* Posts by Gordon

118 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Aug 2007

Airline pilot sacked for 777 Top Gun stunt

Gordon
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Legend

I reckon he maybe got a bit pissed-off with being patronised by the management, bossed about, given conflicting ordered and made to log everything for marketting statistics and had generally had enough of his job anyway.

What better way to leave than to do so by scaring the living shit out of your tormentors and protagonists by casually showing them how proficient you are at what you do?

Judge greenlights lawsuit against Microsoft

Gordon

Actually....

I found it quite useful. The new HP machine I bought about this time last year refused, Blankly, to run Vista with any sound as Vista drivers were not available for the chipset fitted. Since I hated the machine anyway I simply took it back, and pointed out the fact that it wasn't capable of running Vista. After a brief game of silly buggers with the salesman I walked out with a refund.

Points for cheek go to the salesman for first trying to tell me that, so long as a desktop appeared and the OS booted, it was Vista-Capable. Then he tried to tell me that sound wasn't an important part of this particular modern multi-media operating system. Then that I had to speak to HP, as they put the sticker there. Then that I had to wait for the sound chipset makers to release Vista drivers. Finally he told me I *needed* to buy a USB sound card for sixty quid (one that, upon investigation, it transpired wasn't Vista-compatible, either)

My answers to this were "Don't be silly", then "why would I buy a PC with a sound card and DVD drive and software if I didn't want SOUND??", "Law of strict liabilities", "Do be serious", "Will you get out of the f*cking GARDEN??".

ID10T!

Essex youth's cop headbutt heads for YouTube

Gordon
Go

Do what??

No, it most certaInly isn't illegal for a copper to shove someone. If the copper has asked said person to move on and been subjected to foul-mouthed abuse and refusal, then they are actually allowed to give the little sods a shove in the general direction to make the point quite emphatically. Battoning them to the floor then giving them a shoeing would be excessive. A gentle shove to show them they *really* mean it and are not afraid of them isn't unreasonable.

I wonder what kind of friendshop this lad is going to have with the Cameraman now? Come to think of it, why is it assault, and not assaulting a police officer?

Porsche to challenge London CO2 penalty in court

Gordon

reintroduce the 914?

I can see why they're pissed. This is going to crucify their UK sales. Maybe if they built more lightweight, efficient cars and didn't concentrate on 80s style heavyweight sports cars they'd be in a better position to meet this challenge in places other than the courts? I doubt there is anything stopping you taking a Lotus Elise into London - with a little work (smaller, more efficient engine) it might even get into the lower bracket! Maybe deal 'ole Porker need to think in terms of this being similar to the fuel-crisis of the late 70s, when they built cars like the 914 with lightweight materials, modest engines, reasonable performance and good economy? The trouble there is that London has "gone first", and there isn't a big enough market to support a special model just for the UK, let alone one just for London.

Personally I'd rather see The Major fixing public transport (tube, rail, buses etc) than attempting to torture everyone into using the substandard, dirty, irregular, uncomfortable system we have now regardless of how bad it is. But that would require hard work, imagination, determination and money and wouldn't be terribly glamourous. This is easy, obvious, hi-tech, zietgiesty and will make cash out of people who cannot change their cars due to outstanding finance or the need for a big motor.

Tiscali and BPI go to war over 'three strikes' payments

Gordon

Moving back to the point...

I can see why the ISPs don't wish to pay the (initially fairly modest) costs associated with this. The moment they agree to that the BPIs lawyers will sieze on this as an assumption of responsibility for "policing" of the internet and expect the ISPs to either compensate them for failure to police, or expend fortunes on policing in whatever way the BPI thinks is most advantageous.

Nobody (least of all the DPI) wants to take responsibility for policing this anonymous, complicated, widespread and international crime. I belive this is Because it's always going to be expensive, contentious, lengthy and have questionable results and a high reputational cost, coupled with a reasonable chance of being counter-sued if you screw it up or the courts acquit because they don't understand the evidence!

ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue

Gordon
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Dont' be daft, David Webb

1/ They're not breaking the law. Downloading music is not illegal - but downloading music without the permission of the copyright holder is... As they work for the copyright holder that ought not to be a problem. Saying that, if the bittorrent service made it a TOS that you're not to use it for detecting filesharing..... Then it might be.

