Posts by Vimes 1319 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Dec 2012
Personally the biggest problem I have with Samsung handsets at the moment is them apparently cramming their unlocked handsets with apps that I have no interest in - especially since they seem for the most part aimed at German users (presumably when I bought my handset from Expansys it came from there - it was labeled as the European version but with a UK plug if memory serves).
The problem is these apps get re-installed with each update, even if I had previously uninstalled them. Add to this the broad nature of the permissions* coupled with the lack of any opportunity to not install them beyond refusing the update and I end up with the sort of situation I try to avoid by not buying operator provided handsets.
Oh well...
(*) One of the apps for example has the following assigned to it: PRECISE LOCATION (GPS AND NETWORK-BASED), FULL NETWORK ACCESS, READ YOUR CONTACTS, READ PHONE, STATUS AND IDENTITY, VIEW NETWORK CONNECTIONS, VIEW WI-FI CONNECTIONS, RECEIVE DATA FROM INTERNET, READ CALL LOG - and also starts automatically when the handset is switched on and can modify USB storage.
The Share Music part of Group Play even lets you distribute surround sound speaker-by-speaker among five phones – the subwoofer signal of 5.1 surround sound, presumably, would be patently absurd to attempt to play on a Galaxy S 4.
Dear god. Please no - not this. It's bad enough having one inconsiderate sod's phone on the train blaring out music so that his mates can listen in, imagine what it would be like with up to five all playing the same stuff.
Incidentally does anybody know which variant will be sold in the UK? Will it be the one with the octo core processor?
Personally I wish they'd make the original SimCity available on ios/android. I think that the top down view is more usable in some respects (no need to rotate!) especially on smaller handheld screens, and items would probably be easier to select. Not to mention that the relative simplicity of the game compared to later editions would make it easier to pick up and play for short periods of time.
I actually spent quite some time playing the palmpilot version of this when it was around a number of years ago now. Unfortunately it's not available for more up-to-date devices...
...they're happy to be tracked by the search giant then why not by Sprint too?...
Because perhaps they're not happy being tracked? More than that: the companies that want to track us know this.
You can see this with the development and public support for DNT, as well as the industrys efforts to see that any limits it contains end up being castrated and reduced to complete meaningless.
Witness for example their efforts to classify 3rd party cookies as 1st party cookies thereby placing tracking cookies outside the scope of DNT...
"Amazon users are addressing the drone controversy with sarcasm. Maisto International Inc.'s model Predator drones are selling out on Amazon.com Inc.'s website as parody reviews highlight how the toys can help children hone killing skills, mocking a controversial U.S. practice. The toy is a replica of the RQ-1 Predator, an unmanned aircraft that the U.S. Air Force has used in combat over Afghanistan, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq and Yemen, according to the product description on Amazon. Only one of the $49.99 military-style toy jets is available for purchase on Amazon's site, which is brimming with assessments laced with dark humor. 'You can't spell slaughter without laughter,' one pithy joker wrote."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/02/17/1710255/amazon-sells-out-predator-drone-toy-after-mocking-reviews
Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Maisto-Fresh-Metal-Tailwinds-Endurance/dp/B004JFMOGK/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Just a couple of thoughts:
Most forum threads seem to be almost dead when you compare the activity in them to those directly associated with articles. Perhaps it would be possible to have links to threads on the forums on the homepage as well as featured articles to encourage people to use them more? If anything else it might make more people interested in posting within threads they may not even be aware exist.
Also it's not always entirely clear what a reply is actually replying to. Would it be possible to add a 'in reply to post xxx posted by yyy' or something to that effect together with a link in the header of each reply?
This coming from somebody that previously headed an organisation that failed to do the job of enforcing the law - an organization where people very conveniently end up working for the very companies that by rights should be under investigation.
*cough*Google*cough*
And he seriously thinks he should be taken seriously?
@John Smith 19 - the data need not necessarily even be hosted in the US.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/434683/patriot_act_could_apply_rackspace_data_australia_privacy_advocates/
I would also be wary of expecting telecoms companies to stand up for the rights of customers. One Telco in particular has been taken to court for daring to challenge National Security Letters in court - something that it should be legally permitted to do (so they're basically being sued for complying with the law).
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/doj-sues-telecom-over-nsl/
With that sort of heavy handed action by the DoJ it would be hardly surprising if most companies simply rolled over and complied with any request. It would certainly be a lot less painful from their point of view than any alternative.
Just out of curiosity, what does this mean in regards to who can access what when it comes to customer details?
If VM is owned by a US company then presumably as far as the US government is concerned this would place it under US jurisdiction where the likes of the PATRIOT act is concerned. Will that mean that UK based VM customers will be subject to US law with no say in the matter other than choosing to abandon VM as a supplier?
...and data *loss* because the FBI have decided that a server somewhere in your cloud providers inventory is "rogue"...
