Posts by MinionZero

World+bitch flocking to expose self on Facebook

@Bothwell and the fools who follow him

What I said wasn't hysterical, that's you playing a straw man argument, trying to belittle what I was saying by trying to misrepresent what I was saying. Discussing HPD behaviour is totally relevant to Facebook as it Psychology in general. We are talking about 500 million user accounts here!. That's what this news was all about ... potentially 500 million users is a lot of people. So I was just trying to put that figure into perspective. That is totally relevant.

So it is you Bothwell, with your very obvious need to suppress what I was saying, who is revealing something about yourself because you tried to misrepresent the importance and relevance of Psychology to this news. Cluster B disorders are central to the way our world is going and that influence is growing on the Internet all the time and it will, if unchecked, totally change the Internet from a dream of a future utopia into a growing nightmare as it is now. So its totally relevant to technology. Cluster B disorders are central to why we are all sliding towards a totalitarian society which is extremely relevant to the Internet and all of technology, because technology is being subverted to the wishes of the Cluster B disorders (make not mistake a lot of NPDs are in political power). They will not rest until technology gives them ever more extreme power over people, which is exactly what they are doing now. Psychology is about people's behaviour, so its totally relevant to directions in how technology is used!

Cluster B disorders are also central to our main stream media's obsession with 15 minutes of fame attention seeking people showing such superficial vacuous banality that its suffocating sickening to watch and make no mistake, media is utterly centrally important to the Internet. The Internet is the biggest growth in media in history, so any strong influence on media is totally relevant to the direction technology is going.

So Bothwell your attempt to suppress what I say just shows more of your attitude. (After all a need to suppress is one of the profile warning signs of someone with a Cluster B disorder, because they try to hide their behaviour from others). NPD's in particular don't want a world where people understand why they do the things they do to others. They don't want a spotlight on them highlighting the harm they cause because as people learn they learn to avoid and protect themselves from the NPD's manipulative games.

Education is vital and its ultimately the only long term way we as a society will ever stop the harm Cluster B disorders cause people and the whole of society and if we don't stop them they will cause a nightmare society for everyone the way they have done repeatedly throughout history. Without Education we will sadly repeat the mistakes of the past which is, the Narcissists gain increasing power over the people, then the people fight back and reset the levels of control, then the levels of Narcissistic control continue to grow ever worse again. So countries oscillate between the levels of power the Narcissists in charge have over the majority of people. So look at the suffering caused to society and people and now look that the remorseless abuse of technology to subvert it into ever more Orwellian ways to gain power over people. We have to fight against that and Education is the key.

Psychology is vitally relevant to the way technology is being influenced. After all the way humans behave is totally relevant to the way technology is used. Its therefore interesting how Bothwell tried to behave as though he totally failed to notice this, in his attempt to misrepresent what I was saying, because he couldn't miss an influence this big, so instead he choose to misrepresent me in an attempt to suppress a conversation he doesn't want people to discuss or understand.

Psychology is vitally relevant to the direction technology is taking and so vitally relevant to our future.

Facebook vs World Population

Current World Population = 6821600000

Facebook Accounts = 500000000

Therefore 7.33% of world Population have Facebook accounts.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY 92.67% OF POPULATION ARE NOT ON FACEBOOK!

Also around 3% of people are classified as having a Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) (i.e. they are attention seekers).

Plus add in younger adults who are very likely to be influenced by the core group of HPDs to become part of the superficial "in crowd" so to speak. After all HPD people want to be the centre of attention so they want followers. That's what all the superficial friend lists are all about. Its to feed that superficial need for attention from large numbers of people they don't really know. Plus HPD people will try very hard to convince others that everyone must be like them and so to follow them (and anyone not like them is to be laughed at and put down to humiliate them into following the HPD).

Plus add in the people who are not fully HPD, but still have a mild leaning towards a Histrionic pattern of behaviour. So we are talking about more than 3% who have aspects of a Histrionic pattern of behaviour.

So is it any wonder this superficial Facebook website gets so many superficial followers and also their gullible followers wanting to be part of the "in crowd" as they say.

After all, humans are pack animals and so HPD behaviour can be thought of as an extreme over emphasised version of pack behaviour found in all of us. HPD behaviour is the result of a child growing up deprived of parental attention (mild patterns of this behaviour are due to for example divorce and/or sibling rivalry where children feel they have to compete for attention, whereas in extreme cases of HPD behaviour, its the result of parental neglect).

This is Facebook's target market! After all the Narcissists running Facebook so often try to exploit Histrionic people (because they are easy to exploit) and (because Narcissists try to exploit everyone) and the Histrionic people are very vocal in trying to convince everyone else its a good thing, because they always want to be at the centre of attention.

Its easy to understand why we have HPD people because put simply, to any creature parental attention is effectively the same thing as parental protection. When children are being watched over by a parent, the child feels safe. When they are deprived of parental attention, they are fearful and so the next safest place for a pack animal is to seek the attention of the wider pack, when their most immediate pack is not watching them, i.e. their family. After all the safest place in a pack is at the centre of attention in that pack.

Its all part of that superficial attention based way of behaving and Facebook is totally designed to appeal to that high profile segment of the population and they are high profile because HPD's want attention! ... so they are a small percentage of the population, but they relentlessly try to influence us all to follow them. All because they want attention.

The problem with HPD people is that just as they seek attention they also seek to deprive others of attention and it is here where they can be extremely cruel to others, as they endlessly fight to regain the centre of attention (and so deprive others of attention by loudly seeking to humiliate others). That is why they behave the way they do and make such a big show of it. Their whole life can often be an act to gain them attention. Its why they are so good for industries such as acting, singing, fashion etc..

That same pattern of behaviour also explains all Reality TV. So is it any wonder a technology like TV would end up getting infested with people obsessed with their own need for attention and then over time they get into enough high positions of power that they can start making programs that appeal to them. So we get endless shows based on people wanting their instant 15 minutes of fame and giving us relentlessly boring superficial drivel. Which is exactly like the vast majority of Facebook, because that is the same target audience as Facebook. :(

UK border security ring-o-steel flagged 48,000 travellers

@"as well as checks of their known associates"

Its very interesting they read anything into "known associates". That is blatant hearsay. Since when has hearsay been evidence of criminal behaviour, yet we have them using known associates as a way of implying people are criminals by association?!

Even worse, combine this idea of "known associates" with our increasingly brave new world of total information and you get an utter nightmare. Not least because it seems our Police State is looking for just about every way it can to increasingly justify (and so get away with) ever more intrusive background probes on just about everyone. So then add in the principle of "Six degrees of separation" and you get a nightmare way for them to justify their intrusive actions on anyone, simply by implying just about everyone is associated with criminals in one form or another. That's the perfect excuse to be as intrusive as they like, into all our lives.

Yet even worse all the time ever more data is building up on all of us, allowing them to find ever more associations via online communications, and that's before you add in the huge amounts of data they can get from friend lists on all the social networking sites. But then as our Police State also aims to spy on all our communications, then they will be able to build up ever more association lists from all that data as well.

After all our Police State only need excuses to be as intrusive as they like. Then they can use that excuse to punish whoever they like. After all the intrusiveness can easily be used as part of the punishment. (As it is already with "domestic extremists"(tm) i.e. political protesters) ... (So better hope you never feel like being a government protester against the growing Police State, because at this rate most people will have trouble even getting to a protest without being stopped and held, at the rate our country is sliding into a Totalitarian state).

So we already have 48000 people affected today, so how many will be affected by the year 2020?

So yet another day and yet another step towards Totalitarianism. :(

Facebook founder called trusting users dumb f*cks

Showing what he really thinks of people...

The derogatory way he thinks of people as "Dumb fucks" combined with his continued need to exploit people are both good warning signs of a Narcissistic personality type, as is his need to be the founder of such a large scale exploitative website. A Narcissist isn't the sort of person you can trust, because behind your back they will seek to exploit you. Which is ultimately also the business model behind Facebook.

The users think its all about attention and that kind of person is more than happy to give away their privacy because they ultimately want attention.

