Posts by Ian Ferguson

Google starts Street View in Europe

Re: Take MY photo?

"If I EVER see a van drive down my street with a set of cameras taking pictures, i'm slashing all its tyres and calling the police."

You'd better not come to Southampton! There are several police vans that continually circle the city with mobile CCTV cameras on top. It'd be a bit embarrassing to slash their tyres.

Personally, I'm going to email Google a photo of me, and my necessary personal details, with a request not to include me in any Street View photos. As far as the data protection act is concerned, that should be enough information to force Google to make sure they do not have records of me (beyond the ones I consent to, ie. the photo I have emailed for them to keep on file). Thus, they must make sure I do not appear in any Street View photos. How they go about this is their problem!

South Koreans clone sniffer dog

Eating dogs

I can never quite understand why everyone is so ready to poke fun at South-east Asians for eating dog. Diet varies across the globe, get used to it, it's what makes travelling so interesting.

The Vietnamese pot-bellied pig is kept as a pet; does that mean we should stop eating pork?

Other countries are just as happy to eat horse meat, dog, kangaroo, goat, etc.; just because we are entirely unadventurous and let our eating habits be controlled by a few major food supplier chains doesn't mean everyone else is wrong.

In-flight calling given lukewarm reception

Is that quote genuinely from Ryanair?

Wow, their Head of Communications needs a swift lesson in... well, communications.

Stating, in an official press communication, that their cabins are noisy and you are constantly being harrassed by scratch card sales people makes them sound awful. I know they are going for the budget market, but still!

That statement alone is enough to put me off ever flying with Ryanair - regardless of the numerous stories of bad experiences with them that I've heard.

Scottish Government scuppers Lewis wind farm plan

Probably a good thing - they'd be screwed over

As much as I'm in favour of renewable energy, from the islander's point of view there really wouldn't be any benefit for them. They were similarly promised hundreds of new jobs for a open mine proposal - but when it came down to the crunch, all the jobs went to suitably qualified engineers who were shipped in. It would be just the same in this situation; The only local jobs created would be making the tea.

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

Happy birthday...

...and I hope you realise Sarah Bee will have attracted about 100 stalkers now.

Good to put faces to names - although I'm still intrigued to see what Lester looks like (I picture a disheveled Yorkshire man of about 50, slightly balding and wearing a woolly jumper with holes in... either that or Lester Haines is the pseudonym you all use when you don't want to be identified)

Mine's the long one with the multiple pockets for binoculars, long lenses, dark glasses, hidden mirrors, laminated photos of Sarah, and well-thumbed binded printouts of everything she has ever written.

Seriously tho - congratulations on making it to ten years in a dog-eat-dog industry, and making it through at least one internet bubble (hopefully two!)

A380 passengers to enjoy 'military-style' urinals

Re: And if you need to number 2?

That's what the sink's for.

eBay forces Aussies to use Paypal

Goodbye eBay

If they enforce that here, I won't be able to use eBay any more. Paypal have blocked my bank details and email address (which is worrying in itself - surely that means they have a permanent record of my bank details?).

The ironic thing is they blocked my account because I as a seller was scammed - the buyer paid using stolen credit card details, the bank did a chargeback, and Paypal assumed it was me who was the dodgy one. They not only left me £300 out of pocket and banned me from using them again, but let the buyer continue to scam several more people. This, despite me desperately trying to call or email a human being to warn them and explain what happened - but they don't concede to talk to mere mortals.

Apprentice contestant to offer Zeppelin trips above London

Not original looking

Having had a look at the company's website, they're essentially just blimps. There are plenty of other companies that fly sight-seeing blimps. They don't look anything like the WWII-era scary things.

Obviously these will do well because they have the Zeppelin brand name, but it would be far cooler if they were modelled after the original Zeppelins.

As a matter of interest - did the original Zeppelins really mount bombing raids? I would have thought they'd just be used on spying trips; think about how heavy bombs would be.

Ban using mobiles while crossing street, says US legislator

I have the solution!

