Posts by Dave 15 2136 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2010
Problem is that what will happen is that every place you can download anything will sharp add an encryption and you will need the drm engine to get past it. You won't be able to do squat with the stream apart from watch it right when you are connected.
So no more downloading a pile of stuff for my daughter to watch on the plane, back of car or anything else. That would be ok if that same stuff is available to BUY legit, but mostly it isnt
Not true.
The police issue the ticket and threaten that if you try and fight it then they will turn up to court and it will cost you one hell of a lot more. The judges side with the police and basically you have squat chance of winning. People have been convicted of driving faster than their car will actually go!
Nice idea destroyed decades back.
Want to work as a teacher, coach kids, run a dance class for the elderly... then you have to go and get a bit of paper saying you are not guilty.
Its all the same these days. Because they have worked out they can scream terrorist or child molester at you if you object to anything and the bulk of the public believe its all ok when you have nothing to hide the authorities (other people) have or can take as much power over our every day lives as they want.
On the other hand, if this company really was proven guilty of deliberately making bad calls (as against couldn't show it was innocent or had real reason to believe it had permission) then the fine should have been really big--- at least a pound a call.
My son and daughter both watched trumpton (as I did). I had to buy the DVD in order for that to happen (you can't see it on the BBC now. This is NOT an excuse to charge me for the BBC. The BBC could have produced such programs and sold the dvd, subscription, pay per view option (perhaps even provide it pay per view online along with all the other content I can't get on dvd or youtube), and make money to produce new content.
Other commercial setups can provide quality without the need for everyone to share in subsidising it. If I want a Jaguar I can go and pay for it (well at least in theory) or I could choose to buy a cheap alternative. The choice should be mine. What I should not have to do is buy a Jaguar so that I am allowed to buy a Nissan!
So you pay for the company selling you washing powder to advertise on TV, you ALSO pay for them to design packaging that means you recognise it, logos, brand names, transport to the shop you buy it from, the advertising billboards, the newspaper and magazine adverts, the shop assistant, the shop roof....
This is NOT an argument to FORCE me to pay for the BBC in order to see adverts on ITV!!!!!
OK, assume that you are right and most people like the content on the BBC then most people would pay to watch it (they do with the licence...) thus you could fund the bbc from all those who love it just by getting them to payperview or pay a subscription. Thus you dont need a licence at all!
Second the lowest common denominator argument does not hold water at all, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, various other companies and brands exist and are profitable from NOT offering lowest anything.
If the bbc chose they could very easily take an approach to provide payperview or subscription, perhaps even a number of channels or types of program to suit both those with no brain cells to stir, those who like science, those who enjoy engineering, those who want properly researched news (the bbc would need to change its journalistic staff for that) and even those weird folk who like 'the arts'.
Above all it means that I could choose what to watch and what to pay for instead of either being forced to not have TV or (worse) to pay my hard earned so that some crass and stupid individual can be paid millions a year to mess up reading someone elses script (think of all the stars) or even more perversely get paid a fortune so they can demand to have helicopters or chauffeured transport while they touch up other peoples sons and daughters.
If the BBC either commissioned work with the explicit requirement it had a worldwide licence or just produced its own then it would not have a problem.
If it was reasonably successful at providing a solution for people to watch for a subscription/payperview/dvdsales based income then people would be very willing to provide content (I don't see youtube, apple or andoid lacking content)
IF it does good things then people would pay subscription/pay per view/buy merchandise (dvd, books etc)
Then it would not need the licence
There are plenty of examples of commercial organisations producing decent quality stuff for the discerning and making a living WITHOUT the benefit of an enforced poll tax.
What????
The BBC does not investigate any story in enough depth to provide any facts. Further most of its 'news' output is merely personal opinion or guess work. It fails to follow up on anything. Its constant bleating that it is impartial and provides information is demonstrably false. The BBC is no better han any of the american channels and it could be argued is worse than some. Once upon a time it might have done some real reporting but is does NOT now
Yes we do, pity the bbc has no real science, engineering, history or even real music left. And if you cut the licence out it might choose to go up market and cater for people who are not knuckle dragers on at least some of its programs.
BTW radio 4 used to have some content but is now just an arts paradise - even when they try and cover science or engineering they find an author or painter rather than a scientist or engineer for the interview.
