* Posts by Jack

7 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Aug 2007

Speed-cam fines topped out in 2005

Jack
Stop

Re: Speed Limit

Rob Farnell wrote:

It is now impossible to drive on a motorway outside peak hours in the fast lane without technically braking the speed limit. It is guaranteed that someone will flash their lights behind you to get past.

Rob; its an overtaking lane, not a fast lane (in the UK). Drivers in that lane should only really be there if they're over taking traffic on the inner lanes, in which case once the traffic has passed they should move back across to the left. Either the person in the outside lane is overtaking, in which case the driver behind should be patient and wait; or the person ahead is just sat in the "fast" lane believing they should be there due to traffic supposedly moving faster in that lane. Whichever way it goes, one of the drivers is partaking in some bad driving, which has nothing to do with the speed limit.

Plan for 20mph urban speed-cam zones touted

Jack
Flame

WTF

"British bike lanes and paths, as anyone who's used them much knows, are rubbish. Their layout almost always prioritises the convenience of motorists over that of cyclists; pedestrians and drivers ignore them most of the time"

What a load of absolute tosh. All the cycle lanes round here (of the ones that are roadside) cut across the car lane at the head of a junction or traffic lights. Cyclists (and I've noticed those on motorbikes use them too) can happily manouever their bike right in front of a car at a junction. Thats not really giving priority to the car now is it? Not to mention the general sense of pedestrian priority in the road - if a pedestrian gets knocked down its automatically the drivers fault unles proven otherwise. I was once involved in an accident where a kid playing chicken in the road ran out in front of my car; luckily the van driver behind me saw the whole thing and pulled over to relay exactly what happened to the copper who turned up. I say luckily as the local residents were all baying for my blood - even though not one of them had witnessed the event - assuming that I had intentionally hit the kid.

"Rather, some kind of numberplate-reading average speed kit would need to come into play."

With the nature of rabbit warren-esque road layout of urban areas - especially modern housing estates - SPECS would be extremely difficult to implement and even if a system could cope with multiple car routings it would no doubt be considerably more expensive than a few thousand more gatsos in each county.

As said, teach road safety to both drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Improve the design of roads and physical safety measures (speed cameras are NOT physical safety measures). Pedestrians on pavements, cyclists on dedicated cycle lanes (not in a roadside gutter painted red), and cars on the road. Stop trying to make them all work together in the same space. Then we might be on the right track for making the roads a safer place.

Unimpressed Sheilas mock boy racers' todgers

Jack
Alert

Already here

As far as I was aware, we already have a thing similar to this in the UK. See a person driving like a prat and we make a gesture, although instead of waving the pinkie we tend to wave the entire hand up and down in a cupped position...

David S wrote:

"In Northern Ireland (where I learned to drive) a new driver has a "restricted" status (an orange "R" on the reverse of the "L" plate) and is allowed to drive on their own, as one would expect, but must keep their speed below a maximum of 45 mph, obviously while obeying other speed limits."

I'm assuming you have decent measures to stop these drivers from getting on motorways then? One car doing 45mph when all around it are doing ~70 is just as dangerous (if not more so) than one car doing 95mph.

RIAA hits paydirt: wins first music-sharing jury trial

Jack

RIAA must have had rather a lot of evidence to get this one through

So, the prosecution had a list of the defendant's IP address(es) and dates/times online?

Which of course came direct from an independent source (i.e. ISP), not been passed to the prosecution for possible tampering with, or was verified by an independent source?

A list which had been cross referenced with said music files being available?

Those files of course having been checked - each and every one - to prove it wasn't just a different file which had been renamed?

And they've got proof that the user id used on the software was linked to an IP address that hadn't been spoofed in some way?

I assume they've also got proof the defendant was using her PC and willingly making the files available for download at the times these files are listed as available for download?

I suppose they can also prove the theory of "making available for copying" being the same as "copyright infringement" is different in some massive way to those companies who pay the RIAA money to rent out the same music to the public? Which can be happily copied by all and sunder?

This ought to have been blown right out the water. Either the RIAA have had some form of shenanigans with the judge and/or jury here, or the defendant's lawyer was rubbish!

I'm off to go download the Radiohead album in protest, although thats a double edged sword too - if people pay for the album, the RIAA will have a reason to pursue their current crusade (no doubt with the misguided and most likely incorrect theory of "if people are willing to pay for music, people will be willing to pay us for music"); if people don't pay for the album the RIAA will assume people are all pirates who want something for nothing, and they must continue their crusade for the good of the music industry.

Facebook 'friend request' lands UK man in jail

Jack

Re: I don't follow

Alex wrote:

Why would facebook send a friend request for anything to do with looking at a friend's photos? And why would that be linked to a confusing sign-in process?

Probably because he didn't have an account to begin with. As with most social networking sites, to view more than the front page of a profile you need to register and log in. This guy no doubt was just registering to view a friends pics, and of course got caught up in the "enter your email address and password" auto-spam, sorry, "auto-find" option. (That was one reason why I didn't sign up to facebook for a long time, and in the end set up a false email account with random password - like f**k am I going to give them free access to my email!)

What's 77.1 x 850? Don't ask Excel 2007

Jack

@Andy

Andy Barber wrote:

"...see the Paris Hilton link!"

Its clear. She can't count either.

US teen trades hacked iPhone for Nissan 350Z

Jack

iShat...

re: iShat & iCrap

Genius. I shall forthwith be referring to the iPod as an "iPood".