* Posts by M Gale

3500 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Apr 2007

Oz sawbones extract fork from old boy's todger: Gents, start your wincing

M Gale

"The patient voided well"

Medical speak for "as soon as we unplugged it, it went off like a fire hose."

No bloody wonder. That looks like a mighty full bladder on that X ray.

Bloke leaks '1000s' of Twitter login tokens, says he can hack ANY twit

M Gale

Re: I don't even use twitter but...

Depends on whether you've whallopped all of the air out of the clay first.

Try putting something in a kiln where you haven't done that. Be prepared to open the door who a whole load of explodified mess.

Legal bible Groklaw pulls plug in wake of Lavabit shutdown, NSA firestorm

M Gale

Re: There's more - that she's not saying

I'm sure Florien Mueller would be happy to beat the Open Source drum!

Do I really need a suitable icon?

M Gale

Re: I don't understand this at all.

"Better yet, sites like Groklaw, EFF could make a call to arms to spearhead the development of an encrypted, easy to use, scalable, p2p based, messaging/mail transport which contained end to end crypto, signing, key revocation etc."

The Freenet project, and the Sone and Freemail services that run over it seem rather promising. More based on plausible deniability than encryption, but no reason you can't doubly encrypt what you put on there.

US court rules IP address cloaks may break law

M Gale

Re: The court almost got it right

Stick subseven on your sister's computer and make it flip the screen upside down?

10 YEARS IN THE RAPE HOLE FOR YOU, MOTHERFUCKER.

Yeah, the American influence on modern Japanese law is all too fucking obvious. I think I've mentioned they're as insane over so called intellectual "property", too. Glad I live nowhere near there.

M Gale

Re: Sorry but this is *not* Joe public, these guys want to make their business off someone else's

Well now that just depends.

If what they did was highlight craigslist results, and then forward any users interested in an item directly onto the Craigslist site where they could continue doing whatever it is they wanted to be doing with Craigslist, then yes, just like Google.

You don't work for a newspaper do you?

Snowden journalist's partner gave Brit spooks passwords to seized files

M Gale

Re: gazthejourno New Security Application

Tempted to report your post for abuse just to put as the reason, "that was fucking awesome."

Never done an abuse report though, not sure if it'll give me the option for "other reason (please state)", so I'll just post it here.

M Gale

Indeed. He might have been, ooooh, all set up to release damning, embarrassing evidence about the US or UK govts' activies.

Can't have that.

M Gale

Re: New Security Application

There are already encryption algorithms that allow for multiple containers within the file, each of which basically looks like junk data until you provide the correct password.

One password gets you your h4rdc0re, the other one unlocks a photoshopped image of Longcat flying over the GCHQ doughnut.

In case of LOHAN flight emergency, gobble THIS Iridium-Arduino sandwich

M Gale

Re: How about

Well that'll certainly do too.

M Gale

Precision Accident Prevention System?

Even better if you have a pair of them.

Fanbois taught to use Apple's new killer app: Microsoft Windows

M Gale

Re: Macs are "so expensive" - not.

Hah, even better, I know someone who recently got ripped off for £50 (I know, only £50 for a Mac, right?) on a generation 1 Mac Mini, minus the keyboard. At least the Windows button on a PC keyboard works as a splat button on a Mac, or we'd have been completely stuffed trying to make it work. At least a "factory reset" to remove the old admin account was basically a removal of one file to do a Jedi Mind Trick on the thing. "You have never been run before!" - "I... have never been run before.."

If all you want to do is go on static-imagery websites, I guess it's fine. Youtube makes it choke like a bitch, and there's no chance in hell it'll ever run anything further than 10.5 (currently running 10.4). We tried installing various things such as VLC, or even Safari, only to be told to STFU because the computer's too old. Cue much trawling for ancient PPC-compatible builds of the aforementioned. You could try some serious rendering or graphical work if you really like pain, but I'd rather go for a Core i7 or AMD FX of some description.

But hey, it has an Apple logo on it. Somehow that makes all the difference.

M Gale

Seamless Mode. Virtualbox has been doing it for quite a while now. Years in fact.

Granted, Windows 8 is a piece of shit and Metro makes Seamless Mode a buggy pointless piece of shit, but for any decent operating system that isn't modelled around toyphones, it's quite nice.

M Gale

Re: Macs are "so expensive" - not.

