Posts by John Munyard

Extended Lord of the Rings Blu-rays to hit Blighty

Making an epic out of a trilogy

At this rate it will be quicker to read the novels than to endure the (seemingly) never ending movies.

Census threatens spies' cover

Mess with thier heads

Reading the form, I'm of the view that the information being requested isn't actually far off the level of intrusiveness we saw when Labour were trying to press the ID Card into our unwilling palms a few years ago. In fact if you added the requirement for biometric it would be very close. The point quoted in the article that all the information requested about workplace and your employers being used to help businesses plan is such an indefensible crock of crap - but I bet the HMRC will find it useful.

It's hard to to come to the view that a lot of this information is nothing to do with what a census actually needs, and is a wider data trawl. In this decade, more than in 2001, the people have the opportunity to network virally and register a protest.

In 2001, thousands of people all declared themselves to be Jedi in objection to the religious questioning. Perhaps for 2011 we should all hand in the postcode of a single pub in rural Somerset and declare (in our millions) that we were all in the same pub.

XP? Thanks for the memories

Shillness

I doubt if a more glowing article about the reasons for dumping XP for Windows 7 could have been written if Steve Balmer had done it himself.

Microsoft releases Windows Live apps suite

Reasons to upgrade, part 1378

Remind me again - what's a cloud?

My life in IT is strangely hanging together perfectly fine without it whatever it is. <shrug>

Privacy watchdogs challenge laptop seizures at US borders

More monkey misses the point

I suspect the funny thing about this is that your average terrorist is (I would think) very unlikely to be stupid enough to carry storage devices through US Customs. They would be wary of being a terget for searches anyway, and (if I were them) would be accessing email/content from kit borrowed/purchased in the country once inside.

What we have is pure showboating. The only people inconvenienced are the general public. It would be interesting to know how many of the thousands of devices seized actually contained terrorist related content that led to a conviction? Probably not many, if any I suspect.

Half of UK road users support usage-based road charging

Who's kidding

Let's face it, if a DFT commissioned survey, with a tilted question to include the carrot of cost neutrality, produces responses of 38% for and 34% against, that's hardly a resounding endorsement is it? And despite the spin that's not "half of all motorists" either.

The government may have changed, but the civil service at the DfT and all those government funded lobby groups (Brake, Campaign for better Transport, Transport for London) are still out to fork the motorist any way they can.

Apple eyes kill switch for jailbroken iPhones

But...

Surely Apple's vice grip of the device and it's functionality doesn't matter does it?

I mean, how *cool* is the iPhone?

UK.gov pledges licence fee 'rethink' over heavy catch-up use

Put it on the net and then try to licence it

God forbid that perhaps all the BBC should do is put iPlayer on subscription? Maybe they should just scrap it - it's not like we don't all still have Sky+, DVDRs and even VCRs is it?

Who made BBC god of the Internet? I say scrap the whole poxy service before the politicians decide they can add it to the

RAC prof: Road charges can end the ripoff of motorists

Glaister is missing the point

For all his cleverness Prof Glaister is missing the point. I recall that a lot of the public outrage that led to the famously supported Downing Street petition was not because of road pricing per se, it was anger at the suggestion that the Government (or any other Agency) wanted to install spying devices in people's cars that would track thier every movement.

And it doesn't actually matter whether those were to be owned and operated by the Government, MI5, the RAC or Bobo the Clown - there was *huge* resistance to the concept of being tracked everywhere.

Now many would argue (correctly) that in ANPR we have such a system anyway by the back door, but there is a threshold of personal space which I still believe motorists are not willing to accept and these GPS tracking devices are where the line is. It's like putting CCTV in people's homes.

Prof Glaister seems to have spent all his research looking at spreadsheets and doing calculations. He can't possibly have spoken to any road users before proposing this flawed piece of drivel. In addition did anyone at the RAC actually check the document? They boast about about looking for completely new and different solutions to congestion, and then just trot out the same old (rejected) tax proposals.

Want Olympic tickets? Better get a VisaCard then

Corporate stupidity

I suppose VISA think they're being all very clever with this stitch up but if they piss off non-VISA customers with stunts like this they're hardly likely to make new conquest sales in the future are they?

