* Posts by Martin Owens

428 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Aug 2006

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Lord Triesman on P2P, pop-ups and the Klaxons

Martin Owens
Pirate

Licenses and Property

It certainly doesn't help that the makers of digital content do not take advantage of the most efficient ways to let people try out and even buy their content. In fact they make it hard to buy their content, much harder than it is to download. I think the problem is less about money and more about ease of access to that content.

As for the licenses, we need the government to come up with a licensing scheme which separates out the physical property of a CD/DVD which is yours to use as fire lighters. And the license to the content contained there in. For instance if I buy Die Hard 2 on DVD It should come with a little card which is the license, this allows me to have Die Hard 2 and any other materials contained on the DVD in any format, I can see the license to someone else, borrow it, give it as a gift whatever. The point is that I can now legally download Die Hard 2 online since I own a license for the _content_ not for the content on a DVD. I see no reason why these cards could not be rendered in an electronic xml fashion such that they are easy to print out or store elsewilst connected to the sale to make copying suspect.

Notice how none of this requires technical measures, people downloading content and playing it without a license are in trouble if the old bill drop round for a visit to have a peek at their content collection.

But instead of _trying_ to come up with a useful and complete scheme for digital and old content, the government are pissing it up pandering to lobbyists from BigBiz PLC.

Academics kick off nuclear power war of words

Martin Owens

Solar, Hydro and Chemical

I have no idea where some of the commentators have gotten their numbers from; they don't seem to tally up to the journals or reports I've read.

A mix of solar, wind, tidal, geothermal with either/and chemical pump or inertia based over flow storage is the only real way for the long term. Nuclear is a stop gap and a very expensive one, the cost of building the plants is quite high and the release of CO2 is high enough to warrant rethinking.

It would be better if this government had any real sense of working with people and public works, or in fact coming up with any sort of workable polices that make long term sense instead of railroading the opposition with what ever they think is best.

Microsoft pleads ignorance on 'one interweb per child' pork barrel

Martin Owens

Eating words

>> Of course people immediately see this as an opportunity to evangelize the

>> open-source religion. Windows is still a more sophisticated technology than Linux

It'll be fun watching you cough and splutter the force feeding of those words in the future. Like it or not beyond 5 years is an open source world. Besides do monsters really need your protection Don?

Microsoft opens Server 2008 licensing a smidge

Martin Owens

LAMP?

Linux / Apache / Postgres / Scipting (LAPS) you mean surly.

Microsoft scoffs at antitrust extension seekers

Martin Owens
Pirate

Smithy Ignorance

>> So instead of these people relying on goverments to help them out, get off their arses and compete!

Not so good with economics are you Mr Reeves. The fact that Firefox has managed to claw back as much market share as it has is not that it's simply better than internet explorer but that it's a very great deal better. In a monopoly situation such a Microsoft is in, you can't compete on a level playing field.

In order for Linux to get 10% of the market it needs to be 300% better than Windows. Obviously it'll get there in time but that's no need for people like you to total mis-understand what pressures a monopoly puts on a market.

Dismantling a Religion: The EFF's Faith-Based Internet

Martin Owens

Interesting But

It appears your attacking the EFF for trying to do good things, just in the wrong way. The problem is that your attacking them instead or trying to help. Bit of a shame really since we could do with a bit more principle and less of "the religion of the practical" where everything must be practical and everything must be balanced (in the sense that it's between the two points of view your allowed to see).

MS to bundle 'broken' random number tool in Vista SP1

Martin Owens

Is it any wonder?

>> Is it any wonder they continue to push their own formats/protocols

Stop thinking Microsoft is some bloke down the pub, I'm sick of the sympathy when their rap sheet reads worse than a brutal industry rampage murdering spree.

BBC pinches hot new columnist from Microsoft

Martin Owens

Open Collaboration

When exactly has Microsoft or Bill Gates every been able to collaborate without stabbing in the back some poor business in the end?

