THE Better Together campaign has been labelled "blithering idiots" by Ukip for not allowing Nigel Farage to join forces with the pro-UK campaign while the party insists its members are, nonetheless, helping the anti-independence cause at a grassroots level in Scotland.
The Ukip leader will be in Edinburgh tomorrow with chief fundraiser, multi-millionaire Stuart Wheeler, for strategy meetings to prepare for the 2014 European elections as well as a "secret dinner" with local supporters when the issue of financial support is expected to be raised.
The Better Together campaign has rejected an approach from Mr Farage for Ukip to join its push against Scottish independence, saying: "They are not a Scottish party and this is a Scottish debate."
However, a senior Ukip source said in response to the rejection: "They are blithering idiots, yet we agree with them on the policy for the UK. They are still stuck in the same mindset that England was about Ukip for years; that we have horns and kill babies."
He pointed to how polls showed support was growing for Ukip north of the Border and that, come the 2014 European elections, the party had a "50-50 chance" of getting a Scottish MEP.
Meantime, in response to the Better Campaign's rebuttal, Arthur Misty Thackeray, Ukip's Scotland vice-chairman, said: "Ukip's position is that we are happy for our activists to continue at the grassroots working alongside Better Together as we have been doing all along. It is entirely up to them whether or not they choose to benefit from having Nigel Farage and the Ukip team on side with our growing support, which comes from many who have previously not followed politics. Either way, I assure the voting public that Ukip will be front and centre, playing a leading role in resolutely defending our Union."
A spokesman for the Better Campaign said it regarded as a "badge of honour" being labelled blithering idiots by Ukip.
THE Better Together campaign has been labelled "blithering idiots" by Ukip for not allowing Nigel Farage to join forces with the pro-UK campaign while the party insists its members are, nonetheless, helping the anti-independence cause at a grassroots level in Scotland.
The Ukip leader will be in Edinburgh tomorrow with chief fundraiser, multi-millionaire Stuart Wheeler, for strategy meetings to prepare for the 2014 European elections as well as a "secret dinner" with local supporters when the issue of financial support is expected to be raised.
The Better Together campaign has rejected an approach from Mr Farage for Ukip to join its push against Scottish independence, saying: "They are not a Scottish party and this is a Scottish debate."
However, a senior Ukip source said in response to the rejection: "They are blithering idiots, yet we agree with them on the policy for the UK. They are still stuck in the same mindset that England was about Ukip for years; that we have horns and kill babies."
He pointed to how polls showed support was growing for Ukip north of the Border and that, come the 2014 European elections, the party had a "50-50 chance" of getting a Scottish MEP.
Meantime, in response to the Better Campaign's rebuttal, Arthur Misty Thackeray, Ukip's Scotland vice-chairman, said: "Ukip's position is that we are happy for our activists to continue at the grassroots working alongside Better Together as we have been doing all along. It is entirely up to them whether or not they choose to benefit from having Nigel Farage and the Ukip team on side with our growing support, which comes from many who have previously not followed politics. Either way, I assure the voting public that Ukip will be front and centre, playing a leading role in resolutely defending our Union."
A spokesman for the Better Campaign said it regarded as a "badge of honour" being labelled blithering idiots by Ukip.
*chortle*
No, I'll say that Better Together are being idiots in this one. Very depressing.
Thinking some more about EiT's suggestion that the LibDem should try to pick up centre-right votes, it would suffer at least three other problems:
1) Much of the Conservative vote is tribal anti-Labour, they're not going to shift to a party they would regard as less anti-Labour.
2) Much of the Conservative vote is based on inertia / heritage, "our family's always voted Conservative etc", that's not going to shift without a serious jolt.
3) Many LibDems aren't going to support their party shifting to the right, the resulting LibDem internal turmoil would make them less attractive to Conservative supporters even if their policies made them more attractive.
?!!!?!!? indeed. How cosmic cold spots hint at such a thing goodness only knows.
I recall hearing a theory that the multiverse was actually possibly like a sting with bubbles along it, each bubble being a 'universe' only echoes of which could be felt in the others. I have no idea how that idea developed or what could possibly prove it, but the thing is even when it is explained to me, I still have no clue
The multiverse theory makes sense to me, if only because EVERY age has regarded itself as knowing the entire extent of "everything", only to be horribly disproved as science extends horizons by enormous magnitudes.
e.g. The medieval mind thought "the world" was it. Galileo extended "the world" to the solar system. A century or two later this "everything" was extended to the galaxy. Then the galaxy became the universe. Now, it looks like our universe might become the multiverse, and so on, and so forth.
I also LIKE the multiverse theory because it leads to some amazing thought experiments.
e.g. If there is an infinity of alternate universes, then, by definition, all conceivable kinds of universe MUST exist (and all inconceivable kinds, too)....
