Posts by mike2R

Bank dumps customers in 'irrigation ditch'

Re: Last time?

You're cynical, but are you cynical enough...?

"Not just Spain it's the same everywhere else. Elites/government fuck everything up, always. It's what they do."

Apart from the times when the plebs actually have thrown out the elites. Then you have a bloodbath, possibly famine, and just end up with a new set of elites at the end of the process that are no better than the last lot.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

ob

We were evicted from *our* irrigation ditch; we had to go and live in a lake!

Apple screws UK disties, punts just 13,000 iPads to channel

Re: MacBook Air 11"

Ingram seems to have about 50 of both the 64GB and 128GB.

Admitedly at about £1 less than the Apple Store with the pricing I'm getting, but I believe Apple resellers get rebates based on sales volume.

MI5 stinks up website with dead SSL certificate

I see the article has been updated.

But what does this mean? Is there a weakness in the Gregorian calender?

WE SHOULD BE TOLD!?!

"The digital paperwork expired on Sunday, 16 April, and a new one was installed on Monday morning. "

Just to point out that today is Monday, 16th April. Sunday was the 15th.

Renault Twizy budget e-car

I was right behind something vaguely like this at a level crossing.

The barriers went up. Long pause. Electric car inched onto the track at a speed that would have embarrassed a sloth. Half way across it paused... for about 45 seconds. I forbore from honking, on the theory that someone who's car has stopped half-way across a railway line probably has enough to think about. Finally it inched onwards.

Think I'll pass, personally.

Game of Thrones Blu-ray disc set

Re: Best ever?

"Best ever" is worth taking seriously IMO. I'm a huge B5 fan but if the later series live up to the first then I think this will have it beat.

Production values are higher (no insult to B5, but its true). It doesn't try to fit itself into a strict episodic format the way early B5 series do. The story arc will be at least its equal if later series live up to the first - to be honest the amazing thing about the story arc in B5 is simply that it exists, if you were feeling churlish it wouldn't be hard to poke a few holes in it here and there.

If you haven't watched it, it is absolutely amazing. As you would expect it doesn't contain everything from the books, but dedicating an entire series to the first book means that there is a lot there. I watched the series and then read the books, so I'm not the best judge of this, but in my opinion it truly does bring the world to life. Its the same way I felt about Lord of the Rings - it seemed impossible that they could bring that world to life, and then they absolutely nailed it.

Google I/O conference sells out in 20 minutes

Re: Given that Google are a pretty significant technology company...

Right. Just require all attendees confirm their top three sexual fetishes before being granted admittance.

American search team fails to find women's G-spot

There's a manual!?

For God's sake, someone drop me a link!

Record numbers of readers flock to The Register

Welcome, American friend!

World's biggest music streaming service launches - for tech idiots

Well you have lived among people, even perhaps worked with them, for decades, and you seem to understand very little about how they work. You don't even seem to understand how ignorant that makes you. Yet you presumably manage to support yourself.

It's kind of like that. People aren't good at everything, nor do they need to be.

Facebook disses Effin Irishwoman

Re: The Village Muff

That is hilarious. I'm very tempted by one of these T shirts...

http://www.cafepress.com/2509

Robbers steal £1m worth of Modern Warfare 3 packs

Changing Times

Trying to figure out why this is in Reg Hardware... I guess that actually corralling up those ones and zeros and imprinting them on an actual physical disk counts these days... :)

Catholic Bishops: 'Would you mind not bringing guns to church?'

I can see that story being reported in the parish newsletter... "a number of the participants in the debate are now taking the matter up with God in person."

Apple turns the screws on reseller channel

"Barring channel firms from flogging its OS X Lion and the Final Cut Pro X software released during the summer also served to fuel paranoia in the Apple community that resellers are being gradually edged out of the business."

Ha! It isn't paranoia when they really are out to get you...

