* Posts by Gordon 10

3872 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jun 2009

Amazon Workspaces: A dish best served later

Gordon 10

How much for roll your own on amazon

Surely it's much cheaper to rent your own VM on amazon and set it up yourself?

Samsung Galaxy S5 in El Reg's claws: This time the 'S' is for 'sensible'

Gordon 10

Re: NFC Card Support

Not if you're in the UK apparently. Specifically not on the Nexus 5.

Little pink handjob: Sony's Xperia Z1 Compact

Gordon 10

Re: On a slightly more serious note

If you put some work into it you can mostly avoid google. There are apps that allow you to continue using iCloud mail, calendars, etc.

Intel just installed itself in Hadoop guru Cloudera – and why their rivals should be worried

Gordon 10

Other kit vendors

I cant see them being particularly interested in partnering with Cloudera - Hadoops big strength is that it can run on commodity volume kit, not yer "engineered" systems of this world.

Molyneux: Working at Microsoft is 'like taking antidepressants'

Gordon 10

He makes a lot of sense

You generally dont get excellent results without tolerating an element of risk. Big corporates tend to frown on risk, and micromange the delivery risk in such a way that it stifles creativity, and even ability to deliver due to spending all your time shackled by risk avoidance frameworks.

Its no wonder that IT in any big corporate is a total shambles. Im in a pessimistic mood this week and firmly convinced that IT development in big corporates has almost reached an untenable state.

Look at MS - an organisation that should be capable of turning out the best software in the world, and but regularly turns out shite.

Im firmly convinced that the only workable future of development in big corporate is in isolated skunkworks projects.

Curriculum Vitae - must rage

Gordon 10

Good advice

But I was taught *never* to let your CV go over 2 pages. Unless specifically relevant to the new role, anything over 5 years should be a 1 line summary for timeline purpose, or just highlighted as a skill in the summary section

ECCENTRIC, PINK DWARF dubbed 'Biden' by saucy astronomers

Gordon 10

Large Masses

I thought that the likelyhood of a planet X out there had been well and truly ruled out by gravitational analyses? ie no noticable impacts on the orbits of the other planets to a ridiculously low margin of error?

If so what did the rentaquote guy mean by Large planets?? Biden/Sedna sized or bigger?

It's EE vs Vodafone: 'How good is my signal' study descends into network bunfight

Gordon 10

3's new 4g is good

Auto upgrades from their 3G tariff on a compatible phone (google n5) and faster than shit off the proverbial. I'm sure it will degrade over time but for now its excellent and coverage seems fractionally better too.

at £7.50 rolling 1 month contract I'm a happy bunny.

Gordon 10
Flame

Dear Vodafone

Squawk Squawk squawk. Hear that. Thats 4 years of deliberate under-investment in your network coming home to roost whilst you used us Brits cash to susidise your adventures abroad.

Screw you. ( and the rest of your telco friends)

We dig into the GTech GDrive Mobile ... and watch WORST tear-down vid OF ALL TIME

Gordon 10

Re: Thunderbolt

To be fair - isnt it more realistic to expect the monitor to provide daisychained thunderbolt ports?

At the least its an equal fail.

Middle England's allotments become metric battlefield

Gordon 10
Devil

surely shome mishtake

Anything measured in Poles should fall into the El Reg volume units?

1 pole = 20 strippers per night x 2 jubs per stripper = how many bulgarian airbags?

Boffins working on debris float models to track MH370 wreckage

Gordon 10

Re: Looking for what isn't there?

@Shannon

The chances of a plane being successfully landed on water is very low - more so if we are talking in the middle of nowhere with no bays or landmasses to keep the waves small.

UK.gov! frets! over! Yahoo! exodus! to! RIPA-free! Dublin!

Gordon 10

Re: ...and there is is.

I would be interested to see what the definition of an American company is under the Patriot act.

Its entirely possible that a Foreign Entity could have a very convoluted legal relationship (probably for tax purposes) with the US parent. I wonder if there is a level at which the local company can tell the US parent to get stuffed - whether just for forms sake - or in reality. Especially when you see the US companies licensing their IP to subsidiarys as a sneaky way of avoiding tax.

'Weev' attempts to overturn AT&T iPad 'hack' conviction

Gordon 10

Guilty

Like it or not - he mined data and published it. How easy it was or not is immaterial.

