Posts by adnim

@ Mr B

why?

Because you are honest perhaps?

Yes I know, just like common sense and altruism. Honesty is very rare these days.

I use

a 5 year old mini disc player/recorder.

Digital recording via optical in or analogue recording via line in.

Unlimited storage on cheap discs @ CD quality.

No DRM, No problems at all.

There are advantages to not jumping on the latest technological bandwagons.

Unless of course bragging rights are more important than function.

If Apple makes it clear that the device does not support WMA, the woman should be ignored and told to shut up.

re-write

"The critical update covers a flaw that allows the remote execution of malicious software on vulnerable clients, including Windows Vista systems. The patch is also a critical update for Windows XP"

If the code base of vista was a complete re-write from the ground up with a focus on security, which one of these statements is true?

1) It is pure co-incidence that this remote execution flaw exists in XP too.

2) m$ are full of it and vista is just XP in a party frock.

@ Andrew

Of course, Surgeons are perfect drivers even whilst performing remote surgery over a mobile and racing to a hospital.

In the scenario you describe I can easily imagine the surgeon crashing, taking out a family of four, himself and the poor sod he was fixing up on the operating table too.

Your logic made me laugh, thanks :)

Careless

or couldn't care less?

Block the truth

or just lie and obfuscate like the UK government does.

At least the Burmese people know they are oppressed. Whilst here in the UK the sheeple really do think the government is acting in their best interest.

A USB key

with a novel box. WOW! I just have to go out and buy one now. I've always wanted my USB keys in containers that are 5 times the size of the key.

@Daniel B

Yes you are right, we are very smug about our ability to block anything we don't like.

And we do tend to make a lot of noise about it.

If I had children at home I would adblock the whole of McD's. ie: http://*.mcdonalds.*

So yes, AdBlock can prevent your kids from even reaching McD's. Although thinking about it, I would block it at my router.

Fair enough, but it could be better for us

One buys a audio CD to play on audio CD players. If a listener the wants to listen to that tune on the PC as a mp3 or on a mp3 device, then he or she should pay for the mp3 versions, one for the PC, one for the device. If the listener wants to listen to the tune in wma format then the listener should pay for the wma version.

In fact it would be a very good idea to tie a song in whatever format it is released to just one device. This could be done quite easily, with encryption and modified hardware, of course the consumer should bear the cost of the additional technology in the hardware. Then, If the listener wants to listen to the audio CD they bought for their home CD player in the car, it would not work and he/she should buy another copy. A quick 15-30 second audio advertisement followed by an anti piracy warning should also be tagged to the front of every mp3/Audio CD track such that it cannot be skipped. The track/audio CD should not be sold to the listener but leased and set so to no longer play after a fixed time or a fixed number of plays. Should the user wish to continue to listen to the song they are required to refresh the licence at full original cost.

There is a possibility to restrict when audio files/CD can be played. This would require clocks synchronised with world time to be fitted to playing equipment. Again the consumer can face the cost of the extra hardware. Using this model different pricing structures can be realised for the same song. The cost of listening to the song would vary depending on the time of day. The time being set when the consumer purchases the song. A user trying to listen outside of the purchased time period would be met by silence.

Should a user try to bypass any of the above an mp3 file will attempt to phone home and transmit the result of a hard drive/memory card scan to the RIAA HQ and list the user as a subversive and potential pirate. The information would also be immediately and simultaneously transmitted to MI5, MI6, CIA and NSA.

If using a mobile then the call home will be over a premium rate line to help pay for the administrative cost of prosecuting the user. The user will also bear the cost of relaying all the data to other law enforcement agencies.

Yours insincerely

Chief Idea Architect

Recording Industry Ass. of America

Standards Certified

Having developed a few websites, and spending hours, many hours above and beyond the design and building stage just to make the site work and display as intended when rendered by the two major browsers, is to me, a ridiculous waste of time and effort.

I should not have to write differing code for different browsers. I shouldn't have to browser detect in order to run the "correct code". The browser, any browser should be standards compliant and transparent as far as webdev goes. I would like to see a certification board set up to grant a standards mark to Internet browsers. Those that do not comply should not get certified and users should be actively informed that such a product is unfit for use.

Perhaps we could go one step further and make it illegal to ship non-standards compliant software where that software has to integrate and work flawlessly with standards based technology. Foisting huge fines on those that waste our development time and seek to undermine and control standards by introducing proprietary features.

