Posts by Daniel Ballado-Torres

billions of iTunes downloads

Yeah ... but lots of those iTunes "downloads" are because Apple force-feeds them that when you try to download Quicktime. I didn't use it, but I made the mistake of letting a friend have Admin. access to my laptop and got riddled with iTunes. (I have only used it twice, and that was because my girlfriend has an iPod).

I don't want the POS player if I don't have an iPod!!!

And for locking up the iPhone... great. Now I know I am definitely *not* buying one. If I were to buy a phone that costs as much as a PDA (or hell, a damn PS3), I expect it to very well damn do what a PDA does, develop software like I do with PDAs. Web 2.0 "apps" are a joke, and more so with mobiles.

So for that, I'll stick with my $240 SonyEriccson W300i. It plays MP3's, has 1Gb capacity, and I can develop software on it with MIDP. It looks like Apple threw a "Sony PSP" to the people, that is: good tech, overpriced, and devels unable to fully tap the device.

Christian boycott? Yeah, sure

Like anyone would care. If it were something *truly* offensive (like that controversial cartoon that made fun of Moslem beliefs), I'd believe that a mass boycott would hurt the game.

But it isn't that much of an "offense". In fact, it would only boost sales, as someone else mentioned. Well, not from me, I just don't dig First Person Shooters that much anymore. (Not having a PS3 or a decent PC also deters me from newer FPS games, anyway).

What did you expect?

Yahoo! seems! more! interested! in! covering! its! back!

So much can be said about Google too ... I wonder why they do it, they could shield themselves by saying "we're not a Chinese company"

oh wait, gotta say that in Engrish: we not Chinese company ;)

Big Google is Watching You

Of course google would have privacy issues, there's that matter about the "immortal cookie", amongst other things.

And AFAIK, Google *also* hands over information about searches to the Chinese government, *and* filters out many searches when made from China.

Why should Google store information about me only because I searched something on their site?? The simple fact of tagging you with an immortal cookie is already compromising your privacy.

I see Stupid People...

Actually, if you do get a credit when your call is actually about tech support, I'd side with them. I have been in that position: getting calls on ... "how do I open a .ppt file?" "How do I play a CD?" so many times, I have almost done a BOFH number on them from time to time.

Well, that was in my previous jobs. Here all those stoopid questions go to the helldesk, fortunately.

Thank god I turned down that call center job when I was still in college...

Copyright? Hah!

Maybe its me being Mexican, but copyright infringement is so commonplace over here, that someone ratting out "PIRACY!!!" would just get laughed upon. Even by the cops!

Then of course, paying full price and then getting duped by receiving pirated goods ... well that would infuriate anyone. Especially if it's baaad quality. (Or not even what you asked, I remember a friend getting reamed when he bought "Spiderman (2002)", then found out he had actually been sold that crappy 70's "spiderman" movie. Ow.)

But there's a lot of semi-legal stuff on sale in eBay or MercadoLibre (the Latin American eBay): some sellers buy stuff in the US, smuggle it illegally, then sell it by MercadoLibre. Voila! Your illegal imports are sold "legally" and you've successfully circumvented import laws.

Now I don't see eBay going after these guys ... they make up most sales in the MercadoLibre subsidiary.

Thin Clients

Hm... but I was more impressed by the SunRay clients.

And UNIX has not one, but *two* ways of achieving true networked systems without having data spread all around the workstations:

- NFS/NIS (or NFS/LDAP maybe?), workstations have only the OS installed and configured. Home directories are NAS'd.

- Passive X terminals. All the heavy duty processing is done server-side. With some truly evil behemoth servers I've seen, that doesn't seem so far-fetched...

Though the "KVM over Internet" solution could well serve other purposes... maybe remote emergency server administration? When your server goes down, or gets stuck in a "Press any key on console" message. Sometimes you don't even have physical access to the server...

Wii and PS3

Well, I have to say that sadly, I support the PS3 camp ... but 3 weeks ago I had my first experience with a Wii... and I have to say that it ROCKS!

For the first time in my entire life, I was able to master a fighting game (Dragon Ball Z Budokai whatever) because ... it doesn't use funky weird movement combinations (double reverse ball! while pressing all buttons with your toes!) to use the "special powers" ... I only had to do simple movements with my arms!!! Needless to say, it was also another first when I beat *all* of my buddies, who are much more experienced on fighting games than me.

