Posts by Pascal Monett

Windows 8.1: Read this BEFORE updating - especially you, IT admins

Re: Microsoft really needs to address this

It is. By pushing you to the Cloud.

Re: I'll be very interested to see how fast it is when I throw on a Linux distro later

Oh come on. You know as well as we all do that with Linux your lappy is going to run faster than a scared mynock.

HEY EVERYONE ! This one guy didn't have any problems, so STOP COMPLAINING !!

Re: get a better provider

Yeah, sure. My choices are SFR, Orange or Free. I quite Orange for SFR, and Free doesn't offer broadband in my village.

Any other bright ideas ?

Re: They did a good job of hiding that fact, however

Another wonderful service from your friendly desktop dictator.

Really, it's for your own good !

It's useless to resist anyway, we've included a whole barn door for the NSA in the update you just installed, so your profile is online whether you want it to be or not.

Re: burn it to a DVD

Probably would be of no use. I suspect that, even if you did manage to intercept the download and set it aside before the install kicks in, you wouldn't find an executable to launch, maybe not even an msi file.

This is coming through the store, not Windows Update. As such, I suspect that Microsoft deliberately made everything so that it could only be auto-launched from some process in Windows 8 that knows where to get the data. That would mean that you have to download in order for the process to kick in.

Remember : Microsoft is no longer concerned with service to the public, only to its customers. You and I are NOT Microsot customers, the Fortune 500 companies are. We're just the chaff on the side that have next to no choice on what OS we buy our computers with.

EC: NSA slurps scare you? Europe's clouds are open for business

The Commission has the right to wish that Euro-clouds not be closed to the US

And I have the right to choose a provider that guarantees no ties to any country abroad.

Not that there are any that do that now, or that I actually place an ounce of trust in the Cloud for anything important, but still, that is what I require.

Do not adjust your set: TV market slows, 'connected TV' grows

I agree with you. My viewing habits are as follows :

- watch Mentalist, Game of Thrones and a few others during the week with my wife and family in front of the dumb TV

- watch reruns of The Avengers or some other TV series I know by heart on my second screen while playing games on my PC (not much interested in game sounds any more)

- follow some YouTube channels I am interested in (Zero Punctuation, . . ) on the PC when I come back from work

- amble from my home office desk over to my daughter on the living room couch who calls me to show me some new thing on YouTube she think's I'm interested in

- on Sundays, watch a DVD with my family

As far as I can see, a tablet brings zero to this configuration, and a connected TV is not going to bring me much more.

Oh, and I have a beautiful 36" Philips CRT TV with Pixel Plus which is already 8 years old and working fine. I will obviously have to replace it one day, so chalk me up for a replacement buy in the next five years. That will be a problem for me, since I have no intention of allowing anyone to spy on my viewing habits without my express consent and I doubt very much that in 5 years time there will be any dumb TVs left.

Screw Internet-of-Things: Boffins build Internet-of-Sound UNDERWATER

The wetnet !

Of course.

Microsoft plugs Xbox One consoles into its cloud - what could go wrong?

"Bearing in mind the cockups that have and do happen with [the cloud] . . ."

Bearing in mind the absolute intolerance that gamers show for anything that even remotely ressembles an impediment to getting their game on, I'm quite sure that Microsoft is going to learn a lot in several key areas (reliability, throughput, dictionary extensions, biological enhancements and sexual positions) when this system is put into production.

Microsoft Office on iPad: U can't touch this (yet) says Ballmer

Of course it's necessary ; for all those high-level suits who must be able to check with their fashionable Ithingy the latest spreadsheet about their weekly progress in meetings while not being burdened by those horrendous, worker-grunt things called "laptops".

COMET DIAMONDS from SPACE found in Libya's glass desert

Re: wont tell us jack about the comet itself

I'm not sure you can say that.

The content of the comet might have influenced what kind of radiation bathed the sand and we might be able to discern that, deduct the cometary composition and make educated guesses about its trajectory and speed.

Science is a vast and complicated field, and new elements of information can come from very unexpected places.

