Posts by Criminny Rickets

Booking.com smacked by EU competition bods. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Re: Zoo

> I've never used Booking.com. As other commentards have pointed out, they rarely seem to be the cheapest, which makes this story rather surprising.

Speaking from experience, we have never put anyone in a "crap" room because they used a booking site to book. We want these people to have just a good experience as any other guest. If anything, we want to impress them, so next time they will book directly with us, saving us the cost of commission that we pay the booking site for that room.

As for being more expensive or cheapest, most hotels that deal with third party agents like Booking.com or Expedia, have to follow rate parity rules, meaning they cannot offer a rate to one site that is higher or lower than what they advertise on their own site or offer to another site. However, when the third party site books a room at a hotel, the hotel then pays them a commission on that room. It is not common, but it has happened where the third party site will offer a lower pre-paid rate to try and get a booking. Even though the third party site is offering the lower rate, which the guest has to pay up front, the site actually pays the hotel the full rate. They take a hit on their commission so as to undercut their competition and make the sale.

Re: All very odd

> I've turned up at a hotel booked through booking.com, and they are full, farming us off on another hotel!

It is is common practice in the hotel industry to overbook their rooms by a small margin, as they tend to get no shows and cancellations. When they do get enough no shows and cancellations, they end up with an overbooking which they then have to "Walk" to another hotel.

Disclosure - I work at the front desk of a hotel.

Re: All very odd

> Three years ago I tried to book a hotel, where I have stayed before, by ringing them: no vacancies for the time I wanted. However, booking.com had rooms available in the same hotel - I booked, I stayed.

This can happen where the hotels are not directly connected to Booking.com and have to update their inventory on the Bookink.com site manually. I have had this happen where my my hotel had sold out for a particular day and before we were able to get into Bookiing.com to close out inventory, had received a reservation through them, which we took. Luckily, we had a cancellation, which balanced it out.

Anti-gay Indiana starts backtracking on hated law after tech pressure

Religious Freedom vs Persecution

Let me see if I have this straight, If a Chrsitian criticizes me for being gay, it's called Freedom of Religion, if I criticize the Christian for doing so, it's called Persecution. Sound about right?

Ten Linux freeware apps to feed your penguin

Re: Nice article

I agree with the first half or your statement re: Byte Magazine. I disagree about your statement regarding Outlook. I always found it very hard to do any changes to it, as updated mail servers.

Need to switch from Windows Server 2003? Here’s a workshop just for you

You had me interested right up to the point you said "migration to Microsoft’s Cloud OS". Then I just had a good morning laugh. Not bloody likely.

Hey Linux newbie: If you've never had a taste, try perfect Petra ... mmm, smells like Mint 16

After seriously trying Windiows 8, that was precisely the reason I swicthed to Linux Mint with Cinnamon. Running Mint 13 LTS on the desktop and Mint 16 Petra on the laptop.

Who’s Who: a Reg quest to find the BEST DOCTOR

I started watching during the Tom Baker years, saw the Paul McGann movie, including the just posted webisode. I have also seen every episode of the newest incarnation since it returned in 2005. I will say hands down, the best Doctor has to be David Tennant. I have yet to see any other Doctor show the range and depth of true emotion that David Tennant showed in “Human Nature“/”Family of Blood“, or on his last episode of "The End of Time part 2", especially just as he was about to regenerate into Matt Smith.

Microsoft, Nokia and the sound of colliding garbage trucks

Left Behind

"Microsoft is like Sun: tied to a once thriving business - PCs - that market is getting left behind as the world moves on"

You're forgetting to mention that one of the reasons the world is moving on is because of Microsoft itself, and its horrible excuse of new operating system, Windows 8. Given the choice of buying a new PC with Windows 8, and not buying a PC, a lot of people are opting not to buy a new PC.

Ubuntu? Fedora? Mint? Debian? We'll find you the right Linux to swallow

Re: Mint is great but ...

I switched from Windows 7, and after much researching choose Mint 12 Cinnamon. When Mint 13 came out, I upgraded to that. My biggest complaints pre Mint 14 is twofold. It is a b*tch installing a printer. For some reason, the Add Printer function is broken in Ubuntu, therefore it is also broken in Mint 12. It is also broken in Mint 13, and I found out in Mint 14. In order to install a printer, you have to do a search for how to use CUPS, and install the printer via the CUPS html interface.

