Posts by Tony

US war robots in Iraq 'turned guns' on fleshy comrades

@Kurt Guntheroth

to be fair to the machines, the Airbus was not downed by Phalanx - phalanx is a close range last ditch defence against close range fast moving targets (e.g. exocets, large shells.) and fills the air with so much metal sh8t nothing gets through. Unless you're about to land/crash into the ship it won't get you - if you are however u r f8cked!

Secondly, the Airbus came down cos the squishy bits in the missile cruiser couldn't tell the difference between an F14, (relatively small, very fast), and an Airbus (quite big, not that quick, tends to fly in straight lines from civilian airports). However when you combine a gung ho admiral (long career with no combat experience) with an incompetent radar operator and a Weapons System controller who uses post it notes on his screen (as he's scared of computers) on the world's most advanced warship, people die.

The Airbus incident made the case for cutting humans out the chain. Sad thing is a radar op on a boat further away correctly called it as an Airbus but was ignored......Mines the one with the Union Jack on the back

Earth to Ofcom: They're our airwaves. Give them back

Group think

BBC's Adam Curtis:

"What really happens now, is that they're so entrenched in their self-referential groups, anyone who joins up the dots any other way......."

doesn't work for the BBC and should be terminated (or something similar).

Pot & kettle?

TETRA defends itself against RIM onslaught

Tetra - reliable!

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I've got 2 baked bean tins and some string that outperform Airwave (BTW European Tetrapol isn't the same as Airwave - one works, the other .........don't let Airwave's PR department try and convince you Airwave works like the European systems that really do work). Ask anyone in the telecoms industry.

Quote ‘The Airwave digital radio system was never contracted to work in buildings or on the Underground, according to a London Assembly report into the 7 July London bomb attack.’ http://www.tetrawatch.net/tetra/function.php

Ooops, lucky nothing ever happens on the Underground. Luckily my Blackberry works in buildings

Oh, and the entire radio infrastructure of the UK emergency services is owned by an Aussie bank. Bizarrely I can't find any reference to the national security of the UK in their blurb, but I'm sure its more important than their shareholders.

@ Better than GSM Coverage - who's got a job at the Macquarie PR department then? Bet you've never had your life depend on this system, unlike 130,000 coppers and 56 million potential victims of crime, fire, injury etc. Back to the bar job for you.

Hell, I've been to telecoms conferences where the Head of IT for a police force implored the mobile phone industry to give him better commercial data speeds as Airwave would never do what its supposed to.

At RiM outages are only occasional rather than most of the time. The future's bright, the future's black......berry

Porsche to challenge London CO₂ penalty in court

@James

I congratulate you on your ignorance and prejudice overcoming your fundamental requirement to survive and reproduce! A Darwin Award is surely coming your way.

Traffic collisions between vehicles and pedestrians have little to do with momentum. Hit by a car at speed you hit the bonnet, your head smashes the windscreen and you fly in the air. Momentum only determines how high/far you fly. You then hit the road/kerb. What kills you is the dual impact of hitting the windscreen (very hard) with your head, followed by landing on head first on tarmac (even harder).

The long bonnets of 4x4's mean an adult will often hit their head on the bonnet, which being thin sheet metal have some give unlike a windscreen. As they are flat fronted you slump over the bonnet with internal injuries, before sliding off the bonnet onto the road. Thus you have much less severe impacts to the head and mainly internal trauma to the body, which are more survivable than 2 massive head traumas from a car (or van!) hit.

These are facts, proven by accident analysis. So Mr Van driver, if you "gave a f*ck" about other people you'd ditch the van and get a safe 4x4!

Which is more dangerous and polluting - a large 4x4 or a Mercedes van capable of over 100mph laden driven by one the highest risk occupations for vehicle insurance - Van Drivers! Statistically you are a lot more dangerous than any 4x4 - ask the insurance industry. Thanks for coming.

@James

A few facts? Hardly.

