So the FBI can be clever and persistent. Good.

Of course there are some operatives who make them look like knobheads. Why don't law enforcers stick to being the good guys?

Power induces moral blindness and complete WTF

How much of the content will be stolen contrary to copyright laws? Wikipedia and CC is already there so what does Amazon bring to the party? Lesson plans they paid for? New material they paid for? Overview of material (you know how much bollocks is spread around as 'resources'. (Hi Jesus!) ) Editing to make sure material is suitable for a wide range of audiences... S-F-Amazon of course

Split by =

The 'mailbox' bit of the address can be split using the = character to add on

• Role : me=inventor@...
• Formal qualification : me=-BSc@...
• Honour : me=!OBE@...

Also membership, semi-formal titles and indication that the recipient in the first instance is a machine.

This means you can send an email to =salesdept@... or Mary=salesmanager@... or Mary@...

Details at http://vulpeculox.net/ob/Email...

Benefits

• • Being able to differentiate the role from the person.
    • Being able to identify a person's role Being able to indicate status Being able to clearly identify a process as recipient rather than a person. This might be a server that distributes mail to a committee.

How do we get these gorblimey posts?

I block em.
I've saved the advertiser a 'Fuck them'
Shouldn't everyone pay me
for saving bandwidth and honesty?

IF you guys in the USA want the government 100% access to your gadgets, passwords, bank accounts and all other accounts and family settlements then why not set up some sort of constitutional amendment? HOW EASY WOULD THAT BE?

Of course you could continue as the USA and GB are doing and get the data anyway by hook or crook and fudge.

A tipping moment for you guys. Obviously going to the Supreme Court. (Watching with cynical interest.)

Waiting For The Barbarians

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy
1863 – 1933
Translated from Greek

Suppose 10 people press 1-8-7-6 (say) to report a call as (say) robot or (say) fraudulent tech support and so on. Now the charge rate is doubled. Telco networks are superlative at charging. The more people complain the more the charge goes up. WIN-WIN. Simple.

You have a POLICY to make, not a one-of decision. Maintenance will be on-going. It's a people problem.

I would have a be-nice-to-good-people policy. Make them feel wanted and respected. That's down to your management. Then if you hire-in an outside company use an NDA (of course) and make it clear this is an ongoing relationship.

The rapidity with which a key can be repeated makes it quick and soon automatic. There's no time wasted hunting for a particular key. I take your point about the horribleness of laptops but that's a choice people make depending on what they perceive their priorities are.

Have a 'decoration key' that adds accents (etc) to undecorated symbols.
I've done this for Windows and Javascript with a really sweet UI

See http://vulpeculox.net/ax

This is a practically no-learn UI because the same key is used for everything. Want to turn '2' into 'squared' or 'P' into 'pawn' (for chess addicts) or do your French homework using a single key? Then have a look.

And the problem is I don't know how to make it more universal. Mac? Linux? Smartphones? I've no idea, but the feedback on the UI has been 100% so why not have a look and see if you can implement the really simple algorithm?

Whatever the exercise there must be something to physically take away, and perhaps titivate later.

'Draw a graph' might start with rows of stars bashed out on a teletype... which then needs !'s for the horizontal scale and +'s for the vertical scale... and then the scales may need to be scale to fit the data. Of course by now you're drawing symbols on a pixel map then converting it to a matrix printer. Then instead of a fixed X axis you move to X-Y (or scatter) on a virtual drawing surface that gets expressed on a laser printer.

(I put the teletype in there for fun, but there are plenty of tech limitations around today.)

I'm a bit worried about the 'go and research it' bit. I'm all for 'use the internet to help crack specific problems, steal code etc.' but it's your job to be right with them while they're trying to get their ideas together and then to work. When they're floundering you've got to show them the way so they can move on.

(1) Kindles and (much better) e-books don't do that. You might as well have asked for a flying pogo-stick.

(2) You may be confusing pop-up with box-out or even foot-note. If you want the 'less accomplished' to keep up then you can't do it with pop-ups[1] Instead write two books.

(3) An e-book reader is not a multi-media volcano of goodness. The opposite: A constrained text reader with occasional images and no character.

[Footnote 1] Note that a box-out remains in clear view forever. A pop-up vanishes after first use, so after being shown it isn't there for re-reference. A footnote a diversion for someone with a particular interest.

I wrote this paper nine years ago. Go to http://vulpeculox.net/ob/index... and follow the link to The future of collaborative software development

One of the key ideas is that a theatre company has all sorts of skills unrelated to acting or play-writing. A collaborative software project should be half a dozen people at a minimum. Once the group has 'done' one project it'll soon find something else to work on, whether extending the objectives, enhancing the deliverable or something completely different.

I have a dozen FOSS contributions on my web site but I just don't want to get into the hassle of Git or licensing or selling or even promotion. I'm an inventor not a financier or sales executive!

My sister's new Acer laptop came with a slew of bloatware. I want a program that will remove it all with a couple of clicks rather than lengthy add-remove-programs-reboot etc.