Posts by David Pollard

Universal Credit could take 10 YEARS to finish, says Labour MP

The Labour party has promised to conduct a review

If anyone in the party organisation happens to read El Reg, here's a tip. It would be a real vote winner to promise to review the NHS care.data programme with a view to scrapping it.

Work harder to stop online child abuse, MEPs tell EU states

Re: A general sense of unease...

"... we'd be better off if the police had more time ..."

It looks to me as though we would also be better off if various sectors of the police did not ignore information that the public and others provide about these appalling crimes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31859931

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/12/rape-cps-police-prosecutors

Forget viruses: Evil USB drive 'fries laptops with a power surge'

Maybe this is something of a scare story intended to put people off using the anonymous USB letterboxes that have been appearing of late.

http://gizmodo.com/5677377/theres-a-usb-stick-in-my-brick-wall

Presumably we will soon see connectors with diodes and fuses appearing as an appropriate accessory.

Boffinry listicle MADNESS: ONE THING you need to know about CHAMELEONS

"reflect a substantial proportion of the infrared"

For a while I've been wondering about how to improve the efficiency of wood-burning stoves that a couple of friends have installed; much of the radiant heat goes into the outside wall at the back. If someone can work out how to make chameleon wallpaper that withstands moderate temperatures this would fit the bill very nicely.

Would YOU touch-type on this chunk-tastic keyboard?

You have to learn where the keys are?

For what they are charging you would expect it to teach itself where your fingers are.

UK Gov SciTech advice bureau suggests keeping Tor alive to reduce street crime

Decriminalisation

Perhaps if the government were to decriminalise recreational drug use this might lead to an even larger reduction in crime.

As to allowing secure and anonymous communications, isn't it the case that, although there are exceptions, generally the more trust you place in people the more trustworthy they become?

MPs 'alarmed' by millions of mugshots on Brit cops' databases

Policing by consent?

Plod took a photo of me when I was stopped for a defective tail lamp on my van.

The creation of databases by collecting pics at every opportunity makes 'armchair policing' easier while doing little to reduce crime. It erodes the main resource in tackling crime: public co-operation. To treat everyone who isn't a club member as a criminal does not improve things.

Scotland to get National ID system 'by the backdoor', campaigners mull challenge

Re: Meanwhile, in associated news

It's good to see that an online equivalent is in fact available. Earlier in the day after following newspaper links there didn't seem to be one. It looks as though the NHS site doesn't show the online version to those who are browsing safely with scripts blocked. Now I can't enter details without allowing the trackers that Ghostery is blocking.

NHS Scotland is not exactly secure

A quick check with Google for [site:nhs.uk paypal viagra] shows a link for

www.elib.scot.nhs.uk/portal/elib/Pages/LinkThroughChecker.aspx

which redirects to: http://www.trace-elements.org.uk/

The SHOW people, who are apparently responsible for "Putting Scotland's Health on the Web" don't provide a telephone number which would allow this to be reported. They do, however, provide a handy contact page for technical issues and feedback. This, when details are entered, comes up with: "The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden."

Meanwhile, in associated news

Today saw the launch of an "Offficial NHS Calculator" app which checks susceptibility to heart attack based on lifestyle questions. This is being promoted in several national newspapers. It's curious that although an anonymous web version would presumably be trivially easy to implement, the app is only accessible from mobile devices.

It's hard not to wonder whether details are being analysed and recorded against the mobile telephone number from which the app is accessed.

UK Supreme Court waves through indiscriminate police surveillance

What's the appropriate response to a vexatious PoH?

Judging by the responses here it would be useful to readers to know what the best response would be were one to be served with a PoH. Does one write to the Chief Constable and collate the obfuscatory replies that this is likely to generate, in order to be able to demonstrate a measure of vindictiveness/incompetence etc. should the document ever be used? Or does one lodge a complaint with the IPCC?

Might we have a comment from the experts at Liberty and similar organisations please?

