Posts by lglethal
976 posts • joined Monday 11th June 2007 04:20 GMT
Thats what they want you to think...
See title...
Posted in Scrabble friends Facebook, innit
RIP The English Language
Im no lingusitc purist but i think you will all agree that the deathknell of the language is being sounded when a word such as grrl makes it on to the official list for anything (well except maybe the official ist of words on a job application which call for automatic rejection).
Tombstone icon, not for el reg but for our poor beloved language...
To quote the late great Bill HIcks
"By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising...kill yourself. Thank you. Just planting seeds, planting seeds is all I'm doing. No joke here, really. Seriously, kill yourself, you have no rationalisation for what you do, you are Satan's little helpers. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show. Seriously, I know the marketing people: 'There's gonna be a joke comin' up.' There's no fuckin' joke. Suck a tail pipe, hang yourself...borrow a pistol from an NRA buddy, do something...rid the world of your evil fuckin' presence. Thank you."
Stupid lack of funding!
All 3 sound cool! Why cant we gte all 3 off the ground! =(
Maybe ESA could take on one of the losers, and JAXA the other? Or the russians?
Its such a pity that political short sightedness always means less money for science and discovey...
Hmmm....
Whilst i can see people wanting to join this class action lawsuit and get some money back which they may have been rightly deserving (paychecks kept artificially low by the non-poaching clause!). Arent you pretty much guaranteeing you will never work in Silicon valley again?
@ Daedalus
You seem to be forgetting their is a very healthy Cruise Ship industry out there. And lets face it their not exactly setting the speed records. The whole point is you take a month of relaxing, touring, and enjoying the sun.
Alternatively there is the great long distance train journeys to compare to. You could fly from Moscow to Vladivostock in a few hours or you can take the train and take 2+ weeks. Same with the Indian Pacific or the Ghan in Aus.
You dont take these journeys for the speed (or the cost! As theyre generally more expensive then flying), you take them for the experience! And flying in a blimp across large swathes of the world is an experience i would love to take one day!
And speaking to a Pakistani co-worker of mine...
It is a custom for him.
I guess it very much depends on the exact line of islam you follow (and im going deeper then just the Sunni/Shia divide here) and also the location your from. In a place like Afghanistan where refrigeration facilities are pretty much non-existant burying the body within 24 hours is not only a custom but a public health necessity. In the west, i imagine this is relaxed because the main reason behind the requirement (remembering Islam came from desert areas) of being a public health issue is no longer a problem.
Its the difference between Islam and christianity - in christianty the Pope (or Archbishop of Canterbury or whoever) decides what are the beliefs and rules for all followers of that branch of christianty. Islam has no centralised command structure and so each region, even each imam, can preach its own rules...
Slightly Off-topic...
Considering how much of a song and dance CEOP made about getting the fb panic button added, im amazed not to have heard them release any figures about how many children have been "saved" by its very presence...
Call me cynical, but could that be because the number is so close to zero that it would be embarrasing for them to admit that it WAS the waste of time everyone told them it would be? Hmmm...
Posted in North Korea blamed for bank hack
Im a little surprised...
... That all NorK IP address and the like are not blocked at the national ISP level in South Korea! I suppose the NorK's could get around this by routing via China but this story doesnt seem to indicate that even this level of subterfuge was required...
Posted in US acts on telco 'Ponzi scheme'
Probably more the other way...
Considering the right shoeing (well deserved) that the SEC got for NOT doing their job against Bernie, i would be willing to bet that they will be jumping up and down on any and every Ponzi scheme they so much as catch a whiff off to show that they have "learnt from their mistakes"...
Ive always wondered about this...
Surely let him have a grave somewhere with a camera pointed at it, and simply watch who comes to visit. Anyone who does is most likely a person you should be watching! There simples, weve identified all the terrorists!
What could possibly go wrong with this idea?
Read my post again...
Thats why i said "or have a damn good reason!"
