Posts by Shane McCarrick

Best of FRANDs: Judge allows Apple retrial following $506m patent infringement ruling

The only people who will win here- are the lawyers........

Its yet another instance of regardless of who wins or looses- the only people with money in the bank at the end of the day- will be the lawyers............

BOFH: The case of the Boss's hidden USB inkjet printer

Re: Radiocative ink, soviet style

Thalium- its actually pretty mild.

Adi Shamir visa snub: US govt slammed after the S in RSA blocked from his own RSA conf

Re: So where would they move it to?

Ireland or Portugal would tear lumps out of each other for the right to host this conference?

Apple hardware priced so high that no one wants to buy it? It's 1983 all over again

Re: 56k?

I still have a 14k ISA modem card in a box in the attic....... Along with a remarkable collection of other antiquities. I've few of the original 386 and 486 wafers from Intel, and enough old processors to melt down for wedding bands, if gold ever gets scarce. My favourite is an Ericsson 'mobile' phone from the Lisa era- it was mobile insofar as you theoretically could move it, if you were strong enough. Damn thing still saved me once out on the North Sea while I was fishing- and not paying attention to the weather. I really need to do a clearout- I did a massive donation to a teacher training college in Kenya a few years back- time to do another, I fear.

Tech support scammers mess with hacker's mother, so he retaliated with ransomware

Depends really- a lot of UK/US/IRE companies still use Indian call centres.

I got a wholly legit call from an Indian call centre last week (when Virgin Media went titsup in most of Ireland). I let them query their cable modem (over a vodafone internet connection) which made them happy- and off they went. No idea what they determined- but it was 7-8 hours later before the internet connection was restored.

I get what you're saying- really I do- however, if you've ever had a parent, an elderly relative, or someone who is terrified of a computer come to you for help after having fallen for one of these scam calls- seeking help- you'll change your mind..........

Yes- India is a subcontinent of quite remarkable inequalities- staggering poverty- things you quite simply wouldn't believe possible- but this is not an excuse for preying on vulnerable computer users in richer countries.

As long as these guys get a 1-in-10 return rate on their scams (or whatever level is viable) they will keep at it.

The Indian support centre scam is just another former colonial country deciding that its acceptable to extort your way out of poverty. The Nigerians have an utterly different mindset- and can afford to have a pisspoor return rate on their scams- when they're sending however many billion e-mails around the planet. The Indian approach- is just a bit more labour intensive- and better organised- but its extorting money from people who very often really can't afford it- and at the end of the day- the Nigerians, annoying as they are- aren't likely to wreck the boot disk of your parent's computer..........

I don't know if there is a solution to all of this- even if you get a call centre closed- it really is a game of whack a mole- they'll be up to something new next week...........

You or I may get our kicks from wasting their time- and its far more expensive to waste an Indian's time than it is a Nigerian's time- but ultimately- we're only playing games with them- only for a change we are in control of the board- whereas normally they are.........

The world is an unfair place- and ideally neither the Indians (or the Nigerians- or anyone else) should have to resort to the lengths they do- to get by- but neither should our Mums and Dads- elderly relatives- or other randomers- get reefed by these people.

I don't know whether there is a solution to any of this- other than educating people to the best of our abilities?

Lol- I'm well and truly blacklisted too........

I worked for a 3rd party company who did outsourced tech support on behalf of Dell- including o/s support (quite unusually- normally its just h/w support).

I didn't reverse hack them- but I did string them on for an hour with various virtual machines- on three separate occasions. My favourite was letting them wreck the boot sequence- and then telling them I could just hit the big button with system restore on it- and letting them see that the machine was up and running again- and asking them are they sure the virus is gone- and giving them another bash at it.......... I actually felt sorry for one of them- they refused to give up trying- eventually I had to tell them I had to go- but they were welcome to another go- if they called back at 7PM the following evening (they never did).......... I know I shouldn't- but I actually admired their dogged persistence........ After that phone call- all the random calls dried up totally- I had been getting 2-3 a week- my wife took a few (shes a techie as well- but not as good at convincingly stringing them along).

