* Posts by Ben

7 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Oct 2006

Jimbo Wales ends death by Wikipedia

Ben
Thumb Down

Oh no!

Each article remained vandalised for 3-4 minutes before it was corrected. Boo hoo. Move on, nothing to see.

Home Secretary goes crazy on drugs... policy

Ben
IT Angle

Relevant?

I can't believe I haven't seen this symbol yet - what is this doing on an IT news site?

TrafficMaster sells clients' location info to UK.gov

Ben

Alternative

"Also, don't drive to and from your ghost car in your legit car: walk or ride a bike or something."

Or just walk or ride a bike in the first place, instead of driving.

Coming to terms with Raon's Everun tiny, Lolita-based PC

Ben

Lolita?

Strange use of "Lolita" in this article. Lolita's size was not the issue, it was her *age*. Given her age, one might expect she had small hands, as all children do, by why pick on Lolita? Perhaps the author has got Lolita confused with Lilliput(ian)? Maybe Tom Thumb would have been better?

The confusion also raises a question: where has the author got *his* idea of Lolita from? :)

Anyway, the keyboard does look fiddly. There are lots of alternative text entry systems not using a keyboard, besides handwriting/screen keyboards. I would like to see mobile PC manufacturers using them more. They are cheap to implement in software, and may well do away with the need for a keyboard, making the device cheaper, so why not?

Yangtze river dolphin is an ex-cetacean

Ben

Why is human selection different to other natural selection?

If you regard humans as part of the natural world, and their activities (including industry and so on) as natural, then as other posters have said, this begs the question: why don't we just regard the loss of this dolphin as natural selection and move on?

The answer is that we are fully aware of the consequences of our actions. We understand evolution, we understand ecosystems, and we are able to monitor impending losses and intervene to prevent them - if we want to.

And that is the key, really. Assuming there is no selfish reason for wanting to save a species, such as it having a vital role in our ecosystem or the threat of going to hell for not looking after god's creatures, then it is up to us to decide what is worth saving, or not actively driving to extinction.

This dolphin is the product of billions of years of evolution, a process which cannot be repeated. It is the end product of millennia of struggle and success, and what's more it is a particularly special end product. There are not millions of other very similar species, as with bacteria or insects. To see it wiped out in my lifetime is tremendously sad to me. And, I hope, to most others.

Those who disagree are entitled to their opinion, however my guess is they will find themselves increasingly isolated as time goes by, and the scale of the destruction caused by human activity becomes more apparent.

Apple's first handheld: the Newton MessagePad

Ben

Prior forgotten technology

The author appears to have his Apple-blinkers on. There were numerous PDAs around before the Newton/Messagepad. I'm sure other Register readers can give more examples, but in the UK the most notable was the series developed by Psion, starting with the Psion Organiser in 1984. Look it up on wikipedia, where you'll also find out about Sharp's earlier PDAs. Casio were certainly producing PDA type devices in the 1970's, although they were of course quite primitive.

Top firms' websites not ready for IE7

Ben

Title is wrong?

Top firms' websites not ready for IE7? Surely that should be "IE7 not ready for top firms' websites"?