Posts by ed2020

Serco issues shares to plug finance gap after profit warning

"Wanna own a piece of a troubled outsourcing firm?"

Errmmm... no, not for me thanks.

ROBO-SNOWDEN: Iraq, the internet – two places the US govt invaded that weren't a threat

Re: Stay tuned...

So stop reading about and commenting on it.

IMHO it's only tedious to those who fail to comprehend the importance of the matter.

GCHQ hijacked LinkedIn profiles to hack Belgian telecoms network – report

"I hope LinkedIn and slashdot (they injected slashdot pages as well) sue."

So do I, but I can't help but think that, if they're successful, it's ultimately the British taxpayer who ends up footing the bill.

Virgin Media suffers growing pains as Cable Cowboy daddy settles in

Re: Cost saving idea

And a third suggestion:

Stop bombarding me with junk mail advertising your products when I already have them!

Oracle makes Halloween-eve request for sysadmin HORROR MOVIES

Re: The horror......

Having been though an Oracle licensing audit myself I feel your pain!

Apple's new non-feline Mac operating system, OS X Mavericks, ready to go

Re: Worthwhile Features?

The possessive 's' does not have an apostrophe when appended to 'it'. Ever!

Are you for reel? How the Compact Cassette struck a chord for millions

Re: TDK SA90...

SA90s were good but my personal favourites were Sony Metal XRs. I was never sure which sounded better but the Metal XRs had a lovely matt black finish.

Snowden journo's boyfriend 'had crypto key for thumb-drive files written down' - cops

Eh?

So they were taking many flights because they were concerned about the NSA and GCHQ eavesdropping on electronic communications. Presumably this means they were concerned the NSA could decrypt electronic communications so the point of encrypting the thumb drive was what...?

You're 30 years old and your PIN is '1983'. DAMMIT, biz mobe user

Re: Technology Which Should Die

But often quite easy to work out by looking at the greasy finger marks left on the screen.

Pacemaker hack legend Barnaby Jack dies just before Black Hat revelations

Nice

He was a much better person than he was a hacker, and that is saying something.

I can't claim to know much about the guy, or his achievements, but that's a hell of a tribute.

Comet ISON seen eructating 300,000km-long methane and CO2 BELCH

Dirty Snowball

I wonder if there will ever be an article or documentary that describes the nature of a comet without using the phrase "dirty snowball".

UK gov's smart meter dream unplugged: A 'colossal waste of cash'

Who is paying to power the smart meter?

Who do you think?

Privacy expert dismisses PRISM-busting typeface as 'art project'

TruCrypt

It's TrueCrypt, not TruCrypt.

Apple: iOS7 dayglo Barbie makeover is UNFINISHED - report

Re: pre-release software may not be final version

In the US, I understand it would be "effected".

No, it wouldn't.

Nicked unencrypted PC with 6,000 bank details lands council fat fine

Re: Ban Laptops

No encryption is 100%

Without brute force and millions, if not billions of years, how does one break into 256 bit AES? It may not be 100% (in theory) but in practice it is.

...and foreign governments have the technology to break through it.

Any evidence to support your claim that foreign governments have the technology to break through any encryption? Thought not.

Re: Genuine Question

IIRC certain public sector organisations (the NHS, for example) are obliged to self-report. Telecoms providers are also obliged to self-report. Private sector organisations aren't, in most cases, under anyh obligation at all.

I'd guess that, in reality, the prevalence of data losses/breaches in the private sector, is no less than in the public sector. It's just kept quiet more often.

BadNews, fandroids: MILLIONS of Google Play downloads riddled with malware

Re: Not really anything to do with Linux....?

@NinjasFTW: implied, not inferred.

Game designer spills beans on chubby-fancying chap with his stolen Mac

Excellent!

Given the evidence it's pretty much inconceivable that the guy who is currently in possession of the laptop isn't also the thief. I think publishing his photo online is absolutely fair enough - I'd probably do the same thing.

I also hope the thieving little shit gets what's coming to him.

Magic mystery malware menaces many UK machines - new claim

Re: Good to see all the "heuristic malware scanners" are doing their job

"And how did it get there in the first place?"

If I was a betting man, and given recent experiences, I'd bet this question can be answered with a single word... Java.

Review: Asus PadFone 2 phone-tablet combo

Re: Shelf life

I find it bizarre that somebody has down-voted this post. Even if I wasn't of the same opinion your view seems like a perfectly valid one.

Have an up-vote to counteract it!

Google Glass will SELF-DESTRUCT if flogged on eBay

I'm confused...

If Google see these devices selling on eBay, how will they now what device to deactivate?

Ofcom fines TalkTalk AGAIN - a whopping £750k over 'abandoned calls' gaffe

Ouch

~£83 per silent call. Ouch.

Gov.uk named THE BEST THING Britain has made all year

Re: Mixed bag, isn't it

"...DVLA might begin to realise how dumb and unnecessary it is to tie an address to a physical license in the first place."

Or they'll start charging for address changes!

Smart metering will disrupt weather forecasts, warns Met Office

Re: yep... security is the key point.

@AC, 16 April, 14:53

If you're going to pick people up on their use of English you should probably pay closer attention to your own.

It's "should have" not "should of". And "their'd" is just laughably poor.

Moist iPhone fanbois tempted with golden Apple shower offer

Re: Flashbacks...

"Have", not "of".

