* Posts by g e

3255 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jul 2007

Euro Parliament votes to end data sharing with US – the NSA swiped the bytes anyway

g e
Holmes

Re: 'Perhaps the NSA simply just doesn't trust its friends in Europe. '

Not as little as its 'friends in Europe' trusts them.

Carl Icahn broadcasts his $150bn Apple shakedown effort to world+dog

g e

Yup. Undervalued my backside.

But I get what he's trying to do...

Extract the cash while it's there, then the corp value can tank as much as it likes.

Netflix original TV shows gamble pays off... to the tune of 10m new viewers

g e

Re: We are considering cancelling cable

Hear hear

g e

Re: You can bet

Which is exactly why making their own content and cutting those assclowns out of the loop altogether is an excellent way forward.

g e

Re: More efficient than the BBC then

Use a tablet or laptop. Bin your TV.

Apple handed Samsung-busting nuke after Steve Jobs patent U-turn

g e
WTF?

Surely PixelSense is prior art from 2001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PixelSense

I'd have thought it would in MS's interest to get it invalidated as they'll be liking MT functionality on Surface?

Alarming tales: What goes on INSIDE Reg hack's hi-tech bedroom

g e
Pint

Simples.

Just stick your phone on vibrate and put it under your pillow.

If you're wise enough to have a recent-ish Android phone then just turn Block Mode on for e.g. 23:00 - 06:00 and no errant plonkers will disturb you with their notifications between those hours.

Cancel the alarm simply by placing the palm of your hand on the screen (with gestures enabled in settings)

Friday pint for all.

Whodathunkit? Media barons slit own throats in flawed piracy crackdowns

g e
Thumb Up

Re: "voluntary solutions"?

Precisely. I don't go to the cinema because of that 'ripped off' feeling as you walk out 2 hours later.

g e
Holmes

Ahh, MPAA, how Kettlesome is thy Pot

If "The MPAA is complaining that Google leads people to infringing links"

Then why are they doing their apparent damnedest to encourage people to go search for them in the first place.

La-La-La fingers in the ears indeed.

BBC's Clangers returns in £5m 'New Age' remake

g e

Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

And remade The Italian Job...

in bloody America, was there actually anything Italian in it ?

I concur with your vexed stance.

NSA data centre launch delayed as power surges 'melt metal, zap racks'

g e

I know what's causing it

F*cking KARMA. That's what.

That's a money spinner: iPod wheel patent bout bags bod £2m from Apple

g e

2M seems a tiny amount

Even $0.01 per device sold would be more, surely

Apple: Now that you've updated to iOS 7... YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK

g e
Holmes

At least if your old colour TV looked like iOS7...

You could mend it with a quick degauss.

The NSA's hiring - and they want a CIVIL LIBERTIES officer

g e
Holmes

"(CLPO) is conceived as a completely new role"

Because before Snowden grassed us up we never had to give a flying fuck about civilians or liberty

Report says PRISM snooped on India's space, nuclear programs

g e

Re: I think keeping an eye on their nuke program is warranted

When the big one comes it'll most likely be due to US interference in something that got out of hand, anyway

g e
Go

I'm still waiting for them to respond to my request

For a picture of my old goldfish, Mr Wiggly, who passed away some time ago. Hoping they have a copy they can send me for posterity.

First look: Apple iPhone 5S and 5C

g e

Is it just me or...

Do all the ios7 screens look like someone got carried away with an old colour CRT and a magnet. I'm sure it looks fab and trendy to people who don't know what a CRT is, much less what it stands for but it looks 'busted' to me.

g e

Re: Whatever.

If you could live with your phone 'without being able to make or receive calls' then you never needed a phone, you just needed something to 'do work on' presumably email, facebook and angry birds which many people seem to think is what constitutes Getting Things Done these days.

If, however Being Contactable is more important than having an awkward mobile SSH client (at least JuiceSSH has relieved some of the pain since its arrival on the scene, nice app), email and other basic officey tasks in your pocket then you primarily need a phone.

