Re: Sorry Tom
if its unwritten how can that be enforceable?
Posts by BoldMan
946 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Sep 2007
Heavy VPN users are probably pirates, says BBC
'4chan may be just a sysadmin who knows his way around', claims so-called expert
Monday 8th September 2014 11:02 GMT
"However, copyright infringement does mean that the owner of the work can't make (as much) money from that work. You can say 'so what' or 'they are rich anyway' 'till you are blue in the face, but that is the fact of the matter and that is what copyright protects."
Except the people to whom copyright infringement REALLY affects aren't rich. A huge amount of copyright infringement isn't AGANST big media businesses like BBC etc, its done BY them. Every time the BBC erases the metadata of an uploaded photo taken by a member of the public, they are enabling copyright infringement. The people who are affected by copyright infringement are freelance photographers as well as you and me who would have a perfect right to ask for compensation for use of our copyright material, except the big media companies would parade an army of lawyers against us to defend their infringement.
World's only flyable WWII Lancaster bombers meet in Lincs
Riddle of odd bulge found on moon is solved
UK.gov wants public sector to rip up data protection law
Dungeons & Dragons relaunches with 'freemium' version 5.0
Wednesday 16th July 2014 14:02 GMT
Played all versions of D&D & AD&D and my current game group settled on 4th ed by default when we started up again a few years back. To be honest the game system is irrelevant to us - its just an excuse to get together every 3 weeks and take the piss out of each other, have a laugh and an enjoyable evening. Having a "game" to play just makes the social aspect more regular, otherwise there would always be some reason to miss this get together...
We've taken a rest form D&D lately and are currently playing a Chill-based modern horror (think Charles Stoss Laundry...)
"I rolled Double zero... is that good?"
Supermodel Lily Cole: 'I got a little bit upset by that Register article'
Apple is KILLING OFF BONKING, cries mobe research dude
Tuesday 10th June 2014 16:41 GMT
When Barclaycard foisted a contactless card onto me a couple of years ago I phoned them up and asked for one that didn't open up my wallet to thieves who could nick £10 from my by just walking past. Their response was that market research showed that the public liked having their money stolen invisibly and they would offer me no alternative to offering up my nuggets to random passers by.
Yes there is I said, I stop using your card to buy anything. So now it sits at home in the drawer and I only use the account to take advantage of their interest free balance transfer options.
Whoops! Google's D-Day Doodle honors ... Japan
US escalates Stingray mobe-snooping secrecy battle as judge unseals evidence
Indie record labels to haul YouTube before the European Commission
Wednesday 4th June 2014 14:21 GMT
Re: Old school here
its not really YouTube directly but YouTube as a transport medium that is useful. It allows anyone to upload their performance and point to it from a variety of sources, so I don't rely on YouTube to FIND things but I do rely on it to facilitate seeing things that I find via other means.
Either way, what they are trying to do is still a monopolistic abuse of the market
Google: Use this tool if you want your search query quashed
Still watching DVDs? You're a planet-killing carbon hog!
Expulsion from Garden of Steven: Apple staffers tossed out of Fruit Loop
Time-rich Brit boffin demos DIY crazytech wolverine talons
JJ Abrams and Star Wars: I've got a bad feeling about this
Lego is the TOOL OF SATAN, thunders Polish priest
Thursday 3rd April 2014 14:15 GMT
Re: " toughest substance in the known universe"
Lego from 50 years ago? Pah a mere stripling... Meccano is still compatible with the first edition put out by Frank Hornby "Mechanics Made Easy" in 1898! In my collection I've got plates and girders going back to the 20s and 30s that still look superb.
China's rare earth supply crimp plan ruled to be illegal
Oxfam, you're full of FAIL. Leave economics to sensible bods
Thursday 20th March 2014 12:15 GMT
Re: Deiberately missing the point???
You have GOT to be kidding me:
"As an example, the Welfare State is supposed to protect the poor. But one of the activities intended to do this involves giving money to the Duke of Westminster in rent support. That's right; we have evolved a system in which we are taxed to give money to the ultra-rich, and we call it welfare."
This is such a ridiculous statement - the "welfare state" IS "protecting the poor" by paying their rent to their Landlord. Who that Landlord may be is totally irrelevant to that requirement.
MPs urge UK.gov to use 1950s obscenity law to stifle online stiffies
Google's mystery barge flounces out of San Fran, heads to Stockton
Beta tasting: The Elder Scrolls Online preview
Monday 3rd March 2014 13:34 GMT
> Up until now, there had been only one MMO in my life...
How about finding a reviewer who's played more MMOs than just WoW so they can do a proper comparison to other games such as Neverwinter, The Secret World, LOTRO... you know some of the games that are innovative and well designed (well okay I did mention Neverwinter there but you know what I mean).
Reviewing an MMO with the only previous experience being WoW is pretty pointless really.
LG offers BRAIN-SAVING CANCER-BL... er 'good luck charms'
'G-WIZ like' object doing 40,000 MPH CRASHES on the MOON
Antarctic glacier 'melted just as fast Long before human carbon emissions'
KA-BLAM!! Marvel Comics opens super-powered data API to web devs
Is modern life possible without a smartphone?
