* Posts by alien anthropologist

124 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jul 2009

No more books on Ireland's banned book list

alien anthropologist
Troll

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

Irish? Who cares!

The last good Irish was William Wallace.

And he was not even Irish.

Anonymous turns attack drones against fax machines

alien anthropologist
Thumb Down

@Winkypop

> "I remember the 1980's well... Crap music"

Don't tell me - your a boy band fanboi wearing a Bieber T-shirt...

Only an idiot will not realise that the 80's turned out the best music since the 60's and that nothing since has come close to it.

The 80's was about Rock, Alternative Roc, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Contemporary R&B, Hip Hop, Post Punk, New Wave, Techno, House, etc. - a decade where music artists pushed the boundaries to where they still are today.

Apple chap knocks up ancient Lego computer

alien anthropologist
Thumb Up

Earliest mechanical computer...

...or are there older ones yet to be discovered?

Primary school miss flashes porn vid at kiddies

alien anthropologist
Thumb Up

<insert title here>

> "Then, went home and fired up uTorrent to see the happy ending...."

Happy endings are good.

Mastercard downed by Anon-Assange-fans

alien anthropologist
Flame

@david wilson

> "Maybe people could tear up their credit cards and just use cash?"

The idea is to hit back at Mastercard/Visa due to their actions against Wikileaks. Not for Joe Public to cut off their noses in order to spite Mastercard/Visa.

Seems to me some here is totally missing the bigger picture. It is about refusing financial web services to a web site that has NOT broken any laws. Simply because a government does not "like" that web site. That a is fricken large brush being waved around and every single web site on the net can become a target.

Some tards here will of course argue that laws have been broken.. But lets forget for a moment about opinion and look at facts.

Not a single charge has been laid in any court of law in the world over the actions of Wikileaks (and several large papers).

What is more, similiar situations have occurred in the past inside the US, winded up in court, and the US Government lost. Thus there is a precedent that says that the laws have not been broken by Wikileaks, or the papers participating with Wikileaks,

So what - just apply some lube and tell the US Government "please go ahead and fuck us up the backside where and when you like" ?

Or do something about it? Should that something be DDoS attacks? I've always dislikes DoS - but I do not see any alternative to clearly demonstrate to companies like Mastercard that it is not in their best interest to suck US Government appendages.

alien anthropologist
Grenade

WTF...

..do you commentards, criticising these attacks, then suggest be done by those that want to protest how Wikileaks are being treated?

Come on.. accepting payments to the KKK and not Wikileaks? Shutting down payments because of US government pressure? There is no friggen way that you can ever justify that.

So, some/many want to protest. Just how do you suggest they protest? And protest is such a way that the message being conveyed is not ignored? And yes, even "hurts".

For the common working man, that is called going on strike. And yes, strikes are designed to hurt the employer. Does it make strikes wrong? Not in any western country I know of - striking is protected in the labour act that gives employees the right to strike.

Personally, I dislike DDoS attacks as much as the next man. But at the same time I can't think of any other way of a meaningful global protest against Visa, Mastercard and others, bowing to the pressure of the government of the US of A.. over their failure to protect their secrets and dirty laundry.

Sarah Palin calls for US to stand by North Korea

alien anthropologist
Grenade

@Jakeson...

Any idea why so many of us dislike the tea-bagging-for-Jesus-flag-waving-common-sense-AMERICAN-patriots?

Look in the mirror mate. That's the America that scares us. Ignorance. Hatred of what you do not understand. Distrust of what you (purposefully?) do not comprehend. The inclination to believe whatever the hell you want to believe, regardless of the facts.

To quote your own leader:

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson

The real danger to world democracy is not the Taliban. Or Iran. Or North Korea. We have met the enemy. It is you.

Indian village bans single girls from mobile use

alien anthropologist
Grenade

Time to leave this fricken mudball..

I say we take off and nuke the entire planet from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Software engineer blogs own Starbucks wiretap

alien anthropologist
Troll

GOTO?

Reminds me of that Cobol programmer they found dead in the shower in the mid 90's. CSI could not figure out the cause of death.. until a geek on the investigation team discovered the reason when he read the instructions on the shampoo bottle found with the body.