Honestly- I think they're getting wise to quite a few of us- its though I guess if they have 1-in-10 pay up- its still a good rate of return for them...........

BOFH: Their bright orange plumage warns other species, 'Back off! I'm dangerous!'

Re: Fiat 500

+ 1

I have the dual inclination to cry and burst out laughing- anytime I see one.

You didn't mention its appalling turning arch- I mean, come on- a three point turn, is a three point turn- if you need more than 3 points- you're either an appalling driver- or your car deserves to be driven off a bridge. Occasionally- its a combination of both- in which case- don't exit the car, after driving it off the bridge.........

Re: One evening about ten year ago...

Should have just got the closest thing with a winch- and drop the truck off the closest bridge.

Re: Fiat 500

Its not the worst.

For the worst- think of a Smart For Four- that a 3 point turn- turns into a 15 point turn- because its turning arch is so appalling..........

To say nothing of how underpowered it is- when you come to a gentle hill on the motorway- it slows down to a crawl..........

Rented one in Portugal a few weeks ago- after 2 days I brought it back and they gave me a Seat Leon 2 litre estate instead. I looked like a US soccer mum- but hey- the thing actually did what it was supposed to do.

HP users moaning over 10-minute login lag during 'Win 10 update'

8770W here- fully updated- no issues encountered.........

Google to kill its Drive file locker in two confusing ways

I have a 200Gb drive- which I paid handsomely for- I take it I'm going to get a polite e-mail in due course advising me to backup locally............

Web crash and pricing errors hit Argos

Wrong.

Google the term 'Invitation to treat'.........

Linux-loving lecturer 'lost' email, was actually confused by Outlook

If it were possible to post screenshots here- I could show you a deleted folder- with over 120,000 e-mails and god only knows how many folders and subdirectories in it.

The user claims it works for him- perhaps it does- not sure how many of us have accidentally cleaned out his deleted items folder in the past though- its definitely a few of us.

Honestly- I reckon these users have to be related to one another!

Funnily enough, charging ££££s for trashy bling-phones wasn't a great idea

Concierge Service

People are getting hung-up on how 'bling' the phones were.

The main selling point for a significant number of purchasers- was to access the concierge service- which was absolutely brilliant.

Any business traveller- habitually away from home- needs some sort of a concierge service to get by. The Vertu- fulfilled this with spades. Sure- the phone looked like a piece of bling- but for many dedicated purchasers- this simply wasn't the point- it was the services behind the scenes that it enabled you to access.

Personally- I don't have any need for the phone- or the service- but then again, I'm not part of the target market for this.

I'm sad to see that its bitten the dust- however, I suspect, we'll see Vertu again, in one form or another- perhaps minus the bling phone- before too long.

'Janus' resurfaces: I was behind the original Petya. I want to help with NotPetya

Re: Malicious or stupid?

Honestly-

Its going to make it a sinch for data/system recovery people to come along and sell their wares - in lieu of people paying to have their systems restored. I.e. Why pay a cyber criminal 600 quid to get your system back- when John-joe up the road will get you up and running again for half that- and can now sell his services with the by-line, that you could be wasting your cash handing it over to the cyber-criminals- who may or may not do anything for you- whereas worst case scenario for John-joe is he'll restore your o/s and systems- he may or may not restore your data (depending on whether or not its encrypted and/or over-written)- however, you'll get something for your money from John-joe, but you may get nothing at all from the Ruskies........

