Posts by Morely Dotes

Nintendo Wii hack opens door to homebrew games

@ Highlander and Richard Herbert

"I can't see this being anything but bad news for Nintendo."

Nintendo is the only console maker who sells the console at a profit; demand is higher than supply; and a flood of homebrew games are no threat to the established game publishers because the Wii doesn't have any facility for being carried about in a coat pocket and "squirting" content to other Wii consoles.

"anything that could boost the sales of hardware should be well seen in my book"

Nintendo isn't able to manufacture the consoles as fast as they can sell them, so while more demand might be seen as a good thing, it's largely like having 2 pints of beer and a single pint mug.

AOL tosses Netscape into the dustbin of history

AOL still exists?

What sort of moronic loser would want a walled garden Internet experience? Apart from the Australian government, I mean.

I was on the tech support team for Netscape 1.0 (which gives you an idea of how long I've been browsing). The dialer was a nightmare, but it was better than anything else that came along for many years.

Rendition lawsuit targets aerospace giant Boeing

@ Keith T

Sorry I missed this first time around.

"These people voted GWB in for his second term after he claimed they shared his moral values."

There is a growing body of evidence that the machines used to tally the votes in the "swing" States were easily tampered with. There is certainly plenty of evidence that Florida, the State which cast the deciding Electoral College votes during Bush's first campaign, was suborned:

1. Bush's campaign manager in Florida was also the Secretary of State, who was legally bound to declare the vote legal or illegal, based on her own investigation of any charges that it may be suspect. She declared it legal.

2. The same Florida Secretary of State was the only person who could have open ballot boxes and resealed them with apparently untampered seals.

3. At least 14 ballot boxes went "missing" for several hours between the polling stations and the vote-counting location.

4. The districts in which ballot boxes "went missing" also tallied an overwhelming majority of votes for Bush.

Do the math. Personally, I am convinced that Bush was never elected the *first* time, and therefor could not legally run for a second term.

@ Jeff Danaher

[Excised]

I spent 23 years in the US Army, the last 11 of them in the Mech Infantry, where I was a Bradley commander. I commanded the guard detail at a nuclear weapons facility (with enough live warheads to sterilize any major city in the world down to the bedrock) in Germany. I had my kneecap smashed while on active duty in service to my country. I draw a Disabled Veteran's pension. I am certainly anything but anti-American.

But the Administration of George W. Bush is the most loathsome, fascist, un-American organization I have ever witnessed in my 57-plus years of life, and I heartily wish to see Bush, Cheney, and their cronies tried for their high crimes against the Constitution of the United States of America, because they have done nothing in the interests of the nation, and everything in the interests of their own power, and the profits of their "pet" contractors, such as Halliburton. They have ignored (and mutilated, far beyond violated) the law of the land, grabbed powers which are legally denied to them, abused American citizens without cause other than the opposition of those citizens to the unlawful acts of the Bush Administration, and made American freedom an object of derision everywhere.

They make me regret my decision to serve my country. You make me question the point of defending it, as well, but [...excised...] I am inclined to write that off as the inevitable price of defending the majority of citizens, who are upright, moral, and just as horrified by the rule of Bush's Terror Brigade as I am.

Bhutto murder used to spread malware

What? But that's not possible!

"Sites that have been possibly compromised (or that include the malicious JavaScript), including Autoworld, Vino, Dogpile, MSN and BlogSpot, Trend Micro warns."

MSN? Surely not! Surely MSN would be running Vista, the "most secure Windows ever," and could therefor not possibly be compromised!

Funnily enough, I spoke with a (highly successful) salesman this morning who, after having been exposed to Vista (that is, forced to "upgrade" from XP) at work, went out and bought a Mac to use at home. He's not worried about viruses and trojans, for some reason...

Intel and STMicro Flash venture delayed by cash problems

@ Matt Bryant

Don't read too much into that. Intel's flashram business is effectively a separate company from the CPU business, and from the video chipset business, and from the motherboard business, and from the white box server business, and so on. It's all accounting tricks, but what it amounts to is that the parent can take a take writeoff on a business that's losing money to offset the taxes due from a profitable business. The side effect is that each business unit has to negotiate its own credit.

