* Posts by Glenn Gilbert

119 publicly visible posts • joined 14 May 2007

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Microsoft promises 'lessons learned' on IE 8 download day

Glenn Gilbert
Boffin

@Franklin

IE8 reports as IE8 if in standards mode and IE7 when in INcompatible mode. Conditional comments work in the same way:

<![if IE 7]>INcompatible mode<![endif]>

<![if IE 8]>Standards mode<![endif]>

Give them credit where credit's due: our web development nightmare's coming to an end. Maybe.

Glenn Gilbert
Boffin

The article's wrong.

By default, IE8 works in standards mode. It is possible to put it into INcompatible mode (e.g. emulate previous IE7 crap) by EITHER adding a meta tag OR the user Muppet setting the browser to run in INcompatible mode.

To prevent the browser running in INcompatible mode, add the following tag to your website:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE8" />

This will force IE8 to run in standards mode, overriding any user settings.

Question:- what happens when MS release IE9?

Skinny, curvy Asus Eee inspired by MacBook Air

Glenn Gilbert

Inspired by the Air, not designed by Apple

Interesting similarities with the Air. A wedge design, but not as thin or 'sharp' at the edges.

Plastic, plastic everywhere, not any metal to see.

"Hidden ports", a plastic flap that's held on with a little plastic bendy thing that will fall off in five minutes flat.

Holes everywhere. Could use the bottom of the machine as a cheese grater.

Average keyboard. Unusable itty-bitty trackpad with no edges to let you know when you've got to stop.

WTF is that stupid software thingie "connect to the Asus shop and download the latest films and music"

Actually, there's bugger all in common with the Air. Air=georgous, Asus=fugly.

TBH Apple should come down on you for even suggesting such heresy.

Intel mobile roadmap promises Air for the masses

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Down

Meh...

Hardware vendor wants everyone to upgrade their hardware...

Interesting that on his version of planet earth two thirds of his people throw away their machines before three years has passed. Back on the real planet earth and not the one in his head, it's nothing like that and people keep their machines for much longer.

He's not noticed, but the world's moved on from last year's excessive consumption into this year's frugality.

Behind IE 8's big incompatibility list

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Up

We must end this madness - no pain no gain

Consider this a pennance on the part of Microsoft for all the wasted effort and time spent attmpting to buid working websites with the shining turds that are IE6 and IE7. Microsoft are doing "The right thing"TM and should be applauded for finally seeing the light after so many years in the wilderness.

Microsoft are drinking at the Last Chance Saloon as far as the web development community are concerned. Their falling browser share in our website logs show that it's not just developers who are turning away from them.

Firefox 3.0.6 fixes yet another JavaScript bug

Glenn Gilbert

@Yes, but...

Type about:config

Then promise that you won't mess it up.

Aren't the settings to turn off the address bar in there?

BTW, you get used to the new search bar and start to rely on it. Granted there's a history/security issue, but I'm sure this could be set to 0 or cleared.

Apple threatens Palm chomp

Glenn Gilbert

Have Apple innovated?

One of the real questions about patents is have they genuinely innovated. It is clear that the iPhone is an amazing device that has single-handedly dragged the whole industry forwards it in its wake. Prior to 18 months ago, the best we had was the likes of Symbian, Microsoft, et al with their horrid little stylus and rather rubbish interfaces.

Why should Apple be the ones investing in innovation simply for the rest of the industry to copy them.

How can the industry begrudge Apple some form of recompense for their hard work? And the rest of us should be grateful that they've finally breathed some life into a moribund marketplace.

Microsoft's IE 8 beta adds 'special' list

Glenn Gilbert
Boffin

When incompatibility mode, reports as IE7

@Ben: Thanks.

Did some testing. Small page containing:

<!--[if IE 7]> <h1>I'm IE 7</h1> <![endif]-->

<!--[if IE 8]> <h1>I'm IE 8</h1> <![endif]-->

Results: IE8RC1 in standards mode shows as IE8.

Incompatible mode (yep, that spelling works for me:-), it reports as IE7.

Glenn Gilbert

How do you detect IE8's modes?

Thus far, IE8 in proper-standards-mode seems to have fixed a lot of the issues with HTML/CSS. There's still a lot more to do.

However, I've just fixed a website that had a conditional comment to fix the previous browsers:

<!--[if IE]> fixes_applied_here <![endif]-->

...which broke with IE 8. I had to change this for:

<!--[if lte IE 7]> fixes_applied_here <![endif]-->

Which meant that IE8 works because it follows the same standards as all other (non-MS) browsers. Which, to be honest, is "a good thing".

