Interesting Links for 01-08-2012

[andrewducker]

• Android is getting ready for multiple users. Yaaaaaay!
  (tags: android )
• Internet domain registrations reveal 8 possible titles for Hobbit 3
  (tags: TheHobbit movies internet )
• Man being tried for having pictures of fisting. A legal activity. For fuck's sake.
  (tags: sex UK police law )
• Failing at Geek Feminism
  (tags: feminism geeks )
• The many ways in which your hateful brain makes your life harder.
  (tags: brains funny meme )
• Good Guy Lucifer. An awesome meme, using an image from an awesome comic.
  (tags: lucifer comic meme funny )
• Scots are against Independence by 54% to 30%.
  (tags: scotland independence poll )
• Building QuickBooks: How Intuit Manages 10 Million Lines of Code
  (tags: development coding )
• Lords call for the end of TV transmissions, edge towards a Universal Service Obligation for broadband.
  I'm slightly torn, because I think that for shows watched by millions at one time, broadcast is the most efficient method of getting the signal out. I'd love to see costings for doing it both ways...
  (tags: uk tv internet )

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Just wait until the Crown Prosecution Office discovers Max Hardcore.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Or until some bright spark figures out that unprotected sex in a porn film setting is in itself an act likely to result in serious injury due to the risk of STDs. The end result of this path they have embarked upon is the banning of all pornography.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

On the Good Guy Lucifer list, nice to see that I'm not the only one who thinks the wrong guy won in that song!

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I love the first brain meme, I'm glad I'm not the only person who does that!

I really must read the rest of Lucifer at some point, I really enjoyed what I have read but then I broke up with my comics supplier ;)

[andrewducker]

If you can find a way of getting them from Edinburgh to Dundee and back...

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the offer, I guess we may be able to press Erin & Morag into being comics couriers, or maybe one of your lot visiting them :)

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I suspect getting us to courier Lucifer would result in a bit of a wait between Andy giving us those comics and you getting said comics... *Grin*

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I guess it rather depends how long he's prepared to part with them for then. I could attempt to procure them from my former supplier at some point, it *might* work...

[andrewducker]

They are currently sitting on a shelf, where they are likely to stay until I next fancy reading them. So you can have them for 6 months if you like :->

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) Although I will warn you, I do still have a couple of graphic novels that a friend lent me about 5 years ago sitting on my shelf unread... I did have them foisted on me unasked for though to be fair. And the girls know where I live ;)

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

I'm visiting The Errag in mid August so Andy can get them to me for couriering.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Marvellous, thank you :)

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

No probs. I emailed Andy and we can do lunch one day if one of us orchestrates a meeting in the others building.

[andrewducker]

Do let me know when you're next through - it'd be great to catch up.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

(b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals”

This is rather scary. If they are trying to prosecute someone for having images of fisting then surely caning, spanking and all manner of BDSM activities must be considered far more serious, and viewing just about every porn site on the internet will be considered illegal. Where will it end?

Failing at Geek Feminism

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

If a hypothetical critiquer lived through the early waves of feminism, I've a lot of sympathy if they're frustrated that people are doing something "wrong". If you're trying to make emancipation, or gender equality, or whatever happen in the first place, you need some vehemence to get noticed at all and some of that will probably make people uncomfortable.

But nowadays I feel that if someone is saying "hey, you're doing 'being a woman' all wrong, you should do it exactly the way I'm familiar with and any other way is just wrong" they're probably not helping as much as they'd like to.

Re: Failing at Geek Feminism

[andrewducker]

Absolutely.

There is a tension between "Not telling women (or anyone else) how they should be behaving." and "Acknowledging that cultural norms will pressure people to behave a certain way, so people's choices will be less free than they think."

But the answer to this, for me, is to educate people about the norms and pressures so that they can see them, and make a more educated choice, not forbid them from making a choice just because the culture says it's a good one.

Re: Failing at Geek Feminism

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Exactly this.
I will defend any woman's right to choose to wear high heels and make up (for example) and still be considered a feminist, I just want them to have thought about *why* they are doing it. I get very annoyed by people who seem to think feminism is about restricting women's choices, albeit in the different way, when to me it is all about expanding them.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I like the juxtaposition of "Good Guy Lucifer" and "Scumbag brain".

[andrewducker]

I got sucked in by Scumbag Brain, and remembered that I'd seen Good Guy Lucifer a while back (I loved the comic, so the image was particularly memorable).

