* Posts by The BigYin

3080 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Mar 2008

Stallman: Ubuntu spyware makes it JUST AS BAD as Windows

The BigYin

Re: @asdf: According to wikipedia...

Just because RMS is wrong about one thing, does not make him wrong about another thing (I forget the name of that fallacy). Heck, Dawkins has some rather IMHO strange opinions on this subject. Does that now mean evolution is wrong, or that Dawkins is wrong about it?

RMS is a strange fish (I feel I can say that, I've met the man and spent time with him), if he were British we'd call him eccentric. He is often right on matters technical, although he does sometimes have an odd way of expressing it.

The BigYin

Money

How do you think Canonical pays it's devs, testers etc? Kind wishes?

The shopping lens may well have been misjudged, it was certainly not received very well at all, but unless Canonical start making money Ubuntu (and all its derivatives) will no more. So where does Canoncial get the funds from?

OEM licensing deals? Not on the desktop (at least, not in any volume to make any real odds).

Cloud services? Possibly, but that makes them just another service player and you'll still lose your desktop.

Shuttleworth does not have infinite pockets, so where do the funds come from? It's got to come from you one way or another, so how does Canonical pay the bills?

C'mon, sensible answers, please.

Apple, Samsung patent judge: 'I feel like I'm in Groundhog Day here'

The BigYin

Re: Easy answer

"This, Sir, is demeaning to robots. I demand satisfaction!"

There's a robot for that...

The BigYin

Re: Easy answer

Dear Anon,

Do get out more. There's a good fellow.

The BigYin

Easy answer

Get the Apple and Samsung top brass together. Add their respective legal teams.

Put them all in a large sack.

Charge the public USA$5 to beat the sack with a stick until they are exhausted.

You'll always hit the guilty party, the obese USA-ians will get some much needed exercise and you'll raise some money to boot (donate that to charity).

I've got the 'fastest growing THINGY ever', boasts Google+ chief

The BigYin

Re: Google worries me

"The anonymous poster has no problems with tracking."

I believe it's called a "negative profile". You don't need to be on there, you just need to be tagged/mentioned in posts and can be profiled from that. FB apparently do this.

I'm not worried about the Google Death Squads or anything, I'm just worried about the creeping invasion of privacy. What used to be done in public, but was reasonable anonymous, is now open to scrutiny and potential misuse.

The BigYin

Google worries me

They track you via ads;

They track you via your email (if you use gmail);

They track you via your Kobo (see ads);

They now track you via social media;

They could track you via your mobile (and probably do is you a Google Maps or something running).

Am I being paranoid or there just too much of a threat from Google these days?

Explosion of DANGEROUS IT GEAR injures and CRIPPLES MEDICS

The BigYin

Re: But wait!

Citation, please

The BigYin

Re: To whine or not to whine

"I see people who do hard physical work outside in freezing weather who don't complain because they are getting paid well."

I bet they'd grumble if they got injured whilst working!

The BigYin

Re: To whine or not to whine

Physician, heal thyself.

These are doctors - the fact they don't have the wit to sort out their own ergonomics is worrying.

Microsoft’s so.cl network now open to all

The BigYin

What is it about?

I see no posts with any real meat, just lots of "look at my blog!" crap and heaps of flashing pictures (some NSFW). I guess the flashing pictures and squares ties in with the Win8 tiles.

Chinese student fails job interview because of iPhone

The BigYin

Oh FFS

"Blacks don't like work. Not hiring 'em"

"The Irish don't like work. Not hiring 'em"

"Woman will just get pregnant and expect a free holiday. Not hiring 'em"

"Old people are set in their way. Not hiring 'em"

"Young people just want to do drugs and laze around. Not hiring 'em"

"Oh....why do I have no employees?"

Prejudice comes in all forms and whilst an iPhone might indicate a privileged background, it could also have been a prize. Even if they were born with a silver-spoon in their mouths, not all toffs are wastes of space (those become MPs). What you have to look at is the person in front of you.

So if you have Herman Barington-Smythe Fauntilory III in the chair with his personal driver sat at reception, but they are the best <insert job> applicant you have ever had and they seem keen; they you would be a blithering idiot not to hire them.

