There was a similar case in the UK a few years back over whether a Jaffa Cake (a British snack consisting of a sponge layer, an orange flavouring, and a chocolate coating) is, in fact, a cake or a biscuit. This is due to some subtlety of VAT rules wherein a chocolate-covered cake is a foodstuff and thus does not pay VAT, but a chocolate-covered biscuit is ruled a luxury item and does.
It was successfully argued that it is, in fact, a cake, and thus VAT exempt, on grounds including a) a biscuit goes soft when it gets stale, while a cake goes hard: a Jaffa Cake goes hard, and is thus a cake; b) the presentation of a 12" Jaffa Cake in court (I can't find any sources for whether the judge sampled it, or merely observed); and c) a number of other vastly less interesting details.
Personally, I don't expect to receive fame or fortune from my open source coding, and it's certainly not the reason behind it. I'm aware that it's good experience, will likely look good on job applications, etc, but I code because I enjoy it and because it solves my problems, and I release my code on the off-chance it might solve someone else's. To some extent my contributions to other projects are also a way of giving back to the community that's built the enormous amount of free software I use on a regular basis.
Clearly I'm being exploited when I contribute to established open source projects, but what if I open source my own work? Am I therefore exploiting myself? Should I pay myself a salary? Anybody know what a reasonable, non-exploitative rate for a low-experience software engineer with inconsistent hours is, so I can start paying myself?
Humans are capable of regulating their own temperature; a slice of bacon isn't. Were the internal temperature of a human to hit 75C or whatever, you'd be very dead. You only need a fairly low internal temperature rise to hit hyperthermia (not to be confused with a fever, which is the body raising its own internal temperature to fight infection) - I believe it's only about 40C that's considered a medical emergency for hyperthermia.
And as someone else mentioned, the boiling point of the water in you would be higher than 100C because you're a solution, not pure water, but by that point you'd be much too dead to worry about it.
Other major Android manufacturers have made steps in the right direction, announcing unlockable bootloaders on future phones, but this is certainly the best manufacturer initiative I've seen. As a happy CyanogenMod user, I can only hope more manufacturers put this sort of effort into consumer choice and making available the full capabilities of the OS.
Android applications have to declare what access permissions they have on installation, so any app wanting to do this on Android will state that it can use the camera and microphone. If it's not obvious why it wants access to those, don't install it.
Amazon, too, since it's cheaper than the high street, which is apparently Bad and Evil and Killing the Music Industry.
At least some of the YouTube hits are from VEVO, which is industry-owned, so hopefully (but not realistically, I suspect) that would be exempted from the things to be shut down list.
The Daily Mail is good for a laugh, just as long as you don't think about how many people take it seriously.
My favourite line of the article was this:
"Nine out of the first ten websites which pop up on Google’s search engine are run by pirates who have downloaded Adele’s output and offer it online far more cheaply than official copyrighted sites and High Street retailers."
Out of curiosity, I searched for "adele" to see what would come up. Here are the top ten hits, in order:
1. Official website.
2. News results.
3. Video results.
4. Wikipedia page.
5. MySpace page.
6. Image results.
7. Facebook page.
8. Last.fm page.
9. Some lyrics site's page.
10. Amazon.com.
PIRATES AND THIEVES THE LOT OF THEM
The full text of the arsenic bacteria study can be found here if you have a subscription to Science (e.g. if you're at a university): http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/12/01/science.1197258
It's a fairly accessible piece - I'm no biologist and I followed it fine.
I should point out that this guy has been writing a column on bad statistics on the BBC News website for months, and is also the author of a rather good book on bad stats called The Tiger that Isn't. He's not citing people responding incorrectly as *the* cause of bad stats, merely one of the many many factors covered in his regular column.
Re: Re: A Grand Day Out
Just watch out for moon robots.
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It is if you need new cheese supplies just that badly.
(untitled comment)
There was a similar case in the UK a few years back over whether a Jaffa Cake (a British snack consisting of a sponge layer, an orange flavouring, and a chocolate coating) is, in fact, a cake or a biscuit. This is due to some subtlety of VAT rules wherein a chocolate-covered cake is a foodstuff and thus does not pay VAT, but a chocolate-covered biscuit is ruled a luxury item and does.
