HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: eo@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Emma Osman)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: 12 Jan 93 12:01:54 GMT
Reply-To: eo@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Emma Osman)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U

In article <1993Jan11.133620.2908@lsl.co.uk> snail@lsl.co.uk writes:
>In article <930108.154435.9K6.rusnews.w165w@mantis.co.uk>, mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
>> anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) writes:
>>>                                                                   And how
>>> do I get a piled-up trolley-load of vegetables from Sainsbury's to my home?

>> Personally, I use my two lower limbs.  That's because I go to a small local
>> supermarket.  What, you say, there isn't a small local supermarket near you?
>> Well, that's the fault of car culture.

>No I think Andy Walker's problem is that he needs to buy a trolley full of
>shopping, not two bags full, He has stated in previous posts that he has at
>least one wife and at least two children (I think), hence two shopping bags
>is not enough to carry all his shopping home.

On the other hand, with a local shop five minutes walk away rather than a giant
hypermarket half an hour's drive out of town, you can , more quickly and 
cheaply , (in terms of money spent on petrol etc) go twice a week and get
half as much shopping each time.

Emma


-- 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Emma Osman      |  Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.      |
| eo@dcs.ed.ac.uk |                                           - Carl Jung  |
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: martin.briscoe@almac.co.uk (Martin Briscoe)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Video Plus (a few que
Date: 11 Jan 93 01:19:00 GMT
Reply-To: martin.briscoe@almac.co.uk (Martin Briscoe)
Organization: Almac BBS Ltd. +44 (0)324 665371

PM.: Also, if there is a newsflash will the video stop during it?

Big question is "What happens during the adverts?" !

I cannot see the advertisers being very pleased if people's video's 
paused during the adverts.

PM.Several people have asked me this, I've never actually asked the transmitter
  .folk, nigel?

Sure you mean "transmitter" ?  Surely teletext is just regenerated at 
the transmitters - the time will be inserted at source when the 
teletext is produced.

               Martin

 * 1st 1.02b #405 * Martin Briscoe - Fort William - Inverness-shire - Scotland
From: wdrdjh@thor.cf.ac.uk (Dr D J Harvey 92)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Solmin
Date: 5 Jan 93 16:47:13 GMT
Organization: University of Wales College at Cardiff
X-Mailer: Cardiff Computing Maths PP Mail Open News Gateway

In article <1993Jan5.125319.2885@lsl.co.uk> snail@lsl.co.uk writes:

|And one should be very careful with paracetamol. Its a real pity these days 
|that just about all doctors immediately recommend paracetamol in favour of
|anything else. Some people die even if they follow the correct recommendations,
|however such people are few and far between, but if you catch a suicide attempt
|with aspirin, pump their stomach, they'll generally survive, with paracetamol,
|they'll generally die, about three weeks later from liver failure... nice.
|
If you catch a paracetamol O/D, they survive too - there's a very good
antedote (smells foul, makes the staff puke etc..., but it works fine) -
its the O/Ds who DON'T come to medical attention who feel fine the next
morning, and THEN start to feel unwell in a week, who die a fortnight
later.  Paracetamol is one of the safest drugs we have, but only up to
the recommended dose - it gets rapidly toxic in most people above 15
tablets in a day.  There is a very strong case for adding a version of
the antedote (methionine) to the tablets - this wouldn't affect normal
uses, but would protect both deliberate and silly O/Ds - drug companies
won't do it though as it would add about 30-40% to the price, and make
the pills much bigger/harder to swallow, and thats the sort of thing
they rely-on as selling points!

Dave Harvey  
(harveydj@cardiff.ac.uk)  tel: +44 222 552588
Dept Radiology, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff CF4 4XW, UK
From: amcbride@axion.bt.co.uk (Alan McBride)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Shorthold Tenancies
Date: 7 Jan 93 15:58:29 GMT
Reply-To: AMcBride@axion.bt.co.uk
Organization: British Telecom Research Laboratories



Can anyone tell me exactly what a shorthold tenancy is?
Are tenants legally bound to stay the full term?
If not, must they give a specified period of notice?
Where does the law stand on deposits?

Thanks, alan.





