* Posts by Steve Browne

209 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Apr 2007

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RIAA tried to shake down 10-year-old daughter, suit claims

Steve Browne

If 2.0

Nice to see someone biting back.

Now, I wonder if the US politicians will get back to "protecting our children", used so often to implement oppressive legislation, to protect 10 year olds from the might (sorry, bullying) of the RIAA. Perhaps even the "war on terror" could be directed towards them for their tactics, in destroying the "american way of life".

Personally, I think it is disgraceful to threaten 10 year olds with legal action and I really hope that her mother takes the RIAA for everything it is worth financially, as it has no worth morally.

Voltage secures patents on identity-based encryption

Steve Browne

Have they patented a foreign key ?

Hmm, let me see, they use a key to access some data stored in a database.

Just because the key is an email address is surely irrelevant, isnt it ? Or is this the reason I am not a patent lawyer ?

This is just getting too weird.

I knew this was the wrong day to give up LSD

Police officer arrested over IT abuse

Steve Browne

Those who have nothing to hide have only North Wales police to fear

This is the reason, plain and simple, why ID cards are wrong, why having nothing to hide does not mean nothing to fear. I dont know what he has done, nor do i care, just yet another police officer has been caught abusing the privileges bestowed upon him/her.

I dont want safeguards to my information, I want to keep my information mine, private, and not have it shared with the police and whoever their friends are.

Imagine when they know all about us

Ubuntu chief mua muas Microsoft

Steve Browne

Not Sicillian, Old Engllish !

The payment of money to persuade people to go away is a long established Old English principle. I have forgotten his name, Ethelred I think, but no matter, it was called the Dane Geld and was money paid to the Danes ro persuade them to stop looting, pillaging and raping their way across England some time before William the Conqueror got lucky with a pointing device.

I understand something similar was tried in the 1930s by an English government attempting to persuade someone else to stop pillaging and raping. That didnt work out too good either.

Appeasement of an aggressor does not work, never has worked and is ulikely to ever work.

So, behold all you spineless CEOs, do the decent thing and resign. The cowardly path you have chosen is doomed to failure. The bully will be back for more, as always. Do you sleep any better, or isntead of feeling threated, do you just lie awake now wondering what the next piece will be.

Call yourselves leaders, nothing but a bunch of chicken shit cowards who deserve NOTHING.

Congratulations to Mark Shuttleworth and Ubuntu, a true leader of men. I wish you every success !

Dutch police arrest 111 West Africans in 419 clampdown

Steve Browne

Protecting the greedy from themselves

I just find it very difficult to give any credibility to anyone claiming to be ignorant of 419 scams. They have been publicised widely on national news, newspapers and the internet. There are methods to avoid them published in too many places to list.

So, you have won a lottery you never heard of without buying a ticket. Are you rally this stupid ?

Some kind soul you have never heard of offers you a large sum of money for taking part in a money laundering opportunity. Dont you realise that money laundering is a crime, dont you understand why it is so difficult to open a bank account, do you ever think why these regulations are in place. Perhaps you, too, deserve prosecution for conspiracy.

Every (legal) investment advert carries a warning about not getting your money back. Mortgages carry a warning about losing your home. So, receiving an email from someone you have never heard of carries no risk at all, well, it didnt have any warning on it.

I have no sympathy for victims of 419 or associated scams. They are trying to help in perpetrating a fraud, whether the fraud is genuine or otherwise. They deserve their losses, in precisely the same way that others would lose if they had been successful. They show a willingness to defy the law of the land and are extremely lucky not be prosecuted for it. Perhaps this is what it takes, prosecute the next person to complain of a 419 scam.

If someone wanderd up to you in a [Street | Pub | Cafe] and asked you to open a bank account for them, would you do it, would they. If they then asked you to deposit £1,000 of your own money in the said account, would you do it ? If they promised you millions in exchange for it, would you do it? If you wouldn't do any of these things, then why do you do it when you cant see the person making the offer and do it because it is an email.

People do not fall victim to 419 scams, they fall victim to their own greed !

