Posts by JaitcH

Internet Explorer? Oh, yes ...

it's one of the things we remove when installing Windows, along with a whole lot of other fat ware.

We practice safe(r) browsing.

Why should we believe Goldman Sachs - crooks too big to fail?

Anyone who saw Goldman Sachs Blankfein testifying before the US Congress might wonder why his nose didn't grow a few feet.

So why should the tech industry put any faith in what GS mutters - they are in it for the money. Your money.

And where does his data come from?

Copy software sold hereabouts have all those little 'feelers' that reach out to Mother MS have been neutered so if his data is from MS Blankfein and gang are wrong. Again. As they were with FB - down, down, down.

The tech industry is very fickle. Just because Apple product placement manages to plaster CIS Wherever with fake pads doesn't mean they are actually going to have a viable use in business.

Had GS not been busy fiddling shortages two years ago, undoubtedly the bald-head fraud artist would have been poo-pooing 7" screens. Bet GS has ,ore fixed screens that pads.

find the gallery here on a Vietnamese forum with bandwidth issues

The 'bandwidth issues", if referring to speed, arise from the fact our international links are continually broken by fishermen.

Luckily, I can access El Reg - this time served from Rackspace, USA.

Have you ever seen the trashland they call satellite TV?

In many countries Foreign services are delivered via satellite television, usually guarded by less than effective encryption - the keycard updates are downloadable for a small donation to a card pirate.

Overnight airtime goes for as little as USD$100 per hour, which is why infomercials and religious nuts fill the airwaves. Do people really want to invest in high-end TV receivers to watch this? The commercial cable TV systems are losing business.

Satellite TV channels in the USA pour pour pure video trash down from the skies. Much of it is duplicated on competing channels. I Love Lucy, circa October 1951 to May1957, can still be seen on the air. That's when Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men, a BBC television series, were in their heyday, circa 1952-1954.

We have no TV sets in my house, yes, we can see TV programming on computer monitors but my daughter has to make a choice - computer or TV.

Quite honestly, I think people will spend money on more interactive pursuits other than waving their arms around in front of a Samsung TV set.

Better register a patent, QUICK!

Before Apple does!

We don't have licences, so there's nothing to audit and ...

besides, we get all our software from the stores down the road, or PirateBay et al.

A techie from the Plod (called Cong An - Peoples Police) arrives but they give everyone a few days notice so all our affairs are in order.

We have some MS stuff, but all the companies in town share a pile of disks and they are switched from business to business in time for Plod to see them. They also check out satellite dishes are pointing in the direction of a VN satellite, which means we have to get the dish man in to realign the antennae on our favourite satellites. And all our passworded screen savers say Linux.

The various levels of government use copy software, but MS is banned from inspecting them as they contain 'State Secrets'.

I didn't know there was a Jesish Christmas?

Between Sunset, December 8 to nightfall, December 16, 2012 they celebrated Festival of Lights, Festival of Dedication.

MAY, the token female minister and totally useless at it

Beats me how May is still a minister. She has been the author of so many failures. The police were alienated over labour cuts; she surrenders her responsibilities tp that collection of old has-beens called CPO.

She screwed up the UKBA, who have completely lost control of illegal immigrants.

Now, her nutty privacy elimination program has hit a large rock. She doesn't know what she is asking for but simply parroting the demands of GCHQ who, in turn, want to become a US NSA. Totally facile.

With millions of CCTV cameras littering the countryside and she still can't predict or interdict terrorist attacks, although she can look at them in glorious HD format - after the fact.

Even worse, this technology from the hapless BAE costing even more than the Americans 'gold plated' version.

US Government: The worlds biggest data sieve

The US keeps on flaunting it's technical prowess. If this is true how come so much of their data leaks?

Little wonder China saves so much on military R & D; The Congress should forget about Chinese backdoors and get the 'experts' to stick their fingers in the leaking dykes of US IT.

Google: Bringing the jobs home to the USA?

This should be good news for Obama.

Separating development from production actually robs R & D of knowledge and techniques learned of in production. This is a weakness of Apple as illustrated by their V5 scratched back plates.

All smart manufacturers encourage their development people to mingle with the production lines, observing how they do things. At Ford Canada they actually segregated the 'laziest' workers in to a pre-production facility and video-taped their work.

From the observed short-cuts by these 'lazy' workers manufacturing adapted their lines to incorporate these time saving strategies.

