* Posts by Roger Heathcote

125 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Oct 2007

Page:

BT slammed for 'importing' cheap Indian contractors

Roger Heathcote
Go

Sod it...

It's a bout time the rest of the world got a bite of the pie, hopefully Africa will be next. When prices across the globe have finally normalised racists won't be able to hide behind economic arguments anymore and maybe ignorant people will turn their ire away from immigrants and back toward the rich ruling elites and bent governments of the world.

Six months on, Macs still plagued by critical Java vuln

Roger Heathcote
Flame

@lenny

"ows coupled with safe browsing and anti-virus software. my never hasn't seen a virus for years now, and I can say no trogons for roughly 2 and half years now. its"

I love it when Windows users claim they've never had a trojan. I mean how would they know?! Because their copy of Norton never mentioned it?!? Surely the entire point of a trojan is to silently penetrate your system, quietly nobble your antivirus and then stealthily sit their awaiting further instructions? Even many of the payloads a trojan might deliver go out of their way to to avoid detection while they log your every keystroke and act as anonymous proxies for their criminal controllers further misdeeds.

MAc, Windows, Linux or Solaris the only time you can be absolutely sure you don't have a trojan is on a freshly installed system that's never been connected to the internet or used by anybody else. Boldy asserting you've never had one (on the worlds most virus ridden platform) just because you have anti-virus software and you've never noticed one makes you look stupid.

Wolfram Alpha - a new kind of Fail

Roger Heathcote
Flame

Screw you Ted...

"Cutting down Wolfram-sized ego is worth a thousand 4chans."

Well if that takes a superior ego then you're in with a shot Ted. For example you bill yourself as a "software engineer" yet you say you struggle getting CSS to render properly - sounds like you're more of a web designer granting himself a rather grand title than a software engineer. If you're in a position to judge why don't you point out a few of your superior achievements? Are you maybe to modest and considered?

This is third rate hackery of the worst kind, outwardly malicious and immature this belongs in the comments section of a Youtube video, not in a supposedly professional publication.

Danger Mouse seems to want fans to pirate his blocked release

Roger Heathcote

@AC

Since when is a "mash-up" (in my day we called it copying, sampling, or simply theft!) of someone else's creative work inovative and exciting??

Er, August 1962 Warhol/Monroe I believe.

OpenOffice 3.1 ready to lick Microsoft's suite?

Roger Heathcote

@anon - typing.

"QWERTY was designed to help prevent manual typewriters from jamming by spreading out certian key combinations. Nothing to do with slowing typing down."

Er, other than the reason for the jamming was that people could type faster than the early machines could handle.

Boffins develop bendy, squishy, foldable display

Roger Heathcote
Joke

WOW

"the display can even be folded 1000 times without its performance being affected."

That's quite a feat being able to fold a screen to less than the Plank length without affecting its performance!

eBay driving world's tomb raiders out of business, says prof

Roger Heathcote

I don't see...

...why forging antiquities should be considered a crime at all really. So what if you nd up with a fake so good it takes sophisticated analysis to tell it apart from the real thing? Is it going to look any worse in a display case? Really the only problem I can see is that some people might 'invest' in something believing it's 'real' and then if it turns out not to be they have lost some of that value - well boo hoo - let the buyer beware I say.

Ireland bucks trend with anti-blasphemy law

Roger Heathcote

The devil is in the details...

A statement's legality depends on your intent so I can say "Anyone who believes in God these days is a baby feltching dog molesting arse pervert" with total impunity because I don't mean to offend anyone by it, really I don't, I consider that a compliment, you may try and prove otherwise.

Pah!

Researchers release Win 7 rootkit exploit code

Roger Heathcote

Welll...

"As things stand, Vbootkit 2.0 doesn't lend itself to remote attack."

Be that as it may, when you get a trojan whatever it uploads is LOCAL to you machine.

Sikh coppers request bulletproof turbans

Roger Heathcote

@Paul

"When did the Daily Fail take over El Reg? "

It's hard to place exactly but I'd put it around 9-10 months ago. Depressing isn't it?

Larry Ellison: SPARC buy means we're just like Apple

Roger Heathcote
Stop

Err...

