* Posts by CJ Hinke

30 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Feb 2009

Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement

CJ Hinke

Vital resource seized for greed

I’ve made 33 books in my academic career with five in process plus hundreds of journal articles. I for one ignore my publishers. The very first thing I do is post my books for free.

On Z-Library, on Scribd, on Internet Archive, on my own websites. This is an old capitalist trick called advertising! The people who like your book or find it useful or beautiful will buy a more attractive & convenient print copy & perhaps gift their friends & colleagues.

As an author, I get about a buck a copy. Nobody loses, particularly with print-on-demand books which sell for a higher markup.

Academic publishers & journal have been shameless gougers since their beginning. Sonny Bono let that happen.

We write because it’s vital to us to have people read our minds. For-profit publishers suck the life out of such sentiments, their books remaining in copyright but out-of-print & unobtainable.

…Except for Z-Library, one a the few charities to which I donate money as well as books. For those of us in education in the third world where there are few libraries or university funding, Z-Library is a vital resource. Or we’re back to my students Xeroxing their textbooks.

I’m betting these worthy folks had a backup plan like The Pirate Bay & will live to sail on.

CJ Hinke

unblocktheplanet

Thammasat University

Bangkok

Firefox points the way to eradicating one of the rudest words online: PDF

CJ Hinke

The problem with PDFs is not corporate. Blame Sonny Bono.

America's copyright crazies have led to unalterable documents. My worst ever: Canadian govt forms which won't even display in my browser, let alone download or fill in.

I lobe PDFs. They should be copiable and changeable.

And what other format would be better, anyway???

Amazon buys US healthcare chain One Medical for $3.9bn

CJ Hinke

Continuity of care

The major problem with walk-in clinics is that one gets to see a part-time doc. Laying eyes on you for the first time, the best he/she can do is to make an educated guess. Once you walk out the door, you'll never see that doc again, so there is no continuity of care.

Contrast this with the reliable model in which all of us have a family doctor who knows us, perhaps from childhood, is a compendium of experience not guesses and can prescribe or refer as necessary.

That doc is someone you can depend on. If Amazon is smart, it will emulate that system into continuity of care in which you always see the same physician and develop a genuine caring relationship.

Part of this equation is that we expect GPs to devote much of their time to being small businessmen, a rôle for which few have been trained. Most docs choose med school to help people not fret over accounting & taxes.

US boffins: We're close to fusion ignition in the lab – as seen in stars and thermonuclear weapons

CJ Hinke

Getting what we deserve

It has never been more obvious that humans deserve extinction so the planet can get back to life.

Australian Federal Police hiring digital evidence retrieval specialists: Being a very good boy and paws required

CJ Hinke

Hey, 'contraband'?!? It's criminal that govts deny prisoners Internet access & mobile phone contact with their families & communities.

FBI paid renegade developer $180k for backdoored AN0M chat app that brought down drug underworld

CJ Hinke

Gangsterism wearing badges

Whilst coke in pineapples sounds like the real thing, and 'designed by criminals for criminals' has a lot of marketing charm, this snatch was not good police-work but just gangsterism wearing badges. First they lean on one bad guy, not only making him promises of leniency but paying him hard cash--taxable? Not on your life.

Doesn't sound like honest busts to me. This was just trickery.

Internet Explorer downgraded to 'Walking Dead' status as Microsoft sets date for demise

CJ Hinke

There goes the third world

This is going to hit my country--Thailand--hard. Every govt service is based on IE. I suspect it's the samev for most third world countries. Of course, none of these 'services' are actually functional! Every govt employee refers one to their Hotmail address. WTF, eh!

How the US attacked Huawei: Former CEO of DocuSign and Ariba turned diplomat Keith Krach tells his tale

CJ Hinke

BRICS, and backed by gold

Honestly, the words “trust” and “business” are incompatible. Who, exactly, doesn’t trust China? Not consumers, they love cheap kit. Manufacters love China; without China’s tech & labour, they’d have to at least double the prices.

Governments? Ah, here we’re geting somewhere. China is not part of Western designs on empire, particularly, ahem, America. China doesn't even partner with the World Bank. It founded the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) financial structure precisely for non-aligned emerging nations.

BRICS member states have 42% of the world’s population, 23% of GDP & 18% of global trade. Scary, huh, neocons? (Pretty damn tired of that old, tired con, too.)

Among them, China is the only country on the planet which backs its currency with physical gold. I'm no kind of right-wing libertarian, just stating a fact. From BRICS mission statement: “to promote peace, security, development and cooperation”. (Listen, we’re not having any of this airy-fairy nonsense!)

China doesn’t play by America’s rules so Western nations profit less handsomely by them. Belt-and-Road takes care of international distribution even if the West pulls the plug.Huawei is a great, well-managed company producing quality kit for half-price—doesn’t that sound downright DANGEROUS!?!

