Posts by EvilGav 1 433 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009
. . . but the headline "touchscreen sales up in market where keyboards are being dropped" doesn't sound so good.
I have a Samsung Pixon, have used iPhone's and Android phones, but I use my phone more for text messages, so the touch screen keyboard is a piece of crap, due to the complete lack of a tactile response.
. . . because presently the funding is directed by government, which is the problem.
The government should still be the largest funder of research in the UK, but it should do so by funding the universities and allowing them to decide what it is appropriate to research, not by directing the funding at a specific area of the university (like the CRU at the UEA).
It's all fine and well for security companies to tell everyone that what they are doing is insecure, but they don't offer any viable solution.
I dread to think the number of different web-sites/forums etc I have accounts with, the reality is that password(s) are reused across any number of them, including my bank site*, but by and large i'm not overly encumbered by a fear that i'm about to lose everything to identity theft or other.
Why ? Because I don't use any public PC's and I never follow a link on an e-mail that I didn't expect (like, for example, click this link to authenticate your account). The problem isn't reusing a password, the problem is people being stupid in the first place.
* My bank use a UID that they gave me and a password and PIN number that I gave them. Further, if someone did get into my account, unless they also stole my bank card and the card reader, all they can do is transfer money to people i've already paid (friends and family) or pay some of my bills for me, from my own account. Damn.
. . . the 3D currently used in cinemas (RealD) doesn't work if your eyes aren't broadly level - so laying down on the couch to watch a film would be out of the question.
Besides which, average length of ownership for TV's (especially in the UK), is quite long (7 years the last I heard) - most people have just updated to HDTV of some kind, who's going to scrap that for a minority product (I know HD is still a minority product, but the benefit was switching from heavy, bulky CRT's to light, thin and larger LCD/Plasma).
Yes, quite right, all of this nonsense about private parking fines and private clamping is illegal in Scotland, partly due to there being no Trespass law in Scotland, but mostly due to a judge declaring it illegal.
The police have even issued a statement (a few years ago) that stated (paraphrase) : "if you are clamped by someone that isn't the police, let us know, we'll come round and remove it for you".
As to the story, what about the company that texts you the value of a car from it's number plate ? Presumably that data (the make/model/mileage from MOT etc) comes from the DVLA, how is that anything other than a commercial transaction ?
. . . how many of those 1,300 people are ordinary members of the public, linked neither to the LieBore party or to the body actually administering the cards (whether at a local or national level) ?
Equally, I seem to remember a figure close to 3,000 being quoted before christmas as the number who had requested an appointment, at which point the numbers look even worse.
. . . they look at two groups that would give them an expected outcome (one already sedentary and one not). Factor in that obesity doesn't happen in short timescales and the conclusion was inevitable.
To reach a viable conclusion the study would need to be conducted over a considerably longer time period.
. . . who are intent on continually stating that "this shows Linux/OS of choice is better", "shoddy Windows" and so on.
It's taken 17 years for this vulnerability to be found.
Doesn't it strike you that, if the vuln's being pointed out are in 17 year old code, that the *new* code is maybe not so bad ?
It still misses the fundamental point. Just because someone makes a claim, it does not make it fact if they repeat it n number of times.
If the copyright holders are so sure of themselves, take people to court for breach of copyright, the way they currently can under current legislation.
Any law which puts hear-say as evidence (you know, just like the eCRB does, thanks LieBore) is not a viable law. Any law which removes the right of Habeas Corpus (equally, like all the fines for littering, anti-social behaviour and so on, thanks LieBore), which has been enshrined in law since the Magna Carta, should not get through parliament (assuming MP's "work for you").
This government is full of so much fail it's quite unbelievable.
. . . I have to go on-line, complete relevant information (presumably : passport number, destination, contact details and so on) and on the basis of that information will be determined whether or not I can travel to that country, it's not a visa waiver, it's a visa.
If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and walks like a duck. It's a duck.
The scanners, I mean.
The 9/11 attacks had no explosives involved at all, the planes were the weapon.
The Lockerbie bomb, was in a suit-case, in the hold (and on the plane through other countries before reaching UK soil).
The only attempts at bombing that I can think of, that involved explosives being taken physically on board, were the "shoe" bomber and the "pants" bomber. Neither of which boarded a plane in the UK.
