* Posts by Trix

131 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2007

Serial troll bitchslaps Reg hack

Trix
Black Helicopters

Bug I'm worried...

"In case you're wondering why we refer to Kempf as a "serial" commentard, a bit of light investigation showed he's got some previous form."

How did you investigate, hm? Perhaps by querying your comments DATABASE, hm? OMFGBBQ DATAMINING IN EL REG!!!

(FWIW, I don't care about data queries, per se. I do care about vast quantities of private data on individuals held in one place where all kinds of people like the local moron traffic cop can have carte blanche getting to it)

Apple patents OS X Dock

Trix
Jobs Horns

Windowing

Um, Apple "borrowed" the Windows GUI off Xerox Parc in the first place. Xerox didn't give a toss about showing it to all and sundry at that time (and came up with the term "WIMPS"). The Xerox 8010 was released in 1981.

As for those justifying the patent by saying cursor positioning, and *zoom factor* equates to "innovation", give it a rest. Copyright the icon set. End of. Or do we start paying Apple whenever a user mouses over one of our webpage buttons at a 270 deg angle, and we do the button image size +200% thing, which I was doing in HTML 10 years ago? (Hey, I'm a bit less cheesy these days)

Meat Loaf gets Q gong

Trix
Thumb Up

Nice one

Anyone who takes lines like "Then I'm dying on the bottom of of a pit in the blazing sun / torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike / and I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell / and the last thing is see is my heart /still beating / breaking out of my body / and flying away / like a bat out of hell" seriously (or composes/sings them) deserves to endure a similar fate.

Oh, and the reason I know every damned word of that pox-faced album is that my parents had it on high-rotate in my early teens. Blech.

I can't decide between that PoS and the stupid Led Zep song based on LoTR (Ramble On) for stupid moments in boganhood, but they're pretty damn neck-and-neck.

Lotus flowers with Apple app

Trix
IT Angle

@Pete McPhedran

Word. It's been updated somewhat recently, and I think we're up to 1998 in terms of UI. OMG, progress!

Hands on with the T-Mobile G1

Trix
Unhappy

Were you taking the photos *with* the phone?

...because I don't think you managed to get a single one in focus. Anyway, while I'd dearly love one of these, and I don't mind the form-factor per se, it does look cheap and tacky. While the JesusPhone is an overpriced toy, at least it *looks* like it's worth the money you pay for it.

It's a shame, but I hope some other manufacturers get in, or HTC get some decent designers on board.

Apple releases bumper patch batch

Trix
Jobs Horns

What was the rush?

Seriously, who would run serious Internet-facing services on a Mac? How many NS boxes are out there that actually run a Mac OS? I'd be amazed if it cracks 1%.

Mitsubishi eyes Middle Earth for 'early' electric car roll-out

Trix
Alien

@AC - maybe you need to visit NZ sometime

"Techincally it'll be autumn ('fall' for the USA readers) but by the time it's generally available you'll be needing the 4x4 version with snow chains. "

Erm, what about the fact that it mostly only snows in high altitude regions or to sea level in the far south of the South Island, where you can pretty much see Antarctica? I think contending with the rain will be more of a hassle in winter.

"When summer does arrive, the flies and other bugs that hit the windscreen will double it's weight. In NZ, the petrol pump attendants give a free windscreen/headlights/grill wash'n'go - now whose going to clean the gunk off the car?"

Whereabouts? In fairy land (not Middle Earth)? I've been driving in NZ for over 20 years, and not once have I seen one of these "petrol pump attendants" of which you speak, much less one who actually gives something a *wash*. I have vague memories of getting your windscreen done if you "filled 'er up" in the 70s....?

OMFG, what have you done?

Trix
Joke

Meh, 6 1/2 out of 10

I don't mind it *too* much except for the goddamned SMALL FIXED FONT SIZE - I use a real browser and configure my own font size, thank you - and the STUPID BLOODY FIXED WIDTH which makes it look like Drupal circa 2002 (and still, I suppose). Leave aside all the ginormo-width monitors that most of your readership will have (and those morons talking about "readibility" with the width too wide? Have you heard about resizing your browser window?), what about those of us reading on tidgy screens (yes, the eee).