Wanna run someone over in your next Ford? No dice, it won't let you

Re: "killing one person [..] using a system that saves 999 [..] is surely worhthwhile odds"

Unless you're the one.

I don't think that the "needs of the many" argument holds much water in court either. If you run over someone you're still guilty of manslaughter. Saying that the system didn't do its job is not going to get you out of jail.

IBM checks itself into therapy after touting Frankencloud to the CIA

That's the quickest and most gratuitious Goodwinning I have ever witnessed.

MI5 boss: Snowden leaks of GCHQ methods HELPED TERRORISTS

"that is why we must keep secrets secret"

Keep your bloody secrets, we're not interested in them.

Just let us keep our privacy, which you had no right to take in the first place.

Protecting the people is NOT done by watching their every move.

Re: "do something that makes money"

Well, what do you think the drug trade is for ?

OCZ balances books, files results following 4-year omnishambles

Jail for what ?

Running a private company to the ground is not a crime. It also comes with its own sanction, as the managers have nothing left to give them revenue.

Of course, you will rightly object that the workers are out of a job too, but hey, we're talking about managers here.

London plod plonks, er, pull request on EasyDNS

Re: "The police's job is not to act as hired muscle for the music industry"

Could someone please engrave that in marble, and then use said marble engraving as a cluebat on every police commissioner that forgets it ?

That would be nice. And yes, I'll take fries with that.

Microsoft watches iPads flood into world's offices: Right, remote desktop clients. It's time

That is most likely because you're not the one doing the reselling.

Digital 'activists' scramble to build Silk Road 2.0, but drug kingpins are spooked

Re: I have no love for the US govt's view they are some world police

To be perfectly honest, the US has rather often received requests from the rest of the world to do just that.

Wikipedia Foundation exec: Yes, we've been wasting your money

Maybe she did try internally, but was stonewalled at every turn and ended up resigning in disgust.

Now she's saying why.

Apple hires streaming vid bloke: Nurse, the corpse of Apple monster telly is twitching again

"I feel like I have gone backwards in time"

You have. You have gone back to a time when providers and large companies did not have the luxury of scrutinizing my life and finely tuning their advertising to correspond to what they think my desires are.

And you know what, Tim ? As far as I'm concerned, it's going to stay like that. I want my TV to be a dumb box, because the dumber it is, the less you will learn about me.

And that suits me fine, because you're NOT my friend.

Yahoo! Finds! Cash! Behind! Sofa! For! Proper! Bug! Bounties!

Spot on, my good man. That is a scandalous lapse of journalistic integrity. It is simply not tolerable around here in any form, wot wot ?

Jarvis, another cuppa, please.

In defence of defenestration: Microsoft MUST hurl Gates from the Windows

Re: there simply are no other alternatves

That you know of.

Active Directory is not the only authentication tool available. The biggest network on the planet is called the Internet, it runs fine and Active Directory is not part of it. Check out the technologies that allow the Internet to work and you will find that Microsoft is not the one-stop shop you think it is.

As for calendaring and scheduling, well I have to agree that Outlook has the market pretty much sewn up, but there are actually alternatives now, for those who don't have MS blinkers on, and there will be more in the future because, like it or not, FOSS is here to stay.

Steve Jobs AIRBRUSHED from history by APPLE months before his death

You don't enter a Microsoft Store.

As soon as you swipe, it bluescreens and you're stuck outside.

Patent law 102

A patent is supposed to describe something useful that has never been made before.

The glass door has prior art.

Revolving doors have prior art

Cylinders with logos inside have prior art.

Why this got patented is just another failure in the system.

Copyright I could understand. Patent I cannot.

Boffins create bulk-process on-silicon optics

"create a complete photonic processor and memory system"

Is that the start of the positronic brain ?

I sure hope so.

Curiosity keeps on trucking despite government shutdown

RE: millions [..] wasted because a bunch of old men can't communicate with their colleagues

Oh I think they're communicating all right.

They're loudly saying FUCK YOU! to each other.

US.gov - including NASA et al - quits internet. Is the UN running it now?

Re: the US political system is FUBAR

And as long as corporations are legally allowed to masquerade as people it will stay that way.

