Posts by Velv

Vodafone scores soapy company deal

Call&Go

Carry two mobiles everywhere? Not me, I Call&Go.

These sorts of deals won't work until the networks offer two lines on one handset (yes, it's in the GSM spec).

I want to keep my business calls away from my personal calls, and 2 lines is the perfect way to segregate the ownership. Company pays the bill for the phone and business calls. Calls on the second line are charged directly to the employee. From a network perspective, this is likely to increase revenue - if I have a work and a personal mobile, they are likely to be on different networks. If it's two numbers on one SIM, they're on the same network - network wins!

I guess there aren't many handsets actually support it these days :(

And yes, I know, you get dual SIM contraptions - but that's not the same as it just working as per the spec, is it!

Judges reject Operation Ore appeal

Fraud ?

Being the concentious person you appear to be, if a transaction appeared on your statement that you did not expect, you would challenge it. That would form part of the permanent record of your account that the banks are required to maintain for a minimum of 7 years, and the banks would probably change your card (and number) as well.

Therefore if the Police/CPS use the idea that "you had subscribed" as only evidence, the fact you have challenged the transaction at the time would provide "reasonable doubt" over your guilt.

From my limited reading of the details, there was no evidence of any challenge on any transaction on any statement, so having already been throught the court process once, it is a little late to be claiming it must have been a fraudulent transaction. Why didn't he claim it was a fraud at this first trial?

Steelie Neelie floats pan-European phone number notion

Dial 44 for the UK

I can just hear the automated messages for Europe:

For Dutch, press 31

For French, press 33

For English, press 44

For Danish, press 45

For Polish, press 48

For German, press 49

Or you could just dial the country number as the first few digits of the call

Gov decides not to have scientific advice on drugs any more

Groucho Marx

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."

Another example of "Government" making policy on vote winning instead of what is in the best interests of the public.

BT tests 1Gbit/s broadband

Got there before me

I was going to quote this, but you got there before me.

However, part of the deal was that BT was the provider of subscription services down it's pipe, which would have made it the sole provider of all services in the UK.

There was no "piggy back" agreement. There was no "local loop". There would only be BT. Sky would have gone out of business since it was still analogue at the time. Telewest, United Artists, NTL, etc would never even have got started.

Maybe I'm being too cynical, but BT being given free reign to "cable the country" under the terms it wanted would have been a very very very bad thing. Capitalist Thatcher might not have been that Tory after all.

Oracle asserts non-existent open source trademark

TM

Call it Delaware

Both were mapped by Hudson

North River = Hudson

South River = Delaware

Kinda has a nice "ware" feel about it too !!!

Ah, OK, too late - I've just taken the Delaware trademark :)

You can buy it from me for a very reasonable price (I'm thinking £50)

This year's comedy Xmas No. 1 contender: Silent song 4'33"

Bit In The Middle

"Has 4'33" ever been sampled and used in another track? "

Lots. Cockney Rebel - (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile comes to mind, but I'm sure there are plenty others. Didn't Chris Evans once have a feature on his Sunday show about songs with a bit of silence in them

Russia wins World Cup bid in parrot-sickening travesty

Timing

Immediately following the announcement - ITV4 - From Russia With Love

Three cops spanking in mobile user ranking

Three cops spanking

I was expecting a whole different article.

Wikileaks DDoSser 'Jester' in phantom cop raid tomfoolery

Would you be an imposter ?

Is it just me, or is it a bit stupid (daft, dangerous) to pretend to be The Jester, someone who is very likely to be visited in the middle of the night by operatives in balaclavas.

Or do they just send an unmaned Predator these days?

Apple Facetime flings out frightening random calls

Compiler Errors.....

Remember reading a long time ago about someone changing the compiler error messages, and can't help thinking of one in particular every time a new failure (feature?) is reported with the iPhone:

"let's duct tape this gerbil of a program"

Apple - Stop bodging the fixes and do it properly!!!

Xbox modder can't claim fair use, says judge

Where is the Profit?

