* Posts by ratfox

3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

Google offers Adwords deals - but you can't trust their numbers

ratfox
Happy

That would be a very special bag

Which would allow you to have a red marble with probability 3/5, a blue marble with probability 3/5, and a green marble with probability 3/5, for a total of 9/5. Which would mean that almost every time you choose a marble, you end up choosing two at the same time!

Yahoo! drops! size! limit! on! email! attachments! with aid from Dropbox

ratfox
Go

Re: Just because you CAN do it, doesn't mean its a

I believe this XKCD comic explains well why this service is necessary. In a couple of years, having 15MB limits on email attachments will sound out of the stone age. Of course, most people will never realize the difference between sending an actual attachment and sending a link to Dropbox — and they should not realize the difference. This is really an implementation detail the user should not have to bother with.

ANCIENT CURSED RING known to TOLKIEN goes on display

ratfox

Script is Elvish

The same as we write English with Latin characters.

ratfox
Boffin

Annulum unum ut omnia imperire. Annulum unum ut illa invenire.

Annulum unum ut omnia ferre. Et in tenebris illa alligare.

China's Beidou satnav will open to mobe-makers

ratfox

Wow

Europe still has only four satellites out there? Aren't we taking our sweet time?

I guess new satnav systems take a back seat during economic crises… Which is rather sensible, I suppose.

Federal lawyers, MIT threatened following Aaron Swartz' death

ratfox
Joke

And two rights don't make a wrong

…Yeah, right.

BIGGEST DDoS ATTACK IN HISTORY hammers Spamhaus

ratfox
FAIL

Hey, Cyberbunker

Thanks for proving our point!

--Spamhaus

Swedish linguists nix new word after row with Google

ratfox
Alert

Re: To google

It is an unfortunate side-effect of American trademark law. If Google does not formally go through the motions of stopping people from using Google as a generic term, Microsoft might start a search engine named "Google 2.0"… Because if the term is generic, anybody can use it.

Apple share-price-off-a-cliff: Told you that would happen

ratfox

Re: Don't blame Apple for the price drop

Not that it changes the fundamental message of your post, but in this particular case, results have for the overwhelming part of the last ten years been much higher than what the analysts had predicted.

Nokia deflates Google's video codec thought bubble

ratfox

@Robert Long 1

You are confusing the intent of the system with the means.

The intent is, and always has been, encouraging innovation. Preventing competition through the granting of a government-backed monopoly is only the means.

The corollary is that if this business of preventing competition is shown to prevent innovation rather than encourage it, it should be abolished…

ratfox
Stop

@AC 7:29

I think you have not been paying attention. H264 is the standard that is encumbered by many patents belonging to many companies, including Apple and Microsoft, who are not willing to relinquish their IP. VP8 is precisely the standard built by Google with the express purpose of having a non-patented standard.

ratfox
Devil

Huh

That does seem to sum it up. "We own patents this thing is infringing. We won't license it. We know this serves no purpose except from screwing Google". Or at least it seems that way to me.

Subtle difference of efficiency apart, what is the problem with VP8, except that it lacks a whole bunch of companies who can stomp on it at any time they want, just because they can?

News scraper Meltwater loses US court case

ratfox

Also wondering the difference with Google

Is it that Google does not charge for Google News? Or the fact that it sends a ton more traffic?

Google patent filing suggests Glass will be ULTIMATE REMOTE

ratfox
Pint

Not quite

You would probably need to strap your laptop in a way that displays the message right in front of your eye — but it would be worth it; I would pay good money to see people walking around like that!

Twitter patents sending messages, promises not to sue everyone

ratfox
Stop

Wrong

You don't need to defend your patent to keep it. You are thinking about trademarks.

Microsoft responds to Chinese software contract bribery claims

ratfox
Happy

Re: Let's be real

I can just imagine a government official somewhere telling Microsoft that without a bribe, they would convert to linux…

Well, now it does not sound so outlandish, 15 years ago it was practically impossible.

Weev gets 41 months in prison for exposing iPad strokers' privates

ratfox

Re: Contrition is a religious concept,

I think you don't get it. The point of the justice system is to get people to act legally. There were plenty of ways to report the flaw without sending private user data to the press. It was even possible to publicly embarrass the company by revealing the flaw without actually leaking private user data. So Weev broke the law without any proper justification, not even that of being a whistleblower. Satire is protected free speech, but lulz is not.

In that case, the job of the justice system is to first, point out that this is illegal, and second, to deter people from doing it. When the accused is proudly admitting breaking the law and claiming it is the right thing to do, the justice system has to make it especially clear that no, it is not. And the more the accused insists on advertising his claims, the harsher the justice system has to be.

