Posts by John Redbook

YouTube Lad from Lagos gets a bite

Now what are the chances of that?

Gotta be a viral.. all three of 'em opened accounts on YouTube on the same day.

Seeking web security, exploit operators prefer Firefox

I can't believe it's not Internet Explorer.

I'm more interested by this.. "Royal was able to monitor the browser, IP address, and in some cases operating system of many of the operators of these sites by sneaking a line of JavaScript into the referrer fields of browsers he had visit the site. When the webmasters viewed the logs, their browsers secretly visited a website under his control".

Can anybody explain in more detail?

Court rules airline secret security list is stupid

Stroppy?

Second Aristotles' comment. Very unfair calling the guy "stroppy".. thanks to him yet another example of rules and regulations being forced upon the masses by governments and organisations (who believe they have power, unlike Snap who did) has been ruled illegal.

Brit porn filter censors 13 years of net history

Potentially (Il)legal..

> Self censorship does not work for the masses..

Yes it does.. it's called freedom of choice.

> also accidental viewing would happen and once its cached on your machine you have broken the law

Not a solicitor but my understanding is that 'making' (the fancy legal term they give to possessing indecent images) has to be deliberate and with intent. You're not guilty if you were unaware that the web page, e-mail etc., contained or was likely to contain an illegal image. There is also provision for you storing such images so that you can provide police with evidence.

> the IWF is one of the few organisations outside of CEOP to enjoy freedom from prosecution for looking at alleged CP.

Wonder how many pedo's work there?

The IWF block what 'they' deem to be 'potentially' illegal. They're not judges The images haven't been near a court of law. No-one has been allowed to speak in their defence. The IWF are just members of the public.

> And the ability to secretly censor the Internet is a pretty big power to have with no accountability.

Wanted to say the same thing but ass-u-me beat me to it. Worth saying again.

IWF pulls Wikipedia from child porn blacklist

Brave ISP?

Anyone know of an ISP who doesn't block this list?

EU grabs 30MHz of spectrum for talking cars

Another use...

My guess it will end up being used as part of a parking and road toll charging scheme. Plus the added bonus that it will protect us from terrorists and save us from Global Warming.

IBM to shove ads onto DVDs

Didn't they recently try to patent outsourcing?

I always thought that in order to be granted, a patent must be useful, novel and nonobvious. Since when was bloody stupid a criteria?

Apple sued over i-Bricks

Caveat emport (well in the UK anyway)

There is no legal requirement in the UK for a provider/supplier to unlock the mobile phone they sold you when your contract expires unless the T&Cs say they definitely will.

Most do.. for a fee. (I'm sure there is a good business reason why - it can't be because they're nice).

Apple get a percentage of call revenue and I'm guessing that at the end of the contract you will have no option but to continue with O2 if you want to make calls.. Apple will most probably have that in the O2 contract.

In markets where they can legally keep the phone tied to a network after contract expiry, they will. If it means bricking phones that have left the fold, they will.

As a few people have stated.. you haven't got to buy an iPhone.

I think, regrettably, this is one battle that Apple will win.

How quickly some people forget.

When Steve W and Steve J launched the Apple II back in the 70's they included in the box the Apple Reference Manual. This included complete circuit diagrams of the PC, ROM listings, details on memory and hardware configurations.. pretty much everything. It was the bible on how the Apple was made and worked.

Other companies were able to write software, design hardware (don't forget it had expansion slots). The Apple II went on to be one of the most successful computers of all time. It could do anything!

Alas, I suspect a lot of the ethos from that era came from Steve Wozniak.

Go on Stevie J. Let other people play with your new toy. For old times sake.

BT offers £1K for Wi-Fi application

T&Cs?

Call me cynical but no sign of any T&Cs. Wonder what rights the winner has to assign to BT?

Dell trips up over laptop components

The rocky road to ruin?

The same MacWorld article goes on to quote Dennis Chen from HP, VP and GM of their personal systems group, “HP has long term contracts with suppliers, so we won’t have any trouble,”. The article then mentions Quanta Computer, the world’s biggest contract laptop computer maker and that they also doesn’t foresee the shortage issue hurting its laptop production.

As mentioned, Dell using JIT manufacturing process is a major cause. When it works it's great but supplies dry up it's a major headache. The whole production process halts. Most of the other manufacturers don't use JIT, they keep stock so as to buffer any supply problems.

Dell tend to use only one or two suppliers for each component, so as to negotiate better pricing. Again, a problem with one supplier for one component can bring the production line to a halt. They operate 24x7 so lost production causes a bottleneck later when supplies resume. Generally this tends to lead to lower quality control when production resumes as they simply don't have the time for it.

Another problem is that to supply Dell you have to accept some quite harsh terms. e.g. 60 to 90 day payments and penalties for not meeting JIT dates. Dell could most probably source these components elsewhere but they would have to pay a higher than normal price and the supplier may not accept their supply terms. e.g. payment in 60-90 days. This eats into their profit margin (I think it's about 24% as oppose to 18% or so for the other manufacturers).

Finally it's Dell's end of year. They have been on a massive sales drive to get their figures up.. most probably selling over and above production capactity. So this supply shortage has made things even worse.

Shame they haven't got problems with whoever supplies the brochures and postcards that they keep sending me. I've had a total of five this week.