Posts by Chika

Who does the helpdesk really help?

My turn!

Underpaid, yes. Unappreciated, certainly. But then the front line of most industries tend to fall into that trap because people are people. Get one person who can't do the job right and it tarnishes the whole desk. Get one person who complains a lot because they can't get their own way or because they can't put their problem across properly and the same thing happens.

I've been on both sides of the argument and I've seen the problem at first hand. The helpdesk faces the outside world where there are invariably people who are unfit to have a computer but who will argue the toss at the drop of a hat and will complain loudly when they lose the argument. At the same time, however, there are those helpdesk folk who are little different to that and, given that many companies treat the helpdesk much as one might treat the family cat's litter box, it means that this is likely to continue.

This is complicated by the fact that many places that operate the entity known as a helpdesk, or "Service Desk" as ITIL says I should call it, have no real notion of exactly what it does and spend little time or effort finding out. A typical gripe, for example, appears further up this page in which the staff are referred to as "poorly trained" but how many companies out there are committed to giving their helpdesk staff the training they actually need? And, for those helpdesk folk out there that might be reading this, how many times have you ever been asked a support question about something implemented without your knowledge? I know it isn't supposed to happen in a well run IT department, but... really...

Even ITIL itself is non-committal about the whole situation, calling itself a "framework" and allowing for adaptation when, in fact, this is a licence for ignorant managers to simply run roughshod over the entire principle when occasion fits. Believe me, they do! "I don't care if the policy/procedure says that, do it now!"

Add this to the usual "my job is more important than anyone else's", "I'm a VIP so deal with it or you're history", "you can do it this once for me, pal", "honestly, it isn't my fault; I didn't do nuffing guvna" and you begin to wonder why anyone in their right mind would ever become a Helpdesk operative!

Welsh yobs clobbered by cross-dressing cage fighters

Excellent!

A worthy example of a total fail.

Oh, sorry! Thought we were still talking about Carl4 here! The video? I suspect that the berks now in custody will be praying for a lengthy spell in solitary just to hide their embarrassment!

And as for Sarah, I wuv you so vewwy vewwy much!

Tories would take an axe to Labour IT policy

@John211

RM postcode area? I know the place is a shithole, but why single one shithole out? There's plenty to choose from!

Yank slams El Reg 'zio-fruitcake' Playmobil 'crap'

@Shaun7

?Syntax error

Ready

_

BOFH: Weapon of choice

Not sure about the hammer...

...unless you use a Banger racer's toolkit, of course. (That's a sledgehammer to those of you not versed in such things)

I'd probably have trouble choosing a target though.

Automated out of existence?

People, droids, PCs and delusions 2

What doesn't help is that we have a generation of "managers" who believe in the idea that everything can be done with the push of a single button, even when it is demonstrated to them that this isn't always possible. They insist on automating everything without considering the worst possible scenario where things actually break. So they automate and, the day that something goes wrong, it's headless chicken time! What doesn't help is that these are the same people that insist on brand names rather than functionality, so we get stuck with legacy applications because these "managers" are comfortable with them and don't like the idea of moving away.

Then you have those "managers" that glorify "experts". You can only guess how gullible that makes them!

And I agree. Slavish adherance to procedure is a recipe for disaster.

Does the Linux desktop need to be popular?

Oh no not again!

Oh this is an interesting sensation! So much to do, so much to see, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation. Or is that the wind? Now I can see a big thing coming towards me. Very very big! It needs a big, wide sounding name like rou... groun... GROUND! That's it! GROUND! I wonder if it will be friends with me? <SPLAT!>

(Just a little something for the fantards on both sides to think about as they continue to confuse quality for substance, brand names for applications and bang their respective drums yet again.)

Microsoft tells US retailers Linux is rubbish

Here we go again!

Although, this time, it seems that M$ are behind it. As if we really needed yet another line of M$ vs. Linux arguments!

Yes, this is FUD. FUD doesn't have to be lies. FUD also doesn't have to be truthful. You will see, reading through this, every old argument for and against each side trotted out yet again.

