Posts by GB

High Court shields database state from blame

Sue for libel

Like the title says:

Sue for libel instead.

Lies, damned lies and inflation statistics

@STEVE KING

"I had a 3 year tracker at base rate +0.44%. It ends on Wednesday, and I'm now offered base rate +3.59%"

On no account pay good money to get a tracker - get yourself a long-term fix (five-year plus, ten if you're sure of your circumstances) for under 5%.

Inflation will take off next year and anyone on a tracker will be taken up the jaxie when interest rates go up in tandem. Good deals will start disappearing in the summer.

Linux weaktops poised for death by smartphone

A point well missed

I shall shortly be purchasing one of those nifty Acer Aspire Ones. I'm not a gadget freak or a Linux 'fanboy', I just have a need for a laptop that can do Office (Open or Microsoft, I'm not too fussed) for one and a half hours on the train, morning and evening to do work on the move - and not much else really.

It's got to be light, robust and reliable. It doesn't have to be powerful. It doesn't even need to be permanently-net-connected, really (the idea of a netbook always connected to the internet is just hype).

I have a laptop at home - it's far too big and heavy. I don't want to spend a fortune to fulfill this limited need: spending £400 instead of £200 is £200 wasted because if I want mor processor power I have it in the office and at home.

Netbooks are popular because they fulfill certain people's *needs*. End of.

And what's all that about smartphones? How does that help me get work done on the move (not all of us have a need to answer email 24/7)?

Paris Hilton - cos she's clearly much smarter - and a deeper thinker - than this Dzuiba geezer...

UK nuke-power plans leak early

£600bn = nothing, eh?

@Anonymous Coward, 8th Jan, 21:56 GMT: "We have no manufacturing industry left".

I am fed up of reading this bullshit on toast. Industry accounts for around one-quarter of the UK's national output, valued at about $600bn. The UK is one of the top five or six manufacturing nations in the world. It might not make £20 DVD players - who would want to? - but it makes a lot of very high value stuff, very efficiently. Or is the top-class Baxi boiler at home, for example, just a figment of my imagination?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_sector_composition

Bllithely writing off one-quarter of the economy (not to mention all the business in the services sector that relies on manufacturing) is insane. It is not a solution. Not *everything* in manufacturing will necessarily end up being made in China (in factories with electricity provided by very basic coal-fired power stations, of course).

@Kate Menzies: "I'm not happy with the nuclear solution as it is not practical for unstable developing countries."

So what? It's very practical for us. That's SEP - someone else's problem.

"The UK could and should invest money and take the lead in developing non-centralised local distribution networks."

You what? Like what? Is it practical?

"Pro-nuclearites seem perfectly happy that in the future some bright spark is going to come up with a solution to nuclear waste"

The amount of waste generated by nuclear is tiny. A concrete bunker (line it with lead, if you like it), sturdy doors, bit of security. Problem solved. Alternatively blast it into space (but launch the rocket from Kazakhstan, just in case).