* Posts by JohnG

1639 publicly visible posts • joined 27 May 2007

Gov advises authorities on when EU procurement rules apply

JohnG

Opaque procurements

So, broadly speaking, they are advising councils how to organise procurements so as to avoid scrutiny and transparency - and they used public money to produce this report. Nice.

Think you're tech savvy? You won't be when you're old

JohnG

Swings and roundabouts

I may be getting dozy and forgetful in my old age but at least I can read, write and have a timespan of attention greater than 2 seconds.

Immigration authorities swoop on Currys depot

JohnG

For "concerns about their identity documents" read "concerns about size of payroll"

No mate - they still could not pay below minimum wage and you can bet the government will still want the PAYE.

Employers face civil penalties of up to £10000 for each illegal immigrant they employ - the only valid defence is that they prove they checked each employees immigration status (i.e. what Baroness Scotland claims she did but could not prove, although, had she checked, you would have thought she would have noticed the expired student visa).

If the prosecution can prove that the employer KNOWINGLY employed an illegal worker, the penalty becomes criminal and carries UNLIMITED FINES and/or up to TWO YEARS IN PRISON. I bet the Currys HR people were thinking of that.

Historian slams 'absolutely crazy' UK time zone

JohnG

Farmers and similar businesses

Time is relevant because of working hours. This may be news to some but cows don't actually milk themselves - and the people who do the milking, feeding, etc. have working hours defined in their employment contracts.

Toyota Prius fourth-generation e-car

JohnG

A few explanations/corrections

Clio, Polo, Fox, etc. - These are all considerably smaller and lighter than the Prius, so you're not really comparing like for like - and the small diesels still pollute more than the Prius.

Batteries: The current Prius has a NiMH battery pack for which Toyota offer a bounty i.e. take a Prius battery pack to a Toyota dealer and you get cash for it. This is to ensure that Toyota can recycle them. NiMH was chosen because it is cheaper and easier to recycle than many other types.

"Complicated transmission": The Prius transmission is simpler than a regular gearbox, manual or automatic it has fewer parts, moving or otherwise.

"B": B stands for braking and performs the equivalent of putting a manual car in a lower gear when going down a steep hill.

Running costs: The Prius shares many parts with other Toyota models and servicing is cheap. The hybrid components enjoy an 8 year warranty.

The Prius is manufactured in a state of the art facility which aims to minimise environmental impact - water use, discharges, energy saving, etc. - check out "Tsutsumi".

JohnG

Diesel hybrids

I'd like to see diesel hybrids. The cost of starting and stopping could be mitigated by altering the software to perform fewer transitions i.e. leave the diesel running or stopped for longer periods.

@Olaf 1 : It is not only about consumption, it is also about emissions and that is where the hybrids win hands down over their diesel counterparts (even with a particle filter).

UK.gov prostitution proposals caught with pants down

JohnG

Lack of evidence

A lack of evidence never seems to be a problem for Nu Labour - whether it concerns making new laws or invading countries, either have been justified by what at best could be described as errors but are often pure fabrication.

On the subject of prostitution: I live in Germany where prostitution is legal but also controlled. Brothels are subject to strict planning constraints (such as not near schools, churches, etc.) and girls pay income tax, have health insurance and pensions. Crucially, being legal means that they can call on the police and other elements of law enforcement when needed. This makes control by organised crime and trafficking rather more difficult than in the UK. This may not be perfect but it is certainly better than the moralistic approach taken in the UK.

A cynic might think that charitable organisations in receipt of public funds may be inclined to fabricate information if this leads to more government money.

Auto thief foiled by guardian satellite

JohnG

SWAG

I liked the setup on the hidden camera TV show "SWAG" where the would-be thieves were locked into the car they attempted to steal. The "car alarm" then talks to them, demanding that they apologise and admit they have been very very naughty boys before letting them out.

Neanderthal woman could whup Schwarzenegger

JohnG

Neanderthal woman

With all that extra muscle mass and associated upper arm strength, did she have trouble getting a date? Maybe that's why the Neanderthals didn't fair as well as our lot.

FCC flooded with anti-net neut letters

JohnG

Shaping

Whilst it would be unfair to block or otherwise impair access to legitimate services/content for anti-competitive reasons, if providers are unable to shape traffic types like P2P versus interactive types, everything interactive is likely to grind to a halt. However, they should be open and up front about their traffic management policies, allowing consumers to choose their provider accordingly.