You pay for the advertising, the packaging, the shop, the staff, the delivery to the shop, the chairmans massive wage... if you don't like what is would in the price go and grow your own lettuce
As for the BBC I would have to pay for it if I want to have a tv to watch videos... or would have to take steps to remove the antenna. I also can't watch discovery et al without paying for eastenders. If you have a subscription/advertising/pay per view/make money from merchandise/donation type model then you have the choice of satisfying many with crap or a few with better quality. This works in ALL other commercial fields from toasters to cars, from cafes to restaurants.
Planning for a replacement? No need. If the bbc produced compelling and interesting content they could sell it either to other companies or as dvds, maybe with books. It is possible if people want your stuff. The issue is that 99.9% of the bbcs current output (or maybe 100%) is rubbish, why I don't bother.
What annoys me is that I can't watch another more worthy provider without paying for the crap.
The bbc should be forced to fund itself through selling product, advertising, subscription or per-program pricing (all frankly possible these days).The argument that this leads to a race to the bottom is crap as providers of interesting programs can testify.
And demand to look round your house to prove you dont have a tv...
Of course you aren't obliged to let him in and you will then be able to add to the collection of threatening letters (I package min up every few months and send to my MP).
Eventually I expect to get a court backed requirement to show people around my house, not that it will prove much to them.
Interestingly if you wanted you can write to them and deny them the presumed right of access onto your property - at which case they can't come up the garden path :)
As you say iplayer complicates things, and I expect in the fullness of time the UK to adopt the German system where any household has to have a licence regardless of whether they even have electricity.
Frankly given the drivel from what the BBC claims to be news and the pathetic level of programs I last witnessed visiting friends I would cut the obscene amounts they pay 'stars' (often it seems paedophile stars) by scrapping the whole lot. If they can't survive by selling their output on dvd and in books or from advertising then we can do without them.
Probably from a bit of reasoning. One of the figures tested and published is economy under ideal conditions at 56mph, since we know manufacturers want to appear good (to the point of cheating if needed) the conclusion has to be the 56mph figure is probably going to be one which they 'tune to'.
BTW a 1.6 petrol Zafira A (also in my interesting stable of vehicles) is good for best part of 50mpg at 50mph, but this is already dropping off by 56 and is noticeably less by 60, by the time you take it on an autobahn 'flat out' (about 100mph) you are down to 15mpg or less.
2 down... mmm, ok, explain why.
The fixed camera is where I say... a good distance after the accident zone, in fact (confirmed by MP with the chief constable) on the border of how far from the accidents they could get away with.
The A11 mobile camera situation is exactly as described
Both are chasing revenue not safety.
As I say elsewhere, if speeding is safety related then take the speeders off the road using the points system. If it is revenue related keep taking the fines, it is obvious and simple.
Interestingly could probably do what the Germans do and leave large tracts of motorway with no speed limit, depending on the study you quote this has some safety down or some safety upsides, what it does is encourage people with fat wallets to spend a lot more on fuel and therefore fuel tax to show how fast they can go.
Next argument of course is about the arbitrary nature of the number.
In town the number 30 is chosen as some compromise between moving at all and killing any pedestrian you come across, the kid stepping off the pavement is not always a predictable occurrence (although I slow down for any group of kids, especially the young equipped with footballs).
On a motorway the number 70 was not chosen for such reasons. At 70 if you hit a pedestrian you will kill them (not that you should find too many on a motorway). But now consider the safety peoples argument... at 69mph you are safe, at 71 you are magically unsafe. Now consider my Austin 7, the footbrake operates prestretched cables on the backwheels only (to operate front brakes use the handbrake), it has no airbags, no abs, vague steering, plywood and fabric for a body... if it could manage 69 (probably only down a very very long steep road with a tail wind and out of gear) it is a veritable death trap (indeed it is at 40). Compare that to an Aston Martin with airbags, abs, crumple zones,hydraulic multi caliper ceramic brakes... at 71mph that car can outstop anything you have a chance to see. Even allowing for the distance you travel while thinking the idea that breaking the speed limit of 70 is dangerous is obvious complete bollocks.
So if it isn't about revenue generation then use the points system. Too many times speeding and you lose your licence. If you are a dangerous bad driver you are no longer on the road and therefore everyone is safer. Do this and stop making money from them and suddenly the charge of revenue generation is clobbered. But do they do this? No... why not... because it is about revenue generation purely and simply.
Not revenue generators????????
Off your head, they ARE revenue generators.
Police chiefs are on record with comments about if you cut our funding we will raise more from speed cameras.
