Posts by Alex Rose

SHOW ME THE MONEY! Ballmer on Amazon: 'They're not a real biz, they make NO cash'

Re: Can't believe that I agree with Balmer

"But Mr Balmer also thinks that Apple is crap

Oh wait, That is what we are supposed to think on this 'We all hate Apple' site."

We're an equal opportunity site - we hate everyone. For instance, I hate you.

Apple Fanbois (and girls) already lining up for NEW iPHONE

"Sadly, some people in Apple seem to be desperate to keep the cult thing going"

I suspect they think it adds a few points to the stock price and they are probably correct.

Roll up for El Reg's 3G/4G MONOPOLY DATA PUB CRAWL

Re: Interesting, but....

@Joe Gurman

The test is to try to work out which network is better. To do that you absolutely want to stick to one type of phone, as if you used a different type of phone for each network then you aren't comparing apples with apples.

CryptoLocker victims offered free key to unlock ransomed files

You know you're on the forums of an IT website, right?

(Yes. Yes I do have that sort of setup. "Why?" I hear you ask - because as an IT professional it's really easy to set up, I also do it for my close family.)

Yes, we know Active Directory cloud sync is a MESS, says Microsoft

But does it work?

Can you enlighten me as to whether the system is robust or not?

I'll take "hard but reliable" over "easy but flaky" any day of the week!

18,000 Apple employees could get bite of profits with class-action lawsuit

Re: Hey KHAPTAIN!

I also misspelled where's and your and was thinking about dropping in "vornted" but I thought that would be a little too obvious.

Judging by yours and other's posts I would probably have got away with it!

Hey APPLE!

Wheres you're much vaunted "Do no EVIL" now?!

Steve Jobs should be thrown in jail but we all know that's not going to happen!! In fashist America only money talks!!!

Virgin Media goes titsup AGAIN. The cause? Yet MORE DNS strife

Re: How to sort out DNS problems properly

""However, why go through all that testing for local DNS servers etc. to use, when you can simply configure a standalone DNS server that is seeded with the root servers?"

Or just use Google?"

Or just configure a standalone DNS server that is seeded with the root servers?

[I'm assuming that we're playing - "post a reply that demonstrates that you didn't read the very first line of the post you're replying to" - or maybe I'm missing something?]

Brit celebs' homes VANISH from Google's Street View

Re: me thinks its time for a jolly jap

Woooosh!

Boeing to start work on most powerful rocket ... EVER!

Re: why is this necessary?

"building large structures in space are so common now that they no longer make the news"

Name 3 large structures built in space.

(Note that I'm not disagreeing with you about the good sense in adopting that approach - I just don't know that we've done it that much.)

Google: Why should we pay tax when we make 'intangibles'?

"Good heavens! No. You don't even need schemes with other colluding companies"

You're absolutely correct, I omitted the step of going from gross profit to net profit. However the basic details are correct, to transfer the profit to a lower tax regime you artificially inflate the price of the widget sold by your company in the low tax area to your company in the higher tax area thus dropping GP in the high tax area and transferring the profit from the high tax area to the low tax area.

As I mentioned in my original post you can then do all sorts of other stuff to your GP figure to transfer more profit out to the lower tax area such as paying the company in the lower tax area a licensing fee for use of the brand, money for marketing material etc. But you do definitely need a colluding company, just altering the profit you declare isn't what these companies want to do, they want to actively transfer that profit to a lower tax area - essentially you want as many costs of sale as possible paid to the colluding company, just paying it to random sundry companies inflates their profits and does nothing for yours.

The issue arises because we tax profits, not revenues.

So if I buy a widget from my supplier for £10 and sell it for £30 I book £20 profit and get taxed on that.

However what if my "supplier" is my sister company in another company with a lower tax rate, they could then sell me the widget for £20 and I sell it on for £30 thus only booking £10 profit saving myself the equivalent of tax on £10.

As long as the tax levels in my sister company's country are lower then even though they are booking an extra £10 profit by artificially inflating their sell price there is a net gain to the overall company.

This example only deals with GP, once you start adding in things like fees charged for using brands and logos you can kick the net profit right down.

How I poured a client's emails straight into the spam bin – with one Friday evening change

Re: Your only mistake...

The trick is knowing at what level of screw up you admit liability. Always admit liability for the small stuff you do wrong, then when you vehemently deny responsibility for something big you have more credibility :)

Hosted AS?

I'm a bit confused as you seem to imply that the client should really be looking to host their email system in the "cloud" yet seem to insist on trying to homebrew your own anti-spam system.

