Posts by Doctor Syntax 42272 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
"Disabling Javascript totally rather breaks the interwebs these days."
Most of the time I'll simply ignore a site that won't work at all without Javascript. If I think I really need it I'll see if I can selectively enable enough domains to make it work or see if the Google cached version is sufficient. Some sites manage to use so much Javascript as to break on some browsers even when fully enabled; eBay, I'm looking at your recent inability to display images in Seamonkey.
It's not an area that greatly concerns me but from the descriptions I've read here I'd have thought existing fraud legislation might have dealt with a lot of it and has the added advantage of imprisonment as a deterrent. But introducing a new piece of legislation is easier for legislators than getting existing legislation enforced. Which raises the question of how the new legislation will be enforced.
Government is responsible a lot of areas and not all the public have the same concerns. If the entire government machine was obliging you, Stuart, by concentrating on what you think they should be doing there would be a lot of other people complaining about neglect of other issues such as Xylella fastidiosa or asking why you left climate change or whatever off your list.
"It depends on what's going on in a system."
Firing up top in Linux shows several processes, mostly daemons, actively using CPU with nothing actually being done with the system so even in the absence of IO there's context changes taking place even if it's just a matter of waking up daemons to find that there's nothing to do. I'd guess that much the same situation applies with Windows.
"So you think the security problems in the world don't matter other than the influence of which processor you buy"
Focus. Tackle each issue in its own place. We've discussed other security issues in other contexts. Actually, in this context, the issue isn't so much the security issue, because like many others, it can be fixed, but the cost of fixing it.
"Install Linux ................................ BORING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
get a life"
Installing Linux is a step to getting a life unless you consider waiting for all those painfully slow Windows updates/reboots to be a life.
"If you have a small indigenous economy ....
But we don't."
Exactly. If you're managing the Irish economy, say, you can gain more by bringing in large multinationals at low tax which is why Ireland do that. If the UK were to cut tax rates to tempt multinationals away from existing low tax areas they'd be unlikely to bring in more than they'd forego from existing UK businesses.
It's an international market place in taxation. The pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap approach only works if you don't have too much to lose from your existing domestic tax base.
"If governments want these businesses to pay more tax, they have to change the tax rules."
It's not that easy.
If you have a small indigenous economy you don't have that much to lose by inviting in multinationals by offering low taxation. What's more those indigenous businesses gain off the back of it by being lightly taxed. If you have a large economy the tax lost by taxing those lightly offsets the gains obtained by binging in those large multinationals. It's a trade-off. What you see happening is complaints about not being able to compete in what's in effect a free market in taxation of multinationals. Governments, as usual, wanting their cake and eating it.
"As Khosla put it: "Most of these [data gravity causes] are not critical issues for 'once a year data anti-gravity' threat that CIOs need to hold over cloud vendors' head. "
That one's easy to decode. It's just someone ringing up the vendor every now and again and saying "About your prices...".
"Am I just overlooking them, or are the double-quote and period keys actually missing from the keyboard layout?"
Presumably double-quote is where it normally is, shift-2. Is that the period on the / key? Confusing if it is. But for something intended to run Linux where have \ and | gone?
"How much would delivery to the UK cost and what would customs charge?"
From Companies House:
Name & Registered Office:
PLANET COMPUTERS LIMITED
228A HIGH STREET
BROMLEY
ENGLAND
BR1 1PQ
Company No. 10468629
I don't know of any customs barriers between Bromley and the rest of the UK but with things going the way they are anything could happen.
"This will cause a serious syntax error situation to develop between three parties, the people who was promised a raise, the people who made the promise, and manglement."
To which the answer is "see you in court" which, in this case, would be an employment tribunal. The company can sort it out internally.
