* Posts by BristolBachelor

2200 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jan 2009

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini

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Auto syncing

I heard that the first version of this always tried to auto sync whenever you plugged an iPod into it. If the iPod was not synced with the PC plugged into the Zepplin, it cause all sorts of problems. Has this been fixed?

I also heard that the Zeplin shows up on the PC as a USB connected audio output, so you can play audio from a PC (without a headphone out). Can you comment on this?

Zeus botnets suffer mighty blow after ISP taken offline

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WTF?

Sledge hammer, meet nut

"That's a pretty interesting development and I think a very positive on..." Landesman told The Register.

WTF?? Positive? Will you still think it's positive when you loose YOUR internet connection because one of the other 10000 customers of your ISP did something someone doesn't like?

I'm all for cutting off the connections of those running C&C channels. I'd even cut off those with zombie machines (when I was with Demon internet, they would cut you off your mail connection for running open mail relays). But cutting off an entire ISP because some of it's customers are bad ones and giving two fingers to all their other customers is a bit too much.

Y2.01K hits Garmin satnav

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FAIL

What year it is

So when my software takes the GPS data and adds it to the photo data by matching the DATE, surprise surprise, it finds no matches.

I might know which year the photos were taken in, but I haven't managed to get the mind-reading app set up under Windows Vista yet.

'Curiosity' nuclear Mars tank passes key tech test

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Boffin

Life for space items

When the life of a space item is quoted, it is the life for a given failure prediction (e.g. 99% availability for 3 months). That means that the likely life is a lot longer than minimum design life.

For things that don't wear out, there are standard methods to calculate the likely time to failure, given the level of stress to that part in the design. Normally the maximum level of stress in use is lower than the original part specification.

For things that wear-out, it's different. It the thing doesn't fail but just gets used up like fuel, it's not too hard. But when the wear-out then causes an increasing risk of failure, it gets real hard. So for things like actuators a margin is added to the expected life.

Mystic Met Office abandons long range forecasts

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Accuweather

Last weekend, Accuweather promised an OK weekend. That was good, considering I was going to be up on a 70m diameter dish. Accuweather said wind 7-14 kmh...

The wind reached over 100 kmh.

So much for "accu" weather!!

Apple yanks Wi-Fi detectors from iTunes

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Joke

Vetted applications

...and since day one, Apple personally vets all the applications to "protect" their users. The vetting process, and the delay it causes are well known about.

So how did they manage to update their app so that is now uses private frameworks, and get the updated version onto the app store without going through Apple? (for Apple to then find out and pull it). And why did they change their app so that it now uses private frameworks, when it obviously worked fine originally without them when Apple vetted it?

Ofcom wades into UK 'Net Neutrality' row

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FAIL

Competition

Virgin's competitors get a chance to compete against them to buy the rights to the football.

But if BT decide that they are going to block (sorry mange bandwith) of media company "A", but not of media company "B", how does company A compete? Does company "A" now need to roll-out their own broadband service, just so that they can sell their own media?

If everything is a private contract, I hope that you are not going to cry when BT decide that your house is uneconomic to provide a service to, and you get your electricity, water and gas cut off for similar reasons.

Dell flogs its 'zero client'

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FAIL

What the FK

I fancy a few of these things to use instead of Xterminals. But HOW MUCH??

I could buy fair spec PCs and install Hummingbird Exceed on them for less. For even less than that, they could run a small Linux off a flashcard. I could even get one of those horrible ones that runs WINCE from a read-only image.

It might be an excellent product, but the pricing makes it an EPIC FAILURE.

Computer boffin on NHS Spine: Get out while you can

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Name in wallet

Yeah, I have my name in my wallet, but given that there are FOUR people with exactly the same name as me just in my company, I shudder to think how many there would be on the whole NHS spine. So I say again, you would need a card with *your* unique patient number on it. And it would only be of use to someone with access to a terminal that can access the spine. And was in the UK.

