* Posts by Swarthy

2412 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Mattel urged to scrap Wi-Fi mic Barbie after Register investigation

Swarthy

Re: Oh what can we say...

I always do what Teddy tells me.

Linux kernel devs adopt Bill and Ted's excellent code of conduct

Swarthy

Re: Help learning Linux..

To answer your question: Almost any distro (distribution, IE version) will fit on a 16/32GB thumb drive. I have found Linux Mint to be one of the most easy-to-use (and pretty) distros out of the box. It does come with a media player, and I believe a PDF viewer and Wine is a fairly simple install.

Canadian bloke refuses to hand over phone password, gets cuffed

Swarthy
IT Angle

Re: Beaver pelts(..borked graphics)

I did something similar about 20 years ago.. not a prank, just really screwed up my X install....

Storm in a K-Cup: My SHAME over the eco-monster I created, says coffee pod inventor

Swarthy

Re: Bah ... philistines

I figured I should chime in, being one of those self-proclaimed experts and snobs and all...

For good espresso the machine does not matter quite so much, provided you can have the pressure set to 16 bar and can pull a shot over the course of 30-40 seconds.

French press is a perfectly acceptable method, but it does tend to get muddy, no matter how coarse a grind you use. Don't even get me started on people who proclaim the superiority of French Press while using off-the-shelf pre-ground (medium grind) coffee.. The only quality they'll be able to evaluate is the burn/scald unit at their local hospital

For a drip-brew style coffee pour-overs (chemex, etc.) are lovely, but a bit of a faff to work with. Percolators make a rich brew, but they tend to keep old oils and sometime the whole thing will go rancid. a drip-brew machine (Mr. Coffee, Bunn, etc.) is the epiotme of 'good enough'. The absolute pinnacle is a vacuum brew system they can be as pleasing to the eye as the coffee is to the palate.

K-cups are the absolute convenience coffee. They take next to no effort to brew, even less effort to clean up, and is done quicker than waltzing over to a coffee shop. The coffee is usually "meh"; but that still makes it a huge improvement over Starbucks.

Swarthy
Joke

Re: He's right.

"I like my coffee like I like my women: Strong and bitter"

Boffins find Earth's earliest Homo in Ethiopian hilltop

Swarthy
Pint

Re: FFS!

Flying Crap Icon? I thought that was what the AC mask was for..or is that a Spewing Crap icon?

Tinder Plus charges oldies MORE to ogle young hotties' pics

Swarthy
WTF?

Re: NSFW

BLASPHEMY! Expecting us to be working at work.. I say.

$250K: That's what Lenovo earned to rat you out with Superfish

Swarthy
Paris Hilton

Re: Just goes to show....

"But these days consumer PC/Laptops etc you don't even have that option; You only get the OEM's rebuild partition"
And that really sucks when the HDD goes out. An actual conversation with Tech Support after a hard drive failure:

Me: "My laptop hard drive started making clicking and grinding sounds, and would not be recognized on boot; so I replaced it, and would like to request some installation media, to get the laptop running again."

So-Called-Tech: "Oh, you don't need media, you can just restore from the Recovery Partition. When you turn on the laptop..<goes into spiel on recovering>"

Me: "That hard drive is dead, BIOS would not recognize it, there is a new hard drive installed that does not have the recovery partition, can you send me the install media?"

SCT: "All hard drives in our laptops have the recovery partition, you just need to access it by..."

Me: <Hangs up, installs Mint>

US court rubber-stamps dragnet metadata surveillance (again)

Swarthy

"lust for power and influence and money and black limousines is baked into their soles."

There's definitely something fishy going on...

Microsoft working on 'Nano' version of Windows Server for web-scale ops

Swarthy
Devil

Re: It's more than the core

"Or just re-brand FreeBSD"
Then Apple would sue them for copying their business model.

BSD Daemon -->

FCC says cities should be free to run decent ISPs. And Republicans can't stand it

Swarthy

Re: VICTORY! (@Rampant Spaniel)

"Free market ideology only really begins to work when there is a sensible level of competition."

^ ^ This!

Laughing gas and rubber: A recipe for suborbital flight?

Swarthy
Paris Hilton

Re: Shame

So what you're saying is that there are slim pickings for an appropriate first name? And at that, the choice pickings have already been used.

Boffin: Use my bionic breakthrough for good, and not super cyborgs

Swarthy
Thumb Up

I applaud this research

We should all give 'em a hand!

Elementary, my dear penguin: It's the second beta of Freya

Swarthy
Linux

Re: Pompous Twats

I would be more willing to donate to distros if they would limit themselves to just integrating a solid base system, rather than the usual exercise in world domination.
In other words:"Do one thing, and do it well"?

Swarthy

MIght be worth the money

..And they might get a lot of donations, if they make their distro systemd-free, rather than a Ubuntu-with-a-nice-skin.

That would be a project I would spend speculative money on. I will not, however, spend money on a beta UI.

Google offers 'INFINITY MILLION DOLLARS' for bugs in Chrome

Swarthy
Thumb Up

Re: Simple infinity

Wow.. good catch. That is a bit of an oops.

