* Posts by CD001

925 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jun 2009

Tesco pricing cock-up provokes beer stampede

CD001

Be fair

To be fair, Newcastle practically IS Scotland - so far north of the Watford gap as to be practically Iceland as far as I can see... ;)

Apple nemesis sues iOS, Mac, and Android devs

CD001

Ye-es

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Good luck selling infringing software in the US.

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Ye-es - but... if it came down to either/or - the European market is approximately twice the size of the US market.

Cookies law: Only two EU states implement full measures – so far

CD001

Twonk

The web is stateless, websites cannot maintain the session from one page to another without some way of tracking the user, you're effectively creating an entirely new instance of the application on every single page - yes you CAN pass the session ID around in the URI but that has a whole host of security implications in and of itself (particularly with regards to session hijacking).

The BEST way to say ooooh, maintain the state of a user's shopping cart is to use a cookie to track their session - there is still the potential for session hijacking but it's not something that happens inadvertently when someone copies and pastes an address.

If you're building any kind of halfway secure web application you basically HAVE to use (SSL) cookies, well unless you want the user to log in on every single page of course.

So Mr. Morrow - as a (heavily pierced) "pony-tailed twat" myself - I ask you to go back to your world of shoddy single-user, toy, VB6 applications, you obviously have no understanding of how the www works.

Aside:

Really, unless you're a crapvertiser, you should need no more than 3 cookies.

1: a non-secure session cookie that holds no sensitive information (basket contents for instance).

2: a secure user authentication session cookie.

3: entirely optional but I tend to use it, a cookie placed from JavaScript which provides information for the server-side code about the JS functionality the user has allowed in their browser. It's more reliable than browser sniffing in HTTP headers and allows you to determine whether your script is sending the user "rich, dynamic" views (e.g. when the user adds a product to the basket it automatically appears in a basket summary box without having to reload the page) or static ones (effectively flat HTML).

Saves a tonne of <noscript> tags and means the markup pushed to the browser is better optimised for that browser (which cuts down your bandwidth consumption).

Groundhog day: more Sony breaches

CD001

What...

What makes you think they've got root access? Changing a page is somewhat misleading on the intertubes ... odds are they found a CMS user account with a crap password - which gives absolutely no indication as to what access level that user had (assuming there was some kind of RBAS on the CMS).

Dear Dell and Microsoft: You're not Apple

CD001

MS DO support hobbiests

MS actually support hobbiests far better than many other companies (games houses excluded) - look at any of the Visual Studio Express editions. OK, they're just trying to suck developers into their platform so that, in the workplace, they'll choose the paid-for version of Visual Studio - but if you just want to knock up a quick Windows app (a tool for modding data files in a game for instance) Visual C# Express is fantastic.

I don't remember seeing anything like that for Logic Studio (a rather good Mac music program) or Adobe Photoshop.

CD001

erm...

I LIKED Netscape Navigator 4...

Playboy sneaks NAKED LADIES onto iPad

CD001

Oh come on...

It's not worth the cash perhaps but c'mon - 70s hairdos on porn?! Gotta be worth a chuckle surely?

Apple to support reps: Don't confirm Mac infections

CD001

Hmmm

Unless I've missed something Windows 7 doesn't actually allow you to run as admin precisely - they've taken the Unix-like route of running admin accounts as sort of pseudo-admins with UAC popping a window up whenever you need to perform an action that requires full privileges.

If you're running a limited privileges account you get exactly the same UAC prompt but you have to log in as an admin to continue ... pretty much like sudo.

The problem now isn't so much the OS; not *nix, not OSX, not Windows (any more) - it's that people will simply click "yup" when prompted to. The only way around it is set up only one pure admin account and not tell anyone else the password... though this may not exactly lead to marital harmony :P

CD001

Hmmm

Actually it's a Trojan delivering a virus payload as opposed to a worm delivering a virus payload - it's still a virus.

It's like AIDs vs the common cold - the infection methods are different but they're both viruses.

New PlayStation Network hack hijacks user accounts

CD001

Erm...

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When people are paying for your service and it is a major revenue generator , you actually put effort into building the system and making sure it is secure!

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Like Windows you mean?

Alpha.gov.uk – it's nearly a beta

CD001

Took a glance...

For maybe 10 seconds and then killed it - you know what - I don't WANT a government website to be full of fluff and zogging great images - I just want it to be really easy to find information (like when the service charge and ground rent are this year for the block of flats I live in).

Just text, maybe a logo or two and a well thought out and implemented menu/category/search system ... that's it thanks.

Computers taught to sing using autotuning talent show

CD001

Can't...

Can't see this working with EBM, Aggrotech or some forms on synth pop where the aim seems to be to make the human vocalist sound as synthesised as possible... what are they going to emulate when the machines all sound like Kylie?

Boffins develop method of driving computers insane

CD001

uhhuh

The advent of computers, and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerization.

Virgin outsources techies, pulls plug on Trowbridge call centre

CD001

Agreed

The only way to deal with anyone halfway useful at VM is to ring up and select the "I'm thinking about leaving" option - then you can get them to transfer you to tech support and get one of the lovely, helpful and actually knowledgeable scouse techies ... granted, they're only marginally more intelligible than the staff in India ;)

PSN hack triggers lawsuit

CD001
FAIL

erm...

I have a PSN account so it is and I'm not. Fail rightbackatya.

CD001

Really?

You really, really think that even if this lawsuit is successful that Sony will get any more than a proverbial slap on the wrist?

Multimillionaire's private space ship 'can land on Mars'

CD001

Not to mention

Not to mention the fact that many ocean-going innovations (like the rudder) came from outside Europe; China, India and the Middle-East.

Steam engines, telephony, monorails - it's only really been since the Industrial era that Europeans have been inventing stuff.

PSN gaming network outage sparks DDoS rumours

CD001

Portal 2

Wasn't Portal 2 released a day or two ago on both the PC and PS3 - maybe it's had such a massive uptake it's floored the PSN :) Either that or GladOS has gotten into the systems!

Virgin Media says sorry over Superhub snafu

CD001

Oooh...

If you can do that I might give them a bell and see if they'll just swap out my old modem for a new one :)

CD001

Not exactly...

IIRC you rent the modem from Virgin for as long as you use their service so they provide you with one (although it's now this "Superhub" - it was just a modem when I signed up... but then, they were still Blueyonder then). I've no idea whether you can mung your own in - I'd guess not but I could be wrong.

Calling all readers: Want some new icons?

CD001

(Won't Somebody Please) Think of The Children?

Pedobear?

UK net banking website falls flat on its bank

CD001

ummm

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username on page one and asking for pw if you get username right

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Ummm, who thought _that_ was a good idea?!? Surely login form 101 says "DO NOT identify whether it's the username or password that's incorrect as that provides verification of part of the data".

The best sci-fi film never made: Also-rans take a bow

CD001

HmmKay

Not read much on that list but of those I have I tend to think they'd make pretty awful films...

The Kim Stanley Robinson "Mars" series would be sooooo monumentally plodding and uneventful on the big screen... and as for anything by William Gibson, be careful what you wish for, remember Johnny Mnemonic?

Should be onto a pretty safe bet with Philip K Dick though ;)

Apple smears Web2.0rhea across online support

CD001

Ye-es

Apple admitting that there may possibly be problems with any of their products??!

Ah no, that's why it's a users' forum so that the defective users can enquire as to what they're doing wrong.

Whitehats pierce giant hole in Microsoft security shield

CD001

Erm...

There's practically NO reason to run a modern version of Windows as root/admin either - any halfway well written software will save any files that are modified during normal operation to the user folder. It's only badly written (or legacy) applications that tend to try and write to "protected" dive space.

In fact, even if you do run Win 7 as admin, UAC still pops up a privilege escalation prompt whenever needed.

MS guidelines for developers have been to "do it right" (use the user folder) since the fairly early days of XP at least... the problem is they'd never enforced it.

IP registry goes to Defcon 1 as IPv4 doomsday nears

CD001

Hmmm...

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Sure there is no such thing as a "local LAN IP" in IPv6

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There is 1 local machine IP though, ::1 and the IPv4 sub-subset perhaps, ::ffff:192.168.1.1 for instance - I'm guessing that IPv6 will inherit the "local LAN" reserved IP addresses from IPv4 and therefore there will never be any devices shipped with IPv6 addresses in that range.

