Posts by Vic

Oracle buys Ksplice

Re: What have I missed?

> I'm sure I've missed something

Anyone redistributing the GPL version of Ksplice must redistribute under the GPL.

By buying the copyrights, Oracle have removed that requirement from their distributions.

That sort of thing has a nasty tendency to occur just before the owner changes the licence to something more proprietary :-( Such a change would allow Oracle to do something incompatible with everyone else and not release their source.

Of course, Larry might just have had an altruistic moment[1] and decided to put some cash towards a startup that really needed the assistance...

Vic.

[1] No, of course he didn't.

Heathrow to get new facial recognition scanners

Re: in that database

> Your driving license, probably, if not.

My driving licence doesn't have a photo on it.

Sometimes, it's good to be an Old Fart :-)

Vic.

19,000 papers leaked to protest 'war against knowledge'

Re: System is broken

> open access model. The author pays more to publish

There's no need for that; the act of publishing is very much cheaper today than it has historically been.

I'd happily run a repository for such works if I thought it would do any good; the problem we all face is that readers generally want "prestige" in the organ used for storing such papers, and that prestige is currently vested in these journals that play daft games with copyright laws. I could open up a site tomorrow that could hold academic papers long-term and grant readers access to those papers at little or no cost - but nobody would use it.

Vic.

Google sends warnings to machines with infected search

Re: this message would be less risky

> buy him a venti nonfat tripple espresso

You appear to have mis-spelt "beer"...

Vic.

Apple flings patent lawsuit at HTC (again)

You appear to be confusing me with someone else...

> Apple doesn't release their OS updates instantly and they're evil

Show me again where I even intimated that.

My post was smiply about Apple's source distibution being a requirement of the licence and not altruism. I didn't claim they were evil.

> Google won't release the source to Android 3 until some time

> towards the end of the year and that's just fine.

According to the Android licence, it is. That is why I dislike BSD-style licences.

And as for the rest of your post - what on earth does it have to do with what I posted? It's not a reply, it's just a rant. You seem to ascribe an agenda to me which I simply don't have - and you'd known that if you'd spent more time reading what I wrote, and less time listening to the voices in yer heid.

Vic.

Re: Apple don't have anything against open source

> (WebKit and CLang spring to mind)

I don't know the origins of CLang, but Apple's contribution to WebKit wasn't done out of the kindness of their heart.

WebKit was a fork of KHTML, which is LGPL-licenced. Apple had no choice but to release source. Indeed, they were roundly criticised at the time for keeping to the letter of the licence without releasing anything that could reasonably be back-ported into KHTML.

Vic.

Re: I don't trust the current US Supreme Court

> How does that work on Big Corporation versus not-so-Big Corporation?

Not relevant.

What we have here is American corporation versus Not-American Corporation.

Place your bets...

Vic.

Energy scavenger eats leftover wireless signals

Re: Not quite

> why don't you loose signal when there's another reciever between you and the transmitter?

You do.

The more efficient an antenna, the more measurable is the shadow behind it. With most broadcast media, this is rarely a problem, because there is plenty of signal and the antennae in question are very inefficient at harvesting energy.

However, attempting to make a (relatively) high-efficiency antenna that works over a broad band is likely to upset that situation.

Vic.

Hasn't this been done before?

ISTR some guy getting done for stealing power from Radio 3 transmissions by putting a huge coil of wire in his loft.

The problem with using this against broadcast treansmissions is that there is no "leftover" signal; someone is paying to put that signal out and is trying to get as much distance as possible from that transmission (subject to licencing conditions).

Inducing it to power kit just means less signal for someone else.

Vic.

English, Welsh cops get mobile fingerprint-check tech

Re: Meh

> 'if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear'

Wasn't that re-phrased into the slightly more accurate "If you've nothing to hide, and you're not Brazilian, you've nothing to fear" ?

Vic.

Re: let me hold up a finger for you

> Those who trust the police to be good

Of course the Police are trustworthy.

Just look how long it's been since the head of any Plod service has had to resign...

Vic.

UK top cop: Coulson 'blindingly obviously' mixed up in hacking

Inferences...

> "That is simply and blindingly obvious"

From this, we can draw one of two conclusions:

- Plod puts his own inferences and prejudices ahead of evidence

- Plod knew about criminal activity and decided to ignore it anyway.

I'm not sure which of these offends me more...

Vic.

Romanian NASA hacker fights 'inflated' damage assessment

Re: only 240K?

> 1200$ per server. At least.

You what?

