Posts by Pascal Monett

Apple: Samsung ripped off our phone patent! USPTO: What patent?

A blogger did this ?

Why didn't somebody at Samsung try to undermine the patent like that ?

Or is this exactly what is happening ?

You CAN'T jail online pirates for 10 years, legal eagles tell UK govt

@ Robert Grant

I beg to differ.

Record companies make profits because they nail the artist to the wall and strip him of all rights to his creations for the duration of the contract. Then they proceed to milk him for all he's worth while it lasts, leaving him with pennies. Artists accept that because they are young, ambitious and ignorant of the consequences - and it seems to be their only chance at getting known.

Only when an artist is sufficiently well-known to go solo does he start making money, because by that point he is capable of setting up his own recording company and giving the others the finger.

That's why Madonna, Prince and every other music superstar have their own recording companies. If they still worked under their original contracts, they wouldn't be the multi-millionaires they are now.

Mainframe big boy Big Blue tries to drum up new biz via Linux

@ GrumpyOF

Thanks for the tip.

Indeed I didn't know that. Puts things in quite another light.

I conclude that we need a new penguin and to call it Admiral.

Emperor or Rockhopper, nothing in between

No Prince, Admiral or Commodore ?

No Marechal, Colonel or even Lieutenant ?

Come on, people, have a sense of scale !

Government embarks on futile mission to censor teen music vid viewing

"help parents to make informed choices"

Parents have already made their "informed choice" by either educating their children or not.

If they count on ratings to decide, then they have not educated their children.

Educate your child properly and he will be able to decide for himself if what he is watching is worth it. But that requires a lot more effort than letting a bunch of people you don't know and have no control over decide what is good "for the children".

In the end, this "effort" is moot anyway. Until you have a foolproof method for ensuring the age of the person using the browser, that is.

Donald Trump dumps on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

Re: I'd love to see that wall built

So would I. I would love to see what excuse the racists would then find to blame everyone else about the state of the economy.

Don't forget to dig a very deep trench as well, to cut off all the tunnels that apparently exist.

Has anyone lost 37 dope plants, Bolton cops nonchalantly ask on Facebook

Well who knows ?

If they're also smoking the stuff, they could well be dumb enough to think they can get it back.

After all, stupider things have happened.

Veedub flub hubbub stubs car-jack hack flap

Interesting

Ferarri, Maserati, etc...

In other words, people with money, meaning people with influence and, perhaps more importantly, people who know just how influential they are.

I wonder how quickly said manufacturers will pony up that additional $1 to solve this problem. For a business based on image, this is one heck of a smear.

Ransomware blueprints published on GitHub in the name of education

Well I hope it'll still be up by the time I get to a PC where I can download it.

I'm interested in finally getting a look see at a part of what I've been fighting against for the past twenty years (on and off, every time someone I know brought me a PC to clean).

If I can learn what they do, maybe I can better make people around me understand that THEY SHOULD STOP CLICKING ON BLOODY EVERYTHING.

Microsoft pushes us closer to the Edge: Test new web browser now in free Windows 10 VMs

Re: Big Deal

Patience.

Ours is a waiting game now.

Vista failed miserably, and look how fast MS followed with Windows 7, which is what Vista should have been.

Let's see how this 1 0 malarky floats. I'm betting that The Cloud is not going to do it any good. If 1 0 fails as miserably as it should, then maybe we'll get a proper version 11 in two years time that will actually be worth it.

US Air Force: 'Loose tweets destroy fleets'

Eminently sensible, yes

But really, the only proper attitude from a security standpoint is to not use social networks when you have a job in National Security.

And that is not something that today's young generation can accept, because contact with home is a vital element for morale.

That means that it is likely quite easy to track a given person's activities if that person is married, because there is no way that he won't be telling his wife when he's coming back home.

I approve of the warning, but realistically it is next to useless. People are people, not security drones. They need to have a barbeque every now and then, and social media is now a part of our lives.

Surprise! World stunned to learn that AT&T is in the NSA's pocket

And how exactly do the automatic transfer machines know if the person is in danger ?

As far as I understand, there is nobody flagging this or that record for transfer, it sends everything and lets God the NSA operatives sort it out.

The plan was for two. The third one was just an operational bonus.

