Posts by Anteaus

Ubuntu - yes, Ubuntu - poised for mobile melee

Have they ALL lost the plot?

Right now, there seems to be a malaise creeping-through the whole OS industry - Composed of of massive bloat, silly gimmicks, and totally illogical and unergonomic interfaces.

Microsoft have certainly been affected by this - From any sensible point of view, all releases of Windows since XP have been a downgrade in useability, coupled with a massive hike in the demands placed on the hardware, for no good reason. On the server front, Server 2008 is bloated, slow and full of compatibility issues compared to Server 2003, about its only saving grace being its better virtualization support. Meanwhile KDE3 was superb but KDE4 suffers the same blight of awkwardness and illogicality, and is unquestionably a downgrade from its predecessor. Recently had a chance to try a WM7 phone and found likewise myself cursing the thing within 30 seconds for its dumbed-down and damned-awkward interface compared to WM5/6.

Are we just going-through a bad phase in OS design, I ask? If so, where will this eventually lead? To Apple cornering the market? Maybe, after all I picked-up an iPad in the store, and 'just used it' without any prior introduction. ' It's expensive, yes, but ergonomically it rocks.

Lawyer wants WikiLeaker kept off suicide watch

Torture by any other name

Has anyone approached Amnesty International about this, I wonder?

Who are the biggest electric car liars - the BBC, or Tesla Motors?

Atomic

A nuclear car is the answer. Drive around the world one one charge of fuel.. and then some. Zero pollution. No recharging. No fuel tax.

Plus, enhanced safety, because NOBODY is ever going to risk colliding with me.

Chinese Trojan blocks cloud-based security defences

Whitelisting none too practical

Problem with whitelisting is that you have to pay someone like Verisign to auth your code, and that is impractically expensive for small utilities.

Since it seems this malware would have to gain a foothold on the client computer before it can block cloud access, an alternative approach is to limit where, on disk, apps can be launched from, excluding from this definition any download or temp folder.

http://sf.net/projects/softwarepolicy is quite effective in this role (Shameless plug, actually, being as I am the coder <g>)

First DOS-based malware celebrates silver jubilee

Full circle

We've been through the range of infection mechanisms, from sneakernet to LAN, to email, to wifi, to mobile phone apps. Now, with auto-run software on USB memory becoming a propagation vector, we're back to sneakernet. Full circle.

Guess they didn't learn the lesson the first time round, that any kind of software which runs automatically from an unsafe source is a Bad Idea.

MS Dynamics CRM Online trumps server release, says Ballmer

Costly, yes, but easier

Yes it's a swingeing price when open-source can do this for 'nowt. But, if you simply must have Dynamics it's a darn sight easier than setting-up your own Dynamics server, which must be a contender for the piece of software with the greatest number of costly dependencies, and the most convoluted install process ever written.

People used to criticise open-source for difficult installs, but now the boot is on the other foot - vTiger or Sugar on XAMPP/Windows or Linux is a breeze to setup, and has NO dependencies other than a standard OS. It 'just works' - which the Microsoft product dismally fails to achieve.

In-flight fight for stubborn iPhone-loving teen

Law supporting crime, as usual..

"Listen-up guys, you know that dare the gang leader gave me, to refuse to turn off my iPod when the plane landed, well, I not only did it, and got away with it, but I a guy who tried to stop me got put IN JAIL! And, it's all over the papers! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!

With that one, I'm now the gang leader's second. OH yeah Baby, I IS DA MAN!!!

Grab your spraycans guys, It's time for a spot of territory-marking. Meanwhile, Stinker and Pusface, you two go to the off-licence and steal tonight's booze"

Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 - what's in it for you?

Bloated, complex and costly to maintain.

SBS is an inexpensive way to get Exchange if you must have it, but.. I've always felt that small sites are better-off with a standard server and a decent ISP-based email service. If it's simple and it does what's required.. keep it that way.

Most of the touted special features of SBS do nothing that cannot be done with a standard WIndows or Linux server. The reason SBS sells-into sites with existing LANs is because of sales pitch -Buyers don't realise that they are being re-sold capability they probably already have, or could acquire for zero cost.

