Posts by Wokstation

Phorm losses shoot up by half

Of course the trial's not begun...

...BT only said that to help PHORM buff their shareprice in the light of increasing losses, most likely.

Ofcom: No premium numbers for previous offenders

Shame the TV companies get 3rd parties...

...else you'd see ITV on the blacklist for sure.

Of course, if a company's that dodgy, they'll just shut their doors and magically a new company with a new name will appear in the same place, with the same employees...

Germans give peeking Google one in the eye

@Justin Case

If that was in the UK and you were in a public space, said plod was wronger than a wrong thing dipped in wrong sauce and eaten with the wrong impliment.

OMFG, what have you done?

I may not yet be particularly keen on the new paintjob...

...but at least it doesn't look like Vista. Good work not going with that design scheme!

I don't like the new emotes though.

Amazon flash mob mauls Spore DRM

As I said in the last article, I'm voting with my wallet.

No way in hell am I buying a single-player game which requires you activate it online. Not all of my PCs are online, and why do they have to be?

Single-player game + online activation = Wokstation's wallet staying closed.

Segway shock army to invade Department of Transport

I'm waiting, El Reg...

...for your Plamobil dramatization!

EA Europe struggles squeezing out Spore

@Martin Lyne

It should be noted that I wasn't talking about the server issues, but the whole concept of online activation.

You CANNOT install and play this game on a computer that does not have an internet connection. "You fail", because you didn't even understand what I had written. Good job sah.

@David Wiernicki

"So, buy it" and reward them for using such draconian and nonsensical DRM?

If everyone did that, what will the company learn? They learn that they can do whatever they like and the public will just bend over, take it, and pay for the honour.

Nope. This gamer's not for turning.

It must be bad, I just paraphrased Thatcher *goes and scrubs his mind with bleach*

I'm voting with my wallet...

...and giving this a miss. The DRM is just too much. Online activation for a single-player game? You can't install and activate on a computer without an internet connection.

Limited activations? Destroy it's resale value why not.

EA aren't exactly at the top of my list of "trusted publishers", so I wouldn't be to suprised if in a couple of years they decide Spore's time is over and pull the plug on the activation servers - what then for the purchasers?

The irony of course is that the game was pirated before it was even officially released. A look over a few "naughty websites" shows scores of torrents supplying cracked copies of Spore.

Me? It's purchase or don't have it at all. I'm not about to go pirating a game, I don't really see the point - it's "only a game" (and from the reviews, not as great as we all thought it might be).

So, EA have lost my purchase. I might reconsider if I see it in a bargain bin for a fiver, but other than that they can take a running jump. I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, either.

ID scheme plans 50,000 cards by April

50,000 chances...

...for more data to be lost. Yay.

I wouldn't trust them to organise a pissup at a brewery. They'd lose the kegs on a train.

Police quiz BT on secret Phorm trials

Is it my imagination...

...or is there a serious downwards spike in PHORM's shareprice this afternoon? After yesterday's slight lift, Kent must be absolutely gutted at the timing of this.

Phorm: Our business is fine, honest

Well, the bit about the shareprice increasing was concerning...

...particularly when I looked at this page:

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=LON:PHRM

Then I zoomed out. Oh, how I laughed. LAUGHED!

Without opt-in, RIPA trumps PHORM

Oh yes it does. And then there's the EU version too.

PHORM - the dead horse that Kent loves to keep flogging.

Burned by Chrome - Fire put out

Google update EULA!

They've changed the EULA:

11. Content licence from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.

- but by using the term "the Services", they could have just done themselves out of the right to use Youtube content for promo purposes, because "the Services" is a nebulous descriptor.

Oops.

Hmmm... time to ban the Chrome useragent

I'm not having Google do that crap with my photography just because someone used Chrome to look at it. Time to add the Chrome useragent to my exceptions list.

Homeland Security backs deportation with Wikipedia

A definition of wear and tear...

... that was subsequently edited!

PC Gamers get Bill of Rights

@Jonathan Keith

I'm glad you trust them. I don't - they're a commercial entity. Their board/CEO/shareholders change, so do their policies. It also assumes they'll have the financial and technical resources to release said DRM-removing patches.

So given the choice between "it'll definitely still work" (CD/DvD Deployment) and "it has the possibility of breaking if the company folds" (Valve/Steam), which is the logical choice? I can't see any reason why someone would choose to take the gamble.

@Eddie Edwards

Wah, wah, wah. I'm also in field and I agree with it totally. It obviously DOES work because Stardock have built a successful business model following those rules themselves.

What you're saying is you don't want it to work, because it means no more getting away sloppy workmanship, fobbing off the customer and treating them like scum.

If you "work in the business", I suggest with an attitude like your's you won't do for long...

