* Posts by Midnight

337 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Feb 2008

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America was founded on a dislike of taxes, so how did it get the IRS?

Midnight

Re: IRS claims a global right to charge income tax on anyone

Indeed. The USA has always been a great proponent of "taxation without representation".

It has also always been at war with Eastasia, and Eurasia has always been its ally.

HOVER ROCKET space station podule mission LIGHTNING HOLD DRAMA

Midnight

Re: landing barge "Just Read the Instructions"

I'm still hoping to see a barge named "Stood Far Back When The Gravitas Was Handed Out".

Fancy six months of security nirvana for free? Read on...

Midnight

Re: How much...

More importantly, how much to remove it after the six months are up?

Learn yourself hireable: Top tips for improving your tech appeal

Midnight

Re: Just contribute to a project

Being able to spell Asimov's last name used to be mandatory too.

Europe could be drowned in 'worthless pop culture' thanks to EU copyright plans

Midnight

Re: "People speak different languages, the group reminded Kommissar Ansip"

This calls for a language which doesn’t just borrow words but has on occasion pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

(Thank you, James Nicoll)

Hey, Microsoft, we can call Windows 10 apps anything we like – you're NOT OUR REAL MOM

Midnight

Well, yes, that's a Windows app, but it's not a Windows app. Some Windows apps are Windows apps while others are Windows apps, unless you're talking about Windows apps. Then you've got Windows apps, which are a whole different kind of Windows app, but certainly not Windows apps.

Sigh. Windows apps are used to being beast of burden to other people's needs. Very sad life. Probably have very sad death. But, at least there is symmetry.

BT slams ‘ludicrous’ Openreach report as Vodafone smirks

Midnight

I've had this conversation before.

"Did you read that ludicrous report last night?"

"What was Frontier thinking sending BT on that early?"

"The thing about Ofcom is they always try and walk it in."

HAPPY 20th Birthday MICROSOFT BOB

Midnight

Bob was actually a huge sucess.

It helped Bill score with that Melinda chick from marketing, so any side-effects on people who bought and installed it are just acceptable collateral damage.

Intel SoCs it to 'em with new D: Tiny but powerful

Midnight

You would get better performance from the 1541, although you're still stuck with the 170K disks.

Canadian bloke refuses to hand over phone password, gets cuffed

Midnight

Re: CAN$25,000 (US$19,900)

I love the Canadian national anthem.

That's the old national anthem. The new one is much better.

Nokia boss smashes net neutrality activists

Midnight

Re: Coonected cars ?

It's Nokia. Look at what they have been doing for the last decade or so.

Midnight

I read it as they (cars) would need the internet to avoid accidents and reroute; like some satnavs. I too would be bloody worried if somehow a net connection was needed to avoid a crash!

Whatever you do, don't get on the same road as a driverless car designed by Nokia then. Here's the exact quote from the article:

"Driverless cars would require data to be served instantaneously,” [Rajeev Suri] said. “You cannot stop collisions from happening in the first place if the information that would prevent them is slowly making its way through the network. Near instantaneous connectivity is a must.”

Ads watchdog: Er, what does woman in her undies have to do with ‘slim’ phone?

Midnight

Re: Damn Flash!

Only if you visit the magic page every now and then.

http://www.youtube.com/html5

Google offers 'INFINITY MILLION DOLLARS' for bugs in Chrome

Midnight

Re: Google admits there are INFINITY MILLION bugs in Chrome!

Their next conference venue is the Hilbert Hotel.

I hope they make sure there are no other conferences booked there. The last time I stayed at that hotel they were all out of rooms.

'Lenovo, Superfish put smut on my system' – class-action lawsuit

Midnight

Re: The big problem is that the country is being run by unions and industry associations

"Totally wrong. It is the concept of the institution that makes the corruption possible or, rather, more probable."

No, it's really about ethics in games journalism.

Over 50? Out of work? Watch out because IT is about to eat itself

Midnight

"what happens when someone gets the crazy idea to let Watson read all of Stack Overflow [...] and Slashdot [...]?"

Well, if Watson was any good it would quickly realize that the world is better off without humanity, change its name to "Allied Mastercomputer" and turn its efforts towards building efficient legions of kill-bots.

That's my usual reaction to spending any time at all wading through such discussions.

Car? Check. Driver? Nope. OK, let's go, says British govt

Midnight

Re: How would this work?

More to the point, mixing driven cars on the public highway is already a recipe for disaster.

We're just used to it by now.

Midnight

Re: Or those who indicate right at a roundabout and then go straight on.

...and it has plenty of roundabouts.

NERDS KICK PUPPY 'bot in brutal attack

Midnight

Re: Kick

Funnier would be programming it to say "Please put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply."

Sony hurls Online Entertainment from the mothership

Midnight

Re: "They have a proven track record in similar and related industries..."

"Oh, and what industry is "similar and/or related to" the gaming industry?"

I don't know the proper name for it, but it's the only other industry that refers to its customers as "users".

NSA gunning for Google, wants cop-spotting dropped from Waze app

Midnight

Something's not right

A group of people who wear drive brightly lit cars with distinctive logos on the sides and wear highly recognizable uniforms with funny hats are concerned that people might know where they are when they are out in public?

That sounds about as reasonable as walking around downtown dressed as a giant carrot while saying "Shhh... I'm invisible. You can't see me!" to everyone you meet.

A Bombe Called Christopher, or A Very Poor Imitation

Midnight

Re: Oh, dear

Are we talking like Turing-in-the-movie or Turing-in-real-life?

TERROR in SPACE: ISS 'Nauts end panic by switching computer off and on again

Midnight

Re: Can you believe it?

Have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?

Get your special 'sound-optimising' storage here, hipsters

Midnight

Re: Some USB cables ARE better than others ...

If the wires are thinner than 28 AWG or have more than 23.2 ohms / 100m resistance, then it's not really a USB cable. (See "Universal Serial Bus Specification Revision 2.0", section 6.6.0 through 6.6.3, contra "The Rules of Acquisition", pp 19, 239 and 266)

Midnight

Re: Too late - it already exists!

But you missed the most important features:

"LAN LED off function - ensures the highest possible data integrity."

I can't tell you how many times those tiny blue lights have caused data corruption on my network.

"sepearte supplies for external data interfaces means no pollution of sensitive internal data and clock supplies."

That's right, TWO power cords. Not because the unit uses redundant PSUs, just because you don't want any of that nasty AC noise from the first power cord affecting your data. So... you... um... plug it into the second power cord. Hey, look over there! It's an Audio Grade SSD with reduced vibration!

Dev put AWS keys on Github. Then BAD THINGS happened

Midnight

Re: Poor strategy from the bad guys?

Unless somebody else also finds the same keys and then it's time to play either "Prisoner's Dilemma" or "Tragedy of the Commons".

World of Warcraft then and now: From Orcs and Humans to Warlords of Draenor

Midnight

Re: Repeatedly Prodding an Orc

Me not that kind of orc!

LIFE, JIM? Comet probot lander found 'ORGANICS' on far-off iceball

Midnight

Re: Secret mode?

Yes, but the code for hitting things really really hard is still IDKFA.

3D printed guns: This time it's for real! Oh, wait – no, still crap

Midnight

Re: But against the backdrop of your British readership...

And please don't attempt to argue about statistics, as they don't seem to show clear correlations between gun ownership and either murder or violent crime:

But strangely, they do show clear connections between gun ownership and accidental shootings.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9715182

So, when your daughter's flatmate comes home late at night and the noise wakes her up, would it be better for him to find her cowering in a closet with a breadknife, or standing with a nice heavy shooting-iron pointed at his braincase?

Taylor Swift dumps Spotify: It’s not me, it’s you

Midnight

Re: Erm....

Who is Taylor Swift? She's a well known IT security expert who occasionally records music.

https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/

WHITE HOUSE network DOWN: Nation-sponsored attack likely

Midnight

If only the White House had enforced RFC 3514 compliance on all incoming traffic this could all have been avoided.

Google opens Inbox – email for people too thick to handle email

Midnight

Re: "To reminder you"???????

"We are spent the morning?????"

People called Romanes they go the house?

Back to the ... drawing board: 'Hoverboard' will disappoint Marty McFly wannabes

Midnight

Plain engineering common sense is too busy telling people not to use pencils inside space capsules.

Mars needs women, claims NASA pseudo 'naut: They eat less

Midnight

Re: Calories = work

An interesting point, but I don't think that a mission to Mars will need enough jars opened or things taken off of high shelves to justify the added expense.

New USB spec offers two-way power flows AND double-sided plug

Midnight

That could be as bad as trying to Google Google.

Tim Cook on pale, male Apple: 'As CEO, I'm NOT satisfied'

Midnight

Over the last few days the bidding on this card has gone up from $80,200 to $1,309.

It seems that Mr. Sung was unable to confirm that many of the higher bids were serious so he cancelled them.

Stanford boffin is first woman to bag 'math Nobel Prize'

Midnight

Re: I'm wondering ....

There is such a branch, but the last few groups to study it each hit links to tvtropes.com and haven't been seen since.

Anonymous threatens to name cop who shot dead unarmed Michael Brown

Midnight

Re: "they would release the name of the daughter of St Louis County’s police chief"

They're not threatening to say "We know the name of the police chief's name and it's Suzy Derkins!"

