* Posts by Steven Walker

86 publicly visible posts • joined 12 May 2006

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Nominet to flog short domains

Steven Walker

parliament.uk

I don't know how a load of dodgy dealers wangled a "uk" domain but they managed to get parliament.uk

They must have given a brown envelope to someone important.

Ms. Gates: 'Bill does not use a Mac'

Steven Walker

The Queen

This reminds me of the old story about the Queen asking Prince William what he wanted for Christmas. He replied that he would like an iPod. "What is that?" asked the Queen" William explained that it was a device that enabled him to have all his favourite music with him at any time wherever he went. "Oh" said the Queen, "do you mean a Scottish pipe band?"

US builds net privacy brains trust

Steven Walker
Joke

Google can do that!

Why don't they just pass the whole question to Google? They will do the right thing.

PARIS grounded by whipping wind

Steven Walker
Paris Hilton

Paris

Where is the Paris factor

Spanish fascist decries Franco Eurovision slur

Steven Walker
Thumb Down

Balls

Looks to me like the subjunctive which translates as something like "long live Franco"

This sort of language is not that unusual as José Millán-Astray when Commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion during the civil war introduced the war cry of "viva la muerte" or "long live death". I think it it was to show that that they had at least double the cojones of Franco. Se El Reg story

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/18/franco_huevo/

Google Apps rubber-stamped for use by US gov

Steven Walker
Joke

HMG does not need this

They have memory sticks

Apple sues three more over power adapter 'knock-offs'

Steven Walker
Thumb Down

Apple's laptop power supplies are well designed, attractive??????

Whoever said that does not have a Macbook!

My Macbook pro is on its fourth power supply in four years. I move around a lot and the computer comes with me and I plug in anywhere I can to get a recharge. I accept that my usage is a lot heavier than a static machine.

The problem is that the cord frays at both ends. There are plenty of examples on Youtube. The plastic is very soft and easily damaged. I bought one genuine replacement and the last two were chinese from ebay and work very well (but are so genuine that they have the same problem with the cord). Eventually I found replacement cords on eBay which are not trivial to fit but do the job well.

So do I have a conscience about ripping off Apple? No of course not. And do they have a conscience about refusing to repair the psu or sell replacement cords. I doubt it.

Ten free apps to install on every new Mac

Steven Walker

http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver

El Reg is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Quicksilver

I cannot take this list seriously as it does not include Quicksilver. I put it at number one. It is quite brilliant and has completely changed how I use my mac. I ignore the Dock and have no desktop icons. I can open any file, program, address, mail recipient or just about anything else with half a dozen keystrokes.

If you have a Mac install it now and soend a few hours playing with it and learning. If you have Ubuntu 10.4 there is a very passable clone.

Biometric cash machine lands in Europe

Steven Walker
FAIL

I say

two fingers to them!

Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over 'child porn'

Steven Walker

Gee, thanks

@Gregory Kohs

I had never thought of searching wikipedia for free porn.

Stranded Hartlepool pair refuse coastguard rescue

Steven Walker

It was guilty

And hanging was too good for it

Air France offers two-seat deal for fatties

Steven Walker

Full price

So they pay "the full price excluding tax and surcharges". I hope that means that they get a second meal and doubles all round.

MPs frozen out of super-secret copyright talks

Steven Walker

"other countries wanted to maintain secrecy."

Huh! I wonder if the UK is one of the "other countries" The Minister should name names and tell us which countries want to keep the negotiations secret.

Strike cripples Apple screenmaker in China

Steven Walker

Paralysis and death?

That is what happends to people who go on strike in communist countries.

Steve Wozniak, your time is up

Steven Walker
Thumb Down

But not by Rik Myslewski

I would rather have a beer with Woz than Rik who seems to have some sort of personal problem,

Secretive Brit millionaire buys Segway Inc

Steven Walker
Thumb Up

Torremolino

The beach patrol use them on the Paseo Maritimo in Torremolinos. It is quite comical seeing them trying to hunt down cyclists. The only people they can stop are the oldest slowest grannies.

Tories swallow Web 2.0, spit out £1m crowdsource prize

Steven Walker
FAIL

Evidence and research?

Wow, how can someone get the facts so wrong while demanding evidence and research.

First a paediatricain is not a foot doctor but a child specailist. At least the doctor bit was right.

