Posts by raving angry loony

no room for it

EITHER

(a) a jurisdiction believes that its punishment/treatment of criminals is sufficient and thus their names should remain private after said punishment/treatment has been served, since they are now safe to be released back into polite (such as it is) society;

XOR

(b) a jurisdiction needs to admit that their punishment/treatment of criminals is completely inadequate and revamp the system to MAKE it sufficient so that past offenders are in fact safe to be released in public;

XOR

(c) a jurisdiction needs to admit that they cannot adequately punish/treat criminals and therefore avoid releasing them. Ever. Admittedly, this didn't work in Australia's case, where the criminals are now the government.

In my books, there is no room (absolutely none) for a "name and shame" system being allowed in any jurisdiction. Nor (arguably) is there any room for "criminal records" for that matter. If the criminal is still criminal minded, they shouldn't have been released in the first place. If they are "better", then to forbid them from finding meaningful work by permanently marking them is to basically force them back to criminal ways in order to just be able to live. Might as well brand them with a big "C" for "Criminal" on the face if we continue to allow anyone to check "criminal records".

another advantage

If it's also generating an EMP when it makes holes, one advantage is that anyone working nearby will have their phone wiped. Handy for enforcing "no contact with outside world" directives, no?

If not, perhaps they could add it as a "feature" for later...

Then sell me one so I can "turn off" the phones of certain people in restaurants. You know who you are, Ms I-Have-To-Yell-In-My-Phone-To-Be-Heard and Mr Ignore-The-Annoying-Ringtone-But-Leave-It-On at tables 4 and 12. Yes, you. Fucking self-important gits.

Google 1 : OpenDNS 0

So long as OpenDNS continues to redirect 404 to ad pages by default (thus not actually returning a 404), their service remains a completely unacceptable standards breaker. Google is doing the "right" thing with their service. I should not need to register with a DNS service to make it work correctly.

In this case, Google wins. For now.

points

I remember when El Reg was roundly vilifying Byrne, and basically agreeing with the pieces by Weiss that Byrne was a nutcase. I still don't recall seeing an abject apology by El Reg for being ever so wrong about the whole thing. Still, if Mr. Byrne is happy with how El Reg handled it, who am I to begrudge him his forgiveness.

Unfortunately that's what journalism today seems to be all about. Vicious libel hidden behind "freedom of the press" and a few weasel words ("allegedly" is my favourite, as in "the bloggers at El Reg are allegedly nothing more than a bunch of overpaid scandalsheet mongers"), followed by nothing so crass as a public apology for having dragged a person's name through the mud when that person is proven correct.

But hell, that's entertainment.

kill it

The most effective way to improve the USPTO would be to either dismantle it, or have it hire people who actually understand computer technology. Just by disallowing software (discovered, not invented, and mathematics to boot) they could probably speed up the rest of the system by several months. If they actually required a working model of the patent topic they could probably cull another 50% of the totally useless, waste of space patents they are granting.

The USPTO has become a money-churner for one crowd: patent lawyers. Nothing else. It does nothing to protect the inventor, it does nothing to encourage innovation anymore, it's just there to make money for patent lawyers.

SEO loses? I'm good with that.

Aww, poor SEOs, trying to push crap that nobody wants to see ahead of what they DO want to see. I feel so sorry for them. Not.

I'm for Google on this one. If they can make the SEO business model completely unprofitable, maybe we'll get back to search results that match what I search for. Mind you, won't help me much, cookies get deleted whenever I restart Firefox. Ooops.

hmmm

Can't help but wonder if they'll start 404 hijacking once they get a significant part of the whole DNS pie? However, if they actually are honest in their intentions and actions (in this case anyway), then I can only really see good to come from a truly standard, non-hijinx DNS server.

Unlike OpenDNS, for instance.

The tracking possibilities, however, are enormous. Knowing where people go would significantly enhance their advertising targeting, and would also provide huge privacy concerns.

wrong end of the shit stick

When I last bought a property in the UK I found the UK property market mechanics to be completely and utterly archaic, unethical and corrupt. A country where terms such as "gazumping" and "gazundering" exist, let alone are legal as tactics, is a market that needs a complete overhaul. No amount of websites will ever fix that.

to hell with bait and switch, how about bait and nothing?

Ah yes, the British Bobbies of the sea. Unarmed and friendly service to an ocean near you.