Perhaps the best approach would be for the providers to offers some demonstrations.

Security boss calls for end to net anonymity

JohnG
Big Brother

No thanks

The idea of something like a driving license or passport to use the Internet is a bit silly when you consider that it is common to bribe officials to obtain either document in Kaspersky's native Russia, as well as other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Using fake or stolen credentials is hardly going to be a deterrent to people who would already face substantial penalties for hacking, fraud and the like.

That the Internet was not designed for public use is irrelevant. Compuserve and others tried selling closed, controlled networks for public use but it didn't really work. Kaspersky and others who like the idea of such a controlled network are welcome to go away and start one of their own - and leave the rest of us with the imperfect Internet, along with the possibility that anyone can express their opinions freely without first obtaining permission from their government.

Cambridgeshire makes road charge last resort

JohnG

That should help close more shops in the centre

...and later on, the council will be asking how this happened.

Bridgeworks sidesteps latency with pipelining and AI

JohnG

(untitled)

I don't entirely see the point. If you have, for example, an ftp client and server, both with suitably configured IP stacks, they will quite happily fill a link with enormous latency. It all depends how long you are prepared to continue sending data before seeing an ack and if you have the memory to support this.

Having multiple connections doesn't appear to be of benefit - unless you are trying to get around "per connection" traffic management. along the lines of ed2k and bittorrent. On some firewalls, opening too many connections per unit time between the same pair of IP addresses might trigger some constraint mechanism.

Federal boffins: 'Giant invading snakes' will soon rule USA

JohnG

IT angle for you

I thought it was funny that the USGS website has pictures of snakes associated with the report as uncompressed BMPs.

Man jailed over air traffic control IT kit eBay scam

JohnG

15 months a bit steep

Considering that the youff who stole about 3.5K worth of stuff from my house and burgled 5 other larger houses in the area only received 160 hours community service. He had not yet finished similar penalties for previous offences.

Michael Dell: Netbooks go sour after 36 hours

JohnG

Horses for courses

One would hope that Dell don't go around swapping people's hardware at will. The conventional approach would be that individuals identify which features are important to them and then make a considered choice from the products available. If size and weight are important but a big screen is not, a netbook might be a good choice, depending what applications are needed. If you have to carry the thing around when you are walking or cycling, a big screen is probaly not high on your list. Maybe Dell like to just pressurise their customers to buy whatever is the latest gimmick, instead of what they actually need.

Guardian gagged over Commons question

JohnG
Thumb Up

Sunlight as disinfectant

Talk of some people trying to gag a national newspaper piqued my interest - especially when it is something discussed by our elected representatives in the parliament we all pay for. So a quick Google revealed a host of information, including a PDF of the report in question. In my view, this is one of the great benefits of the Internet - spreading information about issues that need to be aired.

Proles told to get online to save economy

JohnG

More public money being wasted

The elderly need to be able to pay for heating in the winter rather more then they need Internet access.

Other poor folk may also have more pressing issues than buying holidays online and who will be paying for their broadband?

Perhaps the government also have more pressing issues to consider like a huge deficit, not helped by redirecting public funds towards their mates for things like "Digital Inclusion".

NASA moon-bomb probe strikes rich seam of fruitcake

JohnG

@Wolf207

"Criticism and humor designed to ridicule and belittle people with honest fears or beliefs is a tactic often used by authoritarian regimes to create fear of disclosure ...."

That's bollocks. Authoritarian regimes arrest and imprison or kill those who spread views that the regimes consider subversive or otherwise unacceptable.

If people don't want to be ridiculed, they should not spout utter nonsense on the Internet. The Internet has become a breeding ground for conspiracy theories, with people making up pseudo-science where they don't understand and/or cannot be bothered to find the facts. Such idiots should be exposed as such - that should encourage them to either shut up or acquanit themselves with the facts.

Greenpeace applauds Apple climate change flounce

JohnG

Free thought

"Apple has done the right thing, and IBM and Microsoft should think different too."

However, in a free society, everyone is free to think what they like, not how Greenpeace or anyone else would like to dictate.

Greens more likely thieves and liars, says shock study

JohnG

South Park

This reminds me of that South Park episode where everyone starts buying hybrid cars and then their feelings of superiority generate a huge cloud of smug....

