Posts by Pascal Monett

Microsoft's online Office variant preps for business

"eagerly anticipated"

Oh yeah ? By who ? The 90% of users that are still happily using Office 2000 ?

McKinsey: Adopt the cloud, lose money

@Mathias Pfuetzner

So, you liked the Cool-Aid so much you posted the same thing twice ?

Must taste real good then !

But tell me, don't you think Google is a bit of an exception as far as cloud computing is concerned ? I mean, is there any other company that has anything even close to what Google has as far as data-crunching is concerned ? I don't think so.

As for the rest of your arguments, you sidestep nicely the question of confidentiality. Banks are not going to use the cloud for anything and you know that. I'll wager that most companies will keep the mission-critical apps in-house as well because, you know, there's that liability thing that keeps cropping up now and then. And there's already enough trouble with loss of customer data as it is, no need to add cloud hacking to the mix.

In short, I really don't see how this new fad is going to go anywhere farther than it already is. Remote hosting is an old idea, and there are domains where it can be used advantageously - I believe those domains are already well-known and the services already available.

This cloud thingy strikes me as just another train for the Web 2.0 crowd to milk as far as they can, nothing more.

Attention Symantec: There's a bug crawling on your website

"can jeopardize a site's good standing"

Yeah, sure. I'll believe that the day it actually happens. In the meantime, I trust that absolutely nothing will impede on Symantec's "good" name.

The last time I looked at their products was somewhere around 1998. It's been bollocks ever since.

One in ten PCs still vulnerable to Conficker exploit

I got an even cheaper deal

I have a hardware firewall, a free anti-virus and I use Firefox.

Haven't had a problem in the past six years.

'Vista Capable' judge tosses class-action status - again

Ah, a Microsoft victory

Let them savor it - soon they'll have to come to grips with how Win 7 doesn't sell.

Jimbo Wales kills 'Google killing' Wikia Search

Information controlled by few behind closed doors

Isn't that the First Commandment of Whakypedia ?

Blizzard: Game designers aren't Shakespeare

@mike panero

Are you happy with your quest now ?

US mums sue anti-sexting crusader

Child porn ? Fuck off !

Let's make one thing clear : child pornography is when an _adult_ takes pics of minors in various states of undress or suggestive poses.

If the minor takes pics of him- or herself, it's no longer child porn ! It may be stupid, but it cannot be labeled as child porn.

This whole case reeks of zero-tolerance, overreacting do-goody twoshoes whose actions are way out of line with whatever the intent was. And I'd like to see a lawsuit come up to determine just how those pics were dug up in the first place.

After all, if American cops start random mobe searches in US universities and schools, I wager we'll hear a lot more about child porn soon, and possibly about regular porn as well !

'Nanodiamond' asteroid tracked from space to desert impact

They've found it !

Your prodigal use of scientific terms nonwithstanding, any 1st-level mage would immediately recognize this piece of rock for what it is : starmetal. Now, could somebody please make a +5 sword out of it ?

Microsoft loudly disses secret 'Cloud Manifesto'

We know the drill, Martin

Microsoft only complains that "one company" holds the cards when that company ain't Microsoft. It means that Microsoft is pissed that they are not the ones calling the shots. It also means that Microsoft will show great eagerness in getting its bloody hands on the specs in order to "enhance" them with proprietary plug-ins which will "encourage" developers to use the Microsoft version and none other.

Oh we know the drill all right, and God are we tired of it.

China brands Tibet beating video fake

Re: China as "a respected member of the international community"

You forgot just one thing : China is respected as a member of the international community based on two things only : first, it can field an army of more men than most countries have people, and second, it has limitless market potential for capitalist money-grubbing CEO's to drool over.

Being respectful of people's rights has never been a criteria and probably never will be.

Microsoft: Judge us by our deeds on open source

What a load of hot air

The usual Microsoft gumption is at work here. Judge you by your deeds indeed, do you think we've waited for your permission ? Do you think your track record is such a shining, spotless testament to your belief in Open Source ?

