Posts by JaitcH

To the 'Honourable' Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications

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'There must be a limit to what the gov knows about its people'

So how does this pontificating minister reconcile his stated aims with the Crazy Crone MAY and her desire to stick GCHQ's nose into to very form of communication in the UK? Silent Circle and other technologies have essentially rendered The Crones plan mute - anyone can have total privacy and she better believe that any Arab ne'er do wells will surely employ the technology.

Then that bunch of reprobates hiding behind the acronym ACPO. They are the ones who set policy rather than the series of lazy minsters who really don't give a damn. Cameron promised to destroy the national ID database which, allegedly, he has done but in it's place ACPO has initiated the ANR (Automatic Number Recognition) so they can record the movements of number plates associated with the innocent and the criminal alike. I read the number is 20-million a day at the moment and destined to ramp up much higher.

The public is slowly becoming aware just how deep Mad May is in their pants. Most of the UK population is totally innocent of security breaches yet she will have access to almost all conversations without even the nod of a judge.

If the UK is such a stand up country, how come it permits the USA to have military bass on it's territories and even Menwith Hills Satellite Spy Station? The USA doesn't allow anyone to have standalone military bases on it's territory.

The question is: Why is the UK electorate so accepting of all this crap? It is time to grab each and every MP and demand that this nonsense ceases, now.

Most tech mags and reviews are West based

You should remember that Blackberry and Nokia are big in well defined overseas non-Western markets, predominantly Indochina and Africa. Our needs are different. I don't include HSBC-CA in this advanced group as I was informed I would need MS Internet Explorer to use my account - they don't do Firefox, Opera, Chrome or anything.

Whilst handset bonking might be growing in popularity in the West, we are only just getting plastic with embedded chips. A HSBC subsidiary has foisted it's crapware 'SecureKey' on to it's subsidiary and they have all sorts of 'issues'. How do you educate an agrarian population out in the sticks?

Battery life is of prime interest as if you are toiling away in the back 100 (acres/hectares) you want something that has a long life. Ditto Africa where payments/transfers are a major business business/ daily life need.

Th abysmal showing by Apple simply underlines that one fits all doesn't work. China needs multiple SIMs, one handset I picked up there has the capacity for FOUR hot SIMs.

This is very, very, generous of Apple as by providing ...

plans all the knock off stores in countries that don't recognise / accept stupid patents can happily copy the Apple concept so they can have a knock off store selling knock off products.

Way to go Apple.

Apple doesn't ...

copy it simply patents prior art.

Sorry to hear they lost triple damages and a ban on importations. Not.

Subcontracting government work is ...

unreliable and expensive.

How much will this mess cost the taxpayer?

Tories have no sense of humour, especially Harper 'Progressive' Conservatives

The Canadian government is, unfortunately, presently in the hands of the 'Progressive' Conservatives who don't do humour.

Gail Shea, an ugly fat frump < http://www.vip.it/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/gail-shea_torta.jpg > used to be Fisheries minister which, by her appearance, suited her fine.

We await to see if David Gallant appeals this knee-jerk decision.

As Skyhawk said on the CBC.CA site "When a lowly call centre employee of a government department gets the attention of the Minister, you know they're doing something right!"

Poor, poor Apple ...

not a promising start for their new year.

All that bad PR for Apple and all that free PR for Samsung. Proves bullying doesn't pay.

What's that spinning noise coming from Job's coffin?

PayPal is ...

a joke and hardly a bank. What bank screws it's customers like PP did Wikileaks?

The USA is dithering on its response to that claim.

Joe Biden is potentially running for president and this means he needs money.

He is already in the pocket of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), so undoubtedly there will be conditional agreements for support being discussed.

As for cutting communications inks to Antigua and Barbuda, the US will likely run into the ITU who don't really agree to that sort of thing. Cuba's connections for years were routed through a sea cable to Miami where most everyone could get connected to Cuba.

Smart Canadians set up 'Call Cuba' businesses whereby American could call into Canada and get connected to Cuba, beating the stupid ban.

Cuba is also linked to South American networks through cables and can always fall back on satellite links.

Up yours, USA.

Haven't made a voice call in years

With the rip-off voice charges Canadian cellco's sock you with, it's hardly surprising.

I've now turned my voice call ringer and vibrator off so I can choose to answer SMS/text in my own time at my convenience. My cellco 'managed cell system', in VietNam, sends me a SMS message every time a voice call is not answered,

I haven't even bothered to stick a SIM in my new Samsung Note 2 as there are so many free WiFi Hotspots in VietNam it makes cell service redundant.

