Posts by James 51

Democralypse Now? US election first battle in new age of cyberwarfare

Re: Democracy...?

Was going to write a long rebuttal but as you're probably just another Putin troll I'll post a link to corporate media story:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/28/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-quotes/index.html

Re: General uptick in Villainous Russian stories lately.

Natwest froze Libya's accounts?

Here are some of those 'Villainous' stories you're talking about:

• Russia has either bombed or helped the Syrian regime bomb hospitals and kill civilians (including the use of chemical weapons).
• Putin ordered the invasion of the Ukraine and annexed Crimea and either Russian soldiers or Russian armed rebels shot down a civilian airplane.
• A Russian official has threatened nuclear war if the US elects Hilary Clinton as president (and has deployed missiles to Kaliningrad that could have nuclear warheads on them).
• The Russian defense ministry has threatened to shoot down airplanes protecting civilians from the Syrian regime.

The list goes on and on. This isn't the west victimising Russian. This is Putin using hard power to destablise other countries and keep the flag flying high, no matter the cost to others or even his own people.

Basic income after automation? That’s not how capitalism works

Re: Make robots pay tax

The 'State' normally controls the printing presses. Don't forget, money is just a useful collective delusion. An abstraction of value which facilities transactions. Money is only worth what you can get for it.

Court finds GCHQ and MI5 engaged in illegal bulk data collection

Crime, but where's the punishment?

New UK National silicone database will help avoid boobs

Hmm, the article seemed to be focused on cosmetic surgery done in the private sectory but what about reconstructive surgery carried out by the NHS?

Open Sorcerers: Can you rid us of Emperor Zuck?

IRC, those were the days *wipes manly tear from eye*. The reason though why companies don't launch products based on open standards is that they can't lock customers in and competitors out.

New Brit Hubble analysis finds 2,000 billion galaxies, 10x previous count

Re: So...

Might not push the age of the universe back, more likely to change the time of matter cooling and star formation.

Virtual reality is actually made of smartphones

the wheel (and axil), electricty, germ theory of disease and that's just off the top of my head.

a new psion 5mx would just eat the entire note market in one bite.

'Although smartphones have grown a lot more capable over the last decade (we’re just about 10 weeks short of anniversary of the original demo at Macworld) their basic form factor has changed hardly at all.'

Blackberry is widely credited with creating the first smartphone, not Apple. Nokia and a whole bunch of others released smart phones before Apple. A rare example of biasis in favour of Apple from el Reg.

*edit* Lets not forget the lack of keyboard and removable battery as well.

Google Pixel: Devices are a dangerous distraction from the new AI interface

I do. I had a Q10 and Blackberry abandoning their hardware is the only reason I don't have a passport or priv.

We need a viable alternative to Apple and the infantailisation of users and Google's privacy invasion policies.

Desktop budget wrangles: Whose device is it anyway?

We've been moving away from vb6/office based apps to java apps on a server for a long time now. In theory you can use the apps now on windows, macs, iOS and Android (as long as it had a good browser).

PC sales sinking almost as fast as Donald Trump's poll numbers

Either it will live up to the hype and I won't be annoyed at having spent the money when I knew something better was just over the horizon or it won't and Intel will likely drop their prices to keep people's attention.

My PC is dying a slow death. Suspect I was a little heavy handed when I put the new CPU in. Holding out for Zen though before I think about buying a new one.

Smell burning? Samsung’s 'Death Note 7' could still cause a contagion

Re: Just don't buy a Samsung

You could stick a launcher like Hub on to take the edge of it.

It's a pity about the note 7, it was the Android that made me think seriously about leaving BB10 based on the merits of the phone rather than a lack of support for the former. Perhaps a Note 8 with a removable battery will roll along in 12 or 18 months.

The S6 isn't a bad phone, just a pity its battery life is utterly abysmal. If I use it full pelt I'd be lucky to get 90 minutes out of it.