Re: I sense funny handshakes...

Be careful with what you wish for!

Is there a cure for cancer sitting at the back of the medicine cabinet already?

... not going to post an answer ....

Isn't this one of the reasons why we need to be pressing for open access publication of research, rather than letting it be hidden behind paywalls? Certainly there is a strong argument that anything which has been government funded should be open access.

While it may be slightly disconcerting for GPs and other health professionals that patients might sometimes know almost as much as they do, public education is both an important component of medicine and a means to ensure that Big Pharma is to some extent held to account.

OK, they're not ROBOT BUTLERS, but Internet of Home 'Things' are getting smarter

Fabric softener?

Anything to get rid of the taste of cycle shoes.

Snowden, NSA spying, hard drive malware ... what we need is a UN privacy watchdog!

Re: An angry letters and resolutions...

@Mark 88: Although the article suggests otherwise, the EFF and other groups are actually addessing the problem of unwarranted surveillance by "world governments", not just the US.

Privacy? What privacy? EU's draft law on your data is useless, say digital rights orgs

Write to your MP & MEP?

I wonder how many will bother to prod them? It's public apathy that's the problem, just as much as the politicians who are supposed to serve.

The BBC wants to slap a TAX on EVERYONE in BLIGHTY

Subscription for prescription?

The 'health news in return for your data' aspect seems more than a little ominous.

Are they planning a soft-sell promotion of care.data by partially integrating it with the BBC? Is there perhaps a plan to transfer NHS Choices to the Beeb's custody, with the costs of dispensing advice in this way being covered by the licence fee budget? Is some sort of incentives and rewards system envisaged, such as free access to certain programme streams, for those who don't opt out of care.data?

Google kills its successful social network. Yes, we mean Orkut

Re: Just went to check on mine

I thought that on El Reg it was usual to post links in clear text as a courtesy to those of us who like to look before we leap.

Tinder Plus charges oldies MORE to ogle young hotties' pics

Re: u can grind on me

Is that pronounced Postgrey?

$250K: That's what Lenovo earned to rat you out with Superfish

Changes at the Lenovo site

A couple of days ago the main driver download page on Lenovo's website was largely filled with an advert for a third party utility to scan and download the latest drivers. Presumably this would 'phone home to check every time the machine was booted up. Although initially free, it looked as though $39.95 came into the picture somewhere along the line with another $9.95 for annual subscriptions.

Now there is no mention of this bloatware. Driver details are presented much more cleanly; there is an option to show all the appropriate drivers for a given operating system on a single page. Linux versions aren't yet provided, but one can hope.

The scanner which had been being promoted there now appears to be on 'special offer' on its own site, discounted to $29.95.

Windows XP's market share grows AGAIN!

Is there a fashion for user agent strings?

How widespread is the practice of changing user agent details? Or might one or other of Battalion 77's adversaries have spawned a few hundred thousand browsers which are busily chuntering round the internet? Might it even be Battalion 77 themselves who have created a massive honeypot disguised as a crowd of XP users?

Microsoft loosened it's grip on win7 install media?

Until last week it had been possible simply to download Win 7 ISOs from Digital River. These would install and authenticate normally using an OEM key; well, certainly this worked with HP machines and licences. Now the Digital River downloads have been stopped and only those who have a key from a full retail copy are able download the ISO, after first registering their key with Microsoft. Those who bought a machine with Windows 7 already installed are instructed to contact the manufacturer if they wish to obtain an ISO, even though their key is valid.

Far from loosening its grip, Microsoft has made it impossible for the majority of users to download a Windows 7 ISO.

Who uses the Universal Credit system? ALMOST NOBODY, says report

What are the odds?

Roughly similar to the chance that my one vote will change the outcome.

Get yourself connected: GrovePi+ Starter Kit

Re: A great little kit.