However pure his motives (and I suspect there was an element of frustration and "for the lols" involved) - he broke the law.

I do think his punishment is well out of proportion to the crime - I presume the law he was charged under didnt allow a more leinient sentence.

Ex-Autonomy boss Mike Lynch goes nuclear: Claims HP 'misleads' its own shareholders

Gordon 10
Joke

Re: I am not a crook

Own up Meg you down voted me didnt you?

Gordon 10
FAIL

I am not a crook

whilst I lean towrads agreeing with that assessment of Lynch, if it is true it means by extension that all HP's board are crooks too. Since they are legally required as part of both their internal role, and external roles as Officers of a Corporate to do due diligence on aquisitions.

In fact you have a matrix of 3 possible outcomes .

1. Crooked accounting + Crooked due diligence.

2. Legal but dubious accounting + crooked due diligence in the over-valuation of autonomy.

3. Perfectly legal accouting + crooked mismanagement of a multi-bn dollar asset.

In only one scenario is Mike Lynch a crook. In all 3 HP's board are "crooks".

Question for the commentards - can anyone come up with a scenario where HP's board arent either crooked or grossly negligent? The only one I can think of is if 2 sets of auditors (Autonomies and HP's) were both grossly negligent.

Osbo's booze, bingo, biz and big data Budget

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: "Savers"???

Banking understanding fail.

Interest is paid out because they find other uses for your money. No other uses equals no interest.

You can quibble about the amount given back - but you cant quibble that it needs to be done.

Enterprise adolescent: Salesforce.com's struggles at 15

Gordon 10
Mushroom

oh ffs

Since when has the comparatively small dataset produced by a CRM app had anything to do with big data?

all they need is some bog standard financial reporting and analytics - something that could have been bought in or developed out of the box years ago.

Anyone whi talks about CRM and bigdata in the same breath should be dragged outside and shot for not knowing what they are taking about.

BT caught in data gaffe drama: Whistleblower squeals over alleged email fail

Gordon 10
Unhappy

Expect this to be buried

Using the same dirt BT has on ICO that they used during the Phorm debacle....

NSA's TURBINE robot can pump 'malware into MILLIONS of PCs'

Gordon 10

Take down the bot nets

So reading betweeen the lines of this article - the NSA have had the capability for years to take down every significant botnet ever created, which no doubt have caused $100m's of financial damages to consumers and businesses, but instead they've used it for many purposes that probably have little or no value to the average joe.

Finally! Some actual, novel tech: Apple patent to revive geriatric gear

Gordon 10

Agreed. iOS 7 Im looking at you for b0rking (for all practical uses i.e. everything except calls and texts) my Iphone4.

MtGox gets its sorry assets frozen amid US class-action lawsuit

Gordon 10
FAIL

What Assets?

Presumably this only applied to MT Gox' US based assets? How much did they have in the US or on US based servers?

I suspect the answer is rather close to zero, a fact that will be carefully avoid being stated so that the Lawyers can milk their clients for as long as possible.

MtGox, that bastion of unregulated e-currency Bitcoin, turns to Texas judge for protection

Gordon 10

Re: Perhaps someone can explain to me...

"In this day and age, where even swiping a credit card takes too long, and NFC payment has emerged, any "currency" that requires multi-second, let alone multi-minute, transactions is doomed for day to day usage."

I would challenge that.

You are forgetting that its only for the past year or so that same day clearing has been happening for consumers. Apart from a simple available funds check there are very few requirements for consumers to be updated on their balance instantly - for the last 20 years banks have been doing 3 day clearing and having their merry way with your funds in the meantime. No doubt in the future many Crypto Currency exchanges will do the same if they can get away with it.

Euro cops on free Wi-Fi not-so-hotspots: For pity's sake, don't use them for email

Gordon 10
Flame

But but but

"According to a recent Kaspersky Lab survey, 34 per cent of people using a PC admitted to taking no special measures to protect their online activity when using a Wi-Fi hotspot."

The key point is - THEY SHOULDNT HAVE TO. To the occasional elitist commentard posting on here - ask yourself - should your granny care whether her phone connection is on public or private wifi when she's checking facebook or email for the young 'uns?

The technology used should be secure by default, be that improved SSL or something else.

