The problem is that when we do know, it'll all be a bit late.

I'm not 100% sure on the whole anthropogenic climate change thing, but it is one BUGGER of a gamble to take and I'll do my bit to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Anything less is idiocy (and short-term gain over long-term success is also idiocy - ask the banks. Oh wait, we bailed them out and paid their bonuses. Shame we can't do that with a planet, eh? The Laws of Thermodynamics aren't open to bribery.)

Almost

It runs a Unix

Re: MS...as evil and anti-competitive as ever.

@AC 11:10 - But that is the problem, one will find it very hard not to buy a PC without it due to that way Secure Boot has been implemented. One will be effectively forced to have MS keys installed (to resolve various driver issues with PCI cards) and then one is at the mercy of MS and any key revocations in the future.

1) Drop downs are not so terrible - nice to tab into a type. Smart people will do something like that *and* have a calendar picker.

2) It's hilarious isn't it? You've just provided passport details, age and whatever else; then you get to the verify stage, click on "I forgot" (seriously, who remembers that bloody password) and it validates you....by asking for information you have already provided! Wow!

That's right, you get to choose the correct waffle that you need to hear. As a mere member of the USA public, you are not nearly smart enough to know which waffle to listen to.

And I wonder how random "randomly" actually is.

Still, stay on message! Report the party line, not the truth!

Re: I think the right answer to all of those things is...

"Google it"? Hardly. Maybe "Wolfram Alpha it"

And theatre/film/concert companies

A card levy per per ticket? Ridiculous.

Just how the hell does one pay by cash on-line? And are cards any worse than any other on-line business?

Just roll the charge into the advertised price you shower of lying bastards,

See Joe Schmoe in concert! (Or fly to somewhere, the scam is the same)

Only £10*

*Plus booking fee, plus handling charge, plus card levy, plus postage; total - £10 per ticket.

Re: So what will teach them?

And TiVo etc. You can bet that if their isn't an nVidia chip in there, it's a competitor's due to better GNU/Linux support.

Yes folks, that's right. GNU/Linux is everywhere. Get used to it.

Re: Great now we have a child

@AC - 08:32

You are selectively reading. Linus has openly praised people when he thought their work was good. He has also openly castigated people when he thought their work was poor.

What is it about honesty that you don't like?

Re: A lesson in big business

Here's a lesson on the Internet: Streisand effect. I wonder if A&B council is prepared for the amount of butt-hurt that is going to come their way.

Re: Here we go again....

@AC - The big worry is that so few women are dustbin men.

I think you mean "multi-point materials collection operative"

Re: Ads

bind9, dnsmasque or solution of choice.

Direct what you don't want to 127.0.0.1.

Simples.

And I say 'simples' as, seeing how this is a tech site, I assume you have a modicum of technical competence.

Or AdBlock/GreaseMonkey. El Reg has to be one of the worst site for ads. Too big, too colourful, too bright. And then we having the branding changes...I mean really. Sometimes when on a different PC I think I've arrived at the wrong site! El Reg - is you identity worth so little to you?

Re: At last!

@AOD - I think they were referring to Alexander Litvinenko

@AC - I work in a fairly well rated Senior School, a lot of the kids can barely change their passwords.

That's a good point. How much of this should we expect kids to pick up at home/in their own time? School can't teach everything. Parents and the child's own initiative have to play a part. Of course one needs to balance the amount of time the brats...err...little dears spend hanging out on IRC looking for teh-upl04d-codez and running around being noisy buggers...err...kids.

Re: You say that

@Ian Yates - I always view with special characters on. Drives my colleagues nuts! And yes, I am forever fixing 20 spaces with a tab/ruler change.

Re: What's in a name?

@JDX - Clamouring for 'neutrality' has to mean you can't clamour for schools to use Linux because then that's just as partisan.

Huh? Linux is a kernel for many competing operating systems that exist in a vibrant eco system with actual competition and innovation. But I never mentioned Linux (or BSD or anything else). If you want to talk "neutrality", then I would say that any F/OSS software is light-years ahead of any proprietary stuff simply because the F/OSS coders have no real desire/need to deliberately create lock-in by designing/implementing inconsistent and incomplete 'standards'. Nor do the stuff the ballot of major standards bodies to try and give a veneer of credibility.

