Posts by I didn't do IT.

Contractors dodge ID cards axe

No more multi year contracts!

Any law that would allow subsequent governments to cancel contracts could be easily handled by companies; each contract is simply for one year's worth of work. If the company did good, they get another contract for the next part. If they did poorly, someone else gets it or it is allowed to die.

Companies, of course, will howl bloody murder. Without multi-year contracts, they can't hide overruns or incompetencies, foist time for proper design into "trials", blame unexpected R&D time, make pie-in-the-sky promises on what technology MIGHT be available in 5 years, or hide other gouging through estimates "so many years out".

Government probably wouldn't go for it either, because it would require the Gov to become a project manager, where a rollout and maintanence might cover several contractors over a period of years, and would make that person in Gov more visible and responsible (liable) for the project's success or failure.

So, would probably save money, ensure responsibility, and encourage timely performance. Nope, it will never happen.

£15 a month for legal P2P?

Re: Joining a P2P network

Unfortunately, you are making the assumption that all P2P traffic is illegitimate, which is a falsehood. In order to learn if participants are, in fact, infringing on a copyrighted work, the telcos must also download the entire file, check it, and then determine if it infringes. Given the attitudes of sharers, "avatar_hq_widescreen.avi" might be a custom ubuntu release, while "linux_image_1058668_dvd01.iso" might be a copyrighted movie. Just to p!ss off the "pirate hunter". ;)

If, in fact, the work downloaded is copyrighted, but is NOT under license from one of the organizations this "pirate hunter" is affiliated with, they themselves also just infringed without cause ($250,000 fine and/or 10 years for the individual who did it or a case brought against the management of the "pirate hunter" org for EACH infringement in case of automated downloads). This MUST be tracked because without transparent logging (chain of custody), any such "pirate hunter" org would not be able to use any evidence in courts. The next required independent audit would highlight these works and would notify said nonaffiliated copyright holder (for a small fee, to be sure).

Then they must determine the location of the individual IPs and determine if copyright law THERE allows any action for infringement of said work; it is my understanding that several countries are not signatories of the Berne Convention (or other international copyright treaties), nor does Interpol have total jurisdiction. Therefore, participants from such areas may not be prosecuted for copyright infringement.

Of course, this also assumes that there is no proxying, IP obfuscation, MAC address spoofing, etc, etc. that would turn an IP only detection scheme on its ear.

'Being fat is no worse for you than being a woman'

Re: No bodybuilding animals

"There's a reason you don't see animals with huge slabs of muscle except as a result of genetic disease or if they've been bred for meat."

So, no strong rhinos, horses, gorillas, polar bears, etc. Note that they all *do* have fat as well, just as any bodybuilder does. I understand what you mean, just showing the point.

Any bodybuilder with 0.00% fat couldn't compete or show off... they would already be dead. The human body is an amazing biomechanical machine that requires balance. If you want more muscle to do more "work", then you have to support it and maintain your body's balance.

BBC upgrades iPlayer to allow 'social propositions'

Re: No Chat

Ummmm... it has no chat facility of _the BBC's making_. However, the report states that it would be compatible with other chat, email and other social networking sites, perhaps in partnerships. So iPlayer would have someone else's chat facility piggybacked.

Does that mean that everytime you do get a "Beiber4eva wants to chat" BBC get's a haypenny if if you (or they) click on any of the ads that come up (based on the context of your chat, don't ya know)?

Re: Friends call 'im

Perhaps, "Erik - the half a Tree - Huggers"?

Amazon Kindle flunked by college students

Re: Asimov and e-books

Perhaps, "The Ancient and the Ultimate"? According to http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/Essays/misc.html, it deals with the future of books. Essay info:

Subject: future of books

First Published In: Jan-73, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

Collection(s): 1973 The Tragedy of the Moon; 1989 Asimov on Science

Oz government in filter paranoia meltdown

Re: Education *

"actually provide people with the witherwerall to protect themselves from a wide variety of threats"

Hey, now! Can't have that here! If people got the idea that they are (1) responsible for themselves or (2) able to do things on their own with out us "experts"... why, I shudder to think of such nonsense.