As for the London Olympic authority, I would suggest they concentrate on trying to sell the tickets rather that putting barriers in the way. There's a recession on, and there are enough reasons to give this overpriced vanity event a miss already.

Google: Street View spycars did slurp your Wi-Fi

Cobblers

I've read some corporate bullshit in my time but "We're sorry, we decided to equip our camera cars with aerials, detection and recording equipment but we didn't mean to accidentally capture people's router SSIDs" has got to be one of the lamest, most duplicitous lies I've ever seen.

Aside from thanking the German authorities for highlighting this (something which the Home Office seemed to have missed) what do our Governments intend to do about it? What *can* they do about it? Is someone going to sanction Google? Force them to destroy all the data? Fine them some huge about for all this snooping?

Of course not... move along people, nothing to see here. Google are immune to your complaints and will continue to do what they bloody well like. No matter that Sergei Brin is a Russian.

Lost mental hospital memory stick had health records

Absolutely no excuses

There is just no excuse at all for this. It's not even a human error, except if you count what must have been a deliberate policy decision not to implement encrypted media at the technical level.

Everyone involved in this is culpable and should be considering thier positions; The Chief Exec, the IT Director, the senior IT security managers, Internal Auditors, Risk Managers not to mention the operational management who allowed the unencrypted stick to be used (and lost)

Every single one of those people is responsible. No excuses - clear your desks and go tomorrow.

Me? Unsurprisingly I submitted my opt out request for the the NHS Central Records spine last week. Anyone who is still willing to trust that thier personal medical records will be professionally managed after reading the above is simply an idiot.

Microsoft slams coffin lid on Vista

Some level of support

I'm sure Microsoft won't be too bothered with the opinions of a mere Customer but this is pretty dreadful really isn't it.

I bought a laptop with Vista (don't forget the "wow") a little over two years ago and already the support plug is being pulled. If I buy a copy of Windows 7 how soon will it be until support is withdrawn from that as well?

I'm sure Microsoft would deny this, but it feels quite contemptuous and arrogant from this customer's perspective. If I go into my VW dealer I can still purchase replacement parts for my 18 year old Volkswagen... why should Microsoft stop supporting thier products as little as a year after sale?

Shame on them.

Gov confirms plans for Sky box in charge of your house

Here we go again

If the utility companies really will have the capability to limit or cut off energy using these meters, I'm willing to bet one thing : That the David Beckham & John Prescotts of this world won't be the ones being 'managed'. It'll be us - the bloody serfs first. You can bet your house on it.

UK.gov hoovers up data on five-year-olds

Educationalists

The reason for the questionnaire is to allow the school to identify the kids who are not fucked up so that they can target extra time and attention to turning them into ill-educated text messaging morons like all the chavvy kids.

Easy innit.

Booze shops get ID card lessons

Doomed to fail

"The more you tighten your grip Governer Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers..."

Murdoch says Page 3 won't be free from next year

Bad decision

I read all the broadsheet UK newspapers online every day at lunchtime. I can't see how introducing charging is going to help News Intl. Aside from anything else the website layout for The Times is poor compared to the other onlines, and that's before you bring up the subject of the quality of the journalism which (I think) is noticeably inferior to Telegraph/Guardian/Indie.

If Murdoch does introduce charges it just won't affect me. I predict many current Times readers will just migrate to the other free titles. In a global internet marketplace even News International doesn't hold a monopoly on news, and the "pay-per-view" value of a mainstream title like The Times is zero.

If News International is going to charge, it will really have to seriously upgrade the quality of it's output, and create some unique selling points behind the paywall. Personally I don't see it happening but that's what I think they'll have to do.

More execs quit Phorm

Oops

I'm sorry I just can't stop laughing.

Jacqui Smith trails überdatabase plans

Labour spinning this already

[Article] 'Jacqui Smith trailed the forthcoming Commmunications Data Bill in a speech this morning to the Institute for Public Policy Research'

Spinning already. That sounds like Jackie Smith was giving an announcement to an independant audience doesn't it? No mention that the IPPR is in fact a think tank who work for and are funded directly by the Labour Party.