Also, I miss the real Paris, evil Steve and evil Bill icons. Thank god the coat is still there.

But I do like the cleaner look - it just could have been achieved without the annoying bits.

Ten of the Best... iPod rivals

Trix
Jobs Horns

Cowon *close* to iPud?

Well, if you don't mind your music sounding meh and only one or two file types being supported. I do admit the iPod's interface pwns all.

I'm surprised it wasn't the D2 listed here either, since that's more directly similar to the other devices. 8GB flash onboard, SDHC card slot, and plays all the media formats you can throw at it. And sounds good while the battery lasts for days. The A-series are more full-blown PMPs - take to watch movies on and the like.

Neo-Nazi forum hacked

Trix
Go

Freedom of speech

I love all these people bleating about the infringement of the Nazis' freedom of speech, when actually the hackers have *disseminated* their views to a much wider audience. Can't get more free than that.

And that's the way to fight bigoted speech - give them enough rope to hang themselves, and point out the total f#ckwittedness of their views to as many as possible. Bullies tend to go away when people point and laugh at them.

Wi-Fi: You old new smoothie?

Trix
Unhappy

Free wifi?

I haven't yet stayed in a hotel that offers free wi-fi, not in the US, UK, NZ or Australia. No, you still have to pay ridiculous sums like $50 a night or $10/hr to get access.

IT pay jumps as skills gap widens

Trix
Pirate

The irony, it burns us

Yeah, fab, pump out more over-qualified people for techie jobs - you need a CS degree for systems architecture and maybe programming, not for administration and desktop support - and then refuse to hire them because they lack experience.

Meanwhile, the CBI is outsourcing all those entry-level jobs that junior techies could be using to gain that much-needed experience.

Also, pay and requirements is a joke. If I was going to take a job that required in-depth networking knowledge, systems administration and some programming (in more than one language, often), I'd want to be paid more than 20K in London. Whoever does the hiring should get real about what skills they actually require for the role, not just try and replace the poor sod who did everything by themselves for a pittance, and then got jack of it.

ARM elbows out Intel in Albatron's Eee beater

Trix
Paris Hilton

Finally some pr0n for gay/bi men and straight/bi women to check out

Forget that chick on the beach with the eee - I think that display of the mighty, er, edifice and whatever-it-is shooting off the end bears closer examination.

Enterprise class mobility

Trix
Jobs Horns

Seconded about iPhones not being enterprise-ready

And myxiplx, what on earth makes you assume that Apple will address those issues you mention (other than making it easier to play media, of course)? Because Mac servers are so marvellous as well. Not. And you'll "never recommend Blackberries again"? Because of the camera memory problem? You sound like those Democrat morons in the US who say they'll vote for McCain because they didn't get Hilary. Where is the enterprise-class competition you'll be going for? If you say Windows Mobile, good luck - they haven't worked out the design flaws there either.

Regarding the positioning of Windows Mobiles as a viable BB alternative, they're not there yet either. All those http requests have the fun effect of wearing down the device battery in about a day. However, the policy management stuff at the backend and suchlike is pretty good.

I do like the fact that RIM are making the BBs more attractive in terms of browser capability and media management (and GPS) - anything that delays the day when execs want the iPhone shiny toy implemented makes me happy. I hope it never happens (at least until Apple come up with an enterprise-class product, which they have yet to do in any sphere).

Winehouse jibe wins Fringe's funniest gag

Trix
Paris Hilton

Hippopotamuses, hippopotami or -moi or whatever

While some people here are having a lot of fun reminiscing about their Latin and Greek lessons, hippopotamus has now been absorbed into *English* and so now takes English inflections, including plurals. There you go.

