Posts by Dan Paul

Too bad this wasn't decided in Federal Court...Pirate Dave

If this decision had been handed down in a Federal Court, a nationwide legal precedent could have been established.

Then we could have had the dubious pleasure of seeing naked people waiting in airport security lines everywhere, not just Portland, Oregon (Now featuring the new Clothing Optional security inspection line).

Unfortunately, the same decision would NOT be reached if this had occurred in NYC (birthplace of "Homeland InSecurity Theater") No, the poor fellow would still be naked, waiting for his phone call in Rikers (or Gitmo).

Unfortunately, this would leave only one remaining area of the anatomy left to the imagination of the TSA.

If you think that the searches were "invasive" before... of course you know that only the guilty have something to hide. At least the lines will move quickly (except in San Francisco).

Let's just hope the TSA are issued handwarners and an endless supply of clean rubber gloves. Forget "Free Speech" ;"Free Screech" will be more like it.

At the very least, there will never be another Underwear Bomber....

@Don Jefe Could not agree more... BUY REAL PAPER BOOKS

I will not support any E Book technology on the principle that if I do, I am just another fool giving paper books the bum's rush out of existence. Paper has a permanence that will NEVER be equalled by electronic media.

Let alone being able to easily view literature in the format it was always intended to be in, physical books will always retain their value, be useable by anyone, almost anywhere and will always be unencumbered by DRM or orphan format issues (outside of outright book burning or censorship).

Okay, I understand that Schools and Universities need to cut costs and Ebooks will allow that but someone needs to recognize that there is a need for paper if only for archive and reference purposes.

True "Books" will increase in value as Ebooks displace them so buy real books as an investment now, before it is too late!

only solution is VLAN and a MUCH more expensive router supporting permissions

What... did Cisco just want to sell more expensive kit (twice) that can make up for it's softwares shortcomings?

People who use Laptops need/want value, features that "Ultrabooks" don't have

It's a fact that most people who buy a Windows Laptop PC are less affluent than Mac owners. They want a product that will do it all from productivity/office software to surfing to playing media because they can't afford or justify anything more.

They look for "value" and having to buy all manner of adapters, external drives etc etc to have comparable functionality does not provide value.

When you can buy a budget laptop for under $500 that will do most of what a desktop can, that's a bargain.

If you must add hardware to a pricey "Ultrabook" to make it do the same thing as the cheap laptop it's an outright luxury.

The compact lightweight design of an Ultrabook already costs far more than it should. The added costs of additional devices does not help the price point.

Instead of chasing Apple, Intel and Microsoft need to concentrate on meeting customer needs and expectations. They do not know who their market is anymore and they don't recognize that luxury does not sell well in this down economy.

The upcoming "Surface" tablet by Microsoft is an opportunity to fix that. The price point should be around $600 to $700 with room for discounting. Processor & Ram Specs should be high enough to run real office, cad, or other common business software, bluetooth, wifi, ethernet, multiple USB ports, full size SD/HC slot (64 Gb), high resolution display at least large enough for A4/8.5 by 11 inch full size documents in portrait mode, capacitive touchscreen, and available in BOTH Win7 and Win 8 OS. You could have a docking station that included a DVD drive but it would be nice to have one onboard.

Don't lock yourself into Intel, Microsoft. AMD would kill to work with you on this product and they have a killer APU with better graphics than Intel will ever have. Remember Intel is working with the enemy now.

No business will touch Win 8 for a few years so Win 7 is an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT!!!!! You want to sell this to BUSINESSES so they need a manageable, secure, mature OS.

Anyone who says otherwise at MS is a daft fool who must be a covert Apple employee.

If all these features are there, this price point will outsell the iPAD and the MBA and you will have your market back.

Arcane Economics & All Derviatives Trading should be banned outright

The fact remains that if no one can ever truly understand or predict the arcane economics of this situation then their use should be banned and the practice of derivative trading regulated just like gambling is since they are the same thing.

As I understand this, it is not so far away from the same kind of derivative trading crap that caused the housing market to crash across the USA. Has no one learned any lessons from the past 10 years?

If the banks themselves cannot begin to understand what it is that is being traded, then they are already negligent. If they trade in derivatives then they should do so at THEIR OWN RISK, NOT OURS!!!!!!!

That negligence needs to be punished severely. A slow painful Death is not enough punishment for these people.

