* Posts by Mr Temporary Handle

59 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2012

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Nest security camera captures landlord's romp on tenants' bed

Mr Temporary Handle

Ah yes, modern technology...

I once borrowed an empty CCTV camera housing from work. I couldn't borrow a camera - FAR too expensive back then.

I mounted it on a block of wood made from some 2x4 offcuts, ran a short length of twin-ax from the back to an old 1200 baud modem and left it pointing at the inside of the door to the flat.

The woman from the letting agency thought it was some sort of weapon and called the police...

On the bright side, the letting agency didn't hesitant to sack her when confronted. Naturally they claimed to have 'no knowledge of her actions'.

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: cops?!

You're thinking of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which made certain types of trespass a criminal offence. It's mostly aimed at violent protests.

Tenanted premises are fall under the various housing acts and entering them without the occupier's permission constitutes trespass.

There are some very specific circumstances where a landlord or their agent can enter without permission but in general it's not permitted.

Sysadmin jeered in staff cafeteria as he climbed ladder to fix PC

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Clothes optional

A former colleague of mine once had a contract for a similar organisation.

Sadly the only people he ever got to meet there were overweight middle aged blokes who, fortunately, were fully clothed at all times.

Mr Temporary Handle

"it was not till Win95 that Windows became the OS"

Windows 95 was a pretty big step forward but it, Windows 98/98SE and 'Millennium Edition' were still 'protected mode' shells over good old MSDOS.

Windows NT and Windows 2000 (based on the NT codebase) were the first versions which could be accurately described as 'real' operating systems in their own right.

EDIT: Seems a lot of people beat me to it :)

Valley VC sues blogger after sex pest claims, discovers writer is a male tech biz rival

Mr Temporary Handle

"I agree with Nick"

He and AmericanLurker do seem to have hit the nail on the head there.

What we're seeing looks like Uzzaman doing a Corporal Jones impression.

Disgraced Entatech founder Jason Tsai tossed in the clink for contempt of court

Mr Temporary Handle

"Getting on the wrong side of the judge isn't a good idea"

Indeed. British judges do tend to take a very dim view of 'Contempt'.

Many years ago I witnessed a junior Barrister - now a rather senior QC - get a whole weekend in the cells over a "small matter of contempt of court" as presiding judge described it at the time.

It nearly cost him his position in chambers as well.

Sysadmin finds insecure printer, remotely prints 'Fix Me!' notice

Mr Temporary Handle

Cards?

One of my first jobs we still had a paper tape reader.

Ok, so it wasn't *actually* connected to anything, just sort of shoved in a corner out of the way to make room for the card reader, but we still had it :)

Mr Temporary Handle

I got severely told off for doing something similar.

Someone at one of the branch offices had been making repeated attempts to access our department's shared directory.

Phoning them was a waste of time, nobody knew anything about it of course. Sending a follow up memo likewise. By this time it was pretty obvious that it wasn't accidental.

So I disabled the terminal being used by the culprit and waited for the 'my screen's not working' phone call.

Things went downhill rather rapidly from there...

Beastie Boys parody sueball tennis ends after toy firm yanks Girls

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Good point, well made.

"Where did they find an advertising agency that was willing to use a song in the ad without first getting clearance from the original artists?"

Standard practice in the advertising 'industry' is to put the campaign together first, THEN seek whatever permissions are needed AFTER the client has approved the material.

What's obviously happened here is someone 'forgot' the bit that goes in the middle between client approval and final production. ie. Getting the licenses they needed.

Of course, there are always those who simply use whatever they want without bothering with mundane issues like getting permission from the rights holder.

WIN a RockBLOCK Iridium satellite comms module

Mr Temporary Handle

Ouch!

Orbiter Umbilical Cut-away Hack!

Opportunity finds new patch of 'berries' on Mars

Mr Temporary Handle
Thumb Up

Three successful rover missions in less than ten years suggests that the last few members of the 'Keep Earth Special Club' have finally retired - or better still, died - without passing the disease onto their younger colleagues.

Samsung accused of sex discrimination in China plant

Mr Temporary Handle
Coffee/keyboard

Re: MMC

"Men wanted! Must be able to keep pecker in pants!"