.... ...that means there MUST be at least ONE universe made, in seven days, in 4004 BC, by a white bearded Jehovah. By Almighty God. So the Creationists are scientifically right. Kapow!
You've missed the infamous Royal Institution lecture in the 1890s when someone (I think Lord Kelvin) stood up and said that all the fundamentals in science were known, and all that remained was filling in the gaps.
A year or two later radioactivity was discovered, which really threw a spanner in the works.
I have grave doubts about string theory. The rest of science is fairly intuitive and understandable, and then suddenly it gets weird and illogical. I can't help but think they've missed something fundamental that'll be a better explanation. But I'm almost certainly wrong in that...
Thinking some more about EiT's suggestion that the LibDem should try to pick up centre-right votes, it would suffer at least three other problems:
2) Much of the Conservative vote is based on inertia / heritage, "our family's always voted Conservative etc", that's not going to shift without a serious jolt.
UKIP have already converted 20-25% of 2010 Con voters.
@suttonnick: Monday's Telegraph front page - "Tories begin defecting to UKIP over 'loons' slur" #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers http://t.co/p3RF4ysJ9Q
Clearly they are doddering fools whose views on the matter are irrelevant. Unless they had taken the opposite view of course.
Clearly they are alarmed by the BOO tories dominating the debate and pulling their party ever further to a full blown OUT position.
When tory leadership hopefuls used to posture on Europe, to show a bit of leg to the grassroots and likeminded MPs, they had a go at various EU institutions, perhaps slapped down a Eurocrat or two and spiced their rhetoric with various mad EU schemes they would be certain to put an end to.
Not any more.
Now the likes of Hammond and Gove show EU leg by going straight to the question of pulling OUT and when. Nor will they be alone in any future tory leadership battle.
That's why Howe and Heseltine are forced to speak up. They can be under few illusions their particular visions for the EU are ever going to be that popular in the tory party, but since nobody else is making the case against OUT and staying IN, they have to. The tory leadership remember are in favour of staying IN, but they are ceding the argument to BOO tories because in the midst of the current party chaos they simply fear to make that case for IN. So BOO is making all the running and boy does it show.
@suttonnick: Monday's Telegraph front page - "Tories begin defecting to UKIP over 'loons' slur" #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers http://t.co/p3RF4ysJ9Q
@michaelsavage: Really is a sign of things that Maria Miller has given up on Tory wreckers and is appealing to Labour to rescue the Equal Marriage Bill...
The strategy of alienating everybody going swimmingly.
Peel only got the repeal of the corn laws passed with Whig votes. Then again, repeal ensured the Tories were out of power for a generation, and Cameron is no Peel.
@suttonnick: Monday's Telegraph front page - "Tories begin defecting to UKIP over 'loons' slur" #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers http://t.co/p3RF4ysJ9Q
@michaelsavage: Really is a sign of things that Maria Miller has given up on Tory wreckers and is appealing to Labour to rescue the Equal Marriage Bill...
The strategy of alienating everybody going swimmingly.
Peel only got the repeal of the corn laws passed with Whig votes. Then again, repeal ensured the Tories were out of power for a generation, and Cameron is no Peel.
So...Cameron won't get the vote passed, and be in power for a generation instead?
Mr. Jessop, sounds reminiscent of the chap a century or so ago suggesting there was perhaps a global market for 5 computers.
Yes, Watson rather got the '5 computers' thing wrong. A bit like Gates and the '640 K should be enough computer memory for anyone' quote, which he probably never said.
The history of computers is full of that sort of thing. I remember 20 years ago people were saying they'd never go below 100 nanometer gate size in computer chips. They're currently at about 22 nanometer size, and getting smaller. Every technological barrier they come across gets blown away or sidestepped. Like the new 3D FET chips that reduce current leakage at small gate size. (1)
As for my original quote, I've just checked; it was Kelvin, although another source says it was Michelson.
"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now, All that remains is more and more precise measurement."
Thinking some more about EiT's suggestion that the LibDem should try to pick up centre-right votes, it would suffer at least three other problems:
2) Much of the Conservative vote is based on inertia / heritage, "our family's always voted Conservative etc", that's not going to shift without a serious jolt.
UKIP have already converted 20-25% of 2010 Con voters.
The Conservative leadership revealing the contempt they held Conservative voters in is a serious jolt.
This is why the complacency of the Conservative loyalists, "don't worry they'll all come back to us at the general election" is so misplaced.
The Conservative inertia / heritage voters are starting to think for themselves.
Every time I answer a YouGov questionnaire I get as far as the question about age, tell them I'm over 65, and am then told my views are not wanted. They've got enough.
