Posts by Bakunin

Microsoft DMCA takedown requests targeting OpenOffice

Re: Could it be ....

"You can hook excel up to a HPC cluster, that's pretty innovative."

If you need a cluster to run the calculations on your Excel sheets something has got horribly out of hand.

100,000+ Earthlings star in 'reality TV contest' for ONE-WAY ticket to MARS

Re: They *all* sound like ideal candidates

"I'm sure we could get most of the ex UK big brother candidates to sign up for a colony on the Sun."

Only at night. They're not *that* stupid.

Snowden's secure email provider Lavabit shuts down under gag order

Re: huh...

I think quietly rolling over and letting the Stasi win *yet again* does far more damage.

I applaud his stance.

Did a bunch of bankers fax a stranger's sensitive privates to YOU?

Wetware in the Middle

You do wonder why in this day and age people are *still* printing out a document and walking across the office to then manually feed it into a machine before typing in a fax number.

Police probe IDIOTIC Twitter bomb threats slung at journalists

Re: Bomb Threats

"If you want to describe people winding someone up then come up a new word, don't redefine the word trolling to somehow legitimize it."

You must be new to the internet.

Re: Bomb Threats

"And can we please stop calling it "trolling". "

Sadly the word troll has gone the same way as hacker. Just wait for the papers to start printing headlines along the lines of "Hacker troll [something bad] on [social media/interwebs] "*

* Add in what ever seems appropriate.

WikiLeaks: Manning guilty verdict sets 'dangerous precedent'

It's not all black and white

"He leaked confidential information for which he deserved to be prosecuted."

And for revealing war crimes should he be praised? You don't hear much on that one.

"But he literally did a dump of everything hoping it would be of interest to the public"

While there are many documents which in their isolation offer little interest, the collective "dossier" has focused the worlds attention on the illegal and corrupt tactics deployed by his government. (and of course those war crimes) It's only in the unfolding months after the release that the full impact has become apparent. I don't believe he could have cherry picked the correct documents to fully get across the deeply insidious and dark nature of the US foreign policy. [*]

"We'll wait and see what the sentence is before deciding he's been treated harshly. "

He will almost certainly serve longer than the torturers of Abu Ghraib. So if any lesson is learnt, you're better off sexually assaulting and torturing "foreigners" than relieving you own governments war crimes.

[*] While this is prominently about US foreign policy, I very much doubt they're alone in this practice.

'World's BIGGEST online fraud': Suspect's phone had 'location' switched on

Re: It's all in the details

"As it's impossible to commit the perfect crime ..."

Try selling overvalued assets in a continuous spiral until the government bails you out. Then walk off with all the money and none of the responsibility.

Seems like the perfect crime to me.

New in Android 4.3: At last we get a grip on privacy-invading crApps

@Khaptain Re: Google Switch

"Are you "absolutely" sure about what you are saying or are you new to the game?"

I wish I was, because if I were to do it all again I'd choose a different game.

"Will your solution really stop "Wifi" location being sent to Google, directly or ...."

[snip]

No it wont. But you already knew the answer to that question before you asked it. I was referring to the points raised in the original question.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't "new to the game" either. So you should be fully aware that if you're getting a phone from Google/Apple/Microsoft/Rim then that sort of data is leaking. It's also leaking if you have a Sat Nav that's capable of making a network connection or a Satellite/Cable box or using a web service/store or a connected games console. Or as we've seen over recent weeks pretty much anything with a network connection will get you swept into a mass surveillance dragnet.

But there are options. You can choose to use them or not depending on the cost to your data. If you choose to use them then be aware of what you need to leak and what you can avoid. If you choose not to use them then congratulation to you, that's your call.

It's Friday, let's have a beer and agree to differ like gentlemen.

Re: Google Switch

"Is there also a BIG button which can be used to stop the phone/addressbook/browser/etc from phoning home to Google with user stats."

Yes. You turn of syncing for the Google account.

Microsoft pledges Linux boost for Windows Server and Center R2 duo

"I'd like to reserve the right to try to have a serious discussion on matters MS and Linux related on the Register..."

Good luck with that.

WAR ON PORN: UK flicks switch on 'I am a pervert' web filters

Re: "... as simple as DNS nobbling ..."

"This reminds me of the time, my father (an electrician) in an attempt to ground my older brother ..."

Was he prone to static?

"... as simple as DNS nobbling ..."

" ... it should not be the case that technically literate children can just flick the filters off at the click of a mouse without anyone knowing."

I must admit that if by their teenage years my children haven't worked out how to get round a very simply DNS filer then I'll be most annoyed. It means they clearly haven't been paying attention to what it is daddy does for a living.

Hackers crippled HALF of world's financial exchanges - report

Everything has a reason

"...the attacks are increasingly aimed at destabilising markets, rather than making financial gains."

Surely "they" destabilise a market to gain financially? I very much doubt they're doing it for the lulz.

Oi, jobless yoofs: Upload a witty video bio if you wanna find work

Re: Pointless

Don't watch half of them, that way you weed out the naturally unlucky.

