* Posts by Wortel

227 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Aug 2008

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Valve set for OpenGL BIG REVEAL at upcoming conference

Wortel

Re: a viable alternative to the likes of the Xbox One and PS4?

So what was the game called?

Privacy International probes GCHQ's mouse fetish

Wortel

Most power supplies today are either fully digital or have a digital compomemt managing power regulation/short circuit detection/etc. That third pin on your laptop brick is a signal pin.

It would not be too hard to modulate a signal onto the power lines in order to create serial communication lines in and around a power supply. It would be the last place people would look for data.

Rather convenient i'd say as such signals have the potential to travel quite far outside a device.

What do you think PowerLAN devices are doing?

Ofcom to UK: Really - you're using the same password for everything?

Wortel
Pint

KeePass

Just try it out for a while, and use those brainwaves you otherwise waste on password management for more recreational purposes.

Czechs check cheques, reject £680m 4G auction

Wortel
Coffee/keyboard

Sanity, was that it? haven't seen it for so long I was considering a trip to a museum to ask what it was like.

Wireless charger posse smacks down rival in EXPLICIT video

Wortel

We'll just change the frequency and voltage of our kit so it won't resonate (as well) with your kit.

Google Currents

Wortel

Currents would be more useful of it could be installed on a wider variety of devices. Devices it does not like receive a warning stating the service is not available in your language, even if the locale is set to English.

And as others already stated, it is slow and the topics are limited.

Needs work: 45%

Linux PC-in-a-stick to cost coders £139

Wortel
Facepalm

Hey! The Yoggie is back! Oh wait...

Samsung stretches 5in Galaxy Note phonetab to 10in

Wortel

Re: Re: Stylus?

There was mentioning of the stylus being optional in early reports of the Lenovo ThinkPad.. so far unconfirmed.

The device sports an opening in which the stylus can be stored, so shipping it without a stylus (and therefore with a 'big' hole in the side) makes no sense.

The ones i've seen so far, came out of the box with the stylus sitting where it should be - in it's storage slot inside the tablet.

Avast false alarm hits Steam's weekend gamers

Wortel

Nice response time from the people at Avast!, competitors take note.

As for the 'damage' done, the file was moved to the vault, where it is very easy to restore by a mere right-click.

Also Steam is perfectly capable of holding it's own. It enters an update mode when SteamService.exe is missing while you attempt to start Steam. Allowing it to 'update' restores SteamService.exe, no data lost.

OLPC shows off XO 3 tablet running Android or Linux

Wortel

In short, mesh networking. Requires a lot of (active) devices to maintain a semi-direct link to wherever the nearest ISP is, however.

Assuming there will eventually be several hundred of these devices in a given area, and that they exert the same infectious effects upon the starving as it does to our youngsters.. this would not be a problem.

Next question on the list: If one offers the device in a trade, how much rice/wheat will be offered in return?

Darth Vader dies peacefully in hospital

Wortel

Rest well Mr.Anderson. You now have become more powerful than they could possibly imagine.

Asus drops GPS from tablet spec after issues emerge

Wortel
Facepalm

Perhaps

Asus has made the same mistake(s) as Lenovo, where the internal GPS of the ThinkPad is suffering from bad configuration in software.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-slate-tablets/GPS-TPT-Acquiring-Satellites-Bug/td-p/555031

Snowbound Alaskan survives on frozen beer

Wortel

This guy certainly is very lucky.

HTC confirms Ice Cream Sandwich tablet for 2012

Wortel

Stylus

Have a look at the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is dead at 56

Wortel

Strength and kindness to your family. Rest well Mr.Jobs.

French bloke fined for failing to shag missus

Wortel
Coat

And yet

they mock G-Spot probing.

Mobee Magic Charger

Wortel
Meh

Heh.

Well sorry, but however neat wireless charging is (instead of the 'yet another plug' syndrome with most chargers), I don't see the point for a wireless mouse right now. The charger would need to be able to charge other devices too, and a single purpose battery pack isn't going to do that.

My Logitech VX Nano battery life is measured in months on one set (two AAA cells, 5+ months) and gives plenty of visible warning (top side LED will light up red when 'low' reached) before conking out. That's plenty of time for a cheap solar charger to charge another pair while left in the window facing out.

Tablets for work: time for a clean slate?

Wortel
Meh

"The key is to decide if slates fit into your business strategy"...

Or as the management handbook dictates: Chapter #1 - Buy 10 for the top brass and figure the rest out later.

Followed by a short lead-in to Chapter #2: It's the IT department's problem.

Yet to encounter management types capable of applying some lateral thinking when it comes to new shiny toys. Until that changes it's buying into the happy landfill, because tablets are still relatively expensive compared to laptops.

Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

Wortel

Thank you

And good luck, Ms. Bee. :)

Microsoft floats 'site-ready' IE10 preview

Wortel
Devil

@The BigYin

"They don't need to produce a special browser per enterprise, they need to make it possible to manage FF in an enterprise environment in general."

I stand by my words and give you this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/gpo-for-firefox/

"They" don't need to do shit. Somebody else already has.

Previously there was FireADM. Another way to manage Firefox through ADM and Group Policy, killed by general disinterest.

If these enterprises are so interested in having the possibility to use something else, why aren't they doing something with this interest? All they need to do is to pull their heads out and look around.

Wortel
Stop

@The BigYin

"Mozilla are a bunch of cocks for not getting why they need to support the enterprise."

Why exactly? why should Mozilla care about the millions of 'enterprises' out there, each one unique and demanding in their own respect.

Simply because they don't have to, and because it would be a spectacular waste of resources and time to make their browser do everything the enterprises want it to and break it for the rest of us.

Let the enterprises do their part instead and slot into the Internet properly, instead of attaching themselves upside down and sideways onto one of it's branches with their proprietary deprecated crap.

Wortel

"Because of this approach to productizing Web technologies"..

I see your problem right there.

Man admits writing script that slurped celebrity iPad data

Wortel

@David Wilson

You're welcome.

Wortel
Pirate

Off-topic Bias

Persecute those smarter than you. Class dismissed.

By the way, that was sarcasm.

Top telly tech fails to drive new set sales

Wortel
Meh

Perhaps

Your average potential customer simply doesn't care because their current kit still works fine and does not need replacing. If it ain't broken...

Sony hack reveals password security is even worse than feared

Wortel
Linux

No need

To write down anything or remember many (complex or not) passwords.

Lastpass has already been mentioned, personally I prefer KeePass.

Hardly rocket science, but need to enlighten people to the existence of these little helpers when a similar feature is not included with the OS.

FOSS maven says $29 'Freedom Box' will kill Facebook

Wortel

Sounds nice.

But it isn't in stores yet.

There used to be a tiny device called 'Yoggie' that had similar functionality built into it, but the company went bust, taking everything with it as it was subscription based, and expensive.

If Moglen wants the Freedom Box to be real, and stay real, it has to survive birth.

Penguin in the picture: top video editors for Linux fans

Wortel

title

I think some of you, the "never ever" comments, especially those of you claiming to do professional editing for a living, are forgetting that most if not all of your tools are fiercely guarded, closed source solutions. Right up to those fancy decks, controls, microphones, cameras, and the cables you are using.

In order to create an equivalent, a decent amount of developers and a decent amount of creativity must be put into an Open Source equivalent of Premiere/Avid/Whatever. It can't have the same name or tout the same-name functions, it can't use the same codecs (in whole or part, most of the time), and it can't interface with decks because the specifications aren't known or are far beyond the financial options of the developing team. This includes the inevitable licensing involved with closed source solutions.

Since none of the proprietary software/equipment manufacturers are willing to facilitate broader use of their tools due to an archaic unfounded fear of 'losing out' - in other words, fearing that they won't make their target profit for the year if they open themselves up to the non-Hollywood crowd - you will not see cross-platform equivalents being developed to their full potential any time soon.

If you want to criticise Open Source for being unfit for purpose, or lagging behind on (your) reality - walk in their shoes for a day. Talk with them, perhaps work with them - they are human just like you.

Once you've done at least one of the above, come back with constructive criticism.

Android phone auto reverts jailbreaks

Wortel

Heh

Sounds like they used something similar to Reborn:

http://www.bnc-distribution.com/products/reborn

Feds want backdoors built into VoIP and email

Wortel
Grenade

Heh

Feds need to wake up and smell the world.

Do the Webminimum

Wortel

Trolling

I think a lot of you have forgotten or never learned that trolling was invented long before Linux.

So this:

--

The Linux community is hostile to newcomers.

Veterans frequently respond to questions by pointing rookies at a dense and difficult to understand man page or responding to any requests with a snarky “let me Google that for you.”

--

Is self defeating. The snarky hostile behaviour can be found on all blogs, comment sections, forums, IRC channels, BBS systems, and whatever else you can think of on any kind of subject. It was actually only two weeks ago I overheard someone with an overpowered transmitter trolling CB channel 35 with derogatory comments and polka music. Pity for him, because radio pirates are actively prosecuted here. Can't say the same for forum trolls.

LG touts 'surprisingly productive' iPad killer

Wortel

A Title

I'm kinda disappointed in the potentially 'better' tablets you can find around the web. (UMPCportal.com in case you don't like to google.) The ratings of many devices are simply lame, and a lot are either 'expected' or never making it to production, let alone to Europe.

I suppose there is an advantage to those failings; less choice means less devices to choose from come christmas when I might replace the dying Samsung NC10.

Blackhole your malware

Wortel

title

I read about similar practices years ago and even tried it for a while. It was high maintenance, and unconvincing.