But, what happens if IE8 is running in compatible-with-Microsoft's-previous-broken-browsers mode because the (L)user doesn't know any different? In this case it *will* require the fixes applied to IE7.

Is there a special conditional comment - maybe IE8 in this mode responds to <![if IE 7]>?

More research required...

This is the point about those ignorant bastards in Redmond; it's us, the web development community, who get saddled with all the work to clean up Microsoft's shit.

BT cuts 0870 charges

Glenn Gilbert

And the mobile suppliers?

It would be even nicer if you didn't have to pay through the nose when calling a 'free' number from a mobile. O2, we're talking about you...

BusinessWeek hails quantum porn engine

Glenn Gilbert

What a merde interface!

Had completely forgotten about this great new innovation in search technology. So thought I'd give it a try...

Searching should yield a list of results which one can scan downwards. This site's UI requires the eye to raster scan to view the results. Took quite a while to find the next page button as the colour scheme's such low contrast.

Didn't these people learn anything at Google? The reason that Google's popular compared to other search engines is simplicity (OK, accuracy too).

Yep, arse just about sums it up. Won't be visiting there again in a hurry.

Walmart's Jesus Phone no better, no worse

Glenn Gilbert

Jobs' says no

Fascinating that one of the world's most agressive and sucessful (for them) negotiator couldn't force Apple down on price.

Yahoo! planning massive layoffs for Wednesday

Glenn Gilbert
Stop

Never understood how Yahoo just don't get it!

It seems so bleeding obvious why people deserted Yahoo for Google and stayed loyal to Google. Yahoo is so utterly horrible with all their damn adverts and colour and general crap flying around the screen. In comparison Google has always been such a peaceful place.

What the hell is it; are Yahoo executives completely stupid?

There's none so blind as those who don't want to see. It's the same with the flashing adverts on other sites; they start it. Thankfully AdBlock stops it.

Microsoft preps IE 8 for the web-challenged

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Up

Ah, it's good to hear the pigeons coming home

It's good news to see that Microsoft appear to be still sticking to web standards rather than taking the easier route and follow their past bad practices.

Most rendering problems will be caused because those websites followed the old Microsoft ways and probably already render badly on non-Microsoft browsers, so are in dire need of fixing. Developers who have used kludges/hacks have known for years that this is bad practice and only have themselves to blame -- the only valid hack is the conditional comment (probably IE's most innovative feature).

Please keep on this difficult path Microsoft; it's a one-time hit and will result in much better websites for everybody in the end. Not to mention easier to build websites that will look the same on all (OK, most) browsers.

Windows 7, June 2009 and the technologies of antitrust

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Up

Nice. Thanks

Found it very interesting. Keep up the good work El Reg.

Didn't notice if it was a video. Listened to it whilst getting on with something else so it wasn't on that window.

Would be great as a normal podcast.

Parallels 4 users want their money back

Glenn Gilbert

Golliath's better than David

I dumped Parallels for Fusion a year ago after upgrading to 3. Parallels seem to be more interested in milking the cow than doing decent upgrades. Bug fixes were slow to implement; becoming Microsoft-style features when they didn't bother fixing a regression bug.

Fusion's fine and a damn sight cheaper in the long run.

I so wanted the David of Parallels to be better than the Goliath of VMWare. Unfortunately Parallels is too greedy and makes a poor David.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 planned for 2009

Glenn Gilbert

And the news is...

So, the news is that "Microsoft will be releasing a browser that works, just like all other browsers"?

As in Firefox: just works. Safari: just works. Microsoft IE7 doesn't work. Microsoft IE6 <spit> doesn't work. Microsoft IE for CE doesn't work...

Ah, I see, there's a pattern developing here...

Mark Cuban charged with insider trading

Glenn Gilbert

Theft.

> by selling his Mamma.com shares before the public announcement, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000

Or to put it another way, someone paid $750,000 too much for the stock through a fraudulent action which deliberately overvalued the stock.

Isn't that theft?

And the penalty would be, say, 10+ years in jail if it were a blue-collar crime. Hmm.

When you sneeze, does Google tell the Feds?

Glenn Gilbert
Alert

it's scroogle.ORG NOT .com!

Don't get the wrong one!

Hotmail users bitch and moan about new interface

Glenn Gilbert

iPhone "Upgrade your browser"

When visiting with an iPhone you get the "Upgrade your browser" message.

