HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 23 Dec 92 14:52:17 GMT
Distribution: uk
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Roy Donaldson (royd@spider.co.uk) wrote:
: In article <1480@eouk8.eoe.co.uk> dhembrow@eoe.co.uk (David Hembrow) writes:
: >J Strobridge (eset08@castle.ed.ac.uk) wrote:
: >: 2 queries though - why are CDs so incredibly much cheaper in the States
: >: than they are over here (and in Europe too, import stuff from Europe is
: >: desperately expensive)?
: >
: >I was in the US two weeks ago and I was dissappointed to find that CDs were
: >not so much cheaper there than in the UK as I thought they would be. Esp.
: >with the pound at $1.50ish. Tower records had most CDs at $13.50 and you
: >have to add Californian sales tax to that. Not so much cheaper than here (
: >also not that you have to pay duty in the UK if you try to import too many ).
: >
: >I suppose that when the pound was more like $2 there was more of a gap.

: Hmmmm, I must disagree here. I recently mail ordered a CD from the US
: as a Christmas present for my brother. The disk came through last week.
: It was a normal priced CD which would normally sell for 13.49 pounds over 
: here. It cost me 12 dollars for the disk ( about 8 pounds ). This is the
: company's standard price for *all* new titles. However, things in an
: artists back catalogue were selling in the region of 8 to 10 dollars
: ( 6 to 7 pounds ) which to me seemed like a damned good deal. Can't wait
: till they raise the US import limit.

i think price in the US depends a lot on the shop ... from what a
cousin told me when i visted him in new york i think tower records are
pretty expensive (i.e. use list price) while he got all his cds from
another shop which had prices significantly (like 30% or so) cheaper +
had special offers all the time. i can remember that when i was there
they had a double cd of bach's christmas oratorio (it was a "full
price" recording) as that week's special offer for less than a single
full price cd in the uk - this was about 4 years ago.

actually the situation can be much the same in the uk. tower are
expensive as they tend to stick to "list" price, though i made good use
of the recent promotion by polygram which reduced all classical cds
there from decca, dg and phillips to #9.99 per disk!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
david shepherd: des@inmos.co.uk                     tel: 0454-616616 x 625
                inmos ltd, 1000 aztec west, almondsbury, bristol, bs12 4sq
                1992: celebrate the quincentenary of columbus getting lost
From: igb@fulcrum.co.uk (Ian G Batten)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Before I make a fool of myself
Date: 24 Dec 92 12:09:25 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Fulcrum Communications

In article <BzrHKB.373@fulcrum.co.uk> igb@fulcrum.co.uk (Ian G Batten) writes:
> indeed anything) on a sparc with gcc2 rather than gcc1, cc or the

Sod's law at work.  Having tried half a dozen times over the past few
months, no sooner have I posted than I find the problem.  gcc need
``-nostdlib'' to make sure the magic version of crt0 is linked
correctly.

ian
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey)
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Organization: Independent Network (UK)
Distribution: uk
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 00:25:01 GMT

In article <1992Dec24.100828.10791@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>
>Finally (worse case) some few record companies seem to have originally
>believe they could just take the 'final master-plate-making' master,
>and use it to make CD pressing masters.  Definitely doesn't work.

:-)

"Remastered for CD"  --  sure:

An "LP-master" is 12" diameter - it wouldn't even *fit* in a CD drive!

joe.
-- 
Joe Sharkey      joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk      ...!uunet!ibmpcug!jshark!joe
150 Hatfield Rd, St Albans, Herts AL1 4JA, UK        Got a real domain name
(+44) 727 838662           Mail/News Feeds (v32/v32bis): info@inet-uk.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: lsg001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Graham Wilson)
Subject: Re: letting property
Keywords: letting renting property tax law
Organization: Legal Department - Coventry University
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 12:56:04 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.140453.292@lut.ac.uk> T.I.Morley@lut.ac.uk (TI Morley) writes:
>I am thinking about renting out a flat which I own in London.
>I have been forced to move away to get a new job following redundancy.
>It's not that I really want to become a landlord, but funnily enough
>no one wants to buy the place at the moment!
>
>Never having been in this position before I don't have much idea about 
>the legal or tax position.


