Posts by Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

Cops turn Download Festival into an ORWELLIAN SPY PARADISE

I remember the good old days when money was a peer to peer system. Now there's always someone in the middle; monitoring, profiting, controlling. Not good news.

Using leather in 'leccy cars is 'unTesla', rages vegan shareholder

Re: Plastic fantastic

Won't someone think of the dinosaurs?

Your servers are underwater? Chill out – liquid's cool

The future is Iceland.

OK, not so great for trading data due to latency, but cheap geothermal power, an endless supply of cold air, and the heat generated can be recycled into domestic/industrial heating and/or energy. Plus the tax breaks are pretty good.

What a Zuckin' drag! 'Frisco queens protest outside Facebook HQ over 'real names' policy

Re: Yes, good point

Strangely enough, the UK Passport Office don't seem to agree.

Couple of questions...

What is the world coming to when a 17st bald bloke called Gary can't pretend to be a Disney Princess on the internet?

Microsoft discontinues Media Center with Windows 10

My DVD recorder went a long time ago. Built a quiet i3 based media PC in a nice case with a front display and card reader. Threw Ubuntu on it, added a dual freeview tuner card, HD webcam (for video calling). I use MythTV to schedule recordings and playback. It will also play DVD, (but I prefer VLC). Chromium for iPlayer/YouTube/4OD/5OD/GeekTV etc. Also acts as a file / web / squeezebox / Minecraft server and runs a suite of security cameras using motion (uploading the images offsite).

The only downside really is the hardware can be fiddly to get working - particularly the air keyboard/mouse, the sound routing and the TV tuner card.

New EU security strategy: Sod cyber terrorism, BAN ENCRYPTION

Re: Reduce terrorism...

Erm.. EU Commissioners are appointed, not elected.

David Cameron 'guarantees' action on mobe not-spots. Honest

The call of political parties everywhere...

"We will clear the deficit AND "invest" more in public services AND give you all a free Unicorn."

Vote for us.

London man arrested over $40 MILLION HFT flash crash allegations

Firstly, thanks for the analysis. It's the only one I've read so far that makes any kind of sense.

Seems to me that if the whole system can be brought down by a lack of honourable behaviour on the part of any single city trader then it is screwed.

Smart meters are a ‘costly mistake’ that'll add BILLIONS to bills

That was my thinking - not sure how it's going to go - getting a new supplier before the old one has even set the account up properly. In theory they shouldn't block the switch but we'll see.. Ovo should hopefully be a bit better. Not the very cheapest, but good reviews on service.

Speaking as a Scottish Power customer who, despite several frustrating phone calls and the involvement of the Ombudsman, has not had a bill for a year, I'd be happy simply with a bit of paper that told me my usage.

Forum chat is like Clarkson punching you repeatedly in the face

Re: M&S

Sir,

May I draw your attention to the plight of the half-sized-feeted. Getting a decent pair of size 11 and a half walking boots is nigh-on impossible due to the discriminatory practices of the major boot manufacturers.

Almost as bad as the racism shown to Linux users by Amazon's on demand TV services.

Hence, going out is almost as painful as staying in..

Yours, disgruntled etc...

Aged 18-24? Don't care about voting? Got a phone? Oh dear...

Re: Good

Oh bore off, you're the selfish one. Do without your internet, your wall-to-wall carpets, foreign holidays, regular meals so your kids can eat, cars that you don't have to fix yourself, gym membership, mobile phones, central heating, five day working week and food that's not scraped off a road, skinned and cooked yourself then come back here with your whiny self-centered attitude.

Look, no handsets: How to do telephony without a phone

Voip and softphone at work, which is fine until someone issues a short notice forced reboot.

3 spectastic Lumias for price of 1 rival flagship: Microsoft sells biz on cheapie experience

Re: MTP support ?

I have a 1020 and an old XP laptop. They don't get on.

Visa: One million bonks a month for Europeans from next year

Just got a contactless debit card from Halifax. Fortunately, they offer an opt-out. Not interested in them from a security, privacy or convenience point of view. (A little bit of inconvenience is no bad thing when it comes to spending money).

Free WiFi coming to UK trains ... in two years

Election coming soon...

Blatant rubbish designed to bribe potential voters.

HELP! Windows Phone update 8.1 broke my Lumia

Re: Well, since the 930 isn't affected...

Guilty! (Self-inflicted misery, hooked by the camera. But Panasonic have just brought out a better camera phone on Android so I'll be jumping ship as soon as they come down in price a bit...)

BBC bins pricey Windows Media, Audio Factory goes live

Squeezebox issues here.

Some open feeds noted on the slimdevices forum. I used these to update my favourites. The iPlayer plugin seems to read the location of the streams from the bbc xml, which (weirdly) point to the recorded message.

Landlines: The tech that just won't die

The thing that really amazes me is that cold callers haven't got the hang of VOIP yet - as it's free to call a SIP phone from another SIP phone.

I've done this for the last 6 years. We bought a set of VOIP phones (Siemens Gigaset somethingororther) and used DrayTel to get a geographic PAYG number. I seem to remember my last BT phone bill was about £56 for the quarter, with next to no calls. Oh, and with DrayTel we get caller ID thrown in and cheaper call charges. The whole thing paid for itself in under a year.

Planning to upgrade your Lumia to Windows 10? NOT SO FAST

Re: need to fix basic issues

Being able to turn the phone sideways is the least of its problems. It doesn't even support proper mail attachments or certain authentication mechanisms for SMTP.

Amazon's tax deal in Luxembourg BROKE the LAW, says EU

Re: EU "law"

"Wuh you mean a parliament elected via proportional representation and a commission assigned by the heads of state of the member nations? That's more Democratic then the UK system."

Actually I was thinking of the unelectable Peter Mandelson and the Kinnock clan who have, incidentally been made millionaires, riding the EU gravy train. Maybe I was also thinking of the fact that the role of the Parliament is simply to rubber-stamp the ideas of the Commission, and the duty of the Commission is to further the EU project, not to represent their home nation. Or the fact that most people in the UK have never had a vote on the whole thing. Or the dodgy accounting and massive wastefulness. Or the rerun referendums when people voted the "wrong" way. Or the technocrats parachuted in, to run nations like Greece and Ireland in place of national elected representatives.

Take your pick really.

EU "law"

When I were a lad, you needed some kind of democratic legitimacy to create law.

Young CHAP CUFFED in Blighty over Xmas Sony and XBOX hacks

Re: excellent

Ye! Who needs a trial, just put him in the stocks and lets throw the cabbages already.

Go Canada: Now ILLEGAL to auto-update software without 'consent'

How does a website install software without the user's consent? Almost always it's down to the user clicking OK on some downloaded freeware. Not sure how these rules will change that.

Tesco tosses loss-making Blinkbox into TalkTalk's basket

Tried it on the media PC but no support for Linux meant that I went to YouTube movies.

Elite: Dangerous 'billionaire' gamers are being 'antisocial', moan players

I'm considering a similar complaint against RockStar games after I noticed a bit of misbehaviour going on in Grand Theft Auto.

France says 'non' to UberPop

The French have no word for entrepreneur...

The French have an odd situation whereby many trades, from plumbers to chemists to lawyers, have their own State protected trade bodies, keeping wages artificially high for their members. I can't see them liking this too much.

TalkTalk customers demand opt-out fix for telco's DNS ad-jacking tactics

Don't mess with DNS

Intercepting ones browsing session in order to insert adverts is the height of bad manners. Especially when you're paying for the experience.

OpenDNS do the same thing, but to be fair to them, it's in lieu of providing a free DNS/content filtering service (if you're that way inclined you can block their ad page at the router, giving you the original "failed" ad-free experience).

Sony Pictures hit by 'fightback on filesharers' DDoS claims – report

They've got form, remember the "rootkit on the CD" debacle.

Denmark BANNED from viewing UK furniture website in copyright spat

Re: The Danish legal system must be retarded to have 75 year copyright

I think that's basically to protect Paul McCartney.

Juristiction?

Does a Danish court have any authority over a British website?

Assange's WikiLeaks: Give generously this Xmas – for statue of our dear leader

Re: My Lord, I have a cunning plan

Apparently Baldrick was right - Bronzy is quite similar to Irony.

Well, to give them credit, they've managed to make donating to the Donkey Sanctuary look like a pretty reasonable thing to do.

Blu-ray region locks popped by hardware hacker

Re: And they wonder why we pirate?

Fascinating insight into the mind of a serial copyright abuser, thanks.

Mom and daughter SUE Comcast for 'smuggling' public Wi-Fi hotspot into their home

Re: Hope they win.

The lawyers will win.

Huawei: 'Nobody made any money in Windows Phone'

Re: Android for business?

"I, for one, cannot understand why any business would invest in an Android phone."

mm. Dunno. What's the support like for sending mail attachments in WP8.1?

"Uncomfortably Invasive"

I tried to prevent my Lumia 1020 from synching to their cloud. Changed all the settings to "do not sync". Set the server location to 127.0.0.1. Then one day was poking around on MS Live on my PC after posting a question about the fact that the speech to text facility appears to have selective deafness.

"My Contacts - None". Check.

"My Calendar Items - None". Check.

But there in the OneNote section - smugly staring back at me was a note I had entered into my phone, as if to say, "So who's the smartass now?"

Ten excellent FREE PC apps to brighten your Windows

Password Safe for me.

Amazon’s Christmas queuing bonanza!

great...

The Post Office? Not known primarily for its late night opening hours. I think I'll pass.

I'm not saying where they should be looking to deliver parcels, but there's a hint in the icon.

Let's vote on breaking up Google, say MEPs with NO power to do any such thing

Biting the hand that feeds you...

I think if I were Google I'd be tempted to put a few strategically placed "deny from" statements in my Apache config files. The corresponding 403 error page would say something suitably acerbic, maybe:

"Here at Google we have started employing the same fine discernment in choosing our users as in selecting our results. Sadly you did not make the cut. Please download a copy of webferret circa 1998 which we're sure will suit your requirements just fine."

Amazon warming up 'cheapo web video' cannon to SINK Netflix

Two questions..

Will it run on Linux?

Will it be as good as GeekTV?

All ABOARD! Furious Facebook bus drivers join Teamsters union

Speaking as a former forklift driver who worked both daytimes and evenings in the snow and rain, to be frequently told at the end of my shift to jump in a 7.5 tonne lorry and do a York to Tamworth run, I have a lot of sympathy with these guys. I'm reading a lot of comments on here such as "so educate yourself", "move house", or "get a better job". Having done all of the above, I'm probably more qualified than many to make such comments. But out of respect for former colleagues and because I try not to be an arrogant smug git I think I'll refrain.

Sure, you might get the odd driver who, in true Will Smith "Persuit of Happyness" style, lands a job with Facebook. But this only fixes the issue for him. There's a lot of very cash poor and time poor workers in the US (UK too), and a few very rich executives who have no idea how the other half live.

To my mind, that's not a happy situation, but not one that is going to be rectified by Unionisation or Socialism (I don't want an all-powerful State enforcing "equality of poverty").

Maybe the answer is just to treat people better. Take a small hit on the bottom line and also treat your staff with dignity and respect.

You know where Apple Pay is getting used a LOT? Yes - McDonalds

Re: Figures

I waited at the door for a few minutes and left when nobody came to show me to a table.

DEATH fails to end mobile contract: Widow forced to take HUBBY's ASHES into shop

Yep, that happened to my mum with BT. We asked them to take my dad's name off the joint bill and they cut her off just as she was trying to arrange the funeral. Took them best part of 10 days to get it fixed, with nothing but arrogant staff on the other end of the line. When the line came back she locked into a new 12 month contract. Long since dropped them.

Million Mask March: Anonymous' London Guy Fawkes protest a damp squib

We came, we saw, we wandered around for a bit in the cold...

BBC clamps down on illicit iPlayer watchers

Sad...

I understand the Beeb's reluctance to sanction tools like get_iplayer, but I think it's misplaced. It's really not hurting anyone. I've found it very handy in the past, not as a pirate or filesharer, but just as someone who forgot to record something, and would like to simply watch and delete it on my own time.

UK smart meters arrive in 2020. Hackers have ALREADY found a flaw

@Ledswinger

That whole episode was one dodgy day for democracy, wasn't it?

Not saying the noble Lord took a bung or anything, but...

A few years from now, when the energy shortages are really kicking in, these little things are going to be the ideal way of meeting some artificial carbon emissions target. Some rich politician in a mansion house full of old fashioned lightbulbs and servants is going to instruct his minions to switch off Halifax for an hour tonight in order to deal with a drop in wind power.

You'll probably be forced to pay for your shiny new smart meter too.

Brave new world, huh?

Lumia 830: Microsoft hopes to seduce with slim 'affordable' model

@ac - political system

In this analogy is Windows Phone the Liberal Democrats?