* Posts by SiliconSlick

23 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2008

Sued for using HTTPS: Big brands told to cough up in crypto patent fight

SiliconSlick

The State of Texas uses that crypto too and should join the fray....

So tempted to write their lawyers a letter pointing out the use of such crypto by the state in which they filed such a frivolous suit should by all rights earn that state a place on the list of defendants... IANAL, but somewhere there's a professor at a state university that would no doubt like to enjoin into the action.

Surviving Hurricane Katrina: A sysadmin's epic DR (as in Didn't Realise) odyssey

SiliconSlick

"I never got a chance to speak with him again"

"He offered me the job on the spot. I told him I'd be in touch on Monday. I never got a chance to speak with him again."

What happened? Why did you not reconnect?

IT crisis looming: 'What if AWS goes pop, runs out of cash?'

SiliconSlick

Re: What, me worry?

re: holidays

Exactly... their losses for AWS are far outweighed by their ability to have capacity during the Christmas season which I'm sure more than makes up for it. Lost sales are much worse than losing a bit of money to maintain capacity.

Who needs a ride-on mower when a ROBOT will cut your grass

SiliconSlick
Pint

Re: Bah!

I've pondered a chain relay so I could mount the three spinning blades a bit further out to the edge.

Except... I like most my neighbours and their dogs/cats/etc.

I figured it would help with the edges, which my RL-500 has problems with, regardless of multiple wire adjustments.

But as configured from the factory, it is pretty safe (it'd be real had for a pet or child to get harmed). Tweaking it might be.... problematic.

ss (who doesn't like the sight of blood)

SiliconSlick
Pint

I'll stick with my RoboMow

The Friendly Robotics "RoboMow" RL-500 that I paid $600 for 12 years ago may not be the most efficient as it zig-zags across the yard, but what do I care... I'm sitting inside in the AC (in Texas) drinking my beer. Given that it seems to have been built to last, when it come time for a new one I'll probably just buy one from them. http://www.robomow.com/en-UK/

Wolfenstein: The New Order ... BLAM-BLAM! That guard did Nazi that coming

SiliconSlick
Coat

"Wot no multiplayer? With a playtime of about 20-plus hours and no multiplayer, some may quibble at the £40 price tag, but personally I can't think of a more brutally entertaining way to spend this coming Bank Holiday weekend."

Masturbation is a lot cheaper and given the lack of multiplayer works out to be about the same in terms of satisfaction.

SS (who'll stick with RTCW/ET, even if they are "ancient")

(coat for obvious reasons)

BOFH: One flew over the PFY's nest

SiliconSlick
Thumb Up

Re: The screaming of the fans

One Flew over the PFY's Nest a.k.a. The Silence of the Luggables.

'What was Google going to do, force Apple to change its mind?'

SiliconSlick
Big Brother

Re: "Erm, we have root."

No doubt a scary statement. Great attitude... to strike fear and loathing into the minds of your users.

"We can takeover your computer and add it to the collective Ubuntu hive at _our_ discretion... whether as a member of our botnet or to collect personal information... of course, we are the Borg, so there is no personal information, you _will_ be assimilated, resistence is futile".

I think I'll stick with "the Federation"/Fedora.

What happened to Odds & Sods?

SiliconSlick

Verity Stob now in Software...

And QotWs (which I was looking for) seem to be under Bootnotes.

BOFH: The Explosive Christmas Evacuation

SiliconSlick
Mushroom

Merry Christmas Simon!

Thanks again for another year of tales from the BOFH. Hope your holiday is a happy one.

SS (with no puddings here in Texas to work with, but with a ample supply of "cow pies" (which burn much better) to use instead)

Lemmings

SiliconSlick
Linux

Pingus

Great game... hundreds of hours wasted. I still have the original box/diskettes. Fortunately, I don't have to drag out my old DOS/Windows3 system to play it any more, even if the diskettes were still readable.

If you were a Lemmings fan you might try Pingus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingus

There aren't as many levels but there is a level editor to create more. It also includes a number of levels that are "in development" and not easily accessible in the game. I would love to see a project creating more level packs for the game. I haven't wasted near enough time playing this latest version given the lack of levels.

Crypto boffins uncover rogue task risk on Amazon cloud

SiliconSlick
Thumb Up

OK... that gets us to EC3 (which is worth one upvote for a hint)...

but what gets us to the "EC4 authentication systems" mentioned in the article? I'm still trying to figure out that one.

@+++ath0.... indeed... "could have" and "TAKEN OVER" is quite yellow -- journalistically speaking. . I guess the vultures covered their arse with the "could have" bit, but, still, Amazon might have reason to... oh, I dunno (IANAL)... be unhappy. (???)

I will say this... as an individual about to embark on some benchmarking of AWS EC2 clusters now that they've fixed the Placement Groups problem[*], the headline certainly got my attention. After reading the article, I'll take my chances. But some corporate beancounter at some point will just read the headline and cross Amazon's AWS off the list of cloud "solutions" (resulting in a loss of revenue for Amazon... etc.etc.).

SS (not sure he would maintain a permanent presence using EC2, but would certainly keep it in the toolbox for prototyping and scalability testing... and quite curious what "EC4" is about)

[*] https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=78069

Rogue toilet takes out Norfolk server

SiliconSlick
Mushroom

rhyme thyme

Loco loo causes server fervor.

Howard pissin' kills power system. (of course, this presumes there is a bloke named Howard working there)

Linux coders do it for money

SiliconSlick
Linux

re: details for kernel 2.6.32

For one of JC's latest analysis, see

http://lwn.net/Articles/363456/

How to upgrade an Acer Aspire One netbook's memory

SiliconSlick

The photographer's been sent to the Moderatrix for discipline...

Lucky bastard.

WTO backs US in Chinese piracy dispute

SiliconSlick

re: Antigua

The Chinese government should take a lesson from Antigua and set up online gambling sites. Then when the US goes whining to the WTO about copyrights the US will have one less leg to stand on. It isn't like we aren't already sending them all our dollars anyway.

US woman says Ubuntu can't access internet

SiliconSlick
Linux

Help, I've been Tuttled...

Probably just as well... there's always the risk that the school's web site might have been taken over by that CentOS virus.[*]

[*] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/27/tuttle_email/

Before Pong, there was Computer Space

SiliconSlick
Paris Hilton

@Simon Harris

Nice find... and an interesting read in itself.

Paris, because she knows about vertical _and_horizontal hold.

Apple's Snow Leopard set to exploit GPU power

SiliconSlick

@David and Nexox Enigma

If it is anything like RapidMind.com's API, then you can use gcc or any other C++ compiler of your choosing. Unfortunately, RM's solution isn't open source (though, since it is C++, most of the source is available via header files).

Vintage IBM tape drive in Apollo moon dust rescue

SiliconSlick
Dead Vulture

Brrrrr

I have nightmares like that.

Sometimes old hardware should be left to rest in peace.

OMFG, what have you done?

SiliconSlick

something's amiss

Where are the pink ponies?

BOFH: Shiny new computer room

SiliconSlick
Thumb Up

Didn't see that coming...

Thought for sure this was leading to a rather simplistic solution like a small fire up in one of the beancounters's offices causing a few floors of smoke damage and delaying the other company's move-in. Never expected the "anti-fire" approach. Thanks Simon, nicely done.

Women love chocolate more than password security

SiliconSlick
Heart

chocolate > men + passwords

Seems to coincide with Hazel Rees's observation in the most recent Comments:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/15/comments/