Syria is responsible for use of the tool, just like any tool it can be used for good or bad

Lesuer has had somewhat of a conflict of conscience here but the fact remains that the one who uses the tool is always responsible for it's use; NOT it's creator. I can make a knife without concerns but the one who uses the knife is responsible for using it legally.

Just because they can doesn't mean it's right, I agree with Joerg

This is what happens with any kind of monopoly. There really are only two drive manufacturers WD and Seagate and I'm sure their respective managment had an "agreement" to fix prices.

Now how do we PROVE it! The FTC needs to offer substantial rewards to whistleblowers that attract responsible, credible witnesses.

There is no difference between this and the Barclays LIBOR Scandal.

The only cure is life in prison for the offenders (in Singapore, prefereably)

How long will Windows 7 be supported and for sale?

How long have I got to buy a couple of copies of Windows 7 so I won't be subjected to Windows 8?

All of Asia is one giant "Sweat Shop"

So what's the difference? ALL manufacturers act the same when there are no laws/regulations/unions to protect the laborer.

This is why there needs to be international tarrifs that tax the crap out of ANY manufacturer that offshores existing jobs, uses sweatshop labor practices, etc.

I don't begrudge anyone a "reasonable" profit margin, but 500 to 600% borders on Larceny. Making that kind of margin while using sweatshop labor practices should result in the death penalty.

How about a consortium of Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Motorola?

Then they can all use the patents without interference from Apple.

@Monkey Bob - There is NO Battery, it's an Energon Cube!

Geez Bob,

Don't you know what an Energon Cube looks like? Even if Apple have defaced it's surface with Terran scribblings? Those TSA guys must have used to work at Hoover Dam. No wonder they were looking at it so deeply. They know what happens when an iPhone get hit with the Allspark.

Kill all the cable operators now! (To paraphrase Shakespeare)

Hopefully some dumb twat from the FCC may read the following:

I have a perfectly good Samsung flat screen TV that is entirely capable of receiving over 125 digital or analog TV channels without a godforsaken "Cable Box".

I don't want more stations, I don't want Pay Per View, I don't want expensive "Premium Channel Packages", I don't want to rent videos, etc etc.

I just want to watch TV unencumbered by some stupid box that duplicates the capability of my TV Tuner and Remote.

I don't want to pay for something I clearly do not need just for the "convenience" of the cable company.

The only thing that damn box is for is to monetize the extra features and our viewing habit history for Nielsen and Company, something I would like to be paid for.

I should not be forced to take it because the cable operator wants to shift channels up higher or accomodate broadband internet frequencies.

Thsi is JUST like when we were forced to buy phones from the Phone Company and that was overturned eventually.

Time to Boycott Hewlett Packard... don't buy anything from them and let them know why!

Enough of this crap! Do not support these bottom feeders.

It's long past time that people boycott the products of any and all manufacturers that offshore jobs like HP.

There are alternatives for almost everything. Express your feelings with your wallet and your feet.

How about a screaming fast Windows on ARM tablet computer?

AMD has everything anyone could ever need for a Windows on ARM tablet or even just a plain Windows Tablet.

Low power, fast graphics, multiple cores, SoC etc etc. What's not to like? Could even run real software.

Google is just a better mousetrap but FTC is wasting their time.

Google have a better search mousetrap; that's all they have done to warrant this inquisition (in most cases). In SOME cases other search agents provide better results. How many "search agents" do we need? Google, Bing, Ask, Yahoo, Baidu, blah, blah ,blah....ad infinitum. I can't speak for their ads because I don't look at them. That's right, ad's on ANY SEARCH ENGINE might as well be invisible to me.

MORE IMPORTANTLY,

Why does the FTC waste it's time on Google when the wired and wireless telcos are out of control?

Verizon will not live up to it's state and federal contractual obligation to repair it's existing telephone wires but they are not in front of an FTC Witchunt committee. To me that's more important than search agents.

Moronic Marketing Mavens Muckup Microsoft Maniacally.

Andrew you hit the nail right on the head. Microsoft is stuck in reactive mode and cannot get out of it. They are trying to emulate Apple instead of actually thinking about what they are doing due to terror of lost market share.

MS loses market share every time they do stupid things like Vista and Metro but they are too stupid to recognize their own shortcomings or learn from the past mistakes.

Their corporate culture has been one of "Yes Men" and "Emperors New Clothes" for as long as I can remember. No wonder they cannot be the operating system leaders they once were.

They have no real leadership or vision other than that offered by the likes of monkey boy Ballmer.

