Posts by Paul_Murphy 707 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Sep 2009
The chances of him passing on his genes whilst in prison is remote (I hope)!
I agree with a previous poster though - what sort of dire straits is this person in to drive them to try and rob a bank of $800?
Maybe they are just so ill-educated and/ or stupid that they also believe in religion.
On the other hand maybe it was an easy way for them to get a room with bed and board for free.
hmm.
ttfn
Ok, so it's not the most portable, but as a machine gun it's pretty good :-)
From wikipedia:
'The weapon had a reputation for great solidity and reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in Weapons & War Machines, describes an action that took place in August, 1916, during which the British Army's 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns continuously for twelve hours. They fired a million rounds between them, using 100 new barrels, without a single breakdown. "It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one."'
If you need a machine gun get a good one - stop faffing around with wannabees.
ttfn
>HarperCollins UK described the 26-loan limit as one of “many models that may
>need to be tested before we reach the optimum outcome”, adding that it was
>preferable to simply not allowing e-book lending, which is the line taken by
>some publishers.
Many models - as in 'we will keep on trying until people stop complaining'
Optimum outcome? for whom - your customers? no I didn't think so.
And if the publishers think that not offering e-books for lending is the answer then they are just burying their heads in the sand like the music industry does - good luck with that one ...
It probably won't be long until authors are going straight to e-book - possibly via an editor, and the publishers will find themselves with a very much smaller workload to worry about.
Paper books won't go away, and they won't be getting cheaper, but e-books are definitely a good idea.
ttfn
>... the £50 odd SRP ...
http://www.play.com/Search.html?searchstring=bulletstorm&searchtype=gameall&searchsource=2&searchfilters=s{bulletstorm}%2bc{362}%2b
and I think just under £30 on Steam.
Remember that the console kids like spending mum and dads money - the PC crowd will be spending their own, so it will be cheaper.
The REAL question for PC gamers is whether the (any) new game is nothing more than a console clone, or whether it is able to use the full range of PC features (normally things like cross-fire/ SLI, leaning etc.) from a little searching it does seem that the game is a console port, and there are a range of problems with it on PC.
shame.
ttfn
In the area south of Watford - 50Mb on speedtest most of the times I have tested. I think the lowest I have every seen it was 18Meg.
Our problem is with the TV service, with quite a few channels giving a blocky display or not connecting at all.
Just checking some pictures on the superhub and I think I have a different bit of kit - a small, rounded modem rather than something with a stalk at the bottom.
ttfn
(which probably means it will happen)
Not only would it pretty much force Dell to stop using Intel (even if Intel wanted to keep doing business with AMDell - which, because money is involved, it might do anyway) but I would imagine that many people would stop using AMD, not out of spite, but because they could not be sure of the long-term support that they might receive for their chips in the future.
I would imagine that Dell would be much better off, as stated in the article, letting Intel and AMD keep themselves busy providing chips with better performance and cheaper price.
Another thought would be if Dell wanted to invest in new FAB buildings - then rent them out to Intel, AMD or whoever wants to make CPU, RAM or GPUs or even all-in-one chips.
ttfn
That someone (with the authority to make it stick) simply said to the USAians 'if your security was up to scratch a hacker would not have been able to get very far - learn your lessons and stop looking externally for a scapegoat'
Even if McKinnon is found guilty and flung to the moon on a trebuchet for his sins it's not going to stop others from seeing how far they can get - there are two ways of stopping your secrets leaking out; stop them being secrets by telling everyone in the first place or making sure that your security is up to the job.
Anything else is bound to fail.
ttfn
Isn't that the sheep explode - after all the TNT doesn't appear to be ingested.
What worries me is their poo or wee (can I say poo or wee Sarah?) since if it's not being ingested then the TNT must be leaving the sheeps' bodies some other way.
All of a sudden I can see walking through a field full of sheep becoming a lot more dangerous.
And heaven help anyone that buys compost made from sheep products - there's enough nitro-cellulose in there already.
ttfn
Flame because that is what a sheep field will be resembling.
How much Iridium do they get from that quantity of ore? obviously it must be worth their while, and if they are mining it anyway (to get the tin I guess) then they may as well see what else is in there.
Isn't Iridium an indicator metal for other metals? platinum?
ttfn
I use this to see if anything new has popped (geddit?) into my gmail account, but with this additional step I would need to be answering my phone every ten minutes.
It's a good idea - but I suspect that I and many others would prefer convenience over security, which is wrong I guess, but hey, I'm only human.
ttfn
Sign in using a user name and password (user changeable), then select 3 random characters from another pass phrase (user changeable) using drop-downs and you're in to their web site.
Most transfers and other actions need your password re-entering.
As far as I know they're not planning on introducing card-reader random number generators, but who knows?
ttfn
When we are (even more) old and doddery we'll be saying to our grand kids 'you know, I remember a time when an IP address was a simple set of 4 numbers - just 3 dots mind! none of this modern colon rubbish, missing out sections that were all zeros' etc.
Actually I wonder how I'd go about getting my Ubuntu, Win 7, Vista and XP clients set up with my Virgin 50meg service to run IP6 - though really it's only really my Virgin 'modem' that I would need to worry about since everything downstream from that can still be on v4.
Does anyone know if the Virgin 50Mb service box had IPv6 on it?
ttfn
It would be interesting to see data on the different states and if there is a link between gun ownership and deaths by guns (or bullets, not rounds, anyway).
I would imagine though that 'gun ownership' is a lot different to 'access to a gun' in that I'm sure that there must be plenty of guns in the hands of people other than their proper, licensed, owners.
I'm sure that if there was conclusive data that showed that the more guns there were the higher the gun-related death rate, people would be giving up their guns in no time....
ttfn
Price, battery life, storage (on-board and supplemental. ie microSD), wireless (wi-fi, bluetooth), screen size and total size, weight.
Does it have a 3.5mm headphone socket?
Can I read the screen in daylight?
Can I lock the screen to stop it doing (unwanted) things when in my pocket?
I do not want to know about 3D on a handheld device.
That's all for now.
I always find my self thinking 'that's all well and good, but will I want one?' and unless it's a detailed review of something I can actually go out and buy I find myself de-tuning myself from this sort of article.
ttfn
>what i find most amazing is they'll delete a users pics, so entirely and permanently just on the
>word of some other user!
In fact they deleted the account of the person asking for another account to be deleted, though I know what you mean.
If I set up an account and then asked for other accounts to be deleted would they delete the other accounts too?
It seems bizarre that there is no account blocking facility, or contacting the accused person so that they can put things right - or anything shy of deleting an account.
Another issue with flickr is that you can only upload so much data per month (on the free account anyway) so even if the guy has a backup it will take a long time to upload all those pictures again.
ttfn
Not that I expect it will do much good, but on the flip-side it can't do any harm and maybe, just maybe, it will have an effect.
No carriers, no navy jets, no gunboats, and soon no helicopters (once the accursed defenders of their lands get it into their heads to target the copters) - but we keep deep-penetration bombers, tanks and air-defense jets.
I wonder what our government expects to happen to justify this stance?
ttfn
>so far the mosques have played a more important role than Twitter or Facebook in
>organising Egyptian reform
So shut them down .. and then stop people talking to each other .. or writing letters .. or writing in diaries .. or whatever else those pesky people will think of next.
Honestly - I can just imagine Mubarak doing an impersonation of Hitler in his bunker 'what do you mean they are still talking to each other!!!'
The more that the glorious leaders try to squeeze a population, the harder the population will fight to free themselves.
As a famous plastic toy said: "Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!"
And I hope other leaders around the world are taking notes and learning that lesson.
ttfn
Idiots, dolts, nincompoops.
So, the terra-wists release a trojan which, unlike ALL the other worms, trojans, adware, malware, virii (viruses?) etc. is deemed to be a danger to the (sorry - 'their') internet. in response they would shut down 'the internet' - or their bit of it anyway?
So depriving all of their citizens access to anything on-line - shopping, banking, email and information (I would have put that first in the list but we are talking about the merkins) .. excuse me
short-sighted, blinkered cretins.
Ok - well I guess it would help to improve the average IQ on the internet, but it's not a solution.
A solution would be to ensure that there is sufficient diversity on the internet to make sure that a particular attack would only be able to spread so far - make it compulsory for people to have Linux boot CD's (because lord knows Microsoft doesn't want you to boot off a CD!), keep developing free anti-virus etc. software so that people can use it no matter how poor they are.
Educate people - keeping them ignorant and in the dark may suit a governments' agenda but it doesn't work in the long term.
