Posts by IMVHO

BlackBerry's retro-look QWERTY Q5 mobe: Resentment by design

@Shrimpling

I agree. I've had a Nexus for over a year, and actively avoid typing emails on it, preferring to wait (if not too inconvenient) until I get back to my laptop. It is downright maddening trying to write or edit an email on the Nexus. Mind you, it does have a very pretty screen that allows me to stare at quite lovely looking emails all day - or rather, for a few hours before the battery craps-out.

When I had a BB (I went through several starting way back when with a blueberry pancake) I could touch-type short novels while strolling through an airport at a fairly decent clip (both the typing and the walking). I have also used a Nokia QWERTY phone. All that it did for me is make me appreciate the BB keyboard even more.

HP, Dell stack up back-end iron for XenDesktop 7 virty PCs

Re: Virtual Desktops as an Appliance?

"the idea of anyone deploying VDI is to save money"

But, it isn't. In the long run, one hopes that it can be, but I wouldn't use it as a sales pitch. VDI has been sold using the same metrics as server virtualization, which has led to the TCO crowd calling foul against team-ROI.

BlackBerry and Apple pie this summer. Or BBM-onna-Droid

Opening to the network?

Might it be:

1) Give BBM for free (look at the birdie!)

2) Sell the secure stuffs (give us a mo' to port)

I'd call that a good hedging strategy. Keep the moneymaker shaking while hoping and praying that the hardware biz keeps a toe in another door.

When your real competition for four-ish-ness is Nokia, go with your strengths (being anyone but Nokia, to start).

Revealed: The gift that keeps on giving to Oracle ... is dying

Re: Oracle? That crowd spreading malware?

* and the difference between God and Larry Ellison is... God doesn't believe that he's Larry Ellison.

Oh, shush - it's always a good time to pull-out an old standard.

Mine's the one with the unbreakable pocket protector.

Unpatched IE bug exposes sensitive Facebook creds

Interesting...ish

XSS with details. I'm going to have to call "meh" on it, though I acknowledge that these folks worked very hard to find this series of wrinkles.

To rephrase; is it likely that present-day security tools that cover XSS will also cover this? Also, if these websites set the secure cookie flag (SSL only, matching domain, if I recall correctly), does that eliminate this attack? I have never understood why these sites use SSL at the login, but never anytime after. A simple Ettercap bit of fun is all that is needed to grab the session cookie (unless it's SSL; then you have to terminate on the user side, and re-encrypt going out the other way).

Whatever...

MYSTERY of huge Canadian chicken-shed EXPLOSION

Chicken meth lab...

That is all.

Energy crisis over - for 250 years?

You can chalk-up Canada's reserve...

as reserved for creating synthetic crude oil from the oil sands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sands#Natural_gas_use_and_greenhouse_gases

On the other hand, I hear-tell that Japan has some used reactors on the auction block. Or perhaps the nice folks who buy part of Atomic Energy Canada can sell Canada a nice shiny reactor so that they stop burning ninety-nine dollar bills to make a one-hundred.

China, in the meantime, has to do some work to displace the folks in Western China. Damn them and their existing on top of China's gas! If anyone can handle the task with ease, it's China. That they have such a huge reserve, and that a great use for natural gas is creating plasticy things, me thinks that it may lead to a China that doesn't look to the RotW for quite as much as it does today. Outbound only, ah-thankya.

Mine is the one with the Mattel toys spilling from the pockets...

W**k-O-Meter

Annual summit of the board of directors and executive team

And so, gentlemen, we turn our attention to the matter of bringing young Jenkins into the executive fold.

Mmmm...yes. Let's see, now. Masters degree, ran that division quite swimmingly, and, oh, oh my, he ranked a two?

We shall have nothing of young Mr Jenkins. Until one can yank a four, one is simply not obsessed enough with oneself to be considered our peer.

And so it is settled. Until Jenkins can master himself to the rank of four, he shall not be considered worthy of partaking in our self-pleasurement.

Very good. Now, gentlemen, form a circle, have your phone in-hand, and kindly reach to your right.

MMMMuuuuaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.... I say, Smith, that's quite a grip you've got, especially impressive palm strength for a CIO. Have you considered thumb wrestling, dear boy?

EU parliament suspends webmail after cyber-attack

I'm not sure...

that you really are from Mars.