Just look at where the cameras are and how they are hidden, deterrence? Not a chance they are positioned to catch the most people possible often when the danger spot is past (a very very good example is on the A14 just after the A11 has joined east of Cambridge, not before the junction where it might help but after the junction where there are 3 lanes to catch, and far enough after the junction for people to have recovered from the mess and started to speed up.
The Suffolk boys also regularly put a mobile setup on the A11 at Red Lodge, apparently there was an accident on the north bound sliproad 10 years ago where a person got a bruise which justifies a speed camera on the southbound carriageway of the dual carriageway road...
Yes in theory you can avoid the fine by not breaking the law, but in truth there are a number of laws which are frankly beyond sense and if we became like the Germans and did everything we are ordered the country is going from terrible to worse
Advertising is a wonderful thing. The Japs did the same here, pretended that the only cars broken at the side of the road were British and theirs were perfect. It wasn't true here and I don't believe it is true in Australia. Similarly I remember how the iPhone was the only device that could do this and that and the other that Nokias (and sometimes even Microsoft and Blackberry) had done for years.
I have a number of old Brit cars which I use, its fun to drive them, and yes now most are 50+ years old they need occasional work, but I have not yet found myself stranded by any of them.
Really? Mine doesn't break down, and it is abused (sometimes I remember to put some fresh oil in but usually only when the noise reminds me). TBH using modern machine tools and modern materials technology should make all of them as reliable as each other, problem with hand made stuff is that no two are actually the same, yours might be a Friday afternoon recovering from the pub crock, or a Monday morning hung over disaster, mine might be the wow I have just had a payrise carefully constructed mid week one, you don't know, decent machine tools and automation get rid of the guess work.
We still used British tanks, British planes and British ships, and indeed some of the arms were also British.
The Argies used French missiles to sink our ships, but ran out. Had they been able to make their own we would have lost. The same is true of us, if we no longer make our tanks, our ships, our planes we will lose the next conflict.
There are of course many things that decide on how much of anything there is in certain markets. Quality is one but not the only one, cost, availability, marketing, spares etc all contribute as does prejudice.
The British are very good at talking up the opposition and talking themselves down, we do it all the time. Heavens above I am even trying to get a few companies to supply me to sell in Germany... none are interested because they all think it is pointless, yet I am in Germany and am always being asked to supply stuff from the UK - from old cars, new cars through to beer, sausages and cheese. Yes jonny Foreigner DOES want our stuff but we seem to think we can't compete. Probably the same in Oz, they would buy them if they could get them but they can't so don't.
There is some evidence to believe the demise of Symbian was partly the same, people wanted the phones but couldn't get them, Apple could supply and when the % market share fell instead of blaming lack of supply the boss blamed a burning platform and ditched a 60% market share for the MS 3% one...
I am prepared to believe that some foreign companies have studied the Defender and built something similar, I am prepared to believe that we can't be bothered to invest in keeping up with modern technology (building by hand... how quaint, but how error prone, how slow, how expensive), I am prepared to believe we can't sell, I am NOT prepared to believe that we can't out perform the others.
Go and look up the designs from 1970, photostat them and start building it again, nothing else is needed. If needed them just lie about the emissions, VW do and they are NOT the only ones. (when was the last time you believed a fuel economy figure, top speed or acceleration number from any manufacturer? )
If you want a nod to the environmental lobby point out that any diesel landrover happily runs on the waste veg oil from the local chippy with no need to do anything to either the oil or the vehicle. It also lasts forever which in terms of pollution is far far better than cutting a 2 year old vehicle up and recycling it because some bit of pointless electronics decides the vehicle is too old.
There is no reason not to go for a straight utility market, the armed forces should be buying British and we should make them HERE, if needed set up another factory!!!! We have plenty of unemployed people and indeed empty factories (all the old Rover, LDV, Peugeot --- yes even before they bought Vauxhall they already shut down factories here, Ford plants are unused).
The defender had one HUGE advantage over the range rover et al, you could get it as a chassis with enginer etc and build a custom bodywork, plenty did, even the Germanz
Oil stained, superior rivals...
Just trying to get me angry?
What the hell is wrong with once in a while admitting that a British product was and is actually the best there is?
Rock solid, cheap, reliable, flexible, customisable, iconic and wonderful.
As for the British armed forces buying something else, well, come the next war and they can't get spares, replacements, repairs etc. and have to throw in the towel in the first few days they might realise the folly of using Chinese uniforms, Belgium guns, American airplanes, Japanese 4x4s, German or French lorries, Spanish tanks, Norwegian engines et al.
