Posts by wsm

Apple sued over Mac OS X 'quick boot'

Could it be?

The way to riches is to file a patent based on Microsoft technology, then sue Apple for infringing on your IP rights?

Apple eyeing Hulu acquisition, insiders say

Short term memory

I seem to remember that Apple required credit card information for even the "free" content on iTunes, then lost the credit card information.

I was affected by this and I don't intend to give Apple any more information than I have to. This could mean the end of Hulu as anything useful for the advertisers. They may be buying into ill will.

Bill seeks to decriminalise pianos in pubs and schools

Well...

Rooftop concerts still not permitted, then?

Segway death blamed on good manners

Segway are limited to...

The Segway does seem limited to novelty use. The last time I saw one, it was being operated by a security person in fishnet stockings and short-shorts inside a mall in Las Vegas.

As they say, what happens in 'Vegas...

Dell to buy AMD?

All hat and no cattle?

Does that mean that Dell (man or company) are not dumb enough to eliminate the competition that benefits them?

That ARM suggestion is interesting, though. Faster, lighter and an everywhere presence is the future of computing devices.

Windows 7 Phone glitch spews phantom data

MS phones home?

When has their software done anything else? Now they are charging their users data plan for the privilege.

Nvidia licenses Rambus memory tech

Underhanded doesn't begin to describe these people

Rambus = SCO , except for being more successful for a longer period. Hopefully, Rambus will be dissolved in the end.

Zuckerberg admits working for man claiming Facebook ownership

Legal system...

or lottery system. Take your pick. The plaintiff apparently has already made his choice.

Yes, software can be patented, US Supremes say

Stevens got it right

Of course, the majority opinion can't make sense and be clear. This is the Supreme Court.

Feds move in on elite iPad email leak

F.B.I.

Never before have so many given so much for so few...

Google open codec wins OSI love after patent shield rethink

Rethink

It's high time to rethink the idea of patents on mere methodology. No one was ever able to patent algebra or calculus, but if current laws had existed then, it would have been possible.

Artificial 'black hole' generator fashioned out of circuit boards

Free heat, just a few payments away.

I can imagine anyone who lives near an airport getting free heat for the winter months. If the reverse could be done, like Servel refrigerators, they could chill their veggies also.

Too bad the expense of a conversion kit for the central heating would probably limit this to government projects.

PARIS pops down to QinetiQ

On telly?

I believe I saw this experiment on a talk show--or was that YouTube? It was something to do with toy balloons and water. Can't think of what might happen if you mixed those two.

I could have sworn my science instructors did the same things at university, but only in demonstrations to the incoming classes. The upper-classmen would have laughed at these sorts of things.

NASA tests amazing bailout rocket which will never be used

Mixed messages

Technology to give astronauts a life-saving escape route moves forward while putting astronauts on rockets does not.

The motivations, leadership and intentions are all confused, as always.

Palin email witness decries 'dog and pony' prosecution

Nothing new

The politics of federal prosecution have never been pretty, or balanced. Hence the saying: "Don't make a federal case out of it!"

Jobsian drones shackle gamer with 'lifetime' iPad ban

Carbon credtis anyone?

Is this lifetime limit like carbon credits? Could I possibly be as virtuous as Al Gore and trade in my lifetime limit for those more worthy of Apple technology purchases?

Do I hope to know the unknowable?

Cyberattack lifted Google password system code, says report

Source code?

Is this anything like lifting the source code for an encryption algorithm? Doesn't mean you can crack it, does it?

Still, why didn't it take Trojans upon Trojans to get to things that should be locked up and not connected to this Internet thing we keep hearing about? At least, it shouldn't be accessible in one piece without bits missing.

Oracle releases emergency security patch for Java

Unintended consequences

Was it ever the intention of the Microsoft anti-trust actions to create an avenue for selling toolbars? Will Larry Ellison finally top the richest man in the world list due to the income from Yahoo payments?

Stay tuned for results...

King of the geeks leaves Oracle

What is an executive, anyway?

Without anyone to "execute" what will he be? If he were really any good, he wouldn't need Oracle to prop up his position.

If he doesn't get his own company going to produce something worthwhile, he will be just another has-been in the history of dead (programming) languages.

Microsoft boffin scoops Turing Award

More boxes

When someone tries to be clever and tells you to think outside the box and if you can restrain yourself from doing him damage, do you ask "what box?" Or do you simply make more boxes.

This fellow has made more boxes for the rest of us to escape. Not a bad career move, but still just one which makes another set of limitations.

Paypal freezes Cryptome

Paypal has no money

If you look at the Paypal agreements, if you can call them that, they have the money and account holders have only that--accounts. Paypal can freeze anything for any reason. They are not subject to banking or credit card regulations.

Perhaps someday this will change, but for now they are only a debit system with their own rules.

I successfully got funds back after a judgement against them, but I won't use them or any other similar service again.

Apple is suing HTC

I hereby patent the world

Now you all owe me.

Ever wonder if all of this will make most technology patents illegal? Other than devices and processes, there is not much defensible about many patents. But still, claiming to own an idea for pointing and touching?

Antitrust incoming? Google hit by EU complaint, FCC filing

More to come

Some Google executives could be headed to prison:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-eu-italy-google-trial,0,1564059.story

Brussels data watchdog cries foul over secret copyright talks

@Someone talking sense

Not everyone is aware, but there is such an agreement for "a few quid" to copy copyrighted works at U.S. universities, at least as it pertains to the photocopy problem. If a journal or any other publication is part of said agreement, the photocopy center can provide copies of articles for distribution to students, for classes or individual research.

The problem with the RIAA and others seems to be that they know people will listen to that MP3 forever. How would such an agreement enrich them? Come to think of it, haven't they tried to license every copy of a song when you've bought the CD? They don't want you to put it on your your own iWhatever unless you pay again for each and every device you own or will own. Then the possibility of someone sharing one of those files frightens their accountants.

So, fear from the industry people is what is driving the guilty-until-driven-broke idea of pursuing someone with a few songs is all about. Yes, a simple fee system for those who want to share would be too easy.

Hippie windfarm kingpin Dale Vince slapped down by ASA

Apparently

My intentions mean everything and my false claims mean even more. Please disregard anything that doesn't make me always right. Thank you for not thinking.

Phoenix recovers barbecued data in Europe

More reliable than...

the Google cloud, or say, your average super-collider?

Researchers penetrate last bastion of Windows security

Maybe, just maybe

Jobs was on to something? None of the manufacturers seems to like Flash and most Firefox users disable it. With HTML5 working out, why open your system to the insecurities of Adobe products?

Aussie ISP beats Hollywood on 'copyright' rap

Not again

Unintended consequences from courts of law. How could such a thing happen?

Maybe the judge subscribes to the theory that there is nothing evil in the Internet, just the uses to which it is put. But the lawmakers, what will their response be? Since most of their legislation is purchased, what can we expect?

Steve Jobs dubs Google's 'don't be evil' motto 'bulls**t'

Poor Steve

We could say the same things about what Steverino has done to Nokia and any number of smaller developers after he borrowed NetBSD and put his spin on it.

He's right about Adobe, though. Nobody as big has done so much foot-dragging about 64-bit apps and fixing their own work.

Obama scraps Constellation moon mission

Budget?

What budget? Washington has a budget? Who knew? In Washington, money is an abstract concept having something to do with obtaining votes through indulgences and thereby having the ability to keep spending...more money.

Google mystery server runs 13% of active websites

Questions

Are we Googling, or are we about to get Googled? Looks like Google is moving toward absolute power over the Internet as it is an international entity unto itself, all financed by advertising revenues.

Seems mad to me. About the only thing that will stop them is some higher power paying some attention to them. Will we soon see the monopoly trial of this century? If enough governments smell money in it, it will happen.

Ubuntu Firefox shuns Google for Yahoo! search

Strange, but not unexpected

That Ubuntu would step on the search provider deal that provides Firefox with 80% of its income is typical of somewhat open-source companies trying to profit from "relationships." Even though easily reversed, the Google default has been lucrative for Firefox, but now Canonical expects to benefit from the faltering Yahoo?

TSA screener plants powder baggie in flier's luggage

Likely suspect?

And the reason the young woman was chosen as the object of the "joke?" Sounds like something the PFY would do.

Apple's iPad - the tablet with the data center soul

Consumerism

Pure and simple, the iPad will be the combo device to sell songs, movies, and now books through the iTunes store.