I use notepad for building websites. (WYSIWYG just takes all the fun out of it, and fades the developers coding skill). I spend the time and effort required to make the site work in Firefox and IE. I'm not a professional coder though I do tinker with VB and C too. Sometimes coding is a challenge, sometimes it's fun. However it should never be frustrating. With all the non-compliance issues web development is often frustrating.

I have an acid test in mind. It involves picric acid and micro$oft itself and not its bruiser, sorry browser.

I don't do christmas/consumermas, but I do wish all Reg readers and Reg staff good fortune and happiness for the coming new year.

It's a toy for under 14's

As a guitarist of 40 years I'm surprised you saw it as anything more. OK maybe you didn't and curiosity just got the better. I just would not even try to compare it to the real thing. There maybe other things in the Universe that are as diametrically opposed, but I struggle to think of them.

I wonder how a 12-14 year old expert at Guitar Hero may transfer those skills to a real wood and metal guitar. More a hindrance to real musicianship than an assist I would guess.

Your article reminded me of the first time I came across a Roland GR-707 at a trade show in Manchester 1983. I remember trying to play that like a real guitar, the time delay between plucking a string and hearing the sound made it almost impossible. By the time I had managed to time compensate, the queue of people waiting to try this new instrument had grown and was getting impatient. It was a strange feeling playing a drum kit via a guitar though. You can imagine my surprise when I handed the instrument to Mike Harding who was next in the queue.

@ jason

In a nutshell, as long as there is more than one route to a particular goal, No. As a consumer, one does have some choice. My advice, don't be a guinea pig. Wait for symmetry breaking, and at least until the arrival of second gen devices.

Saves a great deal of time, frustration and money.

Right, I'm off to buy my first VHS player ;)

Nothing to offer

What do we have here that could be of possible interest to extraterrestrial intelligence, an intelligence capable of bridging light years to reach us?

Social interaction? I don't think so, they would have seen much of the media beamed out from our planet. They would understand what the prime motivation of mankind is, and the methods he is prepared to use to gain wealth, power and control. They know what we are like and they would want nothing to do with us. We as a species have little in the way of redeeming features, and likely nothing that would be of interest to the more intelligent life in our Universe.

Materials? Maybe, life may be sparse in the Universe, our genetic material and that of other life on the planet could be a commodity for which there is a universal market. Why should our conceptions of morality or a life being of value be respected by another intelligence? Especially since these concepts are hardly respected by humans.

I have come to the conclusion that any peaceful and benign alien life would simply ignore us, or observe in silence in the name of research. Any alien life with motivations or goals that are at all "human like" would just effortlessly take what they want with no regard for the consequence to humanity, life or the planet. Of course they will have rationalised the destruction if they have anything like what we consider to be a conscience.

As for beaming out high power signals, I think this is just preliminary testing for galactic advertising. If there is life out there, then there is a market.

@Andy Hards

A meaning can not be discerned from the literal. One has to read without putting preconceived interpretation on the content. Only then does some form of sense coalesce from what does, to most if not all conventional thinking, seem to be a jumbled mess of disconnected words.

Because of the quantum nature of reality there is a 1 in of 3x10^37 chance of any one of amfms post being acute succinct and gaining Crystal Mark accreditation.

As for the movie: /me shrugs

At least

he didn't try to bullshit his way out of it. Fair play to him for honesty, that surprised me more than the sentence.

@The Other Steve

Very well said.

here, here.

Anything that causes a rift between leaders and minions in any organised religion is a godsend. ;)

Why?

"....banning him from publishing material online which is "threatening or abusive" and "promotes criminal activity".

I thought that "threatening or abusive" behaviour and "promoting criminal activity" were actually illegal, which means the populace with the exception of the government, its officials and the police force are already banned from such activities.

So now that he is double banned, I presume he can be both prosecuted for breaking the law by being abusive, threatening and promoting criminal activity. And be busted for breaching an ASBO.

He didn't steal the Chief Inspectors car and smoke a doobie whilst doing donuts in the police car park did he?

Who else employs IT Professionals?

Don't worry I'm sure all your data is safe.

@ Yeah Right,

I would fall about laughing at your observation if it wasn't so frighteningly true.

@Doc Dish

Time, if one classes time as a material resource. I guess annoyance, nuisance, invasion of privacy are not material resources.

