Posts by Ben Tasker

Don't get sued or cuffed on Twitter: Read these top 10 pitfalls

Re: Problem, Reaction, Solution ... Conditioning behavior.

In theory, a court would find that '"Man I hate Justin Beiber, he's such a conceited twat"' would never be interpreted (by a reasonable audience) as a statement of fact. If you included reference to seeing his psych records, then it could be interpreted as such but a reasonable person should always see 'Man I hate Justin Beiber, he's such a conceited twat" as a statement of opinion, just as posting 'Justin Bieber looks like a 12 year old girl' should be.

If you (as the accused) can show that no reasonable person would construe your statement as one of fact (or, even better, if you could show it was actually true!) then the action would fail. It'd be pretty costly though, AFAIK you can't even apply for legal aid for your defence, which is one of the reasons people piss and moan about our libel laws.

Of course, you probably know this, but I wanted to jump on the bandwagon and write the same sentence a few times too!

IANAL but did a fair bit of studying not that long ago, still before posting "Man I hate Justin Beiber, he's such a conceited twat" I'd recommend consulting with a solicitor or at least gathering proof that it is in fact true.

A fair point, though that would come under the defamatory heading rather than the trademark per se (though of course the use of the identifying trademark is key to making it defamatory).

The bit that's semi-scary is that huge organisations have fingers in many pies, so although you may think you are operating in a different market, that may not be the case. Originally I was going to use trainers as an example, but then it occurred to me that it's not impossible that some company (as far as I know there isn't) under the Coca-Cola umbrella does make trainers. If that were the case, you'd probably have to try and argue that the average person wouldn't be confused because they wouldn't know that Coca-Cola make trainers.

What makes it worse, in some ways, is that if they become aware of your improper use they have to do something about it or face the risk of later attempts failing due to 'abandonment' of the TM. There are areas that you can take a calculated risk on whether someone might bother to sue, but TM law means that if they become aware they'll have little choice but to formally address the issue.

Still, I can't see the alternative being better. I can't help think Patenty stuff might be less of a mess if companies weren't able to sit back and watch the damages grow before launching a claim.

Re: Can someone please explain this sentence?

First bits fairly easy;

Nothing stops you from saying something that could then be used against you. So if you've pulled a sicky at work and then tweet "Having a great day at Alton Towers", there's nothing protecting you from doing so, or indeed from the repercussions. You've said it in a public place so there's not much you can do to prevent an employer from using this as evidence (I suppose you could claim you were delirious ;-) ). This also applies to things that are against the law, so tweeting "I just crapped on a police car" wouldn't be particularly wise.

The last bit, I think probably refers to some specific case (I don't know for sure) but the way I read it is that some doctor was on sick leave but then posted about the fun he was having. Could be wrong though

Re: Reminds me of hockey rules

True but what's often forgotten is that people do not have a right not to be offended. It seems (especially within the media) that people forget that actually we do have the right to say something that may offend someone, somewhere.

Of course, there's a big difference between making an offensive joke and deliberately targeting someone you wish to offend.

Given that someone was sued under defamation laws having started with "In My Opinion" (haven't time to look up link, but was linked to in a fairly recent Reg article) I suspect using "Allegedly" wouldn't help much. Using the word 'Alleged' suggests you heard it from somewhere, so they'd probably sue you and then demand to know where you heard it (which would be your defense, but would also open the source - if any - to a potential lawsuit).

Far better to stick to satire or strictly factual for anything that might be seen by the world at large. I hear and see a lot of things that are funny in the real-world, but if written down (taking the signs of intent away) could get people into trouble.

Taking Paul Chambers as an example, had he been saying it face-to-face, the person on the other end would probably have seen a cheeky smile and thought "what a joker". Put it into text and the intent is less obvious. There may be other reasons they persued Mr Chambers but you get the idea.

may also offend UK criminal law

I know it's the correct way of saying it, but this still always makes me wonder how a law can be offended!

Interesting reading though, something that I thought was missing from Number 1 though is a description of some of the things (IANAL) that you can do - as I understand it.

