Posts by The BigYin

I can see it now

You have the right to :

1. be fingerprinted at every turn

2. have your DNA indexed in a database

3. be under constant surveillance

4. be silent and obey all laws without question

5. be denied any all assistance should none of the preceding rights be exercised

6. sub-standard schooling

7. dirty hospitals

8. be denied life-extending medication

9. live in penury without a proper state pension

10. pay increasing taxes to keep MPs in the lifestyle they wish to become accustomed to.

Or is that just the joint manifest of the Tory and Labour parties?

@Ashlee

I have no trouble with bad language but I'd like some advance warning of what is to come when reading a "professional" journal, then I can make an informed decision as to whether or not I want to read the article.

I respectfully suggest that if you don't like editing/blocking comments complaining about swearing that you ask your authors to refrain from swearing unless it is pertinent to the story. Something that will be very rare in a tech mag.

As to the story...it's such a bitter rant-fest to be of near zero value. Yes some open source projects suck, so do some closed source. Wow. Gosh. Who'd have thought? Hey, some hardware sucks too! Can I have a job at El Reg if that is all it takes to wrote a story for you?

If they can't be bothered to spell correctly...

...what else can't they be bothered to do correctly?

One hopes that no technical courses (e.g. engineering or anything actually important) are taught at this uni if their (there?) mathematics is as inaccurate as their spelling.

Idiots.

If the students cannot spell - fail them. It's that simple.

If you are...

...sad enough to need a network connection for the few hours you are flying, then you deserve to get fleeced. Or are these "captains of industry" hiring underlings so incompetent that they can't cope on their own for a few hours?

Easy solutuion

Don't they have a responsibility to look after his health? Letting him get so fat is shirking that responsibility. Why don't they just put him on a diet?

Then, once slim 'n trim, they can pump him full of poisons!

(Not that I agree with capital punishment, just offering a solution to their current problem)

Ah, just like most authoritarian regimes

Use every outlet to spout pro-government propaganda.

Although I am unsure why the ITV/Sky tie-up. Is the public getting wise to the fact that the BBC is unabashedly pro-Labour; reporting every piece of party spin without criticism.

Why the government loves e-voting

It's almost like postal voting - easier to rig.

Hmm

The "Restatement" to me reads like you should expect the usual inconveniences from individuals; "Hi, can I borrow a bowl of sugar" etc. I do not think it covers the all-pervasive actions of a corporate entity.

Obviously one must bear the driver screwing up and taking pictures where they shouldn't, but one should also expect the company to show oversight and compare the GPS info to known "no pics, please" locations and to also takedown/obfuscate the photographs on request.

Hmm, perhaps people should trespass all over the Google officer's properties and publish the photos on the web. See how they like it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Google is the new "Evil Empire".

A pox on renewables and Greenpeace

Renewables simply cannot meet the power demands of the UK, not unless everyone cuts their power demands by about 90%. Renewables have their uses in certain situations (e.g. highlands, emergency relief etc) but in general they are hugely expensive, unreliable, inconsistent, sited away from demand, and destroy landscapes.

The only real answer is fission, until such times as fusion can be harnessed (if ever). Although our government has done a good job of destroying whatever nuclear expertise we used to have.

The hysterical bleating of Greenpeace increasingly amuse me as the push their global-warming myth.

The RIAA, BPI should go and get a grip

Why are people file-sharing? The answer is simple; they object to the artificial trade barriers (region encoding), staggered releases, late releases, inflated prices, poor distribution and other (some anti-free trade) practices by the RIAA et al members.

People want their stuff "on demand". They want to back their stuff up. They want to want the stuff on any device they happen to have (which means that need to copy it about).

The RIAA et al may bleat that they only "license" the stuff on disc, but that's just legal bull-crap to hide the elephant in the room; their business model no longer works. But rather than change their model to match this new world, the resort to their lawyers (at very high prices) and beat people over the head with a big stick.

Change the model guys. If you make fair, honest and universal; then people will play ball. Oh, and stop spending millions on moronic "mega" stars who couldn't act/sing their way out of a paper bag.

Supply chain control...

...is basically a cartel and should be declared illegal. The exception would be for a company that owns the production, distribution and points of sale for the product.

It's this kind of protectionist bull-crap "Oh, you can only sell it we say you can sell it" which inflates prices across Europe and stops free trade. And it's not just "top brands". More down market brands (such as Levis) also engage is such underhanded tactics.

And don't start me on the meeja companies.

No, no and thrice NO!

We have enough brainless drivers as it is, let's not give them an excuse to use even less of their brains.

Though a similar system for BMW, Merc, Lexus and Volvo drivers would be good. When the car detects they've changed lanes or made a turn without indicating, an arm should come out of the dashboard and beat the driver into a bloody pulp.

Oh....

...who gives a frickin' flying monkeys?

Call me cynical

But until there is evidence otherwise, I'll call this a fake.

@Peter

No. Unless you are a hermaphrodite who gave birth to an exact genetic replica.

I'd love to know how this RepRap constructs all the various components and then plugs the "child" in. Of wait, it doesn't. Another total non-story which seems to be filling El Reg these days.

It won't die!

Shoot it again! Shoot it again!

(The movie franchise, not Bale)

Looks good

I just hope the fanbois had the same upgrade, so when newbies ask simple questions we don't get answers like "Oh, you're so dumb; do back to Windows dummy; Windows is the OS for dummies like you" and so on.

Confused now

I always thought Google was the new "Evil Empire"(tm), but it is not to be Apple? Their attempt to force Safari on me royally irks me, to the point of making me consider chucking iTunes and going back to WinAmp or similar.

Other software which defaults to installing the Yahoo!/Google/whatever toolbar/gadget also pisses me off. If I download thing.zip, I expect that to only install thing.exe and supporting files; not thing. exe, googlespyware.exe, yahoomalware.exe etc. Having a hidden/near-stealth install of thrid-party apps is deceitful and a security risk (depending on the nature of the unexpected apps).

@Andy

As for unchecking a check box; Windows users are not too dumb to uncheck a check box, but the presumption is the wrong way round. It is MY PC, it is MY choice what goes on so the default should be to NOT install other crap.

A bit like SPAM. You can just delete it (are Mac users too dumb to press delete?) but it is still wrong as the presumption is that I want 100 adverts for member enhancements, when it should be that I DO NOT. ANd site sign-ups which default to adding me to the e-crap lists get that wrong as well.

Is bundling IE an issue? No (Ubuntu comes bundles with FireFox, Macs come bundled with Safari etc). Is making it impossible to remove an issue? Oh my yes indeedy. My PC - I should be allowed to remove what I want.

Lack of Traffic Police

Traffic Police in the UK have decimated (well, more than decimated actually) and there are precious few left. They have been replaced by the fake-wannabes (Highways Officers) and camera operators (cash machines). Neither of these do diddly squat to improve safety (speed is only a facotr in about 5-7% of all accidents - according to the government's own figures; although they do like to trot out the 33% myth).

But H.O.s are cheaper than real cops and speed cameras rake it in for the exchequer, so it's not as if the government cares. Still, they have plans:

Vision Zero and the Euro III Licensing Directive seem set to remove motorcycles from our roads, and Galileo will provide total observation of all vehicles at all times (cure road pricing, automated fines of all sorts and external vehicular speed control).

Enjoy your freedom people, to your children it will just be a word in the dictionary.

@Matty B

You forget one thing - it's all about productivity. I do not give on rats ass what OS the machine in front of me is running; I just want to do my job (I work mostly with Java and XML - any OS would do really).

Sometimes that means building a new machine/virtual image from scratch (or modifying an existing one). This is pretty easy with Windows, even though some configuration has to be done is the oddest of places. Why? Because it is documented and well documented at that. On Linux (and you're a shining example of it) there is an elitist "Well if you don't know you're too dumb to know and I for one will not help you out, you disgusting worm." Linux documentation is, in one word, shit (assuming it exists).

I am not a Windows lover (it drives me round the twist at times) but if I need to change something, at least I can find the documentation without some arse-head fanboi being a total dick.

Proof, if it were needed,...

...that we don't need two standards that do the exact same thing.

And we certainly don't need a "stanard" (OXML) which is internal inconsistent! That's not a standard, that's a dog's dinner that is!

Fraud is not a game

3 cases were investigated. 2 found to be fraudulent. Will the parents in those 2 cases be prosecuted? If not, why not? Are they MPs or something?

I do think that invoking RIPA to investigate this is a bit much, as is not disclosing all details in full to the 1 set of innocent parents.

It worries me that the council sought to invoke these powers and then can't answer simple questions like; has the investigator had a police check or not?

The council were wrong to use RIPA; they are now being thoroughly negligent after the fact. Heads should roll.

One cult to rule them all...

...and in penury bind them.

I am glad this dangerous cult is not recognised as a religion here, and long may it continue. It would be even better if it was expulsed from these shores.

I haven't seen these documents yet, maybe I'll go and download them before they're gone.

How much...

...did this cost MS? It just seems strange that so many would suddenly swing in favour when the "standard" still has apparent problems.

Still not ready

Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) are pretty good and offer many cool features. They seem to work pretty well (as good as Windows anyway) and will do most thing our-of-the-box. But Linux is still not ready for the masses.

Why? Installs.

If you have to ever edit any script or settings file by hand to get an install working, then that's a big "FAIL" in my book. And you have to do this constantly with Linux. You cannot trust the Synaptic (as they are on Ubunut) installs to work or give you the option to install where yo want, you have to get the TARs and do it all by hand. This is NEVER going to fly with the home user.

Linux et al is good for servers, developers and the hobbyist, but it is not yet ready for Joe Public; although big strides are being made. Hopefully in a year or two we will begin to see a real competitor to Windows emerge, because it sure as heck is not going to be Apple!