* Posts by TimM

205 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Mar 2008

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'Untraceable' phone fraudsters eye your credit card

TimM

Debt management calls

I get loads of these automated calls from services claiming to sort out your debts, press a button to speak to an operator etc, where I'm sure they'll take down plenty of details, credit cards etc. I never answer the calls, but my answer phone sadly gets filled with them.

I can't do anything about it though, even with the Telephone Preference Service, because they all come from International numbers where UK laws have no affect. They are however British accents and clearly targeted at a UK audience.

I can see how some might fall for it too as they spout stuff about government debt schemes which is enough to make some people think it's official.

Wish there was a way to send an electric shock back up the line to callers you object to. Even if it just blows up their damn automated dialler.

Anyway, my answering policy is simple... is the number one I recognise? If yes, then answer, if no or withheld then simply leave it to the answer machine. If they really have a need to speak to you they leave a message. Most don't. That just leaves the damn automated crud.

World's first Blu-ray record pressing

TimM

Final nail in the coffin for SACD then

Well, at least when we get proper high end equipment to play it on. I can't see the audiophiles happy using a PS3 that converts DTS-HD MA to multichannel PCM, even if the converted format is in theory identical.

They'll be waiting for those retro look Blu-Ray players that they can hook up to their valve amps ;)

Apple to launch UK movie downloads

TimM

price

"In the States, the price for a normal standard-definition film is $3.99, I think, and for a HD film, where available, it's $4.99. What will the prices be over here?"

Did you even have to ask?

Of course it will be £3.99 and £4.99. This is the UK after all! £=$.

Trillian blighted by security bug trio

TimM
Joke

Just use a Mac... no, Linux... erm!

What! A security fuss that isn't to do with Microsoft.

Still, surely we can bleat on about Macs and Linux being better can't we?

;-)

Broadband bumpkins overtake city surfers

TimM
Thumb Down

Pointless stats

Rural areas tend to have crap speeds compared to towns. That they have fractionally more broadband take-up is wholly negated by the poor speeds.

There are many out there who are on speeds that barely qualify as broadband. The only real benefit over dial-up to them is not tying up the phone line while surfing.

Though there are many exceptions though and it's quite common also to have dire speeds in towns whilst seemingly not so far from the exchange, especially where the layout of towns results in cables taking a very non-direct route to the exchange.

For rural customers though, stats like these may not be such good news as it just takes the pressure off BT to roll out better broadband.

HP begs AMD PC owners to put XP SP3 on ice

TimM

@JC

Sadly the person I know tried the recommended fix and the result was a 0x00000024 STOP error and effectively a corrupted disc. Recovery console couldn't even see a partition to even attempt to delete the intelppm file!!

For all the gory detail on the possible problems and some workarounds see Jesper's blog...

http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2008/05/08/does-your-amd-based-computer-boot-after-installing-xp-sp3.aspx#7654

Oh, and it's not just HP or AMD. In fact even ATI cards appear to have problems depending on the driver version you have installed.

It's just this hits mostly HP.

TimM

@tuna

What you suggest would involve a non-OEM image, i.e. retail box.

Most people I know who suggest this usually use pirated versions of Windows, which I hope you're not suggesting. Otherwise it's a very costly purchase of Windows retail. Seems daft to do that when you get the OS with the PC.

Where I have an OEM version I do a fresh install from the OEM discs, then remove all the extra bloat added by the OEM (Norton etc), repartition with something like Partition Magic so I have a small system drive and then a big data drive, then do a ghost image of the system drive to produce my reinstall disc. Hopefully if the system drive/partition goes I'd at least have a chance of keeping the data.

Obviously in the case of HP you'd want to remove the intelppm thing as well before imaging. Hopefully HP can come up with the right patch for this.

TimM

Re: Just a registry fix?

Problem is the "fix" can in some cases render the machine in a worse state than before. Essentially unrecoverable even with safe mode or the recovery console, and HP's recovery disc can't repair it, only carry out a destructive recovery.

Microsoft did in fact publish this "fix" when they found it back in SP2. They however removed the fix and instead blamed the OEMs, probably because the fix can cause big problems in a few cases.

Is it a big issue?

Well, if you're technically competent and have the time to work out the problem and have access to the knackered machine, a spare machine and burner to download some recovery tools and play about, and enjoy repairing your OS that's broken because of a third party. Probably not.

For the rest of the world who just buy HP machines from a high street store to surf the interweb, do some email, sort out finances, write documents, process photos, play games, etc, and have not got the first clue about the inner workings of Windows, well yes it is a big issue because after much pulling of hair the result usually is to give up and reformat and reinstall all their apps, settings. At best they'll spend days or a week doing this and at worst they've lost months or years of data depending how often they do backups (and few of us back up as often as we should). And does anyone compensate for this? Like f*ck they do.

Frankly most people won't even be aware of this fuss. They'll just see their PC rebooting frequently, and end up taking it somewhere to be repaired at huge cost, or reformat and start again. Some may even throw away their PC thinking it's beyond repair and buy a new one!! Sounds crazy but I bet it happens.