The instructions said:

1. Lather.

2. Rinse.

3. Repeat.

Oracle kills low-priced MySQL support

alien anthropologist
Grenade

Rubbishing the rubish...

> "I've been using it for eight years in enterprise systems without issues. It's certainly not crap."

We have a single database table that alone deals with more rows per day (100's of millions) than what several large mySQL databases will deal with in total per year.

Yes, we actually did try mySQ, and the orginal beta version of our s/w was running on it. Due to lack of scalability of mySQL and inflexibility of its architecture, we went Oracle instead.

> "Or do you shit bits?"

No.. just 0's and 1's.

alien anthropologist
Coat

Big deal...

This is not a "personal thing" of Larry-wants-to-screw-mySQL as some want to make it out.

Oracle canned many of Sun's old support options, and now provides so-called premium (aka expensive) support only. This includes h/w support for the Sunfire product range.

Now I can get p'ed of with that as we have truckload or three of Sunfire blades.. but with hiking mySQL support? Come on! High time you get a real friggen database product!!

Mine's the one with the mySQL-is-crap flamethrower in the pocket.

Fans roast Microsoft for Silverlight demotion

alien anthropologist
Coat

..and

..adding to the list of technology shaftings from Microsoft:

What about their "commitment" to OpenGL in the early NT days?

Or promising game developers that WinG will be "it" on Win4/Win95 for game development?

What about shutting down Aces Studio and shafting several big corporations and government departments using ESP?

There's a long list of technologies used, abused and then dropped by Microsoft - hurting their partners and their customers in the process.

Of course, it also says a lot about these partners and customers when they simply ask for extra lube and stick with Microsoft for the next round of shafting.

Mine's the one with the penguin in the pocket.

Oracle takes stake in networking pal Mellanox

alien anthropologist
FAIL

Huh?

Bad news? Ignorant comment. Infiniband is a core technology for Oracle RAC - and a major differentiating factor for RAC over its competition. It is literally years ahead of anything that the Ethernet vendors can provide for HPC and at the cluster storage layer.

Why would Oracle not invest in a core technology to ensure that it stays in the lead and continues to provide them with that differentiating factor that enables them to beat the competition? And how is this "bad"?

Bad is Larry mouthing off and throwing personal insults around. Investing in core h/w and s/w technology that your company's flagship product is using, is anything but "bad".

The great Aussie firewall is back - and this time it's personal

alien anthropologist
Flame

No sex please... we are Australians.

Sex only allowed between married couples that have acquired the required licensing and documentation for doing it in bed for the sole purpose of pro-creation. (and you better no enjoy it either!)

<breaking out in song>

Every sperm is sacred.

Every sperm is great.

If a sperm is wasted,

God gets quite irate.

Which Ethernet SAN storage protocol is best?

alien anthropologist
WTF?

What about SRP?

SRP is SCSI Remote Direct Memory Access Protocol. Runs over Infiniband. Low latency. 40Gb pipes to the storage server (via the IB switch) - as oppose the 10Gb of Ethernet.

This is used by a number of companies and offered as a storage solution by a number of vendors (i.e. Infiniband based storage servers -e.g. Oracle's Exadata, Rorke's Galaxy server, etc).

Performance and scalability wise... I fail to see Ethernet as a SAN protocol layer being able to compete with Infiniband.

Oracle spins own Linux for mega hardware

alien anthropologist
Thumb Down

Wrong.

> "ARE YOU KIDDING ?!? Oracle database can't not make a difference between lowercase and uppercase. You are already 50 years behind !"

You are ignorant. Totally. Want to create a mix case table name or column name or stored procedure unit? Want to create a table name containing a single whitespace? Possible. And has been for a number of versions now.

OpenSolaris spork ready for Oracle challenge

alien anthropologist
Linux

Scaling? Maintenance?

We run Sun x86/64 h/w kit. Loads of them. All using Linux. Have servers with an uptime of over a year. Hooked up to storage systems of more than 50TB (yes, and RAD works just fine when properly implemented). Running high speed backbones using Infiniband.

