Posts by JimC

Happy birthday, Compact Disc

Re: The coming of commercialisation

Dunno about commercial per se being new, but yes, I agree that the small size of the CD was probably a mistake for the music industry. Almost no matter what you do to it the packaging of the CD is going to look cheap and nastyish compared to 12" recordings, and in addition the small size encouraged things like newspaper giveaways which I think were a factor in encouraging the customer to think music cold be a giveaway.

All this was,what with smaller distribution volume, quick wins for the beancounters, but I think it was a long term loss to the industry.

Capita UK offshoring plan killed by customer backlash - insiders

Large doses of "Well he would say that wouldn't he"

On both sides. Capita would much rather it was put about they were being customer friendly than had their hand forced by the union, and the union, of course, exactly the opposite...

Paris - in the absence of a Mandy Rice-Davies icon

Nominet mulls killing off the .co from .co.uk

Non-Profit...

But not, I suspect, no Salary. So if we can up the sales by flogging loads more entirely unnecessary domain names the money will just have to go, well, I'm sure you can imagine...

'Replace crypto-couple Alice and Bob with Sita and Rama'

Grief, what a sad bunch of commentards...

Its entirely appropriate, indeed desirable, to replace the parties in one's analogy according to the culture one is communicating with. To claim otherwise is to be, at least, rather parochial... The schwerpunkt is after all the communication, not the analogy.

Vote now for the ultimate bacon sandwich

Re: tangentially

Dear me no, our Dusty was a fine singer, but for that tune its got to be Janis Joplin - and there was a woman who knew a lot about post-pub

Space Station ready to SWERVE sat junk hurtling towards it

Re: What ever happened to the "Right Stuff"?

The trouble with that approach is that you end up with lots of smithereens in orbit... Unless you can actually guarantee to blast them down to whatever tiny size is so small that you can ignore it (and I have a feeling, but could be wrong, that means well under the size of an average grain of sand) then what you are doing is in many respects making things worse.

Freetard-idol rock star Trent Reznor gives up, signs to major label

yes, that used to happen a hell of a lot

Much less so now, because there is less money about, but for sure. You see, apart from money what a record company exec really wants is status among his peers, and you can get that status by having critically acclaimed acts that don't actually sell, and from acts that sell damn all for years before they finally hit the money - making you look far sighted, and indeed acts that keep looking like they might be the next big thing but never actually make it.

Read, for instance, "White Bicycles" by Joe Boyd to learn something about the way this used to happen.

NZ bloke gets eel stuck up jacksie

From the linked page...

[quote]Discuss attitudes and feelings about eels. What do students think of when they hear the word eel? What does an eel feel like? [/quote]

Maybe that needs rephrasing?

Facebook given 4 weeks to FULLY SATISFY Irish data commissioner

Hyperbole?

I absolutely never ever get even within a million miles of it...

Made for each other: liquid nitrogen and 1,500 ping-pong balls

Not a patch

Pretty good, but not a patch on Professor laithwaite and his gyroscopes...

Senate hears Microsoft and HP avoided billions in US taxes

Re: Tax shouldn't be taxing

>how hard could it be

Sadly the answer seems to be "very hard". I'm firmly on the side of the "if the money is spent in Country X is should be taxed in Country X" side of the fence, but the trouble is you have to define what earned and spent actually is, and multinationals are adept at playing these games of shuffling stuff between subsidiaries, so that in the UK you buy your MS licenses from MS Ireland not MS UK.

One answer feels like banning cross border transactions, so you have to service your UK customers from the UK and so on, but that soon leads to smuggling and all sorts of other problems and its kinda hard on smallish companies who don't have offices in every country... Wish there were easy answers.

Post-pub nosh deathmatch prompts paprika potato pierogi

Re: Roll out the JavaScript

or an opportunity for "researchers" at some former polytechnic to get their faces in the paper by developing the "ultimate" post pub nosh by looking for common fearures...

Microsoft preparing for diskless Windows 8 PCs

Re: Still haven't separated OS and Data

[sigh]

There's nothing that stops you doing that, and any half sensible system admin will do so. Normally I'd put it on the network, but the ridiculous bloat in the profile of recent versions is making that problematic, esp over a WAN.

Ogf course there are apps about that assume C drive for the data, but increasingly few IME.

Yeah right...apple, schmapple

I was running diskless Windows 3.1 across the network back in the early 90s before the product bloat made it impossible. Nothing to do with Apple or Linux.

Virus lab blogger collared by blundering copyright cop bot

Re: If you think about it

> a manual check of each outgoing enforcement attempt.

Sure, just so long as site owners have to do a manual check of every upload as well. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander isn't it?

If you think about it

This sort of thing is inevitable. Creators and their agents are required to take a whac-a-mole approach to copyright enforcement. This requires automated systems, and automated systems inevitably generate false positives. The way to stop this is to eliminate the need to play whac-a-mole.

[cue downvotes]

Apache man disables Internet Explorer 10 privacy setting

Re: Misinformation

I interpreted it as "the code used by millions of servers" because I knew he couldn't have pushed any updates onto my Apache servers.

I always make the assumption that raw headlines may be misleading, eiher to attract eyes, or simply because of excessive/injudicious shortening of the phrasing.

Health minister warns ISPs: Block suicide websites or face regulation

It seems you can't apply common sense to Suicide decisions...

You only have to consider that since there was a maximum purchase introduced for paracetamol, the number of overdoses involving it has dropped significantly.

When the legislation was introduced I was saying something like, "so what: if people what to top themelves the'll just buy a packet from 4 different shops instead, so why should I be prevented from buying a large bottle at home so I only have to buy the stuff once a year"

However it seems I was quite wrong: it seems that if you make it inconvenient for people to commit suicide then a significant number just won't bother. So it seems entirely logical that if you make it difficult to find out how to kill yourself quickly reliably and painlessly, then you actually will save a significant number of lives.

Strange, but, it seems, true.

Emotional baggage

It must be impossible

To timetable any random collection of A levels - at least unless the school is so large that there are about 5 sets available in any subject. So what were his other proposed A levels? Are we talking about a reasonably logical combination?

Of course it was such much easier back in my day: I froget the exact options, but there were only (IIRC) 13 A and O levels on the school curriculum at all, and if you wanted to mix science and arts subjects you were largely out of luck.

Wales: We'll encrypt Wikipedia if reborn gov net-snoop plan goes live

Wales: I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall--I will do such things,--

What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be

The terrors of the earth.

FBI says Apple ID heist claim is TOTALLY FALSE

> within a week of this hack supposedly taking place

Presumably the possibility that the list came from elsewhere than the FBI hasn't occurred to you then?

1) Obtain rather boring list of data from ISP or Apple or someone

2) Claim its from the FBI

3) Succeed in bigging up story beyond wildest dreams

Valve reiterates games hardware gambit

Mouse basic design perfect?

Really? Personally I deplore the lack of accuracy of a mouse, and the pressure calluses on my wrist and elbow, plus the wrist pain I get from time to time. I may not be smart enough to think of something better, and even if I were I wouldn't be influential enough to persuade the world it wanted it too, but I sure hope that I don't end up using the damned things for the rest of my life.

Windows 7 passes XP, Mac OS X passes Vista

Re: What amazes me...

Back in Netware 3.x/4.x days an average uptime of approaching a year wasn't that unusual across our server estate. Nowadays patching schedules make that more or less impossible. I can't remember off hand what the longest uptime I recorded was, but I think I have screen shots of something over 1,000 days.

But that was in the days when an OS only had to do a few things well, instead of a lot of things badly.

Apple drones reject American drone-strike tracker app

> a matter of time before the enemy of the US has mobile devices capable of remotely attacking

I think it already has. They're called suicide bombers. Other than the bravery of the operator I don't see any practical difference between drone warfare and suicide bombings.

Re: then the people ordering it, and the people doing it, have to think about what they have done.

I think we need an icon of a cute puppy or kitten or something to express that vaguely heart warming yet exasperating feeling that is brought by the sight of sweet and innocent but utter naivety...

hmmm

1) it's often been said that if the politicians were in the firing line there would be fewer wars.

2) did you really just suggest that targeting individuals rather than whole cities is *de*humanising war?

3) aren't foreign combatants in neutral countries supposed to be interned?

Pirate Bay founder arrested in Cambodia

What's Columbia got to do with anything?

Its near Ecuador isn't it? Same continent anyway, well, more or less... Anyway isn't Columbia where the White House is?

