Posts by Armus Squelprom

UK council selling the farm (and the fire station) to fund ballooning Oracle project

Re: Lemmings

This is exactly what's needed. There are 317 local authorities in England alone, operating in one of 3 modes - District, County or Unitary. For each, the same set of legal duties apply, the same basket of services are provided, and the same staff are employed on the same terms. The business case for a bespoke IT infrastructure is obvious. The Local Government Association could coordinate the creation of a pooled £500m pa budget, with each council contributing pro-rata to their size. For the largest councils, eg Birmingham, it might be £5m pa at worst (compared to their £216m Oracle disaster). £500m would amply fund a first-class development service to create and maintain a bespoke system tailored to the peculiarities of the sector, developed in close consultation with the councils. It would be a huge bargain for the public purse.

Better still, when financial systems were established in stable and satisfactory working order, the service could move onto other common needs in the sector. HR systems for managing recruitment, training, discipline, annual leave etc. Planning systems, highway maintenance systems, tree inspection systems, etc. From my personal experience, children's social services should be a particular priority - there are multiple commercial CMS systems in use, and they lack interoperability. Every time an involved family moves over a border, the transfer of records, assessments and plans is a struggle.

This seems so obvious and necessary, I don't know why HM Treasury didn't insist on it during Austerity. We're wasting huge amounts of money by allowing our LAs to be isolated and fleeced one-by-one, instead of banding together and taking control of this.

Remember Norton 360's bundled cryptominer? Irritated folk realise Ethereum crafter is tricky to delete

Opt-in, my arse

"Norton Crypto is an opt-in feature only and is not enabled without user permission."

Perhaps they can show us the dialogue where the customer sees a clear explanation of this function, and then ticks or selects to activate it? Obviously not, what they really mean is "it was buried in the EULA, which only had accept & refuse options". Honestly, who could trust such a scummy company with their IT security?

Post Office coughs £57.75m to settle wonky Horizon IT system case

Re: PO

Nick Wallis at https://www.postofficetrial.com/ would be a good place to start

It *was* fully auditable, right down to keystroke logging. But Fujitsu's contract allowed them to charge Post Office a steep rate for access, so the PO relied upon the less detailed management reporting system which they had routine access to. See part K of judgement, where this is is strongly addressed.

Having followed this story for several years and read all the judgements, what's really clear at this point is that Post Office's behaviour towards subs was based upon false confidence in Fujitsu's competence. PO were certainly complacent and naive in this, and arrogant in their assertions that "the computer cannot lie", but Fujitsu now emerging as equally guilty in giving false assurances to PO.

Re: Plea bargaining

It isn't explicitly called "plea bargaining", but this sort of thing happens often in UK and not necessarily wrongly. If the defendant knows that the evidence will convict them*, they may negotiate a lesser charge in return for guilty plea, or offer a lesser plea in the court proceedings. Eg Smith denied murder but offered a guilty plea to manslaughter or Jones denied causing death by dangerous driving but offered a guilty plea to driving without due care and attention.

(* what distinguishes the Horizon cases is that the defendants and courts were not aware of how unreliable and weak the evidence was. This recent judgement suggests that the Post Office were also substantially unaware, and were blindly relying on Fujitsu's assurances that the computerised records were "robust".)

Bloke who claimed he invented Bitcoin must hand over $5bn of e-dosh in court case. He can't. He's waiting for a time traveler to arrive

Reading the judgement, it seems the burden of proof is upon Wright now, to some extent. His repeated and serious dishonesty has led to the court rightly making presumptive findings against him. If he further refuses to provide meaningful and proper compliance to court orders, then he's at some risk of jail time for contempt.

Ultimately, the court is likely to order that Wright owes half of the 1,200,111 Btc which were transferred in his supposed "dog ate my homework" trust (p21 judgement) to Kleiman's estate. Then it becomes a simple(r) matter of enforcement.

