Posts by Pascal Monett

Lone config file in Mac OS X SIGNALS DEATH OF THE DVD

Re: "multiple NAS servers"

Yeah, I'm sure everyone has that at home.

Flash is NOT a backup technology. Not by today's reliability, that is.

Climate change blamed for rise of life-draining horrors*

I love listening to that video.

Re: "The natural state for this planet"

The natural state for this planet is that it started at several thousand degrees Kelvin in a cloud of asteroid bits conglomerating together, and it is now in the process of shedding its considerable heat into the void of space.

Therefor, barring being swallowed by the sun in several billion years, it will end up at the global temperature of 3 Kelvin, same as background radiation, in eons upon eons of time.

So, basically put, there will be more ice on the poles before it all ends, mark my words.

Watch the cloud get bigger and change its shape

"There are no traffic jams, pile-ups or drivers getting lost."

Anytime I hear some description of a perfect technology, I can't help but think the words related to a certain animal and its waste product that is used as fertilizer.

Let's not forget that Murphy's Law has been proven right more times than anyone can count.

Google to skew search results to punish PIRATES

My thought exactly.

Am now waiting with gleeful anticipation the new Copyright Infringement Denial Attack from Anonymous in direction of RIAA/MPAA and witnessing their websites disappear from Google's front page.

Any day now . . .

Sick of juggling apps on biz PCs? This install tool will save your sanity

Re: "for us, who live in the real world and only own one computer"

You only have one computer ? Good for you. I have mine, my wife's PC and my daughter's laptop to take care of.

I do believe I'm living in this "real world" you mention.

NHS IT blunder biz CSC wilts as profit bleeds, costs staunched

"costs will be reduced next quarter"

Now if that doesn't sound like the call for another round of pink slip distribution, I don't know what does.

Australia on path to social media regulation

"[Facebook] have not yet adopted the standards of corporate social responsibility"

Well duh, it's NOT a corporate environment, it's a SOCIAL environment hosted by a corporation. That, in my mind, is an essential difference.

I despise Facebook for giving a public platform to all the useless nonsense it contains. However, I will NOT agree that Facebook be condemned in any way for what its users publish. Let's not shoot the messenger, shall we ?

Microsoft: It's not Metro, it's Windows 8

Re: "50% boot times over Win7"

Oh, so that's an important argument because . . . you spend all day rebooting ?

My Win 7 on SSD boots in two seconds. Well it did when I first installed it. Now it takes a full six seconds.

Galls me, but I only boot once a day, so it's not really that important.

Windows 8 can boot in less than one second if it wants, I do not care for its tiles. And if moving with the times implies using a PlaySchool interface then I'll be a happy dinosaur, thank you.

And that's an objective decision. We're talking about an OS here, not flying cars. OSes are still made for managing apps and interfacing with hardware, not inciting religious zealotry. An OS is a good OS if it does not get in the way of using the applications people need to use. Moving with the times is not replacing the UI of said functionality with bigger icons. Moving with the times would much more be Microsoft placing its OS code in the public domain in order to let people skin its interface however they wanted it.

Fat chance that'll happen though.

Go on running after your shiny-shiny things and spouting useless religious comparisons. I'm sure you're feeling very righteous.

That was brilliant !

Apple pounces on Samsung doc as proof of 'slavish copy' claims

Dear Mike Moyle

I have a Samsung Galaxy phone.

I have seen plenty of Iphones since they came out.

I am just a layman, no expert in any way, but I am pretty convinced that there is no way to confuse the two, even at a glance. In any case, that is indeed my opinion, whether you like it or not.

As far as paying for expert testimony, I do absolutely agree that expenses should be covered, but I feel that $80 thousand covers a lot more expenses than is justified. Another case of society's current impossibility to be reasonable with money. Supply and demand is not an excuse for being outrageous.

And as far as perjury is concerned, please allow me to laugh. Proving perjury in such a statement is scientifically close to impossible and everyone knows it. As far as lawyers' integrity is concerned, I refer you to the educational experience of Microsoft vs DoD, where we all learned just exactly how much straight-faced lying was possible in court, even with all your eyes watching, denouncing and, at times, positively frothing at the mouth with indignation. I don't remember any lawyers having been disbarred after that one.

Go ahead and get all uppity with your UK justice system if you want, I don't see that it is reacting any more strongly to this. If it was, Apple would have already gotten a rap on the fingers for wasting court time with a useless testimony. Oh, so a so-called expert mistook the two phones ? What does that prove in court ? Honestly, what does it prove ?

Nothing.

"expert testimony by experts"

Experts that cannot recognize the difference between a Galaxy and an Iphone.

Some expert.

Gosh, for $80,000 I think I could be confused as well. For five minutes anyway.

