* Posts by Lamont Cranston

1555 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Apr 2010

Facebook is no charity, and the ‘free’ in Free Basics comes at a price

Lamont Cranston
Joke

No Java, No Flash, no large images?

I'd buy that for a dollar!

Lamont Cranston

Re: Appeal

In an ideal world, governments look out for the interests of their citizens* - leaving everything in the hands on unregulated markets is just asking for trouble.

*can't believe I kept a straight face whilst typing that

Lamont Cranston

Re: Mistake in the article ?

"Free" and "ad supported" are fairly interchangeable, I would have thought - I've always considered commercial tv and radio broadcasting to be "free", in so much as I don't have to pay any money for them.

Lamont Cranston

Re: ads for free web access

@Seajay But it isn't free web access in exchange for ads, is it? It's free access to the internet services that Facebook provides (Facebook, Whatsapp, etc.) which is anticompetitive. Whilst free access to a reduced service might sound appealing, when compared to no access to a full service, the truth is that the restriction of choice that it brings is anticompetitive and so likely to harm the interests of those consumers over the long term (by disadvantaging any potential competitors).

For Zuckerberg to claim that he's protecting net neutrality just shows what a brass neck he has.

Russian Pastafarian wins right to bear colander

Lamont Cranston

That's not a collander, it's just a hat.

Unless knitted kitchen utensils are the norm in Russia?

Optimus Prime goes under the hammer

Lamont Cranston

Re: Hang on

More practical effects than one might expect (at least in the first film, I haven't bothered with the rest). But, no, these look nothing like the characters that they're supposed to represent.

After-dinner Mint? Stylish desktop finale released as last of the 17 line

Lamont Cranston

Re: Not quite there yet...

I've given up trying to get my Mint install to print to our wireless HP printer - always prints with the colours misaligned, for some strange reason. Based on that, I've never attempted to get the scanner going!

Everything else is great, though, such that I rarely feel the need to boot it into Windows Vista, anymore (if someone could recommend an easy way of ripping and tagging CDs, I'd been happy as a pig in muck).

Lamont Cranston

Re: maybe one day there will be a Linux OS that I can recommend to a wider audience

If there is, it'll probably be Mint. I've found the hardware support to have improved since I started using it (either that, or I've just become a more confident Linux user?). Where Windows does win, is that you'll almost certainly know someone who can help you out with your PC, in real life, but Linux will probably require searching online for the answer. I think that will change, however (and I've generally had no problem in finding answers to any issues by searching online).

BBC risks wrath of android rights activists with Robot Wars reboot

Lamont Cranston
Go

Re: They could combine...

Clarkson & co., locked in a pit and tormented by armed robots?

Nvidia GPUs give smut viewed incognito a second coming

Lamont Cranston
Joke

[something something] holding it wrong [something something]

Needs to be a jab at Apple, somewhere, surely?

Lovelace at 200: Celebrating the High Priestess to Babbage's machines

Lamont Cranston

Re: Great visionaries

Rumour has it that Half Life 3 was available for the Analytical Engine - if only Babbage had finished building the thing!

Lamont Cranston
Thumb Up

Re: Tip of my hat to the illustrator

I found a copy of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage under the Christmas tree - it's a lovely book, and chock full of informative annotations.

Did North Korea really just detonate a hydrogen bomb? Probably not

Lamont Cranston

Re: Ever heard of Guantanamo Bay?

That the USA has a less than stellar reputation on human rights, is hardly a reason to cheer on the NK nuclear programme.

Dick limps towards inglorious end: Gadget retailer on the brink

Lamont Cranston

Re: Oztralia

I was wondering why I'd never heard of them. Still, it's an insight into Maplins future, at least.

Drunk? Need a slash? Avoid walls in Hackney

Lamont Cranston

Re: What's to clean?

£40k to man a phone line? You've never worked in the public sector, then?

Intel, Warner lock horns with hardware biz over HDCP crypto-busters

Lamont Cranston

No chance they could just give up on all this encrypted video nonsense?

No? Pity. At least the lawyers will eat well.

Steve Jobs mural highlights plight of Syrian refugees

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: "if the job is getting done for less then that is the only consideration" @Ragarath

This is a legitimate concern, but why does the response always have to be "let's kick out the foreigners" rather than "let's prosecute the employers who are knowingly employing those without leave to remain, and/or paying below minimum wage"?

Reading it back, the former is a more catchy slogan, I suppose.

IT bloke: Crooks stole my bikes after cycling app blabbed my address

Lamont Cranston

@John Tserkezis

A limp what?

