Heartland

slow news day I guess

This tickled me



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13155922

Champions' football trophy run over by bus in Madrid

see post #399 Dickless!

I ken ye have Dick but it's an auld wan, it may still work but does it pleasure the laydeez?

James Blast wrote:I ken ye have Dick but it's an auld wan, it may still work but does it pleasure the laydeez?

Jist cuz ah ken it'll gee oan yer... well, ye no.

guid Deejay

James Blast wrote:I ken ye have Dick but it's an auld wan, it may still work but does it pleasure the laydeez?

Oi!
Less o' the auld ya get.

& yes. If it's been polished proper like.

markfiend wrote:

James Blast wrote:surely that's been common knowledge since day 1? the were trumpeting how stolen devices were easily tracked and the perps brought to book

Yep, Android phones do it too. Just don't let any of your apps have access to location data if you're worried about it.

windows 7 phones transmit their location back to MS too...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/27 ... _tracking/

Add Microsoft Windows Phone 7 to the list of mobile operating systems that silently transmit the precise physical location of the device back to a central database.

actually, this is quite a good article for explaining what the whole location-gate (:roll:) thing is about, eg:

iPhone 101: Location data and GPS
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/27/iphone-1 ... a-and-gps/

basically, there's a big difference between the phone bineg able to work out it's location via gps and making this info available to photos (exif data has been around for years), twitter clients (for geotagging your tweets), all of which are based on your own preferences - you have to expressly grant each app that tries to access the geo info permission the first time it starts...), and your device storing timestamped geo coordinates forever, in a huge log file, as a potential audit trail that "they" could use to "get you"...

for me, the main take-away from the article is, and indeed the whole debate, is:

What's the hubbub about location services?

As we pointed out the other day, it seems that the iPhone creates a cache of your iPhone's travel history on your Mac. As far as anyone can tell, there's absolutely no evidence that Apple or your carrier is accessing this information.

i'd imagine the same goes for google android & windows 7 phones...

the ability to record it comes with the territory for modern 'smart phones'. it does not necessarily mean anything is actually being done covertly with that info...

@ markfiend: you may put your tinfoil hat back on now and feel free to point out the gazillion gaping holes in that last point

and the final word on location-gate: (stupid name )

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/27 ... statement/

When not using GPS, a handset relies on the identity of the nearest cell or Wi-Fi hotspot. Neither transmitter will reveal its location but various companies hold databases linking cell ID with location. Those databases were built up by driving along every road in the country, or bought from the mobile network operators. When a device gets a decent GPS fix it can submit the local Wi-Fi and cell data, keeping the database it up to date and correcting any errors.

An Android device which wants to know where it is will send the local transmitter (Wi-Fi and cellular) identities to Google, which consults the database and, if there's a match, responds with a rough location. That location might be good enough, or can be used to get a faster GPS fix.

But Apple thought it could improve on that model, by downloading part of the database to the iPhone in preparation for such a request. So the much discussed data on the iPhone is a list of cells and Wi-Fi identities that Apple thinks you might visit, not places you've visited before.

Presumably this hasn't escaped everyone's attention?

Perhaps you're all still "newsed out" from a certain wedding.

Personally, I don't think it'll make much difference, except to ensure a second term for Obama.

When he announced it during his speech last night, I could hear a cheer go up throughout my neighborhood.

Good riddance to him.

Taiwan animates it

The virgins are a nice touch

sultan2075 wrote:
Good riddance to him.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer individual. I do hope they release the footage of him purportedly hiding behind his wife.
I'm waiting for both the denial that it was actually him from his followers, and for the UK to cancel state aid to Pakistan. There is no way he was there without their knowledge, and I can think of a lot of things £650 million could buy in this country.

I'm hardly surprised that Osama was in Pakistan (and quite frankly I'm surprised that anyone else was surprised).

I don't really know what difference this will make to the unwinnable "war on terror"; from what I understand of al-Qaida, it's a distributed cell-based organisation with little (or no) clear hierarchy: Bin Laden was little more than a figurehead.

markfiend wrote:I'm hardly surprised that Osama was in Pakistan (and quite frankly I'm surprised that anyone else was surprised).