If you sell fizzy drinks, using #cocacola is a bad idea, you'll probably get done for trademark infringement.

If you operate in a market not used by cocacola you may be able to use it, but would have to rely on a defence that no-one would be confused between a fizzy drink and gloves (or whatever you are selling).

If you're not selling anything, you should be safe (assuming you don't fall under a different pitfall) whether you're tweeting #cococola sucks or anything else (#pepsi's better than #cocacola but #Irn-Bru beats them both?).

IANAL so you might want to check this before relying on my suggestion though! Hate to see anyone sued!

Kidney-for-iPad fanboi sues after illness strikes

Re: Merely giving up a kidney doesn't make him an idiot.

It seems that the actual donation part was not done all that well - either he wasn't really a suitable donor or some aspect of surgery or aftercare was botched or poor.

It was a blackmarket 'donation', so no aftercare (to speak of) and you get to be cut by whichever doctor the organisers have found. Hell, for all you know, that 'doctor' could be a dentist!

So the act of 'donating' a kidney may not have been stupid, but given that sales will always be illegal over there (meaning it's gonna be a blackmarket job) the act of selling your kidney is a stupid thing to do.

You're right though, there probably are quite a number of people over here who would have done the self-same thing.

Reg readers scrap over ultimate bacon sandwich

That's the least of your worries. Being repeatedly pelted with rotten fruit and subsequently burned at the stake for heresy should be your primary concern.

Little scared to admit this now, but I discovered a delight fairly recently, so;

Three slices of bread

Fry 2 eggs and bacon (sausages too if you're really hungry)

Fry one piece of bread

Smear the remaining slices with Dairylea (trust me)

Build yourself a double decker sandwich.

It's called the triple heart bypass and it's fookin tasty. Yes it's got dairylea in it, but yes it does seem to be a lot better that way.

*runs for cover*

Snap suggests Apple out to 'screw' hardware hackers

Re: Time for a new law

'not the 'hollow star' driver he required for them'

Torx sockets then. Man I was annoyed when I first came across those (on the differential of a BMW). Hadn't come across them before, so didn't have any. Easy enough to pick up, but had the car been mine I would have had to put it back together to drive and get them!

Copyright bot boots NASA rover vid off YouTube

Re: @Ben Tasker -- Fed up with this nonsense.

This being an IT forum, I'll leave further developing this political science argument for elsewhere.

Ach, I was enjoying that!

For the record, in principle I actually agree with you, it's just that in practice I see things differently. I'd much prefer that "knowledge for knowledge sake, knowledge for everyone" was the way things worked.

Re: "I'm seeking an injunction against use of any vowels on your keyboard, etc.."

Fair, but consider the fact that a "proper" c++ coder would have just stuck everything on one and a half lines. So the law suit will be against someone who can demonstrate that they are 'challenged' and 'special' by comparing themselves to their peers, and therefore not responsible for their actions.

Nicely thought out! Thumbs up

Re: Fed up with this nonsense.

True which is why a level of common sense needs to be applied. I never said all data should be charged for, in fact I'm pretty sure I said there was some that should not be.

What if it prevents the creation of other business that would be worth more than it cost to collect the data?

That strikes me as something the Tories would say. Now assuming that the cost of the data was reasonable (i.e. the Govt isn't gouging on price) then the answer's simple: that business model wasn't viable. If the Govt wasn't collecting the data because it was simply a drain on taxpayers cash, would it be financially viable for the company to collect that data themselves? If yes, then you know what they need to do (and that the Govt is gouging) if no, business model aint viable.

There's a big difference between a DNS data and data that the Govt has had to actually collect/aggregate. It would be stupid of them to charge any kind of fee for that (not saying they wouldn't mind). There are some areas where the money in can never really be recouped (Defence being a good example), I'd say Nominet falls under these.

Of course, what I've left out of the equation (because I don't have the figures) is the adjustment to the income/outcome that'd be made by a business paying tax in the UK. You've always got to accept that the Govt will make a net loss, but it's a matter of deciding whether on balance you can mitigate that loss a little.

