I never had a problem with the old puck mouse. I never look at a mouse and my hand just orients to the way the cursor moves. Depending on where I'm sitting and what mouse I'm using I hold the mouse at a different angle, but never have any trouble knowing which way is "up".
Like many things using a mouse should become second nature after a while. You don't think about walking and you shouldn't need to think about using a mouse.
It's kind of like driving different cars, even when driving a totally new car I don't need to think about gear selection. It just happens because I'm so used to driving.
It made big news especially in the IT press, but it shouldn't have done and nor should this story. The thing is that there have been plenty of previous cases for contempt where jurors, defendants and witnesses have been in contact without using the internet. The technology used is immaterial. I doubt that it was big news the first time a telephone was used to facilitate such contact, so why should it be news if the internet is used? The answer is a single word: Facebook. For some reason the news media are so obsessed with Facebook and Twitter that if you attach either of those words to an otherwise mundane story it gets bumped right up the running order.
Oh well. The usual Cracked output. A poorly researched article peppered with a little gratuitous profanity. Swearing makes anything cool on the internet, kids.
BTW the story of Francois l'Olonnais eating a heart is almost certainly apocryphal. There are several reasons it may have come about
* There's the possibility that it was just a scary story made up by the Spaniards, the authorities still do that sort of thing today to make the bad guy seen even worse than he is.
* It may have just been popular myth. People like to tell a scary, grisly story. Look at contemporary tales of Jack the Ripper - many popular tales told of mutilations much worse than really happened. And people still do it today. Have you ever been in a bar in a neighbourhood where a murder has been committed. There's always somebody willing to swear that the murderer did all sorts of weird stuff that later turns out to be untrue.
* l'Olonnais may have made it up himself to further his own legend. The captain of an attacked ship will of course surrender more easilly if he thinks the attacking ship is captained by a heart eating psychopath.
* Or my personal favourite is that the surviving captives made up the story as an excuse for helping the bad guys. Remember l'Olonnais already had a history of freeing captives to send a message to his persuers.
One thing about the tale that really does make it doubtful is the fact that a man armed with a cutlass would find it fairly hard to hack open a man's ribcafe and removed the whole heart. More than likely he would make such a mess getting through the bone that there would just be a bloody pulpy mess in there and identifying any whole organ would be hard.
I'm amazed that nobody has pointed out that these guys went to much more trouble than most similar conmen. It's the old pig in a poke trick and it's hundreds of years old.
The con usually goes that the vendor shows the prospective customer a working device, indeed they often let them try it out. And then once the mark gets out their wallet the conman goes back to their vehicle on the pretext of bagging up the goods or getting a fresh one in a sealed box. They then hand over the goods in a closed bag or box and take the cash and split. Except the bag is now full of useless junk of a similar weight to the goods. For some reason it's commonly bottled water. Of course the scam works on the greed of the mark and their belief that they are somehow putting one over on the somebody. That way the buyer will get the hell out of there sharpish without checking the contents of the package, before the seller changes his mind or the police turn up. And of course since even a fool knows that a deal that good must be dodgy they will be reluctant to contact the police for fear of looking foolish or even getting into trouble themselves. And of course the seller will do what they can to enforce this belief by hinting that the sale isn't exactly cosher.
Take a look here for the most recent occurence I'm aware of http://tinyurl.com/3dtlvb7
In the days of the pig in a poke trick the seller would show the healthy piglet to the buyer. On receipt of the cash they would go round the back to stick the pig in a sack tie the top of the bag and hand over a wriggling sack. Exept of course the wriggling animal in the sack would be something worthless of similar weight to the pig.
Private unmanned aircraft? There are plenty of airpfields in the UK where you can fly such craft. Indeed you can fly them with all sorts of places just so long as you comply with the law. Heard of R/C flight have you? And some people fly huge R/C planes especially scale enthusiasts.
@myra, how do you think managed before the advent of the mobile phone? I haven't had a mobile phone for almost a month now and I haven't missed it at all. I haven't had a laptop for about a year. I have my old desktop PC and you know what? I'm online a lot less because the PC isn't in the family room, but I don't miss it.
Edward the three things you need to bear in mind are efficiency, storage and the welbeing of the planet.
The amount of energy in sunlight has long been known. One major problem we have is that we cannot yet extract 100% of that energy in a usable form, we are getting closer and close to the level of efficiency that would make it practicable to get all our energy from the sun.
Another problem is storage, we use the most energy in winter and at night and in particular at night during the winter. We need to be able to store the excess energy from the summer months to use on those long dark winter nights. Not so easy. Nobody has yet come up with a way to store that much energy for that length of time.
The other problem is that the planet needs solar energy to keep working. If we steal all the energy we need from the sun we could be putting the earth's weather and ecosystems at risk. Nobody has yet researched what long term impact this would have. This is a problem common to many forms of "renewable" energy. Take tidal energy as an example, a tidal barrage somewhere like the Bristol channel sounds like a great idea. Masses of free energy every day? Great. But what effect will this have on the rich and complex ecosystem of that area? Nobody knows.
With fossil fuels nobody ever thought about the impact their use would have on the planet until it became all too apparent what those effects were. What we must avoid doing at all costs is rushing into using "renewable" energy and then finding out years down the line that we are doing untold harm to the planet by using this "free" energy.
And remember fossil fuel is, in effect, stored solar energy.
Like many things using a mouse should become second nature after a while. You don't think about walking and you shouldn't need to think about using a mouse.
It's kind of like driving different cars, even when driving a totally new car I don't need to think about gear selection. It just happens because I'm so used to driving.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/14/facebook-juror-defendant-contempt
It made big news especially in the IT press, but it shouldn't have done and nor should this story. The thing is that there have been plenty of previous cases for contempt where jurors, defendants and witnesses have been in contact without using the internet. The technology used is immaterial. I doubt that it was big news the first time a telephone was used to facilitate such contact, so why should it be news if the internet is used? The answer is a single word: Facebook. For some reason the news media are so obsessed with Facebook and Twitter that if you attach either of those words to an otherwise mundane story it gets bumped right up the running order.
BTW the story of Francois l'Olonnais eating a heart is almost certainly apocryphal. There are several reasons it may have come about
* There's the possibility that it was just a scary story made up by the Spaniards, the authorities still do that sort of thing today to make the bad guy seen even worse than he is.
* It may have just been popular myth. People like to tell a scary, grisly story. Look at contemporary tales of Jack the Ripper - many popular tales told of mutilations much worse than really happened. And people still do it today. Have you ever been in a bar in a neighbourhood where a murder has been committed. There's always somebody willing to swear that the murderer did all sorts of weird stuff that later turns out to be untrue.
* l'Olonnais may have made it up himself to further his own legend. The captain of an attacked ship will of course surrender more easilly if he thinks the attacking ship is captained by a heart eating psychopath.
* Or my personal favourite is that the surviving captives made up the story as an excuse for helping the bad guys. Remember l'Olonnais already had a history of freeing captives to send a message to his persuers.
One thing about the tale that really does make it doubtful is the fact that a man armed with a cutlass would find it fairly hard to hack open a man's ribcafe and removed the whole heart. More than likely he would make such a mess getting through the bone that there would just be a bloody pulpy mess in there and identifying any whole organ would be hard.
The con usually goes that the vendor shows the prospective customer a working device, indeed they often let them try it out. And then once the mark gets out their wallet the conman goes back to their vehicle on the pretext of bagging up the goods or getting a fresh one in a sealed box. They then hand over the goods in a closed bag or box and take the cash and split. Except the bag is now full of useless junk of a similar weight to the goods. For some reason it's commonly bottled water. Of course the scam works on the greed of the mark and their belief that they are somehow putting one over on the somebody. That way the buyer will get the hell out of there sharpish without checking the contents of the package, before the seller changes his mind or the police turn up. And of course since even a fool knows that a deal that good must be dodgy they will be reluctant to contact the police for fear of looking foolish or even getting into trouble themselves. And of course the seller will do what they can to enforce this belief by hinting that the sale isn't exactly cosher.
Take a look here for the most recent occurence I'm aware of http://tinyurl.com/3dtlvb7
In the days of the pig in a poke trick the seller would show the healthy piglet to the buyer. On receipt of the cash they would go round the back to stick the pig in a sack tie the top of the bag and hand over a wriggling sack. Exept of course the wriggling animal in the sack would be something worthless of similar weight to the pig.
But just to correct the story - G4S are not private contractors hired by the police. They are private contractors employed by the home office.
Anyhoo, while Vikings had slaves they could buy or earn their freedom which is a more likely explanation of interbreeding that raping the dishwasher.
The amount of energy in sunlight has long been known. One major problem we have is that we cannot yet extract 100% of that energy in a usable form, we are getting closer and close to the level of efficiency that would make it practicable to get all our energy from the sun.
Another problem is storage, we use the most energy in winter and at night and in particular at night during the winter. We need to be able to store the excess energy from the summer months to use on those long dark winter nights. Not so easy. Nobody has yet come up with a way to store that much energy for that length of time.
The other problem is that the planet needs solar energy to keep working. If we steal all the energy we need from the sun we could be putting the earth's weather and ecosystems at risk. Nobody has yet researched what long term impact this would have. This is a problem common to many forms of "renewable" energy. Take tidal energy as an example, a tidal barrage somewhere like the Bristol channel sounds like a great idea. Masses of free energy every day? Great. But what effect will this have on the rich and complex ecosystem of that area? Nobody knows.
With fossil fuels nobody ever thought about the impact their use would have on the planet until it became all too apparent what those effects were. What we must avoid doing at all costs is rushing into using "renewable" energy and then finding out years down the line that we are doing untold harm to the planet by using this "free" energy.
And remember fossil fuel is, in effect, stored solar energy.