* Posts by Darkwolf

92 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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IRON MAN MUSK: Elon reveals Tony Stark-style 3D design smarts

Darkwolf

Re: I call bullshit

Combine what they have with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OX8VwRUPsM to get the proper keyboard commands for digits, and then see what can be done.

Facebook gov surveillance data kept locked inside, er, Facebook

Darkwolf

Interestinly....

An interesting note however:

"In 79 per cent of cases, cops lawfully accessed some data from the network."

So does that mean that 21 percent of the time cops unlawfully accessed some data from the network?

Microsoft: YES Windows 8.1 is finished, but NO you can't have it

Darkwolf

Well...

It seems MS follows a pattern.

I started out with 3.0 and have upgraded based on this pattern. Each OS was tested before making a go/no-go decision on upgrades.

In some cases, "upgraded" means new computer (obviously)

3.0 (started with this)

95 (think everyone upgraded here)

98 (tested, was junk, did not upgrade)

98SE (tested, better, upgraded)

ME (Tested, wow, junk, did not upgrade)

XP (Tested, worked, used this for YEARS)

Vista (Tested, multiple times over years, but stayed with XP)

7 (Tested, switched and currently running on nearly every machine, have a few XP machines that cant run 7)

8 (have tested a few times, think this might be ok as a tablet OS, for every day comp, not my cup of tea)

So, anyone notice the pattern?

Think I will be waiting to see how 9 (or whatever they call it) will be.

Google cripples Chromecast third party replay

Darkwolf

Was planning on buying one.

Not now.

So, who ought to be the next Doctor Who? It's up to YOU...

Darkwolf

There is only one logical choice for a new doctor...

zaphod beeblebrox

Angry Birds fire back: Vulture cousins menace UK city's mobiles

Darkwolf

based on the title...

I was hoping this was an announcement for an el reg themed version of Angry Birds

FAA: 'No, you CAN'T hijack a plane with an Android app'

Darkwolf

This sounds like a job for...

the Mythbusters or at least the BOFH and his friendly sidekick the PFY.

Patent shark‘s copyright claim could bite all Unix

Darkwolf

would be funnier if this

wasnt a April fools joke.

Software bug halts Curiosity: Nuke lab bot in safe mode

Darkwolf

so it sounds like it failed a sanity check...

does that mean that the rover is now insane?

Amazon yanks SimCity download from store

Darkwolf

hmm

I will buy a multiplayer only game with the full knowledge that I can not play it online if I have no internet connection, and that eventually the company producing may eventually no longer support the multiplayer component. That is a risk you take.

I will buy a single player/multiplayer game and pay good money knowing that eventually the company may eventually no longer support the multiplayer component. In this case, I expect to be able to still play the single player version locally.

I will NOT pay good money for a single player or single player/multiplayer game, if the single player component requires an always on internet connection, as if they shut down the servers then the single player component is no longer playable.

I was going to buy this game until I found that out.

Holy crap! EMC gives Vatican Library 2.8PB to store manuscripts

Darkwolf

Re: No Google?

Google will wait until they are digitized, letting the Vatican eat the costs.

Then, as the Vatican will probably hook in alll the Google googliness so that it will show in Google search engine, Google will eventually slurp off all fhe data into their servers, and Google will put it back together and eventually monitize.

iOS 6.x hack allows personal data export, free calls

Darkwolf

They say its a bug...

back in my day, we called these backdoors.

Taiwan's Polytron promises see-through phones

Darkwolf

Perhaps this will be useful for those who

walk while talking/texting and dont pay attention.

Will keep them from walking into fountains...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPW8xmI4w6U

or bears...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCAntD1-DIk

Shatners talks space, acting with fellow Canuck on ISS

Darkwolf

Wait one minute...

If talking to Shatner, would it not have been more appropriate to wear a gold shirt?

If I was talking Capt. Kirk I wouldn't want to wear a red shirt, liable to be next on the hit list.

Facebook testing $100 fee to mail Mark Zuckerberg

Darkwolf

If facebook were smart...

they would allow the users to setup an option to PERMIT charging and to set a price on incoming messages.

30% goes to the profile owner, 70% goes to facebook for example.

I would put mine at $2 and start putting my facebook addy on lots of spam lists.

