* Posts by JaitcH

3904 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2009

Google sues US gov for picking Microsoft

JaitcH
WTF?

Good for Google! Did MS write the RFQ as well?

Too many government departments send out an RFQ having secretly selected their favourite supplier. Often the favoured supplier 'assists' in drafting the RFQ.

Google has put h U.S. Government departments on notice that it won't be shut-out by tricks of old. Halloween is past!

Murder victim-mocking troll jailed

JaitcH
Unhappy

Sex, paedophilia and terrorism are Plod trigger words for magistrates

Magistrates are the lowest form both legally and in stature but they are attractive to government as they are cheap. They make pronouncements of little worth and give talks to Women's Institutes.

Plod uses key words which are picked up by the ignorant magistrate who adds her prejudice and nails the victim.

The defendant is obviously sick and should be treated so.

JaitcH
Pint

Freedom of Speech, US style, is like Speakers Corner in Hyde Park

Whilst you can say anything, there are few criminal penalties and civil recourse is allowed.It DOES mean you can LIE and INSULT people.

Crying Fire! has been held to be a criminal offence.

What this guy did would likely fall under poor taste and free speech.

This is why so many chatrooms are hosted in the US as well as terrorism web sites.

Gentlemen, start your engines – with your phone!

JaitcH
Black Helicopters

Should be popular with Mafia and Terrorists, maybe the alternate IRA

This will be very handy for remote starting cars to see if US operatives have placed bombs on board.

Al Quaida and the IRA subset could rewire horn circuit to TRIGGER bombs/UIDS.

Real smart GM.

Microsoft holds Androids hostage in open source wars

JaitcH
Pint

The Chinese business mindset is to follow path of least resistance to make money!

HTC likely is paying royalties to clear the clutter from the path to making a fortune. Likely they consulted with Google but made their own decision.

HTC doesn't want to waste time in a US court, it wants to get rich.

The real interesting court battle will be Apple defending patents that are obviously prior art involving multi-touch!

RIAA and Anonymous sites both downed by DDoS assaults

JaitcH
Unhappy

Why are we to be surprised: Industry was dumb to start it?

The RIAA has no one else except itself to blame.

The problems will occur when it blossoms into a full time, fully fledged war and starts to busy out chunks of the InterNet.

PayPal hardware failure fingered for worldwide outage

JaitcH
Pint

"it was investigating how to prevent any future re-occurrence of similar problems."

Most likely it was a sneak attack by Cryptome and all those other account holders it shafted by freezing their accounts.

Users can cure the problem promptly, user a reputable service. Even AmEx is in on the business and they are experts at shifting money, especially circumventing currency controls for valued customers.

iPhone alarm bug: now it's the UK's turn

JaitcH
WTF?

Even Windows gets this right.

Really pathetic. It's something fairly high on the minds of Americans since they recently decreed summer would be extended.

All North Americans get really good at time zones as it affects TV schedules ... show is on at 7pm Eastern and 6pm Central. In the West i's different ... showing at 7pm, 8pm Mountain.

USA, Canada, northern Mexico’s border cities

DST Begins 2 a.m. (Second Sunday in March)

DST Ends 2 a.m. (First Sunday in November)

European Union

DST Begins 1 a.m. UTC=GMT (Last Sunday in March)

DST Ends 1 a.m. UTC=GMT (Last Sunday in October)

In winter Canada has 6 time zones, in summer 7 - Saskatchewan doesn't do Daylight Savings.

Funny thing is, for all it's other faults Windows always got time right. Just shows how parochial Jobs really is.

.

MPs wake up to 21st century and internet

JaitcH
WTF?

"Internet Bill of Rights" ... UK doesn't even have a regular "Bill of Rights" (unlike Canada)

You would be better off working for get a "Bill of Rights" to protect yourself from government.

They are really handy against wayward civil servants, etc.