So what we end up with, is people with a leaning towards a Histrionic pattern of behaviour (attention seekers) (I.e. HPD) being exploited by Narcissists (power seekers) (I.e. NPD). Two common cluster B personality disorders, which is the exact same pattern of behaviour we get in all reality television and even the whole range of media industries. (e.g. Music industry, Acting industries (film/TV/stage etc..), Fashion industry etc...). The Narcissists so often try to exploit the Histrionic people (because they are easy to exploit) (because Narcissists try to exploit everyone) and the Histrionic people are very vocal in trying to convince everyone else its a good thing, because they always want to be at the centre of attention. Meanwhile the Narcissists want to be in power over large numbers of people, so they can herd everyone for their own gain.

Its the same pattern repeated over and over again in different walks of life.

@"What's the worst that's going to happen"

You sir are a 24 carat gold plated moron.

I'm sure many of us could explain at great length how you are so wrong in so many ways, but whats the point. The mere fact you are *still* so ignorant is proof enough that anything people say will be ignored by you.

Throughout history it has always been the ignorant bystanders like you who are part of the problem. Because your kind let society get ever more messed up, because they fail to see what is happening until its to late, because ultimately they refuse to learn and so remain stuck in their preconceived ideas. If you spent less time laughing at people and more time in learning, you would find the answers for yourself. But then your kind never do.

So just go back to sleep.

LimeWire induces infringement, Judge rules

To put the records straight...

@Anonymous Coward, you are a troll. I suspect with the strength of your need to suppress my comments (whilst totally ignoring what I say), is very likely a strong indicator you could very well be a professional music or film industry troll, sent out to troll the popular web sites. (A sadly common trick from companies like Sony who use professional advertising trolls and professional music industry trolls).

@Doshu, thanks for your support, but I wasn't implying anything sinister in attacking certain legitimate technologies. Instead this whole biased case reeks of Cognitive Dissonance.

There are many examples in society where something can be used for illegal purposes, yet the object itself is perfectly legal. For example I can pickup my PC and crash it down on a colleagues head killing them instantly. Do we then as a society declare all PC's as deadly weapons and ban them? ... No, because we see that the object used is separate from the crime. If someone pickup up a brick and hits another person over the head and kills them, the brick isn't evil. Its just a brick. We use bricks all the time to make our buildings, including for example, homes and hospitals. Bricks are useful. Bricks are good. But someone can *choose* to use a brick for illegal activities. That doesn't make the brick itself illegal, it makes the *activity illegal*.

Therefore the activity of file sharing *music* can be declared illegal (if society wishes), yet the activity of file sharing *data* isn't illegal, therefore the *tools of file sharing data* are also not illegal.

Trolls like that Anonymous Coward want us to believe file sharing itself is illegal. Its this kind of twisted thinking that the media industries are trying to use as a weapon against file sharing. This "secondary copyright infringement 2005 Grokster ruling" is all part of this long term game to manipulate society into banning (and/or spying on) all forms of file sharing. Its just one of a number of chess moves used to move nearer suppression and/or spying on all data, just so the media distributors can stay in power.

The media *distribution* side of the media industries originally grew very powerful from controlling the distribution of physical media. Their need to control is inherently central to their business plan and it always has been, therefore the whole Internet is a threat to that failing business plan. We don't need media distribution because the Internet is now that means of distribution, yet the media distributors are so powerful they will not die, instead they are twisting the legal system and the whole of society around just to keep themselves in business and in power over distribution.

Performance artists of all kinds have earned a living for centuries without the need of a distribution side to their business. That is because they earn a living from *performances*. So stage performances, live acting, music whatever. The Internet in the near future, holds the key to provide live streaming for new performances for artists to give them all more followers than at any time in history. It holds huge potential for them. Imagine a future say a decade from now, with say the first billion viewer live Internet concert. Imagine the first billion viewer Internet film premiere. Imagine paying only £1 to see that concert or film. Thats incredible amounts of money. Artists will be able to reach ever more customers without the need of the ever power hungry control freak distributors. These distributor companies need to die. Any other industry that the Internet has transformed can't game the legal system to keep themselves in business. They simply adapt to the Internet or die.

This legal case is extremely twisted and its twisted because the media industry is trying to twist it.

Like the icon says, WTF?! ...

@"A US District Court has has ruled that the company behind the LimeWire P2P software is responsible for inducing copyright infringement, even though the software theoretically has quite legitimate, non-infringing uses."

So by that same logic, glass bottle manufacturers are responsible for Molotov Cocktail attacks.

Also house brick manufacturers are responsible for broken windows.

Also pipe manufacturers are responsible for assaults with a deadly weapon.

plus news just in, kitchen knife manufacturers should be arrested for helping murderers.

The point being that just because someone can use your product for bad, illegal uses, doesn't inherently make that product bad.

Which just goes to show up just how crazy this US District Court is and how deeply they are being influenced by the FUD stories coming from the media industries.

'Tamper evident' CPU warns of malicious backdoors

This looks like creative use of statistics to sell this processor.

i.e. @"reported that at least five percent of the global electronics supply chain includes counterfeit elements that could "cause critical failure or can put an individual's data at risk,""

Lets separate point (A) "cause critical failure" from "can put an individual's data at risk". Also what exactly do they mean by "put an individual's data at risk". If the risk is data loss as in data corruption, then thats one thing, but this processor is designed to stop tampering at the microcode level to stop malicious hacking style access of the data. So lets split this into point (B) "data corruption" and point (C) "hacking the CPU".

So what percentage of "global electronics supply chain" counterfeits can compromise, (A), (B) or (C), i.e.

(A) "cause critical failure"

(B) Data corruption making data unusable

(C) Hacking the CPU

Ok, so counterfeit passive components like resistors, capacitors and inductors are very easy to counterfeit and so they are mass market counterfeit products. But counterfeit passive components can only compromise point (A) and (B) but are very unlikely to compromise point (C)

Also counterfeit discrete active components like various Transistors etc.. are harder to counterfeit so going to be statistically less of them (but they still happen), but more importantly they can compromise point (A) and (B) but are also very unlikely to compromise point (C)

So we are left with counterfeit complex active components like processors which are the only form of counterfeit products that can compromise point (A), (B) and (C) ... but if its a counterfeit processor, then this "shrink wrap" tamper evident CPU design isn't going to be of much use as they then have access to change the CPU design anyway.

Also by far the vast majority of counterfeit active components like processors turn out to be simply empty packages. They look real, until they are powered up then you find you have an empty plastic package with leads that go nowhere once inside the package. They are also high value items for counterfeit gangs so they earn a lot of money from them (so they do make a lot of them) but they are not a risk to point (C) because they do nothing. They are just little blocks of plastic with wires going nowhere.

So I'm having extreme trouble in reconciling this idea that counterfeit elements of any kind are relevant to this anti-hacking processor design product. It sounds completely like spin in the wrong direction. Sure microcode can be compromised but that has nothing to do with counterfeit components and everything to do with processor design flaws. So what they are really trying to say is everyone but them is designing their processor wrong, so please buy their design.

So all this talk of "five percent of the global electronics supply chain includes counterfeit elements" is a FUD story to try to sell their products. Sure microcode hacking is a potential issue. But what percentage of a market do they really have for this level of protection. Its a useful feature but why all the FUD to try to sell it. Plus like others have said, the vast majority of hacking is using valid instructions so hardware protections of the CPU are not going to work to stop the vast majority of security holes.

Ubuntu Unity interface flashed for speed freaks

Duel booting Ubuntu and Windows is very useful and important...

@"dual-boot environments, which Shuttleworth called a new frontier for Canonical."

It maybe new to him, but I've been duel booting Ubuntu and Windows for a few years. (My previous PC was triple bootable as it was Win98, WinXP and Ubuntu), so its been possible (and very usable) for years. I think its a very good way to encourage more people to get into using Linux, if all they have experienced so far is Windows. :)

Getting people over this initial learning curve I think is very important. Once they have experienced Ubuntu/Linux for a while, it helps to overcome a lot of their fears about it. So by allowing them to use it whilst still clinging to their old Windows copy as well, it helps convince a lot of casual web users, Ubuntu is all they need to do all they want, (e.g. web, emails, documents, photos, etc..).

For more technical users, like I guess a lot of people on here, my company still requires me to work in Windows a lot of the time, so its very useful to have a duel booting machine.

@"Canonical also unveiled Ubuntu Light, which is based on Unity. It features chat, IM, a browser, and a media player."

