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Comment Re:So if we redefine STEM... (Score 4, Insightful) 634

It's not so much redefining STEM as redefining societal good. Much of the things they mention are certainly forms of engineering and so fit firmly under STEM, but the problem is they're a tiny subset of engineering, and similarly a tiny subset of useful engineering that the world needs.

The premise of the argument in the summary seems to be that medicine, healthcare and so forth are all in this arbitrary societal good category, but things like building houses, power grids, bridges, phones, video games, operating systems and so on and so forth are not.

So the argument seems to be that if we give disproportionate focus to certain areas of engineering application we can increase the number of female engineers. I'm not terribly sure that that helps though as it means the majority of engineering areas are still woefully underfilled, and still have a woeful lack of gender balance.

So what if we have an increase in the number of female engineers figuring out how to do large scale deployments of some new technology like low power computing devices and methods of charging them and connecting them into poor communities if we've done nothing to solve the electronic engineering shortage which is required to develop the low powered devices in the first place? Both things are necessary, but the summary seems to imply only the former does societal good even though the former necessarily depends on the latter. It's ill conceived nonsense.

So yes you could do something like that and pretend you've fixed it, but all you've really done is fix it in a very contrived and niche circumstance without addressing any of the underlying reasons for trying to fix it in the first place, like trying to fix gender imbalance across all aspects of the field, trying to fix pay imbalance, or solve the STEM shortage in general. A bunch of females doing low paid engineering work for charities in Africa, isn't going to sort out the pay or gender imbalance when back in Silicon Valley you have a male dominated engineering industry holding all the money. So they've fudged the engineering graduate numbers to look slightly more fair, great, then what? what about the actual problems we're trying to solve in doing that in the first place? Do they not matter providing we've pulled off an adequate fudging of numbers to whitewash the problem?

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

And so Julian's tears continue because he was wrong about something on the internet as another moment in which he fails to follow the conversation passes. Asking for things that are long irrelevant based on points already made, like a stuck cassette that just can't get past a certain very whiny point because to do so would still require the upsetting idea that he might actually have to confront his inability to consider anything outside of the comfort zone The Daily Mail provides to him.

Life goes on. Julian continues to cry because the world wouldn't conform to his minority hard right viewpoint.

The Story of Julian: A day in the life of a man-child who acts tough, but is just another failed internet tough guy.

Still, there's one upside to your latest post, you've dropped the overly dramatic cries of "leftist". I guess I'm making progress then, I guess my last point about being neither firmly left nor firmly right had an impact and forced you to realise there are in fact shades of grey between the black and white. That's enough progress for now. I wouldn't want to push you too far out of your comfort zone in case you do something drastic, like, start considering alternate viewpoints whether you agree with them or not. Maybe one day you'll get there.

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

"Perhaps if you had any facts or evidence to hand you might not have needed the evasions and colourful insults?"

Insults? you mean like those things that you lunged into from the very start and ran with? Oh never mind, you're one of those classic UKIP types aren't you "Wah wah wah, he hurted me, it's not far, only I'm allowed to hurt him, he can't throw anything back at me because it makes me cry to mummy and I have to play the victim". Yeah okay, if you have a problem with insults and they make you cry like your typical Daily Mail play the victim card holder you should maybe try not to use them yourself from the outset. I'm sure playing the victim makes you feel like you're somehow making me out to be the bad guy, but in reality all it does when folks like you to Farage do it is show how utterly weak your arguments are in that you can't stand by and defend them and instead cry about being bullied even though you attempt the exact same thing. You call everyone else weak, but as soon as the tables turn, your tears start flowing.

"despite there patently not being one as some of the biggest ISPs don't clearly aren't in on the big secret."

Well, you know, except the great net neutrality whitewash known as the Open Internet Code that doesn't actually protect net neutrality because it explicitly allows for ISPs to ignore it. The fact that TalkTalk's old boss became a member of government, and the fact that a number of ISPs have started blocking over and above the court order - PlusNet and Sky being the existing examples.

Of course, you ignored this because it doesn't fit your One True World View TM. It's just way too inconvenient, and it wasn't in The Daily Mail so it can't be true!

You still seem to be intent on calling me a leftist, which is quite funny given that last time I defended the right of Israelis to retaliate to military attacks on their state I was called a rightist. This only really further proves my point that wingnuts like you are lost causes, you can't see shades of grey in the middle, it's all or nothing, either you lean wholly in one direction, or wholly in the other. It can't possibly be the case that both sides have good points, and both have bad, and that the best solution is a form of centrism that selects the best of both worlds. But no, The Daily Mail has told you it must be all in hard right wingnuttery, so that's that.

