Posts by Adam Foxton

iPhone voted UK's 'coolest brand'

@AC 06:59

Now now, the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti is a cool car. Good to look at, nicely engineered and a fantastic grand tourer- plus you'll never see some tit of a footballer driving one. Same with the 456 and other Ferrari GT cars- they'd pass the "cool wall" test. But yeah the 355's just tacky, the 360's getting that way and even the 599's going that way (by association with the other "entry-level" ferraris).

And Minis are a cool brand. They've got character, they're practical and fairly efficient- they're even pretty innovative.

Oh wait, you mean the new ones. Yeah, they suck.

US Navy boffins put an end to drought

...energy crisis?

But we've got enough Nuclear to last a few thousand years with modern tech...

We've now got no fresh water problem and no energy crisis. We can even synthesise hydrocarbon based fuels in surprisingly large quantities- instantly ridding us of the problems of hydrogen production, transport, storage and upgrading the huge numbers of existing cars.

We have the prototypes of tech that would get us to Mars in a month and the asteroid belt in probably another month.

We have EHD tech that's just a decent power supply away from having us flying about with no moving parts.

We can produce bio-compatible parts to replace a huge number of lost or damaged bodyparts.

We can grow plants- food, "recreational" plants, all sorts of things- without vast amounts of water or even soil.

Stopping the possibly-rising tides is, I'd imagine, a problem well within our capabilities as a race to solve.

To paraphrase Peter Griffin- "Why aren't we using this?"

@DT well, because they need more water on aircraft carriers. It means they can last longer. Plus it's useful all over the world and is literally a billion dollar idea.

Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet

@Rod MacLean

Positive Control means that you're positive you're in control, i.e. a whole control loop is complete and functioning (you move the controls, the rudder moves, the rudder is reported to have moved).

Losing positive control means that you can't see that your commands are being carried out. This could just mean that the video link died, or some aspect of the control system died (i.e. primary directional controls are dead, but the headlights are still controllable).

T-Mobile's G2 denied the update Touch

@AC 1608

I think you misunderstood Dave's response.

With Apple's handsets, you're penalised for Jailbreaking. With Android, WM and most others you're not. At worst you lose a warranty, which is pretty understandable.

With Apple's handsets, you can't install whatever software you like. With Android, WM, etc you're absolutely free to install whatever software you want. There is a small limitation in Android that you've got to check a checkbox before this can happen- a simple but effective device-integrity procedure.

Anyway, you CAN upgrade Android to the latest version on the Hero. Absolutely whenever you want. It's just that the operator-related stuff isn't included- or rather the operator-branded version isn't ready yet. You can even install Android on, say, the HTC Kaiser- a WM phone by default.

Any problems that do arise are due to the network rather than the phone hardware or OS.

CSI boffins: You can't ID crims from bitemarks on victims

The thing is

it's still useful.

If you have an unusual bite (say, it's in a W shape) then you know you're looking for one freaky looking perp. Or at least someone whos dentist would remember.

Same with the diameter of the bite- you can probably cross a load of people based on that alone.

And it's probably useful- with really fine analysis- to help discern between people.

I hate objections like this. If they upheld all of these daft objections then "He had light blonde hair" wouldn't be acceptable as it's not particularly precise. Not being able to catch someone on this one single solitary bit of evidence isn't that bad- it's only part of the puzzle. In fact I'd hate it if "he has good teeth, so did the killer- 'nick him!" was SOP for the police.

Italian Job sat nav driver cops £900 fine

The real supidity

From a linked article:

Jones, a diabetic, told the court he had only seven miles of diesel remaining, and no insulin, or mobile phone battery remaining.

Now that's a late-model Beemer. To get it down to 7 miles you're running on fumes (or the diesel equivalent). You'll have been warned and warned again, and are unlikely to have not passed a petrol station.

Not having spare insulin in the car when you're a diabetic who drives a lot should be a criminal offence.