Latest NASA ASTRONAUT class is HALF FEMALE

Re: Careers 'Advisor'

I learnt some time ago that reading the bio's of astronauts is a sure fire way to make yourself feel like a depressed underachiever .

Well done and good luck to them. They've certainly worked for it.

#Facebook: Now all your hashtags ARE BELONG TO US, Twitter

Re: Octothorpetags

"Be careful - keep making suggestions like that and you'll be getting a visit from Captain Barnacles and his lawyers sometime soon."

I would assume intellectual ownership is actually held by Professor Inkling.

Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59

Re: A great loss to Sci Fi..

I completely agree, but would extend it to say "A great loss to literature". The fact that such a prominent author could move back and forth (and sometimes merge) between Sci-Fi and contemporary fiction helped to demonstrate how broad a medium science fiction is as well as producing some wonderful non Sci-Fi novels.

If you haven't already read the Wasp Factory. You wont regret it.

Lonely-heart Maltese techie vs Bonnie Tyler for Eurovision crown

"Among those battling to avoid nil points are ..."

I think you meant to say "Among those battling to get nil points are ..."".

There aren't many countries left in Europe that can afford to host that particular financial albatross. I keep waiting for Ireland to submit "My Lovely Horse". Last year they got pretty close.

PayPal security boss: OBLITERATE passwords from THE PLANET

Re: I can change my password ...

Use your toes? Bingo, ten more sites!

Ubuntu 13.04: No privacy controls as promised, but hey - photo search!

Re: Erratum

"Is the graphics and large file transfer performance in Ubuntu still a lot slower than Windows 8 ..."

Do you have a citation for that? Or perhaps some context?

Crypto guru: Don't blame users, get coders security training instead

What big teeth you have grandma

"News International's chief infosec officer, on the other hand, says ... "

Taking security advice from News International? The irony.

Amazon: We're expanding into TWO HUNDRED countries

Re: Been around the world and I, I, I...

Apparently there are 193 member states, two observer states and 11 other states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states

Question is, does this mean that Amazon recognises Palestine as a state? Or Taiwan? Potential diplomatic minefield right there.

Foxconn must pay Microsoft for EVERY Android thing it makes

Re: Triple Microsoft tax bingo

Where to start.

> ... it had seriously questionable IP

Does it? What IP would you be referring to? Or does your NDA stop you discussing it?

> ... MS are rightly claiming royalties for the technologies they developed

Really? Like to tell us all what this technology is?

> ... That no credible company has tried to take them to court suggests that they have something valid.

No it doesn't. It suggests it's cheaper and less painful to give in.

> ... , but actually they don't have to tell us,

And there is the crux of the problem. I notice they're still not going after the source of the "infringement".

> ... frankly, I can't be arsed.

That much was evident.

Anonymous squirts all over NORKS in birthday surprise outrage

"Depicting Kim Jong-un as a pig"

That's not just any pig. Tripitaka would be most displeased with your ignorance.

iPads in education: Not actually evil, but pretty close

Re: I'm not sure ...

The Reg needs a floating comments system so your post can be raised to the top of the stack. It seems a shame that it's buried away here on the second page.

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. There seems to be an incredible rush to get new technology into the classroom long before anyone's worked out if it's actually going to be of any use.

1 in 7 WinXP-using biz bods DON'T KNOW Microsoft is pulling the plug

"If the PCs running XP do not have access the the internet then i see no problem having them running past the end of life. A P4 box with 512mb RAM is quite capable of running XP and office software ..."

And how are those office files getting on and off the machine? USB drives? Floppies? A surface of attack (not matter how small or odd) is still a possible problem.

I see your point and generally agree with you. I'm sure there will be a lot of Win XP machines at the back of warehouses and connected to small production lines that will happily carry on as normal. However, over time they tend to get forgotten about and can become the "Typhoid Mary" of your office.

As much as I hate the upgrade treadmill it's worth looking at what's going to happen to them over the next year.

Reg readers brew up the ultimate cuppa

It's now a moo[t] point ...

"Exact personal preference must therefore be set aside in pursuit of a compromise brewing solution based on the majority vote..."

... but I still say no to cow juice.

Farewell, Reg: This hack is hanging up her Apple jacket

"I've enjoyed reading your informative, erudite and witty comments ... "

You must be reading a different site!

Take care and good luck.

Ubuntu 13.04 beta touts search privacy - before it hooks in eBay, IMDb etc

Re: Of the things I'd like to see in the next...

"Would be a Linux version of the Taskmanager.exe to kill off all these seized up and frozen applications, and File Transfers I'm getting off my NAS"

Check your desktop environment. KDE and XFCE both have it (and I assume GNOME does as well but can't speak from experience). There are other DE independent task managers.

But then if you've got that many seized up and frozen applications then you have bigger problems than not being able to find the process manager.

Like a browser's "do not track" option, if it's off by default you clearly didn't mean it.

Keyboard, you're not my type

Re: PS/2?

