* Posts by JaitcH

3904 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2009

Government defends need for census

JaitcH
Unhappy

Why not pre-fill data and allow for changes - it's quicker

Since the government knows so much about you they should pre-fill the slots and boxes with the data and then recipients who care to participate can save time by just making changes rather than filling in the whole bloody form.

Using 'Don't understand' as a reply and a feint (light) blue will also make the American census contractors day just a little harder, too.

(Don't complain too much about loss of privacy - the Ontario government even has details of houses on a database!)

UK biz bled dry by cybercrime

JaitcH
FAIL

"Cabinet Office said it was impossible to say how much ..." More numerical flatulence

The only identifiable provable cost was that incurred by Office of Cyber Security (pdf) and Detica.

Another BSE mathematical exercise that proves nothing.

And Cameron is 'cutting waste"? I have an additional item to put on his list.

FTC and DoJ toss-up on Apple subs plan 'probe'

JaitcH
Unhappy

The only Force that would make Jobs change his plans are the EU or US authorities

American business seems to have recognised that the EU is a force to reckon with, at least equal to that of the U.S. Government although they use different criteria to trigger an inquiry.

Jobs has already been burned when he was ripping UK citizens off at higher prices than the rest of the EU. Obviously just too bloody lazy to calculate the numbers, so they simply changed the currency designator.

Either way it is likely only a matter of time.

EU agency calls for clear consent on indelible and zombie cookies

JaitcH
WTF?

Browser cookies only a small problem, how about ...

turning their attention to the heavy back data flow that all mobile OS collect without permission from users AND AT THEIR EXPENSE.

No one, other than the cellco. should get positional data without the explicit consent of a user whose consent must be informed and need specific selection of options.

Why does Jobs need to know where all his flock are 24 hours a day?

Unprecedented domain seizure shutters 84,000 sites

JaitcH
FAIL

"Our government is going into court with half-baked facts ..." if done by anyone else ...

is called misleading the court or perjury.

The U.S. Constitution isn't worth anything now, unless you have an extreme case of rectal irritation, as successive governments have ridden roughshod over it's provisions, starting with The Patriot Act (sic).

And in trying to fit Assange up with a charge they are attempting to breach the constitutions provisions with respect to making legislation retroactive.

The U.S. is no better than the countries it continually bellyaches about abusing peoples rights.

Obama woos Masters of the (Tech) Universe

JaitcH
WTF?

Obama couldn't send a surrogate or is he out of assistants?

Talk about a wasted trip.

All Zucker what not knows is how to steal someone else's business. He's barely out of diapers.

As for the rest, what bright ideas did they come up with to warrant Obama burning all that fuel, and the cost for such a futile trip?

No small iPhone 5, says mole

JaitcH
WTF?

"... Apple PR people speaking off the record ..." says it all

PR people are only paid to polish the name and keep good things appearing in the media.

Guess they have done their job since The Register and the NYT had pieces on it.

Anonymous security firm hack used every trick in book

JaitcH
Unhappy

HBGary: Loss of all credibility = loss of clients: Is the U.S. government included?

Given that HBGary was a start-up with only a few years under it's belt, will it survive this exposure of it's business tactics and it's 'expertise'? I love this quote (from their web site): "Security is not an IT problem, it's an intelligence problem" - it exactly describes the failings of HBgary.

Given it's relatively short life and the number of e-mails it appears all they do is thump away at keyboards.

Aaron Barr is a sweetheart, apart from being dumb, as he posted about going after children < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110214/02201413084/hbgary-federal-spied-families-children-us-chamber-commerce-opponents.shtml >. Only dummies write about their criminal activities.

Demonstarting how blind the U.S. government can be almost a year ago, HBgary received an extension to their contract with the US Department of Homeland Security to “conduct a series of hands-on memory forensics and malware analysis training events with local, state, and federal law enforcement officials around the country.” (See: < http://wlcentral.org/node/1250 >)

HBgary competitors Sophos managed to get the knife in when their Graham Cluley said: "The fallout from the affair will be difficult to overcome." "The damage to HBGary's reputation from this incident is, quite frankly, enormous," he added.