All we need to "educate" them is that they should always trust government blindly in all things, including who to vote for, and all will be well with the world. If government's happy, you should be happy to.

If not, we have a place for you, as well...

* I started this out as satire, but looking back it's surprisingly accurate... and scary.

Greatest Living Briton loses £30m

Its coming...

With the corporate push against Net Neutrality (FCC article today), it is coming faster than you might think.

We will soon be back to the internet being a set of closed gardens, each with a toll to be let in for a short amount of time, and then told to get back in line if we want another ride. The wide expanses we know and love (or hate) today will simply be streamlined highways cutting swathes to get to our "destinations" so we don't have to view or ponder the dirty shacks and grimy dealings of those below our clean, happy overpasses. Of course, the only reason they might still be there is the cost and expense of cleaning them up (or out) isn't worth it... yet.

The gatekeepers will be fully licensed constables to ensure proper usage, attitude, and demeanor or else off to the gaol you go, to spend your days stamping out the latest shite on CD for our corporate copyright masters. (This last is satire - hopefully!)

Terence Conran slams 'appalling' Olympic mascots

Re: Connection with Sarah

Get in line, lad. Get in line.

Nope, sorry - starts waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back there.

Ta.

German watchdog tells firms to do own US privacy checks

Two Sentence Privacy Policy

"We will not give your data to any other individual or legal entity for any reason. Ever."

I think that would work rather well, eh?

I Married a Monster from ISO 9000

Re: That Dross

... as in ITIL (it'll) kill ya?

OK, ok - I was leaving already...

Atlantis spacewalkers snapped through shuttle windows

Not calculators...

Those are timers. Easier and more reliable than trying to tie in a new component into the Shuttle's existing panel assemblies, but very useful for keeping track (in ship) of outside activities, especially those that are sensitive to how much time you have left (air, etc).

No worries, I'm sure they were sourced with the same attention to detail and appropriate expenditure.

Yep - space is too expensive to be left to commercial or private endeavors. Not safe for 'em. No siree.

'Dossiers on enemies' found in Italian Scientology raid

Re: Local Planning Office

... but wouldn't that mean that the locked doors hid a disused lavatory, with the locked filing cabinet in the empty closet at the back (keys lost, of course), and the documents were "filed" at the bottom under a half-eaten sandwich?

DARPA trying to beat block lists, deep packet inspection

Testing the Waters of a Great See

While this is probably Ultimately Taxpayer Funded, I would propose that it is much more along the lines of testing the latest State of the Art against the government's own technology toolkits.

Such "interesting" projects are routinely put out for bidding, with merely the proposals providing surprising results to No Such Agencies.

Not anonymous, because what would be the point in this case? If IT wants to know, then the knowledge will out - through any means necessary.

US boffins synthesize self-replicating bacteria

Re: Plants

Yeah, All well and good... until Monsanto(tm) sues them for using genetic methods on plant bacterial cells. They have patents to protect, you know.

Usenet's home shuts down today

Re: Usenet ... um, terms

If anything, the one acronym found more than any other in groups across the networks:

RTFM

Some powers never die...

Opportunity rover breaks Mars longevity record

Re: Getting Bonuses

Well, at least they get to keep their jobs...

Google open sources $124.6m video codec

Holy cow

So, the event everybody was whinging for to happen ("if only", "why don't they", "it could never happen, but...") has actually happened.

Heady Days, to be sure.

Newzbin goes titsup

Payment Pool?

DISCLAIMER: This is long and there may be hidden assumptions. Where possible, real data was used, and discrepancies in year have been converted to percentages and applied to other year data.

Let's assume that the MPAA establishes a "payment pool" from subscriptions of peoples of the US. With a est. pop. of 309 mil (http://www.census.gov/), with an average household size of 2.59 (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts), leaving there are about 120 mil est. possible purchasing "nodes" (individuals, family units, etc), that make up the domestic "media market". Assuming that those under the poverty line could/would not afford to contribute (14%, ibid.), that leaves 103.2 mil "consuming units" for a mass subscription plan.

