Posts by auburnman 1230 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Jul 2011
"Driving without due care and attention" can only be used to book someone AFTER the police catch a driver doing something stupid like weaving into the other lane or scraping the kerb. To get the mobile ban into effect the police filmed numerous incidents of people on mobiles in less than full control of the vehicle.
Consoles have always been about ease of use and portability. Your game would work just the same when you took it round your mates house. Locking a game to an account is a fundamental betrayal of what a console is. There has been a slide towards this with downloadable games but that came with the upsides of easy access to free demos and the like, and it was always alongside discs that could be loaned out or sold on at your whim.
This latest step smacks of doing DRM Hollywood style - punishing paying customers with a locked down 'guilty until proven innocent' mentality which will end up pushing paying customers towards piracy.
I can see XBoxers attempting to continue game trading by having a throwaway user account for each game and trading those.
Account: Halo9Account_95864812
Nickname/gamertag/whatever: Halo 9
Chuck Norris
123 Fake Street
Beverly Hills 90210.
Then MS will crack down on accounts that only have one game registered to them, the internet mobs will go off their tits and someone will start a class-action lawsuit against MS for all this.
They want it on all the time, my money is on turning it off at the wall being more hassle than it's worth.
"Your XBone has recovered from an unexpected power loss. Please sit there doing nothing like a prick for the next three hours while the hard drive is checked and 500 mandatory patches are applied."
You'd have to have him basically be Sherlock though. Snapping at anyone near him and doing scathing put downs alongside the investigation. Would make a good change from the recent cheery/zany all the time. Do you think they could get Martin Freeman as an assistant as well, or is he still busy being a Hobbit?
> two weapon limit, regenerating health,
It's not a bad system in and of itself, it's the industry doing it to death and being too god-damned afraid to try anything else that has induced the current yawn fest. Keep in mind, back in the day the two weapon health regen system WAS something new. It's also the fault of gamers (myself included sometimes I admit) for lapping it up while really good shooters that try something new wither on the vine (like the surprisingly good Bulletstorm which died an undignified death.)
"However data charges are not available in real time"
The pathetic thing is that appears to be true for Orange employees but not for customers. When I got massively overcharged for data (Like ten quid for a minute on Google maps, not bum-squeaking letters demanding thousands fortunately) and I phoned up Orange to complain, the poor call centre sod couldn't see the data charges yet even though I could view the charges ON ORANGE'S OWN WEBSITE at the same time.
"Every advert I get on FB...gets reported as being sexually explicit."
That'll just get your feedback logged as malicious and ignored. I would say it's better to honestly select "Just not interested" in all the ads for cars, stock trading etc. If everyone did that FB would be put in an awkward position when they try to drum up ad sales for the new Lexus or whatever and the advertiser wants to see data on the level of interest /engagement with ads.
Yes I do gripe if a computer can't connect to the internet in a learning situation. Because a kid might have no technical aptitude whatsoever, or come from a family who don't already have an internet connection and genuinely can't afford to get one for their kid.
There will be youths out there like you who will fall in love with the technology itself and will do whatever it takes to get it working and hopefully go on to a wonderful career in IT. But for every one of those there will be many more children who are left with an overpriced doorstep when they could be learning about Physics or Chemistry or history or even just browsing Wikipedia or watching shitty manufactured boybands on Youtube - you never know what might kindle an interest in learning more.
You seem to ignore the opportunity for learning outside of the IT sphere. Just the slightest bit of extra investment could have opened up a whole new world to disadvantaged children.
Obviously they were too scared to provide computers AND free internet access, the combo that really would have made a difference to any kids that had a thirst for learning. Hell, if you gave me a computer tomorrow that I couldn't hook into the web, it would go in a cupboard until I needed a portable DVD player. If the study is limited to ONLY the provision of a computer and nothing of the surrounding infrastructure then the study is useless.
You might as well give me a free car with no insurance, no tax, no licence and no MOT and draw the same "it makes no difference" conclusion when I don't use it.
