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User: jonbryce

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  1. Re:No... on Proposed California Law Would Mandate Smartphone Kill Switch · · Score: 1

    If the source of the list is all the IMEI numbers issued to manufacturers, then probably yes, they do have all the numbers in the world.

    Anyway, if a tourist roams onto a foreign GSM network, the phone calls home to authenticate on its home telco's Home Location Register.

  2. Re:Can it be invalidated? on The FBI's Giant Bitcoin Wallet · · Score: 1

    They do acknowledge the existence of bitcoins, however it is not clear whether or not they consider them to be legal. Regardless, when they bust a drug dealer, they will sieze all the assets, and they will include legal assets such as cars and dollar bills as well as illegal assets such as inventory of drugs. It doesn't matter at this point whether bitcoin is a legal or illegal asset.

  3. Re:Can it be invalidated? on The FBI's Giant Bitcoin Wallet · · Score: 1

    And Cyprus pounds, as well as Italian Lira - Lira is Italian for Pound, and both were originally based on a pound (in weight) of silver pennies.

  4. Re:Does it work at all? on UK ISP Adult Filters Block Sex Education Websites Allows Access To Porn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The filters are default-on for new customers, but off for existing customers unless you ask for them to be switched on. Very few people will be using them at the moment.

  5. Re:And google will retain that info exclusively. on Google Makes It Harder For Marketers To Collect User Data · · Score: 1

    Every mail does have a separate link to the picture, that is the whole point. They want to know which people opened the emails.

  6. Re:Value Added Tax on Norway Rejects Bitcoin As Currency; Taxes As Asset, Instead · · Score: 1

    Unless you can find Bitcoin on one of the lists of things that are exempt from VAT, outside the scope of VAT, or chargeable to VAT at 0% or 5%, then yes, you have to charge 20% VAT on Bitcoin, just like you have to charge VAT on the sale of silver coins.

    However, if you bought the Bitcoins from someone who is not VAT registered, you can use the second hand margin scheme so that you only pay VAT on 20% of the profit. If you do that, then the person buying them can't claim the VAT back even if they are VAT registered. You can't deduct any expenses when working out the margin, but you can claim VAT on the expenses separately subject to the usual rules, and if you sell at a loss, you don't get a refund.

  7. Re:taxed as asset? on Norway Rejects Bitcoin As Currency; Taxes As Asset, Instead · · Score: 1

    Norway is in the EEA, and is known as a "fax democracy". The EU sends all the latest directives by fax to the Norwegian Parliament and they are required to implement them as part of Norwegian Law.

  8. Re:What is the cost basis? on Norway Rejects Bitcoin As Currency; Taxes As Asset, Instead · · Score: 1

    If you run a business mining bitcoins, then the sale of bitcoins is your revenue, and electricity is one of your expenses. So yes, you would be able to write off your electric bill. Depending on which tax juristiction you live in, you may be able to claim depreciation, capital allowances, investment allowance or similar on the cost of the computer.

  9. Re:How is Norway going to know? on Norway Rejects Bitcoin As Currency; Taxes As Asset, Instead · · Score: 1

    If it is more than €15,000, then yes it is reportable.

  10. Already banned in Europe on US Light Bulb Phase-Out's Next Step Begins Next Month · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They were banned in Europe quite a few years ago, however "rough service lamps" which are less efficient than traditional bulbs are still legal, and a lot of people have started using them rather than move to more efficient bulbs.

  11. Re:Sentence doesn't make sense on Why Cloud Infrastructure Pricing Is Absurd · · Score: 1

    Try "CPU time", "CPU capacity", "processing power" or something along those lines. That's what "compute" means.

  12. Re:flying donkeys! on Thousands of Germans Threatened With €250 Fines For Streaming Porn · · Score: 1

    European copyright law recognises that, and "streaming" is not regarded as copying for copyright purposes.

  13. Re:Actually no on British Police Censor the Global Internet · · Score: 4, Informative

    Boris Johnson, Mayor of the Greater London Authority is in charge of the Metropolitan Police. He is elected by the people who live in the Greater London Area, a region of England with a population of around 8 million people comprising two cities, London and Westminster, and 31 boroughs such as Camden, Southwark, Croydon and so on.

    Fiona Woolf is Lord Mayor of the City of London. The smallest city in England with a population of around 10,000 people. She is in charge of the City of London Police, and is elected by the businesses that are based in the City of London.

