
and "hits" are not a sensible measure of how popular a website is (should be unique visitors or at least pageviews)
15 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Apr 2008
Would almost be enough to move to EE if they supported invaluable iPhone feature Visual Voicemail - but they don't. Still stuck with archaic 80's style voicemail. Till they get that sorted a bit faster downloads when you can get signal isn't enough to switch to them and I will have to stick to O2.
Tiscali were pioneers but became terrible. I won't lament their passing. I left them a few years ago after they started throttling my bandiwidth down to nothing for exceeding "fair use". They wouldn't tell me where the limit was or how much I was using, so left. Leaving was a difficult process that took months, appaling customer service and billing. Am now with Be Unlimited where unlimited actually means what it says.
SATs aren't there to assess the child. No kid needs to revise or worry about SATs which after all are only a couple of exams in the whole of primary. A good teacher has nothing to worry about, thier pupils will know enough to do well in the tests an all that is needed is a couple of practice papers to get the hang of the question format. Any narrowing of the curriculum is surely only the result of insecure, crap teachers who's only way of getting children through is just to teach to the test at the expense of real learning.
When I was at school we had exams every year from age 7, the results of which went on the board for all to see. This meant was that by the time I had to sit O & A levels or university exams I had done hundreds of exams and was good at taking them.
The price of cannabis has also fallen significantly in real terms over the last twenty years. Just goes to show that all that prohibition and war on drugs has had little effect. If we could control and tax the market like with nicotine then the prices would be going up every year and usage would actually reduce.
Shame the Conservatives are spouting the same old rubbish and advocating the same failed policies we have had for the last thirty years. The intelligent response would be to put the dealers out of business, bring in tax revenue and make the products less glamorous and exciting by selling them in Boots.
The cost benefit of the system always looked very dodgy. £12Bn would buy a lot of nurses and doctors so the system would have to deliver a lot of efficiency savings to be worthwhile. Now we find out that it takes four times longer to use than then old way and needs extra staff not less. Surely the project should be killed off. Shame the government rarely understands the concept of sunk costs and doesn't want the embarassment of admitting that the whole thing has been a disaster.
It is terrible that sensible discussion and facts on the real risks of drugs are shouted down by the sensationalist media (Daily Mail etc.) and politicians too afraid to admit the truth. Our Presbyterian, puritan PM and his spineless Home Secretary are simply the latest in a long line of politicians that are not brave and honest enough to admit that drug prohibition has been a disaster on any measure (e.g Heroin addicts increased from 1,000 in 1970 when Heroin prescription was legal to 270,000 now).
I really hope that one day the UK may get some politicians in power who might do something sensible. It is good to see that at least The Reg and a few other publications (Independent newspaper) are prepared to talk about drugs in a factual and reasonable way. Shame the rest of the media is so rubbish.
Parallel importers are doing a public service, stopping the software companies from gouging the UK consumer too heavily. A prison sentance is very harsh for something that shouldn't be illegal anyway (if the government or EU were at all interested in real competition and consumers interests).
I can confirm Be Unlimted are good. I had to leave Tiscali after they throttled my internet down to nothing for exceeding the "fair use" amount. We have four adults in the house and Tiscali would not tell me what the limit was or when we were exceeding it.
Since we have been with Be have had no problems. Only get about 5Mb/s on a 24Mb/s service but that is much better than I ever used to get from Tiscali.
Jacqui Smith and half the shadow cabinet have admitted smoking weed at university when it was Class C. Now she has just increased the penalty for users from 2 years to 5 years. Does she really think it would have been better for her or for society if she had been sent to prison for 5 years ? Would catching and imprisoning the 4.5 million people in this country who smoke cannabis each year make the country better ?
Clearly enforcing the law would be terrible for otherwise innocent people and the country as a whole. The whole idea of imprisoning someone for doing something that might, maybe do them a little harm (but harm no one else) is utterly wrong and counter-productive. What a terrible bunch of politicians we have Brown, Jacqui Smith and David Davis - none of them with the guts and intelligence to do the right thing and legalise.
The re-classification against expert advice is simply a pointless political stunt that will change nothing. Brown is simply showing his puritan, Presbyterian, he has a deep and abiding fear that somewhere people are having a good time. What ill-informed, scare-mongering rubbish he spouts, the idea of "killer skunk" is rubbish although killer alcohol and killer tobacco are real and rightly legal.
The move from Class B to Class C changed little, other than reducing usage amongst the young by making it seem a bit less glamorous and dangerous. So moving it back won't change anything accept but consumption up a bit. Unfortunately the prohibition on supply causes real harm ; weed adulterated with glass, no strength controls, no age restrictions and a multi-billion pound industry given tax free to criminals. If Brown was really worried about "killer skunk" he would be legalising and controlling the trade, rather than supporting criminals and wasting police time.
Good for Boris. Of course cannabis should be available on prescription as others have said it is medically useful for glaucoma, nausea for chemotherapy, arthritis and general pain relief.That is without getting on to the anti-psychotic and anti-cancer properties found in some research studies. In the 19th century it was the most prescribed drug in England. In other words cannabis is less harmful than most prescription drugs and has lots of uses. What sort of immoral bastards deny helpful medicine to sick people ? Answer the governments of the last 30 years.
What a spineless and incompetent government and regulator we have.
I have just added a statement to the privacy policies on my websites (www.tiespecialist.com and www.artspecialist.co.uk) saying that we explicitly do not consent to third party tracking cookies or Phorm. That should ensure that their service is illegal if any of the 20,000 people a month who visit my sites are BT customers.