* Posts by Rob 5

187 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Jun 2009

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Space shuttle Enterprise makes final voyage – to New York

Rob 5

Shuttle?

What's with everybody calling it a Space Shuttle, all of a sudden? IIRC, it was properly named "The Enterprise Test Vehicle".

Incidentally, I saw it at the National Air and Space Museum, a few years back. It's a pretty awesome place - as well as a Concord, they had an SR-71 Blackbird and even the actual Enola Gay (which, at the time, was suspended by wires above a bunch of Japanese planes of that era).

Trekkie wants to build USS Enterprise … in twenty years

Rob 5

The NCC 1701 seems a little over ambitious.

Surely the NX-01 would be a better place to start?

Met cops get new pocket-sized fingerprint scanners

Rob 5

NCIS (the US Navy one, not the one that got rolled into SOCA)

They've had these on NCIS for ages, though they seem to only use them for IDing corpses.

Headbanger plays Star Trek theme on floppy drives

Rob 5

ZX81

There used to be a program for the ZX81, iirc, that would let you play "music" using the hum generated by your TV set.

NHS's chances of getting world's best IT: 80% ... maybe*

Rob 5
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Re: Disunity

"You just need to get top management to stop looking for large vanity projects and start laying down minimum interoperability specs."

Exactly! It's hardly Rocket Surgery, after all.

.eu is a Euro domain, for Euro people - top legal bod

Rob 5

Re: I am not a lawyer...

OTOH, many trademarks are held by different companies in different territories - look up some of the old board games, for example. In such cases, you'd clearly want the EU based holder to get the domain.

I agree that this appears a clumsy way of going about that, however.

Copyfighters jumpstart MPs' probe into Blighty's IP law

Rob 5
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Thoroughly entertaining.

Having given evidence at all party hearings, I know how dry they can be.

Congratulations on turning that into a thoroughly entertaining account.

Star Trek's Wesley Crusher blasts Google+ landgrab

Rob 5
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He's been in Eureka a few times, too.

Playing Dr. Isaac Parrish, described by IMDB as "The head of the Non-Lethal Weapons Lab at Global Dynamics Also a complete Tool."

Judge: Big Five ISPs must block The Pirate Bay

Rob 5

Re: Shall we just...

Well, Judge Death was one of the four Dark Judges, along with Fear, Fire and Mortis. He was certainly the leader and probably had the idea first, though.

Judge Fear used to open the gates on his helmet and say "Gaze into the face of Fear". To which Joe Dredd once replied, in his indomitable style, "Gaze into the fist of Dredd!"

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kouopijcQr1qzgwhvo1_500.jpg

Rob 5
Alert

Re: Shall we just...

"declare all network traffic illegal. Or unlawful."

In 200AD's Judge Dredd, the Dark Judges observed that all crimes were committed by the living, therefore life itself must be a crime.

CISPA passes House of Representatives vote

Rob 5
Unhappy

... received over $100,000 from companies supporting the legislation

It's a little depressing that we no longer get outraged by politicians offering themselves for sale like high priced hookers.

At least the pols back in Blighty have the grace to pretend to be ashamed of doing that - the ones here don't even pretend any more.

'Geek' image scares women away from tech industry

Rob 5
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Bollocks.

So the "popular media" has never portrayed characters such as Penelope Garcia in Criminal Minds, Willow in Buffy and that hot genius chick in NCIS Los Angeles. Right.

I don't know whether the ITU has always been a joke, because I only started paying attention to them after they started trying to Balkanize the Internet, but this screed seems about as credible as the mutterings of my old careers teacher, who told us all to prepare for assembly line work in the factory, 'cos that was the best we could hope for. Several of us went the Oxbridge route, others did well in different ways.

If you were any good at something, anything, you'd be doing it instead of being a "careers counselor".

Google Drive stalls on LAUNCH DAY

Rob 5
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Re: What's the rush?

An excellent point, Sir!

From the Department of WTF: New USB tampon flash drive

Rob 5
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Re: Remember Rik's party in The Young Ones?

Sadly, I do.

