* Posts by Graham Marsden

6899 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jan 2007

100,000 'erroneous' records on DNA database

Graham Marsden

How many records...?

> How many records have got the wrong data attached to them?

We'll find out when people start being arrested in Newcastle for crimes committed in Newquay...

Judge in tech trial says he 'doesn't know what a website is'

Graham Marsden

Umm...

Does the expression "Popular Beat Combo" ring any bells?!

Not to mention Not the Nine o'Clock News' version of the gag...

Fraudsters feast on credit card scam

Graham Marsden

Follow the rules...

> London restaurants should be wary of any orders they may receive over the telephone where the customer wants to pay with more than one credit card, especially when punters say the order will be collected by taxi.

This sounds like those restaurants have failed to pay attention to the rules set down by their Card Processing service.

Nat West's Streamline cautions users that any transaction, especially Cardholder Not Present, where the purchaser offers to pay with more than one card should be treated as suspicious and that goods should never be handed over to a third party.

Also if someone offers to pay CNP and then comes to pick up the goods, the retailer should cancel the CNP transaction and process the card physically.

I don't doubt that other Card Processors have similar rules.

MySpace stands firm on paedophile data pressure

Graham Marsden

Try a little rational thought...

> MySpace and every other social networking site should be very willing to help law enforcement get these people off the street and not offer the opportunity to molest again. It is because of attitudes such as this, which makes these perverts feel safe to continue to ruin live of people.

No, it is because of attitudes like yours that people cannot have a rational discussion of this subject and want to sacrifice all of our fundamental liberties because of fallacious "think of the children!" arguments.

> Loss of these civil liberties is a very small price to pay to keep a child alive

No, it is too high a price to pay because parents are lazy.

It is the job of *parents* to take care of their children, not the State and not Myspace. The internet is not a child minding service which will look after the kids whilst the parents put their feet up, if you have a child you cannot abdicate your responsibility to someone else running a program at the end of a broadband connection.

MPs must act on runaway ID project

Graham Marsden

Err, yeah, you've got a point...!

> Colin Langham-Fitt, acting chief constable of Suffolk Constabulary [...] described how non-convicted suspects might become stigmatised by having their details retained on criminal databases.

Phew! It's a good job that sort of thing isn't happening already with people's DNA, isn't it...?

US 'war czar' to attack internet safe havens

Graham Marsden

Oh well, that's ok then...

Don Mitchell:

> I for one am not happy about the anarchy of the internet. When someone post a video of a kidnapped contract worker being beheaded, we should be able to locate the origin of that post and get the people who did it.

Absolutely, after all, we should surrender all of *our* basic rights and freedom of expression etc as long as there's a vague hope that somehow, at some time, repressing all those liberties might save a single life...

MP questions police computer policy

Graham Marsden

DNA Records?

> his concerns were initially prompted by the case of constituent who had been wrongfully arrested and received an apology from the local chief constable, but whose details have remained on the PNC.

And, presumably, since he was arrested, his DNA has also been taken and recorded and we all know that the Police are *so* willing to take DNA details off their databases...

Useless government IT adds self-nomination features

Graham Marsden

Yes, but...

"he executed the e-petitions strategy which has resulted in many millions of people engaging with the website..."

They forgot to add "and being ignored or fobbed off with bland platitudes and irrelevant twaddle."

Still, as long as it makes the little people feel as if the Government actually gives a damn about what they think...

US states press MySpace to give up sex offender data

Graham Marsden

Yes, but...

So there may be paedophiles operating on Myspace and it would help law enforcement agencies protect our children if Myspace turned over their data to them.

Great, after all, who could argue against something to protect children?

Except witchhunts like Operation Ore comes to mind. What happens if (when!) someone is falsely "identified" because they have the same name as a genuine offender or they're a victim if ID theft or simple human error?

And then what follows? Will the Department of Homeland Security start demanding information "just in case there's any terror suspects using Myspace to plan attacks"? Or people just expressing "Un-American sympathies"?

This sounds to me like another data mining/ fishing expedition by those who think the best way to "protect" our liberties is by knowing everything there is to know about us and ignoring that fundamental liberty called "Presumed innocent unless proven guilty"...

