Posts by Ben Tasker

Google Docs set for 'get rid of' Office moment

Document Security?

And what if you don't want to store your documents on someone else's hard drive?

I'd much rather a local app (I'd also prefer it wasn't Office!) with Document stored locally, and one person responsible for backing up - me. Documents go missing because of a fail? My fault, my loss.

As far as work goes, I'm sure they would rather have someone culpable as well, and certainly aren't likely to be happy about outsourcing the storage either (even if they were, I doubt Google Apps would be the first point of call.)

Am I the only person left in the world who thinks the cloud is a bad idea??????

Paris, because unlike some others, I haven't used her in a while

MS patent looks just like Unix command, critics howl

Wait for the Claims

I can see it now, "Linux Definitely infringes on this patent!" will be the next thing out of ballache^H^H^Hmers mouth.

One has to wonder, if open source software does infringe on MS's IP (not that 'Intellectual Property' actually exists in law), how many of those patents are for things with years of prior art?

Apple passes Nokia, scares Nintendo

Not quite

Cupertino's multi-pronged strategy to put an iPhone into the pocket of every smartphoner, mobile gamer, and on-the-go web surfer is working.

I fit into all three of those categories, and I don't have (or want) an iPhone. I'd prefer something I have control over, rather than letting Apple decide everything for me (I know you can jailbreak, but you shouldn't have to!).

There's not that much meets my needs at the moment, but there's a fair few that meet it better than that heap of shit.

US Supremes prod software patent law

Re: Pawel

On the other hand, if you run (KX)ubuntu and try to run a privileged action, it will pop a box up notifying you of what you are trying to run and asking you to authenticate.

So in fact the patent does consist of prior art (though IANAL)

Three more quit over Nutt sacking

Portugal

Alan Johnson should take a long hard look at what happens when you don't follow advice from your advisors, look at Portugal they legalised ALL drugs against advice and now this countrys gone to pot, everyones lost there jobs and are all drug addicts that burn people in there homes for the kicks, there town centres are no go areas where feral yoofs stab you or kick you to death for looking at them funny and there A&E departments are full of people every weekend needing hospital treatment costing billions.

My friend was there recently with a couple of his mates and had done the very British thing of downing 10 pints for breakfast before heading out and came across said feral group of yoofs smoking cannibis, they where so scared to go near them because they all seemed to be smiling so much that they had to go back to there hotel.

Please Mr Johnson keep the message going Weed = Evil, Alcohol = heavanly, as i know which type of feral gang i'd like my Nan to have to endure living down her street when the police are to busy to help.

RE: Waste of time/money

RTFA you wouldn't save any money. They are unpaid

Microsoft yanks Windows code on GPL violation claim

@Bob Gateaux

It's a problem if they are violating the license.

The BSA make enough fuss about people 'violating' the EULA, so why should MS then be able to disregard licenses when they want to use someone elses code?

The GPL (and the LGPL) exist for a reason, and they really aren't that hard to comply with. It's a big company trying to take liberties.

Mines the one with troll feed in the pocket

Mossad hacked Syrian laptop to steal nuke plant secrets

Trojan Horse????

Are you sure it was a trojan? Generally a Trojan horse pretends to be one thing but unleashes something unexpected (hence the name). Doesn't sound like they duped the user into downloading FREE.PORN.gif.exe but infact broke into his room and installed the software themselves.

Sounds like Spyware to me, definitely not a worm but not a trojan by definition either.

Facebook, MySpace backdoor exposed user accounts

Re: Shut the door but left a FLASHing red light on...

Couldn't agree more, Flash has become like a pox on the net, and it's users that have to take all the risks just access content.

I use no flash or javascript on my site, and yet it's usable on 99% of devices, and it's till interactive. I want the functionality that it provides, so as the server admin, I take the risk rather than pushing it onto users.

Tories will let voters 'rewrite' legislation online

I love it!!!!

So what'll we'll start to see is our laws being shaped by other countries, use a British proxy to fool any geolocation they care to put into place & try and subtly reword legislation.

Other than that, interesting idea but sounds a little like it's pandering to the masses!

UK government ignoring own rules on open source

Usual FUD

"re-training every civil servant who for the last 25 years has used the same software"

Same old argument being rolled out.

There's nothing to say that the interface the user sees has to change dramatically. Either way, if Office 2007 ever gets adopted, there will be a certain amount of retraining involved.

There's not a lot of difference in basic use of OpenOffice versus MS Office, so why use one that leads to vendor lock in?

Let me rephrase your question, and chuck it back at you;

"Would you like to see your taxes spent on ensuring we can still access documents created in a closed format, when we could have used a free format for free?"

