Is this a variant on "you are what you eat" ?
It's got the bananas, fruitcake and crackers in the pocket.
1299 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jan 2010
To the Film Industry and their political friends.
Dear Sirs,
May I politely point out that you need to get your act together and bring your industry into the 21st Century.
Do you really still think that one "pirate" copy equals one lost sale? Perhaps you need to start assuming that your customers are on to your little scheme and wisen up.
I do not go to the cinema now and have not done so since the major chains turned their "theaters" (sic) into warm places where people can enjoy a bit of food and drink, while using their phones and talking to their friends. I believe there was some sort of film being shown the last time I went, but nobody seemed to be taking any interest in that.
Consequently I tend to buy (yes buy) films on DVD so I can watch them in the relative comfort of my home. Now I may be slow on the uptake here, but I have learned that if I can bear to wait a month or so after the UK release of your latest "blockbuster", I can actually buy the wretched thing at a supermarket for about 10% of the original price. (You notice the 'buy' word again.)
While I'm ranting, could I also suggest that you might consider using some sort of 'plot' in your next production. Again I realise that I'm somewhat old fashioned, but I do rather prefer films that have some sort of storyline, rather than those with only clever special effects, and nausea inducing 3D.
Not, I hasten to add, that all recent films are totally devoid of 'plot'. That would be too sweeping a statement given the number of remakes of 'classics' that are now appearing. Incidentally I did notice that many of these films were 'classics' because they had a 'plot'.
Still at least these remakes make a change from yet another sequel to some tired franchise. Although I do notice a trend where these are simply a vehicle for some 'star' or another. Which reminds me has the person responsible for casting Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau in 'The Pink Panther', been hunted down and fired yet?
If any of these suggestions are useful, then please do get in touch with me. My IP lawyers are awaiting your call.
Yours etc.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld's cat.
A spokesman for the Five Ring Circus said,
"We do not want anyone upsetting our corporate sponsors, the broadcasters, the athletes, or their agents. We don't believe that the volunteers, sorry 'Games Makers', will keep their mouths shut if they see something we don't like.
Anyone who tweets anything other than the official line will be accused of breaching 'security' and treated as a terrorist."
According to the judgement...
The Court ruled the government had breached rules governing consultation exercises, when it announced that proposed cuts to feed-in tariff incentives would impact installations completed before the end of the consultation period.
Mr Justice Mitting said ministers were "proposing to make an unlawful decision" and as a result the court would be "amenable to a judicial review".
"UK doesn't get much sun so why would they assume solar power would be viable?"
Contrary to popular belief, photo-voltaic cells produce electricity when ANY light of suitable wavelength falls on them. They don't need bright sunlight and still generate SOME electricity on cloudy days.
That said, the electrical demands of the average house cannot generally be met by solar panels, even with a large battery bank as storage. Solar power can however be viable for off-grid locations with limited power demands.
The subsidy and feed-in tariff, as with wind turbines, exist purely for political reasons.
"I think that the nasty way that a few self-appointed people run roughshod over other's work is far more off-putting. I'm not going back, for a start."
I can identify with that. I had a technical report of mine misquoted so badly that it reversed my actual conclusions.
When I corrected the page and added a citation to my article, it was reverted by the original editor. I put it back again and added copious notes to explain why. The original editor reverted it again.
It was eventually sorted out, but it left a bitter taste. I can only assume that my report's conclusions did not match the prejudices of the original editor.
This sounds like the school formerly run by Seymour Utterthwaite.
"... with magnificent views over the moors, but by God it was cold. Little fingers blue with cold, but it didn't stop the boys writing whinging little notes back to their parents. Oh no. And the fuss when one of them fell off the roof..."
I read the article three times and I still can't understand it, but then I'm only an IT person.
Oh hang on it's the UK Treasury, so it's bound to be needlessly complicated to the point at which Kafka would shake his head in disbelief.
No doubt somewhere there is a tax lawyer, IP lawyer, accountant or bureaucrat punching the air and shouting "ALL RIGHT!".
"Thank you for calling the Phobos-Grunt probe. Your call is important to us. We now have four options for you:
To go to Mars press 1 ... to go to the Moon press 2 ... to de-orbit press 3 ... to hear a duck quack please press 9."
It's got the Haynes "Interplanetary probes" manual in a pocket.
For the past >mumble< years I've always insisted that software development was an art not a science.
I have always been interested in watercolour painting, and would like very much to do it. I understand colours, I understand the basics of composition. I have even gone on weekend courses.
It is clear that I have no talent whatsoever in that area and *never* will have. I just do not have the necessary vital spark to do it.
This is the same for software development. You can teach (as I used to) some people a programming language, you can even teach them the underlying principles of programming, but they still won't be able to do it.
No amount of training will *ever* get them beyond the basics. They just don't think the right way. They have learned it, but not understood it.
Given enough training, most people can churn out blocks of code that do what is needed, usually in an inefficient, formulaic manner. When you ask them why they implemented something in a particular way, they will nearly always mumble something like "that's how they were taught".
Ask them to modify (or even document) somebody else's code and they are lost Usually they will simply rewrite the function from scratch, rather than build on the existing code.
Unfortunately most project managers see "developers" as interchangeable blocks on their chart, and "programming" as something that anyone can do with the right training.
/rant
Most of the truly creative people I have ever the pleasure to work with, had some sort of personality trait that would send this software off the end of the scale.
What would such a system would make of rainbow hairstyles, inflatable alligators, BOFH mugs, chair races and design documents written in the style of Tolkien? That's before we get to the bare feet and a disinclination to wash.
Alternatively you could have a neat, silent office full of tidy, emotionless clones, gently coasting to oblivion, as they wait for the next startling revelation from their know-nothing managers.
For some purposes the fax machine is still the best technology for the job.
I regularly use fax to get quotes for small pieces of fabrication, where a formal drawing is unnecessary.
It is considerably quicker to scribble a note on a sheet of paper, add a quick sketch and fax it, than to fire up the CAD package and export to email etc.
So the Government is looking to dump the "subsidy" on solar panels (that actually work), but to keep the subsidy for windmills (which don't).
Putting aside the subsidy question, it strikes me as odd that the very success of a scheme is now considered grounds for discontinuing it.
Incidentally (as I'm sure you already know Andrew), solar panels produce some electricity whenever light falls on them, and not just on sunny days.
Sorry Martha,
Most of my relatives, colleagues and friends have been online for years. I know this because I periodically have to fix their machines.
I don't think that the others would want to go online at 02:00 GMT - even if the nursing home would let them.
Anyway it's not an extra hour. It's a replacement for the one taken from me in March.