Re: Hmmm. Extract from the lawsuit.
Joking aside, they'd never scan the images, they'd hash 'em and scan matching hashes, the usual bog standard DB optimization technique.
Posts by Amorous Cowherder
1063 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Jul 2012
Romance is dead: Part-time model slings $1.5bn SUEBALL at Match.com
Microsoft: Don't listen to 4chan ... especially the bit about bricking Xbox Ones
Tuesday 10th December 2013 14:15 GMT
Re: How does it brick the console though?
"people will start returning bricked consoles by the bus load."
Exactly! MS might think they're being "parent-like", wagging their finger at the people daft enough to try this, but this could well backfire as more people bring them back to retail outlets and those outlets all get on the phone to MS. Bang goes the Xmas sales for MS, the retail outlets get pissed off with MS during the busiest time of the year. Next time MS bring something out, those outlets won't buy as much stock.
MS once again turning a shot to the foot into a practised art-form!
Malware+pr0n surge follows police op to kill illicit streaming sites
Teary-eyed snappers recall the golden age of film
Tuesday 10th December 2013 12:40 GMT 
You'd be surprised how many teenagers I see on the photo forums I hang about on, talking about film and asking the old-hands how best to mix their solutions and develop their films. A lot of them love putting in the hard work that film shooting requires. I've been there and done it, I just want to shoot now.
Shooting film takes real dedication and patience as you have to know you have it right. There's no little replay to tell you how it went. However digital means you get more time to spend being creative. I'm not one of those gear-head snappers, I want to go out and get creative with my photos not spend hours on forums being a completely anal "measur-bator", obsessed with the numbers in photography!
It's true, the START MENU is coming BACK to Windows 8, hiss sources
Tuesday 10th December 2013 12:34 GMT
WIndows 8 makes it fun again!
Can't see the fuss myself, I hated Win8 at first but I persevered and I actually think Windows 8 is probably one of the best MS have actually made. I use XFCE on a Xubuntu for 8 hours a day plus Java Desktop on Solaris, which is a truly awful experience I also have an OSX powered Macbook, I still like coming home to Win8!
I like fact that you can't easily find anything, makes computing fun again! We got so safe and comfortable, ha ha! So you can't find stuff easily, so what?! Jesus when I started on a Dragon32 back in '82 you didn't have a bloody clue what to do, certainly nothing to help you but a black blinking cursor! However I made an effort to learn what all those BASIC commands did and if you do it enough you learn it.
Evil Dexter lurks in card reader, ready to SLASH UP your credit score
OMG, Andrex killed the puppey! Not quilty, exclaim bog roll boys
Tuesday 10th December 2013 12:23 GMT 
A claim to fame!
There was one Andrex ad where they had lots of puppies running around. My Mum was a Labrador fanatic and bought one of the puppies that was in that ad, cost a bomb. Had some stupid name like Lucinda-Tresesse Malsmith some such nonsense, my Mum renamed her Chloe! My Mum died around 2005 but Chloe lived to about 14, she developed severe arthritis and died last year.
If you want an IT job you'll need more than a degree, say top techies
Monday 9th December 2013 14:50 GMT
I was quite pleased when I found out my daughter was being taught BASIC ( Alright it's MS Small Basic, brainwashing them into .Net and C#, I know! ) in her last year at Junior School. It's nothing spectacular but at least learning simple programmatic constructs in BASIC is better than the usual school ICT bollocks that IT = MS Office!
Apple's spamtastic iBeacon retail alerts launch with Frisco FAIL
Monday 9th December 2013 12:45 GMT
Re: "Comfortable with that?" Er, well now that you mention it, no.
"(Or, if I buy one and then discover I can't disable Bluetooth, to return it for a full refund because it is unsatisfactory.)"
More than anything because the second you turn all that wireless shit on, the battery takes a massive hit, especially as it ages. I'm not a complete "greeny" but I like to do my bit to save the planet and not wasting leccy ( or my precious time or money ) charging a bloody phone every 20 mins is high on my list of priorities when I look new phones. I like my phones to last at least 3 days without a charge as I am a lazy sod, so everything better be tweakable else it's no-go for me!
A whopping one in four Apple fanbois uses OBSOLETE TECH
Fiendish CryptoLocker ransomware survives hacktivists' takedown
Two million TERRIBLE PASSWORDS stolen by malware attackers
Thursday 5th December 2013 17:18 GMT
Re: Sick and tired of remembering hundreds of passwords
No good writing 'em down, only takes a spill of coffee, coke (*) or small child needing some scrap paper and they'll all gone...unless you have a strongbox in the house with a photo-copy of the written down passwords, or better still make that a fireproof safe!
