* Posts by Maty

714 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2007

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DNA database includes nipper and nonagenarian

Maty
Flame

@ac Idiot. Singular

So when the case they were investigating was over - why not delete the baby's DNA? And you don't need to put the DNA on the database for a single case. You just need to give it to one lab.

Do try to think your postings through before you hit that 'post comment' button. Those you are calling idiots might be more wounded if the insult came from someone whose spelling and grammar are only marginally better than that of the infant in question.

Vista to XP 'downgrade' lawsuit revised

Maty

to get an XP box

Go to your local PC shop - I mean a real one, owned by an enthusiast, not a superstore staffed by college dropouts - and ask for a custom machine. By getting only the bits you want you save money, and also qualify for an OEM version of XP pro.

I like Vista, except the networking and DRM are so secure that you can't use a local network or media. And I like Linux except that my favourite games aren't supported. That leaves XP.

Eric Schmidt reanimates el cheapo PC zombie

Maty

Cloud computing

Because I was once doing a job in London and my laptop died. I got a netbook (Asus eee) from Tottenham court road - right next to B. mus where I was working - and was back at work in 90 min. No need to install apps or backups - I could check for details of emails that I'd sent two years ago and forgotten, and catch up with what my students were doing on their eLearning course. (Actually, where does moodle fit in this rather sneering article? Why not give someone a 250 quid computer to do a $1500 course online?)

Cloud computing has also saved me hours of hassle having a google doc that I, editor, and a collaborator can work on at once without emailing multiple copies to each other. And when said editor is in London, I'm in Canada and collaborator is in Italy and we all move around, the only network that can hack it is the internet.

Seriously. Cloud computing isn't for everyone, but if you need it, there's nothing better. And it's free. This might not be a great business model for the providers, but for users its great.

And um, the reason why someone who's quoting Moore's law should do so correctly is so we know he knows what he's talking about. If he can't get the basics right, how can we believe the rest?

eBay scammers work unpatched weaknesses in Firefox, IE

Maty

noscript

NoScript is a tool, not a magic bullet. Like any tool you've got to know how and when to use it. And it works on a lot more than javascript - or do you think that flash is completely hazard free?

Personally I have my browser set to warn me when cross-scripting happens on a site. If there's a legit reason for it (and it can be useful sometimes - for example in online games) then no prob. But when I'm looking at something like eBay and a cross-script warning comes up, that's a big red flag.

Trouble is, there's too many inexperienced/ignorant users out there. We've pushed the idea that the internet can be used with no training or even background reading - just buy a computer, get hooked up and learn as you go along. That's how everyone does it, and we are still discovering how expensive that learning can be.

Firefox update tackles critical memory bugs

Maty

er ...

>>If this is going to fix the problem that leaves the Firefox process running (albeit crashed) despite closing the browser down. This is the bane of my internet life at the moment as the only fix for it is to reboot.<<

Why not just look for firefox.exe in active processes and close it there?

Google Earth faces terrorist target airbrush bill

Maty

shock update folks ...

Security through obscurity doesn't work.

Polish Spitfire shoots down BNP

Maty

While we are at it ...

Can someone do something about those Scottish immigrants who are down in Westminster taking the jobs of English politicians? Don't they have their own parliament back where they came from?

Judge issues radioactive 'pr0n downloader' alert

Maty

'making indecent pics'

As I understand the law, this means that you simply have to download the .jpg and 'make' the pic on your screen with the comp. It goes back to the time when it was legal to possess some kinds of porn, but not to manufacture the stuff, so some clever prosecutor persuaded a judge that the 'download file - create image' was making the picture.

Anyway, I seem to recall that here in Canada Manga lolis are illegal. (Well, some anyway)

El Reg suffers identity crisis

Maty
Paris Hilton

I for one ...

welcome our new lesbian overlords, er, overladies. How soon can they start? Paris, because ...do I have to explain?

Miley Cyrus hacker in MySpace spam ringtone scam

Maty

I'm impressed

In ancient Athens those found guilty of a crime could propose their own punishment and the prosecution their own (presumably harsher) option, and the jury voted on their preference.

