Posts by JohnG

Oi, don't leave Cymru in broadband slow lane, MPs warn

Re: Eh?

Ofcom probably thinks the satellites have to be updated to send IP packets in Welsh.

Humanity facing GLOBAL BACON SHORTAGE

Re: Idea

"Instead of feeding cereals to pigs which then get slaughtered and eaten, why don't we just eat the food we grow directly?"

I guess you are in favour of the wholesale slaughter (and extinction) of all domestic livestock then?

"Would make sense in a world of 7 billion people and rising."

However you paint it, a world population of 7 billion and rising doesn't make sense. It isn't sustainable. For starters, there isn't enough fresh water.

Peugeot 508 RXH estate car review

You would have to really really want the hydrid technology gimmick to buy this.

Yes - Hybrid tech apparently adds so much to the price of a car that you need the benefit of not paying congestion charges for 5 days a week or something of a similar order to make it worthwhile. As this car emits more than 100g/Km, it won't be free of the London congestion charge.

Prof casts doubt on Stuxnet's accidental 'great escape' theory

Re: This is ignoring the real question

"The USA and Israel have engaged in an act of hostility on another country."

Allegedly. I guess the Iran government is free to complain to an international court and provide proof of who was responsible for introducing a trojan to software which (according to Siemens) was never sold to or licensed for use in Iran. i guess they would go on to complain that the trojan subsequently caused damage to centrifuges, components of which were dual-use items, which Iran is banned from purchasing under UN sanctions. The centrifuges were/are being used to enrich uranium to a purity in a manner also prohibited for Iran, under the terms of the NPT which they chose to sign.

Once Iran has developed a nuclear weapon, it will be fairly difficult to dissuade others in the region from matching the Iranian threat: Turkey and Saudi Arabia are likely candidates. Once a few of them get going, we might as well forget the NPT altogether.

Fujitsu boffins to help build uni exam-beating bot

LMU

It would be easier if they were designing a robot for use at LMU.

Fanboi beats 'e-trespassing' rap after using GPS to find stolen iPad

Is Google now off the hook?

Google would be off the hook if they had only collected SSIDs and no payload data. Had the victim acquired and published pictures of the thief in some compromising situation, he might have been in some trouble but all he did was receive data sent from his own device by a program which he ran.

New broadband minister snubs 'ugly' fibre cabinet gripes

Re: Necessary equipment

In several countries, power transformers are stuck on poles along the street, safely out of reach - but even if ground level buildings or cabinets are deemed necessary, the trees and shrubbery to hide everything are entirely superfluous. If other utilities are forced to pretty up their kit, it seems only fair that the same rules apply to the telcos.

Necessary equipment

How do you feel about the supply of electricity then? I fail to see why broadband providers are free to dump their kit on the pavement whilst electricity boards and other utilities are obliged to purchase land or wayleaves for all their kit. They are typically expected to procure sufficient land to hide their sub-stations behind hedges.

Safer conjugal rights via electronic skin

Have you or your wife considered...

...a gimp suit or possibly, a cat suit? I guess the Lycra ones would be useless for your purposes and you'd need something in rubber or wet look PVC.

Apple drones reject American drone-strike tracker app

Re: hmmm

"If you just draw a box on Google Earth and an automated drone automatically kills anyone in it..."

That's not how they work - there is still a pilot, although sitting somewhere else, instead of in the aircraft.

"2) Some people are concerned that automated weapon systems are dehumanising war (!), or that stuffz could go wrong."

The difference between manned and unmanned missions is cable versus radio. In manned missions, the aircraft and weaponry are controlled by computers which are in turn directed by the pilot and other crew at the end of bundles of cables/fibre. Many weapons are highly automated, guiding themselves to their targets once released, without further human intervention. In unmanned missions, everything is the same, except that the pilot and other crew are sitting somewhere else, at the end of some radio links. The level of automation is not significantly different in manned or unmanned missions. Examples of fully autonomous weapon systems are cruise missiles and ICBMs, the latter typically carrying multiple warheads, each of which is fully autonomous and capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to an identified target.

Brummie plod cuffed in Facebook troll hunt

Re: The Somebody Said Something Unpleasant To Me Act 2012.

I think the word you are looking for is "defamation". Spoken it is slander, written it is libel. This would be a civil case in high court - and it is from such a civil case that the high court ordered Facebook to reveal the identities of those involved. However, there is also the The Communications Act 2003 to consider and given that the victims email and Facebook accounts were hacked, I guess the Computer Misuse Act 1990 might come into play.

The Internet does not offer immunity from libel and slander legislation. Deal with it.