( * My Missus did have a book of passwords and logins written down and they did get soaked from an ice-cold frosty, sugar-beverage! Luckily she dried the book out and learned her lesson, put them in an encrypted software vault! )
'Copyrighted' Java APIs deserve same protection as HARRY POTTER, Oracle tells court
Gadget world's metals irreplaceable, say boffins
The only way is Office: UK Parliament to migrate to Microsoft cloud
El Reg Contraption Confessional No.1: The Dragon 32 micro
Tuesday 3rd December 2013 12:46 GMT
I remember coming in from school aged around 7 or 8 and my old man said, "Look at this!" and he kicked off some flashing screen demo on the Dragon32 he'd typed into the Dragon32 he'd bought that afternoon! Psychodelic flashes and monotone beeps, it was amazing!
I remember my Mum knew someone at work who'd husband was running a business selling Dragon32 games and add-ons. I got a fair few games and some fund peripherals to play with, like the official Dragon Speech Synth Cartridge! It was way overpriced and bloody awful but we were on the cutting edge with only Ian McNaught Davies as our guide!
MPs back call to boycott low-taxed tat from Amazon over Xmas
Monday 2nd December 2013 12:47 GMT
Best of luck with that one!
I only stick with Amazon as there is no quibbles about returns. Every time I've had to sort out a return they couldn't do enough to make sure I got it replaced ASAP. Not saying they are the best or the cheapest but I've had my fill of fighting with shitty companies who refuse to take back faulty items, yes COMET, PC World and Argos I'm looking at you with your, "Here's 20p phone the manufacturer and see if they give a flying f**k about your broken toy, 'cos we don't!" attitude!
False widow spiders in guinea pig slaughter horror
Thursday 28th November 2013 12:56 GMT
Re: Oh Dear
You might have been making a joke about the hysteria trying be drummed up but at first glance it doesn't come over as that.
If you weren't and you think pets dying means nothing you've obviously never had kids see their first dead pet then? When I was 6 I cried my eyes for about 3 hours when my guinea pig died. My daughter was in a bloody awful state when her first hamster had to be taken to the vet to be put down after it developed a tumour. Sure kids get over it, it's one of life's most important lessons, but when it happens and it's first time your life you finally realise that living things croak and there's nothing you can do about it.
WTF is the Internet of Things and how insurers will use it against you
Wednesday 27th November 2013 12:54 GMT
Re: Solutions looking for a problem
Interesting you mention that. I do a lot of digital photography and obviously we benefit from some huge advances in technology, we have incredible light meters built into the cameras, camera sensors that can work in such low light that film cannot compete with. We can process images out in the field on a laptop. ( Before you think it, no Photoshop doesn't not magical make crap pictures in a quality art! Garbage in is still garbage out, just like IT! ).
You'd think it can hardly be worth taking pictures as a set of computers does all the work, you'd be quite wrong. All this technology has freed so many people who wouldn't have delved into photography, to concentrate on the art of picture taking and production. I can spend far more time learning about such ephemeral things like composition and kinds of natural light I have to work in, rather than spend so much time having to learn the chemistry of developing a film and prints. I'm not saying for one second that digital is worse or better than film but that for me and countless others, digital has freed us to have more time to learn the art of picture taking.
Technology has change photography to make it more appealing to a wider audience. It must apply to other interests as well.
PS-PHWOARRR: We review Sony’s next-gen PlayStation 4
Wednesday 27th November 2013 12:44 GMT
I'm curious to see what it offers but I usually skip every other generation console, I owned an original Playstation but didn't bother shifting until the XBOX360 made it worthwhile. You spend shed-loads on the titles so it needs something truly stellar to make me invest in all the latest incarnations of those titles.
Good luck to anyone looking to upgrade though, the more people invest at the start, the more support goes behind a console, the more companies start coding releases for it thus bringing down the prices of consoles and titles for when the rest of us catch up.
NSA spied on 'radicalisers' porn surfing so as to discredit them, reveals Snowden
Wednesday 27th November 2013 12:35 GMT
Or reply wife after being caught, ..."Look love, you moan about me not being interesting enough in the bedroom, well despite my poor showing in my exams at school, I am now making a real effort to study! Thus I am catching up on advanced techniques especially in the area of how much of a spanking one arse can take between these three young Asian ladies, before I bring my findings to the public forum, ie you!"
It wasn't that uncomfortable sleeping the in car that night....
VIOLENT video games make KIDS SMARTER – more violent the BETTER
Wednesday 27th November 2013 12:28 GMT
Well my wife might not agree...
After I let our 11 year old play Skyrim for a bit which she thoroughly enjoyed. However the next time her mate came round they were both out in the garden running around shouting "Die! Kill the Draugr! Quick, cast a spell to explode that person!".
My wife was less than pleased with me after that, reminding that the neighbours might not think it's very funny or clever. I should have said, "It's making her smarter...errm, smacking that tree with the rake pretending it's one of the undead! Ermm..."