Kernel and o/s issues? None. Though we have had problems with Sun screwing up firmware and causing soft CPU lockups in the kernel (bug confirmed and fixed by Sun via a CMOS upgrade).

We also have a few Solaris boxes on Sparc kit. Also rock solid.

Point being? There's a reason why 483 of the top 500 biggest and baddest computer clusters in the world run Linux. Nor Solaris. Not AIX. Not Windows.

And it is for those very same reasons that Linux is used by so many - including us. Yes, it has all to do with ability to scale, the very little maintenance needed, the flexibility Linux and Open Source provide.. to name but a few.

alien anthropologist
IT Angle

Yawn...

Who is interested in running Open Solaris, when there is Linux? With proper support and SLA options available from large vendors (like Novel, Redhat and Oracle)? With a clear road map, active development community, large corporate support (h/w and s/w), etc. etc.

Open Solaris is even less relevant than El-Reg's Friday afternoon non-IT article....

Firefox 4 beta gets hard on Windows

alien anthropologist
Coat

@ac

Disagree. There are two primary graphic APIs today. OpenGL and DirectX (which includes Direct2D).

Many s/w game developers dealing with complex textured 3D graphics, support both.

How? By using an abstracted API (typcially homegrown) that in turn can make the graphics magic using either OpenGL or DirectX.

What do ATI and nVidia drivers on Windows support? DirectX and OpenGL, hardware accelerated.

What does many Linux desktops support (assuming these use a proper, and not generic, video driver)? OpenGL, hardware accelerated.

2D rendering is a lot easier than 3D. For Mozilla to define their own basic 2D rendering API and have this support both Direct2D and OpenGL underneath, is quite feasible.

Mine's the one with OpenGL in one pocket, and DirectX in the other.

Nandos 'village bike' ad not sexist, rules ASA

alien anthropologist
Happy

@Richard Jukes

> I like boobs, however they are nigh on useless when it comes to advertising

So do I. But useless in advertising? Not if it makes you smile...

Breasts by Nandos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k97AIRy5Z5U&NR=1

British Airways sorry for 'landing on water' nonsense

alien anthropologist
Paris Hilton

..missing the point

.. as the point is that you press that special emergency announcement button just as that sexy blond is entering the toilet stall. You then look deep into her eyes and say something corny.

Paris icon of course.. as I know it will work with her.

Google, boffins crack Rubik's Cube mystery

alien anthropologist
FAIL

I have..

.. a rubik's cube and a tube of superglue that says your 20 moves is a fail. ;-)

Feds admit storing pervscanner pics

alien anthropologist
FAIL

So...

> I don't give a shit if they store images or not. No one is scanning me, my wife or my kids.

All right then sir.. please proceed to "The Room" while I snap on these gloves... and my colleagues and I poke our fingers up your ass, your wife's ass, and your kids asses....

Is that what you want as an alternative? Don't be an idiot.

The issue is about *correctly* using technology to ensure some crazy bastard does not do what crazy bastards tend to do. Yes, it is a balance acting between privacy and individual rights and public safety - but you mouthing off as you are simply reeks of stupid arrogance and utter ignorance.

US legalizes jailbroken iPhones

alien anthropologist
Thumb Up

epic non-fail

w00t!

SCO rises from the dead (again)

alien anthropologist
FAIL

The Party

This SCO saga is all too familiar...

The opening scene of Peter Seller's The Party, where the Indian bugler refuses to die. Eventually even having his fellow troops firing on him to silence him.

Wonder how long it will before SCO insiders turn on the idiot who is refusing to let SCO die and burns the little money that is left in pursuit of this....?

German arrested for Adolf Hitler ringtone

alien anthropologist
FAIL

Hitler... one of the worse military commanders of all time..

He was a huge and epic fail from a military viewpoint. The problem of course is that few read history and suffer from the delusion that Hitler was somehow a brilliant military strategist and commander. The common regurgitated crap of "blitzkrieg" that is attributed to Adolf himself.

Instead, one should read real history - diaries of commanders under Hitler, evidence from the Nueremburg trials, orders of battle given, post-battle reports, how forces were applied and how time and time again Hitler made the wrong decision, was indecisive, prevented his commanders from exploiting the dynamic situations and advantages on the battle field, and how many times he failed to grasp some of the very basic principles warfare.