How many billions have the companies involved suckered out of the taxpayer now?

Likelihood of criminal charges: 0.0.

Likelihood of anyone being held responsible: 0.0.

Likelihood of another bumper profit year for the companies involved: 1.0

count me out

Given my sorry experiences so far with MacOS 10.6, I can see why people might not want to get it. After my series of fiascos I'd happily boot Linux on this iMac and be shot of Snow Leopard if bloody could. Nice hardware, but the software is definitely showing the ego of the Apple execs.

I sure as hell won't be getting whatever abortion they come up with next.

money laundering?

I can but wonder where the hell these guys are getting that kind of money? I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but something smells really REALLY bad here.

ick

The guy doesn't need jail, he needs a psychiatric institution. Pity Thatcher closed them all down and allowed the inmates to join political parties as part of her "care in the community" programme. Pity that Labour hasn't started them up again, which is understandable since half of them would be put there the next day.

I can see this...

I can just see it now. Thing gets built, then Apple pulls the upgrade AND the app thanks to their broken "approvals" process. Or an update has a bug, in which case good luck getting anything fixed in under a month.

Meanwhile, your legs are walking from London to Edinburgh whether you want them to or not.

one word

So user installs SSH/jailbreaks (one is dependent on the other, right? Haven't looked into it as I'm not getting one). Then said user (sorry, luser) fails to change the default ssh password.

I have one word for that kind of luser: fucking idiot. Or rather, fuckingidiot.

If you don't know what the hell you're doing, don't mess with shit you don't understand. It'll just all end in tears.

As for those who are trying to say "it's a security problem with iPhones"? Do get a clue. Maybe you should see the BOFH for help? I think he's currently in the flooded electrical cage in the sub-basement. If you hurry you can catch him there. Don't worry, it's safe, the power was turned off...

@Dr. Dweeb (a.k.a. AC 22nov09@11h46)

Yay, a well formed put-down of MS SQL that isn't "Aye Hates It".

As for the author of this piece of advertising, I realise that saying something like "you should be ashamed" will have no effect, since it's obvious that, as a marketing/advertising droid, shame has already been surgically extracted. However, El Reg should be ashamed for tagging this as a "review" when it's nothing more than a thinly veiled rewrite of a marketing press release. Did the author perhaps get a free "gift" in exchange for this fluff? I guess we'll never know.

interesting loophole.

Actually, it's quite possible that cigarette smoke IS a biohazard. Awesome! I wonder if I can use the same excuse to avoid fixing things? Must check out local laws.

psychology?

I wonder how much the movie makers paid to have the Vatican trash it? Oh, new gold roof for the Vatican? Suits you sir! Now, trash our movie to make it look good. Ta!

not for me thanks.

Wow, they take their monopolistic cartels seriously over there. Remind me never to visit.

had it coming

Take THAT Microsoft.

I wonder if over-riding the "lock-down" will constitute an offence under the DMCA? In which case I'd love to see Microsoft in court the next time they do a stealth-install of their crap.

But as Jason comments, don't see how it will stop the real black-hats. But I guess the main purpose is to stop those companies who only act like black hats when it suits them.

hypocrisy?

Yet when Tiger Woods got LASIK surgery to artificially improve his eyesight past the point of "perfect vision", and SIGNIFICANTLY improved his game after doing so, it was OK? After all, he only started winning after his surgery, which allowed to read greens much better, according to Woods himself.

At what point does it become "artificial enhancement"? When it's visible to others? If the guy with blades hid them behind a "fake but real-looking leg" would it be OK?

convenient

Can't think of a better way to stop people from getting XP and force them to buy Vista or Win7. I wonder how much Microsoft "donated" to their government in order to get this order made? This way they can "remove" XP from sale completely without being accuse of abandoning their customers, AND they can get 3rd parties to stop selling it as well, thereby forcing people onto their newer versions.

Sounds like a real win for Microsoft there actually.

not likely

"mistake" my arse. It was deliberate and blatant theft, just like a lot of their other products. They just got caught this time, AND by someone who had the balls to call them on it.

As for Microsoft acting with professionalism and honesty? Please, they haven't done that for 30 years, they aren't about to start now. Microsoft is about appropriating other peoples work and calling it their own. From Basic to DOS to damn near every product they've got.

lost the plot

Apple: here are some images that you can use to enhance "appleness" of your app.