Also don't forget Ubuntu Studio, which looks very tempting to a lot of users, as it comes with many media tools pre-installed (Audio, Video, Graphics) and for anyone new to Linux its mind blowing for them to tell them they can get all this for free. That really helps shock people into changing their perception of Windows. :)

Here's the link: http://ubuntustudio.org/

This gives a good overview of all the tools you get with it.

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

The more Linux users the better. :)

NASA tests amazing bailout rocket which will never be used

This is looking ever more like the Apollo program...

This isn't new technology, because here's exactly the same design concept from 47 years ago!!!, i.e. "Pad Abort Test-1 was conducted on November 7, 1963"

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

Orion is looking like a rehash of the Apollo program. So I have to wonder why Orion? I suspect its far more about making conventional rocket technology better (which has both military and commercial applications. After all, NASA behind the scenes are still very much a military organization). The putting a human into space part, seems to be more about PR against other countries.

If they were truly serious about improving space craft and putting humans into space, they would be funding projects like Skylon. i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon

Met issues internet cafe terror warnings

Oh great, now civilian informants...

Ok so we now have, continued erosion of civil liberties, civilian informants, reporting on crimes including effectively subversion, increasing surveillence of the public, censorship of what people say and do thereby effectively punishing Throught Crimes, spying on all our communications and building ever more databases on us all. Wonderful. :(

Definition of Secret police:

"Secret-police organizations employ internal spies and civilian informants to find protest leaders or dissidents, and they may also employ agents provocateurs to incite political opponents to perform illegal acts against the government, whereupon such opponents may be arrested. Secret police may open mail, tap telephone lines, use various techniques to trick, blackmail, or coerce relatives or friends of a suspect into providing information."

So another day and another warning sign where our country is going and yet some people still fail to see what is happening to our country. :(

Stealth installs and adware come to Facebook

@"Facebook's philosophy with user privacy"

There's an oxymoron if ever I saw one. :(

What Facebook user privacy? ... Facebook want to exploit users, so Facebook don't want user privacy and their actions (like this news) keep proving their exploitative attitude. :(

Google waves goodbye to Docs offline function

Sound like a variation on Embrace, Extend and Extinguish.

1. Get users to Embrace your "free" product.

2. Extend product with online cloud services.

3. Extinguish offline functionality.

4. Profit from spying on people passing data through Google's server side spyware.

So in effect, herd users into using their online "services", where "services" is a euphemism for spying via data mining. :(

Jobsian Vendetta - Flash stabbed by Mac the Knife

I give up!

Sadly this is showing a blatant need to control, because he knows Flash can bypass his control over what applications developers create and put on Apple devices and he doesn't want that. He shows he wants absolute control over all applications and all developers.

So once again we have to suffer the wishes of another control freak. :(

Yet like all control freaks, what he fails to see is that every attempt to control, creates a pressure for change away from that control. They are actively forcing developers (and so customers as well) to move to more open devices, in doing so, forcing developers to support Apples competitor companies! ... its madness! ... I give up!

Its ironic, because if they were more open to developers, then many thousands of developers would be only to happy to help support and grow the user base of Apple products. Its hard enough to create applications without a company so blatantly actually working against developers, instead of trying to encourage them to support their products!

Google personal suggest bug exposed user web history

@"if you've turned on Google Web History"

I assume this Web History option is on by default then? :(

Well it would be, if I wasn't using NoScript ;)

(When I temporarily allow Google home page in NoScript, I get the list of search suggestions as I type, but then I don't enable it most of the time).

Microsoft's Linux patent bingo hits Google's Android

This tactical game has far reaching long term implications...

@ "Company A (Microsoft), Company B (Google), Company C (HTC)"

So your question is, why would A go after C, but not B. The simplest literal answer is that B (Google) has much more money and a much higher public profile to be able to effectively fight off A (Microsoft). If Microsoft tried to ask Google to pay up, they know Google would very publicly tell Microsoft to F'off and where to go and jump, because Microsoft can't frighten Google. So the only chess move then open to Microsoft, is to move to take legal action against Google to force them to pay up (or back off in shame proving to the world Microsoft don't really have a case against Linux). So Microsoft know in a legal fight, A vs B is a lot harder to win than A vs C and such a legal battle would generate a huge storm of publicity. It would be so big just about every media outlet in the world would want a ring side seat to watch a Microsoft vs Google battle over Linux. So Microsoft don't want a high profile battle. They want lots of easy quiet victories, which collectively add up to an implied win over Linux.

Microsoft are playing a very tactical game (targeting an audience of non-technical high up powerful people with their *PR battle* against Linux). The Microsoft tactical game is to imply Linux is copying them, rather than *proving* Linux is copying them, because lets face it, if Microsoft had strong grounds to take Linux to court to be able to prove such a direct violation, they would have done it many years ago without hesitation. Therefore Microsoft cannot prove wrong doing, so they are trying to imply wrong doing.

This game has far reaching implications. The first thing Microsoft are achieving with this tactical game is to frighten companies into signing up with Microsoft. That is operating literally like a Protection Racket! ... its bullying people into giving Microsoft money. Thats bad enough, but worse its frightening other companies into complying with Microsoft's bullying tactics as well.

But even worse the more companies they frighten into signing up to the idea Linux needs to license from Microsoft, the nearer Microsoft moves to winning the grand prize of saying to everyone, hey look all these companies say *in writing* they know Linux needs to license from Microsoft, so everyone must now license from Microsoft and sooner or later a non-technical judge will agree with this idea.

After all the law already recognizes the idea that an unprotected idea falls eventually into the public domain. Therefore by constantly *implying* protection is needed against Linux violating Microsoft (as Microsoft are trying to say), then they are trying to prove that they and many companies all agree Linux violates Microsoft. Its a very underhanded attempt to imply wrong doing.

Microsoft know they can't win a direct legal battle against Linux, because they would have tried already if they had a hope in hell of winning. They absolutely would have definitely tried, so its glaringly obvious that they haven't yet tried a direct assault on Linux and haven't tried a direct assault on Google. But make no mistake, sooner or later they will try a direct assault on Linux (and in doing so try to undermine Google), once they have enough frightened companies signed up to say in writing, they all think Linux violates Microsoft.

So Microsoft are playing a very insidious tactical PR battle/game against Linux.

:(

Apple admits to eating 'iPad chip designer'

This is now making more sense.

This could be where the Apple + Arm rumours are stemming from. Apple are in effect getting an Arm based company, (but thankfully not Arm itself) as Apple are going after the 1GHz Arm Hummingbird chip. I'm sure getting closely involved with Hummingbird development will be very useful to Apple's long term plans. At that speed its very useful for a lot of tasks.

Google backpedals on IP 'anonymization' claim

@"confuse anyone monitoring my on-line habits"

Confuse for how long? ... The sampling period is the key to Big Brother monitoring. (This is why George Orwell's 1984 book showed the power of monitoring someone over their entire lifetime. It showed that once someone was minored for long enough, they could be exploited, controlled and manipulated by someone using their fears and desires against them). So you can obfuscate a few communications and in the process maybe make it confusing for (human) readers over days, weeks even months, but you cannot keep up totally random comments for years and even decades. So over longer sampling periods clearer signals will emerge from your apparent short term chaos. (It simply becomes a larger sampling period).

Make no mistake, every year machine learning research is getting ever better (not least because many thousands of companies worldwide are throwing collectively billions per year into researching it). Everything from small niche marketing companies right up to the scale of government security services and giant search engine companies like Google.

All that machine learning is simply to pigeon hole you ever more clearly. The danger of such a system isn't to alert the authorities at the first moment you say or do something wrong. Such a system wouldn't work as it would be snowed under with false positives. The power of a Big Brother system is its long term aggregate profile of you built up over at least a few years.

That aggregate profile is what Google and governments are working towards and that is the true power of Big Brother. The true power isn't just real time monitoring of every form of communications (which they are also aiming to do), its far more about the long term building of an ever better profile.

Political power (and business power) is gaining from herding large numbers of people behind your goals. If you seek political power you will never get everyone behind you goal, but you don't need to. You just need to influence enough people to accept what you are saying so that the opponents are powerless to stop you and so meaningless to your goals.