Smith is clearly needing a sympathetic and sycopphantic audience in order to get a hearing - even at this early stage.

Meat Loaf gets Q gong

Please... let it die... please

If there was ever a story which illustrated the how 'Smashy & Nicey' Q magazine is, or the sheer desparation of a record industry to keep recycling tired old products then this is it. And there was me thinking that the last Stone's tour set the benchmark.

So this is an appeal to the great man of Rock himself : Meat - please refuse to accept this award. Try creating some new music, or just retire gracefully so we can enjoy the memories. Please stop flogging a horse you killed on your third tour in 1980.

Please - make it stop.

Burned by Chrome - Fire put out

Google joins the lazy, greedy corporates

I laughed when I read this article, as I had a similar reaction when I read the huge Chrome EULA last night. How does a "free" open source browser (plagarised as it is from it's competitors' code) come with so much legal baggage attached? My antennae were immediately twitching as I re-read some of the terms.

But then I finally tried it quickly. What a (slow) piece of crap.

Hail Firefox3. All my base belong to me. Hopefully.

Barclays to scrap 1,800 UK tech jobs

A bit daft really

The irony of all of this of course is that because most of the major banks (both retail & merchant) are all currently busy setting up offshore operations (again) there are far too many jobs chasing too few qualified/experienced people in Mumbai & Chennai.

As a result it's not actually that cheap to hire our there any more. You've just got to love capitalism havn't you! I wonder if info on current offshore salary trends has reached the Barclays' board yet?

US imposes 72 hour pre-reg for Visa waiver travellers

Ironic

Isn't it somewhat ironic that over 10,000 Americans are killed every year in the USA - by other Americans using guns.

Who are they trying to protect themselves from?

Heathrow T5 security tackles Transformers t-shirt threat

I mean.. seriously...

Don't incidents like this seriously make you wonder about the quality of staff being recruited to carry out security duties at our airports? How on earth did this particular security guy get a job?

Is "security" one of those jobs that the Government is using to get unemployable fucktards off the UB40 stats?

This stupid prick has made our whole country a laughing stock to international travellers - not that BAA has been working hard on that for the past couple of years.

MPs demand US spooks' guarantees on census data

Numpties

There is no reason at all why the tender cannot state an explicit requirement that all data must be physically stored and maintained within the UK, and cannot be accessed from abroad.

I mean how hard is this stuff?

Articles like this reall depress me. This is a simple competance matter which exposes spineless, supine ministers and a pathetic civil service procurement process. Our country is being run by retards, and all our personal data is at stake once again.

Absolutely pathetic...

Natasha Henstridge braces for Impact

It's the end of the world

Phone Bruce Willis !

Local council uses snooping laws to spy on three-year-old

Danger ahead

Cases like this should make the arguments for the protection of civil liberties stronger.

During the past 10 years the Government has brought in a sequence of new laws which have chipped away at various aspects of personal privacy, liberty or protection from zealous government interferance.

For years New Labour has defended the introduction of these measures by offering sop-assurances to the effect that the laws are only intended for reasons such as child protection or anti-terrorism and that we should not worry to much about the actual wordings - we should trust the Government to use the powers responsibly.

Personally I've always been dubious of making law in such a manner. Those making these changes over the years have deliberately used poor legislative drafting to cast the net widely from a legal perspective for only one reason - so that the law can be 're interpreted' at a later date to encompass wider use without actually having to change the laws again.

This case shows the shallowness and falsehood of those assurances. This episode demonstrates clearly how Government or local Gov't can utilise these laws for what were probably unintended purposes but with the full support of the legislation nonetheless. In this case powers intended to allow the Government to investigate suspected activities of terrorist and serious criminals have been cast so broadly and handed to so many branches of Government that Poole Council has used them to snoop on the parents of the 3yr old child for what is by any measure a petty cause.

So what are we to believe? When Jackie Smith stands up in future and assures everyone that thier data is safe with the Government what are we to believe? Are we to trust that the powers and data now held on us by the Government will only be used for thier intended and stated purposes, or should we assume that all these assurances are just a mechanism to persuade us to hand it all over before then using it all freely for any future purpose without opposition?

