* Posts by M Gale

3500 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Apr 2007

Microsoft's Linux patent bingo hits Google's Android

M Gale
Badgers

I believe I've said this before..

..you've just made God kill a kitten.

I hope you're happy.

Megan Fox not world's sexiest woman: Official

M Gale

I just realised..

..I've never seen a picture of the sharp-tongued moderatrix. Surely she must be in the top ten.

Okay, okay, top 5. Just don't zap me.

M Gale
Badgers

Oh come on

Two downvotes? What makes my Paris jokes different from everyone else's?

Bunch of humourless bastards. Bet you're just envious I was first. Grumblegrumble...

M Gale
Paris Hilton

Paris

Well, where is she?

Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx stalks PC and Mac converts

M Gale

@ Anonymous Coward 11:50GMT

"Except that, D'OH, that doesn't work because of the registry."

Funny, my copies of Battlezone 2, X2 and Master of Orion 2 don't have any problems whatsoever with the registry. Copy, create shortcut, play. Oh, with MoO2 you copy the CD files over too, and point a config file at the destination directory. Not exactly deep magic.

Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004 aren't entirely DRM-less, but they are much more agreeable than Steam. And.. please don't try to tell me that the registry will be a problem, considering both of these titles are running natively, and quite happily, on Toy Unix.

"Tetris doesn't count. Pick up any new PC title from the shops today and install it in 5 minutes, I DARE you. Try and play it at all within half an hour of getting the disc (or finishing the pirate download, in your case) and you will find yourself sadly disappointed."

A lot of that is due to shitty DRM wanting to install special drivers and whatnot. I believe I already mentioned giving up on PC games because of DRM.

"You anti-Steam trolls always refer to it as malware but never under any circumstance do you list a single reason why you believe that. Other than 'because I don't like paying for games'."

Because I don't want it, and yet it's required in order to play, for no reason other than "We think you're a criminal". I resent that accusation, and Steam is malware. Maybe I should take a photograph of the various genuine titles I've bought? Or maybe I'd just get accused of wrapping photocopies around DVD covers?

Bloody DRM trolls, eh? They never give me a single good reason to just bend over and take it.

"Neither do I. Steam remembers it for you. Maybe you should try using it before dissing it, eh?"

What, really? Even when you do a new installation?

By the way, how long does it take to install a game from disk, versus over some shitty BT-based "broadband" miles from the exchange like, well, anyone near me?

"Maybe if you had listed these magic no-DRM, no-install-time, no-CD titles you are playing, your comment would have had some level of credibility higher than "none"."

Done.

"Now to quote my friend Willy, "You lose, you get nothing, good day to you sir""

Quite. Now I'll be getting back to my X2 empire. Been building up an armada of M2s and M6s for the final quest mission over the last few months. It's nice to do that and not have to worry about what happens if the hard drive throws a wobbler and deletes all of my nicely copied data.

It's amusing that you can buy X2 on Steam.. and yet the disk version has a DRM-removal patch available from Egosoft's forums.

M Gale
Badgers

Re: Your niece...

Scratch requires Ubuntu 9.10-10.04 for the .deb download. I have 8.10. I'm now one day into a two and a half day distribution upgrade over my crappy dialup connection.

You bastard.

M Gale
Badgers

Re: Opinion on Ubuntu

You do know that Ubuntu is an African word that means "I'm too stupid for Debian", right?

And long may it continue!

M Gale

Re: What's wrong with Steam?

Out of the few PC games I still play, two of them run on Linux. The rest have either official or "unofficial" no-DRM patches applied. if I want to play them on another PC, I copy them to another PC. It takes far less than five hours - far less than five minutes in fact - to install them. I don't get nagged. I don't need to remember a password to log in to some nannying bit of malware. I don't need to depend on someone else's servers working properly in order to play with a toy. I don't need a CD. I don't need anybody's permission.

Oh, and I paid for every single one.

Can you do that with Steam, Starforce, or whatever EA or Ubisoft are shafting people with this week?

M Gale

Re: Will it run (insert app here)?

GIMP vs CS4, fair point. Though, you should really look at the price difference and feature set of CS4, GIMP, and let's say Microsoft Paint.

However:

"OpenOffice does not (sadly) come close to MS Office, and totally borks DOCX and PPTX formatting."