Radiohead prep New Year's Eve net gig

I haven't downloaded it yet

I will - but not until I can pay the US$10 I decided it's worth to me. And I can't do that until the Missus says the budget can spare it (I know bloody well that it can, but until she says so, I'd rather wait than start a row that will see the house leveled and the cats homeless).

I will pay artists. I will *NOT* pay labels. And Metallica, aside from their galactic-black-hole-sized musical talent suckage, decided that they wanted to be a label, not artists, so they can kiss me hairy white arse. They're no different to any other label now.

Space shuttle launch knocked back again

And it's still the same problem

Challenger - destroyed by the strap-on rocket boosters, which would not have existed if the original lower stage of the Shuttle had been developed.

Columbia - destroyed by damage inflicted by the external fuel tank - which would not have existed if the original lower stage of the Shuttle had been developed.

Atlantis - launch delayed by the external fuel tank - which would not have existed if the original lower stage of the Shuttle had been developed.

Am I the only person who can see a common theme here?

Celeb spills beans on new Apple notebook

@ Lucky

"He's a legendary producer in hip hop..."

That's damning with faint praise. Might as well say "he's a legendary producer of mind-boggling amounts of shite," and it will carry the same artistic weight.

Hiphop is to music as cow flops are to food; there's clearly a relationship, but no one with a functional brain would ever confuse the two.

The protection's off, as Warner commits to Amazon

DRM-free shite is still shite

Haven't the labels discovered yet that marketing a dozen identical boy bands who *still* have no talent is no more effective than marketing just one?

No wonder there's a 15% falloff in CD sales. Even Milli Vanilli was more musically enticing than the current crop of crap.

Antarctic base staff in drunken Xmas punch-up

Re: Nice work by the Sales dept

"Earlier there was a humongous Flash advert in the middle of the page"

Must have been sourced from Doubleclick or one of the many other intrusive/malicious sites blocked by the MVPS Hosts file. I've never seen such a thing since installing it. Thanks, MVPS!

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Dell's laptop customisation options not very customisable

"simple technical explanation"

"We asked Dell why Paul wasn't given a simple technical explanation about the limitations of the firm's customisation options, but it has so far declined to comment."

Paul wasn't given a simple technical explanation because (a) the low-wage person in Bangalore wouldn't have known a DIMM from Dim Sum if they were both on a cart in front of him, and (b) there is no "simple technical explanation" for "I can't let you do anything that isn't on my script, even if you know what the Hell you're talking about and I don't, because I have no clue whatsoever, and furthermore, I don't care as long as I get my 50 rupees every Friday."

That's Consumer Level support for you. Business level (e.g., you paid an extra sum equal to half the cost of the laptop for "Gold Support") is provided by people local to you ("local" meaning in the USA for Americans, Scots for Scotland, and so on), and they generally know some technical info and aren't afraid to ask a supervisor if they aren't sure of something.

I would no more buy from the Consumer division than eat from a cesspool.

Click here to turn your HP laptop into a brick

@ BatCat

"if you can live with the limitations, switch to linux."

Let's see, what are the limitations again? Oh, yes:

* - The OS and almost any software you'd ever need to run are free.

* - Software updates extremely rarely require a reboot.

* - ActiveX security flaws simply don't exist anywhere except on Windows.

* - It requires a determined effort by a knowledgeable user to get a virus to run on linux.

* - older hardware will work just fine under linux.

* - The RIAA/MPAA don't seem to be aware that linux works quite well to play MP3s and DivX files, and can share them nicely too.

* - any Windows productivity application, and the vast majority of games, can be run on linux, too.

I could go on, but anyone who doesn't already get the point simply doesn't want to.

Vista sets 2007 land-speed record for copying and deleting

@ michael re: linux huh

"linux does not play many of the main games out today and prob never will with most of them having to use DX10 soon"

1. World of Warcraft can be run on Linux. With more than 9 million active players, I'd say it's a "main" game."

2. Halo 2 supposedly requires DX10. ITts not difficult to tweak XP to fool the game into running, however, and it performs as well as can be expected from a Microsoft release.

So DX10 is a red herring, and Windows is a red herring. Is the problem that you are afraid to learn something new? (Or possibly, just afraid to learn something?)

