* Posts by Richard 118

19 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Aug 2009

Open source author pulls code after GPL abuse

Richard 118

Re: Erm

Actually the reasonable fee specifically mentions not more than the cost to purchase

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowDownloadFee

"Yes. You can charge any fee you wish for distributing a copy of the program. If you distribute binaries by download, you must provide “equivalent access” to download the source—therefore, the fee to download source may not be greater than the fee to download the binary."

Richard 118
FAIL

Erm

Perhaps he should have read the GPL. Anyone can take GPL code and re-release it (removing any trademarked names and logos) under any name they feel like, charge for it if they want to so long as they too comply with the GPL.

Any they don't just have to provide source for free, they can charge for source access, just they can't charge more than the original product cost to buy.

People shouldn't use the GPL without knowing what it means to you and your work.

He is of course free to pull his version of GPL and release it closed source, so long as it doesn't now incorporate other people's changes. If it has other people's changes in it he now can't change the license without getting permission from those other contributers.

Dad sues Apple for pushing cash-draining 'free' games at kids

Richard 118
FAIL

Re: >Do you have children?

Any also enable iPhone parental controls to block in app purchase, without a seperate pin code AS WELL as your iTunes password.

Ignorance is supposed to be no defence in law

Apple security update leaves iPhone 3G users unprotected

Richard 118
Jobs Halo

Processor

Erm that'd be that the 4.3 is built to take advantage ARM7 processors and the 2G and 3G both used ARM6... so in actual fact, not it's not just arbitrarily locked out, there is actually a hardware reason.

Firesheep developer poohpoohs mitigation tools

Richard 118

Known for months?

"The basic problem has been well understood in security circles for months"

Erm try years, anyone with any knowledge of open WiFi networks could have told you years ago that your data was transmitted for anyone with enough knowledge to grab.

Google spits back at Oracle's Android suit

Richard 118

Java license

"Android code is open sourced under an Apache license and that Oracle has kept portions of Java closed"

So, Oracle (Sun) are free to license their software under any license they want to and so is Google. The only caveat is that you stick to the license of 3rd Party code you add to your own code.

Anyone is free to use whatever license they like, don't like the terms of a license use something else, or write it yourself.

Apple sued over hot iPad shutdowns

Richard 118
Jobs Halo

Because..

Because no other computer has recommended temperature operating recommendations does it?

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01998025.pdf

Operating Temperature 0-35 degrees

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos3300/en/SM/specs.htm

Operating Temperature 0-35 degrees

Cops raid Gizmodo editor in pursuit of iPhone 4G 'felony'

Richard 118

First line support

He called first level support who have no idea about prototype iPhones. That is not trying to contact the owner.

He had the NAME of the engineer who lost it from his Facebook page. He can't even argue that he forgot that, because he told Gizmodo what it was.

He could have phone Apple and asked to speak to the Engineer in person, did he do that, no!

He feebly phoned tech support, which is probably based somewhere else, in an effort to cover his ass.

Apple in shock public attack on Adobe

Richard 118
Jobs Halo

There was a difference

"Both operating systems were a copy of whatever that thing was called at Xerox. That's a pretty well-known fact."

There was a big difference though, Apple actually had Xerox's permission and paid a royalty for it, Microsoft did not.

See http://obamapacman.com/2010/03/myth-copyright-theft-apple-stole-gui-from-xerox-parc-alto/

Apple yanks Wi-Fi detectors from iTunes

Richard 118

Not really

When you have a compiled application they can't manually check every single app for every call to every API.

However most recently all NEW updates and submissions were run automatically through a static analysis tool for calls to private APIs and were then rejected.

However some of these apps haven't been updated since this practice was put into place, so I guess Apple have now decided to remove the non-updated ones too

Richard 118

Private APIs

To be honest I have very little sympathy with the developers.

Apple have NEVER made it a secret that if you use private API calls in your apps then expect to be rejected or pulled from the App Store.

They only wasted their time because they didn't listen to what apple said and what their user agreement said

Labour MP denies calling Tories 'scum-sucking pigs' on Twitter

Richard 118

Supicious

"Looks like my tweets have been tinkered with"

Clearly doesn't understand that Twitter don't and have never allowed editing of Tweets (http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/13920)

Survey outs Britain as nation of tech twits

Richard 118

It's called statistics

You only need a small fraction as a sample to provide a relatively accurate result. The difference between 1000 and 10000 will be negligible but 100000 might provide a better result.

Virgin Media to trial filesharing monitoring system

Richard 118

illegal filesharing

How will tell just from a packet inspection which P2P traffic is illegal and which is legal... not ALL P2P is illegal!

Backdoor in top iPhone games stole user data, suit claims

Richard 118

@Anonymous Coward

"It's more fundamental than this. Why is the Apple SDK allowing access to personal details without explicitly requesting permission? (See the Location APIs - all require user approval at the start of the session)

Come to think of it, why isn't there an option to do settings/permissions per application for stickiness?"

Ummm try looking at the SDK, there IS no way to access personal details, it's using a private API which App Developers are 'supposed' to not be allowed to use. Of course they can access it because at the end of the day the API has to be there for official apps to use it.

If you put a dialog in the private API for accessing the number then you'd end up getting that warning when you tried to send an SMS or make a phone call.

Stallman calls on EU to set MySQL free

Richard 118
Badgers

Go away Stallman

Erm lets get this straight, one tech company buys another, Richard Stallman doesn't like it so he moans to the EU.

What gives him the right to complain about this, the MySQL code base as it stands is GPL and has to remain GPL unless it's totally re-written.

As the very nature of the GPL encourages sharing, there is nothing anyone can do to prevent a fork unless they started using trademarked names.

UK taxpayers hit by wave of tax refund scam mail

Richard 118
FAIL

Phishers

I didn't fall for the first one (a quick glance at the link it was trying to send me too was a bit of a giveaway),

but sending my another 50 in the space of 2 hours... maybe HMRC actually do want to give me money :P

Southampton Uni slaps IP notice on FOI requests

Richard 118
Paris Hilton

Spirit?

There is no such thing as the 'Spirit of the act'. There is the law and there is breaking the law.

Dastardly DDoSers down Gawker

Richard 118

Twitter

Twitter is down from a DoS attack too