Cops cuff journo over anonymous plod blogger unmasking

> sacked the blogger and now prosecute the journo

Sure, why not... If (big IF, I hold no opinion on the subject) the blogger genuinely should have been dismissed it doesn't affect whether or not what the journo did was a crime.

If a blackmailer was blackmailing a murderer you wouldn't want the murderer let off because he was being blackmailed, and you wouldn't want the blackmailer let off because he was blackmailing a murderer.

Open source author pulls code after GPL abuse

I suppose I'm being dumb about GPL but

my reading of GPL 3 seems to almost encourage forks to be renamed, eg "5a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date." If the forks are being fully distributed under the terms of GPL3 its not obvious to me why they're in breach of GPL, as I see no sign he added any additional permissions.

Police mistake reveals plan for Assange's Embassy capture

Lack of imagination here guys...

Bearing in mind the number of conspiracy theories around the whole busines of the sainted one, what on earth makes you think this isn't a police disinformation exercise. They aren't that bright I hear you say? Oh come on, how bright do you need to be to know there will be photogs around with long lenses.

Admittedly I favour cockup over conspiracy, but then I'm not generally a believer in conspiracy theories. But this does seem so obvious a way to leak something...

Going viral 9,500 years ago: 'English descended from ancient Turkey'

Re: Dubiety...

The trouble I always have with these pop science summaries is knowing what bits of the conclusions are really new and what aren't... The less hard science papers are sometimes easier because they seem to spend the first few paras trashing their predecessors. In this case the basics are what I understood to be very roughly the case anyway, but how much does the details vary from all the other detailed ideas there have been over the years? To me it seems there's no way of knowing unless you have good knowledge of the subject, in which case you're way beyond the pop sci summary anyway.

Post-pub nosh deathmatch: Pierogi versus patatas revolconas

Presumably the next stage

Will be to complete a knock out tournament with the first round winners taking on each other, and then further round suntil the grand final...

UK.gov's minimum booze price dream demolished

Re: Sell and lose license for 1 month, 3 times and iyour banned for a year

> Sell and lose license for 1 month, 3 times and iyour banned for a year

Or alternatively "Don't sell and have the Chavs break your shop windows every week until you can no longer get insurance and go out of business anyway".

Point taken on alcoholics and addiction but

is your Friday night puker on the pavement drinker actually an alcoholic in the addiction sense of the word? The question is more about people who allegedly front load on cheap supermarket booze before going out on the town. Might help the pub trade a bit too if there's less of a difference between pub and supermarket prices.

Work for the military? Don't be evil, says ethicist

> a way to get skilled engineers to work on ICBMs

Isn't there at least as mcuh evidence that engineers used ICBMS to get politicians to pay for work on space exploration?

Re: value alignment

Just as a matter of interest, what industries are compatible with your values? Personally, for instance, I regard finance and advertising in their current states as being rather less morally acceptable than pharmaceuticals or processed food.

Seems to me

That the drone is just the high tech equivalent of the terrorist/freedom fighter with a bomb.The effect is much the same - a relatively small explosion, targeted to a greater or lesser extent, whilst those resposnible for directing it sit at home out of direct contact and are difficult to identify and target.

On the whole its probably not as bad as both sides committing 50 thousand troops to a land battle and devastating thousands of square miles of countryside, which was the old fashioned way of doing it. But there's an interesting point about declaring war and the nature of war. If its not a declaration of war to "allow" your citizens to wander into another country carrying explosives and blow things up - or even "allow" your citizens to donate the money that permits such activity, then there's a certain logic to suggest that having robots do exactly the same thing isn't "war" either.

Beck's open-source challenge to freetards: play it yourself!

>the original

I haven't checked what conditions are attached, and of course he can attach what conditions he likes to his songs, but I imagine If other folks sell recordings of his songs they keep the performance royalties and pay Mr Beck the song writing royalties just like any other cover version.

Not particularly aiming at you, but the level of ignorance on the posts here is pretty breathtaking.

Assange calls for help from … Quakers?

Re: Renouncing Witch-Hunts

Surely witch hunts are only a bad thing because there aren't any witches? If there were such things as genuine functioning witches, and their actions were illegal, why would a witch hunt be in any different category from a murderer hunt or even a rapist hunt...

