@Goldmember

Until quite recently the only people who actually lived in the City of Manchester were office caretakers.

Same goes for other big cities.

AndyD 8-)#

REAL time

Real-time used to mean 'fast enough to affect the process creating the input'. For the process of sifting through our e-dustbins looking for Tesco bills I would think a couple of days is 'real' enough.

AndyD 8-)#

There are a couple of points that have had some airtime in India but are generally being glossed over:

The procedure used in 2008 was the same as used previously (when the *big* players got in.)

Aside from any alleged corruption, the method used has enabled very rapid rollout of cellphone use in India at affordable prices (some of the cheapest in the world). Auction prices would undoubtedly have been vastly higher, providing more revenue to the Govt (*not* to the 'common man' as is being touted). In fact the common man *has* benefited by way of cheap calls.

"They told people who complained about their copyright material being listed on TPB to "Fuck Off"."

Did they really? How Splendid!

AndyD 8-)#

they deserve to go down the pan - as does any company that demands full documentation and all original undamaged packaging before they will refund a faulty item, and challenges customers to take them to court if they don't like it.

Autonomy - who?

According to the Beeb, Autonomy is the UK's largest software company. During a career covering over 40 years I worked for most of the leading software companies in the UK and Autonomy was - er none of them, like several other readers I have never heard of them.

As to extracting meaning from text - I spent part of yesterday installing ms SQL Server 2000 on a 'retro' computer (HP as it happens) - 'full text search' was installed by default.

AndyD 8-)#

fast, reliable, cheap

... choose any two!

Logical conclusion

"if accepted by the executive, a four-year work programme will begin in the next financial year."

- they'll outsource that surely?

AndyD 8-)#

title required

Nice to see Powerpoint is still alive and well.

dig deeper

someone copied the unencrypted data

took the copies home

got burgled

ADMITTED IT!!!

Why? - compulsive honesty?? - or did someone (presumably senior) KNOW the data had been taken home and/ or copied?

Yep, that sounds likely.

DIG DEEPER - or do I mean higher?

AndyD 8-)#

Related News...

OfTran, the governments new commuter travel regulator have announced that all drivers of cars with four or more seats must offer free lifts to anyone wishing to travel with them...

AndyD 8-)#

Identity?

"it would effectively operate as a pass, as opposed to actual proof of ID" - meaning that a card with your fingerprint on** would prove who you were? How? It wouldn't even 'prove' you are the owner of that print, your finger does that.

** or a link to a database with your print on - same thing.

No-one in government seems willing (or capable) of thining out what identity means!

AndyD 8-)#

hmm

"non-departmental public bodies"

sounds quaintly obscene - in a threatening sort of way ....

@The Silver Fox

nobody voted AGAINST Labour - there is no way to do that.

they just didn;t vote FOR Labour.

AndyD 8-)#

@citizen kaned

"If EDS were project managing properly, the customer would have been penalised heavily for weak and changing requirements"

but they were - that's why the costs escalated >3x

AndyD 8-)#

crooke's radiometer

it's a big heavy Crooke's radiometer on an air bearing???

AndyD 8-)#

nice?

so Dixons' management were all legal and now have a nice cosy warm feeling -

or did they piss their pants?

@matware

Right - it works ffs - there's stuff that ms doesn't actively support that has worked for decades!

AndyD 8-)#

oWeb.createobject('myhandle')

thanks

Database?

"Data on the drive was not encrypted but it was password protected"

It's not a *database* it's Access

(it is isn't it?)

AndyD 8-)#

Waht goes around...

"NCQ intelligently reorders read/write commands sent to a drive by its host, sequencing them in such a way as to perform them in order of when the tracks and sectors they involve are available."

IBM mainframe drives were doing that in the 1970's

AndyD 8-)#

What goes around...

"After-work drinks are often part of the fabric of our working lives..."

thought that went out in the eighties - being retired, didn't realise it had come back in.

Good Oh! - p'raps I'll go back to work <g>.

@real estate - yes, royal - but Norman-French I think (all UK land belongs to the Crown - 'Freehold' doesn't mean you *own* it - you hold it (probably) in Fee Simple under the Crown).

AndyD 8-)#

Praise?

An exceptionally good article.

I wonder if John Ozimek would be insulted if I said it was worthy of Matthew Pariss at his best?

AndyD 8-)#

@Kevin Whitefoot

Well said.

I don't know enough C but I know enough programming:

this is a function, a function returns a result

<pseudocode>

result = mycopy(aa, bb)

if result = BUFFOFLO ...

# or if you prefer:

try

mycopy(aa, bb)

catch BUFFOFLO

# etc. - make up your own syntav

</pseudocode>

Oh, and anyway in the higher level languages I've used src is truncated if longer than dest

AndyD 8-)#

Register Keyring

be warned - I bought a Register Keyring containing tritium, and since using it my body has aged about six years!

AndyD 8-)#

So!

Krakatoa Rules OK!

AndyD 8-)#

@Justin Smith

And once again, a group of ill informed people voice their ignorance about the state of the extradition treaty between the US and UK, which has indeed been ratified on both sides of the pond, as evident here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5395170.stm

... which says it WASN'T ratified - so I didn't need to check the rest!

