* Posts by Geoff Bowen

7 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Oct 2007

Birmingham Airport in X-rated X-ray shocker

Geoff Bowen

Strange combo if items to carry...

"Plus, I'm a bit worried as to what that long object at the top of the case is (above the ipod speakers)"

Looks very much like an electric soldering iron to me, just hope those two items never get confused!

As to why the liquids aren't in a zip back, you don't need to for checked luggage, only carry on.

Ofcom flashes cash guarantees at BT for fibre investment

Geoff Bowen
Paris Hilton

Why share?

What I don't get is why BT should have to open up any fibre it lays to other service providers. This is not like the copper situation where BT inherited a nationalised infrastructure and therefore a competitive advantage, all fibre work has been done / will be done since BT became a private company and as far as I am aware, there is no real barrier to any other provider laying their own fibre that is not also present to BT.

So can someone enlighten me as to why they cannot expect to have complete exclusivity on its use?

Paris, as there's a real possibility I'm missing something very fundamental here...

iTuneski for films challenges Hollywood

Geoff Bowen
Thumb Up

Right model, right price, shame it aint legal

Now if only this was legal, I'd use it in a heartbeat.

Global distribution and global pricing, open formats, with ability to use the content on any device with a simple transcode. Very importantly, its a one stop shop, All content available in one place regardless of studio.

If they offered HD versions at say $7.99 to $9.99 aswell, it would be pretty close to the complete offering.

The speed of content access makes it compelling over p2p at the right price. no DRM, no regional restrictions, open standards, no device tie in.

So Content owners of the world please take note. Heres your model, it's obvious.

It always was, In the same way unencumbered open standards files such as MP3 are for digital music distribution. But given we still can't get those for all but a few labels at a price point that doesn't work for album purchase, I don't hold much hope.

Plan for 20mph urban speed-cam zones touted

Geoff Bowen

@ Steven Jones

Your comment about banning motorbikes is interesting. This government has made noises in the past about wanting to do that due to the statistics of injuries / fatalities.

As a sensible rider (and yes, we do exist, you just dont notice us very much as we arent filtering through motorway traffic @ 70 or overtaking in inappropriate locations), I assume every person in a 4 wheeled tin box is a blind dick. Most of the time, drivers are ok but 4-5 times a day I've predicted a car pulling out or changing lanes on motorways without checking mirrors adequately. Unfortunately when you ride, you have to think like this all the time if you want to live!

The sheer fact of the matter is alot of motorcycle accidents are a consequence of poor car drivers skills.

Don't get me wrong, we are not a blameless breed, I know plenty of dicks on bikes, some who even after fairly serious injury carry on and sadly, sooner or later they will get to meet their maker.

Pulling this back to the original article, you can put all the cameras and 20mph limits in you like, bad drivers are bad drivers. Ditto inconsiderate cyclists and dumb pedestrians.

People will continue to die / get injured until the government wakes up to the truth that the key way to reduce accidents is to improve the skills of road users.

I'd like to see - mandatory eye tests for all road users every 2 years, with an indication on your licence on whether you need corrected vision to legally drive. It should be a prisonable offence to be on the road in any capacity without corrected vision as you are as much a danger to all other road users as a drunk driver.

Mandatory retests for all drivers / motorcycle riders every 10 years and every 3 years when over the age of 65.

Geoff Bowen
Unhappy

@ Anonymous coward

1. Ban anyone from driving who thinks speed does not kill

1st thing you learn when you ride a motor cycle is speed is fine, inappropriate speed for the current environment is what kills

Whether its through misreading a road, going too fast for traffic to respond to your presence, or not taking into account that the guy in the 4 wheeled metal thing has no idea how to observe properly and it going to pull out straight in front of you.

Legislation is not the answer here.

A crap driver can kill at any speed, a pedestrian who does not apply road sense can get killed if they make a move that doesn't give someone a chance to respond to a stupid action. A cyclist not obeying the rules of the road cannot reasonably expect drivers and pedestrians to know what they're planning to do.

The fact is it is the collective responsibility of all road users to do their bit, legislation only serves to remove responsibility from road users, its about time we enforce the laws we have and promote good road sense instead of looking more legislation to solve the problem.

Ofcom: no comeback for TV on analogue spectrum

Geoff Bowen

TV License continued.

Just to clarify, if you have any equipment capable of receiving a broadcast signal, whether you use that capability or not, you must pay your TV license fee.

The 'but I only watch DVDs' argument doesn't hold. If the TV can receive a broadcast, you gotta pay. Ditto TV turner card in PC, VCR, DVD Recorder, anything with an analogue or digital TV tuner, connected or not.

Google launches YouTube video-blocking contraption

Geoff Bowen

@ Kevin

You're correct about watermarking, but fingerprinting does not require a watermark in picture.

Forensic fingerprinting is designed to be tolerant of shape / size and bitrate changes in content and still identify.

Philips are the leaders in this kind of technology within the broadcast / film space, a high level overview of their fingerprinting solution can be found here

http://www.business-sites.philips.com/assets/Downloadablefile//Videofingerprinting_5-13507.pdf

And no, I dont work for Philips :-)