government targets. A terrorist targets civilians to cause, well, terror in the general populace.

Snipers shooting soldiers or even political leaders is one thing, snipers shooting infants in carriages in front of synagogues is something else. Bombing military establishments or government facilities is one thing, bombing pizza parlours full of teenagers is something else. Mobbing and knifing a couple of uniformed soldiers is one thing (although taunting one of the soldier's wives when she rang his cellphone is pushing it), mobbing and stoning a couple of 14-year-old boys is something else.

Did the American "freedom fighters" of the Revolution hide in the trees and shoot at the British soldiers, or did they hide in the trees and shoot at the British soldiers' wives and kids? When the Israeli Irgun "freedom fighters" blew up the King David hotel, was it full of civilians on holiday, or was it being used as the British military headquarters? There is a difference.

Apple keeps critical security fixes to itself

Susan Ottwell

QuickTime Update

Makes it pretty clear to me:

QuickTime 7.3.1 addresses security issues.

This update is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

Having a migraine? Blame your brain

Susan Ottwell

Cause and effect

I was abused as a child, then again by my husband. I had debilitating migraines almost weekly. After 24 years of marriage, I left... and have not suffered a single migraine in almost 15 years since that day. So is it cause, or effect?