Re: The BBC science coverage is useless ...
LOL. That Jesus image is the work of Derek Chatwood https://www.flickr.com/people/bar-art/ twas wondering if someone here would post it.
Posts by John Lilburne
1026 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Dec 2009
BBC: SOD the scientific consensus! Look OUT! MEGA TSUNAMI is coming
Tuesday 17th February 2015 13:12 GMT
The BBC science coverage is useless ...
... they don't seem to have a clue and want to convert everything into either infotainment or faux controversy.
Scientist: The chances of X causing your child to die is 1 in a million.
BBC: But you can't guarantee 100% that it won't!
Scientist: We are 99.999% certain that Jesus did not ride on dinosaurs.
BBC: But there is a chance that he did!
This sort of rubbish made me stop listening to radio4 news.
California Uber Alles: Google wants to become the World Privacy Court
Saturday 7th February 2015 12:46 GMT
Re: Useless exercise
Well it sort of matters as Google have a habit of assuming that they are the final arbiter of the law. Take the DMCA and 'fair-use' this is a tricky determination which can only be determined by a court. However, Google seems to think that upon receipt of a DMCA takedown they have a legal right to determine 'fair-use' and leave the copyright violation in place. Now you may think that is fine when its the RIAA doing the complaining, but assume for the moment that its some nude selfie image of your daughter, posted by an ex-lover?
The legal process is DMCA takedown by copyright holder, DMCA objection by reuser, legal determination by a court. Instead we have Google inserting themselves into the process.
First look: Ordnance Survey lifts kimono on next-gen map app
Thursday 5th February 2015 15:20 GMT
One of my favourite sites ,,,
... is the DEFRA magic site, if only it wasn't so crap at navigating. Basically they overlay land management categories and classifications over the OS. So you can see all the archeological sites in an area, kiln pits, ridge and farrow field systems, abandoned villages, etc. Each with links to their relevant English Heritage citations. Additionally, they overlay SSSI, and LNR sites with links to English Nature citations and impact assessments for the sites.
Now an app that was easy to navigate for that sort of information would be brilliant.
Google Now now SLURPS data from third party apps so YOU don't have to
'Revenge porn' bully told not to post people's nude pics online. That's it. That's his punishment
Friday 30th January 2015 12:47 GMT
Re: Sounds a Lot Like Wire Fraud To Me
"I thought Uncle Sam did not like wire fraud or have things changed recently."
Apparently, if we look at recent cases such as Missip AG vs Google or Zoe Keating vs Google, its not surprising that some in of Uncle Sam's minions might think that the law is a bit influx at the moment.
'YOUTUBE is EVIL': Somebody had a tape running, Google...
Thursday 29th January 2015 20:55 GMT
Re: @auburnman The new man
There isn't a massive userbase on Google for any creator. No one 'finds' music or film on Google that they weren't already aware of, usually by some personal recommendation by way of a link. But the link can be anywhere. You like a song you want your friend to hear it, you look for it on YT and post the link. But you could just as well of looked for the musicians site and linked to there.
YT currently holds the content not through the efforts of the creators but by fans putting it there, and a loophole in US copyright law which they use to plunder the Zoe Keating's of the world.
Go Canada: Now ILLEGAL to auto-update software without 'consent'
Friday 16th January 2015 14:30 GMT
I've had my computer screwed up twice in the last few years, screwed to the extent that a rebuild was required. Both times it was due to an automatic Apple iTunes update fuxoring the iPod drivers. Both times it required three days buggering about on stupid support forums, where everyone has an answer but no one knows the solution, before making teh decision fuggit where is that re-install disk.
Spotify flips bird at Taylor Swift, adds MILLIONS more users
Wednesday 14th January 2015 21:41 GMT
Re: Preview
Isn't the problem that you favour musicians or a genre that is a bit hit and miss?
I've bought 5 CDs this week. None of which I've listened to first, and only 2 have I heard the artists before, and although I have plenty of opportunity to sample the tracks. I'd much rather listen to the entire thing with the CD case in hand. I doubt I'll be disappointed.
Wednesday 14th January 2015 12:33 GMT
These companies don't have a business without the content. I robot banned Google Image Bot last year and it is quite instructive to see a blank page when you do a site:john_lilburne.com on Google Image Search and 1000s of images when you do the same thing on Bing.
And yes I know that Bing is as bad as Google but lets deal with one group of arseholes at a time.
Magic streaming beans? Sure, have my cow - music biz
Monday 5th January 2015 11:44 GMT
The digital sales have probably killed off CD sales to the occasional music buyer. There are no longer the high street stores to browse in whilst the girlfriend/wife is looking at shoes or handbags.
For some of us though the concept of 'song' equates with chart pop. Which in of itself isn't bad but we 'know' that,'Greatest Hits' aside, the single was only part of experience of an LP. That PF's Wall was more than "Hey teacher!", Ziggy Stardust was more than 'Starman', and a Dylan LP was more than 'Blowin in the wind'. That an Album lasts for 40-60 minutes with a short pause whilst you turned it over.
Streaming caters for those that mostly got their music from the radio as a sort of background ambiance. Those that probably only ever bought a CD on shoe shopping trip, or perhaps as with the woman next door that played that Whitney Houston "Bodyguard' theme song for 8hrs a day, non-stop, for a month.
Friday 2nd January 2015 19:56 GMT
I buy an awful lot of CDs
Probably at least 6 a month. I get some downloads too, and whilst I rarely play the CD itself, the physical object is of more value than the download that is sans information. |So currently I'm listening to Ketil Bjornstad's Remembrance, and I know the drummer is Jon Christensen, but buggered if I can recall the sax player.It is far simpler to reach for the cd case and see Tore Brunborg then go searching the web which is in all likelihood going to give me a wikipedia link and who can tell the accuracy of that? Who is that playing guitar on "Quadrant 4"? Etc, etc. I have a number of downloads but there is always the feeling afterwards that something is missing.
Let it go, let it go ... Sales of games, video and music up for second year
Friday 2nd January 2015 12:57 GMT
Re: But...but...but....
Games are up 7.5% apparently, and those are increasingly coming with inbuilt phone-home technology, or in-game purchases.
You have £20 of disposable income to spend on entertainment each week do you.
A) Spend it on drugs, and pirate music?
B) Spend it on booze, and pirate films?
C) Spend it on some football game.
Choices, choices, choices.
Google's Gmail staggers to feet in China as access partially restored
UK retailers in TABLET PRICE SLASH BONANZA
Tuesday 30th December 2014 15:01 GMT
Re: But Has Anyone Found something To Do With Them?
Indeed. In July 2010 we went to see some relations in France. The husband is a major Apple fanboi and had bought 4 iPads (one for himself, another for the wife, and one each for the two oldest boys), white bordered of course. He spent all weekend cooing over it, rubbing it, hugging it, announcing how much he was in love (the later only partly in jest).
Two years later, we went back and all four iPads were stacked on a shelf in the living room. I asked, are the broke? He responded "can't think of anything to do with them", "but two years ago?", deep sigh "Yes but then they were new, and they were from apple." subject change "Have you seen this app I've just got on the iPhone, you can point it at a plane flying overhead on its way to/from CdC airport and it will tell where its from or where its going - cool eh ... oooh look that one has just come from Finland".
Blind justice: Google lawsuit silences elected state prosecutor
Tuesday 23rd December 2014 17:17 GMT
Remember, remember, ...
Not so long ago Google used its billions to sue a small record blues company for having the temerity to complain about its links to cyberlockers etc. You know those sites that, now Google has its own pay service, it is de-listing
http://news.techgenie.com/latest/google-takes-on-the-offensive-sues-record-company/
Careful - your helmet might get squashed by a Volvo
Monday 22nd December 2014 14:04 GMT
Re: What a stupid fucking idea....
