* Posts by Matt Hawkins

176 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Nov 2007

Page:

Screw luxury fridges, you can now run webOS on your Raspberry Pi

Matt Hawkins

Re: So?

Stephen Hawking's voice synthesiser was running on a Raspberry Pi in the last months of his life.

HMS Queen Elizabeth has sprung a leak and everyone's all a-tizzy

Matt Hawkins
Happy

Re: Minor problem

It works the same. It will be rectified in accordance with the contract placed on the supplier.

Matt Hawkins

Re: Minor problem

All ships/cars/planes have mechanical issues. "Snags" aren't news. But then The Sun isn't a newspaper so no surprise there!

Matt Hawkins
Facepalm

"a matter of public concern" to the public who in general haven't a clue how big engineering projects work. Especially if they are Scum readers. There isn't a single large ship in the water that didn't have defects that needed ironing out.

Expecting to stick a 70,000 tonne ship in the water without a single issue is like expecting the the Sun to publish a single newspaper without a spelling mistake or lie in it. Will never happen.

Blighty flogs Qatar a bunch of missiles and Typhoon fighter jets

Matt Hawkins
Pint

Re: The Typhoon was never designed as a carrier-based aircraft.

The air frame also needs to be suitable for being catapulting off a deck and suitable for landing on a moving deck.

BAE would make considerably more money selling Typhoons rather than the F35. Unfortunately the MoD didn't want to pay for a Marine Typhoon and didn't want a nuclear power plant to produce the steam. The options were the F35 or something French.

Matt Hawkins
Pint

There is no Typhoon capable of being launched from an aircraft carrier. If there were it would require steam catapults. Steam requires nuclear. So your option would require a nuclear powered carrier with a re-designed Typhoon. A viable option but one that was weighed up with the alternatives.

Bonkers call to boycott Raspberry Pi Foundation over 'gay agenda'

Matt Hawkins
Go

I've just bought two extra Raspberry Pis. They are called Bob and John and they are sharing the same network.

Raspberry Pi sours thanks to mining malware

Matt Hawkins

Re: "...it's a sufficiently common devuce..."

Hey how did you guess the password I use on all my Pis!

BBC Micro:bit delayed by power supply SNAFU

Matt Hawkins

Re: So far...

I enjoyed it. But I agree. When GTA was first mentioned as part of the make it digital campaign I couldn't imagine how it was going to be related to teaching kids to code. I was right.

GTA is one of the best games I've ever played. Completely insane to use it as part of the campaign.

Matt Hawkins

As a huge Pi fan who will defend it to the death against all comers ... the micro:bit will be better for younger kids as it is easier to get up and running. Crocodile clips and banana plugs are a lot easier to deal with than 2.54mm headers, easier to run off batteries etc

I see the micro:bit as something you use for a year or two before moving onto the Pi.

Matt Hawkins

Re: Why new hardware?

So how do you add leds, motors, buzzers etc to a tablet? Without that ability coding on a tablet is an awful experience for kids.

Son of Hudl: Tesco flogs new Atom-powered 8.3-inch Android tablet

Matt Hawkins
Holmes

Re: A NEW HUDL2 HAS ONLY 9.25 GB AVAILABLE TO USE NOT THE 16GB TESCO CLAIM??

Caps Lock still doesn't mean you are right.

ALL device sellers report storage in this way. It has been like that ever since devices have been sold with internal storage. Walk into ANY shop selling technology and you will see this is just the way things are. I agree it is misleading as it implies you've got 16GB to store media ... but the Hudl is no different to any other PC, laptop, tablet or phone.

What device are you using to type your messages?

Funds flung at 9-inch fan-built Raspberry Pi monitor

Matt Hawkins

Re: 9-inch screen

The resolution is 1920x1080. Exactly the same as a TV with the same resolution. This is considerably better than 800x400 by any stretch of the imagination.

Hunt's 'paperless', data-pimping NHS plan gets another £240m

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

"This new record will not contain information that identifies you"

Except your name, address, postcode, date of birth and NHS number! That sort of identifies me just tiny, little bit doesn't it?

