Posts by Anthony Mark

Twitter bomb joker found guilty

He should stand for election in the next General Election.

I know it's gonna be a long way off (or maybe not), but at least he's now fully qualified, as a convicted criminal, to take a seat in the Commons.

Racist content on US server 'within UK jurisdiction'

Re: A Book

Only if the Californian newspaper is also distributed in the UK and the article is clearly intended for UK based readers.

Auto thief foiled by guardian satellite

That doesn't sound very politically correct...

Are you sure you're allowed to call the car 'disabled'?

US state bars sex offenders from 'social networking sites'

Hmmmm... What is a sex offender??

Does the definition of a sex offender in Illinois include people caught urinating in public, teenagers having sex with the girlfriend one year youger than themselves who happens to be underage, and men who have sex with bicycles in hotel rooms?

Met amends journo photo guidance to prevent interference

@ scrubber

"Why are people so willing to put up with this infringement on our rights when the IRA did a heck of a lot more damage on the mainland than Al Q ever has?"

Simple. The members of the IRA looked just like normal British people so it was much harder to vilify them. People of middle-eastern or Arabic background, especially devout Muslims, are much easier to vilify due to the much obvious differences between 'them' and 'us'.

German lad hit by 30,000 mph meteorite

"It bounced off his hand before embedding itself in a foot-wide crater in the ground."

I doubt it. More likely his hand bounced off the meteorite. Momentum and all that...

Student sentenced for F-ucked up grade hack

If only they'd put this much effort into their studies...

Perhaps they would have gotten 'A's legitimately?

ID cards not compulsory after all, says Home Office

The point?

Compulsory passports would only be compulsory for British Citizens. How does this help prevent 'terror attacks' from foreign nationals?

More likely just backing down in the vain hope they might win the next election.

Street View ghost spooks Cardiff medium

I was astounded...

...to see so many online rags appearring to take this 'ghost' sighting seriously.

ISS spared space junk avoidance manoeuvre

Hmm.

'discarded mechanism used in boosting a satellite into higher orbit" whizzed past at "nearly 5.5 miles per second (20,000mph)" '

Is that 20,000mph its orbital velocity, or its velocity relative to the ISS? It makes a difference.

Put down your pens: Cartoons next on censor block

Coming soon to HM Prison UK.gov

IT will become illegal to think of anyone under the age of 18 in a sexual manner or whilst performing self-gratification, as obviously this would be the start of something that would lead on to something else.

Lights out, Britons told - we're running out of power

John Lawton

But in the Summer the nights are much shorter and brighter so you use less artificial light anyway.

Forced retirement due to age can be justified, rules ECJ

Oh dear...

The older generation havce a whole range of skills that need to be passe don to the younger generation. The Government's push for Apprenticeships is an indicator of this need.

Yet, if you look at, say, engineering, much of the workforce is within 5 years of retirement age. Force them all to go at 65 and all of a sudden you have a hugely diminished workforce with a complete lack of suitable applicants to fill the vacated jobs and also you lose an entire generation worth of skills and experience that have never been passed on.

Harry Potter hangs up wand in 2011

@Kevin Eastman

The backstory was entirely relevant as it helped the reader understand the motivations of the 'bad guy' and understand that he wasn't just born pure evil.

Know your enemy, as they say.

Info chief slaps Met on CCTV in pubs

Is this new?

I have friends who run a nightclub and it's a condition of their licence that no-one is allowed to wear hooded tops or peaked caps inside the building in order to ensure that the police can get good face shots on CCTV.

EU threatens 'formal action' against UK.gov on Phorm

the government said it was possible that future deployments would be legal

it also happens to be possible that aliens may land on Earth next week - it's just not particularly likely.

Of course, seeing as Parliament is Supreme, and that the Government effectively controls Parliament due to having the majority of seats as well as the Whip, there's nothing stopping them putting a small clause into a huge, pages long Act that is only vaguely related to the issue, that effectively legalises whatever Phorm is doing, even if it's illegal now.

