* Posts by ratfox

3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

The British are coming! The British are coming! And they're buying Surface fondleslabs

ratfox

Re: Acer

Could change again, though… The next Nexus is probably going to be released soon, which usually means a bump in sales.

How to strip pesky copyright watermarks from photos ... says a FACEBOOK photo bod

ratfox

@adnim

"Thank you for allowing me to think what I like"

Well, there are things where personal interpretation has no place. You stated an opinion which is, simply said, wrong. You might as well have said "as far as I am concerned, 2+2=5".

Note also that asking permission to take a picture of you is respecting your privacy (and is indeed required, even in public places, in some countries); but the picture still belongs to the photographer.

ratfox
Holmes

Re: So what actually was

I believe it was the statements implying that copying pictures from the web without permission was a proper thing to do. Perhaps also, the claim that these pictures "belong" to the students, instead of the guy who took them.

Google's driverless car: It'll just block our roads. It's the worst

ratfox

"Them automobile thingies will never catch on; they always break down, and they're unable to drive in the snow. I'll keep my trusty horse, thank you."

This article raises some excellent points. I am sure Google will realize now they cannot possibly make this work. They obviously didn't think about the fact GPS stops working in tunnels.

It's Google's no-wheel car. OMG... there aren't any BRAKES

ratfox

Do teenagers do that in front on non-self-driving cars? I can't say I have seen anybody playing that game…

Amazon turns screws on French publisher: Don't feel sorry for Hachette, it's just 'negotiation'

ratfox

I understand this is something many companies do

…But I wonder how this type of practices would be translated, say, for the cloud business. Where a certain "book store" happens to also be the market leader.

I think large companies eventually stop noticing that everything they do tends to make them look like bullies.

Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

ratfox

Re: everything about phones has improved leaps and bounds apart from

I am shocked, shocked, that a million-pixels color display uses more battery than a LCD…?

French teen fined for illegal drone flight

ratfox

Totally worth it

Of course, it might be easier for me to pay than for him, but considering how cool the result is, I would not regret anything.

Facebook wants to LISTEN IN on the songs and vids playing in YOUR living room

ratfox
Coat

You are listening to…

…4'33'' (John Cage)

Google hit by class action lawsuit over claimed AdSense fraud

ratfox

This

I would add, that other lawsuit from the same firm does not encourage me to take this seriously. They claim there that Google is using their controlling position in mobile to force people to use their search engine… When practically everyone will agree the search engine is what Google does best, and has no need of such tactics. And somehow, Android is too expensive because Google forces manufacturers to include their free apps.

Fanbois Apple-gasm as iPhone giant finally reveals WWDC lineup

ratfox

Despite the Apple reputation for being secretive, everybody knew in advance that an iPhone was coming, and same for the Macbook Air and the iPad.

But nothing is eagerly expected this time, so I wouldn't expect anything particularly new. Not even a watch.

Apple haggles with ISPs for fast lanes to its own websites – industry guru

ratfox

Fine with me

Deals like these only allow Apple to make their own service faster. However, breaking down net neutrality would allow Comcast and the like to throttle their competitors. What they mean by creating a fast lane is putting anybody they don't like on the slow lane.

More chance you came a cropper on a UK road than bought a Chromebook this year

ratfox

"people like to work offline"

You mean, companies like their employees not to have Facebook access?

Personally, I find fantastic to have all the documents of my company in the cloud. It's a dream compared to moving files around, or having documents that can be edited by one person at a time. I would never want to go back.

iPhone-stroker-turned-fandroid sues Apple over iMessage text-slurpery

ratfox
Gimp

Re: Easy fix

Yeah right. Apple intends its software to be a selling point of its hardware. E.g you can't use Apple Maps unless you have an iPhone or a Mac. They don't even have a website for it.

I think iTunes is about the only exception, in that it is also available for Windows… But I wouldn't hold my breath about an Android version. No way, no how.