        ----------------------------------------------
        e-mail: amcbride@axion.bt.co.uk (Alan McBride)
          Phone: +44 473 646077  Fax: +44 473 644605
            Mail:  sdd, g61, b81, btl, ip5 7re, uk  
            --------------------------------------     
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: roy@harlqn.co.uk (Roy Badami)
Subject: Teletext (was Video Plus)
Organization: Harlequin Limited, Cambridge, England
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 19:18:22 GMT

In article <1it3vvINNlbe@cardamom.compnews.co.uk> phil@compnews.co.uk (Phil Male) writes:

   : Sure you mean "transmitter" ?

   Yes

   :                                Surely teletext is just regenerated at 
   : the transmitters - the time will be inserted at source when the 
   : teletext is produced.

   Each transmitter site has a pair of vaxen sitting there 'doing' the Teletext.
   The central system talks to the vaxen at each transmitter site. Think about
   p888...

Don't some ITV regions have more than one transmitter (excluding
dependent relays)?  Presumably they don't need to generate the
teletext data stream at both transmitter sites...?

Out of interest what was (is) the problem with subtitling?

	-roy
--
Roy Badami, Harlequin Ltd, Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambridge,  U.K.
Internet: roy@harlqn.co.uk               UUCP: ..!mcsun!uknet!harlqn!roy

When we reach that point, whatever happenned _will_ happen again...
From: ccdarg@dct.ac.uk (Alan Greig)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Oil spills - history
Date: 8 Jan 93 11:26:39 GMT
Organization: Dundee Institute of Technology

In article <1993Jan8.095210.4826@wraxall.inmos.co.uk>, des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd) writes:
> Actually, the thing to look for in the Guardian now is some of the
> amazing hyphenations that they (or I assum their computer) sticks in.
> Its certainly not averse to hypenating one letter off the end of a wor-
> d rather like that at times! Even more amusing is that the Guardian
> Diary is going through a phase were it is pointing out bad hyphenations
> in other papers.

One hack mentioned recently that he'd been caught out once by writing
something like:

  Dr J. Smith, therapist, had just completed...

which came out as:

  Dr. J. Smith, the-
  rapist, had just...

Might have been Mathew Parris in The Times.

-- 
Alan Greig                            Janet: Alan@UK.AC.DUNDEE-TECH
Dundee Institute of Technology	   Internet: Alan@DCT.AC.UK
Tel: (0382) 308810                 Int: +44 382 308810
              -- There is only one true conspiracy --
From: snail@lsl.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: 11 Jan 93 14:42:42 GMT
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd., Cambridge

In article <1993Jan8.190815.16151@maths.nott.ac.uk>, anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) writes:
<Great article deleted>

> 	Oh, there's another snag.  Some individuals pay *huge* amounts
> of tax.  What's to stop Mr Sainsbury zapping all categories except "9876
> -- new supermarket scheme for the Outer Hebrides" and devoting *his* N
> million pounds entirely to that cause, while effectively paying no other
> tax?  Well, it needed be so crass, it could be a cancer clinic, or whatever.
> Effectively, benefactions stop being a bolt-on goody, and become the way
> in which rich people avoid taxes.  It's a sort-of return to feudalism,

Feudalism again hey? I equated (the longer term results of) libertarianism
with feudalism a while back, and now a rather good article on it....wonders
never cease.
-- 
snail@lsl.co.uk      

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless
 means to side with the powerful, not to be Neutral."
                                                     Quote by Freire.
                                                     Poster by OXFAM.
From: fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: 7 Jan 93 20:03:00 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) writes:

>In article <VFsywB32w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk> writes:
>>OK.  So let's compromise.  Have government decide how much people are going to
>>donate, and let the people decide which charities to donate it to.

>	How?  Can you put more flesh on this, please?  OK, so the government
>says "We have #X billion to spend", how do we, the people, decide how much
>goes to the NHS?  And does it go to the NHS to spend as the NHS sees fit,

I suspect that you missed Mathew's point. The idea is semi-libertarian
in that the government gets to decide how much "tax" you are forced to
pay, then you get to decide where it gets spent from a menu of
tax-spending options.

The idea would go some way to ensuring that financial support only goes
to those areas of government spending that the people themselves really
do support.

