Posts by The BigYin

What a fucking tool

If I start looking up (say) STDs I have nothing to hide; but it's still private.

If I look up divorce law, there's nothing to hide it's just private.

etc.

Privacy != criminal activity

"Do no evil"? Really? Could have fooled me.

Thank goodness for TrackMeNot, AdBlock, CookieCuller and NoScript.

Did you know: it only takes 3 pieces of data to uniquely identity an individual in the USA? So much for anonymity.

Hmm...

I am not sure I like Google optimizing my search for me. The reason a search egnine is because I could not find the information in the places I would usually look.

Google (or SEOs) poisoning the results it pretty retarded. Google's will not help as I will have already looked in the places I normally goo; SEO's will not help as their efforts are going to be largely irrelevant to my search.

Crudely put - they are both pissing in the pot they drink from.

Now...CookieCuller....how's that work.....

I cna see the future

"Right, the Smith's power use just dipped, they've gone out. I'll just switch off their alarm...done...OK Fred, it's safe to go. I get 10%, right?"

And other things of that nature.

So not content with forcing us of have ID cards, Labour want to watch us in our homes now? What a bunch of twunts.

Nothing to hide...

...nothing to fear, eh?

How about..

"Done nothing wrong, no need to look"?

or

"Quite frankly, it's none of your sodding business"?

I think all MPs, MSPs and senior civil servants should be forced to have these cards first. Nice, small population to test things out and see what happens.

And if it's one lot of corrupt sods that need a close watch, it's that lot!

It's a bribe

That's all it is. A bribe to vote Labour and keep this corrupt lot in power.

Not that the Tories would be much better (they're also corrupt scum).

The LibDems are a joke (spineless)

Forward the Monster Raving Loonies!

Surprised...

...that MS would allow this, surely they have a clause in their terms and conditions to prevent an OEM selling a competing OS, and if MS do permit it expect the hardware to be under-powered and generally a bit crap.

Or maybe Acer will still have to pay for a Windows license on every non-MS unit sold (just like Dell have to do).

This...

...is why you hack/mod. If I am not using MS's network, I don't see why I should pay MS anything. It's *my* xBox and I will do with it as *I* see fit. Unless MS want to supply it for "free" on some kind of Sky-like subscription service...

iPlayer on the Wii was something I'd forgotten about, but seeing as how poorly Flash runs inside the Wii's version of Opera, I don't hold out much hope of it being usable.

How secure?

Just how secure are these? How long before someone hacks them and then uses for mischief or to cause trouble by buggering the grid?

Is the security under my control? Does it sit behind my firewall? Does it pose any threat to my own network?

I have seen adverts for the meters here, and it will be a cold day in hell before I fit one without finding out A LOT more about how they work and ensuring they are secure.

Hmm

The treaty is totally one sided. The USA can demand anyone be taken from the UK and they do not have to show evidence of any crime or anything. Even if the person's actions are not a crime under UK law, they can still be taken. It's legalised kidnap.

The UK, in contrast, must show evidence and effectively prove their case in the USA before the USA will even consider extradtion and even then they can refuse. The UK can not refuse ANY request from the USA.*

If it totally one sided and quite why signing it was not considered an act of treason is beyond me.

McKinnon is an idiot (Asperger's or no). He deliberately attacked and penetrated computers in the USA. The fact that they were poorly secured does not changed the fact that McKinnon committed a crime. I rather doubt he did any damage and for the electronic equivalent of shacking a look loose and shouting "Coo-ee! Anyone home?" he should be give...oh, 3 months at a local open prison?

The even bigger idiots are the USA military who obviously have no learnt ANYTHING since Clifford Stoll's time (go look him up kids) and seem more intent on denial and shooting the messenger than anything else.

Yes, McKinnon is guily (he has admitted to it).

Yes, he should serve time.

No, he should not be extraditied.

No, he should not be made the scapegoat for the USA's negligence.

