* Posts by adnim

2081 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Apr 2007

Steve Ballmer window-dresses Windows 8

adnim

Becoming a black box system?

"We have a brand new user interface."

He calls it a user interface, I call it control obfuscation.

Is it just me who doesn't want his OS to do everything automatically, the way the OS designers think I want it done?

Samsung must cough up Android prototypes to Apple

adnim

Why don't

Apple just patent the five senses, with a provisional patent on the sixth sense should it ever be empirically confirmed.

It would seem that the US patent office would just grant a patent on receipt of submission and fee.

BT cheerfully admits snooping on customer LANs

adnim

Is this

legal? Not that legality has had any bearing on their behaviour in the past.

Bypassing a customer firewall to detect hardware on the LAN?

If I attempted this on a commercial bank networking infrastructure, do you think the judge would dismiss the case because I was doing it "for the good" of the bank?

Judgment Day prophet resets doomsday clock

adnim

Complex numbers

Got his maths right now has he? Removed the imaginary numbers from his equations perhaps?

"Camping now says he simply misinterpreted the word of God"

As do the millions of others who use the so called word of god to control, manipulate and subjugate the gullible.

Misinterpreted?

Because scripture and the alleged word of god are usually interpreted to agree with and support the motive, morality and agenda of those doing the interpreting. I would be very surprised if a correct and unbiased interpretation of any scripture ever surfaced.

Rapture postponed as world inexplicably fails to end

adnim
Joke

Mathematical error

Perhaps the good preacher used imaginary numbers in his calculations.

Microsoft calls Intel's Windows 8 comments 'inaccurate'

adnim

Legacy apps?

Aren't those the ones where the user had control.

Facebook planking game claims its first victim

adnim

The blame game

"A social media game that uses Facebook as its vector is being blamed for the death of a 20-year-old Queenslander over the weekend."

Of course it's the fault of the game, never let it be said that a person is responsible for their own actions.

@AC:Planks constant,

That would be Planck's constant, sorry to be a pedant, but such a brilliant intellect needs to have his name spelled correctly.

IP firm claims ownership of DVD video-menus

adnim

IVI

Indeo Video Interactive. Developed by Intel from '92 to 2000 when it was sold to Ligos.

TalkTalk serves up website blocking to users

adnim

Nothing to hide

The sort of websites where this kind of service is required are usually the sort of websites that the visitor doesn't want to be associated with/tracked to.

Users should be looking to protect themselves and not rely on censorship as protection, no matter how well meaning, in reality, self serving the action is for the provider of the filter.

Now how long will it be before Talk Talk monetise the data harvested from this effort? Some have mentioned Phorm and its relationship with BT. The moment Talk Talk sell this data to third parties, there ceases to be any difference between the Talk Talk and Phorm, apart from the opt-in bit.

Russian security start-up kits up 30,000 state bank ATMs, terminals

adnim

Raises more questions than answers

"Connecting ATMs to the internet allows banks to offer more services and other opportunities, "

Yeah opportunities for hackers, I can't believe banks would connect ATM to the Internet so they can be accessible remotely. Perhaps the machines setup the connections for the time that they want to transmit data to the bank then drop off line afterwards, hopefully by disabling the interface.

Having an ATM with a publicly accessible IP address that is always on is taking a very risky strategy. It like saying our security is stronger than your hacking skills, it's would be an open invitation for hackers.

PlayStation Network credit cards protected by encryption

adnim

If that was the case

I am sure it would be public knowledge.

There are hackers who buy new products such as the PS3 just to hack them. Now if I was planning to do any reversing of PS3 and its protocols I would sniff packets. If I was a curious security researcher I would sniff packets. I would hazard a guess that hundreds maybe a thousand or more technically competent individuals have captured packets between PS3 and PSN.

The chances of all of those people keeping quiet about such a security failure are as close to zero as matters.

Regarding encryption:

There is no excuse for not salt hashing passwords, regardless of the data those passwords protect.

I was surprised that a company as large as Sony had to call in third party security analysts, they really should have their own dedicated security team that are fully clued up on the systems involved. Perhaps if they had, this breach may not have happened in the first place.

Pope says gravity proves technology can't supplant God

adnim
Joke

Interesting

Gravity proves that gravity exists and that eating all the pies will make one heavy. Following the 'logic' of the Pope, I am of the opinion that the existence of clouds proves that god, should it exist, cannot make rain without them and is therefore not omnipotent.