"MS isn't losing an xbox sale here. It's second-hand, out of warranty from MS etc."

No, but since the hardware is not where the profit lies, games makers will lose sales.

Don't forget - you buy the hardware (and can do anything you like with that), but you license the software/firmware, and (like it or not) are bound by the laws governing that copyright and contract. (Not saying it's right, just pointing out the facts).

And seriously, let's not be niaive about this - that vast majority of mods are performed to permit playing of pirated material. I enjoy tinkering with these things like the next geek, but Johnny Ordinary who lives on the council estate is doing it purely to save buying original games.

Windows 0day allows malicious code execution

Yawn!

Same old digs from the penguins.

The answer is YOU need to persuade your company to switch it's entire estate to something non-MS, and you need to persuade the staff to switch their home PCs also.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN

(just before some smug BOFH replies, yes, I know a few of you have already acheved this. Well done, have a sweetie)

So move along and stop bitching just because you think you are safe. If Linux had >90% penetration on the desktop, we'd be seeing a lot more incidents related to it. Look at it from the criminal aspect - what's the point in spending £100,000 to break into a vault to steal £1,000

For the record, I have no allegiance to any OS. I use and like MS and Linux. But I put my business hat on and I know which is cheapest to use in my business environment (TCO).

MP wants age verification for net smut

Already regulate TV etc.

Errr, NO

TV is barely regulated, and the only thing stopping children watching inappropriate material is parents who send them to bed before 9PM. (and I'm excluding the likes of Eastenders from being inappropriate)

OK, so there are some restrictions on content that don't exist on the Internet, however the control of access still lies with positive action from the parent, not the broadcaster.

The onlything stopping children buying porn mags is vigilant shop keepers - but are they all good shop keepers ??? No doubt there are some who will sell inappropriate material to minors (through perversion, or to boost business).

MPs clearly don't even understand the existing media, never mind the Internet. So go away and find someone who does.

Facebook royal rant bishop suspended

Bloodline ?

Err, can't really say we've ever truley had a bloodline monarchy.

Only in a Matriarchal Monarchy where the throne follows the female line can you be sure it is a blood line. After all, the only guarantee on the parent of the heir is the mother.

Turing papers could be saved after auction fail

What is for sale ?

"...surprised that the British government hasn't acquired these papers on behalf of the people..."

But what was realy for sale - it was a collection of the publications of the work, not an original manuscript or a unique item. If one was to go looking, I'd be willing to bet the exact same materials could be found in other collections and at a much reduce price.

Don't get me wrong - the British Government should do more to honour Turing. I'm just suggesting we should get in perspective what was actually for sale here, and is it an appropriate use of >£300,000 of government money.

The fact the publications were collected by Professor Max Newman adds more kudos and will have inflated the price also.

iOS 4.2: An 'ace' for iPad, a 'meh' for iPhone

Errr, no

Another Apple FAIL - implementation of something in name only

It let's you assign a different built in tone to different contacts in your address book.

It doesn't let you add new tones to the existing set. How hard would it have been to add that. They already let you add ringtones, so why can't SMS/MMS choose from the same library - not exactly rocket science.

The REASON - Apple want you to stick to THEIR tones so that everyone on the bus knows you're a Fanbois when you receive a text.

Get out the bar, your plane's leaving

Other applications

How about intelligent directions to stop passengers getting lost?

Display screens that can show passenger name and directions when the passenger is within a set distance of the screen. Since there is a limit to the number of prople who can stand within range of one screen, it should be able to handle the capacity.

How about more targeted announcements:

"Would Passenger Smith traveling to Nowhere please go to gate 987 immediately" can be broadcast only to the speakers within range of Mrs Smith.

And take this out of the airport - cheap, accurate tracking of anything in a large space.

Patients (and maybe even Doctors) in hospitals.

Kids at the supermarket/shopping mall.

