Posts by Frankee Llonnygog

New poll says Assange could win Australian Senate seat

The power of memes

Since it's one internet meme that got him into trouble, maybe he can exploit another to escape.

At the right moment, an accomplice can distract the guards by driving up in a flatbed truck bearing a cat playing a piano.

ICO probes Home Office refusal to reveal Snooper's Charter details

Will the Cabinet Office insist on an Open Source solution?

After all, that's official Government IT policy now. I look forward to downloading the source from GitHub and contributing one or two enhancements

Report: Apple returned 8M shoddy iPhones to Foxconn

Over what period

Admittedly I read the original China Business article in Googlish, but I couldn't figure out over what period the alleged 5-8 million phones were returned

How to save UK's open data: Meet the 'Fair Value Licence'

If the Postcode database is sold off ...

... will I be free to set up my own rival system? I plan to make a fortune from the sale of vanity postcodes, for example to a community who'd all like to live in SIN.

Google's Page drops the A-bomb: Google Glass runs Android

Runs Android?

Won't the specs get all smeary when you swipe across them?

Ex-LulzSec bloke to spend a YEAR in the cooler for Sony hack

Re: Remind me

LulzSec's mistake was in not having Sony click 'I accept' on a EULA

Touchscreen killer? Cam boffinry cut'n'pastes from real things

Not to mention -

- the cam boffins. "Would you like me to remove my lab coat?"

Microsoft CFO quits as quarterly results fail to sparkle

Windows 8 is the mullet of operating systems

Apple and Android are benefiting from the consumerisation of IT. Microsoft's response is a hybrid consumer/business OS - Metro in the front, Windows in the back (hence the mullet analogy).

Time to split off a real consumer brand (Xbox tablets & phones?), and refocus on making Windows/Office the best possible business machines? Or is it already too late?

Gov.uk named THE BEST THING Britain has made all year

Re: "This service doesn’t work with some modern browsers and operating systems"

To be fair, this page predates the redesign. Soon it will read:

This page is built with: HTML 5; CSS 3; Ruby; Django; MongoDB; Varnish; Squid; nginx; and so on, and on ...

It still won't work, but in a much more modern way.

Re: Language support?

Ah - you are not using the clever navigational tool that makes finding gov.uk content a doddle. It's called Google

Re: Why is it hosted by a Merkin company?

Sigh - it's not. To be fair to GDS (grudgingly) Akamai are a content delivery network. The site is hosted in the UK

Re: Hold on, when did this go live?

No, you're right. Doesn't stop Mike Bracken claiming credit for it though, even though it predates his arrival at the UK Gov's Department of Interesting Facial Hair

Re: http://archive.org

Maybe not - but the snapshots on the UK gov's own national archive website probably are

And now, some responses to the judges

"… because it has rationalised multiple official websites, it saves the taxpayer millions"

The National Audit Office has failed to find any evidence for the claimed savings

"The design deemed best in show is something that many had given up all hope of reinventing: the UK government’s approach to information technology"

So far, the designers have only managed to implement a new website. All online Government transactions predate their involvement, and they've failed to deliver the new ones they promised.

"How many billions of pounds have been wasted in the government’s procurement of unusable IT systems? You really don’t want to know. So the fact that a team has finally found the formula of success, a formula that is better, faster and cheaper than most private sector companies’ efforts, is something to be shouted from the rooftops."

Reality check - they've re-skinned a bleedin' website.

If you want a hearty laugh, read the Government Digital Service's newly published standard (they love writing standards!) for Digital Service Delivery. Assuming you already have this badge from the Girl Guides, then you may find the tone somewhat patronising, and the content less than informative. However, printed out, and rolled up, it's useful for swatting Macbook-Air-bearing 'subject-matter-experts' upside their heads.

Global Design Award

The London-based judges of the London Design Museum (part-funded by the Arts Council, an agency of the UK Government) has awarded it's global design award to the new website of the UK Government.

EMC jazzes up its archive offerings

EMC - jazz

Very good.

May your Weber be Eberhard

Magic mystery malware menaces many UK machines - new claim

Can I be the first with the obligatory ...

... Skynet!

Boffins build ant-sized battery, claim it's tough enough to start a car

3-dimensional electrodes

Call me picky, but all electrodes are 3 dimensional

Samsung: Posting of fake HTC hate was 'unfortunate'

Re: Ouch!

"my desire was a bitch to unlock"

And that, sir, is poetry.

The recent incident was unfortunate

As in, 'unfortunately, we got caught'.

Linux in 2013: 'Freakishly awesome' – and who needs a fork?