If someone is ill (and i mean properly ill, a sniffle is not going to keep me out of court trying to defend myself). Then im quite sure that the court would be far more understanding.
But lets face it, youve been threatened with going to prison for commiting what the police believe is a crime. Anything short of being at deaths door would not stop a normal person from turning up to court to try and defend themselves. And if your at deaths door, you should be at the hospital, and i guarantee that being in hospital is a good enough excuse for not turning up at court, and so he would not have gone to prison then.
Additionally, there's nothing in the story that says he committed suicide. It says he OD'd. The majority of OD cases are not delibrate attempts at suicide, its usually someone getting a bad batch of their favourite drug or getting a batch which is significantly stronger then they were expecting.
Everyone has a choice. He had the choice to turn up to court, and prove that what he was doing was not a crime, and then he would have walked out a free man. As it was he chose, for whatever reason (and we can all only speculate on that), not to turn up. He was sentenced for that.
And attempts to link the OD to his time in prison are disingenuous at best...
So that raises the question...
... why didnt he turn up?
Im sorry but if im arrested and charged with something (whether its a crime or not) and im told to turn up to court on a set date to defend myself, i am bloody well going to be there to defend myself! Or have a damn good excuse for not getting there at the right time!
Not turning up implies either guilt or total disregard for the legal system, neither of which is going to win you any brownie points with the judge or the jury.
Completely off topic
But what caused the bump in incomes around 1400 (shown in figure 3)?
Posted in Guardian shuts local blogs
Is it wrong...
Is it wrong that my first thoughts were "Less bloggers in the world! About bloody time!"
I can imagine all the calls and texts
"F%&K!!! Im stuck in the centre of London, cant move, surrounded by thousands of people and cant get a phone signal! Dont these people have a F%&KIN LIFE!!! "
My vote for most popular text message of the day...
El Reg... Thank You... seriously...
Funniest thing ive read on the wedding all day! Be careful though, you might end up banned like The Chasers if you keep up this comedy lark....
Posted in Apple breaks location-storing silence
Please, oh please...
... do not let them get away with the old "Oh that was a bug we'll fix that now!" excuse...
IANAL
IANAL but surely there is something hugely illegal about releasing false information to the market in order to cause a stock price to crash in order to make a profit. At the very least anyone who sold their stock at a loss would probably have a good case to bring before the courts against Copperfield Research...
Its called Plurality Voting
Also known as First-Past-The-Post...
But your welcome to turn any of the other ones into movies as you like... Just follow the rules about Michael Bay, Paris and Lindsay Lohan, ok?
One point...
It doesnt state in the NATO missive whether the SA-8 was still manned or not. Whilst your right that the skies above the SAM were "contested" by its very presence, if it was unmanned (much like those tanks that were destroyed by a ground attack Typhoon last week for publicity purposes) then it really is misleading to state that the Predator is now capable of operating in a "contested" airspace.
I would contend pretty strongly that it was unmanned, as there was plenty of time for the SA-8 to identify the Predator (not being stealth), realise it was a target and then launch its missiles at the Predator whilst it waited for the kids to move away. The fact that the Predator controllers felt safe enough to do this strongly implies that they never expected (rightly so) for a missile to be fired at it....
So really this is only a publicity stunt from the Predator controllers, much like the RAF's one last week, to encourage commentators like yourself to write articles like this. Thats not to say i disagree with the main thrust of the article, but i consider it disingenous to consider the Predator to be a "contested" airspace vehicle based on a single attack on a probably unmanned SAM...
Just an idea...
I would see this working one of two ways - 1) the program to do the decrypting (or whatever you want to call the piecing together of the info) is online, so you merely access a website, type in your code and it analyses your HDD. Bit of a risk that your connection might be tapped and of course of letting an external connection have full access to your HDD! However, there would be no program on your computer to alert the authorities to your hidden data.
Alternative scenario is that you only put the hidden data on external HDD's which are what is passed back and forth between different computers. The program to identify the hidden message is located on the computers, not the HDD itself. That way if your comps raided, yes they find the program identifying that maybe you have hidden data somewhere, but they also have to identify the correct external HDD and the correct password before they have any chance of finding anything...
