Posts by Tom

Judge backs Halifax in Chip and PIN clone case

Hole in the walls only

I don't worry too much about the ATM's in the side of the legitimate banks, though as with anything that is computerised, they are a going concern.

My biggest worry and severest concern, are those ATM's that are forever popping up in corner shops and other outlets, where the shopkeepers etc, will tell you they don't have access to the machine, yet I have witnessed shopkeepers and their assistants accessing the machines, because of what I have witnessed, I have repeatedly informed family and friends to never use an ATM unless it's attached to a bank, building society or a recognised business, and it is imperative to stay away from the fly by night pop up ATM's in corner shops and other lesser known outlets.

Conficker: Hold the funeral, it's not dead yet

It still lives...

On13th May, the local media in one of the Greater Manchester boroughs, reported that the pc machines in a NHS trust hospital, namely Tameside General Hospital were infected with the Conficker virus.

One would think that large responsible organisations and Government depts, would have system features and scanners in place to prevent such an attack taking place, especially when the awareness factor of the Conficker virus has been known since last year.

Perhaps there is something clearly wrong with the way that particular hospital is managed?

The reported article about the conficker infection:

http://www.tamesideadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/1115038_bug_brings_disruption_to_hospital

US lawmakers put Canada, Spain on piracy 'watch list'

Can you whistle, 'cos you can't sing.

Oh, the Grand Old Filesharer,

He had ten thousand files

He served them up to the top of the list

so I and thee could download once again.

When they were up, they were up

and when they were down, they were down

and when they were only halfway through

the USA would attempt to take them down.

Downing Street on Phorm: 'Meh'

Contacting my MP

I have sent an email to my local Labour MP, to let him know that after long and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be casting my regular vote for the Labour party in the local, European or National elections when they are called.

This decision is not solely based upon the unelected Prime Ministers distancing from the use of Phorm, but it is the catalyst in a long running series of decisions that have been undertaken by this current Government.

The Government could have avoided the current situation of the "expense saga" as far back as 2005, and realised then that the "rules in place" were completely out of touch with reality.

The Government could of long since put a stop to the ID card scheme and save the country £billions in doing so, but no, they are frivolous with the taxpayers money and mean to push on.

This self serving Government have also committed to spending £billions schemes such as IMP and MTI to spy on every member of the British public who use the internet and forms of telecommunications. Again, something that absolutely required or necessary, though the Government use the lame excuse of National Security. As if they're going to apprehend Bin Laden by spying on me or you!!

I could go on and on, but I won't, instead, I will no longer vote Labour.

Google makes breaking up with Hotmail, Yahoo! easy to do

50/50 so far.

Have Microsoft blocked the porting to Gmail?

I have just attempted to port from hotmail into gmail, and it isn't happening, apparently I'm not entering the correct email address and password in the gmail import wizard, yet I am fully able to log into the hotmail account.

Works great on Yahoo, I've managed to import all my old btinternet emails from an old account that Bt/yahoo wouldn't let me access,(I assume because I am no longer a Bt customer). Thanks, Google.

Another 15,000 jobs to go at BT

Sad for the workforce, but stuff BT.

I empathise with any person who finds themselves out of a job. In this case these people are going to be out of work because of the bumbling disorganisation of the way BT has been run.

That said, I wouldn't lose any sleep, in fact I'd probably go to sleep a huge smile if BT went under, they're one of the companies that deserve too.

I left BT due to the factors of:

*** of BT testing Phorm on my connection without my explicit permission.

*** I objected to my credit card details being taken by a person over the telephone who was not resident in the UK.

*** The fact that I can save £10.00 per month on rental charges by switching provider and in doing have also reduced my telephone bill by upto 85% per month.

BT is no longer the once Flagship of a British company, and therefore, it's time the government took the exchanges out of the hands of BT and created an independent company, similar to that of Transco and the National Grid. Thus, allowing better opportunity to choose one's telephone supplier and broadband supplier, instead of BT having a monopoloy over the telephone lines and exhanges.

Beeb tech boss seeks to expand TV licence online

....and so it begins.

The BBC reignite their advancement towards a digital license, and use the pathetic iplayer as an excuse to start with.

