Posts by JaitcH

In reality this latest incident is ...

an upscale version of "swatting" -- when a anti-social person fakes a real life emergency situation so serious it requires the SWAT team - except soon United will be flying empty.

Lousy airline anyway.

I don't trust Google or even use their Search these days ...

but Google achieved it's position by simply doing things better, by being more innovative.

Let Yelp and the other has beens improve - many have switched to DuckDuckGo and Ixquick because of Google's subservience to Hollywood.

Bing is a pathetic knock-off of Google and it plays with certain search terms and lies in your face.

Look what a force for good Android has been - keeping Apple more honest - making work for hundreds of thousands writing Apps and even promoting them, too.

Sounds like the HSBC

In a recent court action it was revealed that a HSBC UK employee leaked data about me, quite deliberately, in the belief I was dead. (Surprise!)

I contacted the Data Protection Officer who informed me that for the princely sum of GBP10 she would let me know what exactly was leaked.

The information also included voice analysis data - which I had confused by using voice changing software.

As I explained to the woman, I can find out exactly what was leaked by reading the transcript, what I really wanted to know what they were doing about the leaker.

Cue long, pregnant, silence.

CAUTION: MOST CALLS TO HSBC, world-wide, ARE SUBJECT TO SECRET ANALYSIS.

"...range of fetching colours including weathered metal."

Bell Canada built a microwave tower at Pharmacy and Eglinton in Scarborough many years ago. The 'weathering' depends on pollutants in the air.

Unfortunately, it was around this time the Ontario government introduced pollution reducing legislation and the Bell monster took much, much, longer to weather than planned. It also developed multi-hued colours as it failed to weather as fast as hoped.

Now it looks just like a rusty erection, outdated by fibre optic cable. But the ice dropping from it sure dissuades people from parking under ot!

If the USA gave a damn about international laws and treaties, it would not have ...

1. Invaded Panama and arrested Noriega;

2. It wouldn't have invaded Cambodia during the American War in VietNam;**

3. It wouldn't have invaded Laos during the American War in VietNam;

4. It wouldn't have invaded Afghanistan;

5. It wouldn't have invaded Iraq;

6; Ir wouldn't have changed the government in Iraq;

7. It would have told Pakistan about killing Bin Laden before the fact;

8. It wouldn't have rendered prisoners from one country to another;

9. It wouldn't have used waterboarding/other harsh interrogation methods in “black site” jails;

10. It breached Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949;

11. It breached Article 147, “unlawful deportation/transfer/unlawful confinement of protected person”;

12. It operated an illegal international “disappearance” operation, on an international scale'

Etc.

In other words, the USA treats the world with contempt.

**We are having a huge celebration of America's defeat and departure from VietNam FORTY YEARS AGO right across the country on April 29th. Tyrants and sovereign terrorists can be beaten..

"You almost never see copying as blatant or as reckless as this."

Ahem, except by Apple.

These modems are approved, and recommended, by

GCHQ and NSA.

You don't trust your governments?

Another hat-tip to

Edward Snowden who sensitized us to all this spying.

The only 'advertising' I see ...

on some screens is: "This copy of Windows is not genuine".

We advise people to run a handy fix that removes it.

Interview reduces dangers to commonly understood terms

John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, started the piece by interviewing randomly selected volunteers in Times Square, NYC. True to form many of these Americans, particularly the younger ones, showed their ignorance in current affairs.

By going from esoteric terms such as 'metadata' to dicks (or selfies) John Oliver managed to speak to the less well informed in their own terms. Most youngsters know what a selfie is, and most didn't want their genitalia seized by Uncle Sam.

Good for you, John Oliver, on simplifying this obviously confusing subject, in very un-American terms, which is why, I guess, his show is so popular.

And Turkey wants to join the EU?

It's even more authoritarian that the UK.

Britain couldn't do this ...

it has a bare-bones Coast Guard type service.

Even the UK has to call on the USA to chase Russian subs away from Scotland. And to think the UK once 'ruled the waves'.

If Ford, or Mercedes, buys advertising space ...

why should they have to promote Chrysler or Jaguar?

Let these whiners build their own web sites - it's called free enterprise.