Apple MacBook Pro 17in 2011

Also

FireWire Target Disk Mode can also be an absolute life saver in a range of situations. Not sure if there is a technical reason you can't do the same with USB though, or if it is just Apple being Apple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Disk_Mode

Moaning Scots told 'cheer up FFS' on broadband cash

Re: SNP strategy

My theory is that there is one more level to it than that: Annoy the English by making almost everything we hear from north of the border a whine about entitlement => English take it out on innocent Scots who haven't moaned about anything => These Scots get pissed off at English always having a go at them.

Ofcom mulls smackdown for rogue religious TV channel

Re: Sir

How about Dogbert's Gullible Friends?

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-06-09/

Sony distribution centre engulfed by fire

Re: Riot Damages Act 1886

Interesting, certainly seems to still be on the books.

Might be something that those who have just seen their livelihood go up in smoke should here about.

dabs.com says sorry for delivery debacle

Title

They certainly have had some issues. The worst was that they just stopped processing our orders, everything ordered over a period of two weeks just didn't get processed. Finally turned out that our account was on stop. Woudn't mind so much, but:

1. The people on the phone weren't aware of the issue and said on a couple of occasions that they didn't know why the orders weren't shipping.

2. We don't, and never have had, a sodding account with them. Everything was purchased on a card.

I'm using scan or even ebuyer these days when I want a cheap box shipper.

Dam Busters dog dubbed 'Digger'

U571

You know, this U571 hate has always irritated me.

Its a made up adventure, made by Americans and naturally enough they chose to use Americans as the main characters. The film not only acknowledges the British capture of the early enigma machines in its credits, the DVD has an interview with the RN chap who boarded the first U boat from which an enigma was recovered.

Nothing hugely dramatic - depth charged to the surface and abandoned by her crew. He didn't know it was abandoned, and by his account was bricking it because he had to climb down a ladder (where he couldn't hold a weapon) and thought he was going to get shot in the process. Didn't happen since it was deserted, and a working enigma was recovered.

Now that was a brave act, but it is hardly a story you could make a film out of. He certainly didn't feel that U571 was an insult to him so why should anyone else?

It's actually a really good submarine movie, and this Daily Mail faux patriotic hatred for it is just a bit pathetic in my opinion.

PC gone mad gone mad

I'm of the opinion that the whole "political correctness gone mad" thing has gone a bit mad.

It seems to get trotted out any time someone suggests that a bit of common curtsey and good manners might not be a bad thing.

Creationists are infiltrating US geology circles

Re: well

I'm with you on allowing creationist theories to be assessed as science, but I have to take issue with this: "A fair share of stuff one learns in school about history only comes from some books written N centuries ago."

The study of history is about source handling above all, saying it is just stuff from a book misses the point. In most cases, even for antiquity, it will be stuff from several books which corroborate each other. In cases where there is literally only one source, that source will be treated with caution, and its general reliability (as assessed in other areas where there are alternative sources) will be carefully examined.

So a source like Ammianus Marcellinus might be fairly trusted even if it can't be corroborated on a particular point, because he is known to be very accurate where he can be checked. Compare this to the bible. Not only is it frequently contradicted by many normally reliable sources, enough is know about its editing process - selection of the gospels and that sort of thing - that its creditability in a historical sense if essentially zero.

For a modern example: Its about as reliable as a wikipedia article with no sources, and evidence of an ongoing edit war between multiple groups of hyper-partisans.

Cookies law: Only two EU states implement full measures – so far

Re: Marmite

We know AC. Everyone knows. But the number of irate Danes having a complete sense of humour failure about it has been far to amusing to let it drop.

A joke, for the Danes, is clearly no laughing matter.

Teenage duo sentenced over credit card Ghostmarket

Re: "Decades" - really?

Neil 23. Refunded by the bank? The bank?? You don't honestly think that the bank would give you its own money in such a quick and painless process do you...

The money came from whatever merchant was unlucky enough to be defrauded by the person who compromised your card.

Retribution

I'm guess the bleeding hearts have never been the victim of credit card fraud.

