Posts by Dave 15
782 posts • joined Monday 14th June 2010 13:49 GMT
Re: Don't they realise that the cat ...
PGP keys...
Interesting... I wonder how many of the various snooping programs coming out of the USA, China, Russia are designed to dig out your private pgp key so they can decrypt your communications with less effort.
I refused to take part
For the reason that the British government was spending British tax payers money on paying an American company to provide data on all British households to the Americans.
Nothing came of that refusal despite the dire warnings about court proceedings etc.
I think I was entirely right, and think anyone who complied with that ridiculous census was stupid.
The British government should be spending British tax payers money on British companies and British workers - every time it spends our money.
Almost all work is credit these days
You do work, invoice and if you are lucky after 30 days the company you invoiced might think about starting to process the possibility of maybe one day getting the requisite approvals for the finance department to consider maybe they might possibly put the cheque in the post at the next cheque run if thats not too overfull already...
So you might if you are really lucky get paid in 6, 9 or 12 months.... Alternatively the business will go out of business - yours or theirs - meaning they get something for nothing... well something for your expense.
What is needed is NOT insurance, it is for all UK business to simply stop trading with anyone at all until the government bring in some legislation that means people are paid for the work they do in 5 or 10 working days maximum. Its not that damned difficult. The Germans have laws around this - a payment is late after 30 days - anything after this is base+5%. Personally I'd make it 5 days and base + 200%.
Re: Re :- BONE UP ON FRESH EU PRIVACY LAW
Yup, such an empty and airheaded piece it could have been written by any of the blond BBC reporters... what a c*** article, nothing of substance at all.
Re: Damaged HMRC's reputation?
The quote came from Hodge - whose own company has managed to avoid paying tax by some pretty underhand techniques... pot calling kettle? Nope, she is an MP, therefore quite above being wrong obviously. And the voters, yup, they are so damned stupid they'll be flocking to put their mark next to her name next election, and the one after that... Or maybe - the conspiracy guys might guess - the ballot papers have no effect on the outcome.
Re: Who is in charge of the supply of bread to the population of London?
Only one answer - do as I do, bake your own. The stuff sold packaged as bread is disgusting - though I admit that some supermarkets rather revolting offerings are better than the truly repulsive offerings from the leading manufactures of white/brown/wholemeal mush in various forms - baps, rolls, sliced... all of which are singularly so disgusting I have no idea why anyone in their right mind would give money for them
Re: Don't get too excited ... or more dead civilians
Who says? Frankly it is possible that the security services have been wonderful - but there aren't many reports of arrests and convictions.
Frankly we lived through the American funded bombing of London every Christmas by the IRA, Al-queda only exists because the Americans created and funded the Taliban and later al-q.
Look at the approval ratings of the various presidents, pm's etc etc and realise that creating an 'enemy' and then taking 'strong action' against them is a way of fooling the majority of the thick and stupid, ill educated plebs in these 'democracies' into changing their mind and keeping these presidents in power and you realise what it is all about.
And...
And so what, we now all know we are being spied on by the USA. Any or all of our requests that go that way, all the email via MS servers, gmail, or any of the other are all spied on, all our google searches etc etc. And, even if they weren't going via the USA it is pretty guaranteed that anything in Europe is already copied to the USA anyway - whatever jumping up and down eu commissioners do, or reassurances by Mr Vague.
Even then people forget - all your flights, sea tickets, car journeys, bank accounts, farts, random rantings in the street are all recorded and poured over. 1984 is nothing against the reality...
Re: False positives
Plenty of people died last century to protect freedom, the lazy have given it away without a whimper. Threaten someone with something - even if it just isn't true - and too many cave in immediately.
Terrorism? My arse frankly... The Americans have funded just about every terrorist group in existence in their deluded fight against the plebs having a reasonable share of the rewards for the plebs hard work. What wasn't funded for that fight was funded because they were fighting the age old enemy - the British, look at the billions of pounds and tons of weapons sent to the IRA for just one example (not to mention everyone in the old empire who could be roused to fight the oppressive empire).
No the Americans are plain dangerous - always have been - they are as religiously lunatic as any group (lived there for a while - 1 pub, 15 churches - says it all), prone to over exaggeration - especially of how great (awesome) everything they do is (even when it is demonstrably not).
so who will crowd fund some alternatives?
I don't see why we shouldn't produce a search engine, voip service, etc etc outside of the USA (and outside of the lacky Europeans for that matter - maybe we could do it from somewhere nice, warm, sunny and pleasant) and offer people a service that DOESN'T have ANY access to the data for government - mainly by just not storing any of the data anyway!
