Posts by Pascal Monett

Angry Birds maker Rovio takes aim at staff, axes a third of them

"focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences"

You had ONE good game, guys, so the plural is unnecessary and you should have stopped your sentence there.

Talk about success getting to one's head - this guy obviously thinks he deserves it for all his hard work. Actually, he just got lucky and is now up the creek wondering why he doesn't have a paddle.

There are so many bigwigs who think they succeeded. They then proceed to act like everything they think of is genius until it all comes crashing down around them. Then they blame the market conditions.

Glaring flaw in Apple car hype-gasm: The iGiant likes to make money

Re: "Drive on the left" signs

"the Germans instinctively flinched to the right [..] the Italians coming towards them made the matching mistake"

So two wrongs have finally made a right ;)

But that is exactly why I will never drive in the UK - I would be deathly scared of injuring someone (or worse) because my reflexes have been conditioned by more than 30 years of driving on the right.

Windows 10 now on 75 million devices, says Microsoft

At least you've admitted that you're just trolling.

"This suggests that Windows 10 is being installed faster than any previous version"

Obviously. MS is using its own internal figures (that it never publishes) to justify the PR spiel.

What I'm interested in is the percentage of installs that revert to Windows 7, aka the only Windows worth using. Remember Vista ? Microsoft's PR department went nuts about installs as well, but in the end, everybody (well, everyone intelligent) removed it and put XP back.

I'm waiting for the final figures. Up to now, Windows 1 0 is eating into Windows 8 market share. It would really be quite a slap if Windows 7 didn't shrink in a notable manner.

Google Images: EU Commish opens new front against Chocolate Factory

"Google has succeeded in [...] created a captive environment "

Well duh, that's what you get when use Google's API everywhere.

Apparently, someone should tell Getty that it is possible, as a poster above has already said, to control web spider acces to one's site. I remember 15 years ago having found out that a page on my own personal website was being displayed somewhere else without any credits to me and without copying the entire frame, just the data they wanted, so that everyone would think it was their own page. I quickly found out how to force them to display my entire page, with my header and logo.

If I can do that all by my lonesome, I do believe a company, let alone Getty, would have the means to do something about Google's image copying.

C For Hell – Day Two: Outage misery continues for furious C4L customers

It's called a business opportunity.

Because these days, anything that helps you shaft your competitors is fair game.

I'm sorry, you thought that morals are still important ? Come with me, I'll have you pass the Managerial Moral Vacuum Initiation certification, then you'll be fit to pass the Sold Your Soul To Capital certification and you'll make millions every year.

Agreed ? Don't bother signing, Vlad here will seal the deal with a little bite. You don't mind needles, do you ?

Ashley Madison hacked potential competitor, leaked emails suggest

Re: Built on evidence obtained illegally? Yes, good luck with that.

The NSA is legal.

We've been told that repeatedly.

Devs are SHEEP. Which is good when the leader writes secure code

As a programming consultant, I have worked in just about every environment. The places I like to work the most are the ones where I can code on a dev server, but do not have access to the production server.

The benefits to that configuration are enormous. No more worrying about what my code is going to do, if it's a cockup, I just roll back the data and go back to the drawing board. I can debug to my heart's content, destroying the same data again and again until I get the whole procedure right. And when the code has been approved and is ready to be put into production, well I can't do that so if there is cockup then, it's no water on me.

When, on the other hand, I have to go and work on production environments (and it happens depressingly often, and not just in mom-and-pop shops), I take an inordinate amount of time in analyzing the code changes required, implementing as many safeguards as I possibly can and doing dry runs (no data change) until I'm as sure as I can be that nothing bad will happen. I hate working like that, but that's the job.

Re: hiding behind the cowards' curtain, which I still don't understand

Just a thought : if I'm not mistaken, El Reg does not count votes on your posts when they're anonymous.

So, by trolling you anonymously, any downvotes they garner are not put to their total. Upvotes either, but given the amount of perfectly valid posts I wanted to upvote but were made anonymously, this does not seem to bother the people posting anonymously.

Unless, of course, they don't know either.

Spanking Spam King: Sanford Wallace faces jail for Facebook flood

"Since then, he has been in and out of court"

Obviously this person is intelligent enough to commandeer user accounts, set up spam rings, and adapt to the ever-changing Internet landscape, and yet stupid enough to never, ever stop even when it is clear that the feds have him on autodial.

That's something of a paradox.

Ex-HP top aide in the clink for racking up $1m on company credit cards

Re: just the cost of doing business

A rather high cost, I think, because with that mark in her CV she's not going to get work anywhere near something with responsibility again. In fact, with all the background checking going on in recruitment in the US, I wouldn't be surprised if even McDonalds wouldn't want her.

And she won't be allowed to set up her own business either.

