* Posts by Steve Evans

2772 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Apr 2007

It's official: IE users are dumb as a bag of hammers

Steve Evans
Coat

Nooo!

Don't switch, add!

I use Firefox, Chrome and Opera, so by my calculations my IQ is about 350!

Mines the one with the Spry Mosaic install floppy in the pocket.

One-third of US consumers will buy an iPhone 5

Steve Evans

Honestly...

What a bunch of sheeple... They don't even know the spec (or price), but they *must* have one.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I've got a turd I can emboss an Apple logo onto if any of them are interested... Best I get eating as I suspect demand could be high.

Hacking scandal starts to spread beyond News Corp

Steve Evans

Re: Does anyone seriously think...

Actually there is a huge different between bin diving and phone "hacking".

When you discard something, in the eyes of the law you are saying you no longer want it. It is then perfectly legal for someone else to pick it up and keep it. This is true in the US and UK.

Phone hacking falls more into the unauthorised access to a computer system or illegal wiretap classification. i.e. far more serious.

Dev's iPhone cable melts after iOS 5 upgrade

Steve Evans

re: Try setting the clock on those to 03:14:08 19/01/2038

Oh NOs, my phone is only going to work correctly for another 26 years!

BTW, that's what is know as the UNIX millennium bug. Feel free to post a smug comment in 2038 on a website of your choosing... Assuming you can find a website still working!

Airport screener stuffs stolen iPad into (own) trousers

Steve Evans

Tea leaves...

Whenever I fly, I secure the bag with a cable tie. That way security can look inside if they want, but a light fingered grunt will probably go for something easier.

When it gets to baggage collection time, it's obvious if anyone has been in my bag or not, and I can check the contents.

So far that technique has proved safe from Stansted and/or Spanish handlers (who have twice helped themselves to odds and sods - pair of shorts and a Swiss army knife - I know, weird eh!).

All my expensive stuff always goes hand luggage anyway, have you not seen how they throw the hold luggage about?!! What the iPad owner was thinking when he put his animated tea-tray into hold luggage is beyond me!

Steve Evans

Build...

Surely being sylph-like would be an advantage when hiding a fondle-slab in your trousers, just poke it down the front and leave your T-shirt untucked. In fact being chunky would make it harder as fondle-slabs are flat, and chunky tummies are curved.

Feds seize kit from Apple Store spyware artist

Steve Evans

Re: Sorry, you got the wrong end of the story...

He should come over to the UK, they'll hand good money over for any old pile of crap.. Just ask Tracy Emin.

Steve Evans

Well as this is Apple...

I believe the traditional way of dealing with Apple is to issue a counter suit.

"The technician had apparently traced the traffic to the site McDonald used to upload the program to Apple Store computers — and installed it himself."

And there you have it... Software piracy!

Bug-Byte Manic Miner

Steve Evans

And on Android...

Go get yourself the Spectrum emulator Marvin, then you can play oodles of ROMS, including MM.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s 14in Core i5 laptop

Steve Evans

Re: Er, just no.

My 1400 x 1050 R52 said it wanted to wave to your T60p.

I'm sure my 1400 x 1050 A30 would have done too, but it's gone to a better place.

Steve Evans
Coat

Suits more than suits...

I'd say with only 768 vertical pixels on that widescreen setup, it won't suit the suits that do anything more that powerpoint presentations. Widescreens that small are only fit for watching movies on a plane.

The world is vertical, webpages scroll vertically, emails scroll vertically, why would anyone choose to view the world through the IT equivalent of a Panzer's port hole?

Mine's the one with the "Campaign for 4:3 laptops" pin on the lapel.

ANONYMOUS: Behind the mask, inside the Hivemind

Steve Evans
Unhappy

Typical...

She would have to be anonymous wouldn't she... How on earth am I supposed to get her phone number now?

Behind Microsoft's $15 Samsung Android royalty claim

Steve Evans

Re: What's Android? It's Linux.

Think about it for a second... Why destroy something which can make you $15 per sale, cost you $0 to produce, and $0 to support... Money for nothing.

Mystery of David Attenborough's garden skull cracked

Steve Evans

Hands up...

If you found a skull in your garden, and weren't a famous and much respected personality, would you feel comfortable calling the plod when you know the first person they are going to suspect is you?!

I think it would go straight back into the hole it came out of, just a bit deeper this time!

Aussie retailer accuses UK shops of HDMI 'scam'

Steve Evans

£100 for an HDMI? You're not trying hard enough Bruce!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001NXQRSW

Steve Evans

re: Fail yourself

Well you wasted your time. I am fully aware that there is gold on the motherboard, but the tracks going from chipset to CPU and memory are not gold plated. IDE cables are not made of oxygen-free organically farmed dodo tail feathers either, just standard tinned copper wire.

Exposed tracks are plated to prevent corrosion on old style edge connectors and such. However 99.9% of the motherboard is not exposed tracks. It is coated. Even the exposed track plating is over the top for normal PC use.

So my point about high-speed digital signals travelling in a high RF interference environment without any need of exotic materials still stands.

Steve Evans

Re: Unleash the audiophiles!

Ah, now be careful, SCART is an analogue signal, so a high quality cable will give an improved signal. How much will depend on the length of the cable. You probably won't see the different mind, but there will be one. It's not like a digital signal where it's either there intact or gone.

Steve Evans

Indeed...

I've long thought this.

Oxygen free copper/silver wires and gold connectors are all well and good if you are an anally retentive analogue audio purist running cables over an excessive distance, but in the digital world of 1's and 0's a 40% loss in signal still won't turn a 1 into a 0 or vice versa. Does your motherboard have gold tracks connecting the RAM to the chipset? Nope. Is your Sata of Pata cable oxygen free? Nope. Yet they happily move seriously large volumes of data about in an environment flooded with digital noise - and Pata isn't even screened!

I don't think I have an HDMI cable in my house which cost more than £5, and I defy anyone to tell the difference.

Facebook snuffs Chrome extension for uncaging 'friends' data

Steve Evans

There are ways...

There are ways of exporting your friend out of facebook, but you need to introduce a middleman. In my case it's an Android smartphone.

Just sync a phone to facebook with the facebook app. Then sync the phone to outlook express. From there you can export the windows address book in half a dozen formats including CSV which should let you create whatever format you desire.

I'm sure an Android phone will sync to Google+ directly too, but I'm not on it to try it out.

NotW accused of hacking Milly Dowler's voicemail

Steve Evans

Re: whatever happened to globalisation?

I'm sure it works in many countries.

All you need it:

1) A way of accessing a network's voicemail system in retrieval mode from another phone. In the NoTW story they just rang the mobile when they knew it would divert to voicemail (either off, or busy with another call, which they had just made). However most carriers also have a direct number you can call from any phone to retrieve messages, so you need to know the carrier for that... Or just ring all of them.

2) The phone number of the person you wish to snoop on - only required if you are dialling the voicemail directly and not letting it bounce in on a divert from the target phone.

3) A few guesses at the 4 digit pin which is usually default. Try 0000, 1234, 1111 and 8888.

Steve Evans

Grrr!

I'm sure we'll be hearing the "I knew nothing about it" line from all the managers... Well even if that is true then it means you were not managing your staff were you. You didn't tell them what was acceptable and what was not. Therefore you are a bad manager. Sack.

Oh, and please stop giving the NoTW stories the "hacking" label it so doesn't deserve. This is no more hacking than my granny's drive to Sainsbury's is the British Grand Prix. They gained access to a voicemail account by a default password. They didn't even brute force it, just tried the defaults 0000, 1234, 8888. It would be harder to break into a chocolate money box which had the key beside it.

Mexican narco attempts suitcase jailbreak

Steve Evans

Honestly...

Why on earth let anyone take something into a prison visit which isn't directly required for the visit, i.e. the clothes you are wearing - that is all

Apple orders millions of iPhone 5s for September release

Steve Evans
Megaphone

re: Keyboard

"Personally I want a bloody phone with a phone keyboard not a qwerty virtual thing, but that will never happen now."

Maybe you should take your Fanboi blinkers off...

Android: Menu, settings, Language & Keyboard, Touch Input, Keyboard types = Phone keypad.

Spooks made 1,061 bugging errors in 2010

Steve Evans

Excellent...

