* Posts by Alex

237 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2007

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Any aaSes in your organisation?

Alex
Paris Hilton

yes and no?

Cloud computing is a strange beast and I'd say it makes a lot more sense if deployed as a consumer product rather than a business architecture, Take the Cherrypal model as an example, a low power (2watts) little black box replacing the conventional home desktop and the user could pick and chose which apps they want in a similar way to the iPhone saving them the cost of an overbloated OS and delivering what they need? That and Amazons Mechanical turk could be a good example of cloud business?

As for cloud working, surely it all comes down to pipe resilience, for example if the infotubes get all clogged up with UTP freetarding and Profile Pharming then playing spider solitare could become a real ball ache!

(Paris because I've not had enough sleep and feel used and dirty)

Rogue Android apps rack up hidden charges

Alex

molested by a robot!!

behold the googlebeast has ticks, leaches and oh? FAIL!!!! :D

(and to retain impartiality: hahaha AppleBoi's why doesn't your jesusphone let you cut and paste? hahaha FAIL!)

More mobile makers join Android alliance

Alex
Alien

all your pockets are belong to us?

Does the Googlebeast publish what kind of data it collects and what it plans to do with it?

For example, will it be tracking and selling your 'movements'?

I guess that information could be of value to both sewage companies and the drain dwelling data pimps?

I find the whole thing rather unsavoury and unsettling, yes you get a minor advance in phone technology and a shiny new OS to tinker with but at the cost of your privacy?

or is privacy rapidly becoming an outdated concept?

I guess in a world of no privacy then there is just "Rite" or "Rong", but who decides those parameters?

The loony Home Secretary Wacki Jacqui?

All it would take is a couple more homeland terrorist attacks and the definitions of Rite & Rong could be tightened and then standing in the back of a garden centre comparing the costs of the stores fertilizer with that of an on-line supplier could have you on a "list" if say the garden centre backed on to a Mosque?

PIM: "you have searched for fertilizer, did you mean to search for nails?"

User Profile 101: "hmm I could do with some nails to fix the fence that blew down, yes"

PIM: "your activity has been flagged inappropriate citizen, lay on the floor immediately and place your device in front of you, a collection team will be with you shortly"

User Profile 101: "wuh?"

PIM: "Open your Maps app you will be able to track the arrival of your collection team"

User Profile 101: "wha?"

PIM: "We notice that you have previously searched for aluminium sheeting, did you mean to search for tin foil hat?"

User Profile 101: "oh sweet jesus!" <hits the end key repeatedly>

PIM: "Downloading HOT EXPLOITED TEENS IN GOAT LOVE JAMBOREE.MOV"

User Profile 101: "WTF!?! WTF?!? WHY!! ?! I DIDDN'T DO THAT!?! HOLY CRAP!!!"

PIM: "Download complete"

User Profile 101: "What?!!! ARGH NOOO!" <movie clip starts playing> <throws handset in ornamental fountain>

PIM: "your Collection Team has arrived, oh goaty oh goaty oh goaty oh"

User Profile 101: "I'm innocent!"

Collection team agent 75: "of course sir, Please be aware that wilful destruction of Local Googlement property is againstt the law and..."

Collection team agent 62: "We've located his PIM sir, it seems to be showing some kind of extreme p0rn sir, hold on, a message has just arrived"

PIM: "We notice that you have shown interest in ornamental fountains, did you mean to search for garden waste disposal?"

Hooded Yoof outside Mosque 008: "haha Amitt that's the third crinkly you've nailed this week! high sc0rez man!!"

Google starts selling unlocked G1

Alex

woaha Wiernicki!!

"Because you want to do business with a company which produces products that work better than anything else out there?"

googleshill?

seriously, its not that good, there's considerably better GPS systems than googlemaps and isn't manhattan just a big grid? gmail, not really particularly amazing now is it, be honest! and as for that search thing, don't believe the hype Dave!

if you don't mind being tracked 247 and your (highly detailed) profile (inc movements) being sold to the highest bidder you carry on. Its touching to see how they love the googlebeast.

Alex
Thumb Down

why the hell

would you want to feed the googlebeast?

