* Posts by Patrick Bateman

29 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Apr 2007

Now Ashley Madison hackers reveal 'CEO's emails and source code'

Patrick Bateman

Re: Or the opposite could happen....

Rubbish. Human society is no longer purely driven by "survival of the fittest" in its most basic sense. Otherwise e.g. there would be no ugly people, no one would marry or care for a disabled person, etc. We have rules that we have deemed make us more advanced than that. Yes, a male monkey will shag his way through all the females in the group, but humans, in most societies, have very strongly ingrained expectations of monogamy and fidelity. It's not just rules, it's deeply rooted social mores. These have been universally agreed upon because they make better the lives of individuals, and make society work better. It doesn't apply in all societies, and often the taboo of cheating is broken, for we are fairly pathetic meatbags with barely any self control - but to return to the other poster's point, cheating absolutely is a very harmful act. Just wait until it happens to you, and you're howling your guts out...

Wanna quote tweets without manual faff? HAVE AT IT, sez Twitter

Patrick Bateman

Re: Just to be contrary

I agree, I like it, it's long overdue. In fact, I recall it being available for about a week, months ago, when they must have been experimenting on sections of users. It was shocking how much better quoting and retweeting has been on third party apps than the official Twitter website. One other thing I am mildly irritated by (which I am not sure this will stop) is some users blatantly pretending they can't just press the 'retweet' button and sticking 'RT' in front of a copy of your tweet - simply to bump up their own Twitter interaction stats (since it now counts as their tweet).

Nest seeks audio talent to delight … someone

Patrick Bateman

Voice control for connected home devices

And why isn't anyone talking about the possibility of them taking audio *inputs*? Surely that's the way things are / should be heading, since yes, it is a pain in the arse to have to take an app out to control your connected household devices (even if it's an app that's managed to consolidate a bunch of them - which is what Nest are up to). Look at Amazon Echo...

Revenge porn forbidden: Twitter bans hobby of bitter ex-boyfriends

Patrick Bateman

Almost none of those photos are actually presented as "revenge" porn

Does this mean all that every account posting 'amateur' photos (clearly taken in private, but not peddled specifically with a 'revenge' angle) will have to stop doing it? That should make quite a dent.

Official: Sky to buy O2 and BE's home broadband product in £200m deal

Patrick Bateman

Re: O2's email is sidestepping all the important questions...

Well, I think I found the answer to the traffic-shaping question: http://www.sky.com/shop/terms-conditions/broadband/network-management-policy/

Looks like Sky Broadband Connect, whatever it may be, is shaped, but Sky Broadband Lite and Unlimited are not.

Still, I'd love to know what my opt-out rights are and what will happen to my calls to Europe. I can see absolutely nothing in their standard BB & Home Phone T&Cs about what happens if a new owner took over regarding the validity of the contract or data sharing.

In hindsight, this also explains why O2 got rid of the £5 a month off offer they had for O2 customers, so now there is no ongoing advantage for mobile customers (besides the 12 months half price offer that we were suckered in with. I actually had O2 BB for 2 years, then moved into new place with GF and took out a new contract in HER name to get the offer. So it's her, the poor thing, who is going to feel the cold hand of Murdoch on her shoulder... I feel like I set her up!)

Patrick Bateman

O2's email is sidestepping all the important questions...

Like 'Can I opt out of the transition?' (I signed up for 12 months last month, can't believe I walked into this bloody elephant trap! Did not see Register article earlier in the year... I don't even want Sky to have my personal details on record!)

Or 'Will I still get 600 free minutes of calls to EU countries as part of my package?'

Or 'Will my monthly allowance change?'

Or 'Will my connection be traffic-shaped?'

Spotify adds 'temporary' private listening mode after Facebook backlash

Patrick Bateman

Sneaky ba$tard$

To avoid posting to the FB timeline you have to untick "Get personal recommendations by sending music you play to Facebook Timeline". Yeah, I wouldn't mind recommendations, but how the F is that clear about what will actually happen? I actually only unticked that by accident when first faced with that choice after updating Spotify. Still, I'll keep using Spotify. How much worse are they than the other streaming services in terms of royalties? Decent selection of music (although bloody annoying how they keep losing licenses so music disappears), iPhone access. I am already on facebook anyway. Have disabled the link though. Can't new users create a fake FB account with a throwaway email address? Or is Spotify devious enough to force you to associate an FB account with the same email address as you register on Spotify?

