Posts by John G Imrie

Colonel who slammed Afghan HQ PowerPoint culture is fired

Send me your ...

disenchanted, your boat rockers and your mavericks, then I'll show you how to get things done.

Wikileaks publishes secret CIA memo

extrajudicial?

“If the US were seen as an exporter of terrorism, foreign partners may be less willing to cooperate with the United States on extrajudicial activities, including detention, transfer, and interrogation of suspects in third party countries,” the memo, dated February 2, stated

Does this part of the memo mean that the US was and plans to continue Extraordinary Rendition on and after the 2nd Feb?

Skeletal scanner would ID terrorists from 50 meters

@The Silver Fox

For another thing the entire fucking world is populated by young children. As a species we're growing faster than we can handle. Walk down pretty much any street and there they are, all young and childreny and loud and annoying. If he wants to do mankind a service could he not invent a way to make them shut the fuck up?

Well this should help with the population problem. As we'll all be so thoroughly irradiated the average male sperm count will fast approach zero.

MOON SHRINKING FAST - shock NASA discovery

It's not NASA

It's subsidence caused by the Clangers deep mine blue string operations.

Microsoft's volume licensing site goes titsup - again

The site will be available by: 2/21/2010 3:00:00 AM PDT

Was that message approved by

a) Management

b) Marketing

c) Engineering

d) a combination of (a) and (b)

Enquiring minds would like to know?

Wikileaks double dares Pentagon hawks

Re: CLASSIFIED

Classified isn't a level of secrecy. According to wikipidia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information there are 5 levels of classification.

Top Secret (TS)

The highest level of classification of material on a national level. Such material would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if made publicly available.

Secret

Such material would cause "grave damage" to national security if it were publicly available.

Confidential

Such material would cause "damage" or be "prejudicial" to national security if publicly available.

Restricted

Such material would cause "undesirable effects" if publicly available. Some countries do not have such a classification.

Unclassified

So which of these, or which combination of these is it?

BT Tower to open for first time in 29 years

The Goodies

Managed to knock it down, far more than the IRA or the Angry Brigade did.

Viva Tiddles!!

Eagles singer wins case against US politico

IANAL

"I don’t condone it... I’m vehemently opposed to it. Not because I don’t like parodies or satires of my work. But it’s simply a violation of US copyright law."

but I thought US copyright law allowed parodies.

Feds admit storing pervscanner pics

I'm glad

I got to the end of your post before hitting the reply button.

Just think of my blood pressure <g>

OOXML and open clouds: Microsoft's lessons learned

Welcome

to the Hotel California.

Council's school-snoop-op ruled illegal

Re: Have I got this right?

No you missed a bit.

The family was suspected of lying to get their kid into a "an outstanding primary school", so the local authority used badly-drafted, heavy-handed anti-terrorist measures to try and catch them out.

The same laws that the then Home Office Minister stated in Parliament would not be used for this purpose.

Fail Icon for the last Government for Passing this law in the first place. And for the current one for being too scared of the Daily Wail to oppose it properly while in Opposition.

You missed a bit.

The offending local authority/government/police officer/etc gets a promotion / honour / peerage / etc

UK.gov sticks to IE 6 cos it's more 'cost effective', innit

If only

I thought all the tech departments had been outsourced in such a way that doing anything out of the ordinary, such as testing a new browser, cost lots and lots of money?

DfT 'unwittingly' bigged-up speed camera benefits

I've just had a chilling thaught

Jeremy Clarkson was right all this time!!!

Change of party in controll

and all sorts of things fall out of the woodwork :-)

Turkish pranksters load Facebook Translate with swears

I'm sure

There's a Monty Python sketch in here somewhere.

Reboot key Brit 'ready to save internet'

The data center?

Surly there should be at least one on each of the 5 major inhabitable continents as a mater of redundancy.

Government goes after outsourced staff T&Cs

Re: Think about it

Welcome to the private sector.

NatWest sets lawyers on student site

[Redacted]

Looks like [Redacted]'s lawyers cant tell the difference from Copyright infringement and fair use.

I suggest that the bank [Redacted] be known from now on know as the [Redacted] Bank of [Redacted] Lawyers.

Underground tunnel complexes FOUND ON MOON

Clangers

Not to mention the Iron Chicken and the Froglets.

Ha, they don't make TV like that any more.

PS. El Reg, Can we have a nostalgia icon?

IBM employee sparks massive bank outage

an "outdated procedure" was used to initiate the repair,

So not the Grunt's fault then, but the management for not updating the procedure or not notifying the Grunt of the update.

Hillier appeals to transgender community to save ID cards

Re: evidence-based policy on the part of the Coalition.

May I be the first to say WOT!!!!!

When did Labour get the bug for evidence-based policy. Unless there is a missing 'lack of' in that sentence?

El Reg marks Steve Jobs for termination

Re: Speeks volumes

Well, St George is already dead. So I guess it works.

SCO rises from the dead (again)

Because.

He's getting the lawyers essentially for free.

DWP puts central apps procurement on hold

commercial off the shelf packages

So no need for customisation then.

My Arse, as Ricky Tomlinson would say.