Fraught 'naut who sought consort's report says: I was up to naught, I will thwart fault tort

Headline of the Year

Why are we talking about passwords and laws, there's nothing new or interesting in this case from a legal POV. It matters only as the vehicle for one of El Reg's finest headlines.

Law enforcement versus Silicon Valley's idle problem children

Re: Apple and Google need a secret agreement

"the next false flag attack" ....? I'm not aware of any recent, relevant incidents which could be described thus. Perhaps you're going to lecture us about the melting point of steel girders, or tell us how Sandy Hook was a Mossad operation?

BlackBerry revenue slips below $1bn as users shun BB10

There's still demand for Blackberry 7 devices where?

A large chunk is probably public sector. Highly-secure mobile comms, low handset cost and dirt-cheap data plans. Most already have the server infrastructure well-established, so adding extra users isn't a problem. Physical keypad is preferred, and fancy functions are often disabled by group policy. If Blackberry keep selling sturdy, reliable phones then they might rescue a niche market.

Anons torn over naming 'n' shaming of 17yo's gang-rape suspects

Meh, RCMP can have their face-saving excuse as long as there's action.

Laptop shoots spike into owner's hand

I smell a dodgy compo-seeker....

This 11cm piece of steel passed through the dvd drive's casing, and still had enough kinetic energy to pierce the guy's hand? I can't think of any component in a dvd drive has the capacity to fire a missile with that sort of force - 20lb ft minimum.

BlackBerry Messenger archives open for inspection

Sinister, much?

No sympathy with the rioting & looting yoofs, but surely RIM can't just hand over total access to everyone's messages without notice, consent or a warrant? Secure comms is a major part of the blackberry sell, they will shoot themselves in the foot (or radio) if they do this.

Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

What did I do?

Perfect Ten, Collings & Herrin, now Sarah Bee.

Why do they all leave me?

Lawyer wants WikiLeaker kept off suicide watch

Shame on the USA

They are mistreating this guy in a manner bordering upon torture, with the obvious intention of breaking any remaining free will or dignity he may have .

And then they'll produce a sleep-deprived, schizoid defendant, sedated to his eyeballs, and lead him through a rehearsed confession that Stalin would've been proud of.

Utterly despicable.

Standard smartphone charger to dominate in two years

Nah, you're confusing mini & micro

"it might be just me... but my current phone uses microusb, my old phone used microusb, my dads 2 year old motrolla uses this"

UN defends human right to WikiLeaked info

Sometimes superfluous

"An information dump without the proper context will allow for people to draw a wrong conclusion and their actions will do more harm than good."

The USA is free to provide any context, explanation or evidence it wishes. This situation is a great opportunity to have an adult dialogue with their citizens.

Bollocks to that

"And no, you're wrong. There are things done by governments in the name of their people that you or others have no need to know. At least not for 50 years or so."

That was the bad old days, and they're not coming back.

Internet firms welcome CEOP chief's exit

Good Riddance

The man was a blustering shroud-waving bully, more interested in building his empire than anything else.

Anti-piracy lawyers' email database leaked after hack

This is just soooooo funny

Go scriptkiddies, blast your way to freedom with the LOIC!

BlackBerry World hits 10K apps

The eBay app is borked

It's the only thing I wanted (apart from google maps, natch) and it won't recognise my username & password... :o(

Buxom buttocks bolster Beemer bonnet

We're a simple-minded, smutty lot....

Great, innit?

Time to kill the zombie health records

Also Happening With ContactPoint....

The policy & implementation teams aren't going to quietly disband, give back the money and go off to the dole queue. They're trying to reconfigure the projects as local initiatives, arguing that the benefits were recognised years ago and shouldn't be sacrificed.

I know that in at least 3 council areas local to me, there is a rearguard battle to continue Contactpoint. The killer problem is subject consent - eg how can they ignore it without without national legislation? We should watch out for 'creative' proposals being slipped under the radar to get around this.

www.no2id.net

ISPs told to keep filesharer naughty list

offshore VPN

It's time has come - even if you're not infringing Hollywood's precious profits, nobody should have live under this sort of suspicion-based surveillance regime.

