The surveillance camera equivalent of a tin foil hat, ideal for Big Brother Britain: The LED hat!
(Thanks to Blues News again.)
(Thanks to Blues News again.)
June 2008 Archives
Article 'Is Grand Theft Auto IV Actually the Best Popcorn Movie of the Summer?'
Took a long route to me, this one: Bluesnews, from Kotaku, from Chaos Fold (blog).
Took a long route to me, this one: Bluesnews, from Kotaku, from Chaos Fold (blog).
My DualShock3 controller arrived today (Wikipedia link). I gave up the wait for it to become 'officially' available in the UK, and ordered an import. I did so via that bastion of respectability, Amazon.co.uk, which I find amusing - grey imports from the whitest of the white retailer.
It's much better than the SixAxis. It has more weight, and it immediately improves the only game I've used it on so far, Metal Gear Solid 4. I never realised how much the rumble added, until a patent dispute - now resolved (ars technica link) - took it away.
It should have been there from the start. Now I have it, I have three SixAxis controllers that I no longer want to use! Oh well, other people can use them for multiplayer ;-) I may even try to flog them to Game, though they don't seem to be able to give them away at the moment...
It's much better than the SixAxis. It has more weight, and it immediately improves the only game I've used it on so far, Metal Gear Solid 4. I never realised how much the rumble added, until a patent dispute - now resolved (ars technica link) - took it away.
It should have been there from the start. Now I have it, I have three SixAxis controllers that I no longer want to use! Oh well, other people can use them for multiplayer ;-) I may even try to flog them to Game, though they don't seem to be able to give them away at the moment...
In this BBC News website article, doctors describe how brain scans show marked differences in the brain between gay and straight people. Since these things are set in the womb, it would seem to be a bit of a killer blow to the notion that homosexuality is a 'lifestyle choice'.
Obviously, this is just one study. Still, the BBC article links to others, and they're all saying largely the same thing: There are physiological differences.
My favourite aspect of this is that it really does make a mockery of gay-bashing religious folk. Attacking sodomites is increasingly looking like attacking what someone is, rather than attacking something they've merely chosen to be.
Unless the fundamentalist lunatics in the US decide that this 'condition' should be scanned for in the womb and treated like an illness - an amusing twist to the abortion debate, that - they'll pretty much have to accept that these people are living out their lives as their biology predisposes. It's the most natural thing imaginable.
It's not hard to see why the Church hates science. All these facts really cramp the style of good old fashioned bigotry.
Obviously, this is just one study. Still, the BBC article links to others, and they're all saying largely the same thing: There are physiological differences.
My favourite aspect of this is that it really does make a mockery of gay-bashing religious folk. Attacking sodomites is increasingly looking like attacking what someone is, rather than attacking something they've merely chosen to be.
Unless the fundamentalist lunatics in the US decide that this 'condition' should be scanned for in the womb and treated like an illness - an amusing twist to the abortion debate, that - they'll pretty much have to accept that these people are living out their lives as their biology predisposes. It's the most natural thing imaginable.
It's not hard to see why the Church hates science. All these facts really cramp the style of good old fashioned bigotry.
I present the $499 Ethernet cable (as highlighted by Slashdot). I hope this is a joke, but I don't think it is.
For the uninitiated:
For the uninitiated:
- Fact: An Ethernet cable either meets the spec or not. If it's up to spec you'll get maximum data rate whether it costs $5 or $500.
- Fact: Ethernet cables aren't directional. The direction arrow is completely bogus.
- Fact: Anyone who pays this is a fucking idiot.
Why isn't there an outline mode in OpenOffice.org / StarOffice Writer? It's such a basic feature. I've been telling people how great OOo is, but now I have to install my newly-acquired Home Use license of Office 2007 Enterprise Edition, because I have to have outline mode. It's an absolute requirement.
My partner's daughter left school at 16 last year. She's clever, she's pretty, she's nice, she's got everything going for her, but she left. Now she works in a clothes shop, for the mildly sociopathic mother of an ex-friend of hers. She's miserable, but somehow creating a C.V. and getting another job is too much effort.
Today I tried to ask why she was so hostile about college. The very best she could manage was 'college is stupid'. Suddenly she was 14 again, hissing like an angry schoolgirl. Only she's not even that any more.
When 'A'-Levels are being talked about as a waste of time - because so many students are getting four or more A grades, they're increasingly seen as not granular enough for University entrance purposes - what I find truly stupid is thinking that it's not even worth trying that far.
It's true that some people succeed brilliantly with no qualifications. It's also true that many more people who do have qualifications succeed; and (while it may be uncomfortable to hear it) it's also true that most people with crap qualifications go on to achieve precisely fuck all with their lives, and with a high likelihood of being miserable along the way. It's never, ever their fault that they couldn't be bothered when they were younger.
In my 'outside looking in' position it's nigh-on impossible to do anything about it, and rightly so; nonetheless, it's frustrating in the extreme to watch someone I love throw it all away so carelessly. Hoping that she's one of the lucky ones will have to be enough.
Today I tried to ask why she was so hostile about college. The very best she could manage was 'college is stupid'. Suddenly she was 14 again, hissing like an angry schoolgirl. Only she's not even that any more.
When 'A'-Levels are being talked about as a waste of time - because so many students are getting four or more A grades, they're increasingly seen as not granular enough for University entrance purposes - what I find truly stupid is thinking that it's not even worth trying that far.
It's true that some people succeed brilliantly with no qualifications. It's also true that many more people who do have qualifications succeed; and (while it may be uncomfortable to hear it) it's also true that most people with crap qualifications go on to achieve precisely fuck all with their lives, and with a high likelihood of being miserable along the way. It's never, ever their fault that they couldn't be bothered when they were younger.
In my 'outside looking in' position it's nigh-on impossible to do anything about it, and rightly so; nonetheless, it's frustrating in the extreme to watch someone I love throw it all away so carelessly. Hoping that she's one of the lucky ones will have to be enough.
This has been a hard month. Hassles at work, hassles at home. I haven't had the will to write.