I think I'll opt out of this data-privacy-car-crash thanks.

Serious Farce Office: 32K secret BAE probe files spaffed to WRONG bod

Matt Hawkins

We can all rely on the ICO to come down on these data-leaking idiots like a ton of bricks.

Or perhaps not. Massive data leaks are OK if you are the Government but for some reason more serious if you are anyone else.

The truth on the Navy carrier debacle? Industry got away with murder

Matt Hawkins
Thumb Down

Really?

The truth is that Industry designed the carrier that was asked for. The MoD kept changing its mind.

You design the carrier around the aircraft. It is hardly the fault of the supplier if the MoD changes its mind every five minutes. You can not expect to design a carrier for fixed wing and STOVL aircraft and expect the budget to not increase.

Go and order a car from a car dealership. Then change your mind every 5 minutes about the colour, engine size and fuel type. See how you get on with that.

Or contract a builder to build you a house extension and then half-way through the build move its location. Then stand back in shock and amazement when the builder dares to ask for extra money and says it will take longer to build.

Apple engineers 'pay no attention to anyone's patents', court told

Matt Hawkins

Re: There is no reaction image for this

"There is very little that is truly innovative. For me, the barrier should be set high indeed. If you are the only one, then it is probably innovative. If there are a number on the verge of the invention, then it is not a proper subject for patent."

Completely agree. Rounding the corners on a tablet is a good example.

Good to see Apple taking what they love dishing out. Patents should be for proper inventions. Not ideas someone can come up with in 3 seconds while standing at a urinal. Swipe to unlock etc etc etc

Virgin Media STILL working on fix for SuperHub corrupt downloads glitch

Matt Hawkins
Alert

Re: Virgin....Y U no fix it??

"Tried downloading a tv episode yesterday and the first 2 mins play fine then it goes into slow motion, I thought I'd grabbed a dodgy torrent, tried another copy.....same thing! This would explain it!!"

I think blaming VM for videos playing in slow motion is a bit unfair. It would be difficult for the Superhub to do anything to a downloaded video file that would simply affect its playback speed. That is far more likely whatever it is you are using to play it. Downloading "another copy" isn't going to help if your hardware or installed software can't handle the video codec required.

Matt Hawkins
Pint

I think I must point out at this point that the VM cable internet service is amazing as far as I am concerned. I pay for 30Mb/s and get 3.5MB/s. No other service in my area can come close to that value for money. I could ditch the phone and TV services tomorrow but I would never swap cable internet for that ADSL thing where you pay for a service and get half the speed (if you are lucky).

However the VM guy really needs to appreciate that amazing hardware is pointless if the the firmware is flakey. No point having a perfect engine in your car if the engine management software is running Windows ME.

Matt Hawkins
Meh

My SuperHub works fine for basic functionality and wireless around my house. The only issues I have experienced lately are :

1) VM "upgrading" it and completely changing the user interface without telling me

2) Port forwarding not working at all

3) The DHCP Reservation table losing its settings depending on which way the wind is blowing.

This is with firmware "R36" and hardware version 2.0.

Google's Nexus 7 tabs 'can't perform' if flash RAM crammed

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

"It also seems safe to say that few Nexus 7 users will ever max out their devices' capacity."

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in a Nexus 7 article. It's easy to max it out. 2 or 3 films will do it. Or 2 films and a couple of decent games.

The storage usage reporting is also broken. On my 16GB device the numbers it is reporting simply don't add up. Deleting files doesn't change the reported free storage. Now we discover that touching the last 3GB causes performance issues.I hope Asus and/or Google sort it out because it will spoil what is otherwise a nice device at a sensible price.

Raspberry Pi 2.0 ready to ship

Matt Hawkins
Megaphone

Re: Kinda hope

Unfortunately powering the Pi directly on the USB port means your hub is badly designed by someone not bothering to follow the USB specs. A hub should not "back power" the device it is plugged into. Not sure I would trust such a device with my Pi. I would certainly never trust something like that with a PC.

