* Posts by penguin slapper

39 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jul 2010

Virgin Media frustrates customers with 'intermittent' routing blues

penguin slapper

Oh Really?

I live in Birmingham - the service has been, for the last 10 years, more or less 99.99999% perfect.

I've logged on to the VM Forum and seen complaints from all over the UK - dropped packets, lost connections, no connection at all and all through that it's been rock solid here in Birmingham.

McKinnon's mum applauds Obama extradition stance

penguin slapper

That's what he said in public.

But what did he say in private?

White Space competitors fight dirty

penguin slapper

Says it all

Nine companies awarded task of running the databases.

Ten out of ten for the usual level of stupidity.

Nought out of ten for what the customers face.

BT cheerfully admits snooping on customer LANs

penguin slapper

Consequences

There were no consequences to them for Phorm - so they certainly did learn the lesson.

In April 2011 the CPS decided not to prosecute as this would not be in the public interest, as neither Phorm or BT had acted in bad faith and any penalty imposed would be nominal.

Steve Ballmer window-dresses Windows 8

penguin slapper

Anti-virus

They're going to confuse the virus writers by releasing Windows 8, 9 & 10 all at the same time, so those pesky virus writers won't know who's using what.

Muhahahahahah...

What's that?

Are any of them any different under the hood?

Oh...

Fedora 15: More than just a pretty interface

penguin slapper

Gnome 3 emerges from last century?

How very apposite.

The 21st Century!

Corporate controlled, user ignoring, dumbed down, hard to use crap.

Desktop Linux: the final frontier

penguin slapper

Misguided much?

Microsoft spent that money to keep Apple alive so that they (Microsoft) could avoid being accused of having wiped out all the competition.

In 1997 Linux was serious hobbyist territory only and was absolutely no threat to Microsoft at all.

"The 20% of desktops on Linux figure seems deeply implausible to me, we have, I believe, been asked 3 times in 15 years if our desktop software runs on Linux."

Ah, the old "I haven't experienced what you're talking about therefore you're wrong" argument.

Next!

Apple to support reps: Don't confirm Mac infections

penguin slapper

Standard Apple procedure.

First they deny the problem.

Then they ridicule the problem.

Then they provide a free fix for the problem.

UK.gov would pay to have benefit claimants' tattoos erased

penguin slapper
IT Angle

"If they get a job offer"

In todays climate that's a mighty big "if".

Here in Birmingham the local paper has gone from many hundreds of jobs (a couple of years ago) to several pages of jobs ( a few months ago) to no pages of jobs (last week).

Fedora's Lovelock Linux is beta ready

penguin slapper

Doublespeak

"cleans up the interface and makes it easier to find and fire up applications through juicy new icons"

Euphemism for "employs a level of boneheaded stupidity not seen in the Linux community before".

Embrace chaos, beat pirates... buy my book, says Mason

penguin slapper

'tards

The cashtards are the main problem. These people are so insane that they think that every human interaction should be monetised and profited from.

People listen to pirate radio mainly because they play music people actually want to listen to (this is less valid in the light of spotify et al) but also because the DJ's are not spouting moronic, low quality humour and "one size fits all" dumbed down garbage.

Once the 3d printer thing takes off there'll be no end to copying. The capitalist-retards will then, finally, be forced to come up with a new idea other than "give me some of your money even though I played no part in the creation of that which you seek to buy".

GNOME 3: Shocking changes for Linux lovers

penguin slapper

Exploration

The KDE4 taskbar can be changed to pretty much what you want. It's customisable in terms of colour. Somewhere in the System Settings is the "Workspace" tab - this allows different taskbar themes to be downloaded and applied. If no one's made the colour balance you want - make it yourself - KDE4 does not lock you out of such endeavours.

How is SSL hopelessly broken? Let us count the ways

penguin slapper

Definition of naivety.

"meaning users of those browsers were vulnerable to unauthorized monitoring of some of their most intimate web conversations during that time"

Fukushima fearmongers are stealing our Jetsons future

penguin slapper

Why don't you get it?

Some of the substances they've found have half lives measured in hours.

Wow, you say - this proves I'm right and everything has been overblown.

Did you consider this - if substances with half lives measured in hours are still being found then it means that somewhere in the plant fission is still occurring?

Ubuntu's high-risk Linux Narwhal beta floats

penguin slapper

Can't decide.

Whether they're very brave or just very stupid?

We'll find out soon enough.

Personally I think they're bordering on very stupid.

Fukushima's toxic legacy: Ignorance and fear

penguin slapper

Lies, damned lies and nuclear safety statements.

Couple of examples;

"Reactors 5 & 6 were put in cold shutdown and din't lose their cooling systems but engineers had to poke holes in the roof to stop hydrogen from building up and exploding".

