* Posts by Frank Thomas

54 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Apr 2007

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Eagles singer wins case against US politico

Frank Thomas
Flame

Dennis Leary had it right

I've got two words for don henley.... Joe Walsh.

Apple lifted 'make web go away' button from open source

Frank Thomas

Apache lic huh?

this is why the apache and BSD licenses are inferior to the GPL.

I would welcome apples use and contribution to OSS code and projects, but when they are declaring a patent war on other OSS offerings, I call shenanigans.

This witch-hunt will hurt Adobe more than Apple

Frank Thomas
Linux

I was fine with it until

personally I hate both companies, i just laughed at all this hubub, until Steve Jobs started attacking open video codecs. if it is his view that no video platform can be free from patents, then there can be nothing but closed source computing, and thus, software patents need to be eliminated. patents are there to enhance the evolution of technology for the benefit of society, not to line the wallets of troll patent lawyers.

Terror in the Outback: Attack of the Giant Space Balloon

Frank Thomas
FAIL

NASA, Pay attention

this is what happens when you try to reduce state of the art aeronautical science to 19th century claptrap. Dirigibles? are you on crack? like Ares isn't a big enough step backward?

Why you subsidize Google's Soviet-style Net

Frank Thomas

just propaganda

so the author appears to be quite anti-network neutrality. that tells me he/she wants us to bow before our corporate overlords.

SBC Yahoo! DSL service, now with Google access (additional monthly charges may apply)...

Hackers break Amazon's Kindle DRM

Frank Thomas
Go

now I can get one!

I had been waiting for this. now I can get a kindle! Amazon, Thank this hacker, as he has just given you a sale.

Microsoft's Silverlight 4 - Flash developers need not apply

Frank Thomas

Netflix

well i may be one of those .net devs they want to please, but until the netflix viewer works on linux/mono I'm not interested.

Fanbois Apple buyers howl over crocked iMacs

Frank Thomas
WTF?

the differance?

"though some indicate the display is at fault, not the machine itself"

I fail to see how the machine is not at fault, when it's single largest component (aside from chasis) is broken. not to mention that booting or not, a laptop is entirely useless without screen.

Cops to step up use of phone and net records

Frank Thomas

huh?

'She predicted always considering communications data will lead to a 20 per cent increase in the productivity of CID teams.'

ok, why is this a good thing? the police's goal should be to reduce the number of arrests/convictions, not to increase them. They won't be happy until everyone who is not a cop, has been removed from society 'for our protection'.

what the heck is wrong with the UK these last 5 years?

The 3G map Ofcom didn't want you to see

Frank Thomas

regulation

This is why regulation MUST be an adversarial game. A regulator that is not feared by the regulated is worse than useless. it becomes a mouthpiece and a vector for allowing harm without redress.

RIAA claims victory in Usenet.com copyright case

Frank Thomas

NNTP is not dead

www.usenet.com != NNTP

NNTP will not die soon, as it does remain one of the last bastions of anonymous web. Just don't contract with a service provider that widely advertises the availability of illicit material on it.

first rule, don't talk about fight-club.

US city demands FaceSpaceGooHoo log-ins from job seekers

Frank Thomas

TOS?

um, most sites TOS requires that you never give away your username and password. in fact the TOS on the Bozeman TV news site linked in TFA includes this passage in it's terms of service:

"USE OF SECURE AREA AND PASSWORD

You are given access to any password-protected area of the Web site when you are given permission and a password to enter such area. You may not distribute your password to others, but if you wish to authorize another individual to use your password, you must request permission from WorldNow in writing, with the understanding that WorldNow is under no obligation to approve any such request. You are responsible for all uses of your password and any and all damages to WorldNow and this Station resulting from the distribution of your password, whether or not authorized by you. "

http://montanasnewsstation.com/global/story.asp?s=18991

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn;t the prosecutors in the recent myspace impersonation/susicide case, try to charge the defendant with felonious "computer hacking" because she violated the TOS?

http://hackaday.com/2008/05/27/violating-terms-of-service-equals-hacking/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/17/myspace_hacking_charges_analysis/

Baby Shakergate: Apple officially sorry

Frank Thomas

The lesson?

The lesson here is simple. Never write code for an apple machine.

UK dons dunce hat on copyright law

Frank Thomas

S. Korea

I have to wonder if South Korea will fall off the 'A' list now that they have passed their own 3-strikes jackboot.

DHS battles Axis of Exorbitance with software overhaul

Frank Thomas

Wanna spend less on software?

how about Open Source?

Wikileaks tells Aus censorship minister to rack off

Frank Thomas
Go

Thank God for Wikileaks

I really worry about them being taken offline by oppressive governments. Hopefully their legal immunity will hold up indefinitely.