And not having any mobile battery when he's in a car is just idiotic. He can afford a Beemer- he should be able to afford the extra £20 for a decent cigar-lighter charging cable!

News anchor tells weatherman to 'keep f**king that chicken'

I guess you could call that

a Fox Par?

Muse eye Bond theme

You Know My Name

was abysmal, and I haven't the faintest ideas as to what the latest one sounded like. Die Another Day was memorable, but only because it had scorpions in the video and Bond actually losing.

They really need to have a go at doing a "proper" Bond film. Fine, have Quantum instead of the infinitely cooler sounding Spectre. Have him as an early agent rather than a Roger Moore-esque expert in armed and unarmed combat, liquid-helium cooling systems and how to make women lust after you before you've got round to saying "hello". But make it a proper Goldfinger-quality Bond film. Goldeneye would do.

As for Muse, I think they could do a fantastic Bond theme.

Firefox to warn users of insecure Adobe Flash

@Mike007

No, no NO!

ISPs should have none of the responsibility for scanning for... well, anything. They should be treated as Common Carriers. Once you allow scanning for anything it'll feature creep. They should be there to provide a connection to the Internet- as suggested by the name "Internet Service Provider"- regardless of which bits of the Internet you want to access or for what purpose.

They should- at most- have the ability to pipe a certain user's data off to the Police or suchlike when presented with a very specific court order.

US broadband speeds 15 years behind South Korea

Internet speeds in America.

icon says it all, really...

Tesla Model S poses for cameras

It'd look fantastic

if it wasn't for the Vauxhall style V-strip over the front grille.

Blighty customers see some Windows 7 prices halved

@Alex Walsh

The RTFM version of an operating system? That'd be every version of Linux.

Wireless power gets lovely shiny logo

Well that's me coming up with the idea of

The QIPhone. Wireless communications- wirelessly charged.

This idea now copyright Adam Foxton 2009. Don't nick it, it's totally in use (or at least will be in about 2 minutes). Though Apple could get me to surrender the copyright on it for the cost of my mortgage...

I'm probably being a little Qi-ky? (hey, there's an idea for a kid's wirelessly-charged toy! Or a wirelessly-powered entry system)

Labour party unveils Tweeter-in-chief

@Paul4

We vote for a party based on their aims and claims for future stuff or how much they say they'll save us from the nasty terrorists or whatever.

The leader of the most voted for party- even if it's a minority of the country voting for it- traditionally becomes Prime Minister.

So the problem is that Labour, while they seem to have gotten in place perfectly legally, haven't honoured most of their election promises for the last decade or so. Though yeah, we don't vote for a Prime Minister. Probably should given the huge step up in overt Stasi-esque-ness since Blair left...

Also, "its a new law they told everybody via twatter"? They actually tell us new laws? I thought we only found out about new laws (a) when the Media got a hold of one and thought "OMFG THIS IS A STORY!" or (b) when you get nicked because plod doesn't like you and it turns out the law was passed last week.

Anyone out there- is there a Book of Law? Or Website of Law? Not just case studies, but a definitive "THOU SHALT NOT XYZ"? If not, how do I know there isn't a law against, for example, being called Adam Foxton?

NASA review: Forget about boots on Mars by 2030

On the contrary

It could be done.

Construct a solar powered, ion-driven microsatellite weighing, say, 10kg. Then build, say, 269 more of them. With that sort of number being built they'd be fairly cheap. You'd have 5x Delta heavy-lift rocket launches (450kg payload capacity), one every 6 months for 3 years. Get them out of earth orbit. Expensive- probably a billion or two- but not un-doable.

Each one should contain sensors to determine threats to human life- particulate radiation, solar wind, intense EM issues, anything that goes wonky in the Van Allen belt, that sort of thing.

You've then got a load of data from a huge range of points all along the route to Mars- and at different times. You can see all sorts of seasonal variations and trends.

