Re: Seti@home
OS/2 servers? Are you running a Boinc client at a Bank?
Posts by Chairo
716 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Nov 2012
Brits: Give us £1m and we'll build a crack ALIEN-HUNTING TEAM
Microsoft offloads heap of critical fixes in 'ugly' Patch Tuesday
HP confirms it's back in the smartphone business
Apple 'iWatch' trademark filing hints Cook's make-or-break moment looms
Tuesday 2nd July 2013 02:21 GMT
@mhoulden Re: What's a watch?
Of course the battery life of a watch is usually measured in several years (or indefinitely if you have a windup one or something like a kinetic or solar powered one)
That is only the case if you have only ONE kinetic watch and wear it all the time. Otherwise the spring runs out in about one or two days. People, wearing automatic watches usually put them in rewinder machines for the evening. Very much the same than charging on a daily basis.
Firefox OS starting small but thinking big says Mozilla CTO
Schwarzenegger says 'I'll be back' for Terminator 5 reboot
Monday 1st July 2013 00:08 GMT
Originality
How about a story about some nice guy, working as a contractor and finding out about a dark, sinister conspiracy within the goverment to build up a evil network to spy and blackmail every single person on earth. Throw in a tired president that realizes that he could not realize any of his high dreams he once had and starts making deals with the devil to safe at least a token of his work, corrupt agents, that try to suppress the story by leaking their favorite peaces of evil banker phone cuts to create some distruction, an evil south american dictator that tries to use the good guy for his own agenda, corrupt and arrogant officials, senators, etc.
The hero has to be played by some "blank nice guy" actor, that makes identifying with him easy. To make up for it he needs some exotic female counterpart. A pole dancer for example. Start the story in some exotic place like Hong Kong and move it on to a sterile, depressing environment like an airport departure lounge.
What do you mean with the story has already been taken?
Live - stranger than fiction...
MacBook Air now uses PCIe flash... but who'd Apple buy it from?
Young blokes blinded by video-game addiction: THE FACTS
Yes, maybe we should keep hackers in the clink for YEARS, mulls EU
Tuesday 11th June 2013 13:12 GMT
I wonder
sentences would be increased to a starting point of five years' imprisonment for cases involving attacks against critical infrastructure systems, such as power plants and transport networks.
Does this apply for heads of states of supposedly allied nations? You know, the ones that order to prepare such strikes anyway. Just in case - you never know what these strange europeans might be up to...
Microsoft announces $499 price tag, new games for Xbox One
Tuesday 11th June 2013 03:22 GMT 
it's UK gamers who will be paying more than anyone else
<troll>
Is that due to the huge localizsation effort required to translate the menus to British English? Or do they calculate the price on the sheep/human ratio of the country? Hmm, no, Australia and the Kiwis have a higher ratio...
Btw. Will the XBox One have some country code system to make sure you cannot use it in another country? Using some IP address locator service, it should be trivial to implement. It would also fit the "general spirit" of this console.
</troll>
Study: US iPhone owners tend to be rich, educated, white
Friday 7th June 2013 06:59 GMT
Re: iPhone economics
People that don't know a damn thing about technology are not missing out anything by entering the Apple playpen.
Apple blocks a lot of stuff I want to use, namely emulators, network tools, file system access, a terminal emulator and such toys.
Someone who doesn't know a damn thing about technology has no need for this.
So their stuff is not for me, but our accountant is quite happy in his walled garden.
Forget phones, PRISM plan shows internet firms give NSA everything
YES, Xbox One DOES need internet, DOES restrict game trading
Friday 7th June 2013 02:57 GMT
Re: Microsoft: "We're always listening to our customers"
No, no, you got it wrong, it's not "customers", it's "sheep". They need a thorough shaving, lest they overheat in summer!
And that's also why they need to keep you online on a console that has a camera and microphone and sits in your living room - to protect you.
Police 'stumped' by car thefts using electronic skeleton key
Thursday 6th June 2013 23:39 GMT
Valuables in your parked car?
If nothing valuable can be found, the damage is at least much lower, than if they would break in the windows. People who think that a parked car is a safe heaven are IMHO part of the problem here. Same people that use "password" as their password and think they are smart.
Yes, I know, of course this lowers the risk for the burglars and makes break-ins more likely, so the existance of this device is a bad thing.
I said it before - organised crime can break through any static security, given enough time. That is, why trusted computing is evil, btw. Once the bad guys are in, you can't get them out any more.
Paranoid? No, I know they are out there, trying to get me!
