Posts by Dan

Government set to 'destroy' UK radio astronomy

War, Rock and Sebastian Coe

Realistically, this is the pinch of 2 continuing wars (countless billions), nationalising Northern Rock (18bn), paying for the Olympics (3-5bn) and a debt of over 40% GDP.

Astronomy is the first easy target for pen pushers who have no idea (or interest) of what facilities like Jodrell Bank have achieved.

Be prepared for more cuts across more industries as the mire continues... the recession starts here - blame Tony.

BBC HD channel gets green light

HD is ok.

I always used to resist HD due to my extreme myopia "I haven't got HD eyes, mate" would be my response to the salesmen in Dixons.

Now I've actually got HD, it's like I've got some new glasses - it's pretty good.

Record industry pushes ISPs to cut off file sharers

Royaly Fees

The simplest way to solve this would be to make it law to impose a Performing Rights Society (PRS) fee on your broadband subscription. Maybe 10 quid a month?

This is the same blanket fee that is imposed on public venues to play music or films. If we can't be sure what or how much people are sharing, then at least everyone with internet access will be paying something in royalties to this organisation who then distribute the payments accordingly.

This fee would generate hundreds of millions of pounds for the industry each year. In return we should be allowed to share, copy and view as much material as we like. It seems the fairest way to me!?

Viking ship resurfaces under Merseyside boozer

Theme Pub

Why spend 2 million quid raising the ship when you could probably spend less money and reduce the risk of damage by extending the pub around it and have it as a Viking theme pub and tourist attraction! I bet it'd also generate more revenue that way too.

Boffins unveil sharpest ever stellar snaps

Jounalists Continue To Use The Word "Boffin": Shocker

The world of journalism was mildly shaken today by a further use of the word "Boffin" to conjour images of men with beards and jumpers doing things that the normally dumb general public cannot fathom. One journalist commented, "I've no comprehension of anything more than endless ramblings about Big Brother, so to see people make fuzzy pictures clear is like the reverse of doing the 10 lines of coke I've just done".

A real Astrophysicist was unavailable for interview, due to an excess of alcohol and MDMA., his jumper was also missing. Jounalists are now worried that the concept of "Boffin" is as cliched as "some hack journalist preaching to the lowest common denominator", while newspaper editors widely agreed they "didn't give a toss".

'IE8 compatible' - the cure for web standards headache?

Quirks Mode Button?

Surely all Microsoft need do is create a standards compliant browser and add a "Quirks Mode" button, which the user can press if a website looks odd, and then display pages using the old IE engine.

Even better: they should just add an attribute to the DTD that only IE 8 can read that allows developers flag pages as standards compliant. If that flag isn't there, then the page reverts to old quirky IE engine.

Therefore if every developer adds this flag, within 5 years new versions of IE need not have quirks mode as most sites would be standards compliant by then.