Gotta give that man props!
Say what you want about Elon, but he's using his hecamillions to try to advance technology to the point where Humans can start to travel in the stars! And if that doesnt deserve plaudits then i dont know what does!
If i ever meet the man, the pints on me!
Squeeze, -b-a-n-g- pew pew, blow, suck
Best subtitle ive seen in ages! Top work Lewis!
Totally agree...
A con only works when the conned think theyre the ones doing the conning...
The guy probably pretended to offer it for £250 to begin with and let it be talked down to £150... Shopkeeper deserves everything he gets!
You missed ASUS
There also on the list (under Gaming)
Read the article again please...
The pole was for the greatest sci-fi films NEVER made. I.e. those books people believe would be awesome when turned into a film. And the rule was that none of the stories could have previously been turned into a film (no matter how badly the first time)...
Fail on your reading comprehension...
How much...
How much of that €11 million will go to the CEO (and the boards) bonuses, i wonder?
Would anyone like to hazard a guess? Anyone?
@ Lewis
Lewis, i agree with your comments about the complete waste of money that the Typhoons are for the UK government, but i would also like to see an article from you about how the rest of Europe is handling its commitments for the Eurofighters!
I live in Germany, and i've yet to read a single article anywhere critiquing the Typhoons, their cost, or their abilities. Ive also not seen anything about the Italians, Spanish or French complaining. So whats happened (beyond the usual MOD contract cockup) that makes the UK in such a worse off position then the other nations that bought in on the Eurofighter project.
Enquiring minds and all that...
Posted in New tech lets you drink exhaust fumes
Little Known fact? It certainly is...
... to anyone without a degree in Science or Engineering. I can guarantee my parents dont know about this, nor my sisters, all of whom are highly educated. But guess what? They are educated in fields outside of Science. Are you saying that makes them Backwood Bandits?
The vast majority of the worlds population is not involved in Science or Engineering roles, nor do they study these subjects in detail. So for them this fact is unknown. Maybe this is common knowledge amongst us geeks here on the Reg, but dont go assuming that everyone knows something just because you do...
Technical Explanation
100% in the design of rocket engines, is the engine level that allows the engine to be run with zero degradation. Meaning the engine can be receovered and used again with minimal part replacement or maintenance.
However, it is common practice to run the engines at slightly more then this during certain periods of the launch to achieve an increase in thrust. This does entail that you need to spend more on maintenance and replacement parts for the recovered engines, but it tends to work out as being more economical, as the extra thrust allows you to launch extra mass.
Posted in Oregon legislators salute Rick Astley
good to see...
"Any break from that seems not terrible."
Good to see the level of education amongst legislators matches the electorate...
Trouser Envy?
Well you know thats always been part of the reason Americans buy big cars... ;)
I think its a legal thing...
If they did this and something went wrong and it, for example, formatted the hard drive or deleted key information or bricked the OS, etc. then this being America, the feds would be sued for all their worth!
So their solution to avoid this is just to collect the IP addy's, contact the ISP's, who contact the customer and the customer does the removal. That way if something goes wrong, only the user is to blame...
Unfortunately, the US litigation culture wins against common sense once more!
Nahhh...
Antimatter is old hat, CERN have already done it.
Havent you read Dan Brown?
Posted in M&S whips out carbon-neutral bra
Maybe im just a cynic...
Press release text: "The building also boasts a turf roof and "evaporative cooling" system, which is much less leccy-hungry than air conditioning. All of this, coupled to low-energy lighting, means the factory uses 40 per cent less electricity than a conventional equivalent."
Translation: "The building is a mud hut, with open doors and a bucket of water in the middle for "cooling". And we use candles for "lighting". "
Yep, what can i say? I'm a cynic...
RTFA!
Didnt you see that Lewis mentioned Li-ion batteries and discounted them based on the massive requirements DARPA want handled and the ability to fit on a reasonable number of trucks...?
