Posts by Mr Smin

UK military may recruit wheezy, alcoholic keyboard warriors

No. Now go and sit on the Group W bench.

NHS England backs down over another data extraction scheme

EMIS doesn't own this data

Would the government write to Oracle to get data on Tesco's logistics? Each GP is a business with a contract to provide NHS services and they own that appointment data, not EMIS.

(Tesco / Oracle example for hyperbole only)

ACPO defuses impending photo row with police forces

Old chestnut

The happy slapping scenario is a red herring. If the police witness a happy slapping incident they can arrest the perperator. The idea that the arrested person can then claim journalistic exceptions regarding the material recorded on their camera is laughable.

Spotify ports its music streamer to Linux

Wine...

WINE Is Not an Emulator!

Copyright wally of the week

calm down

Looks like the asker is asking (on behalf of a non-profit organisation) if you don't mind them circumventing their local newspaper's requirement that submissions must be signed over in person - he likes your article and thinks people in his area should read it and this was the best way he could think of to do that.

Mis-conceived, poorly explained but not really worthy of your reaction.

Vodafone gives away internet over Christmas

The article ...

...already answers your speed question.

Digital divide looms again over superfast broadband for all

To: gareth

perhaps you mean penal labour - unless the idea of prisoners installing FTTH with their dicks turns you on or something

Google's Street View spycar clocked in London

that's put my mind at rest

I was following one in my RRV in Oxford last month and wondered what the dickens it was. Glad it wasn't the lizard overlords survey vehicle.

Gov claims 'password protection' OK for sensitive docs

i'd hate to give them the benefit of the doubt

.....but since the person who stated that it was password protected is not employed in a technical role, maybe the machine was decently encrypted and he just didn't know the difference because from his perspective 'you have to put a password in'....

even if i'm right, she should still get fired for storing classified stuff on an unauthorised machine.

Bloke finds illegal immigrants living in loft

@Law

I had the idea that they had the full use of one house but added extra space by annexing neighbouring lofts - that would mean they had a bathroom and kitchen, albeit with a bit of a queue.

Overall, the story sounds like bollocks though.

A quarter of UK adults to go on child protection database

are they admitting to no confidence in the NIR?

if the NIR was any good, it could contain a field for this sort of thing - compare that to the DVLA database which shows what a person is qualified/provisionally qualified to drive/ride

can't see the need to have a whole new database for this - apart from adding another carriage to the gravy train

Organised crime law crushes animal rights duo

especially loved by lawmakers

there's a history of awkward interpretations of the law - before the Computer Misuse Act, someone got done for 'criminal damage' on the basis that they had altered the position (status?) of some particles of a hard drive (in the course of unauthorised access). sorry I don't have the full details.

UK electricity crisis over - for now

thinking selfishly.....

could someone knowledgeable comment on the need for UPS at home? The article only says that supply variations are 'mostly harmless'.

Dixons admits 'it's even worse than you thought'

a small defence of PCW

I used the reserve online for something i needed same day - website worked correctly and a few minutes later someone phoned me to apologise that the item was not actually in stock - ok so not great stocking but major thumbs up for taking the trouble to save me a wasted journey

i have also benefited from their confusing pricing systems - having got them to honour two discounts on the same sale of a PC to a friend of mine.

HSBC plugs hole that exposed site directory

building

leaking the layout of a building may be an asset to burglars.

US lag sues over prison crash diet

Aramark eh?

That sounds about right - they recently took over catering at my local NHS hospital. Look forward to hospital patients being under-fed.

BBC vs ISPs: Bandwidth row escalates as Tiscali wades in

i'm sorry, i'll read that again...

"When I got tired of the BBC, I tuned my TV and Video away from all the stations, removed the antenna and cables, then stopped paying the license.

If I tried that now, I would be in trouble I have equipment capable of receiving the BBC's transmissions over the internet.

I would happily use one of the ISP's named by the BBC so I could avoid paying the license fee, and so I could avoid paying for other people using Kontiki."

iPlayer is a catchup service - a licence is only required for kit that can "record television programmes as they're being shown on TV" http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp

[News24 live on the web muddies the water a bit though]

Steve Jobs rescues freetards from BBC iPlayer wilderness (for now)

might just watch and delete

some people using this loophole might have no intention of defying the *spirit* of this service - ie. catchup not archive

Healthcare at your fingertips - a Choose & Book roadtest

latest firefox

Ken, I tried using firefox (on Ubuntu) and it rejected me - although enough of the site worked to give me the 'contact us' page. I sent them a message and they replied that it worked with the *latest* version.

I upgraded - and sent them an apology for me not keeping my firefox up to date!

[all for nowt as the clinic i wanted wasn't on CnB at all and I had to phone them direct]

Cambs cops podcast 999 timewasters

Daft Callers

@Robinson - can't speak for the police but as an ambulance man I can tell you there are a lot of people out there who are very selfish/lazy/stupid - contrast with people with actual mental problems who I have far more sympathy for.

People who have found themselves on hold on 999 to the ambulance service are, at certain times of day, likely to be in a queue behind calls relating to drunks who really only require a couple of mates to carry them home.

Mystery Israeli satellite telly disruption blamed on UN

class action lawsuit?

granted i know nowt about israeli law, but i'd be staggered if people could do more than claim their subscription money back for lost tv reception. do they have a lot of americans influencing daily life there?

Florida man faces trial for feeding homeless

@Mike Richards

No, they only clamp homeless people on The Strand - it's a different legal system, you see.

Bluetooth comes to set-top boxes

audio remote

Anyone remember those remotes that used high pitched audio?

With hindsight I guess they were on those frequencies now being used to disperse youths from shops, and which are inaudible to most adults.

I would guess they are (were) good for non line of sight.

T-Mobile, Orange and O2 land Europe iPhone deal

monthly charge lower then?

I may have this all wrong but assuming networks recoup handset subsidies through service charges, does that mean I will get more bytes to the GBP if I pay for an Apple handset since the network will not need to recoup anything?

Patientline results prompt share meltdown

EPR

The point about Electronic Patient Records non-implementation affecting PatientLine is that there was a cunning plan for the clinical staff to have patients' notes displayed on the screen at each bedside, instead of on paper.

Presumably the NHS was going to pay for the privilege of this. I can't actually see Patient Line delivering the necessary service level while running Windows for Ward Staff though.

Teachers left blubbing by cyber abuse

why do they give out their phone numbers?

I can see how teachers might want to help their students by being available at the end of a phone line for them, but surely anyone who has been a teacher for more than one day would realise there is a good chance of getting abusive messages, which is a solid reason for not publicising their number.