Posts by auburnman
535 posts • joined Thursday 28th July 2011 21:58 GMT
Re: Drivers
I usually don't have driver issues on Linux, but I'm having an absolute arseache finding a cheap desktop printer that "just works" on Ubuntu. Can anyone recommend one that is just plug 'n' play? It's for the parents so it really needs to be plug in, switch on and go with near-zero faffing about.
Are Twitter making any money yet? Surprised they're still here.
As a lighter aside to the impending Big Brother state, I theorize that if more young un's looked at internet porn, we'd have a lot less teenage pregnancy than we currently do. Seeing some of the greasy, hairy, tattooed proto-humans rutting away on the web can put you off the idea of sex for days. And the men are almost as bad (boom boom!)
In my day, just before the internet got properly on it's feet, getting your porn was a rite of passage: you had to go into the corner shop, wander around the crisp aisle until there were no other customers, snag-a-mag and look the old lady on the counter straight in the space just to the left of her eyes as you paid and make (what you thought was) a dignified exit at a steady pace (but was in fact a nervous near-run.)
Re: It is actually the most UNpopular browser
If you're going to try to discount installs that aren't wanted or are there by default, Microsoft will have to assemble a crack team of statisticians/marketers to discredit you when their market share snaps in half.
Wonder what kind of hardware they are shipping ChromeOS on? Depending on price it might be worth picking one up and slapping some real Linux version on it -way round the MS tax on new PC's anyone?
Speaking of 'real' linux, I seem to recall there are versions out there that are cut down and streamlined enough to run in RAM. Why couldn't Google build something between ChromeOS and Android that works like this - light footprint, quick to boot? I'm sure they'd get a load more takeup than with the current 'crippled without a connection' approach.
Re: It's a farce anyway
I particularly liked
"10 A) A system in which some internet content (for example, pornography) is automatically blocked for you by your internet service provider or by the smartphone or other device you use to access the internet and you can later ask them to remove the filters if you want to access the blocked websites. Yes / No"
YOU HAVEN'T ASKED A F**KING QUESTION. WHAT THE HELL AM I MEANT TO DO WITH YES OR BLOODY NO?
Re: PC
You must have missed the stories about the Oz authorities fining Apple for claiming their phones are 4G.
What's a MAC?
Migration Authorisation Code; what BT are dragging their heels in providing now that I've finally bothered my arse to switch my parent's broadband.
Intentionally Weak passwords
Hear hear. Whenever I sign up for some semi-useless cack I don't care about being linked to me, I sign up as Tony Hawk with password popopo00. I reuse passwords on low priority sites so I don't have seven hundred strong passwords swimming through my head when I'm trying to remember my banking login or my Steam account pw or somesuch.
Re: Crap game
No guns had lights unless you had the mod. Doom 3 was terribly formulaic, I seem to recall the lights went out almost every single time there was an encounter. Even when there was lighting it flickered on and off all the time so you just wound up with a headache. The whole fighting in the dark thing was so overused that it never had a chance to be scary, or anything other than irritating.
Posted in Tomb Raider dev denies Croft rape scene
I think it's the mixing of genres
that is putting people off: I expect and indeed welcome high drama and emotional scenes when I am playing a game of that ilk such as Heavy Rain. If I am playing whizz bang shooty fun puzzle platformer for a bit of escapism I would not appreciate suddenly having the evils of society suddenly dumped on my mind.
I personally am not keen on entertainment that crosses a certain line in exploring personal trauma (like the film about the guy who had to cut his arm off or die in the desert.)
With high end graphics and improving writing, games have evolved to a point where good developers can really make you feel like you are in the game, or at least have a high level of empathy with your character. So throwing the threat of violation of 'you' or a 'person' you care about into the mix is something I can understand people shying away from.
Re: Utter Disgrace...
Being offered on the menu is not that common, but knowing someone who works in a chippy helps. Couple of pro tips: Battered Creme Egg GOOD, Battered Aero EXPLOSIVE.
Re: Layers of scorn
Roy and Moss dated plenty of women in the IT Crowd. The Big Bang Theory seemed to indicate at the start it would be based around dateless nerd geniuses, but Leonard bounces from Hot blonde neighbour to hot Indian chick to hot particle physicist and Howard ends up with stunning blonde biologist. Raj and Sheldon don't do too bad either. The comedy comes from the characters wrecking their chances when they overthink things.
