Posts by Pascal Monett

1 in 10 Americans prefer colonoscopies to PC security

It is indeed

Kudos to you for having beaten the odds.

Basketball megastar accused of phone hacking

Grammar pedant calling Trevor_Pott

it's "write off", not "right off".

No way you can call mistype on that one, buddy.

Microsoft: IE9 will never run on Windows XP

While we're on the subject of removing...

Let's also do away with frontpage and netmeeting, two of the most useless pieces of software that can possibly grace a default install. And I wouldn't mind getting rid of movie maker either.

Why can Microsoft not allow those things to be a choice ? What on God's green Earth made them decide : "okay, we're going to make the netmeeting directory a functional Windows requirement" ?

Spot on

and run for the hills - the malware armageddon is officially announced !

In-house lawyers have no right to secrecy in EU competition cases, rules ECJ

Re:"companies [..] who conduct their business in a responsible and civilised way"

You will notice that those companies are generally small and the management of those small companies is a one-man affair, so management is directly in contact with the customers and the market.

If you think about it, when your livelihood is directly dependent on whether or not that customer who just left is going to come back, yes, you will behave in a civilized manner. And you'll most likely do anything you can afford to to make that customer want to come back.

Such rules of behavior do not apply to big companies, the ones that hire CEOs and lawyers. Those companies are soulless and committed to "maximizing shareholder value", which they do by screwing everyone they possibly can - including their own customers, up to a point.

There is no need to go about enforcing humanity on small companies - those that are not in tune with their customers die because the customers don't come back.

Big companies can put up with unhappy customers much easier than small companies, which has a tendency of making CEOs of those big corporations think that they can get away with any dick move they want. Unfortunately, they are most often right, because I have yet to see a major company fold because their customer base didn't appreciate some immoral decision.

Twitter facelifts its homepage

Perfect video

Exactly what I expected. It is 2 minutes and 2 seconds long, and the first minute and 13 seconds have absolutely nothing to do with the new interface.

In other words, more than half of this video that is supposed to show the new interface does anything but that. So half the video is useless.

Which happens to confirm what I think of Twitter.

Is US prudishness ruining the internet?

There's also a certain confusion with numbers

In some cases, a single complaint is enough to spark a change in policy - especially on the Internet. What I would like to understand is why a company can be aware that its user base is counted in tens or hundreds of thousands, yet one complaint sends its marketing department in a tizzy.

It would seem to me that a bit of objectivity is in order. If your user base is estimated at 200,000 then one complaint is insignificant. Actually, I would think that 2% of unhappy users is par for the course, meaning 4,000 complaints should be necessary before even starting to worry.

And of course, I mean 4,000 separate complaints, written differently from different IP addresses and posted at different times - stuffing Internet boxes is so easy these days.

'Hyperbolic map' of the internet will save it from COLLAPSE

Setting things straight

First : I have no doubt that there are very intelligent people who are indeed capable of pinpointing an operational issue in the functioning of the Internet. As such, given that these people know what they are talking about, there is bound to be a certain amount of problems that can arise in our daily use of this increasingly-indispensable tool.

Second : Given the amount of money generated by the Internet in all of its commercial activity and interests, I have no doubt either that this issue will be solved in one way or another without impacting my browser in any way.

Third : this is already not the first time an Internet meltdown has been forecast and, gosh, it's still there isn't it ?

Conclusion : this is not an issue for us normal people - alert condition martini dry, thank you for your attention.

Bollywood 'recruits DDoS hired guns to fight movie pirates'

Two weeks in India

Gosh, go to a 3rd-world madly industrializing country and complain about poverty. Well done. Left your sparkling, air-conditioned commercial malls and got culture shock, did you ?

Say, have you ever been to Los Angeles ? You know, in California ? Because there are two distinct sides to that city as well, and there certainly is a pocket of obscene wealth over there.

Mote in the others eye and all that.

US military builds laser backpack for 3D indoor mapping

My wishlist

I find this technology very interesting. I also happen to have an inordinate amount of interest in underground and ill-defined areas that stay out of sunlight.

Therefor, I fully expect that there be a wave of mapping endeavors that create accurate maps of such locations as :

- the Paris underground

- the Egyptian pyramids and famous tombs

- the Maginot line

- every major subway system on all continents

- all major public buildings (such as famous museums)

Once the mapping is done, the data should be integrated into an online exploratory website which allows people to "surf" through the various mazes and "see" what they would if they on-site with proper lighting.

Of course, I realize that there are stupid current conditions like terrorist alerts that will probably ban such mapping attempts in the name of security, but hey, I said it was a wishlist.