Wrong, wrong, wrong. When Microsoft can stick to their own bloody standards, you'll see the OOXML formats being supported properly. While they deliberately futz with things and include various undocumented features, you'll see Microsoft Office being the only program that can open Microsoft Office files. Of course, that's just how Microsoft wants it.

By the way, how does Microsoft Office support the (genuinely open) ODF format? Answer: poorly, and only grudgingly. This is a format with all of the references and source code available.

A pox on Microsoft, and everything they do.

M Gale

I game...

...thus, I have a DS.

Okay, some PC games are lovely. However if I wanted the amount of DRM that many PC games come with, I'd have Windows 7 already.

Steam coming to Linux? God, why the hell would I want that? The only times I've played with the Orange Box was either on an Xbox 360 or via someone's pirated version, so that tells you how well that bunch of malware posing as a service works.

People told MP3 vendors to bugger off when they tried to roll DRM into their service. Why are they so compliant with games? Or, indeed, with the Windows Genuine "Advantage"?

M Gale

Re: Exactly

"Linux is never going to really compete unless it has, at the very least, a set of libraries directed at game development in a similar vein to DirectX"

Like OpenGL/Glut and OpenAL? Plus from what I'm aware, with the latest DirectX Microsoft have b0rked surround sound up something rotten, and a lot of games are using OpenAL anyway.

DirectX: Works on Microsoft platforms. When it works at all.

OpenGL/AL: Works on everything.

M Gale

Not sure about 10.04 but...

...if the newer editions of Ubuntu need you to type in a command to install an HP printer, they've taken a step backward.

Last time I went to try an HP, there was no CLI involved at all. Plug printer in. "Hi. The HP Linux Imaging and Printing System has detected a printer. Would you like me to download and install the drivers? (Y/N)"

Step 2? There was no step 2. Not even a reboot.

M Gale

Every time I get annoyed by something a Linux distro does...

...I reboot into a Windows partition. It helps to remind me of why I switched.

Boot up times? Go get a cup of tea while it switches on why don't you?

Simple? Hah. It's only simpler to people who can't equate a cartoon fox to a blue "e".

No CLI involved? Please, feel free to ask your Auntie Elsa to do a bit of registry hacking next time a "free" application makes her computer run slowly. You'll wish for an eternity of BASH over that.

Rose tinted spectacles? I'd suggest you take yours off.

M Gale

Re: I'll switch...

"...when I don't have to edit some kind of script file to get something simple working, like changing the OS boot menu order or installing a TV tuner."

Not sure about the TV tuner, but I'm pretty sure there are graphical GRUB managers out there. Look in synaptic for "startupmanager" or "kgrubeditor". Okay, maybe one or both of these should come pre-installed but still, compared with doing the same thing in Windows it's hardly rocket science.

US boffins fashion quantum-computing bit out of SQUID

M Gale
Badgers

SQUID.

So.. it'll be a quantum proxy server?

Leet.

Hawking: Aliens are out there, likely to be Bad News

M Gale
Alien

So that's your game..

..making us think all Martians are fairly amiable, slightly dotty but ultimately harmless.

And then you send in the tripods.

UK data watchdog to quiz Google on Streetview Wi-Fi database

M Gale

Netstumbler? Airodump?

To be fair, Google are only doing what reams of geeks do anyway, only minus the sending out of WPA DEAUTH packets to try and get a handshake. I'd be hasty before condemning them and giving a bunch of legislators the excuse to ban wardriving for everyone.

Pinhead Mac Trojan sticks it to fanbois

M Gale
Badgers

Cue smug grin from every other geek on the planet

In 3, 2, 1...

Google Chrome OS to route print jobs around planet

M Gale
Badgers

+1

"Choc-o-Print"

M Gale

Bluetooth printers..

...they exist.

M Gale

This could be fun...

The same person who I've been helping with their headlamp-tinting site, also had a contract with Sky to vinyl-wrap vans with those lovely HD images. Each (compressed) image is over a gigabyte in size.

Can you imagine a few thousand, ten thousand, or hundred thousand people hitting "print" all at the same time? Does even Google have that sort of capacity? And do you think, with 256kbit/sec upstream, that this is going to be even passably usable for printing anything except text?

Oh well, I suppose it's more data for mining. I await the Great Google DDoS with interest.

Omegle invites you to show world+Facebook your bewbs

M Gale
Badgers

Top right?