It might not be politically correct but cyclists are a pain in the fucking arse. I don't mind them in the city if they are going along at 20mph, that is not so much of a problem, but outside of the city/town limits they are nothing but a menace and an annoyance.
In my area they use the roads as some form a race track with a line of the bastards going up one side and another line down the other. Its a 60 mph road not 35 mph or 15 mph on the up hill. Nothing can get past the buggers not even farm traffic. Then on the windy country lanes they are two abreast or bunched up in a pelletron.
At least one a year gets killed and then we have the aggravation of the road being closed whilst the police investigate and the ambulance crews collect up the bits.
Speaking in Tech: MICROSOFT to buy out TWITTER? Nah
Searching to destroy ... Bing? Facebook JILTS Microsoft
Spanish scraper scrapped: Google axes Google News
Taxi app Uber plugs 'privacy-threatening' web security flaw
GOOGLE is COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN
Wikipedia won't stop BEGGING for cash - despite sitting on $60m
Tuesday 2nd December 2014 17:46 GMT
Re: Let's bitch, bitch, bitch!
[for the most part - of no use or interest to anyone save the Titanic obsessive or a descendant.]
They claim 4.5 million articles but the vast number of them are of the form "X is a village in Outer Mongolia with a population of 216", "Y is a moth in the A family", or "Z is a football player in the 4th division of the Turks and Caicos Islands league". As such they contain no extra information than that which you had to start with.
Tuesday 2nd December 2014 08:04 GMT
Re: Let's bitch, bitch, bitch!
The problem with your complaint is that all of the wikipedia content is already available elsewhere. If you are in the UK you have free access to Britannica through your library membership. Plus all the Oxford reference works. Plus loads of music and art references. True they don't have 1000s of "My Little Pony" articles but I suspect that isn't what you are looking up.
What has happened is that WP has polluted the internet, its pages dominate search engines to the exclusion of better works. The result is that you will almost always get 3rd rate information for any search query.
Monday 1st December 2014 19:39 GMT
Wikpedia ...
... is in constant threat of being extinguished. Removal of a child's photo of a butterfly and they cry that wikipedia will collapse. Pending changes - wikipedia will collapse. Image filter so you don't get some crap porn when you multimedia search for "tolling bell" - wikipedia will collapse. Removal of biographies of z-list celebrities and wikipedia will collapse. Google not linking of decades old, out dated information has Wales screaming wikipedia will collapse.
Now Uber can take EVERYONE for a ride
Pay-by-bonk chip lets hackers pop all your favourite phones
Behold the Lumia 535 NOTkia: Microsoft wipes Nokia brand from mobes
Wednesday 12th November 2014 13:44 GMT
Re: Meh
This Nokia 6030 (c2005) that I carry, makes and receives calls, sends and receives text messages, if I leave it on permanently the battery last a week. The wife has some Samsung S3 thing which I don't see does anything more useful than the 6030. And yeah I know all about app for this and app for that, but really if you actually need any of that your life is really fucked up.
Now various colleagues have tried showing me differently but whenever they try, the thing they are trying to demonstrate either doesn't work or is so cumbersome its useless, or they can't connect to the wifi/web, or they discover they are about to run out of battery.
Taylor Swift dumps Spotify: It’s not me, it’s you
Facebook pays INFINITELY MORE UK corp tax than in 2012
Martha Lane Fox: Yeuch! The Internet is made by men?!?
IRONY ALERT: Former MI6 chief warns of 'mass snooping' - by PAEDOS
Spammer uses innocent hacked blogs to punt NAKED PICS of JLaw, McKayla Maroney
Labour outsources digital policy, Tories turn up to finish it
Stanford Uni: Google cash leaves us entirely impartial and unbiased
CURSE YOU, 'streaming' music services! I want a bloody CD
How the FLAC do I tell MP3s from lossless audio?