Pity, because I'm pro-Europe, don't give a rats about gay marriage ..... if non-hetero's want to get married, good luck to them ..... and anyway, what's the difference between marriage and civil partnership ...... and am relaxed about immigration ...... who else is going to look after me if I have to go into a Home?
I've answered the phone to Ipsos-mori a couple of times but they lost interest as soon as I told them my age. They were clearly after under 30's. Makes me wonder if the mobile only demographic is manifesting over here. this has bedevilled polling in the US for the last couple of elections.
Mr. Jessop, I've been replaying Playstation games recently (Worms Armageddon and Vagrant Story, with a little of Final Fantasy V) and the difference in graphics from then to now is staggering. Another useful comparison is memory size. A Playstation memory card held 120kb, I think, for 15 save slots but the smallest single save file of Skyrim is more than ten times that by itself.
@suttonnick: Monday's Telegraph front page - "Tories begin defecting to UKIP over 'loons' slur" #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers http://t.co/p3RF4ysJ9Q
@michaelsavage: Really is a sign of things that Maria Miller has given up on Tory wreckers and is appealing to Labour to rescue the Equal Marriage Bill...
The strategy of alienating everybody going swimmingly.
It is interesting to speculate who ISN'T secretly despised by the Tory leadership. They obviously don't like chavvy petit bourgeois UKIP voters: i.e. 20% of the population. But they also don't like lefties - you can tell by the way Cameron sneers at Miliband: that's another 25%?
They clearly don't like women over 35, hence Cameron's "frustrated" jibes at Dorries. That's another 23% of the population. But nor do they like Tory activists, or even trad Tory voters ("swivel eyed loons"). Say another 15%?
Who's left? They don't like eurosceptics worried about Europe (12%?), they don't like religious people worried about gay marriage (10%?), they also think anyone not from Eton naturally cares less about important stuff than better-educated Etonians (which excludes 99.999998% of the population).
As far as I can see, Cameron and his circle despise everyone in the country who isn't Cameron and his circle. And Cameron himself is unsure about Jesse Norman.
So their political strategy is based on getting out that 0.0000000000001% of the electorate that went to Eton, personally knows and likes David Cameron, and who is totally cool with gay marriage, and who isn't called "Jesse".
LOL! Tories have got the bite the bullit and get rid haven't they?
Almost anyone (other than Osborne) would be better than Cameron right now.
@suttonnick: Monday's Telegraph front page - "Tories begin defecting to UKIP over 'loons' slur" #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers http://t.co/p3RF4ysJ9Q
@michaelsavage: Really is a sign of things that Maria Miller has given up on Tory wreckers and is appealing to Labour to rescue the Equal Marriage Bill...
The strategy of alienating everybody going swimmingly.
It is interesting to speculate who ISN'T secretly despised by the Tory leadership. They obviously don't like chavvy petit bourgeois UKIP voters: i.e. 20% of the population. But they also don't like lefties - you can tell by the way Cameron sneers at Miliband: that's another 25%?
They clearly don't like women over 35, hence Cameron's "frustrated" jibes at Dorries. That's another 23% of the population. But nor do they like Tory activists, or even trad Tory voters ("swivel eyed loons"). Say another 15%?
Who's left? They don't like eurosceptics worried about Europe (12%?), they don't like religious people worried about gay marriage (10%?), they also think anyone not from Eton naturally cares less about important stuff than better-educated Etonians (which excludes 99.999998% of the population).
As far as I can see, Cameron and his circle despise everyone in the country who isn't Cameron and his circle. And Cameron himself is unsure about Jesse Norman.
So their political strategy is based on getting out that 0.0000000000001% of the electorate that went to Eton, personally knows and likes David Cameron, and who is totally cool with gay marriage, and who isn't called "Jesse".
Now that I think of it last year I predicted that as the Cameroon ship sank they would reveal all the contempt they had for people not like themselves.
It could be a long two years for the Conservative party as this plays out.
I suspect some of the Cameroons would be happy for the Conservative party to be destroyed for being 'unworthy' of them.
Mr. Gin, that does rather neglect that Cameron's better rated as the most capable leader than the other three (Farage being the third) party leaders, and is also ahead of his party in the polls.
Mr. Jessop, I've been replaying Playstation games recently (Worms Armageddon and Vagrant Story, with a little of Final Fantasy V) and the difference in graphics from then to now is staggering. Another useful comparison is memory size. A Playstation memory card held 120kb, I think, for 15 save slots but the smallest single save file of Skyrim is more than ten times that by itself.
