Re: OT Re: Interesting eBay auction

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

Dr Curious wrote:

> So according to the likes of Senior here, the likes of Guy
> the Gorilla are clearly wasting their time trying to force their
> views onto a totally impervious majority. Basically they should simply
> STFU and do all their power to persuade others to fit cycling helmets
> on their kiddie-winkies, just like any sensible parent would do.

Ah, Guy the gorilla. Haven't heard that one since primary school. I bet
you'll get really imaginitive on November 5, won't you?

The problem with your assertion, of course, is that the perception re cycle
helmets exists primarily because the likes of BeHIT have been given large
amounts of money to make it so.

> Just like the resident intellectual cum
> Scourge-of-Top-Posters-Net-Nanny did, when asked to provide any
> actual proof of Bill Gates's poor
> coding technique, to support his claims.

Never been sure if the "what idiot coded this" story is an urban myth.

--
Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> writes:
> Dr Curious wrote:
> > Just like the resident intellectual cum
> > Scourge-of-Top-Posters-Net-Nanny did, when asked to provide any
> > actual proof of Bill Gates's poor coding technique, to support his
> > claims.
>
> Never been sure if the "what idiot coded this" story is an urban myth.
>
I must admit I was tempted to post something at least arguing that
most people who claim Microsoft code is bad don't have any evidence to
back it up, nor the ability to discern if code is any good in the
first place.

I'm reminded of an old job where I was responsible for writing all the
code that got information out of Outlook, and found the model very
satisfactory, but occasionally my boss would find some feature of the
data and decry what a load of **** Outlook was to the whole office
when as far as I could see the decision made sense. Except to PHBs who
wanted to 'improve morale' by saying how **** other people's code
was. It just made me think of all the reasons our was rubbish, of
course.

A

 

[Dr Curious]

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dr Curious wrote:
>
> > So according to the likes of Senior here, the likes of Guy
> > the Gorilla are clearly wasting their time trying to force their
> > views onto a totally impervious majority. Basically they should simply
> > STFU and do all their power to persuade others to fit cycling helmets
> > on their kiddie-winkies, just like any sensible parent would do.
>
> Ah, Guy the gorilla. Haven't heard that one since primary school.

Yebutt you're probably closer to GtG now than you were then.


> I bet you'll get really imaginitive on November 5, won't you?


You really expect me to be around that long then?
After you post me that two gross of plastic bags?



>
> The problem with your assertion, of course, is that the perception
> re cycle helmets exists primarily because the likes of BeHIT have
> been given large amounts of money to make it so.

It also feeds on the "protect the children" at all costs culture.
Allergies, taking kids to school in 4 X 4's. It doesn't take much
to plant the seeds of this. The "protect the children" culture
in itself is largely irrational, based on guilt that "busy" parents
aren't giving their kids enough love. etc. In reality this is
bollocks parent nowadays are probably vastly overprotective
but its still a fact.

The point is that BeHIT are using all these primal irrational fears
in their favour. That why its so difficult to combat.

Basically kids are seen as "vulnerable" and so kids give them
their way in.


>
> > Just like the resident intellectual cum
> > Scourge-of-Top-Posters-Net-Nanny did, when asked to provide any
> > actual proof of Bill Gates's poor
> > coding technique, to support his claims.
>
> Never been sure if the "what idiot coded this" story is an urban myth.

The point is that three people were responsible for the
original 4k Altair basic Gates Allen and Davidoff. While
Gates probably started delegating quite early on. I'm just
interested in what the nature of the evidence might be.
IIRR the only extant listing for either the 4k or 8k altair
code was found down the back of a filing cabinet in Harvard
years later.

If the story was that Gates was tight as a ducks **** no problem
He held a late night supermarket queue once for so long searching
for a 50c off coupon for ice cream that another customer
gave him the fify cents. And he was known, locally at least,
to everyone by that time. "Accidental Empires" somewhere.




Curious






>
> --
> Guy
> --
> May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
> http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
>
>

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

Dr Curious wrote:

>> Ah, Guy the gorilla. Haven't heard that one since primary school.

> Yebutt you're probably closer to GtG now than you were then.

Undoubtedly, snce I was prepubescent at the time and therefore both smaller
and less hirsute.

>> I bet you'll get really imaginitive on November 5, won't you?

> You really expect me to be around that long then?

Hurrah! Hope for the future.

> After you post me that two gross of plastic bags?

My pleasure. You'll need to let me know your address.

> The point is that BeHIT are using all these primal irrational fears
> in their favour. That why its so difficult to combat.

And our money. Don't forget that our money pays for it.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

 

[Dr Curious]

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dr Curious wrote:
>
> >> Ah, Guy the gorilla. Haven't heard that one since primary school.
>
> > Yebutt you're probably closer to GtG now than you were then.
>
> Undoubtedly, snce I was prepubescent at the time and therefore both
smaller
> and less hirsute.
>
> >> I bet you'll get really imaginitive on November 5, won't you?
>
> > You really expect me to be around that long then?
>
> Hurrah! Hope for the future.
>
> > After you post me that two gross of plastic bags?
>
> My pleasure. You'll need to let me know your address.


What a great idea!

I never thought of putting my address on Usenet before.

Maybe other people will want to send me stuff too!


>
> > The point is that BeHIT are using all these primal irrational fears
> > in their favour. That why its so difficult to combat.
>
> And our money. Don't forget that our money pays for it.