BTW was I the only one who though the Europol statement straight from the department of the blindingly obvious. Ok - which methods of public wifi access are at risk? Vanila uncrypted connections, SSL connentions, VPN's - what - give us consumers some useful info that we can take some action with.

Florida bloke cuffed for pit bull shag outrage

Gordon 10
Coat

Police later described the scene at the house

as a Mongrelian Cluster F*ck

British Pregnancy Advice Service fined £200k for Anon hack, data protection breaches

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: Of course the ICO...

Indeed - fining a charity imo is even worse than fining a govt organisation.

Couldnt it have been suspended for 3 years subject to a review of IT and data protection training.

Surely 50k spent on training would have been far more useful than 200k going to some quangocrat.

Zaphod Beeblebrox style third arm cyborg prosthesis unveiled

Gordon 10
Joke

Unfortunately I think the most relevant question for a 3 armed kid would be how picked on he would get at school. would probably cost more in lunch money than the arm was worth.

Bugger the jetpack, where's my 21st-century Psion?

Gordon 10
Thumb Up

Re: Psion Revo...

Me too - could never stretch to the "proper" Psions. Had a Revo and loved it. Also had the IR modem and remember "surfing" the net with it.

As a clamshell case design I dont believe the Psion's have ever been bettered, shame they are patented up the wazoo.

Agree that the organiser was superb.

FCA drafts new rules to protect crowdfunders' lenders

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: Huh?

The key phrase here is "significant amount of time" History is littered with instances of intermediaries taking consumer cash and not passing it onto suppliers, be it held for 1 second or many days.

Unless they are taking their cut in a seperate transaction direct from the Banks/credit card companies (which I bet they aren't), the process is a 2 stage one - cash in, cash out, and therefore the possibility of the above exists.

Kickstarter has done about $1000m worth of funding (ok only 800m sucessfuly but the maths is easier with 1000m). Taking a WAG lets assume onward account payment errors run at 0.01% - thats a grand total (over time) of $100k of someone elses cash wallowing around in their accounts. Multiply that by the number of ways a transaction can go wrong and Im betting its a non trivial amount - even on a daily/monthly basis.

Gordon 10
FAIL

All very well

But repeat that spiel after the first crowdsourcing site folds with peoples cash.

Care Bears... share: NHS England promises to heal careless data-sharing plans

Gordon 10

Re: If you haven't already opted out of this clusterfuck-in-the-making ...

Be polite with the Doc's most of them are dubious about this clusterf*ck too. They have no choice in the decisions being made and are effectively required by law to disclose this data unless we opt out.

I NEVER DONE BITCOIN, says bloke fingered by new Newsweek

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: I think he's just afraid of the tax claim he'll get

Not so sure of that - if bitcoin mining generates income, regardless of the way that income is paid I wouldnt bet against it being taxable. There are plenty of famous cases of people being paid "in kind" (e.g. sheep, apples) and being taxed.

Bitcoins are no less real than many financial products. I cant think of a government that would limit itself by producing a list of assets that are taxable. Better to make a broad statement, and define a small exclusion list if needed.

In addition I bet you can get taxed everytime you crystalise a gain by converting it back into a recognised currency.

Newsweek knocks on door of dad-of-six, tells him he invented Bitcoin

Gordon 10

Re: there you go

oh dear. go away paranioa troll.

Roll up, roll up for the Reg Readers' Ball

Gordon 10

Am I the only one?

who thinks the sign up requirements are a bit intrusive? I could of course fill in false details but that wouldnt sit well on a site I respect.

Why should my wish to join you in the pub require my business details? I appreciate you may just be re-using the Whitepaper sign up mechanism but it smacks a little of Facebookery.

Blimey! ANOTHER Bitcoin bleed brouhaha

Gordon 10
Thumb Up

Re: Conspiracy Theory Time

Possible explanations

a) Criminals are stupid short-termists.

b) They have enough faith in BitCoin that they will be able to hold onto their ill gotten gains long enough to turn a profit.

c) All of the above.

CIA snoops snooped on Senate to spy spy torture report – report

Gordon 10
Thumb Up

My thoughts too - although it sounds like they may have been only looking at a subset of their own internal network from my read of the second half of the article.