In case you might have missed it, Ballmer, we still remember the fact that you are a convicted monopolist, despite all those things Gates claimed to not remember. And we will never forget the hugely reported trial against Linux, which was really a perfect demonstration of your "commitment" to Open Source. By the way, Steve, have you ever actually published the 200+ infringements that you based your trial on ? I mean, apart from the one so poorly disguised by hiding it in another font ?

So, just to make it perfectly clear, Monkey Boy, your track record reads like a pimps' criminial record. Abuse (of customers and vendors), battery (of the judicial system), corporate misdoings (company takeovers just to kill a product), money laundering (i.e. tax evasion) and practically every crime we have a law for (metaphorically speaking), they're all in your record.

And we will never forget that.

Game designers deconstruct their 'art'

So he gets his ideas on the toilet ?

Well, now I understand EA Games ! Somebody tell them to change their diet, maybe we'll get better games some time next century.

Security in the clouds - or clouds in security?

Nice article

I feel that this article outlines quite clearly the major issues that exist with "cloud service" operators. For me, my opinion of cloudy stuff is simple : banks and major multinational corporations will never allow their internal data to be hosted by someone else.

Ergo, without the boost and credibility that these key organizations give, this whole cloud thing will never really take off, or else will remain at the "host your mail and 100GB of data" level that it is today.

ISS space bio-experiment freezer to return on Discovery

So, about 28 days later

Does that mean that that film is actually a documentary ?

Health trust pushing on with record sharing

It really bugs me

I can understand Phorm, I can understand private companies doing anything to make another buck and waiting for the backlash to tone things down. It's a stupid policy, but I can understand it. For the life of me though, I cannot understand that a public service, government-owned and government funded, without any commercial obligation, stoops to that kind of petty thievery. Where does this tendency come from ? What is it with civil servants these days ? Who in their right mind can possibly think that opt-out is the morally proper way to do things ? I can't get it. I just can't.

Conspiracy theories fly around Norton forum 'Pifts' purge

Haven't they learned yet ?

No really, how many times have we heard of this kind of nonsense. Vendor's product has issue, questions posted on vendor forum, posts deleted.

Customer Relations 101 reminder : deleting questions without explanation will invariably bring the issue under greater scrutiny and will, without fail, put the vendor in bad light in the opinion of the public.

Happens every time. No exceptions.

Why oh why do these companies still try ?

Samsung unsheathes screaming phone

"coordinates as provided by a built-in GPS"

I look forward to seeing a police car hurry to a location, stop with screeching tires and four cops popping out to look for a victim who is actually 100 yards away around the corner, bleeding on the ground next to a little bunch of plastic pieces that may have been a phone.

Beware the dazzle of Microsoft's Azure lure

@John

You forgot point E : any version after #3 is on an irreversible trend of bloat and cruft that will render the product more and more unusable and full of complex vulnerabilities that will be utter bliss for all the skript kiddies and malware authors.

Rogue Facebook app creates malign buzz

Wonderful

So, Facebook is becoming a test platform for script kiddies ? This is going to be fun to watch.

VMware makes world takeover bid

"VMware will ... try and avoid the emergence of massive proprietary uber-clouds"

At least, VMware will try to avoid the emergence of massive proprietary uber-clouds other than its own.

Microsoft goes retail with own shops

Finally

There is finally going to be a brick-and-mortar place where I can go throw a rock in the window when I'm over-exasperated with how Windows works - or doesn't, as may be case.

McKinnon UK trial decision delayed

Actually, for the DoD, it does

Because he made the admins in the US military look like the idiots they are, and for that reason he has to be put away and made to break rocks to atone for the horrible, terrible deed. That is 99% of the damages cited. The rest is just the time it took to slap one of those admins until proper passwords got set.

Barcelona boffin births swarming microrobots

Re:Merely possessing sensors does not make something "aware".

I heartily agree. I see objects shuffling around every day at the office. They have very good sensors (high-tech ones called eyes and ears), but they seem blissfully unaware of anything.

As long as the coffeepot is not empty, that is.

Elevator music files for Chapter 11

Doubletake

So they're gone . . to better serve their customers ?

That must be something like the local Triad gangster changing the "ownership" of his restaurant three times in the last five years - with the same personnel, the same crappy list of dishes, but a different decor each time.

And the Income Tax guys get fooled every time.

Nvidia to power Dark Knight on Vista netbooks

Re:why do I need hi-def movie content on a 10" netbook screen

Get with the progam, mister. You need it because we say so. And when you get wristwatches with 2048x1600 pixels, we'll make sure it has a Blu-Ray drive so you can watch you favorite space opera while getting a cramp in your arm.

Now go and pay your voluntary contribution to the Save The RIAA fund. If you don't know where to go, don't worry, a friendly RIAA SWAT team is waiting just around the corner with a lawyer to "serve" you.

Kids online: Parents need to regulate, says Ofcom

“Laws rarely prevent what they forbid.”

Now that sounds like words of wisdom.

If that is true, though, then why on Earth are legislators so hell-bent on creating new ones ?

Oh, sorry. I had an access of logic there. I'll be all right, I promise.

Jacqui Smith ecstatically ignores more scientific advice

"the long term effects of (insert your poison here) use 'cannot be ruled out'"

Yeah sure. Funny how that argument is totally ignored when it comes to cigarettes, alcohol, guns, Wall Street, genetically-modified organisms and a bunch of other subjects that have been proven to be dangerous in given circumstances.

I am seriously tired of this game of switch-to-the-argument-that-suits-us-best that these politicians play nonstop.

I would like a global policy put in place : choose a line of conduct and STICK TO IT. If you are worried about long-term effects of one thing (as well you should be), then take that perspective into account in ALL other aspects of your mandate.

Politics would be a lot simpler if each subject had a checklist with the same items :

- is it a global issue ?

- is it financially important ?

- is it socially important ?

- is it economically feasible ?

- is it socially acceptable ?

- is it morally acceptable ?

- will there be any short-term benefits ?

- will there be any long-term benefits ?

- what will the short term cost be ?

- what will the long term cost be ?

Go through the list publicly, each time, and validate the answers with experts AND the public.

The day that happens we'll all be one big step closer to democracy.

Squatting spammers take over Facebook protest site

Who gives a toss ?

It's about a group on Facebook. Who cares what it says ? Even the people that are part of it don't go to it anymore.

Microsoft kills off public availability of Windows 7 beta

Funny that

Curious how (supposed) Linux users are all over the comments on Windows articles. One would think they have other things to do with a such a wonderful system than waste time reading articles about an inferior OS.

I'm a Windows user because Linux (any flavor) doesn't suit my needs. Yes, Capito, you read that right : neither Ubuntu nor any other Tux flavor does what I want to do, so I (shock) don't use it.

But you don't see me banging on about Windows in a Linux article. Nor do I see any other comments about Windows in Linux articles.

Oh wait . . there aren't any Linux articles, and Linux is insignificant, market-wise. I wonder if there may be a correlation there.

Kaspersky: no personal information lifted during web hack

One hour is a bit short

I don't know if it's true, and Kaspersky's track record on this issue does not exactly incite me to believe them, but one hour does seem a bit short.

I would think that a proper response time would be at least two working days.

On one hand, leaving such a hole open for more than two days does seem rather slack, but on the other, one hour is surely not enough to evaluate the risk, test its veracity and do something about it.

Big Blue boasts cloud drag-and-drop

"Intelligence Lock Down and Lock Out"

Well now that sounds like SOP for a lot of people to me.

Gates looses mosquitoes on tech conference bloodsuckers

@Alex

Are you aware that all that money is chump change to him ?

Sure he gives a lot, and of course it's a good thing. Never forget, though, that he has reaped a million times what he gives from the gouging he gave the market.

In my view, the only thing he's doing is buying himself some respectability.

Microsoft mojo deflated by Seinfeld Vista ads

@Moderatrix

Proof ?

Playmobile pic, or there is no such thing.

Microsoft search bribery machine refuses to pay up

Oh no !

Microsoft, Ebay and PayPal in the same room. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES !

Talk about a congregation of criminals.

MySpace fingers 90,000 nonces

"monstrously inadequate counter-measures"

And what's your solution, Judge Know-It-All ? Have you ruled that all Internet users must be uniquely identified in a reliable way ? No, because it's impossible to enforce that rule. So you just shove the problem to a website and be done with it. Shoot the messenger, how convenient.