This should be a blow for all those simpletons who see the ID Card & NIR as a panacea for all our criminal, terrorist and identity problems. We only have Government's promise that the scope of use of the identity card & NIR will not creep, we are supposed to trust all these Government employees to access and use thier powers responsibly, and not snoop, use the data for personal purposes, or sell it on to marketing companies.

Cases like this prove that the Governments assurances aren't worth the paper thier printed on. More to the point the law is drafted so badly there is neither legal protection or redress available to us. We cannot accept further extension of Government powers or the introduction of the NIR in these circumstances - it would be like posting all your personal details to a 419 scammer.

US allows visual inspections of nipple rings

Unbelieveably stoopid

I can see it now :-

"You must show me your tits in the interests of National Security. The procedure says you must comply"

Only in America eh... they'll be pulling people's fillings out next...

Vista SP1 downloaders bite back

Time to change, Microsoft

What we are seeing here is simply madness.

Microsoft is a vast organisation, with some of the best budgets, people and talent in the business. They've been working on developing Vista for years (and longer if you count the underlying infrastructure), have access to some of the best testing facilities (not to mention a huge beta-testing user base) and active 'partnerships' with most of the biggest names in the business.

And yet... and yet even now they are unable to productionise an operating system which will operate with even common 'partner' hardware, appears to have been insufficiently tested to the point where an upgrade wipes existing configurations from the PC, and publishes a list of incompatible software and drivers which is thick enough to hold a door open with.

All of this points to a model which is simply too complex, with too much code and too many functions to be able to be tested and implemented successfully. This is, in my view, supported by the fact that from my perspective Vista doesn't fundamentally deliver any user substantial user functionality beyond that which was (is) available in Windows XP. That is also one of the key reasons why businesses are refusing to migrate.

Microsoft needs to do the following.

a) Simplify the operating model of Windows, and the code - fast. They just can't maintain it any longer.

b) Simply accept that the days of high growth & earnings are over now. Income is simply not going to be what it was during the previous 20 years. Microsoft must change, and it must reduce it's expectations, adapt and become a smaller company to meet the future.

c) Microsoft has to accept that the world is not only saturated with PCs, but more importantly it's userbase is now saturated with functions they don't use or understand, and no longer need (or want to pay) for even more "stuff". In the world of mainstream consumer electronics, people need simpler and easier to use OS which simply works and works well. Apple's Leopard OS is streets ahead in this respect. Vista is gimmick-laden and yet still carries too many bugs and incompatibilities to be accepted either in the home or business as an upgrade.

d) Microsoft's development effort should concentrate on the boring, unsexy task of making thier product work. They have to get Vista simplified, completely and thoroughly tested and work with third party developers to improve compatibility of apps & drivers. It's not glitzy or cutting edge work but it needs to happen as Vista is just a disaster for such a 'mature' product.

e) A simpler (but better) product might also ship more boxes. People and business aren't ready to go out & buy dual-core or better kit simply to allow Vista to work. Those days are also over now. Vista has damaged hardware sales, and that clearly won't be tolerated with the next software.

f) Microsoft need to spend a bit of time in the real world. Masses of people are not going to download a 484Mb service pack (even on free broadband) which is full of bugs, and risks thier data & systems through insufficient, compromised or lazy testing.

Red Green Ken v Porsche in battle of the polls

He's doomed and he knows it.

Looks like Ken's been advised he's going to lose this one in court, hence his need for threats.

I wonder if Porsche can get a court date before the London elections? That will spice the story up a bit.

Government set to 'destroy' UK radio astronomy

Appalling

How ironic that our Government is prepared to pay the £10million cost of RIchard Branson's failed bid for Northern Rock, and yet at the same time is butchering science funding in this way.

A plague on New Labour's ignorant, uninspirational, second rate house.

Vote now for your fave sci-fi movie quote

All outta bubblegum...

"I came here... to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum..."

- Roddy Piper, They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)

Broadband big boys waiting on data pimping

The price of progress...

Although the internet has grown exponetially since I first started using it in 1995 I read articles like this and wonder that the web really was a much better place to be ten years ago than it is now.