Then use the other $78Bn to build a vessel that can survive in the conditions highlighted by your little sensor microsats. It just needs to be able to launch once- doesn't need to re-enter the atmosphere. Hell, take it up in bits. Again, you're talking huge numbers of rockets being built, so the processes for their manufacture can be streamlined.

So you're talking about a vehicle that doesn't need to go through our atmosphere, doesn't need to go through the Martian atmosphere and could probably be nuclear powered-VASIMR propelled. That's not going to be an overly expensive vehicle.

You then need an excursion module and that's probably not too much of a problem; mars has quite a thin atmosphere and lower gravity. Plus with all the extra space on the mothership not dedicated to landing you could fit a whole load of sensors and find somewhere safe, strong and flat to land.

You also have the payoff of making space launches much, much cheaper as you're churning out heavy-lift rockets. Which makes NASA all the more relevant as more people can afford to do "space" stuff. So they'd get funding for a second mission no problem.

Ofcom taps sailors for new fees

@Da Weezil, Jason71

Absolutely. Search and Rescue organisations should have a band to themselves with legal protection from interference. I'd also separate nautical and land-based S&R and probably have an emergency transponder style frequency too. 3 frequencies at maximum cost - <£30,000 cost in "lost" license fees to OfCom. I think that the cost of a couple of office staff's annual salaries (about 1/2 what my former employer paid annually for free-to-staff fruit baskets, in fact) is very definatly worth the extra lives that could be saved.

Top vendors flunk Vista anti-virus tests

@deegee

You know and I know that just being near an internet means that hackers can WirelessFi into your computer's hard drive and risk smashing its windows.

It's absolutely nothing to do with the user going to disreputable sites and being curious about these emails he keeps receiving about breast augmentation. It's all about the hackers implanting trojan virusses and flash Javas on your system.

Stephen Hawking both British and not dead

... also they're forgetting

that we've got Private medical stuff over here, too. So you've got the "socialist" stuff available to help the people who need it (ya know, so they don't die when turned away for having no insurance), and those of us who can afford to put a bit away get to skip the queue, get the best treatment, etc.

Sounds like any True American would love our system- if they adopted our system the ones who pay more would get the best treatment, the Doctors and Hospitals would get lots of money. And the poor would get the NHS treatment- which means no/fewer innocent Americans die for lack of insurance. Though they may have to wait longer. It's not like no-one would sign up either- in a country of 29 million workers (the UK) Bupa alone has 3Million customers- and covers the spouses/young children of some of them. So that's over 10% of the country voluntarily pays for insurance even when there's a free alternative.

Glad to hear Hawking is alive, even if he is a creepy computer voice.

Exploding iPhone injures French teen

@Richard Scratcher

Alternatively: Self Destruct? There's an app for that!

Want to try to talk to snakes? There's an app for that!

Would "It just blew up, m'lud!" be a defence in court if you wanted to get rid of some data?

Vulture 1: Calling all electronics wizards

Yet another vote for PICs

Used them all over the place myself- just remember to code it in Assembler. You lose the compilation problems and solve the speed issues someone above mentioned. You'll only need a pretty simple program, so the extra irritating bits of Assembler are compensated for.

Small (~3mmx2mx2mm for the 10F222), light, tolerant to -40C, 175uA @2V power consumption (i.e. a week of a watch battery) and sufficiently fast. Sounds perfect for this project- now we've just got to find the other equipment!

El Reg space paper plane christened Vulture 1

Why not PICs?

A 10-series PIC (say, the 10F222) will work down to -40C, draws under 175µA @ 3V at full 4MHz whack- a single CR2032 coin cell would operate it for a week. This is the sort of tech we should be looking at for the interface between data modem and GPS- orders of magnitude cheaper than most alternatives, simple, infinitely reliable, light, small and incredibly low-power.

Alternatively we should use a small smartphone to take photos, handle Data and provide a GPS/A-GPS feeds. With GPRS and 3G connectivity you'd even be able to connect to APRS-IS- or just use Google Maps & Latitude to track the thing. I've got one you can use- an HTC Artemis. Just ask if you want it!

