Posts by The Original Ash
624 posts • joined Thursday 11th June 2009 11:47 GMT
Re: Hold on . . .
It's far safer for you to state when you are asked if you understand the terms of your arrest "No, I don't. I've never been arrested before. I will need a court appointed solicitor to explain them to me." After that be courteous and accommodating to their requests, but don't enter an interview room and don't sign anything except to confirm your personal details. Don't discuss anything with the police until you've spoken to a solicitor, preferably in person.
Re: CDs are only a delivery mechanism now
Ok, so I don't have a portable music player, and the music on my phone hasn't been listened to for months. In that respect, I agree with you.
However, every CD I own is ripped to my external hard drive and indexed in Foobar. I can swap from Dr Dre's Chronic 2001 to AC/DC's Who Made Who to Kraftwerk's Die mensch Maschine with two clicks of the mouse. If I didn't, I'd be hunting through shelves of jewel cases for barely-remember spines of barely-remembered album art, risking permanent damage to the disc with each swap. I'd put at least a couple of minutes into finding the case for the existing CD, ejecting, putting in the case, putting back on the shelf (maybe in order to make searching easier, probably not), finding the next case, inserting the disc, waiting for it to spin up... That's music enjoyment time lost.
In an age when your car, kitchen stereo, TV are all able to index and play media from a digital music player, why would you carry CDs?
Guilty until proven innocent.
Enough said.
Joining a little late on this one...
So I could read the rest of the posts, but in the interest of saving time I'll guess at the content of some of them and answer them as best as I can.
"Big Brother is watching you! 1984! Orwell wrote it as a warning, not a manual!"
Shut up. Excessive speed is the number one contributor to road traffic accidents. That's not breaking the speed limit, but speed in excess of what is safe for the conditions. When the public can be trusted to drive defensively without this kind of draconian enforcement, I'll be right behind them screaming for its abolishment.
"Why can't the car just be limited to the speed limit?"
Good question. By way of an answer, allow me to cite a few names:
Bentley
Lamborghini
Ferrari
Lotus
Mercedes
BMW
Audi
All manufacturers who sell cars boasting about the top speed. Can you put that 200MPH SLK Black on the motorway and get anywhere faster than a Ford Fiesta? No. 70MPH is the limit. Whether that is just, sensible, or valid or not is not up for discussion here. Exceeding the speed limit is illegal. Look to these manufacturers for why cars aren't limited.
"But cutting the throttle during overtaking will be dangerous!"
No. Your driving is dangerous. Yes, you can wait behind that little old lady tottering down the country lane at 40MPH. You do not need to do the speed limit; It is not a target. Good progress is always preferred, but I bet those of you whining about this thing cutting your throttle at the speed limit try and overtake a Punto doing 50MPH on a country lane in the wet. Nobody puts you in a dangerous situation except yourself, so don't go blaming technology for your lack of care.
Did I miss anything?
Posted in Nokia outs budget phone pair
Re: No flip-phones!
Motorola should never have stopped making the V3. Upgrade the hardware as tech improves, keep the form factor, and they'd rake it in.
Re: I've Already Installed Tor...
"Obviously you have something to hide..... I'm sure running Tor will get you onto at least one list."
So what? What will they do, stop my flying to the USA? Fat chance... I'm not flying there anyway. If I want that kind of "intimate attention" from another person, I'll buy the girlfriend flowers and a nice dinner.
"Slight tangent, I wonder how many Tor nodes are spook run ?"
Probably a lot, but it doesn't matter. Data inside the network is encrypted, and data leaving the network only has the data you put into it readable by the exit node. Those folk who were caught in the drug sale sting gave out their shipping details. As is typical of data protection, "they" only get as much data as you give them. Encrypt the data before sending it (HTTPS anyone?) and don't go applying for credit or accessing your personal email account, and nobody will know who you are anyway.
It gets better...
Girlfriend's dad bought a 47" 3D TV a week ago.
No glasses.
What else is Ubuntu for...
