Surely it works both ways?

Surely any WiFi router that broadcasts an SSID is making an unauthoriised access to your computer, in attempting to create a network between it and your laptop. So if I am prosecuted for using someone's WiFi, shouldn't the owner of the Router be prosecuted for "causing *my* computer to perform a function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in *my* computer".

If responding to a someone person's router's SSID invitation to join a network is illegal, then asking my computer to join in the first place is also an illegal access to MY computer!!!

Anyhow, technical arguments aside, it would appear that the main motivation behind these prosecutions is that the government is worried about the implications of people "stealing" bandwidth (i.e. the possibility of it being used for criminal purposes), so it would make MUCH MORE SENSE to change the law to make owners of wireless routers responsible for securing them, rather than prosecuting people for using them - especially in previous cases where the question of authorisation has been more ambiguous (internet cafes, etc).

@Robert Long

"Frankly, if I can set outsiders to have a lower priority than my own traffic then I'm happy for them to use my spare bandwidth. Why not?"

Because when someone parks outside your house and uses your connection to download kiddie porn or surf terrorism sites, do you honestly believe the "unsecured wifi" defence will work in NuLabour Database Britain? All I know is, I'm not the one to be taking that chance.

Waste of Money

If I was a shareholder of cruise.co.uk I would be upset about this! But I guess the German company must feel christmas has come early. For far less than £560k surely they could have bribed someone in Nominet to revoke the german co's ownership of a UK internet name, you know, like all the big co's in the US do with .coms??

@3x2

"In our credit driven service economy why on earth do we need Physicists? What's Physics ever done for me anyway?"

I know you're joking, but I do find it amusing when people question the value of science on the internet. It's like all the "cool kids" who look down on the nerds, while trying to impress their friends with their iPods and Mobile phones.

They just don't get it.

@Low flying terrorists are...

Presumably that's because nuclear power stations don't have huge moving flappy blades that confuse radar. They also tend to be inside large secure compounds, rather than plonked in the sea where any idiot with a motorboat can get to them.

If the government had the balls to back the development of IFB reactors, we wouldn't have the waste problems that conventional reactors have, so we'd reap the ecological benefits without the hazards.

Not posting as an anonymous coward because I am neither....

@Alan Potter

I lived in Billericay and used to pop on the train and go to the Byte Shop every now and then. The staff there (was that you??) were quite understanding and let you play on the shop computer (for a while...) and I typed in several of the programs I wrote at school into the shop pets and got them running. I even bought a blank cassette from you and saved my programs too!

Eventually I persuaded my Dad that he needed one for his business and we got a "Grey Import" (complete with 250v-120v transformer!) PET that eventually got upgraded to 32K and my dad used to run his upholstery business with software I wrote for him. I still have that PET, and another 4032 PET I bought a few years ago unworking that I am fixing up.

@Robert Long - The pet had only one 6502. It had a 6522 VIA and two 6520 PIA i/o chips, which would come out if you didn't need them. I managed to blow up the 6522 while experimenting with connecting a paper tape reader and had to replace it.

It's so simple

Just introduce a system for creating TLD's similar to the old process for creating news groups - get people to lobby for it, get an online vote for it, and if a large enough number of people support the creation of the TLD then it can be put into action. If enough people want a ".reg" TLD, and a prepared to finance the cost of the servers etc required to operate it, then they should have one. Requiring that there be a certain level of support (say, 1000 sponsors) would prevent a flood of frivilous or vanity TLD's.

Stupid scammers

"even more stupid for the scammers to assume the transfers would go indefinitely to them."

Perhaps they got scared when they saw the size of the payments - expecting thousands rather than millions - and decided to abort the scam (i.e. not run off with the money). Who would guess that a few months of Frito's would be that much money?

Poor dog is distressed...

...by being called "precious"! How can the Bulldog-in-the-street stand with head high with a name like that? Poor pooch.

Still, I hope that they catch these yobs and let the owner graffitti THEM.

Nice

"phone's ability to speak the name of the person calling you, so long as their name is in the phone book. We found that quite handy after a while"

I guess that means using "humorous" nicknames in your phone book is something you'll need to be careful about!

This looks like a RAZR without the god-aweful iTap predictive text... If it does T9 then I'm sold. Hopefully the build quality will improve, perhaps it might be better to wait for v0.1!

Because you don't buy software...

... you licence it. So if the EULA says that "this software is only for sale in the US" and you buy it and re-sell it in the UK then that software is unlicenced, and therefore "counterfeit" even though it was originally manufactured, packaged and wholesaled by the original author. It is on this technicality that grey imports are deemed "illegal".

That's not to say it isn't a crock of monkey-sh*t, but it's the law.

May I be the first...

To say AIR 2.0 sucks...!

@Ian Sneyd

"And while I'm in full moan how the hell do I get my bike to the MoT station when it's SORN and I can't get a Tax disc without an MoT?"

You are legally allowed to drive your vehicle on the road without tax or MOT to and from a testing station where you have a booked appointment, or to or from a garage where you are having work done in pursuance of an MOT.

If one of the Governments spy-cams gets you on the way, you merely have to show some proof of the booking (hint: Always ask the Garage/MOT station for a signed note of appointment) and they will drop the charges.

Possible explaination

Since he was surrounded by Czech people, did it just "Sound like" English or was it actually coherent speech? These stories pop up from time to time, but no-one seems to recall what was said, or manages to get a recording. Apparently I sound Russian when I'm drunk, but I'm actually talking jibberish.

