* Posts by Richard Porter

547 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2007

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Adobe plans emergency patch for critical Reader bug

Richard Porter

Ubiquitous?

Ubiquitous it certainly isn't. There are platforms which Adobe does not support so they have to rely on !PDF, APDF, XPDF, Ghostscript etc. And of course Mac users have Preview.

Swedes decline to FCKU2MF

Richard Porter
Paris Hilton

@JaitcH

What happens in Canade if you already have a numer plate, and then a political figure or celebrity emerges whose name makes it unacceptable?

Paris because seh'd have PAR 1S

AOL sales drop by a quarter, reports billion dollar loss

Richard Porter
FAIL

"Getting healthier every day"

Sounds a bit like what the Kremlin used to say about ageing leaders who hadn't been seen in public for a few months. Strangely I haven't had any CDs from AOL for a long time. It always used to be the company that gave you a three-month free trial so that you could (a) find out how bad it was and (b) find a decent ISP.

DfT denies deliberately misleading on speed cam stats

Richard Porter

If the DfT's figures are correct

we can expect a 72.4% increase in KSI accidents at camera sites in Oxfordshire. Somehow I doubt that this will be the case.

Ofcom prepares to open up on emissions

Richard Porter
FAIL

So if...

you can see a great big mast sticking out of the ground, and it's not on the database, then it must be a good one to attack. Shome shecurity!

RIM answers Apple iPad with...The BlackPad*

Richard Porter
Joke

BlackPud?

or perhaps Raspberry (to blow at Apple)

or even Logonberry (log-on-berry geddit?)

UK.gov pledges licence fee 'rethink' over heavy catch-up use

Richard Porter
Stop

The answer is obvious.

Pay the licence fees on behalf of all households out of general taxation at the agreed rate per household. 98% of households have televisions. You give the other 2% licences they don't need but save all the cost of collection, administration and enforcement. The BBC gets more and the tax payer is no worse off.

NatWest sets lawyers on student site

Richard Porter
WTF?

"Simply refer to them throughout as tw*tnest."

Or BatNest *ank ('cos they're a wunch of bankers).

3D films fall flat

Richard Porter
FAIL

3D films aren't 3D

They're binocular at best - you only see things from the camerman's viewpoint. If you move your head you don't get a different view. Wait for holographic movies!

UK's Zephyr robo sun-plane in record-buster 2-week flight

Richard Porter
Thumb Up

Without refuelling?

Surely it refuelled itself every day?

Voting reform finally on the agenda

Richard Porter
Stop

AV IS First Past the Post

The 'post' is 50%+1. Using the same analogy the present system is 'furthest down the track'.

But AV is really no better than the single vote system because the best compromise candidate can get eliminated. Consider the following result for three parties:

1 Con, 2 Lib Dem 40%

1 Lab, 2 Lib Dem 35%

1 Lib Dem, 2 Con 15%

1 Lib Dem, 2 Lab 10%

Using single vote the tory would win with 40%.

With AV the tory would win with 55%.

However if you aggregate first and second choice votes you get:

Con 55%

Lab 45%

Lib Dem 100%

The only fair system is a truely proportional one. Whilst a minority party could sustain a coalition it couldn't force through unpalatable policies which are opposed by all of the major parties. In any case i can't see any of the main parties even entertaining the idea of a coalition with the BNP.

Treasury pulls plug on Wiki-cutback site

Richard Porter
FAIL

Unmoderated

Why?

UK.gov slams Facebook over Moat fan clubs

Richard Porter
WTF?

Shut the f*** up

Why don't the Con-Dems just shut up about the silly arsebook pages instead of giving them all the publicity they don't deserve?

Kaspersky blocks BBC News over false phishing fears

Richard Porter
Headmaster

BBC News Site

It looks like the BBC news site has gone altogether except for a redirect back to the main site. The redesigned news pages are now on the main site at www.bbc.co.uk/news/ instead of news.bbc.co.uk/.

