Re: "blocking ... between 1 and 50 sites a year"
I think Damian Green has been doing some research into this
39 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Nov 2008
I believe that this is a conspiracy by the Obama administration who are causing he batteries to burst thus ruining a perfectly good Chinese company while boosting Apple's sales of branded products...
Actually, in reality, this kind of thing happens all the time, just look at the Dreamliner
There are 3 important tests that you need to do to verify this as a food substitute:
1) Does it have the same effect as a kebab after a night of booze?
2) Does it have the same effect as a bacon sarnie the morning after a night of booze?
3) Can you have it for lunch at your desk without looking like a plonker?
One more thing to watch out for, the after effects of an all Soylent diet. There's no polite way to put this, but how horrific is it on the way out?
With all political articles, there is a tendency among the commenters to put forward their best solution. Of course, none of these will be taken on board, this is the comments on el reg, not a parliamentary petition or US senate round-table.
I, for one, would suggest that instead of beating our chests in a news forum, we instead send our opinion to our MPs. With enough letters on the same topic, even the laziest of MPs will want this discussion in parliament. An open, no holds barred ruck in commons is the only thing that will resolve this, but nobody seems willing to step up to the plate.
So now, having first drawn attention to the dodgy links, "Big Media", to borrow an Americanism, are now drawing attention to the links to the dodgy links. Next we'll see them fire a broadside against the blogs that cover the story for pointing out the existence of the links to the dodgy links, thus drawing attention to the links to the links to the dodgy links...
Barbara Streisand would be proud!
With all of the research into the negative effects of processed meat, it will not be long before our government tries to pass harmful legislature to interfere with my right to eat what I want. We must take a stand now, or we will lose this freedom. Once we lose the right to eat bacon, they'll be coming after our right to eat cake and eventually our right to drink fizzy drinks.
If I cannot eat bacon, I cannot make my family happy. We will not be protected from the smugness of those who eat bacon illegally. We will be at risk of seeing calm and collected, level headed immigrants with their bacon cravings satisfied, taking all of our jobs. We will see a sharp increase in violent crime as people go to extremes to fund their black market bacon purchases.
No, we must protect our freedoms. Join the NRA (National Rasher Association) and we can make a stand against our nanny state government. Because bacon doesn't kill people, people (chefs) kill people!
From what I have read here, it seems as though it is the hotspot itself that would kill the connection after interrogating the handset, so nothing to worry about there.
My concern lies in the fact that each cell site will be using a fair chunk of data to establish the "best" connection that it could, potentially, bump up the data usage and/or eat away at my battery.
You're right, it is grandstanding. It is a selfish attempt to show that the government is being tough on this issue.
But it is also the government trying to be tough on this issue. By calling in the big firms and identifying their practices, the MPs can then start to close the loopholes starting with the biggest ones through proper legislation.
Also, by slamming the big firms first, it sends a message to people lower down the chain that this is wrong, the government will be fixing it and you should start playing ball before you get caught out.
Finally, the court of public opinion plays a big role in our producing our legislation.
So far, Google are the only ones who get the message. Their practices are still shady, but at least they are honest about them and willing to work with the UK government. Amazon and Starbucks are digging their own grave.
<===== Seriously El Reg, no icon for a sensible debate?
I can see the headlines now:
"British plane shoots down US experimental aircraft over US soil."
"US president Barack Obama authorises US Navy Seal assoult on 10 Downing Street"
"The bodies of David Cameron and Nick Clegg buried at sea from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush"
"Lester Haines wins sweeping landslide victory at the general election"
Too far?
Ok, calculations are a little rough but:
GSM transmitter at 2W
1.5V Duracell Ultra AA battery has approx 2300mAh
2W / 1.5V = 1.333A or 1333mA
2300 mAh / 1333 mA = 1.73 hours or 103 mins
So, talk time with a £1 duracell ultra is about an hour and a half
Notes:
Other batteries are available
This is based on the low end of the Duracell Ultra specification
Price is based on the last pack I bought (4 for £4)
Try these, i have them myself
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twin-Towers-Trading-Worlds-Sharpest/dp/B000Y2XPMO
As far as "something useful" is concerned, I too cannot see the point of a tablet with "apps", epecially over a fully fledged windows laptop with better for not a lot more...
To the United Stated of Google.
New citizens must be aware that you have no right to privacy and everything you do will be monitored so that we can improve our invasive technologies for the purpose of selling ads.
So please, enjoy your stay. Feel free to break any international laws that you please, but make sure you click the ads.
Much like the fictional "Labia" corp in the BBC's Monkey Dust... Complete with the top man on the job of finding the new name...
"Security?"
"Protection?"
"SNAPSHOT!"
But I think the rebrand will be to:
"Paris Hilton" - Even she can't keep her personal details and private movies private, so what chance do the government have?
...As you would have them do unto you (Quote by some old messiah)
Surely the two posters would be rather miffed if their details were posted on the internet. Name, address, phone number, the location of their dead relatives' graves, etc. Flaming is just about acceptable, but what these guys have done is endagered human life and promoted human suffering.
Time for Karma/Poetic Justice... Post their details on the BBC homepage, the Sky News ticker and the Countryside Alliance forum. See how they like it
If it's the central system that's wrong, then this will actually affect every record... All of the various utilities and applications take the address, name, NINO, DOB, title and gender (plus deceased status) from one central system. Any changes to these entries will flow to another area of HMRC overnight (tax credits to income tax, Self assessment etc)... The most worrying problem is the number of entries marked as deceased on this system, i used to get at least 1 call every month (income tax) asking me to mark the taxpayer as alive again after they received a "Sorry your [insert relation] has died" form for themselves...
I feel a bit sorry for this guy. Security issues aside, almost every telecomms billing system on the market has a "high spend" feature so it stands to reason that his provider would have known something was wrong. If they sold him this feature when he joined them, then he shouldn't have to pay...
A lot of these projects are needed. The tax office (PAYE) is still running on a CLI system that was built in the early 80s. There is so much data there that the system can't keep up at all and has to be taken down for maintenence as often as once a month. There has been a project to upgrade this system since the turn of the millenium, but HMRC are nowhere near completion, so instead they paid for 2 more IT projects to fill the gap...
Don't you feel a little bit better now you know where all your hard earned money is going? (And thanks for paying my salary for 2 years)