The world loses another great voice

I started reading Science Fiction when I was perhaps 10 years old. Back then, the old pulps were prevalent, Astounding, Analog, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Fantastic, Unknown, etc etc.

To me, Science fiction magazines and 25 cent novels were better than any television program because they could transport you bodily into an unknown world drawn from your own minds eye. Nothing was more vivid than that. Oh, and the front covers often showed cleavage, usually of hot blue eyed blondes in scanty outfits being attacked by bugeyed tentacled creatures. That why they call it "Fantasy"!

Friends had boxes of these I could read whenever I liked. When I came across Ray Bradbury, I just had to read everything I could get my hands on. I nearly died laughing when Farhenheit 451 became required reading in high school, first because I'd already read it several times, next because of the sheer irony. Too bad the teachers didn't even grasp it's true meaning.

I have read Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Illustrated Man, Martian Chronicles I sing the Body Electric, and countless short stories of which Bradbury was a master.

The world lost a great voice, one that could see the future and through his writings let others see it too.

The only trouble is that it appears that so few have actually read these prophetic novels of Bradbury and others because almost no one has learned the lessons within them.

US Embassy within it's rights to report Air Quality

The US Embassy is within it's rights to report local air quality as they have a responsibility to those stationed there to let them know how bad it is. Technically, all of those embassy employees have to be advised on all health and safety issues per OSHA regulations.

Too bad the Chinese can't see fit to fix these pollution problems. With all the money they have, they could use the environmental cleanup of their factories and power plants as a kind of stimulus with added benefits. At least they would not have to shutdown their industry so they could have the Olympics like last time.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that the Chinese want to do anything to help increase the lifespan of their citizens. That's not in their best interest.

As far as who is the worst polluter, the USA or China; perhaps the USA for overall gas quantity but all of those gases have been scrubbed of most smog causing components as well as particulates. The US does not suffer even close to the water and air pollution that China does.

On the other hand, China is like London was during the 1800's with killer smogs. That does not happen in the USA any longer.

Understanding why they call it Anthropogenic is key.

Unfortunately it means that "Man" is just full of him/herself. A bundle of cells with the greatest Ego ever conceived. For man to believe that he has ANY effect upon the Earth, is among the most conceited and egotistical acts ever purpetrated. Perhaps that is the "original sin"?

The Earth and the Universe have been in existence longer than anyone can measure. Man's tiny little mind cannot comprehend that fact, so he makes up stories that make him feel better, starting with "Religion". Now, it's "global warming". The utter vastness of the Earth or the Universe just scares the living shit out of Man without a whole pantheon of little bedtime stories to put things in perspective.

Nature, Earth, Universe do not care what man does because all humanity is just an insignificant speck of festering DNA and bacteria. Man has had and will have no effect in terms of millions or billions of years , which are the time cycles of the Universe.

Pope:Catholic.. and Armchair Generals second guess the President - do you want to play a game?

Hypothetically speaking....Israeli Military says, Let's play First Strike Global Nuclear War! US Commander in Chief says, No, I'd rather take the lesser of two evils. Mossad/NSA/CIA says, Let's use a virus to cause a centrifuge explosion and render their undergound uranium processing facility uninhabitable for a few centuries. We can't bomb it because it's too deep for our bunker busters. Obama says thats a great idea and voila, we have Stuxnet, Flame, whatever (and a whole new "Cyber Warfare Command" to keep generations of Cowboys happy for years to come)

As far as Fukushima is concerned, if Stuxnet got into their systems, it probably came from a USB drive that one of the Siemens PLC engineers used while they were in Iran, consorting with known criminals. Fault still falls on Tokyo Gas & Electric for not requiring a background investigation of service techs entering their facility. A simple look at a passport might have prevented that infection if it indeed ocurred.

The ramblings of an anonymous coward notwithstanding, we don't need any more speculations of that type.

<Sarcasm> What we need are this type: The Republican Party and all of it's party members (especially it's elected and religious leaders) are part of a huge homosexual, fascist conspiracy. By protesting so loudly against Gay Marriage, the Republicans are swaying the American Voter to vote for Gay Marriage. This is specifically designed to double the current amount of Divorce Lawyers and CPA's.