Big data: You've got to spend a dollar ... to make fifty-two cents – report

Because of the 4th reason Wikibon did not list : managers jumping willy-nilly on the bandwagon to not look like they're behind the times.

Now they're just going to look stupid. Especially those who played the "I'm smarter than you all because I'm managing a Big Data project" card.

I have no pity for them either.

Facebook allows full personal data ransack with Graph Search

Re: The next generation may not be as absolutist as ours on privacy

If our generation had been "absolutist" on privacy, Facebook would never have gotten off the ground.

And I don't see that we'd be missing anything.

Yahoo! Pays! Paltry! $12.50! Bug! Bounty! For! Nasty! Email! Vuln!

One difference : people have to eat, they do not have to look for bugs for Yahoo!.

Another difference : grocers are not paying people to come buy their wares.

Please do not take offense, but your grocer analogy is wrong on just about every level. That said, I do believe that it is rather difficult to make any kind of analogy with the Internet Security scene, because it is the only "market' in the world where people can work for a company without obligation, a contract or any legal framework.

DEAD STEVE JOBS kills Apple bounce patent from BEYOND THE GRAVE

Re: what sort of moron court

The sort where patent rules are not the same than in your country.

I know, it's surprising, but U.S. laws are not international.

Yet.

Microsoft defends Azure with two-factor auth security

An additional layer of security using the cloud . . .

And automated voice calls, no less.

Automated.

Since when is security automated ?

This whole cloud thing is already quite nebulous as far as security is concerned, and now they announce bollocks like that.

Well that does NOT inspire confidence in cloud security as far as I'm concerned.

Boffins have constructed a new LIGHT SABRE. Their skills are complete

Re: Only a fool brings a lightsabre to a blaster fight

And only a jedi brings a lightsaber to a blaster fight and is the only one to walk away from it

Apple: Now that you've updated to iOS 7... YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK

Re: The icons and colours look like pre-school

Haven't you heard ? Pre-school is the new future. It's hip and trendy. Everybody likes it !

Well, except people who actually need to work, of course, but who cares about their opinion, eh ? Work is sooo not hip.

Is this the silicon chip KILLER? Boffins boot up carbon-nanotube CPU

"without having to look for imperfections or even know where they were"

Far from me the idea of criticizing this breakthrough - anything that can potentially increase my computing power rates an automatic thumbs up as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I am a bit worried about sentences like the one in the title. Computers use electricity, and electricity can be a finicky beast - which is why we try to herd it as much as possible when we make use of it. So, reading that they are making computing parts without even knowing about defects is somewhat disturbing to me.

I mean, couldn't this be cause for unexplained behaviour in program results when the chip is used in production ?

Could someone enlighten me ?

Google's boffins branded 'unacceptably ineffective' at tackling web piracy

Re: Real world problem

I totally agree with your logic, but I must point out the fallacy in your opinion : real world problems require real world solutions - and that typically demands time and resources allocated to solve the issue.

The Internet is an exception. On the Internet, anything possible is a fair target, whether or not it is morally or legally justified. That is why you have ebook stores that can go and wipe a title you purchased from your Kindle (or whatever). In the real world, that would mean sending someone to your house to wait for your permission to come in and take back the book - permission which you would be at liberty to not give. But, because it is possible on the Internet, said Ebook stores have taken that right without asking if we like it.

It literally enrages me when I think about it, all the things that are taken for granted on the Internet that, if they were applied to the real world, would certainly result in major confrontations between people and corporations. As long as corporations remain the major lobbying force, I doubt that anything will change.

Google's latest PRIVACY MELTDOWN: Web chats sent to WRONG people

"We are already looking into this."

I would have hoped that you had looked into this during the trials to see if the stuff worked properly, but obviously that was not something that was tested.

After all, why test that IMs get to the intended recipient in a chat session ? That's just a waste of time, innit ? Especially on a Friday evening, which has to be when this service was put into production.

Yes, production. Sorry, but when you roll out something to all and sundry you can call it beta all you want, it's in production.

Might want to think about that next time.

Steve Jobs' boyhood home may become protected historical shrine

Re: Apple [...] cause whole areas of technology to advance

Yeah, them rounded corners have really made a difference !