Whereas a card that says "Diabetic", or what medication you take would be of help to *any* medical professional, in *any* country. And could be of use in the hour (or more) that it may take to get you to a hospital where they can look you up.

All without the costs and problems of a huge online database of everyone, with medical "professionals" looking you up "out of curiosity".

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Confused

I am a little confused. If you are not able to tell them about your recent treatments, drugs prescribed, how do they know who you are? Surely you have to tell them that, so that they can look you up (or does this fit in nicely with having everyone's fingerprints on record too?)

If you now have to carry a card that gives them your serial number on their database, so that they can look you up, wouldn't a cheaper, less risky solution be to carry a card that gives all the info they may need? Doesn't require the database, communication links, computers, etc. Can be used by the medic treating you (paramedic, local doctor, hospital doctor, doctor that happened to be on the same plane, etc.)

T-Orange merger approved

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Spectrum costs

"But the details of how Ofcom will auction off the spectrum if it does so, and what T-Orange will be expecting in the way of restitution, remain to be seen."

Well I'd say that since they had to pay through the nose for the spectrum originally, that they should get the same back from Ofcom now, since they are being forced to reliquish it. Any comments about it's value now being less than they paid before is mute, because it wasn't really worth what they paid in the first place!

Eurocrats mandate maximum charge for data roaming

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Depends on the place

My wife has a Voda contract with data in Spain. It costs her less to check her email using O2 pay and go, *roaming* than to use her Voda Spain contract in Spain.

Much as you may hate tarrifs for data (or broadband) in the UK, I would jump at them here. I'm even considering getting satellite braodband froom UK to reduce my broadband bill !!

Microsoft: Oracle will take us back to 1970s hell

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1970's computing

Ah I remember it fondly. The mainframes ran 24 hours a day. The only time they were switched off and re-booted was to move them to another building.

No one said "Have you tried turning it off and on again". Things worked, or they didn't. If they didn't work, they were fixed.

There was none of this try turning it off and on, loosing all your work. Try re-installing everything, loosing all your settings and a few days re-installing all the applications. If that doesn't work, tough. We will still sell this to millions of people and coulnd't care less that it doesn't work.

I also remember file-sharing over nfs as being flawless, none of these drop-outs I seem to experience with SMB.

Silicon Valley hypegasm for miracle shoebox powerplants

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FAIL

Life? Shoebox sized? Sand is cheap? CO2 sequestration?

Life is normally the problem with this type of fuel cell. They are used for power backup instead of batteries in a number of remote sites (Think cell phone base station for example). The problem is that the units tend to only have a life of about 2000 hours.

I like the idea of something shoebox sized that can power my house. At the moment I have a box bigger than that where the power comes into my house, and it doesn't even generate it. This could save me some space!

Also it says that it is make from cheap materials like sand. Well solar cells and microprocessors are made from sand too, but cheap it ain't!

I understand how CO2 sequestration works at a major power plant, but how does it work for shoeboxes in houses? Will we need to build another pipe network to take away the CO2 that was produced from the gas piped in?

Where is the "100% marketing hype" icon?

Payment card skimmer secretly planted in gas station pump

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FAIL

Skimmers in Shell?

Oh, so the introduction of chip and pin stopped all those skimmers in Shell did it?

Nope, it just meant that the skimmer got your PIN as well as all the details stored on the card...

Let us legally rip discs, campaigner tells govt

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FAIL

Copying required to enjoy copyrighted works

IANAL but I thought that the copyright laws basically said that anything that was a reproduction of the copyrighted works was a copy. So if you had an old fashioned gramaphone, the sound coming out of the big end of the trumpet is a (larger) copy of the sound that went in the other end.

I thought that the copyright laws allowed for the "copying" that was required in order to use the works that you had legitimate access to. Why can't I use the same basis for taking the 1s and 0s off a circular polycarbonate disc and copying them into the electronics that then reproduces them as sound for my ears?

