Posts by Jason Bloomberg

Re: Insurance companies might want to hear this talk.

In Europe one would hope the EU could come up with some regulation insisting on security across the bloc and every government would comply with such regulation.

Of course, some see that as a bad thing in principle and will actively oppose regulation. Some even want to leave or opt-out of the EU as what may help society as a whole is often "bad for business" or imposes additional costs.

Governments seem to prefer to pay the cost of failure later than pay the cost for protection now. As long as failure doesn't happen on their watch they can blame others for their own failings.

Re: Can't wait for...

Police officers can claim whatever they like but it is whether anyone believes them which is what really matters.

If society is not properly holding the police to account, willing to accept any flimsy excuse or lie from bent coppers, then that is a societal failing. Police can only exploit that when we let them.

Re: over reaction?

I would guess Google saw an opportunity to grab them by the balls and seized their chance. It is always advantageous to hold a 'you do this and we'll do that, or we can leave things as they are now' position; the more someone wants something the more one can get in return.

Re: something like glass has its applications

The notion of some sort of HUD or Enhanced Reality as we go about life has been around for a long time in movies, many saw it as cool and some thought it would be useful, so well done to Google having a crack at it in reality. You really don't know what works and what doesn't until you give it a trial.

The first attempts will never be perfect; you learn your lessons, move on, improve what works, rework or drop what doesn't. The assertions that Google had simply canned the project seemed unlikely to me, and they certainly never said that in their earlier announcements. User trial done, experiences logged, on to Phase II, is how I read it.

I imagine the 'Glasshole hate' came as a bit of a surprise for those who did not see that coming but that wasn't really surprising when people get beaten up for their skin colour, race, clothing and other lifestyle choices. I don't know how, or even if, Google can address that hate of Glassholes, or to what extent it is their responsibility to have to. Perhaps they should just print "Je Suis Charlie" across the head band?

Re: Waiddaminnit!

Because what was true then must to be true now, nothing has or could have changed in the last decade?

The way I understood it, though it was a while ago, it came down to exactly what "IE" was. It was two parts if I remember rightly; the underlying gubbins which Windows itself and apps running on Windows used to do their things and a front-end which created a browser using those underlying gubbins. It was possible to remove the front-end but not the back end, so "IE" could not be fully removed without adverse consequences. It was thus 'integrated' into Windows, removing the big blue "e" wasn't enough to remove it.

I suppose the thought is that BT could pay the fine by taking a cut in profits, reducing share holder dividends or staff salaries, or buying a few less biscuits and biros, rather than just passing the fine on as increased charges to customers.

Re: Bulk interception of net traffic is not mass surveillance...

Mass collection is not mass surveillance and just saying the two are the same won't cause the government or the courts to believe they are.

I have said before that it's no good complaining about mass surveillance if we want to stop mass collection; the government will otherwise simply continue to say they don't do mass surveillance while continuing mass collection.

Not sure anyone can completely blame the Americans because postal addresses have traditionally followed the increasing size order; house, street, town, county, country.

For dates, the problem was multiple local standards making it hard to tell which standard was being used in any particular case. It may have been better for computer processing and sorting to have had gTLD first in URIs but at least there are no issues as to which standard is being used.

There were many who correctly predicted a $35 computer would be far more successful than the Foundation expected it to be. Most of the first year supply problems were because the Foundation had failed to recognise that huge demand and had carried out no real market research.

It would be interesting to know how many of the five million sold are being used for education and how many are used otherwise, serving hobbyists or working as media players, but I guess that is hard to tell.

Re: You couldn't make it up...

"and just for added pointlessness - give the cables a bit of a jiggle".

For my friends that does actually seem to be one of the solutions which works for their problems! Admittedly it seems to need a full network disconnect and reconnect rather than a mere jiggle which is what had me thinking it may be a networking issue.

That may just be coincidence but there does seem to be some correlation between 'jiggling cables' and things working again for a while.

Re: As a new start up...

The trick at the place I worked seemed to be to offer the moon on a plate so long as they can spec it. Keep them forever engaged in creating and adjusting the spec and the money keeps rolling in.

If customers do push for deliverables those come exactly as specified, which is rarely what they wanted or needed. Then it's back to the office to discuss how much changing the spec will cost.

They won't repeat that mistake in a hurry so next project they end up trapped in the never ending specification and planning stage paying ongoing costs without any roll-out ever being on the horizon. Just when they think it's done we can reveal an obvious flaw we forgot to mention earlier and around it goes again.

