Posts by Phil Rigby 125 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Apr 2007
Want to know how to get more games onto the Hard Disc? Like this:-
Buy a 2.5" SATA Laptop hard disc from your retail store of choice, capacity of your choice
Open up HD Caddy on 360
Take out drive that's in there
Put in drive you bought
Clip caddy back together
Reattach to console
Power on.
Still-cheaper-than-modding-it and you won't get kicked of Xbox live. A win-win, no?
If you mod your 360, you break your agreement with MS. If you've broken your agreement, MS knock that machine off Live. It's that simple. Those are the rules you agreed to when you powered on that console. Sony will probably start doing the same thing, and then Nintendo. If you hack Windows, you don't get tech support or updates if they detect you've hacked it. Same principle.
As for people saying they modded the console so they can back up games - well guys, you can RIP THE GAME TO THE HARD DISC AND USE THAT IF THE ORIGINAL IS IN THE DRIVE. And it's a lot cheaper than modding it!!!!!!!! The ones complaining about being kicked off are the ones who just can't be bothered to buy the stuff in the first place.
"However, the downside of making Flash more secure in this way is that it would break legitimate (though arguably badly coded) functionality on many sites."
So break them. Force the coders to re-implement the code the -right- way. Then maybe this crap might stop happening. I'll take security over functionality any day.
Wrong perspective. Person A and Person B are having a real, physical converstaion. You push the software to Person A's bb and dial it up. It then turns on the call monitor and you can hear what A + B are saying to each other.
Great theory, I think kinda lame in reality, but it does highlight bad stuff can be done on the relatively immune Blackberries.
But a nicer Camera interface - easier to switch to video, amongst other things - and a nice little applet in Settings, About to see what aspects of the phone have been using the most power.
Just curious - is this the same (type) of exploit that affected iPhones a while back?
Paris - we all remember her Sidekick incident, I'm sure...
I've been a Notes admin for almost 12 years, both in the UK and the US. I started in 1998 on Notes 4.5. I have seen Notes improve dramatically over the years, probably 6.5x series is/was the best. Now I'm currently planning a global migration of 6.5x to 8.5x, and I'm not looking forward to it in the least, simply because Notes 8 has so many issues, mainly centering around Ecllipse. The performance is terrible - at least during the client start-up phase - and there's still bugs in there from 1998. There have been many, many improvements but there's still so much fundamentally wrong.
I think the whole problem is simply IBM trying to make the client look like Outlook. What (most) people don't grasp is that Notes was designed to remove paperwork. The idea was, that if you had an item which required paper flow from one point to another (Purchase Order, for example) then Notes could take that paper and make the process electronic. So therefore, by definition, it can do email. However Notes is -not- an email platform in it's own right, like Exchange. Also it doesn't have the advanced database functionality such as SQL (hence since v6, the tie-in to DB2). So IBM are trying to big-it-up as a viable alternative to Microsoft, which it is, IF the shop buying it has never been hard-core MS before. For companies that are fairly small or medium sized and overhauling their infrastructure, it's a great product.
I've done several Notes --> Exchange migrations and usually every couple of weeks am offered another by a job agency. I think in the past 5 years I've seen one MS --> Notes conversion.
But I will say, I do know of companies that have switched from Exchange to Notes for email because of all the security issues in Exchange (yes MS fan-boys, admit it, there are some) which become non-issues on Notes. For example, a virus physically cannot function in a Notes environment - it just has no mechanisms to run. All that can happen is a user forwards it on to another person manually. None of this copying your entire address book and spamming everyone with the code. It's also an extremely hardened kernel and uptime can be extensive, once the box is configured and run-in.
The author of the article is correct however, IBM really need to shake up the whole perception of the product - everything from name, to web site, to target audience, to roadmap and everything else that goes with it. I love the product, but I am very seriously considering a platform-switch when my current contract is up.
