* Posts by ratfox

3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

London officials won't take Uber to court – because cabbies are suing the drivers anyway

ratfox
Flame

Nice

The taxi industry is overregulated to protect the incumbents. If the cabbies think Uber is making too much money, they should join.

Future Apple gumble could lock fanbois out of their own devices

ratfox
Trollface

Just wait!

Coming soon: exciting new developments in wearable computing!

When PR backfires: Google 'forgets' BBC TV man's banker blog post

ratfox

Re: To what end?

In the first place, this can only work if people are willing to forget. It is enough to have one enemy who writes every month about you, and you will never get rid of your past.

The right to be forgotten only works for people nobody cares about… Which sounds about right.

ratfox

Damned if they do…

I really would like to point out that if Google bounced every request to the ICO, they would automatically get attacked for bogging down the system and trying yet again to worm their way out of obeying the ECJ's ruling. I'm sure the last thing Google wants is to piss off the European regulators some more.

Google BLOCKS access to Goldman client-leak email

ratfox
Happy

Ten says the user saw an incomprehensible email about banking stuff, and reported it as a phishing attempt!

Google policy wonk patronises Brits over EU search biz probe

ratfox

Re: re: Because, yes, other people created better browsers.

Firefox has a market share that is comparable to IE, and they got there without using a monopoly position in anything.

ratfox
Stop

Re: Google in a nutshell.

You seem to imply that Google in effect steals its weather data from around the web… However, a bit of searching reveals that Google gets its data from Weather Underground: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features_list.html#weather

It is reasonable to assume that they do pay for it.

This is not the issue. The issue is, should Google show data on top of the page, or should it have the user click on one of the result links? The first is easier for the user, and the second is better for competition. But in the end, the reason competition is considered good is only to ensure the user gets good service. This is why Almunia said once "My mission is to protect competition to the benefit of consumers, not competitors."

Lords try shoehorning law against revenge porn into justice bill

ratfox
Stop

Read the article

Actually, as explained in the article, this is not yet a crime. As opposed to murders, which are already a crime every day even though there are no specific laws for each day.

Amazon sues former employee who took Google cloud job

ratfox

Re: Can't see the gray area here

I understand that the laws of some States make such restrictions illegal… So, just because something was signed or agreed to does not means it is legally binding.

E.g many of the T&Cs of popular web services contain stuff that would not be upheld by a court.

'Disruptive innovation' is nonsense? Not ALWAYS, actually

ratfox

There wouldn't be many interesting analytical articles if they were only allowed to predict what happened in the past.

Google's Quickoffice taken behind shed ... 'Oh, what's the gun for?'

ratfox

Re: Eventual forced replacement?

"Existing users with the app can continue to use it, but no features will be added and new users will not be able to install the app"

I'd assume that installed apps stay installed after updates…? But let's say that in three-four years, it will simply stop working properly with Android Popsicle.

Hey, Marissa Mayer: Flexi working time is now LAW in UK. Yahoo!

ratfox

Re: More "management versus labor" mentality

I've never met an employee with kids that does more hours than an employee that doesn't have children

You might not have looked closely; it's called confirmation bias. In any case, as a different data point, the guy who works the longest hours in my team is a father.

OT, I can believe that having some leeway makes you more happy and productive. However, I'd say that working at home full-time (the way it was accepted at Yahoo before Marisa Meyer) only works well for very few people in a small number of positions.

Google chair Eric Schmidt reportedly visits Cuba

ratfox

What about North Korea?

I'd have thought it was ranked even lower…

Apple abruptly axes Aperture ... Adobe anxiously awaits arrivals

ratfox

I don't get it

I thought Aperture was a successful product. Why are they axing it? Isn't Apple's general strategy to offer quality software to get people to buy its hardware?

Facebook dumps AWS, moves Instagram's images to own bit barns

ratfox

Yes. That why they wrote "it's not reasonable".

Also, Amazon is making a profit on this.

What is ex-NSA spyboss selling for $1m a month, asks US congressman

ratfox

Re: No particular knowledge

Wow. I sure hope I can keep my current job, because apparently if I lose it, I'll be back to getting paid $10 an hour since I can't possibly know anything about anything that's not confidential information about my current company which I'm not allowed to reveal.

It's hard on new CEOs poached from rival companies. They know nothing about their new jobs either.

App maker defends selling S.F. parking spots as a free speech issue

ratfox

Re: the meatspace alternative?

I'm not sure how the app works, but the "auction off" part seems to imply the original parking place user chooses in exchange of money who is allowed to use it after they're gone.

I don't see any way this can be claimed to be an exchange of information. If somebody happens to be there waiting, they shpuld get the parking place. No one gets to say otherwise.

Google adds 'data protection' WARNING to Euro search results

ratfox
Boffin

Re: Back the bus up

The right to be forgotten apparently means that, though archives of old embarrassing data may still exist and be available, they should not be too easy to find.

So the websites are allowed to keep showing the data, but Google is not allowed to display them in results.

It does seem strange! But I'd like to offer a parallel: Anybody who sees you in the street is allowed to recognize you and tweet your position. However, it would probably be illegal to build a countrywide network of cameras with facial recognition system that would allow anybody to query for your position. Unless the government does it.

US Supremes just blew Aereo out of the water

ratfox

Re: Bad Decision

Well yes, DVRs are legal; but offering to everybody to use your DVR is not. Just like you can watch a DVD you own in your home, but you are not allowed to project it on a huge screen in public. That's what the "not for public performance" warning means. Or you can watch a football match at home, but not record it and put it on YouTube.

I'm actually surprised this had to go all the way to the Supreme Court. It feels perfectly logical to me.

REVEALED: Google's proposed indie music-killing contract terms

ratfox
Stop

Re: Content ID

Sorry, this is FUD.

Content ID is not just for the big 3 who have a special arrangement. If you'll remember, one of the famous cases of over-flagging was a NASA video removed because some outfit called Scripps Local News was claiming to own the copyright. They're not in the big 3 of anything.

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Content ID

In theory Google has a content ID system that could block the unlicensed uploads - but nobody can compel it to use the system

Huh? Is that a claim that Google is not taking down videos through Content ID?? That I remember, most of the complaints about that system is overflagging videos for content that should be in the public domain, or is not even owned by the claiming entity. I have never heard of content producers complaining that the Content ID system is not working… And God knows they know how to complain when they feel like it.

Samsung loses again: Judge awards Apple, Nokia $2m in leak-investigation fees

ratfox
Facepalm

Goddam, these people are petty

The post is required, and must contain letters.

If Google remembers whom it has forgotten, has it complied with the ECJ judgment?

ratfox

Re: Practicalities?

If somebody wants the information to be known, it is probably trivial to regularly have an article published about the matter, and it is almost certainly impossible to stop this from happening. I believe this whole right to be forgotten can only work when nobody really cares except for the person in question.

YouTube in shock indie music nuke: We all feel a little less worthy today

ratfox

Re: Im shocked I tells ya - shocked!

> YouTube works because stuff gets uploaded and viewed globally before anyone has a chance to object

I take it you haven't heard about ContentId? Producers don't have to find all the uploads. They just tell YouTube which music belongs to them, and YouTube blocks all pirate uploads automatically… If that is the wish of the producer. More often that not, though, the pirate uploads are allowed to stay, but the ad revenue goes to the producer.

Canada to Google: You can't have your borderless cake and eat it too

ratfox

Re: "Is the Canadian Judge so big headed to think his judgement outweighs any others in the world?"

According to what Google said, results for non-European TLDs are not modified. Google.com still returns everything.

ratfox

According to the article, the Canadian judge has ordered Google to stop showing these results to anybody in the world, not just to Canadians. Because most of the business made by the companies is made outside of Canada.

Also, technically, it is the Chinese government firewall that is filtering the results in China, not Google.

ratfox
Mushroom

Oh boy, wait until China discovers this

Dear Google, following Chinese law, our Chinese judge orders you to remove the following pages from your index worldwide:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_independence_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_independence_movement

http://www.lulz.org/xi-jiping-in-funny-hat.html

DON'T PANIC: Facebook returns after 30-minute outage terror

ratfox
Angel

Re: What do you expect?

I suspect they are using a goldfish for yardstick of "living memory"

Google will 'pre-select' an 'independent' competition inspector in EU search case

ratfox

Re: Good

Hang on, is that a claim that Search results are manipulated by money paid to Google?

Slippery Google greases up, aims to squirm out of EU privacy grasp

ratfox

re: bouncing all requests to the courts

I really don't think Google is going to be able to just bounce all requests to the courts. It would be way too easy for to many companies to reject all legal requests, force claimants to pay for a lawyer, bog up the legal system, and ultimately not do it.

Engineers have trouble to understand this, but laws do not work like computers programs. Using bugs and loopholes to game the system and violate the spirit of the law is punished.

ratfox
Devil

Re: In other mildly related news:

I think the flaw in this particular ruling can be more clearly explained as: "China would like nobody to be able to search for the Tienanmen incident". Should it be censored for the whole world because Google happens to also do business in China…? According to this Canadian judge, it should.

Microsoft 'Catapults' geriatric Moore's Law from CERTAIN DEATH

ratfox

Re: A troupe of boffins?

A school of boffins? A pod of boffins?

Facial recognition tech convicts man in Chicago robbery case

ratfox

22 years for armed robbery?