Frankly I am rather appalled at the tactics employed. If you have to lie and cheat to get your point across, my feeling is that your point is not worth being considered anyway.

If I were a judge I'd make sure any company coming forth with such behavior be fined a hefty amount for contempt of court.

Jimbo Wales: Wikipedia servers in UK? No way, not with YOUR libel law

"world's largest unreliable collection of factoids"

Part of me likes that sentence, and relishes the effect.

The other part checks the Wikipedia pages on our solar system, and science in general, and finds that the sentence does not really apply - at least not until some creationist gets a hold of editing rights.

Then I remember all the hoopla that occurs systematically around any topical subject, and I can't help but feel that it applies perfectly.

In other words, yes, Wikiland still has a way to go before the label "reliable" can be applied.

Rivals routed by Apple, Google smartphone onslaught

Um, let me see if I get this straight

On a chart that clearly demonstrates Android gaining over 20% market share, and Apple losing almost 2%, we have an article that centers itself around Microsoft, which gained a hair over 1% in the same period.

Right.

Foldable NFC keyboard could tempt Android users

Can't replace the battery ?

Uh, it's made of silicon, right ?

Silicon has a dismal resistance to a cutter blade, but reacts well to sticky tape.

I think there will be a load of DIY battery-changing tactics in short order.

And if you screw up with the cutter, well the replacement isn't all that expensive. Actually, the new battery would probably be as expensive as the keyboard. Hmm, why bother then ?

Maybe that's the idea.

Rampant fake Facebook ad clicks riddle hits dead end

I have no idea if NoScript and AdBlock are available on browser platforms that do not use the Firefox engine, but I'm pretty certain that even so, they are not installed by 80% of all Internet users.

Something else is going on here.

Meet the company that wants to destroy Twitter. It's Twitter

I have the sinking feeling that that would indeed be an astounding success.

Greenland ice sheet not going anywhere in a hurry, say boffins

Brilliant !

Thank you for that.

Bomb sniffing “electric nose” turns cancer detector

Re: "it's a crap way to die"

Not to contradict you or troll or anything, but that part of your paragraph sent to me thinking about death - and I have yet to think of a "good" way to die.

Apart from in your sleep, I just don't see any.

Republican filibuster blocks Senate Cybersecurity bill

"to better protect our nation from potentially catastrophic cyber-attacks"

Well, in my layman's opinion, to better protect our nation from potentially catastrophic cyber-attacks it would be much better to remove strategic elements from being attackable via the Internet.

In other words, somebody put a damn firewall between the "nucular" reactors and the Internet already ! Why is there a need for a law on that ? And why, oh why, is there a need to discuss the issue ?

Nuclear reactors, city traffic infrastructures, pipeline management, power grids. All those things need to be properly segmented and not Internet-accessible without proper authentication. Not only is that obvious, but it is a fucking shame that such an issue need to be "debated" in a political arena which is only interested in who will get how many brownie points.

Fail all around.

Ice Cream Sandwich still a no-show for most Android users

I am new to the smartphone market, having just got a Glalxy S II from my new job around two months ago.

When I got the phone, it was running on 2.3.4 as you say. Without any intervention on my part, via the WiFi connection on my home router, it is now pegged at 4.0.3.

So something happened, and apparently it works.

For me at least.

Oi, missile boffins! Stop ogling web filth at work - Pentagon

Re: politicians that start wars

I generally agree with your sentiment, but you seem to be unaware of how many times those DEFENSE systems you mention put us a hair's breadth away from annihilation ?

Check it out, and be happy the Cold War is (almost) over.

Russia slashes space station ship trip to just six hours

Not a bad idea, but your rocket would have to be made of unobtanium. Do you have any idea of how much that weighs ?

Re: there's a huge list of benefits

There is one benefit, apparently : gets there in 6 hours.

That means that an eventual emergency rescue operation can enter the realm of possibility.

However, to get this boost in speed the launch needs to perfect - not just "more accurate". Timing, launch profile, ascension, everything needs to be good to within the second.

This speed boost comes at a zero-tolerance price.

So I now ask : what if the launch is botched ? What happens if the launcher lifts on time, but loses an engine before reaching orbit and has to go for an additional burn or some other somesuch that voids the short trip ? Can they revert to the 2-day schedule, or is the whole thing written off and they just abort and go for re-entry ?

Using Facebook causes less eco damage than farting, figures show

I propose a new unit of pollution : the Facebook Fart

1 FF = 0.269g of CO2 annual

Now let's see how we can use that :)

Stop !

Stop trying to bring intelligent arguments into the climate debate - you're messing up the zealot message !

Samsung flogs 10 million Galaxy S IIIs in 7 weeks

What special app ?

My Galaxy S II can read it fine, thank you, and I haven't downloaded any app to do so.

Now IPAD victor Proview is sued by its OWN law firm

"[Proview] should not be bound by such terms"

Should have thought of that before signing the contract.

Windows 8 'bad' for desktop users - Gartner's one-word review

Spot on !

This mouse-gesture fad has obviously gotten Ballmer's ear and has subjugated him so completely that he thinks that a touch interface can work just like a mouse/keyboard combo.

You have to be brain-dead to believe that.

I can believe that Metro works on a tablet. Ever since I got a Galaxy S II, I understand how the touch interface evolved into what it currently is. For a phone, a tablet or any other small device that cannot have a dedicated keyboard, it is the perfect choice.

But nothing that has a touch interface can possibly be used like a desktop PC, and vice-versa. And I'll believe the fairy tale about how desktops are disappearing when all the insurance and banking businesses have replaced them with tablets everywhere. Including the back office.

Won't happen, ever.

My next upgrade is not due until Win7 no longer runs the hardware I use - I give it about a decade, based on WinXP experience.

Smart meter hack framework goes open-source

Another, more realistic one, would be "Remote Meter Control Adapter", because somebody is going to have theirs hacked for sure.

Office Web App upgrade adds long-needed features

Re: "women have more car accidents per mile driven than men"

They might, but they are largely scratches and fender-benders, whereas men have a tendency of plowing their cars into walls or around trees.

As for the brain size thing, I was about to comment on how basic machismo was alive and well, but a gander on the Internet told me that this was actually true. Well, learn something every day.

YouTube blurs faces to protect the innocent

"users will need to delete the pristine version in order to protect privacy"

Well that about kills its usefulness then.

Chinese gov splurges £102 MILLION to replace pirated software

Damn right. I don't see why China would do anything more than pay lip service to international IP agreements.

China bloody well knows it has the greatest internal market of the whole planet, and if it starts selling things overseas, it has the rest of the world's debt in its coffers.

So this is probably just a bunch of PR malarkey.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Dumpling squid do it WHENEVER THEY CAN, FOR HOURS ON END!

"lifetime of less than a year"

Yes, but what a life !

Re: I've seen enough hentai

yeah, but now we know where all that hentai actually came from...

Dropbox brings in crack team to probe spam leakage

Re: One possibility

That probably explains why I haven't received anything (yet).

I do get spam, average 15/day over six different addresses, but nothing about gambling at this point.

PayPal is bleeding market share and it's all eBay's fault

And THAT is why PayPal will never be a bank. I don't give a flying monkey's that they signed a charter, a bank operating under the law cannot prevent you from accessing YOUR money without a court order.

PayPal deems itself above the law and that is simply not acceptable.

Personally I don't care either about Ebay or about PayPal. Ebay was a great idea and had a wonderful start before the suits wrecked it, but it may yet have some use left. PayPal, on the other hand, should simply die, and it is a good thing that the competition is starting in the online payment arena because Lord knows it needs it.

Spotify coining it at home in Sweden: But are artists getting any?

Congratulations to Mrs Zoë Keating

Whatever you think of the current situation, it is acts such as Mrs Keatings' posting of her earnings that clarify the debate and put things back on the ground of reality, allowing the public to understand what is really going on - something that the "entertainment industry" has being trying their damnedest to keep a lid on.

Microsoft 'didn't notice' it had removed Browser Choice for 17 months

"we deeply regret that this error occurred"

Could the Commission please make sure that they actually DO regret ?

Pretty please ?

What exactly is hamstringing you ?

I have Firefox, Seamonkey, Opera AND Chrome installed next to IE and I see nothing preventing me from using any of them.

Valve to raise Steam for Ubuntu

Interesting rant, obviously never tried it

Steam is most probably the least invasive game-controlling environment I have ever tried.

- it does not run a hidden service that runs whether you play or not (looking at you, EA Games)

- it does not require that you re-download your entire game collection if you restore your Windows system (looking at you HARD, EA Games)

- it does not even require that you reinstall Steam if you wipe your OS partition and reinstall Windows (I'm bloody sick of looking at you, EA Games) - if you install the same OS in the same version as before, obviously

- Steam has weekend deals that are sometimes astounding (got L4D2 for €5, can anyone top that ?)

- Steam allows me to play my games without bothering with a bloomin' disk

- unless the game I play uses an online server, Steam allows me to play offline (hear that, Blizzard ?)

- most importantly, the games on Steam play on the PC I have - yes I know, that's obvious, but it is also true of titles that were WinXP or before, like Evil Genius, or Supreme Commander, or, say, SimCity 4 - games that I have but did not succeed in installing on my Win7/32 configuration

- my Steam games have always been available to me when I wished to play them, not like LotRO or Diable III

- there is no such thing as a license error on Steam

So your rant against Steam seems perfectly unreasonable to me, and if your rant actually concerns DRM control or whatnot, then you must have stopped buying games since Y2K, because most major titles since 1995 have had some form of (annoying) DRM control embedded into them which seem to bleed onto the PC and take control of it. Why I remember a certain Lemmings II that wouldn't run anymore if I so much as chose a different boot option in the bad old days of DOS 5. And I also remember Painkiller, which I bought in a lovely box set and brought home only to find that it simply wouldn't install, since its paranoid DRM didn't believe that its own install disk was genuine. I was forced to go find a pirate copy to be able to play the game I bought - and I'm sorry, but I do not for one instant feel like a pirate for doing so.

On the other hand, Steam has survived two OS versions and I don't remember how many OS reinstalls and has never bothered me more than to ask for my login and password after the fact. It has even survived partition change and disk swapping without complaining. My game library is intact from day one, unless I feel like uninstalling something to free some disk space. And I can re-download whatever is in my library whenever I want. Heck, I can even install Steam on two or more PCs if I feel like it and access my same game library. Of course I can't play on two computers at a time, but I can have my home configuration and my laptop configuration for when I'm traveling - and that one can be offline, remember ?

To sum it up, Steam is great. It is the best game-selling platform there is. You may not appreciate that your are being checked when you play, and I basically agree with you on that point, but you're not really being given a choice anymore - well, not outside of indie titles, that is. So you might as well choose Steam, because there is nothing better.

Yahoo! fixes! password! leak! vulnerability!

"we will continue to take significant measures to protect our users and their data"

Does that mean that they will finally start salting their hashes ?

Yahoo! hack! leaks! 453,000! unencrypted passwords!

Re: "Speak freind and enter"

Not on par at all. It is specified in the film and in the books that it was a mechanism devised in a "simpler time", probably a time of peace and trust.

And besides, it'd take forever to thread an invading army through that itty bitty door - not counting the path to get to it. Finally, it was written in Elvish, and not many folk of that land knew how to read that. Not to mention the possible confusion between "speak, friend" and the other possibility which could be understood as "speak the password, friend", meaning that, if you were a friend, you'd know the password.

So, all in all, pretty secure, even for a fairytale.

Microsoft offers beta of Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Microsoft

By far Linux's best advocate - despite itself.

Watch out, Apple: HTC ruling could hurt your patent income

Re: How to fix the patent process

There should be no need to "make it unattractive" to patent anything.

The job of the Patent Office is not to grant patents, it is to control whether or not a patent can be granted. To do so, it has one control and one control only - prior art.

Given that the Patent Office is no longer controlling prior art and has resorted to granting patents willy-nilly (possibly in exchange for cashbacks or undeclared "bonuses"), it has clearly ceased to fulfill its primary function and must be dissolved.

A new body should be set up and a new mandate implemented for managing patent application. Personally, I would prefer that no one from the previous organization be included in the new one. Blindingly obviously, the new mandate must be official, publicly sanctioned and relentlessly enforced. Legally, there should be a "grace period" while ALL existing patents are re-examined and their validity controlled by the new mandate.

Hopefully, it will result in a massive dumping of all vaguely-worded, non-reproducible or otherwise incomprehensible patents that have stuffed the system, as well as the immediate invalidation of all patents that offer no actual method of implementation other than a drawing made on the back of a handkerchief on a restaurant table.

That done, we will once again, as a civilization, be able to progress with things that are truly useful and innovative, and not just a useless encyclopaedia of every single technical tidbit some busybody has been able to throw on a paper before anyone else did.

A patent should be granted exclusively for something that improves human technology - i.e. that improves the available technology for ALL HUMANKIND - and is fully described to be completely reproducible. Anything else is useless and should be discarded.

Gaping 'open data' loophole could leave your privates on display

"I wonder whether you would allow us to look at your last five GP visits"

Response : I wonder what my last medical visits have to do with my being co-operative or not. I wonder why I should unveil my private life to a future business relationship that has no moral or legal authority to invade my private life in this way. I wonder if this "sharing" thing is going to stop short of "friendly" cavity searches. By the way, are you going to "share" your salary, your wife and your car with me ? Or is this "sharing" thing only one way ? It is ? Thought so. Well thank you and have a nice day.

Salesforce goes titsup, causes CRM outages worldwide

Re: "testing configurations as one system"

But that's exactly what Salesforce is doing - with the results we see.

And even though they are having some issues, from what I see their reliability is above that of RIM with its proprietary Blackberry thingy, so they're not doing so bad.

Still doesn't convince me to put company data in a place where I cannot control access.