Posts by Pascal Monett

Ron Paul’s web campaign mired in pokey pages

Oh great

Now website performance is part of the appreciation metrics of a presidential candidate.

We're not going to hell in a handbasket, we've arrived.

Ceglia fined for failing to show evidence of Facebook ownership

Isn't there something called "contempt of court" ?

And if you string the courts through hundreds of hours for nothing, aren't the two related in some way ?

Frankly, as a judge in a civil case (there is no murder here, so no last-minute revelations are admissible if I'm not mistaken), if the accusation (Ceglia is accusing Zuckerberg of owing him money, right ?) does not give proof of its claims within the first two hours of court arguments, I'd call it off until proof is on the table.

IANAL, obviously, but I do seem to remember some vague notion about civil cases being based on putting everything on the table first, then letting both parties discuss over what thing has what importance. If the accusation comes to the table without proof, then there is nothing to discuss.

Huawei uncloaks sleek, slim, sexy smartphones

Surround sound ?

On a tiny thingy you hold to one ear ?

Oh come on.

Bit-part actress slings sueball at IMDb over age gripe

15 films in the last three years - isn't that supposed to set some sort of level of performance ? Shouldn't agents be more interested in that than in a simple number ?

She has obviously proven herself to be reliable, that should count for something.

A washed up failure ?

Given the amount of films she has appeared in since Y2K, I don't think the term "failure" applies.

Mid-life crises certainly, but not failure.

Complaining because her "real" age was revealed ?

How old was she passing herself for, 25 ?

To think that we're in the 3rd millennium and all that, and we still get women who can't stand their age being revealed.

I thought that kind of behavior was for my grandmother.

HD JuiceBox HDMI over Powerline kit

Cool, but I can't use it

Already tried Ethernet over power lines and it just doesn't work in my house.

My electrical panel has no less than eight separate circuits, four for the power outlets in the lower and upper areas, four for the lights in the same areas. The room used as office, for example, is not on the same circuit than the living room.

That is significant because the office is where Internet, phone and TV arrive, whereas the living room is, of course, where we watch said TV.

I tried Ethernet over power lines to avoid having to string a cable through the attic. Unfortunately, it never worked.

I doubt this version would work better in the same conditions.

NASA halts 'naut flogging Apollo 13 notebook

So NASA is going the Apple route ?

Anything that brings in any money must now bring it to NASA. No side benefits to third parties allowed, be they American Heroes or not.

The beancounter's stranglehold on everything financial is strengthening even more. Where is the "more and more will slip through your fingers" when you need it ?

Intel ignores Steve Jobs, adds touchscreen to Ultrabook

"we all want a computer like in Minority Report"

No we don't. Standing all day long moving my arms every single time I want to interact with a system is not how I prefer to use a computer.

Sitting in a comfortable chair, with a table set at the right inclination, a good, responsive keyboard and a wireless mouse is how I prefer working on a computer.

The 200" screen, however, I would like.

Facebook VERY SLOWLY rolls out Timeline

"It can't just be me who doesn't give a fuck what articles anybody else is reading today?"

I totally agree.

In fact, I agree so much that I don't even have a Facebook account.

Boffins hack evolution, create SUPERSOLDIER ANTS

In other news

A baby has been reported missing after witnesses saw what they describe as a "velociantor" running through a mall with a blue blanket in its maw.

Tune in for the special at 7, after your daily Homeland Security security bulletin.

Dammit Ramnit! Worm slurps 45,000 Facebook passwords

"More and more malware families have started using social networks to reach victims instead of spam"

Good, maybe that'll lighten the load on my spam filter.

I'm sure the criminals that haven't yet mastered that particular functionality would love to get some pointers on that as well.

Gamers grumble over Steam outage

I practically only ever buy games through Steam now

And I love how people hate Steam, yet go on and buy Battlefield 3. Great logic there, people !

For me, Steam is the way to go. It's practical, it's up-to-date, and it's often cheap (if you wait for the deals to appear).

