Posts by tkioz

Boffins prescribe SNAKE VENOM as future pain killer

Re: They will patent the mambalgic component

Well... that's bollocks... I can see patenting the process for producing it artificially, but patenting a naturally occurring substance? That's just bollocks...

Can they actually patent the venom? I didn't think you were allowed to patent anything found in nature?

I'd heard about the idea of using snake venom as a pain killer before, but I didn't know it was moving along towards actually being done. Sounds like a good idea to me, since I doubt it's addictive... though speaking personally I don't want to live anywhere near the farms, I'm pathologically scared of snakes.

Facebook digs in over Jill Meagher page

Re: simple answer

@Seanie Ryan

You've hit the nail on the head. Trial by public opinion is becoming a very big problem. Increasingly judges and police are refusing to release the names of defendants in "sensitive" cases (mainly ones sexual in nature) for just that reason, what if they got it wrong? He'll be forever tarred.

But when service providers ignore legitimate requests from authorities they make a mockery of it.

Re: "long standing traditions"

@Mark 65

Yeah, and only Australians sit on juries in Australia... And anyway in the vast majority of "judicial censorship" it's a temporary matter for the duration of the proceedings, so asking for things to be taken down until justice has run it's course isn't a big deal, hell I'd be perfectly okay if Facebook simply blocked it for Australian or Victorian IP addresses.

Given how big tech companies will bend over backwards for truly oppressive dictatorships around the world I'm honestly shocked why a simple request for something with a valid reason is such a big heal.

Re: Not So

Richard, you make an good point, but unfortunately you fail to take into account opinion tainting. As an evil bastard once said "repeat a lie often enough and people will believe anything".

Pop quiz, is there more crime today than 30 years ago? If you ask most people, educated, reasonable people, they will tell you yes, it is worse... when in fact crime has dropped drastically in the last 30 years (in Australia at least). Their opinions have been tainted by the media, who cover far more crime then they did 30 years ago, people are exposed to more information about it, and thus perceive it to have gotten worse, when it's gotten better but they hear about it more often.

People can try and set aside bias (and face it, everyone is biased about everything, they are people after all) but the more they've been exposed to something, the deeper their bias is, even if it's a slight inclination towards believing the worst of someone accused of a crime that has gotten a lot of media attention.

Re: "long standing traditions"

Well I don't know about the British at this point in time, but I do know that Australian courts will often order the media to withhold information (up to and including the NAMES of the parties involved) while a trial is ongoing in order to prevent potential jurors from being prejudiced.

Free speech is a wonderful, but we're not yanks and we recognise sometimes other matters temporarily outweigh free speech... such as the right to a fair trial, for everyone.

I really hope Facebook sees sense in this... The police aren't asking for the removal of political commentary, but rather standing by long standing traditions that have effected the press in common law countries for centuries to ensure that everyone gets a fair trial, no matter how much of a scum bag they may or may not be.

Motorola's Germany Xbox sales ban castrated by US judges

Yeah this is going to go down well in Deutschland...

New Zealand Prime Minister apologizes for Dotcom spying

Well at least the Kiwi PM has a set of balls and some semblance of principles... I honestly couldn't imagine an Australian or British PM saying anything similar... as for an American President? Ha! I don't care which one you think of, none of them would do anything of the sort.

Cops cuff Google exec over YouTube Brazilian whack vid

Re: Err?

It's a law to protect the feelings of politicians... and he wasn't arrested over that, he was arrested on a charge of "disobedience".

If was really offensive why didn't the politician simply sue the uploader for slander... you know take things through the courts in a way that's open to everyone, instead of take advantage of a law written to protect just him.

Re: Err?

Stupid laws are stupid laws.

Let me get this straight governments will arrest corperate stooges over stupid shit like videos they don't like... but if they ruin tens of millions of lives around the world, stealing tens of billions of dollars in the process, and they get a pat on the back and a government bail out?

Yeah that makes sense...

Also... someone needs to explain the Streisand Effect to these people...

New I-hate-my-neighbour stickers to protect Brits' packages

Re: Oh come on

@JetSetJim

Tell me about it brother... I've seen it in action, after "missing" a number of deliveries I decided to sit in my front room one day and wait... I saw the van pull up, I saw the guy jump out, I saw him walk to the mail box (no-where near my front door), I saw him shove a card in it, jump back in the van and drive off... best of all my digital camera saw the entire thing as well, and so did his supervisor.

Normally I take a dim view of dobbing, but he wasn't a postal worker, he was a courier and the goods he was delivering cost extra to be sent that way...