Windows 7 customers hit by service pack 1 install 'fatal error' flaws

Patrick Bateman

This saved me

Praise be to the geek who worked this out (first reply in the thread):

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/fatal-error-c0000034-applying-update-operation-282/bd99ead9-ece9-48af-9ad8-3c0377d01301

My laptop went from brick to fully working in less than 20 minutes, but woe betide anyone who's even slightly scared of getting their hands dirty with an OS. And it was the FIRST time in as long as I remember that I just OK'd a Windows update to install without looking at it first! >_< It was all going so well with Win7...

The 3G map Ofcom didn't want you to see

Patrick Bateman

3G in the sea?!

What the hell are the operators doing providing 3G coverage to hundreds of square miles of the sea and ocean all around the south and eastern coast? Some of it looks like the transmitters are installed off-shore, and only happen to catch the land by accident!

British film board rejects 'disturbing' sexual torture film

Patrick Bateman
IT Angle

What's wrong with BBFC's decision?!

How is this film not intended to be a porno?? It sounds like there is no fucking plot development or acting, and niki flynn turns out to be some kind of low-profile bondage starlett (after 3 seconds on google, can't be bothered to delve further). Seems we only know about this whole non-story because they applied to the BBFC for a DVD release. There are about 3 pages on the whole internet about it. The web is awash with pretty extreme (depending on your point of view) bondage stuff. You can pay to download it. I don't see any problem with this stuff not being available on DVD as long as there are still ways to get it for those who want it. So - Jacqi Smith's assault on porn = bad. BBFC rejecting this piss-poor titillating drivel = fine by me.

EU gets real in fight against counterfeiters

Patrick Bateman
Unhappy

@Fake=original?

Read Roberto Saviano's book Gomorrah. In the first chapter he describes how both real and fake clothes, bags and footwear are made in the same area of sweatshops in Naples in more or less third-world conditions (by Italian people, rather than immigrants). The Camorra mafia then sells the fake ones in shops it owns around the world, sometimes even mixing real and fake goods. The fashion industry knew about this for years but didn't let out a peep because the fake goods were nearly all as high-quality as the real ones, so the more people wore them, the more their own profits rose too. Also, since the Camorra controls the whole labour force and distribution network for the real goods, it could turn the tap off on them at a moment's notice. The book is well worth reading, actually makes you glad to live here in Blighty!

Grey squirrels invade Nutt house

Patrick Bateman
Flame

Rodenator, oh yes

OK, maybe not 100% suited to this case, but bloody good explosive fun. Seen these in action for mole control. If used on soft soil, it will turn your lawn upside down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2umEFHeo6mw

Trust the Americans to invent it.

3 and T-Mobile announce site provider

Patrick Bateman
Thumb Down

Arsed-up merger

I had perfect service from 3 in my area of London until they started to merge with T-mobile. 6 months of rage followed. They actually gave everyone in this bit of west London £50 credit for the cock-up. But in the end it kept being so unreliable I had to walk away even though they offered to halve the bill. Went with Vodafone, and even though the software says I have 'very poor' signal, it's faster than 3 and no interruptions so far.

Office booze-up battered in CPW cutbacks

Patrick Bateman
Stop

O_o

"My wife works for CPW and the young lad on her team is gutted that they have effectively removed the once-a-month company approved knocking shop!"

Errrr.... Had to read that a few times.. Are you saying the team are upset because your wife got laid off? (in the 'being fired' sense of the word 'laid' :P)

Ten of the Best... laptop stands

Patrick Bateman

Logitech lapdesk

Surprised not to see the new Logitech Lapdesk mentioned... http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2009/01/31/Logitech-Comfort-Lapdesk-for-Notebooks/p1

HP readying touchscreen laptops, phones

Patrick Bateman
Thumb Down

Worst idea ever since...

... Abraham Lincoln said: " I'm sick of kicking around the house all day, let's go take in a show."

Who in Satan's glorious name would want to hold out their arm in front of them for hours and smear grease all over that beautiful, glassy screen? The beauty of the mouse is that I can sit back and control everything with barely a twitch of my hand. Even leaning forward to type something is a major arsepain. I bet they did no user trials for this whatsoever - and I mean proper ones, lasting at least a month, not those fake Microsoft "I can't believe it's Vista" interviews.

Mind you, I think touch screen phones are cack of the runniest kind too - my typing speed on them is about a tenth of what it is on a button keyboard.

Portsmouth punts naval boy-on-boy to innocent kiddies

Patrick Bateman
Joke

He's just pulling his rank...

as a rear admiral...

How government will save you from P2P deviance

Patrick Bateman
Stop

Rapidshare/ Megaupload?

