Posts by Daniel Wilkie 277 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jan 2008
There's quite a lot of paperwork involved in a criminal case from all sides, from the police, the defendants, the CPS etc. So bearing in mind that the coppers are spending time out in cars donig proper police work, how are they going to have time to do all the paperwork for the 10+ people a day all the ones I know arrest, and then get that sent to the courts in time for them to pass a verdict within a day or two?
It's a nice idea, but I really can't see it working.
If half of us vote for him, then unless the other half of us all vote for just one party they'll get in... Which isn't that likely... So there :p
And Dedmonst, seriously - bootnotes? As in off topic?
Dammit now I just copied everyone else and fed the trolltard :s
@Sarah Bee - does the post come with a company Aston? If it does, consider my CV in the post :p
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3157
OK it's not a spam botnet but still, it's the best I could find quickly. As a (presumably) IT pro, you should know better than to discount the possibility of being compromised based merely on the fact that it's less likely. Just because very few people bother compromising Linux/Macs (presumably it's because there's just not enough of them about) doesn't mean that sooner or later someone won't attempt to do it on a large scale, so you should always be vigilant regardless.
But then I don't need to tell you that do I?
To be honest, if I had committed a crime under another countries law and got caught (key thing there ;)) then yes, I would expect to be charged by them. That's how I thought the whole thing worked.
Of course I could be wrong, it's not my area of expertise.
It's probably just the fact that I don't like the ginger scottish twat and I can't stand people baaawing just because they did something wrong and got caught. But mostly because I don't like him.
Seriously. He commited a crime, the systems were american therefore the crime was ostensibly on American soil, ergo he should be tried in America. Why hasn't he been extradited already dammit?
I'm no fan of the yanks, or our seemingly one way extradition rules, but this twat has annoyed me so much now that I just want him gone. Can't they send in Sam Fisher or something, surely it falls under his jurisdiction?
It's not Windows for Warships that was affected... It was the admin network. So someone was probably downloading pr0n or something like that and infected their machine. Or picked up a virus the same way as anyone else does. The BMS (or whatever the navy term is for a battlefield management system) is completely seperate and isolated. Obiously.
Why send an ARU?
It depends on the force area I guess, but in most they double as traffic units since they are usually pursuit trained and the cars are up to it. Since they often have a lower workload it makes sense rather than having them sat around the station waiting for a comparitively rare (in most areas compared to traffic) firearms incident.
As for the tasering, I'm curious as to how you'd have attempted to stop a JCB. It's not like a tactical stop is going to work, or stingers, or boxing it in. And it would be too dangerous to jump into the cab - all it would take is a size 10 in your face to throw you onto the tracks. It's probably got a decent sized fuel tank so can keep going for a reasonably long time, and if the drivers already swerved at the copper, who's to say he won't start swerving at pedestrians or drive into someones house? The officer was probably hoping that once he'd been tasered he'd have given up. It's a logical assumption.
And of course tasers aren't replacements for firearms - they have an effective range of around 5 meters. They fill a similar role to the H&K Baton gun but on a more general issue, IE they provide a less lethal option for use generally on suspects armed with a weapon other than firearms, who would previously have been shot. However the intention is clearly to slot them below this even - Baton guns require you to be firearms qualified and then (in the MDP at least) do an additional course to qualify on the Baton Gun itself.
I'm assuming the officer believed that after being tasered the driver would give up. It's not an unreasonable assumption in my mind - if someone shot me with a taser and I knew they could do it again and again, I'd stop what I was doing and comply. Wouldn't you?
Challenger 2 is still one of the most survivable tanks on the battlefield. Unless any more have been taken out recently, there's only ever been 3 damaged in combat, and I don't think any of them have been destroyed and they have CERTAINLY been busy enough in Iraq. Indeed iirc one of them took RPG hits well into double figures in the Siege at Al Amarah, withdrew with damage, and was back in a few hours later. Indeed from what I've heard, without the Challengers the relief convoy wouldn't have even got as close as it did to Cimic House.