Minor correction

The article title ought to be:

"Vista sets 2007 land-speed record for felching and coprophagy"

Indignant reader defends Idiot 2.0™

Tobak is a git

That is all.

Plunging player prices to reveal Blu-ray vs HD DVD winner?

Players? Pish!

When HD or BD *recorders* are under $100, *then* (and only then) will it matter in the marketplace.

There is no "killer content" available in either format, but I'd be reall glad to be able to roll 5 to 10 of my existing movies onto a single disk, using the software I already have. It would be great to put all 6 of the Star Wars movies on a single disk without losing any fidelity (and, incidently, without keeping the annoying FBI and Interpol adverts).

So show me a recorder that can handle either of the hi-def disk types, and blank media at no more than $2 a disk, and we can talk.

Until then: Sony and the HD camp can both go piss up a rope.

Ad hijacking Trojan targets Google

@ Bramo: A better answer

Install the hosts file provided by MVPS.ORG - and then set the hosts file to read-only mode.

Or run Linux and laugh at the pathetic attempts to introduce malware onto a secure OS.

Censor to challenge Manhunt 2 release in court

Here, mate, that's dangerous!

"The BBFC believes Manhunt 2 shouldn't be released, even to people aged 18 or more, because of the risk it will fall into the hands of young kids"

Better ban all of the following, then: Motorcars, petrol, matches, electricity, fertilizer, ink, laser toner, tinned food, fresh food, frozen food, money, credit cards, cheques...

Or, the BBFC could be disbanded, having outlived its usefulness, and exceeded its authority to deny a free people their right to make their own decisions. The bloody BBFC members ought to be sent to Gitmo for a couple of years, too. Arrogant bastards need to come down a few notches.

I think (based on previews) that the game is crap, but it's not up to these jumped-up bluenoses to decide who's entitled to buy it.

Counterfeiters told to pay Symantec $21m

Counterfeit symantec products?

People actually buy them?

I have *got* to get my counterfeit feces business started!

Fire stations too much like fire stations, says Govt

@ Steve

"Who the hell wants to see art at a Fire Station?"

I'm partial to Botticelli - a few chunky nudes might warm things up...

Ofcom investigates X-Factor debacle

Settling the matter.

"Media watchdog Ofcom today confirmed that it will be investigating more than 2,000 complaints it has received from X Factor fans who have been crying into their beer mulled wine Bacardi Breezers after Welsh opera-singer Rhydian Roberts lost out to surprise victor Leon Jackson."

Perhaps those complaining should be offered Darwin Awards in compensation.

Involuntarily.

Those who have the time to waste even watching this shite are not contributing to the betterment of mankind (unless they are watching in lieu of breeding).

UK censor to appeal against Manhunt 2 verdict

Heil BBFC!

"The VAC judgement, if allowed to stand, would have fundamental implications with regard to all the Board's decisions,..."

Please explain (1) why that's a bad thing, and (2) why the British public is considered too immature/unreliable/stupid to make their own decisions regarding films or games, without Nanny choosing for them.

And while you're about it, why aren't you lot burning offensive books (e.g., books that don't support the Governmnet in true Chauvinistic fashion)?

Open Office standards row heats up

@ tom

"If you raised your hand, you're a dirty liar, and you're going to hell."

But not nearly soon enough.

Supersonic stealth jumpjet rolls off production line

@ George

"your articles always raise good points, especially the Stealth paint issue damaged with grit, something I hadn't even thought of."

True, but you'd need a metric buttload of paint damage to get any serious radar reflectivity. First, each paintless area has to be as large as (or larger than) the wavelength of the radar signal, in at least one dimension; for example, assuming X band radar at the top end of the band, each paint chip has to be at least 25mm long. That's a huge scratch. Secondly, you'd need hundreds of them reflecting the signal to make a blip that any trained operator would read as an aircraft.

Good article, really, but that point was not well thought out, IMHO.

Microsoft spits out final XP service pack, beta version

@ Alex and Steve Skipper

"Suppose SP3 just happened to irretrievably break some parts of some peoples' XP. Incentive enough to 'upgrade' to Vista?"

No, it will be incentive to reimage the PC with XPSP2 (or Ubuntu, if my customer is smarter than average).