Windows XP SP3 sends PCs into endless reboot

TimM
Paris Hilton

@Schroeder

"And you didn't mention that you had a relative suffering the issue at hand in your first rant did you?"

I try to keep the personal stuff out of it. It's only become relevant to bang home to you why I've become so pissed off.

I wouldn't be bothered half as much if it was my system, as I'd have the backups and resources and time to get myself out of the mess.

"Wait - you claim to use Linux as a server - but I would have thought developing a highly stable server OS takes more (paid) professionalism and hard work than a simple desktop OS? Surely, you should be using Microsoft Server, by your own logic?"

Simple logic that server linux is yes mostly based on professional developments (from Unix) and frankly has been ironed out over decades because most servers are very basic technology. There's just not much to go wrong. It's desktop linux drivers for components mostly used by home users that I have issues with. It's no surprise most of this stuff gets left out of pro server products like RHEL, because who needs 3D graphics and WiFi support for an enterprise server?

"Nice to see it's still not Microsoft's fault in your mind, even though it now appears they were aware of the issue four years ago and could have incorporated a fix into the online update version of the SP."

Did you even read what I said? I've stated in several comments that it's certainly in part Microsoft's fault, and I even mentioned the fact that MS knew about it!

Did you even read that I'm not in love with MS?

Seems you're just spoiling for a fight (like most trolls) and determined to make out I'm a MS lover and Linux hater... which I'm certainly not. I don't love any particular OS, they all suck in ways.

"Real issue, or cornered Microsoft Troll, going for the sympathy vote - I'll let the readers decide."

Indeed. Next time your system, or worse a relative's, is fucked up because of a third party I'll ask the same question when you (quite rightly) feel the need to rant about it (especially if the "apparently" more prevalent MS trolls wade into your linux comments and you feel the need to "correct" them). :-)

Though non of this would have happened if we didn't have the usual tired "buy a Mac, use linux" unhelpful trolling here.

Paris - would she do it with Trolls?

TimM

Trolls

Only trolls I see are the ones who have no interest in Windows and yet are quite happy to jump in on any Windows related topic and have a blast boasting about their choice of OS.

And no I don't claim to be a serious linux user at all. I dabble that's all. And I don't even hate it! I just don't think the sun shines out of it's arse either, just the same as I feel about Apple or even Microsoft.

And yeah I commented on the Fedora article. I use Fedora. I wasn't shouting out that "I love XP". I just stated that I didn't think Fedora (at least Fedora 8) was any use for mainstream use on laptops yet. I gave it a chance mind. Ran it for 3 months before I gave up. I still like it in fact, but it has too many problems for me. XP is less hassle that's all. As you'll note I did also go on to say that I run Fedora on my server, as I have been happily doing so for years since Red Hat days. Does the job perfectly fine there, as it's designed to.

My anger here isn't even about my personal experience of running XP (as after all I've held off SP3), but when you have a relative calling up in a panic because they've just installed SP3 because it was offered via Windows Update and now their machine is dead, all because of HP, then you'll see why I'm frustrated. It's frustration over OEMs in the main (who are the real cause, not those "highly paid Windows developers" as you put it), and in part Microsoft's faults in (not) dealing with a known issue.

So if you see, I'm not "pro" Microsoft or even "pro" Linux (or Apple). If anything I probably hate HP as a result of this.

My main rant though is aimed at the smug trolls here who wade in about how fantastic their OS is, which is of no help whatsoever other than to annoy (as per the definition of a troll).

But then that's the pattern on The Reg. Post an article about a product and inevitably it invites comments from fans of the competitor product to have a go.

Anyway, nothing I can do now really. The data is lost apparently from the last I heard (bear in mind I'm doing "telephone" support effectively over a long distance), though there was a backup but as with the vast majority of us, backups aren't always made so frequently.

TimM
Flame

@Schroeder

Mate - I don't give a fuck what you think. I'm having to deal with someone who is pissed at essentially looking at having lost everything on his computer thanks to this fuck up which is primarily HPs fault.

My point is, shut the fuck up about Macs and Linux and either crawl under a rock for a while or sort out our problems instead of posting smug crap.

Note though I do actually use and like Linux (and even I like Macs), for where they serve a valid purpose. I don't however believe they are the answer to everything and nor do I like the smug superior attitudes thrown about whenever 1000s of people are looking at major data loss and potentially a large cost in time and money.

Linux and Macs may be the long term answer, but you are NOT helping right now!

Now, if you want to help, tell me how to (without a total reformat) get out of a 0x00000024 STOP error when you can't boot at all (even in safe mode), and recovery console can't see any partitions to attempt to repair anything. All as a result of trying to install SP3.

TimM

Re: don't these people hear about programs like ghost?

Problem is, you buy Ghost these days and you get some bloated junk that's nothing like the Ghost of old that actually just simply imaged your hard disc and the ghost executable would fit on a floppy disc!

Not to mention that imaging the disc with disc sizes these days takes a hell of a long time. I do it far less than I should. Although I will do it before I eventually apply SP3 (which is going to be a long while yet now), but I admit I didn't for SP2 as I've usually been trusting of service packs and not had any problems.