Windows 8 fails to revive world CPU biz

The BigYin

Re: Currys/PC World

@Steve - the newer Samsung's look a little bit Apple-y; I think it's just the aluminium body. There's also a project running to get GNU/Linux stable on them, if that gains more traction I would seriously consider one as the Samsung's seem like nice kit for the price.

I wonder what their refund policy on the unwanted Windows license is?

The BigYin

Re: @AC 15:33GMT - good enough

@AC - "MS require that Secure Boot be able to be switched off, in order to get an "it work with Win8" sticker/certifiaction."

Wrong. This only applies to x86. ARM is locked down tighter than a gnats arse.

"would you buy a computer you couldn't install another OS on? I certainly wouldn't."

So you are never buying an ARM device running Win8?

"That's not to mention anti-trust legislation."

And that remains our last hope in keeping MS at bay. And Google for that matter.

The BigYin

Re: Currys/PC World

Try John Lewis or Tesco. Everything they had in there was infected with Win8.

The BigYin

Re: good enough

And this is the reason for the boot-lock down and inability to install (or obstacles to installing) what you want; forced obsolescence. With all the servers/codes/etc locked away and held proprietary, one the services switch to the "new, improved version" you are out of luck and have to buy the new shiny.

The BigYin

Wait, what?

Haven't we also see stories about Win8 flying off the shelves? PR puffs about how people are selling their grannies into slavery just so they can afford Win8 because it's just that good?

And now this about Win8 not being enough to boost sales?

Which is it El Reg?

Of course, not the I personally want to touch Win8, unless it's with an install disc and MS have seen fit to ensure that's nigh-on impossible.

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

The BigYin

Stop!

Apple sues Google-by-proxy (Samsung et al)

Google sues MS

MS sues Apple and Google

Apple sues MS

And so on.

Can't they see that this round-robin of idiocy doesn't do anyone any favours (bar the legal team)? How much money would they actually lose in just stopping this madness and how much would be saved? In that saving, factor in no longer having a management distract by yet another bloody court case.

F/OSS may not be perfect, but at least they (rarely) waste time suing the pants off all-and-sundry. (Minor exceptions for GPL enforcement etc).

Dell launches Sputnik Linux Ultrabook

The BigYin

Re: Interesting tactic

Replying to myself...

And that's the problem. OEMs seem to assume (for whatever reason) that GNU/Linux should only be a budget option and it's that which irks me. Just like a Windows user, we'd quite like to buy some semi-decent kit. Now whether this is just ignorance on the part of OEMs, basic economics or some MS imposed conspiracy to keep Linux at bay - I dunno. I doubt it's the latter, but rumours keep appearing and OEM licensing pressure.

What I don't get is why OEMs cannot just offer a "No OS" option on all products. That would do me.

The BigYin

Re: Interesting tactic

@JDX - Cheapskates? Hardly. I am willing to pay for a laptop with GNU/Linux pre-installed. I am even willing to pay a (small) premium due to economies of scale. I am just not will to pay for that turd.

Give me an ASUS Q200E with a working GNU/Linux install and I'm a happy man. But no, they are only shipping the X201E with GNU/Linux and it has had some features ripped out/downgraded for apparently no reason.

The BigYin

Interesting tactic

It this another ruse by Dell? Sell an over-priced and under-spec'd machine to then claim "Oh look Linux is shit. It didn't sell). And I'll believe it is available in the UK when I see it. Probably for £1,500 too, given Dell's pricing structure.

The Lord of the Rings saga lies hidden deep in your Mac

The BigYin

Re: Hobbit Schmobbit!

I wish I had IP6, I'd love to see the colour version.

The BigYin

Not just OS X

For whatever hat-stand reason, I have this on Ubuntu 10.10 as well.

Apple sticks finger in dyke, cuts off Dutch flood of Galaxy S, SII, Ace

The BigYin

Re: I love my Mac, iPad, and iPhone....

Vivaldi and PengPod, System76, Novatech, ZaReason...there may be others.

The BigYin

Re: ...not again.

@JDX - I have seen my first gold badge! Well done sir/madam.

As to Apple, the Dutch judge should just have shown the pertinent clip from a recent Torvalds speech and the dismissed the case.

Badges for Commentards

The BigYin

Re: Register badge == wastes time at work

Ah yes, that's because my CV says "Mr. BigYin" on it. Plus I list the handles I use on the sites because I am just that freakin' awesome!

Actually I don't think I want to work for someone who doesn't understand that when you are bashing your forehead off the desk, it can sometimes be helpful to think about something else for 5 mins. And if I did work for something like that, they'd get 9-5, work-to-rule and the current overtime I do for free would be time-and-half, double on weekend and holidays.

btw - nice bronze you got there. :)

The BigYin

Re: How to edit?

Hmm...all I can find is "Withdraw"

The BigYin

How to edit?

Apparently there is a 5 minute window in which a post can be edited (if yer a silver badger)

That true? Where is the option then?

The BigYin

Where can I check my upvotes?

Just so I know how much more karma whoring I have to do.

And do downvotes negate upvotes?

And what about votes when using Anon (the defacto troll standard)?

New science upsets calculations on sea level rise, climate change

The BigYin

Re: If this is true...

"And what fate do you have in mind for the sundry billions of inconvenient humans standing between you and your pastoral fantasy? Inquiring minds want to know!"

The basic option is from two choices

1) We voluntarily reduce our population (or the demands of our population); or

2) Nature will reduce the population for us.

Option 1 does not mean forced sterilisation or any crap like that, it means education.

Option 2 is either going to be disease, war, famine or some combination of all three.

Pike your choice.

The BigYin

Re: If this is true...

By "yank ourselves out of this mess" I don't mean "waste billions on useless wind tech" that our government seems to think is the answer, or "scrap all nuclear, claim to the green and import dirty power from Eastern Europe" like the Germans. I mean, actually yank ourselves out of this mess.

We can't go on over fishing, slashing and burning etc. Even if it isn't causing GW, there is a hard-limit because there simply isn't any more "stuff". Pumping toxins into rivers can't continue for the same reason.

I'm not a raging greenie in a hemp shirt, but I don't shit where I sleep either.

And, of course, that's if this is true and if it means AGW isn't as bad as thought. Big ifs.

The BigYin

If this is true...

...GOOD! Maybe we still have time to yank ourselves out of this mess. Or are we 5 billion people too late?

Windows 8 launch outdoes Windows 7's, says Microsoft bigwig

The BigYin

"Sold"? Not quite

"Microsoft's new operating system [was shipped on] 40 million units in its first month on sale [because the user had no other choice]".

Unless there was some stampede into retail store that I missed, articles and figures like this are utterly pointless.

VPN ban makes for nervy times behind Great Firewall

The BigYin

Re: SSL VPN through Port 443

Or a reverse SSH proxy on the same port. Or TOR or some-new-thing-I-have-not-heard-of-yet.

How China expects remote workers to operate without VPN is a mystery to me. Do they expect corporate LANs to be publicly accessible or soemthing?

Hotel blames burglaries on hacked Onity card locks

The BigYin

Full disclosure

And this is why you need it. Even if all the code and workings are shown and explained, if the lock is any good it will hold once it is engaged. SSH (to pick one) is full disclosure. It's also absolute nails once it is set-up (correctly) and engaged.

I'm reminded of the "high security" locks that were breached by the young girl at DefCon.

Obscurity is not security.

Man facing rare refusal-to-unlock-encryption charge: Court date set

The BigYin

Re: You have the right to remain guilty...

"You understand it wrong."

Citation, please.

From Wikipedia:

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 provides statutory rules under which adverse inferences may be drawn from silence.

Adverse inferences may be drawn in certain circumstances where before or on being charged, the accused:

o fails to mention any fact which he later relies upon and which in the circumstances at the time the accused could reasonably be expected to mention;

o fails to give evidence at trial or answer any question;

o fails to account on arrest for objects, substances or marks on his person, clothing or footwear, in his possession, or in the place where he is arrested; or

o fails to account on arrest for his presence at a place.

