* Posts by VaalDonkie

108 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Sep 2011

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'Open sesame'... Subaru key fobs vulnerable, says engineer

VaalDonkie

Re: This will only open the doors

You will be surprised to learn how many Subaru models do not have an immobiliser

Hitch climate tax to the actual climate, says top economist

VaalDonkie

Tinfoil is back in fashion

Am I the only one who thinks "carbon certificates" is the name of the new international currency?

Galaxy S4 way faster than iPhone 5: Which?

VaalDonkie

Re: Faster phone ?

The Toyota Aygo is fast enough for day-to-day use, but would you really go for that over a nice Fiat 500 Abarth?

Rise of the Machines: How computers took over the stock market

VaalDonkie

Poker bots are bad

but trading bots are good?

Twitter, Facebook are 'a MENACE to society', says Turkey's PM

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Ironic

Ironically enough, Turkey is itself a great menace to European society.

Mozilla devs plotting to put a stake in <blink> tag – at last

VaalDonkie

The <marquee> tag is actually quite useful. the most popular use for it would be a stock ticker element.

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: Goodbye, <blink>! Hello {blink: on;}!

JQuery and HTML5 will fill the void, don't you worry.

Hold on! Degrees for all doesn't mean great jobs for all, say profs

VaalDonkie

Re: "But an Art History graduate is ideally suited to burger flipping, ..."

If he's an officer, then surely he would have had to take many courses related to his work?

Tick-tock! 40% of PCs start Windows XP malware meltdown countdown

VaalDonkie

Re: monopoly?

A monopoly on what exactly? Certainly not 32-bit operating systems. Imagine if General Motors was still required to supply parts for cars that are 4 generations old.

Microsoft Xbox gaffe reveals cloudy arrogance

VaalDonkie

The first time I experienced Always On

was with C&C Tiberium Wars. 2 hours into the singleplayer game, my internet connection drops and I am left with the 1st tier vehicles. I promptly took the game back to the store I got it from and got something else instead.

VaalDonkie
Linux

Re: anyway,. you could always install linux <ducks>

Yes, because I have never had to download 600MB worth of Ubuntu updates before I could run NetBeans or Apache.

Microsoft gives away Windows 8 to Mac devs

VaalDonkie

I reckon the reason why windows in a VM seems to run faster is because a VM for testing purposes would not have as much bloatware installed. having Outlook, SKype, GTalk, SQL Server, FIrefox and 3 instances of Visual Studio open is a sure way to grind your system to a halt. A VM is lightning quick by comparison.

VaalDonkie

Re: Why are you so sure that they are scheming?

Microsoft is one of those companies that want to make it easy for developers to be productive. Some well-known caveats apply.

VaalDonkie
Trollface

It's not like running IE requires 100% CPU power.

No, that would be Firefox.

No, I am not an IE user, my browser of choice is Opera.

Google turns South African schools into White Spaces

VaalDonkie

Re: Google would be more successful here...

Our lexicon is of the Marxist-Leninist variety. Words like "inclusive", "community", "equitable", "uplifting", "empowering", etc. are good.

VaalDonkie

Google would be more successful here...

...if they stopped referring to it as WHITE space. Our country isn't exactly the biggest fan of that particular colour.

Review: Renault Zoe electric car

VaalDonkie

Re: Where do I sign up?

Seatbelts save lives. Catalytic converters and unleaded fuel shorten your engine's lifespan. Guess which of these were inspired by market forces and which were legislated from on high.

VaalDonkie

The emissions from a car's exhaust is much less harmful to the environment than the shit seeping out of a broken battery on a scrap heap.

Also, I will hand over my Petrol-engined Vauxhall Turbo Coupe the day Africa and Asia stops burning everything they can get their hands on.

South Korea data-wipe malware spread by patching system

VaalDonkie

Re: WOW

You can give me an ugly penny if you give me enough of them.

Build a BONKERS gaming PC

VaalDonkie

Forza is best played with a set of pedals and a good quality wheel. I mostly leave the gears on automatic for competitions. Unless I'm going for a lap record, in which case using the clutch and manual transmission is a must if you want to break into the top 100. But for regular races your concentration is better spent on getting the proper line and not banging into other cars.

VaalDonkie

Re: So what's the total build cost then?

Good grief! For a third of the price you could buy an Aerial Atom and physically drive it around a race track.

VaalDonkie

I love Forza. One problem for me is that because I live at the bottom of Africa, the lag causes everyone else's car's to bounce around the track or suddenly phase into or out of existence. But that's something not related to the hardware, but rather the number of exchanges between me and my mates.

VaalDonkie

FPS performance is all about framerate, which translates into more precise mouse-movement. But I found with things like Unreal Tournament that if I turn down the graphics or even disable certain features outright, enemies became easier to spot and obviously the framerate went up considerably.

If anyone was interested, I had a Geforce MX440 with 128MBytes of on-board RAM in 2008. It was a dog even back then.

VaalDonkie

This is exactly why I ditched my gaming PC in 2008 and bought an XBox. If the PS3 were not so expensive back then, then I would have gotten one of those instead. I simply won't pay more money for a gaming rig than for a new car.

