Posts by Buzzby

Software dev-turned-councillor launches rubbish* chatbot

FFS

Central government started all this by forcing Councils to charge for non domestic waste. Rather than pay to tip waste flytipping was created instead.

UK Home Office's £885m crim records digi effort: A 'masterclass in incompetence'

Re: There are no more jokes

Sorry to be a pedant bit PFI was a Tory invention but Labour took it and used it as you described, the idiots! I can agree with you over the rest.

I considered that the most politically stupid thing Labour ever did. Good old Tory Blair.

PwC: More redundos at HQ of UK 'leccy stuff shop Maplin

Re: To be unfair

I recently went to my local Maplin's looking for any deals. Printer inks grabbed my attention. I can use Epson TO715 sets. Maplins £61 less 10%, Tesco, PC World about £55, Asda down to £37 from £44, even cheaper on the net, no, brainer really.

Boozing is unsafe at ‘any level’, thunders chief UK.gov quack

One big Fraud

I went into Wetherspoons last night and started reading their news sheet. There was a large write up about this, seriously debunking it all.

The writer was a science journalist and producer of the BBC Horizon. He contacted N.I.C.E. regarding the article and was sent a copy of the so called research. Go to .jdwetherspoon.com/news and see the blog.

Tim's Viewpoint - It is hard to fathom why a gastroenterologist with an anti-alcohol agenda was asked to pronounce on matters of the mind, but it’s no surprise that his emissions on the subject have a distinct whiff. All the press seemed to fall for it. Read the blog it is very interesting.

Mine's a pint for obvious reasons.

Silk Road boss Ross Ulbricht to spend LIFE in PRISON without parole

Death by Drugs

A bit of history. Some 25 or so years ago I used to record programs through the night, I worked days, and one was an American program about death from drugs.

This was no drug wars just freedom of information numbers on deaths from drugs. I cannot recollect the real numbers but I can give some ideas as to the totals. Presuming the dates were mid late 80's they were as follows;

Alcohol & tobacco were around 500000 then. Cocaine & heroin were maybe 500 or less, I am uncertain. Weed or marijuana was zero that I do remember.

This maker you wonder. Look what fortunes some people made from prohibition, the Kennedy's were one were they not? How about the mafia. I am sure there were more. I welcome comments from across the pond.

As is said above legalizing drugs will stop this major big business in it's tracks. However incarceration for drug offenses is also big business. So who has the best political pull.

I do wonder what will happen in the future.

Starship Troopers beat Aliens, Robots AND Chuck Norris to WIN in a FIGHT

Re: Bill, the galactic hero

Good idea but what serious S F author would let Hollywood near their books. Heinlein & his wife were dead before Hollywood got its sticky paws on Starship Troopers. Read the book, see the film, note the differences. I much preferred the book.

Whitehall at war: Govt’s webocrats trash vital digital VAT site

No user testing? and you think its not going to bite you in the backside?

You need a first class idiot! You know make something idiot proof and along comes an idiot that proves you wrong.

My sister a hematologist wrote some protocols re using a new ( then ) all singing all dancing machine in blood labs. They had the time so managed to get some idiot ( low skilled person ) to try it. They failed! After a discussion with the failing user the protocols were rewritten. They then became more user friendly.

This seems to be a form of testing that is rarely done in practice, too tight a deadline methinks.

How HAPPY am I on a scale of 1 to 10? Where do I click PISSED OFF?

Dangerous Crocs

I was traveling through Gatport Airwick ( LGW ) 3 years back and had my old worn croc lookalikes x rayed. They must have looked dangerous, made of plastique perhaps! This was done after passing security by the departure lounge entrance.

This 125mph train is fitted with LASERS. Sadly no sharks, though

Seen it all Before

Should you have Sky or Virgin a film of the yellow peril can be seen on the program "Trainspotting" on the discovery channel. I most recently saw it in the last 2 weeks but it has been broadcast many times before.

Re: Yellow's just the thing

Not a bad article. I saw all of this on the program Trainspotting from my cable supplier Virgin. It has been shown a few times in the last year or so.

Don't assume public trusts you, MI5. 'Make a case' for surveillance – Former security chief

Re: I "trust" ISIS the most

Sounds just like Saudi Arabia at their best.

Edward who? GCHQ boss dodges Snowden topic during last speech

Re: Define "mass surveillance"

I like what you say. I would just make 1 correction. The Daily Wail for Daily Fail.

My other press names are The Sin, The Grauniad, The Whines, The Stir and The Daily Fascist ( express ) for now.

UK spooks STILL won't release Bletchley Park secrets 70 years on

I Was There

I was a Bletchley Park ( BP ) a few times in the late 60's. It was then a Post Office telephones training establishment. The only odd things about the place was the large radio aerials and the fact we were told that if your radio ( Walkman, mp3 player of the period ) did not work in the accommodation you were in, try it outside where it would work. You were probably in a faraday screened building but we weren't told that..

GCHQ spooks told: Break Huawei's grip on 'The Cell'

Re: how the hell did we end up with...

