Posts by Syren Baran

Yay, more 'STEM' grads! You're using your maths degree to do ... what?

Re: Someone who understands statistics

"will be less likely to play the pokies, smoke cigarettes, deny climate change or eat bacon."

The same holds true for zombies. What's the point again?

Hungry Apple fanbois can now buy a lunch date with Tim Cook

At this rate

"Last year Tim Cook raised $330,000 for charity with the same kind of auction, and $610,000 the year before. And this year's auction won't stay at $160,000."

If that rate of halving continues you might be able to get a good meal for a fiver in a few years time. If you´re hungry it might actually be worth while having to spend an hour with Cook.

The Internet of things is great until it blows up your house

Re: If bitcoin is your answer ...

"... you have more issues than not knowing what is in your fridge without a computer to tell you."

Not to mention the fact of mention 51% attack and afterwards 33 beeelion devices.

Nah, i´m sure your average mining rig would´ nt have more hashing power than all those dumb IoT devices. You would probably need two rigs to outvote all of them.

Soon everyone will be doing it with a strap-on: The Reg's 20 festive wearables

Re: Useless junk

"Who actually needs an exercise tracker?"

Anyone who actually wants to quantify the calories burned.

I mean sure, "eat less" "more exercise" is what everyone can tell you, but just how much is "less" and "more" really?

So nowadays i actually look at my calorie allowance in the evening and decide i will "have" to spend half on hour on my bicycle ergometer to treat myself with a beer.

Lost 10kg in two months so far, wouldnt call those fitness trackers useless junk.

Altcoins will DESTROY the IT industry and spawn an infosec NIGHTMARE

Me too

Free pizza and game codes. Hope this lasts for a while.

Re: Aren't the ASICs so fast because they're, well, ASIC?

"I would imagine that there are more gamers, currently. However, it doesn't seem implausible that some of these miners have lots of GPUs, whereas gamers can't really use more than two or three GPUs at the same time."

On the big mining pools you usually see a couple of guys topping the list well above 100MH/s. To put that in perspective, guys with like 150 Radeon R9 290x. Dont think thats gonna be a gamer. But you see a whole lot of people, as in really many, with hash rates in ranges indicating that they have like one high end card to a dual crossfire setups. Seems like the total hash rates are fairly evenly split between a smaller group of "pro-miners" having several dedicated mining boxes and large group of gamers doing this more hobby like. Kinda makes sense, you can buy steam codes directly for altcoins after all. Thats like two top tier titles per month basicly free of charge for running your crossfire rig while not gaming ...

Go on, buy Bitcoin. But DON'T say we didn't WARN YOU

Re: Too be fair

"Keeping a couple of hundred bucks in a virtual digital wallet to pay for small stuff was exactly my intention when I started and I think was probably the intention of the inventor. "

Basicly the same way i look at it. Instead of having a small amount of cash in my paypal account might as well have it in a bitcoin-wallet. Well, at least assuming the prices settle somewhere long term.

Doesnt matter how much a single coin costs as long as you have like a hundered (or whatever) bucks worth of them in your wallet, instead of pretty much $(daily_random_value).

Thai man reportedly dies clutching his scorched iPhone 4S

How is this even possible?

Low voltage, low frequency currents are generally only lethal if the current passes the heart. So, if you hold the phone in one hand, having some burn marks or whatever, understandable, but how can you even get into a situation where you die from it?

Did this guy stand in salt-water while using his phone? Clutched some metal piping with his other hand? Magical device defies laws of physics?

Sysadmin job ad: 'If you don’t mind really bad work-life balance, this is for you'

Re: That ad is pretty honest

"I have been in IT for 14 years and I am getting the F**K out because positions like that are becoming the norm more and more, and the pay is getting worse and worse."

Sounds pretty much like my experience, at least in smaller companies. Not enough work in a single field to justify several positions, so you need an allrounder.