ICANN CEO will head off to private equity firm

Personally, I love the line where they state that the candidate must have "Integrity".

That is the one criteria ICANN has never, ever demonstrated.

This requirement list is like all other ICANN PR stuff : a puff piece, all style over substance.

I do agree that ICANN desperately needs someone with integrity, I just very much doubt that such a person will survive in that position for more than a week.

Choke on it! Brit police squeeze pirate site advertising money trail

‘fishing in a cesspool’

Do they really think that people searching for wank fodder are going to pay attention to ads ?

Rambus decides to enter the semiconductor chip manufacturing game

"Somehow we got thrown into the patent troll bunch,"

Yeah, somehow.

Maybe it had something to do with the endless stream of lawsuits coupled with Intel's withdrawal of support demonstrating that RAMBUS was just a load of hot air ?

Or maybe it was just bad luck. Yeah, that's what he must be thinking.

Well, looks like we're going to see what their IP is really worth.

I'm getting the popcorn.

Microsoft replaces Windows 10 patch update, isn't saying why

Re: Never an OS update

You never get an OS update on your phone because, although Google makes Android updates on a regular basis (and I suppose Apple does as well), your provider is not interested in pushing it out because that would put in peril all the other crap that they put in.

As for MS, we're complaining because it's not just patches to the system. It's going to be entire new functions, UI modifications, the works. And they've already fucked it up barely a week after launch.

Not a good sign for the future.

And the proper thing to do would be to explain what is being fixed. MS usually did, why not this time ?

I have taken out all WU patches that concern Windows 1 0 and decided to temporarily disable WU altogether so as not to burden my bandwidth or disk space with 3GB of unwanted NSA-approved code.

Next year, when the "free" of 1 0 is gone, I may re-enable WU permanently. Until then, I'll be reviving it temporarily and poring through the proposed items with hawkish intent to root out anything that might try to bring any mention of 1 0 back onto my disk. When it is done with the upgrades I decide I need, it'll be shut down again.

And I will never install 1 0. I refuse to plug in to the Cloud and I refuse to go to the subscription model with MY computer and applications I have ALREADY PAID FOR.

Hacking Team mulled stopping Ethiopia sales – because of idiot g-men

Wait a minute

They declare having "done nothing wrong", but Ethiopia is no longer a client ?

If you've done nothing wrong, then there's no reason to stop relationships, right ?

It then follows that if you've stopped relationships, it's because you bloody well know you did wrong.

Choc Factory patches zero day Google for Work hack hole

If the deadline is reasonable, yes.

A better way would be to agree on a deadline. If you can't agree on one, there's a good chance that the company won't be patching anything anyway so by all means, impose a deadline.

But it's always nicer when people can agree to something.

Windows 10 growth flattens out to 30 per cent per week

I generally agree with what you say, and if Windows 1 0 had the usual price tag, I would agree completely.

The fact that this version is "free" will have an impact on existing PCs, and the fact that today's equipment base is, on average, quite capable of handling this new version means that the consumer's usual habits will be subject to change. After all, there is no need to buy a new PC to get this OS version to run.

Given that anyone (on Windows) not running XP can most likely upgrade his OS for free, I'm wondering what is going on. Many people are on holiday at this point, so maybe they are not able to upgrade because not at home, but I admit that I was expecting better on this first week.

Future figures will be interesting.

Hey, folks. Meet the economics 'genius' behind Jeremy Corbyn

My point ?

You need a beer.

Re: is it a slow content day?

Well, it is the week-end.

And it's slow enough for you as well, else you wouldn't be commenting here.

Re: I don't find any of Tim's articles abusive in any way

"Abusive" is a term that replaces "reality" for people who just cannot accept that what is said is true.

There are already largely enough genuine economists who haven't got the faintest idea how things work, we don't need a crackpot who failed economics to tell people how things should work.

Why doesn't this nincompoop go and invent his own mathematics ? Oh, right, he'd actually have to make that work to be taken seriously.

Still safe as houses: More CCTV for the masses

"cloud-based CCTV"

Isn't that a contradiction in terms ? The CC part is supposed to mean Closed-Circuit, right ? So plugging it into the cloud kills the "closed" part.

