* Posts by Andy Fletcher

407 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jun 2007

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Anonymous shuts down hidden child abuse hub

Andy Fletcher

I'm horrified

That an AC drops an accusation like that and Reg publishses it.

Don't people know they are personnally responsible for what they post? The really dumb thing is, this is an article pointing out (correctly) that if you think you're anonymous, what you are in fact is naive.

Andy Fletcher

@Alfred

You missed my point by so wide a margin far I have no adjective to describe it.

Andy Fletcher

That's not what's happened

What we have here is a collection of people who claim to support free speech imposing thier own views and effectively acting as a censor. In other words, hypocrites.

I couldn't agree more with this kind of content being removed. I can't support the idea that it's the job of hackers to police this though, this is the first step down a bad, bad road. Anarchy.

Chinese giant halts rare earth shipments to hike prices

Andy Fletcher

Doesn't this just mean what was no longer economically viable to do in the west, becomes economically viable again. Like how it's now apparently viable for the UK to be mining it's own coal. I'm not sure I see a downside with anything that reduces reliance on imports and increases employment here.

This just in: Brussels shatters CRT cartel

Andy Fletcher

I'm not so sure...

...this is quite as bad as it sounds either. I seem to recall the major super markets in the UK being brought to heel over milk pricing. They'd been in talks because in competing with each other, one of the inevitable consequences was a squeeze on the margins of Britains' dairy farmers. The argument FOR discussing prices boiled down to the fact that if prices continued to fall, eventually all the milk would need to be imported and the British dairy farming industry would disapear.

Maybe we all have less sympathy for a worker at a foreign manufacturer than a British farmer, but it still seems to me we ought to think about the externalities associated with pricing.

Currys, PC World websites slated by punters

Andy Fletcher
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29% put security at the top

implying the other 71% would buy from an insecure site if it was, say, cheaper or had decent navigation.

Apple 'prepping smaller iPad'

Andy Fletcher

Presumably...

...since Steve passed away. Once the innovator at the helm is gone, shareholders start making the decisions and those will always be short term gain.

Hundreds of Mr A N OTHERs discovered on payrolls

Andy Fletcher

Er...but

If the article is saying there are 2121 people in the UK with the wrong name in their PAYE record, and the Office of National Statistics says there are currently 29.1 million people employed I make that a margin of error of 0.007%. Doesn't the country have some more pressing stuff to do with regard to financial problems?

Virgin Media broadband in two-day wobble

Andy Fletcher
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Wow

you expect the same service as someone who pays more eh? I hate to break it to you, but people who pay more are always going to get better service levels. Welcome to Earth.

Busting net neutrality may amount to spying, says EU

Andy Fletcher

If I read the article correctly...

..the EU is saying ISPs shouldn't be spying on what I download/upload. On the other hand, if I'm torrenting Shrek IX (The Inevitable) the MPAA will be tracking my IP. So when the MPAA contact my ISP, the ISP will have to say "we have no idea who [IP] is". So the EU is using it's time & resources to make laws that contradict other laws that it has made.

Seems to me the EU is something I pay for, which benefits lawyers. Can't the lawyers at least stump up the money for the Eurocracy themselves maybe?

Ads watchdog slaps down Sony smartphone battery life claim

Andy Fletcher

Punter?

Implying someone who usually buys Sony Ericsson products. As opposed to a fanboy or employee of a rival brand which is what my money would be on.

Not to say there's anything wrong with helping the ASA keep adverisers on the straight & narrow. But nobody likes a grass either.

Would you trust a dot-bank site more than a dot-com?

Andy Fletcher
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Actually, I don't see why not

Sure, this is going to have a minisclue effect on security, but since I can't imagine the costs being anything more than miniscule either they shouldn't waste time debating it, just get on with it and concentrate then on some things that will have significant benefits.

I won't list any - everyone else here did a bang up job.

Amazon accepts Kindle Fire will be rooted

Andy Fletcher

Why are you worried?

