Posts by Dr. Mouse

EU president sets green plans in stone

Everyones got an oppinion...

and heres mine.

The spirit of this descision is very good, but I do agree with AC's post "Typical response from failed politicians". This blocks the path to better ways, if any, when they are found. Take for instance subsidies for 'greener' cars. You can (or at least could a few years back when I looked into this) get a subsidy to convert a car to run on LPG. You could not get such a grant to convert to electric, it was up to you. I can see similar things happenning here.

Another point is that climate change DOES happen. Without the involvement of humans. Just look at the ice ages that have been. The world is in a natural state of flux. This is undeniable, however so is the fact that humans ARE having an impact. I havent seen all the facts, so I am unsure of how much effect each is having, but both factors are having an effect, and anyone who says otherwise is a fool (either that its ALL our fault, or that its ALL natural).

To be quite honest, I think what we need is either a world war or a global pandemic. If we cut the worlds population in half, we will cut our carbon emmissions. After that, some form of population control.

Brazil bans the evil sold in EverQuest and Counter-Strike

LOLololol....

/me picks self up from the pool of urine on the floor

This is hilarious!

I, personaly, was a big fan of the Action mod for Quake 2 (Although I wasnt very good). I actualy ran a gaming league in the IT dept of my high school, using all proceeds to upgrade the computers (so we would get better frame rates... I mean to improve the students learning experience).

I got shut down because I made a map of the school... Well actualy because I made a map of the school and placed models of my most hated teachers dotted around, and one of them walked in when a load of us were shooting her. Anyway, I could not understand it then and I cant now. Neither myself nor any of my fellow gamers were doing any more than having a laugh, none of us started being violent (IMHO the games let you sate your violent nature in a controlled environment), and the school lost out (especialy when we started playing it on the net anyway)

And you cant say that tactics in any computer game are like the real world. ITS A GAME FOR CHRISTS SAKE, STOP WHINGING!

Hoax: German IT boss sacks three non-smokers

He went too far...

... but I completely agree with his sentiments. Firing them was OTT, although I'd just have told em "like it or lump it, you knew the smoking policy when you started!" There is only one minority you can still discriminate against, and thats smokers.

Back to the smoking ban debate, I actualy think it's part of a clever ruse by the government to get rid of the local pubs in "working class" areas. I know that my local, and many other pubs in brighouse, have suffered greatly by the smoking ban. They have lost most of the through the week trade. People used to come in for a pint + a chat, but now stay at home through the week. The majority of the pub-going public in our area is smoking. And where are all the non-smokers who were supposed to start going to the pub because they werent smokey anymore? There arent any. So my local is struggling to stay open, the landlord is pissed off because he can barely afford his lease, he's had to lay off staff... Cheers. If this continues most small pubs will end up closing.

And when they add the extra tax on beer "to stop kids buying it"... thats gonna be the end!

Sysadmin jailed for 30 months over failed logic bomb

@John Macintyre

"Try finding another job now sucker... unless he joins an anti virus/malware firm"

Erm, I doubt it. Even they wouldnt want an INCOMPETENT malware author on their books.

Sounds like he's a dick. Surely he could have hidden it better than that, and if you are going to do such a thing, you should at the very least make sure it isnt tracable back to you! Imagine using your own birthday! Use your bosses birthday, or the MD's, or the Queen's... anyones but your own! Thats what I would do.

He's stupid, and deserves prison.

UK nuke-power plans leak early

There is a reason...

...that "nuclear power is not economic in the UK", and that is how the power stations are paid.

Each power station sets a price for it's energy.

Assume we are in a low-spot of power consumption. The very cheapest power is used, which tends to be the gas-fired stations.

When demand increases, the next cheapest stations are used, but all are paid at this higher rate.

Nuclear stations tend to be more expensive, however they have to run all the time. Gas stations can be run up very quickly, and when load peaks they get the same money as more expensive sources anyway. Therefore, the grid must be managed differently. Let the nuclear stations run constantly, providing our baseline power needs, use whatever renewable energy is available at the time, then top it up from gas-fired stations. And pay them a particular rate, or charge more tax based on CO2 emissions.

Simple solution, but will they do it? People will complain that we dont have fair competition. Companies with gas-fired stations will loose money. Not that this matters if we kill the planet, but companies dont look that far ahead.

As for nuclear waste, that is an even longer term problem than global warming. Deal with CO2 first, and we may have a solution for nuclear waste before it becomes a real problem.

Cameron blames Labour naivety for NHS IT woes

Politicians!

We know they know nothing about IT*, so why wont they listen to people who know?

And rather than outsourcing it, which ends up overpriced, delayed and wrong for the job, set up an IT department for the government. (In fact, put BOFH in charge, he'd sort those fat, lazy, self obsessed arseholes... I mean politicians... out). They could then plan things and do them right.

