* Posts by Aram

72 publicly visible posts • joined 22 May 2007

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MI5, EPA clean up dirty bomb dirt

Aram
Pirate

Re: £7 million... thats a bargain!

lglethal, there may be amounts of uranium dispersed around the place, but the clue is in the adjective I just used - dispersed. Once you dig it up and start concentrating it to make use of it everything gets more tricky.

The risks associated with nuclear are too great for my liking. The economics simply doesn't work. Alternative forms of energy generation can be far more simply dismantled (i.e. a wind turbine), with nothing left behind, rather than a dangerous amount of crap we're currently incapable of dealing with. Don't worry about it, our kids will be able to work out what to do with cubic miles' worth of radioactive crap, shurely.

I choose the skull & crossbones because the waste crap is dangerous now, just as it will be in >10,000 years' time.

Brown pledges to be greener than greens

Aram
Alert

@Electric/hybrid cars are NOT the answer

I'm lucky enough to be able to cycle to work 3 or 4 times a week. This saves me a fortune on tube fares (that I probably end up spending on cycling gear!) and keeps me fit.

I may harbour a strong dislike of 4x4s, but I reckon Stuart Gray's got a point. It really comes down efficient use of cars. Car after car that I pass on my commute has a single person in it. Those cars are mostly at a standstill and still emitting CO2 and everything else (NO2, particulates, etc.).

Regular cars are also far less complicated to manufacture. We should really concentrate on having cars capable of 150+mpg and persuade people out of their cars and onto alternatives.

Whatever your view on climate change, we are still definitely talking about a finite resource when it comes to crude oil. It would be prudent to eke out as much use from every drop as possible.

Israelis offer 'British' pukka-lingo ware to Blighty

Aram

Re: Plain English?

Is it too pedantic to point out that the plural of "company" is "companies"?

Almost all CCTV systems are illegal, says expert

Aram

All of your CCTV are belong to us

A few people on shifts viewing multiple cameras costs a fraction of the amount of having many more people actually patrolling those areas under surveillance. It seems that any evidence regarding the efficacy of the different approaches is irrelevant - budgets are squeezed and the way of the camera is the only way.

Yep, keep the cameras coming; store logs of phone calls for a year; press ahead with biometric info everywhere on insecure systems and put your DNA on a database indefinitely. Is the national identity card plan still on the table? Why, exactly, do people still think we have a problem with IMmigration?

This great country is being ground down by people who won't play by the rules, so we all have to suffer with these ridiculous measures.

</rant>

</DailyMail>

Federal judge slams Patriot Act

Aram

The War On Terror©®

Game over man, game over!

The Terrists (authentic Du(m)bya pronunciation) have already won. In the space of a few years and with the help of truly gargantuan databases and a few constitutional shortcuts, we've lost many rights that took centuries to win (on both sides of the Atlantic).

Then again, what does it really matter? We've got barely half of the UK electorate voting and a decent chunk of the populace are barely literate or interested in the world around them.

Give 'em sports, soap operas and reality TV and continue to trample on their few remaining rights. No one will really notice.

Adwalker awarded US patent

Aram

Adverts, adverts everywhere...

... and nothing but dull content at best to flesh out the time between advert breaks.

Christ, is it not bad enough that brand-obsessed fools are walking around proclaiming their allegiance to D&G (or whomever) loudly in your face? Billboards are distracting enough, particularly when I'm cycling and I go past one of the M&S adverts with that Bahamian looking woman in underwear brandishing a feather duster.

Actually, an enormous billboard of that very advert is just down the road from the PC World (in Colliers Wood) featured in another Reg article.

Oh dear. After bringing that advert to mind I'm going to have to lie down for a while.

Time Warner mulls flogging AOL US dial-up biz (again)

Aram

Schtop! Schtop! Thish pressh releashe is not ready!

And as for "Communacopia" - that's a shocker of a word.

Stolen satnav guides thieves to owner's home

Aram

Re: I know, why not

But Dan, others have already sugges-, waidaminnit, is that "humor"?

Mattel gets litigious on chinabarbie.com

Aram

Re: Article - Chris

Chris, how many do you already own?

PETA slams 'sickening' Hamas cat-torture vid

Aram

All your cats...

...are belong to us

PDF spam tsunami hits email inboxes

Aram

A fool and his money are soon parted...

"The share price in this company has rocketed as a result of bogus news being blasted to internet users worldwide"

<pedant>

No, the price rocketed because desperate, foolish people either believe the spam, or are (as some others have suggested) attempting to cash in on the foolishness of others. Either way, it's the demand that's driving the price.