"One issue, what was the last bit of kit you had a PS/2 port on?"

The two Dell boxes I'm sat in front of at work right now, the desktop and server sat at home and the media PC under the TV. With the exception of the media PC they're all under five years old.

Re: PS/2?

PS/2 has no limit on simultaneous key presses. However, USB is limited to (I think) six regular keys. Additionally some operating systems / BIOS setups / embedded systems don't support USB keyboards.

Personally I stick to USB as it's usable on a wider selection of "regular" machines, but I can see why some people might prefer PS/2 . For those odd situations I keep an old PS/2 as well as an IBM AT keyboard at the back of the cupboard.

Hey, media barons: The noughties called, they want their mobile tech back

Re: And so?

"I don't quite get the visceral hatred of advertising."

Because it's sanctioned lying.

Welcome to our Wi-Fi: Devicescape reinvents landing page

"... bypassing any landing page though the use of crowd-sourced experience to provide connectivity without user intervention."

It means "we took it from the press release". Which in turn means "written by a marketing droid"

Review: Britain's 4G smartphones

Faster, higher, better ...

... but never lasts as long.

The merits of 4G aside, I do wish the phone manufacturers would put more effort into battery life. We've gone from phones and PDAs which would last most of the week to barely scraping though 24 hours.

A net connected personal device is great, and I use it every day, but how did end up in a situation where you feel nervous spending a full day away from a charging point?

Tesco dials 999 after Clubcard vouchers are 'nicked' online

Re: ooohh 200million clubcard vouchers stolen !

"Did you you check or did you just assume?"

Satire is dead.

Facebook turns billion-dollar profit into tax refund

Re: I can't fault Farcebook for following the rules

Yes you can fault someone for following the rules. What is legal and what is right are not necessarily the same thing.

HYPERSONIC METEOR smashes into Russia, injuring hundreds

Re: Oops

"On a more serious note this might be a good advertisement to increase near earth orbit funding"

It's just the universe's gentle reminder that everyone clinging to the same small rocky planet isn't a safe bet. (civilisation wise)

Now, must go sort out some off planet backups for my data.

Pope resigns months after launching social networking effort

Re: Take them to the cleaners, Benny!

I think it was meant to be a joke.

Microsoft Surface Pro launch: It's easy to sell out of sod all stock

Shock Comment from Microsoft HQ

"What? People are actually buying these things?"

FAVI smacks your dumb TV with £30 Android SmartStick

Slay

" ... and playing things like Slay on it (just bought the Android version - about the tenth time I've bought that game, one way or another, since Windows 3.1)."

Good lord, I'd forgotten all about that game. I didn't even realise there was an Android version.

Well that's my next long train journey sorted. Thanks.

US court ungags Yelp reviewer who dissed builder

Re: Negative reviews are more valuable

I tend to find the middling reviews are the the most informative. "Feels flimsy but then it was cheap", "Service slow but otherwise food good", that sort of stuff. It it gives you a much better idea of what you're getting into.

The five star raves and one star rants tend to be biased or generally uninformative.

Facebook fixes 'Peeping Tom' webcam bug - AFTER 5 MONTHS

Automated Sincerity

The fact that it's done through Facebook aside, an automated message to your "friends" is a little lacking in sincerity.

Perhaps there's an app in that idea; a daily check on your friends status' for any mention of deceased and we'll rush out flowers and bill your credit card. That way your prompt response will make it look like you really care.

New Year's resolution: Don't use Instagram, it'll sell YOUR photos

Re: If i upload something that i don't own

"The case that's specifically interesting is what happens if I take a picture of someone, which Instagram then use to sell advertising?"

I assume the line "Instagram does not claim ownership of ... " is some kind of legalese that leaves you responsible for the image but they get to profit off it.

It pays to study the habits of your email users

Re: MS Outlook

"... You'll need to change the registry to turn on Query Builder though"

"... 20gig defaults for 2003/7 but fixable by a registry tweak"

I love the way Windows is so easy for the layman to use.

Apple shares take biggest one-day hammering in 4 years

Re: Sheen off the Apple?

It's nothing new. Sheen's been off his apple for a while now.

Copying Wikipedia's lies is not just for hacks, right Lord Leveson?

Re: It's a launch pad

"No. What it's taught us is that some people will believe anything if it's written down in black and white. But we knew that already."

Should I just believe that or do you have a citation?

It's a launch pad

I agree. It's a very good starting point for getting an overview of a subject and I find it's generally correct. However, it should only really be viewed as a launch pad into other sources of information. Always be very wary of any fact without an external citation.

Why the hate of Wikipedia? Those who make their living out of producing content love to point out any errors/pranks as evidence that unpaid content doesn't work.

The sad thing is it's a great, if imperfect, achievement that gets bashed far more often than praised. However, if there's one lasting legacy of Wikipedia it's that it has hopefully taught people to be more critical about the source of their knowledge.

Lovefilm does a Wii after rival gets loaded on new Nintendo

All that effort

Then don't. No one is forcing you.