"... it's particularly damaging when the victim is a specialist in the field of computer security," he theorised.

No kidding!

This demonstrates when governments are running scared and all sorts of money are being tossed around the usual crowd of corporate freeloaders are out there busy get a share of the spoils. Undoubtedly this happening in many countries.

SWAT team cuffs masked Dell flack for 'deadly' tablet promo

JaitcH

Better publicity than Dell could buy

Just look at the coverage of this event ... following the Texas Plod intervention.

Seems they have some law that fits anything in the U.S. - except Wikileaks!

Rugged-phone maker claims world's longest talk time

JaitcH
Happy

Design matches Hummer driver requisites

Sonim really does make tough cell phones - if this one is anything like their earlier model Hummer owners can actually drive over them and still make a call afterwards.

Hope they still have a belt pouch for it.

Gadget makes bombs, mines go off 'on average' 20m away

JaitcH
WTF?

Another application for ferrite 'balls'!

Just think the terrorists answer lies in adding those ferrite 'balls' to the trigger wires.

The detonators could be housed in metallic jackets - their own little Faraday cages.

Back to the drawing board.

Airport face-scanning robots switched off

JaitcH
FAIL

"compare your face with the image stored on the chip of a biometric passport"

A business partner who shares my dislike for mysterious government electronics has a 'neutered' passport (place mug of cold water in microwave along with passport and cook on high for a minute) that he knows to be a non-working chip.

He flew into the UK at Christmas and the machine accepted him as being who the passport (didn't) show to be.

Another useless government project.

One-third of Aussies 'are pirates'

JaitcH
WTF?

"the study estimated that one-third of adult Australians were active pirates"

The operative word in all these stories is ESTIMATED - they do not really know and they cannot really know.

As for the 6,000 jobs lost due to piracy, this is another load of hog wash. Most of the money would have ended up in Hollywood.

The same happened when the BSE estimated the activity in Cambodia, Laos and VietNam - they didn't even visit these countries and in the rural areas there are very few computers. Laos is even more bereft of computers but there piracy continues unabated - maybe they count those CD/DVD blanks that adorn bicycles instead of lights.

You would have thought that a high tech industry could at least have arrived at accurate figures.

And next time I pick up a discarded newspaper I shall bare in mind that I am committing secondary copyright infringement! What other stupidty are they going to concoct?

Apple rips mobile PC crown from HP

JaitcH
Unhappy

You can make numbers say anything you want

Such dramatic language - 'rips' - is intended only to garner readers.

Notebooks are hardly on a par with tablets/pads particularly when you consider Cupertino products are crippled in both content and their use.

No one tells the millions of owners of non-fruit products what they can and cannot do so comparing them as whole genres is pretty pointless.

It's like Michelin, BF Goodrich or Goodyear counting rubber wheels for tea dolleys and claiming their production was more than a competitor. Or auto manufacturers counting pick-up trucks as passenger vehicles.

Still analyst Richard Shim and DisplaySearch have maintained their positions on the free sample, special access and by invitation only presentations which really throws the value of the information into doubt.

Sex offenders will get a review – after 15 years

JaitcH
Alert

Once again PLOD, not the courts, determine the penalty

The government, by making Plod the ruling body, is usurping the courts function and letting a biased party be the determining party.

Where the hell is the justice in this?

(VietNam has a solution. Many rape artists only get to do it once or twice as most are sentenced to death!. Few repeat offenders.)

Storm brews over Chinese synchronised goldfish

JaitcH
Happy

Get your very own goldfish in your nearest Chinatown and they don't need feeding!

Gold fish represent luck or wealth to the Chinese which is you find ponds filled with them in HongKong at the race courses, although I think those might actually be carp.

Both the the Chinese and Vietnamese hold gold fish to bring good fortune to business and many offices boast magnificent tanks of fish.

There is a problem, however, the need both feeding and cleaning.

The ever enterprising Chinese came up with the solution - man-made (as in artificial) 'gold fish' that are motivated by magnetic fields. In the beginning simple motions satisfied the purchasers but as the years passed all manner of improvements have been achieved including synchronisation of movement.