This doesn't just apply to Office, or even just to Microsoft. There are plenty of closed formats in use around the world, many of which have suitable free alternatives. It should be a case of best fit, but when Total Cost of Ownership is considered, you need to think long term.

I'm also a public sector worker, and yes, there will be users who struggle, but they probably struggle to some extent anyway.

With regards to the developers, where app development is outsourced it would be down to the contracted company to deal with that. Where the developers are in house, yes they may need retraining, but it does depend what they are writing in, and which platform they would then need to write for.

Google Apps sics crawlers on public docs and sheets

And the news is???

So Google are going to index documents that are already publicly available on the net?

Privacy invasion? Nah, unethical, Nah.

So wheres the problem? In this case, it's a fuss about nothing. If you're worried about people seeing it, it shouldn't be published for the world to see.

Ageing Google supersizes its search box

Ahhhhhhhh

So thats what it was! I went on Google earlier and assumed that I had left Firefox zoomed in, so I pressed Ctrl - to zoom back out. Didn't look quite right though, now I know why!

Can't say I like it, I'll save large text for when I'm older!

Ofcom fails to sweep away power-line networking

@Paul Widger

- Do you think that the 5 PLTs plus the 3 test installations all gave trouble because

of the way they were installed as Ofcom assert?

Could be, if you live on an estate where all the houses were built by the same developer. It's not really how the devices themselves are installed, its the quality of the mains wiring (and to an extent, where and how the cable has been laid).

WRT the complaint, I used HAM some time ago, and found many operators to have an enlarged sense of self-importance. That said, I have a few of these devices, and they do seem to kick out a bit. I don't use them because they have been quite unreliable, but had my HomeHub not been in the living room, I would have had no choice.

It's fine saying lay CAT5/6 but I'm a tenant. Thankfully, my Girlfriend isn't too bothered about the bright orange CAT6 running around the edge of the carpet, but there will be many people who will be unable to properly lay the cable for legal (or marital) reasons.

Mobile operators pooh-pooh universal phone-snooping plan

Stacks of books

I'd love to know who had the job of binding 2 terabytes of data printed onto sheets, just to confirm how it stacks against books!

Seriously though, these guys are clueless, but they do have a vested interest. If GSM is easily broken, and it becomes common knowledge, there's going to be a few upset customers!

Virgin hijacks empty pages

Not a cure for Domain Squatting

There've been a few comments on this thread, and the other story along the lines of

"I'd prefer Virgin got the PPC than the Scum who place ads on mis-typed domains"

Just to point out, this makes no difference to those people. If you type Verminmedia.com and someone has registered that address and placed ads on it, guess what, there'll be a valid DNS record and you'll still land on that persons parking page.

All this does is increases the likelihood of a typo serving you ads.

Oh and buggers and applications that rely on DNS accuracy. Bad, bad idea. But at least it appears they are Opting out at a network level rather than relying on cookies!

When ISPs hijack your rights to NXDOMAIN

Didn't Tiscali try this?

IIRC Tiscali tried this a while back, and were eventually forced to back down. At least that's the way I remember it!

Why should an ISP have a right to fiddle with DNS requests, just to make a few pence? If the user is too plain stupid to work out that they got an error because they typed google.cmo then their ownership of a PC is probably a danger to everyone else.

Standards exist for a reason, and no ISP should piss around with them. OpenDNS doing it is one thing, after all you sign up to the service knowing they do it, but for an ISP to change the way they operate?

And what's going to happen when Joe Average starts typing Google into his address bar, and gets a drop down list of every google related typo he's made recently?

As Ted mentioned, it has an effect on software that relies on DNS fidelity, why should users have to put up with the fault, and why should developers have to find a workaround to cope with an ISP who's not complying with standards?

Not that any of this is too big a surprise, Vermin Media were looking at Phorm, so the changing of a few DNS replies probably isn't that big a deal to them.

BT's giant new faster broadband boxes blocked

AC @ 15:40

"Electritiy and Gag"

Didn't know they were into that kind of thing round there, thought it was more a conservative Missionary only

Gamers gun down Half-Life

Re:

They're very safe, and very easy to use; it's a point and click interface... basically don't point at what you don't want destroyed and never click until you've read rule #1.

There seem to be a lot of Yanks who don't understand your two rules. Or worse, understand the rules, but don't care that they are taking a life. IMHO we are better off without them, but there will be those who disagree.

Re: Adnim

We used to do something similar, same sort of experiences as you, though we did have the Police arrive on a number of occassions. We also got hold of some 6mm Paintball pellets designed for use in BB guns. Now they made things fun, especially when there was such a mix of 'weaponry'.

