* Posts by Stef

83 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2008

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DoJ steps up Google Books probe

Stef
Alert

Pirate Bay

During the Pirate Bay trial, Google was always used as the prime example of a search engine that returns links to pirated material. Now here they are actually copying copyrighted material for profit. Surely that makes them worse than Pirate Bay?

Engineers are troublesome 'expert loners', says prof

Stef
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Huh?

What are these dozens of TV shows they are talking about with lone wolf maverick loose cannon engineers sticking it the Man while going their own way fighting crime?

Did they just watch the entire boxset of MacGuyver or something?

Sheep ad not cruel, bleats Samsung

Stef
Alert

Sentient sheep?`

Sentient sheep?

Oh my god!!!! We are about to be overthrown as the dominant species on the planet.

All must bow to our woolly overlords.

So, does this guy have regular conversations with the sentient sheep? Is clinical insanity a prerequisite for working at PETA?

eBay officially not cheaper than High Street

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288 products

They compared 288 products?!?! Wow, impressive. That must have taken the poor work experience student a whole day to do. Were they a random sample? Or specifics that they knew they would win?

To be fair, ebay is great for getting a spare phone-charger or extra long USB cable etc.

Pirate Bay loses trial: defendants face prison time, hefty fines

Stef

@ Lee Jackson

While you have a point, your post implies you have never lent or borrowed a CD/DVD/Video/Book to or from a friend. The financial difference to the copyright holder between borrowing and downloading is?

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Wow

So I guess now the floodgates are open. Amazon is going to go to prison for selling copies of Grand Theft Auto, which we all know is the cause of every violent crime in the world.

Anyone "right-clicking-> Save image as" on a picture anywhere on the interwebs is going to prison, along with Google for making "Save image as" possible.

How much of this £3.8Million fine is going to the pr0n industry? Isn't pr0n the biggest victim of copyright infringement?

Public rejects Time Warner metered-bandwidth tests

Stef
Joke

Huh?

"What happened as we're continuing to listen was we worked in some of the comments and ideas that got sent to us,"

And this guy works in communications? They should fire him and get someone who can actually speak English.

$15 for 1GB per month? And I thought we were getting a raw deal here in England.

Student sentenced for F-ucked up grade hack

Stef

Act of God

An Act of God? That is crazy.

Will they still have to swear on the Bible in court? Or would that be just as stupid?

Serial killer may have been conjured by DNA blunder

Stef

Well...

At least they didn't arrest someone for the murders and put them in prison for 27 years this time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/18/prisoner-hodgson-murder-quashed-miscarriage

Why no Lego Doctor Who? fans demand

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The real reason...

The real reason that there is no Lego Dr Who, is because they would have to change the characters every year as yet another actor quits or gets replaced.

"Oh so true! RTD can't write for toffee" The BBC pays him in toffee?

Sure he has written some bad episodes, (show me a writer who hasn't a bad episode of TV), but he has also done some good ones.

Police union leader calls for 'killer games' sales ban

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Yeah right...

The last time I went clay pigeon shooting, I was really confused. The shotgun didn't come with a mouse, so I didn't know how to move it. And then I couldn't find the "R" key to reload it. I spent a long time looking for the "G" key so I could drop the now empty shotgun, but it just didn't work.

All these crazed gunmen allegedly inspired by games... Why do they always shoot themselves? What game is that in? Which game is it that after you have defeated the 600 badguys, you hide in a corner and blow your brains out?

LibDems want gov action on killer lorries of death

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Give me a break

Growing up there was a very narrow tunnel beneath a very low railway bridge. Lorries would damage it (from scrapes to getting stuck) at least once a week. Sometimes this wasn't a case of it ALMOST fitting through, it was a case of "Never in a million years". This was decades before satnav. It is down to the individual, just like it has always been.

How police busted UK's biggest cybercrime case

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@ thefutureboy

"Afghanistan Bananistan "

Nice. I love that film

Stef
Paris Hilton

Insert witty title here

Still using the word "Cyber" are we? Feels like 1985 all over again.

Paris because she cyber Paris something cyber something something Paris.

Advertising watchdog okays 'gaming equals early grave' ad

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Oh for God's sake

This stuff is getting stupid.

I'm looking forward to the adverts featuring a kid sitting down reading the new Harry Potter book with the headline "Risk an early death..." and the subsequent outcry.

Brussels: Old-school lightbulbs to be gone by 2012

Stef

Seriously?