Damn, that's like twice what he would get for rape or what?

…Maybe it's one of these recidivist clauses?

Facebook's new self-destructing pic app SELF-DESTRUCTS

ratfox

Send 1x1.gif

Actually, forget that. Don't send anything. You probably don't want to see the pic you received anyway…

EU privacy A-Team tells Google: Get a grip and obey OUR laws

ratfox
Paris Hilton

I don't get it

I thought Google were actually following the law to the letter by having put up this application form for removing embarrassing links from their results (though obviously actual removals will take some time to be approved). So what are they doing wrong?

Tech talk bloke compares girlfriend to irritating Java tool – did he deserve flames?

ratfox

The joke made me smile

I believe there should have been one more possible answer to the second question in the poll, which is "He was talking about nobody, since it was a joke".

Has Google gone too far? Indie labels say it's crunch time for The New Economy

ratfox
Headmaster

Re: Google notice:

The actual motto was: "don't be evil"

Google: OK world, make our 'End-to-End' crypto tool SPOOK PROOF

ratfox
Stop

"Google backdoored the root of Android for the NSA"

Really? I must have missed that particular revelation. Do you have a link, Mr. AC?

ratfox
Angel

Re: Google, privacy

…Says the nth Anonymous Coward attacking Google in the same thread…

New software nasty encrypts Android PHONE files and demands a ransom

ratfox

Re: Why?

Does it really happen so often? I don't actually know anybody who lost their phone, broke it, or had it stolen…

I wonder what the numbers are. Probably very different from place to place.

'Inaccurate' media misleads public on European Court's Google ruling

ratfox

Complete confusion

I believe that most of the confusion is due to the fact that the new rule has just been decided, and nobody knows exactly what will happen. Here in the comments of the Reg, I have seen people opining that Google will ignore all the applications, refuse them all, or even accept them all. And Google themselves probably don't really know.

That said, I'm wondering how this can all work. Unless Google accepts practically all the applications, the data protection authorities are going to receive every day hundreds of complaints of people who got rejected by Google. I rather doubt they really want or even have the resources to go through all of it.

Google's Nexus devices get stealth Android update

ratfox
WTF?

Re: @E 2 : NSA, GCHQ, etc.

Completely comfortable. Honestly, why would you trust this new version any less than the last? Did you check line by line the code of the previous version and make sure nothing was sent to the NSA? If so, you can do the same with this one again, right?

Do tell us of all the backdoors you find.

Supreme Court nixes idea of 'indirect' patent infringement

ratfox
Go

Yay SCOTUS

Please tell those federal circuit courts to stop bogging down the system.

YOSEMITE GLAM: Apple unveils gussied up OS X

ratfox

Interested by iCloud Drive

If it works just like Dropbox, I could see it take off. The only unfortunate thing is that you won't be able to share it with a non-Apple person.

Google to plonk tentacles on 'unwired' world with $1bn launch of 180-satellite fleet

ratfox

Damn. Must feel good to have all that money to spend on whatever you want.

Amazon workers in Germany celebrate strike anniversary with ... ANOTHER STRIKE

ratfox

German unions

On one hand German unions tend to be reasonable and not make crazy requests.

On the other hand, I suspect they consider Amazon like a "rich US company" that can afford to pay its employees more… Which would almost be the case were it not for the fact that Amazon uses razor-thin margins in order to grow its market share.

I'm curious to see the answer from Amazon, but they seem quite used to playing hardball.

FORGET OUR PAST, 12,000 Europeans implore Google

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Why is Google in charge of the process?

That I understand, people have to contact Google using that form, then Google decides if they agree or not (I suspect their answer will be no more often that not), then people need to appeal to the data protection agency of their country. And then people need to redo the whole thing again for Yahoo and Bing.

Why wouldn't people directly contact the data protection agencies, which would then notify Google et al. of their decision? This would speed up the process, and let people have a single point of contact for all their privacy needs.

It's not clear to me why the courts decided that a first decision about privacy should be taken by Google, which people don't exactly trust on the subject, rather than the data protection agencies, whose job it is supposed to be.

ratfox
Angel

Re: Has anyone done the slightest bit of thinking here?

Just wait until they charge £50 to process your application…

100% driverless Wonka-wagon toy cars? Oh Google, you're having a laugh

ratfox

Re: compelling arguments.

If it drives in California, I would insure one, actually. You know how insurances offer you a discount for putting detectors on your car? This one comes with more sensors than you can imagine, and is guaranteed to never be drunk, and never go over the speed limit. It should be their wet dream.

ratfox

@BillG

I'll note that despite your pessimistic certainty that no insurance would insure these cars, the example you are giving is about electric cars, which are quite common nowadays, and insured like any other car. Tesla has not gone bankrupt yet.