** On the legal side there are several ways in which you can "let" the house.
   You either grant a lease or a licence.

   In your case, as a mortgage exists on the property, then a licence would be
   more appropriate. The law changed in 1988 and I think (but check this)
   that you can grant an unprotected tenancy for between 6 months and 2 years.

   Unprotected tenancy means that the tenants cannot claim to be secure in 
   the property after the tenancy expires. At the end they must either 
   leave the property or renew the tenancy (but on your terms)

   Talk to a Solicitor about your particular case and they can draft up
   the appropriate licence. It should cost you less than 100 pounds.

   Alternatively, Oyez, the Law Society Stationers provide ready made forms.


   Graham.


      
-- 
         *********************************************************
         *      Graham Wilson      *  lsg001@cck.coventry.ac.uk  *
         *     LL.B.  Law  III     *     Coventry  University    *
         *********************************************************
From: sw@network-analysis-ltd.co.uk (Sak Wathanasin)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Mac sucking extra voltage
Date: 30 Dec 92 20:18:59 GMT
Reply-To: sw@network-analysis-ltd.co.uk
Distribution: uk
Organization: Network Analysis Ltd
X-Mailer: uAccess - Macintosh Release: 1.6v1


In article <11067@armltd.uucp> (uk.misc), abaum@armltd.uucp (Allen Baum) writes:

> I believe only the original Mac 128k/512k will not work on 240V. They had special
> versions for the UK market, with completely different analog cards.

They can't be *that* different: I had a 128K that I bought in the US
when the Mac was first introduced. On my return to the UK, I ran it off
a transformer until it expired one night during a thunderstorm. Since
I had to replace the PSU, I had a UK one put in. I continued to run the
ImageWriter 1 off the transformer until about 18 mths ago when I sold it.
As far as I know, it still works. The 128K Mac is now a Plus and is going
fine...




Sak Wathanasin
Network Analysis Limited
178 Wainbody Ave South, Coventry CV3 6BX, UK

uucp:      ...!uknet!nan!sw  Phone: (+44) 203 419996
AppleLink: NAN.LTD           Internet: sw@network-analysis-ltd.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: malcolm@muir.demon.co.uk ("Malcolm S. Muir")
Subject: Re: Merry Christmas 
Distribution: world
Organization: Muir
Reply-To: malcolm@muir.demon.co.uk
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.19)
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 12:36:36 +0000

In article <1992Dec22.123657.20535@infodev.cam.ac.uk> gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk writes:

>In article <BznqJ8.MEs@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (David Morning)
> writes:
>>
>>BTW: Is it true that all you sassenachs usually go back to work on Jan 2nd 
>>or a similar day if New Year falls on the week-end?
>
>Yes -- the New Year holiday is two days in Scotland, but only one day
>in England.  But I can remember (and I'm not that old!) when there was
>no New Year holiday at all in England; England just had Christmas Day
>and Boxing Day, and I thought Scotland just had Christmas Day and New
>Year's Day.  How did Scotland manage to end up with two days at both
>Christmas and New Year?

Of course those non sassenachs of us in the North of England have the
best of both worlds.

I have 25th. Dec, 28th. Dec, 1st. Jan and 4th. Jan as official
holidays this year.

This part of England always had New Years Day as a holiday (and
celebration !). When the rest of England adopted this as an extra
Bank Holiday, we got the extra day as well (i.e. 1st. and 2nd. of Jan)

-- 
=============================================================================
Malcolm S. Muir                              EMAIL: malcolm@muir.demon.co.uk
Sunderland                                   CIX: mmuir BIX: mmuir
England                                      CSERVE: 100012,31
======================= PGP 2.0 Public Key Available ========================
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey)
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Organization: Independent Network (UK)
Distribution: uk
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 00:43:03 GMT

In article <1992Dec24.100828.10791@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>In article <BzJ31u.Cy0@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk> joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
>>Keep a modicum of compression on, so the dynamic range is around 60 dB or so -
>>and put it in the middle of the ~90 dB you have available.
>>No dropping into quantization noise, or (worse) overloading.
>
>Religious question here.  However, the consensus seems to be that since
>you've got 90-some dB available, you ought to use at least most of it,
>since in essence that minimises the effect of any quantisation errors.
>It you don't use the full range, you are in effect using fewer bits,
>which means your measuring system is coarser.