Biofuels are the 'next environmental danger'

Graham Marsden

Nuclear fission, no thanks

Andrew:

Fusion doesn't yet work and probably still has many years of research and a lot of money before it does.

Fission just leaves an expensive mess for the future to sort out.

iPods 'mess with pacemakers'

Graham Marsden

MP3 players and heart rate monitors

I've noticed that my MP3 player can sometimes cause interference with my heart rate monitor (Polar brand, with a chest strap and wrist readout) to the extent that I sometimes get a reading of 233 beats per minute.

It seems to be mostly when my wrist is close to the player because the distance between the player and the chest strap doesn't change.

UK ID card costs climb £600m in six months

Graham Marsden

Schengen

Silas:

John Reid said "A modern society also required people to prove their identities when they crossed borders"

It doesn't matter whether we signed up to it or not, unless he's saying that those who are members of the Schengen Agreement are not "modern societies" he's talking out of his backside (again).

Graham Marsden

Well that's ok, then...!

So let's see what John Reid has to say:

1) In "a modern society", he said, people needed to prove their identity when they applied for jobs, allowing "businesses to vet new employees more effectively".

Well, I run my own business, so I don't need to prove my identity to myself. And unless he's going to try to force ID cards on people in India, how's he going to stop people in call centres playing fast and loose with our data?

2) "A modern society also required people to prove their identities when they crossed borders, and when they opened a bank account."

Well a) we *have* got passports already, Mr Reid, but we don't *need* one to be allowed to walk down the street if we don't plan on crossing any borders. (Oh and does the name "Schengen" mean anything to you"?

And b) Yes, we need to prove our identities when we open bank accounts. Why? Oh, yes, it's because your predecessors have *forced* banks to adopt schemes to stop us all from using our bank accounts for money laundering. Exactly how successful has that been given the amount that has been stolen from credit cards recently...?

3) "Our own, unique, identity is inexorably becoming our most precious possession. But when so much of this is now done remotely, how can we be sure who we are interacting with?"

A very good point, Mr Reid. How can we be sure *WHO* is accessing our "most precious possession"? How can we be sure that the people *you* are employing are honest and trustworthy and above suspicion...?

4) He said identity cards would make people "feel" safe. "This is not about control, Big Brother, or the loss of liberty.

Oh well *that's* ok, then! Now I *really* feel safe, John Reid has spoken and that's all that needs to be said.

There won't be any function creep, there won't be massive databases with all our details on, nobody's going to be checking our ID cards just for being out after dark or wanting to buy something with a credit card or for "looking suspiciously black".

I feel so much better already...

Banks put customers in Swift Catch-22

Graham Marsden

You want to transfer money...?

Certainly Sir, just sign here, drop your trousers and bend over, someone from the USA will be along shortly...

Amnesty backs Google shareholders

Graham Marsden

Google - Censorship? Us...?

This is, of course, the same Google that delisted Inquisition 21 http://www.inquisition21.com/ after it pointed out that large numbers of credit cards from the "Landslide" database in Operation Ore were being used fraudulently:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/19/operation_ore_fraud/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/21/google_delists_inq21/

Curiously enough they never seemed to have explained *why* a site, disseminating information which appears to be clearly in the public interest, doesn't get indexed by them...

Credit card fraud fears cloud Operation Ore

Graham Marsden

Operation Ore Fiasco

Jim Gamble smugly said "90 per cent of arrested suspects in the investigation pleaded guilty when confronted by the evidence against them. "That's people who - the allegation has been levelled against them, the evidence has been collected and they, at court or through accepting an adult caution, which 600-plus of them did, have said I am guilty of this offence," he told the BBC. "That's not about credit card fraud."

But what he doesn't mention is that when someone's given a choice between admitting to something they didn't do and taking a caution or spending the next couple of years with the stress of a pending court case, large legal bills, having their name plastered across the papers with the subsequent damage to their reputations ("ooh, there's no smoke without fire"!) and the possible ruination of their careers or destruction of their family life, many will consider the caution to be the lesser of to evils *EVEN WHEN* they are entirely innocent.

And that doesn't include the 39 people who couldn't take the stress and committed suicide such as Commodore David White who took his own life after being suspended by the Navy.

