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by 0 comments on "our futuristic “mailing list” technology will render your crude oppression meaningless"

After MySociety’s triumph on the MPs’ expenses issue, this looks interesting: the Lib Dems are putting out a call for geeks. This was followed up by a survey being sent out; I’ve filled it in, so I may end up spending the next election twiddling bolts on Chris Rennard’s particle accelerator. Apparently, there’s to be…

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by 1 comment on "give IT yahoos United States (dollars)"

So, there’s this rumour-surrounded gadget that GIYUS wants people to install on their computers as part of the War on Terror. Obviously, I wondered exactly how it worked; did it analyse the Web sites you visit semantically, so as to target its talking points precisely? Did it use some sort of social recommendation mechanism? Also,…

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by 0 comments on "Action: Government trying to kibosh MPs’ expenses disclosure"

Having spent over £1 million collating the files of MPs’ expense claims in order to make them available under the Freedom of Information Act, the Government is now trying to pull off a last-minute parliamentary ambush that would exempt them entirely from this disclosure. They are attempting to use the provision in section 82 of…

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by 1 comment on "fly or die"

It seems the UAE’s Antonov-12 ban is real. The shortage of inbound flights in the Viktorfeed continues; out of 57 overnight movements, in itself an unusual low, there were 10 inbounds after cleaning up the odd false positive. Here is a list: South-Airlines STH7002 Erbil Sharjah scheduled 1600Z Transaviaexport TXC1722 Kabul Sharjah scheduled 1500Z Safi…

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by 1 comment on "when you feel the heat you’ve got to move your fleet (2)"

I’m getting reports that the UAE authorities have revoked permission to fly for all Antonov-12s, and the substantial fleet based on Dubai and Sharjah has been given notice to quit last night. Apparently the proximate cause was a spate of embarrassing and perilous runway excursions, as well as the recent loss of an Antonov-12 with…

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by 2 comments on "fruit of the poisoned tree"

This week we’ve had the Piccadilly bunglebombers’ convictions, but more importantly the first conviction for “directing terrorism”. This was the case in which the suspect’s fingernails were torn out by the Pakistani intelligence service; he claims, and I see no reason whatsoever to doubt this, that he was questioned between bouts of torture by British…

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by 8 comments on "Dr. Benway strikes again, with Venture Capital"

OK. So we looked into voice stress analysis and the world telecoms infrastructure. And we concluded that proper VSA – the sort with the peer-reviewed scientific papers an stuff – was technically impossible. Recap; the original VSA research is based on a change in a signal in your voice between 8 and 12Hz, but even…

Read More Dr. Benway strikes again, with Venture Capital