And, best of all, they don't need food!

Watchdog turns a blind eye to Danish fu*king

JaitcH
Happy

This reminds me of the late Mr. Fuch of Wandel & Goltermann ....

Many years ago, in the 1970's, I was working at a electronics rep company in Toronto when the president of one of our main suppliers, Wandel & Goltermann, arrived and announced that he was Mr. Fuc* which he pronounced in his mother tongue of German.

The receptionist turned all sorts of red, ran into the Canadian presidents office and told him what had happened.

From that day onward Fuch introduced himself, in North America, as Mr. Fuch which he pronounced similarly to 'much' or 'such'.

Such are the pitfalls of international business!

Clinton demands net freedom for all... 'cept Wikileaks

JaitcH
Alert

"... the Chinese decided that, VietNam belonged to them they invaded ..."

Sorry to disagree but it wasn't quite like that.

In 1979 February China invaded VietNam for 29-days in response to what China considered to be provocative actions and policies on VietNam's part including Vietnamese favouring Moscow over BeiJing; mistreatment of ethnic Chinese residents of Vietnam, "imperial dreams" when VietNam soldiers invaded Cambodia, a client state of China.

The Vietnamese military repulsed the invading Chinese who, when they withdrew, followed a scorched earth policy destroying every bridge and significant building which were replaced by the ugly Russian designed concrete monoliths that can be seen today.

The Chinese withdrawal was followed by rail cars filled with approximately 19,000 Chinese dead. China failed to force a Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia and failed to end border clashes.

Even today there are significant strains in the VN/CN relationship. Vehicles have to transship goods from CN trucks to VN trucks at the border and passengers have to change buses! A real pain.

All the participants in the recent wars in VietNam be they French, American or Chinese omitted one thing in their planning - the need to read VietNam's history (See: <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/History_of_Vietnam >.

VietNam now has the respect of it's neighbours and the Western nations ... it's tragic that so many died to reach this stage. (I live in VN)

HTC shuns Honeycomb for Android tablet debut

JaitcH
Unhappy

No Honeycomb, No Buy!

I wouldn't want to buy a pad without Honeycomb - why buy anything than is less than optimal?

Perhaps Google will commission a no bells and whistles version so we can enjoy the fruits of their labours without manufacturers screwing around with it.

Rhapsody bristles at Apple subscription grab

JaitcH
WTF?

Apple is lining itself up for legal challenges: EU or U.S. first?

You can see all manner of legal challenges forming as Jobs tries to squeeze the last shekel out of suppliers and what for? Just so they have the expensive convenience of dealing with his skimming machine? The good thing is it opens the way for competition and he will lose out.

And what's with all this stuff about magazines and newspapers have only themselves to blame because they didn't join with with Murdoch? The man is untrustworthy, notwithstanding what the Roman Catholic church claims. The guy is a serial cheat and notwithstanding having repeatedly undertaken to keep his snout out paper acquisitions editorial policy he always does the opposite. Witness the Wall Street Journal.

Many business operate on way less than 30% - travel agents, thanks to American Airlines, operate on 0% commission.

The only question remaining unanswered is whether the EU or the U.S. Justice Department moves against Apple first.

Census threatens spies' cover

JaitcH

Credit bureaus have all the info

Anyone carrying a credit card or having a bank account (in the UK) is automatically checked against the credit bureau records. Didn't do my bank much good as the CB said I didn't exist and that the address I used wasn't in their database either.

Given that much CB access is via computer and all sorts of people are permitted access confidentiality has as much meaning a Secret does to the U.S. State Department.

Never completed a census in any of the countries I've resided in and businesses didn't seem to mind too much, either.

Some census questions are really intrusive and one has to wonder just what it matters how many toilets, wash basins or bathtubs one has in a property. And whose business is it which God or idol you pay homage to?

But the up side is that employment figures improve for that point in time and the unemployment rolls drop, a little.

