Posts by Graham Marsden
4118 posts • joined Friday 19th January 2007 17:59 GMT
Page:
@Illegal?
Yes, it's entirely legal. It's no different from paying any other professional (lawyer, IFA, plumber etc) for their time.
The only difference is in the minds of Harperson et al who think that "I don't like this, so *you* shouldn't be allowed to do it", which has been the rationale behind much of their stupid and unworkable legislation like the Dangerous Pictures and Dangerous Drawings Acts.
@ Well how about a non-IT solutiion?
I'm not sure if you're trolling or being ironic or just being stupid here.
If a woman works in a flat on her own and pays her rent from that money, she is not breaking any laws, nor is the landlord if they take the rent. And how is the Landlord going to *know* what the woman is doing to earn her money unless the landlord starts prying into the private affairs of everyone living in his building?
Don't reguate: Decriminalise
The problem with legislating prostitution is that, especially with a Government like this one, they'd come up with a virtually unworkable system that would end up over-loading the industry (for that is what it is) with pointless and useless regulations.
There are already examples of stupidity like this, eg if two women work at one address for their own safety, that is classed as "running a brothel" which is illegal. If they employ a security guard, he will be classed as a pimp and "living off immoral earnings". They can employ a "maid" to answer the door, but she can *only* be paid by the client giving her a tip (don't snigger) because, again, if she gets any money from the girl, she will be breaking the law.
All of those laws and many others should be struck off the statute books before there's even the slightest thought of introducing new ones, but that would be sensible...
Google "owns" the motorway...
... which most people drive on.
Others may own the A Roads and B Roads, but they get less traffic because Google pretty much has a hammer-lock on the easiest route.
Buying a new car won't change this.
But...
... isn't this in breach of FCC rules on the use of mobile devices in flight...?!
Wow! So you can hack a twitter account...
... and then...?
Who gives a fuck?!
"to maintain political stability..."
Translation: To maintain the current corrupt rulers and administration in their jobs because they know that they'll be first against the wall when the next revolution comes...
"mango-sized"?
So what's that in Bulgarian Funbags?
Posted in Nominet appoints itself web policeman
Guilty...
... unless you can prove you're innocent.
Sounds like typical NuLabour.
So why not just...
... clean your damn teeth properly (and floss as well) and then you'll not have to suffer at all...!!
Posted in MoD awards £540m extension to DII
On Time...
... On Budget...
Or...
... Works.
Pick any two from three.
As usual...
... someone from the "Nothing to Hide" Brigade misses the point and it's more than a little ironic that you post from behind the shield of being an Anonymous Coward!
The point is not that the data is held on "various databases", the point (well, one of them) is that all that data will be held on *ONE* database and that it will be *YOUR* job to ensure that *THEY* have the right information and *YOU* will be punished by a fine if you don't!
And whilst the Government has been claiming that "have no plans" to make it compulsory to carry these cards, it's clear from what's been leaked that that is their ultimate aim, breaching the long established Common Law Right to "Go about your lawful business without let or hindrance".
Your Zombie Arguments have already been comprehensively knocked down in previous articles on El Reg, why not go back and actually look instead of digging them up once more?
"Parliaments...
"... had generally been given little opportunity to debate such counter-terrorism powers".
Well of course they hadn't, because nobody needs to debate such powers, do they? It's because we're being attacked and it's to protect the public and we're thinking of the children and so on, so how could anyone disagree with such things? That would be unpatriotic, wouldn't it?
Hang on, why does that ring a bell? Oh yes...
"[...] the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
- Herman Goering
You are being watched!
"[...] in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. The invention of print, however, made it easier to manipulate public opinion, and the film and the radio carried the process further. With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end."
George Orwell - 1984
Posted in Fifty Strikes and… we'll tell your Mum
Err, what?
Which party has actually bothered to put up *ANY* real opposition to NuLabour's nonsense? Here's a hint, it ain't the Tories.
They had the chance to kill idiocy like the Extreme Porn legislation, but they didn't because, as one Tory Peer admitted to me "We don't support Lib Dem amendments".
Wow! Thanks, guys...
Why not one for the guys...?
