Where have I seen that kind of scenery before?

Looks a bit like practice for mining on Mars!

One thing that will never change

One thing that will never change is idiots leaving USB drives on trains, in skips, etc.

One detail that might change over the next few years is that they may be USB3 (the drives, not the idiots) thus allowing faster upload of their unencrypted contents.

Keep the real international units

The imperial system is the true international one --- let's not help the spread of this French nonsense, based on an inaccurate attempt at measuring the earth!

Citizen drones

Fortunately, sousveillance drones can broadcast unencrypted video, rather than sending back a stream for exclusive use of their operators, which should make it harder to trace them back to an individual to prosecute for using them.

So you reckon the rogue-secret-military-special-operations-organisation communities are planning to use super-mice to take on duties formerly performed by human personnel? Do you have inside information?

So that tells us all something about the buildings

Without needing to read the plans, we can assume, from the government's concern, that the buildings' security design is weak enough to depend on the plans being unknown.

Ironic, for the country in which Kerckhoff's principle was first stated.

Best viewed second-hand

It's a series I would have liked to see in the cinema, but after the way SZC treated Southampton's Hobbit Pub, I'll wait until I can get it on second-hand DVDs, and not contribute to SZC's profits!

Perhaps more interesting for geeks is technical speculation about how it was built, such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvx5gSnfW4

What happened to miniaturization, micro-electronics, etc?

What kind of processor do they have in these things --- ENIAC?

Considering the amount of computing power you could squeeze into, say, the base of a lamp-post, it seems strange that they're still using cabinets large enough for people to notice.

Or maybe it is a huge solidly-packed mass of throbbing solid-state circuitry, because of all the MI5 / MI6 / GCHQ tap technology that has to be included?

Still puzzled

If they only want to question him, couldn't the Swedish investigators have travelled to the UK to do so? Or even, if rumours of the existence of telecommunications technology are actually true, have questioned him remotely?

Mine's the one without a morse key in the pocket.

See XKCD on this.

A minor irritation with the numbers

Wandering slightly off the main topic: I wish online transaction sites would let you enter the spaces between the groups of digits --- it makes it so much easier to check you've typed it correctly!

Or are e-shop programmers really incapable of writing code to skip the spaces in the number you've entered?

Epson PX-8

My first non-toy machine was an Epson PX-8 CP/M laptop, which had two auxiliary processors as well as the main Z80, and another Z80 in the bolt-on wedge-shaped 120K RamDisk that fitted nicely under the machine. The build quality was wonderful, the keyboard was good and solid, and it even had a pull-out carry handle. Unfortunately, the screen was only 8 lines (of 8 columns). I can't remember what the battery life was.

I knew a few other users of these; the only one who didn't have difficulty soldering the mini-DIN 8-pin serial connectors was a surgeon who specialized in re-connecting nerves in childrens' hands.

I suspect the aim is not the declared one

I doubt the idea is really to get the pub to change its name --- it sounds more like a shakedown to me: "Pay us all your money".

Or alternatively, perhaps SZC are planning to open a chain of plastic middle-earth themed hostelries themselves?

A definite improvement on the US version

No problems with tiles, O-rings etc on this one!

Counter^n-measures

So what's going to stop someone who's jamming GPS from jamming eLORAN too?

Evidently they'll have to propose some taxpayer-funded counter-counter-counter-measures.

Won't somebody think of the children?