But in your hypothetical stabbing incident, if the parent and child were holiday-makers in a foreign country, would you expect the perpetrator to be extradited to the home country of the holiday-makers for prosecution or face prosecution in the country where the crime took place ?
Which is the whole problem with this case, the crime took place in the UK, has been admitted to in the UK and the UK have applicable laws, therefore he should be tried for the crime in the UK. The US don't want to do this as every time they've tried so far the case has collapsed due to a lack of evidence.
Would the eco-mentalists please stop with the idea tht an e-Book is more eco-friendly ?
Wood-pulp used to make paper comes from forests that were planted for that very reason, not from hardwood forests that suck up most of the CO2, and those same forests are replaced by the same companies that harvest them. It's no different to a farmer growing wheat, the timescales between planting/harvest are just longer.
As for the e-Book, well, we'll just ignore the heavy metals involved in the manufacture of them, the strip mining that got the copper, the corrosives used to clean the ICU's and so on and so forth with the whole thing.
This doesn't even take into account that my paper book works all the time. Lets not forget the Doomsday book, the original (hundreds of years old) can still be read, the new version put on laser-disk in the 80's, cant.
. . . the cop was an idiot.
If it was evidence, you wouldn't have the choice to delete it, as that would be destruction of evidence, which is a crime in and of itself.
The police don't even have a right to view what you have recorded. They can arrest you, which would allow them to seize the camera, but they'd need a reason to arrest.
What they should have done, was ask you to delete it to protect the identity of the person arrested, as it's not clear at that point whether the person will be prosecuted or not.
. . . the judge needs a lesson in the English language.
"caused substantial and unquantifiable harm"
If the harm isn't quantifiable, how can you fine the person an amount of money, determined by a direct calculation ?
More-over, have the company since made changes such that this hack can no longer be performed ? If they haven't, then the case should be thrown out, on the grounds that, having been shown to have a flaw in their system, they chose to leave it open and sue, rather than fix the problem.
The more frightened businesses and government can make the populace, the more rubbish tat like this will be touted by "security" firms.
Why not just inject your sprog with an RFID tag and be done with it or more helpfully, if you see so much horror round every corner, don't foist another mal-adjusted fuck-tard onto society.
It's been snowing on and off in Edinburgh since 22nd December, the roads have been treacherous at times and too many people have not the first clue how to drive in snow/ice conditions, which then exacerbates the travel problems.
I happen to live and work in the centre of the city, short of 50cm of snow dropping over-night, I will never have the excuse of "too much snow, I cant get in to the office" - it's at most a 30 minute walk to and from work.
So, to all those who say employers should shoulder the burden and pay up - what do I get ? I got to work, did the hours and went home again, should I be disadvantaged because I actually did the job i'm paid for ? Or should everyone remember that, for every person who wants a free day off, thats eating into the bonus/pay-rise of everyone else who didn't get the time off.
I'm all for being pragmatic and sensible, which covers such things as "getting to work would be dangerous, i'll not go in", but it also means that those in that same position have to remember that pragmatism works both ways - employers wont hold it against you for having taken the time off, but the employees mustn't expect to gain anything by not being in work.
. . . the issue isn't with Nexus, it's not with Android either, it's with the combination of the two.
According to Google, Android is the type of phone and the model is Nexus-n.
According to PKD, Android is the type of machine and the model is Nexus-n.
QED Google have nicked the naming convention.
After having an address that has existed for over 100 years, have decided that I cant have the same flat numbering system that has been in place for years. I'm guessing it's because their system doesn't cope very well with "flat 2f3" (2nd floor flat 3, not my actual address). Instead I get foisted with 7/13 (the 13th flat at number 7, no idea what floor it's on).
Any time I have to deal with companies that use the address system supplied using PAF, I have to accept the new address, which started appearing 2 or 3 years ago.
Bastards.
"Flag: Highlight any suspicious individuals, activities or websites to the relevant authority, including site admins, teachers or even police."
Who will be doing the high-lighting ??
Who determines what is suspicious ??
Who decides whom the relevant authority is ??
When can we vote these bozos out of office, I want my country back.
It's been a few years since I were at school (in that dim and distant past, when university places were only for those who earned them and were therefore fully funded), yet I remember a time with almost no homework and very few written notes.
Why ? The latter because I have a photo-graphic memory (no, really, it annoyed the living shit out of my peers in school) and the former because, well, we just worked harder when in school.
