Posts by E_Nigma

Intel papers over remote attack chip flaws ahead of demo

The power of press

While AMD was given all that hell over their infamous TLB bug, zero consequences for Intel.

Gordon Brown's secret life as network admin

grammar

AC, I'm all rusty, but I think "its" is a possessive determiner, like "his" or "her" and that's why it doesn't have an apostrophe. God, I'm going to have to take some lessons. Though it could be fun, my gf is an English professor. :D

Plods say it's OK for them give out your DNA

@James

It isn't that simple. Often, more than one DNA trace can be found at a crime scene, such as the ones belonging to the victim or people that have recently been there (especially if it's a public place), which would give a number of false positives if everyone were in the database. And a careful villain that had planned his crime probably hadn't left the trace.

I beg your pardon, mr Plod!

How does it help solve crime (find culprits) if "these profiles are completely anonymous and are not identifiable in any way"?!

Paris, because that's that they take us for!

Yahoo! vows freedom for DRM prisoners

I feel sorry for Yahoo

They do seem like a company that tries to do things right, I wish them well in these turbulent times.

Site guesses your sex via age-old web flaw

@Maya

Would you like to trade some gender points with me?

Almost there...

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 57%

Likelihood of you being MALE is 43%

I thought that, this being my computer at work, it couldn't miss with sites like El Reg and a bunch of technical sites (no porn, though), but Gmail had me nailed. :D

Although, I must admit that a friend psychologist told me that, according to Bem's scale, I am mostly feminine.

Doctors: Third babies are the same as patio heaters

I wonder how thick glasses these people use...

... because they are awfully shortsighted. There's a reason why we need a certain slightly positive population growth rate - otherwise we turn into a nation of old people with relatively few workers who have to produce for all.

Cannibal's legal objection hamstrings German horror film

WTF?!?!?!

A film got banned because it offended ONE person?! And that's because that man didn't find the way it depicts an act similar to the one that got him convicted for murder flattering?! What's next? Ban all films, books and plays in which murder, rape and robbery look bad? There seems to be so little common sense in the legal systems worldwide nowadays. :(

Paris, because she's not offended by films depicting acts similar to hers.

If your SSD sucks, blame Vista, says SSD vendor

SSDs aren't a lot oh things makers make us believe

Many of the current SSDs have MLCs, and this automatically means slower transfer speeds, higher power consumption and lower cell endurance than when single-level cell memory is used and then what SSDs "should" be like (what manufacturers try to make us think they are like).

SSDs can also be more sensitive to magnetic fields and electric or static charges than HDDs. And, unbelievable as it may seem, they can even cut the battery life of your laptop (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hard-drive,1968-11.html).

So, while the way OSes use drives may have something to do with how they perform (though random writes are their weakest point and regular HDDs are also slower at performing random operations then when doing sequential ones), the cruel truth is that current SSDs don't live up to the hype simply because they can't.

Baptist church in assault rifle giveaway

Dear Allan

The fact that some practice is legal in a country does not mean that it is right, even less that it is not subject to debate. A lot of things were just fine in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, for example.

And there are several things that can be argued about here. Some of them, in no particular order are:

- giving guns to young people;

- a religious organization giving away valuable things as a means of attracting young people;

- guns being given away by a religious organization whose top values ought to be love and mercifulness.

Sun unfolds 1TB of tape

@Trygve Henriksen

3TB of .jpg? That's a lot of porn!

Reg readers kickstart WiReD UK recovery

Vader Rules!

Having seen the cover with Darth Vader, his posture above all, and having read the "Killing subordinates increased competence in minions" made me and my friend/coworker laugh out loud, true "CEO of the year" stuff!

BOFH: The admin gene

WHOA!

Damn, the lights didn't just flicker this very moment, they went off for a split of second!

Anyway, I passed the preliminary test as I sensed that electrified doorknob a mile away, but I'll see how I'll do on my computer networks test tomorrow morning...

El Reg procures OGC mousemat

@Natalie

No, as it is, it's the best value from the spending.

P.S. It took me quite awhile to realize what's so funny about that mouse pad. I must be getting blonde.

Asda declares baby's arse 'pornographic'

Hmm...

Maybe they just wanted to save the guy some embarrassment?

Spain plans 'human rights' for great apes

New Prospects

Maybe they'll get the right to run for office! :D But seriously, Isn't killing and torturing animals already illegal?! Seems like a rather redundant law.

UK clamps down on bus-spotting terror menace

@Gerry

I was just twisting the guys words a bit (joking). :)

And no, I haven't heard about that doctor. It's sad that there would be a bunch of people who would know what a paedophile was, and not know what's a paediatrician. :( Plus it makes you wander were do they live, if you were a child until recently, you went to a paediatrician, and if you have children of your own, you take them to see one, right?

