Posts by Shadowthrone

Greedy Sky admits: We crippled broadband with TOO MANY users

One particularly frustrated customer in Doncaster had this to say:

Internet is completely unusable, so this is the THIRD night in a row that I am unable to fulfil my contractually obligated working from home via the internet, so a third night's overtime lost. Not only is this a pain, it's actually losing me wages

______________________________

This is actually not covered in the T&Cs of a residential broadband line. Infact using a residential line for business purposes is a direct breach of the T&Cs. While the person above is probably only doing some work from home and not using it for a business they are likely fine, they have no leg to stand on for lost income by being unable to connect for work. In this case Sky is safe to effectively say "oh boo hoo, you cannot work from home. Tough luck, not our problem."....fixing their overloaded network and contention issues, however, is their problem.

While working at BT for 7yrs the number of small businesses trying to use a residential BB package for the business was staggering. Any time someone got indignant on the phone with me about losing money blah blah blah, I would remind them it is a residential line and using it for their business was a breach of their T&Cs. If they wished I would connect them to BusinessBB sales so they could move/upgrade their service to the business product.

Google goggles with Terminator HUD 'coming soon'

How about more like Auger's glasses in the Rodenderry series "Earth: Final conflict". They responded to motion of his eyes on the projected interface.

Bradley Manning accuser to meet with prosecutors

What happened to...

What ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

"Would YOU aid and abet a group who could have someone killed?" ....erm, right now Bradley Manning is only ACCUSED of releasing the information. It is down the prosecution to provide evidence that proves that ACCUSATION to be correct. Until that time, under U.S. Law (and the law of most countries) the guy is innocent.

So as the original commentator posted, until the trial concludes the fellow has a fundamental right to be treated like a human being and have his human rights respected.

DARPA, NASA look to spawn STARSHIP enterprise

Large crew not a major necessity.

There would not be the need for a massive initial crew to avoid the genetic inbreeding you refer to. Instead, you could ship out frozen sperm and ova and use IVF methods to implate fertilised ova into willing female surrogates. The only moral quandry with this, is that the female population of the initial colony seed would be essentially reduced to "baby factories" for the first dozen or so generations while the population is brought up to a diverse enough and sustainable level.

Unlike in Sci-fi settings, we lack the technology to have truely artificial wombs inwhich we can gestate fertilised ova.

DARPA: Send limbless troops back to war with robo-arms

One point a lot of people are missing....

So much of the technology we take for granted today, even advances in medical science, are as a direct result of research brought about by the needs of the military and their troops etc. I say let them go ahead with this line of research if it means that the advanced prosthetics will make wheir way into the mainsteam with time too.

As to those who cannot believe that injured veterans want to get back into the fray, you would be surprised at just how many soliders would give anything to be able to rejoin their comrades in the field. How many feel like they are letting their friends down by being unable to return. I, personally, do not understand that mindset as I cannot think of anything more horrendous than having to be in conflict. However, I can fully respect them for having that mindset and the courage to put themselves in harms way for the benefit of others.

Battlestar Galactica vets needed for online roleplay

...every re-creation?

Erm....The Orginal BSG series was pretty short as series' go. When it was cancelled people lobbied the studios to bring it back (which was almost unheard of at the time). They released Galactica:1980 which ran for a single series and was pretty bad, even when measured up against the original series.

There has only been one re-creation of BSG (to my knowledge) and that is the franchise this game is based off..... I do agree they REALLY dragged their heels with the new version milking it for as many episodes as possible that did not seem to actually go anywhere for a while.

Great white sharks menace Blighty

Sharks aren't the problem, humans are....

I assume these "anglers" are aware that the Great White is still on the endangered list so if they attempt to land one and are caught they can and will be prosecuted.

I really hate the fact that people go out of their way to hunt sharks, leave them alone. They have been swimming the oceans of this planet for millions of years longer that humans (in any of our forms) have been around. The ocean is their environment not ours.

Besides, I cannot be sympathetic to surfers in this....if you are going to dress up like a seal and go into an animal's hunting group you cannot complain when you have a shark nibbling on your leg. I mean, you would not dress up like a zebra and go prancing around the Serengeti(sp?) would you? You would be a lion's meal in no time flat.

FSFE calls on governments to stop pushing Adobe Reader

Programs and the General public

How many of the advocates pushing for change have spent time actually on the ground dealing with the general public in an I.T. Support capacity? Personally I have, for 7 long hard torturous years. As a rule of thumb, Joe Public is about as I.T. literate as a wet lettuce. Comments like "My Internet is broken" or "I am trying to download the Internet" or "I cannot get Windows to work"(when it is an individual application that is not working, or more they are not doing it right) are rife. Trying to explain to these people the difference between Adobe(yes, they think that is the product) and a PDF(the type of document, don't even begin to try and explain standards) is just not worth the headache.

This initiative is a pointless waste of time as the users who actually care about using different Free PDF readers are already using them. You will not convince Joe Public to use them. Why you might ask?

1) It is something New and different - Joe Public does not like change

2) Installing a new program on their PC which they can barely use as it stands - This will just put added stress on any customer support/tech support team for the Document Owner.

