Posts by I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

IBM fills chips with water

> Also what is this number in ergs per cubit?

3.76284 penguins.

EC slaps Becta complaint on the Microsoft evidence pile

It's not the Microsoft standard

It's the ISO standard. Microsoft doesn't adhere to it it just paid for it. But it was the respective respected bodies in the ISO community that voted for it.

It's a bit like United States American democracy. It works if you have the money and enough reasons. And everything else is bent in secret. The Saudis and Chemical companies may be pulling the strings but it is the failed lawyers that pass the laws.

Microsoft slams OEMs over XP SP3 install cock-up

>Typical MS fragility

That's a joke isn't? They are trying to say that it was a fault of OEMS? I had a computer that wouldn't accept SP 1.

If I'd had some idea this was the problem I'd still be using it and screw the upgrades. An AMD Athlon 1GB chip. Perfectly adequate for my needs.

Bastards!

Good bye AOL tonight and hello Linux tomorrow.

Best Buy eyes up Europe, buys into Carphone Warehouse

> joe_bruin

I read "and explaining electronics" as "and explaining ethics". Having been duped by their total lack of same.

So will Best Buy improve things, deepen the taint or is it much of the same? I can't imagine a clean business wanting to get into bed with a fleabag.

Your personal data just got permanently cached at the US border

Border con trolls.

I think the Mexicans and the Columbians are showing the country the best way its citizens aught to behave at their own borders.

Fly Canadian and Mexican airlines take a trip down country roads. It should provide a boost for less invasive companies.

Then Pan Am will get their pet governors, senators and congressmen to make changes. Be nice to see them subsisting on rendition flights. Make it easier to follow them too.

Now that Boris Johnson may be running London, we have the makings of our own chimp. I wonder if recent events will have pushed the sock puppets further up the monkey's paw.

Oh GOOD GRIEF! Tory B Liar has just come out of the wood-work. What's he doing with Condoleeza Rice?

Dubya archives White House email by hand

> AWOL

American dubyah/ our lot.

Most accident prone bunch of tossers in a ...well ...what was the last lot like...

....I seem to remember a sigh of relief.

Pity that with governments the only opposition is either hypocrisy or warfare. There is no such thing as market forces with it. It's either monopoly or bust. But how do we always manage to pick yet more outrageous losers EVERY time?

Our sock puppets bought peace in Ireland from the scion of the evil sod that started The Troubles a thousand years ago. How about that for a coincidence.

But look what we paid for it: An inheritance that looks set to spread the holy war all through the near east. And there is no stopping it.

Contractor for UK.gov't here---

I once paid taxes to a government that stores all its data in CDs in a mailbag somewhere, hopefully on British territory.

Plasma TV components applied to password cracking

> Kanhef

How big are networks?

Astroboffins moot massive Moon-mirror heliograph

@ Gordon Pryra & others.

Get a grip. Telling ET we live on the moon will make them fear us and keep them away.

Once they realise that evolution is a practicable mechanism and that sentient beings can accidentally occur and that they can live on a desert without an atmosphere that has absolutely no heat moderation, their lives will be over.

Microsoft snags Google-thrashing data pioneer

From the earlier article

"The almost complete lack of support for the view put forward by DeWitt and Stonebraker suggests they might well have misunderstood MapReduce's role in modern data processing.

Given the eminent background of both academics, though, this is surprising. DeWitt has researched large parallel DBMS since the 1980s and, in addition to his pioneering work on Ingres and Postgres, Stonebraker is currently active in the large DBMS area with his new company Vertica."

So that was one giant step for Microsoft? One small step back in amazement?

Saudi blogger freed from prison after four months

Insert tit here.

I'm all in favour of assassination.

If the United States of Americans can get away with it, why not introduce it here too? They control out puppets after all. What harm can it do?

'We could wake up smarter' - Ballmer hints at Win XP reprieve

Relative Values.

Given the rumoured $10B that vista cost, it is hopefully a lesson that MS won't forget in a hurry.

So how much did it cost to run Bletchley Park over a similar time period:

Current data is only available till 2006. In 2006, £10 0s 0d from 1943 was worth:

£309.05 using the retail price index

£334.63 using the GDP deflator

£985.32 using the average earnings

£1,037.88 using the per capita GDP

£1,287.70 using the share of GDP

http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php?use%5B%5D=CPI&use%5B%5D=DEFIND&use%5B%5D=WAGE&use%5B%5D=GDPCP&use%5B%5D=GDPC&year_early=1943&pound71=10&shilling71=&pence71=&amount=10&year_source=1943&year_result=2008

paying 7766 people £10 a week to work there would have cost ten million pounds at an exchange rate of £1 in today's money to £128:15:6d.

For 5 years that is a bill of £19,415,000.

I have no idea how much they earned but some would have beenon senior college staff wages and some on senior civil servant's wages which I am guessing is about the same.