I recall hearing many years ago, when Metal Gear Solid was released, that it would take 8 years for a single screenshot of it to load on a Commodore 64. I have no idea if that is anything close to correct, but compare MGS with MGS4 even, and it's a pretty sizable jump.
Of course, even now, graphics are not everything, thankfully. What an age we live in. What potential for such great games.
SeanT - Is Cameron the snootiest PM we have had? Certainly since the war. Of course being Eton and Oxford educated only Home, Eden and Macmillan are really in his class by virtue of educational background, but Home only got a third and never took himself too seriously, and Eden and Macmillan mixed with the masses in the war (I suppose you could say Cameron mixed with a few plebs when doing PR for Carlton?) He even looks down his nose at fellow Etonian Zac Goldsmith, he was quoted as saying 'who does that man think he is accountable to?', and probably thinks Goldsmith a bit nouveau, in which case I dread to think what he thinks of the rest of the cabinet and his backbenchers?
Mr. Gin, that does rather neglect that Cameron's better rated as the most capable leader than the other three (Farage being the third) party leaders, and is also ahead of his party in the polls.
People think Cameron makes the best Prime Minister because he is Prime Minister.
As soon as someone else becomes Prime Minister they will also be rated as the best Prime Minister.
Bottom line, Camerons a loser. He is rubbish as everything (you can't even say he is a good PR man, because even at PR he is crap) and clearly he is a dreadful snob who hates his party and his voters.
It's time for this loser to be booted out while the Tories still have time to put in place a leadership that might actually be able to win a general election.
Mr. kle4, that's certainly true (I also have Metal Gear Solid to play ).
I've heard that some reckon improving facial graphics means we could end up with a new genre of sex-games. One shudders to think what the controllers for such games might look like.
I wish backwards compatibility were something console makers actually built into their systems, though. I can play Playstation games on the PS3, but for PS2 games I have to hook up that old console. It's ridiculous, and a missed opportunity because making backwards compatibility would help make gamers more likely to buy a certain platform so they could still play their back-catalogue they'd built up over the years.
The Last of Us looks to have some very tasty graphics. From what I've seen, the voice-acting should be very good as well. I read bits of a preview (didn't want to spoil it too much), and it seems Ellie's very well-done in terms of gameplay (ie neither an overpowered Terminator, nor a useless plank of wood). That was my biggest concern about pre-ordering.
Mr. Jessop, I've been replaying Playstation games recently (Worms Armageddon and Vagrant Story, with a little of Final Fantasy V) and the difference in graphics from then to now is staggering. Another useful comparison is memory size. A Playstation memory card held 120kb, I think, for 15 save slots but the smallest single save file of Skyrim is more than ten times that by itself.
I recall hearing many years ago, when Metal Gear Solid was released, that it would take 8 years for a single screenshot of it to load on a Commodore 64. I have no idea if that is anything close to correct, but compare MGS with MGS4 even, and it's a pretty sizable jump.
Of course, even now, graphics are not everything, thankfully. What an age we live in. What potential for such great games.
My first IT project (in 1967) was on a mainframe that filled half a room and had a memory of 2000 bytes. We managed to programme a dating agency application on it - I wanted to use it for the next party, calculating that I could rig it to pull the best birds, but sadly the Danes weren't as free-thinking in those days...
Mr. kle4, that's certainly true (I also have Metal Gear Solid to play ). I wish backwards compatibility were something console makers actually built into their systems, though. I can play Playstation games on the PS3, but for PS2 games I have to hook up that old console. It's ridiculous, and a missed opportunity because making backwards compatibility would help make gamers more likely to buy a certain platform so they could still play their back-catalogue they'd built up over the years.
Preaching to the choir. I'd heard the PS3 was backward compatible in Japan, but I don't know that's true.
What is true is they could sell us PS3 compatible versions of PS2 games once our PS2s clonked out. It's not as though it was as simple an option as just using an emulator for all those SNES and MegaDrive games.
On voice acting, I'm about to load up Dishonored, and I hear the voice acting's pretty bad in that, not that it's a deal breaker. It's never as enjoyable as the wonky translations you used to get for some SNES JRPGs though.
Mr. Jessop, I've been replaying Playstation games recently (Worms Armageddon and Vagrant Story, with a little of Final Fantasy V) and the difference in graphics from then to now is staggering. Another useful comparison is memory size. A Playstation memory card held 120kb, I think, for 15 save slots but the smallest single save file of Skyrim is more than ten times that by itself.
I recall hearing many years ago, when Metal Gear Solid was released, that it would take 8 years for a single screenshot of it to load on a Commodore 64. I have no idea if that is anything close to correct, but compare MGS with MGS4 even, and it's a pretty sizable jump.
Of course, even now, graphics are not everything, thankfully. What an age we live in. What potential for such great games.