Seriously try reading the article next time...
Just a small point...
Have you tried shooting your tanks? ;)
I suspect that might be the discouraging factor for a Forward Operations Base in a war situation.
Otherwise I agree with what you say, Tom!
One Question...
... How could a situation like this be responsible for "aggravating athritis in his hip"?
Good work that judge for showing some common sense!!!
Very cool but...
... i would have thought starting with an animal with a much smaller brain then mice would be a good start. Maybe something like an insect? Or perhaps a celebutard or two?
I can imagine that whilst a mice's brain is small, as a mammal, it should be pretty well developed compared to say a beetle...
Your joking with the name right?
Whats-On-It? pronounced in a yobbish (scouser perhaps?) accent - Wass-on-it?
I can imagine how that conversation went - presentation to the big boss...
Scientist 1: "and this is the meterotie results shown here."
Scientist 2: "Wass on it there?"
Scientist 1: "Ahhh....... Thats the new mineral we just discovered, were calling it... "Wassonite", after.... ummm.... John... John Wasson that meteorite guy from UC."
Boss: "Brilliant. What does it do?"
Scientist 1: "Well, we will need more funding to work that out..."
;)
And...
And please provide your bank account details and credit card number as i Mr Mtababo from Ivory Coast would like to share the 100 million ponds I have taken from the government during the current coupe. If you agree to helping me, i will give you 10%....
And?
Why should that make a difference?
Being offline for a year for ANY account in this day and age is unforgivable... And how long before the same ridiculus outage is foisted on their other account customers...
Im seriously interested...
Who steals a "a gas boiler flue"? I mean honestly how desperate for cash can you be to steal that? And how could nobody notice someone walking out of the building carrying a great big chimney??? (Ok if it was workmen or contractors on the site, who were carrying it out then i probably wouldnt pay attention either, but still).
And the heating oil? Who steals 250L of heating oil?
I am forever bewildered by the choices of some kleptomaniacs...
Dud science...
They quizzed 106 adolescents, 46 of which were confirmed to be clinically depressive, and they think they can make any sort of decisive comment on that statistical basis. Ridiculous!
Im sure i could go out tomorrow to some school and find 106 adolescents who found reading makes them more depressive! & i would strongly disagree that using a figure of 43% of adolescents being diagnosed as clinically depressed represents a good cross section for study.
This is crap science, and until there study starts looking at thousands of students, from a variety of backgrounds and intelligence levels, & with a more realistic percentage of clinically depressed teens involved, then it will continue to be crap science. Poor form El reg for not debunking it as such...
Like i said im not a software person
but i would assume that you could automate it so that when a person's account goes up in access rights an email is automatically sent to the IT dept.
If that sort of system isnt available, that seems like a pretty big gaping security hole to me!
Disclaimer: Im not a BOFH
I think the thing that most worries me about this, weas the part that said that after compromising the low level attacks they were in your words "Once inside the network, the attacker carried out privilege elevation attacks to gain access to higher value administrator accounts.".
How was this not picked up by their IT department? Surely that should be one of the main things you watch for?
Letting them in through the lower access accounts is one thing, but then letting them get away unnoticed with increasing their access to the admin accounts is another keetle of fish entirely! Poor work...
2 eyes are better than 1...
See title...
You seem to be forgetting...
The Wii wasnt designed as a console for gamers. It wasnt designed to take on the PS's and Xbox's of this world. It was designed for the casual gamer, the never played a computer game before over 50, and the under 15's. Onn this front it succeeded admirably.
Most of the friends i know with young kids, the kids love it. The over 50's and the casual gamer may have moved on, but for kids its stil the first choice. Just like the Gamecube was back in the days of the PS1.
Different horses for different courses, and all that...
To carry the old agade further...
Those who Can, Do.
Those who Cant, Teach.
Those who Cant Teach, Manage.
Those Who Cant Teach or Manage, Go into Politics...