Yeah, OK, I concede - it's going to be used for advertising :(

Wiseguy ticket scalpers used botnets to outwit Captchas

Illegal

I'm willing to bet that in Ohio it is also illegal to walk into a bank with a gun and demand money from the staff.

Doesn't stop it happening though.

Google to scrub slurped UK Wi-Fi data

Disk space....

Having had many many months to analyse the data, mine it, corelate it and report on it, the ICO is now making Google do exactly what they would need to do - delete it to make room for the next chunk to be analysed.

Court orders naming of celeb phone hack hacks

Silence

Right to silence is so that you don't give evidence to incriminate yourself.

Withholding evidence against someone else is an entirely different matter

Virgin demands ISPs end broadband speed 'con'

And the other big con......

UNLIMITED

(*subject to what we consider to be fair use on any particular day)

Either it is UNLIMITED, or it has a LIMIT. It is the difference between a finite number and infinity - the two do not exist in the same numberspace.

Robot wars break out on poker sites

Where's the edge ?

While the cards dealt may be luck, each hand has a mathematically measurable set of odds, therefore by betting appropriately on those odds, a profit can be made.

It might be skill for a human to work the odds in their head, but computers as we all know, are particularly adept at working out complex mathematical equations.

There is more "skill" at real tables by reading the opponents, but given the figure quoted here of $80,000 seized from one player, I'd happily have that sort of luck/skill edge on my side!

However, I enjoy playing the game, so play at the "play money" tables, therefore no bots for me.

Fanbois howl as OS X update bricks PGPed Macs

Easy fix....

... except ...

Since your machine no longer boots, how do you get on the internet to

a) find out that other people are having the same problem; and

b) get a hold of the instructions on how to complete the fix.

I can image an awful lot of Fanbois paying a "Genius" for the fix - way to go Apple, keep your consultancy rates up by breaking your software.

French go after Google for brand grab

And how long before.....

Google's advertising arm "bids" on the trademarks of Yahoo!, Bing, Amazon, Facebook, MySpace, etc

Call me cynical.

Apple coughs to time zone problems

Attitude to problems

Reminds me of the attitude of Microsoft ten years ago.

Numpties!

I know a new release is due shortly, but does that fix the problem of the phone crashing three minutes into a call ? Bet it doesn't, as "the problem doesn't exist"

Time to look at the alternatives........

Airport screeners go for the groin

Options...

There is a third option.

DON'T FLY!

Everyone knows you need to pass through security before you get on the plane, and you have the option of other methods of transport.

100(ish) years ago, NOBODY flew. Trains were the order of the day, or horse drawn carriages. People travelled where they could afford the time and money. Nobody is forcing you to go through security - you can get on a Greyhound or Amtrak (or local equivalent) without any security checks (and risk another 7/7).

I do think the current security controls are excessive, however in order to get re-elected politicians need to appear to be doing something, and controlling the possibility of blowing up planes is somehow seen to be key. Perhaps the alternative is to be issued with a skin tight rubber suit before flying, then everyone can see you aren't concealing anything.

Vulcan bomber lives to fly another day

Concorde ?

They didn't keep Concorde flying, something I would consider to be far more important than the Vulcan (although the Vulcan is my second favourite aircraft).

What is even more sad is that they didn't even let private groups take on Concorde. There were backers out there who wanted to keep her in the air, and there were enough people willing to spend the money just to say they'd flown on her. Sadly passenger flights are not available on the Vulcan.

British Government FAIL

Google's 'copied Java code' disowned by Apache

The first rule of copying....

... is making sure it doesn't look the same.

Did none of these programmers go to University - the very place you learn to plagiarise without getting caught. :)

iPhone alarm bug: now it's the UK's turn

Crazy, Isn't it.

Nope, you're not an idiot, this really is as crazy as it sounds. I had two weekday recurring alarms set for 07:00 and 07:30, and they rang today at 08:00 and 08:30.

I wonder if Apple will get the fix out before next weekend when the US changes DST ???

Boffins mount campaign against France's official kilogramme

Compared to what ?

"But it is compared from time to time with other exact copies held by other nations, and it is known that in reality slight changes on the order of microgrammes - a billionth of a kilo - do occur"

And how do they know it is not the "exact copies" that have changed mass ? (and clearly they can't be exact copies!)

And how do they do the measurement ? Which "unit" do they take to the other to do the comparison, and would this "transportation" of one unit not introduce substantial risk of change (e.g., when it gets X-rayed at the airport, could the x-rays knock off a few atoms, thus changing the weight)

Duracell MyGrid cable-free gadget charger

Agree, but.....

Totally agree with the sentiments here - why would you pay £xxx for any extra charger and need to use a special case (that looks terrible and adds bulk).

But let's move on (and back slightly) - last year the phone makers (except Apple) approved the adoption of a single connector for charging. A great move forward that solves the multiple charger single socket problem and saves the planet.

Now all we need is for all the manufacturers to build wireless charging into the device and these mats suddenly look very useful indeed.

OK, so we're a long way off, and there are still drawbacks and costs, but in 5-10 years time this will be the norm. You're next kitchen will probably come with a charging pad "bay" as an option.

Prosecutors prep decision on BT-Phorm case

Not our fault

It was a rogue programmer. We didn't know what he was doing, and it just grabbed all these emails and other network traffic as they went flew past.

We're going to delete all the data, but we have to keep it in case someone wants to look at it.

Privacy watchdog needs someone to explain technology

ICO could save a fortune.....

Just feed an El Reg journalist the story of the new tech and wait for the Commentards to point out it's failings :-)

KPMG to be probed over BAE accountancy

Subsidiaries

Does one of BAE's subsidiaries manufacture brown paper envelopes. They really should buy someone who makes them since they use enough in the course of business.

Google: Street View cars grabbed emails, urls, passwords

Show us just how sorry you are!

*IF* Google is truly "mortified by what happened", then prove it.

Many countries are investigating, and some fines may be imposed, but several investigations have closed with no further action. If Google wants to prove this was all a silly mistake and that it is really sorry, then it should make a Streetview donation to charity around the world.

I'd suggest $1billion a year for a few years - a dedicated "Streetview" foundation, possibly with aims to help the homeless and impoverished around the world. This should be in addition to all existing donations the company makes (I'm assuming it makes some).

Drug-addled scooter twock teen hit with bizarre crypto ban

Should the punishment fit the crime ?

Actually, YES.

What is a custodial sentence? It is depriving a convicted person of a normal life as a punishment for their crime. The clue is in the word - punishment : "inflict a penalty on"

The logical extension is that ANY comparative punishment is acceptable. Why shouldn't someone convicted of a crime be punished by taking something they enjoy out of their life for a period of time. I think you'll find most parents have done it : kid does wrong, no TV for a week.

I can agree the practicalities in this instance are little quirky and unworkable, but the principle is sound. As long as the crime and punishment are in proportion they don't need to be related.

A perfect example of why they should be different is driving - how often do you see someone banned for driving without a license being given a further ban. It clearly hasn't worked in the first instance, so what makes you think it will work the next time.

Google slips $3.1bn through 'Double Irish' tax loophole

Anyone else ...

Fancy a Double Irish Dutch sandwich ?

Best summed up

What's the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance ?

About five years in jail.

EU privacy watchdog pans passenger data plans

Pointless

Anyone wanting to enter any country for organised terrorism has sufficient backing to obtain false documents and to fit under the radar of immigration through normal channels or through illegal landing.

The passing of data is NOT about stopping terrorism. It's about:

A) appearing to the public to be doing something

B) capturing less dangerous suspected criminals

C) stopping "undesirables" e.g. people with known controversial leanings

C) posturing over "we're the biggest and most powerful"

EA takes Angry Birds publisher under its wing

Angry Birds port to other platforms ???

I'm thinking Wii here :)

Possibly standing behind the catapult, and using the controller and nunchuck to pull back and set the launch angle and strength ?