A very non-PC joke ahead:

What is the difference between paedophiles and paediatricians?

- Paedophiles really love children.

Gotcha!

"I can deal with the fact someone might think I'm a terrorist, but when they start saying you're a paedophile it really hurts."

So, McCaffrey, you find the thought of yourself being a terrorist bearable? Sounds like they've got the right guy after all.

BOFH: The all-clicking, all-whirring Roboboss

Heh

"Coincidences abound." LOL! Someone isn't answering the phone and you still managed to make me laugh. But I'm back to being blue so pour (type) me another one, will you?

Devil dog laughs in the face of Taser

Cops Are Becoming Taser and Trigger-Happy

The thing is that we don't have enough information. Why did the cops stop the boy and try to detain his dog in the first place? Had anyone been attacked, I guess it would have been reported, so that shouldn't be it. Also, had any of them really been bitten, that one would have needed medical treatment, which means that that didn't happen either. So what did the poor creature do? Piss on someone's boot?!

Could pen-sized GPS jammers paralyse UK shipping?

Offtopic

Sorry about going offtopic, I skimmed through the "Mindprobing" article you linked to which says: "New Scientist reports that this is already done by specially-trained human screeners, but that's too manpower-intensive and time consuming for widespread use."

That's not new at all, and it's done outside of the US too. Years ago, an elderly lady (my English professor) told me how she was taken aside on an international airport and questioned because, as she found out, it was noticed by the specialized staff that she was "too excited". And no, she didn't have any explosive devices or drugs, she was just visiting her sister who lived abroad.

MPs urge action as spooky caller ID-faking services hit UK

Awful, but there should be a simple solution

I'm not sure what exactly the law says, but spoofing should be illegal unless the spoofer owns the number it pretends to be calling from.

In other words, a company that owns a certain number may pretend that it calls are coming from it (which covers the desire of a company to have calls from a range of their phones appear to be coming from the same number or call center workers working from home), but some abusive type would not be allowed to call someone else pretending that he's calling from my number.

Apple to charge iPod Touch owners for new OS - again

@Ben

Apart from being rude, you are partially right about both points you made.

The thing is, though, that the product had shipped with quite a few simple and essential features missing or crippled. It WAS natural to assume that those features would be added later via updates, just like it happened with other products from other companies (the several times mentioned Zune, for example). So people bought the (not that cheap) devices believing that they would get that stuff some day and Apple did nothing to say that they were wrong or that they would have to pay extra to be able to search through their contacts (in my opinion, it can be argued that the product WAS shipped unfinished even though Apple charged full price). So there are grounds for displeasure.

Also, reading this may easily make one never want to purchace an Apple product, and those people have full right to express themselves.

Hmm...

Those legal bits are interesting, and perhaps the iPhone guys don't have to pay because of some loophole if their AT&T plan can somehow translate into subscription to Apple but:

- as someone said, if that's the only reason, why isn't the price something like $1;

- how come the people are not charged for firmware updates for other devices when they add functionality? Or OS service packs? If you compare the original XP with XP SP3, there are new features, and we got it all for free.

But I think the law is only a nice excuse for receiving tens of millions of dollars for giving the users the features they should have had from day one, such as ability to search contacts or a calculator that is better than the one on $50 phones (but it still doesn't bring copy/paste?!?!).

Sorry about the double post...

... but I think this is relevant as it supports the point some others and I made (about the Zune firmware updates):

"The very first updates to the firmware added sharing features (send, community, list nearby Zune users) as described in FCC filings. Firmware 1.1 allowed device to inherit sharing capabilities described by codename Pyxis. Early firmwares patched software bugs. Later, the much anticipated 2.2 firmware released from about a year after first generation Zune added support for DVR-MS (Media Center Recorded TV) files, lossless playback, added wireless syncing, and GUI interface improvements."

So there were quite a few features added to the device, and how much was charged? But I guess that a few million units sold times $10 sounded just too tempting to Jobs and co.

Well, that's just Apple being Apple

No matter what they produced, they always charged the consumer through one's nose, and a seasonal $10 OS upgrade that delivers features that ought to have been there in the first place (but not all of them, you know, their devices don't do everything, but they're great at what they do; plus, they have to save something for the next $10 upgrade) is very much like them.

Besuited cubicle monkey trashes office

Got me fooled

I wasn't 100% sure of the authenticity, but I was more inclined towards believing in it. I suppose a real director should be able to make the stuff he films look convincing.

Which One of Us Is It Going to Be?