US authorities shutdown websites accused of movie piracy

Double Standards

Six of the websites were described by the attorney’s office as “linking” sites that give access to portals where “pirated movies and television programs are stored”.

So when does Google get shut down?

Naomi Campbell to appear in war crimes trial

I'm wondering

if the TAX office is looking at this as well? :-)

Budget to cost over a million jobs: Official

You won't have to wait that long.

Just wait until the next City Bonus Session. The sight of all those investment bankers swilling champaign should do the trick.

When I was a nipper

Going on strike didn't cut it. However a 'work to rule' could bring a factory to its knees.

Microsoft PR boss sweats in face of Apollo Creed Apple, Google... world

He doesn’t think customers are getting the real message about the Microsoft brand

I beg to disagree.

BT boss brands Britain illiterate

Accronyms?

I think you have confused BT, supplier of telephonic communication to the masses with the BBC, supplier of canned entertainment for same.

Governments mull net censorship grab

Campaign

Does this mean that my campaign to have a .gobblersknob TLD in honour of Groundhog day will be blocked. Oh well I'm of to www.gobblersknob.us instead.

Middle-aged sex: The X-rated photo guide

Re: Saturday-night 22 minutes of hot luuurv action

Yeah, but just how old is the editor of the Telegraph?

UK.gov preps bonfire of the vanity websites

False ecommamy?

uktradeinvest.gov.uk, an export information service, which costs £11.78 per visit

The real question that should be being asked is not how much per click, but how much cash is generated per pound spent.

.XXX to get ICANN nod

Re: And how exactly...

That's easy. You just add a clause to some over length amendment to the WTO rules and regulations.

Avenue Q

Will Avenue Q have to change the lyrics to their most famous song

All together now ...

The XXX domain's for porn,

The XXX domain's for porn,

So grab your ...

The Reg guide to Linux, part 2: Preparing to dual-boot

Re: New disk

Because opening the case is the most terrifying thing you can tell a non Geek to do.

DoS attack stuffs Turkey's internet censors

Re BFC

I think you are being a bit hard on the BBFC, they don't order bits cut out of films so we, the UK public can not see those bits. They tell the file companies which bits have to be cut to meet a specific classification. If the film company doesn't care weather a file is a 15 or an 18 Cert. then they will ignore the requests needed to bring the down the certification from 18 to 15.

There are however commercial reasons why a film company may wish to aim for a particular certification.

Also note that the BBFC's certifications are advisory, its the local council that has the final say. Take fore example the first of the new Batman films, it got the first 12 Certificate issued by the BBFC, Muswell Hill, in who's Odeon I worked at the time, honoured the 12 Cert. Haringey Council, just up the road issued a 15 Cert.

Linux wins the SCO vs Novell case

You might still do so

The Judge said that Novel has the right to stop SCO from suing IBM, and in fact can override SCO should SCO ignore Novell in this. This will cause SCO a few problems in the SCO v's IBM case as SCO no longer has any standing in that case to sue IBM.

Unfortunately for SCO and its current and previous Directors, nothing on earth except IBM's good graces can stop IBM's counter claims, which include Lanham Act clams.

From my understanding a claim under the Lanham Act is aimed not at the company but at the Directors, personally.

Home Office launches urgent review of illegal police stop'n'search

In which case

A defence would be 'I was instructed by my superior officer'.

humm ... why do I suddenly start thinking about Nuremberg .

The software licensing minefield

@Is it me?

Understand what your needs are, and how to efficiently licence it on the simplest model.

Could I stick that on a postcard to Vince Cable please?

Microsoft Tag emerges from beta

All Tags report back to a single source, ensuring a high consistency in user experience"

So what happens when this server goes down, or the network to it becomes congested.

Can you say 'Single point of failure'

No refunds for ID card pioneers

keep their details current.

Now there's a thought. Unless the bill to repeal the ID card is worded correctly, those with ID cards may not get out of this obligation.

Like the Lottery, the ID Cards turned out to be a tax on stupidity

I resent that implication. With the lottery there is a *chance* of coming out on top.

Osborne pledges simpler biz taxes

New tax advice

He said small businesses would benefit from his plan to abolish employers' National Insurance contributions for the first ten members of staff.

Split your company into separate companies of 10 or less people and never pay Employee NI again.

Clegg promises liberties restoration

I actually liked the old house of lords

Being unelected means you can do what's right instead of what's popular.

Maybe a compromise. You are elected to the upper house, but once their you are there for life.

Go much further ...

Well yopu know who to vote for next time then :-)

Pirate Bay resurfaces after German legal depth-charge

And who would challenge that decision in court?

Me. 'Nuff Said.

Identity & Passport Service in suicide bid?

Be carfull what you wish for

If this coalition fails?

I think you are missing somthing

With the LibDems in the Cabinet there are now a lot of very worried people out there. All that money given to Labour and the Conservatives and it's those pesky LibDems calling the shots at Business and Industry. Those same LibDems no one in Industry thought worth bribing, er giving a donation to. So expect some tough re-negotiating of Govt. contracts and especially PFI deals. I'm thinking that now may be a good time to short shares in EDS*

*This should not be taken as Financial Advice, Shares can go up as well as down, bla bla bla