Then, there is the issue of overcomplexity and bloat, which creates the need for extremely powerful server hardware, and creates far more reliability issues than for a standard server.

The level of overcomplexity also makes SBS totally unsuitable for the kind of market it's sold into. A siteowner with a modicum of IT knowledge might expect to be able to set-up and maintain a standard Windows or Linux server without professional IT help, or maybe with recourse to support for just the more difficult issues. With the behemoth which is SBS, the DIY'er is gonna be out of his or her depth almost straightaway, and therefore having to call-on expensive contracted IT support to maintain the thing. This is, of course, IF the IT contractors are up-to the job of keeping this complex beast working, which is often not the case! All for the sake of 'value-added' features that are probably not needed, and in most cases are never used.

Microsoft arranges 'safe' Silverlight and HTML marriage

Er, Microsoft, what does "HazKr pWnz Yr PC" mean?

"...launch Office and desktop apps, and write files to the My Documents folder on your PC."

Oh boy, when will they ever learn from past experiences, that allowing websites to launch local code outside of the browser is a BAD idea. ?

Shakes head in disbelief.

Horror AVG update ballsup bricks Windows 7

Affects most AV software.

It's getting to the stage where most AV programs give a fair few false positive these days, plus there is a fair amount of malware around which isn't detected by most AV programs. So, either way, you can never be entirely sure.

May be we need to switch to a fundamentally different way of ensuring computer security than looking-for specific byte-sequences in executables.

Tory councillor arrested over 'stoning to death' tweet

Political correctness = UK's version of Fundamentalism?

While extremism in the Middle East is worrying, perhaps even more worrying is the development of extremist regimes of 'political correctness' here at home. I start to wonder about the state of mental health of officials who would actually go as far as arresting a person for making a joke.

BTW a spot of Googling suggests that Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a Muslim herself, is strongly opposed to extremist Sharia Laws. That begs the question of why she would be opposed to human-rights issues being extended to cover the acts of Fundamentalist regimes.

Group slams airport naked body scanners

Need to stop playng into terrorists' hands.

Q: What is the purpose of terrorism?

A: -To destroy buildings or kill people? No. Not primarily, although that may be part of the method employed. The purpose is to disrupt services, and cause... terror so as to weaken the resolve of the people.

It may be relevant to consider that in the latter part of WW2, care was taken to ensure that the Nazis were presented with 'intelligence' indicating that the V-weapons weren't actually doing much to dissuade the London public from going-about their business. It's not how much damage is being done that counts, but whether your enemy sees his own actions as being effective, or not, that determines whether he continues.

We seem to have forgotten this point. In spades.

Two-faced world spends billions on climate help, fossil fuel

It's a beancounter society we live in.

All this shows is that it's dangerous to promote 'green' ideas to politicians. The skill they demonstrate in turning such issues into moneymaking schemes is jawdropping.

That, and of course there is no actual proof that global warming even exists, the temperature measurements on which it is based being within the range of normal random variations. The theory has been jumped-upon and expounded from every available soapbox by those who stand to benefit from its acceptance as fact, when it is only theory.

Old PCs: When it's time to die

Hardware only part of reinstallation cost

What I find is that when a PC needs its software reloading, it's often as well to replace the hardware at the same time if it's older than couple of years. The cost in real terms isn't all that much greater than reinstating the old box, and there is the feelgood-factor for the user of having a new, fast computer. In contrast to some other commenters, we tend to stick to tried-and-tested software like XP and Server 2003, but upgrade hardware fairly regularly. This keeps licensing costs down, and means smooth running since we already know how to deal with any issues that arise. If we were using the latest software we would be spending, nay wasting huge amounts of time on finding replacement ways to do things that we already know how to do efficiently on a mature platform.

Aircraft bombs may mean end to in-flight Wi-Fi, mobile

No need for cellphones

Aircraft transmit powerful signals on VHF/UHF frequencies, and the frequency being used determines the location of the plane, since it will typically be that of a control-tower somewhere in the vicinity. It is highly probable that the Lockerbie bomb was detonated that way, and that contrary to some opinions the (delayed) flight was meant to crash where it did, not over the Atlantic.

