Posts by Mark 65

Re: Sincerest form ...

My thoughts exactly. I saw it and thought it'd be a cheaper alternative. Then I spotted i3 and thought, why?

Re: Sad

To be fair he's onto something. They ge the sale and the insurance company foots the bill.

Re: There is no reaction image for this

Another reason software patents need to go. Sooner or later America's share of the global market will decline to a point whereby to be extremely successful you won't need to deal with them at all. At that point they can shove their patent law up their arse.

Also, I'm interested in knowing whether the Government only holds this data for state schools or independents etc as well and what data is actually held?

I believe there is a country out there that has a law stating that such data about you belongs to you and hence this sort of thing is not possible.

How does this square with the European data laws, specifically:

"Any state interference with a person's privacy is only acceptable for the Court if three conditions are fulfilled:

The interference is in accordance with the law

The interference pursues a legitimate goal

The interference is necessary in a democratic society"

and

"The directive contains a number of key principles with which member states must comply. Anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice.[6] They state that the data must be:

Fairly and lawfully processed.

Processed for limited purposes.

Adequate, relevant and not excessive.

Accurate.

Kept no longer than necessary.

Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights.

Secure.

Transferred only to countries with adequate protection."

Re: Oh boy. He even rants about ranting.

I imagine the man is a bit of a perfectionist - such people tend to get the shits when others completely fuck up their work by putting a shitty window manager on top (as an example).

Re: Job requirements

Unobtainable skillsets are just an end-run around the Visa system. The old "you can't import someone if you can find the skills in the local market". Hence make up skills you'll never find and bring in the low cost foreigner. The 2001-2002 financial market downturn coincided with the big push for outsourcing and importing sub-continental workers on skilled visas.

Re: @dz-015 - Multiplayer game based on Elite?

Isn't that the reason you just hacked it and, with the previously mentioned credits and military lasers, gave yourself a docking computer.

Re: Sheltered Life

Is there a decent computer application for syncing android tablets yet? Manual transfer doesn't cut it and cloud storage is 'king stupid for large or numerous files. I'd like something that will manage the data - I'm not going to rearrange the way all my media is stored just to suit a tablet so I'd like to know before I make the decision of Nexus 7 vs iPad Mini. If there's no decent syncing app then it'll have to be the Apple. Asking as I genuinely want to know.

Re: Contempt yet?

I like Apple's gear, I confess, but fuck I am sitting here hoping, waiting, and willing the judge to smash the corporate life out of them or give some executive 30 days. Their behaviour is utterly puerile and shows nothing but utter contempt.

Re: Headlight Volation

Technically she has got a faulty headlight now. No high-beaming for her.

Re: But...

I'm more interested, given he used an external drive, what happens if it's not on or gets unplugged.

Re: Like Soldiers of Fortune

I too was confused by this statement...

"Moore said he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq but "believed he could make a difference"' in the country. He was hired to develop spending reports from the computer system used within the Ministry of Finance."

I'm not sure how much difference he thought he was going to make developing spending reports in a war-torn country still in the grips of infighting. To me he was seriously naive and I'm not surprised if anyone thinks he was just in it for the money, other than the money not sounding that great for 3 years in Iraq.

Re: That's a classic case of regulations that can't cope with progress

I don't think it is a failure to cope with progress - it is applied to "electronic goods and services" in the article - but, as described, it is a failure of member states to apply the levies they themselves voted for and approved.

I'd be interested to know whether Amazon have broken the law with what they have done, whether it be the remote wiping of the device or the general removal of items sold to the user. The EULA can say whatever it wants, it doesn't make it legally enforceable. The fact they were not even willing to discuss the matter fully and it was an "account linked to one that..." tells me they might find themselves on very thin ice.

Re: Linux laptops

Just my personal opinion, but after using Linux on and off for the last 6 years I think that what it needs is a benefactor to sponsor the porting of some major software onto it - Adobe creative suite or something - so that there is a major reason for people to switch. Wine and VMs is just too much of a pain in the arse. I'm sure the benefits of choice with window manager probably don't help the case for software vendors though - too many variables. It is getting more usable but the pace is slow.

Re: Gouge?

PS I'm no MS fan but this would seem a legitimate pricing based on the US retail price assuming the product is sold in the local market. The real villains are often the software download vendors - I bought my Adobe software from their UK store as it was less of a rip-off than the AU one.

Your advice seems to contain a contradictory element, namely...

"Therefore as long as the PPC goes through the correct process, relying solely on the argument that "I was not the driver" won't help you. "

and yet you earlier state that the normal process of contract applies (offer, acceptance, consideration etc). If you are not the driver then they cannot go after you as you did not enter into any contract and you may legitimately not know who was driving the vehicle - husband and wife with several adult children insured on a vehicle, for example. It cannot work both ways.

Re: Well Done Those People

Just a question regarding how much energy would have gone into production of 150,000 panels like these as that has an obvious effect on when they become carbon neutral themselves and start to make a dent in the CO2 created by the production of power (if it were fossil fueled) used by the desal plant?