Where and when will the tiresome greed of bleeding the British public dry for a poor service. Instead of everyone paying for a license, in order to own a machine to watch DVDs, play computer games, or even monitor home/communal cctv. I think it would be much better for the BBC and other networks to go the way SKY have done, and that is for people to pay for a subscription to watch the service.

No subcription = No service. However, you can still purchase the machine in order to watch your DVDs, family videos, and let the kids play on their games consoles.

However, I dare say that Eric Huggers and his cronies are frightened to follow such a route, as they truth will out that no one believes the BBC is a worthy service subscribing too.

ID scheme will cost £400m annually

The figures?

£400 million per year

Think of how many small business could be saved or started up with that cash, giving the country as a whole a much needed boost to the current state of the economy and for securing jobs for the future?

How many lives could be saved with a small amount of that £400 million being injected into the NHS each year?

Could our children of the future benefit from a slice of this £400 million being used for their education each year?

To think of the savings gained by not spending this figure on an ill concieved scheme, any future governments could keep the people content with the possibility of lower and stable taxation, and to remover the requirement to raise the National Insurance contributions, becasue of the mis management of our economy by this current goverment and unlected prime minister.

It's amazing that Brown indicates that it's time to tighten our moneybelts in these times, whilst Jackboots Smith is going all out on a spending spree, from IMP to ID cards, and failed IT systems.

The future as I see it under Labour if they're re-elected.

Police officer " ID Card now, show me, where is your ID?"

Pedestrian "Ze here - Heil Harman!"

Site schools world+dog in browsing history pilfering

Panic buttin hit...but

A no return of any information revealed by startpanic.

This result gives me that little bit of added confidence that my constant use of Noscritp and sole use of Firefox is the right way to go until browsers have a built in facility to prevent sites from collecting the extentsive browsing data about me without my explicit permission.

In addition to using Noscript, I also ensure that the browser does not have the permission to collect 3rd party cookies, and that all data is cleared when I clear the browser, in addition to having google as a start page for all sites I head over too.

In adding to being responsible, I even went to the extent of removing google anylytics & statcounter from a couple of websites I co-own, albeit, the inbuilt server stats and logs could still be activated and accessed but we don't feel it necessary or appropriate to sit and seive through data.

I have decided not to sign the petition though, furthermore it would also seem inappropriate that the startpanic site allows you to be emailed of what other people are browsing, well that's my thoughts on the matter.

Virgin Media pilots 200Mbit service

All speed and nowt else.

It's quite interesting to read that Virgin are testing a new speed of 200mb, because only the other day I was watching the BBC programme "click", in which it reviewed a new development near to Wembley that have a connection of 100mb.

The bbc review showed that it wasn't possible (yet) to actually fully utilise the whole 100mb connection, and this was because of the limitation of the servers that an end user would be connecting to out on the internet. Though, it was feasible to expect great p2p download speeds.

I also find it disheartening that all UK ISP's do a dis-service to their customers by offering paltry upload speeds, it is about time that the UK ISP's improved their upload speeds, as there are more and more people now using web base applications and features such as "clouds", ftp, and running their own sites.

ISP advertises, "200mb dl speeds - the F1 broadband connection",

(but fails to mention:-

Customer Service = Press 4, Press 1, Press 3, Press 1, Your call is in a queue.

Tech Support = Script readers in another country with no interest in resolving an issue.

Download Speed = more cost, more throttling, more phorm, more disgruntled customers.

Upload speed = Capped, Capped, Capped.)

Jacqui's secret plan to 'Master the Internet'

Is this really new News? or...................

I have always thought that GCHQ had a long history of "listening" and when those "listeners" are alerted by whatever triggers are put in place, they [the listeners] then act accordingly. Which I assume, is to then notify the powers that be, who in turn should take the appropriate necessary steps in accordance with the correct and lawful procedures.

It is to be hoped that the data and communications being listened to by GCHQ isn't another foothold for local governments, and other basic public bodies to gain access to. in the same way that the anti-terrorism legislation was allowed to be exploited.

The data and communications listened into by GCHQ should only be for the purpose of National Security, and organised crime, however, common sense prevails and where a "trigger" is activated then it is only right that the "trigger" should be investigated.