A friend of mine traces family trees and she does dig up some interesting poop from past (100+ year old) census information but the newer ones are less helpful. The churchyard moving and amalgamation activity also screws things up for her.

Ethnic minorities seem to be particularly reluctant to complete these questionnaires, especially when some family members may be less than legal. Promising Plod won't see the info does seem to carry much weight with them, either.

UK Border Agency: Good at making cash, crap at making decisions

JaitcH
FAIL

Bureaucracy defined: "random decision-making also led to a backlog of cases at the agency"

What a perfect example of how civil servants can demonstrate their employment by the government.

Well done, fellas, may be they will make a TV series.

IT grad claims £5m for crap degree

JaitcH
Unhappy

Re: If his case is incoherent and makes no sense

This should have highlighted the fact to The Beak that the training was useless.

University training helps discipline the mind so concepts can be organised and presented.

Pay the money Uni.

Apple cripples iBooks for jailbreakers

JaitcH
FAIL

If unlocking an iThingy is legal and I buy an iBook and it doesn't work ...

I would sue Apple for consumer fraud.

Since US users can lawfully unlock their fruit-ware this doesn't break any criminal or civil laws. If I buy an iBook this should work on anything legal including anything from Apple.

I have a feeling that jobs might have put his foot over the line on this one, even more so if there is no warning about dysfunctionality given in the purchasing process.

Obviously the answer is not to buy iBooks, which will reduce the amount of cash leaches from your wallet.

I wonder if he will try this in Europe?

Man pockets $8m running computer fraud ring

JaitcH
Unhappy

Good old American business enterprise.

Just shows how gullible businesses can be when accepting telephone bills as gospel. Do they even have audits?

One technique that blocks these scams is requiring extensions to dial a personal identifier code for all long distance. This type of software can't, usually, handle such quirks as that.

Apple suppliers: Child labor, bribery, suicides

JaitcH
Alert

Jobs did nothing until the jumpers hit the headlines

Apple and Jobs did precious little about working conditions in sub-contractors manufacturing plants before the bad publicity hit the headlines in the West.

Only then, after the NGO's were involved, did he make any attempts to force suppliers to adopt even minimal standards when compared to the West.

The manufacturing could never be done in the West because labour costs are so high: ergo Jobs makes his billions from workers in developing countries.

JaitcH
Thumb Down

Apple has had years to improve conditions: only publicity made them move

N-HEXANE has been around since around the 1990's so it's properties are well known.

Have a read of < http://scorecard.goodguide.com/chemical-profiles/summary.tcl?edf_substance_id=110-54-3 > which was issued in 2005.

Additionally, Messrs. Hathaway GJ, Proctor NH, Hughes JP, and Fischman M (1991). Proctor and Hughes' chemical hazards of the workplace. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold. that addresses this chemical.

Again, Apple responded to bad publicity so this report is a response to complaints from earlier times and shows Apple is now, at long last, sensitised to the problem.

Apple didn't place contracts in developing countries from the viewpoint of improving their citizens lot in life, Apple did it since regulatory controls are lax (obviously) and that manufacturing costs are lower. Americans couldn't make most things with a fruit logo on them because Apple couldn't make such a profit.

The same situation has existed in other industries including clothing and shoes where conditions were only improved AFTER Western NGO's found out what the conditions were like.

Countries that permit imports of anything made overseas should require that conditions in the manufacturing plants must conform to AT LEAST those mandated in the country of import, only then would workers safety be ensured..

P.S. N-Hexane is used to extract sunflower oil used for cooking. Yum, Yum!

JaitcH
Jobs Horns

From what we read in Apple's report .... Cupertino is to be commended

Next we'll be asked to believe that Jobs is as a big a philanthropist as Bill Gates actually is.

What a difference between the two: Gates is actually out in the world doing great good with his Trust whilst Jobs is myopically stashing it away at the cost of cheap labour all over the world.

Let's have real news, not papp churned out by paid hacks trying to improve Apples appearance.

Google open video codec faces second challenger

JaitcH
WTF?

The difference between VP8/WebM and H.264/MPEG LA is greed and ...

money.