Why Microsoft absolutely DOESN'T need its own Steve Jobs
Tuesday 26th November 2013 13:18 GMT
Re: SJ did have one thing right
" I don't think it is the money at all. - the problem they have is that they don't have a visionary CEO who can see the world through the eyes of customers (or employ somebody who can, and then listen to them). "
To me this has MS all along. They have some very smart people, some great ideas but they just can't get their act together to get the to things working. They reek of the same mind-set they had back around 1988 when DOS was king, that somehow they could do as they wish and everyone would fall in line as everyone only had a PC on their desk. The world has changed and we consume media and information from so many sources. Sometimes we may use a phone while we're out, back home on the sofa, whip a tablet. Serious stuff we jump on the laptop or desktop. Sometimes we may use all three devices more or less at the same time and we pretty much need to be able to quickly have the ability to use them without any problems. MS can't see that.
Much as Apple Corp irk me you can't fault their ability to see what people want, design it and flog it to them, even if most of the customers don't realise they need it. They offer a range of devices that compliment each other, you use one you pretty can use any of the others. Somehow they've manage to stoke up the right crowd to get cachet and consumer loyalty that most corps will almost literally kill for.
MS need to shake off that monolithic, 1988 mindset and actually start looking at the what is happening out in the world. Or at the very least, fire their researchers 'cos they obviously don't seem to have a clue about what's happening out here and MS are following their advice!
Schmidt: Social networks will FREE THE PEOPLE of China
Tuesday 26th November 2013 12:45 GMT
Schmitt has never heard of "divide and conquer" then!
You don't need lock everyone up to make them fear you, you simply pick off a few key people or simply make a small number of husbands or main wage earners disappear on dark, stormy nights. A ruler's real power comes from instilling fear in the populace.
New NSA leak reveals invasion of the management consultants
Leaked MS ad video parodies Chrome as surveillance tech
Monday 25th November 2013 12:16 GMT
For the love of....
Like any of them are squeaky clean! I'm sure old BIlly Boy and dear Uncle Stevie Ballmer set up Bing out of the goodness of their hearts. Of course as we know Windows is completely philanthropic venture designed to make the world a better place! Heck even Shuttleworth is out of make cash out of the world's most fee O/S.
Now remind MS, weren't you lot one of the "dirty-dozen" who happily sent all our info over to those fun loving folks in the NSA?
Give it a rest MS, you're just as bad as the rest, you just don't make it as obvious!
SourceForge responds to GIMP grump with crowdsourcing caper
Friday 15th November 2013 12:44 GMT
Don't they? Run a FOSS software install on Windows and it's like a English Language and Lateral thinking test!
"Do you agree, by the nature of not ticking boxes, below to agree, to not comply with the agreement that we can install toolbar and/or/if collect your details, not to in anyway supercede previous agreements, that may or may not allow installation and collection of data within reaches of local law? Tick box y/n"
Ermmmmm...y..e...s? WRONG! Now we'll share all your usage data and your machine will be riddled with CPU hogging addons!
Coroner suggests cars should block mobile phones
Friday 15th November 2013 12:39 GMT
What a bloody stupid idea!
Lone woman on her own at night, needs to get out of the car in a dark area to use her mobile to ask the person she's meeting how to get there? Next thing, story in the papers, "Lone Woman Attacked While Making Call As Car System Blocked It!"
* shakes head at narrow minder morons opening mouths without thinking *
Microsoft fears XP could cause Indian BANKOCALYPSE
Wednesday 13th November 2013 15:34 GMT
Re: Running scared Y2K
"It became a non-event."
You were obviously too young to be a part of it and must have read this bullshit statement off some website somewhere!
We spent 18 months at my tiny little shop checking everything from software to kettles ( seriously, we did have sign off Y2K on things that didn't even have clocks! ), signing everything off at least 2-3 months before the grand date. Come the glorious night of 31st 1999 some of us didn't get to see the fireworks or drink champagne as we were sitting in offices watching system clocks tick over and making sure the world didn't come to a screaming halt!
That's why it was a non-event, millions of people worked hard to make sure it was a non-event so when everyone awoke to their hangovers in 2000 the planes hadn't fallen from the sky and you could still go down TESCO and get your 1st Jan 2000 newspaper!
MPAA, RIAA: Kids need to learn 3 Rs – reading, writing and NO RIPPING
Wednesday 13th November 2013 04:19 GMT
Re: Let's generalise this a bit
Ha ha! Ha ha! Oh man you're are so funny!
Knowledge is power and the last thing the government needs is for a huge bunch of plebs ( that's you and me ) to know anything! It's been that way since the earliest days of writing, who were taught to read and write? It was a select few in the church or priesthood. It was only during the industrial revolution that those in power realised that people had to have some basic reading and writing skills in order to operate the new industrial machines. Those in power finally caved and grudglingly started giving basic 3Rs lessons to kids, Sunday mornings only mind you and just enough to be able to read a little and count enough to read the dial and settings on the machines.