Gov must act on 'innocent' web-browsing copyright timebomb

Matt Hawkins
WTF?

One more reason to stop paying attention

Yeah everyone on the internet is a criminal. We know this already. Which is why most people have given up caring less about any of the stupid details within our crazy copyright laws.

I browse web pages and my browser illegally copies the content onto my PC. Sometimes I use social media to spread this content without the web master written consent. For years I have been "remembering" bits of music and clips from films without paying a penny.

Come get me.

Virgin Media site goes titsup in Pirate Bay payback attack

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Re: An American POV: I always liked Branson

Richard Branson doesn't own Virgin Media. He has a 15% stake.

Unfortunately cable internet wipes the floor with ADSL so it would take a lot more than blocking 1 site for me to consider leaving. With cable internet I pay for 30Mbs and get 30Mbs. With ADSL I would pay for 20Mbs and get 1.5Mbs!

A month to go on Cookie Law: Will Google Analytics get a free pass?

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Insane

So I've got to ask people if my sites can use cookies ... but I'm not allowed to remember the answer because that would be bad. So every page they visit I have to shove a message in their face?

Have the idiots that have come up with this junk even thought about it?

Luckily the ICO is a lame duck. They've set the bar pretty high for law breaking so I don't think anyone need worry too much. When they actually fine companies for putting people's bank details into the public domain (Sony, BT etc) then I might think about it. Until then I'll be having cookies with my tea every day.

If you don't want cookies, turn them off. If you don't like Google don't use their services. If you don't like Ads use an adblocker. If you don't like the Internet then go back to Ceefax ... oh hang on ...

Cameron 'to change his mind' on the one thing he got right in Defence

Matt Hawkins
Facepalm

He we go again ...

So in conclusion another article where Lewis makes it clear the UK would be better off if we let the entire country be run by foreigners. Preferably the US but at a push the French.

It is better to have average, expensive kit that was made in the UK by British workers than fancy stuff that was made abroad. If our Government realised this we would still have a car industry as Rover could have existed purely making police cars, taxis and ambulances.

As we will find out in the future we won't be able to afford any US or French equipment because we will have no wealth to buy it with.

The US can proceed with a carrier build and take the risk that the electric catapults will work. We can't. They have got plenty of other carriers. This can't be taken as a guarantee that the technology will work. The F35 is over budget and barely flying despite US reassurances to the contrary. Assuming the technology must be on-track because some US Senator gives the green light for a carrier build is a silly mistake to make given all the examples in recent history.

Navy pays 2x purchase price to keep warship docked for 5 years

Matt Hawkins
Joke

Joke?

Is this story a joke? So BAE is getting paid to look after a ship. Do you expect them to do it for free?

Maybe we should throw it away and give the money to the US instead. Doesn't matter what we get in return, as long as it keeps Lewis happy.

Comparing the maintenance cost of Victory to its original purchase cost is the most hilarious attempt I have ever seen to imply BAE is fleecing the tax payer. Why not just write an article saying BAE eats babies and be done with it.

'Insatiable' Brits gobble Blu-Ray, deserve reward

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

The digital copies on triple play discs are useless. You are better off just ripping the DVD and making a portable version yourself in your chosen format.

As for the movie industry rewarding its customers? don't be silly. They have a proven track record of milking genuine customers. They want you to buy multiple copies of the same film so they've got no wish to offer Brits a "buy once watch forever" service.

I was surprised to hear Bluray sales are increasing. According to the movie industry they went bust back in the days of VHS.

Official: Pastafarian strainer titfer is religious headgear

Matt Hawkins
Megaphone

Atheists often forget

"Atheists often forget that the non-existence of God is also a matter of faith,"

No it isn't.

You don't need faith to not believe in something that someone else has invented.

It's up to someone who claims something exists to demonstrate it.

There is no all-you-can-eat-Burger-King on the dark side of the moon. I don't need to prove its non-existence. You don't need faith to not agree it exists. Otherwise you would need "faith" that the infinite number of things I can imagine don't exist. That's an awful lot of faith. Which doesn't say much about faith does it?