That being said, I often would very much like to know, when the doorbell rings, if it is worth getting up from my office chair and going downstairs to answer. It's nice to know that technology is getting better and offering more options.

Maybe one day I'll finally buy a cam to put in the bushes on the side and point it to my front door. Then my only problem will be how to thread the cable back into the house to my router. That done, I've got my doorcam and will finally be able to avoid traveling salesmen reliably.

I've seen Kaspersky slap his staff with a walrus penis – and even I doubt the false-positive claims

AV vendors "make" viruses ? Bollocks.

Enough with the lame conspiracy stuff. AV vendors don't need to make new viruses, there's largely enough asshats on the intertubes to do the job for them.

Salesforce plugs silly website XSS hole, hopes nobody spotted it

Good on them

It's nice to see a company being proactive about security, although it is unfortunate to note that the issue stems from the fact that not all sub-domains were created with the same attention to security in the first place.

But hey, no harm, no foul.

China laments 'wild guesses and malicious slurs' on state hacking

@TeeCee: Bill of Rights

So you think that your own personal Bill of Rights should be the only thing that is important in this world ? How typical.

Nontheless, I go take a look and, hey, it says almost the same thing. So your own government is ignoring them both equally.

There, happy now ?

The Rules

Heh. This is cyberspace.

The only true rules are what the technology allows. Technology and morality are two different things.

And given that the US of NSA now routinely ignores the Bill of Rights means that the US is no longer entitled to consider itself above other countries.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+: 4K-positive fun for ... vloggers?!

Re: do all you precious "no battery swap" luddites

It will apparently come as a surprise to you, but some people keep their phone for more than three months. When you get into multi-year territory, the daily recharging (because forget about actually using a phone for more than 8 hours these days) and you will find, after two to three years, that your battery needs replacing.

That is why us luddites want to be able to replace the battery. We don't want a new phone, the one we have is good enough and we want to keep using it.

How many pre-loaded Win 10 PCs did disties have 7 days after release?

Dodged a bullet ?

You can slap any UI you want on Windows 1 0, it won't change the fact that you are plugged in and your data is getting slurped on a scale Google just might start envying.

The other issue is the oncoming hail of bullets in the form of incessant Windows Updates that will not only have the potential to bork your computer, but might also change whatever UI settings you have and create new ones or delete old ones without notice.

I will be watching this kerfluffle from the safety of my underground 7-fortified bunker.

Budget UHD TVs arrive – but were the 4Kasts worth listening to?

I say go for it

Not that I'm going to get one now, but I hope the uptake in 4K tellies will push the providers to sell 4K content over them thar Intartubes - at 55MBPS.

I want that to happen because as of now, there is now way the existing infrastructure can deliver that kind of bandwidth to individual homes. Therefor, people will have their 4K tellies and will not be able to watch 4K content which, of course, they will feel entitled to. That means that the pressure will be enormous to actually deliver on that 55MBPS requirement.

And that means that all this 4K nonsense is going to improve my Internet bandwidth. Since I watch TV on satellite, all those yummy MBPSes will be for me.

So go for it.

Sony PC owners to get Windows 10 upgrade as early Christmas present

Google totally borgs your computer.

I am fresh from the experience of eradicating Google Update from my PC. I used to have Chrome and Google Earth installed. At some point last week I decided that Chrome was going away. It annoyed me to the point where I uninstalled it. That was that, thought I. How wrong I was !

The next day, I boot the PC, start doing what I usually do, and suddenly Chrome is back, right there on my screen, asking me to log in. Bewildered, I check my Services and found Google Update right back there, and no longer disabled. I disable it pronto. Then I uninstall Chrome and Google Earth, hunt my C: for anything Google and terminate it with extreme prejudice.

The day after that, same start scenario. Boot up, start working, and bang, there is Chrome again. By that time I'm hopping mad. Uninstall Chrome, disable services, scour the disk. This time I check that bloody abomination called the Registry. I find and delete dozens of keys concerning Google (congratulations, Uninstall process, really did a top-notch job there). This time, I think, it's over with.

It wasn't, yet. Again, the following day, same program. When Chome pops up I'm ready to launch a nuclear strike on Google HQ. The thing that finally put an end to this nonsense is when I downloaded Crap Cleaner and found that, of all things, Firefox had a Google Update add-in. Every time I started Firefox, that add-in would check and install Chrome and services. Thanks to Crap Cleaner, I nuked that and now I have peace from the Borg.