It's capitalism, it's all about money. I'd love to change it, but it's the world we live in

Re: #include <stdio.h>

Oi! I held a patent on that (I, of course, ignored the obvious prior art).

I'm seeking an injunction against use of any vowels on your keyboard and demand that you pay me £100 for every character typed.

Re: Fed up with this nonsense.

To turn that on it's head then, you'd like large organisations to freely take work created using your tax-money and sell it back to you?

Some of this stuff does have a value, and the theory is that some of that value can be collected by enforcing crown-copyright. Whether that pans out to a net-benefit for the taxpayer I don't know, but if it's saving us taxpayers a little bit of money it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Crown copyright also doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have to pay. All it means is that the Govt have control over what happens to it, they can still distribute stuff free-of-charge. Hell, they can distribute it under a perpetual-do-what-the-fuck-you-want license if they want without giving up the crown copyright.

Some stuff should be distributed as a free-for-all, but if the Govt has spent (say 10bn) collecting information about some resource (let's say maps for sake of argument) it would be nice if some of the taxpayers money could be recouped from the organisations that want to make use of it. Very hard to see how some information gathering would generate any value for us plebs otherwise (though you could of course argue that perhaps the Govt shouldn't be collecting it).

Re: re: QOTW

Nah, not enough money involved there, LMFTFY so that it can generate some additional revenu

If video suspect

If video from NASA channel

then

if request from Scripps local news

then

email scripps - "please phone us on 0901 123 456 urgently about video blah"

else refer to human investigator

else block

end

end

end

Might as well take the opportunity to make some money from the buggers. Of course, I've no idea what a premium rate number looks like in the US. Code doesn't look right either, think I need more caffeine

Curiosity needs OS upgrade before getting down to science

Re: OS

Angry Birds has yet to be ported to it, however.

Breaking News: A message is being streamed live from Curiosity on Mars to NASA, it reads: Possibility of life found, If you want to know more me How the fuck I get past level 12?

Beak explodes at Samsung's evidence leak in Apple patent spat

Sammie have handled that quite badly, but I can't help think they do have a point here. If Apple are claiming the F700 is a rip-off and they've got evidence to the contrary it should be admitted. OK, so the court may need to allow Apple some time to prepare a counter-argument, but it's hardly due process to exclude evidence that may show that an argument being put to the court is false/incorrect.

Given the profile of Apple's (many) cases, and the statements being released regularly by both sides I'd say the Jury's going to have a hard time focusing solely on what they hear in court. Doesn't make Sammie look too good though.

Although she may be livid, I suspect the reality is that as it wasn't admitted as evidence, Sammie probably are free to do what they wish with it to some extent. Personally I'm surprised it hasn't ended up on Slideshare or something!

Microsoft: Gmail rival Outlook.com will 'look good on your iPad' 

Re: Don't even need a PC for that; talk about desperate trolling.

Talk about missing the point. He doesn't want the emails blocked, he wants security improved so they don't get sent in the first place. Either all Hotmail users are idiots who use "Password" as their password, or there's a security issue in there somewhere as Hotmail accounts do seem to get compromised at an alarming rate.

It could be as simple as a shit selection of reset questions, but there must be some common factor for so many of the buggers to get their accounts pwned. I've moved people from Hotmail to other accounts and they've had no further issues, though that could also relate to my asking whether they were using secure passwords.

Tesco in unencrypted password email reminder rumble

I wonder how many people have considered if this was a business decision.

What's sad is the people that make these decisions don't seem to realise they are potentially causing grave harm to the business!

Re: MORE TH>N password policy

Try setting one to FuckFuckFuck and see if they contact you. Reminds me of the guy who had issues when he set his Barclaycard password to something like BarclayCardSucks a while back. No member of staff should ever be able to see his full pass and yet he was told he had to change it as it was inappropriate

Re: Dear Tesco,

A guess, based on experience is as follows.