'Tis a lesson you should heed,

'Tis a lesson you should heed, Try, try again. If at first you do n't succeed, Try, try again.

[1840 T. H. Palmer Teacher's Manual 223] - Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs: (Home > Library > Religion & Spirituality > Proverbs)

One day may be the Hackers will be successful.

The Home Office still banned him from explaining his case to Parliament.

This dumb c*w who is supposed to be the Home Secretary has more lives than a litter of cats.

If the intelligence guy saw fit to shoot off in a public forum, the failure to produce him to Parliament is simply May and Cameron giving the V-sign to the nation.

The chances are it will be yet another screw-up in a long series of governmental screw-ups. These systems will only catch idiots, professional terrorists use leading edge technology, And they think a fail rate of 16.7% is acceptable.

The Americans have already invested in technology so the UK should set up a sharing arrangement. If the US have problems with this concept, the UK should simply tell them to take all their satellite junk out of Menwith Hill, Yorkshire. That would get the UK respect.

The Americans call this playing hardball. It's what they do all the time.

Meanwhile, there is Silent Circle, TOR and PGP.

That's not a leaf, it's a ...

facsimile of a certain biological feature of female homo sapiens.

Apple doesn't need anything more than a pile of nuts ... which totally encapsulates their corporate mentality.

Already they are databasing insurance provided services

In Boston there is a computer complex that records all the drugs and services provided to North American patients. I say North American because many people in Canada have drug (medicine) paid for by insurance plans. As the system is in the States, the Canadian laws against using the SIN (Social Insurance Number) as an identifier are ignored.

Anyone applying for insurance has their information checked against this medical 'credit bureau' and if judged a financial risk, coverage is denied or deductibles raised so high that insurance is almost worthless.

So our medical records (i.e.doctor and hospital) are confidential? Not really, as insurers simply ask for a release and then they have access to our every intimacy.

There is not much more private than DNA, which is why police want access and why insurers want access. Better stand up NOW and tell that prized idiot Cameron to forget it. Any provisions against divulging your DNA profile are useless as all it takes is a judge a and a policeman lying his teeth off. Not too uncommon these days.

Governments cannot be trusted and manic course to strip citizens of all and any privacy has t be fought now, not after the b*stards have nothing left to exploit.

How come, I ask, does Cameron find the money to fund these hair brained schemes yet none to make the NHS do it's prime duty - helping heal people, expeditiously?

Why doesn't Apple simply 'Man Up'?

Apple has done what is allegedly the hardest thing to do, to say Sorry. CEO Tim Cook did the moral and legally correct thing.

Now that he has done that, Apple should go the next step, withdraw Crappy Mappy App and, temporarily, re-instate Google Maps.

We are looking at more than simple corporate profits here, we are talking peoples lives. Newspapers are replete with examples of how people religiously follow their GPS devices and end up stranded / jammed in to some isolated spot with no means of help. Whether it is dumb or smart, people put their faith in technology?

Even the historical suppliers of GPS, Garmin, screw up big time. Their mapping of VietNam and Cambodia are, at worst case, up to 15 kilometres wrong in places. And I am talking dedicated devices, not some car-mounted things.

Mapquest and other Third Party mappers all have serious errors.

I recently acquired a Samsung product that has Google Maps on it and whilst it has limited GPS functions compared a dedicated GPS receiver - I have three different types - Google is amazingly accurate and complete. In fact is has roads marked that are still in the throes of completion. (It still, like all electronic maps as well as a few paper maps has two old streets missing in Hue, VietNam).

So, Apple, go the extra step, swallow your pride, revert to Google and save a life.

US Strategy of Negotiation: Our Way or the Highway

The US obviously hasn't recognised that it is a fading star, it is in it's Big Bang era - just before becomes a hole.

Of course, this has happened at a speed greater than the collapse / disappearance of the British 'Empire'. Plus the US exists solely on borrowing - if the Chinese ever ca;l;ed their loans in the US would default.

Perhaps it is time to kill the veto of the UN so everyone is treated as equal.

This is BAD news for ...

lawyers, litigants actually talking to each other?

Perhaps there will be another 'accidental' meeting again, as there was between Jobs and Schmidt, and whole bunch of other stupidity will be sorted out.

With Apple shares off 25% from it's peak, both sides would benefit on the stock markets. I read that Wall Street is a little concerned about innovation and if TV is to be the next arena, given the raging sales of Android products against those of Apple, and the obvious tie in between smartphones and whatever happens in the TV area, the faster someone actually gets to market, the faster they will make money.

Simple, boycott Foxconn and let their customers, your suppliers, know

I am aching my employer to add a line to supply contracts:

The Vendor certifies that the products supplied contain zero content from any entity owned by Foxconn.

If you buy App;e products, tell Apple what you think.

Foxconn - pore scum.

So Samsung wins the ...

Christmas sales season.

And with the profits accumulated, they are making hay. And all the models complained of by Apple are in a past catalogue.

Could it be the Courts are getting tired of all these patent claims and will simply give them short shrift as some judges have done already?

Perhaps 'cool' evaluations, as awarded in the UK, will keep Apple happy?

Good for California!

Too often Big (US) Business gets away with murder. The only thing they understand is money.

Besides, California needs the fine money - it's broke.

"Over time there are skills that are associated with manufacturing that have left the US"

Apple really solved this challenge.

Now they are glueing iThingies together. This means they are generally unserviceable and defective units are only fit for the garbage dump.

A really, really 'Green' solution.

I wonder if Apple, in their competitor product strip downs, ever have wondered why others batteries are removable and that they actually use screws?

One thing Apple is now facing - America actually has Labour Laws which means no 7 day work weeks and unpaid overtime such as the Foxconn plants operate under in China.

It's not 'palstic; ...

it's polymer - that notes are made from now..

As for the IT part of the story - do you really think the US Congress would allow it to happen with their 'back door' paranoia?

U.S.A. exposed for what it is ... a lawless country

The U.S. AG Holder has discovered that not all countries have signed on to his "laws be damned" routine that is SOP for that country these days.

And the NZ government, and in particular the judiciary, are to be congratulated on not capitulating to the illegal, heavy handed techniques of the FBI, etc.

Canadians are ong accustomed to the USA treating our country as theirs, we have even had Americans come over the border and arrest and detain people, without the benefit of Canadian court support, and inveigle them back to the USA.

Fortunately, the then Canadian government had the kidnapped party returned to Canada. Wouldn't happen these days with a Conservative government led by a wimp who makes toilet paper look like a tower of strength.

Mind you, if Dot.Com does get his free trip to the US he needn't expect anything less than their citizen Manning got.

Funny how all this 'news' pops up when ...

the government is trying to work some quickies on Parliament. Old tactic, doesn't work any more.

This should be read in conjunction with May's 1.6-billion waste of money for GCHQ toys.

Remember when it was the fashion to leave a gap between your tie knot and collar?

About 1986 it was the 'in fashion' to have ties done this way. At least for younger set.

In walks your Mister Smartypants, dressed at age 20 in a very expensive suit, with the air of "when do I start"? There was that equally fashionable and expensive tie staring me in the face bugging me throughout the interview.

I chose a female engineer, who had a permanent 'bad hair day', who had met Mr. Smartpants in the waiting room. Smartypants inquired of the results, even though letters had been sent, and I remarked the position had been filled by a woman who had a .Masters degree

His response was that, in his opinion, I had a made a 'mistake' as she had no sense of dress style and her hair was a mess! I replied I was hiring an engineer, not a fashion statement. She subsequently left and joined Nortel becoming a senior engineer.

Michele Bachmann felt so outraged ... that she introduced the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act

And you wonder why the US is in such a mess with kooks like Bachmann in office?

It doesn't harm to give neophytes a head up now and again ...

Judging by the great unwashed using Facebook and hanging the entrails of their lives on public washing lines for all to see little wonder a large segment has no concern about privacy.

Spooks will only find airheads using social web sites. For years drug dealers have been using Lonely Planet, a BBC Worldwide company, but seemingly they have more reliable communications now.

Bin Laden and Company are well versed in secure communications, along with IUDs, etc. They were tapping into the plain video feeds for the longest time using a handy dandy Russian software offering available for a few pounds.

THIS is the why Cameron and May are so short-sighted/dumb because the people they have an interest in are way ahead of the game with PGP and now Silent Circle. RIM was always handy for passing cryptic messages but what with a server in the UK, UK badboys should be using alternate means.

And 1,600,000,000 for a pile of electronics that is far more expensive than that networked system used by the FBI. No government can prevent surreptitious communications, they can only make a little more difficult. They have lost the battle before they have started..

