Posts by JaitcH

Amazon really knocked cloud services when it knee-capped Wikileaks

The high-handed treatment of Wikileaks by Amazon highlighted a weakness of cloud services.

These services are very alike to communications, they provide carriage/storage of data.

They should be run on the principles relied upon by telephone companies and ISPs - they are bot responsible for content. Amazon's intervention was little less than political censorship. If every carrier in the InterNet had this attitude nothing would get through.

Another matter that needs clarification is where the cloud servers are based. Geographic location is very pertinent given that the U.S. government has laws permitting it to access any computer, without warrant, on U.S. territory.

How many organisations want THEM trawling through corporate data, not to mention the cloud operators?

"are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo for revenue growth"

She has been criticized for having a poor relationship with the management of Alibaba, of which Yahoo! owns almost 40% of the China-based firm. Some have speculated that this stake may be worth USD$10-billion and argue Yahoo! should sell it.

Bartz could have sold a few of these shares and given 600 people a happier Christmas.

Back in October Carol Bartz was supposed to be fired this week, this month, or later this year, according to a number of media outlets. Maybe this her move for job preservation - hers?

Just passing judgement on it's literary value?

Another possible use would in the outside 'loo. As back up.

Sweden blowing a lot of political capital and goodwill: not good for Assange

The fact that Sweden is using up a lot of goodwill in persecuting Assange means it is painting itself in to a corner where it will have to have a trial to justify all this show-boating in London. After all this posturing, they still only 'want him for 'questioning' rather than to stand trial.

It looks more and more political than just a sexual assault.

Let's hope he is out for Christmas.

Stunningly sane, obvious decision: saves money too

The money wasted by the military on communications is enormous. Then when a choice has been made, there is the small matter of interoperability between members of different forces.

The Royal Signals alone has a stunning number of systems: PERSONAL ROLE RADIO (PRR),

PTARMIGAN, TRIFFID, EUROMUX, CORMORANT, FALCON and PROMINA almost all of them replaceable with cell/Wimax/LTE technology.

Now we have to persuade the police to dump all their old technologies and get with the money saving idea.

Guess that Thales/Racal, BAE and Siemens Plessey won't be too happy though!

The whole bloody lot are incestuous fraud artists

The on-line res systems, GDS - Global Distribution Systems, evolved from airline based res systems into multi-carrier or universal systems.

Simply put, a travel agent, or vendor. inputs an inquiry and the res system kicks out a choice of slights. Due to their affiliations these flight presentations were skewed in favour of the airline owner - in the case of Sabre, now independent Sabre Holdings, it was American Airlines - then the U.S. government stepped in because of this bias and flights were listed by time of departure.

This why air carriers always list their morning departures at impossible times, even before the airport allows flights to begin, to get early positions in the screen listings.

The res systems made their money when a seat was "sold", the air carriers account was debited with a handling charge and the travel agents account was credited with a small piece of the action whilst the res system grabbed the most.

If a seat sale was cancelled the process was reversed - which all seemed fine. The res systems were, in fact, doing the accounting for all three parties in the deal.

Airlines can't, under IATA rules, mess with discounts, etc. To get around this restriction air carriers introduced 'contracts' where they provided seats at a discount to a travel vendor based on 'production' or ethnic origin. (This why it is often best to buy overseas flights from a travel agent ethnically affiliated with your destination)

On occasion the res systems had technical problems where their accounting systems screwed up and either the carriers or the travel agents lost out, monetarily.

SURPRISE, no one bitched, no one noticed they were getting gyped by the res systems. These 'incidents' continued for years with everyone, except the GDS, losing a small percentage.

Then some airline accountant got smart. Instead of accepting the GDS accounting as gospel, he decided to audit their returns with actual seats sold. Big problems for the GDS, but another opportunity for IT - automatic seat sales/GDS reconciliation.

Remember ALL THESE TRANSACTIONS were ORIGINATED by the independent TRAVEL AGENT. In order to actually sell a ticket and accept money on behalf of airlines, travel vendors have to be IATA approved. Individual airlines made travel vendors 'authorised' by issuing a 'plate' which would be inserted in the manual ticket machine so the right codes, and discounts, were applied.. This 'plate' data was later held by the GDS so they automatically printed the data on tickets.

