Posts by kosmos

'Shame on the register to post wrong informations'

Andrew misrepresents the truth again.

What Andrew has left out of this article is the fine detail of what SOPA and PIPA would actually do to the browsing experience of every user. Andrew is a fundamentally conservative writer and social contrarian, but he only presents half of the issue.

The Key problem with SOPA and PIPA was that they not only eliminated safe harbor protection for ISP's and web sites, they actually reverse the burden of proof requiring anyone who posts content to the internet, be it a youtube video, a narrative, a commentary or even a link to a website ensure that none of it breaches anyone else's copyright or IP. The legislation gave media corporations the right to pursue ISP's, websites, users, and even to edit or change DNS records without warrant on the say so of the media companies.

Since the people who generate most of the content on the web are not Fox or Yahoo, its private citizens, we are the ones getting policed. Now, here is the real effect of SOPA it costs money to police user content, if it costs even as much as 5c a post that can be enough to destroy a website's profitability especially if their DNS records have been changed.

SOPA and PIPA handed over control of content production and even the links to that content, to a few media corporations who could make a claim without warrant that anything posted or linked to on a site infringed their copyright. It made websites and ISP's responsible for the content posted by their users even though they cant control their users anymore than I can control Andrew's inability to present all the information.

SOPA and PIPA are not about paying for content they say nothing about freetards, they are pieces of legislation that deal with the control of content on the net. They handed control of content policing to the media corporations whose very existence is challenged by the news/media/content that s posted and/or produced by private citizens.

Sorry, time travelers, you’re still just fiction

Then again...

The Speed of light is only relative to the time it takes to travel the distance covered. We dont really need to travel faster than light, we neeed to slow time down only for the observer so that relatively espeaking verything appears to be going faster.

Thats why I'm a proponent of Shmysics. The study of how various plant extracts when burned and the resultant fume inhaled, can be used to slow down time aswell as other things like brain function. :)

Cloud in 2011: A bright new dawn...

This

Really will be the death of the IT department as we understand it. They say it will be innovative? Anyone who has outsourced knows that innovaton is stifled in a wrestling match between the services delivered, the services required and the cost of implementation and training as you have to ensure that the host organisation is up to speed to support the client.

Local IT has shifted many times before, it will shift again into a new and un-inspiring role of becoming sales rep's and service contract managers. Yes we would all need a degree of local support but the reality is when your network consists of terminals, switches, routers and printers, local support is going to look like a networks guy. The main relationship between host and client will be managed by a service manager on both sides, and the rest of you can get stuffed or enjoy your new roles in accountancy.

As a local organisation IT guy... I mean sales rep... You will enjoy life as a person who's task is to no longer develop an application or database hack or even patch a server. Your job will now be, how much will this service cost and in order to deliver on that you're going to have to talk to the Relationship manager. Hell why not cut out the local guy too, uh, I mean streamline the operation...

As far as new innovations are concerned, explain to me how this wil work when you are not only no longer in possession of local support to implement or even develop such ideas, when you no longer host your own data and no longer even host your own applications. Will you invite the host organisation's developpers to your office at great expense to ask them please mr company develop X for me so that I can be more efficient but make it so it doesn't cost me an extra $100K on my contract? Innovation will come in the form of contract re-nogotiation as the host and the client wrangle over costs of developing and implementing any solution they need to deliver the new service and hope to christ that sufficient infrastructure investment has happened to deliver on the requirements.

Cloud computing will create 2.4 million jobs? I don't doubt it, the reality of that statement is that those jobs won't be entirely new and some of them will be making many more jobs redundant. When your only tool is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts looking like a nail. The axe man cometh and I wish you all luck in your new accountancy positions.

Facebook's position on real names not negotiable for dissidents

Perhaps

They could investigate the creation of an application that can tie activists into an advocacy group that can deliver a more secure forum. Maybe working with an organisation like Amnesty International could help.

Alleged MI6 traitor also accused of betraying spies

I love the smell of espionage in the morning....

Pfft, why bother going to all the trouble of providing laptop hard drives and USB keys yourself, when a search of the london underground and the back seat of a cab would reveal any number of un-encrypted devices forgotten by our (th)intelligence officers.