"Oracle would stick with the SPARC architecture, he said, pointing out that "even Apple is designing its own chips these days".

Except where they aren't and, er, never did, well not CPUs anyway... In fact unless I'm much mistaken Sun used to use Motorolla 68000 series chips back in the day (albeit the very sweetest batches only) and, like apple, eventually ended up selling x86 boxes partly because it's widely regarded as NUTS to try and make your own processors these days.

I'm sure Oracle love the thought of the lock in that would get them though!

Roger Heathcote

Carphone Warehouse buys Tiscali UK

Roger Heathcote

Hahahaaaaaa...

Tiscali UK CEO Mary Turner said: "It's good news for our customers"

Too bloody right it is! Getting taken over by ANYONE would be good news for Tiscali's customers! They're the only UK ISP I would rate as worse than TalkTalk, not that the UK is brimming over with quality broadband providers, but still!

Roger Heathcote.

Electronics giants raise ruckus over Project Canvas

Roger Heathcote

@Rob Farnell

"recent agreement with Adobe to embed Flash technology in the hardware of TV's and Set-Top Boxes coming out next year is going to be a tough competitor"

Brilliant, now I can get my TV pwned by Chinese teenagers too! Also, since when did it become difficult to copy flash content? I've got a HD full of it (all legit of course). Anyway, somebody's got to do the innovation and I trust Aunty far more than those buttplugs Sony any day of the week. Besides who cares if we're the guinea pigs? Guinea pigs are nice :)

EU calls for tougher data laws

Roger Heathcote

Would that mean...

... Phorm and BT would have to send everyone they've been spying on a letter?

Symantec hit by massive goodwill impairment

Roger Heathcote

Massive goodwill impairment.

Might that be all the people who buy Norton AV when they get a virus only to find out it doesn't do dick? Might it be all the people who's computers ground to a halt when they installed Norton AV? The people who got a virus despite having Norton AV? The people who were duped into getting Norton AV from PC world instead of a better or cheaper product because of their special relationship? The people who's computers became unstable after installing Norton AV or maybe the people who wasted whole days of their life trying to get Norton AV uninstalled?

It's nice to see that being shit and selling crap CAN affect a companies bottom line directly.

Exam bosses target faster cheat takedowns

Roger Heathcote

Hello examiners...

...the 1950s called, they want their testing methodology back.

IMHO this countries education system needs to be entirely destroyed and started again from scratch and many of the teachers I have met would agree with me. The exam boards are no different from any other lazy incumbent monopolies resisting all attempts at reform and improvement - kind of like the teachers unions.

Something is deeply wrong when so much suffering is inflicted without virtually no positive results and where the most fascinating and awe inspiring knowledge about our world is imparted in such a way that it is perceived as boring. A radical rethink is needed.

Microsoft blocks dirty dozen apps from mobile store

Roger Heathcote

Android is...

...starting to look pretty good now huh?

Conservative US shock-jock to sue Wacky Jacqui

Roger Heathcote
Unhappy

Great...

The government is banning people now too. Well at least we get to see _this_ list, oh hang on, no we don't, half the list is secret, FFS!

For the love of god, I've met plenty of people in the pub with heinous terrible ill informed hateful ignorant opinions, they are not going to infect me with their idiocy because they are idiots. I can hold my own against idiots, I can hold my own against Nick Clegg or whover the cheif idiot is these days. Banning these people means we don't get to publicly rip their stupid opinions to shreds, correct their fallacies, humiliate them in public and discredit their 'teachings', instead it empowers them, giving credence to the idea they are an actual threat to us rather than the pitiful big gobbed sad cases they are, it gives them a reputation and they can legitimately claim they are being discriminated against - do we want that?

If they've been convicted for serious crimes I believe we have the option of denying them entry already, if they're just a chauvinist douchebag with some unsavoury opinions then let 'em in, it's not like we don't have those already, it not like Rabies, just let 'em in and let them spend their money, shoot their mouth off and fuck off again, god knows the economy could use some tourist dollar & maybe, just maybe, their big mouths might get 'em a well deserved kicking!