"...although some of the blame for this is the bloated "Internet security" suites that in my view are unnecessary for most users behind a decent router."

IME, there is not one single "Internet security suite" that is more than 15% effective, but every single one of them has a nasty habit of required 100% of the CPU time at critical moments. A good anti-virus (e.g., AVG, Avast!, ClamWin) and intelligent router policies (block all of China, Korea, Turkey, South America, and most of SE Asia, the Arab states, and Israel, plus any ISP known to be lackadaisical abotu security, such as T-Online and Fasthosts) are vastly better.

Of course, that doesn't help the average punter who's stuck in one of those places.

Space brains resign over efforts to attract ET attention

Bloody gits

"It is a deliberate attempt to provoke a response by an alien civilization whose

capabilities, intentions, and distance are not known to us."

Assuming for the moment that an "active SETI" program works, we know for certain that the aliean civilzation is no closer than 4.2 light years distant, and it's a damn sight (like the odds are close to infinitely in favor) more likely they're more than 100 LY away.

Radio waves are limited to the speed of light, you see. But I guess Michaud doesn't know that. Moron.

Parliament's security staff lose parliament security data

@Slaine

"who refuse to legalise cannibals;"

Bloody foodists. Cannibalism was good enough for our ancestors, and it ought to be good enough for Parliament! After all, it's not as if humans would stoop to consuming MPs or Peers...

The tweed with the leather elbows, thanks.

Surprise: Ohio's e-voting machines riddled with critical security flaws

Ah, the Bart Simpson defense

"It is important to note that there has not been a single documented case of a successful attack against an electronic voting system, in Ohio or anywhere in the United States," an executive for Premier said in response to the report. "Even as we continue to strengthen the security features of our voting systems, that reality should not be lost in the discussion."

Or, as Bart Simpson so succinctly puts it, "I didn't do it! Nobody saw me do it! You can't prove anything!"

The real question now is not "are the elections crooked," but rhater, "did Republicans utilize these security holes independently, or did they hire the DRE makes to steal the elections for them?"

Does anyone else suspect that the real reason the software is closed-source is not to protect trade secrets, but to protect crooked DRE makers and politicians?

Sysadmin admits trying to axe California power grid

Re: Some kind of honorary BOFH award needed here...

No, more like a Darwin Award, only he didn't get that right, either.

Orange France says 'testicules' to unlocked-iPhone-not-unlocked claim

@ mohan Paul

"if its cheaper to register the purchase of a home in Belgium, why then does the French citizen have to use whatever French govt. agency that provides that service."

Possibly because the home is in France, and not Belgium. I suspect that if you picked up the home and carried it to Belgium, the French government would waive the purchase registration (whatever that is - I'm sure we pay the same thing in the USA, but it's called something else entirely).

But what about the registration of the Paris Hilton?

Nintendo Wii said to 'attract cockroaches'

All warm, dark places

It's not just the Wii. If you are a sloppy housekeeper (or if you live in an apartment, if your neighbor is a pig), roaches will get into your Wii, your TV set, your Hifi, and pretty much any other warm, dark place they can find.

Which may explain why buttplugs were invented.

Brit workers: The Xmas skive starts today

@ Paul Wells

Your employer sucks, then. I'm taking 2 hours off on Monday the 17th (dental, not so much a holiday as what I hope is the beginning of a long holiday from pain), and we get the 24th and 25th off as paid holidays. Then I'm taking the 26th as a vacation day because Boxing Day seems a very good idea. No work will get done the 27th or 28th, except in the machine shop (which is mostly automated work anyhow, the employees just shift materials and load the programs when it's time to change them), and the following Monday and Tuesday will be paid days off...

We might get back to actually doing things on Jan 3rd.

And this *is* the USA.

New Jersey scraps death penalty

Partly true

"had not deterred murder"

It has a 100% rate on preventing repeated murder, however.

However, if the family of the victim isn't given the choice on death, or life in prison (or exile to some benighted barbaric area like Syria) for the convicted murderer, then a cage is our best existing answer.

Coventry would be the best answer yet, though.

Opera hits Microsoft with EC complaint

Re: Bundling vs. standards

"Ubuntu bundles Firefox and it's fine but MS cannot."