To suggest that the mere existence of gravity is enough to prove that technology cannot supplant god is taking a huge leap of faith.

Indonesian anti-smut MP caught ogling filth

adnim

Hardly surprising

don't most people say what any prospective electorate, employer, policeman, judge etc. wants to hear rather than the absolute truth?

I see no problem in hiding irrelevant truths, we are all entitled to some privacy, hypocritical lying to hide very relevant truths in order to gain the trust of ones peers is something else altogether.

Dell samples shrooms for server shipping

adnim

Excellent idea

Once the server is installed one could turn the packaging into a nice soup for lunch? Perhaps they could provide a sachet of cream with the server.

US Army inks $66m deal for Judge Dredd smart-rifles

adnim

A real smart rifle...

would put the bullet through the head of the person who pulled it's trigger.

Firefox fans get IE-happy AJAX testing tools

adnim

Is this a good thing?

I expect it is, I'm using Firebug myself, an excellent tool. I will give this dynaTrace software a go. To be honest I never heard of it, thanks for bringing this to my attention.

"Andreas Grabner said that most IE sites are suffering in terms of development and functionality because devs have switched to Firefox or are going to Google's Chrome."

That's understandable, it is easier to write standards compliant code and then bend the code to work in IE rather than coding to IE standards and then having to bend to code to suit more standards compliant browsers. However, is there such a thing as an IE site? And if there is, should there be? I always thought a website was standards compliant or not.

Apple sues Amazon over 'App Store' name

adnim

They say black, I say white.

"Microsoft has filed a complaint against Apple's "App Store" trademark application, claiming the name is too generic."

They say "...too generic..."

I say "Windows"

Yes the US patent system is a cashcow for those who make the rules, don't expect those rules to change anytime soon.

Interwebs stunned by musical atrocity

adnim

Because

more attention and free publicity is given to something which is best ignored.

Google (finally) releases antidote to Google ad webpage drag

adnim

"AdSense is on millions of websites"

is it?

It is quite amazing how quickly one becomes unaware of, and forgets the advantages of domain blocking, ad blocking, cookie control and and script filtering.

Of course there is a downside to all this ad blocking, product X from company Y remains a mystery unless I actually look for it. This usually leads to social exclusion from those lofty intellectual conversations concerning consumerism and which pointless faddy doodad one should buy next.

AMD claims 'fastest graphics card in the world'

adnim

Wish I had your skills at casting aspersions on a persons intelligence.

"The gaming industry aren't going to release games that require DX10/11 until the vast majority of users can run them. Until then, they have to develop games for DX9 and add extra features for DX10/11. It's simple economic sense."

That's your opinion, not entirely invalid I may add.

However I see it more like this

The gaming industry aren't going to release games that require DX10/11 until the cash cow that is the console market has the hardware to provide a DX10/DX11 level experience. Until then they will continue develop for the console market and pass on shoddy ports of 6 hour long games with awful control schemes made for those of low attention span to PC gamers at full price. It's simple economical sense motivated by greed and a blatant disregard of the PC gamer.

Now whilst it may make economical sense for developers to create console games and port them to the PC. It doesn't make economical sense to purchase a card such as this to play those ports. This card is overkill for gaming unless one wants to play across six screens because there are, and will be no games created to take advantage until consoles support DX10/11. By then cards from AMD and Nvidia will be another magnitude higher in performance terms and performance such as that provided by the 6990 would be considered entry level. Considering MS develop both the DX API and Xbox, I would be surprised if MS are in a hurry to take the DX API to the next level.

Now if you can reply without insulting me I might just read what you write.

adnim

This card is pointless for games

$699 to play DX9 console ports, what's the point other than bragging, world record hunting in the overclocker scene or playing a hamstrung DX9 console port across 6 screens? OK there is software emerging that lets one leverage all that power for cracking cryptographic systems so there maybe some point to the card after all, but it is certainly not gaming.

The hype surrounding Vista and DX10 convinced PC gamers that Vista was worthy upgrade in order to play all those awesome DX10 PC games that would be released. Almost five years have past and the number of PC games truly taking advantage of DX10 or higher that are not DX9 console ports with a DX10 or higher code path tacked on as an after thought must be in single figures.

