Posts by The Metal Cod 95 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jun 2009
"We are investing in upskilling our reinventors, which is our primary strategy... We are exiting on a compressed timeline, people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need." - this has all the hallmarks of Gus Hedges from Drop The Dead Donkey.
If there's someone who needs to "exit on a compressed timeline", it's the imbeciles who came up with and who spout this stuff in their professional lives.
The author has clearly not travelled on Southeastern trains (often delayed or cancelled from CHX, never a working toilet, often a leaking one), a CrossCountry Voyager (crap design leads to the whole train reeking of excrement) or an Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 (if the waste tanks don't get you the ambient chemical odour will).
The Daily Mail ran a story yesterday about this tech being used in the UK. There are a couple of posts from 2008 about Footpath on Spyblog which asks some questions but nothing further. It looks reminiscent of Phorm and smells reminiscent of Phorm...
I wouldn't expect the ICO to be any help at all on this.
Yup, you got me fair and square there on my Skydiver error :) It's been too long since I got my UFO DVDs out. The ITV4 showings were almost as bad as the BBC's editing treatment of Space:1999. Thankfully I have the DVDs of both series.
Great excuse to get the UFO set out tonight *smile*
The councils ballsed up but we end up paying the fine. Why doesn't the ICO name and shame those responsible for the balls up and hit them with a fine?
Because it doesn't have any balls. Sure it can fine a council or two and the odd hospital but when it comes to businesses, the ICO's balls suddenly go missing.
As I've said before, the ICO is unfit for purpose. Lacking guts and balls, it is an irrelevance that should be terminated and a new, appropriately staffed and powered body put in its place.
As AC above says: "5 years is more than enough time for policies, procedures, training and compliance processes to be put in place within public bodies to secure data on mobile systems."
It isn't rocket science.
A sensible coherent and impartial review from OFCOM? Not a snowball's.
There is already plenty of advice out there which explains why the DEAct is a crock of garbage. This exercise is a) designed so that the government can say "but our watchdog says it's ok" and b) a complete waste of time, effot and money.
Just repeal the act.
It is for the FA to get its head out of its backside and tell players "Don't use social networks to mock officials". It's not rocket science. The pic deals with what a lot of people perceive - that Howard Webb isn't necessarily the best referee on the planet, especially where a certain team from Manchester are concerned. I'm no follower of the game yet I've heard plenty of people voice that opinion.
It is for the FA to manage this sensibly and for the FA and Webb himself to work to change those perceptions.
The Metropolitan Police have showed they haven't got a clue in relation to RIPA law and this case. Whilst I would love to see Ertugrul, Livingston, Vahidi, Scleparis and other BT & Phorm execs dragged into court and given the grilling they so richly deserve, I can't help but feel the CPS is trying to hang this on until they've found some weakass excuse they can pin a "no" decision on.
It is in the public interest to prosecute the people responsible for mass breaches of RIPA, it would just be very embarrassing for the guilty parties when the whole truth comes out. That's the reason why a prosecution isn't something the former government and certain civil servants want to see.
Have the CPS got the balls to prosecute? I say not.
One fact worth mentioning is that the initial e-mail address given for responding to this consultation was "undeliverable" for at least a day. How incompetent is that? It's not rocket science to set up an e-mail box or a forwarding rule.
Requests to my MP Bob Neill for an explanation for the shortness of consultation period were studiously ignored.
Incompetent? Quite probably. Not interested in what people who know what they're talking about have to say? Certainly.
Your hell, you burn in it.
I've been using online communities, BBSes and the internet for 16 years now. Not once have I encountered bestiality, not once have I encountered child abuse. Utter utter Godswallop of the worst kind.
As for "children frequently and accidentally exposed to wholly inappropriate material, such as bestiality and child abuse", if they're suggesting my partner or I allow our lad to be exposed to anything *we* consider inappropriate then they're welcome to come round and meet me and my cricket bat.
As parents it is *our* decision what is right and proper for our lad to see, not theirs. Perhaps they should start to exercise the same judgements on their offspring.
As Bill Hicks said "I find it ironic that people who are against things that cause sexual thoughts are generally fundamentalist Christians who also believe you should be fruitful and multiply."
That "spastic", "spazz" and variants thereof aren't seen as being as offensive in the US as here. Witness the outcry here over the Colours In Motion wheelchair model called the Spazz. In the US there's no big deal over it. The Spazz-G is the next version up but has the unfortunate blurb "Have you been dreaming of that unique custom wheelchair that would not cost you an arm and a leg?"
That said, this would surely raise a laugh from some of my less politically correct friends and be a good choice of Christmas gift for them.
ICO growls, eh? My guts growl louder than the ICO. My cat is still after Christopher Graham's job and will remain so until he shows some balls and takes proper action like fining corporations.
Remember Neville Chamberlain and "I have in my hand a piece of paper"? A piece of paper means nothing and Mr Graham knows it.
Come on Chris, surely you can show us that you've got a pair?
Mr Graham is supposed to be a watchdog. Watchdogs make clear threats and aren't afraid to use their teeth if the threat goes ignored. I'm sure he means well but until we see companies (Phorm, BT, TalkTalk, ACS:Law etc) and councils brought to account with a severe kicking the ICO will remain, in the eyes of many, no more threatening than my fat, castrated cat.