It is not about forced humiliation. Here, just shutting up would have been preferable.

ratfox
Devil

Showing no contrition

If there is one thing that the justice system hates, it is criminals who don't make at least a show of regretting what they have done. It is a bit like declaring at the customs that your job is smuggling. I bet the sentence would have been way more reasonable if he had "treated them with respect".

Don't buy a Google car: They might stop it while you're driving

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Re: Increasing censorship and spammer-friendly policies

I'm curious. Care to elaborate on these two points??

Google shreds Reader in new round of 'spring cleaning'

ratfox
Trollface

Re: I will vote with my wallet!

I am sure Google will regret all the money you were paying them…

BlackBerry stock spikes on Lenovo buyout mumble

ratfox
Unhappy

And so it begins

I am getting flashbacks from Palm, four years ago.

Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

ratfox
Happy

Emacs: Rejected

4. The editor should contain no implementation of Lisp

It's in the article!

Google's Wi-Fi sniffing to result in $7 million fine

ratfox
Devil

$7 millions? Wow

The scariest part is, if they could only come up with that, it probably means they could not even find which law Google had broken, and Google just settled with them to stop the nagging.

Google sends Street View car into Fukushima dead zone

ratfox
Devil

It's Japan

Dirt has been forbidden by law in the 70s.

More seriously, I wonder when this area will become a den of squatters who don't care about the radioactivity.

Android 'splits' into the Good and the lovechild of Bad and Ugly

ratfox

Those who root and flash a custom rom

Analysts don't usually bother with slivers of less than 0.1% of the market…

Google offers limited data on National Security Letters

ratfox
Happy

Ha! We can guess more info than they wanted to release!

For each year, they say they received between 0 and 999 letters… But always about a nonzero number of users! So we know that they actually received between 1 and 999 letters.

I bet the US government is going to freak out about the security implications of that slip.

Welsh bureaucrats busted for getting political on Twitter, Facebook

ratfox
Angel

Re: Beth wyt ti'n meddwl?

Wel, gallaf ddefnyddio Google cyfieithu…

Apple iWatch: Coming soon, runs iOS, to earn mucho mazuma

ratfox
Angel

Re: "...create something totally new like they did with the iPod"

See also the iPhone, and the iPad. Though they might have got ideas from many other products, whether they were superior in vision, execution or marketing, they became the products every other was compared to.

Now, it may be too early to tell, but I have the highest doubts that the iWatch will do the same.

Japanese govt: Use operator-run app stores, not Google Play

ratfox
FAIL

And this, gentlemen, is why…

Android should by default allow the users to selectively block access rights from apps; at least the right to send data over the network. I'm tired of arguing this point when it is such a no-brainer. All I could ever hear against is how poor developers should not have to handle their applications losing access to this or that… But anyway apps don't always have access to the network, e.g on planes, so this is pretty moot.

Canadian cyborg says Google Glass design is cracked

ratfox
FAIL

Like he's the only expert

He should have more respect for this Thad Starner guy leading the project at Google, with reasonable credentials of his own…

Amazon, Facebook, Google attempt to cure cancer with Big Data

ratfox
Devil

You're not trying hard enough

"Google is trying to deflect the attention from how EVIL they are!"

"Facebook would like us to forget the latest change in their privacy policy!"

And of course: "I see that Microsoft is not willing to do anything for society! ­– Eadon"

Google open sources very slow compression algorithm

ratfox
Happy

Heh… Zopfli

It means little jar…

Google builds web games using Chrome on mobes as controller

ratfox
Holmes

Because some people have iPhones

If it works with any Chrome, iPhone users can also play.

Judge bins Apple's plea to slash $368m FaceTime patent damages

ratfox
Devil

He who lives by the sword…

And as you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

Google squishes login-bypass bug that opened door to hijackers

ratfox

Never understood how these ASPs work

Go there, press this button, copy this, paste it here. Now you can access this thing you want.

To put it simply, I have no clue how this is used. Good thing that I don't need to.

Google: Our 'freedom of expression' should trump punters' privacy

ratfox

I don't get it

Is this about the right to be forgotten, or is this about results for web pages which link to another web page Google is not supposed to crawl?

Google Chrome feature helps you silence noisy tabs

ratfox

Actually would not want this

These days, I often find myself playing music by having YouTube on a tab somewhere in the background.

Look out! Peak wind is coming, warns top Harvard physicist

ratfox
WTF?

Makes no sense to me

The world contains many things that impede the wind from blowing. Apart from the windmills, there are trees, houses, skyscrapers, mountains…

I fail to see why a windmill would slow the wind more than any fixed structure of the same size… And frankly, we are very far from windmills being even a small percentage of all the wind-impeding crap we have built. Without even mentioning the mountains.

