I cant believe...

...that there's no law to prevent a company presenting false advertisements on its own website! I mean, no one really trusts advertising that much but, how is that any different to a company advertising in the street? If someone is interested in a product and goes to that companies website to have a look at its specs, and get sold a lie, how is that different to the lie being put out on the street?

Weird...

@ Sarah Bee

I don't think anyone here is really disputing the fact that it probably was one of the shitty little McBeavis's (should that be McBeavii? :P). I think most people's objection is to the fact that there now trying to sue McDonalds! I mean what has McDonalds got to answer for? Maybe the individual franchise manager for not making sure the phone was secured and not left for the McBeavis's to play with, but apart from that, there's not much more that could have been done. Additionally, as has been previously mentioned, showing exactly who took the photos would be pretty damn hard to prove in a court of law i would think. Seems to me like a jumped up lawsuit of the kind only America can produce...

News Report : Sales of Ghost Skyrocket!

And in news today, sales of the novel Ghost rocketed after being mentioned on an IT news site. Online sales are up 500%.

I hope you guys get a percentage as i guarantee with a description like that, The reg crowd will be salivating at Amazon's (hypothetical) door!

@AC 15:58

I believe the people who are not allowed to join political parties are members of the armed forces, those in the court system and those who work for the public service (someone correct me if im wrong). The reason being that people in these positions are supposed to remain politically neutral at all times (except when they vote of course). If they are in a party, and especially if they havent declared as such to their superiors, then naturally they cannot be completely trusted to remain politically neutral. It is very easy for information that is not for public or party distribution to suddenly end up in the wrong hands...

For people in the military its even more important - the idea being that you are neutral and serve which ever party is in power no matter if you think there a bunch of braindead twats or not. If too many people in the military are involved with one party then you have the makings of a very nice coup...

Additionally, in the UK, very few people are actually members of political parties, you might tip the odd donation to your party of choice occasionally if your so inclined but you have to be an absolute diehard fan to pay up and get on their membership list, unlike America where the vast majority join either the republican or democratic party. So anyone on the BNP membership list is likely to be a diehard racist nutter, and should be exposed if there in a position to abuse the neutrality of their office. Same goes to those in the tories and labour. Actually, i believe the members of all politcal parties should be exposed - lets see how may card carriers there are in places where they shouldnt be!

The biggest give away should have been...

That he claimed he could get from Lagos back to Aus for $500! Considering the complete decline in any value of the Australian dollar and the cost of airline tickets i doubt you could fly from Lagos to Spain for $500!

Actually im suprised they bothered targeting us Aussies considering that the Aussie dollars is so shite right now! $500 could probably only by a nice pair of shoes in Lagos! :P

Im not sure whats more disturbing

That people are stupid enough to fall for these emails (they spelt his name wrong for god sake!) or the fact that there's obviously a market out that would want to see a sex vid involving McCain's wife? Come on he's like 80 - his wife would have to be around that age too! Thats not even a mental image id wish on my worst enemy!

@AC

A preson who pulls a 600m heist by working trading limits deserves the same as a bank robbery. Just like i said. Just because you have more expertise then the average bank robber, the intention is the same. Its the intention thats important in my opinion. If someone is making trades they shouldnt have but without any aim of personal gain then the sentence should be fairly minimal though probably with a ban on them ever working in finance again! And of course there superiors deserve there ass getting fried as well. But someone who delibrately goes out to steal money for personal gain no matter how they do it deserves a very long sentence!

My 2p...

@AC

Come on champ, his previous stuff involved (from what ive read here at least) hacking into a few government websites and servers, no real damage done. 20 years for that is fine so long as you up the prison time for every murderer, rapist, attacker, vandal, thief and drunk and disorderly to more then 20 years! I mean come on get some sense of perspective!

As for the stealing A$1.7million. I hope he gets a sentence similar to if someone pulled a bank job for the cash - maybe not armed robbery but just because it was online doesnt mean it wasnt the same as robbing a bank in person!

Magic Spray

I really dont know whats wrong with all of these special forces types, there so far behind the game. All they need is the magic spray that our soccer players all use!