And thank god for that as the German War Machine, its men and equipment, were arguably the best on the battle field at the time.

Thousands of 'sexsomniacs' suffering in silence, say profs

alien anthropologist
Happy

@Anonymous John

> sleep shagging

> Am I the only one who read that as "sheep"?

Seems like it mate.. we don't get that many Aussies here.

Green Berets to get Judge Dredd computer smart-rifle

alien anthropologist
Grenade

Laser guided squad munitions

Laser guided 60mm patmor (patrol mortar) was developed back in the 80's here over the pond. Sure, the standard 60mm patmor was heavy to cart around (tube, base plate and rounds)... but the assault rifle of today is only really effective at up to 400m or so. The good old 40mm is also pretty useless at longer ranges.

If the engagements happens at 700m or more on average, I would have the platoon pack more LMG's and make liberal use of the old 60mm. And with laser guidance... that will have pin point accuracy to deal with the attackers.

Spammers ordered to pay tiny ISP whopping $2.6m

alien anthropologist
Grenade

Not insane at all...

What do you rather want - a wussy fine that the spammers can afford? And yes they spam because it is worth a lots of $'s and they can more than afford wussy fines.

Or hit them so hard with a fine that will force them (an illegal entity) into (hopefully) bankruptcy or the like?

What do you want - a potential penalty for spamming that will make many people think twice before attempting it? Or one where the potential gains are worth the risk? (sure, hefty fines will not stop everyone - but if it stops some, it is well worth it).

Perhaps you cannot remember a mostly spam free Internet where the worse spam going around was the Dave Rhode's Letter... Well I can. And would like to see the Internet cleaned up and a vast percentage of Internet bandwidth and resource be put to better use than processing billions of spam mails every day.

So this is not about the US's sanity when it comes to trivial litigation... A pity that your ameriphobia prevents you from realising that.

Palin email jury reaches verdicts on 3 of 4 counts

alien anthropologist
Thumb Down

@Apocalypse Later

> Palin served as a state governor, and capably

That's a matter of opinion. Have a look at even Alaskan run websites that speaks vehemently against her conservation and other policies.

Look at her utterances in public.. Did she honestly thought she has "experience" to deal with Russia? Or that Africa was a country and not a continent?

So calling her a capable governor is seeing it from one (your?) side of the coin. There's another side too. (as is usually the case)

> Those enemies are exactly the kind you want though, the kind that attack you for everything but your policies (yes, I do mean the "hockey-mom" "pregnant daughter" and other "dumb woman" stuff).

The "hockey-mom" quote comes from Palin herself. She choose to portray herself like that. It may go down well in the backwaters of the good US of A, but the rest of the world shudders too think how such a person can voted into a position of power that has a direct influence on the future of this planet.

alien anthropologist
Coat

@AC

> It would be very cool...if the dude got 5 years in the slammer.

> That would be an educational experience

It would be even cooler if most republican Americans get <insert something equally horrible here> for actually thinking that a hockey-mom like Sarah Palin is capable of serving in high office.. never mind being the fricken 2nd in-command or even president of the USA.

I mean, if stupidity is a crime (like with this poor hacker sod), then right wing America needs to be on death row or something...

The true danger in this world is not Middle East extremism. It is some of our American friends that have lost a very basic and fundamental human characteristic - common sense! Why? Because they choose to live in fear and ignorance.. while having tea parties....

'Goodness, evilness makes you powerful' - like the Force

alien anthropologist
Thumb Up

@Robert Carnegie

> If Gandhi and Mother Teresa were very good AND very evil SIMULTANEOUSLY, do they get a double power boost?

You mean, going Super Saiyan? Holy super cow... so that's how they do it...

Any specific jell you need to use for the hair?

Ethernet borgs RDMA from InfiniBand

alien anthropologist
FAIL

So..?

Ethernet, even with RDMA, will still not scale as well as IB. Can I get 40Gb ether today for my clusters? Think not.

Already have 40Gb in place using IB. No contest.

alien anthropologist

@beemergeek

> Unless Cisco signs up for this, the solution is dead

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Cisco dropped IB (and its IB customers) like hot potatoes - refusing to even resolve existing support cases with their broken (and very expensive) IB switches with FC gateways.