Written to talktalk
Pointing out that I think they are misguided and won't be buying their 'service' - if enough did that they would rethink
Morality
It is of course totally moral to accept back handers for favours rendered, giving your neighbours kids a job, employing someone of dubious past performance, fiddling expenses, or making the rules so that you can put as much of the publics wonga in your back pocket as possible.
But these people know far more about morals than you do.
Why
Why should you have the blocks - why not try using your judgement - don't search for 'child porn' or 'beheadings' and don't look at websites with names like www.choppingheadsofchildren.com or whatever
You know, there are plenty of books and magazines out there that I don't want or approve of. Yet I don't call for the shops to be divided and split up lest they should be there in front of me and offend me. There are plenty of people who offend me, and certainly lots of dress styles that do, no one offers to filter them out for me (unless google glass will start doing that).
Re: "how to deal with age verification online"
Good for her, she probably also lied about name, address and everything else. Just as I do when accessing pages that demand to know who I am (such as the BBC). This is one very very very good reason to resist any form of 'id card' as eventually you would be required to 'log in' with it... and then when it was stolen you would end up being accused of all sorts.
The fact that we can (and most do) lie routinely on the internet is one damned good reason that this will fail. My wireless is also deliberately unlocked so anyone can use it - that way it is going to be damned difficult to prove anything done via it was done by me.
Re: the real question is
Yup, the British public are basically as thick as two planks and will accept this with open arms.
Just as they did with CRB checks and all the associated bullshit to protect their kids, and 'elf and safety' to ensure they are in no danger.
And look what they've achieved...
Sports clubs that no longer have clubs for kids because it is too much of a PITA
Youth clubs closed
Pervs STILL getting into schools and the remaining places with access to kids because they have enough interest to go through the hoops and aggravations the rest of us can't be arsed with
Then if you do take your kids somewhere they can't actually touch anything, climb 6" to see something, sit on your shoulders, stand on something that might move, not be seat belted in... and consequently they get no excitement out of it - when I was a kid I used to go to the GWR depot, wander about among the oily waste and help people clean rust off the engines, cut bits of metal, shovel the coal on while the train was moving, pull the whistle etc etc etc (as early as 9 years old).
And the expense... first I had to have seatbelts in the back of the car for kids, then a car seat, now it has to be a rear facing seat, then when they are 6 months a new forward facing seat (yup, used to have one that could go either way but you can't get them now), then a seat for larger kids then a booster seat (both of these ugly and massive constructions only achieving an uncomfortable version of an adult seat and almost as safe as the seatbelt clip I used to use to make the adult seatbelt fit correctly). This makes a mint for the 3 car seat manufacturers but has saved how many kids from injury? Probably none if truth is told.
Re: @ chris n
I don't know what Chris is searching for but try....
"naked ladies being beaten" and I'm sure something would turn up... personally I've never accidentally found porn (have found it deliberately). Nor - as I guess have you - have I had porn or violence thrust at me while searching for various things to help work, travel, holiday, helping the kids with homework or other non-porn style activities.
Re: That's enough
Available will shortly become enforced. Then you will have to 'prove' you are 18 to have them unblocked. Then somethings will be so bad you can't have it unblocked. Then we are exactly where everyone predicts. It is NOT good to have any censorship.
Frankly I have not found porn by accident. I have not found porn while searching for work things for example, or news, or information about places I'm visiting etc etc. If kids find porn it is because they are looking for it - largely because of something they were talking about at school. When I were a lad (someone had to go here), we didn't have the internet but we still found porn in the newsagent etc. Perhaps not quite as severe but still we found it. Most free porn is not much worse than the old newsagent stuff even if you are looking for it.
So the big brother state has won
Just like China, North Korea and other dictatorships around the world our dictatorship has managed to introduce censorship. Right now it is banning porn and violence because the stupid majority will buy that this is 'good for them'. Next it will be anything the government doesn't want you to see... that will be anything that disagrees with its view.
The problem with 'democracy' is that it is run by the privileged few and supported by the uneducated unwashed stupid idiots and those in the middle who can think but are powerless just get shafted with the bill.
I assume
This is part of a process where the BBC will eventually claim that you can watch broadcast tv if you have anything at all in your house, therefore you can't escape the licence fee by not having a recording or tv type device.