Developer: great. we'll use them.

Apple: sorry, you used the images WE PROVIDED in an app, in ways that WE SUGGESTED. So we're not going to approve the app.

Developer: WTF??

Apple really has completely lost the plot when it comes to the iPhone / iPodTouch. Completely. They have even managed to make me, an Apple fan since 1984, completely disgusted with the whole company. All because of their completely and utter disregard for me, their customer.

why?

People still use hotmail? By all that might be holy, WHY?

they keep trying...

Several newspapers I read went to non-skippable (hell, non-volume control, non-anything control) ads in front of their videos. Wouldn't be so bad, but when trying to see a series of videos, being confronted with the same fucking advert a dozen times got really, really annoying. I don't watch their videos anymore. Wonder if anyone else does?

Autoskip addon over here please! along with the stop-auto-play addon I've already got.

@MarkOne

Last time I tried Opera, it lasted a total of 2 minutes before crashing the first time. Never lasted more than 4 minutes before crashing. Opera? Not for me thanks.

Firefox has AdBlock and NoScript. I'd probably try other browsers, but will continue to use Firefox so long as other browsers continue to treat my screen as the playground of self-fellating marketing idiots who still think "blink" and "jitter" is a good idea. My screen, my rules. If web designers don't like it, they can stop serving ads created by assholes.

EEE continues.

And Microsoft continues the attack on open source as they pretend to embrace, try to extend, and eventually hope to extinguish it. From redefining the term "open source", to trying to fool developers into providing free work for the Microsoft machine in the form of fake "open source" projects, they just keep trying.

I'm starting to see the real value of a license like the GPL, that enforces downstream rights. Other "open source" licenses are far too easily perverted, fooling developers into providing free work for what then becomes a completely closed system, with no give-back to the community that developed it.

really?

"plugins are a problem"? This from the makes of a browser whose main claim to fame, in my books, the availability of certain "add ons" (aka plugins)? Wow, such breathless hypocrisy!

I'd switch and try other browsers if I could find the equivalent of NoScript and AdBlock elsewhere - but I can't yet. Other browsers, even vanilla Firefox, seem to make the basic assumption that my screen belongs to the website designer, not to me, and that they're allowed to throw any crap they want at me. I disagree, and NoScript with AdBlock - plugins - allow me that control.

assumes unique hash = unique data

Let's hope the hash they use accurately reflects the uniqueness of the content. I'd hate to be the one who has to debug a program where part of the binary was replaced by a block that is slightly different but generates the same hash.

Admittedly with SHA256 it's improbable, but with a really hot cup of tea one never knows.

questions

Koretz said: "It's unclear if this is cutting edge, or the edge of a cliff we're about to step off,". I say that it's definitely the bleeding edge, and they are, in fact, going to bleed. A lot. The real question is "will they bleed as much as they did under Novell". At least if "the cloud" doesn't crap out on them they'll still have their data available after the next earthquake. Assuming they can get an internet connection.

@AlanB - wrong species

Remember, they're trying to get as close to "human" as possible. The monkeys are much more human that the typical UK politician I've heard from or about lately. UK politicians are already encased in complete information-proof shells. Hell, they'll probably survive the next atomic war along with the cockroaches, just through sheer power of denial.

laugh? damn right!

Awesome! Yet more people who figured "can't go wrong buying Microsoft software" getting the shaft. Laugh? Damn right, since these are the same type of people who keep insisting on vendor-specific software rather than specifying vendor-independent data formats.

@AC, @amanfromMars

AC: he was charged with a criminal offence, then was (probably) made to resign before that offence had been proven in a court of law. I see no mention of a "civil" case in this article or others.

amanfromMars: you're making way too much sense, and are therefore an imposter. But you've also completely missed the point, which was that he wouldn't have left IBM if he hadn't be charged and considered guilty before being proven guilty. In this case I was commenting on the situation, not the article.

That said, weasel-words like "alleged" might be good enough to protect scandalsheets from libel suits, but it's still part-and-parcel of the western press' love of trying and judging people before they get a fair trial. This article is relatively tame, but it's still part of the problem.

@Pablo - shhhhh!

Shut yer trap. You're going to remove any excuse they have for banning any operating system not backed by a rich company that donates a lot to their campaigns.

