* Posts by The BigYin

3080 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Mar 2008

All gov jobs to go online

The BigYin
FAIL

I know I an feeding the troll...

...but this is where OpenSource could help. People with old computers could flatten them, install a Linux distro (Puppy, Debian, Slack based; whatever) and give away these machines at near-to-zero cost (actually this happens, check out freelinuxbox).

Obviously this would take them time and there's electrical safety to consider, so perhaps old kit should go to "re-purposing" centres from where they can be distributed to the PC-less in this country. After all, most recycled (and probably still usable) PCs wind up as toxic landfill in Africa being stripped down by child labour.

Then I bet you'll be coming on here to complain about why you should have to put up with other people' hand-me-downs. And to that I say "Take a flying leap, monkey-boy". I am gainfully employed and I will still accept a hand-me-down if it fills a need I have. There's no shame it it, makes total social, environmental and economic sense.

Oh, and who said anything about "on-line only"? No one. The point is that anyone could take those ads and re-publish them. So a paper could still publish them if it so desired, supporting any costs with a cover charge/advertising/whatever.

Really, we used to have proper trolls around here. Why are the standards slipping?

Hack forces Flash onto iPad

The BigYin

iPod

If Frash lands on the iPhone, does that mean it will land on the iPod too? That'd be nice.

Revealed: Government blows thousands on iPhone apps

The BigYin

No

Because it hasn't been aired in the UK yet. It will probably get here in about 2 years, once everyone has already watched it "illegally".

Beware of cold call scammers pushing rogue antivirus

The BigYin

It's another take on...

...the door-to-door scammers who say they're from the leccy/gas people. They prey on the weak.

The BigYin

Remember that wind-up...

...where the recipient pretended to be a police officer investigating a homicide detective and just about made the cold-caller crap themselves?

Imagine the fun:

(Phone rings) "Uh, hello?"

"Yes Sir/Madam. This is Bob from MS Security, your PC has a virus. We need to install anti-virus."

"Really. Wow. How do you know?"

"We monitored your PC and saw virus activity."

"OK. Please don't hang up, I just need to go into the other room."

"Sure." (Now find something that makes a clicking noise. Click it)

"Can you just repeat, you monitored my PC?"

"Oh yes, it's all part of the service and for a mere £75 we can cure you of virus!"

"Thank you for confirming on record that you monitored our systems."

"Huh?"

"You have called and just confessed to hacking and monitoring a Royal Signals Networking Bunker" (or something)

"..."

"No point in hanging up, we have already traced this call and your location. Your co-operation may mitigate any action taken against you, which could include life in prison. You've got no defence, I have your confession on tape. So, tell me your real name and who you work for and I'll do my best to help you." (and just carry on making crap up for as long as they stay on the line or you can be bothered for)

You probably won't get anything from them...but it would at least provide some amusement.

The BigYin
Joke

They'd best be careful

I think MS has patented that business method.

Ba-dum-tish!

The BigYin

They installed malware?

They committed a fraud?

Your "friend" reported them to the police?

He, after all, did trace them. So, did he report them? Care to name 'n shame?

Or is it all a fabrication, hmm?

Popular apps don't bother with Windows defences

The BigYin

Pardon me being dense...

...but why the hell should the app devs need to care about this? Surely it is up to the OS/kernel devs to ensure that their code protects itself? Expecting the app devs to do it is just buck-passing; the app devs may be too lazy, too busy, or simply inexperienced.

I read the story as saying that Windows is simply not a secure platform and not good enough for any sensitive operations (e.g. on-line banking). Am I the only one?

Windows 7 SP1 'beta' leaks, hits torrents

The BigYin

Simple answer...

...have more than one Windows vendor. MS do the kernel etc; other vendors can spin their own distro. Problem solved. Might even start to see some innovation in the Windows arena!

The BigYin
FAIL

Can Win7sp1 mount a .iso natively?

No? So basic functionality is still missing.

<=EPIC

Budget to cost over a million jobs: Official

The BigYin

@Santa

Public servants have it W-A-Y better than the rpivatye secotr (who actually expected to do some work into the bargai). Tray: no real pension, no perks, no discounts on mortgages etc, no pay-raises, no "job for life".

You can take your "hard-done-by-public-sector-worker" and shove it, buster. And you had better change you expectation is you are ever employed in the private sector.

The BigYin

Remove the quangocrats

Why do we need quango wonks on £350k pa? That's almost double the PM's salary FFS!

And while we're at it...

Bring Network Rail, Foundation Hospitals and PFI contracts on to the public books so we can get a clearer idea of the vast debt Labour has left us and our children with.

If this is done, it would not surprise me to find out that the UK is basically bankrupt.

Fake IBM playboy pleads guilty

The BigYin

£360 a day?

£1,800 a week? £~86,000 a year? Screw IT, I'm off to muck-out stables!

Hulu to charge $10 for iPad and Playstation 3 TV

The BigYin

If I pay...

...I don't want to see ads. Ever.

If the BBC can do it for around £12 a month, so can anyone else.

Microsoft's Windows 8 goals revealed

The BigYin

You don't need hibernate...

...when you can get to an operational desktop in under 45 seconds. I have this right now, why do I need Windows 8? In fact, I can cold boot Lucid on an old P4, log into that and have Gnome up *faster* than Win7 can handle a user login on a Core2 Duo.

MS is losing the plot big style.

The BigYin

In summary...

...you want MS to release in 5 years what any major Linux distro can do *right now*.

The BigYin

What happened?

They landed on Linux (and OS X etc) around 5-10 years ago. Do keep up, it's clear MS hasn't.

The BigYin

C'mon!

We're talking about an OS that still needs to reboot after almost every update and every install! Un-feckin-acceptable.

They don't even have an integrated package management and update system. Every app needs its own checker and update process. Pathetic.

When they fix these problems (and others) they'll crow about how it is all their idea. Despite the fact that Unix/Linux/etc had this for ages.

Online ads need standards

The BigYin
Happy

I got their standards right here

NoScript, AdBlock, Flashblock, CookieCuller, TrackMeNot and BetterPrivacy.

Rancid IE6 'more secure' than Chrome and Opera US bank says

The BigYin
FAIL

Huh?

How can you possibly fail to support standards compliant browser UNLESS you fill yer pages with browser specific crud? Code to the standards and then do the work to fix IE (and it is almost certainly just IE that will freak).

US cyber-combat Top Gun training details emerge

The BigYin

@Mongo

Don't hold yer breath. It's 20 (almost 30?) years since Stoll's book and they are STILL making the same mistakes! The exact same ones that McKinnon exploited.

So no, I do not think they got their A into G. I reckon they can't tell their A from their E.

The BigYin
FAIL

Hmmm....

...this is the same country that doesn't understand basic security and can be owned by one bloke with a nervous tick and a few scripts?

IIRC the upper 15% of a turd is still turd.

Intel preps x86 Android for summer release

The BigYin
Flame

Forward the Penguin Army!

(Yes, i know 'droid is not a try Linux distro (yet))

Recently I have had two suffer two upgrades. The first to Ubuntu 10.04 (yeah, I know it's not 'droid) and the second to Windows 7.

Did Lucid annoy and frustrate me? Yeah, a bit. But I'm used to it now, even the window buttons (although I move those if the mood took me). It does everything I need, I can mount .ISOs natively, get to what I want in a few clicks, run Flash and have a full-power CLI if I need it.

Windows7 on the other hand...oh dear god...what a horror. The new Explorer is simply terrible (although I quite like the new address bar that I have got used to it) but almost everything else is inconsistent/horrible. The Admin challenge is, frankly, infantile and pointless as it does not ask for a password. Actions are constantly blocked for no reason (trying to copy from the network to C:\? Good luck!). Actions that should be challenged, aren't (e.g. hacking around with Environment Variables). Flash fails to run. Too much real estate is lost to the task bar and windows borders. Why the FECK do IE tabs appear as separate items on the task bar? Two clicks to get to the current tab? WTF? At least FF behaves itself. Getting to deeper system options is tortuous. It is, frankly, the worst version of Windows since ME I have ever had to encounter (I avoided Vista).

My advice? Stick with XP until 2014 and then go to a Linux distro (maybe "Ylmf"). *DO NOT* inflict Win7 on your end users.

The Reg guide to Linux, part 3

The BigYin
FAIL

FAIL

Choice it the problem. That's why Apple and Windows win. There is no choice. The lack of choice makes things easy.

Sound mad? What choice is there with windows? Home/Premium/Pro? Only 3 things to think about.

Apple? OS X. Only one thing to thing about.

Linux? Oh dear got, where doe it being? How many respins of Ubuntu are there? 16? And that's ONE DISTRO! No wonder peeps are confused!

Choice is good, but too much choice is confusing for newbs and makes them say "Sod it, I'll go Apple as that's just easier" (or whatever).

Buyer's Guide: 3D TVs

The BigYin
Thumb Down

Total Fad

I don't even have Blu-Ray or a HDTV. I simply don't see the point (no one has been able to show me an HDTV and standard TV, of comparable size and show me any difference). On the HDTVs my friends have, I can't see any difference between a DVD or a Blu-Ray. So I don't see the point in wasting money on them until kit needs replaced.

Sound is the important thing. That is what will immerse you into the story. Black-and-white movies are still captivating because of the sound and, well, the story. Laural&Hardy are still funny because of the jokes. 3D adds nada.

Actually I take that back. 3D might give a good movie something extra, but a bad 3D movie is just going to be a bad movie in 3D.

From what I understand, the brain only uses stereoscopic depth perception for the first 10m or so, after that it's brute logic and other tricks (Anyone know for sure?). So what is the point in 3D when vast swathes of the scene don't need to be 3D at all?

More anti-piracy bullcrap is my guess. Bullcrap that *would not be needed* if the RIAA and MPAA simply got with the feckin' program!

Windows 7 Backup gets users' backs up

The BigYin

I have 2 500gb drives

I now, of course, realise this is a slightly silly configuration but I have to live with it. OS, applications recorded TV, etc on first; "My Documents" and any other data type stuff on second (as far as Windows will allow at any rate). Not great, but it will do until I get a new PC.

Backups taken via Cygwin/rsync driven by a batch file, pretty sweet really. I probably should look at a way of compressing the backup, but it's not too much of an issue just now.

Initial backup took, oh, 2 hours or so. Subequent backups are much faster (sub 15 mins at times). All depends what's changed.

I think the next PC will have a 32 or 64GB SSD as primary and another HDD for actual data. Of course, it won't be running the vomit that is Win7 (which is doing a good job of pissing me off royally at the moment).

The BigYin

I said it above but...

...Cygwin/rsync/batch file is pretty hard to beat IMHO.

Osborne hands out tax cuts - for companies

The BigYin

Not really.

If the total cost of an item is £100 and VAT is 20%, most people will tell you that the VAT £20 and the item is £80. Most people would therefore be wrong.

Ubuntu v iTunes: the music playoff for Applephobes

The BigYin
Thumb Down

@Greg and others

Don't start the (largely redundant) desktop wars. No one who matters cares. And who matters? New users. Why do they not care? The PC is a utilitarian device to them, just like their washing machine. They don't care what UI the washing machine has, nor do they care what UI their PC has; so long as it is a usable one.

Only Linux geeks care and they operate under the totally misguided idea that everyone else should care too. This leads to schisms within the community, fragmentation, poor compatibility and confusion for new users. The up-shot? New users stay away as the bewildering amount out choice befuddles the hell out of them.

The default UI for Ubuntu is Gnome. That is the one they concentrate on and that is the one they do best. This plan is working and is slowly attracting new users *without confusing them*.

If you like KDE, then why not donate money or time to the Kubuntu project? Or switch to another distro that uses KDE as their default? You have that choice, or is that too confusing?

DHS slams US gov network security

The BigYin
FAIL

Curious

"The US government is bad at protecting its networks and has neither the authority or manpower to respond to threats in real time."

So is this a tacit admission that McKinnon did little more than walk through an open door, causing no damage as such and only major embarrassment to a bunch to idiots? One would have thought that after the KGB-funded crackers were found breaking into systems a couple of decades ago that they would have wised up. Seems not. ("Cukoo's Egg" - Clifford Stoll).

Wannabe Jedi drool over potent laser 'lightsabre'

The BigYin

Is it a weapon?

Because if it is, there must be a host of existing laws that it would fall under (sales, transport and possession). Then again, we live in a country that gets its panties in a bundle over kids having pen knives and yet sells fighter jets and other weapons to fascist dictatorships.

Aussies face 10 year browsing lock-up

The BigYin

Huh?

There are reams of scientific data to show what alcohol does to human reactions and cognition. Just because it does not match your world-view is an irrelevance.

Ergo, your comparison is totally absurd and adds nothing to the debate.

The BigYin
Black Helicopters

@AC

Illegal to be in possession of encrypted material? Well, that's Blue Rays and a lot of DRM in general fecked. Not to mention HTTPs etc. My passport too. Credit cards also. I mean, I'm a geek. Goodness know what I could hide in them thar chips or disguise as a legit disc.

Hand over they keys? Sure, I'll do that. They won't find anything interesting ("plausible deniability" aka "rubber hose"). And if they can prove there is other data, then they are almost certainly of cracking the cypto without a key from me

We are, of course, thinking on current tech an paradigms. This kind of sanction will just fuel further development. Say some kind of crazy double-blind system where the user has no clue whatsoever what the key is and is totally unable to provide it. Although that would still be a crime according to RIPA...

The BigYin
FAIL

Way to go, idiots

It will actually make things *harder* when this hit the mainstream consciousness. It will just push people towards Tor, Haystack, VPNs and other forms of stealth/obfuscation; plus applying crypto to messages etc.and there will be an explosion to new tools and gadgets to help the non-geeky, further ensuring mass adoption. Never mind the race for new methods and ideas to make everything even harder to crack.

Just how the hell will the police be able to investigate anything on-line when people are habitually using the likes of TrueCrypt as a matter of course? Or start switching to some for of darknet/undernet (call it what you will)?

What, other than creating a climate of fear, can the Aussie government possibly hope to gain from all this? The number of terrorists/paedos/whatever is so vanishingly small that all the money that is going to be wasted on this (and wasted it will be) would be put to better use funding traditional policing/enforcement.

Ubuntu fights iPad fever with netbook shot

The BigYin

I concur

Linux (well, Ubuntu and this include 10.04) does not reliably support sleep/hibernate. It is one of the "detail" things that 100% vital. But because it is small and not very sexy if gets ignored as the wing-nuts fly around going "ZOMG! Check by cloud!"

Detail, detail, detail; lover 'em or hate 'em, Apple at least get detail.

The BigYin

I see no leak

I use VBox to host an instance of XPsp3 on Lucid (as I need to use Outlook etc). It is a 1gb image on a 4gb box and reportedly takes 31% of my RAM. I have never seen this figure rise, it is static. The image is up and being used Mon-Fri until the box gets shut down for the weekend. I am not saying there is no leak, just that I don't see one.

You could always search for the bug report I guess, and if there is no report it is probably safe to assume that the OP is talking out their hat (you could also double-check in the forums too).

The BigYin
Flame

WHAT?!?!?!

"We have a fantastic relationship with Dell" Really? Since feckin' when? It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to go to the Dell website, select the hardware of choice and then select "Ubuntu 10.04" as the OS. IT CANNOT BE DONE! The only option is a one crappy netbook and 9.10 (not even LTS!). And this is a "fantastic relationship"? No wonder Linux is a dead-duck. Ubuntu is just lucky that Shuttleworth has the money to waste on the Ubuntu project.

Beyond a couple of very niche suppliers, it is simply not viable for Joe Schmoe to acquire hardware running Linux. WHat hardware that is available is underpowered and hard to find (thus making the Linux sales look bad). This is probably under orders from MS.

Even a "No OS" option would be a step forward - and it's something I think the EU should compel all OEMs to offer under force of law. I support the idea of a free market, but we don't have one in the PC industry at the moment, so compulsion is the only answer.

Bullfighter cuffed for lack of cojones

The BigYin

I've never really understood bullfighting...

...in the modern age. Sure,back in the day there may well have been a use for the skills in bringing a bull down. But today? I think I have a better way to run the sport.

Strap some kind of "Velcro" target to the bull's back. The matador has to land (say) six sticks on to the target to score the "kill". Bull lives, matador still gets to face potential death, traditions live on and audience can still place bets; everyone happy. Maybe even more than happy, the sport could be allowed to grow into countries that would not tolerarte it at the moment (e.g. USA).

In fact the bulls, not being entirely stupid, may wise up to some of the matadors' tactics and then the fans would get to see a real test of skill/courage.

I have no idea what kind of stress the bulls may still be under during the contest, but surely it's better than brutally killing them as happens now?

The BigYin
FAIL

RTFS

Read. The. Frickin'. Section.

It's in "Bootnotes"!

Ubuntu 'more secure' than Windows, says Dell

The BigYin
Flame

If this is true...

...why do Dell make it so shitting hard to buy a Dell with Ubuntu on it *AND* even when you do manage to get into the basement, find the disused lavatory cubicle and unlock the filing cabinet contained therein; do you usually only find one crappy netbook?

A quick search on Dell does list a few lappys and one model of OptiPlex, but when you go to try and buy you only have the choice of Win7 and apparently "Dell recommends Window 7". What? Dell actively recommends a product that they know is less secure than a other one they (theoretically) sell?

Why is Ubuntu not an option on the laptops/desktop that appear in the search results?

I will start to believe the PR crap Dell spout about Ubuntu (or any Linux) when they make is actually possible to buy a Linux system from them.

Microsoft sneaks Firefox add-on into Patch Tuesday update

The BigYin

Strange

I have allowed 2 systems to update will all MS Updates (one XPsp3 and one Win7) they both have FF3.6 and neither has any MS add on pish. So what is the actual sotry here? I remember the first (involuntary) install of the .Net one-click muck but once it was removed, it was gone forever.

And speaking of things which be missing; El Reg, after losing your "Science" icon a while back, "Happy" appears to have gone AWOL now too.

Canonical: Ubuntu tablets due early 2011

The BigYin

One idea

Hospitals. iPads (as one examples) have few nooks and crannies for muck to collect in, so may be a low infection risk. They could be used by doctors on rounds to quickly access all patient records at their bed side (X-Rays, scans etc). It doesn't have to be an iPad of course, just something "clean" and it isn't not clean enough, place it in a sealed bag (these exists and the touch screen still works).

Can't do that with the netbook form factor.

iPads et al will not change the planet overnight, but there will be uses for them.

BP targets Twitter to clean up oil spill

The BigYin

Why BP?

Pardon me being slightly dense here, but why are BP the only ones in the firing line. What about Transocean, Haliburton (who both appear to have ignored concerns BP raised), USA regulators, USA safety legislation (or the lack thereof) etc?

BP is certainly not blameless, but they are also not 100% to blame IMHO.

@jlocke: Obama supports ACTA, so you are right in that he does not believe in openness, democracy or freedom. Which is a shame really as up until he seized power he actually looked like a decent candidate. Things is, the McCain would almost certainly have had his faults as well and I rather doubt he would have done anything different with the current Gulf disaster..

Robobeachcop demands licence from Poole snapper

The BigYin

I agree 100%

It's time these perverts and other disgusting creatures who intrude on the right-minded majority in public were brought to heel. They swan about complaining about their "rights". Well, sod them. What about their responsibilities? It's all rights, rights, rights these days. No one cares about responsibilities. We live in a time of unprecedented freedom and these arses carry on taking the piss.

No "Speedos" without a license! Who's with me?

Slack backup leaves Brits exposed to data loss

The BigYin
Unhappy

There's going to be a domestic soon

I am going to stop doing any dishes etc until my partner sorts out all the crap they have "backed up" to the hard drive so that I can *actually* backup! I must have about 4 copies fo all their albums and laptop contents. Grr.....

*shakes fist*

Now, where is that rsync manual.....?

Google infected by World Cup fever

The BigYin

Not "their" team

Shareholder's team. Big, big difference. Now pay £60 for this season's shirt (which looks almost identical to last seasons) or you are not a real fan!

The BigYin
FAIL

Huh?

"can still see their bellies"? Guess it's all those half-time pies.

As for the rest - wildly inaccurate, but don't let that stop you.

The BigYin
FAIL

WGAFF

Who. Gives. A. Flying. F....

Mr Ballmer goes to Washington for China pirate gripe

The BigYin
Linux

Easy way to reduce that figure

Switch them to Linux. It will cost the same (not much at all really; my guess is most people over there are pirating as they can't afford the equivalent UK£100 for a bare OS), they'll be legal and everyone will be happy. Isn't this what Mr Ballmer wants? Them to be running legal copies of software? So will Mr. Ballmer suggest this? :oP