FTC eyeing Microsoft, Yahoo!

Steve Browne

Why do they do it ?

I never understand quite why Microsoft are always moaning about other companies. They have bank balances that make people's eyes water, they have money that could not be spent, yet they continue to whine and winge about everyone else 'picking' on them.

Perhaps if they kept their corporate mouth's shut, left others to enjoy peace and harmony and tried to count the money they have the world would be a better place, and the FTC would not be looking at them.

The could, of course, spend some of their money getting their software to work, and try worrying about their own back yard before looking into other people's.

So what's in a URL? The Reg URL?

Steve Browne

Keep .co.uk

They already have Tony Bliar, they will get Gordon Brown (hopefully) but keep theregister.co.uk . .co.uk means that proper English will be used and it is good to have a well known web site to support correct English spelling.

I could go along with a theregister.eu too.

The flaws in the control order 'fantasy prison' mind game

Steve Browne

Vote for an independant scotland

John Reid is the most serious danger to the population in this country since William The Conqueror. Now, as I see it a vote for Scottish Independence will remove him and many like him back north of the border, so removing them from power and we can live in PEACE in OUR Green and pleasant land. No more control freaks, no more lies, no more illegal behaviour from Parlliament and perhaps we can regain some of the freedoms we used to have before throwing sweet papers away was made arrestable.

If the police do not feel they can do the job with the draconian powers they have, then they are in the wrong profession and should go and get a job more suited to their skills (none) and abilities (none). We need more and proper enforcement of OUR liberties.

Sorry, I stil believe in innocernt until proven guilty, the right to silence and the fundamental better the guilty go free than the innocent are punished.

For those of the "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" camp, erm, people on control orders have nothing to hide, they have commited no crime, yet are punished for doing, well, nothing.

How did we all end up with Windows?

Steve Browne

Defaulting

The problem of defaulting lies in the amount of time and skill required to establish a proper requirements document. If what you have works for 'free' then why spend money searching for a means of improving it with no means of determining whether any improvement was achieved. It is the supremacy of mediocrity over real need.

Few companies wish to spend anything on IT. They also go to the wrong places for 'advice'. Ask an accountant which software to use, answer:- Sage. Why? because it is what we use. MYOB is better value, it has lower purchase costs and includes additional functionality, Quickbooks is highly recommended too, but an accountant will still recommend Sage because it is what they are used to.

They may have 'consultancy' divisions. But, why ask a vested interest what you should be doing. They seem to know, hmmm, and what do they seem to know ? All of the major frauds perpetrated by large corporations have been overseen by the major accountants. So, why would you trust someone who is looking after their own pockets and not yours. Corporate mangers do though.

Reports of problems are sanitised because junior managers do not want to be the bearer of bad news. It it isnt upbeat and on message, then they dont want to hear it. Why do they look for something beyond their control to blame for their miserable performance. How many blame strikes for their poor performance. Perhaps if they didnt cause strikes in the first place life would be better for them (and their long suffering customers).

Mediocrity rules, because no one has the balls to tell their boss his talking through his arse.

I have seen charts displayed as THE defining fact. Yet, I was sitting next to the person who was inventing the figures to make the charts look good. They weren't a fact, they were fiction. But it was an impressive PowerPoint presentation, it looked good, shame about the content. The same company lost its CEO some time later for misleading shareholders, perhaps if they hadnt misled themselves first they woudl actually have done their jobs and made something for shareholders. (These two facts are not directly related, they are to assert that CEOs have no idea where the figures on which they base their judgment, orginate).

Employees rarely care about their employer. Why should they, there is no job for life any more, the employer does not care (or pretend to care) about their employees. Now, a career is managed by job hopping. Is this really how you want your business run. So, sit tight, dont upset the staus quo, dont rock the boat, follow the herd and look to jump ship as soon as possible, hopefully onto a higher deck and follow the same prescriptive route.

Follow this path, and you find mediocrity is entrenched. ther eis no thought abotu what is used, who cares, they arent going to be here for long anyway. Stick with the defaults

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