Google App Engine to swallow Salesforce cloud

Alex
Alien

wooah!

all your customer bases are belong to us?

the more I hear of Big G's activity, the more cancerous their development seem to be.

this can't be a good thing can it?

Brit ISPs censor Wikipedia over 'child porn' album cover

Alex
Thumb Down

the Scorpions'

a lot of people seemed to have missed an important point here, the Scorpions are shit.

that said WTF is with ISP's now? since when did forging web pages (or the lack of existing) be part of their 'service'???

Alex

was it...

who was it had an album cover that featured a prepubescent girl holding a chrome model airplane? I can recall seeing that in a book of famous album art and thinking that was "inappropriate" and that was about 15 or so years ago, imagine the furor should they ever reissue that!

oh and what about led zeps houses of the holy??

Jacqui promotes police handhelds

Alex
Coat

but...

will they run crysis at full settings?

mines the one with "save the economy - slash Jacqui's budget" stencilled on the back!

Government grants itself even more data sharing power

Alex

DNA FAIL!!

Data Whore Jacqui Smith has been dealt a bit of a blow in her quest to build her collection of uk-pokemonstyle-population-profiles. The EU has just ordered her to destroy the fingerprints and DNA samples of more than 857,000 innocent citizens that her drones had harvested (see here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/05/dna-database-civilliberties) that said she has yet to decide if she is going to press the DEL key, perhaps she'll forgo that conventional method in favour of leaving them on a train?

RIM Vodafone BlackBerry Storm

Alex

and the deal breaker...

no WiFi!!!

FAIL. -10

Angel spots CherryPal cloud chimera

Alex
Happy

In defence of the new?

mine is scheduled to land on Tuesday, there are some pretty big hopes laid on these little boxes and despite the slightly bumpy taxi to the runway I'm beginning to think that this could really make the long haul flight!

There's a lot of potential there, things like Amazons HITs (tasks better preformed by a human rather than a script, selecting better images or sounds etc, paid for and transacted via the net) could really make a big difference to global business and employment. Also being used in as a field deployment for charities or aid workers who could then keep in touch with their back office, co-workers & families?

Like I said, there's a lot of positives and potential for these little black boxes, we'll just have to wait till Tuesday to see just what it can do.

EU asks Google for privacy advice

Alex

phew!

they'll save us from privacy!

S60 knows where you're at

Alex
Black Helicopters

just think of....

all that lovely "user activity" data you could harvest, oh hang on did you say this is on s60? now if only a major Finnish mobile manufacturer was interested in "activity profile harvesting"

gOS intros OS cloud for netbooks

Alex

Cloudy vision

I have definite word that my Cherrypal is about to land on my desk, should be interesting!

Bittorrent declares war on VoIP, gamers

Alex

Outraged of South West

what on earth are these freetards downloading? I'm buggered if I can find anything worth the electricity!!

Lord Lamont joins Phorm board

Alex
Pirate

talk about flogging a dead horse!

the sooner this is dog food the better!!

Brits decline to 'think outside the box'

Alex
Joke

Thought shower?

sounds more like a tissue full of ideas to me!

Prosecutors gather evidence on secret BT-Phorm trials

Alex

Due dilligence?

I may be able to help on that, can somebody point me in the direction of who to talk to at the CPS or within the EU?

Peaches Geldof - she's back!

Alex

oh

oh. that is all.

Nokia N96 16GB smartphone

Alex

n95?

so apart from it having a slower processor than the original n95, is it a better phone?

I can't really see anything worthy of upgrading to in the review, you could say exactly the same review applies to the n95 if you omit the iplayer app and the redundant TV player? is the GPS module upgraded? will sportracker still run on it?

Government data review grants more data sharing power

Alex
Joke

see if you can spot my spelling mistake:

"The power will be exercised only in circumstances where the sharing of the information is in the public interest and proportionate to the impact on any person advertly affected by it."

World hunts CherryPal cloud PC chimera

Alex

As a Brand Angel...

The Ning thing was set up by CP.

None of us have received one yet although many of us are (for the time being) waiting patiently.

Apparently the ones that have been shipped have gone to the "geek community", that said I've asked all the geeks I know and they have ether not received one or been unable to reply yet probably because they have been so wowed by the little box that they have totally retreated from the interweb!

where's me cherrypal?

