Posts by Martin Nicholls

Money..

He made 200k from donations to his site, not from selling torrents or whatever. Who cares who much it was. If somebody makes 50k are they only 1/4 as guilty?

The BPI are trying to make people hate the guy because he also happened to make some money, in the same way as the TPB trial, but it's completely irrelevant to both cases.

Is the issue or is it not the piracy?

And BTW BPI: TBP trial was a joke, even the Iranians can do better show trials. Not anybody else's fault the Netherlands doesn't have a functioning legal system.

Offense..

"British citizen, business in Puerto Rico? "Offence" predated the law? erm... help me out, someone (I can tell you which way I came in) but.........I just don't get it"

If I recall correctly they charged the guy with wire fraud. And yes it had nothing to do with the US and the government needs to DEMAND his release 5 years ago.

"I expect this doesn't work both ways. So there will be no rush of US executives being prosecuted in non-US courts"

Sure it does.. they have to end up in whatever country is involved somehow first...

We came this close to having a foreign diplomat prosecuted here, which shouldn't happen at all under any circumstances technically, so how hard do you think it would be to charge the CEO of citigroup with fraud or something if you really wanted to?

The hell..

.. does apple have to do with the price of anything? The iPhone is a worthless pile of crap.

Indeed the iPhone is in so much trouble that the future kit the hammer legion are getting excited about isn't up to scratch, but I /still/ don't care.

The media (including your lesbian mag) need to chill about iPhone killers, because all it does is elevate the iPhone to levels it doesn't deserve to be at.

And seriously - if you want an Android phone get the HTC Bravo not this piece of crap.

This post title stuff got old years ago...

.......................

No seriously. What the hell.

Does the CPS have way way too big a budget or something?

"she claimed that when the case was previously reviewed the film had no soundtrack"

Translation: I didn't turn on the speakers.

"The CPS did the job that it is required to do"

No they didn't - their job is to decide if a prosecution should happen at all, which is why they get involved right at the start of cases.

"the lawyer was not told at that time there was a soundtrack"

The lawyer should have looked for himself. That's his job. How can you be a prosecution lawyer without looking at the evidence of the case, that makes no sense.

Developers, developers, developers...

"every single developer event I have attended in the last few years has shown 50-75% upwards of participants to be running OS X on a Macbook of some kind"

I'd ask what sort of events and where.. North America, probably, I've personally seen nothing of the sort - indeed they usually get laughed out, or abused.

The only places you tend to see them are in large groups of management types. People who actually write code, not at apple events.. Nothing of the sort.

That's what I've seen anyway.

Blergh

East Coast mainline does 135-ish normally, and it'll do up to 160+ iif it had in cab signalling (which wouldn't cost much fail), which is why we hold the world record for the fastest diesel train in the world (it's been ran at that with a closed line), beat that China.

But no seriously, have you looked at the size of China lately? Of course they need fast trains. I can get from NNG to KC in 1:26 and it's good enough for me, and not hugely far off TGV times.

That all being said it's easy to build something like that with slave labour, wonder how many people would complain if /we/ went to africa, scooped up a few thousand people and made them work for essentially nothing.

Review makes no sense..

The price is totally irrelevent and it's still cheaper than an nVidia card that costs more and isn't as powerful.

So how did it get a 65% score exactly?

Anybody that buys a card that's this powerful (me included) isn't going to give a damn about the price.. except in the knowledge you're going to get more bang-for-buck than with nvidia..

Seriously this review is just wrong.. No really.

You review what it is - arguably the most powerful single card money can buy, and if you can get comparable for cheaper (even nVidia could actually do cards even close to this powerful) /then/ you start knocking points off...

You put two GTX 295's in your PC, it's not going to be as powerful, it's going to use up at least 4 slots in your case and it's going to cost you 800 quid before you even get started with the 15TW PSU you're going to need.

Seriously - what's the deal? I mean really where is the nVidia comparison anyways?

I wonder..