Date bug kills VMware systems

Trix
Boffin

VMs why, indeed

Totally agree with AC here. In my organisation, we have 300+ physical boxes, and we are undergoing a "consolidation" regime to move them ...to 300+ *virtual* boxes. It totally flabbergasts me - we still have to pay umpteen squillion for each of the Windows licences, and then there is the VMware licence on top of it. Sure, there are some hardware savings, but there is no cost reduction for installation and maintenance. The hardware savings would be the same (if not better without the overhead) if you did a normal kind of consolidation.

When I mentioned such arcane things as running more than one web-app on a box, or more than one server app (with a local client) on a server, I got mutterings of "compatibility issues" and "performance". Hello? You sort out your compatibility problems by installing apps on the same box that play nicely with others, and as for performance, if you double your RAM, CPU and disk spindles (after eliminating obvious memory leaks and the like), your performance will no doubt improve and cost less than all those stupid VM and Windows licences. Gah!

Dell to launch 'Eee PC beater' today

Trix
Pirate

HP2133

Yes, it looks nice, but it has an HDD not flash storage. As for it being able to "smash an eee to bits", will its HDD still work? I've lost count of the number of times I've dropped my eee onto a hard floor - the screen remains open (those hinges are strong puppies), and the whole thing keeps running with no hitch.

As for those who wonder why we're not interested in real laptops - price, and size. I want something I can slot into my 30x45x10cm bag - the eee fits nicely, and I have room for a book, wallet, Blackberry and sarnie.

Linux risks netbooks defeat to Microsoft

Trix
Boffin

Turnkey

The only machine that I've had with literally *everyone* able to sit down and use it with no pre-existing knowledge of the OS, was an Asus eee running Xandros. Even my mother, who won't use a mobile phone, could figure it out. Sure, I don't think it's great in terms of customisability - although eeeUbuntu takes care of that - but let's be consistent about what the target audience is.

As others have pointed out, normal users do not install their own Windows or Mac OSes - it's done by the OEM. When more OEMs install Linux with the correct drivers and sensible base packages (ie. not the pox that is MS Works, and all the AV that expires after 3 months), it will resemble a level playing field.

Many of the Linux distros have solved the usability, package range and look-and-feel "problems". Yes, it is incredibly customisable with too many options for the usual punter to deal with. And so? It's the system builders who should be packaging the systems correctly. How many would be able to make use of a barebones install of Windows and the full range of available peripheral device and software installation packages? Before it gets pwnd by malware, that is. Let's actually compare apples with apples.

ASA rules against citing 'hits' in ads

Trix
Boffin

@ those who think it's up to the punters to educate themselves

So are you going to bother going to each site and enumerating each and every element on a page to figure out how many how many "hits" equate to unique views for a specific site. Let's compare apples with apples, not a polo team (4 players) with a kilikiti (Samoan cricket) team (unlimited players) - hey, they're both "teams". What do you mean it makes a difference how many players are on the field?

Analysts slam iPhone security and battery life

Trix
Boffin

Regarding the battery life issue

I love all this "if I set to poll once an hour, I get a whole DAY of use". I get 5-7 days' use out of my Blackberry, with push functionality.

It's not enterprise-ready until it has built-in device encryption (although we don't encrypt our laptops, so it's wildly amusing that my email infrastructure is more secure than our pcs), it does a self-wipe if the password is entered incorrectly (we have ours set to wipe after 5 attempts), and it has software management/lockdown functionality (you might want to support devices where anyone can install any PoS software they find on teh Intarwebs, but I don't). I'm not even going to mention cut-and-paste.

Blackberrys are not sexay phones, but they send and receive email and meetings securely and well. And you can type on them. Windows Mobile is crap (just as bad as the iPhone with the battery life), but at least there is enterprise policy management, there are third-party (can't they build it in?) encryption tools, and you can cut and paste. Of course, when the iPhone catches up (and it will), Windows Mobile will be going down the gurgler at a rate of knots.