  14. Re:Guns...Lots Of Guns on Affordable 3D Metal Printer Developed Based on RepRap · · Score: 1

    Making guns is easy. Getting hold of the ammo is a lot more difficult and you can't print bullets yet.

  15. Re:RTFA says it's not telephones on Air Traffic Control "Telephone Glitch" Delays Hundreds of UK Flights · · Score: 5, Informative

    They do operate it as a 24/7 operation. However, at night time there are less planes in the sky, so each traffic controller is given a bigger area to work on and there are fewer of them on duty. During day time, these areas are subdivided into smaller areas and more controllers are brought on-line to work on the larger number of areas. It was this switch-over that failed.

  16. Re:Expect Nexus phones to have SD cards... on German Court Invalidates Microsoft FAT Patent · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, that is what I am trying to say.

    In terms of actual EU courts, we have the EU General Court, but that only has competence to hear cases against the EU itself. For example, if the European Patent Office refuses to grant your patent application, you can go there to appeal your decision, or if the EU competition authority thinks you are behaving in an anti-competitive manner, you will face trial in that court.

    Most other cases involving EU law are heard in national courts, with the European Court of Justice as the final court of appeal. Generally speaking, judgements in national courts are binding only in that country, but persuasive elsewhere in the EU. ECJ judgements are binding in the whole of the EU. The exception is cases involving copyrights, patents, trademarks and registered designs (known as design patents in the US). For those cases, the national court sits as an EU court, and judgements are binding throughout the EU. Another exception is the EU small claims procedure, where consumers can take cases against suppliers in other EU countries in their local court, and the local court will work the the court local to the supplier to sort out the dispute. Small claims cases are not legally binding, but can be appealed to the European Court of Justice, who's judgements are legally binding.

  17. Re:Of course people who navigate... on Need Directions? Might Not Want To Ask a Transit Rider · · Score: 1

    I don't know what the Ottawa app is like, but the Transport for London App will list the different routes available, the number of changes, how many minutes you will have to wait for the next bus, train etc to turn up, approximately how long it will take and the estimated time of arrival. Sometimes for example, there is a bus that will take you there with no changes, but takes ages because the traffic is bad, or you can go by rail which is faster, but you have to change. If I'm tired and carrying loads of heavy stuff, I'll take the bus. If I'm in a rush, I'll go by rail.

  18. Re:Expect Nexus phones to have SD cards... on German Court Invalidates Microsoft FAT Patent · · Score: 1, Informative

    The German court is a European court when it hears patent cases, therefore the ruling does apply all over the EU. We don't have the same separation between State and Federal courts that they have in the USA.

  19. Re:Expect Nexus phones to have SD cards... on German Court Invalidates Microsoft FAT Patent · · Score: 1

    This ruling is valid across the whole of the EU. When local courts hear patent cases, they sit as European courts.

  20. Re:What about FAT32 on German Court Invalidates Microsoft FAT Patent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It covers long filename support in FAT. Digital cameras that stored photos with 8.3 filenames were never affected by this patent regardless of which version of FAT they used.

  21. Re:Alternative on FTC Drops the Hammer On Maker of Location-Sharing Flashlight App · · Score: 1

    TeslaLED

  22. Re:So No One Thought It Odd on FTC Drops the Hammer On Maker of Location-Sharing Flashlight App · · Score: 1

    The restaurant app needs to phone home with the location data in order to get the list of nearby restaurants. Once it is on their server, what they do with it is outwith your control, but restaurants will probably pay a referral based commission so they will need to have details of where people use their apps for that purpose.

  23. Re:More importantly: on China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions · · Score: 2

    No. Most of the trade was in tulip futures rather than actual tulip bulbs.

  24. Re:Pros vs Cons on RF Safe-Stop Shuts Down Car Engines With Radio Pulse · · Score: 1

    I have in my car. It has a stop-start engine so turns itself off completely when I stop at traffic lights etc, and also regenerative brakes. If I am going down a hill slowly in stop-start traffic, I sometimes don't bother to put the engine back on, and just let gravity take me down the hill. The brakes become much harder to operate as soon as the engine goes off, because the regenerative breaking doesn't work.

  25. Re:Pros vs Cons on RF Safe-Stop Shuts Down Car Engines With Radio Pulse · · Score: 1

    On my VW Up, if I push the break pedal a little bit, it activates the regenerative breaking system. If I push it down really hard, it activates the manual hydraulic break pads.