* Posts by James Penketh

57 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007

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Linus calls Linux 'bloated and huge'

James Penketh
Linux

@Crazy Operations Guy

"But no one wants to tell them that their code sucks and that they should do more practice and studying before it can be included."

Try and submit some sucky code to the linux kernel devs, and someone will definitely tell you that your code sucks.

"They don't want to do this because it will make them look like the bad guy, look like he is against the community and be flamed to hell and back."

When you get a major kernel dev, or even Linus himself, saying this, people tend to side with them. ;)

Not that I've submitted code to the kernel, I'm not good at C. But I have made a fool of myself on LKML and the replies were a little scathing. Certainly taught me to double-check things before clicking "Post".

Law lord lashes out at ID cards

James Penketh

Good grief!

What's this? A sudden outbreak of common sense? That'll be fixed soon, and then everyone can go back to their soap operas and reality TV shows, safe from all this thinking nonsense.

Or, hopefully, this invasion of privacy and waste of money might be halted before it gets any worse!

... eh, what am I saying? The vast majority of this country just does not care, so long as they have their cheap booze and reality TV shows. Cynical, moi? Just a little...

University emails 'blocked from Hotmail'

James Penketh
Joke

Hehe...

"Oxford Brookes said it had informed Microsoft of the problem..."

But the email hadn't got through.

US Navy hacker avoids Romanian jail

James Penketh
Gates Horns

And the moral of this story is...

deny everything!

> McKinnon admitted wrongdoing whereas Faur has strenuously contested the charges against him.

Y'see, that's where Gary went wrong (well, other than breaking into their computers...) . He admitted that he did something wrong. In this day and age, that seems to be a no-no. Gods forbid that we should have someone, you know... taking responsibility for their own actions now.

(Although IMO, McKinnon seems to be being made an example of. :( )

Billy boy because he denies everything, naturally. :P

UK puts £55m into disabled parking reform

James Penketh
Coat

What is it with this lot and databases?

Either a PHB somewhere has decided that databases make the guvmint sound futuristic and in touch with technology (which they clearly ain't.), or someone is getting kickbacks from the people who set up and maintain them. (Wouldn't put this past them... in fact, I wouldn't put anything past them, they'd either nick it, outlaw it or tax it.)

Or they're just nosey buggers who want to put everything in a database for the sense of power it gives them.

gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum

James Penketh
Linux

@ Don

'Windows NT features are shoveled into open source kernels...more "innovation".'

Er... care to elaborate?

On a more random note... why does everyone seem to want Linux desktop environments to look/feel/behave like Windows/Mac OS/etc.

Also, I can understand why people want open source to be widely used, as this leads to community reviews of code, etc... but why all the zealotry? Surely it doesn't matter what people use, if it's all open source.

@ whoever said vi(m) should DIAF:

Hey, I like vi(m), I find it easier and quicker to use than these silly GUI text editors. Just because you can't get your head round it doesn't mean that everyone should stop using it. (If that logic worked, nobody would be using windows, cause I can't get my head round that... ;) )

Open source user and proud of it. (Linux on all the PCs in this house... gentoo on mine, and openSUSE on the ones the family use. No complaints so far. :D )

CERT: Linux servers under 'Phalanx' attack

James Penketh
Linux

'cs'?

"bash: cs: command not found"

sure you didn't mean 'cd'? Simple typo. (apologies if this comment appears below about a thousand all saying the same thing, there was only one comment when I hit 'Post Comment'

Other than that, very helpful to know. *goes to check his boxen*

Exploit code targets Mac OS X, iTunes, Java, Winzip...

James Penketh

@AC

wow... one of the most blatant trolls I've seen in a while.

Boeing to build combo airship-copter flying cranes

James Penketh
Black Helicopters

umm...

"SkyHook secured the patent for this neutrally buoyant aircraft..."

Maybe I've missed the point, but I've seen plenty of airships before this. Prior art?

Black helicopter because.... well, you can guess, can't you?

UK Unix group vows to appeal OOXML ruling

James Penketh

Cue the anti-FOSSie comments

in 3...

2...

1...

Daily Mail cites video game as proof of terrorist doomsday plot

James Penketh

that's the reason we call them...

