* Posts by The BigYin

3080 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Mar 2008

Terracotta dumps Big Java's garbage problem

The BigYin

Because...

...it's "-Xincgc"? :-)

Like those fringgin' pointless exam questions:

"Which option alters garbage collection?

a) -Xincgc

b) -Xingc

c) -Xgingc

d) -xincgc

e) It is not possible to alter garbage collection"

Firesheep developer poohpoohs mitigation tools

The BigYin

Is the answer really...

...as simple as using SSL?

UK.gov plans net surveillance by 2015

The BigYin

DID you WASTE your LIB DEM VOTE?

Yes.

Next question.

The BigYin

Unintended consquences

"Government measures to massively increase surveillance of the [Internet] will be in place within five years."

This will lead to people using more encryption, TOR etc. These measures will become stronger, commoditised and work their way further down the technical scale. It could, in fact, become HARDER for the state to intercept where there is due cause. And as the first poster points out, "suspicious" crypto channels will vanish into the noise as people secure themselves further.

I couldn't give two damns about free music and movies (call me strange, my Phil Collins back catalogue was bought and paid for) I just don't see why anyone should record where I go on the internet. It's not even the recording per se that's the issue, it's the potential abuse. Just the other day there was that story about the (now ex) copper looking up potential b/friends on the PNC. If she'd been slightly sharper, we probably would never have known.

Although one thing does come to mind...does this tie in the with greater public access to information? Will the unabridged Internet record of every civil servant, MP, MSP and MEP be published in the clear (purely the one they have for their job, of course)

If the public can't watch the watchers, who will?

Volunteer biker gang foils Westminster CCTV car fleet

The BigYin

@Daniel 4

"Parts Per Million != Grams Per Mile"

Yup. Your bikes PPM could be 10 times worse than a Hummer's, but if you produre 1,000 times less particles you're on to a winner.

One problem facing use two-wheeled-hooligans is that there is little space on a bike to fit a Cat, particle filters etc that one can do on larger vehicles. The other issue is that almost all bike engines are race derived. They want to rev high and that does not always lead to good economy or efficiency. Some cars are approaching bikes for efficiency (especially in the urban cycle) and this is due to them being specifically targeted at efficiency. Low MPG sells in the car world, it's hidden information in the bike world.

Of course, bikes still take less material to make, reduce wear on roads and take less space when driven/parked.

The BigYin

@PirateSlayer

"is that if I hit a pram with my bike I am more likely to be killed and the baby in the pram is likely not to be"

Huh? Given that you are fully grown adult, I reckon you will be nursing cuts and bruises (I also assume you wear a helmet). Given hat a baby is not really up to dealing with blunt-force trauma, it is most likely to come off worst. 80+kg Vs 5~kgs? No contest really

The BigYin

This is the same council...

...that thinks a motorcycle pollutes more than a Hummer (20mpg, CO2 327g/km)! "motorcycles, even small ones, pollute more than Hummers" (Susie Burbridge, Conservative Councillor)

Now I will grant you that rose petals do not come tumbling out the zorst of a GSX-R, but they do not pollute more than a Hummer. An MP3 Hybrid will do 165mpg and only produce CO2 40g/km!

Why Westminster are hell-bent on discouraging part of the solution to their congestion problems is completely beyond me. One person on a bike is one less person in a cage.

The main criticism I have of the biking world (this includes all magazines and manufacturers) is that they make it so hard to find out MPG, CO2 emissions etcs. This should be easily available and the real-world figures made available by the magazines in every article/review. I'm looking at you Bauer.

DWP CTO predicts the end of Windows

The BigYin

Horses for courses

Some applications being totally served by the Cloud/Big-Bad-Box somewhere and the client being fairly dumb/thin. e.g. Large computes (rendering etc).

Some being a fatter client (most likely consuming services and using some local grunt). Outlook etc

Some being full-client and using the network for nothing more than pushing raw data around. CAD apps, for example.

What exact mix each person (even within the same organisation) winds up with will depend on the job they are doing. The big failure would be to assume that one answer will work for all people in all situations.

Shut up, Spock! How Battlestar Galactica beat Trek babble

The BigYin

Good, Good, Ok, Iffy, Terrible

That is my summary of the 5 BSG seasons. The story really went off-base towards the end and became more like an clandestine attempt at indoctrinating people into Christianity than a Sci-Fi story; which was a real shame as up until part-way through season 3 it was kick-ass.