An extensive source of films and music, or so I am told, and a lot faster than torrent (if you pay the sub fee of £4.50 a month)... Just Google for '[film name] rapidshare' - there are hundreds of well-kept 'blogs' that are basically RS/MU link farms. Are they going to monitor that as well? Can they, even? Would be interesting to know what the RS/torrent usage ratio is.

Google gives GMail always-on encryption

Patrick Bateman
Thumb Up

Customize Google

For me the greatest advantage of this Firefox addon is not so much switching all Google apps to https, but the fact that it stops your search data being sent to Google Analytics, and it strips out all those sponsored ads from the results pages! I am constantly surprised when people mention being annoyed by online ads of all sorts, but then I have Customize Google, Adblock Plus and Flashblock installed, and I have seen nary an ad in years! <:D

Gov pulls plug on prison PlayStations

Patrick Bateman
Happy

Ha, ha, almost!

<assume tone of voice of Comic Book Shop Guy from The Simpsons>

Ahem, I believe you will find that 655321 was the prisoner number in the film. In the original book the number was 6655321, ergo it assumes precedence.

</end of impersonation>

Creative's Wi-Fi media player streams in

Patrick Bateman
Gates Horns

Yup, "the middle finger to Apple" thing

Far inferior sound quality to Creative. I got the second gen Shuffle and it is like listening through cotton wool. Even with Sennheisers. Felt so dirty the day I bought it. Only did it because it came down to £32 and it has the nice clip - only use it at the gym. I hate the whole bloated, stupidly overpriced, buy-buy-buy! iTunes experience and will never in my life buy anything from them. (e-music is great!). I even use a Python script to manage the Shuffle - so iTunes never needs to blight my eyes. Also, throw in iPod's restrictions on file formats, especially video - which is why the classic iPod is no good either, I need video. And I've become pretty anti-Apple over time. They are no longer the plucky little outsider, and are just as bad as MS, etc. for crapping over their customers, while their fans seem happy to obliviously lap it up. Being thought of as an 'apple fan' if anyone sees me with one of their products makes me shudder :)

Patrick Bateman
Unhappy

32Gb??

Are most people's collections really that small?? I can't fit everything I have on the 60Gb Zen Vision:M I have, and all the new players that come out are in the pathetic 8-32Gb range. iPod is not an option, so I'm left only with the enormous Archos or Cowons to choose from. Something the size of the X-Fi, with a bigger screen than the Vision:M, but at least a 60Gb HD is what I need.

Tesco causes couple condom catastrophe

Patrick Bateman
Stop

A £100?!?

My family once dined on a fine risotto of brown rice infested with fecking weevils, and bloody Tesco only gave me £10! A hundred big ones for a slight mix up that probably took those whingeing b**rds five minutes to sort out?! (and one of them probably IS having an affair!). They'll be off work with stress and taking it to the Hague next. And another thing! Amazon has several times recommended me nudie photography books when I, or anyone else using my PC, never even looked at anything related, let alone bought it!! Oh, look, now I've gone and sprayed the monitor with spittle again.

UK.gov demands 999 ads on social networking sites

Patrick Bateman
Thumb Up

@Rhyd:

"There's already a catchy ad... it goes 0118 999 881 999 119 7253"

LOL, am I the only one who got the IT Crowd reference??

Yahoo! unveils third leg for managing mobile content

Patrick Bateman

@ Andy Barber

Thank feck for the lack of exclamation marks [insert one here] That wore thin the moment it was conceived

Blogger warned to delete Avis logo

Patrick Bateman

Came across this before

When I was at Uni (Loughborough), our printing room had a policy that they would not print any photographic material which had the logo of any company in it. So if you took a photo of someone you were interviewing on the High Street for a project and there was a McDonalds logo somewhere in the background, forget about it. They even had examples of unsuitable photos posted up.

2012 Olympics logo debuts to whalesong

Patrick Bateman

I guess

they were told to "paint what comes from within", so they did their breakfast. Look, there's a little tomato... :D

DHS calls in sci-fi writers as consultants

Patrick Bateman

Tosh

I just hope they don't get Stephen King to advise them on climate change...

Seems silly and harmless enough, unless they start coming up with "exploding remote-controlled anal probe/speach analyser devices implanted at birth" kind of stuff.

Why not just read New Scientist!?

Amazon pushes sex toys to random punters

Patrick Bateman

Not the first time...

Coincidence or not, but a while ago I used to have "erotic photography" books recommended to me all the blimming time by Amazon (on site, not in emails), when I have never purchased or even looked at anything even remotely related. Used to annoy the hell out of me when I'd need to show my girlfriend something. The recommendation feature seems to behave itself these days though. And I'm not even living with my girlfriend at the moment!