You've all seen our poor, tough and certainly not overpaid soccer goliaths taken down by a malicious and hugely injuring slide tackle. They roll around on the ground in agony and then comes the magic spray and suddenly there fine to carry on! Surely that's all the special forces need, lots and lots of magic spray! Im sure it would work even better then a torniquet!

GridSure doesnt sound any more secure then 3dSecure

Maybe i missed something (im an engineer not a programmer), but the GridSoft scheme that was detailed didnt sound much more secure against a good phishing site then the current VbV setup.

A box with randomly generated numbers but which you choose the box beforehand. Piece of piss to phish, someone goes to purchase something, you pull up a pre-made screen with the box and your own non-randomly generated numbers the person types in the number and boom you have which boxes they used. If the numbers are only 1-9, then you need to create an error screen and on the second go a new set of random numbers gives you the exact order of the boxes. Follow this by another error screen, switch to the real site, the person enters their details, makes their purchase none the wiser and you now have their details.

How is that anymore secure then VbV?

Both systems are shite, and just a way for the banks and visa/mastercard to offload there liability back to us...

How long?

Before the first twit fails to observe the "Low Power" warning and runs out of juice. Then what, its not like you can walk up to the nearest servo and get more power! :P

Apart from the distance limiting factor, this sounds like a fantastic move forward for the 'leccy car! But i think i will hold off a few years before considering getting one myself! ;)

Terrorisation

Just thought id like to point out a completely ridiculous attempt to turn the word terror into an all purpose catch all phrase.

You can be in TERROR.

You can be TERRIFIED.

You can TERRORISE someone.

You can be a TERRORIST.

You can be involved in TERRORISM.

But there is no suck f%cking thing as TERRORISATION!

Can all members of the American government please start learning another language, so you can stop destroying ours!

No sympathy

Thats what you get for having a quarantine service that's motto is "Cant be assed looking, its fine..."

Funny that you guys are now finding out how big a problem it is having non-native species taking over your country, we've been dealing with it in Aus since you bastards decided to import foxes and rabbits for the joy of the hunt!

Cant see it working very well

I honestly cant see this working very well on anything except a peaceful protest march.

Lets face it, if someone's so angry that capsicum spray is unlikely to subdue them, shooting them with something that makes them hot is hardly going to do the trick. If you know where the source of the heat is coming from your going to run very fucking fast to get to the heat source! Then whats the cop going to do? Drop the heat gun, and grab his regular gun and the moment he drops the heat gun, the perp is no longer in any pain but is really pissed off and closing the distance at a very high speed! Its 50:50 who wins from there... But either way someone's going to die!

The only time something like this would work as i mentioned is for a protest march and in that case whats wrong with using the good old fashion water cannon? Its a hell of a lot safer and more effective!

Is anyone at all suprised by this?

Outsourcing a product of this sort of security importance to places where corruption is a daily part of life. Considering its now costing banks million of dollars maybe they'll think about bringing the production back to places which are a little bit more secure?

Nah probably not - the losses can be written off as a tax deduction no doubt, where as the manufacture of these things still costs money they cant write off. So dont expect this to change anytime soon!

What about the people they were advertising for?

I think the people they were advertising for should cop the same penalty! Anybody who signs up for an ad campaign knows exactly the method of distribution of there campaign. So its bollocks for them to claim "oh we didnt know they were going to use spam to advertise our product".

When the companies that are advertised by spam start copping the same penalties as the people sending the spam, then maybe we'll see a reduction in spam but until then...

@Kevin Elliot

Whilst its a nice idea to use an A330 or similar fitted with the right kit, its not actually a particularly easy or quick task to do. Australia have been waiting on the delivery of the Wedgetail AEW&C (based on a 737-700) since 1997 and were still not expecting the first one till mid 2009.

Hence, the UK has 2 choices, continue with the current Nimrod replacement programme, and accept any additional costs and delays that will likely affect the aircraft's development. Or buy an off-the-shelf system that is already in use and wont require more then a few minor tweaks (such as the mid-air refuelling nozzles) to get it operational for UK forces. Thats really what the decision being talked about here is.

