* Posts by JohnG

1639 publicly visible posts • joined 27 May 2007

Computer Engineer Barbie coming soon to a toy store near you

JohnG

Re-enactments?

Can we expect to see the new Barbies in some future El Reg re-enactments, in place of the the Playmobil characters?

Aussie net censorship turning Chinese

JohnG

....extreme free speech...

WTF is "extreme free speech"? Free speech is when there are no constraints - when any constraints are introduced, then by definition, it is no longer free. Free speech is like virginity, you either have it or you don't.

"As long as Australians are free to read articles such as this criticizing the law, I don't see any threat to Australian democracy."

With a secret list, defined in secret and without any clear definition, there is nothing to prevent "The Register" being added to the list, along with any other websites that those in control decide might be subversive.

Racist content on US server 'within UK jurisdiction'

JohnG

Country of origin

Whilst the website(s) concerned in this case might have been unpleasant, this ruling seems a bit questionable. For broadcast media, the EU suggests that jurisdiction lies in the country of origin.

Based on the precedent in this ruling, would the UK be OK with the idea that servers in the UK used by Chinese or Burmese dissidents should fall under the jurisdiction of the Chinese and Burmese governments?

Researchers rip iPad apart to reveal Apple's profits

JohnG

Religion

Apple is a religion whose followers will buy whatever they sell, regardless of price or function. It is pointless to argue with those who have seen the light and if they are happy, does it really matter?

Prisoners chucked off Facebook

JohnG

Alternative to jamming

Why not have some local base stations to provide coverage in the prison - and take the traffic through some filtering and maybe add some honeypots. That might yield some useful information and you could even use data from the base stations to pinpoint the location of attached mobiles. Maybe even get the network operators to charge access at a special higher rate to make their credit disappear faster. Staff and local residents mobiles could be excluded from special treatment on a case by case basis.

Arab conned into marrying bearded lady

JohnG

"Have you ever been or are you now involved in...."

'C. Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?

Ahhhmmm: Yes ? Who would acknowledge this in a freaking form'

It is a legal issue. If the people concerned are honest (very unlikely), they will probably be denied entry to the USA. If the people concerned lie (as one would expect), they will have committed an offence when they submitted the form. This offence allows them to be deported with minimal proof of involvement, whereas proceedings for more specific crimes might be more complicated and the outcome is less clear because their level of involvement may be relevant.

JohnG

Robbers

"...you should try walking into the bank wearing a balaclava or niqab..."

I think some guys in Paris have done exactly that a couple of days ago. One of them produced a handgun and they escaped with 4500 Euros.

Then there was a robbery at a jewellers in the UK a while back, where a robber wore a burka.

UK inserts battery take-back scheme

JohnG

Germany

Like others have said, battery bins have been available in Germany for years. More than that, it is illegal here in Germany to put batteries into normal waste bins.

Someone above mentioned about retailers being required to take back packaging - this too is law in Germany. I have seen some of the more eco-aware supermarket customers remove packing from various products at the checkout and hand it to the checkout operator.

BAA poo-poos Bollywood star's pervscan printout put-on

JohnG

BS scanner

Like many people, I think these back new airport scanners are an utter waste of money.

However, my bullshit scanner went off whilst reading about this. If what this chap said was true, his autographed images would be on the web for all to see - but they aren't, because it never happened.

OpenOffice is the new David Hasselhoff

JohnG

Open Office and MS Office

Some people may use Open Office for much of their work but need Visio (part of MS Office).

There are too many things that don't work when switching between MS Office and Open Office - formatting go astray, macros not working, etc.

Cheeky French hackers hijack Tata website

JohnG

Tata for now!

Web'll be back soon.

Wales auditor arrested over indecent images allegations

JohnG

£170k salary and intelligence

Anybody paid this sort of money should have the smarts not to get caught - how much is a USB stick these days? Also, he wasn't paid £170K from tax payers' money to sit in his office wanking.

Climategate witchhunt fingers scientist

JohnG

Thought crime

Question 18 seems to infer that having an incorrect view concerning climate change is some kind of thought crime and not the sort of thinking that would be accepted in employees of the University of East Anglia or possibly, society in general.

Police have more than 10,000 ANPR cameras

JohnG

Brilliant if your car is cloned - Personalisation

This is why it is a good idea to personalise the area of your car in the area of front and rear number plates. Obscure bumper stickers should be enough - maybe stickers from countries which the great unwashed are unlikely to visit.