If these 103.2 mil units each subscribed to a service that allowed download/viewing of media online, conveniently, how much would the subscription have to be to (currently) support Hollywood?

$10.00/mo (10 bil/yr)? $20.00/mo (20 bil/yr)? According to the MPAA (http://www.mpaa.org/policy), they are used to raking in $180 bil/yr domestically. That means the 103.2 mil unique consumer units must be currently paying $1744.19/yr ($145.35/mo) each.

Surely some of this is gained from overseas exports? According to the MPAA's "2010 Report on Economic Contribution", only $13.6 bil is gained from audiovisual exports. That lowers our yearly contribution to a more manageable 166.4 bil/yr or $1612.41/yr each that we are currently paying.

So, if the US went completely like its going with health care, and decided that media entertainment is another "utility", then every contributing consumer unit would be paying roughly $135/mo. to have access to every new movie and TV show made. Supposedly, that's what those in the US are paying already, but it is not clear in MPAA's figures if this is for current production, or also includes sales of back catalog material.

Wait, what's that? RIAA? Oh, that's right - that's only for movies and TV. Well, apparently the RIAA is only used to pulling down $7.7 bil/yr (http://76.74.24.142/A200B8A7-6BBF-EF15-3038-582014919F78.pdf), so that brings us back up to $1687.02/yr or $140.59/mo for each consumer unit.

So, a combined "media" service for everything we see and hear would be $141/mo. And don't forget, that is not subsidized by any advertising. With advertisements at $74 bil/yr (no solid figures, but found this number bandied about - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/micro-markets/google-ceo-wants-74-billion-tv-ad-market/357), this could reduce our currently paid price to $969.97/yr or $80.84/mo per unit.

Oh, but wait again, there's piracy! The 2002 FBI (from the MPAA) estimates have been so thoroughly debunked (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus.ars) that they are no longer listed on MPAA's site. There is another document (http://www.mpaa.org/resources/e76b578d-d581-487f-9cad-a98360724507.pdf) that claims "economy wide" losses of 20.5 bil in 2006 and 12.5 bil in 2007 (August). The further 50.8 bil/yr loss estimate includes "software", but ironically comes from the same report. Setting aside the same report can't agree with itself, let's move on.

So, squashing (GLOBAL!) "piracy" figures by all of us paying for them (which we do anyway now - stop yelling! - regardless that most domestic piracy would be wiped out by this scheme in the first place) would add another (generous?) 20 bil/yr, taking us to $194.1 bil/yr total, $1880.82/yr (each), or about $157/mo (each unit); with advertising, $120.1 bil/yr total, $1163.76/yr (each), or about $97/mo (each unit).

Of course, though this would completely cover Hollywood's current entire cost, there will be whiners that this doesn't account for any growth. And, of course, once you solve the problem of them getting "their" money, there is the inevitable complaint that inflation, cost of living, etc. means that this would have to increase yearly, or else "stifle innovation".

Mucky private chat could be illegal soon

Re: Inconveniencing...

Wow, you must have a nice one. Emails from my boss are more along the lines of "menacing, ... or causing needless anxiety."

Orly?

"..., but on how that message is viewed by its recipient."

So, to ensure that everyone who reads a text (without any visual context, verbal clues, or other converstaional or oratorical queues), all you have to do is put the ubiquitous "j/k" at the end of everything so that readers are therefore not able to "reasonably" interpret it as a "real" threat.

I somehow don't think that will work, but is an appropriate level response to this malarky.

Luke Skywalker to helm movie of own comic, Black Pearl

The Guyver

I happen to have really liked that one - all the inside jokes, cheesy (yet kinda good for the day) monsters, and Dr. Eastman (West)... hehehe.

It was designed as a B-Movie with a budget, and pulled it off well. Hamill was a supporting actor as a seedy (good guy) detective that becomes a cockroach. I don't think the irony was lost on him.

