Posts by alain williams

Ballmer leaves investors speechless in Seattle

You mean ...

that he is like the drunk in the pub who loudly declares himself to be sober.

Spam volumes show massive drop - but why?

Set up SPF

Set yourself up a SPF record, it isn't hard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework

Not everyone does SPF checking but it is enough to help if someone is using you like this.

Microsoft nails second Android device maker

Did they say which ones ?

MS has long been saying that Linux infringes its patents ... but is more coy as to which ones.

Make sure your data finds a safe harbour

US companies

may well be willing to sign up to all sorts of EU inspired data protection agreements, but if uncle Sam come mentioning the 'patriot act' then they will all just fold and give them a copy.

If it is sensitive - don't let it near the USA.

Mind you, I don't know how much safer European providers really are ...

US plan to hold EU passenger data for 15 yrs 'unlawful'

What does it matter ?

The USA will keep the data for as long as it wants, regardless of what anyone else wants.

Stop them taking it in the first place - the excuse of terrorism is what they use for almost everything these days.

Has UK gov lost the census to Lulzsec?

Don't complain about LulzSec

If it had not been them this month it would have been someone else in the months to come.

Anyway: the CIA already has a copy.

British Library hands 200 years of history to Google

Also help them to last longer

Paper degrades with time and is costly to restore or keep in good condition. Bytes (in open, documented formats) should last much, much longer.

GeoTrust founders offer free SSL

Everyone is going to want SSL soon ...

if the google sponsored SPDY extension to the HTTP protocol comes in. (This is the thing that is supposed to make a 50% improvement in downloading a web page.) SSL is integral to SPDY, ie google is trying to make everyone use SSL all the time -- the speed improvement will be a strong motivator for most people.

Google sees 15% speed boost with HTTP tweak

SPDY - proprietatry or not ?

Google has published a full spec of the protocol, this means that others are capable of implementing it fully and compatably. If you choose to not use SPDY things will still work, albeit not so quickly.

The MS way is to extend a standard in a way that is not completely documented, then fail interoperation if the extensions are not used.

Note that it is still under development. I would hope/expect to see an RFC come out of this at some point.

Go Daddy sued over email alerts

Just described, not commonly performed

''For prior art, you have to show that it was commonly performed before the patent filing date, not today.''

Prior art means that the technique was known before the filing date, no one needs to have actually done it. Actually in the USA it is 1 year before the filing date.

A sysadmin's top ten tales of woe

Where do I start ... ?

Both sides of a mirror on the same disk ...

Multi file tar backup to the rewind (not norewind) tape device, all except the last archive over written ...

Sysadmin working in the machine room at the weekend, felt a little cold so turned the air con off. On monday the servers were fried ...

Top sysadmin and deputy are the only ones who understand things. They fall in love, give 9 months notice of round world trip. Company starts looking for replacement three days before they leave ...

Raid 1 is backup isn't it ? Don't need anything else. Until a user error deletes a file. Cos it is raid 1 both copies go ...

Backup up to tape, read verify it, all the files seem to be there. Disks blow up, restore from tape. Why is the data 6 months old ? Because 6 months ago the tape write head failed, the y had been verifying old data ...

Dam Busters dog dubbed 'Digger'

Political correctness gone mad

Maybe they should also use the term the ''king's wife'' in case people assume that the king was married to his gay lover.

Daleks given a well-earned break

It might be scary ...

but that is what the sofa is for: hiding behind.

Worked for me! It might have scared me, but I would not miss it.

UK.gov 'falls short' of legal obligation to enforce EC cookies Directive

And I still don't understand

The ''news release'' of today claims that it is ''clear'' -- but not for me. I wrote to the ICO 2 weeks ago, they have not bothered to answer, so today I have asked them again -- I am not holding my breath while waiting for a reply.

What is worrying is that the ICO comments on their own web site now suggests that session cookies are covered by the new rules:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/current_topics/website_changes_pecr.aspx

Previously I understood they they were not as they were ''essential to the site operation''.

How on earth can we be expected to follow vague rules? Those responsible for setting them seem to be clueless; they have the ability to generate vast amounts of meaningless waffle while carefully avoiding any specifics. Are they waiting for the courts to provide the interpretation and then tell us that that is what they meant all along -- wallies :-(

Microsoft waves CentOS club at Red Hat

CentOS 6 - availability

Yes, I have been somewhat concerned that this has taken as long as it has. However it is now in QA and seems to be imminent, see:

http://qaweb.dev.centos.org/qa/calendar

McKinnon battles renewed Obama-era extradition push

And then Obama to Pakistan ?

So presumably the USA govt will thus be all to willing to extradite Obama to Pakistan when they decide that he ordered a killing mission into their sovereign territory withough first seeking agreement from the Pakistani government.

I also note that it is illegal for the president to order someone's death, but that the USA govt lawyers jumped backwards summersaults to say that this was OK.

Desktop OS revenue and growth outpace servers

What do you measure ?

The trouble with this sort of report is that they measure volume in terms of dollars. This weighs an expensive operating system more than a cheaper one and both more than one that is free. So how should you count: number of new installs, the amount of use (whatever that means), transactions, or ... ?

