Posts by Pascal Monett 18911 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007
When big money talks, things happen. And big money does not like being spied upon. So my guess is that Swift is going to bend over backwards to comply with the demands and go wherever it takes to ensure continued partnership with yet more big money.
This is one the US is going to lose for sure.
Well given the number of great musicians and music legends that have died in abject poverty thanks to the wonderful contracts devised by RIAA and consorts, I frankly couldn't care less.
I don't see how giving RIAA yet more money is going to do any good to the artists who don't see much from those vampires anyway.
And when you get down to it, if RIAA was so fair in its distribution, then the really successful artists wouldn't need to create their own labels. There's a reason they do : to finally get the money they are due for their success and performance.
Until they manage to fly free, all the RIAA does is suck their blood dry.
It's that OOXML is based on Microsoft's XML, as stated above, and that is a broken implementation. On top of that, and I quote, again from above, "to actually access documents ... requires access to closed, proprietry binary data streams that are NOT documented at all"
So tell me, Steve, how do you go about creating compatibility with a closed, proprietary data format without getting sued for violating the DMCA ? You know, that law that was made so that big corporations could specifically ground to dust anyone who actually had the gall to make something
On top of that, the "OSS crew" as you name them, _have_ done something : they've created ODF, an open standard freely available to anyone. Why doesn't Microsoft simply create an adapter for Word that writes to ODF ? What is the issue with that ?
More importantly, why is it that politicians don't have the balls to ever stick to their guns, and the only time they do, it's a dropout draft dodger sticking to the wrong gun ?
I am aghast at finding out that, in the UK, linking to a particular content that is not written by you can get you sued by some nitwit who considers himself insulted by said content.
I am nonetheless happy that said nitwit is filing a suit, because there is rather ample history proving that UK judges do have their wigs on straight, and given that, they will certainly posit a conclusion on the same basis as common sense would want it : the nitwit should sue the libellers, not the linkers.
Thanks to this ridiculous lawsuit, the nitwit will undoubtedly score an own goal by having paid to change the law and make it clear that linkers are not responsible for the content they link to.
Google has removed links to its own forums on request, as per normal procedure in any democratic country, and has thus proved its goodwill in the matter. To go any further is bone-headedness and I certainly hope the outcome will be as I have outlined.
I know nothing of his business or the validity of any of the complaints about him, but to do this is certainly not painting his moral fiber in a favorable color. To me, this Retkin is barking up the wrong tree, and while he's doing that he's not dealing with whatever issue prompted the complaints in the first place. So he's just a nut that has no business running a business.
He should go work for Sony.
I am quite pleased to see that there are many people that are keeping their wits about concerning this sad event. Of course, Reg readers are above the norm, but it's nice to see it confirmed.
That said, I am worried about the comparisons between wartime UK and "modern" UK. I think it is high time that England adopts a new motto : What Would Churchill Do ?
Obviously, in this case, he wouldn't even stop smoking his cigar.
It would be nice to see "mainstream" media adopt this kind of attitude. Right now, they look much too much like Fox News for my own comfort.
"Apple representatives didn't respond to a request for comment."
They don't need to - the MacAddicts will take care of the issue for them by spamming the threads that mention the issue with strident denials and strawman attacks on Windows (but not Linux). They are coming right now, and it's a safe bet to say there will be a comment from a drooling turtleneck before the day is over.
As you can see, there already has been an initial warning shot.
The AIM satellite was launched end of April of this year, and I'm being told that changes in PMCs could be "an early warning that our environment is being altered". Well gosh, I wonder if that would have anything to do spring going to summer ?
Why is it that I feel an undercurrent of Global Warming threat in that sentence ? Isn't it a bit quick to conclude anything from a project that has been running all of two months ? If two months observation were all that was needed to explain weather patterns, then we'd have Global Warming down pat and the weatherman would be 100% accurate all the time.
A bit more seriousness from a scientist is expected. Either that, or the hack needs to ensure that the scientists' words were correctly transcribed and explained.
