* Posts by Ed Blackshaw

627 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Aug 2007

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Privacy policy tool failed because of browser rejection

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

Maybe it failed

because any disreputable web site owner could publish a p3p thingy that would say that they would be nice and caring with your personal info, whilst at the same time collecting and selling it on? This, because a little bit of markup doesn't have the same legal meaning as 22 pages of legalese. That's why there's 22 pages of it...

Phorm takes a bullet for the advertising industry

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Can't think of anything witty...

"So if you saw an advert on the TV telling you that "new supa-white washing powder was half price!!" then you would buy that one?"

No, because as I may have mentioned before, I find such advertising intrusive and annoying. In such cases, if I saw the product in the shop at half the price of another, similiar product, which I was going to buy anyway, then I might decide to buy it, based on the criteria that I happened to pick that day. Then again, I might decide not to buy it simply on the principle that the TV ad for it was annoying.

Anyway, the whol 'washing powder' thing is a bit of an artificial example, and if I didn't know better, I'd think that you were some sort of marketing company shill trying to build a straw man to defend their way of life.

Don't get me wrong, I can see the point of advertising - when somebody produces a new product or service that fills a niche in the market, they need to have some way of alerting the general populace to their existence. What I object to is the opportunistic brainwashing that goes on to try to persuade people to buy things that they wouldn't otherwise buy, and which they don't need.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Can't think of anything witty

Since all washing powders contain pretty much the same ingredients, I would go for the cheapest, rather than the expensive one with the shiny adverts. Shower gel? Probably the one I liked the smell of most. Ditto with soap. Kitchen cleaners are a little more complex - you have to weight the cost versus the concentration of the surfactants, since the very cheap ones also tend to be very dilute - if you look at the back of the packet, you'll see that, again, they all have the same active ingredients.

In none of the choices above, would I be consciously swayed by advertising. but that's the point, advertising doesn't affect you most on a conscious level, it has a subconscious effect. In fact, it is DESIGNED to have a subconscious effect, to make you buy things you otherwise wouldn't. IMHO, the purveyors of this trade deserve to be put on the Golgafrinchan 'B' ark and then we'd all be better off.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Flame

It's not so much that I don't want tailored advertising

More that advertising in general is becoming more intrusive.

Take, for instance, advertising breaks in television programs, where the volume is often several decibels higher than that of the program they interrupt.

Advertising has been shown to affect the behaviour of the consumer, which is why there is an advertising industry in the first place, but that effect is to the advertiser's advantage, and not necessarily the consumer's.

Personally, I don't want products shoved down my throat; if I've not bought something, it's probably because I neither need nor want it. If I decide I do want to by a certain type of product, I will do the research and buy the one that does the job best, or cheapest, or best fits whatever criteria I decide to set. It is not up to some dickhead in a marketing department somewhere with a nose-full of bolivian marching powder to decide what is best for me and then shout it loudly at me at every opportunity.

Anyway, it's not necessarily the 'tailored advertising' aspect of Phorm that was the problem, since I would almost surely be blocking all of their efforts in the first place. It was the more sinister collection of 'anonymised' information about my internet habits, which would, no doubt find their way into a database somewhere where they would end up being cross-referenced and 'de-anonymised'. No thank you very much.

US Army doubles fleet of enormous floating eyes

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Sean O'Connor

You'd also have to be quite alert, as that thing 1.5km up in the sky would have seen you and alerted a base full of trigger-happy 'merkin soldiers that's right underneath it to your position.

MP urges Royal Mail rethink on postcode site takedown

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@Barcodes

What, you mean the royal mail barcodes that they stick on the post? Those ones that contain the postcode, delivery point suffix and a check digit? The ones you can print on any printer if you have a copy of the postal barcode font?

Or maybe you're talking about one of the many other ones that are a published and publicly available format like code 3 of 9?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

This has got to put the wind up companies like AFD

Who essentially make a living by licensing the PAF database from RM, and reselling it, along with an API to third parties. I would imagine it would cause them a bit of a headache if the PAF database was available to all and sundry and the average programmer could just write queries to it themselves...

Star-watchers: Famous moon left half-smeared by dirty ring

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Ummm

That last image was an artist's whatnot. This one is the actual one from the Spitzer telescope:

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2009-19/ssc2009-19a.shtml

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Nice picture of the ring here (fnarr)

Along with an explanation of why it is hard to see...

