* Posts by Stephen

22 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jun 2007

Mobiles help UK malls track shoppers' every move

Stephen
Black Helicopters

F**K THIS S**T!!!

Title says it all really! Next time I go to a "shopping center" I am taking the battery out of my phone!

UK's most popular Wi-Fi router defaults to insecurity

Stephen

This is not a surprise.

The BTHomeHub is awful, even the BT engineers say it's crap.

My line gets about 512K on the home hub, 1.5Mb with my Draytek Vigor 2910 and Vigor 100 (2910 is a dual WAN Router, the 100 is an ADSL/2+ modem).

Mind you, even the 2910 defaults to no wireless security (though it is off by default). Makes no difference though, if you try to crack into the home hub chances are it will just lock up before you manage to get in...so you *could* say it is the most secure router out there, in a f****d up kind of way.

Area 51 drug test victim crashes flying car

Stephen
Dead Vulture

Your point is?

No, really, your point is?

I'll reiterate my previous comment:

"guess one day the editors might decide to focus on QUALITY not quantity"

Because even if you keep on posting non IT related 'stories' they should at least be up to a certain standard...if a few paragraphs about some bloke mashed up to high heaven is supposed to be a standard then I guess El Reg must be in dire straights?

I take my hat off to Joshua: "Waste of an article, waste of a click." and I'll add "waste of bandwidth"...perhaps I should report you to Tiscalli?* They may wish to start charging...

*Now you have an IT angle.

Stephen
IT Angle

And the IT angle is?

Going to keep on posting these, guess one day the editors might decide to focus on QUALITY not quantity....

Toshiba reveals R500 sub-notebook with 128GB SSD

Stephen

Is it just me

or is it only low powered laptops that are getting these SSD drives?*

Don't get me wrong SSD's are far from perfect (still too small and too expensive) but the benefits can be worth it. I can understand the drive for some laptops (lower power consumption) but how about some built for speed with these things? Just a thought...

*If there are high powered laptops (aimed at the masses) with these please post link :)

Microsoft deploys protocol defense for IE

Stephen

@Rich

"push more of the functionality back to the server (thin clients anyone?)"

Great idea, alas in the real world it just doesn't work. For some specific applications/processes this idea does work very well (banks, call centers etc) but in a 'normal' office or home environment it is far too complex. Not only from a software POV but the physical infrastructure that is needed as well.

"Or better still, get rid of the scripting all together and build this functionality into the browser / comms protocol where it can't be tampered with."

But it can be tampered with, a lot of the (far more complex) attacks manage to dig under the skin and change these parts of applications.

The sad truth is that no OS is going to be secure - ever. And you have to balance security with useability, unfortunatly as long as the many thousands of 'script kiddies' out there carry on doing what they do (which is not a lot, they just use code that an inteligent person has already written) the situation won't get any better.

As for all the shite that browsers download on a daily basis the only way that will ever get better is to educate people - but we all know that the average computer user these days hasn't got a clue, hell even when a website makes it very clear that your downloading an application that will dial a premium rate, international phone number they still download it!!!

Guess we can only hope that people will eventually get wise...untill then we all have to be extra careful!

Inside the Windows 2008 stack experience

Stephen

@Tim Parker

Tim, I assume your comment was ment in jest right?

If not, keep on reading...

Whilst this may not be the most exciting 'article' on El Reg, it serves far more purpose than most of the shite they are publishing recentley.

I'm looking forward to this, as a developer who is tasked with researching these new systems (BTW, Server 2008 is starting to look very very good) I am always going to be interested in seeing what others think of the products that I am looking at in order to gain a better understanding of the issues I might face.

Keep it up Mark, looking forward to the next installment.

Government piles filesharing pressure on UK ISPs

Stephen

So does this mean...

...that when I play Quake Wars I will lose my internet access?

Seriously, when an ISP can't tell the difference between a P2P packet and a non P2P packet how the hell do they think this will work? Typical government, bunch of proper wankers with no grasp on reality, I was under the impression that our MP's were supposed to be 'of the people' - guess I was wrong :(

Californian sues Comcast over BitTorrent throttling

Stephen

RE: Encrypted torrents

Whilst I agree that the use of encrypted torrents avoids traffic shaping (to an extent) why should anybody have to encrypt their traffic just to get the advertised speeds?

I use uTorrent, with encryption, and get good download speeds...but the simple fact is that I should not have to p**s about changing client settings (or changing clients) in order to use the full 1.5Mbps of my internet connection.

Whilst this is a case in the US of A I do hope that it comes to fruition as it could have an impact elsewhere...and lets face it getting an ISP to do it's job should not be this hard.

How I wrote an iPhone application

Stephen
Dead Vulture

I know I am going to get flamed for this but...

...I don't care.

Your article was, quite frankly, poor. You clearly did NOT research your subject matter before posting, somthing which is becomming more and more prevelant across dead reg.

The code is an abomination, whilst I won't get drawn into the JavaScript is shite debate (it is shite, but I have no need to qualify that statement) you could/should have at least made sure your code works properly. For a start it is possible to do what you have done on ANY half modern browser, any good developer of web based systems knows to make crosss browser capabilities a priority. But, your not a developer.

Once again a register posting that could have been somthing usefull, let down by lazy 'reporters' who have about as much IT knowledge as a cabbage...sort it out or close down.

US special forces buy electric stealth golf carts

Stephen

@All that's necessary is...

Same as any other vehicle then?

But seriously, only 50 miles! Typical American car then...can't do corners and drinks more petrol* than Jerremy Clarkson.