Socrates on being found guilty proposed that he be given free meals for life, so it seems that our teen hacker is following in his footsteps. Perhaps the lad reads Xenophon in his spare time?

Teen sacked for 'boring' job Facebook comment

Maty
Thumb Down

but ...

Are there any interesting jobs in Clacton?

Lads from Lagos crack cabinet minister's webmail account

Maty

Hotmail?

I know British politicos don't get the internet. But hotmail? Seriously? I bet he also has word 97 running on Windows ME.

Former staff swipe confidential company data

Maty

oh yeah

I walked off my last job as a sysadmin with a full list of passwords, and left a backdoor into the network as well. Just as well, as I had spent eight years putting that system in place, and my successor had a fortnight to learn it all. If she hadn't been able to ask me back in to sort out some issues, her job would have been almost impossible.

Not everyone who leaves with company data does so with malign intentions.

Google antitrust suit: Is there a case?

Maty

You do understand

what a 'quality landing page is'? It's Google's attempt to ensure that clicking an ad doesn't lead you to a page full of other ads and no product. This was called adsense arbitrage and was hurting adsense's business model.

So the question is not whether business.com meets some standard of aesthetics. It's whether it actually delivers what the advertisement promises. If you click on an ad for Caribbean holidays, a 'quality' page offers to sell you such a holiday. A low quality page might be visually stunning, and highly functional, but if it offers nothing but more ads for Caribbean holidays, it's 'low quality' and (rightly) has to pay more to attract viewers.

UK boffin: Social networking causes cancer, heart attacks, lupus, dementia...

Maty
Pirate

Try MMORPG

Cancer and diabetes are the least of your worries. In the last month I've been lasered, chopped down with a chainsaw and eaten by something with too many teeth and claws. But hey, I *think* I managed a few moments of social interaction with that beastie before it got me.

Photography rights: Snappers to descend on Scotland Yard

Maty

Don't think we should be bashing the police

They are going to do whatever makes their jobs and lives easier - that's human nature, and however awfully the cops actually DO it, its still a tough job.

However lets put the boot into a government that can't or won't pass laws with proper parameters, and instead basically say 'X is an offence - yes, technically everyone is guilty of it, but we will enforce the law with discretion.'

Most current terrorism and sex offences legislation falls into this category. Given sufficient incentive, every male in the UK reading this can probably be charged under one heading or the other.

Google on trial over Italian 'defamation' vid

Maty
Thumb Down

rather than the mail ...

...let's imagine a noticeboard, say in a college. If I put up a notice containing illegal/defamatory material, and the college authorities remove it as soon as this is brought to their attention, can the college be sued for the time that the notice was up?

I trust this is a bit of grandstanding by the Italian prosecutors. Otherwise every forum and user-generated content site in the world is about to potentially fall foul of Italian law.

Man trademarks ;-) emoticon

Maty

Its worse than you think

My company Elithio Ideas inc. has trademarked the simple dot - as in the one under the vertical line at the end of this sentence!

Our lawyers estimate that you lot who have posted comments already owe us £100,000 (or €20) apiece. (And that's just for the full stops. We're letting you off the ones over the i as a goodwill gesture.)

As for El Reg itself, a look at past pages shows that it owes several multiples of the national debt, and the bailiffs will be around on Monday to collect Sarah B (or 'The Moderatrix') in part-payment.

IWF pulls Wikipedia from child porn blacklist

Maty

Now ...

What happens if I report a website with Caravaggio's 'Love Triumphant'? (Which depicts a naked pre-adolescent clearly in breach of the IWF guidelines) ? Is an otherwise legal picture illegal only if it is on a computer - and what does that tell us about society and its response to technology?

Now if you will excuse me, I'm just off to denounce my local church. Some of their cherubs are both naked and clearly underage.

The Netbook Newbie's Guide to Linux

Maty
Thumb Up

why not...

Just replace the fisher-price interface with a proper linux gui and leave the underlying Xandros intact? Done that with my eee, and now don't leave home without it. Did £120 worth of work while waiting to see the dentist once - the thing has paid for itself several times over.