My first IT project (in 1967) was on a mainframe that filled half a room and had a memory of 2000 bytes. We managed to programme a dating agency application on it - I wanted to use it for the next party, calculating that I could rig it to pull the best birds, but sadly the Danes weren't as free-thinking in those days...
People afraid of the potential of future technology, what fools we are!
Seriously though, that's pretty awesome. I bet Cameron has no such cool stories to tell.
Mr. Gin, that does rather neglect that Cameron's better rated as the most capable leader than the other three (Farage being the third) party leaders, and is also ahead of his party in the polls.
It's time for this loser to be booted out while the Tories still have time to put in place a leadership that might actually be able to win a general election.
If they boot him out, isn't it pretty likely the new leader would have no time to prepare and immediately fight a General Election? If Cameron is forced out, ways will surely be found around the Fixed Term Act - there must be provision to hold an early election in it, i'm sure.
I think the PS3 versions vary. Mine, as I said, plays Playstation but not PS2 games, but I think some released here play both earlier versions.
I've played Dishonored but couldn't comment on the voice acting from memory, which probably means it's ok (or I thought so, anyway). Best recent voice acting was probably Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins. Did you know Duncan was voiced by the same chap who did Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
The Better Together campaign has rejected an approach from Mr Farage for Ukip to join its push against Scottish independence, saying: "They are not a Scottish party and this is a Scottish debate."
'Better Together' have got it right.
Look how well appeasing UKIP is working for Cameron....
I think the PS3 versions vary. Mine, as I said, plays Playstation but not PS2 games, but I think some released here play both earlier versions.
I've played Dishonored but couldn't comment on the voice acting from memory, which probably means it's ok (or I thought so, anyway). Best recent voice acting was probably Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins. Did you know Duncan was voiced by the same chap who did Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
Not at all, hard to imagine really. Cool voice though.
Not connected, but I also remember an interesting voice acting fact I love to share - the voice of Hazel in Watership Down the movie, then played the voice of General Woundwort in the Watership Down TV Series of the late 90s. John Hurt.
Agreed on Loghain. I always keep him alive at the Landsmeet to use him from on since he's so good. He also did a Quarian Admiral in Mass Effect 2 and the lead voice in the ME2 Overlorf DLC I think.
politicshomeuk .@TimLoughton says David Cameron is "accident prone". “We're getting a lot of wrong sort of headlines for peripheral stuff.” @BBCWestminHour
When you went to a restaurant and couldn't finish your main course or dessert, (most here tend to an appetizer and main course, skipping dessert), they would wrap it up and put it in literally a paper bag, and you took it home for - allegedly - the family dog.
Fairly quickly it migrated to become a 'to go box', made of polystyrene, dispensing with any doggy pretense. Then you could get a couple of sizes of box, and a compartmentalized one, to keep food and veg separate.
Polystyrene became the mark of the eco-terrorist fairly quickly, so the cardboard box arrived. (Even McDonalds stopped using polystyrene many years ago). It was hard to make one that wouldn't leak grease etc on the car seat or passenger's clothes.
Then the black biodegradable to go box arrived - in all sizes. But put it in the microwave, and it melts and combines with your food.
So eventually the ultimate arrived - a dishwasher safe, microwave safe, biodegradable to go box, in all sizes and configurations, in a vague khaki color. It seemed To Go boxes couldn't get any better.
And they couldn't - the next development was a To Go box that was biodegradable, dishwasher safe, microwave safe: and completely transparent.
At the risk of being burnt at the stake, I haven't played any Mass Effect games. I've heard very good things about them, but I tend to dislike leaping into series halfway through and the original was never on the PS3.
I only kept Loghain alive once, when my character was an evil [MODERATED]. Alistair's reaction was most amusing.
Mr. Gin, that does rather neglect that Cameron's better rated as the most capable leader than the other three (Farage being the third) party leaders, and is also ahead of his party in the polls.
It's time for this loser to be booted out while the Tories still have time to put in place a leadership that might actually be able to win a general election.
If they boot him out, isn't it pretty likely the new leader would have no time to prepare and immediately fight a General Election? If Cameron is forced out, ways will surely be found around the Fixed Term Act - there must be provision to hold an early election in it, i'm sure.
Actually, I can't see why a change of leader should mean an end to the coalition. Tyhe Lib-Dems are hardly going to walk out when they are polling at 7% in the opinion polls.
It's all a matter of timing though. If the Tories are smart they will leave Cameron and Osborne in place for a little longer.
I reakon spring 2014 (after the euro elections) will be just about right to get of the Fopocracy.
