Posts by Fred Flintstone 3108 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2009
"to certain portions of the population it seems he already is a demigod"
Well, as the repeated voting of New Labour has shown, some people you can sell anything. If anything he's a demi-t*sser - can't even do it with some Swedish girls without screwing up..
However, I suspect there are quite a few hypocrites amongst those followers as well or his *cough* book *cough* would have sold better.
Well, what's a copy worth to you? Genuine, live email addresses, just waiting for you to send them anything you like. All you need is to make sure it appears to come from The Register, and especially titles like "BOFH" will ensure it'll get opened.
Actually, no, I'm keeping it for myself. Still have some water in powder form to sell..
Duh. Duh. Duh. Next time, drink coffee first, THEN start work...
When these things came out I discovered quickly it was *WAY* more fun to take one segment out and turn it and leave the experts to work that one out than to solve it myself. Dang - I just realized from how early I must have had BOFH tendencies..
Hmm, would the computer explode if I gave it a cube so modified?
Hello skynet, got a prezzie for youuu...
Puhleeze - the NSA has at least been clever enough to realize that Big ol' Ameerican Business has already realized the value of relentless intercept and continuous privacy violations. After all, as long as it does it to foreigners nobody will care. The NSA has simply outsourced this requirement to the like of Google, Facebook, Apple and all US companies that handle data in any way, shape or form with a global geographic spread (smaller example: WhatsApp - how to get your hands on all SMS traffic on a global scale - now replaced by iMessage).
"That rings hollow when management expect a professional service to be run on a shoestring and expect everything to work properly. No comparison."
Actually the opposite - I'd take management down there and show them what their IT department is going to look like with the amount of funding they give. As soon as they realize they may have to peddle to keep their pr0n flowing I'm sure a degree of flexibility will be found.
Clearly, you need to read more BOFH articles... :-)
.. Spamhaus blacklisted the lot because the ISP didn't do as Spamhaus demanded.
If that is the case I'm rather disappointed in Spamhaus as it apparently sees no problem with affecting innocent parties with what it does. It takes the shine off their efforts and turns them into Net bullies - very disappointing indeed.
For those who claim they don't *have* to use Spamhaus ignores the fact that many draw their email via their ISP, and have thus no control over the use of Spamhaus.
I thus hope I misread this story. Anyone from Spamhaus care to comment?
They need a strong personality to lead Nokia, one that has zero tolerance for politics and other BS. One who looks at what users want, and THEN decides on the platform to deliver this through. It is brutally irrelevant which OS you choose other than from the perspective of (a) keeping it under control (unlike Android) but (b) making it easily accessible for 3rd party developers to create an eco system.
Linux CAN possibly offer this, but there the control is an issue. Symbian still is another route if applied sensibly, and I think it was HTC who demonstrated that even with Windows you could make a decent UI, but I suspect it will create too much overhead, and hands a degree of control to Redmond to no right thinking CEO should be willing to accept.
But before anything can happen, Nokia needs to go back to its technical roots - kill the bureaucracy and the stifling political, MBA driven culture. Because then nobody wins..
The Paypal system is flawed in so many ways I don't even know where to start. It's thus probably actually a recommendation for the iPhone 4s that it doesn't have the NFC chip in - I am avoiding NFC like the plague it really is, also in credit cards. There is no way in hell I'll accept a credit card with an activated NFC component.
If you need a hint why, here is one clue: the distance limit over which NFC works is a function of a crap receiver in the *terminal*. With a decent antenna you can read an NFC chip from a good 10m away (20 if you don't need to worry about the size of the antenna). This is not the only flaw, but it ought to be enough to make you think.
Are you seriously suggesting that they are not evil because they are not willing to expose themselves to lawsuits in the most litigious nation of the world?
You can say any amount of positive stuff about people, but if you enable negative statements you will have to deal with consequential damages. You know, slander, repetitional harm - the works. If I was running any company, that idea would get an instant "dislike"..
