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E553X80Y

Listed below are comments made by E553X80Y between Tuesday, 10th February 2009 and Friday, 13th November 2009.

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New name for a new economy? 5:33pm on 13 Nov 2009 How about Mythocracy.

This is a system in which those in power attempt to convince the populus that they know best; that governments and banks inventing money from nothing is fine; that boom and bust is ended; that you can borrow your way out of debt; and there is no price to pay for personal or governmental profligacy.
Nutt gets the sack 8:02pm on 30 Oct 2009 I thought there were employment protection laws which mean that someone can only be fired for a limited number of reasons. I'd be fascinated to know the reason in this case. "Telling the truth", "Having the temerity to disagree with the government" and "Winning the public argument" are not, as far as I am aware, among the allowable reasons. I wonder if he'll take them to an employment tribunal?
Nutt gets the sack 6:20pm on 30 Oct 2009 Scientists are there to provide scientific evidence and advice. Professor Nutt seems to have done this in an exemplary manner. Politicians are there to consider the advice, add other factors (such as the "message" their decisions might send") and them decide what to do. If the politicians' view ends up being contrary to the scientific advice, that's fine. It's up to the public to then decide whether it agrees with the politicians. Attempting to silence scientists is frankly the sort of thing that extreme regimes attempt. Thankfully, this will backfire. Freed from any constraints, Professor Nutt will now be able to act as a fully independent commentator and will be able to show up the politicians' folly where it exists.
24 hours with Ubuntu 02:03am on 26 Oct 2009 I've tried Ubuntu. Intrepid Ibex was the last time. I got rid of it. And I'm verging on being a techie (all my friend think I'm uber-techie). I want Ubuntu to work - but it doesn't for me - and wouldn't for 99% of the population. It's like Windows 3.1 - it needs effort to make it work. People don't want effort, they don't want to understand something, they jut want it to turn on, be intuitive, not have to read a manual, not have to consult a forum or download a driver, they just want it to work. Like a TV or Radio or Fridge.

I take a look at the posts of most of those singing ubuntu's praises - and they use words like RAID, authentication, root, drive mounting, distribution, kernel etc etc. I know what these things mean - but 99% of the public don't know, and most importantly they don't want to know.

Ubuntu, as a user experience is at least 10 years behind the curve compared to Windows and MacOS. I wonder if a technology developed solely by technologists can ever reach the masses? I doubt it. It needs design, user experience and marketing people behind it - and I see no evidence of their presences in any of the Ubuntu "distros" I've ever used. I suspect Chrome OS will outstrip Ubuntu within a month of it's launch because behind it is a brand and company that understands consumers. Chrome could be the open source solution - I don't think Ubuntu could be.
Nick Griffin on Question Time 03:34am on 25 Oct 2009 It was right to have Nick Griffin on. However, it seems that the BBC wanted to ensure that he was shown up for the odious man he is. I have some sympathy with this intention. However, in attempting to do this, a decision seems to have been made to ensure that all questions were related to the BNPs racist, anti-islam, and homophobic stance. This was such an obvious set up (the choice of questions) that accusations of a lynch-mob have some credibility. As such, the BNP has benefited because it can use the fact of the debate to bolster its claims of a biased BBC and a liberal political elite conspiracy. My views of the BNP have not changed - they are vile. This has all merely served to reinforce my view that the BBC, as an organisation, is seriously lacking in judgement.
Klaus opting out 8:44pm on 09 Oct 2009 Leader-to-leader rules of confidentiality being broken, other states putting undue pressure on another nation state, everyone trying to find a way to get this signed quickly.....why the hurry. If it's been 10 years in the making, another 6 months won't make much difference. Or are the eurocrats running scared that democracy, but way of a UK referendum, might scupper their plans for a Eurostate?
Caption Competition 4:34pm on 07 May 2009 Andrew Lloyd Webber was less than impressed with the pitch for Swine Flu The Musical.
Brown's cautious bank reforms 12:00pm on 22 Feb 2009 When globalisation of markets in goods and services took hold in the latter decades of the 20th century, the UK suffered in terms of goods' manufacturing, because our labour costs are much higher than most other industrialised nations. Luckily financial services filled the gap. This was enabled by a liberal regulatory regime. The result was that at its peak, financial services represented 45% of the income of UK plc.

As the PM wants to restrict our ability to compete in financial services on the global stage, I hope he has a bright idea to fill the gap. We can't go back to manufacturing, our climate and landscape isn't suitable to enable us to rely on agriculture, and neither tech/biotech nor biotech is large enough.

Perhaps he envisages we'll be a nation of shopkeepers, civil servants and burger flippers?
100Mbps broadband - who needs it? 3:39pm on 10 Feb 2009 #3 - no they don't. A TV licence is required to view or record broadcasts. This means things that are sent to everyone - at the same time they are sent to everyone. So viewing a live feed from the BBC website of pictures that are also being broadcast on the BBC over the airwaves requires a license. iPlayer and other things such as 4OD do not send you "live" broadcast.

However, if enough people cancel their TV licenses and just view iPlayer, I would imagine the BBC might choose to restrict iPlayer to licence payers only via some technical route, or they might try to persuade parliament to change the license terms. But as of today - if you ONLY view iPlayer and similar services, no TV license is required.
100Mbps broadband - who needs it? 2:55pm on 10 Feb 2009 No need to be coy about enquiring if the students have tv licenses. If they're only using iPlayer and other non-live feeds (i.e. not at the same time as the on-air broadcast) they don't need one.

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