STONERS are DESTROYING the PLANET

CD001

Ye-es

... but the oak tree has been locking that CO2 in place for the last few hundred years - the CO2 in the weed crop has been returned to the atmosphere (quite literally) in just a few months.

The net impact of the weed crop on CO2 levels year on year is nothing. Whereas the Oak copse will have held that CO2 trapped up until long after your grandchildren are dead - carbon offsetting in this way is all about postponing the problem so long that it's no longer YOUR problem.

CD001

Ummm...

This is only pot we're talking about - weedheads don't quite fall into the heroin junkie type category normally ... about the only crime a stoner is likely to commit (apart from the obvious weed buying bit) is walking out of the all-night garage with 20 Mars bars because they got mixed up in the shelf maze and wandered out the door before going to the till.

And then being too paranoid to go back into the garage afterwards because like, they'll know man... O_o

Microsoft breaks own world record for IE nonsense

CD001

Ye-es...

I _think_ what he was trying to say was that a program (web browser) optimised for the underlying OS will run better than one that isn't... and by extension such a web browser that's built to strongly support the emerging standard will, in theory, render HTML5 pages faster/more efficiently than a web browser running on the same OS that isn't optimised for that OS or one that doesn't as strongly support the emerging standards.*

That at least might make some kind of sense.

As long as they tightly integrate IE10 with Windows and not the other way around they should manage to avoid another billion dollar fine - I wonder if they'll bungle that as well as the speech-writers bungled that speech?

* although, if the OS-optimised web browser is coded by chimps it'll still run like a three legged dog so the initial premise may well be flawed anyway.

UK is 15th best place in the world to do IT

CD001
Joke

That...

That's what you get for seceding from the UK, no-one to blame but yourselves! :P

Embrace chaos, beat pirates... buy my book, says Mason

CD001

To be fair

He also used the term "Youth Movement" - which means he was last in one in 1963.

You're not necessarily past it - I'm guessing you're just suffering from the same "urge to hit someone" I get when I have to listen to an ageing hippy who's been on the josticks and whale song trying to pretend they're "down wiv da kidz" and missing the mark by a cringeworthy margin ("Remixing our culture" my arse).

AdBlock Plus man disputes Mozilla add-on tests

CD001

NotScript

https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/notscripts/1.0.4/

Just saying...

CD001

Yeah

All teh trendiez kids are moved to Chrome innit?!

That's why some of us still use Firefox - muppet.

Microsoft cranks out Internet Explorer 10 preview

CD001

Assuming...

Assuming he's not still running XP - in which case he's probably still on IE6 and life is still shit for web monkeys ;)

Opera embraces Google's open source JPEG killer

CD001

Now...

Now go back and read the article again... Opera are using WebP in their Turbo proxy; when you view anything through Turbo it's transcoded and compressed on the server before sending it down to your PC/Netbook/Phone/whatever so it downloads quicker and uses less of your bandwidth.

It's in the transcoding that WebP is used to make the images smaller - web monkeys will still be using JPGs or PNGs on their websites but Opera Turbo will be sending them as WebP - it ain't that hard to understand is it?

CD001

Actually...

There IS a mouse gestures add-on for IE (8 and upwards at least) - but, like FF it's an add-on.

Opera is the browser I generally recommend to non-developer people (although Dragonfly is pretty damned good for devs) because it's probably the best web browser to actually use as a web browser (rather than a dev tool), with the least amount of tinkering.

Updating it now...

GNOME 3: Shocking changes for Linux lovers

CD001

Actually...

Actually, if the Windows cmd had auto-complete (for things that you've NOT yet typed) rather than having to use --help or /? to get the sub-command list I'd be quite a happy camper!

Brought to you by DELTREE WINDOWS.

CD001
Happy

Just means...

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But I like to manually place a window at the top of the screen or the left side of the screen.

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That just means you don't have a big enough screen ;)

Google hits 'prove we killed no Afghans' – Assange™

CD001

Hmmm...

