Heh, I use Opera but I don't use Google.
Posts by ChessGeek
64 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Sep 2007
Opera updated following unexplained Outlook.com lockout
Facebook: Our phone app DID seize your email
Facebook, FTC settle over privacy ‘deception’
BOFH: Licence to grill ... stupid users
BOFH: The PFY Chronicles
Dear Google: Just how mammoth is your search share?
Google Toolbar caught tracking users when 'disabled'
YouTube and Hulu dabble in for-pay vids
Today is not New Year's Eve - or the end of the decade
Saturday 2nd January 2010 09:45 GMT
Of course...
On most things, when a dial flips over to 2010, it means that the 2010th WHATEVER is completed. When a calendar flips over to 2010, it means that the 2010th YEAR is just beginning. Therefore, January 1 2010 is the first day of the last year of the decade.
In terms that automobile-odometer-obsessed types can understand, it will be 2009.1 and only after it gets to 2009.364 will it finally be 2010. THEN it will be the end of the decade.
US feds squeeze bloggers for posting TSA orders
US Congress seeks control over NASA moonshot
'Doctor Dark Energy': The Ultimate LHC eccentric?
Moller Skycar to finally crash and burn?
Space butterflies invade ISS
NASA: the world will not end in 2012
Facebook acquires 300 millionth user
Wednesday 16th September 2009 09:11 GMT
@ JB: Actually, no, it's not Staunches...
Stanch: –verb (used with object) 1. to stop the flow of (a liquid, esp. blood). 2. to stop the flow of blood or other liquid from (a wound, leak, etc.). 3. Archaic. to check, allay, or extinguish. –verb (used without object) 4. to stop flowing, as blood; be stanched.
Staunch: –adjective, -er, -est. 1. firm or steadfast in principle, adherence, loyalty, etc., as a person: a staunch Republican; a staunch friend. 2. characterized by firmness, steadfastness, or loyalty: He delivered a staunch defense of the government. 3. strong; substantial: a staunch little hut in the woods. 4. impervious to water or other liquids; watertight: a staunch vessel.
US Navy aims to make jetfuel from seawater uranium
Blaster anniversary recalls network worm heyday
Thursday 13th August 2009 15:16 GMT 
I remember Blaster
After the worst was over, I knocked together this Shakespeare-flavour "soliloquy".
A Midsummer Night's Worm
That which we call a worm,
by any other term -
a virus springs to mind -
would still be as unkind.
To patch, or not to patch,
That's hardly the question;
nor nobler in the mind,
facing worms of this kind,
to count on a bastion
of safe e-mail to catch
this inbound contagion
which comes not to us thus,
making fools of us all.
Windows computers fall
Despite our cautious fuss,
through this dread pathogen.
To surf, perchance to browse,
aye, therein lies the rub;
for in that 'net browsing
what dire threats appearing
shall penetrate our hubs?
So we all best not drowse.
Nay, this worm, as we know,
doth enter where unpatched
to Windows versions three -
NT, 2K, XP -
from portals yet unwatched.
Its progress is not slow.
This worm's not made the best,
though spreading wild and free,
'tis not most efficient -
there's yet more proficient.
What fools these mortals be!
See not this is a test?
This be very madness,
yet 'tis method in it.
For, if we shun the patch
despite what we might catch,
when Windows next gets bit
'twill make a vaster mess.
This pale worm might be poor;
but, lest we be serene,
the next one will have ways
to use our salad days
of judgment very green
to pierce to Windows' core.
I come to bury this
Blaster, not to praise it.
The evil men do lives
on the 'net and it gives
us cause not to be hit.
Come, this patch let's not miss.
(Exit)
Man blames cat for child porn downloads
US State Dept. workers beg Clinton for Firefox
Tuesday 14th July 2009 04:31 GMT
It's the PoS Factor
In addition to the costs of ownership and the costs of deployment, there's what might be called the "Price of Staying". When the PoS is more expensive than the price of something newer and better, then you have a case for moving. In the case of IE6, I would imagine the PoS is pretty costly.
El Reg commentards offered extra iconography
Opera applauds scepticism on MS browser pledge
Saturday 13th June 2009 23:02 GMT
Opera
I have IE, Firefox, and Opera on my computer. I use Opera. As far as I can tell, the people rattling on about hating Opera are just that - rattling on.
On the other hand, maybe they're trying to use it for something I don't. Since I can't know that, I'll just say stop pushing your prejudices off as fact unless you want to document specific failures of Opera versus other browsers.
Failing that, do us all a favor and belt up.
Google trademark grab defies mounting lawsuits
Saturday 16th May 2009 19:47 GMT
Does Google think we're idiots?
"Imagine opening your Sunday paper and seeing ads from a large supermarket chain that didn't list actual products for sale; instead, they simply listed the categories of products available - offers like 'Buy discount cola' and 'Snacks on sale.' The ads wouldn't be useful since you wouldn't know what products are actually being offered. For many categories of advertisers, this is the problem they have faced on Google for some time,"
Not even close. What Google is doing would be like opening an ad and seeing: "Looking for Pringles Chips? Try our Crunchies Chips instead. They taste better and are half the price."
Or maybe: "Are you still searching on Google? Come over to Whoogle where we don't bug you with nearly as many ads as Google does and you'll get better results too."
Now, how long does Google expect us to believe Pringles would put up with the first type of advertising or Google would put up with the second?
Microsoft rebrands WGA nagware for Windows 7
Win 7 RC fails to thwart well-known hacker risk
Wednesday 6th May 2009 23:42 GMT
It IS a Problem
90% or more of my users wouldn't have the faintest clue how to change that setting - no matter how many times they were told or shown. However, they either want to know where their file extensions are or readily agree when I explain the reasons for changing the setting. I have yet to meed a single user who preferred not to see the file extensions.
The Microsoftheads who persist in keeping this setting as the default are idiots - pure and simple.
Google clones search ad machine on photo sharer
Ballmer tries to breathe life into Yahoo! deal
Icahn huddled with MS over Yahoo! search sale
Bot-wielding hackers crash eBay holiday giveaway
Thursday 4th December 2008 15:54 GMT
@Andy
"The Grinch stealing this year's Christmas booty were bot-armed hackers who were able to sniff out the promo pages before they went live to the public."
THAT is the scandal. The pages had no views, no because no one HAD looked for them but because they were bought before anyone COULD look for them.
Pay attention, dude.
Hotmail users bitch and moan about new interface
McCain begs for YouTube DMCA takedown immunity
Apple rattles legal sabre at Canadian tech school
Thursday 9th October 2008 13:03 GMT
Dear Apple...
God hereby asks you to cease and desist in your use of a logo consisting of an apple with a bite out of it. This symbology has longstanding association with Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, Apple's usurpation of this symbol could be confusing to the public at large, leading - among other undesired results - to mis-identification of Steven Jobs as God.
God hereby enjoins Apple from any further use of said logo in promotion of its products.
Mars rover sets sights on distant crater
Sockpuppeting civil servant Wikifiddles himself
BOFH: Back in the saddle
Ubuntu zoo preps for new arrival
How to stop worrying and enjoy paying for incoming calls
Friday 5th September 2008 12:34 GMT 
No Thanks
Outside of calls from my wife, the majority of calls I get are wrong numbers or junk calls.
So why, exactly, should I be willing to pay for other people's mistakes or for their money-grubbing endeavors? Forget it, Mr Ray, this bird will never fly unless the regulators shove rockets up its tailpipe.
Cloud computing lets Feds read your email
Wednesday 20th August 2008 15:01 GMT
Par for the Course
Specious reasoning by the government, of the government, and for the government shall not vanish from the earth.
It's the courts that are supposed to put a stop to that sort of thing. This is, of course, the thin edge of the wedge. By the line of reasoning applied here, anything you've ever done which required a third party (by definition, anything across the internet, any telephone call, any credit card purchase, etc) can be reviewed by law enforcement at any time for any reason - or for no reason. Fishing expeditions, anyone?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