So, unless we tell the pilot to stop yammering incessantly to the airport..<g>.. banning mobiles does no good at all.

Criminal record checks: More often wrong than right

Where is the balance in this?

For the sake of just two dead as Soham, literally MILLIONS of innocent people have been put through suffering and humiliation.

That does not seem to be a positive outcome by anyone's standards. Even if another two paedophile murders were stopped -or even another two hundred, which is extremely unlikely since there simply aren't that many- that would not even begin to justfy the extent of the public suffering caused by the measures themselves.

I suppose by the same standards, if we were to cut the hands off the entire UK population, that might eliminate burglary.

Except that even so it is not a viable comparison, because burglary is a relatively common crime, whereas paedophile crime is extremely rare. So rare in fact that it would be difficult to compile any meaningful statistics about its occurrence.

Violence and verbal abuse against children by their guardians are an infinitely greater problem, and have a far more damaging effect on young people, yet these are largely ignored. (and I speak from firsthand experience here, though I am sure I am not alone in this!)

Teen battles City of London cops over anti-Scientology placard

Double Standards

On the UK PRC Embassy website you can find links to onsite pages which sections which openly call Falun Gong a cult, and to PRC-run Tibet-related sites which slander the good name of the the Dalai Lama.

http://uk.china-embassy.org/eng/ - RHS panel about 2/3 of the way down.

For a while these links were taken off the site, but surprisingly, now they're back. In view of the strength of public feelings shown at the Olympic Torch parad- er I mean rout, maybe the police would do better to slap a banning order on these offensive statements. But then, I know that won't happen. Why? Go figure.

Top cop brands CCTV a 'fiasco'

Not surprised

Speaking from experience of having successfully nailed a gang of stone-throwers who were breaking windows round here, I agree that video cameras are all-but-useless for evidence purposes. At anything but pointblank range they won't give you a recognisable face. Timed stills from a digicam are of more use.

I often wondered if the cameras in town centres were actually of any use for evidence, in view of my own experiences. I guess if the operator knew a crime was in progress and zoomed-in close they might be, but otherwise I doubt it.

Added green burden could ground flying cars for good

Good for fun but probably not for commuting.

As a sport pilot, I see electric motorgliders having a lot to offer. They are already in production, and offer a silent means of self-launching, ideal for areas where noise complaints are likely. Next stage would be to combine the electric drive with solar-panels over the entire wing surface, giving free and green cruise-power in 'blue' conditions. (Which are the conditions when you typically can't soar) The limiting factor here is not technology (it exists already) but the very high cost of solar panels. The new flexible types may make a difference here.

While these are great sport-machines for recreational flying, as for a flying car to replace the automobile, I don't see that as feasible with current technology. Fixed-wing aircraft need a lot of space for takeoff and landing, and are too wide to use a typical urban road for this purpose, never mind the safety aspects of having a plane land at ~60mph where kids are playing. That, and aircraft brakes are nowhere near as strong as a car's, they're not designed for emergency stops, so having planes and cars on the same roadspace would be asking for a prang. A runway in each housing-estate just wouldn't exactly be popular with the land developers in terms of the space it would use. 'Copters, while free from most of the above problems are too noisy, too expensive to run, and need a big parking-slot.

Then, of course, anything short of a heavy jet has weather limitations which would restrict its use to certain days only, whereas a groundcar is usable in all but the worst weather.

Is the earth getting warmer, or cooler?

A convincing piece of research.

IMHO an excellent piece of scientific research, and one which doesn't attempt to discredit or debunk global warming per se, but which attempts to expose flaws in the arguments for it. In particular, this analysis reveals that temperature trends, like so many statistics, are vulnerable to 'massaging' of the figures. Massaging being adjustment of the tolerance, or allowances for error in such a way as to favour a desired result, when in fact that desired result is only one of many which fit within the allowed tolerances. It then continues to uncover that the figures even show symptoms of alteration which might not only indicate massagng, but even hint at the way in which this was done.

I'm a scientist and a sceptic, and I'm pretty-much convinced.