Alleged LulzSec hacker still inside

Matt Hawkins

Perspective

The tabloids are describing him as the World's number 1 hacker. This is clearly rubbish. He got arrested for a start so that pretty much crosses him of the list.

The CIA, FBI and police are just annoyed a teenager walked all over their security ... when security is sort of their job. Not that they have actually proved anything yet.

The whole Sony story is only a story because they were storing passwords in plain text. Whoever breached Sony was doing their customers a favour by highlighting how poor Sony's grasp of data management was. Sony should be prosecuted for breaching the data protection act.

But I forgot. Our laws only apply in the UK. Shame the data protection act wasn't a US law and then it would apply to everyone.

A prize for the first MP to have the balls to tell the US to stick their one-sided extradition arrangement.

RAF Eurofighter Typhoons 'beaten by Pakistani F-16s'

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

knomes, pixies and unicorns.

"according to a Pakistani officer" who is unnamed.

So a completely anonymous and unbiased then.

If it was true why would he have to remain anonymous? There are certain countries that need to blow their own trumpet because their military, in general, sucks. Pakistan is one of those countries.

User data stolen in Sony PlayStation Network hack attack

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

ICO Useless & Toothless

"I'd like to see the ICO take action against them for this. Bastards."

The ICO take action? Now that is funny ...

Sony deserve all the bad press they get. They have continued to treat their real customers like dirt. Their understanding of the most basic security is so useless I am surprised they are still in business.

Plain text passwords? You have got to be kidding me ...

I stopped even considering Sony products once they started installing illegal trojans and rootkits on people's computers.

A fifth of Europeans can't work out how much a TV costs

Matt Hawkins
Pint

Ballot Paper

All ballot papers should have a simple maths question at the top. If you get the question wrong your ballot should be shredded and used as toilet paper in prisons.

GCHQ commits schoolboy security blunder

Matt Hawkins
Alert

Why pick on Android?

"So it looks like Google's Android phones won't be winning many public sector contracts any time soon."

Neither will Microsoft or Apple.

BT reveals fibre-to-the-cabinet plans for 156 exchanges

Matt Hawkins
WTF?

Fair

"So you'e saying you don't mind people from the sticks with their incredibly slow broadband paying exactly the same price as you do for your fast broadband? "

I think what he is saying that people that live in the middle of no-where should probably be paying more. People in low population areas are not subsidising everyone. Its the other way round.

"Would that be fair?"

Only as fair as everything else in life where you pay a fixed amount regardless of your usage.

Here's some examples :

Council tax

TV Licence

Road tax

Gym membership

Entry to most entertainment attractions

Leisure centres

etc, etc, etc

to name but a few.

Wind power: Even worse than you thought

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Hissing in the wind

"its economic 'viability' is completely artificial and in a free market it would be a dismal failure"

Unfortunately a "free market" doesn't give a stuff about pollution, the future availability of resources, foreign control of fuel etc etc. Just like bankers don't give a stuff about an investment once they've got their bonus. (I think that has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt.)

A free market isn't stopping fossil fuels running out and it doesn't give us an infinite supply of uranium (yes it's limited too).

Nuclear energy is hardly operating in a free market.

Who is paying for the clean-up in Japan?

Who is paying for the decommissioning of power stations in the UK? (not that they have worked out how to do that yet)

Who is paying to store toxic waste for hundreds of years?

Who paid to build the reactors in the UK in the first place?

The nuclear industry? Not without a huge, fat hand-out from the tax payer.

If the economics of wind look less than perfect, Lewis, why don't you do an article on the true economics of nuclear power. The TRUE economics. It won't be easy because many of the costs related to the nuclear industry are open-ended and unknown. It's easy to generate "cheap" electricity when you are running the whole show with free money and you quietly ignore half your costs and get someone else to pay for the waste you produce.

VMware 'buys' Mozy for its cloudy goodness

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Why the secrets?

Got to love the Mozy website. Doesn't actually tell you anymore how much stuff you can actually backup. I suppose you have to give them your money before they give you the terms and conditions?