No, I most seriously do NOT tend to believe Farcebook. I don't trust any organization that considers the rights of its users a mere inconvenience. I'm picky like that.
I have an account because my clients do.
They have Facebook as part of their marketing strategy (which has its own dangers, but that's for another day), and in order to contain that risk I need to know as much as possible about it from an end user perspective.
The picture that emerges is dire. You really need an almost around the clock surveillance to keep an eye on it, made worse because nobody actually appears to take *any* responsibility. It was only after the news about the cookies hit major sites that FB decided to answer, and then only "unofficially" - I suspect because it was starting to hit the press in a way that would hurt their current attempts to sell themselves.
Of late I've seen the now active use of facial biometrics (to be fair, it's Google who started that with their web albums). When someone adds a picture and biometrics match it instantly suggests names to tag pictures with. It's well beyond creepy. The whole gig with interrupting people for their mobile number to "make their account safer" (yeah, right) is another example of an aggressive push towards grabbing as much private data as they can get their hands on.
It thus seems a good decision that I only used images with messed up biometrics..
1 - it may be virus resistant, but unless you upgrade the users, no platform is trojan proof.
2 - I don't believe statements, I want proof. I run Kaspersky every so often..
(and 3 - I still only spend about 3% of the time I used to spend on Windows keeping the machine, safe and patched. But that's just detail, right? It's not like your time is worth anything..).
Well, they can get radical, but are they ready for it? I doubt it, as it's a political mess. But IF shareholders want something serious to happen, let me run the company. For 2 years (it takes a year to get to grips with an organization, politics and product cycles). I cannot possibly do a worse job than Ballmer, but I do know how to nuke political games and get techs excited and collaborating again. MS isn't short of talent, but it lacks the management talent to use that technical talent it has.
And yes, I'd knock heads about the security issues as well. I'm very happy that MS puts its weight behind shutting down botnets, but let's not forget that it is their products that made that crap possible in the first place. This must stop. Repeat after me: code must be implicitly good, and NOT depend an an aftermarket bandage call anti-virus.
So, if they're interested, give me a call. El Reg knows who I am.
Just a suggestion. I'll keep Balmer for when I need furniture destroyed..
F*cking grow up.
The iPhone is either successful enough to shrug of competition or it's not and you should do better. Playing the weasel patent game is IMHO exceptionally weak (and has IMHO tarnishes the Apple image), and you ought to kick your lawyer's nuts for advising you on a strategy of mutual destruction (remember - he makes his money either way).
What? Oh, you left? Well, then give the dimwit in charge a call instead.
Yup, it's clause 11 sub B, printed in 6 point white on a white background.
I have an old PS/3. Never been on the game network, and only updated until they decided to remove the "Other OS" option - which it still has. It sort of dates the last moment I ever bought anything from Sony.
I understand that a company needs to make money. However, the way Sony does it doesn't agree with my wants as a consumer and my wants for business. So out they go. Simple.
Let's call the CSA for what it really is: an attempt to straddle two bandwagons at once.
Cloud security is by definition at best a vague concept, but the CSA will no doubt bring out papers that will allow the bold and clueless to add a slide to their presentation to management about why cloud computing isn't the biggest security hole since the invention of Microsoft Windows.
Those who don't realize that have their heads, well, in the clouds..
Let the flaming begin..
OK, you have to be consistent here. If you ban truck nuts you have to ban wheel nuts as well.
I must admit I'm totally baffled by some of the arguments floating around.
First of all, sorry, this is nuts. Is THIS really worth police and court time while the country is on the verge of defaulting instead of its traditional printing of more money (which is coming to an end if I see how China is acting)?
Secondly, I have already seen the inevitable "think of the children" argument - excuse me while I finish yawning, be right with you. AFAIK most kids at age 3 can already comfortably distinguish between real nuts and fake ones, so what are you going to do with a young boy? Tell him not to watch his own body in a mirror because it's offensive?
Honestly - I think this ticket was pure .. jealousy. Because whoever gave that still needs to grow a pair..