MPs declare their ignorance on the web

Maty

Let's see now ...

Parliament ... does it have the possibility to cause harm? Yes. Are there cases of it doing harm? Oh, emphatically, and dozens of times yes. And not just anecdotal evidence either.

Has the internet done more for the economic well-being of the UK and the enrichment of the lives of its citizens than this out-of-touch complacent gang of servile reactionaries (you understand I'm toning this down from my initial reaction)? Indubitably.

Time to abolish the lot and make them get proper jobs - preferably not paid for by the taxpayer. What is the point of parliament anyway? And don't give me any tired old arguments about freedom.

Agile fraudsters prey on clueless UK surfers

Maty

If ...

Matt really believes he doesn't need security software because he's not using Windows, he's risking an expensive shock.

Well, the level of pure computer illiteracy assumed by the quiz suggests that the compilers have spent some time on help desks. (Oh, and that one of them is a Tottenham fan), and putting it in flash - heh - I do hope this is because the person who prepared it has a delicious sense of irony. Do the quiz and you fail by default ...

BBC's speak you're branes collapses under Brand-Ross sex outrage

Maty
IT Angle

If it was ...

Just Wossie and Brand making that sort of comment to each other, I'd see no problem. But Sachs was not part of the show, and did not ask to be called up and have this stuff spouted at him. And when he heard it he asked for it not to be broadcast.

But it was broadcast - and it was not 'mindless'. It was clever, cruel, sadistic and funny. Just as the worst kind of bullying can be. No doubt there is an audience for this kind of thing. It's just that most license payers don't want to pay for people who do that. Even if they don't watch it, and don't know its been done until later, they don't want it being done by people, whom, basically, they employ.

The BBC management had the issue drawn forcibly to its attention, and belatedly took appropriate action. Story over. Can we go back to bitching about Vista please?

IT angle because phones were involved?

Police collar kid for Wi-Fi pinching

Maty

so what's my redress if ...

I didn't want to log onto his network? However his router logged my comp in without my consent and gave me a IP number I didn't want or need. It exposed my computer to internet hackers and malware when I just turned on my laptop to play a game of offline Civ. Does this computer misuse stuff work both ways?

Bebo users release interstellar spamgasm at Gliese 581

Maty

drat

That's given the the Galactic planning council the perfect excuse for routing the hyperspace freeway through our solar system. Bring on the vogons!

Leave my coat - I want Ford Prefect's

Judge Dredd smartshell shotguns to hit Iraq in '09

Maty

The Jumbo

..was, as I recall a 12 gage, that used a large revolver-style drum. I only ever saw the specs and don't know if it was ever manufactured, but the basic idea was that you could load different sections of the drum with different shot and mix-and-match your firepower. e.g. load two solid shot for taking out the door, and birdshot for non-lethal AP purposes when within the building. Simply rotate the drum to get the right type of shot under the hammer.

Mosley asks Europe to change UK privacy laws

Maty

one law for the rich ...

... and famous, another law for the rest of us. I see that at the same time as this story the Reg is carrying an article of a super-database that will track almost all our communications.

Privacy appears to be becoming one of those quaint old-fashioned concepts that only exist if you can afford a lawyer.

Germans give peeking Google one in the eye

Maty
Black Helicopters

oh really?

So if cameras aid child molesters, can we ask for all surveillance cameras in Britain to be disabled, as we cannot be SURE they won't be misused by the operators?

After all, if it protects just one child, it will be worth it ...

Black helicopter, because *their* intrusions into your privacy are for your security and convenience.

Burned by Chrome - Fire put out

Maty

Google can't take my rights

I gave them to Microsoft long ago. The '98 EULA, I think it was.

PS By reading this post you unconditonally allow me the right to sacrifice your first-born son to Satan. And that's just as binding as the interpretation some people are putting on this EULA. Just because something is asserted in a EULA don't make it legal. The law of the land takes precedence.

Neo-Nazi forum hacked

Maty

So, to summarize ..

Stop facist violence. Kill (or at least maim) all violent people.

Maty

Hitler a socialist?

