Possibly the most distasteful news item to emerge this week is the allegation that investigators working for the News of the World not only “hacked” into Milly Dowler’s phone voicemail whilst the police investigation was on-going, but deleted messages so that more messages could be received. Not only tampering with potential evidence, but also giving […]
Surrey University to charge £9000
Surrey University has announced it is to charge the maximum £9000 tuition fees for students, blaming the requirement on cuts to its teaching funds and capital grants. It joins Oxford, Imperial College, Durham and Exeter in announcing it will charge the highest level of fees. As covered by our earlier article “Tuition Fees: The Law […]
Memories of the ZX81
The ZX81 is 30 years old, and there are a number of retrospective articles, including this one from the BBC. Many of us have very fond memories of Sinclair Research’s early machines, and the ZX81 was my introduction to the world of computing. Back then, computers were strange, mysterious devices. Indeed, my brother and I […]
SpamCheck 0.6.11
SpamCheck, the Open Source email spam and virus filter has been updated to version 0.6.11 This version fixes the email format, in particular adding a non-HTML section to the MIME formated emails.
Why do we pay VAT on petrol?
Driving home from work yesterday, and noticing that I will have to fill up (again) soon, I was struck by the question, “why do I have to pay VAT on petrol”. VAT is considered to be a “luxury” tax, a tax on non-essential items. The only way for me to get to work and back, […]
iPad 2 – does it meet expectations
Apple has launched the second generation of their iPad product with “a faster processor, improved graphics, and front and rear cameras”. Is this enough to keep the growing competition at bay? This year promises a whole range of Android tablets, including the Motorola Xoom and HTC Flyer, and whilst Apple has had the high-end (and […]
Cornish Pasties: Protected by Law
Excellent news for those of us who appreciate a good Cornish Pasty. The European Commission has given Protected Geographical Indication status to the Cornish Pastie as requested by the Cornish Pasty Association. From this point onwards, in order to be called a Cornish Pastie, a number of criteria must be met, including: Made in Cornwall […]
Saved: The Turing Papers
Alan Turing’s papers, including his first published paper, have been saved for the UK. A donation from the National Heritage Memorial Fund has allowed the papers to be bough and kept at Bletchley Park where they belong. dot.Rory has an article with comments plus some additional links describing the background.
Tuition Fees: The Law of Unintended Consequences
The law of unintended consequences, sometimes defined as “a perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended (when an intended solution makes a problem worse), such as when a policy has a perverse incentive that causes actions opposite to what was intended.” (thanks to Wikipedia there) has swung into effect on the governments university tuition […]
VAT hits 20%
So, here we are waiting for VAT to go up to 20% and despite the Labour opposition lobbying for a delay, it’s pretty certain to go ahead. Of course this will push up fuel prices still further, as for some reason we have to pay VAT on fuel duty (where’s the value in that?). Now […]