Still what ever decision they take i doubt the RAF will have an aircraft on its hands before 2010...

i eat roo regularly

And its delicious, it just takes a bit more skill to cook then steak (lets face it steaks very forgiving as to how you cook it).

However, its beginning to get more expensive here in Aus because more and more people are eating it. It used to be about $10/kg cheaper then steak its now down to about $3/kg cheaper... :(

Highly recommended!

@ heystoopid

I know Americans think that the world revolves around them but Aus has never and will never be a colony of the US...

Try not to make the same mistake again...

The attack of the grass-munching attack droids has been thwarted!

This man should be given a medal for his heroic defence of the planet earth from a suprise attack by the grass munching attack droids of the planet Victa. They have secretly been planning they're stealth infiltration attack on the Earth for many years now but luckily this brave soldier spotted the evil attack droid that had replaced his dependable mower and dispatched it without delay.

Congratulations to that man...

Those complaining

Quit complaining on a f*cking IT website, go out and track down the relevant email addresses for the censorship board, relevant government agencies and possibly media outlets and start bombarding them with emails (preferrably rational arguments explaining the flaws in their decsion to ban this game citing precedent and analogies with film and literature).

Show them that the gaming community of this country has a voice. I very much doubt the censorship boards read The Reg...

Oh and when you find the addresses post them on here, so that everyone can let there voice be heard (rather then whining on about here...)

Market Research

Having done some market research on a similar idea to this a few years back (i was an engineering student not marketing i swear!) this will succeed if its marketed to the right industries.

Its faster then a helicopter so you get where your going faster, using less fuel along the way and then have the convenience of landing without a runway or if your doing something like search and rescue or geological survey hovering which you cannot do in a fixed wing. Yes maintenance costs are higher but a fixed wing cant hover and most of the fuel used by a helicopter is in getting to the destination you want to be operating at so by getting there faster you've just made the job cheaper.

Looks like a winner to me. Will never replace the standard helo or fixed wing but there's defintiely a niche there for it.

If the restaurants stop serving dog

Does that mean there will be a huge increase in the number of strays wandering the city?

privacy concerns

There's a fairly simple solution to this but i doubt Google will undertake it because it will cost some money.

Its a simple 3 step solution.

a) obscue all people's faces (and any other identifying features)

b) obscure all licence plates details

c) black in windows if required so that people cant peer inside houses

Do that, and the privacy concerns of your average person are taken care of and Google remove the risk of litigation because someone was caught having an affair or skipping work due to a street view pic. Problem solved.

And pigs might fly!

As if this will have any effect on the brain dead neanderthals who inhabit most American airport security positions.

Just wait for the first news report of some poor sap being tazered to death because he asked why he had to take his laptop out of his TSA approved laptop bag...

maybe a stupid question

But why does a cabinet minister need a laptop at her constituent office? Surely, a desktop would a) suffice, b) be less money out of the tax payers pocket, c) be a hell of a lot harder to steal.

But of course, managers always feel the need to have the fastest, brightests, shiniest, thinnest laptops on the market for some reason. Personal Insecurities, perhaps?

For the unemployed

Try leaving your country and looking for work for fuck sake! Your in Europe, you have access to work anywhere in the EU, flights are cheap, do the fucking maths!

I finished my degree in Aus moved to the UK (because Aus has ZERO aerospace industry), found a job in the UK within 2 months of actually looking, and got to travel all over the world with it. And that was on a working holiday visa. When my visa expired i had to leave Europe so i came back to Aus worked for a year and now im heading to Germany for another job.

This is the way of the new global economy. You follow the work or you accept the crap pay and conditions which you can get at your local sainsbury's.

Truth be told if your UK degrees were actually worth anything on the world market you would find work easily but 3 years for a bachelor degree in engineering and 1 year for a master is a pathetically short time in which you wouldnt learn half of what you needed! It takes 4 years for a bachelor degree in Aus (and i still dont feel it was long enough to really prepare me for the industry) and another 2 years for a masters. Which system do you think is going to be more beneficial for your job prospects?