Has every person that has contributed *really* tried both sides? Are they making reasonable claims about each OS? If either is "No", then they can be disregarded. Let's face it, anyone that just comes on and says "it's all true" or "it's all lies" without even a slight explanation of why they say it can be regarded as a troll and leave it at that.

And yes, I use both and more. I don't mind WXP, though there are problems. I don't mind Linux (I tend to use openSUSE), but it isn't perfect either. I've had reason to use Vista, Unix, Windows 7, RISC OS and each has its flaws. What really matters is whether you can do what you want to do with it and leave it at that. I stopped believing marketing folk long ago since they have almost the same lie rate as politicians!

What matters here isn't which is better. What matters here is that, like the people I said should be disregarded above, the claims of the Microsoft ad men aren't sufficiently substantiated and should be disregarded. After all, it's these people we have to blame for the rise of M$ and every shitty product that we have had to bear with ever since, to the extent that M$ has taken a lot of flak, even when they do, on occasion, produce something worth the effort.

Anyone that takes sales reps at their word deserve all they get.

Windows 7: Microsoft's three missed opportunities

I hate putting titles on things!

Having said that...

Anyone that knows me well enough knows what I think of Microsoft, so don't expect this to be a typical fanboi response.

I work with Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and Windows XP. At least I do now. I have had the chance to try out Vista, Windows 2008 and Windows 7. Now I don't mind that the first named systems are creaking because they were pretty well designed, Windows 2000 sorting out a lot of the crud of its predecessor, NT4. Windows 2003 built well on that and XP was a good replacement for W2K's desktop version, not to mention the last of the MS-DOS line, Windows ME (well, you couldn't get much worse!). So much so that it has survived this long.

When I first tried out Windows Vista, I'll admit that I liked much of the layout of the desktop. So much so that I even put a Vista Experience kit on my surviving XP box. What really stuffed it up for me was the hunger Vista had, and its issues with some hardware. It meant that, when looking at changing OS on existing hardware, you often couldn't do it without having to splash out on new bits, assuming that the system was saveable.

So you can imagine, when I tried Windows Server 2008, I was a little sceptical about it. It therefore was something of a surprise when I found that a computer that Vista wouldn't touch with a ten foot slovak happily ran said OS without a problem. This is why, when W7 came along, I was more optimistic, especially when M$ started making apologetic noises about some of the bloat that had blighted Vista.

Some months on and the machine that had once run W2K8 is now happily running W7 with only one flaw, that being the video driver which both M$ and Intel, the company behind it, say they are unwilling to do anything about because of its age. The XP driver works but only until you shut the system down when it promptly uninstalls itself. The front end retains plenty of what I originally liked about the Vista front end but without the need to bloat the system out to extreme proportions (if you don't believe me, go look at any given application distro for comparative requirements for installation under XP and Vista!) but neatens up the crud behind it. Now if they could just be a little better with driver support (I still remember the clamour when Windows 95 came out with all the half written drivers there were back then, and each "new" version seems to suffer the same way).

As for the screen thing, it all strikes me as the developer's latest fad rather than a serious ongoing move in the GUI. The ability to customise the GUI (and I mean REALLY customise rather than just changing skins and such) might be a way out of this but I can't see Windows going down that route unless a third party might consider writing an overlay much as Windows 3.1 overlaid MS-DOS (the guy that wrote the comment about Windows being a launcher wasn't totally wrong, just a little anachronistic).

However, as a footnote, I should advise you that I'll part with RISC OS on my death bed and not before!

FSF launches Windows 7 anti-upgrade letter campaign

@Chronos

"The two main zealotry parties wage war on each other while the plodders keep plodding along, completely unconcerned about the clowns to the left of them or jokers to the right. That the plodders rarely gain any ground either really makes you wonder if everyone's missing the point somewhat."

Thank goodness somebody is paying attention!

"Some of the FSF's statements are laughable, as are some of the MS fanbois' replies. As every reasonable, open-minded person knows, neither are getting any closer to the truth, preferring to throw stones rather than replace their own shattered panes of glass with polycarbonate."

