Posts by steogede

EULA

It is a good thing somebody reads these things. I look forward to hearing Google's response.

crossword

>> (7-letter word)_(2-letter word)_(3-letter word)_(4-letter word)@somewhere.com

>>

>> I get nada that ain't invited, and I can't believe it's down to wonderful filters.(It's Hotmail

>> ferkrissakes....!)

Hmmm, let me think... Is it 'hotmail_is_the_dogs@hotmail.com'?

Me Too

I saw this on a friends PC recently too. It was obvious immediately from the name that it was dubious. Firstly it had 'XP' in the name which no legitimate company would do for fear of being sued by MS. Secondly there are only a handful of legitimate antivirus / antimalware tools available.

I second the above post, MBAM seemed to do a pretty good job of clearing this.

It is quite ironic that there are many more fake anti-malware/virus apps than there are legitimate ones. People have had it drummed into them for years that the need an antivirus and now they are more than happy to download and pay for this crap.

Re: @filesharers

>> For those that don't see any value in IP, what about the IP value in other

>> products? Your car probably cost more than £100m to design and develop into a

>> deliverable product, a big chunk of what you pay for it will be to repay that

>> investment in IP. Would you insist that this cost element be taken out of the price

>> of the car and be sold at a loss? You could tell the dealer that if you really like it

>> you'll give them something towards the IP cost later.

AC, you are partially right. Some of the development cost is recouped when you buy the car, however a large chunk of it is not as that would drive up the initial purchase price too much. No they sting you later e.g.:

* Your wipers are on continuously no matter what the switch is set to? No problem, that will be £150 plug it into a bit of diagnostic software, £300 for a new computer (can't be bought second hand because it is coded to the car) and 3 hours labour at £60 +VAT

* Lost your key sir? not problem we will replace the key for £160 and plug the locking system into a computer for £150 (5 minute job).

* You have a warning flashing on your dash sir? Not a problem with we can plug it into our diagnostic PC for £150 and tell you that it is a simple loose wire because we never fastened down properly.

@Danger mouse

>> I wouldn't have paid £0.16 for that game, it's total bobbins.

Curious that as the damages were exactly 30841 x £0.16 - perhaps they determined that was the value of the game and the number of copies she shared.

@Ed Blackshaw

>> is that worth £75 exactly, given the price of generic PC cases these

>> days? Given, it's not exactly the same as a PC case but still, I can't

>> see where that price tag is coming from for a metal box.

Why are you comparing it to generic PC cases? Surely it would be better to compare it to other Lian-Li cases - £75 is fairly cheap by their standards. Lian-Li cases start at about £60 and go up to about £350.

I think it would be great to avoid the RROD, however by the time your 360 reaches that stage that it is demonstrating the RROD the damage will have been done. Therefore you would have to invest the cash before the problem arose.

Another issues is that transferring you 360 to this case will almost certainly void your warranty, and your 360 may still fail. Lian-Li need to offer some sort of guarantee, but then they would be subject to MS's build quality (or lack thereof). Getting a RROD is unfortunate, but atleast you can get it repaired if the warranty still stands.

2GB RAM

>> Whereas the 1000H comes with 1GB of memory no matter what OS

>> you prefer, the 1000HD comes with 1GB when you pick XP, and 2GB

>> when you go for Linux.

>>

>> Surely the extra memory would be more use to Windows users?

I would say that most of the Windows users would suffice with 1GB, the 2GB Linux users they are aiming at are probably more tech-savy and want to run more on it.

@Andrew Crystall

>> No, you can get one at 17 in some circumstances, or get a company

>> credit card at 16.

Indeed, to sign a credit agreement you need to be over 18, but the minimum age to be an 'authorized user' depends on the card issuer AFAIK.

@Kobayashi Gimp

>> href="http://10.10.0.215"

Well I suppose must me 'beta' in the MS sense, rather than the Web 2.0 sense.

@joe

>> Thank god it doesn't say “a-five-oh-one-two” because that would

>> mean there's a road somewhere named: A5-O12, instead of A5012,

>> you see the roads in this country are labelled quite precisely with a

>> letter, then a series of numbers; not a letter, then a mixture of letters

>> and numbers.

>> ...

