* Posts by Henny

22 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Oct 2007

Brits: Can banks do biometric security? We'd trust them before the government

Henny

Trust a bank prescribed security system?

So, the banks that have recently admitted that they have no way to cancel a stolen contactless card until it actually expires, now want us to trust them to implement a biometric security system?! Gee, why not? What could possibly go wrong?!? :-/

I look forward to watching criminals using stolen cards using a jellybaby to provide the fingerprint! ;-)

Spy under your car bonnet 'worth billions by 2016'

Henny

already installed one

I installed a GPS tracker/Telematics unit to my car as an anti-theft measure way back in 2004... (a modified Maxxon TrakM8) This has been coming for a long while, and isn't all negative...

After an accident, I used it to prove that the other driver was at fault, was lying about what happened, had pulled out without looking (directly into my path), and that I wasn't speeding...

Before that, it'd knocked around 10% off my insurance premiums as the car could be tracked via GPS, and I'd built an add-on to the system that could remotely disable the engine should it be stolen, and trigger a camera built into the dash so that a record of who had stolen the car was available...

This was all before 3G was widely available, so it was all done on just plain old GSM. With the 3G and WiFi that's available now, ideas such as these could make car theft much less common, and accident disputes almost impossible meaning that insurance costs should come down...

Limiting the speed of a car via GPS is a very dangerous idea though... I've had to break the speed limit in the past on numerous occasions to avoid accidents, or get away from idiot drivers. Having the car decide that I was breaking the law (based on a calculated GPS location, which isn't always 100% as we all know!) without knowing all of the various other things going on (that electronic sensors can't sense!) would cause more problems that it'd help...

DNS hijack hits The Register: All well

Henny
FAIL

Erm.....

"If you still see a defaced page, turning your equipment on and off again may help"

Actually, turning it OFF and then ON again is more likely to help....

BMW intros revamped Mini as sporty MG-alike

Henny
FAIL

Turbo?

"The S adds a twin-scroll turbo"

Erm, that'd be a SUPER-CHARGER then, not a turbo...

First mass-produced camera heads to auction

Henny
Dead Vulture

Blimey!

If that's got a "front-mounted 15in “achromatic landscape lens”." that's a HUGE old camera... funny, it doesn't look that big from the picture...

Vomit cannon to protect vessels from pirates, paparazzi

Henny
FAIL

light based weapon?

why can I see sales of Oakley sunglasses going up in a large way to the pirate population of that area? Surely just wearing some decent dark glasses would pretty much eliminate any effects (if not minimise them to a level of it just being slightly annoying) of any laser based non-burning weapon?

Stanford prof pops lid on paint-on battery tech

Henny
Go

"the paint can handle very rapid discharge rates"

Huummmm.... electric fences that you simply paint onto walls? I like that idea... maybe that'll stop people key-ing cars...

Gov confirms plans for Sky box in charge of your house

Henny
Go

*smug*

So the big Uninterruptable Power Supply and Generator I just installed at my house will really screw their plans to control when I use my stuff up then? Cool... :-)

Liking the idea of the large Ferrites on the incoming power cable too, JaitcH :-)

Cyborg MIT prof touts iPhone-controlled power-jumping legs

Henny
WTF?

Damnit.....

I thought that my degree in "Mechatronics" was pretty obscure, but Biomechatronics trumps mine anyday!

NASA: the world will not end in 2012

Henny
Black Helicopters

"Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012," NASA states

"Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012," NASA states

So, they've got time machines as well that they're keeping quiet?!?

Brown declines to resign

Henny
WTF?

resign?

..and in classic politician style, he's managed to avoid actually ANSWERING the poll and just published a few words saying what he is trying to do...

Orange prices up LG 3G watchphone for UK

Henny

Re: The next logical step...

what? a sort of arrow shaped broach, kind of worn on the chest making a kind of toodle-pip noise when you press it to activate?

"Beam me up...."

"Picard to Le-Forge..."

It's the future... I've seen it... ;-)

Easter Island dirt may hold key to longer life

Henny
Unhappy

people living longer = more people

"If rapamycin - or drugs like rapamycin - works as envisioned, the potential reduction in overall health cost for the US and the world will be enormous."

Yeah, and the world population will expand massively too causing lots of other problems.... :-(

Gov to Manchester: No new trams without road pricing

Henny
Go

flexitime?

why not just offer the companies in Manchester incentives to allow their staff to work Flexitime?

I drive 28miles into Manchester every morning and it seldom takes me more than 55 minutes (half is country roads, half is main roads or motorways)... but that's only because I get into work after 9:30 (and so would also miss the congestion charge!)

I also leave work at just gone 6pm and so again, miss the congestion charge time for exiting the city and also miss pretty much all of the traffic...

I've done this same journey for the last 10 years, and congestion HAS got better, not worse as they've improved the M60 and the Parkway for drivers.... public transport however, sucks if you live any further than 10 miles out of the city... improve that, and I may get out of my car...

US teen cuffed for sending nude phone pics

Henny
Paris Hilton

Land of the free?

So, in the country which has the right to bear arms, you can't bare yourself in a private photo if you happen to be a minor else you'll get a 20 year sexual offender status.....

...shouldn't they simply be given counselling?

Paris, well, we all know about her baring things... :)

Tory trash talk fails to halt bin bugging plans

Henny
Paris Hilton

I wonder

what would happen if you collected all the chips from all the bins on one road, and put them into one bin just in time for the collection...

Paris? 'Cos she's as clueless as our Government seem to be....

Manchester's congestion charge: pay-to-leave

Henny
Stop

working hours

looks like I'll be changing my working hours to be 10 to 6:30 then... avoid the times, avoid the costs...

Infra-red cameras to tackle congestion in Leeds

Henny
Stop

so....

who's going to be the first to patent and release an IR LED based person shaped seat cover?

Sparks fly over electric shock dealing Dell laptop

Henny
Dead Vulture

@greg

"The number of times I've been electrocuted,"

Really? I was under the impression you could only be electrocuted once... you can receive many electric shocks, but actually being KILLED by electricity I'm pretty certain can only be achieved once per person...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/electrocuted

Toshiba pitches HD DVD players as... DVD machines

Henny
Pirate

upscaling?

so my Panasonic dmp-bd10 blu-ray player doesn't upscale and play standard DVDs then? Funny I though it did (and do a damn good job of it too!) maybe Toshiba knows something Panasonic doesn't...

Marketing HDDVD players soley on their ability to upscale standard DVD seems a little silly when you can get standard DVD players (cheapest approx £60) which do upscaling already without the extra price tag associated with HD players (cheapest approx £170)...

I seriously can't see any advantage to HDDVD anymore now that even more film companies have ditched it in favour of Blu-ray.

RIP HD-DVD, it was fun while it lasted...

The art of software murder

Henny
Unhappy

I think it's the Big Company factor....

...it's not just PSP and Acrobat that've been killed by Adobe either. Anyone seen the monstrosity that is "Audition 2"?!? Take a perfectly good piece of software (Cool Edit) and add in lots of things that utterly break it and stop it being of any use to the main users of it...

Hey car thief! Gonna shut you down

Henny
Thumb Up

old hat really...

had this technology fitted to my car for the last 5 years with no problems... Unit I have is made by Maxtor and marketed under the TrakM8 brand name... the "switch the engine off" bit I made myself after a mate got car-jacked...