It never changes. Let's face it, you can't tell somebody something they don't want to know. Windows zealots don't want to believe that a Linux distro is no longer in the dark ages when you needed to know every required setting down to the nth degree to even get a CLI up, and Linux zealots don't want to know that there are downsides to moving away from an OS that, whatever its flaws, has the market by the danglies. A week doesn't go by when this argument doesn't get dragged up again, usually by folk with less than a grasp on the actualities of the other's situation, including those zealots of versions and distros which tends to muddy the waters still further.

"OK, all these metaphors are starting to get a little aMfM-ish (but that last one works on so many levels), so I'll assume my point has been made."

May you live in interesting times!

MS phishing filter blacklists everything

Oh yeah...

So if I'm affected, I have to point out Microsoft's own gaffe. Sorry, but that just doesn't cut it.

Internet junkie detox center claims US first

Um...

If you can make the sort of calculation in terms of the number of WoW weeks you could be playing, should you not consider a booking?

OpenSUSE defaults to KDE

KDE for me

I'll admit it. I've been using SuSE since around V6 (I switched from Red Hat V5.2), and have been using KDE for nearly as long. I did try Gnome, but I wasn't that impressed with it.

Having said that, some of what has been filtering through from openSUSE lately (see their website for details), for example the decision to change the support period for prior versions and the continued lack of long term support, I am less happy with the onset of 11.2 than I was with 11.1, just as I still have my concerns about KDE4 over KDE3.

But if it is a matter of a radio button during installation, what's the problem? Just change it!

@KeGoMacK - In what way is 11.1 a complete disaster? I've installed it on more than one machine and also use the LiveCD as a rescue disc for other machines and, aside from the continued problem with KDE3 and NTFS mounting which has been there since 10.3 AFAICR, I've not noticed any disaster.

GGF plans to steer The Pirate Bay freeloaders straight

Knock, knock!

Yeah, you've probably heard the old joke about "Mandy lifeboats, de ship is sinking".

It is obvious that the new pwners of TPB are trying to come up with a way to keep the service alive, and that means sucking the Ass. of America as they try to drag us firmly back to the old ways where we, the consumer, was shafted on a regular basis in the name of entertainment.

But then, considering the dross that increasingly passes for such entertainment coming out of the member companies of the Recording Ass. and Movie Ass., I'm not so worried if they price themselves out of the market and cut off the supply through such means as TPB. After all, if a show is worth nothing, then it isn't piracy, is it?

Windows XP customers positive but split on Windows 7

OK, so this is my opinion

And, believe me, opinions are all we get to express here, and should be seen as such.

Having said that, I did my W7RC testing on a PIII with 512MB and the only thing that failed to work adequately was the graphic driver which, when I tried the XP driver, it insisted on uninstalling and reinstalling when booting. That isn't bad, but it tends to lead me to think that the biggest problem for W7 will be driver related rather than OS. That doesn't exclude the problems with excessive memory and HD requirements, code bloat and the insistance on a clean install (actually I prefer this as I've never seen a Windows upgrade that is 100% reliable), but my biggest disappointment will be if not enough effort is put into supporting kit which was happy enough under W2K/WXP which, because of the sheer bloat of Vista, will have been "deprecated" but, with a little effort from their respective support folk, will work fine with W7. If all it takes is a little more effort to get XP driver support into the OS, then M$ can't really lose.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not thinking about immediately upgrading (if that's the right word) every PC I have to W7. I might do one of them as it needs a rebuild (the other one and my netbook will stay with openSUSE), but I believe that there will be a general reluctance to move. Home users won't want to disturb their existing installations and business users will wait for all the bugs to be exposed. The most M$ can hope for will be the installation on new machines as they are sold and those folk that insist on being the first with everything no matter how ill advised it might be.

Bug exposes eight years of Linux kernel

@jsp

Funny how this idea of Linux being so difficult to install keeps getting trotted out no matter what they do to clean it up. I can recall a time when I needed to get details from a prior Windows install to be able to configure Linux properly, but that was many years ago now.

I can certainly vouch for the mainstream distros in that you can not only run it from a CD to try it out, and load it with very little interaction as much of what is required to get it working is done by the system as it loads. In many ways, loading Linux onto a PC has very little difference to loading on your fave Windows CD and still supports a lot more legacy kit than recent Windows versions, not to mention that it is pretty forgiving these days about the latest stuff.