But at least with the millions of CCTV cameras and number plate readers blighting the countryside, at least the spooks will have something to watch during working hours, even it is just re-runs of how the badboys did an end run around Plod and GCHQ.

Meanwhile, social programs including the NHS are denuded of funding, the elderly have to make lifestyle decisions between having light, having heat or eating cat or dog food. Take the 'Great' of Great Britain.

If you don't want freedom fighters expressing their annoyance with bLIAR sticking his nose in to Arab disputes, just ignore the stupidities. Bin Laden won, the US is broke, financially and morally, and they are still a bunch of nervous Nellies waiting for the next surprise.

Reduce the effectivity of Paents to ...

fifteen months at which time they should be expired.

Electronics moves too fast for a patent to be worth that much anyway.

Most people wouldn't like their dirty laundry hung out to dry

In the States you can check on almost any offence a person is convicted of. In fact the authorities make a point in notifying individuals of offenders in their area.

Making judgements / proclamations about cases when a person was not present in court is a futile endeavour. I have sat on juries and heard the prosecution and started thinking 'toss the key' yet when the defence presented their evidence a lot of the police / Crown suppositions evaporated.

Some professions are always in and out of courts, including police, medical professionals, etc. There have been cases where such practitioners were accused of crimes and harassed or driven out of their homes because the ignorant mass thought they were criminals when in fact they were expert witnesses.

Take the Sevile matter: Glad was arrested and released, but has convictions in competent courts of law (and that doesn't include VietNam); Sevile has never been deemed by a competent authority to have been proven beyond reasonable doubt to be a child molester, neither has the late MP Smith.

For all his alleged evil, Sevile's charities did good but that seems to be conveniently overlooked in this crowd-driven uproar. Mind you the police offering opinions doesn't add much to the discussion, as they are not charged with issuing opinions. Likewise the former policeman, now a self-proclaimed expert on child abuse, is, through his endless verbal diarrhoea, simply promoting his business.

Once a person has been convicted, and completed whatever sentence was awarded, they should be allowed to continue their lives without interference from do-gooders and busybodies. The job of the police is to take appropriate precautions.

Remember Profumo? He paid for his mistake and then followed it with a life of service to the community and was, I seem to remember, before his death, restored to good standing by the Queen.

If the rabble want to publish the paedophile convictions, then let everyone's criminal record be made available on-line so we can see who the thieves, shop-lifters and drunk drivers are.

Step 1. Fire Whitman

Couldn't make it as a politician and hasn't made it as HP guiding light.

What HP needs is a Scott Forstall to kick some butt!

Every successful company has a ...

corporate a*eshole, an attack dog, who gets the job done.

Scott Forstall's problem was he never completed the job and, hence, the Crappy Mappy app.

They could use him over at HP where the blonde would-be politician is serially screwing up and driving the once great company down the toilet. The real problem is the Board of Directors - they should never have abandoned Hurd as he has dual motives now: succeed at Oracle and give HP the biggest 'fingers' sign as he leaves them in the dust.

MF823 sports a second gen Qualcomm LTE chip

Does this mean the US Congress who, in their ignorance, claimed ZTE had back doors is NOW in the clear, or are they dreaming up another non-trade excuse to block Chinese imports?

"... leaving the profitable equipment biz Motorola Solutions to live on ..."

This part of Motorola is doing very nicely, thank you, with Tetra/PS25 systems spreading throughout the Far East.

A Chinese outfit now has Tetra compatible cell-style handsets and two-way radio style units that are not only way smaller than Moto handhelds but also way, way cheaper.

Still, over-priced Tetra trunking systems will the cash flowing for the short-term.

And after the Plod / Border Agency type have retreated ...

can the data be recovered?

And if sold in the US will there be a back door marked NSA?

The impossible we can do ...

but miracles take a little longer.

An old Army saying.

Joking aside ...

when you consider the pure technical aspects of these products, it should make people sit up and think.

Apple couldn't make it's products in the West and, even if fully automated, couldn't do it for the price. And British readers shouldn't laugh, Britain doesn't even make cell handsets. Period.

These products represent viable products to the masses of Chinese, and Africans, who can't afford iThingies and highlight why Apple might not do so well in China. The Babiken is available in VietNam and is an affordable buy for school children. (The standby terminology used in their website means that incoming calls on any SIM will be detected,) With 16GB of SD memory priced at an honest $16.00 these things are set to sell.

