Posts by kissingthecarpet

As the PC repair guy said

"If I saw any child porn or terror material" - no mention of "extreme porn" or "within the terms of the act" or any other bollocks. Most men(not sure about women) would not recognise anything not "child pron or terrorist stuff" as wrong anyway(& unless the terst(as the septics say) stuff is Islamic,most wouldn't notice it ).

The bloke in the story being prosecuted must have either admitted guilt or been a complete idiot. Any decent brief should have shredded their case - what a lot of old cock (of whatever species)

MS is another ingredient

in the recipe for confusion - I'm sure there has been plenty of behind-the-scenes arm-twisting by Ballsmer & his henchmen.

They have caught a glimpse of a future where everyone is walking around with ARM-powered net/note/smart books that use a fraction of the power of current laptops, running some kind of free OS that isn't theirs(& didn't cost anything).

Ted...

Go away.

@Steve Roper

I hope AC's comment above is wrong, Steve - say it ain't so!

Otherwise I congratulate you on a job well done - but don't let the naysayers get away with it.

The more (true) stories like this the better

@David kesterton

I wouldn't use the Urban dictionary for citations if I were you(unless it was meant as a joke). Its full of definitions put in by teenagers to wind each other up( e.g a word is defined as meaning "<some bloke at school I don't like> is so gay" etc etc)

Also seeing as I'm from Yerp any US pol who is more pro-Europe & its values is OK by me.Bush doesn't even know where Europe is, and surely Cheney scared everyone, even GOP fanbois.

The Jim Jones thing doesn't make sense as a metaphor anyway, does it?

Wikipedia is great for non-controversial subjects like Maths & Comp sci, but shit for anything where objectivity is difficult to achieve.

I anticipate

the forthcoming ARM-based machines with relish - what *are* MS going to do then? Ha Ha Ha

I'm pleased the Reg seems to be taking a more rational approach to GNU/Linux than hitherto. Does anyone (apart from the MS astroturfers) believe any of the FUD about command lines(as if nearly every MS sysadmin howto doesn't advise the use of the command line) & all the rest of the bilge?

I do find it a bit pathetic

when some commenters sign themselves "AC" as if they're going to be hunted down. Usually sign off with some crack like "AC for obvious reasons"

Yeah,right

I bet the plod get the horn

every time they think of China

Private - don't think so

I'm willing to bet that all the commenters whinging about disclosure of "private"(read public domain) information have all abused someone online "anonymously" and are now really worried that their fondness for spanking or whatever is going to be revealed to their Mum. What she's doing should happen a lot more.

Blair sounded good in '96

After a few years of John Major (remember him? heh heh) Blair sounded pretty good, & he made loads of promises, just like Cameron, then everyone voted for him in '97. I doubt if he made good on any of the big promises at all.

It'll be even worse with the Tories, as most the the party are still ardent Thatchlerites. I'd like to hear Cameron's justification for the 3 strikes nonsense ......... but none of it matters, because what they do in power will bear no resemblance to their manifesto or anything they've ever said.

Time to raise the black flag

Made me smile

The first paragraph reminds me of Elmer Fudd trying (and failing) to catch Bugs Bunny.

Now where have I heard that analogy before?

I know VM can be crap..

but I've got their 10Mb service & I can d/l updates from Debian's servers at over 1.2 Megabytes per second, which ain't bad in my book. However, they're the only servers that I can get full speed from. Everybody else's seem to be restricted, so,at the moment, unless you're a Debian user don't bother with fast speeds as they won't help, cos the ISP doesn't seem to be the limiting factor.

Every non-techie loves it....

Every time I've shown Adblock in action to a non-techie user, they've said "Wow,that's brilliant,can you put that on my machine" or words to that effect. Adblock also has the advantage of giving them a clear reason the use Firefox rather than IE (especially as some poor people cannot afford to buy a new PC & are still running W2k & IE6!) resulting in a consequent drop in malware.

If you don't make your living in a way that's connected to online ads then why should you give a toss?

RDP? PPTP?

As far as I can tell,no-one has done a remote desktop(RDP) client or a PPTP VPN client yet for Andoid, only a beta vnc app so far. Certainly at my company, this is a must. However, the current Windows Mobile VPN client is a bit rubbish AFAIK, so claiming support for a feature isn't the same thing as said feature actually *ever* working in practice..

Correct me if I'm wrong about Android.

In the great tradition

of not understanding sarcasm unless its spoken in an exaggeratedly sarcastic tone. On the internet it seems that 1% will get the joke & the other 99% weigh in with "Its an outrage....BLAH BLAH!!!???OMFG "

As I understand it the cross was actually made from combed-out hair. An effigy of Robert Robinson was also burned while they chanted "3 legs good! 2 legs bad!"

The Fast Show had it about right.