Regardless, I said it doesn't really matter does it? The whole reason you replied so aggressively to my posts is because I've wound you up by pointing out that some of the blocking is not simply a limitation of the law but goes above and beyond that. The fact I got such a response from you is good, because there's nothing better than shaking wingnuts out of their comfort zone. Especially The Daily Mail crowd - you need a little slap of reality now and again, not because it does any good, no, as I pointed out, people like you are unthinking and have crystalised unchangeable views, but simply because you deserve to pay the price of that ignorance - the price of having to face reality once in a while.

I can see you don't post much with this account, so the fact that I have gained so many responses from you shows that you know full well that I've got a point, hence why you're so desperately trying to shut it down. I guess I really touched a nerve, you wouldn't have flown off the handle so easily otherwise, so, well, mission accomplished.

You're not hear to learn something, you're hear to dictate, only you have no power to dictate, and so you just get laughed at and then end up crying like a baby.

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

Let's be honest, even if I had a recording of a meeting between ISPs, government and the music industry all agreeing to it and admitting it you would still write it off as a fake, or "leftist propaganda" or a "liberal conspiracy".

When someone like you blasts off a reply about left, or right, or insert whatever inherent hate target you have here it says one thing, it says that that persons views cannot be fluid, it says their views are crystalised. Your outrage, your bile spewing to your chosen hate target occurs because you cannot cope with the idea that the world does not bend to your whims, you detest the idea that someone might think differently to you, you want everything to be as you want it. In short, you have the mind of a dictator, albeit thankfully without any of the power, so you're left spewing bile.

But I'll leave you with this, this isn't a scientific publication, I don't profess that everything I say is guaranteed to be 100% correct, I don't post with a warranty on the validity of it, I post ideas based on what we do know about the world. So yes, it's possible that I'm way off the mark, it's possible that I'm completely wrong, but here's the thing. It's also entirely possible that you're completely wrong too- the difference is I'm open to other views and that's how I get to avoid being a flagrant wing nut, you however, are not, and that's why you are a flagrant bile spewing wingnut with nothing useful to say.

If you would like to know why I've put forward the possibility that ISPs, government and the music industry might well have gotten a little too cosy, then I'd gladly give you some links. But frankly, for that to be even worth my time you'd have to display some semblance of rationality, and get past your wingnut bile spewing. Given your post history I'm not convinced you can do that, you appear too mentally immature to engage in rational debate.

Comment Re:crap (Score 1) 133

Yeah tell me about it, as I say I was struggling at first and figured maybe it was a snobbish reference to the use of artifact rather than the British English but basically never used artefact.

It wasn't until I literally parsed it word by word taking a pause in between that I caught it. It's a rather fantastic example of inbuilt human brain automatic error detection and correction though :) Judging by the replies it caught quite a few people - I think there's a psychological study in there somewhere!

Comment Re:crap (Score 1) 133

Here is what they said, followed by what you just said they said.

they a found trove of strange artifacts
they found a trove of strange artifacts

Hopefully side by side you can more easily spot the blatant illiteracy :)

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

Have you ever stopped to read one of your own posts? It's just you like to cry that everyone else is crying, which means that you're basically always crying that the world apparently doesn't adhere to your Daily Mail led world view after all.

I know it must suck being lied to all your life, to find out that you've in fact been consistently fed a crock of shit when reality comes shining through, but I'm afraid that's something you'll have to get used to.

Don't worry, you can go and vote Farage soon, and when your ilk get a mere 15% at most you can pretend that you're somehow in a majority and we should do everything you say, even though the reality is you're still a pointless little squeak in the corner that no one gives the slightest shit about.

Comment Re:Good bye ( and not good buy) (Score 1) 160

There's always someone that gets a lemon though, you can't judge an entire range with a single anecdote, you need a larger data set. To highlight the point that you can't judge the whole on one case I can simply counteract with my anecdote; I've knocked my Nexus 7 off a table directly onto a solid stone floor. I expected a smashed screen and broken innards, but it didn't even get a scratch and still works fine one year on.

My partner's iPad (also an iPad 2, though doesn't go back to 2009, I don't think they were out then) in contrast just started randomly freezing recently, though it is at least about 3 or 4 years old now I believe so I don't really feel too bad about it given it's age (and the fact she won it so didn't cost us anything anyway).

I'm not here to defend Google, god only knows they cut off support for my Galaxy Nexus after less than 15 months of it being available in the UK market which is a wholly unacceptable way to treat customers, and as such I too wouldn't buy another Google branded device. But I don't think it's fair to say the Nexus 7 is an inherently unreliable device as mine has been sturdy and reliable since I got it (I got mine in 2012, no idea where the 2013 in the summary comes from, maybe the version refresh?).

