Posts by John Smith 19

@LondonRegger

"Also, what exactly do you mean by the Government tracking the use of the ID card?"

Look up the term "National Identity Register" or NIR and come back to us when you have.

It's been mentioned often enough but it seems you've missed it.

Re: I wonder how much of the opposition matches mine?

"Of course, once you have ID cards, it's a pretty short step to then making carrying them mandatory."

Historical note.

I believe it was it was then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who said it would take a 1 paragraph bill to change that.

Quite right.

Not just a theoretical reason to oppose it.

Re: Musk...

"I don't understand why he gets so much hate from some people, though. Yes, he's rather arrogant, like every CEO. Is it just that he's pursuing electrics instead of oil, though?"

I've listened to him speak and compared to the rehearsed-to-death slickness of banking and most CEO's he's not.

Watch some of the testimony of Bankers and other CEO's (car makers spring to mind, Chrysler is on its 3rd IIRC) asking for a US taxpayers government bailout.

Americans like confidence in their leaders. He's very smart and confident of what he's planning. That can come across as arrogant to people who've not done as much analysis as he has (which is likely to be most people).

" What's the problem, why is more legislation needed if they already have what they need?"

They have to ask about someone specifically which needs things like evidence and "probable cause," what this gives them ( supposedly only "The Security Service," but RIPA demonstrated where those can be delegated down to) everyones without having to ask anyone for it.

"Who is the ringleader in the civil "service" at the Home Office? That's where the problem lies."

There is a "Communications Capabilities Modernisation unit" within the Home Office.

You might like to start putting them under surveillance.

Re: Stupidity

"They're explicitly stating that content cannot be used for internet intercepts."

Yes that concession was grudgingly inserted in the text.

I'm quite sure most of the people really behind this are mentally adding the word "yet" to the relevant sentences.

Re: Not "imminently"

"either I'm a hardened criminal organising terror vie the internet, or I'm helping out some old folk skyping their loved ones on a borrowed laptop"

No.

When in doubt the civil servants behind this always come down on the "He's a wron'un" view.

Like Stalin, better a 100 innocents go down than 1 guilty man escapes.

"Those propellers seem kinda small for such power, I wonder what RPM do they have to do to generate enough lift to take off."

Not a problem provided the tips stay below (preferably far below) the speed of sound.

Otherwise things get loud.

Very loud. Look up "Thunderscreech" for an idea.

Re: What's the spooks' solution?

"Who the flying f'!$% voted for this bunch to waste resources on this?"

No one of course.

This was conceived at least 8 Home Secretaries ago as the Interception Modernization Programme. It's essentially an idea thought up by a group of former senior intelligence civil servants.

Naturally they are mostly PPE graduates (there was one with a degree in particle physics) with no remote idea of what they are asking for or the scale of the problem.

Re: Decisive action and commitment

"To add to that....no UK government since Thatcher has really been able to make decisive actions and commit to them fully."

I think it speaks volumes that following the Brighton bombing I'm quite sure that the usual top level spookocrats would have been telling her "This wouldn't be possible if everyone had to carry an identity card."

And I'm sure if she had believed them we would be carrying them today.

But Thatchers original background was science and I think she dug into the idea enough to see it was rubbish. With the IRA on the verge of shutting down I could not believe Blair's plans to introduce ID cards.

Never trust someone whose only background outside politics is a lawyer. They are a bit too keen on figuring out how to make something happen before asking themselves why we are doing it in the 1st place.

Re: Tyranny

"That said, I don't really understand what's with the Anglo-Saxons and their hatred of the idea of government-issued proof of identity (implementation details like fingerprints are irrelevant - apparently, any dumb piece of paper with a picture glued on it would be received just as angrily as long as there's a government stamp on it)."

Because in some countries there is a historic presumption that no ones identity needs a bit of paper or plastic card linked to a nationwide database to prove who they say they are while they are just walking along a street/sitting in a park/generally existing.

The UK Civil Servants (aided and abetted by whatever sock pocket is pretending to be in charge of the Home Office) also has a very distressing addiction (or fetish) for collecting absurdly broad amounts of personal data.

IOW They just can't be trusted.

Re: Keep calm and carry on hysterizing!

"3D PRINTERS WILL MAKE SURE THERE WILL BE DEAD CHILDREN EVERYWHERE. Now there is something to ban again."

Not to sound callus but so what?

During his speech on the subject President Obama said there had been 33 mass shootings from 1983-2013, IE more than 1 a year.

But when the time came to vote for even minimal federal gun control requirements nothing happened.

"Anyway, wasn't there a movie with Clint Eastwood about plastic gun building to kill the prez?"

I prefer the one with Harrison Ford as the President where he also gives a speech. It begins

"The dead remember our silence."

" It seemed only second to their love of gambling."

And man do the Chinese love gambling.

Re: Well he was right

"Lol and in fact it would still take a government even with nearly endless resources longer to figure out the spaghetti garbage my company calls source than to write it themselves. The ultimate way to secure source code. Make sure nobody can understand it."

You program in M ?