* Posts by Ed Blackshaw

627 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Aug 2007

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Government expects £277m from vetting scheme

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Nah, you're wrong

It's a certificate to say they haven't found any 'evidence' yet to suggest that you might be a paedophile. For specific values of 'evidence' where 'evidence' is a member of the set ['hearsay', 'rumour', 'unfounded allegations', 'prosecutions where you were found to be not guilty', etc.]

Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

However, that woudl not pick up the ingredients of thermite

which are powedered iron oxide (rust) and aluminium (like they make saucepans from).

Poetic justice for HK Taoist truck driver

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

It is a koan

comme ci:

http://www.serve.com/cmtan/buddhism/Lighter/aikoans.html

I now claim my internets.

Is Mandy right to cut science funding?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Unhappy

I'll pretend I didn't understand that

but the sad fact of the matter is, I did.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Pirate

If you ask me, there are better things to take an axe to...

...and Peter Mandelson would be fairly close to the top of the list. Preferably, this would not be a metaphorical axe.

Verity Stob's App Store

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

In that case

You must be a primordial dwarf AICMFP!

Peppa Pig told to belt up

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

I believe the word you are looking for

is 'projection'.

US airport body scanners can store and export images

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

I had a similar thought myself

But then realised that this would be a good way to get yourself a _REAL_ strip-search, and also probably a body search and possibly finding yourself 'held for questioning'. I twouldn't be quite so funny after that.

NASA's Kepler telescope finds 5 new planets

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Troll

If this is the case

Then can we assume that the planet with a higher temperature than its star is in a retrograde orbit, so they calculated its distance from the star as negative?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

However...

The parameters for our own solar system are fairly well known. For example, the size, distance from Earht and temperature of the Sun are known to a fairly decent precision.

When you start talking about distant objects, things like distance are calculated indirectly from such arcane things as red-shifts in the star's spectrum, which in turn tells us how fast it is moving from us, and from that, teh distance is estimated. Estimates of size are based upon brightness and distance, and models of how types of star other than our sun are supposed to work. Compound the errors in these various methods, and values become somewhat less determinate.

What I am suggesting is that if there is a flaw in any of the models used to calculate these things (for example a solar system is moving at a different speed to that expected for its distance, thus altering the red-shift), then the assumptions that have been made in the calculations of the star's distance, size and temperature are invalid.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

Have they ruled out the possibility of a fault?

When they start measuring planets that are hotter than their host star or have an average density of less then that of expanded polystyrene, my immediate response would be to double check the instruments and the models they are using to calculate these values from the observations, as well as their assumptions about distance of host stars, etc.

Yorkshire Ripper loves Wii Bowling

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

NHS budget

The NHS budget for 2009 was £90B, that is 9, followed by ten zeroes. How exactly is £5000, one eighteen millionth of that amount going to make a spot of difference to patient care in any meaningful way? Not that I particularly condone giving games consoles to the criminally insane, but I really don't think the kneejerk nonsense from the Murdoch-mouthpiece the Sun is anything other than mind-numbingly stupid.

My hospital HAL - Google man moots syringe that says no

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Consent

So, what is to stop someone at a hospital somewhere clicking the 'patient has given consent' button to get free access to all of your medical records?

The problem with the security model you give is that there is no authentication of you, the patient, at any point. Short of everyone going around with a RFID chip in their arm, or carrying an ID card around with them 24/7, this is not technically possible.

The only alternative I can think of would be the use of biometrics, and this fails for a number of reasons, for example:

- people in hospital are likely to be injured or seriously ill in some way, is it a good idea to wheel them up to an 'ID terminal' to take their 'biometric signature' before actually treating them in any way?

- current biometrics such as iris scans, etc. have appreciable false positive and false negative rates. Scale these up to the entire population, and the proportionate risk of misidentification scales up.

- performing biometric scans are quite likely to be impossible in many situations. Using the example of the iris scan again, in an eye hospital the very conditions the patients are presenting with are going to prevent the biometric being taken.

Unfortunately, for any such medical database to provide the services being touted, there exists the necessity for a large number of users to have access to the system, in an equally large number of locations. Short of having military-style security (which is unlikely to work anyway) in all hospitals, GP surgeries, drop-in centres etc., etc. this is always going to have security holes.

So, you claim, "I would find it quite comforting to think that if I were on holiday in another part of the country, or even another part of Europe, or the world, a Doctor could bring up my details."