The government has a major ID problem on its hands which needs solving: duplicate identities, allowing rip off merchants to claim benefits multiple times. It's a scam that is simply impossible to kill off without a way to check if you're not handing off a new identity off to someone who already has one.
The problem is that New Labour's enthusiasm to hand off money to friendly consultancies has seriously poisoned the waters. The only possible answer you get when you get a daft idea to be studied for feasability by the same outfit who gets the cash to implement it is "yes, it is possible" - Chinese walls are a myth. That the later audit didn't find a problem was no great surprise - the department doing the audit was managed by - you guessed it - an ex member of the same outfit..
There are, however, different approaches that creates this non-duplicate assurance. Approaches that cost a LOT less to develop, a LOT less to maintain and - most importantly - do not immediately create the kind of Big Brother databases New Labour loved so much. Yes, you need a central resource (or matching for duplicates becomes a bit hard), but it doesn't need biometric data you hold there. Such intimately personal data should only ever be in a police database, and only for a reason that complies with EU rules (conviction, timed deletion within certain verifiable rules etc - the usual).
There should be every possible objection against an ID scheme that re-creates in a different way the IDcard that New Labour wanted to ram down everyone's throat. - it was wrong for so many reasons that that project almost appears to be a *deliberate* waste of money. But there should not be any objection against the government trying to clean up the current mess that results in handouts to criminals and benefit cheats - I, for one, am 100% with them on that.
There is a balance between cost and functionality to be struck, but the "missing body" problem was also solved by a US provider whose swipe reader is based on radio technology. Their matrix sense out radio signals, which get absolved by ridges connected to a large enough mass to dampen the signal. If you use a "disconnected" finger or use a fingerprint cover like wood glue to swipe, you change the capacity, and the thing won't work.
Good to see they keep working on it, but their solution probably needs a bit of work before it becomes affordable (I'm assuming here their principle is right, of course). Meanwhile, keep using the other kit..
I have always bought premium brand laptops - an upper range Sony VAIO doesn't set you back for less than a MacBook and to me it delivers a heck of a lot more.
The next thing you tell me is that I have to pay for everything on a Mac. True, most comes at a charge, but again, if you look at what you get it's reasonable and I rather pay £10 for something that is of genuine use to me than be a cheapskate and expect the guy at home to do it for free because I'm to cheap to donate (although I would prefer to pay directly instead of handing 30% off to Apple).
I just bought the new OS for less than £30. I can't remember a Micrsoft Windows update that cheap, sorry - especially since that ONE (1, single, uno) purchase allows me to install it any Mac under my control. I also have Office 2008 on the machine (only retained via an update - it won't re-install on Lion). Guess what? It actually comes with THREE licenses. Yes, that is MICROSOFT being so desperate to retain a grip on the market that it offers a 3 for one. Not that I use it much, I prefer OpenOffice (mainly because I find it less resource hungry, which tells you something about the MS product), but it's there. So, on the software side I can get on with less money, yet be completely legal. How is that more expensive?
On top of that, I have a well built, stable machine that is safer from malware (not 100% safe as some people allege, but easier to keep clean), and I have a Unix (BSD) command line available which gives me all the other fun I need, although I'm not sure I'll install any Darwin ports. But I can if I so choose. Try that on a Windows box.
I bought the Airport Extreme WiFi access point, which has a USB port (being me I stuck a hub on that so it offers me printing and disk storage). Well, I can't call what that costs expensive either, especially if you see what the thing actually does for the money.
About the only thing I miss is the fancy graphics that a decent Linux desktop has. I very much like the cube approach to multiple desktops, and that just isn't there for OSX (between you and me, it stinks of "not invented here" syndrome). But I can live with that. And if I can't, well, the machine also has VirtualBox installed too although it would be a bit wasteful to install a whole Ubuntu setup just for fancy graphics) :-).
In conclusion, you may want to lose that illusion of "expensive". You do actually get what you pay for.
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