Wikileaks will soon post biggest military leak ever

Jusr curious here

but I have to ask : is Mr. Assange tired of living ?

Does he really think that he can continue leaking major military secrets and not be taken down like a rabid dog ?

Steve Jobs lectures devs, dodges antitrust action

"If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."

Thank you, Apple, for finally saying in public that you are thin-skinned and vindictive. Now it's official.

Personally, I think that Apple would never have published anything concerning app rules if there hadn't been people trashing its behavior in the press. And that goes for a lot of other companies as well, probably most of them since very few companies have the balls to acknowledge an issue if they are not legally forced to do so (and sometimes, even if).

Sorry, but I can't agree with you

Of course, fart apps are not exactly what I would consider needed in any way, and I heartily agree with getting rid of them.

Unfortunately, the rule specifically says that Apple can remove apps from the store if there are many others that do the same thing. Fart apps fall under this rule, but any useful app that comes in multiple flavors can also fall under the rule.

It's a case of over-defining a rule which can then be applied to any number of arbitrary situations. You have an app that is competing (doing the same thing) as an Apple-sponsored app ? Poof, they can retire yours because there's already one doing it. Obviously, they're not to retire their own app, now are they ?

I don't like fart apps one bit, but this rule is not a good way to get rid of them.

I don't think there is any good way to get rid of them either, because maybe they actually need to be there. People made them, people downloaded them and people are using them, so why decide to remove them ? Because they are tasteless ?

I find many things tasteless. That does not give me the right to destroy them - much as might sometimes wish to.

Police, ACPO, public set to clash on filming rights

"the argument is [...] to secure evidence if voluntary sharing doesn't happen"

No it is not. The argument is whether or not the police have the right to bully people out of their rightful property under a flimsy pretext.

Every time I have heard about UK police taking people's cameras away (and this is far from being a first), it has always been in the same kind of circulmstances, i.e. the cop comes to the camera holder and states a spurious law reference before making a grab for the camera. I have _never_ heard that any cop just asked politely before citing specific law articles.

As such, Mr. Cloke, you can pussyfoot around the real issue as much as you like, but as long as you do so you are doing nothing more than aiding and abetting unlawful seizure against innocent citizens.

Some people are quick to draw parallels with certain fascist regimes when faced with such behavior, and I can hardly blame them.

PayPal update email 'violates own anti-phishing advice'

no real alternative ?

Beg your pardon ? Ever heard of Visa ?

I have never had - and never will have - a PayPal account, and I manage to buy stuff on the Internet all the time.

Of course, I can't buy where they only accept PayPal, but if that's the case well tough for them, I take my money elsewhere.

Apple issues moral regulations apps dev guide

Bingo

You just gave them the very excuse they needed. Congratulations !

Agreed

In the country that relentlessly describes competition as the prime benefit of the market, arbitrarily deciding that only one app can be allowed to do one thing is just begging for a lawsuit to lose.

The App Store is still under the jurisdiction of the law and Apple has no right to keep several file explorers, different MP3 players or whatnot to have a go.

I strongly suspect that this particular clause will be removed quickly, either voluntarily or by force.

Not that I care anyway, I'm not a customer, but this clause seems clearly illegal to me.

Apple flooded by Japanese iPod battery swaps

Re:How's that going to help?

Maybe, just maybe, those who are suspicious about their battery could open the case and check its number or something, then refer to an official web site listing the numbers of valid batteries that are on the market.

If not found in said list, people could then go and get a replacement battery.

But such an operation requires two things : a company with the guts to actually recognize a major potential problem (and torching a car is NOT covered by the EULA in my opinion) and do something about it, and a user base that is actually capable of critical thought.

Oh, silly me, we're talking Apple here. What was I thinking ?

Hardware hackers defeat quantum crypto

Well duh

So we have a possible vulnerability of a brand new, still lab-only technology, that requires a rather heavy financial outlay for materials, a degree in physics to exploit, and physical access to the receiver's end link. Once again the age-old rule of security comes to mind : if the enemy gets physical access, there is no security.

Given that this quantum crypto thingy is not going to be of any use outside high-level government, military and intelligence circles, I doubt that the impact of this "find" will be any greater than a change in procedure for the implementation technicians.

Game-addicted man scores rare win over software lawyers

EULAs are no good anyway

An EULA is nothing but a long-winded legalese-speak version of "we're not liable for anything fuck off".

An EULA is certainly not an AGREEMENT - there is no record of what I agreed to and there is no fixed version of a EULA for me to sign and for the publisher to sign.

No signature = no agreement.

On top of that, because of piracy and the rabid knee-jerk reaction to it, I cannot bring back a game or application that I bought and opened because stores all over say that, once opened, they do not accept returns. So I pay good money to get screwed if anything at all goes wrong.

I really fail to see how this totally illegal mafia-style racket came into being defended by courts.

CTOs warned to prepare for Windows 7 budget squeeze

Ah, Gartner

So they're still in the market selling ludicrous "forecasts" ? Oh well, one born every minute.

Twitpic pulls 50 Cent bum burger snap

Re:"You also don't get where he is without working, really, really, really hard"

Poppycock.

You get where he is by shouting really, really, really loudly and repetitively, until the morons start believing that your drivel is justified since you've been blabbering for so long.

Stockholm schoolgirls fined for bugging staff room

Re:"avoiding any feeling of insult"

You' re on the Internet, bud. There is no way you'll avoid insulting somebody.

Assange denies 'sexual assault' allegations

Yeah, it's bullet-proof . . .

but have you seen the latest bunker-busters that them thar Air Force jockeys can unleash on "strategic" targets ?

Intel's embedded security strategy faces tech obstacles

Huh ? Security in TVs ??

Good God please say it ain't so ! TVs are dumb terminals and should stay that way.

Any effort to grant them programmatic knowledge is just a security hole begging to be abused., or to imprint them with the ability to refuse to show the film we just bought at the store.

TVs should stay dumb, period.

That is non-negotiable.

Woman sues to force exposure of YouTube bullies

One thing is for sure

There are now dozens of videos entitled "Carla Franklin is sues Google".

One of them is only more than 2 minutes of a blurry still shot (a man and a woman on a beach, could be any couple) - I did not listen to the audio but it doesn't matter really since, if there is no positive identification of the individual, the words cannot be linked to the person.

Facebook login page still leaks sensitive info

Re:Lou Gosselin

"Get used to it; an email address can not, never has, never will be considered secure. It would be folly to pretend it is."

I understand the technical truth of your argument, however I cannot stand the idea that spammers basically have free reign to discover my email address because of the error (or insufficient protection) of a third-party website who _says_ that my data is private.

I still prefer the idea of a unique login error message like 'Permission denied. Please try again."

I know the lusers will find that maddeningly uninformative, but those who are consistently told everything they must do will never learn to pay attention anyway.

Apple fans drool over Liquidmetal widget

"ceramics which are [..] totally transparent to radio"

Gosh, must be great to have that kind of patent lying around.

Too bad they didn't think of actually using such a thing in making their Iphone.

Croydon Advertiser blows lid on 'sinister' brothel

Got it the wrong way around

The Croydon is actually a public service company, rigorously checking the morals of all companies who pass ads in their paper. Those who fail the test get exposed, in addition to having paid money for ads.

It's a moral win for everyone !

Isn't it ?

Police slam internet justice - then use it themselves

End of Cragslist personals

Hey guys, forget Craigslist ! Just go to the Met's website and you can pick TRUE professionals !

Verizon demos 1Gbps over existing fiber network

Just a small correction

>Brian Whitton, executive director of Verizon's technology group, put a marketing spin on the results. "This kind of bandwidth capacity will provide Verizon the ability to start meeting FiOS customers' needs by offering more bandwidth to support services such as email, Usenet, multiplayer texting and limited browsing in privileged areas," he said.<

There, reads better like that.

Microsoft's volume licensing site goes titsup - again

Wrong question, mate

The real question is :

"What is right with Microsoft ?"

It's a question of what still works, because making a list of what is wrong would take days.

DARPA funds Mr Spock on a Chip

A probability processor ?

Calculating the probability of something requires extensive knowledge of the factors that come into play, as well as their relative importance.

Referring to Mr. Spock, it has been demonstrated time and time again that, faced with a totally unknown phenomenon (the staple of T.O.S. episodes), you simply cannot state any probabilities whatsoever with any sort of scientific basis.

The processor is not going to be the thing defining the factors, now is it ? So how exactly is this "probability processor" going to work ? If it has to be fed all the parameters - which is the only way for it to do any statistical analysis - then there's a human that will be doing the work and the "probability" processor will just be a calculator, like any processor today.

It must be more complicated than all that, since there are so many much more intelligent people than me working on that kind of thing, but I'd like the description to be at least something I have a chance of understanding.

George Lucas names Star Wars Blu-ray release date

I still have the VHS

Quite worn out, I admit, but there is still enough detail to notice that HAN SHOT FIRST.