... except notifying the public that there is a new Mint release on the way?
Mint + MATE > Ubuntu + Unity.
Been to Blechley
Turing's "office" was a portacabin. He lead Hut 8.
Something tells me they will *actually* be using the mansion.
@Stephen 11
Not so. Groupthink here seems strong, though, so I fully expect to get downvoted lots for this.
The main issues here are:
- O'Dwyer created a site which encouraged viewing of unlicensed content (Top 10 list consistently showed unlicensed titles)
- O'Dwyer profited from this (advertising revenue estimated at $230,000)
- O'Dwyer's site was a "nexus" for copyright infringement in the US (Look it up)
Unless you think that demanding extradition of a person standing in Mexico and firing a rifle over the US border is also outrageous, you're being a little hypocritical. It's perfectly reasonable for them to demand a trial in the US for this. He won't be tried in the UK as linking to unlicensed content isn't a crime in the UK.
FWIW, he visited the US on holiday when he was five years old. It makes no difference, but it's just one more fact of the case you've missed. Remember, your opinion != (however flawed) fact.
Posted in Cineworld flaunts '4D' movies
4 Dimensions?
I'm having trouble finding anything recently released by Hollywood that isn't 1D.
Posted in Valve responds to Half-Life 3 grumbles
Yawn
Half Life 2 is 8 years old, Episode 2 is 4 years. I barely remember what the story is about anymore.
I might read the synopsis on Wikipedia when it's released, or pick it up at 75% off in a Steam sale, but AFAIC Half Life is a dead franchise.
Totally ineffective
I would hazard a bet at this being a DNS block, meaning the IP address will still work You can just add that to your hosts file and carry on as normal. Failing that, there's VPNs, proxies, I2P, Tor, Freenet...
This is not how to beat copyright infringement. You do it by offering a better service than the pirates. The last game I pirated was Quake IV, and I bought that on Steam anyway. The price was right, and the convenience of not having to trawl through buggy or virus infected cracked executables was the clincher.
Right now I would have to spend many thousands of pounds to buy the music *I already own* to fill up an iPod. That just isn't fair, guys. I don't care if it's the law; I'm just not going to do it, and making circumventing DRM illegal won't stop me. The same applies for trailers at the beginning of DVDs. I want to skip them and watch the feature, but I can't. I know it's collusion between DVD / Blu-Ray player manufacturers and the media companies making me watch that dross when I try and play something on the TV. (Incidentally, this doesn't affect me, as I watch my DVDs from my PC through VLC media player. If I couldn't do that, you can bet I wouldn't be buying anywhere near as many DVDs as I do.)
TL:DR; So what? "The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."
So don't go there. Ever.
I've probably been on a US No-Fly list for years for some of the tongue-in-cheek crap I've posted on the web. It doesn't matter, as the US is on *my* No-Fly list, at least until they stop putting paranoid schizophrenics in charge who would see a "Credible Threat to National Security" in the lyrics to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as an allusion to explosives.
America: Successfully decimating their tourism industry since 12/09/2001
Posted in TV Guide UK
TV?
iPlayer, 4oD, DemandFive, Sky Go, ITV Player... I don't see the point of a TV guide anymore. Hell, I don't see the point of a TV unless it's connected to a media centre..
You're "locked in" to buying overpriced hardware if you wish to use OS X, despite the reasons for that being purely vendor lock-in and not technical in nature as Pystar demonstrated. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, necessarily; They can do whatever they want with their goods. Caveat emptor, and all that. It's just an example of how you're locked in.
Macbook Pro 13" 2.4GHz Dual Core i5 4GB DDR3 500GB 5400rpm HDD Intel HD3000 Graphics: £999 (Apple Store)
Dell Inspiron 14z, identical spec (14" screen): £579 (Dell online store)
That should make OS X Lion cost £320. Last time I checked (around 30 seconds ago) it cost £20.99 on the iTunes store.
I'll hit myself with a Troll icon so you guys can feel justified in modding me to oblivion :)
Posted in Star Wars: The Old Republic
£45?