The PIC above (or another similar one) would be able to do RS232/485/422/TTL/I2C/SPI etc comms; there'd not be a problem finding a GPS or GPRS chipset to work with it.

Whatever system you end up using, commercially bought or custom, you'll want to get it conformally coated or something similar- any liquid water that gets into the system would freeze and expand as the vessel ascends, leading to problems with displaced components, lifted legs, shorts between legs or PCB tracks, etc.

Is anyone out there thinking about the physical design of the paper plane? There haven't really been any comments about it yet, and that's a pretty important bit of the design...

@Flocke Kroes

The commercial version of the D-cell powered UoS AutoSub you're referring to was used to develop a smaller version designed for automated riser inspection. The developers of this smaller version were looking at Lithium-Iron-Phosphate batteries (from LiFeBatt- who also provided the batteries for the electric MEV R2 that I think appeared in El Reg a couple of years ago) shortly before they sacked me, so they should be suitable for any temperatures the Vulture is likely to encounter. They're also better batteries than traditional Li-Ion and Li-Polys.

@Others talking about tethered systems

The problem with a tethered system is that the tether has to be able to hold its own weight- and the lifting balloon has to be able to lift the weight of the tether. 4mm Nylon rope is about 0.01136kg/m, so for a relatively low flight-ceiling of 1km you'd be looking at an extra kilo or two- so the bulk of the lifter's lifting capacity will be dedicated to lifting the tether rather than the vehicle. And if you're building a lifter that big you may as well have a pretty complex system.

A solution proposed by my little brother would be to tie helium balloons to it to hold the weight. You'd need over a cubic meter of helium for every km of nylon tether. Not impossible- it's a party balloon every 100m- but it's very expensive given the height that you'd want this thing to reach. Not to mention making the tether a total pain to reel.

Additionally, there's the risk that if/when the tether DOES break you've got a few km of rope being blown about in the wind. With 100km or so until you hit space that means that if launched from Dundee the tether could potentially end up hitting Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, etc. And risks being flown through by a plane (all of the cities mentioned have pretty busy airports and heliports except Dundee itself)- or hitched under the dorsal guiding feathers of a pair of unladen european swallows.

May I suggest

a name for the lifting craft?

The "White Knight in Paris"

Increase in comms snooping? You ain't seen nothing yet

@Igor Mozolevsky

"So what you are saying is that most of these requests are useless and are a colossal waste of *TAXPAYER'S* money? Why bother serving them in the first place? Oh, incidentally, you can still establish who the phone belongs to even if it is PAYG, quite a lot of the time within five to ten minutes, you just need to know how to conduct an investigation, and not be a mindless drone procedurally filling out paperwork in a vain hope of automagically getting what you want..."

Finding out that the phone was PAYG means that it WASN'T useless. It's still adding to the pool of knowledge- that they don't get a result saying "It belongs to Joe Bloggs, the murdering git" doesn't make it a waste. It could be a vital clue or a way of helping to eliminate a suspect.

The paperwork is an important part of policing- it means that things can be tracked, traced and audited. If the same level of paperwork was employed in Parliament we'd be in a lot less trouble. Do you think anything would have happenned about the De Menezes thing if there wasn't any paperwork to prove anyone had done anything? It'd probably have gone down as a gang shooting committed by heinous enemies of the state and of freedom who are dressing up as our police officers.

And for the benefit of others how do you find out who owns a PAYG phone without tipping them off? Especially with an unregistered PAYG SIM.

Or, say, a phone fitted with a SIM bought off eBay using a hijacked foreign credit card and picked up directly from the postie on the morning rather than letting it go through the letter box of the utterly-unrelated-to-the-buyer address they gave the seller? That'd be well within the capabilities of anyone who wanted to make an untraceable call and would make it bloody difficult for the police to catch them!

73% of Brits too shagged for a shag

Should be retitled

"Glaswegians are UK's most truthful about health levels"

Robo soup chefs wrangle ramen

@Owen Milton

Actually, robots are fantastic at cooking stuff. It's just robot arms that aren't; a proper automated machine designed specifically to cook ramen noodles would turn them out faster and to a higher quality. Probably on an assembly-line principle.

The Robot Arms are just fantastic to look at.

LG's watchphone priced

Been done before

though not 3G.

I wonder how good the text-to-speech is... think it could pick up

"KITT, go into surveilance mode".

Powered robot suits make debut on Tokyo streets

Wouldn't it have made sense

to develop versions that- while they may lack the battery longevity- worked much faster and allowed, say, improved jumping?

Or strap another set to your arms and go around punching holes in walls?

What evidence was there that those were working powered-exoskeletons on the video as opposed to an early effort at a Halloween costume?

Ridley Scott signs up to direct Alien prequel

How about the prequel

being a "first contact" style film, where the Aliens and Mankind first encounter one another. Man's spacecraft is using matter-scoops or other sci-fi nonsense for power, "bio-filter" picks up an egg, egg extracted from "matter scoop" and inspected, empty egg puzzles scientists.

Meanwhile generic "ensign Ricky" character gets an awesome chestburster scene. Use an epileptic for this so the rest of the cast will genuinely fuss over him if he starts convulsing during a short "break in filming"...

Alien does Alien stuff, people die in what are dismissed as bizarre "accidents" (accidentally fell into an engine, asphyxiated in a narrow air-duct [unseen- the lower half of his body torn to shreds]) but eventually the crew start to realise what's happenning.

After the Alien's known of- but not dealt with, the Human crew notices a huge spacecraft flying towards them, deduces what's on-board, crashes into them and downs the alien ship- which crashes onto LV-426. Humans have time to send out a report to the Company detailing just how awesome they are, last shot is shady looking company man going "realllyyy.... *over intercom to secretary* Miss Smith, what's the closest vessel to LV-426? The Nostromo? Send them a message...."

Alternatively, the all-alien idea sounds good. The problem is how to make that into a good film and not just have the humans directly substituted for a bunch of blue-skinned, pointy-eared Star Trek rejects.

Anyway, this could be a good movie- here's hoping!

To the Moon - with extreme engineering

@No, I will not fix your computer

We would have probably gained a whole new set of technologies we've not bothered to make yet- fancy new materials, for example. And we'd have started spreading out- helping secure our race in the event of some sort of planetary apocalypse and meaning we can finally take advantage of non-terrestrial resources.

THAT is real, measurable progress. We've expanded, we've developed and we've faced and overcome a whole range of entirely new challenges. And we've been rewarded with resources that- even compared to our bountiful Earth- are nigh-on infinite. Plus, with more and more spaceflights happenning the technology becomes cheaper and more reliable- leading to the commodification of space travel. Meaning MORE people get to go offworld and exploit these resources and help overcome the challenges. Meaning we get to spread further, giving still more resources.

What you're suggesting is that we're going forward because we're hiding from the potential failures and aliens and space-virusses and death and expense of space travel because... well, you've never been into space so it's never benefitted you has it?

Also, I'd bet cash money that the environmental damage from a 40 year Mars mission starting in 1975 (when Apollo was cancelled) would have been less than 40 years of Ford and GM. If for no other reason than after 40 years of that sort of investment we'd probably have been mining offworld for quite a while. They'll also- directly- account for more deaths than the Apollo missions and produce fewer technologies while using up far, far more clever people's time.

In fact you could have had more energy-efficiency-enhancing and environmental-processing technologies with a Mars mission than without it- you'd certainly need it on a long-haul mission.

And can you imagine someone sat on Mars in this divergent 2015 saying "Man, we screwed up. If we didn't start that whole "get to mars" space program thing, we could have had cars that ran on Hydrogen! And have powered whole cities using the wind and sun"? No? Oh yeah, that's because they'd also have developed those (or alternatives) as their higher-tech society would have noticed the impending lack of fossil-fuel and reacted accordingly (quicker and faster and without a lot of the bullshit we've got today). Probably built a few breeder reactors

I bet you thought getting rid of Concorde was a step forwards as well.

