* Posts by The BigYin

3080 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Mar 2008

Mozilla buries heels on un-YouTube open video

The BigYin

Please tell me it's nVidia

I freakin' love their cards; it's a deciding factor when buying a laptop (although the newer Intel chipsets are meant to be good too). Never have an ATI card though - not until they get with the program.

The BigYin

No problem in Windows either

Took me, ooh, ten minutes to get media Center to accept them. And that includes the download time.

Just a shame I can't add the functionality to the GF's iPod...

Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts

The BigYin

Who'd a thunk it?

Labour spunk millions on something that is unecessary, unwanted and that doesn't work.

One wonders how many members of the Labour party may have an "interest" in the manufacturers of these ridiculous scanners?

Of course, it is primarily an EU directive that is brining these things in but if Labour had any ball and gave even one shit about us (two shits is just asking too much of these scum) then they would tell the EU where to go.

It's time we kicked Labour out.

It's time we quit the EU. A united Europe is great 'n all, but not a united Europe that meets in secrecy and can't even get it's accounts signed off.

Google betas Flash-free YouTube sans open codec

The BigYin
FAIL

If it's not OGG...

...I don't want to know.

Actually, I couldn't give two craps if it's OGG or not. I just want one, open codec unencumbered by patents. Because let's face it, an "open" codec you can't implement because you'll breach some crappy US patent is not open at all.

Do no evil indeed...pfft.

British government ignores MS browser fears

The BigYin
FAIL

Err...

...and where did you pick that from? Or did you confuse bug count with security?

And that you have to determine which bugs affect security and what the severity of that effect is.

And don't forget that FF/Moz publicly declare bugs and MS does not.

In fact, just using different browsers (Konqueror, Safari, Chrome, Opera etc) will reduce the possibility of an attack being successful as it is much harder to have an attack that can hit multiple nodes in a heterogeneous environment. So long as intranet applications are coded to the standards then it will not matter what browser an end-user may have.

If, however, you have been a moron and spec'd/coded to some proprietary format; then you deserve everything you get.

And being government departments they will get pwned, and pwned hard. Just like last time(s).

Discounts damage for Microsoft Windows 7 PC boost?

The BigYin

So...

...you rejected the EULA and claimed back the Microsoft Tax?

Or just buy a laptop from a different vendor which is either naked or has a different OS installed (and that does not necessarily mean Apple).

The BigYin

Which market?

In the home-consumer PC market I would be surprised to see Linux have more than 0.1%. But that is just part of the picture.

What do you think your cable/satellite/digital-tv decoder runs?

Your NAS?

Any number of other hi-tech doo-dahs?

Almost certainly some flavour of embedded Linux.

Also Linux has been getting a lot of press of late. MS's *fear* is that the public will wake up and realise that they do not need a new PC, what they need is an OS that isn't bloated and that can run quite happily on their existing kit. If that happens in any significant way, it will leak from the home into the workplace and then house of cards comes down.

That is the whole reason for the MS strategy.

The BigYin

No rip-off

You chose the HP - why simply not choose to by a laptop without Windows? Yes, it is possible. And no, I do not mean Apple.

The BigYin

*spang*

I really should read posts properly....

NuLabour 'Bribo' laptop pops up on eBay

The BigYin

Well done that person!

Wish I had thought of this. Very well done indeed.

New Labour bring old Nuremberg Laws to Britain

The BigYin

Can we...

...place these cretins under Civilian's Arrest right now? Surely the Home Office guidance is asking people to break the law (as found by the EU), isn't that itself a crime?

The EU, by and large, if full of corrupt assholes; is a sad day when you have to turn to them for protection.

Microsoft predicts Linux will fail mobile 'quality' test

The BigYin
Grenade

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

He he he he ho ho ho ho!

Haw haw har haw he ha ha ho he haw!

*deep intake of breath*

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

He he he he ho ho ho ho!

Haw haw har haw he ha ha ho he haw!

Oh god, my sides!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Seriously, MS produced the abomination that is Windows mobile and they claim to know anything about quality?

Linux has problems (and they are legion*) but it is a DAMNED sight better than anything spawned by MS, certainly in the past few years.

