HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: 22 Dec 92 14:32:38 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Edinburgh University

snail@lsl.co.uk writes:

>If you have enough money, you can buy people.

Which is fine if those people consent to being "bought".

>Simple. You can also pay for
>people to be bullied, threatened, beaten up, all done by someone not connected
>with you. All it takes is money. Again, I say: Money is power.

Those things are illegal and nobody in this argument has proposed
otherwise, so unless you can show that law enforcement would somehow be
less efficient in a different society (and you've also claimed the
opposite in your "Big Brother" arguments) then this is simply spurious. 

>snail@lsl.co.uk      

FoFP
From: des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 23 Dec 92 16:20:33 GMT
Distribution: uk
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Scott Williamson (scott@memex.co.uk) wrote:
: Headline news today (Wednesday) is Trading Standards Office
: investigating how Sega and Nintendo can get away with charging more
: than 40 pounds for a game which costs less than 10 pounds to
: manufacture. Sounds like a bargain compared to CDs...

: In any case is this an unusually large mark-up for toys etc.?

the person from the consumers association, who have been calling for a
referal said that the current situation was grossly unfair as third
parties had to get sega/nintendo's permission to sell games and added
that it was rather like record companies having to ask phillip's
permission to make records ... one assumes that he has never heard of
the compact cassette, CD and DCC standards!

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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: fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking
Date: 22 Dec 92 14:35:36 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Edinburgh University

snail@lsl.co.uk writes:

~In article <PwsXVB35w165w@mantis.co.uk~, mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
~~ snail@lsl.co.uk writes:
~~~ In article <Ps4TVB21w165w@mantis.co.uk~, mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
~~~ ~ That's nothing -- I have to pay for all the roads I *don't* use.  I never u
~~~ ~ motorways, for example.
~~~ 
~~~ Funny that, so do I. So does everyone else who pays car tax, and buys petrol.
~~ 
~~ So you support the abolition of car and petrol taxes?  Excellent.
~~ 
~~~ Also funny that many of the records/tapes/CDs I own have tracks on them that
~~~ I don't listen to.
~~ 
~~ You *chose* to buy those albums.  I didn't choose to pay for the M25.

~Nice mathew, neatly ignoring the other example of software libraries and
~functions I don't use. I also have libraries I don't use. I didn't choose to
~buy the libraries, but they were included in the cost.

You chose to buy the package including those libraries. If enough people
chose not to do so and informed the company that it was because certain
libraries were included then they might reconsider in order to boost
their profits. It all depends how many people feel that way.

~-- 
~snail@lsl.co.uk      

FoFP

Newsgroups: uk.misc,uk.telecom
From: gtoal@pizzabox.demon.co.uk (Graham Toal)
Subject: Re: Cable provider offering phone service
Organization: Cuddlehogs Anonymous
Distribution: uk
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 23:32:43 GMT

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? ;-)

G
From: cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Hoover flight deals
Date: 21 Dec 92 10:13:13 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

In article <THoZVB48w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:

   At least if you book a seat on BR you actually get one.  Not like with
   airlines, where they may give your seat away unless you check in early
   enough.

Not true.  I've booked a seat on BR only to find that someone else has boomed
the same seat; and I've seen it happen to other people too.  It's happened
twice in a dozen Anglo-Scottish journeys.
--
	-- Chris. 	cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk   (on Janet, cc@uk.ac.ed.dcs)

		
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: hdavies@rx.xerox.com (Hugh J.E. Davies)
Subject: Re: Milton Keynes - was Re: NORTHAMPTON POL
Reply-To: hdavies@rx.xerox.com
Organization: Rank Xerox Ltd.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 11:23:29 GMT

In article 92Dec18120840@dhcs.dhcs.demon.co.uk, dave@dhcs.demon.co.uk (Dave Hodgkinson) writes:
>
>my #.02 :-)
>
>
>The beer in the locality is *awful*. Greene King or Charles Wells.
>*gag*. Woburn has a couple of free houses though.
>

Whilst I disagree totally about Greene King, I can recommend Ye Three Fyshes in Turvey, despite the ghastly twee spelling of the name. It's a brew-pub, and the ales are all most palatable. Their bitter is called "Two Henry's Ale" after the middle names of the brewers, they do a strong bitter called "That" (presumably so that they can satisfy orders for "a pint of that".) They are about to start doing a stout (name unknown). There's excellent food (after 7pm, in the evenings) and (fanfare) Christmas is offi


cially banned there. Any mention of the dread festive season before Dec 25th results in a 10p fine (proceeds to charity) or you can buy a dispensation for UKP 5.

It's also my local. But don't hold that against it.


>
>
>-- 
>Dave Hodgkinson, Chief Wizard                       IISC +44 71 628 6960
>S:10 I:17 W:8 D:14 C:13 Ch: 15   About to die: daveh@cix.compulink.co.uk
>                  Direct, but my end can be flaky: dave@dhcs.demon.co.uk
>This message brought to you by the most excellent Demon Internet Service



---


Regards,

Hugh.
------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't speak for Xerox, nor they for me.

Rank Xerox European Systems Centre, Welwyn Garden City, Herts., UK.
Mail to; Huge.wgc1@rx.xerox.com, whatever it says in the header.
From: des@inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Liberties (was Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking)
Date: 21 Dec 92 13:57:38 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

M Holmes (fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk) wrote:
: I have this strange idea that the government could govern, and the
: insurance industry could run the insurance business. Still, given that
: the government has just agreed to donate as much of our money as is
: necessary to cover the insurance business's refusal to insure The City
: against the IRA, I'm beginning to think that both institutions need a
: drastic rethink.

: There can't be enough competition in insurance if they can refuse
: business. The most sensible solution would be for the insurers to
: increase premiums in London. It shouldn't be up to the taxpayers to pay
: the difference.

the problem isn't lack of competition in the insurance market but the
size of the risk to be insured. basically insurance companies are
working on the premise that in all probability there will be another
significant van bomb attack in the city sometime in the next 5 years -
hence the insurance for a building is 20% of its rebuilding costs.
insurance companies are prepared to offer - competition can, at best,
reduce prices to cost value over the long term. otherwise you get more
situations like municupal mutual insurance where vast numbers of people
suddenly find they are without insurance cover because a company had
taken premiums below risk value until the auditors/regulators indicated
that they considered the compnay was no longer "solvent".

i'm sure that "competition" could be used as an argument to get the
insurance companies to overlook the possible costs of major terrorist
claims, but the result would only be that when such a claim occurred
then people would either find that their insurance policies were
worthless as the insurers couldn't come up with the cash, or, as will
probably happen as a result of the city bomb, everyone will be paying
extra insurance premiums to cover the loss.


--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Newsgroups: uk.politics,uk.misc