My other complaint pre Mint 14, is the lack of simulated 5.1 surround sound using 5.1 surround speakrs and a on board sound card. In Windows 7, when I play Dark Side of the Moon, it sounds like a different instrument from each speaker with the voice coming from the middle speaker. In Mint, using the same setup, the sound is all combined and comes from all surround sound speakers.

Another big issue that has come up in Mint 14, and a lot of the newer Linux distros, including Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mageia etc., is that they have all gone to X.Org 1.13 or greater, which does not work with an AMD/ATI HD Radeon graphics card 4XXX or earlier, which both my laptop (which is just a couple of years old) and my desktop both have. The proprietry AMD drivers for that chipset only work with X.Org 1.12 or earlier, and has AMD has made those legacy drivers, there is little chance of there being an update. Yes, there are solutions to roll back X.Org to 1.12, but they do not always work (didn't for me). I need the proprietry drivers on my laptop in order to get sound to work over HDMI to my sound system and HDTV which I have connected to it.

However, contrary to what I said above regarding 5.1 surround sound, when I play a 2 channel song from my laptop to my sound system over HDMI, it does play in simulated 5.1 surround sound, which I like.

Patent trolling surges, but righteous cavalry on the way

Wrong legislation wording

The litmus test should be... "Does the company bringing this lawsuit currently, or have in the past, produce technology that this patent covers?" If the answer is no, then the litigant pays double the defendants costs and this patent is invalidated and unenforceable in any future lawsuit.

Minicam movie pirate gets record-breaking five years in prison

Downloading Movies

Speaking of downloading movies off the internet. Since I already paid to go see the Hobbit in the Theatre only to find they have filled it with a lot of filler so they could split it up into three movies, does this mean I can legally download the other two parts off the internet?

Report: Apple, Google, Microsoft join forces to buy Kodak patents

Re: This is BAD news for ...

"lawyers, litigants actually talking to each other?"

Of course it's not. The lawyers will just convice some pour startup to sue Microsoft, Apple and Google for collusion on the patents, in the District Court of East Texas . It doesn't matter what the outcome of the trial is, the lawyers on both sides still win.

Stallman: Ubuntu spyware makes it JUST AS BAD as Windows

Re: Been using Fuduntu

I checked out the page. The pic of the desktop reminds me too much of a Mac. Sorry, not a Mac fan so tend to stay away from distros that have show that as the default desktop.

I am a recent Windows convert who switched after finding out about Windows 8 and TIFKAM. The first distro I looked at was Ubuntu as it kept getting so much press on El Reg and other places on how easy it was to install and use. Though I must have been reading articles before that gawd-awful Gnome 3 Menu / Unity mess. I settled on Mint Cinnamon. It us a buntu derivitive without the unity mess.

Even though I settled on Mint does not mean I have not looked at other distros. I have checked out a number, including Opensuse and Mageia. I think I could like Magae 3 if it didn't have that stupid Activities bar which reminds me too much of Unity and Windows 8 Desktop. (Yes, I did seriously check out Windows 8 as well).

As a newish convert to Linux, I actually do not know too much about Richard Stallman, except what I have read in these comments. Reading the article however, I do agree with him about Ubuntu installing spyware.

What can save the Xmas PC market? Not Windows 8, say analysts

Re: Ugly

I was in the computer department last week with a couple of friends who were both looking to get a new laptop. I showed them Windows 8 and explained how to do things in it, then I showed them the Windows 7 ones that were luckily still there. One said he would be getting a Windows 7 one. The other one said he didn't care as he was going to have me wipe it and install Linux on it like is on my home computer. I told hom to make sure to get a Windows 7 one to save on the headaches of switching.

Re: Reverse Vista effect - Linux

"Any old music manager will do. Linux has hundreds of them. I'm strictly a mpd/ncmpc man myself. GtkPod manages my Nano well enough."