The only area the Chinese fall down on is finish, but given they have the talents to make Apple and Samsung products, this area could be effectively addressed as if need be.

What's the problem with a Sat Data Terminal?

There are a plethora of satellite data terminals, portable and fixed. which can be hand carried in to China - you can claim they are engineering samples to get quotations for production - using all manner of carriers.

The only precautions you need to take: Make sure any dish antennae are small and split into pizza slices (even the dumbest China Customs guys can spot a uncollapsed dish; and make sure the antenna is mounted discretely on a balcony or window ledge.

Broadband speeds are easily achievable.

Manning - the poster boy for dumb Marines

Who else, other than a Marine 'mind' would subject someone to the punishment Manning suffered whilst the world's spotlight was shining on him?

Siri will also blank out any requests that it regards as too complicated

Puts paid to any valid uses, I guess, given it's record of "Sorry, I am unable to connect right now".

The simplest solution to this risk for 'guests' is to ...

carry their own tube of fast-drying epoxy so you can seal up your own locks after checking in.

When I use hotel rooms I only unpack what I need and keep my baggage bundled up behind Pac Safe which is secure enough to beat the TSA thieves employed by US Homeland Security.

Pac-Safe now has a range of sizes including ones that secure lap-tops and even smartphones, which can be tethered to a large immovable object in the room.

What did Apple get for it's money?

Apple bought Siri, and it was fairly near release state, even though it had a few lumps in it, is passed muster.

In the map fiasco, Apple bought a number of companies and since then they have been incubating their Crappy Mappy app for years and it is still junk, according to iPhans.

What due diligence did Apple do when they bought these corporate entities?

It also has to make you wonder what Quality Assurance Apple employs when it has had a series of problems from Antennagate through the Crappy Mappy app. Does no one in senior management even check out the latest product? It wouldn't take much. How many 'enhancements' were there, including the failed Version 5.

Even if they only put their home address in, it would reveal a lot!

And what's with these ancient black and white satellite images? I bought sat pix of my home and business in DakLak Province, VietNam and said I wanted latest copies. The sat company gave me an ETA of the month they would be taking the pictures.

I did the place up, made sure all the vehicles were parked nicely. There were several passes - some were from extreme angles but the best shot was just when the liquid propane man decided to top our fuel tank, something he does once a year!

Really, IMO, the release of Crappy Mappy app lies right at the top of the executive chain and it wouldn't have taken much effort to test things. Of course, Apple painted itself in to a corner by comments about Google, which only highlights it's immaturity.

They should buy a Samsung S3 ...

as it's brimming with Apps, so the SD socket is a necessity. Great deal.

Only Apps I bought / acquired were specialised ones for specific equipment.

"IDC numbers show how Android devices will comprehensively dominate the market by 2016"

Fanboys, and that sad excuse for a tech (copy) 'writer' Charles Arthur, will be holding wakes, crying in their beer and tearing their hair out.

Only three more years? Millions of people standing around with aged fondleslabs. Just how humiliating can that be?

US 'Justice' at work ... Let's Do a Deal.

For once what passes for US 'justice is being challenged by some one who has slightly deeper than your average 'perp'.

And he won't keep quiet which is no doubt upsetting the 'Justice' Departments usual SOP..

Good for DotCom.

Following the 'Duck Theory' ...

of looks like, squawks like, must be; a company who maintains an off ice in a country is domiciled and should be fully liable to tax..

International companies often sell through the in-country office but "drop ship" equipment directly to the customer directly from a company's branch in another country.

The UK should designate all such pseudo sales as taxable - both from a Duty and Corporate tax viewpoint.

I, as a technician, have been 'imported' in to countries for installations where most of the labour/contractors were local.so the locals billed me (my branch) as a 'foreign' customer and the company customer was billed by us less all sorts of taxes.

I know I'm good, but not good enough to erect a 200 foot guyed mast single-handed!

China will be down there soon ...

claiming 'ownership' as it has done over parts of the East China Sea, even the parts in many other countries Economic Zones.

If there is oil, the US will be down there to keep the peace.

"Deloitte are understood to have set a deadline of 14 November for offers from interested parties."

Is this an old news piece, a typo or Deloitte's a little confused? (14 November}