Funny thing though ... some of them actually hate the Wii interface for fighting games. As for me, I might actually start playing more fighting games if they go down this trend.

I only own a PSX ... and I might buy a PS3 because of Metal Gear Solid 4 ... but the cost over here (a whopping MXN 13000 or US$ 1250) is too steep for my income at the time. I would say that the price is what kills the console; ironically, the PSX smash hit was the combo of a cheap console + very good games.

Goolag

Hm... I was more of expecting Google to do something like fire up a subsidiary at India.

Hey, at least throw it to Mexico, we need those jobs too, and we're closer!!!! ;)

GABBAGABBAHEY

Hm... so all I need to stop the cyborg invasion is to type that cheat code on my Pyro-GX? ;)

It looks like A.I. is not going to be so Artificial if they manage to do an *actual* neural network. Though I wonder what are the implications of "re-animating" dead brain cells ....

ZOMBIE CYBORGS!

Keep the co.uk

I have been reading El Reg for like 7 years now. (I found the site while searching for BOFH stories, so you'd bet exactly what is the thing I most check for). Even after theregister.com came out, I still stick to .co.uk, I like it better.

I'm Mexican, and I *hate* sites that go .com "just because it looks more global" or worse: "it looks coooler d00d!!". I have mostly despised the .com, as it stands for .COMmercial sites, but many of them are anything but.

I hate, for example, that the local telco company's site is telmex.com, instead of telmex.com.mx , as well as one of the large banks (bancomer.com instead of bancomer.com.mx). They do have the .mx domain, but it redirects to the .com one.

I think the country TLD gives a nice branding on any site that uses it, and El Reg is a fine example. Oh, and I like much more British humor :)

Malware & porn

Turning off the *monitor* ... it isn't always a monitor, y'know.

We got our own kicks when some joker changed the default homepage to a pr0n site in a school computer.

Tragically, this was one of the "Aula Magna" classrooms. Think something like a small auditorium, 120 student capacity. A projector shows the computer's display in a 70" area (or something like that).

So imagine the face of our teacher when she opens IE and BOOM. She went on to press alt-f4 en masse... hilarious moment.

Oh ... and this was sometime around 1999.

And for the PC using Win98 ... well, I've seen lots of places *still* running win9x because the machines can't even run win2000.

The call of Bobthulu

Somehow it looks like M$ forgets not to use a cursed name on another product.

It's like calling a brand-new cruiser the "Titanic" or thinking "Hindenburg" would be a good name for a dirigible.

23 days later...

Now that would be something ... Paris Hilton awaking in a prison 28 days after [insert apocalyptic disease here] has ravaged the U.S. , turning everyone into mindless beings .... wait, she would be immune: she's already brainless.

Heh.

Down the bog

Ah ... so I am not alone when my Nokia 1100 decided to do the triple-jump of death into the (recently flushed) loo.

Funny thing is, the thing still worked (mostly), but the ringer no longer worked. Then some repair guy lost the screws while "cleaning" it, so the vibrator would not work (and occasionally, my phone would fall into many pieces). Sad thing is, I had just got it repaired for free (girlfriend worked at a Nokia stand) and had even got a firmware update... the phone was failing constantly and unable to initiate or receive calls. I enjoyed like 1 week of crystal-clear calls until then.

Though my first Ericcson (ca. 1996) was much better. That one fell countless times, and almost got crushed by the subway once (don't ask).

Suicide being illegal

Hm... I just wonder if you are successful, just *how* are you going to do jail time?

Will your corpse go to jail? Or is it assumed it is punishable by death? Heh, in the latter case, it seems you've already executed yourself.

Sheesh, now someone suiciding on live webcam feed, that's sick. And as some other person commented ... it isn't like you're about to dial 999 and say

"Help! dude_5432 just hanged himself!"

"999: What's the address where this is ocurring?"

"12.34.56.78"

Yeah, sure.

Marketing

Maybe because mainstream marketing has become more of a liability these days. Informed IT people are usually weary of software that has a massive marketing campaign, especially if it seems a) a large part of the budget is being spent on it, and b) they give relativiely short release dates (which means the software will be crappy and buggy).

And open source software usually gets its own marketing for free ... the "word-of-mouth", Internet style.

Then again, the MySQL & PHP combo packs are the main responsible that MySQL hit it big ... I began with Postgresql, but switch to MySQL during the 2000-2001 hype over MySQL. I eventually returned to PostgreSQL because of that thing about, you know ... no transactional tables in MySQL. And MySQL boasting about it as a *feature*! (Isn't that Redmond's job???)