Europe's shock Google privacy ruling: The end of history? Don't be daft

ratfox
Alert

While this does not seem the end of history, it is strange to me that Google would not be allowed to display, or more actually reproduce, an information which is displayed freely and legally on a Spanish web site (and thanks to the Streisand effect, all over the web by now).

To start splitting hair, how about a web site which would start gathering exclusively the type of information that Google is not allowed to show? Would that be legal, for instance, for a news organization to do this? I understand Google was refused a particular protection available to newspapers. And would Google be allowed to link to such a site?

Google Maps adds all UK public transport timetables

ratfox

Nice

In a city with a complex public transportation system, that's a real time saver.

Droid malware cloak outwits Google Bouncer and friends

ratfox
Devil

Re: Surprise!

The media is not reporting any more about the civil war in Syria… must mean there is no war anymore, right?

FCC chairman to rethink controversial net neutrality proposals

ratfox
Happy

What is a controversail?

Is it an invention of the Oracle team for the America's cup?

WTF is Net Neutrality, anyway? And how can we make everything better?

ratfox
Stop

"it can't really work any other way"

This right after explaining that the TOS headers have never been implemented… Which means that it can and did indeed work another way up to now.

Not that it has to keep working the same way, but to claim "it can't really work any other way" is sophistry.

HP-Foxconn wave cloud kit under the nose of Google, Facebook et al

ratfox

Seems to me that by the point Google or Facebook have finished choosing the details of what they want, from the shape of the rack to the custom CPU, they might as well bypass HP altogether…

Google buddies up with Intel for this year's big Chromebook push

ratfox
Angel

Re: Linux please

Chrome OS is based on the Linux kernel, what are you complaining about?

Google updates Maps app for iOS, Android, adds Uber support

ratfox

Re: Offline functionality...

I did notice something like this on Google Maps. While abroad, I got driving directions for a different town from the hotel WiFi, and later on the road, I did get a different route after taking a wrong turn. I'm not sure how much leeway it had, though. It's not something I would be keen on experimenting with.

Report: Google's NSA dealings not as bad as you thought – THEY WERE WORSE

ratfox
Meh

Hang on

This was the time Google had announced the hacking attempts coming from the Chinese government, isn't it? I don't see what's surprising about American tech companies getting together with the US government to protect themselves from an outside threat. This is not news. I remember reading on The Reg itself that Sergey Brin was given a temporary clearance to attend a security briefing organized by the US government.

So the NSA got together with Google and other companies to defend US interests from hacking attempts. I fail to see what's nefarious about that. If you'll remember, this was a time where the most likely threat of hacking was China, not the NSA. In fact, this would explain the feeling of betrayal displayed by Google when it was announced that the NSA was spying on their internal fiber links…

Australian government apps access smartmobe cams but 'don't film you'

ratfox

Re: But?

I assume Maps wants wifi access to be able to find your position… Using wifi to do that uses much less batteries than using the GPS.

The verdict is in: Samsung to pay Apple $120m chump change, but gets tiny rebate

ratfox

legal obligation

Not quite. It may be a fiduciary responsibility to protect the investment of the shareholders, but this would have been achieved more sensibly by agreeing to a settlement with Samsung. Declaring a lawsuit holy war takes more time, costs more money, without necessary bringing more results. It also makes you more enemies.

You might be confusing this with trademark law, which forces a company to defend its trademarks or lose them. Patents don't work that way.

Apple tips Shiraz down all its techies' throats (that's the rumoured name for OS X 10.10)

ratfox
WTF?

Re: MMM!

Hipster? Just because he likes wine?

Ouch... right in the Androids! Google hit by another antitrust sueball

ratfox
Facepalm

Time to sue the Internet

The internet has become a monopoly for sending information over long distances. "It’s clear that [the Internet] has not achieved this monopoly through offering a better [system], but through its strategic, anti-competitive placement, and it doesn’t take a forensic economist to see that this is evidence of market manipulation".