Travel times same due to traffic calming? The L in TfL is for "liars". Don't believe the propaganda. Check your facts. They don't match the TfL's biased interpretation.

Pedestrian fatalities are down - it has nothing to with congstion charge, its across London (not just CC land) due to intense focus on casualty reduction by police and councils (if you used public transport you'd have seen the ads). As for your other comment, grow up (are 12 year olds allowed on El Reg?). FACT - adults hit by 4x4's are less likely to die or suffer serious head injury. Statistical analysis of accidents has proven they are SAFER for adults. That's why well informed anti's don't mention accident rates anymore, just co2.

Cycling is up - so are cyclist casualty rates (congrtulations, the only group of road users with an increase). Handy hint - try observing the highway code - red is for danger and stop at traffic lights.

Any londoner? Improved immeasurably? How much did Ken pay you for that gem. I was born in london and commute 3 hours a day across town - they have not improved at all, just more crowded. You clearly don't use them.

Most Londoners support the congestion - really? I get the impression you're not a londoner, but the election will tell.

From your vitriolic comments my guess is that you are bike riding halfwit who jumps red lights and is a fully paid up cycling neo-nazi (intolerant views and violent hatred of those you disagree with, dodgy outfits and helmets - sounds familiar). Please don't delude yourself that your opinions are facts. You're not even very good at being an anti!

Paris as you don't have a clue!

Redmond puts key Vista update on ice

MS ain't going nowhere

as long as people will buy its shoddy products and kept the cash rolling in. There is a significant proportion of the IT and non-IT buying world who will buy any old crap if MS tells them to.

I'd just like to thank you all for giving me that warm glow of being oh so, so right....again! Long live XP.

Paris as a lot of people have more money than sense.

Space shuttle descends: Satellite turkey-shoot to commence

What a crock

sorry but this is the biggest pile of turd since, err, Vista.

The USAF has had squadrons of satellite killing F15 fighters for decades - here's what Time reported in 1985 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959735,00.html

The Russkies had similar squadrons so that in WW3 each side would try to wipe out each others spy sats as the ICBM's flew. The F15's were modded to get as far up as possible to the outer limits of the atmosphere and the edges of space without using actual rocket power.

So basically if they wanted it taken out they could have done it by now. This is a ground based missile test, pure and simple, cos the Chinese beat them to it.

Hey guys, get with the programme - the Chinese and oil states already own you (you just sold your banks to em), now they're gonna kick your arse too. And then we're all f*cked. And all because Bush and the neo-twats couldn't stop meddling in Iraq. Thanks for screwing it up for the West.

Heathrow 777 crash: 'No anomalies in the major aircraft systems'

Unless it was the pilots or maintenance

which is highly unlikely from what we know, it was the plane wot caused it.

In practical terms if my Boeing has technical issues do I to pay for an overpriced ticket with probably the finest crews on the planet, or a cheap ticket from a "budget" airline with presumably budget training and budget crews?

Suddenly losing all your luggage seems worth it. Respect to the crew on that flight and BA for putting them there in the first place. Amazing how worrying about that extra £100 (well technically 50p after all the hidden charges magically appear on the final booking page) suddenly seems so trivial.........

Junkie sues pusher over heart attack

A good thing

I reckon its a stupid case but it might just stop people dealing (then again it might not). Getting a bit of pokey for dealing is an occupational hazard, once you're out you just carry on where you left off.

but if instead you get tied up with litigation for years, endless hearings, lawyers bills and risk having to pay out a load of damages, the brighter ones are gonna think there are easier ways of making money (fraud, robbery etc). Most of these crims aren't too sharp, but getting bogged down in a lawsuit for years is probably worse than porridge.

Get suing!

Polish teen derails tram after hacking train network

Morality gene

I think he's missing one.

Look forward to hearing how his career progresses, selling nuclear plans to dodgy regimes, designing bio weapons. Great.