And, as has been outlined in quite a good argument somewhere else, making Greedo shoot first is a disastrous decision for Han's character. In the original version, Han went from being a true selfish smuggler to an actual good person.

With Greedo shooting first, Han goes from semi-innocent good guy to . . good guy, with a bit of selfishness in between that, all of a sudden, is not so comprehensible.

Way to screw up your own story, Lucas.

Hurd snubbed HP board to settle claims

What ?

Jodie Fisher is on Steam as well ?

Nvidia licenses Rambus memory tech

Hardware patents are perfectly normal

They are undoubtedly a driving force in innovation.

At one condition : those who hold the patents make the product.

It is normal for a patent holder to be rewarded for establishing a new, innovative product and making the effort to bring said product to the market.

It is not normal for a patent holder to be rewarded if all he does is brainstorm without ever actually making anything. That is called intellectual masturbation.

I don't care if your idea works, if you do not create wealth, you're just a parasite and I see no reason to give you money.

Excuses such as "we license our know-how to companies" are not valid. If you don't create a product and bring it to market, you are nothing but a parasite.

Hackers spoof car warning system

Unique identifier fore and aft

No more dangerous than having a unique physical identifier per individual (ie: a face).

There is an enormous difference between being recognizable anywhere and being trackable everywhere. That difference is called privacy.

If I drive my car to given destination, I do not expect the police - or anyone else, for that matter - to take any notice of my trip as long as I do not cause any accident. Even if a patrol car happens to follow the same route for a few kilometers (or miles), I don't expect them to write my number down until I actually do something reprehensible (like cross a white line, or exceed the speed limit).

If my trip becomes a line in a database whether I've done something wrong or not, then there is violation of my privacy and i will fight against it as much as I can. Nobody has any business tracing my activity without my express consent if I remain within the limits of the law.

Cashpoint mugger flashes distractionary chesticles

Add insult to injury

In French that would be

"ajouter l'insulte à l'injure"

Microsoft delivers dedicated 30-minute big Fail support

Actually, it had better be costly

I hope it will cost an arm and a leg.

That way, when the inevitable screw-up occurs, MS will have heavyweight, top-dollar-paying customers screaming down their ears and the true, appalling cost of MS software will become apparent.

After one or two of those, management will have a chance to become desensitized with MS and maybe finally switch over to another platform that was built for security and robustness.

Mission-critical used to exclude MS as a matter of course, back when true IT engineers were still listened to, but that was before the rise of PowerPoint management. Now, you have Windows for Warships. If that does not send a shiver up your spine, then you are part of the sheep.

NT box up for 6 years without a reboot ?

Shame on you for not properly updating that box !

Because if you were following proper MS patching schedules, it would be rebooting at least twice a week - or more when the patches were faulty.

6 years without a patch ? That box probably accounts for .01% of worldwide spam.

Congrats !

Microsoft: Hotmail fix coming soon to a browser near you

"switch off the High Contrast display mode"

That's like asking me to roll down my window to ensure proper power steering.

Microsoft digs Macs in back-to-school ads

Gaming on a Mac ?

You knock Windows and your excuse is gaming ? In what universe do you live ?

This is the list of games I have currently installed :

AI War, Bejeweled 2 dlx, Battlefield 2, Brothers In Arms, Car Tycoon, Civilization 4, Crysis + Warhead, Diablo II, Dungeon Keeper II, Evil Genius, Far Cry, Freelancer, Galactic Civilizations, Hellgate London, Imperium Galactica II, Lemmings95, LotRO, Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, Nuclear Ball 2, Star Wars Rebellion, Rome Total War, Settlers 2, SimCity 4, StarCraft II, Unreal Tournament 4, WarCraft III, Capitalism 2, Company Of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, Dungeon and Dragons Online, Driving Speed 2, Etherlords 2, FreeCiv, Future Pinball, GTA 3 San Andreas, Lode Runner, Mahjongg, Micro Machines 4, Transport Tycoon dlx, Plasma Pong, Prison Tycoon, Stubbs, Supreme Commander, SWINE, Syndicat, Transport Giant, Theme Hospital, TOCA Race Driver 3 and World of Goo.

And you can add Steam games if you want :

Alien Breed Impact, Alien Swarm, Counter-Strike Source, Day Of Defeat, Defense Grid : The Awakening, Enemy Territory Quake Wars, Gratuitious Space Battles, Guild Wars, Left 4 Dead 2, Operation Flashpoint : Dragon Rising, Portal, Half-Life (+Opposing Forces +Blue Shift), Half-Life 2, Serious Sam HD : First Encounter, Supreme Commander 2, Torchlight, UT3: Black Edition, WH40K DoW II.

