Oh, Dear God!!
They claim to have a "Mission Statement"
We ARE all fucked then!
Posts by dervheid
1194 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Dec 2007
Whitehall kick starts digital strategy
How many staff has HMRC caught snooping on records?
School crossing guards join CCTV panlollycon
Thursday 1st May 2008 07:42 GMT 
@ £1500 for traffic lights.
Clearly this in-duh-vidual has NO concept of the processes involved in installing even a basic set of lights for a pelican crossing. Suffice to say you're not likely to see much in the way of small change out of £250K. and you can double that if you want to equip it with a pair of stop-light enforcement cameras.
Personally, I'm anti Speed cameras and all that shit, EXCEPT in circumstances where they will actually give protection to the most vunerable, i.e. positioned appropriately around schools, at pedestrian crossings, urban roads to enforce sensible road behavior. I think these camera systems are a GREAT idea, as ANYONE who thinks that giving these piss-poorly paid people a hard time for doing a vital job, or ignoring the 'lollipop' deserves all they get. Ultimately, we're talking about KID'S LIVES here.
Lennart. I wholeheartedly agree with you about giving kids more responsibilities as they grow. It makes them more aware of their place in a decent society. Unfortunately, the 'bleeding hearts' have decided that kiddies don't need responsibilities, but have given them a whole new raft of 'rights'. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but if you give someone a 'right', you have to balance it with a 'responsibility'. This hasn't happened, and we now have gangs of effectively feral kids, and the law enforcement agencies are powerless to do anything about it. These are the kids who will grow up with scant regard for society or the law, and will cheerfully ignore that "STOP - CHILDREN" sign being weilded by the old lady at the crossing!
Rant Over.
Thank You for listening.
MS supplies cops with DIY forensics tool
MS pulls plugs on XP SP3 mass launch
Wednesday 30th April 2008 09:32 GMT 
XP-SP 3.1 then?
Since they've already released this, apparently flawed (what a fucking surprise that is - NOT) SP.
Like I said, I'll wait a while (a bloody long while I think) before I let it near ANY of my gear!
Dear Microstuffed, can you maybe, just MAYBE, do just ONE THING RIGHT for a change?
No?
Thought not.
Divvies!
US beak pecks at RIAA's 'making available' filesharing attack
US Department of Justice banned from Wikipedia
Wednesday 30th April 2008 09:47 GMT 
@ Ole Juul
The problem is not those of us who treat Wikipedia as what it is, but those in the mass of semi-ignorant humanity who regard it with the attitude "It says so on Wikipedia so it MUST BE TRUE." that are the problem. If Wikipedia IS to continue as a source of 'facts', then it must be protected from malicious re-writing done in order to distort the 'truth'.
Of course, the other old adage "history is written by the victors" is more like "history is (re-)written by those who would be victorious", as so many "government agencies" have a vested interest in telling us what they would have us take for the 'truth'.
Amy Winehouse pitches for Bond theme
BT bundles MS Office with Linux laptop
Lords defy Government by proposing criminalisation of data rogues
Spy regs used against dogs, litterbugs
US lag sues over prison crash diet
Canadian geeks to turn off the tech
Monday 28th April 2008 10:34 GMT 
What?
You expect me to be able to figure out what day of the freaking week it is?
Jeezuss!
Saturday/Sunday. Same issue! Same place, both days!!!
BTW... Sarah Bee.
I always had the sneaking suspicion thet SOMONE was spying on me! NOW I KNOW!! Pasty Beast indeed! I'll have you know I suffer from a rare genetic condition that turns me whiter than white. I'm sure you've heard of it before. It has had a well known and loved (now generally reviled and ridiculed) sufferer. (OWWWW!! <grabs own crotch>)
Saudi blogger freed from prison after four months
Monday 28th April 2008 09:01 GMT
How long...
before we begin to see this sort of thing here?
Given gov.uk's reticence/resistance to investigating the Phorm/BT 'tests', and the apprent arise of new censorship, the rest of the 'dissenting masses' must be in their sights.
As someone commented on the censorship (extreme porn) issue;
"When did I fall asleep and wake up in China?"
In a couple of years, mate!
'Extreme porn' law could criminalise millions
Friday 25th April 2008 15:04 GMT 
It's all so clear to me now Dave...
THIS is why the various departments of gov.uk are so reticent in investigating the BT/Phorm issue.