Also, for those people on a budget (or those who just dislike the idea of paying for things), the idea spending £50+ on Ghost and another £50 to £100 on a spare hard disc to Ghost their disc, tends to result in it not getting spent.

Oh, and ghosting on a laptop can be a pain. You need a suitable USB or firewire disc or caddy, that is actually compatible with Ghost. Because it's USB/firewire, it's slower, and I've had a few occasions where the whole task has aborted due to some instability in the connection.

TimM
Flame

Mac and Linux again

First Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, whatever...

Yes these install fine on just about every bit of hardware under the sun.

However, they only work for a limited set of hardware unless that hardware is designed for Linux or is a well known bit of hardware that has had enough bedroom geeks developing drivers for it.

As an example, try installing Linux in any form on the vast majority of "designed for Windows" laptops out there. I bet you it will have a nightmare of a time with the WiFi, touchpad, hotkeys and numerous other hardware specific to laptops.

As much as I love tinkering with linux on my home server, I gave up in the end on my laptop as it's just not suitable at all. Worse was when I found various attempts to get suitable drivers working were subsequently broken by new kernel releases.

The problem is Linux has to support every combination of hardware under the sun, and there are not enough bedroom geeks to do it.

Microsoft on the other hand have a lot of money and employees, plus partners, to do the job. When you think about it, it's mighty impressive what Microsoft manage to achieve considering what they have to support.

And please, let's face facts here... no operating system should EVER have you recompiling the damn kernel to get something to work!! Joe Average should not have to step anywhere near a compiler.

Right, Macs...

Macs have a fixed platform and fixed set of hardware that Apple know all too well will work.

That is why they "just work". You of course pay for this premium and are limited to Apple hardware. If you are happy with that, just fine, but don't shove it down the throats of those millions who pop into a shop and just want to buy a cheap computer and are provided with a perfectly decent bit of hardware designed for Windows.

End of.

So, can we get back to the real issue, i.e. how to deal with the potentially thousands of people with trashed PCs, who I'm sure are not going to appreciate being told that they should spend a fortune on Apple hardware as a solution to all their lost data! It's not going to get it back is it FFS!

TimM
Flame

Why people installing SP3

"Lastly: Why are you people installing SP3 right after it is released?"

Those of us who have been burnt by such things in the past will hold off of course if they have sense.

However, those with relatives who have just gone and spotted SP3 on Windows Update with lots of comments from MS about it being an essential security update, will just click on it regardless.

It's not their fault, hence why many of us are somewhat pissed.

I would say the majority of people with the vulnerable OEM machines in question will likely not be experts and will just install SP3 because it's offered to them. What do they do in this situation anyway, especially if they have no internet access because their only machine is trashed?

TimM
Flame

It's not specifically AMD, and it's mostly the OEMs fault!

The issue, as said in an earlier comment, is down to OEMs using a single image for all hardware, be it AMD, Intel, or whatever.

The problem would likely exist the opposite way around if the OEM image was made for AMD and they applied it to Intel machines. But more than likely the images were sourced from Intel machines.

The fault is 90% in the hands of the OEMs.

However the other 10% is Microsoft's because they knew about this problem way back to XP SP2, and during beta and RC phases of SP3. MS should have put a block on SP3 from installing on known problem OEM installs, together with a note telling users to contact the OEM (e.g. HP) to pester them for a free fix (regardless of warranty).

By the way, the same could also happen if you are a system builder and you did a motherboard swap from Intel to AMD or vice versa, without a clean install of the OS.

Or those (many) corporates who use a ghosted image for all their PCs, regardless of hardware.

Essentially this is one almighty cock-up, and MS and the OEMs are likely to refuse to take blame for it, with MS blaming the OEMs and the OEMs claiming their systems were never intended to be upgraded and MS should work around the OEM's cock-up.

Knowing someone who's machine is now hosed because of this (to the point of getting the dreaded 0x00000024 stop error meaning disc corruption and not even being recoverable via the usual means), I'm not best pleased.

Oh, and no Linux, Mac, whatever else non-MS is not the answer for those people who have bought a PC designed for Windows and rely on Windows software, or can't/don't want to pay a premium for a Mac. Nor is such smug advice any help to those who are looking at lost data and a total reformat.

Microsoft slams OEMs over XP SP3 install cock-up

TimM

Windows Update vs ISO theory

The discrepancy I assume is because the Windows Update method only downloads components relevant to the installed system. The CD / ISO version contains everything.

However maybe there in is a clue. Perhaps Windows Update has detected the Intel driver and therefore downloads an Intel based service pack.

MS have a little responsibility here though as I believe this was known about back to SP2, and through the beta and RC of SP3. They could have at least blocked it from installing on the problem OEM installs, and insist you need to contact the OEM (i.e. HP) to get them to provide a fix.

Fedora 9 - an OS that even the Linux challenged can love

TimM

Hope Fedora 9 hardware support has improved for laptops

Fedora 8 was hopeless on my Acer laptop, so hope 9 is better.

Basics worked, but amongst other things, WiFi was the greatest pain. Even after the days it took me to get it working in the first place, it would take between 15 and 30 minutes to get a stable connection, when XP got it within a second of logging in and kept it stable.