Secondly the story is almost an urban myth. The story Dennis_J is alluding to is (I presume) the one referred to here news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4719364.stm and no doctors of any sort were beaten up. El Reg even gets a mention as one of the spreaders of the myth so maybe it is not all Dennis's fault :)

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story! Unless further evidence and research can produce a story about a paedo podiatrist being beaten up.

Apple sues over knock-off power bricks

Steven Walker
Happy

Better design?

i hope they lose the case, apple have taken the piss for too long.

I am very mobile and get around 12 to 18 months use out of a legit power brick before the cable frays - either at the magsafe end or at the power brick end. Apple will not repair them, replace them under warranty or redesign them so that the line to the computer is replaceable.

Even the ripoffs are a rip off. I had to pay £12.50 on eBay just for a replacement cable. You have to break the box, solder in the cable and then use plastic ties to keep the thing in more or less one piece.

Annual costs of £58 for the power cubes and £97 for a battery are going to make my MacBook Pro my last Mac. It will be a laptop with Ubuntu the next time I need a new battery

Why can't Google be more like Microsoft?

Steven Walker

It is open source

So fork it. Or copy the Ubuntu/Debian model. If you don't like what Google is doing: do it better yourself. That is the whole point of free software.

Google's Postini Fail pinned on bad filter, hardware glitch

Steven Walker
Happy

Russ Meyer?

"Once we pulled Postini out of the loop, all of that deferred mail hit our system (along with quite a lot of spam)," said Russ Meyer"

Is this another El Reg joke or has the old man given up the soft porn business?

Not that I know anything about pr0n. Anything at all! nada ... zilch ....

IBM Linux chief: Chasing desktop Windows a 'dead-end'

Steven Walker

@Brian Miller

Have you actually seen a Linux desktop that is less than five years old? Your ignorance is breathtaking. Download Ubuntu, burn a CD, boot it up and take a tour. I promise you will not have to do any compiling or use sed, awk, grep etc.

My 85 year old non techie mother can do that so I guess you can.

NHS hospitals struggle to hold back the malware tide

Steven Walker

Infection control

If the NHS cannot keep hospitals clean it is not surprising that their computers are also infected.

Whining serial commentard bemoans Reg bullying

Steven Walker
FAIL

FOTW

In the good old day Aaron would not even had made it to flame of the week.

Spanish bar invites customer abuse

Steven Walker
Joke

It knows now Omar

"(Of course I'd never go through with the threat, but the computer doesn't know that!)"

You should not have typed that on your own computer!

Steve

Blunkett and ex-CPS chief turn on Home Office

Steven Walker
Alien

Sir Humphrey and the other lizard people

Why do politicians speak and think differently before and after high office but do the opposite when they are in a position to actually do something? I remember when Blunkett and most of the labour party were left of centre libertarians. Now it is Jacqui Smith who is running around tmpersonationg a semi-trained rotweiler.

Could it be Sir Humphrey in the background setting the agenda? These billion pound IT schemes are just the sort of thing to give their departments kudos.

Gigabyte passively cooled Radeon 4850 card

Steven Walker

The price?

The article says "we firmly believe that, at £125, it's damn good value." But the header says the suggested price is £150 and Online Price from £162.15

It would be far more relevant if the author gave his opinion of those prices.

US gambling capital bans iPhone card counter

Steven Walker

Apple ........ is apparently less moralistic about casino cheating

I do not see how this can be cheating. It may be against the law but that is another matter. It sounds like fair play to me.

Danish court jails six in terror T-shirts case

Steven Walker

Che

Does that mean I am going to have to retire my Che Guevara t-shirt? I suppose I will have to buy the el reg bofh shirt to show that I am still a rebel.

Reg hack insults the Parachute Regiment

Steven Walker
Dead Vulture

El Reg standards are falling

That would never have been considered for even a brief mention in the Flame of the Week. There were not even any block capitals!

French won Waterloo, says Italian telecoms chief

Steven Walker

Hollywood

I am waiting for the movie where, no doubt, Wellington will be an American

EU wants data sharing network for driving offences

Steven Walker

Easy Soution?

>>Force the driver to pay fines for moving violations before they're allowed to drive away.

That is exactly what they do in Spain - and you get a 30% discount. The alternative is to have the car impounded while you fight the case. Of course this will not work in the future when the fines are issued and collected by computers and their cameras rather than by men in blue.

Tax credit mistakes cost Joe Public £1bn a year

Steven Walker

Tax credit mistakes cost Joe Public £1bn a year

Is that a typo in the heading? Surely it should read

Tax credit mistakes give Joe Public £1bn a year

And can you think of anyone who can spend that money any better?

