* Posts by Rattus Rattus

1068 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Oct 2009

Inmate-frying microwave pain blaster turret installed in US jail

Rattus Rattus

Well, yes, shoot to kill

because you should never ever point a gun at someone you are not intending to kill. "Shoot-to-wound" isn't a wise policy, it leads to misses and possible hits on bystanders. Conversely, a police officer should not draw a gun in the first place unless he has made the decision to kill. After drawing he might not end up having to kill, which is great, but that gun should stay in it's holster until he has decided.

Rattus Rattus

Complete tangent here

but rats are actually pretty cuddly, friendly and playful. Wild rats aren't so much, but then neither are wild dogs or wild cats. And rats in a maze generally aren't being tortured. So, um, simile fail all around.

I do agree completely though that actually wanting to use these devices should automatically bar one from ever using them.

Secret X-37B space plane lost by sat-spotters for 2 weeks

Rattus Rattus

Short & simple name for USAnians -

I've always just used "Seppo."

Japanese press step into execution chamber

Rattus Rattus
Thumb Down

An eye for an eye

makes the whole world blind.

Apple eyes kill switch for jailbroken iPhones

Rattus Rattus
Troll

"Think Different"

...but not differently to me.

- Steve J.

Futurologist defends 'malevolent dust' warning

Rattus Rattus

I like to read Sci-Fi, and can remember what I've read -

How do I get a job as a futurologist?

Lord Peter views the logfile

Rattus Rattus

No, no -

Fabular!

Australian Senate censors print link to cartoon

Rattus Rattus

Here's hoping

that the Greens do end up holding the balance of power in the Senate. They and the Democrats are about the only hope Australia has of holding off the worst excesses of either the Liberals or Labor. Both the major parties are thoroughly in the grip of corporate sponsors, and ruled by their hard-right wings. I'm honestly unsure which would be the greater catastrophe for the country - for the Liberals to return to their iron rule or for Labor to continue with their policies of misinformation and secrecy.

Just a suggestion though - if you want to hold an intelligible opinion on politics, try researching a little of the past and present policies of all the parties, as well as the their results over the history of this country. Also, try educating yourself about what any politicians (especially the Liberals) aren't saying when asked questions rather than what they do say. Finally, take off your rose-tinted glasses when looking back at the Howard years and realise what a petty tyrant he was, every bit as much as Rudd has been and compare that to Thatcher who the Brits had to suffer under for so long. The biggest difference is that the Greens were in the Senate and able to curb some of his nastiest plans, whereas Thatcher enjoyed a greater control of her government. Howard also didn't quite have the spine that Thatcher did.

I know how I'm voting in this election - and about the only parties who will rank lower on my ballot paper than Labor or Liberal will be the nutters in Family First and Fred Niles' Christian Democrats.

Rattus Rattus

Erm...

Yeah, you can blame the apathetic voters. Most of 'em simply vote for whatever party their parents voted for, and their parents before that. Or the "swinging voters" as they're called, who do change their minds from one election to the next, largely vote for whoever promises them the most money, or who looks good on TV (Tony Abbot's fucked, then!)

Try to suggest that they educate themselves on the issues and they look at you like you're mad. They're sure "Today Tonight" will tell them who's the correct person to vote for. I've been doing my best to educate people in my immediate circle in the hope that they'll think a bit before casting their vote, but I can't compete with TV or "what little Tarquin did at playschool yesterday."

Underground tunnel complexes FOUND ON MOON

Rattus Rattus

You win an upvote

and a full set of bridge officer's implants.

Linux to eclipse Microsoft's 'all-in' tablet enthusiasm

Rattus Rattus

That "no one quite has a word for"?

I think Richard Stallman does.

Miracle-tech that could fix almost everything: Major advance

Rattus Rattus

I choose (D)

Gazebos are dangerous! They eat paladins.

http://www.brunchma.com/archives/Forum13/HTML/000133.html

Cloud music: Apple set to clean up

Rattus Rattus

They can copy one thing from iTunes though:

Get into more countries! I'm so tired of trying online music stores/"internet radio stations"/whatever only to see "This service is not available in your country."

In Australia we seem to only have three choices: Buy from iTunes, buy from a bricks-n-mortar store, or pirate. And most of our physical music stores are tiny and have an extremely limited selection, not to mention ridiculously high prices, which makes the only practical alternatives iTunes or piracy.

The internet is a global communications system which allows IP from one country to instantly be available in any other, whether legally distributed or not. Dividing the world up into regions is bullshit and is going to continue to drive piracy until copyright holders realise that the world just doesn't work that way any more.

NASA, Microsoft offer new 3D Mars maps

Rattus Rattus

Near your Mac?

It ain't even coming anywhere near my (only) Windows box, let alone my Linux boxen.

Ballmer: Windows Mobile lost a 'whole generation'

Rattus Rattus

That is...

truly disturbing. I cannot unsee that which has been seen.