The inquest into his death heard that computer equipment and a camera memory chip belonging to Commodore White had yielded no evidence that he downloaded child pornography, and a letter was written by Ministry of Defence police to Naval Command on 5 January this year indicating that there were "no substantive criminal offences" to warrant pressing charges.

Bravo, Mr Gamble.

For more about the fiaso that was Operation Ore see http://www.inquisition21.com/

Don't let Paris Hilton do bird

Graham Marsden

And the next video...

Featuring Paris Hilton and Big Momma!!

Yahoo! launches! mobile! search!

Graham Marsden

Comment!

Don't! You! Think! That! The! Joke! Of! Putting! An! Exclamation! Mark! After! Every! Word! In! The! Title! Of! A! Yahoo Story! Is! Wearing! A! Bit! Thin! Now!?

Oregon boy in double spider ear blockage horror

Graham Marsden

Bomb... Boom...!

> the woman is referring to what we Americans call 'bug bomb', or insecticidal spray. We would never use actual bombs on our own homes, ha ha!

Unless of course, you use too much of the stuff and there's a naked flame or a spark... BOOM!

See Mythbusters or Snopes for more details http://www.snopes.com/humor/follies/bugbomb.asp

RFID mirror automatically insults your fashion sense

Graham Marsden

How long before...

Disney starts suing for copyright breach?

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

(Yes, I know they didn't originate the idea, but when did *that* ever stop someone suing?!)

MS launches 'unlimited potential' campaign

Graham Marsden

The next 5 billion....

And there was me thinking that "The next 5 billion" was the next $5bn that Micro$oft plans to screw out of the public for a sub-standard product that has been forced on them...

Granny waxes lyrical in 'txt laureate' challenge

Graham Marsden

Hmm...

Thr 1nce ws a txt frm Nntket...

US flies visa control kite over Pakistani Brit 'terror suspects'

Graham Marsden

Suspicious people...

Having once been fined £45 and £25 costs for the heinous crime of having a Black and White licence for a colour TV, it seems that I am now such a hazard to US National Security that I cannot qualify for the Visa Waiver Programme.

Well, thanks, USA, but I think I'll just skip visiting you instead, along with everyone else who dislikes the idea of being considered a potential terrorist just because you've dug yourselves into a hole so deep that you can't see you way out.

Right-to-reply website launches

Graham Marsden

But who is going to bother...?

Newscounter says "One of the main reasons for newscounter is how hard it is to find two sides of a media story online."

I beg to differ! It's very easy to find two sides of a media story online, in fact you can easily find a *dozen* sides at times.

So why is anyone going to go to Newscounter and expect anything other than self-serving propaganda?

Euro Data watchdog warns of database creep

Graham Marsden

Ok, it's great but...

'Frattini noted how individual privacy was threatened by technology that made "identity theft, discriminatory profiling, continuous surveillance, or deceit" possible.

'Privacy enhancing technologies could do something about this, he said. They would ensure that "breaches of the data protection rules and violations of individual's rights are not only something forbidden...but also technically more difficult".'

The question is, though, whether our great and noble leaders and security services are going to be willing to allow us such "privacy enhancing technologies" or assume that because we have "something to hide" we must "have something to worry about" and consider us potential criminals and terrorists...

MoD to publish secret UFO files

Graham Marsden

The Truth is Out There...

... but Lies are in your head.

- Terry Pratchett.

Home Office promises proactive powers for info commissioner

Graham Marsden

And of course...

This will also apply to Government databases etc, won't it?

After all, the Data Protection Act says that:

"Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes." and...

"Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed." and...

"Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes."

etc etc.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/80029--l.htm

So if, say, a Government or Police Force was holding data on a large number of citizens and decided to introduce ID cards or a National Identity Register or a DNA Database (including people who'd not been convicted of a crime)...

Japan wants levitating trains by 2025

Graham Marsden

The German Red Herring

The accident in Germany is no argument against Maglev.

Not leaving maintenance vehicles parked in the way of *any* sort of train is a good idea and having adequate safety precautions to stop this happening is what is needed, on Maglev *or* metal rails.

'Traffic Taliban' moots speed cameras in cats' eyes

Graham Marsden

The obligatory Paul Smith comment...

Ah, it's a speed camera story, so there must, of course, be the obligatory comment from Paul Smith of his self-styled "Safe Speed" campaign.