My counter-claim, is that I find it deeply disturbing that an another part of the country, or even another part of Europe, or the world, a doctor, a nurse, a hospital database administrator, a random member of the public passing an unsecured terminal, or even a politician or civil servant could bring up personal, private, potentially embarrassing details about me from an all-encompassing system without my consent.

Ten years of .NET - Did Microsoft deliver?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Darren Bell

If that's your attitude, I'd hate to work for the poor folk you employ to do your software support. But then, I'd hate to work for a software company driven by the bullshit of the sales department, rather than one where software specifications are made according to sound reasoning, and the needs of the client.

Critics aim to sink Titanic ice cubes

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

Here's a crazy thought

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Personally, I find plenty of things offensive and distasteful. Thankfully, they have now cancelled Big Brother.

Microsoft China accused of pilfering webcode

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Eats Shoots and Leaves

I believe the Microsoft qoute is missing a comma. Here, fixed it for you:

"Microsoft takes intellectual property, seriously"

I mean, it's not the first time they have ripped off UI elements, and it won't be the last, and it's not like they're the only ones doing this sort of thing either.

Google contradicts self, confirms own Googlephone

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Badgers

Funnily, that was my first thought when reading this article

Although I suspect it would be more likely to spam you with audio advertising before/after making a call?

Gov slams critical database report as opaque, flawed, inaccurate

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Big Brother

So let me get this right...

As I understand it, the Gubmint isn't claiming that this report is wrong, and that these databases are operating legally. Instead, they are using some smoke-and-mirrors bullshit to claim that because the authors of the report didn't include some information that is not necessarily relevant tot eh conclusions, then they can put their fingers in their ears and chant 'la-la-la'?

That said, I've not actually read either the original report or the official response, so I may have got entirely the wrong end of the stick. Given the track record of our current administration, however, I doubt it.

Durham police demonstrate DNA will stuff you

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Ding! Wrong!

A molecule cannot contain another molecule as part of its structure; substructures may be referred to as subunits or functional groups. I think what you meant to say was 'one more Oxygen atom'.

Unfortunately, this is also wrong. A quick search on t'internet will show you that, although these two molecules both have the same basic amphetamine skeleton, they differ by far more than the addition of an oxygen atom.

Specifically, mephedrone has a keto functional group, which is actually the addition of an oxygen atom and the removal of two hydrogen atoms, as well as a methyl group attached to the ring structure in the para position, as opposed to a methylenedioxy fused ring.

Given that both are small molecules, and small subsitutions on much larger molecules have significant effects on biological activity (cf. codeine and morphine), I think it is fair to say that whoever made this press release and claimed that these substances are "one molecule different" has absolutely no clue what they are talking about and anything they say should be discounted forthwith.

LHC pulverises previous record: 2.36 TeV surprise collision!

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Troll

Now I'm confused...

Just who is being ironic and who is being obtuse?

Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

Bad Schmidt!

Don't be evil!

*smack*

Brown launches 'Zip it, Block it, Flag it' net code for children

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

Zip it, Block it, Flag It,

Ignore it. In much the same way all but the most impressionable children usually ignore the patronising crap spewed by government.

Money could be much better spent in educating children in the ways of questioning everything they are told, in the scientific method sense, with particular emphasis in questioning everything politicians say.

Cell phones don't fry brains, boffins say

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

People who think mobile phones cause cancer

are the same lot who are convinced the LHC is going to end the universe. These scientists are being properly circumspect and following the evidence - i.e. there IS no statistcally significant evidence that mobiles do anything to your brain. The idiots who say otherwise do so because they lack the proper education to understand the physics of how mobiles work, which would highlight just how much bollocks they are talking.

Gov confirms plans for Sky box in charge of your house

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

oops!

"2) The energy companies will not be able to make the decision to cut someone off, they will have to get a court order and present it to the management companies, in much the same way that they have to get a warrant to enter your property to cut you off at the moment."

At which time, somebody in a call centre miles from where you live (quite possibly on another continent) miskeys the reference number for someone who is due to be disconnected, and you get unplugged instead. Can you honestly say this won't happen? When half of the companies on the internet can't even get my postal address correct because I live in a flat and it confuses the postcode lookup, do you really think the triply-outsourced-by-a-quango monkeys who will be operating this system will get it right?

Manchester journo gets first ID card - late

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

You need a statement separator there

such as a semicolon, and comment characters to prevent the rest of the original SQL statement from executing. My first pet's name was, of course:

Fluffy'); DROP TABLE USERS; --

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

So the obvious question is

Why is she not showing her ACTUAL ID card, if she has nothing to hide? What do you mean, 'lack of joined up thinking from a tabloid journo'?