A for the BBC, I agree with the revolving door comment, it's getting to the point where they might as well change the damn name to MBC (but that's taken)

Gates' spontaneity highlights IE data gap

Martin Owens
Gates Horns

Ah yes, One of those

>> with Linux, it's fuck with this , fuck with that, fuck with another thing

I've never understood why some people blame Linux for their own incompetence; at least some of us in the real world have the good grace to know when we know don't know the extra time we spend is learning. You may be able to fix windows problems in a trice, but I know linux people who wouldn't even need to show up at your door, it would be ssh blah, 2 mins later, oh I fixed that and went to get some coffee.

Spinning, flashing Linux logo droid comes to UK

Martin Owens

We have one

There is a primary school up here in Boston that has one; it's programmed to greet the students and the teacher brings it to installfests so we can have it greet people and have to play with python.

Secret mailing list rocks Wikipedia

Martin Owens

HHGTTE?

Wikipedia = HGTTE? Nah what did you think www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2 was for? it was the wikipedia before wikipedia and I should know because I got a nice email from someone asking me if they could use parts of my Widnes h2g2 article in the wikipedia article; for some reason you can get better results writing original works by researching instead of just browsing around the net collecting the nebulous information that's available. Who would have thought it.

Only bicarbonate of soda can save mankind!

Martin Owens

Baking Powder/Soda

I don't know about everyone else but Baking Powder/Soda contains extra raising agents.

I've always called it Sodium Hydrocarbonate, because it surly isn't Sodium Bicarbonate (i.e Bicarb).

TV heavyweights build on-demand supersite

Martin Owens
IT Angle

Edgy

>> and arent we the only ones paying for it?

Well no because the government fund the BBC in order "to spread the British culture around the world" just so other countries are sympathetic to our country. And to be honest if we could get over the over protective nonsense, culturally we could do very well out of letting the rest of the world see our stuff.

>> it's not a civil right, dammit, it's a paid-for service

No it's a paid by tax, social service (the BBC); if you want to be in the British Society then you should access to the BBC and we should be happy to welcome people to the fold.

Gov advisers pick six crucial techs for UK

Martin Owens

Always

betting on FOSS for technology advance since it's a big shift in the how things are done which will produce the most benefit.

Choice breeds complexity for Linux desktop

Martin Owens
Thumb Down

Thoughts from within

Being involved in the community development process it seems that there is a big push towards not duplicating effort. Although being fork friendly is inbuilt by design because it allows the overthrowing of the dominant evil doers when they inevitably become evil from power. Instead of torvalds has also said the community with a power to fork keeps the project dictator honest.

Same goes for the distros, this is a market of competition and it shows. The fedora community want to beat Ubuntu, openSuSE wants more users from PCLinuxOS and this pushes the technology of packaging and distribution forwards.

The FOSS community isn't the fastest way to get software, evolution was never this picky about time scales. Yet the results it provides are much more solid.

Rose Tyler beams back into Doctor Who

Martin Owens
Thumb Up

Comparitivly

If I had to choose between the American Buffy inspired Serenity or Doctor Who I'd sadly have to go with the Americans, they _know_ how to do Sci-fi and it's such a shame because we have some really very good sci-fi writers in the UK.

I want Pratchett and Moffat to co-pen a Doctor Who episode :-D

Android: developer dream or Google cash machine?

Martin Owens
Coat

Lackies?

To Chris Woods: I'm one of those Stallman lackies and I take offence at your biased assessment of the GPL's attempt to protect the freedoms of the original developers and their users. Just because a licence cares about end users doesn't make it bad, nor is it horrible because it deals with the inevitable political issues that humans love to embroil themselves in. As a programmer I don't like or want my hard work used against me, if it's GPL I always get the option of incorporating changes or benefits which could have cause my project problems if a company was immoral enough.

I don't believe for a second that proprietary software is equivocal to the GPL and by saying such a ridicules thing you undermine your credibility.

Google on the other hand knows full well what it's doing, it could very easily at any point take anyone else's code medications and sell them to a TelCo to lock down the users. Shrewd but you don't fool me. *tin foil hats are us regular shopper*

UK patent rules put firms at disadvantage

Martin Owens

Way to go!

