Posts by John A Blackley

Ice island snaps off Greenland: Just a fifth the size of 1962 whopper

How refreshing

To see news about an ice event without the Chicken Little sensationalism.

Hacktivists lift emails, passwords from oil biz in support of Greenpeace

That leading sentence

'An Anonymous cadre has hacked into major oil corporations' computers to protest against drilling in the Arctic.'

A few annoying, unemployed oiks hacked some oil company databases to draw attention to themselves.

FTFY

Seize your moment, Microsoft: iPad is RUBBISH for enterprise

Reality? Whose reality?

"the iPad is only enterprise-ready in iFantasyLand."

Strange. All across the United States, in almost every healthcare institution you can find, healthcare professionals appear to think differently.

Web snooping bill an 'odious shopping list of new gov powers'

For the effect of this

I recommend reading a novel called The Bell Ringers.

Looks like it's about to become non-fiction.

Expert: BA doesn't need permission to google your face

Re: Hmm...

I don't understand. The second you put your bum in a seat, the cabin crew know who you are. So all of this jiggery-pokery just so they can say your name ten seconds before said bum hits said seat?

Like many others here, I'd prefer it if BA could focus a little more on courtesy and efficiency among their cabin crew and drop this effort to kiss bums before they hit seats.

Missed it

I'm afraid I missed something in the article.

I believe the images are those 'available on the internet' (and, therefore, public information) so how does the DPA come into it on the grounds of 'personal data'?

ISP CAN cut off pirates with 'three strike' rule, says Irish beak

Than God I read the article

I read the headline as 'ISP CAN cut off privates.......'

Google Chrome serves up only emptiness, for many users

On the page

with the article about Chrome puking, what do we see?

An advertisement urging us to "Download Google Chrome!"

Nice.

Doctors must be trained to avoid web blab blunders, says group

Sened 'em to America

where one ill-considered comment on a Facebook page will get the lab coat sued off you.

'Young people don't want to become like us', say IT pros

If anyone starts a conversation with

"and what do you do?" I usually respond, "Well, a great deal of the time I sleep", leave unsaid the "you bore" part and then walk away.

Chinese toothpaste biz wants £50k from Apple over 'Snow Leopard'

This is silly

but then, as it seems to be a case of 'the biter bit' there's a certain poetic justice about it.

'That new Google button was our idea', claims lawsuit

Re: Don't be evil...

Do you talk to your arse often?

Does it answer?

NHS trust spunks £67m on e-patient records, Twitter, Facebook

"to progress the workstreams"

If any human being actually said or wrote this, they should be strangled with their own tongue.

One day soon, maybe: Mobile health apps that are actually useful

If

If the contact lenses 'change colour based on the glucose level in tears', why would you need 'a webcam or similar' to monitor them?

Wouldn't the wearer notice?

Ex-NASA group plans private, crowd-funded asteroid hunter

"not being able to do anything about"

I plan to do a lot of running in circles and screaming.

Jaw-jaw no more-more as calls fall down tally of phone tasks

Any suggestions?

Toys for the weak-brained?

Mad fan-fitted mouse keeps mitts moisture-free

Limited Use

That tiny little fan won't do much for the sweaty-palmed, greasy, Doritos-diet gamer crowd.

Dimming the lights on smart(arse) TV

Re: 'Smart' tv

"Acer Aspire' - not a laptop. Mini. Leccy and CAT5e in, HDMI out. Works a treat.

'Smart' tv

Bog standard flat screen tv + Acer Aspire.

Voila

Nexus 7 and Surface: A bonanza for landfill miners

Re: Unusual

For someone who starts out agreeing - my oh my! - you do use some pejorative language.

Unusual

I know that I'm unique in many ways and I believe I have discovered one more.

I now realise that I am not the universe's authority on what is or is not a good piece of technology, nor do I fill that position on the question of what is The Only True Way in technology development. I've found that all I know is what I like, for me, and what I've found that satisfies my needs.

Strangely enough, this makes me happier than being the universe's authority appears to do for the dozens and dozen's of commentards competing on this site for the title.

