threegee

Noooo wasn't talking about your post - just people in general. Hope you don't take offence at me pinching your ID - SouperCan (But don't worry Fourgee, I may only deploy it for 15 minutes - before replicating it in various colours.)

Different set of people I think. Once you can't tap him for hush money no point in labouring the point. Did he harm any kids? I don't think so! Did the kids enjoy being on his tacky 'ranch'? Yeah, of course they did! Overrated? Yes - but aren't quite a few current pop idols? Deserves his place in history, and doesn't deserve to be bad-mouthed from beyond the grave.

If we'd been a little brighter with our unmatched industrial heritage (and I certainly don't mean the dumb conservation areas) we'd have had an area-beating tourist industry to bring the cash in. Beamish wouldn't have had a look in! Then, of course, there's those cute little woolly things the world is so fond of.

You're going to have to release HP you know - absolutely no one is going to pay the ransom money!

You have to be very careful about taking public donations Cym. The right structure has to be in place and it has to be for a defined purpose and fully accountable. It's not something we'd want to rush into here. And as far as b.co.uk is concerned, frankly we don't need any! All we need is a little bit of commercial sponsorship (read paid advertising) from local business, and more people with ability giving some of their free time. But.. I can see ways that this could get our local radio off the ground.

If money is the real problem then there are other ways of raising the cash other than holding a begging bowl out to uncaring politicians. I think that lots of people and enterprises would be prepared to tip-in a bit if the correct financial structure was in place, and they could see how the money was going to be spent. No mega-donations, just thousands of small ones. There are several ways this could be acomplished on a proper legal footing. And, as for would it fly; well, hasn't the last week shown that there are thousands of motivated people who care about their town and will get behind anything which busts the status quo?

Facebook isn't going to fade away in a year or two, but come back in a year or two and say the same thing and I'll wager you'll have modified your view. The same sort of thing must have been said in the ITV boardroom when they paid an absurd £175m for friendsreunited in 2005/2006. The fact is that facebook has borrowed heavily from other people's ideas and in turn will have its own ideas borrowed. It's the current fad and will go the same way as all the other fads. Yes, Bedlington.co.uk has a very defined audience - Bedlington and Bedlingtonians throught the world. It's a social experiment in itself and there's an intention to clone it. But it's not a profit center for some American corporation or Australian media mogul. It's in the true spirit of the original Internet. It's there for the more enterprising members of the local community to shape. It won't go away because it no longer satisfies the conditions of someone's bottom line (Geocities etc. etc.). It will evolve - perhaps a bit slower than we might like at times - but it's permanence and lack of faddiness will win through to those people who don't quite see the point - yet!

There have been 96 core CPUs around for years that are designed to be run in pairs, and with other boards of same. Granted they are specalist ones that aren't x86 compatible, but they have addressed some of the parallel processing problems. The support software is very important, and here Intel are just playing catch-up. Now there are 192 core versions of the same. I've got a little bit of my hard-earned in this company, but I wouldn't recommend it as a "safe" investment. Where Intel score is the processing technology (that produced the 45nm Atom, and the forthcoming 32nm Moorestown chipset). They are gearing up for 22nm now. Other manufacturers are struggling to keep up (or maybe that should be keep down? ).

What you need to know Stephen is that there was a bit more to tonight's event than met the eye. I won't go into all the details but a few things came together to make it happen. Not the least of this was that we've got fresh faces in places that matter. People who are more in-tune with the Internet Age than the regular old fogies in the town of my age group. However few of these people would see any point in posting on facebook. Don't run away with the idea that you can produce real change in the place by one-off feel good events. Nice though they are this won't produce sustainable employment and make Bedlington a better place to live in for the future. But what you have done is to show an interest and a commitment to YOUR town. That's more than many of the people here who simply run the place down and complain year after year. If only a few of your age group make an effort to understand the real issues we can make real changes. If that sounds a bit boring, well, sometimes it is. But long after facebook and the next fad to replace it are forgotten you'll still have a result, and it will be YOUR result. So ask questions as to why this or that isn't possible. Try to understand the concerns of older generations. Put forward ideas; but be prepared to change those ideas when you discover where the problems are. Encourage your friends to do the same. It's not easy, and it won't generally produce a quick result. But keep plugging away and things will change for the better.

Only the Warm Wide Web kind!

The forum moderator might care to correct the link (missing colon). Unfortunately you wouldn't be able to get one for Xmas because this isn't a real product. And, even if you did, you wouldn't be able to do much with it as there is no commercial software support. Sticking n cores on a chip doesn't give you an n times improvement in a single application. There are huge problems "parallelising" normal computing tasks, and the results are often very disappointing. This multi-core is likely to be used in researching those problems.

Think you've stood things on their head here Mons. It's Google who are to be charged by the news providers. People like that fabulous philanthrop Rupert Murdoch are determined that we consumers will pay for their news. They don't see a future for their organisations if we can all read news on-line for free, and they think the Googles of this world are getting a free ride on their content. It has only taken Rups ten years to work out that the Internet means the end of pushing bits of dead tree through people's letterboxes. But, they are not going to give up without a struggle - however futile that struggle may be. I hear that our own Johnston Press is starting a three months trial of charging for local news content. Their take is that local news, unlike national or regional news, is special and that people will pay for it. What a good thing for them that some towns don't have their own community websites - sites which publish local news before they can even get ink to dead tree!