Problem with Fedora is it's a fast moving target and the kernel amongst other things are updated frequently. You have to keep on top of it and also be aware of what changes its making to some obscure config files that you need to update, and deal with non-repository apps that need recompiling on kernel updates, which to be honest Joe Public is not going to do.

Personally, whilst it has some sexy stuff, I would say Fedora (at least up to 8) is too much hard work for the average Joe for desktop, and especially laptop, use.

Maybe Ubunto is better, but I gave up and went back to XP, though partly because I have a number of Windows apps I was missing. Final straw was when my Truecrypt containers started getting corrupted due to some kernel change (which of course required a Truecrypt recompile, usually involving some serious googling to find a patch to a piece of the code!).

Nice though the look and feel was with Fedora, I was more confident and happy with XP, and it involves far less tinkering and I was spending far too much time on fedoraforum trying to get things working.

Now on the other hand, I've had Red Hat, through to Fedora 8 running on my server for years. It just sits there quite happy without much need for attention, but then that server only had standard hardware and runs very standard apps all part of the main distribution.

Researchers dig into x86 chips for stealthier rootkits

TimM
Joke

Re: Wouldn't Macs be the perfect target for this?

"How you get it installed is another matter though I guess."

Just leave it to Sony. They'll find a way.

Mind you, Mac users wouldn't stick in a Sony manufactured audio CD, they'd all be using iTunes downloads... apparently ;-)

Rowling ruling bolsters privacy chief's view of data protection

TimM

@AC

"What utter bollocks - you have the right to go about your (lawful) business in private and without interference from others. Just because you are in a public place does not mean that right is waived."

But that's the point, you are not going about your business in private when you are in a public place. You are going about your business in public. The right you have in public is to not be harassed. Taking a photo isn't in itself harassment unless you persist in a way that causes the subject to be distressed.

If you were to then go into a private property, that's another matter.

After all, if it was private business in a public place you could parade around in the nude without worry ;-)... but you can't because it's in public and you are responsible for not offending others through indecency because you are in public.

As for film, I'm not sure, but I think it's the same as photography. The only reason for releases and seeking permission is likely to be to do with guilds/unions and the fuss that would be created by actors and extras who hate the idea of Joe Public taking their work. Permissions probably involves waivers to say they have no rights to credit or any money made on the film.

p.s. what makes me laugh about TV news these days is the way kids seem to be just disembodied legs! although surely this will feed people with a leg fetish! ;-)

TimM
Paris Hilton

No such thing as privacy in public places

If you want privacy, don't go out in public, and that includes taking or letting your kids out in public. Simple as that.

Or do a Michael Jackson and stick a veil on your kids.

Sure there are those dodgy few (and lets be honest here, it's not like the Daily Mail would have you believe where there are thousands of guys lurking around every corner waiting to take photos of kids), but we need a sense of perspective when it comes to photography.

Thousands of legitimate photographers, amateur and professional, are being criminalised because of the off chance of one or two weirdos (who will still find a way to take covert photos anyway regardless of the law). It's the same with anti-terrorism where now an innocent photographer can be arrested just because they pointed a camera at a government building or a police officer.

Why force through changes because someone "famous" has more money to throw around at lawyers?

If your image is to be deemed private in public places, then I demand all my images are erased from CCTV. Then we may as well all lock ourselves in our homes in case someone's eyes fall upon us, and only go out after dark and in a full veil. Sometimes I do think I fell asleep and woke up in an extremist country!

Seriously though, surely current laws are fine. If someone really is taking perv photos in public, they'd could be had for indecency laws or harassment.

And anyway, there's far more danger when parents foolishly post their kids photos on Flickr and the like, set to public access for everyone to download!

Paris because she knows about having her photo taken in public.

TimM

Public interest

"In the case of Rowlings I think the action was taken because the child in question was only 20 months old when the photos were taken. Photos of celebrities walking down a public street might be considered of public interest but that argument should not hold for under 2s."

Famous person has a child, goes out in public with kid for first time, surely it's not unreasonable to expect the press to want that photo? Certainly would be of public interest.

So long as they don't harass them.

Creative settles MP3 player capacity clash

TimM

Re: Oh My God ...

"Are you all soft in the head? Have any of you any idea how computers have always historically addressed memory?"

You're talking memory.

Storage has been long established to be quoted correctly as per the SI & IEEE definition of Mega, Giga, etc.

The same is also true of networking.

The fault is in software developers using the binary form to not just calculate memory but to represent this to the user, and the misuse of the standard scientific terms. i.e. "ah well, 1024 is near enough 1000, so kilo will do".

TimM

Creative are right...

... if what they are advertising is the hard disc capacity.

If they are advertising capacity as Windows would see it (Gibi), then that's another matter.

I wish Microsoft would go down the Linux road* and start quoting all their figures as MiB GiB etc. The extra i would likely go unnoticed to many or educate others, and resolve complaints when manufactures quote GB when the OS quotes GiB.

* - and no, I'm not going all Linux fanboy here. I run XP and much prefer it to Linux on the desktop, but it's just one of those things they do a little better in Penguin world.

