SI units...

While I have no idea why somebody would prefer to do base 12 or 14 arithmetic in their head -- ny point was that everyone invlved in science ought tlo be familiar with the basic units as it should be part of learning science -- pounds and the like are, however, units some of us would have to learn only to communicate with those who haven't studied science.

Any chance of SI units?

I know that this site is becoming increasingly Americanized -- but please could you at least convert arcane units such as "pounds" into SI units for those of us younger than 40 who gained our education (and experience of how much things weigh) outside the USA.

pwn3d by morons.

This is just another embarrassing step on the road to being totally pwn3d by the fuckwits in uk.gov.

It seems that neither the weak nor the geek will inherit the earth -- the mass-murdering fucktards have won the game.

More secure, are you sure?

This may be more secure if you're sitting in a windowless room -- but if the light can be seen from a window then a decent telescope could pick it out from miles away.

Why is he being condemned?

Surely he is just preaching true, strict, christianity -- it's not his fault it's bollocks.

Choking on the ashes of...

...celebrities.

RE: Hang on,

My thoughts exactly. How is it _ever_ wrong to link to a website? It's content published in the open that the whole frigging world can see!

@Kanhef

I think tardigrades are the default multicellular organism for this kind of experiment.

@ChrisInBelgium, AC...

In XP and previous versions runas is a pain in the backside to use -- and the tools under Windows are generally built in such a way that you seem to have to jump through hoops to get them to work with runas and even then they do annoying things like failing to save preferences. There's also the fact that anyone who needs to run as Administrator (or any other built-in account) needs the password for that account to do so.

RE: For infinite definition...

Infinite definition? You've been going to some new kind of cinema then -- film is equivalent to double-figures in megapixels (can't be bothered googling the figure).

RE: all parts? el al.

Indeed, it really winds me up when people talk about "The internet" and mean "The Web", or whatever. I can forgive the APs, but anyone associated with technology should know that "The Internet" is far more than a few websites.

Rat things?

They ought to use real dog brains inside nuclear-powered armoured pit-bulls...

RE: Required Gmail account? Et Al.

I think the problem people have with GMail is that any email sent or received is the property of Google and is keyword-searched to "give you a better experience" or something...

RE: just take the damn kids to disneyWORLD

Not sure if I speak for the guy you were replying to -- but this has made me decide to put the US on my "never going there" list (though I have been in the past). The reason? Do I carry lots of terrorist plans and company secrets around with me? No, at least not outside of my head, the reason is simple: I refuse to visit countries ruled by oppressive, unelected, governments. Just a shame I have to live in the People's Democratic, Free Republic of Great Britain.

Wheelchair access.

It's all well and good complaining that they could copy door designs -- but the old designs didn't have to provide for wheelchair access and baby changing facilities.

Joking aside -- I suspect that the reason it is so much more difficult to plan a moon landing now is that the old technology doesn't meet modern safety standards. Take Concorde as an obvious example or how safety regulations move on.

Learn how to use it or fuck off.

MS's biggest crime is letting people who have no idea how to use a computer think that they're superusers.

If you can't use Linux then you can't actujally operate a computer -- you can only play games produced by Microsoft and Apple.

RE: Implausible = flying an airliner into a New York building

How was that implausible? Granted, not something most people would think about when talking terrorism -- but once the idea has been proposed it doesn't seem implausible (yes, I know there's hindsight involved here, but hijacking and suicide bombing in vehicles have been used for decades).

I used to read Pravda ^H^H^H^H^H^H New Scientist back when it was about science, such a shame it's turned into Political Hype weekly.

@Eponymous Cowherd

I don't think the guy did anything wrong -- giving your life (or thereabouts) on the off-chance that you might save another is a pretty big ask. I know I'd not help a distressed child if I saw one -- I don't want to live in a hostel, unemployable and in fear, because someone else can't look after their child.

The real headline is that Telco's lied.

Apparently they haven't actually implemented called ID, just a few features that look like it.

Am I the only person on here that doesn't have caller ID to rely on to tell me if it's my bank or not?

On similar lines, does anyone use a bank that give you personal details and a password so you can check they are who the say they are?

Why respond?

Why tell the marketroids anything? If I pay to go to the cinema I pay them to entertain me, I don't pay to advise them on their fucking marketing strategy.

Mis-sold gadgets and tedious setup?

I wonder how many people get home with a cool new MP3 player that won't work because they're still running ME and it's not compatible, or buy a nifty new wireless router only to find their home is made from solid lead so it can only be used line-of-sight?

Granted, products do tend to be labelled better nowadays (I find, at least) but to those not in the know the limitations of some gadgets may not always be apparent.

Then there are the products sold by implication -- like the (not particularly technical) friend of mine who bought an iPod touch, and was mislead by the adverts and such into thinking she could use the internet and email on the move (as it happens, she likes it anyhow). I'd have wound her up about it, but I've heard that kind of thing happen before.

Two fucking years?!?

If you loose someone's data you owe them insurance for life -- after all, that's how long their personal details will be valid.

It seems only honest people need worry in this world.

Front door?

Front gate, surely? The das are over when anyone should rely on anything but encryption.

No-tar?

Couldn't they make do with one set of rotors and a clever tail design?

So, how much did L Ron Hobbalb pay?

How much to buy the police's co-operation nowadays?

Protesting tossers aside -- either the police officer was a moron or she had instructions.

Where's Amber?

I hope she's been dispatched to Israel to investigate.

RE: 2253 new paypal emails!!!!!!