Thanks to the NOTW phone "hacking" we now have a going rate for illegally listening to telephone calls, so where do we go to find if we were affected, and if so, how quickly can we expect the cheque?

One per cent of world's web browsing happens on iPad

Steve Evans

@Martin Hill

Yet another sign? Weird, all the other signs I've seen have Android passing iOS on the phone platform and accelerating into the distance.

All these figures show is that Apple has moved on from dominating the mobile market, to dominating the tablet market instead. Android is still playing catchup in that market with it's tablet version of the OS only just out the door and restricted to select partners.

Blighty gets gold-dispensing ATM

Steve Evans

Re: um....what's the point?

Because the value of gold has been steadily rising for years, pretty much from the moment Gordon Broon flogged of the UK reserves at the all-time low.

Microsoft bags two more Android patent deals

Steve Evans

Which patents...

If the tom-tom one is anything to go by, they're patents for the FAT32 file system, which is required if you want to plug your device into a windows box and use it as a flash drive.

Windows doesn't natively support any file systems which they haven't incumbered with patents, so it's catch 22.

Strike hits police, ICO and the Rev

Steve Evans
FAIL

How to lose any support you might have had...

Publicise it would make the taxman's life better.

Lenovo Thinkpad X220T 12.5in tablet PC

Steve Evans

Wide screen on a business laptop = fail * 2

Lenovo, stop copying everyone else. I want a 4:3 screen. This is a machine to work on, not play movies!

I'm still using the Thinkpad R52 which I've had more years than I care to remember because it has a 4:3 screen which is 1400x1050 pixels, and still only 15". Incidentally I bought it myself, with my own money to replace the Thinkpad A30 which I had also bought with my own money, but unfortunately stood on after many years of reliable service :'(

The only way I can get that kind of vertical resolution on a laptop these days is to buy something which is 1920x1080, and the size of a f*cking aircraft carrier's flight deck.

Please please please be a little different, stop being a sheep, and give me a good upgrade path, because at the moment I'm seriously looking at bi-passing the sata/pata bridge chip you put in this machine so I can install a sata SSD to get some more speed out of it and run it for another 5 years!

Canada buys Obama's reject Brit choppers for spare parts

Steve Evans

Re: And the sales rep?

I'm sure they did.

Govt contracts seem to work in a completely different way to "normal" ones. Estimates/quotes mean nothing. Say what you like, win the contract, then triple the price halfway through the development process.

Same goes for delivery schedules.

And if after 5 years of very expensive development it doesn't work and is scrapped, don't worry, you're still in the money, and you'll probably get the next contract that comes up for bidding anyway.

Feel free to correct me if I've missed anything!

Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

Steve Evans

Oh no!

Who let you play with the crayons?!

Wimbledon grunters turned down by viewers

Steve Evans

Hmmm...

I thought this sounded like a good idea, although it would be nice to have the ball noises whilst gagging Sharapova. Unfortunately as it's the radio feed, the commentators talk way too much.

Looks like I'm stuck with the TV coverage audio feed for now. Please, someone put Billy Jean King on a separate audio feed!

Smartphone security gets better: Blanket bans no longer inevitable

Steve Evans
Meh

Unbiased...

"Built-in mobile device security is better than that of PCs, but still insufficient, according to (insert name of company which sells security software here)"

Hackers pierce network with jerry-rigged mouse

Steve Evans

Okay...

Hands up who's just taken their mouse apart to check?

My excuse was it needed a clean ;-)

Steve Evans

Very clever...

Very neat attack, although I must admit being told you couldn't use "social networks, telephones, and other social-engineering vectors" is kind of like testing a body armour and saying "Oh, but you can't shoot at the head, arms or legs", i.e. knowing there are already serious shortfalls in the protection in those areas.

So, how many rhinos does a tram weigh?

Steve Evans

Que?

Sorry, you've lost me. Even several passes of the Monty Python rule book hasn't helped understand why the nationality of the sheep would be important.

Steve Evans

Re: Solved

Are you sure about that? What standardised form of propulsion was used to accelerate said sheep? If it was self propelled, then have you taken into account the extra gaseous nature of very fresh lush grass?

Steve Evans

You should try the Polish ones.