It was successfully argued that it is, in fact, a cake, and thus VAT exempt, on grounds including a) a biscuit goes soft when it gets stale, while a cake goes hard: a Jaffa Cake goes hard, and is thus a cake; b) the presentation of a 12" Jaffa Cake in court (I can't find any sources for whether the judge sampled it, or merely observed); and c) a number of other vastly less interesting details.
(untitled comment)
MPs are also holding an inquiry into why exactly the attempt was made in the first place... though the inquiry is being held in secret.
Re: Re: Fame, not fortune
Personally, I don't expect to receive fame or fortune from my open source coding, and it's certainly not the reason behind it. I'm aware that it's good experience, will likely look good on job applications, etc, but I code because I enjoy it and because it solves my problems, and I release my code on the off-chance it might solve someone else's. To some extent my contributions to other projects are also a way of giving back to the community that's built the enormous amount of free software I use on a regular basis.
(untitled comment)
Clearly I'm being exploited when I contribute to established open source projects, but what if I open source my own work? Am I therefore exploiting myself? Should I pay myself a salary? Anybody know what a reasonable, non-exploitative rate for a low-experience software engineer with inconsistent hours is, so I can start paying myself?
(untitled comment)
"I mean, this kind of scare mongering has been debunked so many times that you'd think Rob must have to pay someone for rehashing such old news."
Don't be daft. It's hot news that's protected. Rehashing old news is just fine!
Re: Re: Re: Human Tempature limits
Humans are capable of regulating their own temperature; a slice of bacon isn't. Were the internal temperature of a human to hit 75C or whatever, you'd be very dead. You only need a fairly low internal temperature rise to hit hyperthermia (not to be confused with a fever, which is the body raising its own internal temperature to fight infection) - I believe it's only about 40C that's considered a medical emergency for hyperthermia.
And as someone else mentioned, the boiling point of the water in you would be higher than 100C because you're a solution, not pure water, but by that point you'd be much too dead to worry about it.
(untitled comment)
Other major Android manufacturers have made steps in the right direction, announcing unlockable bootloaders on future phones, but this is certainly the best manufacturer initiative I've seen. As a happy CyanogenMod user, I can only hope more manufacturers put this sort of effort into consumer choice and making available the full capabilities of the OS.
(untitled comment)
Android applications have to declare what access permissions they have on installation, so any app wanting to do this on Android will state that it can use the camera and microphone. If it's not obvious why it wants access to those, don't install it.
Re: Re:
Amazon, too, since it's cheaper than the high street, which is apparently Bad and Evil and Killing the Music Industry.
At least some of the YouTube hits are from VEVO, which is industry-owned, so hopefully (but not realistically, I suspect) that would be exempted from the things to be shut down list.
(untitled comment)
The Daily Mail is good for a laugh, just as long as you don't think about how many people take it seriously.
My favourite line of the article was this:
"Nine out of the first ten websites which pop up on Google’s search engine are run by pirates who have downloaded Adele’s output and offer it online far more cheaply than official copyrighted sites and High Street retailers."
Out of curiosity, I searched for "adele" to see what would come up. Here are the top ten hits, in order:
1. Official website.
2. News results.
3. Video results.
4. Wikipedia page.
5. MySpace page.
6. Image results.
7. Facebook page.
8. Last.fm page.
9. Some lyrics site's page.
10. Amazon.com.
PIRATES AND THIEVES THE LOT OF THEM
(untitled comment)
I'm reminded of a post today on Ars Technica looking at the extent to which people trained in scientific reasoning actually apply it, which is strikingly low:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/01/college-upperclassmen-still-fail-at-scientific-rea soning.ars
People just seem to be extraordinarily bad at thinking about things critically, relying much more easily on intuition.
(untitled comment)
The full text of the arsenic bacteria study can be found here if you have a subscription to Science (e.g. if you're at a university):
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/12/01/science.1197258
It's a fairly accessible piece - I'm no biologist and I followed it fine.
(untitled comment)
The music industry is now DIAMONDS.
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I'll start worrying if and only if I see it in a broadsheet or on the BBC. The Daily Express is one of the least reliable tabloids around.
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Next up, therapy for alcoholics to be held in bars...?
(untitled comment)
I should point out that this guy has been writing a column on bad statistics on the BBC News website for months, and is also the author of a rather good book on bad stats called The Tiger that Isn't. He's not citing people responding incorrectly as *the* cause of bad stats, merely one of the many many factors covered in his regular column.