Posts by Jonti

Shuttleworth gets cloudy with Ubuntu 9.10

There are!

It's a licensing issue; people claim they own particular ways of doing sums, and are backed up by legislation.

Ubuntu cannot distribute those codecs, not without paying money to the codec "owners" and that would mean Ubuntu CDs cannot be freely given away and redistributed.

The codec "owners" allow end users to install their software themselves -- they want their codecs used after all; they mainly want to charge media companies for using them -- and Ubuntu makes this quick, intuitive and easy. This hardly "puts ideology over usability".

'Lord of the Universe' disciple exits Wikipedia

Prem Rawat's sordid racket

I've tangled with Rawat's cult. They paid Schillings and Schillings (expensive London lawyers at the service of wacko cultists, it seems) to write to my employer trying to get me sacked.

Nasty people, but not as nasty as Scientologists, true. Equally deluded, of course -- but you could say the same of Aum Shrinko, or Al Qaeda operatives.

Nothing to worry about there, then!

Academic wants to 'free up' English spelling

The One True and Timeless Spelling System for English

Isn't it amazing how a bunch of 17th Century philologists managed to devise The One True and Timeless Spelling System for English.

A fantastic achievement to have created something so perfect that it needs no tweaking, even after a couple or three centuries.

Kudos to Johnson's "harmless drudges".

World goes mad as Bill and Jerry eat churros

Jerry's Cruise

OK, can I run this past you folks ... just to check we're singing from the same hymn-sheet here, y'understand.

Jerry is walking in the Mall, and spots Bill trying to buy shoes from a discount store. He pops in to help and massages Bill's ego while kneeling before him, suggesting he buys Conquistador (heh!) footwear and calling him a ten. Jerry tries to flirt, talking about Bill taking a shower with his clothes on.

Bill doesn't get it, but anyway they leave the Mall together, with Jerry talking about how computers should give oral satisfaction by being all moist and chewy. He begs Bill to give some sort of sign that he understands the innuendo, to which Bill responds by wiggling his arse.

At which point Jerry exhults "I knew it!". Delicious indeed.

Joke's on Bill, it seems.

Cloud computing: A catchphrase in puberty

green greenies

The jeering at the professional geologist reveals scientific ignorance.

There have indeed been much wider climate fluctuations than the one we are busy triggering off. And indeed there's a feedback mechanism that stabilises things. In geological time scales, you understand.

Them's the facts, as stated. It's no contradiction to also say that we may well provoke a catastrophe for the human race in the coming decades and centuries by triggering climate changes.

gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum

Flash games on linux

I was a bit puzzled by BatCat's comment that "Flash games don't use the flash player, they use shockwave which has no linux support."

So, just to check, I headed over to www.flash-game.net

Works for me! (firefox on Ubuntu linux, if you need to ask).

Runescape and WoW

@Gordon Fecyk

The article doesn't say it, but it seems likely to me that the gOS will come with a java runtime. That's all that would be needed to play Runescape (otherwise a quick "sudo apt-get install sun-java-jre" should do the trick -- gOS is based on Ubuntu). My kids use both Ubuntu and Xandros (the Asus EEE linux) to play Runescape with no trouble at all.

The article does say the gOS ships with Wine installed, so it sounds like a good bet for World of Warcraft too. Here's hoping!

Jeery Jerry loves Vista, y'know

It's started

This is great news! It's likely to turn out to be one of the greatest own goals in advertising history. The Mac fan-bois are sure to be stung by Seinfeld's "defection" and break out their video compositors. Even before the first ads have aired the first 'concepts' for satirical spoofs are appearing on the 'net. From above ...

"In a world without walls, who needs gates or windows?" (from Danyer)

"How much do you have to pay people to become friends with you?" (from Rick Stockton)

"Why not pick a comedian to plug a joke product?" (from Lager And Crisps)

This will spawn a whole new genre for the YouTube satirists! WhooHoo!!

Anatomy of a malware scam

Social engineering has to work with the grain of user expectation

@ Bob Merkin "If 95% of computer users were using Ubuntu, I could still see this same scam working."

There's two simple rules that protect Ubuntu users from this. And they are easily understood.

1) You never need to give your password for normal day-to-day use

2) Only ever install software using the Ubuntu package manager

Ubuntu's default is that the system does not undertake any admin tasks on its own but always demands explicit user instruction. As long as the two rules are followed (and notice it takes more effort not to follow them) Ubuntu users enjoy a high level of protection even against social engineering scams like this one.

It really is easier for the naive to use Ubuntu safely, and it's well worth being clear on the reasons for this.

Hacker unearths young Chinese gymnast scam

Jacques Rogge sounds cynical and dishonest

IOC President Jacques Rogge said "It's not the task of the IOC to check every one of the 10,000 athletes."

This is something that nobody had suggested.

The suggestion is that given evidence of a systematic fraud, the IOC should take some notice.

Date bug kills VMware systems

Calm down, dear!

@"The Other Steve" -- don't forget to take your meds!

It's true that openness is not a magical solve-all panacea, but no-one said it is. It beats "play and pray" though! The point is well made that mandatory source-code disclosure would serve the interests of those who deploy and use computing resources.