Mr. 30% in Cupertino has all the characteristics of a Mafia skimming operation and his avarice seems to have no limits whereas MS just needs the cash to maintain itself. Jobs denying access to newspapers, except through his commission collection scheme, is typical Jobs.

Google has certain strengths, which are acknowledged by the H264 crowd inasmuch as the client is available free, including the ever popular YouTube. With Mozilaa, et al, getting behind VP8/WebM it stands a reasonable chance of making it big time.

The users can make their positions known, too, by making a choice and refusing to look at anything that doesn't conform to their choice.

Apple has learned, through the actions of Adobe, that it doesn't rule the roost, a position that will become more evident as it's market share falls resulting from the onslaught of Google.

I’m not a Trojan horse: Nokia’s Elop hits back at neigh sayers

JaitcH
WTF?

Elop focussed on nuts and bolts not consumer viewpoint

The thing that differentiates cars from one another is styling and features. This could be equated to the 'interface'.

Elop seems to be claiming that end users (forget the semantics about consumers and clients) concern themselves with what's under the hood.

Apple has iOS and features that it thinks appeals to iPhans. The average iPhan doesn't really give a damn what makes something happen - as long as it happens.

The same with Android. People don't buy a phone just because Android is under the hood - they buy them because of the same reasons as iPhans.

The fact that Elop reckons he can give end users that fuzzy feeling with a Nokia is fine for the average end user - The Register, and readers, don't stop there they ARE interested in what's under the engine and the implications of making a cell phone with specific OS and hardware.

If Nokia can actually make a silk Nokia purse out of a Microsoft's pigs ear, good luck to them. The problem is they are tossing a lot of investment and talent out of the window in the process, and this is what riling the techies up against the seemingly thoughtless path Nokia is following.

Microsoft, Nokia, and MeeGo: Are they all doomed?

JaitcH

Nokia: betting it's fortune on a lead balloon called MS

Engineers are strange beasts. Not only are they attracted to a job/position by salary but also by the subject of their efforts.

Hacking MS software and Nokia hardware to become functional may just be enough to send the cream of Nokia engineering scurrying off the ship and towards the OS of choice - Android.

Nokia stands a good chance of becoming a shell of an entity gaining income from it's patent portfolio which, no doubt, it has opened up to MS.

What a sad end to a Scandinavian miracle. Two duds don't make a winner.

Apple 'iPhone Nano' back in the game, says mole

JaitcH
FAIL

Global access? I doubt it

With increased anti-terrorism action governments are demanding user ID, or passports from foreigners, with some countries refusing service to foreigners all together (Cambodia, for one and Burma for another).

Thus apples concept of 'global' might not be as encompassing as you imagine.

Card surcharges face super-complaint

JaitcH
Pint

Cash is King/Queen; great for tax payment suppression; privacy; etc.

If people want the convenience of paying by credit/debit card they should be able to do so and merchants should be permitted to pass ONLY the ACTUAL COSTS on to the user. In some jurisdictions Mastercard, Visa (and Uncle Tom Cobley) write in to their contracts that no price differential between card users and cash payers is permitted which means that cash people get short-changed.

Cards have real drawbacks. An error by a bank (Hello, HSBC) can deprive a debit (or credit) card user to accessing their account even though in good standing. The FBI (and Plod) can receive real time reports on card usage (this is achieved by lowering the credit limit to zero for the card requiring phone approval every time)..

'Authorities' can gain access for all manner of 'reasons' be they unrelated criminal matters, tax related matters or any point in time or physical place.

Lawyers acting in civil matters can also, with court orders, access data. Might be embarrassing in divorce matters. Use a card for a flight and your data will go viral to every country on your itinerary; the data will be held on GDS all with computers in the U.S. which under 'The Patriot Act' (sic) can be accessed without warrant.

The card companies use your usage data for all manner of purposes including onward selling of data.

Of course not everything is bad with cards: you don't need cash and you can 'stop payment'.

Cash can't be traced; leaves no 'bit' trail, honoured by most vendors and is great for avoiding tax!