With Windows XP you are never 'out of date'.

Having a moniker XP is great. It's timeless.

Whereas Windows 3, 7, 9, 83 immediately dates you and the OS.

XP is one of the few Windows products that has proven so reliable.

Governments should mandate E-taxi hailing

Living in Ho Chi Minh City with over 5-million scoots and around a million 4-wheeled vehicles, much of the congestion is caused by parked taxi's.

One, Vinasun, is notorious for having thousands of vehicles parked at the roadside - as soon as a road gets widened from two-lane (one each way) to four lane - the kerb lanes fill with parked Vinasun, predominantly, vehicles.

If governments stiffened up on taxi parking (and standing - i.e. with a driver in the seat) and insisted that taxi industry groups implemented develop/buy Apps with the servers providing access to all legal taxi companies (we also have numerous illegal 'pirate' companies) the community benefits would be enormous.

Idling taxis could park on less crowded streets, pollution would be reduced, emergency U-turns with minimalist signals to scoop a passenger would diminish and governments would/could get a handle on taxi income for tax purposes.

It is NOT a "factual inaccuracy" that ...

API.FACEBOOK.COM as well as Twitter cookies are being tossed in by El Reg and their article pages.

As the Chinese say: "Point a finger at someone and three point back at you".

A Banker who doesn't know how to Hide Money?

Must be a first ... he should have called the HSBC and mentioned Switzerland or Jersey.

Having worked, in my yoof, in cable rack rooms ...

I know from first hand experience that tidy, well organised, wire racks and cable channels are the key to high reliability and long life.

It's why POTS/Telcos have always invested in wire rooms - recently reduced in importance by programmable switches (exchanges).

Heavy use of identification tags and Identity Ink Rollers (for marking the length of the cable) PLUS very good documentation is hard to beat.

Multiple cables provide redundancy and security.

Another UK technological failure. Why?

Smartmeters are not new, they have been around so long that second and third generation versions are coming to market.

The big difference is that in overseas jurisdictions, commercial enterprises are doing the switch-over with their own money - and what private enterprise likes to lose money?

But no, the Tory government decides to screw the public for the costs with power utilities laughing all the way to the bank. Why not simply mandate the costs will be born by the utilities and that they must convert 5% of their meter base per year?

Memories of Meccano

Christmas was Meccano upgrade time, in my youth, when you hoped that you would get a big enough set to make the impossible come true.

Decades later Meccano has new uses such as mechanical prototypes but it's getting harder to find out here in Indochina.

The Chinese are making one, out of plastic, which is still great for prototypes except it has little strength. Still, it's rewarding that today's e-generation still has a fascination and will lay down all their electronic goodies to get 'back to basics'.

Real C.A.S.H. is still king: Kenya’s 'cash economy' - has audit trails

The one thing that C.A.S.H. doesn't generate is an audit trail!

I live with C.A.S.H., it is truly wonderful - even government agencies in VietNam love cash. For example, the national electricity generator orders many line installation accessories, such as brackets, clamps, angle supports, etc.

To 'stretch' their budgets, this government owned agency pays C.A.S.H. to avoid paying 10% VAT. There is a law, however, that requires payments over USD$3,500 value to be paid by bank transfer. Instead, the company, EVN, sends men out each day with satchels filled with billions of Dong and they go around settling accounts. No VAT! If the amount owed exceeds USD$3,5000 they make repeat daily calls until the debt is satisfied.

For many reasons, I treasure my privacy. I can travel and not leave a 'mouse trail' of credit card charges which can be brought up real time on screens in police an national security offices in many countries around the world. HMRC loves 'audit trails', too, to check that your declared income jives with your known out going. I can enjoy a sumptuous meal and not have Plod know anything about what or where or when.

International 'ethnic' banking needs C.A.S.H.. This is the banking system that can 'transmit' tens of thousands of Pounds almost anywhere in the world for a miserly GBP20 per transaction. And often overnight.

Try THAT with the HSBC! Usually a minimum of GBP40 plus two days and NOT delivered in the currency paid in. And they make a fortune by using strange rates of exchange.

PayPal, Moneygram, Western Union are all US banking facilities and the US government has pipelines into their servers.