And the options they give: IE, Firefox, Safari. Hey, isn't that what I'm using?

The old interface worked with an iPhone, not with the new one due to the way they edit messages.

What's the rules about accessibility? Don't rely on a particular browser. Degrade gracefully. Fail. Twats.

But then again, what does one expect for free?

Google Earth lands on Jesus Phone

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Up

Tie them to a tree and burn them!

This is witchcraft!

What a brilliant user interface. Totally usable, the tilt is just amazing.

And what's Microsoft's best interface? A coffee table!

CommVault and McAfee team to fight gorilla

Glenn Gilbert

Symantec is it's own worst enemy

Symantec really doesn't do itself any favours with its bloated suite of consumer and commercial products. Sure, they work, but at the cost of performance and over-complexity.

Arguably Goliath was toppled as he was so large. The ever-bloated and expensive Norton Internet Security suite is a good example; it'll bring a system to its knees with the load it puts on the client. 7 years ago it was fresh and good, now it's grown into an expensive lardy monstrosity.

The market is ready for alternative products. Particularly good-value products.

Ofcom denies lifeboat spectrum squeeze

Glenn Gilbert

Unintended consequences?

>People who argue that life-saving services shouldn't be bounded by cost aren't being realistic. One has to establish the value of a saved life.

In France, you pay to be rescued by their equivalent of the RNLI. In the UK you don't. In France the coastguard constantly puts out messages asking for people to help as casualties don't want to pay for rescue; thus putting other people in danger and leaving their lifeboats unused.

In the UK, the RNLI and coastguard helicopter service doesn't charge for rescue, so is well used. OK, there are times that people in Lake Solent need to be reminded that running out of lemon slices for their G&T doesn't constitute an emergency, in which case the RNLI can charge for rescue.

Arguably an under-utilised rescue service isn't as well equipped for 'serious' rescues as a well-practised rescue service.

Hubble's 486 back-up springs into life

Glenn Gilbert

Surely it's a 386

The 486 wasn't generally available until 1990, maybe later if memory serves me well. With the extended development lead times -- it's booted! -- it's more likely it was a 386 or even a 286. Or even a Motorola 68000 which was way ahead of Intel in those days.

iPhone beer maker sues Carling over virtual suds

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Down

No win no fee?

iPint is free and a good gag. However I woud *never* have downloaded it even if it were $1=50p

Sorry , but the developer's being a bit greedy. Sounds like some lawyer's offered to take this on on a no win no fee basis.

OpenOffice 3 goes native on the Mac

Glenn Gilbert
Happy

Already got me out of a hole

Downloaded it yesterday - no problems. Installation was simple and completely uneventful.

Had a problem with a document that the useless Office 2008 Word wouldn't work with (it was a form where a field was locked and Word wouldn't unlock). It worked perfectly with Open Office 3.

This was my first ever experience with OO and I was very impressed. Even the Powerpoint application had no problems with some presentations that Powerpoint 2008 shagged (it "blanked" some slides).

At last there's a real alternative to the bloated, buggy, half-finished and expensive second rate Office 2008 with fugly templates that Microsoft has produced for the Mac.

Well done to all involved with Open Office.

Apple takes wraps off rumour-matching MacBook Pros

Glenn Gilbert

Various...

@Webster

You convey the impression that you don't like Apple that much. Strange that you're always commenting on them. Me thinks you doth protest too much:- you're not a closet MacHead perchance?

>No Firewire at all on the Macbook

Apparently the FW800 is backwards compatible with FW400 - just need an adapter cable. So it shouldn't be too bad.

Maybe the 17" will get a serious update later and have a quad-core CPU, more RAM and a bigger hard disc, no doubt with a price to match.

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Down

Good day for Sony

Seems like the whole range increased in price; there was no change to the 17" and it went up by £150 to £1949. The 15.4" seems to have gone up by about £200 to £1749. And there's less choice as all screens (the unchanged 17" aside) are only available in super-shiny-reflect-everything glass.

You need to buy a £69 adapter to connect the 15.4" models to a Dual-link DVI display (which used to be included). Even the remote control is extra.

Phew, they are expensive. Can't see many people upgrading just for the hell of it.

Apple to 'ditch' Intel for Nvidia in standard MacBooks

Glenn Gilbert

Unlikely

Sourcing specialist graphics chips from Nvidia is one thing. Sourcing the core chipset is a completely different proposition and one that is bound to put Intel's nose well out of joint.