Oh... yeah... these stickers wont cause drama... not at all...

My neighbour is a giant nosey cow, always sticking her beak into other people's business, head always over the fence, always coming over "for a chat" when you've got visitors... but I'd think twice before putting up such a sticker because she is also a vindictive so and so who would take it as a challenge...

Aga-saga doyenne ponders how to put ebooks in public libraries

I'm unsure about what the best way to do it is... but it must be done. Publishers and authors might complain, but they need to realise that libraries have been around for a very long time, and it would be terrible for the world in general if they went away.

There are a half dozen authors I support by buying everything they release, that I wouldn't even know about if it wasn't for my local library stocking their earlier works.

Maybe only stock books older then 2 years, I mean you've got the lion share of sales already haven't you?

Kiwi cops forgot Kim Dotcom's visa

Seriously how hard is it double check things like this using a checklist?

Philippines pinches nose, averts eyes, bans cybersex

They love us long time no more?

But seriously, unenforceable laws aren't worth the paper they are written on. They are actually counter-productive, imbuing a culture of "meh it's a stupid law, why should I follow it" that can lead to badness.

Tacky mobile ad networks could kill publishing, survey shows

Advertisers only have themselves to blame that people wont tolerate them on computing devices. People are perfectly okay with them in print and on TV, but on computing devices, as the article rightly points out, people have had their fingers burnt. Everyone has either been infected with malware themselves, or knows someone who has been; everyone has heard horror stories about someone who clicked on an advert and suddenly got themselves a multi-thousand dollar bill.

And their constant dragging of the feet over things like op-out provisions and Do-Not-Track options hasn't helped their image one bit.

They are going to have to work very hard to rehabilitate their image, it's just unfortunate that content providers are the ones suffering, not the idiots who made the mess in the first place with misleading, obnoxious, and downright stupid online advertising.

Fans revolt over Amazon 'adware' in Ubuntu desktop search results

Amusing... I couldn't think of a less-likely group of users to take this kind of crap laying down... I mean it's like handing out Neo-Nazi pamphlets in a Synagogue....

Oh well should be fun to watch. Freetards vs. Amazon, whoever loses, at least it will be entertaining.

NZ spooks acted unlawfully in Megaupload wiretap

Re: Weird

I know mate, it's shocking isn't it? The dude is a egomaniacal prick, but the way the U.S and NZ governments and their agencies has acted is so disgusting, so contrary to the principles of democracy and the rule of law, that any sane rational person has to support him...

Re: follow the law

@Tom 13

That's an interesting point, and one I agree with. It brings to mind a Sci-Fi novel I read a few years ago, I can't for the life of me recall which one, but it had something that stuck with me. It mentioned in passing that one of the articles of the constitution of the fictional nation in the book was that every century they'd hold a convention, chaired by the finest legal minds, and basically go over every law that was on the books, every exception to it, every precedent pertaining to it, and then write a new set of laws taking that all into account, removing the entire tangled mess.

The idea was that over time laws become like a house that has been constantly renovated, growing, but in a haphazard way, until they become structurally unsound, and after a while it's better to rip it down and start over, keeping the lessons learned, but instead of needing to know a dozen judgements that might pertain to it, it's all there in the new statutes.

The idea stuck me as remarkably sane, expensive and time consuming certainly, but sane. We've got laws on the books with dozens, perhaps hundreds of differing interpretations dating back centuries, it's part of the reason lawyers need to study for so long. If we occasionally went through those laws and cleaned them up, like trimming computer code, we'd all be better off.

/sigh

Why should ordinary people follow the law if the people entrusted with enforcing it can't be bothered to do so...

Boffins spin up working Qubit in silicon

Time until some douchtastic company tries to patent it out from under them?

Top work though.

iPhone 5 has 'laser keyboard, holographic images'

If it actually had those features I'd eat humble pie and queue to buy it as well... but since it doesn't I'll simply mock both Fox and the Fanbois sleeping out in the cold to get a phone

NSW Police wins global gong for Facebook project

Anyone else get a shiver up their spine when they read "report anti-social behaviour"? I might be paranoid but I heard too many tales from people that immigrated to Australia from behind the Iron Curtain about people denouncing their neighbours to ever be comfortable with such a system...

Australian tabloid decides to fight trolls ... with trolls

/sigh

Like anyone else whose been online for more then 5mins and done more then visit Facebook and Twitter I know the best way to kill trolls is to stop feeding them!