Or perhaps sometimes the concerns include a different type of data loss - and theft - thanks to the incompetence of the FBI and those working for them? Admittedly this article is not new, but I wonder if things have really changed that much since 2007?
http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2007/02/8821/
From the article:
While the OIG applauds the work that the Bureau has done so far, they still raise questions about the loss rate and about the FBI's procedures for handling such events. Losing guns isn't a good thing, but losing laptops can be just as bad, especially when they contain classified information. Unfortunately, the OIG determined that the FBI doesn't even know which of its computers contain such information.
Speaking of VAT this not necessarily need be paid to the UK government even when dealing with British customers. With Technet subscriptions for example you're charged at the Irish level of VAT unless you can supply a valid VAT number. This presumably means any VAT revenue from me is going to Ireland despite me being in the UK when I buy a subscription. And where Amazon is concerned it's not just corporation tax that their avoiding when they're selling DVDs, but VAT too.
I wonder what Margeret Hodge and Lord Myners would consider a reasonable course of action if even VAT is leaking outside of this country to other places around Europe?
@Halfmad - and yet they keep on having to report themselves as they keep on making the same mistakes. Until people start getting sacked for these mistakes - and I'm including managers in that group since they often make spending decisions that encourage this - rather than simply fining taxpayers via the NHS then nothing will ever change.
I'm still curious: why should we be trusting the NHS?
From the article:
it estimated that £4.4bn from the public purse could be saved each year and funnelled into improving the healthcare system.
Could be, but won't. It'll more likely be funnelled into the 30+% pay rise that MPs think that they deserve amongst other things.
I seem to recall the special deals negociated by the government with the drug companies coming in for criticism in the past. Apparently a lot of the time the drops in prices were due to rebate agreements rather than simply paying less, but thanks to the complexity of said agreements the rebates were often left unclaimed leading to unnecessarily higher costs for the NHS.
I wonder how much the government could save if the civil service actually took advantage of all those rebate agreements rather than just those that were easy to deal with?
I've had a kidney transplant, and my local GPs surgery and the hospital don't seem to have problems communicating.
As for ambulances: since I'm taking a certain form of steroids as a result of the transplant I carry with me a card detailing my medication. I would imagine that most people in this sort of situation - diabetic people for example - also do something similar. If paramedics don't know to look for this sort of thing then there are some more serious problems that need to be dealt with starting with their training, and this ever occurred we really would be up a certain creek without a paddle. Another red herring perhaps?
Has Mr. Hunt forgotten that NHS trusts regularly appear on the list of organisations fined by the ICO? Why should they be trusted?
@Justakos: Whilst I would admit that I find kids that get too interested in politics a little creepy there is nothing in that subject that is inappropriate as such, and if anything looking at this might encourage them to think about what is going on around them. How would this be a bad thing and why should O2 be blocking it?
https://tompride.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/satire-like-porn-how-3uk-are-bringing-chinese-style-political-censorship-of-web-to-uk/#comment-13976
From the article:
This article strongly criticises Chinese investment in British infrastructure – particularly water.
One of the biggest investors in UK water and other infrastructure is a Chinese billionnaire with close ties to Beijing by the name of Li Ka-shing.
And who is the main shareholder of 3UK?
Yes – you’ve guessed it – a man by the name of Li Ka-shing.
Coincidence?
@Frank ly: don't kid yourself - the west is just as bad in many respects.
Telcos are being sued in the US by the DoJ by using their legal right to challenge NSLs (being accused of breaking the law by complying with it - that's a new one on me). Thanks to the likes of the PATRIOT Act the US thinks it can do pretty much what it wants. I just hope they never turn their attention towards you since they don't even seem to bother with the nicety of court orders.
As far as the UK is concerned I seem to recall an entire episode involving a tweet to do with blowing up an airport that was taken far too seriously. Add to that injunctions being made to stop publications of photos in the UK - *cough*Ned Rocknroll*cough* - despite those photos being publically available for over two years on facebook and you end up with court orders looking like a bit of a joke.
They probably haven't addressed the issue of how PCs will be bought for those that don't have them because they're so obsessed with moving all government services online that they either don't see or don't care about the obstacles in the way.
Incidentally when it comes to government spending and where the 'snooper's charter' is concerned people here may be interested to read this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/dec/28/snooper-charter-fail-treasury-backing
Specifically as far as current arrangements are concerned spending on this would have to come out of existing police budgets. Never mind that half of the police stations in London are already set to close and police forces around the country are beginning to fall apart. There seems to be a belief in some circles that the £1.8 billion estimated cost has been understated by billions of pounds, so even this is likely to be far worse.
How anybody can trust the civil service with the nation's finances given past cockups and the apparent failure to hold anybody to account really is beyond me (can anybody here say 'west coast mainline'?).
The total number of votes either way seems to be determined by user account, but if you're going to be offering different membership ranks and other benefits based on the current handle associated with the account then shouldn't the totals for the posts associated with said handle also be displayed?
Consider the closure of police stations (about half of all stations within the London area for example) and then read the article: funding for this scheme will apparently have to come from existing police funding.