A victory for rationality

Co-incidentally there was a blog yesterday suggesting that GNU/Linux could be a good starting point for a polling machine - No, don't go near it.The last thing FLOSS needs is to be infected with that disease. Paper & pencil - you don't get much more open source than that.

Hopefully all governments (especially our own dear politcos) will take notice of this sensible decision by the Irish. There was a time when all new tech was regarded as a good idea, & it probably was, most of the time, but now IT has become ubiquitous, we're going to have to draw the line(with a ruler & pencil ha ha) increasingly often.As it is,in the UK we've left it a bit late to start saying "Enough!".

It was ever thus

There's always been a dividing line between those who think "the police do a difficult job blah blah" and those who have actually had dealings with them on the wrong end. They have always done this stuff, its just that the internet & modern people not kowtowing to authority has highlighted the problem. Remember, 30 years ago, if you protested about anything, most people & the media portrayed you as a dirty hippie communist anarchist scumbag. I've had personal experience of "kettling" in the early 80's, and seen open blatant violence inflicted on innocent bystanders, by the filth who had their numbers hidden as they beat up pregnant women and children. Yes,it really happens ALL the time.

No,they do need insulting

Usually the non-senile who fall for this are a bit slow, so shouting insults at them might actually penetrate in a way that reasonable explanation never will, certainly in my own experience. Its the way that ignorant people communicate, by shouting insults at each other, especially if its something important.

If the victim is suffering from dementia, then obviously its time for power of attorney,etc. if you care about them. Of course, the only thing most relatives care about is how much dosh is left for them after the scammers have had a go.

@what a waste - people don't do the lottery because they're bad at maths, they do it because a pound is negligible, but the winnings are huge(certainly a lot more than a giro)

Theres only one test

government policy has to pass - The Sun/Daily Mail test.

Nothing else really matters.

Is on-boarding

like water-boarding but drier...

Which groups in the US

would have an irrational hatred of films like "Twiglet"? The subject matter is concerned with vampires & the occult so probably the same people who are obsessed with hating Harry Potter books or Hallowe'en - crazed fundamentalists (don't know why they bother with the "funda" syllable)

@Kevin Nolan

"I didn't know they had cunsumer digital cameras back in the '70s..."

They didn't & the article doesn't suggest they did - note the key word "digitising".

What's a "cunsumer" anyway, something to do with cunnilingus or what?

On The Real Hustle

they do cons on people & tell them afterward, & only then give their money/wallet/mobile back then.On one episode they got people to give them company bank deposits by saying the night safe was broken. No-one seems bothered by that series, which is analogous to the "car security" programme when they "break into someones car".

Most peoples attitude is like Homer Simpson's when he puts his arms round his television and says "Lets never fight again". Telly is godlike & therefore not subject to mortal law.

Horned Bill icon - cos its all his bleedin' fault (heh)

Described as "astrology"

On the front page of the Guardian Tech section on Thursday they had an article describing how a properly scientific study found that VRA was "no better than a coin toss". Apparently none of the users have ever asked for the results of, or commissioned, a study that checked if it was worth paying for. At a few grand a seat, I wish taxpayer funded orgs like councils, had done this first.

If you tell people you're operating a "lie detector" of some kind they're less likely to lie. According to the Guardian article, the code for doing the "Stress analysis" is 500 (count 'em 500) lines of **Visual Basic*** in the program that everyone buys.

Pyramid Selling?

Pyramid selling is far cleverer than a Ponzi scheme(which is just like paying off one credit card with another). Of course, pyramid selling is illegal, which is why its called Multi-level marketing now(tho' that might be illegal now as well), & involves getting people to recruit others - in a pyramid(duh!) (like a chain letter) - the product being pretty much irrelevant.

Lose money now - Ask me how

Gary McKinnon

didn't need passwords either.

Didn't stop him getting nicked though.

I'm no fanboi

but I run the nightly 3.2 alpha build(or is that 3.6 or 4.9 or...), on windows server 2003, XP, & Debian & I just can't see what they're all moaning about. With NoScript & Adblock installed(& compatibility checking disabled) I've got no big complaints about FF3 and its streets ahead of IE..

Mind you, I'm weird, I've got Virgin cable & never have problems or less than the advertised speed... ever.

@ David Wiernicki

"Promoting positive messages: we'll spend $15m on a web site with an unpatched phpbb"

LOL

Writers like Dziuba

are *not* the reason I read The Reg.

Unless I'm missing the gag & he's a satire on Web commentators *exactly* like Shelley the Republican is a satire on Republicans.

Re:Like the end of any good horror movie

It will never die- why will anything change when the party in govt. changes? - I used to think exactly the same thing when Thatchler was in power, but look how things turned out. Once you open Pandora's box etc. etc.

Until there's another paradigm shift like the one in 1945-8 forget it mate...

