James Kemp

James Kemp

  • Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
    I suppose the optimum strategy is staying unknown. But you can't rely on that indefinitely. What you need to do is develop the portfolio into solutions to the climate problem and making the economy of your chosen state a bit...
  • Commented on Downtime coming up
    As it happens I had a go at editing the wikipedia page to show Accelerando as not part of the Halting State series. Whether the edit will stick or not remains to be seen....
  • Commented on Lessons learned: writing really long fiction
    I've dabbled a little in fiction, I did a creative writing module as part of my OU degree a few years back. What I wonder is how you keep track of stuff over the course of writing the million word...
  • Commented on Taxonomy of story, or, why murder?
    With buses they seem to do that in most places, with trains it's significantly harder. I mean, in theory they could split a lot of metro trains and run half-length trains off peak... That's the normal mode for trains coming...
  • Commented on Sitrep
    Coming up with a range of products is easy. Coming up with a range of products where each one has a commonplace everyday use is a bit more tricky. Indeed, otherwise you'd just get nicked for 'going equipped'. The pre-filled...
  • Commented on Sitrep
    Locking on to a target painted with a laser is fine. Unfortunately, compared to a projectile you now have a far lower muzzle velocity (pun intended), so you need to maintain the lock for far longer, in a far more...
  • Commented on Happy 21st Century!
    It's interesting. There's probably more harm in exaggerating your support than in understating it in polls. If people think you will win then it galvanises the opposition to turn out to stop it, while giving your own supporters less need...
  • Commented on Test Case
    The usual name for that town is:Fort William, referring to William of Orange / William III, reigned 1688-1702 & not born until 1650, by which time Old Noll was already in charge of the Common Wealth - something the SNP...
  • Commented on Test Case
    Am Gearasden "Political statement" Oh yeah? You want a Stuart restoration? The origin is list, but it seems to have come from the english 'garrison' that the Commonwealth put there. So maybe he's after a republic? That would be a...
  • Commented on Test Case
    Personal question - Are you any relation to the pharmacist Kemps in Dumbarton? Not that I'm aware of, but there might be a link that I don't know. Most of the other Kemps in the area are related. I grew...
  • Commented on Test Case
    Since the M74 was finished, I've been using M8 - M74 to get from Dumbarton to England (for SF cons) and it's taken an hour off the trip even hitting the Motherwell-Hamilton area ~5PM local Northbound. I can second that....
  • Commented on Rejection Letter
    MS still provide XP support, mostly just security fixes, for both embedded and desktop variants, but the latter is only available to large organisations and is unlikely to be cheap. I know, I mentioned that they'd indulged in price gouging....
  • Commented on Rejection Letter
    I'm sorry. I have no real experience of Windows 10, but it just looks so ugly... I can't imagine why anyone who has it on their computer would even want to turn the bloodly thing on. I was pleasantly surprised....
  • Commented on Rejection Letter
    MSFT announced in 2012 that they would drop XP support, and did so in 2014. Okay, not a techie - but, come on - 2 years should be adequate time for orgs to figure out what to do re: safeguard...
  • Commented on Laundry summer madness sale!
    The data comes from the major publishers. Who, since the end of the Apple/DoJ anti-trust price-fixing settlement, have been ramping ebook prices egregiously That explains a lot. Like many of the other commenters I'm wary of spending lots of money...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    I first signed it before the 1989 version came into force, as a member of the TA. I've also spent about half my civil service career in the Home Office. I can neither confirm nor deny any secret parts of...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    I've worked for five Prime Ministers, briefed Ministers from both Labour and Conservative parties (no Lib-Dems, I had Tories during the coalition). I've worked on things that I voted against, and did them as efficiently and effectively as they could...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    The Official Secrets Act applies to all official information, regardless of the domain that the information applies to. There's also no need to sign it for it to apply to you. Additionally, if you are a civil servant then the...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    Presumably an independent Scotland would want to setup or expand some form of its own departments and systems for Treasury, Foreign Office/EU Relations, HMRC, Coastal & Fisheries protection force, Border control etc etc. Sounds good for Scottish employment. Most of...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    Can't find it now but recall reading that the UK has a 'sane-clause' in its constitution as grounds for dismissing an elected official. You're doing well if you've read the UK Constitution. It's spread around dozens of Acts of Parliament...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    "As someone with some familiarity with most of the new towns in Scotland, I can't really see where it would be sensible to build a new one." I'm mostly familiar with East Kilbride. I couldn't say where they should go,...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    Then there's the affordability issue. At leat we could let councils build their own new housing stock, and encourage that, which would help the lower end of the market. I agree that you can't just randomly build houses. I was...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    "As for an independent Scotland being a basket case, that would depend as well how good our access to the EU markets would be. If England went full WTA tariff and other such things, we'd surely be better placed to...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    I'm a Scot, so I reckon I'm onto citizenship on independence anyway. The reason I don't live in Scotland is twofold. 1) I work for the UK government and got promoted out of Scotland (before that I was the senior...
  • Commented on Popcorn Time
    "At least you can't say politics is dull now" It's that old chinese curse again... Seriously though, we could do with effective opposition that tries to argue in the interests of the country that didn't vote for the current government...
  • Commented on Empire Games
    Yes, I was disappointed to find Amazon UK cancelled my order again a few days ago. I'd be much happier to have a solid pre-order on Empire Games so that I can be sure to get it when it comes...
  • Commented on Empire Games sneak peek
    I just got an email from Amazon UK cancelling my order. This is the order I made after the previous glitch was sorted out. They're showing a paperback shipping in the autumn, but nothing before then....
  • Commented on Administrative note
    (The term "space opera" covers a vast range of possibilities, and let's just say I'm much closer to the Iain M. Banks Culture end of things than the Honor Harrington side of the spectrum.) Excellent! The world needs more space...
  • Commented on What are you reading this summer?
    Like most, I read the Nightmare Stacks when it was released, and my review is posted all the places I could think to post it. Most of my recently read stuff is on my blog. Currently reading are: The Secret...
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    Of course the moderate position wouldn't have done the Tories any favours in not disintegrating into the UKIP. However if they'd pitched Leave at the extreme end of the spectrum it might have helped them win the arguments....
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