I would LOVE to be able to advertise job vacancies along those sort of lines.

'Must be able to refrain from making sexually suggestive remarks and/or advances.'

NASA's spy sat snaps Curiosity rover burning tracks on Mars

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Patience young grasshopper.

"This sort of design is why Voyager 1 is still sending back information, some of it very interesting as it approaches interstellar space (17.8 terameters away), some 35 years after its launch. Most of us, including myself, would be absolutely ecstatic if our one-off kit survived just half that without maintenance."

---

Oh yes indeed!

I'm quite happy if the systems we build last out the during of the original contract. ie. Long enough to cover their cost.

Somehow, dust and other less identifiable material accumulating inside the case seems quite mundane compared to continual bombardment from charged particles, electro-magnetic radiation and micro-metorites.

Raspberry Pi 2.0 ready to ship

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Kinda hope

"I've been waiting on RS for 6 months now."

That doesn't surprise me. They have a well earned reputation for unreliability and appalling customer service.

GSMA politely asks Uzbekistan to free locked-up telco bods

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: If you don't like being ripped off, don't trade with Uzbekistan

Or MTS...

Gunman takes potshots at Dell HQ, chopper search ensues

Mr Temporary Handle

More likely to be Michael Dell expressing his 'displeasure' at someone.

Don't forget, this is the man who tried to run down one of his most senior employee's in the car park mere minutes after he 'tendered his resignation'... erm... I mean momentarily lost control of his vehicle resulting in a near miss involving a former employee.

Windows 8 tablets unwrapped in Berlin: Dell goes keyless for ARM

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Sony Tap 20

A 20" tablet - so you can see an 10" tablet user and say, "Call that a tablet, THIS is a tablet."

LOL

Many years ago I bought a laptop with a 19" screen as a desktop replacement. I needed the performance (3.2GHz P4), the screen area *AND* portability.

There were a few 'unfortunate' reactions from one or two 'members' of the client's staff when I turned up on sites with that monster :)

Why Java would still stink even if it weren't security swiss cheese

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Thank you for this.

'Nothing more to say, just, "Thank you".'

I have to agree.

'Write once, run anywhere' was a ridiculous idea from the start. Instead of being all things to all platforms at all times as intended, it ended up as the software analogue of the adjustable spanner.

The only thing they're any good for is bashing people over the head with and even then there are other blunt instruments which are far better suited to the task.

I've see Python mentioned as an alternative but that suffers from the same disease. They both aim for universal portability without changes and there are a plethora of versions all in use concurrently.

In addition, Python also has another significant problem - the use of indentation level for block demarcation.

God only knows what the hell Guido van Rossum was smoking when he came up with *that* idea...

I certainly don't buy 'readability' for an instant. That sounds like an after the fact excuse rather than a conscious design decision.

There's a very good reason why C/C++ are so ubiquitous - A 'native' compiler suite and standard library specifically tailored to the target platform.

Why the Apple-Samsung verdict is good for you, your kids and tech

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Ah yes, the tech blogs of the world are divided

"I gather you don't agree...."

It looks more like he decided to simply ignore the facts and make up his own story. In much the same way the jury decided to ignore the judge's instructions and make up their own decision based on god only knows what...

Which is a pity because he does have some good points. All of which are probably going to be ignored by anyone who actually has the stomach to read that far.

As for the 'judgement' itself...

I hesitate to suggest racism but it's beginning to look as though our resident conspiracy nut might actually be right for once. 'Foreigners' cannot get a fair trial in the U.S.

BMW slams ad machine into reverse, screeches out of pirate den

Mr Temporary Handle

"I seriously doubt that any ad network or ad exchange is clean. It is an occupation that is at best suspect and at worst a haven for money laundering. It is also very likely that your paycheck includes profit from human misery from copyright infringement to mail order brides."

Mr Castle forgot Drug Trafficking, Terrorism and Child Pornography. [/sarcasm]

Hacker-smasher: White hats join forces to build bot-beating weapon

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: "appalling lack of social skills"?

I used the phrase 'Action Figures' for the benefit of American readers who wouldn't understand if I called them plastic dolls.