With Cardholder Not Present (CNP) transactions, different providers have different requirements when it comes to who's liable when things go wrong (i.e. some git uses your card!). It may be that the Electron side of Visa mandates that the retailer accepts liability for any chargebacks, and Tesco's have decided it isn't worth the risk. I don't know for sure, but similar things happen elsewhere.

For example, any business can still swipe your Chip n Pin card and check the signature. They key difference is, if they do then they are liable for any chargebacks, which is why most places will refuse to do it even if the chip is fried, again varies between providers though.

The thing about banks, is they are always trying to shift potential liability onto someone else, and have two soft targets: us poor sods who have to use them, and retailers who have to use them. So perhaps that's why Tesco won't accept them online, though I'm sure Electron used Verified by Visa last time I had one (pushing liability back onto you). Of course, perhaps Tesco haven't/won't implement VbV which would push the liability square onto them AFAIK

But section 11 of the DPA98 entitles data subjects to opt-out of ALL direct marketing from an organisation.

I suppose they'd argue that the fact you don't have to have a clubcard and can cancel at any time is probably giving you that option.

Wouldn't expect the ICO to do anything either to be honest, not necessarily because Tesco are right, but because the ICO are, well useless when it comes to big business

Re: What are we talking about here?

Given some of the miscreants on the net nowadays, yes they might well break in and order you 20,000 cans of beans for 'Teh Lulz'

And as others have said, it's not just your grocery account that may be at risk

One (unlikely) danger is that these unencrypted email password reminders could be intercepted and used by crooks. But the bigger issue is that the method implies that the grocer stores password hashes in an unsalted format. If there was any kind of breach that exposed these password hashes then the corresponding plain text passwords can be extracted from the stored hashes using a brute force attack and rainbow lookup tables.

Not to be too pedantic, but these aren't hashes. Hashes are one way (salted or otherwise), these would actually be encrypted passwords. How is it the Reg calls hashes encrypted passwords, but when they could use the right term (even if by accident) they still cock it up.

Pales in comparison to the cock-up by Tesco though. When it comes to security every little helps

Getting me coat

Lords blast UK.gov's fixation on broadband speed over reach

Our communications network must be regarded as a strategic, national asset. The government’s strategy lacks just that – strategy. The complex issues involved were not thought through from first principle and it is far from clear that the government’s policy will deliver the broadband infrastructure that we need – for profound social and economic reasons – for the decades to come

Who'da thunk it eh? The UK Government dealing with something technical and failing to plan or understand it properly. Just turned my world upside down that has.

</sarcasm>

As others have said, what we need is a reliable infrastructure. Headline speeds are great for the providers and the politicians, but they just don't address the issues. If they really want TV to be broadcast over t'internet we're going to need better speeds, sure, but we'll also need a network that can cope with much heavier demand. OK TV can be achieved with multicast, but the point remains the same.

On the other hand, I'd hate to have to go back to 2MB!

Solar, wind, landfill to make cheapest power by 2030

Re: Gas?

Yeah the sentence Brown coal would remain cheaper than wind by 2030 – with an LCOE of AUD$92 – were it not for Australia’s carbon tax did remind me a little of the article that ran yesterday. Translation: the current methods will still be cheaper, except that we're going to price it out of the market (in our case by taxing and reducing supply, in the Aussie's by taxing).

As a society, we need to decide what matters. Given that everything relies on leccy, I'd say we need to be looking at ensuring that we can generate enough of it cheaply. Having people hit the point where they don't use the heating in winter is not a good thing. Yes, it'd be very nice not to ruin the planet, but let's see some hard, scientific (i.e. properly reviewed, properly documented with all datapoints available) evidence before we fuck everything up to save a bit of carbon.

In fact, let's give the green's rifles and have them shoot cows. Methane's not exactly good for the atmosphere, so why not start small and work up eh?

Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer

Re: For those w/o time to read the paper

It's so when he pleads insanity they can offer him a 'deal' and drop half the charges!

@UnSteveDorkland Twitter satirist faces 4 charges in US court

Re: Costs

It's the sort of thing they probably pay consultants to tell them, and the work required to resolve it is a normal business overhead.

