Posts by Alex Forbes

Perl.com sends visitors to porn link farm

If you're not happy with FireFox, use Opera.

..."Firefox is getting more and more bloated and buggy with each release, and their bookmark manager sucks farts from dead goats (in 3.0 beta as well damnit)"...

So use Opera. No need to download all these sodding "extensions" to do simple things like blocking ads or JavaScript or iframes etc. etc. either for a site or globally - Its all inbuilt in opera, aloung with ither useful features likes notes, the ability to apply a custom CSS style to a page and a zoom function which actually *works* (allows you to zoom images and controls too, not just text).

Pity so few people use it - personally I've always rated Opera far above the likes of IE, FireFox (which is by no means bad, but I preferred "Phoenix" when it existed) and Safari.

Such is life.

(*Dons fire-retardant clothing and makes a hasty exit* I'm smelling the flames spouting from the nostrils of the hording fanboys already)

Hundreds of US fighter aces reassigned as drone pilots

Jamming?

I wonder how these UAVs would fair when facing up against any nation with a decent electronic warfare capacity (and enough power behind the fairly simply technology required to jam radio communications).

How do these planes get their updates? Are they using "directed" transmissions which only work with "line of sight" (think satellite dishes and satellites) or do work work like normal radios?

On a final note, if a nation took out the (US military) satellites covering their land mass, would America still be able to wage war effectively using these? I presume destroying the satellites would take out the GPS system hence make most targeting and location systems fail, or are their realistic alternative guidance and triangulation systems on modern weapons?

Need emergency contraception? Just text

Accidents Happen...

..."What might be better would be an automated service whereby, every Friday or Saturday night, it would txt you and remind you not to drink so much and be such a tart."...

Oh please. Condoms break, accidents happen and not every girl needing the morning after pill is a tart. Presuming you're male rather than female: would you rather find out 9 months down the line your a new daddy anyway? Also even loyal women in stable long term relationships sometimes need it.

Either way, as far as I recall you can get "free" emergency contraception on the NHS - either from your local sexual health centre (family planning clinic), NHS walk in centre or GP. I think for most "morning-after" pills you've got 72 hours, but the faster you take them the better, so getting them on the NHS shouldn't be that hard (but possibly more inconvenient). For first-time users I'd recommend they use the NHS so they can get advice about the effects - and the standard lecture about unsafe sex I expect given out; for non-first-time users - perhaps they should be considering other forms of contraception anyway!

Finally, it would be a truly sad world if, as you imply, people who at some point need the morning after pill only have sex in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning! There are, after all, five other days (or nights rather) in the week.

Father's smallpox jab puts son in hospital

Poor kid.

As someone who suffers from atopic eczema and thus (as far as I know) am potentially at risk from what the child is suffering from; I found this article quite disturbing - as well as enlightening.

Firstly, I hope the child makes a quick and full recovery and is not suffering like those people shown on a Centre for Disease Control's web-page about this illness (http://www.bt.cdc.gov/training/smallpoxvaccine/reactions/ec_vac.html).

Secondly, I'm glad I now know about this. Although I doubt I'd ever need or be offered a smallpox vaccination; knowing to ask about this as a possible side affect is something I'll keep in mind if it becomes an issue!