>>'What is equally frightening are those of the (predominantly) American loony right who claim Hitler was a socialist.'<<

Do you think it was the Nazis officially calling themselves the National Socialists that gave that impression?

eBay wins right to not police counterfeit goods

Maty

tat?

I needed a battery for a particular type of laptop- I looked for a reputable dealer on eBay and got an excellent product in good time at a reasonable price. Characterizing eBay as a tat seller because some of its vendors sell tat is like calling an online IT journal a joke gossip rag because some of its articles have humour and inside information.

But then, when I buy an item I characterize its value for money by whether it performs the function it was made for, not the logo. If it's a good product it's a good product, no matter who made it, and if the vendor is selling an overpriced POS, that will reflect in his ratings.

Teens admit to Grand Theft Auto-inspired petrol bombfest

Maty

ooooh really?

I'd never heard of Molotov cocktails until I read about them here. Now if I firebomb something can I blame the Reg?

Did you guys ever wonder what the other ingredient in the 'cocktail' is?

BT slams bandwidth brakes on all subscribers

Maty

not BT vs BBC

"I call shinanigans. For example, if I go to watch a video on the BBC news site, my internet connection shuts off. EVERY TIME. Doesn't happen with YouTube or such, just BBC related content. I have to reboot my BT Homehub to get connection back. Methinks BT are targetting the Beeb specifically."

Actually, I think you will find this is a different issue. On occasion, and depending on circumstances, the iPlayer apparently does something dramatic to hubs that crashes their internet connection whatever, and whenever. Ours did that for a while, and then suddenly stopped doing it. It's not an ISP-based thing

US customs: Yes, we can seize your laptop, iPod

Maty

oh, good one Sir!

"I love how the free world keeps setting such a wonderful example for everyone else."

Free world? Very funny mate. Some time in the 1980s perhaps. In 2008 I'd choose another expression for places where you get on the national DNA database for dropping litter, and my local town councillor can order up surveillance on whomever he suspects of letting their dog poop on his lawn.

Microsoft slams 'sensationalist' Vista analysis

Maty
Thumb Down

yup, crappy OS

Here's why

Lousy networking. Can't keep a network connection up (old rule of security - make it too hard to get in, and you can't get out). Network printers need to be found and reinstalled on a regular basis.

I don't mind it being slow - my hardware is over 18 months old after all, but when I want to do something, and the OS is too busy with housekeeping to pay attention, that's annoying.

Boot-up time. OMG (Even with caching disabled)

DRM. When I've paid for a DVD in a high street shop and have the box sitting on its wrapping paper beside me, I'm less than impressed by Vista telling me that its not kosher.

Good things - I like the interface. It's more intuitive.

It's more stable. Far fewer BSODs

Better security - I run in non-admin mode and can do sudo equivalent.

Overall - I'd be running ubuntu like a shot if my games and some specialist functions were supported.

Reg hack insults the Parachute Regiment

Maty
Paris Hilton

ummmm ...

'You've been c*nt struck by a few fluttering eyelids'? Sonny Jim might be able to land his chute on a cross in a stadium, but evidently needs a bit more practice at finding his way around female anatomy.

Paris, because practice makes perfect.

The return of Killer Chlorine

Maty

quick test

Okay - there's this rare disease - affects less than one in 100,000 but its fatal if untreated. There's a test, which is 90% accurate, and a cure which is an injection that cures you if you have the disease, but kills you if you don't.

Do you take the shot?

(Apparently most doctors got this one wrong, so think about it for a moment ..!)

BSA: Software piracy's 'tragic' impact on US society

Maty

I confess

Today I walked to the shops instead of taking the bus - costing the company the price of my ticket. I had a shower instead of a bath, and cost my utility company (at present rates) a small fortune. I let the cat out of the house instead of watching the advertisements when I saw the news last night, thus robbing the advertiser of his paid spot.

I use open office, the gimp and gmail, thus depriving revenue from the software companies that sweated to produce more expensive products. Now I realize that all my activities have actually been depriving my community of the policemen, schools and hospitals that would have done so much to make the world a better place.

Come to that, why am I reading el Reg at all? Can someone recommend an inferior IT online journal that I can pay lots of money to read? For the kids' sake?