Even governments are getting into Bitcoin and you can guarantee they aren't doing it for YOUR benefit.

C.A.S.H. is quick, too, those who wait in supermarket line-ups can attest to that.

I have, on occasion, handled large sums of money. I always transfer them between one bank to another in C.A.S.H., in amounts less than USD$10,000, as it breaks the audit trail. NEVER accept a 'cashiers cheque' - they are easily traced.

Mark Pesce, the author shows his ignorance when he says: "In the ‘developed world’ we use slow and antique systems like clearinghouses to settle our payments, a process that can take days".

These clearinghouses are used to settle accounts between BANKS. Not 'clear (individual) cheques'.

A bank receiving a cheque for deposit, completes the magnetic character coding for the cheques it receives, regardless on which bank they are drawn and then they are scanned into the receiving banks network. The physical cheques travel at a more leisurely pace to individual cheques processing facilities where they are scanned and photographed back and front.

The digital data is used to achieve a total of cheques received from the various banks in the country. Each morning, at the 'clearinghouse' a bunch of suits sit down at a precise time, and they exchange totals.

Say the HSBC has cheques worth £10.5-billion drawn on Lloyds accounts, and £4.4-billion drawn on Barclays, rather than moving the cash around, these amounts are offset by cheques drawn HSBC - the outstanding debits and credits are 'cleared'.

And woe is the bank that is late for 'clearing' - interest starts getting clocked from the stipulated time.

Banks hate cheques and they hate cash - cash is their vaults isn't making interest.

So away with your digital this and digital that, the REAL thing can't be beat!

Galileo ... at condescension of the USA

Hopefully all the GPS receiver manufacturers will update their software so we can receive all four navigation systems.

We should remember, the Euro Galileo system only operates with the condescension of the USA who have stated that 'they will knock them out of the sky' if they are not switched off/encrypted when the US decides that it should be so.

So go tug your forelocks.

Ixquick does not record it's users' IP addresses at all, so I ...

simply don't use any US search engine. DuckDuckGo is a winner, too.

It's high time all these countries, including the UK, understand that their powers are limited.

All Judge Vernon Broderick has done is to reinforce the concept of avoiding ANYTHING and EVERYTHING involving the USA.

You can imagine what ...

lurid thoughts must circulate in the 'minds' of the narrow-minded bas*ards who twist every bare leg into sexual innuendo complaints. Likewise for the LONE COMPLAINER.

And American Apparel should simply replace the photo's with links to it's non-UK web sites.

Perhaps if AA simply lopped the models head off consumers would be less likely to regard her as being younger than 16 years of age.

Voice-recognition analysis ... that's what HSBC has on it's Customer Service Lines

HSBC has voice-recognition analysis software strapped across many of it's service lines - they don't tell you exactly that they are using it.

I've been having great fun with it. If you have music playing in the background it messes up and the Squaddie from Sri Lanka, Mumbai, Manila or one of hundreds of sweatshop cubicles asks you turn the music down.

A steady tone also blocks HSBC voice snooping. One Squaddie got exasperated so I asked him what his problem was and he then told me about their system.

On another occasion I used voice-changing software and a spectrum analyser to determine my vocal sound characteristics which were then used so my long suffering personal assistant, using the voice changer, could emulate me.

We called the help line, and sure enough the software was happy. During the call I slowly faded from the emulated sound to her own voice and only afyer 3 or 4 minutes of female conversation did he figure she was not me!

So much for high tech HSBC.

Prison solves nothing and costs a fortune

What really hurts is stopping similar behaviour like barring access to computers and the like.

Or weekday absence from their homes - only to permit work.

Unlike John Cleese' Parrot, criminal records ...

don't die even when they are expired by time.

There are two types of CR printouts, my friend told me, for immigration. One is good for some countries like the USA, Canada, etc. and the other is a regular one you obtain for personal use.

The former has codes that covertly indicate a criminal record and the 'personal' that shows everything in plain language.

If you are granted a 'clean sheet' in Canada, you get just that - no record, although a minister can order a recidivist record to be returned for serious offenses.