Apple snips Nine Inch Nails app

Roger Heathcote
Thumb Down

Roll on android...

iPhone's are cool and undoubtedly successful (depite el reg's numerous predictions of market failure) but what self respecting geek wants to buy in to a censored, proprietary, DRM infested platform these days? Weak.

Apple == Some old farts trying to look cool

Trent Reznor == Actually cool

What on earth do you think you are doing, Darling?

Roger Heathcote

@Rupert you twunt...

"If you vote, you should pay tax. Otherwise, non-taxpayers have no incentive to vote for tax-reducing parties (since it's someone else who'll be paying)."

Hey, while we're at it, why don't we make the value of your vote proportional to how much tax you do pay? Oh, that's right, because that would be facism, the natural next step in your line of thinking (if you can even call it thinking). I was born here, I have to live under this countries rules and thereby surrender a part of my natural liberty to the state - THAT IS WHY I GET TO VOTE on who administers the state. Anyway we all pay tax, EVEN TRAMPS pay tax, just not income tax and most of these taxes are regressive and penalise the poor disproportionately.

"A flat rate tax would be a good start, so everyone can understand exactly how much tax they'll be paying, coupled with benefit reform to reward people who work."

So you want an even more regressive tax system? People who work are rewarded with wages, I don't think it's even slightly fair to claim we are 'rewarding' the poor and needy for doing nothing, such comments can surely only come from privileged bigoted snobs who have never had to live on the breadline and "copper up" for a bag of rice. I want a massively simplified tax system too but only if it's fair. Flat taxes are not fair and I suspect YOU only want them RUPERT because they will make YOU richer.

Much as I hate to find myself siding with an ASI / UKIP member I'm afraid he's making a lot more sense than you today!

Roger Heathcote.

Oracle reels in Sun Microsystems with $7.4bn buy

Roger Heathcote
Unhappy

Shit...

There goes the neighborhood - ZFS, MySQL, Solaris and VirtualBox in the hands of a company every bit as nasty and proprietary as M$ or Apple if not more so? A sad day indeed :-/

Roger Heathcote.

BBC zombie caper slammed by security pros

Roger Heathcote
Thumb Up

Fair enough...

Can't say I have any problem with journalists doing this as a one off, illegal or not. So what if they paid a criminal for access? You're deeply naive if you think the police and secret services don't do that on a daily basis already besides, they borked the botnet in question, assuming the end users could tell the difference between the BBC's "You are infected" message and AntiVirus 360's "You are infected" message.

What I'd really like to see is what disinfection advice they could fit on a windows wallpaper... TBH it should probably just say "Go buy a Mac" but it's more likely to recommend they do something dumb like advise them to go buy snoreton/whackafee.

Jobless Brits face influx of foreign IT workers

Roger Heathcote

YEah...

"You'd have thought they'd send the Indians packing..nope..we Brits suffer."

YEah we have to suffer jingoist idiots like you. They are clearly better value for money right now so if you're angry you should be angry about _that_ and then ask yourself why. Is it because the government won't step in and implement an employment policy based on racial profiling to protect you? Or is it because preventing people from moving around our planet freely while simultaneously allowing big capital unfettered instantaneous transit creates and sustains the enormous market distortions responsible for the stark differences in the cost of manpower across the globe?

At the end of the day we are all people and I have no problem with anyone from Europe getting a job in Britain as long as I'm free to do the same in Europe. If your skills don't pay the bills these days it's not the state's responsibility to subsidize you with my tax money which is what almost all protectionism boils down to in the end.

UK IT should 'fire men first', says Kate Craig-Wood

Roger Heathcote
Go

Seems fair...

Might go some way towards redressing the decades of wage inequity although a better solution might be to pay people equally in the first place.

Romeo 419ers take Canadian women for $300k

Roger Heathcote
Flame

Agreed...

@ac "Sometimes you lot make me ashamed to say I'm a Register reader."

Here, here. Some people are just thick, that's often not their fault and unless they then go on to be a deliberately malignant arse you should feel sorry for them not gloat about your superior reasoning.

50% of people have an IQ <=100, people here seem to think they need be rounded up and shot or something. I swear it's getting harder to distinguish this El Reg's comments pages from those of the Daily Mail every day :-/

Roger Heathcote.