Re: sought for questioning?
Not again. We went down this road not too long ago - innocent unless proven guilty. Personally I think the guy is a git but I have no idea one way or the other about his guilt. I do seem to recall he is a paranoiac, this could just as easily explain his actions.
Re: What about...
I don't think I've ever read anything on el Reg like the comments you say come up whenever a woman is discussed . And while bandwidth/storage articles may inevitably attract one or two porn jokes, I'm not sure how that is sexist? Did you think porn is only ever made for heterosexual men? Don't be embarrassed if you did, I thought the same thing 'til I was about 12.
That strikes me as potentially failing to comply with the DMCA - if you can still get to the link through a Google search, then it could be argued they have obfuscated it instead of taking it down. (Even though the link is now hosted by another organisation, this is with the admitted help of Google.)
On a related slightly pedantic note, who holds the copyright on a (theoretical) DMCA form I have filled out? Could I send another DMCA notice to Google to stop them linking to my DMCA notice?
Posted in Japan still in love with the fax
Yes
and it was "PC Load letter? what the f*** does that mean?" Load A4 would have been too helpful an error message.
Re: ISPs and the BBC
Don't forget they already get paid to deliver internet content to our desktops - by us. If you also count the network costs for the BBC (which I hadn't thought of initially) then really they're trying to triple dip. Greedy Shakespeare Kebabs indeed.
Posted in HTC locked out of Windows 8 tablet party
The desire was a bloody good handset with a few flaws, notably low internal memory. I recently traded up to the Sensation, stuck with HTC because I was mainly chuffed with the desire (which now sits around the house being used as a tiny tablet during the ad breaks.) I wish they'd stop moving the power button though - it takes stupidly long to undo the muscle memory for the old location.
Pedantic self correcting update with link: The motion on the robot glider is actually wave powered - the solar cells run equipment on the drone.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/wave-glider-crosses-pacific/all/1
Re: I wonder how many of the engineers developing this tech have actually spent time on the water
There's already an anti-crap coating you can paint on seabound stuff. Search on Wired.com for the solar powered drone that's trying to cross an ocean (and doing a fair job of it.)
Posted in Music Biz: The Man is still The Man, man
Re: The problem of respect
The respect was never there in the first place. That's not a diss on the public, it's just how human nature works.
I forget the source, but there's a study that suggests people find it difficult or impossible to properly empathise with anyone outside their circle of immediate friends/family/acquaintances, which makes sense. I throw some rank disgusting shit in my wheelie bin without a care for my poor binman who has to deal with it after it has festered for 3-4 days. Not because I'm a bad person, but because he's not a person in my mind - he's an abstract concept. We don't care about strangers, and that's a necessary defence mechanism to get us through life. Children starving in Africa is a terrible thing, and we all wish it could be sorted out but it doesn't keep us up at night. I was sad when Douglas Adams died an early death, but it didn't hit me like losing my Granddad did.
I've gone on a bit with the examples so I'll try to drag it back to the point - not caring about strangers is the natural order of things, not a sign of society gone to hell. This is desirable in that we can get through the day without heart and stress medication, and undesirable because it means we can be (literally) unthinking dicks to strangers. In terms of artists we only respect them when we consciously remember to. This means we have to put meaningful and proportionate structures into place in law and society to manage our own undesirable behaviour (and nurture our good behaviour!), and when those structures are meaningful and proportionate they will enjoy the general support of the populace. As the recent polls show,the public is in favour of protecting copyrighted works.
The problem is 70+ year copyright terms, billion dollar fines and threatening to cut off people's internet with scant proof doesn't nearly cut it in terms of meaningful and proportionate. Yes, "the Man" should send letters to known infringers; but be ready to back down and apologise if it turns out to be someone's granny, and don't threaten to cut off their internet (practically a necessity for modern life and this turned out to be a fairly empty threat anyway.) Yes, take repeat offenders to court; but push for community service or the like for young/poor offenders. PROPORTIONATE fines for infringers who can afford it and are just stingy; jail time for counterfeiters who make a living selling other people's creations. Meaningful and proportionate.
Posted in Touchscreens to get finger friendly
Re: @ auburnman
A moment of madness. In future I will remember to never back down and immediately compare anyone who disagrees with me to Hitler.