Okay, 5G, from Huawei or anybody else is complete nonsense but still; it would be a better solution to cancel 5G's adoption entirely & stick with 4G

Would it ever upset the applecart if investors decided RMB based on gold was a safer bet than US green toilet paper, backed by promises.

Lest you think this has some high-minded human rights & democracy implications, well, would you like fries with that? Privacy, hah: the USA already pwns YOU!

Second time lucky: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

CJ Hinke

Collusion & conspiracy

It's not much of a stretch to think that Sweden may well have colluded with the US to drop the (consensual) 'rape' allegation. JA was never wanted by Sweden for rape, only for questioning. They refused to come to question him in the UK and he felt the allegations were a pretext to extradite him to he US. Hence, the Ecuadorian Embassy. JA's eviction proves (again) exactly how dirty are the whims of politicians anywhere.

One would think the earlier extradition request by Sweden would hold legal precedence. Now that Sweden has dropped its investigation, the US has open season to grab him.

Will the UK stand in the way of Yankee bullies. Highly doubtful. Show trial & 30 years in an American gulag.

No dice, comrade! Senate floats Russia-busting election law

CJ Hinke

Geese & ganders

Such a law will be of great benefit...IF it is applied to US interventions in foreign elections. It's a two-way street. Like nukes, the yanks want it all their way!

Peak Apple: This time it's SERIOUS, Tim

CJ Hinke

Convergence

As a Mac user since 1984 buying most iterations, most of them are still running.

I refuse to read email the size of a postage stamp so I made my hand-me-down iPhone 'stupid' by disconnecting it. It's, ahem, a phone.

Rather than forcing the rest of us to smaller & lighter, proprietary non-upgradeable, to iOS (very limited compared to MacOS), I'd prefer convergence. I'd be the first to buy a 12.9 inch iPad if it could double as a phone.

Apple needs to start considering what its dedicated users want from their devices instead of pushing us meat puppets into its mould.

Funnily enough, China fuming, senator cheering after Huawei CFO cuffed by Canadian cops at Uncle Sam's request

CJ Hinke

Running dog

Once again, Canada's pretty boy PM proves Canada is the 51st state, America's capitalist lap-dog. What right does the US have to sanction any country? What right does the US have to pluck foreign citizens from third countries? This isn't terrorism?!? Justin's father, Pierre, had style & an open mind which made Canada the world's best country (a reputation which lives on on backpacks everywhere). All Justin has are great socks.

Apple's QWERTY gets dirty, leaving fanbois shirty

CJ Hinke

Well, yes, good enough reason buyers should ALWAYS spring for AppleCare.

However, if your KB fails, after you've gotten and AppleCare case number and gotten a MASP to order you a new one, DON'T leave your Mac!

Take it home and plug in an external keyboard to use until your repair shop calls you in.

FYI: That Hawaii missile alert was no UI blunder. Someone really thought the islands were toast

CJ Hinke

"enormous importance of the ballistic missile warning system" Yeah, right, better be doing some yoga so you have time to kiss your *ss goodbye!

Forget cyber crims, it's time to start worrying about GPS jammers – UK.gov report

CJ Hinke

AQZZŻA

The will of all people is to be free. Did they really think there was going to be no resistance to overwhelming surveillance?

Prez Obama expels 35 Russian spies over election meddling

CJ Hinke

April Fool's is early this year!

Why would an outgoing president pander to the American public's belief in conspiracy, rumour and innuendo under every nearby rock!

No wonder they could only choose Bozo the Clown or Killary for the next one!

Panicked WH Smith kills website to stop sales of how-to terrorism manuals

CJ Hinke

Torrents alive and well

Torrents for these titles and much more are readily available!

Polygraph.com owner pleads guilty to helping others beat lie detector

CJ Hinke

This is typical US govt overreach. They like capitalism, of course, but if you're making money, they want their pound.

All this info is readily available on the 'net. Ex-cop, they want to teach him a lesson and all who might follow him.

No matter where you live in the world, if you think anything American is legal, it's only because they haven't arrested you yet!

Light the torches! NSA's BFF Senator Feinstein calls for e-book burning

CJ Hinke

Diane Feinstein was mayor of the most liberal city in North America...until her decline and fall into national politics. If San Francisco, for example, can be fooled by a politician who doesn't believe in why America is great, well, almost all of us can be fooled.

Perhaps I shouldn't, but this segues into Barack Obama. The man people voted for was black, was a Constitutional scholar, a man who, at the end of his tenure, might really have deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Hope and change, you might say.

Unfortunately, this man who sends his daughters to Quaker school became one of the greatest warmongers of our time, a President who believes in torture, a man who thinks any human can be a target for American assassination. A President who doesn't believe in Congressional approval.

Sorry, but I don't see any way out of this nest of vipers...

