* Posts by Toastan Buttar

806 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2008

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New boffinry: North Atlantic could be massive CO2 sink

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Up

It's fizzy, it's ginger, it's phenomenal

Save the planet by pouring bottles of Barr's Irn Bru into the ocean.

Moderatrix to gain even more sinister powers

Toastan Buttar
Linux

Slashdot

The Slashdot moderation system is pretty good. Yeah, there are holes in it and definite biases, but more often than not the good stuff bubbles to the top and the flamebait gets stomped on.

Tux, cos only a fool would think to slag off Linux on /.

Google polishes Chrome into netbook OS

Toastan Buttar
Happy

@John Dee

Potty mouth !

Toastan Buttar
Linux

@John Dee

"Yeah, printing is still an issue on linux, but generally linux has better hardware support out of the box than windows."

Seriously, this is NOT an issue; stop using it as an argument. Install the Windows drivers once from the enclosed disk (or the net) and you're good to go.

"And if something doesn't work with linux, at least you have the chance to fix it."

Hahahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, a typical netbook buyer wants to recompile the source or trawl the ever-so-friendly forums for the answer. Reg readers are geeks, consumers are not. On that topic, will the Chrome OS even give users access to the command line and dev tools or will you be presented with a browser, control panel and not much else ?

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Down

@ChrisInBelgium

Perhaps there's not enough demand in Belgium to justify importing and re-selling Linux netbooks from bricks-and-mortar shops ?

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=8550

"Razor-thin margins" don't sound like a goldmine waiting to happen.

Toastan Buttar
FAIL

Hardware compatibility

"Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware"

How on Earth are they going to address people's hardware configuration woes when every other alternative OS offers less compatibility than Windows ? "Every new piece of hardware" already works with Windows and seldom takes "hours of configuration".

Schneier says he was 'probably wrong' on masked passwords

Toastan Buttar
Happy

Good on him

It takes a big man to admit he was wrong.

It takes a bigger man to mock him mercilessly for being wrong in the first place.

McAfee false-positive glitch fells PCs worldwide

Toastan Buttar

@N2

Sir, you are a potty mouth. Sit on the naughty step until you learn to speak properly (and until you can actually name a piece of Malware which can "rip right through everything in its path and install to the system restore directory").

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Up

Anyone thinking of ditching AV completely on Windows

You can find all you need to know here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/pages/TOC.aspx

Summary: Running as Limited Users most of the time and only using an Admin account to install software/drivers will make your XP-and-onwards system very secure. I've been happily running XP for over 2 years this way without infection. It takes about 20 minutes to set up and is a helluva lot easier than installing and getting used to a Linux distro.

Open-source handset sales to soar

Toastan Buttar
FAIL

Let's face it: Juniper actually know diddly squat.

http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speech-whyspeculate.html

Google code cloud punts on-demand embarrassment

Toastan Buttar
WTF?

Engineers ?

"Google's sell really appeals to the engineers, but I hope that the decision makers can see through the bullshit."

T'other way round shurely ?

'Get cameraphones out of nurseries' plea

Toastan Buttar

@strong.bare.druid

"my phone is like 4 years old, replaced only because my prior one died"

My apologies in advance, I read that as:

"my phone is like a 4 year old, replaced only because my prior one died"

BOFH: A spot of bother

Toastan Buttar
Pint

Aaaaahhhhh.

Just like old times. Now all we need is for Viz to be as funny as it used to be and all's well in the universe.

A pint for Simon !

Speculation mounts over AVG plans for OS X client

Toastan Buttar
Troll

@Ty

"There are 120000+ Windows viruses"

...and how many represent any kind of threat against a fully-patched Windows computer running XP-onwards ?

"(Go look up Trojan. It is NOT a virus numbnuts)"

I know that, you know that, and 99.9% of we Reg commentards know that. The important thing is that it's a nice scary word to use when advertising your AV product to mainstream computer users.

Toastan Buttar
Black Helicopters

I think there's a market here

I don't run AV software on any of my net-connected machines at home (Windows XP SP3 x 2, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and an Elonex OneT). The Windows machines rely on Limited User Accounts for safety and this configuration has served me well for over 2 years.

I was having a look through an Elonex forum and a question that pops up quite regularly is whether you can download or purchase AV software for the OneT. It runs a weird flavour of Linux on a non-x86 CPU ! So if people think that AV software is required for a fringe machine such as this, and you combine this with the fact that trojans DO already exist for the Mac, I reckon there's a ready market which can be exploited with judicious paranoid advertising.

Apple admits to iPhone 3GS heliophobia

Toastan Buttar
FAIL

There's an app for that !

"GPS tracking in a car on a sunny day "

Cos it's not like you'd ever want to do that on your summer holidays. Sheesh.

UK DVD sales plunge...

Toastan Buttar

My behaviours have changed recently.

A few factors:

1. Old films I had on VHS or never had, you can pick up at Asda for £2-3. Bargain !

2. Many films are merely 'pretty good' and can only stand to be watched once or twice. Renting rather than purchasing makes more sense in these cases.

