Thursday, 31st August 2006

Scary Wheelie Bins....

Fans of Dr Who will already be aware of how scary and menacing ordinary, common or garden, council wheelie bins can be.

However, they just got a whole load more scary..... They're bug infected!

No, not the tiny, creepy-crawly variety, but the sinister, Big Brother variety.

This story actually broke last weekend and I was going to mention it in Sunday's blog but I've been rather busy. However, the original story was in The Mail on Sunday but was then covered by The BBC too. I immediately phoned a friend who lives in East Kennett (Wiltshire), one of the three councils trialing the system (the others being Bournemouth and Crewe and Nantwich - but I've heard that others are following). She confirmed that her husband had located the said device, which I suspect is now dead!

The bugging devices themselves are pretty small and generally concealed within the plastic recepticles under the lid of the bin. Just what the relevant local councils are going to use this intrusive technology for, no one is quite sure - they claim it's just to monitor people's recycling habits and return 'lost' bins. It sounds like a very expensive waste of money, unless they're going to think of ways to bill the tax payer for their Orwellian ideas.

Me? I'd be inclined to microwave the device to render it useless, before re-inserting it into the bin. However, I don't have a council wheelie bin here, so no tin foil hats needed here yet!

Tuesday, 29th August 2006

NYT censoring UK readers

Oooer. Looks like the New York Times have blocked UK readers from accessing the article at www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/europe/28plot.html - which strikes me as a rather silly thing to do, because as soon as people read the full article at media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1860584,00.html I'm sure people will become intrigued and of course it will take off like wildfire and everyone around the internet will be emailing it to everyone. After all it doesn't take much to either access the site from a non UK IP address, or simply get a friend overseas to email it to you.

With all controversial stories, I'd have said the best way of keeping it quiet is exactly that - don't mention it, and keep quiet. As soon as you say "this is banned" or "you can't view this" you can guarantee that curiosity will get the better of people, and before you know it, the internet will be flooded with mirror copies.

Saturday, 26th August 2006

Heightened Terror State

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved."

Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even" A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

Thursday, 24th August 2006

Leopard at WWDC 2006

(click on image to view full size)

I'm impressed!

I'm not often impressed, especially by lesser operating systems, but I've just sat through Steve Jobs Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2006 keynote speech and I'm impressed!

The preview of Mac OS X Leopard looks seriously awesome, and definitely p***es all over Microsoft Vista. To be honest, I've not been impressed with Mac OS X since about the time of Panther. Tiger didn't really add anything that gave what I call the "Wow!" factor. Leopard on the other hand, has left me thinking, "That's seriously innovative, how DID they do that".

Although there are loads of whizzy new features, such as 'Time Machine', new generation iChat and Core Animation, the thing that had me truly impressed was the new 'Web Clips' Dashboard Widget maker. This allows users to arbitarily snip any part of any web page and instantly turn it into a desktop widget (read Konfabulator if you're a PC user) - so you can simply drag a box around Dilbert cartoons to create a widget to bring you up-to-date Dilbert cartoons each day, or any interactive web page you know, to instantly bring a little desktop sticky of it, fully interactive, updating in real-time and instantly available any time you want! Now that IS cool. I'm still trying to fathom out how they've parsed the web page to give any portion you happen to drag over. That's one seriously cool HTML parser!

Wednesday, 23rd August 2006

Be careful what you surf for

I read this with some amusement, but I think it's rather exagerated in order to get a story. There are no obvious porn links from the 'incorrect' site, but I guess a standard 'holding page' doesn't really have the same impact for a story.

Mind you, the pun on words failed on me anyway because I read the correct site (www.thinkuknow.co.uk) as "think-UK-now" rather than "think-u-know", which is how I presume it's supposed to be thought of, so it just goes to show that you can't predict what your audience is going to think.

Tuesday, 22nd August 2006

'Bump keying'

What would you say if I told you that your house was totally insecure and that anyone could enter and exit as they please, without you even knowing and without any sign of damage or breaking and entering?

Well, it looks like precisely this is now possible, due to a technique known as "bump keying". To find out more, visit YouTube and search for "bump key", or visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uv45y6vkcQ.

