Typical Scaremongering from the BBC

With cars this time, so I feel qualified to point out their false cause for concern.

The computer systems used to control modern cars are very vulnerable to attack, say experts.

An investigation by security researchers found the systems to be "fragile" and easily subverted.

The researchers showed how to kill a car engine remotely, turn off the brakes so the car would not stop and make instruments give false readings.

Except that's not quite true, is it, BBC?

The team got at the ECUs via the communications ports fitted as standard on most cars that enable mechanics to gather data about a vehicle before they begin servicing or repair work.

So, they connected a laptop to the OBD-II port and sent CANBUS packets to do things, then. People have been doing this for ages to build in remote-control features to in-car PCs. You need physical access to this port, so it can't be done remotely. Even if you were to build a wireless OBD-II interface to do it remotely, you'd still need access to this port to fit the transciever.

But yet the BBC have portrayed this story as though we should all be scared to go out driving in case our brakes are disabled by people standing on street corners with laptops.

Thanks BBC.

Theebeesee.*



* Little Peter Serafinowicz joke for you there.

Labour website traffic no worse on "crash day" than most others

So, it looks like it was just a dying bit of spin from Alistair Campbell.



Alexa's traffic info on labour.org.uk showed that the traffic to the website on the 11th May (the day Campbell claimed the site crashed due to "all the people trying to join" was not really any higher than it usually is, and in fact was nothing like the spike the site saw just before the election.

The "too busy to join" message was nothing to do with traffic to the site, which was not much higher than any other busy day.

Fucking pathetic.

Did the Labour Party website really crash under load of membership applications?

The story seems to have done the rounds this morning, but I don't believe it. Sounds a bit like a last-ditch Alistair Campbell spin attempt to me.

We need to wait a day or so until Alexa have info for the actual traffic hitting the server as opposed to Labour just putting the load message up on their server and periodically stopping the web service throughout the evening.

Unless there's a big spike on this graph tomorrow, I'm calling bullshit.



I'm quite happy to be proved wrong of course, but I smell the all-too-recognisable stench of Labour spin here.

Rejoice!!!!

Make sure the door doesn't smack you on your useless sagging arse, you woefully inept gurning moron. I suppose an apology for the wanton destruction of our economy is too much to ask for. You'll have the blood of inevitable Tory cuts on your hands, I'm afraid.

Perhaps the least deserving

I stumbled across this rather odd website today.

They're asking for opinions on:

The Cabot, Clifton and Clifton East Neighbourhood Partnership would like to hear your views on how to spend £15,000 of the "well-being" fund in this neighbourhood area. We would especially like to hear from you if you are a young person (younger than the average voter at least!)

What on earth do Cabot, Clifton and Clifton East need £15,000 for? They're some of the most affluent areas in the city.

This site is being set up by the Bristol Partnership (whoever the fuck they are), and apparently:

The pilot has been set up by the Bristol Partnership as part of taking forward the 20:20 plan. The 10 year strategy aims to put Bristol into the top 20 cities in Europe by 2020. You can find out more about the Partnership on our website at www.bristolpartnership.org

The Partnership is committed to increasing the opportunities for people who live in, work in or visit Bristol to get involved in how the city is run. We especially want young people to be more involved, as well as other groups who are less able to attend meetings in person.

This "dialogue" is a pilot project that has been set up on behalf of the Cabot, Clifton & Clifton East (CCC) Neighbourhood Partnership to see whether people are interested in submitting ideas, and voting for these ideas on how to spend some of the money that the NP has available. It builds on the ideas of participatory budgeting that has been run successfully elsewhere in the UK, but instead of gathering everyone in a school hall on a Saturday morning - we have decided to try using the web.

You know what to do.

The truth on immigration

From somebody who knows what the fuck they're talking about.

I think you're standing for the wrong party, mate

A Labour candidate has launched a personal attack on Gordon Brown, saying he is "the worst prime minister we have had in this country".

Manish Sood, who is standing in North West Norfolk, added that Mr Brown was a "disgrace".

Mr Sood called Labour ministers "corrupt" and said the party had allowed immigration to get too high.

He's quite correct of course. But then, why is he standing for Labour?