Dominican lad suffers six-day stiffy

Roger Heathcote
Dead Vulture

Really...

"Thanks to Chris Winpenny for the hard news tip."

The word "news" is pushing it a bit eh Lester?

Microsoft trades goodwill for TomTom Linux satisfaction

Roger Heathcote
Linux

Proprietard trolls...

"If someone copied something I'd invented and started giving it away free I'd be a bit annoyed - Microsoft are lucky enough that they have enough money to go to the courts and stop the theft."

Invented is quite a strong term isn't it, they implemented some of this stuff and therefore are entitled to copyright protection but invented??? Balls.

Patents are there to protect the novel & non-obvious fruits of R&D investment.

There's nothing novel or non-obvious about any of these patents AKAICS and Microsoft have innovated almost nothing novel or useful* in the last decade, they are resting on their laurels content to become the worlds largest patent trolls, buying up huge swaths of companies and intellectual "property" and suing anyone who dares to make so much as a mouse without coughing up some fees like some feudal baron.

Linux on the other hand has innovated a boat load of useful things and has been a prime mover powering the internet for over a decade and being responsible for the massive increase in the availability of cheap powerful gadgetry we've all been enjoying for the last 5...

$20 XVid enabled DVD player anyone?

"Good luck to them I say, and maybe this will help stop future stealing from the open source shareware types."

Fuck them. Copying an idea is not stealing, if it were then M$ wouldn't have been shut down decades ago coz everything they built their business on was done by someone else first. Care to list some of the things they invented? Oh, that's right, you can't.

If you don't want anyone to use _your_ ideas then take them to the grave, the world is not short of ideas and never will be so we really don't need yours.

Roger Heathcote.

*.NET excepted, and even that concept was obvious to a lot of programmers for a long time, as somebody says there's not much that wasn't done first at xerox parc >25 years ago.

Roger Heathcote
Alert

I've just got through reading one of the 2 PDFs and...

I have summarized the 5 infringement claims sent to the US ITC below and assigned each a novelty score to reflect how novel/obvious each of these innovations might be to any marginally competent nerd...

They are, to my mind and as you might suspect, utterly nebulous. I can only imagine the other 3 are equally lame. The Judge should kick their asses back to Redmond and void these ludicrous "patents".

Roger Heathcote.

-------------------

US Patent 6175789 "Vehicle Computer System with Open Platform Architecture" January 16, 2001.

Violates at least claim: 1 and 16

In essence: Microsoft in 2001 invented the idea that subsystems of a product (in this case a car) should be able to talk to one another.

Novelty score: 0/10

US Patent 7054745 "Method and System For Generating Driving Directions" May 30, 2006.

Violates at least claim: 1

In essence: Microsoft in 2006 invented human friendly driving directions by...

a) Concatenating close instructions together

b) Saying less words if instructions are close together

c) Not making as many mistakes as every previous system

Novely score: 1/10

US Patent 5579517 "Common Name Space for Long and Short Filenames" November 26, 1996.

Violates at least claim: 1,2, 3, 4, 22, 26, 31, 36

In essence: Microsoft in 1996, in order to get round the short name / long name problem created by Microsoft's fat-16, "invented" with fat-32 the notion of just tacking the long ones onto the end of the directory table and sequentially numbering the clashes in the shorter namespace.

Novelty score: 0/10

US Patent 5758352 "Common Name Space for Long and Short Filenames," May 26, 1998.

Violates at least claim: 1, 12

In essence: As above.

Novelty score: 0/10

US Patent 6256642 "Method and System for File System Management Using a Flash-Erasable, Programmable, Read-only Memory" July 3, 2001

Violates at least claim: 4

In essence Microsoft in 2001 invented the idea of making raw flash memory's ABI look like normal memory's ABI by swapping blocks around behind the scenes with "compaction-threads"

Novelty score: 2/10

----------------------------

If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete stand-still today. The solution ... is patenting as much as we can. ... A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.

--Bill Gates

Nokia plotting Symbian laptops

Roger Heathcote

Nokia commit suicide.

I was very keen to get a Symbian based phone in large part because I heard you could put python on it so imagine my dismay when I disovered that although you can Symbian is still an utter hunk of shit.