I must add, my experience of IT professionals is such that the vast majority ARE honest and diligent.

Here's another way of looking at it

Mozilla has fixed 199 problems in its software. However, micro$oft has only fixed 87 of its problems.

It's all semantics shemantics*

*lice in the hair of ladyboys... I'll get my coat.

Not so impressed

I can't run a full PCmark test on my XP system unless I switch from a classic windows desktop to the mickey mouse UI of XP default theme. I also need to install windows media player 10... Er no chance.

CPU=8204

Memory = 7010

HDD = a poor 4000 (defrag phps?)

Graphics would be in the same ball park (HD3870) but without installing the drm infected media player 10 I cannot get a score.

I have been running a 1600Mhz FSB since November 2006.

E6400@3.2Ghz(Note:dual core) 400Mhz FSB which equates to 1600Mhz (Quad pumped bus) G.Skill PC6400 ram with rather loose 5-5-5-15 timings, and apparently slow Maxtors. Although they don't seem at all slow in use.

@uh?-by AC

Your test is not comparable because you are using an efficient OS. You have an unfair advantage in not using a toy operating system.

@Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

I'm sorry but assurances from liars just would not cut it for me. I do not trust the powers that be or the systems in place in this country to be at all honest, straight forward, clear or truthful about anything which would paint them in a poor light.

Just like every other death in custody and death during arrest in this country, if the cover up fails, no one will be to blame and no one will be prosecuted.

New Black?

Absolutely John. Bandwagon comes to mind also.

"There are a number of packages out there that can be used to help track a user's carbon footprint. [MobGAS] does seem as though it could be sported by our network and we will certainly look into it," said Olivia Dobbs, corporate responsibility manager with Vodafone Ireland.

What she failed to say was "Providing the revenue stream far exceeds the cost of our investment"

"We would certainly be open to supporting it if it was something our customers wanted," said a spokeswoman for the operator.

What she failed to say was "are willing to pay for, and if we can make lots of money out of it"

Who on earth in our consumer based greed system is going to keep the same car for seven or so years? The same mobile phone for all of it's useful life? And all those other consumer trinkets that have to be upgraded every 6 months?

Common sense and less greed is all that's required to reduce ones carbon foot print. Not a new method of consuming energy.

I should change my nym to sinykul methinks.

Try some ethical shopping if one really wants to reduce the impact of consumerism on the environment. Boiling just one cup of water for the breakfast brew instead of filling the kettle, and then driving to work in a 4X4 doesn't make a great deal of sense.

Reflecting the real world

I do not mind seeing a Dell PC in a game--FEAR for instance. I don't mind seeing drinks cans with a coke or Pepsi logo on them. I don't mind seeing the the occasional static advertising billboard on a high street in the games I play. Product placement in games can serve to make those games more a reflection of the real world, and thus more realistic. However they should be static, non-intrusive and appear as part of the game world. No pay per click advertising, No opening a browser to a sponsors site should your crosshair pass over or click on a placed product. No dynamic advertising subverting bandwidth and interfering with game play.

The real world is full of real products one can identify and/or purchase, I have no problem with a game world reflecting this reality. Of course this approach would not work with games that recreate medieval, or pre age of advertising game scenarios, so those genres should be left ad free.

Other than product placement in games where it appears natural, I agree wholly with A Baird

I really do dislike intrusive advertising. I use adblock and no script whilst browsing. I have forgotten what internet advertising is like or whether it actually still exists. I rarely ever see an advertisement, and certainly never more than once.

I thought..

It was a pierced condom over a lipstick in a glass display case.

A Facebook user is

a commodity, a sheep, a revenue stream, saleable information, a consumer, cattle, etc. If any Facebook users see themselves as thinking, feeling, sensitive and private individuals. Open your eyes, this is not how Facebook accountants and shareholders see you.

I'm just glad that my ego is not so big as to obscure common sense and self respect. So what if several million people will never know that I share a house with a woman and a cat called Angus. My heart does bleed for all those poor deprived people on Facebook who will never see a photograph of him (Angus the cat) They have my deepest sympathy and appologies for failing to make their lives complete.

They have my sympathy anyway, it must be a terrible bind having to tell people how brilliant and wonderful one is all the time.

