No, it wasn't
That is all.
601 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Oct 2007
"To accept that a functionality of a computer program can be protected as such would amount to making it possible to monopolise ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development,"
Someone should tell the US patent office before they allow someone to patent keyboard input or addition.
by the apparent low quality of some Ubuntu releases, judging by forum threads. Fair enough, do an alpha or beta release, but one really needs to be very clear to potential users that they are taking a big risk with something that is a testing beta (that is based after all on Debian's unstable dist). You have to really shout that out, to counteract users' natural desire for the latest versions of everything.
I've used Debian since Potato & I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially for servers. No distro is perfect, but the only issues with an update I've had were my own fault. I have apt-listbugs & apt-listchanges running as well when I update, so I'm notifed of any bugs & changes that could be trouble (if I heed the warnings :-) Their "stable" release is rock solid. I use "testing" at home, & that's more stable than a lot of distros "stable" releases. I started on rpm-based distros (RedHat etc) & apt is a breath of fresh air - I couldn't go back.
I wasn't sure at first & I can see why people won't like it, but surely its early days yet, give it time. I'm using Debian Wheezy so its only just arrived, but it hasn't got any weird issues like some are having AFAIK. If you want the desktop back, you can set the "let File manager control desktop" option in the tweak tool. I thought I couldn't do without the old desktop, but after a day or 2 I switched the option off.
I suppose the best thing to do if you have strong views would be to get involved & try to influence development. You're not paying for it, after all...
Win8 will have 2 GUIs - "Metro" - their sandboxed, locked down smartphoney iPaddy GUI, & the other one, which is AFAIK just Windows 7 + bugfixes + updates. They'd be crazy to try to do both in one GUI, wouldn't they? If they did they might alienate nearly all their desktop users...<cough>Unity</cough>
As it is though, there are a lot of IT-challenged Windows users out there, who might boot into Metro & go into one, like the day when a link to Facebook didn't appear at the top of a Google search for "Facebook" (I think it was ReadWriteWeb where they had their collective fit)
Your stereotyping isn't very accurate - I certainly wouldn't lump "Which", "John Lewis", older women & The Express together. John Lewis'(they are Waitrose as well,remember) stereotypical customers are Observer/Guardian & maybe Telegraph readers. The Daily Express is read by EDL symps who think John Lewis is a bloke they met in the pub. The sort of dicks who read the Mail shop at Dixons/Currys/PCWorld etc & then moan about it to anyone but the actual shop.
'Which' actually does do some proper testing of consumer goods. For a mainstream publication they do a fairly good job, its their Marketing droids who have damaged their rep with their dodgy junk mail, & crap press releases.
Just "policy advice" by a retired "judge". Just an opinion, then, that carries no legal weight at all(but yes, fucking outrageous to a ridiculous degree). I'll be interested to hear their "explanation" of this position.
How many El Reg commenters believed the Tories' pre-election bedtime stories about how anti-authoritarian they were, & how they were going to repeal this or that dodgy law? I had the impression it was quite a few. They must have short memories or be too young to remember <sarcasm>the glorious outpouring of liberty & freedom for all that was the hallmark of the Thatcher/Major years </sarcasm> The whole point of the Tories is that they don't change, on the inside anyway.
Blair wasn't around for Vietnam - he'd have been there like a shot(see icon). That was one of the shocking things about "New" Labour - their slavish adoration of the US, the last place on earth you'd expect any social democrat to look to for inspiration. It was always the Tories who loved the US - remember Thatcher & Reagan, and of course today we have the example of "Atlantic Bridge" a dubious organisation to say the least.
"There's not even any guarantee that you can use your video card or networking hardware with Linux because there might be no drivers due to copyright/patents/trade secrets."
This is just not true anymore. GNU/Linux has come a long,long way in the last few years. Even Wine is out of beta.