Oh, because perhaps a woman shouting out "give this guy a shot-glass of beer" might not be to their liking...?
Better...?
Or just "not as bad"?
(Worse would pretty much be impossible!)
UK border database on target and budget, says Home Office...
... as a flock of pigs flew past a blue moon.
And...
... a full fuel tank!
Another nail in the coffin...
... of the US tourist industry.
Be afraid, be VERY afraid...!
The eeeevil terrerist bogeymen are out there! They're coming to get yooouuu! They're around every corner, they're behind every tree. They might be on your train or bus or plane. So if you see someone who's a bit different, who doesn't fit in, who follows a different religion that you don't understand, run, don't walk to your nearest friendly Policeman who will ensure that they get checked over and maybe a good kicking if they deserve it for being foreign.
Or maybe just:
Vote Fascist for a third decade of total law enforcement!
Or perhaps:
Those who would give up essential liberties for a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security. Benjamin Franklin.
Oh sure...
... HMRC are really going to make it easy for you to get money back from them...!
Racial profiling...?
... Or just figuring who might have a good collection of porn on their laptop...?
If only...
... we could have such a system in this country...!
Bulls$$t...
... BINGO!
Lembit Optik?
I'll drink to that!
However will we survive...?
... We'll have a bunch of over-paid prima-donnas prancing around whilst tedious commentators keep making references to a victory that was close on half a century ago and there won't be a crap song which will be instantly forgotten...
... Tell you what, I'll compose one, to be played on the world's smallest violin...
"out of curiosity..."?
So when all of our records are on the NHS spine and the National Identity Register and a whole lot of others besides, a *LOT* of people are going to have their curiosity satisfied...
NDET - Run by ACPO
That's the same ACPO which is a private company and is not answerable to anyone and doesn't have to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests who are now, it seems, running their own private investigatory group who report only to them about "Domestic Extremists", a nice vague, open-ended term...
Why not just call themselves the Secret Police...?
Another victory...
... for the terrorists as, once again, our leaders dance to their tune and pi$$ all over another fundamental freedom.
Human rights? We've heard of them, but so what?
What next...?
Seeing your children naked in the bath gets you tagged as a paedo...?
Posted in Gambling boss gets three years
"the conviction of, and sentence handed down..."
"... should send a message to any foreign business conducting illegal activities in the United States, that geography does not render it untouchable.”
Meanwhile US Businesses can keep on doing what the fuck they like because if it happens abroad it's not the USA's problem...
Posted in Small biz sees signs of recession ending
El Gordo lead us *into* recession...
... and now he thinks we trust him enough to let him dig the hole deeper!
'Substantial and unquantifiable harm'?
According to http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10237403-94.html
"Things were looking up for satellite TV provider Dish Networks in the first quarter of 2009, with sales and earnings on the rise, the company reported Monday.
"Sales grew 2.1 percent to $2.91 billion for the quarter ended March 31 versus $2.84 billion for the same quarter in 2008. Earnings climbed to $313 million, or 70 cents a share, up from $259 million, or 58 cents a share a year ago."
The amount this man has been fined is approximately 1.75% of Dish Network's quarterly turnover even though "Dish faces a more competitive playing field, not just from fellow satellite provider DirecTV, but also from cable and phone companies offering low-cost TV service."
So obviously it's all this guy's fault that their sales didn't grow more and nothing to do with Dish Network "facing a more competitive playing field".
The ROC scheme...
... does nothing to ensure that turbines will be made in Blighty or even erected/maintained by British workers.
This is from the same Lewis Page who is constantly urging the British Government and Armed Forces to buy the best equipment from the best suppliers, even if they're foreign, rather than pander to the British jobs market?
Both are a threat...
But it's the Tories rather than Labour at the moment:
Cameron: Give the UK's health records to Google
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/27/cameron_health_records/
Please tell me...
... you meant to use the "Troll" icon on that post...
Vive la France!
So whilst here we have the Nanny State telling us that "No, this is bad for you, you're not allowed to see it in case it makes you do something naughty" the French attitude is "what's the big deal?"
Of course that Playmobil video clip (eat your heart out, El Reg!) would probably get you prosecuted for possession of Extreme Porn just as the guy with the "tiger" clip was, even though nobody could possibly consider it to be real...