2/ The Police can break into your house at any time without permission. But only if they suspect someone is in danger, property is in danger or evidence is in danger of being concealed, lost, altered, damaged or destroyed. With the correct search authority (inspectors signature) they can break in anytime.

Brazilian cleaner spots security hole in Heathrow e-borders

Gordon

All very well

It's all very well having a laugh. But the day you get bundled to the floor with a size-12 boot on your neck and a gun barrel in your ear, all the humour goes out of it.

Gordon
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It happened in 2004.

If you read the article she actually broke into the country in 2004. This is before the 7/7 bombings took place, when Britain was a less nervy place. If she did this today she'd probably be tracked on CCTV, chased by armed police and finally, reluctantly* be gunned down if she didn't respond to the shouts of "Armed Police - Remain still".

* Reluctantly on their part. Reluctance on HER part kinda goes without saying.

More videogames to face censor scrutiny

Gordon

Call me old-fashioned....

But surely the parents need to take some responsibility for the upbrinding of their kids? Surely the parents need to prevent the kids getting the games in the first place, let along playing them??

Or is this another thing that the state intends to sieze control over, then look amazed when the public loose the ability and inclination to do it themselves? Parents have lost interest in education, controlling their kids, raising their kids and selecting their diets and all SORTS of things because the state has got itself into the position of assuming responsibility for things that are, frankly, none of it's damned business.

US man threatens TV repairman with shotgun

Gordon

I blame the meeja.

If you watch every action movie out there we're led to believe that waving a gun at someone is the way to get them to do whatever you want. The baddie will point at gun at someone and threaten them so they unlock the safe. The cops will point a gun at someone and tell them to "freeze". When the hero breaks into the flat at the end, he points his gun through the door. It seems to me that the message is "If you want something and someone may not give it to you, point a gun at them".

Darn good thing the techie could fix the fault. What if the PSU was burned out and he didn't have a spare??

That said. They don't say HOW the customer "threatened" the repairman. Maybe all he did was clean the guns whilst the repairman was fixing the telly - and seemed pissed (as well you might) when the chap was 4 hours late and the customer misinterpreted his irritated demeanor as threatening when it was merely frustrated! Well, there is no law against cleaning your gun collection and no law against being grumpy and moody.

We're just kinda assuming he pointed the gun at the hapless techie and made threats!

BitTorrent admin's police bail extended (again)

Gordon

I wonder how much this is costing?

I bet if the Police lose we'll all be paying this chap's costs out of our tax bill?

Really, though, I'm not too shocked by the state of affairs. I'd have though that, once the police have appeared in the media and stated things he simply had not done, their case would be pretty screwed.

The fact is he didn't "download it to his website" - that's the whole bloody point !!! Neither did he charge people to use it (although he perhaps did to advertise on it?). It seems to be the copper mentioned doesn't have the faintest clue about the technology, methods or even the business model employed.

A perfect indication of why the Police are completely ineffective against computer crimes. The Majority don't understand them, don't see them as "serious" as their isn't any blood and find the intrinsic complication difficult to grasp. What we need is a US-Style system of being able to recruit experts directly into the Police, where they start as detectives who never do street duties, are paid as technical experts and actually understand what they're trying to achieve.

I understand IT well enough to be useful in support and I have served in the Police.

Hamster-in-rain emergency prompts 999 call

Gordon
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110 System

110? The idea is good, but the vast majority if people haven't heard of it. What should have been done is a nationwide implimentation, followed by a major public information project. Adverts on TV, national news, appearing in EastEnders, punchy slogan etc etc so it would be as familiar to everyone as "118 118". It should have gone live on a particular date nationwide, and it should have been compulsorary for ALL police forces to involve themselves in it and answer the local calls. Launch it on the 1st of October (1/10) with nationwide coverage on news, and a catchy add campaign.

Instead they just implimented the technology so nobody could say they hadn't made good on the promise, but never encouraged people to use it by actually telling them about it or anything. So it failed as cheaply and quietly as possible.

Shame, really. Seems typical of large government communications projects, though!

Rocket train smashes world land-speed record

Gordon

I hope they tied it down

That "inflatable" track tunnel filled with Helium could be a worry if it wasn't tied down!