To be honest, this whole Windows vs. Linux thing amuses me immensely, especially when old tales like this get repeated. What was the last version of Linux you tried loading?

Dell: Linux v Windows netbook returns a 'non-issue'

@Michael 28

I run openSUSE 11.1 on my Aspire One too, and while I don't generally have sound problems, I recently had some USB problems. All seems to have settled down now, but the problem seemed to centre on pciehp. You don't mention which version you are using.

I know that there were quite a few patches I had to put on following initial installation, most of them culled from an article on setting up an Eee PC and mostly to do with trying to keep power consumption down, which it does and also speeds things up by minimising the use of the main drive. It certainly might be worth a quick run through the openSUSE wiki for the article.

Hollywood demands shuttering of Pirate Bay

wHollyWeird wants the world...

Let's face it, guys. wHollyWeird want the world and, as Jim Morrison, another notable Merkan who was bent on self destruction, put it, they want it now. Beside the fact that TPB have indeed sold out, it's worth remembering that the death of one technology didn't stop the birth of another, nor did it stop the setting up of new organisations ready to provide it.

It all comes down to supply and demand. If the supplier demands too high a price for their product, or they supply an inferior product, the demand goes down. If a product can be got another way, for what the product is worth, people will pay that amount. Charging what the market will bear, a basic economic principle, is something wHollyWeird has long since forgotten, along with basic entertainment concepts such as originality. No wonder people don't want to pay for it!

Yet we hardly ever hear of companies from elsewhere in the world taking such steps. Don't be mistaken, they do it, but they don't prance around like primadonnas like the Recording Arse of Merka. But then many of them tend to focus their energy on targetting the real perps, not middle-men like TPB or their end users, so they tend not to look like prize wankers.

So, to Columbia Pictures, Disney, NBC, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, and Viacom, my only suggestion is to consider removing the bugs from their collective sphincters and start considering what realistic measures they can take to embrace the tech they scorn so much while they still have an audience.

Watchdog bites Mattesons saucy sausage ad

Missing the point

It isn't the children that would be harmed by this. It's all those prudish shouty types who are too embarrassed to admit that they don't like innuendo or those that have worked out that the best way to stop stuff like this is to play the NSFC card.

Most IT pros not planning on Windows 7 rollout

I still have doubts

You see, the biggest problem with any new Windows release is often the lack of decent driver support, especially where you have hardware that goes back a way. That's one reason why I tested using the oldest bit of kit I could get away with.

One of the reasons why W7 was "written" was that its immediate predecessor, Vista, was unable to fit onto a lot of the kit out there that WXP would happily run on. The most likely thing to go wrong, therefore, will be those bits of kit that would never have worked on Vista so will not have valid drivers later than WXP drivers, which don't necessarily work on W7. That's before we even get to those bits of hardware that still don't have decent drivers in the first place...

Mel Gibson to put hand up Jodie Foster's Beaver

Been done, hasn't it?

A man who finds solace using a hand puppet?

Sounds familiar, doesn't it, Mr. Hat?

MP asks UK.gov: Why are you still using IE6?

Yup.

Agree with all the above. As a local gov IT person, I first put Firefox on my system because of the security issues I was aware of at the time with IE6. That was nearly five years ago. Now, with such ploys as Government Connect bearing down on us, we are still stuck on IE6 and, more laughably, we are being threatened for using anything else, including IE7 onwards or Firefox, to the point where we are being told of possible implications if we don't get rid of it.

I can sympathise with the folk at Orange for once!

Google Oompa-Loompas dream of virus-free OS

Been there, seen it, done it...

Smug RISC OS user here. ARM processors? OS in ROM? Yup. Nothing new there. Doesn't mean to say that what you have is totally secure though. It also means a lack of flexibility for updating. Acorn got around this by using a loadable module system but, if you think about it, that effectively defeats any protection gained by putting the OS in ROM. And I've not even mentioned application based bugs.

