* Posts by David Willis

33 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Aug 2006

BBC devs Doctor Who movie script

David Willis
Happy

Sod Kathrine Zeta Jones,

Lets have a plot based in Dublin with Emma Kiernan (Fine Gael) helping out the doctor.

Canon EOS 500D

David Willis
Unhappy

Caution with US/Asian cameras and warrenties

Buying the Rebel from the USA is a great idea, save a fortune.

But beware Cannon and warranties, Cannon UK will more often than not refuse to repair a none EU purchased and warrentied camera under warrenty cover.

US Army working on 'exploding marmalade' missile tech

David Willis
Paris Hilton

Purdue Uni

Purdue Uni - these were the guys that lit a BBQ in .01 of a second using 10 gallons of LOX (liquid oxygen) and a smoldering tab end. ( Ok they vapourised 80% of the chracoal but what was left was ready to be cooked on).

They also provided video of this spectacular effort (I won't supply a link, just search for BBQ and liqiud oxygen on google)

Good old George Goble..

Paris ? - even she wouldn't try anything quite so stupid (tho entertaining)

Supermicro does micro server for SOHOs

David Willis
Gates Halo

Wot a waste of space.

SOHO requirements,

Small for factor (whats the point of piss weak full tower server)

Integrated raid (essential, and if you want cheap make is SATA and more than four disks).

Low power but powerful - this is the bit that bites. As soon as people as SOHO immediatly single processor pentium gets dragged out of the stock cupboard.

HP did a really nice attempt with their homeserver. Nice for factor, nice power usage. Crap memory, crap OS, no raid.

So HP sylye, twice as tall (twice as many disks min 8Tb) 4Gb ram, and dual processor (possibly dual/quad core) but with the ability to throttle down.

Reasons.

SOHO - media servers (large storage req) , SMB (small medium business) servers - proberbly involving VM ware and multi OS images, web servers (you cant beat Linux for this).

Most of the time the machine will be idle (hence the single socket pentium is ideal). However every once in a while it might need to do on the fly video re-encoding, or may be required to activate and run external cctv. The pentium woiuld struggle. If used as a media server large capacity storage will be required, if used for small business redundancy/busisness continuity will be essential.

Santa can please have the above for Christmas.

US nuclear bomb lab develops 'self-warming' hand cream

David Willis
Happy

'self-warming' hand cream’

if its from the nuclear bo,mb lab does it glow in the dark?

Royal Society of Chemistry defines perfect Yorkshire pud

David Willis
Unhappy

Simple solution

1 cup of flour

1 cup of eggs

1 cup of milk (milk/water mix if you want)

1 cup = easy to remember!

1 teaspoon of salt.

beat eggs first, add four and milk, beat. Allow to stand for 10 mins.

Cooker temp about 200 C, get the oil/fat to smoking stage and add mixture. DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR UNTIL COOKED.

Could I add the definition (to clarify for the chemists) - Yorkshire nann bread - like Yorkshire pudding but less than 1 inch tall..

US Navy SEAL uniforms: Now with built-in tourniquets

David Willis
Black Helicopters

suite jacket cuff buttons?

I can but repeat the title in confusion.

When did the military start using "suite jackets" and when did they start deploying "cuff buttons".

Has anybody warned the ex-communist block of this dangerous military escallation?

For goodness sake, whist flailing ones arms (for example beating off a bee/wasp/Russell Brand) in a public place you could possibly "have somebodys eye out" with a "cuff button".

Surely the metropolitan police (shoot em in the head, shoot them till their dead) should be made aware immediatly, Jackie Smith may need to have them banned imediatly as terrorist weapons of mass destruction.

Public ID card support holds steady - says gov report

David Willis
Happy

Rigged question ?

If I were to give you £1,000,000 would you support the carrying of a Uk ID card?

Ok so £52,000,000,000,000 we are all carrying ID cards...

UK.gov says: Regulate the internet

David Willis
Unhappy

Controlling The Internet

Whats needed is a massive database showing evey e-mail sent by every body, every website visited by every person, then application of existing law (copywright, obscene publications, fraud act etc).

That way we could impreson the really bad, fine the naughty and worry the rrest.

