* Posts by PatientOne

412 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Nov 2010

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Laid-off IT workers: You want free on-demand service for what now?

PatientOne

@Doctor Syntax

Think you missed some bits:

a) They asked me to work for free - they were not prepared to pay me to do the work.

b) the short answer was 'no' - that wasn't how I phrased it, of cause, but that's what I said in essence, in part because of a) and because of the time I estimated it would take.

Basically, if they'd had the documentation and code there, I could have fixed it for them in under an hour (including travel), but was also prepared to talk them through it over the phone as what they wanted was essentially there - they just needed to follow the instructions I'd left them (basically a bit of cut and pasting was needed to update the code). Destorying that documentation meant it would have taken me quite a bit longer as I'd have to write the 'fix' from scratch and that ment relying on memory as to which bits needed changing meaning more testing and debugging meaning more time required.

PatientOne

Some (long) years back my contract as a developer was not renewed - not a surprise as new manager had decided not to renew any contracts.

I left documentation of everything I'd done. All code was in the code repository. Everything was there for whoever wanted to look at the projects to see what had been done, how and why. And I made sure to do a proper handover of all this before I left.

I got a call a few months later asking for me to go in and fix a problem. For free. I told them that everything they needed was in the documentation as I had already provided a 'fix' for the problem having surmised it would occur. They then told me they'd deleted the documentation and the code repository when I'd left. Oh, and they'd 'lost' the CD backups I'd done for them, too.

Needless to say my answer, in short, was 'no'.

PatientOne

Re: Severance - I sense a ploy

Would be contract law: Pretty sure you can't impose conditions when *you* terminate a contract. It's your decision to do so, and it is the other party who can invoke conditions that were in place at the time they signed the contract (or were agreed to as an amendment). Conditions for terminating a contract outside of an agreed process might be levied but that's about it as far as I can recall - but I'm not a lawyer etc.

Telling someone they either agree to new terms or they are resigning is very much constructive dismissal (I know companies that have done this and it was declared illegal at tribunal and appeals court - the company had to pay redundancy rates as per contracts as a result. Once company never did pay, though - Finance director did a runner with the money, leaving a lot of very unhappy former staff).

El Reg celebrates Back to the Future Day

PatientOne

Marty felt that Doc had let his amazing time machine go to his head when he insisted Marty now test these sonic glasses...

Nippy, palaver and cockwomble: Greatest words in English?

PatientOne

Hmmm...

Practicable (that which can be done)

Fibrillation (uncontrolled twitching of muscles - confuses people who think this (just) means a heart attack)

Mendacity (basically, lying)

Mellifuous (soothing sound)

There's more, but I really need to get back into checking 'word of the day' for those. The above are ones I had to explain recently in conversation.

GCHQ's SMURF ARMY can hack smartphones, says Snowden. Again.

PatientOne

Re: "...he says can turn a phone on or off"

"I call bullshit, it's easily provable that when off a phone isn't transmitting."

Not transmitting: Listening.

there're security apps available that claim to be able to remotely activate/deactivate and track your phone so you can locate it and recover it, even if it had been switched off (but not if the battery had been pulled). If they can do this, then there is a mechanism built in to the phone and into the network to allow it. It is, therefor, entirely possible that the Spooks knew about it and have an app, possibly hidden in the OS, to allow them to do exactly as claimed.

This is supposition, of cause, and dependant on those security apps being correct - would have to try one out to see - but perhaps someone else has already done so and is willing to share their experiences?

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

PatientOne

A confused Bulgarian works on improved airbags.

Heigh ho, oh no! Politically correct panto dumps Snow White’s dwarfs

PatientOne

Re: Political Correctness Lunacy

"Snow Counter-Racist-Approved-Pigmentation and her Seven Friends"

How about: "A person and some people."

That should fix all potential issues, yes?

Ofcom issues stern warning over fake caller number ID scam

PatientOne

Re: Tracing?