Marconi was the preferred bidder. I worked alongside guys who were testing the narrow/broadband routers. The Marconi ones worked fine, they did design them.

They would carry on working, carrying traffic even while updating the software However the price was £4K and BT, especially a certain female politician board member didn't want to pay that.

Huawei got the contract for £2K a pop so there it was. The new kit wouldn't work anywhere near as well as the Marconi kit, it would fall over while updating for example. It all went down the pan. That was the once much vaunted 21CN ( 21st century network ) that was.

Jack Vance: Science fiction’s master of magic, mischief and sex

Favourite

My favourite from Jack Vance was the many worlds of Magnus Ridolf, half of an Ace double book.

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7

As I Like It

In BT I grew up with DOS to Win XP and also HI nets. There was also a large VAX cluster and all the command line exchanges, sysX & axe10.

I am too idle to go to Linux, windows it is, my son is a heavy gamer. I do not want win8 with that to me silly UI.

I bought a vista pc which I later upgraded to 7. Good enough for me I think.

GoPro accused of using DMCA to take down product review

GOPRO Screwup

Is it Ratner or Crapner, I prefer the 2nd. GOPRO has gone. Sore foot, as in shot itself in.

O2, GiffGaff network goes titsup for unlucky punters

Nada

Mob operators rely on databases. Your IMEI, phone no, whereabouts just for starters. Lose one of these

and you lose service. Could be one or more of O2's db's have been scrambled.

BT to swing axe at sales account managers – sources

Again???

They were talking of this in house over 10 years ago, to no avail. I was looking forward to trying for one of those posts. I am glad I did not hold my breath then.

Metallic Glass iPhone 5 to battle pottery Samsung Galaxy S3

Liquid Metal

Wasn't the last terminator made from liquid metal?

BT fattens fibre customer pipes for free - with a contract extension

Re: More BT BS.

Snake oil & salesmen comes to mind.

BT ordered to cut Openreach fees for rivals

Re: BT scum

BT have no control over OFCOM, the boot is on the other foot. I used to work in network & switch configuration ( datamanagement in BT speak ) and the problems we had with the then new Other Licensed Operators ( OLO's ) was terrible. One old example. I provided a new digital route to the then Mercury. This included C7 signalling & multiple 2mb 30 channel systems. It was enlarged, using precious scarce hardeware on this large BT trunk switch. All this sat there for several years and was never used. It was eventually recovered.

In a similar vein an OLO asked for us to cease some 2mb systems. These carried the C7 signaling links. We refused, and told them why! They got OFTEL to order us to do it. We did, they screamed, we told them so, still they screamed until OFTEL ordered us to restore it.

Whatever an OLO wanted, however stupid it was, they got it! We could do nothing right, they could do nothing wrong. What a palaver.

Home Sec splits Border Agency after passport checks fiasco

Politician tellint the Truth

I know who I would rather believe and it's not the politician. I consider them professional liars!

Intel pays peanuts to settle NY antitrust suit

Avantage Intel

John Brunner said it all in the Shockwave Rider. The US government gave large corporations imminity from being sued no matter what they did, ( maximum national advantage he called it ), they could steal anything.

Russia and NASA plan to COLONISE the Moon

Old Book Worth a Read

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Anson Heinlein, is well worth a read. Let them throw rocks!,

What a good idea.

Phages: The powerful new bio-ammo in superbug war

It's the Money

Big Pharma needs the money. Using phages for an antibiotic is not a new idea. They do however tend to be rather specific. So there has to be a twist about using phages to enable patents to be obtained and therefore the money.

Satnav mishap misery cure promised at confab

IDIOTS!

I have often seen them referred to as p**t navs because so many p**ts use them.

Comet Lovejoy survives brush with fiery solar death

Three words

It is triple. Rama came in threes ( A. C. Clark ).

Boffins build bionic battery

BOOM

Read some of Larry Niven's SF. Safeties on batteries ( super ) can be circumvented to turn them into grenades/bombs. Let's just wait & see. The future awaits us!

Manufacturers testing wider cars for swingbellies

SERIOUSLY FAT BASTARDS

Does anyone remember the comic 2000 AD. Judge Dred, and the seriously fat bastards, c/w belly wheel fighting each other, or eating competitions with each other, in the arena. Now those were the sort of buggers that perhaps the car designers of today will need to be preparing for.

BOFH: We don't need no stinkin' upgrade

DONT NEED THE FEATURES

Got a full copy of Office 2003 and I dont use most of that. I have no need for any upgrade so there!!!

Attention metal thieves: Buy BT, get 75 MILLION miles of copper

mega pairs

Lots of pairs in them thar cables. Around towns/cities there may be 2000 pair cables, I've seen them, ruddy big mothers an all. There are of course smaller ones and older ones. I have seen some national telephone company cables over 40 years ago, 15 pair, paper insulation and covered in lead, the de-facto standard till the 60's, usually.

Big brother is listening, it's built into the phone net!!!

Ten... Desktop USB 3.0 HDDs

GoFlex

It's a good bit of kit. I bought a 3Tb one from my local maplins. There is a problem though, should you use M$ backup, ( I have Win7 Ult ) it will fail at the last minute with an error message. It is something to do with large sectors I think. I did look into it but it seemed a bit involved & would probably need a reformat.

