Posts by Cameron Colley

Not used for anything I want to see...

..Apart from Youtube, BBC iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD, TV Catchup, Fantastic Contraption...

While I think most people will agree the world would be a better place without flash, at present if you want any kind of video, music or game content on the web then you need flash.

it's what Apple do best.

They make computers for people who don't like computers. Apple products are just information versions of washing machines and fridges.

Indeed, I may seek the app out myself.

Could be a great help in knowing when to just say "yes dear" and cower...

Erm... why?

As someone who works in a firm still using Office 2003 I have to ask: How will it save money for IT to upgrade the PC and Laptop estate? How, as a CIO, would you convince an already recession-hit firm to spend a few million on new kit?

Oh, and since Office 2007 was the version after Office 2003 -- the PCs only have to be about 5 years old. Oddly enough, you can still get hard drives, RAM and peripherals which work with such ancient kit and it tends to be cheaper than a new PC.

@Mister_C

So, you pay the price for Windows because you apparently need it.

You have to admit though, that if you're suing dongle-controlled software and Windows licensing servers then you've probably been using MS software long enough to know what they're like -- so by choosing to stay in teh industry you're in you're tacitly accepting things like WGA. Nothing wrong with that at all!

It's the people who use Windows when they don't need to because "Macs cost too much" and Linux is too hard" and then go on to bith about WGA and the like without taking up an alternative who piss me off.

Then there are the CIOs etc. who buy into vendor lock-in systems because you can't get fired for using Windows. It's fun to hear them struggle with budgets now the recession's here.

"every country that wants a piece of the cloud"?

I have no idea what that means.

Some companies and individuals may want to "use the cloud" -- but they should think seriously about whether they want their data stored on North Korean servers rented by a Colombian company.

There are no new issues here, "the cloud" is not special, this is just MS trying to legislate themselves a better market share.

I read it as "will get an entry in teh card database".

The only option being whether you want an ID card to carry around or not. By which time the police will have the power to arrest anyone who can't prove who they are when questioned under section 44.

You don't think that this shit will stop just because some other puppets are "in power" do you?

For selling to perverts, one assumes?

Since wearing them would make you almost guaranteed to be pulled aside for strip-searching or worse.

I think you'll find you mean:

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Apparently it's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee.

At least, that's according to one of the scum who started this whole thing.

1.2Bn of our money...

...given away so that a few home office types can get consulting positions, kickbacks, and nice pensions.

You have to love being farmed.

You're missing hte point.

Either:

a) Google was deliberately allowing dodgy companies to advertise -- potentially exposing us all to scams and malware.

Or:

b) Google banned some legitimate companies from advertising with it because it felt like it.

Now, if point 'b' above is correct then, as you quite rightly point out, "it's just business" -- though for a company which says "don't do evil" it seems a little odd, I also wonder at a company whose T's and C's include "we can drop you any time for no reason, ner ner" when they're all for neutrality and all that.

If point 'a' is correct, then Google have deliberately exposed a large number of web users to problems for their own financial gain -- which seems a little "evil" to me.

Google are generally "bashed" for being hypocritical rather than for being a business -- and a lot of their practices make Microsoft and Apple look downright "caring".

Indeed, hardly "legacy".

The latest version of BES management console from RIM appears to only work in IE -- yes, that's right, one of the biggest smartphone providers on the planet employs idiots as coders or project managers.

"better off mentally"

That would depend on who he shared his cell and the communal areas with with, surely? Would also depend on where he served the sentence -- back when he was accused he could have quite easily been left to rot in Guantanamo bay, being an evil terrorist and all that.

As for those suggesting he "do the time" -- are you seriously suggesting that 10 years in a maximum security prison full of murderers and people who want to abuse you is the correct punishment for trespassing?

I was about to say the same thing.

Surely the Americans With Disabilities people should be suing every university in the US fro using non-accessible paper-and-ink based books?

Where would you like your books?

While it's not likely that someone would want tens, hundreds or even thousands of books on a train journey they may want to own a large number of books -- where would you suggest someone store hundreds or thousands of real books? We don't all have houses large enough for libraries you know.

That's forgetting the fact that, for example, carrying a book in a language foreign to yourself and a dictionary may be a little heavier than carrying one ebook.

