* Posts by Paul

44 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Sep 2007

NASA deploys huge clingfilm strato-pumpkin over Antarctic

Paul
Coat

Plug a hole?

Could they make one big enough to fill the hole in the ozone layer?

All obvious But Plug jokes implied.

Sony teases netbook fans with 'new mobile' Vaio promo

Paul

Regresion?

Are we slowly moving back to the Palm Pilot? LOTS more features but a similar profile.

Sky 'withdraws' from Tiscali buyout talks

Paul

Where will I move to?

A Tiscali customer for a few years now with no problems/complaints. NOT a fanboy, just a customer who has been lucky and not had any problems.

What worries me is the inevitable changes that will come with new ownership.

I wonder who I will switch to?

Gov beta test for grid-friendly, carbon-saving smart fridges

Paul

WAX blocks

OK, this is from memory of an article a while back so please excuse any errors.

A company that manufactures wax products is making a mint producing wax blocks to fit around the temperature sensor of commercial fridges. It smooths out the rapid variations during normal use. By reducing the high number of short active periods an overall saving is achieved.

Could this method be applied to domestic fridges? I have a few candles I can melt down so maybe I will experiment.

Bittorrent declares war on VoIP, gamers

Paul
Thumb Up

Concideration for others?

I use uTorrent as a P2P client. It has a feature called Scheduling that enables bandwidth throttling in hourly chunks with a separate schedule for each day.

As I am on a 50:1 contention connection. I throttle uTorrent to 25% bandwidth between 08:00 and 24:00 then run at 100% during the night. Sure it takes longer to get a file but my neighbours do not suffer and I do not get hustled by my ISP.

All it takes is a little consideration and a LOT less greed.

Maybe uTorrents next release/update should have a default configuration with this schedule rather than 100%. Would that make the problem go away?

M42 closed by marshmallows and beer

Paul
Coat

Up North

They say "there's nowt stranger than folks". Most of the strange ones are up North so maybe a few sweet toothed alcoholics will happen by and clean it up before the clean up crew get there.

Mine's the one with Southern B**tard written on the back ;-)

Amazon UK pulls Scientology exposé for 'legal reasons'

Paul

More than one way to skin a scientologist

If enough outlets blocked this and I was John Duignan, I would release it as a PDF on the P2P network. Spam enough forums with links and it would start to move.

Police vet live music, DJs for 'terror risk'

Paul
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So the terrorists are winning then?

Slowly but surely the paranoid morons are ruining our society. Soon you will need a permit for leaving your home.

The terrorists must be laughing their socks off at the way they are crippling us without putting themselves at any risk whatsoever.

Unfortunately we have allowed a special breed to be crated - the terrorist risk assessors. They HAVE to find risks even if they do not exist because if they don't then they are out of a job. End result - we all suffer for no reason other than to keep a few morons in a job.

What a sad country this is turning into.

Ubuntu 8.10 - All Hail new Network Manager

Paul
Thumb Up

@Richard Neill

Fantastic!

Shame I just binned the disk I burnt but they don't take long to recreate.

Is this it? Goodbye Microsoft? <dreams>

Thanks for that.

Paul
Thumb Down

Autologin

For me, autologin is a must have. Why? Because I live in a house - MY house using MY computer for MY use only. I completely trust my wife and kids and have no security issues.

I WANT to convert to Linux but every time I try it I get soo fed up with having to enter a password every time I want to make even the most minor change that I end up going back to XP muttering 'maybe the next release...'. Unfortunately the control freaks still rule the roost so XP stays yet again.

Couldn't the install have a 'Are yo in a safe environment?' question which can turn off all that nonsense if you answer YES? As I understand it, W7 learnt from Vista that users are not happy and is doing away with that nonsense. Will Ububtu sort it out before W7? The race is on ;-)

Oz watchdogs howl over 'Cyber-Safety' net filter

Paul

Satellite?

If I owned a satellite ISP I would be of to OZ to start marketing ASAP. I see a big bucks oportunity blooming.

Network Solutions falls off the web

Paul
Coat

@Traceroute by A.C.

Could it be because car1.Washington3.Level3.net has crashed?

Mine's the one with the 'Old Jokes' book in the pocket.