But regardless of what you call them, it looks - and is - very unprofessional. These people are *supposed* to be adults.

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Matt appears to be colour blind

I quite agree.

Another couple of issues he seems to have 'overlooked'.

"What's in it for us?"

For businesses this is perfectly understandable. They are not charities and running any kind of business is a damned expensive affair these days.

For government bodies, NGO's and volunteer groups there is no such excuse. They are *supposed* to be sharing this information. It's the very reason for their existence in most cases. Yet they repeatedly hold back vital information in order to 'make the announcement' themselves.

Part of the reason for this is that these organisations are often run by (and/or stuffed full of) academics who's standing amongst their peers is measured by the number of publications which carry their name.

And then of course there is the appalling lack of social skills so prevalent amongst InfoSec 'professionals' at 'the sharp end'. In far too many cases these people are simply not capable of co-operating with others on technical matters. The "I'm right and you're full of excrement" Syndrome as I once heard it described.

One case in point is our 'technical types' who have to be 'reminded' not to bring inappropriate items into the office on a fairly regular basis. Pointing out that it doesn't look very professional if a client comes in and half their desk is covered in a neat array of 'Action Figures' simply falls on deaf ears most of the time.

RIP Harry Harrison: Stainless Steel Rat scurries no more

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Damn

I was referring to writing/publication order. Everything which was published up until A Stainless Steel Rat is Born *is* his later years :)

Everything published since A Stainless Steel Rat is Born is 'supposed' to be his earlier years but seems totally unrelated to the James DiGriz of the earlier books.

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Damn

Indeed.

I first encountered sleepery jeem sometime in the 70s and read every single one of them up until either the first or second of the younger Jim DiGriz part of the series. I don't remember precisely which but I do remember thinking that he'd rather lost his way.

James DiGriz was an out-and-out crook when Inskipp and the special corps caught him. For HH to go back and 're-write' the younger DiGriz in a similar vein rather spoiled things for me I'm afraid.

I've re-read the earlier ones many times since then but still haven't got past A Stainless Steel Rat is Born.

British boffin builds cool maser after argument with wife

Mr Temporary Handle
Trollface

Re: Applications?

That's because they don't have the authority. Something they may have already informed you of.

Find the right government (hint, hint) body to complain to and if he's exceeding his license limits or generating EMI which causes interference in nearby equipment he'll lose his license.

...Or alternatively, just break into his home and vandalise his equipment. Better still, go the whole hog as my American colleagues say, and vandalise his whole house. Pay particular attention to computers, games consoles, HiFi and TV.

Oh, and don't forget to use his bed as a toilet.

[/sarcasm]

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Applications?

Being electro-magnetic radiation, the inverse square law is probably more relevant than beam spread issues.

Beck's open-source challenge to freetards: play it yourself!

Mr Temporary Handle

It's certainly a rather more creative publicity stunt than the sort of crap the PR/Advertising pond life usually come up with.

However this is really going to bite him on the arse if he waits too long to release his own recording. People will be comparing the work of some really talented amateurs with his usual mediocre efforts.

Optical Express 'ruined my life' gripe site lives on

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: LASIK night-vision loss

"I guess the risk of losing the eye altogether is higher for cataract surgery"

These days, cataract surgery is a simple out-patient procedure which takes around twenty minutes unless the lens breaks up during removal. It takes a few minutes longer when that happens.

The only real danger is the usual post operative infection risk and that can be managed.

Mr Temporary Handle

They do tend to be a bit economical with the truth where the risks of LASIK are concerned.

I used to be an Optical Express customer, but only because a previous employer's company heathcare plan insisted I use them and only them. I wasn't with them very long before changing to another 'unapproved' optician because they keep pestering me to have laser surgery.

It was a damn good job I did. I had to have eye surgery several years later and learned that I would have lost my eyesight entirely had I agreed to LASIK treatment.

And yes, This was something Optical Express' opticians should have spotted.

Mr Temporary Handle
Alert

Quite a shock really.

It may mean that these 'people' are actually starting to think about the cases coming before them rather than just tossing a coin.