For sale: Dr No's Scottish bunker complex

Rattus Rattus

"would put the entire EA(Electronic Arts) employees there"

And then fill the entrance with concrete?

.NET spell-checker trips over hypenation

Rattus Rattus

For a job that requires a lot of writing,

perhaps one of the key requirements should be an ability to spell in the first place?

Academics challenge moral consensus on sex and the net

Rattus Rattus

Don't be like that...

'sno joke.

Blizzard exposes real names on WoW forums

Rattus Rattus

re: "Opposing the government? On video game forums?"

Well, on some of the game forums I frequent, opposing the government is a pretty heavy theme running through certain threads. Maybe that's because my government (the Australian one) is full of clueless tards who keep trying to legislate things that are really bad news for gamers. Really bad news for all Australians, in fact, but game forums are one of the places where discussions of such take place because most of the rest of the population are unthinking sheep who understand little more about the internet than the government themselves.

Personally, I don't really care what happens on the WoW forums, but "first they came for the WoW players..."

£99 iPhone stunt backfires

Rattus Rattus

Shock headline:

Marketers lied!

iRobot Roomba 581 robot cleaner

Rattus Rattus

Disinfectant?

Flamethrower, more like.

Brighton NIMBYs complain over BT broadband upgrades

Rattus Rattus

I would be more than happy

to have one of these boxes outside my house if it meant I was getting more bandwidth and lower latency than I do at the moment, I think my country uses RFC 1149 as standard.

Apple ads to target your iTunes history

Rattus Rattus

those $20 no namers

I have a couple of those, they're pretty good actually. If you don't need much of a screen, just audio, the playback's often better quality than iPods deliver too. This might be due to the fact that most of 'em support OGG which I use by preference over MP3.

'The internet's completely over', declares petulant Prince

Rattus Rattus

man "compactdisc"

NAME

compactdisc

DESCRIPTION

This function has been deprecated and will be phased out.

Microsoft's Windows 8 goals revealed

Rattus Rattus
Linux

re: "can't have your platform freedom and reliable performance from the OS"

Of course you can, it's called Linux.

Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids

Rattus Rattus

I love my Android phone...

but I am seriously NOT happy about this particular "feature." On a completely unrelated note (sure), does anyone know of a good, configurable, LOGGING firewall app for Android? I've only been able find so-called "firewalls" that block unwanted phonecalls or messages. No luck so far in finding an IP firewall.

'It's as though I've got Jonathan Ive's personal tool in my...'

Rattus Rattus

"OS X goes well out of its way to hide most of [it's UNIX underpinnings]"

Which sums up exactly why I don't like OSX. I want my system's plumbing exposed, where it can be reached easily.

It is very interesting, as you note, how UNIX derivatives are doing so well on phones, possibly the most single-user application ever. I wouldn't say it's an "ideal" operating system though - it's just the least bad of all operating systems out there. Remember, all hardware sucks, all software sucks. Some just sucks less than others.

Linux game-time refined with latest Wine

Rattus Rattus

Get a console? Pfft!

Wash your mouth out! Consoles are crap and their controllers are worse. I prefer to game at my desk, with a mouse and keyboard. And I like to play games that have a bit more complexity to them than the average console "action" tripe.

Therefore games are the one thing that keeps a Windows box in my house.

Governments mull net censorship grab

Rattus Rattus

I'm not sure what to think

On the one hand, I understand how it could cause such Balkinisation. On the other, I'm completely in favour of offending wowsers. Hmm...

Neuroscientist: iPhone 4's 'Retina display' not bullsh*t

Rattus Rattus

Did you try telling her

"yes, but instead it's something useful?"

Dell Streak Android tablet phone

Rattus Rattus

re "It's a big smartphone"

Umm... So is the iPad. Minus the "phone" part.

New Aus PM may dump comms minister

Rattus Rattus

I'm watching this unfold

with equal parts hope and trepidation. I have tentatively approved of Julia Gillard for a long time and she can't possibly do worse than Rudd or the Liberal numpty who was in office prior to the last election. However, Julia has always been a loyal party member in public, always ready to trot out the party line and never deviate from the script.

I am interested to see what she will do now that she is holding the reins. It's too early to say what will happen but it's interesting that Australia now has a Prime Minister who is marginally from the Left for the first time in decades. I wonder if she will be forced to abandon her nominal leftism to survive as PM?

I doubt she will replace Conroy immediately because she still needs his pig-headedness to keep forcing the NBN along it's planned track but I am hopeful she will dump him after the election if she survives it.

Unix beardies vs. clean shaven DBAs

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COBOL programmers?

That seems topsy-turvy to me. When I was in school, I had to take two semesters of COBOL. The instructor was a clean-shaven old bloke who really did wear socks and sandals. He looked rather like Harold from Neighbors, actually. The admin of the school's UNIX system was a small, quiet man with a serious beard. He seemed to us students as someone who could at any moment snap and start carving his way throught the staff and students with an axe.