Basically it consists of filing down the 'zig-zags' on a standard Yale type front door key so that all five (for five lever locks) positions are filed down to their minimum position - so that the key looks zig-zagged, then inserting it fully into the lock you wish to open. Now carefully pull it back one 'click' and put a slight rotational pressure on it (as if you're trying to open the door) with your finger. Now hit the key with the handle of a screwdriver or knife. You don't need to whack it hard, just a medium tap, and at the same time increase the rotational pressure to turn the key in the lock. Nine times out of ten, it will unlock the door.

How does it work?

It works in a similar way to hitting a row of billiard balls, lined up and touching each other, in that a sharp tap on one end will make the last ball move but all the previous balls stay standing still. The inside of the lock behaves a bit like the billiard balls and transfers the energy to the levers inside the lock, momentarily knocking them all away from the key, which you can quickly turn before they settle down again.

Apparently it also invalidates your house insurance too, because there is no damage and no sign of forced entry.

I'd encourage everyone to check their locks and be aware of this new trick. I'm guessing that a visit to your local locksmith or crime prevention officer might yield some advice on how to prevent this new craze.

I just discovered it's not that new after all. Bruce Schneier gave it a mention back in March.

Also, see www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000930055696/

Monday, 21st August 2006

Let's beat terror scares!

Ryanair advert (click on image to view full size)

It's good to see that not everyone is getting taken in by the government's scare-mongering tactics of conning people into thinking there's an imminent terrorist attack looming.

Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary has sparked controversy by claiming there was no proof that any plot to blow up airliners had ever existed. According to an interview in The Mail on Sunday he then went on to say that the new airport security checks were more like 'Keystone cops'.

I fully agree with him - there was no terrorist plan. The government just want to terrorize people into believing there is, so that they can impose more silly laws to erode your freedom even more. When are people going to realise?

By instilling fear into people, more laws can be passed which remove freedom and democracy from the people of this country.

What's even more scary (and worrying) is the increasing tendency for people to police themselves (exactly as David Icke exposed some ten years ago). Another article in last Sunday's Mail, showed a photo of three ignorant chavs (Jo and Heath Schofield with their daughter Isabel) being used to illustrate the "shop your fellow passenger" campaign which seems to be getting underway. The rules of this game (for that's what it is) are simple - get on a plane. Spot a fellow passenger sporting a beard or speaking with an arabic accent. Get up. Leave the plane, creating as much fuss as possible shouting there are terrorists on board - resulting in said person of middle eastern persuasion being evicted from the plane so that you can continue your journey.

How sick, ignorant and stupid is that? People are being brainwashed into fearing other innocent people now! In any other scenario this would be regarded as racism or religious intolerance - yet the government and media are now trumpeting this as being diligent.

God, people are so stupid and ignorant! Are they too stupid to see the agenda unfolding?

Sunday, 20th August 2006

Talk! Talk, they're having a laugh!

I think the award for the most crap broadband service goes to Talk Talk this month. Someone just forwarded me the following, which I've heard confirmed from a number of other sources too.

I quote....

"!!! DO NOT USE THEM !!!

1. They block P2P traffic, even with Azureus' encryption you cannot get more than 5kbps from BitTorrent. You can only use it between midnight and 8am. They don't block any ports though, it's protocol filtering they're using.

2. They have a 40Gb bandwidth limit per month, so you can't download more than 5Gb in a month, not that you could manage that at 5Kbps anyway! Why they offer 8Mbps I don't know, if they only allow Email and web.

3. Their DNS is crap. I have to use the open 4.2.2.6 server as the TT ones don't work most of the time.

4. They don't support routers, so if you phone up they will refuse to help you if aren't using their awful USB frog.

5. Their tech support line is a premium rate 0870 number (not to Bangalore though!)

6. Reliability is awful, my ADSL connection is up maybe 60% of the time.

7. They're owned by Carphone Warehouse. Nuff said.

8. They don't have a news server.

9. Instead of getting a 404 error for an incorrect URL, you'll get redirected to a website which they claim is what you meant to type - usually www.kelkoo.co.uk, who I assume pay them. This would indicate to me that the use a transparent proxy too."

Links:

Talk Talk Hell

Talk Talk - Do they walk the Walk?

Talk Talk Nightmares

Talk Talk Consumer Complaints

Talk Talk Problems

Check the comments!

More...

I see that Breakfast TV presenter Susanna Reid also encountered problems with Talk Talk - as featured on BBC Breakfast this morning - news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/5274468.stm