* Posts by David Webb

1003 publicly visible posts • joined 16 May 2007

Only Ubuntu left standing, as Flash vuln fells Vista in Pwn2Own hacking contest

David Webb
Gates Halo

@ Pierre re: malware

Simple solution, reboot the computer, insert Vista install DVD, boot recovery and then fire up the console, open terminal window, CD to the directory where the malware is, delete.

The terminal on the install disc is not subject to UAC and is logged in as administrator by default. Spending hours trying to solve a problem then blaming the OS when the issue could be solved in seconds is kind of silly.

Heck, you could even boot up a Linux live CD, mount the NTFS drive with read/write and delete it that way, you just went around the problem with the wrong solution.

Back on topic. The Ubuntu system was always going to win this, but it is nice to see MS (please, M$? it wasn't funny 10 years ago, it isn't funny now) taking a better stance at security, if only the 3rd party vendors would actually do the same. If the vuln in Flash didn't exist, then we would have Vista and Ubuntu remaining standing, a feat which would have been unheard of with XP.

Give it another decade or so, and maybe Linux will be ready to compete with Windows on the desktop, or, the most likely result, Apple's OS will start to get a pretty decent market share, then the EU will step in and force them to remove TPM, so PC users will be able to wonder why such a poor excuse for an OS is actually "popular".

Mozilla CEO blasts Apple for putting security of the internet at risk

David Webb
Gates Halo

EU should look

The EU should take a very close look at Apple. They use deceptive practicies that make Microsoft look angelic. They lock down their OS so it can only be sold on hardware they provide (no competition - I've already filed a complaint with the EU over this) and now they try to force their browser onto people who use their inferior software.

Microsoft has its issues, there is no denying this, but if MS were to do such a deceptive practice, you can bet your bottom Canadian dollar (not US dollar, they worthless these days) that they would be hauled before the DoJ and the EU fined billions of Euros and vilified by the Mac crowd.

Yes it has security implications, people who unknowingly install it as an update now have another piece of software from Apple, the company that will quite happily ignore a Critical Security for months on end, do you really want a company like this to put a browser on your computer?

The sooner the EU stop Apple's uncompetetive and deceptive practices the better, and the sooner people stop using their rubbish formats and switch to open standards, the better.

BAE bulging with cash and wardroids, worried about future

David Webb

Cash

Its all about the cash. We've always managed to maintain (just about) a decent military force, up until after WW1 we had the biggest navy in the world, but times change and so does money. Now the government is quite happy to spend billions upon billions on pensions for civil servants whilst killing the pensions of everyone else. This gov. has done nothing but waste money, then spend more money on trying to find out how they wasted the money, then spend more money trying to fix the problem they made in the first place, which causes more problems which brings in a catch 22 situation.

We will never be able to spend like the US spends on the military, the US spends too much, one major economic glitch and the US military will crumble faster than the Russians did when the USSR fell.

What we need is a sustainable armed force, one which we can afford to equip properly, what we really need is every member of the armed forces to hand in their resignation in protest at the way they are being treated, maybe then the government will take notice and give them the equipment they require (but without paying too much, naturally)

BBC mulls dropping Flash as iPlayer meets iPhone

David Webb
Gates Halo

Aye

As Chris said, its not about dropping the streaming service, its about improving the visual quality of the service without buffing up the size of the video. If memory serves me correctly the BBC made an open source codec a while ago? Maybe they will use that, or switch to Silverlight just to annoy the "no DRM" brigade, all 8 of them.

UK bank blames fraudsters for World of Warcraft ban

David Webb

Halifax correct

it isn't the fact that people are stealing your credit cards to pay for your account, its the fact that WoW accounts are compromised regularly, the credit card details are then used to purchase WoW accounts for RMT (who mostly are in China, so are outside US/UK legal channels).

Halifax have an obligation and a duty to protect their clients financial details and to do whatever they can to protect them from fraud, so just adding a hoop to jump through to ensure you are not the victim of fraud is a good thing. Sure it won't stop stupid people having their accounts stolen through keyloggers, but it may help prevent them from having fraudulent transactions.

ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue

David Webb

More Britney!

In reply to to the replies to my post which was replied to. Another post on El Reg somewhere points out that a fake news story was posted about a record label putting their library on the internet, the record label replied "we can't do that, we are not the rights holder, the artists are also!".