We'll drag Microsoft in front of Supremes over Irish email spat – DoJ

Re: They already have a legal route

Nope, what they want (in this instance) would have been gladly handed over- had they asked for it through the proper channels. Some hothead somewhere decided they were above asking for the information in a formal manner- that they'd demand and threaten MS instead. MS- fearing a precedent could be set- refused to play ball- and dragged the Irish government along to the court case, as an interested party. The Irish government said- why the hell didn't the DOJ just ask for the information- we'd have handed it to them on a silver platter. The fact of the matter is- they want to legalise extra-judicial territorial claims- it looks like globally, and for whatever reason, picked on Ireland as a soft target (they could just as easily have picked a case with any other country hosting such information- hell, perhaps they did and the company involved simply rolled over, and it never made the media- I guess we'll never know.

Anyhow- on a point of principle, Ireland cannot be seen to be acceding to handing over jurisdiction to information hosted in Ireland- regardless of what the information is. If there is a reasonable and justifiable request made for the information- such as it relating to drugs trafficking (as per this case)- just request the information- and you'll be handed it with a smile. You don't need to threaten to batter down the door with a sledgehammer- when you'd be welcome, if you simply knocked..........

Huge ransomware outbreak spreads in Ukraine and beyond

Irish companies hit too

Couple of Irish companies ringing up in a panic.........

EU axes geo-blocking: Upsets studios, delights consumers

Re: Optional news item in the Republic of Ireland

For Republic of Ireland folk- on holidays in Spain / Portugal- this will mean at long last they don't have to trek to Madrid/Barcelona/Lisbon- to see GAA matches- or have some poor befuddled Spanish teenager try to set up a Dublin proxy to persuade RTE to disgorge a feed over the internet.........

Related- our Sky and Virgin feeds- are free for mobile devices here- so presumably- no need to bring physical boxes with us on holidays anymore (which is difficult anyway- since Astra turned off the southern beams- though it did spawn an interesting hobby in trying to find boxes with the most sensitive receivers, and/or LNBs that could magic a signal out of improbably small dishes...........)

Heres hoping Ireland votes to implement this in full ASAP. Some sort of a freeview / saorview system over the internet would be great too (even for those of us in Ireland- I have a 360Mb fibre internet connection- but live in a valley and may as well be in a crater on the moon- can't get any terrestrial signals..........

HTC seeks salvation with squeezy design

I'm looking forward to this

Price is going to be crucial- at the moment I'm using a Motorola G4+ but I've had the full gamut of HTC devices down the years- some of which probably still work perfectly fine, if I were to plug them in. But...... my budget is not what it once was, I have no intention whatsoever of taking out a silly contract with a network- my current phone a Motorola G4+ is fine for what it is- I like the idea of the squeeziness of this phone- but I'm not willing to pay top dollar. I'm going to wait and see- and depending on price, probably wait some more- until it finally settles at a price point I can justify.........

Trump's lips sealed on surveillance, complains EU privacy chief

Re: I think EU's bluff has been called

Grand- build more data centres in Portugal, Ireland and Belgium- and have the lot of them route their traffic through Europe. We already warehouse most of our international stuff in Europe anyway- all we have to do by and large- is formally do so.

As an aside- whatever happened to Microsoft and the case the US government brought against them- for e-mails stored on a server in Ireland? Is that still trundling through the US court system?

Microsoft cloud TITSUP: Skype, Outlook, Xbox, OneDrive, Hotmail down

Skype is still out here @ 06.40 on Wednesday in Ireland.

One Drive- can't login either.

Not sure about the other services (I don't use them).

It ain't fixed yet!

Hello? Police? My darknet drug market was just hacked by criminals

All of the dodgy people, websites and practices- all seem to be remodeling these days- and moving more and more of their businesses mainstream. At this rate- there isn't going to be any difference running an IT shop for Gordon's Drug Bazaar or doing outsourced tech support for a UK or Irish ISP- though I suspect your employment may actually be more secure, and better paid, doing IT work for Gordon......

As I don't habitually hang around on the darknet- I've young kids and only tend to get a few minutes each morning on the internet with my cup of coffee- perhaps its time for me to hang up my hat.