</pedant>

German hurls computer from apartment block

Aram

Re: it doesn't matter the OS

Wow, almost top-quality stream-of-consciousness stuff, apart from the single comma.

Tiscali swallows Pipex broadband and voice

Aram

ISP suggestions

Head on over to www.thinkbroadband.com and do some research.

I'm with Be & very happy, but there are others. Try a search on (for example) Be Unlimited, BT Broadband, Eclipse Internet, NewNet, Tiscali, Zen Internet to see the ones that stand out.

Google search rivals full of sound and fury

Aram

3D search?

Is David's search a 2D representation of a 3D search?

Virgin Trains's mysterious full-price ticket promotion

Aram

Shafted by Virgin

Rail fares start to come close to reasonable when you employ some kind of discount card (Young Person's, Family, Network, etc.) that usually gives about a third off the price. If you don't own one of those you're just considered a walking wallet (or purse) by the rail companies.

Still, thank goodness the shareholders are being taken care of.

Open Rights Group recounts e-voting horror story

Aram

Time to mandate voting?

With everyone banging on about their rights, might it be time to include the associated responsibilities?

Force people to vote (preferably using a paper ballot) and include a "none of the above" box on the form. This would allow people to express their justified boredom with the same ol', same ol'. It may be impotent frustration initially, but when the political elite are forced to acknowledge the scale of the problem of voter apathy through such a scheme, the excuses will be whittled down.

It's possible that the motivation behind some of the initiatives is about trying to re-engage people (i.e. greater postal voting / e-voting), but the execution of these plans has been diabolical at best and brought shame to one of the oldest democracies in the world ("A farce worthy of a banana republic" according to the judge in the Birmingham postal vote fraud).

Of course, there's every chance that the mindless, latté-sipping drifters of our celebrity-obsessed consumer society will continue with their "am I bovvered " approach to this. What else can we do to (metaphorically) put a rocket up their ar$e and get them interested in something that really does affect them on a daily basis? Too many lives have been lost defending our freedom to allow these poorly schooled morons to perpetuate their special brand of laisse-faire cretinism.

Actually, this also ties in nicely with a previous post of mine ("Technology for technology's sake"). All this extra expense and it still doesn't work! Remember that story about the Yanks spending $millions developing a pen that would write in space? The Russians saved a few bob by taking a pencil instead.

Hackers blamed for Illinois agency server hack

Aram

Real estate "professionals"

As if there weren't sufficient reason to distrust these "professionals" - now you'd have to check if you're actually dealing with the person or someone who's nicked their identity.

(cue all the usual jokes about estate agents, concrete boots and being at the bottom of the sea)

Buttocks, thongs, and bullsh*t: Street Viewers cop an eyeful

Aram

The correct term for an exposed thong...

... is "whale tail"

Spyware mum foils pervert

Aram

And if she was in Germany?

A happy ending; of that there's no doubt. But, if this were in Germany (with the recent law passed on hacking, etc.), would the perv be able to wriggle out of the clutches of the law?

One would hope that the German courts would see sense on this issue and punish him all the same, leaving the mother "to get away with it".

Missing German doctor reappears after 22 years

Aram

But what about the inevitable smell?

I've had to deal with a dead rat under the floorboards (and naturally well away from the nearest loose floorboard) and the smell was intolerable for about a week, then finally (mercifully) started to fade.

A human body is significantly bigger and would go on (and on) smelling for ages.

University moves to hush Facebook criticism

Aram

RE: "Idle Students"

Of course free speech should be supported and upheld, but it doesn't provide carte blanche to shoot your mouth off. There are responsibilities that go hand in hand with that right.

Additionally, one would hope for something a little more considered and intelligent from uni students (particularly those studying English Literature) than "X is a ****". So much for the pithy epithet.

Well, one would hope for a lot, but then we are talking about a university system that has been systematically devalued, debased and thrown open to any Tom, Dick and Henrietta (irrespective of the quality and substance of their raft of supposedly 'A' grade qualifications). And it's also Keele "University", so it's not like it counts anyway.

Can we have a proper study of Wi-Fi, please?

Aram

A lack of scientific thinking

There is (to my mind) a worrying correlation between a general "bovvered" attitude in society (i.e. those of the "finkin' 'urts me 'ead" lot), a more general dumbing down of multiple aspects of our lives and a move away from the sciences and (as importantly) scientific thinking.

Good luck with that "proper" study: we'll struggle to find the *real* scientists to conduct it, particularly if the scientific peer review system is as compromised as some believe.

Still, we continue to live in hope (or is that ignorance?).

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