IBM gets hip with 'cool' Ubuntu PC deal

Trix
Boffin

@lars

"the thing is that when you master a system, know it then it is never that bad"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAH! The whole point of Notes is the only people who "master" it are the little troglodytes who like picking their noses and coding in caves, and bitching about normal users who don't understand the gnomic buttons or menus in the client and who refuse to "leverage" all the "features" that no-one would want to use in a million years.

The thing about Notes is it's a database with an application platform written around it. User-friendly and optimised for email, it is not (although it is much better). Exchange went down that route for a wee while ("yes, we're an application platform too! Write lots of code and use the fantastic Jet database and all those transparent *koff* Exchange hooks to store things in it!) before they realised that their core functionality was storing email in the database, allowing shared access to said emails when required (via shared mailbox and/or public folders), and the Spawn of Schedule+. Although with the proliferation of server "roles" in Exchange 2007, I really wonder what they're currently playing at (new and enhanced service continuity features - clustering, replication, are good, though).

Black hats attack gaping DNS hole

Trix
Boffin

@ robert - GIYF

After a whole 3 seconds of Googling, I found this page on the Gentoo site:

http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200807-08.xml

'All BIND users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync

# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-dns/bind-9.4.2_p1"

Note: In order to utilize the query port randomization to mitigate the weakness, you need to make sure that your network setup allows the DNS server to use random source ports for query and that you have not set a fixed query port via the "query-source port" directive in the BIND configuration.'

So did you check your "query-source port" directive in BIND?

Spammers, Cuil, and the rescue from planet Google

Trix
Black Helicopters

Tend to disagree

Yes, the spammers and SEOs try to game the Google system, rendering "$object price" or "$object review" searches useless. But that gets them to the top of the *Google* rankings. I don't see how a rival search service gets affected by Google gaming if they use sensible algorithms to build their own rankings. Unfortunately, Cuil doesn't - as far as I can tell, their results are completely driven by link aggregation sites and fake Wikipedias already - in other words, they haven't evolved the workarounds to the gaming methods that Google has.

So perhaps Google has an advantage in that they're a few steps ahead in terms of knowing the link gamers' methods, and any other competitor has to engage in a massive amount of catch-up - although I would have assumed that these ex-Google alumni would already have had some of that advantage. Perhaps they do in their search methods (although not according to those who've already blocked Cuil's irritating spider in their robots.txt), but they obviously didn't poach any of the filtering people, who are certainly the most useful these days.

K Desktop Environment 4.1 lands

Trix
Boffin

I like it too

Although I agree with the comment about the Kutsey names for the KDE apps. Most of us aren't 15 years old, guys. Also, it reminds me of the KKK naming convention - with their Klans, and Klonvocations and Kludds, and so on.

I think the Juk player is utter pants though. Sure, it plays the music ok, but try and *browse* it and see the tags, file properties and so on. Good luck. I'm waiting for Amarok to get updated.

The desktop and windows are very nice though, and I think it's an excellent upgrade.

Quantum porn engine foiled by strawberries and muffins

Trix
Pirate

They do *one* thing right - reply to their email

I sent them a message a couple of days ago, and OMG, they replied to it:

--------------------------

from Feedback <feedback@cuill.com>

Thank you for helping us by providing this information. We are working on this issue and will have it resolved promptly.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Spurious image

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:22:14 +1000

From: Trix <me@example.com>

To: crawler@cuil.com

Hi there:

I did some test searches on your website, and found that my domain ... is listed on your site with a spurious image associated with it. In your FAQ, you say: "We do our best to take images from Web pages that accurately reflect the content of the website. Many websites are full of images, so we use advanced algorithms to determine the best image to show the user."

Unfortunately, this image you have chosen is not from MY website..., and does not represent its content. The same image is used for a number of different search results, and I'm sure that it doesn't represent their content either. The image ... appears to be lifted from some kind of advertising material that is probably copyrighted.