Welcome to the Wipe House: President Trump shreds climate change, privacy, LGBT policies on WhiteHouse.gov

Re: The *people*

So- what you're saying is a version of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' where all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others? I.e. if you vote in California or a slew of other states- sorry, your vote is only worth a portion of what a vote cast in Virginia, Florida or other states is worth............. How is that democracy? Then again- can it really even be called democracy? There is something wrong where the will of the majority of the people- can be usurped by the will of a minority- but then again- thats the system- so the answer to that obviously is- the system is flawed.

Before you attack me as being a Hillary flunky- or worse- I think she'd have made an awful president- however, the 'system' in place resulted in two pretty appalling candidates being the designated candidates of the two major parties- which really doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

The scary thing in all of this- is the US has been the per-eminent power over the past 70 years- and has made a concerted effort to export its value system (not to mention its products, food and services) globally. We now have a navel gazing president- who is intent on tossing the baby out with the bathwater- and to hell with the consequences.

I'm sorry- while many countries in the Western world owe the US a debt of gratitude- not leastly for saving us from being steam rolled by the USSR in the 70s and 80s- the US also owes a debt of gratitude to the rest of the world for so many other things. Its a two-way street. Emphasizing our differences- rather than our commonalities- and setting one person against another- may make great tv viewing on the Apprentice- however, its an awful way to try and run what is the greatest nation on earth. Its not that we need to make America great again- it is great- we need to cop the hell on and do whats best for all of us.

Using the second of his executive orders to tear up the climate change agreement- pah........

President Trump can do a hell of a lot of damage in 4 years- hopefully he doesn't get a second term- hopefully we can find a candidate who can unify the nation and do whats actually best for the US and for the world- we have 4 years to do our utmost to try and find such a person...........

Living with the Pixel XL – Google's attempt at a high-end phone

Google Assistant?

What is the story with the Google Assistant?

My One+ pushed an update to me 7-8 days ago- and it now features Google Assistant.

Its handy for opening the phone- however, it keeps demanding to download packs for offline use- there is a different pack pretty much every time I use the phone.

I've been in rural Portugal and the arse end of Sligo in Ireland over the last few weeks- and have been out of coverage on a frequent and recurrent basis, on a daily basis- these offline packs are becoming a bit nutty- perhaps I'll have a full complement downloaded sooner or later- hopefully they're a bit more reliable than the offline pack for Google Maps- which had me 20km up the A1 for Porto despite my destination being clearly stated as Lisbon Portella yesterday. At least- it had me travelling legally and not in the wrong direction on silly little dead end one way streets- that my wife's Siri was suggesting- however, I'd still be in Lisbon only my flight was 2 hours late.........

I honestly don't think you can rely on the offerings from either Google or Apple- esp. if you're reliant on the information they're dispensing to you.

I'm not a luddite by any means- I cut my teeth on satnav- in the mid 90s doing tech support for Navtech- I'd just have imagined it would be a tad more reliable 20 years later- but obviously its not.

Galaxy Note 7 flameout: 2 in 5 Samsung fans say they'll never buy from the Korean giant again

I'm not deserting them.....

Just spent a grand on Samsung kitchen white goods over the last 2 days- nice cooker, oven, microwave and an 8kg Ecobubble washing machine. The 5 years parts and labour warranty sold me on it (though to be brutally honest- I got very good prices on display and end of line models). I don't see how or why I should desert Samsung- sure, they've a few problems with the Note 7- but hey, show me a successful company that hasn't come a cropper at one stage or another.

Samsung- are going to be around for a long time to come. Their business spans vastly different industries- wholly aside from their computers/phones- they have vast other electronic businesses- their kitchen wares- and of course- their biggest business of all- that very few people in these climates seem to be aware of- they are one of the worlds biggest ship builder........

If you want to see electronics running very very hot- install the latest update on your powerbook- its quite remarkable that a software update has managed to nuke my old laptop in this manner........