I have a G3 power mac staring at me here. It only needs a PSU to be in working condition again. I don't think there would be much point though, except as a curiosity.

On the other hand, the custom-build gaming PC I bought for £500 three years ago is still chugging along just fine. £100 on a new graphics card about four months ago. I reckon I could get a few hundred if I sold it, but why would I want to do that? It's still very useful.

Yep, it's younger than a G3. However, I reckon I could still get a similar percentage (or better) back on my purchase, than you would with a 3 year old Mac.

Kiwi jetpack gets all-clear for manned tests

M Gale

Re: Do not want.

*coff*

Helicopters do the whole auto-rotate thing. Disengage the clutch, maintain airspeed, it does a passable impression of a controllable sycamore seed.

Probably still a pucker moment for the pilot though. He won't be shitting himself because it'll be clenched too tight!

M Gale

Re: Yeh Exploding petrol (gasoline for US readers) Stations

It uses ducted fans, not a turbine engine. It's about as likely to blow a service station up as a car is. Possibly less so.

M Gale

Re: Do not want.

You think that panel (a) would be visible inside of a cloud...

Yes. Especially with nice beefy backlights.

Clouds are not quite as opaque as you think. You know when you wake up on a cold morning, look out of the window and see fog? That's a ground-level cloud, that is. You'll still see a couple of feet in front of you to the instrument panel.

M Gale

Re: Do not want.

As a pilot, you'll know there's enough "aircraft" out there already that become something more akin to a brick should there ever be a loss of power. Granted, most of 'em are military.

M Gale

But mythbusters sez it can't be dun!!!1

Sorry. A little fed up of a couple of people I know coming out with stuff like that on just about everything. They seem to think that Stephen Fry is God as well.

Thumbs up for the hover pack though.

(and where did all the icons go?)

ZTE's $80 Firefox OS mobe sells out on eBay

M Gale

Re: less ram than mozilla says firefox needs on android

At the same time though, supposedly the browser is the operating system, so doesn't have to fit into RAM alongside the operating system.

Does the RSPCA have your gun licence or car registration? NOBODY knows

M Gale

Re: Massive facepalm

That's correct. De facto.

They are a charity, and their "officers" are civilians who have zero extra rights or legal powers than you or I. They do like to pretend otherwise though, and nobody wants to point this out because the RSPCA is all about the cute fluffy animals, ain't it?

tl;dr: Animal abuse is bad, but so is pretending to be a police officer.

YouTube Wars: Microsoft cries foul as Windows Phone app pulled again

M Gale

Re: The article is not entirely accurate

Thing is, we aren't on about trying to do massive math on bazillions of data points using nothing but Javascript here. We're on about firing up a hardware-accelerated canvas and playing some hardware-accelerated video with it, using frameworks that do the majority of the hard work for you. I've been playing with Three.js (for example), and I could probably wrap a video texture around a rotating mesh and fire disco lights at it if you wanted.

HTML5 is perfectly adequate for making a video player app with.

M Gale

Re: Not sure what MS's problem is

You can make a case for anything. Doesn't mean the judge will listen.

See also Vimeo.

M Gale

Re: There are others

MS DOS or DR DOS though?

Up until Microsoft made Windows not run on DR DOS, I don't think anybody would really have cared.

So say what you like, Microsoft did little to nothing to get a PC in every home, but did ride the coat tails of a new industry that was going to put a PC in every home with or without them.

M Gale

Re: Bunch of Whingers

>"Did you miss the part where the article stated (twice) that Google's own apps do not use HTML5, but rather use an internal, proprietary API?"

>>"When I first starting reading and there was mention of access to API's I thought well about time Microsoft got a taste of its own medicine"

I think he did.

M Gale

Re: The article is not entirely accurate

"If I were in charge at Microsoft I would seriously consider releasing an update with the next round of patches for desktop Windows that blocks all Google apps."

Google apps? What Google apps? Or do you mean "block communication with every Google-owned IP address"? I think if this happened, the results would be hilarious for everyone except Microsoft.

M Gale

Re: There are others

This.

I remember starting out the degree course. There's one of the profs, up there in front of 400 or so people in the school of mathematics and computer science. He delivers a very similar quote, "say what you like about Microsoft, they did more than anybody else to put a PC in everyone's home."

