* Posts by Graham Marsden

6899 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jan 2007

Boeing bent over for new probe as 787 batteries vent fluid, start to MELT

Graham Marsden

"Everyone remembers what happened to the Comet..."

Yes, they do, and other aircraft manufacturers have privately admitted that, had the Comet not suffered the problems it did, those problems would most likely have occurred in their aircraft.

Boffins find ALIEN WORLD orbiting the Sun's LONG LOST TWIN

Graham Marsden
Coat

Long Lost Twin...

... so is that Telos or Mondas...?

You came for the free tools, stayed with your credit card – Amazon's new cloud brainwave

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

" You can cancel your evaluation at any time"

"We're just hoping you forget so we can keep charging you month after month" they added sotto voce...

Hosting outfit goes PERMANENTLY TITSUP after 'lifetime' plans kill biz

Graham Marsden
Holmes

"It's not remotely possible...

"...to provide any product "for life" that has recurring costs associated with it."

See icon for details...

DOOMSDAY still just MINUTES AWAY: As it has been since 1947

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

Time to...

... put some Iron Maiden on to play...

Two minutes to Midnight!

Apple coughs up 7 hours of profit to refund kids' $32.5m app spend spree

Graham Marsden
Joke

Ow...

... that slap on the wrist *really* hurt, you know...

Rap for KitKat in crap app wrap trap flap: Android 4.4 is 'meant to work like that'

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

Re: You're holding it wrong.....

No, you're just *reading* it wrong!

Open source project gives cars the Ikea treatment

Graham Marsden
WTF?

Flat pack...?

So you'll end up with bits that don't quite fit properly, holes that don't line up and, when you've finished, you have a bag full of miscellaneous screws, bolts and other fittings which don't appear to be part of what you've just been building...

E-tagged insects a buzz for research

Graham Marsden
Alert

Phase IV

The time to worry is when all the signals from those tags form one massive Super Swarm and is found to be heading towards the research laboratory!

Facebook lets Russian search czar Yandex suck on its public 'firehose'

Graham Marsden
WTF?

All your data...

... are belong to them....

(What is Russian for "Bitch"?)

Two guilty over 'menacing' tweets to feminist campaigner

Graham Marsden

Re: Great...

@Psyx - Have a look at the Tweets posted here: http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/threats-of-death-and-violence-after-channel-4-programme-benefits-street/comment-page-3/

Now they may not be *personally* addressing the people there, but this isn't a joke about blowing up an airport either.

Graham Marsden
Meh

Great...

... so now how about all the people who have been tweeting about the people on the "Benefits Street" TV programme, calling for them to be locked up, spayed or even gassed (to mention but a few of the delightful comments levelled at them)...?

Supermassive BLACK HOLE to stuff MYSTERY gas BLOB into open maw

Graham Marsden
Coat

They really need...

Beowulf Shaeffer to go and have a look.

(Well, that and the Quantum II Hyperdrive Shunt!)

Europe MPs: Time to change our data-sharing policy with US firms

Graham Marsden
Holmes

"Time to change..."?

See icon for details...

Is your IT department too tough on users?

Graham Marsden
Happy

The sound you hear...

... is an enhanced cattle prod being charged up in Mission Control...

BT 118 phone number fee howler lands telco giant with £225k fine

Graham Marsden
Happy

Re: Ofcom , 118 , 192 ... I can handle all that crap. Just ban NON geographic numbers. PLEASE.

@Karl H

Don't forget to http://saynoto0870.com/ :-)

Boffins claim battery BREAKTHROUGH – with rhubarb-like molecule

Graham Marsden
Happy

Re: Roobarb

Whilst Custard the cat falls off the fence laughing... :-)

Optical Express 'ruined my life' attack site wins Nominet takedown battle

Graham Marsden

@AC "contacts are rubbish at night with a high index"

Really? I have an *extremely* high index (-10 right, -11 left!) yet I have no trouble at night using RGP lenses.

I've considered laser treatment etc, but since nobody can promise me that it would make my eyesight perfect, I'll stick to the contacts.

Dusty old supernova could reveal answer to life, the universe and EVERYTHING

Graham Marsden
Coat

Look at this mess...

... would cleaning up your solar system once in a while be too much to ask...?

Defamation expert: New '1 year after publication' rule means EASY LIFE for UK libel judges

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

"corrections and clarifications"

"However, these provisions could see the control editors have over how and where they appear in their print publications or online platforms being taken away from them."