Windows 8: Download it, then speak YOUR brains

Mr Temporary Handle

We'll grab a copy of the RTM for much the same reason as Drefsab. It's something we may need to interact with at a client's premises. But unless it's changed drastically since the last tech preview we will be advising clients to avoid it like the plague.

Wikipedia collapses threatening the very fabric of civilisation

Mr Temporary Handle
Black Helicopters

Our resident conspiracy nut had just suggested that this is the first stage of the US government's operation to destroy Jimbo's power base because of his support for a 'copyright criminal' :)

Raspberry Pi served with Ice Cream Sandwich

Mr Temporary Handle
Facepalm

While I applaud the effort in getting this to work there is just one minor niggle.

Android is practically unusable with a touchscreen and something which the 'Ooh Shiny' brigade may not have noticed in their 'enthusiasm' with all that jumping up and down and waving their arms around because their favorite shiny toy is now working on the R-Pi.

The R-Pi does not have a touchscreen and the foundation has no plans to produce one at present. Nor does anyone else as far as I am aware.

[quote]

Graham Dawson

Yes, providing the option is a "step backwards". They should just force everyone to use the same OS regardless of what they want to acheive with the device.

[/quote]

Erm...

Something else you may not have noticed. Google has strict rules about what you may and may not run on Android devices which it enforces by remotely disabling and/or removing the 'offending' item.

McDonalds staff 'rough up' prof with home-made techno-spectacles

Mr Temporary Handle
Thumb Up

Re: @Mr Tumnus

"I suspect he was saying that French restaurants are pretty bad in Paris... I agree totally with him, avoid the French restaurants, the food is usually barely edible, the only good restaurant food in Paris are not French.."

Most Definitely!

Even the cafes in places like Calais are far better.

Anyone who's never tried a french restaurant in Paris should consider this. Just how bad does it have to be to make the crap McDonalds serve up look good?

E-Cat pitching cold fusion to Australians

Mr Temporary Handle
WTF?

Re: Erm?

This is obviously some new use of the word "plausible" which I've not previously encountered.

I would ask you to explain in more detail but I'm rather concerned that you might actually do so.

Cockfighting Reg hack cursed with cancer

Mr Temporary Handle
Thumb Up

Re: pish

"...those things are vicious little bastards."

Oh yes indeed!

I was once bitten *through* a pair of heavy duty gloves while trying to assist an RSPCA officer. The contractors had just dumped the old barbwire they were replacing and it had become tangled in it.

Ungrateful sod didn't seem to appreciate the fact we were trying to help...

US county named 'area of outstanding natural stupidity'

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: The last tale...

"Agreed, but wouldn't stricter gun control work better?"

Unfortunately not.

Part of the problem is that the vast majority of Americans view gun ownership as one of those 'inalienable' rights which so many of them keep whinging on about. The right to keep and arm bears or some such nonsense.

Lott carried out an extensive study into the impact of gun control on gun ownership/possession during the 80s and concluded that the only significant impact was to increase the cost of unlawfully obtained firearms.

Those not barred could simply purchase a weapon legally. While those barred from obtaining a weapon legally for whatever reason simply purchased them illegally - as anyone except a politician would have expected.

Study: Climate was hotter in Roman, medieval times than now

Mr Temporary Handle
FAIL

Re: Solar Activity

A pro-AGW organ reporting on a pro-AGW inquiry into pro-AGW climate researchers...

As I said above, climate change 'enthusiasts' or other religious lunatics.

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: @temporary handle

Sorry Dear Boy...

Company policy forbids me to feed trolls, quantum physicists, climate change 'enthusiasts' or other religious lunatics.

BTW: It's MR Temporary Handle.

Mr Temporary Handle
FAIL

Re: Solar Activity

"Also, Climate scientists do not ignore solar activity, research has been and is currently being carried out into it."

Phil Jones' lot certainly didn't ignore it, but I'm not sure 'research' is the correct word for what they were doing.

The problem is with both sides having now been caught falsifying their 'research' it's almost impossible to tell who's lying.

That's not likely to change anytime soon with so many so-called 'climate scientists' desperately scrabbling to get their nose in the trough.

Phishers jailed for lifting over £300k from student loan applicants

Mr Temporary Handle
FAIL

I notice there's no mention of an insider at the student loans company, but I suppose it is possible they were getting the students' loan application details from somewhere else. It's just not very likely.

