* Posts by Intractable Potsherd

4160 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Want to STUFF Facebook with blatant ADVERTISING? Fine! But you must PAY

Intractable Potsherd

Re: My friend's on Facebook

My mum, in her 70s now, uses Facebook, but she doesn't realise how it works. That means she thinks anything that shows up on her wall is aimed at her directly,like email, so she responds to it. Worse yet, she doesn't realise the essentially public nature of anything posted, and so lets everyone know when she is going on holiday - or, more galling, that I am going away. Nothing I say seems to get through, so, even though I don't have an active Facebook account,* all sorts of people know my movements.

*I know all this because Mrs IP does have an account, and sees a fair amount of the gibberish mum pollutes the interwebs with.

Make sure big data doesn't land you in big trouble

Intractable Potsherd

Nice article.I sit on a Research Ethics Committee, and we are getting an increasing number of applications from researchers wanting to mine health-related data. So many come along with proposals that have not considered how easy it can be to reconstruct "anonymous" data so that the PII can be derived. I'll use those entropy figures the next time someone comes up and says "but there is no way our data can reveal the subject!"

UK digi exclusion: Poor families without internet access could 'miss out' on child tax credit

Intractable Potsherd

Re: no friends with any computer literacy ?

"Maybe I'm being cold hearted ..."

I was tempted to say "No maybe about it", but as I read further, it became clear that you are not. You believe in community and people helping each other - good on you. However, as the first reply to you says, there are a lot of people who don't have friends, or language skills, or any support at all. You aren't cold-hearted - you just don't have experience of just how isolated a lot of people are.

Are open Wi-Fi network bods liable for users' copyright badness?

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Please don't fuck this up

McDonalds chips are lovely! (I don't eat meat anymore, but still pop in for a portion of fries occasionally)

EU battles over 'anti-terrorist' passenger records slurper law

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Overweening @ Trevor

Yup - basically my reaction when I first read it. When I got to the bit where people were immune from prosecution because the law wasn't clear previously, my head exploded! What a fucked up country ... and it's trying to get us all to go the same way.

SO LONELY: Woman DARED to get rid of her iPHONE - Apple DUMPED all her TXTS

Intractable Potsherd

Re: User error

I thought people bought iThings because "they just work", which I don't really have a problem with. However, if the user needs to change default settings in order to send SMS, then "it doesn't just work". If the default messaging system is Apple's proprietary thing, and it borks messages sent to other things unless settings are played with (which many buyers have expressed a desire not to do by buying something that "just works"), then it starts to look as if Apple have been as spiteful as people claim they are, and that it is a form of lock-in due to difficulty in changing platforms.

Samsung slams door on OLED TVs, makes QUANTUM dot LEAP

Intractable Potsherd
Pint

Re: Random TV question: 'juddering' in fast pans

Kristian - that is genuinely fascinating! Thanks for spending the time on that - now have one of these --->

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

Intractable Potsherd

Re: My interests

"The only person I would ever trust to really act 100% in my best interests is... Me."

I wish I could say the same - I reckon that, over the course of my half-century on this mortal coil, I acted in my own best interests about 70% of the time ...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Simple really

"Trust = truth * time". That is a useful way to put the point across. I may use it in a lecture I'm working on at the moment ... :-)

'Tech giants who encrypt comms are unwittingly aiding terrorists', claims ex-Home Sec Blunkett

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Now there's a first...

His guide dog is the brains of the outfit ...

Forget 5G, UK.gov is making 2G fit for the 21st century!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: NIMBYs

I don't think it is anything to do with the "radiation" in most NIMBY minds - it is purely that they might have something industrial in their eyeline, which will (through some unknown mechanism*) bring property prices down.

*In reality, prices are likely to go up if there is decent mobile coverage.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Can't help but think the 'rural' element has been overlooked a little too quickly here

Yep - I've lived in four places in the last few years, all well-populated and with large numbers of well-paid people living there (near Sheffield, Kenilworth, both sides of the Tay near Dundee), and I haven't had a decent mobile signal in any of them. In all of them except Kenilworth I was up a hill, yet going into the garden was the only way to get decent contact with the mast. Data is generally something that my phone has the capability to do under very specific circumstances (such as being in the middle of a city. However, when I go abroad in Europe, I rarely have any problems - and I tend not to holiday in cities. The coverage in Britain is fairly shit.

Apple patents autographs. Checkmate, eBay

Intractable Potsherd

@Stacy

" I love ebooks for travelling, but for reading at home it doesn't come close to going to the library of books, browsing and selecting one."

I finally unpacked the boxes of books yesterday that had been in storage for the last four years while we moved around (I had kept some with me during the last three moves, but it has been mainly ebooks during that time). I now have something like 12 metres of fiction* lining the walls of my study again, and it feels far better than I ever though it would! I had to keep popping back in the the room just to look at the loveliness of my library, and deciding what I'm going to read over the next few weeks!