One way to loose your test-bed - watch it float away!

Spy satellite to slam Earthside

Gordon

beryllium is TOXIC?

So holding those beryllium-copper washers in my mouth whilst assembling scientific instruments a few years ago probably wasn't the sharpest move ever, then?

If I remember my science, Hydrazine is highly volatile, so quite unlikely to survive re-entry. Less likely than beryllium, plutonium or uranium, anyways.

Employee's silent rampage wipes out $2.5m worth of data

Gordon

Weird...

Random thought is "What the h*eck is an admin assistant doing with the privilege level to delete critical data???". If we take her job title at face value, it seems odd that she's got the privilege to do this in the first place. This seems to indicate that this may not be a company for whom data security is a priority (odd, given it's apparent value!)

A simple journaling file system (or regular backup) to an offsite or secure onsite system would have been enough to have left the rampage as a mere annoyance, dealt with in minutes with no real drama. The fact that they needed to get someone external in to perform "recovery" suggests to me that we're talking about a recovery that involved more than toasting in some backup tapes and picking the data to restore...

Incidentally. Most IT folk at desktop analyst level or above could easily reprogram a door card as someone else, change someone elses password, and then delete critical files out-of-hours without being seen or leaving any clue as to their actions, unless captured on CCTV or seen by lobby security etc. Outside of IT staff - In most cases it would be childs play to bamboozle helpdesk operators into resetting someone elses password, and maybe "borrow" someone elses door card or fool facilities or security into issuing a replacement for a "lost" card. Unless they have CCTV of her deleting the data, or a signed confession from her, I don't see the evidence against the lady is at all conclusive.

Caught on camera: the Downfall of HD DVD

Gordon

Format Wars

The thing I like about Format Wars is that they always end up proving what any sensible person already knows about war. "The only winning move is not to play" (Wargames!).

I'm staying well out of it until DVD itself starts to fade away. Whichever format wins the price will come down and when it's as cheap as DVDs, i'll buy.

Here is another thought. It's always possible that people will simply loose interest in HD stuff, of course. Once the people who just HAVE to have the latest thing have done their money the market, will the average person want to buy a whole new player to play the new disks, new TV to make the most of the HD player, new cables to make the most of the new TV, new Satellite box to get the new programs, new subscription to get he content for the box etc etc? we're headed into a recession at the moment (oh, yes we are!) - will people really buy a whole new AV suite at such a time?? especially when DVD is, frankly, pretty good and most people seem to have quite a bit of trouble telling the difference between a DVD and HD stuff.

I know the "techies" here can quote figures proving they're better, but subjectively the masses may yet judge HD to be a waste of their increasingly rarified money.

California to snatch control of citizens' air-con

Gordon
Stop

Orwellian environmental controls??

Leaving asside the moral and political debate for a moment*

Given that these premises will all be linked up to the grid already, I wonder how technically difficult it might be to send the simple, low-bandwidth information required over the existing lines? All it really requires is for each property to be polled every minute or so by a computer on the nearest distribution board and the information to be relayed to a central processing room for billing and control to be carried out. If it were that simple, they'd probably be using it already to calculate bills, though.

* IE "Do we give a supplier, operating for profit, the power and means to decide and dictate how much of their product we will buy??"

Amiga explains AmigaOS 5 AmigaAnywhere

Gordon

Thats' true

They certainly did waste a LOT of money on crud like the CD32 and the a1200/600+. They needed a whole new architecture, not just a few gimmicky warm-throughs of their existing (increasingly dated) hardware. IF they'd wanted to keep the company running long-term they needed to raise revenue, and concentrate it on a genuinely next-generation "A500" with as much power as a playstation, significantly cheaper than a PC. Developing a new computer is something you just cannot do half-heartedly. You either build something completely new and up-to-date, or you save your money.

It's like cars. Rover built the V8-powered 75 and the streetwise when they desperately needed to replace their "cooking" models. The pissed huge quantitys of development capital away on these marginal pet-projects and imported a weird indian thing as their supermini. What they should have done is ditch the weird plastic mouldings on existing models and given us a NEW Rover 45 and Rover 100, which might have actually recouped the investment in sales. But would they be able to rise the revenue for this developement? They knew that a rewarmed 15-year-old Honda design wouldn't be enough - and if they couldn't raise the costs to develop the new models AND stay in business long enough for them to work they were completely snookered.