It would be a 'brave' move for Apple given how close they've been to Intel these past few years.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

HP preps secret iPhone rival

Glenn Gilbert

Windows Mobile != iPhone

That's the point; unless and until Microsoft update the laggard Windows Mobile OS and browser it will never be an iPhone. Regardless of which frock it's been dressed up in.

Strange how HP & Compaq missed out on the smartphone market. They both used to make such great PDAs and were real market leaders - I still have an old Journada that's not yet fallen off the desk and into the recycling bin. But they never seemed to take it any further; you know, add a phone and camera and make it truly mobile.

Finally launched: Nokia's iPhone beater

Glenn Gilbert

Does the web browser work?

The user interface and web browser are two of the most revolutionary features of the iPhone. They make browsing possible.

Does the Nokia offer anything like this, for instance the two-fingered zooming feature or the one-fingered scrolling? If not, then web browsing is going to be painful and pointless.

But competition is good for everyone. Certainly it'll be good for Microsoft's tired Windows Mobile.

Apple unsheathes Jesus Phone 2.1

Glenn Gilbert

Too early to tell

Need to try it a bit before dissing the upgrade.

So the news is: iPhone crashes just like all other smart phones. Well slap my thigh.

One really good enhancement in this build is the ability to wipe the phone after 10 wrong guesses of the password/pin. Given that the phone does an automatic backup (which does appear to be a bit faster in this build), it's just an inconvenience to restore it if someone plays with the phone and it gets wiped.

Once you've discovered the phone's missing -- presumed stolen -- you can contact O2 to disable the iPhone's IMEI. Nice.

Nick it and brick it. That's nice.

World goes mad as Bill and Jerry eat churros

Glenn Gilbert

"Mojave Experiment" website doesn't work

Asked me to install a thing called "Silverlight" Well, as a well trained internet surfer I never install anything that's unsolicited and clicked to view the "Non Silverlight" website (I guess that means a "normal" website as opposed to a "Silverlight site"). Sat watching spinning wheels for a minute and gave up.

Nicely sums up Vista. Sit around watching not a lot happening, see things being done for no good reason other than technical, as opposed to functional, zeal. Welcome to modernity.

Personally I can't see the point of the advert. It's neither funny nor ironic. I actually found it quite boring. Compare that with the pithy "Get a Mac" ads which are entertaining enough to watch out of choice.

Holiday text messages to cost less than 9p

Glenn Gilbert

What's the Daily Express' take on EU interference?

So typical of the damn EU forcing us to pay less for our phone calls and usurping our British OffConn...

How come the mobile phone companies have such large shops in virtually every high street? Excess profit per chance?

Apple, O2 to release PAYG iPhones this month

Glenn Gilbert
Boffin

The article's misleading regarding pricing

The 'unlimited' pricing *only* relates to calling from one postcode, e.g. home. All other calls, e.g. using it as a mobile phone, cost way more.

From http://www.o2.co.uk/mobilestariffs/tariffs/paygo/talkalot

Landlines & O2 mobiles: 25p/min for the first 3 mins/day then 5p/min for the rest of the day

Other UK network mobiles: 25p/min

Text messages: 10p/message

International calls from UK: £1.50/min or buy the International Caller Bolt On

That's massively more expensive than the 35/45/75 tariffs with their included data, minutes, text and cheap international calls/European roaming.

The real laugh is the "browsing" charges at £3/Mb! To quote their smallprint: "1MB is equivalent to browsing 150-200 pages" - complete rubbish as these days most pages will load up around 100Kb, e.g. 10 pages or 30p/page.

Finally -- can't find the reference but tant pis -- unlimited data browsing is £8.50+vat (=£10) per month as a bolt on (this is the price they've quoted in the iPhone upgrade sim which all iPhone upgraders have got for their old 1st gen iPhone.

Firefox 3 makes up world record to set world record

Glenn Gilbert

Downloaded, used for a bit, went back to Firefox 2

It's not ready and many of the extensions I use with FF2 don't work with FF3. If it hadn't broken the FF2 installation (Mac), I wouldn't be using it now.

Strikes me it's a "Microsoft" upgrade where they've added a bunch of features which aren't that interesting whilst breaking things (such as the zoom where I want the text to expand not the browser to get wider than my screen).

It feels like it's a point release product; Firefox 2.1?

Apple under the gun to master the iPhone's 'second album'

Glenn Gilbert
Thumb Up

softare more important than hardware

I'm pleased to see that the major update to the iPhone will be in the software. This will be made available to iPhone 1 users, arguably that is different to the rest of the phone industry which will force you to upgrade the phone just for a firmware upgrade.

Thanks Steve: you've extended the life of my phone. Good for me, good for the planet:-)

Message posted from an iPhone. I don't see any N95 owners doing the same. Now why's that? Oh, silly me, they won't be reading this website with their sub-standard browser; selecting anchor links by sequentially moving through every link using a cursor button; let alone type a message *with* punctuation on a 12 key keyboard.

Glenn Gilbert

@Tom Chiverton: Opera mobile - you're having a giraffe

Please don't compare Opera Mobile or that hideous IE with the browsing experience that the iPhone offers; it's akin to comparing Netscape 1 with Firefox.

I've had Opera on my Sony Ericsson P900 for years and it was rubbish (although somewhat less rubbish than the completely useless native Symbian browser).

I use my iPhone browser all the time. Opera was unusable except in dire emergency and then you'd be better off calling someone to browse for you.

The reason the iPhone's so good is the completely intuitive interface and its adherence to web standards. Browsing is not only possible, but it's a pleasure even on the GSM network offered by O2 (edge is rarely available). With the aforementioned Opera & IE it was only possible if the website used CSS to enable rendering without layout. As for zooming text and graphics with the multi-touch interface... you can sit and find some hidden setting to zoom your browser. I'll just use the iPhone and double-tap the image to zoom in.

This won't need to change on iPhone 2; it's right and that's that.

Samsung sneaks out snazzy 3G iPhone rival

Glenn Gilbert

Now how does it compare to iPhone 2?

At $200 for 3G, GPS and decent battery life. It'll be interesting to see how they compare. Especially with all the forthcoming applications.

Glenn Gilbert
Heart

Choosing a phone: iPhone or a copy?

> The only better thing about the iPhone is the GUI, and the likes of HTC are rapidly reversing that trend.

Rubbish. You've obviously not used both. Comparing the Windows Mobile interface to the iPhone interface is like comparing a Green Screen to a GUI (either a Mac or Windows). In short Windows Mobile is total tosh.

It's clunky; the browser's useless unless you want to use the "special needs" page rendering that a small minority of sites provide; the interface is nowhere near intuative... etc.

Compare that to the iPhone: the browser is orders of magnitude better, the interface is intuative/slick/good looking and generally a pleasure to use; the virtual keyboard is much easier to use than any other phone device I've used in the past.

Then there's the phone. All I have seen of these Samsung things before I bought my iPhone was a piss poor iPhone imitation. The screen contrast is poor; the screen's made of plastic; it feels cheaper, the Haptic's a bit naff, etc. Even in the photos of this device the screen's clearly visible compared with the iPhone's screen.

It will only get better tomorrow. The Samsung's already a couple of years behind; as of tonight it'll be three years behind.

Fanboi: if selecting a product based upon it's features and ease of use makes me one, then call me a Mac man.

Will your mobile squeal to the police?

Glenn Gilbert
Happy

Give it to DHL?

Give the phone to DHL with specific routing instructions. Then let "them" pick the bones out of that!

Swede packs off GPS to make world's biggest sketch

Glenn Gilbert
Boffin

Amazing GPS

What an amazing piece of kit that GPS is. Goodness knows how big the battery was, but it's a tad larger than the normal batteries that last for 16 hours.

And the aerial must be pretty damn special to look through the metal body of an airplane. Most GPS' I've used struggle to look through a bit of plastic of a roof.

Then there's the instructions to follow a 6000 km looping course around Europe to places where there's no places, let alone destinations for landing a cargo plane.

Oh, and the GPS must have had an amazing memory; normally the tracking log fills up after a few days.

Amazing really.

The music biz's digital flops - a short history

Glenn Gilbert

Music rental?

What about music rentals? Sign up for, say, a tenner a month and you can listen to whatever you want from whatever source you got it from.

Maybe the maths doesn't quite work out at that figure, but if things carry on as they are, the music industry won't have two ha'penny's to rub together.

Isn't it strange that there's thousands of radio stations pumping out all that music and yet it doesn't appear to adversely effect music sales.

Five misunderstood Vista features

Glenn Gilbert

No problems with search...

I really like the search. It's great for finding phrases in documents and emails that I need. OK, I don't use it all the time, but when I do need it, it's really useful. I've never noticed it take any particular resources when it initially indexed the file; when I save a file it seems to be happy enough postponing the indexing until the machine's not doing much.