I am sick of disc checks and other such DRM shenanigans. I have accepted the fact that I will be checked if I like it or not, so I might as well use a system where the checking is transparent to me. With Steam, it is.

Additionally, Steam gives me access to many titles I do not see in stores. Have you seen the size of the PC aisle of game stores these days ? Pitiful. I know consoles are very common, but looking at a game selection aisle would make you think that PCs are the Linux of the game community.

They are not.

In any case, I game on PC, and Steam is a good platform to work with. Large game selection, many recent titles, some exclusives. Plus, guess what ? If my PC fails for some reason, all I need to do is port my Steam hard disk to another PC and it starts up fine.

Try doing that with the EA downloader and cry your eyes out.

SEC: 'Man tried to sell $500bn investments on LinkedIn'

"buying through social networks"

Dear Lord Almighty, tell me please that those who do such a stupid thing are the same ones that buy Viagra from a spam ad ?

Boffins glue self-righting ROBO-VELOCIRAPTOR tail to car

Jumping off is not the problem

It's the landing that is the issue.

Stratfor so very, very sorry in wake of mega-hack

Stratfor's new company motto

Security - we just get paid to talk about it

The secret to getting rich in 2012: Open APIs

But that's exactly what happened

Because all the new "engineers" enamoured with Web 2.Oh forgot the groundwork that made it all possible and went for the flashy stuff.

Now that we've all had our decade of style over substance, it just might be that people - and maybe even managers - are starting to realize that making things easier for developers is not just a fringe benefit, but can actually create new and more powerful applications.

And we're at this point because managers are not developers and haven't been paying enough attention to what their devs have been saying. After all, up to now, an API was just wasted company resources - not something worthy of being put in an attention-grabbing PowerPoint presentation.

Merry Christmas, Stratfor

Dang, you're right

So I did gloss over that. I blame the eggnog.

Still, I wonder what Stratfor's clients are going to think of the "security" that failed to protect them.

"As a media source, Stratfor's work is protected by the freedom of press"

I'm sure their clients will value that excuse greatly.

By the way, does this mean that Stratfor is inclined to use faith-based protection ? Because I wonder if that line of defense would hold up in court. Somehow, I am inclined to think not.

Ofcom grills pirates, loses report under fridge for two years

"could it even be done legally?"

If there is a written agreement between the media cartel and the subjects of the research specifying that nothing the subjects can do will be the subject of a lawsuit during the length of the study, then the law will not be brought into the equation.

Simple as that.

As long as murder is not involved, of course.

Damn true that !

I am sick to death of being forced to watch that stupid FBI warning.

HEY MORONS ! IF I SEE YOUR WARNING, IT'S BECAUSE I PAID FOR THE DISK !!

Do they really think that their bloody warning will be kept by pirates ?

Not counting the idiots that make film trailers mandatory before being able to watch the film. Yeah, as if six years after the DVD has been sold I'll still be interested in trailers for films that I either have the DVD for, or have decided that I am totally not interested.

Still, could be good for some laughs (hey, remember that turkey ? Man was that film stupid !).

But no. These days I buy my DVDs when I'm interested, and rip the film to keep only the film. That way I can watch what I want, when I want, which is something I find perfectly normal to do in my own house.

Logical theory

In reality, though, the cash-strapped are less guilty of thieving than one would think, and if they do start stealing, it will be to acquire things they actually need, not useless stuff they can do without.

I think that the people most guilty of copyright infringement are people who could very well pay for it, but choose not to for various reasons (some that can actually be valid from their point of view).

After all, we're not talking about survival here, but about entertainment. When you've reached that level of preoccupation, you've most likely done away with more basic issues like where do you sleep and do you have enough to eat.

ISP ordered to drop 'three strikes' rule against pirates

Oh but they have "figured it out", and their solution is to lobby for laws that impose on ISPs to "sort it out".