So, in relation to that, the people who connect to the torrent to download (and upload) Britneys music are not the rights holders by any means, the rights to any music is held by many people (I would guess any how), so unless they have permission from the rights holder to share the file (which would mean, that by connecting and sharing the file they transfer the rights to sharing?).

So no, I don't think the people who connect to a torrent and share a file could do so within the confines of the law, and if they did such a thing, would be sharing a file with people on a system designed to share with the permission to share the file (if they had such permission)

David Webb
Paris Hilton

Britney

Goodness, now we know what music El Reg hacks use whilst writing their stories!

Let me get this right though, the "rights holder" will download a torrent, fire it up and start to download content illegally from that there internet. Now, correct me if I'm mistaken, but is breaking the law to catch a criminal actually allowed? Are there not laws of evidence which will not allow any evidence gained by illegal means to be used as evidence in a court of law? The police for instance, cannot break into your house, search it for the AK-47 you hid under your bed and then proceed to use the AK-47 as evidence?

According to wiki:

Other admissible evidence may be excluded, at the discretion of the trial judge under 78 PACE, or at common law, if the judge can be persuaded that having regard to all the circumstances including how the evidence was obtained “admission of the evidence would have such an adverse effect on the fairness of the proceedings that the court ought not to admit it."

So looking at that, it would seem to suggest that if a case was taken to court, the pigolopists would not be able to use the IP addresses as proof, because the proof was obtained by illegal means. And without the proof of the IP address they would not be able to prove that you were downloading from the torrent so there would be no case to answer.

If anything though, everyone should stop using torrents and start using encrypted usenet, no way for the pigopolists to find out your IP address from that, is there?

Paris, because I remember downloading a.... movie.... of her's from a torrent once, was very dark.....

High Court orders Manhunt 2 release to be re-evaluated

David Webb
Thumb Up

Gogo bbfc!

The game should simply be banned because its total and utter rubbish, with RockStar playing their usual trump card "get the under 18's and idiots caught up in the violence hype, they will buy anything if they think its bad enough to be banned!"

However, unlike video's, video games are fully interactive, in a video it isn't *you* who is running around finding extreme violence as a method of problem solving. It *is* you with a Wii controller simulating violent murder.

We all know who this game will appeal to the most now, 15 year old kids who want "the cool game that got banned", the BBFC made the right decision the first time, and now that the judge has said the appeal was unlawful, the appeal board have to relook at their decision based on the judges comment and ban it, for good, then maybe RockStar will start to make good games or lose sales.

Video game ad banned for 'realistic' violence

David Webb

Missing the point

You appear to be missing the point, the ASA will happily allow adverts for violent games (Kane and Able or w/e) but if an advert is very much over the top then they will say "no, change it!". An advert for Resident Evil showing the STARS team blowing peoples heads off for instance, that wouldn't be allowed.

So getting on ones high horse for an advert which the ASA deemed innapropriate when they will allow it modified to meet their rules is a silly horse to get on. The Halo 3 advert didn't show any violence, and is a game just about shooting. Its not about the game itself, its about the advert for the game.

Censor to challenge Manhunt 2 release in court

David Webb
Thumb Up

Good job!

Kevin, Rockstar cannot go past the BBFC to publish the game over here, it has to have a proper rating from the BBFC.

I'm all for the BBFC banning this game, not only because Rockstar went past the limit, but because Rockstar knew the game was a load of tosh so made it as gory as possible to idiotic people would buy it to see what the fuss is all about.

A few years ago, picture postcards (the "rude" ones) were banned because they could "corrupt the moral fabric of society", these days we are much more liberal, but that really doesn't mean we can take liberties.

CompuServe France headed for the knacker's yard

David Webb

Memories

Ahh yes, Compuserve was my very first ISP way back yonder, before Freeserve came out, racking up £300+ phone bills. Funnily enough some of the Compuserve chatrooms are still active, you just need an AOL screen name to access them, luckily I have no desire to do such a thing.

Mum sends stripper to teenage son's school

David Webb
Joke

Ran outta the classroom....

So where did he run off too? As a 16 year old boy probably into the mens to sort out the things that pop up!

Camelot pulls scratchcard amid numerical anarchy

David Webb
Paris Hilton

Yay math

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher, not lower, than -8, but I'm not having it."