RAC prof: Road charges can end the ripoff of motorists

Richard Porter
FAIL

The problem with road pricing

is that most of the money collected will go on collecting the money. The cost of equipment will have to be borne by the vehicle owner and taxpayer. Increasing fuel duty costs nothing, but fuel prices need to be kept roughly the same across national borders.

Road pricing isn't going to solve congestion unless it is so swingeing that it cripples the economy at the same time. Poorer people who don't live where they work just won't be able to afford to have jobs.

6music wins possible reprieve from BBC Trust

Richard Porter
Thumb Up

@ Great News

Agreed. If the Beeb wants R6 to succeed it should be on VHF/FM. The BBC needs a new stategy for digital radio - a high quality service which is compatible across all European countries. Surely the EBU could do something about this? The UK's current head-in-the-sand attitude is doomed to failure.

Apple seeks antenna engineers after 'Death Grip' debacle

Richard Porter
FAIL

Never be the first to buy a new model!

Perhaps they fired their last antenna engineers.

Killer piranha stalk Folkestone pond

Richard Porter
IT Angle

And the IT angle is?

Oh... angling. I get it.

Adobe warns over unpatched PDF peril

Richard Porter
FAIL

Why can't Adobe leave things alone?

PDF is no longer Portable, it's Proprietary. Adobe doesn't support all platforms so documents produced with the latest versions of Acrobat can't be read on many platforms. This defeats the whole point of PDF. Adobe specualisees in buying up good products and wrecking them.

Sneaky bin chipping still in the bag for UK.gov

Richard Porter
FAIL

RBWM Scheme a Travesty

The Royal Borough's scheme, run by an American company, is a joke. Instead of encoraging residents to produce less rubbish, it merely encourages them to put more in the recycling bin. I generate very little rubbish, typically putting my bins out every four or five weeks. I recycle as much as possible, and would recycle more if the council wasn't so picky about what can be recycled - plastic bottles OK but other containers made out of the same plastic aren't accepted.

Moreover the scheme is open to abuse. I could easily pick up catalogues from Argos and put them straight in the recycle bin. I could have an arrangement with an opted-out neighbour. He would use my recycling bin whiolst I would use his wheely bin. We need to reward people for generating less rubbish, not for recycling more regardless of what goes to landfill.

Steve Jobs fears Nation of Bloggers

Richard Porter
Headmaster

A media?

Ahem!

ID cards poster girl laments her £30

Richard Porter
Flame

@djberriman

"OK its now useless but then so were beta max videos, BSB Kit and god knows how many other things. Its life - get used to it!"

Betamax videos are just as useful as they ever were, and as useful as VHS is now! You can still play them. BSB kit is useless because there's nothing it can receive.

ID cards were always pointless because if you had the kit to take someone's biometrics you could surely check them against the on-line database. The card itself was irrelevant.

Microsoft: IE6 lives 'cause it busts Facebook

Richard Porter
FAIL

@admin

"Instead of coding for IE6 web devs should simply detect IE version and inform the user that the website will not render correctly and that their browser is broken and obsolete and needs to be upgraded."

I couldn't agree less. Web devs shouldn't have to code for specific browsers but should write compatible code. Not all browsers are available for all platforms so it may not be possible for users to "upgrade".

Google tells staff to snub Windows after China hack snafu

Richard Porter
Linux

Security concerns?

"Google employees are reportedly being told ... to dump Microsoft’s Windows because of security concerns about the operating system."

No!! Surely not? This can't be true.

Most browsers leave fingerprint that can ID users

Richard Porter
FAIL

No javascript?

Why does that site say "No javascript" for several of the criteria when I have got Javascript enabled?

Mucky private chat could be illegal soon

Richard Porter
WTF?

Annoying?

So presumably the act covers spam, messages from companies that you can't reply to, html-only messages, top posting, lengthy confidentiality statements, etc., etc.

Blighty to get mobe-download barcode rail tickets

Richard Porter

@A non e-mouse

"I'm not someone who spends their life traveling the UK on trains, but in my limited travels, I've only ever seen ticket barriers which take mag-stripe cards."