Why does the NSA's boss care so much about backdoors when he can just steal all our encryption keys?

Swarthy

So the quote morphs into something like "Those who give up privacysecurity to gain security deserve neither security nor security"?

...Sounds Legit.

Swarthy

Re: Insult to idiots.

I agree with Mark. The word you are looking for is not "idiot", it is "Jackass". Or perhaps "Rat Bastard", or "Power-hungry fuck-wad".

Calling him an idiot is attributing to idiocy that which, at this point, can only be malice.

Wanna free web domain for a year? Hey, it's not rocket .science

Swarthy

As I write this

I see xkcd.science is still available.. Someone want to let Mr. Munroe know to grab it?

Swarthy

homeopathy.science is taken.. I thought for sure that would break something.

FCC Republicans slam brakes on net neutrality, but this wagon ain't slowing

Swarthy
Big Brother

"...just unite and tell everyone that what they're doing is for the greater good."

They do.

The truly nasty part that most people overlook is that we are often provided an A/B choice in a problem with a [0-255] solution set. On top of that, when two parties which are so often yelling at each other, calling each other names, and disagreeing to be disagreeable do sing from the same page, no-one questions it: "It must be the only way, because if there were any room for argument, they would argue".

There is also a blending of these tactics wherein a policy is set (for example, anti-"piracy" legislation) one side says that the legislation should carry criminal sanctions, the other says that it should place limits on infringers' available bandwidth, without jail time. Neither side mentions that the method for policing the piracy violates search & seizure limitations, screws privacy, and is selectively enforceable making it easy to target people you don't like.

The populous will argue jail time vs. bandwidth throttling; but 90% will not think to question logging, warrentless searches, etc. (Okay 75% won't think, full stop)

You are not quite cynical enough.

For pity's sake, you fool! DON'T UPGRADE it will make it worse

Swarthy
Devil

Re: Perhaps I could try sheep farming instead. It’s got to be easier than this.

"... be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm" -Brick Top

HOLY SEA SNAILS! Their TEETH are strong enough to build a plane

Swarthy
Thumb Up

Re: Not the strongest by far!

Have an up-vote for "the mollusk's molars". I think we have a new (family-friendly, even) alternative to "the dog's danglies".

TITANIC: Nuclear SUBMARINE cruising 'Sea of KRAKENS' may be FOUND ON icy MOON

Swarthy
Flame

Re: Extend the mission time

But a couple of tanks of LOX to burn and possibly act as ballast control... ->

SWINGBELLIES! Take heed AGAIN: Booze shortens your life

Swarthy

Re: If you are alive...

"The leading cause of death is life"

and

"Life is a sexually transmitted disease, there is no cure, and it is always fatal"

IBM says dating apps can give you a nasty infection DOWN THERE!

Swarthy

Re: Bunch of killjoys

A bit of a Traveling Salesman problem?

'Giving geo-engineering to this US govt is like giving a child a loaded gun'

Swarthy

Re: What I don't get is why people in Florida still vote Republican...

What I don't understand is why Florida is still allowed to vote?

Just do a news search on Florida.. you'll see....

Amazing, cool, wow: Humans naturally use POSITIVE words, and that is GOOD

Swarthy

Sadly, your lack of understanding of humanity, and humanity's lack of understanding of you does not indicate a species diversion;quite the opposite. H.Sapians understand far more about the migrating habits of the Arctic Turn than they understand about ..frankly anything as it applies to an individual.

Swarthy
Big Brother

Re: poking holes

I find the research to be doubleplusgood; your attitude is ungood and needs an increase: Report to Room 101!

Anonymous loose cannon admits DDoSing social services and housing websites

Swarthy

Can one be a 'Skiddie' at middle age?

I propose a new term for this type: Scurmudgeon.

Toshiba packs NUMERIC KEYPAD onto self-bricking USB drive

Swarthy

Re: TrueCrypt?

I wonder what the possibility of a device w/ the pin-pad that holds no data, but rather a USB port, a battery and encryption hardware.

I'm thinking it could act as a flow-trough port, and en/decrypt the data on the fly, using the pin and the device ID as the encryption key, or as the look-up to the key in a locally held table. Whatever size/type of drive you hook up to the thing, that's your storage; OS independent; could have versions with 1, 2, or 10 PIN options (5 users, each w/ 2 [regular and duress] PINs) to segregate the market.

Sony Pictures claims 'Nork mega-hack attack' cost it just $15 million

Swarthy

Re:"Based on true events"

And at long last, Hollywood will have an original(-ish) movie.

Avoiding data retention will be as easy as eating a burger

Swarthy
Big Brother

Re: sorry to be thick

If it helps: 'meta-' is a self-referencing prefix. So metadata is data that describes data.

Tom Wheeler flings off dressing gown, dons gloves for net neutrality RUMBLE

Swarthy

Re: No Nothing...@ Uncle Ron

Have you compared US internet bills to Europe, or anywhere else? We are already getting walloped in the wallet.

Win! The Ultimate Cash 'n' Carrion Survival Kit

Swarthy
Happy

I got suckered into giving El Reg all my data registered for a previous compo.. So here's hoping I pull.

Who's come to fix your broadband? It may be a Fed in disguise. Without a search warrant

Swarthy
Childcatcher

Re: Keep a pet judge handy

It's worse than that. Over here there are basically 24-hour call centers of 'judges' that can issue warrants; there's not a lot else these para-judges can do, I don't think they are even authorized to perform marriages, but they are on shifts so that the cops don't ever have to "wake up the judge" to get a warrant, they just call the 1-800-WARRANT hotline.

Breaking news: BBC FINALLY spots millions of mugshots on cop database

Swarthy
WTF?

@AC

That's a bit of an odd proposition, coming from an AC.

Spent the weekend watching Game of Thrones? You're a FAT LONELY SADDO

Swarthy

Re: @Don Dumb

There is no "after".

I had a similar experience (and then did it again... Slow learner here); you may have an 'after' after they get near the 3 years old mark. My son is one of those 6AM morning-types, the good part is he wants to go to bed around 7:30-8PM.

It does get better. --If for no other reason then that one day they will be teenagers and not want to get out of bed before noon, and then you get to wake them up. I am planning on keeping a bag of marbles in the freezer for just that occasion.

Super-cookie crumbles: Verizon vows to kill off hated zombie stalkers

Swarthy
WTF?

What I find Objectionable:

VZW charges their customers about $140 for a 10GB plan. On top of that they are selling user info and they are trying to be able to sell access to their subscribers.

I get the "If the service is free, you are the product"; but this horseshit is taking "Multiple revenue streams" a bit too far. VZW subscribers are paying for the "opportunity" to be products.

- Glad I left when I did.

OH HAPPY DAY! Lawyers replaced by AI

Swarthy

It looks like you're trying to sue,

Would you like some help with that?

FCC sexes up, er, sextuples 'broadband' speed to 25Mbps in US

Swarthy
Facepalm

@ Mark

..You could try reading the article, or even the comments above, before 'correcting' others. Click the link, I don't feel like re-typing something that's been said twice.

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

Swarthy
Boffin

Re: looking for apps

Are you confident that you can launch any app on your machine in about a second any other way?
Yes.

Win+R, type in the program (NOT 'app') name and enter. Possibly use the down arrow to pick it up from history.

Twitter ATTENTION SEEKERS can now blab to each other IN PRIVATE

Swarthy

Re: Private

"This is just between you, me, and The Listening Post....."

NASA greenlights SpaceX and Boeing to carry crew to ISS in 2017

Swarthy
Headmaster

Re: Special cargo

I see your commas and raise you semi-colons.

"The Boeing CST-100 capsule will carry four crew members and a load of cargo; John Elbon, general manager of Boeing Space Exploration, said that each capsule was designed..."

SUPERHANDS! Fossils of early human ancestors reveal a GRIPPING development

Swarthy
Thumb Up

Gripping Article!

Keep up the good work!

ICANN orders re-evaluation of dot-gay

Swarthy

dot-inc

Actually, I could see a very interesting use for dot-inc; namely that the domain must match the incorporated business name. EG: Hershey's could register The_Hershey_Company.inc, but not hersheys.inc; this would avoid trademark disputes with, say, Hershey_Creamery_Company.inc

No more using product names for domains, Mars.inc could not have a separate Marathon.inc

Oooh.. and wholly owned subsidiaries are relegated to sub-domains: geico.Berkshire_Hathaway.inc

Panicked teen hanged himself after receiving ransomware scam email

Swarthy

This is sad.

Sadly, as we can't really get at the culprits, we could try to get education publicly available, and common. What ever happened to the PSAs on (US) TV; or the after-school specials? The acting and dialog were truly dire, but they did address some issues of the time; I could see them being used for things like scam-ware and social media awareness. Just a little blurb in the middle of popular times announcing "The Police will NOT put a pop-up on your computer, that is a scam"*

*The police will kick your door in @ 3AM instead; that is legitimate police work.

Is it humanly possible to watch Gigli and Battlefield Earth back-to-back?

Swarthy
Alert

Not bad movies, but a marathon I shant live down

One evening watching movies with a friend, the lineup was Apocalypse Now, Brazil, and The Wall. There were no recreational pharmaceuticals in use, and no boozahol.. but Damn did my head get bent that night.

The Fiend wanted to end the night with Memento but the movie wouldn't play.

Facebook worth more than Portugal? Hell, it's worth a LOT more than THAT

Swarthy
Big Brother

Re: Congrats to Tim...@YAAC

Just don't commit crime. How hard can that really be?
Well, givenof the propensity for vague new laws and the widening definition of certain crimes, I'd say it is becoming more and more difficult not to commit a crime.

Wizard of Oz OFFICIALLY 'most significant movie' EVER, says PNAS

Swarthy

Nah, the whole Zombie thing is really a reference to "Les Schtroumpfs noirs". That has had a profound impact, but as they were looking at moves, it was left off.