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2009-19/ssc2009-19c.shtml

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Re: WTF

Probably because it is dark and diffuse, so only visible in the infrared. Apart from the fact that human eyes cant actually see infrared, it also gets absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so it can only be seen by space-based telescopes, such as the Spitzer in this case.

US to export riot-roasting raygun

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@I Wonder

Or indeed, a large mirror?

Tories oppose charges and speed cameras

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

*blink*

Politicians spouting what sounds like common sense? Where are the weasel words we have grown to love? There has to be a catch somewhere...

Oh yes, they're trying to get elected and so will say anything to garner popular support. What's the betting that they will drop this like a red-hot rabid AIDS-ridden bitey thing the moment they get into power?

Hotmail phish exposes most common passwords

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Be careful in drawing any correlations from this data

If, indeed, it was gained through a phishing attack, there is also a possible correlation between people who use weak passwords and those who fall for phishing attacks to be controlled for. In other words, there are probably a higher percentage of weak passwords in this list than there would be in the general population of hotmail users.

One in three kids believe Google measures truthiness

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

@Sarah Bee

"By the fuck"

LOL, ROFL, !!111eleventyone!!, etc.

New antimatter atomsmashers 'may destroy themselves'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

@Falanx

Google 'positron source'. It's not like that part is new science.

Cambridgeshire cops get coy with FOI

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

There is no reason not to have full police accountability and transparency.

"...if criminals are able to determine which authorities are less efficient at responding to certain types of crime, they might move their activities to those police areas."

How about this crazy idea: if a certain police force is not very good at handling a certain type of crime, they try harder to do their own jobs properly, rahter than hiding the facts and hoping that nobody will find out about their incompetence.

Black-hole sniffing 'laser combs' are go, say Brit gov boffins

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

@Andy Dingley

To be technically correct, it's actually dark 'microwave' as the wavelength of the CMB falls far beyond anything you might call red. And black holes tend to give off a lot of very energetic radiation of all sorts from the material falling into them, along with Hawking Radiation caused by virtual particles passing the event horizon and thus allowing their anti-partners to be essentially emitted by the black hole, so are most decidedly not black. Also, please note the quotation marks in my previous post...

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

Black holes in particular are hard to observe by normal optical means

"Well, the thing about a Black Hole, its main distinguishing feature, is it's black. And the thing about space, your basic space colour is black. So how are you supposed to see them? "

Google lobs coder's Microsoft badge into rubbish bin

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Troll

@Who Cares?

"He's got 100,000 reputation points on StackOverflow - that's more valuable than any old "MVP" title."

How many points do you need for the speedboat?

Pluto still a planet, says Ronald McDonald

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

If Pluto is a planet

Does that mean that Charon is also a planet, as their centre of mass lies between the two of them?

SFO kicks BAE corruption charges upstairs

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

I liked this quote:

As a result, BAE has been reluctant to go further than its admission last year that it "has not always met the highest ethical standards".

Surely 'Ethical Standards' in the arms industry are an oxymoron in the first place.

Swedish parents win right to name sprog 'Q'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

@AC

Ah yes, good old Bobby Tables

iPhone voted UK's 'coolest brand'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@AC at 11:14

Yes thanks, I can read. As I said, "mindless fanboi-ism aside", doesn't matter whether it comes from Apple loving drones, MS shills, or any other variety of idiot, what I don't understand is why folk are so keen to try to associate themselves with a faceless multinational corporation. Newsflash: Apple doesn't love you back.

For the record, though, I'll tell you why I don't like the iPhone - it is a status symbol, it is far too large to fit in any normal person's trouser pocket, and it attracts the sort of people who think it makes them important because they bought one.

As for the matter of name-calling, you state that half of the posts here are anti-iPhone, and that half of those resort to name calling. Reading down, I can see that a good portion are anit-iPhone, yes, but people are entitled to express their opinion. There are two posts that I can see that resort to name calling, one of which is yours. An ad-hominem attack is never going to win you any debates my friend, and won't mask the inaccuracies in your arguments. I take it you are an Apple supporter yourself, from your rather ill-thought out and reactionary response, so I will repeat myself, "I notice most of the name calling is coming from the Apple mob", this now includes you.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

Aston Martin?