The USA doesn't do 'clean sheet's unless a politician gets involved. But they also have a crafty question - "Have you ever been arrested"? Lying, BTW, lying is a Federal offence. Remember the 5th Amendment, shuts Cops up.

Leading Edge Techology? No, incompetent users.

This stuff has been around for YEARS. Everyone is making SoC for the business.

One good thing, MESH radio can be hacked, so you can make like a meter and send encrypted messages - FREE!

The Privacy Invasion Disease is spreading to lawyers

My Mother died 12 years ago and a large firm of lawyers was wanting to contact me. I have a bank a account in the UK.

Amongst the data they wanted was:

- Current address and contact details, including e-mail addresses to contact you on and telephone numbers. (AFTER they contacted me)

- Your wife's full name and details of any children you may have, including names and dates of birth. (To collect money from a Will?)

- Details of your current occupation and your work and movements over the last seven years. (To collect money from a Will?)

- Details of truck/lorry accidents and copies of any hospital records relating to your accidents. (To collect money from a Will?).

- Details of transactions on your bank account with the XXXXXX bank for the last three months. (To collect money from a Will?)

- A recent photograph of you with some kind of evidence within it of the fact that the photograph has recently been taken (such as a recent newspaper) (And the lawyer can't even buy a Vietnamese newspaper in London to compare it with)

I thought it was the wrong form letter - but no, the lawyer came back with The information is to satisfy the identity processes we use to comply with the Anti- Money Laundering Regulations (This is money from one UK bank to another UK bank)

This security theatre is going too far!

P.S. The lawyers name is withheld to protect her stupidity!

This is news? This is new? We've had cell base stations making out like lamp posts for ages

There are many Vietnamese cell systems and most are distinguishable by their base equipment.

VNPT and Mobiphone are owned by the P.T. & T and engineered like telephone companies, often buying flat-roofed houses on which to mount antennae.

The youngest operators, VietTel (owned by the VN military) and BEE (part owned by the Interior [security] police) buy only pole mounted equipment.

VNPT only uses InterNet DSLAMS in the rural areas that mount on poles. Pole mounts beat flooding, too.

"... mouthpiece of rogue NSA sysadmin Edward Snowden"

Why the snide remarks?

Would have thought El Reg had more class.

Have the NSA and GCHQ got the secret key from MY phone SIM-card? UNLIKELY

As my most confidential comms go out encrypted and none of the smartphones have SIMs - WiFi only.

We also have a maintenance contract for the new MESH radio system on the electric grid - so we piggy-back on that and have a few Nodes through which we access the PSTN.

I also use Silent Circle whenever I need voice.

GCHQ/NSA can't listen in on ...

two people, lieing in a park or other comfortable location, facing each other with their faces cupped in their hands and whispering.

The other medium that is off their scale is infra-red, point-to-point, communications. Some astounding distances can be achieved - measured in kilometres - with a narrow reception aperture.

If course, being Britain, they could BAN WHISPERING.

It's about time the UK Government recovered funds from ...

breached contracts. They should do what the U.S. does - put them on a shit list so they don't get further contracts..

The NHS are the most glaring examples of failed contracts and no doubt the War Ministry/Ministry of Offence has a longer list of failures.

"very usefully two power in ports so there’s some power redundancy support"

Great feature. One for a wall wart and the other for a battery!

VietNam: Land of thousands of WiFi equipped buses - and a great resource for pedo's, etc

VietNam is, too many, a place where America got it's comeuppance.

In fact, it is a crucible where technology manufacturers market test new products and potential products. And the citizens are smart enough to exploit new technology. And the government is fairly tolerant in this respect. (We even have amateur radio operators, chip foundries, etc). We also have almost total cell coverage backed up by satellite services for the most remote areas.

WiFi has been a major marketing factor since the earliest modems became available. And when mobile WiFi became available it was fitted to the numerous thousands of buses, seated and sleeper, that ply the roads.

I had an opportunity to test these mobile hot spots recently when I travelled from Ho Chi Minh City, down to the southern coast at Rach Gia and then east to Ha Tien, the nearest town to the Cambodian border. Throughout the journey I was able to view YouTube videos with minimal delays.

On the way back to my hotel, I happened to pass by the rear side of the bus station parking lot where I spotted many laptop and smartphone screens lighting the darkness. Curious, I wandered over.