Adam Curtis is a pretty smart guy. The age of the self has been with us for sometime. And now, fuelled by the recent rise of the "importance" of celebrity we have the bastard children of the two in the form of Facebook, Myspace etc.

@Billie Piper is a good actress! by AC

I don't do a great deal of TV, but wasn't she in "The Canterbury Tales" and "Diary of a call girl"? Well, she certainly looked like she was acting. But this is just my opinion and I am hardly a seasoned critic.

".... we're going to see a whole lot more of her in the future." You may but I? Well I will just suffer her appearance in Dr Who.

Your right about the props.. Spinoffs get them too. K9 and the slitheen in the "Sarah Jane Adventures" for instance. I don't regularly watch CBBC though.

And yes old, wizened, cynical and perhaps a little petulance too for the Dr...

What do you think of Michael Gambon for Dr Who.

Immediate effects?

"Cardiac arrest caused by electrical current is immediate."

I don't think so.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/410681_3

This is a long article, many of the paragraphs detail delayed injury from electrical shock.

It seems to me that unless the above website is lying, death from electric shock can arise at some time after the initial shock due to damage caused by the shock.

Now who should we believe, a company with a vested interest that makes tools for damaging and killing people or independent professionals?

I wonder who is on the board of Taser International and what connections there maybe to the Whitehouse that allow the continued use of this "non-lethal" yet somewhat fatal weapon?

Will anyone bring them to task for blatantly lying when they claim "Cardiac arrest caused by electrical current is immediate." When this just is not so?

Personal information

I wonder how many actually type truthful details such as

Name

Age

email address

Home address

Post code

Telephone number

Mobile number

into a web form just to read some content or download a pdf or other file.

Are those of us who think this is taking liberties to now be prosecuted for lying when asked to enter personal and identifying information into a web form?

Safe and secure

"Microsoft said that to pull off the attack an attacker would need to have gained ownership of a machine"

Nothing to worry about then.

Incompetence

And these muthers want an ID database containing all sorts of info on everyone in the UK.

I would piss myself laughing if this wasn't so serious.

@ Dave Harris

I get your point. I remember the psychological bullying too. And I agree, a much more pernicious beast than the violent kind. My self esteem, confidence and self respect was severely injured as I child by bullying and other forms of abuse. It wasn't until my early twenties that I began to understand that my peers at the time of my childhood, and some adults had helped forge my poor self image. I wish I had seen this sooner. It was only the physical bullying I fought against as a child. The psychological bullying I did not recognise until it was too late. My lack of self confidence in a social setting did not fade until my late twenties.

My "few lessons to the meek..." statement was meant to reflect the attitude needed to combat this particular kind of bullying. The lesson being to get the victim to recognise bullying for what it actually is and equip them to say in all confidence "Your bullying/words/bullshit means nothing to me". Victims need to be educated to the point that they understand the problem lies with the bully, and that the bullies are the ones with the defective personality.

I have been made tough(more mentally than physically) and stubborn by my life experience so far, it does sadden me when the weak are preyed upon. In fact it makes me fucking angry, for there once was I.

I see that we pretty much agree here, I should have been clearer with my "lessons to the meek" statement.

Being somewhat introvert, inept, damaged, and lacking many social skills. I shall decline your offer of off line discourse. No offence intended.

respect

adnim

Descriptive adjectives

I for one would appreciate BBC News reporting facts in a plain and truly neutral way. The use of descriptive adjectives colours the news and potentially guides public opinion. News reports should not contain opinion or bias of any kind. Qualifying a news report with descriptive adjectives serves to place one view of an event as the correct view at the expense of another and possibly equally valid view point. BBC bias in many instances is subtle and invasive.

We live in a relative world with few absolutes, good and bad, right and wrong will all vary dependant on political stance, creed, colour, religion, nationality etc. Yet we are all here together and have to live here together. Moralising the news to what the sheeple deem as acceptable only serves to exacerbate the differences and segregate us further.

Dilema

Should I now remove my Freeview PCI card which also acts as a PVR then sign up and pay to watch poorer quality TV?

I think not.

The president of the company tells you it will provide home theatre/DVD or even HD quality. Now that's an easy claim to make, setting up high quality video streaming is a very simple task. I can access the streaming output of my freeview card anywhere on my 100Mbs LAN, and it is perfect, therefore I can provide high quality TV. Ensuring it reaches a target audience several hops and contention ratio's away at the same quality it was put on the wire is another matter.

