Posts by Jason Bloomberg

Re: End of the TV Licence

I'd just like less videos on the BBC news site and more actual bloody articles.

I haven't visited the BBC news site for a couple of years but do find their News App for hones suits me. That seems to have a good mix of articles which appear to get cached when using WiFi at home and are therefore available when I am out without a data connection.

I don't mind paying the licence fee which is only 40p a day. Others may be half the price of that but don't, for me, deliver half as much. I am however aggrieved at their withdrawing their free Radio Times XMLTV listings service and having to resort to web page scraping.

Don't like the process that allowed we the people to elect him? Move to another country snowflake, this is how democracy works.

I thought, in a democracy, people were entitled to mould that democracy into the democracy they would like, not eternally stuck with what they had.

Isn't what you saying more akin to fascism?

Re: Pirate it

Unfortunately, people pirating software, having registered user names, registration codes and accompanying licence files pushed to what used to be called warez sites was one of the reasons companies started using on-line licence verification so they could revoke licences abused that way.

As is often the case; a small group of people can spoil things for everyone else.

There is light-touch DRM and then there is the kind of heavy handed abuse which HRD appears to engage in. With great power comes great responsibility.

Re: Beware of unintended consequences

If there are people in this country who don't particularly like us I don't think that giving them even further cause to not like us is the best approach. Especially if this drives them further underground.

I would much rather have 'illegal kids' in school getting to recognise we are far from perfect but we aren't all bad than further isolated and more exposed to radicalising influences.

I would prefer any 'illegal neighbours' to consider me more a friend than an enemy. The government however seems hell-bent on pursuit of punishment rather than reform, sees it better to prove we are a nasty lot who don't care for them at all, regardless of the consequences. It seems they would rather create and let enmity towards us continue than try and break that chain.

I don't feel that being 'illegal' is a particular problem of itself. If they are here then, unless they do present a specific threat to our security, it would in my opinion be better to turn them into legal and contributing members of society. That can include some sort of punishment for their having been here illegally, but community service and similar may be appropriate.

Re: Actual question

Malware bytes has a version for Android. I have no idea how good it is as it's never found anything wrong or dodgy with mine, and I'm not going to install anything which is dodgy just to see if it does.

Re: Oh, here we go again!

A company operating under EU law has committed a crime, but the EU are fining the population of the member countries

No. VW are being punished because they committed a crime. The member countries are being fined for pretty much turning a blind eye to that. Each are being punished for their respective failings.

Re: Well bugger me...

I take your point, but what happens when you change ISP?

Perhaps people are confusing using an ISP's email service with using only email addresses on the ISP's domain?

Doing that is a separate issue as to whether an ISP's email service is any good.

Businesses explicitly using email addresses containing their ISP's domain name may well end up with problems, but they aren't forced to do that. I use my own domain name in my email addresses which are routed via my ISP, so I can route those to a new ISP or my own servers if need be.

Re: Slight logical problem?

From the article it appears that the device can only be updated over the Internet. No facility to update locally over the LAN or to use USB

My full-fat Chromecast updates firmware from the net but it can be instructed from the LAN - It has to be that way for the Chrome browser or a mobile to be able to tell it what to cast.

But it likely will be that it doesn't have any capability to get firmware from the LAN simply to stop people loading their own firmware on it.

There are ways to hijack the Chromecast using MITM techniques but if the problem is in establishing a connection between the Chromecast and router there won't be anything there to hijack.

The best solution would be to take the Chromecast round to a friend's house who doesn't have a BT modem, let it update the firmware, then take it home again.

Re: Bah!

I suspect that were my home to be raided I would be in deep trouble.

A simply way to tell; are you brown, Muslim, or both?

Re: When you've done the penalty, that should be it.

the company was quite within its rights to end his contract.

Not according to the ruling.

Re: Well even though my bank has an app

Perhaps someone who does use banking apps can explain why they need one. Maybe it is a generational thing or that I have a reasonable balance in my account so am not forever in fear of going into the red, but I find I rarely interact with my bank or account and it was the same before I had a smart phone.

I understand one can use them to check balances, set up direct debits, cancel them, make transfers but they just aren't things I do day to day, often not year to year.

Perhaps I am missing a 'killer feature' or just don't need that.

Re: One thing we can count on with Trump

It might be fun, seeing Carly as FCC chair...

This is the problem with the 'tear it up, burn it down, drain the swamp', populist charge for change; people believe that because it will be different it will be better, that disruption has benefit, or they simply don't care what happens so long as it is different, there is change.

Some even jump on the bandwagon of change because they think it will be funny to fuck up the system just for shits and giggles; often arguing it can't be any more fucked than it already is.

I understand the desire for revolution - I think we do need that (and not only in America) - but it's not just about change; it is what comes from that change. Change without purpose is not much more than riot and destruction.