Wacky Jacqui Smith says whole country crusading against CCTV

I'm particularly concerned...

...that I have not yet seen an El Reg story regarding the Second-Home Secretary's expense claims...

UFO ruled out of wind farm prang

*sigh*

Was this an Epic Fail?

We need cheap, abundant energy. Here's how

There's a simple reason why scientific research is held back.

Greedy Capitalists are intent on milking everythign for every penny they can ghet out of it. IT's the same everywhere, software, electronics, drugs, vehicles..

The corporations sometimes sit on new developments for decades until they've maximised profit from the technology that would be superceded by the new.

Brits and Yanks struck with embarasment embarrassment

What they fail to point out...

...is that people who speak English as a second language, and lets face it, there are many, are usually better at it then native Egnlish speakers.

The problem is not the complexity of the language, just the laziness of the speakers and also the asbolute failure of our education systems.

The English language hasn't got harder over the last 100 years so there's no other explanation for the drop in literacy other than a drop in standards.

Teen accused of 'sinister' Facebook sex extortion plot

Sounds to me...

...like the guy needs some serious counselling, not a life sentance in prison.

In any case, if you send nude/sexually explicit photographs and videos of yourself to someone who claims to be a woman without ever speaking to her on the phone or seeing her on webcam then you deserve everything you get when 'she' turns out to be male.

On a point of interest, if the perpertrator had actually turned out to be a woman, albeit a fat, ugly woman who no-one would ever dream of sleeping with, and she had committed the same crimes in order to have sexual relations with her victims, do you think she would be facing such harsh sentences? Methinks not.

European Parliament wants criminalization of online 'grooming'

Why not ban adults communicating with children full-stop?

Besides from teachers, no adult should have contact with a child until they turn 21. We can just stick them all in boarding schools and forget about them until they are able to operate as functioning adult members of society.

While we're at it ban children from the internet as well. Yes it's a useful tool, but so is a knife and Idon't hear anyone arguing to allow kids to use knives (in a responsible and constructive manner, of course)

MySpace fingers 90,000 nonces

Hmmm...

They removed *likely* matches... Probably means a fair few innocents have been unfairly labelled paedophiles. What about sex-offenders who aren't paedophiles? What about teeneagers who have sex with their girlfriends who are one year younger than themselves and happen to be underage? What about people who piss in public?

In any case, surely it's up to the parents to ensure that their kids aren't chatting to paedophiles online?

And to be honest, if a paedophile is on myspace using his genuine name and age, then if kids are talking to him then there is something seriously wrong with them in the first place.

Genuine predators are likely to pose as children themselves, and it doesn't sound as if those are the sorts of profiles being deleted.

Birmingham drops the possessive apostrophe

@Emergency services databases (WM Police in particular)

I live in Birmingham - kingseef is my nearest High Street, in fact. The only use that a postcode has here is to distinguish between rival gangs of feral youths.

Following Cllr. Mullaney's advice, I'm sure that the correct spelling should reflect how locals pronounce it, hence kingseef. For the sake of convenience, I elect that we forget about capitalisation also, as the emergency services may be unable to find you if the operator types in the street name sans capitals.

Slightly worryingly, I've seen signs for 'ST. Pauls Square'. Quite how they can justify dropping the apostrophe put keeping the full stop after ST. is beyond me. Also note the incorrect capitalisation of the 'T'.

On a serious note, I've sent Cllr. Mullaney an email expressing my views and I would urge everyone else to do the same. His email address is, of course, listed on Birmingham City Council's website. Should the censor see fit, it is: [e-mail] .

Lucky Mancs could get ID cards first, Jacqui declares

Socialism...

...is a step on the ladder towards Communism.

Paris Hilton correctly identifies UK Prime Minister

Paris Hilton isn't stupid.

In fact, I'm growing more and more sure that the opposite is true and that she is an extremely intelligent and artuiculate woman.