Chinese court orders Apple to cough £100k to writers for violating copyright

Darkwolf

Re: China has a copyright law?

I thought it was "We will copy it, right?"

New WordPress vuln emerges

Darkwolf

Re: htaccess

They probably (hopefully) mean putting "deny from all" into a .htaccess file in the dbcache folder?

Maybe more logical would be:

order deny, allow

deny from all

allow from IP

If you need to permit access to the folder from a specific location, such as maybe the server itself?

End of days: Possessed POWERPOINT predicts Mayan Apocalypse

Darkwolf

Re: Big Bang

Douglas Adams, go back to bed, your dead.

Report: US government plans legal assault on foreign hackers

Darkwolf

I can just see how this will go....

US government goes after "Company CHINA" in China for stealing "Company US" IP in the US and says that they wont be allowed to do business in the US.

"Company CHINA" complains to Chinese Government about US harrassment.

Chinese Government tells Foxconn that until "Company CHINA" can do business in the US, Foxonn can not do business with US companies.

Apple complains to US government because they now can not get their newest iOS devices built and are severely affected.

"Company CHINA" now no longer has to worry about the US government, "Company US" gets told "Sorry, nothing we can do".

Little spider makes big-spider-puppet CLONE of itself out of dirt

Darkwolf
Flame

ummm

Doesn't this indicate a certain amount of self awareness and spatial awareness in order to get the spatial dimensions in correct proportion?

After all, if the legs look to long in comparision to the bodies overall shape, then it would not be indicative of a spider, but instead of another creature perhaps.

This is just the first step, creating the "puppet" out of weak materials.

Next they will try harder materials like twigs.

Then they will use these to subjegate other animals that can work with harder materials and build the next version out of wood.

The wood puppets will subjegate stronger animals.

It will be a self perpetuating cycle where they subjegate stronger animals to build stronger "puppets" until they manage to create puppets out of steel and subjegate man.

As someone with severe arachnaphobia I fear our eventual spider overlords and say we burn them ... BURN THEM ALL NOW WHILE WE STILL CAN!!!!!

Just bought an Apple product? Need support NOW? Drop an F-BOMB

Darkwolf

Re: It pays to be nice

This is why I build my own desktops. With desktops, buying the components individually no need to send back full systems and you can usually get better individual warrantees.

For laptops, I will usually deal with companies and not buy extended warrantee. Except in case of motherboard failure (havent had occur) usually you can buy most replacements cheaper then what you spend on hassle of replacing during the "extended warrantee" period and replace yourself, and get it done quicker.

Russia restores comms with space station after roadworks cut cable

Darkwolf

hmmm

Is Major Tim in any way related to Major Tom?

For those who dont get the reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D67kmFzSh_o

FaceTime now on patent troll list

Darkwolf

hmm

Prior art may exist in US 6085100 , issued in Jul 4, 2000, a full 3 years before their patent.

At a minimum, they should have cited this in their patent , however they do not appear to do so.

DARPA demos cyborg binoculars to spot the enemy

Darkwolf

Re: Gunnm idea, mylord!

Eventually "The Ship Who Sang" led to "The Ship Who Killed".

Well, sounds like we may be skipping a step there.

Microsoft bod dreams up 'Star Trek holodeck' games console

Darkwolf

While this may be

not necessarrily feasible for many living rooms, if they market the technology to other companies, and then the price comes down/starts improving then how long before homes start coming with rooms specifically designed with this in mind?

Martian lakes seen where NASA Curiosity rover WON'T BE GOING

Darkwolf

Re: "Why build one..."

They do that all the time, but the second must be kept secret, and built by the Japanese subcontractors.

Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer

Darkwolf

Re: FAIL indeed: Holmes passed his background check

As someone who has been in the military, and fired plenty of these, I can say for a FACT that the M16A2 has the following settings:

1. Safe

2. Single

3. 3 round burst

4. Full auto (aka Kiss your ass goodbye )

Restaurant takes the piss, recycles it as fertiliser

Darkwolf

But, as the BOFH would

ask, are they paying proper licensing of the IP to the owners of the piss?

After all, the piss contains more then just the components of the original conola oil, and it is very important to bodily waste in the public domain.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/09/bofh_protecting_bodily_waste/

Ten... gaming mice

Darkwolf

What about us Trackball users??