As those machines and processes have become more complex and to make sure we behave like good little plebs and pay our taxes, we have been taught more and more complex ideas. However kids are still only taught enough to get by and then taught to regurgitate facts in a parrot fashion, individuality of thought is frowned upon by those at the top. Sensibly quite a few of us do use the basics to get a leg up and do something worthwhile with our minds, with access to more information we are constantly educating ourselves on so many subjects at such a rapid rate that our wonderful leaders do worry that we know too much so they find other ways to punish us for trying to be too clever.
Wednesday 13th November 2013 04:07 GMT
Re: Sponsored curriculum
Oh my God, you mean eating a bowl full of chocolate cover treats and full fat milk will not help me look like the skinny bird in the advert! Why?! Why would the marketing people lie to me like this?! I've been gobbling sugar-covered breakfast treats like crazy and all I have to show is a huge gut and dizzy spells when I stand up too quickly! Sorry? You mean I have go outside and exercise too? The box never said anything about that! Why would they lie to me?!
Wednesday 13th November 2013 04:04 GMT
Re: Mind control
"They're a bugger to remove cleanly when you're ripping a disc. or so I've heard.."
Nah, use "DVDFab", I've not found one DVD out of 350 odd so far it hasn't done a perfect clean, first-time rip of. Spotted the main chapter 100% accuracy so far too! Also I'm not paying £15 for DVDs, wait 6-9 months and you can get 'em second-hand for a about a pound a go from Amazon marketplace or FleaBay.
Cops: Bloke makes bet with wife. Wife loses - so hubby TASERS her
Your kids' chances of becoming programmers? ZERO
Wednesday 6th November 2013 17:17 GMT
Re: Down with this sort of thing
That happens when there's no passion. I loved coding as a kid, it was passion that drove we geeks to learn. It's that attitude that still makes good IT people today, we can sit down and work out problems through sheer determination and logical deduction because we have passion. Too many people went into IT in the 90's with no real interest, simply the notion that if you got the right job you'd get good money, thus we ended up with a glut of morons with no idea how to fathom out technical problems. "List readers" who simply follow the steps and when the thing deviates from the steps, they're completely lost. Coding encourages good problem solving in those with a passion for it. If you have no passion for something how the hell do you think you'll ever get any good at it?
If you're not paying, you're product: If you ARE paying, it's no better
Monday 4th November 2013 12:42 GMT
Re: A very timely article...
Long term archiving or constant quick retrieval? I'm tempted by Amazon Glacier for long term archive storage. We have a family photo archive that's around 500GB and Amazon's prices at $0.01/GB/month seem quite reasonable, there's just a lot of well documented strings attached to usage of the service.
Facebook fans fuel faggots firestorm
Apple CEO Tim Cook v Microsoft's Ballmer: Seconds out, round two!
Obama to Merkel: No Americans are listening to you on this call
Hands up, who couldn't post to Facebook today? Oh, MILLIONS of you
Monday 21st October 2013 15:45 GMT
It may surprise you to learn that a lot of people run business via FB as they get access to a potential audience of over a billion people. Creative types like photographers and artists can advertise to people looking for services or images.
So while most of it is full absolute fecking dross, some of it is useful to quite a few people.
Snap-happy blogger babe posts catcalling blokes' mugshots online
Monday 21st October 2013 12:48 GMT
Different levels
At first I was of the opinion that this was a very bad idea but when we discuss "catcalling" we think of the simple wolf-whistle, harmless and maybe flattering. The thing is, "catcalling" like "sexual assault" has different levels, ie sexual assault ranges from inappropriate language to full rape. Could be the same with "cat calling", it could range from a simple "Alright darlin' " to a full and graphic description of what the caller wants to do to the person being called out to which could make a young lady feel very vulnerable and afraid. When you start to consider what is going on in broader terms, what she's doing may not seem so bad.
Adobe hackers strike again: PR Newswire grovels to clients after latest hack'n'grab
Monday 21st October 2013 12:13 GMT
Why I won't upgrade my PS to CC.
And this is why we'd rather have boxed editions of your software because this is the second time you muppets with your "cloudy-distribution, software-service delivery, monthly payment" crap have proved that you simply cannot be trusted with our details and more importantly with our credit/debit card details!
Best Buy: Bring us your cowering, unwanted Microsoft Surface masses
Monday 14th October 2013 07:03 GMT
Re: too easy
Nah, do an "Atari ET Cartridge" on them, take 'em out to a huge hole in the Mohave and bury the bloody lot!
In 250 years time, when Serge and Brin have become anointed Saints of the Church of Google that all humans will be born into by default, they will marvel at who this Microsoft and Bill Gates were to invent such rubbish and expect people to pay for it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