America used to be a shining beacon of hope and asperation - now it seems to be trying to turn itself into a police state as quickly as it can.
Not that the UK isn't heading that way itself of course, sad times.
ttfn
Aside from blocking/marking as spam or whatever mechanism you may have already.
Open up a 'one-time' gmail account (ie one that you don't need) or provider of your choice.
Go to the various sites (Facebook/ LinkedIn or whatever) and change your contact email address to the one-time account..
Acknowledge the address change (which may need to be confirmed on both).
Then forget the one-time account - or just don't bother with it again unless you need to.
Live life in peace and harmony - or whatever you were going to do with it before being bothered by spam.
ttfn
It might be a sensible idea to scout out some alternative employment sources just in case.
I must admit that I had joined linkedin quite some time ago and had to recover my password since I hadn't used it for so long.
I haven't been spammed myself - just the one email.
ttfn
Though Microsoft didn't HAVE to do anything I feel that they have acted fairly - kid gets a slapped wrist and told not to do it again and given a leg-up to get him started playing honestly, hopefully kid learns his lesson, mum learns that kid is just like other kids.
Next story please.
ttfn
1- Training:
Because pressing a mouse button and using WSAD is SOOO much like firing a real machine gun while running around.
2- Similarity to attack
Of course a suspected widow blowing herself up is so much like a team of machine-gun wielding mafia/ex-soldiers or whatever.
'See how this apple looks so much like this orange?'
3- violent games make you anti-social
It's more likely that sitting for hours in front of a computer makes you anti-social - not what you are doing on the computer.
Stupid people, just because it sounds like a simple idea it doesn't mean it's a correct idea.
ttfn
Punishing the end users of a product is not a good long-term strategy.
Punishing people who have no notion of what the h*** you're talking about is just suicidally bad publicity - all it takes is one computer-less grandma being sent one of these letters and the whole notion of proper procedure and justice is thrown out of the window.
I also wonder how long it would have been before a road warrior hacked ACS:Law's wi-fi and used it to download some illegal stuff - though I bet they wouldn't send themselves one of those letters.
It's also a bit of a give-away that they were offering to go away for £500 - far too little if they thought the people accused were actually guilty. It smacks far more of a legal extortion racket - as the judge said, the last thing they wanted was a proper judicial overview of what they were up to.
ttfn
>I see no difference between "pay up or be dragged through the courts" and
>"pay up or have your legs broken".
Actually you may want to consider that the first is legal due process and the other is threats /menaces and is illegal.
Quite a bit of a difference I would suggest.
Hopefully this practice of legal extortion will cease - I don't condone piracy, but the media intermediaries need to find a different source of income than trying to keep their stranglehold on artists.
And for everyone else I would encourage people to look out for more independent artists and support them, for instance:
Jonathon Coulton, Paul and Storm, Billy Bragg etc.
ttfn
That he was the luckiest person alive.
Not having access to the full context of the joke it's hard to say much, but I would have thought that a man that survived World War 2 and lived to 93 AND had two atomic bombs dropped near to him (obviously not directly on him) would have to count as pretty fortunate.
Many other people were far less lucky then him.
ttfn
The answer to all the worlds problems - eventually.
Just make sure it's a scientific education and not based on what people say is the truth.
Religion should have died out after the middle ages - but it didn't, and I suppose there are many reasons for that, but fundamentally it's because it's easier for _a lot_ of people to let others do the thinking for them, and while we have un-exercised brains in our midst it will continue.
ttfn
Nor does it look like anything the devil would carry - unless it's attached to a USB-powered harddrive of course.
I suspect it's one of those 'oh and look, here is a silly story' - you know, like trust-worthy politicians or a non-greedy banker
Also the 'devil has the best tines' remark made me wince, thank you
ttfn
But try to think about other solutions.
If the shark towed a large solar array behind it, obviously charging up a storage system of some sort - maybe a really high-density battery - then it's perfectly possible.
Or, of course, there is always the 'alien-tech' approach that guarantees to provide any needed tech without question.
I'm sure that our soon-to-be space-faring alien overlords have cracked the 'laser on a shark' problem and are positively itching to telling people about it.
ttfn
That the 'short attention span' thing is a self-fulfilling prophesy fueled by this sort of activity - give kids a minute-long episode and they will watch it and then start complaining when it finishes.
What would you do if your programmes were split up into minute-long episodes?
Now . .what was I saying?
ttfn
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