Give them a break- they pushed battery technology into realms it shouldn't have been introduced to- and have paid the ultimate price. However- other manufacturers are far from saints in this respect- you don't have to look far to see very similar stories from HTC, Apple, One, Huawei and a score of other lesser known manufacturers.

Odds are they'll use the whole, expensive, episode as a sandbox exercise, learn from it, move on- and create more products that people will rave about in due course.

Personally- I've never had a Samsung phone- I do have a 10 year old Samsung plasma panel which is still going strong- my phone is a HTC (One M8S) and I've both HP and Apple laptops. I've no allegiance to any particular manufacturer- I do however hate to be ripped off- and I can't justify paying Samsung's or Apple's prices- when my pre-existing hardware is more than capable of doing anything I throw at it (or in the case of my HP Workstation- I can upgrade it when I need to- damn BIOS whitelists though- bane of my life)..

Most of these companies could do with a large ladle of humble spoon- and a lesson in actually taking care of their customers. In that respect- Samsung- with its global recall- may in fact be an industry leader in showing others how to make the most of a bad situation.

Anyone know any retailers flogging Note 7s at a significant discount- toss me some tips, my HTC One M8S is getting a bit long in the tooth..........

'Faceless' Liberty Global has 'sucked the very soul' out of Virgin Media

Re: Hmm

I don't know whether its luck or a curse- I haven't gotten anything from them in the post in almost 5 years- despite requesting contract details dozens of times........... Pity there can't be a happy medium.............

Re: Ha ha

Thanks!

Yes- its a nightmare trying to get customer service to even understand what your issue is when you ring- and they never ever give you anything in writing- so good luck trying to prove otherwise (cutting and pasting chat threads is about as good as it gets).

No-one else offers 360Mb fibre to the door for consumers in the Irish market- other than that- I'd be away like a shot (plus- the customer service of Eircom and the rest of them are all pretty appalling too- so better the devil you know, than the devil you don't?)

Saw a few people offering some innovative internet products at the ploughing- think I may look some of them up- I know internet over high voltage power cables has fallen out of favour in the States and elsewhere- perhaps it can be made work here?

Re: Ha ha

As an Irish customer- I can tell you the hardware customers are being given is now the cheap as chips Virgin branded Compal crap- whereas before we had slightly more expensive (but still crap) Cisco kit. The hardware being dished out to customers- is really the cheapest tat they can chuck out the door- its gone from bad to worse.

As for customer service- they laid off the Irish staff- and outsourced everything to The Phillipines- where I've discovered using pidgeon Spanish is more easily understood- than English........

As we've never had Virgin Media in Ireland before- as a customer- it has introduced Ireland to a brand that most now view as unreliable, poor value, duplitious, poor at communicating, (need I go on?)

For good measure- the Irish Communications Regulator fined the company 255k yesterday for failing to give people contracts spelling out the rights and obligations of Virgin Media and the reciprochal rights and obligations of customers.

All-in-all- the only reason Irish people stay with them- is convenience- the customer service in our incumbent telecom company 'Eircom' is even worse than 'Virgin'......... So- its the least worse option- still doesn't make it very attractive, no matter how you look at it...........

Walmart sues Visa for being too lax with protecting chip cards

12 digit PIN? Freaking hell! Show me a single person who wouldn't be onto their bank to reset the sodding thing every second day. 6 digits is good enough for most people....... Also AU$100 seems rather high for tap and pay- its EUR30 in Ireland- I think its entirely fair to set it at a far lower level........

Sony wins case over pre-installed Windows software

Why not a laptop?

I've put together around 20 in the last year- I've settled on a fairly standard configuration- makes it easier to troubleshoot/replace parts that fail (a few bits do fail here and there).

You can pick up laptop chasis fairly cheaply online- and get the components whereever you like........

If you want a top-notch laptop- it doesn't make sense to build it yourself- however, if you want to kit out 12 or 14 reasonable specc'ed machines for a teacher training college in the arse-end of Kenya- its very doable, and cheap (providing you keep back a few generations).

