* Posts by Eitsop

17 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Dec 2007

UK govt 'tearing up road laws' for Google's self-driving cars: The truth

Eitsop

See it differently?

I have been thinking about self-driving cars differently. I was thinking we'd never actually get to own one. I pictured that car manufacturers would make the vechicles, and licence them to fleets (e.g. taxi firms), who would provide the insurance, cleaning, servicing and energy usage etc. (assuming electric here). Whenever we need to travel somewhere, we get out our smartphone, and request one. It'll then trundle up to us (using the GPS in our phone) and we get in, tell it where we want to go, we then pay for the transport using some electronic payment on the phone.

All this means that no-one owns the vechicles except them manufacturer, who is the ultimate receiver of our money. this then pays for updates, improvements and provides a stable income for them. We'd never need to own one, but the'd always be one ready for us. Basically, everyone rents. Old cars can be recycled better.

The other side is we move from oil gradually to electric.

To me that sounds like a good solution. Only paying for what you need.

There may be a few existing companies that disagree though (oil, taxis, garages etc..)

BAA poo-poos Bollywood star's pervscan printout put-on

Eitsop
Coat

Cameras on cameras

Hey - how about this one:

Is it possible that CCTV will be covering the cameras? So a camera watching the perv scanner? Does such a camera record to tape and archive?

-time for tin hats.

Mine's the lead lined one...

Free postcoders bang on Ordnance Survey door

Eitsop

The alternative

I guess the people could use thier collective power and refuse to use post codes and develop our own free alternative that we can stick on letters...

Libel reform campaigners seek £10k damages cap

Eitsop

Apology the same as the libel

I have always thought that if a paper or other publication make a false statement they should apologise using the same amount of space and position. I.e. If they ran with a large front-page article and they are wrong, they should apologise using the same font size and space. Better than a fine. The same could be applied to web sites etc..

Judges: Don't know the law? It's understandable

Eitsop

The obivous?

If we're supposed to abide by laws - shouldn't we be able to know what they are? Isn't it as simple as that? Otherwise how do we know if something is legal or not?

If an average peson can't read the law then how can they abide by them?

The best thing I have been is: http://www.askthe.police.uk/

Take a hammer to your hard drive, shrieks Which?

Eitsop
Black Helicopters

A good method of making sure...

At a previous employer the data on disks was classified. We actually had a degausser to erase the disks. Worked really well funny enough. The disks where no good after that though..

Sony PRS-505 Reader e-book

Eitsop

It's an ebook

Classic - I knew it. People asking an ebook to do more than read. Who cares if it plays music, who cares if it's got wifi - it's for reading books. It's a bit like buying a mobile 'phone' that has to have every feature. Why not add a camera? Maybe a phone service, voice over IP? Geez - it's an ebook reader.

Another thing: reading a paper book is slow - turning a page and re-focusing on the opposite page etc takes time. So what's 1 or 2 seconds for a page turn?

eBay slams UK.gov touting ban

Eitsop

Do you think

that some member of parliment couldn't get hold of a ticket for thier offstring so decided that they would change the law? Can't imagine why else the goverment would do it - doesn't affect them...

MPAA copyright punch up knocks out TorrentSpy

Eitsop

@ JimC

I wasn't meaning that people are breaking copyrights - I was just trying to imply that it's a thin line between giving permission and not giving permission.

How does TorrentSpy know which is which - was it thier repsonsibility to know? Why should an ISP or a torrent search site assume I could be downloading music and films when I could be downloading an Linux .ISO image?

It's a little like making El Reg liable for all the comments people make isn't it?

Eitsop
Coat

Annoying

Every time I read one of these reports it bugs me - everything that is shared isn't illegal. Geez.

Aren't web servers essentially sharing information as well? Some of it copyrighted? Isn't it being copied from one computer to another - from the copyright owner's computer to someone else's and buffered on thier hard disk?

Mine's the annoyed one...

Top security firm: Phorm is adware

Eitsop
Boffin

The BBC?

Hey - the BBC have a 'have your say' thingy on Phorm: http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=4468

Just thought I'd mention it...

Phorm launches data pimping fight back

Eitsop
Black Helicopters

Disgrunted Employees?

What happens if there is a disgrunted employee as they have mentioned, or a security breach and it's not the data they are interested in, what if they can modify the code and have access to any browing information they like from millions of users. How about a bit of javascript injection instead of an ad?

Can they provide assurance that it is 100% impossible for anyone, ever to gain access to our browsing details.

Also aren't search terms in form fields?

Doctors back more tax on booze

Eitsop

Just like smoking

Hey, everyone hates smokers now - why not start on people who have a drink? Right I have an idea:

1. Ban Smoking in pubs (done)

2. Ban drinking in pubs (in progress)

3. Ban food in pubs (claim it makes people fat)

4. Ban pubs

- I am really starting to get annoyed by this nanny state thing - next we'll have to be booking appointments to use roads....

UK rattles 'three strikes' filesharing sabre (again)

Eitsop
Boffin

Geez

I mean honestly, how will they know the difference between a legal download (iso distribution of linux on a torrent) and a video? And then what happens when the 'mainstream' way becomes encrypted and distributed to the point when no-one can tell what data is being transferred, and aren't web-servers just file sharing anyway?

As so many people have mentioned before, technically it's going to be pointless.

Do we need computer competence tests?

Eitsop

What an odd comparison

Why compare driving a car to owning a computer? Will someone die if you walk away when a program is running? That's then you might need training - something like an air traffic controller for example. Someone checkign emails? Who cares?

People who care will look after thier systems, people who don't will moan about how slow thier systems is and end up paying someone to sort it out.

Licence to run a computer,, geez. Next you'll be saying you need one to own a mp3 player to ensure you understand copyright issues...

Home Sec in anti-terror plan to control entire web

Eitsop

Not another one...

Yet another story about a political figure who doesn't understand the practicalities of what they say.

"Where there is illegal material on the net, I want it removed" - what a great statement - that's just a joke right? We can't event control dodgy toys on market stalls - how they heck are we supposed to prevent any illegal material coming into the country on the net?

Geez...

Watchdogs probe Sky dominance on pay-TV

Eitsop
Thumb Down

Pay, Pay, Pay?

I left Sky a while ago, opting for Freeview (the people at Sky didn't understand that Freeview is cheaper than Sky for some reason). As I remember it with sky you have to pay for: 1 the subscription to sky (at least basic), 2. the premiership subscription. And, as previously mentioned there's the adverts.

My personal favourite suggestion is watching it delayed - I am sure that people wouldn't mind watching it later on another channel.

Whilst i'm ranting - when did all this money-is-more-important-than-football start anyway?