As for the story, when pamphlets like the Twilight saga and Dan Brown are considered literature, then we know just how far we've fallen from an educated populace.
As has already been posted, it's not your DNA thats kept, but a DNA profile (those lovely little black and white bar-graphs on acetate).
It's generally accepted that, at any one time, there are around 20 people in the world who have the same DNA profile as you.
When used correctly, a DNA profile can be damning evidence, but it has to be stacked up with evidence gained from old school policing - i.e. his car was parked outside the house, his mobile phone was on and in the house, he has no alibi and his DNA was found at the scene.
If the only evidence is the final one and given that, due to the worlds population in general not being particularly nomdic (by and large, people remain relatively close to the point they were born), the other holders of the same DNA profile are likely to be family members living in relatively close proximity, then there should be a reasonable doubt that the person in front of the jury may not be guilty.
This is why the DNA profile should never be the sole or even main piece of evidence to convict someone.
The problem is, that the DNA profile is being built up to stand on an ever higher pedestal as the determiner (whether true or not) in convicting criminals.
. . . if my ISP sends me a letter, claiming that I have been downloading something illegally (which is what it will do), does this not mean that I can then take the ISP to court for libel ?
At this point, it would be a civil and not criminal matter, which means that the level of evidence is on the balance of probabilities, not on the presumption of innocence. It would also mean that the ISP would have to prove I was guilty, not merely espouse a money-making machiens belief that I was guilty (the evidence of an IP swarm on a torrent would have to be able to stand up as being viable evidence and at no point have been able to be tampered with).
If i'm right - bring on the letters, i'm gonna be rich.
@Goat Jam
You, sir, are a retard. My single mother raised me and my brother from the age of 3 alone and the police never once visited our house, nor was she driven to overt corporal punishment (I think I can count on one hand the number of times it came to that) and yet, here I am, with a reasonably paid job, no criminal record and so on.
Idiotic fucking comments about single parents are not welcome.
@ Craig 28
Yes, it's true, there was lots of violence in the 50's, 60's and so on. The important difference was, it was targeted violence.
In the 50's, the teddy boys faught other teddy boys; in the 60's the mods faught the rockers; cant think who was fighting each other in the 70's; in the 80's it moved on to fights between rival football supporters.
Today, the violence is targeted at anyone and everyone, simply not being part of the culture is no safety feature for the majority.
So, I suggest you, perhaps, should look at the facts.
@spam 1
Surely carrying a number on a piece of paper is a bit tiresome and likely to be lost ? Surely there must be a better way . . . how about, off the top of my head, we tattoo the number on people, in an easily accessible place ?
I'm sure someone else thought of that at one time . . .
@ Captain Mainwaring
Yes, the Lisbon Treaty requires ID cards. It doesn't require a huge database though, nor does it require for fingerprints on the card.
In fact, the current UK driving licence, with little or no alterations, would cover the Lisbon Treaty.
. . . it may have been one additional piece of evidence, but the wording itself suggests that, at the precise time, he wasn't in sight of his parents.
So, go upstairs to room, log on to Facebook, leave script running, climb out window (away from road), do crime, get back home, in through window, eat pancakes.
Is that really that difficult to work out ?
Given you live in Scotland, I would have thought you would be completely aware that there is no such thing as trespass in Scottish law.
As long as the person causes no damage whilst crossing your property, you have no case. If they damage something, then you'd go after them for a criminal damage proceeding.
Note that the girl who died was 17, but followed by somebody claiming that StalkerBook is used by paedophiles.
Except, having sex with a 17 year old, in the UK at least, does not a paedophile make. The age of consent is 16.
It's yet another example of a media agenda to push people to think that sex under 18 = paedophile.
Anyway, it is the Sun, a newspaper deliberately written with a Kincaid reading level of 8 years old.
Having been through this personally and had the joy, as a staff association rep, to learn more about pensions and pension legislation than any sane person would possibly want to know, it's important to remember that :
accrued final salary benefits cannot be taken away
they haven't announced *how* it's being closed
The former point means that, workers who have years of FSP built up, will still get it, but how it accrues in successive years will need to be calculated (usually some calculation on RPI).
The latter is important - are they closing to new entrants (something most did years ago); are they stopping the accrual for existing members; plus many more.
Finally and particularly importantly, any change to a persons pension requires express consent, not implied or assumed.
True.
