* Posts by Hieronymus Coward

23 publicly visible posts • joined 5 May 2010

Scareware solicitors sent to regulator

Hieronymus Coward

Which would be better?

To send them a large sheet of paper with the words "PLEASE FUCK OFF. MANY THANKS" in 72pt Arial Bold or send them a tractor-feed style printout of their IP address 'proving' that they too have been downloading nasty pr0n? 'Look its been printed on a dot matrix printer on tractor feed paper, it must be real!'

PARIS gets doped up

Hieronymus Coward

Solarfilm?

Not thought about using Solarfilm?

It's Iron on and heat shrink so it might be too much for the frame to take, but as you have tried everything else, why not this?

Galaxy S firmware update invalidates Voda warranties

Hieronymus Coward

Reasonable period of time

In relation to consumer protection, and my earlier mentioned dislike of long contracts, at least the 'for a reasonable period of time' clause would mean that your phone is guaranteed in the UK for the full 2 year contract - as your friendly neighbourhood mobile network deems 2 years to be a reasonable period of time...

Hieronymus Coward

Hmmm...

Sounds like a great deal for the customer! Like local loop unbundling a few years ago - you get to play the 'Whos responsibility is it game?' - Your ISP or BT Wholesale? Your mobile service supplier or the handset manufacturer?

Personally speaking I have had enough of mobile service providers and their overly long and high priced contracts for decent phones. I was looking at the Galaxy S in several shops and all said 'no one does 12 month contracts any more'.

The cost of a sim free Galaxy S vs my current monthly (30 day) contract with 'unlimited internet' add on, works out cheaper that either the 16 or 24 month contracts currently on offer. All this with the added bonus of being able to switch to any network after 30 days, plus not having to put up with annoying and restrictive tie ins like this.

PA school district avoids charges over webcam spy scandal

Hieronymus Coward

Terry Childs?

I don't recall any criminal intent in the Terry Childs case... he might have been being an arse, but he got 4 years for his trouble and for not actually causing any real damage or disruption to the network he worked on.

I would think this case of spying (intentional or otherwise) on teens in their own home by their school is way more serious. I guess the decision came from on high, hence the get out of jail free card...

People have no bloody idea about saving energy

Hieronymus Coward

Reuse?

I still get milk delivered in glass bottles which the milkman dutifully collects for reuse (It took me a long time to convince my wife not to put the dirty milk bottles through the dishwasher as they will just be taken to the depo and washed there... seemed a bit wasteful and that the milkman didn't mind if the bottles weren't spotless...).

As a kid in the 70's I used to collect glass bottles and return them for a small deposit. Why don't we start doing that again?

Oracle sues Google over Java in Android

Hieronymus Coward

For the love of god...

...this is why software patents are bad.

I can't say I am surprised at this. I would have been surprised if Oracle gave all the IP for Java to the community - that might have made me think differently about them... time to take a serious look at MySQL forks...

Toshiba shows off self-deleting, self-encrypting drive

Hieronymus Coward

Temporary storage...

It is supposed to be used as temporary storage in say large printers that spool documents and do little else.. If the power goes then you just re-print. But when the device is end of life, you can safely dispose of it without worrying about the contents of the hard disk.

As for why these things need disks - we have a printer that has many features on board that require a hard disk, such as document assembly and secure printing (stored until the user goes to the printer and says physically print the doc).

Where I work the security risks are low, but that may not be true for everyone.

A few years ago I floated the idea of a NAS for the paranoid, with a key stored in volatile memory, in response to the legislation requiring a user to hand over a password for encrypted files if required by the authorities. There were various options for backing up/restoring a key if required, or if you were really paranoid you could just run without the key backed up anywhere. The NAS on an UPS, and a controlled shut-down could save the key, but a forced shut-down or yank the power and the key is lost. However you would still likely face 2 years if a judge didn't believe you ever had a key/password.

Ditch the malware magnet

Hieronymus Coward

Smoothwall & Dans Guardian

I have been using Smoothwall and Dans Guardian in small businesses for a long while now and touch wood, haven't been hit with a virus/malware issue in a long time.

Those (rare) threats that get round the firewall/content filter are usually picked up by Trend Worry Free (not my personal choice but seems to do a pretty good job with central control and reporting), plus you can sit pretty knowing that the firewall isn't going to let them have free reign on the internet while you get the problem under control with a live CD.

eBay Earl beats rap for punting Parliament tours

Hieronymus Coward

Cock!

That is all...

Vista-hating Microsoft throws poo at Apple's iPhone 4

Hieronymus Coward

How about a free upgrade then?

If MS are admitting that Vista is a waste of disk space then how about they offer a free upgrade to Win7 for all their Vista users?

Would be a nice way to bring back some positive feeling about MS operating systems for many who feel a bit disenfranchised after having been lumbered with Vista and don't want to pay twice for the OS.

IBM employee sparks massive bank outage

Hieronymus Coward

Robust infrastructure?

While I can't comment on the abilities of the tech that started the 'cascade failure', this does bring back memories of the email storage saga at Plusnet a while back.

They were replacing the storage arrays with shiny new ones and a tech (presumably a system architect or senior admin) had a console window open to both the old and the new array and issued a format command in the wrong console. Que ensuing shit storm including the revelation that plusnet don't (or didn't) backup the arrays coupled with lots of (failed) attempts at data recovery and the vendor admitting that the array was 'to new' to work with their recovery tools.

Human error (from the admin perspective) is always going to be a factor in managing complex systems. When systems are robust enough to survive human error we won't need sys admins any more, just someone to turn up and set the stuff up.

That said there are always times when you have some kit that just doesn't want to play nice.

Sozzled Oz bozos in reciprocal literal ass-cap-pop

Hieronymus Coward

Dingo stole my baby...

Gotta love these kinda people - you can just hear the conversation...

"Go on it won't hurt much. And then you can shoot me!"

"Fuck it! Why bloody not! Just mind the face."

I would be the one standing well back struggling to breath from laughing.

If people want to do stupid/dangerous things to each other and they are in agreement and it doesn't directly hurt anyone else then it's all good.

Title? Because there are two things that sum up Australia for me. Baby stealing Dingos and Steve 'little bugger bit me, jumped up, sunk his teeth right in!' Irwin (god rest his soul).

Government delays ContactPoint closure

Hieronymus Coward

Well that didn't take long...

... how long until temporary becomes permanent?

Autopsy on wacky Jacqui's ID astroturfing

Hieronymus Coward

£80k?!?

Seriously £80k for a web site?

No wonder uk plc is in so much debt.

Still, I'm sure it was originally quoted at half that and was delivered 5 years later than planned.

Satnav pensioner smashes into 1953 Rolls

Hieronymus Coward

Maybe if it was a ford ka...

I would consider that a right off if it was a bog standard run around.

If it is only one of two left then it is worth more restored than it would cost to fix - right?

Steve Irwin surveillance-crocodiles travel across oceans

Hieronymus Coward
Pint

Never again will we hear the imortal words...

"Little bugger bit me, jumped up, sunk his teeth right in!" (say it with a thick aussie accent with emphasis on 'right in' for best effect).

I miss the mental aussie poking poisonous reptiles with sticks for fun...

Cheers Mr Irwin! I raise a glass to you and Mr John Peel at least one a year. You are both missed.

South African Bill to block all porn

Hieronymus Coward
WTF?

This is getting old...

Why oh why oh why oh why are these people allowed?

Allowed to what I hear you cry!

Allowed to take positions of power.

Allowed to impose their views on the people at large.

Allowed to suppress individual choice.

Allowed to mandate unnecessary restrictions in the name of protection for individuals.

Allowed to get out of bed in the morning FFS!

So by allowing anything other than filtered http on port 80, ISPs would risk prosecution?

R.e. "It's like them saying that the letter 't' is now banned and, by law, all ISPs must filter out any traffic containing the aforementioned letter." If you haven't already, give 'Ella Minnow Pea' by Mark Dunn a read - the powers that be ban letters of the alphabet.

Finnish police raids target virtual thieves

Hieronymus Coward
WTF?

WTF?

Seriously?

"some people reporting the loss of up to €1,000 of stuff"

Who a) has that kind of money to spend on 'virtual' stuff

and b) who is stupid enough to waste that much money on 'virtual' stuff?

NZ spider objects to Canadian's todger

Hieronymus Coward

White tail?

The White Tail is also found in NZ and gives a nasty bite. Whether it would go for your Johnson is a matter for debate...

German Wi-Fi networks liable for 3rd party piracy

Hieronymus Coward
IT Angle

Router defaults...

Am I the only one to have seen routers and access points return to their default state for no apparent reason, more often than not retaining WAN connection details therefore effectively providing open access?

Vote Lib Dem, doom humanity to extinction

Hieronymus Coward

Well I'm sold...

having discovered my local lib dem candidate is on a team at the weekly pub quiz, he seems like a genuine down to earth chap with sound sociopolitical ideas and ideologies.

But now I know about the Lib dems evil plans, i'm much more inclined to vote for the current conservative arse who tells me 'we share simmilar concerns' (over the Mandy Bill) and then doesn't even bother to go and vote... or the other destroyer of liberty, whoever the hell that is.

Seriously, who out of all the 'super powers' in this day and age is going to drop a nuke?

Phillies fan tasered for field incursion

Hieronymus Coward

Zero tollerance...

...of pretty much anything these days it seem. Oh well... nothing to see here, move along.

I though people dicking around on the field/pitch was pretty much a highlight of most sporting events, and no I'm not talking about 99.9% of footballers - they are just dicks.