Visa turns to txt

Could be good

I'd like such a service, though ideally it'd inform me by email- it's cheaper for them (so cheaper for me) and more convenient for me (I get it on multiple devices and can filter them out from my main messages pretty easily). They could also include more information, like the location of the withdrawl (if available) and the amount charged.

I'm pretty sure VISA already have my email address, and if not I'd be happy to dish it out to them- so it's no big deal from a security point of view.

Researcher raids browser history for webmail login tokens

So you just need

a 20-character code and it'll take vast amounts of time until someone invents a useable quantum computer? Doesn't sound too bad.

Is there any way of seeding your history so the CSS History Hacking throws up some sort of token that can be used to track down whoever's trying to get your details? Sort of a reverse-Spam (i.e. you're sticking unwanted, unneeded crap on your computer); they'd read off that I'd been to a secure page on, say, egg.com (which isn't my bank in real life or the example) and the bank's website had used token ABC123.

Villian then goes off and tries to connect to egg.com with token ABC123, it's flagged up by a program on egg's computers and details of the computer used to try to connect are recorded or sent off to the police or whatever.

Bish bash bosh, job's a good 'un, villian is known or can be tracked down.

Google not liable for defamatory search snippets

@Lou Gosselin

The lack of auto-completed search terms probably doesn't have anything to do with what they'll actually allow to be searched- it's probably made up of the most common search terms rather than their results. The lack of certain 4-letter words will have been a simple change to a simple list so as to not cause offence to some people or to give employers any reason to disallow google for being "obscene".

And they're not saying they're too incompetent to alter words on their own website. They're saying they're just linking to that website- having found it automatically, remember (no human involvement)- and that as they have no control over that website. And that trying to get rid of all their potentially libellous linked-to pages would be incredibly difficult.

Can you imagine if they got rid of El Reg because Phorm declared them libellous? Even worse can you imagine someone like Google having a blacklist that can be added to easily by outside influences? BAM straight away the world's biggest search engine becomes (a) not legally protected once they've been informed of "illegal" materials and (b) the biggest propaganda tool ever used by propagandist tools!

Google (like all general search engines) should be pretty much immune from prosecution so long as they don't start deliberately serving up completely the wrong results.

Ofcom clears decks for WirelessHD

@"Pointless" commenters

How about if you have a wall-mounted flatpanel TV and don't have space underneath it for a set-top box?

This way you could have the set-top box mounted, say, under the sofa (which would be rather practical with some DVD players- you'd not have to walk across the room to change DVD). Now with a single set-top box this may not seem like much, but if you had a sleek wall mounted TV and had to then find space for an XBox 360, PS2, HTPC, Wii, SKYHD box and whatever comes along in the future... well, you'd probably appreciate having these things tucked neatly away under a coffee table or whatever rather than piled up at the bottom of the wall. And the huge bundle of cables could be condensed down to a single wireless link and a multi-input switcher.

Plus, as it's broadcast radio, you could have a wireless digital link to your speakers rather than running cables/fibres (which can look really messy).

Alternatively it could probably pass through a thin wall with a receiver and transmitter blutacked to the wall itself (i.e. with bugger all distance between them) and this could be preferable to drilling holes in walls in rented accommodation.

And there are probably 1001 other uses no-one's even thought of yet.

Oz cops turn to wardriving to fight Wi-Fi 'jackers

@Chronos

As 1st commenter said, WEP suggests that you don't grant access to anyone who connects. So you should be legally far clearer if you DO get caught doing anything illegal- even if they do have a clever lawyer.

Also, some devices don't support WPA and WPA2. Can't think of any common ones off-hand, but the Police really should be working with the lowest common denominator- and unfortunately that's WEP.

