Posts by bluest.one

Revealed: The revolving door between Google and the US govt – in pictures

The USA is a corporatocracy. Democracy there is just a child's fairytale and a figleaf to hide the awfulness.

Reminder: How to get a grip on your files, data that Windows 10 phones home to Microsoft

You have to remembe that, regardless of Microsoft's stated intent and regardless of the setting you choose, undepinning this is the fact that all USA companies which deal with customer data are outsourced branches of the NSA, who can plunder anything these companies are able to collect.

In addition, the idea that NSA will IN ANY WAY respect the mere software privacy settings of your operating system ("Oh no, they put the security on 'basic' - we can't peer through their documents now!") belongs to a pre-Snowden age (otherwise known as the fool's paradise).

Windows 10 appears to be insecure by design.

Google calls out Comodo's Chromodo Chrome-knockoff as insecure crapware

Firewall

I use their firewall. Is there a better alternative?

Hey, non-US websites – FBI don't have to show you any stinkin' warrant

Don't the Americans demand we extradite people who do that to them from here?

Adam Afriyie MP: Smart meters are NOT so smart

The whole "helping you monotor your usage so you can save money" is a trojan horse to get the meters in your house. The idea that there is any altruism here is laughable.

The real intention behind smart meters is time-sensitive charging, so the energy cartels can charge you more when energy use is high.

In other words: if you're hungry at 6pm and want your dinner, you better be prepared to pay extra for cooking it when everyone else is doing the same.

BBC, ITV gang up on YouView with 'FreeView Connect'

Re: Love my youview

I don't think there's any suggestion that YouView will stop being developed, just that TalkTalk and BT will have to pick up the slack as the BBC, ITV and C4 retreat, since they are the main beneficiaries of the platform.

YouView might pick up some new ISP investors.

BT scratches its head over MYSTERY Home Hub disconnections

Used one of BT's other 'hubs' and had nothing but problems with disconnections. Several times a day. Re-connections happened by themselves. Had people looking at the line, replacement hubs, the works.

Turned out the fix was to use a modem/router that wasn't a pile of junk. Who knew?

Google stabs Wikipedia in the front

And here's another point - when I need a bit of information on something, going to the Wkipedia page is sometimes a laborious process of reinterpreting what's written there or finding the specific piece of info I need. The salient points might not be in the first paragraph, but the fourth. Or the second paragraph of the third section.

The Google cards often get straight to the point in most cases. And wikipedia (or other resources) are there if I need more.

It's competition: Google are genuinely offering something Wikipedia aren't and clearly meeting a need - hence the wiki page views dropping.

Mac OS X Mavericks 'upgrade' ruins iWorks

Re: I never really understand these companies...

Looks like Apple have contracted the same thing that Microsoft caught while they were designing Windows 8: in an attempt to "harmonise" platforms, make the non-touch desktop version worse.

When can we get a vaccine for this disease?

Google: Now your mom will try to sell you toilet paper

Re: Gee Plus Only (for now)

>Everyone with a Gmail or Youtube account has a G+ account, though the probably don't use it.

Care to show the evidence that what you say is true?

Ready to bin your USB cables yet? Wireless USB hops on WiGig bandwagon

Re: Wireless power?

Perfectly correct.

Its appeal is no longer present: its appeal has been let loose.

*DUH*

UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone now

Re: Fine

>And in anticipation of any [free]tards who might say 'you sold it once, so suck it up' [...]

Nice strawman you've got there, but it isn't the case.

Most of those people who take issue with the bloated, tumour-like nature of modern copyright (referred to by yourself as "tards") are opposed to people making money from other's works. Believe it or not there's common ground here, provided you're prepared to look past divisive, ignorant labelling and unthinking sloganeering.

This new legislation does the reverse of what those wanting a more leaner, fairer copyright regime - it allows the powerful and rich to hoover up other people's copyrighted works and exploit them for profit. Of course, being rich and powerful, all they had to do is spend some of that money to gain the complicity of our useless, ignorant, self-interest-peddling politicians, to make their actual piracy (claiming other's works as their own property) legal and blessed by the state.