Mass Internet Monitoring (and CENSORSHIP!).
All carried out 'independantly' by a "ligitimate e-commerce business".
How PHUCKING CONVENIENT would that be.
Even Orwell would be impressed by the deviousness.
El Reg obtains snap of OGC logo reveal
Do biofuels cause famine? EU President opens probe
Friday 25th April 2008 14:31 GMT
@ Mike.
Reality Check;
There are MILLIONS of starving people in the world.
Farming is NOT a "Natural Habitat", it's MAN MADE!
Made to GROW FOOD* TO FEED PEOPLE!
*Crops AND LIVESTOCK.
Granted we SHOULD be consuming less.
But by the same standards we shouldn't be leaving fertile land unused when there's a shortage of food (percieved or real - different facet of the argument).
Yes, I'm STILL looking forward to that steak. Cow's been grown, slaughtered and butchered, be a waste not to!
Friday 25th April 2008 13:47 GMT 
@ Root Cause
Mike!
You HAD me on your side, then you just HAD to go all 'Veggie Warrior' on us!
Look, you (clearly) don't eat meat - your choice.
I eat meat - my choice.
It's a bit like religion.
Your preference is YOUR preference, please DO NOT try to force it onto ME!
BTW. Steak for tea tonight. Medium rare. Yummy.
Real Leather one, ta.
Friday 25th April 2008 12:51 GMT 
You can't...
have your (bio-fuel) cake and eat it!
I'm with Mike Re. set-aside.
PAY farmers NOT to grow FOOD on some of the most fertile land on the planet?
What complete FUCKWIT came up with that in the first place?
Dear Jose Manuel Barroso.
"Do biofuels cause famine?"
Answer; YES
Probe over.
No charge!
Now, get the bloody farmers back to FARMING!
Home Office defends 'dangerously misleading' Phorm thumbs-up
Friday 25th April 2008 13:07 GMT
Since when...
was any "debate about the legality of a legitimate e-commerce business" 'frivilous?
Dear Phorm.
The VAST MAJORITY of the people involved in this debate about the "legality of a legitimate e-commerce business", YOUR e-commerce business (built on the back of spyware, allegedly), are DEADLY SERIOUS!
WE
DO
NOT
WANT
YOUR
INTRUSIVE
INVASIVE
'SERVICE'
HAVE YOU GOT THAT (YET) KENT?
Friday 25th April 2008 08:01 GMT
There's that phrase again...
"probably be legal if consent is obtained"
Yo! Home Office!
PROBABLY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
IT EITHER IS, OR IT IS NOT, LEGAL.
If PROBABLY is the best you can do, then you should PROBABLY investigate properly.
Then again, this technology is PROBABLY what YOU want, but PROBABLY don't have the brassneck to come straight out with.
Bet I'm PROBABLY right.
(looking out for the BH's which are PROBABLY circling!)
'We could wake up smarter' - Ballmer hints at Win XP reprieve
Colliding galaxies mark Hubble anniversary
Anti-Scientology crusader vaporized from YouTube
Lib Dem mayor candidate jumps aboard muni Wi-Fi failboat
Sky One to resurrect Blake's 7?
The web rip-offs nobody cares about
Thursday 24th April 2008 12:59 GMT 
@ David Burton
Promising idea, foreign transaction enabling/disabling, but one that would involve the banks/credit card companies actually getting off their arses and doing something about it. It'd certainly limit the fuckers.
I'd take it further. If you're going to use your card online regularly, you should have to register the seller's site with your card provider, and use a positive verification for each transaction. Same with when you want something delivered to another address (birthday/xmas surprise sort of stuff), then that delivery should need to be fully verified from the card provider's web site, or you set up an authorised alternative delivery address system. If your card gets used to order goods online or by phone or by mail and the seller delivers it ANYWHERE ELSE, then it should be THEIR responsibility, not your loss.
Personally, I'd not mind a small fee per transaction for this, if it was to guarantee cutting down on your chances of having your card details abused like this.
Your other item, that's just the banks getting joe public to do their donkey work tracking these bastards down.
Judge issues arrest warrant for Darth Vader
Nintendo Wii 'like a virus', games boss sniffs
Tuesday 22nd April 2008 16:02 GMT
Wii've had ours...
for just over a year. It's fair to say that it DOESN'T get the same amount of usage as the other systems in out hosehold (1xPSP, 2xNDS, 2x PS2, PC & Laptop).