Old jet bits, Vader's motorbike gear, sonic oddness: Hats off to Star Wars' creative heroes

Lamont Cranston
Happy

Re: "the stories are not sci-fi"

That was kind of the point, wasn't it? The stories may have been set a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, but the source of the stories wasn't sci-fi, only the setting was. Star Wars is never really about the technology (lightsabers are just swords, spaceships are just boats, fighters are just planes), it's just familiar stories given a sci-fi twist, and it really worked. Not for everyone, but there you go.

City of London cops in Christmas karaoke crackdown shocker

Lamont Cranston

Re: Costing money? How?

"uploading and distributing would still have been costing the legitimate music companies money"

is the same as

uploading and distributing would not have been making any money for the legitimate music companies

Apparently. Profit is the be all and end all, apparently - maybe the Ferengi are in charge?

New HTTP error code 451 to signal censorship

Lamont Cranston

Re: Can we also have error 551 to indicate 'Censorship needed'

You'll miss the internet when it's gone.

Mozilla backs away from mobile OS as Android looks invincible

Lamont Cranston

A shame, but not a surprise to anyone, I suppose.

Should we start touting 20## as the year of [something other than Android] on the mobile?

Revenge porn 'king' Hunter Moore sent down for 2.5 years, fined $2k

Lamont Cranston

Re: "don't understand how identity theft even applies"

I read (on Vice's Motherboard, I think) that he was presented with a list of charges, and decided to plead guilty to two of them. He's got of pretty lightly (the $147 paid to one of his victims is laughable).

Despite Mrs Moore's protestations, I think I can say with a degree of certainty that Hunter Moore is a dick.

Darkode 3.0 is so lame it's not worth your time reading this story

Lamont Cranston

"hackers, coders, and other net scum"

Coders really are the worst, aren't they? The sooner everyone stops coding, the better.

Ofcom spins out Wi-Fi checker app just in time for Christmas

Lamont Cranston

Re: My challenge

I doubt there's many microwave ovens or homeplug adaptors on Rockall, so the WiFi is probably excellent. OFCOM should be talking up the benefits.

Lamont Cranston

Re: Ofcom said its Wi-Fi checker app – developed by SamKnows...

Should a public body even be commissioning a specific app, when there are already many free alternatives?

Lamont Cranston
WTF?

Someone's not been producing their material externalities.

Whatever they are.

Doctor Who: The Hybrid finally reveals itself in the epic Heaven Sent

Lamont Cranston

Re: Hybrid is mentioned a lot in the last episodes

A passing reference in the first episode of this series was all I turned up after a quick google. It was a bit like being expected to care about the kid with the tattoo, last week.

Confession: I nodded off twice during Heaven Sent. Aside from The Doctor having been replaced by a clone (I assume they'll come back to that?), this episode was a waste of time. I liked the matrix, though - still waiting for the Valeyard to reappear (unless you meant the Wachoski film, which is a couple of exciting set pieces, broken up by a load of boring waffle).

@h4rm0ny Fair point about not regenerating. Still, The Doctor is dead and is survived by his umpteenth clone.

Lamont Cranston
FAIL

An old man, doing the same thing, over and over again,

for 2 billion years, whilst talking to himself. If the BBC intended this as an allegory for senility, it was spot on. Sadly, I fear it was intended as an exciting TV show for kids, and so it was really fucking boring.

It can't have helped that I have no idea what this "hybrid" business is about, nor why a "confession disk" is a tiny prison, nor why The Doctor was stuck inside it. Come to think of it, how did the disk make its way to Galifrey, given that Gallifrey was locked away where no one could reach it? And why didn't The Doctor regenerate when he burned his body to power the machine? So many unanswered questions - there should be a Red Button feature to future broadcasts that could explain these things as they become relevant.

Very much a Curate's Egg, these modern Doctor Who series (which probably isn't all that different from how it used to be, if I'm honest).

Samsung Gear VR is good. So good 2016 could be year virtual reality finally makes it

Lamont Cranston

Re: VR films ? Not likely.

VR films strike me as a slightly silly idea (I've never been in the middle of a film and wished I could peer up at the boom mike), but I'd take issue with the claim that "producers in that industry absolutely do not want you watching anything else than what they want to show you" - if you've bought the Bluray/download/whatever, they've got your money, so why would they care that you spend 90 minutes watching a pot plant?

Lamont Cranston
Happy

Re: "a broad defined story but with the progress driven by choices that the user makes"

I had those when I was a boy - Choose Your Own Adventure books and Fighting Fantasy. Pretty low tech stuff (and they never attempted to trap me in the holodeck and kill me, which was a bonus).

Broadband's frequency hunters denied Freeview patch – for now

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: "QVC+1 HD and QVC Beauty HD" ??

I'd support this, but suspect that the shopping and porn channels are what's keeping Freeview free.

