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[bicilotti]

I've made a little excel spreadsheet which simulates a number-adding Turing Machine.

1 - Is this turing complete?
2 - If so, why is SQL92 considered non turing complete? What prevents me to easily rewrite the spreadsheet example in SQL92?

[InCreator]

I fail to see any importance of this... is it school work of some kind?

[bicilotti]

I fail to see any importance of this... is it school work of some kind?

InCreator: no, just sheer curiosity.

[RetroJay]

Hi All.

I hope you can help.

I went today for an interview for a job and they said that they require a full British Birth Certificate.
I only have a small squar-ish one to which they said was unacceptable.

Can anyone tell me. Is this a new stupid Law that's been introduced or are they just being awkward.

Many thanks.
Jay.

[monkey0506]

Take it to Kinko's (not Kinoko's ), and ask them to make you a poster print.

Actually the only copy of my "Born Abroad" U.S. Birth Certificate that I have apparently lost the "raised seal" some years ago, completely invalidating the thing. Sucks, but luckily we have other ways of identifying ourselves!

[RetroJay]

Hi MonkE3y.

Unfortunately.
Here in, not so, Great Britain.
you aren't who you say you are until you provide about 4 or more documents and then some.

This being said. I am within the Security Industry.
But I have been with many companies and NEVER has my Birth Certificate, size, come in to question.

I have a full SIA license and could even go in to business for myself as a PI if I wanted to (Oh... how I do).

Jay.

[Wyz]

@ bici
I took the liberty to convert your machine to a diagram.
This is a machine but also a it executes a program. The program is defined by what (finite number of) states there are and what action each transition does. The machine itself is turing complete, the program is not. A program can only be turing complete if it's in fact simulating a turing machine. See where I'm going with this?

A machine is turing complete (hence a computer) if any program that can be executed on it can also be executed by a turing machine. This also works the other way around: any program that runs on a turing machine can be executed by any computer. We tend to call programming languages turing complete when it can be used to express any program that runs on a computer. The good old SQL can not do this, it lacks the possibility to control program flow and strictly speaking also arbitrary memory access. When it could jump to a different line in the SQL file when a certain query equals some result, then one could argue it is turing complete.

Actually any computer boils down to this:

• arbitrary memory access
  
• conditional branching
  
  And when a language can express this, same story.
  I hope that was helpful.

[Chicky]

I only have a small squar-ish one to which they said was unacceptable.

You can call your local council office and request a copy birth certificate, it costs £10 iirc and takes a few days to process. You should be able to take your small birth certificate with you to collect the larger copy.

[bicilotti]

@ bici
I took the liberty to convert your machine to a diagram. [...]

Nice exposition, I can see it crystal clear now.
Thanks for having taken some of your time  to deliver this explanation!

[Stupot]

Wikipedia is playing up for me.  The pages don't load properly.  They look like just basic HTML, like some of my early attempts at web design.  It looks like I'm somehow accessing the mobile versions of the pages, even though the URLs are correct.  Any idea of any browser (Chrome) settings that I could play with to fix this?

It only seems to be affecting Wiki. Havent come across it on any other sites.
Cheers

Turns out this was a simple 'clear cache' jobby.  I feel a tad stupid 

[nihilyst]

Does anyone of you happen to have I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (the video game, not the book) and would sell it to me? I'd like to have it in it's original box, but wouldn't care if it looked used. Should be the uncut version (i.e. with the Nimdok chapter in it; here in Germany at least, they've taken it out). Payment via PayPal. Shipping to Germany. If anyone has it and is interested in selling it, drop me a PM. Thanks

[Stupot]

I'm trying to remember the name of a film I watched about 10 minutes of before having to turn it off for being total crap.

It's about a couple of kids who have a house party, and the film begins on the morning after the party and one of their friends has died and the parents are due back later that day... so instead of reporting the death they... I have no idea what they do because I turned it off.

But believe me, hilarity does not ensue...

It might be called something like 'Spring Break' or 'House Party' but I think it's got the dead guy's name in it, like 'Bob's Dead!' or something like that...

Anyway, if anyone has seen this film, or know the title, let me know. Cheers :-)

[Wyz]

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead?

[Stupot]

Haha, no, it's not that.  The one I'm thinking of is more of a stoner movie, and it's a guy who is dead.  In the opening scene it's a typical post-house-party scene with plastic cups all over the place and probably bong water spilt everywhere.

[TomatoesInTheHead]

And it's not Weekend at Bernie's by any chance? Don't know anymore how that one began, I only know there was one dead guy named Bernie and some guys trying to hide the fact that he's dead for some reason.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Definitely isn't be Weekend at Bernie's.
Are there any details you can share? Like are the kids mostly white? Is the boy that dies white? Etc. Also how did he die at the party.

[Stupot]

Nah, not Bernies either.  There seemed to be two main guys... Pretty sure at least one of them was white but the other may or may not have been of an ethnic variety.  All I can remember is the first scene, these guys wake up, the house is a mess, their friend is dead and the guy who's house it is gets a phonecall from his parents saying they're coming back early from holiday and will be home soon.

I could be well off, but I want to say that the dead guy's name is Bob... it's either that, or it's some nickname like 'Breadknife', and I'm also haf tempted to suggest that the  dead guys name is in the title of the film.

I think it might be a fairly recent film, as it was on my sister's BT Vision package about 3 months ago... actually... I could look there for clues...

[m0ds]

Just a quick one about direct debits for anyone in the UK who may have some idea.

3 years ago I entered a contract for mobile broadband. I signed in person the direct debit form.

When the contract ended, I tried to get a price reduction.

Everything went tits up, I didn't get the reduction - I got downgraded. So I called again & asked just to get whatever service I had been given originally - back.

To this date, I still haven't got it back even though I've been told I had. I was told today I was actually still on a different plan to the very first one I had.

I'm also told that since I tried to get the reduction and get my service re-instated, I've been put on a new contract.

I cannot leave it til October 2012.

At no point was I told I was entering a new contract, nor did I give any official verbal agreement and certainly no written agreement about the new contract.

So what are my rights here? Can I cancel the DD?

From my days as a researcher for an ISP I found that when you threaten a court case to an ISP they usually back off and do as you ask. Is that really the direction I'd need to go? (Which doesn't bother me, I know my case is far stronger than theirs) - but if anyone understands or has any ideas on whether I have the right to cancel my current contract as I did not willingly (or knowingly) enter it - please let me know. If anyone has cancelled a DD before a contract is out, what were the consequences for you? Thanks!

PS. It's t-mobile. AVOID

[Bror_Jon]

@Mods: I do not have any experience with this i England, but whenever I get into trouble like this I threaten them.

In Sweden we have a agency called Consumer Agency (konsumentverket), I think your equivalent is called Consumer protection. So I threaten the company to file a complaint to this agency and this usally makes them comply with any of my demands. If they don't I just file the complaint and win.

Edit: I need to learn to read, since I for some reason totally missed what you wrote about threaten. But still, this isn't about going to court, just threatening about filing a complaint to a goverment agency.

[Wonkyth]

Yeah, we've got something like that in Australia (the ACCC, I think?), and I have many friends who have managed to get companies scared shitless at the mention of their name, with instant compliance that is sometimes the end of many months of arguing.

A also have two friends who successfully sued their respective ISPs when they were 16, because they weren't getting what they signed up for.
Not sure if that's the whole of it, but it is something that would work, I'm sure.

EDIT: After looking a little at the UK system, I'd advise you to contact Consumer Direct.
Hope all goes well.