How come noone seems to make a gaming trackball for us trackball users?

Sometimes if you have limited deskspace, but want to game, your stuck with a trackball.

Been using the same model for years, Logitech Trackman Marble, as its only thing that fits my desk space and feels comfortable, yet they make nothing simliar that works good with games, so its use that and a lot of keyboard macros.

This particular one is getting harder and harder to find replacements :(

Zombie Olympics ticket resale site resurrected TODAY

Darkwolf

No, someone realized that they could purchase all of the tickets now, destroy them, then reprint them and resell with a higher "face value" price when the olympics gets closer.

Big Blue boffins cram information onto a cool 12 atoms

Darkwolf

Why not

use it as a storage in datacenters, then put the datacenters in space?

You have the cooling needed from space, then power from the sun.

Bill Gates drops $1m on laser-based malaria fighter

Darkwolf

Well, if mankind was not so obsessed with expanding horizontally, but insteaded went with vertically, the planet could easily substain 20x's the population density with proper management.

Its just a matter of having the proper type of buildings constructed in a verticle format in non-food growing areas, using other non-food growing areas for power production, then using areas that are viable for food growth for actually growing nothing but food for well, food growth, and it would be viable.

Instead we have large chunks of horizontal areas in areas that food could be grown covered by homes and lawns while other areas where we could have vertical homes and power production are just lying useless because joe blow wants to own a couple hundred acres of land for himself.

Reg hack desperately seeks deeply frustrated pensioner

Darkwolf

It is obvious

they had someone send them some info on something they want more info on, they replied to the person but havent heard back, and really want more info so are hoping the person sees this.

Netflix cans Qwikster

Darkwolf

And will they bring back multiple dvds or

am I to be stuck at one movie at a time?

I have plenty of bandwidth for streaming, but find the selection kind of sucks, however I prefer to get multple movies at a time and then veg for a few hours on the weekend.

Kind of hard to do if I have to pay $16 and get only one movie a week.

Guess I will stick to the local redbox machine for now.

Amateur claims crack of final Zodiac Killer cipher

Darkwolf

Simple solution

Perhaps the zodiac killer used a cylinder when encrypitng.

1. wrap a 1/4 inch ribbon around a cylinderical object.

2. write out message in plain text.

3. unwrap ribbon

4. cut ribbon every 17 letters

5. line up each strip under each other.

6. Decide what symbol you want for each letter and then convert each letter to symbol

7. Copy only the codes to the paper you send out

Doing this, if you were to use frequency analysis you would end up with gibberish, so you must do the following:

1. Use frequency analysis to get the "plain text" which would look like gibberish

2. Take this "plain text" paper and cut into strips

3. wrap it around a cylinder.

Of course for this to work, you need to know the diameter of the original cylinder, else you just end up with givverish.

Apple patent: 'Pour' your data from iPhone to iPad

Darkwolf

How to make profit:

1. Put out two devices (iphone / ipad) and eventually realize that you have market saturation.

2. Setup so that people can move one device towards another vertically to perform transfers.

3. Watch as your users start dropping their iphones onto the ipads. Make sure its not covered under warantee.

4. Profit.

Blighty gets gold-dispensing ATM

Darkwolf

Now...

...they need to reverse it and allow you to put in gold and get cash.

Oh wait, with updating every 10mins, someone would stay standing at the machine:

1. gold drops below a certain amount, buy more gold.

2. gold goes up a bit, deposit it for money.

Follow throughout an 8 hour day for a week or two.

'Upgraded' Apple iMacs lock out hard drive replacement

Darkwolf

Eventual solution...

First of all, right now, my g/f has an older mac that was running fine until the power supply failed. Unfortunantly I can not replace this with an off the shelf replacement (about $40) because Apple decided to use a non-standard pin out. The cost for a replacement? $200 (give or take)

For this particular issue, eventually someone will come up with a solution that will involve an adaper on the Mac power plug.

This adapter will split the plug into two parts, one of which will handle standard harddrive power, while the second will connect to a modifed chip that will emulate the apple firmware, and have a built in heat sensor that will allow for fan speed adjustment in the event of high heat being detected.

