Posts by The BigYin
2775 posts • joined Tuesday 25th March 2008 12:38 GMT
Page:
Can't be fixed
With everything now privatised and in the grubby claws of the venture capitalists via PFIs, any tax revenue from profits lost due to tax avoidance measures and vast subsidies having to be paid to keep the operators profitable; we're screwed.
It cannot be fixed in the current state.
The prices that have to be paid are ridiculous, restrictions are ludicrous and the service (almost) universally appalling. The two exception I can think of are ScotRail (although that's been getting worse) and NI Railways. The embarrassing think for the government and their PFI chums is that these two are state run (well, near as dammit); that's a situation that can't be permitted for much longer.
So, Scots and Irish, rejoice in your train service while you have for you too are soon to be screwed over just like the English and Welsh.
Posted in Windows 8 ribbon entangles Microsoft
Calling all Regitards
BURN THE HERETIC! BURN HIM I SAY!
Posted in Windows 8 ribbon entangles Microsoft
Come to the dark side
We can have menus (if you want)
Or ribbons (if you want)
Widgets (if you want)
And multiple desktops (if you want)
And multiple panels (if you want)
And "active desktops" (if you want)
And....well, you get the idea.
Of course, you should only switch if your software is cross-platform or a viable alternative exists. This is not always the case unfortunately.
They want your real name...
...so its easier to tie your web habits back to your real-world self and thus they can make more money from using your data.
YOU are the product, remember.
I have....
....a PGP key. Why the f**k do I need Google? In fact, my PGP lets me not only prove that I am who I say I am, but to also have messages encrypted so that the likes of Google cannot spy on me.
@Robert Carnegie
Race is on then! Let's see who gets a patch out first.
No one said free or open software was infallible. It's written/managed by humans after all.
@jason 7
I'm guessing that was addressed to me.
This is the 21st century, what normal end-user would dois find the program they want in the package manager or app store.
Select "Install"
Authorise themselves (to prove they have rights to install)
Click a few buttons (if that)
Err....job done. No need to grub around websites, reboot, worry about versions or updates.
There is also a reason that some information for doing things in GNU/Linux is given as CLI - it's cut n' paste, often universal and quicker to type out. The problem is not GNU/Linux using the CLI, it's Windows not using it (even OS X has a proper CLI FFS). Have to explain what buttons to click also goes out of date as soon as the UI changes. You do know that in GNU/Linux people can run many, many different window managers, decorators and desktops don't you?
If the code...
...is closed, then it has not been audited. We know the FDA does not audit the code, they rely on the company to write a report that says "All OK, guv. Honest."
"These guys were caught out, publically named and shamed and they still don't care. Open or closed source firmware is irrelevant to that attitude."
It's very relevant because if the code were free (not just open) then another qualified person could patch the vulnerability. The company caring or not becomes redundant as you can be sure the patients and their doctors care.
@Ru
Curious. On the one hand you expect people to be able to take action to mitigate risks, yet on the other you argue against one measure the would permit those actions to be taken.
Is the code...
...free software (or, at least, open source)? If not, then they are just as bad, they just haven't been caught out yet.
I am waiting for them...
...to suck in librsync (or similar) and then crow like it's all amazing and new.
MS - rocking your world like pre-1996.
They could do two things
1) Allow you to connect your own router.
2) Free the source
Both of these would allow people to solve local issue with new hardware (I'd like more ports, thanks, and different aerials and....). As well as offer fixes and updates (e.g. a VM OpenWRT, if you will)
Although I will confess, mine has not been an issue (yet).
Indeed
And more (quite personal) information to be given away (no, wait, you are paying them to take it) to a company and sold on to FSM-knows who.
@John
NO! That just proves that the USSR were in on it all the time. It PROVES the conspiracy! Froth, rant, rave.....
You are, of course, quite correct. The USSR, China, N.Korea, FSM-knows-who-else would have loved to have shown the USA up if it had been fake. Heck, the reporter that broke that story would now be a gazillionaire.
But yet these complete, dribbling, morons still think it was all a put-up job.
I really don't have the words to express my contempt. Well, not words I'd use in polite company.
Err...
...I did figure that much, but I still don't see how it would be possible if the site/client had disallowed/altered the data.