We even went to the extent of making smoke grenades from Film Canisters, Potassium Magnate and Glucose.

Wish I could get away with doing it now to be honest!

Microsoft's Windows 7 price gamble - and why it's flawed

Come Again?

"This should mean users are able to do more than just work the web on their machines."

So netbooks will become small laptops. This kinda misses the point that in essence a netbook is supposed to be a device for surfing the web, managing e-mails and not a lot else. Even if they could reasonably match the power of a highish end laptop in such a small form factor, who would want to use such a small keyboard all day?

Things should improve with ARM, but I still have no interest in a netbook that pretends to be a laptop. To me, my netbook is a utility, as opposed to a computer. OK so I've chucked a text editor on there for if I'm feeling code happy, but other than that, it's browse the net, check e-mails, and that's it.

It does what I want, and it's going to take something really good to get me to replace it. Making it more like a tiny laptop doesn't qualify in my books.

CentOS back from brink of death

@Linux is not held back

Congratulations!

You managed to say exactly what I wanted to say, whilst managing to describe Joe Public as numpties without causing too much offense. I can think of some much worse terms for users!

I wouldn't necessarily say that 'polish' was wasted time, it depends on the level you aim for. For example, I've been writing a Database backend (Amazing what you start on a bored weekend with a bottle of wine!) and it does exactly what I want it to. BUT using it for what I wanted was a pain, so I added a little bit of polish so I could act like a numpty and not have to learn all of the protocols.

It's all about getting balance, if creating a nice experience for the user impacts upon the systems capabilities, then there's too much polish. Let the commercials worry about that, or write a nice front end as a second project. So in essence you're right, but we all like a little bit of polish (think autocompletion in BASH for example)

Re: Another example of what ails Linux

As far as dropping other distros goes, I wouldn't trade further adoption for a lack of choice in distros. Personally I'm not that big a fan of Ubuntu, and I couldn't give a toss whether it is the lead or not.

I chose to use Linux because of the choice, I run a distro that suits me. There is a laptop in the house running Ubuntu because my girlfriend finds it easier, but the main PC is gentoo, one of the lower powered file servers runs DSL, and the web server runs Gentoo. My netbook runs Debian, and my laptop runs Gentoo.

Each of these was picked for it's suitability for the task in hand, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Unless things have changed significantly recently, most Linux advocates feel the same.

GNU/Linux is not commercial, mainstream adoption would be great, but it's not really the stated aim. A lot of the code is written by people purely for the fun of it, or to achieve a task that they want to do. As a rule, the capitalist aim of achieving market dominance does not apply. The only real benefit of such adoption to most OSS developers would be a warm fuzzy feeling, we certainly don't make much (if any) money from it.

And as far as fragmentation goes, MS is well on the way down that path with its numerous SKU's. Albeit without the headache of shared libraries being named different things or kept somewhere different.

If the whole world wants to adopt Ubuntu, that's fine, but I won't be changing unless it suits my needs. If the whole world wants to use Windows, as long as it is an informed choice, thats their own choice. Again, unless it suits my needs, I wont be.

Paris, because she more than suits my needs

New attacks exploit vuln in (fully-patched) Adobe Flash

@David W.

If your life requires you to use flash I'd be very worried! Sure requirements of your job might, but your life???

If you can't live without flash then this poses far more of an issue for you than it does us - obviously. There are various firefox addons that you could use, just block everything except those sites that you need for work, and hope that those sites aren't hit (fingers crossed!).

Re: OS, whether it's Windows only or not, pretty nasty one considering how ubiquitous Flash is, but the effects _should_ be limited if you are not running as an admin user. Your files could still get hosed though.

Paris because thats a Flash I'd like to see!

Swine flu will [enter scare words here]...

@AC

It's not only made in the US. The Company that holds the patent is swiss, although it's parent company is admittedly American. However in 2005 the company - Roche - agreed to license the patent out to other companies, partially as a response to demands from various Doctors.

Tamiflu is no new development, so it should have been quite well tested. Obviously it's gotta be adjusted for the new strain of flu, but it should be no more harmful than it normally is. Remember that it is a vaccine and not an immunisation, there's a huge difference between the two!

That said, the company does have a bit of a history of anti-trust abuse, so not the nicest company to be relying on for the future of mankind! But I doubt the situation you suggest is actually going to present itself.

As for the tents, I don't know the answer, but perhaps they don't meet the required standard. You say that CDC have approved them, but perhaps the NHS have different considerations. More likely it probably is in the process of being approved, and just has to get through the many miles of red tape.

Opera slams Microsoft's Windows 7 E move - again

Missing the point

There's a lot of people complainign that without IE you can't download another browser. WRONG!