I redeploy servers regularly. With cobbler and puppet, I can set up as many servers as I like within about half an hour. Restore the config from fisvis, and the box is ready to go.

A.dozen servers in an hour is easy. $1200 each? You must be mad.

Vic.

Half of Virgin Media broadband ads are wrong, says ASA

BT can suck my arse too

> Oh, Infinity is only available in about 2% of the country.

I've just lost a customer to BT becaused they promised said customer that he'd have Infinity by September. And he believed them[1].

BT's web site says the customer won't have Infinity this year or next. Their announcements of which exchanges are going to get it studiously avoid mentioning my (former) customer's exchange.

But BT Sales Monkeys are stilling making claims...

It's all rather reminiscent of the "crash and burn" sales techniques beloved of satellite TV salesmen 20 years ago :-(

Vic.

[1] Yes, he's a twonk. Which is why I'm not that bothered to lose him as a customer.

Microsoft kills Windows Vista SP1 support

*sniff sniff*

> put fedora 14 onto my laptop

Good so far.

> have you seen Gnome 3?

Have you?

The standard dsektop in F14 is Gnome2.

> It is a definite step back in terms of productivity

I'm sure you're right. But then I wouldn't suggest anyone install it on F14 - and you have to take positive steps to get it there.

Vic.

Thumbs down...

> I got 3 for pointing out that Win7 (also 2k3 & 2k8) have big improvements over XP

I've got 16 (so far) for saying that I'd yet to see a Win7 installation running faster than an XP one on the same hardware.

Some people just don't like to see anything but high praise for their product of choice - even if the comment is both neutral and demonstrably true :-(

I really wish some people would put more effort into debate, rather than just using the voting system as a very lazy type of weapon.

Vic.

netmarketshare's numbers...

> Feel free to disagree with the numbers

Oh, I will.

"We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers".

So they're just parsing the UAs from the web logs of their own site.

This does not constitute a robust methodology; if I were to do that on my sites, for example, I would get >98% Linux share. But I wouldn't dream of claiming that to be representative.

Vic.

Reference?

> That would be 1% each for linux & android then

Your figures are very different from the declaration Ballmer gave to the SEC (a lie in which could lead to jail time for him).

Perhaps you'd like to cite the source of your numbers.

Of course, Ballmer might just be lying...

Vic.

HTC 'dismayed' by Apple's bizarre patent allegations

Rotating an image based on gravity-detecting devices

Sounds like something ships' instruments have been doing for centuries. the gimbal is hardly a new device.

If there's something truly inventive in the way an electronic device simulates a gimbal, then fair dos - that invention could well be patentable. But a patent on *being* a gimbal?

Vic.

MS to WinXP diehards: Just under 3 more years' support

Re: Thirteen years

> My personal experience of upgrading between major editions of Ubuntu

Please do not make the mistake of confusing "Ubuntu" with "All versions of all Linux distributions".

Many of us have had very-long term support with decent version updating for a good long while.

Vic.

Re: forced to scrap perfectly good hardware

> a certain level of graphics hardware capability was mandated

To be fair to Microsoft - Gnome are currently repeating the same cock-up.

Vic.

Really?

> But if you downgrade a new one and put XP on it, 7 will be faster

That's a strong assertion - and one that I've yet to see borne out. And I've seen quite a few machines that have been "downgraded".

> XP is crap compared to 7 for that.

My customers roundly disagree; none of them prefer Vista or 7 to XP. Not being a Windows user myself, I have no opinion on that.

But judging by the number of downvotes my simple post has got, I'm not allowed to express an opinion anyway :-(

Vic.

Errr - did you read my post?

> run it on a machine that isn't steam powered.

You missed the bit about "on the same hardare", then?

Vic.

Which planet are Microsoft on?

> "Things get better, faster."

I've yet to see a Win7 installation running faster than XP on the same hardware...

Vic.

'Unconvincing' Met top cop Yates: My phone was hacked

What???

> He said it was "unfair", based on the lack of action by NI, for people to

> be calling for the assistant commissioner to stand down from his job.

Eh?

So it is correct behaviour for a policeman to stop investigating an offence when the alleged perpetrator says he didn't do nuffin' ?

Well, there you go then. "No, officer, I didn't steal this Porsche. No, I'm not still sitting in it with the engine running. These are not the sports cars you are looking for. I can go about my business."

Vic.

Cleaning up the Bitcoin act

Re: Was that supposed to convince me of Bitcons merits?

> Who is to stop the people who run this scam from creating as

> many coins as they like for their own gain

What, like Quantitative Easing?

Vic.