Xerox sues Google and Yahoo! over patentspeak

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FAIL

Complete fiction!

The quoted text is a work of complete fiction and means nothing at all (what happened to patents needing a description of how to build the working product?)

It seems to be as fictional as the Harry Potter series, and Xerox are probably trying to get the same amount of money for it. BUT it adds no value to humanity at all (even less than Harry Potter!)

FAIL

Virgin offers cut-price data roaming in Europe

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Data in Spain

I have Voda Pay & go in Spain - not allowed a contract until I've been resident here for a year :(

Each GB of data times out in 1/2 hour, so my phone left on with a connection open went through 20€ of credit in two days. The phone told me that it had done a little over 170kB. Needless to say I switched data off quickly!

My wife has a Voda contract in Spain, but uses UK Pay & Go on O2 to read her email, because the roaming tariff is cheaper than the Voda one in Spain.

Oh, and Satellite broadband is also cheaper per month here than fixed with Telefonica (although the set-up costs for dish & modem are 400€ higher!)

I want Vivianne Reading to give flat-rate telecoms & data across the whole of the EU

Microsoft finally debuts Euro-choose-a-browser screen

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Will it...

So after I select Firefox, will it uninstall IE, to stop it being started up in the background and connecting to things / openning holes in my security?

Otherwise, it's a bit late to save Netscape's ass, which is what the browser wars were all about.

Could I also request some similar apps such as:

Choose your browser plugins (automatically uninstalls flash, adobe reader, quicktime...)

Choose your office application suite (permanantly uninstalls Office 2007 demo and MS Works)

Choose your media player (automatically uninstalls Media Centre and iTunes)

IBM betas click-recording Firefox add-on

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Looks good, but

I should first say that this looks very interesting. BUT

1. What happens when the website changes between recording the history and playing it back? Are you just a passenger as it goes off and buys 17 first class tickets to Australia for £20k each? just watching as it clicks links that were different before? Extreme case maybe, but what happens?

2. This now means that someone could tell what your internet banking passcode is even if it one that gets you to select the letters from a drop down box to avoid key-loggers. (Admittedly, this could be solved by instead giving a table and randomising the location of the letters, but that would take some website development, and is not as easy to use.

Freecom Network Media Centre

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It's not that hard

Cabled gigabit network? That's me.

Ever since someone decided that ethernet could go over twisted pair instead of co-ax, you've been able to install the stuff and use for anything. I have TV aerial down one length, lots carrying ethernet and a few carrying phone or audio.

Upgrade from 10-baseT to 100-baseT to 1000-baseT just ment buying a new switch. Been able to watch streaming video since long before WiFi n, and still do. No glitches, even though the neighbours can barely download a webpage from the saturated airwaves around here!

Ex-Army man cracks popular security chip

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Pint

There are some problems with your post.

"But the day Infineon blocks anyone of having their chips is the day they'll be less and less secure."

The only way that Infineon can stop anyone getting their chips is to stop making them and selling them. However that makes no money for the shareholders.

If Infineon sell them to anyone, people can get them. After all, that is how people reverse engineer SKY TV cards; they get a sky box and look at the chip.

Then if they are not used in anything, there is no reason for anyone to need to break^H^H^H^H^H "fix" them :)

A beer for persistance, but I think just buying a controller for his XBox would have been cheaper!

Apple bans iPhone hackers from App Store

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Stop

Subsidy loan isn't ownership

Yes the carriers subsidise the price of the hardware, but in all the (admittadly European) countries where I've seen this done, they claw their money back (and some!) by a minimum term contract with minimum fee per month.

You sign the contract and you pay them the money. The hardware belongs to you. It would be different if they gave you the hardware with no further obligations to pay them money.

Miniskirt outrage Brazilian becomes Carnival queen

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Coat

What actually happened

I studied with someone from the town where this happened. She said that the girl walked around the campus, from room to room, and was lifting up her skirt to show-off what was underneath.