As long as you are able to connect to the net, whether directly or via a LAN, you can download it. It would be trivial for MS to include a basic program that say's

I see you are going on the net, you need to install a browser. Which of the following would you like

IE

Firefox

Opera

Each would have information, then when the user selects something, the program could use the Windows version of WGet to retrieve the browser. Hell you could even write a reasonably simple function to collect the file to avoid relying on Wget.

To make sure Firefox and Opera don't find that they have an old version retrieved, the program could first retrieve a simple XML file from their server (which if they really want this change, it's not the biggest thing to implement) which would simply state the path to the newest version.

Downloaded, Installed. Done!

All without the need for any Web Browser, simply something that can generate HTTP connections.

So stop killing the true facts!

As for whether it is right? I can see their point to an extent. There is a large Risk that MS could/would abuse their position, and almost certainly have in the past. This is about more than just Opera, there are others involved as well.

It'll probably make very little difference to users anyway, those that know IE will just select IE. Those that have heard of Firefox may try it. Given the level of user this is aimed at, they'll probably be asking why MS is offering them music when they want a Web browser!

Paris, because sometimes GET requests fail

CRB drops fees ahead of expected vetting surge

WTF?

How does creating an online form improve accuracy? Yes it may speed the process up, but aside from issues with handwriting (and you are supposed to use block caps) what inaccuracies could there be on a paper form that are excluded from an electronic one simply through the benefits of the medium?

PC giants ship Chinese censorware anyway

@AC 21:30

It's all very well claiming that they are a patent troll, or even that they are doing a SCO, but their allegations could be true.

If cease and desist letters have been sent, the wisest of companies would at least examine the facts before shipping. Green Dam has been delayed by Beijing, so where is the harm in delaying shipping of software? Especially as having Green Dam on your PC is not exactly a competitive advantage when selling to an unwilling public.

Accusations of Troll are easy to make, but every once in a while, the claims are actually true, Especially if you take them at their word about certain functionalities being disabled. Does the disabling circumvent the claim? Who knows (assuming it's a valid claim)

Beer because I read this story earlier, yet a bottle of wine later its impact is no less diminished

EU plays catch up on mobile single charger standard

LOnger charging times?

Why would charging take longer? My phone can charge from a wall charger or a USB connection. The Wall charger is a lot faster than the USB connection, so why would micro-USB be any different?

Just because it has USB in the name, doesn't mean the phones will only accept USBesque voltages, most phones can now tell exactly what's been plugged into them

Microsoft open-source license finds (some) love

How do you calculate the GPL count?

Quick one, it's perfectly possible (I do it in most of my projects) to state that the code is released under the GPL, and not mention a version. This is generally taken to mean the latest version of the GPL. So are these counted as GNU GPL V3?

Not that it makes much difference, just wondering

Google tracking cookie spans AdSense, DoubleClick

@adnim

Its probably likely though that your ISP assigns a static host name to your connection, something a bit like

cutsomer1.btbb.kingston.net

which doesn't change, so a reverse DNS lookup would allow them to track you even if your IP does change

Hacker disrupts economy of annoying Twitter-based game

Twitters Version of Paypal

I love it, never knew it until I read the links, but Twitter appear to have their own version of Paypal. its name?

Twitpay

How very, very fitting

Mozilla invites all comers on post-tab future

@Daniel Palmer

Thank you!!!!!!

Someone who see's sense, Web 2.0 is a foul idea. Don't even get me started on Cloud Computing

What's wrong with storing data on your own hard drive, and accessing it from programs installed on your system? Why use SaaS? Is it so that the people who only know PHP/ASP can get a job?

I don't care whether it's written in GTK/QT or something else, but if it runs in a browser, I'll find an alternative

Star Trek halted by pig plague

@Chris

I'd hazard a guess and say that the films are being delayed so that you don't get a room full of people cluttered in with each other unnecessarily. There are some who would probably brave the worst epidemic to see the movie and if one of them happens to sneeze.........

Whether it really makes another difference is something else.

Can we have a biohazard icon?

Pirate Bay loses trial: defendants face prison time, hefty fines

Fantastic PR!!!!!!!

The judgement has been all over the news today, and I've had a number of people ask what The Pirate Bay actually is (I resisted asking where they've been recently?). Now what are the odds that a good proportion of these people will try using Torrents now?

If anything the coverage of this case has done nothing but make more people aware that you can get music for free.

Personally I pay for all my music, but then I generally only buy music from Indie bands nowadays.

The music industry has bent people over for far too long, once they change their business model to make music more affordable, less crap and get shot of DRM the problem may shrink

Paris because she knows when she's been screwed!