3. In the case of certain TV series box sets, the unskippable between-episode interruptions are unforgiveable. Don't even talk to me about unskippable anti-piracy adverts on legit purchased media !

4. Sky+ (and other PVR solutions) allows me to (conveniently - one button push !) keep hold of a series or movie long enough to know whether it'd justify a permanent purchase on DVD. More often than not, it doesn't.

5. The only DVDs I've found to be worth the purchase price have been music DVDs, kids movies (particularly Disney and Pixar), documentaries and real classics with immersive stories that you can watch time and again.

6. iPlayer et al (and the extra freeview channels) let you rewatch episodes of a new series if you hear about it at work after it's been aired.

Debian rejects open-source .NET threat claim

Toastan Buttar
Linux

Semantics

No, you don't NEED to install Mono, just as you don't NEED to install GNOME. Unfortunately, the default form of Ubuntu (i.e. the one with the name "Ubuntu") which most Linux newbies will be drawn towards, features GNOME and Tomboy and hence Mono. I'm pretty sure it's the same situation for Linux Mint.

Not that I'm particularly worried about including Mono but it's disingenuous to say that it's an option for most Debian-based distros.

Conviction overturned in MySpace suicide case

Toastan Buttar
Pint

The right decision

What this woman did was morally repugnant. (Ab)using the law relating to TOC violations to 'get her' would not have been a good precedent to set, however.

P.S. My given name is not really "Toastan". For that matter, my family name might not be "Buttar", either.

Beer, cos it's a hot and sticky Friday.

Software firm goes after Google for internet invisibility cloak

Toastan Buttar

It's up to Google

Surely Google can index and display pretty much whatever the hell they want ? They're a commercial company, not a public service. If their actions lead them to being a less efficient search engine, people will eventually switch to someone else.

Prof: People reject news which conflicts with beliefs

Toastan Buttar
Headmaster

Creationists

"People who are sure they're right are actually more likely to listen to the other side of an argument."

Hehehe. So true. You should read the incredibly polite responses the people at talkorigins.org give to the loonies who write in to their feedback pages.

http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/feedback/

Pirate Bay sells out to Swedish software firm for $7.7m

Toastan Buttar
Pint

True colours

Ah well, now we can see all the posturing and talk of freedom of speech for what it was. Take the money and run, I say. So long and thanks for all the torrents.

Bloke uses nail clippers to go roundhead

Toastan Buttar
WTF?

Coming up next...

...advice that you shouldn't hammer nails into your kneecaps.

Masked passwords must go

Toastan Buttar
FAIL

@Tim O'Tay

"Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML"

Surely that should read..."Type your password here - plain text only" ?

Notorious phone phreaker gets 11 years for swatting

Toastan Buttar
FAIL

11 years sounds about right.

What a thoroughly odious young man with complete lack of responsibility and a hugely inflated sense of entitlement.

Stallman: open-source .NET 'danger' for Debian

Toastan Buttar
WTF?

Does Stallman eat his own dog food ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

Microsoft begins Security Essentials downloads

Toastan Buttar
WTF?

O RLY ?

"AVG and Avast already provide limited-functionality security suites to consumers, partly as a way to build brand awareness and attract follow-on sales but also out of a more ALTRUISTIC DESIRE to improve overall internet hygiene."

[Citation needed]

NASA takes stick over feet and inches

Toastan Buttar
Stop

Getting to the Moon using Imperial Measurements

Wade Burchette:

"We landed on the moon using feet and inches! How many times have we landed on the moon using meters? Case closed.

The pound is a more accurate measurement of weight than grams because pounds is a measurement of force whereas grams is a measurement of mass."

So how many pounds did the Apollo Lunar Module weigh in space? How many on the surface of the Moon ? How many on the surface of the Earth ? Try calculating its momentum using weight rather than mass and see how far you get.

Toastan Buttar
Stop

UK science education

When I was at school and uni (in Scotland), all physics and engineering classes used SI units exclusively. Is it different in the US ?

Microsoft goes green to win IE 8 and Bing users

Toastan Buttar
Gates Halo

Bing

I do all my Googling using Bing these days.

Toastan Buttar

@Eponymous Cowherd

"In this case, when they say "Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser." they are including all of the non W3C compliant, IE only, sites as well."

Of course they are ! After all, they are 'websites' on the 'Internet'. Like it or not, there are a huge number of tuned-for-IE sites making up the WWW and you're more likely to have it rendered as intended by using IE. You also have the option with IE8 to toggle between compatibility and legacy modes to see which works best.

MS's statement is fact, whatever the reasons for the situation existing.

Toastan Buttar
Go

I talk to the trees...

...and they tell me they like nothing better than to snack on sunlight and CO2. To improve the ecology, I propose to encourage tree growth by raising the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. I'll use Bing to look up how this can be acomplished...

...oh.

Top 500 supers - world yawns at petaflops

Toastan Buttar
Boffin

Lattice QCD

That looks like a fascinating field of study. Must investigate it more deeply. Thanks, Northern Monkey.

Toastan Buttar
Happy

What do people actually do with these machines ?

I'm intrigued to know what sort of projects require such extreme number-crunching. What did researchers in these fields do previously ? Does increased computational capacity increase the resolution and/or accuracy of predictions ?

