Posts by Trevor Watt

Home Office advises Police to break the law

Arghhhhh!

Why wait until the end of the day? Or were you just using some stupid meaningless idiom?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6818632/At-the-end-of-the-day-the-most-common-office-cliche.html

New Labour bring old Nuremberg Laws to Britain

why do I need a title when replying......

When I pointed out elsewhere that the total SUSPECTED terrorist arrests that came about by items discovered during a S44 search where less than 4 in 100,000 searches (no convictions that I am aware of though), a nice police officer pointed out to me that that was because S44 was to deter terrorists or those with terrorist ambitions from entering sensitive areas, then QED, the low detection rates proved the deterrent was working!

The vast majority of arrests resulting from an S43/44 search are under PACE for drugs and (offensive) weapons offences.

Rogue phishing app smuggled onto Android Marketplace

It will anyway....

Why the hell do you think Google is giving away the OS in the first place? To build a user base so they can charge for the apps, simple as that.

It will not be long before Android users are paying through the nose or talking about 'Jailbreaking'

Oz bank thinks it's 2016

I experienced the W2K issue in 1986!

I experienced the W2K issue in 1986 when I took a splendid old lady to the then brand new hospital at Milton Keynes. Daisy, bless her, had slipped and broken her wrist and sat patiently in a chair as we spoke to the girl on the desk and tried to book her in.

The problem of course was that Daisy was born in 1898 (or something like that) and when 92 was put into the two digit year box on the terminal simply spat it out again as it was not possible, we had not got to 1998 yet so that had to be wrong.

A discussion round the dinner table a few days later raised the issue and Daisy's Grandson later went on to become a very successful businessman, and one of his businesses was based on solving the Y2K bug, and he sold the business to M$!

The Y2K issue was very real, even if it was caused by lack of foresight in the first place!

Mouse nest found in London copper's paperwork

Rodents are mammals....

So if the say rodents and mammals, what mammals did they exterminate that were not rodents!

I can only hope it was chavs!

Vodafone: No HD2 for you!

This feels similar to O2 and the iPhone

When O2 had the exclusive on the iPhone the range of other smart phones they were carrying was very restricted, particularly Windows Mobile ones, they did not stock anything that really competed with the iPhone. O2 customers were asking for the HTC Touch HD and O2 for a while were suggesting that after Orange's exclusive was over they may be stocking it. They never did and it cost them customers a plenty (according to the disgruntled ones on O2's forum and XDA devs anyway!)

Have the mobile operators really got that big that they think they can dictate to the customers what handsets they will have? Certainly the minimum contract period has universally gone up to 18 months with none of them willing to buck that trend. So let's hope the handset lasts that long anyway......

Stock comes in on a day to day basis

And the pink circle and SMS issue is fixed, phones coming through the channel should be fine now, new handsets are not effected.

For those who may be interested O2 are stocking the HD2, just not advertising the fact, ask retentions.

Android

The geeks care!

Microsoft and EU close on browser settlement?

Opera is fully Web - Standards compliant

The reason some (a very few these days) web pages do not open in Opera is because they have been written to work with some of the "enhanced" features of IE. IE is not fully web-standards compliant and gets away with this as it is the main browser for most people.

So ask yourself why IE is not fully compatible, and how having proprietary code in IE to display these non-standard pages helps IE win people like you over.

UK.gov may abolish edited electoral roll

Fine you? No!

They can not fine you in a privately operated car park, all they can do is invoice the registered keeper, who may not even have been the driver. The registered keeper is not required to tell them who the driver was either, which means these invoices are virtually unenforceable in those circumstances.

ACPO proposes new domestic violence database

Is this ACPO Ltd?

The Limited Company set up to make jobs for retired high ranking police officers by making them database analysts/administrators, advisors etc.

And as the databases ACPO run are run by a limited company then they are exempt from FOI requests. www.acpo.police.uk/about_pages/free.html

US forces developing 'miniature weapons' for killer robots

@ The First Dave

Actually you would get about eight full-size Hellfires for half a million dollars.

The answer is easy!

Just put less explosive into the Hellfire! Less bang, less damage. It would be simple enough to ballast for the weight too, just use an inert filler like in the training rounds.

Or just miniaturise the Hellfire, technology has moved on a lot since they were brought into service.