Despite this, IB has grown significantly in market share, courtesy of other vendors. Cisco may be a 800lb gorilla. But it could very well be fed peanuts if it refuses to learn new tricks.

Oracle charges $90 for Sun's free ODF plug-in

alien anthropologist
Coat

Don't get it..

Why on earth would you want an ODF plug-in for MS Office, when you can simply choose not buy and use MS Office, and download and use Open Office for free!?

Don't tell me that you need MS Office to create documents using Open Source document formats - Open Office is perfectly capable of doing that. And doing it better.

Oh.. I see. You're a big company that needs to use MS Office as part of your deal with the devil (also known as Microsoft), but at the same time, you want to benefit from the Open Source community and source... And now you are bitching 'cause you have to pay for the ODF plug-in too.

Mine's the one with "Screw You" on the back.

Astroboffin says 'black holes murder galaxies'

alien anthropologist
Unhappy

Dark energy..

..is to be feared.

Not black holes. Despite their size.

The Universe is going downhill. Ever faster.

We, together with the rest of the Universe and all live in it, are pretty much screwed...

DIMENSIONAL PORTAL INCURSION AT THE LHC!

alien anthropologist
Thumb Up

It is time..

.. to kick ass and chew bubblegum.

And I'm all out of gum...

Clinton throws down the gauntlet to China over Google

alien anthropologist
FAIL

@Mike VandeVelde

Mike said: Let's see. In China you are blocked from certain websites that supposedly "threaten political stability". In the west they are working on blocking you from the internet entirely if you share music. Which sounds more "oppressive"?

Lemme see. So-called "sharing music" is an act by fucktards that is equivalent to stealing (but as no bytes are harmed, only musicians, that is fine). The other is attacking free speech, freedom of association, and free thought and expression..

Of course, the two are similiar and comprable.. in the twisted and demented minds of some...

Europe clears Oracle Sun for take-off

alien anthropologist
FAIL

@Red Bren

> Why should this raise concerns?

Because law are *different* from country to country. Certain US laws are not applicable in the EU. And vice versa.

There's also the issue that both said companies are US companies - and the EU may want to look at what the merger will do the EU economical landscape as it will have a different impact than on the US one.

Personally, I find it arrogant (and stereotypical) of Americans to assume that is the US decides on something, other nations simply must follow suit.

Avatar renders this earthly life meaningless

alien anthropologist
Coat

Screw Pandora...

There are 2 reasons why we visit Earth and not a planet like Pandora with its weird gravitational field, funky floating mountains and flat chested natives...

Coffee. And Titties.

Won't find a better brew anywhere else in this galaxy. And Earth women titties are the most awesome fricken objects in the universe..

Mine's the one with The Hitchhiker's Guide in one pocket and a towel in the other.

Oz firm seeks talented IT developer

alien anthropologist
Unhappy

@Border Express's Official Response

So.. you are saying that you discriminate against SQL Server developers with DD cups, slim waist and a tight twat?

Italians threaten suit over Windows pre-install

alien anthropologist
FAIL

Missing the point (fricken completely)...

Microsoft awards and penalises manufacturers for bundling/not bundling their o/s on that manufacturer PC platforms. Intel has also been doing it for many years (to such a good effect that AMD could not even give away free CPUs to manufacturers for use).

The real question (from a consumer perspective) is whether or not you can buy that exact same PC model without Windows for cheaper (less the cost of the o/s). In most cases, that is no. As the cost of the o/s is factored into the so-called manufacturing cost of the PC. So yeah - they could give it to you without Windows (format drives and do not provide Windows installation media and license). But it will still cost you the exact same price, with or without Windows.

And this is a definite case of being forced to buy Windows. You pay for it irrespective. Kind of like tax. That goes to Microsoft.

So a FAIL to the asses that want to compare this to being forced to use specific h/w too. Please extract head from anus.

Outrageous new means of megastar demise spotted

alien anthropologist
Go

Okay..

..so who is going to call the Russians and tell them that this time around you need your galaxy to be saved and not just Earth?