The Daily Fail.

I only ever read that thing when I want to be extremely p!ssed off, partly because of the epic amount of stupid within.

Computer Misuse Act changes are delayed further

James Penketh
Coat

Oh dear...

"...make it an offence to distribute tools which are "likely" to be used for hacking computer networks."

Right... and who gets to decide which tools are most likely to be used to 'hack' computer networks? Probably those who haven't the slightest clue how a computer works.

Anyone else already imagining how bad it's gonna get?

"ssh... that can be used to hack. that's banned..."

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but this is pointless... How many tools do you use everyday for administrating networks, testing servers, etc. that will get banned under this pathetic attempt to 'protect' us.

Sometimes, I wish the people who write these stupid additions to things actually knew what they were talking about... however, it would probably make it worse.

Mine's the black one with the external HDD, full of network 'testing' tools, in the pocket...

Apple punts 'Penryn' iMacs

James Penketh
Joke

Re: Webster Phreaky

Calm down and have a nice cup of tea.

Now, can you show me, on the doll, where Steve touched you?

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

James Penketh
Dead Vulture

Hippo Birdies El Reg!

nice to see you spent the day productively. Unlike me, who spent it doing work.

That vulture's not dead, it's just very very very drunk.

Red Hat scurries away from consumer desktop market

James Penketh
Boffin

I'm confused...

... All you lot complaining you have to endlessly tweak config files and compile every piece of software you want to use... are you just repeating random crap you've heard, or what? (Maybe you installed some ancient version of something...)

Because I've been running linux in various forms on all of my desktops (From Ubuntu through Debian, Slackware, Fedora and now at SUSE) with very little problems. (OK, the older versions of ubuntu had a fairly ugly and complex installer. Very Debian 4.0 like... )

All the newer distros (Fedora 7 and 8, and SUSE 10.3) all installed using a GUI, and all I had to do was (a bit generalised, Fedora and SUSE install in slightly different ways.)

* choose what language I wanted to use

* the layout of the keyboard I was using (actually, that part was optional, but I use a foreign layout keyboard.)

* what software I wanted (optional part again, you can leave it to install a default set of software)

* how the machine was networked (static IP, rather than DHCP which was the default.),

* made sure the sound worked,

* set the admin account password and created the first user account.

That took about an hour, including updating all the software I wanted.

Every USB device I plug in is detected and works fine, (note, I don't have any webcams, so I wouldn't know about them.) and I don't have to go hunting the filesystem to find out where they are. I get an icon on the desktop.

My TV tuner card was detected and I get to use the remote to control the PC. (Can't watch TV as I believe the card itself is broken. It didn't work under XP either... :| )

I had dual monitors working perfectly, and I didn't have to compile anything to do that, as it was all done for me.

And, as to ease of use, the family PC is running Fedora very well (albeit without sound, although I believe the hardware for that has finally flaked out, as it was dodgy under XP.)

I actually have had comments that Fedora is easier to use than XP from various family members.

So, draw your own conclusions from that, although I suspect you will keep on complaining that "teh Lunix" is only for people with PhDs and geeks with inch thick glasses. (No, I don't have a PhD, and I don't wear glasses. Although I *am* a geek.)

Some people will complain about anything, facts be damned.

Mine is the black straightjacket with the tail stitched on it...

(New) dirt-cheap bots attack Hotmail Captchas

James Penketh

Why do I need a title?

"What, you don't want to have to identify yourself? You want privacy? Anonymity? Bah, don't kid yourself."

-Anonymous Coward

Do I sense some irony here?

Bad security products thrive on confusion

James Penketh

Oh, say it ain't so!

"Vendors can't be trusted to give a reliable precis of a product's capabilities"

"For every supplier with a good product or service, there is at least one more out to make a quick buck before customers find out"

Surely you can't be serious!

...

Either he's a bit slow on the uptake, or he's taking the p!ss.

Igor-style human, animal parts assembly on horizon

James Penketh

Yeth, Marthter...

</obligatory>

100Gbps Internet2 is ready

James Penketh
Thumb Up

Remember...

The original internet was (also) designed for research use. It has grown a bit since then.

Admittedly, it did take a while before people other than researchers could get onto the net...

