The great virtue of 'first past the post' is that it forces parties to appeal to a wider group than their obvious supporters...

I'm not sure that's necessarily true, but what FPTP does do is push everything towards a two-party state. This is why you get, effectively, extremists on both sides. Case in point: UK and USA. Minor parties are pushed out, moderate viewpoints are ignored. FPTP directly leads to "Us v. Them" contests.

In fact, thinking more about your first point: I don't think it's quite true. FPTP encourages parties to talk negatively about their opponents rather than push their own positive points.

Google Chrome for Linux dropped support for NPAPI in version 35. This meant that if you use VMware, there's now no current browser which allows you to open VMware consoles via VMware vSphere/vCenter.

This is because of two related issues:

- vCenter needs Flash, but it has to be *recent* Flash (not 11.2 Linux Flash). Only option which provides recent Flash is Chrome;

- vCenter's 'launch console' add-in is NPAPI-based, so that won't work from Chrome version 35 onwards.

Therefore my VMware-managing setup on my Linux desktop is Google Chrome 34, pinned to prevent updating; and this is used only for local VMware management, not browsing.

I post this just for information and to rant about it yet again, but of course this is VMware's fault for relying on a deprecated architecture for plugins.

... many dates now display in European format ...

That sounds like a bug fix to me, to be honest.

unless the default is dash like in for example debian and ubuntu of ocourse...

It depends on the ancestry of the system. Recent installs appear to have /bin/sh symlinked to /bin/dash, but older installs (even if subsequently upgraded to latest stable) persist the former default of linking /bin/sh to /bin/bash

Specifically, I've got servers which were originally installed in 2005, have been upgraded from the original Debian Sarge; these link to /bin/bash. Anything installed afresh since about Debian Lenny seems to have /bin/dash

Possibly explains why the cesg guys got certain usn related chips destroyed on The Guardian kit that had held Snowdens files - perhaps they'd already done this and wanted the evidence removed

The article covers this. It's thought to be more dense because, with the increased gravity which comes from a larger size, the rocks will be more compressed; thus, more dense.

Password: now changed.
Date of birth: changed, new birth certificate acquired.
Home address: moving house tomorrow.

I'm not arguing grammar, but this may be of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Are you using some magic shell which understands the syntax of every executable command line in the system? I want me one of those.

No magic shell, just bash. I knows what you tell it. Lots of distros take care to provide this sort of support, I couldn't comment on arch. Perhaps you're missing some bash-completion package? See e.g. https://github.com/RoadRunnr/s...

Oh that explains why all the memorabilia has gone since we visited 5 years ago and last year.

Very sad that this of the park has gone, it really helps the younger ones to see things in context with the work that went on there, seeing real life artifacts such as toys and the scenes from the time.

Also explains why we cant buy 1 ticket at the entrance for both the Park and the Computing museum with Colossus etc inside it.

Again all very sad that they cant get this joined up to work together, moss other places are putting on living history stuff and BP is pulling it all out.

I know Yahoo don't have (nor need) a framework for email encryption. My comment was simply a clarification. :-)

While the article is correct and uses precise terminology, the summary is wrong to use the term "email encryption". That term is for encrypted email messages using PGP/GPG/S-MIME.

Yahoo have no framework for email encryption. This article is about use of HTTPS for their webmail service and (a) whether that has been implemented and, if so, (b) whether it has been done correctly.

The answers to which are: (a) mostly and (b) no.

Of course it's cheating, it's subverting the rules of the game. The robot is showing its hand after seeing yours. The fact that it does so fast enough to fool human perception doesn't change this.

Your comparison with chess is invalid: Deep Blue plays chess according to the rules of chess. This robot, on the other, is not playing according to the rules of Rock/Paper/Scissors, therefore it is cheating.

Cheating is a perfectly valid description. It's subverting the rules of the game by showing its Rock/Paper/Scissors are seeing its opponent's hand. Intention has nothing to do with it.