Ten of the best... Core i7 CPU coolers

@Radiated heat commenters

Wouldn't a CPU cooler be better off with low radiated heat and high conducted heat? I mean radiated heat would go into heating the surrounding case and electronics (which is bad as the heat ends up in non-actively-cooled components), but conducted heat only heats up the air being pulled through by the fan (which, with proper case airflow, is good as the heat's pulled out quickly afterwards). So the best cooler designs would be those with huge surface area (i.e. many vanes) and a big fan.

The best case designs, however, would radiate heat- they're (typically) radiating to a whole room (so radiated heat is spread over a massive surface area) rather than blasting the heat back at whatever you're trying to cool in the first place.

Saying that, the most important thing to start with is good case airflow. Otherwise you just end up recirculating the hot air...

BMW to ride in with 115-mile range e-scooter?

Not a fan of the C1

As its enclosed nature could encourage people to stop wearing a helmet etc. while riding on a bike.

Saying that, it is quite possibly the most practical use of 'leccy tech I've seen- you'd not want to go long distances on it (so the range is perfectly adequate for most urbanites), you don't need to go that fast (20, 30,40, maybe 50 limits are most likely to be encountered by urbanites)

Shame there isn't a cost

Long wait for health records

@Bassey

Well, you could have a look at a local copy you made or have a look at another version of the CD or what have you- if they were actually _losing_ data rather than losing _copies_ of Data then that'd be far, far worse!

Still, as it'll apparently take "a couple of months" (according to my GP) to move my records a total of... ooh, about 65 miles this system can only be an improvement.

Italian bride's bouquet downs ultralight

How ironic

dropping things out of planes is how the Italians invented aerial bombardment...

NASA promises 'greatly improved' Moon landing footage

Awesome

we get to have another 40 years of "look at the difference between this blur and this frame from the high-def version- it's a conspiracy!"...

Staten Island manhole swallows texting teen

Good for her suing!

By the sounds of it the DEP should have had warning cones up but didn't. For not doing this they should be punished... it makes some sense to let the person it inconvenienced get some money- although given that there's been no real loss they should pay for, for example, a replacement set of clothes and shoes and a full range of medical tests to make sure she hasn't caught anything.

If there was ANYTHING to indicate that the manhole was open- a sign, a single cone, etc- then she shouldn't get anything. Maybe new shoes if it wasn't very clear...

French workers threaten to blow up factory

Revolting French Workers

I don't think the word "workers" was appropriate. Acturally, isn't the rest of it covered by "French"?

@Mike Bird 1

Also, if you're going for the "let it burn" plan you can also factor in the income from selling high res footage of a multi-million dollar facility exploding dramatically to Hollywood.

Burn Baby Burn!

Freecom adds RFID to HDD

So is this

a drive with custom electronics to ensure that, short of removing the platters, the data remains safe? Or is this an RFID reader which, once triggered by the correct RFID card, flicks a few relays or transistor switches to physically connect the USB port on the box to the drive?

'cos if it's the second one then- like someone's said above- it can be defeated by a screwdriver. Which makes it pretty pointless. Nick it and- oh noes!- there's a 5, 10 minute period where you can't get at the data!

Alternatively, I guess it could encrypt the data somehow? RFID card provides the decryption key?

Also, isn't RFID pretty easy to pick up using a PDA or standalone kit?

Why would anyone run their own base station?

Couldn't a smartphone do this?

Couldn't you use the modem in a smartphone (WM, Android, iPhone, that sort of thing) and some clever software to make it declare itself as a base-station? A modem's a modem, surely the phone end of the link could be tricked into appearing as a base station?

Your non-smartphone could connect to the smartphone which would establish a simple point-to-point link with it and dial out using VOIP to the intended recipient. No mobile phone charge as the network wouldn't be aware of the call and you could connect over WiFi, Bluetooth- even IR if you didn't mind some horrendous lag and custom software on the internet gateway device.