Neither the "Pricing" page or "Features" page mentions anything about storage limits.

Muppets.

Matt Hawkins
Grenade

Mozy Sucks

I used Mozy and it sucked.

Not fun when your PC boots, fails to mount a drive letter properly and then Mozy assumes that 30GB of data doesn't exist anymore and deletes it.

Photoshopped image scam used in rogue Facebook app trap

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Easy

Simple rule to avoid this sort of thing

1) Never install a Facebook app. They are either malware or pointless junk.

There we go. Easy.

If you are vain enough to care who is viewing your profile or really want to see your head morphed into a dog then you deserve everything you get.

'Iranian' attackers forge Google's Gmail credentials

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Iranians? I doubt it.

So these super advanced hackers didn't use someone elses computer network to do their work?? Doesn't that sound a little bit unlikely?

Either they aren't super advanced hackers or they aren't Iranian. They can't be both.

Smells like a smear campaign to me. More likely to be be anyone but the Iranians.

More likely to be Russian, Chinese, US or Israeli given recent developments in cyber-terrorism.

Fukushima's toxic legacy: Ignorance and fear

Matt Hawkins
Thumb Down

Nil Effects. Really?

"effects on the public look set to be nil."

Nil? So there have been no effects on the public? Strange the facts don't seem to support that. Being evacuated from your house (if it was still standing) can hardly be described as "nil". If a few wind turbines had fallen over the effects would have been smaller I can assure you.

The effects of radiation leakage are open to debate and some of those effects may not be known for years but to say the effects of the nuclear situation are "nil" is just plain crazy.

As well as being untrue.

Matt Hawkins
Flame

A stiff breeze more dangerous than nuclear waste

"wind power has already caused scores of deaths in a brief period"

Not really a fair comparison. Some workers falling to their deaths from the towers is more due to poor safety standards. Those workers would have fallen to their deaths whatever they were building whether it was a wind turbine or a telegraph pole. Some of deaths are due to "transportation" but I can't see how that is any more dangerous than transporting any other building material.

Claiming wind is more dangerous than nuclear based on these (probably American) stats is silly.

Also most of those deaths are construction workers. They have the ability to determine their own safety to a large extent. They can choose whether to bother with the safety harness and hard hat. The public living around a nuclear power station do not have that luxury.

Also the Japanese tsunami and earthquake wasn't that unusual. A once in a hundred year event maybe (they had a big quake in 1923) but nuclear power stations need to be designed to cope because somewhere in the world a power station is going to have to deal with one of those events. Especially given how long they need to exist (based on the industry not having any way of disposing of them). As this event proved. Designing to only withstand an average earthquake and then forgetting about any resulting tsunamis is simply slack design (or probably deliberate to maximise profit).

Given the billions of pounds of public money that has been shovelled into the pockets of the nuclear industry I would expect them to protect their "backup" systems from the very event that took out the primary systems. Otherwise it is simply like backing up your computer data onto a another hard drive within the same PC to protect it from theft. It doesn't matter how many hard drives you have if they get stolen or destroyed at the same time.

So if there are any Japanese power plant designers reading, how about you flood proof your backup generators given you live on the Pacific ring of fire and are subject to earth quakes AND tsunamis. Just a thought. And I didn't even needed a billion pounds of government subsidies.

BA jihadist relied on Jesus-era encryption

Matt Hawkins
Grenade

Mujhaddin Secrets

"Mujhaddin Secrets"?

That's just Winzip, right?

Bloke with hammer fixes London's Olympic clock

Matt Hawkins
Alert

Let's Snuff The Olympic Flame

How is it we can't even get a digital clock to work these days? How much of our money was spent on something that most people could build themselves with bits from Maplin?

Why are they using Apache/SQL when all they needed was a £1.99 digital watch?

Just another bit of the rather expensive white elephant that is the Olympic Games. If people want to watch some people running round a track then fine. But please make the ticket price reflect the true cost of organising the whole thing.

Haven't we got better things to spend our tax money on?