*Factual and text-books still have to be unpacked.

Russians hear Tim Cook is gay, pull dead Steve Jobs' enormous erection

Intractable Potsherd

Re: This post has been deleted by a moderator

If being homosexual is a choice, then surely being heterosexual is also a choice. Therefore, even that point of view fails to make the point the anti-homosexuals want to make.

Bona-fide science: Which forms of unusual sex are mainstream?

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Phah....

Yep - "living the dream" just means a lost dream. They are called "dreams" and "fantasies" for a reason.

NASA: Spacecraft crash site FOUND ON MOON RIM

Intractable Potsherd

Re: More debris scattered in the name of science

I think you missed the joke icon or a /s tag.

If not, "ODFO" is the only response I can think of.

UK.gov rushes out broken 'Orphan Works' system as EU Directive comes in

Intractable Potsherd

Re: However existing image copyright is broken

"If the term of copyright was more reasonable (a maximum of 20 years) then there would be less of a need for this act." Well said, Duncan. It is the utterly ridiculous term of protection that is the root of the problem in copyright. 20-25 years is enough, not up to six or seven times that period.

Find My Phone does just one thing but Samsung's messed it up

Intractable Potsherd

Re: What? Sloppy code from Samsung??

More accurately: "What? Sloppy code from <insert any manufacturer of anything that uses software>? Say it isn't so?"

Banksy denies Banksy impostor's claim to Banksy.com – which isn't owned by Banksy

Intractable Potsherd

Re: FUCKIN VANDAL

Good street art makes an area look better. At least some of Banksy's stuff falls into that category, so I have very little problem. Inane "tagging" - the human equivalent of dogs pissing up a tree-trunk - and really poor pictures make an area look worse - much worse. Kids drawing on the pavement is so far beneath anyone's notice that I would suspect the shouty person is not entirely well.

Australian E-Health records breached twice in the last year

Intractable Potsherd

At the risk ...

... of getting lots of downvotes, I take a positive message away from this - Australia has medical records that the true owner of the information (the patient) has access to, and some control over. That is a mere pipe-dream here in the UK.

Stupid, and probably avoidable mistakes have been made (perhaps by the owners who wanted to link their health data with their government data!), but the fact that there is a system, and it works (for certain values of working) is impressive. Would anyone care to guess a) how late, and b) how over budget such a scheme would go in the UK before it was scrapped?

'GCHQ's surveillance data gulp is BULKY and WARRANTLESS', human rights groups moan

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Multiplicative capabilities

No, but you might have your friends and family investigated, job prospects ruined, financial history scarred, have a baby with an undercover copper etc. Have a look at what people who wanted the police to actually do their jobs have undergone, e.g. Stephen Lawrence's family, and tell me that the information isn't misused - and they are only the cases we know about.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Point 1b is the problem (I think) @ DocJames

"Does anyone know what the principle of Padfield v MAFF is?"

The case is an important one in public law - full citation, if you want to look it up, is Padfield v. MAFF [1968] A.C. 997. The House of Lords stated that a decision-making power must be exercised so as to promote, and not run counter to, the legislation conferring that power. The case also answered the question "who decides, and who oversees: "necessary and proportionate"?" - the courts, who must look at the entire statute and interpret the intent before they can decide whether the power was exercised in a way that runs counter to the legislation.

The court ignored the fact that it is incredibly difficult to get them to allow an application for judicial review to proceed ...

Why weasel words might not work for Whisper

Intractable Potsherd

Well done!

Great investigative journalism. Thank you.

Watersports-friendly e-reader: Kobo's Aura H2O is literary when wet

Intractable Potsherd

Re: kindle hack?

Not sure if this will get molded out, but once you have Calibre, look for some software by a chap called Alf - he's an Apprentice.

Facebook, Apple: LADIES! Why not FREEZE your EGGS? It's on the company!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: What...the...fuck....

I'm not sure what the big fuss is about. It is not uncommon for women in several professions to freeze eggs in their early- to mid-20s so they can be implanted later. Women going into the law and medicine are particularly well-represented in this activity, at least in the UK. The biggest problem is that eggs, being very large cells, have quite a large failure rate when it comes to being viable on thawing - embryos are much easier, but have additional legal problems unless anonymous donor sperm are used (which carries its own set of emotional risks later in life).

Vanmoof Electrified Bike: Crouching cyclist, hidden power

Intractable Potsherd

Re: heart rate?

Requirements such as helmets for motorcyclists and seat-belts for drivers are genuinely nanny state measures, since they decrease the risk of injury to only the individual. There is no change in the risk to a third party at all (though some say there my be an increased risk from the individual in control feeling safer). This, to my mind, is illegitimate use of power by the state - by all means ensure that risks to a third party are minimised, but don't interfere in the choice of individuals to put themselves at risk if they choose.