Personally i'm not fond of a large hosts file - I would prefer it to be empty - for performance, maintenance and security reasons. sadly there are two mandatory applications in our org that require entries in hosts files on all clients. The programmers are assholes about it to boot, so no change forthcoming yet.

I prefer to block before it enters the network with Untangle.com and OpenDNS.com combined.

Oracle sues Google over Java in Android

Wortel
Thumb Down

title

"Google's Android infringes Oracle America's copyrights in Java and Google is not licensed to do so."

O rly? so you need a license in order to infringe, now that's novel.

David Boies needs to go Boiel his head.

Software patent lawsuits really spoil the day of tomorrow IMHO.

Microsoft to set record with next Patch Tuesday

Wortel

@Mark A. @Wortel

Taking an entire system off-line to initialize a handful of patches, just to sit through the initialization processes of BIOS, one or more RAID controllers and attached devices before the OS gets stage time is long-winded to me. Those 60 seconds are easily lost.

Even if you meant OS-only boot times, for Windows' post-install routines to be content another 60 seconds is easily lost too before the rest of the system, and it's user (or users), is given stage time.

I'd say it is 60+ seconds unnecessarily wasted with the added risk of the OS not coming back up (either properly or at all).

So yes, I will argue that restarting a daemon (or two, or ten) is by far the quickest route from A to B when it comes to availability.

The machine and it's OS can still do meaningful service while parts of it are under maintenance.

Wortel
Thumb Up

@A.C. @wortel

Excellent point, thank you.

Wortel
Grenade

@Mark A re: Linux fantasies...

Updated code (with the obvious exception of kernel, as stated by others already) in *nix systems is engaged directly after updating, as during the process of updating the relevant daemons are restarted while the system remains online.

Pay attention in the back of class please.

Will hybrid SSD/HDD products succeed?

Wortel
Grenade

Will hybrid SSD/HDD products succeed?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: By the time hybrid SSD/HDD becomes mainstream, pure SSD will have evolved too far both in price and technology for a hybrid to be a sensible purchase.

Of course the marketing drones will have you believe otherwise.

Energizer Duo software suffers backdoor Trojan bother

Wortel

Heh

I have one of these chargers (CHUSB) as well. Charger works fine, software is highly redundant (only displays charge time) as the LED on the device has various signalling states to indicate too low input power, error, charging, and charge complete.

What's funny is that I have the software installer, and have not yet found a virus scanner capable of finding anything wrong with it or it's contents (when unpacked). Either way, there's no point in downloading and installing it.

Intel joins Nokia in Android attack

Wortel

Not impressed

Nor convinced. I`ll be watching.

Microsoft tests show no Win 7 battery flaw

Wortel

Bull

I´d like to see their so called results and compare them to the rest of the world. NEW batteries being reported as ´degraded´ by win7 smells like a software issue. I have yet to find, after 8 years and 44 notebooks with 32 more on the way within the next 3 months, a DEAD factory installed battery. I have only replaced 4 batteries just this week because capacity was below 30%. only 4 after all these years.

Directgov kids' site apes explosive gay porn brand

Wortel

So many

new rules, laws, exponential new problems for all. This is just the beginning. and why does government need sites for kids anyway? start indoctrination early? it`s not like they'd managed it very well with the adult portion of society. hang on..

Leaky antivirus defences letting malware through

Wortel

Re: Yep

Where? hope you wore some gloves. :p

Mozilla overlooked malware-laced Firefox add-ons

Wortel

heh

You may laugh but even Microsoft advises so if your Windows install was compromised. The article should be here somewhere.

And actually, they are right. Do you trust that machine now that it´s been compromised? your answer should be No.

Nokia adds police radar to handset

Wortel

Interesting

Looks like the shell of an n95, unused chip features? my old n95 somehow developed a sense of how it is held after the second last update. rudimentary, but it does work.

Microsoft predicts Linux will fail mobile 'quality' test

Wortel

Microsoft

"Bach, talking to Wall Street analysts, also painted the forthcoming Windows Mobile 7.0 as something that will "move the bar forward" not in an evolutionary way "but it's something that feels, looks, acts and performs completely different.""

You mean the bastard son of Windows CE will actually -work- this time, and be an open platform based on open standards? oh, right. thought not.

Next!

The charge of the alternative gadget chargers

Wortel
Stop

"of the order of 10's to hundreds of W per square meter."

Hope you brought your sunglasses.

Yorkshire lass eBays cheating boyf's Xmas prezzies

Wortel

@Emperor Zarg @ Wortel

-snip- I don't believe that the human species is intended to be monogamous - or at least the male isn't at any rate. -snip-

Perhaps not - there is no denying certain animal instincts are still present in modern man.

But as the evolved species man should be wiser. Naive? perhaps.

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