Phorm in phormulaic logo phorm storm

Unfortunate

Unfortunate for the design company though, since even if they win they'll probably want to change their logo. Even if they stop the data-pimpers from (mis)using it, the association is now too strong to go away.

About as unfortunate as if you'd started a company called Swastika Designs in 1930. :-(

Mag-lev flywheel UPS firm says shipments speeding up

Levitating UPS next?

If we could get Sandy Kidd in on the design, maybe we could have a self-supporting UPS that floats alongside the server rack. You could then easily tell if it was running low, because it would slowly sink to the floor.

Police likely to ignore Brown's cannabis changes

"Hell, we should make everything illegal, just to be on the safe side."

They've already done that one. In Scotland there are no laws as such, a copper can charge you with literally anything that takes his/her fancy.

In the land of kilts and haggisses, Mr Bean's comic sketch of being arrested for 'looking at me in a funny sort of way' or 'having an offensive wife' is no joke. It's fact, and since it's totally unclear as to what is legal and what isn't, you have little chance of defending yourself in court if a copper decides your wife is a tad offensive-looking.

Keeps the boyz in business...on both sides of the fence.

There is a not-altogether implausible argument that neither dealers nor the cops want the present situation to change. Illegal drugs mean high prices, keeping dealers in profit and making smuggling economically viable. At the same time cops are in no danger of losing their jobs as long as there are dealers to catch. So, everyone on both sides of the Law is kept happy.

Except for the non-drug-using public that is, who have to suffer the endless cycle of crime, theft and violence associated with drug dealing. In this context it has been estimated that a high proportion of all crimes of larceny are drug-related.

As one of the latter, I say legalise all drugs. I won't get into the arguments over whether or not cannabis is harmful. If people want to ruin their health they can in any case do so perfectly legally -and probably more effectively- with alcohol. There is also an argument that people 'get into' drugs precisely because of the dealers' hard-sell tactics. Legalising drugs would make the criminal rackets unworthwhile, and that would be a huge benefit to society.

Your personal data just got permanently cached at the US border

Who watches the watchers?

Yeah, my thought processes go something like:

Q:In 9/11, Who won?

A: The terrorists. They have achieved their aim in creating a totalitarian society, in which the people live in fear of organised bullying and persecution from their own government, far more than they fear any comparatively small-scale terrorist outfit.

Q: Who were the terrorists?

A: I'm not sure. Maybe I believe the official line. Maybe I don't. But, the thought does cross my mind that that they might just have been in some way connected with, or even the same people who are now the totalitarians.

Motorised meat-smoker droid vigilante patrols Atlanta

Warhead needed

I'm sure Ian Lewis would oblige if the homeless asked for a loan of his pride and joy.

.. then, I can imagine the guy's face when he sees the remains of his bumbot strewn all over the pavement... He then gets given a plastic bag, and told, "You know the rules, clean up your wreckage."

'Extreme porn' law could criminalise millions

Placebo politics, as usual.

If they really wanted to deal with the media-stimulus for violence in society, gun-worship, roadrage, terrorism, you name it, then they'd ban Hollywood. Job done.

-Oh but wait a minute, there's big money in that outfit. Sorry, nice idea but no can do.

-I know, let's ban pr0n instead. At least that way it looks like we're 'doing something' to control the problem. Even if we know it won't do anything useful at all.

West Yorks rolls out cop cams, ignoring plod nod probs

Numbers Game

> http://www.polfed.org/Losing_the_Detectives-final.pdf

Too True. Policing, like so many Government activities, has become a 'numbers game' where the only thing to matter is the statistics.

Result is that coppers are reluctant to attend a street-incident at all, if it's unlikely there will be arrests to be made. Thus, the only crimes to get dealt-with are those where an arrest is likely. The others are allowed to continue unabated - even if the fact that a copper had showed-up promptly would have deterred a repeat.

The converse is also true, that the police will jump-on any chance to charge Joe Public with a crime, no matter how preposterous that charge may be. There is, after all, always the possibility that the poor sod will plead guilty, and if so, that's another one on the scoresheet.

