* Posts by Mal Franks

54 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Feb 2007

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MS freebie anti-virus scanner auto-downloads provoke more anger

Mal Franks
Go

So?

it's not like the kerfuffle over browsers or media players after all.

It's for protecting users of their operating systems. Their patches, Windows Defender and their Malicious Software Removal Tool have been doing this for a while already, I have no issue with MS taking more steps to do this.

Have been running Security Essentials for several months and love the lack of bloat that Symantec et al seem to offer these days.

Mal Franks

The thing is...

it's actually pretty good. :)

Guardian super-blogger flames Reg boffinry desk

Mal Franks

Water Vapour?

What about water vapour? I expect there's a lot more of that in our atmosphere than CO2.

Perseid meteors 'thrill star-gazers'

Mal Franks
Unhappy

any breaks in clouds...

just uncovered clouds at higher altitudes

Beeb sends teaboy outside with iPhone

Mal Franks

Can't have been done on an iPhone...

as there's no Hipstamatic effect on it

Lords: Analogue radio must die

Mal Franks

FM going no skin off my nose

been a few years since there was anything I'd want to listen to live on FM.

The clock radio is DAB and so I can listen to 6 Music (til the feckers close it down) and at the computer I use iPlayer for the few Radio 4 shows I want to hear.

Designer pitches iPad gaming wheel

Mal Franks

some comments are missing the point...

The racing games on the iPad, like on the iPhone require the screen to be tilted anyway so it's not a flaw of the peripheral but the nature of the hardware and these kind of games' design.

The peripheral itself merely is attempting to make it more natural/comfortable to hold when playing the game as did the wheel adapter for Wii controllers when playing Mario Kart Wii .

Beeb iPlayer blocked by Xbox velvet rope

Mal Franks
Thumb Up

Good for the Beeb...

for sticking to their guns. Apart from the iPlayer software download, what service would Microsoft provide to justify the requirement for users to pay their online multiplayer tax?

Digital River makes total hash of Windows 7 upgrade offer

Mal Franks

Flashdrive

I just used a handy app called Wintoflash that created a bootable usb flashdrive with the setup files on it.

http://www.notebooks.com/2009/10/22/how-to-make-the-student-discounted-windows-7-upgrade-bootable/#comment-114381

Academics gripe about Windows 7 promo collapse

Mal Franks

Will be giving this a go tonight...

with a USB flashdrive.

http://www.notebooks.com/2009/10/22/how-to-make-the-student-discounted-windows-7-upgrade-bootable/

Windows 95 to Windows 7: How Microsoft lost its vision

Mal Franks
WTF?

Seems faster?

Si: "The reason Win 7 seems faster to everyone is because most people now have dual or quad core CPUs and 2GB+ of RAM. "

Bollocks.

In my case I've moved from Vista on a quad core pc to.....Windows 7 on a quad core pc. No change of hardware whatsoever...and it definitely is faster.

Doctor Who fans name best episode ever

Mal Franks

Stephen Gallagher

I'm rather fond of the two stories he wrote for Doctor Who - Warrior's Gate (4th Doctor) and Terminus (5th Doctor)

Mandy not swayed by ents mogul on illegal file sharing

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

Unelected?

@ Lord Meddlesome

"As noted by other posters, this man was twice thrown out of positions of power within the British Parliament WHICH HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD IN THE FIRST PLACE - he has NEVER been voted into office by the Electorate, but Blair gave him public office anyway. TWICE. The second time was a few months after the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] was removed for getting caught doing things he shouldn't."

Erm....he was the MP for Hartlepool between 1992 and 2004 - which counts as being elected when he had those positions at least in my book!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mandelson#Offices_held

Spider-Man director to helm World of Warcraft

Mal Franks
Thumb Down

Personally I think

that a Warhammer-based film would be far more interesting.

Beeb names new Who companion

Mal Franks
Thumb Up

Good choice...

and before anyone wibbles about her being too young - Sarah Sutton (Nyssa - 4th/5th Doctor's companion) & Deborah Watling (Victoria - 2nd Doctor) were 19 and Wendy Padbury (Zoe - 2nd Doctor) was 21 when they became companions

Time Warner gives up selling AOL

Mal Franks

Best thing about AOL

were the free floppy disks. Once they moved to CD, I was gutted.

Microsoft conjures imaginary 'Apple Tax'

Mal Franks
Thumb Down

worst...article...ever

since the last apple vs microsoft shitwar anyway

HDTV 'pointless' without perfect peepers

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

Wow

Eye testing and spectacle manufacturing company says we won't be able to see things very well unless we get an eye test and buy new spectacles. Who'd have thought it?

Beatles game is go

Mal Franks
Happy

Call me an old fart

but I'd rather have an ELO one.

David Tennant quits Who

Mal Franks

Ben Miller or Alexander Armstrong

As they seems to be in everything else these days

Led Zeppelin plan Plant-free tour

Mal Franks
Thumb Down

Led Zeppelin+

Led Zep without Robert Plant and John Bonham? That'd be like Queen without Freddie Mercury and John Deacon.

Met Office: Global warming sceptics 'have heads in sand'

Mal Franks

somewhat related links

Australian newspaper article by my brother

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24331854-7583,00.html

plus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm826GwqFBY

Kiwi cops hunt teenage serial burglar with head of Robbie Coltrane

Mal Franks
Thumb Up

Re: That God it is real

"Apart from being disadvantaged by looking like Robbie Contrane the poor guy is also being labelled a burglar too!"

damn right, he's just a property transfer agent trying to make a living.

