Posts by Ash

Prison officers slam EDS data loss

Working for a school...

I'm very concerned about the whereabouts of personal information held by the Govt on myself.

Day after day, I wonder why more people arent Ex-Pats.

Segway shock army to invade Department of Transport

@David Simpson

That's all well and good, but here's a qualifier; Any driver who overtakes within 1m ("car door width" as my driving instructor used to say) of a cyclist riding on the road, as the Highway Code describes that they should, has his knees removed with a claw hammer by the same cyclist.

God I hate idiot car drivers, and I don't even cycle.

Onto the point, though; Segway should be allowed to use the cycle lane, but have the same restrictions as cycles; Front and Rear lights, conforming to the appropriate regulations for cycling at night time. Brakes are useless, as the thing will topple over or skid. I wouldn't want to high-side a Segway.

Academic wants to 'free up' English spelling

First Surveillance...

... Then ID Cards...

... Now NewSpeak.

Bugger.

Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe

@adnim

That's all well and good, but we seem to be missing something fundamental in our "impending doom" scenario. Namely, this is...

How exactly do we see something approaching us at light speed?

I would have thought, for a particle physics article, that someone would have pointed this out already.

Police quiz BT on secret Phorm trials

@"proportionate and in the public interest"

This is the crux of the matter; Who decides what is in the public interest?

If the public had any real say in the matter, Tony Blair would have been out of office on 20th March 2003.

Employee has no privacy on company computers, US court rules

badsummary

MA had been dismissed, and therefore his equipment would be re-distributed according to company policy. I've no doubt that this includes inspecting the contents of the drive to look for company property which would be destroyed if the computer was wiped before redistribution.

In short, the guy was no longer an employee.

Facebook - The Movie! Exclusive storyboard peek

The only person on the edge of their seat...

... Seems to be Zuckerberg, from the story board.

Nice job.

How to stop worrying and enjoy paying for incoming calls

Solution

PAYG SIM, Wireless enabled phone, TruPhone and Fring use only. Don't even give out your SIM mobile number.

If the Man is going to screw the punter, the punter will screw the Man.

Screening calls is easy, too; Let it go to voicemail.

You ALWAYS pay for convenience. Maybe it's time to take a little inconvenience to get some decent market pressure back in the game.

Phorm: Our business is fine, honest

Three ways to combat this.

1. Set up a P/O box and tell people it's a forwarding service to the CEO's of BT, Virgin Media, and TalkTalk. Collect all the letters (after a publicity campaign on the web) and deliver them, by hand, after telling the local press what's happening, to the offices of the three companies. Something as simple as "Any company which affiliates itself with Phorm, or any other intrusive targetted advertising company, loses my business. Signed xxxxx" would do.

I would like to see 3 A4 5-ream boxes full of letters at least to each company, addressed to the respective CEO's.

2. Write to Phorm subscribers (the companies which will advertise with them) telling them that you will purposefully use software which pulls data from a list of extremely varied content websites, making the data they are sold by Phorm totally unusable. Tell them you're going to purposefully ruin the business model.

Then do it.

3. VPN Tunnel to a foreign nation with better regulations. Not ideal, but a final option if the above don't work.

Phorm needs to die.

2. VPN Tunneling to a foreign nation. It's not s

Google restores Chrome's shine

@censored

If I send a book to a publisher, i'm pretty sure they want exclusive rights to publish my work. Otherwise, they wouldn't publish it.

Write your best seller in Google Docs, and you can't guarantee that right. Nobody would publish your work.

Kids may benefit from mobiles in class

Expect headlines in the following order

"Phones in School Help Kids Learn!"

"Phone Pilot Successfull in Local School!"

"Phones Dished Out to School Students!"

"Students Mugged for School Smartphone!"

"Children Hold ID Card To Prevent Muggings!"

I forsee a dark future in this.

McKinnon a 'scapegoat for Pentagon insecurity'

He still faces extradition?

Here's a quick solution to his problems.

If extradition is granted, he immediately pumps his thumbs into the eye sockets of the closest person to him, as soon as he finds out. If it's someone involved in the extradition process, all the better.

If he's going to be tried for a crime with a sentence similar to Murder in this country, better he serve that sentence in one of our jails than one of theirs.

PC Gamers get Bill of Rights

I can't believe EVERYBODY here has missed this one...

