Not much new in the Piratebay case, but the BBC now have an article about it on their news website. According to a police statement it’s normal to confiscate computer equipment to obtain technical evidence without any need for proof that a crime is being commited. Wonder if this would extend to computers holding sensitive… Continue reading BBC article on Piratebay
Piratebay Raided
I have been an admirer of Piratebay for some time now. Based in Sweden they have been giving the US music and film industry grief for years by being one of the worlds largest BitTorrent Tracker sites. They didn’t host copyrighted material, just the tracker files, but this didn’t stop the massive power of the… Continue reading Piratebay Raided
2006 Bonus
Just got my FY06 bonus notification. £2,032 before tax which actually resulted in my net pay for the month being £1226 higher than usual. I think this equates to about 5% which is half what I was expecting. I should of course manage my expectations better. Nothing like a bit of uncertainty whilst trying to… Continue reading 2006 Bonus
Our new house, as described by the Estate Agent
SITUATION St. Mellion is a much sought after village in South East Cornwall, three and six miles respectively from the larger towns of Callington and Saltash, with the Tamar Bridge at Saltash connecting to the City of Plymouth. St. Mellion is a thriving community with a Parish Church, primary school of repute, and village inn,… Continue reading Our new house, as described by the Estate Agent
Take-Away’s in range of St Mellion
Take Away’s Having checked that our new home is within broadband coverage, my next thought turns to take-away’s and home deliveries. Got to get the priorities right! Over the next few months I’m sure we will check out various ones within our area. The list appears to be: Mr Kuet Chinese Takeaway Saltash PL12 4JG… Continue reading Take-Away’s in range of St Mellion
Push Shots and Double Hits
The following paragraph is the push-shot rule from the current 8-ball world rules: Definitions: Most shots commonly known as “Push Shots” in the game of “Snooker” are allowed in the game of Eight-Ball Pool. Generally, any shot played with speed will not be deemed to be a Push Shot regardless of the fact that the… Continue reading Push Shots and Double Hits
The DeVinci Code
Of Dan Brown’s four books, The De Vinci code certainly wouldn’t rate as my favourite. I liked Deception Point best, with Angels and Demons coming closely behind it. I’m really not sure what it is about De Vinci Code that has made it such a phenomena, but nobody can dispute that it’s one of the… Continue reading The DeVinci Code
Microsoft Genuine Advantage
Microsoft Genuine Advantage was thrust upon me some time ago and to begin with it was little more than a minor irritation. What was it really doing? What information was it obtaining from my PC? How was it validating my serial number? For all I know it could be transmitting all my passwords to Microsoft… Continue reading Microsoft Genuine Advantage
The Apprentice
Today saw the final of The Apprentice where Sir Alan Sugar finally selected 26 year old Michelle Dewberry as his new employee. I’ve enjoyed the series immensely and rapidly learnt the names of all the apprentices which is a great tribute to the series as my memory for names is pitiful. Over the last three… Continue reading The Apprentice
.eu Domain Registration
The new .eu domains went on sale sometime around December 2005. Being new and also a 2 character TLD (Top level domain) I fancied a couple, despite not really having any idea of what I wanted to use them for. The process for registration was extraordinarily protracted with registrants not knowing if they had a… Continue reading .eu Domain Registration
Piracy is Theft!
A couple of weeks ago I pre-ordered the new Harry Potter film, (The Goblet Of Fire) from Amazon. On the day of release my DVD showed up at 6:30am, a tribute to the efficiency of Amazon and the GPO and I must not complain about being woken up early if I order items that don’t… Continue reading Piracy is Theft!
Hosting Hunting
Recent events with Layered Technologies lead me to thinking that I must start hunting around for a dedicated server hosting outside of the United States. They are effectively the hub of the Internet in terms of bandwidth availability which makes them the ideal and most cost-effective locale. Unfortunately the legal culture is so tied up… Continue reading Hosting Hunting
DMCA Takedown Notice
When it comes to Tor, BitTorrent is a pain in the arse. The idea of BitTorrent is to distribute the overhead of Internet downloading across a wide number of machines. Unfortunately a lot of the usage for it is illegal content which makes Tor very attractive for hiding who does the downloading. This has two… Continue reading DMCA Takedown Notice
Howto Share Linux printers with Windows machines
I can’t profess to know a great deal about CUPS and Linux printing, but having spent ages searching for answers on how to share a Linux printer with Windows machines, it seems there is a need for a clear explanation. I hope this will be it. This assumes the Linux machine already has a printer… Continue reading Howto Share Linux printers with Windows machines
Layered Technologies
Layered Technologies are a hosting company in Texas. Their prices are certainly competitive for low-end servers with up to a capacity of 1000GB/month throughput. This makes them ideal for hosting a Tor service, which is what I did after checking with them that Tor was an acceptable service to run. That was in May of… Continue reading Layered Technologies
The countryside
I can accept that the countryside consists of mainly farmland, but I cannot accept the view that the countryside consists of nothing but the farming industry. In fact it’s probably reasonable to say that modern farming is destroying the countryside. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are responsible for causing immense damage to the countryside, converting it… Continue reading The countryside
John McCririck
Racing pundit Twat
The art of corporate cost cutting. (aka. Offshoring)
“Our employees are our most valued asset.” The above statement is a most appalling example of utter bullshit. Once upon a time it might have been true that utility providers and outsourcers valued their employees but today it’s a lie. The modern version should read: “A cheap subcontractor is our least expensive overhead.” Lets face… Continue reading The art of corporate cost cutting. (aka. Offshoring)
Linksys Routers
I’m tempted to say that Linksys produce the best routers available for the home market. In fact that temptation extends to most of their home network products. Besides working well, they are neat boxes and they are stackable. For a geek like me, stackable stuff is great. It looks smart and doesn’t take up loads… Continue reading Linksys Routers
Insurance Companies
I recently received a letter from DVLA informing me that somebody was trying to register my car. The license number was that of a Red Honda Prelude that had been written off four years ago after I hit a deer on the A30 dual carriageway at night. I remember being amazed at the time that… Continue reading Insurance Companies