the other rob

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• Commented on I get book covers
  Stercus accidit, as our learned friends put it. Looking forward to the book - better late than never. The Warren Ellis blurb is impressive....
• Commented on A bright and shiny hell
  The Gemini looks very interesting and I've always liked clamshells, but I won't be getting one. Back in the day, I had a Nokia 9000 and then a 9110 and Nokia understood what the Gemini people appear to have missed....
• Commented on Houston: what are the long-term consequences?
  What would it take to disrupt a hurricane? Could you just drop a couple of Daisy Cutters or a MOAB into it, or would those be insignificant?...
• Commented on Rejection Letter
  "A lot of cashpoints run XP. They weren't affected, because they don't access the internet." AFAIK, Microsoft is still releasing updates for the ATM version of XP. There was a piece in The Register a while back, discussing a registry...
• Commented on Rejection Letter
  "If you can run a hospital on that piece of crap, why not a plane? A nuclear reactor?" Windows XP is nothing. GE Canada is still using a pdp11 in at least one nuclear reactor. It's active for the same...
• Commented on Theme, Fiction, and Empire Games
  @ Charlie: In the book, you have a character say that the term "Jaunting" comes from an old SF novel. Is that true, or is it rather a "Tomorrow People" reference. Or both? I have spotted one continuity error, but...
• Commented on Empire Games sneak peek
  "Ah well. I probably didn't need those neoconservative fans anyway ;-) )" I don't think you're going to lose fans over a plot element. On the libertarian/conservative sites that I frequent, people seem to: (a) consider you a very smart...
• Commented on A taste of nightmares to come
  That brought to mind the old adverts, for "Scarborough, Whitby and Filey". I shall have to wait to see what's in store for Alex, but I'm pleased that he got his coat back....
• Commented on Spoiler Thread
  I have the US e-book edition and can confirm that the first chapter heading is: "Prologue: One Month Ago"....
• Commented on Spoiler Thread
  I was also puzzled by (1). I do note that the containment ward thing was first introduced by way of an official, after action report; while the finding things on the body part was introduced as part of something speculative...
• Commented on We need a pony. And the moon on a stick. By next Thursday.
  Can anybody point to any evidence that the various TLAs presently conduct post hoc matching and analysis on the biometric data captured at border crossings? Absent such evidence, the default assumption must surely be that the value of said data...
• Commented on Vacation
  In the (highly unlikely) event that you fancy taking a side-trip to Texas, I've sent you an email offering hospitality....
• Commented on Amazon: malignant monopoly, or just plain evil?
  Messrs Benford and Bear hardly count as "underpaid literary serfs" - and that's just the Gregs. I shan't wast time on the rest....
• Commented on A nation of slaves
  For example, the sociopaths may bilk the universal pay system. Ooh, now there's one that I hadn't thought of: with a universal basic income, dead people would become a lot more valuable. Instead of burning their "identities" quickly on a...
• Commented on A nation of slaves
  Two thoughts: Charlie wrote "...western capitalism did really well throughout the middle of the 20th century...". I'm not sure that western capitalism still exists, in any meaningful sense. What we have, instead, with the corporate hives and the bureaucratic hives...
• Commented on Commercial announcement
  Robert - I just followed your link (from within the USA) and saw $9.99 and two $8.89s. Very strange - perhaps we need another Canadian to report what they see....
• Commented on Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire
  Damn, this is a depressing discussion. Apparently I'm an idiot who, instead of feeling all pleased with myself for pulling my money out of Iceland just days before the crash, should have been putting it into Bitcoins instead. Oh well...
• Commented on PSA: Why there won't be a third book in the Halting State trilogy
  Good for the Hindus! One of the drawbacks to living in Texas is that it can be hard to find a decent samosa. However, there is a motorway services (operated by some Hindu folks) just west of Elk City, Oklahoma...
• Commented on CMAP: "Why do you use Microsoft Word?"
  I have a copy of Smartsuite somewhere, dating from the Windows 95 / NT 4 era that will, iirc, run on XP. Vista breaks a lot of software from that era, though, so it likely won't run on anything newer....
• Commented on Blatant Advertising
  Many happy returns for Friday, Charlie. It's also my birthday, but due to time zones I shall be a few hours behind you in kicking off the drinking....
• Commented on Time tourism
  On the one hand, our main character (and she's not the only woman who's ended up time travelling, she's just the goodie, the rest are baddies) has agency. She's the one from out of time who has, all on her...
• Commented on On Syria
  Charlie wrote "... he's a frustrated reformer." For some reason, that reminds me of Russell's characterization of Machiavelli as a disappointed romantic....
• Commented on The next moves in the Spooks v. News cold war
  "libetrarians" - it is possible to type in slurred! Who knew?...
• Commented on The next moves in the Spooks v. News cold war
  OGH may not be the biggest fan of libetrarians, but some of us are fans of his. This post just got "Quote of the Day", over at Samizdata: http://www.samizdata.net/2013/08/samizdata-quote-of-the-day-332/ Full disclosure: I earlier referenced Troutwaxer's comment at 207 over there,...
• Commented on Marking time, more thoughts
  Turns out that a lot of people get bored and figure out ways to work anyway, but mostly at what they want, since they'll eat anyway. Examples of this (other than bootlegging,etc.) already exist. For example, one of my hobbies...
• Commented on Who ordered *that*?
  @ 148: But if exclusive patent rights were abolished (not patent rights altogether, just the exclusivity)... How would that work, then? Surely the power to exclude is the foundation of any IP right?...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: The Apocalypse Codex
  In response to Charlie noting that the DHS needed to be dissolved or wound up within two terms of its creation, I note that the KGB, after going through several incarnations since its first days as the Cheka, was wound...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Glasshouse
  Add me to the list of those who got the army prison reference immediately upon seeing the title. As with others, growing up in the UK probably helped - the USian equivalent would probably be Fort Leavenworth, which appears to...
• Commented on Crib sheet: Accelerando
  You missed out the Hawkwind song Utopia: "...and the rivers run with Watney's Red Barrel..."...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Iron Sunrise
  "The USA has a long history of fucking up occupations. Their military posture is designed to break shit and destroy enemies, not to support an actual imperial hegemony. Which is a major design flaw." Pournelle writes about this often. His...