20 odd years, if I recall correctly...

So, 100Gbps internet in... 2027 then. Can't wait.

(I like these icons... Very nice.)

Siphoning MySpace tunes using Safari

James Penketh

a media player

Try VLC (VideoLan Client). Plays pretty much anything you can throw at it.

Even DVDs with libdvdcss2. Available on pretty much every OS out there.

Linux, Mac OS, Windows

www.videolan.org

AMD's dual-core Athlon 64 line hits 3.2GHz

James Penketh

hm...

3.2GHz as stock. I wonder what you could overclock it to?

Muhaha!

Gentoo cuts key parts of itself from net for its own good

James Penketh

RE: A sad week for Linux

Maybe, but at least they're visibly doing something about it.

Which has got to count for something.

I suppose that taking the servers offline mitigates the potential damage due to people downloading, possibly altered for malicious purposes, pieces of software.

I, for one, wouldn't like to be downloading an update to ssh that included a backdoor. Especially not if this backdoor gained any potential attacker a root shell. With the download servers offline, they can work of fixing whatever damage may have been caused without further risking end users.

Linux vendors and Microsoft follow the money

James Penketh

I wondered...

...how long until the:

'you're all insignificant pieces of shit, crawl off into a corner and die' people got here.

And isn't it interesting that all of them seem to be posting anonymously (or under a screen name).

Terra, I was going to post a response, but then I realised something. You don't care, because I'm nobody.

(Hang on, if I'm nobody. And nobody's perfect. Does that mean I'm perfect?)

Have a nice day, go on. I dare ya.

Hacker cracks Netflix copy restrictions

James Penketh

VGl0bGU=

Is amanfrommars starting to make sense or should I just be upping my medication again?

On a more serious note, DRM is a waste of time and money. Both for the media barons, and the end users.

I don't buy as many DVDs as I used to, because the 'anti-copying' measures they pack on the things stop me from watching them.

(Just because I want to watch them on a *nix box.)

But it's alright, because I can find software that breaks these anti-copying measures so that I can enjoy the film. DRM only harms the law abiding folk, it merely inconveniences everyone else for a short while.

Free Software Foundation plans protests at 'corrupt' BBC

James Penketh

Oh, so what?

I am a Linux user. I don't support locking people out for making decisions about what tool they want to use.

And I know that it is unlikely that Linux et al will ever get an iPlayer client.

Is this a big loss?

I very rarely watch TV now, and the only stuff I watch can quite easily be found on t'internet.

(Actually, I only watch TV for CSI and a few interesting documentaries.(In other words, never the Beeb. :p ))

Most of the stuff that is pumped out by the BBC is complete and utter dross. ('Panorama' and 'Doctor Who' for want of examples *dons asbestos longjohns*)

Coding legend Antony Jameson gives supercomputers wings

James Penketh

No wonder...

...you called it 'semi-coherent computing'. I can barely understand you.

Or is this the effect of having Mr. Jameson in the 'studio'?

False positives run amok in Vista anti-virus tests

James Penketh

Laughing my a$$ off.

sec0nd. I'm a GNU/Linux user, too!

Now that's over...

I think it's halarious that a development kit is detected as malware. Well, if the AV software was being entirely truthful, wouldn't it detect all the DRM crap as malware?

I am going to avoid Vista as long as possible, and if I'm gonna use windows I'll only use XP.

And who, in their right mind, would buy Vista?

Getac develops hardened tablet PC

James Penketh

Two words spring to mind.

want one...

Ebuyer.com runs on a Commodore 64

James Penketh

Re: Nintendo uses its own hardware

OMG! They're running Solaris8 on a Gamecube.

T3H L337!!!!!!111one!11eleventyone!

Hmmm... I wonder if I can run *nix on my Amstrad PPC640?

640KB RAM, 16bit 8088 CPU (Yeah, I know I'm lucky.), crappy 9inch LCD monitor.

Now that was one helluva brick^w laptop.

My first computer was an Amstrad 464plus, 8bit glory... in a 16bit world.

PPC640 (16-bit) made ~1987. 464plus (8-bit) made 1990.

