Posts by Andrew Taylor

US Congress wants hack teams for self-penetration

Does this mean

that the US are really trying to extradite Gary McKinnon to give him a job then?

California ban on violent video games killed on appeal

WTF

Arnie, who made his millions from gratuitously violent films, objects to violence, surely not.

Paris because at least she knows what hypocracy is.

Abba star slates 'lazy, stingy' Pirate Bay fans

Pot, kettle, black (to useparaphrase an old Yorkshire expression)

Ben Elton, Bjorn and Benny have admitted that they took the script from a 50's Gina Lolabrigida (hope I spelt that correctly) film which was called "Buena Sera Mrs Campbell" or "Mrs Lawrence", updated the location & added some Abba songs to make it a "musical". Isn't plagerism copyright infringement & intellectual theft as well? After all someone else had to come up with the idea for the original idea.

Jacqui Smith cracks down on gangs via computers, closets

Look to the obvious

If we all make a complaint under this law the Police will have to close Parliament, because they all dress alike and discuss wars against other "gangs"

A law that well thought through that it can be used by anyone to close the very organisation charge with making laws, way to go Jacqui.

Parallel importer jailed for up to nine months in Microsoft case

@ Rolf Howarth

If you want to put your licence terms in plain english on the packaging then I agree with you, if you want to hide it inside a load of intelligable legal jargon that only appears after I've bought and installed the software then you sir are a cad & a fool. I can only abide by the information provided at point of sale / purchase.

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah set for top two spots in Christmas Day charts

For Christs (mass) sake

boycott both and buy the Terry Wogan / Aled Jones version of Little Drummer Boy, at least the money's going to Children In Need and not Sony & Cowell

Apologies after teacher's 'Linux holding back kids' claim

C'mon El Reg

Do an update to show how this issue was resolved and stop the idiotic comments on here. It doesn't become you to provide an incomplete & sloppy story for your readers.

Entire class fails IT exam by submitting in Word format

Update

This story was covered on my local edition of Look North, the school has accepted all responsibility because the students were incorrectly told to save the course work in Word format and all the course work is being changed to the correct format and resubmitted for assessment in January. It is the teacher and only the teacher that is at fault here, he/she did not read the course work briefings properly and defaulted to Word. A similar thing happened to a friends daughter, her IT Teacher only bothered to learn the very basics about IT, and MS Office apps in particular, as a result the IT GCSE at that school was only ever awarded as a 1/2 GCSE result. Children wanting a career in IT had to attend evening classes. What a farce.

Brit ISPs censor Wikipedia over 'child porn' album cover

Wrong issue

Whilst not a fan of Wikipedia, it seems to me that this is an issue with IWF not with Wikipedia and I am more concerned that the guardians of our internet morals find the picture sexually stimulating than the fact that Wikipedia have the cover on their site.

Black helicopter, what else

BNP leaked list claims first victims

re BNP leak

OK folks, before the mudslinging begins, I am a W.A.S.P. who thinks that the BNP are the scum of the earth who hide their true racist beliefs behind the guise of Nationalism, but others have done that before and will no doubt do the same in future. What gets me about some of the comments in this and the previous thread about this leak is that the posters are quite happy for this information to be stolen and leaked but will have been shocked and appalled when this happened to organisations they approve of. As has been said previously the BNP is a legal political party and is entitled to the same protection under law as any other party. How many condemming the BNP here have quoted Paster Martin Neimoller in the past but choose to forget his words now.

With regard to the police officers on the list, they have broken their terms of employment by joining a political party, not by joining BNP in particular, and should be punished appropriately.

As for the teachers that are members, if they have not broken their employment terms and have not brought their politics into the classroom, who cares what their politics are. The leader of the National Union of Teachers was interview on the Channel 4 news and stopped short of demanding that these people be sacked, this is also the union that condemmed parents and farmers who wanted a right of reply against the Vegetarian movement that was showing fabricated and factually incorrect videos to 5 year olds to promote their politically correct vegetarian views. If it's not wrong for teachers to brainwash children into becoming vegetarians why is it wrong for a teacher to keep his right wing political views secret, remember ............. first they came for????

Invest in Britain, it's fingerprinting good

But

the US is threatening to pull out of the Visa Waiver scheme from January so all 'merkin diplomats & troops coming to the UK will have to have a biometric visa, oh dear, I'm gutted

Vodafone says termination rate clampdown would hit the poor

How about the day this comes in

everyone calls Reding on both her personal and work mobies, see how she likes it.

Actors paid to queue for Poland's iPhone launch

oh FFS

it's a phone, some people will like it, others won't. What Orange Poland do to promote their products is their business and is nothing to do with any other country, for the sake of the bigots on here, both pro & anti iPhone, it's called advertising and promotion or do you idiots only buy unadvertised products.