UK.gov's axing of school building plan 'unlawful'

JaitcH
Pint

My Primary School is still standing and in use by students!

Unbelievably the county primary school I attended is still actually standing, mainly unchanged, to this very day. It was new when I was first enrolled.

Gove, a regular 'air head' from Any Questions is like so many people promoted to a new position: He has to let EVERYONE he has ARRIVED.

Gove, since actually - for unknown reasons - becoming a minister set about fulfilling this goal. By introducing so many controversial acts and regulations has managed to offend almost every sector of the public.

Dogs do this. They urinate on every lamp post and post box so every other dog knows THEY HAVE ARRIVED.

JaitcH
Happy

In Toronto, Canada, they actually built a school in a shopping centre ...

so that all the 'drifters' who should be in school instead of hanging around malls actually had a school to attend. It's on Dufferin Street just north of College Street.

The classrooms were actually converted vacant stores so it was a win-win situation for everyone.

Enough with the Apple App Store apathy

JaitcH
FAIL

The EU should steal pages from U.S. legislation ...

and bring all these 'international' or 'global' companies into line.

There are very few countries that wouldn't benefit from this.

Amazon threatens Texas exit over tax bill

JaitcH
FAIL

What we need are interstate taxes

The U.S. federal government should step in here and mandate a U.S. wide interstate tax, also making it illegal for rebates for it, so all jurisdictions are subject to it.

All government entities are screaming for additional income so if they were to present a united front they could make the corporate freeloaders pay their fair share.

Microsoft says exec took secret 'trove' to Salesforce

JaitcH
Alert

"included documents Miszewski had helped write on ... strategy and tactics for cloud based CRM"

Unless MS is proposing a lobotomy it is extremely hard to delete a thought process from someone's brain.

If their strategy is so wonderful they should have done a Jobs on the thing and filed numerous, if weak, patents.

If you can't look after your staff, they will always gravitate/percolate to something better.

The repeal bill: what's left in, what's left out

JaitcH
FAIL

A beginning doomed to failure

The success of the U.S. Constitution is due, mainly, to the vision of the founding fathers who, on reflection, did a pretty good job, but it's significant benefit there was no political baggage surrounding the writers of the document.

Fast forward to 1982 when Canada's home written Constitution was signed into law by the Queen giving Canada full independence from the UK - British North America Act in 1867 governed Canada until this point.

Although the Canadian Prime Minister of the day, Pierre Trudeau, wasn't the most popular guy to hold that office he did have the foresight to get the constitution from a wet dream to reality. Examination of the Canadian Constitution will show there are quite a few 'outs' for political office holders that aren't to be found in the U.S. Constitution.

Jump to today's feeble attempt of a British 'Constitution' and it is completely devoid of protection of citizens that can be found in both the aforementioned constitutions.

If the UK government intended to protect the citizenry it would strike down many of the give-aways that Plod enjoys such as no-warrant searches, your-password-or four-years, entitlement not to answer police questions without penalty.

As both a citizen of Canada and the U.S. (and, actually, the UK) I enjoy many rights that the politicians would never dare give the British. I don't have to respond to Plod yelling: 'Oi, you' if I haven't committed a crime, I don't have to identify myself as a pedestrian (vehicle use requires ID) and I am free to take pictures of any damn thing I see.

The American Constitution can be amended but only with extreme difficulty; the Canadian likewise but with far lower requirements and the British attempt ...

Therefore, IMO, no UK 'constitution' will ever succeed unless politicians, with characters that we see no longer, drafted the document.

Patent attack launched on Google's open video codec

JaitcH
Pint

Here we Google again: Apple and MS signal their greed

Apple and MS are simply software pigs who have no one but their own selfish interests at heart. It might, possibly, make commercial sense but from a more public perspective Google has demonstrated, yet again, that not only is it a commercial success but it also is a generous benefactor to many InterNet users, including competitors.

Good luck to Google and may all attempts to eliminate WebM fail.

Net censors use UK's kid-safety frenzy to justify clampdown

JaitcH
Alert

Censorship, like manners, begins in the home

The problem with mass censorship be it Apple or government is that in trying to cater for all tastes the more liberal minded members of society get shafted.