Hundreds of folks ready to sue Bitcoin exchange MtGox

Gordon 10

Newsflash commentard - replace "strings of numbers" with "pieces of paper" and you describe any modern currency. Therefore your argument has no real meaning.

In the sense that people were willing to exchange their own currency for bitcoins then it is a currency. More so given that its possible to directly pay for goods and services using bitcoins.

Google! and! Facebook! IDs! face! Yahoo! login! BAN!

Gordon 10

Agreed. Its very much becoming a case of "better the devil you know".

Wasnt entirely sure whether to up vote you for telling it straight or downvote you for depressing me ;)

Dark matter killed the dinosaurs, boffins suggest

Gordon 10

Re: Stranger still...

Try it with an analogue wind up clock and report back.

Alternatively try moving the lamp to a different location. I suspect the lamp is the cause probably some kind of interference.

Bitcoin bank Flexcoin pulls plug after cyber-robbers nick $610,000

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: So... the value of stealing a currency which then devalues?

Oh dear god. Oh noes its a conspiracy heaven forbid it can't be the innocence / idiocy that comes with exploring new frontiers.

Reading for you G E. the history of the gold rush, banking during the Great Depression etc etc.

And finally - Occams Razor.

Gordon 10

Not convinced

Banks and credit card co's manage the equivalent of "hot wallets" once the fly by night merchants have been eliminated there is no reason that bitcoin banks and exchanges can't thrive.

Although dare I say it - this may only occur once these institutions are properly regulated.

X-rated Android antics: Motorola's Moto X puts boot in chunky brother

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: 299? Feck that! @Al

My thoughts entirely. The OP might has well have inserted any generic OEM phone Landfill Android manufacturer.

Google Glass: Reg man tests tech specs

Gordon 10

Re: Speech recognition

I suspect its a temporary problem as well. once it has a internet connection I would expect it to work the same as Google Now on the Nexus's - which works brilliantly on my N5.

WhatsApp no threat to BBM: Blackberry bod says pretender's buyout will HELP ailing firm

Gordon 10

AC downvoted because they have posted the same on each BB story this week. Tedious troll.

HTC One grabs BEST SMARTPHONE gong

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: Apple sucked their business out from under them?

A rather rose tinted view there and Im an apple fan. What Apple did was stop network operators dictating to consumers and take charge of the ditacting themselves - with such gems as no copy/paste and you must create an email from your photo album to attach a photo - but not the other way around. And lest we forget - its still bloody difficult to attach something non-media related to an iphone email.

Apple may have taken Touch OS'es in a phone form factor to new heights of polish and usability but lets not pretend they are a consumer champion - they aint.

Say WHAT? Qualcomm, MediaTek scrap over who has best 'marketing gimmick' octacore

Gordon 10

agree

Luckily you can still get my 2 blade razor of choice (WK FX Diamond) on Amazon and Ebay as countries other than ours have refused to engage in this stupid arms race.

Ghostwriter: Assange™ is NARCISSISTIC and UNTRUTHFUL

Gordon 10
Mushroom

Re: That's who you need @joseph

Agreed with Joseph let justice take its course.

Besides arent cockroaches expected to survive a nuclear war?

Gordon 10
Mushroom

Re: That's who you need @hollerith

Is it entirely fair to put Snowden and Assange in the same bucket anymore?

Snowden took his own risks and is dealing with the comsequences of them. Assange seems to have taken far less risks and can't even deal with the consequences of his own personal life let alone take any responsibility for what his organisation has done.

it takes balls to go against everything your homeland has taught you and to knowingly accept you will never go home. What's ballsy and manly bout avoiding a sex charge, and flushing bail money that people gave you down the toilet.

Snowden (and Manning) heroes.

Assange gutless coward. (Nuke him)

Mozilla takes wraps off 25 DOLLAR Firefox OS smartphone

Gordon 10

be afraid

holey moley - if this thing takes off its going to have a lot of the established players running scared. talk about bringing smartphones to everyone

Nokia launches Android range: X marks the growing low-cost spot

Gordon 10
WTF?

Re: Why?

I thought this as well. My best guess this is purely a result of MS's stupid internal competition policy. Given product lead times I suspect these were in progress just before the Nokia sale, and they had some barely relevant Veep in MS who wouldnt discount WinPhone enough to make low end lumia's price effective.