I don't know why...
...The Reg has omitted to mention the significantly more serious aspect of the case, which was the establishment of a fake account in the victim's name which was then used to send inappropriate material to minors.
Posts by nichomach
829 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
Brit judge orders Facebook to rip masks from anonymous cowards
Samsung's projector phone beamed up to Blighty
UK Gov not using six million of its software licences
SpaceX Dragon, first private ship to the ISS, launched successfully
Cameron's F-35 U-turn: BAE Systems still calls the shots at No 10
Spy under your car bonnet 'worth billions by 2016'
Tuesday 15th May 2012 12:40 GMT
Re: If they really knew...
Monopoly? No. Cartel? Almost certainly. And yes, actually, I have no problem with the government stepping in and limiting the extent to which we can be ripped off. The requirement for motor insurance is mandated by the government; they effectively force us to buy this product, so I have no problem with them enforcing a limit on how much we can be ripped off for.
Tuesday 15th May 2012 10:05 GMT
Re: If they really knew...
Yes, actually I think he did. And he's right. The assumption seems to be that as insurers' costs go down, so will the cost of insurance. It doesn't and it won't, because motor insurance is a legalised protection racket, and its practitioners crooks whose behaviour would make Al Capone blush. Year on year we see more intrusive surveillance of drivers (ANPR, greater powers to confiscate untaxed/uninsured vehicles and so forth) which we the taxpayers pay for but are demanded by the insurance companies who always claim that it will reduce the cost of insurance for law-abiding motorists. Never happens though, does it? When was the last time your insurance even held steady, let alone went down? Isn't it funny, by the way, how all those prices at rodent comparison sites and the like are within a few quid of each other? How all their price increases seem so consistent?
Queen unveils draft internet super-snoop bill - with clauses
Thursday 10th May 2012 07:48 GMT
Re: Lazarus bill
You might find the odd Tory like David Davies who has a clue , but bluntly for all their neo-liberal anti-"big government"/"nanny state" rhetoric, the Tories have NEVER been opposed to extending state *control* of the populace when they've been in power. The Lib Dems aren't any better; their "allergies" have turned out to be largely posture without substance.
David Willetts: UK firms need to 'fess up to security boobs
Ultrabook price vice prised open by flash-disk half-breeds
Apple finally deploys Mac Flashback Trojan terminator
Novatech pushes affordable Ultrabook
Thursday 29th March 2012 07:31 GMT
Re: Lan and USB
Sorry, but the Novatech specifications do not mention a LAN port, so while the bung is there, the port probably isn't. The chassis will have been bought in from a manufacturer elsewhere, who may make the chassis capable of hosting a LAN port, but that doesn't mean there is one. We get a lot of laptops that still have a bung/cover for a 56k modem; it's just that the modem isn't there.
HP unveils hamper of Ivy Bridge notebooks
Monday 19th March 2012 15:49 GMT
@DomS
You'll note that there's a little "3" after the Full HD boast in the video, which corresponds to a fleetingly displayed wodge of small print (you have to be quick with the pause button) at the end stating that the full HD bit "varies by model and region". The HP info page linked to does not give any screen specifications at all. Given that HP aren't giving any details, I went with assuming the article to be accurate.
So, what IS the worst film ever made?
Ten... FireWire 800 hard drives
Cameron denies personal Trident missile firing iPad app
DLNA blesses HomePlug Ethernet-over-mains tech
Judge nixes Apple's bid to patent-bash bankrupt Kodak
Citrix drops Rush Limbaugh over 'slutgate' slurs
Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4
Top Gun 2: It's happening - and the choice of star is stirring controversy
Woman spanked for dissing ex in Facebook snapshot
Cameras roll on 'blockbuster' new Who series
Texan TSA crew accused of nude scanner ogling scheme
BOFH: Moon landings, Pong and the case of the smoking server
Europeans turn backs on Ultrabooks
Euro data protection: Great for punters, not for biz - MoJ wonk
IT guy answers daughter's Facebook rant by shooting her laptop
Monday 13th February 2012 12:53 GMT
Whether they are
a majority is unclear, but they're far from silent anyway; unless you consider luminaries such as the denizens of Fox News or the nastier end of talk radio to be in any way "silent".