@ Steve Roper

The problem is that we dont KNOW that the data they received is just as you say because they wont tell us exactly what data they received and in what format. Hence why people are not happy with this.

@ Jon Tocker

Sorry mate, but i think your talking bollocks.

"Yeah, because drugged-up perps always considerately attack people when there's good visibility, plenty of room to move, and plenty of time to react.

Tell you what, I'll get someone to attack you in a relatively uncluttered well-lit hospital corridor or ward and then (after you get out of your plaster casts) I'll get some meth-crazed bastard to attack you in a dimly-lit cluttered street - then maybe you'll be qualified to have an opinion."

If a cop is attacked without warning and by an obviously crim, they are going to reach for there gun (rightly so), not the taser. Use of a Taser is for situations where the police have a good idea of what is happening, they know the offender is carrying a gun, and they know where the offender is.

In these cases, without a taser, the police would spend a great deal of time pointing a gun at the perp and talking them down. This way no one gets hurt, the officers are at minimal risk and everyone walks away in one piece. With tasers, the police make the decision to use a taser rather then trying to talk the perp down. Yes this is quicker, but it also has the affect of endangering lives of the perp, the cops and any other bystanders.

It's never a good idea to walk into a situation with a "lets get this over and done with quickly" mindset and that's really what the taser gives.

@ Bruce Cook

As in any democracy you will find people who object to just about any law. And naturally sports shooters are going to be a little unhappy with the tight restrictions on gun ownership, however, i can tell you the VAST majority of people in Australia are incredibly happy that we have not had to endure any massacres since port arthur.

If a few people have to be inconvenienced (but not actually stopped owning sports weapons) in order to prevent another Port Arthur then i dont think you'll find too many concientious objectors.

As for the states, you havent got a hope in hell of banning guns because you've got too many as it is. About the only way i can see that you would improve the situation is if you made it a) illegal for anyone with so much as a parking ticket to own a weapon, b) anyone who commits any crime whatsoever loses any guns they currently own, c) anyone who has committed a crime and who is found in possession of a gun is locked away for 1 year minimum d) Anyone who has a blood alcohol reading that would make it illegal for them to drive found in possession of a gun is lockied away for 1 year and loses all there guns. Maybe that would get a few guns off the street. Just maybe...

@ better designs

Sorry but would never work. The amount of exhaust from a helicopter is quite low. It's nowhere near the sort of pressure that you see on turbofans/turbojets and so i doubt you'd see much more thrust then your car gets out of its exhaust pipe!

Nice thought, but wont happen.

Have to agree - waste of money

Sorry have to agree this is a waste of money. Whilst i have no problem with spending money keeping alive a langauge that was still in regular use (welsh, celtic, etc) reviving a language that has been dead for 200 years is a complete waste of taxpayers money. If people want to do it off there own bat like Tolkein invented Elven, good luck to them. But why should i pay for it? I'm certainly not Cornish!

And as for those that compare cornish to latin, latin is not a true dead language. It has been the lingua franca for scientific research in other languages since roman times, so it has never truly been dead, it has been in continuous use and still is today (just not in a form that would be recognisable to an ancient rome - but then neither would modern english be comprehensible to an early english speaker!).

@ Tim Brown

Tim, I'm pretty sure that the NASA scientists would have thought of that. They would be looking at Galaxy's that at the moment in time that we are seeing them are the same age as us. ie, if Galaxy A is 10 millions years old, and the Milky Way is 5 million years old then they would only look at Galaxy A for the comparison of numbers of supernova if Galaxy A was 5 million light years away, so we would be seeing Galaxy A when it was 5 million years old.

Lets face it NASA may hire people who are crazy (diaper astronaut lady) or have no common sense (the lady who gave out personal deatils to a 419er from her work computer) but they dont tend to hire overtly stupid people...

Here's an idea

Why not a massive bot net that attacked users machines and installed the latest versions of anti-virus and anti-malware software, and fixed all those exploits that allow virus and malware to take control.