Many of the discrepancies were sorted out between the GDS and the airlines but many airlines didn't have the clout to deal with the GDS so they came up with a new idea -screw the weakest link. These 'charge backs', aka Debit Notes, are made for everything: agent booking errors (including GDS errors), credit card refusals, etc.

Then some travel agents decided to check out their GDS accounts and they found that their sale 'credits' were 'short'.

This has happened with Sabre and, at least, Galileo - I know as I was sued by both (and they both lost) for warning travel agents through a web site, that I am one moderator of, of these losses.

To demonstrate exactly how amoral GDS are consider: they are travel agent suppliers, they collect all passenger identification and contact info, they know all about travel agent customers, as well as travel agents.

In normal businesses suppliers don't sell against their customers. But travel is not a 'normal' business. Sabre set up Travelocity so it can retail against travel agents (Travelocity has to use real travel agents in some locations to issue tickets because of law). In other words Sabre gets the transaction handling charge and the discount through the 'contracts' it holds through Travelocity.

So today we have all these incestuous crooks complaining because an honest broker, Google, wants in and that all their little deals, that rip off passengers, will be exposed.

Tough luck, I say, the retail travelling public deserves transparency and these 'friends' in the travel trade should face true competition!

P.S. To get the best, and safest, deals:

1. Pick a reliable travel agent who will appreciate you and your business;

2. Only buy from IATA approved travel agents;

3. Make sure your travel agent can be contacted out of hours by e-mail for emergencies;

4. Make sure your travel agent is bonded - often through a trade organisation;

5. Note that buying travel from the company organising the travel/package means NO insurance!

6. Not one of the members of FairSearch.org will provide all of these passenger friendly benefits. Most are not insured to protect their customers, either.

Guess what someone's doing for Christmas?

In many jurisdictions judges like to keep docket bare over the Christmas period so they, and the lawyers, can escape to the ski slopes or beaches.

I'm sure the plaintiff's lawyers can read the message.

"famous "detector vans" should remain shrouded in mystery"

The only mystery is how the BBC has never been charged with extortion or fraud, harassing seniors who don't even have televisions.

Given today's solid state screens, built to low radiation requirements, another mystery is just what are these mysterious vans detecting? Guilty consciences? Or are they using the Israeli voice lie detectors?

Maybe Wikileaks has a new challenge?

Time for a Kinect Apps store?

Since MS missed the boat on Smart phones, perhaps they can make it with KINECT Apps ... until Jobs has time to file his prior art patents.

iVersion 4 is inimitable

Lemon 4 is like no other phone as was duff when it hit the streets and Jobs swept the problem under the carpet and lied saying all was well.

The respected U.S. Consumer Reports condemned the thing, too>

Still, Versions 1-3 are even good enough to make calls.

(iPhans click the red button below)

All welcome, unless ....

your name is Wikileaks.

Maybe it's time for the 'Info Bomb File' to be opened?

What many seem to be overlooking, whilst worrying about all the 'outing' of names of informers or American operatives, are the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people MURDERED by U.S. forces or their allies.

Maybe these people don't count because they are citizens of a country in conflict / not my relative / different colour / don't speak English.

What about the plain simple, unadorned murder of Reuters reporters by U.S. airborne troops?

What about Canadian and British troops killed by 'friendly fire' by U.S. forces?

Time to open the file, Assange and Wikileaks, the 'collateral damage' will be minimal compared to what the U.S. has done in the pursuit of oil under the guise of 'human rights' and 'democracy'!

"how relatively unimportant and easily replaceable a part Julian Assange and Wikileaks ..."

If this is true the U.S. government sure is wound up about like few other individuals have achieved before and has caused a number of different governments to change plans.

Give credit where credit is due - and not forgetting the imprisoned soldier Manning.

South Korea joining China, North Korea, VietNam, etc?

South Korea isn't the first Far Eastern country to reject Facebook for various reasons including privacy or cultural reasons.

Maybe Zuck-man will, true to his old character, just tell them to not to bother him.

Spare Spectrum? Don't do what the U.S. did!

The U.S. FCC hired contractors to do a spectrum use survey to get an updated picture.