Seriously, though, I suppose it's easy enough to have a laugh at this, but I earnestly hope it's just a wind-up. I could just about go with "This is your laptop. This is the Red Cross store. This is me taking the laptop INTO the Red Cross store. Hello Red Cross lady, would you like a laptop?", but even assuming that matters are exactly as he said I can't help feeling that the reaction was disproportionate, wasteful, and unlikely to end up producing the desired effect. You can gain compliance with fear for a while, certainly, but that's a lot different to respect and I'm not sure this fellow knows the difference. What's next - her bedroom's untidy, so burn her teddy bear? Homework late? Set fire to her books! Lock her in the coal cellar!
Revealed: Apple's plea for fairness in mobile patent war
Wednesday 8th February 2012 16:17 GMT
I'm not so sure that
these ARE benign and reasonable. One of the reasons that Apple's profit margins are as high as they are is that certainly in mobile devices, they don't actually invent that much. That which they DO invent (even leaving aside the ridiculous rounded corners and "We invented icons! No, really!" stuff) probably isn't in any real sense essential. By comparison, your Nokias, Motorolas and so forth have spent shedloads over many years on actually developing the stuff which makes a phone, well, a phone. Having arrived late to the patent party and with the IP equivalent of a bottle of two-buck chuck, they now want to dictate how the people who invented the hard stuff charge for it. By contrast, their own paltry stock of IP appears mere litigation fodder, since it's hardly "essential" so presumably they can aggravate people by making up whatever licensing terms they like or refusing to license and then suing people for stuff like rounded corners or daring to have a touchscreen on their device. Frankly, I take one hell of a lot more of a jaundiced view of this than the author.
Upgrade eliminates Atlantis from Google Earth
BBC's images of murdered infant did not breach privacy, copyright
Thursday 2nd February 2012 20:13 GMT
OK, sorry
When you said "Maybe '15-years-to-life' would be better, but I thought that most people would understand the situation, justifying the use of the shorthand description.", that appeared to be a clear statement that *you* were using that "shorthand". t would seem difficult to read it any other way; but I'm happy to take you at your word.
Thursday 2nd February 2012 11:37 GMT
Wowsers...
"15 years for murder is shite. Be out in half that probably! Should be 60 years if u ask me" was not a comment on your article? Was not a comment upon your statement in that article that runs "Earlier this month the High Court in Glasgow sentenced Kimberley Hainey to 15 years in prison for the murder of her son."? It's just a coincidence that it appeared in the comments on that article? Hmmm.
The error was yours; you reported the wrong sentence in your article. It was your responsibility to correct it. You didn't. The OP was misled into assuming that the effect of that sentence would be similar to that of any other determinate sentence - that they would be sentenced to fifteen years and be out in half that, which is actually broadly in line with what *does* happen with determinate sentences in the UK. Absent any aggravating factors and assuming good behaviour, it is customary for a prisoner to serve about half to two thirds of their sentence before being eligible for release. Had you said that they had been sentenced to life and will serve a minimum of fifteen years, that misunderstanding could not have arisen.
As regards the US stuff, since YOU raised the comparison between US parole and UK life licence, I referred to that, explained that I was not familiar with it except in a very general sense and that where I referred to parole I would be referring to parole in the UK. You kept banging on about the US system and US sentences in subsequent posts.
Retailer drops Eee Pad Transformer Prime, claims quality issues
Court defies Apple demand to ban Samsung tablet
Met's email hack probe turns spotlight on The Times - MP
Thursday 2nd February 2012 12:15 GMT
If this is accurate...
..., it kind of permanently puts the kibosh on NI's attempts to limit the toxic overspill to the defunct NotW, doesn't it? First it was one investigator and we didn't know, then it was one journalist and he didn't have approval, then a few bad apples (ditto), then one bad paper but we've closed it... It'll become almost impossible to argue that there isn't a general culture of lawlessness at NI, won't it?
World's first bamboo smartphone to enter production
Cosmic rays blamed for Phobos-Grunt fiasco
Airbrushed Rachel Weisz gets watchdog hot under the collar
Wednesday 1st February 2012 13:47 GMT
Problem is that
unless the ASA are empowered and resourced to view every advert before it reaches any media, then they can only act retrospectively after a complaint, so the sales over that period have already happened? Unless you mean banning sales of the product *forever*, which might be going a bit overboard?
Wednesday 1st February 2012 13:32 GMT
... the sanctions they impose are the ones they've got, surely. And surely it's better that they impose those and make a very public statement to that effect than be as supine and ineffectual as, for instance, Ofcom? Yes, it would be nice if they have more teeth, but I'm not going to knock them for having a nip with the ones they've got.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