Bear and Monkey smack Apple with patent suit

Re: Get your money back?

No, patent application fees are non-refundable (http://www.uspto.gov/main/faq/p470047.htm).

But, that could still be part of the problem. It can make resubmission due to being "too obivous" or being "in the current literature" a tedious and potentially expensive process (the more "claims" you make on the patent, the more expensive the patent filing).

To avoid this, they have turned to the easiest way of obfuscating meaning - legalese. In this way, you can spin off a line of gibgerish, and as long as it doesn't pull anything back from a text search of the patent system or anything obivous from Google, it will probably pass.

Re: When did this place go...

It is rather endemic of past, present, and future plans to truly make us all dumbed and replaceable bricks in a corporate wall to our heritage, birthright, and knowledge.

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/

The more people die off that remember what it really is to do something for yourself, the majority becomes people who don't know any different than what [gov/corp/TV] tells them it was.

IWF: Good on child abuse...

Re: FCC

Would be nice to have a governmental body that actually enforces freedom of connectivity, but the IWF are in the UK... not the US. So the FCC has no jurisdiction there.

Of course, if we could *imply* that IWF was in some way a cover for an extremist group (blindly following dogmatic rules of morality... hmm...), then DoJ could start extradition proceedings.

If IWF in some way impeded US commerce, it would be done in a fortnight...

Re: 102%

While I agree with your sentiment, I must abide by the laws of math.

48% + 44% = 92%, not 102%

That they may have accurately reported that they did nothing (racism, obscenity) for the millions spent still does not encourage confidence. Why go after the BNP when you have such soft targets that won't use political (legal and otherwise), monetary, and phyiscal influence to shut you down?

LimeWire induces infringement, Judge rules

Re: No moral difference

I agree - there is no "moral" difference between downloading and buying a second-hand copy. There is an ETHICAL difference because the second-hand copy passes completely; if the original download site deleted their copy after you downloaded it, it would then be a complete analogy.

However, I do agree that downloading is sometimes THE ONLY WAY to get or view some of our shared culture (movies, music, etc), that is not released anymore.

It is especially saddening to know the reason the copyright owners don't release it anymore is because they don't want (better) competition for the current tat they try to huckster to the current collective consciousness.

Re: Try to follow the point...

"And they market the O/S and hardware as fit for the purpose of infringing copyright, and distributing content which they're not legally authorised to distribute do they?"

Its not that they explicitly said that it to be used for infringement, its that they did nothing when the (l)users expressed infringement as the purpose of using it. Just because you market a really nice product that keeps your lawn green does not mean that people won't buy it to poison the next door neighbor's dog/cat/kid/husband.

There are a couple things here to note:

1) Limewire's EULA stated that they were not responsible for the customer's action. This means that (at least this) claim in EULAs is now open to attack (including Microsoft's).

2) The "inability to act" upon user's expressed uses of the product (not just software, mind), is now to be taken as encouragement. This means that we will be seeing many more restrictive practices and "safeguards" in products (particularly software) to show that Somthing Is Being Done(tm).

So yes, this decision is a precursor to more customer dissatisfaction. Of course, as music/media is "licensed" now anyway (just like software)... that means that mash-ups and other "derived" works that might offend someone could soon be traced back to the original artist/distributor/licenser, because any EULA claim's of "not responsible for customer usage" is now on its way to being defunct; any "Fair Use" be damned. Even unmodified works would be open to this regardless of intent; simply putting out a movie that might offend some extreme viewpoint is now open to attack due to the whole "licensing" scheme... if this is carried to its "logical" conclusion.

So, United Features Syndicate and Universal being sued by Islamic leaders for certain political cartoons (or cartoons with added "text") - and UFS losing (or overturning this "precident")? If an "extremist" group wins a lawsuit from a US company, can the company claim they won't pay because it would be contributing to terrorism? How long before they label "freetards" as the next terrorist threat (for disrupting and damaging the economy)? Why not just put out product in convenient forms for reasonable prices?

