Friday, September 19, 2003
Oh well, its a start...
BBC NEWS | Technology | UK bans spam messages:
"The UK has made spam a criminal offence to try to stop the flood of unsolicited messages.
Under the new law, spammers could be fined £5,000 in a magistrates court or an unlimited penalty from a jury.
But they would not be sent to jail, according to the new measures introduced by Communications Minister Stephen Timms. "
"The UK has made spam a criminal offence to try to stop the flood of unsolicited messages.
Under the new law, spammers could be fined £5,000 in a magistrates court or an unlimited penalty from a jury.
But they would not be sent to jail, according to the new measures introduced by Communications Minister Stephen Timms. "
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair's by-election nightmare
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair's by-election nightmare:
"Charles Kennedy's wildest dreams came true on Friday morning as Tony Blair and Iain Duncan Smith were plunged into a shared electoral nightmare.
Disillusioned Labour voters in the Brent East by-election went to the polls to deliver their verdict on the war on Iraq, government trustworthiness and, most pointedly, Tony Blair's leadership.
The result is bleak for Tony Blair
And the message could not have been clearer, or more sensational.
They turned their backs on Labour in their thousands, rejected the Tories as irrelevant and instead handed the Liberal Democrats another of their occasional historic victories with a huge swing."
Hoho... more good news....
"Charles Kennedy's wildest dreams came true on Friday morning as Tony Blair and Iain Duncan Smith were plunged into a shared electoral nightmare.
Disillusioned Labour voters in the Brent East by-election went to the polls to deliver their verdict on the war on Iraq, government trustworthiness and, most pointedly, Tony Blair's leadership.
The result is bleak for Tony Blair
And the message could not have been clearer, or more sensational.
They turned their backs on Labour in their thousands, rejected the Tories as irrelevant and instead handed the Liberal Democrats another of their occasional historic victories with a huge swing."
Hoho... more good news....
Labour lose first by-election in 15 years..
BBC NEWS | Politics | Lib Dems seize Brent East victory:
"The Liberal Democrats have won the Brent East by-election with a majority of just over 1,100 votes.
Islington councillor Sarah Teather gained 8,158 votes to beat London MEP Robert Evans (7,040), her victory marking the first time Labour has lost a Commons seat in a by-election for 15 years. "
TB: "Just give me a sign if you think I'm doing wrong Lord, any kind of sign"...
"The Liberal Democrats have won the Brent East by-election with a majority of just over 1,100 votes.
Islington councillor Sarah Teather gained 8,158 votes to beat London MEP Robert Evans (7,040), her victory marking the first time Labour has lost a Commons seat in a by-election for 15 years. "
TB: "Just give me a sign if you think I'm doing wrong Lord, any kind of sign"...
Thursday, September 18, 2003
WTF??!!??
Galactic Angelcake:
"Damn, They're Real..."
Check out this, well, just bizarre exchange between a USAnian and her AOL tech support in a chat room...
Too, just tooo freaky...
"Damn, They're Real..."
Check out this, well, just bizarre exchange between a USAnian and her AOL tech support in a chat room...
Too, just tooo freaky...
NASA changes its culture after Columbia accident
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nasa struggles to shape its future:
Of course, they said *exactly* the same thing after Challenger, so don't hold your breath.
"'I've added a number of books to my bookshelf that are decision-making related,' says Hale. "
maybe you ought to take them off the shelf and read them.
Of course, they said *exactly* the same thing after Challenger, so don't hold your breath.
"'I've added a number of books to my bookshelf that are decision-making related,' says Hale. "
maybe you ought to take them off the shelf and read them.
NEWSSKIM
NEWSSKIM:
"'Think you have what it takes to be the next Faith Hill, Enrique Iglesias or Alicia Keys?' asked an NBC press release faxed to the News Skim offices earlier today, in total opposition to overwhelming evidence that the majority of the populace has absolutely none of what it might take to be any of these superstars, let alone successfully pump gas into their cars without igniting themselves"
"'Think you have what it takes to be the next Faith Hill, Enrique Iglesias or Alicia Keys?' asked an NBC press release faxed to the News Skim offices earlier today, in total opposition to overwhelming evidence that the majority of the populace has absolutely none of what it might take to be any of these superstars, let alone successfully pump gas into their cars without igniting themselves"
Remembering 9/15/01
Remembering 9/15/01:
"So, it's the afternoon of September 15th, 2003 as I am writing this, and I realize this is the two-year anniversary of the day I became bored with the 9/11 terror attacks on America. This was the day I found out for the first time in my life that the World Trade Center was not the official center of world trade, but rather just a lot of rented office space, and that any piece of video, no matter how shocking, bores me if it's replayed 14,000 times without, I don't know, some new ending tacked onto it or something.
Should I feel bad about this?
No, you're right. I should. And I do.
And... now I don't. Now I'm thinking about the six bootleg Matrix Revolutions trailers that have been leaked onto the net, realizing I spent six hours downloading them all over my 56K connection. I'm thinking about the new Osama Bin Laden video released a couple of days ago, and realizing I spent zero hours trying to download it. Al Queada promised to do something that would 'obliterate' the memory of 9/11 from our minds forever. Well, mission accomplished. You can kill me, Osama. But you can't hold my attention. "
"So, it's the afternoon of September 15th, 2003 as I am writing this, and I realize this is the two-year anniversary of the day I became bored with the 9/11 terror attacks on America. This was the day I found out for the first time in my life that the World Trade Center was not the official center of world trade, but rather just a lot of rented office space, and that any piece of video, no matter how shocking, bores me if it's replayed 14,000 times without, I don't know, some new ending tacked onto it or something.
Should I feel bad about this?
No, you're right. I should. And I do.
And... now I don't. Now I'm thinking about the six bootleg Matrix Revolutions trailers that have been leaked onto the net, realizing I spent six hours downloading them all over my 56K connection. I'm thinking about the new Osama Bin Laden video released a couple of days ago, and realizing I spent zero hours trying to download it. Al Queada promised to do something that would 'obliterate' the memory of 9/11 from our minds forever. Well, mission accomplished. You can kill me, Osama. But you can't hold my attention. "
Stuff I learnt last night....
In 1889 the Eiffel Tower was completed, making it the world's tallest structure. Before its completion the world's tallest structure was........ wait for it...... the Great Pyramid at Giza.
OMG!! yes, the great pyramid was the tallest structure on Earth for around 4400 years until we figured out how to build anything bigger.
Oh, and Teachers on CH4 is funny as fuck.
OMG!! yes, the great pyramid was the tallest structure on Earth for around 4400 years until we figured out how to build anything bigger.
Oh, and Teachers on CH4 is funny as fuck.
Durvey pt 2
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush rejects Saddam link to 9/11:
"US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.
The comments - among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of those asked believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks."
"US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.
The comments - among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of those asked believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks."
Durvey pt 1
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blix criticises UK's Iraq dossier:
"Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says he believes government spin was involved in the presentation of the British dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction last September. "
"Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says he believes government spin was involved in the presentation of the British dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction last September. "
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Tales of the expected...
Times Online - Sunday Times:
"BRITAIN and America have decided to delay indefinitely the publication of a full report on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction after inspectors found no evidence that any such weapons exist.
Efforts by the Iraq Survey Group, an Anglo-American team of 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts, to scour Iraq for the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical or biological weapons have so far ended in failure.
It had been expected that a progress report would be published tomorrow but MPs on Westminster’s security and intelligence committee have been told that even this has been delayed and no new date set. "
"BRITAIN and America have decided to delay indefinitely the publication of a full report on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction after inspectors found no evidence that any such weapons exist.
Efforts by the Iraq Survey Group, an Anglo-American team of 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts, to scour Iraq for the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical or biological weapons have so far ended in failure.
It had been expected that a progress report would be published tomorrow but MPs on Westminster’s security and intelligence committee have been told that even this has been delayed and no new date set. "
Er, boo? Think about the people *you* went to college with...
Fun with fusion: Freshman's nuclear fusion reactor has USU physics faculty in awe:
"Wallace, a baby-faced tennis player fresh out of Spanish Fork High School, had almost the entire physics faculty of Utah State University hovering (and arguing) over an apparatus he had cobbled together from parts salvaged from junk yards and charity drops.
The apparatus is nothing less than the sine qua non of modern science: a nuclear fusion reactor, based on the plans of Utah's own Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television.
The reactor sat on a table with an attached vacuum pump wheezing away. A television monitor showed what was inside: a glowing ball of gas surrounded by a metal helix.
The ball is, literally, a small sun, where an electric field forces deuteron ions (a form of hydrogen) to gather, bang together and occasionally fuse, spitting out a neutron each time fusion occurs."
Hmmmm..
"Wallace, a baby-faced tennis player fresh out of Spanish Fork High School, had almost the entire physics faculty of Utah State University hovering (and arguing) over an apparatus he had cobbled together from parts salvaged from junk yards and charity drops.
The apparatus is nothing less than the sine qua non of modern science: a nuclear fusion reactor, based on the plans of Utah's own Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television.
The reactor sat on a table with an attached vacuum pump wheezing away. A television monitor showed what was inside: a glowing ball of gas surrounded by a metal helix.
The ball is, literally, a small sun, where an electric field forces deuteron ions (a form of hydrogen) to gather, bang together and occasionally fuse, spitting out a neutron each time fusion occurs."
Hmmmm..
Hooray! Orson Scott Card (proper author type guy) and mp3s
Art Watch - September 7, 2003 - MP3s Are Not the Devil - The Ornery American:
"So it's pretty hilarious to hear record company executives and movie studio executives get all righteous about copyright. They've been manipulating copyright laws for years, and all the manipulations were designed to steal everything they could from the actual creators of the work.
Do you think these companies care about the money that the actual creators of the work are being deprived of when people copy CDs and DVDs?
Here's a clue: Movie studios have, for decades, used 'creative accounting' to make it so that even hit movies never manage to break even, thus depriving the creative people of their 'percentage of profits.' A few have dared to sue, but most figure that it isn't worth the ill will. (The sentence 'You'll never work in this town again' runs through their minds. They remember what happened to Cliff Robertson after he blew the whistle on an executive who was flat-out embezzling!)
And record companies manage to skim enormous amounts of money from ever CD sold. As you can easily calculate by going to the computer store and figuring out the price of an individual recordable blank CD. Figure that the record companies have been paying a fraction of that price for years. Then subtract that from the price of a CD. Figure the songwriters and performers are getting some ludicrously small percentage -- less than twenty percent, I'd bet -- and all the rest flows to the record company. "
Aaaight!
"So it's pretty hilarious to hear record company executives and movie studio executives get all righteous about copyright. They've been manipulating copyright laws for years, and all the manipulations were designed to steal everything they could from the actual creators of the work.
Do you think these companies care about the money that the actual creators of the work are being deprived of when people copy CDs and DVDs?
Here's a clue: Movie studios have, for decades, used 'creative accounting' to make it so that even hit movies never manage to break even, thus depriving the creative people of their 'percentage of profits.' A few have dared to sue, but most figure that it isn't worth the ill will. (The sentence 'You'll never work in this town again' runs through their minds. They remember what happened to Cliff Robertson after he blew the whistle on an executive who was flat-out embezzling!)
And record companies manage to skim enormous amounts of money from ever CD sold. As you can easily calculate by going to the computer store and figuring out the price of an individual recordable blank CD. Figure that the record companies have been paying a fraction of that price for years. Then subtract that from the price of a CD. Figure the songwriters and performers are getting some ludicrously small percentage -- less than twenty percent, I'd bet -- and all the rest flows to the record company. "
Aaaight!