The PC gaming industry has been killed not by piracy, but by empty promises, poor quality console ports and ridiculous DRM. Why invest money in a high power gaming rig when one can get the same results with the exception of precise character control on a cheap console?

NASA scientist spies extraterrestrial life

adnim
Alien

You choose

"Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may"... blah, blah, blah, and "Lets us make man in our image, after our likeness" etc... and a bit of spare rib.

Or

Gravity, supernovae, entropy(thus times arrow) and chance.

I made my choice, I never believed the stories of the bothers Grimm when a child, It would be illogical to believe the stories in so called holy books and scripture as an adult. Not that this makes me any more correct in my choice or beliefs than the faithful, no matter how much I instinctively feel it does.

If there has been any kind of life on Mars or elsewhere in our solar system then we will certainly discover this, and the proof. If we have to reach beyond our solar system, perhaps beyond the nearest stars, we may have wait generations before we are able to reach such distances and find the proof. Until then we will just have to rely on gravity, entropy and chance to bring the evidence to us.

Unassailable proof of life elsewhere in the Universe discovered in my own lifetime would strengthen the foundations of my own beliefs and provide yet further evidence that the majority of religion is based on no more than the imaginings of man.

Microsoft rallies IE6 death squads

adnim
Joke

So your site

serves malicious code... Interesting that you should admit this in a public forum.

There is no need to serve malware to break IE6, W3C standards compliant code is all that it takes.

It is much more fun hoisting a miscreant on their own petard rather than providing one designed for the task ;-)

<!--[if IE 6]>

<div>

<p>This is an accepted international standards compliant website. It looks a mess doesn't it? That's because it will not render nor work correctly in your old proprietary standards browser.</p><br />

<p>A more capable and compliant browser can be found <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/">here</a></p>

</div>

<![endif]-->

By the way, this code is copyright. You may not use, modify or disseminate this code without first paying the licence fee. ;-) If Oracle can do it, why can't I?

Joke tag because my tongue is firmly in cheek, or indeed any cheek for an appropriate fee.

adnim

Mmmmm

"To help finally kill of IE6, Microsoft's site includes code for a site banner that web meisters can install and that tells people to switch from IE6."

Switch from IE6 to IE8/9 no doubt. It looks like MS are hoping for some free advertising.

I have my own method of discouraging the continued use of IE6 on the sites I own... A link to the Firefox download page.

Sinclair ZX81: 30 years old

adnim

Atic-attac

Manic Miner, Wizards Lair, Chequered Flag, Chuckie Egg, Jet Set Willy, Sabre Wulf, Avalon and many more. Ah such sweet memories

http://www.zxspectrum.net/

have fun

Facebook to share home addresses, phone numbers

adnim

Why

on earth would anyone want to share their real contact details with Facebook let alone a third party application developer whom Facebook have deemed trustworty.

I can understand the motive for Facebook. All that information about a user in a public profile tied to a name, address and telephone number is a philosophers stone for advertisers. Expect ads on Facebook to become a great deal more targeted.

Facebook security is not the greatest, how long will it take for a misconfiguration or hack to expose all those contact details? Not to mention the unknown security measures and privacy policies employed by those third parties the data is shared with.

No thanks, I don't need Facebook to pass on my contact details to those whom I wish to have it. Sharing my contact details has been problem free for as long as I remember. Nor would I want Facebook to pass them on to any third party without explicit permission in every single instance.

Still, with more than 500 million users. I expect, due to the fact that some suggest the level Facebook interaction is inversely proportional to the intelligence of the user, that quite a few will acquiesce without a true understanding of what they do.

Oracle: 'Eight Android files are decompiled Oracle code'

adnim

The right code for the job

A developer will write the most efficient code he can. He will write that code for the employer. The same developer finds another employer and as usual writes the most efficient code he can.

If any of the projects of the two employers have anything in common it is highly likely that our roving developer will have written code that has much in common with the code he wrote previously for his/her last employer.

One writes good, useful and reusable code for a reason.

Petty and greedy, that must be why we all get along so well.

Make your own guitar with a 3D printer

adnim

I agree

have an up vote to compensate for the negative response from a commenter whom I can only presume has never played a guitar.

I'll stick to my wooden ones thanks. Although I will state that when such a guitar as this is played through an effects rack the result may sound good. However when played through an old Vox AC30 or a Marshall without a rack of effects I think it will sound awful.