Personally I'd rather have a Kawasaki Ninja. And mindless fanboi-ism aside (I notice most of the name calling is coming from the Apple mob again), WTF is GOOGLE doing on that list?

Nation's moral guardians snap over 'shag bands'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

Seriously?

People believe this? Are their incredulity glands not working or something?

DVLA pledges investigation over Castrol spy posters

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

"Right Oil, Right Car"?

That would be the information given in the specifications in the car's manual then. I bet you any money it doesn't say 'Castrol'.

Microsoft howls as Google turns IE into Chrome

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

James O'Brien

If you're running IE with no AV or firewall and you're boasting about not having any viruses on your computer, you are akin to the guy who has unprotected sex with lots of women whilst saying, "it's fine, I don't have any STIs!", while all along you're the one who's been giving them all chlamydia. In other words, just because you don't obviously have any symptoms of a virus on your PC, doesn't mean it's not being used as a spam relay with all sorts of spyware, trojans, keyloggers, etc. on it.

Idiot.

Geordi LaForge video-to-brain rig built at MIT

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@AC

I think the whole point here is that wires AREN'T required to the internal implant - as stated in the article:

"Once the implant is in place, wireless transmissions are made from outside the head. These induce currents in the receiving coils of the nerve chip, meaning that it needs no battery or other power supply."

Rather than making the device more complex and prone to failure, this actually makes it less complex (not requiring an internal power source / external power source and wires) and reduces the risk of infection from the surgery involved, as it means that no path is required between the implant and the 'outside world' to run wires through, which would, presumably, provide a route for bacteria to enter the eyeball.

The real problems with such devices are those of rejection and inactivation. The human body has a tendency to try to expel foreign objects and the electrodes used to stimulate nerves tend to wear out or become encapsulated by the body so that they can no longer directly cause stimulation. There was an excellent article on these issues in New Scientist magazine a few months ago. I'd provide a link if I could be bothered to find the article in question, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader...

Texas Instruments aims lawyers at calculator hackers

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

The point has been made

that knowledge of the key allows the software to be modified, and thus allow potential cheating in exams, and the loss of accreditation by TI. I say, 'tough titties'.

If someone were to publish a modified firmware on the internet, presumably this would be based upon TI's own, at which point, they would be quite justified in crying foul, the keys required to do this should not be, and probably are not, covered in the same way by the DMCA.

On the other hand, if someone where to write their own firmware, install it onto their calculator and use it to cheat in an exam, a) it would probably be unneccessary for them to do so, as this task is prpbably harder than passing the exam in the first place and b) It is the job of the invigilator to catch that person using their calculator to cheat. I would have thought that it would be a bit of a give-away if that person was constantly referring to their calculator, whilst other students were using them only occasionally?

I can, however, see why TI would be scared about losing accreditation but I think it is unlikely this would happen unless there were a number of recorded cases of people using ther calculators to cheat in this way. Whilst there is a theoretical loophole, I can't imagine it being exploited to any great degree.

If TI's devices weer to lose their accreditation, then it can only be considered TI's fault, and their problem. They used weak cryptography to sign their firmware, they shall reap what they sow. If they cannot prove that it is not modified, it may be an embarrassment to them, but it should should not prevent people from legally doing so. After all, the precedent has been set with the unlocking of mobile phones.

Oz bottle shop falls for 'double your money' scam

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Flame

Seriously though

I didn't believe people could actually be that stupid. A little more of my faith in the human race has just been chipped away. It astounds me that these people don't suddenly forget that they have to breathe and keel over dead.

'Do You Want To See My C*ck?' asks budding author

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Big Brother

How long then

before he finds himself on a List.

Ex-BT tech chief quits Phorm

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Pirate

Translation:

"I am proud of the contribution that I and my team have made in the development of Phorm's unique online content and advertising personalisation technologies."

may possibly equate to:

"I am proud that I was responsible for unlawful trials of illegal bugging software, and that my team of lawyers has managed to prevent me being prosecuted for these actions"?

Hopefully this toad will now find it difficult to find new employment, except for firms which already have a tainted image themselves, probably through the 'old boy' network.

(Pirate icon, as the day is nearly upon us!)

Home Office minister owned by own rules

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@amanfromMars

What's up? Your comment made sense, and without any random capitalisation and inserted acronyms, not only syntactically, but also in content! Are you not feeling well?

