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Ironbath

Listed below are comments made by Ironbath between Tuesday, 28th October 2008 and Monday, 18th May 2009.

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Does Wolfram work? 1:33pm on 18 May 2009 I think Douglas Adams would approve! Afterall the Hitch Hikers Guide To the Universe taught us that it is not the answer that is important, but the question.
On the Ropes - Andy Kershaw 1:24pm on 28 Apr 2009 I would love to hear andy back on the radio. Perhaps the BBC should send him to North & West Africa for 3 months to produce an indepth series on how the music has changed since he first popularised the artists 20 years ago. This might be the best outcome for all parties.
My YouTube shame - part two 2:52pm on 16 Apr 2009 The comments above are broadly correct in that Rory owns the copyright to the footage, but was in breach of contract (with the football club) when he took it. This leaves the actual video in legal limbo. In theory the club could claim damages from Rory, although it is unclear how that might be assessed. In practice if they were to take offence they could ban him from attending future events.

YouTube does not have a licence to broadcast videos of the match, and could be sued by the owner of those rights.

However the key element is that under the EULA that Rory agreed to when he set up his account YouTube has the rights to remove any content and suspend or close accounts at will, irrespective of any copyright or license considerations. How and when they chose to use these rights is entirely up to them. If you don’t like it I suggest you try your luck with another video hosting site.
BBC News radar 1:54pm on 07 Apr 2009 Jake

1) Thank you for asking for opinions - It is appreciated.

2) Thank you for responding intelligently to the points made above.

3) My comment is that I like the concept as an additional way of looking at the news. I would recommend a model similar to how the news is reported on pcpro.co.uk where there is a cronilogical order, but with the three biggest stories highlighted at the top (but also in the list). Sometimes headlines alone don't adequately state the relative importance of stories. I also like the idea of tags to say if the headline is a political or business story.

Also to consider, will it also include new blog entries? And Magazine stories? This would be useful but would need to differeniate between them and actual news.

4) It would be nice to have a similar discussion on layout/format/colours/fonts etc if this idea goes further.
Hunting the bowler hat at SXSW 2:03pm on 16 Mar 2009 Why would the Arts Council of Wales be promoting the technological potential of South West England? Shurely Some Mistake??
Can Stephen Fry kill a gadget? 6:47pm on 27 Nov 2008 I dare say that Dear Stephen would struggle with the idea of killing an ant, let alone a gadget!

I think you're asking the wrong question. The true question is why does new technology fail to work as anticiapted?

The answer is that suppliers are under so much pressure - mainly stirred by the media - to deliver the next new thing. They don't have time to test and refine. If they did details would be leaked and commentators would ask "why won't they release it/what are they hiding?/doesn't it work?"

The answer to the question of can one person make a difference, the answer is "yes" if you believe Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point theory.
Weep for Woolies 10:26am on 27 Nov 2008 @ 49

I thought Robert was trying to impersonate Rory Bremner last night. He was ridiculous and patronising. Nice to drop a reference to the blog though, as subtle as a self publicist on a talk show!
Weep for Woolies 09:44am on 27 Nov 2008 MFI deserved to go to the wall years ago as it failed to innovate. It started the self assembly chipboard revolution in the 80's. Whilst IKEA boomed in the late 90's early 2000's MFI should have followed the market trend to simple, low cost, stylish products and use it's huge network of stores to reduce IKEA's market penetration.

Woolworth's may be the butt of many jokes but it is the cornerstone of many High Streets and they'll be much duller places without it.

Whilst I don't think that any one business deserves special favours, we do need to solve this 'confidence' issue where as soon as there is any whiff of a problem the credit drys up and business ceases. Therefore the rumour becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I struggle to understand how a retailer with prime real estate and a £3bn TO can't make a profit, even with debt at 12.8% of TO.
Talking tax cuts 11:58am on 10 Nov 2008 Tax cuts won't work. The marginal change in take home pay will quickly be absorbed in day to day spending. It won't stimulate the economy but - since most people live beyond their means - just makes a marginal difference to family debt.

The US Republicans favour tax rebates, where households receive a cheque based on a retrospective tax cut. This also doesn't work as sensible people use it to pay down debt (i.e. no new money in the economy) and others spend it on consumer goods which sees most of the money heading towards asia.

To stimulate the economy it is best for the government to spend the money on capital infrastructure projects. That way the money stays in the country, the country gains an asset, and there is invariably a large private investment that will follow.

This is the time to initiate a new high speed rail network (which will stimulate the economy over 20 years) and for a more immediate effect we still need to build the 200,000 houses that we needed before the credit crunch. These actions will recreate the boom that accompanied the expansion of the railways in the 19th century.

If we use the money wisely now we can have a scandinavian quality of life and a solid economy for when the global economy picks up.
Ray Ozzie and the business of clouds 1:31pm on 28 Oct 2008 Not sure if I'm neutral but I am fairly ambivalent about Microsoft. Most of the things that they have been accused of (e.g. stealing competitors ideas and making them more successful) are common in all industries. The fact is that they developed a solution 20 years ago that has gone on to make them a vast fortune. On balance this is a good thing!

The anti-trust indictment was stupid, and MS could have defended it early on rather than let it develop for years, instead they buried a head in the sand let it get political.

My criticism is that they don't appear to have used the cash cow to sensibly innovate and develop their products.

As an everyday user I can barely tell the difference between Office 97 and whatever is the latest edition I'm using.

Vista didn't live up to the promise, and it is damning when following an upgrade some people still want to purchase the outdated version.

The most radical thing that they could do is to totally recode the entire OS so that it is 100 % reliable and hack proof (or at least less of a leaky sieve) and offer a proper fully integrated version of Office.

20 years on and all I want is something that doesn't crash so often, is that too much to ask from the world's (nearly) richest company?

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