Posts by Pascal Monett

Thom Yorke dismisses net-only album paradigm

I don't know Radiohead

So I cannot comment on whether they are good or not, but in my view it doesn't even matter. What matters to me is that they have demonstrated publicly that selling an album online without getting shafted by "the majors" is possible and economically feasible, and for that I thank them.

The more artists stay away from RIAA and consorts, the quicker that ugly, greedy, corporate malfeasant will hopefully die off and leave us alone with the music we love.

I prefer a million Radioheads to one RIAA.

Microsoft warns on Home Server bug

Microsoft is, always was and always will be crap

I've been a Microsoft user since the days of DOS 1.0, and no one (especially not a certain Hewitt) will ever convince me that MS does not make crap products.

The only reason I continue to use the crap that comes out of Ballmer's domain is because I have to.

Why do I have to ? Because my work is centered around it, my hobby is centered around it, and finally, I am wayyyy to lazy to be my own personal Sysadmin at home.

To those who continually chip in their inevitable "Linux is better !" comments, I say call me when Linux can run the 250+ games I have bought without any hassle for me (I'll start listening when Linux gets a DirectX version).

So there you have it. I'm a developer by day, and a gamer on my free time. I have done all desktop OSes MS has ever made, and none of them has been the perfect, stable and discreet OS that I expected. Of all the versions MS has made, I must say that XP Pro SP1 is by far the best of the lot - even with all its shortcomings.

So when MS talks about Home Server, or Vista whatever, I just laugh and forget about it. MS handling my data ? One look at the history of its backup programs and you forget that idea. I do my backups myself, thank you, with Nero and a blank DVD. Works fine and MS can't screw it up, not today, not tomorrow either.

You want a data hub ? Get a NAS unit (working under a Linux kernel). You want a server ? Either Linux, Sun or IBM are your only choices, anything else will only bring pain in the long run. MS is only still around because of the immense software library that was made for it - and with Vista, MS is actively trying to kill that off.

The day any game I buy can run on a Linux box, Windows will be sailing out my window for good. Meanwhile, I'll stick with it, but don't ever ask me to trust it.

Portuguese-speaking worm attacks Google Orkut users

Within hours . .

Hey, Microsoft ! Did you read that ? The hole was patched WITHIN HOURS.

Not years, not months, not even days.

Does that mean ANYTHING to you, Steve ?

Gates' spontaneity highlights IE data gap

Will it comply with web standards?

Wrong question. The real question is : Will it comply with non-Microsoft web standards?

Serena promises dev teams shorter hours

What a great idea !

No, seriously, from a business point of view this has to be great.

Sell a product that allows the management, who has no technical know-how whatsoever, to define their own security rules and object definitions.

And who, in management, is going to actually, you know, READ THE MANUAL ? Who is going to take the time needed to implement a test environment ? How many suits are going to worry about side effects before going in and implementing their latest brainstorm in production ?

The management is going to love it, fiddle around with it, and - most importantly - continually break everything. And when something is broken, what will management do ? Ring IT, of course, and issue a terse "fix it !" command because, you know, this thing has to work RIGHT THIS INSTANT.

And IT will slave away at the trash that the managers put in until it's fixed, get no thanks at all for their efforts and just pray that those suits won't break the thing again in the next five minutes.

I think we've got a winner here !

Software maker releases the hounds on security vuln reporter

"every effort to nicely ask"

Yeah, that sounds really credible.

A bit like a scene from a cop story where the bad guy has just broken every finger in the cops' hand, then sits down in front of the pain-blinded victim, pulls out a gun, puts it to the guys' head and says : "okay, I'll ask you nicely : where did you put the advisory ?".

In any case, I've just added one more company to my list of who-not-to-deal-with. Thanks for the warning, Autonomy !

Microsoft releases battling OS release candidates

@Mark

"the two products share a source code tree"

Beyond my first reaction (uh, duh !), I must admit that I am a bit skeptical about the claim that "the server group generally keep more or less on track". If the source code tree changes, then the server group is stuffed and the keeping on track is likely to be rather less than more.

But nonwithstanding the on-trackiness of the server group, what I conclude from your rabid defense of this pile of turkey doo is that, if I should get a lobotomy and actually want to try something named Vista, I should actually try the server version.

Hmm. That could be feasible actually, at the condition that the server version forgoes the embedded DRM and useless and annoying UAC. I would guess that, for a server version, speed in copying files is of the essence, and a UAC popup kind of defeats the use of server in the first place.

So it's nice to know that the day I lose my brain I'll still have something to play with. Meanwhile, I'll stick with XP if you don't mind.

Well actually, I'll stick with XP whether you mind or not.

Phone phreaks spoof LSD-induced multiple homicide

And they find that funny ?

What if some innocent person had gotten shot during one of these "pranks" ? It would be entirely possible, I think.

You really have to be a moron to get your laughs out of launching the cops on some innocent person. I would think that, should the cops burst down the door of these sad pranksters in the middle of the night and come in weapons ready, these losers wouldn't find it so funny.

They'd probably crap their pajamas.

I hope they get the maximum. Such behavior is beyond despicable.

Facebook CEO capitulates (again) on Beacon

@Christopher Martin

"you don't need social networking websites to destroy your own privacy"

True, but thanks to social networking websites you can now destroy your privacy in view of the entire wired world. You can make yourself so ridiculous you will be instantly recognized from Alabama to Tokyo via Berlin and Cape Town, and that reputation will follow you until you see a plastic surgeon to change your face.

Before, you could make yourself the village idiot, but if the situation became intolerable you could pack and move to another village and start with a clean slate.

With the Internet, YouTube and the rest, if ever anything ridiculous gets posted about you, it is likely to be there for the rest of your life - and wherever you are, someone will find it sooner or later.

I'm guessing that that'll get real annoying in the long run.

Nokia sees a good future for Nokia

One quarter of all content will be user-generated

Well that's basically already the case on YouTube, no ? And what exactly is generated by users ? Cat videos, dog videos, baby videos, and generally very boring stuff. And the occasional happy-slapping vid, or even outright fighting. Then you have the massive group of people who film themselves talking, thinking that not only people are interested in their inane blabberings, and that they look good doing it as well.

But frankly I don't really care what kind of content is generated. For me, a phone is for phoning. Videos and films I watch on a widescreen TV from my couch, thank you very much.

Flying robots get aerial highway code

Outsource pilot call centers ?

What a daft idea. First of all, for military operations it will be unheard of - you don't want to give control of tactical assets to a party whose security you are not in control of either. Second, if outsourcing call centers is an already-not-so-bright idea for helpdesk and customer support, just imagine the nightmare it will become when you have a soldier trying to understand a stream of east-Asian engrish in the midst of a conflict situation.

Might as well ask the Army to take its orders from an Admiral. It won't work well.

Counterfeit Vista rate half that of XP

plans to further curtail piracy

Um, that has to mean "even more restrictive DRM", which will inevitably lead us to "more false-positives in WGA" and hilarity ensues as the DHS is reported as being locked out of its own computers.

Meanwhile, normal users will continue to use XP SP2 for the foreseeable future, and they will be vindicated when Microsoft finally ports DX10 to XP.

Yes, I am convinced it will happen.

Beer makes people have sex with you

Drinking leads to more rumpy-pumpy

Addendum sorely needed to this stunningly useful study. As all Vulture readers know, the beer glass effect has a real impact on most drinkers, making some go and shag whatever moves. So yes, they probably get more pillow time, but I'd say there's a faire chance they don't remember it well either.

I prefer less quantity with more quality. Remembering is half the fun, after all.

Appraisals are dishonest, waste of time

Yup, been there and seen it all

I've worked in several companies, and the appraisal process was different every time. In one, nobody trusted the whole thing since it was a foregone conclusion that the ones getting bonuses or perks had already been chosen, and that's exactly what happened. In another, the appraisal process was a very formal thing, with an HR psychologist interview first, a week for analysis of interview, then review of analysis with employer, but for all that hubbub nothing ever came out of the whole waste of time. I've witnessed civil service appraisals as well (safely from my contractors' position) and I must say it was almost funny seeing how so many people took the thing seriously when the managers had already decided which gorgeous personal secretary was going to accompany them on the bonus trip to Paradise Isle.

Right now, the company I'm in is the fairest in my view. Funny though, there is no yearly appraisal - my boss actually talks to me more than once a month, and lets me know his opinion of on an ongoing basis (whether good or bad). I rather like that.

Ex-HMRC boss gets shiny new civil service post

Re:flog them

I'm right with you there. 40 lashes seems to not even begin to suffice, but historically speaking people have trouble surviving more, so I guess we'll have to cap it at that.

Can we have the ceremonies in stadiums ? With a gladiator fight after the flogging ? And some terrorists let loose with hungry lions after that ?

Pedophile gets 110 years in MySpace extortion scheme

Locked away eh ?

And what guarantees that he won't get access to Internet while locked up ? Because I've heard that there are convicts that do have Internet access.

So ?

NASA pondering electro-hypersonic jet boosters

If access to space is ever to become easier

Then Earth's orbit is going to need a serious cleaning. The thousands of nuts, bolts and assorted debris that are floating around up there will be a navigational hazard of much greater importance if the traffic is multiplied by civilian activity.

Secret mailing list rocks Wikipedia

Well that's a good example

I have now the perfect example of what I call a Wikinazi. Secret lists, secret tribunals, information on need-to-know basis that you never need to know, all the typical behavioral patterns of an organization that has none of the goals referenced under "freedom of information", "justice", or even plain old "common sense".

It would appear that common sense is not so common after all.

In any case, behavior like this is the very reason why I despise Wikipedia : ignoramuses who abuse their powers remove all credibility from anything they touch. I'm sorry for all the people who honestly work to contribute to this failure of a model, but I approach Wikipedia with just as much circumspection as I would approach an angry rattlesnake.

Facebook 'to drop' creeptech ad system

@ Darren Coleman

Thank you for copy/pasting part of the article I just read. You seem to have forgot, however, to make any comment on it. What exactly is it you wanted to say ?

US Army plans robot planes operated by non-pilots

'This will set back robot planes for decades'

On the contrary, multiplying the amount of operators means multiplying the amount of drones, which in turn means higher build rates, more improvements, innovation and cost reduction.

And, in turn, we get better drones for less cost, while operators get easier-to-control interfaces to get used to.

Looks like a boom is coming for drone builders.

Google wants to make renewable power cheaper than coal

The problem is actually . .

that the Matrix is true, we're a part of it, and Google has found out the truth.

The terrifying part is going to be when Keanu shows up at Google HQ in a black gown.

Boffins report lightning on Venus, our non-identical twin

Send over the crust sub !

I think an urgent mission to put Venus' core back in rotation is required. All we need is a tunneling train made of Unobtainium and a crew willing to sacrifice its life to get Venus a magnetic field.

And concerning liberals and biaised scientists, it's useless imposing on Venusians the same pathetic public institutions that a country on Earth has. Venusians certainly don't have liberals or conservatatives - heck, we don't even know if they have politicians !

Man sentenced to 20 years in murder of online rival

Doesn't make sense

"To gun down a boy over simple jealousy does not make sense to us"

Sorry, but although I can understand and sympathize with their bereavement, things like that have been happening since before guns were invented.

Passion (not love) has been the source of a great many murders. There is no surprise in this development.

Novell vs SCO will go to court after all

Personally, I'll go with the majority here

and just say Die SCO ! Die !

US judge debenched for jailing entire courtroom

Don't see what the problem is

Given that the US is on a rampage as far as personal freedoms are concerned, I cannot see why this is a problem. Frankly it's a case of left hand not knowing what right hand is doing.

And Dubya is obviously a perfect example to drag in (again). After all, he's the one setting examples.