Fukushima fearmongers are stealing our Jetsons future

oil sands

Have a google of the tailings ponds that are the result of synthetic crude production in Alberta, Canada. Now that's a massive waste management problem. The current 'management' involves sticking it in huge ponds, and encouraging government and the population to not ask too many questions. After the truly nasty stuff settles-out, they pump it into deep mines. The water that's left, well, it's, erm, left.

http://www.seemagazine.com/article/news/news-main/everything-you-dont-want-know-about-tailings-ponds/

"Current tailings ponds waste water is equal to 220,000 Olympic swimming pools, according to Pembina. By 2020, the oilsands will create enough tailings ponds to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools"

Nothing is acceptable

"No deaths are acceptable". That is the most empty argument that one could possibly make. To then move that into an ad hominem bit of blabbing erodes whatever point that you were trying to make. I mean, really; why do you find it necessary to invoke sobbing parents? How do you manage to infer that anyone would argue that this is "the price to pay"? Do you really think that a bunch of engineers sit around with slide rules and figure "Fifteen kids? Yeah, okay, let's go ahead with this one, I'll go line them up and we'll get the sacrifice started". You must live in a terrible world with a population that will never approach your level of morality.

Ugh, I feel as though I'm responding to a political troll. "I propose that we ban funerals, as they are obviously correlated with death".

Messenger delivers first Mercury orbital snap

Venus is on acid

Clouds of sulfuric acid, chlorine, and everyone's favorite, fluorine. That's all with a temperature that is hot enough to melt soft metals (about twice what a good BBQ can achieve).

Women...though I do love them, I think I'm happy to be from Mars.

It is nicely framed

But in which frame of reference? "The snap was taken at 09:20 GMT", would that be from the perspective of Mercury, or Earth? Surely, there is a few minutes worth of travel at the speed of light between the two.

Mine is the one with a smallish rock in the pocket.

Gartner raises 2011 IT spending prognostications

Analysis of Gartner...

I would love to see an analysis of the accuracy and precision of Gartner predictions. Anybody know of one?

Vote compass unmasks Canadian political opinion

I quite like it

I think that it's a better approach than "Who are you going to vote for?". This starts with the issues, though still somewhat broad, and ends with "you're closest to here, and farthest from here". Of course, it's somewhat like a too-simple-by-half personality test. On those, watch for the "Do you enjoy murdering neighborhood pets?", it's always the giveaway.

I don't care for the proofing of the article, though. "the vote compass isbacked by a massive coast-to-coast marketing campaign. These marketing efforts in turn give CBC excusive rights". Are "excusive rights" like a hall pass of sorts? And that "isbacked"... it's spilt (or is it spilled?) with a zed, silly numknuts!

Facebook blames outage on internal config flaw

You missed...

...it's the movie that dunnit.

Crap, left an "i" out the frist post. Poop, crap, and shit, all on a stck.

You missed...

...it's the move that dunnit.

IBM 'one atom, one bit' storage breakthrough

Exciting

Oh my! Excite an atom, and it will, in-turn, excite you. Qantum states, elevated electrons, and bears. There are bears, right? Whatever.. nature continues to astound, confront, and stifle our little games. This one sounds a bit too solar-flare-senstitive to be usable. The problem with atomic, and lower, happenings is that they are fleeting, as best as can be measured (we get all ga-ga when we can measure just how fleeting). It may make for fun RAM-type giggles, but likely not peristent storage. For that, we'll be stuck up at the molecular level for the time being. Just my opine...

I picked an icon, but then I observed it, and it was a dead cat. Bruuuaahhh!

Security world ill-equipped to solve digital whodunnits

@Dodgy, etc

“Theres' (sic) a lot of people"

I figure that "a lot" is singular. It is a lot like how there is a gaggle of geese outside, pooping a lot of green shits on the brown grass. The example is in the "gaggle", not either of the "lots". Though, if the objection is to using a conjugation at the beginning of a sentence, there could be some debate. Tits rare that I practise that collective of grammatical functions.

Oh, security sleuthing... yeah, no, it's a pack of crap. At the end of the day, it is most helpful to have access to all systems (or at least the passers-betwixt-of-packets) involved. As for identifying code, fingerprinting API's, and that yummy fun, talk to law firms that buy patents for a living. To make it work, then, we need Apple Microsoft running Worldwide Homeland Security.

Will there be further release from The Department of Stating the Obvious (the sources, not the - surely - helpful El Reg'er).

Russian spy ring bust uncovers tech toolkit

Reverse-double-speak... erm, boobies!

