* Posts by Richard Dyce

7 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Apr 2006

No2ID calls in pledge cash to 'probe' ID Act's enabling laws

Richard Dyce
Alert

... you forgot to mention that they take paypal

Just in case you're too lazy to write a cheque (as I am).

IT majors forge SAFECode alliance

Richard Dyce
Pirate

Has anyone told the lawyers?

I'll change my views on their software reliability when they re-write their EULAs to include at least some liabilities...

Dot, squiggle, plop

Richard Dyce
Coat

Er, no.

"But now it's been done (and is in beta) the next step is going to be, surely, to decide whether we can open up the rest of programming technology? Was that a worm I saw?"

If it was, it then it was made of straw.

Why does ensuring that consumers can enjoy a website and enter URLs in their native encoding mean that we need to start writing code in it?

Despite many attempts over the years to make writing code 'simple' or even 'easier' learning to code is all about learning to write IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE. Indeed, I've always suspected that non-English speakers manage to avoid some of the common early mistakes that English speakers make when thinking in English and writing code with English prepositions ;-)

And having coded on a Mac for some time, I've worked with a number of different nationalities who've written native comments in any number of languages...

Left-handeders finally unlock the closet, researchers find

Richard Dyce

Edwardians?

This was still happening in Scotland in the late thirties. My Uncle George, a southpaw, was routinely 'tawsed' for using his left hand...

ISPs hijack BBC in tiered services push

Richard Dyce

Does that mean there'll be a three-tiered TV licence?

Colour - B&W - Linux/Mac User....

I mean linux and mac users shouldn't have to subsidise the ISPs for a service that the BBC isn't offering *them*? ho ho ho.

Or more worryingly, is this just the agument the treasury need to add Broadband Use to the remit of the licence fee. There may be more PCs than TVs out there after all...

Doctor Who signs up thinking man's crumpet

Richard Dyce

Who?

Oh dear. To think that I'm now old enough to have witnessed the handover of the TTMC title to Felicity Kendal. I don't remember reading Joan Bakewell's obit. Or has she moved on to TTPC (The Thinking Pensioner's Crumpet?)

Databases in academia

Richard Dyce

"Register research isn't always up on the latest in Academic Research" ;-)

I found it interesting that someone else brought up the FileMaker thing. Having worked with a number of academics in the past, in various fields, FMPro is often used as a 'better Excel' for manipulation of data, and is seen more as an 'everyday tool' - i.e. something which they use for more than one task, something which they'll use to knock up something to capture data, and to test hypotheses quickly.

A syllogistic search for database use in Academia which starts off with 'BI is the latest killer feature in database tools' is bound to turn up the conclusion "University research isn't always up on the latest in business IT". Sometimes 'the latest in business IT' isn't of very much use w.r.t. academic use of databases.

For example, one bit of work I was involved with was ended up as part of a PhD submission (back in 1996), that was partly written in FileMaker - in Art & Design Ceramics of all things! It definitely had to be done in a database, but not sure how BI would have applied to it ;-)