* Posts by M Gale

3500 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Apr 2007

Google to ICO: We had no idea Street View data slurp was happening

M Gale

"google grabbing your private data and not using it for anything is the least of your worries"

Exactly this.

Seriously, people worried about Google while they're broadcasting everything in plaintext? Are they fucking mental, or just looking for a scapegoat?

Wardriving should not ever be a criminal offense. Not securing your network then calling the waahmbulance because somebody listened in to your porn surfing damned well should be.

Mad Apple patent: Cloneware to convince trackers you don't like porn

M Gale

Not a new idea, why in the hell was this patent granted?

TrackMeNot plugin for Firefox. Why even try going under the radar when you can obliterate it with chaff and flares?

Linus Torvalds drops F-bomb on NVIDIA

M Gale

Re: What is an F bomb?

Less dangerous than the A or H bombs, and less likely to get you lynched/arrested than an N bomb.

M Gale

"does it cost something to write a driver for this os and distribute it?"

To throw a few docs out to the Linux guys and say "here's the hardware interface, go program your own sodding driver"? Probably not much. Certainly less than maintaining their own closed-source drivers.

M Gale

Mmm, Steam.

Steam is why I don't buy most PC games these days, regardless of whether it's on Windows or not.

If my money isn't good enough for Valve, fine. I'll take my money elsewhere.

M Gale

Loki, Tribsoft and all the rest

After shelling out hundreds on Windows games, I am not going to shell out the exact same amount of money or more to get the exact same game working on a different OS.

Seriously, £25 for a copy of X2: The Threat, when I already have every X game ever for Windows in a Superbox that cost me less?

This is why those companies failed. Give me a patch for 50p that'll make the Windows version work in Linux, and I'll grab it in a heartbeat. Doom 3? UT2004? Old games perhaps, but still fully paid copies that work in Linux with a simple patch or the on-disk install script.

So yes, let's ask these companies why they failed, shall we?

M Gale
Paris Hilton

Re: wow,

But it's not open source, so he can't?

M Gale

Re: No properly working drivers

Guess my Radeon 5750 must not be working then.

OH HANG ON, IT IS.

Microsoft takes on tablets with keyboard-equipped Surface

M Gale

Re: Well I think it looks great

Unfortunately, ARM is a moving target.

So by the time Intel have managed to cripple a Pentium enough to run in a phone, where will ARM be?

Crytek says future is free-to-play

M Gale

Re: Nothing is free. ***NOTHING***

"That model in the computer game market will never work."

"MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM, can I have 50p?"

M Gale

"If this means they stop loading down games with DRM..."

Sadly it likely means more DRM, not less.

M Gale

Re: Merchandising!

Which is fine until the person running said errand for you comes back with an elephant but no bog roll.

Windows Metro Maoist cadres reach desktop, pound it flat

M Gale

Re: I like the Apple buy MS...

Meet the new boss, worse than the old boss?

M Gale

Re: Start Menu

Well that's funny, because I know people with a similar attitude toward computers. Main difference is that if they can't find it after clicking the big "Windows" button and going through the menu or typing the name of the program in, then it's obviously not there.

Myself, I detest the tendency of software to automatically assume you want a desktop icon, or a quicklaunch icon. I've seen too many computers with no room left anywhere because every available inch of desktop real estate is covered in icons. Usually owned by the same people who use the start menu because it's a damn sight easier than trying to scan through a desktop full of crap or a quicklaunch area that needs to be extended to ten times its normal size to see all the icons.

Myself, I have one or two icons on the desktop, and a couple of choice apps in the quicklaunch area, which I've tweaked to work properly, and not like Windows 7's awful pinning-icons-so-you-can't-tell-the-difference-between-icons-and-running-programs shite.

And Microsoft's answer to this is... to remove the start menu and replace with a bloody big cluttered desktop full of icons. Then make them look like Fisher Price designed it all, as if they didn't learn from XP. Then make it so apps are stuck in full-screen or 66/33 mode, because obviously my bloody big monitor can't fit more than two program windows at once on it!

Wow. Thanks guys. That's really appreciated. I suppose at least I have a Linux partition so I can escape from some of this madness.

M Gale

Re: why haters be hatin?

We used to be able to get from London to New York in about two hours, for the right price.

Now we can't.

What, too afraid for change?

M Gale

Re: it's all about tablets

So you can spend £500 on this ickle diddy fondleslab that runs a few apps and lets you play Angry Birds...

...or £500 on this beast of a machine that lets you play Angry Birds, and Crysis, and lets you actually do some work as well. And print it out! And share it with people who have a different device to you! And use software that hasn't been pre-approved by the censors!

Yeah, I can see the pirate-bay-loving, porn-reading, games-playing, working-for-a-living public ditching their desktops, honest!

Python wraps its coils around the enterprise

M Gale

Re: c++ php .net java python?