Might try again at lunch.
Really?
You post that utter toss here? Really?
Every claim of the "no-moon-landing" nut jobs has been debunked. Every. Single. One.
From the reflections, the waving flag, the shadows, stars and (apparent) multi-light sources.
All.
Debunked.
ALL OF THEM.
*** REPEATEDLY ***
You can even debunk them yourself, go watch a few "Mythbusters" episodes or look up some of the NASA/other responses to find out how. Some of them are a piece of piss to debunk, make a good weekend project for you and the kids. "Hey kids, lets investigate the difference between evidence and paranoid-hokum bullshit!".
At worst, at absolute worst, NASA (or third parties) may have sexed up a few shots for magazines. This is called a "PR puff" and is not a sign of the International Illuminati Jewery Masonic Conspiracy of the Elite Greys.
I mean, really, Occam's-bloody-Razor. Do you think, as a species, we are so accomplished as to keep a conspiracy on that scale quiet? Do you not watch the news? Has the whole Cryptome and Wikileaks thing just passed you by?
Oh FFS
Humans have broadly similar:
1) aesthetics
2) hand-sizes
3) vision
4) ergonomic requirements
5) build
So is it really any wonder that nice products all start to look kinda the same? Apple created the consumer tablet market (pretty much) but the limitation of us meat-sacks mean that *ALL* tablets will end up looking alike. Just all cars of a particular class look alike, all motorcycles of a class look alike, all [non-novelty] coffee mugs look alike, all LCD monitors look alike and so on.
The only people who can tell them apart are the primadonna fanbois, no one else gives a toss (unless there is passing-off).
Why does...
...it take so long to shut these people down?
Why is it just the useless ASA and Ofcom? Surely this is a fraud and should be prosecuted?
I was curious...
...so I tried it. Skype will allow "alert()" for a number, but converts it to a numeric equivalent.
HTML tags are not permitted, in fact special characters are not permitted.
This is on Skype 5.5.0.113 on Win7
If you try via the website, it either freaks or strips HTML tags.
So I am not altogether sure how this person managed to get their "injection" done.
I suspect...
...foul play. The Touchpad was on the Dixons site at full price just before 1800, at 1800 *to the second* it went unavailable.
I doubt it ever went on sale in the UK at this price and that the whole exercise was just a PR stunt by DSGi to try and save their sorry asses.
That is going to be funny
How many Marshall Mathers are there in the world?
List to "Free as in Freedom" podcast, episode 15
http://faif.us/cast/2011/aug/02/0x15/
Now be afraid, be very afraid. You have no alternative but to have one inside your body, and you can only trust it works because the maker says so?
This is not...
...intended to replace ATMs. It;s intended to replace actual tellers so that their jobs can be outsourced to a cheaper country.
I do not look forward to this at all.
Posted in Mozilla strokes coders with Firefox 6
More to the point...
...why bundle it? Most users won't need it, it's bloat. A dev or a learner can just grab Firebug (or something else) and add it if needed.
FFS Mozilla, stop with the bloat! Get the basics right, then people can add what they want/need.
This highlights another issue...
...it should be "opt-in to tracking" not "out-out of being stalked".
It's Javascript
Just install "NoScript" (or similar) and job's a good 'un.
No need
Just use "NoScript"
Minor omission
"Aimed at graphic designers with limited technical skills, Muse claims to make it possible to design complex websites using point-and-click and drag-and-drop rather than hand coding."
should be
"Aimed at graphic designers with limited technical skills, Muse claims to make it possible to design complex websites using point-and-click, that will cause you sys-admin to hut to down and kill you plus make your users burst into tears and their router explodes in flames; and drag-and-drop rather than hand coding."
Take a leaf from Linux
Inform the user that some add-ons need updated or wish to be installed.
Warn (with big flashing lights and screaming sirens) if an add-on has not been signed by a verified GPG-key.
Then let the user select what to allow/block.
Posted in MacBook Pro turns to golden Apple
Gauche
And I hope they skin it in some protective film, otherwise every scratch will make you cry.
Oh, better idea
I wish to patent the "Automatic free-fall alert and arrest unit".
When the phone enters free-fall, the owner will be alerted via physical stimulus to the event.