Let's get patchin' now, everybody's watchin' how, baby fix Safari with me

CJ Hinke

Yes, of course, I updated. However, on restart, Safari would not connect to any URLs. After a second restart, things were back to normal

The late 2014 Apple Mac Mini: The best (and worst) of both worlds

CJ Hinke

The Mac Mini Fusion Drive is the worst computer I ever owned, and I've been using Mac since 1984. Apple replaced one and I finally demanded a refund when the second failed.

Do yourself a favour--don't buy one!

Secrets in Seattle: Apple opening base on Microsoft's doorstep

CJ Hinke

Might be time for El Reg to give up the "fruity" reference now that Tim Cook has come out of the closet! Just a thought...

Marc Andreessen: Edward Snowden is a 'textbook traitor'

CJ Hinke

<Andreessen said: "The Germans knew full well what was happening, the Brits knew full well what was happening. The Russians knew full well what was happening.>

Umm, what he really meant is that a handful of spooks in each country "knew" what was going on, probably compartmentalised so nobody had a complete picture. Perhaps surveillance took on a life of its own as components were imagined and added. This being government, its likely there was never a direct plan or even a big picture.

But it's sure "the Germans", "the Brits", "the Russians", meaning citizens in whose name the surveillance was accomplished, the taxpayers who paid the spooks, were never informed.

Frankly, Andreesen is the kind of right-wing dinosaur I want out of the tech industry. He ain't MY daddy!

Seagate's LaCie whips out bonkers posh silver-plated storage ball

CJ Hinke

Why settle for so little?!?

You guys missed the boat on this one. Bragging rights go to LaCie's 20TB 5big Thunderbolt drive or 15TB 5big USB 3.0 NAS using RAID-5.

Hong Kong plans cavernous underground data centres

CJ Hinke

Safe from EMP?

A lot of people have been talking about an enormous EMP knocking out ALL infrastructure. This could be politically motivated but is far more likely to occur from a giant solar flare. Mankind's tech is simply not protected from an EMP event--it would send us back to the caves. (The last time this happened, in 1859, our highest tech was telegraph and that was knocked out!) I wonder if the HK boffins have considered that such underground storage could be EMP protected. Everything on the surface would still get fried, of course, but at least rebuilding might seem feasible if the underground infrastructure were intact. For the rest of us, there's going to be sopme amazing Auroras!

Apple refreshes MacBook Pro range

CJ Hinke

Where are the 17-inchers?

Apple is making some crucial mistakes alienating high-end users. While it's true all the yupsters want small, light showoffs, power users want BIGGER and faster.

We need real estate! The only reason I'd ever buy an iPad Mini is if it can make voice calls. In fact, I'd adjust my wardrobe to Capt. Kangaroo pockets if iPad could make calls instead of only Skype.

Am I alone here???

Ten four-bay NAS boxes

CJ Hinke

In a word, LaCie

While I realise this article only reviewed four-bay NAS boxes, it missed the clear winner, by any standard. LaCie's 5big Network 2 NAS box comes with five 3TB disks. Flawless operation, plenty of ports, and only $1200 for 15TB.

Mine's full already! http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10485

Japanese gov makes Fukushima evac zone compulsory

CJ Hinke

Glow in the dark

Although I really do like therapeutic radium hotsprings, I'm not sure what the Reg's agenda is over this issue.

Here at Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT), we rely on the Reg for some news about free expression. They do a great job.

However, they are out to lunch on the nuclear issue. Fukushima is an unprecedented global disaster. It doesn't need apologists. The folks at the Reg may wish to glow in the dark but they have no right to force the rest of us into fallout shelters.

Google (Voice) solves universal translation soonish

CJ Hinke

All Thai-ed up!

Unfortunately, Google Translate is complete crap when dealing with Thai language, both in and out of English. It even tries to translate proper names rather than transliterating!

We don't know if this problem is universal to non-Roman text languages.

Thai is notorious difficult but we don't think it's more troublesome than, say, Devanagiri, Chinese or Farsi. Anyone?

Apple squeezes JavaScript juice from Safari 4 beta release

CJ Hinke

Safari 4? DON'T!

Being a reckless early adopter type, I installed Apple's beta Safari 4 on my PPC PowerBook G4.

INSTALLING SAFARI 4 WILL DELETE ALL YOUR SAFARI 3 BOOKMARKS! (Luckily, I'd made a backup. ~/Library/Safari)

I did not notice much of a speed improvement, if any, but, then again, I'm not a big streaming guy.

What I did notice what a HUGE design flaw. Tabs now open at the TOP of the Safari 4 window.

Any 4 year old can tell you that a computer user moves and adjusts windows at the top. Having your tabs up there means you're always clicking them opening or, worse, hitting the X and losing the page.

Apple, new does not mean better! I switched back to Safari 3.