War On Standby: Do the figures actually stack up?

Missing the point?

In this brave new world of the 21st century with all of its history of innovation we occupants of this septic isle can only afford to turn on the heating in the dead of night and must worry about what our electric razor charger is going to do to our leccy bill.

Are we missing the bigger picture here?

London cops order Julian Assange to turn himself in

Technicalities

Can someone tell me how Mr. Assange was 'served' while taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy?

Did they knock on the door and ask for him by name? Did he come to the open front door and then they put the notice of service in his hands?

Seems unlikely.

Ministers consult public on 'opt in for smut' plans

Just the latest

in a long tradition of those who rule us assuming that they know, better than we do, what is good for us.

If I am the parent of a child and I have access to the internet it is my responsibility - not my ISP's and certainly not the government's - to make sure my child's internet habits are both safe and sane. Can they access the internet outside of my control? Certainly - in exactly the same way as they can choose to wander across a six-lane motorway outside of my control. I would, however, have made some effort to help them understand why that would be a bad idea.

I do not support any effort on the part of the government to make me opt-in to a freedom. I do not have to opt-in to anything to be allowed to read any book I choose. I do not wish to opt-in to anything to view any internet content that I choose.

Brit global warming skeptics now outnumber believers

One person's view

I don't know how much or if man's efforts are affecting the climate. I do think (note: personal opinion) that so long as the government's approach to solving 'the problem' consists of higher taxes, vast subsidies to their mates for producing giant whirlygigs, ditto for producing floatie nodding donkeys and constant finger-wagging and tut-tutting from people who live in huge houses and who burn more carbon for travel in a year than I will in a lifetime then I'll remain skeptical (and more than a tad annoyed) about their true motives.

Biz MPs gung-ho for 'Google Review'

Re: Maybe I'm having a slow day but....

'Kool-Aid'

Hotelier faces FTC data breach lawsuit

If

Wyndham's security surrounding credit card details was so crappy, how'd they pass their PCI DSS audits in 2008, 2009 and 2010?

We couldn't possibly be talking about a sloppy or compliant PCI auditor here, could we?

Tech giants on trial as report reveals more Chinese factory abuses

More shock, horror, etc.

The fruity company is not alone - or even in the minority - in exploiting Chinese workers.

Who'd a thunk it?

US East, West Coasts face fast-rising sea levels

I'm in favour

I live about nine miles from the coast and the people who live in the town on the coast are snobs.

Bring on the rise in sea levels.

Antarctic ice shelves not melting at all, new field data show

I wonder

How much ice was lost because of a bunch of scientists and their fossil-fuel-powered generators, drilling holes using hot water and living and habitats that were heated.

Iran: Our nuke facilities still under attack by US, Israelis 'and MI6'

Pretty sure

I'm pretty sure that British intelligence was not involved.

Had it been, the original delivery date for the virus would have to have been 1996 for it to arrive this year. Also, it would have been put onto a CD and lost en route and the second copy would have been delivered, by hand, by an employee of an IT contractor who would then have asked the Iranians for a job - rather than go back to London to be made redundant.

On top of all that, the virus itself wouldn't have done any damage.

Apple desperate to prevent nightmare scenario of iPad in Iranian hands

Re: To all the 'only in the USA' geniuses

to the one who gave me the thumbs down - which are you, a nitwit, a f**ktard or a jobsworth?

To all the 'only in the USA' geniuses

of course Britain is famous for its complete lack of nitwits, f**ktards and jobsworths.

The reseller lining in the SME security cloud

Complete puff piece

"Increased security in the cloud"? Uh-huh.

Amount of meat we eat will barely affect future climate change

Why not conflate?

It has been suggested that the _real_ climate problem is too many people on the planet.

It has also been suggested that eating too much red meat vastly increases one's risk of cancer.

So why not propose that everyone on the planet eats huge amounts of red meat until enough of us die of cancer to make life on the planet sustainable?