Don't OS X and the latest Ubuntu put the panic button in the top left?

M Gale

Re: lulz

Or the day after, when said politician finds precisely 9001 emails waiting for him, each saying "loldongs".

M Gale

Surprised?

Not me.

Anyway, after the death penalty thread, I figure this would be categorised more as light entertainment. Wonder how long until Omegle is used as an example of why the Internet should be censored and not, more sensibly, as a reason not to let children onto it alone?

Fring cops to unchangeable passwords

M Gale

If Fring are doing it right...

...even they won't know what your password is. That's what (preferably salted) MD5 is for, or more recently, the various SHA hashing algorithms. All they have in their database is a jumble of characters. Go look up "one way encryption" for more information.

Doesn't explain why you can't have a new randomly-produced password mailed to you though. The password is then valid for the next 24 hours and if used, replaces your old password. Hell, I've written things similar to this myself. Fring, get in contact. I'm looking for some work at the moment. I hear £60/hour is dirt cheap for an IT consultant.

And if a service lets you have your existing password mailed back to you, be afraid. It means they store your password in plaintext.

M Gale
FAIL

Oh come on..

..really?

How hard can "to send a new password to your email address, click here" be to implement? As hard as PHP mail()? Christ...

Bromsgrove lass slapped with Boozbo

M Gale

Re: I'll Second The...

"In the USA "carding" for age verification is mandatory for alcohol and tobacco sellers. A proper notice on Driver's License or other ID would work here."

Not too long ago I was asked for ID when buying some vodkapop. I'm in my 30s. I have a beard, and a balding head. Sorta slapped myself atop said solar panel and said "is this proof?"

Well it gave the shop attendant a giggle anyway. I got my vodkapop.

M Gale

Citizencard?

Been around for long enough, and without the expense or privacy issues of the NIR. Plus it's only a tenner.

Anyway, if it's for finance, a utility bill and bank card tends to be good enough. There is no need for a national identity card at all - it's an answer looking for a question.

Obama: We're off to Mars

M Gale

The moon...

..allegedly has water on it.

And various minerals.

Enough, presumably, to mock up some kind of power generation. Solar maybe.

Water plus electricity = hydrogen and oxygen. If you're looking for an incredibly potent rocket fuel, you couldn't ask for much better.

This is why hitting the Moon first (preferably not too hard) is a damned good idea. Automated fuel production facility? No environment to ruin while making said fuel? Yes please.

Chinese go beyond binary with ternary molecule

M Gale

Re: Futurama's Bender

Nah, I think he was just drunk.

Death row inmate claims allergy to lethal injection

M Gale
Badgers

Re: Unfortunately

"You are assuming that the tards that are baying for blood would actually be reluctant to kill someone. Well, probably many of them are blowhards and wouldn't have the guts. And the others are presumably thugs who would happily kill someone if they could do it at no risk to themselves."

Oh no, I'm just counting on the majority of the country not being bloody-minded psychos. Of course, we could get a massive vote in favour of the death penalty (and a large supply of potential executioners). In which case, well, this country is going to Hell anyway. I might as well just enjoy the handbasket ride down.

M Gale

Re: Umm...yeah

I suggest you do some study as to the suicide rates within prisons. They are not nice places. Possibly nicer than being dead, but obviously some people disagree.

"They have no conscience so therefore I can't understand why I should care about their existence. I say, let them die."

"It has sucked when it is learned that an innocent person has been executed. Oh well, at least I was not the one who chose their punishment."

So, you're saying that anybody who is a psychopath (that would be, someone devoid of a conscience) must die, then coming out with a statement that seems to border on the psychopathic. Someone innocent dies, *shrug* oh well?

Not leaping to the defence of psychopaths here, just pointing out the flaw in your reasoning.

M Gale

Female genitalia

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Twat!

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Bryce, I assume?

---

If you apply the liberal view of "better that 100 guilty people walk free than kill 1 innocent person", you sound like someone who thinks that they are doing a great service to civilisation. If you think a bit harder, of those 100 guilty people who are not properly punished, there's a very high chance of re-offending.

---

Very high chance? You have proof of this? And exactly what is "properly" punished? Should we send them to the moderatrix because they've been a very naughty boy?

I'm sure she'll love that. Cat o' nine tails, perhaps.