Mr. Jessop, I've been replaying Playstation games recently (Worms Armageddon and Vagrant Story, with a little of Final Fantasy V) and the difference in graphics from then to now is staggering. Another useful comparison is memory size. A Playstation memory card held 120kb, I think, for 15 save slots but the smallest single save file of Skyrim is more than ten times that by itself.
I recall hearing many years ago, when Metal Gear Solid was released, that it would take 8 years for a single screenshot of it to load on a Commodore 64. I have no idea if that is anything close to correct, but compare MGS with MGS4 even, and it's a pretty sizable jump.
Of course, even now, graphics are not everything, thankfully. What an age we live in. What potential for such great games.
I suggest you look at the Battlefield 4 in game footage "Fishing in Baku" as my friends in the industry tell me that's a fairly good benchmark for how the next generation will look even though it's currently targeted for very high end PC's.
The games industry is mirroring the film industry with small independent titles pushing the envelope for innovation with the big publishers content to throw massive teams and money at existing AAA franchises.
Completely digital publishing is also going to change the market radically in both pricing and content models.
But, of course, if they had cut the deficit by 100% in year 1 the economy would have been plunged into a deep freeze and everyone would have criticised them for that.
As far as I can see, Cameron and his circle despise everyone in the country who isn't Cameron and his circle. And Cameron himself is unsure about Jesse Norman.
FWIW, most OEs I know tend to look down on that small sub-set of OEs who look down on other people. They are commonly known as w*nkers. (OEs tend not to be very creative when it comes to insults)
Currently the press, and voters, are amusing themselves by tying UKIP tin cans to the cats' tails of the three main parties. Either because they haven't noticed, or because they are too scared to move, the LibDem and Labour cats aren't reacting much, which doesn't provide much sport. But the Tory cats are putting on a splendid show of chasing their tails in an ever-increasing frenzy.
Whether any of this has any power to predict the outcome of the next election remains to be seen. The prospect of a punishment comprising five years of Eds Miliband and Balls, without even the possibility of remission for good behaviour, may well focus minds amongst the cat-tormentors.
I once wasted a couple of weeks (when on contract for a brewery in the Midlands) in writing a program to solve the Eight Queens Problem on an IBM 3090 mainframe.
Those were the days. £1500 a week for 12 months to do the square root of bugger all. I had to occupy my mind somehow...
This is completely daft on all counts - tactics, strategy and principle. I find it hard to believe he'd make this blunder, but who knows?
Very silly indeed I think, not sure the short term political gain would be worth it from his point. Surely having had to save the government on such an issue would demonstrate that only Labour can be relied on for such issues (or so it can be spun)?
Apparently tomorrow's Telegraph will have an advert from Mr Farage, targeting Conservative Party supporters
"The “loons” description, he says, is “the ultimate insult” from a party leadership that has betrayed the trust of its own supporters.
He writes in the advertisement: “Only an administration run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives, could so arrogantly write off their own supporters.”
FWIW, I much prefer the new style of pie-chart (in the previous thread) showing the result of opinion polls, where it properly and meaningfully puts the two main parties on either side (and the other parties in the middle) instead of the previous style which stupidly and idiotically put the two main parties together. So Hooray to whoever it was that correctlyified it and normallyified it.
My first programmes were run remotely from Nottingham on the Manchester University Atlas computer in 1966.
We then had our own English Electric KDF9 at Nottingham University.
Unfortunately the KDF9 did not have any graphical display which I needed and so I then used an Elliot Automation 4100 either overnight at Warwick University or at the National Physical Laboratory at weekends when it was available.
Comments
Ukip brand Better Together 'blithering idiots'
THE Better Together campaign has been labelled "blithering idiots" by Ukip for not allowing Nigel Farage to join forces with the pro-UK campaign while the party insists its members are, nonetheless, helping the anti-independence cause at a grassroots level in Scotland.
The Ukip leader will be in Edinburgh tomorrow with chief fundraiser, multi-millionaire Stuart Wheeler, for strategy meetings to prepare for the 2014 European elections as well as a "secret dinner" with local supporters when the issue of financial support is expected to be raised.
The Better Together campaign has rejected an approach from Mr Farage for Ukip to join its push against Scottish independence, saying: "They are not a Scottish party and this is a Scottish debate."
However, a senior Ukip source said in response to the rejection: "They are blithering idiots, yet we agree with them on the policy for the UK. They are still stuck in the same mindset that England was about Ukip for years; that we have horns and kill babies."
He pointed to how polls showed support was growing for Ukip north of the Border and that, come the 2014 European elections, the party had a "50-50 chance" of getting a Scottish MEP.