The drive does come with software installed, Memeo Sync, Share & send but I dont use them. What's useful is the instant backup, this works well, but it seems just to back up the profile you are logged into. What I really wanted was to completely backup the entire pc ( 6 profiles/logins ) in 1 go, but hey it does backup all my files etc but no Win immage.

Hackers crack crypto for GPRS mobile networks

Old News

Unfettered access to the UK telephone network has been available to the spooks for a long while now. I cant see how the same access is available from the mobile operators. I would reckon it would be a condition of the operators license.

India cracks down on the Blackberry

Turing?

The poles first cracked the enigma. Turing did do a lot. He mechanised the cracking with the Bombe.

Post Office banking collapses in computer fail

1 Mistake

Mr Harvey in the 50's-60's the Post Office research station was at dollis hill London. In the 70's I considered transfering to martlesham which had not long opened.

Head fed cyberspook resigns abruptly

The Third Spy

People don't forget the third spy, the lady in grey. I read Mad from the 60's to the 80's, don martin was my favourite.

Does anyone remember Captain Kook & Mr Spook of the good ship Booby Prize. Just 60, I still remember..

ICO: Knowing your rights is a priority in new strategy

The ICO is!

Seeme to me to be just some jobs for the boys. Nice little numbers for the great, good & ignorant. You expect me to do my job? Get real!!!

No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

secret ballot at elections

There is no secret ballot, every ticket is marked with your ID before it is handed to you. A quick check by the appropriate authorities afterward will show how you or anybody else voted. QED.

Hated contractor tax might disappear

only go for the little person

Back a while when La Vache a Fer, ( maggie ) to most of you, took power a mole in the tax office passed a letter, to the tax inspectors from the government, to leave our friends alone ( the big boys in the city ) and go after the little people instead.

I dont think there has been any change in policy for the last 25+ years do you???

What sealed Nokia's fate?

RIP Nokia

After the 6310 no Nokia mob appealed to me, oh sorry the 8800's toughness seemed good, but the price!!! Jewelry.

I've been watching other manufacturers catch up & overtake them, yet all I wanted was phone, text & camera ( 5 - 8 mb ) oh and of course style that appeals to me. My 7610 & 6310 were brilliant.

By by Nokia.

Egypt switches off the internet

Translating Joe Biden v2.0

We used to call them banana republics because so many were in central/south america.

Gatwick Airport security swoops on 3-inch rifle

Low IQ's

What are these people? What are they paid??? The obvious answer is monkeys & peanuts.

Malawi poised to outlaw farting

Botty Burps

Where you may be let your wind go free, church or chapel let it rattle was a pet rhyme of my ex. She came from the fens oooh arrr.

Careful it is natural gas, and it can be lit. A backfire is a hospital job!!!

When one oligopoly screws another

When one oligopoly screws another.

So whats new? It sure happens here in the UK, check Apple's prices just for one example.

Cops cuff man who exposed holes in 'perfect' voting machines

Bent Machines

What a suprise!!!

Orange coughs to data network failure

No 3G

I am on O2 but my local cell is Orange. Over 2 years ago I needed a new sim, it was a 3G one. Next thing I know most calls in or out were failing.

Made a fuss over a long time with O2 and the advice was revert to 2G. This was ok for me but what about all the people here, north Cambridge, wanting to use 3G.

Wonderful service NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O2 blamed for iPhone's data sucking

No 3G

Where I live 3G has not worked for at least 3 years. To get service I uase 2G settings.

I had been making a fuss for some 3 - 4 years now to O2. It's still not fixed!

Android's UK phone sales quadruple

What I Want

I want a phone. I want to text. I want to take 5Mb pictures at least. Oh yes I like touchscreens.

I currently back up to external memory then to my PC. For net & e-mail I use a PC. Anything else is a waste, I don't use it. Specifically I do not use the net or e-mail.

Where I live, a block of flats, there is an orange cell on the roof, great signal strength. However since 2007 - 8 I could not get service on 3G. My old sim died in Malta and the new replacement sim was 3G. Anywhere in europe 3G worked fine except at home. Incomimg calls failed and went to voicemail and my greatest No of call setup failures was about 50. I sent back 3 LG viewty's and an LG750. I now have a Renoir 910.

O2 my provider were useless. I eventually had to make ongoing multiple fusses on their web site, contact us, before anyone eventually contacted me.

I never managed to talk to a techie but the woman I eventually spoke to suggested that I revert to 2G as I did not use 3G. Not easy to find on a 910, but eventually Success!!! but every time I tried 3G no go.

I have spoken to other people round here who have 3G trouble telling them to try 2G. I am again now trying 3G again. We shall see!

I stay with O2 because I have a staff contract going back to BT Cellnet.

God-blocking web filter ironically hard to find

Nice Idea

If this is kosher I like it.

Certainly in the past the religious right controled s/w companies developing filtering s/w.

Of course their block lists were not available for perusal.

I think fundamentalism, religious or political, the most dangerous of ideas.