I could happily just go with my old Nokia 6230 if I had to, as the work I need to do certainly needs a shedload more than a phone in my pocket and Being Contactable is far more important than anything else on my S4, nice as the extra stuff certainly is.

Peak Apple: Has ANYONE at all ordered a new iPhone 5c?

g e

Re: WANTED: iOS Desk

Then they can sue IKEA for any rounded corners

g e
Holmes

Quality

Depends on your metric

Angry Brazilian whacks NASA to put a stop to ... er, the NSA

g e

Goodbye SAN

I've ordered our new £250,000 SAN destroyed because it can't be trusted. They're out the back with sledgehammers right now...

OK, so we paid a bill late, but did BT have to do this?

g e

What BT are really doing

Is asking you to switch provider on principle.

Moving from permie to mercenary? Avoid a fine - listen to Ben Franklin

g e

Nobody gets let off

Unless they're called Vodafone, then they can say what they're willing to pay

g e

Re: I pay my taxes happily because it's a moral obligation

Am I allowed to withhold my portion of tax that goes to MOD, GCHQ and 'projects' like all the failed NHS stuff and the farcical HS2? Not to mention private jet charters to errr... climate conventions.

No. because ethics and morality don't enter into it.

Twitter announces it's going public, via Twitter

g e

Re: And that's the end of Twitter

As soon as 'shareholders' get involved - that's when services start to suffer cos then it's all about monetisation and getting a return. No mystery there.

How the hell Twaddler proposes to create a sound investment opportunity, though, yet eludes me and, I suspect, them also.

If you ever wanted confirmation of a bubble post-facebook (why their stock is so high is a mystery to me, they're becoming ever more irrelevant), watch this IPO.

Outlook.com adds IMAP, OAuth

g e

Re: Microsoft adopts standard!

Especially considering IMAP's only been around for 27 years, too!

IETF floats plan to PRISM-proof the Internet

g e

Which would be OK if

The NSA didn't have 'Staff in "Leadership positions" in the IETF' as claimed in an article I came across on G+ yesterday which claims exactly that and that they actively disrupt processes like security standards. Written by someone on one of those committees, i believe.

I don't have a link but a quick Google should turn something up pretty quick i'd imagine.

EDIT: This TechDirt article should get you closer - http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130909/11430124454/john-gilmore-how-nsa-sabotaged-key-security-standard.shtml

Cavemen innocent in MAMMOTH MURDER case: DNA evidence

g e

Seeing as everyone's getting bored of AGW

Maybe it's a good time to start my Global Freezing Fear Quango and bilk some money out of Cameron

Tech titans team up to complain about US government spy requests

g e
Black Helicopters

Will they try looking in my home next?

STFU you loon, you'll give them more crazy ideas they don't need.

Mind you, if you have a smart fridge they likely already check your milk bottles for 'terrorists'.

To riff off Noam Chomsky...

Terrorist: Utterly uncompliant, active hindrance to Foreign Policy Goals

Radical: An inconvenience, somewhat of an obstacle to Foreign Policy Goals

Moderate: Largely co-operative, occasionally useful for Foreign Policy Goals

Ally: Likely a member of the UN, often supportive of Foreign Policy Goals

Special Relationship: Bend Over Britain, an accomplice.

g e

You'd think that between them

They could buy 'Corporation Island', make it an independent state and run their own fibre internationally with the money they have. Leave US-only data in the US data centres. Amazon would have to leave fulfillment centres in the US but then only locally store what data's needed for the centre to operate. AWS already has regions.

Then comply with nothing and take their tax out of the US (what's still there, anyway) and even offer to move their employees to the island if they want to go, with zero tax on their salaries.

I'm sure most of their techies can remote work when they want anyway and there'll always be a bank that wants to hold the company accounts.

US intelligence: Snowden's latest leaks 'road map' for adversaries

g e

Re: So which is it?

Because they say so. They're the NSA after all, they know this stuff and wouldn't bullshit you.

Ministry of Sound sues Spotify over user playlists

g e
Meh

Ministry of Trolls

That is all

g e

In which case

A spotify playlist wouldn't be reproducing that 'talent'

g e
Coat

Top of the Opos

1975 or earlier ;o)

Mine's the one hung over the zimmer frame...