This situation naturally plays right into the hands of minor crooks, yobs and ne'er-do-wells, who by making a trumped-up accusation or two against Joe Public, find it very easy to get the coppers inadvertently working FOR crime instead of against it.

Oh, and then of course there are the 'Bandwagon Issues' like 'Zero Tolerance of Violence Against Women!!!!' - Anyone reporting an incident in one of these 'politically correct' categories will have half the local force out, complete with white hoods, burning crosses, megaphones and of course the obligatory squadron of black helicopters. . Even if it turns out to be a pillow-fight.

Any wonder crime flourishes?

New banking code cracks down on out-of-date software

Missed the whole point...

Antivirus only detects viruses. The majority of AV totally ignores rootkits or password-stealing Trojans, so won't help us here. Implying that it does creates a false sense of security.

If you browse with Internet Explorer, you ARE at risk form keystroke-logging Trojans. No matter what firewall, antivirus or whatever you are using.

If you use a secure browser such as Firefox or Seamonkey, you are very unlikely to get hit by malware. Though, it is no good JUST using the secure browser for online banking, if IE has been used in the past for other sites, the machine may ALREADY be Trojanised, and in that case the secure browser won't help you.

The best security for online backing is to use a separate PC. This can be an older model running (a fresh copy of) a less-vulnerable OS such as Windows 95/98 or Linux and with IE removed (if present) and a secure browser installed. If it's only used for accounting-related purposes then antivirus etc is largely academic.

Secret printer ID codes may breach EU privacy laws

No Recycling

I can forsee the main impact of this being on the environment - If printers contain a code linking documents produced by them to the original purchaser, then all end-of-life printing hardware will have to be destroyed.

Consumer group slams 'unfair' software licenses

Grey area.

The simple fact is, UK software licensing is a very grey area. Most aspects have never been tested in Court, and hence there are no precedents to set the pattern.

Though, EULA's which make conditions that clearly exceed those of copyright -for example the OEM condition that should the computer fail the software may not be transfered to an identical replacement machine- are extremely questionable, and may even represent an offence under Trading Standards laws.

The other side of the piracy issue is that most packages come with no identifiable licence-form, and as such it's very hard to pin-down the vendors as to what constitutes a 'licence' to use the software. Microsoft for example say that owning a serial-number or COA sticker does not in itself constitute a licence. I suppose some might argue that if you don't get a proper licence-form in the package then there is no point in paying anyway, since in that case you could still -in theory- be prosecuted regardless of having paid for the software. Or, woudl a till-receipt be sufficient evidence of payment? Unsure. Not a good situation.

Copyright levy under EU spotlight

Interesting legal angles..

Media levies certainly raise some interesting legal angles on P2P.

If a levy has already been paid for the use of blank media for music-copying purposes, then the media companies might find it very hard to argue in a Court of Law that downloading music to said media is illegal. After all, if as a supplier you charge for a service, then under Sale of Goods regulations you have by doing so made a contract to provide that service. The question of whether or not the payment is sufficient to cover the whole cost of the service doesn't come into it. You have made a mandatory charge for it, ergo you must by Law provide the service if the consumer demands it.

In principle, the media companies could torpedo their own efforts to control file-sharing if they push for levies.

Inventor promises bottle-o-wind car in a year. Again

Rocket car?

The one thing no-one has mentioned is what happens if the valve comes off the cylinder in a prang. Would the thrust of the escaping gas be sufficient to transform the car into an aeroplane, I wonder? A few rough calculations suggest that the thrust from a large aperture in the tank would be well in excess of the vehicle weight, so probably yes it would, if the thrust were downward. Even if it didn't leave the ground, it would still be a dangerous and uncontrollable missile.

We know security and usability are orthogonal - do you?

Wrong approach to security.

The key issue with computer security is the C language, with its lack of control over variable-bounds. The majority of exploits involve buffer-overflows of one sort or another, and while these may RESULT from programmers' coding-mistakes, the underlying CAUSE is the security-failings of the language itself.

That, and frivolous 'multimedia' gimmicks in email and Web-browsers, which provide numerous opportunities for malicious code to get itself run.

