Posts by 81stcolumn
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Thames bid on two channels. The first was competitive (ie there were other bidders) and they lost. For the 2nd channel (Channel 3, I believe) they were the only bidder. Somehow, they still lost..
I understand that this was by no means the full scope of Thatch's activities at the time. BBC footage from the Orgreave protests were seized intitially as "evidence" and later held under the official secrets act. This had to occcur with the complicity of court officials. No surprise then that the existing government is trying to prevent the release of personal expense account details for MP's.
Census or ID cards ?
I'll take the census.
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Ben, I think there would be a market for a car that hadn't been developed properly but looked cool and went really fast.
Problem being that when Vista crashes, it doesn't take out the family of four in the oncoming lane.Yeah and ain’t this the rub - As software systems find their way into situations where there are similarly dire consequences attached to failure. M$ is not the obvious choice.
However, I the figure $100 million ever three years spent on MS licences would pay for about 600 teachers in the same period and leave some over to train them in this horribly new fangled software.
Note: At risk of belabouring this point this is only the on box cost. When a kid leaves school and expects to use one expensive platform this is the gift that keeps taking - Industry is put under pressure to invest in an expensive platform for employees that in the majority of cases it just does not need. Furthermore this situation fails to promote the real skills that NZ needs.
I’m with Hadyn on the prayer thing - I have grown somewhat intolerant of people praying for guidance at meetings etc. I would much prefer the guidance of intellect, consensus and with it a degree of personal responsibility.
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Oh and as if to be as crass as possible, I saw a T-shirt that said "pets are for Barbies not just for Christmas".
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Better late than never I suppose:
I feel that using Mac or Win for education places an IT tax on the nation now. Kids should not be educated to expect a proprietary system to be available in the workplace or HE in order for them to be able to word process, do basic calcs and of course do the internet. “Modern” open source is up to these jobs. Sometimes we vastly overestimate the demands of the general population with respect to IT; some of the guys I teach still can’t use any spreadsheets, far less perform difficult calculations for lines (they want to use the calculators on their mobiles…arrrrgh……head explodes again!).
Perhaps this debate will soon be irrelevant when we are on the cusp of web based apps. I am waiting for the day that a student sends me a piece of word processing in google web app format (what would be the extension .dog .goc .god!).
<disclaimer – this is not a dig at educators>
I find it perplexing that as an educator I work in a culture where so many of my colleagues seem unwilling or indeed unable to adapt to change and learn new things: Which is exactly what we ask those we educate to do. As a point of reference it used to be the case that those who taught teachers how to teach, had to do a bit themselves from time to time. There seems to be no capacity for such an undertaking in many areas of education today. i.e. teachers undertaking new challenging learning tasks and yet IT would seem to be an ideal target. I guess governments fail to see this as a good investment.
Personally I would rather learn perl than have another go at mainland Chinese.
I would feel a lot more comfortable with the God that collects her own debts and figures out how to spend them himself, rather than letting Brian the Bish do this for political ends.
And finally…… when I phoned her earlier today to find out what she wanted me to cook for her dinner, she was filing her nails so I guess far to busy to be i) blogging/discussing ii) finishing her PhD which I am paying for. She was only too keen to tell me what I should write though ;o)
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Hands up who would ride on a bus/tram/train with a wireless uplink ?
Footnote: Neither my wife nor I drive to work....and we live on the shore - tell me about__ need__.
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As far as Blair is concerned I’m afraid I am part of a group that will always harbour some bitterness towards him. The landslide victory of ’97 wasn’t won entirely on the back of magic and spin. Some people campaigned hard for that victory, which is why the Tories came away with such a bloody nose. Many were wary of the agenda laid out in the 97 manifesto and rightly so. Assurances delivered at the time meant nothing in the following years. No one expected a true socialist agenda, but the divisive policies in Health, Education and Welfare have done nothing for communities first disenfranchised during the Thatcher years. He governed a large nation but only spoke to the voting middle class and upwards, which was tragic. All this was going on before Iraq which served to divide Britain further. As for Northern Ireland, the best I would say is that he was the capable supervisor of a battle that had already been won on the ground before him. In the later years we have seen a greedy and power hungry man clinging to a mandate that was lost some time before.
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Well done PA be pleased with what you have achieved….
I don’t think a Hardest Tryer Plaque is aimed at you Damian - c'mon folks have gotta start somewhere........even if they do write in txt.
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Shall we try cat rather than act...did press preview but for some reason this browser is picky about the scripts it implements properly. Though more often than not problem does lay between keyboard and chair.
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Errrrm me ? The last time I had a severe seizure it was because a neighbours act had climbed in through a window at night and taken a liking to the end of my duvet.
Speaking as someone who is chronically allergic to dogs and cats, if society could learn to do without both I'd be delighted. ;o)
I should point out that I regard some (not all) pet owners in the same way as smokers. That is to say I challenge pet owners rights to force their pets into shared public spaces.
I'm not sure how seriously I feel about this issue perhaps I should leave before I get ranty and Troll like.
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I guess this says more about me than I’d like it to. The injury itself was a small burn the stupidity is staggering. I have a track record of doing this sort of thing.
One 13 year old laid on the bed holding the sort of mains lead that plugs into this side of a radio or an old school cassette player. Small black plastic cover thoroughly covering the two live contacts (safe ? not from me !). I put it in my mouth, I suck on it, I manage to suck the soft tissue of my upper lip onto one of those protected contacts – yes the electric shock was scary, the colours fascinating. Being a good scientist and not being quite sure I how I had achieved this feat…..I did it again. That’s how I know it was done with the upper lip……….