Also, you can trust Lucifer more than you can trust your own brain.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

I was on the fence with regards to independence but have swung heavily against it after the behaviour of the Yes Scotland campaigners at Pride Scotia. I would have engaged in open discussion with them but they behaved in a homophobic manner preaching at me when I talked to them about making sure they made it clear to people what Yes Scotland was as a few people had thought they were Yes to Equal Mariage. Seemingly in the middle of Pride Scotia an independent Scotland is far more important to people than equal Mariage rights and how dare I suggest that their campaigners were being misleading. If you look at all photos of Pride Edinburgh and Glasgown you'll notice Yes Scotland pushing to the front of both parades. There was also amleetrer of complaint in the Metro a couple is weeks ago about heir behaviour at Pride Glasgow so I wasn't an isolated case.

[andrewducker]

I was on the fence with regards to independence but have swung heavily against it after the behaviour of the Yes Scotland campaigners at Pride Scotia.

I agree that the behaviour of those people was awful. But that's not a good reason to decide one way or another on the fate of the country. Either you believe that Scotland and England/Wales/NI are similar enough that they should have a common government, or you believe that they are dissimilar enough that they should have a separate one. If we start pulling out bad behaviour from people who are in favour of any one side then we'll be here all year, without actually talking about the real question of which way around Scotland will be better off.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

You may think that but if the behvaiour of the 25 people who are campaigning for that is the only contact I have with the campaign surely it can influence my decision? Aa those 25 are representative of the people, who will want to take lead of the country. Anyway I'm still waiting to see Aex Salmonds response to whether an independent Scotland is guaranteed entry to the EU or not as I think that is important and results of the legal nvestiagation are important to the voters. thus far SNP have shown me nothing to make me feel that I should vote for independence.

[andrewducker]

There have been numerous statements about EU membership - here's one:
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/a-ready-and-willing-member-state/73530.aspx for instance.

And those 25 people won't be leading the country if we do become independent - we'll be voting in a new government, who will almost certainly not be the SNP, as their whole reason for existing will have ceased to exist.

Edit: A parliamentary briefing on Europe/Scotland:
http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06110
Which makes it clear that it's a political question, which can't be solved until we reach that point. I've seen a fair amount of opinion, and it generally looks like Scotland would continue being part of the EU unless one of the existing countries kicks up a big fuss - but the only likely one was Spain, which recently said it had no objections.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

So not a known quantity just various reports from different experts - there's a full legal report commissioned by Scottish government . I'm waiting to see the hidden Report as I can think f no reason to say its not in the public interest . There's something being hidden - I suspect there costs involved or something. However all will be known by august 21st.

And horrid though the truth may be, Scotland being forward thinking with Equal Marriage may have caused the downturn in support. Effectively they've lost a large contingent of the catholic vote - I believe the catholic church were behind independence but they may now change that stance. Politics and religion shouldn't mix but sadly they do.

When I start to get considered literature giving both sides of the argument I'll make my final decision but I know just now I've no faith in any SNP politician. Of courses that could be because my MSP is an SNP wife battering homophobic shit!

[andrewducker]

That would be an _Ex_SNP wife-battering homophobic shit. But I can understand the lack of faith.

I've known a variety of SNP people - Bill Wilson is someone I play occasionaly board games with, and did a lot of good, so far as I can tell. On the other hand there seem to have been some pretty awful people in the party as well. So far as I can tell it's pretty much a party of convenience, with people from all over the political spectrum who have a shared goal of independence. Which is why I expect them to cease to exist after the election - the tensions are too high.

I didn't know there was a report coming out on the 21st of August. I shall look forward to my birthday present!

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

My SNP MP has a pretty good voting record on equal rights and seems like a reasonable enough chap.

It's a shame to tar everyone with the same brush as a bunch of morons, but politicians don't seem to be covering themselves in glory around now so I understand the cynicism.

I'm undecided to the whole independence thing too. My strongest feeling is getting away from the ruddy Tories but a) they won't be in government in Westminster forever and b) I'm not entirely convinced that there wouldn't be a pretty strong conservative element in an independent Scotland, once they escape from having to be part of the UK party with all baggage that carries.

[andrewducker]

Scotland seems to be lefter than the rest of the UK, but it is really hard to tell how stable that is.

[andrewducker]

I'd also settle for getting away from Labour, who started off well, and then went horribly downhill for a lot of their time in power.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Well yes, I think the last Labour Government were a bunch of war criminals and worse. But historically they have done really well up here, I think it's too much to ask to expect to get away from them too. Personally, I suspect I'd quite like a country run by Margo McDonald (you're going to tell me there's an issue I care about that she's dreadful on, now aren't you?) but I don't think that is likely to happen!

[andrewducker]

Oh, Labour up here are better than Labour in the rest of the UK, so far as I can tell. Still more tribal than I'd like, but such is life.

But this is just a good reason to cut the links tying them to the parent party.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Ahh, Labour in my constituency seem to consist of a bunch of people who think a slum landlord is a good MSP candidate. But that's me judging on a basis of a few morons just like poisonduk...