Let's face it, would she have half the fame or be making anywhere near as much money now if she hadn't leaked her sex tapes or didn;t keep playing up to the airhead blonde stereotype? Very canny, methinks.

Deviants, perverts, 'weirdos' - who's going down?

The MoJ...

...have repeatedly claimed that no image that is legal under the OPA would be caught by the extreme porn law. So this law won't outlaw any images that are not already illegal, and therefore is pointless?

Most Americans without broadband don't want it

@Sarah Bee

It's not very lady-like to laugh at people less intellectually able than yourself!

Satyam boss 'invented' thousands of staff

@ Doh! AC

Having had dealings with telephone customer service from several companies recently, I can say with authority that, although Indian callcentre workers are difficult to understand sometimes and don't speak English, they are at least polite and courteous and TRY to be helpful - something that cannot be said for many *British* callcentre workers.

That said, I don't struggle too much with understanding foreign callcentre workers... Then again, I *AM* from Birmingham.

Rapists should be raped, declares Jordan

Rapists should be raped?

I was under the impression that this happened already...

Infant calls cops to dad's dope plantation

A quick search of the property?

I woinder what excuse they had for that then, unless they routinely search every house they enter?

Scotland's porn laws: Can we talk about this like grown-ups?

Imagine yuou are someone who with a predisposition for violent sexual fantasies.

You can releive your fantasies through the use of pornography harming no-one. The law changes so that the punishment for looking at pictures is just as bad or, in some cases worse, than committing the actual offence depicted.

Logically, ou might as well just go out and do the real thing, as the consequences wouldn't be much different if you had self-control and contained your fantasies in your own head, with graphic aids.

In any case, seeing that politicians now believe that seeing a picture of something makes you likely to go and do it, how long before anyone who's watched a beheading video online is arrested for being a potential murerer?

I've only shagged two blokes, insists Paris Hilton

Only done it with a couple of people?

Fellatio doesn't count as 'doing it'.

Last major VHS supplier ejects from tape biz

Blu-ray picture quality is vastly superior to DVD

I have a Sony BDP-S350 connected to a Sony Bravia 40L4000, total price I paid for both was £670.

Now, the difference between a standard definition DVD and a Blu-ray playing at 1080 lines and 24/p frames is obvious and makes one hell of a difference to the film.

Even the upscaled DVD is noticably improved. My experience now, hooked up to a stereo hi-fi, is better than a cinema experience.

Now all I need is a decent AV reciever and a set of 7.1 speakers - icing on the cake.

ecademy exposes customer emails to world+dog

URL Manipulation?

So not something you would find unless you were looking for it?

And then someone, helpfully, decides to blog about it, himself disclosing the private emails?

'Bloody' is an offensive word, declares ASA

Bloody?

Why is it a swear word?

Jamming convicts' mobiles works

Just build giant faraday cages over the prisons

More environmentally friendly as it's passive and doesn't consume energy once it's in place.

Can also be used on cinemas, theatres, museums, public transport, etc.

Student charged after alerting principal to server hack

Am I missing something?

He notified his Principal, anonymously, of the security weakness, and yet he was attempting to profit from it???

Cancer doctor cites 'early' data on cell phone danger

@ Adam Foxton

There's also evidence that DHMO aids in the spread of many infectious diseases, and can also provide a medium for harmful bacterial growth.

Tesco causes couple condom catastrophe

Re: underwear cuddle.

Can you say "abuse of trust"?

School chases truants by text

Just charge the parents £5 a time to receive the texts...

...and they'll make sure their little darlings are in school every day.

Heathrow T5 security tackles Transformers t-shirt threat

Words...

...fail me...

DIY satellite TV installer shoots wife dead

@ Greg

"so trying to infer that gun crime would increase if America banned guns is mind-bogglingly stupid, if you don't mind me saying so."

Except for the fact that if guns were banned in America, owning/using them would be a gun crime and no doubt the statistics would show a huge increase in gun crime to reflect this.