I was building 2-3 computers a week back in the early 90s- before Dell really took off over this side of the pond- nice little earner it was too. Went into networking/storage/data-recovery then for a few years, when I couldn't compete with Dell any longer (yes- I'm one of those whose eyes glaze over with happy memories of the K6-2-500)- before getting out of computers altogether for a decade- and now put together laptops for charities/not-for-profits.........

I initially just reconditioned Panasonic toughbooks- and HP Elitebooks- before going off the reservation and putting them together from scratch........

No reason at all not to put a laptop together- if you want to- its a little more challenging than a desktop- but very satisfying at the same time. Major issue is not people's technical ability- its their ability to do it cheaper than the mainstream manufacturers- when you can have a fool pointing at a cheap Lenovo G570 and ask why your machine costs so much more- its just not worth it- but some people do appreciate virtually bullet proof, rock solid kit- and a friendly person who will be on the phone to troubleshoot it if something does go wrong.

Yes- I have done troubleshooting over satellite phone with warzones on a few occasions- and have framed letters from a few media organisations and from one military- thanking me for going the extra mile for them.............

Its a pity there aren't more old school techies around- we're dwindling in number by the day.......

Pains us to run an Apple article without the words 'fined', 'guilty' or 'on fire' in it, but here we are

So- nothing compelling........

My wife and I are due upgrades from Vodafone imminently- suffice to say- there is nothing compelling whatsoever about the new iPhones......... Its almost like a game of catchup with their competitors- but at a remarkable price premium. At this rate- why both upgrading- best bet is probably to cancel your monthly subscription to Vodafone (O2 or whoever)- and go on a SIM only plan.........

I'm sorry- if Apple think I'm going to pay a premium for a phone that they've yanked the analogue jack from- they can piss off. As for their Beats headphones being the worlds favourite- just because they can sell bucket loads to fanatics- doesn't make them the world's favourites- me, I'll stick to my Bose and Bang and Olufsen headphones- which have far better ranges than the Beats tat that Apple peddle.

Half the point of buying an iPhone was to play your music collection- they've effectively torpedoed this for a lot of people who might once have had an iPhone at the top of their wish list........

Making us pay tax will DESTROY EUROPE, roars Apple's Tim Cook

Including interest- its actually closer to 21 billion........ Keep in mind this is over a 10 year period......... The conservative figures of the Irish Revenue Commissioners- came up with a figure of just over 19 billion- the higher 21 billion takes into account prevailing interest rates over the period in question........

Ireland looks like it's outpacing Britain in the superfast broadband rollout stakes

Believe it when I see it

While its interesting to see you look at Ireland's broadband plans- the one comment I would have to make- is I will believe it when I see it.........

If an area is rural at all- it is probably going to end up relying on copper connections- and keep in mind much of rural Ireland's copper connections date back to early 1980s party lines.........

I've too much experience of just how appalling some of our rural areas are (check my name on Facebook- you can find an abundance of Speedtest.net scores).

I hope what you're suggesting about a 30mb bb connection becoming the norm in Ireland- comes to pass- however, as it stands- and as with a lot of the promises we've heard over these parts- most of us certainly aren't going to hold our breaths waiting for it........

Stop lights, sunsets, junctions are tough work for Google's robo-cars

Re: Roundabouts...

Wish they did- you'd be shocked at the number of continental drivers around here who take the roundabout in the wrong direction (same fools who drive up the exit ramps off the motorway........)

The best rule of thumb would appear to be- expect the unexpected, and take whatever action you need to take to preserve yourself and your vehicle from harm.

Re: Roundabouts...

Simples.

Yield to traffic coming from the right- and any traffic already on the junction automatically has priority?

And- of course- get a move on- failure to make sufficient progress- will cause people to cut you off.