Look at how the majority of people are so easily influenced by politicians as it is. So many people fail to see through them and even many of the people who think they are cynical still fail to see totally through the words and actions of politicians. Its been this way for centuries. The concept of Machiavellianism was written about almost exactly 500 years ago by Niccolò Machiavelli (in 1513). Politicians have for centuries used cunning and duplicity to fool people into doing what they want. Now give that two faced Narcissistic kind of person the power of Big Brother and see how bad society will get as a result of the Narcissists increasingly getting their own way. Its what we are getting at the moment, with the slide towards an ever more Fascist world. But then the increasingly brutal unyielding fascist level of control is exactly the kind of world Narcissists want, because they want that increasing power for themselves. Therefore its no surprise the world is suffering an ever greater slide towards a Narcissistic level of control when the Narcissists are gaining ever greater power over everyone.

Knowledge is power and the more knowledge they have, the more power they have and Narcissists always seek ever more power over everyone. So sadly its no surprise just how badly they are seeking to remorselessly abuse technology to gain ever more power. Sadly we are heading into a nightmare world, but then history shows examples where ever few generations countries suffered similar levels of unyielding state control. (The Narcissists gain increasing power over the people, then the people fight back and reset the levels of control, then the levels of Narcissistic control continue to grow ever worse again. So countries oscillate between the levels of power the Narcissists in charge have over the majority of people.

Worse still with the exploitation of ever better technology, we are heading towards a level of state control and monitoring worse than any ever seen in history. But then the Narcissists who always seek power have always wanted the power to control people. So now by remorselessly abusing technology, they are getting exactly what they have always wanted. Which is ever more power. :(

Nazi soldiers pose for Red Army calendar

What?!?!...

@“We are young and we didn’t see the war. We don’t know what fascist soldiers looked like."

The solution is called Research! ... I didn't see the Roman invasion of what we now call Britain, but I can look it up!

It astounds me when people try to defend their ignorance as if its a virtue!

'Gossips' say Apple will acquire ARM

2 years ago, ARM Achieved 10 Billion Processor Milestone...

There are far more ARM cpu's than PC's in the world. e.g. Here's a press link about it, i.e. "ARM Achieves 10 Billion Processor Milestone" and it also says "we forecast that this number will continue to grow, approaching 5 billion per year by 2011"

http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/19720.php

Its a nightmare that Apple would even think of trying to control ARM. Up until now ARM have been very open to exploring new markets, which has greatly helped it spread. With Apple's controlling attitude, they would do the exact opposite, and put off new development of ARM based products, due to companies fearing that future generations of products could come under stronger control from Apple who would be a direct competitor as well as component supplier. Thats simply unacceptable for most companies to risk that level of control over them.

This is very bad news.

:(

C language inventor spurns Google's language exam

Obstinate control freak rules at work (and in society) defying common sense...

I hate this bloody minded attitude in companies where some obstinate control freak inflicts blanket rules that utterly defy common sense. To me it comes across as not truly valuing the staff they employ. Any attempt to question the logic of the rule is met with a wall of bloody minded defiance and outright obstructionism because they simply don't want to give in and instead want to dominate (and undermine) everyone by inflicting their rules on everyone. Its blatantly Passive-aggressive Narcissist behaviour. Which is why they can always think up partly believable excuses to fool people to try to justify their actions, but their true intentions are simply to dominate others.

Its a big problem (for employees) in big companies. The bigger the company the more Passive-aggressive Narcissists you are likely to find, but they are also in small companies as well, where they can rule over all as the boss of a small company. (Its not just more people in a big company, Passive-aggressive NPD's are attracted to powerful companies where they can play their power games over people as they fight their way up the office corporate structure).

(Passive-Aggressive Narcissist behaviour comes from a fear of dependency on others (a fear often caused by the way they suffered excessive control as a child. That control at times can be so extreme that they cannot even learn to express their emotions clearly so they hold it all in, filled with growing resentment towards others around them and a deep determination to never be dominated by anyone else ever again) and these people are often very good at hiding their true intentions (they are very two faced schemers) so most people most of the time wouldn't even fully realize the full extent of their true game against everyone else). They will even undermine the successes of others around them, if it helps their goal of fighting for dominance in a company. They take the joy out of doing a good job for some companies, because whatever you do, they seek ways to undermine you.

An aggressive Narcissist is easy to spot and so easy to get out out the way of, but a Passive-Aggressive Narcissist can take a long time to see through their words to see their true intentions and so in the long term they can be utterly evil people to work for as they bring you down. They can really run you into the ground. All the endless excuses from them twist your mind every which way, yet behind it all, is their scheming manipulation of others as they undermine others and so maintain dominance. (Sadly they make very good politicians. Its why many politicians like this lack so much empathy towards others). A Passive-Aggressive Narcissist is the purest definition of the Machiavellian pattern of behaviour defined almost exactly 500 years ago (in 1513) by Niccolò Machiavelli).

The problem is these people seek positions of power in politics and in companies (and they don't like to be dependent on others, so they fight to the top in power over others) and sadly they are enough of them in society that almost all of us at some point in our lives will end up working with one of them. They can be very difficult people.

Ken Thompson should tell them outright he isn't taking the test and that if he is forced to take the test, he isn't going to work with the person forcing him to take the test. Because Google will have one eye on the PR implications of someone as high profile as him speaking out against being treated like this. I suspect that could be part of his plan in publicly speaking out about it.

These Passive-Aggressive Narcissists in companies are the reason why office politics can be so infuriatingly bad at times. But then their whole life is one long political battle for power over others. No wonder they are such a danger to fairness in society. They don't want fairness, they want power over others.

There is a pattern to their behaviour, you just have to learn it, but its well worth learning it, to see how to avoid them and to help to protect yourself from them. (I was seriously thinking of using the Big Brother Icon, because this Passive-Aggressive Narcissist minority in society are the core driving force behind why we are sliding into this ever more controlled world (especially as they are determined to exploit ever more technology to give them more power) and its why that kind of world, regardless of which technology of control is used throughout history, it always ends up so bad for the majority of people because at the core is this ruthlessly controling minority).

:(

Amazon sues US state on customers' privacy

@AC: (Tuesday 20th April 2010 22:18 GMT)

@"I think that the NC state is just trying to get a few extra bucks on out of state purchases"

The more they spy on people the more ways they will have to find ever more ways to control, fine and ultimately monetize and so profit from controlling what people do, both online and in real life.

So its not just about a few extra bucks. Its once again about control and profiting from that ability to control others.

Of course as their control grows they will need bigger departments to manage it all and these departments will need more high paying top jobs. Which in turn will require more tax money to pay for it all. Which in turn will require more ways to control and tax people needing to be found. Which in turn needs bigger departments to manage it all etc.. etc.. etc.. just keep looping this paragraph until we get a bureaucratic totalitarian police state.

The millions of people who got books from Amazon better hope they are not politically active or they will now end up on more government lists, for buying books like "A Beginners guide to spotting you now live in a Fascist police state for Dummies"(Special offer this year due to increasing demand giving Amazon a bulk discount on the book ... oh hang on that special offer is just on www.amazon.co.uk ;).

I'm joking of course, but sadly just about every day these days we get more examples of the dangers of so much private information being handed over to businesses and the state power hungry control freaks. Its like watching a slow motion massive nightmare growing out of control.

UK almost tops international Google-snoop league

@"Woo! Number 1!"

Makes me so proud to be British :(

Plus I'm sure Orwell would have been so happy :( ... and to think, from here on out, that number of requests for private user data is only likely to get ever higher.

(Plus how many requests for private user data will our new ISP music download spying plans generate per year. But then our state overlords probably don't want us to think of it in these kinds of terms. After all always on spying isn't generating requests, its always getting what it wants without requesting. Plus add up how many times they will spy on us with that and it'll be a very scary very big Orwellian number and they don't want us to think of it like that. After all, big scary numbers of spying attempts may make more people see how much we are sliding into an ever more Fascist society).

:(

Epic Fail: How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

@PirateSlayer

@PirateSlayer: "You have missed the point, and seem to want to tie all of the UK's current ills and problems to one issue"

Oh PirateSlayer, the depth of irony of your narrow minded thinking is amazing. It is you PirateSlayer, with your jaw dropping frankly myopic world view, who is making the exact narrow minded mistake you accuse others of doing.

For example, PirateSlayer: "Piracy has nothing to do with privacy."

