Don't forget, of course, that some countries object to your registering a domain their unless you operate there. Or, let's be fair, unless you pay taxes there.

Why is this any different to the likes of TomTom allowing users to upload corrections?

Having said that TomTom's mapping is still pretty dodgy outside urban areas.

"if TEXXXAN did not exist their [sic] would most certainly be something else in its place."

By that rationale can we expect to see a similar defence in criminal cases?

"If I hadn't mugged him somebody else would most certainly have mugged him."

My parents have Sky Broadband (I advised them not to do it, but there you go) the best download speed they get doesn't even get to 2Mbps. Before you make the mistake of assuming they live in the sticks I can assure you that they live in a city centre complete with 1 postcode. Neighbours who aren't on Sky are reporting close to 8Mbps.

Our local news managed to run this as a local story, since the MoD is apparently buying it's Glocks through a local business. Now of course that may be good for our local economy, but is it good for the MoD and hence the tax payer? Surely it makes more sense to buy direct from the manufacturer. Sure buying from a British supplier means some of the spending goes into the British economy, but it also means that the MoD are paying more (roughly to the tune of the amount going into the economy) than they would if they bought direct.

The diminutive Mr Hudson is right about the Met Office's annual temperature predictions. However, one thing that is of more concern to me is the way they flip flop over drought/rain predictions. If we have a wet year like 2012 then they tell us we are going to get more of the same. If we have a dry year then they tell us we are going to have to expect more of the same. The Met office, of all people, should not be confusing weather with climate.

I suspect that this latter problem is down to their wanting to pander to the media, just as their insistence on scare mongering on global warming is down to pandering to government. Maybe they need to decide who they want to pander to.

Just so long as the Missus doesn't have a shower we seldom exceed 1.5kW in our house. Don't really see the problem.

No matter what you say "My Broadband is slow" is NOT a news story.

When I was supporting a whole load of ADSL customers I experienced similar speed problems many times. And that's what they were, problems to be dealt with. They were not news stories.

The register might not be about to publish an "Einstein Wrong" headline, but I'll bet there are plenty of publications out there who will...

I'm sure there's a job at Microsoft for somebody who can break the OS and blame third party software.

"It adds a whole new level with open world exploration in the exciting and stunning world I know and love."

Hardly new to lego games. I haven't played them all, but I know Batman 2 had the same sort of "hub" where you could explore the whole world of the game. With all the lego games I've played so far I've found that new features in each release make it into each subsequent release.

FWIW although I enjoyed the game I found many of the levels a little tedious. Some of them were very linear in that there was a single path you could follow with puzzles to solve to move on. In these levels you can't explore and find the puzzles you just have to go straight from puzzle to puzzle. In that respect it's less fun than some of the previous games in the franchise that I've played. I suspect, however, that this is because there is more content to this game and so no room on the disc. I would happily lose the "fully" explorable hub world for more entertaining levels. My son OTOH is happy with it just the way it is and he spends hours exploring. He's the target market so I'm sure Tt have got it right.

"the company says should make it immediately familiar to anyone who has used Ubuntu before."

No it won't be. Why? Because a lot of people who have used Ubuntu before dumped Ubuntu when they started dicking about with the user interface. I did, and I know a lot of others who did.

Ubuntu was going to be a major player in the desktop market. Never happened.

Then it was going to be a major player in the netbook market. Never happened.

Then it was going to be a major player in the tablet market. Never happened.

Now they're saying the same about phones are they? Yawn.

It just works...

...very, very badly.

My favouritest story about Patrick was the one about the stamps. Apparently he would stick the stamp on a letter anywhere other than the approved top right corner of the envelope. In the days of hand sorting this harmless eccentricity was no problem, but when automatic sorting machines came along they couldn't cope and his letters had to be hand sorted. So one day the Royal Mail sent him a letter (presumably working out who he was from the return address) asking him in future to place the stamp in the correct place.

Patrick replied to this letter with the address written to one side of the letter, allowing him to place the stamp in the centre of the envelope. The reply read simply, "Hey diddle diddle, the stamp's in the middle."

And that's one more eccentric gone.

The first question I would ask of Mr McAfee is this.