CSI boffins: You can't ID crims from bitemarks on victims

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Badgers

@The Dorset Rmabler

I read that as 'Is our beloved Moderatrix the Empire State Building'. I have to stop eating cheese before bedtime.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

I think the point of bitemarks here is...

...that they are a useful tool for the police to narrow down a search or eliminate suspects. However, they are not sufficently strong evidence to convict someone in court. Presumably, once teh police have used the bitmark analysis to help them find a perp, there will be other evidence that they can then use to convict.

James Martin apologises for cyclist outrage

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

@Michael28

> Cyclists & red lights. Most cyclists don't like to lose the momentum they've built up.

> Imagine if , as a motorist, you had to push the car up to 5mph manually after each stop?

I'm sorry, but the law is the law, there isn't one law for you and one for everyone else, with the possible exception of MPS, natch. If you are too unfit to get your bike moving again after stopping due to a legal requirement, might I suggest a few trips to the gym before riding on the road?

> To cyclists... many motorists drive dangerously. My solution is, don't get mad, get even!!!

> http://www.myroadrage.co.uk/

Yes, because a reasoned adult response to someone acting irresponsibly, is always to act irresponsibly yourself.

There, whoever said sarcasm doesn't work in the written format?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

I hate the following groups of people:

1) Inconsiderate cyclists. This includes those who choose to ride four-abreast, those who ride on pavements, the wrong way down one way streets, slowly along main roads in the middle of the road preventing other road users getting past, and danerously in general. It doesn't really matter whether you are paying taxes for the upkeep of the roads or not; lets disregard that particular straw man. How about a little consideration for your fellow human beings? Personally, my belief is that cyclists should be licensed so that they are at least aware of how they should behave on the roads. Others may disagree, but meh, I'm entitled to my opinion as are you.

2) Inconsiderate drivers. This includes those who pull out without indicating, drive too fast right behind me and those who don't look before changing lanes. These individuals seem to usually be driving Audis for some reason. Before anyone says anything, yes this is a generalisation. Some such cocks drive BMWs, etc. too.

3) Inconsiderate motorcyclists, not that I've ever come across any. Bikers who don't respect the rules of the road don't tend to remain bikers for long for some reason. I do have to tut however, when I see bikers in cycle lanes, or stopped at the advanced stop line for cyclists at red lights. AS a biker, I don;t do this myself, although I'm sure I have as many bad habits as anyone else.

4) Idiots who feel the need to suffix the word 'tard' onto ther descriptions of others on internet discussion boards, and engage in ad-hominem attacks on others because they happen to disagree with their point of view. Grow up, stop hiding behind your keyboards and go and engage in some real-life social interactions where you can learn what is considered to be appropriate behaviour.

The thing is, there seems to be a distict correlation between items 1 and 4 on my list both in these comments and the ones yesterday. I don't think this shows that most cyclists have pumped-up egos, just that such idiots are overrepresented here. How about rather then being antagonistic towards others, you express some consideration, don't hold up traffic on busy roads where you can allow drivers to pass, don't cycle on the pavement etc.

Oh, and one last thing - James Martin is clearly a cock if he thinks it is funny to run people off the road for whatever reason. The fact that he writes for the Daily Fail should be indicative of this. He is, however, entirely entitled to his opinion of cyclists. If you happen to be one of those he has offended, rather than becoming incandescent with rage about it, why not engage a little introspection and consider why it is that he doesn't like YOU in the first place.

Bus driver becomes Julius Andreas Gimli Arn MacGyver Chewbacka Highlander Elessar-Jankov

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

Two words spring to mind

"LUDO SCARED!"

Cyclists give TV chef a Wikikicking

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@steogede

Cycling helmets, put simply, save the lives of cyclists. When a cyclist gets knocked off their bike, most commonly by some idiot in a car, but also occasionally by their own fault, the first thing that usually happens is that they fall over and their head impacts the road/pavement/car bonnet.

The diffence the helmet makes is the difference between getting up and shouting at the car driver and dying in hospital after a week on life support, or if you are lucky living the rest of your life with brain damage. My partner is a doctor, she has seen the difference first hand.