The reason for this is fairly simple. PSP & NDS = Portable, used anywhere, anytime.
PS2 = One in main living room, almost never used except by our son (10) occasionally, One in his room, almost never off. PC, in bedroom, used 'whenever'. Now, the Wii is in the main living room, and has to compete for 'attention' with the Mrs and the SOAPS!
She DOES enjoy some of the stuff we have for the Wii, or we'd probably not have gotten it.
BTW we have 7 games, and eagerly await the release of Wii Fit.
Currently ADDICTED to Mariokart...
DARPA looking at 'Z-Wing' stratocruiser
Tuesday 22nd April 2008 14:35 GMT
@ Steve
Maybe not many, but enough.
Can't envisage the Chinese, Koreans et al being particularly tolerant of these.
They managed to down a U2 (piloted by one Gary Powers), which was just a teensy bit quicker than this is likely to be, running on solar power.
The words "duck" and "sitting" spring to mind.
Tuesday 22nd April 2008 12:36 GMT
Oh goody...
more surveillance.
Just what we need!
Presumably this is intended to be deployed over 'friendly' territory, as I can't see it having the speed/agility/defenses to defeat a 'defensive attack'.
I guess the CIA / MI5/6 etc have their pre-orders in already.
Cloak of Invisibility, please!
Six months on from HMRC, data losses still rising, says ICO
Data pimping catches ISP on the hop
UK Office of Government Commerce cracks one off
OSC spurns queries on London charge zone data export
Orange signs up testers for mobile newspaper service
Microsoft kicks out third Windows XP service pack
Tuesday 22nd April 2008 07:52 GMT
@ Steven Hewittt (ish)
"Looks like MS have left all the new features for vista."
That'd be 'cause they just know that vista is like a big ol' empty supertanker with both the rudder and throttle jammed. it's only a matter of time befor it runs aground completely.
If they leave it till it does then they figure they can maybe salvage something from the wreckage (god alone knows what), but if they'd given XP SP3 a whole load of vista 'functionality', it'd be like a full torpedo broadside and vista would sink without trace (we wish!!!)
Kinda ties in with "Microsoft promised updates won't "significantly change" customers' experiences with the operating system"
Now THERE'S a scary statement!
Personally, I'll be waiting a while and see what the fall-out is like.
(ie, install SP3 and see what else "falls out" of your system!)
Aussie gov to treat laser pointers like knives and guns
Monday 21st April 2008 12:19 GMT
@ AC & Rob C.
As has already been postulated in the article, likening 'Reds' to knives, I don't see where catagorising these together is not a 'definable' parameter.
ie, if you're caught with one in public, you will have to justify carrying it, in court, and face the consequences of failure to do so. Which for the "law abiding majority" who don't posess one, unless it's built into a DIY tool of some description, shouldn't be a problem. With regards to your "deficient colour vision", obviously I don't know how bad it is for you, but it's more likely to be an inability to discern between colours, rather than to a lack of response to the intensity of the lightsource (if you try staring at the laser diode in the bottom of an optical mouse, for example, can you see / be dazzled by that?)
Rob, I sympathise with you fully on the concrete block scenareo, I just figure that an iddy-biddy laser pointer is easier for yoyr average scumbag to conceal (internally if required) unlike aforementioned concrete block, if pehaps they are a tad easier to come by (blocks, that is). Although I'm sure we could experiment on the internal concealment of concrete blocks on said scumbags!!
Monday 21st April 2008 10:50 GMT 
@ A.C & Red lasers
Nice to see the A.C's posting.
Can I presume that you've never been dazzled by one of these things whilst you've been driving, along a busy motorway, with your family in the car?
I have, and believe me the expression "brown trouser time" is most appropriate. (Some little scumbag was standing on a flyover, more than close enough with a 'red' laser)
Personally, I think the Aussies are right on with this one.
Biofuel backlash prompts Brussels back-pedal
Monday 21st April 2008 12:42 GMT
Just like...
ANY alternative source of energy, we've jumped in feet first and discovered that the waters are, in fact, shark infested!
You CANNOT use arible land that's currently/should be being used for food production to produce fuel. It's a no-brainer.