So you haven't been to London then?

Siphon Wars: Pressurist weighs into Gravitite boffin

Richard Porter

@password

Indeed. Sucking is only one way to start a siphon, and immersing the whole pipe and putting your thumb over the end is another. A common type of lavatory cistern works by using a piston to start a siphon. The older type of high level cistern uses a heavy iron bell which is dropped over the down pipe to get the siphon going.

In any case atmospheric pressure is greater at the lower end of the pipe so it plays no part in maintaining the flow (if anything it acts against the flow).

Robot cars can now do a Rockford into a parking space

Richard Porter

Doing a Rockford?

Ah, yes, but can it do a Russ Swift though?

Btw vids no prob on a Mac.

Twenty somethings shocker for UK music sales

Richard Porter

CD/DVD distribution is all wrong

We don't need big music/video stores with racks and racks of pre-recorded CDs and DVDs. Surely the technology exists to burn CDs and DVDs to order (including printing the artwork), or to download tracks to customers' media in the store? That would offer much greater choice in a vastly smaller space.

Mobe-wielding drivers getting away with it

Richard Porter
Grenade

re: apples with apples

"The difference is that police drivers are (a) massively more competent than the average driver and (b) trained to use Airwave and drive at the same time."

Police driver training is not what it used to be, and is not given to every plod in a car. In any case it's not the physical use of the equipment that is the danger, but the distraction caused by thinking about the conversation. The law only targets use of hand-helds because that's what can fairly easily be enforced.

Germans plan to make 'synthetic natural' gas from CO2

Richard Porter

Why methane?

One aspect the article hasn't addressed is 'why convert hydrogen to methane?' OK, you can stuff it down the gas main, but hydrogen can be used as a fuel for vehicles using fuel cells.

Report reams IT admins for secretly snapping student pics

Richard Porter
FAIL

And of course...

any kid now intending to nick a laptop will immediately tape over the cam lens.

Internet Explorer drops below 60% market share

Richard Porter
Gates Horns

Win7

"Microsoft has claimed Windows 7 is its fastest ever selling version of Windows"

Could that be because their last effort was so abysmal that there was a pent-up demand?

Sony sued for dropping Linux from PS3

Richard Porter
FAIL

re: Wake up to the real world

There are such things as "unfair terms and conditions". Suddenly disabling functionality that the end user paid for may be regarded as unreasonable whether or not it was permitted by the EULA.

Anyway perhaps someone will come up with a crack that allows gaming without disabling OtherOS.

AOL first quarter sales nosedive 23 per cent

Richard Porter
FAIL

I had an AOL account once.

But just the three months free subscription while I found a decent ISP. The "user experience" was dire.

Brussels to rule on cheap pub football sat decoders

Richard Porter
Stop

Best value?

Why can't FA/EUFA just decide what price they're going to charge for rights, and that's the price they charge? Radio waves don't respect national boundaries so just accept reality.

Icelandic ash cloud to keep UK skies closed 'til Saturday

Richard Porter

Without a boat?

I don't think the wrong kind of ash has closed the channel tunnel yet!

Russian trade body aims to fight cybercrime

Richard Porter
Thumb Up

Bout time too.

I'm fed up with Russian spammers trying to register on my forum. They don't succeed because they invariably fail email verification but it's a pain having to delete the partial registrations. The email addresses given are either .ru or gmail.com. I've now blocked registration by guests. Genuine applicants contact me by email.

Flood, fire at BT Paddington node causes widespread problems

Richard Porter
FAIL

Flood --> Fire

So what happens when you flood a basement full of 2v cells and 48v bus bars? It fizzles a bit.

Microsoft's Hotmail flicks finger at UK students

Richard Porter
Jobs Horns

Why use hotmail at all?

You don't need to use it. It's not the only webmail service. Why use it?

Fwiw I'm getting more spam from gmail addresses, particularly in Russia, that from hotmail.

'Switch to Century Gothic to save the planet'

Richard Porter
FAIL

Plan to go Green?