There are any number of really decent hosted AS systems out there that cost no more than a few dollars per mailbox per year. We currently run about 2000 mailboxes (across a number of clients) on a couple of different providers and I would no more think of trying to homebrew AS than I would AV to be honest, life's too short :)

Unless your client insists on AS in-house? In which case you need to get your sales person's hat on!

Android is a BURNING 'hellstew' of malware, cackles Apple's Cook

Re: It's the silly season again

Whereas iPhone users are all paragons of unbiased, well informed, objective thinking.

Giant pop can FOUND ON MOON

What about the Apollo missions!?!

"When the Lunar Project succeeds, Pocari Sweat becomes the first ever beverage to arrive at the surface of the moon"

Are they trying to imply that the Apollo astronauts didn't have anything to drink whilst on the surface of the moon?

Money? What money? Lawyer for accused Silk Road boss claims you can't launder Bitcoin

Re: Excellent points

"Use drug money to buy property and see what happens when the feds knock on your door."

That's not PROPERTY laundering, that's MONEY laundering.

Dutch doctors replace woman's skull with 3D-printed plastic copy

Re: Great achievement

An incision is likely to have been made in the scalp at the back of the head; the scalp (including hair of course) will then have been rolled forward exposing the skull. After the operation roll back and stitch up. Hey presto!

Now if someone can explain to me why there were rows of holes in the implant...

How a Facebook post by blabbermouth daughter cost her parents $80,000

For the reasons given to everyone else who has not bothered to read the answers given to this question raised by people who haven't bothered to read the answers previously given.

Clear enough?

Re: No breach

Apart from the fact that we are talking about an OUT-OF-COURT settlement?

Reading comprehension. SUCK IT!

A real life Romulan-Klingon alliance: Google, Samsung sign global patent pact

"Sounds like a pretty desperate move by Samsung - jump into bed with Google (the only people winning from Android in the long term) to try and stem off infridgement claims from Apple."

I suspect it will be a cold day in hell before that happens!

Dell staffers react to news of 1-in-3 axe dangling overhead

Re: Sonicwall

"Sonicwall support has taken a serious nosedive since Dell has taken over."

How bizarre, we've experienced exactly the opposite! Before the take-over all Sonicwall engineers wanted to do was blame problems on firmware issues, connected equipment etc. Since the take-over I've had 3 faulty units swapped out within 24 hours (at different times) with no hassles at all.

It just goes to show (I just don't know what!)

Fiendish CryptoLocker ransomware survives hacktivists' takedown

Re: Your tax dollars at work

From everything I've read the malware generates a key pair and then sends the private key to the scammers over the internet. Hence there's one key pair per infected machine, not just one key pair for all machines.

Inside Steve Ballmer’s fondleslab rear-guard action

Re: Fallacious argument

Read what I said again. The argument being put forward hinges on this sentence "Just watch a video of an infant playing with an iPad and their bafflement when tapping and swiping doesn't work on dead-tree media"

The claim is that touch is intuitive because a baby taught that flat images respond to touch gets confused when then presented with flat images that do not respond to touch. I say that this doesn't say anything about whether touch is intuitive or not. Merely that when you teach a baby one thing it gets confused when you then present it with a case that opposes what they have learned.

Both yourself and Destroy All Monsters have somehow confused me taking issue with the argument that the video shown shows that touch is inherently intuitive to somehow mean that I don't think touch is intuitive. Read my post again and you'll see I made no such statement. I've said nothing about whether I think touch is intuitive or not.

In the words of the dear departed Eadon:

REG COMMENT SECTION READING COMPREHENSION FAIL!!!1!one!

(that last bit tongue-in-cheek before you get too offended guys)

Re: Fallacious argument

Thanks for the reminder Trevor. I forgot I was on El Reg's comments section for a second there!

Fallacious argument

"The word "intuitive" gets egregiously overused in computing, but touch interfaces are a step forwards. Don't believe me? Just watch a video of an infant playing with an iPad and their bafflement when tapping and swiping doesn't work on dead-tree media."

The problem with this argument is that what you are actually saying is "When we teach a baby that the world works one way and then provide them with a version of the world that doesn't work the way they get confused." Nothing more, nothing less. To claim that teaching a baby that flat pictures are interactive so that they get confused when you provide them with a non-interactive flat picture is a sign that touch is somehow the natural order and therefore "intuitive" is lazy and fallacious thinking.

Many people used the same video to claim that it showed iPads were the natural way of working because after using one babies try to swipe static images - these people have clearly never had children or spent time around babies. Babies touch, feel, lick, suck and generally paw at their environment whether they've had a go on a touch screen or not. It's how they bloody well learn about the world!