Perhaps the new govt will have the cojones to overturn this madness before it goes too far (eg Dangerous Dogs Act).

Ridley Scott talks up 'nasty' Alien prequel

That's a classic!

Geoffrey Boycott in Star Wars... " You dinn't want to be mucking about with t' force stuff Luuke..."

Johnson: ID cards will pay for themselves

What do they *do* to incoming Home Secretaries?

Alan Johnson seemed a reasonable, tolerant sort of chap. Within a week he's sounding like O'Brien in 1984, just like all his predecessors. There must be an induction briefing, but is it :

- Here is the incredible power you now have, as long as you play along with our peasant-scaring strategy. or...

- Here are the true threats facing UK, the real reason why we absolutely have to arrest photographers and kill black suspects - but the public cannot be told

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses

That motto in full

Don't be merely evil, go further

Facebook rejects CEOP 'panic button' demands (again)

Jim Gamble = J Edgar Hoover

Power-mad, skeletons in closet.

Guy Kewney, pioneer, guru, friend - RIP

Sadly missed

A stellar figure in UK 'puter journalism.

Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over 'child porn'

I love this guy

Because Jimbo Wales obviously hates and resents him.... :o)

Frisco fanboi frenzy on 'iPad Day'

@ AC 16.31

"The beauty is that there is NOTHING you can do to stop the iPad coming to dominate mobile computing!"

mmm, yeah. Just like everyone's got an ipod, an iphone and a mac?? Be realistic, AC - Apple kit is aspirational and pricey, it's never going to dominate the market.

Software engineer demands source of his speeding collar

How The Law Works....

"History is not on his side. In November 2005, another Florida court, in Sarasota County, hearing a drunk-driving case, ordered that the code for the breathalyzer used in that collar to be handed over for examination by the defendant.

Despite the court order, all research suggests that the code was not handed over by the breathalyzer's manufacturer. The defendant, meanwhile, was convicted anyway and the case closed a year later in November 2006"

So corporations can simply flout a court order, and citizens get convicted anyway.

Million pound Usenet indexer found guilty

The War on Search Engines

The RIAA rep crows that they're not currently targeting Google but..... "websites have a duty of care to prevent the availability of illegal content on their websites".

So let's look forward to a China-friendly world where all net searches are automatically filtered to remove anything illegal, offensive or transgressive (by the standards of any individual, corporation or nation with the power to sue). Their version of Web2.0 will look like AOL circa 1993 - just links to nice, safe shopping & hobby sites.

I'm not a total fan of pirates, hackers, spammers etc, but if I have to take a side I'll stand with them against the smothering embrace of the RIAA pigopoly.

Royal Navy starts work on new, pointless frigates

It makes me proud to be a taxpayer

The cold war is over, but we're spending billions on Trident, supersonic fighter planes & cruise missiles. Obviously our soldiers don't have proper boots or vehicles, but savings have to be made somewhere if BAE's cosy, corrupt monopoly is to be maintained.

Is iFlorist the greatest website in the universe, ever?

There are some problems with your post.

Perhaps Trustpilot could borrow our esteemed Moderatix for a few days, slap a bit of sense into them... :o)

Sarah's Law review skewed by handpicked sample

The Sad Decline of Expert Judgement

These researchers are well-regarded in the criminal justice arena - experts in risk assessment & management, etc. It's very disappointing that they've put their names to such an uncritical, unthinking report. The government must be very pleased with their obedience.

Blunkett: 'The dog howls when I whip out my ID card!'

Bollocks to the whole stinking thing

ID cards, biometric passports, national id registers, implanted chips - I don't want any of them, I prefer freedom and dignity and I accept the very slight risks associated with that.

Paypal freezes Cryptome

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

PayPal hadn't offered an with an explanation at press time........