Of course, there's also the huge fact that if you bought a machine with GNU/Linux pre-installed *everything* would work fine as it *always* does when you buy pre-installed software. This is why comparing Windows & Linux is apples & oranges, unless you also install Windows on a clean PC(*without* being given the driver discs). Ever tried doing that? I'd say it was a lot harder than Linux to get Windows working properly sometimes, if you just try to install it on a random wiped PC.
Shirley, it'll be the Altitude bar which has instigated the charges - He uploaded their CCTV footage. To do this he no doubt had to access the appliance/PC that the footage was stored on (which it seems he didn't have permission to do), then placed their private CCTV footage in the public domain(YouTube).
but I think its unhelpful in the IT sphere to use words like "programmes" & "dialogue box", because most of the rest of the IT world spells them without the 'mes' & 'ue'.
It gives the false impression that there's a difference between a "computer programme" & a "computer program" when you mean the same thing. I immediately think of a TV programme about computers instead.
Outside of the IT world is another thing entirely.
why not try the original? I tried them all some years ago, but settled on Debian Testing (there's unstable(Sid) that Ubuntu et al are based on as well).
I'm always amazed at the cavalier way Ubuntu seem to release named versions that have major flaws - I've always felt that Debian cared about their users more than that. Strange, really, that Ubuntu is supposedly aimed at less techie users, when it seems that some releases have bugs that need some expertise to fix.
The reputation Debian seems to have for being difficult to install is unfounded(there's a graphical installer), & once installed the stable version will be rock-solid - if reliability is what you want Debian stable (Squeeze currently) will do it.
Mind you, if you install Windows from scratch, a lot of stuff won't work unless you've got the drivers. If you have bought a machine with *any* OS pre-installed it will ( or should) work out-of-the-box.
Pre-Installed Win7 versus user-installed Linux is an Bananas v. Oranges comparison.
At least with GNU/Linux the drivers can nearly always be got from a reputable source, i.e. a site that is unlikely to host malware/adware & isn't going to demand money, etc. You can't always say that for Windows - a driver search can often throw up a lot of shite & pay sites.
Try installing Windows 7 on an IBM S/390 or one of many machines with an M68000 CPU or loads of other architectures - won't get very far will you...
So if all Windows editions were £5(say) for a legit copy on a DVD with massive discounts for bulk & you could install on multiple machines, you think people would still bother to pirate them as much in the UK? Maybe some would on principle, but businesses wouldn't - the same goes for any other software.
If its cheap enough, surely anyone would rather have a legit copy with all extras & manuals & no malware risk, than say a torrented cracked copy.
in the context of the BSA etc., using Free software (not necessarily GNU/Linux) means that you never, ever have to worry about licences, whether you've got enough bleedin' CALs or whatever. Imagine if everyone was doing it - the competition would drive support costs way down, & software quality/feature set would improve likewise.
I'd also like to say "$59bn worth of software" should be "$59bn price of software" - its pretty debatable that some of those licences are worth more than $0.
I've been told more than once by the filth "If you don't want to be strip searched/arrested stay indoors". Some years ago, admittedly as I'm no longer in the "ZOMG he's under 30 better nick him" bracket. In fact its weird - I can just walk past cops smoking spliffs & they don't even look at me. Probably looking for a teenager to blame.
I started to do the same as this woman once, when pulled by Woking cops 3 times in 24 hours for no rational reason - I recall shouting "If you want to look at my cock again..." & starting to remove my clothes - then unbelievably they actually almost apologised - "I can see why you might be annoyed..."
I think justice is "meted" out rather than "metered" . I wouldn't have bothered but for your usage of epithets such as "dweeb" & statements suggesting that you are cleverer & better informed than probably everyone who comments here.
I hope you don't use constructions like "low and behold" , "it was a mute point" or "he poured over the documents" , because you come across like someone who does.
before established artists will be able to sell their stuff directly online, & blow out the conventional music industry altogether? I'm sure that's what they're really afraid of. Mind you, without the hype, most of them wouldn't stand a chance. Shame the net wasn't around in its present form during the 60's.....
that a technologist is not as "ignorant as the next man" about technology. Also "ignorance" implies "la la la boring not listening" type behaviour - a far cry from a mere lack of information.