AndyD 8-)#

@David

so you're an ex GPO engineer, and you wanted your copper moved 500 yds - so what was your problem? Don't you have a ladder and a pair of pliers?

AndyD 8-)#

@Michael

"oil prices have dropped by ~60% in the last few months while petrol has only dropped by about 20%"

and the cost of oil is what percent of the retail price of petrol?

AndyD 8-)#

tinfoil

why tinfoil? - a car, especially one with heated screens, ain't that far short of a Faraday cage already. Vapourware and security pork anyone?

AndyD 8-)#

@A to Z

right, it was all down to poor draftsmanship (oops!) - or to introduce an IT angle an inclusive v. exclusive OR - the wording was "1/3rd pint or 1/2 pint or multiples thereof".

The weights and measures people being by nature restricters of choice, decided that multiples referred only to 1/2's. This proposal just overules that nonsense.

AndyD 8-)#

@various

have to agree with:

"I still dont understand where acid plus peroxide gives you enough chemical energy to blow a sensible hole in an aircraft...."

"How exactly is 1 teaspoon (5ml) of Tang in a 250ml bottle going to make an explosive?"

"The IRA blew up a hotel with the primeminister in, and we still just ignored them and got on with our lives. Why are we so scared all of a sudden."

and I really really object to having to take my shoes off at the airport (why ffs?), arriving hours before my flight, and staggering tired and jetlagged round interminable security queues being abused by jobsworths for carying my wife's bag as well as my own.

... other ingredients in the tango instead of water (explosive water?) ? - I can only think of e.g. petrol as an energy source, but I don't think you'd want to mix it with peroxide!

AndyD 8-)#

ironic

that this should be the data loss that gets punished - since justice is supposed to be seen to be done this data should be in the public domain anyway!

p.s. I bet this is the last time any external consultants ever admit to a data loss

AndyD 8-)#

@Henry Helmet

No decent chippies in drivetoclientland then?

AndyD 8-)#

information....

shove the sharp end of the jemmy between the door and the jamb somewhere near the lock, and pull on the thing hard.

Oh dear, now I've done it!

AndyD 8-)#

Royal Navy would have loved a device that could churn out ...

Ah! - but I'm old enough to remember the RN de-commissioning a device that must have been inspired by Babbage (analytical probably) - it was used for calculating tide tables, and was replaced in the 1960's with the biggest offering available from Big Blue, except that it wasn't quite as accurate. The analog device had been running since the mid to late 19th century and had been upgraded once in the 1930's when the hand crank was replaced by an electric motor.

AndyD 8-)#

It's Access isn't it?

I just *know* it's f*~n Access - last time a fellow employee b'd off leaving no passwords his Access DB's (hah!) came to me. I'm an idle sob so I spent $16 of my own money for a cracker program. It took 35 seconds - and it was a *very good* password!

So yea, send the pw by email, that should be OK.

AndyD 8-)#

Tory gents -

will of course still be able to get bladdered at the dining car bar on the 18:05 to Brighton - won't they?

AndyD 8-)#

How much?

Additional usage will be charged at £1.50 per Mb.

Does that mean around £15,000 per GigaByte?

AndyD 8-)#

Ignorance is no defence

"As I understand it, it is a principle of English Law that a reasonable person should be capable of understanding whether or not they were breaking the law"

er No!

It is a principle of English Law that ignorance is no defence - you don't have to know about it. let alone understand it!

AndyD 8-)#

procedures ... to control this behaviour

used to be one called Habeus Corpus

AndyD 8-)#

phones on trains or elsewhere.

"IN 2008, IN CENTRAL LONDON, I CAN'T KEEP A PHONE CALL FOR A 15 MINUTE TRAIN TRIP!!"

So we can be thankful for SMALL mercies then!

btw I have no problems with O2 - my BT Cellnet sim still works aok in my old Nokia candybar phone - it has cost me a rather excessive £15 or so in call charges over the years though <vbg>

AndyD 8-)#

a week's a long time in computing

or sic transit gloria mundi -

half the sad commentators on this thread have obviously never heard of Verity!

AndyD 8-)#

Taser?

I thought disposable cameras were just for frying rfid's <g>

AndyD 8-)#

..makes even less sense

If this is the same as:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/04/heathrow_biometric_id/comments/

it makes even less sense than BAA (a *private* company) say:

I arrived at Heathrow from Bombay with a connecting flight to Manchester and my bags checked right through. On arrival we went through security (having already been through Bombay Airport security and BA security) then shuttle bus to Terminal 1 (all airside). We were then asked for this bio Id - to the despair of swmbo I refused. We had to go back out through security and through passport control then round to domestic departures where we emerged in exactly the same place as those who had done the Id! At Manchester we again had to go through passport control.

There was clearly no point in the exercise other than some sort of trial run by BAA.

The police have to have a good reason to request my prints, why should a private company be allowed to? As to the assurance that they are destroyed after 24 hours; they also assured me that all the data is encrypted - so how could *anyone* verify that it is destroyed?

Let's hear it for the Data Protection Registrar (never thought I'd say that!)

AndyD 8-)#

re: Fleshing out the details of how old this is

thanks to Anonymous Coward for 'fleshing out the details of how old this is':

as far as I can see if this patent were granted they would have a block on most (low level) ways of 'coding to interface not implementation'!

AndyD 8-)#