HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lls@kings.demon.co.uk (Lady Lodge Systems)
Subject: Re: What are those white squares in M-way lanes for?
Followup-To: uk.transport
Organization: Lady Lodge Systems
Distribution: uk
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 13:52:12 GMT

>Tim Steele (tjfs@tadtec.co.uk) wrote:
>: ...on the other hand if you measure the distance between the squares
>: on the motorway it *varies*!
>
>: What is VASCAR?

Having been nicked by a VASCAR equiped car this year.......

VASCAR is a glorified stopwatch/calculator that, *if* used accurately,
gives a pretty good indication of the targets speed.

The way it works is that the widget is connected to the Police cars
speedo.  The Police drive between two marked points pressing the buttons
at the start and end.  The points are sometimes blobs painted on the
road, sometimes other things like a pair of bridges (the Police claim to
be able to see the shadow of the bridge reflected on the cars windscreen
as it passes underneath).  The VASCAR unit, through knowing the speed of
the Police vehicle via it's super accurate speedo, then calculates the
distance travelled.

The Police then lurk within view of the start and end points and when a
likely/interesting/enviable/speeding vehicle hoves into view press the
buttons as it, more or less, passes the start and end points.

A number of Traffic Police *like* VASCAR as, being a manual system, it
gives them some room for maneuver (don't press the start button for a
second or so, or press the end button a bit early and get a nice high
reading; staves off the boredom and increases the 'worth' of the
offence) - related to me by a Policeman friend.

You might tell from the above that I'm a little cynical about VASCAR;
why?  well, earlier this year Herts Police tried to claim that I was
doing some very naughty speed on the A1M when I, and my passenger (also
a driver), believed it to be some 30-35 mph less.  As the claimed speed
would have resulted in an automatic ban, I argued the case and won the
day (mainly through the Police not bothering to turn up in court on two
seperate occasions).  If I had just been faced with a fine, I'd probably
not have bothered taking two days out of work, traveling 200 miles to
court and sitting around all day.

I wonder how many people just pay up without arguing? Most I guess.
-- 
Regards,
        Russell
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Russell Brown          | MAIL : russell@kings.demon.co.uk                 |
| Lady Lodge Systems     | PHONE: 0832 272224 (Home/Work it's all the same) |
| demon.co.uk is an Internet access point for zillions of unrelated systems |
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 16:46:11 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke) writes:
> In article <ag4TVB19w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
>    I bought an album on CD for #10.99.  Previously, I had bought it on tape f
>    #5.99, worn the tape out through repeated listening, bought it on LP for
>    #6.99, and worn the LP out through repeated listening.  Which was cheaper,
>    the LP and tape or the CD?
> 
> A decent cartridge would have been much cheaper in the long run.  Then the
> record wouldn't have been worn out by repeated listening...

I thought Ortofon were OK myself.  Perhaps I'm missing something, but
I can't see how you can rub sharpened diamond across soft vinyl
without wearing out the vinyl.


mathew
-- 
Lung cancer and arteriosclerosis.
For people who like to smoke.
From: snail@lsl.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: 18 Dec 92 18:40:29 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd., Cambridge

In article <i9NVVB21w165w@mantis.co.uk>, mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
> Let's suppose there's a desperately ill orphan with no telephone, no
> vehicles, and no legs.  How does it get to where it *NEEDS* to go in this
> so-called free road transport system of yours?  Eh?!  Eh?!  Answer me that!!!

["so-called free road system" referring to our current road system as opposed
to a no-taxes, toll-road, no-health, no-education, pay for it yourself etc
system...]

No problem.

Currently, in the so-called free-health system, this poor unfortunate
would probably have somebody looking after him/her, who could take them.
However you've also removed any vehicles, which is rather unrealistic and
not comparable to the original problem. Adding vehicles and the person can
get to where they need to go (presumably hospital).

