* Posts by Vic

5860 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2007

Cameron defends U-turn on web filth ban, leaves filtering to parents

Vic

Re: "U turn" - or just listening to the people

> people seem to prefer an idiot with convictions over someone actually useful

I suspect it's more likely that we've already given up on the idea of finding someone useful, so we're left with the option of an idiot with convictions or an idiot without. I'm not sure which would be worse...

Vic.

Vic

Re: How?

> register a device by mac code or whatever and the i.s.p could keep a database

Wouldn't work in the UK - we use PPPoA, and the MAC address of individual devices doesn't propagate past the router...

Vic.

Vic

Re: How do the ISP know there are children in the house?

> some of the heriditaries just used to turn up once or twice a year to meet their mates

I'd very much prefer that sort of indifference to having an appointed political crony in the position.

The House of Lords was always about reviewing and refining bills from the Commons. These days, it's about lending a figleaf of authenticity to your old colleagues...

Vic.

US patent office: Nice try Apple, but pinch-to-zoom is NOT a new invention

Vic

Re: Is it not an "obvious" thing anyway?

> It has to be the technology to implement and use it.

And here's exactly where the argument falls over - Apple haven't patented the technology to implement it, they've patented the action itself.

I'd have very few qualms about patenting an implementation. I am extrememly distressed at patenting an obvious operation like this.

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Vic

Re: So... who's suing Apple?

> a prop made up by the back room boys at Universal does not constitute "prior art".

Yes, it does.

Vic.

Perl programming language marks 25th birthday

Vic

Re: The Gaffa Tape of the Internet

> Argh 20 of its 25 years, ... must proof read

I thought you were just claiming overtime rates :-)

Vic.

UK gov probes Comet crash: Public, private sectors LOST £257m

Vic

Re: Who the hell uses shops these days?

> Dented tins, bruised fruit and vegetables that looked like they'd been sat on

Reject it.

The companies are obliged to credit you the cost of those items. They then have the option to send the van back round to collect said produce (which they never do).

It's in all our interests to do this; such shoddy service needs to be eliminated.

I had a problem with Sainsbury's a while back. They'd changed their policy so that anything still technically in date at the time of delivery was OK by them. I rejected each and every such item. After a couple of goes around this loop, they stopped sending me the crap; it was clearly costing them money...

Vic.

GRAIL orbiters make DEATH DIVE into lunar mountain

Vic

Re: Sexist.....honoring women with crash landings...?

> women had cheaper insurance policies cos they were SAFER!

This is incorrect.

Women had cheaper policies because they were a lower statistical risk. If you think that makes them "safer drivers", consider the number of car crashes recorded where a white mouse was at the wheel...

Vic.

Anonymous hacks Westboro Baptists over Sandy Hook protests

Vic

Re: "Protest the funerals"? Hurrah!

> You can no more 'protest the funerals'

Yes you can. "Protest" has both transitive and intransitive uses.

> perhaps the dur-brains who think they speak God's English would like to rephrase 'write you'

No, because English has a dative case. That you are unaware of such constructs does not change that...

Vic.

Copyright trolls, biz scum, freetards - it's NOT black and white

Vic

Re: What About .....

> Pay those who create original works a one-off bounty at the time of creation

Nope. The system then gets inundated with bullshit "works" whose sole purpose is to grab that bounty.

> instead of granting them monopoly control over distribution.

The trick is to grant creators a *limited* monopoly over their work. That's how copyright legislation started, and that's what it should return to. Somewhere around 20 years from first publish to public domain, and everyone will be happy[1]. The creators will get paid, society will be enriched, and substantially all of the "won't ever pay for that" brigade will have no leg left to stand on. It's all good.

And now I'm off to my Porcithology class...

Vic.

[1] Yes, even the "big meeja"-style copyright owners. They'll bitch at first, but they will actually see an *increase* in revenue after a short while. All those long tails actually produce very little cash, but serve to convince people that copyright legislation is unjust. Cut the tails off, and people are more likely to support enforcement[2] of more realistic copyrights.