Meantime, in response to the Better Campaign's rebuttal, Arthur Misty Thackeray, Ukip's Scotland vice-chairman, said: "Ukip's position is that we are happy for our activists to continue at the grassroots working alongside Better Together as we have been doing all along. It is entirely up to them whether or not they choose to benefit from having Nigel Farage and the Ukip team on side with our growing support, which comes from many who have previously not followed politics. Either way, I assure the voting public that Ukip will be front and centre, playing a leading role in resolutely defending our Union."
A spokesman for the Better Campaign said it regarded as a "badge of honour" being labelled blithering idiots by Ukip.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/ukip-brand-better-together-blithering-idiots.21079023
*chortle*
1) Much of the Conservative vote is tribal anti-Labour, they're not going to shift to a party they would regard as less anti-Labour.
2) Much of the Conservative vote is based on inertia / heritage, "our family's always voted Conservative etc", that's not going to shift without a serious jolt.
3) Many LibDems aren't going to support their party shifting to the right, the resulting LibDem internal turmoil would make them less attractive to Conservative supporters even if their policies made them more attractive.
A year or two later radioactivity was discovered, which really threw a spanner in the works.
I have grave doubts about string theory. The rest of science is fairly intuitive and understandable, and then suddenly it gets weird and illogical. I can't help but think they've missed something fundamental that'll be a better explanation. But I'm almost certainly wrong in that...
Oh please - it's hardly 'begin' defecting.
Clearly they are alarmed by the BOO tories dominating the debate and pulling their party ever further to a full blown OUT position.
When tory leadership hopefuls used to posture on Europe, to show a bit of leg to the grassroots and likeminded MPs, they had a go at various EU institutions, perhaps slapped down a Eurocrat or two and spiced their rhetoric with various mad EU schemes they would be certain to put an end to.
Not any more.
Now the likes of Hammond and Gove show EU leg by going straight to the question of pulling OUT and when. Nor will they be alone in any future tory leadership battle.
That's why Howe and Heseltine are forced to speak up. They can be under few illusions their particular visions for the EU are ever going to be that popular in the tory party, but since nobody else is making the case against OUT and staying IN, they have to. The tory leadership remember are in favour of staying IN, but they are ceding the argument to BOO tories because in the midst of the current party chaos they simply fear to make that case for IN. So BOO is making all the running and boy does it show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22551083
The history of computers is full of that sort of thing. I remember 20 years ago people were saying they'd never go below 100 nanometer gate size in computer chips. They're currently at about 22 nanometer size, and getting smaller. Every technological barrier they come across gets blown away or sidestepped. Like the new 3D FET chips that reduce current leakage at small gate size. (1)
As for my original quote, I've just checked; it was Kelvin, although another source says it was Michelson.
"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now, All that remains is more and more precise measurement."
http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/quotes/
Oops. ;-)
(1): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multigate_device
This is why the complacency of the Conservative loyalists, "don't worry they'll all come back to us at the general election" is so misplaced.
The Conservative inertia / heritage voters are starting to think for themselves.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=558519610855003&set=a.126046340769001.9811.124306287609673&type=1&theater
Almost anyone (other than Osborne) would be better than Cameron right now.
Is Kle4 a poor* version of Mr Yellow Submarine...?
* Poor as in food-bank...
It could be a long two years for the Conservative party as this plays out.
I suspect some of the Cameroons would be happy for the Conservative party to be destroyed for being 'unworthy' of them.
Of course, even now, graphics are not everything, thankfully. What an age we live in. What potential for such great games.
As soon as someone else becomes Prime Minister they will also be rated as the best Prime Minister.
Bottom line, Camerons a loser. He is rubbish as everything (you can't even say he is a good PR man, because even at PR he is crap) and clearly he is a dreadful snob who hates his party and his voters.
It's time for this loser to be booted out while the Tories still have time to put in place a leadership that might actually be able to win a general election.
I've heard that some reckon improving facial graphics means we could end up with a new genre of sex-games. One shudders to think what the controllers for such games might look like.
I wish backwards compatibility were something console makers actually built into their systems, though. I can play Playstation games on the PS3, but for PS2 games I have to hook up that old console. It's ridiculous, and a missed opportunity because making backwards compatibility would help make gamers more likely to buy a certain platform so they could still play their back-catalogue they'd built up over the years.
The Last of Us looks to have some very tasty graphics. From what I've seen, the voice-acting should be very good as well. I read bits of a preview (didn't want to spoil it too much), and it seems Ellie's very well-done in terms of gameplay (ie neither an overpowered Terminator, nor a useless plank of wood). That was my biggest concern about pre-ordering.
What is true is they could sell us PS3 compatible versions of PS2 games once our PS2s clonked out. It's not as though it was as simple an option as just using an emulator for all those SNES and MegaDrive games.
