Posts by Denzel

Microsoft BEATS Apple, Google ... to accepting limited Bitcoin payments

Welcome to Windows 10!

lets configure your environment.

Do you want to turn on Windows background bitcoin miner? Y/Y

Do you want to join the Microsoft mining pool? Y/Y

FTFY.

Crumbs! Holiday phish based on genuine hotel booking surfaces

Re: just go to your bank and send a wire transfer to our account below

Not really - they were booking through Booking.com, essentially a travel agent.

If I book a holiday with car hire, flights, hotel etc through a travel agent I pay a single lump sum to the agent (into their bank account), and they divvy it up between the individual supplying companies (the hotel, the car rental agency, the airline, the tax man etc).

Just because the hotel is in Spain in this instance, doesn't mean the intermediary agent has to have a bank account in that country.

Cops bang up 'drunk, naked' Virginian

Pics or it didn't happen!

Paris, because...well doesn't need explaining really, does it?

Google slams Play Store password window shut after sueball hits

Not just Apple and Google

My kids aunt bought her a Kindle Fire last year as a birthday present (a Kindle Fire for a seven-year-old, really?). Anyway, you can't actually set it up (or at least if you can, I never found out how, though TBH I didn't look that hard) without entering a credit card number for Amazon - i.e. a credit/debit card is REQUIRED to be able to use it (even if you're only ever going to download the free stuff!)

Yes, I will concede that the security settings for the Kindle are actually fairly good (require password for purchases, eBooks, videos, etc), but how long will it take for you to get so fed up with keep typing in your password you start getting lax and get caught out by them shoulder-surfing you enough times to figure it out? (my 3yo managed to figure out the PIN for my other half's mobile for crying out loud!)

I got around this by using a "test" credit card number when setting up the Kindle, so although it is accepted during the setup phase, it could never be used, even accidentally, for an actual purchase.

There is no two ways about this - in our ever-advancing "gadget" age, kids of all ages are going to be using more and more online devices, be they tablets, phones, watches, Glass and it's ilk, or whatever.

What we really need is for someone (i.e. "app" store operators) to allow for pre-charge "wallets", totally separated from the account tied to the store, that can be topped up periodically (say once a month) and have their own logins - now my kids can have their own apps on their tablets etc (or even on my phone, it wouldn't matter with this setup), with their own capped spending amount, which means they could have some of their pocket money etc put into their accounts that they can blow on whatever flappy-moshi-furby-princess games they want, without it resulting in me not having enough money left at the end of the month to pay the mortgage.

Yes, I realise I could do this with a whole bunch of prepay credit cards, but:

a) why would I want the additional hassle?;

b) technically they are legally too young to use them (although they are prepay cards, I believe they are still covered under the Consumer Credit restrictions - IANAL);

c) depending on how poorly the store is set up (there are plenty of other stores around too), there is still the possibility of over-charge to the card; and

d) their own "wallet" logins would allow them to share, buy things for each other and their friends, and (hopefully!) learn a little more about managing money in our ever more online instantaneous world.. (hey now this is an educational tool too!)

Either that, or they can only have an Etch-a-Sketch until they're 18?

CCTV warning notices NOT compliant with data protection laws – ICO

QR codes ~= Questionable Redirect codes

The problem with "stick on" QR codes is that very quickly some little smart-arsed punk is going to start printing out their own, redirecting to either questionable or potentially trojan-loaded content (or worse, pointing to the _actual_ wanted information rather then the 30+ page-scrolls of bullshit that don't actually contain the right or up-to-date info that the council will post on the real target page).

Also, this could raise the interesting issue of being stopped by the Police for using your mobile while driving (sitting in the driver seat of a stopped car constitutes "driving" if you have the keys!), and being slightly befuddled by the response of "I was just exercising my legal right to decide if I wanted to park here, based on how they would use my information" - do they:

a) penalise you for using a mobile phone while in charge of a vehicle;

b) leave it because you are exercising a legal right; or

c) wrench you out of your car and throw you in the slammer under the Terrorism Act because you were "photographing locations of official surveillance equipment or indicators of the positions thereof"??

Grand Theft Auto V: Violent, sweary and amazingly ambitious

Re: I wonder if he's looked at the multiplayer yet,

Maybe it's too early?