Google Doing Good Things

Google often lives up to it's unofficial motto of "Don't Be Evil".

Apart from grooming a new bunch of Google supporters, it generates good will.

Could be good for a tax write-off, if they paid tax.

64GB - and a $100 price increase

So how much for an SD socket?

Ahhh, CISCO ...

the company whose equipment that the FBI and NSA like as they have the keys to the CISCO backdoors.

I wonder if GCHQ has a key, too?

Pity Google does reeally push the issue by ...

publishing full details of the documents used to demand the information unless explicitly denied by law or a judge.

And Google can help by by deleting all records of a document when it is deleted by a user.

My employer owns it's own mail server and all records are deleted two days after it has been read.

Guess there's a ...

crack in Jobs walled garden.

Chances are ...

that your typical Brit lager lout can't answer the questions.

Several different tests have proved that Americans don't know how many states there are or what they names are. (50 states but most people forget about a whole bunch of other acquisitions, such as Puerto Rico, and thirteen others. Canada is not a US state, despite what some Americans think)

In Canada many Canadians could not answer the question: How many provinces and territories are there in Canada. (10 provinces and 3 territories)(Northwest Territories, Nunavut & Yukon)(Provinces have the right to use Constitutional Powers on their own, whilst Territories exercise power at the discretion of the Federal government.)

At least ...

one acknowledged authoritative source recognises the dangers, pity ignorant politicians don't.

And they call them 'honourable'?

Pay Pal, an alternative spelling for ...

fraud.

They also provide data to the US government, without warrants.

grant permanent-resident status to foreign nationals who receive advanced tech degrees

Can you imagine the UK even thinking about this? Mad May would never condone this.

Instead they are focussed on the removal of all. Just think of the technological advances that could be achieved by replicating the proposed US efforts in this regard.

Many ... are feeling little love for the US government at the moment

Got that right!

This ill-feeling towards things American even affects backpackers safety with people really upset even attacking US citizens and corporations.

Perhaps if the US pulled it's horns in, stopped droning people and acted positively like a global citizen should, the US profile would reduce along with attacks.

Operating torture centres like Guantanamo should doesn't endear the US to anyone, nor does illegal rendition, or demanding the production of people to answer charges in the US rather than in the country in which the 'crime' was committed.

These bastards have even ordered Canadians to be removed from direct Canada <> Canada flights, flights that never landed at a US airport. Why does it need ALL the flight manifests for ALL flights from Bangkok, even for flights terminating in the region?

Why does it need to track money movements, internationally, of all people. If money travels from the UK to Greece or Thailand, what the hell business is it of the US? All the res systems that have computers in the US are on-line, in real time as are credit card transactions and hotel reservations - world-wide.

Why does the US need military bases in the UK, or anywhere in Europe? There are literally thousands of mini-bases in numerous countries that aren't well known.

Their DEA and FBI types swagger around guest countries, advertising their presence to all and sundry, seemingly ignoring the niceties of diplomacy. The Australian national police also have offices in many Asian countries but they show respect to their host countries maintaining a low, non-disruptive profile.

Why is the new US Embassy in London so large? The number of real diplomats are few in number but the security related people are massive. And Britain is a friendly country?

Obama shed tears for children killed in December, yet he routinely authorises attacks on children, women and men who have absolutely no links to this phantom war on terrorism. These were crocodile tears, IMO. His idea of 'colloquial damage' can be measured in miles/kilometres.

So when the US stops doing the World Cop stunt, lowers it's profile and stops saying it is the best perhaps they will suffer fewer attacks. And be more popular.

Windows 8 PC - only $1, few takers

In Ho Chi Minh City copy shops sell CDs and DVDs of copy software for USD$1/each.

I was buying software a week or so ago and I asked how many Win 8 they had sold and the assistant said, with a wry smile, none!

Americans use such self-explanetory language ... once you learn the vocabulary

"battery, occupied burglary and resisting without violence": Assault, breaking in to a home and trying to escape without hitting a cop.

The owner/shooter is typical of US gun owners I know - they have the goods but not the skills.

"Mrs Land whipped out a .38 and fired three shots" implies she was carrying on her person - and a totally useless shot.

And Mr Land grabbed a 12-gauge (bore) shotgun - obviously he didn't care for either his furniture or the perpetrator. Guess people are a little more careful murdering people under the Stand Your Ground law since some people have been incarcerated after claiming that defence following the murder of Trevon.

electrical power backup systems, based on large lithium ion batteries?

Hardly back-up. These damn things drive the all electric control surfaces, avionics, etc.

Two engined 777's are risky enough, I like my aircraft to have metal, not glorified plastic.