It's to do with call routing: BT charge the previous sender for handling the call (pass it on to another network or connecting it to your phone line). The previous sender charge whoever was before them and so on until you get to the source carrier/provider who bill their customer.

Even though modern switches can pass on the CLI, not all sources have modern switches, and not all providers from outside the UK will pass on CLI data, so you'll see more 'international call' notices than actual foreign CLI data.

Now, what BT an other carriers *could* do is give you the option to block ALL 'international' and/or withheld numbers. They *can* do this - their equipment has that capability, but they *don't* because doing so costs them money (they don't connect the call so they can't charge for handling the call), unless you can provide evidence you are a 'vulnerable' person (court order or get the police to hassle BT for this) or... you know someone working for BT and so know who to talk to about it. If you do push them then they generally reply by saying that blocking all such calls may block a call you *may* want.

Oh, and it's coincidental that BT also produce phones with 'Call guardian' that can 'block' withheld and international calls. Well, not block, but hide - the line is still in use, you just don't hear the phone ring.

Anonymous UK 'leader' fined for revealing ID of rape complainant

PatientOne

Re: It would make more sense

It would, except the police (and prosecution and courts) would love more 'victims' to come forwards with their own claims as this helps build a stronger case.

This is why certain Celebrities were named for historic allegations: Get all the alleged victims in to give statements then filter out those that are clearly false, then go to trial with the best of them.

Flip side, of cause, is this increases the chance of fraudulent and malicious accusations, as witnessed in the aformentioned celebrity cases.

PatientOne

Re: Willing consent

Won't work: The woman has the right to withdraw consent at any point, up to and including the finale.

The man can also withdraw consent, but it's easier to enforce unless he's tied down and being ridden like Seabiscuit (a race horse, if you're wondering).

PatientOne

Re: Presumably

"if the accused is cleared and proved innocent"

In England and Wales you are not proven 'innocent', you are found 'not guilty', which just means there was sufficient doubt that the jury could not convict. You'd need to go to Scotland to get an 'innocent' finding.

"then the accusations are either false, erroneous, wrong or malicious."

Or the evidence was simply not enough to secure a conviction. Many rapes are not reported until well after the event and that means there is little evidence to support the accusation.

"Whilst rape is seen as a particularly heinous crime, it seems false accusations are not seen in such a light. It's about time they were."

It's not quite as simple as that, and for quite a few reasons. Perhas the better fix would be to have an 'innocent' finding in English/Welsh courts, so at least the accused can have their name cleared rather than being left with the question of if he got away with it.

The Ashley Madison files – are people really this stupid?

PatientOne

"Signing up to the site is what causes damage."

Surely that should read 'Being signed up'? Without validating the e-mail address it's hard to prove the person on the list was the one who signed up. Well, unless you bother to verify the rest of the details - but as people are notoriously lazy, how many spouses would bother (blackmaillers and scammers won't bother either).

'Sunspots drive climate change' theory is result of ancient error

PatientOne

Re: It's simple

Actually, reforrestation would help, too.

I've been wondering about just how much impact the changing topography has been having on the changing climate: The expanses of concrete, tarmac, houses, short crops (fields) loss of taller plans (including trees) - all this will have an impact but does anyone know of a study into the extent? Also, as I understand it, the whole global warming argument was started over satelite measurements of IR frequencies escaping the atmosphere - but has there been corrisponding studies over the production at ground level? Have these been tallied? Did try to google it but my google-fu was weak or there was nothing available online.

I'm keeping in mind the principle of chaos theory, of cause: One butterfly flapping its wings diverts a hurricane, but what effect does a hundred butterflies in different countries have?

Hurrah! Windfarms produce whopping one per cent of EU energy

PatientOne

" Any source that cannot produce electricity on demand and reliably needs another source of generation to back it up"

I'm going to disagree. you can't keep turning to other sources to prop up an unreliable one. Rather, you need to store the power from unreliable sources and use that to support reliable sources. It's not as efficient, but it turns unreliable power geneation into one that is more reliable and available on demand.