But you cannot hear it -- a typical mome environment just about lets you
get ~60 dB. (Neighbours or road traffic.)

Nothing overloads worse than "digital", and nothing sounds worse near the
noise floor either.  You have 90db - and cannot use it!

>There are also other fiddles involved.
...
>of LPs by putting in a bit of extra push or cut in particular frequency
>ranges.  (Basically, tweaking the RIAA curve.)

Or monitoring "classical" music on L3/5s and "rock" on non-hi-fi-by-any-
standard JBLs (or whatever) at 130db.

No different.  Both are "wrong."

>                                                On CDs this tends to
>sound wrong.  And, of course, at this stage the engineer is trying to
>evaluate how the final product (CD or LP) will sound by listening to the
>tape mix.

I noticed this was a problem when I got my first "real" record player
about 18 years ago. CD or "digital audio" has very little to do with it.

>Paul Smee

joe.,
-- 
Joe Sharkey      joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk      ...!uunet!ibmpcug!jshark!joe
150 Hatfield Rd, St Albans, Herts AL1 4JA, UK        Got a real domain name
(+44) 727 838662           Mail/News Feeds (v32/v32bis): info@inet-uk.co.uk
From: jeremy@castle.ed.ac.uk (Jeremy Henderson)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: EXIT - how to end it all
Keywords: cable phone
Date: 21 Dec 92 10:47:13 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Edinburgh University

I understand that there is a group called EXIT who produce a booklet
on how to end your life when incurably ill (or whatever). Could anyone
tell me how to get in touch with them, or how to get the booklet?

P.S. Before anyone says "don't do it, Jeremy" let me say that I'm not
planning to (yet).



-- 
===Jeremy Henderson===jeremy@castle.ed.ac.uk=          

This message cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Bloody good value if you ask me.
Xref: sparky uk.misc:2091 uk.telecom:289
From: des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd)
Newsgroups: uk.misc,uk.telecom
Subject: Re: Cable provider offering phone service
Date: 22 Dec 92 10:01:19 GMT
Followup-To: uk.misc,uk.telecom
Distribution: uk
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Graham Toal (gtoal@pizzabox.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: In article <1992Dec21.122933.18098@wraxall.inmos.co.uk> des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd) writes:
: :	if (number[0] = `0`) {
: :		route_mercury(number);
: :	} else {
: :		route_bt(number);
: :	}

: You mean they route *everything* via mercury? ;-)

****** C ... that == always gets me !

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
david shepherd: des@inmos.co.uk                     tel: 0454-616616 x 625
                inmos ltd, 1000 aztec west, almondsbury, bristol, bs12 4sq
                1992: celebrate the quincentenary of columbus getting lost
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Liberties (was Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking)
Date: 21 Dec 92 15:23:15 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <29767@castle.ed.ac.uk>, fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:
> Surely even the folks here who defend taxation must figure that this is
> a complete and utter waste of our money?
[Of the government's decision to recompense those affected by terrorism]

Not at all. The insurance companies, in a virtually deregulated market have 
decided that they can't afford to insure against terrorist attack. The
government have tacitly accepted a certain measure of responsibility for these
attacks and have agreed to step in where the free market has failed---yet
again. Of course I'd much rather they spent the money preventing terrorist
attack by removing the terrorists' reason for existence, but given the
ludicrous attitudes shown towards Northern Ireland I'm not surprised they
haven't.

-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
From: jharuni@micrognosis.co.uk (Jonathan Haruni)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Cable TV quality
Date: 21 Dec 92 13:56:40 GMT
Reply-To: jharuni@micrognosis.co.uk
Distribution: uk
Organization: Micrognosis International, London

Does anyone who has installed cable TV know how the signal quality compares
to those from the conventional alternatives ?