First time I've heard ...

an iThingy used a handle.

Perfect application. Now we need an App that can smell the steam and signal when it is cool enough not burn your mouth.

Touch Screens in the office? Forget it.

I have four 27 inch screens on my desk (at least on a bracket on my desk) and if anyone touches them, to make a point, they leave smudges and fingerprints and then I have to clean the screens all over again.

Who wants PC touch screens, except MS, on my Samsung a swipe or other motion is a nothing, on a 27 incher it's more like callisthenics.

A match made in Heaven - Crap + Crap = More Crap

Belkin seems to be in the bag business - it has over 180 bags/covers which are banged out in China for next to nothing. I can buy the same junk for around USD$0.50-USD$1 in China, but they sell it for tens of times as much in the USA.

I bought a laptop security cable as the Kingston's were out of stock. The Belkin has a split 'hook' that operates like a pair of scissors to attach to the laptop. All it really does is cut the metal socket and enlarge the hole. Still the cable and padlock are OK and I use them on my bicycle. I bought a Kingston replacement.

As for Dlink - we all know about this junk, TP-Link is far superior and you can boost the output with software hacks!

Backdoors are OK for US products but Chinese products watch out

Huawei and ZTE get accused of having back doors but none have been found but they get barred from contracts.

Yet this US supplier proudly confirms back doors.

Why does the US Congress and those Australian numb-nuts get real?

Low tech too: How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions

Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK, France and Switzerland.

< http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mussolini >

I think they are all at it!

Unlike Apple subcontractor Foxconn ...

they didn't have to attach suicide nets to their factories to stop worker's extreme protests.

I wonder if Foxconn ever thought of putting railings and bars to stop workers launching themselves in the first place?

Losing their password would leave users not only unable to log into the service ...

but also unable to recover and decrypt any stored files.

You can hardly blame Dot Com for this, just as you wouldn't a locksmith when you lose your front door key.

The iThingies are as common as dirt ...

so where is the 'cachet' in owning one?

Ignoring the fact that the reported profit is an obscene 55%, which should be enough to put anyone off buying any product, these things are as common as dirt and little better than a Ford Model T.

Seeing your charts simply highlighted the fact,

I better understand the mentality behind one company who treats the loss of an iThingy more like the loss of a pencil than a valued piece of equipment. Even a 22-year old house guest never got too excited when she lost iThingy but it turned up a couple of days later.

Why can't Jobs stay in his coffin like other people?

This bastard simply refuses to die, properly.

We all know what he was. But this is a family magazine (read by impressionable teenagers). It's a pity Edward Colligan didn't use an Android and tape the conversations.

What we need is a good old fashioned ...

war game, except this pits one nations hackers against other nations hackers.

Anonymous could be asked to join, along with those smart Russian independents.

Then we would see who really are the Top Hackers. Hell they could even make a movie of this along the lines of Top Guns. Then all these loud mouths who keep on boasting their prowess can shut up.

The prizes could be a few thousands of dollars - in the case of governments donated to a charity in the winners country - and the targets can be anything. A great target for the US would be to find a message containing purported messages about using a 'percussive' device on board an airliner. And the proof would be as they ground flights all over.

Spanish startup Geeksphone? Hope they are better than ...

their countrymen are, at making Tesco multi-meat hamburgers with wild-boar, donkeys, pork, horse and anything else lying around on the abattoir floor.

Perhaps they will find a market in Portugal or South America. Or sub-contract the deal to Chinese entrepreneurs when the Spanish economy picks up, and with it higher wages. Or they could repackage a Chinese product and wrap it a decent quality case.

If the likes of RIM is struggling, as well as Nokia-Windows, what hell dos it have?

People don't like buying potential orphans - what can a dead cell phone be used for?

US House Intelligence Committee - Written by and for CISCO

I wonder what India considers so secret? A few rustbucket diesel submarines and how to rape women and not get charged?

If you have ever worked in India you will know plagiarism exists everywhere - even, maybe more so, in government offices. Offset copies of learned books flourish.

Adopting the House Intelligence Committee is pretty pathetic, a very obvious ploy to circumvent World Trade Organisation rules, an effort led by the US government.

Don't believe me - check out the long running battle with the US over forest products that Canada won time and time again whilst the US deployed every dirty trick in the book.

So India's end run around the WTO doesn't benefit CISCO and likely Sai Systems, United Telecoms and ITI are simply knocking other companies designs.

Just think, the UK STILL sends money to India, as a developing nation. Bloody stupid.

Here's another tax evader

How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions - Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK

Read all about it! < http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mussolini >.