By this I do mean use wind and solar to pump water into reservoirs, then release that water to drive turbines when you need extra power. This way you have a quick source for power (don't need to fire up a boiler, which takes time) and if the power demand remains high, it gives you time to bring online a more reliable source to cope with that demand.

New study into lack of women in Tech: It's not the men's fault

PatientOne

"...it happens a lot earier than college"

It starts at home with the parents and how they encourage a child. Girls tend to be told they are smart and clever when they do something, where as boys are told they tried hard. This leads to girls giving up when things get difficult and boys keeping at it in order to succeed.

This is then reinforced at school - teachers offering different praise to girls than boys, and so the problem persists. Ultimately it results in girls not trying as they don't like failing where as boys keep pushing until they get it right.

Fixing it early means we won't see any change for years, and there is no real fix for those who are making the choices now.

PatientOne

Re: How about construction then?

"truck drivers, yet not many females in those occupations either."

Originally this had something to do with the lack of power assistance on the steering making it very difficult for a woman to control a HGV. These days, with modern trucks, it's much easier and we do see more women driving trucks. It's still seen as a 'male dominated' job, of cause, but nothing like it once was.

NSPCC: Two nonces nailed by cops every day

PatientOne

Re: 50 days in a year?

Try 25: 2 a day, for 2 years...

They can't even excuse it as a type for 2 a week...

Virgin Media starts its broadband-of-the-gaps fibre rollout

PatientOne

Re: Bwahahahaha

"The last mile will still need lots of people to maintain it. Lots of it goes overhead. Things happen to Overhead wires. For example the pole just up the road was taken out by a lost Polish HGV when he tried to do a U-turn where there was clearly no space to do it.

All the houses needed to be re-cabled, a new pole put up and reconnected to the new cables laid from the neared BY cabinet."

As I recall, BT were supposed to be burrying all cables, and no new poles were to be erected. This dates back to the late 90's when I worked with Cable, and it was why all the cable companies were burring duct for their network. BT were supposed to have replaced all suspended cables by 2000, then 2005, then 2010... maybe they'll actually get to do this now.

Kamikaze Rosetta probe to ram comet it's chased for billions of miles

PatientOne

Re: "This is fantastic news ... FOR SCIENCE!!!"

"Have you considered just how unlikely that is?"

As long as it's not 1:1 000 000 we'll be okay.

if it is... best head for cover!

Why is it that women are consistently paid less than men?

PatientOne

"On the other hand, thousands of women working for local government have fought for and waited years for compensation and back pay because they were paid less than males in equivalent jobs. "

Nope, what happened was the jobs were incorrectly graded and the workers (men as well as women) were underpaid. The media made out it was gender based in their reports because most council cleaners are women.

Bye bye, booth babes. IT security catwalk RSA nixes sexy outfits

PatientOne
Devil

Re: Not worth going then

Containers would be the building.

Actually, I'd say that we are objects. Each object has a series of properties and identity to distinguish it from other objects. It just happens that one such property is 'person'. Or perhaps 'human' but I'm not always sure about that...

My self-driving cars may lead to human driver ban, says Tesla's Musk

PatientOne

Re: Not a problem solved

" the right inputs processed at the right time, matched against a statistically driven decision tree "

And you can't see the problem with this?

Get one bit wrong and what happens?

The reason why computers aren't as adaptable as human brains is the human brain cheats. It doesn't process every bit of information, it does not evaluate every possibility, it takes short cuts and uses steriotypes to get to a conclusion quickly. This is why AI development was struggling for so long: We were trying to get computers to process everything, thinking that's what a human brain did.

Now what this means is: Under normal conditions, the AI (or expert system, to be accurate) will give repetative, reliable results. Under exceptional circumstances, it will not. So you want a computer for regular travel but a human there, ready to take over if something unexpected happens. That's why you still have pilots on aircraft, after all.