As for this continued press to put my data and applications on a "cloud", until they have a security model that I am happy with (rather than one that the provider is happy to sell me), you can whistle for it!

UK obscenity law: Where to now?

@Graham Marsden

"that had someone decided to hire a group of look-alike models and have them pose for photographs to "illustrate" the story..."

Time to get the Lego out?

CGI Thunderbirds sadly not go

ITV is not go!

I've said this more than once in more than one forum. Everything that Michael Grade touches turns to shit. If Anderson wants to do this, he'd be better off looking elsewhere.

Don't call me Ishmael

Title

OK, so my crowd are a little unusual in some ways.

Kaori - one and only Windows XP box

Kimiko - Linux desktop

Miyuki and Madoka - RISC PCs (hi, ZFC folks!)

Chika - Acorn A4

Reina - My Aspire Linux netbook

Minako - works desktop

Saeko - old works laptop

Atsuko - junky old W98SE laptop

Sakura - Test machine (currently W7RC1)

but my gateway is called Gateway!

TILT!

And I'll say nothing about the use of trees and planets in the works server names! :b

Microsoft cries foul over Google Outlookware

@Jwalk

Heh. No, not everybody trusts Google. But then I don't really trust either side.

As for the guy that earlier stated that it was "his" computer, it strikes me that he/she/it hasn't read the small print in the EULA recently! Unless, of course, said user wants to try their hand at writing their own OS...

Oooo, look! New piccies!

BOFH: Stick this

Veeeery interestinnk!

Actually I've been having this very problem lately. I'll have to go invest in a bag of carrots and go round with the screwdriver later on!

EC rejects Microsoft's browser promises

Can't get a PC without Windows?

Odd, that.

So I build them myself. That way I don't have to worry about paying MS Tax. Plenty of folks out there that will do it for you too, if you don't have the savvy to do it.

The best netbook-friendly Linux distros

@Paul Nolan

openSUSE 11. 1 was the first thing I went to (well, I already had it to hand) having decided that the Aspire One's Linpus was a bit too simplistic for my uses. The project website gives a bundle of suggestions for optimising a flash driven Aspire One, and I usually get over 2 hours out of my three cell battery (which I stretch quite adequately by suspending to RAM when I don't need it on).

I tend to use it mostly for office type duties when trackside, but I have also used it to run video files via mPlayer from an external DVD unit (powered, of course!) which gives a good result despite its size.

ISPs frosty on Jacqui's comms surveillance plan

Heh

Given that we have been finding out how untrustworthy politicians have been over the last few weeks, why on earth would I trust them with details of my own net habits?

@Danny

Good to hear!

Google nukes Norks

I take it, then...

...that we won't be seeing North Korea Street View any time soon, then.

Critical Windows vulnerability under attack, Microsoft warns

Fanbois?

Seems odd that there is so much whimpering about *nix fanbois here but nobody seems to have noticed the whining from the Muckysoft fanbois. It works both ways, folks!

And yes, I too think that the timing of this situation is a little too much like a coincidence. I'd like to see an example of this exploit rather than just a notice to say that it is possible.

(So that's where I put that openSUSE Live CD!)

ICO tells cops to behave on CCTV

2009 is the new 1984

It's just another attempt to delegate responsibility to technology to cut costs. It inevitable leads to a decline in standards. After all, cameras break down, recording equipment can fail but the home orifice doesn't care because they don't have to pay these things, nor do they have to consider the working rights of such things either. This is more serious than the inevitable comparison with "1984", even though the outcome looks very similar.

Big Brother isn't watching. The Home Orifice didn't want to pay for him (after all, that would mean cutting back on the filching of public funds by MPs, wouldn't it?)

YouTube flooded with porn

@Paul

> Kids shouldn't be on youtube without some kind of filtering or monitoring anyway. There may not usually be porn on there but there is a lot of shit that isn't suitable. Just like the internet in general.

Quite so, But then...

> The internet is not a babysitter.

That's even more the case. Delegating your responsibility as a parent to a machine is questionable at best.

Paris... clothed, of course!

XSS flaws found in sites of multiple anti-virus firms

Eh?