Your IPad presumably has got one

Dinosaur-murdering space boulder family found innocent

Andy Fletcher

So it turns out...

when you try and prove that large lumps of stone are the cause for mass extinction events, you end up on rocky ground?

Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray disc set

Andy Fletcher

Still three more stories to go...

Good bloody point - where are they? Hollywood are happy enough to do Shrek 15, so why not some new Star Wars.

On topic - I'm not buying Star Wars again, again. I'm pretty sure I've coughed up 4 times already.

Amazon solves wait-at-home-for-deliveries problem

Andy Fletcher
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defeats the purpose...

...of onliine shopping? Maybe I'm unique, but my take on online shopping is it's generally cheaper, and (if you buy from a half decent merchant - Amazon are half decent) you know you have the availability. It's a right pain in the arse going to a shop to find they don't have what you want.

Personally (I work in mail order/ecommerce) this sounds great. It's certainly got more legs than that daft idea of secure boxes outside peoples' homes.

Ofcom moves: Rural broadband price war on the cards?

Andy Fletcher

In other words...

...because I live in a city, I should effectively subsidise people in rural areas by paying the same price as them. For something like the NHS, I don't have a problem but If we want a communications network with equal access to everyone in the UK, it should've remained nationalised in the first bloody place.

Apprentice runner-up becomes Greggs bigshot

Andy Fletcher
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Sugar said....

...her current employer would be mad not to give her a promotion and a pay rise. I think it's a bit lame of Greggs to take his advice. Or do they think Sugar knows more about their business than they do. Seem to recall Labour thought Sugar's advice on how to run the economy would be a good idea as well.

Many sites cookie-track users regardless of opt-outs

Andy Fletcher

Weird

Thanks for the tip there. Oddly I checked and got "No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

Which given I spend 10 hours a day online and work in e-commerce and stay signed into my Google account seems a bit strange. I must be REALLY boring if even Google's cookie can't be bothered to read what I read eh?

Mozilla outs un-Google site sign-in prototype

Andy Fletcher

Too many sign in options?

Of course there are. I'm just unconvinced the answer is to introduce yet another one. In any case, until bazillions of websites implement it, it's value is always going to be somewhere below zero. And typically webmasters won't implement it UNTIL bazillions of other sites have implemented it.

Incidently Register people, how come you don't let me sign in with Twitter? I kinda like that for commenting, and you guys get tweeted more. Any site that requires me to sign in with their own system has an instant turn off really these days.

Google's Facebook: It rocks, but who cares?

Andy Fletcher

Surprised....

...how many pro Facebook comments there are in here. Whenever I hear:

"I've got 1000 friends on Facebook" I can never resist saying "Impressive! What are their names?".

Sony pains pre-owned game punters with PSN Pass

Andy Fletcher

Pay for use of their server?

Not sure how you figure that. COD has a matchmaking server, but the actual game you play is hosted by one of the players in the match. AFAIK I paid when I bought the game thanks.

Looks like I'm going to be bent over & violated on this one because I have two PS3's. I can see Sony's viewpoint though - they wouldn't want to encourage people to buy more than one PS3 now would they. Sheesh.

News of the World TO CLOSE

Andy Fletcher

Great

I just love the way the upper echelons have taken this action to distance themselves from the troops who comitted the atrocities. It's got to be a first.

Google dumps all 11+ million .co.cc sites from its results

Andy Fletcher

The title of this story is totally misleading

So Google have dumped a domain that's full of shite. Good on them. They should do more of it. I thought something exciting mught have happened, like an entire extension being blocked.

Aussie retailer accuses UK shops of HDMI 'scam'

Andy Fletcher
FAIL

Big surprise

Tech retailers have always overcharged for cables. When you make a fiver selling a £200-£500 pound piece of kit, of course you're going to attempt to improve your margin by flogging the punter a cable for £10 or more.

If Kogan can give away cables, they're either charging more for the expensive part of the order (so no sales) or just not making any money (so they'll just go titsup). I don't see how either of these options ultimately helps the consumer.