A centrtal NHS database is a good idea. You get taken to hospital, and the doctors there instantly know your medical history and can deal accordingly. Details are then added to your record of your treatment there and your doc knows next time you see him.

The problem is security, but this CAN be done. Banks dont loose peoples data, and they use centralised databases, so why can't a govt IT dept do the same?

Cameron is talking out of his arse and trying to win votes by telling the people what they want to hear (OK, that didnt need to be said, I know, "he's a politician" would've done).

And Google? Next thing he'll be telling GPs to stop getting medical books and journals, just look it up on wikipedia. IDIOT!

*Actualy about anything, but I was trying to be nice.

Alcoholic rats' boozing slashed by mutant superpower drug

Excellent!

I have been looking for a way to stop the rats from knicking my beer!

Could someone call me a cab?

Kent council approves 'cleaner' coal-fired plant

My two pence...

The govt and eneergy companies cant win!

There is a growing energy requirement. So the energy companies need to produce more.

So, lets build some more coal + gas fired stations. Theyre cheap and can be fired up quickly to meet demand.

NO, YOU CANT, IT PRODUCES TOO MUCH CO2!!!!

OK then, how about a backbone of new nuclear plants? Expensive to set up, but then they produce huge amounts of power, with no CO2 output.

NO, YOU CANT, THE WASTE WILL KILL OUR GRANDCHILDRENS GRANDCHILDRENS GRANDCHILDRENS GRANDCHILDREN!!!!

Hmmm... OK then, lets build a shed load of wind farms. Fill every suitable hillside with them, and any suitable offshore area we can find. Very expensive, both to build and to maintain, and they still wont meet our energy demands, but people will just have to use less and pay more for it.

1) NO, YOU CANT, IT WILL SPOIL OUR COUNTRYSIDE, AND THAT LOVELY FIELD BY MY HOUSE WONT BE AS PRETTY!!!!

2) NO, YOU CANT, I'M NOT GOING TO USE LESS POWER, I NEED TO LEAVE MY COMPUTER ON ALL THE TIME OR ELSE I HAVE TO WAIT FOR IT TO BOOT UP!!!!

3) NO, YOU CANT, I'M NOT GOING TO PAY MORE FOR ELECTRICITY, IT'S ALREADY TOO EXPENSIVE AS IT IS!!!!

In my oppinion, this would be the best compromise, though no group would be happy about it:

Firstly, build a couple of large nuclear stations to produce a steady amount of power, running them at full (safe) capacity all the time.

Second, remove the possibility for people to object to wind farms based on it being an eyesore. We need them, so shut it. Only allow objections based on a reliable scientific study which shows harm being done specificaly at that site (eg killing of birds, but only if those deaths would be significant).

Third, only allow the running of enough coal/gas plants to top up energy output to meet demand.

Fourth, specify realistic energy limits per capita, to stop people wasting energy without degrading their standard of living, taxing those who exceed it. Do similar, dependant upon what exactly they do, to businesses.

Problem is, this will not happen, as the government is too scared of pissing people off coz they might not get re-ellected. It will piss off the greenies, coz there are still coal and gas plants, and new nuclear ones. It will piss off those who live or visit beautiful windy areas. It will piss off a lot of people who get taxed extra, and a lot of businesses who have to change to more efficient equipment.

This is the only viable short-to-medium term solution I can see at this point. Long term, we either discover a new, clean energy source that will meet our demands, or we drasticaly cut down on the energy we use, which will, neccessarily, involve a drop in the standard of living (barring a major breakthrough in energy efficiency). For example, drying your clothes on a clothes horse or washing line instead of in the dryer (eesh, hate doing that! Especialy shirt, coz it means I have to iron them!)

SETI@home needs You!

Parents!

I used to run SETI on 1 PC, 1 Laptop and 1 Server at home, as well as a few workstations and a couple of Linux servers I had access to at work (bringing in work units from home to avoid the boss noticing on the proxy logs). That was about 7 years ago.

Then I changed jobs to find that the machines were so locked down and loaded with spyware (OK, auditting software, but same thing) that I couldnt use the work machines for the job. Gutted, I was racking up HUGE amounts of processing time, and a great ranking.

Then, to top it all off, my father went on a rampage about saving electricity. No computers to be left on except the server. That killed SETI for me.

Not looked at it since then, even though I now have some nice powerfull machines under my full control at work :)

However, SETI is just a bit of fun (IMHO). Folding, however, as was stated above, is going to make money for the pharaceutical giants, so I wont be running that unless they are prepared to share the wealth.

Google spanks memory, disk and networking vendors

Maybe I'm being thick...

The platters in a hard drive are a lot heavier than the heads, right? So why not put the heads on a spinning assembly and fix the platters in place. Result: faster spinup, lower power usage in normal opperation, and probably longer life due to less load on the motors. Even reduced production costs, maybe.

I could be wrong. Google: try it yourself :)

Ofcom tells BT to buck up on unbundling

De-regulation?

OK, as far as I'm concerned, de-regulation has been half-arsed.

For any mainstream ADSL, you still have to pay £11/mo to BT for a peice of old, sub-standard, badly-routed copper (or sometimes aluminium even!) to the exchange. They wont replace/repair it unless it impedes voice quality.

I know you also get a connection onto PSTN for this, but I dont need/want/use this. All I ever get on my landline is telesales, so I don't even plug a phone into it. All I want is to rent a peice of good-quality copper to the exchange, less than half a mile away by cable length, so that I can get a decent sync on my ADSL2. Why should BT get £11/mo for half a mile of corroded copper?

If they are going to de-regulate propperly, make them give us the option of no phone service at least. Please. Or at least put regulations in place for specifications on said phone line, above the requirement of clear voice and 28.8 (or is it 14.4? I forget) modem. Most people want broadband now, so the line should have stricter specifications. I have a friend who lives even closer to the exchange than me (about quater of a mile), but she cant get a sync of higher than half a megabit! Sort it out BT!!

'Extortionist' turns Wi-Fi thief to cover tracks

@John Parker

I agree to this. A specific flag saying "Yes you can use my net" would be great. However it is not that simple...

Firstly, the number of times I have used someone's open wifi and found that they have no internal security is alarming. People need to remember that if they leave their Wifi open, they are letting people onto their network, not just allowing use of their internet. This gets worse with Vista (not checked but a mate told me about it) as it makes it easy to just say "Yeah share everything". Do you want someone reading your personal files, messages, emails etc?

Another thing to consider is that you are probably violating the terms of your internet service by sharing it. This could land you in a pickle, especialy as most terms that I have seen name you as responsible for anything that happens on your connection.

For myself, my router allows multiple SSIDs, so I have my own private one, encrypted, hidden and MAC restricted, my own visible, unencrypted MAC restricted but separated with no access to the internal network except for SMB shares on the server (for Nintendo DS and friends laptops mainly) and then a public SSID, specificaly labled, run through QOS to limit bandwidth and lower the priority, and through a web authorisation screen requiring registration, so I can keep track of who is using it. Alot of work just to be nice, but its the only safe way I could think of.

MPAA's uni piracy-busting toolkit forced offline

Some clarifications

@Stu: Derived works are, and have always been, covered by the GPL.

Also, a quote from the GNU GPL FAQ:

"If you choose to provide source through a written offer, then anybody who requests the source from you is entitled to receive it.

"If you commercially distribute binaries not accompanied with source code, the GPL says you must provide a written offer to distribute the source code later. When users non-commercially redistribute the binaries they received from you, they must pass along a copy of this written offer. This means that people who did not get the binaries directly from you can still receive copies of the source code, along with the written offer.

"The reason we require the offer to be valid for any third party is so that people who receive the binaries indirectly in that way can order the source code from you."

If you do not include the source code with the product, you must provide a written offer to supply the code. Simple as. Whether or not you modified it.

The GPL mostly seems to apply to distibution. If you pass it on to someone else, you must follow the license. If you keep it to yourself you can do what you want with it. So by merely distibuting it, they must include either the source code, or a written offer to supply the source code.

Now this may seem picky, but think about how anal MPAA/RIAA etc are. Ubuntu arent saying "you cant use it", they are saying "you must comply with the license". Personaly, I think MPAA need a taste of their own medicine.

Analysts warn of US broadband meltdown

Maybe it's me...

I may be completely wrong here (if so, I blame too many rehearsals, too much work and not enough caffein or sleep), but doesnt BT's response miss the point entirely?

From what I can see, it is network capacity, not the speed of the link to the end user, which is the problem. Therefore, installing fibre to greenfield sites and upgrading to adsl2 will only make the problem worse.

However, I will agree with the anonymous coward that this article is about projections for the US, so we have no idea whether anything near the same is true for the UK. We should avoid extrapolation outside the confines of the data we have collected.

Red Hat haunts Ellison's Linux dream

Swinging

He sounds like he's into that

"Not only do we have a lot of customers, we have a lot of partners."

Just make sure you use protection, Larry. You don't want to go spreading those virii around.

I'll collect my fleece and be going then shall I? Taxi!

Bike bonk bloke cops three years' probation

I've heard of...

...riding the village bike, but this isn't QUITE what I would think of.

I'll let myself out...

Mayor Ken buys hydrogen buses for London

I'm staying out of London!

"storing the explosive gas in high-pressure roof tanks"

Anyone remember the london bus and tube bombings?

And the Zeppelins of the Hindenburg Disaster?

Now add the two together and pray you are not in London when it happens....

Illegal immigrant finds work as spook for the FBI and CIA

So what?

I am certain that a hell of a lot of cops/agents have misused their powers.

How about a cop running a check on their kids new boy/girlfriend, etc?

Yes she lied, paid for a green card, had family members in Hizbollah, but did she actualy do anything REALLY wrong? I guess we will never know, and that's why the rules are there, but to me their is no proof that she did anything wrong apart from fraudulently get a green card (I think thats the term isnt it?) and take a peek at how her family/mates back home were doing. The main thing is the FBI and CIA cocked up, and thats nothing new! American Intelligence... two words that should never be used in the same sentence!

OK, let the flames commence from outraged Yanks ;)

Cig-lighter electropulse cannons offered to US plods

Another use...

If these are effective at 15m range, is the distance from the roof of your car to the friendly neigbourhood speed camera you are passing within range?

US man blasts stubborn wheelnut with shotgun

@ jolly

I certainly know that one! Even worse, try removing and dimantling an entire mini rear subframe! Half the bolts are rusted to hell and seized, half the subframe will disintegrate leaving sharp, rusty, jagged edges, and when it gets so bad you have to get a blowlamp on a nut to free it off, you burn and/or melt the underseal, leaving you coughing from the fumes and burned from the drips (working under a car sucks!).

However taking a shotgun to a wheel nut is, well... nuts! (I'll get my coat) Hasnt he ever heard of a strongbar, blowlamp... even a grinder! Once again I implore the governments of the world to enforce Darwins Law: If you do something so stupid you should have died, you should be executed. Honourable mentions in Darwin Awards should involve the electric chair.

Camelot pulls scratchcard amid numerical anarchy

OMFG!

OK, I know that I am pretty good at maths, and so I dont always realise how difficult some people find maths but SURELY people learn about negative numbers in primary school? I'm sure we did, and I'm only 26, so things cant have changed THAT much.

If you don't know basic maths, I agree with the above comment, you should not be allowed money. Simple as. And the girl behind the counter didnt even know?! Shes dealing with money every day!!!

This country is down the shitter. There are so many thickos who cant read, write or add up. We need to do something and SOON, or we as a country will not survive.

Ofcom's 0870 rip-off reforms stumble at the final hurdle

Come on Ofcom, do something usefull for a change!

I should've known Ofcom would do nothing (or effectively nothing).

Here's what I reckon should be done.

1) 0800 are FREEphone numbers, so they should be FREE! The co. using them pays for every call received on them (at least from what I've seen). So whay should I pay loads aswell?

2) 0845 and 0870 numbers were supposed to be Local- and National-rate numbers, more for having one number from everywhere than anything else. These should be kept as Local and National rate (and included in free minutes).

3) If companies want to make money from numbers, let people know they are Premium Rate by forcing them to use 09xx numbers. 0845 and 0870 are being used as sources of income, which in essence is a premium-rate number. Why let them hide behind these numbers?

Get back to basics.

If they wont do the above, they should at least ban queues on 08xx numbers (including 0800 if they are not free from every phone). Force them to use a callback queue. The amount of money I have spent on ringing BT recently (£100 one month on my mobile, because the landline was dead, therefore my broadband was dead so my VoIP line was dead, so my only option was to use the mobile), but thats an 0800 number, it should be free!

Ofcom should've stepped in before now, thlast time freephone calls were free from a mobile was on Virgin, and that was around the turn of the millenium. GET YOUR FINGERS OUT OFCOM!!!!

Macs seized by porn Trojan

RE: Not an OS vulnerability

"It can only do this if you are logged in as root while surfing p0rn"

Erm... No. OSX, like most desktop linuxes etc that I've seen, have a GUI version of (or frontend to) su/sudo. What the article says is that it asks for your root password, which means the installer runs with root priviedges.

The only way to get round this is a system-level security system, like SELinux et al, which says "even as root, that program is not allowed to do that!", but this complicates things alot, and Mac users wouldnt be able to understand ( just had to get a quick jab in). Notice that windows doesnt have owt like this either, but thats because Microsoft collectively has even less brains than the average Mac user.

To misquote a famouse Australian: "Can you guess which OS I use yet?"

PS: Wheres the IT angle? This is about Macs, not Computers :P

Court convicts 'million pound' modchip man

Travesty

I honestly beleive that modchipping being illegal is a travesty.

I personaly own a modded XBox. I do not use it to play coppied games. In fact I don't use it to play games full stop. The reason I bought, modded and use it it that, with the addition of XBoxMediaCentre, it is a cheap, versatile media player. It is also able to run linux, for those times when I want to check my email etc. when I am in the living room, or when I notice my server is doing something odd.

If MS et al want to cut down modchipping, they should allow the use of homebrew software on their consoles. My PSP is the same, I had to modify it to run the damn good homebrew software on it. Make it a more open developement platform, and you will have a much larger target audience.

And for the courts to say modding (even if only commercialy) is illegal, it just proves they know nothing about the technology. We need some techies in the government. I think a campaign is in order...

BOFH FOR PRIME MINISTER!!!!

El Reg goes virtual with e-Symposium on virtualization

@ AC vs amanfromMars

1) As far as I know, amanfromMars is some form of bot, therefore the fact that most of his comments are semi-coherant is a great acheivement. If he isn't, he is a very disturbed person.

2) I can actualy see clever wordplay in this. Maybe it's just me.

I would say:

amanfromMars 1

Anonymous Coward 0

ISP bosses told to get real on broadband speeds

MB/Mb and more

Yes, people do not understand the MB/Mb relationship/difference. It doesnt help though when the tech support numpties dont know either (I have been told by many that I'd be getting an X Megabyte connection). But it's generaly more of an issue of the low level of inteligence of the general population than misleading by the ISPs.

However, most broadband speeds are significantly lower than the 'up to' rate quoted, which should be stopped. I beleive that ofcom should force the ISPs to charge for the rate the customer gets. So, say they charge £16/mo for "up to 8Mb", if you only receive 2Mb, you should be charged £4/mo. Also, you should be able to request a lower speed, and pay that. I know that prices would go up, but it's fairer to those paying the same for a 512k connection as others pay for an 8M connection.

They should also be forced to either remove the unlimited lable, or make it realy unlimited. They still have a contention ratio, so users cant complain if connected at 8Mbits and only getting 1/50 of that sometimes, but calling it unlimited when theres an FUP is wrong. The best FUP I've seen is on Be. As far as I know they have never had to enforce it, and I know that I have spent an entire month downloading and uploading for more than 90% of the time on an 18Mb connection to/from newsgroups.

I also agree with giving customers the option to pay for a FTTH connection as a simple £/mile calculation. It would work out well for me, as I am less than a mile from the exchange. However, those in remote areas would still be screwed, although there BT may still be able to make money by doing FTTC then charging for a fiber link from there.

Overall, given the rise in Broadband, I do think that BT should be forced to change their policy. Currently they do not have to provide a line suitable for anything more than voice or 28.8K modem, which is just not good enough.

Terror police lock down Soho to smoke out 9lbs of chillis

MMmmmmm... Chilli

Now if that's not a recommendation for a Thai restaurant I don't know what is.

"Our food's so spicy, the anti-terror police have to cordon off the area when we cook it". (Or words to that effect, I dont think I have a carrer in advertising)

If I'm ever in London I'll be checking it out.

Hmm, just thought, is the place normaly busy? If so, maybe the cops just wanted a meal and couldnt be bothered waiting. Easy way, cordon off the area, have meal, then come up with some excuse.

First RIAA file-sharing trial begins

Several points

1) Kazaa used to do a search on your hard drive for files to share. If you just clicked your way through the intallation without reading, it would just share your files without you realising. I admit you would have to be dumb to do this, but there is no shortage of dumb people in this world. To convict someone based on that would be just like convicting someone of hacking because they installed a virus-infected peice of software on their machine, and that was used to hack.

2) If the machine was used by several people, they would have to prove that it was her who shared the files (to be fair, although since when has the law been fair?). I know I installed alot of stuff on my parents PC when I was a kid.

3) Back at the point when Kazaa was in use, assuming the states was much like the UK at that point, DHCP was used to give out IPs, and the lease was short. And using a screen name is no eveidence, because ANYONE can use ANY screen name (As far as I remember, there were no Kazaa "Accounts", no password protection).

4) If she wanted to destroy eveidence, she could've just "burned" her HDD. Writing over with random data (4-5 times to be on the safe side) wipes out all remnants of info. I have done this several times when HDDs are dying within waranty, because I copy all my DVDs, CDs etc to my server to play from anywhere in the house (or world for that matter), but HDD companies have been known to inform the record industry if they see anything even slightly dodgy. I dont want the hassle, so I make sure nothing looks dodgy, even though I can prove it wasnt.

5) Thats a stupid amount of damages. The people who download music probably wouldnt buy it anyway, but copy mates CDs etc.

I hope RIAA loose. They are eejits and bullies. May they rot in hell (or do we have a tape safe big enough for all of them to fit in?)

Microsoft-loving (former) security czar calls for closed internet

LOLololol....

....lololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololol.

Sorry, I have just got into trouble for laughing so much in the office after reading that article and it's comments.

Firstly, the guy lost all credibility as soon as I heard he was, basicaly, promoting Microsoft and talking about internet security at the same time. I don't mean to p!55 off any MS-lovers out there, but if you have, say, two networks, one using a MS server as it's firewall to the net, one using a Linux box, which one would you be able to break through first?

2nd, I have seen the UKs National Grid computers. They are not connected to the internet (except maybe in the limited way of using VPN's between sites, I didnt get THAT close, I was only a contractor). They are not even connected to the corporate PC network. If the good ol' US of A does it differently, they are even more STUPID than I have always believed (read what you will into that comment :)

Biometric security, hmmm... Something that relates your biometrics, as in things about your body, to a specific identity. Ermm... havent we had these for many years? In the form of ID cards with photos on them? Just because we use some new technology doesnt mean you wont be able to get fake ID's any more. Fake passports have been available for many, many years. All biometrics do is prove that, assuming said identity is real, you match it.

Right, I had better get back to work now, my boss is giving me dirty looks. Too bad I dont have a tape safe... Or a cattle prod, roll of carpet, shovel and lime.

787 unsafe, claims former Boeing engineer

New career

"he wanted to hang the African-American executive 'on a meat hook' and that he 'wouldn't mind' seeing a noose around the executive's neck"

Is BOFH looking for a new assistant?

BitTorrent-busters busted by BitTorrent

Not loosing out

I have to say that, on the whole, I don't think the industry is loosing out.

Many of the people who pirate movie/software etc probably wouldn't have bought it/rented it/gone to the cinema to see it. They would have watched it when it came out on TV and probably recorded it.

Has anyone seen the Downloading ep of south park?

"This year, because of people downloading music, Britney Spears can't afford to upgrade her private jet. She has to stick with the old one which doesnt even have a remote controll for the huge widescreen TV" (not word for word, but the general idea is there)

Those who can afford and want to buy DVDs/CDs etc still do. Even some who can't afford it.

These big corp's may loose out on a few sales here or there (I know several ppl who download music to see if they want to buy it, so they loose money if its crap). But it's by no means any more than when kids used to buy a tape/record/cd between them and make copies. It's just higher profile now, and easier. People can share with those who they don't know directly. Oh, and they are easier to find. So the industries involved try to leverage their money/power etc to force people to stop.

PC superstore unhinged by Linux

Hmm

If "Tikka" uses Linux, then he is either a techie or one of the "new breed" Linux desktop users (those who can see it's faster, more reliable, and is not only free but has all the apps you need, also free, installable at the touch of a button). If he falls into the latter group, he can be forgiven.

If he is a techie, he is a stupid techie. Everyone knows that PCW pull stunts like this, and that they dont know anything about computers. He would therefore not be a techie, but one of those users who think they are techies. You know, the ones who would try to tell BOFH what's wrong with something, and would trip and bang their head on the corner of a computer case 64 times :)

Strap-on stealth jetplane for special forces

@ HIHO

"The problem with this method of insertion is the acute shortage of dwarf special forces...."

Shouldn't that be the acute shortNESS of dwarf special forces?

....Don't worry, jacket procurement is underway

Britannia triumphs over Johnny Metric

@Greg

The metric system, as said above, is helping to dumb down the population.

I have grown up with a mixture of imperial and metric measurements. I normaly use metric, as that is what school taught. But I weigh myself in stones, measure distances in miles etc.

However, the one thing the Imperial system did was ensure that people could multiply, divide, and cope with fractions. These are fundamental skills, which are sadly lacking by many youths today (like being able to read and write in non-text speak - on a side note did you know that you can score 97% on an English Language GCSE if you write everything in txt? They can only knock off 3% for spelling punctuation and grammar.)

If you have to deal with irregular multiples in the measurement system you are using, it will force you to learn it. If you can just add or remove zeros from a number, you dont need to know what you are doing, so you dont bother. The imperial system is good. Complicated but good.

On another breif tangent, the old Imperial nuts & bolts (thread sizes) were MUCH better than the metric ones, as you had both UNC and UNF, Coarse and Fine threads, suitable for different purposes, and more flexible. When one car manufacturer moved over to metric (cant remember which), they were replacing UNC bolts with the nearest metric equivalent. They forgot that the UNC bolts coarser thread was stronger, had problems, and ended up having to redo tooling and use bigger bolts. A costly mistake.

Cursing senior plod samples electric justice

(untitled)

This is the perfect opportinity to bring South Park to life...

COP: Please move along sir.

MOP (Member Of the Public): Why?

COP: RESPECT MY AUTHORITAAAAAAAH!

<zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt>

MOP: AAAARGH!

O2 starts charging for calls to non-places

A solution

Join Draytel (or similar). They provide VOIP calls, but also alow you to use it as a "calling card". You can then call a geographic number, punch your pin in, dial the 0800 number, and it's included in your minutes. 0870 is the most expensive 08 number to call, and that's 7.9p/min on peak, which is still loads cheaper than the mobile networks are charging.

I'm sure there are other similar ones out there, but I use Draytel for VoIP, so I also use them to stop the mobile networks ripping me off.

China looking to develop scramjet missile tech

Ship 'em home

Brilliant. We will soon have a solution for prison overcrowding. Super-fast jet, shove all the convicts on it, and send em to Aus. Then we have a continental-sized prison!

I am gonna have to patent this idea before someone steals it :D

Think again, FSF tells Microsoft on GPL3

Difference...

There is a difference here between the GPL and MS's license.

MS's licenses are generaly End User licenses, which means it is the person who uses the product which muct adhere to its conditions.

The GPL is all about distribution. This means that if MS Distributes anything containing GPL3 software, it must adhere to the license. In selling the support voucher thingys, it is effectively getting Novell etc... to distribute on it's behalf (it could be argued, I havent seen the exact wording of GPL3 or the agreement between Novell etc. & MS). This means that MS is bound by the terms of GPL2 already, and if Novel etc include any GPL3 then, as it doesn't specify any versions, restrictions or expiration on the voucher, then it becomes bound by GPL3. Basicaly, MS will suffer from it's own short-sighted wording.

Problem is that this would have to be backed up in court. But I think the FSF is doing this the wrong way. Best way to do it would be to get GPL3 into a product which is covered by the support ticket thingy, then somehow force MS's hand. It offers basicaly a patent license, which would be transfered to all users of the software. Then do something which explicitly uses a MS-patented technology. MS would be forced to court, then it would be tested.

The only way that either MS's claims of patent violations or the GPL3's patent clauses will be tested is in court. So we need to get it out of the way, and find out where everyone stands.

TorrentSpy shuts doors to America

Here we go...

You know, people may think team america is just a spoof, but it's actualy quite acurate in one way. They think they are the World's Police.

A Dutch company decides that it has to follow EU, not US, laws on data protection. So the US try to force them to change, because obviously they are right and we are wrong.

As has been mentioned, hiding or spoofing/faking your IP address is reasonably simple for those with the know-how, and for others there are progs that'll do it for you. Therefore, even ignoring the fact that it would be against EU law (at least the spirit of it) for TorrentSpy to hand over logs to the US (in)justice system, it would be useless, except that the users on said addresses would have to prove that they didnt break the law.

And, as has been noted above, the US frowns on the Chinese gov't doing just this. Yet another Trey Parker/Matt Stone production, South Park, got this one right. "An entire nation founded on saying one thing and doing another... And we will call this country the United States of America!"

Warner Bros to remake Enter the Dragon

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

How can they do this?!?! It is WRONG!! Even worse than remaking The Italian Job!!! Or a remix or cover of any Queen song.

Some things should not be messed with. Queen songs and Bruce Lee films are Definately near, if not at, the top of that list.

Google gags Facebook code leaker

ROFLMAO

OK, so they take it down, but leave a copy where anyone with any knowledge of the net would be able to find it?!?

So, either they arent realy bothered and it was just a Cartman-esq "RESPECT MY AUTHORITAAAH!", or they are dumbasses.

I suspect the latter :) LOL

Jason Bourne disses James Bond

Impossible...

...to compare the 2. They are completely different.

I have to say that I liked the Bourne Identity. Mainly for the mini car chase (I like minis). But another thing is that it got me reading the books, and they are AWESOME! The film is nothing like, except for the vaguest outline of the story. But still a fairly good film.

Bond, on the other hand, is a parody. It is not meant to be realistic, it is taking the weewee out of itself. Yes, Bond is a misogynist. It's funny. Yes it's unrealistic, but it's funny. Bond is meant to be entertainment, not a documentary.

<TONGUE IN CHEEK RANT>You know, I wasn't quite sure about Matt Damon, but now I can clearly see him as the character portrayed in Team America. He is a whiny, self-obsessed idiot, and to criticise another, completely different film series like that is just stupid. He should just stick to shouting "Matt Damon, Matt Damon!", it would be more pleasant on our ears.</TONGUE IN CHEEK RANT>

MySQL defends paid tarball decision

Hmm

It seems to me that they are just trying to make it more difficult for people to get the source. Strictly they are keeping it open source, but it seems to me more like they are trying to 'trick' people into buying it, because it is not as easy to get hold of the source.

However, as long as it is GPL or similar (I'm not sure what the license is), anyone can distribute it, so all it needs is for the community to get together and make freely available tarballs of the latest stable code. Still more difficult for noobs to find, but better.

To be honest, I can see why they are doing it, but I think it is wrong, and I hope the userbase lets them know they are being c**ts.

Orange dismantles Bristol Tower of Doom

Uninformed oppinions...

... definately count more than scientific evidence or reason and logic. Do you think it was reason and logic which started witch hunts, crusades etc.? No, it was the huge wealth of stupid people on the planet.

And now things are getting worse, all thanks to democracy. Everyone thinks they have a right to have a say in how things are done. Especialy those who haven't got 2 brain cells to rub together. So some elderly people die, and they start looking for someone to blame. Could it have anything to do with the fact that they are elderly and their bodies cannot repair themselves anymore? No, that can't be it, that's only been happenning for as long as life has existed on this plannet. It must be the evil mobile phone mast. It's new, so it can't be trusted! KILL IT!! BURN IT!!! And KILL ALL THE NON-BELEIVERS, TO SAVE THEIR SOULS!!!!!

Nokia calls Microsoft for DRM software

S60

Correction WRT "S60 is a web browser developed by Nokia"

<RANT>

S60 is not a web browser. It is an abbreviation of Series 60, an operating system for mobile phones from Symbian, and is not developed by Nokia (or at least not only by Nokia), but is a derivative of the Psion OSes (see previous El Reg article about Psions). It is used by many phones. The first one I had was the NGage, and I currently use the N70, which runs it. The popular N95 also uses S60.

</RANT>

Anyway, other than this, WHY OH WHY put Microsoft software into such a nice, reliable OS?

OSI Prez confronts irate users over 'badgerware' license

@Peter

I have not looked propperly at this license, but by reading the previous articles on the matter, this license is not as bad as you think. I beleive it requires a small logo and/or short peice of text to be displayed once for each use of the software (like a splash screen) for a short amount of time.

Like I said this is only what I've picked up from other articles, and so I may be wrong, but this doesn't seem to be anything more than "I wrote it, I would like people to know".

Incidentaly, it also covers a loophole that they should fix in the GPL, namely use of the code to provide web services. Someone like Google can legitimately use GPL'd code on their servers, heavily modified, and not release any of it back to the community. I beleive this is wrong. I don't know if GPL3 fixed it, but this practice is not in the "spirit" of the GPL and should be stopped.

HMRC loses landmark tax ruling

Too far

This is a loophole which has been exploited for a long time, but these two took it too far.

When I was contracting, I worked through an unberella company. I was paid minimum wage as a salary, the rest as dividends. However, out of those dividends came my expenses (last time, this included fuel, B&B and food, as I was working away from home). This meant I did pay less tax, but within the law, fairly.

This couple should've been taking away at least minimum wage each, which would be approx £10k each. I doubt the tax man wouldve gone after them if they'd done that. Remember, you still have to pay 19% tax on the dividends (after expenses).

I can see this afecting all the contractors out there who use the system propperly. It could end up seriosly damaging anyone who is not on PAYE, and any small businesses, who rely on this system to make things worth while. All because they got greedy!

Skype violates open source licence

Terms

The terms of the license are actualy with regard to DISTRIBUTING the software. Therefore if you distribute a product, strictly you must make the source code available yourself.

This is a fine line, but adhering to the letter of the license Skype should have (at least) provided an address for people to write to for a copy of the source code. The reason for a physical address as opposed to a URL is because of the speed at which internet can change. Websites are redesigned at will, and the URLs all change.

It would have been far simpler to include the source on a CD, especialy as it probably came with some form of Driver or Documentation CD anyway. Even if it didnt, costs would be negligible.

And I will also say that if this was Microsoft complaining that a company had used one of their products against the license agreement, most people would have switched sides. For me, a license is a license, and no company should break that unless they are willing to be sued. In this case it appears to be an oversight, but they still violated it. Simple as.

BBC Trust to hear open sourcers' iPlayer gripes

Minorities

Sorry, I may have missed someone posting the same as me here, but...

@ The anonymouse poster of 'Choice?'

The BBC makes programs for minority groups in the UK. I myself do not listen to BBC's Asian radio station. In fact, the majority of those in the UK don't. So to me it has no value, and the same to most people in the country. But that doesn't mean it shouldnt do so.

The BBC is a public service. It provides content for everyone. We pay for this content whether we want to watch it or not. The problem comes when a 'minority' is excluded. You say Linux is a 'minority OS'? Then we are being discriminated against, and should have the same rights as all other minorities, and not be forced to do things the same way as the majority. Simple as.

Microsoft re-assures partners on Vista compatibility

Beta-testing

I am going to voice a commonly held perception here: Microsoft release Beta-quality products, then expect people to pay to test them. They can then eliminate the bugs as they go, but are being paid already.

This is why I say IT pros should not to touch a new MS product for at least 6 months after release, other than to beta test it, and then only as a second OS. Everyone else should not even consider it for at least a year, probably 18 months. I have stuck to this rule since I upgraded from 6.22/3.11 to 95 and it broke almost everything I was running at the time.

I personaly havent done anything with Vista other than set up a dual boot to evaluate it. It is a PIG, devouring every resource on the machine, making it run slower than anything I have evr seen before (except maybe when I managed to install Win2k on a 486DX25 with 16Mb RAM, just for fun, but it's a close call). MS need to do something about this, as anyone running less than a 2GHz CPU, or less than 1Gb RAM, is not going to be able to work, or play, productively on Vista.

I am personaly performing a major hardware upgrade (partly) to evaluate Vista. £300 ish for a dual 3GHz AMD CPU, 4GB RAM, and Vista might be usable. Then I can test if any of my apps or peripherals work. But as to using it as my main OS, I would estimate not for at least another 9 months.