So the best we can manage for now is the equivalent of an auto pilot that will handle regular travel and alert the driver to exceptional situations, and possibly offer help.

But to have an autonomous car? No: That's not only stupid at present, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Frustration with Elite:Dangerous boils over into 'Refund Quest'

PatientOne

Re: A s*#t storm compared to the s*#t typhoon coming with Star Citizen

I take it you're referring to this:

"Squadron 42 is a single player campaign that takes place within the Star Citizen universe. It can be played off-line."

I've not seen anything regarding this having changed, but go ask on their forums: They have an 'Ask a Dev' area and Cloud Imperium seem quite good at answering such concerns. Or go subscribe and post the question for Chris Roberts himself.

Anonymous ‪hacks the Ku Klux Klan after Ferguson‬ threats

PatientOne

Re: Do any of you realize...

"3) That's a bit bizarre that his blood would be found in the car considering his only injuries were from gunshots and the autopsy showed they were done at range, not point blank as would be if he were trying to enter the vehicle."

Not at all: If someone got blood on them, they could carry traces with them and depost said traces to other locations, such as the car. I think it's called secondary transferrance. This would normally be small amounts and would not have a particular pattern to it, hence it should be easily identified as being transferred rather than being from source.

CSI: Not always accurate but it's not always fiction :p

Reg hacks see the woods or the trees In the Forest of the Night

PatientOne

Re: Was it just me?

I thought they'd set things up with the Doctor's Daughter for a female timelord to be around. Or for a spin off series.

Hey, non-US websites – FBI don't have to show you any stinkin' warrant

PatientOne

Re: I think I...

"OK. So if your servers are in a foreign country, like, for instance, Ireland, they are still subject to US jurisdiction if you're an American or a US Company, and you have to give US authorities any and all data on them if they ask."

No. If your servers are in a foreign country, they aren't protected by US law. Therefor obtaining data from those servers doesn't break US law. Therefor such data is admissible in US courts as evidence. Those servers are not subject to US juristiction.

If the owner of the server or the data stored on the server is a US entity, however, then they can be asked to retrieve the data and hand it over. Currently the legality of such a request is under question, particularly where the data pertains to non-US entites. This does not mean the FBI has the right to go and get the data itself.

In translation: The FBI broke the laws of the nation where the servers were located. The US courts don't care, however: As far as they're concerned, the evidence is admissible as no US law was broken. What the hoste nation, or hoste company for that matter, wish to do about this is up to them: The US courts aren't concerned with that: That's a mess for the US Government to clean up.

Windows 10: One for the suits, right Microsoft? Or so one THOUGHT

PatientOne

@Adam 1

I've been using virtual desktops on XP for years. Yes, it needs a 3rd party app to access but the functionality is there and mostly it works fine.

Why didn't MS release it before? Because it *mostly* works fine. There are bugs. So why not let a 3rd party write something to utilise the virtual desktops side of windows so those who know of the app can experience the feature, blame the 3rd party for the bugs, and when it's working and the bugs are ironed out, release it as a WIndows feature.

Or is that too Machiavellian?

4chan outraged by Emma Watson nudie photo leak SCAM

PatientOne

Re: I had expected better

"Women still earn less than men"

If this is the 77c in the $ argument*, then you really need to read the entire report - it explains why this isn't evidence of inequality in pay. Women earn less than men over their career. This is not the same as there being discrimination in pay.

Here's why:

A man earns $400 a week. A woman doing the same job at the same company earns $350 a week. This is inequality, yes? This is what the numbers suggest, surely.

Except: The man works 40hr a week, the woman earns 35hr a week - they are both paid at the same rate: $10 an hour. Where is the discrimination? Where is the inequality? As long as both can work 40 hours if they want or 35 hours, and they are paid the same rate, there is no discrimination. Yet they are paid different ammounts because one choses to work 40 hours, the other works 35 hours.