On the other hand i´ve seen dedicated "professionals" code around some issue for 2 weeks because they didnt know they could have had the same effect by editing a single line in a server config file in less than 5 minutes. So well, unless you get to work in a large company you might well get used fullfilling several roles.

Dont mind that actually, well, except for the pay getting worse part. Lack of IT-professionals my ass.

Android mobes outsell iPhones, but Apple gets MORE PROFIT THAN ALL

Compare the entry level

http://geekaphone.com/compare/Apple-iPhone-4S-vs-Nokia-Lumia-520-vs-Motorola-Moto-G

Sure, Nokia has replacebale battery and even an SD card slot as a disinguishing feature. Well,. i think the moto has the edge on specs, but well, just a personal opinion.

This might be a tough choice still. IF the prices were basicly the same.

I got a hunch were this is going.

Samsung debuts its spanking new Tizen OS-for-mobes .... in a camera

Re: "the smallest version can fit in 256 KB of RAM"

Would have liked to see a link for that statement as well. The Linux kernel itself requires more to run. So i kinda doubt it.

Not that its something impossible, the J2ME MIDP profile only requires 384KB of RAM, stick to the UI-less core of CLDC and you can go down as far as 32KB.

Still, my bet is on 256MB in this case.

Apple named in criminal lawsuit over Premier League–streaming app

Re: Apple can't be responsible for every app in its store

Not necesarrily. It depends what Apple is here. Is the App-Store a shop or is Apple an agent?

If i go into a shop then the sales contract is between me and the shop. Product defective? I go to the shop, not the producer.

If i go to a insurance agent he gets a comission, but the contract is between me and the insurance company. Got a problem? I go to the insurance company.

With Google its clear, Google is an agent, the dev has a direct customer relationship.

Apple on the other hand wants the benefits of both models. Keeping all customer data for itself like a shop but if there is a problem send the responsibility to the dev. Cant blame Apple for trying, but i doubt this is going to stand up in court.

So its either, Apple is a shop, then they get sued (and can in response sue the dev), or Apple is an agent, then the problem is with the dev.

Fanbois taught to use Apple's new killer app: Microsoft Windows

Re: Macs are "so expensive" - not.

"I just sold an 8 year old dual G5 for $500"

And i thought used car dealers are crooks.

Does the church of Apple even allow this? I mean, for $500 they could have gotten a brand new iPad, you know, Post-PC era and so, and it would have looked better in the Churchs fiscal reports.

Patent tank VirnetX fires 'secure domain name' design claim at Apple

Re: FFS

Hmm, so lets see.

Mail client resolves mail.whereever, if the server advertises SSL capability the client does a secure connection. Now, if i send a mail with an audio or video attachement from a notebook i am infinging?

Not really fond of Apple, but i do hope this case gets laughed out of court.

South Korea: We're 'concerned' that Obama saved Apple from ban

Spooky

When it actually comes down to an economic interest, e.g. oil, it's officially democracy or MWDs.

And now the official reason is the economic impact (and customer choice), what is it really?

What trumps economic reasoning, national security?

So, best NSA-spyware integration that "just works"?

Moto X: It's listening to you. But can voice control finally take off?

Finally someone gets it

"Nothing battery draining with the "swipe up on the lock screen to open the camera" gesture on iOS for example."

Naturally capacitive touchscreens are powered by fairy dust and not something mundane like electricity.

Interwebs taunt Sir Jony over Apple eye candy makeover

It´s not yet finished

so dont bash it yet.

In the final version all the icons will be inside <blink> tags!

Top tools for junior Linux admins

So many tools

One definately worth looking at is nagios. Know where and when there is a problem.

Need to know more about a command or related commands? Use "man" and "apropos".

Definately learn shell scripting (usually thats bash nowadays). Thats for repeating tasks and cron jobs.

Netcat and openssl are invaluable tools for debugging servers (unencrypted/encrypted respectivly).

Log files, log files, log files. Yes, they are an invaluable tool for finding errors.

While we are at that, grep. Grep is your friend.

Lots more, but those are just the first important things that came to my mind.

200 million office workers gagging for a... Microsoft Surface?

The other numbers are even funnier

If 32%=200M then obviously 12% equals 75M and 8% equals 50M.

Or in other words, allegedly there are 75M iPads used at work. That seems very high for a consumer consumption device.

And what the fuck are those 50M non-iPad/Android/Windows tablets used at work? Puleaze, we want to know which trend the whole IT-news sites missed.

Microsoft tightens grip on OEM Windows 8 licensing

Re: So...

"Does this mean that any minor changes to the hardware, even more than now, will completely stop your version of windows working?"

Fijutsu-Siemens used to do the same locking down already with Windows XP.

The windows serial key was tied to their mainboards. In other words, if the mainboard broke down you needed a new windows license, also no way to activate the key on any different box. Sounds very similiar, i assume it´s a move to screw the used-license market.

Now Proview seeks ban on ALL iPads coming out of China

Oh, now this is getting interesting

Time for popcorn i guess.

Fruity, totalitarian dictatorship vs communist regime. Be carefull China, Apple might sue away the Great Wall, they have prior art with walled garden systems after all.

Vatican mulls God particle, calls for appointment of antichrist

"no man might buy or sell, save he that had the _mark_"

Gees. He´s interpreting that wrong.

Germany´s gonna leave the Euro-zone and return to their old currency. Shortly thereafter it will be the only currency still worth anything. Then you will obviously need the "Deutsche _Mark_" to buy anything.

Can the iPad save newspapers?

What a bloody stupid question

Arguing about the price of the digital distribution is ignoring the most relevant part of the cost.

You need around 500£ to get the reader. Most people have no use for a pad. And getting a pad solely for newspapers is about as dumb as it gets. It weighs more, it requires electricity. You can´t throw it away after reading. You gotta carry it around all day. Newspapers don´t crash or create weird technical problems the average user does´nt understand.

Once you got such a device comparing digital vs. paper makes sense. Getting a pad for the sole reason of reading newspaper makes no sense.

Jobs: 'I'll spend my dying breath destroying Android'

What does that remind me of?

Ah, now i remember him.

http://bit.ly/p6cMEP

FSF takes Win 8 Secure Boot fight to OEMs

"At the end of the day, the customer is in control of their PC"

So this implies ... a couple of hours of hacking to remove the mark of the beast?

Flashback trojan targeting OS X shuns virtual machines

Not a good idea

"Eg: malware checks for a plist or a registry setting and wont run if its there. Then just put it there even though it does nothing.

would that work? should i patent that?"

Not a good idea. Quite a few desktop applications, games in special, will also wont run in such a case. Debuggers and VM´ s look a lot alike (nothing to do with registry etc.., this about low level hooks and interrupts), and some people just don´t like their software dissected for different reasons.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is dead at 56

@RIP

Well, probably he just couldn't resist testing the new Apple devices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRoGhu5I5Cg

Microsoft milks Casio for using Linux

@bean520

"Syren, whether FAT32 is used on the servers is neither here or there. The fact is the infringing code is still in their version of the kernel."

Last i checked it's not in the Red-Hat kernel (and i seriously doubt it's compiled into IBM's versions). And those FAT32-patents seem to be pretty much the only thing MS has against Linux (bullocks those patents may be, but they havent been invalidated yet).

"Linux-Because im using it as we speak"

That crappy OS (or kernel, depending on definition)?

Gees, only runs on rubbish. Like my computer. Or my servers. DSL-router. Hmm, and the TV. And the tablet as well (no, NOT Android)..

How could they?

"They don't go after anyone that they think will challenge them: not Red Hat, not IBM, not Google, etc..."

You think people use FAT32 on servers?