>> Please, you're a techie - for the most part - don't confuse the letter

>> 'O' (oh) with the number 0 (zero)

There is no risk of confusion. You see the roads in this country are labelled quite precisely with a letter, then a series of numbers and then occasionally a letter in brackets e.g. A1(M). There is no danger of confusing the letter 'O' (oh) with the number 0 (oh) as the letter 'O' never appear in a road 'number'.

Channel 12 and 13

I thought that the anyone with any sense uses channels 1, 6 and 11 - to avoid overlap. Why would anyone bother with 12 and 13 (unless they don't know better)?

@ Joe

>> I'd pay extra! But I guess you just can't beat those slave-labour

>> prices...

You would have to pay a lot extra, it wouldn't just be the cost of labour it would be all the costs associated with running multiple production plants, fabs, etc.. It isn't the sort of thing that can be done on a small scale. Ball park figures, I reckon the cost of running another plant with a much smaller output would probably quadruple the cost before you even paid an extra penny to the workers - triple that again if you wanted to please the green crowd too. Are you prepared to pay 12 times as much or more?

RE: @Guy

>> There are several possibilities here:

>>

>> 1. Be use newer ADSL tech than everybody else.

Be use newer ADSL2+ which allows speeds upto 24 Mbps downstream.

@AC 11:02

>> "Yes, I know you can get surround sound for PCs, or hook up the PC

>> to the telly. But who can be bothered? And all that cooling fan noise.."

>>

>> So you don't own an Xbox 360 then? :-)

Damn you AC, you stole my comment. For the record, I own a 360 and it is noisier than any PC I have ever owned.

The big surprise about this statement is we only have to wait a few months. IIRC it took 12 months for GTA:SA. What's the reckoning that this is out along with mods before we see any 360 additional content?

@martyn

>> The sensor lets you see straight through the lens (which you couldn't

>> with a film camera) so why keep an expensive complicated and

>> unnecessary piece of machinery?

I don't own an SLR, I own a bridge-camera. I can tell you that its EVF is its weakest feature (although the fold-out 2" display is probably its best). Why? Because a good EVF will have a resolution of about 0.2 MP and refresh at 60 Hz - where as the resolution and refresh rate on an optical view finder will probably outperform the human eye.

Another point is that most CMOS sensors used on dSLR cameras are not suitable for constant exposure, so it would require a different type of sensor. Chance are it wouldn't perform as well as a regular sensor.

@James Butler

>> IT must be able to limit the attack vectors the network is exposed to by employees who

>> have no awareness of the potential dangers they court by visiting less-than-honorable

>> websites and sites that are known to be security risks

I take it you missed the story about all the 'more-than-honorable' sites which will infect your computer - many of which were council websites.

>>Was there crime before GTA?

Indeed, I wonder where they got the inspiration and the title of the game?

I think it is so funny. You name a game after a crime that is pretty common, then some commits that crime in real life (as has happened before). Somehow people think it is the fault of the game and the crime can be prevented by banning the game. LOL.

Or are we expected to believe that this is the first incident of car-jacking in Thailand?

@Ladislav

>> If you leave your Mercedes open, with keys in the ignition in South Central, you would

>> probably be a very stupid citizen if you were surprised that it got stolen. If you'd however

>> left your neighbor's car in the same situation, your intentions would _at least_ be

>> questioned.

Expensive Car? Unlocked? South Central LA? I think a more likely analogy would revolve around a pub, boozing, civil servant, laptop.

I have to say, it seems very much like the guys in charge of these military systems did the network security equivalent of posting CDs using Royal Mail second class.

@Disco-Legend-Zeke

>> Tax on motor fuel 18 cents per gallon. Tax on drinkable alcohol, $16 per gallon.

So pretty much the opposite of the UK?

Wasting Police Time

I'd say that the photo shows an officer wasting police time. These Opel's are all registered in Europe; AFAIK the Met has no feasible way of enforcing the ticket when the car is registered outside the UK. I imagine this ticket will go unpaid, like the vast majority of London parking tickets.

Rescuing the Music Industry

>> In the meantime those letters will be cranking out. The targets will be identified by

>> "music rights holders" who will pass the data on to the ISPs, who will then run the

>> system as a trial for three months. So that's about 70,000 letters in total

I don't know if this will do much the Music Industry, but it will surely boost Royal Mail's profits.