Then everybody will realise that we a 1.watching, and 2.Responding.

Oh, hang about, we're building the databse right now.. on the grounds of "stop terrorists",

It'll all work out in the end.. <sigh>

Internet security suites fail to block exploits

David Willis
Paris Hilton

Internet Security Suites

Always said that the internet secuirty suites were cr@p.

Tended to engender faith by making life for the end user so bloody difficult that we OBVIOUSLY were secure.

Much like Vista.

Paris? - cos even Paris wouldn't be stupid enough (or even clever enough) to install on of these pieces of software.

Serial troll bitchslaps Reg hack

David Willis
Stop

He's an assh@le

So we have nothing to fear from US Govt Databases. Obviously the US govt does not spy on its own people, obviously it would never intercept personal calls between trusted parties and then share the information around the office "because it was fruity and amusing".

The database is only as good as the information it holds and only as secure as the people using it.

Both these risks are historically high.

Obviously Aaron considers these risks to be low. Hence the title of this comment..

Royal Navy won't fight pirates 'in case they claim asylum'

David Willis
Paris Hilton

The Royal Navy

Lets resolve this one in the least painful way possible.

Re-commission HMS Belfast, lock and load the 6" guns. Dispose of Home & Foreign Office (and possibly the houses of parliament - freindly fire excuse and all that).

Paris - Because she would only wring her hands as much as the FSO if she were buing a REALLY expensive handbag.

Caterpillar plans 600 tonne godzilla-lorry robots

David Willis
Thumb Up

Woooha

Ok The Americans are famed for taking transport aircraft, bolting 75mm Howitzers, Gatling guns etc, inside the plane and using the plane as an arial bombardment device.

Replace the dumper on the back of this lorry with a big metal box, fill with howizers, cannon, gatling guns, grenade launchers, flame throwers etc.

Forget tanks, It could take out a city on its own!

At 600 tonne I doubt anti-tank mines would even damage it! As for RPGS!.. Might have to re-inforce the tyres.

Whats the top speed of this beast?

Hackintosh maker bites back at Apple

David Willis
Unhappy

Difficult call

When apple built their own machines (not just produce pretty PC clones) the EULA was solid. Their software would only run on, and should only be run on, their machines.

Now Apple is selling PC clones with a boot rom that allows you to run their OS and anybody elses OS's. (have your cake and eat it).

Is it unreasonable?

If you buy a ford car and want to stick a honda engine under the bonnet I think fords response would be "good luck to you". You certainly would invalidate any ford warrenty.

However if as a car manufacturer I were to set up a company which converted fords to use honda engines and then sold them on as the "Ford BD". Would Ford disagree?.

To a point this already happens (AMG & Brabus Mercedes). But has to be with the manufacturers agreement.

I would suggest that the EULA is unfair as it prevents individuals running MAC-OS on a PC (buy your ford and stick a honda engine in it, good luck to you).

However as for covenverting PC's to run Mac-os and making money out of it. Sorry without the agreement of the manufacturer I think that is wrong.

Sorry Psystar I think you are on to a looser here.

NebuAd jettisons PR firm, employees

David Willis
Black Helicopters

Phorm

So in America it is illegal for a private company to use wire tapping techniques whilst the US government can tap whoever they want.

Interesting to view the complete oppotsite in the UK.

Where HMG have very strict regulations on what government agencies can tap (RIPA act), whilst at the same time turning a blind eye to private company wire tapping (BT).

Perhaps HMG should consider privatising MI5.

Hard 'core'? Birmingham City Council's net filtering

David Willis
Paris Hilton

Depends

Depends on if what you do in your spare time at work can affect the work network (stop downloading viruses your twonk!)

Also.. Think of the following headline:-

Gordon Browns Press PA is a satanist.

Ok, I'm not a hack, the sun could do a better job. But you get the picture.

Unfortunatly 90% of IT users at 100% of businesses and corporations are twonks..

Paris - cos she has more brains than most end users.

CGI furnishes filmstar with fur

David Willis
Happy

Marathon Man

If anybody remebers the movie Marathon Man ( Sir Laurence Olivier & Dustin Hoffman) there is a scene where DUstin is tortured and has his teeth pulled by the bad guy (Sir LO).