JaitcH
FAIL

Remember War Driving - Google just automated it

Before some people climb on their high horses REMEMBER The Register has international readership and different laws throughout the world:

(1) WiFi is limited to a common shared frequency band, and generally most countries waive licencing. registration, etc.;

(2) Type approved equipment has to be used;

(3) No one has exclusive use, right to elimination of interference, etc.;

(4) WiFi is, generally, broadcasting so any one with equipment can receive it;

(5) Privacy is NOT assured although encryption and user/password techniques are provided to provide low level security.

Consider:

(a) Google is simply 'War Driving' - see: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving > - the only difference is they automated it and added data collection;

(b) Google associates the WiFi data with GPS and pictures of surrounding scenery that can be seen from public thoroughfares - all of which can be done by members of the public;

(c) Some of the traffic it accessed was only due to the fact the WiFi base owner was either technically incompetent or too stupid not to activate the available security in their WiFi equipment;

(d) In many countries what Google has done is perfectly legal;

(e) Almost every one of the tens of millions of smart-phones in use PRESENTLY record WiFi signal data, including MAC addresses, and TRANSMIT THIS DATA along with GPS data TO UNKNOWN RECIPIENTS EVERY MINUTE THEY ARE SWITCHED ON.

So if all those people with their knickers in a twist want some cause to champion, go complain about what smart-phones are DOING not what Google has DONE. Make it unlawful to transmit GPS and WiFi data without explicit, per time, authorisation of the telephone owner. (Best tackled from unauthorised transmission time.)

Then go figure out how to tighten up WiFi security.

Apple unloads patent suits on Motorola Androids

JaitcH
WTF?

"We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP ..." Pot to kettles

I guess Apple has conveniently that the Mac started off with stolen goods from Xerox. And Jobs was there. Ang they have regularly done so ever since.

The whole American patent system is screwed up an needs fixing.

Funny how the US has time to work on a world agreement for Copyright, for Hollywood, but not for Patents, which is far more important than all this Hollywood bull.

Apple to buy Sony? Good one!

JaitcH
Happy

Better retail coverage in China.

The Chinese have a plethora of fruit-like products to buy, all at fractional prices compared to the American competition.

Chinese disposable income is barely comparable to that of the US.

I frequently pop up to NanNing and GwangZhou to buy things and I am amazed what nice, clean consumer technology $10-50 can buy you, definitely the type of product Chinese consumers appreciate at prices suited to their budgets.

Fate of porn domain left in government hands

JaitcH
FAIL

Too hot to handle? Time to get off the pot!

I was sorry to see Heather Dryden of Canada, a country with enlightened views, was questioning whether or not any "controversial" domains should be added to the internet.

The reasons she gave were very weak. 'Censorious nations' exist on both sides of the political and geographic divides and include Australia, China, Germany, United Kingdom and VietNam - a very eclectic choice of bedmates.

Dryden's claims this "could eventually lead to alternate domain name systems being set up", thereby "fragmenting the internet" shows just how out of touch she is. This suggests she is a card carrying member of CIRA (later confirmed). Worse still a Lexis-Nexis search reveals she is a government designate from the Canadian Government, which is extreme rightist at the moment.

How her educational background in International Politics and Russian Studies.helps is beyond comprehension. Coming from Ottawa further compounds her problems, it is not a city noted for intelligentsia in government.

I guess she is the 'Gordon Brown' type appointee - handed a cushy job where they can do minimum damage.

The InterNet is already fragmented which is how children get advanced sex lessons already: assigning them to an internationally recognised domain name such as .XXX seems eminently suitable.

IBM bags £15m borders deal

JaitcH
FAIL

Sailing plan filings

Dumb ideas like these are easily defeated by filing proposed trips both short and long, whether to another destination or just around the bay.

After getting swamped with junk they will give up anyway.

A Home Affairs Select Committee report concluded that 'the e-Borders programme is likely to be illegal under the EU Treaty. Not that this small detail ever bothered previous governments. (Think DNA)

Anyway, how can five high-speed clapped out ex-Navy cutters, which will patrol the country's coastline, do much other than waste fuel and show the flag. Another security joke. Except it is costed at £1.2 billion.

JaitcH
FAIL

Boeing has got the border security boot in the US; why does anyone think the UK can succeed?