Come on Chris, show us you've got 'em or my cat will be after your job.
Mr Vaizey should STFU until those involved with the mass infringement of privacy and breaching of RIPA by BT and Phorm get dragged into court and then sent to the slammer. Then he just might be able to discuss this with the backdrop of doing something right.
At the moment this smacks of a step towards silencing critics of the government, just the kind of thing the last "government" was so keen on. First comes a version of IMP and now this. Governing for the people my ar5e.
I've said here and elsewhere the ICO is totally unfit for purpose and needs to be completely gutted and replaced with competent, knowledgeable staff who do what a watchdog should - use their teeth and punish those who drive a cart and horses through data proaction legislation. The ICO have already admitted they have no Information Security experienced or qualified staff on their books.
The ICO's spinelessness over the Phorm & BT issue is all the evidence you need for putting them all in a giant Wicker Man and setting fire to it while dancing around it singing songs. The ICO lacks guts, teeth, balls and relevance.
My fat, castrated cat has told me he wants to be the new Information Commissioner. He is a lot cheaper than Mr Graham, cuter and he has real experience of having no balls at all. If you're going to have a eunuch organisation then you should have a real eunuch at the top level.
Well, let's be honest, Crossley's had it coming for a while. And I can't say any inconvenience or discomfort he encounters will have me sniffling. This may be the slow start of karma coming back to bite him in the balls.
Any news on the disciplinary proceedings Crossley is facing?
The FSA - fine Zurich £2.3 million - and the ICO - barely a metaphorical slap on the wrist for PCW and Wolverhampton Hospitals. On that basis which is the better watchdog?
The name gives as much away - Financial Services Authority v Information Commissioner's Office - one has actual authority, the other sounds like somewhere you go to get some pens, rulers or TippEx!
To an admission from the ICO that they are not up to the job. I said as much in my submission to the APCOMMS committee; If the ICO isn't going to be disembowelled and rebuilt, government needs to appoint a panel of truly independent experts to advise on tech issues over which they and their watchdog have no real understanding (ie: all of them).
IIRC it was Mr White in Reservoir Dogs who said "Are you going to bite, little doggie?" - that's how businesses view the ICO - it yaps occasionally but hasn't got the balls to actually bite someone.
"Marketing communications should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence."
Where does that leave purveyors of training courses whose mendacity claims that the average salary in IT is £37k? You know, the ones the ASA did f**k all about? Mendacious claims like that are offensive to me and most of my colleagues in IT who aren't anywhere near that.
Not complaining about my salary, I'm complaining that the purveyors of this garbage get away with it because the ASA, just like the ICO, has no balls at all.
Samples. Not the full data. Ergo the ICO failed to conduct a proper investigation. Do they actually have any experienced investigators on their staff? I recall a video where they admitted to having no comp sci or info security experienced staff.
Utterly unsurprising. Predictably pathetic. Expectedly eunchs.
My neutered cat has more balls than the ICO.
Doesn't the ICO ever take hard hitting action? Nothing in this report suggests anything by way of a deterrent and a learning experience along the lines of "The ICO's punishment hurt, we'll make damn sure that doesn't happen again". A commitment to provide training is just bullshit & bluster.
Real watchdogs have teeth and aren't afraid to use them. The ICO just doesn't have the cojones to hand out punishment.
Is in the eating. This smacks of damage control and nothing more. Zuckerberg's brand is damaged after his latest batch of bad press and he's desperate to stop the slide.
Once a privacy offender always a privacy offender in my book. Unless proven wrong. Which I rarely am.
Come on Zuck, prove me wrong.
Methinks this does have something to do with the change of administration. City of London Police have already shown their inability to understand RIPA and enforce the law correctly. The CPS have taken nearly 600 days so far in deciding what, if any, action to take. The Cabinet Office refused to answer questions about Phorm & BT's involvement with the former "government".
The only acceptable solution to this is to see the executives responsible for these mass breaches of RIPA (that's from BT and Phorm) up in court on charges. Those responsible for policing, governmental and advisory failure should be named, shamed and barred from working in their respective fields.
The questions raised about the IWF regarding its status, its methods, its transparency (none), accountability (none), due process for when it gets things wrong (none) which were highlighted by the Scorpions album cover debacle have still yet to be properly answered. Noble aims should not protect them from the consequences of fouling up nor from the requirement to answer questions completely in an open and honest way.
The IWF seems to think of itself as law enforcement. Yet it lacks the due processes and transparency that democratic law enforcement should have. If memory serves it has charitable status. This fact should be reported so everyone understands that law enforcement is (or is not depending on if you're BT or Phorm) carried out by the Police & CPS.
Work colleagues are simply that. I don't go out to socialise with them (never have, never will unless I get a job crewing for certain rock bands) so there's no way they're having any kind of association with my life outside of work.
Why would you have your bosses as friends on your social stuff? Really... why?
Work & home are best kept separate. Any employer that doesn't like that concept is a Gareth*
*see New Avengers cast list*
This is gesture politics of the worst kind. The ICO has shown itself to be incompetent and lacking the guts and balls to hold companies and the government to account. This gesture will not change the fact that my large left testicle has more balls than the whole of the ICO, which is patently unfit for purpose.
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