That's not much of a right to silence is it? It's a bit like saying "You have the right to hold your breath indefinitely". You do have such a right, but you're going to be rather screwed if you exercise it.

The BigYin
FAIL

Re: RIP act?

"3. He is a terrorist. And a criminal. And a thief (tried to steal data, I'm sure)."

Oh well, case closed then. No need for a trial. HANG HIM FROM THE CITY GATES!

The BigYin

Re: You have the right to remain guilty...

AIUI we have no right to silence as such. Ours is along the lines of "It may harm your defence if you do not mention something which you later rely on in court." i.e. you must blab to the rozzers.

Amazon's secret UK sales figures revealed by Parliamentary probe

The BigYin

Sauce for the goose

MPs can ask companies to stop their tax dodg...efficiencies as soon as the MPs themselves stop engaging in such shenanigans. Perhaps the MPs should look at re-hiring all the HMRC inspectors they allowed to be sacked and updating a few laws?

All this is just grand-standing for a bit of good PR - it amounts to nothing.

Bash Street bytes: Do UK schools really need the Raspberry Pi?

The BigYin

Re: It's not the coding or even the RasPi

Of course you can't d it on a desktop machine. You going to let kids plug whatever bollocks they've just soldered together to an expensive desktop PC. Yeah...right...

The BigYin

"Secondly, the "£25" computer is a myth. You have to buy cases, SD cards, highly-regulated power supplies, plus something for it to plug into (like a monitor for a start). PER DEVICE."

Wrong. Bar the SD card it's no "per device", it's per seat. The keyboard, monitor etc all probably exist right now and are ready to use. Heck, the RasPi can be per seat too, just have the kids carry their own SD card (may not make sense in all cases though).

The RasPi is far from perfect, but the idea is sound and it is better that spunking £500+ on locked-down shite that just spits out brainless button-pushers.

"you need to have the training and the support infrastructure there to handle things."

That exists. They're called "Computer Science Teachers". And then I remember that in England one is not required to have a degree in the subject one teaches.

The BigYin

Re: Seriously!?

And why would they need to? Except for some unusual projects.

Kid has SD card, school has RasPi. No need to unplug anything other than the SD card.

Kid wants to tinker? Kid can buy their own RasPi for home use (or get from the school or whatever).

The BigYin

It's not the coding or even the RasPi

It's the everything. It's removing the fear of tinerking, investigating and trying new things. It's encouraging thought, analysis, design, and engineering. This used to be the province of Meccano, Lego etc (both now dumbed down to hell).

To do this you don't actually need a RasPi, but you need something free, open and cheap enough that if you do happen to break it; it's not the end of the world. You simply cannot do that on a desktop PC with restricted boot and a restricted operating system.

All that does is produce push-button clones who thing "Google" is the Internet and that Excel is a good database.

Harley allows Apple to use 'Lightning' brand on 'playthings'

The BigYin

There's the odd thing about H-D. They're actually quite innovation and (now) have reasonable quality (dreadful in the past). But despite their engineers tinkering around with cool new ideas, their designers seem stuck in some 50s James Dean time warp. And that's not an H-D issue, Victory et al are just the same. Big thumping V-twin and always a big-thumping V-twin in a cruiser-style layout with soggy suspension.

Might work in the USA with long straight roads, but I can imagine it being hell over here with the bends and the rain.

Eric Buell tried to show them and...failed.

Of course the European/Japanese bikes have problems in other directions. With all the engines being race derived, they are high revvers and very thirsty. Shame really. A decent, low MPG bike would be excellent.

Kim Dotcom claims entrapment by US authorities

The BigYin

Re: that's the US DOJ for ya...

"You do know that Ripping them is not legal in all countries? (Ahem, USA?)"

Or even the UK.

Windows 8: A soaraway Kinect? Or is it Red Ink Friday for Microsoft?

The BigYin

Re: convicted monopolist"

"If you use something other than IE and it never touches the 'net, why the hell do you make such a big deal about uninstalling it? Are those 3MB so crucial to you?"

Well, for starters baking it deeply into the OS in such a manner that it can't be removed was deemed to be abuse of a monopoly position which led to MS becoming a convicted monopolist.

Secondly, despite not ever wanting to use IE it keeps popping up. Want to open an XML file? Oh look, there's fucking IE. One used to be able to deal with that relatively quickly by altering the file associations, which is a bloody PITA on Windows 7.

And thirdly, it is much bigger than 3mb. So why should I keep code for an application I don't want hanging around as a security risk? Oh, I have to because some wing-nut decided to integrate said security risk deeply into the OS.

"You're a linux evangelist anyway so you couldn't use IE if you tried, you hypocrite."

I don't think you understand you meaning of the word "hypocrite", so I'll help you with some basic comprehension again. hypocrite, adjective: Person portraying false virtue; or Person who acts in contradiction to their own statements. So I'd only really be a hypocrite if I said "Don't use IE" whilst in fact using it. So I can't be a hypocrite on my GNU/Linux systems as they don't run IE (IE6 could be run in WINE I guess). I could be a hypocrite on my Windows system, but I've gone to great pains to avoid IE altogether because is it so bloody god-awful.

As for being a "linux evangelist" (which would be quite a compliment if it came from someone with any clue as to what they were talking about), if attempting in some small way to defend freedom and foster competition is offensive to you, then I strongly advise to reassess your values; defending oppression does seem like a nice lifestyle. Or maybe you have Stockholm Syndrome, there are people who can help with that.

The BigYin
FAIL

Re: convicted monopolist"

"There is nothing illegal about a monopoly or about trying to get one."

There is about abusing it. Here, let me help you with some basic comprehension:

Were (are) MS a monopoly? Yes.

Were they convicted for abuse? Yes.

Ergo "convicted monopolist".

"These days, anyone who cares can use the browser ballot to install whatever they like."

Where's the "Uninstall IE option"? Ah yes, you can never remove it. How cute. And of course MS is now blocking the install of alternative OSs on to most OEM hardware (and yes, I know about MS's terms surrounding SecureBoot and whilst they are not blocking as stated fact but the effect is to block any alternative. I for one hope to see the regulators move on that - certainly given MS's ineptitude with the Linux Foundation boot-shim and the requirement to use an MS OS to proceed with the key-signing).

"Do you think browsers would be free if not for MS?"

Yes. Just like operating systems can be free (in terms of beer and speech), and office applications, and drawing programs, and CAD applications and...

"You don't even know what you're typing. I reckon it's a reflex."

Well hello there Mr. Pot, how is Mr. Kettle these days?

The BigYin

Re: A *BIG* difference

"Why do want to install Linux on a Windows tablet?"

Why should MS be allowed to dictate to me what I can do with my own property?

Would you be happy with Ford telling you which company's fuel you can use? Or what clothes you have to wear when driving?

It's the principle. My device, my choice. And yes, before you start, Apple are equally guilty (but they're not a convicted monopolist yet and are not restricting choice on other company's products like MS are).

The BigYin

Re: A *BIG* difference

To add to Richard's excellent response, there is the PengPod and the Vivaldi Tablet, plus any number of "odd ball" things coming out of China. Oh and the WebOS unit that HP dropped during it's most recent schizophrenic fit. Need I go on?

If you hate Linux, good luck in using your fridge, PVR, eReader, car and router; all of which are probably running a Linux in one form or another.

The BigYin

A *BIG* difference

The Kinect is open enough to allow people to connect it to what they want, hack away at it and do cool new things that MS never thought of. All this brings press coverage for the Kinect and is, in effect, free PR. (I'm ignoring the legal threats MS issued to the first hackers.)

Win8, on the other hand, is locked down tight and so is the hardware. No hacking, no cool new ideas, nothing. So all MS get is the bad press about how shit Win8 is (and it is shit).

The poor quality of the Surface.

Oh, and the bad press about blocking the Linux Foundation's attempts to get their own bootloader signed.

And the other bad press about dodgy firmware that only accepts the MS boot label.

And the...you get the idea.