Countdown...

"Wii is not next-gen," in 5..4..3..2..1...

@How can they tell?

"If the thing you're trying to measure is what defines your unit, how can you say it's changed? When is a reference kilo not a reference kilo? When it's 999.9999950 grams? In which case it's hardly a 'reference' is it...?"

In the article, should you choose to peruse it, they say that it has lost mass in relation to the other reference masses that exist. So it's not a local phenomena (i.e. change in gravitational density) either.

Sounds to me like someone's been too enthusiastic with the Brasso.

@Andy S

Since the URL is www.theregister.CO.UK I would think that, unless there is an indication to the contrary, then politics stories here relate to the UK.

Adblock considered beneficial

I would have thought that people using adverts on their site would be glad about adblock. After all, the people using adblock are the ones that find the adverts irritating - therefore, they are not annoying those people, who may then buy from them despite their adverts.

I don't have any problem with sites blocking people using adblock. If they want to do that, then I'll just not use their site. There are very rarely any sites that are truely so unique that the information they contain is that valuable. And if I'm that bothered and I just must see the page, I can always temporarily disable adblock while I look at their site.

I wish marketting types would pull their head out of their backsides and realise that not everyone is addicted to product promotions and that their job is not the most important in the world - if it is necessary at all. The truth is, if a product is any good at all, then it will make it's own market with the minimum of promotion. The only products that need saturation advertising are the ones that are not that good or notable in the first place. Which is why I dont in general buy products that are over-promoted like Cillit Bang, or that damn crazy frog.

Much as I love to see Sony squirm...

Why does channel 4 seem to think that Sony /should/ sponsor their program, from which they will make money by broadcasting? I mean, it would be nice if they did, but they're under no obligation. I didn't see the program, but did Nintendo, Microsoft etc "sponsor" the program? What about 2k, EA, and all the other makers of PC games? I think not.

Still, given the DRM rubbish that Sony have put out lately, it's good to see they're not getting their own way with everything.

Why moderate the comments

When comments like William's get through?

IT Angle.

The IT angle is OBVIOUS.

If there where more CCTV camera's around, this smack-down would be on Youtube, but there aren't.

Jeeze, do you guys have to be spoon-fed ?? :)

I've been reading the Reg tooooooo long

Amanfrommars is beginning to make sense.....!

@"Most dangerous, long lasting toxin on the planet"

Many "Greens" fail to realise that Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island where very old reactor designs. To dismiss Nuclear power because of these two incidents is the same as saying that Flying is inherently unsafe - "Just look what happened with the Hindenburg!!!1!!!1!!1!!!!"

If you want to see what some of the most up to date technologies do, then do a bit of research. Like look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_Fast_Reactor or something. They use 99.5% of the fuel used, so over the entire life of the reactor, you will be left with a few hundred kilograms of waste, which will decay to the same level of radioactivity of the original material in less than 200 years. That's a long time, but not unreasonable to manage. And it's less than half the time it takes a disposable nappy to rot away in landfill (since we're talking of toxic waste..!)

The Greens want to put away their delusions of a rural idyll and actively work with scientists to look for real answers. Rather than stubbornly refusing that nuclear has any place in the modern world. perhaps they would be better placed to make sure that environmental concerns are built into the plans for the worlds future energy plans.

With abundant "clean" energy, we'll have the energy to effectively recycle much of the waste that we still landfill. Many plastics, for instance, are not recycled simply because the energy costs are too high.

@Sweden is the 52nd state

I think you will find that the intelligence communities communicate between nations, and in the absence of active hostilities between those nations, governments are inclined to co-operate on matters relating to "national security" - especially when a troublemaker is not "in the club", so to speak.

I would imagine that someone from the US probably had a quiet drink with someone from Sweden and got a promise to sort it out over canapes.

Neutrality

I have a problem deciding on the Net Neutrality thing. On the one hand, I appreciate the idea that data is data, and ISP's shouldn't be poking their noses into what it is that you're doing, and I can see the bad possibilities that a two-tier internet gives for freedom of expression and privacy, but on the other hand I find it increasingly irritating that the internet is becoming slower and slower because billions of kids are too cheap to actually pay for the music they listen to. Before I moved, the high speed cable internet I paid for was rendered practically useless for large parts of the day because the kids next door where amassing a music and video collection that was ten times larger than they'd ever have time to watch/listen to in their lifetime.

Now, get off my lawn!

Gets my vote

Any Reg article that uses "Boffin" /and/ "Egghead", and then goes onto reference PTerry, gets 10/10 from me. And if it manages to wind up our colonial cousins, that's all the better!

If you want serious, in-depth and humourless coverage of science and technology, why not try New Scientist or the Popular Mechanics website.

@john blackley

"..what benefit accrues to the United States from adhering to 'Global systems'?"

Well, first of all, it means that US companies would find a home market for consumer electronics that they could also sell abroad. That means US customers would likely be able to get those products cheaper, and also have access to products manufactured abroad. Which is probably why those US manufacturers lobby so hard to NOT use global standard equipment.

European and Japanese companies sell millions of euro/yen/dollars worth of equipment abroad. Few US companies do, unless they are actually manufactured by european/far east subsiduries, in which case workers in the US see no benefit whatsoever.

There was a time when US electronics companies where big names in Europe, now they are largely distant memories, or 'brands' being used by far-east companies.

@Quinn

Look here - Install firefox on your cheapo USB stick. No need for the ironkey, if you're not worried about the encryption thingie.

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable