* Posts by Tom 38

4341 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2009

O2 refuses to deny plans to offload home broadband product

Tom 38

Re: they were mavricks

Citation for the caps, throttling and shaping? I don't see any of that on Be.

Tom 38

Re: Just left BE as they no public FTTC plans

Presumably this sale will include Be, which makes me very sad. I've been with Be since before launch (I'm still on the introductory special offer rate!), and for me the service is beyond excellent. Whenever I rarely have technical issues, their support team has been excellent - I don't even mind the offshored Bulgarian call centre, they all seemed extremely polite, knowledgable, and better english than BT's "Steve" in Bengaluru.

I already take Sky TV, so I've had the option of cheaper broadband for some time. For me, Be is the service that I want, so it is worth paying extra for it.

Up your wormhole: Star Trek Deep Space 9 turns 20

Tom 38

Re: @ Tom 38

Nope, considered that one, I was listing current shows and cancelled shows. Sanctuary ended on schedule.

Tom 38

Pah, all ST and B5 is bobbins, the best sci fi in last 30 years has to have been the amazing Andromeda. Only kidding.

@Carl Williams: There is a bit of a dearth of "future" sci-fi at the moment, the tendency has been for more dramatic "near now" sci-fi, and for making it with very high production values. Shows have either had to be brilliant (BSG reboot) or long running (Dr Who reboot) to survive. We're missing a current show that has the appeal of an SG-1 though. Here are some current shows to look out for:

Alphas: Sci fi? It's 'Heroes' on the SyFy channel, with a little pseudo science thrown in. Bit too much magic, I wouldn't disagree with anyone who classes this as "fantasy" rather than "sci fi"

Continuum: Canadian time travel, eh? What's that aboot? It's not bad actually, but it's from cable, so only ten episodes a season, but not at the whim of Fox or NBC. I can't quite work out if it is paradoxical that the "good guys" in the future are actually right wing nutters, or if it is designed to appeal to Fox viewers. Hoping the former. Season 2 will be interesting as they delve into some of the paradoxes.

Falling Skies: Americans are loving these end of days kind of shows. This time, aliens invade, and for some reason want our kids to hook up their machines. Crazy.

Fringe: Coming to the end, definitely sci fi, but less believable as the series roll by. JJ Abrams designs shows that grab me for 5 years, I get to the end and the dénouement and think "WTF? What a crock." (see Alias, Lost). He's an evil evil fucker, and I love him for it.

Haven: Another SyFy show that has me asking "is this SF or fantasy?". Precious little science in the show.

Person of Interest: Is this Sci Fi? A computer that can track people around the world and predict if they are going to come to harm, and rings up a team of people to protect them. They don't go into the SF angle much until it's a plot device. JC is a badass.

Revolution: Ridiculous SF that I still watch. In the future, somehow electrons no longer flow, cue fall of civilisation. Some people have amulets that sometimes allow electricity to work. Add to that the dialogue is ropey and the acting (especially the lead character) is awful. I've not heard this getting cancelled yet, but it would not surprise me.

Red dwarf: Hah, still going. Don't like the new episodes though, give me "White Hole" any day.

Walking Dead: SF? Another near now apocalypse show, this time with zombies.

Warehouse 13: zomg, SyFy make some bad shows. I'll watch anything with Saul Rubinek in though.

Having said that, here's the recent sci-fi cancelled list:

Alcatraz - Interesting premise, too slow, cancelled. Could have gone somewhere, but got no viewers.

Dark Angel - I still can't forgive this being cancelled

Defying Gravity - liked it, it had promise, too slow (hence cancelled)

Dollhouse - Whedon lets another one get away

Eleventh Hour (US and UK versions) - both deserved to get canned

Eureka - ran it's course really, tea time SF

Firefly - Cap'n? Shiny.

Flashforward - cool show, but once you've done the flash forward once, what happens next season? Another flash? Please! (hence cancelled).

No Ordinary Family - Modern Family cross X-Men. Huge promise, ratings died on it, so it died.

Terminator: TSC - Good, but bleak. Could have had a third series if they'd tried.

Terra Nova - Can't spend that much per episode for that few viewers, hence cancelled

The Event - Aliens invade! I liked it, I think they were running out of ideas..

V - Hah. The first time I saw one of the lizard men pop out of a human skin, I almost wet myself laughing it was so ridiculous. I'm impressed this got a second series before being cancelled tbh.

'Better than Adobe' Foxit PDF plugin hit by worse-than-Adobe 0-day

Tom 38
Thumb Up

Re: Significance

Google for ``smashing the stack for fun and profit''.

How I learnt how to do buffer overrun exploits too :)

Is this possibly the worst broadband in the world?

Tom 38

I concur, need line stats to see why. Is router plugged into master socket, have you considered installing a replacement NTE5 faceplate with integrated filter, is internal wiring correct, yadda yadda.

My old man lives in the real middle of nowhere, 6km as crow flies from the exchange, initially he got 512k download synch, I replaced the faceplate and he now gets 3.5Mb, plenty enough for iplayer.

Ruby off the Rails: Enormo security hole puts 240k sites at risk

Tom 38
Headmaster

Confused (was: Surprise)

Is this a really bad joke, or are you not aware RoR has nothing to do with MS?

Drop that can of sweet pop and grab a coffee - for your sanity's sake

Tom 38
Coffee/keyboard

Re: If only . . .

It's only £7k without the warranty - which is essential - so add another £2k to each one. We broke two of the machines within a month of moving here, simply by, as the engineer put it 'making too much coffee'. We didn't pay that much anyway, I think around £6k with warranty.

Before we had the machines, in our old offices, we had tubs of Nescafe, which no-one drank, and loads of people popping out each hour to get their fix. £36k over 3 years in capex, but it keeps employees in the office and working.

There should be some sort of coffee icon..

Tom 38

Re: Sweet Poison

No HFCS anywhere apart from the US and Japan. Even the Mexicans don't put it in their Coke.

Tom 38

Re: Workplace coffee sucks. Always.

Our workplace coffee comes from beans roasted and milled the second you press the espresso button. Coffee isn't meant to be a drink drunk in gallons, just small powerful shots that you neck - drink water if you're thirsty.

Tom 38

Re: If only . . .

You need to find a better boss, we have 6 of these babies dotted around the office.

Just what the world needs: Android in the rice cooker

Tom 38
Headmaster

Re: Takes

Depends upon the type of rice. Basmati rice takes about 12 minutes, brown rice takes about 30 minutes, long grain or wild rice is inbetween, depends how much it has been washed or polished.

Scientists snap first film of giant squid in action

Tom 38

Re: Once again, a reminder

More people have been to the moon than to the deepest ocean floor.

More living people, definitely.

BT in ad slapdown after 'misleading' punters on fibre deployment dates

Tom 38
Thumb Up

Re: Misleading

My landlord is a useless dick who likes charging stupid fees, so that would make a lot of sense.

It would make even more sense for BT to say this themselves!

Tom 38

Re: Misleading

My exchange is done. All the cabinets in the area are done. People in the apartment block next to me can get infinity, people in my block cannot. BT won't say why, when or even if our block will get it.

Don't shoot the Windows Live Messenger, cry IM users

Tom 38

Looking at this from the wrong perspective

What about all the Skype users now being asked to share a network with the plebs who use WLM. It's like a second eternal September.

Toy train company bids for West Coast Mainline

Tom 38

Re: Human after all!

Oooh, you cynic you.

Whatever deficiencies our system has, it is miles better than the US system, where they have separate democrat and republican 'civil servants', every time the executive changes, so do a lot of the 'crats.

Tom 38

Re: Human after all!

A private secretary is a mid level civil servant assigned to a specific minister with a remit to express his ministers' views, manage the ministerial diary, prioritise and correspond with people who wish to talk to the minister, and most importantly, to record a non political factual notes of decisions and events.

€1.5bn swiped from EU cards: Fraud mainly takes place in the US

Tom 38

Re: Verified by VISA is horrible

Phil, that sounds like a clever system. HSBC have a much more tighter control that apply to my account - not by my choice.

Every time in the past 12 months I've tried to buy anything significant online - over £100 - HSBC have refused my card, requiring a phone call to them to say that yes, I did order a bunch of computer kit today, filling in the VbV forms.. Verified by Visa, not trusted by HSBC.

First rigid airship since the Hindenburg enters trials

Tom 38

Re: I wonder how much helium they waste

I actually mentioned it in the original post - alt.suicide.holiday FAQ.

It's not a monthly publication, somehow people only wanted the one issue, and after that all their mail was returned...

And it is quite interesting. Suicide was never 'sinful' until the god botherers got the idea that part of you - the soul - isn't yours, it's part of a cosmic godhood that you are just renting, and don't do anything bad with, or you go to the hot place. Greeks and Romans viewed suicide very differently.

There are lots of different methods documented in the FAQ, some are crazily efficient, some are crazily inefficient, and most suicide attempts use the inefficient ones - either they don't know better, or they don't really want to die.

Eg, hanging, you can hang yourself quite easily - and asphyxiate to death with a crushed windpipe. It's excruciatingly painful, and if discovered before you pop your clogs, unlikely to work. Alternatively, buy the right rope, tie the right knots, fall the right distance for your weight, and your neck will snap instantly, with almost no chance of failure.

Tom 38

Re: Hot Helium anyone

BTW you can make helium in a fusion reaction, the only problem is the radioactivity....

And the cost.

Tom 38

Re: I wonder how much helium they waste

Death by helium asphyxiation is the top recommended method in the alt.suicide.holiday faq-file. Simply get a canister of helium, rig up some breathing apparatus so that you are breathing almost pure helium. You get none of the 'omg I'm suffocating' gag reflex, since that is actually due to the build up of CO₂ in the blood, and you gradually lose consciousness as you lose oxygen in the blood. After about 20 minutes or so, you've had a comfortable, pain free death,

Downsides are that if discovered 'in time', you've typically suffered brain damage. Lots of it.

The other suicide method that has intrigued me is slashing the wrists and bleeding out in a warm bath, as favoured by the Romans, who saw 'patriotic suicide' as a way of dying with dignity in an impossible situation, eg Cato the Younger, who disembowelled himself - ripping out his own intestines rather than let a doctor tend him - rather than live under the despot Caesar.

John McAfee the Belize spymaster uncovers 'ricin, terrorist plots'

Tom 38

This is almost the plot to 'The Tailor of Panama'

His 'operatives' continually find new and interesting things, because McAffee keeps paying them. "Oh, John, my cousin Jesus in immigration knows about these Hezbollah terrorists coming in to Belize, all he needs is some chatting (and $10k USD)".

OTOH, It is a life-long dream of mine to make enough money in technology that I can afford to go bat-shit insane on soft drugs in a tropical paradise with my friendly 19 year old bed warmer. Kudos JM.

Victory on mobile belongs to Google in 2013

Tom 38

Google Now

Is there an easy way to sign up for this magical service that allows a computer to predict everything that you interested in and sell that information to anyone interested keep you fully informed about the world.

Ubisoft probes sudden rash of hijack attacks on gamers' accounts

Tom 38

Easy solution

Join my boycott of Ubisoft. No more issues with any of their shit.

'SHUT THE F**K UP!' The moment Linus Torvalds ruined a dev's year

Tom 38

Re: Err...

Sure, if Mauro was in any way Linus' employee. Which he isn't. He can't take him aside and give him a talking to, or sack him. The only nuclear option he has is to beat on him in public, so that his employers take notice.

OTOH, there is no need for someone like Linus to take that sort of tone on-list. He could have just said something along the lines of "Mauro, please re-check this, as I am convinced you are wrong in this", which would be just as painful for a senior dev to receive.

Aw grandad, I asked for an iPad and you got me an iPod

Tom 38

Hi Obviously!, why you using AC?

Outlook 2013 spurns your old Word and Excel documents

Tom 38
Facepalm

Re: Curious...

New shiny! New shiny! Ignore the fact that you can no longer open any archived documents! New shiny! New shiny!

There’s more to selling email than meets the eye

Tom 38

Free is still there

MSPs replace internal services with external ones, meaning you no longer need to manage those services, someone else does it for you.

Managing stuff isn't free, so when we moved from Notes to Google Apps, it freed up one Domino developer to do stuff that didn't make him sad all the time, 1 sysadmin whose job was keeping the global databases in sync and making sure the notes-blackberry bridge stayed working suddenly had time to work on some of the infrastructure backlog, and a bunch of rack space suddenly became free.

It's far cheaper to have google supply mail and calendaring tools than it is to do it ourselves.

Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you?

Tom 38
Joke

Re: Google

For fucks sake what an idiotic comment. I'm now stuck at work with the irresistible urge to google Heather Brooke :/

Tom 38
FAIL

Re: I'm shocked, SHOCKED

As an insider, can you explain why your operating costs are scheduled to triple in 4 years? Seems like you might need less money if you weren't planning to needlessly expand your organization.

After Sandy Hook, Senator calls for violent video game probe

Tom 38

Re: Typically American

It's really not simple though is it? There are hundreds of millions of guns and billions of rounds of ammo already in the hands of Americans, you could completely ban the sale of all guns and ammo for a 20 year period without massively affecting gun ownership.

I expect that some assault rifles will get banned for future sale as a result of this, but nothing else.

ICANN'T believe it's not Apple: Vatican wins domain-handout lottery

Tom 38

Biggest mistake ever in the history of the internet

I've no problem with IDNs, or TLDs in non roman script, but this is just a daft money grubbing exercise that will confuse and irritate people. www.coke? fuckoff.com.

Google can't use finger-fumble patent to poke Apple - Trade panel

Tom 38
FAIL

Re: America's trade commission

Is Illinois no longer in America? Has Canada invaded the Great Lakes and I missed the article?

Naked Scarlett Johansson pic snatch bloke gets 10 YEARS

Tom 38

Re: But...

Interesting point ACx, but who the fuck is talking about your mail being opened?

I'm positing "email is secure as a postcard". A postcard does not need to be opened to be viewed. A postcard makes its way through many postal systems. In any of those systems, the operators of the system, could, if they so wanted, view the contents of that postcard. The postcard can then be delivered, and there is no indication that the postcard has or has not been read by anyone else.

You might think that posties would never do that, they have no purpose to look, that it would be a disciplinary action if they did.

Compare this to an email. An email does not need to be marked as "opened" to be read. An email makes its way through many postal systems. In any of those systems, the operators of the system, could, if they so wanted, view the contents of that email. The email can then be delivered, and there is no indication that the email has or has not been read by anyone else.

You might think that SMTP admins would never do that, they have no purpose to look, that it would be a disciplinary action if they did.

You can dislike it, you can down vote me as much as you like, email is demonstrably similar to a postcard in snail mail, whilst people use it as a secure person to person communication tool.

Tom 38

Re: But...

You should have a reasonable expectation that a postcard sent through the mail may be read by someone other than you. You should have the same expectation for email - it's as secure as a postcard.

Anything you wouldn't put on a postcard shouldn't be put in an email.

Dutch operators: Ugh, we really overdid it on the 4G last night...

Tom 38

Re: People saying prices haven't increased?

If you think prices have increased and you're on an 18 month contract, then you're one of the morons subsidizing me (thx!). I have zero commitment to my phone provider, if they were to raise prices for 3G (they won't) I can just leave for elsewhere.

my £45 contract is now £47.56 a month due to 'inflation'

Play that game then - your £47.56 a month is only worth £45 in 2008.

Tom 38

@AC: Which operator do you think will raise their 2G/3G prices to absorb their 4G costs?

Which operators raised their 2G prices at all after spending 6 times as much on the 3G auction as they are anticipated to pay for the 4G auction?

I expect that the monthly cost of my 3G contract will continue to fall, as it has since I first got one in 2008.

I expect that a bunch of twats will pay over and beyond to get 4G now.

I expect that eventually I will get 4G when it is comparable to the cost of 3G and I need a new phone.

Tom 38

Re: 3G

£22.4bn not £37bn. In USD it was $35bn.

Licence A: TIW £4.3847bn

Licence B: Vodafone Airtouch £5.964bn

Licence C: BT £4.03bn

Licence D: One2One £4.003bn

Licence E: Orange £4.095bn

The 3G auction in Germany raised £30bn.

Tom 38
FAIL

Re: As usual...

Is someone holding your child over a balcony saying "Buy 4G service or the kid gets it"?

If you don't want 4G, don't get it.

It's official: Mac users are morally superior to Windows users

Tom 38
Headmaster

zemerick: It's called, maths, it's a new trick people are using. (short answer: browsers can be used on different OS.)