Now all we need is to fix the bloody EPO from granting software patents. It's quite funny because the UK has precedence for throwing software patents out anyway; the combination of software with hardware is not novel or inventive in any way so doesn't in my books allow a patent.

Lifelike, sexy robot infiltrators influence Belgian mobs

Martin Owens

Funny

I was watching SG1 Hathor, similar thing and I for one welcome our new sexy overlords.

Microsoft stuffs Sage with free accounts software

Martin Owens

Another one for the dust biting

*shrug* we've got a head start at least with accounting software, lots of lovely accounting packages in the repositories; perhaps sage will now come out with a linux version.

Microsoft vows cluster OS upgrade will include Linux nod

Martin Owens
Gates Horns

Meh, Good tech maybe

But it's still from Microsoft and forgive me for pointing out the obvious but it's just not good practice to do business with criminal elements regardless of how good their wares are.

Battery firm: iPhone could melt your brain

Martin Owens

Tin foil hat?

I thought that is what tin foil hats were for, blocking out the CIA radio waves; but could work for phones, even iPhones.

XP guru to developers: 'Shape up'

Martin Owens
IT Angle

Confused, Much.

OK that was the weirdest LSD trip based on programming methods. This guy (or the way it was reported) is not very good at articulating what he means.

And as for the socially pardonable actions; I expect people to treat me with respect weather or not I'm wearing a watsit dust covered t-shirt depicting the latest xkcd. So if he's asking me to wear a suit he can shove it where the sun don't shine, mister.

No one should be coerced into acting in particular ways just to please pointy haired bosses and their no-hope share holders.

Tesco punts Xbox 360 bundle for £33.24

Martin Owens
Go

Now it's

Cheaper to buy the console than it is to buy any of the games.

Microsoft racks up best quarter since 1999

Martin Owens

More strong arms

You mean to say that Microsoft made good money from strong arming the OEM's once again and creating an awful racket with their god forsaken software offerings that normal people are too stupid to avoid like the plague?

Extortion was never such a good business.

Aussie boffin turbo charges copper broadband

Martin Owens
Pirate

Patented?

Man you can't even patent mathematics in the USA let alone the EU; where the hell does he think he'll be able to enforce it?

If it's only relevant to Oz then we have nothing to fear except perhaps the utter stagnation of their economy; which frankly I'm not too worried about.

UK gov advisor proposes 'licence to smoke'

Martin Owens

Re: What the fuck is wrong with smoking yourself to death

Some people have this silly moral qualm about harming others. They must be so foolish to be moral, no one is moral these days to any degree.

But at least those smokers could stop harming people around them _directly_ and causing a fair percentage of the London pollution. So can we have a London smoking charge where you need to pay £8 a day to smoke in London?

Open Season exposes the real price paid for Radiohead's new album

Martin Owens
Dead Vulture

I'll be sure

Not to listen to the whole thing in ert middle of night just in case a mention was in there; ah well the register probably has a 1 mention per bribe policy.

Anyway I agree about Sun hot footing, they don't seem to quite get some of the aspects of FOSS and yet you get the feeling some of them do (sometimes).

As for Ubuntu and the Gutsy release, I haven't installed it yet but I hear good things, as well as a number of people popping in the forums to give smooches for resurrection laptops from Vista death. Red Hat is probably going to be the main competition, I can't see any of the other distro's being sold on PCs or getting support from the likes of Adobe; But it's nice there is variation as it keeps ubuntu and red hat honest.

Ex-Linspire chief defects to Ubuntu

Martin Owens

Not a problem

It was interesting to see his post, esp since he'd been on the forum before calling to the great buy it through a apt repository network (while not a bad idea on the face of it was badly done)

>> I want a Slackware sticker.

Funny enough I'm sure the guys are up for making other things, but we had to buy 18ks worth to get anything like a decent price so you may find them a little pricey at 1.

Apple to roll out Mac OS X 10.5 next week

Martin Owens

Might as well

They might as well just rename Mac OSX "Linux Gauntlet 5" If the features wern't taken from linux in the first place then you'll want to bet your grannies socks they'll be there before Christmas.