I've been using Linix Mint 13 for a couple of months now. I actually like Linux better than Windows. The one thing I miss about Windows 7 though is Windows Media Player. I am currently using Banshee. I am big into listening to music and I have yet to find a music program that even comes close to WMP. The other thing is that the audio experience was way better and way easier to customize for surround sound speakers (playing mp3's in 5.1 surround). In Windows. I just had to install the Realtek sound card drivers and use their customization program. In Linux, you are stuck with Alsa and Pulseaudio, which just does not have the same level of customization in it. Realtek does provide Linux drivers, but they are built using Alsa. It is possible to get sound from all your speakers in Linux, but it is not 5.1 surround. In Windows, you can actually simulate the 5.1 sound.

Lawyer sues Microsoft rather than slot an SD card into his Surface

I am not even going to dignify this story with a comment... D'OH

Phone users favour Wi-Fi for dataslurp

I'm in Canada and even I prefer to use WI-FI rather than pay for cellular data. Virgin Mobility offers a Bell Mobile TV app on their phones, however you can't use it over WI-FI, you have to use your Data plan to watch it. My answer to that is NO. I pay extra if I use Data, so in the year I've had this phone, I have user the Data plan 3 times, and that was only because I was somewhere where there were no WI-Fi connections when I had to use it.

Surface sales 'modest' so far, Ballmer modestly admits

How to stock up

"the company has run out of the cheapest 32-GB units in the US and the UK at times, although they are back in stock again."

I wonder if that is from people returning them?

Hacker sentenced to six years – WITH NO INTERNET

Asking the Impossible

I understand what the kid did and that the Court wants to set an example, but with this restriction, it will be damn near impossible NOT to break his probation and end up in jail. Let's think about it, just about everywhere you go now has some form of access to the Internet. Schools do more and more on computers, which means he will be required to be on them, and they have access to the Internet. He can't get a cell phone as the phones coming out today all have access to the Internet, either via a data plan or using wi-fi. If he gets a job, chances are there will be computers there with access to the Internet. That's just today, it will probably only get worse within the next 6 years, so just how is he supposed to avoid going on the Internet? Will the school have to let the kids parole officer know in advance what classes the kid will be in that will have computers with Internet access, and make sure he's supervised there? If he gets a cell phone, will somone else have to hold it for him and give it to him whenever he wants to make a call? Will any potential employers have to be vetted to make sure he is never on a computer at work unsupervised?.. It's like the Court is setting him up tp fail.

Mozilla: Windows 7 browser bungle cost us nine MILLION downloads

Re: still upbto their old tricks

You missed the part where I said I was a Firefox fanboi. I was using Firefox in Windows, so when I recently switched to Linux, I had no reason to research other browsers as it also had Firefox.

You're right, I have never heard or SWIron, however, I have heard of Chromium, though have not looked into it enough to know it did not have the Google spyware. I just assumed (yes I know what that means) that it was Google Chrome for Linux so still would have the spyware.

Re: I wonder

With a choice of OS, it would still favour Windows;

Choice A - Windows 8 or Windows 7 (pick one)

Choice B - Mac (Sorry, Apple has deemed you are not running Apple hardware so this choice is unavaiable)

Choice C - Linux (Pick a distro - 1 2 3 4 . . . . . . . 98 99 100) (Note you are responsilble for picking one suited to a beginner)

Re: still upbto their old tricks

Being a Firefix fanboi (been using it for years) I was going to make a scathing remark to your post. Then I got to thinking just how bloated Firefox has been getting in the past year or so with each new release and realized you may be right.

I'm running Linux now, so the Firefox version isn't as bloated, but it's still better than being spied on when using Chrome.

TSA fails again with adjustable boarding passes

Says it all

This video pretty much says it all about TSA...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_j6Z2gPX_U

Windows 8: An awful lot of change for a single release

Missing a version

I don't see any mention of Windows ME in the article. It's an interesting article so would be nice to see how ME fit into the release cycle.

Apple ordered to open its books on iPhone, iPad profits

Bait and Switch

I can see it happening now. Apple reluctantly releases the figures the judge is asking for, then the judge turns around and grants Samsungs application for a mistrial and orders a new trial.