But before people start cheering for his selfless campaigning on our behalf to save us from the "Scameras", I'd invite people to visit his site at http://www.safespeed.org.uk/ and start doing some thinking about Mr Smith's figures statistics.

It rapidly becomes obvious that his claims are as dubious as Richard Brunstrom's: he makes predictions based on "trends" which are nothing more than speculation (and which don't, subsequently, happen), he makes statements like "5,500 more people have died that would have been predicted in 1993" but then draws the conclusion that this *must* be the "consequence" of speed cameras which is nonsense. He cherry picks figures which fit in with his arguments and ignores or minimises those that don't.

Mr Smith has an axe to grind but before giving him the air of publicity it would be sensible to see if his claims actually make any sense.

Operation Ore: evidence of massive credit card fraud

Graham Marsden

Paging John Reid...

We read stories like this and yet John Reid wants to go ahead with plans to create a new offence with punishment of an unlimited fine and up to three years in prison for possession of cartoon or computer-created pictures if they appear to feature "child sex abuse".

So anyone who's downloaded Anime or Hentai images could be on the list.

I wonder what is next? Perhaps anyone who has taken a copy of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" out of the library will be targetted...

DXG dishes out 5Mp camcorder with games

Graham Marsden

Is the price right...?

Is the $199 = £100 the actual retail price, or just a conversion put in by the author?

I'll be impressed if we don't see a Rip Off Britain price of £199 applied here...

Commercial child abuse websites growing

Graham Marsden

FUD

Robert Grant:

That's most probably what the Government is counting on.

They hope that nobody is going to have the guts to stand up and point out that this is a blatant violation of people's rights to decide for themselves what they can or cannot see for fear of "what the neighbours will think" or because they'll find themselves on some Home Office "target list" if they manage to push this draconian law through Parliament.

Graham Marsden

Just a thought...

So, despite massive international co-operation and millions being poured into stopping the propagation of child porn, these sites are still out there and, indeed, expanding.

It rather puts into perspective the UK Government's proposed go-it-alone "Dangerous Pictures Act" where they want to give people three years in jail simply for possessing images of consenting adults engaged in consensual behaviour because (in the entirely subjective view of prudish members of the Home Office) it is "extreme or violent pornography" which they think "appears to risk serious injury or death", even when posed by actors.

Once again I mention that over one thousand eight hundred people signed my petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister to abandon these plans to create a "Thought Crime" http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Violent-Porn/ yet despite two months now having passed (and another reminder being sent), there is *still* no reply from Mr Blair.

I wonder why not...?

Hormonally challenged teens refrain from abstinence

Graham Marsden

Remaining abstinent....?

But were the missing 56% "remaining abstinent" because they didn't want any or because they're the unpopular/ unattractive/ geeky with no social skills bunch at school who just don't *get* any?

Go green with a double-glazing mortgage, say Lib Dems

Graham Marsden

Just a thought...

I wonder how long it will be before the Tories jump in and say "oh, yes, we're planning the same sort of thing too..." given the way they seem to be trying to "reposition" themselves on the political landscape, mostly by lifting Lib Dem ideas!

UK boffins are going on an alien hunt

Graham Marsden

Alien DRM....?

Now here's a thought:

If alien signals are encrypted and we do manage to decrypt them, could we find ourselves faced with an inter-planetary lawsuit for unpaid royalties...?

Carphone Warehouse leaves caller hanging on telephone

Graham Marsden

Say No to 0870

Whilst it won't help with unconnected lines, Say No to 0870 will often provide an alternative, landline number which will be much cheaper (or possibly even free!) to call.

http://www.saynoto0870.com

Also you've still got a few hours left to join the 42,600 or so people who have signed up to the Say No to 0870 Petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/saynoto0870/ but hurry because it closes today!

UK gov mulls child porn changes

Graham Marsden

Coaker's at it again

There is a possibility that the UK Government is now surreptitiously trying to back away from their plans to outlaw "extreme pornography".

Government replies to two petitions on the Number 10 Downing Street website, one calling for even R18 material to be banned and another calling for the Obscene Publications Act to be scrapped have both received comments saying that "We continue to believe that the OPA is a flexible tool with which to tackle a wider range of obscene material according to the standards of the day. There are no plans to re-examine legislation in this area."