My guess is that you should have ruled that convicted sex offenders should be constrained to either not have Internet access, or submit to a perpetual search order that ensures that anything they do from their home connection is recorded for surveillance issues. But you didn't do that either because it probably violates Human Rights or something. Much easier to put the burden on a website and blame them when they cannot do the impossible.

Epic Fail.

Exploding mobile phone kills Chinese man

@elderlybloke

Why yes, of course. Remember the last thing that went through Lady Di's mind ? That one got out barely 12 hours after her death.

This is the Internet. What on Earth did you expect, decency ?

Kids' sites 'must register moderators'

And the next step is

Banning people who are banned from working with children from banning moderators who are banned from working with children. Let's just cut to the chase and put people banned from working with children in a detainment center so that we're sure they'll never see a child again. Looks like Guantanamo ain't gonna be closing any time soon.

European Parliament wants criminalization of online 'grooming'

Sorry, but the EP is totally right

Adults should not "befriend" children.

Adults have the responsibility of protecting children and educating them, not being friends with them.

It is a sickness of today's society that adults consider having to be friends with children. Becoming a friend is often viewed as facilitating communication. Unfortunately the opposite is true : if the adult becomes a friend, he loses authority and his views become dismissable.

Adults online have absolutely zero reason to try and get the phone or address of a child. I'm going to be totally, shockingly politically incorrect here and say that, outside of family ties, adults should have zero interest in other kids. Beyond polite enquiry to a parent about his health and scholarship status, a normal adult should not devote any more interest in a child that is not part of his family or his best friends' family.

And I'll even go one step further and say that, outside of security or behavioral issues, an adult should not even speak to a child he does not know and that has not been presented to him by someone who he does know that has some family tie with the child.

Of course, online it is sometimes a bit more difficult to find out who you're talking with, but a child will undoubtedly give himself away at some point by using some school expression or other construct that an adult would not use. At that point, an adult should be aware of the situation and behave accordingly in any future correspondence.

Children need to be friends with children, not with adults. Children need to make their own mistakes and understand their own lessons, which is something they cannot do with an adult because, by default, an adult "knows". There is no room for a child to experiment life with someone who already knows about it.

Without going back to the old days when children were considered well behaved if they never opened their mouth and sat still, we need to learn to guide children without either lording over them nor doting on them. Which also implies that we all need to become proper, responsible adults. Maybe that last bit is also part of the problem.

'Infinitesimal magnetic tornadoes' set to ravage computing

Please no

We're already having enough security issues with binary storage and communication. Please do not add a whole new universe of issues to deal with.

Kurdish spyware suspect faces espionage charges

Another extradition request ?

Let me see if this rings any bells : a guy finds his way into a foreign governments' military IT structure, extracts data and sells it off. This obviously has nothing in common with another guy purposely hacking into a foreign governments' military IT structure to find if UFOs exist or not without selling anything to anyone afterwards.

So, if that other guy is supposed to be extradited and brought to trial in said foreign country because of the horrendous damage he did, then this guy might as well hang himself now and be done with it.

No ?

Don’t let Microsoft timescales dictate your Windows migration

This is getting interesting

I am reading more and more about how companies balk at replacing an OS that works for them. And you have to ask : just what gives MS the right to EOL an OS ? Be it XP or Windows 3.11, Microsoft has convinced millions of businesses to put their operating life on the Windows line. And all of a sudden (okay, not so suddenly, but still) they show up and say "Oh, by the way, we're not supporting this version any more. Upgrade or you're screwed".

I may be weird, but it seems to me that if a business says "We're keeping this version, it's your duty to support us", then MS should not have a choice.

I find it curious that a software company can dictate an upgrade cycle worth trillions to millions of business customers. And the failure of Vista is a really tell-tale sign that businesses are wising up to the fact.

An OS is nothing but an enabler for applications to use system resources, end of story. The only reason one should have to upgrade the OS is stay current on hardware improvements, not to get a shiny new UI with a DRM infestation.

In an ideal world, a UI would be an add-on downloaded from the Net, not a core part of the OS. The OS does not need a UI to function, and the existence of a UI should not determine anything else but how the user interacts with the applications at his disposal.