Re: Ascent

Could happen and I doubt it would be such a constitutional crisis as feared. If Her Maj stood up and insisted we must not accept the 'Big Brother police state' parliament has decided upon I am sure there would be a hasty change of mind before her subjects arrived with pitchforks, burning torches and a few lengths of rope.

In a Regina versus Those Tossers in Parliament death match I know which side I would bet on.

Unfortunately Her Maj is not going to stand up for her subjects.

It can't be the cost, judging by the F35

The amount we, and everyone else, should be paying would be considerably less than what it would cost to design and build the same ourselves. Our political masters know that and also chose to believe the US when they said it would be the bestest thing ever and be in service years ago. It also keeps us in good standing as loyal lackies.

If it can't be done, will be over budget, late, with numerous problems, it makes more sense to let someone else fail than fail one's self. Though it does rather screw up having a defence force and planning for that, I doubt it would have worked out any better if we'd done it ourselves.

I am a peacenik at heart but not a pacifist, so I do understand the need for defence and it does seem ridiculous to not have sovereign control over one's own military. If it ever does kick off we really don't want Trump or anyone being able to stand-down our military because America wants to protect one of their best buddies.

Re: Seems like a thankless job. Hope the Reg pays well...

And how many times a day will they be contractually required to mention DevOps?

Three things I hope this doesn't encourage; more click-bait articles, articles which are mostly echoing or quoting what people have said on social media, social media users descending on the forums and turning the comment sections into another echo chamber of hate.

Re: old and sad

I remember when trolling was trolling. These days it's just people shouting hate at others. They actually believe what they shout; it's not just to antagonise.

Re: Don't want to be tracked?

Isn't it sufficient to turn off the Wi-Fi? Who needs it if she's not actually surfing?

Leaving WiFi on is convenient as it auto-disconnects when one leaves home and reconnects when one gets back. That is handy for getting email, alerts, news, weather and app updates without having to remember to switch WiFi back on.

My phone has an expired SIM, is only used as an internet device, so it's convenient for me to have it auto-connect to all the freebie hotspots it can when out shopping. I get almost unlimited free WiFi and that suits me fine.

But it was a useful learning experience & certainly worth people giving that a go at least once.

Indeed. Difficult installs and having to understand things which an install program could figure out better than me confirmed that, for the average person, auto-install is the best approach. Providing it works.

I had used Slackware and other distros when they used to come on a single floppy and was always willing to try a more modern Linux but no install ever worked flawlessly for me until Ubuntu 8 came along. There was always some problem with partitioning, network, video or sound cards. These days things have got a lot better.

As others have noted; for most people there aren't enough hours in the day to be pissing about getting things installed and making things work. But I accept Arch Linux isn't targeted at those people.

Re: not parse JSON documents that I hadn't created myself

But if you have a public-facing website, anyone can POST a JSON document at your endpoints and potentially crash your server.

To me that's the fault of the JSON parser or whatever causes the crash; not a problem with JSON itself.

It's the same as creating a GIF which blows open some image viewer; it's the viewer at fault, not GIF itself.

Re: Do the Math(s)

I wouldn't blame them if they also wanted to recover some of their lost profit of the last three months.

Re: A different point of view

Except Google have announced they're dropping Chrome Apps, and there's no replacement.

Check out NW.js (formerly node-webkit) -

http://nwjs.io/blog/chrome-apps-support

Re: Can the hijacker be hijacked?

It's an interesting thought. In theory, yes.

The hijacker has to get their timing right and send a command just before the real owner sends theirs; this causes the receiver to take the hijacker's commands and ignore the owner's. So a command sent just before the hijacker's should likewise get theirs ignored.

How far one could go would depend on how long subsequent commands were locked out for.

Re: Aspergers when it suits

I can't see why spending time in a 3 * 4m cell in the US or the UK would reduce the risk of suicide, I can't imagine that either would be very happy situations.

There are two aspects to this; where he is held prior to trial (and for how long) and how he will be held if he is found guilty of the charges. It does not have to be a 3x4 cell and does not even have to be a prison.

While it would be nice to think he'll be no worse off in America than in the UK, I think most would recognise that as a very naive outlook and there is plenty of evidence that life is harsher in US prisons than the UK.

That reflects differences with regard to what the the primary purpose of justice is intended for; 'reforming', 'protection of others', and 'punishment'.

I don't believe anyone is saying Love should simply be let off, but we do need to consider what is the most appropriate way to proceed and deal with any crime he may have committed.

Re: @johnaaronrose

Britain would have to re-apply for membership of the EU, once Article 50 has been invoked

That's not my reading of it - "If a State which has withdrawn from the Union asks to rejoin, its request shall be subject to the procedure referred to in Article 49".

Invoking Article 50 only signals our intent to withdraw, we won't have withdrawn at that point. We will spend (up to) two years negotiating the terms of withdrawal.

http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-European-union-and-comments/title-6-final-provisions/137-article-50.html