Wouldn't it be great to see that as a defence - ACTUALLY I just saved you $100,000

Twitter airport bomb joke conviction binned in common-sense WIN

Whilst they were pursing this chap, all sorts of other threats are getting through. The child who went to Rome without any documentation, ticket, anything this week would seem a good example. Maybe that only happened because they were too busy going after this guy, rather than checking their systems are up to scratch?

A reasonable post ruined by hyperbole!

Apple disappoints at first Black Hat briefing

Re: Time traveller?

Must have the iPhone calendar

Windows worm slips into iOS App Store, climbs into hipsters' pockets

Re: *bring back El Reg gravestone icon*

You cannot be serious about this. By now it's likely that ANY sufficiently large binary file will match some malware signature if you take all platforms and architectures.

Bollocks.

Let's start with how they'd do the scan shall we? You don't scan the entire package, you extract it giving lot's of those nice little files contained within. You then scan those, accepting either a higher false-positive or higher false-negative rate (the former being more expensive as you have to review, the latter posing a greater risk to your customers).

As I said later in my post, even limiting it to common platforms would be a start. Scan for iOS, Windows and OSX nasties. Sure, if you really want, scan for Android nasties, but you know what? Unless the iOS app has some means of pushing the malware to an Android device, it's less of a worry. People plug their phones into machines running Windows or OS X. This incident may not have had a way to then push that onto the system, but it doesn't mean that there isn't a way to do so (I find myself tempted to observe especially on Windows).

There's a world of difference between scanning for platforms which could be infected and scanning for those that are highly unlikely to come into sufficient contact. Considering the relative safety the walled garden is supposed to provide, not performing a proper scan is one hell of a fuck-up.

The flipside, of course, is that Apple may actually be doing it properly. It's not impossible that this was an isolated cock-up rather than a failure across the system. We have no way to know, but you can't avoid the fact that a responsible company should be checking thoroughly for malware.

You'd be pretty pissed if a Linux based webserver infected your Windows machine and the admin said "Why would I scan for Windows malware? It doesn't affect me, want me to scan for VAX malware too?" wouldn't you? iPhones/iPad's have a reasonable likelihood of coming into contact with a Windows machine and so Apple should be scanning for Windows based malware.

Re: I'm sorry

@Steve

You're right, in this particular instance it was unused data. It shouldn't have been there though, and could easily have been detected by Apple. We're not talking about some advanced polymorphic malware, we're talking about a run-of-the-mill VB file.

Now ask yourself, if Apple couldn't catch something so obvious, what else is slipping through the net?

If you or I were checking that App, would you question the existence of VB in an iOS app? I would. Granted Apple aren't getting eyes on all apps, but that just means their automated systems need to be more effective. In this case they've missed something, luckily for them there doesn't seem to be an easy infection vector, but it shows that things are being missed (which really, shouldn't be that big a surprise, it happens) and the ease with which this should have been detected just adds to the embarrassment.

The next slip-up may well have a plausible infection vector, so if nothing else this should prompt Apple to review their security checks as simple good practice. On the face of it, they got lucky, and any responsible company would review procedures to ensure appropriate risk mitigation is in place. Whether they bother or not remains to be seen, but the greater the percentage of their customers claiming there's no issue, the less likely they are (or may be) to do so.

Better?

Re: *bring back El Reg gravestone icon*

What is the point of Apple scanning for Windows worms inside iOS app packages? They're not going to run on iOS nor even on Windows unless users extract the app package contents as the article correctly points out.

This is supposed to "raise concerns about Apple's app-screening process"? Maybe they should scan for DEC VAX malware too while they are at in, some old Morris worm might be lurking around in there

How about they just scan for malware? Why worry about which platform it affects, you never actually know whether the presence will result in an actual infection vector. Scanning for VAX malware would be a little extreme, it's true, but it's far less extreme to scan for malware that affects the most used desktop OS on the planet.