When watching a one of the usual UK TV stations, can you view teletext ?
On all four channels ?  Do you get more or fewer errors than with your
aerial ?  Do you get NICAM via cable ?  Do you get more or fewer
sound dropouts ?

Same questions for satellites: do you get the same picture quality/teletext
reliability/sound quality/auxilliary sound channels as you did with
your dish ?

When using the phone via cable, can you achieve the same data rates via
modem as you could with your BT line ?  More or fewer errors ?

-- 
Jonathan Haruni
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: tdubois@nis.Naitc.Com (Tom Dubois)
Subject: Mac sucking extra voltage
Organization: AC Nielsen Co., Bannockburn IL
Distribution: uk
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 20:55:21 GMT

I'm bringing my Mac IIsi with me to London.  The Apple specs say it will work 
on 240 volts, 50 Hz no problem.  Does this mean I can just plug it in as long
as I get an adaptor?  Not to sound ethnocentric, but is the power company 
reliable and smooth in the UK or should I get a surge protector?  I'm also 
bringing a NEC laserprinter.  Will it work off a transformer?  

Thanks for the help and happy holidays!

Tom DuBois
tdubois@nis.naitc.com
From: mjl@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Suppliers for photocopier parts?
Date: 24 Dec 92 11:26:00 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

Anyone know of any outlets in UK where anybody can buy parts for photocopiers
or laser printers? By parts I dont mean standard consumeable items, but parts
normally only fitted by copier service people. In particular I am thinking of
the lamp, or the fuser roller heater, and other such trivial parts which
cost an arm and a leg to have fixed by a service engineer, but in fact are
simple to replace. A service manual would also be pretty useful. I ask the
question generally, before referring to any particular makes etc. I have
never seen parts advertised.

As far as I can see, photocopiers are one of the last bastions of the closed
shop attitude, whereby spares are jealosly guarded by maintenance 
organisations. If I want a part for my car there is no real problem, but does
anyone fix their own copier? 

Martin Loach
From: fletcher@rtf.bt.co.uk (Catherine Fletcher)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 21 Dec 92 13:10:05 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: BT Customer Systems, Brighton, UK

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.
> 
> CDs may be wonderful.  But:  *I WANT TO BUY LP's*.  OK?

And I want to buy new LPs too!  Mainly because I have built up a nice system of
components over the years and am not now in a position to spend 200 odd quid
on a CD player (and won't be for the forseeable future).  Most people I know
switched to CDs because they were being marketed so heavily and LPs became
so scarce.  It seemed like an overnight change - *very* democratic...

-- 
 Catherine 

	"Your favourite shirt is on the bed
	 Do a somersault on your head"
Xref: sparky uk.misc:2065 uk.telecom:283
From: des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd)
Newsgroups: uk.misc,uk.telecom
Subject: Re: Cable provider offering phone service
Date: 21 Dec 92 12:29:33 GMT
Followup-To: uk.misc,uk.telecom
Distribution: uk
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Peter Robinson (pr@cl.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
: The telphone service is superficially indistinguishable from BT's.  The cable
: company has a block of 10,000 numbers in the Cambridge STD code.  These can be
: called from anywhere else in the usual way.  When you dial, the cable exchange
: routes the call throught the cheapest carrier available, which may be BT or it may
: be Mercury.  There is no Mercury button to push.

: All the tariffs - line rental, local, trunk and international calls - are all
: priced just below BT's rates, except off-peak calls to other numbers on the cable
: exchange which are about half the price of the BT equivalent.  All calls are
: charged to the nearest tenth of a second, which should trim a fraction more off the
: costs.  I am still waiting for the first itemised bill which will show if the
: system managed to pick up BT's special rate for trunk calls on Sunday afternoons
: (probably not - the small print limits that to BT subscribers).

also, these special offers probably don't fit in well with the 
system which decides which is the best route to use -- i'd expect the
algorithm used is along the lines of

	if (number[0] = `0`) {
		route_mercury(number);
	} else {
		route_bt(number);
	}

: P.S.  Does anyone know why you still have to have a television licence even when you
: only take programs off cable?  I thought that there had been a contrary ruling
: in the case of satellite television.