Of course MS can bundle Firefox. MS can bundle Opera if they so choose; they can bundle Safari, or Lynx.

And, in fact, if MS wants to avoid losing this particular issue, bundling Lynx might be a good move. The problem, of course, is that, in order to to kill off the competition (e.g., Netscape), MS chose to integrate IE into the OS. they'll have to undo that before they can get away with keeping IE in the package.

I don't mind IE being bundled with Windows; I object to the fraudulent "add/remove programs" item that pretends it can be removed.

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's

Gone to a Better Place

Firstly,I'd like to point out that with his phenomonal memory, Pterry in the throes of full-on Alzheimer's may well be indistinguishable from any bloke who doesn't have Alzheimer's at all; he just won't remember you from that book signing back in '89.

That said, a short tribute in (I hope) Pterry's own style:

I'd come to the King's Head looking for Tony Padsmueller, who owed me a few quid, after I'd heard he'd won a tidy sum in the lottery. His sister and I were on good terms, and she'd said he was known to spend his evenings there drinking and playing darts with the locals.

"Tony?" replied a florid-faced gentleman, when I enquired after him. "Oh, Tony doesn't come round here any more. He's gone to a better place."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know he'd died. His sister never said," I blathered, a bit embarrassed to be looking for a man to collect such a small debt, and find him passed on.

"Died? Don't be daft, mate! I never said he was dead! He's just gone to a better place; they won't let the likes of us in, but he's got money now, and they're not too proud to take it from him!"

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

Unlimited use of hidden agenda

"the EFF ... [is] ... bewildered by the sight of people using the internet for ... stealing music."

And it seemed like such a rational, well-thought-out article, too.

Here's an idea, Bennet: Add "RIAA Mug" to your list of titles. Then go beat up an old lady and steal her Social Security check. It will fit your apparent motives better, and serve as "truth in advertising."

Meanwhile, I'll continue to use BitTorrent technology to download patches to World of Warcraft, and watch streaming movies live from commercial sites (for pay), and get new releases of my favored Linux distros, and all the other *PERFECTLY LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE* uses that it has found.

If ComCast and BT can't deliver "unlimited" broadband usage, then it should be illegal for them to advertise it as such.

Canadian runs up $85,000 mobe bill

@ Tony Barnes

"Isn't the fastest mobile connection stateside Edge??"

No. And Canada is not "Stateside." It's a sovereign nation (no matter what Brown and Bush may tell you).

"And aren't fixed broaband connections cheap as poo??"

If you want the quality of poo, yes. 128kbps is not, IMHO, "boradband," but it's advertised as such, and it *is* cheap.

However, large portions of North America barely get dialup; broadband simply is not available at all. This is not the UK, where towns are barely a mile apart; we have stretches of wilderness with literally 200 or 300 miles of open road and no more than a single house every 10 miles, and lots of places are even less heavily populated.

The entire North American continent is *not* New York City. You should get out more, Tony. Perhaps a geography class...

NeoScale web man posts Better Off Dead invoice

I don't know how it works...

Outside of the US, but under US law, a "work for hire" becomes the temporary property of the person who was contracted to do the work in the event they are not paid, under the "mechanic's lien" law. Assuming that the webmaster was, indeed, not paid, the buyer's act of redirecting the Web page thus constitutes theft, and may even run afoul of the few criminal laws governing the Internet.

If I were a stockholder in either the buying or selling firm, I should be demanding an immediate settling of accounts, to prevent seizure of assets - which is legal under a mechanic's lien.

Shell in Hawaiian algae biofuel pilot

Aha! So there *is* an upside!

"If you were to actually cut the canal at sea level from the ocean to Death Valley, it would flood the entire valley, causing widespread ecological disaster to the existing flora and fauna, not to mention submerging the city of Las Vegas."

Finally some urban cleanup!

Sadly, there are also a few rivers in the way. Such a project would destroy them, and all of the ecology downstream that depends on fresh water from them.

Of course, the Red Sea is already salty, as is the Great Salt Lake in Utah, but in both cases, the biofuel production would be at the mercy of the local religious extremists...

Kylie wraps herself round Dalek

And yet another...