EU-US name-swap deal actually gives passengers MORE privacy

Rob 5

Non US citizens and protection under US law.

AC wrote: "Non US citizens get hardly any protections under US law."

That's not correct. Federal law (which is what we're talking about here) extends graduated protections to non US citizens, according to their degree of connection to the USA.

So, at the bottom of the scale you've got somebody just visiting for a week in Disneyland. They get all the basic protections, like the right to a fair trial, protection against self-incrimination, etc.

At the other end of the scale are lawful permanent residents (people with green cards) who get pretty much everything except means tested welfare, voting in a federal election, jury service and (thanks to Bill Clinton) most federal employment. LPRs can even get Federal Firearms Licenses and (depending on their state of residence) concealed carry permits.

The flip side is, in the event of war, LPRs can get drafted, while the folks visiting Disneyland can't.

Hamburg court: Google must police YouTube content

Rob 5

Re: German Rulings vs US Law

It's not just the US. The e-Commerce Directive introduced limitation of liability provisions into EU law that are somewhat similar to those of the DMCA.

I haven't read the judgement, but I suspect that this is a result of Germany having some sort of compulsory licensing arrangement*, possibly descended from law around levies on blank media.

If so, I wouldn't expect to see a similar ruling from the English courts any time soon.

* Ironic, that compulsory licensing should be the vehicle for google losing, given that a lot of the freetards keep clamouring for it.

Home Office 'technologically clueless' on web super-snoop law

Rob 5
Boffin

Exactly.

We already have a metric for tolerable casualties - deaths on the roads.

If it's not likely to kill more folks than die in traffic incidents each year...

Met issues mug-shot gallery mobe app to finger wanted crooks

Rob 5

Search Results: No results returned for: facewatch

That was on www.met.police.uk

'Perfect storm' drives electronics stores to EXTINCTION

Rob 5

Re: What goes around, comes around

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who remembers when Maplin used to keep a wide range of components and the like (as opposed to the sorry selection in later years). The same thing happened to Radio Shack in the US (think Tandy, in the UK).

Oddly enough, Radio Shack recently announced its intention to go back to its roots and start stocking more components & hobbyist stuff. I'll believe it when I see it, though. My last interaction with the kids in our local store went something like this:

Me: So, where do you keep your components?

Oik: The TV cables are over there.

Me: No, I mean like capacitors.

Oik: Capacitor? What network is that on?

Rabid skunks attack US

Rob 5

@ Jake (was: @Rob 5 (was: Whatever.))

Fair point about the food chain. I tried to explain that to our city council (which I'm carefully not naming) when they drafted a dog's breakfast of an ordinance at the behest of one bird loving councilman. "It's nature," I said "cats eat birds, coyotes eat cats, etc." [1] We live on the edge of town [2], next to a big canyon and get deer, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and all sorts wandering about.

However, I think your concerns over kids getting rabies via transmission from bat to cat to pig to human fall into the flawed risk analysis category that I mentioned earlier. In truth, those kids are probably at much greater risk of harm during the drive out to your place than they are petting the piglets.

[1] They went ahead and passed it anyway - it pisses all over the US constitution and basically criminalises everybody in town, allowing them to selectively enforce it against folks they don't like. I was told to shut up or expect to get pulled over for speeding every time I left the house and a woman who has one more dog than the limit was told to publicly support it or they'd come round and euthanize one of her pets.

[2] On the edge of town but, unfortunately, inside city limits. I've learned my lesson and the next house I buy will be outside whatever city I end up near.

Rob 5
Boffin

Re: Whatever.

Not one human has died after being bitten by an infected cat in over 30 years - in the entire USA. In part this may be because the virus becomes weaker each time it crosses a species boundary.

As with many other things, any threat from rabies is very much over played by bureaucrats seeking to build empires, expand their powers etc.

Sadly, any questioning of their flawed risk analysis is met by cries of "think of the children!"

Vote now for the WORST movie EVER

Rob 5

Re: NOT ZARDOZ

Ah, but didn't he also have a Webley Fosbery?