The Moderatrix will see you now

Maty

And also ..

...why is there just one Monopoly and Mergers Commission?

North Carolina targets WTF licence plates

Maty

try this one ...

I'm in Austria. Just this afternoon had a car go by with number plate IM 3 WAY. What would Carolina make of that one?

Devil dog laughs in the face of Taser

Maty
Paris Hilton

ifimust

"Yes the police could have hung around feeding the beast chocolate ..." since dogs can't metabolize chocolate (they don't have the enzymes) the stuff poisons them. Give a dog enough chocolate and that will kill it - but shooting it is quicker and more humane.

Paris, because she makes some of the discussion here seem rational. (And if she has a pink poodle she obviously knows about doggy style.)

Disgruntled admin gets 63 months for massive data deletion

Maty

Why ...

No offilne backups? Anything digital is temporary data. That's the only way to think of it. One tape goes into a (fireproof) safe at the end of the week - and if its current stuff as important medical records, I'd say the IT manager should personally do it every evening.

And departing sysadmins often leave a backdoor - in case the new guy has issues, or you get a call to sort something out urgently after you have left the company.

@ AC "Surely the major point that everyone (besides a couple of people posting here) seems to be missing is that it's scary that this one person had so much power, so much access..." never been a sysadmin, AC?

UK culture sec wants a public service web

Maty

its not for you ..

These guys know that net-savvy users are a lost constituency, and that you know what they're saying doesn't make sense. They're aiming for your auntie Magde who's terrified by this internet thingy that's teaching kids how to make bombs and kill themselves. Why can't it be regulated like the good old beeb? She'll vote for someone who's prepared to try.

The bummer is, because of this, they WILL try.

US appeals judge shares porn stash with world +dog

Maty

it was a spelling mistake, okay?

Obviously the poor journo didn't mean to say 'a woman painted to look like cows'. Give him a break. It is obvious it should have been Cowes, probably a tasteful view of the harbour. I wonder if the artist managed to get the little boats in if he painted it during regatta week. Did the pictures 'involving defecation' show a woman painted to look like Bognor?

iRobot Roomba 560 robot vacuum cleaner

Maty

fan

We've got a flat with hardboard floors. The Roomba is perfect for it. Usually we let it run around 11am. Apart from occasional maintenance it just works, though we had to rejig the flat to get rid of its problem areas. I reckon it saves about two hours a week of mind-numbing boredom in floor cleaning.

Yes, you need the right kind of flat, and yes, you need to re-arrange slightly to suit your Roomba. What's the problem? This baby pays that back a lot in terms of time and quality of life. Here's a hint - most people who have a Roomba get another one when the first goes to silicon heaven. And @AC - I'm a frequent poster with an active account. Cynic indeed!

US nuke boffins smash petaflop barrier with 'Roadrunner'

Maty
Paris Hilton

mouse brains?

My mouse has a brain? 1/45th of a petaflop just to move a cursor around the screen? And 45 x £9 costs ... err I'll ask my mouse shall I?

PH, cos mouse-level IQs fascinate me

Police probe pirate-DVD detecting dog's demise

Maty

remember...?

>>I agree, how can they smell the difference between pirate and legit?<<

HMV used to be called 'His Master's Voice' with a logo of a little doggy looking down the tube of a phonograph horn? Now we know what they were training doggy to do.

Old Windows exploits dominate hack attack traffic

Maty

US and China eh?

Wouldn't have anything to do with the one having most computers per head, and the other having a huuuuge population catching up fast on computers per capita? Let's guess, San Marino and Andorra are not threats to the world internet infrastructure?

I've noticed things fall downward in the presence of gravity. Where can I publish?

UK to outlaw cartoons of child sexual abuse

Maty

What happens ...

If you try to do a cartoon version of Romeo & Juliet? I seem to recall Juliet is 14 when she gets seduced, married and dies horribly. (Not that, I've ever read or seen the play, Mr Policeman)

Mind you, a lot of that depraved Shakespeare perv comes under the extreme porn category anyway. Ban him, for the children's sake!

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