I can't think of a way that the iPhone could infect a Windows machine, but I bet someone out there could given the right motivation. As the article notes, the responsible scan for malware which may affect any (within a reasonable level of likelihood) system. I.e. they'll scan for Windows malware as well as Mac and Linux.

Let's face it, it can't inconvenience Apple too much to have submitted apps be automatically extracted and scanned properly can it.

All that said, apart from some embarrassment for Apple, really this is a bit of a storm in a teacup. It's only really newsworthy because some rabidly mis-believe that no malware can enter the App store.

Re: I'm sorry

Because it show's they are (arguably) not being careful enough when checking Apps. This particular instance may have been an old piece of Windows malware that can't harm Apple's kit, but that doesn't make it OK. As the article notes, this particular nasty is detected by everything, indicating that Apple aren't bothering to scan for known malware.

Given that the walled garden has been pushed as providing greater security, it's kind of embarrassing to have something so easily caught slip through the net.

Of course, a realist would expect that something will always slip through, but you'd normally expect it to be something a bit harder to detect than a well-known (by the AV) piece of VB-Script.

So, it's not an issue for Apple users, but it's a minor embarrassment for Apple.

Answer your question?

Jury will hear Samsung wrongly trashed emails in patent trial

Re: No matter whos in the wrong here....

@Joseph

I agree with what you've said, but the idealist in me see's that it should work a little differently (you've described quite well how it does work though). To me, it's all a matter of impact. Apple's bounce (assuming it's valid) is of little impact even if I license it, so it should be cheap as hell. Samsung's SEP are of high impact, and so I'd expect them to cost more (though I won't settle on a number).

It makes little difference to me as a manufacturer whether I include Apple's bounce or not. I wouldn't expect to pay too much for it, whereas if I want to create a phone, Samsung's are pretty important so I'd expect to pay a little more.

Not that I think either should be asking as much, even in the world we actually operate in. But, it does seem like Apple were given a price and rather than haggling stuck two fingers up and continued without licensing. That's not right, I can't walk into a shop (Bad analogy alert) ask how much a TV is, decide it's too much and walk out with it anyway (and no, patent infringement isn't really theft).

Virgin Media's 'bye-bye to buffering' beardy Bolt boast BANNED

Re: Dear BT and Sky

I don't see Virgin upping the amount of cabled areas they have.

Nope, all I see is them bitching that people are getting subsidies for roll-out and they're not. Of course, if they were willing to bite the bullet and share access to their ducts (as is required of anyone getting the subsidy) they'd be just as capable of gaining access to that particular trough as the competition are.

We live in a Virgin area, not that it's had any kind of investment since the Telewest days. We've actually still (technically) got a ban on rooftop aerials as Telewest cabled a communal link into each house. The fact that it's broken somewhere along the line (a few years ago now too) and Virgin refuse to repair it doesn't affect the ban, but definitely affects my choice about which providers I'd even consider.

I know people who are perfectly happy with Virgin (at least until they have to use the customer service dept), just as I know people who are perfectly happy with the competition. I guess the answer is to go for what's best in your area. Not good news for Virgin though as they don't even seem to want to expand into newly built area's at the moment, at some point they're going to need to invest otherwise the number of 'virgin' areas as a percentage of the UK is going to continue to shrink

Anonymous to expose 40GB of ISP data

Anonymous is preparing to reveal 40GB of data its members say came from an Australian internet service provider (ISP) and contains “600k+” of customer data.

WTF's the other 39.4GB made up of then?

Judge: Apple must run ads saying Samsung DIDN'T copy the iPad

Re: Bizarre

"Seems a really bizarre ruling. Is the judge trying to make a name for himself, simply making up punishments however he sees fit?"

Not really, Apple have been quite publicly claiming that Samsung ripped off the iPhone. He's now making them publicly admit/claim that they did not.

Why not just allow Samsung execs to visit Apples HQ and take a dump on as many cars as they wish?

I bet they'd love it, especially if Apple had to pay for flights as well! Can't forsee a situation where that might happen though.

In what world does implementing support for a filesystem consitute copying in the way Apple have been claiming about Samsung?