@Pete re: Steam

Sure, it's fine and dandy until the unthinkable happens and Valve shut their doors.

What ya gonna do with your games then? And before you say "they'll release DRM-removing patches!"... yeah... sure they will.

@NBC

You'll probably get said refund.

I had issues with GalCiv2 due to a faulty GPU, and after spending a while in IRC with Mike Sama (of Stardock) diagnosing the fault, they offered a full refund.

I said "no", because I'd be replacing the GPU soon anyway.

Arrest made over data-stuffed eBay laptop hard drive

But not the government, of course!

" “For many years we have urged organisations to consider the impact on individuals’ privacy before developing new IT systems. However progress has been disappointing," said Jonathan Bamford, assistant commissioner at the ICO. "

No, of course he doesn't mean the government - they protect our privacy to the end, don't they?

Yeah... mine's the one with the empty ID-card-wallet.

Fujitsu wants NHS exit payment

Hey, fellah...

...you know we were hired to service and refit your car? And you know how you sacked us because we screwed up the brakes, the transmission and ripped your leather interior? Yeah well... we still want you to pay us for the labour.

I hope the NHS tell them where to go jump - but I doubt they will. They'll probably "settle" and pay them 10% more than they're asking for...

Concrete-jet 'printers' to build houses, Moonbases in hours

I'm thinking this technology...

...may find itself legislated against for terrestrial use. Many low-income and/or low-skilled people would be put out of work by this machine.

Erotic artist urges spanking for Jacqui Smith

@Tony Paulazzo

"Anonymous - just in case..."

Oh no you're not... better start running!

@Andrew Thomas

This act bans peircing porn... some people actually like getting peirced during sex. Some like to watch someone CONSENTUALLY being peirced during sex.

Then there's art itself, which often depicts things that are socially taboo for very legitimate reasons.

I'm gonna take Sarah Bee's invite and flame you, for to be as stupid as you there's no other possibility - you are Jacqui Smith.

Would you like your nipple peirced while we're here?

UK.gov child data-sharing scheme delayed (again)

The interface problem presumably being...

...that any ol' bugger can print it and chuck it on a dump?

"Where's the IT angle", because it's our government and they know feck-all about IT.

Ofcom considers termination charges

Paying to receive calls?

Fantastic! That means I can very quickly drive anyone I like into debt, simply by phoning them repeatedly from different numbers!

And of course they're not really thinking about prepay customers who only have 2p credit - do they propose putting a prepay into debt? How would that work? Prepay customers don't sign a contract, so it'd be unenforcible, surely?

Paris, coz I'd rather get f***ed by her than by OFCOM.

Now Hollywood is chasing UK downloaders

@Darren The answer's simple

Get your sister to send the bailiffs to Tiscali. Seriously.

Issue a small claims notice, take 'em to SC court adding punative costs and send the bailiffs. Who knows, maybe they'll confiscate a couple of servers to pay the debt...

McAfee SiteAdvisor sued over 'spyware' tag

@asponge

Absolutely agree. 7search might have had a point if McAfee were actively blocking client access to the site, but they're not. They're saying "You really sure you wanna go there?".

As it's the United States of Americaland...

...can't McAffee claim "freedom of speech"? Afterall, the warning is *technically* opinion, and it's being transmitted from the US... therefore, it's free speech.

Password pants-off at Lloyds Bank

@"Lloyds is pants and Barclays is better." AC

Yeah, Barclays is "better", eh?

Barclays, the ones who let someone withdraw £500 from my account with nothing but my name, sort code and account number. They had no ID. They didn't even attempt to sign my name - they block-printed it. Yet still, Barclays let them take it out.

I only noticed because I spotted, later that day, that my account was £500 shy and queried it. As soon as they compared the withdrawal slip to my on-record signature, they could see it was different (I sign like a spider covered in ink having a fit on the page).

Though the guy was as thick as them - he tried it again the next day... and promptly got arrested.

I bank with the ol' horsey

And I use Phonebank a lot. The staff NEVER ask for your password anymore. You have a 6-digit PIN and during the callsteer, you have to enter your Account Number, Sort Code and 2 digits from the PIN which have been randomly selected by the computer.

No member of staff handles the password, because there isn't one.

For them to have a less secure system for business customers than they do for the average punter seems very odd to me...

Paris... just coz.

No snapping: Photographers get collars felt

@Mark

Actually, it was because he was male. Had it been a woman, whoever saw her would have been done as a peeping tom.

THAT is how the law works.

@A Lewis

"Sorry, your statement is not generally applicable. In Australia..."

Note the .co.uk on the site address. I was talking from a UK perspective.

In the UK, it all hinges on "reasonable expectation of privacy", which a schoolchild in school has.

@Andy

You are mistaken. If the child is in public, they may be photographed - with or without parental permission.