We should never have signed this treaty.

Our MPs (our supposed "servants") have let the nation down again and are a bunch od self-serving assholes (almost without exception).

*And if you think this is bad, read up on European Arrest Warrants. The UK can be forced to deport you to any EU country for any reason and without any proof. That means you can be deported to an EU state that engages in abuse of witness and has dubious legal process (e.g. Greece).

Once again, our MPs are too concerned about the gravy train and boosting their expenses claims to give two shits about the UK public.

The Germans, by contrast, have some balls and have told the EU where they can go shove EAWs.

So chnage the measure

Out with "food miles" (surely it should have been "food kilometres" anyway?) and in with "food mega/giga/exajoules" or "food co2" (how much energy, roughly, was used to get the food from source to shop).

Moving anything by ship is the most efficient way if most cases. This is why we need the canals open again. So long as the items are not time-critical (which is an anathema to JIT processes) they can come by barge.

Of course shipping things misses out one vital part. Getting it to the shop. Our rail infrastructure is a laughing stock* and even if you bring the stuff here by the most efficient ship ever built, all the trucks tearing up the motorway to move the goods kinda makes a mockery of the whole thing. Why aren't the ports also railway freight terminals**? Goods from ship, to warehouse, sort, then on to the train (or even, straight from the ship to the train). That way the only trucks needed are a few to cover the last few miles to the shops.

But, of course, that takes joined up thinking; something the EU and our government aren't good at. They'd rather waste millions bringing us under the heel of total observation than do the jobs for which they were elected. Well, OK, in the case of the EU they weren't elected, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, back on topic. There are other concerns with net fishing than just the fuel used. There's the number of fish caught and thrown away and the number of young caught. Over fishing is a serious problem and even if line fishing is less efficient, if it helps preserve stocks in it might actually be the better option.

This study does point out one thing though - why one must be very careful about the dogma spouted by the greenies. They are now responsible for perfectly good cars being scrapped and new "efficient" ones being bought - new ones that have to be built and consume way more resources than they could possible save. Well done greenies! Another pyrrhic victory for you!

*Just look at the fiasco over the half-arsed attempts to electrify the lines. If one section isn't electrified, then you either need

** On that note, why don't airports have their own rail hubs? Who needs a third railway at Heathrow if you could take a hi-speed train from their straight to another airport? Greatly reduced need for domestic flights, so no need for a third runway. From the airport if should only take a few minutes to get to the city. Imagine getting on at Newcastle and being at Heathrow check-in (say) in two hours. If the French can do it, why can't Britain. Did Napoleon beat us after all?

Start at the top

All MPs, their partners and their children should be added.

All civil servants (regardless of grade), their partners and their children should be added.

All serving and ex-police officers, their partners and their children should be added.

Once that's done, then we can look at adding the innocent public to the system. The above should give them a big enough dataset to work the kinks out. If they have nothing to hide...

As to "proving you are innocent" in a post above. I hope the officer meant "to discount you from further inquiry" rather than prove your innocence in court. If he meant the latter (and did in fact say it) then he needs to be removed from his job.

Simple answer

Apple should just give the networks a utility to detect jailbroken phones and then to ban them from their networks. Why do people need to run jailbroken phones anyway? For "backup" games or something?

People think that once they buy something it's theirs. MS is leading the way in showing that this is not the case. Apple should simply copy MS. Again*.

*Just to annoy the fanbois. :-P

@AC 10:39 GMT

Use OSS? I'd love to, but I can't.

Boss: So it all runs in the browser?

Me: Yup.

Boss: Any browser?

Me: Within reason, any modern one would do. FF, Safari, Opera...

Boss: Will it run in IE?

Me: IE7 & 8? Yes.

Boss: What about IE6?

Me: Err...

Boss: Oh, and do they need to install anything?

Me: Well, they need to install the plug-ins so the software works.

Boss: Nope, can't have that. It must work OOTB based on their standard deployment, which is IE6 by the way, and we can't demand they install anything else.