3) As long as it still costs them no money to use, Joe Public does not give a damn about the in-fighting on the Internet that goes on between open and propriety standards groups. The live by the KISS school; "Keep It Simple, Stupid".

USB stick with anti-terror training found outside police station

A different question...

The person who found the stick, found it outside of the police station, it was marked with the police departments branding......Why did the person not do honourable thing and just walk into the Police station and hand the device into the main desk saying they found it outside.

Sumo scandal gets iPad relief

Pasha is a good word.

I think "Pashas" is a wonder word to use in that sentence. A quick google search by those who care would find why it is appropriate:

Pasha or pacha, formerly bashaw, (Turkish: paşa[1]) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in pre-republic Egypt.

While the Ottoman Empire never encompassed Japan, the fact that Pasha can be taken to mean Lord is still appropriate to the line.

UK.gov pledges licence fee 'rethink' over heavy catch-up use

Surely this is an easy enough thing to sort out

Every TV license has a license number associated with it....make it so that for the BBC iPlayer you need to have an account that has a License number bound to it in-order to play content that the BBC deem should be covered by the license fee.

I personally pay for a TV License but do most of my watching of BBC's programs through the iPlayer so I can watch at my convenience. I have zero issue with making me bind my license number to my iPlayer account in-order to view content.

They could put an incentive on it too, release some programming for free but keep the popular good stuff locked to only license bound accounts.

Power line tech could crash aircraft and shut down the Archers

PLAs on BT Vision - BT not to blame for issues with the kit.

[Quote]

Why have they not prosecuted BT for their crap kit? I guess the same applies to Phorm fiasco where the big & wealthy businesses somehow get different rules applied...

[/quote]

Just for the record BT do not make the Powerline adaptors they supply, they are made a company call Comtrend; BT just supply them. So if any prosecution were to be made with regards to the behaviour of the equipment it would be Comtrend who's adaptor's BT supply in good faith.

To use a recent "equipment based issue" as an example.....The accelerator problems with a particular model of Toyota recently; any claims that arose due to the fault were aimed at Toyota NOT the dealership who sold the vehicle. Again, for the simply fact the dealership supplied the equipment (a car in this case) in good faith.

BT has done a LOT of bad things in it's time and quite a few issues can be laid squarely at their feet. However, in this case it is not BT's fault they are just the supplier. Speaking as someone who has, in the past, had to support the Comtrend PLAs in the past while working for BT; I can honestly say they are a pain in the ass anyway and much cursed by BT Staff who have/had to support them.

BT to retain more control over fibre networks

BT's standpoint, a little history

I used to work for a subcontractor doing work for BT, I was speaking to one of the senior managers in BT's Technical Development team one day (he was on the first FTTC trials as a BT senior staff member) since I was curious I asked him why BT had not shifted over to a total fibre network (bare in mind this was about 6-7yrs ago now). His response was: They had done a cost benefit analysis and the total cost to do a complete fibre roll out to most major metropolitan areas would span into Billions of invested revenue. At the time there was not the call or demand for the levels of services that could be made available. Also they would be forced to give other providers equal access to the network with no renumeration for the initial setup costs which would mean the competition would see massive benefit from the network upgrades where as BT would be running at a heavy loss for quite some time.

You can see their point really, why invest a huge amount of capital into upgrades which your competition will benefit from by being able to offer next-gen services without having any of the financial cost of setting up the network. At the time BT were looking at having to foot the entire bill for the roll out which simply did not make it financially viable.

I know a lot of people rag on BT all the time, myselt included; for their general inneptitude in customer service and inter-departmental communication (not to mention the carosel-o-death that is their IVR). However, from a standpoint of a business that survives from making a profit, most sensible people would understand that huge cost in the face of minimum returns simply does not make business sense.

Megan Fox exits Transformers 3

@ Chris Thomas Alpha

Erm, the Michael Bay films are NOTHING like the cartoon. The original plot was totally keel-hauled, the "all spark" is an absolute farce. The focus of the film is on the humans and their interations where as the focus of the cartoons was on the Transformers themselves, the humans were merely set pieces and part of the furniture for the most part. A plot device at best, namely something Megatron could use to manipulate the Autobots.

I have had to look at the Bay films as a totally different franchise completely dis-associated from "Transformers" as possible to derive any real enjoyment from the films. I spend most of the first film praying a Decepticon would just rip off Sam's head and have done with it.

Their handling of the "Matrix of Leadership" in the second film was attrocious. The Matrix or "Creation Matrix" to give it it's real name was the life essense of Primus the God of the Transformers, who's body formed Cybertron. It was used to give life to new Transformers and to act as a weapon should Unicron (Primus' enemy, a dark God and sort-of brother) return.

I guess having religon, Gods and powers for light/dark in the redux was too much for the modern world to accept so they instead went down the path of the "all spark" which pretty much destroyed the plot for me. Oh and killing off Jazz.....what was Bay THINKING!!!?!! Jazz was one of the most iconic autobots of the series, why not kill off bumblebee hell he died at least twice in the Marvel comic book line of the 80s anyway.