XX. Games shall run as well in a Limited Access User Account as they do when run with Administrator privilages. Settings files, Saved Games, and any temporary data will be stored appropriately on the computer to facilitate this.

XX. Games shall recognise a change of User Account when run, and will retain customised settings based on the Logged On user.

Seriously, how difficult is it to store the configuration file to somewhere in the Documents and Settings\Username directory instead of a single file in the game directory?

UK punters scowl at webmail ad targeting

Mentioning of the featured company's name > 5?

Yes, for 6 total.

This, ladies and gents, is an advertisment. It just costs less to get the (heavily biased) survey done than it does to get journo's interested in an alternative email outfit.

Arrest made over data-stuffed eBay laptop hard drive

Another seemingly innocent person...

... With his name, address, fingerprints, DNA, and any other personal information they care to want stored on some database for HM Gov to lose.

There's nothing in this world which would make me "Help police with their inquiries" other than a guarantee that, unless other evidence is found making me a suspect of the case, I would remain uncautioned and free at all times, and no personal information, excluding a proven name and contact details for verification of testimony, was collected.

Any other situation, and i'd feel under pressure to say something just to be released. That's duress, isn't it?

UK.gov child data-sharing scheme delayed (again)

Let them have the details

When they're all finally posted to Wikileaks, some guy's Blog, or mailed to a member of the general public in two "password protected" DVDs, maybe we'll finally stop whinging about the Government's problems with data security on internet forums and ACTUALLY GO OUTSIDE AND STAND BEFORE PARLIAMENT, AND MAKE THE PUBLIC'S VOICE HEARD.

I'd go down there myself, but hey, there's a new episode of Mock the Week on iPlayer, and of course there's plenty of Dragon's Den...

Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks?

Bill Hicks doesn't need a movie about his life.

If you don't know who he is, check out some of his material on YouTube. Very wise man indeed...

I'm off to listen to "Hooker with a Penis". It reminds me of the RIAA.

UK.gov to spend hundreds of millions on snooping silo

@A.Coward (Re: Darknets)

Download Freenet and start posting material.

So far, however, it's lots of porn, hacking manuals, and anarchist literature. It needs a serious injection of useful material before the general public will use it.

Teachers give toilet CCTV top marks

I missed the part...

... Where they talk about installing CCTV in students toilets. Only in the first sentence, regarding a survey about installing them in a staff room, is it mentioned.

I can tell you, as somebody who has full access to the CCTV system of a secondary school (camera hardware, remote storage server, access to camera feeds) that if they tell me to install a CCTV camera in a toilet, i'm telling them to SERIOUSLY reconsider, and if they fail i'll be sending the proposal to the PTA and the parent's e-mailing list.

I worry that there are people out there who think this might be a GOOD idea.

Three found guilty of web extremism plot

@V Quote

You deleted words regarding peaceful public protest (Standing in the street doesn't blow up buildings), yet you include a reference to blowing up a historical landmark (The Old Bailey)?

Besides, hasn't "V for Vendetta" been classed as extremist literature yet? "Insight to commit acts of TERRORISM!"

I was going to add a little bootnote here about making Napalm, and how you'd all now be guilty of the same crime as these muslims. However, in all honesty, i'm too scared.

Well done, HM. Gov. You're daemonising your own populace. Expect a lot of them ot not like that one bit.

Teens admit to Grand Theft Auto-inspired petrol bombfest

I bet...

... they were listening to Marilyn Manson at the time.

Sensationalist bullshit.

Ten of the Best... Bluetooth Headsets

I wonder...

Aren't these lists supposed to be in some kind of order?

You have No. 1 AND No. 10 with IDENTICAL ratings. It makes NO sense.

Agency sues to stop Defcon speakers from revealing gaping holes

Don't release it at Defcon

Release it on Sourceforge.

Fuck 'em.

BT slams bandwidth brakes on all subscribers

For God's sake, stop whinging.

They couldn't give a shit.

If you want to change things, you have to be willing to SACRIFICE. Stop the Direct Debit payment, refuse to pay the fee for early termination, and get 5000 other subscribers together to sue the SHIT out of them!

Either that, or bend over and assume the position. You can whinge all you want while they rape you for your money, and laugh all the way to the bank; Your polite protestations are going unheared and unhindered.

Stop talking and start DOING.