So war cannot be declared by the President alone ? And ? Is that supposed to mean that the muppets would have actually had the balls to go against it ? Of course not, As far as I remember, the war was approved at a dictatorship-like 90-something percent, with only a few abstentions which were commented on as end-of-career decisions. NOBODY said no to the war. Not one. So anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

But hey, what else do you expect from politicians ?

Rare bug blights Lotus Notes

There we go again with Outlook

Frankly, for people to prefer Outlook over Notes just demonstrates how little they know about what they pretend to use.

Yes, Notes is a memory hog. That much is undeniable. And if all you do with it is mail, I do agree that you're better off without it. Blame your management for taking a 20-ton trailer to go shopping.

Lotus Notes is a very efficient development platform that can give extremely efficient applications and can ALSO do mail.

To use Notes ONLY for mail is a bad waste of resources, just as not training users for Notes is bound to bring about the Outlook comparisons and gripes.

For the rest, Outlook is so riddled with security holes and instability that frankly I wonder why the thing was ever accepted in companies in the first place.

The one mistake Notes persists in is not making its interface more Outlook-like. Maybe the fact that Microsoft is just begging for a chance to launch a thousand lawyers at it has something to do with this situation.

Those of you who yearn for Outlook, I truly do wish the best of luck in getting your dream come true. That'll be that much less "it's not like Outlook" complaints in Notes forums. Unfortunately, it'll probably be that much more spam boxes and DDOS launchers to be pwned as well.

And yes, I am a Notes developer, have been for twelve years. And yes, I do make a living out of it, much like a great number of Exchange specialists.

As for the worst piece of software ever written, I'd have to give that gong to IE, hands down.

Businesses blind to the security risks of temporary staff

Frankly I doubt that

After twelve years as a developer and consultant, I must say that I have rarely, if ever, experienced such latitude in my access to client IT infrastructure.

Any bank is going to insist that you use their own hardware to access their resources, and you are generally quite clearly warned that your activity will be logged - which is quite a deterrent if you want to seek for information you're not supposed to have access to.

Most other companies are going to give you a PC as well, and if they do allow you to log on to their network with your laptop, you never have access to in-house network discs.

Besides, has anyone forgot about reputation ? As a consultant, my job is to leave a customer happy so that he calls me back. That won't happen if they find evidence that I've ripped their customer database, now will it ?

Google preps magic GDrive

Easier to access from anywhere

"it's easier to share and access your data from anywhere when it's online, in one place"

Yep, easier for the criminals and hackers too. And more so for them probably, since they likely will not be affected by the downtime your connection has for whatever reason.

No really, someone should gut this fish once and for all. My data is mine, and it stays on my computer. If I need to bring it anywhere, there is a host of possibilities that are easy, readily available and a lot more secure than under-attack-24/7 online storage.

A CD or DVD RW is available to everyone these days for a pittance. If 4.7GB is not enough, USB keys reach 8GB now, which is more than enough for most people. If that is still not enough, you have portable HDDs that connect via USB easily and reliably, which gives you tens of GB of storage, if not hundreds. Some of then even connect via SATA 2 links, which ups the bandwidth nicely.

And all of those solutions are local and secure as long as you don't leave them on a park bench unattended. Much better, in my opinion, than leaving that data on public servers any hacker can get interested in just for the heck of it.

America's 8m victims of identity theft

18% unaccounted for

56% had no clue, so 44% should have given an indication. Unfortunately, only (16+8+2) 26% are reported as having given one. What did the rest say ?

Boffins ponder Galileo signals as ocean monitors

Interesting nonsense

It is really fun to see to what extent some people go to include high-tech stuff in places that can quite well do without. A delivery boy is going to go to the reception desk and drop off the parcel there and get someone from the company to sign the receipt. Delivery boys have no interest in knowing at what floor the recipient is - they have other parcels to deliver.