N.B. Since starting driving many years ago, I have never driven without a seatbelt. I have even added seatbelts to cars that didn't actually have them when I bought them. My point is entirely about the wrongness of personal protection legislation.

Xiaomi boss snaps back at Jony Ive's iPhone rival 'theft' swipe

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Removable battery = extend your phone's usable life by years

You shouldn't need tools or someone with additional knowledge to change a battery! Let me put it this way - would you buy a TV with a remote that needs tools or a skilled person to change the battery? What about a torch (flashlight for the Leftpondians)? Probably not, so why let mobile phome manufacturers off the hook for really crappy design?

Jaguar Sportbrake: The chicken tikka masala of van-sized posh cars

Intractable Potsherd

Re: UNreliability of turbocharged engines.

I'm keeping my naturally aspirated Subaru Legacy as long as I can. The flat torque-curve and ability to pull away in anything up to high ratio 3rd gear has got me out of a lot of situations that could have become anxiety-provoking over the last eight or nine years ...

Jony Ive: Flattered by rivals' designs? Nah, its 'theft'

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Copying or improving?

"If anyone in device design can be described as a thief, its the person who takes obvious applications of a technology and uses a broken patent system to steal from us the human right to invent."

^^ This! Have a million upvotes, AC!

Judge nukes Ulbricht's complaint about WARRANTLESS FBI Silk Road server raid

Intractable Potsherd

Re: sisk

Innocent unless proven guilty, Matt. I know you and the law enforcement agencies want to see that basic maxim of the Rule of Law become a thing of the past (and seem to be succeeding), but it still stands in principle, at least.

NASA: Mars satellites menaced by speeding SPACE ALIEN

Intractable Potsherd

Re: funny

I had a lucky tea-ejection event avoidance* when I read the caption about how the comment could look if an artist was in orbit!

* I had tried to take a mouthful of infusion of dried leaves, but found I had drained the cup with the previous swig.

Adobe spies on readers: 'EVERY page you turn, EVERY book you own' leaked back to base

Intractable Potsherd

Re: okular...ghostview...

Do either of those avoid the requirement to initially open an Adobe DRMed ebook bought from Kobo in the Adobe reader on first reading? It is a constant irritation that I have to do that prior to stripping the DRM via the Apprentice Alf plugin for Calibre and turning the file into an epub. I'd much rather have nothing to do with Adobe at all.

Aussie builds contactless card cloner app, shops at Woolies with fake card

Intractable Potsherd

Re: YAWN!!!!

Anecdote isn't evidence. If these Ruxcon l33t haxors had actually done it, how come Fillmore is the first one to publish? Either there is some untruth, or the people you refer to are dishonest in a more criminal way.

Siri ... why is this semi headed RIGHT AT ME? Phone apps distracting as ever – new study

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Something smells

The American Athletics Association - they want us all to be out of cars and running from place to place.

Microsoft's nightmare DEEPENS: Windows 8 market share falling fast

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Do they really care?

My parents actually used to buy Izal for use in our home! I used to think it was normal, and that the tissue stuff that wadded up your bum crack or split so that you wiped your arse on your middle finger was the cheap stuff! I also liked the disinfectant smell of Izal...

Phones 4u website DIES as wounded mobe retailer struggles to stay above water

Intractable Potsherd

As I wrote above - not my experience with P4U. Carphone Whorehouse take that award based on my interactions with them. Leaving without buying something requires shaking the staff off your legs!

Intractable Potsherd

I got my last phone from Phones4U, after vowing never again to go into a Carphone Whorehouse. I was very pleased with the knowledge of the staff in that branch (Coventry), and the way they assessed my knowledge and treated me appropriately. I was looking forward to dealing with P4U, though a different branch, again in a month or so when my current contract runs out, but it looks as if it is not to be.

The problem with EE/Voda/O2/etc shops is it makes it more difficult to compare deals. P4U made it easy to try phone/contract combos at the same time. It looks like the next phone will be from Tesco ...

LOHAN packs bags for SPACEPORT AMERICA!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I'm in

But will they be proper shed-sized pint mugs, or measly, pointless little things?

Need a green traffic light all the way home? Easy with insecure street signals, say researchers

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Uhh flashing red would not be safe

Have you been on any roads in Britain recently? Orange flashing lights might just as well be in the far infrared for all the notice most people take of them.

