This is a maths test, not a test of guestimation. I knew which was the right answer just from inspection, however the test is supposed to be whether you can *work* it out.

Incidentally, I'm currently a Systems Engineer, I do real work on running Computers, not design.

I don't have an attitude, my degree is irrelevant to my job and I rarely mention it, but I do have a big problem when people say "I can't do this stuff, so it must be too difficult for these children" without considering the possibility that the child is smarter than they are.

These tests are supposed to identify the brightest children, so that they can be encouraged to develop. Whether that cumulates in a degree is irrelevant, that's the young person's decision to make - but dumbing down these tests is not the answer.

I'm not saying everyone without a degree is stupid, what I am saying is that this guy, how apparently has more degrees than I do, is stupid. At the same time I was insinuating that perhaps his degree(s) was not particularly taxing intellectually...

Do you understand my point now?

PS: My mother is a Maths Teacher (at a high school). I bet I know more maths than she does, but she's a far better Teacher than I will ever be. She would never go toe-to-toe in a Math-off with me, but she would also never dare to tell me that something is too difficult for me, just because she could not do it.

No you don't.

"Last week Maureen earned $288.00 (before taxes) for working 40 hours. This week Maureen worked 29 hours at the same rate of pay. How much did Maureen earn (before taxes) this week?"

Divide 288 by 4 to get $72 for 10 hours. Multiply that by 3 to get 30 hours ($216). If 10 hours is $72, then one hour is $7.20

216 - 7.20 = $208.80

That is why I have an engineering degree from a world class university and this guy is a Teacher.

That doesn't actually show the event (I saw that report before I posted my original update), it's a report by a bystander of the event. That might be dismissed as hearsay... as that bystander may or may not be correct, and without evidence (and again, I don't believe having been caught up in this kind of event before, that the Police just randomly "set upon" people) it's hard to form a considered opinion.

But even if there was such a girl and she was involved with an incident with the Police, which I acknowledge is possible, I still don't see a justification for this kind of disorder

1. I used the Guardian, a bastion of liberalism and reasonably fair journalism as my second example, just o make it balanced
2. I was playing to the audience ;o) - had I wanted to invoke a popular book of earlier provenance instead, I might have said And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. - John 11:49-50

Why do you say that they don't have proper riot shields?

Are you seeing footage of them using small circular shields, which are better for mobility (try running with a full-size riot shield...) and assuming from that they don't have the full-size versions?

Using those shields is a tactical choice, not a lack of equipment...

I believe you skipped the word "alleged" when reading my sentence. I don't believe there is such thing as absolute truth in the media either, but whether the shooting of Mark Duggan was a righteous action, or not, does not change the fact that rioting is not a proportionate response.

There are also allegations that at the peaceful protest about Mark Duggan's shooting, a teenage girl who threw a stone at Police was beaten by Policemen and that is what all the rioting is about. I find that quite hard to believe as no-one is able to substantiate it, or name the girl and no reputable Journalist has given it anything more than a passing glance for credibility. Beatings by the UK Police really isn't that common.

Even if it were true and could be proved, rioting and general disorder will not fix that - bringing it to the correct channels for Police complaints should. There is no valid excuse for this riot, it's just young people using something for which the truth is not yet known as an excuse to wreak havoc.

Yes, opinion varies, but it is alleged that Mark Duggan both owned a handgun (an offense under the Firearms Act 1997) and used it to shoot at Police, injuring one: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022670/Gangster-Mark-Duggan-shot-police-London-cab-shootout.html

Incidentally, for those fans of history, what happened last time there was a riot in this area, is documented in history as the Broadwater Farm riot: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/aug/08/anger-tottenham-broadwater-riots-1985. Given that then an innocent, unarmed policeman was brutally hacked to death, by person or persons unknown, I would not blame the Police for going in hard and fast with all means at their disposal, including asking RIM for some messages.

Don't get me wrong, I am just as much of an advocate for free speech and privacy as the next man, but there are considerations that outweigh this. I shall quote you Mr Spock, from the 1982 classic STII: The Wrath of Kahn - logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

In this case, the vast majority of people don't believe that rioting is a proportionate response. It is their property that is being destroyed, and I bet they don't care one iota if their BBM messages are read as a by-product of the search to catch the opportunistic thugs who are doing this.

She is sheer awesome.

I'm not too bothered about the technicalities and whether this counts as "tech savvy", but this girl is smart, sassy and interesting.

She shouldn't have a problem finding a replacement.

However... that man who had to get him MOM to do all the fighting to get his images taken down, well... I think his man card needs to be revoked...

Sadly, my first thought when seeing these pictures was also "that is NOT a cleaver". It's really a sad day when my twin interests of geekery and knifery combine to make me anal-retentive.

I mean... if you're going to "score a line", for the want of a better phrase, a cleaver is good, but there are much better tools in the toolbox and ultimately any knife will do as this post proves.

Actually, that's not true - I have a Broadsword that wouldn't be any good for this, but it's not really an edged weapon ;o)

Most of the time I *do* bother.

Recently, I am working with a ticketing system and am writing a script that outputs GUI notifications via the FreeDesktop notification daemon. Unobtrusive and beautiful notifications of ticket status changes actually speed up my workflow as I increase my situational awareness about tickets that are being worked by others.

I could spend all my time in a terminal window (my first project was actually a cli for our ticketing system), but why bother when I have 2 x 1280 x 1024 and more than 16 colours to play with.

I use Python, because I can. ;o)

No, she doesn't. She's not in this league.

I understand what you are saying and I feel passionate about digital rights, but the choice of subject and telling of that ProPublica article are far far more important to Humanity than copyright law will ever be. Please feel free to ask Pamela if she agrees with that, but I think she might.

I'm a dispassionate geek. I understand logical and pragmatic choices. That's what I trained to do and to be honest, I'm extremely good at it.

This story still moved me.

I don't think I would be able to make the life and death choices outlined in the Article. I honestly hope to the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster that I will *never* have to make such choices. My significant other is a Dr - I don't know how she makes choices that are even slightly related to this, but thankfully I will never have to make them.

I understand that PJ has done fantastic work, but exactly how many people died for that? None? OK, lets move on then.

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Sam

Ditto for the geodata.

I live in a reasonably affluent area of London, UK in a row of terraced houses (so the horizontal density is reasonably high). I currently see 9 APs, but have seen as many as 14.

If I compare that to where my parents live out in the country, there is no change in affluence compared to me, yet the housing density means the number of APs seen is pretty low in comparison.

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Sam