Our money pays for more than that. Cycle lanes. Cyclist Dismount
signs. Cycle Planning Officers. Cycling Resourcing Initiative
Directorates. Leaflets. Pamphlets. More Cycle Lanes. Mission
Statements. Statements of Intent. Strategic Transport Plans
all keeping jobsworth Civil Servants and PR Hacks in Volvos.
On and on and on it goes


Curious



>
> Guy
> --
> May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
> http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
>
>

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

"Dr Curious" <[email protected]> writes:
> "Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Dr Curious wrote:
> > > The point is that BeHIT are using all these primal irrational fears
> > > in their favour. That why its so difficult to combat.
> >
> > And our money. Don't forget that our money pays for it.
>
> Our money pays for more than that. Cycle lanes. Cyclist Dismount
> signs. Cycle Planning Officers. Cycling Resourcing Initiative
> Directorates. Leaflets. Pamphlets. More Cycle Lanes. Mission
> Statements. Statements of Intent. Strategic Transport Plans
> all keeping jobsworth Civil Servants and PR Hacks in Volvos.
> On and on and on it goes
>
Indeed so. I shudder to think how the world would work without the
inefficiencies that proliferate.

OTOH BHIT is particularly bad as they are deliberately being
misleading rather than just being greedy and incompetent.

A

 

[Dr Curious]

"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Dr Curious" <[email protected]> writes:
> > "Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > Dr Curious wrote:
> > > > The point is that BeHIT are using all these primal irrational fears
> > > > in their favour. That why its so difficult to combat.
> > >
> > > And our money. Don't forget that our money pays for it.
> >
> > Our money pays for more than that. Cycle lanes. Cyclist Dismount
> > signs. Cycle Planning Officers. Cycling Resourcing Initiative
> > Directorates. Leaflets. Pamphlets. More Cycle Lanes. Mission
> > Statements. Statements of Intent. Strategic Transport Plans
> > all keeping jobsworth Civil Servants and PR Hacks in Volvos.
> > On and on and on it goes
> >
> Indeed so. I shudder to think how the world would work without the
> inefficiencies that proliferate.
>
> OTOH BHIT is particularly bad as they are deliberately being
> misleading rather than just being greedy and incompetent.
>
> A

All PR is misleading to the extent of selecting certain facts
over others. All politicians are misleading to that extent at
certain points. The difficulty lies in proving that they're
actually lying, and actually misrepresting evidence rather
than simply being selective in the evidence they chose to
present. Also the public at large show little interest in
scrutinising detailed scientific evidence. Basically its very
simple for vested interests to pull the wool over peoples'
eyes. To stick to the fairly non-controversial example witness
the Spanish Cooking Oil Scandal of the 80's. The Guardian article
is on the net. Have a nice weekend

Curious

 

[Mark Thompson]

> All PR is misleading to the extent of selecting certain facts
> over others. All politicians are misleading to that extent at
> certain points. The difficulty lies in proving that they're
> actually lying, and actually misrepresting evidence rather
> than simply being selective in the evidence they chose to
> present.

I think that's been pretty well proven in BHITs case.

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 17:32:51 +0100, "Dr Curious"
<[email protected]> wrote in message
<[email protected]>:


>> > After you post me that two gross of plastic bags?
>> My pleasure. You'll need to let me know your address.
>What a great idea!

Sorry, I thought you wanted me to help you put yourself out of our
misery.

>I never thought of putting my address on Usenet before.
>Maybe other people will want to send me stuff too!

Quite possibly.

>> > The point is that BeHIT are using all these primal irrational fears
>> > in their favour. That why its so difficult to combat.
>> And our money. Don't forget that our money pays for it.

>Our money pays for more than that.

No ****, sherlock. But mostly it is not used to pay people to lie.
Well, not after they've been caught out the first few times, anyway.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

 

[Gawnsoft]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 18:05:00 +0100, "Dr Curious"
<[email protected]> wrote (more or less):

>
>"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email protected]> wrote
....
>> OTOH BHIT is particularly bad as they are deliberately being
>> misleading rather than just being greedy and incompetent.
>>
>> A
>
>All PR is misleading to the extent of selecting certain facts
>over others. All politicians are misleading to that extent at
>certain points. The difficulty lies in proving that they're
>actually lying,

Not with BeHIT. They continue to promulgate the '85%' figure (of
helmet effects) despite the fact that even the authors of the study
which first generated the figure later repudiated it.

And we even have evidence that they are lying knowingly.

....

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

Gawnsoft wrote:

> Not with BeHIT. They continue to promulgate the '85%' figure (of
> helmet effects) despite the fact that even the authors of the study
> which first generated the figure later repudiated it.

Actually even that is not strictly true. They published a "correction"
(with much lower estimates) but still maintain that the higher figure is
right, even though they can't prove it and nobody else has even got close to
that figure.

A bit like Crook & Feikh, really: the maths may be dodgy but we know we're
right ;-)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

"Dr Curious" <[email protected]> writes:
> All PR is misleading to the extent of selecting certain facts
> over others. All politicians are misleading to that extent at
> certain points. The difficulty lies in proving that they're
> actually lying, and actually misrepresting evidence rather
> than simply being selective in the evidence they chose to
> present. Also the public at large show little interest in
> scrutinising detailed scientific evidence. Basically its very
> simple for vested interests to pull the wool over peoples'
> eyes. To stick to the fairly non-controversial example witness
> the Spanish Cooking Oil Scandal of the 80's. The Guardian article
> is on the net.

Most interesting read.

> Have a nice weekend

I did, thanks. Extended it somewhat by procrastinating over the long
cycle ride to the station from where I was camping and doing it this
morning instead. Hope I don't smell too bad as a result

A