If an image is going to purport to represent any of my domains, I want it to be sourced from my domains. If there are no images available, then IF it's necessary to use an image, it should be a truly generic one, and be obviously from Cuil (in other words, design your own cutesy placeholder images, if you must). Finally, an image representing my site should not be used AT ALL if it is copyrighted to someone else.

I'd also like to point out that doing a search for ....[various examples, crap results] - I think your algorithm could do with some work.

Regards,

Trix

------------------------------------------

Let's see how prompt their "issue resolution" is, eh?

CGI furnishes filmstar with fur

Trix
Paris Hilton

Oh dear

Totally seconded on Ms Miller copping out by not throwing herself into the no-wax breach. Where is the method? I managed to burn my eyes looking at the pre-CGI pic - not to diss one of the sisters, but perhaps that was as much regrowth she could summon up in the time required.

Honestly, who wants a snatch that looks like Hitler's moustache? Ok, the Amazonian rainforest look might be too much these days - although not back in the 60s - but let's not get into Brazilian slash-and-burn overcompensation.

/Paris, for obvious reasons. Gosh, I'm using her a lot lately... although a bit later than everyone else.

Home Office to order fingerprinting of air passengers

Trix
Flame

The US haven't had international transit for years

...and it drives me nuts, since to travel to Canada or, say, Mexico by the most logical route means I'd have to get fingerprinted en route. I don't want to do any goddamned shopping if I'm trying to get somewhere else.

I've been avoiding the US since they introduced the fingerprinting regime - I certainly don't want the UK to go the same way.

Ex-Googlers reinvent web search

Trix
Paris Hilton

Holy sh*t

I wrote them a grumpy email yesterday for using a copyrighted image that has nothing to do with me or or the content of my site to link to it. So it could have been worse, eh?

Also, the searching itself is complete pants. As mentioned above, some huge proportion of the search results are simply links to online directories (such as dmoz) - doing a search on "canberra organic garden" has my site on the first page... but no return on the Canberra Organic Gardening Society, half a dozen links to directory sites, and the balance having nothing to do with Australia, much less Canberra (or organic gardening). Searching on "organic garden canberra" doesn't return my site, nor COGS or anything else to do with organic gardening in Canberra. "organic garden_ing_ canberra" returns a whole raft of different results, with COGS finally showing up.

Similar results occur with all of the searches I've carried out, with occasional links to those Wikipedia clone sites when it comes to the more factual material.

Can I also point out that using a word to name your website that cannot be correctly pronounced by anyone other than Gaelic readers is complete w@nk. There are plenty of other languages that have words that can be pronounced by anyone who reads a Latin-based script (I vote for "kono", which is Maori for "basket" (of knowledge).

/Paris, because she can usually find what she's looking for, unlike Cuil.

Doctors: Third babies are the same as patio heaters

Trix
Paris Hilton

Morons

...those who are whining about the "fact" that the declining birthrate in the Western world won't allow your pensions to be paid in the future, that is. Of course, all the BNP sympathisers don't think of the obvious answer - immigration. Import somewhat-skilled types from wherever, and you have them paying their taxes while they work, and their kids become little Poms and they pay taxes too. Win-win.

/Paris, because she hasn't bred yet, thank god.

Doctor Who fans told to lay off Hamlet

Trix
Heart

LOL

AC, that for the win. Qwark as Polonius alone is gold. :-D

MS products just too cool to comprehend, say MS geeks

Trix
Thumb Up

heh heh heh

'Ozzie, inventor of the hated Lotus Notes and now driving Microsoft's "software plus services" strategy...'

Says it all. I'm sure there are still some kool-aid drinking Notes admins who still love the thing... but email system should not equal application platform (MS tried promoting that route in Ex2K, and thank god it's mostly died off - get a proper DMS/intranet/Sharepoint if you must).

NZ judge saves girl from bloody silly name

Trix
Paris Hilton

No-one beats the yanks

Ok, us kiwis can have some interesting names - I like the good-old Maori names commemorating battles - (An)Zac Wallace, El Alamein... - but I think the US started the trend. There have been some classics like the philanthropist Ima Hogg. Other Imas in the US include Pigg, Muskrat, Nut, Hooker, Weiner, Reck, Pain and Butt. Then there's Fat Meat Fields, Pickle Parker, Harry Pigg, Panties Moberg,Toilet Queen, Emma Royd, Nighten Day, Blacken White, Lotta Bull, Tuna Fish, Bowling Lane, Num Butt, Amanda Love and Carr Chase. Not to mention Hugh Jass.

/Paris for obvious reasons

The Guardian's excellent Web 2.0 blog-up

Trix
Dead Vulture

So what was the point of this article?

So one of the exercises the Guardian tried in terms of rustling up pledges to a scheme didn't work? While you admit that the Katine Village thing seems to be ok, and we don't see a mention of any of the other zillion or so successful blogs or the Comment Is Free area (while CiF is like a bunch of monkeys flinging poo much of the time, you can't say it's not heavily patronised).

So, really, one small part of the online content doesn't have many people actively subscribed to it. I had a look, I think, but I didn't see any point in subscribing, although I read the articles occasionally. There's a metric f*ckton of stuff that has plenty of activity and readership.

Let's be generous, and say that the carbon pledge thing was about 2% of the "interactive" site content - are we going to have reports on any other site who has a less-than-anticipated uptake of something new that makes up some small percentage of the overall content? I'm sure none of us can wait for this exercise in bleeding edge journalism.

As for those here who said this was a good article, why, exactly?

Unpatched Windows PCs own3d in less than four minutes

Trix
Boffin

What OS?

Yeah, a bit more reporting would be nice. What OS/patch level on the box?

As for the morons here going on that they can have a windows box pwned in a minute or so, have you not heard of the concept of "average"? The *average* time a box is compromised is apparently 4 minutes - which of course means that individual boxes could take seconds or days to be compromised.

Oz censor, gamers fall out over Fallout 3 ban

Trix
Dead Vulture

Wot everyone else has been saying

"More to the point, since morphine is a first-aid drug, they believe it's laughable that its use is being compared with the taking of hard drugs."

Um, yeah, morphine is an opiate. It's very *addictive*, is on the drug schedule, which means it can only be administered by an authorised practitioner (ie. a doctor or paramedic with the appropriate certification). I've yet to see it turn up in a first-aid kit.

Yes, the game restriction is stupid, but let's not bullshit about the fact that morphine is an illegal addictive drug, and is the precursor of heroin, but packs plenty of wallop by itself - it's used for palliative care for terminal cancer patients, FFS.

And yes, about Max Paine - it's not banned in Oz either, from what I know. Of course, the magic pills are called "painkillers", not OMG-ILLEGAL-DRUG, so they could be aspirin or paracetamol for all we know. As if.

Shocker DNS spoofing vuln discovered three years ago by a student

Trix

Neoc actually knows something about literature

...unlike the rest of you. Yes, the madwoman in the attic is from Jane Eyre - Rochester's first wife.

Spam DDoS assault cuts off south Pacific state

Trix
Boffin

Time to install Postfix

And drop smtpd_timeout to less than 30 sec. And install fail2ban so that rejected/dropped hosts that try again too many times within a specified time period (I'd make it more than 3 times in 6 hours, if I was getting hammered like that) get banned at the IP level.

MSI Wind Windows XP Edition sub-notebook

Trix
Dead Vulture

Wot Ian McNee said

"Better", because it has a marginally larger screen, but with all those drawbacks? I'd also add the fact that the HDD is the primary storage - yeah, sure I am going to sling it in my bag and drop it on the floor because I forget it's there, and not worry about the consequences. Not.

I also echo the comments about the non-review of the Aspire One. Let's see a real review and a real opinion that you based your comments on.

OpenSUSE 11 a redemptive OS with a Mactastic shine

Trix
Boffin

@ Pete

biggest advantage over ubuntu

... is that it lets you log in and work as ROOT.