Do we really want 100Gig Ethernet?

Andy Fletcher
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Thanks Reg

For making me feel like a dinosaur just because I remember things like 10Mb.

Do we need 100Gb? I remember playing Quake on a 56Kbps modem without lag. Now I have Megabits, I lag like a bitch. I'm not sure more speed is a better answer than more conscientious use of what we've got already.

Sony preps refreshed PS3 and talks down PS4

Andy Fletcher

Exactly

and in any case, what's wrong with Sony giving their product a half decent lifecycle? I for one have no desire to have to buy a new console every year just to keep up. I bought a PS3 because I realised PC gaming was a nonstop race to keep buying video cards. The day it dawned on me I was spending as much each year on graphics boards as a whole PS3 cost I felt like the most gullible idiot on the planet.

Germans completely humourless: Official

Andy Fletcher

For the Germans....

....the toilet is a mundane and functional item. For us, the basis for an entire culture.

Honstly, if farts & the word "poo" aren't funny I don't know what is.

Survey scammers target Doctor Who fans

Andy Fletcher

You'd have to be delusional...

...to think you could see a future episode today. Unless, like me, you have a TARDIS.

Activision calls for duty with premium subscription

Andy Fletcher

I do get it

And it doesn't sound bad actually. Not so great I'd pay for it, but some probably will. As long as the online gameplay itself remains subscription free I don't see a problem with this at all. I'd been half expecting Activision to try and charge for playing.

@Eric - sure, the one thing I MIGHT be intersted in paying a modest subscription for would be dedicated servers.

Twitter slaps 'follow' button on third-party sites

Andy Fletcher

Fantastic

So Twitter has realised that getting every other website on the Internet to link to theirs is a good thing eh? I love the way this stuff is portrayed as something for my personal benefit. Twitter must really love me eh?

Germany’s rights-holders hit freetards hard

Andy Fletcher

Here we go

Just like driving offenses. The people who are easy to identify (the ones who have jobs, incomes, pay their taxes and of course, probalby actually buy DVD's, CD's & games) are the ones who are easiest to go after.

Modern Warfare 3 prompts hand-wringing, chiming cash tills

Andy Fletcher
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Presumably the Daily Mail knows....

They are fuelling the sales with this sort of nonesense. Honestly, if they told Actiision they were planning to print a story telling how unspeakably violent MW3 is going to be, Activision would've probably just replied with:

"Great! How much will that cost us?"

Personally, I can't wait for this one.

Twitter vs Beeb in superinjunction nark shindy

Andy Fletcher

I don't see the problem...

...as whether or not Twitter release my details to law enforcement, if I break the law. I know I'm legally responsilble for anything I post to teh web. The trouble is, the law is a joke in this case. If you want to keep something quiet, best just not do it eh?

Almost entire EU now violating Brussels cookie privacy law

Andy Fletcher

Of course they do

but this directive assumes (unfortunately correctly) that Average Joe Internet User wouldn't know what a cookie was if it jumped out of his screen and bit him on the face. It also assumes (obviously incorrectly) that cookies are, by default, the evil wrong doings of the dark side. It's most likely all kicked off due to some politician having to explain an embarrasing cookie to his wife or something.

Cookies law: Only two EU states implement full measures – so far

Andy Fletcher

Germany?

I thought the Germans came up with this in the first place, and they haven't agreed to implement it? Where's our referendum on Europe for pitys sake.

New PlayStation Network hack hijacks user accounts

Andy Fletcher

Nice idea...

...but not everyone on the PSN is as organised as you. A significant number of users are:

1) 10 year olds

2) Lied about their age so they could play COD and forgot what birthday they used and

3) Just set up a now long forgotten Hotmail account to get access

Sony know this. As a result they also know what kind of PR disaster they'd have on their hands if 10 million 10 year olds all lost their rankings, trophies & other "achievements". If you'd tried it on a different console you would have been forced to go through an e-mail confirmation scenario.