Once upon a time we had industry, we could defend ourselves, we could protect the Falklands, Gibraltar, put a stop to slave trading et al, now all we can do is prop up other peoples economies while helping our own slide to oblivion.
This was managed in the 70s with no smart meters and gave cheap overnight electric
The idea that everyone will have appliances switching on and off randomly part way through cooking Christmas dinner or washing the clothes just to try and catch the cheap electric is bonkers. As soon as you have this then the cheap electric will trigger all the backed up demand and the price will rise, the machines will stop and the price will fall... a mess.
We used to have a second meter which was used 'off peak' for water heaters and such like (one house I lived in had a huge electric storage heater with fans to waft the air around... a pointless waste of space to be avoided in future). This was managed without smart meters back in the 70s'. And frankly if my fridge or freezer decides that it is good to stay warm and let my food rot after I open the door instead of using 'expensive' electricity I will be a little peeved. And once it is cold is it going to make the most of the cheap electric by getting as close to absolute zero as possible?
Add to this that in the new perfect world all those solar panels occupying fields that used to grow food (while conspicuously absent from the office roofs) work during the day then are we to run home and put the washing machine on because it is a sunny day? Or perhaps we are now going to fit special trips on the washing machines so they automatically run when the meter says cheap and stop half way through the wash when the price zooms up as everyones machine starts???
As usual its utter bull, and there are far better ways of solving the energy problems.... such as home working where I would save tons of CO2 by not driving, save money by not having a load of lights above my desk (at home my room has windows with sunlight!!!), using opening windows instead of air conditioning and have the winter heat at a sensible level (not needing to roast everyone so they can wear shorts and tshirts in the office), etc etc etc
They will go down the same line as the tv licence people... assume one way or the other then hassle and threaten.
The tv licence assumes you have a tv. They send a threatening letter once a fortnight to try and scare you. Then once every few months send a person to try and trick their way in the front door so you can 'prove' you dont have a tv (overturning the idea of innocent until they prove you guilty). Eventually they run out of patience and get court orders to force their way onto the guilty persons premises. Of course this is considered ok for something as trivial as a tv so why wont it be the same for meters?
And when my washing machine will hang the washing out, put the next load in or even transfer it to the tumble drier above at 3am then great I will use its time function. I work during the week and only have sat/sun to do the beds, lights and darks... 3 loads usually (God I am a domesticated bloke aren't I?) I did try getting a wife to do this but she went to work instead to help pay the inflated bills created by the idiot politicians on the take
Working in favour of higher profit for those sponsoring the mps in the eu-uk etc who voted to install these new meters.
As for people monitoring use... you can do this today with the mechanical meters, watch how fast the disk spins... just as good and doesn't cost billions in change over costs (for meters largely made in China).
And for those sad gits who do monitor use then good luck to you, personally if I want to put the washing machine on to wash my clothes then I put it on, I can't put it on 'slowly' to save energy or anything. If the damned thing could fillup with water from my gas heated hot water system like the old one 30 years ago managed then I could save some money but someone managed to squash that idea (apparently using gas to boil water in a far off electric plant, use that boiled water to generate electric, lose a load of electric down the wires and then use that to boil water in my washing machine is environmentally more friendly???? More profitable for the same sponsors of meps I think).
People flock to cinemas for an experience.
Its a night out, yes its expensive and the popcorn a rip off but it is still a night out. Dinner in a restaurant is a rip off if you look at the cost of the ingredients, a night club is an expensive way of listening to a record and a pub a horrendous cost compared to a beer from the supermarket. None of this matters, people WANT the feeling that they are doing something a bit special.
That does NOT mean DRM is essential to protect content. Make the cinema experience better, make the dvd / blueray or whatever a reasonable cost and let it play on my nice big living room tv for the family without me getting frustrated about the length of time to load, the rubbish I have to put up with before the film and stop bothering to ship a second dvd of crap I will never watch, make sure the player/tv can let me switchon and watch NOW without spending hours booting (yes, really, a modern tv is SLOWER than my old valve one!!! and compare that dvd player with the old video tape and it loses everytime). This way I might stop bothering with tracking down ripped off content on my laptop which is always a pain and takes a long time and provides content littered with adverts.
Basically try thinking rather than repeating the mistakes of the past. It is for the reason of forcing people to think that I would have said no to this drm crud becoming an internet standard.