Goodness this girl is thick, maybe someone should have explained it in math she would understand.

If you borrow £6 off your mum till your giro arrives, and your sister borrows £8 to feed their 15 sprogs till their giro arrives, who owes the most to your mum?

Bloomin chavs these days.

Wonder if Paris Hilton can do math?

IBM grabs London congestion charge deal

David Webb
Coat

Must be 1984.....

Big Blue is watching you!

I'll get me coat....

UK gov advisor proposes 'licence to smoke'

David Webb
Thumb Up

Other taxables

Fast Food - Major health risk (high salt, makes you fat) - £500/yr

Alcohol - Liver disease, drink driving, anti-social behaviour (ironicly) - £500/yr

Being poor - General bad health, drain on social spending etc.. - £15,000/yr

How else is the government supposed to find the funds so they can retire on pensions at 60 whilst the rest of us have to work till we're 96 because of this current government?

Would I pay £200/yr to smoke? Hell no, many people would quit (and take advantage of the NHS Stop Smoking, costing gov. a fortune), the tax coffers would shrink and the whole country would be even more screwed than it already is.

@ the 100,000/yr deaths - thats a good thing, in 50 years that 5 million people who will die just from smoking and as we're going to have an extra 10 million people here, we'll have plenty of room!

Think again, FSF tells Microsoft on GPL3

David Webb

FSF Sucks

Previously the UK government brought in a law specifically to target one person who demonstrated outside Whitehall constantly. They brought in the law so the person went to court on won simply on the grounds his protesting was prior to the law coming into effect so it did not effect him.

Microsoft could use the same tactics, their agreement with Novell was before GPL so anything written into GPL3 comes after the contract so MS shouldnt be held by anything written into the GPL3.

Sony unveils PlayTV telly tuner for PS3

David Webb

Dollar Rate

"He said the accessory would be priced between $135 and $200"

So about £135 to £200 +VAT then? Love the $ to £ exchange rate these days.

Free software campaigners stonewalled at BBC

David Webb

WOW!

20 whole people showed up with their demands? A million people marched on London demanding we don't go to war with Iraq and look where that got us. And an ex-pat flew in from the US? Maybe he should fly back out to the US he obviously doesn't pay his licence fee so is not entitled to a say on the BBC.

BBC to advertise to foreigners

David Webb

Licence Fee

"All arguments FOR the license fee are based on the past."

Wrong, the BBC is able, through the unique way it is funded, to supply programmes which could be considered "a huge risk!". The sort of programmes commercial channels would not touch. Yes they also show a ton of crap appealing to the lowest common denominator, but they also show lots of high quality programming that otherwise would'nt be shown.

If the BBC were to go commercial they would have to try to compete directly with the other channels to appease their sponsors. As much as we all love Top Gear having it on every single day because it pulls in so many punters would be a bad thing, you would also probably lose sports that don't pull in huge figures (snooker for instance) as the viewing figures may not be high enough to pay for the rights to broadcast.

Then we get down to the fact that the BBC (because it doesnt have adverts) gives a lot more telly than commercial channels.

If we say that each hour we get 12 minutes worth of adverts. There are 24 hours in a day so each day we get 288 minutes of adverts a day, so every year we get hit with 1,752 hours or 73 days worth of adverts a year. Then you got to take into account *where* the adverts go, our 30 minute programmes will now be 24 minute programmes and our 1 hour programmes knocked down to 45 minutes worth of (dumbed down) content.

We should be thankful that we pay the fee and get the BBC, it gives us something to watch for 6 minutes whilst the other sides are showing adverts before the next programme starts, and dont even get me started on the horrible fad of sticking adverts 2 minutes after the show started (lost/smallville etc.)

David Webb

Both Dave

The BBC has two arms already Dave, their Public arm which shows BBC content on the telly without adverts and their commercial arm which pumps out DVD's, books and other items as a commercial entity.

As a resident of the UK however you are able to access the content you require (BBC News) on BBC News 24, you don't need the internet, the suggestion is that the BBC starts advertising their webcasts for non fee payers is "a good thing".