Sure there's more content, broadband video & radio streaming content abounds & stuff but it's arguable that the web has suffered in other ways not only as the corporates have moved in, but also as politicians now feel the need to exert more and more control over what people can do online.

One of the key attractions of internet use remains the freedom to browse independantly, freely, privately without anyone looking over your shoulder or trying to censor, analyse or channel. The recent reaction of MrSpace users to that company's attempt to tamper with that axiom and use personal information to generate marketing income should serve as a warning to ISPs in this case.

If people start to believe that the the Government, foreign governments, advertising agencies and uncle Tom-cobbly are all inspecting thier usage, then the future not only for the internet, but freedom of thought is going to be pretty bleak.

Government wants every English child on 'secure' database

Waste, waste, waste

In what way is this any kind of improvement on giving a child his/her GCSE certificates to prove to an employer that they have qualifications?

I've seen some bloody frivalous uses of IT initiated by this Government but this one seems to me to have been authorised simply as a way to piss a load of our tax money up the wall.

New Labour would try and computerise the building of sandcastles if it could find a contractor willing to take it on.

Tiscali executes stealth LLU migrations

Two fingers to Pipex Customers

I've been with Pipex for over ten years now, and currently pay what would for most people be an above average cost for unlimited 8mb service,

Now this isn't the first time I've written this on here, but I'm STILL waiting for Tiscali to even write to me as a Pipex customer and tell me they've taken over that company, It occurs to me that isn't an expensive thing to do, and considering I'm a paying customer it is also good customer service to communicate what is very important Customer Information.

But what concerns me further is when I read articles like this, I find it simply appalling that I have to read via a third party that the new owner (Tiscali) in fundamentally altering or downgrading my previous high speed service to save a few quid without even bothering to notify me about it. Furthermore it is even more aggravating to find this is being done even though I am paying a premium price for a premium, unlimited service and apparently being thrown in the keepnet with the economy users that Tiscali has built it's loss-making business around.

Am I to be expected to keep stumping the current price for a capped, naff service? Are Tiscali even going to bother to write to me and tell me, or offer me the alternative of a chav-rate for the reduced service?

If anyone from Tiscali HQ is reading this then you are on borrowed time my friends. I joined Pipex, not Tiscali, all those years ago because I wanted a premium service and was prepared to pay for it. If you bastards think you can take me and other premium Pipex users for mugs cut chopping away at the service we pay so much for you may very soon find yourself losing all that meaty Pipex Customer Base you paid so much to acquire last year.

Start by actually writing to me and introducing yourselves and announcing the change of ownership, Then tell us how you'll guarantee the high-end service we were paying for. And you can tell us about the new Customer Service centre you've replaced the sacked Pipex one with. That's a start... it's called Customer Service and you havn't made a good showing of it so far.

MP calls for law to force online shops to verify customer age

Suspcious?

Look if the Government just enforced the existing laws on the sale of prepayment cards that would just solve the problem.

But if they can tie online sales into the ID Card system the Government can also monitor your online sales patterns by linking the authorisation to the requesting website & items!

Trebles all round !!!

Accenture and BAE pull out of ID card project

Greedy rats desert the sinking ship

Jeez, if Accenture and BAE are running away from this project this early in the lifecycle then things must be really, really bad inside there. This is the equivalent of pikeys refusing to tarmac your drive.

Will any other contractor be daft enough to step into the breach? How much with the Government have to increase the TCV by to tempt someone back in?

This will be fascinating to watch...

Will Microsoft parachute Windows 7 in early?

The Dilemma

I not sure this really changes Microsoft's underlying sales problem, which is that most users (and more importantly clients) get pretty much all the functionality and resiliance they'll ever need with Windows2000.

Everything they've done since then has been bells and whistles. For example what was the rationale behind renaming the long standing "Add/Remove Software" option from Control Panel in Vista? In what way was the old option failing to do it's job?

The more they just needlessly fiddle about with it the more frustrated I become. Perhaps if their next OS didn't need a Dual-Core PC with 2Gb of memory and a monster graphics card just to run they'd make some sales, but what do I know...

Tiscali hits 'undo' after bandwidth throttling chokes iTunes

Customer Service

I think that it's a measure of Tiscali's approach to it's customers that as a Pipex customer I have never received a formal notification that Tiscali had taken them over. How many months is that now?