Andy Fletcher

Yes, I know it's a liability shift

But that's not what the banks tell us it is. You are free to assume I'm an idiot, but I would personally prefer you to judge based on what I have said, rather than things I haven't.

I honestly didn't think it would be needed for me to list every service on the web that you can crack if you know the sign in, DOB and e-mail address for an account. I just plucked an example out of my head for which you need just one of the three.

Andy Fletcher
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You what?

So, knowing the sign in ID, DOB and e-mail address enabled the ability to reset the password. And this makes SONY a bunch of tossers?

Seriously, given that data for almost ANY online service you could change the password. 3D secure for instance, that great level of protection provided to us by the card companies doesn't even need that much info to crack - DOB is all you need. Let's remember PSN is a gaming network at it's heart, not a damn bank.

Bring on the fanboy flames. Sony aren't any worse than everyone else who's got user data when all's said & done.

How to choose the right screen size

Andy Fletcher

Wow

You want people who support decimalisation to pack up & leave? TBH I couldn't give a fig what standard of measurement we use here. I just wish we could make our damn minds up and make a bloody decision.

32", so I'm one of those underendowed watchers. But if I'm playing COD, my nose will be right up to it. If, on the other hand, the wife is watching Desperate Housewives my viewing distance becomes exponentially and progressively larger as the tedium unfolds.

David Davis: Jobless should dig trenches for fat UK pipes

Andy Fletcher

Priceless

So all you really need knowledge wise to build a network is where the spades are kept eh? Why have I wasted my time learning all these acronyms and tedious stuff about protocols. Damn.

Think carefully before you chuck out your desktops

Andy Fletcher

Back to thin client eh?

Had to happen. Microsoft must have cost the world economy trillions moving us away from it in the first place. Users unable to install their own shiznit? Nirvana.

LimeWire settles with record labels, to pay $105m for copyright hurt

Andy Fletcher

Er, how much?

Serously, Limewire made enough to be able afford to pay out $105M?! If the music industry isn't making any money, have they not thought of looking at who is. If you can't adapt your business, you haven't got one.

Mentally ill file-sharer had 'low self-esteem'

Andy Fletcher

It's simply bollocks

that the UK justice system still supports this idea of copyright infringement having these huge values. Clearly she'd never have bought £30000 worth of CDs, and pretty much just as clearly wouldn't have walked into HMV and lifted that amount either. So the record industry hasn't lost £30000 since they would never have had it from her in the first place. They haven't, in fact, really lost anything much, other than a grasp of how their market has changed while their operating practices haven't. I still actually pay for digital media, but feel a complete fool every time I part with my money.

WTF is... IPv6?

Andy Fletcher

Ladies and gentlemen...

...for the third decade in a row the final fix for everything to work together seemlessly once and for all is here.

Think file-hosting sites guard your private data? Think again

Andy Fletcher

Idiots is a tad harsh

gullible? ignorant? sure, but we all are outside our fields of expertise. I lay the blame at the door of the tech companies. Making computers easier to use just meant no-one bothers to learn how they work anymore. They should force us to rcommand line only operating systems and sit on a large sharp stake when operating tech gear. That would solve pretty much every tech problem there is.

Sony’s sorry saga snowballs

Andy Fletcher
Unhappy

Yours may well be bigger than mine...

...but it's a bit tactless to just come and out and say it just like that.

Japanese boffins build internet kissing machine

Andy Fletcher

Nice...

...presumably Google are already working on what ads to display to you based on your technique.

Boffins pull plug on SETI alien-seeking antenna array

Andy Fletcher
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Damn shame

I ended up in the top 1000 UK contributors on the orignal distributed crunching thing. I'm sorry to see it go.

$5M doesn't sound like a lot of money when I read elsewhere we're planning to spend trillions of Dollars globally this century tryng to fight hot air.

Vote now for the best sci-fi film never made

Andy Fletcher
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So in summary....

My reply to Nash's ironic posting was in itself idiotic but not to be outdone my idiot post has been replied by a pedantic one. Everybody wins!

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