Distro watch works by counting visitorsOK for desktop operating systems, and puts Ubuntu at about 6 times RedHat: http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity

What about the operating systems that you dont see, the ones in your broadband router and other embedded systems ?

But Gartner is paid to do research by the big boys, the ones who sell operating systems, so it is natural that they will want to make their customers look good.

Porn found in Osama bin Laden compound

Finding porn has been predicted

given the religious views of his followers this is probably one of the most damaging things to al Qaeda morale that they could find, guaranteed to turn the greatest number of his followers away from the cause.

This is why I take this announcement with a huge shovel full of salt. I am not saying that it was definitely not there but that if it wasn't then its existance is something that the USA analysts would/should invent to support their cause.

WTF is... IPv6?

Lack of broadband modems

I have been looking to do this for some time. Internally my machines run IPv6, my machines out in the Internet also do, my ISP will (it was a major part of the reason for me changing ISP), but I can't find a sensibly priced ADSL modem that will do it. The best suggestion that I have received is to put OpenWRT on a Buffalo router ... some maybe time when I have a day or so to spare.

Until the hardware manufacturers step up to the plate - this won't happen. This ought not be an option, it should be a standard part of every new modem. However that would probably add 30p to the price, so it won't happen until customers scream for it, which won't happen until there is lots of content only reachable by IPv6, which won't happen until there are lots of potential customers who are able to access it over IPv6, which won't happen until ....

ABORT [[ Infinite recursion detected ]]

US spooks to build 60 megawatt data center

Which is why the released the news today ...

that they are examining Bin Laden's computer -- ''Guys, he has been encrypting his data, we are gonna need some powerful computers to decrypt it -- just to keep you safe you understand, we would not think of using this do decrypt friendly communications''.

Windows phones send user location to Microsoft

open source phone

There was the OpenMoko - but that seems to be dieing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_moko

No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

Data Subject Access Request

It would be really interesting to hit Apple with a Data Subject Access Request - it would cost you £10 and Apple would have to give you a copy of all the data that it has on you within 40 days. That would show up if any of this data ends up on Apple's servers.

I don't think that Jobs would be too pleased with this, but it is a right that we have in the UK.

I don't own an iphone so I can't do it.

Any of you tried it ?

Google Linux servers hit with $5m patent infringement verdict

What were the arguments ?

Do we know what the arguments were that swung the jury ? There is very little real substance to this story other than the verdict.

Were they technical or was it along the lines that google can afford it ?

Hubble celebrates 21st with gorgeous galactic 'rose' snap

Zaphod

Don't believe you -- Zaphod would not post AC -- his ego just would not allow that!

The best sci-fi film never made: Also-rans take a bow

My new reading list ...

thanks for suggestions for my new reading list for Easter!

SCHEITERN: Scientologists want to friend schoolkids on Facebook

Please don't call them a church

They are a bunch of murderous, mind controlling thugs - to bestow the title ''church'' on them gives them an air of respectability. I almost typed ''credibility'', but their particular bunch of myths is no more wacky than those of the estabilished bunch.

A fifth of Europeans can't work out how much a TV costs

Innumeracy is horrible

A few years ago at a (nameless shop) I was buying ink jet cartridges. There was a 10% offer if I bought 2. So I decided to stock up and bought 4 - so the shop assistant offered me a 20% discount!

I wonder how many people read agreements on web sites ? A year ago I got a new VAT number, this involved ticking a box to say that I had read the adjacent link. Only trouble was that the link was broken -- it took me 3/4 hour on the phone to report the fault abd be told where the agreement was. I doubt that it stopped people signing up.

Feds defend Twitter dragnet on WikiLeaks supporters

There is no greater crime ...

than to expose the wrong doings and hippocrasy of the powerful; thus the persecution of Bradley and Assange.

Air NZ safety vid provokes terror in the skies

Let's make it realistic ...

where do you get that much leg room!

South West Trains puts squeeze on commuters

Make rail management travel cattle class

I have long believed that there should be a legal bar to transport management from travelling first or business class -- even if paid for with their own money. This would result in a rapid improvement of what most of us have to put up with. As it is these people get subsidised first class travel - so what incentive do they have to make life more pleasant for the rest of us ?

Govt working on 'browser-based' solution for new cookie law

session cookies

What I want to know is: does this also cover session cookies ? These cookies only survive for a short while: as long as the browser is not restarted and the user keeps viewing a particular site's pages at least one every 25 minutes (or there abouts). The purpose is to stitch together a set of page views into a related sequence -- a session. Once the session is over it is completely lost.

It would be a pain to have to ask permission to set these.

Credit cards at the turnstile across London by 2013

Better for tracking movement then

Do away with anonymous (cash paid) oyster cards, use credit/debit cards and so know who is traveeling where/when. This information will end up in the hands of the spooks.

Court OK's Assange Sweden extradition, given 7 days to appeal

How long before he ends up in the USA ?

I suspect that the judge regarded Assange as a problem that the UK could do without.