HDMI 2.0 spec arrives ... 1.0 years late

g e
Meh

Re: Still no 5V @1A output?

Yeah we all get that it's a video thing but seriously, no-one thought to beef up the current capability of that 5V signalling pin that's not-supposed-to-provide-power or whatever it is?

They make money from licensing HDMI compliance, right? Should be in their interest to spawn more gadgets.

g e
FAIL

Still no 5V @1A output?

Fail.

(Even 500mA would do)

Furious Frenchies tell Apple to bubble off: Bling iPhone isn't 'champagne'

g e

Re: Ummm

Not in Ubuntu it seems.. æ e → ø u is what you get there :o/

g e

Re: Ummm

Yes, if I had a Frenchy keyboard or could be arsed to find the accented e's via ALT+0xxx combo's.

Which I can't.

g e
Facepalm

Ummm

... votre telephone horrible, je pense.

g e
Happy

No more Krug/Bolly for you Mr Cook, be the laughing stock of the board with Cava/Prosecco

Simples.

China, India the key to Micr-okia's fate says IDC

g e

Noki-soft, rolls of the tongue better

That's all

Syrian Electronic Army hacks US Marines, asks 'bros' to fight on its side

g e

So everyone's just hoping this news report goes away...?

http://in.news.yahoo.com/us-backed-plan-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-syria-045648224.html

As far as I can tell it's really Yahoo, really news and really from January...

Apparently the Dail Mail disappeared it from their site but who knows with the Daily Mail anyway.

Microsoft buys Nokia's mobile business

g e

"overseas cash resources"

In other words a mountain of moolah they stashed away from the taxman

In case of LOHAN flight emergency, gobble THIS Iridium-Arduino sandwich

g e

FUBAR

Freed Unexpectedly By A Rockblock

Brit music body BPI lobbies hard for 'UK file-sharers database'

g e
Holmes

Mostly because

That corpse is mostly the BPI's

g e
Holmes

Re: The BPI are a bunch of turds...

Buy secondhand, isn't like the quality is degraded over time as on LP or Cassette.

No it doesn't support the artist but there's more effective ways to put money in their pockets like merchandise (which presumably gets a higher % of sale price into their bank?)

Google chap reverse engineers Sinclair Scientific Calculator

g e
Coat

Re: Luxury!

By 'eck you lot had it like the Queen. We longed for limbs and our parents all died long before we were born...

NSA: NOBODY could stop Snowden – he was A SYSADMIN

g e
Holmes

Re: "The damage, on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 12."

However their security (you know, the 'S' in NSA) incompetence on a scale of 1-10 is a 25

Private UK torrent site closes, citing 'hostile climate'

g e
Thumb Up

Re: Stupid Big Media@Shinku

Abso-fecking-lutely

They'd all rather cut their noses off to spite their faces.

g e
Holmes

Stupid Big Media

If they looked through their telescopes from the correct end they'd see stuff like this was a positive not a negative.

All that hosting of TV archives they're getting for *free*?

Seriously, if I created a site that legitimately had all the discontinued TV on it (think loads of old Doctor who, Robot Wars, etc, as mentioned above, plus others that you can't get on DVD/etc - OK Doctor you probably can) how many people would actually either subscribe to it or pay, say, a fiver for a mint legit season of something.

Oh but then the where's-my-cut-gang suddenly get involved and toss the whole thing into limbo because some greedy fuck wants a cut of something whereas previously he was happy with a cut of nothing. Not that they're not entitled but you know they'd break the entire concept with their dismal 'rights negotiations'. And that's before you get into DRM enforcement on the files/streams cos, you know, meaning nothing meaningful (like a DLNA device) would ever be able to play the shit anyway...

Which is exactly why you _can't_ make a damned useful service like that without a shitload of cash, lawyers and the patience of Job.

In fact the BBC are 'uniquely positioned' (hem hem) to be able to set a frigging example and do this with the vast archives of content they have. Yet they don't.