Park Life

I'm just gonna go with this.

Microsoft Takes Down Whistleblower Site, Read the Secret Doc Here Microsoft has managed to do what a roomful of secretive, three-letter government agencies have wanted to do for years: get the whistleblowing, government-document sharing site Cryptome shut down. Microsoft dropped a DMCA notice alleging copyright infringement on Cryptome’s proprietor John Young on Tuesday after he posted a Microsoft surveillance compliance document that the company gives to law enforcement agents seeking information on Microsoft users. Young filed a counterclaim on Wednesday — arguing he had a fair use to publishing the document, a full day before the Thursday deadline set by his hosting provider, Network Solutions. Regardless, Cryptome was shut down by Network Solutions and its domain name locked on Wednesday — shuttering a site that thumbed its nose at the government since 1996 — posting thousands of documents that the feds would prefer never saw the light of day. Microsoft did not return a call for comment by press time. The 22-page document (.pdf) contains no trade secrets, but will tell Microsoft users things they didn’t know. (You can read it directly on your own computer from the above link, or read it inline below.) For instance, Xbox Live records every IP address you ever use to login and stores them for perpetuity. While that’s going to be creepy for some, there’s an upside if your house gets robbed, according to the document: “If your investigation involves a stolen Xbox console, if the console serial number or Xbox LIVE user gamertag is provided and the console has been connected to the Internet, IP connection records may be available.” The Microsoft® Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook (.pdf) also goes so far as to provide sample language for subpoenas and diagrams on how to understand server logs. Other things you might not know and which Microsoft (sometimes oddly) doesn’t want you to know? Microsoft retains only the last 10 login records for Windows Live ID. As for your instant messages, it tells police that it keeps no record of what anyone says over Microsoft Messenger - though it will turn over who is on your buddy list. And if you like to use Microsoft’s social networking products — like its old-school Group mailing list or its Facebook-like Spaces product, be aware that it’s very social when it comes to law enforcement or court subpoenas. As Microsoft tells potential subpoenaees, “when you are looking for information on a specific incident like a photo posting or message posting, please request all group content and logs. We cannot retrieve single incident data.” The same holds for Spaces — if you are interested in a single picture, just request the entire thing. Call it Subpoena 2.0. The compliance handbook is just the latest in a series of leaks of similar documents from other companies. Yahoo, like Microsoft, reacted as if its secret sauce had somehow been spilled by letting curious users know the hows and whys of how the companies deal with lawful surveillance requests. Google, for all its crusading for internet freedom, refuses to say how often law enforcement comes searching for user data. The one company who has had a stand-up policy for years is the Cox Communications’ ISP, which has had this information and their price list public for years. But hypocrisy is the name of the game for giant internet companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google that want us to entrust large portions of our lives to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Buzz, Xbox, Hotmail, Messenger, Google Groups. When it comes to the most basic information about how, why and how often our data is subpoenaed and collected without our knowledge, these online innovators resort to lawyers, abusive legal process and double-talk. Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/m.../#ixzz0gZbJTvNq

do you live in the real world? Yes, and in the real world its way ahead of anything else on the market. The missus pays £25 a month for what is an absolute bag of cack... I pay £45 and have games, sky sports, and a million other great things. I can understand someone buying a shite cheap phone if all they do is text and call people, thats fair dos'... but I really for the life of me can't understand anyone who buys an "iphone equivalant". You could invest that £500+ quid a year?? Just a thought.

Ah the lifeforece revealed.

Newcastle United are losing £500,000 per week Feb 25 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal Comments (6)Recommend (1) 12next Ashley had already cleared debts of £110m when he took control of the club back in June 2008, although it was claimed he did not want to be repaid that money as long as someone came up with the £100m asking price last year. It is not yet clear whether he will take his £20m back this season, particularly as the squad will need significant investment if it is realistically going to compete back in the top flight. The scale of United’s losses came on the day a report by Uefa, European football’s governing body, estimated that the 18 Premier League clubs in 2007-8 owed more money than all of the clubs in the rest of Europe’s top divisions put together. The combined debts of these clubs stood at just under €4bn euros (£3.5bn), around four times the figure for the next most indebted top division, Spain’s La Liga. Given Portsmouth’s demise – the club may still go out of business even if it goes into administration tomorrow – English football is heading for a prolonged period of belt tightening after the boom of the Noughties, and Newcastle are no exception. THE need for Newcastle United to make an instant return to the top flight has been underlined by the revelation the club is losing around £500,000 a week in the Championship. http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastl...61634-25910076/

I miss Stevie. At this point he would have produced a half pager of attendance statistics since WWII to prove all Spurs and Everton supporters are cunts...... Wanks? [/stevie]

She was right about Europe from day one. Meddling Burssels sprouts...

The EU is heading for one big socialist canton.

Factory work, crop picking, plastering, and working in an Indian restaurant. Not great but you've got to start somewhere, especially if you've fucked up your education by not bothering with school. It's got to be said that the younger ones in particular simply couldn't be arsed to get out of bed, even for 3 days when they know they're on a TV show ffs! The factory owner and farmer said they'd be ruined without immigrant labour. And the price of British potatoes would rocket. Sounds like quite a clever programme. The vast majority of econoomic immigrants do back breaking work and are happy to...Thank god.

Used to eat 6 eggs a day...Gets my vote.

Got to be underwhelmed by that appointment.

sitting/standing in a classroom and lecturing is experiencing the real thing ie human nature ? Not what I said or meant as you well know. I was simply pointing out that you have a go at people for commenting about things they haven't experienced yet you seem to think you're qualified in someway to comment on what goes on at university. Not difficult to see the flaw in that logic. OK I can accept your point of view. But what I say is based on what they say, logically it tells you that university is teaching them idealogical bullshit, politically speaking. I did Engineering at University and didn't attend a single political meeting or event. How does that fit into your "knowledge"? me as well.....all of my political views are based on internet porn.. FYP.