HTC HD2 Windows Mobile smartphone

@ Chris McFaul

I think your handset is faulty, you need to try hard reseting it first (instructions at www.xda-developers.com) and if that fails to resolve your issues then send it back for replacement.

Tories oppose charges and speed cameras

FIXED

Notice the use of the word FIXED prefixing SPEED CAMERA.

That is because fixed cameras are almost useless and generate little or no monies, lets face it with SAT-NAV and such being in most cars and local knowledge thrown in too only the stupid people get caught by a fixed camera. Indeed many councils are now removing them as they are costing too much money and only slow drivers down for about ten metres.

Mobile vans and average speed devices (including the new mobile average speed device) are a different kettle of fish though, fixed average speed cameras work well reducing the mean average to below the limit in force, and vans are still a nice little earner with the scope of adding mobile phone use and other similar offences to their remit.

Why is it with our career politicians you always have to read BETWEEN the lines, and what they don't say means more than what they do say?

Orange gets UK iPhone deal

With any luck this will bring O2 back to their senses....

With any luck this will bring O2 back to their senses and they will start selling some other decent handsets, other than their current attitude where if you want a PDA type phone it is the iPhone or nothing.

Stephen Hawking both British and not dead

Like Hawkins...

Like Hawkins, if it were not for the NHS I would be dead. Several times over. Unlike Hawkins I am not a brilliant scientific mind, just a plain and simple farty working man. Yet the NHS and the tax-payuers of the UK have spent probably hundreds of thousands of pounds on me, my wife, my kids, including maternity care and post natal care etc.

And that is the thing about the NHS. It cares not who or what you are, we are all equal in the eyes of the NHS. Sure there are some things that can be a 'Postcode Lottery' like fertility treatment, but the real life saving stuff is free (well tax funded), always and to everyone.

Chinese authorities close fatal net treatment camp, arrest 13

Fatal Beating?

Well perhaps he would have not had the addiction in the first place if his parents had administered a fatal beating or two, in fact he would have grown up to be a very different boy if they had!

I apologise, that is just my strange Hibernian sense of humor showing through.....

Endeavour glides back to Kennedy

@ StillNoCouch

Really? How old are you? 50? http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/portraits2/astronauts/stott_nicole.jpg

Truck drivers! Don't go texting now

A title is required.

By Iggle Piggle Posted Tuesday 28th July 2009 10:49 GMT

" they are driving a big heavy lorry and feel safe in the knowledge that it is likely the other guy who will come off worse in any accident."

By Graham Marsden Posted Tuesday 28th July 2009 12:15 GMT

"Truck drivers... are not "Professional Drivers"!

Simply racking up a larger number of miles every year does *not* make them better or more "professional" than the average driver, in fact it can make them worse because they have an over-confident view of their driving "skills" which is simply not warranted and may make them think, incorrectly, that they can use mobiles etc safely whilst driving."

Truck drivers, or more correctly LGV drivers have to undergo a driving test to receive their vocational licence, and then have 35 hours of training for their professional CPC, without which they will not be able to work. The CPC then needs renewed every 5 years requiring another 35 hours of training. Compare that to the fact that most car and van drivers last looked at a copy of the Highway Code when they passed their driving test.

Couple with that the strict H&S laws and you will find that the vast majority of haulage firms regularly asses their drivers abilities, if they did not the risks to the companies would be huge.

And every LGV driver is very aware that if he or she has an accident the consequences would be dire for all those involved, when you crash a car you don't have 32 tonnes of load behind you to crush your cab into the size of a sardine can, momentum is a scary thing!

Graham Marsden, did you read the article, the evidence shows that truck drivers are no more likely to have an accident when using their mobile phone, that is what the study said, you obviously think it is wrong in your mind, why is that exactly?

IE icon too familiar for Microsoft EU settlement?

Wow!

Opera blags some more free publicity, getting their name repeated all over the web/tech news.

They must have the same company as Ryanair doing their publicity management.....

HTC Snap

@ Robert E A Harvey

Why bother reading the article then?

Iran blocks Wikileaks

@asdf; Blocked in the UK?

If it was, it certainly is not now.

Oz cops turn to wardriving to fight Wi-Fi 'jackers

@ Alpha Tony

"By Alpha Tony Posted Friday 17th July 2009 10:11 GMT

Out of interest, what is the legal position when your neighbour is broadcasting their unsecurred wireless network onto your property? I mean if their apple tree overhangs my garden and there is an apple on the branch overhanging my lawn I figure that I am entitled to eat that apple.."

In the UK at least then you would be wrong, just because something is in/overhanging your property does not make it yours. Look at it another way, if a £50 note was blown from you wallet and landed in someone else's garden you would not think it had suddenly become theirs for the taking, would you?

The same is true of a WiFi signal, there is a protocol for devices handshaking, that does not mean it is either lawful or morally right to use a service that someone else is having to pay for just because they have not secured it.

Things 1.3.8

Cool!

Apps reviews, when you doing some that are not for the iPhone?

Petrol station robbers cuffed after running out of petrol

Re Sarah

'Can anyone help me out here?'

Yep, I will go flush his face down the toilet for you!

Think tank rumbles over gov data-hogging

So you opt out....

And when you want a service or to open a bank account or get a credit card you will not get it unless you let the credit checking companies have access to your opted-out data. Because that is how it will end up, they will get access to our data eventually. Which is why the ID card database for example is so wrong, as that and any other data held by local or national government will end up being accessible by certain companies etc anyway, probably in the name of 'Fraud Protection' or 'Security'.

Firms must go to court to stop all counterfeit hauls

How does this EU rule get ignored by the French then?

If your caught personaly importing fake designer goods like a handbag or pair of sunglasses into France then the French Customs Police make you destroy the item there and then.

Looks like the French are just ignoring anouther EU rule they helped make, but don't like...

Controversial mobile directory fails on launch

Casper

Stop digging and look on KCOM's web site.

iPhone owners are superior beings, says survey

Nic 3

My microwave and my cooker have clocks, as does my DVD recorder. It is so you can use them to pre-program them, and in order to do this you have to both set the time on the appliance and know the time set on it is correct. But I guess that is beyond you figuring out on your own.

My car has a clock too, but I don't strap it to my wrist.

Behind Microsoft's IE-free, Windows-for-Europe ploy

@ suntoucher

"Microsoft should have the right to provide whatever software it likes on it's product. Much as a car producer can use it's own engines and not have to provide a selection of motors from various companys."

Actually it would be like buying a car and being told it comes with Microsoft software running the ECU, and you have no choice about this as they have the monopoly. But then you also have to have a Microsoft radio, dashboard, etc., because Microsoft won't sell the ECU software without including all the other bits.

The reality is of course there is not really a real-world comparison with cars or anything else for that matter because Microsoft's monopoly is so complete. The only thing I can think of is if you had to buy your electrical appliances from the power supply company you use, and even that comparison is not good.

HP job cuts hit Scotland

What a shitty excuse

Thats is profits of about 4%. That is more than most of the grocery sector that is considered almost safe from 'The Recession'.

I also note the very high use of agency staff, no doubt to avoid having to deal with employee issues and the guilt of sacking them all, never mind severance pay etc.

E-car supplier demos battery swap-shop

This would only work if you did not own your batteries, just leased them.

If the motor manufacturers did not sell you the car with batteries, you just bought the car and then leased the batteries, then the car manufacturers could establish battery swap stations all over the place and perhaps at motorway services etc.

This would mean the batteries could be continually monitored for degradation etc. In addition they could sell on other services to the drivers, like in & out servicing etc.

Clearly there would have to be some regard to the monopolistic tendencies of the manufacturer but is that not what the MMC are for?

Secret US robo whispercopters head to 'undisclosed location'

Foliage penetrating radar

Does six feet tall corn fields count as foliage?

Skinn-Eee Asus out next week

I'm tempted.

Only drawback is the non-removable battery, that is putting me right off.... I guess that is one of the trade-offs for such a small form factor though.

Lotus offers to end e-car silent running

Turbo

Can I get a fake dump valvle sound for my eCar too?

Trafficmaster preps mobile phone drive

I have been running this for a few weeks

And it works very well. It has a few interface niggles, but it is a Beta. Other than that the route planning seems accurate and it automatically takes the traffic conditions into account when planning.

What I don't know is how much data is going the other way, back to Trafficmaster. It would seem strange that if they had access to my speed on a given road type that they would not use it along with the data from all the other handsets being used to calcualte average segment speeds.