I narrowly missed a tram in Krakow a few years ago. Made the famous Englishman abroad mistake of looking the wrong way (what crazy fools decided to drive on the right?).

The Polish trams leave nothing to the imagination, none of this decorative cladding round the front and sides, there's a dirty big cow-catcher bumper, and the limb severing wheels all nicely on display.

Steve Evans

Darwin

Anyone that doesn't look at a tram as a set of fast moving guillotine wheels with several tons of weight pushing down on them deserves to lose whatever bit gets chopped off.

As for the idiot in the head phones, it doesn't matter what you step in front of on the road, it's going to hurt. The cyclist will punch you in the head for being a pratt, and everything else will crush your bones and probably drive over your inanimate corpse just for good measure.

Google Chrome extension busts Murdoch paywall

Steve Evans

Google Chrome extension busts Murdoch paywall

Is it too much to hope that they brick it back up again PDQ?

ITU Gen Sec: Why not speaking English can be a virtue

Steve Evans

In that case...

"If you want to make money on the internet without paying America, your best bet is to refuse to speak English"

I assume the French are raking it in then?

I expect no down votes, doing so would be an admission you speak English, and you don't want to give the game away do you ;-)

NATO site hacked

Steve Evans

Eh?

NATO e-books?

Best seller list

1: DIY IED defusal

2: How to make friends and influence people

2: How to survive a nuclear winter

No Gingerbread snack for Desire owners, says HTC

Steve Evans

Memory or RAM?

Your tag line says "RAM" which != memory.

Hopefully they are talking about the storage space for the ROM, the Eeprom. If they really are talking about RAM, then there are going to be some very unhappy Desire Z owners (myself included). The Desire has 576meg of RAM, the Desire Z (which is promised gingerbread within the next month) only has 512meg.

DRM-free music dream haunts Apple's app-store lock-in

Steve Evans

Phone number portability?

I can only assume you're in the USA, as elsewhere, certainly in Europe, the right to keep your number and take it anywhere you like has been the norm for several years.

The only lock in is when the phone is knobbled to prevent it connecting to another network (this is pure software level, the European market doesn't have any weird networks running systems that require completely different radio hardware like the USA). This carrier lock is annoying, but removable, either by paying a small (but still excessive fee considering how much you have spent during your 24 month contract) to your carrier at the end of your contract, or by visiting a little man in the local independent phone shop who will do it for you for £5. Or you just buy the phone in the first place.

Apple closes book on iPhone-look jotter

Steve Evans

Pathetic

Honestly, what harm were they doing? Are Apple planning on making a range of notepads themselves now? No. I didn't think so.

If anything it was flattery.

Apple, just grow the f*ck up.

The company should come back with a Nokia themed one, Nokia need every bit of promotion they can get!

Nokia's Windows phone outed on video

Steve Evans
FAIL

sniff

I wish I could comment, but seeing as that video refuses to play on both my pc running firefox and my android browser, I will just have to take everyone else's option that it's crap.

Travelodge hacked, investigating

Steve Evans

Re: Maybe a coincidence

Ah, my favourite callers... Kept one of those busy for almost half an hour the other week. I did enjoy myself.

They even called back the next day, but I didn't have time to play that day. Now they don't call... I miss them and feel lonely and unloved.

Pity really, because I've now got a VM all set up and ready to run their dodgy remote access software (plus it has a few manually induced "faults" to keep them entertained).

Maybe I should give my details to Travelodge so I can get back in contact with them :-)

Incidentally, the last time they called was a couple of days after I had been dealing with an Talk-talk's Indian call centre - coincidence?

Elite UK police agency website downed by Lulzsec

Steve Evans

DDOS...

A DDOS is only slightly higher up the "hacker" scale than the NOTW phone "hackers".

A DDOS is just flooding a server with more requests than it can handle. If I phone you on your mobile, your home phone and then knock on the door, all at the same time, then I have effectively done exactly the same to you as a person.

I only put the DDOS above the NOTW because to do it you generally need access to a large collection of machines and internet connections in order to generate the required volume of traffic from a wide range of IPs to make it work.

A real hack would be getting into things which are locked down and secured (so not mobile voicemails with a default password).

Mink coat thief conceals booty down knickers

Steve Evans

Re; Re: Wow!

Ewwwwwww!