The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

* Posts by Cliff

605 posts • joined Saturday 14th April 2007 14:29 GMT

Page:

Cliff
Bronze badge

Why post in a drive?

Can't they just get a copy from the NSA?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Prostitutes, strippers and fucking accountants

You'd want some decent virus protection if that's your pastime list

Cliff
Bronze badge
Windows

RFID and hyperbolic marketing woo?!

Actually, that would be right up a certain fruity firms street!

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Loose talk costs

Ohhhh yeah - I've seen that one happen, luckily not to me.

I've also seen an (ideally suited) friend stitched up by an agent who wanted to represent him for a role 'exclusively', then not put him forward in favour of another candidate. They were actually trying to take other talent out of the market to favour their chosen candidate. Luckily, 3 months later the job is still being advertised, HR say they never were given his CV, but are mustard-keen to see it as he is pretty much ideal for the (very niche) job.

Never go 'exclusive' with an agent, and always assume their interests do not fully overlap with your own.

Cliff
Bronze badge

You have to mix it with clean water, you have to chill it

Sounds a lot like cooking to me. Well, food preparation at least. Would rather invest that time and effort into (beans/cheese/marmite) on toast, nature's true super foods.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Don't get too excited

Wow, -14. Anyone got any actual counter arguments?

Is the 6Bn extra tax preferable? Should we roll over and give up? Forget abstract ideology for a few moments and look at the real situation in the real world. A secret service tasked with secret service tasks has a pile of answers on their desks but have to promise not to look at them no matter if it will save 1 life or 1000. And they'll get a press bollocking either way.

Do 14 of you really believe the world is Black and White, cut and dried? It's a mess, it involves messy people with messy agendas. My freedom costs you something and vice versa.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Don't get too excited

We also have GCHQ in Blighty, and I can't imagine other states not having the same kinds of setup.

Put it like this - 24/7 physical surveilance costs about £3M (based on the Assange figures from the Met). Let's say there are 2000 persons of interest in the country. £6Bn/year would appal the taxpayer, so they have to find other, cheaper ways to keep tabs. Having a bucketful of key intelligence within your borders for very little cost, you'd be absolutely bonkers not to use it. I doubt the intelligence services could be called 'absolutely bonkers', seeing as they do a pretty decent job.

So, it's a trade-off - higher taxes or more dead civilians...or making use of the resources that are sitting right there for the reading.

Cliff
Bronze badge

In the meantime

I encourage all reg users to install prey from preyproject - usual remote location, screen locking etc or enter a stealth mode to take photographs of the scrote who stole your laptop and mobile. Makes the case for an arrest so much stronger for the police when you turn up with gps/close coordinates and a photo from the phones camera or laptop webcam, with value added screen captures just because.

Free for you first three devices (phone laptop and tablet for instance) per account.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Apple Invents

You can't polish a turd...

(But you can roll it in pixie dust)

Cliff
Bronze badge

Bless him

He's out of his core area, but I guess saying we should teach more actual programming as a concept instead of just using Word. If he is, I agree. Computer as slave, not boss.

Cliff
Bronze badge

You hide the fish

By leaving it alone with the cat... amitite?

Cliff
Bronze badge

I like the HTC handset, but I also like the Samsung...

There's only one way to sort this out...

(you know the rest)

Cliff
Bronze badge

outsourced PR?

Seeing as the head honchos of either company aren't going to be doing the tweeting, and many companies at least partly outsource their PR, I'll bet there were a few stern phone calls this morning...

Cliff
Bronze badge

such shock and horror

I really am surprised that this seems to be such a shock to everybody. Can you really imagine any organisation whose whole raison d'etre is to spot and gather information not spy and gather all the information it can in this cost effective and practical manner from servers in their own jurisdiction? Of course they do, in their place you would too. Getting caught was an error, but it's hardly shocking is it?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Manufacturer & Mobile operator

Yes, that would be ideal for me, but alas the manufacturer and network pre - installed stuff is the main way HTC differentiate themselves from LG from Sony from Samsung. They all want to add their branding and app stores to thehandsets to get a bite of the recurring revenue not just the low margin hardware market or data carrier market

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Risk Schmisk

The bit about not surfing porn on company kit but being prepared to install a 'viewer' on your own kit one is dismissable, the other an IT headache to try to defend against. Let your 3 year old play on the nicely locked down company laptop vs letting them play on your own-bought iPad? Worlds apart in terms of exposure profile.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Dash of malt vinegar

If you're not feeling lah-di-dah enough for Worcester Sauce, a dash of malt vinegar offsets the greasiness of the cheese and takes it up a level without contaminating the core concept by 'cooking'. Try it.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Blimey

What a cynical model. It's like the cheque rebate from 'vicious anal toys ltd' nobody would ever cash.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Security isn't a 'feature'

A 'feature' is what appears on the 4 bullet points on the shelf edge price ticket in Dixons. 4k, dodecatronic sound, 3d/4d/5d etc - all 'features', pointless gimmicks to draw punters as opposed to something everyone rather assumes is on by default in the current age.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Macromedia Shockwave Flash!

All the elements and their directions squirted down the pipe, reassembled at the client, like a Flash animation.

The Beeb's engineers are a damn clever lot, and always testing the edges of what's possible to improve the viewer experience down the road. NICAM, for instance, adding stereo sound to an analogue signal without breaking anything. Hey, in the late 80's they recorded the Wimbledon finals in HD to see if it could be done with first-generation Beta (not digibeta mind - predating digi by years and years!) decks - 4 ganged each recording a quarter of the signal. Impressive.

I would imagine this is similar testing out ideas for the future. It may not even end up using conventional cameras but strip out individual elements to send. It could actually be quite revolutionary - imagine the bigger picture.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Want a faux-castle for your wedding?