I have a solution that would keep both groups of people happy (those who think mobiles cause dangerous distractions, and those that think it's no different to talking to a friend):

Fine people who are hit by cars.

People say Google will buy Skype and Expedia and, and, and, and

"We report all this only to see if someone will read it and report it again"

I hope you realise somebody will post this story to Slashdot now, titled "Google buying Skype and Expedia this week". You're just doing this for the Slashdot effect on your advertising... ;-)

Is Google Gears safe?

So what do you want - a long EULA?

I quite like that dialogue - it's short and clear. Most people will base their trust on the brand - in this case Google - and not ask any more questions.

Apple ignores Jesus Phone life raft

No thanks!

I'd rather not have background apps running on my iPhone, thank you. It's a simple way of blocking malicious spy / virus apps. And I can't think of a single possible reason why I'd want a remote 'engineer' to log in to my iPhone and mess around with it.

Half the problem with Windows Mobile devices is (funnily enough, the same as full fat Windows) that there's too much crapware running which slows down the whole experience and drains the battery. The iPhone isn't massively fast and responsive as it is, so I'd prefer to keep it pristine where possible.

Thank you Apple!

Richard Branson dupes entire wireless industry with Google on Mars gag

B Ark or Rama II

This would be great... I can think of plenty of people I'd like to send to Mars. As, er, pioneering colonists, of course.

US auto parts store spills data to hackers

Was it a coding error?

I wonder if somebody forgot to open their tags correctly, meaning underlying code was displayed on the page?

Something like: the firm a href="http://www.advanceautoparts.com/creditsecurity/default.asp" target="_blank">said on Monday

Sprint and Samsung unveil Jesus Phone lookalike

"content pre-loaded"

Let me guess, that handy 'FUN :-)' icon cannot be removed or reprogrammed, and goes to a Sprint walled garden where you can buy games and ringtones?

The online funeral

Not April fool

I'm in Southampton, and it was in our local rag a couple of weeks ago.

Front page news - not much of excitement happens around here apart from football hooligans smashing bottles over each other's heads. As a logical conclusion the crematorium does quite well for itself, funnily enough.

After the death of his wife?

"After the death of his wife, John Childs was forced to return to Australia because of work commitments"

Wow, I wonder what his wife would have made of that. It takes the work/life overbalance to a whole new level.

£75 for an hour's access to a webcam seems a bit steep - hell, you could access some decent porn webcams and more for that price... apparently.

But putting gimmickness aside, this is actually quite a good service for the house-bound. It would be perfect for my gran if a) she had a computer and b) her mates could be convinced to die in Southampton.

Paris 'cos she has a bit of experience in £75-per-hour video... apparently.

Google lets users take Apps files offline

Full circle

So stand-alone word processors have evolved into network based word processors because of the benefits of remote storage; and now they're evolving back into stand-alone word processors because of the benefits of local storage.

Now all we need is for Wikipedia to provide a version on CD, and maybe print, and change the name to Encylopaedia Britannia or something.

Storm Worms exploit April Fools

Misinformed people

My father keeps his work-from-home PC turned off for the whole of April 1st, every year - because somebody once told him that some viruses are timed to activate on this date.

I try to patiently explain the evolution of technology to him but don't get very far. Also, because he was once told that all floppy disks and CDs have to be checked for viruses before being used on work equipment, he posts them all to head office to be checked before using them. Including blank media.

Bless him.

Amazon smacks little people with BookSurge

Why use Amazon?

Play.com do books - usually cheaper than Amazon. I don't know where they stand on the print-on-demand system, though.

I haven't used Amazon for years - I got sick of finding a book that I wanted, clicking the buy button, and finding it's one of those damn 'buy new or used' second hand eBay-ripoff links.

E-Plus kills i-mode service

Re: mobile web browsing

Mobile browsing is fine, it's when the operator tries to keep users within a walled garden that it goes pear shaped.

I used O2 i-mode; all the 'services' were crap. Fortunately the phone's browser was capable of basic rendering of the rest of the web.