Gosh, I feel like I just described a Unix environment. Must be growing a beard.

What's next for Microsoft's Flight Sim partners?

Never played it much myself

I'm not interested in FS - every version I ever looked at seemed to me to be more sluggish and demanding than the last. I never found any trace of the use of DirectX either - as if the render engine was on CPU mode.

No really, FS is and always has been a turd as far as performance goes.

But whenever I go to a store and check out the game section, I see FS add-ons by the dozens. All kinds, for all tastes, I imagine. That has to mean success, no doubt about it.

And they kill it off, just like that ? Hey Monkey Boy, you're bleeding money with every XBox and Vista is a big gaping hole in your pocketbook, and you kill off something that is bringing in money by the truckload ?

Good Lord, I should be chairman of MS. No way I can screw things up worse than you, Ballmer.

No way.

Gears of War grind to halt

DRM or not

The countdown has started. Gears of War is a time bomb waiting to happen. One day, in five years or in fifty, someone is going to want to run it for old time's sake, and they'll be screwed.

Might as well get used to it people, you never actually buy software anymore, you just rent it. If you're lucky, your lease is for longer than your interest in the game.

Some companies still have enough honor not to saddle you with ticking killers like that. Blizzard, for example, is one company I very much doubt will ever do such a thing. But Blizzard is one of a kind.

I wonder how many of the games I have contain this hidden kill switch that makes my purchase worthless ?

Windows Vista stuck on single digit enterprise adoption

So Vista is dead, long live Vista !

Win7 being Vista under a slightly different disguise, I fail to see how much better its adoption will be in the business market. It will have the same steep hardware requirements, will be just as difficult with existing applications, and will bring nothing practical in exchange. And it comes with DRM Inside. Beurk !

I might very well try Win7 one day. On the spare test PC I have at work. Just for kicks. But at home, my gaming rig will stay XP until it won't run the latest hardware any more. And when that happens, I'll freeze my hardware spending until I find a suitable OS replacement - that does not include DRM.

Get one thing clear, Ballmer : it is MY PC. You have NO RIGHT to tell me what I can or cannot do on it, and you have no right to try.

Kaspersky Lab denies panic mongering

@Jayse

Not to be contradictory or anything, but I have the distinct feeling that it's a sight more difficult to get something installed on a phone than it is to get something installed on a PC.

PC's are just begging to have stuff installed, and there are still loopholes that canget stuff installed without even knowing it.

I don't see phones having the same issues - at least, no phone that doesn't have a Windows interface. If it's a Microsoft-driven phone, then sorry, but all bets are off.

Gmail goes offline to avoid flatline online

@Connor Garvey

"Perhaps the author forgot that GMail can be accessed via both POP and IMAP."

Perhaps you could have actually read the article to its end before banging off a comment.

Seagate's complacency blasted away - what now?

Business as usual

Oh, the decisions we made last year were wrong.

So we're going to lay off a bunch of people that didn't have anything to say about our decisions and everything will be all right.

Oh, and we're going to make some more decisions. If we're wrong again, we'll just lay off another bunch of people that have nothing to do with these decisions, and everything will be all right.

Boffin: Lost Stradivarius violin tech reverse-engineered

Why not ?

He may be right about his discovery of Stradivarius's methods, we'll never know. But even if he does bang out hundreds of violins with Strad-level quality, I hardly see how that will impact the value of the originals.

A Stradivarius is still a Stradivarius. A violin maker still needs to know how to choose the wood, how to work it and how to craft the pieces that go into creating a violin capable of being played well enough to elicit wonder in the hearts of listeners. Stradivarius knew how to do that, one of very few.

Making a violin is not following a recipe. Having this information, even if true, is only one element in the myriad of items that a master needs to make a truly exceptional violin.

Boffins monitor strato-weather from half-mile underground

"Sound is made when different layers of air slide over each other"

Uh, that's not how my physics professor explained it to me. Sound is made when a source sets a vibration in the surrounding air - vibration that propagates through collision of particles. There is no air "sliding over", it's molecules smashing into each other that does it.

So, can we have a physics professor to settle this ?