Posts by Brent Longborough

Microsoft: It's not Metro, it's Windows 8

Maybe a better name would be...

... iWindows?

IOC asks Olympic spectators to cut back TXTs and tweets

All you need to do...

is give us back our Zil lanes, and then we'll stop tweeting. Deal?

IT departments are BRATTY TEENAGERS

Re: How do BMC equate to

It must have been Remedy that he was thinking of when he mentioned 'gameification'. As in Wumpus: "You just fell into a pit and broke every bone in your body".

That's roughly what using Remedy is like.

Yahoo! hack! leaks! 453,000! unencrypted passwords!

I'm an OAP geezer, but...

... even I've heard of Colin Percival and scrypt

NASA was WRONG on arsenic-gobbling aliens, claim boffins

Talking of six a day

I used to be keen on this five-a-day idea, until the missus showed me on the internetz that it was about *food*.

'Inexperienced' RBS tech operative's blunder led to banking meltdown

That's it, blame the help

So this software doesn't even ask "Are you sure you want to erase the whole effing show?"?

Where, oh where, is the lost art of the user interface (even if it's a command line)?

'Six-eyed' robot to tour National Museum of Australia

Why do I think of a "Bull in a china shop"?

For some naughty reason, I just find the idea of an autonomous Dalek wandering round a museum full of delicate and precious objects a bit laughy-scary...

Google Drive stalls on LAUNCH DAY

Underwhelming

Mine worked OK (on my own domain) until I uninstalled it!

I've got accounts at both Dropbox and SpiderOak. Dropbox gives me back history; SpiderOak lets *me* specify the folder names.

OK, so Google is "big" and "reliable", but they'll also need a few features.

Suspected freetloaders to face piracy letters in 2014

Re: prince of darkness

I think "Sith" is a typo?

UK.gov to unveil reborn, renamed net-snoop plans in Queen's Speech

Ship of Fools

Under what damp, mossy stone are the people who invent these ideas found? Here (not completely coherently, I admit) is what happens:

1. The Government passes the law

2. The criminals, terrorists, pædophiles, and others who already know about Tor, Vpns, PGP, GPG, and ZPhone carry on their business as usual

3. The taxpayer, or the Internet user, foots the bill for this circus

4. The "system" gets flooded by everyone's taglines which say "I am neither drug dealer, terrorist, people trafficker, pædophile, politician, nor lawyer"

5. The whole exercise has zero effect, but no-one can prove it

6. A few years from now, when the Stalinists take over, we're all screwed

Adobe can't penetrate punters' tight wallets: Users holding out for CS6

I'm really happy with The Gimp

That's the one from gimp.org, *not* Pulp Fiction...

iPlayer repeat fees threaten BBC earthquake

Cart before Horse -- Meh

Although the BBC is the "least bad" of a really bad bunch, perhaps it would be a good idea to try and put up something people actually want to watch? Then, later, once they've managed to cross that hurdle, they can start to think about charging. Me, I'm gonna wait sitting down...

Report: UK falls behind as smart meters rolled out across Europe

Meters too smart for our good

Once the smart meter is installed, how long before it gets a smart switch?

Users: 'Personalized internet? Fuggedaboutit!'

Adverts?!?

Who reads them, anyway?

Android Market morphs into 'Google Play'

Come back, Eric Schmidt, all is forgiven

They've screwed up Reader.

They've screwed up Picasa and borged the web side into Google+.

Now this. First it damaged Android Market in a way that I could neuther go forard or back, and had to install it manually from an apk. And now I've got it, it's full of fan-kiddies' crap I don't need.

My next phone will be rooted before it leaves the shop. But I don't need all this effing worry. For the first time in my life, Apple looks like a better option. FTW

Metro breakdown! Windows 8 UI is little gain for lots of pain

Dunno yet - it's still installing...

in a Virtual Box. There's just a pic of a fish blowing bubbles, two hours now. So far, underwhelmed. More later...

70 London 999 calls lost due to clock-change IT glitch

Re: Re: Re: bad programming

The problem with local time is that it is not monotonic. You can always derive Local time from GMT, but there are cases when a given local time can refer to two moments one hour apart.

Systems Administration 101

Another .gov.uk IT cockup. Surely there's somebody there who knows that you run critical, timing dependent systems on GMT, FGS?

New driver-snooping satnav could push down UK insurance premiums

The Next Step

What happens when all the insurance companies agree to make this a *compulsory* requirement for insuring you?

Google 'chooses' not to censor Mosley content, MP says

More nonsense from the ignorant

How on earth do Ben Bradshaw and Max Mosley expect Google to police the whole damned Internet?

Can either of them successfully count to one thousand? OK, now try counting to *billions* of web pages. How many people do they think Google has to employ just because some shenanigans might be displayed?

This is ridiculous. There's a perfectly adequate remedy already available in the form of a takedown request, which everyone acknowledges, in Google's case, works well.

Google provides millions of people with excellent services, basically for free. Are we going to throw that away because one old fart is embarrassed, and his lawyer, who, having been Culture Secretary, God help us all, should know better, doesn't understand the internet and the 21st century?

EU: Time running out for web companies on 'do not track' system

How do you think "free" services get paid for?

While I hold no brief for "Big Business", we have to have a bit of a reality check here, in order to stop the whining.

Tracking allows free services (yes, like Google) to improve their revenue by offering ads that are "more relevant". Now, if we want to say "don't track me", that's fine, but don't expect to get the same service -- either we'll have to pay, or we'll get a second-class version relative to those who agree to tracking. The service providers' marketing departments will have to decide just how far they go with it, and the market will work it out. Just don't expect "something for nothing".

