* Posts by LaeMing

2410 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Dec 2009

Gone

LaeMing
Boffin

Re: Probably the least used

The main problem with all these 'superior market = more attacks' arguments is they assume that the Desktop market is predictive of all IT sectors. In markets where (for example) Linux boxes out number Windows boxes 3:1, Windows is still by far the leading target for attacks on that sector.

Pussy galore: Bubble-bath webcam spy outrage

LaeMing
Unhappy

/I/ wasn't doing /that/ at that age.

Boy did I miss out!

Play the Snowden flights boardgame: Avoid going directly to Jail

LaeMing
Go

No, I'm Snowden, and so is my wife.

Anyone else get the impression that Snowden is nowhere near any of the countries claiming to be hosting him? All having a jolly good time playing "Where's Eddie" at the US's expense.

It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense

LaeMing
Happy

Re: A dictionary doesn't define language, it reflects common usage.

I was, of course, quoting an OED editor from several years back, since this brouhaha comes up EVERY time a 'modern' word is added to the OED.

Some people here should consider moving across the Channel - they would likely be happier under that language regime! :-P

LaeMing
Boffin

A dictionary doesn't define language, it reflects common usage.

John McAfee releases NSFW video on how to uninstall security code

LaeMing
Boffin

We have McAfee on the managed desktops at work. RETCH!

Because we have a site license, I could put it on the unmanaged laptops we use in the gallery, but the AV built into Win7 seems to work fine and won't constantly pop update reminder dialogs over the top of a displaying work - an orange icon in the (usually hidden) system bar (whatever Windows calls it) is a nice and not-obnoxious way to indicate the system needs an update next time I have it plugged into a network.

NSA Prism: Why I'm boycotting US cloud tech - and you should too

LaeMing
Boffin

Interesting side-effect

The NSA has potentially placed all these companies in breach of contract with their customers. If you have any sort of contract with a US-based or -data-hosted company which you want to bail on early, this may be an excuse to do so.

Confidence in US Congress sinks to lowest level ever recorded

LaeMing
Unhappy

How to Vote.

Starting at the lowest number, decide candidate/party will do the most damage to the country. Then the next-most damaging, and so on until you put your number 1 next to the candidate/party you feel will do the least damage to the country.

LaeMing
Facepalm

So why the %$#@! do we keep re-electing the same politicians?

"Because if they don't vote for a lizard, the wrong lizard might get in."

- Ford Prefect.

Ex-Palm CEO Rubinstein wishes HP sale never happened

LaeMing
Trollface

"Not the HP shareholders of course...."

Sucks to be them!

Really, I think it must!

Whoever recently showed us the secret documents: Do get in touch

LaeMing
Happy

Re: Question

Can I buy a vowel?

PM Cameron calls for modern, programmable computers! (We think)

LaeMing
Boffin

If your pollies are as IT savy as most of ours here in .au, then by "modern methods of computing" he means using LEDs* above the toggle switches instead of little incandescent bulbs.

*Like in the newest TVs. It must be really modern then!

US chief spook: Look, we only want to spy on 6.66 billion of you

LaeMing
Unhappy

Re: You don't find a needle in a haystack...

You can if you redefine STRAW=NEEDLE!

LaeMing
Black Helicopters

Re: "You do feel safer, don't you?"

Before answering that last question, remember, uncle Sam says: "Only a terrorist would not feel safer."

NSA PRISM-gate: Relax, GCHQ spooks 'keep us safe', says Cameron

LaeMing
Facepalm

Re: Ask yourself..How is this any different from Cold War Gestapo, Stasi or KGB tactics?

"The Cure", as being presently enacted by our 'representatives' is what the Terrorists wanted for us all along, but on a scale they could never have achieved on their own.

Police 'stumped' by car thefts using electronic skeleton key

LaeMing
Thumb Up

Re: Only a matter of time.

My Aunt's junker was stolen once. She found it abandoned 50m up the road!

Raspberry Pi DUMBS DOWN to target world+dog

LaeMing
Facepalm

Re: Defeating the point

You do realise you don't actually HAVE to use the new tool if you don't want to!

Google nuke thyself: Mountain View's H.264 righteous flame-out

LaeMing
Trollface

Re: remember gifs?

Vaguely!

LaeMing
Unhappy

Re: On paper Google could – and should – have succeeded.

And the governments would have listened. Because business money is at risk.

Australian Gartner chap slams gov-funded IT education boost

LaeMing
Megaphone

While I agree enough to upvote your comment...

"still trying to teach them the basics of Excel, such as how to type into a cell." At university level I have to say "if only they would'. Kids coming in are 'computer confident' but beyond using social media they are completely IT-clueless for the most part. Don't even understand concepts as basic as what a filesystem is, or or basic awareness of codecs (in a media-production major).

And that is just the students - last week I was tasked to create a PowerPoint (gak!) slideshow in a hurry for a lecturer (definitely not my job) because the trainee office admin person didn't know how to operate the most basic functions of such software.

Of course the chances of the government money going into teaching real useful information skills is pretty slim anyway, no matter what they budget.

Internet cafés declared 'illegal businesses' in Ohio

LaeMing
Unhappy

Yes,

'swindling their poor, elderly, and vulnerable slot players' is the exclusive monopoly of the state and its licensees.

They WANT to EAT YOUR COMPUTER - welcome your ANT overlords

LaeMing
Thumb Up

Re: Sigh..

My manager has an ant colony in her monitor. In front of the backlight, it appears. They keep re-arranging their nest overnight, making the bottom corner of her screen look like a really really slow lava lamp.

Bureau of Stats releases educational SimClone game

LaeMing
Go

Do they have the gameplay mode...

...where you are kicked out of office and possibly put in the clink, and replaced with an auditor for letting certain cashed-up lobby groups be a bit /too/ influential?

My god, what's that STENCH belching from your iPhone?

LaeMing
Go

Re: I can see the future...

Just a tube to leave skid marks in your iThong. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/10/japanese_phone_pants/

United Nations: 'Overpopulated Earth? Time to EAT BUGS'

LaeMing
Linux

Again MS-Windows is ahead of the curve.

Windows users have been eating bugs for decades :-P

Good news: Debian 7 is rock solid. Bad news: It's called Wheezy

LaeMing
Happy

Re: Debian Flavours

I use Testing, pulling anything I specifically need the latest of down from unstable (which generally works, unless there are major library changes going through). The stuff I use for 'work' is usually advanced-enough from Testing to keep me happy and only 'play' stuff that doesn't matter if it crashes or fails comes from Unstable (presently MineTest is using far too much of my weekends - and I don't generally even like computer games much).

Besides, someone has to test the stuff in Testing, and my home machine is not that critical -- at work I use Stable on our un-managed machines, pulling from Testing when needs-must.

Debian 7 debuts

LaeMing
Linux

Re: Oh, dear...

Well, at least the character Wheezy was a penguin.

<---Not that one, but related, I'm sure.

Plans for fully 3D-printed gun go online next week

LaeMing
Go

Takes me back to high school.

When a boy from my class turned up after a week away to sheepishly admit he had found a bullet, put it in a vice held a nail in the firing dimple with a pair of pliers and hit the nail with a hammer. His ears had needed medical treatment.

I feel this device will be good for the human gene pool, overall.

Climate change forces women into prostitution - US politicians

LaeMing
Unhappy

So after global warming...

...the women are still more respectable than US lawmakers.

Budweiser's bonkable Buddy Cup brings Facebook to the pub

LaeMing
Joke

Hmmm.

It is random losers in bars wanting to bonk with me that keeps me away from the places.

Pirates scoff at games dev sim's in-game piracy lesson

LaeMing
Meh

It doesn't look like a game I would even be tempted to download free, let alone pay for.

The novelty of the 'pirate' version seems to be its only notable feature, and I assume you don't get that in the pay-for version!

LaeMing

Re: gamers and pirates

As were player pianos!

UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone now

LaeMing
Go

Re: So.. if I just...

"Series of pictures about a small jolly fellow", surely!