Nokia opens Maps to rivals, flogs uber-budget €15 phone

ratfox
Go

Good, good

Google Maps need the competition, and they need as many users as they can to keep up map quality. A map service simply cannot compete on quality without user-submitted content.

If I was Apple, I would launch a desktop version of their maps as soon as possible, and offer on it a proper way to report issues. The little tool they have on their phones is just not going to be enough.

Razzie voters drive stake through Twilight

ratfox
Happy

Interestingly, Robert Pattinson was spared

I suspect he has many fans from Harry Potter.

Unwearable tech: Five ways IT garb's gone HORRIBLY WRONG

ratfox
Happy

OMG it never worked before, why still try?

I for one find the Google Glass less obtrusive than many designer glasses.

Then again, I'm the type of guy who has always despised people who wear sunglasses after sundown, so I guess it's a matter of taste.

RIAA: Google failing on anti-piracy push

ratfox
Devil

Yeah right

Seriously, what are the chances of RIAA being happy about Google? ZERO.

Ultimately, the RIAA is unhappy about the Internet, all of it. It's not like Google is the only search engine; just the most popular one…

Google given more time to prove to Brussels it's NOT 'abusive' in search

ratfox
Alert

Brinkmanship

Looks to me like both sides are bargaining hard for the best they can get. I think Google would do well to remember that in the end Almunia is basically calling the shots. They make him happy, or they are in a world of pain.

I'm guessing that Google really does not want this to get serious, so they'd better make him happy.

Google stokes hype machine over Project Glass robospecs

ratfox

Re: "No one really likes to wear glasses at the best of times"

Huuh… Not sure what your objection is. Ideally, if Glass shows you the image of an object, there should be no difference at all between the rays of light coming from Glass, and the rays of light coming from a real object say 10 meters away. If you have good eyesight you can see both without trouble.

Now if you have bad eyesight, you have prescription glasses that transform the rays of light coming from any real object 10 meters away so that your eyes can see the object properly. Rays of light coming from Glass should be transformed in exactly the same way, and allow your eye to see properly what Glass is displaying.

Now, there might be a problem if your eyesight is so bad that you cannot see an object 10 meters away even with prescription glasses. You would need to have a special Glass which mimics the rays of light coming from a closer object that you can normally see, maybe 50 centimeters away; but this would probably be very expensive because that would need custom optics inside the Glass instead of the mass-produced ones which mimic objects 10 meters away.

ratfox

Re: "No one really likes to wear glasses at the best of times"

You are missing something: Even people who do not wear glasses cannot focus on something half an inch from their face. The optics inside Glass probably display everything to your eye as if it was a few meters away, so if you can see clearly a few meters away while wearing glasses, you should be fine wearing Glass over your glasses.

We've slashed account hijackings by 99.7% - Google

ratfox
Alert

It's a Y axis

I'm curious, what makes you think that "the majority of successful hijacks are probably pulled off by shady state-sponsored types" rather than spammers? Because you hear more about it in the news?

According to my research, only rich people get married and have children. You never hear of these things happening to poor people in the news.

Microsoft, EMC, NetApp support Oracle against Google

ratfox
WTF?

Huh??

I love Terry Pratchett very much, but… Saying that the Harry Potter series is heavily based on his work is so much of a stretch that you must be very nimble to attempt it. In fact, apart from the fact that magic exists in both worlds, and some very common fantasy elements like "they both contain dragons and trolls at some point or other", I have trouble seeing any kind of resemblance between the two. Or are you talking about the Johnny Maxwell series? "A teenager has strange adventures with his friends" is the only common link I can see, and that's not much either…

ratfox
Joke

"they also use open source software from time to time."

And some of their best friends are Jews, right?

You can help fix patent laws … now!

ratfox
Megaphone

How about this for novelty?

All patents are kept secret for one year. If at anytime during that year, somebody else comes up with the same idea/concept, the patent is invalidated as being not novel enough.

When you think about it, the fact that two or more companies would be racing to patent a concept should automatically disqualify the concept from being patented. Patents are meant to reward the inventor who brings something to society. If many inventors come up with the same idea at the same time, then society would have benefited even if any of these guys had decided to go back to bed instead. At the most, the patent should be shared between the multiple inventors, certainly not awarded to the one with the fastest legs.

Google misses privacy-policy deadline, incurs EU wrath

ratfox
Facepalm

Disappointed

I would have thought that Google would pay more attention to their complaints, instead of apparently not answering. It does not even seem that prohibitive to do as they asked, if they really only asked for opt-out (which in the overwhelming majority users will not do).