Either way, something is wrong in this article.
"the truth remains that these people want us dead, and they want it because we aren't muslim, because we don't worship their version of god and don't venerate his prophet."
Sorry, but that is not the case. They don't want us dead because we're not Muslims, they want us dead because we meddle in regional policies we have no understanding of. The US have earned the moniker of Great Satan not because of the difference in religion, but because of the carelessness and downright callousness of US behavior towards Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. Notice also that none of this attitude existed before the forced creation of the state of Israel, which is, in my opinion, the worst mistake the UN has ever made.
Until that issue is resolved - and frankly, between how irresolute and inefficient the UN is and how adept the US is in keeping things that way, I don't think it ever will be - the fundamentalists will continue droning on about the Great Satan and how it is the ultimate enemy of their way of life.
Well, until the day comes when there is no more oil, anyway. Then we'll all leave them alone probably, since we won't have any more economical incentive to bother them. Unfortunately, by that time there will have been entire generations of jihadists raised on hatred of the West, and who knows what that will bring ?
"Google is far more trustworthy than my ISP and has far superior uptime."
Fat lot of good that does when you ISP is down. Tell you what, my PC has better uptime than Google, and I don't need my ISP to open my files. But hey, you're free to lock yourself in whatever scheme you want.
"Google is free for life."
You don't know that. Google is ad-based for now. Web advertising is going down the crapper, so one day Google just might decide that you have to pay to access your precious online storage.
And whatever happens, you might end up regretting having entrusted all your personal files to some entity that can change its TOS on a whim, and hand over whatever data a given government wants.
If a government wants data off my hard disk, they'll have to come and get it first. It's called privacy, and as soon as your data leaves your door, you end up saying goodbye to that notion.
I think this is a very interesting documentary on schizophrenia and how to induce it. Or maybe this is just an enormous social engineering tool made by sadists to create legions of masochists ? I wonder if psychiatrists will end up with a name for it : SLezia, perhaps ?
Of course, there will be endless discussion about whether or not the individual was sane before submitting to the process, and how that influences the outcome and the speed at which the victim submits.
Kind of like vampirism - the speed at which you become a vampire is supposed to depend on the strength of the one that bit you and the strength of your own predisposition towards Good.
But, once bitten, you shall fall under the shade. SL is like that. Once you start, you will end up in leather, being whipped by a donkey. Your downfall is inevitable.
The only solution is not to start.
Well now that's a surprise ! I really don't understand why Intel would so fiercely protect the first CPU it has that trumps AMD after five years of Athlon dominance. I have no idea why Intel would take arms against such comments for a CPU that is being sold by the truckload.
That said, I agree with the first post. If we start seeing an exploit, then any objections will be rendered groundless and something will have to be done. I have a Core Duo myself, and I've never had any issue with it.
Wait and see is my position on just about any vulnerability. If spammers and blackhats don't find an interest in exploiting it, then from my consumer point of view, it is unimportant. If my PC crashes because of it, then it is important and I want something done about it.
After threatening Clinton with impeachment over a blowjob, it's a damn shame to see that the American Congress has taped its mouth and is sitting on its hands over the WMD debacle.
What more proof is needed to impeach the entire Administration ? Why wait for elections ? Because the terrorists will win ?
Bollocks, they already have. The USA is no longer making rational decisions based on law and justice, it is running all over the moral compass and sitting on the face of individual rights.
What makes you think elections will make any difference ? Thanks to Diebold, your electoral basis is flawed and can be hacked by a pimply teenager. And waiting for the Dems to grow a pair simply means that the Neocons have a millenia or two left to fool around and destroy the planet.
Man am I pissed off with the White House this morning. I've gotta take a nap before I chew somebody's head off.
To monitor world currents we obviously need a regular dumping of Rubber Duckies around the North Pole.
Perhaps, for the sake of scientific clarity, said duckies could be color-coded ? Like yellow for 2007, blue for 2008, green for 2009 and so on. A bar code number would obviously be required as well.