Re: usenet

Previous news reports on this case mentioned that the victim's email and Facebook accounts were hacked and fake Facebook pages setup in her name from which paedophilic messages sent to children. She was accused of being a prostitute, a child abuser and a drug dealer. I would suggest that this has gone considerably further than a bit of name calling that one should "take on the chin".

RIP Brian Wynne Oakley: Saviour of Bletchley Park

North South Divide

It must be in the Midlands because by the time you get to Milton Keynes/Bletchley, you would already be half way up the M1 to Watford Gap services (starting from the M25, of course) - and every Southerner knows that everything past Watford Gap is "The North".

Mr Bank Manager, help yourself to my smartphone contents

Shielded wallet

..or use a metal business card case.

Police mistake reveals plan for Assange's Embassy capture

Re: the police

"Ecuadorian & attached embassies probably saving a mint on their Insurance policies too."

I'm not so sure. The risk of a fire starting in one of the other apartments, necessitating an evacuation of the entire building must be quite likely now.

Security checks and diplomatic bags

I was wondering: Are diplomatic bags subject to security checks before being allowed onto a flight, similar to those used for other baggage? If they are, then anyone smuggled in a diplomatic bag would risk irradiation and discovery when such checks are carried out.

IMO, the best outcome for Britain would be if Assange did manage to escape to Ecuador. It would allow the police and others involved to get on with something more productive and Assange would have effectively exiled himself from Europe, North America, Australia, ....

China could penetrate US with new huge missile

If US/China relations were so bad as to consider lobbing missiles at each other, the Chinese could achieve considerable impact by simply not sending all kinds of manufactured goods to the West. Of course, this would also fuck up their own economy but so would nuclear war.

Lawyers: We'll pillory porn pirates who don't pay up

Re: Blackmail

"...and becomes libel after the fact if the claims are unproven."

Whether the claims are true or not, in Germany this would be "Beleidigung", to damage someone's reputation. When you understand that in Germany, you can be sued for Beleidigung if you stick your middle finger up to a motorist who has just cut you up, it becomes clear that Germans take offence seriously and that they also take it to court.

Re: Libel

In Germany, plaintiffs would only have to show that their reputation and/or livelihood has been damaged (it doesn't matter whether the allegation is true or false). It is not uncommon for people/businesses to sue former clients (and win) who have exposed their poor service or business practices in online forums or for negative feedback. If this bunch of lawyers get some policeman or priest sacked, they might get their copyright infringement cash but then they will have to pay for loss of earnings and emotional damage. I don't believe this will fly - German courts take privacy and reputation very seriously.

We're raising generations of MUTANT KIDS, says Icelandic study

""...we sequenced 78 trios, a total of 219 distinct individuals..."

Not much of sample size, is it?

Is the Icelandic population representative or is there more inbreeding than in larger countries/regions?

Barnes & Noble Nooks bound for Blighty

Re: The problem is...

"I'd love it if buying books on the Kobo Touch were as easy as it is on the Kindle."

It is easy to get books on the Kobo with Calibre - and you're not limited to a single store.

Work for the military? Don't be evil, says ethicist

Re: Fast Forward

This assumes that wars work like video games i.e. according to a well defined set of rules. The reality would that sooner or later, someone else would come along with a lot of heavily armed people and kill all those playing Street Fighter and anyone else who disagreed with them and take whatever they wanted - that's how war works.

Lords call for the end of TV transmissions

Re: I'll be damned...

It's just as well that 100% of the UK population have super fast broadband with no constraints at peak times, so that the average family can watch a few HD channels whilst simultaneously browsing and skyping in the evening - otherwise the government of the day would look fucking stupid when they switch off the broadcast channels and leave half of the population back in the Edwardian era.

Japanese giant sorry for Kobo launch balls-up

Latest firmware removes Cyrillic text support

Kobo delivers firmware updates without any confirmation for anyone rash enough to connect their reader using the Kobo Desktop software. The latest firmware (not for the Japanese version) removes support for books with Cyrillic text. Luckily, one can find downloads for older firmware and advice on how to downgrade in various online forums. This is especially lucky for me as the wife would not have been impressed if we had headed for a holiday with her reader effectively useless.

My other annoyance with Kobo is the inability of their web site to stick with the language you choose and instead, forces you work in the language of the country from where you connect.

Other than this, Kobo's readers work well and are excellent value.

Nationwide DOUBLES card payments in fresh banking gaffe

Charge 'em

If your bank or building society screw up in a way that costs you money and you have to contact them to sort it out, write them a letter and charge them for it. One of my colleagues used to charge his bank 50 quid per letter... When the bank asked why it was so much higher than their equivalent charge, he pointed out that his time cost more than that of their bank clerks and that he had no automated systems to produce such letters - they paid all his invoices.

IT departments are BRATTY TEENAGERS

Re: I smell BS

"Our ability to come up with a sollution that may not fit standards and didn't follow procedure, but it got the job done in record time."

*solution

The procedures are there to protect you. If something goes wrong when procedures were followed, blame is laid with those who devised and/or approved the procedures. If you do something outside of the procedures, you can be sure to receive the blame if something goes wrong afterwards. If the shit hits the fan, you can bet that the people who encouraged you to bypass procedures to deliver something to them quickly will not remember any such encouragement.

People in IT (and other disciplines) often fail to understand the best or most elegant technical solutions are not necessarily the best business solutions and management may have information which they do not want to divulge to the outside world (yet).

Girls tricked by STEAMY message: Webcam spyware student jailed

"People still take computers in for repairs?"

Bear in mind that "repairs" could include repairing things like "My browser has disappeared" when the user accidentally moved the corresponding desktop icon into another folder or "I can only see my old emails" when the user clicked on the date/time column header to reorder the inbox.

Apple wins EU-wide Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 ban

Re: Headline: "Apple wins EU-wide Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 ban"

Does anyone know why a ruling made in a German court applies across the EU, while a ruling made in an English court does not?

Virgin Media's 'bye-bye to buffering' beardy Bolt boast BANNED

Re: "It's an expensive mistake for VM"

" Apart from the Virgin reps' time I can't see where the expenses are."

A big lunch for the ASA chaps?

Siemens squashes Stuxnet-like bugs in SCADA kit

Will the Iranians get the fixes?

IIRC, a Siemens spokesman said that they had not supplied Simatic and the associated kit to Iran - so, I wonder if the Iranians will get the fixes.

Apple seeks whopping $2.525bn Samsung patent payout

Re: bloody ridiculous...

"Apple invented a slick device which was the thinnest smartphone device when it came out. The big novelty was that it hardly had any buttons and that the few there were were hidden. The front was all black, had rounded corners, the keyboard was the touch screen, the screen was exceptionally big for a phone ... no other phone on the market at the time had all these features"

But all of these features existed in different devices pre-dating the iphone. HTC grew from first producing large screen smartphones for HP and subsequently, in their own right. They and other manufacturers also offered large screen phones without buttons on the front. Apple's skill (as always) was in combining many existing ideas in well-marketed package - but it is a disgrace that they now claim to have invented all these things.

Re: "They did not invent."

"Yet there was really nothing like it around." ...from Apple.

I have two Siemens SIMpads gathering dust in my attic. These were sold in 2001, have 8.4 inch touch sensitive colour screens and black cases with rounded corners. Running WindowsCE, they had a web browser, email client, media player and could also be used to read documents, spreadsheets, etc.

Then there were the various UMPC devices from an assortment of manufacturers..... All of these preceded Apple's ipad by some years and none of the manufacturers involved considered their tablets to be novel enough to warrant design patents.

Iranian nuke plants rocked in midnight 'heavy metal blast'

Re: What's with the partizan posts?

For some years now, détente in the middle east has been based on Israel's "secret" nuclear weapons versus the "secret" chemical weapons of some Arab states and Iran. With the current unrest in Syria, Israel is now worried that some of Syria's chemical weapons could end up on the hands of almost anyone - so the irony is that Israel would likely prefer Assad's regime to stay in power.

The reason why Iran and North Korea get so much shit over their nuclear weapons programmes while India, Israel and Pakistan are left alone is because Iran and North Korea signed the NPT, while the other three never did. Iran and north Korea are under sanctions for breaching the terms of the NPT. India, Israel and Pakistan are not because they can't be punished under the terms of treaty which they did not sign.

US deploys robot submarine armada against Iranian mines

Re: So scared

"...whilst Iran needs to brush up on its human rights, it's not a belligerent country in this matter."

Iran is under sanctions because they are in breach of the NPT, which they freely chose to sign.

Iran signed the NPT so they could have access to nuclear technology from other NPT signatories (e.g. Russia) but have been and continue to be in breach of the treaty. Under the NPT, all NPT signatories (including USA , Russia, etc.) have to submit to inspections by the IAEA - Iran has not fully complied with such inspections. Signatories without nuclear weapons are not entitled to develop nuclear weapons but are entitled to obtain nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes. With their previously secret underground nuclear facilities now exposed, even the Russians now acknowledge that Iran is breach of the NPT.

India, Israel and Pakistan are not signatories of the NPT and are not entitled to obtain nuclear technologies from NPT members but they are not under any constraint as to their own development of nuclear weapons.

Although North Korea has withdrawn from the NPT, they are under sanctions because they were members of the NPT when they were found to be in breach of it.

Israel and others now expect Iran to have viable nuclear weapons in about 2 years. As other countries in the region feel threatened by Iran (it isn't all about Israel), some of them are likely to want to match Iran's capability, probably starting with Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Hams: We're good in a disaster – UK Radio Society boss

Breaker, breaker....

I always thought this CB radio stuff was a bit sad but its nice to know it has some use.....

Disable Gadgets NOW says Redmond

Re: Of course!

"That's the best way to install Xeyes and thus pretend I'm using (Linu)X!"

Xeyes is included in Cygwin/X

British Gas bets you'll pay £150 for heating remote control

Re: what? why?

My heating system (now 5 years old) has a seven day timer, along with Holiday and Party modes. I could also buy an add-on remote control unit, which would allow me to control the heating remotely, in the same way as British Gas are suggesting - it is hardly revolutionary.

UK is first class for train Wi-Fi in Europe

Work not possible without WiFi?

Whilst there are activities which require Internet connectivity (like email), reviewing documents, writing documents, changing project plans, creating drawings, coding, etc. are all things which can be done with a little forward planning and not internet connection.

'Young people don't want to become like us', say IT pros

IT was never cool

Take it from someone the wrong side of 50 - IT was never cool, even when it was called "Data Processing". IT is about as cool as accountancy : boring but the money is good. IT may have become even less cool with the effect of outsourcing and Intra Corporate Transfers on salaries.

ISP CAN cut off pirates with 'three strike' rule, says Irish beak

EU rights

In addition to the right to privacy in personal communications, there are also rights issues about collective punishment and self incrimination. If it would have been wrong to punish a group of policemen when they all refuse to say which one of them altered surveillance logs following the shooting of a Brazilian electrician, then punishing entire families for the actions of one of them would also be wrong. Then there is presumption of innocence, as opposed to be required to prove it and the right to a fair trial. I think these "3 strikes" laws in various EU countries are going to run into more trouble.

Microsoft names Zeus ringleaders and notifies FBI

Re: Double jeapardy

Double jeopardy says that you cannot be tried twice for the same crime and, whilst that may be true in the USA, UK legislation was changed under Tony Blair's government such that a person can be tried as many times as is necessary to get the correct verdict of "guilty".

In this case, these guys are serving time for their crimes in the UK, whereas the USA wants to punish them for their crimes in the USA, etc. Just because they may have used a single scam to commit crime in several countries, it doesn't mean that their crimes will all be considered as one.

Mac-based Trojan targets Uyghur activists

Re: a few questions

I thought it was pretty clear: the email has a zip file attached. The zip file contains a jpeg and an OSX app. Perhaps the jpeg file was included to provide a preview image in a file finder. I guess they expect the user to open the app file, ignoring any warnings from the OS.

Where did you see Windows tools used by the Kaspersky security researcher and, if he did, why would it matter?

Re: Seriously?

"You have to be a really silly user since OSX already warns that:"

"Windows has done that for years."

Even that wasn't enough so, for some years now, Windows email clients simply deny users any access to certain types of attachment, telling them that they should contact their system administrator if they wish to access the attachment concerned.

Two weeks 'til the internet disappears, for 58 Fortune 500 companies

Re: Infected Routers!

I guess the bit of DNSChanger that tries to change the DNS settings on a broadband router is unlikely to affect the Fortune 500 companies, although some of them may use broadband for guest Internet access.

Apple wins US ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1

Re: Ouch!

I don't think it will hurt Samsung but Apple may feel some pain from the bullet in the foot. Banning anything is usually a good way to get people interested - especially teenagers.

"Look kids! The Tab 10.1 was so good, Apple had it banned - but we do have another one that's almost identical: the Tab 2 10.1. Get it before they ban it!"

Rounded corners - prior art

Somewhere in my attic, I have a Siemens SIMpad that came to market in about 2001 - it has a touch sensitive screen and a black case with rounded corners.

Australia sanguine on Assange-to-Ecuador, would fight US extradition

Re: CIA @Don Jefe

"Show us what the WikiGeeks exposed"

Wikileaks released a database of US military reports from Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of the reports included things like the surnames of informants and the town or village in which they lived.

As regards the Wikileaks embassy reports, a quick thumb through will show cables labelled with various classifications, including some marked "Secret". That's why Bradley Manning is in so much trouble.

Re: Has this really been thought through?

"The only viable way to get him out from the embassy would be to issue him his own Ecudorian diplomatic passport."

...and the UK would have to recognise his status as an Ecuadorian diplomat, which seems unlikely.