Ben Thompson

Comment Threads

• Charlie Stross commented on False Positives and the Database State
  Ben: no, I have not previously been visiting schools. I don't write young adult fiction. Although it's sometimes been suggested to me that I take it up; that's just become a lot less likely, all of a sudden....
• DaveBell commented on False Positives and the Database State
  It's unclear from what you link to on that murder, though not contradicted, but I recall that the killer's girlfriend was the one who worked at the school attended by the victims. The point being that this system would only have been incidentally able to prevent the murders. His access to his victims didn't depend on his employment at a school. At most, he would have been somewhere else. So don't hang around with unmarried teachers. You might need to be certified....
• Pilgrim commented on False Positives and the Database State
  And its not just dodgy data in the databases, but the queries as well. Mis-key a identifier, or improperly place a wildcard and bang, there you are. This strikes me as a bad idea all the way across the board....
• Charlie Stross commented on False Positives and the Database State
  Matt B @26: you've got my position on the ID card almost exactly 180 degrees wrong. No, I'm not applying for one of the fucking things. Luckily that particular boondoggle is a dead project walking -- and it looks like the giant big brother database project behind it (the National Identity Register) may be up for the chop after the next election due to cost overruns. Graydon @28: you're over-egging the class pudding, unless by "power-holding class" you mean the Taliban wing of the Home Office civil service bureaucracy (the folks who believe they could achieve heaven on earth if...
• Charlie Stross commented on False Positives and the Database State
  Apropos @40: what Katie isn't mentioning may bear explanation for Americans: British railway ticket pricing is such that the price difference between a one-way ticket and a return ticket of the same type (valid for one month) is £1, i.e. US $1.65. The price of an off-peak one-way London/Leeds ticket is currently £87; the return version costs £88. Hence the allusion to the stupidity of the 7/7 conspiracy nuts....