Is the Higgs boson an imposter?

Mr Temporary Handle
Joke

Re: The God particle ...

"God's own country - Texas, USA"

I congratulate you on your achievement sir!

With those few short words you have succeeded where so many others have failed miserably over so many years.

You sir, have managed to offend almost the entire population of Yorkshire!

Watch out for the GIGANTIC ALIEN JELLYFISH, warns space boffin

Mr Temporary Handle
Facepalm

Reminds me of all the waffle about Doggerland. A rather soggy expanse of apparently lifeless mud at the bottom of the North Sea.

I seem to remember that the 'professor' responsible for that got his arse kicked by his vice-chancellor for being "over enthusiastic" :)

Shuttleworth: Why Windows 8 made us ditch GPL Linux loader

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Um.

That is certainly what Mark Shuttleworth would have you believe but it simply isn't true.

The very fact that Microsoft have agreed to provide a signing service for Fedora should go a long way to convincing you that he's lying.

We all know how obssessive Microsoft are when it comes to protecting themselves. There is no way in hell they would risk having to release their signing keys. Or anything else for that matter :)

Mr Temporary Handle
WTF?

I rather doubt the SFLC told him any such thing but we'll probably never know for sure as the SFLC are not about to admit that one of their 'clients' lied about the advice he was given. It being privileged information etc.

What it looks like is another example of the "Not-Invented-Here" mentality which seems to have infected Canonical over the past couple of years. The alleged 'concern' over their signing key is simply a convenient excuse. One he's grabbed with both hands.

Unity instead of Gnome/KDE, Upstart instead of Sysvinit/Systemd and now the Intel bootloader instead of Grub2. What's next I wonder?

Hopefully this nonsense won't affect us too much as we build all our own systems and only use a customised Xubuntu build for desktop machines.

If it does then we're buggered because we don't buy enough hardware to be able to exert any influence over our suppliers.

BT to patrol MoD's cyber borders for another 7 years

Mr Temporary Handle
Happy

Re: BT !

It is rather far-fetched, isn't it :)

Libya's new rulers fire up Gaddafi's surveillance tech

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Dont forget to look at the suppliers

"

"Surveillance equipment was sold to the Gaddafi regime by suppliers in France, China and South Africa"

This actually says as much about the suppliers as it does about the libyans.

"

Hmm...

France and South Africa have a very long history of acting as middlemen supplying weapons and other embargoed materials. China is where most of this type of surveillance equipment is manufactured.

The true origin is probably the US and/or somewhere in Europe.

Judge: Patent litigants behave like animals

Mr Temporary Handle
Happy

Re: "... he uses a BlackBerry only because the court makes him."

"I'm smiling because I imagine him using it as a gavel."

That's certainly a better use for it than most of it's alleged 'features' :D

Mr Temporary Handle
WTF?

Re: "Nice one judge." That I am afraid is utter nonsense.

"but look, wikipedia..."

And we all know what a bastion of truth and honesty Wikipedia is. Where everyone is working so very hard for the common good and no one would dream of deliberately spreading misinformation.

[/sarcasm]

BTW: How are Appleboy and Slim Virgin these days? I've not heard from them for a while :)

Euro Parliament kills ACTA treaty before court can look at it

Mr Temporary Handle

Re: Missed the point completely...

It's just Andrew on his high horse again. Intellectual property is theft my arse!

If I didn't know better I'd think he was deliberately trolling for exactly this sort of reaction. I can't remember the exact quote or it's origin, but it says something about the only thing worst than being talked about is NOT being talked about.

But regardless of Andrew's copyright fetish and the rights or wrongs of ACTA, there's no denying the whole thing was handled wrongly.

If you act like you have something to hide then that's what most people are going to believe even if the evidence proves otherwise.

Personally I think it's a very bad piece of legislation with some nasty traps but it's not quite as bad as some of it's more hysterical opponents would have us believe.

And contrary to popular opinion it's not actually dead yet. Karel de Gucht has stated publicly that he intents to keep forcing it down the EU parliament's throat until they swallow it.

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