Apple vs the iPad Bedwetters

JohnG

There are three types of people

The other group is those who don't need/want an ipad (or a similar UMPC) and don't really care about it one way or the other. I would venture to suggest that this is by far, the largest of the three groups.

Save DAB! Send FM radios to Africa

JohnG

Traffic information on FM

Here in Germany (and several other European countries), TMC is broadcast along with regular FM radio stations. I am not aware of this feature being supported on any navigation systems using DAB. In the car, I listen to my own music rather than radio and I use Internet or satellite radio at home. On holiday, I sometimes listen to local radio stations on my MP3 player - using FM. I don't need or want DAB.

The Borings get another whack at Street View

JohnG

"Private Road" sign

Whilst the couples action (or that of their lawyer) might have made things worse as far as their privacy goes, it doesn't detract from the fact that Google did invade their privacy. Given that the Google Streetview car apparently passed a "Private Road" sign on their way to the property in question, it is fair to assume that they should have know they were trespassing on someone else's private property.

I am damn certain that if I got into Eric Schmidt's back garden to take a few photos, with the intention of putting them online, I would be arrested and charged in short order. It is also reasonable to assume that I would be sued.

Extreme Pr0n - One Year On

JohnG

"...worst fears have not been realised.."

....worst fears have not been realised - YET.

It is not good to have vague laws on the books which the authorities can choose to use to "get" someone they do not like. We have too many laws for which the scope and definitions are unclear and open to interpretation. The ministers who have introduced such legislation have always claimed these laws have been introduced to address specific issues but then one wonders why the laws were not written with the original intent clearly specified.

I cannot find the link now but there was a case some years ago where a newsagent was raided by the police and charged under the Obscene Publications Act. The material in question turned out to be girlie mags that you could buy at any WHSmith. The reason for the raid turned out to be because the local council wanted the newsagent out of their building but he had a long lease.

Steve Jobs dubs Google's 'don't be evil' motto 'bulls**t'

JohnG

Evil?

I thought the American way as far as corporations was concerned was all about beating the competition into oblivion by any means that won't actually lead to jail time - i.e. the big guy wins (or at least, those with the best lawyers and friendly politicians). Surely it would be un-American to suggest that such behaviour is evil?

Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'

JohnG

Apple "invents" the UMPC...

...like the units sold for several years by Sony, Samsung and others. The existing UMPCs run a full blown OS (Windows or Linux) and can run various applications of your choice. Apple's skill in persuading people that they have invented stuff that other manufacturers are already selling is their true genius.

The difficulty with this one is that UMPCs have largely been sidelined by netbooks, which typically do more for less money.

Kaspersky update slaps Trojan warning on Google Adsense

JohnG

letters and/or digits

bit.ly offers a URL redirection service, allowing anyone to provide a short URL to any site. If someone decided to use bit.ly to redirect to a site containing malware, it is easy to see how both Kaspersky and F-secure might put bit.ly in their shit list for a while. Perhaps it would be better if advertisers used their own domains and not hide behind URL redirectors.

I had one of these alarms from Kaspersky yesterday - but only one. I guess the next update fixed the issue.

SourceForge bars 5 nations from open source downloads

JohnG

Law

SourceForge are simply complying with the law of the land (in this case, that land is the USA). Judging from the the tone of the SourceForge announcement, it seems likely that someone (maybe from some branch of the US government) pointed out that they might be deemed to be assisting terrorists if they did not adjust their policies.

Perhaps some of those who responded so vociferously to SF's announcement may step in to offer a service to download and forward files to individuals on the various lists. Of course, they may want to consider the legality of such an offer and ramifications for their own freedom, career, etc. Given the state of US-UK extradition, I guess that would apply to UK residents as much as to those in the USA.

Data watchdog slaps Southampton Uni hospital

JohnG

Should've gone to Specsavers

They can do retina scans, as can many other retail opticians. Why does anyone need vans for this?

Whirlpool allows old stains to linger on Kitchenaid.com site

JohnG

Outsourced?

Have they outsourced their IT? The cheapest of three quotes gets the job, all the expensive in-house people are made redundant and some underpaid and inexperienced guys in India are left in charge. What could go wrong?

Airport scanner staff object to vetting

JohnG

Use sniffer dogs

Much cheaper than the machines, cost less to maintain, low carbon footprint and nobody has to be vetted. Simples.