'Clumsy' French cop tasers schoolkid

is it wrong of me....

......that the first thing I did was laugh. The second thing was thing, finally discipline in schools.

Super-soldier exoskeleton to get 3-day fuel cell powerpack

Marines ---> Space Marines

How long will it take for them to start loading it with Warhammer 40K style armour? Or for that matter how long until we can get out own suit of Clan Elemental armour (claw and all)?

Discrimination warning over airport body scanners

Glad I do not travel

You see, things like this make me glad I do not travel. I do not own a passport, I have no intention of ever getting a passport. I would rather walk back out of the airport than step through one of those scanners.

Knuckle rap for riot shield sledging coppers

Over reaction by Superintendant

Surely this is just the right thing for the Police to show at times, it lets people know that Police Officers are human too and not stoney faced authoritarian figues. If I saw a could of policeman having a quick go at sledging with the public I would be amused not outraged.

Admitedly using a riot shield was probably not the best idea, but hey....better that than the usual reason it is taken out of the van.

HP loses massive DWP contract

One hell of a blow

This is going to hit EDS/HP hard, I know the DWP work is one of their biggest contracts in the UK. A worrying sign for the North East offices of EDS/HP too.

Critics aim to sink Titanic ice cubes

Am I going to hell??

When I was linked this by a colleague from the Telegraphs website the first things to pop into my mind (between that laughs) were:

1) That is awesome

2) I want some.

Phorm protestors picket BT AGM

RE:Simple fix for Phorm

@N

That will not solve the problem either, if BT are allowed to get away with the trial and then subsiquent roll out of the Phorm system, what is to stop other ISPs from following suit safe in the knowledge that they CAN do it without consiquence of penalty?

The answer to the issue is to make sure BT suffer the consiquences for their actions in the fullest legal amount and public manner as an example to other ISPs and bodies. This would then serve as a warning that this behaviour will NOT be tollerated at all and WILL be acted upon.

I agree with the poster who hilighted the differences between the steps and actions taken against illegal file sharers compared to actions taken against BT who have commited a far great crime than mere copyright infringement.

Hefty black hole weighs in at 33 Suns

@ Pete Mallam

I think we still refer to them as black holes due to the perspective of the original observers. When first discovered it appeared to be literally a black hole in space into which everything was sucked. Early thoughts were that a black hole behaved a like a worm hole spitting out the matter it pulls in at an indeterminable location. Later science and discovery have obviously led to our current understanding of black holes but the naming has stayed the same.

Nvidia 'nveils nForce 7 chipsets

SLI = bad

As far as I am aware, with SLi you cannot run dual head to get independent display on two screens with games such as Supreme commander. I will never go SLi until they resolve this major failing with the platform.

US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly

Let them impose these rules.

Personally I say let America impose these rules. What will eventually mean is that travel will reduce to America and people will be reluctant to enter US airspace and influence. It will also serve to further degrade America's place in the grand scheme of things.

As a whole the world has a pretty dim view of America and it's foreign policy. This will serve to just make them even more introverted and have an even more limited view of the global landscape.

The sooner America's influence on the world is removed the better.

N.B. I should quantify that last statement really. The sooner America gets a sensible administration and stops seeing itself as the world's police force who expects everyone to do things THEIR way the better.

BT prepares for superfast broadband investment chinwag

Why BT is dragging it's heels....

Look at the situation from BT's perspective; upgrading the network to a total fibre solution will cost them Millions, possibly in the order of hundreds rather than tens. Once they have upgraded all of the infrastructure to fibre they are under Oftel's rulings to make the upgraded network available to all other ISPs. These providers are then able to offer higher bandwidth solutions with absolutely none of the cost of setting up and maintaining the underlying network.

So BT are out of pocket a substantial sum of money and others reap the benefit of the crippling costs. Is it really any wonder BT have put off doing the upgrades this long.

Hyperion harbours building blocks of life, says NASA

Low Density stone

Low density does not make an object viscous or liquid by nature. There are stones here on Earth with a low density, which resemble the surface of Hyperion; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice .

Your space, MySpace, everybody's space

Protection and due process

Why can the AGs not just write up a subpoena, it is not a hard task for them to do. All MySpace are doing is protecting themselves from legal action should data be given. You cannot expect any company to put themselves in a position where they are open to being sued by any group or individual who's data they give to law enforcement agencies.

I am sure MySpace would be more that happy to help authorities, all they are asking for is a piece of paper that will protect them. They are not deliberately defending offenders nor are they complicit in the actions of sex offenders. All of the headache would go away if the AG office would follow due process and provide MySpace (and any other company/service provider in a similar situation) with a valid subpoena then no-one can cry foul play.

Too many people view a subpoena as a document delivered to force an action, in a lot of situations like this it should be viewed a document with two purposes:

1) To protect any party from whom information is requested to facilitate in the tracking of and possible prosecution of anyone commiting criminal activity.

2) To ensure that any defense attourney cannot have any evidence gathered discounted by claiming it was gained illegally. Thus, giving an added possibility of a criminal escaping justice.