Also, :

>> "There are technologies available which can filter Internet traffic.

True.

>> These can identify particular types of file (eg music files),

True.

>> check whether the file is subject to copyright protection and then check whether the

>> person offering the file for download has the right to do so.

False. If only that were true. We could then do away with copyright lawyers and courts.

>> the filter can block the download. These technologies vary in their effectiveness and

>> cannot guarantee 100% accuracy given the lack of conformity between different

>> computer and software technologies."

Did you just lift this off the BBC or something? I can't imagine any reg. reader falling for this pile of bulls hit.

I suppose these technologies were developed in the same labs as the infallible national identity database?

Re: IT Workers Union

>> an IT workers union? They could hold the whole country to ransom!

Surely by that measure, <insert any large out-sourcing firm working for the public sector here> would be an IT workers union.

@Bayleaf

>> Why on this and a number of other threads people claim that copy protection

>> and DRM are illegal?

I couldn't say for certain as I am not familiar with the arguments. However, I would guess that it is probably that DRM often seeks to strip the consumer of their statutory rights (or perceived rights) such as a the right to make a backup. Like Elmer Phudd said, making a backup used to be the first instruction in computer game manuals (I think most El Reg readers are old enough to remember that). In this case they probably see it as illegal because the DRM in the patch prevents lawful licensees of the game from using it (the game or patch).

Masturbating Monkeys

>> There is a definite theme developing here - Torvalds yesterday described OpenBSD

>> developers as "masturbating monkeys".

Dirty Devils, surely or Bishop Bashing Beasties

Think of it another way

>> £50,000 plus VAT to build

On the plus side the government raised almost £9,000 through VAT.

£50,000 for a questionaire, it really is obscene.

BTW, I love the way that on the image on the main page the wall at the back is covered in grafiti/art - whereas in the 'game' the same scene has a rainbow painted on the wall.

Not Just New York

>> The idea might strike you as purely a publicity stunt, but Chinese cops

>> could be taking a lead from police in Glen Falls, New York.

Or indeed, our very own Fife police (well not mine, as I don't live in fife, but you know what I mean).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7096492.stm

Seriously though, patrolling shopping centres is on thing, but SWAT maneuvers on a Segway?

Not Just ASDA

I saw a recent copy of the Sun which had a picture of a footballer on a public beach. In one corner there was a naked toddler which the Sun had deemed needed to be pixelated.

IMO it would have been better cropped or left as it was. I feel that the idea of treating naked pictures pre-pubescents as porn implies that most/many people a paedophiles and paedophilia is perfectly normal.

What's next? Pixelating pictures of nude animals in case it might arouse zoophiles?

Having said all that, there is a good chance that ASDA may well have left itself liable for conviction and by rights probably should have reported the woman to the police (as pointless and stupid as that may be).

Re: Temp Phone Numbers

The best thing is that the cost of the temporary number is passed onto caller, in this case the spammer.

@ Joylen

>> I started to wonder why is the credit on the card and not stored in a central database

>> (hint: network connectivity in buses?) - but there must be a way of centrally auditing all

>> money in and out of the card with a central database to detect these things once it's

>> used in a tube station or similar with a permanent connection to the master DB.

I would suspect that is the case exactly. If some or all of the machines are offline, they can only check for fraud once they have all the data back for any given period. Hence the reason for the 24 hour delay I suppose.

>> So London Underground is thinking the crims will be too stupid to alter their card at

>> the end of the day to get yet another 24h free ride or am I missing something that

>> they do not tell us about - like the serial no on the card itself cannot be altered etc?

The article talked about adding credit to the card, it didn't mention the ability to modify the card's ID. So you might be able to get 24-hours free travel, but it will cost you £8 (£5 minimum credit, £3 deposit) - admittedly you get £5 credit, plus a free day's travel.

Re: Only 2 Million?

>> What I can't understand is the claim of 2 million users of Firefox. 200 million

>> maybe. A slip of the journo's pen I suspect.

I read it as 2 Million users of Firefox 3 (or pre-releases of). Although when I went back to the article to quote it, it appears to have been edited.