If it keeps coming up with intermittent I/O errors then this really is bad news. It's bad enough dealing with these anyway, but for someone who is new to the game and trying to learn about stuff it's enough to put them off for life.

BLOOD STAR of the NEANDERTHALS passed close to our Sun

But everyone knows you can't take panto comets seriously

Oh yes you can.

Apple Watch 'didn't work on HAIRY FANBOIS, was stripped of sensor tech'

Re: On the outside?

@Sarah: Do you by any chance happen to know the Moderatrix? She used to be very popular in these quarters and your style brings back memories of the happy days when she kept the Reg's Comments in order.

A cookie with a 7,984-year lifespan. Blimey, Roy Batty only got 4!

... don't forget the LSO "Super Cookies"

A couple of weeks ago Ccleaner removed one of these that had apparently been left on my laptop by HM Government. It had arrived from online.hmrc.gov.uk.

UK official LOSES Mark Duggan shooting discs IN THE POST

Re: Perjury in Lynette White case

It now (10th Feb 2015) looks as though there is to be a QC-led official enquiry into the failings in this case:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-31352065

Re: A while later the missing files were mysteriously discovered.

The supposed loss of the files, which the defence claimed were relevant, had nevertheless been the reason why the trial collapsed.

Perjury in the Lynette White case

For some reason this case comes to mind. A large number of police had been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, three innocent men having been convicted for murder on the basis of false evidence. Then some files were lost and the prosecution case collapsed. A while later the missing files were mysteriously discovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lynette_White

France enacts law to block terror and child sexual abuse sites

Re: Terrorist sites

@ Jack of Shadows: "Curiously, nsa.gov wants to install flash on Palemoon "

Equally curious is that the UK tax self-assessment site gave me an LSO 'Flash Cookie' to take away with me after I visited online.hmrc.gov.uk a couple of weeks ago.

They've finally solved it: Schrödinger's cat is both ALIVE AND DEAD

Esse est percipi (aut percipere)

The notion that the universe is there only because it is observed was not entirely new in 1935 when Shrödinger came up with his eponymous paradigm. illustrating that the equations of quantum mechanics can be seen to imply this.

From the English ecclesiastical tradition, back in the eighteenth century, George Berkeley had coined the seminal phrase quoted above. At the turn or the nineteenth century, Alfred North Whiteheads's process philosophy continued in the much same vein. In the German tradition, Ernst Mach used broadly similar reasoning when he argued that the existence of rotational inertia depends on some sort of interaction with the fixed (i.e. distant) stars; without being able to 'see' them in some way we wouldn't be able to know if and when we are spinning, and we can do this inside a closed and isolated box.

The Muslim tradition holds, if I understand correctly, that one of our primary duties is to observe and understand. And Buddhism too puts great importance on this aspect of existence.

The debate continues over whether such luminary insights have any validity.

Re: Ophidia in herba

For a little while now I have been undecided as to whether to upvote or downvote this comment.

Has the world reached PEAK TWIT? Supplies of new Twitter users are drying up

Obligatory xkcd

http://xkcd.com/1482/

Wanted: Brit Facebook and Twitter trolls for counter-jihad psyops

Re: 15 (UK) Information Ops Group

Wikipedia just now said that "[f]rom April 2015, it will form part of 77th Brigade"; but that's probably just a cover story.

Forced marches through Wikipedia?

I was wondering what sort of exercises they think up for training.

ALIENS are surely AMONG US: Average star has TWO potentially Earth-like worlds

Lewis has gone out ...

After writing the article he probably headed off to an inter-services meeting to collect and collate story lines for Battalion 77 internet psyops. Pint because that's what's needed to wash away some of the schoolboy nonsense that this topic generates in predictably massive volumes.

NSA raided hackers' troves of stolen data: report

@Claire: 'Take' is slang commonly used by crooks, but you probably don't meet that many of them. Its use probably derives from 'takings', which is listed in Chambers. See also the Urban Dictionary, definition 3.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Take

Ransomware 2.0 'crypts website databases – until victims pay up

Re: ... crypto key swap

@waldo: Your comment would have been a bit clearer if you had included a link to the other article(s) you had read.