Mine's the one with "Just Grow Up" on the back

Anatomy of a malware scam

My 2 penneth

I use Windows, Mac's & Linux boxes and think that instead of the various fanboi's gloating, they should be looking to help inexperienced users identify this sort of scam. I've seen this in scam in several forms and would add the the following, turn off System Restore before removing this malware as some variants hide there and re-install themselves next time the PC starts up, creating a vicious circle.

Personally I think this sort of scam is targeting the gullible, after all when you buy a PC what is one of the main selling points, ease of use. People buy a PC because it's easy to use, they can plug it in, fire it up and almost immediately start browsing the net knowing they are protected by the free AVS that comes pre-installed, 31 days later they have a PC full of viruses. Users have an obligation to learn about the product they're using and retailers have an obligation to let customers know about the risks of "ignorant" and uneducated use of PCs on the net.

I think this whole scenario is summed up by what a friends daughter, who works at one of the major electronics retailer in the UK, told me, "we only sell Norton to help boost our after market warrenties & service contracts because Norton attracts viruses" This was after refusing to put an AVS on her laptop. 2 weeks later I got to repair the virus ridden lappy.

If she represents the attitude of the sales staff and the retailers, this sort of ignorance and scam will never be eradicated.

Hope I've not rambled to much.

Forgot to ask

Is there any chance of this article being done as a downloadable PDF as it needs circulating as widely as possible.

ISO rejects Office Open XML appeal (redux)

@AC re Open Office crashing

Funny, I switched to Open Office because of Microsoft Office products continually crashing, result my office applications no longer crash. At work I am continually asked why Word doc's and Excel spreadsheets continually crash or lose information, must be user error then and not the exagerated claims about capability. Look at the big picture before commenting, pillock.

Mashed up Met Police crime maps go online

not a rhyme either

but what about "Karloff" 'cause his policies certainly scare the shit out of me.

Japan kicks off electric car format war

Do smug Prius owners

suffer from priapism?

Dangerous mobe chargers flood UK

Re @Sarah re @mobe

Really folks, anyone over the age of 40 knows that a mobe is a yellow 50cc step through "motorcycle" with pedals & made in France, honestly the youth of today.

Mines the tweed one with leather cuffs & elbows

Lesbians like straight men, researchers find

@Bring on the cure

Why, what can Robert Smith do in this instance

US imposes 72 hour pre-reg for Visa waiver travellers

For those Americans

that think that the USA is an innocent terrorist target, just look at your history of sponsoring Dictators & terrorists during the last few decades, The Shah of Iran, eventually deposed by a popular uprising with the result that Iran now hates the USA, Saddam Hussein, provided with US weapons to attack Iran, the Taliban, provided with US funding to destabalise the Russians in Afghanistan, the IRA, funded through Noraid to blow up the USA's friend Great Britain, the Contra's in Niceragua, funded to destabalise a democratically elected government who had kicked out profittering US companies, the repeated attempt to destabalise Cuba after Castro kicked out US businesses, gangsters & CIA operatives to get rid of an oppressive dictator. When will the US Governments learn that the best way to make friends is to keep their nose out of internal squabbles that have been resolved and to approach the country with an open hand.

It is the mandate of the UN to deal with oppressive Governments that are out of control not the US.

If the US had learnt from it's past mistakes it wouldn't be so hated now.

The hard part about this issue is that it's the idiots they elect to power that give the wrong impression of the ordinary, normally likable, Yanks that I have met over the years.

Teen battles City of London cops over anti-Scientology placard

Where are all the solicitors?

Solicitors & barristers seem to find time to protect the human rights of scum like Peter Sutcliffe but can't help the young lad in this case, why not?

Also isn't this a clear case of contempt of court by CoLP, a High Court judge has ruled CoS to be a cult, a young man is arrested for saying so therefore the CoLP are disregarding the courts ruling ergo contempt of court. Simple now we just need a honest solicitor with the balls to act honourably.

Your personal data just got permanently cached at the US border

@AC

Sorry to disappoint you but I don't work for US Border Control, the US Govt don't like employing Brits to control their borders, I was just posting my experience of last Sunday. I returned to Canada to finish my holiday yesterday and found the Canadian Border Guards to be friendly and good humoured unlike their US counterparts. Tomorrow I will fly home to the UK so please explain how I am actually working for the diseased company. If you can't stand a true experience without raising bogus accusations, stick to the comics you usually read, maybe next week someone will give you the crayons to go with the comic.

Storm in a teacup

Having just gone through the US border whilst traveling from Toronto to New York (and back) as part of a holiday I can assure you that US Border Patrol are more interested in getting your $6 admission fee than inspecting your laptop / digital camera / mobile phone records. Most of the passengers on my carriage had laptops in use and camera's / mobile phone's in plain sight and not one person was challenged about them. I think that some people have been specifically targeted for various reasons and are making an issue out of this. Personally I found the US Border Patrol to be polite and efficient if humourless but there again so are a lot our Customs & Immigration Officials in the UK.

Mystery HDD maker orders kit to build monster-capacity drives

So that's enough space

to install the next generation Microsoft O/S then.