Brains behind Kazaa and Morpheus unleash patent storm

It would be Ironic if...

they could get their hands on a patent that covers translating music from the original recorded format to CD, then charge the RIAA $2000.00 for every CD ever sold!!!

Torvalds bellows: 'The GNOME PEOPLE are in TOTAL DENIAL'

When I bought the printer, I wasn't even considering switching to Linux at that point. I needed a printer, this one fit what I wanted it to do, so I bought it and it worked. I don't know anything about postscript compatibility, It works. As for it being a Win-Printer, none of the printers I looked at in the store said they were Linux compatable, not even the HP ones which I later found out there are Linux drivers for. My ATI video card doesn't say it's Linux compatable, yet we know that works with Linux, so why should I expect my printer to be any different? As for it being Canons fault it doesn't work with Linux, someone wrote and made drivers available via a PPA in Ubuntu, so obviously they worked. Which begs the question, why didn't the "well-established crew of Linux devs formed to deal with this sort of situation" take this solution and make it available across Linux?

You're blaming Canon, but the problem is Linux.

"also, if I have to do insanely complex commands in order to get a sound card working, but can't do it, thats not me being dumb, thats the system not doing it's job."

It's not just the sound card but other hardware as well. My biggest problem switching to Linux was getting my printer to work as there is apparently no Linux equivalent driver for a Canon Wireless MX350 printer. I finally found an Ubuntu PPA that carried the driver for it, which limited me to Ubuntu based Linux distros. Coming from a Windows background, I found KDE too konfusing (intentional typo) so I opted for Gnome. I couldn't stand the Unity crap of Ubuntu itself, so went with Linux Mint. Now my big issue, getting back to the replied to topic, is getting the sound to work properly. I have an onboard 5.1 surround sound system with the speakers to go with it. Now granted, actual 5.1 audio does come through properly, but for an mp3 file that is in stereo, Linux's idea of surround sound leaves a lot to be desired. In Linux, they take the sound from the left and right front speaker, and reproduce the same sound in the other 3 speakers (and pretty much ignore the woofer) and call it surround sound. In Windows, playing the same mp3 file, vocals come out the center speaker, bass comes from the woofer and it sounds like a mixture of instruments coming from the other speakers, just like you were sitting on a stage listening to the band. I have been trying for about a month now to get some simblance of that Windows sound in Linux with no luck.

Disney sitcom says open source is insecure

Re: That's Nickelodeon, not Disney...

ICarly and Victorious are also on Disnety DX. We don''ve have Nickelodeon here, but get those both those shows.

Gabe Newell: Windows 8 is a 'catastrophe' for PC biz

Re: I see what you did there!

I've just recently installed, and am now playing Diablo II (II not III) on Linux Mint 13 using Wine. Funny thing is, it plays a lot better now than when I used to play in under Windows, on the exact same machine.

Google claims Chrome is the world's most popular browser

Re: Never confuse popularity with quality

Hey, I may be an older curmudgeon, but I happen to like some Justin Bieber songs.

Wait, did I just SAY that? No!!!!!!!!!!! (insert symbol of man banging head against wall)

French court: YouTube has done 'enough' to avoid copyright liability

Re: Pirate Bay - OK I'll bite

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Pirate Bay just post links, not the actual content? Which means it should be up to the sites that host the actual content to remove it, not Pirate Bay.

That is the reason Megaupload went down, they hosted the actual copyrighted content. The sites that linked to Megaupload weren't taken down.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Like it or not, this Linux grows on you

Re: Anyone who disagrees with this ...

Thanks DvorakUser, I will give it a go.

Re: Anyone who disagrees with this ...

As a newbie to Linux, you're right. I don't know Linux well enough to make those few "simple configuration changes" as you put it. After installing 12.04 and not liking Unity, I knew enough to go into the package manager and install Gnome Shell. Even with that, I couldn't figure out how to configure it so that my application menu was in the lower left, and yes I did look.

I come from a Windows background so am used to the Start, Applications, what have you, in the lower left. Yes, I can get used to it being in the upper left, but I would prefer not to. There is also the fact that others use my computer, and I want to try and keep it as close to the same as they are used to as possible. I can't seem to do that with Ubuntu.

