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* Posts by hahnchen

86 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jul 2008

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O2 to step back from unlimited mobile data deals

hahnchen

At least they're up front

Other networks, such as 3, sell their plans as unlimited, but in the small print, their data limit is a paltry 500Mb.

3 dropped their limit from 1Gb to 500Mb and still sell it as unlimited. How is this legal?

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Google's Wi-Fi sniff probe reveals 'criminal intent' - PI

hahnchen

Is it interception when you broadcast your unencrypted signal?

If you have an unsecured signal, you're broadcasting to everyone.

No one is tapping into a line, you are shouting out your data to everyone within transmission radius. It's like Google has strolled past Speaker's Corner and is being punished for listening.

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Superslim iPhone 4 enough to fend off Android?

hahnchen
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This is an iPhone article

I'd be surprised if the author would just concentrate on the Evo's sales or no sales blip. It's pretty irrelevant given that the phone has sold out - I'm surprised they could even get that wrong. It's clearly not just IT guys that are buying Android phones.

How long is it until Android devices start sporting Apple's new screen? After all, it's not Apple's technology. But I haven't seen the new iPhone either, so I guess that means that any analysis is impossible.

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Mozilla sidesteps iPhone code ban with Firefox Home

hahnchen
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What a waste of resources

Why are Mozilla wasting themselves with this effort. They should be ploughing resources into and developing their own browser, not making excuses for people to jump to iPhone.

Where's the focus? Why bother with this distraction?

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Google does an Orb

hahnchen

Google can go one better

Not just streaming from a home server (which is too ridiculously geeky for most), but to actually host those files in their cloud.

That would rock.

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Google open video codec may face patent clash

hahnchen

Put up or shut up

No more of this FUD from MPEG LA. Google are encoding and delivering video with VP8 right now on Youtube, are you going to do something about it?

Because, quite frankly, the whispering campaign of FUDDY unmentionable submarine patents has been the most annoying itch, that we can now finally excise. It's time for MPEG LA to name those patents, for Google to challenge them, and for the open source community to work around them.

No more of this secret war bullshit. Let's get it into the open.

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Blighty to get mobe-download barcode rail tickets

hahnchen
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It's a shame that every station in any major city has automated barriers

That rely on old school tickets or RFID. This clearly won't work going in and out of London.

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Apple patent filing portends Google ad war

hahnchen

Gizmondo tried this, but never put it into practice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo#Smart_Adds

I don't know if that counts as prior art. But the concept of the use of location data to target advertising should not be patented, only specific implementations.

But then again, the USPTO are the biggest bunch of incompetent wasters around, who have about as much insight into technology as a dead rabbit.

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Brighton goes Green

hahnchen
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Re: Bassey

You clearly haven't heard her speak. She is a strong public speaker and managed to get her message across when confronted by Paxman on Newsnight.

Sure, her policies are rubbish, but please don't bullshit on the other points.

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Microsoft drops second IE9 preview

hahnchen
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So what?

Wow, ACID4, another batch of tests for standards quirks that no one actually uses? Sure, nice to-do list, but there are more exciting goals.

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Applesoft, Ogg, and the future of web video

hahnchen
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Increase the cost

We need fewer, and better patents to be filed. And fewer frivolous cover-alls. By increasing the cost of filing, you reduce the workload, and can allow more time to examine the patent.

How about having a system whereby some of the initial cost is paid back in reduced maintenance fees after an application is successful? That would deter against shotgun patent applications.

And whereas Joe the Plumber may tea party against increased taxes for the USPTO, corporations might not, especially if it means they don't have to waste as much money on defending from patent trolling.

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hahnchen
Flame

Open source should be protected against submarine patents

The entire workings of open source projects are out in the open. If they infringe on patents, then the patent holders should be obliged to speak out and protect their inventions, in the same way trademark holders are forced to defend their marks which are otherwise lost. This will allow either the open source community to work around them, or for those patents to be challenged.

The situation as it is now, should never arise - that FUDdy patents loom over projects which are completely in the open is unacceptable. Microsoft should not be able to charge companies for using Linux, and yet keep those "infringing" patents secret, which only serves to promote their licensing carousel.

The US patent system needs serious reform, and this is only one small facet. The USPTO need to start hiring competent patent examiners for a start, so that fewer all encompassing obvious patents are granted. They need to seriously reexamine their criteria for granting software patents, in many cases, these are patents on ideas - not inventions.

And yet, every time patent reform comes up, the Union of Patent Examiners, speak out against it. They speak out against it, because it'd mean they'd actually have to do some work instead of rubberstampting everything, and hire some competent people who might not pay their union dues.

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Steve Jobs: mystery patent pool to attack Ogg Theora

hahnchen
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Re: zef

I totally agree zef, let's get this shit out into the open, so that the Open Source community can work around it, or fight.

What we're left with right now, are H264 licensors spreading FUD to protect their licensing revenues. Let's see what they actually have, so it can be addressed.

There should be protection for open source projects against submarine patents. In open source software, everything is available for anyone to see, there should be no excuse for the existence of submarine patents. In the same way that trademarks are ruled invalid if they are not defended, so should software patents against open source software.

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Microsoft: 'Prepare for 15 billion more clients'

hahnchen
FAIL

This doesn't support ARM architecture does it?

And given that Windows Phone 7 - is clearly stated for Phones only, that leaves a massive hole.

Are embedded systems really going to stick to x86? Because I see them going the other way.

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'Gossips' say Apple will acquire ARM

hahnchen
FAIL

City "gossips" laugh all the way to the bank

The FTSE and NASDAQ are down 1% today, yet ARM is up 3.5%, for no other reason than this scurrilous bullshit. They really are taking everyone for muppets.