Dustin was expected to look like he hadn't slept for 72hrs. So in true Dustin Hoffman form, he simply didn't sleep for 72hrs before doing the scene.

After the Scene DH was commenting on his methods of doing the scene. Sir LO was heard to comment, "why don't you just try acting old boy".

Doctors: Third babies are the same as patio heaters

David Willis
Paris Hilton

Babies and Patio Heaters

Fair comment,

However even fairer would be how much Co2 do Dr's and Politico's produce in the UK. Both groups are higher than average income, ie larger houses & larger cars (when did you last see your GP on the bus?). Perhaps this could be measured, reducing the number of GPs and Politico's could possibly improve the UK's Co2 output.

Alternatively (taking a holistic view). Maybe we could make use of the hot air produced by both groups in abundance

(GPs and plitico = hot air production unit).

Using the convection currents created by rising hot air to drive some sort of small wind based electricity generator.

EIther mount these generators on each producing unit, or place generators in areas where production units gather (lecture theaters, operating theaters, the house of commons).

I'm almost certain that the amount of hot air created by the house of commons could make the building a net electricity exporter. Anybody want to fund the research ?

Paris.. well she creates lots of hot air (mostly from journalists and sex starved teenagers)

Home Office defends 'dangerously misleading' Phorm thumbs-up

David Willis
Happy

Lets be fair

Ok so if I (and a group of my friends) followed Phormes MD 24/7 365 days a year, writing down details of every item he purchased and everything he looked at in the shops he would have no problems?

Data pimping: surveillance expert raises illegal wiretap worries

David Willis
Thumb Up

Difficult Call- Contradictory RIPA

1.3.1 Lawful interception without an interception warrant

(1) Conduct by any person consisting in the interception of a communication is authorised by this section if the communication is one which, or which that person has reasonable grounds for believing, is both—

(a) a communication sent by a person who has consented to the interception; and

(b) a communication the intended recipient of which has so consented

Basically - YOU HAVE TO GIVE PERMISSION OR IMPLIED PERMISSION - Think "this call will be recorded for training or other purposes" message when you call a call centre.

However

1.3.3 Lawful interception without an interception warrant

(3) Conduct consisting in the interception of a communication is authorised by this section if—

(a) it is conduct by or on behalf of a person who provides a postal service or a telecommunications service; and

(b) it takes place for purposes connected with the provision or operation of that service or with the enforcement, in relation to that service, of any enactment relating to the use of postal services or telecommunications services.

Initially you have to consent to the operation, unless the operation is "for purposes connected with the provision or operation of that service".

This ALLOWS BT to record your home phone number, the number you have called, and the time of the call. It also allows you to keep a log of incoming IP numbers in relation to "operation of that service ".

However even if the Data Pimping is decided by a court to be not within the provison & operation of the service people can still proberbly get out by :-

1.1.6 Unlawful interception

The circumstances in which a person makes an interception of a communication in the course of its transmission by means of a private telecommunication system are such that his conduct is excluded from criminal liability under subsection (2) if—

(a) he is a person with a right to control the operation or the use of the system; or

(b) he has the express or implied consent of such a person to make the interception.

Basically "ITS OUR SYSTEM WE WILL DO WHAT WE WANT WITH IT". Depends how BT want to throw the wording of public vs private telecoms system.

I personally think they are on dodgy ground..

Die for Gaia, save the planet?

David Willis
Happy

Maths, Chemistry and English

Since we've been forced to look at equations,

bamboozled with chemistry and been presented with a new word (misanthropy - a good word!)

I know my education sucks occasionally (too busy building rail guns)..

Can I stick up my hand and invent a new english word ?

--- Chavite --- (Chav-ite)

Like luddite - but breaking chavs instead of technology..

Seems we have quite a collection of them here today..

eBayer invites buyers to rip him off

David Willis
Pirate

Letter from eBay's Founder

A great letter (sniff) and from a Froggie at that..(sniff) brings a tear to the eye..

Perhaps e-bay need to reword the letter -

"Most people are honest. And they mean well. Some people go out of their way to make things right. I've heard great stories about the honesty of people here. Occasionally you may meet people who are not honest. It's a fact of life."

