You seem so incredibly caught up in your bile towards her that you're imagining things that just aren't there.

I do not believe she was universally loved, and it doesn't matter that there were parties over their death, because there were also parties celebrating her life and massive support for a state funeral too. Obviously some people loved her, obviously some hated her.

Yes, she did a hell of a lot wrong, there's no question about that. But to pretend she did not a single thing right? Celebrating her death? That's just stupid, that's naive zealotry, that's hatred beyond reason, and again, yes, that makes you as nasty as she ever was.

I don't really care that you're Scottish for what it's worth, and yes, of course the NHS is better run up there, we're paying for it for you because apparently you eventually realised that you indeed can't look after yourselves without us continuing to prop you up.

Actually, it's newsworthy because there was a reasonable amount of evidence showing that their space program was simply an ICBM program by another name.

What makes this stand out, is that it was only a couple of weeks ago that they said they were shutting down their space program, and the world was relieved, because the threat of an Iranian ICBM/Nuclear program whether real or imagined was off the table.

Whether it's true or not, this puts it back on the table, and that brings back the risks of instability.

Pipex most definitely did cap, so I'm guessing the real issue is that you never hit them, or never used the protocols that got throttled down to modem speeds when you hit them. A quick internet search will confirm this as there are a number of posts on the topic from about 10 years ago.

Agreed, she wasn't choice of the century. But pretending that not a single thing whatsoever that she did was a good idea? That's more spiteful than Thatcher herself ever was at least.

So, are you saying it's a bad thing? What's your point? Should IS be allowed to spread all the propaganda it wants and the West not be allowed to counter it because propaganda is bad (but only if the West does it) or what?

Yes, she was so universally bad that she was elected 3 times!

What ISPs have you been with over the last 15 years?

Reminds me a bit of Lost. Seemed like a great series at first but it's pretty clear based on the ending they'd dug a hole they had no idea how to get out of so made some shit ending about being in limbo or whatever.

It was so blatant because most things were never even explained by the ending they chose, the ending they chose merely answered (badly) the main plot line, but completely failed to factor in and explain countless side plots, and so was largely just completely broken.

At least in this case he has some guidelines as to how it should all play out though, that's something. Lost basically felt like a really desperate live improvisation.

I don't mean to bring up Thatcher or talk negatively of the EU because I'm extremely pro-EU and am relatively neutral on Thatcher.

But if Thatcher's government was visionary on one thing it was technology, not only did they push computers in schools which I fondly remember as a kid and is a large part of why I do what I do and like what I like today but her government also wanted to roll out fibre and replace copper way back in the 1980s but was actually blocked by the EU because BT had at that point become a private entity.

I don't want to get caught up in the politics of Thatcher, the EU and privatisation as I know these are incredibly divisive subjects and my feelings on the issue in this case run wholly counter to my feelings in general (I'm extremely pro-EU and hate euroscepticism with a passion because it's short-sighted and isolationist, and I believe public utilities should always be publicly run) but I find this to be a fascinating twist in history. A missed opportunity that I would've loved any government ever since whether Labour, Tory, or coalition to have attempted to revive.

It's one case where EU law sadly genuinely prevented the UK being first class and completely ahead of it's time in a particular area of technology and left us much worse off for it.

Yeah, but this is how it was with ADSL too.

Back when ADSL rolled out, and people only got 512kbps, there were no limits. You could literally download constantly at maximum speed for the entire month.

Then along came ADSL Max and people got bumped to 1 - 2mbps. Suddenly caps started getting introduced, so low that your speed had gone up but the amount you could download had literally declined by several orders of magnitude.

So whilst with the advent of basic FTTC unlimited has once again become the norm, don't count on currently unlimited bandwidth meaning perpetually unlimited bandwidth. It wouldn't be the first time in the UK that increases in speed have seemingly paradoxically meant decreases in the amount of data you're actually allowed to download. That's exactly what happened last time.

I can't tell if you don't understand vaccines or what, but you're still failing to expand on why you have a problem with flu vaccines?

They still provide herd immunity, they still make your immune system stronger in general making it better able to cope with other illnesses.

