* Posts by Tom

264 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Aug 2007

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Data-sniffing trojans burrow into Eastern European ATMs

Tom

So if your card gets skimmed

It will be your fault because you must have told someone your pin.

I bet they outsource the development to the lowest price shop they could find in India or Eastern Europe.

Sims 3 pirated 180,000 times in three days

Tom
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Crap ^2

"if you chop it down to a per week basis for a better comparison."

I expect that most of the downloads happened the first week, warz kiddies being like they are...

I also expect the numbers quoted are 80% fudge.

Not much use trying to compare the two games download numbers without using the same methodology to measure both.

SATA Revision 3.0 released

Tom
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not SATA 3.0

I think that's going to work as well as Google telling people not to say "I googled it". People are just going to use SATA 3.

The USB full speed/high speed crap is just as bad.

Netgear EVA9150 Digital Entertainer Elite

Tom

Re: Getting there

"Well it sounds very nice - anything that can handle MKVs immediately gets a gold star from me. "

Looking at the netgear site I see " MKV (with AC3 only) "

That seems like a big limit since MKV can contain almost anything...

With the latest update the WD TV is a much better MKV player, still not perfect though.

US lawmakers renew fight for legal online gambling

Tom

How?

"The bill would also allow states and Indian tribes to continue to limit or prohibit online gambling services offered to their residents."

How are they going to do that? Kentucky don't seem to be having much luck with the current ban.

Inside USB 3.0

Tom

@Mobile phones

Who needs USB3 on a mobile phone? It might be of some use on a high end smart phone but I think for most the biggest advantage would be the faster charge rate.

Oz man fined for drink-drive rumpy-pumpy

Tom

@Ute = "pick-up truck"?

Ok, how about a tarted up non-functional pick-up truck?

US lawmakers put Canada, Spain on piracy 'watch list'

Tom

Canada

They don't like the personal copy laws that allow us to make copies or mix CDs for our own use.

They HATE that we refuse to create a DCMA clone.

They don't like having to provide proof to get a court order so they can get the name of an ISP customer.

They don't like having their DCMA take down notices bounced with a note that the DCMA is not a Canadian law, they have to use a Canadian request.

Most bootleg products in Canada come from China.

AT&T mulls cut-rate iPhone data plan

Tom
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You think ATT is Bad?

Try Rogers/Fido in Canada. $30 data plan? You get 1 GB, or you can pay $80 for for 5 GB (no unlimited plan).

iPhone voice+data? $60 for 250 minutes, 75 Text messages, 1GB data.

Sony takes on iPod Touch with Walkman X

Tom
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Same old crap with a nice screen.

It's a Sony so...

It will sound great, but

- Like Apple it will have poor format support.

- It will come with crappy/buggy software to convert other formats, so you end up using something else to do the job.

- There will be walled gardens, so you will have to jump through hoops to use what YOU want.

Only a few people will buy one for the sound quality, but most people think an iPod sounds fine and will not see any reason to buy the Sony. I think the single biggest error is using some crappy phone WAP browser in place of a real web browser like opera.

VeriChip shaves 3mm off human RFID chips

Tom

I wonder if anyone makes

a device that responds like an RFID tag but with random data each time it's pinged. Correct checksum and such but random data (or it might be fun to collect a list of tags from odd items you would not see walking around most days... ). If they are mining passers by for data, give them some fools gold.

Google blames cheeseburgers for destroying the planet

Tom

Forget the SUVs...

It's all the LOL Cats fault!

Symantec hit by massive goodwill impairment

Tom

"norton ghost...

was the only decent product ive ever seen them make!"

They just bought that one. They just keep making it bigger, and every time MS changes NTFS they make you buy an upgrade (with new bugs).

US P2P bill aims shackles at browsers, IM

Tom
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Only a fool posts their whole drive on P2P

And the same fool will click ok on the warning (just what we need, another "are you sure" popup) so this will do nothing...

Looks like another attempt out of hollywood to say P2P is bad/unsafe/a kitten killer...

Microsoft retires AutoRun (kinda, sorta)

Tom
Gates Horns

Why do they make it so hard?

Why not just have a "turn off autorun" check box.

They have one for other stupid "features" like hide known file types. All I can think is that they make it hard at the request of companies like Sony and Macrovision who like to be able to install crap you don't want.

ISPs eye role in Jacqui's mass surveillance system

Tom
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Make the ISPs do it...

Because we can't create a DB that works?

An if (when) it gets hacked... not our fault.

Private ID scans leave fetish club-goers feeling exposed

Tom

How long before

They decide that all the scanners should link up to a central database?

Lotus offers to end e-car silent running

Tom
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e-fart can.