The question on if the BBC would then spend it on *big* content like paying £1m per episode of Lost is - no. They will still have to give the best value for money possible and paying huge amounts of cash for one programme is not value for money (they won't even pay £5m for Neighbours over 3 years).

iPhone's keyboard prompts patent violation suit

David Webb

I dont get it

I have a PDA which has a touchscreen pad appear, its one of them Palm Tungsten E things, it looks like the iPhone's keypad sorta so I'm not sure how this patent exists if there is previous keypads of this type?

Nokia to jump on music download bandwagon?

David Webb

Nope

Looks like a mobile phone to me, with a camera. Real question is if we'll get to download Lordi's Eurovision entry for free!

Vodafone pulls Facebook ads

David Webb

Pulling content

"More importantly if you pull the content to please the advertiser then they are shooting themselves in the foot by reducing the amount of people seeing their advert."

Image is everything. Would Labour really want an advert for the Conservative party on their YouTube videos? Companies obviously want us to trust their brands so would Orange/Voda/O2 really want their logo's plastered over videos of servicemen/women in Iraq having their heads removed with a large knife?

Consumer is king, and it would be a lot easier for the advertiser to pull their clients, and without advertisers a lot of sites would fall down dead.

David Webb

Panorama

Anyone watch Panorama? Media companies are being fired left right and centre because the big companies adverts are appearing on "questionable" content. The happy slapping videos on YouTube being one example.

Free Software Foundation plans protests at 'corrupt' BBC

David Webb

Sorta Right

Anon wrote : "1) The BBC has a duty of care to license-fee payers - all of them, not just those who have chosen to use Windows XP and Internet Explorer. Imagine the brouhaha if only Sony televisions could receive BBC1, only Samsung panels could show BBC 3 content (ok, so very few would notice that .. )"

The BBC has a duty to provide a service to as many people as is possible, but only upto a certain point. For instance, if Sony were to introduce a new TV set which is SuperHD or w/e which required a special signal, the BBC would be under no obligation to supply the signal for this TV. If however 500,000 people bought this TV set and then required the signal the BBC would be have to start transmitting this signal.

Yes its a silly analogy because no one in their right mind would bring an unsupported format, but if you apply it to the computer world, and use made up figures, lets say 10 million homes in the UK have DSL and of them 10% will use the iPlayer, thats 1 million computers. How many of them computers will be Windows XP, OSX, Solaris, Vista, Linux etc..? The BBC has an obligation and a duty to provide this service for Windows XP (largest market share), but does it really have a duty to make the iPlayer available for say, Windows Mobile? How about the PSP? Nintendo DS?

The BBC has to, and can only, do what is best for its shareholders (us) and by spending more than it should do on a minority system it would need to divert funds and shareholders really dont like that kinda thing.

David Webb

Free Software Foundation

So let me get this right, an American corporation (FSF) is demanding the BBC releases its protected content because it believes an American corporation (MS) is telling the BBC what to do?

I pay my licence fee every year so having some idiots from Boston threatening to throw their tea into the harbour unless the BBC starts giving away its content without DRM so people in any country with Linux can watch it, is nothing short of pathetic.

I'm all for a Linux version of the iPlayer when its viable and when DRM can be applied to the programmes so that people who are not supposed to watch it (i.e. people who are not in the UK) are unable to watch it.

The FSF demands a Linux player with the source code available, with the ability for them to modify the source code in any way they wish and that the code (modified) can be transfered anywhere.

A nice closed source iPlayer with restrictive DRM for Linux is the only option that is acceptable, the BBC has a duty to protect its content, it also has a duty to employ the best people for the job and if that means hiring people from Microsoft then thats what they have to do. FSF can go take a flying.....

US gov demands Saudi-BAE documents

David Webb

Just say no!

How often has the UK requested info from the yanks only to be told "no way". Most recent I can remember was the 2 bomber pilots that blew up British tanks, the courts asked the yanks for the videos, the yanks insisted they didnt exist. Naturally they did exist and it showed just how pathetic american pilots are but still.

Its like this Antiguia WTO thing, the US is all about protecting its own assets, as long as it gets what it wants everyone else can go jump.

Sky is 'silly' to whine about HD for All

David Webb

Rubbish!

"But our iPhones are only $500, your's will be 500 pounds (and the eurotrash will probably pay 800 euros). Gotta love that arbitrary exchange rate."

