Posts by Sir Runcible Spoon

Re: To the people asking what £450m will buy a bank...

Well, all I can say is that if that had been a government IT spend you could have added a 0 to the figure

Re: HFT & Feeble Internet Security....

That's more akin to social engineering than an actual hack

Re: It depends how you define rights abuses

"A thought the batshit paranoid free speech 'stazi' community of commentators might occasionally bear in mind when bleating on about the tyrannical dictatorships of the US, UK, Sweden etc. etc"

Whilst I understand where you are coming from, Gitmo bay, renditions and the UK helping them do it are hardly above reproach in terms of human rights.

There are still people in this country being held without charge indefinitely and allowed no legal representation. How does that add up in your utopian society then?

Re: @Don Jefe

Those who knowingly keep to the letter of the law and ignore the spirit of it are guilty of treason against the people imho.

Re: A non-defense

"To either a nation I can control or more probably, a nation that respects it's Constitution and the rights of the populace."

Let me know when you find such a place, I'll meet you there and you can buy me a liquidated beer :)

Re: Collapsing currency?

"Banks do not invest money in currency"

I don't think you understand the Forex market at all then.

Banks buy and sell currencies all day long, in fact you could almost say that they were 'market makers'.

No-one invests in currency unless you're taking a long position in the carry trade. You buy low and sell high, it's as simple as that.

Re: People are so F'en dumb

People who say they are ok with this level of surveillance have simply not touched the boundaries of their prison yet.

When the walls are brought in closer, you may yet feel them, but of course, it is too late - because you are in prison and went there willingly because it felt safer than the 'big wide world'.

Re: Forza

Assuming XBone tanks like we expect it to, don't expect the publishers will stick to their exclusive licencing - they will make software for whatever will bring them the most money.

Re: Chances are its all true but.....

I think disappearing from 'Hong Kong' was a great move. Assuming he pops up again somewhere without an extradition treaty.

Re: asdf we lose

Hmm, I wonder how long before the ID card is trotted out again 'for our safety'

Re: Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

agreed, lots of weasel words being flouted.

No 'direct' access, only indirect access to everything.

Only when lawfully obliged to do so. There's a blanket law allowing NSA to do anything they want, ergo they supply the data all the time.

Re: Don Jefe such shock and horror

"innocence until proven guilty"

I have a real problem with this phrase because it presumes you are guilty before you've even started.

How about 'innocent unless proven guilty'

Re: New Dr.

Apparently since the current Dr. knows who he is (the Hurt character) it is a past re-incarnation that didn't quite fit into the 'Dr' persona.

Re: Surely there's some armature?

A bit off topic, but I've never understood why, when there are so many regulations about building in earthquake zones, that Americans still build houses in tornado zones out of toothpicks?

Re: The Liberator - a bargain

Is it me or am I missing something..oh I know.. where do people get the plastic firing cap designs from?

Re: So what was the interest again?

I think I saw someone write $26m, which is about 5.2% if my sums haven't desterted me. Seems reasonable.

Re: Sir

" I am unsure whether that is sarcasm or you are one of the fools"

Hmm, tricky one that. Perhaps I meant it as a thought exercise to see what might happen as a result :)

Re: Women Contractors

I met a female in the networking security field that could give anyone a good run for their money - when I asked her why she wasn't contracting it was basically down to fear - she couldn't handle the idea that she might be out of work for a couple of months without notice.

It certainly wasn't down to lack of skills and flexibility.

Re: Whoops ! @AC 15:02

"amirite"

I believe it's mentioned in Groundhog Day.

Re: Not just Apple

Indeed.

"'Tell us everything about yourself or we won't sell you our products'"

Sounds fair enough, see ya.

They'll learn, as long as people stand up for themselves that is.

Re: 'Quantum network? We've had one for years,' says Los Alamos

"Unfortunately, one of our engineers figured out exactly how fast it was, so we lost track of where it was for a while"

When they did eventually find it, it lost synch.

Re: Watching Live TV?

Perhaps it has a satellite-in feed and operates as a freeview box

Re: What I'd Like.

" I remember our chemistry teacher chucking a decent sized rock of sodium into the beck to demonstrate why we should be careful with it."

Hehe, we did the same, except the teacher used a pea sized piece of sodium, but then got called out of the class for something, leaving the oil wrapped sodium block behind :) Nee dI say more? Well, just a little then, the ceiling tiles needed replacing.

As far as this 'bottle explosion' goes, I've seen the reaction you can get with a bottle of coke and some mintoe's (sp?) - this hardly sounds like it should even register as much as a banger.

@LilCricket

Bullshit.

When I was young, and poor, I used to crack games (not just get them from others either).

As soon as I was earning decent money, I bought games.

Where does that put your little 'theory'.

"invent a system that makes pirating game impossible"

Only if it's literally individually coded to your DNA, and then you can give a copy to your clone :)

Re: "abusing current tax legislation"

"So why are employing incompetent to write our tax legislation?"

We aren't, we employ consultants from leading tax companies (like Delloitte and KPMG) and then people wonder where all the loopholes come from when these companies set up new avoidance schemes.

It would require the combined will of the people to change this, and they're mostly illiterate, innumerate TV absorbers, so I wouldn't count on it happening any time soon. MP's complaining about this sort of stuff are being disingenious to the point of blurting out that we need a morality tax or something equally ludicrous.

Re: sigh

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Sir

Peoples' tolerance of frustration has gone down a lot with recent gaming compared to earlier stuff - and enjoyment is inversely proportional to the degree of frustration it took before you 'broke through' the barrier :)