The fine folks at Gazprom likely have a much more effective network that is extensively greased with cash, natural gas, and oil. They have large portions of Europe and Asia on a short leash. The former oligarchy is controlled by Putin, et al. Do they truly take this sort of operation seriously these days? It's a wonderful way to generate headlines, certainly, but I can't see it being something other than part of very large and old machine being maintained by life support, should it need to be resurected.

Hmmm... combine the two, and then we're talking. A wonderful creature like big red (pictured), cash, lots of oil, we'll forgive any natural gas incidents, et voila! As soon as Berlusconi becomes the US president, it's a done deal.

Oh, and of course, I for one, welcome my new KGB handler-ette... ahem.

Tequila botnet auto-destructs

It's still there...

... only the name has been changed to "Onasiesta".

Mine is the one the the Corona soother, pillow, and blanky-kins in the pocket...

Bug gives attackers complete control of Windows PCs

Did I wake-up in 2003 again?

This will surely be an interesting one, as it develops. I haven't looked at what the remote ass. functionality allows; it is interesting that it's exploitable, yet, somehow, not surprising. A solid combination of techniques, as with many attacks lately. These folks should be hired for remote system admin, "Vhat, domain admin? Nyet, we no needink."

BTW, I love any article that mentions booby-trapped anything. Trapped, by boobies... I'll be back in ten, mind my system, kthx...

Humanity evolved to cope with 30°C+ heat, says prof

@raveniz

@raveniz: I become more of an atheist every day

God told me, just last night, that hairless, moist atheists are his sexiest creation. If you're in the rift valley sometime, let's have a starbucks before mass.

Security gaffe exposes addresses of elite iPaders

Logs are good for...

... nothing, unless someone/something has a look now and then. "By writing a script that bombarded the site with thousands of possible ICC-ID numbers", I would assume (ahem, must) from one, or few, IP addresses. Nobody wants to pay a monkey to sit and watch logs, but me thinks a fairly simple bit of scripting would have done the trick here. Hanging an out-facing front door in the DMZ, and not looking for inevitable bits of action from knockers, is a fail.

It's a bummer for these elite folks, or sumfink, yadda...can't bring myself to care... blerg.

The legal risks of uncontrolled IM use

Interesting article, but it also demonstrates...

One of the signs of a new regime... "IM" as opposed to "the IM"? I am rather fond of the google, but not so fond of the email. We can call it Register now.

Don't allow egress anything, unless it's through a proxy. Piggybacks on HTTP, you say? The IDS/IPS filters could be written by a talented monkey. We must allow business to do its business, you say? Ahh, the crux of it...

The email has evolved such that the balance between its value as a business tool and weight of the associated risk has tipped toward the former, as security has caught-up. The IM will get there; if it is useful for business, security will catch-up. As per usual, there's a cost to doing business.

I strapped this comment to the leg of a swallow, which did fly to the home of Register. Both I and Register inspected the swallow, both laden and unladen, for signs of disease, upon egress and ingress. African when it left, European as it arrived, if you must know (for customs purposes).

Police union leader calls for 'killer games' sales ban

That explains...

...why my life has been so different since I've become hopelessly addicted to playing Leisure Suit Larry. I shake my, errm, fist at the evils of video game makers!

I wonder what Heir Holmes (Sherlock, not John) has noted is the ultimate effect on human behaviour of World of Warcraft addiction? Gold fetish? Dwarfism? Pointy ears? Somebody must ask him!

Paris, as she displays all of the classic characteristics of a Pong addict.

How Warcraft reigned supreme in 2008

I gotta say...

Me thinks that WoW is the first hugely successful MMO, but not the first massively successful multiplayer. That crown must go CounterStrike. In my younger years, I spent far, far too much time playing CS.

The author hit on every reason for the success of WoW. It's relatively simple (and because of the user base, any question can be answered in moments with a quick Google search), it runs quite well on my 'bleeding-edge, 4 years ago' PC, it can be abandoned for months at a stretch with no penalty, etc.

This game will be hard to knock-off of the top. Blizzard has had the luxury of time to add and perfect a tremendous amount of content. They have a user base who lets them know, quite vocally, when the game has gone in the wrong direction. It's become a bit of a self-perpetuating monster.

My prediction is that, like CS, WoW will reach a peak, and then slowly fade away. Just like the first-person shooter genre, other games will peck-away at WoW's user base, but there will never be another game that is as dominant. Something that Blizzard does realize is that, unlike Valve with CS, it's best to create incremental releases to the original, rather than risking the release of an entirely separate version which dares users to re-assess (Half-Life II with CounterStrike Source). Yes, I understand that the revenue models are entirely different - but the folks sitting at home playing for hours don't care.

Aussie boffins use sarcasm to investigate brain illness

Further research is needed...

"The research involved groups of FTD patients and Alzheimer's sufferers being shown skits played by actors."

If the actors involved were those on Saturday Night Live (or most comedy on TV) as of late, I would fail to see the difference. Perhaps this symptom, as apparent in those with FTD, could be named "Less Amused with Musings of Emotionless Adults using Silly Sarcasm" (LAMEASS)" deficit.

I think that the intensity of observation may have affected the results.

Daft list names Firefox, Adobe and VMWare as top threats

Whitelisting...

"whitelisting firm Bit9"...

Perhaps these are the vendors who don't play ball with Bit9's whitelisting technology? As in, this is the "these are the jerks who change their stuff without telling us," list. This, of course, depends on if the Bit9 whitelisting stuff can tell the difference between, say, Firefox version <hackable>, and Firefox version <current>.

"Often running outside of the IT department’s knowledge or control, these applications"...

Oh, so that would mean to find these horrible, ghastly, applications, we need what, exactly? Oh, I already forgot, "whitelisting firm Bit9".

I can see where they're trying to go with this, but I can't quite wrap my head around the conclusions. This is obviously something that was conceived by, driven by, and finalized by, a group of marketing types.

Mine has the "Byte Ate" logo on the back...'cause I'm retro.

Man trademarks ;-) emoticon

They beat Metallica (TM) to it?

After the guitar chords D and E, when used in a particular series, were deemed "Mine!" by Metallica, how can this surprise <insert emoticon> anyone? I have two ideas... shhhh. First, "ing". Those three characters, when used together, are MINE. Second, the sounds "faa", "uck", "mmmm", and "eeee"; again, when used in a particular series, are MINE!

This last idea is a stretch, but it could be lucrative (after-all, damage to my business is not a consideration of any of these suits, only the potential advantage to my business; no, I have not worked for SCO). I shall trademark, patent, copyright, DRM, and in any and all other ways preserve for my use, the action of the frivolous trademark, patent, copyright, and/or DRM lawsuit. Ehhhh? Uhhhh?

MINE!

Paris, because "that's hot (tm)".

Story withdrawn

@ a suggested action item

I have reconsidered. I see that "action item" is neither net, nor neo, nor a l'gism (as the French would spout).

Paris, as she is net, neo, and chock-ful of l'gism's.

A suggested action item

Ah, 2.0-2.0 retrospect... I forgot to suggest "action item". I shall perform an action, which is recorded as an item on a list held by a project management type. How new, and exciting! How about I do THIS, they do THAT, and you shaddup with your action-item-call-to-action-lookit-me-I-manage-meetings crap? Ah, purged until my next meeting...

Maybe when El Reg determines the winning phrase, alternatives can be proposed. OED-esque rules must be followed, whereby the explanation cannot use words that are more 'complex' than the word being defined, must be concise, and use as many of the other candidate net neologism as possible. Yes, the last two are at odds; welcome to the English language.

Paris... known for action, not quite an item...but on many a list.

Satanic net neologisms - nominations invited

Webified

As in, "Everything shall be webified." When I hear someone say that, I can't help but to cringe. So far as I can tell, it doesn't actually mean anything; some jackarse took "web" and added "ified" to make it sound cool. The only detail it's missing is a little two-dot-oh in the middle.

Now, if the phrase were "webamaficated", maybe it would be a different story.

BitTorrent crackdown cops fail to pay music copyright fees

Double-standard isn't the point...

as I see it. That copyright law extends into every possible situation is the point. Playing some romantic-like muzaq for you and the love interest whilst you engage in warm-blooded fun? No problem. Oh, it's a threesome? Well now, that's going to count as a concert. Fess-up the fees, and there's extra if there's dancing!

Seriously... at our wedding reception we had to pay a certain amount for playing music, erm, out loud (as opposed to the quiet type of music shared between the storage device and circuits of the music playing thingamabob). We had to pay more because people intended to dance! I didn't bother asking if the tapping of toes while seated counted as dancing... there's likely a strict definition out there. Two toes? An entire foot? Seated? Horizontal or vertical?

iPhone 3G to be in 'very short supply for weeks' - carrier

@They can use Canada's allotment

Luckily they shipped them with USB chargers, so they don't have to deal with the whole UK-NA wall charger bit (unconfirmed, but it sounds nice). The latest bit of whispering has Apple not selling the thing at their own stores in Canuckland. Perhaps the Canadian company in the middle, Rogers, can also loan O2 the back-end services for a few million credit card transactions, since the Rogers site won't exactly be suffering under a heavy burden of orders.

