* Posts by Alan

40 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Apr 2007

Welsh mum amazed by Marmite Messiah

Alan

How does anyone know...

...what Jesus (if he ever existed) actually looked like? The pictures we see in magazines/bibles/church posters etc., are simply artist impressions of what they think or hope he looked like, with absolutely no idea what he really looked like - there were no cameras 2000 years ago! AFAIAA, there are no 2000 year old paintings of Jesus in existence, so as far as we know, he could have been 6 feet tall (highly unlikely back then) and really good looking, as many of these artist impressions would have us believe, or a 4 foot shortarse with buck teeth, odd eyes, and a hunch back. We simply don't know, do we?

MP expenses leaker may never be found

Alan

I wish they would find the person...

...who leaked the information on the expenses. We need to know so we can make him/her our next prime minister, as this person seems to have the interests of the public at heart, which is more than can be said about any of the sorry bunch of crooks who are ruining - sorry, I mean running the country at the moment.

Europe calls for rules on RFID chips

Alan
Coat

Why worry about this?

The way the UK government is going, we'll all be implanted with one of these chips before long anyway so the government will be able to track all of us all of the time.

Plod called in on MPs' expenses leak

Alan

Let me get this right

MPs want someone prosecuted for telling the truth?

Oh, of course, how silly of me to forget. Only out and out liars are allowed to be in the government, aren't they?

Zen and the Art of Laptop Battery Maintenance

Alan
Boffin

I have two different laptops...

...both well over four years old, one Samsung and one Acer, and the batteries will still run the machines for more than 100 minutes, the original time on both when new was a little under two hours. No special storage methods have been used. What I have done is charge the batteries fully every two weeks, then used the laptops on battery power until the battery low warning comes up (around 30% power remaining). Then the batteries have been removed, and left on the shelf until needed, then charged fully ready to use. I have never used them on mains power with the batteries installed unless I was charging them.

So, to summarise, I recommend charging every fortnight, running the laptop on battery power until down to around 30%, then remove the battery and put somewhere safe until needed. When you know you will need to use the battery, simply charge it fully and away you go. Never leave the battery installed when using on mains power except for charging purposes.

I know many other people who use this method, and all have had excellent results.

GCHQ: Mastering the Media

Alan

@ Dave Harris

You said: ** IIRC, the place hasn't been called GCHQ for years (if it ever officially was) although I've forgotten the "correct" name for it. **

It is called GCHQ. The name "Government Communications Headquarters" (GCHQ) was officially adopted on 1 April 1946, ans is still called GCHQ now.

Maybe you are confused by the fact it houses other agencies as well, such as Signals Intelligence (SIGINT).

Anyway, as stated by others, GCHQ have not said they aren't deploying the technology, just that they aren't developing it. They don't need to reinvent the wheel, do they?

We are definitely heading towards a police state. Soon, it will be compulsory for all newborn babies to have a chip implanted in the skull, which can be tracked for life, and will be used to monitor conversations and actions :o\

US lawmakers to de-silence electric cars

Alan
Alert

@ AC re: Oh Dear God...

You say "Blind people should be crossing at designated crossings only".

Oh Dear God, what a stupid comment to make!

What about the blind people who are somewhere where there are no designated crossings? Yes, there are hundreds of thousands, probably millions of places like that. What should they do? Keep walking for miles and miles on that side of the road until they find a designated crossing?

Spy chiefs size up net snoop gear

Alan
Alert

Well, this confirms what I thought

Why wasn't legal action taken against Phorm/BT for the illegal trials of DPI? It's obviously because the government want to use the same technology, but with someone else paying for testing.

1m French out of work thanks to dodgy data - UK next?

Alan

@ 3x2

You posted: ***<...> CNIL identified an error rate of 83 per cent on STIC records <...>

Which will never happen here because of course all data will be covered by state secrecy laws so nobody will ever find out what is being held let alone examine it for accuracy.***

C'mon, get real. Of course it will happen. Some government idiot, or an employee of a company contracted by the government, will leave a copy of the database on a train or in a pub, or one gov department will send a copy to another department through the post on unencrypted disks.

Call centre manager in the frame over ID scam

Alan

Policy holders' money never at risk?