Finally, a web site would have to be set up to allow people to report sightings, be it on the sea or on shore. GPS coordinates, time and date, and maybe an attached pic would do nicely. If possible, a pic of the barcode would be lovely.
So, which environmentally-friendly toy company is willing to do this important thing for science ?
;-)
Poor little things, they are unhappy about needing to prove that their software is good enough to ensure democracy.
I feel for them, I really do. I feel that they should all be sent to Abu Graib and discover first-hand what happens when democracy goes wrong.
Maybe when (if?) they come back they'll be more than happy to make sure their code is good enough by allowing public audit.
Is this lame trick not out of date yet ? A mock-up spreadsheet, how used is that already ? Is this another beancounter-only piece of kit ?
I'm a programmer. If I am looking at a spreadsheet it will only be marginally better than playing a game - I'm supposed to be coding in my GDI, not punking around with cells.
I'd wager a simple Alt-Tab would be a lot more useful for hiding a screen, although that won't hide the stonking big red-and-yellow plastic thingy attached to my PC. Am I to expect that the boss will just ignore it ? That he doesn't know what it is and what it can do ?
After all, even managers read El Reg from time to time.
Pascal.
I'll be frank : Vista could have all the drivers in the world and be as sleek and fast as a Ferrari, I still wouldn't want it because I cannot stand a machine that is watching over what I'm doing and is programmed to refuse if it thinks I'm not doing right.
For me, it's the DRM that is the problem. I have stopped buying music CDs since 8 years ago because of DRM on CDs and broken CD formats, so I really have no problem in refusing one stupid OS.
Oh, and for the record, I do not download music that I don't buy. Neither will I buy Vista-only programs or games, even if they are hacked to run on XP.
Whatever issues one may try to level at XP, the fact is that it is today by far the best consumer OS that Microsoft has ever made. It's stability is a leap above 9x and almost as good as NT (remember, I'm talking about an OS for users that are not sysadmins). It's intrusiveness is minimal (I was very suspicious about the authentication, but after years of upgrading and reinstalling, it hasn't bothered me one bit), and it does what I want it to do when I say so and as fast as the hardware can comply.
Vista will never do exactly what I want it to do in the same conditions. Vista has been designed with the possibility to revoke a DLL or even a piece of hardware I have attached to the machine it runs on. I BEG YOUR PARDON ?! What on Earth gives you the right to refuse to work with a device I PAID FOR (hardware is not duplicated by pirate DVD burners yet) ?!?
Not to mention the appalling slowness and Big Brother verification of every byte I copy from one partition to another, or even from one directory to another.
No. I bought XP and that is quite obviously the last OS I will ever buy from Microsoft. Given the direction Ballmer is pointing the behemoth to, I am no longer interested in continuing the relationship. By the time I will not be able to use XP any more, Apple or the Linux community will have come up with something I can use to play my games on, and Microsoft will fly out the window like the pile of dust I swept off the floor last week.
The comments in this thread are the facts you need to get, Steve B. I believe you have finally managed to piss off the general public. Your clock is ticking, Stevie. I think you should sell your shares short while they're still worth something (okay, I know I'm dreaming here so let me dream on).
Why should I need a multi-gigabyte hash list ? I don't think whitelisting should work in that way. To me, I should only need to whitelist what I have running on my computer, same was my firewall lets me specify which apps can access the internet.
That should cut down the size of the required database to a mere few hundred kilobytes.
I designed my own mail whitelist filter and it actually works pretty well. Whatever it does not keep goes to a spam database, where another process deletes anything that is not from a domain I approve (I don't know anyone in .ck, so I don't see why they are sending me this "Offer you can't refuse"). I can then peruse through what is left and delete or add filters as I see fit. Whatever is really important I can copy back to my mail and validate so that it is whitelisted next time.
Whitelisting is a great idea, and I say it should be aggressively pursued. I'm looking forward to seeing a useable implementation.
I've worked in a few large organizations, and they've all had internal policies of keeping the PC on for doing scheduled maintenance (backups and such) during the night.