Helicopters are all well and good but tanks bring heavy SURVIVABLE firepower with the troops, I think that is still a useful capability.
Naval-Technology.com, and Wikipedia (don't say it) - I've done some more digging around and the complement is 1,450 including aircrew and support staff according to the MoD fact sheet, I'm not sure how much of that is aircrew related as it doesn't break it down.
It's still 1/5th the crew for a Nimitz class though. The Type 45 has a crew of 190 compared to the 315 on a Batch 3 Type 42, even though it's bigger. Modernisation I guess. But again, if you compare a Type 45 to the crew of a Yank equivalent, say the Arleigh Burke, that has a crew of 275. They don't need to worry so much about manpower I guess so why bother relying on Automated systems? Sadly our navy DOES have to worry about such concerns so our ships nowadays are designed to minimise crew requirements.
As for the aircrews, CVF's will carry 40 aircraft so granted it is a lot less. However there's no point buying a stonking great Nimitz class if you're only going to fly with half an air wing. Plus they can't physically get into Portsmouth Harbour which is why you used to get the awesome sight of them anchored out in the solent when they visited. I can't remember whether it was the depth (not insurmountable) or the angle you need to turn to get to the nuke parking area, but it's one or the other.
I do agree about the EM Catapults though, they'd seem a much better idea. And not just because they get automatic cool-points.
Manpower is really the issue with American carriers (or indeed any American ships) - British ships tend to have a tiny crew for their size required to operate them. American ships don't. I mean come on, they employ a guy who's sole job is to keep the vending machines on the ship filled up ffs, in the RN that would probably fall on some poor AB who's already doing 3 other people's jobs :p
Nimitz - 3,200 men plus Airwing of ~2,500
CVF - 600 (Possibly plus airwing, which would be maybe another 120)
Quite a gap...
I installed it yesterday and to be honest I found it distinctly non-offensive. The ability to install games on the hard drive has little effect at all on some games (for example Gears of War) other than the lack of disk noise, but others (Mass Effect) it loads with no percievable wait, even between levels and the texture popin appears mostly gone now as well.
As for the avatars, I didn't find it highly amusing to alter my mates Xbox live one after he'd gone out to an approximate rendition of Captain Shakespeare...
I think if a million strong mob stormed the parliament building, the police would likely decide they've lost control of the situation (which would be correct) and the army would be deployed to be honest. Riot Shields and Tear Gas can only do so much, a company of Paras with rifles and grenades can do so much more...
I fail to see that the fact he's been diagnosed with AS has any effect on whether he's extradited or not to be honest. He was clearly aware of commiting the crime, so I don't think he could really use that as a recourse. I'm not the biggest fan of the UK-US extradition treaty but in this case I think it's more than justified.
So what is the reason for these people coming forward now? Maybe it's just me being cynical but I can't help thinking there must be some motive here - I mean come on, they clearly had no problem with it at the time. Have they recently left or something like that?
I'm no fan of the way the world is going down the tube, but I'm pretty sceptical when people make revelations about things they were involved in (especially when they're clearly admitting their guilt) for the good of the people... That's just not how most people work!
I really hated the old insight with a Passion - why do car manufacturers tend to go all weird and make their hybrids look like a 50's version of THE CAR OF TOMORROW!!!!!
But this I actually quite like. And indeed could be tempted to part with my cash, if indeed I ever actually had any cash... :(
But I have to say - IT Angle?
Horses for Courses... I see what you're saying, and I've played on both quite a lot, the PS3 as well. I personally prefer the games on the 360, you prefer the games on the Wii, and I know people who prefer the games on the PS3. I think most people will buy a console based on its games more than the price (I did).
So no flames (and no zits, I have BEAUTIFUL skin :p), but a slight disagreement from me.
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