Amazon UK to offer collection service at corner shops

Re: Idea

Unfortunately neightbours on one side are now so frail and elderly that I would hate to have them disturbed for my deliveries, and neighbours on the other side are at work all day just like us. I've wondered before if something like this could be the salvation of local shops.

Tech hacks should admit taking corporate coin, but don't start a witch hunt

Re: Does this include...

My own experience, based partly on a lot of experience of the human race, and partly on the number of times I've been accused of being a shill or astroturfer because I have dared to disagree with some hard-of-thinking types firmly help opinion is that there are a rather fewer Astroturfers about than people would like to think.

My experience is that it doesn't matter how bizarre or outre the emotional position, someone somewhere will hold it as a matter of revealed truth. Hell, you only have to look at the net to know it. Its also my experience that those who are not paid to hold an opinion are a lot more aggressive in broadcasting it than those who have been paid...

And may I be the first to quote Wolfe on the thread...

You cannot hope to bribe or twist,

thank God! the British journalist.

But, seeing what the man will do

unbribed, there's no occasion to.

RIP Harry Harrison: Stainless Steel Rat scurries no more

Star Smashers is a personal favourite here

especially when the all american heroes turn out [oops, nearly a spoiler]

I also have a liking for the juveniles "the men from PIG and ROBOT" with glorious backronyms and sly humour... As a last line :hand in hand, pig robot and man marrched solidly into the wonderful future" is pretty good. Coincidentally, and somewhat reluctantly I picked up the last Stainless Steel rat yesterday, and I would say it was much the best of his recent work.

Google may face grilling by MPs over 'immoral' tax avoidance

I think it is about time

This sort of tax location shopping was cracked down on. Morally I think tax should be paid in the country the revenue is earned in. And if that makes international trade difficult without having local agents - well I'm not sure that's really a problem...

Reg readers scrap over ultimate bacon sandwich

Of course you are all wrong...

But I suspect what is perfect depends an awful lot on the circumstances...

When you arrive at a Sailing club* (change venue to suit sport of your choice) having got up at some insane time of the morning to travel for a weekend's racing, then someone offering you a bacon sandwich made with otherwise horrble standard white bread and marge is armed with the food of the gods.. On the other hand if I want a classy snack early in the evening then its got to be fresh white crusty bread with butter and grilled, not fired bacon with grilled pineapple rings. Post a big session in the pub - well it hardly matters does it?

Brown sauce: not with bacon please. In a fish finger sandwich on the other hand HP sauce is great...

[sonafoabitch: I'm getting the munchies. I think I'm going to have to go and buy some bacon if I don't step away from the keyboard]

NASA’s new lander CRASHES AND BURNS

Or even...

If we only test things that are guaranteed to work perfectly, what's the point of doing the testing...

Thrillpower! Tharg releases 2000AD iDevice app

Re: Obligatory grumpy old man post

Are you reading the same comic I am... whereas back in the 80s the comic was kid safe - but with all sorts of sly background black humour the kids wouldn't get - the current one is anything but...

How one bad algorithm cost traders $440m

Re: Wow!

Just leaving the line up for a week is only a half hearted effort.

I don't know if its true, but I heard a story many years ago of a link over a satellite connection where there was a minimum call charge equivalent to (IIRC) three minutes connection. Our hero had an inactivity timeout of 30 seconds. He also had a snmp agent on the far side of the link that reported when the line dropped.

So every 30 seconds the line dropped, the SNMP agent sent out a trap, and the line went up to send the trap. So that was a three minute cost call every 30 seconds - or six times the cost of just leaving the line up continuously.

But as I say its probably a tenth hand story, and may have grown in the telling. But if you used to do this stuff its perilously credible...

Why women won't apply for IT jobs

Re: I must of missed

I fear you must have missed your english lessons as well...

Where I am I would say that the number of women working in technical roles in IT has dramatically reduced in the last twenty years. I think that's a bad thing because:

- I reckon a higher percentage of women have a good mind set for customer facing technical support roles than their male colleagues.

- a reduced pool of good people available can only be a bad thing

- I find mixed teams tend to have a better working dynamic

- I think it makes for a more civilised working environment.

Boffins: We are VAPORISING the Earth... for science

> the exoplanets the astronomers are finding are only partially vaporised."

This simple soul thinks that an exoplanet that is completely vapourised isn't a planet at all... and might be tricky for astronomers to locate at the present state of the art.