Instead of inviting bids from other net groups to run the net’s core addressing system the US Department of Commerce has simply extended Icann’s hold for a further three years.
I’m sure there has been some sneaky underhand stuff going on to get this. I remember when they changed the voting rules for the organisation’s leadership to effectively quieten dissenting voices on the board.
Story from BBC News.
We finally received a replacement digital camera for the one that was stolen. It’s a Fuji FinePix F601Z. It looks to be a good camera; 3.1 mega pixels, 3 x optical zoom, lots of manual override of the automatic settings, etc.
On the minus side; it’s a proprietary rechargeable battery, so I’ll have to get a spare, and it takes 5 hours to charge from empty; the camera uses smart media cards rather than compact flash, so the one CF card which wasn’t stolen isn’t any use; it’s also not a traditional camera shape, which will take some getting used to. On the plus side; we did get the cradle with it.
It will also record short movies (and at 640 X 480 too), so I’m looking forward to playing with that.
It’s fully charged now, so I can have a play with it.
I love you, forever,
Mike
Steve P gave me this advert clipped from the Manchester Evening News:
It turns out they have a website.
Bored with flowers and chocolates? Looking for an unusual Valentine’s gift for your loved one? Look no further than… The Marie Stopes International Valentine Vasectomy Voucher!
Hmmm… how romantic! Not!
A story from yesterday at silicon.com entitled Telewest learns from NTL’s broadband brouhaha, tells of NTL rival Telewest learning from NTL’s PR gaff.
“We’ve no plans at this stage to bring in any download limits,” a Telewest spokesman said, adding that it certainly wasn’t something that could be ruled out in the future. “If we were ever to consider such a move, we would try to learn from the customer feedback surrounding NTL, and look at other options.”…
“We certainly won’t just sneak it out on a Friday afternoon,” joked a Telewest insider.
The article also quotes analyst firm Jupiter Research:
According to analyst firm Jupiter Research, such data limits will be the rule, not the exception, by the end of 2003. Jupiter said this week that peer-to-peer file-swapping is already putting a heavy burden on broadband networks, so many ISPs will decide to implement some form of bandwidth restriction.
I’ve now finished The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. Another fantastic book. An earlier commenter mentioned that her daughter regarded them as better than Harry Potter, and you know I think she’s right. Whilst again they are not too comparable, I think there is more depth of character in this series compared to Harry Potter. It is clearly aimed at an older audience than the Harry Potter books, and so to me they are more gritty, and darker. That’s not to say I don’t like the HP books, but… apples and oranges and all that.
Anyway back to The Subtle Knife, very , good. We start off in a world much more like our own in the company of Will, a young boy, and his mother. We soon enter another world, and quickly meet up with Lyra as this is the same world which she entered at the end of the first book. The plot in this story is as I mentioned a lot darker, despite being somehow in ‘lighter’ surroundings than the first. The story races along, bringing back some old characters and introducing one or two new ones. The ending is very dramatic and suspenseful, but I shan’t say for risk of spoiling the plot.
Recommended!
Lyra
I finished Northern Lights by Philip Pullman yesterday. What a fantastic book!
It’s one of the best fantasy stories I have read in a long time. The cover blurb likens it to Tolkein, but I wouldn’t quite go that far. It’s not really comparable to be honest, it’s a different type of fantasy story. The main characters in the story; Lyra, Lord Asriel, Mrs Coulter, Iorek Byrnison, and the rest are really well developed. Lyra particularly, as the principal character, is really well depicted. You soon come to like her character. She at first comes across as you would expect a 12 year old to be in the setting in which you first meet her. But she soon develops depth and strength of character.
The setting, a parallel world were humans have personal Daemons, physics and other sciences are disciplines controlled by the church, where witches can really fly, and bears can talk, is fantastic (pun intended). It feels like a mixture of the Victorian London of other novels with the grand life for the privileged, but dirty streets populated with urchins who disappear without too much fuss, and middle ages Europe with the overarching power of the church suppressing scientific discoveries they don’t like.
The plot too is twisted enough to keep you intrigued without being overly complex. Lots of political intrigue which Lyra slowly becomes aware of and then to understand from her own twelve year old viewpoint.
I bought this knowing it was the first of a trilogy, but waited to see whether it was worth buying the others. I have them now and I’m already half way through the second book, The Subtle Knife, and it too is brilliant.
Recommended!
Jamie is Ill now. Jan had to go an fetch her from school just after lunchtime. She’s picked up a flu like bug from somewhere. She’s got an aching back and is very under the weather. She’s in bed now, but Jan said she has been alternately hot and cold. The doctor said we were doing the right thing; keep her warm, get her to sleep it off.