The lauded e-border security system custom built by Boeing has just gotten the boot as a failure on the Mexican border.

Why on earth does the UK think it can be any more successful after centuries of being given the run-around by smugglers? Britain is perfect for surreptitious entry, all you need is a row boat. Then the illegals melt into the ethnic areas and another one wins.

People smugglers and would be illegal immigrants are a determined lot and have more tricks than you think.

The fact that the police stopped hundreds of thousands of people, with a handful of 'hits' - none terrorist - is indicative of the failure that should be expected unless the public is prepared to submit to an even more rigorous regime than those already rejected by the pols and the citizens.

One answer is to make countries of departure more attractive so people might be persuaded to stay home.

First tube station to get Wi-Fi next week

JaitcH
Pint

In technologically advanced countries such as ...

Canada, China, the USA or even VietNam finding mobile WiFi, distinct from Wimax or LTE, is common on long haul buses or rail so people can use their time productively.

Usually there is no charge for these services in the Far East.

Just think Britain might do it, one day ....

JaitcH
Pint

Isn't the infrastructure great in the 'developing' world?

Remember the 'developed' nations were our test lab. And forget your 'upmarket' qualification - less free access there than other areas;

You checked the AMPS cell system, long haul telco carrier systems, etc., NTSC/PAL/SECAM TV signalling, and so on.

VietNam now has a 100% fibre network; we have remote villages with 12 Megabyte InterNet feeds to homes; digital signalling even to residential premises; 'city' and 7 national coverage cell radio systems; TV over radio in all major cities and Wimax/LTE countrywide. Farmers are now being fed crop wholesale prices, via cell phones, so they know the optimum time to pick crops. We even irradiate food exports to meet US demands.

South Korea is even more advanced with 100 Megabyte residential InterNet. advanced transportation tracking and reporting systems where bus shelter displays advise passengers of bus arrival times.

Little wonder Brits feel cheated when BT promises higher speed InterNet some year within the next decade. At least you can boast your sewers work better than ours do.

JaitcH
Happy

The only difference in mobile back-haul and land-locked

service is that backbone services are fed to the mobile Access Point using Wimax or LTE - some Canadian rail systems use cell system fed InterNet.

Nothing complicated about it.

JaitcH
FAIL

A failure - sensible outfits supply free WiFi for travellers

If damn coffee shops can justify free WiFi why can't a massive public rail terminus?

This nickel and diming is what spoils the whole thing and will be seen as BT out to take the public's money. Totally out of touch BT.

SAP legal u-turn delivers new HP boss for Monday start

JaitcH
Unhappy

So HP fires alleged crook then hires a new alleged crook. American business is strange.

This whole mess is really looking bad for the HP board of directors.

Their fearless leader, formerly with Oracle, replaces someone fired by HP for alleged mathematics problems with his expenses, who gets hired by Oracle.

Then the former Oracle board chair hires the president of a SAP subsidiary who admits to IP theft .

The whole arrangement sounds somewhat incestuous. My money is on Apotheker getting fired and possibly the ex-Oracle HP chair! Wonder what the payoff's are for fired alleged crooks?

Good time to grab HP shares cheap?

Emulex encrypts data before it gets into the array

JaitcH
WTF?

Sell it to the Pentagon, their security is none existent

If the US military had any concept of security it would stop curious UK types from rifling their data on UFO's, Area 51, etc.

Data holders should quit blaming people for breaking in to their cookie jars and do somehing to prevent it.

UK.gov plans net censor service

JaitcH
WTF?

Many web sites allow post editing

"You might want to take a moment here and imagine what life would actually be like if commenters could edit their own comments."

I took several moments and still can't see the problem.

There is a little risk in allowing post editing - I moderate or administer a number of web sites and have never found post-editing to be a problem.

In fact it makes moderators work easier, so more can be achieved with less labour. Works for The Daily Beast - which is a very hot forum.

Daily Mail rails at Street View in women's refuge wrongness

JaitcH
Unhappy

Google does nothing anyone else can't do.

There is little Google does that can't be done by Joe Q. Public. I can't understand the exaggerated excitement around this subject.