I worked in one shop where I actually got in trouble for turning off the PC because it somehow borked the nightly save (what idiot designed THAT software ?) !
SO yeah, PCs are left on, but it's more for the convenience of the IT department - and by extension, that of the users who do not see an IT guy hanging around or initiating a backup manually right you need to finish that code.
I used to actively subscribe to the avoid-power-cycles theory until I got my first Athlon Thunderbird. When I noticed how much juice that baby could suck down in a week of 24/7 operation, I changed my mind and now I turn off the buggers when I know I won't be using them for more than 4 hours. Just realize that there are now 1KW PSUs on sale and I'm sure you'll agree that it is preferable to power those suckers (literal use) down.
I have never used an Apple, and I don't know much about OS X, but what I've read about it doesn't seem bad to me. I do believe that OS X can only be better than Windows when it comes to security - that has to do with the very basic differences in build philosophy between the fruit and the glass.
But I'm a gamer, and as far as games are concerned, Apple is way, way behind. The number of boxed games available for Apple machines on store shelves in the single dozen. As for PC games, well let's just say that I have bought almost 250 games and extensions since I first found a PC game on a store shelf about 23 years ago.
Apple will have a chance in the game market when every single game release comes with a version that is Apple-compatible, not before.
Now that Apple is based on Intel hardware, that could actually come pretty quickly. And if it does happen in the next few years, then I'll have just what I need to avoid Vista entirely AND do away with my security problems in one go. So, Apple, how about getting DirectX into OS X ?
Tell that to those that try deleting a file and find that it takes exponentially longer (typically ten minutes or more) under Vista than under XP.
Deleting a file is not something that DRM should be looking at. If anything, DRM should actually make it faster since the information is being destroyed, so if it's a pirate/unlicensed copy, well it's going to be dumped, so where's the problem ?
The problem is that Vista's DRM is checking EVERY file, ALL the time. That takes a significant amount of resources that would be better spent calculating that spreadsheet or writing that memo. And with today's hardware abilities, if you manage to slow down typing a memo, you are using entirely too much CPU power.
Nice to know that the Brits still have it when it comes to facing facts, but as long as the backwaters of southern USA harbor a strong level of scientific talibanism, I think that creationism will continue to be a nuisance in many a school curriculum discussion.
The only danger to civilisation is ignorance, the only cure is proper education. We need to educate better, and more, before the idiots take complete control.
When you see how easy it is to maintain a profile on one social network, why limit yourself ? For people who desperately need contact and cannot manage to do so in real life, it is probably a trifling matter to update three or more profiles on different networks. This also has the advantage of giving those people the impression that they really know a lot of people, which can only boost their morale.
For some people, there is probably a necessity, professional or otherwise, to be able to be easily contacted. By managing several profiles on high-ranking social networks, these people can maximize their "connectability" to the level they need.
Personally, I'm a Luddite when it comes to social networks. I've been invited to a few, accepted one, and I hardly do anything with it. I'm occupied enough in real life to not feel the need to bother with a social network.
Pascal.
We have Global Crossing and Carrenza listed as partners in this "not-for-profit" organization, not to mention Cisco and EDF.
Global Crossing is in the telecoms business. Carrenza lists itself as being in the "peace of mind" business - you can bet their mind is set on a fair piece of your wallet. Cisco is obviously networking and EDF - well it's pretty clear what EDF does.
So we have a coalition of high-tech IT companies and telecoms, in bed with a major energy provider, and this whole thing is not for profit ? My guess is that this is a PR piece, fluff, nothing more.
It's nice to have a green message, but it's a bit too obvious that you'd prefer getting more green for your efforts.
Since when is "taking the tape home" part of any serious standard security practice ? Who is the joker that wrote such nonsense, and who is the blubbering idiot that signed it off ?
I'm starting to think that an acceptable and effective standard security procedure would be to remove any and all access to the network from the "officials" in charge. At least like that, the only hazard to citizens' data would be fire - and that can be adequately handled with the proper fire extinguishing equipment.