Barclaycard pay-by-bonk fraud risk exposes Amazon's security

Rob 5

@ AC: 16:38

No, Job was a different case involving the Halifax making dodgy claims that customers must be crooks because the technology is infallible.

In the Munden case, the judgement (on appeal) went against the Halifax.

Rob 5

Precisely.

Remember John Munden?

Mobile operators mourn death of embedded 4G

Rob 5

"Imagine if DSL service providers dictated which devices in your home, or how many, could use your residential broadband connection! "

They certainly tried, in the UK, when broadband first hit the scene. As I recall, several ISPs (including cable ones) wanted you to pay extra to connect a router and tried to enforce the policy via MAC address registration.

NetZero back in the game with free-ish 4G

Rob 5

Round our way, the coverage map looks identical to Clearwire's. Which makes sense, since I think they're Wimax too.

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

Rob 5

John Carpenter's Dark Star

I still remember trying to watch this and giving up.

I expected an SF film - instead it was 83 minutes of tedium and a frigging Space Hopper.

IT guy answers daughter's Facebook rant by shooting her laptop

Rob 5
Happy

12 gauge with 00 buck...

... maybe, but I've got some 12ga door breaching rounds that will absolutely shred a PC.

Ask me how I know.

Google pushes your buttons in its top strip bar - AGAIN

Rob 5

and other organs...

Top notch, Sir!

On a more serious note, Google has become almost unusable, lately. I'll be giving DDG a try.

Google dings missive to lawmakers: 'We're misunderstood'

Rob 5
Happy

Chuckle.

Rob 5

We could also use a step by step guide to maximising privacy when using Google products, with info on where all of the different opt-outs have been hidden.

Of course, it would need to be updated as they moved stuff around to confuse us - perhaps a wiki?

Hospital gopher fined for prying into ex's family records

Rob 5

"Lets say once a month run a report that cross checks case file access versus staff *assigned* to those cases."

I was at a DefCon approx. 10 years ago, give or take, where a chap from the US DoD described how they were doing exactly that. Naturally, he didn't go into detail about the frequency with which reports were run, etc.

Web keeps bent politicians honest, says Google boss

Rob 5

That's part of it, certainly: when you vote for the lesser of two evils, the only thing that you're guaranteed to get is a measure of evil.

But it's also that those are the types of people who (a) run for office and (b) make a career out of it. I'm fairly sure that there have been studies (though I'm too lazy to look them up) showing that successful career politicians share many traits with sociopaths.

Bloke gets wedding tackle trapped in ring

Rob 5
Happy

Ptatchett's new book, Snuff...

... has a scene where Vimes, while exhorting some young ladies to pursue careers, lists one of the benefits of nursing as gaining a fund of stories about things people put up their...

US doctors demand right to advise on gun ownership

Rob 5
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Same here. It's quite common, when at the range, to bump into the doctor, the dentist, the veterinarian, bank manager, local school teachers, etc, etc...

Gay-bashing cult plans picket of Steve Jobs funeral

Rob 5

A picture is worth a thousand words

http://www.popehat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Thank-God-for-Dead-Westboro-Baptist-Members.jpg

That is all.

Boffins invent miracle pill that counteracts effects of booze

Rob 5

Naloxone - Possible side effects include:

... change in mood, increased sweating, nausea, restlessness, vomiting, dizziness, fainting, flushing...

Google settles illegal drug ad probe for $500 million

Rob 5

Leaves Google with a profit?

Great!

I'm often very critical of Google, when it deserves criticism, but not in this case. The whole thing is nothing more than the state acting as hired thugs for crooked companies (manufacturers, pharmacies, other villains in the medicine racket) to prop up a racket whereby the the American people get scammed, time and time again.

DARPA shells out $21m for IBM cat brain chip

Rob 5
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Accelerando

Was the first thing that occurred to me, too.

London rioters should 'loose all benefits'

Rob 5

Urban Officials...

As in officers of the polis? Very good, Sir!