No, software-as-a-service won't automatically simplify operations and cut costs

Re: If it sounds to good to be true …

They could have, just couldn't have done very much with it.

HR and marketing types have learned not to to send their best people to liaise with IT

Not just over stuff like this, even when they need to do something HR related it is the lowest ranked member who knows nothing and doesn't have the authority to order lunch who is sent and emails back with the answers (you hope to the questions you ask).

Yahoo! halts! email! forwarding! to! outside! email! addresses!

Tried to sync a yahoo calendar with hub+ yesterday, maybe this is why it wasn't working. Not like there could be any (accidental) collateral damage from tinkering with the settings.

Four reasons Pixel turns flagship Android mobe makers into roadkill

Re: It's the age old problem...

You mean like tizen?

There's always BB10 or Jolla. Don't Fairphone have their own OS too? Firefox OS might make a come back.

Robots blamed for wiping 10 per cent off the value of sterling

I think they meant leave the EEA as well as the EU with WTO defaults in place.

Citizens don't trust UK.GOV with their data

Until the heads of senior civil servants and politicians start rolling nothing will change.

Should Computer Misuse Act offences committed in UK be prosecuted in UK?

Re: Seems simple to me

I didn't say it was alright, just why he and the journalists aren't potentially in legal trouble.

Re: Seems simple to me

He wasn't entrapped into breaking a law but the rules of the governing body.

Re: Seems simple to me

What's the extradition treaty like with them?

Re: How?

If the US doesn't want to hand the info over we shouldn't just take them at their word that something bad has happened. Once you fall into the whole 'the evidence is too secret to show' hole you find that it's a lot deeper and can fit a lot more people than you thought possible.

Should be tried here as this is were they where when the crime was committed. The other countries should be able to have some input into the process but the US extradition system is simply abusive and I pity any poor mug who gets handed over.

Pet peeve: I hate it when people use an accident of geography and cartography to pretend there is something exceptional about GB. The only way you could put the 'Great' back into GB is if there is a massive expansion of ice coverage on earth causing a land bridge to form between GB and mainland Europe and then you cause that ice to be melted submerging the land bridge.*

*I've read in various places that the term Great comes from Roman writers who didn't have a firm grasp of geography or because of James VI/I holding the crowns of Scotland and England. Given that the lesser/greater naming convention applies world wide it's the explanation that I find the most logical but I don't have enough evidence to rule the others out. Either way, I rank putting the great in Great Britain as a slogan up there with politicians that say God loves our country/We are God fearing/God's will etc etc and therefore we have the right to do what ever we what to whom ever we want to do it to where ever we want to do it. It's a substitute for critical thinking and something used to lull a gullible and stupid electorate into a stupor.

Microsoft disbands Band band – and there'll be no version 3

Pebble works on iOS and Android. Kinda works on win phone but doesn't have call/text notifications so not that useful.

The UV sensor was interesting but didn't want to tie myself to a windows phone. Glad I held off now.

Oops: Carphone burps up new Google phone details

Lets hope that jolla is still a going concern then.

Google need to take a stand and put in a micro sd card and a removable battery. Then we can stick cyanogenmod on it and be happy.

Regulatory compliance problems? Promontory, my dear Watson

It wasn't me, my computer made me do it.

It was my computer that did it your Honour, not me.

My computer pays my taxes for me, I don't know how much I've paid in the last fifteen years.

I can see this having a role in profession obfuscation.

BOFH: There are no wrong answers, just wrong questions. Mmm, really wrong ones

I misread your comment as 'that's really beered up my Friday!'. I really do need to pay more attention.

Invasion of the Brandsnatchers: How Nokia and BlackBerry inhabit the afterlife

The passport and the priv are excellent phones and do what they were designed to do. I wish that I had held off a week on buying my S6 and I could have bought one in the sale.

Russian hackers target MH17 journalists for embarrassing Putin

Re: Journalists or Churnalists?

