Journal Entries
The Law...
Posted Apr 9, 2001
The law relating to the web sucks. It's a clumsy mishmash of national laws which are individually dumb, which when put together become hugely dumb. The question of who is a 'carrrier' and who is a 'publisher' is utterly confused.
This affects us here on h2g2, but it has effected many more people. Indeed, there are many who have a far greater claim to have been censored. An online gay magazine was removed because it's competitors asked their ISP for an assurance that the mag wouldn't publish any opinion detrimental for them - the ISP shut the site down rather than risk attracting the lawyers. And then there's the infamous Dr. Godfrey, and the victims of the Scientologist lawyers. There's some bad stuff going on.
So what to do? Talk to your local political representative. Talk to your party. Sign the Internet Declaration of Independance. When you vote, vote for the candidate who appears to understand the web - who has an email address which she actually replies to. Vote for parties which are happy to co-operate with other governments, and vote against those which are isolationist - because we'll need international agreement to sort this out.
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Latest reply: Apr 9, 2001
BBC Online...
Posted Apr 8, 2001
Here's the address of the guy in charge of BBC Online. It's publically available. Those who wish to change BBC Policy (as opposed to merely changing how it applies to h2g2) might want to send him a few letters. I probably will.
Ashley Highfield
Director - BBC Online
BBC
PO Box 1922
Glasgow
G2 3WT.
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Latest reply: Apr 8, 2001
Why I love java
Posted Apr 2, 2001
My compiler complained at me recently: it said "AssignmentOperator AssignmentExpression not found". This was a new error message - but it turned out that instead of "for( int cand = 0 ; cand < scores.length ; cand++ ) {" I'd written "for( int cand = 0 ; cand < scores.length ; cand ) {".
Two missing '+' characters. In C I'd have got a warning if I was lucky - more likely the compiler would leave me quite happy to create a piece of code with no purpose whatsoever. In java I get told off, and I save a few minutes (or hours) debug time.
Others call it 'mollycoddling' and such - but me, I like it when the language stops me being an idiot. We're all human and fallible, and some days it seems like coders are more fallible than everyone else (not true: we just work to higher standards). I'll take all the cotton wool I can get, thanks.
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Latest reply: Apr 2, 2001
Name Analyser Drowns...
Posted Apr 1, 2001
... from sheer weight of analysis requests. If only I had the time... {or was paid: then I'd MAKE time! 
}
Ahh well - I'll get through the backlog sooner or later... and my backlog isn't as big as that of the squacks, at least!
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Latest reply: Apr 1, 2001
Back to business
Posted Mar 25, 2001
Hmm - I seem to be logged in as myself again. This is nice: hope it lasts...
Morale of the story: incompetence knows no bounds or barriers, and cannot be restrained by mere webpages. Or somesuch 
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Latest reply: Mar 25, 2001
Martin Harper
Researcher U129960
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