Dirty Half Dozen? What has this got to do with a PRI Banger team?

IT salaries down and out

@AC (Monkeys)

Define a helpdesk chimp these days! Some helpdesk chimps are expected to be able to be able to solve every single problem at the first point of contact and sweep up behind them with that handy broom up their arses. The trouble is, and I think I speak for many and not just for the tea party, that the people making the decisions on pay often don't know how much goes into a decent IT operation, whatever the level.

As the computer becomes yet another white good, just as the television did before it, the radio before that and so on, the average pleb boss considers the support of said kit a menial task and awards a salary reflecting his perception of the job. Everything can be done in a couple of key clicks and can be done yesterday, yet I don't see said pleb boss getting his hands dirty!

As for the guy earlier with his thoughts about recruitment consultants, he obviously never heard that you should never trust them any further than you could comfortably spit a rat. If helpdesk folk are monkeys, then RCs are snakes!

Acer Aspire One 751

More fool me!

"However, the price is getting uncomfortably close to the point where you can buy a proper laptop with a proper CPU."

I've been thinking along those lines for a while now. It's probably why I was able to pick up a standard Aspire One recently for around £180 and a few outlets seem to be happy to let them go for that much or, I since find, cheaper. But then more fool me for thinking that the idea behind the netbook was to provide a low end mobile solution.

Microsoft rebrands WGA nagware for Windows 7

Nice to see someone in MS with a sense of humour

Well, as so many have pointed out, this rebranding gives your computer a TWAT. Consider that, some years ago, we had the advent of Microsoft OneCare (say it with a sufficiently done French accent but NOT in front of your mother!)

Could it be that, if the system fails, you will need a Computer Release Access Program?

Black hole swallows Barbarella rehash

@cybersaur

Hollywood is out of ideas?

That isn't news. wHollyWeird ran out of ideas at least two decades ago.

US P2P bill aims shackles at browsers, IM

@Shane Fitzgerald

> Not all software is made in the US

Bloody good job too, given the crap we often have to work with that passes for software coming out of the US.

> People who use P2P often download 'cracked' versions of software which may have their

> own installs

I'm glad you put "often" but I'd still like to see your data on this. There are a lot of assumptions made about P2P and its uses and I'm not keen on the idea of being suckered in Usenet style by unsubstantiated statements.

> People buy and sell second hand PC's pre loaded with software

Very true. But then that isn't always a bad thing. EULAs are far too restrictive in such areas and can lead to all sorts of confusion with end users, especially at times when they are changing over PCs for whatever reason.

> People buy PC's pre-loaded and setup with software.

Again, quite true. Since this is generally at the insistance of such morons as Microsoft so that they can manipulate the EULA to their own advantage, and is often accepted by end users because they don't want to get their hands dirty on the nasty, grubby task of installation any more than they have to, I don't see this changing much.

> The list goes on and on......Idiot.

That's life. Like it or hate it, you can't ignore it.

Sounds familiar, that does!

Extremes

Extreme 1: Politicians in positions of power but no specific knowledge of the technology at hand. They bring in bills and other legal instruments without clear knowledge of what they are on about, even if they do consult those that do know, mostly because they don't know what questions to ask and often misinterpret the answers they get.

Extreme 2: Technology supremos who want the world and they want it pretty damn soon. They differ very little from extreme 1 except that they are more interested in making themselves as powerful as possible, no matter who gets hurt in the process. Increasingly these are less likely to be politicians but will often have politicians at their mercy.

And where does the real power reside? Hey, I'm a BOFH! If you really want to know, and you can't figure it out, my prices are reasonable!

Microsoft: Don't rush to download Windows 7 RC

Lowest spec used?

OK.

<accent="yorkshire" python="monty">

I shall be using the same machine I used to test the beta, which was the same machine I tested Windows Server 2008 Beta on, which is a 1 GHz PIII with 512MB. It was good enough for those other systems, not to mention openSUSE 11.0, so it should be good enough for this.

And you tell the youngsters today, and they won't believe you!

</accent>

However, I should mention that the only problem I've had so far with W7Beta on this test system is driver related, which reminds me of every other Windows release going back at least to W95 and possibly before!

