* Posts by Luke Wells

188 publicly visible posts • joined 23 May 2007

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SMS costs more than using Hubble Space Telescope

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

come on the article is not that bad

Wow people really attacking The Register today.

Nothing wrong with this piece at all. I found it amusing for the cost of SMS to be compared with data transfer from the Hubble.

What is with moaning about reffering to scientists as Boffin? That’s the way its done on here and thats the way it should be. (Don't you read BOFH?) Next you will be complaining about reffering to accountants as Bean Counters.

What next.... want to take our Paris Hilton icon off us?

Two arrested over piracy at computer fair

Luke Wells

@ Mister Cheese

"Oh, how you underestimate the value of land in this country..."

I thought we were talking about Bradford? :)

Luke Wells

Urgh why do they have to over exaggerate all the time

There will not have been £1,000,000 worth of stuff at the computer fair if you added up the value of everything there including the building.

Hyundai and Kia's latest pitch to US drivers - Windows

Luke Wells
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Everything in a car is connected together these days

To those people saying that the MS software is going to have no control over the safety critical features of the car......

If I plug a VAGCOM cable into my car, though this one cable I can access the ECU, the stereo, the bluetooth, the door locks, immobilizer, alarm and security features, the dash board, and the abs/tcs/esp modules. Malfunctioning modules can cause problems with other modules as they send spurious commands over the bus, so what makes you think that the Microsoft module wont?

QXL.co.uk shuts up shop

Luke Wells

I dont understand what happened to QXL

QXL was bigger in the UK than ebay for some time.

How did QXL let a company with higher fees, more problems and less customer service overtake it .... and keep on going until it completely flattened QXL?

I think there is a fairly substantial chunk of "bad management/marketing" involved in that somewhere....... A shame really

US beak pecks at RIAA's 'making available' filesharing attack

Luke Wells

I dont understand how these cases ever get to court

I though the RIAA would have to have some kind of evidence to take these cases to court.

I do not understand how a printoff of a list of files and ip addresses proves someone is guilty? Look how many times the RIAA has got it wrong ..... their piece of paper has an ip address and a filename on it, yet somehow they end up trying to drag unborn children, dead grandma's and Armish people with no electricity to court claiming that they have proof.

I could write down the ip address of the register's webserver, write the name of one of my software packages next to it, stick a time and date on it and then try and sue the register saying I have proof that they have been illegally distributing my software to thousands of people.

I am glad that one judge has enough sense to realise that the RIAA have not actually produced any proof that anything has been distributed.

Even if the RIAA did download files from the defendant, how on earth could they prove that they did actually come from the defendant other than by carrying out a forensic examination of the defendants computer

Grand Theft Auto 4 queue man stabbed in head

Luke Wells

What has this got to do with GTA4?

I've just read few a handful of comments from people either blaming this on the game, saying that its not the game because he had not bought it yet or saying that they more likely will have already played the game hence why they are queuing up for it on day 1

I think you've all missed the important fact that the people involved in the stabbing WERE NOT IN THE QUEUE TO BUY ANY GAMES, they were walking past the queue...... jesh.....

A stabbing in Croydon.... and some people were queuing near by..... gee that doesn't happen every day it must be that evil games fault.

Check Croydon local news

Canuck faces life sentence for nude girl webcam scheme

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

What the hell?

How do you trick someone into taking nude photos of themselves?

<girly16-whoisreallyaman> Hello I am a 16 year old girl and I want you to send me a nude picture of yourself

<stupidgirl123> No!

<girly16-whoisreallyaman> Please.... I promise not to post it on the net

<stupidgirl123> Oh go on then, whats the worst that could happen.

I'm starting to think that natural selection is not working anymore

Welsh student exposed to nude webcam operators

Luke Wells

hahaha

Have you ever seen a "hot" woman complain about porn?

That might tell you something about our friendly student featured in this article.

BOFH: PFY's mum pays a visit

Luke Wells

superb!

An excellent unexpected ending. I was expecting her to whack him over the hear with her handbag, not whip out the old high voltage battery tester

Keyboard PC design recalls Amiga era

Luke Wells

The Amiga era eh?

Surely the Atari ST era? You know the Atari ST came out before the Amiga right?

Facebook security hole exposes Paris Hilton's . . . um, pics

Luke Wells

Why would you?

Why would you upload your "private" photos to the internet? Anything you upload to a webserver anywhere should only be things you dont mind other people seeing.

Red Green Ken v Porsche in battle of the polls

Luke Wells

How does this help the enviroment?