Texter who fell in fountain threatens to sue

adnim

All these comments

ridiculing the woman and not one mention of her right to privacy.

Whilst I agree with, and I find much of what is posted amusing, this footage should have never made it into the public domain.

It does serve however to reinforce my view on cloud based data storage and the risk to personal and private data, not from hardware failure or security shortcomings, but from the usually inadequate, ill trained and morally corrupt guardians of that data.

As for the woman she didn't show due diligence but neither did the security team or the malls IT security practice in allowing footage to be taken from the CCTV system.

"I usually don't walk and text, but I did this day," she said. "I won't anymore." At least she learned something from her experience. It is refreshing to know that some people can be educated.

Ace Reg reporter in career suicide shock

adnim

Be good

and if you can't be good, be good at it. Remember that whatever you do, it's only illegal if you get caught ;-)

Best wishes for the future.

Virgin Mobile to throttle 'unlimited' mobile broadband

adnim

Let me...

"This is an interesting approach to the problem of consumers who dare to think that subscribing to an unlimited package means they can send and receive lots and lots of data."

correct that;

"This is an interesting approach to the problem of consumers who dare to think that subscribing to an unlimited package means they have an unlimited package."

2011 Games Preview

adnim

If that is the case...

I have never pre-ordered a game, nor will I ever do so. However, if it is the case that monies are only taken when the game is shipped I withdraw my statement about losing interest on that money and I consider myself a little more informed than I was several hours ago.

I do stand by the fact that one is paying for something up front that could turn out to be a lemon.

adnim

pre-order

Isn't that where one gives money to a multi-national corporation in advance of receiving a product so that they can earn interest on monies that could be earning interest for oneself, whilst getting a new weapon or new skin for the main character in return? In effect one pays up front for a game that may just be a poor console port with a shabby control system and awful optimisation for PC systems.

Methinks I'll stick to earning interest for myself thank you and wait for a trusted review of such titles.

imho pre-order is just another scam.

Apple refuses frozen iPhone repair

adnim

Intel CPU's

work @ −196 °C.

I thought the operating temperature range of the iPhone was a result of the battery operating temp range.

For Li-Polymer batteries such as used in the iPhone;

Charge 0ºC to +45ºC.

Discharge -20ºC to +60ºC.

Obviously not.

Perhaps then the restrictive operating temperature range of the iPhone is a result of the quality of the components used in it's construction.

Windows 7 Phone glitch spews phantom data

adnim

Glitch?

or undocumented feature implemented at the request of the telco's?

On a serious note I don't trust Windows on a desktop where I can access all the files and install third party firewalls and packet sniffers; I was using computers before the OS and applications wanted Internet access every time they were launched.

A locked down Windows device on which I can only do what MS allow me to do? I wouldn't have one if I was paid to use it.

Microsoft 'maintenance' blocks Hotmail

adnim

It's new and shiny, it must be awesome.

"How many more incidents will it take before we wake up and realise that our data belongs at home, where it's subject to our control, our laws, and our backup policies?"

I never fell asleep. I did believe, do believe and will continue to believe that the cloud is no place for data of any kind of importance. It is useful for the kind of data that if one inadvertently formatted a hard drive containing such data, one would utter, ho hum never mind.

Even if such systems were 100% secure, 100% reliable and 100% available they are still operated by humans and humans in general are none of the above.

I agree with you, the general public need to be aware of exactly what they are risking when using such services. I don't use any of these services, but I can guess the T&C's admonish the providers of any liability of any kind whatsoever whatever goes wrong, and I presume the T&C's also provide no guarantee of service level or that the service is fit for purpose... A bit like the MS EULA.

Microsoft confirms code execution bug in Windows

adnim

Basic sanity checking

“The vulnerability is exploited by setting the number of color indexes in the color table to a negative number,”

Lets face it, colour indexes in a colour table are never negative values so what is the point in performing a check to see if such values are negative.

I was under the impression that some of the worlds best coders are employed by MS. Perhaps they let some 1st year student on a placement code the GRE.

Scroogle "Windows Graphics Rendering Engine". The search results speak volumes about MS' commitment to secure coding.

Boney M frontman checks out at 61

adnim

I wasn't aware of that.

