Sorry, bad grammar, I meant to type "can't apply for relevent jobs through their system as the jobs wouldn't be on their system in the first place" ...

*pesky faulty brain-finger interface*

As I understand it from the news last night, it's currently been trialed as an opt-in system but will be rolled out as compulsory in the new year.

I'm very much liberal but in two minds about it. I've never intentionally signed on except for an educational experience once where I was forced to in order to receive redundancy compensation for months of wages owed when an employer went into liquidation. Now I should explain that I'm an embedded systems engineer and live in a small town in somersetThe experience was fascinating but their system was catering to more laboring jobs than professional. I had to jump through the hoops (despite not wanting to sign on!) so had them trawling through their vacancies. They found me roles as cook, HGV driver, forklift operator, street sweeper... So I suggested searching for more useful terms such as "computer", "software" etc... I think the closest they ever got was IT helpline support in a company a two hour drive away.

Anyway, my point is, if I *did* find myself unemployed and forced to take the JSA, would I want it dependent on a well intentioned but ultimately useless system deciding that I'm not eligible to get the money for support that I need because I won't apply for jobs that would never be on their system in the first place? Er... No.

Having said that, the principle is laudable. I know a couple of people that work the system and have never worked an honest days work in their life and have no intention of doing so as they're quite happy on the JSA. But then, they're crafty and any system that's going to work and do the right thing for the majority of people probably wouldn't be capable of forcing them into work anyway.

Interestingly, see my previous post about the TLS podcast. Listen to the interview with Molly Stephens and then reconsider whether that's such an economical approach...!

He was interviewed this week on Radio 4's "The Life Scientific" and you can download the interview as .mp3. And yes, I think you peeps outside the UK are treated to this as well even though it's the BBC.

I can also *highly* recommend Slashdotters have a dig through the TLS archive for other interviews ; it's full of incredible scientists talking about their life and work. Proper fascinating. For my money I can reccommend the first three as starting points Paul Nurse, Stephen Pinker, Jocelyn Bell-Burnell.

An extra special mention goes to the interview with Molly Stephens. She is doing the most incredible things that blew my mind when I heard the interview. Not only that but she's assembled a really unusual collection of people with skills across so many different fields to look at the one goal in a the pragmatic way that so many organisations fail to. Oh, and she comes across as a genuinely lovely and interesting lady. Wow. I just realised that I have the most immense geek crush on her. I hope she doesn't read Slashdot... Actually, if you do, fancy a drink? :-D

When you say man-in-the-middle, I think you mean tower in the middle. (Previously reported a while back but will be a bit before your time for many readers!)

Of course with old technology comes old techniques...

The whole concept of high frequency trading and trying to out-do competition using algorithmic trading beating competition by microseconds just sounds like a future disaster guaranteed to happen. The cock-up earlier in the year by Knight Capital should be viewed as only an overture of things to come.

Now, I understand the concepts behind how algorithmic trading works in principle and what potential it has for fuck ups and to me it seems like the best way to attempt to avert such things would be to enforce an artificial rate cap on trading speed. For example, electronic trades could be enforced to only be allowed to occur (for everyone) at 10ms intervals. This would kill dead all the potential for crazy algorithmic loops at massive speed (well, still what I'd think of as high speed I suppose!) but not affect normal trading. Can someone with a proper knowledge of the way the stock markets work explain (briefly) why this would or wouldn't work?

...maybe buy a copy of James Gleick's "The Information" and see if any of it piques her interest? I have a sneaky suspicion that some of the concepts described that are broader may catch her imagination. Or read it yourself to explain some of the ideas in your own words to start with. I'd start with getting the _ideas_ across and let that fire up her imagination before trying to explain existing protocols too far. Maybe try and explain why the 7 layer OSI model is why it is but don't start with trying to detail TCP/IP!

No, what the wallets want is good games, end of story.

However, human beings are risk adverse and if they know a game was good when hedging bets on next (expensive these days!) games purchase they will instinctively head to a sequel of one they enjoyed. However, if they play something new that's really good they'll buy that. That's why games demos / sharing and dare I even sugest piracy is good - it may detract a little from the sales of the production line sequels but it massively raises awareness of different games that people would instinctively avoid as unknown quantities and I believe they generate sales too.

I'd never even considered doing that in the first place?! (OK, ignoring me being vegetarian that is...!)

How many Slashdotters had that cross their mind? Do our American cousins not get taught cookery basics at school? Should they be doing demo videos of why one shouldn't also cook turkeys using [ petrol / napalm / thermite ] as well just in case?

I'm flummoxed.

... Looked at the cost of SMS messages comparing price vs bytes?! According to wikipedia, average cost is around $0.11 per 160 char message. So, excluding headers and taking k as 1024, thats $738,197 per gigabyte. Now think about what a roaming message costs... Maybe triple that? Thats got to be a great little earner for the telcos...! Not to mention, sms was designed to take advantage of unused bandwidth space anyway, so its all gravy!

One of the first hits :
    http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/drugtestguide/drugtestdetection.html

Blood tests are a better detector of recent use, since they measure the active presence of THC in the system. Because they are invasive and difficult to administer, blood tests are used less frequently. They are typically used in investigations of accidents, injuries and DUIs, where they can give a useful indication of whether the subject was actually under the influence.

Sounds pretty clear to me...

If you want to find someone good at both low level and apps it'll be very hard and be prepared to spend $$$! Also, low level work is specialised for a reason... Having seen a lot of really badly written code for embedded devices, I'd be wary of letting a stereotypical apps guy (* or gal!) loose near critical code.