I don't really know what difference this will make to the unwinnable "war on terror"; from what I understand of al-Qaida, it's a distributed cell-based organisation with little (or no) clear hierarchy: Bin Laden was little more than a figurehead.

I don't think it's that he was in Pakistan that's the surprise, no-one would have arched an eyebrow if he was in some mountainous area, or rural bolthole. It's more he was found in an area that make it impossible the Pakistani authorities didn't know and couldn't have caught him whenever they wished. Everyone knew Pakistan was being rather two-faced about it, but know they're going to be very lucky to avoid US retaliation themselves. India must be loving every minute of this..
A for Al-Qaida, I think the Arab uprisings took the wind out of their sails anyway. It won't stop any sexually repressed young Pakistani in Britain trying to set off a bomb after selective reading from the Koran like lat time.

DeWinter wrote:I don't think it's that he was in Pakistan that's the surprise, no-one would have arched an eyebrow if he was in some mountainous area, or rural bolthole. It's more he was found in an area that make it impossible the Pakistani authorities didn't know and couldn't have caught him whenever they wished.

Even so, I'm not sure that it's entirely surprising given that...

DeWinter wrote:Everyone knew Pakistan was being rather two-faced about it,

Having said that,

DeWinter wrote:but now they're going to be very lucky to avoid US retaliation themselves. India must be loving every minute of this..

Yes. A worrying thought. Although I can't see yet another invasion/occupation being a popular American move at the moment.

DeWinter wrote:A for Al-Qaida, I think the Arab uprisings took the wind out of their sails anyway. It won't stop any sexually repressed young Pakistani in Britain trying to set off a bomb after selective reading from the Koran like last time.

Agreed.

DeWinter wrote: A for Al-Qaida, I think the Arab uprisings took the wind out of their sails anyway.

Amen to that. The revolutions are tearing up the terrorism at its root, and are a much bigger threat to A-Q than any US-led military action. Actions that by the way only serve to feed those roots (and the military-industrial complex etc.)

It's at least 1848 in the Middle East, which I think is cool.

euphoria wrote:It's at least 1848 in the Middle East, which I think is cool.

Certain Middle-Eastern countries are still in the 15th century. Islam hasn't yet had its Reformation.

markfiend wrote:Certain Middle-Eastern countries are still in the 15th century. Islam hasn't yet had its Reformation.

True, but others are definitely already in the 20th century (Turkey, Lebanon, PA-controlled West Bank).
And many Christian countries are in the 21st without having had a reformation, I believe? (I somehow connect reformation with protestantism, but maybe it had more widespread effects?)

markfiend wrote:

euphoria wrote:It's at least 1848 in the Middle East, which I think is cool.

Certain Middle-Eastern countries are still in the 15th century. Islam hasn't yet had its Reformation.

I read a theory about that once, that claimed that the reason it never happened was because the Islamic countries that had a questioning, scholarly tradition weren't the ones that became powerful. Bit like if Poland and Spain became the big regional players in Europe instead of England and Holland at the time.

I think it is rather nice that they waited until after THE Wedding so he did get to know what the dress looked like.

million voices wrote:I think it is rather nice that they waited until after THE Wedding so he did get to know what the dress looked like.

Unemployed sloane marries rich man after parading down catwalk in a fishnet dress. I failed to see the fairytale quality!



"Unlawfully killed"? So the PC will be facing a manslaughter charge afterwards then?

DeWinter wrote:

million voices wrote:I think it is rather nice that they waited until after THE Wedding so he did get to know what the dress looked like.

Unemployed sloane marries rich man after parading down catwalk in a fishnet dress. I failed to see the fairytale quality!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rules.html

"Unlawfully killed"? So the PC will be facing a manslaughter charge afterwards then?

Unfortunately now the CPS gets its chance to try to get the PC off the hook (usual excuses being "prosecution not in the public interest", "not enough evidence","he's a copper and they're our mates" etc) before any possibility of a trial.

DeWinter wrote:[I do hope they release the footage of him purportedly hiding behind his wife.

Personally, I'd have gone for the dialysis machine in terms of bullet stopping power, but I guess that's why I'm an engineer and not an evil mastermind.