* Posts by Geoff Mackenzie

744 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jul 2007

Samsung GT-C6625

Geoff Mackenzie
FAIL

Hmm, close

I actually like the retro looks, but Windows Mobile rules it out.

Shame really.

Aerial laser gunboat 'burns hole in fender' of moving car

Geoff Mackenzie

Re: Hole in the head

I could well be wrong but I suspect human heads are probably a bit wet for the laser. I'd duck under something hefty at the first whiff of burning hair.

Child porn threat to airport's 'virtual strip search' scanners

Geoff Mackenzie
FAIL

Yeah, because ...

... the reason people would object to widespread strip-searching at airports is the inconvenience of having to get undressed, then dressed again.

That seems to be the assumption behind this technology anyway.

Trade body doubles efforts against pirate software

Geoff Mackenzie
Linux

Sounds about right

Software piracy => Use of proprietary software => Poor security.

Linux Foundation woos with lifetime linux.com handle

Geoff Mackenzie
Linux

@Charlie Clark

Actually, FOSS saves lives, and may well be involved in tree planting, poverty eradication, water cleaning etc. IT is useful - FOSS means that usefulness is available to anyone with a 10-year-old PC, an internet connection and some time to learn.

Do some googling. FOSS made itself very useful in the aftermath of the December 2004 Asian Tsunami. See also Schoolnet Namibia and countless other examples.

Windows 7, Bing and mobile will determine Ballmer's future

Geoff Mackenzie

The proof is in the pudding?

The phrase is: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." I rarely find proof of anything significant by digging around in pudding.

Microsoft-tested browser prosecution snares tech giants

Geoff Mackenzie

What innovation!

"any form of content embedded and run inside a single web page. According to Eolas, the second patent in question - '985, awarded by the USPTO this month - is a continuation of '906 that "allows websites to add fully-interactive embedded applications to their online offerings through the use of plug-in and AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) web development techniques"

Content! Embedded! In a web page! Interactive!

Great stuff, it's only fair we pay these innovators for their contribution. Did the idea just occur to them while reading the HTML standard, or what?

Pirate Bay sinks again after Dutch ISP complies to cut off order

Geoff Mackenzie

@ForthIsNotDead

Entirely agree with your point about FORTH being alive and well.

Your shrieks about piracy seem a little deranged though.

Ballmer pumps Windows 7 up to thrifty customers

Geoff Mackenzie
Linux

Hmm

“To build a sustainable competitive advantage, companies must ultimately do two things - increase productivity and find ways to deliver new value to customers.”

Counterexample: Microsoft; decades undeniably in the lead, virtually no new value delivered to customers.

Thrifty customer here, sticking with the Penguin and the Puffer fish.

Ballmer says Big Blue hands in too few pies

Geoff Mackenzie

Yeah

Because desperately clutching at mobile, HPC, cloudiness and gaming straws has really saved MS while their last few major software releases were greeted with a worldwide chorus of 'meh'.

Maybe IBM should open some shops, right next to Apple stores?

Cameron escapes Twitter twat rap

Geoff Mackenzie

20 Complaints?

You mean *every listener* phoned in!?

Open source code quality improving

Geoff Mackenzie

@mrweekender

Hear hear! I've read a lot of FOSS code and I have nothing but respect for the people who worked on it. If you find a problem, stop gurning and fix it, and thank the people that laid the foundations even if they left off a bit of polish.

As for these 'open source bloatware' allegations - well, I haven't seen it. Most of my machines are sub 1GHz Pentium 3 or below and clipping along just fine. A good few are not even Windows XP capable, let alone Vista / 7, but on Linux they're years from retirement and still doing useful work and running up to date code.

Volvo reveals electric C30's specs

Geoff Mackenzie

Disappointing top speed?

Speed limit's 80 anyway

Peugeot looks to 1940s for quirky e-car design

Geoff Mackenzie

That's not just ugly

it's backwards. The old one that 'inspired' it is significantly better looking.

White hats release exploit for critical Windows vuln

Geoff Mackenzie
Linux

On the other foot

The only reason there seem to be fewer holes in Vista is that nobody's using it.

Last I read, pound for pound, Windows 2000 was the most secure version.

Microsoft security tools give devs the warm fuzzies

Geoff Mackenzie

Never mind

"To prevent miscreants from using the program to spot vulnerabilities in other developers' software"

Useless then. Cheers.

Microsoft targets Google's mobile dream with Bing

Geoff Mackenzie

Google works great on my phone

I can't really see a way to improve significantly on it.

US Spec Ops operates psywar websites targeted at UK

Geoff Mackenzie

@Ian Michael Gumby

Thank you for disseminating that truthful information.

Managing the Windows desktop estate: Your view

Geoff Mackenzie

W, as they say, TF?

1.7 To what degree have netbooks started to be deployed as a fully supported piece of kit?

Extensive deployment

Some deployment

Little or no deployment

1.8 To what degree have netbooks started to be deployed as a fully supported piece of kit?

Already happening quite a bit

A few users are doing this

Not aware of any significant activity

MS insists bodged fix didn't spawn Windows crash risk

Geoff Mackenzie

Hmm

It wasn't always there, and it is now. It may not have been MS07-063, but it was MS\d{2}-\d{3}, unless someone other than MS has been contributing to SMB on Vista.