Posted in Touchscreens to get finger friendly
Fair points well made; the more I think about it the more I think I may have jumped the gun in dissing it. I still don't think it's right for phones though; maybe for slates or those fancy laptops that have a touchscreen where you expect a keyboard. If they can prove me wrong and sort out a phone that works well with it, more power to 'em.
Need an icon for looking sheepish after an overreaction.
Posted in Touchscreens to get finger friendly
Can't see this taking off. If you want tactile, get a phone with a keyboard. Off the top of my head I can imagine issues with wear and tear on repeatedly pressed screens and battery life issues (you think leaving the Wifi on drains power, wait until your phone has moving parts!)
You never know, it might be popular; but it just smacks of a solution looking for a problem to me.
Cue the energy companies backpedalling on smart meters complaining about the extra cost of auditing their systems. Cue government backpedalling on these measures. And the beat goes on...
Is he allowed email and dropbox? I thought Mormons believed electricity was the Devil.
How do you manage the expectations of oblivious morons? All the signs were there; some people seem to want to lose their money.
Re: SIze
It would have taken political balls of steel to slash the NASA headcount when they did their own launches; with disasters that kill astronauts not unheard of, can you imagine the headlines if there had been layoffs before a catastrophe? It might be an option now they are at arms length from launches thanks to SpaceX.
Posted in Lawyer up on your way into the cloud
Moral of the story
Whenever someone says ‘we can do all of these things’ get it in writing. With a clause detailing what happens if (when) it turns out they can't do any of those things. If you absolutely must sign away key parts of your infrastructure, take a Devil's Advocate approach to the contract - assume the other party's intent is the utter ruination of your business while still sticking to the letter of the agreement, then squeeze the terms until that is not an option.
Posted in Music Biz: The Man is still The Man, man
Plus ten points for the phrase...
"a tendency to monopoly because we are fucking lazy fat slobs"
Rather succinctly sums up the rationale behind one of the big problems of our time I think.
Welcome to the FaceBook voting app. To use this app, you must upgrade to timeline and accept our new revised Terms and Conditions...
...Thank you for accepting the new Terms and Conditions. Your vote to accept has been registered. We now return you to a hundred game requests and the usual inane drivel your so-called friends bombard you with.
Re: Lee Dowling
I would argue that the 'until' is more about the timeframe, i.e. it is correct to talk about the 'alleged' crime before a guilty verdict has been delivered; calling a person a criminal before they are convicted* is wrong even if they are later convicted.
*assuming you are a bystander, not the victim or a witness etc.
Innocent until proven guilty; I have no opinion one way or the other because I don't have all the facts, but don't go ascribing guilty motives to his legal actions to avoid extradition. You could equally argue that if he is innocent, he is afraid of/stressed out by facing false allegations.
Re: Facebook smartphone
Mince. If they would suck it up and let Google/Apple handle ads in the Facebook app(s) and deal them a cut they could bring a new source of income online overnight. They WANT to control the whole ecosystem, sure, but not having ads in the FB app right now, even as a temporary measure while they roll out their own thing, is a bit of a fail.
So then...
There'll be a WINE style convertertron that allows Metro apps to run 'normally' on a desktop with mouse & Keyboard? Seems to be par for the course that Microsoft try to restrict you from doing something and then some amateurs hack together something that bodges round the restrictions, and the resulting mess makes Microsoft look even worse.
Posted in Big Blue supers crunch kaon decay
I thought we didn't know
Why the universe has much more matter than anti-matter: has this been solved, or should the article say kaons MAY help explain the universe is made of matter?
Posted in Foxconn to create workers' paradise?
Re: They will have to be careful
in the event that any of the Western economies fall to the point where bringing manufacturing back here makes financial sense, at least initially you could be looking at a bitter and resentful workforce who a) remember the times when they got paid more and Johnny Foreigner did all the dirty manual labour and 2) have largely lost and will have to relearn the skillset for building quality goods.
Re: What I really don't want to imagine
is the inevitable (accelerated) arms race among the military powers that be if transport to the moon or the asteroid belt or similar became good/cheap/reliable enough to make Empire expansion viable again.
Posted in Max Payne 3
Re: It's not quite the same...
