Omid Reza Misayafi Has Died in Prison
Thanks to Ashtary Design’s Tori for designing the image. Click it to read the background information.
Mar 17 2009
Out Of Touch Old Man Talks Crap
Nothing else to add, the post title adequately describes my thoughts on the Pope’s latest decree.
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Mar 17 2009
Ethernet History
I happily admit this first link is more for my more geeky friends than the average ChrisMerriman.com regular reader / search engine-source new visitor, but I found The Register’s article on the history of Ethernet quite interesting. Another tab that has been open a while in Firefox on this PC, so I wanted to post it before I forgot. Check it out here.
Oh, and while you’re on the site, if you don’t know whether your nice new shiny little computer is a laptop, subnotebook, ultraportable, ultrathin or a netbook, then check out this article. (Slightly NSFW due to the odd swear word).
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Nov 28 2008
Thai Airport (Lack Of) Security
The People’s Alliance for Democracy (now there is an inappropriate name, given that the group does not want democratic elections to occur!), are still occupying a couple of airports (Suvarnabhumi (an International Airport) and Don Muang (mostly domestic flights airport,) in Thailand. The political situation in the country is fuelled by a minority of well to do citizens who seem to be afraid of majority rule. Check out Reuter’s article for more info.
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Nov 10 2008
House of Lords Do Something Well!
Long term readers will have realised that I am not exactly a staunch Monarchist (though not necessarily a Republican – I’m happy to have a Royal family for tourist purposes, I just wish they had no actual connection (even if it is already only really rubber stamping certain procedures)), similarly I tend to view the house of Lords as being an arcane institution that is a hangover from near feudal times. Whilst those that enter the house as life peers (as opposed to hereditary peers that have a seat simply because there Great^x Grandfather owned a third of Staffordshire at one point) are often there because they have experience in certain areas (or they donated a lump sum to a political party 🙁 ), the hereditary peers are often seen as being even more out of touch with modern day reality than judges even!
Well it looks as though common sense has won the day (in that House at least, shame about the commons…) as the BBC has reported the Lords have backed an amendment to the law that would require DNA records to be deleted from the national database should an innocent person request. Of course, the House of Commons will not pass this amendment, but it is good to see the Lords actually backing a sensible idea. Whilst you can argue over whether convicted criminals should have their DNA eventually removed, after serving their sentence, the idea that innocent people who have their DNA profiled and stored should not be able to request that data’s removal does not seem right – as the article states, this is effectively a National DNA Database through the back door, bypassing any new laws that would otherwise have to be drawn up.
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Nov 10 2008
Blindly Following
Although the BBC article‘s headline appears to be a tiny bit over-sensationalised, the very idea of a pilot a) suffering a stroke whilst at the controls and surviving, and b) Being at least mostly blind and still surviving is certainly impressive. Jim O’Neill (the pilot) had been flying along normally, when he suffered a stroke. Attempting to land at a nearby (civilian) airfield proved too difficult (not surprising given he could not see the dials in his cockpit, nor very much at all outside the plane!), despite ATC’s best efforts to guide him down. It was then decided that he should be diverted to a local RAF base, where Wing Cdr. Gerrard scrambled into the air, to guide Jim down step-by-step to a runway.
I don’t remember ever speaking to Wing Cdr. Gerrard at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in my old job (I’m guessing he never had major problems with his PC 🙂 ), but I hope he has been bought a few rounds by his colleagues, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to know the Jim’s sight is starting to recover.
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Nov 05 2008
Not Much Posting Likely Today
(OK, nor the last couple of days, but I have a real excuse this this time 😉 )
So it is 5.15am over here, and I’m watching the news channels’ (CNN, Al Jazeera International and BBC World) coverage of the US elections. The first polls have recently closed, and I’m just hoping I’ll still be awake by the time unequivocal results are officially announced, or at least until Virginia declare 🙂
To my friends who are also pulling a late-nighter/early morning to monitor the results, I hope you’ve had some sleep by the time you read this…
Oct 31 2008
Wouldn’t You?
Wouldn’t you want your leg back? Let me explain, someone (during the last 28 years, it would appear, at least if I’ve read this article correctly) lost their prosthetic leg whilst on a ride (the Corkscrew rollercoaster) at Alton Towers.
Now I can easily imagine that the loss of a cheap digital watch, a few coins or maybe even an old baseball cap wouldn’t trouble you too greatly, but if you suddenly find yourself sans one limb, wouldn’t you want to speak to the park’s staff, and ask them to find it for you?
Anyway, the roller coaster itself is being closed down in 9 days, so I’ll not be able to get there in time, but if anyone is heading there for last go, do let us know.
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Oct 25 2008
Virtual Homicide Leads To Real Life Incarceration!
Unless you are into your MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), you probably won’t recognise the game MapleStory. I definitely didn’t though a quick Wiki gave me some info.
So, a lady in Japan has been arrested and transported more than 600 miles to Sapporo’s prison, after she was found to have killed her husband. Except she wasn’t married. Nor did she physically hurt anyone.
As you may have guessed by the intro to this post, she killed off her MapleStory husband within the game, after being unceremoniously divorced in-game. The article on this doesn’t mention how she found out his login and password, but she proceeded to pretend to be him, and kill of his in-game character. The actual charge against her is “illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data”. If found guilty, and the judge doesn’t see the absurdity of the situation, she faces up to five years in prison AND a $5,000 fine!
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