Let this be a lesson. If you want to control demand so that it's serviceable with a given supply, charge customers an arm and a leg, and lock 'em in for three years. Ti'ts a bit like Paris making a fortune because, after-all, one can temporarily lodge oneself in only the one Paris Hilton (not counting the hotel).

Ah, and the land of Canuck is the same land that has companies charging for inbound text messages (0.15 Loonies per), just to add a little perspective to the madness. I'm going to charge my friends ten cents per spam text message that I don't send.

Bell Canada chokes P2P and privacy?

@Ru

"The only way it could do that is by decrypting the payload. So either it has to care about encryption, or all it's doing is checking headers."

They are playing fast and loose with the meaning of "headers". Inspecting packet headers is used for packet filtering (a.k.a firewalling). They are looking at packet content to sort-out what the traffic is (a.k.a DPI).

They cannot decrypt the packet contents. What these systems do is look for peculiarities that are unique to torrent clients, such as how a handshake is done.

If you want to grab one of these systems for yourself, go shopping for something like this:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080512-throttle-5m-p2p-users-in-real-time-with-800000-dpi-monster.html

Oh, and by the way, the other big ISP in Canada, Rogers, has been doing this for years. They're even at the point (previously reported here on El Reg, I believe) of modifying packet contents on-the-fly. They can insert information about account usage and such, to be helpful, of course.

Paris, because her packets willingly bare all.

Bell Canada chokes BitTorrent traffic on someone else's ISP

Missed the point?

Is this about P2P, or competitive practices?

The "big guys" do a little math. We have X likely customers on an exchange. On average, they'll sign-up for Y speed. That exchange can support N bandwidth. That gives us a couple of numbers to fiddle. The highest speed we can advertise, and we'll 'optimize' that by capping monthly transfers so that folks can't/won't max their bandwidth all month. Add calculus, marketing crap, peak times, etc, etc.

What's important is that it's a last-mile bottleneck. It's not a problem on the fiber. Along comes the government who tells the big guys that they have to lease their toys to the competition. Suddenly, the playing field doesn't look as friendly as it used to. Add P2P to this, where folks are using a large chunk of the bandwidth which they've been sold. To keep peak traffic down on the last-mile, throttle it. It's natural to them as they've been doing it for years on their usenet servers (hence, folks paying for third-party). Also start charging $2/gig overage charges.

Smelling blood, the smaller ISP's go after a market of users who don't just send email, surf, and whatnot. That's a competitive edge, albeit slim since, let's face it, most folks don't know or care about the finer points of their connection.

Eventually, the smaller ISP's are creating problems for the last-mile maths. The big guys see an opportunity to remove a competitive edge under the guise of optimizing saturated networks. Done deal.

World of Warcraft updates, experimental releases of DRM-free TV by the CBC, or copyrighted material? Legal file transfers, illegal? I'm not sure that it matters. They aren't enforcing copyrights or anything so noble, they're using it as cover when limiting congestion of outdated last-mile tech, and now to remove a competitive disadvantage. That's it, that's all.

Substitute VPN traffic for P2P. How would that change the reaction to this story?

Verizon makes nice with P2P

Nip n' tuck shaping.

I agree that this will become a feature. To make it an enhancement, you first have to create a need. In some parts, simply use P2P throttling as a stick to beat your end-users, and even your competition (especially if said competition leases from you, due to government legislation).

In Canada, Bell (biggest telco) isn't just shaping P2P traffic of it's own end-users, it's now doing the same to traffic of an ISP which leases from Bell. How long will it be until a "feature" like that proposed by Verizon becomes something that has a price tag? Hmmm... P2P, VPN, we'll shape that in a way that will be nice for you, so long as you pay. The alternative? We'll throttle it down to a crawl. Alternative ISP? No, so sorry, they don't offer the feature of relief from our throttling, and we really don't care to route their traffic through quiet patches of our network.

I know that that's not a new thought; but it's especially frustrating when a major ISP uses this type of tactic to hammer a minor competitor. In some markets, end-users can, with relative ease, flip their ISP the bird and head on over to a more agreeable provider. That's not so easy for a small ISP to pull-off.