How does any of this actually help the environment?

You can pollute the air as much as you want as long as you are willing to pay Green Ken some money (based loosely on how much you want to pollute the air) ?

How is the system fair?

My boss drives a fuel guzzling range rover for no sensible reason that I can see. If you told him that road tax was going to be £10,000 per year for it, would my boss sell it and buy a Honda Insight? Don't be stupid.

I drive a diesel saloon car that gets 55mpg. My car is in band C. Why? Should it not be band A?Tell me where I can get a (non-hybrid false economy) saloon car that is in band A or B. We can't all drive Smart cars, some of us have cars because we need to put things / people in them.

If my car was less economical, but had a battery and an electric motor attached to it then happy days, but it doesn't

Asus to offer Linux-less Eee PCs globally

Luke Wells

Superb

So if you want a compact, low cost laptop with an efficient operating system.... you could buy the Err PC

If you don't like efficent operating systems and low cost, soon you will be able to buy the XP version.

Excellent! So when can you buy the Vista version.... for users who really want their Eee PC's to run slow (and cost more)

Nine Inch Nails cracks net distribution (maybe)

Luke Wells
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Fantastic!!!

Absolutely superb distribution model.

I am off to pay my $5 just to show support!

Ofcom cracks down on London pirates

Luke Wells

Oh not that old one

"Apparently, stations are also used to communicate with drug dealers, by playing specific songs to indicate shipments, and to fund the drug trade."

yes and pirate DVD's fund terrorists etc etc

Virgin Media taps Microsoft in lengthy email outage

Luke Wells
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FFS!

"Microsft engineers have struggled to identify the cause, forcing several reboots"

I can't believe that a company the size of Virgin Media is using Microsoft email server software.

I am a VM customer (ex Telewest) but fortunatly use my own e-mail server and as such have not been affected by the outages.

Anyway back to the point.

hmmm Linux./Unix/Solaris/BSD .... you know the operating systems that run the majority of the entire internet..... where you can stop/restart/start services and update non-kernel components without having to reboot.

Windows on the other hand :-

<MCSE Dave> Hey, Bob, this dang server still aint working right

<MCSE Bob> Have you tried rebooting it?

<MCSE Dave> Yeah 3 times already, but I have Vista at home, so I know that it's usually the 4th reboot that fixes it ... hangong a sec <CLICK> <CLACK>

<MCSE Bob> Hmmm that didn't fix it either. What else can we try?

<MCSE Dave> I'm just going to see if there are anymore updates we can install from Windows Update..... I don't think we have updated Media Player to the latest version yet.

<MCSE Bob> Yeah great, cos Windows update will force the computer to do AT LEAST 1 more reboot..... that should fix it.

<MSCE Dave> I hope so, we need to get this sorted and move onto the next job, we have a guy on the fith floor, who can't save his best scores on Freecell.

<MSCE Bob> Sounds like a nightmare, but nothing a couple of reboots won't cure.

Investors cheer Toshiba plan to drop HD DVD

Luke Wells
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Why does everyone hate HD-DVD?

Why does everyone think that the death of HD-DVD is a good thing?

This means that you are quite happy to buy an overpriced proprietary Sony format, with high media costs and high licensing costs, and you are effectively letting Sony set the rules (Can anyone say ROOTKIT anti-piracy software?)

Ok so pretty much everyone admits that HD-DVD is dead, but it was the better model of the 2, so it is a real shame that it has happened. I don't know why people are rejoicing.

Hope you enjoy your overpriced blueray "monopoly" media

Prince and Village People dive into Pirate Bay

Luke Wells
Joke

What the hell?

Come on, this is a joke right? The Village People are loosing money on downloads?

YMCA comes free on every £2.99 cheesey karaoke CD

'Suspicious comment' provokes LAX terminal evacuation

Luke Wells

Maybe......

Maybe he said "If I don't get to the toilet soon I am going to explode"

RIAA chief calls for copyright filters on PCs

Luke Wells

Yes please!

I can't wait to get my computer encrypted and controlled by the RIAA. Where do I sign up? Sounds like a great deal!

FFS, why not produce cheaper music rather then waste so much money on the hairbrained scheme department?

eBay gets negative feedback about ban on negative feedback

Luke Wells
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how do you know a bad buyer now?

As an occasional seller, I like to weed through the bidders and cancel bids from anyone who has a high number of negative feedback.

If buyers can no longer get negative feedback at all...... how do you spot a bad buyer that you wouldn't want to deal with?

