Posts by Sean Bergeron

Seattle drinking den bans Google Glass geeks

Re: Or... more likely ...

Protip: depressed bar patrons tend to buy more liquor.

Net neut rumble flares as FCC vote looms

Controlling Legal Authority

I haven't seen anything that shows Congress has actually granted the FCC the sort of authority they're planning to try and exercise. Hey, didn't work the first time, so we'll just do it slightly differently, and it'll be okay now! Uh, no. And the chances of Congress granting them that authority are slim to none. The lame duck session currently running is worried about maybe passing a continuing resolution to keep the government running, and how ot censure Chuck Rangel....not letting this blow-hard do whatever he feels is necessary to fulfill an amorphous 2008 campaign promise of net neutrality. It even looks like they're not going to be able to fix some looming tax rate reversion.

In other words, Comcast, Verizon, and Google will file an injunction, and win. Again.

Top Ten Arcade Classics

Big one

In the words of Frank Black (aka. Black Francis), or Pixies fame.....

"Whatever happened to Pong?"

Top lawmakers slam Google-Verizon 'net neut' scheme

Or, to put it another way

These reps are afraid the free market might succeed, further reducing the relevance of the FCC overlords. This is unsurprising, since their party's fix for pretty much everything has been "more regulation." How's that mortgage modification program workin' out, guys?

Apathy kills Google's new-age Wave

Orkut whistles quietly in the background

With toys made from gears.

But, seriously, being one of the older crowd, we still do lots of comms among friends via never-dead (until someone reboots the host) GNU Screen + BitchX. My much younger betrothed uses Facebook and SMS. Solution in search of a problem.

Verizon iPhone due 'early 2011'

Pretty much...

Though, I have to wonder if other rumors about the potential demise (and subsequent transfer to Vodarizon) of T-Mobile USA have anything to do with this. Might have a situation where it uses Verizon's 3G for data, and T-Mob/new VZW GSM for voice.

Getting women's phone numbers a matter of mood music

Perhaps

Music can also be reused if nothing lasting comes of an encounter. Still, I wonder how may readers of ElReg have the test songs on their MP3 lists......

I mean, I enjoy listening to "The Transformed Man," while doing tedious IT work. But it sure as hell ain't gonna attract any women, unless, maybe, they're green.

Paris, because she'd never, ever, go out with an ugly commoner like me, nor does she know what "The Transformed Man" is.

Apple rejects crazy canuck's seal bludgeon game

Obligatory

♥ baby seals, not ♣ them.

Software engineer demands source of his speeding collar

It is Florida, after all.....

Since a) he was stopped, and b) an officer wrote him a ticket, this should be a pretty straightforward case in court, not even requiring examination of the source code. Did the officer really think he was going that fast, or was he relying purely on the read-out on the known-faulty gun? I understand that that much over the speed limit is probably reckless driving, but, at some point reason does enter in, even if it is a Florida court.

Can't help but wonder if this guy is just excessively angry due to his unfortunate last name.

Intel: 'We won't wait for software'

Worked so well the last time they did it

Rumors of Andy Grove calling Robert Ballard to find the Itanic aren't true!

I follow the NetBSD port-ia64 list; looking through the archive, it appears the only thing posted there in the past month was a solitary piece of spam. In many respects, it's still a better platform than amd64, however, the expense of hardware and development tools put it out of reach for most people. I wouldn't be surprised if you could cobble together an amd64 machine for less than $150 these days.

All that said, if Intel can figure out a way to remedy some of the dumb things AMD did, the world would be a better place. 64-bit register access from 32-bit mode would be a good start, as would v86 mode in 64-bit operation.

Trojan poses as Adobe update utility

Chicken or the egg

This is a problem because Adobe's products and Java have so many bugs/vulns that they need an update program. Good work, guys. Interim solution would be to pay Microsoft a few bucks and push the updates through Windows Update. Long-term solution is: fix your busted-ass products, even if they require near complete rewrites. Apple finally did it with QuickTime! Microsoft's been doing it by deprecating APIs. This isn't rocket surgery.

Cisco beefs up fixed port Ethernet switches

Please

Because hosts with 10g are just so prevalent in most enterprises. Hell, I've yet to see a single facility wired completely for gigabit.

What disturbs me about these is the 1100W power. It's almost to the point where you'll have to start taking switch and router power/heat into as much as you do servers. Make that noisy HP server look downright miserly.....

Carrier apathy depresses Google Phone outlook

Openness wins again

I mean, people care about the carrier more than the phone, right? I mean, people haven't ever changed carriers to get a new, specific type of phone!

Ex-Sun boss punts Apple-Microsoft-world 'tried to sue me' missive

Have to wonder....

If MLP's missive about Chairman Steve is true, whether he aimed the same sorts of daggers at RedHat and Novell for marketing a Linux desktop.

Microsoft to launch incompatible telephone

NetBSD was too hard for MS

QED. Still, Vodarizon and Microsoft are like peas in a pod. They'll release a somewhat more functional version that costs $100 more, and requires a data plan. The next one will cost $50 more, require a different data plan, and have access to the Verizon app store. But no GPS, because they want you to pay $5 every time you use their directions service. Crappy, overpriced phones, deliberately crippled so Verizon can slot them at certain points. *cough* Windows Phone 7 "Starter Edition."

Apple turns the flamethrower on Android

While this is about the Android

It's also about Java. Many of the patents they cite cover functionality inherent in NeXTstep/OPENSTEP/OS X that have been incorporated into Java. That part didn't hit me until I read another article breaking it down, but this may be Steve going after the Freetards at Sun, too.

Hedge fund offers $1bn for Novell

Not so much

Novell, LLC will probably still sell SuSE, etc. It's just that any big payoff from the lawsuits against SCO will hit the parent. What it does mean is that they'll probably kill a lot of their development activities. Sort of sad, but at the same time, this is often the fate of former giants who have perpetually-declining sales. One of the other big boys hasn't bought them, likely because of the price, and the regulatory scrutiny it'd attract. IBM and Oracle don't care. MS wouldn't sell GPL stuff. RedHat would make the most sense, but they likely don't have the capital. One interesting possibility would be Citrix......

US burg renames self 'Google'

What's the matter with Kansas?

"... probably wants to be famous for something other than the Westboro Baptist Church."

Brown v. Board of Education.

"And to be fair to Google, at the moment they're probably less evil than the Westboro Baptist Church."

Chairman Jobs disagrees.

WBC has been in my town this week protesting issue du jour. After they were outnumbered by counter-protestors 10-1 on Monday morning, they skipped their evening protest. 250 counter-protestors still showed up. They did appear yesterday in friendlier territory in the neighboring city, where Pat Robertson lives.

DARPA wants military iPhone and Android apps

Put it in a case

Otterbox case would probably be sufficient.

Mozilla ditches Mac OS X 10.4 support in fresh Firefox

Camino

Although "doing it wrong" might be Mozilla's motto for the past few years, it appears that Camino will still support 10.4. Despite efforts to make it suck less, running FF on OS X is still pretty lousy, albeit not as lousy as Safari on Windows.

iPad pitch to the Wall Street Journal laid bare

Adobe is legacy everything

They haven't moved past 32-bit Carbon, nor are they actively developing for anything other than x86 stuff for Flash. It's long past time for Flash, pox on the interwebs that it is, to be officially deprecated. A good portion of my time these days is spent keeping up with Adobe-related security bugs, many of them stemming from the fact that they won't update their development model. How's that 64-bit Linux port, comin', guys? It's only been "alpha" for what, eighteen months now?

Sex.com goes titsup

Why?

Screwed business model? Blew its load of venture capital too soon? Paris, because she'd probably buy it if grandaddy hadn't left her nearly nothing.

Street View pulls Canadian murder scene

Just a black screen now

Still, while there's some snickering to be had, this should be unsurprising to anyone who's ever viewed security cameras in a large office building. Hint: *lots* of people pick their noses in the elevator.

Cloud Engines Pogoplug 2

External RAID for the Miley Cyrus fans?

Holy god that thing is hideous, and Apple stoppped making the rainbow iMacs years ago. Paris, because I doubt even she'd buy something that gaudy.

IBM chills sealed data center with outside air

Needs more iced tea

"North Carolina is considered very comfortable, not "'pretty warm.'"

From early June until about mid-September, I don't think I'd call Raleigh's climate "comfortable." Routine 90F(32C) days, and 75F (24C) on cooler nights, all with dewpoints hovering in the lower 70s. Pretty much the entire I-95 corridor from DC to Florida is pretty miserable during the summer, and would render any attempts to use outside air to cool futile.

All that said, for probably half the year, using outside air to cool is probably feasible.

Paris, because she'd complain about the heat, and what the humidity does to her hair. (Seems to be common for west coast women who travel out this way.)

Schwartz goes all of a Twitter

@my_little_pony

Pony tail

Meat for fake Steve jokes

Still with him

Sun is a disaster, much of that might be McNealy's fault, but still, the legacy is awful. Lousy product line, YAF open source license. On an enterprise level, unless they already have significant legacy Solaris/Sparc code, why would anyone ever choose that these days?

Vote, vote, vote for Barbie the computer engineer

Sneaking Suspicion

Barbie does QA on commercial Java applications. Paris, because she couldn't figure out pointers, either.

Apple to end AT&T's iPhone exclusive?

Not for much longer

Big Daddy Vodaphone dictated that they transition to GSM. Sprint's headed that way, too (transitioning all but the Nextel infrastructure).

In the short term, assuming Apple hasn't spec'd a CDMA unit, this is only really good news for T-Mobile. Last figures I saw, I think Q2, 1.9 million out of AT&T's 2.1 million new customers were iPhones. How this is good news for them is beyond me. That said, most of the ]|[gs customers are locked in for another year, at least.

I switched from T-Mobile to AT&T to get an iPhone; haven't been disappointed. Calling is about the same, data is much, much better. The only time I ever wanted for CDMA was on the DC Metro, but now there's GSM service there, too.

Iraqi weapons inspector accused in online sex sting

Not so much

"That'll teach him to disagree with the government lie about 'WMD'."

Not quite. Like a police officer in Podunk Pennsylvania has a direct line from the CIA calling to nab this guy. As others have mentioned, he's done it before. Yes, he used the I'm-being-persecuted-by-Cheney! excuse then. Some fools believed him. But, newsflash, those folks aren't running the Federal Government anymore. No WMDs were found in Iraq. Oswald shot JFK. Armstrong walked on the Moon. And Ritter thinks about making it with underage girls. No conspiracies.

Last splash for Flash support on elderly PowerPC G3s

Exactly

YouTube is an exercise in futility on my 733/G4. I wouldn't even bother trying on my 350/G3. I keep them around because they support the things they're underneath (an old Apple CRT, NeXT monitor) very well.

RAF's new military airlifter finally lumbers into the air

Don't think the US is free from this sort of racket

While El Reg focuses on MoD's failures, there is an Airbus aircraft that would be better than an American offering that the Congress (due to political pressure from Boeing) is doing everything it can to prevent Northrop Grumman/EADS from winning -- the KC-45. Even NG/EADS' promise to build it (and the A-340) in Alabamastan hasn't helped the cause. You are not alone, UK, in defense acquisition boondoggles.

Apple to appeal after OPTi's $21.7m patent infringement win

More litigation in EDTX

"Surely this will discourage the little guy from going after the big guy?"

No, that's why it was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, the IT patent abuse Mecca. XML patent suit against Microsoft? EDTX. Etc. Etc.

"It's saying: yes that's your IP, but it could cost you millions to protect it."

It's a start, but until Congress fo SCOTUS does something significant to stop this, it'll continue to be a treasure trove. The related story today about the "green" patent express finally clears up the details for me. A lot of these "green" technologies still aren't economically viable. But for the lawyers, there's a treasure there if every single thing can be patented and litigated. And, it makes sense, considering who the big donors to the DNC are....

VW unveils slippery four-seat hybrid

David Hasselhoff not included

So, VW's got loads of experience building efficient, small Diesel engines, spends loads of time lightening and improving the vehicle's aerodynamics for efficency, then sticks with a first-gen hybrid setup? One of the big knocks on the Chevy Volt/Ampere/whatever is that they used a gasoline/petrol engine instead of a Diesel, which would be more efficient for generating electricity.

Germans do some things that I'll never understand. Paris, because even she wouldn't make such a bad design decision, nor would she saddle it with blaze orange carpet.

Chrysler dumps e-car plans

Wonderful

The Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings threw out 200 years of American bankruptcy jurisprudence. Why? Because it was so important to keep it alive to make these real-soon-now e-cars. I have a sneaking suspicion that GM, who benefited from Chrysler's foray into Chapter 11, might follow suit, and unplug the Chevy Volt.

First ever supersonic stealth jumpjet starts hover tests at last

Not a real big deal

The US's fleet of the short takeoff varieties is pretty small. The main aims are to replace most of the F-15 force (the remaining ones not to be replaced by F-22s), and the older F-16s in the Air Force, and the older F/A-18s in the Navy. Same deal with the Canadians and Australians (wonder if they have some slated to replace their remaining F-111s, too). It's also an attractive option for those countries still flying F-4s.

The Super Hornet isn't really designed for those roles. It's a dual-role fleet-oriented aircraft. Yes, it's got good ground attack capabilities, but, its main mission is still Naval air superiority (think areas too far out to cover with the F-22).

Microsoft throws Hyper-V R2 into the ring

Have they imporved the managemetn tools?

After couple of days of fail, I finally gave up on R1, because if you don't have a copy of 2K3 or 2K8 running somewhere in your environment, it's a royal PITA to try and manage it. Never could get the management tools working with Vista or XP, and gave up and installed XenServer.

Still, I'm generally underwhelmed by the big three commercial hypervisor stacks. I use ESXi/e at work, and it's really great until you need to do something exotic like use an RS232 or USB device. XenServer did those okay, but the commercial version didn't allow you to pass through PCI devices.

And power management is still fickle. I'm looking for things to use in my lab environment for development, and still end up running whatever is bundled with a linux distro, VMware Server, or VirtualServer.

AT&T profits slip on iPhone investments

Good enough

The congressional investigation is grandstanding; none of these morons would care if the iPhone was on Verizon, and it worked in the DC Metro. And if Verizon hadn't been in the disable-every-little-feature mindset when Apple approached them first, it wouldn't be a story at all. When I tried to switch to Verizon two years ago (just before the first iPhone release), I was amazed at how much on my Winmob phone that worked on T-Mobile didn't work on Verizon. (I cancelled before the 30 day trial ran out, because their vaunted "network" had a colossal deadzone right over my neighborhood -- dropping calls even standing outside)

FWIW, I'm one of the new iPhone subscribers (two of 'em -- one for me, one for the better half), and so far very happy with my service. As is my brother, and my nearing-retirement parents who got iPhones before either of their nerd kids...?

Tech can make Britain Great again

It works in other places

....like California. Oh, wait. Nevermind.

US edges towards mobile antitrust case

This is good news for....

Sprint. Just like the DTV delay.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/01/4g-war-conflict-of-interests-loom-behind-possible-dtv-delay.ars

US lawmakers call for AppleT&T probe

Maybe it's something else, altogether

They all want iPhones, but iPhones don't work in the Washington DC Metro, because Verizon (and its CDMA network) have exclusivity underground?

/Just a guess

Google apes Digg with iGoogle gadget

Oh.

Added it. Wondering how long before every story says, "RON PAUL."

Ask.com rehires butler Jeeves

Shoot....

Now I have to rename my IRC bot.

Hmmm....looking for another friendly character discarded....

He's now "clippy!"