[2] Except in the case of such utterly ridiculous awards against infringers as we sometimes see from our Left-pondian friends :-(

The 30-year-old prank that became the first computer virus

Vic

Re: OK now this isn't fair (again)

> how do I prevent an application that I run from reading/writing/deleting any of the files or

> directories I have access to?

Write a policy in SELinux. Tell the computer explicitly which files this application may use.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Ah... valve radios...

> Could never quite figure out why the frame of early TVs was at HT+

TVs generally didn't have an isolating transformer on the input - they just rectify the mains.

If you look at the configuration of a bridge rectifier, during the positive half-cycle of the mains, the chassis/0V rail will be connected to the neutral line by way of a diode - leaving it at 0V or thereabouts. But during the negative half-cycle, it's connected to the live by way of a diode. Thus during that half-cycle, you've got mains on the chassis.

Vic.

Microsoft licence cops kick in TWICE as many customers' doors as rivals

Vic

Re: How does this "audit" even work...?

> a court order can be gained authorising entry to business premises

In which jurisdiction?

I'm pretty sure you'd need a Police Officer or Certificated Bailliff to execute any such order...

Vic.

Vic

Re: database software.

> You're thinking of Access, not Excel.

No, he's not...

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Excel used to manage a database, just becuase it can display things in a tabular format :-(

Vic.

MySQL founders launch MariaDB Foundation at Oracle

Vic

> enforcing the GPL license of MySQL with the same interpretation that Widenius had when he ran things

No, I hope that Oracle enforces the *correct* interpretation. Wideius' interpretation was rather wider than that laid down in the licence...

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Vic

Re: Yet I can't help wonder...

> I wonder which of them is actually the fork here?

MariaDB is the fork.

Monty sold his copyrights, then spent forever whinging that Oracle wouldn't change the licence he himself chose for MySQL so that he could sell it again.

> the spirit has managed to escape, thanks to GPL.

Indeed. I'm really rather pleased things have panned out as they have, I just object to Monty moaning that the GPL won't allow him to do closed-source derivatives.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Yet I can't help wonder...

> f another multi billion competitor steps up with the request to buy all the rights to MariaDB

What rights?

MariaDB is a fork of MySQL under the GPL. Substantially all of it is still copytighted by Oracle and released under licence.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Time Google got a taste of this medicine

> Can we have a standardised community-driven non-profit backed Android fork please?

Yes.

Vic.

Deputy PM: Rip up Snoop Charter, 'go back to the drawing board'

Vic

> The best I've managed to get from my MP is 'if you knew what I knew'

This is what really annoys me - if *they* knew what *we* all know, they'd abandon this bollocks forthwith.

Vic.

Parliament: Snoop Charter plan 'too sweeping', 'misleading', 'suspicious'

Vic

Re: "May attempted some last minute lobbying ... by telling the Sun newspaper"

> Any cabinet member who talks to the Sun ought to be sacked and should never work in politics again.

Any cabinet member ought to be sacked and should never work in politics again.

There, FTFY.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Webspiders, that's what we need.

> If the irony was any thicker I could walk on it.

ITYM "If the irony were any thicker it could be Home Secretary"...

Vic.

Samba 4 arrives with full Active Directory support

Vic

> whos going to support me

Who do you want to support you?

There is a market for support. You can pick what sort of SLA you want, and then find a competitive quote.

Vic.

'UK DNA database by stealth' proposed in £100m NHS project

Vic

Re: 2+2=29472958385

> It is even by no means a given that the data will even be kept at all for any length of time

Yeah, it is. Look at who's proposing it...

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Vic

Re: GATACA

> Eventually, there will be only one person left. The cleverest one.

... With an IQ of 100...

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Vic

Re: GATACA

> Because IQ and DNA sequencing are only loosely correlated at best?

You've not seen the film then?

You should. I rather enjoyed it.

Vic.