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What would you say to the victims or their families?

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See here's the thing: In my book, life means life. Yes, there would be some chance to prove you didn't do it. Always some legal access. However, you wouldn't be out in a few years for good behaviour after brutally murdering someone.

And, perhaps strangely to you; if in the course of their defence the would-be victim fatally injures the would-be murderer, I wouldn't exactly complain.

However, this doesn't mean I would ever advocate the killing of anyone for any reason. If someone forces the law of the jungle on you, you're only sensible for following it. However, this is supposedly a "civilised" country. Such cold-blooded, clinical barbarism as the death penalty, I feel, has absolutely no place in any judicial system.

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I would suggest that there is a case for capital punishment. Not that I expect to see its return in my lifetime, but I feel that it could be the ultimate sanction against the most dangerous in society.

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Despite the current resurgence in popularity for the judicial killing of people (personally I think there's just a cruel or repressed streak in some people that makes them want to see someone swing), you shouldn't forget that the death penalty was banned in the UK because people just plain didn't like it. Yep, people who had grown up with the death penalty, didn't like it. Anyway, the "most dangerous" in society are the ones seeking your vote. They kill with a smile, a speech and the stroke of a pen.

But of course that's different.

M Gale
Badgers

Re: The differences

"Also: Jesus Christ on a fucking Space Hopper,fellow commentards! You lot are sick, sick people!"

Hello. You must be new here.

M Gale
Heart

Re: Re: Whitey...

>I've never heard a panic attack referred to as a whitey.

Probably because a marijuana-induced panic attack leaves you slumped on the sofa/floor/wherever in addition to the palpitations, dry throat and all the other symptoms. A normal panic attack presumably leaves you somewhat more capable and without the drastic loss of blood pressure that results in the pale face. The term "panic attack" is something of a misnomer anyway, as it doesn't necessarily mean you run around wibbling like a headless chicken thinking the sky is about to fall in.

>How do I know? Tsk. I'm a woman of the world.

Mmhmm. "The World" being Amsterdam? Dammit Sarah, why are you not PM or something?

Heart because, well, everybody loves the moderatrix, surely?

M Gale

Letters and/or digits

>Keeping people locked up for life ultimately costs the average citizen more than any kind of

>capital punishment.

"Average cost in both Texas and Florida is 2.3 million. This, however includes the multiple appeals, the average 6 year incarceration of the prisoner before appeals are exhausted and then the actual execution." (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_the_death_penalty_cost)

"The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than the a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment." (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty)

You may want to revise that argument a little.

>Fourth, the old "what if you execute an innocent argument". What makes you think that there's

>any realistic way that any government would be able to compensate someone they locked up

>that long?

I believe "you're free to go" would be a start, and something you are entirely unable to say with any meaningful effect to a corpse.

M Gale
Grenade

Have you done *any* research?

I've got a post waiting for the increasingly-fed-up moderatrix to get around to. Have a read of it.

Compared to paying to kill someone? Sure, I'll do that. I'll be a couple of million dollars better off than paying for the death penalty. That's pretty favourable even after the exchange rate.

Remember this person has only been *convicted* of a crime. It doesn't mean that they 100% absolutely definitely did it. Reducing someone's life to economics? I believe the word I'm looking for is "twat".

M Gale

An eye for an eye...

...makes the whole world blind.

I believe that's a Ghandi quote.

M Gale

Whitey...

..also known as a "panic attack". Instant Hangover is a good description, yes. Lasts 30 minutes to an hour maybe, during which time you're highly recommended not to try moving (though, you really won't want to anyway). The best way to avoid puking your guts up is probably not to lie down. Rather, sit up but lean over.

And Ms Bee? I've heard the term "throw a whitey", "pull a whitey", "pop a whitey".. but I'm curious as to how you know about your particular definition?

M Gale
Grenade

Oh shit, the death penalty issue again.

I got a letter printed in the Metro on this.. to be promptly pounced upon by one person who would be absolutely fine with killing children, and another one who for some reason thinks machines carry out executions. Yep, because prisoners are strapped down and have IVs inserted by robot. Fuck it, I'll post the general idea here:

OK, so you fuckwits want the death penalty brought back? Fine. OK, we should have a referendum. The key feature here is, anybody who votes for the death penalty gets their details stored and put on a list.