I've bought over 1000 items on ebay since being a member and I have only managed to get 2 negatives in those 8 years as a buyer, so how is there a problem with buyers getting negative feedack? What are they trying to protect the users from? I don't have loads of unjustified negatives from sellers. (though the 2 I have were actually unjustified - I can live with an average of 1 negative per 4 years)

Luke Wells
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No negative feedback

Argh stupid rule changes

So now, if you want to sell certain types of stuff (like videogame related stuff)..... you HAVE to accept paypal.... and also paypal will hold onto the money and not release it to you for x number of days. So the buyer can receive the item, decide they don't like it, neg you, claim the money back from paypal (which hasn't arrived in your account yet) and all you have the right to do is leave them positive feedback. WTF?

I really hope these changes cripple ebay and give someone like google an opening (why the hell has google not entered the auction market yet?)

ebay has become way too greedy and its about time there was some serious competition.

Exploding Flash catalogue rocks Dutch e-commerce site

Luke Wells
Thumb Up

Fantastic

I've no idea what it is about either, but it amused me for 2 minutes so well worth a look :)

HTC Magnum rumours rife following giant phone gag

Luke Wells
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Nice!

Whether or not it is a joke, surely there must be a market for such a device? It would be great to have a tablet pc that is actually big enough to do serious work on. Hardly a pocket portable device, but I still think peple would buy these, if nothing else simply because its rediculous

EU data ruling slaps filesharers with red herring

Luke Wells

isp blocking

I think the ISP's are going to fight against blocking/cutting off p2p users.Particularly cable suppliers like Virgin

No one is going to sign up to the latest fasted 22 terrabyte sewer internet connection, if all they can do without suspension is browse ebay. The ISP's know that pretty much anyone who pays for the most expensive premium broadband service they offer, is a p2p user. The ISP's don't want to loose their most profitable customers.

How to speed up Windows Vista: official and unofficial tips

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

2000/xp/linux

As others have said.

Format hard drive and then install your choice of Windows 2000 / XP / Linux (I do suspect that being forced to use Vista will create several hundred thousand linux users)

I for one will never ever pay for Vista. It is over bloated rubbish with enormous memory and cpu requirements just to get the desktop up.

Who actually decided that they wanted an operating system that uses twice as much memory and runs twice as slow as XP? What benefit does this overpriced piece of software offer to the user?

Personally I use windows 2000 (mainly) still, which works with every single driver disk or piece of software I have ever tried to install, uses hardly any memory and runs fast. There is not one single benefit for me to upgrade to Vista (XP I can accept that I may have to upgrade to - and thats ok)

All this new wave of Vista laptop users. I am sick of people asking me how to install their old software that comes up with a dialog box telling them that it is not compatible with Vista .... grrrrr

French police plan Windows-free jails, offices

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

silly comments

Hmmm,

There have been some silly comments made about things like "Linux is a bit of a joke"

A joke? How do you work that out?

Linux is the work of thousands of the worlds best programmers over several years. It is the most up to date, and yet also the most stable operating system ever.

Unfortunately I don't use Linux at home or on the desktops at work (due to being tied in to proprietary rubbish software) but we certainly use it on servers where scalability and reliability are concerns.

If there was no linux, then the internet would be 10 years behind where it is now, the majority of the worlds internet servers use a variety or linux or unix.

As for poor driver support, I have not come across any hardware that does not work with linux, or indeed any recent "quality brand name" hardware that isn't supplied with linux drivers on CD.

I do wish that linux would become mainstream enough for desktop use, before we get forced onto Vista, but thats unlikely, though I suspect the forced Vista "upgrade" will create several hundred thousand linux users.

Tiscali executes stealth LLU migrations

Luke Wells
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From Pipex to ..... errr ... Tiscali

Now it has been a few years since I was a pipex customer, but when I was a customer, Pipex were known for its rock solid reliable network and high speeds with no limits or throttling.

Tiscali are pretty much well known as a cheap "cut corners" isp with near zero customer service and poor speeds.

You'd think people would notice the change quite quickly.

Netgear recalls 82,000 powerline Ethernet adaptors

Luke Wells
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Poor China

I don't agree with the China bashing.

China is a cheap source of labor / manufacturing, but they are not responsible for making poor quality rubbish.

I myself have used a china manufacturing service for a couple of prototype items. You "the customer" tell them exactly what you want .... and they make it for you, pretty much exactly as you request. You give them your budget, and tell them the parts to use. If you say "I want this making for the lowest possible cost" then you are going to get some cheap plastic shoddy item.