US court says software is owned, not licensed

JohnG

Re: "Bad ruling" AC Posted Tuesday 6th October 2009 12:24 GMT

"Imagine buying a Ford Fiesta, and then when Ford release an updated model each year, demanding a free upgrade."

Software manufacturers don't tend to give free UPGRADES either - they (sometimes) provide fixes for things that are wrong with their product, in the form of UPDATES, which would equate to a product recall in the motoring industry.

Most software I have ever bought has been sold as "fire and forget", with the manufacturer turning their back on each version as soon as they think they can get away with it, inviting me to "upgrade" to a newer version. The upgrades are typically the same as or more than the market price of the new version.

Cambridgeshire cops get coy with FOI

JohnG

Oversight, the lack thereof

"The principle appears to be based on a fear that if criminals are able to determine which authorities are less efficient at responding to certain types of crime, they might move their activities to those police areas."

should read

"The principle appears to be based on a fear that if the general public are able to determine which authorities are less efficient at responding to certain types of crime, they might write to their MP, requesting that the relevant chief constables get a bollocking or get replaced."

Pirate Bay sinks again after Dutch ISP complies to cut off order

JohnG

Whack-A-Mole

TPB can pop up again anywhere and there are so many alternatives. Is the effort and cost really worth it?

Like Tony Paulazzo and Jeroen Wijnands said above, TPB can be closed down in different countries by the demands of media companies but those peddling counterfeit drugs or watches, child porn and the like seem to thrive all over the Internet.

Apple chokes on Woolworths logo

JohnG

How about the Hamas logo?

http://media.nowpublic.net/images//0d/8/0d88afe5ec84a3cdea6bd43000fc265e.jpg

Are Apple going to sue them next?

Hands off our boffins!

JohnG

Economic benefits & Blue Sky research

The snag with Blue Sky research is that the economic benefits don't necessarily benefit those that paid for the original research - the benefits tend to go to whichever companies are first to find an application and patent it. Companies in the US and the Far East have shown themselves to be quite adept at beating their counterparts in the UK.

Now that there is a huge deficit in the UK and numerous problems that need to addressed, research that may or may not provide some useful benefits at sometime on the future is unlikely to come high on the list of priorities.

Tories told: Don't scrap NHS IT

JohnG

Listening to others

If the Tories are listening to the opinions and ideas of patients, doctors and others to come up with a plan, then they might be onto something. It would be nice to have a government who had established their policies by listening to what people wanted and then formulating policies based on popular opinion - I think the ancient Greeks had a word for this: "Democracy"

Vodafone Access Gateway 3G

JohnG

Another advert for these things?

If I have broadband but not Vodafone, I will either use the phone line associated with the broadband (maybe with a DECT extender) or a VoIP service. Either of these offer cheaper calls than cellular operators like Vodafone. If I need to receive incoming mobile calls, I could use a divert but I am more likely to give people a landline number, which will be cheaper for them to call than a mobile number. Why on earth would I pay Vodafone to provide coverage for me to use their service (at cost) using broadband access that I already paid for? If Vodafone offered the box for free and substantially cheaper rates (i.e. landline rates) for calls made by registered phones over the femtocell, I might be interested.

Currently, I use a Nokia E51 with Sipgate over WLAN - it works just fine and is a nice way of avoiding roaming charges when abroad.

US commission urges broadband socialism

JohnG

I'm with Jake

Broadband is not a necessity.

You could just as easily argue that people living in the Stix are too far from the nearest freeway, school, hospital, supermarket or nightclub - or that people living in cities don't have enough open spaces or trees and live with too much pollution.

This is a lifestyle choice - if you choose to live in the quiet countryside with fresh air, trees and open space, you have to accept that being away from civilisation means being away from things like hospitals, shopping centres, high speed Internet and a larger choice of employers.

Alternatively, you can pay for a leased line from your own pocket. Country dwellers aren't about to subsidise my more expensive and meagre city accomodation - why should I subsidise their Internet access?

Irate iPhone owner allegedly shows gun to Apple Store worker

JohnG

Attempted iphonicide or wireless endangerment

The reports didn't say that he actually whipped it out, just that he unbuttoned his shirt to show his weapon to the female shop assistant.

UK, France mull Photoshop fakery laws

JohnG
Paris Hilton

Government warnings?