Employers call for end to Mickey Mouse degrees

Too bad for the employers...

People do not exist solely to service the whims and requirements of a corporation.

Climategate witchhunt fingers scientist

Question 19.

Do you weigh the same as a duck?

Immigration spy centre hit by staff delays

And lo....

We are become the tools of the tools of oppression.

UK jails schizophrenic for refusal to decrypt files

I love the smell of RDX in the morning...

RIPA is an extraordinary piece of legislation, matched equally by the abject lack of intelligence on display here in some of the posts.

RIPA is noted for principally reversing the burden of guilt. Because you can not prove your innocence you are automatically guilty. A failure to produce a decryption key for any reason to data containe on your electronic device can result in the assumption of guilt and an arrest.

Benjamin Franklin said it best..

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Nutt sacking row deepens

I love the smell of letters at dawn...

Ahh I can imagine the written response already... Permit me to take a liberty or five.....

Dear members of the committee,

I endeavour to report to you the facts of the matter that you are seeking resolution too. I can assure the committee that the government has in no way adjusted or alterred its continuing support of independent technical and scientific advice.

We treat with the same level of respect all parties who submit advice to us on any matter in the public view. I find Professor Nutt's resignation to be both un-expected and un-helpful, but wish to assure the committee that the very important lessons are being learned, as we seek to improve synnergies between advice and policy. Besides how can we in governemnt take the word of one Nutt over another nut?

Warmest Regards,

[Insert usual scan of my signature here please]

Alan Johnson.

Home Secretary.

Spain won't disconnect illegal file sharers

I love the smell of Mandy in the morning...

The eye's are open the mouth flaps on occasion, but the brain (much as in the proposal) has been disconnected long ago eh Mandelson?

We have many methods available to us for sharing data on the internet, and un-encrypted Peer to Peer is the least of them. The new policy will drive uptake of encrypted technologies that will make the current technology seem like a picnic by comparison. Detectable by volume only, once a stream is encrypted I wonder pray what will come next?

Can we expect an ill-informed attempt to outlaw possession of P2P software much like the rather laughable 'hacker-tools' fiasco? Will there be a clampdown on the cipher strengths available to ordinary people? Where will this go next, for I see no solution in the current adopted path.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the media industry has one option only, license new digital distribution channels or fall. No one cried for the door-to-door ice sales man when the refrigerator became affordable, obsolescence is alive and well.

Apple to 'vigorously' fight Nokia patent pout

I love the smell of Lawyers in the morning.....

It would hae been much more apt for nokia to compete against apple with a viable product that had neither the dimensional aesthetic or aerodynamic qualities of a brick. Instead of researching elegant design they release the N97 one of the latest in a long line of bricks that on one hand may be as functional as an iPhone, while on the other somewhat broken and tendonitis afflicted hand; tends to leave a crater when thrown at solid objects such as walls.

It seems only too easy to pull out the Imaginary Property arguement and bash the competition into submission rather than actually compete. Once more IP Law comes to the rescue of the monopolistic practice (not to mention providing additional lining to the already well-endowed pockets of the patent lawyers) and the downfall of competition.

Make phones, not war..

Mandy declares 'three strikes' war on illegal file sharers

I love the smell of Freetards in the morning....

Ahhh the outrage, the stupidity, the downright python-esque qualities that seem to be bandied around in these discussions; both fretful and simultaneously highly amusing.

Ultimately the problem as argued by freetards is one of price, but far be it for me to break it to all and sundry, but no retail outlet in the world can compete against 'Free'. So let us drop the facade, for the argument is as wearisome as the soap box/high-horse combination that you seem to be employing.

I concur that artists require financial support if they are to continue to produce quality works that warrant the 10mb or so of disk space their music will be un-lovingly compressed to prior to digital distribution. It is noteworthy that a multitude of alleged 'content providers' have rather parasitically claimed a large portion of the margin for themselves have failed to endear themselves to the consumer by attempting to extort money for products and services that are of lower standard than those that precede.