This is true.. I've been an e-bayer for many years and had very few bad experiences.

"Here, those people can't hide. We'll drive them away. Protect others from them. And this depends on your active participation. Become a registered member. Use eBay's Feedback Forum. Give praise where it's due — make complaints where appropriate. Let everyone know what a joy it was to deal with someone."

This is complete twaddle.. People can and do hide. Getting rid of feedback and hiding paypal behind a cloud of "safety insurance" does nothing to drive away these scum.

As a reword..

"Here, those people may hide, we won't drive them away (after all we need every commision payment made on every transaction) But be assured you may be protected by insurance that may cover you (caveat emptor). Become a registered member (the more people that use us, the more money we make). Don't bother yourself with eBay's Feedback Forum (we can't be bothered running it as costs too much and is far to complicated). Let everyone know what a joy it is to loose your hard earned products and still pay a cut to a large American Multinational Corporation. PS. If you choose to leave e-bay and our company flounders our directors will simply take a large pay off and go run one of the other internet auction sites into the ground. Resistance is futile..

I don't think they'd publish the bits in brackets

Hmm maybe a bit jaded for a Monday afternoon ?

eBay gets negative feedback about ban on negative feedback

David Willis
Flame

Boo Hoo E-Bay

Pubilishing your business address on all material (letterheads, business cards, advertising, websites & even in your e-mail headers !!) is a legal requirement that kicked off on 30th Jan 2007. E-bay is quite late falling into line.

All powersellers or "high volume" sellers being registered as businesses will be e-bays answer to HMG demanding tax from high volume e-bay sellers - they are simply identifying them for HMG (cheers e-bay)

Banning negative feedback.. what a f@c@ing stupid idea. Just because you can't be as@ed policing it.

So you don't get your goods.. claim on the insurance..

so the seller takes you for a ride.. claim on the insurance.

Surely it makes more sense to know if sellers and buyers are good or bad, enter a transaction with this information and only claim if you have to..

Otherwise at some point in the near future the insurance will become unclaimable.

As for tit for tat bad feedback.. THIS IS WHERE EBAY FAILS MISERABLY.. but at the end of the day somebody who has been trading for several years can expect a small amount of negative feedback, somebody who has been trading for several weeks should NOT have large amounts of negative feedback. Its how those of us who trade make intelligent decisions to do so!

Like most large American IT companies E-bay want to be fat, well paid AND Lazy..

Well as a buyer and seller for a long time I for one will not be using e-bay if they get rid of customer feedback.

There are plenty of other internet auction sites.

Straw: Police can bug MPs without asking Cabinet

David Willis
Coat

Bugging

Wha!.. HMG is bugging its MP..

Well they are already bugging (evesdropping - but yes they are annoying as well) over 200,000 UK citizens.

Next thing they will be bugging the Royal family members..

Oh.. sorry they they have already done that.. and broadcast the information to most of the UKs radio Hams... and nobody questioned them..!!.

Ahh well rant over.. I expect I'm NOW classed as a subversive..

Just to make sure.. keywords - GCHQ, WMD, Atomic Bomb, Guy Fawkes..

Just keep your eyes open for monitoring request 200,001..

Pipex Business calls in the strategy boutique

David Willis
Flame

Pipex..

See no Evil

Hear no Evil

Speak no Evil

Screw the customer base, make as much money as possible in as short as possible time and flog the business.

Ok if somebody can translate that lot into latin it makes a good company motto.

As a "used to be happy" Pipex customer I'm happy to say I will shortly be another statistic on the "customer slippage figures".

Hope the ass@ole who started this crap looses a bundle!..

US navy electro-cannon test successful

David Willis
Happy

Big Railgun..

Ok.. so mission plan..

1. Choose enemy target..(say a T72)

2. Drive 30 tonne articulated lorry up to target, reverse to face target and open rear doors.

3. Tap on turret of tank, ask them were the nearest electrical socket is, and ask them if they mind waiting for gun to charge up.

4. Plug in, charge up and fire...

The above can be repeated 4 x then back to base for a new barrel..

Hmm.. and the man portable feasability of this is ??