Fukushima is a triumph for nuke power: Build more reactors now!

Matt Hawkins
FAIL

Nothing to see hear. All perfectly under control ...

Yeah. It's so safe that the US navy has engaged reverse and moved its carrier out the way.

I'm sorry but they built reactors and didn't consider tsunamis? They didn't consider a large earth quake? When you build something that is going to exist for hundreds of years (they still haven't decommissioned a nuclear power station because they don't know how to) surely it makes sense to consider events that may happen even if those events don't occur that often?

"though this has had basically zero effect on the world in general nor even much impact on the area around Chernobyl"

Of course. Nothing wrong with Chernobyl. Don't know what the World was moaning about. Little bit of radiation never hurt anyone!

This continues to prove that despite the industry claiming everything is safe and under control it clearly isn't. They either can't be bothered or don't know how to take into account real risks. It would be like designing a power station in the UK to withstand 100mph winds ... because we only ever get winds faster than that a few times a century. Great until you happen to live at the time it does. Unfortunately safety costs money and you don't get rich by considering the welfare of people in 50 years time.

Any we are going to let these muppets build more nuclear power plants in the UK? They can't even deal with the ones we've got! Their solution to nuclear waste hasn't changed in the last 60 years. It still involves digging a hole, chucking it in, and then leaving it for someone else to worry about for the next 10,000 years. The containers are shinier and more hi-tech but the technology itself is still prehistoric.

Direct action group defaces Vodafone in tax avoidance protest

Matt Hawkins
Grenade

So what?

I just bought a TV. By shopping around and not buying it from Currys I saved hundreds of pounds. That meant I avoided paying a stack of VAT.

So all you tax payers out there ... I robbed you HA HA HA HA

If Vodafone are operating legally then fine. If you don't like the law then protest against the law. Moaning at Vodafone is hardly going to change anything.

Direct action is great. Just make sure you direct it in the right direction, numpties.

Council loses USB of patient records

Matt Hawkins
Grenade

Rubbish

@Argus Tuft

"Those posters need to get out of their ivory data centres and into the real world where people do actually need to give data to others (eg customers) on unencrypted USB's."

Sorry but we are talking about Council data here. There is no need to pass anyone Council data about members of the public to anyone in an unencrypted form.

If the recipient can't cope with it they are clearly not to be trusted storing or processing it.

No exceptions.

Matt Hawkins
Pint

ICO Useless & Toothless

Until the ICO actually take any action they are pointless and might as well be disbanded to save us all the cost.

Every major DP act breach there has been has resulted in no action. Apart from the odd fine.

Where someone has deliberately circumvented security processes they should be given the sack at the very least.

It's funny how the council thought issuing new usb sticks was enough. How about making it impossible to use anything but the new usb sticks.

I bet the council employee used their own stick because it was a nicer colour than the official one.

The way to go is :

1) encrypted usb/cd/dvd hardware/software

2) an IT system that does not allow any other devices to be used

3) colour coded sticks so that everyone present during the data transfer is aware if the stick is official

4) the use of any other hardware to be considered data theft

oh an the ICO growing a pair.

Job done.

Facebook 'stalker tracker' tool just makes you a spammer

Matt Hawkins
Megaphone

First Rule of Facebook

First rule of Facebook

1) Never, never, never, never install any "app". Mainly because they are all crap but also because they are full of security holes and you've got no way of protecting yourself.

Also by not installing stupid Farm-ville-pillow-fight-stalker-shite you can go and do something more productive with the time.

Jacqui Smith 'shocked' to discover we're drowning in sea of porn

Matt Hawkins
Paris Hilton

Jacqui please just go away

Ah poor Jacqui. She is so innocent.

Not innocent enough to avoid working the system for financial gain. Not innocent enough to avoid charging the tax payer for her premium TV services. How is a premium TV service required for her to carry out her duties as an MP?

Sorry Jacqui but no one cares what you think.

The only shocking thing on the internet would be if her husband released a Paris Hilton style video of them together. That would have me burning my router.

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