Posts by John 98 117 posts • joined 14 Oct 2009
What is this rant? If you are so stupid that you need endless reminders to tell you motorways have a speed limit, perhaps you shouldn't be driving. And the limit is there for a reason - 70 is the design speed of the road for a start.
Yes, the EU may catch a cold if the talks go nowhere (one imagines the most likely outcome as any number of lobbies in Europe will insist of this or that) but the only slight problem is that we will have a bad case of flu. Our only negotiating card is "If i commit suicide, you'll have a nasty mess on the floor to clear up".
On the primitive island I live on, chip & pin transactions take a second or two at train stations and major stores. Even mom and pop with dial up usually get an answer pretty quick. EMV is not very difficult (for anyone) and stops a lot of crime - what is the problem over there? Not invented here, blocked by the mafia lobby? Or what?
Generally it takes 30 - 40 years for scientific discovery to become commercial product. Look at gas lighting, electricity (Faraday, Maxwell to Tesla - 3 phase supply - and Edison - light bulb). Semi conductors etc. etc. So the government may be right but we need to persevere for another 10 -15 years. Meantime we are probably building up an expert community both on graphene and other 2d materials.
Sceptics should note UK has a long history of giving up on these things at the wrong moment - APT on the railways is now in service round the world (including here) courtesy of the Italians who got the technology off us for almost nothing.
Generally it takes 30 - 40 years for scientific discovery to become commercial product. Look at gas lighting, electricity (Faraday, Maxwell to Tesla - 3 phase supply - and Edison - light bulb). Semi conductors etc. etc. So the government may be right but we need to persevere for another 10 -15 years. Meantime we are probably building up an expert community both on graphene and other 2d materials.
Sceptics should note UK has a long history of giving up on these things at the wrong moment - APT on the railways is now in service round the world (including here) courtesy of the Italians who got the technology off us for almost nothing.
Don't quite see how allowing multinationals to continue fiddling their tax in UK is a Brexit benefit. Some of us might think rather the opposite.
The Irish government cut a deal with Apple which was and is illegal under Irish law. The executive overstepped the mark and is now being challenged in court. Poor Apple when they are paying no tax anywhere and were probably fully aware that their cosy deal was illegal? Come, sir!
well - maybe. I'm no expert but the Germans have a big say and they are very touchy on government overreach, illegal surveillance etc, (aftermath of Hitler) and European law generally assumes rights apply to everyone, whereas US law is more rights are for citizens only. So you might be better protected in Europe - though it's worth noting in this case (as others on this thread have) that the Irish government was offering to help the FBI get a warrant through the Irish courts.
Kundly define terrorist. And be careful - you could find the USA, UK and many other states fit your definition better
No it proves they are alien bases built by creatures from another universe.
There was actually talk of ceasing to share ULTRA with the US. Churchill decided the political hit of doing so outweighed the risk of losing the data. So maybe little has changed?
I was the minion who dished out laptops and phones. In the end you find honest, competent valued people lose them and you have to accept it and plan round that. So I am not surprised or shocked that an outfit the this size has lost 100. I would welcome, though, some reassurance about what data was on them and how well it was protected
Being old enough to remember the Suez Crisis, I can tell you we had already lost our national sovereignty by 1956. Wake up, smell the coffee
If the European Union is undemocratic, some simple research will reveal that the UK government has steadfastly blocked attempts to remedy things, much to the frustration of many in Brussels.
If we leave, we have no idea (nor negotiating cards, btw) what trade deals we will get with either US or EU. It is a leap in the dark. Watch Boris when the Yanks tell us to sign up for Schengen or starve
This is before the other stuff - 3 million odd British living in Europe, Scots wanting independence, pound already fallen 10%,
On the ownership issue, is this deliberate obfuscation? A wizard wheeze which guarantees it's impossible to pin down who is responsible for anything? Or am I just confusing conspiracy and cock up?
The government collecting this data may be (even though the US investigation suggests not) a necessary evil, but even then it should be out in the open, as limited as possible and tightly controlled by judges - not bureaucrats or politicians.
The mere fact it exists, especially given the governments dire record on IT projects, means it will be misused by politicians and staff who are political fanatics, paedophiles, identity thieves, spies or terrorists (or have been blackmailed or bribed by same). It will also inevitably be hacked or tampered with ...
The condescending, nanny knows best, attempts by our politicians to have us ignore these obvious risks is deeply depressing and disturbing.
This is, of course, a good argument against Brexit - Brussels will probably torpedo this assault on our liberty, which our spineless parliament proposes to rubber-stamp.
