They are a grid on the data that I got from http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,841,177_post_codes _together_with_precise_geographic_coordinates_and_other_information,_8_Jul_2009

**take out the space in the url, I got a filter error trying to post**

The only reason I found that there was a variance was due to holes like parks etc... There are just gaps in the matrix.

The opendata project doesn't have postcodes, I just checked, but it does have some good stuff - thanks.

UK postcodes are just a grid 1km I think, I am on the wrong computer to check. You can always import that leaked Postcode db into a mapping software to see what I mean. This normally translates in to a part of a street.

I thought the same thing but I would have expected better English. It was also a bit of a convoluted argument to get to "Bing is great" don't use TomTom or OSM.

Absolutely, and surely TomTom and openstreetmaps have some method of sorting out the rubbish that comes in. i.e. multiple entries checked against each other and any ones outside the norm are thrown out.

I can't find the "circle stars" button.

"IBM" = rot27("HAL")

Such a great and underused word, well done. Although I suppose people going out of windows is not that common in most people's experience.

:)

I am still amazed that people look at this nonsense waiting for it to change page. Its like Luddite heaven.

Minitel was a big success as far as I remember as people were given minitel terminals.

From wikipedia:

"Millions of terminals were handed out free to telephone subscribers, resulting in a high penetration rate among businesses and the public. In exchange for the terminal, the possessors of Minitel would not be given free "white page" printed directories (alphabetical list of residents and firms), but only the yellow pages (classified commercial listings, with advertisements); the white pages were accessible for free on Minitel, and they could be searched by a reasonably intelligent search engine; much faster than flipping through a paper directory."

What about linux? ;) You are now a terrorist if you have linux or some other operating system.

I am gonna right a new book called 2084 - a future projection - and just cut and paste what roman_mir just said :) and step 5:profit

Of-course this proposal concerns all those, who are concerned about the real-time communications of everybody.

The proposal is this: all of those, who are so concerned about the real time communications and all other forms of communications and thoughts and actions of other people, the concerned need to be protected.

The proposal is to protect those, who are so afraid and are looking for protection, because obviously, there will never be enough done, in their eyes, to protect them. Clearly real time monitoring of all communications is not enough. Eventually everybody will have to have devices built into them, that can monitor everybody's real-time activities, and eventually read their real time thoughts with the long term goal of projecting thoughts in real time into everybody, so that nobody could ever even think something that the concerned individuals would be afraid of.

"So the proposal is to protect these poor souls from the rest of us by isolating them into a well guarded facility, where they could really have real time monitoring of all communications that are internal to that facility and monitor each other (I suppose they are paranoid enough to want to do that).

For those, who believe it is not enough protection, they should be isolated within that facility from the rest in well suited, very well protected rooms (and they should have extra set of locks they could use from the inside), and all of them need to be given all sorts of weapons they need to keep safe as well.

I believe it is at the point right now, where those, who believe they are in need of protection and will not stop until everybody is a mechanised food processor without any original thoughts, that these people need to get the protection they so desire so that the rest of us can carry on, having terrible thoughts and killing each other they way we do - left, right and centre."
Roman_mir

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17590363

What do critics say?

Nick Pickles, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, called the move "an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran". Conservative MP Dominic Raab said it was "a plan to privatise Big Brother surveillance" which "fundamentally changes the nature of the relationship between the state and the citizen" and turns every individual "into a suspect". Fellow Tory David Davis warned that until now anyone wishing to monitor communications had been required to gain permission from a magistrate, but the planned changes would remove that protection.

What do internet service providers say?

Trefor Davies, a board member at the UK's Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), told the BBC that the technological challenge of collating and storing such vast levels of data would be huge. Although a large amount of data about us is already collected for billing and other purposes - such as who we call and when - ISPs do not currently store detailed data on what websites we visit, or details about the emails we send. Mr Davies said: "The email stuff isn't straight forward, and neither is the web. Those aren't bits of information that traditionally we keep. We don't keep backups of deleted emails. Think of all the spam people get," Mr Davies added. "We delete it, but under the new rules would we be allowed to?"

I am not sure I would be so brave whilst sitting in my orange jumpsuit.

Might make a great Tango advert though. (tango the orangey fizzy drink not the dance).

I would rather an 'e'. The most common letter in English. Or in Chinese 'de'