Google Android Market fee favours big brands

@El Reg

"Kerry's comments imply Google wants rather a lot of cash for the rights to Android Market"

Did you send a mail to Google requesting more information on that topic? If thats true the new slogan for Android should be:

Android, the free and open OS*

*fees and restrictions apply where possible

Samsung preps anti-iPhone 5 lawsuit before it's even out

I'm no patent laywer ...

"The key to all this is the requirement that patents that are essential to standards like UMTS and WiFi must be offered under FaiR And Reasonable Terms..."

... but i think the keyword in that sentence is "essential".

You know, patent titles such as "Turbo encoding/decoding device ..." or "Apparatus and method .. for reducing Peak-To-Average Power Ratio ..." don't really sound essential, just bloody useful.

So Apple might actually evade those patents by crippling performance and battery life. Not a bad deal, considering they can keep the rounded corners, no?

You are holding, aeh, using it wrong

You gotta connect this RJ-45 cable before making a call.

Google shamed by Apple in race to HTML5

Not only that

"Research that compared Opera 9 on the desktop (from 2006), and didn't even mention Opera Mobile."

The data from from the linked PC-World article also claims Safari is the fastest desktop browser.

I'll take that with a grain of salt. And comparing iPad to Android? How do you compare software with a device? Did they use a cheap China-Tab? Who knows.

Data from AndanTech [1], comparing the Xoom with the iPad, sure paints a different picture ...

[1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-honeycomb-tablet-arrives/6

Minister seeks to rip 'Like' buttons off German gov web

Lost in translation

More like "Social technology ratfinks an their like buttons."

Gees, even simple words can have so many meanings.

like (comparision) = wie (as in original title)

(to) like (verb) = mögen

gefallen (past tense) = fell

Gefallen (noun) = liking, favour

gefallen (adj.) = fallen

And thats just scratching the surface, look at

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&sectHdr=on&spellToler=&search=gefallen

and

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&sectHdr=on&spellToler=&search=like

if you want to get really confused.

Why Android houses should give Google the 'fork you'

Fork?

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

--signed Unix

Galaxy Tab 7.7 pulled from IFA after new Apple moves

Err, actually

"It's just Apple isn't after the others yet ..."

they are. Apple also got a temporary injunction against some small, practically unknown, reseller called Jay-Tech. They sold some cheapo 7-inch 2.x Android tablets.

Anyone still arguing that Apple is going after Samsung because the devices look too similar has to be barmy. Or blind. Or whatever. Unless, of course, the typical Apple-customer can't tell the difference between devices of completely different sizes and materials.

One last production run for TouchPad

Weird as it sounds

There might actually be some kind of master plan behind this foolish behavior.

Given the recent patent craze the Palm patents might actually be worth more than Nortels, maybe something like 4 billion.

Add an installed base of a couple o million devices, enough to attract a fair amount of developers.

Suddenly the the investment of 1.2 billion for Palm, plus a couple of hundred million for market share, could easily quadrouble.

Android bakes bitter 20th birthday cake for Linux

Holy FAD, buttman!

Or something close enough.

Claiming a highly dubious theory about the termination clause to be fact.

Calling a couple of unheard chinese manufacturers "most android vendors".

Geez.

Nice as GPL3 might be, its hardly the cure for a problem that doesnt even exist.

Samsung's iOS rival gets multitasking and HTML5

What exactly?

"H/W wise it may SEEM faster, but you whacked the nail on the head when you mentioned midlets. So it is actually much slower."

What do you mean with "seems faster"? The cpu IS faster. Period.

Android only got a JIT in 2.2 while j2me is hardware-accelerated on whole bunch of ARMS. So yes, pretty fast.

If you want to complain about the device try something like the lack of multi-tasking for 3rd party apps, thats a real bummer, worse than even iOS in this respect.

Less slick?

Dunno, the Wave 2 sure beats the shit out the 3GS, and costs less than half the amount. Even with a 32GB MicroSD.