$9M will get you a real castle in Scotland, with change for mars bar suppers all round.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: What can I say, it inspired a generation.

Good link!

Cliff
Bronze badge

Robert Carlyle

I mean, it is just so obvious! He would be an inspired bit of casting.

When do we get to vote, btw? Will the Reg stick a tenner on at the bookies for the winner?

Cliff
Bronze badge

I like this

In itself it changes nothing, but it rankles, it gets under the skin of corporates, it gets things discussed and gets wider attention. Excellent point about John Lewis for instance - again a small action, but small actions and small changes in customer behaviour aggregate... Then people listen.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Actually rather cool

RAM is cheap in enterprise terms, sounds well architected, well done to the MMSQL team.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Cutting it?

Are diamond tips hard enough to cut graphene?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Deear Meester Weeliam,

We too are sick of the little Ponce, he never does his share of the shopping, he wraps all our computers in tinfoil, please, please take him back before he has a nasty accident!

OK, we'll sweeten the deal with enough cash to pay off the Met's bills, plus a home-cooked meal using what's left in the fridge after you-know-who has helped himself...

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: "If this is avoided"

By god, Eadon's bang on the money here!

Have a +1

Cliff
Bronze badge

Robert Carlyle

I mean, c'mon, how awesome would he be?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: I'll tell you why it was bad.

Never played it, but that was a super review

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: "Fanbois have been able to secure their ...

Journalism failURE. Maybe journalistic failure. Or perhaps you mean 'fail' as an internet-age meme on a forum. Not unlike 'fanboi', then really, is it?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Moisture sensors tripped by humidity

Fruit juice?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Moisture sensors tripped by humidity

Sweaty palms from over-excitement at a new iDevice?

Cliff
Bronze badge

It's an open secret that blueprints are logged by the state

Want to make a new car part? The official 'liaison' will make sure all your plans get copied for party files. Manufacturers expect it because that's the option. You get cheap Labour and the global market, China knocks off what they like for the domestic market, and screw you very much.

And they're clearly not going to say 'yes, it was us', now, are they?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Chat roulette just got scarier!

Then again, if someone wants to take the power of a phone (best of breed currently have quad core 1.6GHz or so) and make an augmented reality nudifier, I could see there being a market for that...

Cliff
Bronze badge

The real problem is volatility

$13000 one day could be $6000 or $20000 by the end of the week, depending on how many articles the press have done about bitcoin on slow news days.

The second real problem is spending them - nobody accepts them in any useful sense - again thanks to that volatility. If my printing supplies cost $, I need to cover their cost in $, not magic beans.

Good luck to them and all - wikileaks has lost so much credibility by not dumping Assange the moment he jumped bail and started slinging faeces at the very courts that had spent time and money hearing him. A wikileaks party has to pedal furiously just to stand still the more they tie personality in with service.

Cliff
Bronze badge

I hope nobody got a free PhD for this

I mean, 20-something years ago I had a crude proof of concept for this. Guess it's been a quiet news weekend with the UK bank holiday and all

Cliff
Bronze badge

Facebook deleted

Hurrah - this article reminded me to permanently delete my fb account, something I'd meant to do for ages

How will I keep in touch with those 384 'friends' I didn't give a crap about now?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Why?

Why indeed. Just the usual kids playing but (rightly it seems) thought they'd get more press pretending to be connected with the Syrian horrors.

Is the Assad regime going to waste time and money on a 'I woz ere' when they're fighting to maintain the status quo? Are Qatati-sponsored rebels going to post something so lame using the wrong flag (3 stars on their 'embassy' in Qatar). It's kids who found they sound louder if they hijack a controversial figurehead

Cliff
Bronze badge

@Robin

It's a jift I have

Cliff
Bronze badge

Never thought of vi as an easy to use text editor myself... but vi on pi, you must, really.

Cliff
Bronze badge
Coat

Sidorov doesn't feel it solves any particular problem...

Bit of a GIF lemon then?

Cliff
Bronze badge

I guess the Syrian Electronic Army is a guy called Colin then?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: You shouldn't assume its a the programmers fault.

...And that's exactly how the world works - the marketing agencies they use promise to be responsive whereas in-house IT have to follow the rules and standards. I assure you, the in-house IT procedures and standards are incredibly high, with security audits mandatory, etc.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Outsourcing

Almost certainly outsourced to a marketing agency because the 'business' likes responsive campaign swirls, speeches, connected, engaged blah blah, missing the point of why technologists might take longer to do the job right...

Cliff
Bronze badge

@itsnotme

That machine might be just what CERN are looking for - a copy of TBL's first ever web page...

On the plus side, I guess the Dean isn't consuming much IT budget, wasting it on getting every new toy that comes out as being 'essential'. One manager I know of seized the delivery of a sun sparc on the basis that he had to have the most powerful computer in the department for his emails (never mind that it didn't run outlook, it was more powerful therefore his buy rights!).

Cliff
Bronze badge

Seriously though,

I love the idea of sending the navy seals into Afghanistan, of all places I can't think why they haven't been deployed there yet.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Fuck yeah! Then sharks with last beams for eyes would kill them with prejudice and chomp on a massive cigar and go yeah who's laughing now and then a bom goes of then the sharks rides three tsunami which righteously drowns the guilty ones and then they get in the fast car and do a jump.

Cliff
Bronze badge

Is it like our Silicon Roundabout?

Long on cropped beards, rounded corners, marketing speak, and short on actual technologists?

Cliff
Bronze badge

Re: Lawsuit in the offing here.

Agreed - but who do you sue for a refund? The company you contracted with is gone, and they took your cash with them.

Page: