Posts by Yet Another Anonymous coward

BlackBerry rejected Justin Bieber as brand ambassador

Re: They got this one right

So instead they have hired Burt Bacharach to promote themselves as a stable reliable corporate platform

Google: Tell the feds they have to get a warrant for us to hand over your stuff

As a UK citizen

>I would dearly like to have a say in how America is sifting through my online life,

Well if you don't want to be ruled by a tyrannical empire across the Atlantic, throw the starbucks into the harbour and have your own revolution

Industry group blames 'outdated' kit for stock-market tech disasters

Can we help?

Perhaps some sort of charity appeal could be launched to allow the traders and exchanges to update their systems?

Have they tried holding a bake sale?

World-leading IT expert? We'll fast-track you into Blighty, promises PM

Re: Not a bad idea, but not a magic bullet either

> this is *not* a backdoor for the underpaid IT contractor to get in.

If you believe that I have a bridge, a Dixon's extended warranty and an HP storage solution to sell you.

Dave's mates in the city (who write the policies for him) are not concerned that ARM can't hire the best chip designers from MIT or Stanford.

Re: Real deal industry superstar experts @Don Jefe

And of course the manager needs to earn more than the superstar. Because you can't earn less than somebody beneath you - that stands to reason. So you need to increase the salaries of everyone in management

After all their rhetoric about eastern european workers

Is this a Reverse of their Polish Notation?

Mexican Cobalt-60 robbers are DEAD MEN, say authorities

Re: They're doing it wrong

Tricky to arrange though.

What you need is a whole line of people and then later check which ones are normal, which are dead and which get a superpower

Submerged Navy submarine successfully launches drone from missile tubes

Re: Recovery?

>Why would you stealthily launch this whilst submerged, and then surface in full view to recover it ?

The WEEE directive?

Re: Not without risk and cost

Probably irrelevent if your targets are Afghan tribesmen.

Their command and control system never really integrated with their anti ballistic missile submarine capability.

The navy is feeling distinctly left out in the choice of landlocked deserts as the theatre-du-jour for spreading democracy

Fiendish CryptoLocker ransomware survives hacktivists' takedown

Re: but every single American I have met has been a genuinely nice person.

In advance of my next trip can I just say that every single DHS/TSA/INS agent is a genuinely nice person.

ps. I would also like to point out that every single NSA employee is a sweetheart

SHOCK! US House swats trolls, passes patent 'extortion' bill

Re: Might work...

America switching to first to file doesn't change prior art invalidating a patent.

It means that you don't patent something, invest in manufacturing, build a market and then have an IBM come along and say, we thought of that years ago but didn't do anything about it - now you have proved a market we will file our patent and take it from you.

Now they need to show that they published their idea and you could have known abut it and benefitted from it and in thw worst case can invalidate your patent not have it re-assigned to them.

Originally first to invent was needed in America because it took weeks to get a letter to Washington, but it became a way of big companies with lots of lawyers to sidestep the patent system.

Re: It was promising...

Except the troll usually just assigns the IP to a throwaway company. If they lose the patent has no value anyway and the off the shelf company can just go bankrupt before paying any fees

'Copyrighted' Java APIs deserve same protection as HARRY POTTER, Oracle tells court

Re: This is a tough one...

Or another way of looking at it.

Developer A said "let there be a language where statement A does B, statement C does D etc"

Developer A happened to then implement that in code, Separately developer B implemented the same thing in different code.

If developer A is allowed to claim that all implementations of their language are copyright then Dennis Richie is going to be very rich - and Oracle are going to have a real problem finding a C compiler to build their database product.

Re: @HollyHopDrive

So Google admit to using the same 26 letters as Oracle?

Obviously guilty then.

Microsoft: C'mon, you can trust us... look at our gov spook-busting plans

Re: Keys

Prove they don't !

Unless you think that they wouldn't ask for the master keys because they consider it unsporting and prefer to use a complex set of hacks, zero day exploits and Ton Cruise dangling from your data centers roof on a wire instead

Re: Security Theater Only

It's easy to keep a secret if the only person you need to share it with is you.

So Microsoft can make a perfectly secure system where you have the keys, you encrypt it, they store and you decrypt it. That's great if the only use of the cloud is as a great big disk drive in the sky.

As soon as you need somebody else to process it then you need to share keys and unless you trust them you are screwed - whatever the technology, especially if you know the NSA is looking over their shoulder

> Euro-centric data centers are a damned good idea …

But a good thing for the JCB business.

Every data center won't just have an extra connection to the NSA (assuming they are US owned, or want to do business int he US) but they will also have an extra connection to all 28 countries. In those countries where the military, government and secret services don't trust each there will be multiple connections.

I'm picturing 50 or 60 different groups of shady dark-glasses wearing spooks all trying to install their own secret taps while not being noticed by the other lots. Would make a great Ealing comedy.

Re: Security Theater Only

> at the very least it negates MITM attacks?

Unless the MITM has a copy of the key.

The only thing it stops is the Men in Black deciding they wanted to spy on what you did in the past, assuming they want to spy on everybody all the time it is irrelevant.

Oh no, RBS has gone titsup again... but is it JUST BAD LUCK?

Re: Ha Ha Ha bis

That is an excellent strategy system until somebody comes along and tells you to merge 3 different high street banks - who all have systems like that - into one modern dynamic environment.

And then tells all the staff that they will be outsourced when the job is finished....

Lightning strikes USB bosses: Next-gen jacks will be REVERSIBLE

Re: NSS Flip and try again

The regular USB-B plug is also supposed to have the USB logo on the top side.

Except Microsoft who put it on the bottom so they can have their logo on the top.

Bold Bezos aims skywards with liquid hydrogen and SPACE ROCKET engine

Re: Burning hydrogen versus kerosene

Yes because Carbon footprint is the major concern of space launches

UK.gov to warn tweeting twits, celebs 'n' pals on court case comments

Re: Super-injunction

But a superinjunction is before anything is reported.

So I shag a sheep - I hear that el Reg is going to run this story so I get an injunction against anyone mentioning it.

The court has to tell the press about the injunction and tell them not to mention the injunction. Fine if that is just calling Murdoch and the Guardian - but how does the court tell 20Million Twitter and facebook members not to publish anything about me and the sheep without mentioning me or floppsy?

Super-injunction

So since all tweeters will have to abide by the same rules as THE PRESS - does that mean that all press briefings and injunction notices will have to go out to everyone on twitter and facebook?

Does it create a slight logical problem to send a message to everyone on social media including the details of an injunction telling them that they mustn't publicize this information?

Note to foreigners: super injunctions are court orders where you are not only banned from publishing some news item/gossip but you are banned from reporting that there is a ban in place. How you get to know that you mustn't report anything because there is a secret ban on reporting it is tricky.

Unite: HP 'addicted to culture of job cuts' as axe raised again

re: infinite cuts

Actually since senior management discovered how to set the y axis range of Excel charts to negative they have discovered that they can make almost infinite profits by just reducing the workforce below zero.

By cutting another 2Billion employees even Blackberry would be profitable

RBS MELTDOWN LATEST: 'We'll be the bank we should be ... next YEAR maybe'

Or perhaps

They are deliberately trying to sink RBS so they can charge it huge receivership fees and buy its assets on the cheap

The only way is Office: UK Parliament to migrate to Microsoft cloud

Re: What could go wrong

But to do capitals on an iPad don't you need opposable thumbs?

Re: Have we learned nothing....

Friends ONLY spy on friends.

Whats the point of knowing the launch codes for the Russian missiles? Unless there is a WWIII there is little value in knowing ANY enemy military info.

Now whats the value in knowing the other Eu ministers position on agricultural subsidy cuts or on whether Scotland would be allowed into the Eu without the Euro?

Re: Hmmmm

No - as a wholly owned subsidiary UK Govt Inc can use the US government's site licence

Re: What could go wrong

But this way we will all have access to it as well.

650 MPs , 1000s of researchers/assistants/etc most of which are unqualified wives/children/distant relatives of MPs. So 98.6% of passwords are going to be "password123" - it should finally lead to open government

OCZ successfully sells self to Toshiba

They were also famous for:

Release a high quality server version, gradually introduce lower quality consumer parts while keeping the same name, then rebrand a new super server version at a higher price with faster parts ... repeat....

So the plan is

To link Toshiba's product to OCZ's reputation and brand image?

So a bit like Boeing renaming the Dreamliner "Titanic" then ?

US Supreme Court says 'no sale' to Amazon's New York sales tax appeal

Re: Funny thing...

It's not just state, it's county and city (which here means anything village sized) as well.

In our suburb municipality we don't pay the local city sales tax but we do pay the part of if it that covers transit on some goods. An out of state retailer would have to know that for every address and every item.

Re: Time for change

Good idea. So when you order from Amazon they should have a box so that you can enter the sales tax for where you live. You know that your municipality just introduced a 2% tax on Lego figures but not on Playmobile - after all you voted for it - so you should be responsible for calculating it.

Re: How long will it last?

These aren't taxes that Amazon pays, these are sales taxes added to the bill to the customer.

Amazon mostly doesn't want to pay them because without them it makes their price 10% less than a local store.

But also because they are a nightmare to collect. You know how complex and stupid VAT regs are? Now imagine that where every village can set their own VAT rules!

And you have to set up a system to collect the correct amount from the affiliate and register with every town council to pay the fractions of a cent into their account.

EC trade secrets plans: Infringing kit may be DESTROYED by order

At the moment it is illegal to steal a trade secret - but once a secret is stolen and becomes available it is free for anyone to use. So it was a simple matter of not getting caught. You pay somebody to steal/leak the idea and leave the results on some fileshare site or drop the folder outside your factory gates and you happen to find it - you can use it freely.

Now you have to show that you reverse engineered it, it became widely available or you discovered it independently. There is lots of case law for these cases where a patent idea was leaked before filing.

This is precisely what the law is supposed to stop.

At the moment a Chinese company steals an idea it can manufacture and sell it in europe - your only redress is to try and sue the chinese owner. With this law you can seize and destroy the goods.

It also stops jurisdiction shopping where you can steal an idea from one country but base yourself in some new member state with less stringent rules.

Drone expert: Amazon's hypetastic delivery scheme a pie in the sky

Re: Can't see these

Obviously in densely populated areas an alternative delivery mechanism using giant trebuchets would be more efficient and environmentally friendly.

In sparsely populated areas - who cares?

Re: Cynical - me?

So you didn't see the story about how Ryanair would deliver Amazon packages by having passengers to drop them out of their planes as they fly overhead?

Any passenger who didn't want to lean out of the window at 30,000ft would pay a 10quid breathing-oxygen surcharge

India's Martian MOM leaves the nest

'first world' overhead

There is less "cost plus" to Boeing/Lockheed/Aerospatiale/Thales to subsidise their civil airline business or to cover up cost overruns on other military projects. But there are more direct "extra-contractual payments" to various government individuals.

Fortunately bribes are cheaper than boondongles.

It's the third biggest economy in the world by purchasing power

El Reg Contraption Confessional No.1: The Dragon 32 micro

Re: One suggestion

Take a modern car, and strip half the insulation off all the wiring, then pour salt water on the rest to simulate classic 1970s British car electronics

Chester Cathedral smites net in Wi-Fi SMUT OUTRAGE

You can't google "huge nazi/asian weapons" from School computers

Inside IBM's vomit-inducing, noise-free future chip lab

Re: Survivalist avec Aluminum Chapeau?

And a large supply of triangular chocolate.

UK.gov's web filtering mission creep: Now it plans to block 'extremist' websites

Re: Creeping scope...

Well fortunately we won't have to see that sort of thing happening anymore

Why a plain packaging U-turn from UK.gov could cost £3bn a year

Re: So shiny

And we all know that plain simple smooth undecorated products with rounded edges don't sell well.

Surely if they wanted to discourage young people from buying cigs they would make the packets look more like a 1990s Motorola

Will this be extended to alcohol?

Will we see future Tory PMs clutching bottles labelled just "bubbles" ?

Microsoft, HURTING after NSA backdooring, vows to now harden its pipe

Re: Whats the point?

Because it's a lot of paperwork.

It's much easier to just ring up and say "You want to help us don't you? You aren't some sort of un-American pinko terrorist are you?"

'This BLACK HOLE just isn't BLACK AT ALL' snarl boffins

The hole is still black

It's just the neighbourhood that is bright