Re: And yet, and yet ...

I know of a website that runs on Linux and processes hundreds of million quids worth of sales in a year. OK, the bean counters count those beans on Windows, but it's Linux doing the business

Re: And yet, and yet ...

You can run the online or data centre bits of your business on Linux. Why do discussions about Linux and business always veer to what's on the desktop?

AMAZEBALLS: Buy a doomed Apple TV, get a replacement free

Re: I'm still unsure...

Don't just vote me down - argue! I'll be the first to admit that Linux user interfaces are flexible, configurable,etc, etc. But well designed? There's a long way to go.

Re: I'm still unsure...

Display a well-designed user-interface?

PC floggers scavenge for crumbs as Apple hoovers up profits

Idiots tax?

If Apple customers are paying an idiot's tax for kit that they think looks and feels better to other vendors, what stops those other vendors from designing better looking kit and grabbing some of those profits? Perhaps it's not that easy?

And, if a customer prefers that a device they spend a large amount of time using looks and feels better, according to their subjective preferences, and if nobody else is offering something better or comparable for less money, is it so idiotic to pay a bit more for something you actually like?

To put it another way, if you had a choice between 7 different pairs of sandpaper y-fronts at £3 a pair, and one pair of cotton kecks at £4, which would you choose?

TalkTalk ads banned by watchdog over 'misleading' YouView offer

Dear adman

I'll give you a kick up the arse absolutely free*

*boot dislodgement fee of £50 applies)

Kobo strikes new match against Kindle: The Aura HD e-reader

Re: Big bezels

Well, assuming you don't want the expense of a capacitative screen, or the clunkiness of resistive, you can replace IR detection with vibration sensing piezo transducers at the fours corners that triangulate (sic) the finger position.

Note - I'm not suggesting a slim bezel, but rather a bezel that serves dual purpose as the page margin and blends almost imperceptibly with the page. It shouldn't be any less grippable than now.

Re: Big bezels

Right - that's the ideal eBook design crowd-sourced. Now, would some bugger please build it?

Big bezels

Design tip -

If you must have a big bezel, make it the same colour as the screen and flush with the edges of the screen

Then get rid of the on-screen margins around the text - the bezel serves as the margin.

Hey presto-bingo - 25%-ish more text onscreen

At LAST, scientists tackle the problems faced by alcoholic rats

THE PROBLEMS FACED BY ALCOHOLIC RATS

I always thought the problem was that they couldn't get served in pubs - that's why they're always hanging round outside in the alley.

Why hacking and platforms are the future of NHS IT

Re: Scandal

The Government is well aware. Hence the drafting of the Leveson Law which will stop reporting of future IT scandals outside the specialist press. A case of 'what you don't know can't hurt them'.

Re: Hands up, who's not heard of HL7 (another set of standards from the 1980s)

Yep - standards and interoperability are the things you need to mandate centrally. The platforms and apps can come from diverse sources. This is true for any vertical - banking, etc. Anyone who doesn't get this is doomed to be blackmailed by proprietary software vendors in perpetuity.

Ban drones taking snaps of homes, rages Google boss... That's HIS job, right?

He's just upset that ...

... having spent so much money developing self-driving cars with a view to automating the street cam fleet, he's just realised that a competitor will be able to do it more easily, quickly, and cheaply with drones.

Facebook Home gets SMACKDOWN from irate users

Can you still make phone calls?

I hope this is a very engrossing and involving experience for Facebook users. The upswing in associated accidents should work wonders for the gene pool.

Movie review: Oblivion

Re: Nothing puts me off a film more

The Philip French review in the Groaniad nails it - basically a running list for when Cruise deploys each one of his 3 facial expressions. Cruise is the only actor I can think of who is more uncanny than CGI.

FAA: 'No, you CAN'T hijack a plane with an Android app'

Re: Every article I've seen about this neglects to mention the most important thing

The guy claimed he could hack the software, not that he could evade airport security. As I said in a comment on the previous story, you could set this up on a laptop in a piece of checked-in baggage, and program it to play back your exploits at the appropriate time. That way, you don't have to be on the plane.

Dubai splurges on 700hp, 217mph Lamborghini police cruiser

Wouldn't ...

... some shoulder-launched missiles do the job more cheaply?

Oh S**T, here comes a robot to take my job

Not the ending I'd expected

I thought the copro-culprit would turn out to be a typesetter made redundant by DTP. From compositing to depositing, as it were.

Anyway, I'm all for robots doing all the work. I'll be need one with particular finesse to help me don my cravat and smoking jacket, refresh my vodka gimlet, and prime my cigarette holder with fresh Sobranies.