Amazon waves DMCA in Kindle channel lock-down

Frank Thomas

Poor kindle

a Kindle will never have the pleasure of being owned by me. but the first DRM-free competitor will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

Teen sacked for 'boring' job Facebook comment

Frank Thomas
Stop

Never tell your PC who you are

and the Internet... never never never tell the Internet who you are. it's a recipe for disaster.

Microsoft plague threatens 30GB Zune extinction

Frank Thomas

Why all at the same time I wonder

Sounds like a TPM/DRM issue to me

Google disguises capitalism as civil rights

Frank Thomas

your bias is showing

you know, it's people like you what cause unrest.

just because your "cause" is railing against other people's "causes", doesn't make you any righter. it just shows how wrong you are.

Aussie protests over Great Firewall

Frank Thomas

Middle Australia

it sounds like Middle Australia is alot like the American South. They call it the bible belt, but it's more like the "heavily armed, heavily drunken, religious extremist belt ".

Why port your Firefox add-on to Internet Explorer?

Frank Thomas
Stop

NoScript?

there is one reason this non-mainstream user will not use IE. no NoScript. That's a deal breaker for me.

Business ISP blunders on BNP list

Frank Thomas

forgive me, I'm american

I had a few good laughs looking at the blogspot thread on this topic, but obviously, there are some key peices of slang I need explained. primarily 'NWN', 'Reds', and 'Rebels'.

I'm also confused on how 'anti fascist scumbag' is an insult. I would thank anyone who threw that in my face.

Shuttleworth on Ubuntu: It ain't about the money

Frank Thomas

Wow...Ubuntu is about love, and community

This thread proves rather obviously, the converse is also true, being anti-ubuntu is about hate. Frankly AC, if your software skills are that weak, then yes, you should be afraid of FOSS. in an Open world, your code would be know far and wide as sub-standard. Myself, I'm learning python and PHP.

Swiss boffins sniff passwords from (wired) keyboards 65 feet away

Frank Thomas

so much for Tinfoil hats

Now my keyboard needs a tinfoil condom. great. I'm still trying to afford plastic sheeting and duct tape...

'Overplayed' privacy concerns rile Symantec boss

Frank Thomas
Unhappy

Yeah, I'm gonna buy from this guy ...Right.

He produces a bloated, ineffective, system killing peice of software that monitors everything my system does. And he doesn't respect my privacy (scratch that, he doesn't even believe I DESERVE privacy).

Yes I think I'll give that person my money. when pigs land on mars.

Woman sues EA over 'secret' Spore DRM

Frank Thomas

@Ashley Pomeroy

well It's pretty easy to isolate a process from the network. My firewall asked if I wanted to Allow SoreApp.exe access to user files, system processes, and the Network. the answers were yes (for saves and creatures), no, no.

if you block the exe from hitting the net, then you can be pretty sure it isn;t sending data anywhere, especially if you deny it the right to indirectly access other processes.

German cyberplods raid Pirate Party on Skype Trojan mole hunt

Frank Thomas
Stop

History repeats itself

Why is it that ever 50 years or so the Germans have to turn into <Censored by Godwins army> ?

Kings of Leon to freetards: Y'all are trash

Frank Thomas
Stop

Wow

that guy can't even maintain a coherent thought for 2 whole sentences.

KOL, you don't deserve a dime. get a real job.

Blame game over United Airlines stock crash rumbles on

Frank Thomas

Why's it the papers fault?

hey, they had an article on their web site. that is 100% within their rights. Just because Google comes along and steals it without bothering to read it is not their problem.

Burned by Chrome - Fire put out

Frank Thomas
Alert

Sry Reg. you belong to google now

well I'm afraid I used Chrome to display EL Reg. I guess all your base are belong to them.

MS beefs up WinXP Pro's anti-piracy nagware

Frank Thomas
Go

Pirating Vista is easy

it's just that no one wants to....

This is why I went with ubuntu, and haven't looked back since.

Phreakers seize government phone system

Frank Thomas

@Kevin

what do you think this is? /. ?

Google murders second Anonymous AdSense account

Frank Thomas

They ADVERTISE a cult?

that's a new one by me.

"Kali Ma- Just like in Indiana Jones! one free heart-removal per family! void where prohibited, some restrictions may apply. being lowered into pit of lava costs .50c/lbs body weight."

Olympic Committee wins gold for foot shooting

Frank Thomas

@John: so no home videos then?

so I take that to mean that no one can have vacation videos of their trip to the Olympics?

if i can't take a picture of something on the street, then it shouldn't be on the street. restrain your trademarks from interfering with public rights in public places.

OpenGL 3.1 promise follows gamer revolt

Frank Thomas

@Mark

firstly, i won't deign to dirty myself by responding to your remark on spelling.

secondly, your right Java did mess up deprecation by failing to remove the bad methods after the next version. Based on the ARBs statements about CAD stuff needing to last longer, I am pretty sure they will not be willing to deal with the deprecated methods being removed in version 3.1, 3.2, 5.9, or even fricken 20.5 etc.

thirdly, I give not a wick about DX, but I will say, their backward compatibility is not stopping them from moving forward the way they want, while the status quo for OGL prevents the use of the new Object model.

you're quite correct, the only alternative is to drop the old model. The conservatives are going to keep pushing to maintain the status quo no matter how many revisions those methods are deprecated, so unless they receive proper impetus to update their obsolete code, they will just keep blocking the way forward for the rest of us.