*This is true of any complex computer system, I'm not having a dig at Linux; so chill out fanbois.

3D TV gets cold shower from Avatar man

The BigYin
Thumb Down

3D schmee dee

What we want is a good story. Everything else will be forgiven so long as the story is well written and executed.

"Avatar" is a terrible movie, simply awful; and typical of the crap Hollywood studio spew. It was nothing more than "Pocahontas" in space and even the idea that the forest is somehow sentient has all been seen before ("Princess Mononoke" to name one).

The admittedly excellent visual execution cannot make up for the fact that the acting was wooden, story banal and the plot so full of holes it made a passable Swiss cheese. For example, humanity can travel interstellar distances but can't work out how to tunnel? Wow. When they do some archaeology back home and fine the Channel Tunnel, that's going to blow their minds.

Like the "Star Wars" prequels, "Avatar" is simply continues the trend of style-over-substance.

As for 3D...yawn...who gives a crap. I still don't have HD and I still see no need for it; no one has EVER shown me an HD picture that gives a better experience than a decent SD set-up and that is because the sound is way, way more important than the picture for viewer immersion.

Economics backs net neutrality, say researchers

The BigYin

Different charges?

Why should the BBC pay more for what I download? If I download 1gb a month because I don't do much surfing, charge me X. If I download 80gb a month because I constantly stream iPlayer, then charge me nX. Is it that cocking hard?

If my connection is "unlimited" then I expect to be able to download as much as I bloody well like. That's what "unlimited" means! So don't sell "unlimited" and then moan about people using it!

If I knew the cost-per-mb you can bet that I would be more careful about what I downloaded/used (cue blocking more cruft on websites and running a larger local cache).

Microsoft Office 2007 retailers dodge patent injunction

The BigYin

Like the government cares

Here in the UK, they have just spunked £300million in promoting MS products and trying to buy the next election...I mean...improve children's education.

Google may exit China after 'highly targeted' attack

The BigYin
Flame

No

This is a PR stunt. OK, the attack isn't a PR stunt, but Google's response is. They want to cover themselves in glory and lloks like the bastion of freedom so that people pay less attention to the amount of information they are collecting and the monitoring Google applies.

Opt-out is useless.

You will be assimilated.

Judge blames RealNetworks for DVD-ripping ban

The BigYin
Unhappy

I don't think so

"I know full well that I am allowed to make a copy of copyrighted material for personal backup purposes."

AIUI you are not, not unless you have the permission of the copyright holder. In the UK this is not a criminal matter, but a civil one. It sucks, I agreed, but that's the way it is.

If your CD/DVD/BlueRay becomes damaged you should contact the company concerned and get a replacement at a "reasonable" price (their words, not mine). Thus there is no need to copy/backup and thus any such copy/backup must only be for illegal activities.

Brown offers free laptops to deprived UK schoolkids

The BigYin

It's probably under PFI

"We can't provide the service for the price we agreed (without having to cut our bonuses), bung us more money."

And they will. The ridiculous profits will stand and the fact remains these laptops are not required and are nothing more than a bribe.

The BigYin
Flame

Umm...

...It's about £1,100 per laptop.

If it is a base-spec lappy it should cost around £350 (probably less as a bulk-order, so let's say £250)

This leaves about £850.

From that remove the broadband cost (circa £35 per month, but this is a bulk order...so let's say £25 per month). That's £300 per year

This leave £550

From that, let's remove costs not already covered (e.g dispatch etc - say £50)

This leaves £500 clear profit PER LAPTOP.

What could that be for? Well bonuses to the directors of the companies involved. I wonder how many of them are MPs, spouses of MPs, relatives of MPs or good friends of MPs.

So not only is is a blatant bribe, but it is a money grabbing scheme by MPs and their cronies.

Labour disgust me.

The BigYin
FAIL

Miracle!

A gubbermint IT project that went well? Surely you jest?

There should have been no MS products on their (unless they were the sole maker of something and I find that difficult to believe).

A child needs an education - and that comes from books. Not from a PC. Even IT pros don't use PCs to learn (PCs are for doing, or testing out what was learnt from a book), just ask O'Reilly et al.

So, in a nutshell, these laptops are not needed. They are just a bribe before the election.

The BigYin
Flame

Beggars belief

They do not need laptops you thundering moron (well, not unless they are doing an IT-related subject, and even then...)

They need books.

They need encouragement.

And, most importantly, they need the will to learn.

If I (and I am sure most people reading this) can go through college and uni (pretty much) without a PC and certainly without an internet connection and still do well with nothing more than a few books and a bit of drive, then pretty much any idiot can.

This laptop scheme is try a ploy to buy votes. Books is where it is at, where is always was at and were it will continue to be at for quite some time. Books, books, books, reading and graft. That's it. Nothing fancy.

If they are so poor, who is going to pay for their net connection? Who will pay for repairs? For media? For software? For...for...for... I will. We will. The hard-working taxpayers once more. Wasn't bailing out the banks and paying all those bonuses last year to incompetent bankers enough?

Save the money, hire a few more teachers, save the playing fields and stop trying to bribe the public!

The BigYin

Agreed

It should have been supplied with standards-compliant software and (as far as possible) free software. This would have reduced the cost and allowed many more bribes...err...laptops to be handed out.

Quite example:

Ubuntu (or similar)

Firefox (or Opera, or Konqueror)

OpenOffice (or ?)

Done. No need to reinforce the defacto monopoly.

Google book scanners apologize to Chinese scribes

The BigYin

Google have not opted out

I have decided to start a 24 hour service and have assumed that every IT company at Mountain View will want my service. It costs US$10,000 per hour for the service to be on stand-by and US$100,000 per hour if the service is used plus a US$1,000,000 bonus for every problem solved, not matter how small.

Google have not opted out of my service.

I have been running this service now for 3 years.

To whom should I address the bill?

Google gets all Minority Report with Street View

The BigYin

Movies

I think someone tried this once, but it failed to take-off.

Why can't I pause any movie, click on any item I like and find out where to buy it (or close facsimiles)? Surely that's not too hard for the Overfiends at Borg Central? Revenue from sales could be split with the movie maker, so even pirated movies could end up generating revenue.

Microsoft sees its chance in Googlephone

The BigYin
FAIL

No nVidia card?

Eh? I've got one. When I ordered it, it was all "nVidia" this or that, no mention of any other manufacturer. The card itself only states "nVidia", all the drivers are "nVidia" and other rleated software is all "nVidia".

Also, unlike ATI, nVidia at least provides drivers and support for Linux. It may be proprietary, but at least they exist. Until ATI do likewise, I will not buy an ATI card.

The BigYin
Flame

Err...

"The bottom line is, every business has to do what's best for its customer"

Not quite. Every business has to do what's best for the *shareholders*.

That may, or may not, be what's best for the customer.

Just as the banks, insurance and endowment companies. They sure as hell do not do what is best for the customer.

The BigYin

Seems I was right

"Microsoft has once again questioned Google's mobile strategy, insisting that Mountain View will have trouble attracting - and keeping - OS partners now that the company is selling its very own Googlephone."

Translation: MS will use contract negotiations with OEMs to force them to ditch/bury Android or only sell it on sub-standard kit.

They have form for this - just ask Dell and a few others.

Dell chalks up tablet PC

The BigYin
Unhappy

Android?

One wonders how long that will last. Dells last foray into non-MS OSs was beaten down hard by MS (you cans till find them, in the basement behind the sign saying "Beware of the leopard").

I applaud Dell for trying to break the shackles of MS, but I can't see them being allowed to get away with it. Shame really, innovation and competition is what this homogeneous IT market needs.

Guinness to hit three quid a pint

The BigYin

50p per unit?

Let's see that tried out in a test market...say the bars in Westminster...and then rolled out nation wide if it is a success.

But that would mean MPs having to suffer and obey the law...never going to happen in the cesspit of corruption and deceit that passes for our Parliament.

And what about all the cheap booze MEPs can access (subsidised champagne etc), will they be putting a stop to that? No, thought not.

El Reg sparks international incident with Olympics committee

The BigYin

Headcams

Make them all wear headcams so the audience really can "be" with the athletes.

Hmm...not such a bad idea really, if you give two shits about the Olympics and I don't. Complete waste of money for a second-rate country like the UK. We can't even keep roads open FFS.