On voice acting, I'm about to load up Dishonored, and I hear the voice acting's pretty bad in that, not that it's a deal breaker. It's never as enjoyable as the wonky translations you used to get for some SNES JRPGs though.
Seriously though, that's pretty awesome. I bet Cameron has no such cool stories to tell.
I've played Dishonored but couldn't comment on the voice acting from memory, which probably means it's ok (or I thought so, anyway). Best recent voice acting was probably Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins. Did you know Duncan was voiced by the same chap who did Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
Look how well appeasing UKIP is working for Cameron....
Not connected, but I also remember an interesting voice acting fact I love to share - the voice of Hazel in Watership Down the movie, then played the voice of General Woundwort in the Watership Down TV Series of the late 90s. John Hurt.
Agreed on Loghain. I always keep him alive at the Landsmeet to use him from on since he's so good. He also did a Quarian Admiral in Mass Effect 2 and the lead voice in the ME2 Overlorf DLC I think.
https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/336226547306487808/photo/1
If it doesn't look likely Cameron can pull the voters back,then I'm afraid it's time's up on Cameron.
When you went to a restaurant and couldn't finish your main course or dessert, (most here tend to an appetizer and main course, skipping dessert), they would wrap it up and put it in literally a paper bag, and you took it home for - allegedly - the family dog.
Fairly quickly it migrated to become a 'to go box', made of polystyrene, dispensing with any doggy pretense. Then you could get a couple of sizes of box, and a compartmentalized one, to keep food and veg separate.
Polystyrene became the mark of the eco-terrorist fairly quickly, so the cardboard box arrived. (Even McDonalds stopped using polystyrene many years ago). It was hard to make one that wouldn't leak grease etc on the car seat or passenger's clothes.
Then the black biodegradable to go box arrived - in all sizes. But put it in the microwave, and it melts and combines with your food.
So eventually the ultimate arrived - a dishwasher safe, microwave safe, biodegradable to go box, in all sizes and configurations, in a vague khaki color. It seemed To Go boxes couldn't get any better.
And they couldn't - the next development was a To Go box that was biodegradable, dishwasher safe, microwave safe: and completely transparent.
That didn't last long, and khaki was back.
I only kept Loghain alive once, when my character was an evil [MODERATED]. Alistair's reaction was most amusing.
Anyway, I'm off for the night.
Labour pb posters are going to love this ;-)
It's all a matter of timing though. If the Tories are smart they will leave Cameron and Osborne in place for a little longer.
I reakon spring 2014 (after the euro elections) will be just about right to get of the Fopocracy.
I suggest you look at the Battlefield 4 in game footage "Fishing in Baku" as my friends in the industry tell me that's a fairly good benchmark for how the next generation will look even though it's currently targeted for very high end PC's.
The games industry is mirroring the film industry with small independent titles pushing the envelope for innovation with the big publishers content to throw massive teams and money at existing AAA franchises.
Completely digital publishing is also going to change the market radically in both pricing and content models.
https://twitter.com/MartinPFarmer/status/336103708179972096
You are old! My first attempts on an old VAX Econometrics* platform (using 'ln') were a nightmare...!
Thank AT&T, AWK and 'vi' for sensible programming paradigms! [My first server (with 24 WYSE terminals) was a x386 UNISYS box. Those were the days....]
* LSE computers were shyte. Macs were ok for WP though....
Currently the press, and voters, are amusing themselves by tying UKIP tin cans to the cats' tails of the three main parties. Either because they haven't noticed, or because they are too scared to move, the LibDem and Labour cats aren't reacting much, which doesn't provide much sport. But the Tory cats are putting on a splendid show of chasing their tails in an ever-increasing frenzy.
Whether any of this has any power to predict the outcome of the next election remains to be seen. The prospect of a punishment comprising five years of Eds Miliband and Balls, without even the possibility of remission for good behaviour, may well focus minds amongst the cat-tormentors.
I hadn't seen Ed Miliband's proposed lunacy on gay marriage.
He can't be that stupid, or rattled, can he?
I once wasted a couple of weeks (when on contract for a brewery in the Midlands) in writing a program to solve the Eight Queens Problem on an IBM 3090 mainframe.
Those were the days. £1500 a week for 12 months to do the square root of bugger all. I had to occupy my mind somehow...
https://twitter.com/suttonnick/status/336229260970848257/photo/1
This is completely daft on all counts - tactics, strategy and principle. I find it hard to believe he'd make this blunder, but who knows?
Oh well, I hope it passes. Night all.
We then had our own English Electric KDF9 at Nottingham University.
Unfortunately the KDF9 did not have any graphical display which I needed and so I then used an Elliot Automation 4100 either overnight at Warwick University or at the National Physical Laboratory at weekends when it was available.