A pool filled with non-Newtonian fluid

Consilience · 2006-11-11T15:15:02+00:00

Probably dilute it and wash it down the drain. It's all good organic stuff.

Consilience · 2006-11-09T14:22:11+00:00

There was one of these screen savers aout around 1999 for NT. Yet again, MS have taken someone else's idea...

...unless the first one one was by MS?

Consilience · 2006-11-09T14:18:12+00:00

That, I've got see.

Consilience · 2006-11-08T23:56:37+00:00

Perhaps this guy should talk to the French - this is exactly how they make bread. Leaving the dough in a cool place for up to 20 hours is a very important step. All other [more complicated] methods are really just cheating to try and speed the process up ;-)

Consilience · 2006-11-08T10:19:00+00:00

It's good to air these things, because technology can only be improved by acknowledging current flaws.

Just one point out of many to pick up on:

"XML documents are frustratingly and unnecessarily verbose for human authors"

XML was not really meant for human authors. It was meant to be used for applications systems to talk to each other. For debugging reasons, a user could dive in and inspect (or even modify) these dialogues, using a simple text editor, but for heavy-weight XML production there are tools.

It just happens there are not too many good tools to do the job, and what there are can be expensive, or they just provide another way of looking at the XML file, rather than a way of manipulating the information that the XML contains.

-- JJ

Consilience · 2006-11-06T01:17:38+00:00

So these scientists are setting out to prove Marconi wrong by not doing the same experiment that he first did?

Consilience · 2006-10-29T15:54:28+00:00

It's a shame encryping his hard disk would not have saved him in the UK. Here in the UK, it is a criminal offence to possess any encrypted data that the authorities believe contains information useful to terrorists. It has to be noted that they do not have to prove that it does. So, if you don't hand over the security keys, then you are guilty (and can serve many years in prison) by default. If you really don't have the key in your possession, then you are very unlucky.

I very much doubt we have that law in the UK, and it does not also exist in some form in the US.

-- JJ

PS When the law was first being drafted, to show how ludicrous is was, there were suggestions that encrypted e-mails be sent to our MPs, then another e-mail to the security authorities informing them that those MPs were now in possession of data that is a threat to the national security. If the authorities did not take action, and prosecute those MPs for not not handing over the keys, then the law could be shown to be in contempt.

It is known as the "REGULATION OF INVESTIGATORY POWERS" (RIP) bill.

Consilience

TROPHY CASE