Ironically, I switched to an iPhone contract, and O2 kept charging me for i-mode services for several months afterwards. The only way to unsubscribe from services was through i-mode itself; something I obviously couldn't do. I've managed to convince O2 to stop charging me now, but no luck in getting my money back.

Ofcom says yes on more TV ads

The BBC is the answer

Wow, I can't remember the last time I watched an advert.

I don't exclusively watch BBC programmes, but anything that isn't (and therefore isn't available on iPlayer) I acquire from torrents. Sans adverts.

Is it just me or is the BBC 'unique' funding model getting more and more relevant nowadays?

BBC races away with five-year F1 rights deal

HURRAH!!!

MotoGP on iPlayer is a godsend, I'm looking forward to accessing F1 in the same way. Absolutely fantastic.

Also; no more adverts over the important bits!

And hopefully, the beeb will ALWAYS show the grand prix live on some channel or other, even if it's in prime time.

BBC Micro creators meet to TRACE machine's legacy

Memory lane

My brother and I convinced my parents to buy a Model B as an 'educational' tool... amazingly enough, looking back, it probably was highly beneficial to our education, as disappointed by the lack of games we were allowed to buy, we turned our hands to creating our own.

The BASIC programming language was easy to pick up and powerful in teen's hands... I probably learnt more crouching over that flickering screen than I did in ten years of Computer Science.

A special mention should be made to the excellent manual that came with it - I still have it on my bookshelf, highly dog-eared but I can't bring myself to bin it (much to the annoyance of successive girlfriends!). The simple concept of pixel graphics (and sprites) opened my mind in ways that my friends could not understand... geeky perhaps, but such a good education!

Elite and Repton 3 were truly astonishing games - expanding the possibilities of computer games beyond the quick five minute alien-bash to the concept of exploring fictional worlds, and user generated content, respectively.

Admittedly the BBC Micro holds a special place in my heart because for many years it was the only computer I had access to - I envied my friends with more games-orientated machines (or even, wonder of wonders, an Archimedes with the beautiful graphics and music of Lemmings...)

Facebook says occupied territories are Israel

A minor dispute compared to...

Facebook addicts in Southampton are forced to register as being in Portsmouth...

There will be blood.

Microscope-wielding boffins crack Tube smartcard

Can you be a bit more specific?

"It's also used by public transit systems in Boston and London"

Do you mean the widely used Oyster card system? If so why not say so?

Vatican updates list of mortal sins

Not File Sharing?

I know the Catholic Church is thought of for being out of date, but really, I would have thought piracy would be up there with the mortal sins, not to mention acquiring it's own circle of hell.

Software engineer builds straw house for £4k

Hmm, let's see...

Ten months of my time, plus an unmentioned number of others (who might be willing to volunteer the once, but not if we all decide to build our own houses)... would cost... yup, a bit more than £10,000.

Sarcasm aside, it is good to see that some people still have basic survival skills. When the revolution comes, he will be a god among us.

Plastic bag campaign falls apart at the seams

Missing the point

OK so that study turns out to be bollocks - but it doesn't mean plastic is completely harmless.

The effects on areas of African soil can be seen here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6253564.stm

Tenuous connection, but I wonder how many shrews/voles/children were really choked by the old-style coke can ring pulls. I was terribly disappointed when they changed the design, the old one could be removed and converted into a small metal ring spring firing mechanism. Thinking about it, maybe that's why they really changed.

Paris 'cos it wouldn't surprise me if she's half plastic.

Snap Sun decision launches Java at iPhone

Woohoo

Just what I've been waiting for - I can't wait to install a Mobile Calorie Counter java applet on my iPhone. Little grey boxes that crash the browser are exactly what we need.

This is beside the point, but why do our comments have beetroot beside them?