Snow and ice? What're they? It's not like we get them every year. Oh, wait....

You and what Android? The Google iPhone killer that isn't

The BigYin
Thumb Up

Amusing story

Was at a meeting and someone needed to get info from an email. iPhoner bring up web page (all smug) passes to other person who logs in. iPhone browser craps out when trying to access mail.

Out of curiosity (and for amusement) I got my crappy Nokia out and tried the same. I thought it would be funny yo see how hard the Nokia failed. If an iPhone can't hack it, what chance Nokia and the mini-Opera browser? Well blow me if it didn't actually work! OK, the mail layout was munged to hell (tiny screen) but you could at least read it and get the attached PDF it you wanted (what you'd do with it after is a good question).

But it worked. I was staggered.

Firefox 3.7 to feel need for speed with multicore boost

The BigYin

Are you moaning about FF...

...or your add-ons? More often than not it's the add-ons that are at fault. I don't know how you determine which one is screwing your interwebs pleasures though.

I am running FF here with a bunch of add-ons (AdBlockPlus, NoScript, GreaseMonkey, CookieCutter, CustomizeGoogle, FireGrstures,TinyUrl, XMarks, WebDeveloper; to name a few) and FF is running with a lower memory and CPU footprint when active than Miro when inactive and minimised!

I agree that allowing an add-on to kill the browser (and not having an obvious way of monitoring add-ons) is pretty poor; but you can hardly blame Mozilla for the actions of others.

FF also wins in one other big way. IT IS NOT IE! It is also standards complaint (unlike any version of IE, including 8). For those reasons I would us FF, Opera, Safari or Konqueror before IE (I would not touch Chrome as I don't know [yet] what spyware it may contain).

It's just a shame that the corporate world demands IE support rather than standards support, forcing poor dweebs like me to code for the shit that is IE6.

'Peeping Tom' caught on own camera

The BigYin

What's the problem?

It's obviously part of the Labour anti-crime initiative to crack down on shoplifting.

It will also allow NHS operatives to check on on how fat customers are so they can be given advice in store.

If you have nothing to hid, you have nothing to fear and I for one welcome this new initiave to keep me safe with open arms.

(This post may contain trace of "lie").

Speculation takes flight over 5th generation Velociraptor

The BigYin

Who needs a big SSD?

An entire OS (including all applications) can sit quite happily in under 4GB. So at most you'd need an 8GB SSD (allowing a lot of wiggle room and should still be fairly cheap). Data can then be held on a standard HDD and mounted transparently into the filesystem.

Unless your OS and apps are bloated to hell of course.

Year 2010 bug wreaks havoc on German payment cards

The BigYin
Flame

Agree 100%

The number of people who cannot tell the time is staggering. "01-02-10" What date is that? Without context there's no way to know. The format should be YYYY-MM-DD. But that doesn't work in America as the Yanks are so staggeringly dumb they will assume it to be YYYY-DD-MM (I am not kidding, we tested it out).

Of course, even if you do that you still can't tell the time. Any time without a time zone is invalid. End of discussion. So the full format should be "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss Z". It's more data, but at least you can be bloody sure that the hell the time is.

When it comes to UI, display it any way you want; it is merely a view on to the internal data.

As for custom rolled code - no need. If a Java programmer custom rolls their own date code (beyond basic calculations), you take them out and shoot them. You can give dotNet programmers some lee-way due to the stupid, stupid way dotNet handles time zones at times. Javascript coders....just pity them.

A datetime is like Unicode data without knowing what the encoding is; utterly useless and probably going to lead to trouble.

Google uncloaks the Nexus One

The BigYin
Flame

Google will know..

...where I go and when;

Who I call and when;

What I search for and when;

What I book/buy on the mobile and when;

Potentially who I associate with and when (assuming they also have a Borg-phone);

Pretty much everything about me.

And they expect me to want their phone?

Feck that. Feck that very much.

"Do no evil"? Too late Mr. Schmidt, way too late.

Bono accuses ISPs of 'reverse Robin Hooding' over piracy

The BigYin
FAIL

FFS

The failure of the major labels to provide a service that people want and to monetise the new media as it emerges is 100% the fault of those major labels. Not the file sharers, not the the ISP, not you are me; it's their own bloody fault.