Want to leave work early? Torch a filing cabinet

Rattus Rattus

What are you doing?

Are you seriously trying to bring logic and common sense into a discussion ON THE INTERNET?

Aus politicians puppeted by hackers

Rattus Rattus

"it disappeared shortly after the Reg alerted ACL"

So it was you that told them? Aw, guys, everyone was having a lot of fun with that. I wanted to see how long it would take them to realise the truth by themselves.

As a few people have already said, it was in no way anything remotely like hacking, it was simply posting to a public forum and seeing what would get past the moderators.

Besides, it couldn't have happened if they hadn't left all those blank pages under their site. The Russian Mafia probably pressed "backslash, backslash, backslash" and well, you know the rest...

Motorola punts mega huge Droid phone

Rattus Rattus

Very nice indeed

although still a very Motorola "ugly-as-fuck" on the outside. What's with Motorola making horribly ugly phones despite their nice internals?

I must admit, I want one but not enough to ditch my Nexus One. Besides which, at least my N1 actually looks nice as well as being functional.

Oh and does it have Motoblur? If it does, you CAN turn that shite off, right? Right?

The Reg guide to Linux, part 2: Preparing to dual-boot

Rattus Rattus
Megaphone

re: "3) You are a child, and you need directX to play all the good games"

How patronising and blinkered to suggest that games are only for children. I am a Linux user in my mid-thirties and I keep a fairly powerful Windows box around for, that's right, games. Sneer all you like from your ivory tower, but I am going to enjoy my down time as I see fit - not as some arsehole desperate to prove his maturity thinks I should spend it.

As a penguin-lover myself I would love to see a greater uptake of my preferred OS (and maybe some of the games developers writing for it) but attitudes like yours will do nothing more than drive away people who might otherwise be interested in switching and ensure Linux will remain a niche market.

Sozzled Oz bozos in reciprocal literal ass-cap-pop

Rattus Rattus

As a fellow Australian

I really, really wish I could disagree with you on even one of your above remarks. It is with great sadness I find I cannot.

Middle-aged sex is crap: Official

Rattus Rattus

Nonsense

I have sex every night!

...wait, did they mean with someone else?

Aussie pols want compulsory AV software and firewalls

Rattus Rattus

"a conroy connector"

Just so long as it connects my boot to his effin' head.

Primate-phobic Brit attacked by crab-eating Macaques

Rattus Rattus

That monkey on Friends?

Do you mean Matthew Perry?

Google hits coder G-spot with Linux command line tool

Rattus Rattus
Thumb Up

<3 Command lines

It's about time. No point repeating all the advantages of command lines that everyone has already mentioned so let me just voice my approval of this move.

Googlegate: Mapping a scandal of global proportions

Rattus Rattus

"without [a] ... phone in it, spying on me"

With rays? Buggrit, millenium hand and shrimp.

More than a few tinfoil hats needed in this comments page, methinks.

Rattus Rattus

Re: Re: Googlegate?

It's shorthand, anyway. Not sure I agree about the "perfectly acceptable" part.

Firefox's oldest friend dumps it for Google Chromium

Rattus Rattus

Firefox bloat

I can agree with you there, FF has gotten too bloaty and slow, but there's really not much choice available. I've tried to like both Chrome and Opera but honestly, they're both pains in the arse. They might be quick and light, but actually trying to use them is an exercise in self-flagellation.

Of course there's always IE or Safari... pfft, hahahaha, sorry couldn't keep a straight face while trying to imagine using one of those as my day-to-day browser.

In the end, I use Firefox because it's the least painful choice.

Javascripters promise Jobs-free HTML5 for iPad

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IE9 and standards

Well of course, Microsoft has to Embrace a standard before they can Extend and Extinguish it.

Nobel Prize winner on dodgy World Cup ball

Rattus Rattus
Badgers

I can't believe

no-one has picked up on Andrew's non-standard use of Lego to illustrate his article rather than the Reg tradition of Playmobil. Or perhaps he felt that breaking tradition would itself help illustrate the change from a traditional ball?

Canadians form adulterers' privacy campaign

Rattus Rattus

"On behalf all intelligent Canadians"

What, BOTH of you?

I kid, I kid, I heart the frozen Yanks.

Apple's fresh Mac mini stripped naked

Rattus Rattus

Nice little box

I'd like one to wipe and pop Linux on to use it as a home theatre PC. But, and this is common to all Apple kit, not at that price. Halve the cost and I'd buy one or even several, and I bet a lot more people would too.

Rattus Rattus
Flame

"No screws to undo"

This is the problem I have with so many computers lately. It seems to have become unfashionable to use anything so mundane and utilitarian as a screw to hold stuff together. Instead everybody wants to use these damn little plastic clips that are nearly impossible to undo with breaking at least one or two.

Bring back the humble screw, I say! If you don't have an assortment of tools, or at least something like a Leatherman near at hand anyway, what business do you have trying to open up a computer and poke around inside?