mark.dennehy

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• Commented on Eating the seed corn
  It's worse than you think... http://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-another-book-burning-period-in-history.html And it's not the sort of trend you can easily roll back - even leaving aside the argument that if you tried to create the public library system today, you'd become public enemy number...
• Commented on High Street Blues
  Also, does nobody else hear the description of an unmanned shop based on eWallets and RFIDs and immediately think that it will never happen, for several reasons: - People being locked in because of phone batteries dying - Tech support...
• Commented on High Street Blues
  Bacchus' comment seems right on the money to me, and I'm living in the middle of an allegedly modern capital city (Dublin, hence the "allegedly"). Past experience with ordering perishables over the internet (using Tesco Direct) have not been favorable...
• Commented on Cynicism
  I can't think of any real benefits to setting up the kind of entitlement that goes along with the possibility of an inheritance. It's neither high-minded nor idealistic (hell, it was articulated by Jeremy Clarkson for pete's sake), but the...
• Commented on Cynicism
  More interestingly about the recent presidential election in Ireland, is the point that it's generally accepted by those who were watching that the front runner until the final debate was the Fianna Fail candidate, and that he was knobbled by...
• Commented on Cynicism
  And perhaps I should qualify that by saying that when I say "competent" I mean "competent at the job", not "competent at maximising personal profit while minimising personal risk". A Minister for Finance who hadn't faked his academic credentials in...
• Commented on Cynicism
  My wants are slightly less ideological and slightly less achievable - I just want a competent party in government. If you live in Ireland, or if you've watched recent events in Irish politics, you know that that particular desire makes...
• Commented on Three wishes
  I hate this "three wishes" meme. It's always a setup to make the wisher look foolish, and their choices of wishes are always held up as a greek tragedy to do so(ie. where the one small flaw destroys everything). It's...
• Commented on A cultural thought experiment
  Only two countries in the world (AFAIK) tax their population on Nationality, rather than residence. One is the aforementioned hellole of N. Korea. Where is the OTHER one? Well, it's not exactly like that - the IRS requires you to...
• Commented on A cultural thought experiment
  In this happy shiny future, the third world no longer exists Erm. I don't actually disagree with the sentiment... ...but either you're wrong about how far we've already progressed in this direction, or Hans Rosling has been lying for five...
• Commented on I'd hate to have his email inbox right now ...
  Hmm. Slashdot covering something that claims to be on this topic....
• Commented on I'd hate to have his email inbox right now ...
  Can't speak for everyone else, but for me, it's because it's different. It's analogous to how I've always thought of science fiction versus classical english literature - ie. something new and unexplored versus something done and dusted. Seriously, if after...
• Commented on Twitter
  Family (ah, that moment when your dad mentions that he follows you on twitter/facebook/whatever. Priceless...); work colleagues (past, present and possible future - the computer industry is a small and incestous one and it pays to know people); fellow olympic...
• Commented on Gadget patrol: Bigger is better?
  @Dave And yet, the B&N Nook Touch (my current eReader) has the same screen, same approximate size and weight as the Kindle, and most of the same hardware inside, but a touch-screen interface. It's no iPhone/Android/tablet PC, but for reading...
• Commented on Twitter
  C'mon movable-type-plugin-which-automatically-tweets-when-a-new-post-goes-up-on-here! :D...
• Commented on Design changes
  Oh, and I might also be cheeky and ask if we were able to subscribe to posts so that when a new comment is posted, we get notified? (Hey, ask, what's the worst that can happen? Other than Charlie finding...
• Commented on Design changes
  Threaded comments are fine... ...but what I'd really like to see would be automatic twitter notices when a new post goes up here. Please? Pretty please with sugar on top? :D Also, what do you think of Amazon.com signing up...
• Commented on Because I am a glutton for punishment ...
  Would folks like me to kick off a new topic specifically for discussion of "what life's going to look like once the cheap oil ain't cheap no more"? Yes please, even if it's a topic that gets my stomach in...
• Commented on Because I am a glutton for punishment ...
  Since it seems Charlie gave us permission to be completely selfish when suggesting topics, I'm going to take advantage of that and say that the book I'd most like to read would be the Charlie Stross take on what's definitely...
• Commented on Rule 34 moments
  I realise that you've probably seen this already (and may in fact have had to create a new spam filter rule for us helpful folk pointing it out to you by email), but... http://xkcd.com/924/ Forget being a successful SF writer...