The C++ guy would be the one around back with the distillery making all the brews for the cocktail drinkers.

iOS was SO much more valuable to Google than Android - until Maps

M Gale

...the payment processor being Google Checkout, you mean?

Yeah, I have to use pre-pay mastercards for app purchases because they don't like my bank card. I'm not changing banks for the sake of a portable toy and a search company that doesn't like implementing SecureCode.

M Gale

Re: As a side issue ....

Fuel cells are reliable, durable, efficient and can be built to deliver rather obscene amounts of juice if you need it.

They're also sodding expensive per watt.

Apple, Samsung snatch smartphone biz booty

M Gale

Since Android doesn't work well with keyboards...

You are joking, right?

Thief open-sources Richard Stallman's laptop, passport, visa

M Gale

Re: @AC 22:45 GMT

I imagine the moderators would look down on hyperlinks to Goatse and quickly hit the "zap" button.

Well, after a quick chuckle.

M Gale

Re: Shitty thing to have happen

5) A remotely addressable neon driver connected to the keys.

6) A remotely addressable lump of C4.

Okay okay, I can see problems with this from the get go. Still though, of all the laptops to steal, I really wouldn't want to steal one from a hacker, whatever colour their hat.

Apple pulls in TomTom, kicks Google off iPhones

M Gale

Re: Tom Tom?

Unfortunately, unless you specifically pre-cache areas and don't mind the satellite view disappearing, you can't use Google Maps without a network connection.

Even with pre-cached areas, Maps tends to use the network for everything else, such as search.

Tom Tom on the other hand has its (admittedly expensive) maps built into the device or on SD card. Instant advantage, especially if you're going to use it anywhere outside of a city.

US Navy buys Linux to guide drone fleet

M Gale

Re: Non COTS Linux

My bad.

The US NSA.

M Gale

Non COTS Linux

This would be, one presumes, why the US DOD is the maintainer for SELinux.

After the amount of hardening and custom tweaking a Win box would need, you might as well roll your own!

M Gale

Re: Combining GPL + proprietary in a single program?

The GPL restricts distribution, not use, of software.

You can mix and match as much as you like with as much as you like, so long as it's not being sold on.

Besides, those more cynical of us might say that the law is whatever the people with the guns say it is.

M Gale

Re: Ahem...

Same as my last Windows gaming rig, then?

(and with the proliferation of online activations, Internet required for single player, half the game being an extra download, and Steam, it'll probably be my last Windows gaming rig in another sense)

M Gale

Re: Wrong focus.

You're trolling, right?

Microsoft will sell Windows for Warships to whoever has the money to buy it. That's willingly sell, as in with full knowledge of what it will be used for.

But hey, that's obviously the same as a bit of freely-distributable software ending up at UAV ground control because it's freely distributable.

M Gale

Re: Ironic

Uhm, a couple of notable wifi and video card manufacturers only releasing binary drivers does not "Binary Blobs all over the kernel" make.

In most cases, those binary drivers are additional downloads, and don't come with the distribution.

Americans stand against UN internet-tax plan

M Gale
Flame

"and the UK ISPs want to know why they shouldn't get some licence-fee cash."

Because the license fee is an anachronism that needs to be staked, quartered, burned and its ashes flung to the far corners of the Earth.

Though I'm sure some people will tell me "well would you rather have a tax". Myself, I don't see the difference and I'd rather have neither.

Pint-size gizmo shoots X-RAY LASER for first time

M Gale

Not sure if that's any better!

M Gale

Gayzer?

Oh dear.

Mr Sulu causes DDoS panic after posting link on Facebook

M Gale

"This is the first time I heard a malfunction threaten us."

See title.

EU gives Google till July to offer fix for search dominance

M Gale

Re: I'm curious.

I think you just hit the nail on the head.

Now if they'd have made it so that you had to use Google in order to use the Internet, and that changing search providers would mean having to re-learn everything you know about computers.. If they'd have strong-armed entire industries into helping them to lock billions of people into paying a tax to them.. If they did their damndest to try to ruin any kind of innovation they can find via spurious patent allegations and downright illegal threats.. then it'd have taken decades for the EU to finally turn around and demand that they very nicely please put a little notification saying "hey, Yahoo exists, don't you know" on their web page the first time you ever load it.. if they don't mind terribly. Thanks.

M Gale

Re: Can they also ask France what they are going to do about their Champagne Dominance?

Personally I think you're doing the word "wine" a disservice by associating it with "Champagne".

Godawful stuff that gets slurped at weddings due to tradition and very few places elsewhere.

You know what Google needs? Another Street View data-slurp probe

M Gale

Re: "...doesn't explain the collection of everything else they ended up with."

me@home ~/Documents$ sudo airodump-ng --write logfile mon0

Do you think the engineers customised everything to the hilt? Or did they just run an existing bit of software that does the job?