Same for the window cleaners. If it is a tall building, there is a great likelihood that there is a crane and nacelle available on the roof. If not, the professional will know soon enough whether his ladder is good for the job or not. He does not need a gadget to tell him that, and he most probably isn't interested in one that purports to tell him how to do his job.

The only piece of tech gear that is really useful on a global scale is the mobile phone. The one piece of high-tech gear useful for manual labor is the laser measurer for measuring distances in a house or hangar. GPS or Galileo-enabled kit is not going to be of any use to a carpenter, painter, or blacksmith - not beyond finding where their next workplace is.

In any case, what I really find interesting is the fact that satellite signals can be captured and reused after they have bounced off the Earth's surface. I wonder what use Tom Clancy could make of that ?

Biometrics won't fix data loss problems

For Heaven's sake

What's all this tosh about theft of biometrics ? There doesn't need to be any thievery involved, since the British Government has amply demonstrated that it is perfectly capable of releasing data into the wild on its own !

Civil service apologises for HMRC data loss

all efforts are being made to ensure that such a loss can never happen again

Would that mean that

1) they're learning how to do an SQL query properly, and

2) they're hiring a special courier to convey the disks ?

Given that a mass-mailing of 7 million letters is likely to cost several million itself, I think the cost of a special courier dedicated to just conveying data disks will be largely funded by this disgraceful accident for years to come.

Oh, and one last thing : which senior official lost his job over this ? Nobody ? Then how can you say "all efforts are being made" when there is no sanction for making the error in the first place ?

It's just a load of political arse-covering.

Melting ice kills polar bears, say boffins

We *might*, if we tried exclusively and really hard

Bollocks. All we have to do today is push the big red button on Putin's and Dubya's desk.

Five minutes all told, and the future of Humanity and most of Life as we know it will be to die from radiation poisoning and starvation.

The hard work has already been done. Now it's easy.

Mobe, mobe, mobe. There - we've said it

As for me

I salute our Grand Vulture Poobah. As I grovel in the dust under his baleful eye, I give thanks to His magnificence in tolerating my miserable browser in the august presence of His pages. I totally accept mobe, lappy, linguine and any other wording the El Reg boffinry will deign foist upon my unworthy eyes with relish.

And some ketchup, naturally.

Mars Express circles planet 5,000 times

11 meters ?

78.57 linguine, you mean. Or 1.19 double-decker buses lying on the front.

Hey, we got the converter, we're gonna use it !

Tasers can be instrument of torture, says UN

I have to wonder

Why do people insist on resisting Police force when they are under official scrutiny ? Running away from the cops has always been a very clear "I'm guilty" signal, and I would think, given the recent history of killings, that being pulled over by an officer is a time to stick your hands in view and not move a muscle for fear of being shot in the head a dozen times.

If you are guilty, I would also suspect that spending some time in jail - where there is, after all, a rather good chance of survival - is better than trying to resist or legging it, options which now have a fair chance of getting you a heart attack or a dozen slugs to the upper body regions.

If I ever go back to the US (or the UK for that matter) and some cop starts yelling at me, I'll be splayed on the floor faster than you can blink and I'll just start praying that he isn't too highly agitated to take his gun out and shoot me anyway.

Galileo tugs on public purse strings

Oh my goodness !

Germany has excess funds to give back to the member states ?! How on Earth do they do that ? Never heard of that in France in any case.

German cops shutter school after net massacre tip-off

Re: Weaponry

They might be the last players of Hexen ?

MoveOn tells Facebook to stop shining Beacon

"Information is shared with a small selection of a user's trusted network of friends"

And what does the selection ? And am I supposed to believe that this "selection" cannot be modified by any of all those wonderful "user-generated apps" that are just so much malware waiting for a moron to activate them ?

My God I am glad I don't use any MySpaceBook of any kind.

Info chief renews call for data breach crime penalties

We have a duty

"We have a duty to do everything that we can to protect the public"

Except, obviously, what is actually necessary to protect said public. Such as implement proper procedures and authorizations and technical barriers that would enforce said duty.

Or maybe, just maybe, the word "public" is not actually used to mean the citizens but, in this case, when used by a politician, means "my colleagues who have monumentally screwed up" ?

I have to wonder about that.

Bumblebee boogie analysis in webserver boost

There's better

Bees do indeed have a quite efficient resource-harvesting method, but Aliens do a better job. Not only do they relentlessly pursue and capture all "resources" in their vicinity, but they go one step further by dragging their captives back to the hive and transforming them into more Aliens !

Not sure what killer app we could devise from that example, but I'm sure we could kill something with it.

AMD reveals 'Spider' platform

More "AMD is gonna die"

Hmm . . how long have I been hearing that ? Gosh, just about ever since AMD existed, if I remember correctly.

And it'll continue for the rest of the century, I guess.

AMD has already been in worse shape, and now it has graphics potential to boost it along as well.

I don't know, but I'm guessing that AMD is going to burst the shell again in a year or two, just like it did with the Athlon range that rattled Intel's cage so much. I think AMD is going to give us a really good CPU with integrated graphics in the coming years, and that CPU is going to give Intel a hard time again.

The only frustrating thing about AMD is the fact that it screws up so regularly. But it has survived dire straights before, and I don't think that its current potential puts it in a worse situation than it was seven years ago.

In any case, I've heard "AMD is gonna die" for decades now. AMD is still here, stronger than before. Still got problems, but still here nonetheless.

Gene Simmons blames college kids for ruining music biz

Well there's one good thing in all this

"he doesn't plan on making a new KISS album"

Thank God for that !

Warner Music supremo in Apple-fondling mea culpa

I'll believe that guy

when Disney puts its entire catalogue for sale and download in one go.

No more missing titles, no more artificial rarity. Everything in one place, and I can buy whatever I want.

Do that and I'll start believing you. Anything else is just wind blowing past my ears.

Apple TV goes to the movies

Oh my goodness !

Almost 300GB for a film ?!? Wow ! Is this a special case, or do all HD films reach that size ?

B3ta served DMCA notice for Photoshop Prince challenge

But why ?

Why are we still talking about this nutcase ? He's a moron and attacks his fans, got it. Can we sweep him under a rug now ? Maybe lock him in an attic where he belongs ?

Microsoft animates FlickrYouTubeDotMac -enstein

Alert the world to its plans ?

Do you really think there is anyone that has any doubt about Microsoft's plans ?

It all holds in one word : domination.

21st century travel: building your own warp drive

Now look at what you've done

You cry that amanfrommars has not yet posted anything . . and you get three chunks of gibberish.

When will you learn to just ignore the . . creature ?

US eggheads in spurious va-voom/intelligence linkage

I am so going to rain on this parade

First of all, I seem to recall that there is intense argument around the question of whether or not we have a valid test for intelligence, meaning that the IQ tests those jokers used are anything but approved.

Second, based solely on my personal experience and observations, I believe that the more good looks a woman has, the more she is in danger of not having pursued her studies very far (I'm not saying she's stupid, just that she rarely goes for a university degree).

Because we all know that a stunning beauty has no need for academic credentials - there will be no end of wealthy suitors just begging for a chance to take care of her for the rest of their lives. Her only job is to find the one that will last for the long haul, if she has the presence of mind to worry about that kind of detail.

Indeed, I would even go so far as to suggest that the more a woman is ugly, the more she will work her brain and get academic credentials to make up for that lack in the attractiveness department.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some women are too intelligent to satisfy themselves with triggering the drool reflex wherever they go, and some are simply too thick to notice that nobody ever seems to want to stay next to them for more than a bus ride. As said before, intelligence comes in various guises, and so does the lack of it.

But I think that it takes a rather strong character to keep pushing one's grey matter when one's pink matter has a high rate of success.

And I dispute the validity of the IQ tests completely.

Okay, you may stoke the flames when ready.

Squaddies warned off Facebook

@Nile Heffernan

"This isn't so very different to any major civilian corporation"

Sure it's not - it's only that with major civilian corporations there's no little side possibility of being killed for it.