What ? They only have water extinguishers ? In the server room ?
You're on a streak, there ! First you decide no SP1 release for Vista, and now no Office/Works for refurbs.
Hey guys, it's now official : Ballmer is rooting for Open Software ! Steve is a Linux Trojan right at the head of Microsoft ! He is actually supporting Linux in every marketing decision he makes at this time.
Go Steve ! Go the final lap and rename Microsoft to MicroNix, or Licronux, or something-ix.
That way everyone will know.
In this day an age where a moron has control of the White House, the official policy is "if you're not with us, then you're against us". Of course, anyone asking questions is not With since he is a doubter, and if you're not with . . .
Funny thing is, this rule applies to both sides of the argument. The pro-GWs cannot accept that someone is skeptical without being and Anti-GW, and all Anti-GWs consider that if you're not anti, then you're either part of the conspiracy (my personal favorite) or just too dumb to know better.
I hate it when discussions verge into the "you're just a" territory. Seems that there aren't any brains on either side.
I use XP, and when I need to search for something, I do a quick Win-E and open the folder the something is supposed to be in and I find it.
No trouble with Vista, I won't ever use it. Searching takes me all of two seconds, every time.
My guess is that there's a lot of people that don't classify their data. I suppose they don't do backups either ?
that shareholders are enthusiastic about the technology. Personally I would welcome laptop and flashlight batteries that can recharge in seconds. As for the car, well Altair can make all the wonderful claims it wants, I'll wait for real-life use before I start believing the hype. Right now, Altair needs market awareness, and whatever they state is nothing but PR as long as nobody else can test the stuff independently.
That said, I sincerely hope that Altair will pull it off and give us batteries that don't explode and can recharge in a jiffy. I can't wait for the day those annoying motorbikes be condemned to silence.
Instant lock-down on stolen MP3 players ! Isn't that worth giving up your freedom, sanity and next hundred years of income tax ?
Come on ! How about a bit of patriotism here ? Get with the program already ! Won't it be a wonderful world when you can swipe your ID in your MP3 player, knowing that it is entirely secure from theft and that you've just been credited £1.24 for the BPI to help a needy pigopolist snort his next line of white ?
Really, all these counter-arguments do not hold water. Bunch of communists !
A group of armed, healthy cops felt threatened by a diabetic lying on a bed ?
Thank God they had tasers. I shudder to think of the mess if they had only had guns.
And the anonymous guy that precedes me is right. The rest of the world has this kind of incident like once every 600 days. In the US, it's more like once a week (and those are the stories we hear of). How can you possibly expect people to not infer that the whole country is full of trigger-happy fraidy-cat cops ?
I acknowledge the existence of PHD-holding officers of the law, but really there aren't enough of those. Besides, complaining that people generalize police dumbness, then stating that you know one guy with a badge and a PHD is not really a counterargument. You're just generalizing the other way around.
Another nutcase web site for a bunch a fruitcake ideas. As if we needed right-wing Bible-thumpers to be pitched against left-wing Bible-thumpers. In end, neither of the kind admit any criticism from anywhere.
I hate opedias. From now on, I'm only reading Universalis. At least there, the angst and arguments get handled BEFORE I read the article.
I use a 21" screen to surf the Web, with a proper keyboard and mouse and an 8Mbps connection.
The day has not come when a phone will be able to give me that experience.
Meanwhile, I just couldn't care less what browser runs on what phone. I use my phone for phoning.
Nonsense. You need to update your references. That activity may have been popular in the last century, but since the start of the current one, Americans have been busy bashing the French. Besides, most Americans probably don't even know who this Chamberlain chap is.
It would also be time for Microsoft to update its references. SCO has tried and failed to dent Free Software's reputation and integrity - with help from Microsoft. It's no use for Ballmer to go it alone now, he won't do any better for all the reasons already invoked above.
No, it would be better for MS to port DirectX to Linux - without opening the librairies if it wants to. Now THAT would be a bold move !
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