Google to CyanogenMod: YOU! GIT yore warranty-BUSTING ASS outa Play

Re: RE: AC @ 07:16

Woah there tiger!

The person you are responding to made no comparisons to Windows Phone or iPhone, in fact they didn't mention them at all.

Maybe you want to rein in your inner fan-boy, stop with the straw-men, get a life and realise that your precious Android device is JUST A FUCKING PHONE!

(Posted from my Samsung S3 Mini before you decide to go batshit insane again about imagined slights to your chosen Phone OS and characterise me as one of those Windows/iPhone using DEMONS from the inner circles of HELL.)

BlackBerry to be throttled by own supply chain

Re: BMW and Mercedes

It probably mostly boils down to the ACs last sentence "It really depends on the product does it not?"

It does all depend on the product, or rather the product type.

The market for cars is going to behave differently to that for phones, or that for baked beans, or the one for geostationary satellite launch services. So looking at the car market and trying to say that because it behaves in manner "x" then the market for phones is not going to behave in manner "y" is a bit of a long shot.

HP fires sue-ray at makers of Blu-Ray

@Pascal Monett

No, it's for a new unit. I didn't think I needed to make it clear I was searching for a like for like unit.

But then I guess I forgot that the internet seems to work at the level of the stupidest person on the planet :)

I clearly am missing something...

..7 thumbs down for asking for clarification as to why I can buy a BD RW for £17 rather than the £45 odd quoted above.

I'm very confused now...maybe you're all members of the HD-DVD marketing board or something?

There's some conspiracy to keep the perceived price of BD burners higher than they actually are, shadowy figures in an international cabal meeting late at night to plot their attack on the next website comment section with immediate downvotes for people who question their falsely inflated figures? An enquiring public needs, nay DEMANDS, to know the truth!

I can get a BD RW for £17 off eBay. Am I missing something?

Microsoft creates new cert to make VMware admins 'bi-lingual'

@Lusty

I think the coat icon denotes that vagabondo's post is a little tongue-in-cheek. Especially as MS are likely to be providing tools to go VMware to Hyper-V rather than the other way round.

RUMBLINGS: Apple pondering 'Touch Cover keyboard' for iPads

Re: Thin end of the wedge

That's just cynical.

A laptop/netbook/ultrabook is a keyboard and computer in a single unit with a screen attached via a hinge.

These would be screen and computer in a single unit with a keyboard attached via a hinge - completely different!

Re: Old Idea

And Commodore in the same year:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64

EasyJet website crashes and burns

Re: LCCs don't do DR

"The cattle in economy are basically just loss-leaders."

Anyone with even an ounce of common sense can see right through this statement. If they were making a loss on everyone flying in coach then they would keep the coach section empty and only fly with the first class and business class customers - hence making more profit. Maybe you should think about what "loss-leader" means?

What I've actually heard from industry insiders is that first and business "pay for the flight" which again is patent bullshit - any seat which makes a profit contributes towards "paying for the flight" and if a seat doesn't make a profit they won't bother selling it.

Note - profit is all the money earned by the seat minus all costs attributed to the seat. There are still costs attributed to the seat even if it's empty. So essentially if a person pays more money than it costs to process them through the flight and than it costs in fuel to support their weight during the flight then there is an actual net contribution to the flight.

Oracle says open source has no place in military apps

Re: Commercial Software Vendor hates FOSS!

I'm slightly disappointed in myself that I forgot to include fandroid :)

Re: No surprise there then

"Providing you have adequately defined, business driven requirements, a PM & architects who are interested in delivering success rather than their own egos - major projects are most definitely deliverable using the wealth of (advanced) open source products that are out there."

But exactly the same is true of closed source products, the problem is normally not the products, it's finding a PM & architects (and the main decision makers for the "client") who are interested in success over their own ego and/or prejudices.

Re: Commercial Software Vendor hates FOSS!

"Actually, if it's being developed inhouse chances are that somebody involved will stand up and tell the people doing it that if they change the requirement 400 times that it's going to take ages and cost loads"

If only that were likely to make any difference. I agree that that's what should happen, but it should happen whether the job is being done in house or not - the sad fact is that the people involved will each want to put their stamp on it and will likely ignore any warnings from the people that know better but are lower down the food chain. At least that's always been my experience.

Re: Commercial Software Vendor hates FOSS!

No reasonably complex software ecosystem "just works" - be it FOSS or otherwise you numpty!

However, a much more pressing reason why the DoD should not be getting involved in software development is the seeming inability of government departments to do anything well. Certainly if they are anything like UK government depts. are at specifying and obtaining delivery of projects then the whole thing will be a cluster-fuck from beginning to end.