Dog off the menu at Olympic restaurants

Paul
Coat

Dog gone it!

That was one of the main reasons for going. As a cat lover I was looking forward to chomping on a few mangy mutts to help reduce the worlds population of these street polluters.

Mine's the one with the Hello Kitty badge.

Meet the UK's most spammed man

Paul

Did they learn anything

To get that much SPAM you have to let people know you are there in the first place. Giving proper consideration to when/where you divulge your email address is one of the basics of avoiding SPAM. It would appear that this clueless person is a victim of their own lack of thought.

If in doubt - us a disposable address (mailinator etc.).

eBay Australia faces PayPal fury

Paul

eBay greed - no other excuse

I sell a LOT of 99p items and asked people to consider cheque/Postal order when paying as eBay/PayPal fees add up to 53p (OVER 50%!). I did NOT say 'NO PayPal', I just asked people to think about it. I got slapped by eBay because their new terms do not allow you to 'discourage the use of PayPal'. Sheer greed on their part.

Someone in one of the forums said "If the people running eBay had to make a living of eBay the way that we do then they would not have done half the things they have done to us" - so true.

Outsiders get a crack at eBay's Selling Manager

Paul
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At freakin last!

It has been my displeasure to use that pile of sh*t for the last year. The concept is good but the coding is the worst I have been subject to in decades. I would not attempt to list all the issues. Support is non existent apart from the usual cut/past irrelevant garbage you get from any eBay support request (use the forums for a REAL answer).

PLEASE let there be a proper product released soon. Hopefully a couple of competing products will stimulate a decent result at a reasonable price.

Mind you, the way eBay/PayPal are now treating us these days I doubt if I will be there to use a new tool as I have started looking into creating an independent website of my own. I am sick of being squeezed for every penny possible while being treated as a lowlife because I sell more than junk out of my attic. If I treated my customers the way they treat me and other sellers I would have gone out of business very quickly. </rant>

eBay told to stop forcing Aussies to use PayPal

Paul

@Should have gone further

If you read the fine print you will find that "I made sure I added a comment that any prospective buyer should ignore it because I would not accept PayPal" is in breach of eBay's T's-n-C's and your account can be suspended/revoked.

I have an eBay shop and would LOVE to put that in a banner on EVERY listing but I would not be there for long before the goons found out and kicked me off.

Free market - NOT on eBay! Their way or no way.

Navy sonar dolphin 'massacre' - the facts

Paul

@Jamie Kitson

"I have been wanting to get my hands on statistics for terrorist related deaths for a while now, to compare them to say, road or suicide related deaths."

When you get those figures, please publish them along with the expenditure in each field. I'll bet it is VASTLY disproportionate. Mind you, the anti-terrorist FUD will say "That proves it must be working".

UK net registry battles coup d'etat

Paul

New rule needed?

@Kerberos - How about a new rule, something along the lines of "If a domain points to a linkfarm/adsite for 12 months it is automatically de-registered. The current owner is barred from reacquiring the domain"? I realise that is not foolproof but it is a starting point.

IT depts under threat as City braces for 20,000 job cuts

Paul

Don't bother

@Anonymous Coward.

From experience. The cost of the commute looses the increased rate offered. Stay out of the city and the savings mean you end up on an equivalent income ;-)

Sharp unwraps 'world first' Intel Atom phone

Paul

Hack?

if someone posts a decent hack for it to run ANYTHING other than Vista I would buy one.

Apprentice contestant to offer Zeppelin trips above London

Paul

Why Zeppelin?

Until about 5 years ago I used to live in Biggleswade and would regularly see 'Zeppelins' flying about. They were made by a company based in the old R101 hanger at Cardington.

Are they still in business? If so, why are Zeppelins being imported?

Brown ignores scientists and pushes pot reclassification

Paul

Have they ever tried it?

Somehow I doubt it. Like most of the anti bunch all they have is opinion with no experience to back it up. Quoting hearsay and 'reports' has no value compared to true experience.

I am in my 50s and have indulged since I was 15 with NO adverse effects. I believe that all decision makers should take at least a full day to experience the effects (with the required munchies and a good movies) and find out how a good giggle session effects their perception of the evils of weed.