McAfee: Save the planet - use a spam filter

One thing

So using a Spam filter will cut down on these emissions?

But, the filters themselves will absorb power, even for e-mails that aren't spam. So where is the benefit? Ok so the spam will go through less servers (depending on where you install the filter) but the environmental gains have to be minimal.

UK operation patents DVD lockdown

An the Algorithm?

If I know my Phone number is 123456 and the unlock code I get is 9, surely if I know enough people we can work out the algorithm?

The bit in the middle is the only bit we don't know, so if X=123456 and Z=9 it shouldn't be too hard to work out Y, especially once you have a few unlock codes. Either that or someone will stick the disk into their PC and find a way to uncover the algorithm that way.

Sounds like the algorithm may well change between DVD's though, so perhaps it will be more effective than I first assumed, but if someone wants to copy it/watch it for free, they will find a way.

YouTube yanks music videos from German site

@DR

In some ways you are right about the remaining content possibly breaking the law. but how are google going to police this?

IIRC a previous article mentioned that the PRS were unwilling to share a list of it's members/material with Google so that they could confirm they were being billed the correct amount. So how exactly are Google supposed to know what to pull?

I believe I'm right in saying that if the music is incidental, then that's ok. I.e if some tard is jabbering at the camera, and happens to have the radio on, then that's not a violation.

On the other hand, lip Syncing et al is a violation. But I figure most people would happily live without anything with Lip Sync in the title.

Some would say that the law goes too far in some respects, but regardless of that you are quite right in that it's probably illegal.

Your example is a bit flawed in that Google haven't removed half the videos, they have removed them all. Short of sifting through every single video that is uploaded and listening for any 'violation' - they don't stand a hope in hell.

I've no sympathy for the PRS having been on the receiving end of their B*ll*cks, we had a radio on in the staff room, and it had to go. I also know a mechanic who's business was fined because customers could hear the radio in the workshop. Performers Rights is fair enough, but it's the Music Companies who get the lions share.

You can't force Google to sign into this deal, and I'd imagine if needs be they probably would look at some method of filtering the rest of the content that you believe counts as a violation.

Frankly, I'd have told the PRS where to shove it as well

Got to love these Songwriters

Throughout these stories you see accusations of Google Abusing their monopoly to devalue songwriters. Perhaps I'm blind, but I can't see the justification for this.

From the point of view of the PRS, Google is a customer. Google doesn't like the price of the 'product' so they've chosen not to use it.

Simple, no different to us not buying Windows, except that we aren't a large company.

Whether you like Google or not, it's gotta be pretty hard to find them at fault in this thing. They don't like the price, so they choose not to pay it. As they have blocked users from the content that requires these fee's to be paid, the decision is both legal and morally right.

Pity YouTube users have to lose out, but given that the Music channels are on all day, if you're that desperate.......

UK IT should 'fire men first', says Kate Craig-Wood

Not enough Women in IT

To be fair, most women I speak to see IT as a geeky industry, and many just aren't at all interested in the very basics of computing. It has the same problem as the sciences, which is that whilst many women are probably very capable of doing the job, many do not want a career in that sector.

As for the pay differences, I always wonder about those. We get paid on spinal points, so if I am doing the same job as one of my colleagues, but he has been an employee for longer, he probably receives a higher wage. Given that the number of women in the Industry has only recently become noticeable, I wonder if this contributes to the 'Pay Differences'.

There are women at work who get paid more than I, a male, do. It's no reflection of expertise, just that they have been there longer than me and so are more experienced. And there are men and women who have been there less time than me, so they get paid less.

I don't doubt that there are places where women do get paid less, and the management probably explain the pay cut as necessary due to a lack of .... ahem,,,,,, equipment. But I doubt it is as widespread as many would have you believe.

And if you are paid less than a colleague (male or female) try to look on the bright side, you pay less tax than them!

I'll grab me coat, it's the one with the pink coloured P45 in it.

Camelot dismisses lottery website hack claims

@Charlie Barnes

Re your comment on how much they scrape off, I used to work with Camelot and they really don't get that much from a ticket. From what I remember it goes like this

75p - Prize fund

18p - Tax

5p - Retailer

2p - Camelot (including running of machines etc)

The proportions are the same on scratchcards, no matter how much the card costs.

That said, they still have plenty o cash, so they should be securing their website. I had an e-mail from the recently saying that the card registered on my account expires next month, which is odd as I don't have a card expiring next month. Perhaps they truly are incompetent

BBC iPlayer upgrade prompts new ISP complaints

If your on BT Total Broadband

This will make no difference to you whatsoever, yes BT won't notice the difference, but given that BT claim there is a compatability issue between Iplayer and the HomeHub (try and get details of the issue/cause and they will say they don't know) you probably won't be watching Iplayer anyway!

