Posts by Florida1920

Where's the money?

These two were presumably well paid, yet I haven't read of any monetary forfeitures on their parts. Will they spend a few years at Club Fed and walk out millionaires?

Meanwhile, they have three months before they have to surrender to start serving their sentences. Home with their families for the holidays -- or bugging off to Costa Rica if they were smart enough to get false IDs and passports, and hidden bank accounts before the roof fell in. I don't wonder that the prosecutors are complaining.

When they become aware

Traveler in strange city: Take me to the airport

Driverless Google SmartCar: About 931,000,000 results (0.52 seconds)

Traveler: Oh, ****

Thanks, I'll drive myself. Got my keys right here.

Users want bling

People like stuff that looks new. That's why most people trade in perfectly good cars or rush out to get the latest iPhone. So the emphases are on making the UI look different or adding some marginally useful 'feature.'

Besides, if they fixed all the bugs, the bug fixers would be out of work, and that wouldn't do.

Back in the day

As a writer I was pretty thrilled when word processors came out. Oh, that lovely WordStar, it let you copy and paste and move stuff around and you didn't need correction fluid.... But, unlike the typewriter, you never reached the end of a piece of paper. The screen just kept going and going and going.... I was working on a book one night, looked at my watch and saw it was almost 10 pm. "I'll just write a little more...." As I never had to put in another piece of paper I never looked at my watch. Finally, back aching and feeling groggy, I took a look. 1 a.m.!

Let's face it: Technology is too reliable. We need more power outages (during the day, please, so we can find our way around), server crashes, self-destructing HDs.... anything to give us an excuse to just stop for a while, get up, walk around, look out the window, and talk to people face-to-face. Or go out with the mates for a beer.

First we fix the blame

Then we fix the problem.

"Nope, not our fault." -- Sony

Boys and their toys -- in spaaaace

El Reg has Playmonauts, NASA has frickin' laser-engraved chips. Your move, Vulture Central. We're waiting for Playmonauts with frickin' lasers.

Be careful what you ask for

Back in 2002, George W. Bush placed North Korea, Iran and Iraq in the "Axis of Evil." Iraq has spawned the Islamic State gang, and North Korea and Iran soldier on. Maybe they took Dub at his word and formed an alliance. Koreans have a long-standing grudge with Japan, and Sony did itself no favors by making a movie -- a comedy! -- about assassinating Kim Jong Un. Iran and Saudi Arabia have their issues as well. While I might expect Iran to go for Israel or the U.S. in retaliation for Stuxnet, maybe Saudi Arabia was easier.

Neither Iran or North Korea are any match for Western military firepower. Pardon me for using this phrase, but maybe instead of working harder -- a losing proposition -- they're working smarter. Abbie Hoffman once wrote, "Guns alone will never change this System. You don't use a gun on an IBM computer. You pull the plug out." We've come a long way since then, but our own dear leaders are still fighting the last war.

Training

Several years ago I worked at an outsource call center for Dell. One night I had to break in a newly trained (?) support rep who asked, "Isn't AOL the Internet?"

When I signed up at the local Comcast store for cable Internet service, they gave me a receipt with an account number, which their system failed to recognize. It took >1 hour of being passed back and forth between tech support and customer service before I lucked into talking to the one person at Comcast who knew I had to add a zero to the end of the account number to get it to work.

"Clueless users" has become hackneyed. I'd like to hear more about clueless people who somehow find their way into "expert" positions.

Speaking of language

Business language is usually English or American

Pretty much like the States, then. :)

One with the British-American phrase book in the pocket.

See icon

"SHE PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!" the Director shouts, gesturing both wildly and furiously at Gina, once the ambulance has left.

Did NOT see that coming. Neither did the victim, obviously. Best BoFH in a while.

Too far, on both sides

Maybe Sony deserves to be punished for its sins but, for the benefit of any GOP types, this is too much. Whatever scant amount of justification you may have had just evaporated.

That said, you really have to wonder about a major studio making a movie -- a comedy, even -- about an assassination attempt on a living head of state. Was that the best script they had on hand? This whole affair makes it appear the human race has taken several giant steps backward.

Next: Vulture Central launches a "Kids" section!

Kids need good role models.

Someday, kid, if you spend enough time on El Reg, you too can grow up to be a BoFH.

Is it broken?

Does it really need fixing? Paris wants to know.

"I am still shocked the Sony attackers exfiltrated TERABYTES of data without being noticed," said convicted hacker turned security consultant Kevin Mitnick.

Other than that, how did you like the movies, Kevin?

Kim Jong Un will do anything to avoid paying the increased Netflix fee.

You don't know how lucky you are

I've only ridden trains from London -> Salisbury, Windemere, York and Amsterdam, at off-peak times, but man, do I wish the U.S. had more rail service, even if wretched. Paris, because you lucky lot can train to Paris at 100+ mph without having to endure the indignities of U.S. TSA Neanderthals.

Brute force solution

A phpBB forum I admin was getting too many spammer registrations from China. CAPTCHA was a total FAIL. I'm sorry to say I had to go with a Q&A in which the question involves an unhappy incident in modern Chinese history that citizens of that country are loathe to discuss. (Think ^2.) Baidu still trolls the site but we're not indexed anymore. Fortunately that's not a great problem for us, but I regretted having to do it. It was better than any alternative I could come up with, though. Now the majority of would-be spammers have Pakistan IP addresses, but registrations by known spammers (determined by checking IP/email address) are way down. I think this is a game in which site admins will always be playing catch-up.

Elementary

As usual, El Reg commentards have smoked out the truth.

He's the anti-Kardashian

See above.

Radiant beauty?

"Whether micro-organisms or DNA could survive the many other exigencies they would face on an interstellar journey remains unknown."

This experiment is a good start, but couldn't take into account years, centuries or millennia of exposure to high-energy cosmic radiation.

Then again, perhaps it only caused ET DNA to mutate, which explains why Paris is better looking than Lady Gaga, whom I believe is truly from another world.

Honky Tonk Freeway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honky_Tonk_Freeway

Titanic reorginization

As in rearranging the deck chairs.

Who ya gonna call?

She should have gotten the ashes notarized.

The squeaky wheel gets replaced

Watch 'slave' sue for violation of his "freedom of speech rights" when Apple IDs him. If he makes good money and has a hot GF, he ought to practice what my daddy taught me: When you've got a good thing going, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

Trust me

Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks.

"We never meant to upset you."

Yes, Sheryl, of course I'll still respect you in the morning!

Rock on, Rik!

See above.