How about "it's my nature", like the old Aesop fable

Man of God backs Beverley porncoder

Hull Daily Mail isn't fit to wrap chips in.

This is my local paper, and yes it's notorious for having multi-page adverts for sexlines, massage parlours and escorts, which make a veeeery tidy profit for them.

I have no connection with Mr Smith or his hu17.net site, but I can tell readers exactly what crime he has committed - he is providing free, fair and interesting news for the town, and that threatens the HDM monopoly.

They're just vermin who weren't good enough to get a job with a national tabloid.

Minister deploys 'dodgy' DNA case study

Outrageous Delay

"The European Court of Human Rights ruled against the policy of indefinite retention in late 2008" and our supposedly pro-freedom & dignity govt is *still* trying to find excuses to continue the harvest.

UK BitTorrent admin acquitted on fraud charge

Excellent Result!

Nobody could've complained if the BPI had sought an injunction or other civil means to protect their IP rights. But to send in a dawn raid by Police and prosecute an overblown criminal charge was clearly taking the piss. Well done to the jury for refusing to accept it.

Windows 7 - the Reg reader verdict

So, what does it *do* that XP can't. do?

Not being funny or anything, but I've read a lot of the coverage of W7 (including fawning magazine articles surely ghosted by MS PR) and I've yet to find a unique, important function which W7 offers over a properly configured XP Pro.

Okay, with XP you have to add a few external apps for critical tasks but that's arguably an advantage. I specifically prefer to trust TrueImage backup for example, compared to a built-in function which might be corrupted along with the rest of the OS. Ditto AV, etc.

So really, all you happy adopters - apart from "new & shiny" what other key benefits are offered in W7?

Palestine mobile operator struggles for room to breathe

Utterly Disgraceful Behaviour

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1117296.html

"…The chief of staff conditioned his approval of a second cellular provider to the Palestinians’ withdrawing their appeal to the court."

That is an appallingly cynical and bullying stance, and a matter of shame for Israel.

Home Office stonewalls ID findings

Lies, just more more lies

They'll cook up some rubbish using biased questions or tame samples, and then they'll release it as a positive change story - "Young people told us what needed to be tackled to make this work - we listened and we reviewed our proposals. Now young people say that the relaunched New-Entitlement-Citizen-Card is great!"

North Wales Police institute new happiness law

A major clean-up is needed.

It will take decades, or a very substantial civil insurrection, to move the police back into a public service ethos.

This "we are the masters, you will obey!" attitude has to be eradicated - a good start would be to formally discipline all officers who are discourteous to a law-abiding citizen (just as we would if they were bus drivers or nurses). It will probably be necessary to get rid of 90% of the senior officers though, as they plainly don't care about incidents like this one.

Tory surveillance backlash: Worthy, but is it workable?

May God Have Mercy On My Soul...

I'm gonna vote for them, unless Lib or Lab make similar commitments.

NO2ID beats off ad complaint

@ Francis

I've signed the pledge, made a monthly contribution *and* fellated the Chair on a quarterly basis.

Database containing 1.8m UK postcode locations leaks online

Excellent

It was public information held by a public body, should've been released years ago

Tory MP to sue over sex smear email

Fighting like rats in a sack

They're all as bad as each other...

Home Office foot-dragging exposes ACPO to criticism

Kudos to Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer

"Given that the majority of ACPO’s funding is provided by the public in one way or another and that its leading representatives are generally serving senior police officers, it is effectively a public sector entity operating as a private company. It is responsible for leading the development and direction of police authorities in England and Wales; so its public functions are obvious. It co-ordinates strategic decisions among police forces and much of that decision-making process is opaque and unminuted."

She has some pretty sound ideas - http://suemiller.org.uk/

Police drag feet following DNA law change

At the next election....

I shall hold my nose and vote for the Tories. I am absolutely ashamed of that, but it's the least bad option available for a civil libertarian.