She wasn't thrown out for what she wore, but for what she did. Bare in mind (like what I did there?) that this was an expensive, exclusive college, where people go to study, not play football in spacesuits, or dance around with pom-poms.

I'll get me coat on me way out.

US lab births flexy, stingy solar cells

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Stop

Cost of silicon

The cost of silicon, particularly semiconductor silicon has nothing to do with the cost of sand. The cost is almost completely processing (the same way you can't buy a car for the same cost of iron oxide dug out of the ground!)

The cost of transistors has gone down mainly because they are made more efficiently now and tend to use a hell of a lot less processed semiconductor grade silicon per transistor (think 16 square microns in 1975 for 4000 series CMOS to 0.001024 square microns today). If you wanted, you could buy a solar panel using 15625 times less area now for a lot less money, but you won't get much out of it :)

The fact that the cost of electricity has gone up in the last 30 years, is also reflected in the cost of the processed semiconductor grade silicon. The cost of solar power will not reduce significantly until it doesn't require huge quantities of specially processed silicon.

First Vaio laptop with numberpad hits UK

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FAIL

Close but no cigar

The keyboard was one of the things that put me off buying a Sony laptop. Firstly it had an acre of space around the keyboard, but no number pad, but also because the keyboard felt like that from a ZX Spectrum.

I notice that the screen is still lacking a few pixels though.

There are plently of full HD laptops with full keyboards though, so no problem for us.

Sony - try harder.

Aussie net censorship turning Chinese

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WTF?

Also RC for children ?

Aren't all drugs illegal for children? (After all, this is to protect children!)

Anything showing or refurring to tabacco or alocohol, or any of the funny clips of people who have drunk too much should now all disappear from the internet.

Chip and PIN security busted

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Heads in the sand

Banks, finger pointing?

Nope they will stick their heads in teh sand, say it is secure. Say it is impossible to do this in the real world...

MEPs slam Nokia Siemens for aiding Iranian censors

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Stop

Persecution

While the MEPs are at it, could they also complain about the same way that this is being used against residents of the EU (who they are supposed to represent, not Iran!)

It seems that there are several companies either making, or allowing the use of systems for censorship and surveillance of individuals and their freedoms for no other reason than they don't agree with their point of view.

Microsoft erases Windows 8 optimism

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Stop

Chicago anyone ?

I've heard it all before.

Chicago is going to be brilliant, completely different, imppossible to be infected with a virus (!) ...

Vista is going to be amazing. It will completely change the way you use your computer. You will never loose things ever again with Microsoft's new database filing system....

I upgraded to Win2K when it was absolutely necessary to use USB. I haven't seen anything since that would convince me to "upgrade" since, and my laptop running Vista keeps reminding me I'd be better with Win2K.

Viking frogmen chase Street View spymobile

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Badgers

%&$·&%1$%@

Since Google scrub out any ledgeble text (lest it be something someone may want to read, even if it isn't a car number plate), then you would just end up with some posters that say the same as my post title!

Endeavour en route to ISS

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Boffin

Nasa can't count ?

The reason is because mission STS133 was supposed to be the last one, and was well in the planning stage, when STS134 was added in. It was probably too much trouble and asking for a lot more to renumber the STS133 mission, so the new mission was numbered STS134, even though it leaves first.

It is good that STS134 will launch, because it is taking the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer with it which will allow us to look for exotic particles (anti-matter and the like) which we can't look for down here because they wouldn't survive the trip through the atmosphere.

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ISS Supply

Well us Europeans can put 20tonnes up using the ATV, and Japan also has the HTV for resupply. The Russians will carry on the Progress supply shipments, but for a while the Russian Soyez is the only way to get crew up and back.

NASA is paying a few companies loads of money to launch cargo for them to the ISS, but they are a little way off. There are also theories to man-rate some of their rockets to get crew up and back too.