This is why the 77c in 1$ is misleading: Total pay, not hourly rate. And that's not even going near the issue of differences in employers, benefits in kind and the favourite: Salary Sacrifice schemes!

Study into hourly rates, strangely, indicate there is very little in the way of pay gaps, with women potentially earning $1.02 per 1$ a man earns, on hourly rates (this mostly comes from part time work, though).

As to career prospects...

Edwina Curry put this very well: If you set targets for appointing women to post then you will not get the best person for that job**.

A translation of this is simply: If you appoint a woman to post who was not the best candidate then she will not be as good as her peers. When it comes to promotions, she will logically lag behind as she isn't the best candidate, and may never be so. This will haunt her through her career as she will always be behind others, who were appointed based on their merits, not their gender.

And industry has been under pressure to appoint more women into 'male dominate' roles: A PR stunt that doesn't do anyone any good.

*I have stuck to using $ as the report most quoted in the apparent pay gap arguments is a US report by the treasury and so is in $'s.

**clarification: This refers to appointing a candidate due to gender rather than merit. This is not to say a woman can't be the best candidate.

Tinder sexual harassment suit settled in undisclosed deal

PatientOne

Re: Admission Of Guilt..

Why does it have to die?

Remember: We don't have *proof* of guilt, just the accusation. We don't have the evidence for either side. All we have is a "They did this" v "No we didn't".

Offering to settle does sound like admission of guilt. However, accepting that offer also sounds like an admission that there was no case to answer for.

Another way to look at it is that neither side has a sufficiently strong case to have confidence in a clean win, plus the plaintiff was not sufficiently dedicated to proving their case that they would not accept a 'without prejudice' settlement.

All we can say is the parties involved settled their disagreement in an amicable fashion and they've gone their own ways, and that's really for the best for everyone.

Games industry set for $5 BILLION haircut, warn beancounters

PatientOne

Re: It's spunkgargleweewee that broke it

"Then there are AAA producers trying very hard to make movies instead of games"

It's more that the investers and publishers are telling the developers what to develop. This interference and the demand for games to be released to schedule has led to games being released too soon, or developers playing safe and just reskinning an existing game.

The Indi developers are certainly where the innovation is - they just need the funding which, thankfully, the gaming community are starting to supply thanks to crowd funding and the like.

PatientOne

Re: Profit wouldn't slip if they wrote better games

"Do we see artificial intelligence? No."

Check out Star Citizen (in development at the moment). They've a team in to specifically develop AI for the game. Their aim is for the NPC's to be as close to indistinguishable to people as they can get it.

Thing is, it's cutting edge. Someone has to invest in it, else it's an expensive path to take and as has been said: You need a powerful machine to run it. That's why most stick to more predictable NPC behaviours, although if you look at Alpha Protocol, you can see some effort towards having different NPC's behave different ways (G22 agents act differently to Mafia goons, who act differently to the VCI mercs). Yes, it's still primative, but it makes a difference when you're facing opponents who hang back and use flash grenades verse those that try to flank you, verse those who want to get in close. Even the likes of Mass Effect shows signs of rudimentary AI in opponents.

So it's getting better, and hopefully soon you'll get your wish :p

PatientOne

Beat me to it. Star Citizen is certainly proving that PC gaming is alive and kicking, and that there are a lot of people out there willing to back its development ($48 million in crowd funding and growing).

Personally, I think the reason why there's all this 'doom and gloom' about the gaming industry is that the subscription model isn't doing so well as casual players prefer the free-to-play plus micro-transaction model. That and a lot of the recent games haven't held the attention of gamers. Oh, there are some good games out there, but they've either taken a long time to get out of open Beta (Firefall's now officially released, for example but was in Beta for years), or they're rushed out in such a bug-ridden state that the game is frustrating to play (Elder Scrolls Online and SWTOR for example).