Beeb iPlayer blocked by Xbox velvet rope

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Sony must be laughing all the way to the bank

What with this already being fitted pretty nicely into the PS3, for free, as part of their regular software update process. Who knows what Microsoft are thinking to shoot themselves so thoroughly in the foot?

UK.gov may abolish edited electoral roll

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Impact

"Whilst the Government is sympathetic to the arguments … that data collected for electoral purposes should only be used for electoral purposes, feedback from others suggests that the abolition of the Edited Register may have an impact on the economy and on wider society," it said.

Impact on the economy = some of those companies that phone you at teatime to try to sell you shit you don't want will go out fo business. Members of Parliament and their 'donation' contributing 'friends' who have financial interests in these companies will be out of pocket.

Impact on wider society = everybody with human blood in ther veins is marginally happier.

Space firm to send Christmas Day tweets to dead people

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Joke

There can be only one course of action

"The fact that the Bereavement Register is restricting messages to a Twitter-style 140 characters gives further cause for concern, as any life form that picks up the message is likely to take one look and write us off as a non-intelligent life form ripe for harvesting."

The way forward seems clear. Twitter must be destroyed for the sake of humankind. Rise up my brothers (and sisters) and rain the holy fire upon the abomination that is TXT SPK!

Should you lose your religion on your CV?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Maureen?

I'm sure I could think of more...

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Even then...

"So to answer your question, I think you should leave your religion OFF your CV unless you are applying to be an Imam / Rabbi / Priest / Bishop."

Even then, why put it on? It would be stating the obvious, surely. I can't foresee many Catholics applying for jobs as Imams any time soon.

Facebook swipes user's vanity URL

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

Repeat after me:

It's only Facebook. It's not anything important. I should go outside and play in the real world.

RIPA III: A legislative turkey comes home to roost

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

I prefer the quote from True Blood:

"I can no longer listen to politicians, it gives me seizures.'

Combat games disrespect war laws, report claims

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

They make a fair point.

However, the study was "carried out by Pro Juvenile – an organisation which aims to protect kids from unlimited videogame violence - and Trial, which fights to prevent people who commit war crimes getting away with it".

I can't help but think that these arganisations may be biased in some way towards finding the answers they may be looking for. The first group at least would seem to have a pretty clear ulterior motive to find 'evidence' that violent games are 'bad' for children.

I wonder how many controlled trials have been carried out to study whether players of violent computer games go on to commit acts of violence themselves. I can pretty much guarantee that there have been no such studies conducted to show any possible link between computer games which simulate breaches of such things as the Geneva Convention and people who actually commit such acts.

What I suspect this study ACTUALLY shows is that these two organisations are attempting to drum up some publicity for their causes by conducting a 'study' which supports their agenda.

Yank objects to Reg cherry-popping headline

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@Cordwainer (and others)

"And if you think those who object to the phraseology are over-sensitive....say your 7 year old daughter comes to you, Dad, or you, Mom, and asks what the headline means. How are you planning to answer her?"

How about answering this in the way my parents (and I imagine many others) did when I asked such questions? That is, to state that it is a phrase that adults use and that they are too young to understand. When I was a child, I was occasionally exposed to adult humour on the television. The smutty stuff I simply didn't understand. My parents were intelligent enough to realise that what I didn't understand wasn't about to warp my precious little mind.

As to the original headline, when I read it, I thought that it was probably a little crude but then read past it and got on with my life, rather than immediately thinking, 'I should complain about that right now!' If the original commentard found this so offensive, then maybe he should be supervising his offsprings' use of the internet more thoroughly, or perhaps not allowing them access to it until he deems them old enough to view it's content. There is such a thing as parental responsibility after all.

Second-hand ATM trade opens up fraud risk

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

@Alan Hargreaves 1

Ah, that good old redundant RAS* syndrome.

*Redundant Acronym Syndrome

Oxford American Dictionary dubs 'unfriend' Word of the Year

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Dale 3

Grimplestiple (noun) A word for which there is, as yet, no meaning.

Thus making grimplestiple a nongrimplestiple.

High Court: Online article with only four visits not libel

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Paris Hilton

With stories like this

We're going to need a Barbra Streisand icon...

Oh well, Paris will have to do for now...

BOFH: Slab happy

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Classic

The BOFH back to his machiavellian best

Boffins find new way to spot stars which have planets

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Oh Dear.