If hydrogen is building up it implies temperatures high enough to split water into its constituent parts. This does not happen in a shutdown reactor that's under control.

And this one from this morning.

"Radiation up to 10,000 times safe levels".

Mich like James Delingpole's childishly ignorant rant on the Telegraph about how this was hysteria and an alarmist media there is only one thing to say these people.

A published apology is in order.

penguin slapper

A word of caution.

The situation hasn't ended yet.

Southampton Uni shows way to a truly open web

penguin slapper
Thumb Down

rofl

"Zuckerberg wants to make the world a more open place"!

Do me a favour.

Zuckerberg wants to sell as much of your information to corporations as he possibly can - if that's "openness" then we need to go back to the drawing board.

Fukushima one week on: Situation 'stable', says IAEA

penguin slapper

The man who worries...

...when he sees explosions at a nuclear power plant is not hysterical, stupid, ill-informed or overreacting.

He is, in fact, a very sensible man.

There seems to be a game of "ha ha you flinched" going on over the Japanese reactors. It's deeply offensive and childish.

Face it - we all flinched. Flinching is a defence mechanism, not a sign of weakness.

Google insists it couldn't have been British. Excuse me?

penguin slapper

wtf

Nah, they'd set-up in Ireland.

They're already registered in Ireland for tax purposes - Google avoid vast sums of tax in the UK this way (as do all the other tech giants).

America has a long tradition of corporations using public money to fund R&D and then wrapping the results up in patents and copyright and profiting for years.

The UK would jump on a successful back and seek to tax it out of existence but wouldn't help at all in the initial setup and growth.

Google wouldn't get started in the UK because no one here is encouraged enough to come up with good ideas and on the rare occasion, despite the oppression, misery and apathy, that someone does come up with a good idea, they bugger off over seas to take advantage of the cheap labour rates at the first opportunity.

Yes, Mr. Dyson, I'm looking at you.

Cameron is out of his depth on this, as on most other subjects.

UK.gov closes door against foreign boners

penguin slapper

There's b*llsh*t...

...and there's Government Ministry output.

Amazing really - we have record numbers of people leaving University with degrees but cannot find any people from amongst them clever enough to do any of the listed jobs.

Somewhere along the line someone has been telling a lot of lies - either our Universities are a joke or it's just been about breaking the work force and driving down wages. I rather suspect it's the latter.

German Foreign Office kills desktop Linux, hugs Windows XP

penguin slapper
Gates Horns

Setup vs Change Over

Linux is perfectly functional for a new setup - for an existing setup changing over to Linux is a nightmare - this is entirely down to Microsoft's practice of making Office file formats hideously complex and hard to use.

This situation in Germany is exactly why Microsoft make their file formats so damed ugly and unco-operative.

Apple 'greed' tax spreads beyond music, movies, magazines

penguin slapper

Ah yes, Ubuntu.

Owned by Canonical - who recently asked for 75% of the take on an Online Music Store that's offered via Banshee.

If you form a company/corporation you become subject to fiduciary requirements that require that decency, morality and reason be sacrificed in the name of as much profit now as possible, at the cost of all other considerations. Failure to pursue said fiduciary duty leaves one open to legal action and the loss of employment.

This is why the only time Corporations will ever change their behaviour is when the law is changed.

The repeal bill: what's left in, what's left out

penguin slapper

Constitutional Issue

This is one of the great Constitutional questions - "can a Parliament successfully bind a successor Parliament?"

The simple answer is "no".

Parliament is supreme and can repeal any prior Act at any time, or, by passing an Act that contradicts an earlier Act, can, via the "Doctrine of Implied Repeal", change the law without actually repealing the prior Act.

It's official: Nokia bets on Microsoft for smartphones

penguin slapper

Hotel Microsoft

Microsoft man joins BBC - BBC provide acres of free advertising for Windows.

Microsoft man joins Nokia - Nokia choose Windows for new phones.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

UN defends human right to WikiLeaked info

penguin slapper

One instance...

I seem to remember them making much of the UN Resolution requiring a certain Mr. S. Hussein to disarm.

Google Chrome OS mauled by Richard Stallman

penguin slapper

Try thinking for a change

He didn't mean "if you put your data in "the cloud" you no longer own it" (even though that is in itself basically true - try taking Microsoft or Google to court for access if they claim "to have accidentally lost your data) he said "you lose control over it".

It might not mean much to you (even though it should mean a lot), but to some of us it's of paramount importance and it has nothing to do with the utterly childish assertion that "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" (which historically is a poor excuse for state snooping).

Once the day comes when when the only place for you to store your data is "in the cloud" you will find that you are mugged for "storage charges" - this is the ultimate subscription model - you will be charged by volume, type, frequency of access. The software you need to process your own files will also be "rented" to you. You will a perfectly captivated slave.

First they introduce computers, then when computers are a vital part of every day life they take the means of local storage off you and make you pay and pay and pay.

But hey, it's OK, because somebody's Mom will find it 'easy' so f*ck everyone else eh?

Google delays Chrome OS, punts brandless beta netbook

penguin slapper

Chrome

Tried it earlier this year.

It's a 2gig bootable browser.

Give me strength.

You want an alternative to Windows try Linux.

Linux doesn't spy on you, keeps your data where it belongs (on your hard drive) and offers you a lot of apps.

Being trendy is b*ll*cks.

Being in control is everything.

WikiLeaks ousted from Amazon US

penguin slapper

What's all this "we"?

You may have only suspected this.

Some have known this has been going on for years.

The trail of corpses attributable to the US is millions in number and stretches across the entire globe.

Go read Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky.

The policy of "we own the world and can do as we please" has been a theme in American foreign policy since the end of WW2.

It's all documented in the US Government papers (published, but well buried, so you have to know where to look and be prepared to dig through reams of tedium).

All wikileaks has done is shine a light onto a subset of the evidence that the US holds everyone in contempt. Large parts of the world have known this for decades, it's only in the cosseted land of EU/UK where the illusion that the US cares for its allies has persisted.

Airport screeners go for the groin

penguin slapper
FAIL

land of the stupid

So, a fake bomb is sent on a cargo plane from a long way away and the response is to humiliate passengers over here.

It's a good job there aren't stupid people in charge.

App Store II: Steve Jobs sucks Mac's soul

penguin slapper

Mental illness.

"Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other computer platform will be rejected."

Damn that's paranoid.

Ubuntu demotes Gnome for Unity netbook look

penguin slapper

Speed.

They're moving it to Compiz, which is a lot faster, by all accounts.

Given the work that they've put in to Ubuntu, publishing the next version with a half sorted desktop would be suicide and thus isn't going to happen.

Top cyber crime cop lied under oath, says judge

penguin slapper

Oh puleeese

Delusional nonsense based on the fantasy that the only time a British politician does something wrong is because he's blackmailed into it.

Virgin Media introduces P2P throttling

penguin slapper

ftp access

Virgin still provide mirrors of all the major linux distros on the old blueyonder address. Making the downloading of iso's and updates a fast business.

And anyone who tells you they download several GB of iso's every week is either a lunatic with OCD issues, or a liar.

Apple in 873-page legal claim to word 'Pod'

penguin slapper

No.

This is why there needs to be an intelligent evaluation of IP Law.

Apple's 11.6in MacBook Air release imminent?

penguin slapper
Jobs Horns

Hmmm

The obvious problem being of course, that it will probably cost about £700.

UK schools to maintain ICT spending

penguin slapper

College ICT

The College I was at for the last 2 years (ICT "supported" by Capita) was a farce.

Teachers refused logins so had to use Student logins.

Whiteboards that were unusable.

Most classrooms either had no PC's or ones that were broken.

No one, teachers or students, allowed to bring own laptops in and logon ("we had a virus 2 years ago and introduced a blanket ban").

Students provided with (unworking) logons half way through the year, left to themselves to contact ICT and remedy this (the guy who designed the Moodle site no longer worked for them and had to be chased down to get the master password).

Student areas for working in contained row after row of XP based machines in an area staffed by Security Guards that would make the average American Prison screw look tame. (They forcibly logged people off machines if they even so much as spoke to anyone else and refused to allow students to save any work they were part way through. Many students lost pages of work that way. The security guards were not even disciplined).

All this in a college that had IT courses, a number of IT labs, even one with nothing but Macs in.

Believe me when I say - children (in the shape of adults) are now in charge in many places. They make bad, uninformed decisions, are entirely unaccountable and look genuinely bewildered when they idiocy of their decisions is pointed out to them. (The most amazing one I heard was "why haven't you provided an area for students to work together in groups in?" "it didn't occur to us").

Pope makes central London no-go zone for BT engineers

penguin slapper
Alien

Pope in London for 2 days

BT unable to perform for a week?

BT - Bloody Typical

Apple iPhone forums gripped by deleted thread paranoia

penguin slapper
Jobs Horns

flamewars?

You spend the best part of £500 on a phone and it's so badly designed that you have to hold it in a special way or it doesn't work, leaving you with the choice of paying a further £25 for a rubber band or going without and when you complain on the manufacturers website your post is deleted as a useless whine or a shot in a flamewar?

I'm SO glad I sold all my Macs.