However in the toll-road, no taxes, pay for everything society, the poor
unfortunate wuoldn't be able to pay for a nurse, or transport, since they
wouldn't be able to get a job etc and this person would probably die. Thats
OK though isn't it? :-(

Now if you'd like to answer the original question, despite the fact it wasn't
aimed at you...
-- 
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: alan@ssd.ukpoit.co.uk (Alan Barclay)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Network Marketing
Date: 12 Dec 92 12:24:11 GMT
Organization: iT - The Information Technology Business Of The Post Office

In article <29328@castle.ed.ac.uk> wbg@festival.ed.ac.uk (W Geake) writes:
>grc@stl.stc.co.uk (Gary Cook) writes:
>
>them selling them a bloody useless product like a water filter or
>digital-get-the-black-bits-out-of-potatoes-er.  Shame, really.
>

Useless? I'd kill to get a digital-get-the-black-bits-out-of-potatoes-er.  

-- 
Alan Barclay, iT, Barker Lane, CHESTERFIELD, S40 1DY, Derbys, England 
alan@ukpoit.uucp, ..!uknet!ukpoit!alan, FAX:+44 246214353, VOICE:+44 246214261
iT - The Information Technology Business     | explist now set to 3 days.
Of The Post Office : In Tune With Technology | Anyone got a 1.2 Gig disk?
From: snail@lsl.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 15 Dec 92 14:05:58 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd., Cambridge

In article <Bz9Gsv.81n@exnet.co.uk>, dhd@exnet.co.uk (Damon) writes:
> In article <JRG.92Dec14162857@owl.doc.ic.ac.uk> jrg@doc.ic.ac.uk (James Grinter) writes:
>>In article <Bz4Grp.7q@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk> joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
>>
>>
>>   >A lot of people still complain that CD sounds "cold" or "artificial".
>>   >Well, yes, the old players did; the first CD player I bought (the
>>   >original Philips CD104) was pretty awful.  But each year's selection
>>   >of machines is audibly better than the previous year's; they're
>>   >catching up fast.
>>
>>   I still use 1/4" tape - if it was good enough for the record company master,
>>   it's god enough for me.
>>
>>This reminds me of something I have often puzzled over. Perhaps the
>>answer is so easy that I'm missing something, anyway - heregoes...
>>
>>We're told, that the latest players are always getting better and
>>reading and playing the data from the CD more accurately. Does this
>>give the possibility that the data on the disc, when it was recorded,
>>could be incorrect too? Or are they saying that the recording
>>equipment has always been perfect, but we've only just fixed the
>>players?
> 
> No, it's probably more the case that the distortion introduced in
> analogue equipment can sound nicer than that introduced by digital
> equipment, eg valve amplifiers sound `mellow'.  Even-harmonic
> distortion I think...

NO, wrong way round. Odd harmonics (a few of them) are what makes it sound
nice. The third harmonic typically found in distorting valve amps is what 
made Hendrix sound so good.

Can anyone tell me what the follwoing phrases mean when applied to CD players?
I think it's all marketing bullshit, but I can't make my mind up until someone
actually tells me what the follwoing phrases mean.

Phrase 1) Multi bit sampling CD player

Phrase 2) 1-bit sampling CD player

as opposed to CD player?

I'll followup when I get some good answers, if it's appropriate. Don't email,
keep it on the net, so someone can say you've got it right/wrong.
-- 
snail@lsl.co.uk      

muso/unix joke: "which debugger do you use?"
                "I use dbx..."
                "Oh really, we use Dolby C..."
Motorola inside.
From: peter@memex.co.uk (Peter Ilieve)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 15 Dec 92 09:11:25 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Memex Information Systems Ltd, East Kilbrde, Scotland

In article <Bz4Grp.7q@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk>
joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
>
>I still use 1/4" tape - if it was good enough for the record company master,
>it's god enough for me.

Ah, but do you run it at 15 ips on a Studer B66 (I'm showing my age here)
with Dolby A equipment? Anything less was not good enough where I was.