'Diane Blohowiak, ... says she has switched the college's email system from Arial to Gothic default as part of a "five year plan to go green".'

Wouldn't it be a lot greener to save 100% of the ink and NOT PRINT email messages at all?

Train rebrand costs us dear

Richard Porter
Unhappy

@Kwac

A"s I don't use the railways, I'd much rather you paid for any changes than it being extracted from my taxes.

"HMG never contribute to a new crash hat for me."

As a motorist, I am happy to subsidise the railways so they get as many people as possible off the roads! I am not happy that those subsidies get creamed off to pay shareholders and for bosses' bonuses.

Richard Porter
FAIL

@AC

"Surely CTRL+H for "search **and replace**""

It's F4 on my computer. CTRL+H is a backspace.

No doubt D(a)fT Rail forgot to specify a ticketing system that would automatically propagate branding changes throughout the network.

Richard Porter

@WTF?

"Why don't the contracts stipulate that the train companies leave all assets as they found them ..."

What we need is a single company - let's call it British Rail - that owns all the stations, collects the fares and specifies all the services and liveries. The rolling stock can be leased and the oeration of services can be contracted out to the operating companies. That way the TOCs would know exactly what services they had to provide and what they would get paid, so no risk. There would be competition at the tendering stage.

ScotRail has the right idea by designing a single livery style to be applied as trains are repainted. The franchisee can apply small branding stickers. DfT Rail has also stipulated that Southern's new station signs should remain.

Net downloads cause 'millions of lost jobs'

Richard Porter

Free walking is killing transport

Walking for free is killing the transport industry. People who walk to work or school are causing millions of jobs to be lost in the bus and rail industries, and by the manufacturers of excessively large 4x4s. And of course there's the oil companies and road builders to consider too. People who disregard warning letters telling them not to walk should have their shoes confiscated and their doors restricted so they can no longer get out.

Richard Porter
FAIL

Re: Are jobs lost?

Yes of course jobs are lost because of new technology. You don't need to manufacture CDs, print inlays, have warehouses and van drivers, so you don't need to have people maintaining the vans or the warehouse computer systems. You don't need big shops stocked with thousands of CDs and DVDs many of which won't be sold. So jobs are being lost but not because of illegal downloads.

Btw if I put money in my pension fund it isn't lost to the economy, as it would be if I stuffed it in the mattress. The fund managers invest my savings thereby providing capital for new enterprises.

But what the article doesn't mention (and others above have) is live music and radio. Digital music isn't a closed economic system. If people don't pay for downloads they'll be able to attend live events so the performers benefit that way.

The switch to digital broadcasting means many more channels, so it's possible to listen to your kind of music (if you have limited tastes) 24 by 7 without having to download it paid for or otherwise. And of course you can record off the radio as people have done since the invention of the tape recorder.

Incidentally I don't use Photoshop; I use Photodesk which I bought.

Home Office planning to brick version 1 ID cards in 2012?

Richard Porter
FAIL

It's the No IDea Card

They haven't got a clucking fue what to do with them.

Look out for the 'buy one get one free' offer.

Version 3? They chip dogs don't they?

Flat-pack plug designer wins top award

Richard Porter

OK, but will they last?

I assume these plugs are not rewirable. That's not a problem, but you don't say how the live and neutral pins are connected. This must either be by flexible wiring or more likely by contacts within the plug - presumably in the central part because the sides fold flat. This means that the current handling capacity is limited and there is potential for arcing due to wear or the ingress of dirt.

One improvement to the design would be to provide a cover for the pins when in transit.

The ring main system is fine where you have a lot of low powered devices such as with computers and entertainment equipment. High powered devices such as room heaters and kettles would be better served by separate circuits. However we now have so many wall warts that it would make sense to have houses wired with permanent low voltage circuits.

Muso turfed off train for 'suspicious' set list

Richard Porter
FAIL

Stagecoach Gestapo

"We employ highly-professional rail community officers who work closely with the British Transport Police ..."

So they weren't even proper coppers. Arseholes! Highly professional my foot.

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