PS its "you're". Its not about spelling, its about meaning. There is a preview button, you know.
and a strong, unsubtle, stupid one at that. I can think of nothing more boring than a night spent with drunk people, if theres no loud music or video to drown them out as they repeat their bullshit over & over again. Give me cokeheads,smackheads anythingheads rather than thick-as-shit drunks. You might not think you're like that - but you are when you're pissed. Also keep out of A & E when pissed please.
I used to drink a lot when I was a teenager, but I grew out of it.
So that's the answer then. If some adult assaults you on a whim when you're a kid, you'll be properly socialised as an adult. I would think that a lot of rioters got plenty of "good smacks" from adults when they were kids. Most stupid parents treat their kids (no matter what age) as small adults who they can push around. You've only got to see them shouting "shut up you little cunt" and giving them a "good smack" round the head to see tomorrows fucked up teenagers & sociopaths being created.
but surely if anything is "crashing", rather than just unavailable due to the number of connections, then its buggy & needs fixing. I don't run webservers, so I don't know - maybe they do crash at the drop of a web connection. But all media outlets *always* state, without exception, that so-and-so's site has "crashed" when its unavailable. Sounds like unmitigated shite to me.
I don't think "rioting" carries any suggestion of "principles" being at stake. I think "protestors" or "demonstrators" describes principled action on the streets. Rioting is just mob violence. I suppose in the past there was a tendency for the "authorities" to describe any legitimate protest that they didn't like as a riot, as in "Poll Tax riot"(or course this was a riot, but as in many cases it was the filth that rioted, not those protesting), which may have confused you.
I'd love to see what would happen if they jailed everyone caught shoplifting for 4 years. Fuck knows where they'd put them all, plus most shoplifters would fight rather harder than now if a jail term was on offer - so the shops would probably allow everyone to do it, in the same way that supermarkets never used to dispute signatures before chip & pin started.
Remember the hilarious time when a Reddit (I think) article came out top when you googled "Facebook" & their site was flooded by thousands of irate lusers screaming (in txtspk) "where's my Facebook gone", "I'm dropping Facebook, the new site is crap" etc., because that was how they navigated to Facebook, rather than using a bookmark or typing the URL.
Now I think its obvious that they were all IE users( they probably think its called Google though). As IE is the default on MS machines, the stupidest users on the net are most likely to be IE users, even if there are a few (:-) clever IE users as well. If FF or Opera were the default, then those users would be the stupidest etc. (See icon for picture of typical IE user)
believe that "Statistics == Data" with zero analysis except using "commonsense" interpretation which is nearly always wrong for data of any complexity. The furthest they ever go, as you say, is the arithmetic mean, definitely with no mention of Std.Dev. regardless of how suitable the data is. Probably the wrong average anyway, I would think modal or median values would be nearer to what Mr Average expects, as they don't realise how freak values can throw the mean off. Significance is what people really want to know - "does this mattter or not? Is it true?" are the questions they're asking, and you can't judge that by just "looking" at the fucking data.
Christ, I didn't realise how angry I am about this topic :-)
Some of the commments on "The Lawyer" site are quite sensible though, including one from a solicitor who clearly understands that lawyers are "professional advisers", not just hired guns who sue when the RIAA ( or some other scumbags) say sue.
I absolutely loved reading that DavenportLyons have paid out a couple of hundred grand & ACS's tosser is bankrupt.
was not on the charge sheet. You don't get charged with violent disorder for swinging on a flag. If that was all he did, he certainly would not have been jailed, nor should he be. Although the tabloids seemed to think it was by far the most criminal act that day, thankfully they don't run the courts. Real law & real crimes aren't as subjective & arbitrary as that - the justice system is very flawed, but if the Sun were running it, it would be a living hell.
I mentioned the recent Iranian acid blinding case to a couple of Sun readers & the "eye for an eye" punishment that nearly happened - they both thought the victim pouring acid into the perps eyes was "fair enough", without a moment's thought as to how the idea would work in reality for other crimes.