It's just more frivolous and pointless bandwidth hogging in the hope of making money.

@ The Other Steve

I do not disagree with you at all. One has to abide by T&C's. And one should read them fully before entering into a contract.

The point I am trying to make is Comcast, and most likely every other ISP has T&C's with which they are able to deprive the user of that service, and any right to actually use it. Based entirely on what THEY deem to be inappropriate.

Advertised terms seldom reflect the T&C's and thus should be illegal.

And yes I am familiar with Earth, reality does not escape me either. However I would rather do something about the media, advertisers, businessmen and corporations lying and taking the piss, than relax, and bend over whilst getting used to it.

I just want

The right to demand any and all data held about me on any system to be deleted. And my demands to be legally enforcible.

Who gave Experian or any other data miners the right to store and the sell the world and his dog my financial history, personal information and spending habits? What right do they have to actually hold all this data?

Perhaps...

Sweeping generalisations are valid when describing "pop" music. Especially the stuff one hears on Radio One.

I play, compose, record and master my own music using CueBase. I master to various formats depending on the target audience. Therefore your statement "Hooray for lack of understanding on music file types" must be directed to someone else. I rip to mp3 for the car at 320kbps.

I do see the point for lossless in home use when using the likes of Arcam, Audiolab and Bowers & Wilkins components. Of course if one listens to a media player trough a dock, a PC or a public address system you are right, lossless would not be appreciated. Or even noticed by the average listener like yourself, so it seems.

I would recommend a visit to a dedicated HiFi shop, ask to listen to your favourite lossless recordings on some proper kit. Now play the same music as 320 kbps mp3 through the same kit. Then repeat the phrase "I don't see the point in lossless audio for consumer use", and try to say it with conviction.

I can only presume you do not know what lossless music through a quality audio systems sounds like. Perhaps your ears do not have the sensitivity to note the difference. Forgive me if I am wrong but just like you, I jumped to conclusions after reading what you wrote. Only difference being I am aware of the conclusions to which I jumped and made a concious decision to do so, and apologise if these conclusions are wrong. In contrast to the involuntary knee jerk reaction you made.

btw, did you miss the joke icon?

A fortune ?

I'm sure the prince sees it more like small change.

Let's hope this essential an unavoidable expense doesn't compromise his his ability to pay his monthly direct debit to Oxfam.

@Thomas

Nail on head.

There should be tape/NAS back up of data going back years, I think the tax man in the UK requires financial records going back 5 years.

Screnario:

Ebay support:

"When was the last time you successfully accessed your account Mr/Ms. X".

Mr/Ms. X:

"November 3rd 2007".

Ebay support:

"OK Mr/Ms. X I have requested the search of November back up media for your account. We will contact you within 24 hours".

Mr/Ms. X:

"Thank you, bye".

Ebay support:

"you're welcome, bye".

and within 24 hours it is proven if Mr/Ms X is a scammer or the real thing.

Am I being idealist here or is the above kind of service to be expected?

@RW

"All your data are belong to us."

yes OK you can read it that way, It's just that I'm old, and not at all trendy ;)

"Cattle" or sheep

Indoctrinated from birth controlled to the grave.

baaaaaaa :-)

Title..

here's a couple

Paris Hilton exposes her values.

Paris Hilton leaves her mark, by pissing on Rwanda

what is

.. a banner ad?

Thanks to the developers of Firefox, Adblock and NoScript

@Philip

No, it is people who believe everything they read, trust the government and presume that the powers that be are acting in the best interests of the public who are the "real muppets".

This man maybe guilty and was actually preparing to facilitate or even participate in a terrorist action, in which case I agree with you the sentence should have been much longer.

However having said that, I have no trust whatsoever in our government or the mainstream media. This lack of trust is enough for me to suspect as being propaganda just about everything the government and mainstream media spout.

Is this man guilty of having illegal material on his PC? probably.

Was he preparing to use this information for a terrorist purpose? Unknown and impossible to prove.

Basically this man got eight years for possessing information freely available from many sources on line, and providing links to sites which disagree albeit violently with British policy with respect to the middle east.

Over the past few years laws have been passed in this country which make much in the way of peaceful protest illegal. You, I and every other UK citizen is being put into a box and the lid is being shut. It is only a matter of time before any criticism of the government and it's policies becomes a criminal offence.