Interesting Links for 22-2-2011

[andrewducker]

• Awesome page for comparing the results of taking the same picture with lots of different cameras.
  (tags: photography camera photo comparison cameras reviews digital)
• Denmark's fire and ambulance service is privately owned, and is the most efficient and economical in Europe.
  (tags: denmark privatisation europe government)
• Study links brain structure and white-collar crime.
  (tags: brain psychology crime)
• In the middle of a wave of democracy in the Middle East, the British Prime Minister flies in...to sell weapons.
  (tags: headdesk uk middle_east egypt DavidCameron weaponry)
• Britons face not being able to have everything they want
  (tags: uk funny)
• Kung Fu Panda Lawsuit Has A Very Visual Argument
  (tags: Disney animation Dreamworks panda)
• Cheque guarantee cards will cease to exist in June
  (tags: cheques payment banking uk)
• US Couer deems cellphone a computer. Not even a good one. A Razr, for goodness sake.
  (tags: computers computer mobile_phones technology usa law EpicFail)
• The alcohol and the ecstasy: prejudice drowns out sense
  (tags: drugs alcohol uk)
• On Ultima Underworld, bugs, and testers.
  (tags: computer_games ultima WarrenSpector)
• What happens when mean girls grow up?
  (tags: people behaviour bullying)
• Neal Stephenson writes "Space stasis: What the strange persistence of rockets can teach us about innovation."
  (tags: nealstephenson politics innovation technology history space science rockets)
• More than half of private sector companies say they won't hire people who lost their jobs in the public sector.
  (tags: jobs uk)
• Quantum dot displays could arrive on smartphones within three years.
  (tags: quantum displays mobile_phones technology)
• No more desktop Linux systems in the German Foreign Office
  (tags: linux windows desktop microsoft opensource germany)
• British gay Muslims seek Islamic weddings
  (tags: religion islam lgbt marriage)
• Monkeys display self-doubt
  (tags: brain evolution monkey psychology)

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, they must be worried about this, democratised middle-eastern States will see significent reductions in their defence spending, which will be terribly bad for British export figures. No wonder Cameron is over there selling himself.

All that time and energy spent sucking up to Gadaffi, all for nothing if he falls.

God that would be funny.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Why is it stupid to define a phone as a computer?

Put it this way: if I gained illicit access to your phone and copied sensitive material from it, how would you feel if the police said "sorry, we can't prosecute him for hacking because your phone isn't a computer under the Computer Misuse Act"?

In fact, I would argue that even a fairly simple phone is a computer, because it stores and processes information. (Mind you, in terms of the phone hacking scandal, this isn't really relevant - irrespective of whether the phones in question were computers, the voicemail systems that were hacked into definitely were.)

[andrewducker]

Because the phone in this case isn't being used as a computer in any way. If the original lawmakers wanted to include phones being used for basic phone calls then they should have included telephones as part of the law. Otherwise they've left themselves in a situation where talking over a landline and talking over a mobile cause a sentencing difference, which is barking mad.

From the phrasing in the article they seem to have wanted to specifically include the use of things like the internet - not people making phone calls.

I'm not blaming the judges, per se - the phrasing of the law itself is more to blame.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I got (but it wasn't evident from the title). Treating a cell-phone's computer abilities as a computer is reasonable, even necessary. Treating phone-calls on a cell-phone as "using a computer" is ridiculous.

I agree the law is flawed, but the description said something like "performs logical, arithmetic or storage functions", but I would have interpreted that as performing those functions for its user even indirectly, not just existing.

I don't know if the judges decided that this was the only way to interpret the law, or wanted to punish this guy so reinterpreted it.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

Text messages look pretty computery to me, and he was sending text messages.

Most mobile phones are vastly more powerful computers than most of the ones we grew up with. Imagine needing a special pack to expand your phone's memory to 16k!

The real epic fail here is just that using a computer in the commission of this crime should somehow lead to harsher sentences. This is a truly monumental WTF. If we were to discount the computational abilities of phones and say texting and calling are both absolutely fine, what if someone was instead twittering and skyping?

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

How is sending a text message distinct, in this computery sense, from sending a telegram? Some bits across a network to provide an english language message.

In terms of something being a computer you could probably argue that your digital watch is a universal turing machine. If you check your wrist for the time whilst breaking the law, should you be sentenced to longer in jail?

[0olong.livejournal.com]

Obviously not - as I say, epic fail in making computeriness something that somehow makes a crime any worse.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Re: "Space stasis"

There is no shortage of proposals for radically innovative space launch schemes.... But we are not making any serious effort as a society to cross those valleys. It is not clear why.

Firstly, I note that Mr. Stephenson does not list any of these many "radically innovative space launch schemes". It's hard to argue the relative merits of alternative approaches to rocketry without, say, mentioning a few examples.

Secondly, I am not aware of any that would have greater potential than the current system that don't rely on materials we can't yet make or don't have such deleterious side-effects as irradiating large tracts of land while violating international law. Even in those cases, though, I know that some are being researched: NASA is looking at exotic propulsion, and there are the X-prizes and the competitions to build space elevator prototype technology.

So while the look at the confluence between weaponry and rocketry is interesting, I don't think Neal's conclusion follows from his arguments.

-- Steve'd love to have a cavorite option, but doesn't think it's wrong for launch providers to not plan for one until someone invents cavorite.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I have no idea what other options he's proposing either.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> Users have, it claims, also complained of missing functionality, a lack of usability and poor interoperability.

Well we already knew the UI on linux desktops is pretty shit.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

My new rule of thumb is that if it has a web browser, it is undoubtedly a computer. Which means that I often travel with 3 computers - Laptop, android phone and kindle.