Posts by Quxy
352 posts • joined Thursday 22nd October 2009 13:26 GMT
What part of "biting the hand" don't you understand?
By your logic, most of the El Reg commentards are being paid by Microsoft competitors too...
Never ascribe to malice...
...that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
I don't agree with Andrew about everything...
...but since he's proven to have pretty good contacts within Nokia, in this case I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/07/nokia_elop_definnistration/
tai dui!
And not only manufactured in China, but designed there from start to finish. Too bad that Elop wants to move Nokia HQ to the US -- it's looking as if Shanghai would be a more appropriate location.
A Trojan horse is a GIFT...
...why would anyone expect Microsoft to PAY Nokia?
"Highly sophisticated"?
As ars technica points out, Anonymous used nothing but standard, well known techniques. HBGary left the door wide open by making all the stupid security errors in the book:
A Web application with SQL injection flaws and insecure passwords. Passwords that were badly chosen. Passwords that were reused. Servers that allowed password-based authentication. Systems that weren't patched. And an astonishing willingness to hand out credentials over e-mail, even when the person being asked for them should have realized something was up.
Don't give the clowns at HBGary the satisfaction of thinking that the enemy that brought them down was the least bit sophisticated in their attack.
Posted in Microsoft polishes Windows Phone 7
"Despite already being great"?
...he said, with his tongue firmly in his cheek...
Erm, right?
But there *is* a Paris, Indiana...
...about 100km east of Gobblers Knob and French Lick (which, of course, are next to each other...)
If they can't be bothered with a mobile website...
...why should I bother to read their magazine on my mobile device? Periodicals from El Reg to The Grauniad to the Beeb to the NY Times demonstrate that mobile websites can be clean, professional, and fast. Why on earth would I want to download a device-specific app just to view a single website's articles and advertising?
Posted in Apple clips publishers' wings
Corroborate? I think not...
...since you omit the fact that the NYT article ALSO says "[Apple] has told some applications developers, including Sony, that they can no longer ... let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store."
The NYT is hardly an infallible source, but what inside information do you have that gives you the confidence to contradict them? Nothing in their story is inconsistent with Apple's past behaviour w/r/t apps.
What's the big deal?
If you've got the skills needed to safely replace these sorts of "non-user-replaceable" parts, you likely already own the Torx TS drivers needed to remove the screws. After all, these 5-point Torx screws are hardly restricted to Apple, and your usual industrial tool distributors are happy to sell you the correct drivers for them.
"Serve and protect"?
Wow! Do the police forces in the UK still believe that? Across the States, the "To Serve and Protect" mottos got painted out decades ago; and the police now identify themselves as "Law Enforcement", rather than a "Public Service" organisation like the Fire Department.
Bullshit?
Nothing suspicious about the reported results. The Windows/OSX breakdown seems to roughly match the installed base of those machines; and I think that everybody would be surprised if Jnanabot was able to permanently install itself on a Linux machine via an ordinary user account.
Any non-FOSS repo?
Erm, adobe-linux-i386 is just a random example. And there are plenty of others, used to manage proprietary (e.g. video drivers) and non-free (e.g. CAE) software. I take it that you don't use Linux in an engineering or enterprise environment...
At least he'll have chicken
(Larry, that is.)
Posted in Apple 4 Verizon. True
"Built-in SIM"?
Verizon's CDMA phones don't use SIM cards (or the equivalent R-UIM card used in CDMA phones in China), as the service is tied to a unique identifiers (ESN and MEID) permanently programmed into the handset.
It's gonna need that keyboard...
...If it ships with W7. Windows still has a long way to go before it'll be usable as a tablet OS.
Nice looking package, though!
Posted in Google suit halts Microsoft fed contract
Good on Google
I'm no big fan of the Chocolate Factory (I neither trust Google Docs nor regard Gmail as being more than a notch above throwaway Hotmail accounts), but I'm delighted that someone is pushing back on the bloated, inconsistent mess of Microsoft lock-in that's accreted within the USG.
Any industry contractor dreads having to work with a new Agency, as they know they'll be required to install and become competent at yet another incompatible version of Microsoft software just to be able bid on contracts. (In some cases, even specific versions of Outlook are required... Ugh!)
Wrong end of the stick...
...I don't have a problem with "Microsoft doing their own thing (in front of everyone)". But if your new browser technology is really so great, release it to the rest of the world for honest comparison instead of keeping it locked into your own OS. Otherwise it's just Silverlight all over again -- who cares?
OK, that's nice...
Sure, Microsoft has some sharp folks working for them. But if they want the rest of the world to take IE seriously again, they're going to have to turn it into something more than just a utility application restricted to their own operating system. The rest of us are understandably more interested in Firefox, Gecko, and WebKit.
Gong Xi!
I love Microsoft's heavy-handedness! I'm enthusiastically in favour of getting 100% of the people using Windows to pay for it.
Not, of course, that the BSA's fudged "estimates" of pirated software are worth putting any stock in. But as Jonah Greenberg pointed out, "Why should the masses bother with free software when stealing from Microsoft is practically patriotic?"
Here's hoping that this'll be the encouragement that China's Ministry of Information Industries needs to put some welly into their official position in favour of Linux.
Yet another annoying "feature"
I recommend using Ad Block Plus with the Element Hiding Helper to completely block those instant preview magnifying glass elements that are sensitive to clicking anywhere on the right side of the page.
Posted in Windows hits 25
OS?
DOS ... is still a real mode only non-reentrant interrupt handler, and always will be.
--Russell Williams
You almost had me...
... until the line about "the same way that there was no going back once everyone had a PC with Word, Powerpoint and Excel on it".
WTF??
Mine's the one with the Nexus Two prototype in the pocket.
The real question...
...is what took him so long? He certainly looked frustrated enough up on stage with Ballmer at a couple of the recent developer's conferences...
Posted in Microsoft's fear of an OpenOffice
A pretty good summary
"OpenOffice [is] little more than a rerun of the best and worst of Microsoft Office."
Yep, that pretty much sums it up. People use Office because they HAVE to, not because anyone actually likes its interface or horrible format-over-content paradigm. OO is just as horrible, but at least it works on more platforms, is more-or-less compatible with MS Office, and doesn't come with a price tag that adds insult to injury.
Yeah, right...
A "pledge" from the Direct "legalise UCE" Marketing Association? This is going to be just as counter-productive as clicking on the "unsubscribe me" links in penis pill email spam.
Posted in Las Vegas death ray roasts hotel guests
Practical joke, indeed!
"Ah, I see. I hadn't correctly divined your attitude towards your tenants..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2PyeXRwhCE
Dude...
...This is the Corporate States of America. They do NOT like you messing with their big companies!
Posted in Google frees Gmail updates from Android
Just another specialty app
Yawn. Updates to the Gmail app don't do anything for the 95% of the user base who don't entrust their personal or business email to the Chocolate Factory. Now if Google announced a clean, fast, stable email client that wasn't tied to their webmail service, THAT would be newsworthy (and welcome).
Posted in 4chan invades Tea Party website
Yeah, 4chan used "We are legion"...
...as did the Gerasenes Demon 2000 years earlier. Since that connection seems to fit both 4chan and the Tea Party equally well, I say let 'em squabble over it.
The new boss != the old boss
Umm... because whatever other noble characteristics they undoubtedly possess, the current crop of clowns in Congress is VERY deeply in the pockets of Hollywood et al.
...even as software patents go.
Agreed. Even if we set aside the debate over the value of software patents, it's incredible that any patent examiner who wasn't simply nailed to his perch could have done anything but stamp a big red "Rejected" on the front page of each of the four applications after reading the first few paragraphs. I've read a lot of patents, and I've never read so much vacuous, pointless twaddle as these.
Posted in Nominet chief tells domainers to grow up
The "respectable end of the domaining community"?
Isn't that like the "respectable end of the spamming community"? In both cases, just because a particular practice is legal doesn't make it respectable.
Posted in Flyover states up attacks on Craigslist
It's just you...
Less than half of the states listed are in the South. Only three of them (Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina) might be considered "deep South".
(Nor can more than half of them be considered "flyover states". This story probably has more to do with Election-season "tough on crime" self-promotion than with regional cultural attitudes.)
Posted in Hurd's HP legacy: Dell racer, IBM chaser
HP != Hewlett-Packard
Agilent, not HP, is arguably Hewlett-Packard's successor. Given what the computing and printer division had become by then, 1999 was actually rather late to spin off Bill and Dave's own love into a company without the soap opera drama of Compaq. Yes, Agilent has had its ups and downs, but it's doing real R&D and producing real test innovation without the Fiorina and Hurd melodramas.
So, it's just a repackaged cattle prod...
...and except for the electricity, it's not much like a projectile-firing taser at all. Hog farmers and stockyard workers in Australia routinely use a legally-available cheap compact prod about the same size as a N1200, which should serve the same purpose as this "cellphone" shocker.
Yes, it IS a big deal.
It must be nice to work in an environment that takes security so seriously. Unfortunately, things are a lot messier in the real world. We design SCADA products, and many of our customers -- multinational energy firms included -- route SCADA over the public Internet. Worse, Windows-based SCADA control systems are ubiquitous in these unsophisticated IT communities. So, yeah, it IS a big deal.
La fête fatale?
I'd submit that Anna might be better characterised as la femme fatale, although the whole saga might legitimately be described as une fête fatale. (Not 'a fete worse than death', mind, as that's strictly reserved for church fetes.)
Posted in Hybrid hard drives: what's not to like?
X11 gobbles free memory?
Wow, I think that Xorg memory leak problem was fixed a donkey's age ago. I can't recall the last time I rebooted one of my Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu) notebooks for anything but a kernel update.
Posted in Obama Twitter hacker avoids jail
Less egg on face here
Well, David Kernell's sentencing hearing isn't until 24th September, so he hasn't technically "got serious jail time" yet. But, yeah, since he's expected to get 15 to 21 months, your point stands. Not surprisingly, since the "damage" caused by this sort of prank is political embarrassment, the penalty is commensurate with how much embarrassment it caused.
Apparently not...
Indeed, one of my big reasons for abandoning iPhone in favour of Android was its horrible reliance on iTunes. Talk about a nasty user experience...
Posted in Software freetards demand axing of ACTA
Shame on you, El Reg...
...for publishing an article that attempts to tar the critics of ACTA as "freetard" extremists.
In fact, the widespread criticism against ACTA from mainstream organisations in countries outside of the US and Western Europe has more to do with the way that ACTA and the way it is being developed circumvents legitimate multilateral forums such as WTO and WIPO to avoid global accountability, and seeks confrontation as opposed to cooperation, particularly with developing countries.
For an issue that's of such importance to the IT community, there's been little in-depth, fair-handed coverage of ACTA here.
Posted in Apple reels as Steve Jobs Flashturbates
Stop yer whinging...
...el Reg is an equal-opportunity tech basher, and Gavin's name got drawn from the hat to be fanboi Andrew's counterpoint.
Posted in Fanbois howl over 'hang a lot' Safari 5
Safari 5 Reader is nice...
...except that it doesn't do anything about the problem with Adobe Flash on OSX. Installed it, used it for five minutes, enjoyed the way Reader works -- and then had to do the usual force-quit dance because Flash had maxed out one of the CPUs. So, back to Firefox and NoScript. Until Safari can actually block Flash ads and popups (instead of just hiding them), it's pretty useless.
Depends upon where you live
32% of all netbooks shipped worldwide in 2009 had Linux preinstalled. However, Linux accounted for only about 10% for netbooks sold in the US, largely due to a massive push by Microsoft in the last quarter of the year. For netbook sales in Asia in the first quarter of 2010, it appears that the Linux share was nearly unchanged. Unless Microsoft continues to sell Windows into the Asian market at a deep discount, it's likely that the Linux share in the price-sensitive Asian netbook markets is going to rise. This is particularly true in China, where the government is continuing to quietly invest in Linux-based computing infrastructure, which encourages consumers to look at Linux desktops more seriously.
Ask for a Windows refund
So far, I've been able to get Amazon to refund the cost of Windows on both netbooks I've purchased from them in the US.