Sony/Phillips own the rights to CD's/optical media and receive, purportedly, 0.5 cents for every disk sold. Thats *every* disk, whether it's a blank or got something on it. The numbers go up *very* quickly.
The DVD Forum was set up because of all the standards patents that Sony/Phillips own, in a bid to stop another Beta/VHS format war, the DVD Forum was set up - the disk and reading mechanism covered by Sony/Phillips patents and the compression algorithm/security owned by (i think) Toshiba - it's the compression system that gives us the odd disk sizes (4.5 and 9 GB), it should have been 5 and 10.
"cp is illegal"
No, it's not, because countries have different definitions as to what actually constitutes "cp".
In the UK, taking a photo of your 17 year-old gf just after hanky-panky can be regarded as cp.
In the US, taking photos of young girls, clothed, in provocative poses is perfectly legal, but would get you some time in chokey in the UK.
What you've done, is fall in the media trap of calling everything "cp" and thusly watering down the actual issue - which is the problem of *actual* abuse (whether physical or mental) against children.
Are you high ?
Bridges to Babylon album released in 1997, followed by world-wide sell-out tour, Jagger's fourth solo album released in 2001, Stones' greatest hits in 2002 included new tracks and was followed by another sell-out tour, A Bigger Bang released in 2005 and again followed by a sell-out world-wide tour.
The Stones have done more since pimping Windows 95 than some bands ever achieve in their entire career.
On-line banking is pretty good, userid is easy enough to get, but pin number and password are entered as 3 digits of each, randomly requested and in a random order (basically, you'd need to be logging the whole page for a while to ensure you got the whole thing).
Once in, they can look at whatever they like and can even transfer money - but only to people already set-up on the system. To add a new recipient, you also need a little calculator looking thing and your Maestro card.
There may be a way round it, but simply hacking my PC's web access ain't gonna do it.
I hope to god you're a troll.
Whats held is a (usually partial) DNA finger-print.
Finding a person using that alone would almost certainly turn up dozens of false positives (at least 20 will have a precise match for your DNA profile, let alone the number that will have a match against a partial).
I could continue this rant for pages, but I find it easier to simply state that you are a dangerous idiot.
Need I say any more ?
This government has put more laws/crimes onto the UK statute books than had been created in the 100 years previously (there are now over 3,000 more crimes than before).
Yet we're told we live in a more unruly society than ever before. Surprising, since the number of riots are currently much reduced from the mid-80's and early 90's (poll tax, miners strike(s), other strikes etc etc).
This government increased the number of people involved in PR in number 10 almost four-fold from the previous administration.
The money spent on the (vastly) increased number of quangos could have paid off the entire national debt, had this been instigated at the beginning of their term in office.
Bah, they should be loaded into a massive trebeuchet and launched from Northern Ireland towards the US. Who cares if they make it or not.
The tired comment of "this would have prevented Soham".
How, exactly ? Huntley didn't work at the girls' school, he worked at another one (this fact is irrelevant, as he didn't attack a child from the school he was working at). Huntley's girl-friend worked at the school with the girls, which is where the contact came from.
She would have passed an eCRB check.
I've not checked, but are church based groups included in requiring checks ? Choir, Sunday school etc ?
I mean, thats a group that, as a whole, have more paedophile convictions and controversy than any other.
. . . i'd love to know anyone who has managed to successfully return and receive a refund for anything over 2 years old in the UK. Most shops refuse to believe you have more than a year, even when confronted with the (current) EU legislation which requires a 2 year guarantee in all member states.
I have the mis-fortune to have to suffer with Notes in the office and it is truly dreadful and I wouldn't dream of using it on a home machine, ever.
Vista, on the other hand, I have been quite happily using for over a year, on a custom built machine, built and designed to use it and it works perfectly, infinitely more stable than XP and when configured correctly (i.e. the way you want to work), it's a joy to use.
The number of people who i've heard of using Vista and their use amounts to installing, not knowing how to configure it (as it's different from XP) and giving up as it being the OS's fault.
MS were right to ditch the name, as it was synonomous with too many people as a failed OS (whether by their own knowledge or what they had read in the early days).
You really should check your history.
The US was founded by a group that left Europe due to being persecuted for their liberal attitudes.
The fact that in the intervening years you've allowed the nut-job religious groups to settle/control/over-whelm your country is entirely your own doing.
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