I did look at Xubuntu, but it felt too much like using a Mac, with the applications in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

Re: I'll give it a go

"but that does not alter the fact that I believe that it is less suited than Gnome 2 for people who work with multiple overlapping windows on several desktops. I can see it working well for the Mac OSX generation (single application occupying the whole screen most of the time), but that's not me."

Replace Gnome 2 with Windows 7, and this sounds just like what I have been reading in the Windows 8 threads.

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 'release preview' for June

Re: Disaster

I have been a Windows user for years. I think I have used every version of Windows starting at 3.1 (excluding NT). Yes, that includes ME and Vista. I think I am the only person in the world that DID NOT have any problems with ME.

That being said, since the Windows 8 Beta came out (lets call a spade a spade) I have been very actively researching different versions of Linux. I had seen Linux systems in the past, as I had to set it up in a clients computer, so did not think there would be much of an issue. Unfortunately, Linux decided to go the way of Microsoft and make drastic changes just because they could. At one time, Linux would have been relatively easy for disenfranchised Windows 8 users. With the advent of Gnome3 and Unity, that is no longer the case. Luckily, Linux Mint, while still having it's problems, does feature Cinnamon and Mate, so can still have the classic look and feel that Windows users are used to, so is the alternative I am currently looking at.

High school student expelled for dropping F-bomb in tweet

Re: the punishment

@dvd

"And it's not wholly a book about the fighting, it's a book about the lengths that those in authority will go to to control a population and (ultimately) about the resisting of that authority."

It still involves teens having to kill each other. I stand by my original statement.

Re: the punishment

That statement is actually why I have a big problem with the new movie The Hunger Games. It's a story of teens having to kill each other in gruesome ways (the book included having a boy being eaten alive over a period of days according to Wikipedia). This story is aimed at young teens and all the media seem to love it.. Yet, if there was just one scene of two of these teens actually making love, then watch the uproar it would cause.

Re: To far

I would agree with you if this tweet had been done on school time using school property. However neither was true. This was done on the students own time from the students home compute.

Eddie Murphy heading for worst movie ever glory

Re: Not the worst.

I actually liked The Trial of Billy Jack when it first came out, even if I was just a kid at the time.

Child abuse suspect won't be forced to decrypt hard drive

Re: Thumbs Down

Actually, a lot of people have given well thought you and reasonable reasons for disagreeing with you, which you seem to have totally ignored. As one person said, if this were about evidence of hacking or speeding, there would not be a big do about this ruling, but because it's about suspected child abuse images, the emotional aspect is driving people like yourself to disagree with a ruling you may otherwise agree with.

Re: Kiddie Porn and Speeding

@Khaptain

The guy may not necessarily walk away as you put it. If my understanding of US law is correct, once the investigation has started full swing, the police have so much time to bring the person to trial, which I believe is 7 years, but again, could be wrong. As the guy doesn't have to give up his keys, this just means the police have to try other ways. They could try and get an agency to decrypt the drives, so in 5 months when they do, then there's your evidence to bring him to trial. Alternately, put a stakeout on the guy when he goes and checks into different hotels. There is probable cause that the guy would do it again, so they should have no problem getting a warrant that says they can enter his hotel room when they see the same type of videos being uploaded to Youtube from this hotel. They quickly enter the room while he is sending files, and before he had time to lock his hard drives down again, and thus is caught in the act. No more worries about 5th Amendment rights.

HUD's up! Ubuntu creates menu-free GUI

Microsoft

Did Ubuntu get Microsoft's permission to use the look and feel of Windows 3.0 and DOS?

Doctor Who girl Amy Pond axed in 'heartbreaking' exit

Glad they're getting rid of Amy, but not Rory too. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Judge dismisses charges against accused Twitter stalker

Wrong Charges

The judge was right to dismiss the charges as the guy was not stalking. Now if the guy had gone to A.Z.'s residence or work and had left messages there, or even taken and posted pictures from there, then yes, that would be stalking. Also, the person (according to the article) never made any actual death threats. He "predicted" A.Z. would die a violent death, but does not seem to have actually threatened it himself. The problem in this case is that the guy was charged with the wrong crime. Instead of being charged with stalking, he should have been charged with harassment.