For example if there are only three people in the country who support
nuclear power then they're not going to be subsidised by much and the
nuclear prices would be a lot closer to a free market rate then they are
just now. Almost certainly close enough to ensure that 31 pits stay open
without the taxpayer having to plough much money into them :-)

It'd be interesting how it'd work with mortgage relief. There'd be a
fund with a target of around 6 billion Pounds set up to hand out to
mortgage payers. I rather suspect that not very many non-mortgage payers
would contribute, so at best, the homeowners would be sending themselves
money with a significant cut going to government en-route. But an
individual mortgagee might decide to shortcut that and vote his tax
elsewhere, and they'd still get a cut of whatever money was voted. In
the end, people being brighter with money than with most other things,
there'd probably be little going into the fund, since its unfairness
would be perceived by all. That contrasts with the situation at the
moment where the mortgagees are entitled to vote themselves more of
other people's money whenever a politician offers them that option.

Needless to say, I'm in favour of Mathew's proposal (if I'm correct
here) since it not only encourages democratic participation, but would
also likely lead to the elimination of some of the more stupid uses of
tax money.

Still, I doubt there are many politicians who'd vote for people's rights
to say how their money gets spent when that conflicts with the
politicians right to spend other people's money.

FoFP
From: mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 14:50:48 GMT
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
X-Newsreader: rusnews v0.98

des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd) writes:
> mathew (mathew@mantis.co.uk) wrote:
> : Unfortunately, I don't want LaserDisc if it's NTSC LaserDisc!
> 
> I thought that LaserDiscs had begun to pick up a bit in the UK because
> machines are now available that will play PAL or NTSC discs, though
> I gather that this compatibility is not being widely advertised
> for "political" reasons.

True.  I'm waiting for CD-I with full motion video.  Then I'll look for a
player that does the lot: LaserDisc, CD-I, Photo CD, CD+G, PAL, NTSC, and of
course plain old music CDs.


mathew
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: keith@unipalm.co.uk (Keith Mitchell)
Subject: Re: Hi-fi TV sound?
Organization: Unipalm Ltd., 216 Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4WA, UK
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 12:56:27 GMT

smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:

>In article <1993Jan7.164637.11134@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>>Is it possible to obtain, fairly cheaply, devices which pick up television
>>signals and output decent stereo sound through an amp to speakers? 

>Not 'fairly cheaply', far as I know, but otherwise, yes.

>Maplin and Arcam (and some 3rd company whose name I can't recall) make
>TV-tuner boxes (including NICAM decoding) which stack nicely into a

I have heard of a 4th company that does these boxes, called ASH (no
contact details).  They do the cheapest at #99, no video out or
remote control, though.

On a related subject - does anyone know of boxes that will convert
PAL composite video to VGA/SVGA, so I could run a PC monitor off a
VCR ?  (I realise this is not a simple conversion, and note I am not
intersted in generating PAL output from a PC.)  Obviously kit
(e.g. frame-grabbing type boards) which costs as much as or more than
a colour monitor is not of interest.

Keith Mitchell

Public IP Exchange             keith@pipex.net
216 The Science Park           keith@unipalm.co.uk
Cambridge, UK                  keith@uk.co.pipex	(non-IP JANET sites)
Phone: +44 223-424616
Fax:   +44 223-426868
From: andyh@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andy Holyer)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Mornington Crescent rules anyone?
Date: 6 Jan 93 12:55:47 GMT
Organization: University of Sussex

In article <1993Jan6.093843.29829@infodev.cam.ac.uk> rf@cl.cam.ac.uk (Robin Fairbairns) writes:
>In article <29905@castle.ed.ac.uk>, fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:
>|> gerry@keele.ac.uk (G.D.Pratt) writes:
>|>
>|> >Ok - I give in. Please let me in on what Mornington Crescent (THE GAME) is
>|> >all about. Is it a wind-up or what. I am confused.
>|>
>|> I can email you a copy of the English Standard Rules. These will be
>|> superseded this year though when the Channel Tunnel is opened.
>
>The way to learn about MC is to sign up to the cryptically-named
>newsgroup alt.games.mornington.cresent
>
...but please note that signing up to the even more cryptically-named
groups alt.games.mornington.circle, alt.games.mornington.triangle or
alt.games.mornington.lifesize.inflatable.model.of.cecil.parkinson is
specifically banned by rule 72{b},subsection 4 of the Laotian Handshake
varient of the game.