Vodafone bundles mobile data

TimM
Unhappy

Better than Orange's £3 per meg scam

Orange *still* by default charge you a standard per-meg charge (now £3 per meg) unless you say so otherwise, and it's not hard with many phones these days to download quite a lot of data without realising (e.g using a map application like Google Maps or Nokia Maps).

In fact Orange offer a daily capped rate for £0 extra on your monthly bill... but they don't advertise it and don't give you it by default.

Worse than that (as I have found), even if you change to daily capped, they seem to ignore the request and continue to charge you at £3 per meg. Now I have to fight some £100 worth of data charges over the last 6 months for around 20 meg of data used! (although some was overseas... at £8 per meg!!!!).

Sadly even though I have WiFi on my phone, finding reliable hotspots is near impossible as is finding any that have decent PAYG payment (i.e. pay just for what you use, not pay £7 for an hour's access whether you use it or not!).

Your personal data just got permanently cached at the US border

TimM
Black Helicopters

Re: Leave it at home ? LOL

"If you travel with an empty laptop and just download the data once you're in the US you're still screwed .. they check all the data going across the internet and feed all that to the NSA .. any way you look at it . they have your data."

Worse than that. Just sitting in Blighty using the Internet still can hand your data over to the NSA, and not just by visiting obviously american sites. A lot of UK based sites host servers in the US and those T&Cs you probably didn't read will have said that they do this and effectively screw you when it comes to privacy as UK privacy laws don't apply because of this. So not only is your private information at risk anyway, the servers being hosted in the US means going through NSA or whatever filters too.

Hence I would welcome an Internet break up where the Americans have their own net to go with their own insular world, and the rest of the world moves on. Maybe we can then do like in Hitchhikers Guide and rid the world of the useless third and dispatch the US into space.

MS pulls plugs on XP SP3 mass launch

TimM
Paris Hilton

Re: ZX81 SP1

Actually 3D Monster Maze probably would crash the ZX81 as it required the 16K ram pack... the infamous wobbly ram pack where a slight movement of the machine would cause it to crash :-)

Still a cracking game though. For all it's basic graphics, I can still remember the shivers I'd get when turning a corner and there was T-Rex stomping towards me!

"@ "Photoshop? Who uses that anymore?" - well said! As much as I like Linux for tinkering and use on my server which has simple hardware, it always has been and still is a non-starter for the desktop, and more so laptop. At least unless you buy dedicated hardware known to work... oh, but that's a Mac ;-)

Anyway. I think The Reg should just create an automatic "just install Linux" comment generator and suitable retort every time the keyword 'Microsoft' is used in an article and save everyone else the bother of doing it over and over again.

Paris, because she doesn't crash... oh wait.

BBC defends iPlayer against Murdoch Jr's 'anti-competitive' claims

TimM
Thumb Down

Simple answer Mr Murdoch...

Let Sky subscribers who PAY for a subscription, download content they PAY for on a catch up basis like with iPlayer. DRM it to expire if you like, but just don't charge extra for low quality video downloads so people can catch up on stuff they missed.

Once I realised as a Sky subscriber I had to pay extra to use the service, I uninstalled Sky Anytime for PC.

As a BBC Licence Fee payer however, I can use iPlayer for no extra charge.

So, if you want competition, try competing!

Department of Homeland Security website hacked!

TimM
Stop

@James Butler

Before we go any further on the "it's only Microsoft" road, whilst this attack may show up IIS and ASP, I can tell you for certain that a massive amount of attacks actually target PHP running on Apache (yes, usually on Linux)!

Just look at an average web server log and you'll find it's crammed full of attack attempts on known flaws in known PHP apps.

And many succeed because each individual PHP app needs updating and admins don't update them, and then there are flaws in PHP installs themselves and unpatched Linux systems (which require patching on a weekly basis for a vast array of security fixes).

In fact I'm just off to install yet another patch to Wordpress because of another security hole (yes, Wordpress is PHP and I'm running it on Apache on Linux. If I didn't patch it, I'd get hacked!... all without Microsoft involved).

Hellboy helmsman to direct The Hobbit

TimM
Thumb Up

Re: Inspired choices

"You need Quentin Tarantino directing, with Samuel L. Jackson as Thorin."

KILL THORIN ... With one well placed blow Thorin pops a cap in your ass.

Dialogue by Walken would be great, but not as great as him appearing in it. Maybe as Gandalf but Brian Blessed would be great too.

However we can't have a Hobbit movie with Leonard Nimoy singing the theme tune !

MS patch system poses 'significant risk', say researchers

TimM

Generate in seconds, but...

... it takes a lot longer than that to distribute. Probably the majority of viruses and malware fail to get anywhere significant anyway.

By which time most people with any sense have got the patch and/or their anti-virus software will have been updated to catch the virus / malware that delivers the attack (or firewalls block it).

The attack is one thing. It still needs to be packaged up and delivered to the vulnerable some how.

And yes, as said, it's the same with any other OS. Technically worse on Linux because the vulnerability is discussed in an open forum before the patch is created, whereas Microsoft's are often not known until the patch is released. But yeah, Linux is more secure and all that, at least in that it's less likely you'll get infected in the first place (except I would say if you run a web server with PHP which is more of a security risk these days than IIS, particularly as very few admins bother to patch up all the PHP apps they have running).