I grow tiresome of hearing the arguments from content providers that they must be paid/compensated for all the tracks and then expect to be re-compensated again, and again and again for each differation (yes I enjoy the creative process as well) of use. Your customers wish to buy a product and use it as they see fit and if they purchased said product they damn well deserve to use it as they see fit.

In summation I have to say to the freetards, try supporting that which you enjoy to ensure that more of it happens. It really is that simple, lest the creative world be filled with 6yr old you-tubers attempting to sing to old Beyonce tracks, it will happen for there are no options for media corporations at present. This is not your failure as a consumer but rather their failure to anticipate a market that they could and should have licensed but instead attempted to sue out of existence.

In summation to the media corporations I suggest humble pie, apologise for the past years of bankrupting families with ill-conceived lawsuits that in no way endear the public to your cause. How about not suing services out of existence and instead, negotiating reasonable license fee's for content with on-line services that are specialising in delivering your content. You don't need to re-invent the wheel, you don’t need to wheel clamp the distribution channels with DRM but you do need to turn a profit and as you shut down and criminalise services and shackle them with undue license and technological restrictions (8tracks.com anyone?) so you limit your options, coverage and standing. With so much already illegal what digital distribution channels have you got left that aren't?

Stop adopting a single company approach. Your corporations are in this trouble together, Your customers shouldn’t have to go to different services to get different content catalogues by different publishers. The fractured distribution methods are half the problem. Why is the onus on the consumer to do the work of tracking down the disparate services creating accounts on each of them and purchasing content that likely will be supplied in a range of incompatible formats with a range of various obscene restrictions. This situation is unacceptable when the alternative is extremely easy and offers the entire global catalogue for the exchange of a search engine query. Your paying customers deserve better than this.

The time of the little metallic musical disc is over. There is one choice reach a consensus that benefits all parties or fall. Criminalising working families further for the sake of protectionism is hardly fair game.

'Stop NASA bombing the Moon!'

Won't someone think of.....

Moon Base Alpha, we've had plenty of warning about the nuclear waste dump on the far side of the moon. If we start bombing it, it might result in an explosion forcing the moon out of orbit! (Despite the fact that the explosive forces required to de-orbit the moon would actually blow it apart)

The poor inhabitants of the moon will encounter many new species and pick up various interstellar travellers who will invariably attempt to kill John Koenig for no discernible reason. That is all...

Mine is the bright orange one with the yellow helmet......

Home Office declines to detail DNA-for-foreigns trial

Coming next week...

Craniometrics... You have the forehead of an egyptian and the slightly elevated eyebrow of the eternally confused....

Mines the one with the hair stuck on the sleeve and assorted nail clippings in the pocket...

Nation's moral guardians snap over 'shag bands'

I wish

there was an issue I could get outaged about on behalf of a group of people without properly understanding the cultural importance or even, the facts behind it...

Good to see the newsrags are being outraged on behalf of people..

Mines the one with the gold band....

Chinese youth beaten to death at net addiction bootcamp

Absolute idiocy.

Curing Internet addiction.... It's hardly a disease or disorder, nevermind one that is actually treatable. Utilising brutal technologies like EST and combiing it with LSD is downright dangerous and has been generally frowned upon in western societies because, quite frankly, it doesn't work.

Let the kids have some fun under parental supervision, but thats it. Because so far all this seems to be is a brutal reaction to some chinese parents inability to take responsibility for their kid.

Put down your pens: Cartoons next on censor block

Those who ignore history

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." - Adolf Hitler

Are destined to repeat it....

Minister trashes ex-spook chief's liberty warning

Welcome to the UK... Please recite your pledge to the party.

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

Microsoft urges Windows users to shun 'carpet bombing' Safari

Blame Apple

It's funny how the same browser does not have the same problems on OSX.

Actually it does.

Home Office defends 'dangerously misleading' Phorm thumbs-up

Re: Third world country tries to repress leading edge technology

"And the rest of the world is laughing at the UK. Look at Google - they store IP addresses and search words. And you gather into your self appointed posse and scream " oh yes, but I have a choice" well make your fcking choice and don't use BT or Virgin - go and pay more for an inferior service at a second rate ISP who wont subsidise his service with advertising. Go put your money where your mouth's are and stop wining!"

Leading Edge technology, in the quiet words of the virgin mary 'Come again?' Agregating http traffic so it passes through an analysis system is leading edge technology? Give me a break, Phorm aren't the first with a wretched idea like this, they wont be the last. 'Leading edge' implies something new, all Phorm are doing are taking existing technologies and techniques and merging them into a product thats been done before, so give us all a break with that leading edge crap.

You must also be a dolt if you dont understand the difference between Google and Phorm. The difference between Google and Phorm is that I may chose to use Google, but maybe I wont. Not every page I visit that is displayed in my web browser is processed by Google. But with Phorm's apporach they all will be processed by Phorm. So not only will I have to put up with Google, I'd have to put up with Phorm as well, how does this improve my situation when I DECIDE to use Google (this is hardly a sales pitch). If Im opted in to Phorm my pages will be mangled with ads; if opted out they will still be intercepted, they allegedly wont do anything with the intercepted data though (yeah right).

But if you want your personal browsing data to be profiled, data mined and exploited for the financial gain of others, be my guest I hope it works out for you. When you hand your private affairs to someone else for their financial exploitation what do you think they will do with it? Is the only way to grow the business, to further exploit what you have given?

Oh but thats right Phorm are audited. Yeah so is every other business, and any IT professional can tell you exactly how useless auditing an IT system really is, because it can be changed at will at any time. Audited or not, and then what? What if the security protecting the central agregate is crap? What if someone breaks into it? Are you going to tell me that its not a juicy target for an attack?

Xbox 360 burns house down

Microsoft releases poor quality product shocker!

Too bad they cant issue a downloadable patch to fix this one eh?

</humor>

Dear ISP, I am not a target market

A superb summation

One can not claim transparency on one hand, whilst engaging secrecy on the other.

Phorm sells consumers short, by treating our data as its own personal money-printing tool.

Phorm launches data pimping fight back

A correction to an earlier post.

well not exactly a correction, a clarification. The web site is not copied, the pages you view are, and then allegedly deleted after they have been scanned and modified with targetted ad content.

What is sinister about this is not the advertising component.

It is the agregation and capture and processing of every single web site you visit on the web, to build up a targetted ad profile.

Misusing your private communications and sharing them with a third party application gives that application an unprecedented level of exposure to your perosnal and private dealings with every web site you connect to.

That is the issue. its like a wiretap on your phone that you dont know about with people listening to everything said and committing a response to what was said.

Reading your webmail then the prospect is there that they can too, visiting your bank well guess what? Visiting your corporate sharepoint portal, yup that too. All this can be captured and stored, filtered, profiled and modified on its return trip to you, and just because an organisation says it isn't does not mean that it cant or wont.

People are rightly concerned over this because the potential for fraudulant behaviour is unprecented, and we are disgusted with our ISP's because they seem to think this is a good thing.

So Gareth, tell me if you think it reasonable for a third party system to have complete unfettered, un-restricted access to your and everyone elses internet connection and all the actvities and pages you visit on the web. at least the law enforcement agencies need a warrant for that kind of access, PHorm just need to get in bed with your ISP.

Still no KE with horns, come on reg you're letting the side down.

a hacker would not need to compromise phorm,

They would only need to compromise the 'profiler'. The people that run phorm are scum. They are intercepting everyone's data. who is to sya that at some point in the future that they will not switch on a storage function.

All the ISP's are trying to do is turn your computer which you paid for, into a web tv console using a connection you paid for so that your bandwidth which you paid for can be consumed by targetted adverts. If we're paying for all this then why the hell have I so little control over the services I've purchased.

If I were a financial institution I would be seriously reconsiddering the credibility of any backbone operator with this technology in their network (SSL or not). How can I guarantee the security of my clients knowing full well that on certain routes their data is intercepted and massaged by 'scarevices' like phorm.

Phorm does nothing to improve people's confidence in the internet, and instead treats everyone's connection (opted in or out) as their own personal playground. Look at the feedback they have received so far. This is hardly a shining light on trust.

There needs to be a picture of KE with Horns, in the meantime Jobs will do the job.