.. if France would prefer a 3rd 4th gen network?

Blergh

"Eurostar operates blind when trains are in the tunnel"

I'd say that's probably a fair assesment. The point was probably that they assumed the trains would be moving again at a reasonable point in time.. By the time somebody figured out that was not the case (if they did at all or if the tunnel was just packed full is another debate), you have a major problem.

The signalling question is are the trains likely to bump into each other, if not they'll keep sending them.

Can we also be clear that the problem appears to have been on the french side of the tunnel, you know, the side who's rail systems everyone likes to make a song and dance about how awesome they are for as long as I can remember.

Fact is it's a complicated system under multiple jurisdictions, it's a complicated problem to deal with. The biggest issue is that you're in a tunnel under the sea - sometimes it's gonna go wrong... I've long held the belief that the channel tunnel should be for freight only, but what are you gonna do?

Consensus

"There's no consensus among scientists whether mobile phones actually slow-cook human brains"

Nono, there's plenty of consensus... Lets be clear. The detractors aren't scientists - even if they're technically qualified as, because all the evidence suggests there's no issue.

Vinnie Cable

It's Vince the Cable, why does anybody actually care..

And re tax credits, no they're not a hidden subsidy to business, it's pretty obvious what they are, and given that they don't change a business tax burden it's kinda hard to even suggest they are as a joke. Also, the kind of people on them will not be working for Google.. Well maybe cleaning their offices?

Seriously though back on point, if Ireland can afford to have absurdly low corp tax they shouldn't be allowed emergency loans. End of story.

It's not that we need to be reigning in people incorporated in other countries - it's that countries like Ireland who are basically bankrupt for want of a better term to describe the mess they've put themselves in - again (sigh, no doubt they'll find a way to make this our fault again too) - need to sort out their priorities, and witholding emergency loans and dept repayment defferals is probably the way to do it.

We'll be the ones paying for this so maybe it's time we used the power to force Ireland to sort themselves out once and for all?

Google slept with porn stars?

.. Maybe Larry and Sergey do? They're kinda rich..

I don't get it.

Are they saying Google is a technology whore because the evidence doesn't support the hypothesis. They've been glued to Python since the Torah was written if nothing else..

It's funny that in a time when basically everybody that's even slightly cool in the field is moving to NoSQL this crap arrives.

And seriously where's the PDO driver for it? What is this, 1995?

Procedures..

"They (the people in charge) have always said the proceedures prevent this kind of behaviour!"

Okay well we don't do pre-crime this isn't the minority report - but it is a criminal offence.. Be interesting to know what happend, looks a bit high for <drunk person> to have messed with it.

Roten Apples

Nice to see people complaining about the iPhone rating..

Maybe the issue is that this phone is technically superior in every way (it is) and that it only costs just over 300 quid inc vat sim free...

Think about that for a second and look at the price of a sim free iPhone...

Been trying to figure out..

.. how it's possible I've never heard of a site that supposedly has 32M users - what's the deal? For emos or something?

Beh

"Still, Daily Mail in genuine story that isn't just scare and outrage mongering!!!"

Well they're scare and outrage mongering, but it's a genuine story too.

The best thing to do if you like to get stopped and asked what you're doing is to take photos of say.. the HSBC building from in canary wharf with a big lens. They like that.

It's funny those canary wharf jobsworths who think they're actual police with the fake sniffer dogs think you're not supposed to photograph that and DSLR = professional photographer.

Speaking as a borderline rank-amateur who owns a DSLR and big expensive zoom lenses, this is always good for a laugh, followed by an argument, followed by a discussion with real police. Helps to carry a laptop so you can show them https://cwpotraining.e-permits.co.uk/banner.htm

Everywhere on the London Underground is also technically a public building, it's all taxpayer owned and run for, and you couldn't really call it private even if it wasn't because of the public access.. Taking photos down there is always good for a laugh, excitable tube employee who couldn't find a job in the real world has a go, and when you even refuse to speak to them (pretending they're not really there is hilarious), the BTP turn up the fun ensues.