Sadly, I suspect that State Auxiliaries, or SA, would be the more likely outcome of any populist, knee jerk reaction ostensibly aimed at reinforcing the official police. It's like the habit, in the USA, of passing laws named after dead kids - stuff that seems a good idea at the time, to some, usually turns out to have some pretty grim unintended consequences, for many.

ISP-operated servers alter search results, researchers claim

Rob 5

I encountered this last year

In a hotel in Las Vegas, with the hotel provided wireless. It was a pain in the arse, until I figured out not to use the search bar.

Microsoft man saves drowning woman

Rob 5
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Yes indeedy!

Brought back memories, that did!

'Unconvincing' Met top cop Yates: My phone was hacked

Rob 5

On the other hand...

It's entirely possible that the kicking Yates is getting from the politicians is little more than revenge for his role in the cash for honours business.

Background checking in the palm of the hand

Rob 5

cui bono?

Just another bunch of bastards fuelling paranoia and spreading fear, in order to make a buck at society's expense.

America demands definition of fourth generation

Rob 5

Truth in Advertising

Having lived here a few years now, it's become apparent that the "Truth in Advertising " law doesn't do what I (rather naively) thought it did.

It appears that (in common with many US laws) it does the exact opposite of what it sounds like. That is, makes it a Federal felony to tell the truth in an advertisement.

Man says he lost $500,000 in virtual currency heist

Rob 5

at the time he acquired the coins they probably were worth only $1000 or less

So what? All kinds of things, tangible or intangible, increase or decrease in value over time. Loss is typically reckoned on the value at the time, not the value at some time in the past.

Otherwise insurers would be able to get away with "Well, your coin collection might have been worth thousands at the time it was stolen, but when minted it was only worth one pound, 16 shillings and a groat."

I hold no brief for the bankers who created the current mess, but this smacks of the folks behind bitcoin wanting to have things both ways.

Twitter forced to hand over user details to English council

Rob 5

reports suggest it cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to secure.

Could do, certainly, if they went the traditional route and hired a big firm of lawyers in the UK who then subcontracted the job to some equally expensive lawyers in the USA.

OTOH, this kind of stuff can be done quite cheaply, if you download the forms, fill them out yourself and just hire somebody to take them to the court. For an uncontested subpoena (as this was) you're looking at a range of a few hundred dollars (to pay a local ambulance chaser to stand in front of a judge for 5 minutes) down to as little as $50 if it fits one of the "accelerated subpoena" classes that Federal law provides for (there's one for copyright infringement, for example) where all you need do is get a local private investigator to put it in front of a court clerk for stamping.

Of course, I doubt that the council even thought of going the cheaper route. So that's a second charge of wasting public funds on the charge sheet, then.

Also, since councils can't sue for defamation, and given that they're probably planning some "alternative" form of retribution rather than honestly intending to follow through with legal action in CA, there's the question of whether they made a bad faith declaration in their demands for a jury trial, etc. in California.

Incidentally, I also find fault with the way that they've set out several of the counts, in that they've been sloppy about where the act began and where it ended (they really only needed to show one of those was in CA, to establish jurisdiction) and proving harm to the defendants "in the state of California" would seem difficult since it's unlikely that any of them have a reputation there to be damaged.

And the paragraph numbering looks messed up.

Daleks given a well-earned break

Rob 5
Happy

@ Lurking in the shadows, grinning...

"they now look like the love child of a Tellytubby and a chav's Corsa that has been on a ram-raid through Halfords."

Funny you should say that. When the new ones first appeared, I said to the wife "Oh look! The Daleks have gone all New Mini!"

Rumbled benefits cheats offer sensational excuses

Rob 5
Facepalm

Whoa there, hoss

"However, if he contributes to your electricity, water and food bills then thats fraud because your benefit is based on you paying the bills without any help from either a spouse (common law or otherwise) or a lodger."

She's not claiming any benefits, she has a job.

Still, don't let the facts deter you from convicting them both of fraud.

Yanks officially recognise the word 'boffin'

Rob 5

Yep.

And that's pretty much how Merriam-Webster defines it:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-british-words/chunter.html

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