		Peter Ilieve		peter@memex.co.uk
From: lsg001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Graham Wilson)
Subject: Re: Newsgroup filtering in the U.K.
Organization: Legal Department - Coventry University
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 14:56:32 GMT

In article <Bz98Cn.HHG@compsci.liverpool.ac.uk> bruce@uxb.liv.ac.uk (Bruce Stephens) writes:
>Piercarlo Grandi (pcg@aber.ac.uk) wrote:
>: 
>: ade> If I remember rightly BT have a rule that no pornographic material
>: ade> may be transfered over their leased lines.
>: 
>: Actually the entire public telephone system cannot be used to transmit
>: any sort of obscenity at all; this was put in to nail the authors of
>: obscene phone calls, but the wording is far more general. There might be
>: similar provisions relating to the use of the postal system, as there


** There are two specific offences relating to the postal service. The first
   concerns unsolicited pornographic material and the second relates to 
   material of an "obscene" nature.


   

-- 
         *********************************************************
         *      Graham Wilson      *  lsg001@cck.coventry.ac.uk  *
         *     LL.B.  Law  III     *     Coventry  University    *
         *********************************************************
From: snail@lsl.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 18 Dec 92 17:54:10 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd., Cambridge

In article <BzBp8M.J3@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk>, joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
> In article <6q3TVB17w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk> writes:
>>joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
>>> "Decent" CD players are 150-200 pounds....
>>Since when?  I can hear the difference between a #400 CD player and a #300 CD
>>player, and it ain't subtle.  This indicates to me that a #400 CD player is
>>not near the top as far as quality is concerned.
> 
> (sigh...) Golden ears vs manufacturing.
> 
> This has been debated in double-blind tests for 20 years and more:
> 
>  -- The basic chipsets are the same
>  -- There are a limited number of D/A methods and chips.

These two have to be the same, else really they can't get the info off the CD
any better. Sure you can sample with several lasers and average the results,
this'll give you better tracking, It won't improve the sound quality though.

The sound quality comes from the quality of the pre-amp in the CD before the
sound gets out to the phono sockets (At least I hope you use phono sockets :-),
when did you last see a CD player with an XLR (Cannon) socket on it?

>  -- "I don't care much distortion *you* find - it *sounds* better..."
> 
> One could pobably pay as much as 5000 for a CD player and "all the bits".
> About 25-50,000 pounds for a mere "record player".
> 
> Which would sound better?

Gotta admit, even I get lost with this above me, is it sarcasm, and I'm just
missing it?
> 
> As far as the ``average'' user sees - perfection is perfection. CD or LP
> or DCC or ...

Pretty much true. Why buy a mercedes when a metro will do.
-- 
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.
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: dplumb@cix.compulink.co.uk (Dave Plumb)
Subject: Re: Alarm systems                       
Cc: dplumb@cix.compulink.co.uk
Reply-To: dplumb@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 17:44:00 +0000

> ** In some cases the police have been know to refuse to answer the 
>   alarm system. However, in order to cover themselves against the 
This may sound unkind, but ISTR a survey put the number of false alarms to be 
in the region of 95%. It must get really disheartening after a while to get 
called out again and again to an alarm call and find it false. It must really 
be a shock when they find a genuine one! 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Dave Plumb   |   Internet: dplumb@cix.compulink.co.uk   |  Fidonet: 2:252/140 
London, UK   |   Packet  : G7MIL @ GB7HSN.#32.GBR.EU    | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: snail@lsl.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 16 Dec 92 10:55:36 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd., Cambridge

In article <6q3TVB17w165w@mantis.co.uk>, mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
> joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
>> In article <17imVB39w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk> writes:
>> >Oh, do be serious.  If people wanted to buy records, the manufacturers would
>> >make them.  They're only in the business to make money, after all.  Cassette
>> >are analogue, noisy, and wear out just like records, but they're still made.
>> 
>> Don't be silly, the industry works on profit margins, not what the customer
>> wants.  (See: "LP vs cassette, quality")
> 
> The profit on selling 100 LPs is larger than the profit on selling 10 CDs. 
> If the customers really wanted LPs, there's no way the industry would be able
> to railroad them into buying CDs.