Friday 26th September 2014 18:14 GMT
Big boxen big bucks
For me my 1972 KEF speakers beat anything modern, probably because its what I'm used to after 40 years. I recall back in the late 80s one 'audophile' mate groaning that I didn't have a CD player and one day came round to give me his old one. A few weeks later he was round and some music was playing and he said "See how much betterCD is!" What was playing was some 8 yo vinyl. A couple of years ago I was looking to bring the KEFs back into use having been persuaded to put them in the attic and try modern gear. I looked about for a solution and got amplification suggestions ranging in the several $100, a sound engineer relative recommended Classe http://www.martinshifi.co.uk/brand/4/classe/
Someone else said you can always extract money from people with big box and recommended another solution. A few weeks later the relative came over and said "Nice sound but where is the Amp" the rest of the weekend he stared at the thing and muttered but ... but ... but... but
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Freeshipping-Lepai-LP-2020A-digital-power-amplifier-small-power-amplifier/1670027524.html
as the other guy said (Trent Reznor has one of his guitar amps) the technology that went into computers in the last 40 years also went into audio.
What TODO with open source: Google, Facebook and Twitter launch collab project
Wednesday 17th September 2014 14:22 GMT
Ain't that a shame ...
... if your business is premised on getting a load of people to do stuff for free, and those people start waking up to the fact of their exploitation by $billion corporation then said $billion corporations are screwed. I guess their next move would be to get some senate / congress committee, or Californian judge to declare that the SA clause in the GNU licenses doesn't apply if you're a $billion corporation. Then they can take the whole development in house and commercialize it properly.
Israeli spies rebel over mass-snooping on innocent Palestinians
Leak of '5 MEELLLION Gmail passwords' creates security flap
Jimbo tells Wikipedians: You CAN'T vote to disable 'key software features'
Friday 5th September 2014 21:56 GMT
Re: There's a simple solution - fork Wikipedia
There are 1000s of pages like this on WP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buprestis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidia
What, other than the image is copyrightable? Seems to be exactly the same as the US phonebook case.
How about this of which there are 100,000s similar all ripped from zoology databases:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnet_Companion_Moth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccotremataceae
Or pages like this of which there are again 100,000s similar all of which are straight rips from geographic databases:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghraoua,_Morocco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenberg,_Saxony
Then there are 100,000s of pages like this ripped from sporting almacks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yordanis_Borrero
what is copyrightable here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Heyward_Academy
The fact is that out of its 5 million pages the number of pages that are actually susceptible to copyright are few and far between. Then there is all the stuff that is derived from the 1911 EB and the catholic encyclopedia and other public domain sources. What would make those page copyrightable now?
Thursday 4th September 2014 10:50 GMT
Re: There's a simple solution - fork Wikipedia
They use a BY-SA license. Thus unless they've set the old content in stone any modification is also BY-SA. Of course that presupposes that anything on wp is copyrightable facts aren't and I doubt the spelling and grammar corrections of the plagiarisms are either. In fact its probably only the hoaxes that are copyrightable,
Wednesday 3rd September 2014 13:33 GMT
Re: There's a simple solution - fork Wikipedia
Works both ways. If every content writer* left WP all the WMF needs to do suck up their content from wherever they happen put it. WP has the Google juice which the new site won't have. In any case unless some big tecj company muscles its way in, the clowns bitching on WP don't have the resources to fork WP anyway. I also think its the case that the last time anyone attempted an actual content fork it all fell apart.
*only 17.5% of the actual changes on WP are content at this time. Another 45% are bot edits doing useless format changes, then there is another 25% of talkpage arguing. 6% edit warring and 4% vandalism.
http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5083&p=110002#p110002
Govt waves stick at pirate-friendly Google search
Tuesday 2nd September 2014 18:46 GMT
Re: "Copyright infringement is theft, pure and simple"
Hmm the property in question is consumption of the content by way of copying. The value of the property is in the right to control the consumption of the content by way of making copies. By making unauthorized copies you are permanently removing the value that the rights holder had in control of copying.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