Anything wrong with that?

Olympics volunteers urged not to blab online

The Olympics?

Meh

UK student faces extradition to US after piracy case ruling

Stop this right now

The Ministry of Justice (or whatever, meh) should commit to throwing this request out before it even gets here...

Tiny frog claimed as smallest vertebrate ever

And they still...

... have more brains than the Republican party.

I name this Frog

Sarkozy!

Nearest supernova since 1986 blasts boffin off her chair

Bugger, that was a close one!

The Man said...

Boffins find new 2012 glyph on 'secret' Mayan brick

Don't panic

They forgot to add in the leap-bak'tuns, the 11 days correction from 1752, and British Summer Time.

Russian Mars probe heads into space WITHOUT ENGINES

SCADA Fuel Pump...

Is all.

Neutrinos still FASTER THAN LIGHT in second test

Told you so

Of course, the apparent discrepancy in the measurements will get bigger as the end of the Mayan calendar draws closer...

Nominet claws back cops' automatic .UK takedown power

Looking a bit better today

Yep, I think that's a great improvement. Thank goodness some degree of common sense has prevailed.

Google launches Google+ Pages for businesses

If I wanted this, I'd have stayed with Facebook

All of a sudden, a surge in the mean stool density in the sewage...

Gallery mulls 'damage' after cleaner scrubs modern art

Common Sense

Magritte is laughing his **se off in the Halls of Valhalla.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sXSK55eTrFc/SziPBwiUhfI/AAAAAAAAFvY/s_uaDPl4Zwk/s1600/magritte_Common%2Bsense1.jpg

UK.gov digital boss defends ID assurance scheme

No thanks

Hey, dot gov dot uks, pay attention to my lips: NO THANK YOU

Should your system offer Mr, Ms ... and Mx?

Is that really a "<" for the third gender?

If it is, given the general level of world IT incompetence, there will be plenty of opportunities for HTML clag-ups and injection shenanigans. Apart from the fact that a lot of airlines still use a 6-bit character set that doesn't include "<"...

All WikiLeaks' secret US cables are on BitTorrent in full

Pardon my stupidity...

... but how can a password that's been used to encrypt a file ever be "temporary"?

Who are these people, and when were they let out of their cave?

Most Adobe Reader installs are out of date

On the other hand

My Adobe Reader *uninstall* is completely up-to-date; I switched to PDF-XChange Viewer a long time ago

Entire London 2012 Olympics' cultural events database held on Excel

Technology Alert!!!

Brilliant decision. I expect they use Excel for its magnificent word processing capabilities, like many large companies in the UK.

Heathrow Express treats iPhones as tickets

How to piss off your passengers

1. Call them "customers"

2. Feed them an Android app that can't be relocated to the SD card. Otherwise they might believe you understand about this technology whatchamacallem

BBC new media boss defends iPlayer Flash, slaps Microsoft

Worry about important stuff

We all know Adobe = Bloatware.

Erik Huggers should be worrying about the epic cock-up his team have made of their surgery on the Beeb's website.

US starts charging for online visa-waiver

They pay me, right?

Is all

What's the difference between an iPod and an iPood?

Gotta have that Name

Obviously Apple wants the "Ipood" name for their new antenna technology...

Home Office planning to brick version 1 ID cards in 2012?

Don't worry, you can buy another one

Brilliant. I can't wait to buy Version 2. And keep going till they brand my number on my forehead.

British laggards told to embrace their digital futures

Computer says Wait

How come their website's so slooow?

Moribund Mexican litters Street View

The Hard Truth

I'm very sorry to have to say this, but in most of Central and South America, it's an unwise move to stop to investigate someone lying in the middle of the road. Monterrey is *not like* Santa Monica.

I can only hope the streetview operators stopped at the local nick to report it.

Watford council punts parents from playground

Just say No

Sensible parents just won't use these things, so hopefully the Inclusive Community Recreational Outreach Coordinators will soon be back on the dole...

Historian slams 'absolutely crazy' UK time zone

I remember the last experiment

I can remember when the weak-witted Westminster technocrats imposed BST-in-Winter on us in the late sixties. Getting up and arriving at work while it's still dark really sucks, just the same today as it did then.

Today, in compensation, going home in the dark sucks a lot less because there's more crap to watch on telly.

By the way, this "historian" person should study a bit of geography - most of the UK is to the *West* of the Greenwich meridian, which means it's *later*, not *earlier*. Doh!

Visa gives merchants crypto card security guidelines

Better late than never

Brilliant! Now all they need to do is to encrypt the data between the chip and the card reader!

Privacy campaigner vows legal challenge to Google Street View

Simon says... Wrong logic AND wrong fight

As a keen amateur photographer, I completely reject any thinking that says it is unlawful to take photographs in a public place. For now, I am prepared to suspend judgment on Google street view and accept their assurance that if I reasonably want something taken down, they'll do it.

As to Google making a profit, go for it, Google! If it means I get, FREE, search, email, calendar, office, RSS newsreader, photo website, translator, then I'm really in favour of a bit of profit.

Now, Simon, what about Phorm and such? If you want to whine, at least whine about something worthwhile...

Cambridge security boffins slam banking card readers

No brute force

@Xander: I don't think so - you only get three tries before the card locks its little self and you have to go through the unblocking thing.

I was more frightened by the comments about thugs being able to use one to check the PIN you gave them is valid without dragging you to an ATM...