That's true for some programs or something slightly off-the-wall. But for the majority of things - such as Open Office, Amarok (media player), K3B (CD / DVD Burner), Firefox, Xine (movie player) and lots of others, it's usually just a few lines at most - even less if you're running a Package Manager. Apt, Yum, or Emerge can handle downloading and installing apps just fine, and I'm sure there's others.
There's 2 things I can't effectively do on Linux that I can on Windows -
1) Talk to my iPod Touch (specifically the Touch), and
2) Burn a DVD with menus, chapters etc.
Now #2) can be done, but it's a pain in the arse. Using Nero under Windows is a lot easier. Also to my knowledge, there's nothing yet that can handle a iPod Touch because it doesn't have disk mode like previous generation iPods.
So if you have Linux friends who panic at the thought of installing software like what you have under Windows, I suggest you tell them to either get a manual or get a better distro.
Choosing the grenade icon because I just know someone's going to tell me I'm wrong or start yelling "why don't you use Wine?" I know I can use Wine but I prefer to dual-boot for some things.
Assuming that we can get a fool-proof system, why is the first practical use have to be for a war/military solution?
"The technology is designed for complex embedded systems where reliability is of critical importance, so applications in missiles and other defence-related systems are an obvious application of the software."
How about a system to cure HIV or cancer? How about a way to mass-produce food for drought-ridden countries? Does it have to be for blowing people up?
Grenade icon for the irony.
Fraser - labels are similar to folders or newsgroup threads, it's a way of keeping related mails together.
Chris - I agree, however I don't want to see read mails in the inbox, I want them located elsewhere, hence archiving to a label is a good thing as it keeps my inbox pristine and so I can only see new emails. There's a reason for everything :-)
Email is not meant to have instantaneous response. If you can deal with every email that comes in on the second it comes in, good for you. Nik wasn't able to respond to El Reg's email in less than 72 minutes, so what? Doesn't mean he's evil or the product is evil or the company is evil. MS probably would of waited days then sent a generic non-answer.
Bottom line - email gets answered when I want, if I want. I'm sure other people feel the same way.
No I don't work for Apache either - I'm an email admin for a large retail chain store.
Cost. It's a lot more money to take a drive, produce a case, market it, package it, ship it to stores than it is to take a bare-bones drive and slap it inside the console. If integrating it is going to cost MS about $80-per-unit loss, then how much would making it an external drive cost?
If you don't believe me, look at the price difference between internal and external dvd drives for PCs to see the precedent. If it's external, they'll lose a damn sight more money.
Paris because she just bought a HD DVD add-on :-)
I agree with you, the problem seems to be with the vendor who plugs into Vista. However Vista should probably do a better job of validating the data that it's receiving from the smart card. Buffer overflows, once again.
Idle thought, is it possible to prevent buffer overflows by changing the design of the hardware, say something on the cpu rather than in software?
Paris because she might know more about CPU design than me.
I was looking at Apple TV recently and did wonder why it had no DVR capability. It would make sense for an updated version that had the functionality, I'd probably get one then, as it stands right now Apple TV offers me nothing I want. I don't care for YouTube so having that as an option is definitely a turn-off!
Paris because I'd like to DVR her sometime ;-)
1) Why is it taking 6 months to fix?
2) Is it related to the Vista slow-file-copying bug?
3) 180Gb of data... he lost "some" pictures... what kind of crap does that blogger have on his system anyway?
@AC (first one) - where do you back up 180gb of data exactly, when your server should be able to handle it?
Paris because I hear she has Windows 95 Home Edition :-)
It would be so cool if they put a camera on the missile so we could watch it on YouTube afterwards - would be like watching the footage on CNN of the Gulf War (but without all the death this time). Of course, if they miss, then I guess we won't see it!
So the article says the satellite orbits the earth every 90 minutes - how fast is the satellite moving? Also I know nothing about military weapons, what will they use to "lock on" to the satellite, radar lock?
Paris Hilton icon because I'm probably as dumb as her when it comes to space things.
I never said anything was bug free. I merely pointed out that after 3+ years in development, Vista has issues that it should not have, and you shouldn't need to double your graphics and memory capability to run it. Everything has bugs. There's no way you can possibly take into account every possible scenario and variable to make software error free. Don't tell me I shouldn't be allowed next to a Playstation - I've been into computing for almost 30 years so I think I have a fair clue about what's going on.
The reason MS makes and OS that can run on most systems is because they compile it for the lowest CPU they want it to run on and they let the driver devs worry about hardware compatibilty. If you're DVD burner didn't work under Vista then you probably have a crap DVD burner. Vista-64 works fine for me on my hardware.
I don't recall many people complaining when MS did IE 7 beta. Most people thought it was a good idea and tried it. The issues are Microsoft's total abhorrence for standards, their unwillingness to listen to the user base, the fact that it is next to impossible to accurately report and TRACK bugs. That's what separates Mozilla / Opera from MS, not their ability to release betas. Also let's be fair, a lot of people consider Vista in it's current form to be beta and SP 1 to make it the gold release.
I love Open Source, I'm a Linux user at home, I also think OS X is excellent, and that XP is probably the best OS that MS has done. I get to use all 3, they've all got their own dis/advantages. Microsoft led the way in the 90's but their monopolistic time is rapidly coming to an end; they need to innovate on the desktop, not worry about buying Yahoo and pushing ads to peoples' desktops.
To all the whiners above:-
Mozilla don't shroud their code in secrecy
Mozilla took less than 5 years to update a major version
Mozilla encourage people to use, break and report on the product (anyone found the bug tracker for IE 7 yet on MS site?)
Mozilla encourage folks to write plugins
If FIrefox crashes, it invariably doesn't make your desktop go down too
Firefox doesn't take 15 minutes to download, validate your OS as genuine and patch itself before it installs
Most of this is true for Opera as well. Oh, and Acid 2 anyone?
Isn't the SDK out this month? Might be interesting to see which l33t ha><or is able to use it to circumvent security, write ivirus or something.
Oh and to all the people who bitch about not being able to load custom apps on to it... pick up another phone from your local supplier, then install an SSH client on it. Or a new address book. Or a new mailer. Can you?
I think the Wii remote could be combined with the Linux users who go to the sex aid web site. You can draw your own conclusions about where the remote could go and be used for.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/06/hw_linux_users_toy_spend/
Paris Hilton because... well, One Night In Paris (with a Wii remote)
Get the BOFH on this one - he hates trainspotters so just think of how he'd react to Satellite Spotting.
I'd be very surprised if this satellite was to land in Europe or somewhere that the US would give a damn. Only the chance of it crashing into The Pride Of The World spurrs them into action. As for recovering anything, it might be kinda mangled so I wouldn't think there'd be too much left to recover from the big smoking hole in the ground (33%) or the water (66%) - can there be a smoking hole in the water???
Just shoot the bloody thing down. You're telling me a Stealth Bomber can't get up to 60-odd thousand feet and launch a low yield nuke at it or something?
Superman is Canadian?????? Well I guess that's why he wears his underpants on the outside, eh? What's that aboot then?
What would Billy Ray Thornton and Bruce Willis do now... or Liv Tyler (well I'd do Liv Tyler but that's another story).
Paris Hilton because... well she looks good, it's only when she talks the trouble starts. So I guess there's only one thing left to do with her mouth.
Whether or not XP/Vista computers generate more hits than Linux/Mac isn't really the issue. The issue is it shouldn't take 2 years to make another version. 3 - 6 months is a far more acceptable timeframe. There's people who spend less than 2 years in jail for murder.
And as for the idiots who are saying why not do an Amiga/Workbench version, geez... grow up. That's a pointless statement. I'm sure the ratio of Amiga : Linux/Mac is significantly less than the ratio of Linux/Mac : Windows.
Also Alexander was right, if you want to spank someone talk about Adobe and not providing a 64-bit version of the plugin.
Paris Hilton icon - spankings, tv etc...
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