:-)

&.
-- 
&ndy Holyer, School of Cognitive and     |"In the beginning, there was
Computing Studies, University of Sussex, |  nothing, which exploded."
JANET: andyh@cogs.sussex.ac.uk           |   - Terry Pratchett
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Mornington Crescent rules anyone?
Date: 6 Jan 93 19:13:26 GMT
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk
Distribution: uk
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK

In article <wNuywB35w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk> writes:
>fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:
>> gerry@keele.ac.uk (G.D.Pratt) writes:
>> >Ok - I give in. Please let me in on what Mornington Crescent (THE GAME) is
>> >all about. Is it a wind-up or what. I am confused.
>> 
>> I can email you a copy of the English Standard Rules. These will be
>> superseded this year though when the Channel Tunnel is opened.
>
>They need revising anyway.  Mornington Crescent is currently closed, and so
>there has been talk of declaring an alternate end point for non-Championship
>matches until the station is re-opened.  I believe the most likely candidate
>is Russell Square.

Russell Square?  Are you sure?  You'd be able to win any game with an open
diagonal by playing Goodge Street on your second move (unless the previous
player had doubled back on the Central Line, of course).  Also it would
make the bridges rule effectively meaningless, since any parallel transfer
south of the Elephant and Castle would presumably be invalidated.  

Did you mean Euston Square perhaps?  That would make for some interesting
play (imagine starting at Oxford Street under Crathie's Variation, for
instance).  But my favourite alternative endpoint is the Aldwych.  Not
only does it allow some unusual right-handed passes around the Embankment,
it also completely bamboozles anyone rash enough to try Webster's Defence
when coming from the Mall!
--
Guy Barry, University of Cambridge | Phone: +44 (0)223 334757 
Computer Laboratory                | Fax: +44 (0)223 334678
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street  | JANET: Guy.Barry@uk.ac.cam.cl 
Cambridge CB2 3QG, England, UK     | Internet: Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk
From: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Teletext Time (was Re: Video Plus (a few questions) Phil?)
Date: 11 Jan 93 15:13:49 GMT
	<1imphlINNhas@cardamom.compnews.co.uk>
	<1993Jan11.123039.11145@ohm.york.ac.uk>
Distribution: uk
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.
In-reply-to: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk's message of 11 Jan 93 12:30:39 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.123039.11145@ohm.york.ac.uk> nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) writes:

   >: BTW Where does the teletext time come from? The broadcasts from the
   >: atomic clock at, whichever physics labs? Do  all the channels have the
   >: same time?

   The BBC stuff used to come from Greenwich, although I believe that
   they no longer have a caesium clock there, but it was certainly a
   reference time source when it started.

When I asked BBC Engineering about this a year ago, I was told that
they used the MSF signal. This is popularly, but misleadingly, known
as the Rugby clock. (It's actually an atomic clock at the National
Physical Laboratory in Teddington linked to a BT Long Wave transmitter
at Rugby.) Incidentally, this is also the source of the time details
broadcast in the RDS signal.

   I think ITV had a similar source, but was that sold with the
   franchise....?

I also asked Oracle before they bit the dust. They too relied on MSF
to source the date and time on their teletext pages.

Like the BBC, Oracle let the teletext clock run free whenever there is
one of the regular MSF signal outages (sigh). [The MSF transmitter has
a two week shutdown in the summer for maintenance plus a morning
shutdown once a month!!!] Both Oracle and BBC engineering thought that
this was OK since the clocks would/should only drift by a few seconds;
no claims were made or required for the accuracy of teletext time and
that an error of a few seconds was neither here nor there.

The helpful BBC engineer told me that although the BBC did have atomic
clocks and were looking at GPS receivers, these were used for internal
timing purposes. For instance, there is a super-accurate frequency
signal carried on Radio 4 long wave. Amongst other things, the Beeb
use this for synchronising TV pictures when they switch between
studios to avoid frame roll-overs.

I was told that the BBC was more interested in these reference clocks
for maintaining accurate time deltas rather than absolute time: ie to
ensure that the pips are exactly 1 second apart. There was also the
curious notion of BBC time - the nine o'clock news starts when the BBC
says it's nine o'clock - but it wasn't explained to me how/if this was
synchronised to absolute time. If truth be told, I didn't ask.

		Jim
From: zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Mornington Crescent rules anyone?
Date: 7 Jan 93 12:06:38 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre

In article <C0G4Kp.7DM@exnet.co.uk> dhd@exnet.co.uk (Damon) writes:

>>You obviously don't realise that London Underground have closed Mornington 
>>Crescent for refurbishment.
>>
>>Under rule 147(b) of the new (post Channel Tunnel) rules, all play has to 
>>be suspended until normal service is resumed. I thought that everybody knew 
>>that!