"Captain Beefheart (a much more significant, talented and influential musician and artist) died last week and I didn't see anything about that on El Reg."

The thing is, deep and meaningful appeals to a small percentage of those who engage in music and therefore rarely grabs the attention of the media who only really pander to the shallow majority. Superficial, empty and throwaway is all that really appeals to a majority that normally have a sub 1 minute attention span.

RIP Don van Vliet.

My head is my only house unless it rains, a place where I can watch the candle mambo from a clear spot beside those long neck bottles whilst listening to lazy music. Here I am as safe as milk and ah feel like ahcid to view the cardboard cut out sundown because it's the best batch yet.

My formative years were much influenced by the music of Beefheart and Zappa. Perhaps that explains my lack of reverence for anything that isn't alive, and my tenuous and ever shifting grasp on reality.

Wi-Fi hack threat man pleads guilty

adnim

Some people

are just plain nasty as well as being perhaps a bit sick in the head and maybe just a little bit backward. He couldn't have been much of a computer technician considering he got caught.

I despair for the morality and righteousness of the human race when I read stuff like this. But then again, at my age I cannot remember a time when I haven't. I'm just kidding everything was wonderful and the world was just perfect when I was ten.

World+Dog says 'no thanks' to 3D TV

adnim

I find

reality works better in 3D than the pseudo 3D images projected by a flat 2D screen.

Perhaps I am a Luddite, perhaps it is because I have yet to be impressed by 3D imagery and 3D content. Thinking about it, I don't find much 2D content that is impressive either.

National Identity Card holding chumps have buyer's remorse

adnim

No sympathy here

These people supported the scheme. It is this kind of blind acceptance by the sheep which gave the scheme some kind of credence and the impression that such a scheme might actually be accepted by the rest of us.

Ethics? There's an app for that

adnim

more fun ideas

"It's a fun idea, though you'd want to ensure your idea of ethical behaviour [sic] matches the one that WeGreen defines."

And your due diligence and recognition of privacy issues will ensure that none of that wonderful marketing data ever finds its way into the hands of anyone less scrupulous that yourselves.

adnim
Headmaster

Behaviour [sic] sorry ;)

I am reading too many American-English based websites.

Sheriff's Department database leak puts snitches at risk

adnim

I was thinking

of calling my next cat password. It's better than using "Tiddles" for my banking logon ;-)

The "admin" password was on the local admin account, it hadn't been changed after the server build.

adnim

As a sys admin

I have transferred sensitive information to what I had been assured was a secure server. I wasn't so sure, the server was in another city and not one I had control over. Second guessing superiors in the work place is a precarious practice, but I have never been one for thinking that rules/laws are immutable. I conducted a password audit against the server I was to use. I couldn't believe that administrator password was... "admin".

Ad networks owned by Google, Microsoft serve malware

adnim

I can't imagine

these companies informing the marks, sorry consumers, that blocking the ad servers at the router/firewall will protect systems from the malware served by said systems.

Are these companies not responsible for what they serve? Shouldn't they pay compensation fro the damage caused by any malware that they serve?

Microsoft wades into interwebulator chat about Hotmail

adnim

I don't use Hotmail

simply because I do not want to support Microsoft or encourage them in anyway. I don't really care how good or bad the service is.

I don't use Gmail either.

Microsoft ends year with Patch Tuesday bang next week

adnim

You are quite right

there have been many of them. Over a hundred Meg infact. However, I am pleased that I don't have to wait a month for my Linux installs to be updated. I really do not understand why MS wait to patch security flaws, it's not like they are short on resource.

Seeing as Win 7 is the most secure, designed from the ground up MS OS why the hell does it need patching anyway?

I run XP. Win 7 and Linux systems in case you are thinking "fanboy".

WikiLeaks' Assange to be indicted for spying 'soon'

adnim

Well they

best indict everyone that has read those documents then.

Microsoft wins tasty US federal gov agency cloud contract

adnim

Does MS

scan hotmail contents for targeted advertising? Serious question, I really don't know.

Microsoft data and private information form Microsoft servers has been leaked into the public domain when it shouldn't have been.

Do a search for Microsoft data leak. If you don't find anything I will post some links for you.

May I also point out that my comment did not state that MS accessed private content, only that the opportunity was there for MS employees and MS contractors to do so.

When trying to secure information one does not give more people access to it.