So the kiddies can drive around in their crappy e-car with an over sized wing on the back, lots of stickers (for the wrong brand of car), go faster strips, and a e-fart can on the back.

ICO rules against British Council

Tom
Joke

Don't forget to...

make sure it's a good password (say P@ssw0rd) and write the password on the disc.

ZuneHD en-route to Blighty?

Tom
Joke

Perfect combo

Bundle MS Flight Sim with it.

Maybe add a Bob T-Shirt for the first 5 buyers.

Brussels to sue UK over Phorm failures

Tom

So they have to create a new law...

That they can ignore just like the old law.

Teens reject Microsoft's Zune

Tom

Zune Gone

On my ride to work each day on the subway I see 10-20 iPods, 2-3 music phones of assorted types. Sony and Sandisk maybe 2-3 a week. Zune? I've only ever seen one (outside of a store display case) since they were released.

GooTube unfurls Universal video player, website

Tom

Will it be the normal...

US only... this video is not available in your region crap?

Microsoft wraps Live Search in chicken and breadcrumbs

Tom
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Needs more then a name change...

"Up to now, Microsoft has struggled to pull in new users for its service, in part because of people failing to distinguish Live Search from the firm's other online properties."

No, it's because it can't find it's own ass with both hands.

MS blames non-Redmond apps for security woes

Tom

Running windows as a regular user...

Sort of works sometimes.

If you try and install a font in Windows XP is should say something like "you need power user rights or better to install fonts, please enter your user/pass here... NOT some error message that a file is in use and try again later. Actually there would be no use for power users if Windows worked right. There are lots of examples were regular users will just end up puzzled at why something will not work, or hacks and tricks are required to make something work for a normal user. That's why most people just run as administrator given the choice.

British film board rejects 'disturbing' sexual torture film

Tom

They know it when they see it...

"Their experience, gained from viewing hundreds of films every year, gives them a very clear insight into what constitutes material that is sexual in nature"

So they can't define it, but they know it when they see it.

Phorm moves beyond privacy - except when slating rivals

Tom
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if users really object to Phorm, the company and its technology will simply fade away

Promises, Promises.

Next iPhone to make you a film editor?

Tom

@ Neil Hoskins

TV on a cell is not news. No one wants to pay a monthly fee to watch TV on a 2.5" screen. Talk about stupid and banal...

When the BBC start telling people they need a licence for a cell phone that will be news.

Or a phone with a built in digital over the air (free TV) tuner, not that the cellular companies would let that see the light of day.

AT&T mistakes netbook for phone, sells with service plan

Tom
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@Sep

"This is perfectly natural. AT&T doesn't even need to lock the hardware, because they already lock you in with the long term contract."

You can say the same for phones... so why do they lock them (other then pay as you go) and why would they not lock a computer if they could?

Radiohead and chums demand copyright 'fair play'

Tom

@AC

"Bill Bruford points out that all the experimental jazz work he has done over the last 20 years has been subsidised by payments from (only relatively) more popular work over the last 40 years."

So in another 10 years his early work will start to go into the public domain. As long as he is still producing music in 10 years he will have 50 years worth of music paying him money. Do you think he will still be producing music in 20 years? If yes he will still have 50 years worth.

How is that different then all the artists who subsidize their work from a day job?

Should we give Bill more money because he might spend it on more music? What about the guy working days at Office Despot should he get more? What if Bill spends the money on beer?

They want more money... ask anyone on the street if they want more money. Same answer.

Spd improves mobile TV experience

Tom

picture in picture?

On a 3" screen? More like Pixel in Picture I would think.

Android tethering app tossed

Tom
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Stupid mobile companies!

In Canada they charge different amounts for the same data depending on what device you have.

iPhone, Blackberry, "smart phone", normal phone, USB internet stick, even different "approved apps" all have different data rates. Why the hell is it cheaper for me to have a normal mobile phone (with a nice mini-usb port on the side) to talk on and a separate USB data stick for laptop data?

Unlimited browsing? Sure if you have a locked phone with their crap browser and only want to brows their closed mobile network, and oh joy facebook. Crap!

Microsoft draws fire for taxpayer handout

Tom
Coat

If the driver is not HDMI complient...

Will the car get ejected over the side?

It's always bad drivers that cause most of the problems...

Cost of a cuppa set to rocket

Tom
Happy

So we will need a subsitute*

It would of course be... almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

*a product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation

'Cybercrime exceeds drug trade' myth exploded

Tom
Pirate

1 trn? No problem

If they are including the numbers that the record companies and movie studios clam they lost to downloads.

Everyone likes pulling big numbers out of their ass to justify their actions or bonus check.

Facebook encourages ISP customer protests over Phorm

Tom

encryption?