Mine's the Apple White one.

Schools warned of chilling 'Strawberry Meth' menace

@ Peter Fielden-Weston

The one thing he wasn't doing was thinking, panic reaction. Great police work.

Virgin Media taps Microsoft in lengthy email outage

@AC re Kingston Communications

Nope, just because KC won't bend over like BT doesn't mean they are setting the rate at an uncompetitive level, that is illegal. Read your 2nd comment again, realise what you have written, then talk about being competitive. I don't hear these comments about areas where NTL/Telewest/VM have control through their cable supplies. People who preach about open markets then find a reason for their favourite product being subsidised make me sick. I am not prepared to pay higher phone / BB charges just so some other company can come in and cream off users.

As to the unrealistic claim, I became a KC subscriber because they expanded & invested in cables etc to my village so that they could sell me their product in fair competition to BT. Until your favourite BB ISP is willing to do the same they have no relevant comment to make.

@ David Perry

If you don't like Hull, don't come, I'm sure we could survive without your presence & KC / Karoo isn't a monopoly there are plenty of BT business lines in Hull and if you want a home line I'm sure BT will install one for you. As to other ISPs Kingston Communications operates a policy of selling their lines at market price not at a subsidised price as laid down by Parliament, a la BT, if other ISPs want o come in all they have to do is pay the market price for a line. Alternately they can go for true open market competition and supply their own exchanges and lines, then see what they charge. I live near Hull and have a choice of BT or KC and I have opted for KC because unlike the uniformed idiots who don't understand what free competition is I choose the better overall service for my needs. When idiots like you pay my pensioner mother the excess charges that she has to pay on her phone line and calls to subsidise your internet usage then I'll listen to you. We have a term in this area, pillock, go see.

Flanagan reads riot act on police IT

Honest coppers

Remember why the Police And Criminal Evidence Act was brought in, the police were running wild, here's a big case, lets frame someone & look like we're effective. Did this attitude work, ask the Birmingham Six or Stephen Kischo (scuse spelling) who were framed at the whim of bent coppers.

PACE was introduced to protect the innocent, now the police want rid of PACE, how convenient. Before the police can look at reducing their paperwork they need to take a long hard look at themselves and remember what they are there for and who it is they are there to protect. Stop squeeling, get out of your cars, re-earn the respect of the ordinary person and abide by the law yourselves, then, and only then, will you have earned the right to reduce your paper work.

Why Paris because this whole report is an oxymoron and the police know it.

PS for the cynics. No I do not have a criminal record

Ofgem, MoD attack pricey terror-friendly windmills

Some facts

I can't comment about terrorists & low flying hijacked airliners as I have no experience of this although I have flown Ryanair in the past but here are some true statements about RAF low flying & windfarms.

I live in South Holderness, part of Yorkshire just above the Humber, nearby is the old RAF Holmpton radar station which was decommissioned because nothing could interupt or surpass the information gathered at the early warning stations at Fylingdales & Menworth Hill in Yorkshire, was that statement false or is the latest statement false, you tell me.

The RAF need to monitor low flying exercises, since when, there is a now defunct RAF firing range just up the coast at Cowden, about 2/3rds of the way between Spurn Head and Hornsea, RAF and USAF aircraft frequently disobey instructions about low flying over built up areas and often carried out dummy runs on unsuspecting motorists driving around the area but when people complained, the RAF had no record of there being any aircraft in the area. That's 2 of the assertions debunked by actual knowledge not rumour or report.

Windfarms generate electricity, myth the Holderness coast is a prime location for windfarms because of its location next to the North Sea and opposite the European "low countries" and it is normal for us to have winds originating on the Steppes of Russia blowing across the plain of Holderness. I state without fear of contradiction that every time the wind blows any stronger than a gnats fart the turbines are locked for fear of damage and cease producing any power.

Wind farming is a big joke that is a sop to the over vocal and self richeous green element that is costing this country millions of pounds for no valid reason and is destroying the countryside just to satisfy a blinkered minority.

Hamster-in-rain emergency prompts 999 call

999 what jokers

I rang 999 last year, time 7.00am, month January, the conversation went something like this -

Operator - "Emergency, how can I help you?"

Me - "Hello I want to report a car parked facing southbound on the outside lane of the northbound carriage of the M18"

Operator - "Can you say that again, I wasn't listening"

Me -" I want to report a car facing southbound in the outside lane of the northbound M18, it's about 1/2 miles north of Junction 3"

Operator - "Did you get the make and color of the car?"

Me - "I'm a passenger in a car heading souhbound at 70 mph but you'll probably find that it's the only car facing southbound n the northbound carriagewa"

Operator - " Oh yes it was reported 15 minutes ago"

Me - "But the Police Station is only 5 minutes away at normal speeds"

Operator - "Yes sir, is there anything else I can do to help you?"

Funnily this call is never shown as one of those time wasting calls.

btw I never did find out what make and model he car was.