Miracle mono-molecule material could quench hot chips

Time to market

I think I need to reference the time table for when research actually gets into products...

http://www.xkcd.com/678/

So... yeah...

Re: only 2 dimensions

So, you like Möbius strips, too?

NFC will help you find your car - if you're next to it

Re: USB immobiliser

Neat! I can see having a couple hundred MB encryption key file stored on the stick, and just plug it in to operate the car; kind of a digital ignition key. Finally have a use for those 256MB and 512MB USB keys shuffling about in my junk drawer.

Well, now I know what I'll be designing, building and installing this weekend. :)

Google screws Scroogle

Re: How hard did they look?

It may be that there is more going on here behind the scenes... As more and more people use this, there is bound to be reciprocation from Google. After all, this is revenue (but only potentially. But huge companies seem to thrive off these virtual, potential dollars).

I would not put past Google to have a blocker for IP or if a session cookie was not in place that gets pulled down going to the main search page.

It may also be that Scroogle is just tired of keeping up or keeping the project going.

And then there is the always popular option of legal threats, etc.

F*ck you, thunders disgruntled fanboi Apple user

Re: iDeviceOfChoice

So... an iDOC? Pretty useful after landing/crashing, eh?

Re: Sequence Shortened

Ah... like they do in the commercials. Brilliant.

Apple building its own Flash, says rogue Tweeter

Re: Build your own

I will be happy to implement the multi-touch aware portions. Just need a few test beds. ;)

Copyright law must be relaxed, says new group

Re: Creative Commons... "broken"

"...broken idea of Creative Commons or other similar totally broken denial of rights."

Actually, copyright is merely a contract with governmental protections (due to lobbying). Quite similar to EULAs, by the way (EULAs are explicit copyright licenses, after all). The Creative Commons is a contract that provides for the consumer the promise from the author or creator that they will not be prosecuted for explicit re-uses of the copyrighted work.

This Declaration is, again, lobbying to make such contractual statements apply to ALL copyright, even if it is not under the Creative Commons, and provide governmental protections.

This will not fly, because the ability to generate new works is fundamental to the existing copyright holders to create the latest series of dross^W entertainment to the masses.

Pirate Party UK sinks on maiden voyage

Re: nicked films and music

Uh, no. [Note: The following is (mostly) opinion. You are free to disagree. I do not claim to represent PPUK, but I believe in them and do support them.]

Consumer rights: Why is it illegal for a consumer to use the global market to buy a CD from a location where it is less expensive than from the local shop?

Innovation: Why are software patents being filed for existing ideas and methods of business (which by charter should not be patentable in the first place)?

Culture: Why are laws being passed that continually extend copyright when (even now) the legal intention is to allow a *limited* time for works to be exclusively controlled? We don't know what would happen if a UK movie were to escape copyright because it hasn't been allowed to happen yet - they keep moving the bar from what was (the most previous time) considered "well and fair". If all the _others_ before *LAST ONE* were "well and fair", what the heck is the *LAST ONE*? What about the *NEXT ONE* (because you know they are going to yell when _this one_ expires, too, eh?)?!

Nicking? WE WANT TO PAY FOR THEM! A fair price for a decent product, that's all anyone respectably asks. Like it or not, every audio or video recording is a slice of British (and world) culture, true as tea and crumpets (or jaffa cakes and Hobnobs, yum). Obviously there is a market demand (iPlayer's success, anyone?). Don't sit on it because you are worried about "diluting" a "market". Are they not really worried about the comparisons between previous stellar works drawing revenue away from collection sets of "Big Brother 56"? No? PROVE IT!

Freedom (and the freedom of privacy): What happened to the straight and tall Briton? The one that refused to be bullied by extremists? The one that called their government to task for attempting to control them or force them to live against the ideals of freedom and common rights? Obviously, they were the remaining population from the 40's, who knew first hand the results of the current course of government. They were used to fighting for what was right, and telling people in "power" to shove off if they got too big for their bonnet. It must have been them, because as they died off, Britian became a lot of whining, sniveling children waiting for Nanny to coddle you.

