Posts by Neil Cooper

Sitting down all day is killing you

Re: The Truth About Exercise

Sorry but I believe in equality.

Chivalry is a name women use to get you to do things for them.

I'd give anyone my seat if I can see they have a need greater than me.

But not just because they have a vagina.

FAA mulls scrapping in-flight iPad, Kindle ban

Re: while flying a friend down to Gloucester

Your Piper Warrior was newer than most commercial airline aircraft.

Most airlines are still using planes like 737's built in the 70's, that have just undergone a few refits.

Windows 8: Thrown into a multi-tasking mosh pit

Re: So many words...

Its not like this one-at-a-time thing is a new concept.. Microsoft had a world-leading product out a while back that demonstrated this. What was it called now? oh yeah... MS-DOS.

Boffing boffins create 3D map of orgasmic female brain

>> the team then monitored activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for planning and abstract thought. Previous similar research on women found little evidence of brain activity here during orgasm,

....Or any other time.

There fixed it for ya.

Amazon's new Kindle Fire stripped naked

Amazon FAIL doesn;t even match up to a Nook 1

so wait... if the fire only has about 6GB local storage for both apps and media, then most of your media etc has to be in the cloud....and the only connectivity the Fire has is Wi-fi (no 3G) then this means you can't access your media unless you're in range of an open hotspot which aren't exactly common.

Also it doesn't have user-replaceable battery?

FAIL.

I'll stick with my 2 year old Nook 1 thanks. It has user-replaceable batteries (In stock at any B&N), (free) 3G wireless so I can get to the ebook store so I can purchase and download ebooks no matter where I am. It also has and SD card slot (2 actually if you dig around) so I already have 18GB of storage space (2GB built in + 16gb card) but could go upto a whopping 64GB.

Star Wars 3D holo displays becomes a reality

Its causing plasma excitation of oxygen an nitrogen, which would cause nasty things(tm) (ions, gasses) to be released that you wouldn't want in your home.

That being said, they could improve this a lot by using an infra-red laser instead of a green one, so that you only saw the excited plasma (image) and not the beam itself scanning.

Steve Jobs: The Movie in the works

>> Do you think Bill G will get the same when he snuffs it?

I'm sure he will, and maybe even more so.

I mean judging by the way Jobs has been elevated way past reality, its clear Americans have no memory and judge people's character entirely by their current wealth, totally ignoring anything else including the evil methods they used.

Deduplication: a power-hungry way to streamline storage

I prefer byte-level deduplication.

>> Deduplication can be done at the file level, the block level or the byte level. File and block level are the most common.

I prefer byte-level deduplication. You can store *everything* on a 256 byte disk drive.

Pandemonium as Microsoft AV nukes Chrome browser

>> Its impossible to prevent virusses on the OS level these days.

You're very wrong. Especially if you're talking about virusses that get in through the browser.

Windows especially sucks at security. Consider running a browser in a sandbox under an OS that properly implements permissions like Linux. . Even the most virulent website wouldn't have a hope of being able to infect your OS.

Yes because its way over-complicated so the chances of getting it configured properly are lower. Also Windows is installed with settings that are by default insecure. So you have a ton of work ahead of you even if you understand all that stuff.

The whole Windows model is fundamentally insecure, partly as a result of Microsoft software architects getting away with making stupid design decisions, and partly because windows was originally never meant to be an OS itself, let alone a professional multi-user environment. Consequently it still has many stupid legacy issues in its design.

Such as, mechanisms like the registry and the fact that when you install apps they can and usually do put stuff into the Win32 directory, No 'proper' OS would have a model where just installing user applications extends the Operating System itself.

Microsoft's high-risk Windows 8 .NET switch

Article does a great job of detailing more reasons to migrate to linux

They clearly succeeded in turning Windows 8's internals into even more of a dog's dinner.

Marriage makes women get fat, divorce does same to men

Married wome DO get exercise

trouble is, its just the muscles that they use for sitting at home, phoning, texting, nagging, and buying stuff with credit cards.

Nokia snubs UK with N9

Elop is clueless

Elop's commitment to Windows is alone enough to tell you how clueless he is.

World's biggest ad agency keelhauls 2000 'pirate' sites

Fantastic news!

They are voluntarily removing their bullshit advertising from even harmless and legal sites!

GroupM's amazing cluelessness is fantastic news for internet users.

German prangs dad's £275k supercar

What a moron

I mean the father, for not being able to guess what would happen if he let a teenager drive such a car.

Mexican woman gets litigious on Top Gear's ass

I'll take Clarkson

@sceptical bastard

>> would you rather be stuck in a pub with a 30-year-old female jewellery designer or Jeremy Clarkson?

I'd opt for Clarkson every time. Being stuck with some vacuous bimbo would drive me nuts. Clarkson would be great for a chat and a laugh.

To be honest, I laughed at the Mexican comments but also inwardly flinched, especially as he said no mexicans would sue... that seemed to be a blatant dare.

Google acquires DRM henchmen with Widevine buy

Finally Linux Netflix?

I hope this means Netflix will finally be driven to provide Linux support for their streaming, as they certainly seem to be actively avoiding providing Linux support themselves.

FInally Linux Netflix?

I hope this means that finally Netflix will get driven to provide Linux compatible streaming, as they certainly appear to be actively avoiding providing Linux support themselves.

'Beauty with antimatter bottom' created out of pure energy

I did it!

I just created a fugly!

Seagate preloads FreeAgent Go with 20 Paramount movies

huh?

Whats your point? This is about external drives for PCs. The palm pre has a 320x480 pixel screen. Hardly hi-def is it?

If you showed the same movie file on a PC it would look awful.

News update: movie industry still too greedy

10 bucks to unlock an already-delivered movie is ridiculous. I cant imagine any one with any intelligence paying for that, (which means many people probably would).

$2 is a realistic price, given one can rent (and rip) a DVD from netflix for around that.

I really like the proposed idea of them selling a large drive with locked movies and charging little or nothing for the drive itself. I would buy multiple drives if they did that. Of course I would just reformat the drive as soon as I got it and fill it with something actually useful.

Don't blame Willy the Mailboy for software security flaws

the problem is....

After 30 years as a developer I know for a fact that programming is a complex creative process, and to do it well requires skill, discipline and experience. I also know that that nearly all managers at the level that sets corporate policy have 0 technical understanding and usually don't actually understand the tech in their own products. Even though they work in a high-tech industry they usually only have a business degree or MBA.

Consequently most managers all make the same mistakes. Its like their MBA school removed their brain and replaced it with a single rule to try and reduce everything down to a single simple process then hire cheap labor to perform it. They are completely oblivious that programming is a skilled and creative art producing one-offs, not a production line banging out multiple exact copies of the same thing. They've only ever learnt one management approach and they're hell-bent to apply it, regardless of its fundamental unsuitability in this environment. When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

Consequently because they dont understand programming they also have no clue about the skills it requries, so they repeatedly employ underskilled people to perform complex programming work because they are cheaper up front, regardless of the actual damage and extra rework these people cause. Management always totally ignore money they can't directly account for, so the damage one incompetent programmer can do to a code baseline is never an issue because its invisible to the bean-counters as they can't calculate it up-front.

Unfortunately it seems nothing will ever change because the incompetent managers will never fire themselves. If anything ive noticed that over the 30 years I've been working as a developer managers are more blinkered than ever so the trend is getting worse.

Beer because its the only way out for developers.

Nerd alert: First Lucid Lynx Ubuntu beta fun

Please stop copying lame windows ideas

All the obligatory integrated music store crap in Windows is one of the big reasons I use Ubuntu. Imagine my disappointment to read that some stupid teenage-minded marketing droid thinks its a good idea to drag all this moronic bloatware over to my favourite distro. I mean what the F has all this crapware got to do with an operating system?

I really hope they packed this crap up sensibly so for us grown-ups that want a professional system, it is easily uninstallable without ripping chunks of necessary functionality out too. Perhaps its time to find another distro if Ubuntu is going down the same path as Microsoft, Apple et al that everyone necessarily must be an ipod-addicted facebook junkie.

Blunkett: 'The dog howls when I whip out my ID card!'

Blunkett is clueless

Sorry but I think that reducing the sentence for cannabis is incredibly stupid and is just one more confirmation of what a clueless halfwit Blunkett is. The system has clearly failed if someone like him can get any kind of responsibility.

Its beyond doubt that cannabis does physical damage to your brain, not to mention that just smoking (anything) is bad for you anyway. I've got several of pot-smoking friends and they all admit that their memory has been noticeably degraded directly because of it.

Its already a problem for me that my kid is growing up in a world were that the myth that cannabis is safe is being widely promoted by misinformed potheads. The last thing I need is the law sending factually wrong messages too.

Dell bars Win 7 refunds from Linux lovers

Make the lost sales visible.

Phone Dell and begin to place an order. Get some way into it then tell them that you will only buy the laptop if they can supply it without Windows, and with the appropriate price discount to reflect that. Walk away if/when they say they can't do that.

If you do this, they will actually have visibility of lost sales due to their fucktardness. If enough people do this, they will have to take notice.

Female porn director turned pol grabs Kent by the ballots

Another radical

She sounds like a radical feminist. Not really the sort of person that would make a well-balanced politician.

There's no such thing as 'positive' discrimination.

Ubisoft undone by anti-DRM DDoS storm

There needs to be a law against this

There needs to be a law to stop publishers preventing fair use of something customers have already bought and paid for.