Total and utter rubbish. You can get a Nokia N73 for free with a PS3 thrown in (value £424.99 for the PS3). The UK phone market is fierce and just having the iPhone will not make people ditch their current provider, people for instance might want 3G or, you know, modern technology not that overpriced pile of rubbish that Apple are throwing out.

So whilst you are paying $500 for your mobiles, phone companies here are giving us $900 worth of toys and a free top of the line mobile phone, must really suck to have to pay for PS3's or X-Box's.

David Webb

Sky HD

Sky HD as far as I can tell only really has 3 channels in HD, Sky 1 and two movie channels, BBC is also on Sky HD (but you need to pay Sky to watch it).

If Freeview got HD content (HD BBC1/2/ITV/4/E4 etc.. etc.. etc..) then Sky will have major competition, a FTA service offering more channels than Sky in HD without the need to pay £199 for a box and a tenner on top of the £15 for 1 channel (Sky 1, its extra for the movies).

iPhone hack project aims to open up device

David Webb

Just wait a while

Grab the O2 version when its released here, then ring up O2 say "I wanna unlock this mobile please" pay the £35 and have a fully unlocked iPhone. Or better yet, get a Nokia.

BBC iPlayer finally hits the streets

David Webb

Channel 4...

"C4 is a privae company, not the BBC with its public charter and such. C4 could release their player solely for the Gameboy and would only be anwerable to its various shareholders, not the public at large."

Actually C4 was started by Thatcher with a charter to bring programming to minorities and minority interest, so technically C4's player should work only on Linux and not on Windows whilst the BBC must appeal to the mainstream - in other words how many PC's from the high street can you buy with Linux installed? - so should only supply iPlayer to Windows users.

This just stinks of Linux users throwing their toys outta their pram and crying because the BBC is being mean to them, live with it, Linux is a minority group and always will be, expect to always be bottom of the barrel, just below Mac's in pretty much anything media related, game related and you know, generally fun related.

BAE shares tank as US feds break cover

David Webb

Prime Minister Brown...

Going to be a tough one for him really. The US DOJ wants to investigate so will ask the powers that be in the UK and Saudi Arabia for documents. The question is if Brown will bend over and say "take me" whilst handing them over, or refuse to hand them over to the yanks.

I'd suspect that as the ex-chancellor he knows only too well how much dosh UK.plc gets from its deals with the Saudi's, he'll also know how much we ripped off the Saudi's and how much we'll make selling them 72 Eurofighters.

The US probably wants to investigate so the Saudi's pull out of the Eurofighter deal with BAE so start looking elsewhere (the US maybe?) for new fighters, but can they really afford to annoy them? Pretty much all the Saudi oil money is stored in $ in US banks, it would be quite easy for them to transfer it over to the UK and change it to £ or € and start selling their oil in €, which the US wouldnt like one bit.

So at the end of the day, the only people who can actually lose from this investigation is the Americans, Whitehall won't hand over anything which may implicate themselves, the Saudi's don't believe they have done anything wrong and I'm sure a gentle reminder in the ears about the "possible reduction in aid" to some countries will shut them up too.

Two year old's IQ on a par with Hawking

David Webb

Mensa's Number

Their number is easy to find!! If a shuttle leaves Venus travelling at 1/2 the speed of sound (the speed of sound in space) and another uses the gravity of the 4th nearest star to propell itself towards the other using no other means of propullsion, and on the 2nd shuttle is a huge bath who's tap is running and filling the bath 0.4% per second, but the plug is not plugged in, and so the bath is losing water at the rate of the speed of the second shuttle divided by the number Pink. Then you get their number!

PlusNet does Pole dance for migrants

David Webb

Welsh?

So a British ISP will give Polish, but not Welsh? The Welsh are forced to learn English, the Polish should be forced to learn Welsh!

Open sourcers rattle EU sabre at BBC on demand player

David Webb

What about digital?

Not everyone in the UK has digital TV, which is accessed either by Freeview, Sky or NTL so they are unable to get BBC3/4/News/CBBC etc.. Apparently 10 million people in the UK are unable to get these channels yet they pay the same fee as everyone else.

OSS fanatics need to grow up, the BBC is not built to cater for them, they are built to get their service out to as many people as possible as cheap as possible and by using a service which will not require Joe Average to download a myriad of codecs from OSS fanatics is a good thing.