Re: Chose seats without support

Actually, don't you have to be seated in the area you live? That just means there are places with more support, but no one in that area that could walk away from their (current) job to play footsie with the politicos.

Because the UK (just like the US) makes it very arduous for "normal" people to run for office, is it any wonder that the people that get voted in are usually rich professional politicians?

Re: Not worth voting single issue party

I agree.

So why did New Labour (single issue - control everyone/everything) get any votes?

Anyone? You in the back? Oh, sorry - that's a coatrack.

Anyone?...

US data-collection bill gets chilly reception

Re: Basic Log

Which you would be likely inclined to TURN OFF, due to the liability and targeting you receive from Uncle Sam as he uses you to go on fishing expeditions for pirates, terros, pedos, etc. You hve nothing better to do then to collate all that data for him, right? Its not like you have a business to run or anything...

"Thank you very much," He says as he skips out before you can give him the bill; pretty sure he already passed that law that you eat all the costs. "Don't forget to pay your taxes, now," as he drives off out of sight... until the next time...

Google drops cash on soothsayers

Re: (go look him up)

... on Google?

You'd think the censors were sleeping on the watch.

Re: see "Prediction"

If you search for a prediction of a search query for predictions and ask it to predict the prediction that the search queries...

Sorry - my computer just achieved singularity.

Guess I get to go home now.

Tories buy YouTube home page

Rly?

Ok, sorry, have to put something out here. Please feel free to ignore if you want; the world will continue without US. (see what I did there? "US" *and* "us", yep.)

"...they support Homeopathy - nuff said?"

The greatest drain on any health care system for a relatively healthy people is the hypocondriacs. Homeopathy is the best "cure" for their "illness", though they may still bug you until they get the latest, newest drug for their "condition". The one they saw on an ad during Fox News or Eastenders or Coronation Street, etc. If only 5% of illness is psycho-somatic, that is how many billions saved? Scientific medicine is using the proper cure for the correctly diagnosed condition. If its all in their heads, that's where you need to start. And besides, it does provide the attention and self-affirmation that they are craving in the first place, and at a lower price than a "real(?!)" doctor.

"independence means reduced markets and financial isolation, for an economy that makes very little that's dangerous and makes us more dependent on the US financial markets."

So the requirements for independence make you more dependent... yeah. Ok. Sure. I think I see how the bankers got away with scr#wing everyone for so long right there. I didn't think you could buy that kind of propoganda thinking. O.o

Now, admittedly, once you have gotten used to the disposable, consumerist teet, it sure is hard to get weened off. But, if all that sweetness is causing you diabetes anyway, what have you got to lose but your own weakness and dependence? Take control of your life and MAKE A CHOICE; don't just lay about so you can complain about the lack of time you end up with when it hits the fan personally, socially, or nationally.

"..."ignore"... climate research...not "investigate" or "verify" or "research" but just "ignore"..."

No, NOT to stop solid scientific research, but to stop jumping the gun pouring money into the latest snake oil salesmen (obviously THATS renewable, eh?) and taxing the bejebus out of you lot while ensuring that the elite and their quangos remain living high off the hog of your tax pounds or making new financial empires since mortgages are now verbotten to manipulate. When you have "science" following policy or being motivated by political money then you don't have science; you have prostitutes in lab coats (which can still be pretty hot, mind) with pretty graphs for Murdock's tele-teet sucklers.

"Science" is rigorous, practiced, REPEATABLE, and proven by ALL DATA; no cherry-picking, no fudging number curves to what it "should" say, no modifying or destroying data that doesn't fit your hypothesis. If you change, omit, or ignore the data to fit your hypothesis - THAT IS NOT SCIENCE. And sure as hell not "settled."

"...btw EU migrants pay 37% more tax than they receive in welfare, so the UK economy would be worse off if we didn't have them here."