The Next Napster...

hm... such bold claims, taking in mind this requires *no* programming expertise.

I doubt "the next Napster" will come out of AJAX, JavaScript or any other of those "dumb" technologies. I am veeery weary of JavaScript "applications" or Javascript-dependant sites. All this Web 2.0 fuzz is only dumbing-down the web developers, but it seems to be spilling out into the *real* programmers realm.

800 screen refreshes

Ahhh... you assume it would actually update 800 times ....

I'd bet on the app segfaulting, it would be more likely for the child to be introduced to the GENERAL PROTECTION fish. Heh.

Damned if I will ever be seen...

... holding a PSP as a phone. I'd look like a freak. Then again, there could be a "hands-free" adapter, similar to the headphone thingy the PSP already got.

I prefer PSP over NintendoDS, but I feel Sony's been screwing up on the console. UMD movies cost like um.... the same as DVD's. A movie for a small screen (only readable in smallscreen) shouldn't cost the same as a DVD!!!!

The other thing that just doesn't appeal to me is Sony being hell-bent on breaking user-generated apps. Damn, I want to make my own apps, I'm a software developer!!! With most recent phones, I can do apps with Java MIDP; Sony won't let me run *anything* on its PSP but games. Until Sony changes that policy, I won't look at the PSP as something I'd use as a phone.

Cracking RSA

Ow ... most sites use 1024bit. And the stoopid US export restrictions mean we're getting 128-symmetric, 1024-asymmetric for some time. (I'm in Mexico City).

To the dude about 128-bit RSA ... it isn't RSA that's 128. That's the symmetric cipher (usually AES, I think).

As for myself, anything really really sensitive is encrypted with my 4096bit RSA, and with 256-Blowfish for symmetric.

Afganistan

well... it's correctly spelt ... if you are writing it in Spanish. *rofl*

I could watch the vid, but I doubt my boss would agree.

Somehow ....

I get reminded of Yakov Smirnoff...

With Russia Trojan, Phone Calls YOU!!!

Not only malware is something to worry. There have been some cases reported that kidnappers hack into Bluetooth-enabled mobiles and use them to make ransom calls. Not only do they piggyback for free their call, they also get the police looking for another dude!!

... and that's why most of us keep Bluetooth off.

Overpower...

Hm... reminds me of my folly with Instant Oatmeal about 15 years ago.

Back then, most micro-ovens were about 400W ones. Ours decided to crap out back in '91. So my dad bought a brand new one... a 1000W one.

Too bad most timing instructions were for 400W ... I ended up with an ultra-hot, DRY oatmeal as most of the milk had boiled up. Then I checked the box, and read "1000W ovens - 40 seconds". I had set 2 minutes.

I have since learned to check out for different powered ovens. Sure those monster ovens have at least some warning about being over-powered??

allofmp3

Hm... allofmp3.com has been my haven for dropping out spyware-riddled p2p or an endless search for torrents, while downloading legal-in-Russia music, and paying a decent price for it.

Actually, here in Mexico, allofmp3 would even be competitive against the *real* illegal market: Pirated CD's sell at MX$ 10 (thats about US$ 0.96), being of dubious quality. Though then again, many Mexicans are still weary of buying online, or don't have credit cards.

And, allofmp3 is open worldwide, while iTunes *isn't*.

But he won't remain in space?

Oh wait, I get it .... "Captain! We don't have the power!!! We need more dilithium crystals!!!"

I would've sent his ashes to the ISS at least. I hope there are true space-launching capsules (as in staying on space) by the time I die...

Respect for religion

Interesting to see that Islam does adapt to science, instead of blocking it. I think it was until the 20th century that the Roman Catholic Church finally admitted that the world was round. Sheesh.

Though I *didn't* know there as a Moslem majority in Malaysia...

Uses for the key (answer to What am I missing?)

Maybe you forget about region-locking? It may run OK in *some* DVD players, but others will not display the content. I routinely suffer as my laptop is from the US but I live in Mexico.

Laptop's Region 1, but some movies I buy over here are Region 4. So I am effectively deprived of watching most *legally purchased* DVD's because of the frickin' DRM.

Back in 2002, the PS2 sold over here was Region 1.

So basically, DVD cracking was the *only* way to watch locally-purchased DVDs. And DeCSS is the only way for me to watch my DVDs under Linux, anyway. So don't assume that the key is needed only for "illegal" acts.