I would be incredibly annoyed if the BBC spent hundreds of thousands on creating a DRM so that a tiny minority of people *could* watch their shows and of that tiny minority, how many would actually use the service? It would be a waste of money, so OSS should shut up and use this thing called "a video recorder" it will allow you to watch BBC programmes you may have missed over the past 7 days - or is VCR not OSS?

Manhunt 2 shut out by Sony and Nintendo

David Webb

You Cant

"Where can I get a copy of this baby? Will it be available as a download, perhaps hosted somwhere with a less restrictive moral majority?"

No where, RS cannot publish the game now, Sony/Nintendo will not allow it to be played on their devices in America, its banned in the UK so hopefully the game will be deleted.

Odds are though RS will edit the content (for edit read release the edited copy they already posess which will get an M rating and an 18 rating) and use the free publicity they are getting about this game to generate huge sales. So people with low intelligence will again purchase a crap game simply because its supposed to be so evil etc..

Brown asks cops for gadget wish list

David Webb

Watch TV

"Well, if we're just making up whatever we wish and presenting it as the truth, let me continue the story"

Seriously, watch one of them fly on the wall cop shows, the one with the traffic cops are good. Camera man on the scene filming it as it happens, you see the cops burst in with their big sticks, raid the place and find drugs. Or they pull someone over and find drugs on them, or they... lots of stuff.

Then you get the bloke at the end sayin "charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence", lack of evidence? They have a camera man with them, showing the coppers finding drugs, a camera for heavens sake, with a professional camera man filming it IN HIGH DEFENITION. No wonder moral among cops is low, they are getting persecuted by the people for the governments actions - news flash, vote Labour and your going to lose a lot more civil liberties, and a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for Scottish MP's to rule over England.

"Except it bollocks, they don't fill in any such 'human rights' form."

And you would know that because? I'm down in the South West, they already have coppers with cameras on their heads patrolling Plymouth, its no big deal, its just another CCTV except mobile and will help in a coppers case.

David Webb

Nope

""It would also help if they could cut down the 6 hours of paperwork needed when you arrest someone... that's mostly so you can prove the drug dealer is having his human rights respected... just after he beat the stuffing out of a 90 year old."

If you think your judge and jury, you are seriously unfit to be a police officer."

I thnk the point the chap was trying to make is that instead of being out on the beat being a crime prevention device, said chap is stuck behind a desk for hours on end filling in paper work to show that the rights of the arrested individual are not being passed over. If there was a device that would allow said officer to quickly fill in a form which shows the alledged criminal's human rights are being kept intact then that would be a bonus.

And also no, police officers are neither judge nor jury, infact most judges and jury are not, most cases go before the CPS who decides "ok, they found drugs on the person, and a baseball bat with the 90 year olds blood on it in his car with his fingerprints on it, and they have a signed confession, ahh well not enough evidence to prosecute, lets drop the case"

Brits to US tech firms: we need you!

David Webb

Wordplay

"Did our Home Secretary really say '... that US competitors "Samsung, Panasonic, NEC, and HTC" were "conspicuous in their absence.'?

Last time I looked Samsung were Korean, Panasonic and NEX Japanese and HTC Taiwanese. I didn't know these were US states. Did I miss some important news? How does the PRC feel about the US annexation of territory they consider and integral part of China?"

I guess they meant "Competitors of US firms"

Manhunt 2 banned

David Webb

Weird

"I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong but surely it's only an offence for someone in the UK to sell a banned title. What can the British Government do if somebody in France buys a load of copies and sells them over the net? (other than try to seize them in the mail) Can they really get a European arrest warrant for that?"

Free trade within the EU, people in Europe would be breaking their own countries laws by importing into the UK something which was illegal here. Like Holland, cannabis is legal, but if you tried to import that into the UK your a drug smuggler and will be arrested in Holland. If you tried to send Nazi flags to Germany, you'd be arrested here.

The BBFC is always going to take stick over anything it bans, we believe in civil liberties, we believe that we have a god given right to watch whatever we want on our TV's and if RockStar bring out a game where the "star" is a child molester and the aim of the game is to abuse children, it better get an 18 certificate because we have a god given right!! Except we don't, there are boundries on taste, thats why there is still a 9pm watershed, Manhunt 2 goes beyond what could be classified as entertainment and into the realms of sadistic, brutal, where you get to remove someones head and use it for a weapon - with much detail.