So we might see an end to them printing a story with huge lurid front page headlines, then, when it's shown to be false, publishing a correction in a tiny font at the bottom of page 27...

'BILLION-YEAR DISK' to help FUTURE LIFEFORMS study us

Graham Marsden
Coat

@Ragarath " the alien Time Team come a looking on planet Wastikia 12c"

But will one of them say "'Ere, Xplyxtic, come and 'ave a look at this...!"

Boffins build sticky-limbed lizard-bots to tend spacecraft

Graham Marsden
Coat

They need three of these...

... called Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Mars One's certain-death space jolly shortlists 1,000 wannabe explorers

Graham Marsden
Boffin

"Certain death"...

"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive." - Elbert Hubbard

Ten classic electronic calculators from the 1970s and 1980s

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

Re: Still working

Alas the on/off switch on my FX-81 died a long while ago, but I still have an FX-350 by my side here and an FX-570 in the other room which are kept working by dint of leaving the power switch "on" and just using the AC button to switch it on and letting the auto time-out to switch it off.

Australia puts 300 sharks on Twitter

Graham Marsden

Sharks on Twitter...

@bigwhite1975 just when they thought it was safe to go back in the water lol! #feedingfrenzy!

Want Google to erase your data? Just wait for it to kill off one of its apps

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

"all user data will be deleted"

After it's been backed up, scanned, analyzed and linked into our records of everything else you've done...

Snapchat: In 'theory' you could hack... Oh CRAP is that 4.6 MILLION users' details?

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

haveibeenpwned...?

You have now!

Skype's Twitter account, blog hacked to spread anti-Microsoft messages

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

"stop allowing the NSA to access its back end"

It seems the NSA has access to everyone's back end, so just bend over and brace yourself...

'New' nova starts to BLUSH

Graham Marsden
Coat

Nova Centauri 2013

Great Maker, Vir, the Vorlons have improved their Planet Killer!

(Yes, the purple one, please and a glass of fine Brivari...)

British Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing receives Royal pardon

Graham Marsden
Childcatcher

Does this mean...

... that children will not be blocked from researching Alan Turing because web pages that mention him will no longer contain "objectionable content"?

BT tweaks WORDING of sex-ed web block after complaints

Graham Marsden

@Avatar of They

"You might waver in the middle and prefer both"

Or some people might make a firm decision that they prefer both...

Graham Marsden

Meanwhile...

... a nicely satirical viewpoint...

http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2012/apr/30/porn-panic-daily-mail

Click here to beat David Cameron's web porn ban

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

Of course...

These filters will never be used improperly, will they...?

"mobile operator O2 has blocked a huge range of sites through its “Parental Controls” settings. If their parents have chosen this option, children using O2 phones will be unable to access almost all of the internet: police websites, the NHS, ChildLine, the NSPCC, the Samaritans, many schools and even the main government website, GOV.UK.[...] And sites like ChildLine and the Samaritans are there precisely to provide support to children in crisis who may have nowhere else to turn. [...] Children can have burgers marketed to them but they can’t get help if they’re being neglected or abused."

http://adrianshort.org/2013/12/22/some-websites-should-be-unblockable/

Nato, UN, NGOs slug it out with namespace biz bods: IMHO... STFU

Graham Marsden
Trollface

What does...

... the Institute of Contemporary Arts have to do with this...?

California OLDSTER in WILD golf course SKATEBOARDING spree

Graham Marsden
Mushroom

Get off my golf course...

... you damn pesky kids...!

Parents can hide abortion, contraception advice from kids, thanks to BT's SEX-ED web block

Graham Marsden

And no doubt...

Sites like this one which give excellent advice to parents on how to teach children about the importance of consent and respect for others will also be blocked:

http://goodmenproject.com/families/the-healthy-sex-talk-teaching-kids-consent-ages-1-21/

Bravo, Dave, sites that don't teach girls how not to be raped, but aim to teach boys *not* to rape will no doubt be censored by the Great Firewall of Britain because we're "thinking of the chidren"...!

Google: Surge in pressure from govts to DELETE CHUNKS of the web

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

But...

... we have *always* been at war with Eastasia!

Proposed California law demands anti-theft 'kill switch' in all smartphones

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

@Bullseyed

"abused by a socialist/dictator president"?

Because no right-wing capitalist dictator president would dream of abusing such a kill switch?

World+dog: Network level filters block LEGIT sex ed sites. Ofcom: Meh

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

What's the betting...