"Curious point on the encryption, but virtually impossible to implement since you'd block out the majority of your users without them understanding or caring why. No commercial web site is going to want to do this."

I think you and AC are overlooking simple SSL.

But the real answer is to make anything like Phorm opt-in only. But I don't see that happening because the people with the power to do that are the same people who want to spy on us themselves.

Pot Noodle boils up instant doner kebab

Tom

dead rat

Can't wait to find a dead rat inside. :/

No that's next months new flavour... but it will be made of soya.

Apple sued over iPhone e-bookiness

Tom
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why did HP settle?

They offer to settle for half of what it would cost HP to squash them, and HP didn't have to get their feet dirty stomping out that burning bag of dog poop.

Google behavioral ads tap DoubleClick eyeball

Tom

No cookies for me thanks

Double click is completely blocked on my computers, have been for years.

Google cookies are deleted on exit and I don't use any google service that requires a logon (no gmail for me), and my IP is dynamic so there is no way they can link the bits back together.

If they will not tell me what they are up to then they can stuff their cookies where the sun don't shine.

Microsoft's Silverlight for mobile to muscle iPhone

Tom

Multi touch?

Didn't they just say they didn't need no stinking fancy touch screens on Windows Mobile?

US reality TV 'star' attacked fiancé with laptop, cat, apples

Tom

Trebuchet?

"Personally, I think the ideal cat to lob at someone you seriously dislike would be a liger, but at half a ton, you'd need to get a trebuchet into the bedroom first ."

I would think a Catapult would be a better choice.

Microsoft promises IE web-standards love

Tom
Gates Horns

How about the other side?

Will large parts of microsoft.com continue to only work in IE? How about Outlook web access with standard code for all? MS development tools that produce standard code?

Astroboffins probe mysterious 'blazar'

Tom

global domination plot

"Blowtorching monkeys is wrong. Monkeys WITH blowtorches, however, would seem to be a perfectly acceptable part of any self-respecting global domination plot and as such will be immediately added to my villainous manifesto."

That should be blowtorch juggling monkeys!

Put down your pens: Cartoons next on censor block

Tom
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We know your a BAD person

"I'll agree that the Virgina case was a bit of a red hearing one as the man also had CP."

So this guy was a real perv, repeat offender who should go to jail. But they didn't have enough to lock him up for the length of time that they wanted to... so add a few years for some cartoons.

They could not get Capone for all the bad things he did, every one knew he was a bad person so just cook up the tax laws a bit and lock him up for that.

They should just pass a law against breathing. That way if you are doing something bad like protesting or asking to have your DNA removed from the database they can lock you up. Saves all the trouble of searching your house for cartoons or auditing your tax. If your not a bad person (or have power) no need to worry as there is no public interest in charging you.

Ex-Star Wars boffins build mosquito-blasting raygun

Tom

@ Man's place on the planet

"And after wiping out the mosquitoes, what even worse pest will rise having previously been kept in check by mosquitoes?"

Man.

BBC Click paid cybercrooks to buy botnet

Tom
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Commit the crime to educate about it?

"For fuck's sake, if this educated one non-technical viewer about the realities of botnets then it was worth doing."

Maybe next week the BBC can do a show about people kicking the crap out of homeless people for fun... or how about a show on gun safety ;)

For the money they spent they could have setup an isolated network and run the same demo without giving money to crooks or using other peoples computers without permission.

Guns N' Roses blogger faces music prison

Tom
Unhappy

How are the other sites his fault.

Even if they did get the files from him they chose to offer them for download. If he got the files from some warz kiddy can they prove the other sites downloaded them from his site and didn't get them from the same warz kiddy? It seems that 1000 other people broke the same laws but they only found him so they are putting the whole load on him.

iPod Touch torches tyke's trousers

Tom
Jobs Horns

I wonder

how many times he has had to deal with the line "lier, lier, pants on fire" since the event... :)

That should add a few $ to the pain and suffering award.

Google inspires behavioral ad-zapping Firefox add-on

Tom
Unhappy

opt-in only is what we should have...

But I don't expect it to happen.

There is no advantage to the consumer (better ads? give me a break) so NO ONE will opt in unless tricked or paid to do so. The scumbags that make money selling peoples data will be dead. To stay alive money will flow, deals will be made and opt-out will continue on it's useless way.

Scientology spokesman confirms Xenu story

Tom
Alien

L Ron got the last laugh...

"A handwritten document summarising the Xenu story, in Hubbard's own handwriting, has also turned up, it adds."

He found a use for that story idea that his publisher rejected after all. :p

I once got a chance to skim through the slush pile of unsolicited stories sent to a SF publisher and I only remember one that was as stupid as the Xenu story.

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