Posts by Stuart Finlayson

Google stalks your social circle

Opt out / more evil

You can apparently disable this - or "opt out of this social experiment". According to

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165228

"To opt out, visit http://www.google.com/experimental and click the Leave button for the experiment." Although it doesn't explain exactly what opting out means - will you still show up in other people's social searches?

Rather more spookily, the page also says "If someone you don't know shows up in your social search results, it's likely that they're connected to someone you do know." So not only are they looking up your friends, they're linking you to your friends' friends, or your acquaintances' boss/parents/ex.

Ryanair faces ban on luggage charge auto-opt-in

Stop the real rip-offs

They should focus on some of RyanAir's more serious ways of ripping off consumers. Like charging £5 per person per flight for debit/credit card payments, when typical card processing fees are 2% (£1 on a £50 ticket). Plus the 50p levy imposed so that the company fulfils its legal duty to provide a service to the disabled - one charity reckoned 1p would be closer to the actual costs incurred. And the compulsory £5 fee for online check-in (or you can pay £40 per person per flight for check-in at the airport).

It's all a scam (and probably against EU rules) so they can claim to offer cheap flights but then add £25 tax and airport fees, £5 surcharge to insure the airline against terrorist attacks, £5 for checking in, £5 for paying for your ticket, £8 for luggage, £10 for getting to stupidly faraway airport, etc.

Boffins render full HD million-point animated hologram

Not exactly viewing from all sides

All these people complaining about the hidden-surface removal and how you should be able to view it from all angles should read the paper, which says the viewing angle is 5 degrees. Though it's still very cool.

Speaking clock gets Disneyfied

Sweet voice?

Far from not speaking, Tinkerbell in the book is noted for her rudeness and foul language. Her first words are "You silly ass" and she doesn't get any politer. I salute any company bringing sweary fairies to the nation's telephones.

Paris, obviously, because she is the Tinkerbell of today!

Extreme porn bill gets final reading

Human Rights Act

Sadly the HRA and European Convention on Human Rights are not a great deal of use. Article 10 (about freedom of expression) allows the government to limit freedom of expression in order to protect "morals" which is a fairly meaningless phrase with wide application; as long as some people believe BDSM is morally wrong the Government has the right to legislate. Article 8, about privacy, has a similar restriction on your freedom.

BBC iPlayer continues platform sluttiness with Virgin Media launch

Advance over current Virgin On Demand?

The old Virgin catchup TV service is limited and badly-implemented. It often cuts off the first few seconds of programs, and offers less choice than the iPlayer. If the new system works properly it'll be a major improvement. If it works the same as Virgin's current offering, not so good.

Supreme Court denies cert in el-Masri rendition case

@breakfast

You don't know what you're talking about. It's not the law and it's not the wish of democratically elected legislation. State secrets privilege is a matter of precedent (that means previous court rulings), not legislation.

French court says non to pre-loaded Windows on Acer laptop

Title

A few years ago I bought a computer from Dell that came with a free printer. Maybe I can sue them for that.