I'm onto my second Symbian s60 based handset now(and probably my last). I had put the terribly buggy and slow performance of the first down to it being an early underpowered model but the second (with a much more powerful chip and large memory) is not much better. The UI in both cases has been terrible which is a pity as the hardware is great - robust and featureful.

I wouldn't put Symbian on my worst enemies netbook(tm), I think they're making a huge mistake here. Nokia should ditch Symbian and go with android or open moko and stick to what they do best, making solid hardware.

Microsoft aims 'non-security' update at gaping security hole

Roger Heathcote
Flame

@vincent himpe

"If you pop a dvd in your player you'd expect it to start playing.

if you pop a music cd in the audio system you'd expect it to satrt playing.

if you remeber old tapedecks in car radios : pop in the tape and they start playing.

so why should a computer be different ?"

Because none of these devices can get viruses and trojans that can bork your system, leak your personal files, steal your credit card numbers and website logins, activate you or your childrens webcams and spy on you/them or make your device part of a worldwide anonymous criminal zombie botnet army that might be used by criminals, terrorists and pedophiles to commit unspeakable crimes in your name.

That's why.

Roger Heathcote.

Fraud linked to US payment processor breach

Roger Heathcote
Go

I love how they...

...they always state with great certainty what was and what wasn't disclosed in the breach. How the hell do they know? Their servers have been pwned for god knows how long, have they been running a packet capture on their whole network's TCP/IP traffic that entire time?

If not then how might they explain these precise facts and figures?...

A) Err, we just made them up out of thin air

B) We paid v.expensive security consultants to look clever and then guess at them for us

C) We're just reporting attacks since we started looking, there may well be a boatload more

D) We had no idea it was even happening til the CIA called us an an explained on of their agents had been sold X number of our customer records

E) We had noticed but we're going to sweep it under the carpet, until the CIA turned up and ruined our plans...

Pirate Bay prosecutors get jiggy with charge sheet - again

Roger Heathcote
Linux

I like the Pirate Bay :-)

I use exclusively FOSS s/w so I'm not interested in the warez and I've got a Netflix subscription so I don't care about the movies & series however... I missed episode ten of 24 the other day as I couldn't find anywhere near me that sold vhs tapes. This simply won't do, especially as I pay $40 a month for basic cable here and that's the only show I watch with any regularity.

Well blow me down if our Swedish friends weren't tracking a torrent of it a mere 24 minutes after it aired! That's fair use and very good service in my book.

Thanks guys, good luck with the court case! :-)

Also, it's nice to know theres a publicly accessible tracker out there if you ever need to upload something big to lots of people.

Pro-Heathrow demo challenges Carbon Cult killjoys

Roger Heathcote
Flame

@Paul

You come across as an utter c---rag although I must agree that the world would be a far richer place without "High Wycombe".

Abba star slates 'lazy, stingy' Pirate Bay fans

Roger Heathcote
Alert

@AC

"Björn's one to talk about being lazy

when was the last time he put a record out?"

ROFLTIBITF!!! HAHAHAHaAa.. Too funny! X'-D

Aussie internet-net will be drawn wider

Roger Heathcote
Joke

Hahahaaaaaa...

...to all you Aussies who rip on us for having a bunch of facists in charge here in Blighty!

"There is a very strong case for blocking RC or ‘refuse classification’ material that includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act," he said.

No seriously though, that's really fucking scary / awful. That list could be interpreted to cover anything from The Bible through Fight Club, infact between those two I think you can cover every single item on the list, yeesh.

There's a very good case for you stringing these fuckers up which I might advocate if it wasn't likely to get El Reg banned in Australia! - http://nocleanfeed.com/

UK 'bad' pics ban to stretch?

Roger Heathcote
Thumb Down

So...

What is the cartoon age of consent anyway? Is an 21 year old cartoon breaking the law when it has sex with a 17 year old in the privacy of it own cartoon house? or only when it's caught on cartoon film? What about when a 15 year old cartoon sends a naked picture of their cartoon body to their cartoon friends? What about cartoon bestiality? Could shaggy shag scooby? Hmm, few dogs live til 18 so probably not. But scooby doo was made from 1969 til 2002 so he's in his 30s now right?! In which case what about Scrappy-doo? 2009-1980 would make him nearly 30 too. If they're both of legal age could they shag each other? As there's no humans involved is it even obscene? It certainly seems a bit wrong but is it legal? Gah!