Apple fixes iOS passcode-bypass hack with 6.1.3 update

Re: You're securing it wrong

You're obviously very easily amused.

Nope, not trying anything of the sort. Just tired of seeing the same old joke trotted out ad infinitum.

Re: You're securing it wrong

Do you really still find this amusing?

Re: Jailbreaking

No, it isn't illegal. Carrier unlocking is illegal - a different kind of hack.

Re: Jailbreaking

I don't agree with Apple's policy but the advice is simple... don't like it, don't buy one.

Also, is jail breaking iOS really he different to rooting Android?

Smartphone users prefer LOVELY apps to fiddly mobe websites

One reason I prefer local apps...

...is the absence of infuriating, pointless messages warning that the site you're visiting uses cookies. Particularly on the sites that seem incapable of remembering my "I couldn't give the tiniest shit" response to the warning.

Apple finally flips switch on HTTPS by default in App Store

<sigh>

Login credentials transmitted in the clear is really rather poor. Taking months to fix it after being told about it is absolutely pisspoor.

ITV catches up with TVCatchup

A different take.

The TVC guys have a slightly different take on the verdict:

http://forums.tvcatchup.com/showthread.php?11174-TVC-Press-Release

Europe tickles Microsoft with €561m fine for browser choice gaffe

Re: Ironically .....

...Adblock Plus really is very good......!!

Thanks for the advert.

Review: Livin' in the cloud with Google's new Chromebook Pixel

Re: So let me get this straight

You seen 10.8? The default setting is only install/allow to run Apple approved app-store software. Piece of cake to switch it back to full-open, run what-you-like-mode and yes I know it's not full vendor lock-in as we understand it, but the seeds have sown...

The default setting is not to allow running of code from untrusted sources. This isn't lock-in, it's plain common sense.

Spies in the sky: The leaps and bounds from balloons to spook sats

SR-71

The SR-71 is almost my all-time-favourite aircraft, second only to Concorde... and that's probably mainly because I was lucky enough to fly on Concorde.

Apple assimilates France, Sweden and pals into iCloud

Re: Just the usual question..

@Don Jefe - I couldn't give the tiniest shit about the American government knowing my iTunes purchases (I never said I did). I was merely pointing out that it is personal data, despite JDX's claims to the contrary.

Re: Just the usual question..

Forgot to add to my previous post... @JDX. Sorry!

Re: Just the usual question..

Data about your tastes in music, films and apps is personal data. Sensitive? No. Personal? Yes.

Big Blighty telcos ordered to block three BitTorrent search sites

Who cares?

TPB blocking on Virgin Media is so trivial to circumvent it's laughable. Took me all of thirty seconds to trial a theory when it was implemented and the first one worked.

Fire danger as iOS mislocates towns, again

Re: Why an app?

"Because the sheeple must have one to justify their poor tech choices.

When droid has the largest market share, surely writing for droid first would make more sense?

Not that most human beings have any."

So in answer to El Reg's question as to why it has to be an app you respond by arguing that it should be a 'droid app rather than an iOS app? Excellent logic sir!

Why an app?

"The Register would like to frame the question differently: why did FireReady have to be an app at all?"

Push notifications of fires in the local vicinity? Just a guess...

Data scientists: Do they even exist?

Grrr!

I really do hate the term "big data". Partly because of my pedantry (how can data be big), mainly because it feels like yet another marketting buzz-phrase.

Only way to stop the iPad: Flash-disk mutant SPEED FREAKS

Re: I can't be the only one...

"Its easy, don't run Windows and long boot times simply are not a problem."

Alternatively, run Windows but don't bog it down with boatloads of crapware.

Could this be Google's slick new touchscreen Chromebook?

Re: To be really pedantic ...

Leaving out apostrophes all of the time makes the writer appear either lazy or ignorant - either the writer doesn't know how to use them or simply can't be bothered. Feel free to appear that way if you wish; I choose not to... In that sense I suppose I am trying to appear superior.

Re: To be really pedantic ...

Indeed it does evolve. We just haven't reached the point where not using apostrophes is seen as acceptable by most people with a reasonable grasp of English... regardless of whether some "language experts" are debating it.

Incorrect use of apostrophes can fundamentally change the meaning of a sentence. I don't see this as being anally retentive.

Re: To be really pedantic ...

"Actually quite a lot of language experts are debating whether we still need the apostrophe so it's now quite acceptable not to use them."

The first part of this statement may be true but the conclusion you reach is bollocks, sorry.

Re: To be really pedantic ...

its quite possible to pass off an unintended omission as a stylistic choice

Oh the irony!

And no, an unintended omission is a clear mistake, not a "stylistic choice".

Sick software nasty uses child abuse pics to extort infected victims

Re: What about UK?

@Boris the Cockroach

"According to a report we got back from the ISP , mummy and daddy were most surprised to get cut off by the ISP and most unhappy as to why."

I don't believe for a second that his ISP, even if they were also your ISP, reported back to you that they had been cut off. I find it even more difficult to believe that they told you what the parents' reaction was (or even if there were parents).

Climate shocker: Carry on as we are until 2050, planet will be fine

Re: hypocracy

@Panicnow: LP is the editor.

Don't like your cell network? Legal unlocking ends TONIGHT in US

Re: Top 2 cell phone companies spent 25.5 million on lobbyist in 2012

"A law written to prevent terrorist"?

I don't agree with preventing end users unlocking their phones (or even phones being locked in the first place) but what the fuck has it got to do with terrorism?