**A spokeswoman for Aviva told the London Evening Standard that policyholders' money was never at risk from the scam**

What may happen, though, is they could lose no claims bonuses that are given on many policies due to a claim being registered on their accounts, and when someone puts in an insurance claim in the future, it could be refused because they have >apparently< claimed too many times recently. Also, their insurance premiums may suddenly increase by a much higher amount than the rate of inflation.

I think that means that at least some policyholders' money may well be at risk.

Reg readers in the dark over extreme porn

Alan
Alert

The police know very little about anything.

They don't even seem to know the laws concerning tyre tread depth laws (people still get taken to court for only having 1.3mm of tread on a motorcycle tyre- the law states motorcycle tyres must have at least 1mm of tread), so how could they be expected to know about more complex laws?

FSA fines stockbrokers for poor data security

Alan

When is the FSA

going to fine our government for all their breaches of security, putting people at risk of identity fraud - or worse? Or maybe this government are above the law...

Tory proposes street-legal Segway legalisation

Alan

@ Ru

* one of these days some clever gentleman will find a way to power the humble bicycle with the aid of electricity *

Already done, but electric bicycles are just too expensive.

Brits favour ASBOs for unruly mobile users

Alan

@ Alan

So you will never be an "old gimmer" then? When you reach the age when you can't reach things off the upper shelves, I sincerely hope you ask someone like your present self to get it for you!

Signed, (a more understanding) Alan

Thoughtless irks blasting tinny music at everyone from their mobile phones should be thrown on to the fast lane of the motorway, at the busiest time, followed by their crappy mobile phone.

Ban using mobiles while crossing street, says US legislator

Alan
Thumb Up

I agree with the proposal...

...and it should be introduced in the UK quickly. On numerous occasions someone using a mobile phone has stepped out in front of my car, fortunately with no serious consequences (so far!). I've seen it happen to others as well, causing a car to swerve or brake sharply, and being hit by another vehicle.

Teenage mothers seem to be the worst offenders, talking or texting on the mobile, pushing a baby in a pushchair straight off the footpath onto the road in front of a stream of traffic, with the resultant squeal of brakes and the sound of crushing metal.

It would be interesting to see the statistics on how many children have been killed or injured in this way.

Swedes demand return of heraldic lion's todger

Alan

Why make...

...so much fuss about such a little thing...

Remembering the Coleco Adam

Alan
Thumb Down

Processor: Zilrog Z80A at 3.58 MHz?

Zilrog Z80? You mean Zilog Z80, surely?

I had one of these machines - for 24 hours, then back to the shop it went. Smoke, more smoke, BANG!

ABC fined $1.43m for NYPD Blue a*se flash

Alan
Thumb Down

What is it with the USA authorities?

Check this link to see the "offending" clip

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/television/tv-news-story/ar/_a/nude-buttocks-may-cost-abc-14-million/20080126094309990001

We see that amount of naked flesh during prime time TV in the UK on a regular basis.

Privacy storm descends on Dutch health care database

Alan
Flame

Not just the UK then.

They must have been taking lessons from the various the UK government departments...

Brown knew data loss was disaster waiting to happen

Alan
Thumb Down

The loss of the child benefit was a disaster waiting to happen?

I thought it was data records that went missing, not child benefit.

If a private company loses data like that, the government would be slamming them, and saying they should have encrypted the data. Pot - kettle - black...

Tories and Labour are as bad as each other - they don't give a sh*t about the public, as long as they can fill their own pockets.

Lebanese lottery scam suspect cuffed in Cyprus

Alan

Silly fellow...

He could have ripped - er, I mean EARNED millions off the public legally if he had set up a legitmate lottery, like Camelot.

Ofcom wants to see more unlicensed frequencies

Alan
Boffin

Giving away Spectrum?

Would that be a rubber keyed 16k jobbie, or a 48k Spectrum+? Can I have a Commodore 64 instead?

90mph police chief cops 42-day ban

Alan
Alert

@Not his fault - Anonymous Coward

You said, "Everyone breaks the speed limit on the motorways and dual carriageways..."

Please, don't try to tar all drivers with the same brush! Maybe you exceed the speed limits, but that doesn't mean everyone does. I certainly don't, and I would say the majority of other drivers don't. It is thoughtless idiots who speed.

In my 44 years of driving, I've had exactly zero points, zero convictions, and have never even been warned for speeding, simply because I don't do it. I respect life, but speeders obviously don't.