Landfill Android devices set to get 4G, courtesy of Qualcomm
Review: HP Slate 7 Android tablet
Tuesday 4th June 2013 09:40 GMT
1024x600
was a bastard resolution for netbooks and I cannot imagine it will perform any better on a tablet.
Heck, even my cheapo chinese android phone has a higher resolution on a smaller screen. Most internet pages are optimized for a minimum vertical resolution of 768 points.
I wonder if they will ever learn...
Smut-for-Glass app suffers premature ejection
Tuesday 4th June 2013 09:16 GMT
Re: @Jake (was:As usual, the goo-tards don't ...)
I am afraid the pervs will exploit pretty much any concept available. That's why they are pervs in the first place, anyway. Yes clearly Google glass has a far higher potential for misuse than other technology. On the other hand I am quite sure the society will somehow find ways to cope with it. If things get too much out of hand, there will most likely some kind of ban to wear them in the public. Google is anything but naive, so they will make quite some effort to avoid such a situation, I suppose.
South African cluster kids represent ENTIRE continent at HPC battle
Firefox OS: Go away fanbois, fandroids - you wouldn't understand
Tuesday 4th June 2013 05:56 GMT
Re: dumb question
on the iphone 3g i can use ibooks, which is a crap ereader.
I use bluefire reader, which works pretty much OK for me on my old iphone 3g running IOS3.2. For putting the epubs on the device I use USB. The iphone appears as a separate drive with a "bluefire" folder, in which I can dump the epubs. I'm using Linux on my desktop, so I don't know if it works the same for Windows.
Zynga deactivates 500+ employees in major layoff
Tuesday 4th June 2013 02:53 GMT
Re: We All Know
I just wish they would speak in a straightforward manner and at least act like they cared.
We All Know - they are in their position exactly because they can handle the ManagOSpeak, so this will not happen. "We are sorry that we have to fire you to increase our annual bonus" - Nah, never!
Microsoft touts business features of Windows 8.1
Apple declares WAR on Spotify: iRadio bags streaming rights
How Microsoft shattered Gnome's unity with Windows 95
Monday 3rd June 2013 08:14 GMT 
WPS
Effectively the Win95 and WinNT4.0 desktops were very close to OS/2's WPS. As for myself, I found the WPS to be far more powerful and elegant than the Win95 desktop.
That might also be one reason why MS didn't start suing Linux vendors. IBM might have had some rights on the Win95 desktop scheme, as well. You could argue, that OS/2 was also done by Microsoft, but the WPS changed a lot for the 2.x versions of OS/2. And AFAIK MS already withdrew from OS/2 development at that time.
Google nuke thyself: Mountain View's H.264 righteous flame-out
Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild
Thursday 30th May 2013 01:50 GMT 
The solution of it all!
This is sooo retro - a single screen interface, just like back in DOS. Next would be probably a Polaroid colour theme - oh wait, they already implemented this. And on the other hand we have this shocking multiple coloured tiles - this reminds me of something...
OK, I guess I finally found the target group for Win8(.1) - It's Hipsters! This fits so well, it cannot be just by chance!
Just like a fixie bike - colourful, simple, inconvenient to use, but once you get the hang of it, it will do the job.
But how on earth could Redmond concentrate on Hipsters as target group? Did they analyse Apple's most dedicate user group and design specifically for them?
Questions over questions...
Peak Facebook: British users lose their Liking for Zuck's ad empire
Friday 24th May 2013 10:35 GMT
@WatAWorld: Re: one in 20 users having clicked on an ad
While I agree, that anything you do online has a risk of getting owned, there are some actions that involve a higher risk than others. Following links to unknown websites is one of them.
It would not be the first time that ads are used for slinging malware.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/15/opera_blackhole/ -
"Malvertising" incidents are far from rare. Previous victims have included Spotify, the London Stock Exchange, The Pirate Bay, ITV.com and Major League Baseball, among many others
It has been written by El Reg, so it must be the truth. Right?
Microsoft exposes green users' privates in web quiz snafu
INSIDE GCHQ: Welcome to Cheltenham's cottage industry
Friday 24th May 2013 08:49 GMT 
Smartphones
I’d be interested to know how the organisation deals with the abundance of smartphones today. Are they banned or is the place more trusting now, I wonder?
A bit off topic, but I think that question could make an interesting article - How do organisations handle camera phones? Are they tolerated? Do you have to put a sticker on the lens? Outright forbidden?