Wallace and Gromit get patent-happy at Science Museum

Free Museums

Under a VAT deal with the government some museums became free, including the Science Museum. So if it is an exhibition in the museum then a fee must be paid? I don't understand this, either all the Museum should be free or the VAT deal should be cancelled.

WAG sues CPW for phone pic nick

This story is worthless without pictures....

nuff said!

Dell launches well 'ard laptop

@ Tom Cook

Tom Cook, stop being such a townie and try getting out more. It is more about the laptop not letting you down when your in a hostile environment and you need to use it. DHL don't deliver next day to the job site middle of the desert.

iPhone surfs to mobile web domination

All you surf data package.

Given that the iPhone was the first (and on many networks still the only) phone to come with an all you can browse data package then it is hardly surprising that the iPhone is the phone most used for browsing...

Statistics are just that. Figures used selectively to prove or dis-prove an argument.

Speeding, driverless Nissan finally stopped by US bombers

Hellfire.

OK, now the Navy has had a go, how about letting the 101st Aviation Regiment have a go at the car with their Apaches and hellfires. Oh dear, target destroyed from 8KM away, with a first round kill from a helicopter hiding behind a hill.

The robot demo would not be so impressive then.

Dell claims 'fraud' on Psion's netbook claim

@AC

Bayer trademarked 'Aspirin' but failed to adequately protect it. Despite the fact they still make the product to this day they lost the trademark for Aspirin many, many years ago.

Making a product is not enough to retain the trademark. If you want an example then start a web blog and refer to a ball point pen as a Biro...... Biro is not a generic term and you can expect to hear from Bic's lawyers in due course.

UK 'bad' pics ban to stretch?

Party political Broadcasts

If someone was to inject something that is classed as extreme into the Party political Broadcasts then could we not have all the politicians locked up, as someone must watch them and it sure as hell is not the voting public.....

BT Granite slimline DECT cordless phone

Magic Box

Magic Box have been making touch sensitive DECT phones for years, including a clamshell one! At one point you could buy a twin pack one from Tesco for under £50.

Missed flight woman goes absolutely mental

Did anyone read the story?

quote: we had already offloaded their checked baggage to comply with the security requirements end-quote

So she was in the airport, it is not like she had been stuck in traffic. She was one of those who fail to show at the gate and every one else has to wait whilst a call goes out for the passengers, then wait some more as their bags are unloaded.

I have no sympathy for her.

Brit, French nuke subs collide - fail to 'see' each other

Trench Warfare?

Subs tend to run in natural canyons and trenches in the ocean floors to help avoid detection and mask their movements. If two subs were both doing this in the same area then the risk of a collision would be far greater.

Despite 'All that water' there are far fewer canyons and trenches.

MoD orders £3m anti-friendly-fire 'Combat ID Server'

A recent incident

In a recent incident a UKLF Westland WAH-64 Apache almost opened fire on a fire section of Royal Marines, thankfully because of the new helmet markers the crew realised that they were friendlies. Enemy engagements on the ground can be very fluid and the UK's forces are trained to work to their own initiative within the mission briefing, you simply tell them what the patrol hopes to achieve and they do it without further instruction. The reason the Apache crew almost engaged the marines was that the Apache crew did not realise the marines could have moved so far from one fire position to another so quickly and without having been told to do so.

So will 'almost real time' be almost enough? The fog of war can get very, very thick at times and accidents will always happen.

You're barcoded: The sneaky under-25 route to compulsory ID

@ AC _ 'So Therefore'

No, it just means that if you look under the challenge age you won't get served without ID showing you are over 18. Once you prove your over 18 they will serve you.

The bars that ban under 21s are not a new thing, there were many over 21 bars and clubs when I was 18 whch was in 1982.

French court fines Google over trade marked keywords

When you go to the supermarket...

When you go to the supermarket and ask where the Coke is the self is also full of other carbonated drinks placed on certain prominent points on the shelf by deals done between the supermarket and the manufacturers.

How is Ad-words really any different? And do the people who's branded web site was originally searched for think the Google et al should provide the service for free somehow?

No doubt the brands in question would throw their hochets out their landau if Google responded to this by removing every trace of their brand names from their search database.