Olympus SP-570 UZ 'superzoom' camera

Fujifilm S8000fd (Owner)

£200 cheaper, 98% of the functionality. the 18x zoom is more than decent enough for images to print on 8"x6" photopaper after reduction.

This camera is rubbish for the money. Spend the extra £60 and get the EOS 450D if you want a GREAT camera.

NebuAd jettisons PR firm, employees

Kill it.

Kill it dead.

Leave nothing behind.

Apple pulls posted pulled iPhone modem app

Yet another example of...

... The Streisand Effect.

US customs: Yes, we can seize your laptop, iPod

Secure erasing

Someting I forgot to mention above:

"Excuse me sir, we found a large amount of random data on a flash drive in your bag. We believe it is encrypted information. Could you please provide the key to decrypt the information?"

"It's blank. I used a secure deletion program to write random data to the drive once the files were deleted. There's nothing on it."

"Could you please provide the key to decrypt the information?"

"... Shit."

@Comments: Constitutions, Encryption, and other points.

I am not an expert, but here's my (partly informed) opinion:

Constitution: There is no US Constitution until you pass through Immigration. Pointing out you're on US soil means nothing, as it's classed as International Territory until you're through Immigration. Forget it.

Encryption: The DHS want to make sure the data they have is accurate and complete, so they'll probably want to compare the copy with the original. The Border Guard won't care about encryption or not; He'll want to see if THIS word document is the same as THAT word document in the copy. If he can't read either, you don't get your laptop back until he can.

Fly back home: Good plan. Trouble is, to get into Departures you need to get through Immigration TWICE. I don't think they'll have a special room just for you to be awkward without some very unhygenic investigative practices occuring.

Either take a vanilla Vista installation with a couple of letters and family photos, or leave the whole thing at home and use a cyber cafe / hotel computers. If anyone paying attention figures out you purposefully circumvented "The System" i've a feeling that US Gov. reading your latest sales figures will be the VERY least of your worries.

Reg hack insults the Parachute Regiment

Must have been Cannon Fodder

Officers (should) know how to construct proper sentences.

It's official: Samsung shows off i8510 8mp cameraphone

High megapixels...

... does not mean better pictures!

What about decent optics? Optical zoom? Image stabilisation? ISO and focal length adjustment?

I know i'm asking a lot from a phone-camera (the right way to arrange these two words!), but if they're selling it on the camera's capabilities, they should focus on those.

In fact, i'm only whinging because you've not headlined the article "It's official: Samsung shows off Wifi, HSDPA, and GPS enabled 16GB Multimedia Phone (with 8MP Camera)."

This might, MIGHT replace my E51. It'll have to be something special though.

AMD Radeon HD 4850 and 4870

@Pointless

I like to be able to upgrade my system when required, not buy a whole new system and junk the old one.

I like backwards compatibility.

I like being able to use my system for more than just gaming and watching movies.

I like playing games which aren't available for the PS3, Xbox, Wii, or other console.

Good effort on the flame, though. A couple more runs through the Twat-O-Tron and you'll be set.

Tesco causes couple condom catastrophe

What the hell?

She didn't assume he was going to get her in the sack?

Sounds like the guy's in a shitty relationship anyway, if she's that insecure.

Vendor touts PC's Mac OS X compatibility

@Justin

Regarding your "IBM PC Compatible" comment, it's still a very common requirement for games. You'll frequently see those very words when asking for peripheral devices, such as mice and keyboards.

Whether they're just behind the times, or doffing-the-cap to the progenitor, I don't know.

Police told: Delete old criminal records

suddenoutbreakofcommonsense

What's going on here? Have we invaded Iran? Are we sending more UK troops to Afghanistan?

There must be a reason for this good news... They don't do stuff like this unless there's some ulterior motive.

Maybe they'll pull "This guy who stole an A4 envelope from a newsagents in 1958 had his records deleted and got a job in a school, went on to stab 76 pupils and also exposed himself indecently. WE NEED TO KEEP MORE RECORDS FOR LONGER!" on us, sealing the deal.

I don't believe there is any good news, when talking about government and policing, anymore.

SF's silent sysadmin pleads not guilty

Make it easy on yourselves, SF

Drop the charges, give him immunity from legal action for this alleged offence, take him on as a one-time contractor for a ludicrous amount of money (that idiotic $5m bail should do), get him to open it, change the password, and give it to the new Admin. He / she can then change it to something else, and all is well.

