* Posts by Chris

8 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Sep 2007

Baby Shakergate: Apple officially sorry

Chris
Boffin

I'm glad I dont have to think about ...

these things any more.

My life is so much simpler now that corporations and government make all of my decisions for me.

If they had not been there I could have downloaded this app and been 'deeply offended' - perhaps even traumatised.

I just dont think I could have used the brains I was born with and made a decision for myself and decided not to download it.

Please let me know when I can breath out....

Report names LG's phones as least reliable

Chris

LG Viewty - ugg

Bought and LG Viewty as an upgrade with my SP.

After 2 months I went back to my old phone.

The UI was poor to the point of useless.

Never again.

LG launches cost-conscious touchscreen caller

Chris

Lets hope ...

it better than the Viewty. I was dumb enough to get one on 18 month contract. Now 5 months in I am selling it and have reverted back to my old SonyE.

Airline industry refuses to be ID card guinea pig

Chris

The 'I have nothing to hide' is such a fallacy

Why oh why do people keep trotting out this bull? Its because of this miopic mindset that our civil liberies and freedoms are being so easily eroded.

At surface level the phase is true: I have done nothing wrong so I have nothing to fear from the authorities. But that is where it stops.

If stopped, you cannot simply respond when questioned, 'no officer, I am innocent, good day' - they simply wont believe you. Instead you will have to stop and answer a number of questions, who are you?, where are you going?, whats in the bag?, etc. You will be treated as if you are a criminal until you can prove you are not. Do you really want that on the way to a job interview or when running late for that important client meeting?

And where is the line drawn? Would be happy to interrupt a family dinner, when the PRS police come knocking and asking to inspect your computer for illegal downloads?

Innocence and liberty are not the same:

Liberty: freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.

Inncoence: freedom from sin or moral wrong.

Yes, pursue and punish the wrongdoers, but do not do it by treating the innocent as criminals - that will only incite them to act as criminals.

Royal Navy won't fight pirates 'in case they claim asylum'

Chris

WTF?

Where the fuck have this countries balls gone?

Robot airliner anti-missile escorts proposed

Chris

Another movie-plot threat makes it to reality

is common-sense and realistic perspective really so rare in the upper echelons of society?

If it takes 3 minutes to get to 13,000 ft (at ~4,000fpm) then a drone will have a minimum turnaround of 6 minutes (ascent & descent). Factor in taxi to take-off / formation, approach patterning and post-landing taxiing and refuelling then the time between drone take-offs will be in the order of 20 minutes assuming 100% efficiency and no failures or snafus.

Taking a wild guess at there being 150 major airports in the mainland US, with an average of, say, 1 take off per minute then there will be a requirement of 3,000 drones, again assuming 100% efficiency. This number would be doubled when you factor in maintenance rotations and breakdowns.

This will also increase the amount of pollution in and around airports by a significant factor, and will double the amount of air traffic in the sky below 13,000 ft. Half of this sub 13k traffic will be on remote (I assume).

So in summary, they are proposing increasing fuel consumption, pollution, and risk of mid-air collision, to offset the potential risk of a terrorist obtaining a MANPAD and taking a potshot at an airliner - something that has only ever happened in a warzone ... oh and a movie.

Why not just equip airliners with chaff and flare dispensers?

Only 'unlawful threats' would invalidate McKinnon extradition

Chris
Flame

Sigh...

It makes me smile to see so many getting all riled up.

I agree that this is a travesty of justice. The Americans have already made veiled allusions to this chap having already been found guilty. Even if he had surrendered and agreed to the deal, there is no guarantee that the Americans would have stuck to their side of the bargain. McKinnon would have disappeared into Gitmo, there would have been a few seconds on the news when his supporters raised their voices, and that would have been it- gone for good, another political casualty in the games of the rich and powerful.

I am convinced that the UK and US governments are actively engaged in a scheme to reduce their citizens to the status of drones. Those that have money will put their children through private schooling and ensure they get into the upper flight of society, all from the safety of their ivory towers.

The drones on the other hand will be told that the schools are achieving the best scores ever, while they fail to even notice that their children can barely spell their own names, or string together enough words to make an intelligible sentence. They will 'enrich' their lives with Eastenders and Jeremy Kyle from the safety of their barricaded tenement while the local yoof engage in open warfare on the streets outside. All the time, what money they can earn is leached away from them in an effort to heat, clothe and feeds themselves at an ever-increasing cost while the oil and energy company shareholders throw glitsy 'record-profits' parties with their 'celebrity' friends.

And all of this will play out to the soundtrack of the disgruntled murmurings of the educated few like us, who, through ironic misfortune, are not blinded by the smoke and mirrors and can see where we are headed but are impotent to intervene.

We are gradually being reduced to the status of cattle or sheep, and our purpose is to keep the consumer cycle running as fast and for as long as possible so that those at the top of the tree can sustain their little empires. We will soon be back to feudal ways where we, the peasants, will be at the mercy of our lords and masters.

This decision is only one in a long catalogue of injustices that indicate that the law is no longer about fairness, but more about political manoeuvring and power. It is certainly not there for our benefit.

Florida uni cops taser shouty student

Chris

Sickening

For all those in the "... he got what was deserved" and " ... the law's the law" camps - shame on you. Would you have the same opinion if you child ended up in hospital/prison because they were being a bit roudy in registration, or would not move along when told to do so by some jumped-up jobsworth.

The US is supposed to be a civilised nation, however it appears it is only civil if you think and do as you are told and dont ask questions.

You only have to look back 60-70 year in Germany to see paralells to what we are witnessing here. In nearly all countries in the 'Western' world the freedoms and liberties of the non-elites is being chipped away under the guise of the war on terrorism. People just cannot see what is coming - no freedom of choice, no privacy, no freedom of expression - I would rather die on my feet in a terrorist blast than on my knees at the end of a policemans taser. (Though I would really prefer neither if given the choice)

This chap was engaging in a debate and would not yield the floor. When was the last time a US senator was tasered for fillibustering?

What sickend me more than the tasering, was the utter lack of response from Mr Kerry. He is a senator, elected to uphold the rights of citizens, a man with significant social clout and he stands there trying to answer this bloke's questions while the questioner is tortured into submission.

As for the sheep in the audience, this I have come to expect from a class of human being that is now so self-centred, so materialistic and so dumb, that they no longer respond the suffering and injustices inflicted upon other.

Alas, whilst there are many of us who bleat on about the injustice of it all, we will all just go back to our desks tomorrow and await the next soapbox moment. It is too late to demonstrate (you would be branded a terrorist), your elected representative either couldn't give a damn or is outside of the party fold and hence impotent, and if you try to mobilise others into action, you will probably disappear.