I've asked for my items to be made of high quality components, and I have to say, some of the items I have received have been works of art!

Scottish Government to block wind farm plan

Luke Wells
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If you object......

We need power stations, and if wind power is viable (I am not fully decided on the pro's/cons/costs of wind power myself yet) then they need building somewhere. No one wants thing built in their own backyard, but they have to go somewhere so you are always going to upset someone.

Maybe you should give them the choice. Do you want a wind farm or a nuclear power station?

Maybe people who petition power stations should have their electricity disconnected? If you don't want them to be able to produce electricity then you shouldn't be able to use electricity.

100Mbit/s sewer broadband rollout coming your way

Luke Wells

What is the point?

What is the point in paying for a 100Mbit service if Tiscali are just going to bandwidth throttle it down to 2.9k/sec anyway

Will Microsoft parachute Windows 7 in early?

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

Lets hope they learn from their mistakes.

Hopefully, Vista will teach Microsoft that people don't want slow bloated operating systems with hundreds of multimedia bolt-ons, that need half a gig of ram just to boot to the desktop. Surely there is a market (business) for a simple stable operating system with no bundled crap and no integrated web browser (Notepad and Calculator can stay!)

We will never ever install Vista here, it looks too much like a toy to be classed as a serious business tool and the recommended specs are way too high for a business to Roll out thousands of pounds worth of hardware upgrades across the offices just so that we can have an even more bloated media player.

Hopefully MS will release "Windows 7 - Business edition" or "Windows 7 - User that has a Clue edition"

more likely they will release "Windows 7 - Bloatware standard" and "Windows 7 - Bloatware Megabundle"

Brazil bans the evil sold in EverQuest and Counter-Strike

Luke Wells
Stop

Lets ban woolfenstien 3d

This old game encourages naughtiness in people with DOS based PC's .... down with them ... boo.... hiss

Tiscali hits 'undo' after bandwidth throttling chokes iTunes

Luke Wells
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What do you expect?

If you are going to use a "toy" ISP then expect them to treat you like a child.

"You are not grown up enough to decide how much bandwidth to use, so we are going to decide for you"

RIAA wiped off the net

Luke Wells
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ROFL

A big thumbs up to those respsonsible.

Let's hope they don't leave it too long this time till it gets hacked again :)

Do we need computer competence tests?

Luke Wells
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A trickly question

Originally my thought was yes, users should have to get a license to use a computer, after dealing with hundreds of people who clearly should not be allowed to use a computer.

Then I started thinking ...... Is it actually the users fault that their computer is infected with malware and currently being used as part of a botnet attack on a large business to extort money from it?

Common sense keeps keeps you infection free, like not clicking on the Free Viagra emails or clicking ok on dialog boxes that say things like "Press OK to close this dialog box" (how many times do I have to tell my users to always use the damn upper right hand cross to close anything that looks fishy) Some people (alot) don't have common sense, and there is not really much we can do about that.

Why do we have operating systems (Microsoft *cough* *cough*) that automatically run anything, allow processes to hide themselves and have "allow all" as a default security rule? Why do we have e-mail clients (Outlook Express *cough* *cough*) That automatically download files, run hidden scripts and generally execute things that should not be able to execute? Why do we have any web browsers (Internet Explorer *cough* *cough*) that allow ANYTHING executable on a web page to be secretly downloaded onto a computer and executed?

Why don't we just get ISP's to issue fines for every spam e-mail relayed from a computer, for every flood packet sent out and any malware that is distributed. That would stop user ignorance to the problems their computers are dishing out. If they have to pay then they will learn about security quick enough

RIAA told to pay legal fees for harrassed defendant

Luke Wells
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What the hell

Why on earth were the RIAA ringing up a 10 year old girl pretending to be her grandmother? I think that alone should land the person responsible in prison. In the UK I am pretty sure it would.

Wierd, sick, twisted bastards.

Well done for the woman for seeing this case through to the end

'Draconian' Microsoft promises to make Office work again

Luke Wells

Windows 2000 / Office 2000

So are we the only large business still using Windows 2000 and Office 2000 on all our computers?

Most of the users probably only use 1% of the features of office 2000 so what on earth does 2003/2007 have to offer other than headaches and problems?

'Heavy' handset challenges all comers to prove its mettle

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

Why does everyone think its a bad idea?