HD DVD sales still solid despite format's failure

TimM

Bargain HD DVDs

Thing is, "dead" format it may be, but with players at ASDA/Wal-Mart kind of bargain prices and discs to be had for between £5 and £10 (ignoring the UK high street of course), all of which are every bit the equal (or more) of Blu-Ray counterparts, then there's every reason to buy HD DVD for HD itself if all you want to do is watch HD movies. And when all the stock is bought up, you've got hundreds of HD movies and an upscaler too!

Meanwhile Blu-Ray remains a seriously expensive investment by comparison and still really only properly served by the PS3 which is limiting the audience somewhat.

HD DVD sales will die off though as stocks dry up, but don't expect Blu-Ray to suddenly surge ahead of DVD any time this side of 2010 (I'd say even of 2015).

Nintendo Wii 'like a virus', games boss sniffs

TimM
Paris Hilton

Attachment rates

Ah, the old argument used in the pointless HD format war :-)

Fact is though, crap games or not, Microsoft and Sony will never win over the crowd of gamers that the Wii has won that just never before would have played console games. The part-time gamer, the wife, the OAPs, etc.

That is why the Wii is successful. It's simple and attractive enough for anyone to play. The Xbox 360 and PS3 appeal to only a small percentage of the population (mostly young and mostly male).

I love it and I don't care if the games are old-hat and 6th generation instead of 7th. It's simple, cheap and fun and mostly it's because I don't have the time or care to invest in "serious" gaming on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (or even the PC).

Though I don't see what the problem is. These are gaming platforms for different audiences. For a games developer to bitch about the Wii because of its simplicity and dumb games is just jealousy as they're never going to get their 7th generation spanking HD quality first-person shooter to appeal to the majority of Joe Public. If they want that, make dumb games and bring out a simple to use controller for "their" console, and whilst they're at it slash the price massively.

Paris because she loves attachments.

Microsoft kicks out third Windows XP service pack

TimM
Stop

@Matty B

Provide me with a Linux distribution that works with all my laptop's components perfectly (wifi, touchpad, hibernation/sleep, etc), and will reliably run the 3D apps & games I want to use, run (properly) Nikon Capture NX and many other apps I use (and all without having to recompile the damn kernel!)...

... then fine.

Until then, Linux still remains a server OS for most. Sure it's fine on dumb lite-PCs that have little more than a CPU, graphics card, hard disc, keyboard and monitor. Go beyond that and it's useless unless you buy hardware designed for it... which is a Mac (and there the price isn't justified).

I don't hate Linux (I use it on my server), or even Macs. But the usual stuff of "just use Linux" is really misguided when you consider most people own PCs that really aren't fully supported by Linux, and more so now there's a huge shift towards laptops.

Oh, and on the update issue, I run Fedora on my server and there are more frequent updates on Fedora than XP, and the majority of them are security patches for vulnerabilities (yes, Linux has vulnerabilities... have you see a web server log recently? Most hack attempts are targeted at Apache and PHP which are usually sat on Linux machines).

US law makers seek ban on in-flight calls

TimM
Stop

Use for delays etc... no

"If their flight was delayed and their wife was waiting for them at the airport are they still OK with that? What if it was rerouted and you had to tell the hotel or they give the room to someone else so she and the kids have to sleep in the airport, still fine with that?"

We've managed to cope through 100 or so years of airline travel without needing to ring people about delays, so why start now? Besides, most people waiting at an airport will know it's delayed or re-routed. Airlines will (eventually) sort you out anyway if re-routed and phoning ahead is not really going to make a difference.

Allow this and we start getting people ringing up because the pilot has announced they will be 5 minutes late, and it's all (shouting)"hello! I'm on the plane!.... we're going to be 5 minutes late!!... oh, you haven't got to the airport yet anyway? I'll call you again in a few minutes!!", etc. (whilst the guy behind prepares to smack you over the head with the in flight magazine).

Firefox and Safari updates tackle alternative browser bugs

TimM
Coat

My browser's better than your's etc

Lynx is best ;-)

run on Linux of course (so long as you grow a long beard and wear sandals at the same time).

PS3 firmware adds HD audio

TimM

@Iain

In which case, it's another thing to warn PS3 purchasers if they've spent a lot of money on an HDMI 1.3 amp with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA decoding, as essentially it would be a waste of money if they go buy a PS3 because it can't bitstream these formats (and vice versa if a PS3 owner is looking at a new amp).

Sure conversion to lossless PCM is going to provide the same results, but it is still a waste of the amp's features. May as well just stick with earlier HDMI amps with multi-channel PCM support.

However I would still say it's an unnecessary overhead to convert to PCM. Understandable if it's a hardware limitation, but that processing power could be better spent elsewhere if it could actually bitstream HD formats properly rather than having to do a conversion.

Again, it's another reason why we need some proper competition out there driving full-spec and high-end AV quality rather than just rely on what most people still see (rightly or wrongly) as a games console.