No. PC games cost no more than £30 to purchase. Blockbuster, AAA, release day: £30.
If I have to pay a subscription too? £15 max, or you'd best include more than a month of game time.
$79 / £89 for the Kindle?
I was going to buy one, but that's just ludicrous pricing. That's a 56% price increase for the UK version.
Suck a choad, Amazon. Guess i'll stick to my tree-killing ways.
lolwut?
""attack did not involve an attempt to compromise or access user data"."
Well no, it wouldn't. You can get that just by sending a friend request.
"#droidrage Received my new Windows Phone! Got sent SMS, phone rebooted and now borked and returned. Thanks, Microsoft."
STOP doing the Daily Mail thing?
Dude... The white-on-red headline text, the tabloid writing style, the presence of Lester Haines... This *IS* the Daily Mail, only for tenuously-IT-related "news".
I come here for a laugh, now. I get my news elsewhere.
Trust a public computer, eh?
I've put an SD card into a photo kiosk before, and it came out with an MMO-credential stealing trojan. I wouldn't put anything into a public computer and bring it back home without it first being sheep-dipped, and if you have a computer to sheep dip your removable media, you can use that to disinfect the hard disk of your other machine.
Posted in OnLive Game System cloud gaming console
Why is this even a question?
You have the bandwidth it uses, and the time you play for. Just multiply the two together!
5Mb/s x 4 hours play = 9GB of data.
What's wrong with the place?
Sensible file copyright / file sharing laws, awesome skiing / snowboarding close by, non-involvement in questionable wars.
How do I go about emigrating?
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
Write to your MP, tell them to make sure this doesn't happen. Tell them that Tories and Lib Dems won't see power for a generation if they go through with it.
Medical information is the *MOST* sensitive data stored. Nobody should get hold of it except qualified medical professionals, and only in circumstances directly pertinent to your health.
What should the bank bosses get for giving themselves multi-million pound bonuses of tax payer bailout money? A new Mercedes SLK Black every 6 months?<br><br>I don't agree with anon's actions here, but I'm willing to bet that the total amount fraudulently traded by anon won't come anywhere near the bonus cheque of any of the big bank bosses.
Posted in Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack?
Re: Ever heard of a box?
A box?! Buy a tin of Altoids mints. Line it with something non-conductive, and you have a very strong case for your little computer. Hell, mount it upside-down with a thermal pad from the CPU to the tin, and you could use the tin itself as a heatsink. Might be good for getting a couple hundred more MHz out of the processor.
This is on my wishlist.
Posted in Ice Cream Sandwich
Maybe. CM7 is on the San Francisco (Rebranded ZTE Blade), so if the phone is capable they should be able to port it. Best thing you can do is show interest on their forums, maybe throw a little $$$ their way.
It can't hurt!
Posted in Pocket Boom portable vibration speaker
I see your Slayer, and raise you The Berzerker.
"I said please, Mr Merchant of Death, sir! Please! BAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYABAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Nobody beats me at the Worst Song Ever game.
Bleargh!
What is this fascination with poop drinks?! If I want a posh coffee, I'll get Jamaican Blue Mountain at £70 a pound, sans villi and mucosa.
Posted in JustPictures
Absolutely anywhere?
Even when stored on my home PC on an encrypted external drive, as I've no desire to share my personal (and very boring) moments with world + dog?
Excluded LookOut?
I don't care if they have alternate, paid services; Either make it a comprehensive review of the most popular products, or shut your pie hole If the next 5 most used products total users don't even come close to the number 1, how can you exclude it? Oddly enough, I'm using LookOut right now. Boy, would I just LOVE to know how that faired in the test, but I guess I don't get to know.
Thanks a bunch, AV-Test. Go choke yourselves.
Can't "perform"?
Grab a camera.
You're kidding, right? Compelling narrative, interesting environments, exciting combat events... It was, and still is, a great game.