First Windows Phone 7 handsets sell out

The BigYin
Flame

PR scam

Phase 1: Push your new platform to the meeja

Phase 2: Under-supply so there's a good chance stock runs out

Phase 3: Push lack of stock as if it were amazing demand

Phase 4: Slowly increase supply to meet rising demand, but ensure it still looks like the platform is mega-popular regardless of truth

Phase 5: Profit

This "story" stinks of PR bullshit as does the first comment.

Microsoft's IE 8 'most widely used browser', rules ASA

The BigYin

Hmm...

I show FF 3.6 at 34.5% and IE 8 at 15.6% for that period (source: w3schools), then again browser stats are notoriously inaccurate.

One more thing, the ASA did not say that IE 8 was the most used browser, they simply did not uphold the complaint. Quite a different thing.

Hackers tap SCADA vuln search engine

The BigYin

I was thinking of the exact same thing

Some of the cams are deliberately public, and configured to be so.

Some are public by mistake but could be considered benign.

Some really shouldn't be public at all.

It's very similar to the tricks you can use to find poorly configured FTP sites etc if you want content for nowt.

And do other things. Ahem.

Wales loses 'dot-cum' domain to tax haven

The BigYin

Question and Answer

"Or would you rather have to learn Welsh to understand our signs when you visit."

Yes, I'd rather get to grips with some Welsh. The script is the same, so when I see "Kashyyyk =>" on a sign, I will know precisely what it means.

One wonders how the little English dears survive driving around rural France where all the signs are in (shock) French!

The BigYin

@PerfectBlue

Chinese? The Internet should be converted to Klingon!

---

Actually, there are security implications when one considers non-Latin characters sets. Which URL is correct? "www.microsoft.com" or "www.micrоsoft.com"? And no, they are not the same (well, they weren't when I typed them in).

The BigYin
Thumb Down

Eh?

.uk covers Wales. Why does it need it's own? .eng anyone? Or .lancs? Or .lon? Or .23StirrupLane?

What is wrong with the world when people feel the need to chop themselves up into ever smaller groups?

Dell skunkworks brews ARM server future

The BigYin
Flame

Only one consideration

Do the major MS OSs run on ARM? No. Dell will not be permitted to sell ARM based units.

Once Windows can run on ARM, MS will decide how much tax to levy on each unit and then allow Dell to ship ARM units under one proviso; Dell must NOT ship any other OS. Or, if Dell does ship alternate OSs, this must be part of a greater PR FUD campaign. Again.

First official HTML5 tests topped by...Microsoft

The BigYin

You should have stopped at...

...point 2. Points 3 and 4 were simply fanciful and as for point 5. Well, where does one begin? MS will not permit "commercial competition"!

Fate of porn domain left in government hands

The BigYin

Let me get this straight

Porn is invited to be on .xxx

Puritanical countries (e.g. Australia) and other fundamentalist districts (e.g. states in the USA) block all .xxx domains

There is no profit in being on .xxx as there are no customers

Porn remains on .com, .net etc

---

Is that about right?

Microsoft's IE9 'nearly finished'

The BigYin

Excellent!

When can I install this on my trusty and stable XPsp3 box? Oh...I see...guess it's the Fox (or Chrome or Opera or...) for me.

As for updating the sites...MS can piss right off. They're coded to standards and render perfectly in all browsers bar IE. I have put in a few tweaks to make them acceptable in IE, although some of the rendering still sucks ass. If IE9 can't cope with the same HTML as everyone else, then I will have to charge clients for the extra work (as was done with the initial IE fiddling); not that I expect any of them to upgrade...they're still on IE6 FFS!

(I don't do public facing websites - I get a lot more input on how things will be. Oh, and my client 'get' the whole standards thing, many rue the day they allowed ActiveX plug-ins and other crap as they are now stuck).

Ms. Gates: 'Bill does not use a Mac'

The BigYin
Joke

Flippin' heck!

Just how expensive have Macs become when not even the Gates can afford one‽

Ubuntu demotes Gnome for Unity netbook look

The BigYin

FFS

Another day, another F/OSS schism. In the name of the wee-man people. STOP creating new problems. STOP forking. Pick ONE thing and BLOODY WELL FIX IT!

The only exception would be where something is so old, so broken, so out of step with the modern era that there is no other choice (e.g. X Server).

