Posts by Paul Delaney

UK.gov won't drop 50p high speed broadband tax plans - yet

Mission Creep

According to Ofcom research forty two per cent of adults without the internet at home said the main reason was down to lack of interest or need. The self-excluded tend to be older and retired and 61 per cent have never used a computer.

So they'll be charged for something they neither want nor need?

Ah but wait until they discover what digital Britain is really about - to provide more "services" online, "services" like the post office for instance...

It's no good complaining when we close your post office Mr & Mrs Oldperson because we've made sure that you do have access to fast broadband instead. It may have been the hub of your community and the only chance you got to talk to anyone else and your life may seem meaningless now, but don't forget that we've ensured that you can legally get a friend to help you top yourself...

Pirate Bay guilty verdict: Now what?

More Vinyl?

Cheaper than a court case...

Download that!

Wanna upgrade from Windows 7 beta? Go back to Vista first

Minimum Spec

Is officially 1ghz CPU + 1gb ram + GPU with 128mb onboard

I installed it on an old PIII rig with that spec which btw runs XP just fine

but

Windows 7 + above hardware = runs like a wounded pig

Hmmm... Deja Vue, Vista, I mean Seven ready...

Police quiz BT on secret Phorm trials

"in the public interest"

"There's no indication as to whether formal proceedings will be brought. Considerations will include whether charges would be proportionate and in the public interest."

That statement doesn't have any bearing on public concern over the matter - it means if a prosecution is brought against BT what are the chances of winning and making them pay for the proceedings in damages as opposed to the tax payer footing the bill.

It's probably already dead in the ground but if charges are brought involving breaches of any privacy laws - it's all over for BT and Phorm, regardless of whether they are fined or imprisoned, neither they, nor any UK ISP will ever again contemplate using Deep Packet Inspection technologies to profile their customers in this way.

Then justice has been seen to be done and a multi-million pound corporation has been shown that even they are not above the law.

The New Order: When reading is a crime

@ frymaster and Steve

UK Anti-Terrorism legislation is unfair, racist and based on paranoia. But we're stuck with it and it will probably take tens of years to get it changed.

But, in the mean time, regardless if your name is John or Achmed you would be the subject of some concentrated attention by the police if they thought you were in posession of literature detailing how to make home-made bombs.

Should you also fit the "racial profile" - not a British national, country of origin a muslim state, economical with the truth when applying for residency...

You're a prime candidate for deportation.

I know that's how it is, I'm sure that you know too, why on earth didn't he?

I wouldn't chance being in posession of a copy... would you?

Why?

Why would an intelligent man like Hicham Yezza not know how dangerous downloading / posessing a terrorist training manual could be, regardless of whose academic reading list it might be on?

Particulary so for someone currently seeking permanent UK residency.

How stupid can you get?

US Congress questions legality of Phorm and the Phormettes

@AC Re: what is the UK government doing about Phorm ??

The Home Office have said that for Phorm's product to be legal under UK law it must have the explicit consent of the customer and be OPT-IN ONLY.

This completely destroys Phorm's business model which is based on opt-out by default, relying basically on the fact that the majority of an ISP's customers will not be tech savvy enough to even realise that they are being profiled the second they go online! It also makes the flimsy cookie based opt-out they were originally proposing, which only prevents ads from being served after profiling takes place, illegal in the UK.

It severely limits Phorms options to maybe to the point of presenting their product as a downloadable toolbar with a EULA that the customer agrees to before installing, this puts Webwise / Phorm into the same category as CoolWebSearch, which is probably where it belongs with the rest of the Adware / Spyware.

Meanwhile on this side of the pond

Check out how we are fighting the phuckers:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33628733-virgin-media-phorm-webwise-adverts-updated.html

http://www.badphorm.co.uk/page.php?2

All 'mericans welcome

:D

American cable giant joins data pimping club

"opt-out has become the norm for all targeting on the Internet."

Has it?

Not in the UK m8 - or Europe come to think of it...

Oh of course - I forgot there's fuck all east of New York until you reach a country with some oil wells!

Silly me

Discoverer of LSD dead at 102

Show me that I'm everywhere, but get me home for tea

RIP Albert - I've always admired your work

A Note to Mr Brown: In a desparate attempt to prove that LSD could be LETHAL in the 1970s scientists in the US managed to kill an elephant with it.

It took 30,000 clinical doses...

I've often wondered who decided what to use as the commercial name for LSD25 - it's

Lyserguide

Mine's the kaftan...

Information Commissioner: Phorm must be opt-in only

Opt-In Basis Only!!