I'm not sure why you guys are disagreeing with me, when the end of your posts seem to agree? I didn't have issues on the first playthrough, but by now I have watched all the cutscenes and want to keep playing the campaign without being forced to watch them again; unfortunately they are effectively unskippable. Most other games manage skippable cutscenes in this day and age and it irks me to see Rockstar making negative progress.
Posted in Max Payne 3
Re: It's not quite the same...
Consoles have had hard drives for half a decade now, no excuse. If you do buy it for PC I sincerely hope it is better, but I wouldn't hold out much hope.
Posted in Max Payne 3
It's not quite the same...
I too was excited at the return of Max Payne, but it's just not the same as it used to be. Picking up a rifle or shotgun is almost pointless as you default back to a pistol after every cutscene (and there are many) and it takes an age to let you switch back, usually under fire at the time. The default controls are sufficiently counterintuitive that you frequently pop out of cover instead of reloading. The blurry video effects definitely grate after a while, and although superimposing text from the voiceover onto the scene is a nice touch, it is so overused they might as well be subtitles. Unfortunately the cutscenes are all but unskippable due to long loading times, so if you like to replay the single player campaign be prepared for some frustrating waits.
I found the plot a little hard to follow at times as so many of the characters were not fleshed out at all, I struggled to remember who had done what and why because I just didn't care enough about most of the goodies or baddies to remember.
I really wanted MP3 to be great, but it just didn't deliver for me. Although they have set up one or two good characters and villains who survived, I would be interested if they tried a Max 4 - but they'd have to turf out everything that didn't work and go back to a proper noir setting.
Posted in Sunshine nudges asteroid into odd orbit
Re: how does one measure work?
I measure time to 5pm. Never close enough.
I wonder
How sensitive it is? I wouldn't fancy being in one of those cars if it went off from animal roadkill or debris in the road - from the photo it looks like it totally blinds the driver.
Re: Farce
Now I've got the Benny Hill theme running through my head while Zuckerberg dashes around Wall Street fleeing a string of scantily clad lawyers.
Paris 'cos she's also overvalued and goes down on the first day.
Re: "Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine"
Doesn't mean that's the way they prefer it. I've never seen a Bugatti Veyron either, but if I had one I wouldn't swap it for a moped.
It'll be much more interesting to watch now, but I would say it is by no means game over in the patent wars. To use a war metaphor, superior manoeuvring can sometimes beat superior numbers. Apple almost certainly have the upper hand in terms of experienced patent lawyers, and of course they've never gone up against Google directly. And Google to my eyes have ambled very slowly along in the patent wars - I still maintain I would've thrown the lawyers at Microsoft when they insisted they should get royalties for android.
The game has changed, but there's still all to play for. Although it would be amusing if one of the big players suddenly went for a face turn and tried to convince everyone now was the time to stop patent litigation.
Posted in Will Nvidia 'n' pals pwn future gaming?
Re: Console monkeys will be getting owned by their keyboard and mouse wielding PC gamer overlords
"You jumped straight from Ker-Plunk to next-gen consoles?"
Well, no, but the Master System is lost way at the back of the cupboard somewhere.
Re: If they want it to be pronounced 'social'
I was thinking more of a decentralised peer-to-peer model. Think of every user having their own website with Facebook style posts / photos / other information on it but where the data defaults to hidden/private/restricted/whatever. The 'network' would only exist in terms of common API's that would allow users to pull posts from all their friends sites when they refresh their homepage.
Authentication would be down to each user, not a central repostitory (how cool would it be if the general public became more aware of cryptokeys?) Critically my data would stay on hosting I (should) control which would let me restrict or shut down access at any time.
I think I'm trying to describe a hybrid offspring of blogging and social networking - not that it matters as this concept is highly unlikely to take off unless the general public suddenly take privacy much more seriously than they do now and acknowledge they should be the customer rather than the product; it's just a framework for social sharing I find attractive.
If they want it to be pronounced 'social'
Then bloody well call it social. Stop b@stardising punctu@tion in the n@me of looking cool, it makes everything @wkw@rd to Re@d.
Not that it'll matter, it will likely be another (even) less successful Google+. might get a bit of LinkedIn style traction in business if Microsoft can force companies to push it on employees.
I think the next thing that has a chance to be successful in 'social' is the open source distributed model, if someone could design a distributed Facebook clone that handles the website backend on user hosted / controlled servers. Even then that'd be a very slim chance.