And most importantly, will we ever get a decent weather forecast ?

People just not that into Blu-ray

Toastan Buttar

Law of diminishing returns

Anyone can see that Blu-Ray looks crisper than DVD. The question is - how much does that increase in visual quality improve the experience of watching a movie ? After 5 minutes of a good film, you're involved with the plot and the characters and you ignore the minor details . I'm on the edge of my seat any time I watch 'Apollo 13', regardless of the medium (I currently only have it on VHS and don't feel the need to change any time soon).

Ballmer not so bullish on Bing

Toastan Buttar
Coat

Too much speculation/punditry

Does it really matter to any of us here whether Google or Bing (or A.N.Other search engine) will be the most used in 5 years' time ? Will we get extra kudos for having predicted the winner in these early days ? Might be time to re-read the late Mr Crichton's words of wisdom:

http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speech-whyspeculate.html

Mine's the one with Old Moore's Almanack in the pocket.

January's Windows 7 hole still open

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Up

By design

Didn't MS state back in Jan that this was the 'intended behaviour' and that they weren't going to change it ?

Apple wilts under iPhone upgrade strain

Toastan Buttar
Coat

Internet Explorer ???

"(if they really must have the update immediately) they could try mucking about with the Internet Explorer security settings"

Shome mishtake shurely ?

Mine's a safari jacket.

Catholic social club ousts coven of witches

Toastan Buttar
Gates Halo

@Chris C

You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by merely quoting Exodus 22:18.

Really, pointing out absurdities in any religious dogma is like shooting fish in a barrel. It's hard for us nerdy OCD types to resist the temptation though, I know.

Bill is God. YaHoo WaHoo is an imposter.

Toastan Buttar

Re: Compatible faiths

"and their penchant for symbolically drinking the blood of a long-dead Syrian man."

Actually, proddies do that wine and bread thing too, during Communion.

Gartner: Windows 7 upgrade catch for XP converts

Toastan Buttar

Re: @Steve Roper

To be fair, he did say Outlook Express and not the full Outlook package.

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Up

XP memory requirements.

"It can even work on older hardware as good as XP provided you have 1GB RAM or more (1GB RAM is true of XP now)."

XP SP3 runs perfectly fine with only 512 MB RAM. In fact, before SP2 arrived, you could run XP in only 256 MB without it swapping all over the place.

Reg reader turns 'homo devil machine' on eBayer

Toastan Buttar
Happy

Hotlinking is bad karma

This tale reminds me of "The Man Who Goatse'd MySpace".

Microsoft's Windows 7 price gamble opens door to Linux

Toastan Buttar

Re: Hardware Compatibility

AC said; "The hardware compatibiltiy argument is looking pretty weak these days, particularly with distros like Ubuntu. My last three computers I've had to download Windows XP drivers for 3D graphics, printers, wireless cards..."

The thing is that people buying a new computer don't generally have to install Windows itself or the drivers for the components - that's pre-configured by the OEM. Also, if you're shopping and pick up some kind of peripheral (webcam, printer, etc.) you're pretty much guaranteed that the drivers will be on an included disk and that it'll work with Windows. If something doesn't work immediately with Linux then you've got...<ahem>...an 'interesting' time ahead of you. Whereas some people look upon that as a geeky puzzle challenge, the vast majority of people just want to get it working so they can start to do stuff.

Toastan Buttar
Unhappy

Hardware and application compatibility.

"The only card Microsoft has left in this game is application and hardware compatibility. "

And they've always been the stumbling blocks for widespread adoption of a Linux-based netbook amongst the general public. People have been willing to pay extra for Windows in the past - why should it be any different this time round ?

EC rejects Microsoft's browser promises

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Down

Baaaaawwwww

"The Statement of Objections outlined concerns that Internet Explorer enjoyed "an artificial distribution advantage""

And when MS offer to nullify that advantage by removing IE from Windows, they still won't stop whining. Twats.

Microsoft to bomb Europe with IE-free Windows 7

Toastan Buttar

Re: Two fingers

"They hope to technically fulfil their commitment to the law, but this is hardly in the spirit of the law!"

How does this differ from the spirit of this particular case ? The EC wanted MS to stop bundling IE because they deemed it anti-competitive to other browser creators and stop bundling Windows Media Player because it was anti-competitive towards other media player creators. At least MS are allowed to provide their own kernel, GUI and TCP/IP stack (so far !).

Or maybe they should be forced to offer a choice of Linux distros on the same disk as Windows ? This gets more surreal by the day.

Pressure group demands UK apes China net filter plan

Toastan Buttar
Happy

Self-limiting 'addiction'

Don't know about you but once I've blown my load, I'm no longer interested in seeking out pr0n (for a few hours anyhow).

Apollo 11 - The Owners' Workshop Manual

Toastan Buttar
Unhappy

Amazing ?

1201 alarm.

McAfee downplays service pack fail

Toastan Buttar
Thumb Up

How to run a Windows desktop without AV

Anecdotal evidence only, but me and most of my mates have been running XP like this for years without getting infected:

http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/pages/TOC.aspx

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