Rickets rise linked to excessive gaming

JohnG

Milk?

These kids don't drink milk! Cola maybe or like platdujour said, Red Bull.

I was expecting them to suggest the kids should be sent on holidays to sunnier climes, courtesy of the NHS and the long suffering taxpayers.

MPs frozen out of super-secret copyright talks

JohnG

Re: Counterfeiting != Copyright

The link below shows what was discussed in ACTA negotiations in November 2009:

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/november/tradoc_145271.pdf

The introduction states that "The intended focus is on counterfeiting and piracy activities that significantly affect commercial interests, rather than on the activities of ordinary citizens".

However, this does not necessarily mean that the measures proposed or adopted will not be useful for enforcing copyright and "the activities of ordinary citizens". Indeed, Section 4 suggests that the measures being discussed will specifically address the online sharing of copyrighted material.

This would be much along the same lines as RIPA. If you remember ministers claims upon introduction of RIPA, it was to be all about terrorism and not at all about spying on normal citizens - in reality, we all now know the reverse to be true.

Google: Keep user data safe by letting us hoard it forever

JohnG

Invalid argument in line 1

If Google keep logs indefinitely that will give unfriendly governments MORE information on their dissidents the next time they hack Google.

Vodafone revs up UK femtocell program

JohnG

What is the point?

I can pay Vodafone to have a box that allows my mobile to use their network (for which I must pay Vodafone) and this box will use my broadband connection, for which I already pay someone else. People can then pay Vodafone to call me at mobile rates, I can pay Vodafone to call other people at mobile rates.

OR

I can just allow the mobile to connect to my WLAN and I don't have to pay Vodafone for the box or for using "their" Internet. People can then call me on my landline and I can call other people using my landline - all at less than Vodafone's mobile rates.

Maybe some people have mobiles with OS and applications that are crippled to require 3G connectivity rather than use WLAN: that's what happens when you get a "free" mobile. Just get a mobile without the SIM lock and crappy operator software - it's probably not much more than femtocell anyway.

JohnG

Re: Mast protests

The great unwashed believe that big masts are bad but a femtocell is a little box that looks like a DSL router with WLAN so that can't be bad can it, can it?

British government ignores MS browser fears

JohnG

More important issues for government to address

The government should be addressing themselves to the economy, to help companies stay afloat and for everyone to keep their jobs.

I couldn't give a shit what any government thinks about my choice of browser, toothpaste, the colour of my underwear, etc. None of this is any of their business and is outside their areas of expertise (if they have any).

As for companies, the same applies. Companies employ people to decide on such issues - if they don't listen to the experts they employ, why would they be likely to listen to some government advice?

Chinese stamp on Avatar

JohnG

Irony

"allusion to the exploitation of China’s weak by the powerful, the poor by the rich"

How strange that a Communist country would no longer welcome media which highlight the exploitation of the underclass by the bourgeoisie.

Discrimination warning over airport body scanners

JohnG

Half right

His mum was white but his dad was a Jamaican immigrant of African descent i.e. black

Is Mandy right to cut science funding?

JohnG

Public borrowing & spending

I'm not agreeing with the Dark Lord but public borrowing is way too high and the only way to reduce it is to cut public spending. Like it or not, the axe is going to fall everywhere and that will include publicly funded scientific research.

JohnG

How long would it take me to naturalise as a German?

Eight years and you have to learn German.

Of course, you don't have to be a German citizen to live in Germany.

'Domestic extremism' police called in on climate hack

JohnG

Limited resources?

We keep getting told that there are insufficient resources for the surveillance of domestic terrorists and that this is why bombers remain undetected up to the time of their action. Despite this, a group responsible for tracking domestic extremism, apparently bored with their assigned role, now have sufficient resources to chase down a disgruntled non-terrorist who leaked a load of unclassified emails concerning public;y funded research.

GoToMyPC (finally) goes to your Mac

JohnG

Backdoor

Create a backdoor to your system, with access to all the networks and devices to which it is connected - then let some third party look after the doorkeys. All hidden from the corporate firewall in an outgoing encrypted tunnel.

Of course, this isn't unique to gotomypc - it applies to logmein and a bunch of similar offerings.

West Country pagans tie horses in knots

JohnG

Neighbourhood beat manager

Neighbourhood beat manager = he has restricted his intake of jam and cream scones* to a level whereby he can still manage to walk around his neighbourhood beat.