Not entirely sure how, though - surely Etsy and PornHub provide more than enough crap jewellery and undressed ladies?

Lamont Cranston
Flame

Re: HEVC

Better still, pick and standard and stick with it. I've bought 3 TVs and 1 PVR box in the last 5 years, I really don't fancy replacing them all. If Freeview shifts to DVB-T2, two of the TVs will stop working (they're small sets, so there's nothing to be gained from watching in HD over SD), and a move to HEVC would obsolete the lot in one fell swoop.

What the world needs now is Pi, sweet $5 Raspberry Pi Zero

Lamont Cranston

Re: Overpriced

What I really want is a version that will connect with USB mini-B and a SCART cable - then I could justify that cable mountain I've been tending.

UK gov sinks £25k into Pi-powered cyberdesk

Lamont Cranston

Bagsy Vice President.

No, wait! Junior Vice President.

Lamont Cranston
Flame

Re: Yeah...right...

It'll be completely upgradeable, right up until someone starts to undercut them on the upgradeable parts, and it becomes necessary to change the shape of said parts so that they no longer fit into the upgradeable desk. Then they can convince your peers to laugh at your ownership of an Opendesk 1, whilst they're all using an Opendesk Air, or whatever.

BT could lawyer up after Sky’s sport channels obligation removed

Lamont Cranston

Re: "available on two platforms"

Upvote for you, AndrueC, as you've made me think about how Sky works. Doesn't change the fact that consumers are paying Sky for the privilege of having adverts broadcast into their homes, though.

Lamont Cranston

Re: "available on two platforms"

Netflix and Amazon both offer TV shows without advert breaks. Programming schedules are the past, I would have thought, but that won't stop Sky milking its subscribers for all they're worth.

Science Museum trumpets Da Vinci expo

Lamont Cranston
Joke

Did he invent

The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down?

Remember Windows 1.0? It's been 30 years (and you're officially old)

Lamont Cranston
Trollface

"but somehow manage to get fans believing they were first"

Isn't that Apple's job, these days?

Prudish Indian censors cut James Bond Spectre snogging scenes

Lamont Cranston

"what did that romp offer the plot of the film?"

Have you not seen a Bond film before? It's one of those things that's supposed to happen.

Lamont Cranston

Re: Melonfarmer

I've always liked "Forget you, muddy worm farmer" from the TV version of Heartbreak Ridge. Although, Dick Jones's admission that he and his buddies used to call The Old Man "airhead" is a joyous addition to Robocop's TV edit.

Lamont Cranston

Go watch Goldfinger again.

The "Shocking, positively shocking" fan in the bathtub scene is a classic, but it starts with Bond using an unsuspecting woman as a human shield - not what I'd consider the behaviour of a "gentleman". English Cad Spy, perhaps?

Uber Australia is broke: 'We don't pay tax because we don't generate revenue'

Lamont Cranston

Re: "Actually, yes it is."

See here. Don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but I'd imagine it's much the same. Withholding my tax contribution would more accurately meet the definition of theft, than government taxation does.

Having read your reply to dan1980, I'm slightly worried that you might actually be serious.

Lamont Cranston
Meh

Re: "Blaming companies for doing what the law allows is both futile and foolish."

Quite right, tax laws do need tightening up to eliminate this sort of behaviour, but it's going to require tremendous international cooperation to do it properly. It's not within the power of an individual government to fix, more's the pity.

"Tax is theft"

No, it isn't.

Kids' tech skills go backwards thanks to tablets and smartmobes

Lamont Cranston

^ This.

I'm quite glad that my kids' time in the ICT suite so far (all still at Primary School) has been mostly spent using Scratch to gain an understanding of programming. The only time that social media has come up has been when they looked at staying safe online.

ISIS operates a crypto help desk – report

Lamont Cranston
FAIL

Re: Hornets

There's so much wrong with that analogy, it hurts.

What upgrade cycle? Tablet sales crater for fourth straight quarter

Lamont Cranston

Re: I am NOT a candidate.

A nose around the XDADevelopers forum can usually turn up some fool-proof instructions, but I'd agree that the CyanogenMod site generally presumes a level of prior knowledge. Still, it's a lot easier than you'd think, and well worth a go - if you're considering chucking the device out, you've nothing to lose!

Yes, GCHQ is hiring 1,900 staffers. It's not a snap decision

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: Why not ...

Slash the funding, surely? "Do more for less" seems to be Osborne's current mantra.

Thanks for playing: New Linux ransomware decrypted, pwns itself

Lamont Cranston
WTF?

The other option being

that they keep quiet about it and let the existing malware go around encrypting files and extorting bitcoins as usual?