If you believe Belize to be such a terrible place with such an unfair justice system and a terrible record on human rights, why did you choose to live there?

Depends on which reports you read, according to some McAfee himself is denying he had a heart attack (or indeed two).

"Britain’s eight million Nintendo Wii owners now have a reason to blow the dust off their console and power it up once more. "

Sales of Wii games are still pretty high, so that indicates people are still using their Wiis. Why the assumption that nobody uses them anymore?

This is the same Birmingham council that has just announced that it's budget cuts will be significantly bigger than previously announced. I'm sure local residents are really glad that the council have chosen to spend millions on broadband when vital public services are being cut.

Why the hell are they allowing sensitive data to be bunged on memory sticks in the first place?

"It breaks the internet"

No it doesn't. The internet is merely a very large computer network. What Google and their ilk mean is that protecting privacy breaks their business model. They need to learn that there is a big difference between "the internet" and "the internet the way Google/Facebook/et al want it to be".

Simple answer fanbois: Leave.

They'll have fun on our street then. Most of the houses don't display their numbers. Those few that do display them in strange way. Number 14 has it's number on the garage and due to the position of the garage most people assume it belongs to the house next door. So number 16 gets plenty of visitors and deliveries for number 14. If Google use their software on this street it will make matters worse rather than better.

I've never seen a sitcom restarted successfully after a long layoff. Thank the lack of gods that I don't get GOLD. If I did I might be tempted to watch it.

The very least that should happen is that the Met should be landed with a very, very heavy fine and that scientist involved should be dismissed. And I do mean the very least, a fuck up on this scale should really result in criminal charges, but it won't.

Yet another Apple patent that fails on the tests of prior art and obviousness and yet the patent will be granted and will remain valid right up until the point where Apple try to enforce it. Or more likely it will remain valid right up until the point where somebody successfully appeals against a case upholding the patent.

One more time, the patent system has been broken since the days of Marconi (or if you prefer Lego) and since it wasn't fixed then it won't be fixed now.

Moped

This is hardly the first electrically (or otherwise) assisted bicycle to be capable of more than 15mph, so I don't understand why it's a story - unless Specialized are just using it as PR.

If it can do more than 15mph then it is a moped. Being a moped it would need to comply with the construction and use regulations as they apply to mopeds, which in it's current state it obviously doesn't. Even if it did comply it would need to be registered before you could use it on a public road. And then of course you would need the relevant licence and insurance and of course tax. Oh and a helmet, a proper one not one of those silly bicycle helmets.

If Spesh were to revise the bike so it complies with construction and use regulations then there wouldn't be any problems. Legally. There would be some other problems, such as the fact that complying with the regulations would make it somewhat heavier and less nippy.

Those whining that this is some sort of conspiracy against electrical vehicles need to wise up. There are electrical mopeds out there and the government don't mind them at all. Nobody is buying petrol or diesel for them and it's not like the treasury get much tax from them. The last time I taxed a small motorcycle it cost me the princely sum of £16. Hardly going to swell the government's coffers much it it? And since all two wheeled conveyances are exempt from the congestion charge there's no money to be made there either.

The simple fact is that the law is as it stands and the government should not rewrite it to suit Specialized.

Those who seem to be trying to make this into some sort of slanging match about cyclists should bear in mind that the vast majority of cyclists would never, ever consider and electrically assisted bike. It defeats the whole purpose of their cycling in the first place.

So to summarize: Aerolab developed something for Force India for which the latter failed to pay. Because Force India failed to pay up Aerolab sold the "goods" to somebody else. Seems to me Aerolab acted perfectly reasonably.

Force India need to learn that if you want to own something you have to pay for it. And that's what the judge is telling them. I'll bet Force India aren't particularly happy with the lawyers who advised them to take this one to court.

Why is it that so many people involved in big money sports think that the normal rules don't apply?

Looking around the interwebs it seems that some people are getting very confused about this because it involves IP. Well what if it wasn't IP but just ordinary goods or services? Imagine Aerolab were your local tuning shop and that you gave them an engine to rebuild and tune, then you an engine for which you declined to pay. Would it be reasonable for the tuning shop to try to cut their losses by selling the engine to your competitor? Of course it would.