Western Digital drive is DRM-crippled for your safety

One happy customer!

Hello, my name is Vlad P., and I orchestrate zee free exchange of pictures, video, and audio files by our esteemed media, and international elections monitors, in MY country. Like you at Eastern Digital, my mission is to be sure to allow everyone to think that I facilitate the freedom of zee movement of digital media, while not actually allowing that at all (hahaha!). Your product has proven most efficient in achieving zee mission.

You would have been as please as me, I am sure, to see zee expression on zee stoopid faces of zee reporters of lies when zey first attempted to share zee lies with their fellow traitors, and the spies of zee West. For your hard drives, fifty-thousand rubbles, for zee look on zee faces, priceless!

I will be sure to recommend most highly your product to my friends in other freedom-loving countries. It is a shame dat comrade George may not have time to push zees through congress, especially since he vould have zee questions about lawful (hahaha) interception.

Tasers can be instrument of torture, says UN

I'm gonna put my hand up to say a little something...

...and please don't taser me if you don't agree!

"The company would go bust overnight." I disagree. They just got a wringing endorsement as a device of torture from the UN. You can't buy that type of quality marketing! Folks who work in dank little cells all over the world will be scrambling to get their latex-gloved hands on one (perhaps smashing the recent iPhone sales figures; oh, new idea; the iTaser).

"if a policeman tells you to do something, you bloody well do it. And don't mouth off at him either." I agree that innocent, sane, calm, folks should do exactly that. It's the course that is most likely to get one out of a speeding ticket, after-all. However, there are circumstances such thtat innocent, almost sane, not at all calm folks, do exactly the opposite.

In my very humble opinion, there are two contentious issues/questions. When should these weapons be deployed (a judgment call, under stress, which can be guided by solid training), and how should these weapons be used (ooops, there's that 'training' thing again).

I think that a good start on answering the question of 'should I fry this person?' is 'what will happen if I don't fry this person?'. I think that the answer to that in the case of the Vancouver airport incident is along the lines of 'not much, other than that we'll have to stand here and keep an eye on this guy until someone who can talk to him is found, or we somehow get through to him'. Or perhaps it was 'Oh my, he's gonna hurt that stapler! Let him have it, laddies!'. After hitting a person once, the process should be repeated. As-in, 'okay, he's writhing on the floor... he looks like a funny fish doing the chicken dance, and I don't wanna jump on his neck just yet, so I'll let him flop for a little bit and exhaust himself.' Contrast that with 'hmmm, on the ground; check! Are we able to cuff him yet; nope. Do I have a 2 o'clock at the manicurist; check! Decision; Let him have it again, laddies, these nails are not fit for public consumption!'

Great War diary reveals original Captain Blackadder

For crying out loud...

It's a journal about a terrible experience that was, by the article, written with some care. Why argue about profit and percentages? Where's the "good deed" limit? Shall I publish my grandfather's memoirs with a 5% charity bid, or is 5.5% enough to quiet the choir? It's not the percentage, or the cost, that matters, it's the motivation behind each. On said motivation, there is speculation only. If you really want to know, then, send the bloke or publisher and email, or other query. Otherwise, speculate away... bah!

Aliens responsible for Italian machine uprising

Shag...

An unusual prevalence of shag carpets, I suspect. A nasty positive feedback loop could result. Someone wears a wool sweater on a dry day, walks across the shag to turn-up the humidifier, and ZAP! Then the neighbors come-by to gawk, drag their socks across the carpet, build-up a good charge, and upon arriving home to check their humidifiers, the loop is repeated. Pretty soon everyone's frying their fridges and whatnot. Perfectly reasonable, especially if it's alien shag on the floor. Imagine the potential energy that Alf rolling with Alf-ette could produce.

US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly

sooooo...

Have they proposed a maximum turnaround time? If I'm about to embark on a 3-leg, 30 hour trip to America, and I need to get 'approval' 72 hours in advance of my departure (even if the last leg is the only one that is to, or over, America), and the turnaround is, say, 24 hours... ouch. The trip would have to be booked at least 5 days in advance.

Okay, let's propose an alternative. China did a great job of this a while back. Haliburton and a couple other private firms should be contracted to build a nice, picturesque wall around the entire country. Think of the tourist dollars that that would generate! Even better, they'd only have to maintain the outside of the wall if they add most of the earth's population to the no-fly list! Brilliant! Errrmm....