I totally get that the default Gnome (or KDE, or...) interface may not be optimal for touch, but are these desktops really so rigid that they cannot be themed/skinned/configured to work with touch? Do we really need another one?

Why can't they fix the BASIC things? Like having consistency between left and right click on application icons in Gnome? It's should be "Left is *always* program menu, right is *always* icon management. There will be no discussion, no variance. The Desktop Overlords have spoken." It's little things like this that make people hanker for a Mac or slowly drive them insane.

XP? Thanks for the memories

The BigYin

@Al

Yeah, like Word *never* gets it's own panties in a bundle over formatting...

I will agree that OpenOffice is less, err, feature rich than MS Office; but this does not mean it is a bad tool, only that it won't work for some people.

If you are one of those people, then use Office or whatever works for you.

The BigYin

I am tied to OCS...

...VPN and few other things which are Windows specific. OpenOffice works well enough for me. The VPN is not such a big deal (it will be changing soon for a host of reasons) the killers are OCS (Office Communicator) and RDP (remote desktop). Nothing can interact with OCS fully (IM, audio and video). This is not the fault of Linux, but the fault of MS for applying the proprietary poison-pill; but I am still stuck regardless of fault.

VNC is not up to the job of blasting a desktop around the globe and this is the fault of the Linux community, it should have been deprecated years ago. XRDP is a friggin' joke.

I have solutions to these problems that should suit me fine (virtualisation of Windows - yes, I have the licenses) but that is not going to work for everyone.

It staggers me that for all their innovation, the distro makers let such simple things slip through the cracks. Empathy and Pidgin can (almost) work with OCS; fix them! VirutalBox OSE can act as an RDP server, why not tear the code out of that?

Still, this list of bitchy-gripes is a lot short than my gripes with Windows!

The BigYin

Dear Anon

What part of "I am not saying it's an answer that will fix all problems" do you not understand? As much as you may wish it to be otherwise, YOU are not the centre of the universe. What does not work for you, may work for some and vice versa.

As you clearly have nothing of value to add, perhaps it would simply be better for us all if you remained silent.

The BigYin

@Antony

"Either over ssh using SSH -X or via XDCMP is an alternative."

No, it is not (not for me anyway). Windows does not come with SSH or XDMCP support and I cannot insist that clients install random software. Also I find that XDMCP is a bit slow with graphical data and security is a concern as (IIRC) SSH cannot be used to fully secure the network traffic (it does encrypt UDP or something).

The BigYin

@Reg

Because it looks and behaves radically differently. And you must remember we are talking about non-IT literate people. People who think that Google an application and don't know what the internet is.

The BigYin

@C 2

I hear yah, my P4 Ubuntu box can boot from cold and be ready to go in less time than it takes for my much bigger Win7 box to simply log-in (never mind boot).

As for those who seem to be getting the wrong end of the stick - I am *not* saying that Linux is the perfect answer for everyone in every situation. All I am saying is that it could be for some. The shift to 64-bit Win7 is huge, especially if moving from XP (software compatibility, complete UI changes etc); so not would seem to be a good time to look at see if Linux can ease some pain. Unlike Win7, Linux can at least be "skinned" to look like XP. It's not Windows, I grant you, but to the non-IT literate the UI is a big, BIG deal. To not even look is IMHO, sheer idiocy.

The BigYin
Linux

If...

...the whole estate is going to 64-bit Win7 from 32-bit XP, you will need to do a pretty major re-training program.and a massive purchase of new licenses, hardware etc.* That's a big shake-up!

This would be the perfect time to take a small test group and try them out on a Linux distro (perhaps use one that can be skinned to look like XP). You'll still have training to do, but hopefully less than Win7.

The savings? Potentially: licenses, hardware, downtime etc

I am not saying it's an answer that will fix all problems, but where is the harm in trying?

*I have moved from 32-bit XP to 64-bit Win7. Win7 gives me pain (mostly poor performance) every single day. For want of a few minor features, I'd go 100% Linux in a heartbeat. The missing features are: RDP - Linux does not have a decent remote desktop server, VNC sucks; and OCS - there is no client that can fully connect (audio, video etc). Everything else is equivalent to or better than Win7.

Google: Street View cars grabbed emails, urls, passwords

The BigYin

I'm not trying to defend Google...

...but I do wonder one thing. If people are blasting their passwords etc over the air and in the clear, why are they now upset that such data has been picked up? Surely the fault lies with those making their "private" information "public"?