(a) They take pictures from public areas, so who can't? (b) They monitor a common frequency band that can be used by type approved equipment without a licence, so who can't?

Most likely what is driving this is naive fools who haven't set their WiFi up properly. And Google is to blame?

Worry about the fact that smart-phone manufacturers and Apps are STEALING your airtime, usually with most not knowing it, using YOUR SMART-PHONE to do EXACTLY what Google has done with WiFi.

That makes you whining ninnies with smart-phones no better than Google - so quit the crocodile tears and activate the free WiFi security - using WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK security is best.

Multi-network iPhone SIM rumours at Apple

JaitcH
Jobs Horns

Jobs: Just a closer walk with Me

Knowing Jobs it is to put the hackers out of business so all phones have to be activated for use on approved carriers. No more jail breaking.

Jobs is about control, not customer convenience.

JaitcH
FAIL

Why would you need GPS?

Networks automatically provide identification through network signalling.

Better to use network signalling as you at least know the handset is within operational coverage areas.

Automatic roaming will not be acceptable to some governments as users are required to identify themselves through passports and/or visas before service is permitted. In Cambodia no foreign visitor is permitted to use cell services.

Israel to join list of 'adequate' data protection nations

JaitcH
WTF?

So now the Mossad can use any Euro citizen data?

Mossad, and therefore Israel, has repeatedly shown contempt for other nations citizens by using passports from a number of Euro nations as well as Canadian and U.S. passports whilst going around the world murdering people.

What sureties does the EU have that this will not happen again enhanced by the broader range of data now made accessible.

Do the EU citizens have a veto right to stop any data on themselves being passed?

Google Nexus Two 'lands November 8'

JaitcH
Happy

What we need is an Android layer cake

Peole talk about fragmentation of the Android 'space' and the sluggishness of various parties involved in bringing the 'experience' of the latest OS version to market.

The other day I was at a bakery buying my child a birthday cake; others were buying cakes for their own personal reasons - but they all had one thing in common, the base comprising a cake, with fillings, all covered in white icing.

Equate the cake to an Android smart-phone. The common cake element is the OS whilst the personalised greetings and colouring is the interface.

If Google were to say: "Hands off the cake" so it alone could update or patch directly to users without waiting for manufacturers or cellco's to do their thing. This OS would, however, need a simple interface so if there were incompatibilities between the new OS and an older manufacturer or cellco interface, operability would be maintained.without the fancy icing.

Nexus 2 would be great place to minimise OS fragmentation.

Back to the birthday party.

Over 100,000 stops-and-searches: zero terrorists

JaitcH
Pint

Plod proves Plod is wrong, again. The silence is ACPO figuring next reason for having them.

After harassing the general public with the excessive powers bestowed on them by Plunkett, Blair & Brown, particularly photographers, the Plod has produced a completely unassailable set of figures all on their own.

ACPO must be stunned, at least more stunned that at the present time than usual, that the Met Plod has own goaled ACPO's propaganda.

And remember Labour's bleating for extended periods of incarceration without charge? Another report just released shows that few are kept over fourteen days and that any charges were preferred by the 14th day. And Labour wanted 90!

Thank someone for the Lib-Dems sanity in these matters. Hopefully they will reduce the insults to British freedom.

Boffins mount campaign against France's official kilogramme

JaitcH
Unhappy

What is the significance of a "chamfered cylinder" in a standard?

I understand the mechanical benefits of a chamfered cylinder, but what beneficial effects would they have on a static standard of weight?

Privacy researchers plot RIM's route

JaitcH
Pint

The Citizen Lab is part of the ...

Munk School of Global Affairs, at the University of Toronto, Canada.

< http://citizenlab.org/ >

JaitcH
Alert

This is Obama:

I have my very own personal server and it is a U.S. Government secret.

419ers threaten terrorism charges

JaitcH
Pint

At least they've moved on from ...

dead uncles and aunts bank accounts or dictators abandoning money.

80% for creativity.