You get a BULLETPROOF system (as proven by your many days of attempting to fix it), and he gets recognition for building a system the suppliers couldn't even get into without reflashing appliances and rebuilding your entire network infrastructure from scratch..

If I was you, though, i'd take him back full time on double pay, no hard feelings; The guy is OBVIOUSLY not slacking on the job. If he was, it's because he's done his job to the best of his ability, and that ability seems to be better than anyone elses. Get some humility, FFS.

Ubisoft pirates game fix from pirates

Never illegally downloaded a game...

... Always downloaded cracks / mini-images for them if DRM / Copy Protection is present.

I have about 30 games installed at any one time, and I play some of them more often than others. Swapping discs constantly damages them, and good luck getting a replacement from your local retailer / game publisher when it's knackered. "That's wear in normal use. Go buy it again if you liked it so much!"

I suppose it's the wrong way to go about it, really; As long as they still get their money, they'll keep pumping out this crud.

Nike pulls Air Stab trainers

Please...

Kill me now.

I'm done.

This is just too much...

EMC adds Mozy lifesaver to Iomega drives

@Unlimited

Good point.

Another one is "How many personal documents can you store in a 2GB TrueCrypt file-volume when you take your laptop across the US border?"

Fastscale sends Windows Server to Weight Watchers

@Michael Duke

You have access to the SAS System?

How about the Nokitel code?

Your Kung Fu Style number 10!

UK boffins roll out video periodic table

Takes me back...

... to GCSE Science.

I remember a video of a guy doing the same thing with Caesium. Needless to say, the Pyrex tub used to hold the water didn't stay intact for very long.

eBay UK pimps users' privacy for targeted ads

AdBlock and Targetted Advertising

You think AdBlock will help?

AdBlock will stop you seeing the targetted adverts; A definate boon, but not the main issue.

The problem is eBay tracking your usage, making money from it by selling the data to Targetted Advertising companies, and not passing on benefits to the customer in the form of reduced costs. There's privacy concerns too.

I've not bought anything of worth over eBay in over a year; This won't affect me in the least, but i'll still close the eBay and PayPal accounts out of principle.

Irate sysadmin locks San Francisco officials out of network

@Andy Taylor

The BOfH is (most likely) named after the author, Simon Travaglia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Travaglia

Home Office unveils tagtastic immigrant control plans

Detention in the community

Only a Stanley Knife or a bolt cutter away from Freedom in the Community.

Joke Alert as this scheme cannot be serious...

Criminal record checks could hit over 14 million people

@AC (Cycling example)

Sweet Jesus, what the hell was that? Not only were you TOTALLY factually incorrect (The UK has no Jaywalking law; Stop watching re-runs of Lethal Weapon movies), but it is LAW that pedestrians ALWAYS have right of way. ALWAYS. They are the most vulnerable, therefore they go first. Drivers have to stay well clear because they drive 70MPH 2.5 tonne death machines. Cyclists are not exempt from this law.

Pedestrian in the road? Move around them. Running them down is illegal.

If a woman driver ploughed down a guy walking down the road and killed him, but beeped her horn to "tell him to get out of the way", she'd be in prison. The cyclist deserves the same.

Boy I sure hope you have a job which doesn't put anything more dangerous than a toilet brush at your disposal; You might think shouting at somebody that you're going to stab them is fair warning when you murder them.

New York pressures more ISPs into child pornography crackdown

Usenet

Who the hell told a bunch of morons like AOL about Usenet?

Someone's been breaking the first two rules...

Report fingers prints as ID scheme's point of failure

@AC (That's an idea!)

No point. Anywhere you drink, anywhere you touch a knife and fork, anywhere you press buttons, use the phone, open a door, click a mouse, or make a cup of tea, you leave your fingerprints.

Instead, i'm investing in a large quantity of superglue to coat my fingertips before the Govt. comes and breaks my fingers to get a print.

Without arrest (For a crime other than failing to provide ID for the database), that's pretty much what it would take.

NebuAd makes meal of opt-out cookie

To ISPs World Wide...

DO NOT WANT.

Jacqui Smith kick-starts yoof ID debate site, site kick stops

Slashdotted...

.... before Slashdot got to it.

A new record!

Please, somebody in the right place start the No Confidence process so we can tell these idiots to piss off.

Drobo 'data robot' revamped with Firewire

More pricing bullshit

$499 != £350

Someone find a Grey Importer and publish contact details.