Yes! It's Joyce McKinney, admits Joyce McKinney

Given her wild sexual tendancies

is she perhaps a dogger?

Taxi's booked I'll grab my coat on the way out

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

I've written to my bank

To ask how it applies to me running Linux (I do have AV, and a hardware firewall, and Firefox's anti-phishing lists, and some common sense) but whilst I was writing to them I discovered something interesting on their site.

HSBC Customers pay attention!!!!!!!

Phorms system (AFAIK) will not disregard alpha-numeric strings, HSBC Internet Banking I.D.s take the form

IB1234567

and are entered on an unsecured page, so Phorm will be able to read it. Now by entering it, am I taking undue care (as far as the banking code goes) or are HSBC not taking enough care by not securing the stage of entering my user ID. If you can track user ID IB1234567 to me, it's only a case of entering my Date of Birth and having a stab at 3 numbers out of a combination of up to 8 for my security code.

Well thought out HSBC's system!!!! I told them that if they did not feel the measure I take to ensure my security were sufficient, then they could go ahead and close my IB account, and I'd find another bank. Be interesting to see what they say about the Phorm issue as well (felt I better tell them about that ;-) )

BT admits misleading customers over Phorm experiments

Sorry to bring up system details again

but I've been feeling a little slow lately, I've only just clocked onto the following;

Phorms system, IIRC, will send two requests to the server you are accessing (i.e. msn.com) which has raised concerns about forms being submitted twice, but what about my bandwidth as a webhost? now my server is not the busiest on the net by a long shot, but imagine you get 1000 hits a day, if all your readers are on Phorm-infested-lines then your bandwidth will take the equivalent of 2000 hits.

Am i right? or is there a reason that last coffee tasted strange?

The 'green' car tax grabs that don't add up

@Anonymous Coward

Not your fault, perhaps its because people have got onto the subject of motorcycles but I couldn't read your last Paragraph without thinking of my first 125, and AR125 the manual even had AR** printed on the front as it applied to all bikes within the AR range (50, 125 etc.)

You are of course right about shopping and kids, but then as I don't have kids its not an issue for me, and with panniers, tanks bags and a rucksack shopping has never been an issure for me. For me a car is impractical because I do not need/want the 'benefits' such as extra room for shopping, ability to carry more than one passenger, and hell if I need the extra space I am insured to tow a trailer.

There is no right or wrong in the bike/car debate. Its simply a case of whats more practical for the driver in question. Personally I have no need or desire for a car, but I appreciate that others do. My issue lies with people who drive irresponsibly (bikes or cars) though one person in a car seems irresponsible for me. There are of course circumstances when it is necessary or inavoidable, but otherwise it should be avoided.

Either way there is no difference in terms of 'posers' between car drivers and bikers, aside from the fact you can get a _very_ nice bike for far newer notes than the equivalent car. The insurance can quite often balance it out though.

Whether you are driving a car or a bike, drivers should be more aware of those around them, and should conceed that they don't own the road.

Anyone else find it weird that the usual phrasing is Drive a Car, yet ride a motorcycle?? Technically you ride both, the only thing you really drive is a pedal cycle. Motorcycles and cars are both driven by the engine, you simply control it.

Strange use of english that really........

Stop sign because I wish more people would obey them.

Re: Motorbikes

It's already been pointed out that whilst some bikes do make the same economy as a small car, they don't sit in traffic, so I thought I would touch a bit more on the subject of weekend riders.

I commute to work every day, and regularly find myself sat at the back of a nice long tailback purely because there are too many cars on the road at that time of day (and occassionally because someone has tried to turn down the radio whilst talking on their phone and negotiating a double roundabout). It may be annoying to have bikers drive past you whilst you are sat stock still, but lets face it, if you could you would.

I've seen cars do it, in fact I've had people nearly knock me off because they've pulled out to drive down the wrong side of the rode, despite me coming towards them, with my headlight on as the 'oncoming traffic.'

If I have spare time at the weekend, then I will go for a ride, and my partner often comes with me on her little 125, it's actually a very enjoyable part of our relationship. There are a lot of people who only ride at the weekend, but that is their choice. Riding a bike is no more poser-ish than driving a sports car, or fitting a loud ehxaust system onto a crappy Golf.

My bike is loud, but then a 650 V-Twin going through an aftermarket exhaust (Yes its road legal, and no I didn't buy it, it came on the bike) is always going to be. It may be an annoyance to you, but I'll tell you what, i get far less cars pull out on me now that they can hear me coming. I don't tend to hit the higher rev ranges driving through town so in the evenings my 'noise' is limited to a low rumble, quieter than the music coming from most of the chavvy cars driving around, let alone their bodged exhaust jobs.