Hmmm - I never knew the Malverns were a tax haven - cos that's where Desire are based - and FOGL and Rockhopper are based in the UK as well........ The trouble is d when do you draw the line about protecting people from a foreign govt tey don;t want Parky You're a big fan of Venezuala and "keep the yanks out" - shirley the same applies to the Falklands and the Argies?? Show me the money.

Bloke who nicked the bike sold it and bought a condo in Miami with the proceeds.

Got myself tucked after arguing against the speed of light constant with appears to be a proper physicist...

China sells $34.2bn of US treasury bonds Analysts fear Beijing's move may suggest a loss of faith in American government's economic policy Wen Jiabao Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has said he is 'a little bit worried' about the safety of his country's investments in US bonds. Photograph: Greg Baker/AP China sold $34bn (£21.5bn) worth of US government bonds in December, raising fears that ­Beijing is using its financial ­muscle to signal that it has lost confidence in American economic policy. US treasury figures for the period ending in December 2009 show that, following the sale, China is no longer the largest overseas holder of US treasury bonds. Beijing ended the year sitting on $755.4bn worth of US government debt, compared to Japan's $768.8bn. Since the sub-prime crisis that began on Main Street USA grew to engulf the global economy, China's leaders have repeatedly expressed concerns about US policy. December's $34bn sell-off made only a tiny dent in Beijing's total holdings of US assets, which amount to well over $1tn when stakes in American companies, as well as treasury bills, are taken into account. But the news intensified concerns about China's appetite for bankrolling ever-widening American deficits. Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters last year: "We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried." When Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, visited China last summer, he sought to reassure his hosts, using a speech to promise that "the United States is committed to a strong and stable international financial system. The Obama administration fully recognises that the United States has a special responsibility to play in this regard, and we fully appreciate that exercising this special responsibility begins at home." ....and so it begins. I'll stick to my April forecast for the slaughter to begin...

No..no no..

FDIC Reports More 'Problem' Banks http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/02/...e-problem-banks Print Send Comment RSS Share: Facebook Twitter Digg del.icio.us A certain strand of the conventional wisdom on the financial crisis is expressed by Bill Gates in a new post on the Microsoft founder's Web site. "The key players – particularly Bernanke but also Paulson – did a great job handling this crisis," Mr. Gates says, echoing his friend Warren Buffett's claim that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and Treasury Secretary Geithner are "heroes." A counter-indicator comes in the latest data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which reports that "At the end of December, there were 702 insured institutions on the 'Problem List,' up from 552 on September 30." What's more, "Forty-five institutions failed during the fourth quarter, bringing the total number of failures for the year to 140, the highest annual total since 1992." And, "Insured banks and thrifts charged off $53.0 billion in uncollectible loans during the quarter, up from $38.6 billion a year earlier." Banks are lending less: "This is the sixth consecutive quarter in which the industry's loan balances declined. Loans to commercial and industrial (C&I) borrowers declined by $54.5 billion (4.3 percent) and real estate construction and development loans declined by $41.5 billion (8.4 percent)." If all these guys are such heroes and doing such a good job, why are more banks in trouble or failing? Why are more debtors defaulting? Why is it harder to borrow money? And why is the unemployment rate still double what it was before all the heroics began? And that doesn't even mention the inflation or taxes that will be necessary to pay for all these heroics. The defenders of the "heroes" always say it could have been worse. Well, maybe. But it could have been better, too. As Lawrence Summers says, there is "the difficulty of constructing a counterfactual and knowing what would have happened without intervention."

Seen on a recent Citibank © statement: "Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change." Whoa. Is this an April Fool's joke? A contingency plan to defend against the idea of what "would happen if thousands of [bank] customers pledge to withdraw their money from the bank on a certain day, unless the bonuses are capped?" A strategem cooked up by Citi's new shareholders from the hedge fund industry, an industry in which such withdrawal gates are common? An idea backed by Citi's big shareholder, Uncle Sam, or one of its regulators, Sheila Bair? I called Citi about it and they said the warning applies only to customers in Texas and that the notification had been mistakenly included on statements nationwide. Whatever the explanation, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Citi. I've got nothing against Citi as a general matter -- I have friends who work there, and know some account holders who are generally satisfied customers. But it's hard to believe a bank would be sending out a notice like that on its statements.

Dont know the details but if I own something that has a debt of 60m and it also owes me say 5m, administration is a good thing. Thats 55m i dont have to pay back. I'd put the club in administration too, clears the decks of debt and they were getting relegated anyway. If you are definitely going down, the fuck difference does a 10 point deduction make? Get it in now so it doesnt affect the club next year. Gaydar will be macked.

Good read.

In the 4D Minkowski spacetime. All postulates of the Relativities are elementary and fundamental in the higher dimensional cosmologies. However the de Broglie Phasevelocity can easily be used to define the superposition of the scaled distance parameter R(n)=V(n)/F as a rescaling of the lightspeed invariance in Lightpath X=cT=c/F. Proof: Phasespeed VdB=(wavelength)(frequency)=(h/mVgroup)(mc^2/h)=c^2/Vgroup > c for all Vgroup < c. The lightspeed constancy in higher D membrane space so becomes a lower tachyonic limit for the phase speed, just as the lightspeed c is an upper limit for the lower D Minkowski metric (measuring a group-velocity Vgroup as a vector bundle). As said, a 4D technology cannot mechanistically 'overcome' the restriction of the Relativity physics of Albert Einstein. AA

Still rather have him than Guti.

She's also an anti-science religious fuckwit. I'd have had her jailed for her part in the MMR scare. She's evil.