So I just had to put my hand up and respond with something like "wasn't that Compaq, who first reverse-engineered IBM's proprietary BIOS code, thus spawning an entire industry out of what was previously a mere product?"

He smirked, and said "we don't mention the war."

M Gale

If Google were stiffing their competitors...

...Apple would be the first in the queue, not some platform that's barely made a dent in the mobile industry.

And yeah, people who say that Google are evil, haven't been around much for the last 30 years. Microsoft are far worse.

iPhone 5S: 64-bit A7, 128GB storage, flashy ƒ/2.0 camera, and...

M Gale

Re: 64 bit

Assuming by "address directly" you mean "address like RAM", 264 bits.

According to my calculator, that's 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bits, 2,305,843,009,213,693,952 bytes, or 2,147,483,648GiB, 2,097,152TiB, or 2048PiB.

I think it'll last a while, at least for home users.

M Gale

Re: LPDDR3 + 64-bit

...compensate for the slower 64-bit access?

What?

It takes the same number of clock cycles, but a CPU with a 64 bit data bus can drag a 64 bit number in all at once, rather than having to drag it in piecemeal. A CPU with 64 bit ALUs and FPUs can crunch on 64 bit accuracy numbers all at once, rather than having to bit-mash two 32 bit chunks of a 64 bit number.

Slower? Really, what?

M Gale

And that's why the first thing you do is APP2SD as much as you can, and always store your media on the SD card.

Imagine if those S4 owners had a 16GB iThing and zero storage upgrade options? I'd rather have a split huge memory than a contiguous tiny one.

M Gale

Re: 64-bit, why?

Why 64 bit on a phone?

These are smartphones. Smartphones play games. If you think games (and pretty much anything else with large 3D scenes) won't benefit from 64 bit accuracy, where have you been for the last 20 years?

I know it's not a phone game, but Kerbal Space Program is one example of how limited float accuracy can cause all kinds of wierdness, like watching your aerobraking apoapsis vary between "completely miss the atmosphere" and "make a huge crater in a lithobraking manouver" until you get closer to the target planet.

Being able to grab huge numbers in and crunch on them in the minimum number of clock cycles is always going to be an advantage.

M Gale

Re: 64-bit, why?

Don't forget that you can process 64 bit values a hell of a lot quicker on a 64 bit system than a 32 bit system. On a 32 bit system, there's a speed penalty for using doubles and long ints (or however else you want to describe a 64 bit float/integer). Less so on a 64 bit system.

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Eco, economy and diesel power

M Gale

Re: Just plug it in

If you're spending £43k on a car, why can't you afford a house with a driveway?

I imagine once hybrid cars are more common, you'll see more public charge points. Yes, including motels.

Microsoft warns of post-April zero day hack bonanza on Windows XP

M Gale

This would be the Reg putting its rather contentious spin on things as usual. The blog post is simply saying, in a very tl;dr way, that once XP goes out of support, vulnerabilities won't be fixed (duh). Since 7, 8 and XP apparently share enough code for the vulnerabilities to be a problem on all systems, this means that vulnerabilities fixed on 7 or 8 won't be fixed on XP.

Personally I'd be amused if the XP cling-ons all upgraded to Ubuntu or Fedora come the due date. You might not be able to get Photoshop or Illustrator on Linux (yet), but for someone who just needs to write letters and/or talk to work-related web apps, I don't see the problem here. Hell, there's a few people I know who basically just do that.

Starwing: Nintendo, Argonaut's Brit boffinry and the Super FX chip

M Gale

Skywings 3D?

Never heard of it, but I have heard of Pilotwings. It wasn't really a "simulation", but it did implement a sprite-stretched Mode 7 floor and flying vehicles like a biplane, glider, jet pack and yes, parachutes.

Also released as Pilotwings 64 for the N64. As far as I'm aware, neither version used any kind of cartridge-based coprocessing.

M Gale

Re: the MegaCD, FAIL all the way through

The Mega CD started out with some shit games that used all the storage of the CD but didn't advance playability beyond a flashy version of Simple Simon. Unfortunately this seemed to tar its reputation for the rest of its existance.