At the weekend, what proportion of places in A&E are taken up by stoners & drinkers? How much does it cost the NHS for drink related issues every year? What percentage of physical or sexual assaults are due to stoners?

I would love to see the results of a truly anonymous opinion poll of the whole UK. The same for parliament might be interesting if they could be trusted to be truly honest. Scrub that - they are politicians so honest is not in their vocabulary.

The real issue is probably revenue. The duty income from alcohol is massive. If they are unable to replace that with duty on cannabis they will never vote in favour of any measure that brings it closer to being legalised.

New banking code cracks down on out-of-date software

Paul
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@Anonymous Coward

I use 2 banks. One has forced one of these blasted things on me. I am slowly moving everything to the 2nd bank so I can close the 1st account.

Why? If I want to check my account but have left the stupid thing behind I am stuffed. It is too big for its purpose and needs a chip & pin card as well. It is an absolute pain.

I understand the need for decent security but this blasted system is cumbersome and imposes too many limitations.

With my 2nd bank I have to enter PLENTY of separate security identifiers to ensure security. I can carry all of these in my head/stored in a password protected store on my laptop or even written down in an un-obvious way that I understand how to decode. For example £32.57 is a PIN hidden in a shopping list but the numbers are not in entry order. I can even 'hide' these details on-line if I wish.

Freedom is the issue. Freedom from being forced to carry both a bulky keypad/screen plus a chip and pin device. Freedom from being tied to accessing an on-line system ONLY from wherever the blasted device is.

I have taken more than 'reasonable care' to ensure the security information for my 2nd bank is not available to others yet is easy for me to use ANYWHERE.

In a short while I will rejoice in taking a large hammer to that bl**dy thing.

Coming soon: classifications for movie downloads

Paul
Paris Hilton

Oh shucks - no more torrent movies

"The classifications will be voluntary because the Video Recordings Act doesn’t require downloaded content to carry legally binding BBFC classifications."

Of course it has to be voluntary. How can they 'enforce' it?

Paris because I think even she could see the stupidity of this kind of announcement

BBC races away with five-year F1 rights deal

Paul

The Chain (unchanged) + Murry + Martin + NO ADD's = YAY!

Could they manage that mix or will the 'improve' things and make a cods of it as expected? Also - PLEASE drop the token female asking dumb questions.

Heartless Apple form letter 'confuses' Jesus Phone disciples

Paul

@Asam Bashir

2.0 has been leaked AND cracked already. Search Gizmodo for the article.

Broadband big boys waiting on data pimping

Paul

Ready to quit Tiscali if need be

I just wrote to Tiscali stating that IF they join this cr*p I had better be given an Opt In option.

It will make no difference but it made me feel better.

Luckily I have learnt that you should NEVER use ISP provided email, hosting or any service they provide. I can jump ship quickly if they do sign up to this abuse of my privacy.

Paul
Happy

@ZeroTheHero

Thank you for the info on TracmNeNot - INSTALLED, configured and running.

Off to look at Tor. Privoxy & JAP as it is something I have been considering but never had a true use for up to now.

Germans to blast fish into space

Paul

FTW?

So - at regular intervals there are new arrivals at the ISS. They blast off from Earth experiencing high G forces and then spend weeks or months in zero G. And still a bunch of researchers feel the need to simulate this by sending fish up for a WHOLE 6 MINUTES.

Am I missing something?

Hamster-in-rain emergency prompts 999 call

Paul

Charge for inapropriate calls

Caller ID (except for the ever increasingly rare public phone box) should identify the source number. If the call is inappropriate, slap that number with a £10 to £100 charge.

Once the idiots start to feel it in the wallet they will think before calling.

US military prepares for plummeting spy satellite

Paul

Stete the obvious

"We know there is at least some percentage that it could land on ground as opposed to in the water."

I wish I was clever enough to make statements like that.

They don't know where it will land. Therefore it will either end up in water or on land. The world has xx% water (any number of people know the xx% except me). Could it be that the "some percentage" is xx%?

Spirit discovers life on Mars

Paul
Coat

Poor security

They are producing these images on the same set that the so called Moon landing was created on. There must be plenty of places on this planet with this type of terrain. Use of a colour filter rather than the Black and White images from the 'Moon' now make it look like Mars.

Somebody obviously got through the security perimeter and ended up in shot.