Take photos of everything and anything, points awarded for members of the intelligence services and uniformed police. Big arrows and internet postings ++.

It's because..

We're not as gullible for pure hype and no substance as the Yanks..

The droid is half-assed and badly designed, the hero was just horific.. Apple couldn't put out a decent phone if they actually even tried, the palm is a palm..

Had high hopes for the Liquid A1 - but it's only 1.6 and a huge waste of that cpu by underclocking it.

The bravo looks like a potential but who knows... HTC are good at trying to sell more than they can produce, I got burned with the TyTn II.

FOI Act

... Should solve this issue..

Send them an FOI request every month, put the 'response' online in a database and problem solved.

Once basically <world> starts using that they won't be able to charge for it.

Here we go again.

These people understand what they're doing is illegal and that directors (including branson) can face up to five years in prison right?

The government is going to be compelled to act, there's every chance they're going to make a showcase out of the punishment just to show the EU that these breaches are going to be taken seriously after the phorm farce.

Have fun deep packet time wasting my SSL traffic.

Should mention...

The point is, like all things Apple - a large percentage of their customers assume that anything made by Jesus and his deciples is inpeniterable to everything, and that anything you install from the Apple store isn't going to bite you in the ass.

You should understand this already else what are you doing here and secondly you should understand the research is squarely aimed at Apple, to say - hey by the way guys you should probably clean these little problems up around the edges..

Research of this nature is important because sometimes developers see things which security researchers don't, but without the whole hey look at me defcon talks and whatnot.

The point is that people (like my boss who should know better) spend their days installing stuff from the app store because they assume that it's safe because it's on the apple store. You actually wonder how many people using apple's app store even know that the apps aren't written by apple to be fair, but still, I won't discuss the stupidity of the average Apple customer without an attorney present :)

Tech Solution

"All you techies - what is the best technical (or other) way to disrupt this invasion?"

SSL pipes and VPNs to everything.

Encrypt the shit out the internet - good look decrypting the 256GB/sec running through LINX right now, forget that, who knows how much data is being pushed around - I think the terrorists just won.

Skippig/Cert

"so make sure you play it first and choose to skip, as it remembers your first answer"

And you can change it whenever you like. Least on the PC, dunno why not on console too.

I'd say let your 13 yo play it because it's an extremely intelligent and plausable story, much better for your kids brain that guitar hero or wii sports.

Been playing violent games all my life and never did me any harm, quite the opposite.

Cross-platform

"but i was looking at mono to write one app then run for any platform"

Sounds like you're assuming that Microsoft's .Net implementation is supposed to be cross-platform, which of course it isn't.

Now, if you write mono and install the mono runtime on windows on the other hand...

I'd..

Go in a flash as long as the M4 and ammo are included in the price, and they got a good arangement with an insurer. Not with the intent to use it, but just in case of course. I can't see the yanks wanting to play tour guide so it'd probably be necessary. No offence intended to the Iraqi's but they'd probably be the first to admit their security forces are probably crawling with the kind of people you wouldn't want in your *security* forces.

EU Law

"I'm confused that the bloke in the article was urging the UK government to change it's law. I thought EU law superceded local country laws, so there is no need to change law - EU applies. End of. Is this FUD or what?"

Not at all, they EU creates directives which are supposed to be implemented into local laws. Is basically all your bases are belong to us without the noob pwnage.

The various EU courts and executives only really when the directives are still being implimented - which is why it's bloody hard to get into the ECHR - which incidentally the other meaning of the EHCR is another part of european 'law' that BT/Phorm/HMG 'drove an express train through' to quote another recent el reg article - which the the EU has been shockingly quiet on.

I wish these trials affected me so I could complain to the right people/have my day in court. Kind of why I was hoping they'd just roll Phorm out regardless...

Why did nobody involved go the the IPCC anyways? Their /job/ is to investigate criminal police collusion like in this case.