Having been a professional driver for many years, I've seen the results of accidents where someone was speeding, and believe me, there really are more deaths in accidents involving speeders than accidents where nobody was speeding.

Met Police to pilot Tasers

Alan

Assault with a deadly weapon...

Police bosses and the relevant government departments should be charged with something like "incitement to use a deadly weapon".

Any policeman/woman who uses a taser on any person who is not actually trying to kill someone, should be charged with "assault with a deadly weapon".

If someone dies due to the use of a taser, the policeman/woman should be charged at the very least with "manslaughter", and their bosses charged also.

McDonald's goes McWireless

Alan

Alyson Willis, I sincerely hope...

...that your pupils don't learn spelling from you. "reccommending" ???

Try it with a single "c" next time, as in "recommending" :P

Anyway, are we about to see a sudden rise in the value of houses next door to McDonald franchises? Free internet connection included, but only during opening times!

Police cuff 77 in fake cheque crackdown

Alan

Simple way to avoid being scammed

To make sure nobody else gets scammed, everyone should give all their money to me. I can absolutely guarantee that none of it will end up in the hands of any scammers whatsoever :)

Hospital's brand new '£1m' server room goes up in smoke

Alan

@ Oliverh...

By Oliverh

Posted Friday 28th September 2007 13:34 GMT

***Errrr, I'm not sure you have got to grips with how AC works, but its not "pushing" air in through those lagged copper pipes! Its cooling air that stays in the room by circulating it, no pressure build up! The pipes contain the heat laden refrigerant, literally transporting just the heat out of the room.***

I do know quite a bit about the way aircon works (it was part of my job for a long time). In many places, they have an "indirect" air conditioning system, where the aircon unit is fitted to an outside wall or on the roof. It takes air from outside the building and cools it. Then, there are conduits taken to where the cold air is needed. Fans push the cold air from the aircon to the required rooms. That is the sort of aircon I'm talking about. This includes virtually all supermarkets, hospitals, and large office blocks. If the room has no venting, you get a pressure buildup, as I described.

***Are you one of those people (usually women, sorry for the sexism, it's just an observation!) that says "Oooh it's hot in here, turn on the AC and open a window?..."***

Erm, no, I'm not one of those people. Having installed many heating and cooling systems in commercial establishments over the last 30 years, I do realise that a "direct" aircon system works best in a sealed environment (as in my car), but "indirect" systems don't work if the room is sealed. You can only push a limited amount of air into a sealed room before the pressure reaches equilibrium, then the airflow stops.

Alan

Poor planning/design?

I've been in server rooms that were so hot, the servers kept shutting down. Air conditioning had been installed, but appeared not to be functioning correctly. The reason? The aircon was pushing cold air into the room, but there was no ventilation for the pressure to escape. So, aircon was trying to push cold air into a closed room, the pressure inside the room built up, so no more air could be pushed in, resulting in aircon not doing anything except wasting electricity, and servers overheating. How many server rooms are incorrectly set up like this? Could this have been the case at Jimmys?

Peterborough bloke warned over 'offensive' t-shirt

Alan

RE: Peterborough hits new low! :(

Muzchap said, "I agree with the other poster - traffic wardens are a virulent strain of sadly repressed individuals - fair enough Police officers can and do actually make a difference - but traffic wardens fall into the same category as debt collectors - people that love to make others lives harder!..."

Surely the subject here is "street wardens", not "traffic wardens"...

Microsoft strips Office from charity PC scheme

Alan

RE: I enjoy M$ Bashing...

** 'm willing to concede that free (as in beer) is better than 95% off. But realistically, any charity that can't cough up about $8.00 for a $400 product usually isn't a viable business entity to begin with, and probably won't be able to support for the donated computer for very long. **

First of all, I suggest you either go back to school, or use a calculator. Saving 95% of $400 means they will have to pay $20, not $8 as you suggested.

Then, of course, you would have to multiply the $20 by the number of computers they are using, so a sizeable charity would be paying out a considerable amount of money.

The stupid thing is, out of the $20, M$ will have their costs to be deducted, such as wages, paperwork, et al. That will leave virtually nothing out of the $20, so why not allow them to carry on having Office free of charge?

Cops smash paedophile ring

Alan

Report the b*st*rds

If any readers see any websites that contain child porn, or you receive any emails offering child porn, simply report the details to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) http://www.iwf.org.uk/ straight away.