* For our transatlantic cousins: scones with jam and cream are a local Devon delicacy and are nicer than doughnuts.

New Labour bring old Nuremberg Laws to Britain

JohnG

ECHR & EU, Repeal of the Human Rights Act

"The UK was a founder and major propoent of the ECHR when it was created, but "forgot" to ratify it into the UK domestic legal systems (until a few years ago)."

Maybe but Council of Europe members (the UK was a founding member) are bound by the European Convention on Human Rights and the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are binding on member states. Whilst the court has no direct means to enforce judgements, they could expel member states who do not comply.

This may be irrelevant when the EU ratifies the European Convention on Human Rights, as it will then apply to all EU member states and be applicable in the European Court of Justice.

In the meantime, if you want the Human Rights Act to be repealed, you'll have to vote Conservative.

Honda beats rivals to hybrid coupé launch

JohnG

Emissions

"I have a Honda civic diesel which is quoted around 56mpg and does 0-60 in 8.9s. Whats so good about these hybrid cars with rubbish performance and still only middling fuel consumption?"

Lower emissions.

"Where are all the fuel cell cars?"

It's a chicken and egg situation. The car manufacturers aren't going to make fuel cell cars until there is a network of stations to refuel them - and the energy companies are waiting for the cars to arrive first.

There is another problem though - hydrogen refuelling is a bit tricky.

Naked scans: Net cries nude-o-geddon

JohnG

"....will not involve the scanning of any children under the age of 18"

Given that children have been used as suicide bombers in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the body scanners are rendered ineffective such a policy.

Google suggests Islam is nothing

JohnG

"What is this story supposed to be?"

I think the story is all about Google's sensitivities and what/who does or does not frighten them. I doubt they ever asked any followers of the faith in question for an opinion.

JohnG

Lawsuits

This is the stuff lawsuits are made of. If they had filtered negative suggestions for all recognised religions, it might be OK - but to allow it for one religion and not another....

Google gets all Minority Report with Street View

JohnG

"...links to Google ads in the real world..."

As I am not a web browser, I don't really care what links Google ads have in the real world.

I don't see why a shopkeeper would put up an ad with a barcode link for Google or anyone else in their window (unless they get paid to do so). If they put up any ad of this type, it would more likely be a link directly to their own website or other contact details.

Slovakian flies to Dublin with 90 grams of explosive

JohnG

Lucky he wasn't going to London

An immigrant electrician, suspected of being involved with terrorism? SO19 need that like they need a hole in the head.

UK prosecutors drop 'tiger' sex video case

JohnG

The police and CPS need more useless laws like this..

..to avoid the prospect of meeting any real criminals and ensure they are further isolated from the population who pays their wages.

U2 frontman bitchslapped by TalkTalk

JohnG

Doesn't Bono work pro bono?

i.e. free of charge, for the public good

Nokia sues Apple (again)

JohnG

Nokia going down?

Depending on what figures you look at, Nokia has between 35% to over 50% of the worldwide mobile phone market. That share is more than twice the 16% share of the second place manufacturer, Samsung. Apple is long long way down that list. If Nokia is "going down", they have a long way to go before anyone else matches their market share.

My current phone is a Nokia and so were the previous two - I guess everyone has their own preference.

Bono accuses ISPs of 'reverse Robin Hooding' over piracy

JohnG

more whining from the wealthy tax dodgers that are U2

What a bunch of hypocrites!

Pay tax in Eire.

Please shut up about the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash

JohnG

I disagree

The pilots were not on trial for a criminal offence and could not be because they were dead. However, they were posthumously blamed for the crash. Had the pilots been alive, they would have had legal representation and the finding of gross negligence would have been unlikely in the absence of any proof. It might have been better for the MOD to have acknowledged that the cause remained unknown and left it at that - but they decided to blame the pilots anyway.

The "new" documents are new in that they were not available at the RAF board of inquiry, presumably because in one of them, the CO of the Rotary Wing Test Squadron wrote that the RAF should "cease Chinook HC2 operations" until issues with the digital flight systems were resolved. If the inquiry had been aware of these documents or of the MOD's legal action at that time of the inquiry against the suppliers of FADEC, perhaps they would have arrived at different conclusions. That such information was not available to the inquiry might lead many people to suspect that there was a cover up and possibly some corruption involved.