Captain Kirk hails space shuttle Discovery

Darkwolf

really..

..would have been more appropriate if it had been Enterprise.

To bad it never got used on anything other then tests.

Ofcom demands ISPs close 'upto' gap

Darkwolf

maybe you folks dont fuss enough..

over here across the pond (or at least where i am) if an isp was offering "up to" 20mb, and delivering only 10mb, there would be hell to pay.

Neighbor called me up, had gotten a 16mb plan and was having issues.... installer didnt do proper tests when setting up, speed was running at about 2mb when I tested.

Got on phone to provider, next day had local tech sup replacing lines from the pole to the house.

By time he was done, she was pulling around 17mb

Google to site devs: 'Please code for Google TV!'

Darkwolf

Google TV...

... something I am glad I do not / will nto use.

Why spend money on a new tv that can support it, when I can use that money on a good custom built computer and send the signal to the tv via svideo cable?

I can watch hulu on my tv unlike anyone using google tv.

NY youth makes $130k selling real(-ish) white iPhone 4s

Darkwolf

If it was apple...

it would cost $400 for a conversion kit, and they probably ain't selling coversion kits.

Commissioner plays poker with Google

Darkwolf

Who decides...

..if the information contains privacy information?

To find out, someone would have to read it, and that may break many privacy laws in itself.

Hotmail always-on crypto breaks Microsoft's own apps

Darkwolf

They are...

probably using a single SSL certificate being shared across multiple domains/subdomains. Have seen places try to do this, and never ends well.

Dixons risks future of humanity with Star Wars-themed ads

Darkwolf

Well...

... if those in space got nothing else to watch then earth broadcasts, really gotta feel sorry for them.

Of course one of the first if not THE first broadcasts they would have seen would have been Hitlers speach during the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Florida cops tase naked jogger

Darkwolf

Perhaps...

...the officer was thinking the guy was Captain Jack Harkness, who does have a habit of being able to pull out weapons from "somewhere" although being totally nude.

( See Dr. Who episode "Bad Wolf")

Captain Jack Harkness: [after listening to Trin-e and Zu-Zana discuss what they're going to do to him] Hold on, ladies, I don't want to have to shoot either one of you.

Zu-Zana: But you're unarmed.

Trine-e: [as Jack reaches behind his back] You're naked.

Trine-e: [Jack has just revealed a small gun that he now points at Trin-e] But that's a Compact Laser Delux.

Zu-Zana: Where were you hiding that?

Captain Jack Harkness: [with the gun pointing at Zu-Zana] You *really* don't want to know.

Facebook login page still leaks sensitive info

Darkwolf

If this is considered a security flaw....

then el reg is guilty of it to.

Go to http://account.theregister.co.uk/reminder/ and type in an email address. If its a valid, it will say a reminder has been sent. If its not valid it says:

"That address does not appear to be registered."

Good way to get a list of valid email addresses, then next step is to try and get passwords.

Just an example, facebook isn't the only one who does these type things.

Consumer Reports: 'We were wrong about the iPhone 4'

Darkwolf

Easy fix...

... since the phone is not meant to be opened up, cover any ports (such as power) with a small piece of foam, then go around the outside of the phone with polycrylic (dont get on foam).

3 or 4 thin layers of this will then insulate the phone without affecting the look.

Lad from Lagos in unencrypted CD teaser

Darkwolf

This is a bit different...

.. usually such scams require that you send them your banking details, which most people have been warned about.

This looks like a possible shift in how 419 scams will be perpetrated.

Now, rather then sending them your banking details, this would seem to indicate that they are now looking for others to send ATM cards to in order to withdrawal money from 3rd party accounts or maybe from accounts that have been created with "overdraft protection"?

(With most banks in the US, overdraft protection means that the bank will honor a withdrawel request or check and then put the account into a negative status if there is no money into the account)

Is it possible that possibly one of the many disks/flashdrives/laptops that contain peoples that have been lost in the past couple of years may have finally made it into the "lads of lagos" hands?

BT workers to ballot for strike

Darkwolf

"is polling its middle management ....

....." to see what skills they might have that can be applied to the front line if the strike goes ahead."

So, if they find middle management has no skills, will they trim those who cant tell the difference between a modem and a dried turd?

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