Gamers With Jobs ::
Gamers With Jobs :::
"After four and a half years with my gamer, I have learned to recognize what this means. It means that we are taking a trip to EB. For some reason that I don’t fully understand, but has to do with establishing dominance among his fellow gamers, Certis likes me to Go With when he goes game shopping. It is certainly not because of my usefulness on such trips – I wander the store looking vaguely at old Playstation titles and wishing the EB hadn’t got rid of their toy section. I can only surmise that actually having a member of the opposite sex with you in a gaming store is like wearing a Purple Heart at a veteran’s convention. "
LOL!
"After four and a half years with my gamer, I have learned to recognize what this means. It means that we are taking a trip to EB. For some reason that I don’t fully understand, but has to do with establishing dominance among his fellow gamers, Certis likes me to Go With when he goes game shopping. It is certainly not because of my usefulness on such trips – I wander the store looking vaguely at old Playstation titles and wishing the EB hadn’t got rid of their toy section. I can only surmise that actually having a member of the opposite sex with you in a gaming store is like wearing a Purple Heart at a veteran’s convention. "
LOL!
Gun crime...
BBC NEWS | UK | Q and A: Fighting gun crime:
"Gun crime has increased in recent years, including a near doubling of handgun offences since 1996, the year of the Dunblane massacre. "
So banning handguns for competition shooting etc was absolutely as fucking useless as we all said it would be.
"Gun crime has increased in recent years, including a near doubling of handgun offences since 1996, the year of the Dunblane massacre. "
So banning handguns for competition shooting etc was absolutely as fucking useless as we all said it would be.
Durvey
BBC NEWS | Technology | Parents 'oblivious' to children's surfing:
"A lack of knowledge about the internet means too many parents in the UK have no clue what their children are doing online. "
"A lack of knowledge about the internet means too many parents in the UK have no clue what their children are doing online. "
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Goodbye to a flat rate for broadband?
BBC NEWS | Technology | Goodbye to a flat rate for broadband?:
"The way Britons pay for broadband internet access in the UK is remarkably similar - customers who only log on to pick up e-mails pay the same as those with big appetites for fat downloads. But this could change soon. "
If you only log on to pick up e-mails, then why the fuck have you got broadband?
"The way Britons pay for broadband internet access in the UK is remarkably similar - customers who only log on to pick up e-mails pay the same as those with big appetites for fat downloads. But this could change soon. "
If you only log on to pick up e-mails, then why the fuck have you got broadband?
Everybody say Aaaaaahhh....
BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Chelsea | Duff reveals Chelsea frustration:
"Chelsea's record signing Damien Duff is unhappy that manager Claudio Ranieri keeps substituting him towards the end of matches.
Duff, at £17m the most expensive arrival during the Blues' summer revolution, has been substituted in all five of his matches since moving from Blackburn. "
Well maybe you should have stayed at Blackburn then, you money-grabbing little BITCH!
"Chelsea's record signing Damien Duff is unhappy that manager Claudio Ranieri keeps substituting him towards the end of matches.
Duff, at £17m the most expensive arrival during the Blues' summer revolution, has been substituted in all five of his matches since moving from Blackburn. "
Well maybe you should have stayed at Blackburn then, you money-grabbing little BITCH!
Monday, September 15, 2003
Video games back in US dock
BBC NEWS | Technology | Video games back in US dock:
"Lawyer Jack Thompson has taken up the case and plans to sue the makers of Grand Theft Auto, saying they should bear some responsibility for the death of Aaron Hamel, a 45-year-old nurse and the injuries caused. "
Alternatively:
"SHITTY PARENTS RAISE STUPID FUCKING KIDS"
It's hard to do this when you're as good at getting to the point as I am...
"Lawyer Jack Thompson has taken up the case and plans to sue the makers of Grand Theft Auto, saying they should bear some responsibility for the death of Aaron Hamel, a 45-year-old nurse and the injuries caused. "
Alternatively:
"SHITTY PARENTS RAISE STUPID FUCKING KIDS"
It's hard to do this when you're as good at getting to the point as I am...