Out they went and after months of surveying they compiled a report that showed well under 50% of the assigned (licenced use) frequencies were actually being used.

An old RF hand in the FCC spot checked some of the report findings and he found that the 'unused' frequencies were actually the mobile transmit frequencies - the surveyors had used an antenna with low elevation which was great for receiving the 'base station' frequencies radiated from high atop tall masts.

The 'mobile' transmitters had lower elevation, naturally, and as a result the surveyors had failed to detect their use!

Colour the report a failure!

Given that most Chinese women are slight of build ....

just how many iThings will fit in a A or B size bra cup?

Maybe MaCau would have been a better choice for crossing the border, a ferry trip from HongKong, as most destined for MaCau are after the casinos.

They had to move, to maintain a foothold

The pace of developement in this technology was in danger of leaving Mastercard and Visa as also rans.

By introducing this sad compromise is technologically flawed and uses the SD slot that is meant for other, more frequent uses.

This is a privacy stretch!

Just why can't parents take pictures of school activities their children participate in? I attended a school activity with my niece a few years ago and some prune of a teacher said I couldn't take photo's of HER child as I wasn't a parent.

Bloody stupid.

So she used my camera and took numerous photo's of her child, as well as the other children, with my camera - so I guess a paedophile could do that, too.

Signs of Desperation?

One Walmart I see when I visit the States doesn't have many greeters.

Last time I dropped in the single old guy on the door said Walmart has trouble hiring pensioners as greeters as the pay is so poor it hardly pays for his transportation - he did it because it was a social thing, he got out of the house and met people!

On guard for thee, indeed!

E-ordering and payment escrow/trust equally important

The ability to place E-orders - with assured signatures for those with credit facilities with a supplier - is equally important.

For those placing occasional orders, or for people without established credit facilities, a payment trust / escrow account system is key to doing business. As the last few days have demonstrated, neither the major credit card players, nor the payment facilitators such as PayPal, or even a major Swiss financial player can be trusted.

Any escrow system must be able to payout providing, at the time the deposit was MADE, both parties to a transaction weren't on any ban list.

In case of risk of Tasering risk get new clothes!

There are several commercial products available now to neutralise Tasers, and their ilk, from spray on high-conductivity sprays (like anti-static or anti-stain sprays).

For those participants in G20 or education fee hikes, more effective tailored clothing might prove effective. See: < http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/safety/taser+proof-gear-is-great-for-students-political-activists-criminals-318169.php >, < http://catmanslitterbox.blogspot.com/2009/08/defeating-tasers-and-other-non-lethal.html >, < http://www.thorshield.com/prod01.htm >.

Question: How come Plod doesn't order / use the lanyard / tether option - or are they just too cheap?

Just a Pentagon War Game to check out their new toys.

Within weeks of forming a 'cyber war' group, the Pentagon is likely working overtime to check out it's tactics for the next U.S. inspired go-around.

Sort of proves they have a lot to learn, yet, as they have with keeping their secrets locked down.

Another dumb bugger who doesn't tether his laptop ... or make back-ups.

Hasn't this AD MAN seen the ADVERTISEMENTS that recommend you lock your goodies in your car boot / trunk?

I have hauled laptops and assorted high value electronic test gear around the world for decades and have yet to lose one to a thief. My trusty Kingston security tether (don't use the Belkin as they are useless) is ALWAYS attached when out of my home or office.

At airports or other transportation termini I thread the tether through my baggage handles. On commuter trains I either secure the tether through my trousers belt or around my wrist. Once I travelled on the Chiltern line and noticed all the dozing business men who carelessly entrusted their laptops to the overhead rack. On arrival at Princes Risborough there was a cry of anguish as one of these sleeping beauties had discovered his toy had been taken for a walk.

P.S. Do yourselves a favour, cut off any labelling on the carry cases that suggest the contents have a high value!

Financial systems own goals: credibility down the drain

Financial institutions depend on trust, whatever there is left after the Wall Street frauds, where a person trusts a financial agent to perform a duty without fear or favour and transmit money to a second party.

By claiming Assange / Wikileaks / whomever has broken a law - no U.S. laws have been infringed by Wikileaks - and refusing to perform their advertised service, the financial institutions are simply destroying their credibility, particularly since they still perform services to people infringing the law in other matters.

I frequently use 'ethnic' money transfer services, which are not banks and were declared to be 'aiding terrorism' by Bush, as I can transfer any amount of money - as in thousands of dollars - to a different country knowing it will be DELIVERED to the payee, as in to their door, the next day, 7 days a week.

Never been cheated, never been refused and never had to discuss the 'lawfulness' of my payee.

Smart move: Quality not Quantity

The oft quoted App totals, even those passed by the Thought Control police, had, and have, little meaning to smartphone users who use their devices for business.

Many App library descriptions don't accurately describe Apps, either, making selection difficult.

Perhaps the design contest rules signal RIM will adopt tighter parameters when they open their App library.

Regional bird accents

As someone who has travelled worldwide, I have noticed chickens and owls have distinctive regional calls.

Some owls in, at least, Western Greece making a 'bopping' cry as opposed to the 'twit-twoooo' of the English owl.

The 'morning call' of cockerels, which seem to have no or little relationship to sun-rise are even more distinctly more varied, even to the untrained ear. Having listened to such calls for years in Buckinghamshire, the damn multiple cocks within earshot of my small place on the Greek isle of Kithnos are extremely different both in timing and tone, and seem to start around 04.00H and carry on throughout the day!

My favourite bird call is the plaintiff call of the Canadian Loon < http://www.junglewalk.com/sound/loon-sounds.htm >.

P.S. When travelling, take time to study the night-sky filled with stars - and how it changes from place to place.

Another clash of culture?

In North America, where the telephone was invented on picturesque Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, the early telephone 'companies' were formed by farmers getting together and erecting telephone lines that terminated on a manual switchboard somewhere in the centre, geographically.

The operator, often a housewife, would connect the calls on her cord board. The whole system was financed by occasional payments whilst the individual calls were 'free'.

Later lines were installed that interconnected individual farmers groups systems together, the use of which was subject to charge.

Elsewhere in the world per call charges were used.

Rarely have 'consumption' charges been used in North America since the InterNet became more ubiquitous. Generous limits were imposed but few hit this jackpot, at first.

Now Europe wants to reintroduce it's metering schema.

Several things aren't too obvious to the casual user. The BBC, for instance, maintains servers in White Plains, New York State to service North America.

Google also owns InterNet pipelines around the world that terminate in many countries for which they pay the freight. Other heavy consumers, such as Facebook, do not, relying on regular carriers.

So before people go bad mouthing the usual suspects, just investigate who the real free-loaders are.

Brave guy, this Icelander, and right on the mark

Assange and Wikileaks have broken no laws with respect to the 'leaks'.

The leaks occurred solely because of the failure of American authorities to properly secure the data. Any claims by these usurious credit card companies to the contrary are plain and simply lies.

These companies should recognise that American law does not apply to Europe and therefore the EU should their feet to the fire and get this sorted out.

PayPal - no credibility, not trustworthy1

The PayPal wanna-be-a-bank outfit has a history of freezing accounts for unfounded reasons. Did it for Cryptome, too.

Not only this, they also sell on customer data to other potential vendors.

Totally unworthy and unreliable. Never, ever give them a credit card number, either!

All potential contracts should be advertised with a ...

period to allow expressions of interest, followed by proposals / RFQ's and a public opening of bids.

This will force tenderers to sharpen their pencils and for competitors to tweak / optomise their quotations.

"testing of the gizmo’s firmware is still ongoing"

After the disastrous Lemon 4, it must the new process - testing them in the factory and not in the users hand.

Guess this news will flatten sales of Version 1 and boost those of Samsung Galaxy pads for those wanting one for Christmas.

Just in time for Santa Claus and Chinese New Years / Tet in February

At last there is choice for these annual celebrations, with the latest OS, rather than a phone that can't be held or earlier generation Android.

Why try fixing something that ain't broke?

One of the few things that has worked well are the international numbering plans and agreements. So why go messing it up?

There was a lot of thought put into the present plan. 852 (straight down the digital dial) for HongKong; 212 fast rotary dialling for a busy place like New York, as was 213 for Los Angeles (issued in 1947) surrounded by 323. Washington DC is 202 - a high number for an politically important but not, in 1947, particularly busy; 313 for busy Detroit.