Norway FTW

Instead of a "race to the bottom" when it comes to consumer protection and rights, I'd love to start seeing a "race to the top". Right now Norway and France seem to be leading the way (but France is dropping down the list right fast as Sarkosy pays off his big-business backers).

daddy?

Mad Maxine and Mel's her daddy? They wouldn't... would they?

nice

Back in fine form I see. Lovely stuff, well presented.

Except of course that, having terminated the lead drums wrapped in cement, he's going to have to find a few more - which might be a problem if the fate of the first group ever leaks.

same old same old.

So yet again Microsoft has managed to circumvent the regulator. IE8 is still built in to the operating system, they can force people to use it when it suits them (such as for Windows Update), and NOTHING HAS FUCKING CHANGED.

Damnit.

idiots.

For a VoIP app to NOT provide encryption is not only stupid, it's criminally irresponsible these days. In today's world, the people who make such design decisions should just be jailed and the key thrown away, for the protection of everyone else.

pedantry

So long as people don't call Canadians or Mexicans "Americans", there should be less blood on the ground. I guess if they call it "the United States of America", then there's an "America" in there.

It's a bit like calling people from Northern Irish "British" because that's the occupying power of the day. Or calling the Scots "English" because they happen to almost speak the language. Luckily the Canadians I know are rather peaceful folks, who don't rip peoples throats out and shit down the hole when some geographically challenged Daily Mail reading mouth breathing wanker can't be bothered to use the right term.

Oh rly?

Hello dear friend,

My name is Farida Waziri. I am head of the Nigerian Anti-Scam force. We have found your name on $1,250,000 of recovered money that we would like to return to you. In order to have this money returned to you, please send $250 for administration costs to...

Shut down? I don't think so. Slowed down? Barely.

ego issues

If the Bible isn't a complete work of fiction, and if the passage about the 10 commandments is even vaguely accurate, would some being calling itself an omnipotent, omnipresent, singular deity demand that people have no other gods before it if there were no other gods to put before it?

I'm thinking alien with a serious ego problem. That or it's the runt of the god litter, and needed affirmation that this one little group of castoffs would at least pay it tribute. Who knew it would cause so much damage for so long to so many people?

crock of shit is not a benefit

The whole time-changing winter/summer time is a crock anyway. We have these things called "lights", they work really well, and companies keep them on all day anyway, because buildings are so poorly designed that WE CAN'T GET ANY NATURAL LIGHT ANYWAY, bastards!

So why the hell cause untold millions in lost hours and other damages by changing the clocks twice a year? We aren't SAVING any daylight, we're just shuffling it around as if it can make a difference. Fucking politicians, it's always their fault.

hmm

Does it really take 2 years to determine if a product is patent infringing? Or does it only take as long as it takes to get out a potentially competing product, THEN hope to cripple the competition with a patent lawsuit?

The whole patent system, especially as implemented by the USA, is a joke. It was meant to encourage innovation. It's become another blunt instrument in either getting rich quick (the trolls) or STOPPING innovation (everyone else). How the hell is some inventor supposed to "profit from their invention" when, as soon as their invention starts getting used, they're hit for millions in just court costs by some troll who got rich off the LAST set of patents that were subsequently thrown out? We aren't all RIM who can afford 600 million payouts fighting invalid patent claims by trolls.

meanwhile..

Meanwhile, they made 50 quid per head, so they're quids in and will happily do it again. Justice, gotta love it.

unfortunate

I hope that he's still eligible to be sued if and when they lift the corporate veil and go after the millions he's absconded with while at SCO. Of course, this is the USA, where corporate malfeasance isn't just a good idea, it's encouraged, so perhaps not.

goodbye Apple

screw Apple. From completely unnecessary changes to pinouts and physical layout of the ports that completely broke existing iPod accessories, to their continued crippling of decent hardware to satisfy overinflated egos of certain marketing idiots, Apple has not only jumped the shark, it married it.

It is the only company I know that puts out decent hardware, then deliberately and maliciously cripples it. Other manufacturers try to squeeze every erg or performance from their kit, Apple has been busy making sure that nobody, anywhere can use the kit the way the hardware designers meant it to be used. From disallowing background apps (except for Apple apps, of course) to their asinine app approval "procedures", all I can say is: fuck you Apple.