* Posts by Patrick

13 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Oct 2008

Millions opted into UK mobile phone directory

Patrick
Alert

Simon Davies never fails to disappoint

It's hilarious that Simon Davies ("Privacy" International director & Phorm consultant) should have pulled out of working with them when he had no qualms with consulting for Phorm (which realistically is far more intrusive).

Websense blocks Bing in IM snafu

Patrick

content encoding error

bing.com doesn't work through our company's proxy when using Firefox.

The search page shows okay, but for the results page we just get "Content Encoding Error".

Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology

Patrick

Recent Scientology exposure

This book by an Irish escapee from Scientology is rather good if you're interested in reading about the topic. Scientology has scared UK bookstores into not selling it:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/11/amazon_pulls_scientology_expose/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complex_%28book%29

but you can still buy it from Ireland http://www.eason.ie/look/9781903582848 or US Amazon.

Spy chiefs size up net snoop gear

Patrick
Black Helicopters

Worth reading

James Bamford's book Shadow Factory covers the secret implementation of deep packet inspection by the NSA - is quite an interesting book. He was one of the first authors to write about the NSA (Puzzle Palace, 1983).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Factory-Ultra-Secret-Eavesdropping-America/dp/0385521324

more reviews on the amazon.com link:

http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Factory-Ultra-Secret-Eavesdropping-America/dp/0385521324

Slimline iPhone pictures unearthed

Patrick

headphones?

I wonder if there's a headphone socket or do they expect us to use Bluetooth headhpones?

Google Street View hits UK streets

Patrick
Stop

Missed Worgan Street in Vauxhall

They've missed Worgan St, in Vauxhall SE11. I wonder how many other streets were missed?

Spotify: We kick the tyres

Patrick
Alert

Uses P2p

It's worth noting that Spotify is a P2P app, ie. whilst you're listening to music it's busy sending that music from your PC to other Spotify users.

If you're sharing your connection with others then they may notice a slowdown as Spotify continually sends data. And if you're on a traffic limited package with your ISP then you may want to avoid it.

Apple massages iPhone code

Patrick
Thumb Up

stop whinging

Posting detailed instructions means the article is more likely to be linked to on other websites - thus generating more advertising revenue for The Reg. There are plenty of people out there who don't have a clue how to update their firmware - despite it being a relatively simple process.

Raid yields 2800 'illegal' DS games copying kits

Patrick

Why are they bothering?

In June mrmodchips won an appeal against the ELSPA on modchips.

http://team-xecuter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47710

It'll be interesting to see how they're going to prosecute this guy who was selling R4s (other than the fact that he was working whilst on the dole).

It does seem a bit pointless given that anyone can order them over the internet from China, Hong Kong, etc.

Western Digital WD TV HDD-to-HDTV adaptor

Patrick

doesn’t support DivX video - WASTE OF TIME

This box is a waste of time. All my films are divx format and there's no way I'm going to

spend hundreds of hours converting them.

I've also got a Zyxel DMA-1000 - an ethernet based video streamer. It is a similar waste of time - claims to support avi/divx but only plays a small portion of them. The manufacturers claim it's a limitation of the hardware and they can't fix it.

There is a big gap in the market for a device such as this. It's just strange the manufacturers specifically left out DivX support.

And £100 is far too expensive when you can buy a £20 DVD/DivX player which happily all DivX/AVI files off a USB memory stick or DVD.

Microsoft releases first flaky iPhone app

Patrick
Thumb Up

Seems good to me

I've downloaded it - it's quite good - the pan & zoom are fast.

User interface is pretty standard iphone.

The only thing I don't like is the "Microsoft livelabs Seadragon" watermark in the top left corner of the screen.

Will be a lot better when they get Photosynth to work (which I could never get to work on my PC).

Firefox hits 20% share as testers tickle 'pr0n mode'

Patrick
Thumb Down

Why bother?

These private browsing modes seem fairly pointless - other than to provide imaginary security.

If someone wishes to monitor your browsing they can easily install logging software on your PC[see http://www.keylogger.org/] or view company/ISP web proxy logs.

BBC's speak you're branes collapses under Brand-Ross sex outrage

Patrick
Stop

Stop using licence fee for funding entertainment

Whilst I quite enjoy Ross, the way they've behaved here is pretty pathetic. I certainly find it offensive.

It makes me wonder why we are paying £140/year in licence fees to fund "entertainment" on radio/tv? We've got hundreds of entertain radio/tv channels now - with thousands to come in the future via the internet.

Surely the private sector's perfectly capable of doing this without resorting to public funding?

They should either get rid of the licence or just have it for public interest programmes that won't be produced by the private sector.

Alternatively levy UK broadcasters to fund public interest programmes. I wouldn't support government funding as that's too susceptible to political influence.