When it comes down to it, I pay less Road Tax, less fuel tax and get to my destination faster than you. Perhaps bikes are not your thing, perhaps as someone suggests you got dumped by/for a biker. Either way, from my point of view I'm far better off than you, though I'm sure you would disagree.

Driving cars bores me, when in charge of something doing 70MPH (you wouldn't speed would you??) you should not be comfortable enough to be able to fall asleep. You shouldn't have the distractions people have in a car, your focus should be on the road and nothing but.

Don't get me started on people talking on phones whilst driving!

BT targets 10,000 data pimping guinea pigs

@Steve

Honestly Steve, your response from VM is better than the one I got from BT. Guess my email reached India. they sent me;

I am sorry to learn that you are unable to use BT Webwise properly. I can understand that you are very worried about the security.

However, I would like to mention that BT Webwise helps to increase protection against online fraud and make Internet browsing more relevant. BT Webwise automatically increases protection against online fraud by checking against a list of known fraudulent and untrustworthy websites. When you visit any website on the list they will receive a warning, so that they can choose whether or not to visit it. BT Webwise also personalises the online advertising seen on participating websites by linking it to customer's interests. For example, if you search for a weekend trip to Paris or visits pages related to Paris, BT Webwise would help provide relevant advertising for travel or hotel information. Customers would not see any more adverts than they normally do - they will just be more

relevant. We are trialling BT Webwise in February and March before launching for all customers in phases. BT Webwise is completely free - and does not require any downloads or software installation for it to work. All users are assigned a random user identifier (cookie) to preserve anonymity but to keep the ability to be served relevant ads. BT Webwise does not collect personal information, cannot use it to serve ads, and does not attempt to identify you in any way. BT Webwise uses technology that has been built from the ground up to avoid any information that might identify a customer personally. BT Webwise does not view any information on secure (HTTPS) pages, and ignores strings of numbers longer than three digits to ensure that we do not collect credit card numbers, phone numbers,

National Insurance, or other private information. If the issue persist, then I will advise you to switch off and switch it back on by trying the following link: http://www.webwise.bt.com/

For any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us or use our BT Broadband Self Help web site: www.bt.com/broadband/help

Thank you for using BT Total Broadband Support.

Which would be fine, I suppose if I had any feeling that they may have read what i sent them;

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you today due to my grave concerns about BT's proposed 'service' 'webwise' which will be run in conjuction with a company named Phorm. I have numerous privacy concerns with this service, not least that the CEO of Phorm has proven links with malware. I do not trust this company with my data, and certainly do not believe BT should do so on my behalf.

As you are no doubt aware, this issue has been highlighted recently in many technical news forums, including The Register. If BT were to read the comments on the Phorm Related stories they would see that this 'service' is not something that is wanted. I have 'anti-phishing' software included in my browser, and 'webwise' is unlikely to add any further protection.

Whilst I am aware that I can download an opt-out cookie, it appears that my traffic (both outgoing and incoming) will continue to pass through Phorm's hardware. This is simply not acceptable. Whilst it is claimed that the information is anonymised, last years debacle with AOL releasing suppsoedly anonymised data shows that this is not always as simple as it seems. Furthermore as there appears to be no system for oversight, and given Phorm's links to malware, I fail to understand why BT expect it's customers to trust that data will be 100% anonymised.

I believe that the proposed system constitutes 'Interception' under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), I have not given permission for you as a service provider to 'intercept' my data, except as required to provide the services I am paying you for. Even if BT can claim implied permission, the owners of any websites I am visiting are unlikely to have given permission for a third party to essentially create a copy of their copyrighted material.

For the purposes of clarity, I do not give permission for BT to pass my browsing habits through this system, as a website admin, I do not give permission for packets sent from my server to a conencting client to pass through this system, and I will consider it an invasion of Privacy if either of these are to happen.

I am not interested in targeted advertising, and regularly use the functionality of my browser to block unwanted adverts. This 'service' is of absolutely no use to me, and I wish to know exactly how to fully opt-out. Not just via a cookie, but to opt out any system that may be connected to my network, and to ensure that no traffic from my network will ever pass through Phorm's hardware, whether leased to BT or not.

As a means to reaching that end, please note that the following is a Data Protection Act Notice, as provided by the UK Data Protection Act 1998.