44 and 33 were good numbers and undoubtedly assigned for their world (colonial) significance.

Areas with potentially high phone counts/populations were awarded single digits: 1 - North America (now less the Caribbean); 8 for China and Russia 7.

The agreement overrode politics, too. U.S. numbers couldn't dial Cuba, but Canada could through the then cable from Miami to Cuba. For the U.S. East Germany wasn't recognised diplomatically but nevertheless it could be reached by non-U.S. numbers through White Plains New York.

Who would have thought, numbers for international co-operation!

Most judges are technically ignorant + UK's in-built class system equals bad law

Both the U.S. and Canada have some judges who are not only qualified lawyers but also doctors, accountants and engineers. They are better qualified in handling today's technically complex cases.

The U.K., from what I have read, have fewer. Additionally there is the 'class' stratification in UK society and more senior judges, older too, are not only less technically skilled but have years of judicial isolation in their ivory towers away from everyday society. How many have been to a football match or even a drink at a pub?

The very expression, 'unsafe conviction', carries baggage whereas the North American "Not Guilty', or 'the conviction is struck' have much clearer meanings and inferences.

The proclamation, by the appeal court, in this case demonstrate the judges hadn't grasped the technical details of the matter which is not good for the court or the appellants - or for any other similar appeals this court may hear.

I was about to put this on my buy list, then I saw ...

no SD!

Guess I'll have to wait for HTC to get it right.

More Apple Tosh on it's way

Apple will need a couple of weeks to file their version of this Nokia design - no doubt an App to create alleged differences.

Check PatentlyApple.com for progress.

Then, no doubt, they'll be off to the ITC for yet another hearing.

RIM might be smart to develop a Enterprise Server with a back ...

door because with the number of governments wanting to read their citizens mail is increasing monthly.

How about running a hacking competition to see who can break with a prize of $100,000?

The nest Facebook page is one with a bold ...

404 - as seen in China and VietNam and a few other enlightened countries.

Same problem at my summer cottage.

I have small weekend getaway on the 'wrong' side of the lake for a cable feed and using Wimax for listening to the Beeb gets a little expensive.

I bought some TP-Link 501 Access Point WiFi boxes which can be programmed as AP or Client which when connected back to back and using their 14 dB gain antennae gave a reliable link. It is possible to hack TP-Link boxes - search using Google - so you can max out the power.

It's been up for three years now, without any downtime.

How petty! Pay Pal you'd expect but the White House?

Pay Pal has a history of freezing accounts, seizing money or delaying payments, along with collecting and passing data - smart people avoid using them as an recipient of funds and especially as a forwarder of funds using credit cards.

As for the White House, no words describe their stupidity. I supported Obama, he had a once in a blue moon opportunity to change the U.S.A. for the better. He blew this opportunity, too.

I guess the numbnuts on his staff presume the people won't access the Wikilleaks.com/http://213.251.145.96 when they get home.

Cash is King!

1. No trouble having cash accepted (if good money);

2. No audit trails for The Plod, tax man or expense auditors to check;

3. No anxious moments waiting to see if:there is a message to contact your bank;

4. No anxious moments waiting to see if HSBC has inadvertently cancelled your card;

5. No anxious moments waiting to see if HSBC is having computer problems, again;

6. Instant balance info by sticking your hand in your pocket;

7. No use information sold off to marketing outfits.

Nothing beats CASH, ask any tax dodger, drug dealer or frequent traveller.

Not a bad take even for 4.5 years

Split proportionately between the 5 of them, based on the time awarded, these guys still prove crime pays.

Kind of stupid for not registering property in a trusted third party, but there again there's supposed to be no honour amongst thieves so maybe they couldn't trust anyone!

And people think The cloud is reliable?

The Cloud has just suffered a hell of a hit to it's reputation and claims for reliability.

If some jumped up politician, who isn't quite sure what party he stands for, can write a letter and as a result have a Cloud operator remove the files, perhaps Apple will censor it's cloud of ny prurient material or MS refuse to post anything critical of it's products.

Keep those hard drives, at least you can control their use.