So we will all have to pay the increasing amount of money for the talentless tat and propaganda they broadcast
Damned good idea
I stand zero chance of not being hung drawn and quartered on the ugly tree, but I think it is a wonderful idea. Frankly when I am on a plane being addressed by a stewardess I want a pretty girl (preferably with a brain) because I will see her several times on an average flight and frankly some over weight lard arse with acne, bad breath and sweat stains under the blubbery arm pits really is quite disgusting.
Similarly for bar girls, waitresses in restaurants and assistants in shops. Frankly even the girl on reception is more of an up lift if you want to say a cheery hi as you walk in.
Hopefully the people recruiting for such roles will use the site, but I sadly reckon that with todays 'politically correct' culture where we are all supposed to forget the aesthetics and not mind sitting next to an overweight frump for hours will win out and keep employing the trouts.
Which lobby group are paying Cameron for this?
It certainly makes no sense from a crime fighting or intelligence point of view unless it will go far far further.
What about the mobile sims you can buy over the counter for cash without the need to give name address etc. Or those bought abroad and 'roaming' here. What about stolen devices? Are those using these devices for unsavoury purposes so stupid they wouldn't just waltz around these stupid impositions?
Modern smartphones and most of the feature phones will happily go anywhere on the net.
No, the reasons to want these extra powers have nothing to do with the state reasons. Its about controlling the masses, scaring the masses into submission, cowing them so you can make your rich mates even richer. This was the same under Labour as it is now. Some industry group have worke out they can make a stack load of money off the back of this and are paying the senior politicians to ensure it happens. The politicians pocketing yet another fortune jump on any possible excuse - from blaming the murder of a little girl to the murder of a soldier - its sickening.
China today, UK tomorrow
As we in the UK (and to an extent the USA) continue to allow our governments to ban 'child porn' and 'extremist' websites we will find the governments will get ever bolder an more an more will be banned as incorrect and immoral until we don't have a maintenance day because such sites will not be allowed to exist.
In the good old days
I would buy a record, tape, CV or DVD,. if the machine I used to play them broke I could buy a new machine and continue to enjoy the film/music I had purchased. It appears increasingly the case that technology companies and 'hollywood' are attempting to make it such that when the machine breaks I have to buy everything again... and the machines break after about 2 years tops because the battery is buggered.
All in all eventually the public will just stop buying totally and rely entirely on ripped off copies on the internet
It is sad though....
It is very sad that manufacturers are producing product so similar to each other that there is a need for this sort of thing. Really it is quite pathetic that Samsungs engineers couldn't design and create a product that is better than the iPad, the iPad really isn't all that stunning. Much the same is true of mobile phones - the number of near identical looking phones in the shops is depressing. Even Nokia have started making their phones look pretty much like yet another buttonless featureless slab. 10 years ago there were flip, folding, chocolate bars, then the more exotic designs - especially from Nokia where sometimes entire querty keyboards would fold out ready for people to message...all of it is now lost to the unusable flat screen bit of glass... and no, I can't use one of them while walking down the street with its lack of buttons and feedback... its horrid - even in a train or taxi they are near impossible - and I don't spend enough time sat on the settee at home to want to use one there.
Re: Lots of Symbian users still out there...
If you look at the Symbian based phones that were sold, the reliability and longevity of those devices, the range of them (keyboards, touch screens, small, large...) then it is of little surprise that the new comers just don't have the same numbers of current users.
If you want a smartphone with a proper keyboard what can you buy? Only an old Nokia. Even the 808 doesn't have a proper keyboard. I guess there might be an iphone at some time, or a windows phone eventually or maybe even an android out there that has a numeric keypad that I can use when I am walking, but when you walk into the phone shop on the corner they basically all look the same - a lump of plastic around a screen with a single button at the bottom. It is not what I want, and I am not the only one who sticks to an ancient Symbian because it is better than the modern replacements.
Re: Broadcom GPU
And you think that Android, iOS and Windows don't suffer from the same?
All software has bugs and some are intractable. All of these 'OS' run on phones with a variety of hardware - I suspect there are bugs on one windows phone that don't show on others because of this. It is the same thing for any situation where the entire h/w spec is not permanently fixed. No reason for this to cause any problem with continuing with Symbian
Re: symbian vs windows phone
Strangely enough winphone is NOT a young OS.
I was working on it at Microsoft in the '90's and it had been going strong for many years before that. It used wince underneath with the windows mobile just really being applications on top. I also worked on epoc32 and later symbian (the same thing). Epoc32 was built from the ground up to work on battery devices - to have high performance, long battery life, safe applications (no trampling out of the end of strings etc) and be safe when the battery dies unexpectedly. Largely speaking it achieved these things well.