No good for me, as I work in an office, but I know loads of people who will think this phone is a godsend! (mechanics, tradesmen, car washers, builders (throw in a guy in leather and we have the village people))

Also £250 is not unreasonable, you idiots are quite happy to spend up to £1k trying to get your hands on a POS iPhone with its self destructing software updates and DRM encumbered music ..... mmmm.... which one would I rather have? A phone that still works after a 1.65m drop onto concrete, or a phone that doesn't work after a software update ROFL

US judge debenched for jailing entire courtroom

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

what ringtone?

What ringtone drove a judge that mad? Maybe it was Crazy Frog?

Commuters shouting into their mobiles? Just jam 'em

Luke Wells
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Try considering people need to use their phones?

If my mobile phone ever rings (on a train or otherwise), its usually because someone NEEDS to speak to me, or I NEED to speak to them. Like someone telling me don't get off at x stop, get off at the stop before as the meeting has been moved. Or there is a problem at the office that NEEDs to be sorted out now and someone NEEDs to speak to me urgently to get authorisation. I don't use a phone to chat to friends about what they did on the weekend.

Also I think I have the right to be able to check my e-mail as and when I see fit, without some complete TW@T with a jammer in their pocket making it impossible.

I personally have never had a problem with people talking on their phones, its the drunken Bull$hitters in suits, that you get on every train journey, that like to tell you about how they were the director or ICI until yesterday, and now they are looking for a "new project" to keep them out of the house, then they start swapping business cards with other Bull$hitters and before you know it there are 4-5 peope all competing in volume to let the entire train know about the bilions of pounds of shares they buy and sell every day.

Skype faces 020 7870 cut-off

Luke Wells
Paris Hilton

oh dear

This might be an unpopular comment, but what sort of a business would print skype numbers on business cards and marketing material? Surely no serious business would rely on a free service to provide important business communications?

Thats like saying on your corporate website "Want to get in touch? Come and find us on facebook" instead of providing an email address.

UN mandates stability control in trucks - cars to follow

Luke Wells

Will make people drive with less care

I agree with some of the comments that if all cars have ESP/ESC as standard then people will drive with less care as they will be expecting the car to "save them" every time they do something silly.

Personally I don't do the above. If I ever see the ESP light flicker in my car, then I make note to myself that next time I aproach that corner, I will do it at a lower speed.

ESP/ESC is no mirricle worker though. Not so long ago, I got into a bit of a mess on a oil coverved road early one morning. The ESP light was flashing away and the car was sliding all over the place and nothing I seemed to do would get the car back into a straight line and stopped. Fortunatly I escaped undamaged from that, but still the ESP didn't seem to be able to cope with that situation.

123-Reg takes weekend off

Luke Wells
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Dodgy customer service award

I need to look seriously for a new registrar to hold my domain names. 123-Reg may be cherap, but they have ZERO customer service. Last time we had a problem we lost a domain name for 14 days. During that time 123-reg did not reply to countless emails and telephone messages.

Nintendo sounds Wii-free Xmas warning

Luke Wells

hardly out of stock yet

Unless there has been a mad rush on Monday, they are not at all hard to find. I was in town last weekend (which is a change from my normal buy everything online attitude) and I lost count of the shops that had Wii in stock NOW signs in their windows.

I also went into Gamestation which had at least 6 Wii boxes on the shelves with "In stock and ready to take home today" signs up. The price was usual retail value.with no extra markup.

Plastic police to enforce London bag ban?

Luke Wells

why?

Why the hell would you need to ban plastic bags?

I have a drawer in my kitchen where I place all my shopping bags after emptying them, I don't throw them out and my kitchen drawer seems to regularly run out of bags, so I must be using them for something.

Most supermarkets recycle bags. Tesco give you extra points for re-using bags ans sainsburys have collection points to return unused bags (which do get put back to the till area)

So where is the problem?

Official: P2P music not harming Canada

Luke Wells

Here is one reason

I have a "proper" seperates Hi-Fi in my living room, and mp3 player is not a source option I would consider, down to the sound quality.

I download music, that I play on my computer, but when it comes to playing on my Hi-Fi (and also in my car really) I go out and buy the real deal on CD.

I must have 500+ REAL legal music CD's, and 25% of them or more have been purchased because I downloaded them on mp3 originally, liked the songs and decided to buy them on CD. If I had not first "tried before buying" these songs on mp3, then thats around 125 albums that I would't have bought!

Immigration minister fined for car mobe chat outrage

Luke Wells

shame

Shame he didn't get caught smuggling illegals into the country so that we can get rid of him and hopefully replace him with someone that will actually implement any sort of border control.

Newegg serves up Asus Eee PC to US buyers

Luke Wells

so what will the UK price be?

£400 ? more ?

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