YouTube biker clocked at 189mph

Recession

Looking at the times of the postings its no wonder recession is on the way, no ones doing any bloody work!

For all those bikers who ride fast cos they think they're so good and everyone else is shit - you're not and you are still more likely to die compared to non-bikers. Plenty of self proclaimed expert riders died thinking they could defy the laws of physics.

Personally every new driver/rider should be taken to a fatal collision and made to watch it be cleared up. And then spend a night in Belmarsh to get a feel for it. With those two thoughts in their heads the "I'm so good" crew might do us all favour and grow up. But of course that would no doubt infringe their fundamental human right to act like tw8ts and put the rest of us at risk.

Fire stations too much like fire stations, says Govt

Its the economy, stupid

errr, haven't they noticed the property market going a bit south.

The cunning bit of this plan (the bit that was supposed to help the ever growing budget deficit) won't work as the commercial property market is dead, the resi market is just at the top of a very large cliff and the chances right now of a developer being able to borrow a few million for converting a fire station are about as likely as a something very unlikely!

Ever wondered why the trains, planes etc don't run properly, cos if they did we'd all feck off to a properly run country like err the Congo, or Burma or somewhere a bit more liberal and less taxed.

Facebook faces UK data probe

Foxy knoxy

Why would any sane person put themselves on these site? Aside from giving all your private info to god knows who, look at Foxy Knoxy.

I have no idea whether she did it but how long did it take the global media to get all the dirt on her and a load of dubious pictures - all of 5 minutes at best from her Facebook proifle. Now everyone in the world who receives any form of media knows about her and has several dodgy pics of her imprinted in their mind. She's toasted herself if she goes to trial.

Anyone who uses Facebook and thinks it is private or secure or you have any control of data you send them is bonkers - even more bonkers than the halfwits at HMRC.

Sony says no to Euro PS3 price cut

PS2 then

Right, that's it. After putting up with a tempermental PS2 for months hoping PS3 would come down to a price that reflects some concept of value, I'm just going to buy another PS2.

I'm not a hardcore gamer and if my kids get bored of the games they've got we can go to the shops and buy several zillion 2ndhand PS2 ganes for the price of 1 PS3 one. Sorted

Torvalds weighs in on Microsoft's patent dance

Trademark

You don't have to enforce patents, but you have to enforce trademarks and copyright or you lose them (once you become aware of the use of them). In the UK you need to show you have made efforts to find non-court methods of resolution. Our courts are now much stricter on this and if you can't demonstrate all reasonable efforts to find alternative remedies the courts will either refuse to take the case or let you proceed but make life very difficult in refusing evidence etc. Don't know if it applies in US but in the UK they would have to show attempts at arbitration or other alternative dispute resolutions, and tie down the issues to the exact points to be decided before the case starts, or MS's barrister would get kicked around the court by the judge and defence. If MS didn't specify the breaches in detail pre-trial a judge would most likely refuse them to do so in court. The courts are fed up being used by litigants to above their position and a number of big companies have lost out because their lawyers thought they could play the old games and do a deal on the court steps - now if you try that the defence wanders in, the judge rules any previously undisclosed stuff inadmissable and the litigant gets stuffed for costs! How it should be in a fair system.

Teen embeds car in Edinburgh basement

Satnav

I'm guessing his satnav was struggling to keep up with him at the time and perhaps gave directions at the wrong moment.....they aren't too clever at high speed with lots of turns in a built up area so I've heard....

The Economist de-rails Microsoft media love in

Techno-b*ll*cks

This seems reminiscent of the exposure of Vista for what it really is. For those who have become sufficiently detached from reality to think all technology is good regardless of whether it is or not, do remember that Mr Ray Mears and many others are doing very nicely thank you from teaching people to live without technology, because lots of people are keen to do this. There may be a message there somewhere....

Anyhow it is good to see people in positions of influence at last pointing out the bleedin' obvious.