I mean... how much does a bloody email cost to send out ?

O2 misses iPhone targets

Crockoshite

I'm sorry but if they've sold 190,000 units how is it that no-one I know has one and I've yet to see one?

I sense... bullshit...

DVLA's 5m driver details giveaway

Yeah... WTF?

How ironic that some pleb company can acquire my personal details from the DVLA for only £5, but if I want a duplicate of my V5 that costs £25...

C&W eyes Pipex access network

Empty inbox

As a Pipex customer of over 10 years, I'm still waiting for someone to actually tell me that Tiscali have taken it over. You'd think after 4 months someone would get around to it dont'cha..?

Byrne puts fake ID frighteners on illegal employers

Hypocrisy

I find it interesting in this case to compare rather extreme levels of checking and bureaucracy being imposed on businesses in this case with the Home Office's own pathetic ability not only to prevent illegal immigrants entering the UK, but also not being able to count (or even remotely estimate) the numbers of Eastern Europeans who've flooding in during the past two years.

Furthermore compare the penalties for employers proposed by Mr Byrne for this "offence" and compare that with the lack of criminal and civil penalties available to prosecute the recent incompetent "losses" of personal data under the Data Protection Act.

Indeed since the HO has clearly also been caught employing a number of illegal immigrants in 2007 will Mr Byrne be the first to step forward for a jail sentence and a £10,000 fine?

Though not...

Darling plays wait and see on HMRC disc loss

Standard New Labour tactics

Whenever this Government is caught with it's pants down it's almost stock tactic these days is to "announce a full independent inquiry". Doing this allows the Government to kick the whole issue into the long grass whilst appearing to be "doing something" about it.

The inquiry is appointed to someone with a favourable view of the Government (or as in this case someone whose Business income is substantially dependant on Government contracts) to ensure a favourable analysis. Then in advance of publication the Government has the opportunity to edit the draft report, remove anything it disagrees with and absolve the Ministers of any responsibility. When the report is published the Government minister simply agrees with the recommendations and says most of it's been implemented already.

Gordon Brown has personally initiated over 25 independent reports in the summer, including investigations into Northern Rock, the Dodgy Doner scandal and now this one. The Hutton report is another example that springs to mind.

Someone must hold their feet to the fire now - not in six months time. It is absolutely disgraceful that these muppets should be able to determine the scope and timescale of inquiries into thier own alleged incompetence. If a similar accusation was levelled at a Police Officer or Doctor, those people would probably be suspended from duty pending the results, but apparently MP's are an exception to the rules.

Zep fans warned off touted tickets

"Security experiment" was ridiculous

The wonderful "security measures experiment" proved in my case enough to turn the chance of a ticket down.

I have a good friend who was lucky enough to win tickets in the initial lottery. However the ridiculous "security measures" demanded that I have to travel half way across the country on a different date to the concert, somehow locate my friend at the O2 arena, and then queue for most of the bloody day simply to get a bloody wristband fitted.

The concert ticket cost enough, but travelling twice to a venue instead of once simply because of "security" is just bollocks. It's a waste of my time, it's a waste of my money in extra travel costs. Who's considering the congestion caused and the carbon footprint of this stupidity?

I'm sure those people who bent over backwards (or is that forwards?) would just say I'm not committed enough, but I disagree. The "security" arrangements ruined all chance of attending for rme. It's a concert, not a bloody religious experience.

Biometrics won't fix data loss problems

Slightly misses the point

The complaint letter is probably perfect in one sense because being only one page long it's just within the attention-span of your average Labour minister, but I think it also misses a very crucial point about Government data centralisation strategy, and the creation of the NIR.

Regardless of whether a Biometric is used to verify a transaction at the point of access or not, the underlying fact remains that the Government's collection, storage, integration between systems and planned data-mining activities with the data itself represents a huge danger to society, and one that is not protected at all by Biometrics.

In other words, the Government is planning to create a detailed, invasive, personal data profile of every single citizen in the UK; one where the "hub" data demanded by the NIR (and verified back to the Biometric) is then linked to your tax records, your bank accounts, your employment history, your house layout, your cars and thier movements, your medical and legal records, your telephone and email exchanges, your foreign travel, your educational history and any criminal activity from a speeding fine onwards.