Linux webserver botnet pushes malware

Geoff Mackenzie

@Al fazed and Richard Hebert

"I am soo glad that I haven't taken the plunge into running Apache on a Linux box.

I assume this is a Linux ftp privilege that was abused."

No, it was "careless administrators who allowed their root passwords to be sniffed". What do *you* run Apache on? MacOS?

Also, "Servers need to have their security patches applied !" - applying patches won't keep out someone with the root password. Sure, when your system is vulnerable, you should patch it, but patching for its own sake does more harm than good.

Microsoft throws $1m open-source party

Geoff Mackenzie

Waste

Should just have donated $1m to the FSF. Nobody trusts them anyway.

Microsoft tells US retailers Linux is rubbish

Geoff Mackenzie

FAT32 pen drive on Ubuntu

Re: @Alan Esworthy #

By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 9th September 2009 02:24 GMT

>> What happens if you put a FAT32 usb drive into your ubuntu machine and try to write to it?

Er, it writes to it. I've not had any trouble.

Boffins: Give up on CO2 cuts, only geoengineering can work

Geoff Mackenzie

@Dorset Rambler

People use 'saving the planet' as a shorthand for 'keep the planet habitable by us'. If we all die, what do we care whether the planet keeps spinning?

It's pretty pedantic to use the FAIL icon over such a trivial technicality.

Microsoft says US is top malware target

Geoff Mackenzie

US says Microsoft is top malware target

There, fixed it.

Linux guru: interface innovation is the challenge

Geoff Mackenzie

CLI old fashioned?

In real life we all invest years of effort learning linguistic interaction, despite having point and grunt down cold almost immediately. Point and grunt works fine for simple requests, but more complicated and subtle communication requires us to resort to language.

Multitaskers: suckers for irrelevancy, easily distracted

Geoff Mackenzie

"We kept looking for what they're better at, and we didn't find it."

Only looked for five minutes, got distracted.

Windows 7: Microsoft's three missed opportunities

Geoff Mackenzie

Yuck!

Group by > Ascending (from the context menu in the screenshot in the article). What does that mean?

(OK, obviously I know - but it's still typical nonsensical garbage).

I have one token toaster, running XP; a 733MHz PIII with 512Mb of core. I refuse to waste a real machine on Windows, so I have no option but to stick with XP.

This is just bloated, overpriced junk as usual.

Office 2010 to come loaded with WGA's bastard child

Geoff Mackenzie

41 percent

Citation needed.

Linux chief challenges Microsoft to pony up on patents

Geoff Mackenzie

@Simpson

"Which would also alow [sic] them to copy source, line for line"

No it wouldn't. It would protect us from accusations of patent violation, not copyright infringement.

Microsoft banks on Windows 7 double holiday hit

Geoff Mackenzie

Obvious troll is obvious

I'm not rebuilding my kernels. Mine aren't affected by this one (see gerdesj's post above).

Enjoy the new paint job on Vista, Wintards.

GM hybrid SUV planned for 2011

Geoff Mackenzie

Great!

Now, where can I get nuclear weapons made from recycled materials that haven't been tested on animals?

Microsoft assaults our senses with 'viral' Bing video

Geoff Mackenzie

Total Bing

That video bings so badly I almost binged my computer right out the binging window.

Brit diplomats' mission to expose Scientology's 'diploma mill'

Geoff Mackenzie

@Christopher Rogers

Nope, not offended, sorry. Have a dig at Linux and you should get me as well though. :)

Microsoft releases Windows 7 to MSDN, TechNet today

Geoff Mackenzie

Excellent!

I've been needing to run chkdsk /r for ages.

High Court shields database state from blame

Geoff Mackenzie

No surprises

This is a country where an innocent bystander can get shot in the face repeatedly at point blank range in broad daylight in a crowded location by the police. They were just discharging their duties too.

Back on topic, I believe there's a blot on my credit record also where a finance company decided to automatically advance me credit for a vehicle insurance policy renewal I didn't ask for and then decided that despite having no signature or equivalent proof of an agreement with me, they were going to shit on my credit record for not paying. As far as I know the black mark is still there and there's not a lot I can do about it.

And by the way - what is *wrong* with the Blair family? What a shower of contemptible shits.

Microsoft under threat from Linux - it's official

Geoff Mackenzie

Re: hermetically sealed vacuum

Open source described as a hermetically sealed vacuum? Now I've heard everything.

Government ready to round up opinions on DNA database

Geoff Mackenzie

First ...

... they came for opinions, and I was not an opinion, so I said nothing...

Amazon sued for sending 1984 down Orwellian memory hole

Geoff Mackenzie

Hard copy is no solution

My paper copy disappeared from the shelf the same day. Coincidence? I think not.