Microsoft promises free terrible coffee every month you use Edge

If I was sufficiently motivated to try dump MS in all its guises from our systems at home- I think MS have just managed to find the tipping point here........ Life is too damn short. If my wife hadn't just bought (buggy) No Mans Sky for her laptop- we'd be totally eradicated here.......

MS are really taking taking the piss with this.

League of lawsuits: Game developer sues cheat-toting website

Grease monkey anyone?

Sounds like a simple script for automating repetitive tasks.

I used have whole folders of them for test purposes (on proprietory closed systems which shall remain nameless). Its not rocket science- and its what any sane person in the IT industry on the development or testing side uses on a daily basis. Its simply a mechanism for automating specific testing (typically involving a set set of keystrokes, screen presses, manipulation of GUI etc etc).

I don't see how or why this is considered to be hacking by anyone- its a simple tool for automating processes- applicable to any program with a GUI- for the purpose of speeding up set sequence testing etc.

Sounds like the company in question have done up a series of scripts valid for set tasks in the game. If you wanted to stop them- you'd have to randomise how specific tasks are carried out- removing the standard key presses/screen manipulation etc- aka present a unique screen experience to each user.

Regardless of whether the company succeed in court or not- you could have any group of teenagers put out their own version the following day if they were so inclined- and of course, money is a good incentive.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update crashing under Avast antivirus update

Did anyone actually test this?

Also seems to have a distinct dislike of the nVidia Driver Experience program. Its not fatal- but the number of errors it throws up just isn't funny- and after the install, you'll keep getting popups about bad msvcrt.dll image files etc etc (there are a rake of them invoked by the nVidia drivers).

This really is buggy as hell. I can't revert- because the main drive I use for o/s is a 50Gb SSD :(

Windows 10 Anniversary Update is borking boxen everywhere

Work arounds

I updated 4 laptops- 2 Acers and 2 HPs this afternoon.

I burnt an ISO image and upgraded from a DVD- specifying no updates to be downloaded during the install/upgrade.

All 4 are working perfectly fine this evening- including the antique 8930G that I'm currently typing this on.

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

Talk about jumping to conclusions

Packet examination to look for typical video streaming?

Good luck with that one.

Most people I know use VPNs and legitimate subscriptions to stream from the US and Canada- on a daily basis- how on earth is someone supposed to determine what is a legitimate video stream, and what constitutes a stream which triggers a demand for license fees?

Someone somewhere thinks they are being very very clever- when in fact they haven't a notion what they're up to.

Private moonshot gets the green light from US authorities

Is it just me?

Why did they need permission from the US to make a trip to the moon?

What extraterritorial claim is the US trying to enforce on our planets natural satellite?

I thought the company who are supply the rockets etc are from New Zealand- and a shedload of the tech is European (predominantly but not exclusively ESA funded tech).

How or why is the US granting authority for the trip- when outer space is supposed to be governed by UN Charter?

TP-Link fined $200k, told to be nice to wireless router tinkers after throwing a hissy fit

Let me get this straight

They were abused by the FCC because customers lied about their location in order to unlock additional transmission power (hell- most of us here in Europe do- but to open additional channels, because of overcrowding- totally ignoring the transmission power). They were also abused by the FCC over people having too much control on their routers when they installed custom firmware- i.e. they were held responsible for customers installing their own firmware- and when they closed both loopholes- they got fined?

I'm glad I'm not a company trying to do business Stateside- it seems its impossible to satisfy the regulator- come what may.

So now- they're back allowing custom firmware again- but, and despite not having factory firmware on the devices- they are supposed to somehow control the intricacies of how the device work.........

I suppose they could localise a version of their machine for the US- and have a separate- far more useful- far more power version- with extra channels and power- for the rest of the world......... It'll be a first- any Stateside based folk who have half a clue about tech- will be scouring EU websites trying to pick up their kit from us for a change...........

Somehow I think my Nighthawk R8000 is safe for the time being........

