* Posts by Oliver Mayes

574 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Nov 2008

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Hillary Clinton private email server probe winding up – reports

Oliver Mayes

It was her job to understand what she was doing, ignorance is no defense.

UK carrier Three in network-wide ad-block shock

Oliver Mayes

Re: Block three

I'd assume illegal in the sense of interfering with network traffic between the user and their destination. Even if it's something benign like stripping ads out of a webpage there's probably some law somewhere that classifies this as intercepting potentially confidential information.

Adblock Plus blocked from attending ad industry talkfest

Oliver Mayes

Re: Keep on with the autoplaying auto-expanding video, sound, and light-show free-for-all

I find the most annoying ones are the normal looking adverts that have embedded code to redirect me to some malware filled website that tries to tell me that I have a virus and need to download their removal tool.

Assange™ to SQUAT in Ecuadorian broom closet for ANOTHER FIVE YEARS (maybe)

Oliver Mayes

Re: If you were Assange

If the woman regrets sex the morning after, it's not rape.

AIDS? Ebola? Nah – ELECTRO SMOG is our 'biggest problem', says Noel Edmonds

Oliver Mayes

Re: Is this a preview of a new series of Brass Eye?

I thought he was one of the only ones to question the bullshit they tried to have him recite?

Lottery chief resigns as winning combo numbers appear on screen BEFORE being drawn

Oliver Mayes

Or perhaps like a lot of 'live' TV there was a delay of a minute or two between filming and broadcast, and the person adding the graphics got out of sync by a few seconds.

David Cameron: I'm off to the US to get my bro Barack to ban crypto – report

Oliver Mayes

Next up, putting locks on your doors to be banned as it may hinder the police when they urgently need to search your house without a warrant. After all, only a terrorist would have something to hide behind a locked door.

UK data cops warn Optical Express to stop spamming 1000s of customers

Oliver Mayes

So all those messages I received were actually from Optical Express?

I got dozens of texts offering free eye surgery with OPTICAL EXPRESS, I assumed they were just generic spam using the name of a real company to try and look legitimate.

You stupid BRICK! PCs running Avast AV can't handle Windows fixes

Oliver Mayes

Re: Another Laurel & Hardy moment

"Since Avast became mainstream, users of the free product (which used to be a true gem) are subject to popups like "Your PC can run faster", "Upgrade now", etc"

Not just the free product, I use the paid for version and they've started throwing adverts up at me all the time. I get about 10 popups a day from the client offering to sell me additional functionality. It's not possible to disable these popups without disabling the software.

Then there's the browser plugin, which includes a mandatory 'price comparison' component which inserts adverts for other websites whenever I buy something from Amazon. I had to disable the browser integration completely to get rid of that.

My license expires in about 6 months, I will definitely not be renewing it and will look for another AV. But I just can't find one these days that isn't a resource hog or hopelessly ineffective.

Why solid-state disks are winning the argument

Oliver Mayes

I made the switch a few months ago, replaced my primary HDD with a Kingston HyperX 3k.

It was fantastic, really fast and simple to install. It lasted 4 months before completely failing and taking my data with it.

Now restored from backups I'm back to using a HDD. Think I'll wait another few years before risking it again.

Microsoft pulls another dodgy patch

Oliver Mayes

So, is this why my machine bricked itself after last weeks update?

Apple wins patent on charging iThings THROUGH THIN AIR

Oliver Mayes

@DougS

RE: Keyboard power:

http://what-if.xkcd.com/102/

MPs wave through Blighty's 'EMERGENCY' surveillance laws

Oliver Mayes

Re: unsurprised, but ...really?

What exactly am I supposed to do about this? I did not vote for these politicians, I have no say in what they do.

Can it be true? That I hold here, in my mortal hand, a nugget of PUREST ... BLACK?

Oliver Mayes

Re: Black space craft? Whatever could go wrong

It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.

Ads bandog berates Virgin Media in BSkyB broadband bumf bust-up

Oliver Mayes

Re: Endless Junk Mail

I'm already a Virgin customer, get phone, internet and TV through them but I still get flyers every other week telling me how much money I would save if I switched to them.

Alphadex fires back at British Gas with overcharging allegation

Oliver Mayes

Sounds like both parties are at fault here, one doing the overcharging and one blindly paying the bills without reading them.

The IT Crowd tops BAFTA nominations with four nods

Oliver Mayes

Re: I have to say

The last episode had its moments, I thought it felt like a normal 30 minute episode stretched out so the laughs were spread out more than usual.

'Hello, is that the space station? NASA here. Can you put us through to Moscow?'

Oliver Mayes

Tense relations between the US and Russia, a mixed-nationality crew in space trying to get their job done despite the politics. Isn't this just the plot from 2010?

NASA: Vote now to put flashy lights on future spacesuits

Oliver Mayes

Re: Suit port concept

You can always send someone outside to fix it, or just bring it inside. They're not incapable of coming inside.

Kent Police fined £100k for leaving interview vids of informants in old cop shop

Oliver Mayes

Police screw up, taxpayer pays the fine. Business as usual.

Brit Bitcoin dev: I lost 'over £200k' when MtGox popped its socks

Oliver Mayes

Re: Inconsistency

Cars and stamps have real intrinsic value. If you started printing your own Monopoly-style money and using it to barter with your friends you couldn't expect the police to value it as anything other than paper and ink.

Mens sana in fibro sano: Virgin Media network-level smut filters are ON

Oliver Mayes

Is this why my Virgin connection has cut off 5 times over the last 2 weeks? Was down for 2 hours yesterday with 4 similar outages over the previous 12 days.

My smelly Valentine: Europe's perfumers wake to V-Day nightmare

Oliver Mayes

Re: Not the first time

Don't forget those old Radium cosmetics, for that 'healthy' glow.

'No, I CAN'T write code myself,' admits woman in charge of teaching our kids to code

Oliver Mayes

@Lusty

You've clearly never dealt with scope creep. Being given 2 weeks to complete a task but constantly having the goalposts moved further and further away as more is added into the requirements. And no matter how often you repeat that adding more functionality will push the completion date back there is always that moment some point after the 2 week original deadline where you get asked why you're taking so long to complete a simple 2 week task.

ISS astronauts to grow tomatoes and rice …. IN SPAAAAACE

Oliver Mayes

Re: BOVINES IN SPACE!!!!

If you assume a spherical cow the tipping becomes much simpler.

Judge: Google owes patent troll a 1.36% cut of AdWords' BEELLIONS

Oliver Mayes

Re: Obligatory adblock comment.

Adblock absolutely blocks the embedded adverts in Youtube. I got sick of the constant bombardment so just added the youtube ad filter to my block list. I've also blocked all of Google's adwords and other tracking sites and denied all of their cookies.

Plusnet is working on a network-level filter to block pirate sites

Oliver Mayes

RE: 1Rafayal

Yes, but since it's just DNS blocking TPB just keep moving the domain and BT are currently playing catch up having to update the blocking constantly. Virgin do the same thing.

Candy Crush dev stuffs EU 'candy' trademark down gob

Oliver Mayes

Re: Bit close, maybe.

Confectionery compression?

ESA rejoices as comet-chasing Rosetta probe wakes from 3-year nap

Oliver Mayes

> 1:4:9

FTFY

Classy Oregon diners tipped waitress with 'crystal meth' – cops

Oliver Mayes

Re: WTF..

Looks like a pair of skulls on a veiny background to me.

China: 'JADE RABBIT' will be FOUND ON MOON

Oliver Mayes

"Jade Rabbit"

So they're using the same naming convention as every chinese restaurant then? Two seemingly random words joined together. There's a "Turquoise Kebab" near here, and an "Easy Happy"

Are you experienced? The Doctor Who assistants that SUFFERED the most

Oliver Mayes

What about Captain Jack? I think he's died more times than anyone, not to mention spending a few hundred years buried 'alive', being blown apart by a bomb in his stomach and painfully regrowing his body.

They should add an extra slice to that chart 'Traveled through time while clinging to the outside of the TARDIS'

Microsoft plugs Xbox One consoles into its cloud - what could go wrong?

Oliver Mayes

Re: Good.

"you-don't-actually-own-a-thing "AAA" games industry"

And you really think putting games in the 'cloud' is going to change that?

Chinese building orbital lab by 2023 to make 'space medicine'

Oliver Mayes

Re: Rover by Christmas?

The moon isn't very far away (compared to everything else in the universe), transit time from Earth to the Moon is less than a week. They could launch on December 10th and still arrive there before the Queens Speech.

Full Steam Ahead: Valve unwraps plans for gaming hardware

Oliver Mayes

Re: Watching with interest

"I know that I can go and buy any PS3 game today and it will work perfectly with the almost seven year old hardware I have."

And consoles like that are the reason that modern games have to be deliberately dumbed down. PC game development is stagnating because of the constant need to make them run on outdated hardware.

RSA: That NSA crypto-algorithm we put in our products? Stop using that

Oliver Mayes

So, are the NSA now liable for every incident where this algorithm was broken and private information stolen?

They put the backdoor there, surely if anyone used it then the NSA are to blame?

Snowden journo's boyfriend 'had crypto key for thumb-drive files written down' - cops

Oliver Mayes

"very poor information security practice"

This, coming from a government who refuse to use any form of encryption themselves?

A government who repeatedly leave huge quantities of sensitive information on trains, taxis, park benches, public bins?

Google's Street View cars venture inside TARDIS

Oliver Mayes

Re: cool

Just navigate to the stairs and go up.

NSA to world+dog: We're only watching 1.6% of internet, honest

Oliver Mayes

“NSA personnel are obliged to report when they believe NSA is not, or may not be, acting consistently with law, policy, or procedure.”

Of course they are, that makes it much easier to pick out the 'traitors' for waterboarding and life imprisonment.

Peter Capaldi named as 12th Doctor Who

Oliver Mayes

Re: the Doctor can take on any form imaginable...

In "The Doctors Wife" The Doctor mentioned his old pal 'The Corsair' and stated that he was occasionally a woman. So apparently gender-switching during regeneration is canon.

"Oh she was a bad girl!"

Jimbo Wales: ISP smut blocking systems simply 'ridiculous'

Oliver Mayes

@billse10

IPv6 version is the same, just with a slightly larger pigeon

Burger-rage horse dumps on McDonald's: Rider saddled with fat fine

Oliver Mayes

Re: Does anyone know

It's so they don't get run over.

Pedestrians in the US have walked through, been hit by cars, then sued the restaurant for not warning them.

BT slammed for FAILING to explain why its broadband investment has shrunk

Oliver Mayes

"no body needs BT when you have 3g on tmobile at 8mbs for £5 for 30 days"

Try gaming with that latency and we'll see how far you get. :)

BT earmarks super-speedy 300Mbit/s broadband for 50 exchanges

Oliver Mayes

"The national telco has not said which exchange areas will get the FTTP service"

I'll save you some time, it's London.

Amazon reaping $600m a year in ad sales

Oliver Mayes

Their targeted ads aren't the best

I set up a new account, bought a copy of the Divine Comedy. Came back a few weeks later and there was one item in my 'Suggested Items' list... a mop.

How they came to that conclusion I have no idea.

Prosecutor on Private Manning's Wiki-leaks: 'Arrogance meets access'

Oliver Mayes

Re: PFY

Barack Obama (Formerly Hussein)?

It fits too perfectly to be a coincidence, please don't let the Tea Party know.

NASA on alert: International Space Station springs a leak

Oliver Mayes

I really want to believe that there is an emergency guitar on the ISS. Preferably in a glass case on the wall.

Kinky Android X-ray app laid bare as malware

Oliver Mayes

@AC

You really think Apple would have caught something like this?

Just look at the hundreds of 'mirror' apps in the Apple App store, they just turn the screen black so you can see yourself in the reflection. Apple make no attempt to stop those sort of scams.

Curiosity Mars rover flashes pics of GREY drilled powder sample

Oliver Mayes

Re: Rust

Pretty sure that's just more dust. They don't call it the red planet because it's a commie.

11-YEAR-OLD code wizard hacks Greedy RuneScape geeks

Oliver Mayes

Writing a fake program that asks stupid people to enter their login details != hacking.

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