What would let it down today would be AI, which is 10 years out of date. Gamers have gotten better, and even Hard difficulty is a walk in the park compared to newer games.
If you think the graphics are all that will let it down, look out for the Black Mesa mod for the Source engine. It's what HL:Source should have been.
Posted in The Great Smartphone OS Shoot-out
Apples and oranges are surprisingly similar!
In other news, my house came with windows which opened and closed and allowed in light, doors which prevented burglars from taking my things, and running water from taps in the bathrooms and kitchen! I understand that there are different types of houses with different types of window, door, tap etc, but they all do pretty much the same thing.
The actual difference:
Blackberry: You have an office in your house.
iPhone: You have all Apple brand furniture, how Apple want it arranged, and it all works perfectly well and looks pretty. Not particularly original, though.
Android: Put your curtains on the ceiling if you want! Don't want a door? Install a rolling shutter instead! It might be clunky and hard to use, but damn it it's how you want it!
Windows Phone 7: No idea, never used it.
DON'T YOU TOUCH BST
That extra hour in bed when summer is over is GLORIOUS.
Cold boot attack protection
The product brief (linked) states that the on-board SSD is AES-128 encrypted. No details on key handling, though. The datasheet is password protected for some reason.
http://www.vikingmodular.com/documents/products/arxcis_productbrief.pdf
Posted in My Council Services
Without permission?
You can uninstall the Flash app, or set it to not automatically update. Either way, this is something you've done, not the fault of the app or the phone.
Happy user of 10.1 (Which works with the iPlayer app).
Posted in My Council Services
First rule of creating a ticketing system
Do not give the user a "Priority" option. To them, EVERY ticket is "URGENT!"
The easy solution to that is to start using an alternative service. Youtube if you have unlimited data, BitTorrent if you don't. As usual, a great user experience has been ruined by corporate greed, and now unlicensed media is the most appealing format again.
Over the past year they took around £150 from me in subscriptions, and I listened to maybe 30 different artists. I'm fairly certain I could have bought the music I listened to for less than that. I won't make that mistake again :)
Drop Plusnet
Look up Andrews and Arnold; No traffic shaping, no throttling, no filtering, just pay for what you use.
http://www.aaisp.net.uk
"You know that they take a particularly aggresive posture towards spammers and ISPs who either support spammers, or through inactivity allow them to continue."
Spamhaus listed *the entirety of A2B's IP pool* because they refused to black hole *ALL* IP's from a single downstream client when *ONLY ONE* was responsible for sending spam, which was blocked by A2B appropriately.
This was Spamhaus strong-arming A2B into piping The Pirate Bay into /dev/null, and nothing more. It is a despicable practice, and I'd like to see people in jail for it.
I think we need a "Censorship" icon; BB doesn't fit here, but it's the closest available.
On the plus side...
Updating my Desire HD to CyanogenMod 7.1 a couple of days ago went without a hitch! Download, reboot into recovery mode (automated), reboot after install (automated), enter PIN and unlock code, check the version as you're certain it's not meant to be that easy and it must have failed...
Nope. It Just Worked.
Posted in RIM stands, staggers, falls again
Ahhhh, there there...
At least my Android handset (tenuously linked to Google, for Market access only) is completely unaffected by service disconnections and downtime.
Something about "eggs" and "baskets" spring to mind.
Brings security permission revocation
7.1 brings support for granular security permissions control by application. For instance, you download a news reader app which has permissions for internet access, crude / fine location, you can disable the location permissions and the app *may* still work.
Settings > CyanogenMod Settings > Application > Permissions Management
First thing I did when Spotify features were integrated into Facebook was to cancel my Premium subscription.
Posted in Spotify tethers future to Facebook
Thanks for this, Andrew
I was considering my usage of Spotify recently, and much like you I subscribed to the Premium service (used it on my Android phone), but didn't really use it that much.
Much like you, this decision will save me £10 per month.
The first rule...
I am Jacks' total lack or surprise.
Guess I'll be investing in an out of country VPN after all.