Funny thing is, that add-in never appeared in my Firefox extensions in Forefox. I wonder why.

In any case, I now know that, once you install anything Google on your PC, you turn over your computer to the will of Larry Page and the only way to regain control is a proper exorcism.

175 MILLION websites still powered by Windows Server 2003

Well, the article does mention that there are banks among the web-facing computers that have an unsecure hosting platform.

Gazan medico team 3D-prints world-leading stethoscope for 30c

"costs remain high despite the expiration of 1960s-era stethoscope design patents"

Gosh, could that mean that the medical industry has artificially inflated its prices all these years ?

In any case, it would appear that Littmann is the gold-plated Monster cable of the medical industry.

ZUCK OFF: Facebook nixes internship after student embarrasses firm

Re: Facebook, ethics????

Exactly. The highest their "ethical standards" get is the hole in a Turkish toilet.

Assange™ is 'upset' that he WON'T be prosecuted for rape, giggles lawyer

Actually, he is obviously intent on creating a new degree in that area.

Re: "real scotsmen slap themselves in the face the moment they wake up in the morning"

I thought that was to dissipate the hangover.

Right, I'm out.

Two weeks of Windows 10: Just how is Microsoft doing?

Slowly.

And painfully for everyone else.

Just a reminder

Microsoft is going to be using Windows Update on 1 0 to push UI changes and new "features".

In other words, you'll often be in a "new release" without having chosen to be - if you leave Update to do its thing, of course.

So that means that either you leave WinUpdate on for the security patches and get screwed by buggy features that you never asked for, or you cut WinUpdate and risk being without the much-needed security patches.

I'm staying on 7. That thing is rock solid.

It's a beta release

Windows 1 0 will always be in beta.

Get ready for one heck of a ride !

Exploding Power Bars: EE couldn't even get the CE safety mark right

Re: the "China Export" logo exists

Apparantly, it does not actually exist.

ICANN chairman loses mind over his domain-name privacy shakeup

"allowing the organization to be subject to criticism"

Because he thinks that ICANN is not being criticized if he doesn't allow it ?

Or does he think that not allowing official criticism means that there is none ?

Either way, that guy is a nutjob. Certified. It would seem that ICANN somehow attracts that kind to the exclusion of anyone competent. I wonder if he thinks that behaving that way to government officials is not going to have any effect whatsoever on his career.

Care.data is a complete omnishambles, says study into hated scheme

Politicians are personally liable

But their liability is restricted to reelection times - if their approval rating is bad, they don't get enough votes and are not reelected.

You will never get a law allowing for the condemnation of a politician over wasted money - not if the money was wasted following official procedures. If that happened, nobody would present themselves for election anymore because there would always be someone to think that a given project was a waste of money, ergo lawsuits all the time.

Stop taking drug advice from Kim Kardashian on Twitter, sighs watchdog

I believe that all "celebrities" that dole out pseudo-medical advice should be arrested and tried for reckless endangerment.

It's 2015, and someone can pwn Windows PCs by inserting a USB stick

Microsoft never takes hints.

It only takes an entire market failure to the face.

And I have a feeling another one is in the making.

Re: "admitting they made a mistake is what keeps Windows firmly entrenched"

Sorry, but I cannot agree.

What keeps Windows so firmly entrenched is the fact that 95% of the market have been using it since it started, and are so used to it that they cannot change. That is why TIFKAM was such a disaster - it went against user habits.

It is for that reason that Microsoft keeps so strongly away from "rebuilding from scratch". The only thing that keeps Microsoft on the market is the fact that their OS remains compatible with legacy applications.

The day that compatibility dies is the day Microsoft folds, because companies - especially the Fortune 1000, are very ready to change for a free OS if they have no choice. So Microsoft stays compatible with legacy so as to give them no choice.

Re: Can I please go back to PC-DOS?

I'm pretty sure PC-DOS had absolutely no browser bugs.

Assange™ to SQUAT in Ecuadorian broom closet for ANOTHER FIVE YEARS (maybe)

Yeah, but imagine the stench five years from now.