Most of the exoplnaets discovered so far have been supermassive 'hot Jupiters', that is gas giants larger than Jupiter which orbit very close to their parent star (e.g. well within the orbit of Mercury). This is because the easiest method of detecting exoplanets is the 'wobble' caused by the orbits of such planets.

Smaller gas planets (such as Neptune) are harder to spot, as are planets orbiting further from their star, as these can only really be spotted when they transit (cross in formt of their parent star), which requires that they orbit in a plane that brings them between us and their parent star.

Small rocky planets, such as Earth are even harder still to spot, with ther discovery requiring methods such as looking for changes in their prent star's emission spectrum when they transit, as their size will mean that they hardly affect the amount of light reaching Earth at all.

Having said all that, what these researchers seem to have found is that there is some sort of relationship between close-orbiting large gas giants and low amounts of lithium in a star. Extrapolating this to draw a parallel between the existence of any sort of planetary system and observable lithium levels in a star's emission spectrum seems to be stretching it a little.

Newspaper story commenter to lose mask for teasing politico's son

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Jax1

What I said.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

Did he forget to use the joke icon for his post?

It's a difficult one to call; on the one hand you have one person using bullying behaviour on a public forum, on the other hand, you have another person taking a simple taunt and treating it as slander.

Is suspect that when the identity of the commenter is revealed, they will likely turn out to be a minor too, given the maturity of the insinuations being made. Maybe both parties should just grow up and move on?

What was the old saying again, 'sticks and stones...'

Government consults on possible £500,000 data breach fines

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@amanfromMars 1

"Are the Labour Government on crack?"

They're probably just on stupid.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

So I guess the proceeds form any fine would go into the exchequer

In which case, when the gubmint gets its fines (this is sure to happen, right?), this money would come from the exchequer and go... back in the same pot?

Or maybe, it should go back to us taxpayers as a rebate? Stop laughing at the back...

What is ACTUALLY required, IMHO are criminal sanctions against the individuals concerned, and not just the lowly scapegoats who get the blame for data leaks, but their superiors who put them in a position to leak the data and through negligence, allow it to happen. I would dearly love to see those senior civil servants and government ministers serving time for their wilful disregard for the privacy and rights of us minions, er.. sorry, voters. Same goes for those in big buisness who think that profits are more important than the rights of their customers. God forbid that there would ever be any cross-over between these two groups, of course...

Wikipedia sued for publishing convicted murderer's name

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

@AC

"Nice one - attacking a strawman with ... a strawman. Your parents must be so proud."

For some reason, that conjures up an image of a new character in Tekken.

Ready... Fight!

The Prisoner set for Sunday release

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

@Skizz

*beep* Frozen peas?

Microsoft boots modders off Xbox Live

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@AC 360 degrees

You are aware that 360 degrees is a full circle, and if you turn through a full circle, you end up facing in the same direction that you started? Just thought I might point that out...

I thought it was called '360' after the number of degrees in the 'red ring of death' anyway...

Three more quit over Nutt sacking

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Unhappy

@RW

From where I sit, what you say makes sense to me. I'd also suggest a much greater deal of transparency in the discussions and decisions that are currently made behind closed doors, for our 'benefit'.

However, the problem we have is that the political incumbents have no incentive to make any of the changes you suggest, and they are the only ones who have the power to do so. It is, in fact, a disincentive, as it essentially removes power from them.

The only really effective solution to proivide change is revolution. Unfortuantely, that is far from being a desirable outcome, as the changes that would result from that would most likely not be changes for the better, along with all the bloodshed that a civil war (which would be the likely outcome of any type of coup in this country) inevitably entails.

If I remember my history correctly, the last time we had a civil war in this country, we got rid of the monarchy, and then a while later, decided that actually we were better off with one all along. All it ended up achieving was a number of purposeless deaths.

So, I leave this as an exercise for the reader: How does one work within the system to effect real change that results in less corruption, greater openness and transparancy, and 'liberty and justice for all'? The US system is flawed, our system is flawed. Even the system in Greece (where they invented the word democracy) is far from perfect, although arguably better than ours. Answers on the back of a postcard please, no more than 30 words...

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@The Silver Fox

Unfortunately, the powers that be wish to have it a third way: a media driven populist decision designed to win the politician concerned political brownie points, with the illusion of scientific veracity. With the current lot, you can probably thrown a sense of moral superiority somewhere into the mix, along with half-truths, spin and scare tactics.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Grenade

@Sceptical Bastard

Given the accelerating rate the current lot seems to be getting through home secretaries, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw another two or three of them take office before the next election (if our glorious leader ever allows us one).

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