I've slightly fewer than that (about 200, I think) but, yes, I've been receiving confirmation of a payment every few minutes since some time on Sunday and I know of others in the same position.

Drugs?

More dangerous drugs are sold by your local pharmacy that your local drug dealer.

Funny how the organised crime squad spend so much time on something they turned into crime in the first place -- there wouldn't be Afghani opium trafficers if people could grow poppys freely, for example.

Still, glad I'm being protected from the criminals they've created...

Another vote for Thermit here.

I was under the impression thatThermit was the canonical method for the destruction of magnetic media.

Saying that though, I think the microwave idea is inspired and, since you could fit a fair few drives in an industrial microwave it ought to work.

My own idea (that just popped into my head) is to use induction-loop heating to melt them -- this should produce a similar result to Thermit, but without the need for combustion, I think the magnetic field might have some effect too.

For the money they charge the method is simply not good enough.

Linux?

Or is this just for the paytards?

Aren't we good sheep...

Broke my own ban, oops.

I fail to see why law/government stories are reported -- just tow the party line, nobody cares enough to string our dictators up.

RE: "a lone American [battling] politicians to locate WMDs"

What did this read before you applied "journalistic integrity"?

Please report what people actually said, not whatever you like.

Offesive language...

This would all be "solved" if people used language correctly.

Alas, the ingorant are destined to take over.

@matt

If you know what a trojan is: YOU'RE A HACKER AND A TERRORIST AND A PEADO..

Are teenager girls brain-dead or undereducated?

It's a serious question, what is going on when young people trust anyone they meet on the internet?

Surely everyone knows by now that "16 year old Christie" is some guy?

pointless

the guy I met suggesting you could hack any account by sending him your username and password has something -- this is pointless.

Please don't feed the animals.

Models and amateur porn stars I can cope with -- but if I see many more stories about footballers I'll start reading The Onion instead. Congratulations, El Reg, you just made an ape another million.

RE:"...on suspicion of..."

It's called "Innocent until proven guilty" and, if you check, I think you'll find it's the basis of law in the majority of civilised places. I'd say that the fact that she was arrested on suspicion means that the police involved understand the law -- for once it appears the press do too, perhaps they're scared of being done for libel if it turns out she's innocent?

How can you tell?

How can you tell if MySpace pages contain spam links? All the MySpaces I've seen look to be comprised of nothing but spam. Sorry, badly-coded spam.

RE: also

"you can sell a Nazi Dagger as long as the sawstika is covere up."

I don't know for certain, but I suspect that has more to do with German law forbidding the display of swastikas than them being "harmful".

@Jon Minhinnick

In case you're still reading the comments -- I thought one of the things going for Terahertz scanners was that they are passive?

Not surprising.

Creative's portable media players only come with XP drivers by default (I'm lead to believe they supply Vista drivers online -- 2K and earlier are unsupported). I don't know how Mac fans would cope -- but if you're a penguin fan they don't seem to want your custom.

Methinks Creative care more about "protecting rights holders" than making useable products.

@Rachel

That's all well and good -- except it's that law that allows, no _requires_, these jack-arses to order people to do things like this.

Piercings are not uncommon, so I suppose this must be an isolated incident? It sitill doesn't explain why the law could be used by these arseholes for a bit of a perv and a giggle. Still, now they'll only be allowed to have a good old "visual exam" of them -- so that's OK.

Your name suggests you are female, any chance of you "getting them out" so we can see if you have piercings too? It's relevant to the debate at hand, after all.

How will anyone feel safe flying now?

How can anyone in the US feel safe flying, knowing that someone on the plane might have a tiny piece of metal passing through their skin? I am now panicking that people in the UK, or the rest of Europe, may not have been inspected like this! What if someone decided to take out their piercing and hold up a plane with it?!?!?!?!?! I work in a city centre, in a moderately tall building -- who will protect me when someone with a hand-grenade disguised as a nipple ring takes over a plane and flies it into my office?

Oh! My! God! It turns out someone in this very office has a nipple piercing!!!!!!!!

*Goes to phone 0800789321*

On a more serious note, this is quite depressing as I had hoped to visit the US this year. Seems I won't be going for the foreseeable future if this is the kind of brain-dead system they have in place.

So it begins...

Now UK ISP's are responsible for all content that flows through their network, expect censorship and issuing of take-down notices to go through the roof.

Goodbye internet, you were fun while you lasted.

I'm not surprised either.

nVidia drivers seem to be a cause of crashes on my system -- and I use kmythbuntu!

Don't patents have to be protected?

I though that, in the UK, if you knew someone was in violation of your patent you had to sue or loose your patent? I take it the US has no such rules?

Oh, and I agree with AC above -- what the hell is a "freetard" anyhow? Someone intelligent enough to be able to get along without paying overinflated prices to a monopoly for the privilege?

OS wars aside -- the open source movement and it's supporters are responsible for a hell of a lot of good software, heck, El Reg runs on Apache.

RE: Sheep comments.

Problem here is that we have no choice over this -- even those who didn't think it was stupid to vote for New Labour didn't explicitly vote for this. Last I heard the Conservatives touted a "relaxing" of data protection laws -- so they want to sell your records rather than just loose them.

Unfortunately, it seems we no longer have civil liberties in this country, and before anyone suggest we have it better than, say, the North Koreans -- please let me know what would prevent our government behaving in the same way? We're only actually allowed to eat because it keeps MPs in kitchens. Seriously, think about it.