And some would have been on girl's wages as school leavers. And I have no idea of the numbers involved. A factory worker would have been on good money. They would have had to come close despite any cachet working in an office would bring in those days.

Current data is only available till 2006. In 2006, £19415000 0s 0d from 1943 was worth:

£600,016,360.13 using the retail price index

£649,688,122.50 using the GDP deflator

£1,912,991,719.14 using the average earnings

£2,015,036,809.43 using the per capita GDP

£2,500,076,311.69 using the share of GDP

Two thousand five hundred million pounds.

All of it to be spent in Britain, the ultimate lock in.

Hint hint wink wink nudge nudge.

Revive XP?

That's a joke. XP is all they have. Vista won't cut it and nothing else has got the attraction and the vendor lock-in.

An upgrade to XP -a version with DVD say, would make it out of date. The only attraction XP has for the rest of us is that it isn't Vista or Linux.

Most people view their coming upgrade as a computer that will run Linux, with XP for their games and stuff. MS have not only seen the writing on the wall, they've had it translated to them:

No more lock-ins.

Microsoft could go it alone without Yahoo!

> huh?

Almost any body hu is anybody in China uses Yahoo. It shows solidarity with the state. Just like Yahoo does.

That's why there are so many Chinese evangelists spamming any non Chinese address they can find. They are spreading the word so that when the People's Republic extends their borders, no-one will notice.

No-one that hasn't looked at a Chinese state forum that is.

OLPC sweet talks Microsoft

You can't educate people you can't reach.

The last thing a poor start-up wants is competition.

And I very much doubt that the XO will have a lock-in format. Maybe a cut down XP after all it doesn't need backward compatibility.

It might actually turn out to be a winner if Microsoft release an XP version that is whip-cracking fast. Might even get it myself.

What is interesting is how quickly Mr Negroponte was excoriated on Groklaw.

Yesterday morning he was still Saint Nicholas.

By the evening he had been excommunicated and was on his way to Tyburn for a ritual disembowelling after a quick bit of hanging.

Canadian man in Taser trouser inferno shocker

Poor he Poor he

He got tazered in the lavatory. Someone came and Yanked his chain. And burned his fizzing out remains.

Oi, where's the IT buttaaargh.. no.. donyyyyyzzznngfh

Were the snatched Brit sailors in 'disputed waters'?

Speaking as an innocent civilian.

"But, in the end, have the Guard got a leg to stand on here? Certainly not. They blatantly invaded Iraqi territory so as to kidnap some hostages for use in trades with the Americans (and rumour has it they achieved at least some of their aims). It was an illegal opportunistic raid, pure and simple."

But, in the end, has the RN got a leg to stand on here?

Certainly not!

They blatantly invaded Iraq to steal oil for use in Britain with the Americans (and rumour has it they achieved at least some of their aims). It was an illegal invasion, pure and simple.

And what the hell respect the Iranians have to pay HM Hydrographer I do not know. Neither do you.

In fact it doesn't seem that you have even considered the matter.

Ballmer bitch slaps Vista

Last past the post

Some fool couldn't wait to be apologist numero uno:

"He should be applauded. It takes real guts to admit you have cocked up. Lets hope they do learn and get rid of a lot of the bloat.

Further more, let's hope a few more out there can admit their kit isn't perfect....highly unlikely I know."

He had 5 years to get this right using the highest paid coders in history -including the comparative staff bill for Bletchley Park when they were doing something less intensive.

He had all the business acumen of every Microsoft most valued arse snuffer too.

Then there was the history his firm has with backwards compatibility from OS 2 days onwards.

So why cross all the "good"? code with all the bad and make the OS the worst debacle in the history of silly things to do with a monopoly?

Pirate Bay-probing cop on Warner Brothers payroll

The secret policeman balls.

How many other policemen have they employed and for what?

What is the gumshoe doing now? He's not in charge of Warnergate I hope.

Google's Great American Wireless Auction 'game' annoys US lawmakers

Open Government

The USA has something that dictatorial regimes do not like: A freedom of information process that works. The government of chimpanzees that have control at the moment don't want anything to further such distribution of freedoms.

But it was canny enough to get someone not too close to home to hurl shit at the fans. Disinformation is a mighty tool when used on the internets. If you can't close them shame on him can't get shamed on again him...

Or something like that..

Virgin Media mops up CEO's 'boll*cks' outburst

Speelapeal.

Why is it that the BBC has to pay for the televising of its produce but expects ISPs to pay for the distribution of its produce?

Something's not right there. There is a bit of a difference between ISP's picking up the tab for web pages as that is what they were in the game for and provisioning for in the first place. A substantial amount of webspace is given to ISP users by ISPs to produce websites in the first place.

I don't see that the heavy goods coming on line these days has to finish up on the same platter. There aught to be a price for it.