"Sarah Bee" "blood on its hands" : 1 result

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Be afraid, be very afraid

CD001

*pssst*

That was a UN peacekeeping mission NOT just the Pentagon or the US ... I don't think Hollywood has rewritten that piece of history yet has it?

Saying "the Pentagon has saved lives" might be true but by that yardstick it's also true that Hitler (I call Godwin's Law on myself) made peoples' lives better by pushing for "family cars" (Volkswagon) and heavily backing the construction of the autobahn.

It's kind of weighting your argument to highlight the good points and downplay the bad ... Julian Assange - founding Wikileaks good, being a monumental, egotistical twit ... not so much.

Halifax cuts investment accounts off from the web until April 2012

CD001

or c)

Or C) beg the government for another big wodge of cash to keep them solvent.

Richard Branson to prowl oceans' hadal depths in flying sub

CD001

"so much to discover"

Ia Ia Cthulu Fhtagn :)

Microsoft wraps Windows 8 in Ribbon UI?

CD001

Ribbon UI

makes more sense on a 1920 x 1080 monitor

Facebook Comments kill web freedom

CD001

Anon

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What the internet needs is not an end to anonymity, but a more widespread system of assessing the "people" we meet on it. Just like IRL, we should be able to recognise the psychos, idiots, bs-ers, wise people, comedians and our friends. Not just on each individual forum or platform, but across the system as a whole.

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That's where I disagree - there is nothing wrong with per-platform identity; on Facebook I do actually use my real name (technically it was against the Ts & Cs not to back in the day - now you can add an alias I think) - but that's the only place on the web that I do.

You know what - I "manage" my Facebook identity; it's like the sanitised version - my mum is on Facebook for crying out loud (so is my partner's mum - which is worse). I've probably got different usernames for almost every service I use from the comments here to my Steam account to my PSN username (and WAY more besides). So yeah - you could build up a profile of me from my Reg comments - but they'd bear precious little relevance to what's on my Facebook page.

The only people that get to cross reference my identities are those I know anyway - since I tell them who I am on other services (if I want them to know) and since they know me they probably know more than is revealed by any of my online personas.

Teens who listen to music a lot are at high risk of depression

CD001

Bipolar

see title

CD001

Oh...

I quite liked Adam and the Ants (well maybe 3 songs) and Depeche Mode...

Mozilla puts squeeze on slow Firefox add-ons

CD001

Yup

The Opera debugger is Dragonfly - I'm pretty sure it doesn't load at startup - you'll notice it takes a second maybe when you hit Ctrl + Shift + I before it appears, although that could be the amount of time it takes to parse the DOM.

I generally recommend Opera for "end users" but for web monkeys it's gotta be Firefox I'm afraid; there are just too many useful extensions. Though I'm not entirely convinced by FF4's copying of the Opera UI and removal of the status bar.

Online car-buying firm agrees to more transparent pricing

CD001

Get the tune...

Get that irritating bloody tune in your head and repeat:

"We rob anyone, dot com"

Men at Work lose Down Under plagiarism appeal

CD001

So

So all of Ghengis Khan's descendants (of which there are many) should receive royalties on "Yüan chʾao pi shih"*? What about Shakespeare's descendants?

Long copyright terms merely give the holders a legal stick to fleece everyone else; and the holders aren't necessarily the creators. As a musician and songwriter I bet you'd be pleased as punch for someone to chase after you if you happened to unknowingly infringe upon the copyright of an obscure piece of music from the 60s - and have to give over all the royalties on your multi-platinum, life altering success?

Hell, if you _really_ want it to go on and on it could be your descendants fighting legal battles with the descendants of other songwriters who've been dead for decades. That would effectively kill music (well anything created really) entirely - I'm sure we could all trace several creators back in our ancestry.

*(yeah facetious examples, and yes I Googled that wording, it's "The secret history of the Mongols" - only picked that as an example because there are a hell of a lot of people descended from Ghengis Khan)

Official: PS3 has more fanboys than the Xbox 360 does

CD001

*sigh*

Every single story I've read today I've thought "it's April 1st" ... I'll wait until tomorrow before I decide whether this is a piss-take (which the "1963 XBoXs" sold in Japan makes me think it is) - yes, I really am that much of an inveterate cynic I'm afraid.