Also, what's better - these solar panel plants or the solar reflector variety, and wouldn't those concentrated solar power systems work better with increased heat as opposed to PV panels?

Re: Another reason to thank open sourcery

Yep, open source and open formats/standards work wonders for longevity of formats. Open formats/standards are by far the best thing and should be, err, standard. After all your product should be more about the value-add than the storage format.

Re: If the alleged offences were alleged to have been committed outside the US

Their take on things is interesting - the crime is committed at the user end. How do I stop my company based overseas from breaking laws in the USA? I could feebly attempt some kind of ip block, but what of proxies, VPNs, and TOR? The user is still in the US and ip blocks aren't always reliable.

Surely it only makes sense that the crime takes place in the US only if the company actively solicits the participation of people in the US?

Re: A most obvious comment

The home of free markets has always been protectionist towards those leading light multinationals it harbours. "You can compete with our companies, just not in our country" seems to be the moral here.

Re: Strangely I can see the logic in this

I agree with the UK interpretation, it's just a shame that this will be EU wide with the magical words that orphan in one state is orphan in all. Look forward to larger companies/agencies shopping around for the best EU state in which to do orphan works business. Take a work in the UK, do the search through your Greek subsidiary and establish its orphan credentials and doubtless pay fuck all for the privilege.

Re: oh really...

I always found it amusing that the Government touted wonderful clean energy usage and pollution reduction at home whilst at the same time exporting filthy coal by the bucket load to a country that couldn't give a toss and has an energy requirement many times that of Australia. Solar studies also often do not take account of the energy requirement for manufacture although Australia is also one of the most practical places for its use.

Re: Secure

I thought that at first but then re-read the paragraph in context. They say it will make their data more secure - given we're talking about 1) UK Gov. and 2) HMRC, I have no doubt the data would be safer left on a USB stick in your local pub than on HMRC's systems so the cloud is probably an improvement for them.

Re: "long standing traditions"

@tkioz: Trouble is you can only request this happens in your jurisdiction.

Re: No biggie

Just goes to show that your systems might be smart, but your users not so.

Re: Hmm, should this have ever gone to court?

"The act clearly states that intent is needed and since this was tried in a Crown Court the prosecution must have presented enough evidence to convince 12 members of a jury that this intent existed. Those 12 jury members would be familiar with the perils of sending texts to the wrong person but despite this still found the evidence convincing enough to return a guilty verdict based on **ALL** the evidence, not just the defences."

All I think this tells you is something about the state of the society we live in and the pliability and general intelligence of your average juror.

Re: Ah! But...

After seeing that video I am now looking for a 24 month contract on two plastic cups and a piece of string.

Re: Any theories...

Theory 1 - because they can. Same reason an extra 16GB of flash costs £70 on a phone and £80 on a tablet from Apple. Just because they can, they do. It's why Apple don't do SD slots with all that profit to be had.

As for your conundrum, I'd buy a wi-fi hotspot. They can be used on multiple devices and then when LTE is present in the UK you can update the hotspot rather than the whole tablet. They also host multiple machines. Here in Oz I have the following one from Telstra and get 20Mbps indoors...

http://www.telstra.com.au/internet/mobile-broadband-prepaid/get-started/?red=/bigpond-internet/mobile-broadband/pre-paid-mobile-broadband/get-started/index.htm#4g-wifi

The data is 'king extortionate (that's Telstra) but I cant fault the service yet - I haven't tried roaming around the country with it yet.

Re: amprere hours

What would also have been useful is to put a small comparison table at the bottom (or top) of the article that chose several items (typical smartphone, tablet, and laptop) and how many charges you'd get. The iPhone, for example is listed as having a 1140mAh battery. The Galaxy S3 has a 2100mAh one.

Re: That's learning of today (the future)?

I think you'll find it is useful in demonstrating the amount of force that can be generated by a liquid evaporating (albeit one that does so at -196C). Most would not have realised that this level could occur from such a small amount of liquid. That bin bounces a long way up.

Re: so what?

How would you enact the change? To do it retrospectively would be grossly unfair but any other way creates a two-tier system. Then what, need a new inverter or panel replacement and you're on the new method? Seem unworkable and highlights electricity is all about profits not utility.

Re: Australian Businesses Outpaced By Glacier!

The PDF price list used to piss me off but you can now just use the shop online section to look things up. Info isn't always that great - speeds for USB3 drives listed as 5Gb/s etc

The secret to most Aussie companies doing so poor online is because they were about 15 years late to the party - Harvey Norman, Myers etc were still using online PDFs as recently as 2010 and for multi-billion dollar companies that is pathetic. The next reason is because, unlike MSY, most offer prices the same as their bricks and mortar stores but with an added delivery fee - smell the innovation.

Re: Apple's Success

and here's a survey...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/07/jd_power_smartphone_survey/

"Apple achieves a score of 849 and performs well in all factors, particularly in physical design and ease of operation,"

Both design elements.

Re: More meaningful statistics

That's my view on why the numbers have dropped but have stabilised - the choice users have chosen and the policy users have stuck.