Unfortunately the price is that Microsoft is managing to get into bed with all and sundry. What's with the bastards getting on top in the BBC's boudoir?

High Court quashes decision to release secret ID card reports

I Tangle

I can remember the days when computer magazines and sites like the Register concerned themselves with comparisons of computer hardware.

Long articles were about bench tests. Short ones were announcements of forthcoming hardware.

Any mention of security was a slight to Microsoft or the mention of new concerns from software scanners.

Now it's all about the nefarious deeds of politicians and undermenchen like Phorm. What happened to all the crackers? Did they all grow up and get jobs at BT?

Database Trojan infests pro-Tibet websites

Cn sneakers. watches. handbag. you buy.

What will be interesting after the thing has been analysed to death, is how much it resembles other code that has threatened the WWW in times past. Coupled to the speed of issue and the target, it will open a lot of inscrutable curtains.

If it were not for the likes of Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, that damned country would have been blackballed years ago.

US war robots in Iraq 'turned guns' on fleshy comrades

Very friendly fire.

It's about time the stupid bastards started shooting themselves instead if us.

MySpace Music leaves creators cold

Tags

According to something I read on a groklaw comment thread yesterday (In their "Newspick" item I think) there has been a US Federal safety net for independent and mainstream record artists.

Some sort of tag like meta tags (I wasn't paying attention -it was just another swipe ar RIAA) I gather the code is not removable without committing a federal offence. Not that that would stop anyone. But it would allow deep tracking by the NSA or whoever, legally.

Anyway, what musicians aught to do is tell their own managers if they have them, to get organised. No idea how they'd do it. But that aught to be part of their job description.

If the managers got together to form their own online outlets there would be no problems for anyone.

Until the next form of circumvention introduced by pirates.

DHS chief goes nuclear on cyber security

Odd? A chimpanzee is in charge of global security?

I bet General Groves' body has turned critical after nearly 10 years as a cyclone.

Probably vapourised.

How come we don't have a tit icon?

IBM offers 4,000 frequent flyer miles per core to abandon HP

When the chips are up

I noticed that the home groan news has been missed on here whilst in the USA Groklaw noticed that the BBC have climbed into bed with Intel:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7334518.stm

A nice passion killer for the OLPC which, it has to be said, is one of Groklaw's favoured children.

HP and IBM can have at each other to no one's detriment but what the hell is the BBC doing posting this effluent?

It is a carefully worded piece though, that looks like a direct quote from Intel Marketing.

No takers here?

Naomi Campbell banned from BA flights

@ message No 1.

"All incidents of abusive or disruptive behaviour towards fellow passengers or staff are taken extremely seriously and will not be tolerated. We deal with cases on an individual basis and take appropriate action where necessary."

If the appropriate action is to "ban her" does that mean she will get extra special treatment at Terminal 5 or just disappear into thin air like everything else there?

Is it true BA are marketing Soylent Green or it that just a paste to help disperse baggage no longer needed?

In the absence of a more appropriate icon I have used the None icon. I presume that it is there to represent Terminal 5 and such like? (I'm not very happy with its graphics though. But I suppose nothing represents none more graphically?)

Strung out hackers and BBC beanbags

Codding coders for Microsoft?

Is that what this was about?

No serious Linux involvement there then?

Microsoft to Yahoo!: Surrender or else

> Microsoft wiped $6 off their share price

Microsoft wiped $6 off the share price when they forgot to invent a mini OS for diddy laptops.

Fair enough, I only jess seed it meself.

But I am not a company making millions from an OS that is worth less than a Linux distro and selling it for the price of an XO.

$6.oo, that's hardly the real value of an XP OS is it? And it is $7.oo more than the value of a Visa OS (provided the Visa doesn't go down on your files and ruin your company. (Terms and conditions apply.))

Mr. and Mrs. Boring sue Google over Street View pics

Privacy is as privacy does.

Once the djin is out of the bottle you might as well sue the buggers that removed the cork. Maybe go after the other starbuds too!

Make some money at least to pay for the intrusion. Why not.

EC probes OOXML standards-setting process

@Ross@Robert Grant

No, fool!

Half of them is plenty, then if they won't listen to reason we'll unleash the Surge Troopers.

Google cops to puppeting Great American Wireless Auction

Hanging on the wire like son of Chad.

Who is going to make sure that Verucazone don't Tiscali the freeware?

Never mind no Google icons where are the Basic Baggage Handlers code icons?

Brown ignores scientists and pushes pot reclassification

Brain Sugary

Anyone remember the days of Thatcheritism, when the govt decided what to do on the basis of govt advice taken from the Prime Minister?

OK she was supported by a bunch of dimmos who didn't know the difference between a calf and a sheeps' brain. But we all stopped eating meat in those days anyway. (Unless we were ministers for beef products. Or rich.)