I would be surprised if anybody at the home office could claim with a straight face that this won't have an impact on the front line services offered by the police, especially when pretty much nobody outside of government believes the estimates that the civil service have put forward. Even Microsoft seem to have shown quite some scepticism, and after the complete farce that was the west coast mainline bidding process who can blame them?
I'd be more interested in how much Samsung earn from installing bloatware on their unlocked handsets. It's bad enough that the operators feel the need for customised firmware that conveniently includes the sort of crap we wouldn't normally want to go anywhere near, but now the handset makers seem to be getting in on the act too. And each system update from Samsung Germany includes these apps so I have to go through each time and remove them, and all presumably because Expansys got my 1st gen Galaxy Note from Germany.
That is unless of course somebody could explain to me how a taxi booking service app or a hotel finder app constitutes a core part of the OS, which is what Samsung tried to pass them off as when I contacted them to complain about this. I tried to get them to justify them including the apps in system updates but this was the best I could get out of them. I can't even use the apps - even if I wanted to - since they're clearly aimed at German users.
'different legal jurisdiction'? That's a bit difficult - especially when the US authorities seem to think that if a company has any connections to businesses on US soil then that makes them subject to US law, even if the data in question has gone nowhere near US shores.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/413379/australian-based_data_subject_patriot_act_lawyer/
What about the PATRIOT Act and national security letters? (that the EFF found out were being widely abused by the likes of the FBI by the way)
There is no way in hell I would trust the cloud with my data, especially with this sort of crap going on:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/doj-sues-telecom-over-nsl/
In my thankfully limited experience of the job centre the people there seemed to spend most of their time apologising for the fact that it took so long for the JSA to actually appear in bank accounts. I was in the fortunate position at the time of this not causing any issues for me personally. God help anybody that finds themselves suddenly out of a job and really does need the cash though - they really are up a certain creek without a paddle.
Hasn't the DWP already managed to expose private and confidential information to do with it's own employees to scammers? Why should anybody have any faith in them at all?
And perhaps things have changed since I was made redundant 8 years ago, but the job centre never seemed to be any good for jobs that involved skills beyond flipping burgers. I spent most of my time on job websites at that time, as well as on the phone to agencies.
Absolutely none of the interviews I got during that period were as a result of me finding anything at the job centre - which I looked for anyway when I went there to sign on. I have a hard time believing that a website will be any more useful than that.
So we apparently have a choice if we're out of work: either waste time on a website that won't help us find employment, or risk losing our benefits by spending that time on more useful websites instead and where we might actually - shock, horror - find a job?
And acronyms 'FUBAR' and 'SNAFU' both come to mind...
'interested'? They're the ones leading the charge and have been for quite some time. Both Three and Vodafone have used Bluecoat. O2 has it's own filtering as does Orange/T-Mobile.
Of course they claim that they're forced to do this, but this ignores the fact that this 'need' is defined by industry standards that the industry defined itself. There is no legal requirement for this - at present anyway. Protecting children would be better served by limiting the supply of devices that can - and are - being used in dangerous ways by children.
Instead the phone companies prefer to make money out of the children at the expense of their safety and increase this risk of 'sexualisation' that the likes of Ms Perry are so worried about. I know that this is what companies do - maximise their chances of making profit - but I really do wish that they would stop pretending that this filtering makes any real difference in the long run.
The European Union's data retention law could breach fundamental E.U. law because its requirements result in an invasion of citizens' privacy, according to the Constitutional Court of Austria, which has asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to determine the directive's validity.
[...]
The primary problem with the data retention law is that it almost exclusively affects people in whom government or law enforcement have no prior interest. But authorities use the data for investigations and are informed about people's personal lives, the court said, and there is a risk that the data can be abused.
"We doubt that the E.U. Data Retention Directive is really compatible with the rights that are guaranteed by the E.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights," Gerhart Holzinger, president of the Constitutional Court of Austria said in a statement.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/tech-industry/3417283/european-data-retention-rule-could-violate-fundamental-eu-law-austrian-court-says/#ixzz2Fa2BzlcB
Not quite true. They don't *have* to, they *choose* to when they get together and come up with industry level standards that they are then all rather conveniently obliged to follow. There is nothing in law that forces them to do this as far as I'm aware, other than vague threats from government that pop up from time to time that new laws will be put into place (laws incidentally that may themselves be illegal - I don't see anything about age limits in laws like RIPA, the DPA or the CMA. Everybody has rights to private communications - even children).
It's a bit like problems in the EU - national governments can't get something done on a national level because it would cause problems, so they get to get together in Brussels, come up with new EU laws that they wanted to put into place at the national level the first place and then they shout 'The EU made us do it!' if anybody actually complains.
These industry standards are a nice distraction from the way in whice they chose themselves to implement this filtering.
A thought occurred to me: up until recently my visits were being duplicated by Bluecoat - as previously mentioned by Dephormation.org.uk - but this stopped recently whereas the filtering continued. I assume that they took the filtering away from Bluecoat and started doing it themselves.
If they have kept filtering within the company then presumably their list would have two main categories: adult material and illegal material. I suppose it's possible that an adult entry has incorrectly ended up in the illegal category...
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