Fusion-io: SSDs are useless ... Let's build one

Note to the author : Could you please stop with the stupid mid-article panels ?

I know some expensive magazines tend to think it makes them more intellectual or something, but really it is nothing more than a nuisance and a distraction.

Especially when the quote inside has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the text that is currently being read.

If you really have to keep using those stupid mid-article boxes, at least use them as they are supposed to be used, i.e. to make an underline a phrase that correctly summarizes the current section of the article.

For example, a more interesting sentence would have been "Connecting via the PCIe-based SCSI Express standard is consistent with Fusion’s cut-through architecture".

But really, I would prefer that it disappears. It is not standard Reg layout and it is not something I like seeing.

Five firms to create HD-centric DRM for SD cards

Let me make this very clear

I will not accept having a digital cop watching my every move any more than I would accept having a real cop in my house watching my every move.

I am more than fed up with these companies that act as if they have the right to police me in my own home just because they create themselves the means to do so.

I will not buy anything with any sort of DRM tech if I can avoid it. I have already decided on a total boycott of Sony products, and if I have to wait for a noname Chinese knock-off to get performance and freedom, then I will do so.

No one has the right to impose anything on me in my own house, period.

Plastic semiconductor makes solar cells more efficient

I take it that you're also against a 10% salary increase then.

Fusion-io board gets ex-HP hotshot

The countdown to layoffs is started.

Comet Lovejoy survives brush with fiery solar death

So the core is activated now ?

And soon we will see the heat bloom of the subterranean energy source that will revive the alien life-form contained within before re-orienting the comet's course to collide with Earth so as to start the second phase of the infestation.

Now we know why the Mayans didn't bother counting beyond 2012.

It's all true !! Run for the . . . oh wait, that'll be useless anyways.

Oh well, better stock up on champagne then, in order to get ripped to shreds in style.

The cure for US job woes: More immigrants

"there is no evidence that immigrants take jobs from US-born workers."

That's it - now I believe the rapture will indeed be for 2012.

The Mayans were right ! Run for the hills !

Swiss-based Balesio takes the knife to PDF files

Storage is never free

Especially in an enterprise environment.

With terabyte disks available now (generally speaking - the tsunami effect will not last), one would think that all IT departments have stuffed their servers with disk space.

That is not true, unfortunately. For some strange reason, enterprise servers are still quite often choking from mailbox mismanagement and small disk sizes.

Must have something to do with the fact that server-grade disks are held to much higher reliability and I/O throughput than basic consumer disks and thus more expensive in cost per GB.

That, plus the fact that IT is still viewed as a cost center, makes enterprise servers the red-headed stepchild in disk space availability.

On my personal PC, I have no less than 2 disks with 2TB each, plus four other disks for a total of over 5TB of storage space.

I know for a fact that there are a few companies not far from where I live that employ several hundred people and they have far less storage available on their mail server (think 300GB max).

But my disks are not RAID, or SCSI, nor are they high-throughput parity-checking error-correcting disks. They are just high-capacity consumer-grade disks and I was crazy enough to buy that kind of storage for myself.

My money, my choice. Company IT departments do not have that kind of freedom.

NASA detects 'heartbeat' of pint-sized star-sucker

Launched in 1995 ?

Designed for a 2-year lifespan, STILL WORKING TODAY ?

If only cars could be made like that.

To heck with cars, make a bloody printer like that !

Stolen, remote-wiped iPhones still get owner's iMessages

Wait a minute

The phone was reported a stolen and deactivated, yet it could still connect to the network and send/receive messages ?

What's the use of deactivating the bloody thing then ?

I thought that, when you report your phone as stolen, the phone network operators would refuse connections from that phone. That should mean that, even if the phone is not wiped, it is nothing more than a shiny brick with a screen.

If that is not the case, then what deterrent is there to make the thief's activity useless ?

The Google Review: Now Speak Your Brains

I totally agree with you

But the article is about copyright, not patents.

