Posts by John Dow

Google's email service goes down

ZOMG! TEH FAIL!

Well, it's a free services and a damn good one at that price, so fair enough.

Satanic net neologisms - nominations invited

Only one

Meme.

And I'm horrified to see it used in anger on this very page.

BT's Phorm small print: It's all your fault

Hrmm

"the Home Office said it believed that publishing a website gave implicit consent."

Does that mean I can put a banner on my site saying I DO NOT give consent?

Top security firm: Phorm is adware

My mail to BT

I have been following with interest BTs plans to incorporate Phorm's targeted ad software into the BT Broadband package.

As I do not consider myself to be anyone's "target market" and value my privacy highly, I would be grateful if BT could confirm either:

1. That opting out of the service will mean that none of my traffic will go anywhere near any hardware or software owned, operated or supplied by Phorm or their subsidiaries.

or

2. The substantial change in the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy that implementing this system will require will allow me to leave my fixed term contract early with no penalites.

I'm sure they'll enjoy ignoring that.

CPW builds wall between customers and Phorm

Why is it so hard to understand?

People **do not want to be advertised at**. It doesn't matter if it's targeted or not. Do people watch TV just to catch the latest ads? No, they bugger off to the kitchen to make a cuppa while that ads are on because that way they're not wasting their time.

Honestly, I'm seriously considering having "I Am Not A Target Market" tatooed under my forehead. Right underneath uk.gov's barcode.

I'm sure Paris will opt-in though - she thinks the BT Broadband ads are a genuine soap.

Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax dies

Bye, then.

I think I'll be cracking open the rulebooks and going on a dungeon crawl tonight. It shall be the Gary Gygax Memorial Adventure, and will take place on the 5th of March each year.

Public don't want internet filters, MS tells MPs

Worrying.....

"Lambert also said that existing filters in Microsoft products are not widely used even though people are aware of them."

How do they know?

BBC redesigns and 'widgetizes' homepage

LCARS FTL

It's a bit..... inconsistent. Bits at the bottom look like some horrible hacked together LCARS fanboy thing.

Wii tops online search poll

Wrong Target

"I thought it was a normal Nintendo 'get it in stock just before Christmas' scam."

Eh? It's Sony who does this EVERY SINGLE TIME, not Nintendo.

DARPA seeks network firing ranges for cyber weaponry

Mine too

Me too - you can add my machine to your pool. It's on 127.0.0.1.

Court convicts 'million pound' modchip man

I'm surprised

I'm surprised at all the people saying he's not doing anything wrong. Regardless of the legitimacy of the end use, the act of "circumventing copy protection" (needed to run unsigned code) is currently illegal in this country.

Microsoft opens Xbox 360 Arcade

Well, duh!

Of course the best way to work out a price is to simply apply the exchange rate. Because all national economies are exactly the same; people are paid the same, the cost of living is the same and any differences you may notice are purely down to your own overactive imaginations.

Cops crash invite-only BitTorrent network

Leaving the country.

I did that. I then discovered that, actually, everywhere is a bit shit compared to scotland.

Anyone want a .au visa?

Scottish? You're drinking too much

Mair Shite

Given that the gubbmint's current BMI based obesity calculation system classes body builders as obese, it's no great surprise that they're classing someone who once saw a photocopy of a drawing of a pint of beer as an alcoholic.

French court says non to pre-loaded Windows on Acer laptop

Pathetic

Where does it end?

Hi Mrs Bloggs.

What's that you say?

You want to buy a computer to speak to your grandchildren in Australia?

And you've never used a computer before?

Well, here's a nice one here.

Unfortunately, we can't give you one with an operating system on it, so you can choose between all the systems listed on this sheet.

You don't know what an operating system is?

Well, I don't think I should sell you a computer then, in case some jumped up obnoxious fifteen year old linux weenie accuses us of N0t b33ing teh l33t!!11!one! and takes us to court. Bye, now.

Halo 3 UK launch fails to fire

It's all about the price

I don't think lack of queues is representative of gamers' lack of interest in Halo 3[0]. I think it more accurately reflects the insane prices high street shops charge for new releases. Most people I know who are buying it have pre-ordered it only and paid as much as a tenner less.

Choobs

[0] Although, I must confess that my own personal interest in Generic Sci-Fi Shooter Rev C is less than - well - none.

Root-locked Linux for the masses

Hypocracy FTL

If Microsoft proposed this, everyone would be up in arms about privacy and not being able to use their own machines to their full potential. But it's alright for some random UNIX/Linux nerd to log in remotely and rifle your files once a year?

Software developer sues to muzzle website users

An easy way to avoid this kind of problem

..is not to write shite software.

Mr and Mrs Renault cannot name daughter Megane

A close shave

Given that the birth years of my three children have coincided with a major release of windows (1995, 1998, 2000), I had thought that suitable tribute names would be "Apple", "Linux", and "Google".

Sadly, my wife was having none of it.