Lads from Lagos cut off

Geoff Mackenzie

@David S

"I'm sure I remember someone explaining how the internet was supposed to be able to repair itself magically by rerouting around breaks like this"

Well yes, but it's not *magic*. If you pull the Ethernet cable out of your PC it won't route round that either.

Mozilla makes rough notes on Firefox 3.6

Geoff Mackenzie

Firefox bloat / regressive new versions

This doesn't tally with my experience at all. 1.x to 2.x was a very worthwhile upgrade, and 3.x seems like another nice upgrade so far from my own experience of using it. It starts in less than half a second from cold on my 2-year-old machine running Ubuntu and runs very quickly. I've had no stability issues. It even manages to perform OK on the Windows XP machine I use for work, and my own token toaster (Windows XP on an 833MHz P3 with 512Mb of RAM).

I've not been hugely impressed by recent mockups of future versions, but I haven't tried them yet to see how the new UI works in practice, and anyway I'm sure FF will retain its legendary flexibility so I can tweak it until I like it.

I tried Opera, but it ran a good bit slower on my machine so I went back to FF. I don't really think there's a reasonable competitor on my platform. Fortunately I'm very happy with Firefox.

Windows 7 Ultimate product activation hacked?

Geoff Mackenzie

A new concept on the intertubes from MS

Peer to peer websites? Is this a Microsoft innovation? All my websites are client-server.

British Council faces legal action for offshoring

Geoff Mackenzie

@pedrodude

Protectionist unions? Never!

"We're never going to get to a truly globalised world if the unions keep getting in the way of free markets like this"

Good stuff.

Microsoft! and! Yahoo! finally! sign! search! deal!

Geoff Mackenzie

A wannabe and a has-been

They deserve each other.

Microsoft bitchslaps Oracle over 11g pricing

Geoff Mackenzie

Oracle != MS SQL Server

Oracle and MS SQL aren't exactly comparable though. A more sensible comparison might be between Oracle and Postgres.

@Kevin Bailey: Sybase Adaptive Server is a less bloated, portable RDBMS that is *relatively* easy to port to from MS SQL Server, given that it also speaks T-SQL. No accident of course; MS SQL Server is Sybase with added platform lock-in in the first place.

MS adds sandboxing to Office 2010

Geoff Mackenzie

Fix it or axe it

Microsoft have been duct-taping on features to Office for a long time now. Based on the tangled heap of special cases that is OOXML, the code base is now crippled by years of neglect and abuse and is probably far too labyrinthine and backward for anyone to really have a sound understanding of it.

Eventually, if you focus exclusively on progressive changes that affect the user experience and neglect the necessary anti-regressive and invisible stuff (what's the incentive if nobody can legally see what a mess it is anyway?), any code base will collapse under the weight of the accumulation of WTFs, hacks and voodoo code holding it together.

If Office is not a twitching, decomposing zombie, it should be possible to find the most potentially dangerous areas and put a bit of time into cleaning them up. Maybe the next release could be exactly like the current one, less 20% of the bloat and 80% of the serious security holes.

If, on the other hand, it's now so degenerate it needs to be permanently quarantined in its own rubber cell, maybe it's time to pull the plug on it.

Some businesses do still have magic spreadsheets performing business-critical functions, but no system lasts forever and keeping MS Office for the sake of a gruesomely unmaintainable Office-based 'application' is only delaying the inevitable.

Obviously MS are going to keep flogging their dead cash-cow as long as at all possible, but only MS are going to benefit if people keep trying to actually use it.

Microsoft GPL violation hits memory hole

Geoff Mackenzie

@SteveK

"when people moan that Linux doesn't perform so well running on Hyper-V compared to VMWare"

I don't think you'll find many people would care. As another commenter already mentioned, sane people run Windows VMs on Linux anyway, not the other way round.

Aside from working around the after-effects of dealing with a monopolist, I can't see any reason to run Windows at all any more. A few Windows XP (or 2003 Server) VMs should cover most peoples' unportable legacy systems long enough for them to be replaced.

Also, @AC, first post; the term 'freetard' isn't really appropriate here. The 'tard' suffix would imply that us 'freetards' are in some way making a mistake or missing out on something because of our unwillingness to part with cash. I for one just prefer to spend a few extra notes on the hardware and run a stable, flexible, secure and convenient operating system on it. Nothing very 'tarded about that as far as I can see.

Microsoft set for open source outpouring?

Geoff Mackenzie

Actually ...

> However, if you take a look at the number of drivers the Linux kernel still needs on hardware here, you'll see just how far Linux lags Windows on some basic plug-and-play functionality

Nope, we'll see nothing of the sort, without a similar list for Windows (i.e. a list of hardware devices for which no driver is supplied with the OS).

Firefox update fixes zero-day JavaScript flaw

Geoff Mackenzie

@nweightman

Sounds like nothing much runs stably on your box. What OS are you running? Could be your answer.

Also, it doesn't really take a decent, working browser to beat what Redmond are offering.

BMW to ride in with 115-mile range e-scooter?

Geoff Mackenzie

I'll take one!

Provided it looks absolutely nothing like the C1. No roof please.