FTC and DoJ will fight for the right to rule on YaMicrohoosoft!

Steven Walker

What happens to The Register's Yahoo! headlines?

¡Like the world of Microsoft they will all be upside down¡¡¡

Microsoft! bids! $44.6bn! for! Yahoo!

Steven Walker
Unhappy

Oh dear

i suppose I will have to stop using yahoo now.

UK gov issued 250k snoop licences in nine months

Steven Walker

Properly authorised phone taps should be considered admissible evidence in the courts.

The Government and security forces bitterly resist that idea. The statement is superficially attractive until you consider the other side of the coin. If the wire taps are admissible in court the defence will be entitled to have access to them.

The results of a wire tap could provide evidence of innocence as well as guilt. More importantly the security forces prefer to keep the existence of wire taps secret as it could give a lot of information as to what they know and who they are watching.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Spain bows before la blogosfera

Steven Walker

They have not given up ...

... as computer is called un ordenador and it is very unusual to hear computadora. think that might be a dodgy South Americanism.

El Reg fires up online standards converter

Steven Walker
Alien

Is this just a diabolical plot

To get me to enable JS?

Bike bonk bloke cops three years' probation

Steven Walker
Joke

Will someone please

think of the bicycles!!

Lily Allen 'in talks' to become Doctor Who's assistant

Steven Walker
Happy

I am much older than her dad

and i think she is great!

Microsoft fires CIO for 'violation' of policy

Steven Walker

violation of policy?

More likely he did use Vista. Surely no serious company permits its staff to use it.

'We can't lock them up forever' - top cops join terror debate

Steven Walker

@ Jim Booth

Are you suggesting that "one shred of evidence that someone is up to no good" Is all the police should need to charge a suspect. That would be even more illiberal that what is being suggested!

Florida cops issue shock 'Butthash' warning

Steven Walker

If El Reg were authoritative

Lester would have tried it out for himself and fed us the facts ... or should that be faces?)

Google OpenSocial: after the hype, the holes

Steven Walker
Thumb Down

Open standards always cause security problems

That was a quick read, no need to go past the opening sentence.

Seagate's US customers get refund

Steven Walker

Selecting advantageous measurements

It has always amazed me that the monitor manufacturers stick to the diagonal measurement rather than the more useful surface area.

The difference between 15" and 17" does not sound much and would be much more descriptive if it were in square inches ... reaches for sliderule ... thinks about Pythagoras ... too difficult :))

Student taser victim spared electric chair

Steven Walker

Show Trial?

Did I miss it or did they forget a trick. Maybe he was in a psychiatric camp instead.

Newegg serves up Asus Eee PC to US buyers

Steven Walker
Joke

Sun

Oh goody, finally I can buy a laptop that I can use on the beach on a sunny day.

Cops coax half-naked Czech wolfman from Cardiff tree

Steven Walker

Too predictable

In a place like Cardiff you tend to expect that sort of thing. The headline would have been much better (if less accurate) if it read:

Cops coax half-naked Czech wolfman from Godalming tree

Darling won't move over gains tax

Steven Walker

The object of the tax

The idea was to screw the city wheelers and dealers who manipulate their earnings to produce very lowly taxed income, less than his office cleaner one bragged. They have had this route cut off (the poor buggers would now have to pay 18% on their millions). I say "would have to pay" as I am sure that their overpriced lawyers are working on the next dodgy scheme.

The genuine investors in startups will be caught in the crossfire but that is OK, the Government does not care much about them. There will be a windfall for owners of second homes, buy to let investors and all the other needy types so loved by New Labour.

The rest of us who are not paupers will just have to smile and hand over 40% tax.

EU, US plan 'clear to fly' checks for visa waiver revamp

Steven Walker

It won't affect me

I will not go there. For five years I have refused to humiliate myself by going through the US bureaucratic nightmare and deal with gimlet faced thugs who treat every foreigner like a tourist.

I had to pay extra to fly to South America via Madrid rather than change flights in Miami. Maybe I will visit again one day, after they have come to their senses. Could be a long wait!

Apple nears MacBook revamp release?

Steven Walker

Crap connectors

".... suggested to make way for a model with a more rugged, resilient MagSafe connector"

And they don't sell replacement connectors. You are supposed to pay £59 for a new power supply each time the crappy connector breaks or the cable burns.

The comments on the device at UK Apple store show the disgraceful quality of the device.

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