As for Digg, it is interesting how they decided to defend their users .... but not untill they got reamed by their own userbase. Ow.

Rush hour

Hm... now I'm from Mexico City. There's a *reason* I prefer subway transportation over everything else.

I just have to look outside my office building; the Cirquito Interior (Inner Ring) highway runs right outside this bldg. And its average speed on rush hour must be something like 30 km/h. Or less.

And I wouldn't even mention the Periferico beltway on the nothern side, where sometimes we joke that its a 60 minutes/km highway.

Maybe if they took the Monsters Inc. approach ... make energy from swearing and that will be enough to power even a 9-car maglev system ;)

Cheating and music

I would want to listen music during my exam. Heavy metal will make me keep myself awake in exams ;)

Hm... cheating just can't be stopped. Back when I took my first physics course in college, we had what I would call a "Doogie Howser" professor. Boy genius, but then he wanted *everyone* to be like him. That meant, there were no formulas allowed on the exam, you had to know them. All 100 of them.

So, naturally, I did two things:

- Those formulas which are used for problem solution, I programmed, and

- Those which were used only to "prove" other formula were written into a text file.

It wasn't exactly cheating, as other professors did allow this, but oh well... thanks to my TI-89 I made it through.

Now, the Economy professor wondering why did I use a calculator during theory-only exam is another story...

This is Russian Reversal of actual feature!

As much as I love to bash M$, I have to point out that the point is taken backwards ... it is basically a "Russian Reversal" play on the feature that makes it *seem* it is useless.

The case is, if UAC is enabled, every single program that *doesn't* have a manifest, will run in mortal-user mode. If they have the manifest, you will get the UAC prompt.

But ... if the name is called something like install, setup and similar, then it will behave just like if it had a manifest and ask for admin privs.

No, naming your program anything else doesn't "bypass the metal detector". It actually keeps you out the gate altogether.

HOWEVER, this only is effective if:

- User has UAC enabled, and

- User has a non-admin account for everyday use. There was a Reg article some time ago about this.

So it is more a backwards hack to allow unaware pre-Vista installers to run. Calling it "false security" reminds me of a friend back in '97 running SMIT as normal-user and then claiming he "hacked" the box.

Anyway, happy bug hunting! Vista is bound to show off some major security hole sometime in the future...

PS: Hm... somehow everytime I type UAC, I think of DOOM.

Deja vu ...

Nanobots ... intelligent swarm ... wait, didn't I read some novel about that???

Oh yes I did. Michael Crichton's Prey.

Some centuries might make it theoretically possible for an AI to evolve out of control, way beyond what's expected. And the new intelligence may or may not be friendly towards us. Ow.

You've got .. AN EMERGENCY!!!

And then they say that the US isn't dumbing down ...

E-mail, as far as I remember (1995), has always been an offline medium. That is, you check your email once in a while, meanwhile it sits there. The whole point of Instant Messaging was precisely to bring *instant*, *real-time* messaging to the Internet (ICQ started this).

In a windows environment, net send * sends a domain-wide message who everyone sees (unless Messaging service is disabled ... damn M$/SP2!!!). UNIX's got wall.

Even with that, I wouldn't rely *only* in IM tech, contrary to what these dudes might think, we aren't hooked up 24/7 to computers. Old style tannoy alert systems are much more effective (even the cell broadcast sounds like a good idea).

Maybe it's just me, but I doubt i'd react to an email saying "WARNING: YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO REACH MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE". It just doesn't sound so urgent, or could be only a joke.

Then again, I'd love to hear something like: "There's a gunman on the loose!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!"

They are not Nena

Hm... this sounds like a corny attempt to copycat Nena's one-time hit: 99 Luftballons.

Except Germany had lots of nukes that were not *their* nukes: they were US and USSR nukes. So if they were shot, they would be fired from *and upon* them, by other countries. No bias there.

That's why this version would look so lame: this one's biased.

Email frenzy

Hm... well at least I know about a cousin of mine that reads all of his emails ... including those pesky forwards with jokes, bad jokes, pr0n pics et. al.

I stopped reading all of those altogether when I started getting 10 or more of those daily, they were eating up my time... and I prefer to do something else with my time.

I used to have 200+ unread emails in my inbox before I took this approach ... currently I have no more than 10, and of those usually it is only 1 or 2 that really matter.

Oh, and that's weekly.

(Of course, my work email does get much more than that, but that's another story.)