Excellent product this OSX Spotlight. It doesn't index in my XP or Vista virtual machines, but then again it doesn't need to as there's no emails, documents, and the like as the VMs are only configured for specific tasks such as web development and testing.

Given that MS have been doing indexing for years (NT 3.51?), I just can't see how they've cocked it up so badly in Vista. Unless all the DRM crap is getting in the way.

Build a 1TB MacBook

Glenn Gilbert

Easy enough to change the hard disc

It's easy enough to change the hard disc on a MacBook and MacBook Pro. Some sites are doing a 320Gb 5400RPM disc for £65. The 500Gb 9.5mm discs aren't easily available yet.

Good idea to use the optical drive; amazing what duct tape can do:-)

Gordon Brown claims a Brit invented the iPod

Glenn Gilbert
Flame

Gordon and other accountants...

So one one side of his face he bigs up achievements; on his other face he slashes funding for science.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7373940.stm

O2 to slash 8GB iPhone pricing tomorrow?

Glenn Gilbert

@muzchap

It'll work as an iPod touch, i.e. through WiFi.

> And maybe it'll be worth cracking so it'll be easier to sell in June.

If it's cracked, it'll then work as a phone on PayAsYouGo. Much cheaper than O2's standard iPhone rates.

But since O2 increased the minutes in Feb, the O2 iPhone deal's about as good as you can get (I tried looking around on the Highstreet one bored Saturday and found that Vodaphone would match the O2 minutes but cap the data at 120Mb/mo for £37.50). Voda's a better network than O2's though.

Glenn Gilbert

Good substitute for an iPod at that price

If it does happen, it'll be worth getting one as an iPod replacement. And maybe it'll be worth cracking so it'll be easier to sell in June.

Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich?

Glenn Gilbert
Happy

Business opportunity... MusicalAmnesty.com

So some people download music. Once people have figured out where to dine at the 'all you can eat' download service for sod all, they'll download more music than they could possibly listen to.

And so once they've discovered some obscure new music which they like, but can't get hold of it because it's not on iTunes' play list (or whatever). Or maybe they're not prepared to pay the going rate for it as it's just not good enough.

Currently, nobody gets paid.

Wouldn't it be great to go to a website, call it MusicalAmnesty.com (that domain is available), and select the artist and make a 'donation'. The site will take a small admin fee and pass the rest of the payment directly on to the artist. For artists that aren't registered, the site will hold the money in suspense and actively hunt down that artist and make the payment when they're found (and verified). Sure, there's the issue of sorting out the song writers...

The customer (paytard?) would get a certificate that's anonymised, and would be able to sleep in the knowledge that they've paid the artist.

How much would the customer pay? How about whatever they like. Sure, they'd be guidelines, but lets face it, earning 50p=$1 is better than sod all. Ask Radiohead.

The record company, well, it's up to the artist to square things with them. To be frank, it's not the customer's problem.

As for the rest of the music industry, they're hardly going to like it as they're effectively being cut out of the loop. But hell, it's better than the current situation where nobody gets paid. Obviously it'll be important to keep the lawyers away from the customer payment data -- so it'll need to be located offshore (Sealand?).

Some open accounting/auditing is very necessary. Hunting down the artists could be in the form of a Wiki or web-too-oh hive imagineering (is there a WikiMusicpedia?). The MusicalAmnesty site would do as much as they can to validate the artists prior to making the payment(s).

The odd thing is that all of this exists with the MCPS (and the other lot) who collect payments from radio stations, etc. Except they don't know how to accept payments that aren't in the form of some 'tax' extracted from businesses.

So Billy, what do you think? Is this rambling nonsense or putting power in the hands of the people?

The rise of the Malware Mafia

Glenn Gilbert

We need laws with greater scope

Isn't the issue that the laws are country-based and the crims are globally based (multi-nationals if you like)?

Every time the EU tries to do something globally, a bunch of people come out of the woodwork criticising in them for 'interfering with our sovereignty'. Thus the crims get away with it. The UN (or some other world-wide organisation), for whom these laws should be drafted by, have no power nor the political will to act. For goodness sake, they couldn't even send George & Tony to the Hague to face justice.

This gets at the basis of what laws are drafted for; whom is one trying to protect? And what about countries where the politicians are fundamentally corrupt -- that'll be most of them then.

So the crims will keep getting away with it, playing the system with all its weaknesses.

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