Interestingly, however, my petition, signed by over 1,800 people calling for the Government to abandon their plans to make it a criminal offence to simply possess anything that, in the subjective opinion of Coaker et al, is considered to be "extreme or violent pornography", is still waiting for a response, despite it closing well over a month ago.

So it seems that now the puritanical members of the Home Office are trying to find another way to grab the headlines and introduce a law expanding what they can declare to be "illegal".

Of course what they don't mention is that the Legislative Reform Act would then give them the power to redefine the law by Ministerial fiat *without* even consulting Parliament and allow them extend the law to ban anything they don't like.

Once again, by using "scare tactics" such as "think of the children" they are trying to push through a law which is most probably just intended to further restrict our freedoms which are so inconvenient to the desires of our Nanny State Government to control what we can see or read or view.

Will there ever be a real 'Lie Detector'?

Graham Marsden

Just a thought...

Whilst I agree with Craig Hall's comments, there is a certain attraction to the idea of applying lie detectors in a "top down" configuration, starting, say with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

"We have no plans to introduce..." BUZZ!

"This project has a confirmed budget of...." BUZZ!

"These proposals will make the country safer..." BUZZ!

"I have no plans to resign as Prime Minister..." ....

UC Davis shpreads beer schience goshphel

Graham Marsden

Just a thought...

"Good beer production is long and difficult. It involves soaking malt barely, boiling the solution with hops, cooling and fermenting with yeast and the release of Co2 and ethyl alcohol."

Err, better not mention that last bit too loud, otherwise we'll have people calling for beer to be banned for contributing to global warming...

French succumb to Franglais

Graham Marsden

The purity of English...

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." James D Nicholl - rec.arts.sf.written

FBI agents 'abused Patriot Act powers'

Graham Marsden

Never mind...

So what's the problem?

After all, I'm sure none of the people whose information was illegally obtained has anything to hide, so they don't have anything to worry about.

Do they...?

South Korea to detail robot etiquette

Graham Marsden

Langford's Laws...

Don't forget Dave Langford's alternative Three Laws of Robotics:

(1) A robot will not harm authorized government personnel but will terminate intruders with extreme prejudice.

(2) A robot will obey the orders of authorized personnel except where such orders would conflict with the Third Law.

(3) A robot will guard its own existence with lethal anti-personnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.

US greenlights human/rice hybrid

Graham Marsden

Another pause...

When your anonymous poster at the top paused, it seems they didn't pause for long enough.

In biology a "species" is defined as "a taxonomic group whose members can interbreed", in other words you can interbreed grains with other grains, roses with other roses or dogs with other dogs, but you can't interbreed grains with dogs!

These experiments, however, are trying to do just that, crossing the "species barrier" without any knowledge as to what the results may be.

Now that, I think, gives *me* pause and "let's give it a try and see what happens" is hardly a good justification for messing about with DNA in this manner.

Sky goes dark for Virgin Media

Graham Marsden

Just a thought...

It seems that Sky are acting like the Microsoft of TV broadcasting.

They want more and more control over what you can watch and you have to pay more and more to get what you want, whilst being saddled with a bunch of extra stuff that is of no interest to you.

Why should we need to pay for a whole load of channels which we don't want to watch just to get the ones we do want to see?

NASA moves fast on hail damage, astronaut madness

Graham Marsden

Just a thought...

> The manuals apparently instruct a space-going master-at-arms to "talk with the patient while you are restraining him", and to "explain what you are doing".

But what if it's the "space-going master-at-arms" who goes nuts...?

BitTorrent Inc offers legal downloads

Graham Marsden

But will this be Rip Off Britain again...?

"BEN plans to offer films at around $3.99 each for new releases or $2.99 for older titles. TV shows would be sold for $1.99 per episode"

Who wants to take bets that these prices will be "translated" into £3.99, £2.99 and £1.99 when this gets to the UK and it will be impossible to download from the US site at virtually half the price?

Darwin Mr Popular again in Kansas

Graham Marsden

Believe what you like but...

... to quote Philip K Dick: Reality is that which, when we cease to believe in it, still exists.

Clarins unveils anti-aging satellite defender

Graham Marsden

Wow!

Tinfoil Hats in a can, what will they think of next?!