So, any migrant taking "welfare" pays a penalty of 37% of the amount of welfare they receive? So that's up to 137% of total income that they owe in taxes? Are we sharecropping and making them buy at company stores, too? How effective is this, and how can we really take 37% more than they make, if all they "make" is the welfare payment? If, by definition, unemployed (can't work without ID, you know) or under-employed migrants on welfare will NEVER be able to pay the tax they owe, is the government hoping to create a 2nd (or is it 3rd, eh?) class of citizen, a new kind of indentured servant, that can never crawl out of debt? Does the country they come from take on that debt to ease off trade deficits?

Again, no wonder the bankers shistered us, eh?

Agree or not, make sure you get your butts out there and vote. If they are going to claim a flipping "mandate" anyway, MAKE IT ONE THEY REALLY HAVE TO WORK TO SPIN. Be a citizen, dammit!

Re: Reporter in America

Because all the Brit reporters are out there trying to take control of their lives and Country by voting their conscience?

Just saying... GO VOTE.

ATM hacking spree foiled by tip from ex-con

Re: Better Design

Agreed. However, banks (like most businesses) will not voluntarily upgrade or buy new equipment if they don't have to. Ignoring the issue is much easier in the short term, and any long term ramifications can be either (a) diverted to the manufacturer or insurance, or (b) reported as losses to insurance and calls for more authoritarian control and "enforcement".

What better way to get the shareholders to finance the latest planned binge than to wrap it up in (necessarily *secret*) security procedures development, training, and equipment procurement to prevent fraud.

That's called ensuring shareholder value. Phfffttt...

Sorry, just couldn't get that out with a straight face.

Re: "could have just called them"

Uh... he did. And your blaise restatement of the events acknowledges that you understood that he did.

Now, whether you are saying that a bank would take the time to actually do a thorough investigation of its ATM infrastructure if one lowly "member" makes a point to call his bank security laison (Tier 1-2 Customer Service Rep - phone jockey) that one or more of the machines "might" have a security issue (that OF COURSE is listed as a support feature from the manufacturer)... yeah - guess that would have gotten something done, eh?

This is the age-old quandry of exploit disclosure (IT angle!) although the person admittedly has not openly disclosed how he did it; only that *something* is amiss and that he properly notified the proper service provider.

And, like all researchers, he was ignored, derided, and summarily punished, although more directly than most. Plus ca change...

iPhone code ban facing antitrust inquiry?

Re: Only in Java

Is there something in RIM's or Palm's licenses that prohibit you from writing in another language or writing your own compiler for another language to run on Blackberry or Pre hardware?

There's a difference between "we only support X development" vs. "Thou shall not develop in anything but X".

Craigslist subpoenaed over thriving adult services ads

Re: Prostitution and Terrorism

No, we can't have that linked up. Remember, the US has a law that JAILS people (before the trial) for contributing money to terrorist organizations and/or buying or selling services or material with such organizations.

So, if prostitution supports terrorism, all of our politicians would have to go to jail for supporting terrorism...

Can't that that, dontcha know.

US netwar-force Cyber Wings badge unveiled

Brilliant!

You don't think they are hyping up this command as a honey pot and false target with all of this so they collect the newest data first, do you?

US boffin builds ultra-dense nanodot memory

6nm wavelength laser

While lasers of less than 6nm (such as an X-ray) are already available (if not quite practical for this application yet), does the wavelength really matter, or the abilty to focus the point of the laser to <6nm?

EVERY wavelength has a point where its focus is 0nm; Once every length of the wavelength as a matter of fact. The problem is that as you near that point, the power of the laser edges closer to 0... so a <6nm laser (somewhere between ultraviolet [10^-8] and x-ray [10^-10] - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&q=nanometer&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) *would* be most beneficial as that means the full power of the laser could be used, instead of attempting to focus it to a point where the wavelength starts to peter out, probably in some sort of standing wave.

It may be more economical to use an electron generator (like the old Triac flip/flop tubes), as that would easily be <6nm (as used on electron microscopes). Then, as always, its just down to a convenient power supply.

Or find a clever way to ensure the photons behave as particles, which would be more towards the 10^-10 size, no matter the wavelength...