"The new measures "deliver a clear message about the EU's commitment to reach its energy efficiency and climate protection targets," according to Commissioner Piebalgs"

Yes, a very clear message. The message being "You just know that I have a controlling interest in the 'green' lightbulb business and will be making a fortune out of this latest scam".

So, will they be throwing away perfectly good working bulbs, or just replacing them when they die?

World's first proper flying car makes debut flight

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yeah right...

It just glides onto the roads. Airbags? Side impact bars? I'm guessing that if it gets hit by another car, then you are basically screwed?

I thought the whole point of "flying cars" was that the flew. They didn't need the roads.

This isn't a flying car, it is a driving plane.

Lights out, Britons told - we're running out of power

Stef
Joke

What's the problem?

Sorry, what's the problem? These are the same guys who are telling us that we are going to be roasting hot with runaway global warming in a couple of years. We won't need to heat our homes any more. All the power we save on heating our homes can be used to light them.

The increased CO2, heat, and precipitation will boost the plant-life, so we can feed the hungry and burn the rest of the crop as fuel (bio-diesel).

So you see, we are heading for a virtual utopia.

iPod Touch torches tyke's trousers

Stef
Flame

WTF?

$15 medical expenses? My dad got charged $20 for an asprin when he dislocated his shoulder, and that was 9 years ago. What the hell does $15 cover in US hospitals these days? Is that the entrance fee?

Google jacks up fees for Checkout service

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Huh?

""The whole reason to switch to Google Checkout was that they had lower processing fees and now they're basically the same as Paypal!""

Wow!!! What were the chances of that happening? And this guy runs his own business?

Designers mock up bonkers 'leccy car concepts

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Yeah. Right.

I'm sure we'll all be driving them to work when out JetPacks and HoverCars are in the repair shop.

Amazon does video game trade-ins

Stef

@W

"Why should I not be allowed to sell a tangible product that I've paid good money for?"

Because you haven't paid for the product. All you have paid for is a single licence to play the game on 1 machine. Just as if you work for a big company, you cannot go an buy a single copy of MW Office, then install it on 4000 machines. You need separate licences. (Flawed analogy I know, because with games you are no longer playing them, but it is about licences).

When you 'buy' a game or piece of software, you are not actually paying for anything more then a licence to use it. The fact that the publisher gives it to you on a CD/DVD is neither here nor there.

Regarding the subject in general: What if the new bestseller book comes out: Murder Mystery 5.

But they only sell one copy. To me. I bought it, read it, and leant it to someone else, who read it and leant it to someone else, etc etc etc. Are you guys SERIOUSLY saying that it doesn't hurt the industry?

Stef

@ Dave

@ Dave:

"How do rentals "harm the industry"? Someone has already BOUGHT a copy. You might as well say customers lending games to their mates is harming the industry. The rentals/re-sale industry is just as valid as the games industry.

Everyone has the RIGHT to resell whatever they want and lend it to whoever they want, whenever they want, as many times as they want. End of."

What? Rentals DO harm the industry. That is why Movie DVD rental copies cost approx £80-£100 each, when the retail DVD movie costs £9.99. The rental store is paying lots more to cover the lost sales of the publisher. If the game rentals do not cost more then the retail then OF COURSE it is harming the industry. It is very VERY simple maths.

1 person buys a game for £40. They lend it to 5 people. That is 5*£40 that the publisher DOES NOT GET. (I know that the shop gets there cut etc, it is just an example).

And NO, everyone DOES NOT have the right to sell and lend whatever they want to. You are confusing your fiction with reality.

Firefox update tackles critical memory bugs

Stef
Joke

Duh.

"I am sick and tired of these updates and am seriously considering going back to IE"

Yeah. Updating software to fix security holes is just stupid. Thank God Microsoft never patches their security holes.

Having to wait an extra 5 seconds while Firefox updates is such a tedious exercise.

ITV to sell Friends Reunited, axe 600 jobs

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@ Charlie Barnes

"Paris, because her show is the perfect example of the utter dross on ITV these days along with TV Burp and Saturday Night Takeaway."

No, you made a mistake there. You accidentally added the only two watchable shows on the channel into your Paris comment.

TV Burp does an excellent job at mocking the utter shite on TV, and Takeaway is a harmless exercise in Z-list celebrity spotting "Who the hell is she?" is our common response to the introduction of a 'celebrity' on the show.

Stef
Paris Hilton

Seriously?

No mention of the crap programs they package as entertainment?

The only time I subject myself to that channel is for TV Burp and Saturday Night Takeaway. The rest is piffle.