Bogus gov online test tells people on dole they're just SO employable

LaeMing
Unhappy

Re: Horrorscopes

I was just thinking that the output shown sounded just like the over-general could-apply-to-anybody sort of thing that, being positive in nature, people will generally accept as true about themselves. Horoscope and fortune cookie material indeed. Bet the software cost them a bomb to buy too.

LaeMing
Meh

That's rather clever actually,

if the intent is to weed out people who would rather pull a number out of their butts than admit they don't know the answer. Oh, it is for the Government. Never mind...

Court orders Visa partner to allow donations to WikiLeaks

LaeMing
Megaphone

Good!

Irrespective of what I think of WikiLeaks, how dare a financial institution dictate to me what I do with my money in any way.

Sord drawn: The story of the M5 micro

LaeMing
Go

Re: 30th anniversary of every man and his dog releasing a Spectrum-basher

It is also interesting to note the recent explosion in RasPI-like boards (some of which pre-date the RasPI, but are only now being marketed at that sector). It may be like re-living the old days all over again yet! I'm just reading about the new BeagleBone Black over on Ars Technica with interest as the RasPI isn't quite the spec I need for some of my own projects.

AMAZEBALLS: Buy a doomed Apple TV, get a replacement free

LaeMing
Trollface

TV?

Do people still use those this century?

Australia's alternative NBN plan: some taxpayer-friendly questions

LaeMing

Re: A question

No, because it isn't really about technology, but about two indistinguishable major parties desperately trying to look differentiated. And what is good for the long-term be buggered with a splintery fence-post.

LaeMing
Trollface

More importantly

Who is supplying their drugs allowance?

Movie bosses demand Google take down takedown notices

LaeMing
Boffin

Re: PDF links

Simon Round: "Should links to Product manuals in PDF format also be removed at the original manuals will most likely have copyright notices in them? Even though they may be linking to the original manufacturers website?"

Interestingly, my university legal dept. insists that we DO get permission for this sort of thing. Every manufacturer for our equipment has said 'certainly, you may' except for Sony, who have a more "IT'S OURS NO YOU CAN'T" attitude (which is, sadly, not surprising to me at all).

Kiwi boffins bid up Earth-like planet prediction

LaeMing
Go

Re: Beelion is Oz

Kiwi high-school exchange students at some point invariably get goaded into loudly stating: "Six is between five and seven".

NBN collapses* into chaos*

LaeMing
Unhappy

Brownfields? Greenfields?

A quick net-search defines 'brownfields' as dis-used industrial land (possibly contaminated). No wonder they are behind if they are focusing installation so such places.

While I can guess what these terms actually mean in this context, it is a very un-confident guess.

Young model ruthlessly fingers upskirt iPad petshop pervert

LaeMing
FAIL

no worse than the numpties

who robbed a bank in their lunch break - leaving their work ID tags on.

Enormo-display Apple iPhone prototype surfaces

LaeMing
Boffin

More likely

It has all those extra ports because it is based on an off-the-shelf prototyping board.

1 in 7 WinXP-using biz bods DON'T KNOW Microsoft is pulling the plug

LaeMing
Happy

Some people. Sheesh!

We upgraded to Win7 months ago!

There's cling-ons on the starboard bow! Trekkies' wallets under attack

LaeMing
Happy

Taapi bought to mind a quote from an early Sherri S. Tepper work.

"If there was a simple way to do a thing which would not hurt or kill, he would eschew it in favor of some complex scheme which would maim and mutilate."*

*Obviously manipulating a phone app to get someone else to turn off your lights (instead of just manipulating the light switch yourself) won't "maim and mutilate" but Rube Goldberg has nothing on that crowd!

Amazon yanks SimCity download from store

LaeMing
Trollface

Re: Wow

It isn't the same game - it now has gigabytes of non-functional DRM bundled in. Surely that is worth $60 bucks?

LaeMing
Meh

Won't effect the /timing/ of the AU, EU. releases.

Not referring to the playability.

SimCity 3000

LaeMing
Meh

Re: Just like to say..

Though I am not sure what use the newfangled one will be by that time since one presumes the servers it relies on will be gone by then in favor of serving to the latest version.