Posts by ratfox

US gov forbidden to read leaks!

"White House Tells All Federal Agencies To Prohibit Unauthorized Employees From Wikileaks Site"

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/12/why-not-just-stamp-secret-across-the-front-page-of-the-ny-times/67310/

Now, this is comedy material. "Yes, we know that everybody in the world can read these leaks. But YOU are our F**ING EMPLOYEES and YOU will only read what we ALLOW you to read!"

A law school has also warned its students that talking about the leaks on social networks could possibly give them trouble if they apply for US gov positions. You never know.

There is an IT angle: this could be due to Standard Security Procedures(TM). Apparently, any unclassified hard disk that is found containing classified information has to be shredded and replaced. Talk about an IT support nightmare!

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/12/more-about-secret-info-on-the-front-page/67423

Pschhhh

Like it is necessary to be right to send threatening lawyery letters. Just ask SCSO.

Don't cry

You still have the Olympics, you lucky dogs, you...

I bet he's regretting it...

I can't think of anybody else who must regret so much listening to his lower brain since Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair.

By the way, this is from the Wikipedia entry on Interpol:

"In order to maintain as politically neutral a role as possible, Interpol's constitution forbids its involvement in crimes that do not overlap several member countries,[3] or in any political, military, religious, or racial crimes.[4] Its work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, organized crime, crimes against humanity, environmental crime, genocide, war crimes, piracy, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, child pornography, white-collar crime, computer crime, intellectual property crime and corruption."

I don't usually follow what Interpol actually does, but it looks like they are a bit out of their usual tracks, this time.

...Oh, Ecuador have apparently rescinded their offer, condemning the leaks. Apparently, diplomatic cables are still going from US to the Ecuador.

PH for the honey trap, of course

As with precedent article...

Wouldn't you actually make more money by working at McDonald's? What is more, in a truly risk-free way? From my point of view, it would even be less boring.

There are quite a few things that can go wrong in such a scheme, from the bookie going bust to your connection lagging at the wrong time to a simple mistake in the betting. If anything happens, you are likely to lose everything... and eve if you win every time, the margins are small.

Go ahead if you have nothing better to do with your time. As for me, I do have.

Wow

Is there a complimentary sticker for your forehead with "I am a lose^H^H^H^H nerd^H^H^H^H geek" written on it?

I don't get it

Why are people complaining so much about the price of eBooks? Just buy a real book, then.

...Or could it be that you find eBooks so much more practical, because you can keep a whole library in a single device? Well, THAT advantage is something you should, obviously, pay for.

Honestly, I feel that people are complaining that the thing they find so much better and more useful and easier to use and easier to buy, actually costs more money.

Sorry, how does this compare to a job at McDonald's?

In terms of how much time you spend, checking the fine print, placing opposing bets, just to earn 50 quids? (minus what you lose placing opposing bets, of course)

Not for me, thanks. But if you have the free time, go ahead...

Wrong colors, says the expert!

From the New York Times:

Amy Wax, president of the International Association of Color Consultants North America, said the use of “childish” primary colors like red, yellow and blue might have diluted the impact. “Purple, orange and magenta might create a sense of something that would get attention".

CLEARLY, this is an expert consultant.

OMG noes

When I send a postcard to someone, the postman actually scans the postcard to find the address of the person I am sending it to!

Good luck to them

Maybe they just could not get Microsoft to accept them, so it's that or the garbage dump...

I wouldn't want to be the salesman in charge of selling that. It really looks like a moving yard sale, and yet the price are not that attractive...

Big deal

Whenever I look for something that looks like a place, e.g. "san diego ca", I always get a Google Maps link in top position, never a Mapquest link or whatever equivalent Bing has.

My assumption always has been that the Google engine forcibly adds a Google Maps link, not that by some incredible chance, the best link was always that one...

Hurk hurk

He said... hurk hurk

Viruses in Apple

I recently had my MacBook Pro repaired under warranty (hardware problems exclusively). It came back with Symantec Antivirus installed! Who would've thunk it?

By curiosity, I looked at virus definitions:

- 12 Hypercard Viruses

- 34 Macinotsh File Infectors

- 19 Macintosh Trojan Horses

- 2 Macintosh Worms

follow ~6'000 Macro Viruses essentially affecting Microsoft Office software, and ~30'000 PC Viruses.

I haven't seen a conspiracy alert yet so...

Are we SURE that Google did not put a backdoor in this code that everybody will install on their server?

Infinity %

Last year, that is by how much Android sales went up: Infinity %. From zero to more than zero.

This year, sales of Windows 7 phones will go up by infinity %. with only 1,309%, Android phones are clearly beaten.

@regviewer: learn statistics.

Children in the schoolyard

Did not! Did too!

Talking through his head

Watch me, researcher in an investment company, shooting numbers randomly on the dartboard. It's way too early to tell. Some people call that a job.

And it works?

I mean, the efficacy of spam is usually counted in 0.01%, is that enough to have an influence on the market??

Bow to Apple

Nevertheless, even if they did not leak the information, the information got out...

I'm in awe. Whether it was on purpose or not, Apple is getting publicity at the smallest flap of a butterfly.

Who is this guy?

Not that I approve of Climate politics, but who is this guy and why is he worth an article?

He is a retired professor in physics at UCSB, true. But unless his specialty was in climatology, it is likely he has as much to say on the subject as a computer scientist. From what I was able to find, his specialty was advising the government. He does mention in his resignation letter that he joined the APS sixty-seven years ago. So maybe he is some grand researcher in physics, still active in retirement? Does not look like it. His name does not really jump up on the Internet, apart from his resignation letter. No recent articles, no web page, no Wikipedia article.

So this guy just got around to reading the Climategate e-mails, and he was disgusted by what he saw. Well yeah, it is fairly disgusting. But we do not need an old geezer who never researched the subject to tell us that. I understand his anger, I believe he over-estimates Climategate, I may understand that he resigns in protest from the APS.

What I do not understand is why articles are written about him. His move is similar to somebody like Steve Wozniak protesting against the use of 3D in movies.

Calm down, iFanboy...

Really, I believe it is possible to write an article about the problems of Android without such nastiness, and without a somewhat irrelevant apology of the iPhone. True, the Reg spares no one, but this is still severely biased reporting. I do not recall reading such vitriol during the antennaGate thing.

And I say that as a happy iPhone 4 user.