How many apps does it take to back up your data?

That's because managers are most often not interested in making sure a solution works, they just want to be able to say that they have a solution.

Until everything goes pear-shaped that is, then it is always the grunt's fault that nothing worked and he's the one getting fired.

Re: the Finance team [..] have a major say on what budget is available

That they do, what people are saying here is that they should not have a say on HOW it is used.

There are enough examples of what happens to a company when accountants take over that this should not even be a worthy discussion any more.

Korean stealth-scraper plans will turn 450 metre tower INVISIBLE

Re: You don't have to be from the USA to be confused about geography.

No, but it sure helps

Leaked docs: NSA 'Follow the money' team slurped BANK records, CREDIT CARD data

I understand that NSA is tracking financial data

And I think that that is something I can actually approve - at the condition that the big time crims get caught.

I mean, it is obvious that big money needs to be checked, and if they are only tracking less than 200 million records, well, that is a drop in the ocean as far as financial records is concerned.

That seems to me to to be on par with proper, warranted surveillance of suspects, and that is not something I have an issue with.

But . . I still don't trust them, nor would I be surprised to learn that a zero or three were dropped from that figure.

Meet the Unmagnificent Seven: The critical holes plugged in Firefox update

Re: The last time I used it was on a University PC

Yeah, because uni computer equipment is always top notch and never, ever has anything dodgy installed on it.

Uh-huh.

I have been a Firefox user for a long, long while. I abandoned IE for Netscape back in the day. Since that time, I stayed away from IE as much as possible, and was quite happy to have done so the day I found out that IE would accept forced downloads without a pip, whereas Firefox popped a warning panel with possibility to refuse (I'm sure that issue has been fixed since). What keeps me on Firefox is simply NoScript - the most browser- and privacy-securing extension that can possibly exist.

That said, my Firefox (which is not up to the last version) has a curious habit. When I'm working on the PC, I have no trouble, but if I leave it on in the evening to go watch a film or some other hour-long activity, sometimes I come back and, now and then, the PC is hung. A Win 7/64 PC.

I'm pretty sure that Firefox is the culprit, because when I leave the PC on for an all-nighter, I always shut down everything that is not essential to what I'm doing, and there never is any issue there - the PC is always on in the morning.

So there is some niggle with FF on my PC, not a biggie. Maybe the next version will fix it, maybe it won't, but I'm not leaving FF until you pry NoScript from my cold, dead hands.

MPs: This paperless health service plan isn't worth the paper it isn't written on

Re: really the UK gov needs to mandate Open Source where possible

I'm quite sure it is just as possible to royally fuck up an Open Source solution as it is to bugger a Closed Source one.

Open Source is not the issue, the issue is in proper specifications, proper oversight and proper responsability. Apperently, there was none of that in this project - or any other for that matter.

Open Source is not a magic wand that solves all IT woes.

Official crackdown on Apple fanboi 'shanty town' ahead of London iPhone launch

Re: there are many MANY people in this world that would

The vast majority of those who would probably don't live in London, though.

Re: that's well out of order

Having problems with our sarcasm detector, are we ?

Reminder : a journalist was recently stopped at the UK border and detained under anti-terrorism laws in order to search him for data on his conversations with a whistleblower. I don't see that either of those two people could be classed as terrorists either, so the remark is totally in order.

You thought slinging Photoshop into the cloud would fail? Look who's laughing NOW

As much as I appreciate Paint.NET, anyone with an ounce of sense has to admit that it simply cannot compare with Photoshop in any version.

Well, anyone who has actually worked with Photoshop, that is.

And that is why Adobe can corral people into this. There is simply nothing else on the market at that level.

Thankfully, I am not forced to use Adobe products, because I am not in that line of business. And right now, I am mighty glad about that.

Got it taped: The business of tape-based disaster recovery

Very impressive article, on an indeed impressive subject

Much less impressed by the fact that there are administrators in India. Actually, I can't believe that a company certified to handle backup data for government organizations and high-level private companies has half of its tape management service halfway across the world, in the hands of people it hardly knows.