Pokémon Go tragedy strikes

Perhaps I'm too 'old' but I just don't 'get' the whole phenomenon. If an update did wipe their settings and/or accumulated pets/riches (whatever)- you can be sure it'll be reversed before long.........

Can Ireland's grid green satisfy Facebook and Apple?

Re: It's worse than that

It is getting phased out- however, it'll probably be another decade before the final station is decommissioned.

Re: It's worse than that

A lot of the peat burning stations have been decommissioned- in favour of gas. Some (such as Lanesborough) had really cool demolition ceremonies. We were supposed to be fully free of peat burning by 2018/2020- however, its acknowledged the final stations may have to continue producing power until 2025-2030 (this is considered a reasonable time frame).

Re: Is Ireland's grid connected to any other countries?

Yes- we have an interconnector with Wales (enters the sea at Rush in Dublin- exits at Barkby Beach in North Wales). We're developing an interconnector with France (its due to be commissioned shortly I believe)- and we are already interconnecting with Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Gun-jumping French pols demand rapid end to English in EU

Just to be a complete contrarian.......

I speak fluent Irish- I wrote a number of letters 'as Gaeilge' today- and took two phone calls in Irish.

I also have fluent German- and have worked there in the past- and in a previous existence gave technical support for a large multinational in French and Spanish. I'm currently learning Portuguese.

My two children attend a Gaelscoil- where the entire curriculum is taught through Irish (with the exception of English obviously). My little guy has 4 Polish children in his class- learning everything through Irish- along with 4 French kids (there are 32 in his class- which is significantly larger than its supposed to be). My little girl has 3 Polish in her class- along with a sibling of one of the French girls from her brother's class.

I went to school through Irish- and quite honestly am probably more at home with Irish than I am with English- however- obviously, my English can only be described as fluent.........

I've also attended Commission and Council meetings in Brussels in the past- at which I wholly ignored the available on-the-fly translations from translators- and followed the meeting in the variety of languages displayed at the table (French, Spanish, English and a smathering of other languages- mostly Latin based- which makes them a doddle to follow........)

Personally- I think its impossible to dismiss English from its third spot in Brussels- simply because so many people use it as a common second language- when I was in school- everyone learnt French as a second language- well, now its English. The exception is of course when meetings got abusive- and I learnt some choice curse words in Russian, Italian and Spanish (we all know how to curse in French)......

Brexit government pledge sought to keep EU-backed UK science alive

Re: "Hook demanded an immediate pledge"

You don't get to decide how your money is spent though- that wasn't the point of the referendum- and Nigel Farrage is after admitting that the 350m a week simply doesn't exist.

The default will have to be that pre-existing EU spending in the UK should be met from Central Funds- unless a valid argument is made as to why it should not.

Keep in mind- the Norwegian and Swiss contributions to the EU budget- in exchange for access to the Single Market- which the government has insisted it will have access to- is actually higher- per head of population- than the UK contributions were- before yesterday........

If you want to look at the argument about EU regulations- Norway and Switzerland have to implement 93 of the most expensive 100 regulations in the EU- only they have no seat at the table to negotiate the regulations..........

Best case scenario- is that the UK is offered a similar package to that enjoyed by Norway and Switzerland- however- there is no net financial benefit to the UK from this............

Look at the two UK countries who voted to remain in the EU- Scotland and Northern Ireland- both receive massive EU subventions- in Northern Ireland to the tune of 6.4 billion per annum. Can you see the British Treasury take on 19.6 billion in expenditure- that is currently paid straight by Brussels?

The Leave campaign have sold fairy stories that the Brother's Grimm would be jealous of- unfortunately a majority of the population did not see through their falsehoods- though now- Farrage has officially made a statement that the figures being bandied- the mythical 350m a week- is complete and utter bollox.

Tinder bans under-18s: Moral panic averted

People still use Tinder?

Thought it was going out of fashion in favour of Kiwi and other apps?

Also- how the hell do they propose to police the age on it- it kids lie on just about every other platform out there- why will Tinder be any different?