Paying a TV tax makes you happy - BBC

Does SKY let you not pay for channels you don't want to watch?

If you want sport and movies, for example, do they insist you pay for some entertainment channels, even if you never want to watch them?

Thought so.

Ad-titan Google blocks Adblock Plus in Android security tweak

Alt Method

Fortunately adblock+ still works as an addon in Firefox Mobile - although I don't like FF mobile's UI as much as Chrome Mobile and only use it where I encounter sites with excessive or obnoxious advertising like ... well ... this site for example!

Seriously, a side-scrolling overlay advert, El Reg?

Your only excuse is that it's a filtering challenge to get rid of readers who aren't technically competent enough to disable/get around it.

And that's the thing with obnoxious advertising, they get all the reasonable ones blocked too by default. I dare say the advertisers don't give a damn, but the websites who rely on the income should.

Spotted: Android 4.2.2 update for Google Nexus devices

My Nexus 7 seems a little bit zippier after the update. Fewer lags and momentary hangs that seemed to get introduced with the previous 4.2.1 update.

Can't beleive they messed up something so simple as the long-presses on the settings drop-down, though. A long press should bring up settings/more information whereas a single press should toggle. That's the sensible way to do it (employed elsewhere and on Cyanogen).

All it required was a little bit of thought. Hopefully it'll get fixed in the next update, so everything's consistent and logical.

British games company says it owns the idea of space marines

Re: Morons, dickheads and anything else you can thing of...

The problem is the ill-defined and artificial nature of so-called "intellectual property".

Unlike real property, where it's very obvious when something is stolen or appropriated, 'IP' is a man-made construct whose boundaries are limited only by thought and definition.

As a result, what you get is the inevitable greed of certain people trying to claim ownership of as much as they possibly can.

The things covered by IP - cultural expression (generally) of ideas - are by nature fluid, porous and readily profligate; little different to DNA - going wherever they want and joining with all sorts of other DNA to make new things.

Copyright is supposed to be limited inn scope, but greedy, vested interests have for decades pushed for its expansion. The same with patents and trademarks - because they entail monopoly of exploitation and self-enrichment.

And the guardians of the 'limited times' and scope of these monopolies are sackless and easily swayed.

Where there is only man's word for a limitation, and man can be corrupted, the scope is actually limitless. And so it is with 'IP'.

I dare say it will always be so, though I'll be happy to be proved wrong.

UK cops: How we sniffed out convicted AnonOps admin 'Nerdo'

Dear UK gov.

See? What you need are diligent, skilful, investigators who are well-versed in their area of investigation.

You don't need to put the entire civilian population under a blanket of constant surveillance to catch criminals. Laziness is not an excuse for creating a police state.

Yours sincerely,

Everyone.

Adobe demands 7,000 years a day from humankind

EULAs: we're not responsible for anything, thanks for your cash.

Re: TLDR;

> the women turned out to be a man.

How did that work? I know you can fit multiple men into one woman but I didn't know it could be done the other way round.

Re: I believe

Add to that the rule most stores have about not being able to return opened software and basically the whole thing is little more than a civilized charade.

Re: Good article

Not as many if you skip reading the EULA quotes like I did.

Re: public domain

No public domain in Finland? How does that work?

Who owns works whose authorship can't be traced (orphan works)?

Where a work is ancient or every old, created before copyright existed, who owns the rights?

Is Finland signed up to the Berne convention? What does it do regarding public domain works in the rest of then world where they're published in Finland? Assign local ownership based on publication? Even without creative input?

In addition, having No public domain seems evil to me - yeah evil! Everything must be someone's property; no commons. No public culture open to all. The apex of the capitalist wet dream.

Are you SURE Finland has no public domain?

Legal wigs to sort out rules on internet defamation, contempt

The problem with things like Twitter, in regard to defamation and the like, is that it's a new type of communication (relatively speaking) that straddles two or more different established (and understood) forms.

It has the ease and informality of pub banter, but the permanency and reach of a publication.

As a species, we haven't got our heads around this - or the similarly muddling communication space of Facebook walls/timelines (etc).

It's the same as CCTV - it makes a temporal, transitory public event that might be forgotten - the reach of which rapidly decays as news passes further from those there at the time - into a permanent event which will never go away.

It all changes the nature of the space as we understand it - its intimacy, its permanency, who we're sharing with and how long it will be around for. And we aren't used to banter and gossip being permanent, and we use these permanent publication devices as if they weren't.

Before the internet, the nearest equivalent would have been the postcard, which still doesn't have the immediacy of something like twitter, and is very specific in its audience, despite its open nature.

People are going to have to evolve a more nuanced understanding of the nature of these communication forms. It'll happen eventually, but like most evolution, it's going to be quite painful for some individuals until the species as a whole gets there.

Can supermodel Heidi Klum save Windows 8? Not so fast

Re: Personally

>... it's exactly like installing Gnome 3 on top of your perfectly-working system - the underneath is the same but the interface is just too horrendous to use even if it comes "for free".

That perfectly sums up my feelings on Windows 8 (as a win7 user).

Apple's profits fetish could spell its DOOM

Jobs was the engine.

Apple are now just coasting on the forward momentum he left them with.

Unless they find another driving force as powerful, creative and single minded, nothing they'll do now will sustain them beyond being just another tech company.

Humax HDR-1000S Freesat+ recorder with FreeTime

Well done and extra points if you've managed to actually buy a modern TV that DOESN'T have a dvb-t tuner in it.

I suppose you mean so that you can record on it though.

Why would you need it if you have a twin tuner dvb-s2 pvr, with catch up, though?

Maybe if it also had a teas made, it would be better?

It does record the buffer, for the programme that's currently playing - not the entire buffer, though. The remote is supposed to be much better.

More answers on the digital spy forums, as well as others.

Re: Slightly off topic

I like the fact that this device streams a lot of content over the lan. That it plays mkvs and the like from USB as well is pretty damn good. I have a cyclone which I never use because I use a Sony bluray player for all that, but if I didn't and hadn't already got a foxsat HDR, I'd definitely get this.

As for the cyclone remote, you could always buy one of those Logitech programmable remotes - I replaced the crappy cyclone one with one of those and it made the cyclone usable (not that I need to use it except in extreme cases these days)

Re: Boot time and menu speed

Exactly. There's a quick boot option if someone isn't as concerned about energy waste.

Re: Navigation speed

I've heard the UI is a lot quicker than the G1 version and smoother.

As for clipped recordings, this is indeed a broadcaster issue, with channel 4 being a particular culprit. Missed series link recordings are also a broadcaster issue, with them failing to transmit the relevant metadata.

I always pad my recordings, which this box allows you to do as well.

Re: is it noisy?

It has no fan. Humax offloaded the PSU so it sits outside the box. That means it's virtually silent and quieter than their G1 box, which is already quiet enough.

Apple bans 'memory' games from iOS App Store

Unfortunately, this story has nothing to do with copyright. It's about trademarks which are a distinct and quite different form of monopoly on expression.

Sony wants cash to get out of tellies, into mobile, CMOS and games

Well the software on their TVs is remarkably good, actually. Less crap than the Samsung ones and not that dissimilar from something Apple might have put out.

Not sure I can think of anyone making better TVs at the moment.

Google to refund some pre-price drop Nexus 7 buyers

Re: Thing is....

>By purchasing the device direct from Google, I have been financially disadvantaged; I don't qualify for either the Asus £25 or the Google 15 day reimbursement.

If you bought from Google on day one, you are eligible for the Asus voucher.

Re: Thing is....

Citation needed.

I bought my 16gb version on release day and knew what I was getting into. Pay n for x. It seemed good enough at the time that I plunked down the money and I got what I asked for.

I'm an adult and I (try to) make informed decisions, not some whiny entitled baby, though.

As things stand I got the £15 Play store credit AND I get the £25 Asus voucher.

If someone didn't want a 16gb Nexus 7 they shouldn't have bought one and should have waited for something better to get with their money.

Both the play credit, the Asus voucher and the Google 15 day reimbursement are more than generous for a device that's already great value at the price it was offered for sale at originally.

UK's planned copyright landgrab will spark US litigation 'firestorm'

A civil servant with a hadron for surveillance is also seemingly responsible for lobbying the current coalition into resurrecting the mass spying program that Labour tried to implement and the Tories and Libdems campaigned against.

Something seriously needs to be done about these unelected unaccountable civil servants who defy democracy and the clear wishes of the electorate.

At the very least, we need to be able to get rid of them and they should not have the power that they apparently have.

Microsoft rolls out always-on Skype for Windows Phone 8

And as an added bonus, Microsoft will hand over all data they have on you to third parties without requiring such pesky things as court orders or warrants.

Skype. The Snitch In Your Pocket (TM).

Credit card-sized mobile simplified for oldies

Re: Crap

@FartingHippo

Thanks for the clarification.

Re: Crap

So if someone has to change their number - for whatever reason - the person with this device can nolonger call them up without spending £40.

What a useless piece of f***ing crap.

Apple is granted a patent on the rectangle. No, really

Re: blimey

In the United States Patent Office, it's April 1st every day.

UK prosecutors, cops ponder new probe into NASA hacker McKinnon

Re: The never-ending David Blunkett effect

Exactly. If anyone should be prosecuted, it should be the members of parliament who voted to allow this treaty that sells out the British people to another country.

The charge should be treason.

Re: FFS Leave him alone!

> Bottom line: criminals should be punished. end. of.

Statute of limitations. Public interest (or not) in a public prosecution...

These and more factors are routinely considered when deciding whether to pursue criminals (or alleged criminals) and rightly so. Ignorant application of any mechanism based on some hard-on inducing desire to punish is wanted nowhere in the world outside the boudoirs of the roght-wing, compassion less, hang -em flog' em brigade.

And any argument that concludes with the phrase "end. of." should be summarily dismissed.

End. Of.

Erm...

Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives

Re: Operating system

Indeed, you can (almost) buy TWO 32gb nexus 7s with mobile data for the price of ONE of the equivalent fruit model.

Re: Nexus7 can support USB on the go

It is a good rootless solution, and i have it on mine, but remember without root, Nexus Media Importer only mounts external storage as ROM.

That may or may not be a consideration.

You know who else hates Windows 8? Hackers

Re: Skeptical...

How does the saying go?

Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.

Something like that. At any rate, anyone who knows anything about the history of Microsoft knows that they have gotten up to all sorts of underhand, nasty, sneaky, illegal, anticompetitive shenanigans. Repeatedly. Year after year. Screwing over everyone from their partners to the consumers.

Anyone who knows anything about Microsoft's history knows not to trust them at all.

Until its proven that secure boot isn't the anticompetitive scheme that it clearly can be, everyone should be on their guard.

Asus pledges Android 4.2 update for Google Nexus 7

Re: My Nexus 7

I grew impatient waiting for 4.1.2, but the upshot was I learned a thing or two about how to install updates manually.

Google could really do with making the process simple and packaged, instead of making Windows users (at least) hunt around for an obscure driver that comes with another vendor's software package. That particular driver doesn't even come with the SDK mamager, which is ridiculous.

Still, worth doing just to know how.

Uh-oh! Kim Dotcom is back with a brand new Megaupload site

Re: That'll work.

Decryption glasses?

Asus: we ship a million Google's Nexus 7s monthly

Re: Bloody hell

Buy a Nexus 7 32GB with mobile data for yourself and a 32 GB WiFi version for the family and you'd still have a tenner left to spend on apps, compared to buying the 32 GB mobile data iPad mini.

Virgin Media spanked for 'we've already cabled up your house' mailshot

Re: Ahh, VM, pack of all out liars

I think you can class it as harassment. Write and tell them not to leaflet, call or contact you again, and if they do, it's harassment. Its then up to you for pursue matter though.