Several things come to mind
a) Tracking, this to me is really about tracking who is watching what and being able to find you
b) I get really fed up with office these days and its continual 'this excel is locked so you can't print it' , 'this word is locked from editing click here to edit it' bull. This drm is going to make that stuff even worse
c) Ultimately signals come out to a screen, the screen at some point inside converts the signal to dots on a screen, I refuse to believe that it is truly impossible to rig up some hardware to listen to that signal and turn it into a format you could share for free. EVEN if drm content is not allowed out on the vga port or similar. d) What about all of us who still have cranky old machines without the restrictive hardware / hardware identifiers or whatever it is they decide to use, are they really looking to block us from watching content? I suspect so in which case the idea gets even worse.
If I am honest the film/music industry have spent decades trying to stop people copying their stuff (remember back in the 70's they put extra noise on records and tapes to stop you copying them and people invented filters for that to carry on...) , this is just another gasp at that. Perhaps what is really needed is a different thought process... how can we make our stuff cheap enough and desired enough, the delivery system simple enough that people just come to us instead of elsewhere? Rather than trying to pull content off youtube set up a rival system that makes it easier to find what you need, doesnt add adverts all over the film etc.? I buy DVDs from time to time so I have the content when I want it, but I get really really really fed up with the half an hour of out of date adverts for other films I dont want and the anti piracy bullshit I can't skip over... if I bought your damned dvd there is no need to tell me not to buy a pirate copy is there????
Personally computer games leave me cold but worked in a few companies with better ideas...
table football/ice hockey etc
Lego/mechanno etc, not the little ones but the huge models
Both help - when people are stuck they take a break and add to the model/play a bit, but they talk to each other while doing so, often the talking and explaining solves the problem and all parties return to their desks with new info/ideas/solutions and finish the job.
Similarly ALL companies should have comfy seats and massive numbers of whiteboards in kitchens, canteens and the likes... very productive
It is harder in the UK but many US companies work 'at will' and you can be taken to your desk when you arrive and take your personal stuff home straight away. Few decent companies do that without making sure they pay you off well because they care about their reputation, but you can't take it for granted.
Build a shed load of houses and scrap housing benefit therefore collapsing house prices so we have some money to invest in useful things.
Then instead of giving billions to French consultancies to employ Indians to make software for the government why not spend those billions in the UK... thus creating employment, creating tax revenue, creating opportunities for companies and thus get people and companies to invest.
The keyboard on the series 5 was a joy to use, fast, precise and tactile. No need to do anything but mimic that entirely. Also the way the 5 folded was actually better than this device shows... the keyboard slid out forwards of the original case line neatly counterbalancing the screen which sloped backwards a bit.
Some complained of it tipping, frankly I never had that experience, maybe to do with just how hard or sensible you were with the space key
I used to use a series 5 in Microsoft mobile devices division (thought I would be the outsider a bit) only to find that half the other guys in the meeting were ALSO using them - and all of them Microsoft guys with pocket PCs - and all of whom wanted a keyboard!
It gets scratched and damaged. Then some egit wants to make the touch screen capable of making or answering a call so it suddenly needs a lock button which invariably can manage to be activated when it is in the pocket.
Nope, I have both flip and and clamshell phones I do NOT and will NOT have a touch screen or chocolate bar phone because they are a pain in the bum.
The idea of the screen inside and a fold is entirely satisfactory, Assume they will include an answer when you open the device option and a hang up when you close it. that is brilliant and enough
That will be a reference to Epoc32, later called Symbian.
The one ditched by everyone on the back of a piece of linux based crud from an American company, oh well.
So no it won't manage the battery life nor the security, and it doesn't have the very amazing slide out keyboard that balanced the weight of the screen tilting backwards and making the whole thing a stunning piece of engineering.
Of course, I will still buy one IF it is made in the UK, is it?
NOPE, parents do NOT rely on any safeguards. Parents come largely in two forms, those who look after their kids - taking them to places to do things and perhaps help them to use the computer safely and those who don't care and let their kids do what they like when they like... and if those kids are on a computer doing porn it means they aren't on the street shooting crack or breaking old womens legs. Frankly the government is trying to ramp up an excuse to further censor and monitor us all. Worse than 1984 ever envisioned but of course if you disagree you are painted as a dangerous perverted terrorist who beats and buggers kids and should be locked up for societies good
Sounds like she would be qualified to take on the role of Chancellor and sort out the tax system (poacher turns game keeper). Of course she will never manage to do that, you never put a minister in charge of something they might understand, if you did that they might sack the useless civil servants that supposedly serve them
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