That way it could be viewed by the world less as an attack and more of a mass immunisation program. The world likes mass immunisation programs...

@ David Wiernicki

Umm David, AMD are one of the middle tier sponsors of ferrari.

By middle tier i mean they are not mentioned in the team name (i.e Scuderia Ferrari Malboro), but they have space on the car, the race suit and the helmet (i think, im not 100% certain on the helmet) just like Shell.

So I think they already do slightly better then a winglet on a Force India, no?

Lived in Hyderabad

It's a fun city, people are friendly, just stay the hell of the roads. I mean that literally - stay of the roads - dont even try to cross them! Your taking your life in your hands!

Hyderabad is still very much a growing city - it may have a population somewhere around 12 million (that was what most of the guesses were when i asked people there how many people live in Hyderabad), construction is everywhere as are the cattle...

You all seem to have missed the point

If your partner is running off to be unfaithful (and i didn't read anything in the article that said anything about her running off pre-divorce or being a golddigger - thats only the previous commentators preconceptions), then something is wrong with your relationship. Full stop, capital letter.

People who are happy in their marriage, don't leave and don't mess around. If someone leave's then usually there is a BIG problem in the marriage. I think its pretty obvious that this guy has some serious mental problems (regular people dont go halfway across Europe to murder people!), so i think i can see where the problem lay and why the women wanted to get away.

I feel sorry for her and for the poor bugger that got stabbed. I do NOT feel sympathy for Mr Murderer!

Vegetarian "Chicken" Dish

umm... how exactly do you have a Vegetarian "Chicken" Dish? Is that like having a big chicken dish but only eating the salad on the side? Or is it more along the lines of licking the side of as living chicken to get that chicken flavour?

Either way, who would want to eat a non-vegetarian dish prepared by a devoted vegetarian?

Make the Great Firewall of China work both ways

and i have no doubt, a hell of a lot of this stuff would stop (or at the least be offline for the few weeks it takes to set up a new host in Russia/Eastern Europe).

Additionally, somehow it just feels right to me that if one nation's government is going to block all incoming traffic that they dont like, then we should block all outgoing traffic we dont like. Of course the Chinese already have a system in place to check all data entering China, so until we get to that same place perhaps we should just block all data exiting China?

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea?

Just great...

We cant smoke, we cant get plastered, we have to put up with screaming children and NOW we will have to put up with annoying twats yelling into their phones as well.

Remind me why i want to fly again?

Its not related to the Heathrow landing

I wish people would stop bringing up the Heathrow crash-landing in relation to this when talking about the 777's safety record.

The 777 has a great safety record, this grounding is not because of something unsafe on the 777 but because United cut corners on their maintenance. ANY aircraft will become unsafe if you dont perform the necessary maintenance to keep it airworthy.

I think the biggest story here is that an airline actually admitted a mistake and grounded its fleet in order to do the repair, rather then a) trying to cover it up and do a piecemeal inspection or b) being ordered to ground the fleet by the FAA. Also, ive read elsewhere that the FAA had grounded a number of other United aircraft on an unrelated matter (also failing to do some maintenance I've heard but i cant confirm that). My question is why the hell didnt the FAA do a complete audit of United once they found them cutting corners on ANY aircraft maintenance!

Who cares?

Frankly, the double clickers work for an annoying Adware company (oh sorry advertising serving company). The less of 'em the better!

@ Anonymous

"On the one hand, the US gets blamed for interventionism, on the other everyone expects it to be the world policeman. It's pretty much a no-win situation"

I have one word for you - LIBERIA...

But then again they didnt have any oil, did they?

Damn a BILLION years

I cant even imagine working for the same company for 5 years in a row, imagine being stuck working for them for a billion years.

You die, you go to St Peter "Sorry pal, you signed a billion year contract. Over that way with the other suckers." He points to a group of other souls in no mans land looking really unhappy chained to typewriters doing whatever the fuck it is that Scientologist employees do.

"Guess you should have read the fine print a bit better, eh?"

Come on folks...

Lets face it who doesnt want there own main battle tank sporting frickin' laser beams!