Paris, because her show is the perfect example of the utter dross on ITV these days.

Etailer flogs signed Jade Goody biog for £1,000

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Huh?

How is the person selling this book any different to OK magazine (or whoever it was) selling the exclusive pictures/story of Jade's wedding? They are both making money from her.

Ryanair may charge cattle to use the bog

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@Gaz

"All the righteous indignation is just a cover for being tight. You get what you pay for. Do you honestly expect sterling all inclusive service at budget prices?"

Wow, I've never heard pissing in a chemical toilet inside a tiny smelly cubicle as "sterling all inclusive service" before.

Stef

Woo hoo

Now they want to charge me for standing in a tiny cubicle, bent over like some hunchback, praying I manage to hit the bowl in this ludicrous position. I guess I could sit down, but I'm not a girl, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure I'd want to put my clean backside where the proletariat's scurvy-infested backsides have been.

At 6'3'' and 17stone of muscle, I'd probably get charged on the fat-tax when they introduce it. I hate to think what proper-tall people will do. Maybe I can charge them each time I get DVT as my knees are rammed into the seat in front of me because the plane was built in 1604 when the average height of humans was 3'9" ?

Debt collection can be harassment, rules court

Stef
IT Angle

@ John H Woods

John said-> "Surely it is one of the huge iniquities of this country that in taking any organisation - or even well funded person - to court you take on an unlimited and uninsurable liability. This largely constrains such actions to those in society who have nothing to lose and those who have a large surfeit of capital. The 'middle class' are effectively forbidden recourse in law."

To quote Marge Simpson: "People like us can't afford justice."

Hollywood to totally recall Total Recall

Stef

Most of you seem to be under the impression...

... That Total Recall was a masterpiece. Let's be honest, it was average at best. It was no Predator or Robocop.

So what if they remake it? WE STILL HAVE THE ORIGINAL AND NO ONE IS GOING TO FORCE YOU TO WATCH THE NEW ONE.

Hollywood has never had an original idea. There are no original ideas. Take you favourite 'original' movie, and you'll find it was based on a book, or a Shakespeare play, or a Pangean cave painting. Hollywood was built by turning out 600 westerns a week, what do you expect?

El Reg suffers identity crisis

Stef

Huh?

"Functionally an ad-banner trolling site who will publish any rubbish if it'll get clicks, and best ignored. (Senior Wikipedian David Gerard)"

Well, I've never clicked an ad. After years of internet exposure, my retinas and brain filter out adverts on websites. And judging by the decline in pay-per-click, so has everyone else's retinas and brains.

I find it amusing that Mr Gerard makes that comment considering the amount of unsubstantiated and inaccurate one-sided gumpf on Wiki. (Okay, okay, so they have cleaned up their act of late).

Sky taken to task for online promo cock-up

Stef

Huh?

Is this the same offer they are running now for £49?

I couldn't access the site on the day of release, so I had to wait 2 whole days to register.

4 whole people complained? Must have been serious.

Pirate Bay prosecutors get jiggy with charge sheet - again

Stef

Quote of the day

"He said the IFPI had spent around £75m on its global fight against piracy."

Yeah? How did that work out for you?

Should have given the money to the artists who allegedly lost money through piracy, although I've yet to see any figures on that.

This changing of the goalposts approach to getting a conviction reminds me of The Untouchables, where they decide to get Capone for tax evasion instead.

Ryanair trades blows with 'idiot blogger'

Stef
Coat

@Pete

"I far prefer an airline (or any other type of business) that comes out and says what it thinks. Whether about it's customers or it's competition, rather than one which hides behind weasel-words and platitudes"

Yeah, it worked out well for Ratner didn't it? ;)

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language

Everyone assumes that the RyanAir employee was a native English speaker just because he/she responded in English. When I read the employee's responses, it scans like they have English as a second language.

The RyanAir spokesman's response is not at an acceptable level, and he should be forced to fly by RyanAir as punishment (And forced to sit next to some twat who is using their new air-mobile service at £2 a minute because they can't be apart from their mobile phone for a whole 60 minute flight).

Boffins to unveil gesture-controlled 3D TV

Stef

For the sake of it.

While part of me thinks it looks like quite a cool advancement, the rest of me thinks it is just technology for the sake of technology. The over exaggerated hand movements and endless spinning just to replicate a couple of button presses on a remote.

This kind of work is an obvious necessity as a stepping stone to better things, but at the moment it is just there because they can do it rather than it being needed.

Microsoft SKUs Windows 7 clarity

Stef

Burger King

I went to Burger King the other day. Those evil corporate money grabbers had at least 6 types of burger. And they all had different prices and names. And the burgers had different toppings. One of them wasn't even cow, it was chicken. Oh how my head spun. Why can't they just make 1 burger for everyone to enjoy/complain about?

On a serious note, I bought a laptop last year which claimed to have XP Pro on it. When it arrived, it was Vista Home. Dear god, why!?!?!? I thought Windows ME was the worst OS ever, until I played with Vista Home. Vista Ultimate on my gaming/video editing PCs, and never looked back.

Everyone is just going to torrent the version they want anyway, and then proudly claim they have never 'bought' Windows in their life.

Please MS, just fix your current stuff before releasing new bloat.

Google on trial over Italian 'defamation' vid

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Yeah Right

Great, let's moderate every single piece of information that ever goes onto the internet. That shouldn't take long. Anything that the Net Tzars don't agree with gets burned. Didn't Hitler do that with books?

Don't get me wrong, this video should have been removed, but I think the blame is in the wrong place. What about the evil company that made the recording equipment, shouldn't they be sued? And why not sue the Pope as God gave this kid Down's Syndrome and made these children evil? What about the ISP of the person that uploaded the video?

French court fines Google over trade marked keywords

Stef

I am reminded of...

I am reminded of Mike Rowe and his company/website MikeRoweSoft.com

Apparently we are all so stupid that we would think Bill Gates owned that website, because phonetically it sounds the same a microsoft. Phonetically?!?!?! Is that how we search for things now?

Maybe I will buy googull from goDaddy

Manhunt 2 to hit UK on Halloween

Stef

Eh? 2

"Vulnerable Adults"? What are they?

Surely, anything that is for adults is therefore 'bad' for "Vulnerable Adults"?

Everyone that I have spoken to who has actually played Manhunt 2 said that they hated it. So will the UK actually care that the game it out?

'Water bears' survive in outer space

Stef
Joke

Wonderful news

Thankfully this experiment has now ended world hunger and disease. Crime and poverty have already ended in my part of the world the moment those waterbears were brought back into the ISS. I am hoping this experiment will lead to improved manufacture of nano technology and a clean renewable fuel source to power all factories and cars by the end of the month.

Tomorrow: Kittens.

Today is not Hadron Collider Day

Stef
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unprecedentedly puissant particle cannons

unprecedentedly puissant particle cannons

Nice.

Google News farce triggers Wall Street sell-off

Stef
Coat

Bond. James Bond.

Stock market manipulation the easy way.

Goldfinger wanted to ruin the world economy by making all the gold in Fort Knox radioactive. Silly man, all he had to do was wait a few years and let them do it to themselves as the take everything on the internet as fact.

Mine's the one with "NatWest in financial trouble. Withdraw all your money NOW!!!" on the back.

Amazon flash mob mauls Spore DRM

Stef

DVDs

Don't we face similar problems with DVDs? I buy a DVD, and I have to sit through a ridiculous advert telling me not to steal the bloody film. HELLO!!!! I just bought the fecking DVD. I don't recall a policeman stopping me getting into my car this morning telling me that stealing cars is wrong.

I always download a crack for a game the moment it arrives in the post for the simple reason that I don't want to have to insert the cd/dvd every time I want to play the game. DRM is no different (to me), I just crack it and play away.

7-year-old faces M&S Inquisition

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Ahem...

"because of 'data protection laws'."

Jesus H Christ, what is wrong with these morons. Are these the same data protection laws that prevented the examiner giving reasons as to why my work colleague's son failed his driving test? Yup, they wouldn't tell him or his driving instructor why he failed his driving test because of 'data protection laws'.

Amazon to sell one OLPC laptop for the price of two

Stef

So...

The kids work their fingers to the bone in the developing countries actually building these things, and then their reward is a free laptop donated by us kind souls in the west? Wouldn't they rather have food or an education or farming equipment or a bed to sleep in?

3,400 votes vanish from Florida election

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Again?

How many of these time-saving, money-saving, faultless voting machines must people invent each election? Who is getting rich from all these crap voting machines? How much money has been wasted on all the new systems?

Emails allege ATI-Nvidia price fixing conspiracy

Stef

UK & @ Andrew Tyler

With prices nearly double here in the UK, can we get double that cheque with £6.56?

Game sharer gets £16K fine

Stef

How much?

“Illegal file-sharing is a very serious issue resulting in millions of pounds of losses to copyright owners"

Millions? Only £6000 in this case it seems.

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