MP slams ICO for 'lily-livered' Google probe

JaitcH
Thumb Up

All very legal ... where I live

You are assuming that all countries have similar legislation to yours. They don't, therefore your views have limited geographical applicability. Besides, reporting my IP would have little consequence - it's 112.197.220.077 BTW - as VN laws aren't being broken. Neither am I a criminal. Furthermore, I and most others use VPN so IP's become even less relevant.

Most of our restaurant WiFi's are supplied by FPT (User: fpt; p/w: telecom) which are openly displayed when you access a WiFi (just hit enter) and the attitude here is that open WiFi is good for business. Only Western owned hotels think about charging for WiFi.

Same in regional airports, and even on the rail and some buses. Free and unlimited. And passworded.

So please don't get would up, privacy is being breached but I could careless about others traffic. My point still remains, if you have an expectation of privacy use WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, otherwise don't complain. Besides, what with all the smartphones sniffing your connections, things are really busy out there. And you don't even realise it.

JaitcH
WTF?

Robert Halfon's vacuous head demonstrates principle behind 'Empty vessels make most noise'

You don't go around leaving your premises unlocked, as was the case in yesteryear, only to complain that someone walked in and taken something.

For years the WiFi manufacturers have been advising people to implement security, not helped by making the default as security turned off, so Halton and his merry bunch of dummies should stop blaming Google, who was honest enough not to delete the evidence.

As someone who travels constantly, I NEVER have to pay for WiFi access, I even download gigabyte Bit-torrents over WiFi and rarely get interrupted. As might be expected, this is being posted over a neighbours unit and he uses WEP! (I subscribe to WeFi.com so if you need some handy passwords ...)

Hells Angels slap London dressmakers with trademark suit

JaitcH
Happy

Plaintiff, lawyer and enforcement all in one.

Why bother with the courts?

A visit from a couple of the boyo's, on their hawgs, should do it. If not, a pipe bomb should complete the job.

Quicker than the courts, too.

Bond car bought at auction

JaitcH
Pint

Still be hawked around? It was first used in 1964!

I guess this says a lot about Aston Martin's quality as this ageing car must be qualified for 'historical plates' by now.

Today's version would no doubt feature laser guided missiles instead of the now missing machine guns.

Hong Kong monitor maker sues Apple over iPad moniker

JaitcH
FAIL

Apple's S.O.P. - their Chinese tablet sales will be minimal, anyway

Apple only bought off the earlier users of 'their' product name when they determined such users might have the wherewithal to upset Apple's cart.

Besides with the Chinese stores overflowing with lookalikes of Apple's knock-off, boasting features that would challenge Jobs sensitivities, at prices a fraction of the Apple tablet, prospects for sales of the fruit version are likely minimal at best.

Even the 3D tablets are really improving so that (pirated) copies of Hollywood's answer to piracy look good.

Intel forms flash gang of five

JaitcH
Pint

Apple will develop it's own 'standard' and strange connectors

Great idea to eliminate all those damn 'specials' that plague us.

As Jobs will want to lock his flock into single-sourced SSD's to max out their contributions Apple will no doubt, once again, go it's own way and use yet more strange connectors to hammer home the point.

Gov consults on UK's corporate governance

JaitcH
Pint

Want guaranteed compliance?: Make directors and officers personally and severally liable

LEE Kwan-Yews little dictatorship got it right - hold directors and officers personally liable for their own and their colleagues errors.

If they break any corporate law, they are banned from holding any office, in any company - public or private - for at least 10 years, anywhere.

It's only when directors and officers spheroids are squeezed do they wake up and actually care.

They ought to limit the ratio between the lowest paid employee and the highest paid employee, and disallow sub-contracting.

BA slams stupid security checks

JaitcH
Happy

All the batteries in a tube are ...

easier to scan, and are safe from shorting.

Better than having to hunt for loose batteries.

JaitcH
Unhappy

You get screwed at HKG and BKK

If you transit through either HongKong or Bangkok your duty free is lost on US flights.

A spot of cash will sort the problem out in BKK, but HKG rules coupled with the Chinese mentality is a real pain as they slavishly follow US security rules.