BBC spreads free Wi-Fi Cloud over iPlayer delay

Martin Owens
Thumb Down

Missing Point

>> A secure DRM mechanism for Linux - is it really possible?

A secure DRM mechanism for Windows through obscurity by hiding the code - is it really secure?

Well we all know the answer is no; if or when the open source community decides to implement a DRM scheme or some form of encryption the fact that the source code is available will force it to be more secure by nature. If it's not possible to make OSS DRM then it's not possible to make secure DRM.

Microsoft claims more pirate scalps

Martin Owens
Joke

The linux connection

We don't like pirates, they get in the way of converting people to the good side and using proper operating systems.

Google updates desktop for Linux

Martin Owens
Alert

Do what I do

>> What am I going to do, say I don't accept word docs? Great way to lose clients.

Charge slightly more for the windows support/ms office document jumping hoop tricks; clear price lists and comparisons would give your clients an incentive but allow you to keep within the competition for the "standard" proprietary stuff.

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

Martin Owens
Unhappy

News

>> liberal news papers were part of the 'watch'

I didn't think there were any, that was the problem when the right claimed a liberal bias and then research pointed out there was on average a right wing bias in the 'liberal' media. all very sad really.

Al Gore? Peace Prize? hmmm obviously ran out of Ghandi's.

Windows update brings down TV newscast

Martin Owens
Coat

I thought

That windows was really secure and that everyone should use it for critical infrastructure [sarcasm]

Beeb news website goes titsup

Martin Owens
Thumb Up

The Gods

The computer gods are punishing them for their wicked iplayer software.

Someone quick get a copy of Red Hat and bless them!

Ballmer: All open source dev should happen on Windows

Martin Owens
Thumb Up

TV Time for open source?

>> People flock like sheep, the past few years of tech have shown this time again. It's high time we get more movies and TV shows showing *nix on the desktop instead of MS stuff. RH/Novell/whoever, should look to make a school tailored distro (different for each country) and make a big advertisement campaign telling the world how great it all is - provided it is tailored for the job first.

Did you not watch Heroes? For some really weird reason Nickey uses KDE to do video streaming, Mahindra uses one of the light weight Linux DE's for his genetics research; I'm surprised they didn't do an ubuntu dance, although it looks like Ando was using windows xp in japan so I guess you can't have everything can you.

UK.gov to cut corporation tax, plug private equity

Martin Owens
Thumb Down

Lost?

Aye, one wonders weather it'll be the Labour party or the uk economy that goes bankrupt first.

Please ignore the start-up stealing the OS from Microsoft

Martin Owens
IT Angle

Linux, the GPL and what we will do

Well the GPL will force most of the Linux and stack tools into the open (or else the FSF will send in the heavies) and how long do you think it will be before we see a linux project to re-flash these motherboards with your own custom set of tools, or even using this to boot the primary part of the operating system and get the system usable while the system grabs a bit more stuff off the hard drive to load the actual tools such as firefox.

There is so much that can be done with this and I'm as surprised as the author that this isn't being noted by IT journals and mags.

PC superstore puts Microsoft on sale for under £150

Martin Owens
Thumb Up

Like the images

Love the little images you guys have put on the comments, perhaps a penguin one to balance out the gates ones?

Oh Microsoft for sale again? nah didn't want to buy them the first time.

Sage partners worry about falling into Line

Martin Owens

Volumes

Doesn't that just tell you all you need to know about the IT industry in the UK.

Bah, when will the government stop pandering and change their stupid policy for teaching kids Microsoft Office and make IT something useful. that at least would be a start.

You want to learn about Ubuntu?

Martin Owens

Soon, Meh

It's still Gnu/Linux actually Stuart no matter what _you_ call it.

As for your fendangled ATI Radeon card, having person experience trying to work with graphics cards with respect to finding monitor information I can tell you 3 interesting things: 1) ATI doesn't document very well how to use DDC/I2C on all it's cards 2) Some of the cards just don't work, 3) Even when you get data, most monitors lie about what their specs are for some reason.