I wish it still worked... *sniff*

MS Patch Tuesday to include trio of 'critical' fixes

James Penketh

eltiT

". If you can use only Linux on your desktop and not rip out your hair on a near daily basis (and still be in contact with the outside world).. that's just lovely and I'd love to meet you to learn the secrets. I tried it for 3 years and finally went back to windows."

I use only Linux on my desktop, I'm still in contact with the outside world (well, the parts of the outside world that are worth talking to).

I don't tear my hair out on a daily basis. It's actually easier and quicker for me.

Now, back on topic (as it were), the number of patches is nothing.

The most important think about a software patch is that the ones that fix the most dangerous problems are the patches send out the fastest.

Would you rather have that a patch to fix a potential exploit that allows a malicious cracker to take over your PC be kept waiting until a patch that solved a slightly mis-coloured font in a rarely used app. was released?

Thought not.

MEP plans EU build ban on cars faster than 100mph

James Penketh

Re: $Title

Anonymous: "Wonder what the response for Germany's MEP will be?"

"Nein! Dummer Kopf. Erhalten Sie einen f*cking Anhaltspunkt!"

Heh heh heh...

iPhone hackers disclose vulns and hunt for clues

James Penketh

титле

You make it, and they will come.

Kudos to the first person to run Linux on an iPhone.

Unwanted e-card conceals a Storm

James Penketh

Title? What? Why?

I got one of these. At first I thought it was a blank email.

then I saw the attachment. ecard.exe. Oh come on...

do they really think I'm gonna be stupid enough to open it?

Obviously yes.

But there must be enough people stupid enough to run the thing to make it a worthwhile activity for the virus/malware/etc. people, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

"There are two things that are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not so sure of the former."

- Einstein.

Vyke moves VoIP battle to SMS

James Penketh

Re: Down with Capitalization (sic)

No, don't get rid of the [shift] key.

I need that for my punctuation, get rid of the [Caps Lock] Key.

Who uses that thing anyway?

Back OT. I don't text that much (if at all.) anyway, so *maybe* this won't really bother me. (But then again...)

US troops to scatter crawling Wi-Fi mini-droids

James Penketh

Could you imagine...

...how quickly these would get stolen if they were deployed?

I mean, they're not exactly going to be quick, so what (apart from the guy with the M16) is stopping you from picking up one of these toys^H^H^H^H devices and having a tinker?

Could you imagine the devastation if captured WiFi robots were rigged with explosives? (Yeah, I know they're not very big, so they're not likely to have much room (if any) inside. But these people are very inventive when it comes to IEDs*.)

* Improvised Explosive Devices

Intel and Google go Bono over power supplies

James Penketh

Oh really...

"travel the world in large, commercial plans"

While this may be nice, surely they've considered the fact that it's much easier to travel by plane, rather than by commercial plan.

Plans will only get you so far...

:D

UK importing Army spy-drones to replace losses

James Penketh

Re: How much..?

The other £7.8m is for lining the pockets of everybody involved, IMNSHO.

I mean, come on. This country used to be great for it's engineering skills, what happened?

Oh, right...

the greedy unions, the corrupt governments selling them out, outsourcing, school not teaching proper skills (instead, concentrating on this 'committee' and 'teamwork' BS.)

Why built brilliant equipment when you can buy a piece of equipment from the yanks, at five times the original price.

GET WITH THE PROGRAM! Start by firing all those damned management staff, and hiring people who have a clue.

My tuppence, for your perusal. If I have offended anyone, stop being a soft pillock, and grow up.

Naked builders hate ugly logos, but don't frequent Google Maps

James Penketh

Great

"but am I right in assuming you can bung two, three or more sachets into the same glass of water to increase the strength?"

Yeah, so It'll kill you two or three times quicker. Evolution at work.

If you're stupid enough to try and drink that junk you deserve to die, just to keep the gene pool clean.

Paris Hilton dereassigned back to jail

James Penketh

Seen a picture...

of Paris being taken back to jail.

Crying her eyes out, bottom lip stuck out.

Now that was funny.

Pompous, self-obsessed attention whore.

When the polish rubs off, all you're left with is a whining, whinging spoilt three-year-old brat.

Money doesn't mean you can get away with anything. They should learn that. And more judges should be fairer, and use more common sense.