PS built something similar out of solenoids at high school. It could fire a six inch nail through 3 telephone directories (the old thick ones not the new thin ones). Never suffered barrel wear (did suffer appauling jam problems). But at least it was men portable (one for the solenoid assembly one for the batteries)

Computer system suspected in Heathrow 777 crash

David Willis
Flame

Fuel or Electronics

Have done work with RR engines, the things are so reliable its almost unbeliveable. I've seen the accident docs for RR engines that have ingested Albatrosses on take off from Auckland. A bit of a hiccup and the plane keeps going.

There are multiple control computers for the engines.

Either bad software or bad fuel.

After scares with Chineese pet food and Chineese toys Whats the bet that the JP40 has melamine in it?..

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's

David Willis

Drugs?

Time to start taking the dried frog pills ?

What harm could they do (except to the frogs and your tastebuds)

ISPs turn blind eye to million-machine malware monster

David Willis

ISPs play a part

So far 99% of illegal activity has been caused by criminals. These people use limitations in national legislation to make money.

The only response so far has been by many countries increasing their local legislation to ban such activities. Great if the guy cracking your system is German and the German government lock him up. Not so great if he is Russian or Chinese, as the German government have no control.

So if national legislation doesn't work what about international legislation?

Great idea, lets ban all bad activity.

Ok, bad news 1% of illegal activity is government inspired. Either through the direct creation of government sponsered bodies (Chinese Army) or through covert support of criminal groups (Russia). This 1% is increasing.

So here is a scary thought. All the good countries have banned people doing bad things. The hackers we used to employ to protect our networks are now in prison and their tools have been banned (Hi to everybody in Germany!). Who is going to stop the wave of future attacks from individuals/countries who have a different opinion as to the responsibilities of an internet citizen.

Should national governments be allowed to monitor all traffic and tell us what we can and can't do ? or would we prefer our ISP to help us when things start going pear shaped ?.

The national government idea could work, but would you really want nanny state extened into the internet ? ( I'd love to see the network equivilant of a Gatso Camera and love to hear the explanation). Would you TRUST these people?

The ISP idea WOULD work. Charge a little extra for the net connectivity, a code of conduct, and a decent customer service team. The model is out there lets make use of it.

ISP's must play their part before the entire net grinds to a halt.

Hot-air powered railway to harvest energy from cars

David Willis

A bit of Light Relief

I suppose at peak times you'd have the satisfaction of sitting in an adjacent queue of traffic as the people on the light rail system. After all stationary vehicles produce little wind, therefore little electricity to make the train go. An incentive to make the roads work?

I've got some sawdust: can I call it chocolate?

David Willis

Food n Drink

Ok if we are going to bash the Americans over their food standards shouldn't we start at the bottom and work our way up ?

Budweiser "King of Beers"..

Beer it is not !

Larger it is barely !

Yellow, fizzy, sugared & flavored water (similar to coke but with less colour and flavor)

with a dash of added alcohol.. yum yum !!

Perhaps "carbonated alcoholic beverage" is nearer the truth.

As for American chocolate

Brown, sweet tasting , gritty.. full of animal goodness.. sounds like dog doo.. (not sure about the sweet tasting bit tho.. never eaten dog doo)..

BA edits Branson from Casino Royale

David Willis

Wasted Time

Surely time would be better spent sorting out peoples luggage rather than dicking with a movie who's audience has already given BA their money.

Orange SPV M3100 3G handset

David Willis

M3100 Comments

Nice phone, nice PDA, much better build quality than the previous small factor HTC PDA phones (vario/MDA). Good quality camera, excellent use of buttons and scroll wheel. Even the voice dialling seems to work without a hitch. Looks good, feels solid (haven't dropped it yet tho!).

Gripes ?

Explorer through 3G seem to take ages "Locating" - moving between cells can leave you with a frustrating "Locating" message - problem with explorer or Orange 3G ?

Twice now (in three days) my phone has dropped off the network and getting back on has been either by hard reset or into and out of flight mode.

Finally - ORANGE!! - spend less money on silly inflatable animals and let me have a resonably priced 3G data access package! - if you don't I'll start using wi-fi n skype !