There, I found, about 20-30 teenagers busy accessing free bus WiFi - it appears that buses all over the country leave their WiFi equipment energised 24/7 - and getting great service (speed) as well. (Passwords are painted in large lettering above the drivers window)

Just imagine the possibilities in the UK. Free, mobile, access to all manner of web sites that might offend the sensibilities of Nannies and Cameron - funded by the Tory government! And Plod following along trying to figure out who was uploading girlie pics, etc.

More security theatre

I cannot see how my diet choice impinges on security improvement - unless you are looking for dedicated religious adherents. There again, if someone was going for his/her minute of glory would they really be adverse a last meal variation?

Experienced travellers, as well as Freedom Fighters, are all aware of the tricks to use - telephone numbers can be created on the fly, particularly cell handset numbers. Same for street addresses - whose going to check? And how?

The rates can be indicative of government/other organisation discounts - great for spotting those spooks travelling incognito. I always pay cash - never by plastic - to my travel agent who pays IATA (for 'plated' travel agents) through bank transfer.

So, essentially, the system is failed from the get go. Then there is always the 'hidden' city option to really confuse Plod..

Early one morning a few days ago ...

I spotted an iThingy in the gutter. So I pulled my motorcycle over and picked it up. No owner information so I had the SIM hacked and we eventually found the owner.

He said he dropped it but after buying a new LG cell handset he didn't bother picking it up. I guess that says it all.

Honey Pots - aka Fund Raising

So the Cops can use technology, but not their victims?

Many traffic signal light control computers are used by Plod and Company to determine where 'speeding zones' are located. They then set their speed 'guns' up and rake in the revenue.

In Toronto there are several well-known 'Honey Pots' - one on Bloor Street East just past Greenwood, on the Don Valley Parkway side. Especially on Sunday evenings.

I once got ticketed for speeding on Toronto's Thorncliffe Park Drive - whilst in a favourite Honey Pot location. The problem was I was on foot and was swinging my key ring in my hand! Still got a ticket - and the Cop scored a cookie point with his sergeant. The judge threw the charge out.

Waze, etc., don't endanger Cops and Plods - only in their 'minds'. The USA has a Constitutional right to free speech and this includes listing Honey Pots. Britain, naturally, has a different view point - they use BANNING.

Does this include malware from NSA, GCHQ and Uncle Tom Cobley?

Damn Windows, even though set to NOT upgrade dies, as does Firefox - did you version 35 yesterday?\

I never like upgrading until I have waited a week so I can see what others are saying about the 'new and improved'.

UK Fibre Optic Distribution: It beggars belief

that a geographically small country can boast so little Fibre Optic infrastructure.

UK ;and mass is 241,930 km2, according to the World Bank; South Korea has 97,100 km2 and VietNam has 310,070 km2.

South Korea boasts up to 100 Mbyte residential fibre optic service; VietNam up to 40 Mbyte residential fibre optic service.

VietNam has 5 terrabyte back bone (plus dark) capacity north to south and even in a village of a few hundred people, over 115 kilometres from a large switching centre, we get 20 mbyte service. Our DSLAMS are pole mounted.

Canada has fibre service even in small towns in northern Ontario.

The question I ask is; Why is the UK so far behind?

Beagle: A great avatar for Britain - Great idea, poorly implemented

So often in the past British ingenuity has developed products yet they can't market them.

Beagle was just a 'fork' in this history.

" ... and all of the information has been deleted"

Who, particularly DB managers, actually believe this statement?

It's been my experience that database managers are the biggest Magpies around ... less heartbreaking to buy a bigger, better, hard drive than to delete treasured, aged, junk.

And the US Government must be one of the worst offenders.

Another 'reason' for Mad MAY to leave the EU

The very initials EU highlight what Europe is trying to do.

Unfortunately, all the sense and reason in the world won't dissuade the Tories to act sensibly.

Copyrights should be limited to the life or a person or 25 years. The extended periods in some jurisdictions are quite unnecessary.

The same applies to patents, they should have a life of about 5 years and certain things should be barred from being patented at all - especially in connection with human, plant and animal functions.