*That's gas for our American bretheren.

Teen sticks Xbox 360 power supply in bowl of water

Stephen

RE: Litigation

It does actually state in the user manual that you should not expose the power supply or the console to water.

Still, this does beg the question. How come a 14 year old didn't understand that water conducts electricity? If this is this an indcation of the state of the US education system then it explains a lot....mind you we have the same kind of problems over here (UK).

Virgin Media boss in shock exit

Stephen

And they fail to attract customers because...

...in places like Milton Keynes they are still refusing to upgrade the analog cable system.

MS cuts Xbox 360 prices Down Under

Stephen

@Anonymous poster

Please define 'fun'? Personally I find the Wii to be no more than a gimick, I find my 360 far more 'fun' than my housemates Wii. Yes, the Wii has the novelty factor but is that enough? History tells us no, so we will have to wait and see.

Besides, the PS3 proves that adding motion sensors to a gamepad brings no real value at all...I would rather have my pad 'rumble' rather than knowing that I have just thrown it out of the window...

BOFH: Damsels in distress

Stephen

Is it just me or...

...am i the only one who picked up on the Final Destination vibe at the end there...

Pipex invites customer to get 'c**ted'

Stephen

This is not exaclty new...

...several years ago i worked for a budget airline (not saying which one but I am now scared of orange...) and we had a similar problem.

The booking reference number was a series of letters and numbers, they were strictly logical (ie if you had aaaa1 the next would be aaaa2 and so on). As you can imagine we got a few phone calls when people booking numbers contained "s**t", "f**k", "c**t" I am sure you can think of all the others. Cencored the words in case El Reg gets to offended.

Cat senses impending death

Stephen

Egyptians...

...held cats in such high esteem because they were considered the guardians of Ra (the Sun god) as he died (sun set) and passed through the underworld to be reborn (sun rise).

Hmmmm, if my moggy decides to come and sit near me (she's a typical cat...only comes near me when she wants food) then I am going to start writing out my will!

CIOs pooh-pooh the iPhone

Stephen

And this is supposed to be a surprise?

The iPhone is no Blackberry, and it never will be. It is neither a 'smart-phone' or a 'mobile office', it is only a multimedia phone - nothing more and nothing less.

This *might* change in the future...but only if Apple develops new software for the phone that is aimed at business users (like that will ever happen) and drops the dependance on iTunes (hell freezing over?). Give it a few years and perhaps gen 3/4 of the iPhone will be more appealing to a business user...after all it took RIM a few goes before they were accepted.

BT to drag T-Mobile onto 21st Century

Stephen

BT to drag T-Mobile onto 21st Century...

...are you sure about that?

I bluntly told BT to rip the copper land line from my house after 7 months of them pissing around with my ADSL. I now have a T-Mobile branded E220 USB 3.5G modem, and BT's got involved!

As I am sure many people are aware BT used to be British Telecom....I think a more apt name would be British Twats.

O2 gets UK iPhone deal

Stephen

iPhone, uPhone.

Andrew, clearly you are a big Apple fan...no surprise really. But I feel I should point out some massive flaws with your argument.

1: The iPod and iTunes revolutionised digital music. Sorry, but that is simply not the case. Apple invented neither, they just made the interface (on the iPod at least) better. This point can, of course, be argued. But they certinatly did not revolutionise digital music.

2: The N95 is ugly. That is an opinion, and is not a fact. Some people think it looks great, some think it looks awful, and some (like me) think it is middle of the road. There are far worse. I have had an N95, it was ok. As for the crashing, perhaps you should do more in-depth research. The crashing was caused (primarly) by network opperators dumping crap onto the phone...not a nokia issue.

3: Who cares if the iPhone only has 2.5G? I do, I was looking forward to the iPhone...was being the opperative word. You say you can't tell the difference betwen 2.5G and 3G speeds? Then your not running it at 3G speeds, period. I don't have a land line, I have a T-Mobile USB modem (3.5G)....3.6 Mb/sec in case your wondering. But even when it scales back to 3G it's faster than 2.5G.

As for others comments about MMS, yes this is a big deal. In the UK at least MMS is used an awful lot.

Alas, the iPhone could have been great...but it's fallen short. That's not to say that Apple won't change the specs and have it 3/3.5G by the time it is released over here, MMS should just be a software update. Get those added and I do belive that it will be one of the best phones out there, but even then I won't be buying one at typical Apple prices - it's just not worth it.

Paris Hilton says jail term has changed her

Stephen

Goodbye

Well, you had to do it. You've been writing more and more stories that have no technical angle at all....this is the last straw. One more Paris f****** Hilton article and I will never bother comming back to theregister.

Biting the hand that feeds IT.....not any more.

Fake flash player site used to spread malware

Stephen

Many people infected?

[anonymous wrote]

Erm... PCs actually, and only Uncle Bill's rat-infested OS at that.

Ubuntu anyone?

And what happens when Windows is replaced by Linux/MacOS...yes all those virus/malware writers out thre will attack that OS. The only reason Windows is targeted is because it is the most popular, computer viruses are just like biological viruses and exist ONLY if there is a viable host.

Mark, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. If ISP's filter this crap out (and we know they can, they jus choose not to) then a lot of botnets used for spam/DOS/DDOS will die off. Inline malware would be cut down a lot as well, you won't get 100% of this stuff 100% of the time but it would be a big help. Hell, it would also make the internet go faser too! Imagine, an internet that isn't clogged with spam and malware....utopia.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel though, most anti virus systems now do NOT ask you to update, they just do it. And it's about bloody time too!