Seriously? $55.8 million for a single seat? And that's value for money compared to launching a shuttle?

Hear me out for a minute... the rocket is just going straight up, what's so hard? Just strap a sealed chamber onto a grain silo of fuel, surely? Are you telling me that if I had the best part of $60 million I couldn't design, build and fly my own rocket in to space? Even a brute force solution wouldn't be that expense, surely?

Stealing?... Careful...

People caught using a mobile when driving should have these installed into their motors, in the same vein as electronic tags. Friends can't call people when you're driving? That's your problem; maybe peer pressure will work. Driving is not a right, it is a privilege, and we take away other 'privileges' such as access to the internet and computer equipment for things that couldn't actually result in unnecessary death.

If people can receive BBC signals via their aerials they are likely residing in the UK, and thus, more than likely pay a TV license.

The BBC has been under pressure recently to reduce its costs, I suspect subsiding non-UK free-loaders is something they are trying to eliminate. I wouldn't be surprised if they added a paid subscription to iPlayer for non-UK residents in the future.

the building shaking, the building will flail about in the air tossing the inhabitants around like a washing machine. There has to be some stability in the structure to allow people to safely exit.

I'm sure this approach will protect the buildings, but falling objects and/or people are one of the main causes of injury in an earthquake. I'm not sure this is better.

Yeah, and the title should have read

Although this certainly sounds more sophisticated, the UK NHS offers an 'over the phone diagnosis' service, NHS Direct. Although the article mentions 'physicians' being used to monitor the network, how long will it be until they too are using unqualified staff to handle more routine cases?

The danger for misdiagnosis is huge, although they no doubt have a clause somewhere about it - they may just end up telling patients to visit their doctor in person for a proper check-up, which kind of defeats the object.

Rent some decent off-site storage at an established data centre and get a leased data line.

Don't bother messing about with tapes, it will be a full time job maintaining the library and space will be an issue after a while - I presume this is why you think it is impractical. With a proper data centre, you shouldn't have to worry about drives failing or the storage medium degrading due to age; most offer multiple site redundancy as well.

Seriously, don't get clever; save yourself the hassle and your business' reputation if something goes wrong with your 'lockbox' method.

When someone told him he'd have to forward half his code to the IRS as a result of synTAX, he just 'flew' off the handle.

Why the hell should I use my bandwidth AND pay for the privilage? I get capped at 2mbit for 4 hours if I download more than 1GB during peak time.

It is refreshing to see alternative business models being marketed to the movive/music industry, but these schemes really need to involve the ISP if they are to suceed, especially since as internet usuage increases, availible bandwidth decreases - and they aren't going to upgrade the networks any time soon.

Oh yeah, and if I pay to download a duplicate that only costs the supplier a fraction of wholesale fibre-time, I better be able to keep the copy.

Well he certaintly won't now, that's for sure.

Three figure quantities of staff on average salary takes up a large percentage of that. Then you have equipment, motion capture, voice capture, software licenses, general overheads. It makes me wonder how any new companys get into the business... well... I guess they don't really unless they are holding hands with a large publisher.

From the business' perspective, IT is just another resource.

When times are good, you get free coffee.
When time are bad, you get your genitals squeezed.

Reading the article, the statements made apply to all employees, not just IT workers. If you hadn't already realised that the global financial situation was going to be used as an excuse to bust your balls, then welcome to 2007.

Clever use of analogies there, make out that "protecting artist's rights" is akin to preventing the abuse of children, but then yank the reins by saying it is wrong to censor content. What exactly are you trying to say? Or are you just babbling so people get used to the idea of having their online privary infringed upon.

Yes, it is, but let's forget about artist's 'rights', what about mine? As a so called 'humanitarian' I am quite suprised at his ignorant and narrow-minded comments.

Not to mention the fact he falls into the media-hyped trap that downloads = losses.

What a tool.

From the article (first paragraph), and the summary