IF, and I say IF we CAN grow fuel viably and sustainably, it has to be done where no food will grow. I'm thinking algae farming, either in the desert regions, in pipes; or a similar arrangement, floating on the ocean.
There will, however, as with all things, be consequences for the 'natural habitat' sacrificed for these algae farms, but you can either kill a few (more) snakes & scorpions or forget about biofuel.
Or have YOU got a better idea? Anyone?
US gov may forbid BAE Eurofighter sale to Saudis
Friday 18th April 2008 14:41 GMT
@ Mark
"Last time I checked British politics, you voted for a party - not its leader"
Er.. NO.
<rant>
In Good old Blighty, you vote for a CANDIDATE to represent you.
They just happen to be a member of a Political Party.
You can, of course, just vote for the candidate from the party you dislike least, or you could engage your brain occasionally prior to voting and actually vote for someone who believes in at least the same things as you do, and is possibly more likely to actually represent YOU as opposed to the Party.
If it weren't for 'party politics', then there'd have to be a whole load more cooperation between MP's, as opposed to just toeing the 'party line' in order to get put forward as candidates next time round, which is how the majority of 'career politicians' behave, as the real world would just chew them up and spit them out.
Of course, in my little utopian fantasyland, ALL MP's would be decent, honest, upstanding people, as opposed to the self-serving, expense-troughing, mealy-mouthed charlatans that a large proportion of our "Elected Members" actually are.
If MP's were prohibited from earning ANY INCOME from 'outside interests', then that should eliminate most 'conflict of interests', and weed out the ones who are just in it for the money.
</rant>
It wasn't supposed to be a rant, it just turned out that way. It's politics, after all!
Yes! It's the sawed-off USB key!
BT's secret Phorm trials open door to corporate eavesdropping
Thursday 17th April 2008 16:25 GMT
From The Home Office Website...
This is a bit long winded, but I Think it's rather salient.
Or go to http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa and follow the links on the left hand table.
"Interception
Use of interception
Interception is strictly regulated to ensure that its use is proportionate to the activity it is deployed against and in circumstances when required information can’t reasonably be obtained by other means.
Who can use interception?
Intelligence services, the police and other law enforcement agencies such as HM Revenue & Customs can use interception if they have a warrant signed by the Secretary of State."
"Communications data
Obtaining and disclosing data
A strict necessity test must be passed before any communications data can be obtained.
Who can obtain communications data?
A range of public authorities can lawfully obtain communications data, including:
law enforcement agencies - such as the police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and HM Revenue & Customs
emergency services – such as ambulance services, fire authorities and HM Coastguard
other public authorities – such as the Financial Services Authority and the Department for Transport
‘Authorisations’ to obtain communications data are granted by a ‘designated person’ within each of these organisations. Parliament has specified different levels of seniority required to be a ‘designated person’ for different public authorities. For example, the police ranking required is primarily ‘Superintendent’ and for ambulance services it’s ‘Director of Operations’.
All authorities with permission to obtain communications data do so in accordance with a code of practice, and all activity to obtain communications data is independently monitored by the Interception of Communications Commissioner who reports to Parliament annually.
Permission to obtain communications data
A designated person may only grant an authorisation to obtain communications data if they consider it necessary, proportionate and for a reason available to their public authority whether relating to:
the interests of national security
the interests of public safety
protecting economic well-being of the UK
protecting public health
preventing or detecting crime or preventing disorder
preventing or mitigating death or injury or any damage to a person’s physical
or mental health in an emergency
assessing or collecting any tax, duty, levy or other charge payable to a government department
assist investigations into alleged miscarrages of justice
to identify a person who has died or unable to identify themselves because of a condition not attributable to a crime and to obtain details of the next of kin of such a person or to gather information about the causes of their death or condition
Obtaining the data
The designated person may give notice to a communications service provider (CSP) requiring them to disclose specific communications data or grant an authorisation to officials to acquire specific communications data.
Where notice is given, the CSP must comply with the notice within a reasonably practable time and supply data where it is reasonably practable to do so.
If a CSP fails to disclose the required communications data then the Secretary of State may take civil proceedings against them, which may result in the issue of, inter alia, an injunction which would have the effect of compelling the provision of data.
A notice must immediately be cancelled if the reasons for which it was granted are no longer valid."
Don't see ANYTHING about corporations, companies or private individuals being permitted to do ANY of the above.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