None of this nannying around with sudo every time you want to do something significant.

-----------------

Well, Pete, have you ever tried running 'sudo su -'? Magic! Or if you want default Windows insecure behaviour, you can create a root password (sudo passwd root) and use that.

If you want to log into the GUI with root (even more insecure, and I'm sure someone of your l33t skills wouldn't want to), you can edit the kde or gnome config file and set allowrootlogon = true (or something similar).

Firefox 3 downloads hit 7m despite server FAIL

Trix
Black Helicopters

@Anyone with any sense can clearly see that Opera 9.5 is far superior ...

...if you don't like add-ons. Get back to me when there's a *decent* ad-blocker (that, wow, blocks ads), or a Gmail checker that can check multiple accounts, nab mailto links and will actually log onto your Gmail instance when you select it. And many more (although admittedly some add-ons replicate built-in Opera functionality).

I like FF, but I still think the download day was a pointless stunt. Who gives a shit about a "world record" that doesn't exist? There's no guarantee that Guinness will accept it for inclusion

3G iPhone not ready for the enterprise?

Trix
Boffin

to the idiot forwarding his messages from the BB to Gmail

As soon as I (Exchange/BES admin) discovered you doing that kind of crap, boom, no emails. At all. And a report to your manager/the organisation's security team.

If you have a problem with the device, report to the right people to fix. We have BB with all the encryption and stuff switched on - no problems with responsiveness at all, and my battery lasts about 5 days.

As for password requirements, here's a notion - pick one that's easy to type in. You also have to remember that us admins often have legal requirements to carry out - in Australia, it's the DSD (Defence Dept guidelines) - 12 simple characters for a BB password, or 8 "complex" ones. As a hint - qazwsxedcrfv will work fine as a valid password under the 12 character regime (look at it on the keyboard)

Lesbians like straight men, researchers find

Trix
Black Helicopters

Which way do I go?

Well, I get on with straight men, but I don't have any male bffs. Sorry.

I also use deodorant, moisturiser and perfume, don't adjust parts of my anatomy in public, and don't much fancy bimbos with fake boobs and trowelled-on makeup. You guys can have your Page 3 babes.

AC with your 100 dollar offer, c'mon then. I like straight men a heck of a lot better than a lot of straight women do. I don't have to shag 'em or live with them (well, I do live with one... as a flatmate).

...And I'd agree with the comments about bisexual people seemingly missing from the equation here. And since most theory agrees that most of us are more or less bi, maybe they've just been measuring people at the absolute extremes in that study... who won't be representative of much.

Canonical rejiggers Ubuntu for laptots

Trix
Alert

O dear

"If you are a user then, yes, I think you should spend at least two hours a week with a manual, learning how your computer works and how to do more than just point and click"

So, E, how many people spend a couple of hours a week with a *car* manual, learning how to their engine works, so then they can do their own servicing, brake replacements, suspension enhancements and so on? Most people know a lot less about their cars than they do their computers.

Usability. It's a quaint term, but you get further if it's there.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze

Trix
Heart

Looks good

...and I'm a big fan of the Cowon range. If they do get good OGG/FLAC support, I might be looking at that to replace my loverly D2 (which has 8GB onboard + 16GB SDHC).

The drawbacks with the D2 at present are a slightly flaky database when it comes to indexing the OGG files and really, the device is overpriced - they tend to cost more than similar Apple offerings, and are less styley. Although they sound fabulous - I had great sound out of the box with the D2, and gave up on getting anything good out of the iPod, even with Rockbox and every kind of sound tweak tweaked. The D2 also takes forever to boot when the database needs updating, and it irks me that there isn't a setting for it to automatically resume the music after starting up (it does resume from the track you're playing, but you need to select the Music option and then hit Play).

Assuming the Sandisk offering sounds as good a Cowon beastie, the price is definitely right, it doesn't look fugly, so it'd definitely be an option worth looking into.