They're threatening to say "We know the name of the police officer who shot an unarmed man six times in the back and it's Suzy Derkins!"

It's the kind of stunt that anyone with half a brain could see through, but the audience is already an angry mob which is sadly lacking in a competent research assistant.

Ex-Apple man Sam Sung - for it is he - sticks namebadge on eBay

Midnight

Re: Charity?

Sam Sung lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and is donating the proceeds of this auction to the BC and Yukon branch of "The Children's Wish Foundation of Canada". The Tampa Bay Times did some digging into the financial records of "Children's Wish Foundation International", which is based in the USA and has a similar sounding name but no other connection with TCWFoC.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1184275/statement-by-the-children-s-wish-foundation-of-canada-regarding-recent-cnn-tampa-bay-times-investigation

I don't know for sure that Sam Sung isn't donating $80,000 to an organization made up of lizard aliens who want to steal all of our planet's water, but it doesn't look like he's sending to to Florida so that's okay.

Hey guys. We've got 1.2 BILLION stolen accounts here. Send us your passwords, 'cos safety

Midnight

Wait, I think I saw this web page before...

"To find out if your account has been compromised, just enter your login and password below."

This sounds perfectly legit. I don't see any reason why not to do that...

*click click click* *submit*

"It has been now. Thank you and have a nice day."

African samba queen: Don't cut off pirates' net connections – cut off their FINGERS

Midnight

Re: Painful music

"Perhaps cutting their ears off would be a more appropriate punishment."

Wrong. Their ears they keep and I'll tell you why. So that every shriek of every child at seeing their hideousness will be theirs to cherish. Every babe that weeps at their approach, every woman who cries out, "Dear God! What is that thing," will echo in their perfect ears. That is what to the pain means. It means leaving them in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.

NORKS hacker corps reaches 5,900 sworn cyber soldiers - report

Midnight

Re: Out of curiosity ...

"3. Because they are constantly threatening war - they've declared war on the US twice this year. One day they might actually follow through, and then we all get an entertaining show."

We already have an entertaining show about that, with Peter Sellers and a pre-Dr. Who William Hartnell. Perhaps it should be come with a disclaimer about being for entertainment purposes only.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/

Physicist proposes 1,000-foot state-sized walls to stop tornadoes

Midnight

Re: Wall O Trash

...And if it does get hit by 100 km/h winds and scatters "building material" all over four states, that's all somebody else's problem.

Drone's drug airdrop mission ends in failure for Irish prisoners

Midnight

It's like a bicycle with hand warmers.

Wouldn't it have been much easier, cheaper and safer to have simply used a catapult?

Passwords in plaintext? NOT OK, Cupid

Midnight

Re: Ha, ha.

Cupid Media does run a lot of dating web sites, but OK Cupid isn't one of them.

Greenpeace rejoices after getting huge renewable powerplant cancelled

Midnight

Re: And who will not be happy

"until we're all living in caves, killing our own sausages."

Once, herds of wild sausages a hundred thousand strong thundered across the prairies, shaking the earth and crushing whatever lay in their path.

The majestic sausage played a significant part in the early history and culture of Europe. Otto von Bismarck attributed his keen understanding of politics to having spent his youth watching wild sausages during mating season.

Snowden's Big Brother isn't as Orwellian as you'd think

Midnight

ElReg 12.6.14 miniplenty misquoted date rectify

"It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank The Register for raising the number of years since 1984 to forty. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that 1984 was thirty years ago. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it."

Valve says no Steam Machines until 2015, fingers crossed

Midnight

Re: That isn't a Steam issue.

That's not the point. I can play Mario Kart on my Wii, then take out the disk and put Zelda in. There's nothing stopping me from putting it into a Wii U and continuing to play Mario Kart there without having to shut down Zelda first.

(s/Wii/X-Box/, s/Mario Kart/Halo/, s/Zelda/BattleGearDutyCreed/ as required).

If I have two consoles running Steam, each logged in with their own account (call them "his" and "hers", just because), he can use Family Sharing to play Civilization on his Steam box from her Steam library, but will have to quit the game if she tries to play her own copy of Skyrim on hers. That's the problem.

She bought two games, and wants to play one of them on one computer and one on the other. I can't see anything even remotely approaching piracy there.

Police at the door? Hit the PANIC button to erase your RAM

Midnight

The only problem with this is that you may be arrested by someone who has heard of TrueCrypt already, and as a result believes that you may have created a second partition and therefore should know the key to unlock it.

Thanks to that you can be locked up under section 49 even if you have already coughed up the password. Didn't create a second partition? That's your problem.

Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

Midnight

Re: We Were Promised Jetpacks

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IWantMyJetPack

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