Oh, and also there are environmental (and electricity bill) concerns. The PS3 is a big power horse with a lot of power being used to do most of it's Blu-Ray job in software. With more dedicated players, and especially from competitors, we would see a shift to integrated chipsets and off-the-shelf components that have much lower power requirements.

TimM

Great news

Though bear in mind this is (I believe) pass-through to an amp that supports it, not internal decoding. Therefore you will need an HDMI 1.3 amp with DTS-HD MA decoder built in, plus of course the speakers to go with it (and probably George Lucas to pop round to personally THX approve your room's accoustics).

At least it's now fully up to spec on that part (though pass through Dolby TrueHD would be nice as I believe the PS3 converts it to lossless PCM first, an overhead that is unnecessary).

What Blu-Ray needs now however is some competition in the market with the same specification (up to profile 2.0, DTS-HD MA, etc). The problem it has is its very success, the PS3. For mass market appeal it really needs more full-spec players than the PS3 and not just by Sony, and let's be honest, no one really considers Blu-Ray to be anything other than the PS3. Talk Blu-Ray and the only advice ever is to buy a PS3.

Fine for Sony, but only decent competition will drive prices down and encourage a decent range of products from entry level through to high-end AV to satisfy everyone, and it's at the high-end where the likes of DTS-HD MA will benefit. After all, what AV enthusiast with a £50k AV system is going to want a games console powering it?! He wants a system with funky valves and retro design with lots of stainless steel, not kids bedroom plastic styling and a Sony badge ;-) (regardless of whether the PS3 actually does the job). Besides that, there will always be some people who just won't buy Sony kit and that will harm the format, no matter how much fanboys jump up and down about the PS3.

UK's most popular Wi-Fi router defaults to insecurity

TimM

There is a reason

As I understand it, WPA causes too many headaches for ISPs like BT who would have to deal with people struggling to connect their Wii, PS3, mobile phone, and whatever else. WEP is just simpler to deal with from a support point of view.

As for security, yes it's a risk, but as 99% of the public are clueless in this regard I should think they're pretty safe as the 1% who might want to go round hacking everyone else is going to have a hard time getting round that 99%. It's like having a Yale lock on your front door. Most burglars can get past them easily but relatively few people really get burgled. Sure you can put deadlocks on your door just in case.

Aussies to get 3G iPhone in June... and unlocked?

TimM

Re: Re: 3G iPhone, 3G O2 ?

Having 3G networks isn't the question. Coverage is more important, and 3G coverage is not so great in the UK.

Also important to consider whether operators will let you on their 3G network, particularly on contract.

i.e. on Orange UK you can't get on 3G on contract without buying a branded 3G phone from them (and using a SIM from a 2G phone doesn't work). PAYG is no problem though. Bizarre. It's apparently down to the SIM type (SIMs and USIMs), but it's not a technical issue as SIMs will let you on other 3G networks (including roaming on Orange France!), but Orange UK won't let a contract 'SIM' on 3G, only a contract USIM which you can only get with a 3G Orange branded phone. Go figure! (well, maybe not so hard to figure as it forces people to buy branded 3G phones from Orange).

So, a word of warning if you expect to buy a 3G iPhone from somewhere, import it and hope to use it on 3G in the UK. Okay, maybe O2 are different from Orange. I don't know. Don't expect it to work on Orange though.

TimM

14.4Mbit

14.4Mbit is all nice and fine, but the cost is something else, especially for any practical use of such speed. Web & email, fine (needs little anyway). Start doing video streaming and other intensive features that would make use of it and operators will start charging bucket loads, especially if it's made popular through the likes of iPhones.

What sucks at least about the UK is the sky high charges for mobile internet (I mean, come on £2 or £3 per Mb *Orange* !! Get real!). Worse is roaming rates. No capped or daily rates even for web/email, and charges as much as £8 per Mb!!! Insane.

8Mb home broadband may be slower, but it's a damn sight cheaper (as is even public WiFi).

What we really need is decent structured public WiFi services and reliable connections with cheap tariffs. 3G is the wrong way to go, at considering how much operators charge (much of which is thanks to the amount they had to pay for it in the first place).

Sony bullish on Blu-ray dominance

TimM

PS3 share

Seems odd as I'd have expected the PS3 to be totally dominant in Blu-Ray players already. I thought with Blu-Ray, the standalones were very much a tiny minority with few people really interested as most had PS3s (and even then most the standalones are Sony anyway).

Even more now it seems most people who actually have any interest in Blu-Ray (tiny proportion of the public) seem to think the only option for Blu-Ray = PS3.

What disturbs me though is how a format like Blu-Ray can succeed on the level DVD did (as some are strangely convinced it will) with one single company intending to dominate player, format and movie production.

Sony's plans don't bode well either for prices. If there's little competition because of Sony's plan to essentially "own" all Blu-Ray players, then I can hardly see the fantasy of cheap players and discs ever becoming reality.

Great for Sony execs, bad for the consumer. But we've said this all along, and the right choice was stamped out so we just have to stick with what we've got now. I suspect DVD though will live on for a good 10 years now.