At least with Star Citizen they've got backers in to test things really early on so they can see (and fix) the problems while the code is still 'wet' :)

Wireless-controlled contraception implant is coming, says MIT

PatientOne

Re: Wonderful device

What male contraceptive medication?

Currently we are still trying to develop one that works without triggering some rather undesirable side effects not limited to the loss of sex drive, while actually being effective. Suppressing Testosterone, which triggers sperm production, is not only ineffective but triggers quite a few side effects, including loss of sex drive. Artificial testosterone is also lacking in effectiveness, more so than suppressing natural testosterone, and still has problems with long term use (permanent sterility being the biggest concern).

Focus is on alternatives, but when something might be ready - who knows?

So currently there are no male contraceptive medications available for the public. At least not here in the UK, and I haven't heard of any breakthrough from elsewhere, so I ask again: What medication?

PatientOne

@stucs201

The range would be determined by the power of the transmitter, where as the chip would be the receiver unless they're using some form of handshake between the two.They might try combining the transmitter with an induction loop to power the chip during reprogramming, which would control the range, but it still doesn't stop someone tampering with the chip while the woman is asleep.

Yes, this would likely be the partner, but this isn't a given.

It also doesn't protect the chip from outside interference which might just scramble or fry the chip.

It also limits medical investigations as this kind of implant would have to be treated the same as a pace maker (MRI scans? Sure...)

I know the BBC article on this spoke of encryption and security, but that's barely the tip of the iceburg.

Freeze, Glasshole! Stop spying on me at the ATM

PatientOne

Perhaps it's time to change the security model

It's fairly simple: I go to log onto my online account and I'm asked for three numbers from the pin, in a random order, and any number can be duplicated. Which three numbers changes each time I log in.

Why hasn't this been adopted for cash points?

Plus, you could then have longer pin numbers for extra security.

US judge: Our digital search warrants apply ANYWHERE

PatientOne

Re: Not just a blow to Microsoft's attempts to assure non-US customers

"Perhaps so, but that won't stop the nhs or hmrc from using US companies."

Nope, but Safe Harbour requirements might.

Teen girl arrested with 70-year-old man's four inch weapon inside her

PatientOne

Re: ROFL

"Tampons were standard issue for bush patrol in the RLI (Rhodesian Light Infantry) back in the day. Normally need two for entry & exit holes."

???

A tampon for the small entry wound, perhaps, but you'd need a large pad for the exit wound. Or a proper dressing. Or two. Or even three. Depends on what you were shot with and where.

Facebook Oculus VR buyout: IT WANTS your EYEBALLS

PatientOne

Re: The point

I think there is a potential market for VR in education that would eclipse gaming.

Back in 1999 I was looking into this: A Virtual campus for students that can't attend lectures. What was being done then was lectures being filmed and made available online to students. The problem was there was no interaction, and that is a big part of education hence the project. It didn't get far: There wasn't much in the way of funding, but the principle was presented and probably forgotten.

However, this technology would make it possible to set up a virtual lecture which would open up all sorts of opportunities in education. No need for lecture theatres would mean lectures could be held when it was convenient for the students and lecturer rather than be subjected to schedule hell as they are now, separate rooms could be created for work groups as needed, lectures would become economic for smaller classes and students would not be bound by geographical location (lab work could be a problem at first, but ultimately - make that virtual, too).

Gaming could quickly become eclipsed by Education for driving further development of this technology. However I'm pretty sure the Adult industry would be in there, too...

Facebook swallows Oculus VR goggle-geeks. Did that really happen?

PatientOne

My one concern is this business of 'adverts'. Do they intend to stream adverts to the Rift to be displayed over whatever virtual environment you're viewing. Imagine playing the likes of WoW or EOS and having some soda pop advert appear before you. It would ruin the imersion of the game, and make having a rift utterly pointless.

Leave the adverts out and I might consider it. Keep them in and I'll find something else for 3d imersion.

Boycott Firefox, gay devs urge as Mozilla appoints JavaScript daddy as CEO

PatientOne

Re: right - 'what's wrong with white middle aged males?'