And before the pro and anti brigades turn up to shout me down for apparently supporting the opposite side to them perhaps they'll do me the courtesy of using reading comprehension skills to note that I haven't made any statement about which type of software they should be using, simply that they should not be developing it themselves.

[Cue someone being unable to comprehend that last point and replying to accuse me of being pro-Microsoft/an Apple fanboy/a freetard <delete as appropriate to the particular bent of the poster's fucktardery> in 5...4...3...2...1...]

Post-PC world? POST-MAC WORLD more like

Re: Peak Register

"Apple introduced the tablet form factor that is cannibalising the PC market."

If you mean that Apple introduced the particular version of a tablet computer that finally made the form factor useful and popular then I don't think anybody can disagree with you. However it is very unclear whether or not you are claiming that Apple introduced the tablet form factor period (i.e. that they invented it) - which if you are I'd have to disagree.

I'm curious as to which meaning you intended?

How to design a storage array: NOT LIKE THAT, buddy

Someone got paid for this "article"?

"Don't keep doing it the old way just because of inertia, do it a new and better way but make it look the same as the old way to the user."

There you go, same article in only 31 words. Where do I send the invoice?

Highways Agency tracks Brits' every move by their mobes: THE TRUTH

Re: Typical waste of money @Alex Rose

@BristolBachelor

I have to agree with you, why the hell the signs onto the M25 don't always just include "Clockwise" or "Anti-Clockwise" I'll never understand, all this North, South, East, West rubbish for a road that's a f*cking circle is retarded.

Re: Typical waste of money

"No motorway/dual-carriageway linking the A3 to the M3 to the M4."

Somebody else has already pointed out the A331 but you don't actually make any indication of WHERE you don't think there's a link between the A3, M3 and M4. So I feel absolutely justified in shouting in a VERY LOUD VOICE - M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25! M25!

Microsoft's 'We want a Mac look and feel' UK director splits after seven years

Re: Can I just say

All I did was say to my wife, "That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!".

Alibaba stands firm against Hong Kong exchange over IPO

Surely they believe in the market?

Surely the HK stock exchange believe in the "market"? In which case if there's a problem with the ownership structure people will value the shares accordingly, the "invisible hand" will work its inevitable magic.

The fact that even the staunch capitalists in a stock exchange don't believe in market forces is quite telling!

We made the iPhones, now we want OUR 'UNPAID' WAGES – student Pegatron toilers

Re: Huh?

I can only assume that you're making a poor attempt at trolling. I get valuable industry experience every day at work but I still expect to be paid. Or are you telling us that you're going to hand back your salary to your employer because I'm sure you get industry experience from work as well?

Numpty.

Microsoft buys Nokia's mobile business

Re: Insider trading

"So it would only be insider trading if he HAD bought shares in the company he was sent to destroy"

It would only be insider trading if he'd made trades (buy or sell) in either company's (MS or Nokia) shares based on his insider (not available in the public domain) knowledge.

Re: Insider trading

"So, it must've come as a complete shock - SHOCK, I TELL YOU! that Flop didn't know what the chair-tossing gorilla was up to?"

OH MY GOD!

Of COURSE Elop knew what was going on you bloody idiot he's the fucking CEO of Nokia - however it's only insider trading if he's bought or sold shares based on that knowledge. US and Finnish authorities will check for suspicious trading activity as a matter of course with a deal this size; but the OP claiming that it's insider trading because Elop owns shares in MS is showing about as much understanding of insider trading as you're showing ability in reading comprehension.

Re: Insider trading

"Given that most stock exchanges have rules against insider dealling, and given that Elop still owned a massive slug of M$, what are the chances this deal will get investigated? maybe blocked?"

Well that kind of depends on whether Elop used his inside knowledge of the impending deal to trade in shares of either company to his advantage - you know - the actual definition of insider trading?

I mean, seriously, if you are going to accuse somebody of something at least take to trouble to go and find out what it is you are accusing them of!

Insider trading is NOT when one company buys another and some of the people involved in making the deal happen own shares in both entities, insider trading is buying or selling shares based on inside knowledge not available in the public domain.

Microsoft's Nokia plan: WHACK APPLE AND GOOGLE

Re: RIP Nokia

"Whatever of Nokia is left might as well shut up shop now. Last person to leave, please turn out the lights."

You mean the group of businesses with approximately EUR15 billion global revenues? Yeah, spare change mate, I wouldn't get out of bed for less than EUR30 billion myself.

Muppet.