If they do not, or cannot, react in time, the unit will auto-arrest and prevent any damage.
Prior art? Well, there's wrist-straps but let's not split hairs here.
Good point there
What will the TSA think about you taking an explosive device on board? I mean, 20 terrorists could each get one of these on board, strap them together and make a BOMB!
Is that the plan? Is Amazon actually just a front for the International Al Qaeeda Jewery People's Liberation Front?
Questions
Do they have a working prototype?
-- No? Patent expires in 3 months.
Are they actively selling the tech?
-- No? Patent expires in one year.
Is the prior art or and other invention that makes this obvious?
-- Yes, ask NASA and any car-maker.
Posted in LinkedIn U-turns to appease peeved users
Think about it
Who are Linkedin's customers? Companies (head-hunters etc).
What is the product? You.
Posted in iPad threatened by young pretenders
@Justin
Why do I want to buy apps in the first place? I have a browser.
Posted in iPad threatened by young pretenders
A lack of content?
WTF? They have the whole Interwibble for content FFS.
@david 63
Exactly. Hershey's <<< Cadbury's <<< Chocolate.
Disgusting.
Err...
...why do I want this when the in-flight entertainment is just fine? Oh wait, they'll cut that off and force you to buy this DRM infected shit. Sod that, I'll bring my own.
What?
Does this mean that a person could be sued in the USA if they have a natural mutation that just happens to be the same as a patented gene?
Genes should be like software (and business processes) unpatentable as genes are nothing more than meat-space programs.
Posted in Cabinet Office ends website test
100k?
I amazed they got that many, this is the first I heard of it.
Posted in Dell Streak 7 Android tablet
Dell
A basic summary of all Dell products:
Desktops: Terrible. Components bought from the lowest bidder. Often proprietary. Prone to breakage. PSUs suck balls.
Laptops: Pathetic. Screens are prone to dying, components as above.
Printers: Appalling. Stab yourself in the eye with a rusty fork, it'll be better.
Peripherals (keyboards, mice etc): a big bucket of "meh".
Monitors: Decent. For some reason.
Posted in Ten... Portable USB 3.0 HDDs
Later this month?
It was already the 20th when you posted! Rather than use some marketeer's future-possibly-not-true price, why not simply quote the actual price that of the thing at the time of writing? Or, at the very least, make it clear that the quoted price is in some way proposed/fictional.
It almost smacks of false-advertising and makes me wonder what else in the review was based on PR-puffery rather than actuality.
Indeed!
And if you look, you can clearly see clouds near the horizon. Clouds? On the moon?
If you zoom in and look at the second hill on the right, you can see clear evidence of a wind blowing the clouds over the hill.
In the bottom right you can also see what looks like fog in a crater.
This was clearly taken before they'd agreed the protocol for creating the fake moon pictures.
Time NASA 'fessed up to their New World Order conspiracy and admitted the truth.
The Earth is the centre of the Universe, it is flat in all directions and we were made in the Perfect Image of the One True God! Throw down the Copernican Conspiracy and the Evolution Falsehood.
Set yourself FREE into the glory of GOD!
It could all be artefacts of processing/compression of course. There's less stars than one can see with the naked eye on Earth, so perhaps this was near the Lunar dawn and that not much reflected light. But really; which explanations are more likely?
Screw that
I don't use my real name on the net, and I try my best to keep my fizzog off it too (unless hidden by a hat or something). I've got nothing to hide, I just don't want some random freak on the street recognising me from something (or my employer finding out what I get up to when not on their time).
As much as I like the Internet, the uses (and potential abuses of it) are slowly shifting the cost/benefit. All it takes is one person to post a picture of you, tag you and blammo; you're privacy is gone. If that doesn't worry you, then you are brain-dead.
Posted in Boxing boomers bounced building in Seoul
@Mystic
So you mean from here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUJUNL1jyI&feature=player_detailpage#t=133s
Don't worry, not many people know you can link a specific time in a YouTube video.
Why let science get in the way?
The evidence on drugs safety/harm has been ignored.
Evidence on road safety is ignored
What make anyone think the science will be listened to?
About the most that will be listened to is the big PubCos and drinks makers who stand to profit. Money trumps evidence. Always.