I just think the companies should be kept out of education as far as is possible (but obviously someone needs to print the books etc). So no fizzy-drink sponsored textbooks which are little more than adverts for fizzy-drinks. No junk-food companies running the canteen. Heck, we should keep the corporates out of various places. Why do our hospitals also host junk-food provenders FFS? It makes no sense.

Then again, I have odd views when it comes to companies and sponsorship. For example - at the Olympics I would only serve the athletes McDonalds. Why? Well McDonalds was allowed to be a sponsor of a sporting event, so they must be selling the best food for athletes. It's not like some suits will just have accepted a wodge of money and paid no attention to the message they are sending, is it?

Re: W3C...failing the general public

If a site does that, the answer is simple; stop using them.

Or only use them via a puppet server/VM.

That fact the people are willing to give away so much to the likes of Facebook and Google saddens me quite frankly. I detest people who host their code on Google and will only allow its download if I absolutely have to (which is very rarely).

Re: Shitty thing to have happen

@AC "Always keep copies of your passports, visas, etc on you. I kept copies stored in my email, in my money wallet and at my grandparents place... backups don't apply just to computers. Having those available even as duplicates speeds up getting replacements."

I'd almost agree to that, but if travelling with someone else I would swap the copies. If one person gets robbed, the other(s) act as a back-up.

Also, never carry credit cards in the same wallet as money and other common sense precautions.

Re: Is it just me, or is that price really high?

Shock-proof? With spinning platters? Should have a 128gb SDD. More than enough for any GNU/Linux.

Re: Blocked? CENSORED.

@Yet Another - well Canada censors government funded scientists who don't toe the party line, so I'm hardly surprised.

The "slippery slope" is not a good argument, and neither is the petulant "I wanna download stuff for no charge. Waah!"

What is a good argument is "The current copyright terms are too one-sded and do not balance the cost to society against the cost of the original creator [or however you wish to phrase it] and my alternative is [insert brilliant idea here]".

Let me be clear, I do not like the extensions to copyright, the official rubber-stamping of cartels (RIAA et al), DRM, region-locking and other barriers to free-trade. But If ones doesn't base one's argument on a credible base, it will soon be undermined.

Re: @The BigYin: Hey!

@Tom 13 - Oh, there's a few urban foxes I'd love to take an M16 to. And a few neighbours who feed these mangy vermin.

Re: Important documents...?

@AC - oh, don't start me on how poorly GPG et al hang together at times. But when they work, they work great. Which, of course, is why one would hire a consultant to sort it all out.

But my main point remains, if these are truly important documents then encryption and digital signatures are better than a fax.

Re: Yuk

@Phil Endecott Your flawed logic is staggering. The tool (unless it is single purpose, like an M16) is not at fault. It's the human that puts that tool to use who is at fault. Baseball bats can kill people. Hammers can kill people. CDs and be used to kill people. Any chemist with time on their hand can choose to kill lots of people. Are you trying to suggest that all knowledge/items should be tagged with "Don't do bad things, m-kay?"

And even if they were - do you really think someone who had murderous/lethal intent is going to give two figs about your petty little license? "In the interest of national security, you opinions can GTF" is the response I believe.

Just about anything you do, for anyone at any time could potentially be turned around and used for something you don't like. So does this mean you contribute nothing?

My, you must be a real joy to live with.

Re: Its worse than that

Add to that all those wonderful folks who release their hard work as "CC BY NC" (Creative commons, by attribution, non-commercial". They are going to get royally screwed. Maybe not in a monetary sense but in a "It's my work, I'll decide how it is released" sense.

Just imagine the email exchange:

"Dear MegaCo, You are using my image for your new, multi-billion pound campaign. This is against my licensing terms. Kindly stop."

"Dear Pleb, Your image was lifted from a random website. There was no indication of license. We complied fully with a reasonable search as per law and had it declared orphan."

"Dear MegaCo, But it's not orphan; here I am."

"Dear Pleb, The law declares it orphan and we are free to use it. You are clearly deluded or trying to commit a fraud. We have called the police who will shortly arrest you for bothering us. Enjoy prison."

Re: Its worse than that

As for Digimarc....nice idea, but I'd like to see a published standard so that other competitors can enter the market and keep the price down (and keep each other honest). And heck, if there is a published standard that means we can get a F/OSS solution so that it's not just rich Westerners who can protect their assets.