It's like religion, once you accept a fucking ludicrous premise there's an infinity of questions that are very hard to answer?

I'm pretty sure this is illegal by these definitions - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartman_Sucks

"Is this obscene? How about now?" - Chris Morris, Brass Eye.

Google gears Gmail for PC hack attack

Roger Heathcote
Stop

So let me get this straight...

We get computers with floppy disks

People write malware and all hell breaks loose

It takes us 10 years to secure our systems to a tolerable degree

We get computers with internet connections

People write malware and all hell breaks loose

It takes us 10 years to secure our systems to a tolerable degree

Someone decides all software should run in your browser with data kept in your browser

...?

...?

Javascript schmavascript, bollocks to Web2.0 and life in the cloud! Big business may like it but any self respecting nerd would rather have a computer than a corporate terminal. How are you supposed to use Compiz cube, play Warcraft or watch 1080p HiDef pr0n in a chrome tab eh?

It seems we are now expected to just entrust a lifetime of personal data to companies who still have 3 hour outages, are funded by context related advertising, go bust at the drop of a hat, routinely give terrabytes of data to any authorities who ask for it and to access it all via a well filtered, well profiled pipe that can be shut off whenever there's civil unrest, the wrong type of snow, they fuck up your billing or a company on the other side of the world claims you have done 3 naughty things... fuck off.

I'm off to my bunker with NOSCRIPT, TRUECRYPT, IMAP, SSL and a big fat spindle of DVDR.

Gadget-buying Taliban 5th column in Blighty - shock!

Roger Heathcote
Dead Vulture

I thought IT people were...

...supposed to be brainboxes. I find it quite troubling so many of the commentators have failed to grasp that this piece is about rubbishing the notion that terrorists are importing significant quantities of domestic electronics fro the UK to make bomb triggers.

The piece argues that even if you were to accept that this is happening it wouldn't prove a conspiracy. He doesn't make the case that this IS happening. What does do is employ the rhetorical device of granting ones opponent part of his claim and then proceeding to disprove it anyway.

This is the best bit of writing I've seen on here for days, sadly this guy isn't a staff writer :-(

I have to say I'm worried for the health of the dear old Reg what with 3rd rate bozos like Orlowski and Dziuba on-board and the preponderance of bone headed opinion in the comments section.

Straw slaps ban on Iraq debate docs

Roger Heathcote
Stop

Hardly surprising...

...as Straw was a cabinet minister in charge of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs during that time. It is very convenient he's now in the right place to censor any expose of the Bliar cabinet's shameful weakness during that period (excepting of course Clair Short and Robin Cook).

Really they ought to have done this 12 months from now when Straw is a regular citizen again and not in a position to protect his own scrawny hide.

Microsoft woos open sourcers with Visual Studio 2010

Roger Heathcote
Gates Horns

Hmm, I wonder...

Are you allowed to write those plugins for the free version do you think? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/05/microsoft_mvp_threats/

I don't know if this is "embrace, extend, extinguish" or just a way of getting some free added value for their expensive closed source IDE, either way I shaln't be contributing until they open source that ;-)

California ban on violent video games killed on appeal

Roger Heathcote

@AC

"have they actually got proof that all thought exists in the brain? No, they have not,"

Well your brains might be in your arse but I believe the rest of us agree that ones thoughts happen in ones head.

MS puts up $250K bounty for Conficker author

Roger Heathcote
Pirate

I know who it is!....

I must confess I have known this all along and the guilt has finally gotten to me. It was written by...

Jacqui Smith

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

Please donate the reward to the Debian project.

Photography rights: Snappers to descend on Scotland Yard

Roger Heathcote
Stop

I think it's time we voted in...

...a more liberal, freedom loving government - like Al Quaida, or Burma's military Junta.

Satellites crash over Siberia: Iridium bird destroyed

Roger Heathcote
Happy

@Colin

"<sigh> Yet another predictable "Personally, I welcome our new [insert adjectives here] overlords" comment. This <snip> Is anyone else bored with this ?"