Mine is the foil hat, thanks. Taxi!

Polish scientists quantify perfect legs

Paul

Funding

Who paid for this, and WHY?

Can I get a grant to find the perfect breast please?

BPI chief hits back at ISPA over villain of the year jibe

Paul

Unfortunate ISPs

The down side of this is that the ISPs are stuck between the Media Morons and the Idiots In Power who are being led by the nose by the MMs.

Unfortunately the 'get the pirates' gang will never listen to reason because the MMs are dinosaurs and the IIPs are totally clueless. The MMs have money and time to put pressure on the IIPs. The ISPs don't stand a chance, no matter how reasonable their argument may be.

Net Neutrality is about to get the first nail in its coffin. This will be the start of a flood of 'well justified' restrictions and invasions of privacy.

1984 here we come.

Space brains resign over efforts to attract ET attention

Paul

Xmas list

Well at least i know what to get them for Christmas - Tin foil hats and a subscription to 'They'r coming to get you' monthly.

Cambs cops podcast 999 timewasters

Paul

Bill them

The police have caller ID and also ask for the callers number as part of the initial contact procedure.

If they billed £10 to £50 back to the calling number for every wasted call then maybe the idiots would stop and think.

Word would soon get about and the number of calls would drop quit quickly.

Running queries on the HMRC database fiasco

Paul

Post?

Why on earth was it posted?

Are they still living in the dark ages? With all the technology available today there are MANY alternatives.

Surely a VPN connection to a DMZ with a 'secure' access area for sensitive file transfer would have been better. Access details sent via an encrypted email. The technology is so simple that any home user can set it up if they put in a bit of effort. The MOD sites have a secure network, couldn't government departments use this, even if they only get access to a DMZ area tagged on the side? The technology is there but why aren't they using it?

Burning disks just does not make sense.

Fox News: Filthier than the internet

Paul

@Rich

SPOT ON!

Mind you, if they run true to form, someone is going to try to sue you.

Chinese cyber strikes will be 'like WMD'

Paul

Pot calling the kettle black

How hypocritical can you be? USA has a head in the sand approach to Global Warming. One of the largest polluters on this planet and they have the nerve to point the finger at China. Clean up your act USA and then maybe you will have the right but until that day - STFU on the subject.

Tesco punts Xbox 360 bundle for £33.24

Paul
Stop

Now 404

They have removed it :-(

Paris Hilton exits missionary position to save Universe

Paul

NOTING WORTH READING (usual Hilton crap) - Please move to next article

If you do this again, PLEASE pick something worth the effort.

Record industry pushes ISPs to cut off file sharers

Paul

How did this start?

The Music Industry funds lobby groups to feed FUD to the minister and like a good little public servant seeing an opportunity to raise his profile - off he goes.

The issue is the fact that the 'Music Industry' is a dinosaur that is not capable of modifying its business model to accommodate the changes in technology and public demand.

The vast majority of criminals are the general public reacting to the unreasonable constraints created by the Music Industry as it struggles to make its outdated business model continue to generate revenue. Admittedly there are a minority of offenders who deserve prosecution for abusing the law to make money. The minority do it so that they can use the music in a manner suited to todays technology. Price is also an issue as the majority are of the opinion that high volume low cost is the answer that is easily achievable by todays technology. The Music Industry is adamantly sticking to the opposite, hence the conflict.

Unfortunately the people that suffer will be the public who do not have lobby groups to represent their opinion. This imbalance causes the minister to incorrectly assess the issue.

I have sent my opinion to him. Just one voice from the masses against the lobby groups but it may help. If you feel strongly enough to add your weight to our side of the argument the minister can br contacted via

info@dius.gsi.gov.uk. (That's the best I could find)

The more he gets, the more chance he may see things from our point of view and see through the FUD.

World's smallest economy dives into web scrum

Paul

For how long?

Google Earth shows there are 3 atolls, spread over 100 miles, with most of the dwellings squeezed into a small area. The environment look idyllic.

Unfortunately global warming predictions are that environments such as these will soon disappear as the sea level rises. If that happens to this economy - what happens to the .tk domains if there is no geographic location? They could relocate to Australia if allowed back post independence. Do the domains then migrate to .au?