* Posts by John Gaunt

20 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jul 2009

I just LOVE Server 2012, but count me out on Windows 8 for now

John Gaunt

Re: Already looking

@Sir Wiggum: Can you combine this with a Yahoo! posting, or will the ensuing unreadability break El Reg's Forums?

Comet Lovejoy spotted plunging toward fiery doom

John Gaunt
Thumb Up

Huzzah!

A three-second video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72DVbKyAfNQ

Apple: Siri isn't anti-abortion

John Gaunt
FAIL

Who Said What?

What you quote is the Reg article and neither the NYT article nor the Apple rep.

Earth escapes obliteration by comet

John Gaunt
Joke

Humor Optional

". . . my subcompact automobile exerts a greater gravitational influence on Earth than the comet . . . "

We must destroy his car before it destroys the world!

Seattle superhero arrested for assault

John Gaunt

911 Lag

Calling 911 does not guarantee an immediate response. Minutes and seconds do count.

When I was much younger, I had the crap beaten out of me. Someone intervened to stop the fight. He was under no obligation to do so. If not for him, then I would have sustained far more serious injuries than I did. I might be typing this with my tongue.

When I was younger, I saw something suspicious. I drunkenly asked, "Are you OK?" The victim said "No" and ran off in one direction. The aggressor cursed me and walked in the other direction. If I had called 911, worse things would have happened before the police arrived.

I am not encouraging anyone to intervene when illegal actions are taking place. Doing so can be extremely dangerous.

John Gaunt

Fight or No Fight?

I could not tell with certainty what was happening in the first seconds of the video that I watched. At least two men were moving around in close proximity. Fighting? Dancing? Goofing around? Then Phoenix Jones broke up whatever was happening.

Apart from that, the video shows Phoenix Jones being repeatedly attacked by a woman with a shoe, a car hitting a pedestrian, a second altercation when the camera stops recording because (allegedly) the cameraman was slammed against the wall by someone, and the arrival of the police.

Google around for the conflicting stories and viewpoints.

Adobe rushes out emergency fix for critical bug in Flash

John Gaunt

Chrome May Already Be Updated on Your PC

According to this, Google patched Flash in Chrome before Adobe released the Flash update:

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/google/288014-google-patches-flash-zero-day-bug-jumps-the-gun-on-adobe-again

Or was that the point of your post?

Nigerians panic over killer calls

John Gaunt

Comic Book Story

I recall reading a comic book story from the 70's that had a similar theme.

A lowly telephone repairman accidentally tweaked a phone such that it killed a goldfish that was near a handset. The repairman hated his job, so he attempted to place a call to the president of his company. The killer-call failed to go through. The repairman decided to move up the ranks slowly by calling (and thus killing) his supervisors. He eventually became the president of the company.

The first call he took as the big boss was . . . the first killer-call he placed when he was a repairman.

Yahoo! 'f**ked me over'! says! Carol! Bartz!

John Gaunt

Misinterpreted Value of $10 Million

If Wikipedia is correct, then she was compensated $47.2 million in 2009. What is another $10 million when you are already quite rich?

The miniscule Googling that I have done indicates that she is a forceful person who speaks her mind. This incident is more proof of that.

OpenOffice.org site goes offline, Oracle declines to comment

John Gaunt

Now an Outage Message

The URL http://openoffice.org/ now redirects to http://www.oracle.com/splash/www/index.html. That page has a more official-looking outage message that reads as follows:

This site is experiencing technical difficulty. We are aware of the issue and are working as quick as possible to correct the issue. Please try again in a few moments.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

To speak with an Oracle sales representative: 1.800.ORACLE1.

To contact Oracle Corporate Headquarters from anywhere in the world: 1.650.506.7000.

To get technical support in the United States: 1.800.633.0738.

Post-a-puppy woman hit with cruelty charges

John Gaunt

Peeping Packages

I have stood in line in US post offices where peeping packages were behind the counter waiting for the recipient to pick them up. The packages have numerous air holes, are marked appropriately, and emit chirping noises.

I do not know the USPS regulations for shipping other livestock or any animal larger than chicks.

Opera 11 goes beta with extensions, stacked tabs

John Gaunt

Opera 10.5x, 10.6x

Ditto. Those are my sentiments using Opera 10.5x and 10.6x on Windows XP and Vista.

Christians vs metalheads in FB flame war

John Gaunt

Satanists != Judeo-Christians

If one reads the writings of Anton LaVey and assumes that they are at least half-serious, then one learns that his version of Satanism is highly individualistic, non-theistic, and humanistic. LaVey did not believe in an afterlife or supernatural beings.

Software engineer blogs own Starbucks wiretap

John Gaunt

You *Should* Care

(Ignoring your Paris icon . . .)

If something illegal is posted using your Facebook account, then you can be arrested. You may get fired from your job. Some quick ideas: confessing to recently-committed felonies, threatening politicians, making bomb threats, posting illegal pr0n, posting racist comments . . .

If someone can log in to your Amazon account, then he *can* make a purchase. At the very least, he can make your browsing history appear suspicious so that Amazon suggests up terrorist or pr0n books.

And, as you say, "personal data, blah blah blah blah". I would add "do affect your insurance rates, security clearance, background checks, credit rating, and the like".

First MeeGo Linux needs love and scrub up

John Gaunt
Alien

Mi-go?

From the pen of H.P. Lovecraft?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go

Opera 10.50 goes from pre-alpha to final in 10 weeks

John Gaunt
Thumb Up

Works Well, Different Appearance

I upgraded from 10.10 to 10.50 a few hours ago. All of my usual sites (Google Mail, Google News, Yahoo! Mail, CNN, El Reg, etc.) work as they did before the upgrade.

The only shock that I have received is losing what I call the main menu bar. That horizontal menu bar has been replaced by a "Big Red O" button. I have added the "Big Red O" button next to my tabs, and all is well.

I do have two minor complaints:

(1) I have lost the link-text that was displayed when hovering over a link, but that has apparently been replaced by a right-click option entitled "Inspect Element". This right-click option is not as convenient or as speedy as hovering, but it displays the source code containing the link.

(2) My startup session was being superceded by my last-saved session. Odd, but I may have fixed that problem temporarily by deleting my last-saved session and re-saving my startup session.

Beyond those two complaints, I am happy Opera 10.50.

Rare NES title takes $43,000 at auction

John Gaunt

3-1/4" - Floppy Disk

The 3-1/4" disk(ette) is indeed a floppy disk. The floppy medium is encased in a hard shell.

I remember people BITD calling them hard disks.

John Gaunt

3.5", 3-1/4", Whatever . . .

LOL. Now you have me calling 3.5" floppies 3-1/4" floppies.

Men more different from chimps than women, say boffins

John Gaunt
Happy

"Menses"?

@AC:

I understand the intentional humor, but that word does not mean what you think it means.

Satanic blob beast menaces North Carolina

John Gaunt

What Sounds Does It Produce?

I would be worried if it were to make noises, especially vocalizations such as "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"