Messages

Sometimes there is a hiatus in the chat. Just like



















































that.

Who is Dylbot?

Come to the Yap Shop and find out...

And, we're open for business!

I fight for my right to be wrong.

Thus began the Great Pedant War of 2010... (Although, technically, it started much earlier. Or much later, depending on the pedant you ask.)

I always thought it was "love of money is at the root of all evil." Same difference, though. And, looking around, never has it been so apparent.

I used to know a security guard who worked alone at nights in a small security office serving a large factory. He had remote control of about four CCTV cameras and would delight in showing me how two of them could be used to peer into the bedroom windows of neighbouring domestic houses.

I agree that CCTV is indeed a useful tool but, like all tools, it can be misused. It is the practice of misuse that needs to be protected against, not use of the technology itself. The same could be said of ID cards, they could play a very useful role in emergency situations such as medical crises, for example, but take them too far and you get checkpoints, restricted travel and an erosion of privacy.

Of course, this is a simple observation and can be applied to any tool. A screwdriver is an extremely useful thing, but in the wrong circumstances can easily kill. Money, too, is a tool (and how many of you just knew I was going to bring it up?) and, when misused, causes untold misery, deprivation and death. Money is like water, we all need it and we all need to keep the supply flowing according to the immediate needs of society. Returning control of that flow to the hands of our elected officials at the Treasury would drastically reduce the opportunities for misuse.

When a technology such as CCTV first appears, it takes some time for it to integrate into society. Infrastructure, legislation, operation and public attitude all take time to adjust. Experiences from all sides are examined, debated and acted upon and eventually - if we're lucky - enough compromises are reached for CCTV to become just another thing we have. That's what I love about this country - we're always arguing, but that's a good thing. Arguments open the mind to new possibilities and highlight obvious, and not so obvious, truths and lies that eventually lead us to a better understanding and informed decisions. This works on all levels of society from the family group to the workplace to government, everybody is working towards what they believe to be "good." Admittedly, this is also one of our biggest weaknesses - we don't all believe the same things are good.

Still, those security cameras I mentioned at the start, there was an argument over those. One of the neighbours of the factory noticed that a camera was looking into private bedrooms and, for a while, things got very nasty. In the end, shields were fitted to the offending cameras, limiting their field of view only to the factory. The guard kept his job, but it was a damn close run thing.

Kilburn Park!

Another highly enjoyable chat last night, Yappers, thanks to you all!

Thryll, the only thing I can suggest is that you do a full uninstall of the software (there is a great and free uninstaller that gets rid of every trace of an installed program here:  http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html  ), delete the downloaded installation program and download/install it afresh. There are hundreds of chatrooms on Paltalk going 24/7, so there's plenty of scope and time to practice before next Wednesday.

Well, I guess most of you know what I think.

If the government created its own money instead of letting the banks do it at interest, we could afford to give everyone free broadband for life.

If anyone knows of a better place or chat client, I'm happy to give it a whirl. Thing is, the majority of folk who use Paltalk get on ok with it. It's not perfect, but it does what it says on the tin.

If only there was a chat facility on this website...

Dang. That's frustrating. All I can suggest is that you do a thorough uninstall of the chat client, download a fresh version and try again. Sorry about that, Trouty

OK, any problems, let me know and I'll try to figure it out. So long as you're not being blocked by your firewall or anything, and aren't downloading tons of stuff or have loads of web browser tabs open, it should work.

If you can't get the downloaded chat client to work, you can join in directly from the Paltalk Express website...

http://www.paltalk.com/express/

...hello...?