"Free" (often illegal, but not always) only sprung up because people could not get what they wanted (or at a price they were willing to pay). "Free" is also usually DRM free, something anyone with half a brain wants. Idiotic licensing restrictions, artificial barriers to trade (region locking etc), aggressive and illegal DRM attacks (the rootkit fiasco) are all examples of how Big Labels just don't get it.

iPlayer is a good start, but not nearly enough. Spotify looks good, but I am nt sure how much longer it can last without running ads (got nothing against ads, so long as I don't have to pay).

I will *pay* to get the content I want. Really, I will. If you are smart enough to make it available to me. Why can't I watch Hulu? Some pen-pushing accountant-cum-lawyer with no brain said so. Same reason I can't watch Adult Swim. Just idiocy. I will pay for access (advert free - a la BBC) or they can cut the feed with adverts (free access to me). Either way, I don't mind.

But will they do this? No. Too busy throwing money at lawyers and chasing a business model that has died, often forcing those of us who missed an episode of <whatever> on to the illegal sites just to get a hold of it. Or because some piece lawyer-turdling has decreed that USA-ians can see a thing but the rest of the world is not allowed.

Stupid, just bloody stupid.

California cops don defensive headcams

The BigYin
FAIL

Idiot

Nothing to hide != No need for privacy

Get a clue, chump.

Boys in blue caught breaking IT rules

The BigYin
Thumb Down

Correction

"The Police Federation said it was surprised the figures were so high and suggested forces should be doing more to inform staff of what the rules were."

should read

"The Police Federation said it was surprised the figures were so high and suggested forces should stop looking for staff who were breaching the rules."

Why? Because that's what will now happen in order to make the figures look better.

The police - would you trust them?

US feds squeeze bloggers for posting TSA orders

The BigYin
FAIL

The price of peace

If the price of peace, the halting of terrorist acts and the saving of many innocent lives is letting a few terrorist scum walk free; then that is a price I pay willingly.

The alternative is martyrdom and continued killing.

Which do you prefer?

High-speed Chinese train kicks French, Japanese butt

The BigYin
FAIL

", only if you are going where the train or metro is headed is it convenient"

I see. So you just ask the captain to divert the plane to where you want to go? Most people call that "hijacking"!

Trains, where properly funded and run (i.e. not the UK or USA) are much better for inter-city travel than aircraft. They are also better for freight, but again this relies on proper management and funding.

Meanwhile the UK throws millions in subsidy and our piss-poor rail companies and still pisses money away on a runway at Heathrow that we wouldn't need IF said (heavily subsidised) rail companies actually pulled their finger out and did their jobs properly.

The BigYin
FAIL

I see...

...and a return on a budget airline is about on third the price and takes half as long.

Way to go British railways! Woo! Remind me, how much subsidy does a budget airline gets from my pocket and how much do those incompetent morons who run our railways get?

When I get get on a train in (say) Newcastle and be in (say) London in around two hours, with a seat, not pay any more than a budget air-ticket and not pay any subsidy to the rail operator; then we can begin to think about considering them "acceptable". Not "good", not "excellent"; just "acceptable".

Thinking about - just fire the lot of them and hire the Swiss. Oh wait, didn't the Swiss said they wouldn't touch our rail system with a barge-pole due to massive under funding, ineptitude and corruption?

BBC looks to grab internet TV market

The BigYin
Go

How do the Beeb keep getting it right*?

Say what you like about the Beeb programmes, but their delivery is spot-on. iPlayer is simply superb and being able to use in on the PC, (old) xBox and Wii is just great. That alone is worth the £11 a month to me!

As for Sky; big, fat "Meh, who cares?" Why people want to pay £30+ a month to watch 100 channels of utter shite and still get bombarded with ads beats me. There's more than enough on the free-to-air gogglebox to not need Sky and with services like the iPlayer you can keep up on anything you happen to miss.

Like MS, Sky is seeing the writing on the wall and beginning to panic. They don't have the talent or skill to innovate, so now they are lashing out and trying to kill off emerging initiatives that threaten them. Tough luck, the world moves on Mr. Murdoch.