The state's approach to stop piracy requires ever increasing *state spying* on everyone to *police* what they do online! ... So that spying is a direct violation of privacy. Make no mistake of the seriousness of this state action. History has shown time after time revolutions have been fought to fight back state interference into peoples lives. Yet now we are sliding into more detailed state interference into our lives than at any point in history!

Ironically the businesses pushing so hard for state spying are being very narrow minded in their thinking but its what they have aways been like. They are continuing to try to prop up their failing business plan by inflicting ever more control on people, because that is what they have always done. Their business plan is itself ultimately based on and has always been based on the concept of controlling the distribution of media. Originally these companies grew powerful from controlling the distribution of physical media.

Plus before you say it, I'm not a supporter of piracy. Far from it, because for decades my work has been pirated, like so many in my industry, yet I know whatever we try to do to limit it, ultimately its simply a case of learning to partly suffer it, as part of the job, (frankly learn to get over it), because nothing we do will stop piracy. But far worse, I actually fear the prospect of any society growing so powerful that it can even think it can try to stop piracy, because to bring down that increasing level of state control on everyone, will also cause far greater harm than any good it attempts to achieve.

Put simply no media is of such importance to society as a whole, that policing its distribution so tightly should inflict such a increasingly blatantly Fascist level (and attitude) of control over society. We simply cannot inflict that kind of control because make absolutely no mistake, once you give that much power to the people in power, they will utterly abuse their new power to remorselessly control peoples lives and they will do it with no empathy at all for the greater good of society. They are only interested in their own goals and its just like the old say, "give them an inch and they take a mile". Give them more power and they will utterly abuse that power and still be wanting more power. Why the hell do you think so many state controlled societies have ended up so distorted throughout history! and as a result, so bad for the majority of people suffering that increasing level of state control.

Try reading 1984 before you claim it has "nothing to do with privacy". Or better yet try reading political history from around the world. Or better yet PirateSlayer, wake up!, its not just about piracy!

Info-scrubbing algorithm unveiled to protect patient privacy

This brave (more like naive) new Orwellian world :( ...

So what happens when someone works out a way to crack this algorithm. At that point all the medical data then leaks out. Once its leaked thats it, no way to hide it again. So with medical records I sense a privacy disaster in the making.

Plus with ever increasing amounts of data on everyone on multiple databases, how long will it be before one database is used to effectively crack another database. With multiple databases it gets ever easier to identify enough general info to effectively crack a medical database enough to identify people (when that medical database chooses to leak parts of the data on patents). For example here some ways in which other databases could be used to cross reference data on the medical database (e.g. what doctor do you have, what phone numbers have you dialed (is it your general doctor or a specialist doctor, in which case what do they specialize in (e.g. a cancer specialist)), what is your physical position given by your GPS enabled phone locating you in say a cancer ward for 5 days and then the following week going to a cancer out patience center) etc..

Plus the merciless advertisers would love all that kind of info because then in that kind of situation they could for example bombarded you with cheap rate funeral insurance (and worse e.g. hospices etc..) ... (Many advertisers have no morality or empathy at all, so they wouldn't care how their adverts made you feel while you were ill. This is proved by even when they just find out your age. If you are over 65 they already bombard you with funeral insurance and so on).

This brave new Orwellian world of total information spreading (and leaking) everywhere is opening up a nightmare potential for exploitation of that information. Yet the law is way to slow (and very unwilling) to punish exploitation of that information.

If we can't stop the information spreading the law has to move to greatly limit exploitation of that information otherwise its going to be a free for all for all the ruthless people in this world with no morality or empathy towards other people (for example Phorm have already shown this utterly ruthless attitude). The law needs to move to protect everyone. Sadly I thought protection was the original purpose of the law!. But these days the law keeps showing examples of ways it now allows the exploitation of the majority of people for the profit of an ever more powerful few. But then thats sadly hardly surprising after suffering decades of the rich and powerful lobbying government to get things their own way and so resulting in us sinking into this ever more twisted corrupt society lacking so much empathy for the majority of people whilst serving the wishes of the increasingly powerful few. :(

Visual Studio 2010 - your chunky new friend dissected

@swsnyder: “Code gen”

I totally agree about the code generation. I think its part of a more general problem with their thinking and priorities. Microsoft are not focused on the core basic requirements of programming, they are too busy off dreaming of ever more shiny shiny bell and whistle features (all this eye candy you mention). They could (and should) make core basic functionally so much better than it is currently.

For example, one of the biggest jobs is simply writing and maintaining code. Therefore refactoring tools can give a huge productivity boost. (Refactoring tools for Java coding are a joy to use and its a real downer and sense of loss to have to go back to suffering poor refactoring tools when coding in C++ by comparison). (Most of my work has been in C++ so back before I experienced how good refactoring tools can be, I didn't know what I was missing. But since I learned the joys of refactoring I've waited years for Microsoft to catch up and they still don't).

Surely a primary research and development goal for Microsoft should be to make C++ refactoring so much better that programmers experience a huge productivity boost. Microsoft should be researching next generation refactoring tools, not dragging years behind in their support for it.

So in this regard VS2010 is a huge disappointment and another lost opportunity to make it so much better.

McKinnon's mum stands against Straw at general election

I agree with most of what you say but...

Why the hell shouldn't we use the word Nazi!

This whole infuriating Godwin's Law style stupid anti-Nazi word attitude of denigrate anyone who dares to highlight growing fascist attitudes in society is greatly helping to make matters worse. We need to highlight fascist attitudes if we are to stop them.

I hate the way our society is sliding into ever more authoritarian and totalitarian attitudes at times showing some even outright Orwellian thinking. To quote an old 1993 film, "This fascist crap makes me want to puke." I guess thats wrong to say now as it dares to highlight the previous generation's attitudes against fascist crap. Worse still society these days is being constantly reeducated into accepting this fascist crap as the norm, so its no wonder so many people are failing to see how bad state control is growing behind the scenes.

One of the biggest problems we seem to have with this slide into a Police State is too many apathetic bystanders. I've been looking back over history and sadly this is a common pattern caused ultimately by apathetic bystanders as a country slides into trouble, where the bystanders fail to see how bad its getting (so fail to provide feedback to stop what is happening) until its to late to stop what is happening. All the time we waste, we slide ever more towards an Orwellian future setup to control us ever more closely, so ultimately an ever more powerful Oligarchy can profit from that increasing control. That is increasingly happening now.

So I say good luck to her. I doubt she has a hope in hell of winning, and I can see she is only really trying to help her son, but even if by trying to stand against what is happening, she ends up helping to highlight just how bad our slide into a Police State is becoming, then she has done good in my mind.

I also find it interesting to find out Straw opposed the extradition of Augusto Pinochet because I didn't know that bit of news. To quote Homer Simpson, D'OH! :) ... He totally shot himself in the foot there, but then sadly no surprise to find another two faced politician.

But then Pinochet had power and so like most control freaks, its no wonder Straw didn't want to help set a president for extraditing and punishing people in power, because then where would such a law end. (Control freaks want more control, so they would never risk a legal president that could in any way undermine power). Its why they are always soft on their own kind (unless they want to make a political show trial of someone who doesn't really have any power remaining), because ultimately they always have one eye on their own position of power, so they don't want to risk anything that can undermine power. They always want more power, which is why ultimately we are sliding into this Orwellian Police State.

This whole Godwin's Law style stupid anti-Nazi word attitude has to die out. Its time to highlight and stop the "fascist crap" whenever we see it, because its badly undermining our society and frankly creating an ever more dangerous long term future for our next generation.

A user's timetable to the Digital Economy Act

@"What happens next"

This legislation (and the public's growing realization the government plans to spy on everyone) will definitely "shift people’s behaviour". It will act like a huge rallying cry to vastly boost UK downloads of Tor etc..

In a way I suppose its about time to move over to encryption. In hindsight, I wonder if future generations will look back at us, and find it surprising that early Internet users ever used and trusted unencrypted connections. It looks like a history lesson in the making, when society finally learned that governments and businesses cannot be trusted to carry data without it being encrypted. We need to stop giving them our trust, because as soon as we do, they totally exploit us.