Microsoft copies Google with silent browser updates

Finally !

I'm surprised that it took this long for a Linux plug.

Not reading a gratuitous reference to Linux in the first five comments really made me wonder whether I was awake or not.

Ms doesn't feel that adding bells and whistles make people want IE, it just wishes it did.

Fans lose grace with Star Wars MMO

Hey, it's EA !

What, did you expect to be treated fairly ?

Or - gasp - did you actually expect them to KEEP THEIR WORD ?!?

Paul Allen proposes new space launcher

Un bien pour un mal

Yes, the Shuttle was expensive and not altogether reliable. Yes, it was little more than a gliding iron and without computers it would never have landed unscathed. Nonetheless, watching a Shuttle launch was, as far as I am concerned, one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

Ungainly and expensive as it was, the Shuttle served faithfully for years and allowed Humanity to stay in space for extended periods. It pained me when NASA mothballed it.

Yet, one is forced to recognize that, now that NASA no longer has the monopoly of space flight, interesting projects are seeing the light of day under private management. Allen may be a blowhard in some people's opinions, but rich people are used to such accusations, I suppose.

Meanwhile, he is going to spend a lot of money to try yet another way of keeping humans in space, and for that, I can only say good luck !

LightSquared screams 'conspiracy' over leaky test results

"What part of "reserved spectrum" don't these pinheads understand?"

Good question.

If you had read the article properly, you would have noticed that it is to the GPS makers that you should ask it.

Desktop virt used to cope with Starbucks workforce security

Yay for Desktop Virtualization !

A brilliant way to slow the pace of capitalism - since Citrix often spends half the day without being able to do anything productive.

And we'll all have securely encrypted disks for our data, protected by a password of the 1234 caliber.

Not to mention the rise in costs when the Helldesk jockeys have to take their car for a 50 minute drive to go clean up Yet Another Manager's Mangled laptop.

Yeah, I can't wait to see the post-rollout ROI analysis.

2011's Best... Games

I believe the author said so himself in the beginning of the article - if you had bothered to read it.

Red Cross: 600m videogamers may be war criminals

nuked to death ?

Honestly, I don't think you need to add "to death" after "nuked". It's a given.

Ah, TF2. Virtual war crimes done humorously.

Yahoo! may! never! see! a! penny! of! $610m! anti-spam! win!

A good first step

I understand and perfectly approve this judicial decision. Enforcement is, of course, next to impossible, but it is extremely important to at least declare publicly that scams and such are not acceptable.

I now await with great anticipation the judgement that will declare and denounce all the actual software pirating that China and such countries are guilty of.

But I won't be holding my breath. I know that Nigeria, Thailand and others have no share of US debt and bonds, whereas China practically owns the US debt all to itself. And Europe is not far behind.

Chrome is the most secured browser - new study

NoScript does not make websites useless

It only prevents badly programmed websites from doing things without my permission.

Oh, and it also gives me time to decide if I actually want the website I am on to run code BEFORE it runs it.

Airbags, ABS, proper road hugging and all the rest are good things to have, but if you have a moron behind the wheel, they won't help all that much.

US judge: Ad-pushers may be liable for 'facilitating' website piracy

US legislation

Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIAA/MPAA Inc.

Iran displays video footage of captured US spy drone

Oh I think they have a very good grasp of their sovereignty, it's just that they have always had a very fuzzy grasp of the notion of borders, and geography in general.

NASA rover finds evidence of water flowing on Mars

"it doesn't make you look smart, just eclectic."

From the World English Dictionary

eclectic (ɪˈklɛktɪk, ɛˈklɛk-) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]

— adj

1. (in art, philosophy, etc) selecting what seems best from various styles, doctrines, ideas, methods, etc

2. composed of elements drawn from a variety of sources, styles, etc

— n

3. a person who favours an eclectic approach, esp in art or philosophy

Seems to me that an idiot cannot be eclectic, since he won't have sufficient culture to choose from. So that's a compliment then.