This doesn't excuse Google of anything, but I think the ignorance of the end-users (and the uncaring ineptitude of their equipment providers) is being overlooked.

Microsoft cuts loose Iron languages

The BigYin

Translation

Does "dynamic languages in general on .NET" mean "making .Net as incompatible with non-MS technologies as possible"?

The BigYin

@Anon

You're new, aren't you?

TVonics DTR-HD500 Freeview HD DVR

The BigYin

Almost

If it had the ability to stream content from a standard back-end (e.g. Myth) then this would have been a winner. As it is, one is still better off building a box.

MS to unveil fresh Flash challenge next week?

The BigYin

@Sam

Huh? OWA works fine in FF on Ubuntu. OK, it's the "reduced features" version because there is none of the proprietary muck that IE has; but it does work.

The BigYin

Flash may be pants...

...but at least it is fully cross-platform pants, unlike Silverlight.

Phone 7: Another Vista or another XP?

The BigYin

Is this a fair summary?

"Has some nice shiny things, looks like it could be as restricted as an iPhone, and is behind the curve. In two years Win7 will have caught up with 2010, and thus still be behind the curve."

Red Hat exec proposes end to IT suckage

The BigYin

Buit-in obsolescence

The answer is simple, people drop old (perfectly serviceable) hardware. Win7 (one example) dropped support for lots of things. OEMs like this as they can sell more kit, so they rush to bundle Win7. MS likes this as they can ship more to the great unwashed, so they deliberately drop support to force people to upgrade. A virtuous cycle for consumption.

This is true for end-users and for corporates as well. In fact it's true of many things in life, but it shows up most in IT.

It has to stop. Not just for economic reasons, but for environmental too. We need to find ways of supporting, re-purposing and recycling older kit.

The BigYin

Err...

...you do know that designs are modelled and tested in a computer before use, don't you? Scale models (or prototypes) made and tested (often to destruction). These cycles repeat umpteen times. THEN the final item gets made.

Also, there's a few thousand years of empirical evidence to draw from.

And with all that....it can still go wrong. Sometimes badly.

Mozilla man accuses Jobs of 'bypass the web' scheme

The BigYin

Some opinions

1) Apple is not a monopoly

2) Apple make the hardware, OS and run the app store

3) It's Apple's playground, it's their rules

Summary: Don't like it, don't join in

---

Item 1 would come under regulatory scrutiny if Apple ever gets big enough

Item 2 could all if item is torn down, or Apple finds scaling difficult

Item 3 is wholly dependent on 1 and 2.

---

For end-users the Apple restrictions are (generally) a "Good Thing"(tm) as "things just work". Compare that to the dog's dinner that is the Linux distros where it can be "pot luck" or the continual fight with drivers etc on Windows.

Don't get me wrong, I quite like Linux. In fact, I want to go 100% Linux at home. But some problems drive me completely scatty and I'd like to think I have at least some clue on where to find answers.

Dixons risks future of humanity with Star Wars-themed ads

The BigYin
Thumb Down

If Dixons were...

...an OS, they'd be Windows. Overpriced, under-performing and just a bit pants to be honest.

Keep your PC clean - or we'll shut you down

The BigYin
Flame

Cut offs get my vote

People should not connect system to the intertubes without reasonable protections, just like they are not allowed dangerous vehicles on the road (I know how we all love our car analogies).

Obviously the ISP should provide advice (more secure OSs, antivirus, firewalls etc) and the ISP needs to take care on how they inform users (i.e. use snail mail or something) otherwise the phishers et al will spoof the mechanism to sucker more people in.

And if too much junk is detected coming from an ISP (and they aren't obviously taking action), cut that ISP off.

As for some carrot, perhaps ISPs could (with user consent) do PEN tests or something? If the user passes, then that user gets a discount or some other benefit. Although that adds to the burden on ISPs, so any saving is probably going to get swallowed by cost increases.

---

I agree totally about MasterCrap etc, their SecureCode system drives me feckin' insane. Never integrates into the site properly, so I am never 100% if it's genuine (I have actually cancelled purchases because SecureCode is so bad).

Microsoft's fear of an OpenOffice

The BigYin

Every time you write...

...an Excel macro, you make baby Jesus cry.

Dead baby taunting troll feels wrath of law

The BigYin

There's a talk I'd like to see

"Method for jodan-tsuki over TCP"

The BigYin
Go

I still read b3ta...