As has been pointed out already - this will not happen. Apple can't buy ARM because other tech giants with massive cash piles will take out blocking chunks of the company.

Microsoft, Google, and every other device manufacturer out there will buy up chunks the company if Apple were to attempt a purchase. The ARM board would be dead against an acquisition, I doubt they'd enjoy committing suicide for the sake of Apple dominance.

So it's impossible for Apple to acquire ARM, so they won't even try, regardless of the fit. So this rumour is bullshit, and yet their overbought stock is still up, on a down day. This idiot short termist gambling, based on unfounded speculation and rumour, is exactly what lead to the financial collapse.

Oh how we learn.

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hahnchen
FAIL

This is ridiculous

It's not going to happen. And it's not going to happen because Apple aren't the only tech giants around with significant cash piles.

Every other company - (Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Intel et al) would just gobble up enough chunks of ARM to block an acquisition. And you can be certain that the ARM board would be dead against committing suicide for the sake of Apple dominance.

This rumour is absolute bullshit.

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Broadband boss: 'The end of freeloading is nigh'

hahnchen

This has to happen

If consumers want net neutrality, then this has to happen. Mobile broadband already charges for data, your old dialup ISP used to do the same.

You should pay for how much you use, not Youtube.

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Mystic Met closed Europe with computer model

hahnchen
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What's more important though

Is that The Register gets another chance to force the phrase "Mystic Met". No one is buying it, but that twittercrat one was quite good though.

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'iPhone 4G' loser outed

hahnchen
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No it isn't.

By naming him, and placing high visibility on this guy, it makes it less likely that Apple will fire him.

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Why doesn't Nokia buy Palm?

hahnchen
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Re: Clueless

No, a desperate acquisition is more of the same. $1billion for yet another OS for Nokia to wrangle.

The time it would take Nokia to get behind webOS and its 2200 apps, would see it being released after Symbian 3 anyway - oh snap! Another OS that does the same thing.

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hahnchen
WTF?

$300 - $400 million? For Palm?

That is incredibly low. Most estimates are around the $1billion mark.

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hahnchen
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no

Nokia beat expectations during Q4 2009, and market share was up.

Then again, if you're only after shiny shiny "cool", you probably missed it.

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Commissioner pledges protection for net neutrality

hahnchen

The net should be neutral, ISPs need to start charging by usage

ISPs should not be demanding payment from publishers, in the same way that destinations don't pay road and fuel tax.

Mobile internet has moved to a per/GB charging model, so should home connections.

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Labour shock pledge: 16.8-meg broadband for ALL by 2012!

hahnchen

Wrong error

Surely, the guy writing the thing, say the phrases "2 megabit" and "superfast broadband", and thought, "Ha! Now there's a mistake."

He should have dropped the superfast bit instead. Still, easy mistake to make.

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BBC, big business leer creepily at orphan works

hahnchen

So what happens to orphan works right now?

From what I gather, right now, they're just a black hole.

If orphan works were granted to the British Library, what then? Would Crown copyright apply?

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Bill Gates goes (mini) nuclear

hahnchen
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No

The whole point of the TWR technology is that it runs on what is now classed as nuclear waste.

So it isn't missing that final word.

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Greatest Living Briton gets £30m for 'web science'

hahnchen
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There is a difference...

...between living, and undead.

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Real Networks rolls over to Hollywood

hahnchen
FAIL

I too wish to register my disgust

You can no longer legally make back ups of media that you own, because DMCA means a corporation's rights trump consumer rights.

They should have open sourced this as soon as they saw litigation coming.

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Apple turns the flamethrower on Android

hahnchen
FAIL

Some [patents] are generic enough to be applied to any computing environment.

So why were they granted? US Patent law needs reform. The USPO has to start hiring competent members of staff.

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Google Books loses lions of literature

hahnchen
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Rudyard Kipling?

I guess the public domain is dead now.

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Chinese villager jailed for eating tiger

hahnchen
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FAIL

A hi-five for veganism

Yes, obviously - because the inevitable outcome of a non-vegetarian diet is cannibalism. It was the singular cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire.

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LHC pulverises previous record: 2.36 TeV surprise collision!

hahnchen
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FAIL

Re: Luis

The reason no one takes you seriously, is because you've taken the population of the earth, picked a random number, and then multiplied it together. It makes absolutely no sense.

You've also switched your original "end earth" argument to a pathetic strand regarding weapons research.

Do you remember the internet? It was created so a communications network could survive nuclear war, by making nuclear war more survivable, it upsets the MAD equation. I take it had you been around then, you'd be campaigning against that too.

Nuclear war possibility x Population of Earth = LEGAL HOLOCAUST

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hahnchen

Re: Luis Sancho

Luis Sancho is the guy who filed a lawsuit in Hawaii to stop the LHC being built, because he thinks it'll create a black hole which destroys us all.

He seems to have switched his line of argument to one against the dastardly military industrial complex.

Either way, he's a worthless crank.

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Adware touts $1 bribe to prospective zombies

hahnchen
Happy

I did this once.

It was called AllAdvantage.

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Sites pulling sneaky Flash cookie-snoop

hahnchen
Go

You can disable local flash storage via your flash setttings

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager06.html

As for Firefox addons, they already exist - Flashblock and AdblockPlus.

Flashblock makes Flash behave like it should (you have to click play for flash apps/video to run) - I wish browsers would do this by default. It stops your resources from getting raped, and cuts down on the seizure inducing advertisments.

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Google unfurls less laughable Wikipedia

hahnchen

It won't take off, unless...

The reason Wikipedia is so popular is because Google ranks everything in it at the top of all search results. The only way anyone is going to find out about knol is if they start fondling their Google-rithms to like it a lot more, this of course, will only take a matter of time.

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