>I'm sure they played it on ISIHAC just the other day (last prog of
>series?).  Anyway, their MC Escalator Refurbishment Fund should be
>helping out LT a little.

They changed the endpoint to Bethlehem, partly because of the season, and 
partly because of the refurbishment.

  No Trespassing: 4/17ths of a haiku.     D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk   fax 6040
  Dave Budd, MCC, Oxford Rd, Manchester, England    (44|0)61-275-6033
From: maj@cl.cam.ac.uk (Martyn Johnson)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Oil spills - history
Date: 7 Jan 93 08:35:31 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK

In article <1993Jan6.104110.1601@infodev.cam.ac.uk>, ph10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Philip Hazel) writes:
|>    ...  But then we found we couldn't remember when the Torrey Canyon wreck
|> actually happened...


18th March 1967

-- 
Martyn Johnson      maj@cl.cam.ac.uk
University of Cambridge Computer Lab
Cambridge UK
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker)
Subject: Re: Video Plus
Reply-To: anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker)
Organization: Maths Dept., Nott'm Univ., UK.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 15:07:08 GMT

In article <1iadd9INNrfh@cardamom.compnews.co.uk> phil@compnews.co.uk writes:
>keith@unipalm.co.uk (Keith Mitchell) writes:
>:		      When I called up the new 55x listings pages on
>: Channel 4 on the 1st (a *big* improvement not to have to switch to
>: another channel for them), and hit the "VPT" button, and got "PDC
>: off", my heart sank.

	My reaction exactly!  Thanks, Phil, for the good news, and for
all the hacking you're doing.  It already seems to me that the revised
ITV/C4 teletext is much better than the old -- sadly, BBC1/2 has gone
the other way.

>:			Then I found it was still there, but on 300/301
>: only.

	Here's where I get lost.  If I understood Phil's previous message
correctly, then with PDC each listings page contains hidden info about the
PDC code for the listed programmes, and non-listings pages don't.  But my
video also notes whether it is *receiving* PDC, and [apparently] uses this
info to decide whether to use PDC for a particular programme.  With C4, up
to yesterday [I haven't tried today!], it tells me it's receiving PDC all
the while I look at programmes, all the while I look at listings, *until*
I try to set it to record.  Curses!  (a) How is this done? -- Is the video
really much cleverer than I've been giving it credit for?  (b) Is this the
sort of thing that your package of improvements is going to cover?  [I
suppose it's too much to hope that eventually PDC will skip the adverts!]

>Of course, we could always put the PDC codes in the papers...

	Well, it would certainly be nice to have a way of hacking them
into the video -- we get rotten C4 reception annoyingly frequently, and
teletext reception seems to be the first thing to go.

>: Lets hope the BBC get the finger out.....

	Hear, hear.  I'm fed up with having to set all BBC recordings
to start 2mins earlier and finish 5mins later than advertised, just in
case.  [How do Video+ users cope with this?  If you have to tap in a
stream of random digits *and* *then* still have to fiddle with the
results, this must make the system completely worthless, surely?]
[We missed the climax of the penultimate episode of "Between The Lines",
thanks to allowing too little for over-run -- the girlfriend had just
jumped into the river, lots of blood, then ... phzzzzzzzzz.]

-- 
Andy Walker, Maths Dept., Nott'm Univ., UK.
anw@maths.nott.ac.uk
From: adcrumpler@npe.isnet.inmos.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: New teletext franchise
Date: 13 Jan 93 01:34:48 GMT
Organization: Inmos Limited
Nntp-Posting-User: heimlichj

In article <1993Jan6.160247.16951@unix.brighton.ac.uk>, ndl@unix.brighton.ac.uk (  The Unix Guru) writes:
> What are peoples opinions on the new teletext service providers ?
> 
> Personally, I thik it has been completley jumbled up with pages everywhere
> and the subtitles in the meridian area still do not work.
> 
> It has become very "tabloid-ish" with adult sex help pages etc, and 
> local information is now split over channel 3 + 4, where as before you
> only needed to be on channel 3.
> 
> Nathan.


CEEFAX is good only for news, business and sport.  The new ITV teletext
service is nowhere near as good as Oracle was. The worst thing is that
we dont have any other choices until 2002 or so..... (no I dont get Sky
etc...)

Stan the Man
Newsgroups: uk.misc