I have to agree it's the ultimate channel device for Jobsian marketeering.

Outrageous new means of megastar demise spotted

Explosions in space?

The biggest bangup in years and I must have missed this one. Is it on YouTube?

Neat two-motor soft-top first victim of GM Saab sale?

Saab over

Saab is no more!

US Congress earmarks $30m for anti-piracy fight

Another folly

Just great. More spending on joyrides and television commercials, all for the sake of Hollywood? Why so much concern for entertainment? Never before have so many been so overpaid for so little. Maybe that's why government types sympathize with the purveyors.

Chocolate Factory does url shortening

Domain of the short

Shortened attention spans, shortened effort, shortened (nearly incomprehensible) messages can all be blamed on information overload.

But when you have 400 staff members who can't put a link back together from a message sent through an e-mail system out of your control, the shortened links can be a blessing. Except when the aforementioned arbitrary e-mail administrators block things like bit.ly because of the abuses of others.

My point is that everything has its use, but how do Greenland feel about this? Isn't Google a country of its own?

Mozilla to open - gasp! - Firefox add-on store

Open Source?

Hmmm, is this anything like selling open source applets? Where will that lead?

One in 200 success rate keeps phishing economy ticking over

What?

Did you just say that the thieves are stealing from each other? No matter how that old saying is interpreted, there truly is no honor among thieves.

PayPal mistakes own email for phishing attack

Right the first time

Paypal should realize they were phishing, contact the responsible corporation and run them out of business. Problem solved by those who caused it. Imagine that!

iPhone upgrades - a one-way control-freak street

Whatever works

iPhones can and frequently are rolled back, for any number of reasons, including the desire for applications that just don't work after a firmware update. But the most recent firmware meltdown caused many to investigate a rollback solution.

One of our executives had his iPhone become unusable after the 3.1 update. After some searching, we found the previous firmware version and applied it according to some blog instructions.

The constant reboots and shutdowns were gone. He was happy with the performance until the later 3.1.2 update was released and we installed that version. The only problem was that his texting ability had disappeared and had to be reset with the carrier.

No problems since then, but he is much less confident of Apple. He has vowed not to update until a month after any future releases and a review of the possible problems.

Firefox millions - now only 9 per cent Google free

Firefox = BeOS

With all of the ad-blocking and Flash throttling available in Firefox, the advertising company that is Google was bound to attempt to thwart its development. Without the Google revenues, most of Firefox will simply dry up and blow away.

Can the independent browser survive? It was fun while it lasted.

Google open sources flash-happy Chrome OS

Cloud terminal

Chrome OS has an emphasis on the "terminal" aspects of a device without a network: it's dead without a broadband connection. Even the Gears angle and the local caching won't help this thing work any better than an iPhone with bigger apps.

US monster-truck roboguns to blast enemies autonomously

I can see it now...

the enemy learns how to turn on the robotic weapons with a car-alarm remote and nobody can even get into the thing.

V-22 Osprey, stealth jumpjet 'need refrigerated landing pads'

No need to invent anything...

Won't happen without using existing technology. No need for super-cooling when the ceramic tiles from the Space Shuttle, as several have mentioned, will work. But that's my point: heat-resistant materials have been around for centuries. Most varieties of mineral-based compositions will do the trick.

But the old school solution, asbestos, probably won't be making a comeback.

ISS piss recycler packs up again on eve of Atlantis visit

"Top NASA piss-extraction experts?"

Ahh, the pleasures of a government contract. What wonders of career development are next?

Hopefully, The Reg won't dig any deeper into the ISS documentation to discover any further occupational malapropisms.

Google Docs set for 'get rid of' Office moment

More marketing drivel...

From the clueless to the clueless: who else would believe that the "Photoshop of word processing" could occur without the "overkill" of Word?

Sounds like Google is already proceeding backwards to the stagnation of the larger corporate mindset. Can't beat the competition while you do that, you can only join them.

Microsoft yanks Windows code on GPL violation claim

Who hosts what?

Couldn't help but notice the closing paragraph: "...but promised changes to add "clarity" around what projects are hosed on CodePlex."

Freudian slip of the hose, then?

Baying mob turns on miniskirted Brazilian uni student

Where?

Brazil? Really? Where is the PlayMobil recreation of this one?