Steve Jobs unveils plans to dominate RIM BlackBerry, Life, the Universe, and Everything

I like it

I'm generally impressed with the direction they're taking - they seem to be listening to what the public wants (including 3G if the rumours are correct, which might put a stop to some of the bitching and moaning, although I suspect the people making the most noise are bitching for the sake of bitching)

Two disappointments though; the SDK looks like it's missing two fairly critical functions; full access to Bluetooth and to the dock connector. If they were allowed, it would kick start the accessories business no end; but as this won't get Apple any money, I suspect they won't bother. Shame.

Although most people seem to moan about the App Store lock-in, I think it's a GREAT idea. Why? Take a common or garden Windows Mobile or Palm device, and try and find some useful applications for it on the internet. You will be swamped with useless calorie counters, 'hilarious' joke apps, buggy tweaks, 'fun toys' etc. The unofficial installer.app sources are going this way; by limiting and monitoring what applications are going to be allowed, we can be assured of at least some quality control.

I just hope they allow some of the great unofficial third party apps to work with the official installer. The Game Boy Advance emulator is the bee's knees.

Nine Inch Nails cracks net distribution (maybe)

ONLY 18 percent?

I'm surprised he/they thought 18 percent conversion rate was poor. When there are two almost identical products, and one is free, I think it's pretty amazing (and encouraging) that nearly one in five chose to pay.

Wikileaks judge reverses takedown order

Wow

I'm actually impressed by the judge now - rather than sticking his head in the sand like many US judges would, shouting 'no, no, no, I've made my decision and I'm sticking to it', he's actually listened to the arguments (on both sides) and made a rational decision, and has the balls to admit that he made a big, embarrassing mistake.

Of course, he shouldn't have issued the original gag order, and his reputation will be in tatters because of it, but kudos to him for owning up to his errors.

Elonex £99 Eee PC rival to arrive in June

re: ok place your bets

Asus girl for looks, Elonex girl for personality... (she's smiling!)

eBay boycott results in mixed feedback

Um

Seems a bit of a pointless protest to me - won't it just be the sellers themselves who lose out? A week's worth of fees is pocket change to eBay.

If they're unhappy with the changes maybe they should look at other places to sell their wares - eBay ain't the only marketplace.

Google encourages 10 teams to rocket to the moon

We're whaler's on the moon

We carry a harpoon

But there ain't no whales

So we tell our tall tale

And sing our whaling tune!

MS + Yahoo! = Microhoo! - Official!

Microhoo! Cares!

How convenient you've forgotten who came up with that - otherwise you'd owe them at least $6bn in brandstorming fees.

Fire extinguisher resolves German smoking dispute

Hmm

Good on him for the theory, but a bit dimwitted in practice, doing it in his own flat.

Those powder extinguishers are awful - I hear that if one is used in a computer room, every computer has to be replaced, as the powder gets everywhere (including inside power supplies, over components, etc) and can't be cleaned off effectively. Bleargh.

US declares 1400-mile Pacific sat-shoot exclusion zone

Coincidence?

That's the exact same time as the total eclipse of the moon - obviously no coincidence! Them damn US military are obviously shooting down the moon itself while we can't see it! Sneaky bastards!

That's no moon... etc

Forth Bridge painters to down brushes in 2012

Re: Amazing

Furthermore, Seán, there are continuously updated webcams pointed at a variety of interesting struts and joins, so the three-layer paint process can be inspected online by the public as the sunlight-accelerated solidification process gets underway. I hear it's fascinating.

Train-spotting has nothing on this.

UK bank blames fraudsters for World of Warcraft ban

Verified by Visa / Mastercard Securecard

I wonder if anyone who subscribes to Blizzard's services can tell us if they have to fill out a Verified by Visa / Mastercard Securecard password box when they enter their details?

The banks are currently proclaiming this as the answer to all internet fraudster woes. Lloyds have told me that if I don't install it on our transaction server, they'll put up their processing rates.

I'm not entirely convinced though - I notice while using the process that a) it is not mandatory to use, you can decline having to sign up, and b) if you forget your password it'll give you another one if you enter your date of birth. Hardly ultra-secure.