Re: Short selling *is* "purely speculative exchanges"

> The short seller is speculating that they can borrow

No. The short seller *has* borrowed.

It is naked short-selling if the seller has not yet acquired what he is selling; many of us would classify that as "fraud", but assorted excchanges seem to let them get away with it...

Short-selling has a place in markets - it permits traders to bet against the price of a commodity that they believe to be over-priced. Without short-selling, the price just keeps going up. Naked shorting, however, is a serious problem...

Vic.

News of the World TO CLOSE

Re: Historical precedents

> Have there been other instances of a brand so tainted

Swallow Sidecars was considered tainted, on account of their initials. But they just changed their name.

But you don't see many Amstrad-branded computers any more...

Vic.

Behind Microsoft's $15 Samsung Android royalty claim

Re: And use what instead?

> They would need to debug it first.

I use LibreOffice on a daily basis.

I find fewer unexpected "features" than I do with MS-Office...

Nevertheless - once OOo/LO get more traction, the swing would happen very quickly indeed.

Vic.

Re: Doh!

> Clearly they have a case

That is not clear at all.

If you have evidence, post it...

Vic.

Re: These companies are easy shorts

> They are subject to be re-dunned incessantly as Microsoft buys more patents

And that is called paying the Danegeld

But we've proved it again and again

That once you have paid him the Danegeld,

You never get rid of the Dane.

Vic.

Re: What's Android? It's Linux.

> Why destroy something which can make you $15 per sale

Because they have to.

At present, the vast majority of computer users believe they *need* Microsoft products.

If Android takes off in the way it looks like it will, that belief will rapidly evaporate; users will become used to using an OS that is not Windows, and might well prefer it.

There goes one of Microsoft's big cash cows: Windows. That's a big chunk of revenue gone.

But it gets worse. If people start using non-Windows OSes on the desktop, what will MS do with Office? Port it to Linux?

If they don't, people will stop using Office. That's Microsoft's other big cash cow gone.

Allowing Linux to survive means a huge drop in revenue for Microsoft - and might even lead to a terminal decline. Microsoft has to kill Linux to survive. And at the moment, that means killing Android.

Vic.

@Mark 65

> Point still stands.

No, it doesn't.

> You cannot take someone to court saying that they "infringed

> something" without stating what that something is

But they haven't.

They've threatened Samsung. They haven't threatened us. That means they have no obligation to tell *us* what the alleged infringements are - even if we want them to.

Samsung could tell us, of course - but it is standard Microsoft practice to require an NDA as part of the deal, so if they did tell us, they would no longer have the option of paying the Danegeld.

Whilst I would rather like them to take the "publish and be damned" approach, I don't have that sort of control over Samsung...

Vic.

UK will obey Euro unisex-insurance rules from 2013

Re: Fair's fair..

> they are statistically safer drivers.

No they aren't. They are a lower statistical risk to the insurance company.

There are several explanations for that which have nothing to do with safer driving...

Vic.

Oooh look - some sexism.

> she is unlikely to drop it two cogs and try and race you

You have no evidence to support that.

My own experience[1] is that women may take being overtaken by a car with better grace, but are far more likely to react with overt aggreession when passed by a bicycle or motorcycle. I cycle to work at the moment, and it's always the women that try to take me off for having the temerity to try to get through a traffic jam they can't...

Vic.

[1] ...Which has no statistical significance, of course...

Re:Lawyers are the problem

> Direct Line for example swung around £450 million

There might be a number of reasons for that.

I got a quote from Direct Line a few months back. it was almost exactly *double* the price I actually paid, for the same level of cover...

Vic.

Re: Statistically prejudiced

> Add as much margin as you can get away with.

There's definitely somerthnig in that.

I recently rang up for an insurance quote. I was asked whether I'd had any other quotes - I said I had, and told them what it was.

The new quote was, miraculously, a little cheaper than my previous quote.

I neglected to let on that the previous quote was from the same company...

Vic.

Glasgow cammer not thrown in slammer

Re: Cam vids are rubbish anyway

> How can you steal a copyright?

You can't.

But they are trying hard to conflate copyright infringement with theft so as to have a greater impact - even though it is entirely misleading.

That propaganda bit at the beginning of DVDs really winds me up. They make a big fuss about "you wouldn't steal a car" (etc.), and that's true - but copying a film is not theft as described in the Theft Act 1968, so the statement is irrelevant. They make a big deal about "piracy is a crime" - and that, too, is true. Piracy is a crime of violence on the high seas, but it has nothnig whatsoever to do with copyright infringement.