If given the choice, I would much rather have GCHQ "listen" than have any ISP do the job for them. That said, it's also disheartning to hear that there are other 3rd Parties involved in this move. Can we the people of the UK truly and absolutely put our trust in this 3rd parties? Afterall, it isn't that long ago when our own government lost significant amounts of personal data, and so have a company in the USA who stored the personal details of UK drivers [to be].

Could it be that Jackboots Smiths and her cronies are upto something else? Is there anything untoward in the contracts or the way that they have been awarded to the 3rd parties? Is there something amiss somewhere?

Finally, where exactly will the data be stored, here in the UK or abroad?

UK.gov to spend £2bn on ISP tracking

DPI Free for all???

If the Gov are allowing ISP's to use DPI, and if Phorm gets the official approval, then surely it will only lead to a DPI free for all where unsavoury attackers will seek to grab the very same packets with the same tech know how or tech know how that is better than that of ISP's.

The exact opposite should be taking place, meaning that it should be made illegal for anyone to intercept the packets sent from a persons internet connection, unless of course the proper lawful authorities are granted a court order to intercept a suspect in an ongoing investigation.

At this rate, I have no Privacy, especially as the Gov, want access to who I communicate with, and where and when. So what is the point in all those other Government Acts and laws that are supposed to protect my privacy?

New Labour = New Stasi

The Pirate Bay loads cannon with official appeal

Sunde and other projects.

I like the bit where, Sunde is taking time out to Brazil and is working on other internet projects. I do hope there will be move marvels for us to explore in the not too distant future.

Who is this fella Paul McCartney that people are commenting on and what has he go to do with the 21st Century?

Hacking internet backbones - it's easier than you think

Interesting.

@ Chris Miller

That's an interesting read of what you write, though, are you not missing the point that is written into the article that the two researchers released freely available SOFTWARE, and demonstrated that it was possible at the Black Hat security conference in Amsterdam? Therefore, I doubt very much that this is fear mongering as you put it, but more of a reality.

Pirate Bay loses trial: defendants face prison time, hefty fines

Comparisons.

@ Onionman

It is only fair that if you are wanting to show a comparison between TPB and another search engine, that the comparison ought to be carried out properly and the results of both search engines displayed.

Here are the search results from TPB

Coldplay Audio torrents Displaying hits from 1 to 30 (approx 832 found)

Photoshop Application torrents Displaying hits from 1 to 30 (approx 998 found)

Here are my google search results.

Results 1 - 10 of about 58,200 for coldplay audio torrent. (0.23 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 3,710,000 for photoshop torrent. (0.10 seconds)

The ruling against the TPB is ludicrious, and smells of "judges & officials" being bribed.

The only difference I can see between a site such as TPB and say Google, is that TPB will show results for the torrent, and Google directs you the sites or other search engines to locate the link for the torrent.

Photocops: Home Office concedes concern

Gordon Brown's Gestapo at work.

It's appalling to read that it took three members of the police force to approach one man & his camera. Surely, all that was required was for one officer to approach and hold a general conversation, whereby the office could then determine if there was "reasonable suspicion" to take matters further?

Could it be that the use of three officers in this incident under the PACE Act is tantamount to intimidation? Shouldn't the police officers concerned in this incident of made it categorically clear as to their reasons for stopping this man in the street (albeit a street in London, and on the day of the G20 tea party). If not, and they only give their reason as "action per actions" on the slip, then I would assume that those officers had no lawful reasons or reasonable suspicion to stop this man.

I personally advise others to formally ask the police when stopped under the PACE Act, as to the reason(s) for being stopped and to have that reason recorded appropriately.

Surely the time has now arrived here in the UK that we should remind our politicians that they are elected to serve us the public and not for them to dictate to us their electorate, and the same for the Police, that they are employed to serve and protect the public and not to harass, intimidate and behave in a fashion more accustomed to Hitlers Gestapo?

We should all be very concerned, and in doing so we should set about educating the public on their lawful rights in how to deal with such situations. This current government with it's unelected prime minister needs to be ousted at the next election.

Footnote.

To those having a pop @Joe M, preach what you write, after all Joe M is entitled to his comments under Free Speech, and if you don't like what he writes, then don't read it. For me, personally, I utterly and completely disagree with Joe M. Furthermore, Joe M would do well to take heed of Richard Cain's comments.