Please note that by victim, I don't mean that you were mildly inconvenienced by having your card used for fraud. The victim in that situation is not you, it is whatever poor sod took payment for goods on your card, and once you have reported the fraud, will have the funds stopped out payments for future transactions.

These two thieves quite probably have either stolen from me directly, or have enabled others to do so. And I want justice for that.

I don't want it primarily for the good of society, or for the good of these thieves. I want it because I have been stolen from, and I want the shits who did it to suffer for it.

This is the most fundamental purpose of the justice system - not to rehabilitate criminals, or even to confine them or deter them. It is to provide justice to those who have had crimes committed against them; you cannot have a justice system that doesn't acknowledge this, since people will take the law into their own hands if they cannot get justice through the system.

I always find it amusing that the same people who take a bleeding heart approach to crimes of property theft against others, often sound like a Daily Mail headline when they talk about spammers. Shows you the different perspective you have when you are a victim, even if the crime has only cost you a few seconds of your time.

Pope says gravity proves technology can't supplant God

Title

A dead guy said so a couple of thousand years ago. If you can't trust a two millennia old stiff, his chroniclers several centuries later, and various successive sets of partisan translators, who can you trust?

Re: Self-contained in your madness.

"I believe there is no God" - a statement of faith.

Not necessarily. I'm fully willing to believe there are atheists who are so convinced of their position that they reject even the possibility of a God. The fact that I've never met or even heard of one doesn't matter. I'm sure you can find one somewhere in this big world of ours (although you might explain to them that they should really call themselves an antitheist rather than an atheist).

But your normal atheist will say "I believe there is no God" in the same way he would say "I believe that your asthmatic three-legged horse will not win the Grand National". It isn't a statement of faith, simply an opinion on probability. It is _possible_ that your horse will win, it is just that, based upon the available evidence, it is very very very unlikely.

STONERS are DESTROYING the PLANET

Re: Oh God no!

I know what your saying, but there is something about solid that I miss.

Probably the elephant tranquilliser...

Red Dwarf to blast off on new adventure

Re: its the whole.....

Pretty sure that Marooned was series 3 (actually I am sure since I just checked).

Really can't agree that 1 and 2 were better than 3 - 6. They were different certainly, and I can see why they might appeal more to some people, but I think the changes made for 3 were an improvement, and it just got better through to the end of 6. Nothing wrong with a good "space core directive" line or three IMO.

Pity they never made any more. I SAID THEY NEVER MADE ANY MORE.

Fukushima's toxic legacy: Ignorance and fear

possibly

I can't remember to be honest. I just know he's been on my list of "don't read or you will start swearing at the monitor" for quite a while.

Thinking about it, I believe he's one of those economic-growth-is-bad-and-we-need-to-stop-it types.

Dogs and cats living together

George Monibot - staff tree hugger at the Guardian - has come out in favour of nuclear power as a result of the Fukushima incident.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima

UK cyclists hit by fraud after online purchase at website

title

Since that was 4 years ago, and this is a recent event, the chances of that having anything to do with CRC are minimal.

What did you expect them to do? They have lost of transactions a day, and lots of people get their cards ripped off every day, elementary statistics tells you that the two will coincide from time to time. Unless they get multiple reports they'll perfectly reasonably assume it was a coincidence.

Govt working on 'browser-based' solution for new cookie law

At least

It's marginally better to hassle everyone who makes a browser with this nonsense, than everyone who operates a website.

By government standards this almost qualifies as a good idea.

School caretaker harassed after Islamists hack EDL

political party?

While I don't approve of vigilantes for the reasons highlighted by this article, the EDL is a particularly unpleasant organisation.

They aren't a political party, they are a street army. Formed from groups of organised football hooligans, and recruiting similar individuals. They would have done very well in the SA in the Germany of the early thirties.

Hitachi launches little whoppers

Re: well

And some people will never touch a Western Digital drive, others a Seagate, etc. etc.

You all have a couple of things in common, slightly worse than average luck with hard drives, and a misunderstanding of statistics.