Also, isn't giving people physical access to the devices doing the security a really bad idea? Give it 5 years, the hacking community will display a device capable of decrypting mobile phone calls without all that tedious messing about with FPGAs...

US lawmakers call for AppleT&T probe

@Brian Witham

Where did it say without penalties? This could have been arranged by AT&T to allow them to milk customers of cash- transfer fees, cut-off fees, early repayment fees, etc. You could probably bring in a decent chunk of the money they'd otherwise bring in- without having to pay for their network usage.

Apple may also like it as it'll stop / lower the number of people jailbreaking iphones. Which means fewer people are looking at the way it works, which means Apple gets a tighter stranglehold on the application market, tech support and all sorts. Alternatively they could start making more money- there's no real need to have discounts and the like when you're the only supplier in town and you've got the customers begging for more.

Jaguar said to have electric XE in pipeline

@Lionel Baden

that was for driving with; the 3-cylinder is only for providing power. And it'll be a properly designed 3-cylinder that'll run at peak efficiency.

Also, the Toyota Aygo and other similar cars are only 3-cylinder and they're nippy little things. Probaly not a V3, but it works fine.

The F-type looks/looked gorgeous. I can't believe that they didn't build that or the XK180- even almost a decade on if they made them they'd look gorgeous and modern. That's how good a design they are. Can they say the same about the S- or X-types?

Thanks for the photos, El Reg!

GPS-guided wreckers flatten wrong house

@Andrew Moore

It's the 'states. They call them "churches".

Also, condolances to the guy. You'd have hoped that something like demolition would have its paperwork backed up by someone representing the client...

Shouldn't a house be rather a large target? GPS can't be THAT bad. Especially outside. What's the betting that by "GPS" he meant "Tom Tom"

'Bionic ear' can detect Wi-Fi, FM,GPS signals simultaneously

frequency range

of my human ear- at least last year- was 16Hz to ~ 22kHz though the frequency response is non-linear.

Does this gadget have the extra sensitivity promised over its entire range, or is this extra gain only over, say, 2.3GHz to 2.5Ghz?

Either way, sounds like an excellent design.

Junior astronomer spots junior supernova

@NotVerySuperNova

How about the Chevrolet Nova- to Quote Phillip J Fry of Futurama fame: "I've never seen a supernova blow up before, but if it's anything like my old Chevy Nova it'll light up the night sky!".

Pressure group demands UK apes China net filter plan

Sorry, what?

So now "sexual deviancy" is a risk? As in a dangerous thing that should be limited and mitigated, rather than just a difference, a deviation from the norm? So some people are into kinky shit (literally in some cases)- why's that wrong? Okay, you may not want to take part in it- so don't. Same as you might not like wearing neon pink at a funeral- it's a deviation from the norm, some people probably find it offensive. But it's pretty much harmless and in no way detracts from your ability to mourn or wear black while doing it (except for this time, when you're wearing neon pink).

And giving someone a release for their pent-up tension is a dangerous thing? An analogy- which would you rather was pointed at your eye- a coiled up spring ready to burst free of its confines in a pretty much unpredictable way, or an unstressed spring?

The unstressed spring is still dangerous, but it's predictable and controllable, unlike the compressed spring which could fly off in any direction.

People with porn are less likely to commit sexual offences than those without porn but with similar urges.

On their third point, I've found that during intimate relationships it's been able to give me a better insight into things to try. And so far it's not let me down!

And which "rape myth" is this? The one about all intercourse being rape, or the one about every man being born with a genetic imperative to rape?

Also, the 'net filter is a ridiculous idea as it would be used to block out legitimate discussion and you'd end up getting rid of information on various things- can you imagine if the Vatican got a hold of this? "Nope, Contraceptives are wrong. Ban all mention of them".

Nope, the best 'net filter there is is that there are so many contradictory views on the Internet that none of them can gain precedence over another without a pretty impressive movement- see Annonymous / Scientology.

As for the icon, I need glasses if I'm going to see well enough to shave my palms...