Breaching copyright is an offence, but it is not theft, nor is it piracy. It is only a crime if committed in a commercial context. But FACT et al. find it necessary to mix these ideas up into something that seems to imply - but never actually states - that copyright infringement is some sort of uber-crime that funds terrorism and leads inexorably to Class A drug abuse. The cocks.

Vic.

Microsoft bags two more Android patent deals

Re: Why not go after Google

> Nobody who owns a patent wants you to stop making mnoey

That is incorrect.

The patent system might have been set up so as to permit inventors to benefit from other implementations of their invention, but it is currently being used as a way to prevent others from shipping anything.

Just look at the number of times Microsoft has rattled the patent sabre in relation to Linux; they are trying to kill the product. If they had anything concrete, they might even succeed in certain jurisdictions - but if they had anything concrete, they'd have shown it to the world, rather than relying on FUD...

Vic.

Re: Well in fact

> ... then I could actually be liable for copying.

This is not true.

If you take your own photograph, the copyright is yours - however similar it might look to someone else's. An attempt to sue your for copyright infringement would necessarily fail[1].

> The American system has allowed the IT industry to go patent loopy

Indeed it has. But patents and copyrights are very different animals.

Vic.

[1] In the US, of course, that doesn't actually mean you'd survive such an attempt. US justice is cripplingly expensive even when you win.

Re: Explain to me...

> But I get sued for the copyright infringement of the parts?

No.

This is about *patents*. Not copyright.

> If *Android* is the problem

We don't know that it is.

All we know is that MS are targetting certain implementations of their competitor's system. Until and unless one of the defendants spills the beans on what they're being sued over, we can only guess at what their beef is.

Vic.

RE: Great, more FUD

> The fact that - so far - just about every vendor has coughed up quickly

> implies M$ has a good case

It does no such thing.

What it implies is that the US legal system is tilted in favour of patent owners and that it is cripplingly expensive to fight and win a case.

A company paying the Danegeld says nothing about the validity of any patents - it's just cheaper to pay off the trolls than to fight for what is right.

Vic.

If Florian points it out, you know it's nonsense.

> What's curious ... is that these three companies are not exactly the biggest OEMs

It's not at all curious. It's exactly the same process that every racketeer has followed since the dawn of time.

You start off picking on those that can't fight back. This gives you momentum - you've got the resource you get from the small-fry paying his protection money, and you've got the FUD from clueless commentators who think there might be smoe legitimacy in such action.

Only after you've got enough of those under your belt do you have a chance of frightening the real players into settling; before that, you'd be wiped out.

If Micrososft really had a case against Android, they'd tell us what it is - in public, with facts instead of innuendo. It would wipe out Android overnight, leaving them to clean up in what remains of the market.

Microsoft's silence is deafening...

vic.

Magnificent Moon mountain sunrise caught on camera

Re: Ephemeral

> Doesn't stuff like this ("being a mere 110 million years old") make you feel

> ever-so-ever-so small sometimes?

Don't go anywhere enar small pieces of fairy cake if it does...

Vic.

[I seem to be having a HitchHiker day today...]

Spam volumes show massive drop - but why?

@Alan Brown

> most ISPs don't (won't) filter outbound mail

BT does.

They log IP addresses in both directions that send spam, and reject all mail from those addesses.

They do not whitelist their own customers.

Then they rotate their dynamically-assigned customer IP addresses.

I had this callout, you see. My customer couldn't send any email...

Vic.

Re: Junk mail?

> If all users did the same junk mail had ceased to exist long time ago.

Not so.

As a recipient of spam, you have to remember that you are the *product*, not the punter.

Spamming is a third-party service these days; the paying customers are those who want spam sent out, not those misguided idiots who actually buy the worthless tat. And there is no shortage of potential customers - even though most of them don't see themselves as spammers.

I've abandoned several customers who have taken to third-party "marketing" techniques :-(

Vic.

Strike hits police, ICO and the Rev

So the ICO's helpline is down

What effect will that have, then?

A slightly longer delay before they tell you they're going to do fuck all about your complaint anyway?

Vic.

Woman dies of heart attack at own funeral

Re: I'm not dead yet

You're not fooling anyone, you know.

Vic.

Nokia's Windows phone outed on video

Elop...

> Elop is obviously biased towards throwing out the baby with the bath

But be fair to the man. Both baby and bath might be gone, but he *is* keeping most of the bathwater...

Vic.

Alleged LulzSec hacker still inside

Is that so?

> its clear he is a major participant.

How is it clear?

All we have so far is allegations. Until and unless he is proven guilty, his level of participation remains nothing more than speculation.

Vic.