Of course, if MS were to list all relevant patents and who was licensing them it'd be a good thing. Every threat MS make to Android/Linux etc tends to be quite vague "You're infringing out patents" when they could be specific "You're infringing patent 12345". Of course specifics may allow people to work around the patent, so that's not particularly desirable.

Not sure how many people actually believe any MS advertising anyway, diehard fanboys aside. My personal favourite was the TCO comparison between RH and Windows, gauged in an arena where servers typically have a life of 5 years at most. MS championed the fact that their TCO broke even with RH at 6 years, whilst ignoring the fact that no-one at that level is likely to run a server for that long. Hell most are replaced at 3 if possible.

Sky's TV-on-demand registers with regulator just hours before opening

Re: Can't happen soon enough

Agreed, it also means that if a programme has a particularly shite series, there's less chance of there being that great series to make up for it.

I'd certainly watch less TV if it was all pay per view though, based on the shite that's on at the minute I might even find I don't watch any. I certainly wouldn't be tolerant of any adverts if I had to pay for the privilege of watching though, so it's a plan that would quickly backfire (with me at least).

I remember getting rid of the box when I was younger, I was so productive during that time. Can't remember why I finally caved, but it's possible my wife talked me into it.

Re: "being paid to make up numbers sounds like a cushy job - 42 16 12 3."

@TheProf @AC

But did anyone file for protection? First to file and all that :-D

Perhaps I should patent my method for thinking up random numbers. Filing would read something like "Stare blankly into space and think about how many fry-ups I'd like to eat on a monthly basis, followed by how many mugs of coffee I'd was down with and how many days silence I'd get if I served the family fry-ups twice daily for a week"

I'll be rich I tell ye, got to be a better plan than trying to rob a bank with a banana.

You know, I've kind of forgotten what the article was even about!

Re: Five-a-day (OT)

The five-a-day campaign is a pure marketing gimmick started in 1991 by some farmers and a US cancer organisation. It has no scientific basis in fact at all.

No surprise there, I seem to recall an admission that the 'safe' daily units of alcohol were similarly plucked out of the air when they were introduce.

I wish I could make money that easily - "We need to be seen to be doing something about x. Let's just tell them they shouldn't consume more than 10 kronks of it a day!" - being paid to make up numbers sounds like a cushy job - 42 16 12 3.

Re: Wait a minute...

Yes

Hell check most of the latest actions of the Government for verification. Funnily enough I was watching that Dispatches thing on 4 last night (about your 5 a day). The Government brought in the '5 a day' campaign but have left the industry to regulate itself. For example, McDonalds new Fruitizz is one (or is it half) of your 5 a day, but contains more sugar than I put in my coffee. The Governments response is there's nothing they can do. Don't get me wrong, anyone who goes to McDonalds for 'healthy' needs their heads checked, but it just goes to show that for-profit regulation doesn't work. Those who do 'good' get trampled by those who bend/ignore the rules and no-one does anything about it.

Sorry </tangent>

Apple fails to block stolen iOS in-app content

Re: Nice to just to know Apple has a thorn in its side at the moment.

Can I assume, from your choice of icon, that you believe the GPL v3 to be the epitome of "freedom"? Despite, y'know, the existence of the Public Domain, which places no strings on your gifts to the community whatsoever? I know what I'd use.

To be fair, they achieve different ends. GPL is about ensuring user freedoms, not developer freedoms. As an example,

I release module BENSMOD under GPL V3.

Every user who uses something containing that module will be given the source (or an offer of) and can develop it further if they desire.

If I chuck it in the public domain, they can find the source if they know to look for it, but they may well have been given a binary blob and not know what the underlying code is. Makes it a bit hard for them to adapt to their needs, especially if the rest of the blob isn't available in source form.

Both types of licenses have their place. If my module was something to do with supporting common protocols then Public Domain, BSD etc are probably the best way to go. It helps ensure widespread support across multiple platforms (to some extent anyway), but if my module was for Word processing (or something) then the GPL may be a better fit depending on what my aims are.