People are defending Google because they didn't do anything illegal. Most people defending Google agree that they should pay tax, but if the powers that be are going to drag them in front of a commission, they need to bust out something more substantial than the 'immoral' bullshit that basically amounts to an embarrassing "You have been a naughty bad man and we don't like it."
This whole thing is a sideshow to actually fixing the international tax system, which no-one wants to touch because it'll be a nightmare of conflicting treaties and interests to unravel. Which is a shame because we definitely need the government to stop whining about the flood damage while they watch the house continue to flood.
"I may be wrong but I'm sure on PS3 if I want to buy film rentals or downloadable games, the ONLY way to do this is via PSN points which you have to buy into your 'wallet' first."
That's Microsoft points on Xbox. PS3 works off good-old fashioned (well, electronic) money.
"That doesn't make any sense at all. I purchase quality goods, not brand names."
So do I. My point is, high prices = high end, regardless of brand name.
"Higher quality than WHAT, exactly?"
Than other UK supermarkets selling similar goods.
""*Whether or not that the quality increase is worth the price jump is subject to opinion"
And yet you shop there anyway? Why?"
I never said I did. My opinion is that most of their ranges are overpriced, but I go in now and again for a look. I do occasionally buy jackets or shoes there because I find their kit highly durable.
That's because they can't charge a premium while they are trying to break into a new market.
Over here, M&S ARE high end because they are an established name that can charge a bloody fortune. Their goods are undeniably higher quality as well*, it's not just a marketing thing.
*Whether or not that the quality increase is worth the price jump is subject to opinion
That's an interesting point - if he genuinely believes that the US is out to get him, what better opportunity would they have to snatch him than when he is in self-imposed hiding? If the Yanks really wanted to rendition him they could cut a deal with (Ecuador?) Smuggle him out of the Embassy somehow and fly him out on a military plane from one of the bases they rent. The Embassy staff pretend for as long as they can that JA is still with them, until years later when they claim he left in the middle of the night trying to flee the country.
He could be in gitmo now!
No tinfoil hat icon?
...but from the article it does look like there are a number of options to resist this and try and get it repealed. Here's an angle that occurred to me - if works with no metadata have lesser legal rights now, could the big organisations such as the BBC who routinely strip metadata before using works be reasonably accused of fraud?
"new, cheaper contracts (of course, leaving the 318k mugs on whatever daft tarrif they've committed to)"
I would dearly love to see them try to do this - not because I want those 318k to suffer, but because the inevitable backlash from the public and the various fair trade bodies would be a thing of beauty to behold. The telcos are already under scrutiny for the lockin contracts that allow them to jack up the prices - if they actually lowered prices but stiffed anyone already committed to a contract the consumer rights organisations would tear them a new one.
Yes, because all that refining is actually just a job creating exercise. We just slip someone a bribe to look the other way, tap the pipeline for a couple of barrels of crude which goes straight into the heating tank. Job's a good 'un.
Back in the real world, the further North you get in Scotland the more expensive the fuel gets as it has to be driven further from the refineries.
This is an automated SMS from Smart Metering Central. Based on our usage statistics and tracking of your mobile it appears you left your home more than 1 hour ago but left some devices on. To improve your efficiency and save YOU money, your smart meters have automatically powered down the following devices:
LOBBY LIGHTS has been powered down
TV has been powered down
FRIDGE FREEZER has been powered down
CRITICAL SERVER 24/7 has been powered down
Thank you for allowing Smart Metering to assist you in being more efficient.
It appears to me that the multiple transfers from jurisdiction to jurisdiction are the key element behind the avoidance loopholes. Perhaps the key would be to apply a tax to corporate revenue whenever it leaves a jurisdiction? It could scale up based on the number of transfers, so the first time a company moves revenue in a year it is either free or 0%, but to move the same money again would incur a 2% charge, then 4% to move it again etc. Companies bouncing money around Ireland/Holland/Bermuda would stop getting to do this for free.
Another option would be to allow money to leave the country tax free on the condition the company declares that this is the final destination for the funds in this financial year, however if it's going to be bounced around at least one more haven, then there is a charge.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