Who *really* gives a damn about these people, anyway?

So what's in a URL? The Reg URL?

James Penketh

How about...

http://damn_yankees.theregister.co.uk ?

</trying to be funny>

Leave it as .co.uk

It means more exercise for my fingers, and it puts them yanks in their place.

*grumble* damn .com *moan* damn yankees *whinge* think they own the world *mumble* we'll show 'em *grumble*

We should be proud of being British, despite what Blair, Brown & Co. are trying to do.

== James Penketh ==

*Born in Britain. Will die in Britain, unless someone decides that Britain's gonna take the US back, then I'll be on the front lines.* :D

Norfolk schools install kid-monitoring software

James Penketh

Meh...

Our school has some software doing roughly the same thing

RM Tutor 3.

A class teacher can watch every screen simultaneously, or go remote desktop on the PC and close all the windows. Or shut the PC down remotely, log students off remotely, etc.

You can't boot from a disc, because they've passworded the BIOS (how long until I break it?) and you can't run any applications other than those in the start menu.

Attempting to do so says (badly paraphrased) "This application has been blocked by a software restriction policy. Please contact your system administrator"

And you can't change any settings (supposedly. On some of the PCs they've left the NVIDIA settings panel in the desktop context menu, so I've upped all the PCs to maximum resolution.) and you can't get to the command prompt.

Well, except on the NT4 PCs up in tech...

(After that incident they've kept a close eye on me.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention the web-sense blocking piece of rubbish. Blocks... well... everything. Used to block Microsoft.com under category Marijuana. Well, it would explain a lot.

Oh, and also the anti-virus, set up to scan all the network packets passing through on startup, pulling network speed to roughly 15Kbps, so logins take five minutes on a good day.

Hardy perennials dominate virus chart

James Penketh

It's all in the design.

D Wayte: "Maybe nobody writes viruses for the Mac/Linux because they require so much effort???"

And quite probably because very few (read 'almost none') of the few Linux viruses that have been written can spread beyond what the infected user can write to (e.g. Their own files, network shares, etc...)

Such is the design of UNIX(tm) (which is what Linux, etc... is based on.).

Mozilla quashes Firefox JavaScript peril

James Penketh

I normally use firefox...

And just upgraded to 2.0.0.4

but it won't worry me much. There is very little a virus can do on a *true* multi-user system that protects all the system from numpty users (e.g. me.)

And if it all starts getting too much, I'll just switch to lynx.

Germany declares hacking tools 'verboten'

James Penketh

Thank god I don't live in Germany then...

*Looks over desktop*

Wireshark

Look@Host

Look@Lan

Quake. (It's a network testing tool. Really.)

*looks over desk*

Knoppix CD, containing utilities for recovering deleted files.

Oh boy, am I glad I don't live in Germany. I would *so* get arrested and locked up. :D

Monster mashes iPod Shuffle, 'phones

James Penketh

Nice but...

How much of a prat are you going to look with that thing hanging off the side of your head?

Or is there a new law that says 'if Apple makes it, no matter how stupid it looks, it is instantly cool'?

Norton's firewall not fiery enough

James Penketh

Not Again...

Why does everyone have to rely so heavily on that lousy ActiveX rubbish?

How many times has something like this cropped up, and all because of ActiveX?

Post Office to resell BT broadband

James Penketh

A little bit harsh.

You have to remember that the post office used to lead the world in communications technology.

They introduced telegraph services in Britain in1870, and phone services in 1912. They used to be responsible for Britain's entire phone network until 1981, when BT was demerged from the Post Office.

And, didn't they also discover RADAR, while trying a shortwave radio thingamajig. (Technical term.)

BOFH: The revenge

James Penketh

You can't keep a good BOFH down.

This'll show those who were doubting him in the last episode.

Argentinian commuters fight back

James Penketh

Hah!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the five-fifteen from *mumble* is canceled due to the wrong type of leaves on the line. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

"NYAAAAAAAAGH!!!!" *KA-BOOM*

Vista goes gangbusters

James Penketh

I wonder...

...how many of them 40million (or however many) copies of Vista sold were OEM, and promptly wiped and had XP installed over them?

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