The law should ensure that all products should have very clear labelling about its particular DRM and all its limitations, including specifying the number of years of guaranteed availability of the DRM server.

The law needs to to protect customers who bought some software but cant use it because the DRM is unfairly stopping them.

Many DRM schemes only let you install software a very low set number of times then refuses to work. This is a terrible abuse of rights.

Also when the publisher arbitrarily decides to turn the DRM server off because the product is old, where are customers rights then?.

'Negatively strange' antihypermatter made out of gold

I'll take a bag of assorted Negatively strange antihypernucleic antimatter please

ummm....so what can we actually _do_ with this?

...and where's the Paris angle?

Experts reboot list of 25 most dangerous coding errors

Ridiculous use of the word dangerous.

Lol.. this article lists a bug that allows cross-site-scripting as the most _dangerous_ coding error.

I work as a software developer on avionics systems. Some girlie little website bug is never going to be considered even slightly dangerous compared to what we can screw up.

Note to Captain Kirk: Warp speed will kill you

dude

Dude its obvious. They must have the shields up when travelling at warp speeds.

PHPers prefer Windows desktop to Linux

Website "programmers"

Just goes to confirm that anyone just doing website stuff isn't a real programmer. :-)

Women face 'glass cliff' after breaking glass ceiling

Glass cliff is baloney

This article is ridiculous. It is hard to for anyone to get promoted into very high office, men too. Deal with it. You women don't think men face exactly the same issues?

The fact is, many women aren't happy with just equality, they expect preferential treatment.

Paris because she made it through the glass ceiling with no skills at all.

Medion E54009 touch monitor

Loss of screen height?

Uhh... no theres no loss of screen height, there's just a gain in extra width.

You want more screen height simple, just get a bigger monitor.

I for one welcome 16:9 and can't wait until you cant even buy 4:3 anything any more so that we can finally standardise. I hate the fact that some cable channels even now still only broadcast in 4:3, even when they air originally widescreen content.

4:3 does and always did suck, especially for computer desktops. I could never go back.

Microsoft predicts Linux will fail mobile 'quality' test

Typical Microsoft FUD

Sorry but just in terms of absolute quality of Linux and any Microsoft product at all, I don't think Microsoft has a chance.

The thing that repeatedly sells Microsoft products is a very powerful marketing machine that has successfully managed to keep hype over substance in the public eye for years. Product quality has become irrelevant at Microsoft.

Unfortunately John Q Public still thinks Microsoft products must be the best, just because Windows and XBoxes are so ubiquitous. Anybody with any real experience of equivalent tech made by anyone else (e.g. Apple, Linux, Sony, Nintendo ) knows that Microsoft's products always suck in comparison when it comes to actual use.

US judge rules quadriplegic can bear arms

What the hell is up with these sickos?

Bloody self-centred Americans. What the hell is up with these sickos that actually feel pleasure when killing God's innocent and beautiful creatures?

We should be able to hunt them so they can see how he feels to be at the other end of a gun.

Loud sex a human right, says loud sex woman

If I was her neighbour

Sorry I just don't buy the fact that she really has to scream her head off during sex, and nor can she control it.

If I was her neighbour I spend a week or 2 waiting in silence until 2am then putting my stereo on full blast and start using power tools to do all sorts of projects coincidentally most of which would be to the adjoining wall.

When she complains I'd say that I couldnt control my urge to do DIY at 2am, and besides its in my house. See how she likes it when she's the one being woken up.

Brooke Shields pic exposes real/online rift

Protection of children

Firstly let me state clearly that I don't agree with child porn or child exploitation in any way.

That said, as Ms Sheilds is currently over 40 years old (i.e. not a child), and also a figure who intentionally puts themselves in the public eye to make money, and also probably herself is allowing this to be shown, what child are we actually protecting here by banning this art under the child protection act?

IBM Linux chief: Chasing desktop Windows a 'dead-end'

Linux just works

>>> "Most people say, 'I don't want to be bothered. It just works.

Yeah, Same for me. Thats why I switched to Linux as my desktop and have never looked back.

One day I just got totally fed up with all the endless Microsoft annoyances that other people are so used to living with they dont even see them any more. Not that Linux doesnt have its own problems, but once you're set up, Ubuntu is a whole lot more usable, more powerful, and much friendler than Windows, especially Vista.

Lexus planning compact e-car?

IT wont look like that

Just imagine that picture without the cool wheels, a lot higher roofline, and a less raked windshield. All of a sudden it looks like every other car on the road, and thats also inevitably what the final car will acutally look like.

The car designer makes something look new and cool that everyone would want, then the stupid marketing people sanitize all traces of style, individualism and desireability right back out. They will probably add a few of the most ugly styling cues of the Prius just so it shouts "Hybrid" too.

