Jack Straw says he wants a more effective House of Commons, and for MPs to do a better job of scrutinising and amending legislation. He points out, quite rightly, that a perception that this is a job often left to the House of Lords can only damage the reputation of MPs.
There are several factors [...]
There are many allegations of incompetence, criminality or simple, plain, honest stupidity in this summary of recent ID fraud problems in the UK. One of them stands out, though: is it true that hand-held credit card readers used in restaurants do not encrypt the data they send and receive? If true, words fail [...]
Given my chosen profession, how language is used is of great interest to me. One of my favourite ‘reads’ is an excellent weblog written by a professional translator: don’t be put off by the title!
Now, as any fule kno, French women enjoy two modes of address. It seems that feminism has just discovered or [...]
Now, I don’t really believe that the government is trying to turn Britain into a totalitarian state, unlike some people. But I do think it is rather surprising that Parliament has been debating for two days important legislation that gives the government power to amend legislation without putting it through the usual parliamentary process, [...]
Well, Apple have finally released the “Macbook”. Nobody is going to be checking this blog for Apple news - anybody who is interested in this announcement will already know this, of course. A few interesting points stood out:
This mac still features a firewire port. If you have no idea why this is [...]
As the BBC reports this morning, Creative are trying to block sales of the iPod. Their claim is that the user interface Apple’s music player infringes a patent they applied for in January 2001. Just out of curiosity, I thought I’d look up the history of the iPod. It was itself put [...]
Given the number of people with Weblogs, the large number of which appear to be operated by “Geeks” of one stripe or another, the small number of clients to assist with posting is quite surprising - perhaps even a tribute to the success of web-based applications. As with web-based email, convenience seems to be [...]