YES! YES! YES!

See how many muppets they get to opt-in, their "adverisment targeting system" won't be worth a fuckin light now!

Thank you Jeezus (and El Reg)

Yeah, I know...

Net think tank: Phorm is illegal

Re: Did you have comments when RIPA was introduced?

"You hypocrites, you hate RIPA more than Phorm"

(with reference to sarcasm)

Ah - but that was before anyone (including the RIPA authors) realised that in certain circumstances, obviously not envisaged at the time, the legislation could actually be used to protect the rights of Joe Public!!

The one word in question, obviously a typo, was overlooked in the final draft and an ammended version will no doubt become available in due course...

as soon as the relevant palms have been greased

Edit/Replace...

Find what: permission

Replace with: indifference

Interpret the meaning of that in court!

@AC Re: Whinging

Almost deja-vu...

So reminiscent of the statement made by the President of Sony's Global Digital Business - Thomas Hesse:

"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"

You are obviously in the employ of Phorm and the fact that you feel the need to post here in such a fashion is a clear indication that you think you have already lost...

You know what?

You're right...

Vista SP1 downloaders bite back

Re: Redesignated my performance rating

This rating based on the least Vista compatible hardware component in your computer and has very little to do with the real performance capabilities of your system!

(it aint no SiSoft Sandra)

1. Go to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore.

2. Make a backup copy of the latest XML file

3. Open the latest file with notepad or wordpad.

4. Between <WinSPR> and </WinSPR> you can mod your score(s).

--------------------------------------------------------------------

<WinSPR>

<SystemScore>9.9</SystemScore>

<MemoryScore>9.9</MemoryScore>

<CpuScore>9.9</CpuScore>

<CPUSubAggScore>9</CPUSubAggScore>

<VideoEncodeScore>9.9</VideoEncodeScore>

<GraphicsScore>9.9</GraphicsScore>

<GamingScore>9.9</GamingScore>

<DiskScore>9.9</DiskScore>

</WinSPR>

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Change The Scores As you Like. Don't Worry, It's Completely Safe.

BT admits misleading customers over Phorm experiments

@orsen kaht & Maverick

Re: Recommendations:

It changes by the month but at the moment:

Be Internet: - not available everywhere but guaranteed not to phuck around with your connection in any way shape or phorm.

ADSL24: - Entanet reseller (thanks Maverick) caps: 30gb peak, 300gb off peak, one month contract, no setup fee, free migration, no telco tie-in - 19 quid per month!

Easy-peasy

Microsoft cuts Vista price

"the £99 computer makers"

"Yet it still is a blessing in disguise for the £99 computer makers and Linux. THe more they keep the prices up, the better penetration for other distros and hardware sellers of these cheap machines. It beats me now why software more expensive than hardware?"

The only reason £99 PC's come encrippled with Vista is because M$ are willing to give it away for the fraction of the cost of XP to the likes of Dell, Acer and HPaq just to get it into peoples homes, otherwise they'd never get it off the shelves.

Not because they've convinced the Original Equipment Manufacturers that it's what their customer's want.

OEM Companies aren't that dumb - before Vista they were making a very nice living out of selling XP bundled machines, their only problems being those caused by the crap Chinese hardware they'd decided to use as a cost cutting execise!

Not nearly enough

Considering that as long as you don't install the overated Service Pack 1 you can still use a *cough* cracked version...

Mine's the 18th Century style one with tails, tri-cornered hat and black eye patch

Will Microsoft parachute Windows 7 in early?

@Walter Brown

"Microsoft never hid the fact that Vista requires more horsepower to run, they never said Vista would run anywhere near even remotely acceptable on old hardware. They've even gone as far as to say, they dont recommend installing Vista on old hardware, so stop bitching that your XYZ box, built to windows XP specs cant run Vista worth a shit..."

Microsoft lied to you - it'll run on any damn thing, almost all of it's bloated features can be removed or dumbed down and replaced with comparable free software.

I too am an independant consultant and I was paid to research Vista for potential deployment early last year - this page (a bit dated now) is based on what I discovered:

http://wintechniques.koolhost.com/

You're right - without configuration Vista is the worst POS to come out of Redmond!

:)

100Mbit/s sewer broadband rollout coming your way

Will this be tomorrow's

Bog standard broadband service?

Vista sets 2007 land-speed record for copying and deleting

Configure it like this

You can get XP speed out of Vista even on 2003 vintage hardware if you do this:

http://wintechniques.koolhost.com/

or

http://wintechniques.awardspace.com/

I wrote it - it works and it's reversible!