The closed store sucks, but at least J2ME-midlets can installed from every store.

Apple wins (another) Samsung Android injunction in EU

Re: Hmmm

"but we now have a pure software patent running wild in Europe - sad times."

Hmm, you got a good point there. Then how come the patent was'nt invalidated?

As a developer, i could write an application (e.g. for a web-site in Javascript) that behaves identically, and have no possibility of knowing wether a mouse (with pressed button) or a touchscreen was used to generate the motion.

That got to be joke, just the possibility of getting sued, if, and only if, someone visits a site with a touch thingy (unless that person uses a BT-mouse).

Injunction suspended: EU can buy Galaxy Tabs again

Dont jest about the germans too much

The "Einstweilige Verfügung" (temporary injunction) is an unbeurocratic tool to preserve ones rights, e.g. if someone would import something like the "hiPhone5" Apple could have gotten a quick legal injunction.

Misusing this measure can have more than trivial consequences.

If the court declares this this evidence faked the Steve himself could face 1-10 years in prision according to §269 StGB (faking evidence).

Google's Moto move spells iPhone doom

Google spells Apple doom?

Nah, Apples lawyers seem to be doing that nicely.

Faking evidence in court is'nt a trivial accusation, and that seems to be the case.

http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/107599/apple-levert-onjuist-bewijs-in-zaak-tegen-samsung.html

Galaxy Tab still legal in the Netherlands

It gets even funnier

Apple filed the case in the wrong court.

Landesgericht Düsseldorf is not allowed to pass an EU-wide sales ban, only Handelsgericht Alicante is within its rights to do so.

Translate http://www.smartdroid.de/2011/08/apple-reichte-klage-am-falschen-gericht-ein-lg-dusseldorf-ist-nicht-befugt-ein-eu-verkaufsstop-anzuordnen/ for more information.

10-year old hacker finds flaw in mobile games

Changing time

equals leet haxor nowadays?

How times have changed.

Convert HP to hex. Search for offsets. Drink HP Portion. Convert to hex again. Look for value at previous offset. Must be arcane magic by those standards. And probably the only way to find Excalibur in Bane of the Cosmic Forge.

Twitter-control botnet mines Bitcoins

Let's hope

this is more lucrative than sending spam.

With a bit of luck spam will cease the internet will live happily ever after.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo bow to Apple sales edict

30% cut for owning the plattform?

So i'll assume MS is looking for ways to monetize iTunes on Windows anytime now ...

Vodafone Smart Android smartphone

"Likewise, graphics-heavy gaming is out of the question"

Angry Birds is graphics heavy?

A 500+Mhz CPU with 256MB cant handle a puny 2D-game@320x240?

Time fire fire up that 'ol 33Mhz 486 with 4MB RAM and play some lowly-graphics DOOM ...

Amazon's anti-iPad arises 'in October'

Done already

> They are powerful enough to run compilers and development environments. (which is what I do..)

NetBeans, Qt SDK, gcc good enough?

> You can develop apps for them in c++.

Qt, GTK (ok, thats C, not C++), SDL ...

>You can work with the onscreen keyboard, but plug in a usb keyboard for when you want to do some real work.

Yupp, or a mouse, or pretty much anything supported by Linux.

>Probably you can do one or more of those already.

While it does have some minor quirks, the Atom-N450 Meego based WeTab does all that.

Bloody cheap as well, less than 250€ for 16GB model, less than 350€ for the 32GB 3G model.

Doom guy: tablets, phones to be gaming platforms of the future

Not again

Sure, modern smartphones have high end CPUs and GPUs, and will have more powerfull chips than current gen consoles in the near future, just as they have more crunch than last gen consoles now.

One slight problem, though. The mouse might fit in my pocket, but neither the keyboard nor a 30" screen will. Ego shooter on a smartphone or tablet? Come on, even joypads are sub par.