I, Ben Tasker, hereby withdraw permission for BT to pass any of my details, including details of my web traffic to any third party whether inside or outside of the EU, except where it is required by law. I also specifically withdraw permission for BT to pass my details outside of the EU whether to a BT Group subsiduary or otherwise. BT may only use and hold my data as required to fulfil their contractual obligations with regards to the Provision of my BT Total Broadband, BT Fusion Mobile and BT Home Phone services.

If BT should discover that it needs to pass my details outside the EU or to a third party in order to fulfil their contractual requirements, they must obtain my most express permission in writing first.

Thank you for your time, and I must express that I am dissappointed that an ISP such as BT have made decisions that have led their customers to this juncture. I will be considering changing ISP, however if BT can guarantee that my data will not pass through Phorms system (and they must do so in writing) then I will consider remaining with BT. Especially as this is the first issue that has arisen since BT provisioned my line.

Yours sincerely

Ben Tasker

Anyone else get the impression they read Webwise and said Right!! Template 1, send, close ticket. Done, who's for coffee?

P.H. Cos at least she would read it, might not understand it.......

The Phorm files

Lets Knacker the system

Aside from complaining to the ISP's, the ICO and OFCOM, lets fill Phorms system with Spam. In the process of writing a script that will be run by Cron to access various sites at regular intervals. Simple case of using wget as I imagine won't know the difference. The only thing to change regularly would be what you 'are' viewing.

Im guessing that all the collected information will be used to create profiles for the most likely target audiences within those not being analysed by Phorm. I.e. those who have ISPs with scruples.

If enough people fill the system with utter rubbish (one min I'm viewing a car site, then I'm viewing a clothes site, then looking at holidays, then credit cards, then back to cars and so on...) then the system won't be profitable to Phorm. Even better, set up a spider and create your own search database ;-) that'll flood their system quite well.

Paris cos, well, do I need a reason??

Tiscali executes stealth LLU migrations

Having problems with Tiscali?

There are a few easy criteria to meet, but google for CISAS I got a hundred quids compensation because Tiscali severely failed in their duty of care.

They are Tiscalis chosen arbitrator. They are free to use and you don't have to accept their final decision.

More importantly you will instantly get the attention of Tiscalis high level complaints department. They offered to settle with me but I carried on out of spite and came out better off.

If anyone doubts Tiscalis customer service is crap then go to

http://benscomputer.no-ip.org

and search for Tiscali (its also in the disputes archive)

Unimpressed Sheilas mock boy racers' todgers

Lack of racetracks

Just thought I would put in my two cents on this one, the nearest outlet for a track day for me would probably be brands hatch. The charges there are as high as one would expect, and I simply cannot afford these outings.

I used to go there from time to time, but financial situations change. My 650 is almost perfectly prepped for racing, once you've given it time to cool down a touch its a five minute job to remove the road legal baffle from the exhaust leaving you with a straight thru can, remove the indicators and such like for a bit of weight advantage (and so you don't kill them if you come off) and I could potentially put this to use on Britains roads.

Do I? no. Whilst I used to love racing, my being unable to afford a track day does not justify racing around town putting others lives at risk. I ride a good distance to work no matter what the weather and will always see at least one of these egomaniacal dickheads. On occasion the thing that has saved my life has been a combination of anticipation, and my riding proficiency. Something that has been raised previously in the comments is that these boi racers do not know (or care) how good a rider I am.

Recently I was having a bad day and did something i would never normally do (I was havin a bad day) having been tailgated down the outside lane, and then flashed for a good 5 seconds with high beams (somewhat knackering my nightvision) I pulled into the inside lane to let the subaru pass me, then when he did it to the driver who had been just a stopping distance in front of me I saw red. Dropped a cog, caught up with this driver and then gave him a bit of his own medicine (though I didn't tailgate him) the effect of having a very big built biker chase him down and then hit him with full beams was clearly enough to make him drive at the speed limit keeping stopping distances for the rest of the time that I could see him.

Does it make me a squid? It was very squidish behaviour, and Icannot believe I did it, but damn did it feel good to remind him that he's putting his life at risk as well as other peoples lives. There are a lot of hells angels in my area and had he done it to the ones I know then he may well have come out of it far worse.

Generally I sit at what I believe to be a safe acceptable speed, sometimes the safest place to be is ahead of all the traffic, but I don't let any sort of ego make the decision. If someone wants to try and race me from some traffic lights I will quite happily sit and make sure they are safely out of my way before I pull away.

I miss the days of racing, but that alone isn't enough to justify me racing on public roadways, no matter what time of night it may be.

If you have enough money to spend on the mods that are popular around here, then you could easily afford to go without the mod and have some trackdays instead. But britains roads are all about willy stroking, and the wankers that do it will often take someone else out with them.