So she's now practically retired, and still has a million to pay back. Not exactly a good loan.

BYOD? More like CYOD as companies still set the parameters

I absolutely agree. I want my personal equipment to be better than my work equipment. The day my company gets me a better PC than I have at home is . . well, never.

If the company requires that I have something (ie phone), the company pays for it. If the company can't pay for it, there's no law saying I have to. I'm quite happy to separate my personal equipment from company equipment. Avoids all the hassle of who's got whose data.

Mobile device screens recorded using the Certifi-gate vulnerability

"100,000 and 500,000 downloads"

Why exactly are these totals reported in this way and not by saying "600,000 downloads" ?

It's about the same application. What is the interest in separating the numbers ?

The container-cloud myth: We're not in Legoland anymore

"networked via that thing we call the internet. So it should all connect together naturally"

What ? Why ?

The only "natural" connection on the Internet is the cable (or wifi) that links you to it. Anything else is a matter of standards, and standards are interpreted which is why browsers don't necessarily render exactly the same way.

Infering that because it's on the Internet therefor it should connect naturally seems a bit easy to me, especially for business applications which, if I'm not mistaken, rarely use HTML to transfer data.

Windows 10 market share growth slows to just ten per cent

Re: 99% of users don't know/care/have a choice

I see. You say they don't know, and you're right.

I say it's too obscure, and I'm wrong.

Thank you for the distinction.

We must obviously agree to disagree

Yet, if things are so simple and just a Google search away, then you tell me why Linux is not on 99% of PCs.

Android runs on a PC ? That's news to me.

Compaq, Dell, HP and IBM make PCs, 99% of which run Windows.

Apple also makes PCs, but restricts the components to run its own OS exclusively.

Commodore may have given you fond souvenirs, but it never was part of a business network.

How delightful

It is truly delightful to be reminded of all the things I, as a computer and programming specialist, know for the past 20 years. However, none of you have said anything that invalidates my statement.

@Richard Plinston : yes, I know the geeky debuts of personal computing. But whether you like it or not, Microsoft is what made the PC into the multi-billion market it became. Talk to anyone in the street about the Apple II. I'll bet a hundred bucks they'll just look at you with a blank stare.

@Mr Roo : and how many people know how to make a bootable USB key, apart from your friends ?

@ anonymous boring coward : I definitely agree with your statement about not being afraid. How many people you know will actually reinstall Windows, not to mention a Linux distro they have never tried ? Sorry to burst your bubble, but the word "Linux" means nothing to 99% of the population.

Gentlemen, I know Linux well enough to admire it, I don't need you to tell me of its many merits. But you are blinding yourself if you think that the common user is even going to be aware of its existence, to say nothing of actually trying it out.

Re: An how much ...

"What's that, Windows 10 thats been out for 2 weeks has a bigger market share than a free desktop os has gained in 20 years?"

You are comparing an OS that has entrenched itself in public consciousness since the beginning of personal computing with an obscure OS that next to nobody uses, is compatible with nothing and requires a vast amount of technical understanding to get to use. It's not apples and oranges there, it's fruit and construction in Dubai.

Oh, and before the penguinistas dive-bomb the downvote button, I will readily admit that Linux (in all its versions) has been improving the interface, the compatibility and just about everything that makes it useable. And I know very well that a hefty amount of websites and servers run Linux. That does not change the fact that people do not use servers, they use the services that are served by the servers (when you're on the web, you use a browser - the OS that serves up the data is not your concern).

Unfortunately, these improvements do not help the vast majority of users since it remains a sea change from what they are used to.

And, as Microsoft is finding out the hard way, people don't like change.

IBM tries to dodge $1bn sueball for deal won with 'ethical transgressions'

Yeah, but space probes are not subject to the bureaucratic whim of clueless managers.

FBI probed SciFi author Ray Bradbury for plot to glum-down America

And GunKata is just awesome

Re: The only country not under threat of a CIA coup

I'm sure JFK would agree with that, right ?

Cortana Android beta goes public

"suffer the indignity and inconvenience of manually invoking the avatar"

You mean benefit from the security of not having that bitch listen in on your every word all day long, surely.

Microsoft issues first SharePoint 2016 preview

Sharepoint 2016 ?

More like Failpoint.

Can't someone put it out of its misery ?

AshMad search outfit Trustify to El Reg: 'Trust us, we're the good guys'

I wonder how one decides to set up a scam like this

The discussion to set this site up must have been something like this :

- Hey, we can make some money on this

- Yeah, get people to give us their email to check if they're in the dump

- And if they are, we offer to remove them for $$

- but we can't

- Yes we can, we'll remove them from our copy of the data

- Which is useless

- Who cares ? That's what they'll have paid for

- What if they complain ?

- Where, in court ? They won't dare to

- Okay, let's do this

What's Russia smoking? Kremlin bans Wikipedia for dopey article

"local ISPs must block not just the offending article but the entire site"

So, in Russia the solution to terrorism is to gas everybody, and the solution to a bad page is to ban the website.

Why such restraint ? He should've simply banned the Internet, that would have solved all the problems, right ?

Manhattan-sized iceberg splits from glacier – and spotted FROM SPACE

Progress it is.

Right up to the point where we start flinging shit again.

Big trouble in big China: Crashing economy in Middle Kingdom body slams US tech stocks

Re: Rule 48

If you followed the link in the article, you would read a good one :

"Rule 48 speeds up the opening by suspending the requirement that stock prices be announced at the market open"

In other words, to prevent disaster, they let things go faster.

This is the world where removing safeguards is considered a viable solution.

#Deity help us all.

More deaths linked to Ashley Madison hack as scammers move in

The hackers were do-gooders ?

Maybe you forgot that, before exposing the data, the hackers were blackmailing ALM ? That they published the data because ALM didn't fold and pay up ?

These scum are NOT do-gooders in any sense of the term. They went in for the money, and when they couldn't get any they decided to blow everything up, without a thought for the people involved and what it could cost them.

I hope the police catch them and they get tried for attempted murder in addition to blackmail and whatever else can stick.

Re:"they didn't put people in a tiger cage for years for example"

Nom the tiger cage has just come down, and some people are not emotionally strong enough for it.

And if ALM has been keeping details of people that had paid to be unsubscribed, then there is practically a guarantee that some of those "subscribers" had joined when single, found love somewhere else, delisted (or so they thought), and now find themselves in this shitter through no fault of their own.

Those of you gloating at the suicide toll should think of that for a moment. Then go hang your head in shame.

Samsung smart fridge leaves Gmail logins open to attack

IoT at the moment is just a collection of "you can do this now !" ad-hoc non-features, like lightbulbs with speakers. The issue being, of course, that makers are desperate to have something they can show as a selling point, whereas security is not easily visible and is expensive to implement properly, so it falls by the wayside.

Even here, where the maker thought of using SSL (good show), they failed to secure the chain of information completely, thereby leaving a hole.

Since IoT is absolutely useless at the moment, and anything "smart" is by definition something that phones your private life to the mothership, I am staying well away from all this hoopla for the forseeable future.

Ashley Madison spam starts, as leak linked to first suicide

Major shitstorm in the making

So now we have "verification sites" that have basically sprung up overnight to "inform you" if you're on the database dump. Of course, all manner of offers may follow, with removal services in exchange for money as the goal.

You'd be a fool to pay for that though, because nobody is going to change the initial dump, meaning you might pay to get removed only from a copy of the data. Fat lot of use that would be, but I'm sure some poor saps will fall for it.

The fecal matter has hit the blade rotation device and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Re: "Stealing a rival company's customer list and then spamming all of them with sales pitches"

These days, it's called a business opportunity.

Spotify climbs down on new terms and conditions

Sorry !

Man, the subscription bleed must be torrential to be that fast to post an apology.

They've basically done a hatchet job on their own user base, and now it's the perfect time to panic.

Well I say good. Go ahead and panic, I hope you go down anyways.

Re: peer-to-peer

Now that is pure gold.

Not only do they make you pay for their "service", but they also force you to use your bandwidth to stream data to other users that they con into paying for the "service" and doing the same, meaning Spotify uses that much less in bandwidth, thus lowering their costs.

Seriously machiavellic. Hats off, that really takes the cake.

Sysadmin ignores 25 THOUSAND patches, among other sins

Brilliant idea

Just one thing : who is paying for all that ?

Sorry, but pie-in-the-sky intentions will never overcome the clueless manager whose hands is on the purse strings.

And that is the problem in every post of this kind of article. Issues cropped up because the managers put the budget on something that seemed more important until the amount of trouble was just too big to ignore - by which time, of course, things were much, much worse than they needed to be.

A proper manager should at least have an up-to-date list of logons and passwords, implying an accurate knowledge of what is plugged in where. Anything less than that and you're not negotiating helping them with their IT, you are in point of fact becoming the IT manager. Without the authority required for the job, you are doomed to either fail, or put in a lot more effort than you are being paid for.

Canadians taking to spying on their spies

Yeah, and most likely higher than the number of voters.

Worth a reminder

The US of NSA is no longer a democracy.

Spotify now officially even worse than the NSA

That is unfortunately very true

@ Naselus

Please explain how the conditions of use have anything to do with the rate at which the service is charged.

Real-life analogy : you rent an appartment. After one year and one month, your landlord tells you that, in order to continue living in that appartment, you have to give him your Facebook pwd and the names of all your friends. if you don't, he'll throw you out.

Apparently, you think that that is normal. Congratulations, you are part of the problem.

New T&Cs

To which you may "choose" to accept and continue using the service, or refuse and be banned from using it any more.

That is not a choice.

I think it is high time for this EULA/T&C issue to be brought to court. The users who signed up for the service in the beginning did not sign up for this, and there is no right to foist it on them now under pain of banishment. Feels very much like a bait-and-switch argument to me. Come on in, we'll allow you to listen to music, in exchange for money. Oh, now that you're in, you have to agree to selling your soul and that of all your acquaintances, else you can't listen to anything anymore, but we keep your money until you cancel explicitely.

Not acceptable.

It is time to oblige companies to respect the contractual obligations of Commercial Law. If payment is required for a service, then it is a contract. If it is a contract, then one side cannot change the conditions without consent from the other side.

That means that Spotify should not be allowed to change its T&Cs without user consent. No banishment should be possible if users refuse, Spotify should continue to provide the service that users initially signed up for.

Ashley Madison wide open to UK privacy lawsuits, claim lawyers

I don't think that married men on the site are going to step forward at all.

What I'm saying is that the article makes as if that is all there is, and that is not the case. There are single people seeking to hook up, and it is likely that there are enough to seriously damage ALM in court. Is that a straightforward enough statement of fact for you ?

Wait a minute

"anyone suing for breach of privacy could expose themselves to greater risk of divorce proceedings"

Ok, ok, the clear editorial stance on this issue is that ALM customers are dirty, dirty cheaters.

And there are cheaters, obviously. I would not be surprised if the cheaters were the majority, or even the vast majority.

But there are single people in there as well, and you can't treat them the same, now can you ? Given the amount of customers, there is probably a significant amount of single people who should have no qualms whatsoever in going to court. That is a real risk for ALM, but one that this article doesn't even consider.

It's nice to have a clear target to mow down, obviously, and I myself have stated that I couldn't care less if ALM folds or not, but it might be time to set the "cheater, cheater" megaphone down and bring a bit more objectivity to this serious issue, don't you think ?

All aboard the Skylake: How Intel stopped worrying and learned to love overclocking

Dear me, my poor wallet is going to get it so hard

My inner geek is simply screaming "I WANT!" right now.

I fear XMas is going to be expensive this year. And selfish as well.

Microsoft will explain only 'significant' Windows 10 updates

Who says demons have reflections ?

And so the last maiden voyage starts

Let me see, an interface nobody wants and must be replaced with 3rd-party tools (on PC, that is), an OS that rapes your data like never before, a looming threat of subscription to be allowed to use your own data, the promise of unwanted changes automatically downloaded and installed, and now information on WU patches being withheld on a whim.

Really, Microsoft, if this were a Hollywood film, now would be the perfect time for SatNad to stand in front of a mirror and the camera to show no reflection.

NASA reveals Cassini probe's last glimpse of Saturn's icy moon Dione

That is one battered landscape

Our Moon has plenty of craters, but it also has some flat areas. This moon appears to have nothing but craters inside or next to other craters. What a beating it took.

And it begins: Ashley Madison bonk-seekers urged to lawyer up

a disabled widower

Bingo.

That is exactly what this case needed, a clearly unimpeachable example of someone who did no wrong and who was wronged.

Obviously, there were (are ?) cheaters on ALM, but nobody can blame a widower for trying to hook up. He is the ideal poster-figure for a lawsuit.

In other matters, women now make up 14% of ALM members ? Curious, yesterday it was 5%.

Funny, that.

People bored of mobes, say magic quadrant wizards

@ P. Lee

There certainly is a lack of thinking these days. Whenever I search for information on how to get rid of a problem, generally in Windows, 9 times out of 10 the results returned link to some stupid YouTube video. It will last 3 to 10 minutes, 90% of which will have zero bearing on the subject ("I was just, ya kno, thinking about <insert pointless thing> and, like, I realized that there are still people who don't know how . . .) or just be filler (um, uh, hmmm, ya kno ?). So I have to get through all that gunk to get to the 12 seconds that actually explain what I need to know (if they are there).

Instead of just making a web page, taking a minute to grab a few screenies and putting another minute of effort into TYPING A CLEAR EXPLANATION.

But hey, it's a lot faster to just grab the micro and start blabbering without a clue as to how you're going to explain or thinking it through first, right ? Well guess what ? It shows. And you're wasting my time.

So I avoid YouTube links like the plague, unless there really isn't anything else.

Could our fear of fracking be appeased with CO2 sequestration?

@ Francis Vaughan

Thank you, sir, for a clear and precise explanation of this fracking issue (no pun intended).

I now have a much better understanding of the situation, and will adjust my future comments accordingly.