Posts by A. Lewis

Nokia: digital SLRs are doomed

Wow

I know it's good to have high aims, but that doesn't mean you should come up with your aims while you are high. This guy clearly is. Do you suppose he knows what a DSLR is?

Shrek's Donkey poses with bustier-clad strumpet

day-am!

She's got a nice ass!

Wii Fit fall woman turns into nympho

Bah

Why do I never get a "thanks for the tip" like I see on other articles, when I send something in?

Maybe I'm just too slow and others beat me to it...

Facebook rejects CEOP 'panic button' demands (again)

Or...

How about instead of putting faith in a magic button that would likely be ignored by kids and adults. Encourage parents to take responsibility for their children's internet usage, and for educating their kids about the dangers of the online world.

Brits are HD TV numpties

I think it's just that.

People don't care.

For most people the jump from an old CRT to a large LCD is enough of a leap in 'quality'. Me included come to that. I can tell the difference between DVD and blu-ray (just about). But it's not enough of an improvement to make me want to rush out and buy a new 1080p screen and blue-ray player.

Administrator access: Right or privilege?

A privilege

Especially now when you look at a windows environment. Having administrator permissions means any virus or malware that manages to run under your session has administrator access too.

Far better for all staff at an organisation to use standard, rights-limited user accounts. The IT staff can then have secondary logon accounts with administrative privileges for use when needed. Today with a working environment consisting of IT staff probably using multiple VMs and remote desktop sessions at any one time, having a specific administrative login is not a burden and makes a lot of sense.

Adobe mulls changes to close hole in PDF apps

Good!

Adobe Reader is a bloated and secuirty-hole-ridden piece of crapware. I've been trying in vain to get my workplace to switch to an alternative such as foxit for some time.

Adobe used to offer a 'lite' version with cut-down functionality (crazily it only allowed viewing PDF files, imagine!) But I see this has disappeared.

Brits blasé about 3D TV 'fad'

I agree!

It is just a fad, I'm sure. Avatar had a handful of shots which I think actually benefitted from the 3D. Apart from that it's just paying extra to wear silly glasses.

The $20K iPad

Yikes

That's a terrible photoshop job.

Daily Mail reader out-tw*ts the Tw*t-O-Tron

He he he

Good stuff

Brass necked suspect swallows USB evidence

Hmmm, thanks but no thanks.

I'm happy to know without seeing. :)

I'd be interested to know...

...if the data was recoverable.

I wouldn't have thought stomach acid was so potent as to irreparably damage the flash chips.

Note to Captain Kirk: Warp speed will kill you

Like inflating a balloon around yourself.

Ingenious!

Extra, extra!

Read all about it: Scientist proves fiction is not realistic.

Airport scanners face double exposure

Is it just me..

..that's really not bothered by this whole debate?

If grainy monochrome psuedo-naked pictures are your idea of a good time, lucky you! I think the majority of airport staff though will just see it as part of the job. From what I've read there are controls to ensure that images are not retained so really the only thing to object to is that the staffmember in question sees the image.

I thought that airport security had the power to drag you off into a side-room and strip search you if you're suspicious anyway. Surely this scanning is a lot less of an ordeal than that!

Paris because: oh come on I don't have to explain the link to improper images being surreptitiously circulated do I?

Vodafone lets Androiders in on 360

Huzzah!

I have a handset that runs android, on vodafone. I can't wait to... er, completely ignore this untempting offer.

From what I've seen of 360 is doesn't do anything android doesn't already do (albeit sending your data to the mountain view chocolate factory rather than vodafone). And from what I've heard of 360, it fails to work most of the time anyway.

Council saves quarter mil' from mobile bill

Hmmmm

How does putting their mobile contract 'up for auction' differ from putting the contract out to tender?

Isn't this just a boastful way of reporting something that is just good business practice?

Huffington Post retweets all of Twitter

Stolen?

I'm sure you sweated blood to come up with the those 140 characters of literary gold, but if you're so worried about it being "stolen": don't submit it to a popular public website!

World standards body maps out 3D TV generations

Feh...

A big 'so what' from this corner. I've seen a couple of films in 3D. Including the much-vaunted Avatar, and I remain unconvinced that it's anything more than a gimmick.

Yes there are occasional 'ooh' moments when floating objects appear a bit closer, but these few and far between parts really aren't worth the glasses or the higher ticket price. On the whole I really don't think watching films in 3D is any more immersive than normal. The film industry should just spend the money on making better films!

Keene IRAnywhere

Ouch..

IRAnywhere? Really? You guys didn't think about that at all did you...

Vodafone to start selling iPhone on 14 January

Bah

Down with this Americanised date-abbreviation malarky I say!

"14 January 2010": what kind of a date is that? Is it really that much harder to write "The 14th of January, 2010" and avoid this puzzling and jarring neglect of innocent prepositions?

I shall now return to my pedant corner and mutter to myself.

US Supremes to hear text-message privacy case

What?

Seriously?

Oh come on. It's a _work_ phone. Yes, your employer should be fully entitled to monitor what you do with it. Get over it and get your own personal mobile.

HTC rises to challenge after Android struggles in Europe

The look good.

I like what HTC are doing with handsets. I've got my eye on one at the moment but will wait until the new year to see if prices come down so I can get a little android of my own.

I have an allergy to WinMo having had to support devices running it at work. ;)

Universal to bond Blu-ray Discs to DVDs

Hmmm

Could be a good concept. If they're on about a single disc with some layers readable by the DVD and blue-ray players seperately. However if they're on about DVD one side, blue-ray another in the style of those awful double-sided DVDs then I don't think it'll catch on!

Windows 7 soars while Mac OS X trips online

Vista

Just goes to show. The majority of vista users are those poor buggers who bought a system with it preinstalled and don't know any better.

Villagers revolt over BT chairman's broadband

Well.

It's fairly obvious what Mr Ashworth should do. Apply for a job at BT and work his way up the hierarchy to become chairman. If he's done that and been unduly hindered in his efforts by BT themselves, I think he can claim a unfairness. Until then, shut up and accept that new technologies need trialling and the most effective way to find volunteers and monitor their progress is by picking within your own staff.

Serial slurry fetish man jailed again

Eeeeew

This story makes me want to go and shower...

'Alienated' gamer sues WoW for ruining life

Wait...

Was this the same guy who's suing Nintendo for releasing an update that broke his dodgy homebrew, and Microsoft because his xbox got the dreaded RROD?

iPhone anti-malware stuck in state of denial

Shocking.

That's twice in one week I've found myself agreeing with apple's corporate policy. (This and the smoking / warranty article.)

Also I was reminded of this: http://xkcd.com/463/

Apple voids warranties over cigarette smoke, users say

Interesting to see the opinion divide here.

It seems to be split between the smokers, and the non-smokers who've had to repair similar computers in the past.

I think all the salient points have already been made by members of both camps. Personally, as a techie having had to repair yellowing, smoke-gunked internals of PCs that've been sat next to heavy smokers: I'm with apple on this one. A hearty "I ain't touchin' that, fix it yourself" is the best response.

Windows 7's dirty secrets revealed

Good stuff

I saw two of Mark Russinovich's sessions at Tech-Ed. That man knows an insane amount about Windows! It's impressive not only how much he knows but that he still manages to get little digs at MS into his very well delivered talks.

Also, seeing him have problems with his VM so run his 'tests' on the machine running the presentation resulting in it giving random blank error boxes throughout the rest of the session was funny indeed.

Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide

Good stuff

Shame I didn't take a photo of the PC I brought back from the crematorium that is in the area I support. That was really dusty in a very grim way.

Mozilla plots Firefox interface overhaul

Rubbish

If they go this way I shall definitely jump ship to chrome under windows. Not sure what I'll do for linux though. Maybe I'll resort to IE8 under wine!

Mac art project game destroys aliens files

Hmmmm.

Maybe I'm just a cynic. I can't help thinking someone made a crap shooting game, was disappointed when others pointed out it was a crap shooting game, so decided to add file deletion and call it 'art' to get a bit of attention.

PC Refresh Equals PC Disposal

Wiped, eventually recycled.

We have an ancient boot disk (floppy) with a wipe program on. Insert disk, come back an hour or so later (depending on machine age and disk size) and stick a 'wiped' sticker on the case.

We used to just store them but our auditors pointed out the inherent software licensing problems.

Also we have recently begun an arrangement with a partner organisation who recycle PCs. They will be taking the old, wiped PCs.

Today marks 'least productive' day of year

@HansG

You've hit the nail on the head there!

What?

Really? People actually 'talk to their bosses about their lack of motivation' brought on by the time of year? If I was there boss I'd talk to them about their lack of continuing employment. I wager most people would not work if they didn't have to, but if you do have to then find a job you like and go do it. Don't just sit in a job you clearly don't like, whining and blaming anything else you can.

This is another sad indictment of our current culture of blame. People in general need to start accepting the things they cannot change and taking responsibility for themselves.

Rant over. All better now. :)

Windows 95 to Windows 7: How Microsoft lost its vision

@druck

Yes, Windows 95 was revolutionary. An Operating System is a lot more than just a GUI. Wherever they stole the GUI ideas from, there was a lot more to Windows 95 that made it revolutionary.

Good article.

I agree that windows hasn't done anything really world-shaking since W95. That brought a whole new way of computing, with so much you could do even in its comparatively primitive environment. Since then though we've had only minor increments. XP can really be seen as 95 with support for modern hardware.

I personally won't be buying Windows 7 though. At least not yet. I just don't see the need. I use linux for general internet/document/photo/file work because I like the interface available through gnome and the speed and stability. I use Windows XP to play games, and while it doesn't see all of my RAM nor support DirectX10, I still find it quicker and more reliable than Vista. W7 may improve on both of those counts, but I'd lose the wider compatibility. Maybe when a game comes out that I want to play that needs W7 I'll upgrade.

In response to one of the comments of the article: I like UAC in Vista. We use Vista at work (yikes) and UAC is a very good business tool. It allows us to lock down user rights much better than XP does. My own work PC has UAC turned on, and I am not a local admin. For everyday use it never bothers me. Apart from the initial setup period, how often do even administrators perform privileged tasks on their own PC? I guess it can be pretty annoying for a home user though, when you own the PC and it's an affront to that ownership to be pestered for authorisation so much. I think a better bet for Windows 7 would've been to retain UAC for a domain environment, but switch it off for workgroups.

Barclays computers suffer Monday morning meltdown

Still not working for me.

As of 1pm, my debit card isn't working at all. The man in the bank advised me it was still down nationally.

What are you doing about refreshing the PC estate?

Desktops.

We're trying to extend the life of ours, and maybe even do away with them altogether.

Our current major project within IT is setting up a VDI infrastructure, with virtual client desktops for use firstly as personal remote access environments, but secondly as physical desktop replacements. The idea is that the performance will be good enough that the capabilities of the actual PC on the desk won't matter. This will allow us to stop buying new kit and re-use the old stuff that had been taken away for being too slow.

There was also some talk of doing away with desktops altogether in the future, in favour of thin client 'nettops'.

PC World punts Windows 7 £100 trade-in promotion

Intriguing

I wonder how much they'd give me for me ol' EEE 701. I'd like to think it's worth £100.

UK fatties demand 'hate crime' status for lardo-baiting

@Craig 28

Discrimination would be covered by Asylum Sam's "not being nice" provision.

To me, I think Sam's idea hits the nail on the head. Basically an enforced "can't we all just get along".

Michael Dell: Netbooks go sour after 36 hours

Pah

I've had my EEE for nearly two years now, and it's still a joy to use. Surely anyone buying a netbook (or the Reg term that I prefer: laptot) has given some thought to the fact that the screen is smaller?

Hypnotist expands breasts, cures irritable bowels

Er...

"Every lady's breasts today have been grown by the mind. The mind grows it, so the mind can enhance it. Fact."

No, you're confusing 'fact' with 'scientifically dubious opinion' there.

Twitter bans security maven for sharing naughty link

I can imagine working at twitter.

(In my darkest nightmares, that is.)

The corporate communications policy mandates no more than 140 characters in any memo, e-mail message, circular or formal document.

And judging by the appallingly unprofessional response given to one of the big names (such as there are) in computer security, I think it might be true.

Clearly a bunch of tweets.

CCTV website recruits video vigilantes

Can't see it working.

Watching CCTV footage is notoriously boring. I can see a lot of people signing up to do this and not bothering to go back after the first hour or so.

The distant possiblity of a £1000 prize isn't enough to make me sit through hours of CCTV footage a month. If the idea is that people do this as a background activity, is that really going to bring any results?

I think it'd be a better use of this company's money to hire some AI programmers and try and make software able to spot criminal behaviour on video feeds.

Mozilla plans to tie Firefox 3.7 pigtails in pretty Ribbon

What's that I hear? Oh, it's the call of Chrome.

Firefox used to be the bee's knees. When I first tried it it was amazingly fast, efficient and offered a wealth of customization. Over the years though it's got slower and more bloated, while the main competition (IE) has caught up with it. Now have they given up trying to break ground and lead the way? Are they going to just ape Microsoft's castoff UI features while adding more bloat?

The other thing that rankles for me is the lack of choice. On my netbook I have a firefox extension that hides the menu and puts it into a button in one corner. That's great and it's my choice then to have the menus or not. Why not leave them there and give the choice to move them? In fact why not just bundle that extension?

In the meantime, chrome has come out of left field and is as fast and effective as firefox used to be. If only they'd hurry up and make a linux version I'd be a convert! I know chrome doesn't have a menubar, so I would be losing the very feature I'm lambasting firefox for removing, but chrome has never had it, and that's their choice. Chrome is still a decent browser regardless of not giving me the choice to have a menu.

Though I still can't shake the feeling that google browser is going to unveil some shady behaviour in the future. Possibly involving adverts.

I guess I'll watch the space. It'll be a sad day for firefox if they do go with the crappy MS-fawning ribbon bar.

Custard Creams can kill: Official

Good stuff.

"an equal percentage have poked themselves in the eye with a biscuit."

Just: how?!

Good thing I wasn't actually taking a drink when I read that. My attempt to conceal chortling drew enough funny looks from colleagues.

US music publishers sue online lyrics sites

What a shower of barstards.

Music industry executives: Scum. Of. The. Earth.