Epic FAIL!
There are those of us who are willing to stand up and say "NO! I will NOT have an ID card."
We will stand up and say "If you are going to prosecute one of us, you'll have to prosecute ALL of us!"
That is, of course, entirely the whole point of the "I'm Spartacus" scene at the end of the film, the slaves are willing to give their lives to show their defiance against the oppressors is undaunted.
Yet this point has gone entirely over the IPS' heads and they think that the slaves should have all pointed out who Spartacus was to save themselves.
Yet again the truth of Ben Franklin's words is shown "Those who give up essential liberties for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security".
"What happened at Poprad airport was a stupid human error"
And what happened in Dublin was a ridiculous exercise in Security Theatre!
"Err, hello, Ireland, we've put explosives in this guy's luggage without him knowing it..."
"Right lads, get round to his place and raid it and lock him up!"
"But, Sarge, he's innocent...!"
"If you're going to let things like that worry you, you'll never get far in the Police, sonny boy!"
Paging Constable Savage...
Inspector: Savage, why do you keep arresting this man?
Savage: He’s a villain, sir.
Inspector: A villain …
Savage: And a jailbird.
Inspector: I know he’s a jailbird, Savage! He’s down in the cells now. We are holding him on a charge of possession of curly black hair and thick lips!
Savage: Well… there you are, sir.
Inspector: You arrested him, Savage!
Savage: Thank you, sir.
Bravo Lewis!
Whilst I may not agree with a lot of what you write, in this article you have hit the nail squarely on the head.
Those who are implementing and carrying out the Security Theatre are not interested in the real risks involved, they just want to be seen to be Doing Something in order to justify their "need" for greater powers and more money in order to build their personal empires a bit bigger.
Several of the possible threats you mention are ones that I have thought up myself as potential attack methods and I don't even have the background you do, just an interest in science and a knowledge of how people think (or don't think!) so we're left with the conclusion that either a) the terrorists have nobody with any brains to think of these things or b) they have thought of them, but simply do not have anyone able or willing to carry them out.
I know which my money is on...
Too little, too late...
... because now that the database is in place, it's going to be used because "well, if we didn't use it, we'd have wasted all that time and effort and money we spent setting it up, wouldn't we?"
Of course this begs the quesion of "why the f**k did you set it up in the first place", the answer to which is "because we needed to be seen to be doing something!"
Did the even read their own bloody law...???
From the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008:
Section 63 Possession of extreme pornographic images:
An image falls within this subsection if it portrays, in an explicit and realistic
way, any of the following—
(d) a person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal
(whether dead or alive), AND A REASONABLE PERSON LOOKING AT THE IMAGE WOULD THINK THAT ANY SUCH PERSON OR ANIMAL WAS REAL!
(My emphasis)
Forget about the sound-track, how the F**K can anyone be so stupid as to try to prosecute for an ANIMATED image under this law???
How much public money has been wasted on what appears to have been an act of sheer childish pettiness on the part of the Police? "Ok, so we can't do him for what we arrested him for, let's trawl through his computer and see if there's anything we can stitch him up for..."
This sort of fishing expedition is just one of the many potential abuses of this law that some of us were pointing out to MPs and Lords before the Government forced this nonsense through Parliament.
Posted in No more dirty phone calls
Douglas Adams had it right...!
FORD: Golgafrincham Ark Fleet, Ship B, Hold Seven: Telephone Sanitizer, Second Class. And a serial number!
ARTHUR: ”Telephone Sanitizer”? A dead telephone sanitizer?
FORD: Best kind. ...
But...
... if you convert it to letters, does it spell out somewhere "Haha! I'm God, I existed all along!"?
Lewis Carrol got there first...
"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What i tell you three times is true."
- The Hunting of the Snark
This is the sort of IP protection...
... that the US should be dealing with.
Not ridiculous "software patents" where someone writes down an idea (which is often already being used), but blatant copying of an actual program.
Unfortunately whilst there's vested interests in patent whoring...
"discoveries rolling off the assembly line"
Err, mixing your metaphors much, lads...?