Sure, if you're a professional gamer, it might be a good argument, but most of us are not. And even then, I posted one of the 100 fastest times ever on the Smokestack course in NFS:Underground 2 on a PC that cost me $300 in total to build. My inability to post a better time was purely down to me not being as good. I never felt that better kit could make a difference. Might be a different story with FPS or RTS titles, but certainly not for racing titles.

VaalDonkie

Re: So what's the total build cost then?

More than a brand new Ford Fiesta.

VaalDonkie

Re: Cores

I would assume things like RTS games would take advantage of multiple cores simply because they tend to put much more stress on the CPU than other game genres. Imagine a 4v4 game of StarCraft 2 where everyone simultaneously Zerg Rushes an opponent.

Huawei USB modems vulnerable

VaalDonkie
Holmes

And what then?

Which other piece of kit, made in China, would you go with?

Windows Phone 8 support to end in 2014

VaalDonkie

Re: Another possibility

The WP8 interface seems pretty "unified" to me. But I believe you are onto something.

Who's riddling Windows PCs with gaping holes? It's your crApps

VaalDonkie

Re: Use .Net

Or maybe some of us just want to finish a project before Jesus returns. See, the reason companies choose C# or Java over C++ is that by the time you've finished arguing over the right memory-management policy, we've already prototyped most of the project and are relaxing at the pub. It's a question of productivity.

Microsoft unveils even more tempting Kinect offering: Open source

VaalDonkie

I would imagine it's a viewing-angle limitation.

AdBlock Plus BLOCKED from Google Play

VaalDonkie

Re: It's my device

While you might own the physical device, you don't have much of a say in what happens on the software level. It's unfortunately the way the terms and conditions are worded. It's just like Amazon being able to yank ebooks off of the Kindle even if you paid for them.

Medicos hack iPhone into lab 'scope

VaalDonkie

Exactly the same. But remember that Apple is God and Micro$oft(note the evil dollar sign) is the Devil. Only Apple cares for poor black children.

Intel's Centrino notebook platform is 10 years old

VaalDonkie

Re: Yeah its all in the upgrades.

I wasn't aware that you could swap out a single core for a dual core.

Here's the $4.99 utility that might just have saved Windows 8

VaalDonkie

The start menu is that thing that pops up in full screen mode when you press the windows key or click in the bottom-left corner of your screen. You can call it whatever else you want, but it's function is the same as the W7 start menu.

VaalDonkie

Gee people, the only difference between Win 7 and 8 for regular people is the bloody start menu's size.

How UK gov's 'growth' measures are ALREADY killing the web

VaalDonkie

Why doesn't he do wedding shoots like everyone else?

Truck-maker CAT flogs smartphone spawn to butter-fingered fondlers

VaalDonkie

No cover for the headphone jack?

So, no one has thought of adding a tiny plastic or silicone plug that can go in the headphone jack?

Bank whips out palm-recognition kit - and a severed hand won't work

VaalDonkie

Re: Taking bets

Note that Thomas didn't actually say he believes IR causes cancer. Rather, he said that someone is going to sue, believing this to be the case.

I work for a development and web hosting company and we had this stupid argument with the company upstairs over us wanting to install DIRECTIONAL antenna's on the roof. The lady was convinced that she will have daily headaches and develop a tumor. Explaining how directional antenna's work and that they would be facing AWAY from the building, as well as pointing out the irony of her spending hours a day on her cellular phone didn't seem to get through to her. We now joke about it being the tumor that has made her so thick.

VaalDonkie

I wonder how they tested the "will not work with a severed hand" part.

Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

VaalDonkie

RE:"Can't be arsed with installing a text app on every machine I visit"

Put NotePadd++ or any other text editor on a flash drive.

Ten serious sci-fi films for the sentient fan

VaalDonkie

What,

no Transformers?

US lawmaker blames bicycle breath for global warming gas

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: Facepalm...

This frothing at the mouth is EXACTLY why normal folks don't get along with cyclists. Cyclists think they're precious little jewels who don't need to follow the same rules as everyone else (like coughing up money or obeying the rules of the road) and throw a hissy fit if you hold them to the same standards they hold others.

The real troll here is environMENTALism.

VaalDonkie

Re: Cyclists are not 'required' to wear anything

Different countries: different rules.

VaalDonkie

Re: And you're stuck behind a bicycle?

I get to follow a cyclist on the freeway.

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: And you're stuck behind a bicycle?

About once a month. See my dilemma?

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: Facepalm...

You have valid arguments. And atrocious levels of traffic congestion. Pavements are there for the some purpose of enabling prostitutes to earn a living.

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: Facepalm...

- Not everyone lives in London you know. Nor does everyone drive around town. I spend 95% of my commute on a freeway, doing 120km/h (that's about 65 imperial horse dongs or 700 cubed furlongs).

- Again, not every country on earth works like Britain, hence the taxes employed in upkeep does not come from the same source.

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: Facepalm...

And another:

4. During the dark phase of photosynthesis, plants actually produce CO2 and consume oxygen. So yes, we need to tax those petunias. It is science.

VaalDonkie
Trollface

Re: Facepalm...

A few points of order:

1. I use the same amount of fuel whether I'm stuck behind one cyclist or 1000 cars.

2. When walkers use a pavement constructed specifically for the purpose of walking, then yes, they should be paying for its upkeep.

3. I would rather pay a few pounds extra for fuel than have to spend a thousand on a new bike and all that safety gear your nanny government would force me to wear.

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