Well, it still is, but keeping it up-to-date is going to get harder and harder. Lots of people have contributed only to see their content trashed by the Wikipedia elite. Those people won't bother again, or will find somewhere else to contribute to. Speaking personally, I've considered correcting some of the erroneous content on the history of microcomputers from first-hand knowledge. But from what I've seen of how current contributors are being treated have decided that the time would be better spent elsewhere. In the end the Web doesn't need Wikipedia. By the Web's very nature specalist sites will pop up that can provide focus to subjects that Wikipedia can only scratch the surface on. So by trying to be all things to all people it will end up by being very mediocre. It's a catch 22 situation!

Oh, I don't think there will be much need for that; they know the song too: Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'. Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who That it's namin'. For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin'. Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside And it is ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin'. Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don't criticize What you can't understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly agin'. Please get out of the new one If you can't lend your hand For the times they are a-changin'. The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin'. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin'. ...and you didn't check the town calendar.

I think the old infants school has a willing and able developer. It's just all the official BS (and jobs-worths) around these days. One layer of regulation after another! The news pages here tell us there is a public enquiry on the infants school rescheduled for 15th December, but the public won't be able to speak. What kind of nonsense is that? It's quite ridiculous to apply the same planning standards to our town that are applied to highly prosperous leafy suburbs in the South East. That's enshrining the very inequality that has plagued us for decades. The kids think they live in a dump - see recent post elsewhere here - but they can't see things from the perspective of history. Our town is a victim of both the major parties. Ignored by Labour because it's an easy prey to their politics of envy and state-dependence economy, and ignored by the Tories because it's a no-hoper as far as votes go. Other places play smart in the political game, we have played the dumbest game of all time! There is a glimmer of hope, but it's from the youngsters and sadly not from my own generation. They have to stop listening to their parents distorted view of the world and start using their own heads. A hard call when the education system promotes mediocrity, and rewards conformity of thought.

I've an unused sticker here, unfortunately it's got an Italian key on it! Can the license stickers be easily peeled? They wear off on a heavily used netbook, and so are probably another M$ profit centre in themselves! Do you know how to change the serial? I cloned a hard drive to a different machine of same model recently and was pleasantly surprised that the target machine's key could be applied to the old drive image. Authenticated no bother - so far anyway. So maybe this is the way to go for you - providing you can still read the original key. Seems to be a supported thing to do, they just don't want it publicised. I think XP is quite problematic to MS - they've never had such a long-lived o/s to support. Getting you to pay and pay again for the same code was integral to their business model. But the patches to patches to patches are getting quite ridiculous. Just remembered that I know someone that has three or four shiny new copies of XP Pro. They are UK ones too. The gotcha is that they aren't currently in the UK though he is at present. I installed one of them on a desktop for him last week and it authenticated no bother.

How come Looking Good is sponsoring the new www.morpeth.co.uk and not the town where they earn all their beans? We should be told!

She has moved to a new position "at least for the time being". The rest is hush hush. I think maybe she is chairing the Iraq Enquiry - so Tony had better watch out! Do I sense a right-wing coup attempt taking place here? Where have you incarcerated HP?

Feace whet! Nee doot a lass from the posh hooses - aal fur coat an nee... If ah wes shoppin fer eggs ah weddnt gan aal the way te the Metro Center. Aahd get them doon the lane local like.

I see no poll. How do we vote?

Lidl - massively good and small 900/1800w fan heater with embedded ceramic element (none of that hanging hot-wire wire crap). Three year guarantee (provided you return it to Germany or wherever at your own expense ). Thermostat, safety knock-over switch on bottom, neon indicator lamp, and oscillating motor which you can turn off with separate switch. Only 20x28x14cm. Priced under seventeen euros. Plenty still in stock when I last looked, as people don't seem to know good value when they see it, and are buying the crappy conventional element one at twelve odd. Want one, or maybe two? Or maybe a container load to sell to Argos? You'll need a Shuko to 13A UK adaptor, or to chop the mains plug. P.S.: I tell a lie - probably! There is a UK service phone number on the guarantee card.

Two arms, two legs, white, and a head (not wearing a turban) - well of course you matched the description! Haven't you heard? They're looking for weapons of mass destruction to save teflon Tony's hide in the ever so long delayed Iraq war enquiry. 10 week old pups definitely fall into that category. BTW always ask for their rank and number and slowly and deliberately write it down and read it back for confirmation. "Just for the record, you understand". Check your watch for the time of 'the incident', and look to the sky to observe which direction you were proceeding in prior to being stopped. If they comment on this write their comment down too, and read it back to them for confirmation. If asked why you are doing this just say "sorry, force of habit - I'm a news reporter".

Major decision due today. Banks have challenged the right of the OFT to decide on these matters. Is it one law for the banks and another law for everyone else? We await with interest (doubtless a very high rate of interest if we are borrowing, and pathetically low rate if we are depositing ).