The reason the helmet is made from 'flimsy' polystyrene is that it has a structure that can absorb the impact very efficiently, resulting in the destruction of the polystyrene, rather than the destruction of the contents of your skull. The helmet is good for one impact than needs to be replaced. The same is true of motorcycle helmets. I have faith that the layer of plystyrene in my crash helmet will save my life on my motorbike, as my previous helmet already did, in any situation where my head comes into rapid contact with a solid object.

So yes, if you cycle on the roads and don't wear a helmet, you are stupid for doing so. Cycle helmets don't provide as much protection as crash helmets, but motorcycles tend to travel considerably faster than push bikes.

Pedestrians don't wear helmets, because if they fall over, they are usally going slowly enough to be able to put their hands out to avoid their heads impacting with the ground.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Headmaster

@Oh shut up. #

#1 Ad-hominem grammar nazi attack. Post duly ignored.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@Alex Johnson

Actally, I did read some of your tirade. I got to number 4 and now I feel compelled to correct you - the compulsory part of car (or motorbike) insurance is actually to the third-party part. This is to cover the damage done to other vehicles / drivers/ cyclists / pedestrians* when you cause an accident. I don't see why cyclists shouldn't pay this. If they cause so little damage, surely the premiums will be nice and low?

(*delete as applicable)

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

@andy 83

You are quite correct, plenty of car drivers are twats. The difference being that in order to be a twat in a car, you need to pass a test. By doing so, the idea is that you can prove that you at least know how to act correctly on the roads.

Personally, I ride a motorbike. In my experience, there are plenty of dangerous drivers on the road - I should know, I have been hit by one and I was stationary at the time. However, I have had many more near-misses from cyclists not looking where they are going than car drivers, despite there being more cars on the road than bicycles.

My belief is that cyclists should be made to wear helmets on the roads and at the very least take a test and hold a licence to prove that they know the rules of the road. When they jump red lights, cycle the wrong way down one-way streets, or cycle on the pavement causing pedestrians to jump out of the way, they should be fined and given points on their licence like any other road user would be. If I rode my motorbike on the pavement, I would, quite rightly, expect to be banned from both riding a bike and driving a car.

And before you say it, yes, there are plenty of dangerous motorcyclists out there too. The difference is that in order to be one of these, you need to do a CBT, pass a theory and a practical test and spend a couple of grand before you can go out and kill yourself. Maybe the barrier-to-entry for dangerous cycling should be a bit higher too?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@AC 'newsflash'

Not illegal, just stupid.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Troll

Curiously

I find myself wanting to stand up for him, despite his writing for the Daily Heil. Whilst I'm sure there are many considerate law-abiding cyclists out there, the number of times you see idiots with no helmets going through red lights, or bombing down the middle of the road past people trying to turn right, and the fact that their response to James Martin is to put some rude words on Wikipedia leads me to believe that, unfortunately, a large proportion fo them are, in fact, idiots.

Disney sued over Pixar lamp 'copy'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

@Bilgepipe

Spinning in his freezer cabinet, surely?

New web filter laws questioned by top child abuse cop

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Headmaster

@MinionZero

Quite right. However, I feel compelled to point out, and mock you for, this wonderful mixed cliché:

"Almost every day these days"

Ha!

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

@Anonymous Coward 13:11

You have nothing to hide, eh? Mind if I pop round your house and have a leaf through all your old bank statements then? Thought not.

The contradiction here is that although everyone has lots of things that they, quite rightly, wish to remain secret (bank details, sexual orientation, personal interests, information that would be useful to identity theives and other criminals, etc., etc., etc.), you believe that they should not be able to hide such things.

Please stop reading the tabloid trash and turn your brain back on.

Why teachers fear Callum, Chelsea, Connor and Crystal

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Call it an assumption

But I bet you that a higher-than average portion of kids with those names were also conceived at school.

Investigators blind on P2P child abuse

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Big Brother

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN

Big Brother is watching your internet activity. Some fo your facebook friends are 'undesirables', you will be taken to the Ministry of Love for a nice little chat.

Firefox to warn users of insecure Adobe Flash

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

@Bob Gateaux

There are legitimate reasons for using an older version of flash, such as compatibility testing, research into vulnerabilities, backwards compatibility et al. It would REALLY piss plenty of people off if they found that thier test system had been automatically updated for them without any choice in the matter the moment they connect it to the interwebs.

Also, it is not the job of the Mozilla foundation to publish fixes for Adobe. If the bug was in their software, your spiel about IE would make some sense.

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