I'm sure the rich control freaks in business must be celebrating adding more controls over us all, as they continue to prop up their failing business plan, which is itself ultimately based on the concept of controlling the distribution of media. But these rich controlling middle men in the longer term, need to be wiped out of the business of the distribution of media. (After all, that's what the Internet is so good at, so we don't need these distribution middle men). That way costs will drop and consumers will be far happier to pay the creators of media, instead of giving so much to worthless middle men, who spend so much of their time seeking to transform our society into a totalitarian level of control, just so they can stay in control and so profit from having so much control over us all.

Every act of control creates a pressure for change away from that control. Time to look into using Tor :(

High Court: Moderate user comments and you're liable

So once again fear is used to silence free speech.

In this situation, fear of what people say leading to a site owners fear of legal liability for what is said. So in effect, fear is used to moderate what is said. So much for free speech.

Another day and another attack on freedom in our UK growing Orwellian Police State. :(

Thanks Labour, your legal action against critics of your party has now undermined another part of freedom. :(

This is sickening that they can lean on and abuse the legal system to silence critics. (Because make no mistake, that is exactly what they are doing here). They are going after critics on Labourhome website to silence them via legal action just before an Election. (Our legal system is being twisted into a way to violate human rights (so even if its overturned, it will be a long hard fight and solved only long after an Election. So they still get to silence people during an Election even if it is overturned some time later).

Worse still take away free speech (via fear of legal action) and you take away feedback in society, which is able to highlight to large numbers of people what is wrong in society, allowing them to then stand against what is wrong. So if we are only suppose to agree with what is said and not attack and criticize things that are wrong, we end up spiraling into ever greater extremes of injustice in society, fearful we cannot speak out against it. (A society without feedback is like a machine without feedback, it spirals out of control into ever greater extremes. In the case of society, its extremes of injustice).

Sadly it looks like George Orwell was right about even this. So now in effect the law is being used effectively like a Ministry of Truth to tell us what we can and cannot say (for fear of legal liability). After all we can't dare be critical of our increasingly powerful Police State Overlords.

The UK is beginning to look like a test case experiment for the rest of the world, in how to transform a Democracy into Totalitarian Police State. :( ... I am sadly seeing ever more examples on forums around the world, where we are becoming a warning to the rest of the world of what to look out for, to prevent becoming like us. :(

Tories drop opposition to UK.gov DNA plans

Orwell was right. They are all the same :(

This Parliamentary "wash-up" period looks like a nightmare way to rush all kinds of bad laws through?! ... Control over our DNA is fundamentally important, yet even this they are rushing through!. :(

Also it doesn't seem to matter which party we talk about, because they all ultimately want and seek the power to control people, so they keep showing they can only think in terms of ways to seek ever more control over people. So ever more databases to tag and control everyone. Which is just wonderful because with each move, we slide towards an ever more Police State Orwellian scrutiny and control over our lives.

To make matters even worse (as I briefly mentioned in the Mandybill), at this point in time, the Labour MP's don't care how they vote in this wash-up period, as they are probably planning their new high paid jobs in European politics or planning their move back into high paid business jobs, where they can profit from their powerful connections in politics they have built up over the years. Whilst the MP's in other parties can deflect blame by saying it was done under Labour's final weeks of rule over us.

It seems the whole lot of them, regardless of which party they are from, they all seem determined to slowly drag our society into an ever more Orwellian nightmare and no matter who gets in, they are all determined to continue this course of action no matter what any of us say.

The more I see the more I'm convinced this problem isn't going to be solved by any election. Politicians are fundamentally this way inclined due to their desire to seek power over others, so they see gaining control as their only course of action. Some of them lie about their true goals more than others, (pretending not to be so power driven) but ultimately they are all the same in this one regard. They all want power over people so they all want ways to gain power over people. So this is going to get ever worse until society stands up to all Politicians, to stop how they are behaving and treating everyone, but I can't see that happening for a while, so things are going to keep getting progressively ever more Orwellian, as this tyranny continues to grow in our society. Even our DNA isn't safe from their desire to control. :(

It seems whichever party we vote in we are doomed to this same Orwellian fate. Labour have shown how controlling they are. Liberal Democrats have not a hope in hell of getting in and have a very two faced leader who at times shows the same kind of Machiavellian cunning and duplicity seen with so many politicians. Meanwhile the UKIP and BNP are hardliners in disguise and would take us even faster into an Orwellian state. Ironically that leaves the Conservatives, who are really a right wing party as our lesser of many evils!. They all seem as bad as each other in some ways?!. I wish I could vote None Of The Above as a protest, but even that won't change anything, but then nothing is going to stop this social tyranny decline until everyone in society stands up to the control freaks attempts to undermine our society and that won't be stopped by any election. :(

Society seems to be getting so frighteningly messed up. :(

I wish I could find somewhere else in the world to live, but sadly even the other countries look like they are getting just as messed up as we are, but we are just ahead of the curve. :(

I really wonder what Orwell would have made of all this. Not least the shocking fact we now have 5.6 million DNA profiles?! ... Surely they are not all suspects?! ... Also what really constitutes a valid reason for keeping DNA?. How about finding DNA at a crime scene and so they get to keep it. In that case we are all suspects, because if we ever go anywhere where some time later a crime is committed (e.g. a bank or a shop) where some time later forensics pickup DNA, like a stray hair dropped at a scene etc.. then we are all doomed to risk ending up on this DNA profile database?!

It seems we are all doomed to this increasing tyranny whoever gets in. Sadly the more I see, the more it looks like watching a slow motion increasingly frightening massive disaster in the making. :(

So now we have the repercussions of the DNA and Maddy Bill to take in on the same day. Its one hell of an Orwellian slide day today. :(

Mandybill: All the Commons drama

Mandelson's game plan

"Foster said that it “was disgraceful a bill of this complexity is given so little time”"

Which was I suspect exactly Lord Mandelson's game plan, so he forced the bill through at a time he knew he had a good chance of success.

At this point in time, the Labour MP's don't care as they are probably planning their new high paid jobs in European politics or planning their move back into high paid business jobs, where they can profit from their powerful connections in politics they have built up over the years. Whilst the MP's in other parties can deflect blame by saying it was done under Labour's final weeks of rule over us. Meanwhile their rich friends in business celebrate adding more controls over us all, as they continue to prop up their failing business plan, which is itself ultimately based on the concept of controlling the distribution of media.

Looks like they all win and we loose. :(

All this caused by an extremely two face somehow Lord who is unelected and twice thrown out in disgrace as a politician, who has somehow come from nowhere back into one of the most powerful jobs in UK politics, working as effectively number two under an unelected prime minister who refused to call an election when he moved into the job and has since taken us through one of the worst economic nightmares the country has ever seen and was directly responsible (whilst working as Chancellor of the Exchequer) for allowing the city to get away with such corrupt behavior for years before it finally crippled our country financially! Yet now they expect us to suffer another Orwellian move and insult from them all!

Its just incredible how messed up this all is, yet now we have to suffer more repercussions from their mismanagement of our country!.

So ultimately, as always, the control freaks seek more ways to control (so they can ultimately personally profit from their ability to control us all), and so now as a result, we have to suffer even more Orwellian scrutiny and control over our lives. :(

Thats just such wonderful news. :(

AOL to sell or shutter Bebo

$850m?! ... Oo

I wish I had so much money that I could write off $850m!

Amazing how anyone can write that amount off and yet still keep their high paid job! Every AOL share holder should call for every manager in AOL to be instantly fired for a mistake of that magnitude!

$850m just like that, its incredible.

How a Tory gov will be the most tech-savvy in history

They have no choice, they have to be representative...

@"When you elect an MP you elect a delegate, not a representative"

You can argue your theory all you like that they are somehow theoretically delegates, but in practice they have to be representative of the people. They cannot behave like a delegate no matter what they think they are. The public won't stand for it.

So if MP's behave like a delegate and therefore failed to be representative of the people who elected them, then they loose their job and I don't just mean during an election. World History has shown so many times MP's in any country that arrogantly fail to be representative of the people cause increasing ever more extreme public anger against them. To an MP, loss of public faith in their leadership is a fatal blow. (You only have to look at the public anger at MP expenses and the resulting damage caused by a loss of public faith in their leadership, to see just how important it is for MP's to tread very carefully).

If someone wants to lead people, then they have to at least pretend to represent the views of the people, otherwise the people will not follow them. Therefore they HAVE TO BE REPRESENTAIVE OF THE VIEWS OF THE PEOPLE.

