Posts by Paul 87

Movie, TV ads annoying? You ain't seen nothin' yet

I'm frustrated and annoyed that advertisers are all focusing on "targeted" adverts, because they all rely on Orwellian levels of surveillance to be able to gather the information needed to target them in the first place. It's downright creepy and instrusive that not only am I expected to give a damn about whatever piece of consumerist crap that is being thrust upon me, they expect to know every single detail about my preferences, all harvested from spying on me.

Review: HTC One

Sadly, you lost me at the point where it said "Blink Feed can be moved, but it can't be removed"

I'm already frustrated with the latest HTC updates for my One X, preventing me from blocking HTC Sense for Facebook, to have yet more privacy invading "smart" technology on my phone, is just frustrating.

Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

Personally, I favoured Textpad as it was the only application I could find which would happily cope with opening and editing multi-GB SQL backups. Yes, it'd be nice if our development team hadn't needed me to do this in the first place but hey, that's IT for ya.

Help-desk hell

Oooeerrr Missus!

It's 17.25, we're about to make our way home, and the phone goes, it's one of our smaller customers and they're concerned that someone has hacked into their systems as the mouse is moving on it's own.

Hoping for a quick resolution, one of the younger girls on staff logs in and makes a note of the remote access user, so they can phone them up and ask if they're genuinely using the system. Whilst she's doing this, she's told that suddenly a gay porn website has opened up and is playing videos.

Anyway, between her and myself we trace back the user ID, it's the MD of our client, so we quickly phone his mobile, and hear a brief couple of seconds of audio from the same website. We innocently ask him if he's working from home tonight, and he replies yes.

Trying desperately not to laugh, my colleague says to him that he should be careful as we've had his office on the line saying someone's accessed the internet on the server and it's visible on the monitor. The MD apparently swears, and hangs up on her, leaving us in fits of laughter.

We phone back to the office and say that the situation is resolved, and we'd speak to the MD in the morning for them to give a full report.

Software sucks these days - and just maybe it's all YOUR fault

I'd offer an explanation that it's the exponential growth of computing power that has made developers sloppier in their approaches. Whereas once upon a time, they had to watch every resource used closely, and not following best practice led to programs that failed to run entirely, now we're in a situation where "good enough" code runs and error handling routines pick up the slack.

Additionally, the comercial drive where companies have realised they can make money if they constantly sell to new customers, and care little about retaining or placating the old ones, then there's less financial pressure on the developers to fix anything other than the most critical of bugs, and instead they become focused on developing new features for the software instead that look good in a sales demo

Draft UK libel law forces websites to axe mudslinging comments

Don't see what the fuss is, this seems like a sensible step to take to tidy up the already existing laws on libel and defamation of character. Admitedly, like many of the laws, it only benefits those who are rich enough to afford the time in court, but being able to force site holders to take down entries after they've been ruled to be illegal hardly seems like an erosion of free speech.

Incidentally, the UK *doesn't* and never has had the right to free speech, that's strictly part of the American (and possibly French) constitutions. We haven't needed an implicit right, because our legal system is based on the principle that everything is legal, providing it isn't illegal, whereas many other countries work on the presumption that everything is illegal unless there's a law or constitutional right allowing you to do it. Hence why you get a tonne of laws saying "You can't do/say this"

Samsung Galaxy Tab 'a harmful drug', says Apple in ban bid fail

I don't care which company is suing the other, the fault lies with neither company, but with the US legal system that makes this such a valid business tactic that companies are forced down this route to ensure that they remain competative.

Let's not forget that corporations are obliged, by law, to maximise the return of investment for their stock holders. They have no legal responsibility to be "nice" about it, and in fact, if it were found that those running the company deliberately avoided an oppertunity to make money, then they could face civil and criminal prosecution.

So stop bitching about who'se suing who, and start bitching to the US politicians who'se laws are responsible for the situation instead!

Google warns against ISPs hard on web filth

I actually agree with the idea of an ISP based filtering service, providing that it's opt-in for customers (heck, why aren't the ISP's offering this as a chargeable add-on I'll never know). Not everyone in the world is technically literate, and anything that makes it easier for parents to make valid choices for their children is a good thing.

Unfortunately, this moderate middle ground is getting swamped by the "Censorship is evil" vs "Porn is evil" battle, and both sides are ignoring their chance to compromise.

Congress warned that military systems may already be pwned

The policy is much more sound than trying to make things "more secure", for example watching your system more closely so you know what's supposed to go where in terms of traffic, and paying attention to file access times and patterns would be far more effective in terms of damage limitation than trying to keep "something" out.

It also conicendentally means paying a lot more people to sit there and just learn the system's behaviour on a normal day.

Facebook denies poaching your text messages on Android

One of the reasons I haven't updated my Android app in *ages*, I don't want the new features, I just want to read my FB wall and post comments.

I wish it were profitable for developers to make these kind of applications far more modular in nature, letting us pick and chose the functionality we want, instead of having their latest idea shoved down our throats

Whitehall hopes to shave 'conservative' £100m off PC bill

So, we can save £100M huh.... but only if you pay me £110M for my consultancy services :P

Firm pitches tech trio powered by portable processor

Looks like a promising idea, being able to use the same core for both a smartphone, tablet and a TV trims down the expense, though I'd imagine not by a lot given that screens comprise approximately 50% of the cost of a device, and you still need to include some basic processing power to recieve and authenticate the connection.

What I would be interested to find out is the effect on battery life; particularly as each component presumably carries their own power supply.

2012: The year when smartphones become smart?

I don't want "smart", I want reliable, non-instrusive and controllable technology. Why on earth would I want some developer sitting in an office on the other side of the Atlantic deciding what I really want to be doing now is waking up, because I woke up at this time three days running.

Official: The smartphones that suck much more than others

There's an alternative conclusion to draw, that people who are drawn to most heavily using the Internet prefer iPhones or HTC phones, and also prefer the newer technology. Much more likely than the phones themselves being responsible for the increase in the use of data.

Fuel taxes don't hurt the world's poor - they don't have cars

This guy is an idiot, petrol taxes in the developed world hit the poor far harder than the rich. The rich can afford to purchase the latest, fuel efficient vehicles, keep them maintained better and also pay far less % on traveling costs.

In fact, you could go so far as to argue that petrol taxes are one of the factors that reduce social mobility, if you can't afford to travel in a cost effective manner, you can't seek out new employment opportunities outside your local geographical area. Even if you get a job interview thanks to the Internet, it often proves impractical to get there, or to relocate if you can't afford to drive.

Punters hate copyright, says Steelie Neelie

The "freetard" idea has been around since the internet was young, a great example of this is shareware. You got the software, complete with DRM, but a lot of the time people went out of their way to bypass it.

Take Winzip/Winrar as an example, both pieces of software are widely used, both commercially and privately, but only a fraction of those users have paid for the software, why? Because they didn't have to.

Hackers can spring Death Row crims from cells

Of course, all it takes is a couple of key controlled, mechanical switches in place and you can cut these vulnerabilities right down.

Insulin pump hack delivers fatal dosage over the air

@cornz1

This is so right! There was never a need to include this kind of connectivity but lazyness won out. First came remote monitoring, so medical professionals didn't have to go near the patient to read the device, then came small changes to allow limited control and now we're here.

If people had accepted that sometimes, you have to get off your arse, this wouldn't be possible

Massive study concludes: 'Global warming is real'

Ok, so another study shows that there's been a gradual change in average temperate over a period of time, but have reached no firm conclusions as to the cause of the problem.

My pet theory has always be simple thermodynamics, more people, all burning off more energy to run all the myriad of gadgets, machines etc that form part of modern life, means a higher average temperate.

Worm spreads via RDP

hmmm

You know, this sounds like a BOFH tool for catching out the idiots who bypass the password policies

DIY aerial drone monitors Wi-Fi, GSM networks

Sounds like...

... someone's punting a proof of concept device to sell to the CIA, assuming they haven't already got drones that do this :)

Are you slaving away on the wrong projects?

IT Directors

Well, it's one thing to say "this is the director's job", it's another to communicate the information effectively. I'd argue that this is the main strength of using a software based solution, the ability to get the information out the heads of one or two people, and make it available to the customer facing roles.

Working on a support desk for an in-development piece of software, I'm often faced with issues where it needs a fix from the developers, but have absolutely no way to estimate their workloads without bothering them and taking them away from their current work.

AT&T: 'Eat too much data and we'll strangle you'

So they'll always throttle the top 5%

Ok, so what happens in a situation where everyone is abiding by a sensible amount of data usage? The way the article is written implies that they'll still throttle the top 5%, even if they reduce their data usage....

In effect, if you're in this demographic, you might as well keep sucking down as much as you can because unless you stop using the service entirely, you're gonna keep getting capped.

UK data watchdog 'looking into' Google+ mission creep

I predict that...

An incredibly large number of John Smith's will invade Google+ over time. Try catching *that* in an auto-filter without getting too many false positives

ITV eyes micropayments for Corrie specials

Micropayments

It doesn't necessarily mean processing the credit card payment each time you want to watch something. Chances are, it'll be an account balance you top up (minimum £5 - £10) that you eat up on the various services.

Toyota tech to steer cars round jaywalkers

It can't be a good idea

Any system that over-rides a driver's ability to crash their car willingly will only end up causing an accident eventually.

A car should always be in the driver's full control and these systems are far too excessive! Warnings, yes, automatically taking control of the vehicle no!

Rescue privacy before it vanishes forever

Unfortunately...

.. there's money to be made in selling our details to advertisers. As long as advertisers are willing to pay per impression, instead of per actual click, then these businesses will continue profiting from making us take part.

Marketer taps browser flaw to see if you're pregnant

Ok, so if it grabs your browsing history...

... deleting your history, cookies and all other files reguarly works too right?

Key internet address server sees spike in traffic

Well it is a World of Warcraft patch day

... all it'd take is one poorly programed query in the initial updater and suddenly you've got a few million people all hunting for addresses that don't actually exist!

dabs.com says sorry for delivery debacle

It's the problem with a software changeover

No matter how much planning and testing you do, switching this kind of software will always be painful. You've got to retrain your entire staff, work out the best way to use the new features, learn how to adapt your business processes to the way the software expects it to run and so on.

Working for a company that sells this kind of software, it's *never* as smooth as you'd like it to be, but the improvements are seen in the long term, usually 12-18 months down the line.

Man says he lost $500,000 in virtual currency heist

Odd

This story sounds exactly like something created to undermine the idea of bitcoins and happens just days after they're publised for the first time.

Facebook hurls insults, punctuation at growth slump report

Maybe they should stop and think

... instead of denying that figures are dropping, stop and consider that perhaps their ever excessive feature creep, combined with repeated attempts at forcing users to take on their latest privacy busting "improvements" without their consent or knowledge are costing them money.

Cabinet Office talks to Facebook & co about new ID system

so let me get this straight

They want to let us associate our official identity with our online persona's, thus giving cyber ctiminals even *more* reasons to steal them. Combined with the fact that these private companies are outside UK control or sovereignity and we have a receipe for disaster!

Codemasters pulls website after hackers pwn customer database

What's slightly more of a pain

If you're someone who uses a dozen or so different passwords, actually remembering which one you used on that site without being able to check exactly *which* one you used.

Facebook quietly switches on facial recognition tech by default

It's not the only recent feature creep

Did anyone else know that Groups no longer send out an invite, instead your friends can automatically add you to any group they choose and it automatically posts this information to your wall as if *you* chose to join the group.

What's worse, it automatically signs you up to receive emails from the group

http://www.facebook.com/help/new/?faq=147058305366686

3D-printed bikini goes on sale

Hmmm..

... does offer some interesting possibilities regarding scanning a woman to produce a totally contoured set of lingerie though, particularly if you can design an algorithm to give the best possible profile

El Reg pays by phone – mmmm, free cookies!

I have no idea what the engineers were thinking

Who on earth thought that your mobile phone is the place to put this technology? Where's the advantage over a contactless credit or debit card?

Designer punts ultimate customisable keyboard

Not convinced

Sure, nifty idea, but without a proper feedback from each key it's less than ideal.

If it were me, I'd have stick on "keys" that can still register a contact with the touchpad underneath, don't have to be massive and if they're transparent you can still get the benefit of the customisation underneath.

Google sprays customers with cash in AdWords cockup

Sounds like ....

... someone seriously cocked up their exchange rates! Maybe they replaced the US Dollar with the Zimbabwe dollar :)

App Store not invited to web's date with destiny

The author's missed a trick

You can use a 3D barcode link for an app inside an article and thus share the link in exactly the same way as having to type the URL manually. That's where the app stores still offer shareability, all that's missing is a handy little "about" screen inside the app to bring up said barcode so you can display it on screen and let a friend automatically download the content by scanning it.

Soon as app developers get that sorted, it's all rainbows and unicorns!

Google vanishes 'DroidDream' malware from citizen phones

Is it me or...

... the email address they're sending fom look like spam? Just the thing to really panic people after mystery app lands on your phone

Game offers pre-orders on pre-owned titles

The trouble is

It's just a cynical marketing ploy by Game, they know that the titles being offered need a purchase from EA to get it to work as advertised, but I bet they won't even consider making that clear to the consumers. What's more, with "second hand goods", there's less protection for the consumer when the item has been clearly marked as such, so those duped won't even be able to take the item back.

IT job seekers can't smell spell

Well duh...

All the points given are basic interviewing advice, I'm surprised at some of the comments so far that try to argue against them. Well, actually not surprised, this is after all the Internet where people will argue against *anything*, particularly "IT Professionals" who are used to being more right than you.

Watson? Commercial – not super – computer

I hate titles

The project has some interesting avenues that could follow later down the line, and I'm sure are the real reason the IBM researches persued this in the first place. For example, being able to feed a bunch of rules on financial transactions and then load up the raw data of a companies financial records, and have the model spit out any irregularities would be one possible use.

Google, MS, Mozilla: Three 'Do Not Tracks' to woo them all

Ad's may be necessary...

... but they should respect that I'll click on the damn things if I'm interested and not charge companies for impressions that in actual fact represent me going "oh fuck I'm not buying XXX because it has an invasive advert"

Diary of a Not-spot – the final chapter

Well done

You've now got a better connection than me and I live in a fairly busy 100,000 odd person town (though at an edge)

Apple patents miracle combo mouse-keyboard

They're missing a trick

Why not just have a textured touch screen surface with slight give in it, nothing major, just enough for most people to feel where their hands are on the screen. Then you can hone your typing skills in the same way you can with a physical keyboard

Lane Fox promises sub-£100 PCs

They're still missing the point

The problem with "getting online" isn't that it's particularly expensive to do, what the problem is that it's *hard* for many people to do. A PC is still a fairly complex machine, and whilst for many of us, it's intuative, there's still a good group of people who just don't want the hassle.

What's really needed is a device like an iPad where it just works to be given out, something that'll work akin to the television where you can switch it on, press maybe a couple of buttons to tune it in and get on with using it.

Lenovo forms 'connected kit' division

It's a good idea

If they can combine it with the idea of external graphics cards and extra storage in the keyboard section, you could replace your PC and PMP with a single device.

Sage Pay prevents punters blowing Xmas wad

It's been like this

...ever since they switched from Protx to Sagepay, the change of name bought with it failure after failure after failure. Only one you can definately say wasn't their fault, and that was the fire at the Paddington telephone exchange, the rest seems to be deep mismanagement and failure to adaquately test their unwanted "improvements" to the system.