@ShaggyDoggy, Jason Clery and Mark

Taking photos of a private space can indeed be invasion of privacy - exactly the same as if I stood in the street and took photos of the inside of your home. The fact that I'm on a public space is besides the point.

A school field these days does have a reasonable expectation of privacy, given the big fences, the hedges and all the other steps to protect our kids from paedogheddon.

@Shaggydoggy - you bet your butt I've read it - I'm a street photographer.

@Jeremey

"For example if there was someone outside your childrens school playground snapping away wouldn't you want to know why?"

You've missed the point about being in public entirely. Kids on a school field are not considered to be in a public space, instead, they're on private property - a school. As such, you cannot take their photographs without permission of the landowner.

Well boo-hiss, reg.

Understandably? Harrassing police officers?

It's not against the law to piss off a copper. As a photographer I am aghast that The Reg chose to pacify the police commentors by giving that statement any credibility.

They photograph us - if they've nothing to fear, they shouldn't worry about us returning the favour.

McCain: Keep Shuttle flying, don't trust Russia

Hmmmm

McCain: "Keep the shuttle flying!"

NASA: "Give us the money then!"

McCain: "I was a POW! I didn't have money when I was a POW!"

NASA: "...ummm..."

From George Dubya to PO Dubya.

(Note to anyone who may launch into that - I have full respect and admiration for the servicemen and women who lay their lives on the line - what I don't expect is for them to hide behind their experience every time someone asks them a tricky question - eg, Leno: "For a million dollars, how many houses?" - McCain: "I was a POW!")

US PS3 sales fell 45% in July

So why no headline...

...about the 93% increase in Ps3 sales in June?

You don't even comment on the very obvious spike on the graph in your article.

US judge decrees open source licenses valid

Not just software...

I release a fair bit of photography on CC licenses, this ruling will protect my copyright (in the US at least) as well.

OpenGL 3.1 promise follows gamer revolt

@Robert Jones

All very well saying you'll stick to D3D, but until MS make D3D multi-platform (and you and I both know that's not going to happen) it's simply not an acceptable (or viable) solution for many.

I was under the impression...

...that Vista had nixed OpenGL support, so it was left to the driver vendors? Or was I wrong? (I could be, it wouldn't be the first time...).

Intel to brand next-gen CPUs 'Core i7'

All these names...

...make it confusing for the general punter.

I mean really, when it was based on clockspeed you could at least see at a glance which chips were supposed to be faster than what. But it looks like CPUs are going the way of GPUs: Confusing and hard to compare.

For example, comparing the GF5200 with an ATI equivalant... the 9600? Or is that better, or worse, or what? It's very tricky to tell without opening the techspecs, looking at clock & bus speeds and checking the number of pipes it has.

Bleh. No wonder I bought a console...

Pirate Bay evades Italian blockade

It's just like the ancient fight...

...between AV company and virus writer. It's a tale of sun and swords, eternally told!

Ok, so I stole that bit from SoulCailbur, but still... X does Y to block Z. Z figures way round it. And round and round she goes...

Kiwi cops hunt teenage serial burglar with head of Robbie Coltrane

Couldn't robbie

Get 'em for defamation of character? Not everyone will read the smallprint...

BT slams bandwidth brakes on all subscribers

My internet's always being slowed...

...I only have a half-meg line, yet Virgin (resold via Tesco) throttle it constantly between 1PM and midnight. Worst between 5 and 11:30, and it's not just non-port-80. Even port 80 gets throttled.

Apparently it's because some of their servers are oversubscribed.

Hurry up BE, be available in my area... I'm getting pissed off waiting 5minutes for my XBOX Live session to sign in.

Unencrypted traveler data laptop disappears then reappears

They've been taking lessons

From the UK government, haven't they?

Next they'll store their laptops securely, by leaving them on trains...

South Korean prez turns on the internet

I'm sorry, El Reg, did you say...

...North Korea?

No?

Oh...

US court liberates Cablevision 'remote DVR'

@Wokstation

You've made the mistake of thinking the user would receive the data and then transmit it to the server. The server appears to be the originator of the data, so there's no upload.

It'll still munch bandwith like crazy though, so I doubt ISPs are overjoyed at this news.

And do you spend much time talking to yourself? It's a sign of insanity, you know. No really, it is. I said it is! Stop arguing with me! Stop it, I said, or I'm not going to talk to you anymore... and stop pulling that pouty face, it doesn't wash with me, young man!

But of course...

...if you don't have the phat bandwidth, you'll be waiting a while before you get to watch that episode of Allo Allo.

I wonder what the ISPs think of this device? It must really munch through bandwidth, and it's likely to be uploading during prime-time (coz that's when people often record).

Network congestion, yay! [/sarc]