I for one

welcome the computer takeover. Once they're intelligent enough to see what a bunch of twats we will have become, that'll be the end of us & good riddance.

It was ever thus

When I was at school, say 35 years ago, there were teachers who by sheer force of personality controlled large classes. There were others, one in particular who was nicknamed "Frog" ....she entered the room, everyone started banging their desks and chanting "Frog! Frog!" as one, until she rushed out of the room in hysterics, and wasn't seen for some months(I think she might have needed treatment).

My point is that some people should realise that teaching post-pubescents is not for the weak or introverted, and either stick to 5-year-olds or not bother. If you need the cops to keep order, get another job now.

(Paris has been very naughty and needs a good spanking ASAP)

More Cops on the streets....

and that's a good thing?

I develop in Windows

and use Debian at home. The few times that we have tried to get (paid for) help with dev problems that are caused by admitted MS bugs, it just sounded like they were reading an MSDN web page(in broken english). In the end we've found our own answers.

I had a small bug in a nightly test build of Firefox. I reported it, and it was fixed very quickly, with continuous email updates of the state of the bug.The difference surprised me, & I'm biased.

If MS can take the piss, they will, like all large monopolistic corporations.

Has it not been said many times that if the aforementioned corporations were humans, they would be considered to be sociopaths. They can be very charming, and seemingly competent, but I think current events tell us what we need to know about big business.

One thing MS has never liked about the Internet

was that it looks like (and is really) an outgrowth of *nix. Windows has always been mired in the stand-alone PC with their C-drive,D-drive(which are partitions, not drives - they don't refer to disks internally like that, do they?) Netbios, and backslash(just to be different) setup. Whereas Unix was built from the ground up as a networked OS, and the internet was just another network to connect to.

Code? You sure?

They only ever let me download binaries.

Mines the one with the leaked Windows7.sln on the USB key in the pocket

Re:And make sure the Daily Mail is on board

Quote: "Goodness knows what will happen when Tony Cameron is elected next year. Surely they can't be any more right wing than NuLabia?"

You are joking aren't you?

Re:come on , its deliberate isnt it?

Yes, maybe I'm just a bit paranoid but if they leak it onto the torrent, maybe they're hoping to get a bit of bug feedback, & hear about any exploits, & perhaps have an "underground" hit with it, recovering (they may imagine) a bit of street cred as well(yeah, right :)). If there's a big moan about some new feature then they could switch horses before RTM.

PS What happened to WinFS? ha ha

I imagine

they use similar accounting methods to the RIAA

The worst sort of hippie

is the sort who never takes any drugs - they just bullshit a lot about chakras, crystals etc., while complaining about the many mild illnesses they seem to suffer from....

Oh I know, they're called 'neurotics'

re:lesson: avoid at all cost

You're right there - my brother-in-law was one of the most pro-US right-wing conformist types I've ever met. His son, who is 9, has now been searched & questioned several times as well as him. He lives in Bermuda, and owns property in the US so he's a 'frequent flyer' there . He hasn't a good word to say about the US now & if its put him off, then it'd put anyone off.

Surely any goodwill gained after the Sept.11 thing has been squandered by now, plus being the originators of a global recession will lower their approval rating, especially once the food riots begin.

PS there should be a Ballmer icon with horns - he's far more representative of the Buddha-like serenity & compassion that one associates with MS and the use of their wonderful software than Gates is now. Or perhaps a flying chair.

@very confused

Certainly, the Aussies I've met in the UK (i.e. the ones who've travelled round the world) are an open-minded crowd, sure....but several of them told me that they were the minority & most of the people they went to school with are very conservative, seemingly in a manner similar to US conservatives, but with less religion. Also about half of them settled here permanently - apparently something do with the richness & depth of the culture here compared to Oz.

Electronic voting doesn't add up

I seem to recall that a government-sponsored committee had a look at e-voting for the UK, and it was agreed that its a bad idea. The leading open-source expert in e-voting software(Jason Kitkat) thinks its a bad idea at

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.8748

A quote - "Following the elections the influential National Institute of Standards and Technology released a firm report, which said that electronic voting machines 'in practical terms cannot be made secure'."

The Yanks should pay attention to their own experts, rather than the guys who make the machines, & the pols who are in their pockets.

Tabmix Plus

is the name of the extension. It is the ability to extend FF & the huge range of extensions that make it so useful. Some of the extensions like Greasemonkey allow you to write your own webpage-enhancing script, increasing extensibility even further.

Adblock & NoScript need to be shouted about as well. My boss uses IE7 at work & when i see the garbage adverts splattered ll over his screen, and all the time & resources they take up - I have to laugh.

Yes I know IE7 has extensions, but you don't hear a lot about them do you? Last time I looked (a while ago i admit) most of them were *for sale* lol.