And these are just the games I play currently, not all the ones I have (legitimately, I must add).

So, MAC boy, how many of these games do you have on your platform ?

Since not long ago, you have Portal. That much I know, since they made a great PR stunt about it on Steam.

What else ?

And consoles, pah ! No console has the selection I have, period. No console has any RTS title worth anything. I doubt you can play any Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, or other MMORPG title on console.

How many subscribers to World of Warcraft already ?

Windows is far from dead, troll.

Far from.

How an ancient printer can spill your most intimate secrets

Sure, today it's inkjey and laser

But one has to start somewhere, and it seems rather logical to use the most obvious system to weed out the errors first.

After all, what input is being used may have little influence once the patterns have been defined.

Thus, the next step of this boffinry is to ensure that recognition gets boosted to at least 95% in all cases.

After that, all that is needed is to define the patterns of an inkjet printer and presto ! Industrial espionage via the secretary's personal paper waster.

It's a work in progress, don't knock it.

Ellison blasts HP 'idiots' for Hurd's exit

The claims are "utterly false"

So that's why Hurd resigned. And that's why he cut a private deal with the miss, paid out of his own (deep) pocket.

Come on, since when do companies have a history of telling the truth ? They are not part of the legal system, they say what they want to say and if what they say is not true, tough cookies.

The HP board decided to do a cover-up, well duh. Meanwhile, if millionaire buddies pitch in for each other, that does not keep the rank and file at HP from not regretting Hurd one bit.

Besides, why agree to a private deal and resign if you have not done anything wrong ? No, the truth is that Hurd actually screwed HP over for a lot more than just 20 grand and he decided that, since the excrements have started to fly toward the fan, it was best to make a quick exit and not have a real inquiry uncover all the dirty secrets and meddling he is guilty of.

Microsoft ends Office lovers' employee discount program

Office 2010 ? Pah !

My Office 2000 works fine, thank you. I'm not paying for anything more.

HP's Hurd quits quickly on sexual harassment probe

Resigned as soon as he found out, did it ?

So it has to be true and, more importantly, it has to be rock-solid undeniable because otherwise, we'd get the righteous indignation of a poor, wronged millionaire CEO.

There is now a big GUILTY sign hanging over his head.

And dinner conversation must be rather bleak.

Serves the bastard right. You can't screw everyone all the time.

Defcon speaker calls IPv6 a 'security nightmare'

Internet connection requires an address

Thus, if a gaming console has Internet connectivity, it must have an IP.

IPv6 has squintillions of available addresses, and that is a good thing. Unfortunately, humanity has a track record of occupying available resources until their exhaustion. That trend is already well underway for IPv6 as well.

Just think about it : smartphones, consoles, even some BluRay players have Internet connectivity already. There is talk about connecting fridges, televisions and freezers as well. Cars will end up connected one day.

So, let us imagine a future where a 4-person household has the following elements connected to the Internet :

- 2 cars

- 3 televisions

- 4 media players

- 3 consoles

- 7 smartphones

- 2 fridges

- 1 freezer

- 1 dog

Yes, the dog. Don't tell me that they won't end up with GPS-tracking collars you can follow on your PC, because they will. Add as many dogs as you want.

So that makes a total of 23 IP addresses required for 1 house of 4 people.

Today ? We have 1 IP connection per household, with NAT inside the house.

The ration is then 1 to 23.

Yep, that IPv6 is well on its way to becoming saturated as well.

Won't be enough

It will never be worth enough to restructure to IPv6.

And if it does become worth big bucks, then the buying company will, at one point, have to decide to go IPv6 anyway.

Ballmer's 'lost generation' note finds resonance

Re:"I can open Terminal.app"

Well I'll be happy to leave you to your delusions and your keyboard-only environment, gramps.

Meanwhile, I'll be loitering on MMORPGS, FPSes and RTSes in various GUI environments including Windows, Suse, Fedora, Ubuntu and a few others.

On the same hardware.

Because I'm intelligent enough to know the difference between hardware and OS, and I do not confuse the OS I use, much less one single app on said OS, with "the computer".

Microsoft responds to IE8 'privacy quashed' report

Well that is hardly surprising

Anyone who thinks that Microsoft has its "users" best interests at heart should now be clearly aware of who Microsoft believes its users are.

It's not you and me.

Since Vista it is clear that Microsoft favors the RIAA/MPAA/rights holders, and now it is officially nurturing advertisers.

If only my favorite games ran on Linux, I'd be there yesterday.