Frank Thomas

@Mark

Well actually it's amusing that you mention extensions. they are the core of the problem. Extensions need not be implemented by a driver/card manufacture because they are not part of the core spec. much of the promise made with LP was to move this functionality into the core spec/API so that all vendors would have to support it to maintian OGL compliance.

Frank Thomas

@Mark

because depracation worked soooo well for java right? I still see deprecated methods from java 1 (1.1) in the SDK 1.6.

Warning Autocad to update it software sometime in the next 6 months is not likely to help since they had more than 6 months since abandoning Longs Peak. if it would jsut have taken them 6 months, they could have already done it and we would all be happy with the new obj model.

besides they could just use the outdated runtime instead of screwing the rest of us.

Frank Thomas

@ Beard and @Mason

I am told that the reason the CAD/CAM folks won't accept a fork or branch, is that they don't want to miss out on all the improvements in direct access and what not. they want to have their cake, and mine, and yours too.

this of course indicates that they never plan to upgrade their old clunkers and all this talk about deprecation and eventual removal is bollocks.

VMware admits 'time bomb' rolled past quality control

Frank Thomas

It's easy to ensure this does not happen again

It's easy to ensure this does not happen again.

just remove your crap DRM and *voila*.... Problem solved.

and these same companies want congress to grant them the ability to perform "self help" by allowing them to remotely disable anyone's software.

Senator slams DHS boss over border laptop searches

Frank Thomas

@Dan

It mostly used to be that way, until GWB. The war on terrorism is really just an expression of the neocon xenophobia, and yes that breeds laws that provide rights to citizens alone.

but at the same time, this particular policy (I can't call a blatent violation of the 4th and 8th amendments a law) does apply to everyone. everyone gets screwed....

German hackers poke hole in great firewall of China

Frank Thomas
Unhappy

Germany, an oppressive regime?

no surly not. that's never happened before....

oh wait....

Court defends America's right to online smut

Frank Thomas

@Terry Barnes

American law is somewhat schizophrenic when it comes to minors. they have legal responsibilities but not rights in most cases. for isntance a minors signature is not legally binding in many cases, and technically they cannot own property. all of a childs property is owned by their legal guardians.

Frank Thomas

@J

wow. I don't even know where to begin....

Lenovo stock falls as IBM retreats

Frank Thomas

Where can I find a laptop

that wasn't made in China?

NASA: The Moon is not enough

Frank Thomas
Alien

Humanity has one goal at this point

and that is to create Jean Luc Picard and a ship for him to ride arround in. come on folks, we only have about 400 years to work with here. we gotta get the lead out.

Seriously, we should be less worried about exactly what type of number crunching we can do to calculate the density of dust on the moon. we need to just focus on living there. the more obscure science can wait until we have a summer house up there.

Microsoft pledges to fight Vista 'myths'

Frank Thomas

It's not Apple that we're running too...

it's ubuntu. I can deal with the functionality issues, but between M$ and HP, they have made it clear that I am not in charge of my PC, they are. It was about then that I turned away, n'er to return.

How bout they listen to the consumer rather than the Pro IP groups?

Trusted computing can not be trusted.

Social networks may be imaginary

Frank Thomas

Oh good lets control that social interaction

Methinks the gentleman is missing the point. Social Networks aren't supposed to DO ANYTHING, except provide a medium in which to he social. the point is not to sell stuff to the users, or accomplish any other goal.

Damn business. they'd charge us for licensing just to talk to a friend if they could.

Hey Profiteers! everything you've heard about the internet is false. leave it alone, so the rest of us can enjoy it. you won't make a red cent off me.

Showdown over encryption password in child porn case

Frank Thomas
Boffin

@tfewster

Your forgetting several of the pillars of American law. the first is "Innocent until proven guilty", and to support that, we have concepts like the 5th amendment rights, and most importantly burden of proof. the prosecution is tasked with proving the guilt of the defendant. if the defendant we're to hold the burden of proof, then it would be guilty until proven innocent.

the cost of freedom is that you have to occasionally let bad stuff happen, because in order to prevent it, you give away your freedom. to be free you have to take a black-eye every once in a while.

ICANN celebrates ninth anniversary as master of your domain

Frank Thomas

Jon Postel is spinning in his grave

to watch all your hard work at IANA be so easily turned against your ideals must be hard. I have to wonder what would have happened if he was still alive.

Sad days we live in... Jon believed that the Internet was part of the public trust, and not to be run by corporations or governments. Now it's run by a corporation that calls itself a government.

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