The typical symbian phone comes stuffed with goodies that you have to buy for iphone, android or windows.
Re: Theory why it's Symbian only
Pretty much what was done for Symbian. The pictures don't go through the OS and the processing is done on the graphics chip. But you have to have an architecture that allows that and windows doesn't.
Re: Theory why it's Symbian only
Nokia couldn't afford Eflop, he is why Symbian sales went off a cliff - that infamous burning platform email when Symbian sales at the time were actually increasing (sales were up though market share was down as more competition entered the market - market share at the time of the email was markedly higher than current iOS market share).
Microsoft does not allow Symbian the flexibility to do a repeat of the amazing camera on a windows phone. They've scrapped their linux (even the later incarnation of a cut down android platform), they now have a S40 developed in China but losing profitability slowly and an out of the box Microsoft offering that the market doesn't seem to have taken to. It is possible Microsoft may yet get it right, but they have been at it for years - since mid 1990's - and have still failed.
The sad thing is that Symbian actually is a good platform in a number of ways, slightly quirky in some as it was developed a very long time ago by Psion software - a British company - as 'Epoc32'. The S60 UI mess wasn't Symbian, it was entirely Nokias own creation. There was a touch screen version - way back in the '90's there were touch only, keyboard only and a combination UI's designed and built. UIQ - Sony Ericsson - made a decent touch screen only variation - long long long long before apple or google did anything at all.
Apple and Google have both done decent enough jobs, they learned what was and wasn't working in a mature market and did that. The Symbian devices were cutting edge, they were the original smartphones, but for a little more get up and go in the management at both Symbian and Nokia the UI could have been fixed many years ago. As usual though the management became too bogged down in their own importance, in having engineers filling in timesheets, project managers explaining why over Christmas the timesheets showed they didn't have enough people on the project (doh - people didn't work on Christmas - as I explained every single year I worked for Symbian). The product managers spent too much time drinking wine with Nokia and not enough time working out what needed doing. The whole thing stagnated with it taking months to do stupid unnecessary things and no time at all being left to do the obvious. Its a shame, under different management things could have been so much better.
Re: Holefully someone can answer this
Actually you can create artificial petrol using the sun as a direct source of the energy required. So yup, a super idea - of course not one the government would take up as there are insufficient backhanders and bungs involved.
Costs
Still have to charge the battery - as many have pointed out this is not always going to be easy - and it seems that it is unlikely to ever be properly quick.
Fireless steam has a potential to offer a better outcome. A steam container can be charged quickly (e.g. at the equivalent of a petrol station), It can be insulated to provide storage for overnight even in cold conditions, could potentially be filled at home (even by taking the tank inside if you don't park on a drive),
The technology exists and is very cheap. Fireless steam locos were used for many years in industrial settings such as munitions factories where a fire wasn't so useful. These often did whole days of work hauling hundreds of tons of material around between charges.
web 'engineers'
seems they are usually paid tuppence h'apenny, and are either very stupid or given extraordinarily stupid specs to follow.... user must type in his phone number... why??/?
Re: @Jefe
Yup, we know, but lets be honest it is all now a long time back, they tried to flatten parts of the UK - and really apart from Coventry failed, we did flatten large chunks of Germany - and I do mean flatten, there is a vast difference between the damage of the Blitz and the removal of many large cities from the map. (Coventry really was their only major success).
Personally, I like the 'don't talk about the war' bit... you started it, no we didn't, yes you did....
Re: The guys were already known to the authorities
From what I understand the nearest cop shop was a few feet away.
Anyway, I suspect sacking half the police and crushing their cars would save more lives (including those of newspaper salesmen) than it would cost.
Re: Here we go again...
I doubt very much that locking all the police and their cars up would make a great deal of difference.... except of course in preventing threats being made by the police to cheese producers who occasionally create a single few minutes of wild entertainment and fitness activity on a Gloucstershire hill
Re: Right.
Of course Just beheaded.... would hardly help prevention.
As we pointed out the first time they tried this Stalinesque bull, it won't work and it won't help. Boris has sunk any hope of election as anything beyond baffoon hair consultant by suggesting the police had 'compelling' arguments in favour,
Re: Its a start,
Both sides had clunky muzzle loaders - but you yankees had to rely on help from the French, at least we had more pride
Crap
Sorry, but the article is crap.