You have to admit they have balls. Of all the products that Google is offering, Search has to be the one that is the most recognized to have become the first choice through its own merits. If anything, It is rather considered as the reason Google can push its other products down other people's throat…

It was so before Android existed, and is still more popular than Android…

But hey, don't let logic get in the way of your hope for $$$.

French software developers are all beautiful women

ratfox
Meh

I often find myself reacting adversely to this type of advertising. Ignoring the part about the way females will react to it, it also assumes males are easily duped morons who will be swayed by such tricks.

And, if I want porn, I know where to find it, thankyouverymuch.

DreamWorks CEO: Movie downloaders should pay by screen size

ratfox
Facepalm

Stupid

How about just charging differently for different resolutions? Wouldn't it be simpler? No need for tying the video to the device, or complicated system to check the size of the device?

Muppet.

Did Google order staff to 'steal' web ad cash from publishers? THE TRUTH

ratfox

Let me get this straight

Google receives money from advertisers and passes (some of) it to publisher web sites on which the ads run. And the claim is that Google banned publisher web sites so as not to have to pay them, and did not refund advertisers?

That I understand, the payment threshold is $100. Even with "thousands upon thousands of publishers" thus banned, this is surely pocket change for Google…

FBI floats $5 MEELLION bounty for alleged Chinese WMD purveyor

ratfox
Devil

Everytime you ask the Register to stop doing something

They do it twice just to annoy you.

AOL confirms security breach from spam attack

ratfox
Angel

Re: They're notifiying who?????

Try your spam folder …

ratfox
Coat

Re: Jeez...

I planned to post a mandatory "WTF AOL still exists" here, but I see it's been taken care of.

Comcast to dump 3.9 MEEELLION subscribers to quell Time Warner merger antitrust fears

ratfox
Facepalm

Competition

Competition means having more than one provider available to each customer, not having many providers who agree not to compete for each other's customers…

In other words, this move would only go in the right direction if Comcast immediately tried to poach the millions of customers it sold to Charter Communications.

Google's self-driving car breakthrough: Stop sign no longer a problem

ratfox

Re: I can't believe you guys are so gullible

That's an interesting idea… Rather than creating self-driving cars, let's create remote controlled cars, which is considerably easier, and outsource the driving to India.

There's already way more Indians than Americans and Europeans combined, so no problem there.

I'll insert here patent-busting keywords to make prior art discovery easier: remote controlled car long distance driving teledriving outsourcing automated bullshit.

Apple patents Wi-Fi access point location lookup

ratfox

Re: Good that Google didn't illegally map all private Wifi access points in the EU.

Actually, though Google did do it, this isn't the part which caused them trouble. It was the fact that they recorded packets going through the WiFi while they were driving by which made governments unhappy.

That I know, mapping the WiFi access points has not been judged a violation of privacy, and it is perfectly known that Apples iPhones have been using a similar mapping for years.

Will Apple's $130bn cash infusion keep investors onboard?

ratfox

Re: Conflicting information

I would check back the article which made the claim about half their money being in the US. That definitely does not fit what I read on the subject.

About the deferred taxes, I suspect Apple does not count this as money they have not yet paid taxes on, but as money they don't intend to pay taxes on, ever.

Minecraft players can now download Denmark – all of it – in 1:1 scale

ratfox

Re: 1:1 ???

Same question on my mind. I didn't know Minecraft bricks had an official size. What's the length of an edge in linguine?

Apple stuns world with rare SEVEN-way split: What does that mean?

ratfox

No change

The investors who cannot yet invest because the share price is too high are barely worth a rounding error for a company with such a massive market cap. I'd be surprised to see any difference, even in volatility.

…Why divide by seven??

Whaddaya mean, No refund? But I paid in Bitcoins! Oh I see...

ratfox
WTF?

Re: Refunds

What's this silliness about demanding bitcoins back?? I'm pretty certain that all the places in UK that proclaim to accept Euros give back change in pennies; and if you return the next day to ask for a refund, they'll pay you back in Pounds, not Euros.

Even though Bitcoins are accepted, that just means you are provided a transparent Bitcoin-to-Pounds exchange at the current rate, and if you ask for a refund the next day, the store may choose to exchange again their Pounds to your Bitcoins, if they wish, and at the current rate again… Whatever that is.

I don't see how customers could complain about this. Otherwise, you are basically getting the store to buy from you a lottery ticket, which you will buy back the next day only if it is a winning ticket.

Github cofounder resigns after clearance in sex-harass probe

ratfox

The way I see it, the fact that he resigned indicates more than clearly that the allegations were not groundless.

I'm not worried about Horvath finding a job. Any company that is secure in their handling of employees would welcome the opportunity to demonstrate they have nothing to fear.

Google boffins beat own Captchas

ratfox

Re: Surprise!!!

I would also add: without having the slightest effect. Unless you manage to have many people doing the same and enter the same wrong answer, your input is simply ignored…

Microsoft signs Motorola to Android patent pact – no, not THAT Motorola

ratfox

Re: Microsoft's Android patents ..

The reason the manufacturers are paying is likely that it is cheaper and simpler to pay a couple of dollars to Microsoft for licensing unknown patents, than to try and fight them in court, which takes a lot of time and money, for a result that is uncertain.

Now, if Microsoft had tried the same kind of deal with Google-owned Motorola Mobility, they would certainly have been rebuffed. Because it is actually worth it for Google to figure out exactly what those famous patents are about, even at the risk of losing an expensive lawsuit.

Now, the fact that Microsoft did not actually sue Motorola, even though they claim that Motorola infringes their patents (since it makes Android phones), indicates that they are not sure of winning, or they don't think it's worth the trouble of a lawsuit against Google, or maybe they simply prefer to keep quiet what the famous patents are. Probably a mix of the three.

Number crunching suggests Yahoo! US is worth less than nothing

ratfox

Re: Marrissa has worked pretty hard

> Now "I work at Yahoo!" is a euphemism for "I'm too too crap to get a job at Google/Apple/whatever.

That was the case since way before Marissa came...

On the other hand, Yahoo may be a worse employer than Google or Facebook, but it is still a better employer than 80% of the industry, so "too crap" is probably an overstatement. You might as well claim that going to Princeton means you are "too crap" to go to Harvard.

Judge halts spread of zombie Nortel patents to Texas in Google trial

ratfox

God, common sense!

My secret wish is for Rockstar to appeal this decision all the way to the Supreme Court, and for the Supreme Court to rule that no trial should ever happen in the Eastern district of Texas except when all the parties involved have exclusively existed in that district for at least ten years.

If there is a worse thing than patent trolls, it is the court that legitimates half of patent trolls.

Opportunity selfie: Martian winds have given the spunky ol' rover a spring cleaning

ratfox
Boffin

Martian days now getting longer in Opportunity's time zone

The length of days depends on the latitude, not the time zone!

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft – A jolly little war for lunchtime

ratfox

Much better than any card game!

…The computer does all the calculus involved with figuring out what actually happens without forgetting all the modifiers! Oh sorry, was that a feature?

Whoever you vote for, Google gets in

ratfox
Trollface

Re: So evil after all..

Don't forget who's the owner of the WP!

AT&T threatens to pull out of FCC wireless auctions over purchase limits

ratfox
Go

Re: Who wants local/regional spectrum?

1) Nobody is going to charge roaming fees inside the country.

2) The goal of the FCC is not, in fact, to make the most amount of money on the auction.

3) AT&T is bluffing.

SpaceX Falcon tests hovercraft tech – despite ISS outage

ratfox

Soft landing on the ocean

Are they so unsure about ending in the right place? Otherwise, why not do it on the ground in the middle of the desert? Even if it ends up exploding, it seems a better simulation…

And if they are really unsure about controlling the rocket, it seems hardly worth it to add legs to it, considering the only thing they plan to do is to hover gently above the ocean before sinking it.