There are thoughts about man-rating the ATV as well, but these things take time, so we all just have to watch the Russians doing it.

French poised to seize Port of Dover

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Thumb Down

Something left to sell?

Thought that the government had sold everything already.

Meanwhile over here in Madrid, you couldn't ask for a better Metro or railway (Funnily enough supported by the government, rather than sold-off to bribe voters with lower taxes and to pay for all those house extensions / refurbishments / John Lewis TVs for MPs)

Pupil database claimed to be breach-free

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Coat

Red rag to a bull

Anyone else think that this will be like one of the hacking contests run by suppliers of supposed bullet-proof systems?

Extreme pr0n suspect has his internet access suspended

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How they knew...

It's obvious really, THEY sent the email from a throwaway hotmail account, waited to see a recieved read receipt and then raided his house.

The reason? He complained when plod stopped him taking a picture of a chip shop (or he was tall in Chatham high street; take your pick)

...thinking about it you know, I don't like my old boss...

Huawei E5 Wi-Fi/3G modem

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3G Data

Looking at plans here, you seem to need two, one for voice, and one for data. The problem with this is that I have a number of devices (Local phone, UK phone, laptop, iPod touch...) all of which I use with the WiFi at home or a local hotspot. If I get a 3G data plan for my local phone, I can't use it with any of the other devices.

This type of device would be perfect for me. I could have one data plan but use it on any of my devices. The only problem is with certain smartphone apps that refuse to use a WiFI connection for data, and insist that they must use a 3G data connection :(

iPad runs Windows, Nokia runs OSX

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Remote desktop on phone

I used to use VNC on my Nokia 9110. That was before WiFi, ADSL, 3G, etc. Calls were dial-up at an amazing 9600 baud, but helped no end compared to driving to the office to start a compile or simulation!! (It was also easier to cheat in pub quizzes in 1998 because nobody thought about mobile internet, or even using the internet to find answers to questions!)

Given that this will also allow, shock-horror, more than one window on the screen it's a good thing. But does that mean I have to install citrix server ? :(

Brits to get 3G iPad early - and at a reduced price?

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Stop

How many dataplans ?

I don't understand why I need a dataplan for a USB dongle for my notebook, a different one for my mobile, and now a 3rd one for an iPad.

Why I can't have ONE dataplan and use it on any of my devices? I can't even use one of these 3G Wifi thingys on a dataplan because some things on my phone refuse to connect over WiFi - 3G only :(

Steve Jobs dubs Google's 'don't be evil' motto 'bulls**t'

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Jobs Horns

Apple is evil too ?

So presumably Apple is evil too. After all they entered the phone market to compete with the others. So that makes Apple evil? I used to work for a guy like this. At the slightest upset all the toys are thrown out of the pram and a major tantrum starts.

(Have to concede though that I think he's right about Adobe. Soooo much potential, but wasted. Flash & acrobat are overweight rotting corpses. Photoshop should've left everything else for dust, but is bearly better than what comes free on the front of monthly magazines.)

Adobe sounds off on iPad's Flash slap

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Flame

Hope this kills Flash

Title says it all really. I don't like Flash.

There is nothing wrong with the technology itself (except all the bugs, holes and processor requirement), but I HATE the way people use it. I was once forced to use a supplier's website that was one single flash app. You had to wait for the whole thing to load, and then every single link click gave you an animation before the next page loaded.

I hope Flash stays off the iWhatever for ever. I hope that companies hammer web page "designers" over their insistance to build the entire website in dreamweaver, and that webpages start to be web pages again.

Fujitsu: 'iPad? That's ours'

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Stop

iApple iOwn iAll iWords iStarting i

Perhaps Apple should give up trying to own all the words that begin with i, or making up new ones by adding an i on the front. (WTF does the i stand for anyway?)

