Posts by The Indomitable Gall

Congressmen steam over Wikileaks TSA breach

Yes but we all know...

We all know that the US is a terrorist organisation.

The principles of terrorism:

1. Produce terror or paralysing fear.

Rest assured that many Afghanis and Iraqis are sh*tt*ng bricks as we speak.

2. Publicity to gain sympathy.

Propaganda in the form of things like dodgy dossiers is complemented by the self-publicising wars waged in the name of "freedom".

3. Stimulation of indiscriminate hostility.

The result of the USA's "war against terror" is that attacks by fundamentalists against Western targets have increased. The USA has caused these elements to be more indiscriminate, which fuels the publicity that suggests that the USA are "the good guys".

This is how terrorism has always worked. Use violence to make the other guys more violent, therefore winning more converts to your own cause.

Unfortunately, when both sides use terrorist tactics, the result is a constant escalation which leads us nearer and nearer to a third world war.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and tit-for-tat makes tits of us all....

RAF's new military airlifter finally lumbers into the air

Missed leave...?

"Often missing large chunks of their hard-earned home leaves waiting for delayed or cancelled planes;"

Happens in civvie street all the time.

Terminal 5? 9/11? Ryanair...?

Revolutionary triangular-key keypad out on Android

The best thing about this keyboard...

The best thing about this keyboard is that it disproves the existence of common sense.

Most of my brain is screaming about wasted space, and about how making keys smaller makes them harder to use, but the logical part understands exactly why it's a better keyboard.

Long live boffins and their counterintuitive revolutionary solutions to everyday problems.

Dell offloads Polish factory to Taiwanese manufacturer

Calm down

You know, the factory's still there. Any obligations Dell had to the EU will be transferred to the new owner, and the value of the sale will reflect the anticipated cost of meeting those obligations. The EU will still get what it bought.

Smut is OK, says Montreal prof

Mirror Neurons

Look up "mirror neuron" -- a concept that clearly states that a human is never truly passive when observing another human being.

Who owns science? Manchester Manifesto can't answer

Nosey camels at campsites

You certainly have a point.

Any legislation for software patents should be part of a *reduction* of patent lifespans.

The point of patents is to encourage innovation and invention by allowing the inventor/innovator to recoup the cost of research (and hopefully profit on the deal). Any revision to patent law for computer software has to be part of a wider patent reform that notes that computer simulations have drastically cut the cost of research and the time taken in research.

From this it follows that the exclusivity period should be equally cut.

This leads to a conclusion that will be uncomfortable for some:

"Proper" invention -- devices -- can be simulated easily, whereas the effects of drugs need lots of genuine physical trials. This means that medical research would need the current limit, and it's "proper invention" that would need reduced.

Catholics slam PETA nude adopt-a-mutt poster

Calm down.

The guy's point was that some people who are not catholics -- catholics being people who pray in big churches and believe wine is blood -- call themselves catholics almost as though it is a nationality. It's not -- it's a way of life. If you don't live that way of life, how can you be a catholic?

His implication was that the "catholics" PETAburd mentioned probably fall into this category.

Grow up.

Christian symbolism is associated with a Christian identity. It's rude to misappropriate or subvert someone's identity to your own ends -- at best it's putting words in people's mouths, at worst it's fraudulent misrepresentation. You wouldn't want PETA implying that they were endorsed by the GB Olympic team would you? They aren't, so they shouldn't. Why should they imply any divine mission if they're not endorsed by any organised religion? If they wanted to set up a "Church of Jesus Saviour of Puppies", that would be a different matter -- but they haven't, so they shouldn't be implying any religious whatjimidoobrit.

Sorry pal...

Last I knew, the catholic church was not a creationist entity and accepted the idea of evolution. You can't offend a catholic by saying humans are descended from monkeys, cos to a catholic that's all part of God's grand design.

Google shrinks its door to free WSJ stories, slightly

Not at all.

" Murdoch's thinking is flawed. ... In effect he seems to believe X fee visits per day will amount to £X of revenue at £1 per visit. "

Not at all. Murdoch doesn't expect to get the same number of eyeballs.

What he believes is that going from X million eyeballs at £0.00 per eyeball per month to a mere Y hundred at £5.99 a month is an infinite increase in income. One paying customer is worth a billion non-paying leeches.

But then it's not probably not about the website at all. We're at a crossroads: free web has killed pay web, but people are still paying for stuff via iPhone apps that they could get for free on the net. EReader users are paying more for PDFs than they would pay for paperbacks. He needs to get into that market. Free web newspapers challenge that revenue stream.

The appliance market is still open and that's the one Murdoch wants. More and more professional information will be migrating from the net to the appliance market. Goodnight interwebs.