Giving them this kind of attention is exactly what they want, they want you upset, they want that reaction...

I despair of my country sometimes, I really do...

Oz court to test AdWords' WHOLE BUSINESS MODEL

Huh The ACCC doing it's damn job for a change? What a turn up for the books!

Health minister warns ISPs: Block suicide websites or face regulation

Re: Really?

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but children and teenagers these days tend to have access to the Internet all over the place, from handheld devices as small as an ipod to the family computer.

Guess whose responsibility it is to make sure they are accessing safe sites and using those devices responsibly?

Here is a hint since you seem so slow, it's not mine, it's not the governments, it's not the ISP, it's YOU.

If you don't trust your kids to act in a manner you approve of, why the hell are you giving them unfettered access to the 'net via mobile devices?

I detest people who claim we should block out access to things just because of "The Children". The Internet is for everyone, not just for your spawn, why the hell should we be punished because you can't take the effort to actually parent.

I personally find the "suicide" sites in question morally repugnant, but then again there is a lot of stuff online I find detestable, doesn't mean I want it censored, I simply don't visit it.

Be a parent and stop expecting the government to do your job.

Re: Really?

No, I'm not, but I'm the eldest (by 11 years) of 5 siblings, and let me tell you my parents never let me on the PC unsupervised, and that was in the age of BBS... once we got internet access when I was around 17 (some of the first in our community) that rule was just as strictly enforced, the PC was in the lounge room, not a bedroom, and if someone was online, then there was an adult in the room.

Not looking over their shoulder, but just having an adult presence in the same room did wonders to keep us honest.

My friends that have children all follow the same sort of things, PC in a public space, kids only allowed on with an adult in the room.

How about you actually parent your children, instead of demanding the rest of the world cater to your lazy ass.

the dangerous and disturbing online content which, without proper controls, our children can access almost at any time

You know what the ultimate in proper controls to protect children from dangerous online content is? PARENTAL SUPERVISION. The Internet isn't a playground, it isn't a babysitter, it's a mirror of humanity, showing everything great and everything truly disgusting about us, of course you shouldn't let your kids wonder around it...

Take responsibility for your spawn, and stop making the rest of the world suffer because you needed to breed.

Apache man disables Internet Explorer 10 privacy setting

Urr... the world just turned upside down... I support Microsoft on an issue of ethics and morality... that's new...

Oz cinema chain to stream new releases

Re: Cinema Experience

The "Cinema Experience"... you mean uncomfortable chairs, sticky floors, annoying and obnoxious people all around you, expensive yet strangely horrible snacks, and the inability to go take a leak without missing something (seriously what happened to intermission? even 3 hour movies don't have them anymore...).

Sounds interesting, the questions now are if the price will be stupidly high (i.e higher then the ticket to the cinema) and how much of a PITA will the service be to use (i.e will be it simpler to torrent it).

Too many companies rush out "services" that are stupidly expensive and annoyingly complex to use.

First Irish-speaking virus holds bloke's computer to ransom

Only 60%? Pfft all the Irishmen I know wont touch anything less then 80% proof... wait we're talking about booze right?

Hackers claim to have Mitt Romney's tax records

Unlikely to be the real records methinks, unfortunately, because everyone should be able to see just how the man who wants to be president walks the walk, did he pay his fair share of tax? or did he exploit it to the max?

Greens promise free WiFi for Sydney

And the Greens wonder why people see them as latte sipping metro hypocrites... Sure... let's give free WiFi to the centre of the CBD... it's not like there is a plethora of WiFi already there... It's not like those dirty people the "rural" areas might be better served by the funding...

'Immortal cancer' found in Australia

Ahh my wonderful homeland... not content to simply be the model for every Sci-Fi Deathworld ever, what with everything bar the sheep wanting to kill, poison, and/or eat you (and I'm not so sure about the sheep), you have to give us immortal face eating cancer as well...

Sci-Fi fans blow stacks at copybot attacks

Just like what happened to NASA recently with news agencies pulling NASAs own footage, something needs to be done. The law should be written that if you want to pull something down, a human being needs to be see the content in question, and if you make a mistake you get fined!

Sun daddy: 'Machines will replace 80 per cent of doctors'

90% of doctor's consultations could be replaced today... with Nurses. Frankly the medical profession is far too top heavy, you don't need to see a doctor because you've got the flu, or you've cut yourself, a nurse will just as well, if not better.

It's a unfortunate situation in our society, just like our modern armies, we've got more generals then soldiers.