M Gale

Re: "no real reason for leaving your access point unsecured."

Exactly.

I don't even call them "secure" or "nonsecure" any more. I call them "private" and "public" respectively.

If you're running a public router, expect the public to connect to it. Oh, and for people to hear what you're transmitting.

M Gale

Re: Not this again

Lots of downvotes from people running unencrypted routers who think they have any expectation of privacy whatsoever?

Silly people. Oh well, carry on with your voting patterns then.

Focus groups are for mugs

M Gale

Strangely enough...

...my TF201 has no problems picking up a GPS signal.

Wifi on the other hand, is utter pants, with a router in the next room being barely in range. A bit silly for a wifi-only tablet. I could have done with a wifi dongle a lot more than a GPS dongle, Asus!

LOHAN ideas..

M Gale

Re: Zero-pressure v. superpressure balloon.

Having made a few non-rigid sky lantern style balloons out of bin bags, I think I know what kind of idea you're on about with a zero pressure balloon. I can't say it would be masses of extra effort to stick four or six big sheets of plastic together. The only real difficulty will be making sure the edges of the mylar sheets (or whatever you use) are heat-sealed properly so the helium doesn't leak out. Easy enough to test by plugging the neck section and sticking a weight on an air-inflated balloon body overnight. No significant loss == AOK for a four or six hour mission.

The rig can be attached to either a circular or #-shaped frame connected to the bottom opening of the balloon. Make the neck section long enough that a bit of swinging won't lose significant amounts of hydrog^Whelium, and the burst problem is solved.

Deflating can be via one of a number of mechanical or pyrotechnic methods people have already described here (I personally favour a few redundant lengths of fuse attached to the balloon), with the balloon being made of something photodegradable so if the worst happens, you don't have a launch pad cluttering up the upper atmosphere for months.

Samsung Galaxy S III

M Gale

Re: £500 for a phone?

Couldn't have anything to do with certain countries becoming manufacturing powerhouses because their attitude toward health, safety, and the treatment of their workers is somewhat more, shall we say, "lassez faire" than in the West?

Or even people who want things manufactured not caring in what conditions they are manufactured so long as they save 50p a unit.

Naw, it's because people like expensive phones. That's why.

M Gale
Trollface

Re: 4.8" phone?

If you consider 4.8 inches to be compensating for a shortage...

Oh I don't think I need to write a punchline do I?

M Gale

Re: Yawn

Xperia Arc S owner.

Runs smoothly, occasional pause if I'm taking the piss out of it, but otherwise a solid phone.

Single core by the way. Android. It's also gone from 2.2 to 2.3 to 4.0, even if the last update needed awful bloatware installed on a computer with its own Internet connection to work.

Would ya like to try re-thinking the "needs a quad core" statement? Only things I see "needing" multi-core and heavy duty GPUs are things like 3D buildings in Google Maps/Earth, and certain games. Maybe multicore would help if you're the type to have umpteen highly-active badly-programmed widgets on each home screen, but even then that's less of a load than you think. Even my Mum's el cheapo Galaxy Y runs at a nice pace, and that's a "free on contract" bog standard basic thing with an 832Mhz processor.

Not sure where the "needs a supercomputer" myth came from, unless it's from people using really shit 600mhz ARM11 things running Cupcake or Donut. Those things really do need a kick up the arse.

Universe has more hydrogen than we thought

M Gale

"an animal 95% of the population haven't heard of"

Some of us played Sonic the Hedgehog.

Okay, so Knuckles is a bit cartoony, but then Sonic does look like a spiky Felix The Cat.

Julian Assange extradition: What's next for WikiLeaker-in-chief?

M Gale
Headmaster

Re: Phrenology.

Phrenology is the discredited pseudoscience of determining criminal tendencies by the size and shape of certain parts of the skull. Eyesockets included, though granted, not the eyes directly.

However, Lombroso's work is interesting, and you forgot about the icon on the left!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

(note the phrenology chart at the top of the page)

Google's 7in Jelly Bean Android tablet spied in benchmark

M Gale

Re: Infact feeling for anyone that bought a 7in tablet.

A 5th the price of the iPad, yes. However the battery life is quoted as "4 hours", which you can divide by 4 to get a more realistic picture of the battery life while actually doing anything. There is also no Google Play, which is an almost criminal omission bearing in mind Currys' target market.

Yes, you can find a dodgy APK. No, my mother wouldn't even know what that is. And yes, everybody regardless of technical expertise, would probably be pissed off when the lights went out barely an hour or so after charging it up.

It's a nice techie toy, as I said. I just wouldn't buy it for anybody not a propellorhead.

M Gale

Pixels are not necessarily square...

...and if someone wants to make a panel that is 16:10 and has a resolution of 2048x32, then they can. It'd just be a bit shit, is all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio