Posts by Ole Juul

Russia launches internet blacklist to protect the kiddies

@David W.

I'm not entirely convinced about your defence of our Western democracies, but I strongly endorse your last paragraph:

If you're worried about it, great. Go do something about it. Get off your sorry, hopeless ass and use whatever freedom you HAVE got to try to prevent the -rest- of it from going away. Sniveling about how it's infinitely bad everywhere belies either complete ignorance, or is an excuse to do nothing about something important.

Indeed, insight and motivation is what it will take to change the world. Those that only have one of those, or perhaps neither, are the ones that will bring us down.

Re: The internet is done

I know how you feel, and certainly agree that we have surpassed 1984 in more ways than many will imagine. However, the Internet seems to be quite robust, and I take heart in the fact that even governments would have a hard time doing without it at this point in time. That means that the only possible solution, that of shutting down the internet entirely, is not an option.

The advancement of cryptography to enhance privacy and security is also continuing at an extraordinary pace. Witness the inability of governments to shut down many services such as file sharing and money transfer. I honestly don't think that governments are going to be able to gain the control that they are dreaming about. So far, despite their almost bottomless resources to bring to the problem, they have just managed to look ignorant. Certainly, their best effort to date is unimpressive. I think there's hope for the future of the internet.

Google defamed Australian man with links to gangster

How does this work?

I don't understand how Google search results actually connect to each other. Perhaps there is some particular way to read these that I have not heard of, but at this point it is a mystery to me. This is a genuine question, so please don't just downvote this post. If you have the answer I will be glad to read it.

New York tech firms form 'bucket brigade' to fuel flagging servers

Re: Harder to ignite...

Thanks for putting us straight. I can't believe the earlier comments making statements about diesel that are completely wrong. In fact I wonder why somebody who obviously doesn't work with the stuff would venture a comment. Embarrassing, really.

Re: Fukishama

Water pumps for wells are installed, not at the bottom of the well, but you've guessed it again, at top of the well or even higher. Gosh, that is farking amazing! Pumps! Whoda thunk...

You just made that up. I operate my own water system, as does everybody else where I live. So yes, I have installed pumps - many times. A shallow well has the pump at the top. A deep well has the pump at the bottom. As mentioned above, air pressure is limited and quite low so you would not get any water out of a deep well if you had the pump at the top.

Stratsec critical of cloud security

Sunday

Cloudy with a few botnets.

France again threatens Google with link tax

content="nofollow"

I suppose there's no French word for that - or perhaps they just refuse to use the English.

Chrome extension blocks political speech on Facebook

Re: Can I be the first

Highly politicised topics can indeed be tiresome, so let's also add Facebook to the list.

... oh wait.

US Copyright Office approves phone jailbreaking and video remixes

Registration

Perhaps you were joking, or it didn't register that "The Register" was referring to "the Register of Copyrights".

Feds arrest Paul Ceglia over Facebook ownership claims

less-then-honorable

He also has a record of less-then-honorable behavior.

First he was less then honorable?

Chinese e-cars to turn London cabs green

Re: 186 miles?

The one major issue is that you can't have multiple drivers sharing one of these cars for 24 hours a day without charging between shifts - but I don't know how big an issue that will be.

I don't know London taxi economics, but in this part of the world the cost of a vehicle, particularly because of huge licence fees, makes it untenable to not operate a taxi on a 24 hour basis. Owners just cannot afford to have cars sitting idle. This does sound like an economic disaster unless these vehicles are cheap and licensing fees are minimal or adjusted accordingly.

Re: EuroNCAP first

A direct hit at (estimated) 180km/h is indeed severe, but the Reg article actually suggests worse ". . . the vehicle, which was ploughed into by a Nissan GT-R sports car going 150 miles per hour." That would be 240km/h.

ITU signs off on modular power supply proposal

Point of failure?

My dog chewed through the integrated cable between the PSU and the laptop. In this case, the point of failure was easy to identify and straightforward to repair.

The dog was the obvious point of failure. Not sure about the repair.

Re: Wonderful news!

Yes, of course "A Particular Publicly Listed Entity" will continue to find a way of screwing even more money out of its customers but some of those costumers enjoy that. However, the rest of the world will benefit, and "A Particular Publicly Listed Entity" will eventually lose market share. OK, I'm dreaming. /sigh

Microsoft's 'official' Windows 8 Survival Guide leaks

Re: Are you for real?

Not sure if serious . . .

It's serious. Trust me.

Ballmer has plans for more Microsoft own-brand hardware

Re: "... more hardware"

I'm not sure about furniture, but if they start making vacuum cleaners I'd buy one.

TSA fails again with adjustable boarding passes

Nice try

According to the TSA's vision statement, the agency strives to "continuously set the standard for excellence in transportation security . . .

Unfortunately a vision statement is no cure for blindness.

Facebook's stock rally may be shortlived: Small advertisers enraged

Re: Distributed networks...

They need to work on the names. They sound like social diseases.

And Facebook doesn't?

Australian volcano starts to blow

Re: why does this island have a web page

Would you prefer a Facebook page with bryophytes bragging about the success of their colony and insulting low income lichens?

FTC issues guidelines on facial recognition technology

Re: Which part of 'facial technology' ....

Distance between eyes = 0 will probably trigger some default action.

Speech systems lawsuit sours Apple's day

A computer-implemented method for processing

About says it all. You can ignore the bla bla bla part.

Alcatel Lucent battles unions in bid to slash 5,500 jobs

Re: Globalisation

Once things are obvious enough that you can hit politicians over the head with them, things change.

Actually, a while after that. Politicians have thick skulls.

Facebook won't pull unmarked police plates page

Re: Reverse tactics

Encrypt the licence plates so people can't read them.

Apache promotes OpenOffice to top-level project

Open Office is so shot thru with bugs . . .

With all due respect, you must be doing something wrong.

US accused of hypocrisy over cyber warfare

excuses

Banking I understand, but I'm not in the habit of getting my water or power off the internet. There is no reason for these utilities to not operate securely and out of physical reach of foreign countries. One has to wonder why these things would be exposed, or even if they really are.

Alt root user suing ICANN over dot-Web

Re: About time......

Indeed, "Made In USA" might not be so enticing if we start getting $1 domain names from China.

Canonical flings out Ubuntu 12.10 – now with OPTIONAL Bezos suck

Re: Has there been a paradigm shift and nobody told me?

But it stinks from a discoverability perspective.

This is not a game.

How exactly is a novice user supposed to know that his video editor is called "kdenlive", his music player is called "amarok", or his PDF viewer is called "acrobat"?

You tell him.

Re: Has there been a paradigm shift and nobody told me?

Is it just me . . . That knows both what his applications are and where the data upon which they operate live?

You, and me, and a million other people. However this is targeted at a mythical grandmother who probably also knows where her files are, but is assumed to not.

Man files FCC complaint over AT&T FaceTime blocking

Re: All bits are equal

Unfortunately that's the bit that AT&T doesn't understand.

'No cutting off people's internet based on secret evidence'

Re: tru dat

what is to stop you signing up with another ISP or buying a prepay mobile dongle/router?

Or using dialup from an ISP in another country. OK, not so good for file-sharing, but an under-the-radar internet connection nevertheless.

EFF warns of ACTA redux

vulnerabilities

the world’s copyright enforcers appear to have shifted strategy towards bilateral agreements – in other words, implementing piecemeal what groups like WIPO had hoped could be achieved at a stroke.

This seems an awful lot like cross-site scripting.

Chinese e-tailer to build 1,000 empty stores

What's the point?

Why would I need to go to a store to buy something which I can't see and can't get right away. I can shop like that from home.

Fukushima operator feared shutdown if risks revealed

operator feared shutdown if risks revealed

When people's job's are their only livelihood then they will make decisions that favour their livelihood. Can this be changed in this case? I don't know, but it's worth trying.

Protestors target Google over that video

I agree, lots of things are offensive to somebody.

The core of the group's position is that free speech has gone too far when videos like this are acceptable.

They are not necessarily acceptable, and whether they are or not is not the point. The thing is that with the internet you have to actively say that you want to watch something by clicking on it. The viewer is in control. If someone can't resist, then that's their own problem.

Skydiver Baumgartner in 128,000ft plunge from brink of space

not going to let you down

"If something goes wrong, the only thing that might help you is God. . . . and you have to really hope he is not going to let you down."

However, I wouldn't want to be stuck up there either.

Windows 8 pricing details announced as preorders begin

There must be some mistake

I can't believe the price, considering that it doesn't come with a full compliment of all the programs you need. I thought that a modern OS was supposed to come with a selection of word processors, spread sheets, database systems, web servers, etc. I mean it's not really an "OS" without all those things.

Anonymous turns on 'one man Julian Assange show' Wikileaks

Re: @TechSurfer

Though your comment also shows that you never bothered to click an article to read its contents. Because then the paywall shows up.

I certainly did click on several articles. No paywall shows up for me. Here is the first article. The second one too has no paywall. Perhaps there is a browser variation.

Re: Paywall ?

I just checked as well. There's no paywall. Somebody just made that up thinking that we wouldn't check.

Incompatible IT systems blamed for bank sale collapse

Re: Must sell by 2014?

"RBS will commence a new process of disposal . . ."

Perhaps eBay, or a new episode of Storage Wars. We'll see.

Office 2013 hits RTM, will ship starting in November

And . . .

I need this because?

Supreme Court confirms telco immunity on spying charges

Troubling times

"It's getting further and further from the rule of law."

Gavel fails to fall for Apple 1

Re: Not _that_ important

You're talking about historical fact. This auction was intended to appeal to a less educated crowd.

Integrated storage hardware is DEAD, software firm says

Re: So everything is going to be stored in thin air is it ?

Simple. After you virtualize the hardware, you do it again, but through an anonymous proxy so it can't be traced back to the hardware.

British Library tracks rise and fall of file formats

vintage buffs

I'm glad to see that there are posters here who also haven't thrown out all the old kit. As someone involved in vintage computing and being part of a very large world wide community with a similar interest, it is clear that most old formats are very accessible still. Of particular relevance in that regard, I note that in 2012 one can still buy a brand new punched tape reader.

Microsoft: Pirates at high risk of malware infection

preying indeed

"Preying on the desire to 'get a good deal' is a form of social engineering that has been around for a long time, but it's proving to be a perennially popular method for malware distributors," writes Joe Blackbird of Microsoft Malware Protection Center."

Indeed, I've seen many a new computer come pre-installed with what at first appears to be a free OS.

40,000 sign petition to oust Rep. Paul 'pit of hell' Broun

Re: Proving yet again that the inmates are running the asylum

stupidity is contagious

KISS: keep it stupid simple

Pakistan blocks 20,000 sites in wake of anti-Islam vid

@Spotswood

In fact that is probably the reason most people watch it - to be offended. I was actually planning to take the opposite approach from you. I'm not going to watch it . . . twice.

Crazed Microsoft robot accuses BBC kids' channel of Win8 piracy

@wowfood

a good reason for these idiots to actually check their results.

They claim that a computer does a better job. That of course sounds crazy to anyone - except someone who doesn't want to have to go to the trouble of doing actual work.

target market

Have they timetravelled from 10 years ago?

No. They are just 10 years behind.

Foxconn denies factory labor strike reports

Denial

I deny that Foxconn has denied reports.