Last moon landing was 40 years ago today

Vic

Re: Scary thing is ...

> Once the place has been terraformed the whole lot could go there!

We'll need an Ark for that. I recommend building three...

Vic.

Apple updates maps to remove Australia’s ghost-city in the desert

Vic

Re: +1 for OpenStreetMap

> Best map for my part of the world

I found a fairly heinous error close to my house, but by the time I'd worked out how to edit it, the problem had already been corrected...

Vic.

Vic

Re: It's weird how Apple get all this flak...

Ask an iPhone owner what they like about their phone and they'll show you the apps and features they like using. Ask an Android owner and they'll tell you all the reasons why they think the iPhone is crap.

Strange - my experience is the exact opposite of that.

Vic.

Stallman: Ubuntu spyware makes it JUST AS BAD as Windows

Vic

Re: Bearded man has informed opinion

> I actually would not have minded so much if it had of been offered, as an opt in.

The Fedora installer gives you smolt, and asks you to volunteer some information about your setup.

The default condition is off - I turn it on for every installation I do that I expect to last.

This is the thing with data gathering - it's not, of itself, evil. It is helping yourself to other people's data that is.

Vic.

Vic

Re: He's right as usual...

> Stallman is not a man I'd like to be stuck in a lift with.

RMS is someone I'd like to buy a beer for - but I probably wouldn't stick around to drink one with him[1].

I've slated him on a few occasions over the years. To date, every time I've disagreed with him, I've had to change my mind later. He might not be the world's greatest PR droid, but he knows what he's talking about...

Vic.

[1] That's a lie, actually. I like beer.

Valve chief confirms Steam-centric console-killing PC

Vic

Re: I don't want to use bloody Linux

> tried pretty much every distro

No you haven't.

I've been doing this professionally for 12 years now, and I've barely scratched the surface. There are an awful lot of distros out there.

The nice thing is that, once you've found your way around apt and yum, it's pretty easy to work with any of them. Except perhaps LFS...

Vic.

This is out of hand now: Apple attempts to trademark the LEAF

Vic

Re: Oh for gawds sake

> but then shout at the politicians making the rules that let them do it.

To a very large extent, the politicians *don't* make rules that lets the USPTO issue such crap patents.

They just do it anyway...

Vic.

Vic
Coat

Re: @ Mr ChriZ

> My joke was of course in relation to the famous John Lennon quote

Pah, John Lennon copied it. It was originally from the great Imp Y Celyn, who described his band as "Bigger than cheeses".

Vic.

Apple-HTC patent deal doesn't include designs, 'cloned' iDevices

Vic

Re: Steve Todd

> Using computers to do physical-like things certainly can be patentable

Not so.

From the USPTO site :

In addition, 35 U.S.C. 171 requires that a design to be patentable must be “original.” Clearly a design that simulates a well-known or naturally occurring object or person is not original as required by the statute.

Now whilst that is from the Design Patent Application Guide, its designation of such simulations as "not original" carries into Utility Patents as well.

Vic.

GPU-stuffed monster cracks Windows passwords in minutes

Vic

Re: As a non-security person

> the 'fail x times and you're locked out' method.

The trouble with that is that innocent users get locked out of their accounts when those accounts come under unsuccessful attack. Someone will then have to intervene. Businesses don'tlike that sort of situation.

Exponential timeouts are a better idea,IMO.

Vic.

'Build us a Death Star, President Obama' demand thousands

Vic

Re: Morons wasting time.

> 'Give me it'sound s a bit rural, but it's defensible.

Pronoun order in English tends to be much as it is in German- in which case, the phrase would correctly be "give it me".

Vic.

Republican staffer fired for copyright reform suggestions

Vic

Re: Clueless

ODFO.

Vic.

Microsoft's anti-Android Twitter campaign draws ire, irony

Vic

Re: Hackers would go after Windows phones...

> He was arguing against the people claiming they are both "Linux"

He wasn't. He was claiming that Android isn't Linux. But it is - just not GNU/Linux.

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Vic

Re: some good points there

> I really don't understand the complaints about Android battery life

My HTC Desire has pretty crap battery life.

My missus' Galaxy S2 is very much better...

Vic.

Vic

Re: Hackers would go after Windows phones...

> But Android is NOT Linux.

Android *contains* Linux[1].

> Linux is Linux.

That's not an especially meanuingful statement...

> Android is based on Linux.

No, Android is built on top of Linux.

> Linux is the thing you install on your desktop

No, that's GNU/Linux. And Android/Linux is what you put on a phone.

The distinction you're trying to draw is simply wrong.

Vic.

[1] Strictly speaking, Android contained a fork of Linux for a while. But the codebases are pretty much in sync again now.

Record €1.47 BEELLION EC fine for price-fixing display cartels

Vic

Re: Notice how many Android devices have CRTs in them?

...Because that's what the cartel was about.

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Vic

Re: So . . .

> why it was a cartel (deliberately keeping prices high in a declining market)

No, that's not why it was a cartel, that's why they chose to form the cartel.

The reason for calling it a cartel is that they all got together to fix the price.

Vic.

Fred Flintstone may not have been real but his pet Dino WAS - boffins

Vic

Re: what a stupid article title

> a cheap attempt to shoehorn a humorous cultural reference trumps scientific and historical accuracy?

Every time.

Vic.

EU, US launch biggest ever global fight against online child sex abuse

Vic

Re: Now that Osama's dead (yeah, right!)

> I'd much rather have a war on paedophillia than a war on drugs.

Given the efficacy of the "War On Drugs", I'm not sure I could agree with you...

Vic.

Einstein almost tagged dark energy in the early 1920s

Vic

Re: Being really pedantic here

> I did do physics at A Level for half a year so this isn't just some uneducated rant.

Non sequitur?

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Vic

Re: Huh?

> Hofstadter's law!

The Eighty Per Cent rule.

The last 20% of the project takes 80% of the time allotted. Unfortunately, the first 80% of the project has already taken 80% of the time allotted...

Vic.

Xboxes stay on sale but may cost Microsoft money in Google case

Vic

Re: Please do forgive my ignorance

> You missed the very important bit.

I have this sneaking suspicion that the very important bit was that this is a Seattle judge...

Expect appeals.

Vic.

Littlest pirate’s Winnie-the-Pooh laptop on the way home

Vic

Re: Is El Reg big enough...

> Downloading isnt normally illegal.

This is absolutely incorrect.

If you download copyrighted material (as just about everything is) without the consent of the copyright owner, you have committed an offence.

Reading a website would be unlawful were it not for the "incidental" clauses of copyright legislation (e.g. Section 28A of CDPA88).

Vic.

Vic

Re: @tkioz -

> you have to go to court which costs loads of money

Not really.

Claims such as this are usually settled in something like the Small Claims track - most countries have something similar.

The expenses are primarily in loss of earnings while you attend court. The court fees are paid by the plaintiff (who is reimbursed by the defendant if successful).

Legal representation is rarely necessary unless you know you're in the wrong (in which case, settle before it gets to court!)

> fail to turn up, they are awarded the judgement by default...

But if you do turn up, they have to prove the case. Given the age of the child in this case, I don't think that would have happened...

Vic.

Vic

Re: @tkioz -

> You cant just decide off your own back that someone owes you and phone up a collection agency to enforce

Actually, you can.

But that collection agency has little or no power to take any action against, other than writing you a nice letter and asking for the money.

For an agency to take any real enforcement action - removal of goods & chattels, for example - a court order is required. A credit rating agency taking the word of someone who has not obtained a court order means that the rating is incorrect and - in the UK at least - you have a legal right to have that black mark expunged.

In short - many people threaten all sorts of things when they think you owe them money, but almost all of those threats are entirely toothless. If it's not a Court document, and it's not from a Certificated Bailliff, it's a good firelighter.

Vic.