You've still failed to explain why any of that is a problem. Better hygiene doesn't make you more resistant to illness, it just delays the inevitable.

Given that the flu can be spread not simply by touch but by bodily fluids from coughing and sneezing I don't really understand why you think hygeine fixes the problem and yet flu vaccines are useless.

Again, there's no downside to them, they make you more resistant to it and other illnesses and protect others, so what exactly is the problem given that there's no real downside?

It's amazing how many Americans have this absurd view that UK internet is somehow universally centred.

There are three censorship tools in the UK:

1) The IWF watch list, this is a list of verified child porn sites. It's wholly optional for ISPs to implement and a few don't, but most do.

2) Porn filters. These exist only on a handful of ISPs that try to appeal to people who actually like the idea of a nanny state. Even here though they are wholly optional, and the vast majority of ISPs don't even offer them.

3) Website blocking through the courts. These are only applicable to the largest ISPs because it's recognised that the cost of implementing blocks for smaller ISPs would be too much of a problem.

So there is such thing as wholly uncensored internet in the UK if you really really want that. Most people are happy with censorship simply being child porn sites that in two decades of internet access you'll never even accidentally visit because even US companies like Google have purged them from their indexes.

If you want no filtering in the UK then you can absolutely have that. So if you think the fact that there is optional censorship in the UK is somehow too much of a trade-off for absolutely terrible internet access then more fool you.

I've seen more site blocking in my life as a UK citizen because of the US than because of anything to do with censorship here in the UK - ICE domain seizures and US led raids have taken down sites I've noticed. So much for land of the free - not only is your internet access censored, but your government censors it for the rest of us outside the US as well.

If I can take one thing away from what's being said without managing to actually get to the point it's that apparently what we really need is to do a better job of teaching mathematics.

I mean, that's really what it all comes down to.

Programming is ultimately just an application of that. The reasons for needing to teach it universally ultimately seem to fall back to the simple fact that current methods of, and the areas of mathematics teaching are currently failing kids.

So rather than recognising that giving students a book with 40 math problems to shut up and solve in silence which is far too prevalent still it seems what we really need is to give them real world problems to solve and explain how to use mathematical underpinnings of modelling, logic, and philosophy to achieve that.

Unfortunately the people coming up with these ideas of coding for all themselves never managed to self-educate in mathematics to see past the flawed system of teaching it upto the age of about 18 and don't realise that's what they're basically asking for.

Teach kids a broader understanding of mathematics than just how to repeat algorithms blindly without truly understanding the what's, why's, or how's and everything from making a logical argument in politics through to doing programming will come easily.

Keep teaching maths in the shoddy way it's often currently taught though and it wont matter how much half-arsed coding you've taught, you still wont have gotten anywhere.

Frankly even history as a subject could be made far more useful if kids had to do a module on the history of mathematics and the evolution of mathematical achievements - you don't even need to cover the math itself, just explaining who came up with what, and why is an eye opener in itself and ties in with some important advances in human philosophy, physics and other key milestones of humanity too.

Agreed, but it's worth noting that they're very US-centric (and that's not a criticism, just a statement of fact) so if you're not from the US you may find your money better spent elsewhere.

For example, in the UK, the Open Rights Group is far more relevant and helpful towards dealing with these issues in the UK than the EFF is. Presumably the options in countries like Sweden and Germany would be the much better organised respect Pirate parties there.

*facepalm*

So now it's onto the victim card is it? Oh you're so hard done by, it must be awful failing to follow a conversation, jumping in with insults and acting like an ass, having it pointed out to you that you failed to follow the conversation, and then having to play the victim because it's everyone elses fault but yours.

I mean, you were such a victim in your initial reply, you were so pleasant and so hard done by! -

"Wow. You really are confused if you think linux is still a small teaching tool and minux is no longer a small teaching tool. If you really are that confused and it's a serious suggestion why are you bothering to comment on this thread at all if it's so far beyond the realms of what you know? What motivates you to make noise with no substance in this situation?"

If you can't take the heat then don't act like an ass, especially when you were wrong in the first place.