Me and my colleagues watched this and laughed at "the king" today, and we joked about which one of us is it going to be. And then, about a quarter an hour later, one of them slammed the desk with his fists in frustration, and there was an odd moment of silence in the office...

Life a mess? The Moderatrix can help

Here's a Real One

I've got my first job interview tomorrow, what do I do?

US lag sues over prison crash diet

Hmmm

If he's getting 3000 calories a day he's not starving, but losing 47kg in eight months might not be that healthy either.

Vote now for your fave sci-fi movie quote

No "Luke, I'm your father!" ?!

How could you omit that one? :( Had to settle for "Hasta la vista, baby.", as it is the one I use most often, but I love "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." as well. :D

Software company seeks 'Senior BJ assistant'

What are you doing to my mind?!

I was just reading an another text here ("Security can come cheaply") and I read hookers instead of hackers. Coat, please, gotta find someone to hack up with tonight!

Odeon kicks Rambo in the 'nads

@StopthePropaganda

While films like Rambo have a purpose, and I've enjoyed some similar ones (or the ones about a magic ring, evil killer-robot-governor from the future, etc), your understanding of art as something for the snobs and a real-life replacement is really sad.

Even cavemen liked to paint something on their walls once in awhile and appreciated such things that added beauty to their lives. But modern man often wants nothing but to be entertained, to get something that would help pass the time (the ultimate non-renewable resource one has, but that is an another matter), discarding and despising anything that requires some mental effort to be enjoyed.

Sarko verbal spat proves YouTube hit

What else to expect?

Son of a Hungarian immigrant who gained popularity with his somewhat radical attitude against immigrants, a shorty who, not long after rising to power, abandoned his wife for a model... What do you expect from such a man?! To quote his own most famous words: "Get lost, you stupid bastard!"

Porsche to challenge London CO₂ penalty in court

I hope they win!

The measure really will accomplish nothing (marginal effect on pollution and zero on congestion), except that, apparently, it will get the guy some popularity, which, I believe, was his intention in the first place. I'm rather disappointed as I seem to detect quite a bit of jealousy in some of the comments.

Fire extinguisher resolves German smoking dispute

God knows how and when it started

All the anger and frustration that sometimes piles up inside people in long-term relationships often gets let out over trivial issues.

Also, the woman was extremely rude, as I know a lot of smokers who are very careful about where they smoke in their own homes. But they are both idiots for their behavior, and I must say I wish that they stayed together: the two of them will probably be bugging some other people pretty soon.

Paris for the two (probably) blond Germans (and because I'd extinguish her).

Parent power pulls Woolworth's 'Lolita' kiddies' bed

Dear John...

Where on Earth did you find that dictionary entry?! The phonetic transcription does not follow any known standard. Also, the pronunciation is incorrect and the definition looks like it has been copy-pasted from one of "their" (as you referred to the people who were concerned about the name of the bed) posts. Here's what a proper (Merriam Webster's) dictionary says:

Lo·li·ta \lō-'lē-tə\ n [fr. Lolita, character in the novel Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov] (1959) : a precociously seductive girl

It's similar, but not quite as bad. And once again, I agree, not a best choice of name for a little girls bed, but when "they" started talking about this being an encouragement for the "pedophile community", they lost me.

Another thing, concerning raising children. You said "the day my daughter gets to dress like a Ho is when she is 18". Well, if that happens to be the case, you failed as a parent in my opinion. Being a parent is not about making your child behave properly until it turns 18 by simply maintaining a tight grip on it and then washing one's hands and saying "I've done my job, it's out of my hands now", but about making a decent person for life out of it by teaching it the proper values.

Another Pile of Poo

Who cares about the name?! It may have not been the best pick, but how does it influence anything? I guess that there's a need to have something easier to remember than R2D2C3P0 printed in the catalog, but past that stage... Does anyone remember the names of the models of furniture they own? C'mon, don't be shy, who's sleeping on top of Sarah every night? lol But I guess that that website whose editor started all this got a bunch of hits lately, therefore - IT.

P.S. Fartfull, that made my day!

ABC fined $1.43m for NYPD Blue a*se flash

Why Stop There?!

I think they should have fined them more! The TV viewers saw an arse, but God knows what horrors that innocent boy who appeared in the scene had to endure! // I am not serious about this, of course, but I will be in the next paragraph.

So... when we're in the shower bare bottomed, there's something sexual or excretory natured going on? Why is it damaging for a child to see a naked human body? And more to the point in this case, a kid may not understand sex, but we are all naked in the shower and I can't see how confusing and harmful can it be to see a quite natural act a child is already familiar with.