Texas cops cuff 176 at illegal cockfight

alien anthropologist
FAIL

@Peter 8

Bollocks! It is exactly that attitude of yours that is part of the crime problem - as some crimes in your view are acceptable and others not.

You also seem ignorant about policing. In many parts of the world, police do not enforce traffic laws - that is done by the traffic cops.

UK air-traffic offers flying-car-style safety gizmo

alien anthropologist

@Martin 6

> I'm surprised they can offer it at that price.

The CAA/FAA regulations are quite clear in terms of what such a device is... it is a *navigational aid*. Not primary.

It is illegal to use any non-certified GPS for primary navigation. To navigate an aircraft by GPS requires that GPS to be certified for the purpose.

However, virtually anything can be used for as an aid - as long as you do *not* use this aid as primary means of navigation (very simplistically, you can use it to confirm heading but not use it to determine heading). These secondary nav aids include any old GPS.

As "anything goes" as a secondary aid, the term "ham sandwich" has become a common reference for secondary nav aids in some IFR nav circles. As that is how a normal (non-certified) GPS is viewed legally in the cockpit... it just as well could be considered as a ham sandwich.

alien anthropologist
FAIL

no to flying cars

Why? Simply because of a thing you call airmanship. It, more than the number of hours in a log book, more than the endorsements on a license, defines the ability of the pilot to act and make the right decisions.

Driving in cars (with or without boys), is there anything that compares to airmanship? Hell, how many drivers actually do a walk around the car to check the tires? Or check the fuel before running out? And why not?

Simple answer. It does not kill them or you or their pax. 99.9% of the time. Unlike flying aircraft.

This is why flying is nothing like driving a car.. even if said vehicle being flown is called a "flying car" and sports all kinds of gadgets and doodads. It does not make the vehicle or driver safer. It is no substitution for airmanship.

There is a fundamental reason why flying is still (fact) one of the safest modes of transport. And this has very little to do with the aircraft (extremely complex vehicles), the medium traveled through (of which you still know not enough) and everything to do with the pilot. A highly professional and trained person.

For this very same reason, it is why there are significantly more incidents in general aviation. Despite significantly lesser complex aircraft flying far shorter distances in less complex airspace. But often lessor trained and skilled and not professional pilots.

Airmanship.

Anyone that slaps the label "flying car" to an aircraft, automates as much as possible, then throws a non-pilot into it to "drive" it, is a first class asshole when thinking that this will not kill those involved and those on the ground.

The technology still cannot substitute (or deal with) the human factor.

A big fooken fail.

No more UFO reports please, says MoD

alien anthropologist
WTF?

@MacRat

> I smell the seed for a future script.

Cripes. Do you also swallow or what?

New analysis points to ancient Martian ocean, river valleys

alien anthropologist
Coat

So what exactly happened to the red planet?

The event that killed off a lot of earth life (including the dinosaurs) also happened on Mars around the same time. Earth survived. Mars did not.

Mine's the one with the Ben Bova's Mars novels in the pocket.

MS store staff in spontaneous electric boogie

alien anthropologist
Alien

Oh well...

.. I kept on waiting for a close up of the well endowed lass in the green T-shirt, but to no avail. (for pure alien scientific anthropology reasons I assure you)

Seems like our esteemed blogger is not your typical red blooded male (or alien).. which also explains why got so excited when his fellow humans broke out in dance.

Poor sod... (now where did I put that list of human candidates for alien anal probing...?)

V-22 Osprey, stealth jumpjet 'need refrigerated landing pads'

alien anthropologist
FAIL

Using water?

Think again.. water turns into what when heat is applied.. and a pilot needs what when taking off and landing? (hint: visibility)

Just look at a NASA rocket taking off. And no, that is not just smoke on launch. That is massive amounts of water being turned into vapour.

Also ask heli pilots (especially military) what they hate about doing landing and takeoffs in desert and snow conditions.. A white out and loosing the horizon as reference when landing.. with too little time to transition to IMC and instruments when you that low. Lots of accidents happened that way.

If water is to be used, it needs to cool the deck from underneath. It would be just stupid to expose the heat of the engines directly to surface water,