Beeb iPlayer blocked by Xbox velvet rope

BBC content != BBC iPlayer

BBC content on BT Vision is licensed by BBC Worldwide, the same guys who are part of Dave.

The difference between BBC 1 and iPlayer on one hand and Dave and BT Vision on the other, is that genuine BBC content gets first broadcast rights on BBC and iPlayer. The BBC are allowed to license it out a year after first broadcast, when it is considered archive material. BBC 1 and iPlayer also carry material supplied by third party studios, which is contractually bound to be only supplied as part of the BBC's license-funded services.

LHC knocked out by ANOTHER power failure

Power going out can only mean one thing...

When the power goes out at a scientific facility it's because an experiment has gone wrong and overloaded the system, leading to the creation or summoning of a potentially deadly enemy.

Why yes, I was brought up in the 80s. How did you know?

Should you lose your religion on your CV?

Object to...?

You sir, are a coward and a troll. Yes, a troll. Saying you don't believe in any god(s) is one thing. Saying you think religion is stupid is fairly objectionable, but still within your rights. But as soon as you start talking about "sky pixies" you are clearly just stirring it and being objectionable for the sake of it.

If you genuinely think religion is some kind of mental deficiency, ask yourself this: do you call the local mentally disabled kids names? Do you tease them about their handicap?

Or maybe you think it's an addiction. Do you chant "alkie, alkie" at every drunk on the street? Do you throw pebbles at heroine addicts on the street?

So what's so special about religion that makes it OK to tease people for sport?

BBC storm cockup: Wrong day's shipping forecast read

Lewis's CV

Funny how Lewis's career summary changes to match the weather^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hstory.

E-car driven from Dover to Calais

New campaign:

It's high time one of the service tunnels was opened to cyclists. Then we can stop all this John O'Groats to Land's End nonsense and do John O'Groats to Gibraltar!!!!!

MS store staff in spontaneous electric boogie

I'm a Mac/I'm a PC

The PC guys can dance like that, but the Mac should put on a hat and dance a tango with a gorgeous Argentinian burd.

Dell re-badges Cray for low-end cruncher

Or it may just be...

It may just be that they can't afford to bring in the volume of Linux support staff required until they've tested the waters.

T-shirt firm hijacks good ship Pirate Bay

Trademarks and copyrights

There may not be a trademark on it, but it's still copyrighted.

This would leave the wonderful stand-off of one party being the only body able to use it as a brand, yet not actually having the rights to use it at all, while TPB would be able to use it as artwork, but not to actually brand or advertise any service.

A very weird state of affairs....

Religious discrimination law may open door for decent deviants

I'm confused.

Is political philosophy not philosophy now?

And is my belief that the fortunates (the rich/well-off and the able-bodied) should provide for the unfortunates (poor, disabled etc) a socialist political view, a socialist philosophical view or a Christian religious view?

Even if we can separate this trichotomy and have me as holding separate but identical political, philosophical and religious views, which of these traits is recessive and which dominant in the eyes of the courts? Does having a political view trump the philosophical and religious views and invalidate them in court or is it OK to have a political view that arises from a philosophy and still defend it on philosophical grounds.

Personally, I find the idea of a political policy that is not based on some form of philosophy kind of scary.

"Taxation of the rich -- because providing for the poor is the right thing to do!" is fair enough.

"No extra tax burden on the rich, because they're generating wealth and deserve to be rewarded for it" is also fair enough, although I'd personally vote against it.

But "taxation of the rich -- because... well... I don't know, it just kind of sounds good, doesn't it?" really is quite worrying.

Channel 4 to become Channel 3D tonight

@zerofool2005

"The polarizing lense ones work a lot better. but Im guessing the picture has to be in HD to work properly..."

The screen also needs to be polarising for it to work properly. Only polarised light will be filtered by polarised lenses, and your average TV emits non-polarised light.

Sun's Facebook-slapping hits wrong target

Oh you cynics...

Next you'll be saying that the constant articles relating to Sky television are biased too...

Murdoch admits delays on paywall scheme

Paying minority vs freetard majority

Murdoch's market is clearly more select than mere webscrapers and freetards:

I confidently predict that any paper that sells itself as Kindle or iPhone subscriptions will make more money than the advertisers give to the current free sites even with all and sundry viewing them.

Brown declines to resign

"well over"

10/10 for creative English. "well over" makes such a big figure out of... <drum roll> 0.12% of the country's population.

Wow.

Fat Reg slims down for spanking new mobile phone version

Product suggestion...

"And yes, we are prepping an iPhone app version of The Reg. But apart from the obvious eye candy, we're hard pressed to think of anything unique that we can bring to the party - that is, anything that we would not also add to our "vanilla" mobile version. All suggestions welcome."

Commentard filtering for those who don't want to see their beloved iPaidtoomuch mocked on its own screen...?

Open University talks clouds with MS and Google

Perfect for the OU.

The OU is the perfect candidate for Cloud computing.

Historically, the OU computer requirements have been Windows-only, for compatibility purposes... but even then, not all Windows systems are equal and message boards are always awash with technical concerns for the first couple of months of any course. As distance students we don't have the option of just popping into the uni library to use the computers there.

Clouds, SAAS, whatever you want to call it, it gives an interface that theoretically should work the same on everything from a Linux eeePC 2G, through a current MacBook Pro to a Sun supercomputer.

Americans promised all you can eat Twittering for $99

If it's only on Amazon...

If it's only being sold by Amazon, maybe they're piggybacking Whispernet.

Economies of scale, and all that....

Marvel Comics open on iPhone

And they tell me the iPhone isn't for saddos...

And as I constantly say to one of those same saddos (my long-haired, head-banging, comic reading brother) paper-based comic layouts don't work on screen.

If people want digital comics, they need to design them first and foremost for the screen.

And like Robert E A Harvey, I do think it's a bit much to charge so much for such a substandard delivery/product.

Disclaimer -- yes, I appreciate that there is genuine literature in the "graphic novel" world, but that would be Persepolis, Maus, Arrugas etc... not XMen, Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk. These series continue to exist purely to milk the crowd. Real literature has a beginning, a middle and an end

Charlize Theron to travel Mad Max's Fury Road

Australia: post-apocalyptic holiday of the stars....

First came the Americans (Tina Turner), and now the English and South Africans.

If the Australian outback is so appealing, I hate to think what happened to London, Cape Town and New York...

Nokia 6303 Classic

If it's just for talking...

If it's just for talking, why the battery-burning backlit full-colour screen? Give me an old-school reflective monochrome display please.

State attorney nabbed in car with stripper, Viagra and sex toys

You wot?

" A South Carolina deputy assistant attorney general who claimed he was on his lunch break, but was actually entertaining a stripper in his SUV "

You know, the two are not mutually exclusive. Maybe he was entertaining a stripper in his SUV in his lunch break. And I'm not sure if it's really his bosses' business what he does in his spare time. Given that they're legal eagles I'm guessing they know their rights, but I reckon he's got good grounds to claim he was done in as a personal grudge -- after all, it was a jealous missus what grassed him up.

Government to protect children from zombie paedophiles

Don't be so hasty....

I can imagine those crafty genius paedos faking their own deaths if it would let them back into our schools....

Atheists smite online God poll

Re: hahahahahahahaha

@ Dom S

"when are the christian population going to realise that they are slowly reducing in numbers?!"

Erm... did you even check what the "Alpha Course" is...? It's an evangelical program that was established because...

<drum roll>

...the Christian population realised that they were slowly reducing in numbers!!!!

Magpies hold funerals for fallen feathered friends

Funerals and beliefs

Why does everyone assume that human funeral rites had their origins in religion? If these observations were repeated, we could posit instead that various behaviours contributed to it:

1. Check the bugger's dead.

2. Whee-yoo -- go and do something with that cadaver, it's stinking the place out.

3. Communities that buried or burned their dead lived longer cos of lack of disease.

4. Communities that buried or burned their dead lived longer cos the local predators didn't develop a taste for human flesh.

The religious elements -- providing for the afterlife, appeasing angry gods, showing respect for the spirit -- could have been mere post-facto rationalisation.

(Disclaimer: I am actually religious, it's just that I accept the legitimacy of anthropological inquiry. Knowing the biological or psychological basis for belief neither confirms nor denies that belief.)

Court kicks YouTube rant missus into touch

Ow my ears

I started the embedded video then accidentally opened two YouTube windows simultaneously. Bizarrely, that turned out to be less of a racket than listening to just one...!

Hands on with Acer's dual-OS netbook

For the love of God... give us a microkernel

Now that someone's using a full OS as a quick-boot, isn't it more proof of the need for a decent modular microkernel architecture?

Just imagine if this machine booted into a basic SplashTop-like environment then started booting additional modules only when needed. Or let you suffer the boot time of Windows if you preferred.

That's what's called "user experience", that is.

Federal boffins: 'Giant invading snakes' will soon rule USA

Re: Poor snakes

"Given the ... proven ability of even pre-historic communities to eradicate large animals,"

Name one? The mammoth appears to have been killed by disease according to the fossil record.

Child porn threat to airport's 'virtual strip search' scanners

Not a photograph? Not an argument.

Wasn't there something saying that even cartoons were covered under the new laws?

Subaru set to show stylish hybrid

Li-ion batteries under the driver's seat?!?

Surely sticking a highly flammable, potentially explosive cell underneath the driver isn't the best idea in the world?

What's that you say? It's either there, in the fuel-and-air-filled engine or next to a full petrol tank?

Devil, deep-blue sea, rock, hard place, creek, !paddle.

Translation outfit seeks Glaswegian speakers

"ow bist old butt?"

"ow bist old butt?"

How very Germanic. "Hoe bist du?" an a that.

PC tune-up software: does it really work?

@Tony Smith

"That'll be the green bar in the chart that you're after."

The one that says "512Mb"? It would have been clearer if it said "unmodified" or something. The article didn't make me really grasp the importance of 512Mb.

Greens more likely thieves and liars, says shock study

Moral high ground...?

I believe the conclusion, but don't think the method proves it.

The thing with corruption is that it only happens to good people -- bad people are bad, good people can be corrupted.

Altruism is being slowly trained out of us. We spend less time engaged in social interaction and more time starting at the goggle box (with or without a control pad in hand) and we expect a reward for any good thing we do.

It's conditioning -- pure and simple. We do something good, we expect reward.

So charity bosses organise parties for themselves, send themselves on jollies, up their own salaries -- all from the charity budget -- because of all the good they've done.

A councillor, for all his good work for the community, decides to reward himself by diverting the new bypass away from his back garden.

Some soldiers, having liberated a town, proceed to extract their "reward" in the form of looting and raping.

Christianity got at least one thing right: we're all "sinners", and doing good things is just making us "less bad", not "good". Following that line, we would never get to the stage that we assume the right to select our own reward.

Microsoft's browser ballot bodge gets the nod

@Iggle Piggle

"why does this pettiness only seem to apply to Microsoft?"

Because Microsoft's own browser has long been non-compliant with relevant standards. Their server software has long been non-compliant with relevant standards. Their web-design software has long been non-compliant with relevant standards.

Some have suggested that this is an active policy of "the web is Windows". Meanwhile, Opera is one of the best standards-compliant browsers around, so putting that as the only choice on your Wii doesn't encourage developers to work for a closed system. Safari's not bad either, so your iPhone's OK too.

"The web is Windows" damages us all, because we all want to be freed from our PCs (hence the rise of iPhone, Wii etc browsing).

Microsoft-tested browser prosecution snares tech giants

I still don't understand...

I still don't understand why <embed> doesn't count as prior art....

Google strips Pirate Bay homepage from search results

Calm down, dear, Google will deal with it.

Google have clearly been cunning.

They've received a DMCA takedown notice for "thepiratebay.org" and they have followed it -- literally.

They've always made it clear that they're never going to blanket ban a site, and now they're taking the path of least resistance (compliance) yet simultaneously engaged in passive resistance (work to rule).

If they receive a further DMCA notice stating that they take the whole site out of the index, they're going to tell the submitter where to go, stating (correctly) that they're overstepping the bounds of the DMCA by requesting takedown of pages that do not relate to their IP, which would be fraudulent, therefore thoroughly illegal. This will then be followed by Google telling the IP owner that they have to specify explicitly ever single *page* (not server) that they want excluded.

The copyright owners give up.

The thieves win.

As do the advertising scum.

Content creators lose.

O2 could impose out-of-contract iPhone lock-in

Exclusive contract with Apple...?

Well I'm sorry, the contract of *sale* with the consumer trumps that. It is now well established by precedent that the end-user gets the unlock code at the end of the contract.

Unless O2 want to provide a full refund on purchase price...?

Yank slams El Reg 'zio-fruitcake' Playmobil 'crap'

Zio

For all those who're wondering, I believe "zio-" is a reference to "zionist".

However, it shows a poor grasp of logic. Zionists are militaristic/security-minded, and the reg hates militaristic security nightmare theatre.

German firm fails to trademark !

Cue...

Cue thousands of spreadshirt, zazzle, shirtcity etc etc users making Ts with big exclamation marks to thoroughly blast the "distinctive character" thing out of the water.

Autodesk goes after eBay seller - again

License conditions?

" Autodesk is likely to argue that it can license its own products on any basis it chooses. "

Yes, but the license is inside the box. Were these unopened copies...?

Facebook turns users into web translation engine

Apples and oranges

Google Translate is designed to translate large texts, where you've got a lot of repeated language, related terminology and redundant information.

Facebook translations are for user interface elements: small messages containing no repeated information and virtually no redundant information.

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge about translation knows that small translations are actually more demanding than long ones.

Gov demand for Governator to terminate PunterNet

Private Eye...

Do Private Eye have a "RecessionBalls" section yet? If so, expect to see this in the next one:

"Once again, instead of prioritising dealing with rape and other violence, Harman is prioritising censorship and repression. It is women trying to support families in the recession who will be first to suffer."