Adapt or die.

*Their phone system excepted, of course.

Apple seeks patent on reality

The BigYin
Unhappy

Hang on

There's a YouTube with of a guy doing this with a Wiimote (maybe that's the one ElReg linked to?)

Anyway, isn't that prior art?

Isn't any other method of tracking the head simple evolution of the same idea? Cameras have had face recognition for a while.

Are Apple going to be allowed to get away with 2+2=iOwnYerFeckinArse?

And what happens if two people look at the screen? PC has an epileptic fit?

ID card minister forgets ID card

The BigYin

No

You have simply proved that your face matches a card and given a name (it's a local check*). For verification you will still be taken to a station for an on-line check. But that merely verifies your ID, not that you are not a terrorist.

To prove that will require interrogation and further check by the security services.

Once you are proved innocent of being a terrorist, you will them be charged with causing a public disturbance and wasting police time. You will also be billed for the cost of the checks.

Future Britain, powered by Labour, burning your privacy.

*This is why ID cards CANNOT work, the checks are local, no real-time connection the central DB *and* all intelligence DBs.

The BigYin

No ID? She could be anyone.

Other forms of ID are not acceptable as they could be fake.

Forgetting your ID card is no excuse (it's a bit like claiming you were ignorant of a law).

There is no excuse, she should be held under arrest until her identity can be verified.

If MPs were treated in the same way as members of the public WILL be treated, then perhaps this whole ID business can be scrapped.

Philip K. Dick's kid howls over Googlephone handle

The BigYin

Region Controlled

Or whatever they call it. Cava is pretty much the same stuff (and more often than not vastly superior at the same price point) but can't be labelled "champagne" as it is not from the Champagne region. Simples.

There's a slew of things that are region specific as well (Harris Tweed is another example, I think), so it's not just the French being arsey.

Axeman Chancellor toes the line on ID cards

The BigYin
Flame

Not compulsory?

Do people still buy this bull-crap? ID cards, when they come in, will be 100% compulsory and always have been; no matter what any MP or mandarin may say.

If you are too hard of thinking to understand why a "voluntary" card is compulsory, I'll type this slowly.

1) it's not the card, it's the database.

2) As cards will be accepted as "strong" ID, banks and other institutions will get twitchy if you don't have one.

3) Bureaucracy will "streamline" around the card and life will become difficult/hell if you don't have one.

Ergo - they are compulsory.

Of course, we don't need these cards and we have never needed these cards. All they will do is foster a counter-culture designed to protect our privacy. And good luck to them! The people of Britain now need to protect themselves from their own government (never mind the unelected asshats in Brussels).

Mozilla to open - gasp! - Firefox add-on store

The BigYin
FAIL

Huh?

You really like GreaseMonkey, but you wouldn't want to pay for it? How the hell do you square that circle?

I am sure some add-ons would remain "free", either because it is a hobby/learning exercise for the dev, it's a loss-leader for something else or they get enough voluntary donations. But some will cost, and quite right too.

Developing takes time and money. Depending on how much of both are used up, the dev may have no choice but to charge, even if it is a trifling amount just to help cover costs.

If you like something, you should support it. That's how FOSS works. If you can't afford time to help (test, find bugs, offer fixes, write documentation...) then reach into your pocket had help the cause. Because if YOU don't help and the person beside doesn't help and the one beside them doesn't...that thing you love may not be round for much longer.

Free Software does not always equal "zero cost" software.

Tax dodgers aided by old IT

The BigYin
FAIL

Hmm...

"You will lose out on £11bn because you don't know who owes you!"

"OK, we will buy and new IT system at a cost of £2bn"

<time passes>

"Your new IT system has actually cost £8bn and lead to £20bn in lost revenue!"

"OK, we will buy and new IT system at a cost of £4bn"

<rinse and repeat>

If MPs are so worried about lost revenue, perhaps they should hire back all the tax inspectors they let go? But then that would raise costs, mean cost-saving targets are missed (even though a tax inspector 'earns' more than they cost) and the senior civil servants would not get their fat bonuses. Can't have that.

This is merely another ruse by our corrupt MPs to score directorships/perks for grateful IT companies.

It makes me sick.