i think you pay the license for having equipment that can decode a tv
signal and not for actually doing so (just as you need car tax for a 
car parked on the road even if you never us it). i think people have
gone to court to saying that they only use their tv as a computer monitor
or for watching satellite tv though i would think that you would have
to be able to show that you couldn't get a normal tv picture ... i.e.
you'd (at least) need to remove any tv aerials from the house.

in any case, as cambridge tv supply bbc and itv programs via cable
i think that you may have a liability that way in any case.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
david shepherd: des@inmos.co.uk                     tel: 0454-616616 x 625
                inmos ltd, 1000 aztec west, almondsbury, bristol, bs12 4sq
                1992: celebrate the quincentenary of columbus getting lost
From: phil@compnews.co.uk (Phil Male)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Video Plus
Date: 2 Jan 93 04:07:20 GMT
Reply-To: phil@compnews.co.uk
Distribution: uk
Organization: Computer Newspaper Services, Howden, UK.
NNTP-Posting-Host: sage.compnews.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

: I wonder if the publication of these will last longer than the barcodes?

:-) We did those as well - the reason they dried up in the papers was that
the sponsorship from Panasonic and Amstrad dried up, they used to pay us to
enable a discount to the papers when they received the TV pages from us
(almost all papers receive their TV pages from us these days, if not as
complete ready made pages in some random PDL, as tagged text or simple data
format listings).

If anyone still has one of these videos I wrote the code to produce the bar
codes, available as postscript EPS files, ATEX typesetting commands (yes we
used to do it with leading and v-rules :-) or simply as commands to pass to a
generic typesetting engine. The format is 2/5. TV production still generate
barcodes for some papers, and we have them for every programme for every day
as EPS files on one of our systems somewhere.

: Ian
: -- 
: Ian Phillipps, Unipalm Ltd, 216 Science Park,		Phone +44 223 420002
: Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 4WA, England.		Phax  +44 223 426868
: PIPEX is a division of Unipalm Ltd. - phone 0223 424616.

--

phil 
   ___/   /
   /_/)  /             Phil Male, Director, Information Systems
  / /_ '/  Computer Newspaper Services, The Bishops Manor, Howden, DN14 7BL
 / / ///    +44 43043 Tel: 1100 Fax: 1108/2022  email: phil@compnews.co.uk
From: jpmg1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Patrick Gosling)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 1 Jan 93 16:57:21 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

In article <1992Dec23.151627.20703@spider.co.uk> 
   michaelr@spider.co.uk (Michael S. A. Robb) writes:
[ re the threat to investigate Sega/Nintendo price-fixing ]
>Not really. The 10 pounds is the component price of the memory chips and 
>plastic
>casing to store the game. It does not take into account the amount of time and
>money spent on developing the source code to go into the memory chips.

Bull.  If they can spend 10 quid on the chips and plastic I'd be gobstruck.  In
fact, at the kinds of volumes we're talking about, I'd be surprised if the
materials cost was more than a pound.
I would indeed be amazed if the people planning to investigate this business
were not fully aware that the major cost involved is that of paying for the
developers.
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: <None>
Date: 21 Dec 92 15:27:15 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <29771@castle.ed.ac.uk>, fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:
> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
> ~~ 
> ~~ But in your arguments you support a tax system that *jails* people if
> ~~ they don't have the money to pay the government's "fare". I'd really
> ~~ like you to either renounce forcible taxation or address this
> ~~ inconsistency. You can't get much less freedom to travel than being in jail.
> ~~ 
> ~No. I think we are all advocating that the government's "fare" should be set at
> ~a different level according to the wealth of the person paying it. It is only
> ~this latest incartion of the Tory party which has imprisoned people for
> ~inability to pay an unfair tax.
> Wrong. People were jailed for non-payment of taxes long before the Poll Tax.

You challenged on being jailed for *inability* to pay. If you can produce cases
of that, I will withdraw my statement. Otherwise I will not.
-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
Newsgroups: uk.misc