... that a site like the following (which gives excellent advice to parents and children about the importance of consent) will get blocked...?

http://goodmenproject.com/families/the-healthy-sex-talk-teaching-kids-consent-ages-1-21/

This isn't just "don't get raped", it's "don't rape", full stop. Learn that "no" means "NO" and respect the rights of others. But it's about (gasp!) sex and we can't have impressionable minds seeing that sort of thing!!

Sky rapped over PREMATURE SEXY CONDOM ad

Graham Marsden
Holmes

"when impressionable young minds were likely to be watching"

Well *that's* obviously a really stupid thing to do...

... gods forbid that those "impressionable minds" get the idea that condoms are a good thing to use to avoid unwanted pregnancies and STDs...

Sega’s Out Run: Even better than the wheel thing

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

Get ready...!

Dah, dah-dah dah dah-dah dahhhhh....

They had one of the upright machines in the Portsmouth Polytechnic Students Union back when I was a student and one afternoon, for the hell of it, I completed it by *every* route and held all the places on the high score table :-)

Twitterers rally round #CensoredUK - to demand more porn

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

Re: Evil mode = ON

Good idea!

Get your children to join your local Junior Anti-Sex League, proles!

Graham Marsden

Maty - Re: false assumption?

> Can anyone point to a definitive study that shows harm being done?

No, because there isn't one. There's lots of anecdotal claims, but they're generally based on the idea that "they saw porn therefore they did XYZ" and ignoring any other influences that may have been around.

On the flip-side, however, is the work of, for example, Professor Milton Diamond PhD of the University of Hawai'i who studied the effects of the increased availability of porn in Japan and America and concluded:

" It is certainly clear from the data reviewed, and the new data and analysis presented, that a massive increase in available pornography in Japan, the United States and elsewhere has been correlated with a dramatic decrease in sexual crime"

http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/1961to1999/1999-effects-of-pornography.html

Unfortunately that didn't stop the last government introducing their Thought Crime "Extreme Pornography" legislation, nor, I have little doubt, regrettably, will it stop David Cameron from introducing a law making possession of videos of "consenting non-consensual" porn (ie acted out scenes of "rape" by consenting adults) a criminal offence as well.

You can (for whatever good it will do) sign a petition to object to this here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/58255

'Disruptive, irritating' in-flight cellphone call ban mulled by US Senate

Graham Marsden
Flame

"The bill would still allow passengers to use mobile devices for texting"

Great, provided that the only text alert allowed is a silent-mode vibration.

I once had the misfortune to be in the Quiet Coach of a train with some idiot who, fine, wasn't *talking* on his phone, but his text alert was the Tarzan yell. After him getting about a dozen texts in five minutes I asked him politely to turn the bloody sound off to which he replied "Oh, sorry, I didn't know it was bothering anyone..."

US military's RAY-GUN truck BLASTS DRONES, mortars OUT OF THE SKY

Graham Marsden
Coat

Re: Doesn't stop a kinetic attack

> "the more common cowapult couldnt be used in many areas due to the local religious beliefs"

So there's no local equivalent of "Fetchez la vache"?

Twitter's shock block unlock deemed cockup, gets a lockup

Graham Marsden
Happy

"Confused yet?"

Yet??

I was so confused by the headline that I clicked on this item just to find out what the hell was actually going on...!

Facebook-owned Instagram morphs into messaging service to please admen

Graham Marsden

@phil dude - Re: copyright...?

> "Surely we all own the copyright to our faces...?"

Nope, anyone can take your photograph in a public place and even re-use it there's nothing you can do about it. The only thing that they can't (or shouldn't) do is to post something defamatory in relation to the picture because that's libel, but even then you'd have to sue them to get redress.

Los Angeles' weather is just like Mordor, says Brit climate prof

Graham Marsden
Mushroom

Mordor [...] was comparable to Los Angeles

Does that include the Smog?

Poker ace's vanishing hotel laptop WAS infected by card-shark – F-Secure

Graham Marsden

@DougS - Re: Protection

> "Hotel rooms usually include a safe, keeping the laptop (if it will fit) or the hard drive in there is better than carrying it around with you. For that matter, the hotel itself usually has a very secure safe"

Both of which are entirely vulnerable to corrupt staff since the room safe has a built in "back door" security code to unlock it and the hotel safe can be opened by whoever is duty manager at the time .

As such, all they give is a false sense of security.

We'll predict your EVERY MOVE! Facebook's new AI brain talks to El Reg

Graham Marsden
Coat

Re: I believe that is their biggest hurdle.

Obvously they will need to build in an additction to pictures of Kitties!