Apple's marketting department need to do some work and actually think of some new product names, rather than just stick to the one they came up with eons ago...

Aussie man convicted for Simpsons smut

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WTF?

Playmobil

I know some will ask for a Playmobil reconstruction, however I would suggest that El Reg does not, and if fact deletes some of the past Playmobil reconstructions given the crazy laws going around these days!

Airships can defeat roadside bombers, says ex-US officer

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Grenade

Works until...

Works until... those doing the nasty find out what is happening. Then they just arrange to move through a number of places that are undercover (think underground car-parks) so that you can't trace where the bomb making factory is.

However, this aside, this is a great idea. A resolution of say 2.5cm at ground level to be able to reliably track targets, especially through crowds, and recording an area the size of the UK. I know a home secretary who will have a few....

If they can just work out active arrays to read passive rfid tags at that distance with the same positional accuracy....

Nokia N97 Mini

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Unhappy

AC @ 13:28

Have you used the E90 much? I shudder to think what the N97 is like if it is worse :(

Defects in e-passports allow real-time tracking

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Using RFID signatures from passports / creditcards / oyster

Dr Patrick J R Harkin said:

"it'dd be far easier to plant your own RFID tag rather than rely on them carrying their passport."

That may be true, but using their passports / credit cards / drivers license, etc., you can track them for years before you know who they are. You can then check through all your old data now knowing who they are.

Or you can correlate when a known card enters / leaves an area with other information of when somoene is there. Eventually you will know who they are because they are the only person there everytime Mr. X buys something on his credit card.

HP to appeal over potentially massive BSkyB ruling

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FAIL

solid reputation

"As the world’s largest technology company, HP has built a solid reputation based on strong governance and adherence to the highest ethical standards.”

Is this the same HP with mainframes falling over leaving companies in the lurch, especially since the "back-up" system fell over as soon as it was asked to take over?

There are other publically known cases, and quite a few very private ones that shall not be talked about (but may be in folders left on trains).

A reputation? HP? Yup. Solid reputation. Good one? You must be kidding.

Funnily enough, I am writing this on a HP Premium range laptop that has touch sensitive keys that are often not touch sensitive, and sometimes operate by themselves. After the "repair" took 1 month, when it broke after only 2 weeks, I'm not sening it back again until it takes out the WiFi.

Australia leaves the internet

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Flame

Blocking "kiddie porn" *

"Anything that blocks access to all kiddie porn is A.OK in my book, I've just downloaded the ACMA black list and gone through it and overall , its a great starting point."

Won't work, and here's why. You know all those annoying spam/phishing emails that contain a link to somewhere to buy knock-off viagra, or steel all your money? The links are taken down almost as fast as the emails are sent, but they just put new ones up, and the emails just link to the new ones.

As fast as you put a link on your big list of censored links, they can just move the content elsewhere. If people want it, there is money. If there is money, they can get around it.

Using it to block normal sites that you don't happen to agree with will, on the whole, work (e.g. partypoker.com) because they are not in the business of moving around all the time.

* New definition of "kiddie porn":

Any picture of a child where you can see their skin,

or an adult where you can see their skin that someone says looks like a child,

or any drawing of a child where you can see their skin,

or any drawing of an adult where you can see their skin that someone says looks like a child,

a photograph that has been on the front of an album since before most internet users were born...

BT to throttle P2P for faster broadband

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FAIL

Bandwidth like water

Bandwidth _is_ like water.

When everybody turns their tap on full, nobody gets the pressure that they used to, and some people get none.

UK.gov uses booze to lure London kids into ID scheme

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Loosing ID Cards

"So how will 15,000 lost ID cards be an improvement?"

Because the card is biometric. It will never, ever be accepted without an accompanying fingerprint scan, right? Wasn't that the whole point of them? Being biometric means that they can't be used by someone else pretending to be you?

...or, because the card likely costs less to produce than a passport, so they make more profit on replacements?