Just because a brother of mine is a bible-thumper and frowns on 'pornography, even though affairs are OK, shouldn't mean I have to share his views (which I don't).

The optimum answer is for individual content controls based on government lists and accessed through ISP's so each user can enjoy the InterNet as best suits them.

Why is the InterNet proceeding differently to other forms of media - just because some loud mouthed do-gooders think I shouldn't enjoy watching what I want. Next they will be giving us 'closed' Sundays as in former times.

A pox on the lot - and hands off my InterNet.

Hack reveals passwords from locked iPhones and iPads

JaitcH
Unhappy

"... can't really blame Apple for using what is an industry standard now ..."

Why not? Apple always insinuates that the sun rises and sets on Cupertino and that their products are superior to other peoples

Clearly Apple is the same as others and not a cut above..

Three jailed for phone box thievery

JaitcH
WTF?

"BT was first alerted when it realised that takings from phone boxes .... considerably lower ...."

Reading between the lines this implies that robbing the coin boxes involved no physical damage to the telephone itself. This seems unlikely. Surely even BT would have twigged to the fact that damage equates to robbery.

Pay telephone units manufactured by the late lamented Northern Telecom, of which hundreds of thousands are still in use, are painted bright orange on the theory anyone seeing an orange pay telephone will know it's been damaged.

Unfortunately Bell and company forgot to advise the police or the general public of this 'silent' security feature.

Google and Facebook named as Twitter suitors

JaitcH
WTF?

Twitter is acceptable in China and elsewhere

One advantage Twit has over FB is that certain governments, who have understandably restricted FB, permit access to Twit.

I guess if FB does the deal it will be to stop competition with it's web site whereas Google could use it as a vehicle to challenge FB.

PS3 jailbreak judge refuses to rescind GeoHot order

JaitcH
WTF?

Technically stunted judge reveals ignorance

You would have thought that judges would be embarrassed by some of the rulings and orders they issue.

George, on the other hand, should simply get an old clunker computer and load Sony's winnings on to the drive and let them go whistle Dixie.

Free Android encryption comes to Egypt

JaitcH
Alert

A solution to RIM's challenges

Stand alone encryption is infinitely better than system encryption as nosey governments cannot attack a cell handset manufacturer and updating is easily done - all with difficulties for the governments concerned.

Authoritarian governments such as the U.S. now is have nothing to gain by poking around servers as the protection lies with the user.

The only things is how do we know there are no backdoors to Redphone and TextSecure? Other Apps might well be able to bypass these Apps and surreptitiously transmit them without users knowledge.

Sony expands legal offensive to more PS3 hackers

JaitcH
FAIL

Sony shoots self in foot and forgets U.S. law has it's limitations

How dumb can an otherwise seemingly normal company get. They get lazy in their security precautions and when someone discovers the magic key they pretend they can re-secure the device with lawyers doing the job.

Another point is that U.S. law is limited to the jurisdiction of the U.S. territories and that many governments don't have protection provisions in their legislation.

Really very short sighted.

Google, antitrust, and the 'Copygate' hypocrisy

JaitcH
Pint

If Google was like Apple ....

it would have patented the idea of search and no doubt trade marked the term.

Instead, notwithstanding all it's faults, Google has done the world a great deal of good including the donation of software to the public domain which is even being used by competitors!

Sony tweets 'secret' key at heart of PS3 jailbreak case

JaitcH
FAIL

A complete defence?

I guess George Hotz, aka geohot, potentially has a 'complete defence' to the allegations levelled at him by Sony.

The whole matter proves that Sony still hasn't figured out security following that 100% foul up with the root technique. See: < https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal >.

TERRORISTS IN SUBMARINES menace the Free World!

JaitcH
WTF?

Now the U.S. Coast Guard will require anti-submarine ships

The U.S. Coast Guard, who assumes it mandate includes all world oceans and seas, will require an expensive upgrading to improve it's anti-submarine defences.

And I thought coastal waters went out to 200 miles.