Gordon

RIP Amiga

The Amiga went bust due to a combination of the rise of the cheap "Generic" PC (taking away the Hobbyist users) and the games console (taking away the gamers). It is possible the format could have survived in a niche in much the same way as Macs do even today. However, since a large number of Mac users are "Anything buy Microsoft" types it's equally possible that it would have split the "We Hate Bill" contingent in half - making both sides unprofitable and given Microsoft an even greater monopoly than they enjoy today.

Some effective management would have helped as well. They didn't invest in the format at all and let the Amiga become dated, cheap and complicated (compared to a Megadrive!) to use. The AGA chipset was a fine idea and the slightly faster processors were welcome (but not fast enough to make a major difference), but not given them a hard disk when all PCs had them, and failing to upgrade the entire chipset to keep it as ahead of the game as it was on release was unforgivable - if they wanted to keep the company alive.

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that someone worked out that they could either plough huge resources into CBM for potentially no returns (if the enhanced format didn't catch on). Or they could just push what they had already as far as they could to get maximum returns on existing investment, before folding the whole thing up as a bad job when it stopped selling. The end result for the format would be the same - it would just be a question of whether they bankrupted themselves in the process.

When you consider how cheap PCs and Playstations are these days - it was probably the smart thing to do. What they really, really should have done is stick the Amiga brand on a range of games-orientated PCs at reasonable prices for that they had in them. Then built these as cheap as possible, and sold them with bundled games and whatnot (much as they did with the A500), aimed at the consumer!

Sad, but true.

US Marines: Osprey tiltrotor doing OK in Iraq

Gordon

Osprey

Actually it can operate on a single engine, there IS a facility to divert some of the output from a single engine to the opposing rotor - I may be wrong, but I believe that the power-transmission system is (at least in part) hydraulic in nature and this is (at a very simple level) just a question of opening the valves to crosslink the transmission systems. Obviously performance would be severely effected by single engine operation, but it IS possible. What I don't know is whether it can autorotate with those smaller rotors(compared to a conventional helicopter) and I don't know how effectively it can glide on those (comparatively) stubby wings.

I suspect that, once it's proven in military use, it may find specialist civilian use. But it seems to me that most helipads will be too small for it, and it won't be the most efficient machine for performing jobs currently done by fixed-wing aircraft. And the operating costs might be prohibitive.

Uber-kool, though.

Head banker leaves job over Muslim gaffe

Gordon
Alert

Stupidity

I once asked a man his "Christian name" - this is simply English for "first name". He went off on one about being a Moslem, so he shouldn't be asked for his "Christian name". So I asked him for his "first name" instead. I had to resist the temptation to ask him for his "Moslem" name, though.

Personally I have dyslexia. I'm also an Agnostic. But I don't find anything offensive in the joke "does a Dyslexic Agnostic lay in bed at night wondering if there is, or is not, a Dog". Neither am I offended at the one about the Dyslexic motorcycle gang call the "Hells Angles" who declared themselves "Minions of Santa". Why am I not offended??

Because I have a sense of humour, I think they're clever plays on words and not said with any malice. And i'm not LOOKING for reasons to be offended, if I don't like something I ignore it.

Sorry for anyone offended by the above humour. Email me at "BiteMe@getalife.com", if you want to discuss.

Gordon

Oh, FFS

Yes, it was a marginally stupid choice of subject for his play-in-words. It does rather imply that Sh'ite Muslims are bad - but I don't think that was necessarilly his intention because he just used the word that worked in his joke and didnt' think enough about what his choice of words implied.

I'm not sure that sacking him was commensurate with his sins. If they're so outraged by this, why not sack him for gross misconduct, rather then pussyfoot around with a "redundancy"? It's less likely to be an act of Malice and more likely just to be a foot-in-mouth incident.

To be honest. If he'd made a similarly "offensive" joke about Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sihks or even Wiccans, scientologists or Humanists, people would have chuckled and ignored it. Some people go through life looking for reasons to be "offended", i'm afraid.

Clarkson's 'steal my ID' stunt backfires

Gordon
Coat

Signature

Whilst Andrew Warwick is quite right, how hard is it to get ahold of the signature of a famous person? How different will it be from his Autograph? If it's suitably similar you'd just need the preface of his latest book, or a public letter or anything carrying his autograph. Then you need a scanner and an inkjet printer..... When he set up the account it probably wasn't possible to do this, since the scanner/printer would be hard to come by - so would he see the danger in not making them different. As for the letter from the originator - you might need this. But how hard is it to forge and send from a different address?

The first rule of security is that you don't give access to anything that you don't NEED to give access to. Simply because you can't see how something can be used fraudulently, doesn't mean to say nobody else is clever enough to work it out. Paranoia is the best option, but complacency and bravado.

AmigaOS 5 surfaces... sort of

Gordon

Who cares???

To be honest this is a bit like having the headline "Talbot to restart production". The Amiga was BIG in the 1980s, yes, as was a great Machine in it's day. But a lack of investment coupled with a emergence of cheap(ish) PC clones and games consoles killed it stone dead. Now the "computer hobbyist" market is served very well by Intel boxes (running Windows or Linux) and the "Casual Gamer" market is served by the XBOX and PS consoles.

Interestingly the fact is that the proprietory Amiga was never going to work up against the open standard of the PC!

Why do women get plastered at fancy dress parties?

Gordon

Nice to know

That research money isn't being ploughed into anything slightly frivilous.

US regulator raises Dreamliner hacker risk fear

Gordon

One word

"NO!"

We're not going to have the passengers being connected to the same "network" as the aircraft uses for essential stuff. Notwithstanding a certain amount of jouralistic licence, surely keeping them physically seperate is the ONLY possible way to be 100 percent safe?

Unless the only "Connection" is that they're both plugged into the same power supply, and do not exchange data with this!

Schools minister touts 'one interweb per child' pork barrel

Gordon

Microsoft??

If the Schools Minister is seriously thinking these PCs will be used for anything other than surfing pron and wiring up the XBOX to, he's clearly even less in touch than I took him for.

Yes ANOTHER massive expense to the general exchequer to appease core labour voters at the expense of everyone else. I bet the afflulent middle-england-middle-class (who generally already have Broadband and PCs) will not qualify for this (undoubtably means-tested) act of largesse. The people who qualify will be those from "Disadvantaged" areas, who generally vote Labour. Those people in less poor postcodes will merely be expected to pay for it.

Kid's 'new' MP3 player was preloaded with smut

Gordon

Conclusive proof

I don't see how he hopes to prove that the pron was there before he bought the player. True, he could set the "added" dates, but that's probably so easy to fake it wouldn't fool anyone who'd had it explained to them.

All Walmart have to do is deny all knowledge, because unless something new comes up I don't see there is a conclusive case against them.

Man uses mobe as modem, rings up £27k phone bill

Gordon
Coat

They're all sharks.

A couple of years ago I got an unholy bill from Orange - I checked and found that none of my inclusive minutes had been taken in consideration. When I called their CS dept they said that there had been a computer fault and this has happened to "thousands" of users, but they didn't intend to tell anyone who didn't notice (ie, they intended to keep the money, if possible). I'd caught them red-handed, so they offered to "credit" against a future bill, but I was about to leave the provider and i'd never use their "credit" up before I closed the account. Their wonderfull suggestion was that I sign up for another year, they price-match with my new provider. They didn't seem to "get" that I didn't want a stinkin' contract with them any more BECAUSE of this kind of continual cock-up & I wanted a handset they didn't offer. Eventually they admitted that they didn't actually have any mechanism for returning an excess charge - and somehow expected me to just accept this self-imposed impossibility as my hard luck. Eventually (after I threated to sue them) they did manage a refund cheque (so "this isn't possible" was another lie!) with much bad grace. And I haven't been back to them since.

Gordon

Why are they kidding?

I really don't see where these people get off writing "Unlimited" on the packages and then putting a "fair usage policy" in the fine-print. It's ridiculous, honestly. I'd say that they'd have "issues" if I put a "Fair Charge" policy on my bill and refused to pay more then £30 a month, just in order to be "fair" to my other creditors. If there IS a limit of 1Gb or so, then it simply isn't "unlimited" - and their use of the word is indefensible.

I don't use mobile data for precisely these reasons. But then I work in IT, and I'm exposed to things (like The Register) that make me aware of these problems. But if I worked in another industry (or the problem existed in another industry) i'd be unaware and could easilly get caught.

BitTorrenters seek sanctuary in Pirate Bay

Gordon

Theft

I don't know the legal situation in the USA. But in the UK it is quite possible for the laws surrounding "theft" to apply to something intangible - intellectual property or copyright, for example. The record company own the rights to exclusively distribute that music. If you then go and give it away for free you're taking their rights to do this away. That's where the "theft" comes in, you're stealing something intangible (but very valuable).

A common mistake when attempting to understand why music piracy might be considered theft is to think that what is being "stolen" is the music itself. It isn't. What is being "stolen" is the "right" to make copies and distribute the music.

Another mistake is to think that downloading the music is what they'll get you for - when actually it's usually the subsequent sharing that gets you into trouble.

Personally I don't think it's going away. And I think the record industry needs to find a way of making people *want* original recordings by the bands they know and respect. At the moment mainstream music is chiefly commoditized, fashion-driven lightweight stuff with all the long-term appear of cheap fashion jewellery. People feel no sense of connection or loyalty to the bands, so they feel no compunctions about downloading the stuff when they've been royally ripped off for so long, especially when they're only buying what is fashionable and feel no connection to the artists.

Gordon
Stop

Immorality of Official releases.

Bare in mind that the only reason the that the likes of "The Pirate Bay" do not filter out the kiddie porn and other nasties is because, were they to do so, the RIAA and similar organisations would gleefully sieze on this as evidence they were "content providers". Having established this they would use the law to close down the service. The RIAA pay lawyers and technical consultants considerable sums to monitor the services for any such activity, the wages of which are paid for out of revenue garnered from official releases.

The practical upshot of this is that "official releases fund paedophillia". (or at least the preservation of same).

Sysadmin admits trying to axe California power grid

Gordon

I wonder

You'd think he'd realise that the time of least demand isn't the moment to strike, wouldn't you? I'd be interested to find out

1/ Why his admin privs had been pulled, but not his building access? Why was someone who needed to have this prives revoked allowed into such a sensitive area? Why didn't they remove him to the canteen, and then tell him when he's out of harms way?

2/ What did he think he's achieve with a false bomb threat, other than making himself look an even bigger tit and making his future prospects even LESS rosey?

Nintendo Wii said to 'attract cockroaches'

Gordon
Go

fortunately

It's darn freezing in my place, and I have crappy electrical heaters. No bugs would be comfortable here! Double-fortunately I have a lovelly ability to live in cold conditions, born of having northern-european ancestry and having ridden motorbikes for years. I don't really feel the cold, unless it's absolutely freezing!

I guess some bugs live in my place, as all places, but as I have no Wii, my Xbox is on for just a few hours a month and I don't own a PS2/3 (and my PS1 is disused) I guess I don't have a problem.

PC World parent awaits FTSE 100 relegation

Gordon
Paris Hilton

Paris HIlton

nearly used the paris icon as it has a question mark in, but thought that would be insulting as no IT bod I know has a kind word to say about her so....

Nice Arse???

BT battens down Home Hub backdoor

Gordon

You think that's bad?

They usually leave the link unencrypted. I've even been to friends houses to find that they've left the PC looking at their neighbors wireless access point, and the subscribers wireless open and unconfigured. Like they'd just plugged the boxes in, pointed it at the nearest unencrypted network, and waltzed off.

Awfull service.

Finger-chopping jihadis derail MPs scanner system, claims MoS

Gordon
Flame

This is silly...

This is all just ego massage, really. It does remind me of the time the country was basically waiting for the next attack. The citizens and taxpayers were threatened with pipe-bombs, anthrax, car bombs, hijackings and all sorts of nasties. How did the MPs respond? With the well-worn mantra "If we change anything, the terrorists have won!" - the assumption apparently being that all the terrorists wanted was for the infidels to have their cars periodically searched, and to be fractionally delayed when entering certain, key civic buildings.

Now contrast that with the reaction to some MPs suits being threatened with purple flour.......

No security is 100 percent. But there is no excuse for allowing workmen to leave doors propped open, scattering security cards like confetti to all-and-sundry and investing in pointless, flawed technology who's day is not yet hear rather then a good old pair of human eyes and lungs.

Oz censor bans Soldier Of Fortune: Payback

Gordon

Well, actually...

"How about a game where the object is to rape as many women as possible?"

That's been done, unbelievable as it may seem - Custers Revenge, Atari VCS game system, about 1980.

And I ain't joking. It was banned, eventually. No loss.

Ofcom: no comeback for TV on analogue spectrum

Gordon
Stop

Who's Internet?

If the BBC thinks it's going to pump anything approaching broadcast quality to it's viewers over the internet in the forseeable future, it's sorely mistaken. Quite apart from anything else, who's going to pay for all this bandwidth? And does the infrastructure exist (or is it likely to exist) in the next 4-5 years to handle this massive task? It's silly, quite honestly. It's like a toxic waste company deciding to continue to pump slurry into the sea because they don't think it'll ever fill up. The Bandwidth isn't infinate, and what gives the BBC the right to decide to shove it's programmes across them to the very likely detriment of every other service?? Will THEY pay for the infrastructure upgrades necessary?? or do they just expect ISPs to pay for this??

Science Fiction!

I'm considering getting RID of my TV, because there is so little worth watching these days. I mainly watch DVDs, but i'm apparently required to have a TV licence for this, unless I only want to watch them on my laptop. So there I am forced to hand the BBC a massive lump of money - so they can do bugger all for me.

BSkyB sues EDS for £709m

Gordon

Pear-Shaped?

It's all gone pear-shaped for EDS. But it's nice to see someone finally taking an "outsourcer" to court for manifestly failing to deliver and, in fact, merely syphoning vast quantities or money out of a company in exchange for a compromised system produced by people who could have just-as-easilly been hired for a fraction of the cost directly by the customer.

I really don't understand how this stuff continues. Maybe it's because CEO/CIOs go on big, expensive lunches with the sales team from the outsourcer??

Mystery Israeli satellite telly disruption blamed on UN

Gordon
Coat

Signal Cancelling Technology

If it were that easy, they'd have done it. Don't forget that radar works by sending a signal and then looking for a reflection, if it sees one it KNOWS you're there. So sending out a synthsized signal doesn't blind the system, it makes you visible. It's like arguing that someone with a searchlight couldn't see you at night, provided you shone a torch at them. What you might be able to do is convince the radar you're closer or further than you are by synthesising the "doppler shift". But since you'll be on two sets (at least) at the same time, this is going to be a bit obvious when you stop to think about it. Generally transmitting ANY kind of signal in a modern battle field is a bit unwise, and the moment you turned on your countermeasure you'd show up on any passive system immediately. Don't forget that anything you transmit will be in addition to what is actually reflected from the target and is only likely to appear "correct" to one station.

ECM systems do exist and work, with varying degrees of success. But you're usually better off going for the "unreflective and hidden" appoach than the "blinding them with noise" approach. Hence the design of modern stealth fighters.

The other alternative is to try to talk your problems out like civilised human beings. But where is the fun in that??

Windows update brings down TV newscast

Gordon
Coat

What he said

As regards the choice of Windows in a critical environment, it's possible that management decided to buy an application that only run under Windows (after a few business lunches with the vendors!). Leaving the systems guys with no options, once the PHB has committed them to this choice of OS.

But i'd like to know why they were patching the system that close to going live. You just DON'T disturb a live system, without an exceptionally GOOD reason. If you leave auto-update on, then you've only got yourself to blame when it does what it's designed to do, rather than what you wanted it to do (but didn't tell it to do!). The question is really, what was he doing fannying around with a live, critical system (that would have been up for days and already grabbed automatic updates) minutes before they go live? And why does one windows box going down cause the entire studio to end up in the parking lot??? Surely it doesn't control that much of production that they basically cannot function without it???

Ballmer: All open source dev should happen on Windows

Gordon

You can't blame him.

He's just doing his job by attempting to destabalise the competition (Linux), and present a positive image of Microsoft. And that's his job and he'll be fired (and should be fired) if he doesn't do it. He might very well know perfectly well that there is no merit in the patent, and that most of what he spouts is complete crap. But he's hardly going to turn around and say "Oh, don't buy our product. Go and download Ubuntu.. And I'l give you another tip.. Hotmail? Piece of shit, in my opinion... Go and join Gmail - it's really much better".

I don't think he's telling the truth, but I suspect he knows this. Just take what he says with a pinch of salt.

Gordon

And another thing...

You may think he's a "complete tool", but surely "Failure" is pushing it a bit far??

He's got one of the top jobs in one of the top companys in IT and probably earns more in a day than most people do in a year. I bet his mother is real proud of him, and the day you're doing better you can call him a tool.

Vista is a white elephant, but that happens sometimes.

Bloke buys supercar 'without proper consent from the wife'

Gordon

Yes, it's a supercar

Steve.

There is more to supercars than the purchase price. It might make a lot of people choke and cry to hear it, but the days of only a select few small european manufacturers making supercars are long gone. This thing goes as quick as a Lambo, and is just as sexy (I actually prefer this, to be honest). The fact that is says "Nissan" (like it does on countless micras) on it doesn't mean it isn't a supercar. Neither does that fact that it can transport 4 people with luggage and completely fail to destroy itself every 10 thousand miles.

By your logic about 8 or nine diesel Mondeos are a supercar. As indeed are the 11-tonne artics parked outside my office. Not sure i'd go on the pull in one, though.

iPod Nano in airport trouser conflagration horror

Gordon

Say what??

"Our lot tend to be nervous trigger-happy bastards at the best of time because they aren't really used to carrying their weapons on a regular basis"

Don't judge every force by the Met's standards. Only one force in the entire country would be daft enough to have men armed with guns, given minimal training, and left to run around out of communication in plain clothes.

British cops are highly professional and usually assigned to ARV teams to carry guns pretty much whenever on duty.

Geeks and Nerds caught on film lacking geeky nerdiness

Gordon

Ah, well....

Oh, i'll always take a look at a friend or family member's PC. I don't charge, it's something called a "favour". They might cook me lunch, I'll fix their PC as they're my friend/relative.

As for the "blown" memory. Just what does this mean? Are we talking "PC will not start" style blown or "when it gets warm it crashes windows" style blown Most competant repair people will try taking memory out of a PC that will not boot as we know it does fail and cause unpredictable problems. But if the thing boots and then fails later, you'd look at O/S file problems and hard-disk corruption first (well, I would).

Diagnosis is often just "playing the numbers" you look at the most likely cause first, test for it, and if it's not there you move on - and sometimes there is nothing to tell you what order to try things in. So it's pure luck whether you try the right thing first or last.

Portrait of an (alleged) cyber bully as a young man

Gordon
Gates Horns

Ah, well...

Looks like he's off the be "Bubba's little b1tch". Obviously not as clever as he thought he was, since he got caught. But be quite a shock to realise there are REAL PEOPLE behind the internet and, if you p1ss them off in cyberspace, you p1ss them off in the real world. Where, despite your best efforts, you actually live. Or die, as the case may well turn out to be.

PC superstore puts Microsoft on sale for under £150

Gordon

They'll be okay....

They'll be okay, provided they don't start selling a "Linux Torvalds" as well....

Microsoft shouts 'Long Live XP'

Gordon

Why don't they just admit...

They screwed up and produced, by committee, an operating system that does nothing that XP doesn't, doesn't do most of what it DOES do half as well and provides no real incentive to upgrade, beyond that you are buying a new machine and it will come with Vista.

Almost ALL the extra functionality in Vista is of no net benefit to the user, and just gets in the way. And those bits that are worthwhile are usually implimentable in XP. DirectX 10 isn't an "extra", other than in the sense that it's been designed not to work with XP in order to try to push Vista on people.

I'd have more respect for MS if they just admitted they screwed up and euthanised Vista, rather than trying to find ways to force it down people's throats. It's another "bob", guys. Sorry. But it sux.

Personally Windows 2000 Pro is my Favorite OS. Shame it's getting so long-in-the-tooth these days.