Neither suits software across the board, but that's why we have such a choice in licenses.

To claim that it's "the most restrictive in existence today" is the height of hyperbolic bullshit, you blithering hypocrite and FOSSer.

Apple's walled garden is pretty restrictive in some ways, but I'd have to agree with you here. A gated community is a good way to put it actually, the problem is that the gatekeeper doesn't always play fair (but then who in big business does?)

Apple are a consumer electronics company, not just a glorified developer tools company with a profitable sideline in running-gag operating systems and office productivity applications.

I think you've understated it here, with the advent of Metro and the Office 2013 interface, I'm not sure running-gag quite covers it anymore. Especially given all the shite MS have spouted in the past about the cost of re-training to use other systems. In fact, tbh, I can't help think the change might be a good example of suicidally stupid.

I'll be honest, I've kinda lost track of my intention when posting this reply! I did have a point to make, but I appear to have forgotten it, so I'll go make another coffee instead.

'Extreme' solar storm speeding straight towards Earth

Re: "We're all doomed!" but...........

Yes but not being able to access you email for an hour or accessing your Facebook page is neither here or there. We survived without computers and IT for thousands of years.

Yes and then we started to rely on computers and IT. Which only serves to make us more vulnerable, given that almost everything we do is supported by IT now. None of us would be able to access our bank accounts if everything went down (probability: Stupidly low).

The point is, the CME itself doesn't pose us much risk, but the interaction with stuff we rely on might. I'm inclined more towards sitting and waiting to see what happens though to be honest, certainly not expecting a doomsday event to actually happen!

Nutter bans Apple purchases over environmental fudging

Re: Better Than Recycling

Don't you think it is far better to make a product that doesn't need to be disposed every few years than to make one that is "easy" to recycle?

Gluing battery and display in place is a problem for the limited minds of EPEAT bureaucrats? Techniques which make for longer lasting and higher quality product?

Gluing battery and display in makes for a longer lasting and higher quality product? Shit you must be smoking some good stuff, I presume the same stuff that Time/Tiny were smoking when they released their 'Glue-gun enhanced' PC's.

I completely agree it's better to make something that lasts BTW, but I'd say I've a better chance of making something last if the parts are easily replaceable. I.e. not glued in!

Which would be a statement but not much of a response. They haven't exactly given any clarification around the actual issue have they? All they've said is EPEAT's old, doesn't cover this doesn't cover that, whilst failing to address the fact that the products that are covered don't comply.

It's not a response, it's a bullshit canned statement.

Re: The one that more than a single brand uses.

The question was which is non-standard.

How many machines use a UK keyboard with the windows keys, how many use ones with the Mac? As the former is likely to be higher that's the de-facto standard.

Simples.

Oh and the Windows keyboard layout isn't only relevant to Windows, neither really is the Mac layout. The point being (as an example) what do most users expect to see when they hit Shift+2? Is it an @ symbol or a double quote?

Realistically, though, it makes bugger all difference. The OP claiming that it's 'windows' keyboards that are non-standard on the basis that Mac have used the same(ish) layout for longer isn't exactly accurate though is it?

Move over Raspberry Pi, give kids a Radio Ham Pi - minister

Re: Not as good idea as it sounds...

I had one too, until I got over-eager and took it apart to rob things from it. Ended up with that being trashed and... well not a lot else.

Was pretty good as I recall

Expert: BA doesn't need permission to google your face

Re: @Ben Tasker

Some great ideas there, I'm obviously not feeling devious enough today!

I wonder if they'd go as far as to tag images with where they were retrieved from (I suppose they might need to in case they do get a complaint).

So you could, upload an image to imabackdoorman.com (not going to check if that's real!) and with a little bit of work (or good SEO on the sites part) ensure that not only do they get an image, they get a (perceived) insight into which hosting staff are most likely to be hit on!

I would say you could do the same with suitably terrorist sounding domains to stop someone flying, but I suspect the TSA already check that for anyone flying to the states, and our lot probably do some searching too to some extent.