This one's barely icon-sized, if anyone has a larger version, well...

http://www.geocities.com/doctorwhocue/thesun_dalek.jpg

PC World parent awaits FTSE 100 relegation

@ Mike Stephens

"They gave me Office and Norton 360 for £100 extra."

So they saw you coming, then. MS Office, OK, maybe; but you actually *paid* for Norton?!?

Microsoft squeezes out early release of 2007 Office SP1

Oh, I know that one!

"Shaffner also acknowledged that customers had been slow to adopt the latest version of Office, although he didn't mention why that might be."

Because it's shite, that's why. I've been forced to use MS Office 2007 (and Vista, don't get me started on that, too), and there is absolutely NO reason to change from Office 2003 (or OpenOffice, my suite of choice) in my experience.

Just another piece of bloatware from the World's Biggest Software Punisher.

As for James Bassett's issue with the previous version's default of "hide things from me if Microsoft thinks I'm too stupid to use them," that can be turned off in about 5 seconds, and it stays off.

Social networking and pron - together at last

Let's not forget the spamming industry

Ferguson vs. AdultFriendFinder established beyond a legal doubt that AFF was founded and flourished on spam.

A former employee of AFF and Andrew Conru, founder of AFF, has published a good-sized exposé of their practices at http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/118/RipOff0118795.htm

So now Penthouse has officially purchased a business based on spam.

Skype confirms / denies job cuts

Translation

"Management at the main office of Skype knows bugger all about what's going on, and can't be arsed to ask the London management team."

Santa putting children's information at risk, warn experts

Your data is obsolete.

Santa Claus has lived on Mars ever since he conquered the Martians. Under UN auspices, no nation may claim the territory of Mars, as it is extra-Terrestrial, ergo Santa is not subject to the laws of any single nation of the Planet Earth.

Furthermore, I have it on good authority that this year, all lawyers are getting lumps of imitation coal (small pieces of granite, painted black with lead-based paint, and the work is outsourced to China as the Elves refused to provide anything whatsoever to lawyers, except used bog rolls, which Santa didn't want to carry about with him).

Megan's Law snafu fingered in rapist's murder

Well...

Vigilantism is wrong behavior, certainly, but rape - a violent crime - is no better, and the "victim" in this case was a repeat rapist.

It's hard to find any moral outrage in the death of a rapist.

Boeing announces 'Laser Gunship' completion

A couple of serious observations

1. I am retired from the US military. The USA is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, and we spent many, many hours ensuring that our troops knew what is permissible and what is not (e.g., you can't shoot at a medical facility, place of worship, school, etc. unless someone there is shooting at you first; prisoners must be treated humanely; and so on).

2. I owned a Fisher space pen a few decades ago, and would again, if I actually wrote with a pen these days. Regardless of hype and anti-hype, it wrote smoothly and reliably until all of the ink was used, which is more than can be said of most ballpoints.

3. The laser Herc would be useful against high-value targets in places where conventional attacks - bombs, missles, and bullets - would create too much collateral damage; such as an RPG gunner in an occupied-by-civilians school, church, mosque, or hospital.

4. Shooting down the Herc would create a huge problem for whoever was on the ground in the general neighborhood of the crash. That self-contained laser would become uncontained, highly-toxic materials, spread over a wide area, pretty damn fast upon impact.

Boffins slashed in big-science budget blunder bloodbath

War or Science?

You can't afford both. Obviously, war is going to benefit far more people* than science, so science will simply have to deal with it.

* - Keeping in mind that "people" consist entirely of stockholders in large MOD suppliers' firms, and wealthy investors in military equipment manufacturing and transport.

US HD hardware sales 3:1 in Blu-ray's favour by year end

Re: Looks like Blu-ray has vanquished HD DVD

For a couple of years I had 2 Xbox consoles; neither one of them was *ever* used to play DVD movies, however.

If one wants to get a good idea of the market for HD discs, once must eliminate game consoles from the figures. When we do that, we see 678,000 HD DVD players, 461,000 Blu-ray Disc players, and too small a market to support a single movie studio, much less cause a huge shift from "regular" DVD releases.

And if one wants to spin the fires, then it is far more valid to say that HD DVD players are selling 3 units for every 2 BD players.

Critical thinking: market analysts ought to try it.