BT silences customers over Phorm

Alex
Alien

"Adam Liversage, BT's chief press officer, told The Register: WebWise threads weren't appropriate"

Perhaps its because they've seen sense and are about to announce the decision to pull the phlug?

Company That Can't Be Named slams critics

Alex
Stop

It'll cost you almost nothing

except;

your reputation,

the privacy of your subscribers

and quite possibly your customer base

but hey, you might make some money, if any one joins our marketing club.

where do I sign?

I remember the days when you paid an ISP for access to the internet and this funded the business model, if they want more revenue then they should build content that people are interested in rather than trying to profile and pimp their customer base.

there's so pretty perverse logic behind that thinking and the catalyst appears to be greed, it'll be good to see the EU string them up by the balls!

..oh hang on.

PlusNet customer invited to opt-in to BT's Phorm trial

Alex
Stop

thats it

MAC code requested, BT can sod off, time to talk to the EU about BT's legal foundations of the initial trial. Had enough now.

The secret sauce in SanDisk's ExtremeFFS

Alex
Alert

AGH!!

FFS!!

DARPA seeks bigger BigDog petrol packmule robots

Alex
Thumb Up

hurrah

robohorse lives!

Black widows: Coming soon to a kitchen sink near you

Alex

they are already here

having been contending with woodlouse eating spiders and their bites for a few years here in Wiltshire I have now built up an aggressive and merciless approach to all things eight legged, Imagine my surprise when locking up the front door only to see what I instantly thought "oh my lucky stars, that's a black widow just emerging from the skirting" this was rapidly followed up by a frenzied and unrelenting attack during which the eight legged offender was ground into the floor, the skirting and part of it was on the wall.

how on earth can blackbirds or starlings be pests?

BT's third Phorm trial starts tomorrow

Alex
Thumb Down

Good bye BT Broadband

can someone recommend a good ISP, preferably that offers TV with a HDMI output?

is it worth making the move over to, dare I say it, Sky?

BT can go phuck themselves, I know at least 20 people who will now be leaving BT because of the adoption of this invasive technology.

Apple channels Pandora with iTunes 8

Alex
Paris Hilton

Every holes a goal

"Everyone's music preferences are beamed to Apple to be combined and analyzed for better a recommendation engine. The company claims this data is sent secure and anonymous"

what on earth?!? since when is this OK?? it seems like every company in the world is jostiling for position in this "privacy grope" race?!?!

I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty sick of feeling like an easily led teenager that's been pumped full of apathy flavoured rohypnol as my every mental crevice is being explored by the celebratory prying fingers of big businesses.

seriously it's like they are coming at our privacy from every conceivable angle!

Police quiz BT on secret Phorm trials

Alex
Thumb Up

Wiretapping your home to get you to buy more stuff!

lock em up and throw away the key, they really need the book thrown at them , a precedent needs to be set to prevent those trusted with the responsibility of carrying our data from abusing both our trust and our privacy.

Lets hope the law stamps down hard on them.

Chrome: A new force for web applications?

Alex

..and not a word

...about the key motivator behind big G's browser.

mines the one with "feck off out my clickstrem" on the back

Google releases open source browser

Alex

where's the source?

here: http://code.google.com/chromium/

get it so it won't phone home and I might be interested.

Ex-BT boss off to Alcatel-Lucent

Alex
Thumb Up

did he jump or was he phormed?

I can imagine the conversation now "sorry Ben, some one seniors gotta carry the can for the phuck up, we'll look after you, we'll always need modems Ben, you can trust us Ben"

in other news Emma Sanderson will be serving chipped potato within the prestigious British Telecom Tower restaurant

UK.gov misses deadline on EU Phorm probe

Alex
Thumb Up

Europe kicks the apple cart

now lets watch those rotten apples fall!

UK.gov pushes £50,000 fine for online copyright infringement

Alex
Thumb Up

this is why bt/phorm are stalling

because if they can't find a work around to this then they could get the biggest repeated slap in litigation history, it'll be interesting if claims can then be back dated!