This way, we can stop these despicable lowlifes between us.

Yahoo! fixes bug that gave free rein to user accounts

Alan

Re: Re: spelling nazis are idiots

I think we can blame the school teachers as much as anything for the bad spelling and grammar. My grandson wrote an essay, and scored 99%. It would have been 100% except he wrote "somethink" instead of "something". That was the only mistake the teacher (final year at school!) picked up, despite the fact that he had used "there" instead of "their" in five places, "your" instead of "you're" three times, and "compleat" instead of "complete".

A letter my daughter received concerning grandson number two a while ago (from his English teacher), had no less than nine spelling mistakes and three grammatical errors, and that was out of only eight lines of text. Apart from that, the letter was handwritten, and it took me quite a while to decipher her handwriting.

How the hell can the students learn from teachers who don't appear to have any skills in the English language?

Send the teechurs bak too skool, thatz wot I sez!

Alan

Re: spelling nazis are idiots

** To the previous poster. You noticed the !, but did you notice that rein is misspelled? **

Actually, "rein" is correct in this context, as the expression "giving free rein" has the same meaning as "letting the horse have its head".

Apart from that, as you're so clever, why did you say ** Unless your talking about horse tack ** ?

In that comment, you used the word "your", whereas it should have been "you're", which is short for "you are", where an apostrophe is used in place of the missing letter "a".

"Your" is used in sentences such as "that is your horse".

Cornish separatists menace Jamie Oliver

Alan

Re: Not just Cornwall

""No, i doubt if they're serious. But on the other hand, Cornish people can't afford to live in Cornwall anymore"

Um... Just like the rest of the country?""

The main difference being that wages in Cornawll are far lower than the rest of England, but Cornish house prices are rising above the rest of England (London excluded).

If you think it is easy to survive living in Cornwall, go there and live for a few years, earning Cornish wages, paying Cornish water rates, and paying Cornish house prices. Add to that, you will be paying Cornish tourist rates for virtually everything all the year round, and many of the luxury items and some not so luxury) you can buy over the counter in other counties, will likely have to be ordered and delivered by post/carrier, making them more expensive.

Your attitude would be different, I can guarantee!

EU slaps 'Davros tax' on mobility scooters

Alan

Re: About time

I'm a disabled person, but fortunately, I can still drive a car at the moment. Do you think I should have to pay more in case I decide to go banging my car into people?

That extra £250 will mean that some disabled people won't quite be able to afford to buy a scooter, so will be pretty much housebound. How would you like to be in that position? If you are in that position sometime in the future, I'd like to bet that you would shout just as loud as any other disabled person when the cost of living for disabled rises for any reason. We already have a situation where disabled benefits have NOT kept pace with inflation over the last 10 or 12 years, not by a long way. This will just make things worse for a lot of people.

Have a little thought for others, please.

Orange simplifies data by capping at 30MB

Alan

Unfair advertising?

The terms "unlimited" and "unmetered" are bandied around by ISPs to attract customers, but surely, if there are limits, it cannot be unlimited, and if it isn't unlimited, it cannot possibly be unmetered, otherwise they wouldn't know you had reached/passed your limit..

Isn't it about time the ISPs were brought in line with all other sales and supply companies concerning advertising? I'm very surprised people haven't taken some of these companies to court for misleading advertising.

Missing German doctor reappears after 22 years

Alan

Title

Joel, you said "How so? Was he doing an experiment or something? Did he wrap himself up? And surely the wife would have smelled it?"

Just to put you in the picture, "mummified" doesn't actually mean wrapped in bandages lol.

Orange Value Promise not as much value as promised

Alan

Looks like they've modified the offer

Orange now state:

" We’re confident that our Business Plus and Business Advance plans offer the best value, service and benefits for your business.

But if you feel that a tariff from another network would suit your needs better let us know and we'll match it, right down to the way it's charged.

***This offer applies to non-promotional tariffs, available to business pay monthly customers from O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile retail stores only.*** "

What a cop out.

Telford dumps OAPs in garden waste

Alan

If this had been posted yesterday...

...I would have been very suspicious...

Bloggers mourn bald, rich Fiorina

Alan

Let me see now, what's the date?

Oh yes, it's April Fools day, isn't it? lol