"But on the subject of whipping boys, name me just one time in the last 2000 years of western civilisation where it's been a bad idea to be a straight male."

Well, as LGBT people have been banned from most military forces until recently, and women were also banned from combat roles, how about any of the wars fought since the introduction of military service where constription was used to fill the ranks of fighting forces? Yes, things are changing, but it's only really since 2000 that the UK, and 2011 the US have allowed homosexuals to serve and woman might be allowed to fight but again, this is a recent development.

So: Vietnam and either world war when straight males were conscripted to fight, but homosexuals and women were excempt. Being straight and male and not wanting to fight was pretty much a bad idea then wasn't it?

Star Wars movie to start shooting in UK this summer

PatientOne
Coat

"Lando better be in it or there's no point"

Disco Lando*? Now that would be worth watching...

*Possibly an obscure reference, possibly not...

Global Warming is real, argues sceptic mathematician - it just isn't Thermageddon

PatientOne

Re: Facts

"1.CO2 absorbs more heat than any other gas therefore ALL the global warming is down to CO2."

*cough* Methane *cough*

Oh, by volume? H2O.

Ah, sorry, for Anthropomorphic... I'd have to check but you might have me there...

US judge Koh won't ban old Samsung gear, tells Apple: Your patents aren't that amazing

PatientOne

Re: Patent

"In thermonuclear war , everyone loses, in a patent war, everyone loses except the lawyers"

In thermonuclear war, the Arms dealers win.

After all, who do you think will supply the pointy sticks and clubs for the next war?

Chillax, cranky commentards: Anger can KILL YOU

PatientOne

If anger can kill, then is someone who makes me angry attempting to murder me?

And if someone is trying to murder me, then I have the right to defend myself...

where's the cattle prod?

Bosses to be banned from forcing new hires to pull personal records

PatientOne

Re: I'd pass that test @PyLETS

@BLueGreen

It's a grey area, but the key is intent. If it is intended to aid a prosecution then it could be claimed to be entrapment, and so would be inadmissible in court.

What you are thinking of is recording a telephone conversation which is covered under the telecommunications Act (and it is illegal without a warrant or permission from the other party).

Minecraft developer kills Kickstarted Minecraft movie

PatientOne

"I'd of thought notch has made enough millions without wanting to milk some small production movie too, which lets face it is just more publicity for the game!"

Who said he wanted to make any money from it? All he said is he'd expect there'd be some negotiation first. This could be financial gain, sure, but it could also be a veto on the script or the inclusion of something by Notch. Perhaps a personal appearence or commentary - we dont know because the kickstarter didn't bother talking to him first.

London's King of Clamps shuts down numberplate camera site

PatientOne

Re: @PatientOne

@JimmyPage

Sorry, posted a bit quickly and wasn't clear on my point: His claim to detecting disabled drivers could be based on the detection of disability cars. Nothing to say the driver is disabled, just that the number plate appears on a 'disabled' list. However, as you notes, a lot of disability cars are driven by parnters or parents for the same reason why you drive for your wife, so the claim is misleading at best and fraudulant at worst.

PatientOne

"It can spot disabled people."

Some vehicles are registered as disability vehicles: Specially modified for wheelchair users. Those his camera would be able to detect - it they linked to the DVLA.

PatientOne

Re: The small ironies of life.

""Without enforcement, drivers take the piss and we end up with chaos and selfishness like in Rome or Bombay."

Or maybe not, as proponents of "shared space" argue"

We have chaos and selfishness in the UK with parking. Just go near a school at kicking out time. Your link won't fix that: The parents already think they've got a right to park as close to the school as they can get, just so they don't have to walk so far to fetch their kids. Oh, and they also don't care if they block the road by standing in the way with their car doors open, getting their kids settled into the back of the car.

It's one example, but there are a lot of schools and a hell of a lot of feckless parents.

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