Posts by collateral damage

Visa looks at NYC wave-pay trial, says 'I wanna be a part of it'

this is a title

"Removing the third party makes complete sense for the credit card companies, who will now know how you got to the shops as well as what you bought there..."

Errr, no! The credit card companies don't know what you have bought, all they get is the total amount and not a breakdown or product list (this data remains with the store). Ok, the shop name might give a clue. £ 100 spend at Porn Paradise or £ 100 spend at Marks & Spencer - which one will be regarded as more out of the ordinary?

Clinton barrels in to BlackBerry brouhaha

definition?

It may be a good idea to ask RIM what "...company therefore provides access to messages in response to legitimate requests from law enforcement." actually means. What is legitimate. Can the NSA request informations about my inner UK mails and phone calls? Does it have to be signed by a judge or is a "more informal" request by security agencies/police/whatever sufficient for RIM to hand over data? Come on El Reg ask the question.

Broadband advertising speed gap widens

Re: Local differences...

"...Did you speak to them about the problem, perhaps even give details (upload/download, time of day etc) .. and did they say anything if so ?"

Yup, I sufferered through quite a few support calls. They usually couldn't understand the issue, saying slow connections and time outs are normal. Only once I got the poor guy on the support line to admit that too many of my neighbours were also using their service.... of course not straight away. This was near Finsbury Park. So it probably is selling more capacity than they actually have. Just funny that this is never reflected in tests.

Huh?

"Virgin Media's cable network, which covers about half the country, beat all ADSL providers, with its up to 10Mbit/s package delivering a real average of 9Mbit/s over 24 hours."

Errm, based on my experience with Vermin Media at now four different addresses in London, I can't believe this. Can anyone explain under what extraordinary contitions VM does deliver the speeds? Surely not if you actually use the connection (and no, I'm not a heavy downloader and filesharer).

Blighty to get mobe-download barcode rail tickets

Not only the accounts department needs to be convinced....

...there are still a lot of ticket gates without barcode readers here in London. I would assume they are going to 'upgrade' these before rolling this out. No?

Apart from this little flaw a good idea.

New Reg comments system ready to launch

@Sarah

"It's not like I enjoy having to moderate all the same whinges over and over."

Well, just get a proper job then.

*ducks for cover*

'Switch to Century Gothic to save the planet'

Ink?

The best solution would certainly be to print only what you really need as hardcopy (usually not even half of what is printed in the average office is even read - based on unscientific observations), but the following sentence amazed me:

"She says that printer ink costs her department $10,000 per gallon, though obviously it is supplied in smaller units."

Is she really saying that a University is pissing expensive ink on paper when there are cheaper (toner based) printing options? Time for a budget cut me thinks.

Virgin to offer 100Mb/s broadband by year's end

You're lucky....

well, not really. The fair usage policy and traffic shaping does not apply to the 50 MB/s as you stated yourself. For the the time being, that is. I don't believe it's going to stay like this knowing that they have not the network capacity to support this. Anyway, this puts only more pressure on customers on lower price plans and they will need to be more 'traffic managed'. I recently moved house and I'm stuck again with VM on 10 Mb/s plan (on paper). Honeslty I would be perfectly fine with 'just' 10 Mb/s and even wouldn't mind getting only 6 or 5 Mb/s due to network infrastructure (distance to cabinet/exchange and contention), but my very first AOL dial-up modem in the mid-90s was faster than what Vermin Media actually delivers.

Hahahahaha

Did Vermin Media say anything about keepint their 'fair usage policy' AND traffic shaping in place as they have currently? Being able to download a complete HD movie in 7 min. 25 sec. sounds great, but is it any good if you already hit the download limit of your 'unlimited' broadband plan after 3 minutes and are then throttled down til the end of all times? Just wondering.

Airport scanners face double exposure

yeah...

why look at the old bad when you can perv at a young stud?

Oh, you think these things are actually good to look for weapons? Sorry, must have got that wrong.