You may not personally benefit from ebooks, but I would have thought you could appreciate why others might.

It's hard to do anything when you're shouted down.

As I mentioned in my post, people actually don't care -- personally I'm sick of being called a tinfoil hat wearer when trying to raise awareness of this kind of thing. Most of us know what happens to protesters -- and if you were to try and encourage anti-government protests and thinking you'd end up in jail as a terrorist. I think history illustrates the futility of protesting against oppressive regimes without the support of a good many people throughout the system.

To put it another way -- if "the man in the street" cared about this stuff when told then, yes, I'd probably have formed a protest group -- but seeing as nobody cards that's a hard thing to do.

Might I, in turn, ask what you have done? If you've done something then let us know so we can help -- if you've not then kindly fuck off and die because, by your own reasoning, you're complicit in this government's plans.

I like Flext too.

Though I have to admit to making hardly any calls -- so I dare say free unlimited texts would do me OK. If they scrap Web n Walk, however, they'll loose me as a customer -- it's the only reason I went with T-Mobile in the first place.

A quick look at the NRA literature says perhaps not.

It may just be that only the stories where the victim isn't charged get into the press, and certainly they will be the only ones on the NRA website, but it would appear that in the US you are actually allowed to defend yourself with force -- even deadly force -- should you need to.

In the UK on the other hand, simply swearing at someone who wants to assault you could get you arrested and charged.

I didn't get Linux drivers for my E71 either...

Let's face it, most people out there use Windows and, so, most manufacturers provide Windows drivers. Yes, you get Mac drivers for some products -- but as a Mac buyer aren't you supposed to have an iPhone anyhow?

The fact DMCA exists at all pretty much sums it up.

When laws are passed with no other purpose but to allow cartels to operate you know your society is in trouble.

The US (and the UK) no longer have justice systems, just laws to keep the population from doing anything without paying their masters.

But this is for the US...

..Where 12 year old kids drive and parents want to know what their offspring are up to 24 hours a day until they reach 21, at which point they don't care any more.

Sure it's that simple?

"ftp ports aren't blocked by default, being as they are a pretty much essential part of being able to use the internet for downloading materiale from servers/sites etc."

Ok, then try connecting to any port on my machine and see what happens...

The firewall will allow _outgoing_ connections to the ports but not incoming -- unless, of course, I have an FTP server running and the port forwarded. In that case, without this exploit, you'd still nto be able to connect to to any other port.

Full signal but how many "free slots"?

I'm not technical enough to fully understand it -- but ISTR that each base station can only serve a given number of customers -- due to having to allocate "slots" to them. Perhaps someone in the know could explain, as I can't recall if it works on time or frequency or both?

Assuming I'm not terribly wrong with the above -- then more base stations would mean more "slots" able to serve more customers.

As for the cabled backhaul -- yes, that would affect overall speed but should not cause you to be completely without internet unless it becomes completely saturated (which it may well be, but that's another problem).

IANAL, but I think Nokia _have to_ sue Apple?

My understanding of Patents (though, I admit I'm from the UK) is that if you don't seek license fees from another company for using them, or defend your patent against infringement in court, then you loose that patent? If that's the case in the US, then Nokia _have to_ sue Apple or face the loss of any future licensing revenue on their patented hardware designs.

That's why they call it the Daily Fail...

I'd say the situation in Afghanistan is much like the situation here -- the government and those with phone company connections regularly listen in on calls without the need for any "digital scanners" picking up the calls.

I have to agree here.

I'm certainly no expert myself, but I'm constantly surprised by Microsoft-Certified IT people displaying ignorance of anything other than the MS "wizards" their exams were on.

I've also found it amusing how Linux/Unix types seem to do a decent job of configuring, troubleshooting and maintaining MS servers once they find where the settings they require are -- same can't be said of MS types on Linux/Unix boxes.

But it isn't personal.

While I agree that "hacking into" a magazine and publishing the content early isn't something which should be condoned it's hardly either theft or invasion of privacy.

Nothing was stolen -- the content is still sitting there on the hard drives of the magazine.

As far as is reported, privacy was not invaded because only magazine content was copied -- any information contained within the article would either be comment on public domain information, or information which was set to become public domain anyhow.