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

Er, the simple fact that the British government has greenlighted the abandonment of net neutrality, coupled with the fact that ISPs have stopped fighting the ban and instead are voluntarily banning IS the evidence that something is going on. Given that we've seen the link between people like Jeremy Hunt (who have publicly sided against net neutrality) and Rupert Murdoch and so forth first hand, coupled with the fact the Digital Economy Act was put in place after a bit of boat based lobbying from Geffen to Mandelson it's not entirely rocket science to see there is a strong link between the music/movie industry and government efforts to block piracy websites. It's also established fact that government has greenlighted the industry's net neutrality whitewash.

But it's not surprising you're a bit dumb, you're on TalkTalk after all, it's not exactly an ISP that's designed for intelligent people, mostly targetting the dregs of society who don't know any better and are happy to pay for an overly contended ISP that anyone with a clue wouldn't use even if it was completely free.

You know what gave it away? The fact you had to jump straight into some random, nonsensical left vs. right rant. It gave it away because that's the sort of nonsense I'd expect from someone as dumb as Sarah Palin, which you apparently are as dumb as. So well done on broadcasting your stupidity and your black vs. white "I'm too dumb to understand shades of grey" mentality to the whole internet.

Angry un-thinking Daily Mail reader 0 - 1 Reality

Comment Re:crap (Score 1) 133

I'm pretty sure it's not a perfectly well constructed bit of English.

But honestly, I don't blame you for claiming it's not, I read it correctly 3 times before I realised it's actually incredibly broken.

It seems I have the capacity to automatically filter out terrible English unless I'm really trying hard to look for it. I'd wager you do too :)

Comment Re: Do not (Score 1) 133

Honestly, the explanation may be even simpler again.

This pyramid dates back 1800 years, but 2200 years ago China's first emperor had his own tomb built, and whilst it has not been excavated it is long rumoured to have been filled with rivers of mercury, and of course, jade, which is common in China.

So as much as we like to pretend otherwise in many Western history books it's feasible that there was, in the intervening 400 years, some knowledge transfer and trade from China to Mexico, and that this Mexican pyramid was simply built to mirror this one in China that is similarly pyramid shaped, filled with mercury, and full of jade.

Of course, I believe the oldest pyramids we know are perhaps the most famous ones in Egypt dating back even further, so this may all simply represent an eastwards spreading of that kind of style of tomb over a few centuries of human civilisation. I can quite imagine travellers being so mesmerised by these massive constructions full of jade, liquid mercury and other such things that they may want to replicate them upon returning home or reaching new lands.

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

"The cost for the ISP to send someone is more than they're likely to lose, so you're very likely to get a default judgement against them."

Not on something like this you're not. ISPs aren't going to let the floodgates to such claims be opened. They'll try and extinguish any such movement using plenty of cash for the best representation they can find.

This is what the banks tried and failed to do with PPI - they fought tooth and nail to try and get those cases shut down ASAP because they knew if people started winning it'd cost them a fortune, luckily it didn't work, however for anyone trying such a thing it can be an expensive and time consuming battle.

Comment Re:UK ISPs cause DoS (Score 1) 160

This isn't entirely true, some ISPs have been going above and beyond the court order.

For example, even though PlusNet is owned by BT, it isn't covered by the original court order, and yet it still blocks ThePirateBay.

The court order was relatively limited in scope, and yet ISPs like Sky are actively hunting additional proxies not even covered by the order and blocking those too.

Somewhere along the lines the ISPs dropped their opposition to this very quietly. I'd wager a deal was done between music industry, government and ISPs - it seems that the government has promised not to enforce net neutrality on ISPs so that they can filter, throttle, and block at will as long as ISPs agree to bow down to the whims of the BPI. The ISPs get to screw people by double dipping on their networks, the BPI gets to have sites it hates censored, and government puppets of the likes of Murdoch's media outlets keep getting their back handers. It's a solution that's made everyone happy except, you know, the people ISPs customers who actually pay for their existence in the first place, and that the MPs are supposed to serve those same people but instead serve whoever will bribe them the most.

Comment Re:Limited gaming possible on a smart watch. (Score 1) 174

Yeah, what about flappy bird, you could repeatedly tap your wrist to gain altitude, whilst everyone around you wonders if you've perhaps strayed too far from your mental institute and if you have some kind of helper they should perhaps call to pick you up.

Honestly, gaming on a watch strikes me as one of those things that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Just like you can write code on a phone or tablet, but you shouldn't unless you're simply trying to make your life as difficult as possible.

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