77% of domain registrations stuffed with rubbish

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It's not always easy to keep the information up to date. I have three domains of which I manage two directly with a registrar. These two have accurate whois information (I suppose this is important to ensure I can get the latest V1aggra offers). However, the other domain name is managed via my hosting provider and they are just unable to keep it up to date. I first have to change my address details on-line, then send them a letter or fax to confirm and the whois information is of course not updated (they don't even get it right on my invoice). If it's such a struggle to get the billing right, I honestly can't be bothered to insist on correct whois information as well. I would just switch to another provider, but their support and technical services are actually very good compared to other hosting providers I used before.

Another thing I find quite irritating is the Nominet privacy option which hides contact information. This feature is is actually only for 'non-trading individuals', however - quite often - people who hide their information want to sell something through their website. This option really should only be available for private websites.

Airport scanners go live today, kids included

don't believe it

..."Passengers must not be selected on the basis of personal characteristics (i.e. on a basis that may constitute discrimination such as gender, age, race or ethnic origin)."

yeah right. This will be exactly the same as we have here in London with stop and search. The few caucasians are only selected to get the statistics right.

Adultery website boosted by Christian publicity campaign

reqired title

"...and surely the Daily Mail can't be far behind."

Not far, but still behind El Reg. *sigh*

Slovakian flies to Dublin with 90 grams of explosive

what?

Come on El Reg! You can do better. What exactly did the Slovakian officials tell their Irish counterparts? Arresting the poor guy sounds a bit harsh, if they have said they planted it in the baggage of an innocent third party. I do understand that the Irish authorities knocked at his door and wanted the stuff handed over, but they could have done it in a nicer way.

WarMouse pushes gamers' buttons with OOMouse

One word:

wrong!

Watford council punts parents from playground

why???

I really don't understand both sides, but with 33 years I'm probably just too old. From age 6 or 7 on my parents would let me wander off alone with friends. And that was not to any supervised site, we were just out in the woods without any adult interference. My parents usually did not really know where I was and it was fine as long as I was home at the agreed time (of course I wasn't always on time, but my mum was very good at giving me a piece of her mind). Worked fine for me and was really not unusual. Most of my friends had the same freedom. Why is it a problem these days? Why do parents always have to be with their children not allowing them to breathe freely? And why does the council feel they have to look after children?

'Amateur' IBM brings down Air New Zealand

Why shout at IBM

He really should blame himself. Why was it outsourced in the first place when mainframe uptime is so critical to the business? Having responsibility within your own company with people who understand the business and care is not always a bad idea... Ah, I see, they could save a few quid and surely nothing could ever go wrong....

Gov demand for Governator to terminate PunterNet

I did not even know...

PunterNet existed. Thanks Harriet!

Facebook acquires 300 millionth user

arsebook

They are about to lose me. I signed up a year ago out of curiosity and because everyone seemed to raise an eyebrow in disbelief when I said I'm not on it. I have most of my real life friends on my facebook friend list as well, but I don't really use FB to send messages, I still call them, meet up or send an e-mail to those not nearby. However, I do have a few randoms on my friend list I never met. Some of them seem to be quite nice, but there doesn't seem to be an interest to meet face to face. I probably won't bother much longer, there is no real value in it and it doesn't make life easier. Unless you would miss the convenience of just leaving a meaningless apology on someone's wall for not showing up at a dinner party as promised. That's actually easier than telling someone on the phone or in person and keep it believable.

On another subject: The comment quality on the Zuckerberg blog is really excellent. Almost as good as on good old El Reg. But we're better party poopers ;)

German state election exit polls leaked on Twitter

ahead of time

"The suspicion is that the data was leaked from either a political party or the media, as both receive the information ahead of time to prepare speeches and news reports."

Just don't give it to them 'ahead of time'. Could solve all your problems.

Tasered Oz man bursts into flames

"try to determine the full circumstances about the incident and also the source of the ignition"

Hmmm, what could that be?? Maybe it's because he was tasered? The officer really deserves to be stoned.