When applied to the military, it meant not buying equipment for anything (it neatly answered the charge of preparing for the last war). Squaddy solution No.1 - nick it off the Yanks.
Where I worked (a nameless multinational) it meant not preparing for anything - any problem, however predictable, was greeted by the same panic. The firm has since been taken over ...
Management jargon of the worst kind, but great for the consultants who get hired with the money that should have been spent on decent kit.
The bottom line is that the European equivalent of the Supreme Court has ruled that the current systems breach folks' constitutional rights in Europe. Any agreement, whether the European and US executive branches or the companies like it or not, has to address that issue to succeed.
If the US government is saying the entire planet is, however, under American law, perhaps they should give about another seven billion people citizenship and a vote.
And the companies - their lawyers must have seen this coming years ago and they did nothing. I guess a billion dollars a day in fines will concentrate minds wonderfully on a restructure to cover the situation. Not very difficult, European subsidiary owns servers in Europe ...
I suggest requiring MPs (or candidates) to stand down should anything come up on their check ,,,
Sounds like the US may end up out of step with the rest of the planet, and live to regret it. Maybe someone with greater knowledge can enlighten us? Is there any consensus elsewhere on how to use this spectrum - seems 5.9 and 600 are already spoken for?
Sounds like sensible (and long overdue) overhaul needed because they have no idea of who is inputting data nor of who is copying and extracting it. In such a large outfit there must be staff open to bribery or blackmail. So what exactly have the Russians, Chinese, ISIS and the Mafia walked off with (or maybe inserted, deleted, changed)? If the incompetence is really so great, one need hardly bother with conspiracy theories to get seriously worried...
I have worked in a polling station and yes, they are linked. However, it needs a court order (which can only be given if there is reasonable suspicion of fraud) to get the linking paper unsealed and everybody involved is personally responsible if anything naughty comes to light. After that, you are not searching a database, you are trawling through a mound of paper. Obviously there is the "What if Hitler gets in?" issue but, on t'other hand, it does mean there is evidence to lock people up for fraud.
It won't only be be Uncle Sam demanding a backdoor - there will soon be 200+ plus other governments saying use of same software without their backdoor too is illegal. Then, soon after, it will be illegal to use it with any other government's backdoor open. Happy travelling ....
Apple tried messing with a European court a year or two back and finally realised they were getting themselves into very deep, brown, sticky stuff. One doubts the court would consider your T & Cs valid. Just maybe if your client is a sophisticated, international organisation, but not with the average consumer. Try the same stunt on a US court, and see how far you get.
One imagines that the Chinese have used all this data to quietly log in to a multitude of systems using the accounts of users with little technical knowledge, or concern for security, with easliy guessed passwords. They may well have reams of other background information, plus of course the abilty to cause chaos whenever they wish. And an amusing thought, they may have known for quite a while all about what the NSA and CIA have been up to round the world. Maybe more than Snowdon? And maybe been allowing some misleading "hacks" into their own systems for good measure?
Let's hear it for the little guy, who faces unfair competition from multi-nationals paying no tax anywhere. There is an argument for ensuring these companies pay tax, since government is unfortunately a necessary evil and has to be paid for.
One can look at their global profits (a number they have reasons for declaring and maximising) and tax them on a percentage thereof, the percentage of global sales in your country. Seems to me a treaty along such lines would give each government a fair share and the multinational pays taxes like everyone else. The actual rate - and permissible write offs for R & D etc. - on its home share would be a matter for each government, while the company can of course simply stop business in a state which sets a stupid rate.
Or so the "experts" used to say in the twenties - they would only encourage reckless driving. Every safety improvement on cars draws a lunatic response. Furthermore, why shouldn't cars have a black box - aren't the rest of us entitled to know whether a potentially lethal piece of kit was being operated safely in a public space?
I think you need to demonstrate that the wreck is far enough from the islands to be outside US territory to get the pedant's prize. And, maybe the Navy wanted it in territorial waters where they could easily deny access should the need arise.
The old rule, I believe still in force, was that lampposts generally imply a 30 limit (unless over 7 meters tall). Parliament in its infinite wisdom apprently thought the average driver could easily tell ...
The examiner in effect considers whether he would find it frustrating following somebody so slow. Obviously though, there is a problem if a sign is missing - perhaps another argument for having a camera on board so you can appeal the verdict. BTW, on the examiner's own test to get the job, you need to drive as fast as is safely and legally possible. So, on the motorway 65= Fail, 75= Fail, unless the tester agrees the conditions require it.