Long answer: Eg, these sets of donations

Chrome - Windows - 10, 10, 10, 10

Chrome - Mac - 50, 50, 50, 50

IE - Windows - 20, 20, 20, 20

Average for Chrome is 30

Average for IE is 20

Average for Windows is 15

The average for windows is therefore less than the average for any one browser. Without looking at the raw data, it would be tricky to say exactly why, but it is probably like my noddy example, IE users give more than the average for windows, !IE users on windows give less than the average for windows, and !IE users on !windows give more than both.

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei 'likes' Facebook despite ban

Tom 38

Re: Assumptions, assumptions...

You might want to look into why the Iranians have the regime that they currently do. They wanted to save themselves from a repressive regime that willingly murdered their own kind, desecrated their religion and acted as a puppet for the west.

Instead they wanted a stable society based upon their Islamic beliefs, completely isolated from western influence. Apart from that choice, they are no more "evil" than any of their near neighbours. There is far more religious freedom in Tehran than in Riyadh for example.

Football club catches, then punts, Kaspersky name

Tom 38

Re: The 15- game

I was brought up playing union, but league is definitely faster, more skilful, more physical and demanding. Tackling is better and harder, there is none of the silly playing on the floor that makes union so dull sometimes.

It's a proper tough man's game, if you can play league, you can play union no bother, but only a few union players can play league, it is just too physical and technical.

Won't follow Apple Store rules? How 'bout an iTASER TREAT!

Tom 38
Headmaster

Re: Basic question for Anonymous Puncher.

Punching someone in the face is not necessarily illegal. If you are 'engaging in discourse' with someone, and they use 'fighting words', then it is entirely fine to lay them out. Fighting words are not 'come on then, have a pop', but 'words used specifically to incite hatred from their target'.

In other words, the defence is 'Yes, I punched him, but he forced me to do it by saying XYZ'. Police are expected to not respond violently to fighting words btw.

Similarly, it can be illegal to photograph someone.

So not as clear cut as you put it.

Tom 38

Re: grey market/tasers

"Chasing someone" could be lethal to some people, should the police not chase people either?

At some point, the police need to stop thinking about how this will affect the perpetrator, and instead think about how to quickly resolve a situation for the benefit of everyone else.

He clearly felt his options were:

a) Shoot her with a tazer

b) Pepper spray

c) Shoot her

Ideally, he should have called for back up and waited, or been a bit more manly and cuffed a 8 stone woman. Perhaps there was no backup available, perhaps he felt that physically restraining her until backup arrived would be more harmful than the tazer.

'Metadatagate' fails to bring down Oz pollie

Tom 38

Tony Abbott and his legal politics

What is it about Tony Abbott and his desire to resort to dubious legal action to get the political result he wants? Before this, he funded legal action against One Nation/Pauline Hanson (aka, 'that daft racist') on electoral fraud grounds, getting them imprisoned before it was all overturned. In that case, he established a secret trust fund and recruited potential litigants, in order to stop a candidate from standing.

It's all so underhand and seamy.

Punters rate Apple, Samsung more highly than ever

Tom 38

Re: My favourites

Panasonic (TV's)

Logitech (PC peripherals)

Asus (PC components & Tablets)

Yep, this exactly. Although I was disappointed with my last replacement logitech, which feels like a nasty plasticy piece of shit - the box said it was the successor to the MX 518 :/

In a mobile data eating contest, Brits would win - Ofcom

Tom 38

Re: Source?

I pay £15/month for unlimited 3G internet, 6000 minutes, unlimited texts. I use on average between 300MB and 3 GB a month, with a peak usage of 8 GB, mainly subscription music and TV services. Watching TV on my phone for around 6 hours a day - I like to have the cricket on at work - uses about a GB of data.

Google maps app is BACK on iPhones, fanbois spared death

Tom 38
Thumb Down

Re: Maps worth more to Google than Apple?

Put up and shut up? No thanks.

Don't use a clubcard, don't tie your Oyster to your identity, pay for things with cash.

John McAfee on a plane to America

Tom 38

Re: There's still something missing.

If he's flying American Airlines, then the zombie aspect is covered, they are just fetching him his in flight meal.