Blergh.

"OSS should not be integrated or modified for use in classified or other sensitive DoD systems"

Why? God forbid you'd want to see the code passing sensitive information around?

"It points out that the GPL requires distribution of corresponding source code to the recipient of the software if the modified code is released"

Why would the DoD be releasing the software? Passing it around DoD systems doesn't count as 'releasing' and any contractors seeing changes wouldn't be the end of the world anyways.

That said the drupal stuff that hit the wires yesterday was pretty absurd :)

Muhee

I was this on PC 4 years ago.. where is it?

When the clueless attack

"IPv6 does all this"

No it doesn't - go learn about IPv6.

<rant about microsoft but no cisco being involved even though it's partly routing-related tech>

Juniper is, says so in the article.

<microsoft will screw this up because they can't write secure code type comment>

Asside from you're wrong, least they have people who can actually attempt it unlike say.. apple.. who lift bits of BSD then STILL screw it up.

I hope some of you clowns are joking..

"no concern about safe levels of x-rays - there are reasons that the staff in the xray department hide behind their shield"

Probably because:

a) Hospital X-rays are especially powerful, and

b) Taking the hospital X-ray dosage time after time in a day for x years will most definately damage cells in ways you don't want.

That doesn't mean it's dangerous to have an X-ray a whole bunch of times. Quite the opposite, it is indeed, perfectly safe.

Also can we stop using the R word in the context of the ionising kind as if everything that 'radiates' energy will cause your children to be mutants like you spent 4 weeks inside the sarcophagus at Chernobyl.

And yes, these things are overpriced lawsuit machines - not only is the technology just asking for all sorts of issues in the criminal courts, especially with regards to children, but there are major issues with this equipment as it pertains to the human rights act if nothing else.

Uhm

Torrent isn't dying, it's probably growing more than ever. People putting stuff on places like rapidshare is kinda old news - and it's not because of 'crackdowns' (what crackdown, where?), it's because the more sane are realising that Torrent is a crappy wasteful slow protocol, hence the move back to HTTP and Usenet.

Warez is generally growing which is why you can have growth in both areas.

Failures..

Kinda depends how you use the drives.

If you stick them in a huge array in a SAN we found they tend to get eaten and fail very quickly, we literally couldn't change the drives fast enough in testing.

In a traditional server with 1 or 2 drives in a rack they should last a long time, and give good performance - in theory. Also will reduce cooling costs.

Fk em.

These unions, not just the CWU but the RMT and all the others playing the lets see how much we can leach the taxpayer for menial jobs for, don't seem to realise that they're going to be solely resposible for the Conservative government getting re-elected, who won't stand for all this bull.

They'll water down the minimum wage, repeal the Trade Union Recognition Act and generally attack worker's rights. Just remember in 18 months - I called it and it's your own fault.

None of the general public supports your cause and all you're doing is annoying voters. Good luck with that.

The issue is

Not that pluto isn't a planet per se - more that if you look around at the other objects floating around, there are many more 'planet like' objects than pluto, i.e. bigger with saner orbits.

So the issue is where you draw the line. Why don't we teach children the names of the thousands of such objects you could call a planet?

The idea is to know why planets aren't always planets and the differences between them rather than just teaching people mnemonics and assuming that makes you intelligent somehow.

I like Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson's [the person usually credited with starting this whole discussion] explanation of this though - that it's both the only one discoverd by an American and that there's somewhat of a Disney conspiricy.

iLame

Word of warning Apple, if you're reading this which you probably are because you blatantly can't come up with your own ideas:

Don't even bother bringing this thing to market without a stylus. E-Ink is the name of the game and if you don't get that down it's gonna be another in a long line of flash-in-the-pan hype-fest products.

Finger interfaces are nice.. Until you want to write something down - which is where the iPhone falls appart - because you can't do it.

"How difficult can it be to make an oversized iPod touch?"

It wouldn't be which is kind of the point. Trouble is the whole platform is woefully off the mark for such a device. Microsoft have been playing this game for years, good look to you, I saw Microsoft's prototype the other day :)

Back to the future

It's like 2000 again, only worse..

Have they released a new revision of The Cluetrain Manifesto or something?

Somebody should hit these guys with a cluebat.

Bootnote

The only place real soldiers special ops or otherwise use a .45 is in rifles, only a moron would use a .45 in a pistol other than for showing off or display purposed because usually if you're in a firefight you're going to want to but the second, third, fourth, etc rounds somewhere near the target rather than in the head of an innocent bystander.

The american .45 phenomina is how you know all their right to bear arms talk is bull and that they're just clueless morons. It's an absolutely worthless round to defend yourself, family, country with. All it's good for is putting holes in armour with a suitibly long barrel/skilled sniper.

Technowhat..

"Not using wired under the circumstances is a clear case of techno-mast*rbation"

Or maybe given that the thing is attached to your optice nerve..

Do I really have to spoonfeed the answer by pointing out if you dropped the wire (that would look great sticking out your eye socket) bad things would happen if it got caught up and whatnot.

Stats

"One wonders if El Reg's own webserver logs would bear that out?"

I don't work for reg but positively guarantee you that's the case if they record stats correctly (i.e. not using the user agent string).

Maybe what google should be doing is not supporting IE where it doesn't render something properly, like for example if something is insanely slow in IE but isn't in other browsers - let it be slow, if it renders like a dog's breakfast in IE7, but is fine in other browsers - let it render like a dog's breakfast.

It's the only way to force users to use a real browser, let them see how the sausage is made as it were. Those of us developers who don't have the traffic clout to do it but wish we did are begging for somebody to do this.

Save us Google - and no, creating your own browser monopoly isn't going to cut it,

We know?

"will have to cut spending in order to sort out the country's massive debt pile"

Except it's not technically true, you just tax bonuses above 25k, earnings and cap gains above 2mil a year at 95%, reduce the _extra_ capex that's gone out recently to what it was before, double the NHS budget, wait 5 years and tell the yanks to shut the hell up - and problem solved. And you get 45 million votes to boot.

Beat the crap out the rob from the poor give to the uber rich tories where it hurts them - in the wallet.

Then..

"then they pirated over USENET

then they pirated over centralized P2P

then they pirated over de-centralized P2P"

Then they went back to usenet.

Then they discovered darknets and governments demanded they be shut down and realised they couldn't, and that the people who operate them are remarkably hard to track down.. and probably live in china.. and there's no way to filter them without breaking everything.

We'll get there eventually.

Anybody...

That thinks BSF is going nowhere doesn't know what they're talking about. Likewise anybody that thinks that the NHS IT program isn't worthwhile.

The issue here is not that the programs should be cut, it's that the people who put the contracts together should have been long since fired and should never be able to negotiate contracts in any field ever again.

The IT contractors involved in some of these programs start with a budget 10x the size it needs to be, with a overly-long delivery schedual, then take 10 times longer than agreed and keep comming back for more cash and are never punished. We can also bet that if they threaten to go bust they'll be bailed-out too.

These systems need schedual punishments written into the contracts (every day you go over you pay the taxpayer 500k etc) and any extra costs should be made to be bourne by the contractor. This is the only reasonable way to make them think about under-staffing the projects or undercutting other contractors and ladling the real cost on the back-end. It also happens to be what happens in private business (well, the good ones anyways).

Some of the projects were worthless from day one also, they can go right out the window.

Overall the idea is right, just the implimentation is wrong, the NHS can't spend the next 80 years in the stone age passing paper records around, it also makes medical research REALLY hard to find space for and costs a fortune to store 60+ million people's worth of medical notes (with multiple copies of each - GP, local hospital, specialist at another hospital etc). That's a LOT of trees, and they become very disjointed.

"Because my daughters records are still passed around as a wallet full of notes" - Indeed, hence the issue. It's not the *idea* :)