... crypto key swap

"Once in, attackers change the encryption settings used by the database."

Turing notes found warming Bletchley Park's leaky ceilings

Re: Problem? What problem?

Quite. It made first-rate camouflage.

Enough is enough: It's time to flush Flash back to where it came from – Hell

Re: If this little "feature" is still open to abuse?

@Martin: Starting with a clean copy of Firefox portable, which did let me in, then loading addons one or two at a time, Ghostery and scripts from Google Analytics had been the only things I could see that were left to test before I gave up trying to find out what was blocking my access to the HMRC self assessment site. (Life is short, after all.)

Today I seem to be able to get in without any problem, and apparently without a Flash Cookie being planted; though I didn't enter any data. Ghostery showed 0 trackers on the self-assessment menu page. Maybe government techies do read El Reg after all, but I still haven't had an offer of employment.

If this little "feature" is still open to abuse?

@Entrope. It is indeed still in use, and it is being used by the British government.

After completing my self-assessed tax return last week Ccleaner obligingly removed a Flash Cookie which was labeled as belonging to online.hmrc.gov.uk. Also it looks as though access to the online tax pages isn't possible unless scripts are enabled from Google Analytics.

Don't we pay the spooks at Cheltenham enough to avoid the need to offshore this?

ICO's data protection tentacles will penetrate NHS bodies

Saddle your horses, head them off at the pass

Many will agree that the precautionary approach recommended here is not just sensible but vital when health data is being collected and used. Given that "practices [must] be improved across [the NHS] long before ... serious incidents occur" the clear course it to scrap care.data before it does any damage; as it surely will if its implementation is allowed to continue.

Care.data refuseniks will be DENIED CANCER SCREENING invites

Dr Neil Bhatia

Dunno what Dr Bhatia's tipple might be, but he surely deserves a pint for his consistent efforts to bring the atrocious aspects of care.data and its precursors to the attention of the general public.

A Bombe Called Christopher, or A Very Poor Imitation

The Return Of The Moderatrix

If that could be arranged I'd even turn Adblock Plus and Ghostery off for two weeks when I visit.

Snoopy Fujitsu tech KNOWS you'll click that link – before YOU do

Déjà Vu?

Do you experience a déjà vu moment when you do click on the link?

Drinking to forget? OK. But first, eat a curry... QUICK!

Re: So not a meal to have…

@Stuart: The figure I saw one time for average Indian adult intake of turmeric was about 1.5 g/day. It's been suggested that turmeric and other spices in the largely vegetarian diet may be factors in the remarkable longevity of people living in Kerala.

As recommended by James Wong

His 'Grow Your Own Drugs' book and TV series contained a recipe for Teh Halia, an Ayurvedic turmeric tea. This certainly seems effective in mitigating a range of inflammatory conditions and digestive disorders. Piperine from black pepper in this remedy increases the body's absorption of curcumin.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence of turmeric's antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, stretching back over a few millennia, but more research is needed. The problem is that there isn't much money for Big Pharma in a simple, cheap, safe and effective remedy.

Google Scholar is now full of promotions from health food purveyors and quackery, but there are some well researched pages to be found.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92752/

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/10212

http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/genetics/genie/projects/sfwc/documents/Curcumin%20review%20paper-1.pdf

Re: Hmmm...

A more ideal solution might be to enable sufferers to face their ingrained fears in a safe and supportive environment rather than merely to obliterate the troublesome memories so that troops can carry on killing, which is what I seem to remember the army research was aiming to achieve.

There seem to have been one or two suggestions recently that LSD can be useful in a therapeutic environment; hopefully the hysteria that do-gooders created for it is fading. As with other approaches to PTSD, though, a necessary part is having caring people around.