Monday 3rd February 2014 09:22 GMT
Of course it is.
I only upgraded to a Sony Experia last week from my £10 Samsung phone after I discovered a good reason for having a camera phone when I had a car crash earlier in January. What was most amusing was the Insurance Company's phone operator was baffled that I my phone couldn't take photos, she just didn't understand that there ARE phones that don't take photos haha!
Google helps out utterly underexposed Lego brand with Chrome toy
Thursday 30th January 2014 17:45 GMT
Lego is a toy! Meccano is proper engineering!
"the company's plastic block kits are credited with inspiring an entire generation of engineers who have shown their appreciation by building massive monuments and complex structures entirely from Lego bricks."
Whereas Meccano encouraged SEVERAL generations of engineers who built or worked out how to do useful things (such as blowing up German dams, plotting the energy output of atomic bombs, building curling footbridges...)
NASA's Opportunity rover celebrates 10 years on Mars with a FILTHY selfie
Bing Maps COCKUP: Oracle UK HQ is 'Elvis Impersonators' joint
BT 118 phone number fee howler lands telco giant with £225k fine
BT tweaks WORDING of sex-ed web block after complaints
Lifesize, driveable AIR-POWERED LEGO CAR hits the road
Cambs prof scoops $3m Fundamental Physics prize
Tuesday 17th December 2013 18:07 GMT
Nice to hear Mike Green, my old Prof from Queen Mary College is getting the recognition he deserves! I was always annoyed that his Quantum Mechanics course was the only one I didn't pass while at Uni, more to my inability to work out wtf you do with a Delta function and more importantly WHY do do things with a Detla function :D
Doctor Who: From Edwardian grump to Malcolm Tucker and back again
Delia and the Doctor: How to cook up a tune for a Time Lord
The ZOD FILES: Climate documents from 2007 'must stay secret'
Tuesday 19th November 2013 17:13 GMT
Re: Such scientific discussion ..
The important part wasn't the leaked emails it was the leaked software code and supporting documents. Analysis of that - which was NEVER covered properly by the meedja - showed what a complete fuck up "Climate Science" was. Software that had undocumented fudge factors in place, no proper documentation, no proper data integrity (raw data had been overwritten by processed data and no backup copies of the raw data made) and generally what I would call totally amateur software engineering. Then again this is what you get when you allow scientists to write software. I've got plenty of experience of this, having been employed in the past to take code written by scientists and turning it into "properly" engineered software, with proper documenation, source code control, data control etc etc...
Scientists by and large are not good software engineers...
Swedish teen's sex video fine slashed: Unwilling co-star girlfriend furious
Price rises and power cuts by 2016? Thank the EU's energy policy
Boffins find MEXICAN WAVE pattern in random climate wobbles
Scottish leader splurged £20k appealing disclosure of EU membership legal bungle
Brazilian TV show accuses NSA of spying on oil firm based on leaked docs
Boffins lay bare exotic Lara Croft meteorite element ununpentium
Climate change made sea levels fall in 2010 and 2011
Wednesday 21st August 2013 09:37 GMT
Re: I'm sure that there'l be a variety of amusing commentary here ...
Do I need to say this again? Science isn't a democracy or a popularity contest! Science is about understanding reality and if reality doesn't match your theories, it doesn't matter HOW many say black is white, black will still be black!
Firefox takes top marks in browser stability tests
Wednesday 21st August 2013 08:47 GMT
Its not over when millions of people are still using old versions of IE and MS will only release the latest versions on Win 8. We have clients who are locked into using IE6 FFS (major telephone company from Britian, I'm looking at you!) so we STILL have to support that red-headed bastard child of complete and utter morons over a decade later than we should be!
BOFH: Backup server's failed? We have a backup backup server
Behold, replica Nazi-code-cracking Colossus computer IN LEGO FORM
Peter Capaldi named as 12th Doctor Who
Monday 5th August 2013 10:50 GMT
Re: BBC PR = news
News isn't news anymore... an old drunk who used to be a good footballer arriving at the court for hit trial for assault isn't "news" but Sky News this morning had a "Breaking News - News Alert: Paul Gascoigne arrives at court" headline interrupting their "normal" "news" coverage...
Meh
Europe: OK, we'll 'backload' carbon emissions - but we'd better not lose big biz
Monday 8th July 2013 16:26 GMT
Science is NOT a democracy.
It doesn't matter how many people BELIEVE something that doesn't make it true. For hundreds of years people believed the Sun orbited the Earth, but that wasn't true and eventually a minority of Scientists fought for better understanding, suffering persecution until their view was accepted as "the truth".
The problem is Science does not give TRUTH it gives "the best answer we have so far to fit the evidence we have available". So the science can NEVER be "settled".
Tickle my balls, stroke my button and blow the fluff from my crack
Friday 5th July 2013 16:37 GMT
I remember back in the mid 90s when I was working as tech support for a defence contractor (based in new Malden) that was a Mac shop being asked why I had a set of biro pen lids in the toolkit. I then showed that person how to clean the accumulated crap off the mouse rollers in his mouse using the pen top as a scraper...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