Meanwhile we have 'Cloak-and-Dagger Security' in the form of multiple useraccounts on what is actually a personal computer, hypercomplex filesystem-permissions which no-one outside of Redmond fully understands, Forced password-complexity and frequent password-changes, and now UAC. All that this does is to infuriate users. In some case it may actually make for lower security, for example forcing users to keep changing password simply results in the password being put onto a post-it. You thus have a system with zero security, whereas peviously it had some.

In many ways the Win95/98 platform offered better security. Whilst it lacked thelabyrinthine userpermissions of NT-based systems, it also offered far fewer exploits to the potential intruder.

A parents' guide to the HMRC data giveaway

Seen it...

As an IT guy I've seen one of their so-called 'secure' systems.

All users Domain Admins (because it wouldn't work otherwise) and the Administrative Shares still active on the server. So, if you're a user of said system, you have unrestriced access to everything, even the server's operating system.

Led to believe this system is installed in numerous places round the country, too.

Erratic fleshies sabotage, wreck innocent flying robot

Defective fallback-option is worse than no fallback.

"In an emergency, the camera console can take over the piloting role in which case all of the conveniently located camera controls take on a new meaning."

So, you jump out of your dead-engine plane, and find that pulling the 'chute ripcord undoes the harness instead of deploying the canopy. That's because the designer reckoned it was ""only"" a piece of safety gear and therefore didn't need careful thought as to its controls. Yet, if you'd realised it was a piece of junk, you would have stayed with the plane and survived. Now, thanks to the DEFECTIVE SAFETY GEAR, which you placed your trust in, you won't survive.

No offence to parachute manufacturers intended!

In the Predator case, had the pilot not had a (defective) fallback option, he might've stayed at the first console and regained contol.

Comcast busted for bagging BitTorrents (again)

Encryption not so good.

Actually, I've had to stop using encrypted links because my ISP's throttling 'assumes the worst' and assigns anything it can't identify to the lowest priority. :-(

Thsi is the unacceptable side of throttling, beause it means I have to sacrifice security or suffer low speeds.

ISPs have little choice

The pricing-model for pipe bandwidth means that ISPs resell that bandwith at quite a low profit-margin. Thus, to break even they must make the best possible use of that bandwidth. There are essentially only two approaches they can take; capping of download quotas, or throttling. Capping drives potential customers away, so throttling is the preferred option.

p2p is by far the biggest 'problem' in this respect, and one issue is that while p2p data streams can usually be identified as such, there is no easy way of determining what those streams contain. Thus, your Linux download gets throttled as well, along with the zillionth pirate copy of Terminator.

EU plans ban on bomb-making info on websites

Ban everything!

... and if we had banned places that show you how to fly a plane, then we could have avoided 9/11.

Seriously, a fair proportion of chemical compounds are explosive to some degree or other. The ones that are well-known (RDX,TNT, etc) are so not so much because they explode, but because they are safe to handle and store.

A fact which came to light with the Tube bombings is that a suicide jockey doesn't care too much if the bomb goes off prematurely, and that means his options as to materials are much wider than those of a terrorist who intends to stay alive. That makes the control of such information far harder, if not impractical.

UK.gov makes bizarre threat to throw self off internet

Orwellian

Whilst I sympathise with disabled people -I used to maintain a website for a wheelchair-user sport- I nevertheless find this whole 'Accessibility' thing more than slightly Orwellian.

The underlying principle seems to be, "If certain sectors of the population cannot make use of your product or service, then you must not make that product, or offer that service" - Or if you continue to supply it, then you must remove those components which some people cannot make use of.

If taken to its logical conclusion, we would literally be left with nothing.

California court tilts towards mandating web accessibility

When every website looks the same..

..we can blame the "Accessibility" zealots.

This is already having a serious and damaging effect. Many companies opt for a website based on a known-standard CMS such as Joomla, with a bog-standard template, precisely because of concerns over "Accessibility" prosecution, and under the fears that anything out-of-the-ordinary in the way of webdesign is more likely to attract a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, racketeers flourish, offering online tests which find all sorts of nit-picking violations on your site, then claiming they will "Make your site accessible" for a large fee, when in fact it was accessible in the first place.