Those of us who actually bought one, know about games like Battlecorps and Thunderhawk. These are two games that showed off the sprite-warping ASICs in the Mega CD, and the advantages of having what was basically a two-system cluster working together to calculate and render the different bits of a game. Even Silpheed, relying heavily on FMV for background graphics, was still a good Galaxians clone. As for Snatcher, that's a damned huge adventure-type title along the lines of Mass Effect, that ended up with me and a friend spending 36 hours straight just beating the shit out of the game.

What Sega did wrong was have shit FMV games as the vast majority of launch games, and charging what they did (£260 IIRC) for something that then needed a £100 console to work, with no bundle offers for getting the two together.

Boffins claim Voyager has already left the Solar System

M Gale
Headmaster

Nybble!

Because it's half a byte, see?

Oh those witty early IT types.

Open Rights Group revives 'unavailable for legal reasons' HTTP error code plan

M Gale

Re: Nice idea, could do with tweaking

To be precise, they are there to represent "resource unavailable" errors, and the 4xy part tells you why it's unavailable.

So yeah, adding a 51 to the 4xy bit seems like a damn good idea.

Just add creepiness: Google Search gets even more personal

M Gale

Re: Google Now

That's fine for you, but all Google Now is for me is a fucking annoying swipe action on the home key that gets hit accidentally far too many times.

Fortunately, as I found out here, there's apps to stop that from happening, even if they are a bit hacky and just override the home-key-swipe action with a null.

M Gale

Re: It's not so difficult at all..

"The problem with your list that I can see is that if you follow it, and take other similar actions to avoid interception of your internet use, you risk inviting greater scrutiny, as your behaviour could be profiled as terrorist / paedo / naughty."

Unless lots of people are doing it.

And honestly, if various three-letter agencies want to waste their resources spying on little old me... good. The more resources they waste, the better.

M Gale

Re: Not an issue for moi.

Between you, Microsoft, and any one of their numerous "advertising partners", amongst other gotchas. Don't dare swallow the Microsoft bullshit. They're the equivalent of the snotty little brat looking all innocent while they tell on the next kid who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Never mind that they filched the entire contents last week.

You should really read the Bing privacy policy. It's as bad as any of them.

M Gale

Re: And Picassa (if it's still around).

Picasa is still around, but you need to create a profile, with all the real names bullshit rules and the unwanted Plus account that comes with it.

I'll just use photobucket, imgur or imageshack, thanks.

Card-cloning crooks use 3D printers to make ever-better skimmers

M Gale

Within the next few years...

3D printers need a license to use! Which means the rest of us need to pay extra money and be subject to all kinds of data-rape in order to print a few cogs, whereas the sort of people who would print card skimmers.. will carry on doing so anyway. Possibly with stolen printers. Or maybe with your printer courtesy of a (metal) gun to the head.

A few more headlines like that, and I can see it happening.

Google follows Amazon with auto-encryption of cloud data

M Gale

Re: I am truly in exalted company

I would say that the larger-than-average number of programmers, administrators and other IT-types on this site means that there are a quite high proportion of people here who will be accessing sensitive data as part of their job, and may not want state sponsored industrial espionage ruining their day.

Just because it's the IT equivalent of Seal Team Six, doesn't mean you don't put boobytraps on all the doors and a few hundred kilos of anfo buried in the yard. Don't make it easy for 'em.

Brits: We can stop trolling if we know where they live - poll

M Gale

Re: Pointless

So if you have no bank account, then no Facebonk for you? Blessing in disguise perhaps.

Or maybe that bloody big loophole called "UKash" could be used. Or prepaid debit cards. I'm sure the Zuckerbergs wouldn't complain at all about charging money. Give it a few years, I can see that happening anyway.

Samsung Mega 6.3: Enter the PHONDLESLAB

M Gale

Re: Size Matters

Still using an AOC 9GlrA here. It's TCO '99 compliant!

1600x1200 (and 2048x1536 at an extreme push) is probably more "high def" than "standard" though.

Engineer's $30m windfall from Nintendo 3DS patent spat SLASHED by beak

M Gale

Re: Uhm...

Still, if a child can think of the idea, there must be somebody else out there who had played with a TV screen and a lenticular poster.

Just seems to be a really crappy thing to get a patent for. But then, that's patents for you these days I suppose.

Microsoft pulls faulty Exchange 2013 patch HOURS after release

M Gale
Joke

Re: ADFS Servers

Wow, still rockin' with the BBC Micro. Hats off to you, sir.

(I know, I know..)