My experience in this regard is quite mixed. Some customers I visit are surprisingly relaxed, while others are extremely strict and even do body searches when you leave the premises.
Tea, Earl Grey, hot! NASA blows $125k on Star Trek 3D FOOD PRINTER
China’s state-run rags brand Mars One mission a scam
US Senator introduces 'Patent Abuse Reduction Act'
Orange customer clobbered with SIX-FIGURE phone bill
Friday 24th May 2013 02:07 GMT
Re: Unmetered...
One important point about unmetered mobile network services is, that the provider really starts to care about caps. As long as they are payed by package, no matter what, they don't really give a damn if you ruin yourself. As soon as they have to care about throttling down your connection, to make sure you don't use more "premium" speed, than you payed for, expect things to change very quickly.
As for water or gas bills - if you have one week water leakage in your home, the water bill is probably the least of your problems. Turning off water and gas before leaving your home is probably more efficient. Oh, and also unplug unneeded electrical appliances like your telly, the set-top box(es) and your IT equipment.
Penguin - they like flooded apartments.
Aha, I see you switched on your mobile Wi-Fi. YOU FOOL!
LOHAN is GO! Reg spaceplane BLASTS OFF on 14 September
They WANT to EAT YOUR COMPUTER - welcome your ANT overlords
FLABBER-JASTED: It's 'jif', NOT '.gif', says man who should know
Fairphone goes on sale to all
Thursday 23rd May 2013 04:29 GMT 
conflict-free tin and tantalum from parts the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Congo and conflict free seems to be some kind of contradiction. Or do they mean they recycle the stuff from bomb debris and destroyed military vehicles?
Whenever I hear someone claiming political correctness I get goose pimples.
Still - if it is an honest effort, then I wish them all the best, of course.
Black helicopter - lots of stuff for recycling...
More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7
Thursday 23rd May 2013 03:20 GMT
Re: OK. What's wrong with XP?
Well - once MS pulls the plug sometime early next year, there will be no patches any more for XP. As long as you can live with an unpatched system, that might still be OK. I wonder, however, what will happen to the activation servers. Does anyone know, if they are going offline, as well?
Btw: I'm running Firefox on Ubuntu "precise pangolin" and Flash is running. (Not running well, or running stable, or anything - we are talking about Flash, anyway).
Coat - the one with the patches, please!
Report: China IP theft now equal in value to US exports to Asia
Thursday 23rd May 2013 02:46 GMT
$107bn in additional annual sales?
That is higher than most other countries' GDP. It will be difficult to convince China, that this is not a good strategy. On the other hand - if they plan to go any (objective) third party council, their numbers should better be waterproof. If they are calculated in the same manner than RIAA's, it might rather cause amusement in the middle kingdom.
HTC woes prompts 'leave now' tweet from former staffer
James Bond inspires US bill to require smart guns for all
Global perils of dirt, glaciers and lizardocalypse overblown, say boffins
Tuesday 21st May 2013 06:30 GMT
Re: Sigh
For some part I agree. However the CO2 debate also has a lot of positive side effects. Pushing for more efficient energy usage is not such a bad thing. More efficient engines, heating and light, for example. So even in the worst case (which would doubtless be the best case!), not all is just a waste of time. Yes, yes, I know - there are also a lot of negative examples. I'm just trying to keep a positive attitude...
Beer - because it is better to put the alcohol in a glass than in the tank.
Full metal jacket: Nokia launches new Lumia 925
Monday 20th May 2013 08:56 GMT
@Sentient : Re: It is running Windows 8?
Interesting, thanks for the link.
If they can solve out the source compatibility issue to an extend that people can write apps for both, the desktop and the phone without too much trouble, it would be an enormous step forward for the platform.
In such a case the move to TIFKAM might actually give them an edge instead of being a hindrance and it would pay off in the long run.
They have to get their act together very soon, however. Nokia made some beautiful phones, lately, but they will need more than that to compete against Apple and Samsung. They will most of all need to keep a healthy income.
I really, really wonder how a company with Microsoft's resources could make such a basic mistake. What kind of enormous screw-up happened to put them in such a situation?
Intel releases 'Beacon Mountain' Android-on-Atom dev tool
Monday 20th May 2013 07:13 GMT
Might the combination of better silicon, a decent development tool and just offering mobe-makers an alternative they can use to beat up their current CPU suppliers finally get Intel into a better mobile place?
Hopefully it will encourage the competition to turn out even better silicon, development tools, etc.
Competition is a good thing, isn't it?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