David Webb

Jail time ahoy

"I wonder how long it will take for some enterprising soul from another EC country to start "exporting" them to the UK. I'd do it if I had access to PAL versions."

Only if they want to end up behind bars, what you are talking about is a criminal offence.

Must have game? Not really, you would need a chipped console to play this game, The fact of the matter is that the BBFC has stated the game had no redeeming features. We all know Saw 3 is bad, and responsible people wouldn't allow their 12 year old to watch it, but when it comes to console games, an 18 rating is meaningless.

Hopefully game makers will take note of this and put more thought into a game. Yes the BBFC has banned lots of movies in the past, and some (not all) are now unbanned, times change so for the BBFC to have banned this game it must be nothing short of gratuitous rubbish.

AT&T sued by poor man's Formula 1

David Webb

Herbie

Come on, Herbie won a NASCAR race! A VW Beetle designed by Hitler and driven by a girl!

A F1 car can go from standing to 100mph back to 0 (without hitting a tree) in 5 seconds! A F1 car gave 2 Merc's a 70 second head start at silverstone, and still won. If it wasnt for the fact that traction is an issue, an F1 car can hit 100kph in 1 second.

Mind you, a lot of the technology from F1 cars ends up in normal cars, everything from aerodynamics to the flappy paddle gearbox, if we ever want a car that can only go in a straight line unless there are banks for it to turn around, maybe NASCAR can give us some hints.

BTW, World SuperBikes > F1+NASCAR, cause bikes are just cooler ;)

US prof plans to send message back in time

David Webb

Hmm...

So his plan is to send back in time a message, but who will recieve it and know they have recieved the message? Unless he is waiting at the time when said message is supposed to arrive, in which case if it doesnt arrive does he class it as a failiure in which case he doesnt send the message because he knows it doesnt arrive, which would then explain why it doesnt arrive.

Or if it does arrive, does he get so excited he forgets to send the message causing a fracture in the space time continuum destroying the entire Universe and making me miss the next series of Lost?

Time travel is confusing.

Hello, Apple PR. Dr. Freud will see you now

David Webb

Ashlee is British?!?

"and your wife was all a-flutter over 'veronica mars' being given the boot??? sheesh. so much for the myth about you brits having better taste than us. if it had been something half decent like 'heroes,' 'lost' or the new 'battlestar galactica,' which has actual very good brit actors in it, i might have garnered some sympathy for you two."

Good grief, so pointing to your Americanism, paying in $ and living in the US in your article is a disguse to the fact your actually British Ashlee?!?

David Webb

Cancel the Mac

Cancel the Mac, get a (cheaper) Windows based laptop and stick Linux on it, at least the rabid Linux crowd (in Roman times, we used to chuck Mac users and Linux users into the Ampitheather in Caerleon, the fights were great but really annoyed the Christians) will invite you to a Linux expo next week!

Cornish separatists menace Jamie Oliver

David Webb

In Reply

""Of course it would. Everything in Cornwall now has a tourist premium added on top of it."

Great, so now all those unemployed people formerly employed by the tourism industry can afford the slightly cheaper prices... oh, wait, they haven't got any money."

Except tourism is seasonal and prices don't adjust to be cheaper off season simply because the tourists are gone, the tourist premium is 365 days per year, so without the tourism premium people would have more money.

Yes tourism is the major employer, mind you the money from tourism goes to companies like Tescos, Boots, Woolworths, W H Smiths, Butlins you know, all the large companies who build their stores all over the place, which tourists are familiar with and use. As a local I do my best to support local business. If I need something from Jewsons, I'll check if the hardware store has it first. Halfords? Local car parts store first.

"So we'll get rid of all the jobs in catering, hospitality, entertainment, cleaning, etc and do what exactly?"

I dunno, maybe stop looking for handouts? If India and China can pull themselves out of the dark ages and turn it around, why cant Cornwall? Probably because of all the NIMBY idiots who use the excuse "but it will damage tourism if you do that!"

Cornwall needs regeneration, it needs to get people out of tourist jobs and into real work. Go to Redruth and have a look around, you'll see a big stone plaque dedicated to the guy who invented the safety fuse. Favourite son of Penzance? Humphry Davy, his student? Michael Faraday. Newlyn crafts, much sought after.