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Subject: Re: Merry Christmas
Followup-To: uk.misc
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
Distribution: uk
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 12:36:57 GMT

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?
--
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: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 30 Dec 92 16:28:54 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Distribution: uk
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <C01qHq.C3G@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk> joe@jshark.inet-uk.co.uk (Joe Sharkey) writes:
>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!

Problem here is mostly that I can never remember the jargon buzz-names
for all the various levels of 'masters'.  The one I had in mind was not
the LP-sized master for making the stampers, but rather the final mixed
down master tape, from which that was made.  To make a proper CD, you
need to go back to the original 'recording session' master -- i.e. the
first level, and mix down to a new final mixed master tape.

-- 
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
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: dhd@exnet.co.uk (Damon)
Subject: Re: Mac sucking extra voltage
Organization: ExNet Systems Ltd Public Access News, London, UK
Distribution: uk
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 00:24:30 GMT

In article <1992Dec29.205521.19766@Firewall.Nielsen.Com> tdubois@nis.Naitc.Com (Tom Dubois) writes:
>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 

Should do.

>reliable and smooth in the UK or should I get a surge protector?  I'm also 

There are now several power companies!  But yes, you should have no
problems.  I do put VDRs on my computer power lines anyway; next door
might plug in a big electric motor---eg a vaccum cleaner.

>bringing a NEC laserprinter.  Will it work off a transformer?  

Probably.

Only the best uninformed guessing from this source.  B^>

Damon
-- 
Damon Hart-Davis                          Internet: dhd@exnet.co.uk, d@hd.org

Public-access UNIX (Suns), news and mail for UK#5 per month.  FIRST MONTH FREE.
[1.35] Cheap Sun eqpt.  UUCP news/mail feeds.  Tel/Fax: +44 81 755 0077.
From: nic@uk.co.gec-mrc (Nick Chapman)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: letting property
Date: 24 Dec 92 12:42:50 GMT
Organization: GEC-Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Graham Wilson (lsg001@cck.coventry.ac.uk) wrote:
> 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)


What happens if after the unprotected tenancy expires the landlord
fails to renew the agreement? Does the tenant gain extra rights?



Nick.
-- 
Nick Chapman. GEC-Marconi Research, Great Baddow, Essex.  nic@uk.co.gec-mrc
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: dhd@exnet.co.uk (Damon)
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Organization: ExNet Systems Ltd Public Access News, London, UK
Distribution: uk
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 21:41:19 GMT

In article <1992Dec23.151627.20703@spider.co.uk> michaelr@spider.co.uk (Michael S. A. Robb) writes:
>In article <1992Dec23.095214.7523@memex.co.uk> scott@memex.co.uk (Scott Williamson) writes:
>>Headline news today (Wednesday) is Trading Standards Office
>>investigating how Sega and Nintendo can get away with charging more
>>than 40 pounds for a game which costs less than 10 pounds to
>>manufacture. Sounds like a bargain compared to CDs...
>>
>>In any case is this an unusually large mark-up for toys etc.?
>>
>>
>>Scott Williamson		scott@memex.co.uk
>
>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.

Standard markup on probably *most* retail goods is 5:1 over
factory-gate prices.  That allows the retailer and wholesaler about a
2:1 mark-up each and some give for other costs.

I think complaining about games markup is like complaining about the
price of fur coats.  Hardly an essential.  No smilie.

Damon
-- 
Damon Hart-Davis                          Internet: dhd@exnet.co.uk, d@hd.org

Public-access UNIX (Suns), news and mail for UK#5 per month.  FIRST MONTH FREE.
[1.35] Cheap Sun eqpt.  UUCP news/mail feeds.  Tel/Fax: +44 81 755 0077.
Newsgroups: uk.misc
From: ian@unipalm.co.uk (Ian Phillipps)
Subject: Video Plus
Summary: How the *** do they work out the codes
Keywords: code cipher NSA (Hi, guys!)
Organization: Unipalm Ltd., 216 Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4WA, UK
Distribution: uk
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 20:01:28 GMT

I'm not sure if this should be posted to sci.crypt, but does anyone
know (or even better, has anyone reverse-engineered) the code numbers
appearing in the Radio Times for the Video Plus device?

For those who haven't seen them, they're codes of up to 8 digits which
are supposed to be easier to enter than the date and time. There's
clearly some cunning optimisation going on; half-hour programs in the
early evening have 2 or 3 digit codes. (Shame all the films have 8-digit
monsters!) Eg:

	BBC1
	1800-	1830-
	1830	1900

4/1/93	839	891
5/1/93	969	921
6/1/93	159	821
7/1/93	129	281
8/1/93	359	311

Aha, a pattern, I hear you cry.

But:
	ITV 1930-2000 has 471,501,631,553 and 663.

So, they go up by 30 per day. Except when they don't. hmmm...

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

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.
From: igb@fulcrum.co.uk (Ian G Batten)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Cable TV quality
Date: 21 Dec 92 15:24:35 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Fulcrum Communications

In article <BzM42H.79F@micrognosis.co.uk> jharuni@micrognosis.co.uk writes:
> 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 ?

OK.  This all confused me before I installed cable.  Note this is the
information for Birmingham Cable.

The output from the cable decoder carries distinct UHF carriers for the
terrestrial channel, plus a UHF carrier for whichever ``cable'' channel
you have selected.  Confusingly, there are TWO copies of each
terrestrial channel available: one on its own carrier, and one available
by selecting the appropriate channel on the cable decoder.  The
canonical set-up appears to be having pre-sets 1-4 on the TV and video
set for the carriers of the terrestrial channels as output from the
cable head and pre-set five set to the extra channel.

Nicam is available on the terrestrial channels when taken via their own
carriers, but not for anything else.  Teletext is provided throughout
--- it's just lines.

I watch the cable channels by taking the composite video and audio lines
from the cable decoder and plumbing that into a SCART selector box.
Irritatingly, the decoder is US made and therefore doesn't have its own
SCART and does provide SELECT.

The distinct carrier signal for the terrestrial channels is pretty good.
My house has direct line-of-sight to Sutton Coldfield, about ten miles
away, with a well aligned aerial and the signal I get from that is
slightly better.  But I can watch the TV with a fully acceptable Nicam
signal by putting my finger over the end of the aerial lead --- no
shortage of signal --- so my experience my be atypical.  Since I get
almost as good quality from the cable as an essentially perfect
reception rig, for anyone in less ideal conditions it will be better.

I very rarely see any text glitches.  Except last night --- for some
reason the Teletext off Sutton Coldfield was almost unusable, whilst the
cable was OK!  I suspect faults at the transmitter...

The terrestrial signal made availble by the cable selector is softer, of
course.

ian
Newsgroups: uk.misc,soc.culture.british
Subject: Lat/Long Co-Ordinates Conversion to NGR source code wanted
Reply-To: sjh@skewsby.demon.co.uk
Distribution: world
X-Mailer: cppnews $Revision: 1.20 $
Organization: Consulting Partner Limited
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 19:57:42 +0000

Some time ago, November/ Early december 1992, I saw comments regarding
the conversion of Latitude/Longtitude to O.S. National Grid Refs.

I now find myself in the position of needing C source code or even COBOL, to
do this conversion.

As I did not need the conversion at the time I let the thread slip by me.

Please could any reply be sent to me by email.

Thank you in eager anticipation(sic).




++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Simon J Hopkins                                      sjh@skewsby.demon.co.uk +
+ Consulting Partner Limited                           g8pxb@ampr.org          +
+ Deepdale, Skewsby, York, YO6 4SG                     +44 347 5 276/284       +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Liberties (was Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking)
Date: 23 Dec 92 10:25:52 GMT
Organization: BT Group Computing Services, Birmingham, UK

In article <1992Dec21.152315.10934@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>decided that they can't afford to insure against terrorist attack. The
>government have tacitly accepted a certain measure of responsibility for these
>attacks 

No. The Government rightly does not accept responsibility for IRA attacks.
It accepts a responsibility to the community to allow companies to operate
in any part of the UK, which in this instance, means providing underwriting
insurance against, terrorist attacks. It just so happens that the terrorists
in this situation are the IRA; it could be any old terrorists. If, for
some bizarre reason, Colombian drug barons decided to have a terror campaign
in the UK, the Government would again provide the underwriting.

	Tim.
-- 
Tim Oldham, BT Group Computing Services.       tjo@its.bt.co.uk
``Sounds good to me''
From: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 21 Dec 92 10:23:55 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Distribution: uk
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <1992Dec18.093325.2730@memex.co.uk> peter@memex.co.uk (Peter Ilieve) writes:
>In article <1992Dec17.094832.13698@bristol.ac.uk>
>P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>>Um, well, except the phase error is going to be a consistent time delay
>>of 1/22000 second (approx) in one channel.  You can compensate for that
>>by sitting 1/2 inch closer to the speaker which is 'behind'.
>
>I believe the BBC had trouble with this phase error though.
>They still have to care about producing a mono signal, but if you just add
>the two stereo channels together all the high frequencies disappear.

Ah, well, I trust the Beeb to be technically competent enough to take
care of themselves.  That's true, though, if you mono the signal by simple
adding, it will result in an apparent frequency-dependent attenuation of
the signals -- though only those at 22kHz will disappear completely.

Someone else mentioned headphones.  True, if you listen with headphones
your 'problems' are different than if you use speakers.  (On the other
hand, the answer then is to stick an extra 150 (approx) kilometers of
wire in the lead to the channel which is 'ahead'. :-)  Or, more seriously,
if you're planning to use phones, you should use them when auditioning
players before purchase.  
-- 
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: Alan.Holmes@brunel.ac.uk (Alan J Holmes)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Liberties (was Re: Transport subsidies - Was: Car Parking)
Date: 22 Dec 92 11:35:31 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, West London, UK

In article <1992Dec21.152315.10934@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>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.

Just what are you proposing?

Regards

Alan Holmes
From: sandell@chowning.CNMAT.Berkeley.EDU (Gregory J. Sandell)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: Mac sucking extra voltage (please post replies!)
Date: 29 Dec 1992 22:16:06 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: uk
NNTP-Posting-Host: chowning.cnmat.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Dec29.205521.19766@Firewall.Nielsen.Com>  
tdubois@nis.Naitc.Com (Tom Dubois) writes:
> I'm bringing my Mac IIsi with me to London.  The Apple specs say it will  
work 

I would appreciate it if responders post their replies, as I am very  
interested in this question as well.
--
Greg Sandell
Research Fellow, Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
sandell@cnmat.cnmat.berkeley.edu