As you astute readers of El Reg already know, all Republicans are latent closet queens who enjoy dressing up in drag at their exclusive private universities, lying about sexual prowess in "Fraternities", cutting the hair off obviously "gay" prep school classmates (to dissuade discovery), tanning salons and "mens clubs". I mean, just look at their hair for god's sake. Any man who spends that much time in front of a mirror MUST BE GAY. (not that there's anything wrong with that, the courts here have just decided that calling someone gay is no longer defamatory or cause for slander)<sarcasm>

The Republicans can complain all they want about Obama, at least he was not lifelong friends with the BinLaden family like Bush Sr & Jr were. If anone is keeping track, Obama has kept almost all of his campaign promises, unlike most of his predeccessors. Oh, and he authorized killing Osama and other members of Al Qaeda. No, he hasn't closed Guantanamo Bay but he has to have someplace to send Republicans with treasonous ambitions.

No ITU control of internet

Perhaps the USA may have some hidden agenda for retaining control of the Internet but I trust that there is at least some reason and logic behind how they have managed it so far.

On the other hand, I will NEVER trust an "international body" such as the ITU or the United Nations to to be anything except be the two faced, corrupt, self serving scum they have already proven themselves to be.

The Internet MUST remain free of political control, it is truly one of the last bastions of free speech.

Even though the outcome of the Arab Spring uprisings were not in favor of the USA, they did nothing to prevent communication via internet. Those things happened at a local carrier level.

Worst viruses are the AV Suites, Norton/Symantec, McAfee, Etc.

I have used a Windows PC since DOS was introduced and the worst computer problems I have ever experienced have come from the updates of Anti-Virus programs.

Norton (specifically Live Update) completely screwed up my PC several times, tried McAfee which was worse, went to AVG Free which was good for several years until it became a bloated clone of Norton Security Suite and a borked update screwed up windows system files.

Now I run Avast Free and ZoneAlarm Free at home (Also running MSE) and I cannot be happier even though Avast and ZA have occasionally caused glitches (nothing serious). Add MalwareBytes and Spybot S&D and I have no issues with viruses, only the occasional attempted malware driveby but usually caught and always able to be fixed. You would be surprised what using CCleaner after every lengthy browsing session, does to prevent auto installs that ocurr when you start your machine.

At work, I have to suffer with Trend Micro Security Agent which like any so called "Security Suite" is a complete resource hog that should not be allowed anywhere. Invasive, pig of a program!

Small Claims Court

In the US our Small Claims Court is different in every state. In New York State, you can sue for up to treble damages. If you can prove you were harmed the $1,000 could become $3,000.

Who knows what a local small town judge might award you! He/She might even have a hard on for Micro$haft.

Filing fee is only $25. Oh and you CANNOT bring a lawyer.

Read the actual patent and see for yourself

Link here:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=32&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=6292218&OS=6292218&RS=6292218

It seems that this was submitted in 1997, does involve LCD displays, and the judge has no fucking idea what he/she is doing. That much is OBVIOUS

EVERYONE making digital cameras is infringing this patent and many of Kodak's other patents

SIMPLE, Do not buy any app or program that requires a server to work

The answer is very simple, if an app or program requires a connection to a server to allow it to operate, then do not buy it. One Time Authorization is okay but permanently connections are another.

Vote with your wallet!

How do you have a "drought" when it supposedly rains all the time in England?

First, it seem all your politicians are baldface liars who are in the pay of water companies and environmental activists. The only solution to that type of politician is to send them to prison or death, your choice. Politicians are like Vogons and crap filled diapers, the world will be a better place without them.

Next, everyone needs one bath or shower per day or society begins to smell. The practice of not bathing or excessive cologne is intolerable and will eventually cause unrest especially in close quarters like subways and offices. England is NOT France!

Solar or Wind energy is ideal for powering desalinization plants and osmosis is MUCH less expensive now. Astute readers are correct that water has to be pumped to reach your tap and that water could be pumped through osmotic columns using offpeak energy and then up into water towers or reservoirs that are located at higher elevation than the homes they feed and let gravity do much of the work. Filtering the particulate out of the water before osmosis is also very important but strangely enough this process is part of normal water purification so there is no additional energy cost.

Excess salt water from the osmotic purification process CAN be stored in ponds and evaporated to produce dry salt with sunlight or excess heat from some industrial process. What does a container of sea salt cost in the market? More than enough to help outweigh some of the purification costs I am sure. How about salt used for de-icing roads? Water softeners use salt as well.

Next, there are many municipalities that use in situ pipe relining to fix water leaks and it does not require digging up the whole length of the street to be installed. However, the people in charge of almost all water systems in the world, have been deliberately delaying pipe maintenance for 40 or more years so the stuff is so decayed that relining can't be done. Who is to blame for that? Not the consumer!