How? Cds are cheaper to manufacture. The cases are pressed plastic (chaep)
and they are light weight (so cheaper to transport) and smaller (so you can
move more) and they cost about 2 to 3 times the price of an LP.

And you say the profit margin is greater on an LP. Where do you get that from?
Even the record industry moguls recognise CDs are cheaper for them to make.
-- 
snail@lsl.co.uk      

muso/unix joke: "which debugger do you use?"
                "I use dbx..."
                "Oh really, we use Dolby C..."
Motorola inside.
From: mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 17:28:41 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

pho@mserv1.dl.ac.uk (P.Owens,C20,3492) writes:
> > > If your going to start talking about efficiency now then it must
> > > be cheaper for the government bureacracy to collect a pound in
> > > taxes than it is to collect a pound from a toll booth.
> > 
> > Similarly, it's much more efficient for Robert Maxwell to provide a pension
> > scheme for all his employees than to have them all take out their own
> > independent schemes.
> 
> Which could just as easily be run by a crook like Maxwell.

But at least then the employees don't *all* get shafted when a single
company goes under.  And what about those who worked for MCC who
suspected Maxwell was a crook?  They couldn't move their pension out
of his grasp.

> > And it must be more efficient to have the government of the Soviet Union
> > distribute all goods via a single national chain of GUM stores than have lo
> > of independent competing stores using different distribution methods.
> 
> Just because I think that some things are best run by government it doesn't
> follow that I think it should run everything.

What are your criteria for determining what it should run?


mathew
-- 
Lung cancer and arteriosclerosis.
For people who like to smoke.
From: bruce@uxb.liv.ac.uk (Bruce Stephens)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Newsgroup filtering in the U.K.
Date: 14 Dec 92 15:00:23 GMT
Organization: The University of Liverpool
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Piercarlo Grandi (pcg@aber.ac.uk) wrote:
: 
: ade> If I remember rightly BT have a rule that no pornographic material
: ade> may be transfered over their leased lines.
: 
: Actually the entire public telephone system cannot be used to transmit
: any sort of obscenity at all; this was put in to nail the authors of
: obscene phone calls, but the wording is far more general. There might be
: similar provisions relating to the use of the postal system, as there
                                                ^^^^^^
: are in many countries.
: 
There are.
--
Bruce              CMSR, University of Liverpool
Use PGP 2.0; make private email private!  My public key available by
fingering me or on request.
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Speed freaks: some figures at last
Date: 15 Dec 92 18:21:14 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <ByvuCv.8ys@eonsw.demon.co.uk>, ian@eonsw.demon.co.uk (Ian Leonard) writes:
> What has this got to do with going shopping by car? May I humbly suggest that
> you drive to one of the many out-of-town Sainsbury shops that we have around
> here, buy as much as you like and then have a cup of coffee in their cafe.
> The day after you can head for a early morning meeting half way around the
> M25, get stuck in a traffic jam and turn up late. Be hassled for hours and
> then drive home. One of these is more stressful for the driver.
> 
If I had a car I would probably shop at Sainsbury's in Kidlington and it would
be a lot less stressful for me than shopping at Sainsbury's in town. So what? I
was pointing out that shopping wasn't necessarily the calm stress-free activity
you were painting. If I had a car and a meeting in East London I would not go
by car. I would take the bus or train to Central London and take the tube or
train from there.
 

> I don't need to open my eyes to know that there is severe financial pressure
> on some people these days. But what has it got to do with driving statistics.
> As I recall we were talking about why male drivers had more accidents than
> female ones.
> 
You had been. I was taking serious issue with a couple of throw-away remarks
you made which I thought were complacent, sexist and false.