David Webb

Jup

"LMAO - you sound just like my mother. Cornwall is one of the poorest regions in the whole of Europe and you think depriving the area of its main source of income would actually help things?"

Of course it would. Everything in Cornwall now has a tourist premium added on top of it.

115,000 people went to the isles in 2001, not bad for a place with only 2,000 or so inhabitants. That means Scilly has to have the infrastructure to cope with not the 2000 people who live there, but the 115,000 people that travel there every year.

Your council tax has to pay to empty the bins filled up with lolly pop sticks, and for the road workers to pick up empty pasty bags, to repair the roads which are overused (remember, no motorway in Cornwall, just the A30). Your water rates have to supply water to the tourists, flush their toilets.

And then we get onto the job front. You wanna IT job in Cornwall? Got your qualifications that'll earn you 45k in London? Good job, you might be able to get minimum wage in Cornwall, heck before minimum wage you would have got 80p an hour.

Then we can move on to the high unemployment which keeps the wages low, with so many people going for the same job the person advertising the job knows they can put minimum wage down and still get some numpty applying.

And shall we continue onto off season? Tourists all gone, so all the people who were employed to cover the tourist season now find themselves down the job centre waiting for next year so they can wait hand and foot on people who can afford to come here on holiday.

Without tourism Cornwall would be forced to get off its lazy backside and actually try to get an industry going, it wouldnt have the tourists to blame for its high house prices or high water rates. Instead people put up with it and that is why Cornwall will continue to recieve Objective One status from the EU, why minimum wage will be the common offer and why tourism is bad for Cornwall.

David Webb

Truro

"If my only experience of an English city was Plymouth I'd be pretty pro-Independence as well."

The Capital of Cornwall is Truro, a nice city with a beautiful cathedral, Plymouth is in Devon a different county.

Cornwall without toursim would actually get better btw, tourism is pretty much ruining Cornwall because that is how it is seen, as a place to go and get a tan during the summer months. You have people who own second homes here, or people who buy many homes to rent them out during the summer months to tourists.

The water rates in Cornwall, highest in the country and of course, tourists don't pay for them do they? The hundreds of thousands who come and use our state of the art water facilities, then expect locals to pay and then feel grateful that you pay people in other parts of the country to stay here.

So yep, we're so happy you come down here, that our water rates are the highest in the country, that you come litter our beautiful countryside, get drunk, make lewd suggestions at our local girls, clog up our roads, and then expect us to pay for it.

Apple's Safari 3: a crashing experience for non-US users

David Webb

Its Beta so..

@ Rupert Stubbs

"... you've never used one before?"

Indeed, many beta's infact and the aim of Beta software is to attempt to remove the last batch of bugs that are not found in Closed Beta and can only be found by large scale testing.

@ Kenny Millar

"And please remember, people who join beta programmes (which is exactly what you did when you downloaded the BETA) do so to help improve the product; to find and report bugs back to the developers and to generally imporve the user experience for others."

Very hard to test software which is so flawed it does not work thereby removing the ability to test the software. Beta software should be almost ready for production, it should have the basics done (as in, a browser that actually lets you read web sites, surf the internet, renders content correctly and doesnt crash whilst doing basic stuff). Safari cannot manage such simple things, it should be considered Alpha not Beta, not suitable for public testing and confined to the recycle bin, for good.

Five things Sony needs to do save the PS3

David Webb

PS3, no thanks

I would never touch a first generation PS again, the PS1 had major problems (fixed in the slim version) and the PS2 has major problems (again, fixed with the slim version).

Then you add in the fact that region wise, the EU PS3 is in the same as Africa, at least with DVD's we can watch Japanese movies, the PS3 movie wise is worthless to people who enjoy Anime from Japan and now cannot watch it on Blu-Ray unless they either buy a Japanese import or a 3rd party Blu-Ray.

No hardware support for PS2/1 titles, we get stuffed with software emulation and still pay more?

FFXIII? No where near a killer app, FFVII remake (based on the tech demo) yes, but the FF series is generally getting worse ever since Enix and Square became Square Enix.

Then you have to remember that Sony is Japanese and in Japan PC's are not what the cool people have, they have consoles.

As for me I'll probably buy a Wii, my first non-sony console since the Mega Drive.