Want to know if that hottie has HIV? Put their blood in the DVD player

Re: Shatter!

You seem to be describing a DVD player with a direct-drive motor powered by a simple rectifier and capacitor PSU. Home-made jobbie?

Researcher hacks aircraft controls with Android smartphone

Re: Does this need a special transmitter?

Of course you do, So, while the fact that he's using an Android phone as a computer is attention grabbing, it isn't quite as simple as turning on WiFi. In fact, you'd be more likely to choose something a bit more reliable like a laptop and put it into a piece of checked in luggage - obviating the need to actually board the plane you intend to crash.

Pyongyang to unleash NUKULAR horsemen of the Norkocalypse?

Big bombs are so old fashioned

Imagine the surprise on everyone's faces when the Dear Leader triggers the Massively Distributed Bomb, a tiny element of which is packed into every Samsung phone.

- This is a public safety announcement brought to you by Apple, Microsoft, RIM, etc

Movie bosses demand Google take down takedown notices

Microsoft also?

Well, Microsoft needs to have a word with Bing as it hosts plentiful links to notices on Chilling Effects.

Remind me who owns Bing?

WebKit devs on Blink fork: 'Two can play that game'

Web browser not built with Google code?

No potential Google privacy backdoors? I'm sold already

60-inch Apple iTV to be controlled by iRing remote?

Re: You'll be able to buy it this year, fanbois, if analyst is correct

But they didn't enter an existing mature, even saturated, market to reach those high margins. People keep TVs for a long time. Potential for new sales is limited.

Customers have widely differing needs for sizes etc of TVs. Apple likes to sell a limited number of models.

The only advantage Apple gets from selling a TV set versus a set top box is that the logo is under the screen rather than on it. If the existing set top box (which has sold a few million) is a hobby, selling (or trying to sell) a TV set will then be a folly.

Think of the iPhone model where the power of the telcos was circumvented and they were treated as dumb carriers. The screen is one of the low margin parts fo the value chain. The smart place to be is in the set top box with a continuing revenue stream from content

You'll be able to buy it this year, fanbois, if analyst is correct

You won't, he isn't.

This isn't going to happen. There is no money in the TV screen market. TV screens are just heavy objects with low profit margins.

Review: Intel Next Unit of Computing barebones desktop PC

Re: Is there any reason ...?

"If you're including hardware made by Apple, because they will try their best to stop you. I bet it tears them up inside that you can still write your own code on the desktop machines."

@Alfred - so true. Apple must be gutted that some saboteur gives away a free IDE and full set of developer tools, system wide scripting language and graphical automation tool, LAMP stack, PERL and so on with every Mac. I bet when they find him, they'll crucify him.

Re: Gahhhh, when will people learn kettle style IEC leads are different to others?

A kettle lead is handy when you take them out for a walk. My kettle likes nothing more than chasing toasters around Richmond Park

"Breville? Breville! Oh Jesus Christ, Breville!"

Universal Credit IT system could lead to MORE FRAUD, MPs warn

Re: And I

So, let's start over. Say you didn't have ministers demanding mega systems to support their latest political wheeze. Imagine instead building a system that, while enabling them to deliver on their ill-considered brain-farts, was itself rationally architected.

You have an entity (citizen) who sometimes receives money from the government (benefits, tax refunds, compensation, etc.) and who sometimes pays money to the government (tax, licenses, fines, etc.). Doesn't that sound rather like a bank customer with a bank account? Aren't there already off-the-shelf proven robust platforms for handling millions of banking customers and billions of transactions? Don't they also handle corporate clients?

Install such a system – and do it once only. Give every citizen an individual account. Give every government department a corporate account. It will all just work. Plus, you get to leverage all the proven add-ons for accounting, interfacing to other systems, etc.

So, when some minidrone says something like 'Let's pay out child support payments via ATMs', the admins can say, 'OK, not a problem', and then head confidently to the pub.

Fraud proof

The system, as delivered, will be 100% proof against fraudulent access to benefits. Admittedly that's because it's not going to work at all but, once the claimants have all starved to death, DWP can go straight to Phase 2 (decommissioning).

It's a brilliant plan.

Scottish SF master Iain M Banks reveals he has less than a year to live

An example to us all

Live well, doing what you love. Accept the end without complaint. Stay true to your beliefs (and lack of them).

I'm just reading Surface Detail which is all about questions of mortality and afterlife (which, of course, will not exist until we construct it).

A great mind who, sadly, has lived to early to be uploaded to a Mind.