I'm looking forward to Hardy and I'll be waiting with bated breath for the ATI open source drivers because they _will_ make a lot of these problems go away. You know all the problem Ubuntu always has is when it's forced to use closed systems, drivers, plugins etc; The reality is that ubuntu is ready, the market on the other hand is still sleeping in 1995.

Schools chief pushes Big Brother out of dinner line

Martin Owens

Trust and Respect

A great loss to the cohesion of society when you need to enforce rules upon people with the use of tools which remove their most basic feedoms; I mean jeeze I was born into this world with only my skin on my back and these fellows want to take it all and record it so that I can participate in some grant utopia where the masters of it all sit in very high ivory towers indeed.

Pathetic human beings being so stupid as always missing the point; Tim J you too, I say we record everything about you and make sure some sadistic murderer gets into power and decided your not required and comes a hunting for your skin.

But don't worry you done nothing wrong, but that doesn't matter because you decided to forfeit every protection again misuse of personal data in favour of catching a few petty thugs that properly trained police could catch.

IPTV over wireless? Why not?

Martin Owens

Don't you just

Hate it when those socialists are right for a change? I mean it's not like you can't get a wifi mesh set up the problem is security on such networks.

Although saying that, I'm starting to believe WiFi is a bad idea and we should have never eft the oceans.

Mr WebTV skewers US patent bill

Martin Owens

Big Tech + FOSS

So the only guys in tech not supporting this bill are the small firms who want a piece of the old world patent pie.

Boo-Hoo

Patents on software implemented inventions makes about as much sense as a vulture central AA meeting, it's not just that it's hurting the growth of technology, it's that software is exclusive to the whole preposition of patents.

So no, it isn't just the Intels and Microsofts of this world, it's the FSFs, OSIs and digialFreedoms of the world who are also behind the tearing down of patents.

Boffins: Dark times for application development

Martin Owens

No, don't stop!

Fogcat your just wrong, and so is the register.

Boffin is a scientist of some description, normally a Doctor(PhD) in their chosen field and a leading light in the academic circle where they operate.

Tinkerer would be an engineer, people like Torvalds.

What their looking for here is the equivalent business person level slang which I believe is PHB.

"PHBs: Dark Times for application development"

Radiohead lets fans price new CD

Martin Owens

I know bands

I know bands that will push other lesser bands when they get further to the top simply because the band members happen to like the music of the lesser band.

Seen it happen and there is no reason to think that this won't happen again. although we're talking about real musicians, not people like prince or the spice girls.

Free-market think tank urges EU to unbundle Windows

Martin Owens

Are the same crowd

Do I hear the voices of decent coming from those who value practicality above doing what is right? Yes it will hurt, yes the market will need to change. But the fact is doing the right thing isn't a buffet where you can pick and choose based on what suites you at that moment.

Now I hope Windows becomes unbundled, because having the market suffer now will lead to long term growth and stability.

Why Microsoft vs Mankind still matters

Martin Owens

Windows from Microsoft anyone?

Wow this thread has gone really Microsoft fanatical for some reason; Microsoft ARE a monopoly, that isn't an opinion. Microsoft are damaging both their own interests and the markets, industries and governments of others by _doing_ what they do, not from being winners, I'll be the first one to give you a pat on the back for winning, but I'll be the first to punch your lights out for cheating.

As for Gnu/Linux well, I know there are loads of comments saying it's crap and not really ready, I don't believe any of the people have tried a real linux distro recently. And besides Linux is more about principle over practical. Do you not think it would make my life so much _easier_ to get a windows machine? but the fact is that I can't because it would violate my principles and I'm not willing to sell out for something so unimportant as operating system functionality.

Half the time I despair at the human race when it buys Microsoft. No heart or soul, not even any morals. such a pitty. I mean it was never any good but now I just pitty it.

PC superstore refuses to take sack in hand

Martin Owens

Ah that takes me back

As a FOSS programmer I used to enjoy a trip to PC World now and then just for a little tease; insisting that I wanted a computer with linux on it or that I wanted a linux compatible wifi card; what ever would take my fancy and then just score point on which of their staff squirmed the most. Evil I know.

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