A reading from the second book of Codh

Trix
Pirate

OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!! *FLAIL*

Blah blah blah Crystal Reports is fab blah blah blah and its so easy to construct stuff in and blah blah blah rant flail you don't know how to use it properly blah rant blah and what's this delphi thing we don't need coding languages blah blah and what's a "developer" anyway blah blah rant scream give me my crystal reports and you go back and play with the M$$$###~-spawning satan-loving crap you use while we mod our kernels in peace scream rant humour? what's humour I can't compile that into my kernel rave rant blah stomping off taking my compiler with me blah rant

[another poo-smelling Linux devotee, but one with the sense-of-humour mod. :-) I haven't succumbed to Crystal Reports, thank the powers that be]

Medion takes aim at Asus' Eee

Trix
Stop

Meh

Looks nice, but I agree with the other comments about the price, an HDD, and bloody Windows XP *Home*.

And until someone can show a standard Linux distro installation on the hardware with no tweaking, saying that the XP can be replaced with Linux is a statement of FAIL.

(Sure, Ubuntu and so on plays nice with a good number of hardware configurations, but do you want to take that risk with an entirely new processor and presumably accompanying chipset?)

Microsoft slams OEMs over XP SP3 install cock-up

Trix
Boffin

Well-known problem in *2004*?

Try 1998... or earlier. I've been building images since then, and no way in hell would we shoehorn a image for one hardware platform onto another.

I mean, come on, that's SOE-build 101.

Local mag claims Aussie Eee PC buyers will pay extra for Linux

Trix
Stop

Speak for yourself AC

"So the extra cost is in the flash memory. Tony suggests (probably rightly) that the Linux EeePC target audience isn't really going to care too much about the extra 8GB."

Well, we might not *need* the extra storage, but we *care* about it. I'll have that for a few more AVIs, thank you.

As for SpitefulGOD, have you actually used one?

"Why would you piss around with Linux trying to get things working??? "

Funnily, enough, it Just Works in its Linux incarnation... and not using the Mac pricing model either. I've had a lot more hassles trying to get Sony Ericsson and Nokia phone storage drivers working on XP (since you actually have to install drivers) than any Linux system I've used (where you just plug the device in, and voila, there's your storage)

I Was A Teenage Bot Master

Trix
Alert

This moron of "above average intelligence"?

Well, ok, he was apparently writing C code... although not well enough to spot a backdoor of the script he was using. But to keep on with his shenanigans when it was obvious he was under investigation? Duh.

Also, if El Reg is going to point up a quote's bad grammar and spelling, perhaps they should learn that "SoBe was also drawn to Ancheta's social flare" probably has nothing to do with something being ignited. I think the word you were looking for is "flair" - "a skill or instinctive ability to appreciate or make good use of something : talent".

Finally for those who are blaming the victims, you know, the administrators who invented SMTP ran open relay servers. In fact, having an open relay mail server was the default configuration for most of the existence of email. It wasn't until little tosspots started up with spamming all and sundry that the more closed nature of email relaying evolved - the criminals came along and spoiled it for everyone. And you're expecting home users to know better than those early email admins? I agree that MS should have better controls in terms of not having the default account be the admin account... but NT was designed before anything like bots existed. Now MS are trying to catch up (badly) with Vista, but it's not the end users who are to blame.

Dubya archives White House email by hand

Trix
IT Angle

Oh dear

To the person wondering why Notes was dumped for Exchange, there is this quaint notion of "usability". There is nothing significantly wrong with Exchange's security model either (as long as you're not allowing stupid things like POP access with no authentication).

As for journaling, that's a standard method for retaining a copy of every message that passes through a message store. They all get fired off to a journal mailbox. But not backing up that (any?) mailbox using standard retention times or using any one of half-a-dozen SOx-compliant email archivers, and moving it to slower or nearline storage using readily available technology (like HP EVA or CLARIION or blah blah)? Well, I suppose it stops all those pesky auditors actually finding anything.