Me: Err...crap.

This is what we have to live with. It *MUST* run in IE6 and if it needs to use anything more than a PDF plug-in, you're S.O.L. I'd love it if customers would use a proper browser (even IE7 would do) but it just doesn't happen. I know people who are still rolling out XP with that abomination IE6!

Hmm...

Could a cop physically restrain a 10 year old? Yes.

Is that "safer" and less "traumatic" than a taser bolt? Good question.

Restraint holds can hurt. A lot. That's the point of them, they make you want to stop whatever you are doing and for the pain to go away. They also have to be kept on and there is the risk of tendon damage, dislocation, breakage and even death*. Is that risk lower than a taser bolt? I dunno, I'm no expert and neither are you Dunning-Kruger fools.

The preferable action (maybe) would have been to have the child removed by social services. If she has enough mental problems to throw a violent wobbly when asked to take a shower, she probably needs to be in care (or perhaps simply removed from her (feckless?) parents?). There again, we would then be reading some story about how the rozzers had a child taken away and the mother jailed just because the kid didn't want a shower.

Like making peoples life hard much?

*Either as a direct result of the restraint (if a choke/strangle is employed) or from positional asphyxia if a pin is used and kept on for too long.

@AC - Tuesday 14:34

So my argument still stands. Because the "thing" can be used for illegal activities in one way, the "thing" is now illegal. If you can't install it, you still can't use it. The end result is the same.

This is madness, utter madness. So many "things" are dual purpose (mod chips included, despite the frothing on here). The examples people are giving of guns doesn't go into the detail.

Some guns are only fit for target shooting, their ability to kill is slight but they can still be sued for threats.

Some guns are primarily intended for hunting, although they could kill people.

Other guns are only intended for killing.

Taking this legal argument to it's conclusion, picking up a gun ("installing" it) is now illegal in the UK because it *COULD* be used for an illegal act. That is all that is need.

I *COULD* use my motorcycle to kill someone (and probably kill/serious injure myself in the process but that's beside the point). If that now illegal?

I *COULD* break a CD in half and use the broken edge as a weapon. Is breaking CDs in half now a illegal?

I'll say it again. It's not the "thing", it's not the people who sell/make/supply the "thing" it is the purpose the end-user puts the "thing" o. Go after the end-users *IF* they commit a crime. The only exception is when the "thing" is single purpose and that purpose is to commit a crime (so that's the sale of fully operational assault rifles in the UK...oh, wait, no...that's not illegal; that's positively encourage with government funding! Hey ho).

On a happier note: I am now thinking of plonking a Linux distro on this old xBox. Someone come and arrest me!

Backups: That right was effectively rescinded a while back in memory serves. You should contact the publisher for a new copy which will be supplied "at a reasonable price". I think Sony has claimed they do this with their CDs.

That expalins...

...why I kept getting calls, despite being on TPS.

I hope they do get the jail.

I see

So "HD Ready" != "HD Ready"?

Boy, I am glad I have not joined the HD bandwagon yet. Mostly because I can't see what all the fuss is about. I still can't see any difference between a decent SD picture and an HD one. Broadcast TV does not count as they are compressed to buggery and that is what is ruining the picture, not the definition.

I have yet to find any store showing a side-by-side comparison of (say) the same movie from a DVD vs Blue-ray. And even then I'd want to see lots of movement on the screen to prove that the player and the TV can push the data. Even on a DVD player you can sometimes see it struggle with the amount of information and HD is meant to be pushing more.

Glasses *ARE NOT* available in Sainsburys

So don't bother yer arse trying. I am not sure if they ever had any, but all the stores I have tried have none.

Epic fail from C4.

No major issues?

That's a larf. Had to drop the ATI drivers down to the previous version and there are still major problems.

If Ubuntu has proved one thing, it's that Linux is not now (and willnot be for the next 5 years or so) ready for prime-time.