Made me laugh ;-P

Microsoft celebrates 10,000 US patents

Roger Heathcote
Thumb Down

You know you're in trouble when...

"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today…A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose." - Bill Gates, 1991.

Jacqui Smith ecstatically ignores more scientific advice

Roger Heathcote
Thumb Down

@ Anonymous Coward

"Wacky Jacky is a douche, it does have a point here.

Reclassifying E is a stupid idea."

And a 7 year stretch for being in possession of a small amount of a substance statistically less harmful than alcohol, tobacco or paracetamol is just good common sense is it?

Norfolk town's schools first to be heated by burning cattle

Roger Heathcote
Flame

@Anonymous coward @Wize

"Veggie kids <snip> should be give (naturally blown down) sticks to rub together.Probably still wet since they can't dry them out. Sooner they are out of the gene pool the better. And what to do with their scrawny little bodies....."

Did you just say that ? ? ?

*despair*

I don't know what's happening to old El Reg of late but the comments pages are starting to read like the Daily Mail. Ironically it has got me wondering "is our country going to the dogs?".

Certainly our country doesn't seem to have a basic grasp of economics. The creation of a new market for so called by-products makes the main product cheaper, you can't just ignore that although the proponents of this scheme seem determined to do exactly that.

Also, somewhere along the line people here seem to have got the it into their ignorant skulls that all vegetarians are somehow out to get them, take their cars away and force them to wear sandals, grow up! Vegetarians are just people who don't eat meat, there's no big conspiracy and they're entitled to their viewpoint just like you douches are.

As for you "Wize" with your... "they should be reminded that the plastics in their shoes and clothes are oil derrived. And that everything they have has some input from a meat eater. Turf them out naked in the snow."

Firstly, learn to fucking spell if you want to be taken seriously. Secondly, learn to think too.

The attitudes "use as little as you can" and "use as much as you can" are different and contradictory.

Also you seem to readily confuse the people who are adherents of "use as little as you can" attitude vis-a-vis fossil fuels with people who are vegetarian, a viewpoint about food that may be down to wealth, health, environmental concern, personal taste or religion.

Of course, I wouldn't turf you out in the snow for your obnoxious, ignorant opinions, but I might melt you down for your tallow.

Roger Heathcote.

Google axed Android multitouch at Apple's request?

Roger Heathcote
Flame

Another fine example...

...of how Software Patents are just plain retarded. I always thought one of the requirements for patent protection was that the "technology" wasn't obvious. How is this not obvious?

I'll bet half the people in this comments section envisaged this technology a decade ago at least, I know I did. It's so bleedin' obvious it would never have crossed my mind to knock up a demo and file a patent. Besides I don't have the 10s of thousands of pounds you need to get a patent and if I did I wouldn't have risked it trying to patent something I'm pretty sure CAN'T be patented.

This kind of stuff makes a mockery of the whole rationale for patents i.e. to counter first mover disadvantage and thereby encourage innovation in a situation where R&D costs are prohibitive.

This is clearly the case in fields like drug development and microprocessor design where you can't develop anything for under $500M but it makes no sense in software where the cost of development is hiring a couple of grad students who already did it for their thesis.

Gah!

Roger Heathcote.

UK gov unleashes biometric IDs

Roger Heathcote
Unhappy

When will we have...

...enough laws do you think?

Seriously, we've been making them for about 800 years and they're just getting silly now. So we'll be rid of Labour within a year but it' not like the Tories aren't going to think up some freedoms of their own to take away from us. Where's a Cromwell or a Fawkes when you need one eh?

I shudder to think what the future has in store for the country I love, the place I first kissed a girl, first earned a wage, first read a book, first formed an opinion all blissfully free from CCTV and ID cards and enormous state databases. What of the future though?

Imagine a plasma-screen stamping on a human face forever :-/

Microsoft to launch Windows mobile apps 'bazaar'

Roger Heathcote
Gates Horns

Late to the table...

...with a shoddy offering that shows poor understanding of the market they are trying to muscle in on. History seems doomed to repeat itself forever :-/

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