Bad planning on your part does not constitute and emergency (or added cost) on my part.

How about a Combination of "Survivor" and "Hunger Games"

Given the propensity of the "proletariat" to watch game show and reality tv, how about a Pay per View version of Survivor/Hunger games? The fees would go to victim compensation and enforcement funding.

As long as the justice system is completely certain that the prisoners are 110% guilty then they get what they deserve.

Unfortunately there are people out there that would deliberately cause crimes so they could get caught and be on this kind of tv show.

I will buy more of their Hardcopy because of this decision

Folks,

I have close to 3,000 hard and softcover science fiction books from the last 30 years and probably another 1,000 of old technical/instruction books that go back to early 1900's.

I will gladly purchase more from Tor specifically for their decision to get rid of DRM even if I am no fan of E Books.

Call me a luddite but I like physical media, especially books. There is substance and permanence with paper books that just cannot be had with E Books.

When technology fails, paper books can always be read and they have no DRM or region codes and they can't be retracted like Amazon did with Orwells 1984.

Rules, regulations and technology that can or do interfere with the availability of knowledge are among the most despicable things on earth. The 1% wants the 99% to be an unknowing, unquestioning "Idiocracy" and they cannot be allowed to win. DRM is only one front against the 1% that must be conquered.

Hat's off to Mr. Brennan, better use the Nudist defense.

I can't blame the man since the TSA will see him "unclothed" in the "Scanner" and he might as well show he has nothing to hide. I'm sure the TSA people have a little less fondling to do when the man is completely nude.

Doesn't that mean he's "helping them do their job"? I assume his actions were a proper response to their requests.

Occams Razor & The Wisdom of Solomon for you Judge.....

Dear Judge,

I have a great idea for you that will settle this bogus software patent crap once and for all.

Cut the baby in half.... for BOTH Samsung & Apple. Make each company pay the other exactly the same amount of money and invalidate all the "patents" and arguements that they brought in to the case. By invalidate, I mean that those patents become FRAND and their fees get set in the decision at 10 cents each.

As part of the decision, fine both companies 500 Million to go to the US patent office to hire competent patent lawyers that have electronic and software backgrounds.

Also, send all existing software patent dispute plaintiffs a copy of the decision with a "Settle or Else" stamp on the copy.

Undersea deposits, Alternate land deposits??????

Apparently, there are undersea deposits with much greater concentrations than those found in China. There are also large undeveloped land based deposits in Australia, India, Vietnam and other Asian countries.

Since these minerals are frequently found in volcanic vents undersea, they are very deep but Japan is looking at robotic mining methods. Where those volcanic deposits have been pushed above ground, they can be more easily mined. Extracting the minerals from ore is the problem as they have to be disolved with toxic acids and reacted to extract only the desired elements, then oxidizing furnaces create the actual compounds that are required. The whole production path is fraught with environmental and energy issues.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/332099/title/Rare_earth_elements_plentiful_in_ocean_sediments

Y. Kato et al. Deep-sea mud in the Pacific Ocean as a potential resource for rare-earth elements. Nature Geoscience. Published online July 3, 2011. doi:10.1038/NGEO1185.

http://www.ggg.gl/investor-information/in-the-news/s-korea-joins-race-for-rare-earths/

Kill all the "Hedgfund shareholders" before they kill what remains of AOL

AOL is already a mere shadow of it's formerly massive dial up internet provider self. Allowing these "activist hedgefund shareholders" to load the board with cronies that will vote to skin the remains of AOL (while still alive) is simply criminal.

There is very little difference between this and what has already happened to Kodak and many other, once great American companies.

Along with the "Buffett rule", let's tax corporate rapists at 110% while simultaneously investigating every nook and cranny of their corporate bowels with a 4 ft diameter IRS probe.

An unreasonabley retarded judge....(and jury)

Simple way for YouTube to make their case would be to take the whole judge & jury to their headquarters and have them sequentially view everything that gets uploaded within 15 minutes and determine if there is anything illegal.

This will easily prove that there is no possible way that YouTube/Google "should have known" or even "could have known" unless someone reported offending material and apparently YouTube/Google complied after being notified.

Someone forgot to choose the "Troll" icon

Looks like NomNomNom was "Trolling without an icon".

Ms. Bee would have slapped his peepee for that.

It's so much easier to tell intent when the proper icon is displayed.

Can we please have a "Sarcastic Bastard" icon now?