* Posts by Charles Augustus Milverton

25 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Oct 2010

If Tesco was prodded and probed by hackers, your data could be being flogged for just £2.70 – research

Charles Augustus Milverton
Happy

I don't think I care. The great, omnipotent, all seeing, club card computer, after 10+ years. still hasn't worked out that I have never learned to drive, and have never owned a car, and that discount vouchers for 5p of a litre of fuel is not really much use to me. Buy all the data you like about me, and I can assure you, you are buying lies !

Hacking these medical pumps is as easy as copying a booby-trapped file over the network

Charles Augustus Milverton
Meh

This is one of those things that most of us, not being politicians, and similar meglomaniacs, probably have no reason to fear. It's possible, but unless you really want to do someone in, it is too fiddly.

Photoplethysmography up

Charles Augustus Milverton

Re: Carbon Monoxide

Not always so. When I was a 50 a day man my doctor found my carbon monoxide level was barely measurable. The secret is to suck hard to get better combustion !

Dolby Atmos is coming home and it sounds amazing

Charles Augustus Milverton

Were any Ealing comedies, possibly the last decent films ever made, ever recorded with surround sound ? I don't think so. Back to mono !!

Hot digital dog: A man’s best friend is still his... K-9

Charles Augustus Milverton
Terminator

Any personal robot needs a weapons platform as well as a good repartee. K9 scores highly for both, but could do with just a bit more homicidal mania :-)

Mobe-slurping Wi-Fi SPY BINS banned from London's streets

Charles Augustus Milverton
Meh

Can I just say how flattered I feel that these people are prepared to waste so much money, and so many resources, just to show me adverts that I'll ignore, or more usually, subconsciously filter out. I'm also rather flattered that they think I am so rich that just because I bought an expensive widget yesterday, I'll be buying another one tomorrow. I wonder what planet they come from ?

MySpace zaps millions of teens' tearful rants, causes wave of angst

Charles Augustus Milverton
FAIL

Gig listings

All the advance gig listings gone for my favourite band ! What a complete shambles !!

Mobile tech destroys the case for the HS2 £multi-beellion train set

Charles Augustus Milverton

Past and future

I wonder what would have happened if someone had applied the same economic arguments to the building of the railway between, let's say, Croydon and London Bridge. Just imagine all those thousands and thousands who travel to London Bridge every morning having to get the bus - or walk ! Maybe there is no economic argument to keep it running today. What's the alternative - replace it with a 7 mile long supermarket ? Properly managed, railways are an asset for the future, and there in lies the biggest, and probably only argument against HS2. Politicians with short attention spans can't manage anything today, let alone tomorrow.

Copyright trolls, biz scum, freetards - it's NOT black and white

Charles Augustus Milverton
Unhappy

Cover versions

One area that really needs tidying up is old music. Consider this. Stadium sized band "borrows" some lyrics and riffs from a some 1950's era black musician (who was probably inspired by some earlier source), and makes a killing with it in the 1970's. Forty years later an amateur covers band plays it in a small pub, and gets someone to video it. The video is uploaded to YouTube, and some mega corporation immediately claims it as their own. Maybe that's the strict word of the law, but the law is an ass on this occasion.

Dr Who scores new companion from Emmerdale

Charles Augustus Milverton
Facepalm

Worst companion ever !

Bonny Langford

(now who has the mind bleach ? I feel dirty remembering that name).

Everything Everywhere grabs UK 4G wheel, rivals thrown off bus

Charles Augustus Milverton
Boffin

Re: Quite a large amount

I think 400-790 TeraHertz is safe for a while.

Comet sheds 450 jobs in biz survival struggle

Charles Augustus Milverton
FAIL

It was John Clare who effectively killed off servicing by Dixon's "Mastercare" in house engineers. So much talent was wasted by that man. He almost killed off Dixons*, and now he will do his best to prevent any recovery by Comet.

*some would say this is a good thing, and mostly it is - except when they were paying my wages !

Most EU states sign away internet rights, ratify ACTA treaty

Charles Augustus Milverton

Fortunately that time honoured tradition of beer infridgement is still totally legal.

HUD's up! Ubuntu creates menu-free GUI

Charles Augustus Milverton
FAIL

Perhaps we are expected to observe good practice and not look at the keyboard while typing - just like professional typists can do. Trouble is, I'm not a professional typist, and so the idea is crap, and I'm sticking to Mint !

Oz skeptic offers prize if Rossi’s E-cat works

Charles Augustus Milverton

The how comes later

Somewhere at the back of my mind is the idea that there was one (or more) battery that was in common use before it's exact chemical workings were fully understood (lead-acid ?).

The problem that this, or any other cold fusion device, may seem to break or bend what is currently doctrine about physics should be no bar to it's use. Either it works or it's a sham. If it works, use it, and explain how it works later.

Japan, Russia in plan for elephant to birth CLONE MAMMOTH

Charles Augustus Milverton
Happy

Depends if they taste nice :-)

Compact Disc death foretold for 2012

Charles Augustus Milverton
Coat

It's rather fortunate then that 99% of all known good music was already released over 20 years ago. I can live without the remaining 1% !

Activision banned me from Call of Duty gig, says exotic performer

Charles Augustus Milverton

Pictures or she doesn't exist. Errrr...........

Virgin Media broadband in two-day wobble

Charles Augustus Milverton

No problem in SE6, but I use my own DNS settings too.

Sixth of Britain's cellphones have traces of poo on them

Charles Augustus Milverton

My cat uses her tongue !

Spotify smacked with patent suits in US and Netherlands

Charles Augustus Milverton
Meh

Dial a disc

Apart from the music being digitised, that patent sounds a lot like the Post Office's Dial A Disc service. Anyone here old enough to remember dialling 160 to hear abysmal quality music (it always seemed to Free singing Alright Now whenever I tried it).

http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/ate/main/ris/16.html

Is iPhone data collection legal?

Charles Augustus Milverton

If....

If the data collected is just transmitter location and identification then I don't think there are any privacy problems. It is no different to adding marine/air navigation beacons to a map, or noting the location of a local TV transmitter.

The real problem is that WE are doing this highly useful work for free. Google, et al, should be paying us for our legwork !

Disconsolate Spanish smokers driven out into blizzard

Charles Augustus Milverton
Stop

Passive smoking is theft

Those who try and passively smoke are just thieves. That smoke is MY smoke, and anyone who so much as dares to breathe it in should be subject to the full force of the law !

MySpace employees face uncertain 2011

Charles Augustus Milverton
FAIL

If only

If only Myspace was not laden down with so much flash and CPU pummeling crap it might get a few more subscribers.

Hell, if they just had plain texts adverts, and I had more control of what appears on "my space" I might even consider paying a small, very small, annual subscription for it.

Google revives dead Nexus One store as Android 'gallery'

Charles Augustus Milverton
FAIL

It's a con

There is a not a single phone listed that you can actually buy. Every link takes you to a service provider who only deal in what is the equivalent of hire purchase. For 24 months they have you by the short and curlies !