List-makers battle to keep football fixture lists protection

Time Machine

I wish I could meet someone with a time machine so I could go back 20 years and give me some advice - BECOME A LAWYER.

Given the (relatively) trivial amount of money involved in selling the rights, and the clearly unclear situation over their enforceability, the only winner out of this is the lawyers.

The list owners should cut the losses of everyone, and all free use of the list as long as ownership of the fixture list is clearly included.

Ultimately it is the leagues who pay for the lawyers, the clubs that pay for the leagues, and the public that pay for the clubs. Somebody somewhere please come to your senses and give the public value for money.

(note to El Reg - We need and Evil Lawyer icon

Compromise turns Kaspersky site into malware hub

AV Download

"become infected only if they fell for the ruse and clicked on links to download and install the malicious software"

FAIL...

...given the main reason people are likely to be visiting the site is to, er, let's guess, download and install AV.

Apple squashes unauthorized MacBook battery maker

New Car

I've just bought a new car. It's a nice car. Shiny. Comfortable. Sleek, some would say sexy. Lots of people look at it and want one.

Trouble is the petrol filler is fitted with a special device that stops you using normal petrol pumps. I have to go to a main dealer to buy my petrol, as they are the only place with the required nozzle to fill the tank. And there's only 10 dealers in the UK. Can't even use http://www.petroldirect.com/

Want one of these cars now ?

Yeah, you're a fanbois, you probably do.

Trial and error: online comments court attention

Innocent until prove guilty

The system is broken.

Allegedly the media are allowed to report anything they like. It has been rumoured they can get away with anything, as long as it might be true. They don't really care as long as someone is reading or listening.

The public are just as much as fault - they want to lynch somebody. The instant any incident occurs, the public want the perpetrator caught and hanged immediately. So the media feeds their hunger, spinning the situation, publishing what might be true (with suitable allegedlies, and rumours), and the authorities are made to look bad for appearing not to act.

The law needs changed to restrict what information can be reported in any trial, ALLEGED or not. It needs to become and offence to make public any information which might prejudice the trial. Essentially, any information not released by the Police or the Court system.

An innocent person suddenly becomes a victim if the media have ruined their life through irresponsible reporting.

As for the origins of the article - any website that allows uncontrolled public comment on ongoing criminal actions is asking for trouble. Fine, we can't stop the world, but we can educate our people on what is fair and just.

iPad tethering does disappearing trick

Blame the Operators

It is entirely the Operators fault.

Unlimited data should be unlimited. 500MB should be 500MB. The source of the request should be irrelevant, be it phone, tablet, laptop - the SIM owner has paid for a chunk of data, and should be able to use that chunk.

And let's face it - if you're smart enough to tether your laptop to your phone, you're smart enough to understand that your laptop AND your phone are going to use more data than just your phone - possibly more data than you've paid for (yes, OK, so your unlimited isn't unlimited, but perhaps if more people hit the limit the Operators would stop lying about "Unlimited".)

'Condom in my Whopper' man pulls case

Hold the mayo....

OK, OK, I'm going

Man wins $650k for stripper shoe eye snafu

Utter Tosh

You're talking utter rubbish. How do you know she wasn't arrested?

It is highly likely the police and the DA were involved, and decided either there was no case to answer, or there wasn't enough evidence. Since I'm at work I can't go trawling the web looking for articles on "south florida strippers" to find the relevant news articles from the time.

You clearly have a anti-feminism complex given your comments and the fact you remain anonymous. And that's coming from another man!

As an aside, I wonder how much the guys wife will get in the divorce settlement after finding out he was visiting strip clubs :)

Futuristic Judge Dredd smartguns issued to 101st Airborne

Did anyone else....

...read the title and think "new guns for 101 stone american troops".

OK, so the yanks normally talk in pounds, but there are some big mf troops.

Genuine white iPhone 4 spied in wild

White

Typical fanbois. More interested in the colour of the handset then whether it works or not :)

<flame suit on>