When it's time to give someone a go on the old neck-stretching equipment, you pick someone from that list. That person is the executioner. No excuses, no get-out clause, no "psychological escape". If you want the death penalty, it's all yours and everything that goes along with it. There's the prisoner, there's the lever. Go and pull it.

Oh, and if the prisoner is found to be innocent post-mortem, you get to be told about it.

Still eager?

Apple bans Pulitzer Prize political cartoons from iPhone

M Gale

My Apple Mac...

..an old 450mhz Power Mac. G4 I believe. It was given to me with a blown PSU, with the words "it's yours, fix it if you like."

Fair enough, I figured. So I pop the thing apart, and take a look. Indeed, the PSU is completely cream crackered. It's the same size as an ATX. Has the same plugs as an ATX. Made by some cheapo Chinese manufacturer, just like most ATX supplies are.

But, the motherboard socket has a different pin order, and a 28V line. Now if this were a 250W PC power supply, I could probably pick one up for next to nothing. However, it's a SPESHUL Apple PSU. The cost? About £200.

Hence, my G4 Power Mac is still sitting here being rather dead until I can figure out where to wrangle 28 volts from and do some Blue Peter engineering with wire cutters and an old PC PSU.

Second rate? Yes, quite.

M Gale

Critical Mass

Just needs enough developers to jump ship (or at least, consider iWhatever as a secondary platform), and the customers will follow - probably all the way to a certain robot/penguin halfbreed OS.

So what's keeping you?

M Gale
Thumb Up

Plus One

I've a feeling you might like The AntiTerrorist. Youtube search. Lovely videos.

Facebook starts random application shutdown

M Gale

May I suggest...

..Facebonk?

But seriously though, if those terms have been around since FB started, why only enforcing now? Waiting until they achieve a huge enough market, then charge developers a % to use the logo?

Fuck facebook. In fact, fuck all social networking sites.

While I'm at it, www.theantiterrorist.co.uk - lovely stuff mentioned in youtube on "Romancing the DATA". But I suppose that'll get me labelled as a tinfoil hatter.

Election algorithm gives Tories sunnier outlook

M Gale
Badgers

I think we know what a Sociopath is..

..after all, he has a semi-regular feature here. And a pimply-faced youth to get revenge upon.

M Gale

Oh God I hope not..

..and I don't even believe in the sky-fairy.

1 new law every day, on average, since 1997. Well, you can thank New Labour for it now being illegal to detonate a nuclear weapon in the UK. Or, indeed, to protest about stupid laws in London without asking for permission first.

Sections of Acts being crafted specifically (and unsuccessfully) to deal with one single person whose only crime is to show these bastards photographs of what their actions result in.

ID cards and the National Identity Registry.

Raping the National Insurance fund to pay for grand ideas, hoping they'll have the money to pay it back later.

More CCTV cameras per person than any other country on Earth, and as you can see, that works so well!

Thursday, May 6th. Get your arses out there and please, please, anybody but Labour. Also, "Taking Liberties" is a fiver from play.com, with free delivery. Get educated.

French city in pedestrian-powered streetlight plan

M Gale

Already happens...

..on the Isle of Man. Asides the main cities (really, more towns by mainland standards) like Douglas and Ramsey, every street lamp goes off at night. At least, they did last time I went there.

Tell ye what, the skies at night there are a whole lot more beautiful than the putrid orange I'm used to.

Primark pulls 'disgraceful' padded bikini for kiddies

M Gale
Coffee/keyboard

KERPOW

"We're not quite sure what Keenan's going on about here, or indeed what colour this "paedophile pound" might be, although we're certain it'll contain a touch of glitter."

Hot coffee. Monitor. Keyboard. Beard. Dribbling out of nostrils and into lungs. You bastard.

Microsoft's Silverlight goes fourth tomorrow

M Gale
FAIL

Gigatons of Fail

Running things outside of a sandboxed environment? Did they learn nothing from the unholy debacle that is ActiveX? Mind you, this is Microsoft we're on about...

..and when do we get the Linux version of Silverlight, so I can decide not to download it? No, not Mono or Moonlight or some other not-quite-compatible equivalent. Silverlight.

What's that, never? Ah well. Makes bugger all difference to me anyway.

A multitasking iPad? Let's bin the netbook

M Gale

Skoda stopped being shit a long time ago

...just so you know.