Doctors warn on patient data

Why I opted out

a year or so ago. I knew that this would happen.

German Foreign Office kills desktop Linux, hugs Windows XP

Your daughter ...

is probably: intelligent and willing to learn. Many users of computer systems know how to press buttons of certain colours in certain places. If anything changes they don't know what to do.

I have had users freak out because some of the icons on their desktop were moved - they were only happy when they were put back.

A big problem is that all of us reading this list are interested in computers and have some insight into how to make them do things. Many users just are not interested, that is a real problem. Training might help, but there is often little of that.

Census threatens spies' cover

Wot - no Jedi option for religion ?

In spite of it being the 3rd most popular in the last census!

Q18: What is your main language?

Do you think that I could enter 'perl' ?

Elon Musk's rocket booked by Google X-Prize moon robot

Google moon

Presumably they want to update what they have on google moon. I wonder if the inhabitants there are a little more cautious and encrypt their wifi ?

Official: PhD in 'Essential Oils' or 'Natural Toiletries' = 'a Scientist'

Did they ask a scientist ...

what it takes to be a scientist? ie: someone who follows a scientific methodology, try Karl Popper for a start as to what that means. I suspect not, the ruling was probably made by some arts muppet who thinks that wearing a white coat makes someone a scientist -- style over substance.

This is more than just a matter of word definition, it will open the door to sham products legitimised by a white coated wally waving their hands. The public will then be reassured and if they are lucky only suffer financial loss - maybe suffer health problems as a result.

This is exactly the sort of thing that the ASA is supposed to protect us from.

Israel and US fingered for Stuxnet attack on Iran

What would the USA say ...

if some other country had developed something to target some of its infrastructure or industrial plant ?

PHP apps plagued by Mark of the Beast bug

Mickey mouse ?

Don't confuse the language with its users. PHP makes it very easy to get web applications up and running. Some of these are done by people who don't understand what they are doing and who write truely dreadful code - why blame the language for this ?

10-year-old girl becomes youngest ever supernova discoverer

Marital status unknown ?

You wrote: ''a chuffed Ms Gray said'' - so is there a possibility that this 10 year old is married then, or is El Reg suffering from PC madness ?

Novell's Microsoft patent sale referred to regulators

FLOSS special vulnerabilities to patents

1) The code is available so others can look at it to find infringements, you can't do that with closed source s/ware.

2) The code is given away and so big money not made, so authors cannot afford to defend themselves.

People use FLOSS, to (amongst other things) save money not to make it. If this cartel kills the free competition -- what will happen to the prices that they charge and their rate of innovation ?

Coca-Cola fizzes over pornforacoke.com

Why should coca-cola win ?

They are not passing themselves off as coca-cola. They have a few images of their cans of undrinkable fizz which may lead to some action, but the domain has clearly nothing to do with coca-cola.

Double-clicking patent takes on world

It is a good business model

File a patent on something simple enough that lots of companies use it in their products. Ask them for fee that is low in relation to what it will cost to hire parasites\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlawyers to defend it, say £50,000, and most will cough up rather than waste time/money in the law court casino.

This will not go away until the economics of the above change.

PARIS concocts commemorative cocktail

Verb for drinking it

I'm not sure what to call it, although I do like the suggested nickerdropper glory.

We ought to define a verb that describes how to imbibe it, it must be: to deep throat.

Ie ''off to the pub to deep throat a nickerdropper glory''.

WikiLeaks' Assange to be indicted for spying 'soon'

McKinnon's real 'crime'

was to cause embarassment to US military muppets who were sufficiently clueless to leave wide open holes in their computer systems - things like not changing default passwords. He did them a favour: he showed that they were deficient in a relatively benign way.

The similarity with Wikileaks is that it is another case of shoot the messenger.

Primary school miss flashes porn vid at kiddies

Was it intentional ?

By the looks of it not. It was quickly switched off, the teacher apologised for the mistake - end of story.

Have any of the kids never walked into their parents' bedroom late at night without knocking ?

I am getting increasingly annoyed at those who hold others to much higher standards than they can achieve themselves, then when something goes wrong - loudly castigate them. We all make mistakes. The correct response is to apoligise and take action to avoid a repetition. Life is too short.

Anonymous hackers' Wikileaks 'infowar' LATEST ROUNDUP

DDOS is not the answer

I support what Wikileaks is doing, but attacking organisations that are perceived to have wronged wikileaks is the wrong way of doing things -- it reflects badly on wikileaks; yes I know that Anonymous are different group, but they will be lumped together by politicians/CIA/... and this will be believed by Daily Mail type readers (or for readers on the other side of the pond: Sarah Palin supporters).

We claim that we are better than those who are being exposed as wrong doers, so we must live up to that, even if it is harder to do so. To do otherwise will muddy our good intentions.

Judge puts Assange behind bars ahead of extradition hearing

Bail refused

''Bail was refused because of fears he could be a target for unstable people.''

Then, surely, he should have been offered police protection, not locked away!

Do they really think that we are that stupid or are they only interested in convincing Daily Mail & Sun readers ? -- or even more frighteningly: convincing themselves ?