Guns come in several varieties. One variety is rifled - a rifle! Some pistols and even large field guns and British army tank guns are also rifled. Rifling is used to spin the projectile, this spin stabilizes the projectile meaning that it flies in a straight line and you can aim it.
Other guns are 'smooth bore' - most notably most American tank and field guns, old naval cannon of the type used at Trafalgar and original blunderbuss and shotguns. Here the projectile (or projectiles) are not spin stabilized. In the case of modern tank and field guns the projectile has fins - in the barrel of the gun these are surrounded by cabots which fall away as the projectile exits the barrel - these fins stabilize the projectile. In the case of things like old ships cannon and shotguns - theres no stabilization and its a trifle hit and miss whether you it or miss a target - especially at more than a few yards.
While it certainly would be possible to print a rifled barrel it is difficult to see how the plastic used could be made hard enough to survive more than one shot. But then, a British tank gun isn't designed to survive very many and it is made of metal (the life expectancy of a tank on a battle field is depressingly low).
The chance of the gun working once are pretty high, chances of twice, probably quite low. But then you could potentially print a bullet or two as well... even plastic going fast enough can do some reasonable amount of damage - especially if you put some poison in the tip.
I don't know whether this was basically responsible for the panic in the USA when the gun was demonstrated, but removing the blueprints has no real effect - the ideas are out there now and now the technology has rendered the airport scanners obsolete.
Re: am I reading that right?
I suspect its bull :)
Of course some stuff like hide is used for shoes and so forth. Bones are used for whatever bones are used for (isn't it to help making bone china nice and thin and semi transparent) but I think the vast majority of the rest is fed to us one way or another.
The interesting thing is that you aren't allowed to feed your left over dinner to pigs anymore (pigswill is banned) - probably because the stuff they feed us is so bloody bad we aren't allowed to be that cruel to pigs!
Don't worry
Don't worry dear, its only the same as an ice cream...
Re: Using as much of the slaughtered animal as possible,
Indeed, some breeds of dogs (esp Bull terriers for some reason) are actually allergic to wheat and other fillers used in biscuits, tinned and dried commercial dog foods (they get major skin infections and problems especially around their feet) - the meat products - even from the less pleasant sounding bits - are far better for dogs than the commercial treats.
As to eating all the unpleasant bits - 'beef' in 'burgers' normally comes from a cow/bull - but where from you really really don't want to know - but does it matter? Not once its been nicely cooked on the bbq and washed down with some decent beer.
illegal download sites
Who can wonder at the continued interest in downloading 'illegal' copies when the 'legal' copies are basically such a disaster?
Re: unlikely that Nokia would invest in another flavour
Asha is S40, nothing else.
Re: unlikely that Nokia would invest in another flavour
Symbian no longer outsells windows phone - mainly though because Nokia aren't making them. In total units shipped it will be a few decades before windows overtakes Symbian.
Re: Would be hilarious if Jolla becomes bigger than Nokia in a few years
What, 5million a quarter, the burning platform was managing 30million a quarter in a smaller market
Nokia aren't totally dead yet but they are so far back in the race that it seems unlikely that they will again rise beyond tail end charlies. Don't forget that many of their 'smart phone' sales aren't actually smartphones - they reclassified some oft he old s40 phones (which definitely aren't windows phone, aren't smart etc etc) as 'smart phones' so their sales figures wouldn't look the disaster they are!
Re: Rolling upgrade
Have already asked for the specs for the back bit to see about providing such things as keyboard and camera upgrades...
I think the idea will catch on.
Re: Oh really?
The idea is sound.
Plenty of people bought new covers for their old Nokia phones - customising the outside of the phone for themselves. Indeed Sendo made quite a business out of having a stock phone with covers they supplied to allow them to sell phones to clubs like ManU. This is a clip on cover that goes a bit further. So now not only do you have a cover with your favourite football teams colours, but maybe a 'favourite' plugged into their website, maybe even a password to access games or live feeds.... all sorts of possibilities are bought forward.
Yes, you could do it another way, but this way is a brilliant idea as not everyones granny is tech literate.
Re: Ota tuo, vihreä robotti Google!
It is a risk, if the product is a success and it is a largely private concern it may well be that Nokia can't buy it. I certainly wouldn't sell a successful phone manufacturing company to them... I might well wait a few years and buy Nokia just for the pleasure of sacking Elop and the board that supports him.
Re: Microsoft isn't worried...
Plan B has got to be the only one that could succeed and probably includes some gardening tuition for Elop (I certainly hope so)