Honda Insight five-door hybrid

Damn

Damn thats one boring-looking car.

Its not even creative. They obviously stole most of the ugliest styling points from the Prius (like the back) too.

Space freighter flipped to manual for ISS dock

hell of a waste

Seems a hell of a waste to just use the thing as a trash can and let it burn up on re-entry.

Microsoft to offer Windows 7 downgrade to XP

To Author: Please use correct terminology

Microsoft's response to allegations that Vista sucks has been to try and redefine English rather than actually fix the software.

The word "Upgrade" actually means a move that improves the general situation, such as adding extra functionality or usability. It absolutely does NOT, and never has meant just a move to something more recent regardless how bad it is.

Since XP, Microsoft have added many artificial limitations to Windows to prevent the user from accessing the hardware features of their own PC. Extra limitations like DRM and other "in your face" annoyances like UAC prevent the user from doing things that can actually be done straightforwardly in XP.

Consequently, moving TO Vista or Windows 7 FROM XP is clearly and logically a DOWNGRADE.

Moving FROM Vista/Windows 7 To XP is consequently an UPGRADE.

In future please use this correct terminology in all your articles.

Amazon waves DMCA in Kindle channel lock-down

No Kindle for me.

I've got a new resolution in my life. I don't buy products that weren't designed with usability and the puchaser/end-user's needs and rights being the most important factor.

I just don't buy anything with DRM or vendor lock-in or artificial limitations on functionality there to force a particular business model on us.

I probably would have bought a Kindle by now if it could just display what I gave it.

Thats $350 of my money Amazon will never get, solely because of their stupid DRM corporate-greed mentality.

Paris because even she is smarter than Amazon/Kindle's marketing dept.

What's next for Microsoft's Flight Sim partners?

FSX isn't good, honest.

As a pilot who has flown several of the real aircraft modelled in Microsoft FSX I have to say how bad the flight model is. If a real cessna was even slightly as twitchy and uncontrollable as the one in FSX then very few trainee pilots would still be alive, let alone have ever graduated with a licence.

I've owned and/or tried several other PC-based flight sims and none of them felt as unrealistic as FSX.

For something so long in development and with such a big customer base you'd think they'd have managed to get it right by now, or even approximately close anyway. This seems to be a fundamental truth of most Microsoft products actually.

Windows 7 early promise: Passes the Vista test

Expert mode

They need to have a user-selectable "expert" mode so that users who say they are experts don't get all the crap that vista introduced like extra warnings for the simp[lest of operations like the multiple braindead dialogs you have to OK multiple times when you copy/merge folders.

...and whats up with Vista leaving an empty version of the folder behind when you move a folder somewhere else that has a folder with the same name already? Thats just f****'d up.

BBC clarifies location of England

Judging by where the dot is...

It looks like England is somewhere near Kidderminster.

Judge traps RealDVD in legal limbo

Meh. Good riddance to it.

Honestly, good riddance to it. IMHO all DRM is bad.

There so many free ways to rip DVDs and remove all DRM at the same time, why would anyone pay good money for something that adds even more DRM, or even care what happens to such a product?

Obama: McCain can't email, remembers Rubik's Cubes

Americas broken system

Its so scary that McCain can be so complacent to remain ignorant of even fundamental global advances like personal computing and the internet, yet the most powerful country in the world might still empower him to make key decisions that directly affect billions of peoples lives.

Vote for Paris because she is all over the internet.

Microsoft's Vista push probed by Fair Trade Commission

@Chris

Chris you wrote:

>> IMO, it's just like saying to Intel "Hey, we don't want these Core 2 CPUs, you're using your position to push these onto us, we want to continue to use Pentium 4 chips instead!!" I do think the downgrade rights should be more lenient (you can only downgrade to XP Pro, and only if you're running Vista Business or Ultimate),

Wrong. Your analogy is exactly the opposite of whats actually happening. Unlike most people have realised already, You have yet to also make the connection that no matter what Microsoft like to pretend, Vista is actually a downgrade to XP.

Your analogy should be more like:

Intel releases a pentium 4 as a new product to replace Core 2, except that now each time the user wants to run a program the P4 has to tell intel what the user is doing and get permission from intel first before it will actually do it. Then Intel stop selling Core2's and make those already out there not work as fast by using some built-in remote control. (read: Windows update).

Obama bloats Vista by 11MB

I can't help but think that

I can't help but think that Microsoft often use Windows Update to push what appears to be some trivial fix from the description that is actually is something way more complex or even sinister.

I mean think about it, they obviously don't want to tell you beforehand that they're just about to apply some update that shoots the user in the ass some more, e.g. applies more DRM, does more phone home stuff or updates/opens some backdoor for MS or the CIA to quietly access your PC with.

They also may just not want to admit to the world just how much they have to fix all the time.