Posts by Chris Thorpe 33 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jun 2007
Can't see the problem. Pop in the Tardis with a digicam and come back with pristine colour footage of not only all the past Doctors, but the future ones too. Though the future Doctors may not be interested, due to the special show having been repeated umpteen times before they actually get to act in it.
Of the major labels -
- EMI - British owned.
- Sony Music - Japanese owned.
- Universal Music - French owned.
So, that would leave Warner Music then? Seems to me most of the American music industry is European. Perhaps we can get Lewis Page to write something on the subject.
It would be interesting to volunteer to get a card then, having found it unacceptable as actual ID anywhere, report the Home Office to the Manchester Trading Standards Office. 'I bought this from that Mrs Smith and she sold it to me as an ID card. All it's good for is making a clicky sound and cutting up lines of coke'.
I'm too apathetic to read up on it, but does anyone know if, while this is still in the 'voluntary' phase, you can opt back out again if unsatisfied?
Paris, coz she also makes a clicking sound if flicked with a fingernail
If a fan writes a morbid fantasy about a star, that's pathology. If a writer quotes the fan's morbid fantasy, that's journalism. If a novelist invents a fan, and puts fantasy words in the saddo's mouth, that's literature. And if a politician exploits the whole muddled scenario for votes, that's business as usual.
I'm all for this, but I think it should work at the individual level. So, I'm throwing the issuing of my ID card open to competitive tender. Companies with the lowest cost will do well. Companies that offer to pay me will do even better. So if you'd like me to carry a large ID card on a stick, bearing your branding (eg 'This way to the golf sale'), queue up to bid now.
Read the documentation. I need only quote a single, memorable, domain name to customers. That then returns a load of options and it's their choice how to contact me.
I can see this becoming a verb on a par with Google in a short space of time. I'd buy shares if I went in for that sort of thing.
Useful and effective! For example, on demanding your ID card, the police will be in a position to know whether or not you have an ID card.
If you don't have an ID card, you can't pretend to be someone who has one but you can pretend to be someone else who doesn't have one. If you do have an ID card, you can only pretend to be someone who doesn't have one, not someone else who has one.
It will be an offense to not show an ID card if you have one, but not if you don't. It will be an offense to show someone else's ID card, if you have it. It won't be an offense to show your own ID card if you don't have one - just difficult.
This neatly separates the the haves from the have-nots. For the deprived have-nots, perhaps they could consider issuing some form of card stating, 'ID applied for - it's in the post'.
Clearly the whole muddle is a plot to keep us docile by destroying our sanity. In reponse, I am changing my name by deed poll to:
So, pushing crap onto my computer is potentially a violation of the law against Computer Misuse. Extradition to Guantanamo seems like a reasonable penalty for Bluetooth spamming. Actually, extradition to Guantanamo just for having a career in marketing seems reasonable to me.
'We outsell Apple 30 to 1...'.
With a little help from HP, Dell, Lenovo etc who make the hardware. And who will cheerfully load said hardware with Linux, licensed MacOS, etc as soon as the market will bear it.
Mini laptops from Asus, the Linux bios, etc, show the hardware vendors' desire to have a 2nd-source for operating systems. So, Steve, good luck in compelling those vendors to build to your PC reference platform, or however else you envisage enforcing tighter integration.
Still, should be a good excuse to add a few more stickers next to the laptop keyboard. 'Zune-approved', anyone?
As Mr Coward says above, the real scam is Verified by Visa/MasterCard SecureCode. This brilliant piece of security theatre adds no real protection to the transaction. It does however force banks and retailers to interrupt transactions with either a pop-up or an iFrame (both security nightmares). The screen that appears lacks the full branding and looks amateurish. Customers are confused by it, so the retailer/bank loses sales, or has to deal with increased call-centre traffic. The long-term effect is that customers get used to random, bodged-looking pop-ups appearing during transactions. The phishers then won't even have to try to make their screens look real. Smacks of the kind of dumb idea thought up by a CEO, then half-assedly implemented by staff who know it's doomed to fail.
Ray Ozzies experience...
Notes was a great product in need of a usability makeover and dynamic marketing. Having been bought by IBM, it got neither.
Groove was great technology with potential to own the groupware space. It outdid SharePoint but was easier and cheaper to setup and run.
Yahoo has a cost-effective and scalable web applications platform...
I think we can all see where this is headed.
Given the number of Reg incendiary laptop stories, most readers (let alone a Reg writer) know better than to leave any laptop (even the rare non-explosive variety) charging overnight on a carpet, underneath a sofa. Laptops & chargers get warm. Airflow helps keep them cool. Common sense really.
What constitutes a copying device for digital music - an 'MP3' player? How about if I make a player that can only play OGG? So then we widen the definition to all digital audio players. Does that include a laptop with iTunes? Do all laptops incur the levy? It won't be an easy law to draft.
And why bother? The effect of the levy on digital audio tape recorders was to kill the market for DAT. If Universal wants to make money from digital formats, why don't they just open a successful online music store?
Apple has opened a channel. The record labels are free to participate in that channel or to compete. They just need to adjust their business models to allow them to make a profit. All it takes is brains, business sense and creativity...
The iPlayer should be an open initiative as -
- it's not just about Macs & PCs - how about PVRs, PS3, Wii, etc?
- the license fee should not be funnelled straight to Microsoft
- the BBC should not dictate the brand of receiver
More importantly, by creating its own open platform and licensing it -
- the platform would drive innovation in the UK
- it would create a revenue stream for the BBC
- it would have put the BBC at the forefront
Sadly, since selling its technical arm to Siemens, the BBC no longer has the brains to do this kind of work. The iPlayer is just one more example of this kind of short-term thinking.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