BT hits 'undo' on anti-spam email update

TimM

ISP mail servers

It's hassles like this that made me run my own (far more secure and spam free) mail server on my own domain. Though that wasn't thanks to BT, but NTL and later PlusNet, who in their own ways screwed up their servers enough to make me jump.

Problem with running your own server though of course is you become "untrusted" because you're not a big name, but I find it's 99% reliable as I have a static IP from PlusNet and never been blacklisted except by AOL who blacklist everyone anyway (despite being a prime spammer themselves), and of course BT/Yahoo who decide to defer delivery because they don't trust you!. In rare blacklist occasions I just fall back to the ISP's mail server and pray it will get delivered.

Blu-ray 'to bloom', now HD DVD's dead

TimM

@Alex

"You CAN tell, yes, you CAN. Watching on a 32inch or a 40inch, it is like night and day"

And there is the flaw in your argument. Fact is the *vast* majority of the population (in the UK at least), *do not* have TVs that size. Even 32" is big for most people.

Forget yourself, your nerdy or young affluent friends, the population of El-Reg readers, Blu-Ray.com nutheads, and pretty much the entire base of PS3 owners who are demographically males between 12 and 30-something with money to spend.

These people do not make up the majority of TV and DVD player owners in the UK.

The vast majority have a small CRT they have tucked in the corner. Forget what you see on sale in Dixons, Currys, Comet, etc.

Think about it. What type of TV do your parents and grandparents have, and their friends, and their friends friends, etc?

The actual potentially interested demographic for HD in the UK is maybe some 20% of the population. The rest couldn't give a rats if it's night and day on a 32" or bigger telly!. DVD on the other hand is so saturated that it reaches the majority of TV owners. What's going to make them buy into HD, let alone Blu-Ray? Jumping up and down saying it's night and day isn't going to do it. That they bought DVD at all was more to do with convenience than quality, plus the fact that VHS really had it's day. Considering Blu-Ray on say a 21" CRT vs a DVD... I can assure you it's not night and day.

TimM
Stop

Re: @Graham

"Yes dual layer DVD exists, but most dvd players will not play it. Can you think of a film that comes on a dual layer?"

I can think of thousands. Almost all DVD videos are dual-layer, and all DVD players play dual-layer DVDs as a mandatory part of the specification.

Easy to spot also. Look at the inner ring around the centre of a DVD disc and look for the manufacturer labels and codes. With dual-layer discs you should see two sets with one clearly behind the other. Also, it used to be that most dual-layer discs were gold in colour compared to silver for single layer although that's not so reliable these days.

TimM
Paris Hilton

ASDA and grannies

Blu-Ray will only "bloom", at least anywhere like DVD has if a player is on sale in ASDA for £20 and your granny is likely to buy them.

Until then, BR is restricted to the smaller percentage of the population that actually gives a crap rather than just being happy with their 21" CRT tucked away in the corner of the living room with no surround system like the vast majority have (or maybe their 24 or 28" widescreen CRT they bought in the last 5 years, though probably a 28" LCD they'll eventually replace it with).

And be honest. Would your granny buy a PS3? Come on! A Wii, maybe.

Paris, because even Paris wouldn't buy a PS3.

Apple forbids Windows users from installing Safari for Windows

TimM
Stop

Re: Install Real Player instead

Real Player is worse than iTunes / Quicktime. Even than WMP, and that's saying something!

Get RealAlternative at least and be rid of all that mal/spy/ad/slow-ware that is RealPlayer, and just gives you the basic codecs to watch Real format videos (if you really must watch them).

There's also a Quicktime Alternative codec package to avoid Apple's front end too.

There are much better media players (free and open source) and you just need the relevant codecs. KMPlayer is one I'm using at the moment which is pretty good (not to be confused with KMPlayer on linux), and works with almost all formats if you have the right codecs.

Ofcom hits green on in-flight calling

TimM

Re: Ohh dear

The battery might be hot because the phone is constantly searching for a signal. I believe they use a lot of power when doing this, or at least I've noticed the battery drain much faster when out of signal range.

Either that or you've got one of those exploding lithiums :-)

Lucky they didn't announce it though to everyone on the flight. Was on a flight once where the captain announced there was a phone on and even pinpointed to the stewards which overhead bin it was in (or rough area). No idea how they did that.

TimM

Plane peace

I really think the best solution to annoyances on planes is just to drug everyone so they all sleep through the flight. Then no one can chat on the phone, kids can't kick seats, babies aren't screaming their heads off, and no one has to bother serving crap food that no one really wants to eat.

Oh well, I hope at least we can demand Bose noise canceling headphones then as some human right if we're going to be subjected to idiots on the phone. Hopefully also the operators will sting them at £100 a minute. They'll soon stop.

Caribbean firm circumvents BD+ copy protection

TimM

Forget copy protection...

... just give me region free hacks, then I can watch the best version of whatever movie I like.

Virgin Media in premium rate U-turn

TimM
Thumb Down

Back to the old days...

So back to the good old days of NTL of 40 minute waits on the phone, only to then be cut off ;-)

Face it, they're the same jokers right back to the days when they were known as CableTel. Doesn't matter what they're called, support still sucks.

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