"The model shown may be fatter^H^H^H^H^H^H bigger boned than she appears"

"The celebrity in this advert may be much older than she looks"

"The artist on this CD cannot actually sing, play an instrument or write lyrics and was only given a contract because of her sex appeal and willingness to get her kit off for videos"

"Bears may shit in the woods"

"The Pope might be Catholic"

Google shuts down bank snafu Gmail account

JohnG

"Nobody is stopping them from communicating,"

Yes they are and it is unnecessary. The user will not be able to read emails sent to that account and, if they routinely use Google contacts, they won't have access to their contacts in order to inform them of the fiasco. If it does happen to be someone's primary email account, this might cause them considerable inconvenience.

The user might have been on holiday, sick or otherwise unable to access his/her account or, as others have suggested, anti-spam measures may have prevented the user from ever seeing either of the bank's emails. It is utterly stupid to shutdown the account, even for a short period - all that was necessary was for Google (once satisfied with the legal documentation) to check if the email had been read or downloaded and then delete it from the user's account. IMHO, the judge is almost as stupid as the bank employee concerned.

The bank is utterly irresponsible to be sending customer data to any email accounts, especially to personal external email accounts. It would be interesting to know what part of the bank's policy and procedures allows customer data to be treated in this fashion.

US to cede control of ICANN?

JohnG

ITU

Why not just hand it to the ITU? They already handle areas like radio frequency allocation and telephony standards. They have the necessary membership and infrastructure - why go to the trouble and cost of starting something new?

Trucker prangs rig while cracking one off

JohnG

"sexual molestation"

The German press reports that, when the driver was taken to a hospital to be checked out folowing the accident, he allegedly attacked a nurse, pinning her against a wall in the process. I guess that might account for the "sexual molestation" charge.

Ammo rationing at Wal-Mart as panic buying sweeps US

JohnG

Re: Will 12: " is the right to bare arms more important that the right to free healthcare!!"

I think "the right to bare arms" will be all about various establishments banning rednecks wearing sleeveless shirts.

"The right to bear arms" is all about rednecks shooting stuff.

From Hud Dunlap: "Does Great Britain have anything like the Shriners Hospitals?"

No mate - not needed. Anyone legally resident in the UK is entitled to free treatment under government-run healthcare. Users only pay fixed fees for prescription drugs and dental care (if you can find it), other treatment is free at the point of use. The National Health Service (NHS) is funded by the tax payers, which is a smaller subset of those that actually use it.

There are also private hospitals, for which one can have separate private insurance.

eBay fights for right to sell luxury stuff in EU

JohnG

Tesco

I seem to remember that Tesco lost in a European court a few years ago, over the issue of selling branded jeans in the UK which they had purchased legitimately in China and Bulgaria. This was not about having physical stores but about the brand owners having the right to control where and how their goods were sold, according to the court.

New SOCA chief battles Yes, Minister jibes from MPs

JohnG

Why pick on SOCA?

The same could be said of most senior civil servant and ministerial postings, not to mention MPs and town councillors. As I understood it, an individual having qualifications or experience in the field in question would be "too close to the coal face to see the big picture".

Italian Job sat nav driver cops £900 fine

JohnG

"Driving without due care and attention" on private land?

OK -this chap wasn't very bright but the penalties seem a bit steep considering he didn't actually hit any other road users or damage any public property - maybe that's because he took the unwise decision to defend himself.

Given he got into trouble on private land, he was only guilty of trespass - surely "driving without due care and attention" would only apply if he was on a public road?

Of course, what he should have done was not to call the police (or the AA) but find the farmer, apologise and pay the farmer a wad of cash to pull him out and pay for any damage to the path and/or fence. Job done, no court, no fine, no points, no national press attention.

Second Life slapped with counterfeit sex toy suit

JohnG

South Park?

Have South Park done anything on Sadville? I know they did an episode on WoW but I'm sure Sadville would be rich pickings for South Park.

Stories like this help reinforce my (low) opinions of Sadville and its patrons.

Power grid takedown: A new how-to

JohnG

China?

Interesting that the Chinese are studying ways to bring down US infrastructure and are so open about it. Maybe they are assuming they need to defend against similar attacks on China and use the US West Coast as an example of how not to do it.

Microsoft harries XP-loving biz customers on to Windows 7

JohnG

Commercial reality

I remember a large networking company saying that many of their existing products would not have Y2K support and then retracting the idea when the large corporate I worked for told them we would replace their non-Y2K kit with Cisco. It's the same problem for MS - the large corporates are not interested in moving from XP and, if forced into what would be an expensive and time-consuming exercise, may chose to go with Suse or similar commercial offerings.

Most large organisations have a lot of old apps, databases and the like which are somehow essential to the smooth running of the business. Migration would typically mean starting again from scratch, with all the disruption and cost that implies, so none of the decision-makers are interested.

MS are probably better off pumping their new offerings to domestic and small business customers whose needs are probably less esoteric and don't have the commercial clout for MS to worry about their objections.

Volkswagen unveils Yorkshire-friendly e-car

JohnG

Electric vehicle range - hours

"They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend moer time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere."

I think you'll find that electric vehicles don't consume any power when stationary. It is one of the key advantages when compared with combustion engines.

JohnG

Winter?

How will you defrost the windows and keep warm during the winter months?

Brown says the 'C' word

JohnG

1978

It's looking like 1978 again. An over-spending Labour government, having brought the country to ruin, has recognised the reality of cuts and will now fall out with various groups of public sector workers and their unions. In the years that follow their demise, they will blame the government(s) that follow them for the mess that they created.

Last time it was inflation over 20%, loan shark interest rates and an enormous loan from the IMF with numerous strings attached (sensible fiscal policy, wage restraint, etc.). This time it's the biggest deficit since WWII, despite a few decades of North Sea oil and gas revenues.

Maybe Brown hates those around him in his party so much that he wants to ensure that Labour doesn't get another crack at government for a generation (like last time).

Australia mulls botnet takedown scheme

JohnG

@Nigel R

"...to detect that your PC is sending spam, why can't any existing AV products do it?"

They do. The better AV products limit what programs are allowed to send mail and often limit the sending of emails to more than a certain number of destination addresses and limit the number of emails that can be sent per unit time.

As for the legislation, it is a bit draconian. It would be easy to get the wrong guy. It might be better to require ISPs to act on allegations of abuse/infection from machines in their networks and fine them if they don't.

France passes three-strikes bill

JohnG

European Convention on Human Rights

As Graham Marsden points out, this law is probably in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights, to which all member states are signed up. AFAIK, the EU are looking at the French legislation with this in mind.

It is the same issue as in the UK - the media owners and their representatives have found the issue of due process expensive and time-consuming. They have to actually prove what they claim - it would be convenient if they could just skip that step and have someone penalised without the tricky issues of proof and defence getting in the way.

Windows plays virtualization catch up with Linux

JohnG

One server, many functions?

I don't really get the point. Isn't it easier and cheaper simply to run several functions on a single server (or cluster), rather than splitting it into to several virtual servers? Every server (virtual or otherwise) needs some systems management, O/S licensing, certificates, etc. - and the server performing the virtualisation needs management as well - including the virtual network components, cluster distribution and so on.

Intel to EU watchdogs: 'It's AMD's fault'

JohnG

Our cheating didn't work that well - so we're innocent

Intel don't seem to understand how laws work. They claim that their actions did not have "immediate, substantial, direct and foreseeable effects" on AMD's EU sales. Even if that were true, their actions were not legal and that is why they are being fined.

Cyclists give TV chef a Wikikicking

JohnG

Cyclist licensing and insurance

The significant difference between idiot motorists and idiot cyclists is that the former have to face penalties for their motoring offences both in cash and in loss of license. Sooner or later, the idiots either learn (from all the fines and points) or they lose their license. The idea that your insurance will increase if you have an accident also encourages people not to hit each other. if cyclists had similar constraints, it might help reign in some of those who seem to belive they are immortal and above any law.

Google and Microsoft bombard Brussels over ad tracking

JohnG

EU answers to the US?

Self-regulation: as it was applied in the financial/banking sector? Yeah, that went well.

Why should US companies be dictating the nature of EU legislation? It's bad enough having comissioners appointed for life - it's even worse if they are directed from the USA. Google, MS and the rest should be TTFO, at least until the taxpayers/electorate have first had some opportunity to express their views on the subject. If the yanks are happy to allow their government to be run by their corporations, that's their business but I see no reason why the same US corporations should have any influence here.