Rockstar confirms GTA IV PC edition

Mal Franks
Happy

Although I have it for the 360...

for this sort of game, I prefer to play sat at a desk for some sort reason. I have a Medusa 5.1 Home headset which does a pretty good job of surround sound and having big over-ear "cans" reduces the noise of the PC's fans rather well.

Racing, Guitar Hero/Rock Band and platform games on the other hand are best played on a console on a 100" projector screen.

Mal Franks

Will be interested to see if this game...

...can prise me away from Warhammer Online which is being released on the 18th of next month.

Its last predecessor hardly got a look in during the 4 years I was addicted to Mythic's previous game, Dark Age Of Camelot.

BT slams bandwidth brakes on all subscribers

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

strangely about 6 months ago

I found that http access was sub-0.5Mbit/sec, while almost every other port was unhindered.

This resulted in me contacting the tech support (in India naturally) and was made to go through the hoops such as disconnecting my router/modem and connecting it at the master socket etc. How this would fix a problem that only seemed to be occurring with a single port, I had no bloody idea!

I emailed support again and specifically stated that it was only http traffic that was being slow for me.

I received the following response...

"Please be informed that Port 80 is meant only for the FTP files upload."

I couldn't wait until my 12 months lock-in was over and I was able to move ISP!

Anonymous relaunches fight against Scientology

Mal Franks
Unhappy

re: @ac

but i rather like My Name Is Earl

Black hats attack gaping DNS hole

Mal Franks

Andrews & Arnold

81.187.81.41 (lifeless.aaisp.net.uk) appears to have GREAT source port randomness and GREAT transaction ID randomness

Steve Fossett may be alive, investigator claims

Mal Franks
Coat

Have investigators tried

Searching Panamanian websites for him yet?

I'll get my canoe.

Judge grants Viacom 12TB of YouTube user records

Mal Franks
Thumb Down

User IDs

I'm sure User IDs themselves can be used to identify a heck of a lot of people, especially if they're the name of the actual user and/or used for other services as well as YouTube such as blogs etc.

Who will be the next Doctor?

Mal Franks
Coat

i've heard that

Kevin Warwick is bitterly disappointed that he wasn't given the role of Davros.

HD TV in the UK

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

The Price Isn't Right

The prices for those TV packages are only for the first 3 months. After that, they double in price.

World's first Blu-ray record pressing

Mal Franks

SACD on PS3

"The SACD is compatible with PlayStation3 as well.

See http://www.ps3sacd.com"

not with my PS3 it isn't

MPs get £2k home cinema on taxpayers

Mal Franks
IT Angle

I see no mention of a computer

I'd have expected to see

Computer - £4000

So they can get a tri-SLI 8800GTX setup from Alienware to help them keep in touch with their constituents at (second) home.

Please don't leave me... bitch

Mal Franks

Kool Aid

"see also: "Drink the Kool-Aid", a pop culture expression that certainly has jumped the shark"

which is inaccurate and should be "Flavor Aid" anyway.

Device routes audio across powerline LANs

Mal Franks
Thumb Up

make one

...that could carry video (composite - though component would be nice) as well as audio and I'd be interested.

Woolworths stores to stop selling HD DVD

Mal Franks

Strange

Never seen Blu-Ray discs on the shelves in my local Woolies, let alone HD-DVD discs.

100Mbit/s sewer broadband rollout coming your way

Mal Franks
Coat

About time

There's a serious lack of fibre entering the sewers due to the unhealth British diet these days.

Paramount puts down HD DVD dump rumour

Mal Franks

My personal preference has been for HD-DVD

but only because the ones I've bought so far have come with a DVD layer too, so at least I'd be guaranteed to be able play them should HD-DVD die and hardware support disappeared at a later date, albeit in standard definition.

WiHD boys signal imminent arrival of 'wireless HDMI' tech

Mal Franks

Personally I'd prefer

HDMI over mains if it is doable

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

Will only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry eh?

Definitely no Paris Hilton angle here then.

Zep fans warned off touted tickets

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

Better "cock rock"....

than the "music" of a certain someone.

Codemasters sets legal dogs on file-sharers

Mal Franks
Pirate

Hmm

Anyone who wants a copy of Treasure Island Dizzy send me a C15 tape and a stamped SAE.

Beeb coughs to Panorama WiFi-scare travesty

Mal Franks
Thumb Down

it's also annoying

that BBC News seems to regularly have a story that's just a gratuitous advert for a program on that evening such as Panorama.

Pump-and-dump scammers debut MP3 spam

Mal Franks
Paris Hilton

Buy Exit Only

there'll be cake

Cadbury bows to 'bring back Wispa' net campaign

Mal Franks

Mars

Now if only Mars would bring back old style Mars Bars that went super solid in the fridge and were delicious sliced and eaten piece by piece. (well I thought so anyway)

Compact Disc: 25 years old today

Mal Franks

pre-emphasis bit

I remember some early CDs (mostly ones pressed in Japan) made use of something called a "pre-emphasis bit" including my first copy of Electric Light Orchestra's Discovery.

The first CDs in our household were Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, The Eagles' Greatest Hits and Dire Straits' Communique. The first CDs I bought though were Queen's Greatest Hits (though not the UK hits compilation) and Freddie's solo album Mr Bad Guy in 1985. Though until the early 1990s I was still buying most albums on vinyl.

Power gadget set to cut electricity bills

Mal Franks

Only 4 zones

I hope the range of the remote isn't too large as if it becomes a popular purchase item from Argos I could see neighbour rage occurring especially in terraced housing.

Wikipedia clarifies steam pipe menace

Mal Franks

Cue the USA to start...

...the War On Pressure

Brown asks cops for gadget wish list

Mal Franks

I think they should demand...

Jetpacks!

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