Koran-burning 'pastor' loses website

Re: Freedom of expression

No one is suppressing his freedom. People are saying he is a deeply ignorant, egotistical, self-serving, pathetic excuse for a man, and the world would have been a better place if he had been strangled at birth. But no-one is denying that under the US constitution he does actually have the right to do this.

Not Godwined

Godwins law only applies when the person you are comparing to a Nazi is not actually behaving like a Nazi.

Underground credit card clearing house hacked

A Møøse once bit my sister

Those responsible for hacking the people who have just been hacked have been hacked.

Oklahoma granny sues cops over tasering

So...

We had to taser the granny in order to save her...?

England win World Cup, says dried vulture brain

Re:

More to the point. If these birds have prescient brains, can't they foresee the consequences of flying into an electricity pylon?

Workers scared to befriend bosses on Facebook

Title

"2 + 2 = 4 assuming base of calculation > 3"

And sufficiently low values of "2"...

Title

Note to tax officers, the following link may be of interest:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Prodigal%20Rebel

:)

Britain expels diplomat over faked passports in Hamas hit row

Right

"Now, if that's not enough, I'm sorry, it's time for the T-shirts"

UK shoppers ignorant of online rights

Title

Its been a little while since I read the UK Distance Selling Regulations (I do work in ecommerce), but IIRC if you don't make it clear on your site that the consumer has a right of cancellation, the consumer automatically gets a 28 day cooling off period.

If you explicitly state these rights, you can reduce that period to a minimum of 7 days.

Re: Rubbish!

Speaking as a seller myself, I find it hard to understand why people find it so hard to enforce their rights - I'm all to aware how little power an ecommerce retailer actually has, even from people who are actually abusing the system.

If you are a consumer (ie not a business) then you have an absolute right to a full refund within 7 days of receiving the goods (apart from a few excluded items). Seller refuses this? Tell them you will do a chargeback through your card issuer. Still won't budge? Do the chargeback, you'll win.

Amazon

If you look further down the page there are a number of links, follow the 'Your Statutary Rights" one and you get the following:

"By law, customers in the European Union also have the right to withdraw from the purchase of an item within seven working days of the day after the date the item is delivered. This applies to all of our products except for digital items (eg: e-Books) where the item has been downloaded. We regret that we also cannot accept cancellations of contracts for the purchase of video, DVD, audio, video games, Sex and Sensuality products and software products where the item has been unsealed.

"To cancel your purchase within the seven-working-day cooling-off period, please visit our Returns Support Centre and print out a personalised return label for your item, giving the reason for the return as "I just don't want it anymore". Please package the relevant item securely and send it to us using the personalised return label within 30 days following the date that the item was delivered to you."

To be honest, picking out Amazon for an example of bad return handling is pretty ridiculous. Amazon are well known for being one of the best around in this area. My main complaint against them is that they have got people used to service well above their legal rights :)

I've had several conversations with customers wanting to return something on a no-fault basis well outside their legal entitlement that have gone something like:

"Well Amazon let me do this!"

"Yes sir, you may have noticed that we are not Amazon."

Google execs protest Italian guilty verdicts

bzzzt wrong

And so we lose YouTube, and every other user generated contet site. All non-pre-moderated forums are shut down in case someone copy/pastes a copyrighted article.

Hero corduroy overpowers US school gunman

Um what

"Eastwood reportedly made bail on Wednesday pending trial. As this was set at a million dollars, he will no doubt attract the attention of top-line bounty hunters should he fail to appear for his court date."

He made bail??

Swedish mother-daughter saint skulls are ringers, say boffins

Blackadder

Percy: Well, you won't be able to fool everyone! Look (he takes a red cloth

from his sleeve): I have here a true relic.

Edmund: What is it?

Percy: (unwraps the cloth) It is a bone from the finger of Our Lord. It cost

me 31 pieces of silver.

Edmund: Good lord. Is it real?

Percy: It is, My Lord. Baldrick, you stand amazed.

Baldrick: I am -- I thought they only came in boxes of ten. (he opens a box

of finger bones)