Posts by birchanger_toper

Acer Chromebook 13: The best Googletop on the market?

Re: "experts", who are blinded by their fanaticism, ignorance, and own motives.

@AC Upvoted for the History Today reference.

David Cameron: I'm off to the US to get my bro Barack to ban crypto – report

Re: We will try!

@Bloodbeastterror - rarely have I read a post I've agreed with so strongly.

This 125mph train is fitted with LASERS. Sadly no sharks, though

OCS don't own the trains

"Government-owned Network Rail runs the British railway system. It owns the track, stations and all the other bits except the trains. Those belong to the TOCs..."

No. The TOCs have to lease the trains from the ROSCOs (Rolling Stock Companies); the latter having a licence to print outrageously large sums of money at the TOCs', and ultimately the passengers', expense.

Ad regulator pulls down Branson-backed magic undies

Re: It used to be women

But those were dangerous times. Remember all of the nasty negative ions we had to be protected from? Some of my colleagues actually bought air ionisers to create lovely positive ions, thereby guaranteeing them centuries of good health.

Ohh! The PRECIOUS! Give it to uss. We WANTS it: Shiny iThings coming in 2014

I'm really looking forward to seeing some "very, very unique" new products. Products that are merely very unique just don't cut it for me.

Be prepared... to give heathens a badge: UK Scouts open doors to unbelievers

Re: It's a good start. @Khaptain 05:47

"9 and 10 year olds aren't interested in religious debates or Atheism"

Nonsense. I had to go and see the local Brownies leader after my daughter refused to write a prayer because she didn't believe in God. I doubt she's that rare in having already formed a strong view.

Analyst says Brit rail broadband plan is TRAIN CRAZY

Re: A fundamental problem with this...

You don't work for the Daily Mail, do you?

City of Munich throws Ubuntu lifeline to Windows XP holdouts

How does this help?

They're helping people by moving them from XP, which will be unsupported soon but with which the user is familiar; and which has millions of pages spread over the web solving just about every problem ever likely to be encountered, to Ubuntu, which they know nothing about, which is in practice unsupported from day one and has considerably fewer millions of equally helpful pages.

Enterprise storage: A history of paper, rust and flash silicon

No mention of mercury delay lines, or magnetic drum storage?

IT bloke inadvertently broadcasts smut on vast public screen

I've read this book, and it's fantastic. There are no explicit passages in at all, but I can see how you could make a grumbleflick from it, as the main character (whose name is - wait for it - Hsi Men) does get about a bit.

What's great are the insights into Chinese culture and technology some hundreds of years ago. Plus the perpetual sex and corruption.

You'll find it on eBay or Amazon, and I think there's been a new translation since I last read it.

The title varies, but my copy is called 'The Adventurous History of Hsi Men and His Six Wives', or the Chin P'ing Mei (or similar).

I need to get the movie now, by the sound of it.

Cameron's Tech City: Desks? Yes. Cash? Yes. Coders? Nope

Of course there's such a thing as a lack of skilled workers in certain fields. Always has been. There will never be an exact match between supply and demand, especially when the skills required are so fluid. Back in my day employers were expected to TRAIN their employees, instead of moaning to that ferret-faced Secretary of State for Education that schools ought to be doing it all for them.

If you're not prepared to train then you've no option other than to offer big bucks.

Of course there's such a thing as a lack of skilled workers in certain fields. Always has been. There will never be a match between supply and demand, especially when the skills required are so fluid. Back in my day employers were expected to TRAIN their employees, instead of moaning to that ferret-faced Secretary of State for Education that schools ought to be doing it all for them.

If you're not prepared to train them then you've no option other than to offer big bucks.

Antarctic ice sheet melt 'not that unusual', latest ice core shows

If this is the same study that was reported yesterday in that crazy liberal hippy rag The Sunday Times then it's possible to come to a very different conclusion from the study. But then I think we've all worked out by now where Mr. Page is coming from.

We don’t talk any more... on the commute

Gerard Hoffnung's advice

Gerard Hoffnung, in his late 1950s advice to tourists visiting Britain, said 'Upon entering a railway compartment, be sure to shake hands with all the occupants', so he recognised that commuters are hardly an outgoing lot.

Mind you, he also said 'All British brothels display blue lights'.

Bill seeks to decriminalise pianos in pubs and schools

A third of pubs didn't apply for a licence?

I have no reason to doubt the figures, but I don't understand it. The 2003 act introduced a single licence covering booze, entertainment and late night food. So every pub in the land had to reapply for their licence (unless they intended to go temporance). If they couldn't be arsed to mention that they occasionally offered entertainment then they can't have been to bothered about losing the right to provide it.

Still glad the law's being loosened, though.