Oompa-Loompa and Tinky Winky cuffed for drunken brawl

Re: Alze

Boooooo

Peugeot preps 4WD diesel hybrid

@Ben Boyle

"And surprisingly for a hybrid

...it's not totally fugly"

You jest! Pugs have been becoming blobbier and fuglier since the demise of the 306, especially with the habit they now have of putting an ever larger logo on the nose.

The power idea is a good one, but Peugeot haven't had a decent idea on car styling since the turn of the century!

Blunkett to press for cyberwar probe of BT's Chinese kit

To be expected, I suppose

Consider that this is a private organisation that is looking to maximise its profits. If it sees a bunch of kit in the marketplace for less money than the brand leader that they find provides the same operability, they are going to buy it! After all, consider that the previous public company would have been forced to do the same thing by policy. Of course, we all know that public service policy makers are only interested in the bottom line (and plausible deniability, of course!)

The question is whether the people doing the pre-purchase testing were aware of this backdoor. Assuming they were capable of finding it. Having said that, if HMG are so concerned about the national security inherant in BT's network, then they should be taking more notice.

So where's this "Montana" place again?

Pirate Bay guilty verdict: Now what?

@Mike Smith

""Whereas The Pirate Bay was set up to make piracy easier, Google, which has many pros and many cons associated with it, will cooperate if we ask them."

Riiiiiiigghhht - so the world's biggest and richest search engine will cripple their results just because of a legal verdict that (a) hasn't had its final appeal and (b) has no power outside the EU."

Actually, if you read between the lines, what he is actually saying goes something like this:

"We haven't got the bottle or the money to sue the companies behind the search engines on our own soil even though our argument amounts to a censure on all forms of linkage to copyright material, but we can bully a few obscure folk in a country far away,"

More or less.

The thing is that we are caught between extremes; the big conglomerates who want to protect their perceived right to fleece every poor farty with no comeback and the various folk who want to open everything up in a kind of internet anarchy. Until the two sides actually get together and talk rather than butt heads, this is just an example of many similar actions to come.

Paris. Spot the boobs.

BOFH: Grand Theft Auto

Complaint

I should like to complain sincerely and whole-heartedly against the suggestion that it is, in any way, acceptable to run over a member of the Symantec sales staff. Such a thing is, in my view, totally abhorrent and... wait... what are you doing?

NO!!!! DON'T... <screeeeeeech> <THUD>

Universal Music chief renews commitment to P2P battle

He hasn't learned anything

Let's face it, Grainge is attacking P2P because it's there.

P2P is just a technology, and a pretty useful one at that, but all he is worried about is the fact that its current use is hitting his company in the proverbial pocket (never mind the bollocks he and others like him talk about what it does to the artists; these companies have been screwing the artists for years, just as they screw the consumer and, now they are getting screwed themselves, they are squealing like stuck pigs about it and using the courts in a tyrannical assault that we consumers and many artists never had a change to use because we don't have the money or the leverage to do anything against these fat cats).

There is opportunity here aplenty for Universal and other media giants to make good by embracing P2P but they are still stuck in the 1960s in the days before the compact cassette, where everyone had to buy their kit because there was nothing else, and they could demand whatever they wanted as a price, then skim the fat profit off the top.

Or, as a certain machinimator might put it (in the style of a hippy elf); "You're downloading! You can't do that! People weren't meant to download, they were meant to pay us lots of gold for our produce! I curse you! May your loincloth give you a rash! I'm SUEING YOU!!!"

<fling><whirrrr...><splat> MediaOn. Apply directly to a media company CEO.

(I really must stop watching so much YouTube!)

NASA: Clean-air regs, not CO₂, are melting the ice cap

I'm just a little sceptical...

...of any study of this kind coming out of the US. Past studies from that source have spent much on trying to disprove the various reports produced elsewhere, though a sizeable number of these reports have a vested interest in the status quo, namely the sponsors behind the US reports are those that could stand to lose out if we came down against the continued use of fossil fuels for power. Before I can take any US report seriously, I'd want to see who was actually behind it, both as far as the report and the researcher(s) were.