Paris 'cos all her passwords are probably the same.

Unlocking the iPhone for pleasure and profit... revisited

Cool, thanks for that

I'm using the O2 contract that came with my iPhone (for better or for worse, feel free to flame me, everyone else), so I'm perfectly happy with my data plan and everything (my bill tells me I downloaded several hundred mb last month, if data wasn't included in my plan it'd probably cost me hundreds of pounds).

So my question is this; beyond being able to use the iPhone on other networks, which doesn't interest me right now, is it worth unlocking it? Are the third party apps that much better than web apps? I told myself I'd wait for the official SDK but I'm wondering if I'm missing out.

FBI issues prosthetic pregnant belly bomb alert

Re: Where did all this anti UnitedStatesandAmericanism come from?

"30 years ago we forgave them Viet Nam. As anybody could make a mistake."

I'm sorry, you've lost me there... who are you speaking on behalf of? As far as I can remember, the Vietnam war was more than a mistake. Most civilised people might be willing to forgive them, once they issue a formal apology, start war crimes proceedings, and begin financial compensation to affected Vietnamese families.

NEC lets Sadville residents call the real world

Bleargh

Does anyone actually use Second Life any more? I'd hoped it had dissolved in it's own festering venture capitalist juices by now.

eBayer invites buyers to rip him off

Viral

I agree, it's probably an ad for tazbar (which sounds hellishly dodgy to me). But the points it makes are more than valid. I have, at a guess, bought about ten items off eBay, and sold about five. The items I bought were fine, no problems. I had problems with scammers with EVERY SINGLE one of the items I sold. Four of them were ok once I figured out who I should ignore (I think I had to relist a couple of them), the fifth was using stolen credit card details, so I lost out (over £300).

Don't use eBay. More importantly, don't use PayPal to receive money - despite their assurances, there is no guarantee you will keep your money. I had received £300 in my PayPal account, and transferred it to my bank account - you would have thought that meant it was mine - but because PayPal got stung with a stolen card chargeback, they billed me for the £300 via a debt collection agency, and locked my account.

Moral of the story - scammers continue to get away with it, honest users get punished.

Britt Ekland on board for 'Wicker Man 2'

Pregnant

The excuse I heard was that Britt Ekland was increasingly pregnant during filming; in most places the bump is cleverly hidden, but naturally the nude shots were a bit of a problem. I'm sure she wasn't too disappointed at the time that a reasonably nice posterior was put in place of her baby bump.

Whatever the sequel is going to be like, it's going to be a hell of a lot better than the Holywood (Nick Cage vehicle) remake.

Wikipedia ruled by 'Lord of the Universe'

Good article

and interesting investigation.

Another reason why not to 100% trust anything you read on the internet. Even if you wrote it...

Google gets involved in Kenya, fights back in China

Never made a phone call?

In my experience the big internet market in Kenya and other African countries, at least in urban areas, is mobile based. A mobile phone is a basic business need, and far more prevalent than land lines, computers, mainstream internet use, or even reliable home power (using a laptop or mobile phone as a light source at night is not just a myth).

In this sense, Google have probably got the right idea - they seem to have their heads screwed on the right way over mobile internet and applications nowadays.

Music industry sues Baidu

I like the Chinese's style

Do the companies really expect Chinese consumers to give a shit about their losses through piracy? The Chinese have a very different view about ownership rights to the Western world that Universal et al are used to. It's not just music they're happy to share and share alike - branded physical items, like clothes, are equally copied without a second thought.

Kind of nice in a way.

Paris as an icon 'cos she's unique and even the Chinese can't copy her. Thank God.

IFPI wins Danish block on Pirate Bay

Courts

I wonder what the Danish courts will make of this? It's effectively censorship. There is far worse information on the internet (some of it deemed illegal by courts, not knee-jerk reactions) which aren't blocked by ISPs.

It'll be interesting to see if there's a media backlash against ISPs that take these measures. You'd hope so - otherwise it's the start of a slippery slope.