JaitcH
Pint

Don't use checked baggage for lithium batteries!

ALWAYS hand carry lithium batteries - they can cause a real vicious fire.

I carry them in in plastic water piping with a glued cap on one end and a push-fit cap on the other. The pipes are about 6 battery lengths long. Used batteries are positive to the bottom and charged are positive to the opening.

Security types seem to appreciate the arrangement, and they are safe from shorting.

Privacy watchdog lowers White House's grades

JaitcH
Unhappy

Sounds so sensible, except US citizens rights have been swept aside

The Constitution notwithstanding, US citizens rights have been swept aside with unlimited communications tapping and the 'Patriot Act'.

US Army trials robot 'leccy-n-bandwidth war-mules

JaitcH
Unhappy

What happened to "Dumb, Simple"?

A single 50 mm bullet could destroy their little wheelie and then all the electronic toys will be useless.

Batteries and fuel have been major challenges for Armies for years, these systems are simply increasing vulnerabilities. Already today's soldiers are carrying around a 100 pounds of equipment so there is not much more even a well exercised soldier can carry.

White iPhone 4 delayed again

JaitcH
Jobs Horns

Maybe they are trying to reduce the Chinese worker body count

Obviously there must be significant challenges for Jobs commitments to be questioned so many times.

Could it be the hazardous production chemicals and processes are resulting in an 'unacceptable' phone unit count to production worker injury ratio?

All this to satisfy someone's vanity. Hell of a price for the poor Chinese working stiff who gets pennies for their hours work.

iPhones, MacBooks sicken Chinese women

JaitcH
FAIL

"Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in Apple’s supply chain are safe ..."

That might be the corporate patter but Apple isn't there day and night - nor are all the other Western enterprises who use cheap Chinese labour employed in conditions that wouldn't be tolerated in their home countries.

The Chinese government doesn't care, it is too busy counting the loot.

Now the white iPhone 4 has been released, without the Grip of Death, you have to wonder what new health risks are involved.

North Lincs pilots victimisation index

JaitcH
Pint

Dixon of Dock Green had the answer

He would take the pain in the a*se by the ear and have a little 'chat'. He knew all his 'clients' as he walked around his beat.

It is amazing what you can see if you walk, years ago I had a work area in downtown Toronto and used my feet for transportation between accounts, and I learned so much about the underbelly of T.O. is was scary.

It makes you susceptible to begging but I only 'sponsored' one guy, Joe, as he always said: "No bullshit, I don't want a coffee or a bus fare, I WANT BOOZE!"

Plod should walk or bicycle - keeps them in shape, too.

UK border police seize £500k from Nigerians' hand luggage

JaitcH
FAIL

@Sarah Bee - why should it be necessary?

One of the legs of democracy is dissent and the freedom to express it.

When you look at today's Britain you wonder where all the qualities that made it so great have gone to. Locking up people for not revealing passwords is both unique and pathetic. Police are supposed to be subservient to the government, not running it.

Unless you remove the rose tinted glasses, and get some travel time in you'll see how bad things are.

Coalition tears up net snoop plan's £2bn price tag

JaitcH
FAIL

Two points: Encryption needed; swamped with data

Those desirous of maintaining their privacy have been put on notice that the need to increase communications vigilance and security provisions is key.

The good thing is that with all this comms 'garbage' being collected the security people will be overwhelmed in their searches. It is happening already in the US will some very obvious screwups.

The e-secure border by Boeing is a flop, and funding is being withdrawn, and is being replicated across the security spectrum. The US is essentially bankrupt and eventually the lack of liquidity will catch up with the monster that is 'homeland security'.

The UK finances are in bad shape, too, and security budgets will reflect reality eventually - regardless of the self-serving tasks that GCHQ and their spook friends in Whitehall keep on trotting out.

Nigerian airline ticket fraudster gets 8 years

JaitcH

They might have info you are not privvy to.

Take a look at: <http://www.emscard.com/uploads/Documents/E-commerce/CNP%20Card%20Acceptance%20Operating%20Guide%20-06-07-08.pdf >.