Not only that, but it will be possible for them to link this data to that of your family, your employer, and your friends. They will also be able to link it to publicly available databases such as credit agencies, voters rolls and MOSAIC to establish items such as potential voting patterns even more accurately than they can currently.

In an environment like that, there is almost nothing you can do of any significance without it being recorded on one of the relevant databases. This data is simply priceless, and the Government is not only about to demand the pieces of legislation and data to link it all up, but by introducing the Biometric at the point of use will be able to control what you can and cannot access in terms of work, ownership, access to services such as schools/hospitals - and travel.

Indeed that level of control need not be explicit. Once the ID card is issued, people will realise very quickly (but, I suspect too late) that the Government is watching and approving thier every move. Will anybody want to join a public demonstration, or write a Government offensive blog, or even write a letter of complaint to the Guardian with the veiled threat of being registered as a troublemaker by the Government hanging over them?

More to the point is the public aware that all this data will in fact be insecure? How many public servants are going to have access to all of this? Do you think a single one of them will need your Biometric to look at your data, to data-process it, or to produce statistics from it. Who will stop someone printing your whole life out and publishing it without your consent, or saving it onto a couple of DVD's and posting it second class?

That is why I remain completely opposed to the ID Card and the NIR. What I find utterly depressing is that so many of my fellow countrymen are too apathetic or ignorant to care about this issue. It's depressing frankly...

New taskforce to discuss why more people aren't turning to digital

Try this for starters :

Since the Government are clearly too bloody stoopid to realise why people aren't bothering with DAB let me claim the "Captain Obvious" award for this thread.

1) I already have a number of existing radios in my car and house.

2) They work perfectly well thank you very much. And the quality is fine too.

3) Given statements (a) and (b) why on earth would I consider shelling out loads of money for DAB replacements?

Let's not even get into stupid points against DAB, like the shit coverage, the fact that I don't actually need either replay or pictures with my radio, or the fact that nearly all the new DAB stations I've heard about sound shit.

Is that enough to hold a select committee hearing around?

UK.gov plans more active-traffic motorway ANPR cams

IBM steps in

Scope creep. Don't you just love it?

We're all destined to be tagged, monitored, controlled, charged and administered whether we like it or not. It would be cheaper to just tattoo a serial number on everybody's arms, but then that would be too much like Naziism wouldn't it?

Microsoft UK cracks another head over grey software

Self defeating

Frankly it's Microsoft themselves that are probably more responsible than anyone else for the damage to the software reseller market.

By pricing thier software prices in the UK at pretty much a 1£::1$ exchange rate compared with the cost in the US, they attempt to openly exploit thier own dominant market position and exploit thier customer base.

As if further proof were needed Microsoft also follow this policy with the pricing of the xBox.

But whilst I'm sure Microsoft won't listen to anything I say on here, if Microsoft's software sales in the Vista era are ever going to turn around from thier current tragic position, they're really going to have to examine thier policies towards thier (potential) customers in this regard because right now it doesn't look like too many people are buying thier boxed software any more.

Top judge: put everyone in UK on the DNA database

Nothing to hide?

For all those people who feel they have nothing to hide, that's fine. Just get yourselves off down the Police Station today, get your samples taken and add yourselves to the National DNA Database.

I also have nothing to hide, but I consider the compulsory taking of my DNA for "just in case" to be a significant invasion by the state on my privacy. I am not a criminal, but at the same time I have the right not to be treated like one "just in case". My DNA, like my reading preferences, like my Internet activity, like my sexual preferences, like my Political views, like the CD's I play in my car is NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BLOODY BUSINESS.

The "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" argument is just regurgitating David Blunkett's marketing strap line - it has no intellectual arguement beneath the buzz phrase at all.

The truth is everyone wants your DNA. They want to own it, analyse it, but also to find new uses for it, to market it and sell it to whoever they can.

The Government's track record in this regard is clear. Will you "nothing to hide" people be so happy when Government shares your DNA with the Americans, the Insurance Industry, the medical companies, Social Services, or your employer?