...and I will agree to being offended at times. The question is, does the poster mean to cause offence or am I simply taking offence? Hell, I get offended by the cover of 'Private Eye' at times. Some of the most offensive posts are also the most thought provoking and the posts are not usually targeted *AT* the person or event, but at the media's reaction to said person or event.

Also, as Ian Ferguson says, none of this is being punted directly TO the McCanns (although I am bemused by the fact that you can't even be bothered to get their name right).

B3ta is also a very mixed community with its own rules and these rules are (surprisingly) rigidly enforced by the community. Just post a link to the main board, I dares yah. The most caustic exchanges are usually between the people who know each other best and are not to actually offend the recipient. If a third party chooses to take offence, that is entirely the problem of the third party,

Now, if you will excuse me, it's squirrels this week and I'd like to get my yiff on.

The BigYin

Trolling is bad?

Ooo, that nearly made it past me irony filter.

Great white sharks menace Blighty

The BigYin

I thought...

1) Great whites had been seen basking in the Med

2) They don't like human flesh as we are not fatty enough and attacks are down to mistaken identity (and lacking hands, they use their mouths to feel; a bit like a toddler, coochie-coochie-coo)

Robot goes berserk in Balkan lab: 6 boffins given dead arms

The BigYin
Terminator

Hmm...I see a new frontier in martial arts

Many arts use joint manipulation to cause posture instability, throw, inflict pain, subdue or out-right break the joint. These methods evolved over centuries of study, practice and visits to the bone-saw to have limbs re-set.

I propose that in the immediate future we need to study the articulations our robot nemeses (or nemesi, if you prefer) and apply the same thinking. We need to ensure that our puny meat-power passes through the robo-killers' areas of greatest weakness and bring them down, should an EMP weapon not be readily to hand.

Suggestions of names of this future-art greatly appreciated.

OOo's put the willies up Microsoft

The BigYin

Please excuse the swearies

What a load of fucking FUD. When documents are sent in an ISO standard (that'd be ODF) there is no issue.

This only good thing about this is that MS are obviously shitting bricks at the moment. If all you can do it attack your opponent, you clearly have no credible attributes of your own.

OOo/LibreOffice is not perfect by any means, but for the price it is hard to beat.

FCC bids to curb 'bill shock and mystery fees'

The BigYin

Enron is old hat

Just ask Lehman Brothers.

Apple to lead fanbois 'Back to the Mac'

The BigYin

Price

Expensive - yes.

Value for money - yes.

Personally I wouldn't buy one (I like to tinker and hack), but for the average person (who can afford the initial cost) Apple products are a better choice than just about any Windows based equivalent* and probably work out at the same price (if not cheaper) in the long run.

You may not agree with me and that's fine. We all have different needs, values and pockets. A company shifting that many units cannot be "crap" and it's certainly not "overpriced" as the market evidently accepts that price. If you don't like the price/ethos/whatever - simple don't buy one.

*There is no Linux equivalent as yet it's almost impossible to buy Linux boxes from a major OEM without sacrificing a goat to the great IT gods.

Foxconn warns phones prices will rise

The BigYin
Unhappy

It's not how much...

...El Reg do or do not care, it's how much we as consumers care. We want low prices, and someone has to pay for that. Why do you think our t-shirts, trainers etc are so cheap? We're not paying the true price, some of the cost is absorbed by human misery.

If the price of a phone from company X rises dues to this and the equivalent from company Y stays the same because they go to a different manufacturer, then consumers will switch to Y and company X goes down the toilet. Consumer demand will force companies to move to the cheapest manufacturer, regardless of working conditions.

Even for consumers who do care, there is no way for them to be sure if it's company X or Y actually who have decent working conditions. For all they know, company X could be taking the piss or company Y may simply Actiobe more efficient. One can't exactly buy "FairTrade" mobile phones.

One could say that company X should take a small hit on profits to ensure decent conditions, but then dividends and share price drop, investors leave and one bitches about one's pension.

The only thing that can really be done is to keep exposing the exploitation until it becomes too risky for companies to even consider dealing with such manufacturers.

Did you, or anyone else reading this, avoid purchasing anything made by Foxconn because of worker conditions (e.g. Apple products, Nokia phones)? Did anyone write to the relevant CEOs and say why they were boycotting their products? Nope, me neither.

It's a sick, sad world; but it is so easy to ignore what goes on when it is "over there".