The importance of truly open Information and being free to highlight mistakes...

I want to start by dealing with this point ... @"it would surely only be a matter of minutes before applications started flowing in from highly qualified candidates."

Which totally assumes that *highly qualified candidates* waste their time with trivial superficial data streams like Twitter?! ... Most highly qualified candidates got that way through years of very hard work, so combined with their need to have their own life, they therefore often have far less time (and interest) to waste time watching other peoples lives on Twitter! ... Therefore using Twitter to find candidates results in an unfortunate biasing of candidates towards the low end rather than the highly qualified end!

Which is very interesting considering you are trying to say how a Conservative government will understand new technology better than Labour?! ... The point you are missing is that you are showing you are failing to understand people. Its not just about new technology, you need to understand and relate to the users.

Which is very interesting because here is the key to why almost every government in history starts off by selling high ideals during electioneering (and I'm sure most truly believe what they are saying) yet in the end they repeatedly fail to make society truly better for everyone. Simply because they fail to understand people and the way most people are forced to live due to the pressures of life on them (and so how they suffer when laws are changed). This is what all governments need to get much better at doing.

So I find it very interesting indeed that you talk of open government. My question is how open is open really?

Most governments seem to end up failing by descending into a them And us kind of attitude, making us lowly Citizens feel ignored (and even feeling repressed under the current Regime) which is exactly how society ends up getting ever more distorted away from government representatives truly being representative of the people who put then into power, leaving no choice but to throw that lot out of power, to get another lot in, repeating the whole sorry mess election after election.

The only way this repeated cycle of decline can be stopped, is by a government truly representing the wishes of the society they say the want to represent and so the only way we can achieve that is by truly gaining a means where society as a whole (not just lobbyists) are able to provide a constant feedback into the political system. But we cannot do that if politicians keep finding excuses to hide information from society, because they know that to fully reveal all could reflect badly on them if mistakes are highlighted. We need politicians who are not afraid to be honest to the people they represent, so the best way is to keep everyone informed moment by moment as situations develop, rather than hiding what is going on from society, until its grown into such a shocking nightmare that its impossible to hide and ends up as a massive shock to everyone. If we are introduced to what is going on moment by moment its not so shocking at all and people can see the reasons why things have to be done to fix problems as they occur. But that requires truly open raw information well formatted for many people to easily process it all, to highlight what is going on. Not hidden information as we currently suffer.

We therefore need near *real time* truly open information on government open to everyone not just companies. That way society and politicians can truly start to work together rather than both sides feeling embattled.

So I really do find it very interesting indeed that you talk of open government. I just don't believe it until I see it because even if some MPs believe in it, bad past experiences have shown (e.g. expenses) that time after time some MPs will try to hide data and so we risk spiralling into another mess again. We need to stop this repeated slide into a messy, harmful decline and start truly working toward the same goals. With truly open information we can do that. Surely that's a lot better future than the shocking mess we have at the moment. Finally that would be something to really look forward to, rather than suffering the current real fear of how badly its getting so messed up. We all want a better future and something to really look forward to!

Wikileaks video shows US gunfire on Reuters staff

We need more openness like this, because only the truth will set us free...

I think its vital we are free to see things like this. If mistakes or whatever are made, we need to know about it, so its extremely bad and worrying things like this are hidden from us.

So I find it very interestingly how the main youtube site now forces us to login to view the video. They say its because of content, but I don't buy that for a second. Also we see horrific scenes of dead and dying on TV news and documentaries all the time and have done for decades. Therefore I strongly suspect there is another reason for them to force people to join and login before they can see it.

For a start the military and government have been against Wikileaks before (because in effect Wikileaks are protesters against the government and so anyone viewing their information is also more likely to become a government protester). Plus given the amount of times protesters on anything these days are photographed and then identified, the state is clearly trying very hard to identify anyone who could even just be a potential risk of speaking out against them. So getting people to login even via a free email account still helps to tag that person. Because sooner or later most people will use that same free email account to login to a site they use with their credit cards etc.. and bingo, if its one of the sites the government works with the owners to watch then they can associate that login email with an actual person.

Don't believe me. Ok if you live in the UK, join facebook and for a joke add binladin as a friend so you can tell all your friends you have finally found him, when no one else could. Think its just a joke, yeah right, then wait for the interesting worrying phone call that most definitely isn't from a marketing company. The question this raises is how does state security associate facebook to your phone number and directly to you? They clearly can because I now know for a fact this happens as its happened to someone I know. State security has no sense of humor, to them its not a joke because to them, that friend link is a honey pot trap to try to identify potential sympathizers. I think its ignorant in the extreme, but there you go, thats the kind of twisted stupid games they are increasingly playing to identify people.

The state is working very hard to identify anyone who in any way could potentially be against them for any reason. The freedom to speak out and protest doesn't really exist any more in the UK. The state is watching and waiting to punish anyone who steps out of line to be too big an opponent to them (so don't dare setup a protest group about anything) and the state is determined to build an ever growing list of reasons to make peoples lives more difficult if or when they choose to punish someone. (So they can say to you, “you done this and that etc..”, as they drag you in for questioning, on the exact day you were going to lead a protest against the government etc... So they can stop and punish you simply by withholding your freedom for a few hours to stop what you were going to do, so its all covert means of punishment and they are gaming the system to get away with doing it legally).

All this state behavior I find very interesting, because in a free country, where the government is formed from people who are suppose to be as they say, our "elected representatives" therefore they represent us, then why do they work against us. Which is my core point, why do they try with this video to hide mistakes from us?. Why do they try to hide from us mistakes made by anyone our elected representatives employ on our behalf. Why are they working against us when they are suppose to be representing us. I know they can hide behind reasons to hide the information, but ultimately and morally they work for us, and we must be told the truth. So if mistaken judgments are made and people die, we at least need to know mistakes are made, so society as a whole can work to prevent these kinds of mistakes in the future. Yet our state rulers keep proving through their own actions that they actually work against us not for us.

So we need far more openness like this, because as the saying goes, "only the truth will set us free" in this case free from this state run growing tyranny getting ever worse in our society.

Shuttleworth goes Maverick with Ubuntu's 'Perfect 10'

I can't help it...

I had to do it, its like in the film A Bugs Life when the bug goes into the blue light, so I had to do a list. So here's my attempt :) ...

Opulent Otter

Podgy Penguin

Quarrelsome Quail

Racy Rabbit

Smutty Sheep

Tantalizing Tarantula

Unruly Urchin

Vigorous Velociraptor

Wobbly Walrus

Xenophobic Xenopus (a frog)

Yacking Yak

Zestful Zebra

:)

Firefox plans fix for decade-old browsing history leak

@AC:"so bookmarks autosort like every other browser"

There is no need for you to be insulting over something so trivial. For a start:

(1) I don't want my bookmarks autosorted. I want them where *I put* them. I.e. I am in control, not someone else *dictating* over me what I should do. (The one thing I would really like is being able to set a colour for each bookmark and folder, to allow me to quickly visually scan long lists, as I like to sort by subject rather than by name). My point is, there are smarter ways to sort a list than simply by name, and often its a personal preference how best to sort the list, something hard to code for every possible way, so freedom for users is important to let the users choose how best to do something. (We are controlled enough in our lives as it is, (and its getting worse all the time), so the last thing we need is yet more rules imposed on us all).

(2) If you absolutely cannot live without sorted bookmarks, you open the Organise Bookmarks menu item, then right click on a folder, and select "Sort By Name". Then hey presto, just like magic, its sorted.

Italian toads predicted L'Aquila earthquake

Interesting escape strategies and Humans...

@"toads escaped to higher ground"

Escaping to higher ground does seem to be a common strategy. Shame it doesn't always work. Still it seems to work better for a lot of creatures more than us humans, who so often stand around and stare and think hmmm... thats interesting, meanwhile all around us the other creatures are running like crazy for the hills. But still I do wonder how many critters in history have thought the high ground is safe, only to find out too late the earth is moving because the hill they are climbing isn't a hill but an active volcano about to explode. :)

It does seem that Natural Selection includes a lesson in irony. :)

ZigBee searches for a new home

@"but why the SIM"

Putting it in the SIM makes a lot of sense as they are really just using the SIM interface as a standard interface to connect to the Phone's processor. The problem with phones is hardware connections for I/O are very incompatible between manufacturers and even between product ranges from the same manufacturer.

