Posts by Ian

eBay UK pimps users' privacy for targeted ads

ebay.ie

This seems to be on ebay.ie as well, under "Site Preferences" -> "Advertising Preferences". Seem to be able to opt-out...

Pluto awarded celestial consolation prize

Ceres is a dwarf planet

At least according to the IAU website...

Phorm launches data pimping fight back

Re: Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier laughs at Phorm for Phorm is the Charlie to his Alice and Bob.

Yes, Alice and Bob. For Bruce Schneier knows Alice and Bob's shared secret.

< getting coat, leaving building... >

Filesharers petition Downing Street on 'three strikes'

Why ISPs would agree

We constantly hear about ISPs and their love of file sharers (Comcast for example) so I think this arrangement may provide them with a great opportunity to kick some people off their networks who are using lots of bandwidth.

However it goes a bit further. By turning p2p into a 'bad thing', the ISP will hope fewer people will do it, saving them more bandwidth. Also, it acts to shift the burden of proof away from the ISP and on to the customer (Oi, you're using bit-torrent what are you up to? etc...).

Getting rid of, or at least reducing the use of, bit-torrent would be worth a lot of money to the broadband providers, they may be keener on this whole idea than people like to think.

</my 2c>.

Hefty black hole weighs in at 33 Suns

@ Pete Mallam

A black hole isn't just a star that has run out of fuel.

If the star has little mass you end up with a brown dwarf, which is close to

what you describe.

If the star has enough mass that it's gravity is stronger than what keeps electrons

around the atoms, then you end up with a neutron star. This is a ball made

from atomic nuclei, all the electrons are stripped away.

If the gravity is stronger than the forces that repel nuclei, then the star collapses

into a blackhole, no normal matter is left at all. Everything is compressed into

a single point and the resulting gravity is strong enough to prevent even light

escaping. Hence 'black hole'.

<insert favorite search engine> it, there are quite a few good sites around about

it.

New Jersey scraps death penalty

Re: Life-for-a-Life

"There is nothing wrong with the punishment."

Yes there is. It involves killing people. Which is wrong.

(And don't post about self-defense, if you're already locked up in jail then

you shouldn't be in a position to be a danger to anyone else. If you are then

it's the jails that need fixing.)

Oh and @spleen, I agree with you in that the main argument against the death

penalty should be that the Government should not have the right to kill people.

Recording industry puts stake in ground with Jammie Thomas case

CD theft

"That's because I have some physical manifestation of the intellectual property."

A CD is property, the contents are not. They are licensed works covered by copyright, and quite different laws apply to each. "intellectual property" seems to be a bit of a misnomer really.

Facebook 'friend request' lands UK man in jail

Judge was right

The judge was correct. Remember he had already been instructed to stay away from his 'estranged' wife by the court. It was entirely his responsibility to ensure that he did not contact this person until the court decided otherwise. Unfortunate for him, since he obviously didn't intend to.

Note to despots: You can't kill the internet

Good Luck

Good luck to all the protesters and I sincerely hope they prevail.

I'd like think I'd be brave enough to stand up to such brutal

authorities but I hope I'll never find out.

Pinwheel galaxy boasts edgy star formation

re re re re its a re-run

@ Luther Blissett

"I would measure it."

How?

Since black holes are not directly observable all you can do is to infer it's size. And "size" might not even be very well defined for

something like a black hole, so the Swartzschild Radius is probably as good as you're going to get. If we're talking about black holes

we're along way from any sort of common sense.

@ Ian Ferguson

"In other words: Nothing exists."

Then why bother posting? Or did you? I guess you didn't...