Phorm papers reveal BT's backwards approach to wiretap law

Alex
Alien

they knew about the legal implications from the outset

I know because I was asked informally what I thought of it (peopleonpage) and my response was:

"it looks like it could ether may a lot of money or land people in prison, I'd leave it well alone"

I can also tell you that the BT representative who showed it to me said that it seemed too much of a risk and that he would advise against it. I wonder where he is now?

Rumour of redesigned iPhone

Alex
Alert

Expect the new carrier to be announced shortly

its Vodafone, happy now?

UK data watchdog gives Google spycar fleet the greenlight

Alex
Joke

oh so this is...

opt out only?

shouldn't it be opt in?

CherryPal launches $249 mini PC into ad-backed cloud

Alex
Happy

Promo code

I got in on the Brand Angels gig, will let you know what its like once it lands with me, in the meantime if you want one you can use my promo code to get a discount: CPP234

Cheers

A

Alex
Alien

Incoming!

I'm also expecting mine soon, should be interesting as I'm keen to see how it behaves in relation to its geographical appearance, how it handles data privacy and if it could handle being a replacement for the xbox360 as a media centre.

I'm hoping that the local storage behaves like a simple NAS box with the capability to plug in additional capacity via a USB HDD.

It looks like it could be a neat solution, but then its all about how it stands up IRL

UK comms intercepts up by half - and it isn't the council

Alex
Coat

Finally I can sleep soundly in my bed

knowing that the terrorists in my neighbourhood aren't able to dodge paying their council tax and that their children won't be able outside after the curfew.

Seriously this 'gathering of intelligence' is absurd.

I can't help feeling how Orwellian it felt to see Joe Strummer smash a camera once a glastonbury festival, only to apologise for it later.

"Its touching to see how they love big brother"

Personally I'm beginning to feel more and more inclined to think up inventive ways of knobbling these prying methods, for the sport rather than any thing to hide.

*mines the one with the IR-LED collars :D

Rebellious BT computers refuse to take orders

Alex
Black Helicopters

thats what you get

when you mess with the internets,

now the problem is due to the boxes outside their systems being convinced that the internal (surveillance/profiling) systems are not there, the issue that's jumped up and bit them on the arse is that their legitimate internal boxes have also become invisible.

allegedly.

iPhone 3G to be in 'very short supply for weeks' - carrier

Alex
Alert

If you can't be arsed with O2

hold on till the end of september and get one on Vodafone!

;)

Midwestern data pimping alive and well

Alex
Alien

I can hear the shuffle of tiny feet

why is it that attorneys all seem to have such small feet, still its gonna be fun to watch these data pimpers get the kicking they deserve!

AVG disguises fake traffic as IE6

Alex
Paris Hilton

web analytics is going to have to change or die

Its a step forward in privacy, this is the sort of thing that will significantly skew ISP-hostKits like Phorm/BTwebwise and for that I applaud AVG's forward thinking.

web analytics walk a very fine line, I'd say the most important question is does AVG's new system also skew click thru adverts?

if not then everything fine isn't it?

Phorm failed to mention 'illegal' trials at Home Office meeting in 2007

Alex
Alien

why not mention trials?

well, and this is just speculation...

suppose that the original trials were using the IP logging system.

suppose that it was actually a data harvesting exercise

suppose that someone senior within BT "gave access to the network for a trail" but only in return for a position within the company running the "trial"

suppose that a marketing company is only worth the value of its database

suppose when they say "we can see the entire internet" they are actually talking to the harvesting and profiling carried out to produce a database

suppose that database was called OIX

now that would be wrong wouldn't it, nobody would seriously do that would they?

Phorm opponents to picket BT shareholders

Alex
Alert

and so to the courts we go!

http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/bt-phorm-report-2007.pdf

Alex
Alert

Out of sight, out of mind?

I wonder what the public reaction would be if BT had to use van's parked outside peoples homes?

How much it would cost to produce a large (non-damaging) sticker/transfer that could be applied to those green telecoms boxes found at the end of most streets?

something big simple and clear like:

"BT intend to use this network to spy on all of your internet usage and then sell your web usage for advertising purposes - STOP WEBWISE/PHORM NOW"

If it was possible to buy the stickers on line then I'd happily buy a pack and "Inphorm" my neighborhood!!

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