Kate Bush: Don't make me HAVE CONTACT with your iPHONE

Intractable Potsherd

Yep - noticed the same at various places Czech Republic and Alps over the last couple of weeks. The funniest was the person who almost lost their iPad when the chair-lift tey were on at Val d'Isere stopped unexpectedly :-)

Barnes & Noble: Swallow a Samsung Nook tablet, please ... pretty please

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Agreeing with everyone else @ Neil Barnes

My reasoning was the same when I finally went for an e-book reader. I wanted something that would use the maximum number of formats, especially epub from sources other than the book-sellers, so anything by B&N, Amazon etc was out. I went for a JetBook - great until it broke my fall down a flight of stairs two years ago. A replacement JetBook was a bit expensive, so a Kobo Touch was acquired from eBay. Apart from the regular "guess what functionality the latest update is going to inexplicably alter" amusement, it is a brilliant piece of kit that just keeps going, and battery life is excellent - at least a week at a time. Every now and again I think that a Kobo Glo might be worth acquiring for the odd occasion a backlight would be useful (wanting to read in bed after Mrs IP has gone to sleep, mainly), but I doubt it will happen this side of the Touch failing somehow. Whatever, it will be e-ink that replaces it - I cannot understand why someone would use a LED screen regularly to read.

Wall Street woes: Oh noes, tech titans aren't using bankers

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "without that adult supervision?"

Given that Wall Street* investment banks come across as terminally conservative, risk-averse, and ready to panic at the drop of a share-price, I don't regard then as "adult" in any sense. Chicken-Little would have made an excellent investment banker (or stockbroker) ...

* and all the others

Cops baffled by riddle of CHICKEN who crossed ROAD

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Philosophical question

Anti-social Bird Order?

African samba queen: Don't cut off pirates' net connections – cut off their FINGERS

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Pirates?

Not "stealing", Dave ... be careful not to feed the Orlowskis.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: So-called "piracy" high on the priority list in Nigeria? @ Steven Raith

Sorry, Steven - I like the basic tone of your comment, but IP infringement isn't theft ...

DAYS from end of life as we know it: Boffins tell of solar storm near-miss

Intractable Potsherd

Re: " You build underground. "

Spot on, Trevor. There is no serious problem to which the answer is not "We need to get out into space as fast as we can".

Motorist 'thought car had caught fire' as Adele track came on stereo

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Devil's advocate....

You have rental cars with a manual? I've rented over a dozen cars in the last few years, and not one has had the manual in it - something that pisses me off no end. Also, sit in the car and spend time ensuring that you know how the basics work, and you'll get a knock on the window from the one of the staff asking if you know what you are doing.

Students hack Tesla Model S, make all its doors pop open IN MOTION

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Poorly Written Article @ Lost all faith

" ... many people from the 80's may recall that wierd feeing when you realise you have sat in the wrong car (Vauxhall Cavalier was mine)"

Yep - Vauxhall Chevette and Ford Fiesta here! There is no elegant way of extracting yourself from that:

"Why won't the ignition switch work?" [usually less worn than door-lock] (Rock steering wheel back and forth a few times. Peer under column.)

"Shit! Lock must be broken!" (Reach for door handle to get out.)

"Hold on. Where have those furry dice/womens' shoes/deodorant trees come from?" (Odd sense of reality fading. Vague suspicions of alternative universes become more concrete.)

"Eerrrmm - I don't remember parking this close to that wall/lamp-post/identical model of car with familiar number plate ..." (Sudden bowel-loosening realisation that you are, in actual fact, in *someone else's car*. Intimate appreciation of the meaning of the phrase "Feeling the colour draining out your face").

"Right. Don't panic. No-one knows what you've done. Pretend you have found *the thing* you were looking for. *Calmly* get out of the car." (Heart pounding loud enough to set the suspension resonating. Cold sweat forming all over.)

"Now, relock the door." (Shit! It isn't as easy.)

"No - on the button!" (Reopen door in as unsuspicious way as possible, do the combination of handle and button.)

"Now, walk back the way you came so that it is obvious you 'just wanted to get something from the car'." (Resist temptation to whistle whilst walking round corner. Wait what seems like five minutes, not looking suspicious at all.)

"Take off your jacket/jumper so no-one will recognise you as you walk back to your own car and drive off ... very ... carefully." (Try to forget the utter hideousness of it all until some bastard on El Reg reminds you of it ...)

Banning handheld phone use by drivers had NO effect on accident rate - study

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Typing texts at the wheel is incredibly dangerous @ Tom 38

"Cigarettes are fine, its rollies that are tricky, especially if you use filter tips."

I don't know if that was meant as a joke, but I used to go out on events with a friend who did that very thing whilst driving! There isn't much that makes me nervous as a passenger (hell, I navigate on rallies!), but that always made me feel uncomfortable!

BBC goes offline in MASSIVE COCKUP: Stephen Fry partly muzzled

Intractable Potsherd

Don't know if it has any relevance (probably not), but I watched the highlights of the German GP on the web version of iPlayer at about 11pm on Sunday night* here in Dundee. The only thing of note was that there were fewer buffering interruptions than usual.

*After I'd been to see Monty Python (almost) Live at the local cinema.