Global strategic maple syrup reserves hit in Canadian mega-heist

As amusing as it is, steeling legitimate products to resell is very lucrative, even more so then drugs and guns, and much safer.

Markets to remain glutted with rapidly-depreciating Facebook shares

The market is simply correcting itself, bringing facebook down to it's real value...

Good to see, I don't know why anyone thought that it was worth what they started out at.

Pirate Bay founder arrested in Cambodia

Re: Swedish laws are weird -- a court can decide that you cannot appeal against it?

Other countries do it all the time. It's called "deciding not to hear the appeal".

The U.S Supreme Court hears what? 80-100 a year? You think there aren't thousands that want their case heard?

It's the same everywhere.

I'm honestly puzzled why he skipped... It's a first world minimal security jail, not exactly a third world hell hole (or an American prison... not sure which is worse).

Sure jail sucks, but living your life on the run has to suck even more.

Techies cook up Minority Report-style video calling

Why I don't bother?

Why I don't bother with video calls? I'm need to not be my normal ugly self. I mean, on the phone or headset you can scratch your junk, be unshaven, eat (after hitting the mute button!), drink (again mute), and multitask (nothing beats reading things while someone is yammering on about their cat).

So yeah it's more about being lazy then being against the tech.

Apple drones reject American drone-strike tracker app

The reason a lot of people, myself included, are worried about "drones" is because we worry it's making war too easy for the politicians to wage. Think about it, if they have to risk human lives to wage war, they will be more circumspect about when they do it, oh a lot of the bastards don't care about the soldiers dying, but they do care about the pole ratings drop that comes from seeing flag draped coffins coming home.

War should never be easy or risk free, it should be the very last resort, not something you can do by remote control with no risk to "your side"

An American General once said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow to fond of it".

Hertfordshire plod passwords leaked by pro-Assange data burglar

Do these people "supporting" Assange even understand that they are doing far more harm then good? They might be getting kudos from the people already in favour of them, but they're pushing away moderates who were leaning towards supporting them by acting like anarchist morons with no sense of responsibility.

Hell just look at organisations like PETA, their extreme views and actions push away people who are otherwise sympathetic to the cause.

Customs contradicts vendors over IT pricing

90% of P2P is infringing... well MAYBE if we could LEGALLY purchase the damn stuff it wouldn't be. Everything is geolocked, you want to buy an eBook? Not available in your country. Movie? Not available in your country. TV show? Not available in your country. Hell I tried to buy a tablet off Amazon ($300 cheaper!) and got told "nope, can't sell to you, you dirty Australian", but the Hong Kong eBay seller worked just fine...

About the only damn things that you can buy online without hassles are games (barring the few that get banned, but that shouldn't be a problem much longer, cross fingers), and even then depending on the publishers you've got the problem of them tacking on the 50-100% Australian tax that the rest of the article was talking about.

Steam is the worst for it, there are tons of ISPs that provide free Steam mirrors to their customers, at zero cost to Valve... Who I know don't set the prices (Ubisoft, EA I'm looking at you!), but the justification isn't there! Hell the prices are still in USD, so you're still getting bitten on the currency conversion fees!

Most people are perfectly okay with paying for goods, and don't mind mirror differences in price, but when you can't legally purchase something, and those that you can legally purchase are 100-200% more expensive based on a greed-based money grab, they get rightly pissed off and simply pirate it.

There is zero justifiable reason why digital goods and IT products should cost so damn much more in Australia, hell a lot of them are made closer to us then to other markets! And some are even made HERE, PS3 games for example are manufactured in Sydney and are three times the price...

Leaked Genius Bar manual shows Apple's smooth seductions

I've worked retail so I know how common stuff like this is, but damn is it still creepy as hell when you read about it all hanging out there. It's part of the reason I hate dealing with sales people full stop and prefer to buy online whenever possible.

More of Kim Dotcom's booty released by court

Re: Hmmm

It is interesting isn't it. Sort of like a reverse Great Firewall of China, designed not to keep people in, but to keep the Americans out. Amusing really since there is a metric crap-ton of stuff online that is geo-locked for Americans only.

UKNova drops torrents after threats from FACT

The thing that makes me maddest is that they were forced to close down because of legal blackmail.

There are serious problems with the current system when as is the case here people will give in to threats of legal action, not because they think they are in the wrong, but because they simply can't afford to fight it.

Something needs to be done about this, cases that drag on for years, ending up costing millions of dollars/pounds/whatever, appeal after appeal... It's putting justice out of the reach of anyone but the mega-rich.