Result is that websites all start looking like boring clones of one another. The creativity is being sucked right out of webdesign by this. The disabled may (questionably) gain, but at what cost to the population as a whole?

Plan for 20mph urban speed-cam zones touted

Title

"So given an average speed of 40MPH (if you lucky) I spent about 23% of my waking life stuck in a car. If you drop the average speed to 30MPH, that figure would go to over 30%."

The reverse is true. The more fast roads are built, the more the accountants see the financial advantages of centralisation. Result: Local branches are closed down, and staff relocated to large central depots, which cover a catchment-area of hundreds of square miles. These centralised depots then sell 'vapourware' support-contracts promising impossible response-times. The client believes these claims, not realising that there is no longer a local depot, and that the nearest engineer is in fact hours of driving-time away.

Result: Employees end-up spending most of their working life behind the wheel instead of doing their job. Plus they know that it's an unwritten rule that they MUST speed, after all if they refuse then the firm will find someone else who will.

Customers end-up paying more -not less- for services, because someone has to pay for the time spent on the road. And, if the customer has an urgent problem, then help is.. well, only a few hundred miles away. Really useful if your site is down.

And, of course, the more firms go the centralisation route, the more traffic-jams in the cities.

End result: Road-improvements and increased speeds benefit nobody but the accountants. Everyone else loses.

Cams better than ramps

I say use cameras and get rid of the ramps. Also, standardising on 30mph but enforcing it would be far preferable to 20-zones.

As already said, speeding makes little or no difference to urban journey times, all it does is get you to the next set of red lights quicker. But then, most speeding is masturbatory in nature and has nothing whatsoever to do with being in a hurry.

Orange's Apple deal to bear unlocked iPhones

Title

It's time the UK followed Belgium and put a stop to simlocking.

Phones would then have to sell for realistic prices, and airtime-providers would have to compete on a level playing-field.

Next-gen Intel vPro platform to get hardware encryption

Disaster waiting to happen.

The MS helpforums are peppered with desparate pleas from users's who've turned-on EFS while not understanding it properly, and lost all their data.

This is potentially much worse, it could for example lead to a situation where a simple mobo replacement (with identical model) means all the data on the HD is lost. Have Intel considered their responsibility to their resellers here? Such a situation is simply not acceptable, repair-facilities HAVE to be able to replace defective parts with identical components, without this resulting in a disaster. If they cannot do this, then effectively the computer's warranty is meaningless.

California clamps down on in-car mobile use

Hypocrisy!

The problem with young drivers isn't so much inexperience but peer-pressure and 'media role models' -the social pressures to drive fast and dangerously are what lead to the prangs.

Guess who set those role-models? Well, there's Mad Max, and... Oh, that other one. you know...

Vista attacked by 13-year-old virus

When will MS _learn_ about the dangers...

.....of anything at all which AutoRuns from an inserted disk?

This should hopefully ram home the fact that any OS which automatically runs (or offers to run) any software found on an inserted CD or memory-stick is simply begging for a Take Two of the old "Brain/Stoned" class of exploit.

In fact an exploit of this kind would be far more infectious, since it wouldn't even be necessary to reboot the computer with the disk left in.

Microsoft dispels rumors of stealth Windows updates

Automatic Updates - a two-edged sword in any case.

On networked computers (with other means of applying updates) I tend to stop the updater service itself, and I imagine this would prevent any behind-the-scenes activity.

Automatic updates are in any case a two-edged sword; While they may patch vulnerabilities, they also 'condition' users into saying 'Yes' to any popups the computer produces. That in itself is a security problem, as update-prompts can be spoofed by malicious websites as a means of getting Trojans onto the computer. . If the user understands that the computer should NOT normally produce such popups, then security is greatly enhanced.

Another point, what would you say If you invited me into your house, and I promptly picked-up a phone I spotted lying-around, and dialled my friend in Beijing while you weren't looking? Would you conside that ethical, or dishonest? Yet, the same questions of ethics apply to any software which 'Phones Home' without permission. The 'call' might be free, but it might also be an Inmarsat link at seven pounds a megabyte. If the latter, then the software-writer is stealing.