IF the US company (GM, Ford) uses a local subsidiary, that company is bound by EU law. The US can order the US owner to deliver, but the local staff and board will have a legal duty to refuse.The end ...
This is what comes of letting a gang of politicians hide in a smoke filled room. About time these meetings were in public and minuted so we can all see who got a brown envelope.
only a probe? - they may pose all sorts of threats. Obviously there should be lavish funding to hack their networks and monitor potential terrorists seeking to operate from Antartica.
A strangeness scale. Excellent idea, but we dedicated Reg. readers need to know what the official Reg. celestial strangeness unit is going to be. The "weirdo" doesn't seem entirely suitable...
I understand the rail companies have internal uses for high speed data between train and track - maintenance of both, tighter control of trains to save fuel, achieve capacity increases etc.etc. The current gsm-r is to be replaced and a new much faster system is to be installed along all tracks. Some genius has worked out (and got it on the agenda) it should be used for passenger wifi. As ever, there are international standards to be ratified, kit to be tested and so on so it will take a while.
Same as the US could save loads of money by using Glasnost. Remember, the US has been known to put pressure on other nations in various ways including denying use (or the threatening to deny use) of GPS.
Is that the British government, the chief advocate of an EU run by quango and smoke filled room (the Council of Ministers) has achieved its goal. Other denizens of the smoke filled room and quango have been known to point out the absurdity of the situation - news carefully suppressed in the UK in favour of rants about "remote and unaccountable Brussels" by the architects of said absurdity.
Confessions are unusable in court in many countries. I am no great fan of the legal profession, but fair dos, some of them got here centuries ago and drew the right conclusion.
I believe any creditor of a plc can, after 28 days, have the company declared bankrupt. I know a guy did it to Rolls Royce in the 70s. The magistrates gave RR a 24 hour stay on condition the MD appeared in person first thing the next morning to grovel (and pay - cash).
There are no aliens - the limited size of the dome over the earth precludes their existence. The unexplained sightings were either dragons or the KGB.
A fair few, of course - it's bound to happen (I was the guy who handed them out). The replacement cost is annoying, but peanuts in the great scheme of things. As somebody pointed out, the issue is what data is on them. Hopefully none
Hmm - a bum on a seat costs a six figure number p.a. nowadays, so - provided the users are achieving anything useful at all (I too have doubts) - the ithingy only needs to add 1% or less to their output to pay for itself. Perhaps the most pertinent question is how many data collators, support staff and other lesser minions have ithings (and sensible uses for them)?
Any country banning any technology (for any reason but typically national security) runs the risk of losing out. If the West chooses to ban good ideas from China or Russia, we may hurt ourselves more than them - and fall behind.
So presumably anybody on the affected network has their phone battery flattened as the thing shouts away at the top of its voice? That could add up to a lot of inconvenience before we consider the legal aspects ...
If you have access to enough camera feeds, police logs etc., surely you can do everything he claims - E & O E, as someone has pointed out? As Freedom of Information brings various benefits, it also brings this rather dubious one. Short of passing a law (unenforceable) against data mining - ha! ha! - I suspect we have to learn to live with it.
Freedom of information = Death of Privacy - discuss! I feel a Reith Lecture coming on.
This obviously raises plenty of questions, but then it won't happens for years yet and stopping drunks, bank robbers or little old ladies driving the wrong way down the motorway does have attractions. I don't think the technical problems are insurmountable - and with driverless cars coming, it may work out at telling the car to park at the next lay-by so Mr. Plod can have a word.
On the legal side - the main reason Brussels is undemocratic is because the UK government has tirelessly lobbied for exactly that. The EU is run from a smoke filled room (the Council of Ministers) with no minutes, public scrutiny etc. And guess who has always insisted on that?
Dave obviously wasn't in my local. Power corrupts, and anyone handed the power these people are being given will be corrupted. Once they are corrupted, we'll all be wondering if we weren't better off with Al Quaeda ...
I'm not American, but - IF the facts are roughly right - I would be worried about (i) how private corporations are getting to spend my tax dollars and (ii) the stupidity and arrogance of the agents. In my travels, including behind the Iron Curtain (and no, I wasn't a fan) about the rudest officials I ever met were in the US. Not all ,but some
One is always wary of more regulation, but - since the average punter can't help themselves much on this - maybe ISPs should have a legal obligation to ensure their kit is secure. At the risk of annoying UKIP, this might be a job for Steely Neelly.
Oh - and the shotgun video was a brave move. I don't suppose NSA will get stressed, but will GCHQ report him to about 96 different agencies?
systemd with faint praise
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