Delicious LiveJournal Links for 7-30-2010

• Public to be given power to veto council tax bills. Stupid idea. We already have that power - we can vote them out.
  (tags: tax uk EpicFail)
• Complex benefits system to be replaced by one payment.
  Could be good, could be bad. Certainly, anything that makes the form-filling simpler is a good thing.
  (tags: welfare uk politics)
• Tokyo's 'oldest man' had been dead for 30 years
  (tags: death japan news wtf)
• Big Five Personality types affect women's approach to childbirth
  (tags: personality children psychology)
• A rebuttal to the gerrymandering claims made by Labour
  (tags: politics uk)

New computer time

Thanks to the generous birthday donations from parents, family and friends I got a chunk of cash towards buying a new computer.

And was then astounded to discover how much more awesome they've become since I last bought one.

Specs:
Athlonx4 635
4GB of RAM
1GB ATI Radeon 5770 graphics card
1TB HD

What amazed me wasn't, actually, the specs.  Those aren't that extreme nowadays.  What amazed me was that all of that, plus Windows 7, a decent near-silent power supply, and quiet fans, etc. came to £650 (jncluding tax, delivery and three-year collect/return warranty).

I remember the first time I saw a a front page on PC Pro magazine exclaiming that one could now buy new computers for a mere £1000.  Being able to buy a gaming rig for 2/3 of that is still pretty amazing to me.   Which probably just goes to show how old I am.

Paging marrog

xkcd of course