We help them through it, they think we are their bestest friends in wanting them to get things right, so they keep coming back for more of the same

Re: Typical

It is not so much remembering my passwords I have difficulty with but remembering which password goes with what.

I also have my head cluttered with remembered passwords which I no longer use which makes it even harder.

And, of course, there are loads of passwords I should remember but have forgotten because I don't use them often enough to reinforce those memories. Luckily someone invented the sticky label.

Re: The new man

People go where their friends go, as relayed by IM, FB, word of mouth.

That's the truth of it. After all, that's how Google and YouTube got so big in the first place.

One niche artist won't make much of a difference other than to highlight the problem but if some major artists - and particularly record labels - take a stand then their fans are very likely to go with them.

The danger of being evil while pretending not to be is that, if you bite the hand that feeds too hard, those being milked just might realise and take exception to that.

Re: UMC?

I've got a UMC TV. I believe it's another branding for Technika and a couple of other household names.

Re: Great Idea bad market

Well it certainly brought out the haters; the people who like to beat up on nerds just for being nerds.

There is no doubt that the concept of Google glasses strayed into areas which people were not comfortable with but that in itself does not make them an entirely bad idea. Just look at the number of people who criticised the cost rather than what they were.

It will be interesting to see what lessons Google has learned from their initial deployment. It is not always possible to know what actual boundaries there are without pushing at them. Some ideas succeed and some fail. Google did get it wrong in some respects but I cannot criticise Google for testing the waters and having the courage to do so.

Re: The point about Broadcast TV

Subscription free Sky and FreeSat offer reasonable alternatives to terrestrial broadcast so its loss would not mandate a move to online services. It's not a zero-cost change but neither was the switch to digital TV.

Re: Same old arrogance

It's only your personal data if it has your personal details on it.

It doesn't and wouldn't have.

A huge part of the problem was that it was not possible to tell if this was/is/would be true or not. It was very opaque as to what information was involved, who would have access to it, and what form it would take.

In particular it was not clear whether signing-up was advantageous or not, or whether not signing-up would compromise the care one might receive in future.

On the details provided it was impossible for anyone to make an informed decision as to what they should do.

Additionally it was opt-in by default with no easy way to opt-out. And once opted-in there was no way to opt-out later. As noted, many people were not even aware of the proposals and what they were being opted in to because they did not receive notification, though possibly through binning it as an anonymous junk-mailshot which it appeared to be.

Re: What about pre-payment?

"Sorry, this site has been suspended because they didn't have enough credit in their account."

Except they don't have to put up a message of that kind. All they have to do is report the unavailability, not the reason why.

Even if pre-payment isn't desirable it would be reasonable enough to put a cap on things, trigger an authorisation request from the payer to keep the service running and incurring costs. That could be opt-out for those who want to take the risk.

Customers are going to demand things like that if Amazon stops refunding money for carelessness and mistakes.

Re: But Has Anyone Found something To Do With Them?

I don't own a tablet, couldn't see the point, but had to borrow one to set up a Chromecast so had a bit of a play.

It was great for watching videos and browsing the web but rather pointless when I have that Chromecast, TV and desktop, and when elsewhere I'd need a Wi-Fi connection which I wouldn't have. I could move my lists of DVDs and CDs off the e-reader and onto a tablet but don't really see much gain in doing so.

It's best use is as a remote for the Chromecast when the desktop is turned off but I haven't found a killer application which makes a tablet essential for me. Playing games is probably a good enough excuse to get a cheap tablet or for getting to grips with Android programming.

Re: For anyone who cares....

the bloody huge image at the top is class="article_img". A little futzing with greasemonkey makes it go byebye

I'm a bit rusty with Greasemonkey but just killing the picture and the navigation bar made articles acceptable again. The front page is a bit trickier, still working on that.

It shouldn't be necessary on a well designed site.

Indeed, and, once forced to start killing things off, the temptation is to go the extra mile; remove the banner, the social media buttons, the sidebars, the 'read more' and 'whitepapers' for a completely uncluttered feel which suits the size of screen I have.

That may be good for how a reader wants things, but I am not sure how good it is for El Reg. But, at least I am still here, still a reader, and whilst inconvenienced and a little aggrieved with the change being at odds with what I like, I can now live with it.

Re: Not convinced

Me neither; I much prefer a darker balance than 'full in-your-face brightness'. I suspect I am somewhat photophobic, as it appears 20% of the population may be, though not to the degree of inducing epilepsy or seizures.

Still, it should certainly make "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" dresses shine.