Carphone Warehouse stares down BPI and UK.gov on three strikes

No expenses spend.

It sounds like a damage limitations exercise until you get to the paragraph where the world's most badly compromised ISP tried it and lost munee.

I can't see that a penny pinching grabber like crap one whore house will put it's money where it's not going to make even more -and I doubt legality enters their equations except a financial benefit is forseen.

Google lets users take Apps files offline

Open Office anyone?

Google docs clips into Open Office nicely and swaps between one and the other quite nicely if you don't have much data to swap.

It is boarlicks if you do though. Fughe tit!

ISO puts OOXML announcement on ice

Iso Mugabe

Ee by gum, it's a parallel universe where the ISO and the government of Zimbabwe are both holding back the good news.

Strange how it's only the Africans that have been told to buck up. I know why the BSI hasn't had much to say. They are still trying to get their web site ready for Firefox when that browser is launched.

Oi.. wait.. Firefox is on version 3. Wot's goin' on?

Microsoft EULA lands it with $175m Indian tax headache

@Venkat

You mean that US and European companies are really moving to India because it is a growth area they want to get into not it is a growth area they have inspired through dodging taxes?

You will be telling us next that the systematic rape of minorities in oil rich regions of backward countries is really just a Shell game, they don't really mean any harm.

Snitching is less than golden for piracy informers

BSA?

You trying to tell us the boy scouts of America are taking bribes? I don't belieeeeeve it!

Wot no Victor Meldrew icon?

I do believe that! Bloody Register.

Wes M'Coat.

Assyrian clay tablet points to 'Sodom and Gomorrah' asteroid

2@heystoopid

Don't forget the three rules of time travel.

1. Remember to tell your mam not to unplug the extension lead.

2. Make sure the extension lead is long enough.

3. Always design the machine so that you don't have to get off it to use the kick start.

Adobe to remove Photoshop pic pimping clause

BBC

What's so special about Adobe's contract? The BBC have been signing up freetards for years.

And then had the bloody cheek to worry about DRM on their crippleware.

OpenOffice update released

:~D)) @a software engineer for 15 years

Edit > Paste Special > Fields > [TLH corner to select all fields] Choose [from Standard to Text or whatever] > Chose separator [Tab [default] semicolon, space, comma, insert other choice] > Merge Delimiters [if for example there are too many spaces in the data] > OK.

OK?

El Reg reconstructs Heathrow T5 chaos

VVV

WE STILL NEED A T5 ICON

T5 opening turns into Airplane 3.0

MBA @I know why! By Thad

I am now content to murmur. In the background, the cheesy smile, the canny me, no intéresse pas. Now I know the reason. There is a Maggie flying class.

Now I see the steely icon, blue handbag and wavy hair. it's a classic altercation. And Maggie's fingerprints are there.

Margaret's Bag Andlers. Strewf!

We need a T5 V sign AND a blue handbag.

Will that coat fit me?

Anyone?

@Another British Cockup

> By John Imrie

"I wonder if we will get the Olympics right."

Fortunately we will not need to ghetto them via terminate 5.

Besides which, ever since Frank and Jesse Wright circumnavigated The Channel we have been in sore need of something to keep out those dirty johnnie rotters. Just IN time for the Olympics, I'd say.

We might even win a medal this time.

Wot we need now is a Terminator 5 icon. A big V off sign we can wear with pride.

Royalties are the admission price, Microsoft tells freetards

What the fud?

How can you hold a patent secret?

I thought the idea was that you either had a trade secret or an idea that was protected by patent. And that if you were using a clever invention that you didn't want anyone to see or hear about, you dared not get it patented.

Mozilla plugs 10 security holes in Firefox

bad update? @Danny

I just got it too but I thought it was version 3. I swear it said version 3.

Anyway, it works fine for me. I did see some add ons such as the translator and the foreign letters add ons have problems. You might have some add on that you should remove.

UK to fly the flag for OOXML

Govermine

"This is just a rumour but if it turns out to be true, there's a pretty straightforward explanation.

The UK government is heavily invested in MS technology. They're very much in bed with the company."

The problem is one set up by New Labour when Tory B liar was angling for votes. It sounds like Sir William Gates the Third was a party supporter.

All the government computers I have had pointed at me were Windows 2000 machines. I believe that it would cost an arm and a leg to undo everything that went wrong with those early party bribes.

As for the BSI fiasco...

From the article (which seems to have had a deep throated source, no comment from the BSI and no more news on Google News, except the Register's scoop) it seems thatthe committee was padded in the later stages after the dupes in charge invited any interested parties along for the ride.

Leet a deed thy nose.

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Army says farewell to UK's 'bugger-off' airbag drone

Shoddy.

I don't know why we bother with manufacturing things here at all. Why not send it all abroad? I am sure China can supply us with all our needs. They certainly seem capable of keeping us well shod.