CAPTCHA-busting villains branch out from spam into ID theft

Yak yak yak

blah blah blah FREE PORN blah blah blah

'Jogobot' lures lonely lardies

Better battery life

might allow the bot to be equipped with speakers to offer encouragement such as, "Call that jogging, buffalo butt! C'mon, rub those hams together! Maybe the heat will melt off some of that lard!"

Mozilla plans multi-engine search results, native iOS browser

Don't clutter up the real estate

would be my advice.

Oh and on that subject, El Reg, please don't accept any more of these intrusive Microsoft Cloud ads featuring androgynous George Takei look-alikes wearing armour and chiffon.

'Kindness of America' snapper shot himself in 'act of self-promotion'

Re: Local law?

My question has more to do with El Reg's writing than what the man was doing at the time of the arrest.

Local law?

"Sadly for Danielson.............he was still facing a possible charge of being under the influence when he was arrested."

Is there a state law in Montana that prohibits one from being under the influence at the time of arrest?

I'm not aware that, in any other state, being under the influence is actually against the law.

Tech boffins: Spend gov money on catching cyber crooks, not on AV

How about

Outlawing all Adobe and Microsoft software as a method of reducing cyber attacks?

Google coughs up what it coughs up to govs - and what it suppresses

Not a lot of reality

Google is a business. It operates within the laws of the countries in which it does business. If the government of a particular country decides a piece of content is unlawful (in that country) then it requires Google to remove it. If Google wishes to continue doing business in that country then they comply with the request.

Which part of that is so difficult to understand?

Apple adds gay and lesbian icons to iOS 6 messaging

Long time ago

I was also born in a time and a culture when 'marriage' meant a union of one man and one woman. For the rest of my life "marriage" will mean that to me.

However if other people choose to make it mean something different to them then that's their business and none of mine. Their doing that doesn't affect the quality of my marriage one bit.

Vodafone's small, controversial tax bill validated by UK.gov

I don't see why

so many people are bitching at Vodaphone for paying over a billion pounds in tax. If someone came to any of these individuals and said, "I can show you an entirely legal way to reduce your tax bill." would any of them say, "Oh, no thank you. I am an honest and upstanding citizen and I believe in paying every penny of tax that the government says I should."

Oh, wait. Bloody hypocrites. Now I see why.

Is it time for enterprise PC outfits to carry Apple Macs?

In the USA

I worked in healthcare and, due to so many clinicians being Apple lovers, our organisation was forced to support Macs. In doing so, they increased their purchase of Apple equipment to the point where it was around 30% of their asset inventory.

Windows or Linux boxes might be the dog's bolleaux for techies but then techies are a very small minority in the real world.

Scots council: 9-yr-old lunch blogger was causing 'distress and harm'

Re: I heard said councillor on news at 1.00 today

"The poor sods do it for nothing."

Argyle councillors are paid sixteen thousand pounds a year.

Re: In fact

The article is no longer available on the Daily Record website and the Record coyly refers to "newspaper reports".

About standard for that rag.

In fact

(as if that had anything to do with an El Reg story but here goes anyway), the child's reviews of her school lunches were generally popular (the worst review she gave a lunch was 4 out of 10 and that was very rare).

The 'problem' arose when Scotland's Daily Record headlined the story with 'Sack The Dinner Lady!'. Now the Daily Record is to the news what excreta is to food but it is the largest circulation toilet paper in Scotland.

As it happens the MP for the girl's constituency is Scotland's Education Minister and he has described the council's edict as, "Daft." He is now "in talks" with the council and asking them to "reconsider their options".

Microsoft plots entry into tablet trade

Features

Will take seven minutes to start - thereby giving you the time to eat breakfast.

Will be memory-bound if you ask it to do two things at once - thereby giving you time to practice your deep breathing relaxation techniques.

Will require software updates several times a day - thereby giving you time to take frequent stretch breaks.

The Microsoft Tablet - encouraging you to lead a healthier life!

Job-slashing HP 'to hire 15,000 staff in India' – report

And so

this is an entire article about a rumour - and a rumour that turns out to be entirely false, at that.

What next - Paris Hilton To Join A Convent?