@"telecoms market is highly cost sensitive"

So I think its a very clever bit of lateral thinking to come up with the idea of using the SIM interface as the interfacing solution to phones. It also avoids any hardware development costs for manufacturers of all future phones, as they already have the hardware to interface to the SIM. So its simply a software update to make use of this new additional hardware in the SIM. Also don't forget phones are changing all the time. Millions of phones are being updated via buying new phones not via firmware upgrades. WIthin 5 years from now imagine how many phones are going to be replaced. Thats also therefore a lot of new phones sold and so a lot of new phones that can have additional functionality via Zigbee without any manufacturing cost difference because they already have SIM interfaces. (At the point of manufacture software is free because if you make 1 phone or 1million phones, the initial software development costs are the same, therefore by also not costing any more hardware development costs, its easy for manufacturers to add support).

I think bring in the Zigbee standard for short range communications does open up some very interesting possibilities. Zigbee does have the potential to become a standard for home automation which would be very cool. Finally I will be able to have my 1960s Jetson's style scifi automated house. :)

Times websites want £1 a day from June

The Internet routes around damage...

... and any attempt to block access acts like a form of damage on the Internet.

So Murdoch's old control freak attitude won't work in this brave new world of the Internet. Back when he could control distribution of news via controlling physical paper distribution, he was happy. But now ironically all he is going to do is make his competitors very happy, as he will be pushing more readers to them! :)

These control freak people like Murdoch never give up. The thing is, every attempt at control creates a pressure for change away from that control, which ultimately bypasses their control. I guess thats why they feel they never have enough control, because they feel (and fear) that control slowly slipping away.

Well at least his competitors will be very happy with the extra traffic and they will enjoy telling prospective new readers that his papers are a rip off so read their stuff instead. :)

(Murdoch is an old media dinosaur who doesn't get it that these days he needs to encourage like minded people to him, by aggregating the vast sea of news stories into a way to attract like minded people instead of constantly seeking ways to control people).

Good bye Murdoch, you are old news.

End government pre-snoop on stats

@"Could we please have some spin-free statistics to support the assertion that "they work for us"?"

At the next election NuLabour will get all the statistics it needs to show the country is filled with people who hate and detest NuLabour for their outright betrayal of our country.

For all their two faced lies, robbing and moves to wipe out our rights and create a Police State, Mandelson, Blair, Brown and every NuLabour Home Secretary should all collectively be charged with treason against the UK and against its people. Treason against the UK, as in "serious acts of betrayal of one's nation."

3 hours is still giving in to the government ministers

They should have no advanced warning. I'm sick of their Machiavellian cunning and duplicity directed at us because it shows they work against us not for us. Our government representatives see the figures when we see the figures because they work for us.

Home Office planning to brick version 1 ID cards in 2012?

@The current generation of UK ID card is, apparently, the wrong kind of ID card

oO ?!

I think thats all we need to say! *shakes head*

I guess by about Version 3 they will be laser scanning bar codes onto our heads. :(

Hobbit cameras start rolling in July

@set it in wizards school

Just hope Disney don't buy any more companies, or we could end up with a musical. :(

Supersonic stealth jumpjet achieves its first mid-air hover

I want one! :)

Anything VTOL in my mind is so cool (Although maybe I should say hot at least for the warped and buckled flight deck ;)

But I can't help wondering (with some sadness) that we could also be witnessing perhaps one of the final human piloted fighter aircraft. Give it even just 20 years of service and by then I strongly suspect it could be easily replaced by future next generation supersonic UAV's. I know the thought of this is utter heresy to any pilots, who will say to their final breath that humans are needed as pilots, but the way things are going, I can't help thinking we are witnessing an end of human fighter aircraft. Even just the economics of UAV's aircraft look so much cheaper than the extra complexity and cost of putting a human in the machine and protecting and providing for them.

Also considering how computers are already starting to be able to even exceed what many humans can do in emergency situations, I can't help thinking human fighter pilots are going to increasingly end up with grounded desk jobs in the next 20 years. e.g. how's this for amazing, 60% wing loss and the computer can still fly the plane when even most humans would fail...

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?c=FEA&s=TEC&i=3609855

Facebook faces Home Sec over lack of 'panic button'

@"As always, this is a problem solved by EDUCATION, NOT LEGISLATION."

Unfortunately power hungry control freaks only see solutions that involve them gaining more power and control, i.e. legislate to control.

Which is why they fail to solve things and also end up making matters worse with their controls becoming an additional source of social problems.

@"huge need for nanny buttons everywhere"

A big part of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is about getting people to police themselves and others around them. The thing is these "panic buttons" will be brought in for all well and good reasons (at first), but then we all know feature creep will continue, giving us a slide towards buttons and ways to report ever more possible crimes, plus even just thought crimes, including political thought crimes, as we all slide towards ever more ways for effectively government informants to use these "panic buttons" and before you know it companies are offering better profiling technology to partly automate these panic buttons, and then we fall totally into the world George Orwell described.

The danger of course is, as the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” because out of good intentions we also slide inexorably towards a world with an ever more powerful minority holding ever greater control over an ever more spied on and repressed majority of people, used ever more for the personal gain of that ever more powerful minority and no one can stop it, until that is, everyone if forced to stand together to oppose the powerful minority, to finally (once again) reset their level of power over the majority, by which time its to late to do that easily.

Sadly every few generations the majority of people forget the dangers and don't believe the dangers of allowing a minority of society such power over the majority, until that is they see for themselves just how bad life is getting. Then sadly the majority has to finally fight to reset the level of power and control over them. (After all its not as if our rich corrupt elite are robbing money from tax payers for themselves and to give millions, even billions of more tax payers money to help earn rich banker friends of politicians millions out of our tax money, thereby demonstrating a behavior far more like a Kleptocracy than a Democracy. But then a Democracy was simply a convenient way, (created so long ago) to placate the majority of people into thinking they have a say in how the country is run, when in fact all they have a choice of is which group of greedy narcissist power hungry control freaks they let into power. All the narcissist control freaks want power, (and their narcissist behavior gives them a competitive advantage in gaining power over others), so is it any wonder society keeps getting redefined into ways to give the people in power what they want, which is more power.

So is it any wonder the people in power seek to exploit and abuse ever more (and better) technology to increase their personal gain from having such power over all of us. But then they tell us in typically Machiavellian ways, that its all done for us, when its really done for them.

After all citizen, we spy to protect you.

'Death knell' for Eye-o-Sauron™ US border stare-towers

Version 1 dead, wait for version 2 ...

... and Version 3 and Version 4 etc...

So that title should read, "'Death knell' of Version 1 of Eye-o-Sauron™ US border stare-towers"

Give them a few years of R&D and we will have another round of deals to discuss more cost effective new spy towers.

People in power always want control, so sooner or later they get want they want, because they never give up with their need for control over others, so if we don't have spy towers now, we will have them sooner or later.

So the slide towards an Orwellian world continues, its just that slide isn't smooth, its Stochastic. So we can't celebrate the end of this system because the slide will continue to get ever worse over time.

Microsoft confirms IE9 will shun Windows XP

Oh thats bad news, I have XP and they won't let me use IE9 ;(

Oh well, I'll just have to keep using Firefox then. ;)

Ironically the more they fail to support XP, the more XP is getting extended life and support from open source software. Which in the long run is good news for Linux as more people get familiar with these open source alternatives and so the transition to Linux becomes easier for more people.

But then Microsoft very evidently want to force people away from XP, but in doing so, they risk pushing more people onto Linux as they try to kill off XP.

El Reg insults 'millions of Irish Catholics'

Hey Reg, your red theme is the same primary colour as the Roman Empire flag!

I think its an insult to all us Britons after the defeat of Boudica's army by the Roman Empire!

Not only that, but here in the land of hope and glory, the Reg colours of Red, White and Black are the flag colours of the Nazis!

Shame on you all at The Reg. How dare you insult all us Britons!. You should all be made to sing land of hope and glory every morning for your crimes against so many of us!

... or maybe ... just maybe ... its simply a colour and people should get over the past rivalries. (I don't mean forget the past as there are very important lessons to be learned from the past, but learning which colours to label as the enemy is focusing totally on the wrong lessons of history!).

;)