>>> There was a lot of damage and this pillar of society didn't have any
>>> insurance. Fortunately my insurance company took a positive attitude
>>You allowed him to drive your car without insurance, so you were every bit as
>>culpable as him.
> He was covered by my insurance (anybody could drive it with my permission),
> so thats okay isn't it.

You wrote that he didn't have any insurance. To my mind that means he wasn't
insured to drive your car. If, as it turns out, he was insured under your
policy, your insurance company was not taking a positive attitude. Rather it
was honouring your policy, as it had to do under the law.

-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
From: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 17 Dec 92 10:04:41 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Distribution: uk
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <BzD20F.z3@fulcrum.co.uk> igb@fulcrum.co.uk (Ian G Batten) writes:
>No, ADC converters are as much of a black art as DAC converters.  More,
>perhaps.

Don't know what technology they are using now, but when I was building ADCs
many years ago, they were equally trivial.  An ADC was nothing more than
a DAC, a comparator chip, a sample and hold chip, and a bit of logic.

You grabbed your sample in the sample/hold chip, and fed that into one
side of the comparator.  You fed the DAC output into the other side of
the comparator.  The logic circuitry ran the DAC through a binary search
until the comparator signalled a match.

I.e., you first turned on the high-order bit into the DAC.  If the
comparator said that the DAC output was now bigger than the sample, you
turned it back off; if it said it was smaller than the sample, you left
it on.  In either case, you then turned on the next bit, repeated the
comparison, and so on.  When you got a match, whatever number you were
feeding the DAC was the answer.

In those days the comparator and the sample/hold were each ICs, while
the logic and the DAC were hand-built from discrete components.  I'd
bet the same method is still used, but it's probably all been collapsed
into a single chip by now.

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132
From: pho@mserv1.dl.ac.uk (P.Owens,C20,3492)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Libertarian philosophy
Date: 16 Dec 1992 14:33:58 GMT
Organization: Daresbury Laboratory, UK
Distribution: world
Reply-To: pho@mserv1.dl.ac.uk
NNTP-Posting-Host: nnsx.dl.ac.uk

fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:

> The killer though was that when we got to discussing the swiss
> government, Madeleine was very proud of the democratic system there. She
> described tha Canton system and it all seemed very devolved and
> democratic. I was quite impressed by it all until she said that she had
> to move out of her old Canton when she met Mike. "Why?" I asked. "Well,
> it's illegal there to live with someone if you're not married. They had
> a vote."
> 
> So even with the most devolved and democractic form of government, it
> can all come to grief if that government has the power to stick its nose
> into your private business.
> 
> Just as here it only takes 51% support to allow the government to take
> your money for some hairbrained project or other, there it only takes
> 51% support for them to decide who you can live with.

When it comes to civil liberties and human rights, I think you'll find
most of us are with you. It's just that we dont see paying taxes as being in
this category.

It's difficult, once you accept a governments role to enforce laws to prevent
murder etc, to prevent it from making unreasonable laws. A constitution such as
the US's would probably prevent this sort of thing happening, but it can cut
both ways as in Ireland. I don't know if Switzerland is covered by the European
Court for Human Rights (or whatever it's called), but Madeleine probably couldn't
afford the lawyers anyhow.

The difficulty with extending freedom to include the freedom not to pay taxes
is that the freedoms acquired can only be exericed by those with the money
to spend. It really amounts to the freedom to control resources, so increasing
one persons freedom will result in reducing anothers. I would argue that the 
freedoms to be educated, to health care, to be housed and to not live in
poverty are more important.

Your argument, earlier in this thread, that since the tax take is 43% of the
economy then we are 43% of the way to communism can be turned round. ie. We are
57% of the way to anarchy. Most of us would agree that either extreme is 
undesirable so we'll settle for somewhere in the middle.


---
Pete Owens
P.Owens@daresbury.ac.uk