I typed MIVD MH-17 into Google and on the entire first page of results there isn't a single news source I've ever heard of much less trust. Scattered among the results were pro-Putin/pro-Russia stories, a lot of them from the same sites as the story about how it was really the Ukrainians who shot the plane down. We might never know the truth as you say but that's because that's how Putin wants it and his trolls are kicking up as much dirt as possible to discredit all news agencies so no one believes anything any more. Wither you think he is responsible for shooting the plane down or not he went on a documentary and stated he invaded the Ukraine violating a memorandum regarding their sovereignty after they got rid of their nukes. The smoke screen he has thrown up around the plane is irrelevant. He still has a lot of blood on his hands

HP Ink COO: Sorry not sorry we bricked your otherwise totally fine printer cartridges

Some are more multifunctional than others.

It does. I have one, there is no way that you could chip ink it uses. Bought one almost a year ago and haven't had to refill it yet (though the yellow is starting to look a little low).

Our Windows windows will be resizable, soooon, vows Microsoft

If you could run ordinary windows apps even on full screen I'd have a 950xl. As it is, I'll see what continuum is like in two years.

HP Inc: No DRM in our 3D printers, we swear (unlike our 2D ones)

Re: Certified

I don't have a problem with certified products having chips, it's locking out third party products that do not have the chip that I would find troubling.

Industry might be willing to pay the extra to ensure quality of supply through a certified for quality label/chip would be better than a total lock down which is what the article suggests.

Did last night's US presidential debate Wi-Fi rip-off break the law?

My Q10 can share its internet connection with my playbook via bluetooth. That wouldn't that be a lot harder to detect and shut down particularly as a whole bunch of other devices such as smart watches and wireless headsets use it as well?

There's also the ability to plug it (the Q10) into a computer with a usb cable and have it act effectively as a modem.

There are ways around it, just not particularly convenient ones.

Mark Zuckerberg and the $3bn cash fling: He's not your father's tech kingpin

That would mean putting the money into lobbying and funding studies and I agree that there is a lot of low hanging fruit out there that companies won't collect as they won't make mega bucks out of it but two billion isn't going to cure all disease and illnesses that way. It would be a very good use for it though.

Re: @James 51

I am not saying they shouldn't bother, it's the undirected nature of the call to action that makes me skeptical. It is diluting the effort to the point were it is reaching homeopathic standards. If they had said that they were going to invest in new tools to bring down the cost of developing new drug treatments or AIs to analysis big data to improve health care in some way (while of course respecting people's privacy (stop sniggering in the back)), in short if they had a specific goal rather than some ridiculous mission statement I'd optimistic but this is plainly ridiculous. How are they going to stop outbreaks of e-coli? How are they going to cure strains of diseases that don't exist yet?

It takes hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new drug and bring it to market. Lots of drugs that look promising don't pan out when larger trails kick in. This initiative would be lucky to bring two drugs to market to help people. Unless he's setting something like the long reach foundation up and is expecting it to operate not for profit and invest in promising start ups, with no direction it will have very little impact.

Unimpressed with Ubuntu 16.10? Yakkety Yak... don't talk back

Ubuntu gets a lot of stick for Unity (and the scopes) but at its worst it doesn't even come close to Win 8/8.1/10 in terms of UI or built in spyware.

Did you have the opportunity to try the new AMD drivers with it?

Microsoft: We're hugging trees to save the 'world'

There's going to be only so many places that can meet those criteria. Solar heat works by using mirrors to focus sunlight and heat salt so it's not necessary to have it in a hot place. There are things like green roofs that can lower the temperature of the building.

Cisco preps the P45s for 500 unlucky UK staffers

Stuff like this drives me crazy. They are selling more and making more money, what's to stop them doing this and the new thing at the same time? By axing staff now they are limiting their ability to grow the profits in the places they are already doing business. If I was a major shareholder I'd be asking to have the borg's heads examined.