Posts by Octoberon

A single web link will WIPE Samsung Android smartphones

Catch me if you can

IPhone users have to resort to remotely aggravating Samsung Android users. They sure as hell can't find out where we live any more.

Go Daddy boycott threat for backing hated anti-piracy law

Oops

Hang on...Bob Hoskins? Oh you know who I mean.

Do The Right Thing...Whatever You Think That Is

I'm not in favour of SOPA and I wasn't very impressed with Hoskins' elephant antics. The justifications given for both appear commercially driven at best, and rather arrogant at worst.

I'm a GoDaddy customer but I'll be moving my domains to another registrar now. Not because I expect that to have any impact on GoDaddy's profits, but because my conscience tells me it's the right thing to do. That's reason enough.

Blighty's Android fans get British English voice control

You say tomato...android says, "ya what, buddy?"

The Android Market page linked in the article still has a caveat about how Voice Actions is US only. Am I missing something here?

Facebook quietly switches on facial recognition tech by default

@dodge Why is it scary? Uhhh... three reasons

Ok, reasonable comeback. However...

1. Facial recognition software exists. Repositories of photo's exist. Spooks don't need FaceBook to help them with that part. I'm not sure that's enough to make them the villian. Have you seen the number of CCTV cameras lately? You're being watched, but not by FaceBook.

2. Anti-war protests aren't illegal (not in the UK anyway) so why would I need anonymity? Other country's mileage may vary, natch.

3. Agree about ignorance, there are some right muppets out there. Hence my comment about making it very visible, understandable, and accessible.

4. Wish I'd thought of "doo dee doo dee".

@AC Scary?

Why is it scary? You might as well have put "oooh!" in conspiratorial voice too.

Sure, people should be educated about the pros and cons of any feature, in plain, simple language that anyone can understand.

Certainly, changes to the service that may affect your privacy should be made highly visible (stick it on everyone's wall, perhaps.), and the settings very accessible.

After that, surely it's your own responsibility to manage your life, online or off.

Sony readies official PS Move support for PCs

Izzy-wizzy

If I have to wave something about to control the computer, why not carry on with the trusty old rodent? It's familiar, comfortable and cheap.

Kinect on the PC I can see having potential uses because there's no other 'hands-free' tech in regular use. With the Move, it's limited to those with a PS3 (I have one, that's not a complaint) and adds very little real innovation that's viable for anything other than games, which simply brings us back to the PS3/Eye/Move combination.

Hack it for fun by all means, and thanks to Sony for providing the tools to play with, but this isn't going to change the world.

(Controlling my smartphone with the Move...please.)

Microsoft blows Windows Phone update, again

Don't touch that Zune

Not even with your bargepole, mate.

Court orders seizure of PS3 hacker's computers

What Now for Sony?

Following their legal success today, a spokesman for Sony said the company will now be, "turning their attention to a stable door that has been left open, reclaiming lost toothpaste for future use, and committing resources to returning their cat to its soft storage receptacle."

I'm sure we all wish them the best of luck with that.

No court order against PlayStation hackers for now

Pointing the finger

Boycotting Sony products as a protest is everyone's right, but the truth is that the vast majority of people don't care much about the PS3's capabilities beyond playing games and Blu-Ray films. What a proportion of those people will care about is getting their hands on free games if they become available. I know someone who does this for the Wii, despite the fact he can afford to buy the ganes, and despite feeling the pricking of his concience all the while.. That's where to problem lies.

As several people have pointed out, Sony don't care about hackers per se, it's just the company's profit margins they're trying to protect. That's not unreasonable, although how they go about it does. (No more rootkits, please.)

So instead of having a go at Sony (which isn't a real person, you know), why not direct some of that ire at the people who push these companies down the road of taking legal action or coming up with ridiculous technical solutions? (No really, no more rootkits, I mean it.). This is a social problem, not a corporate one.

Should I have the right to take a backup of a game I bought? Probably. Does it matter if I don't? Probably not. It's the owner's responsibility to look after their stuff. What Sony could do is work with the publishers to offer a replacement service for damaged discs. Send them your broken dosc and they send you a nice new one. That's got to be cheaper that their current strategy, and would be a fair compromise to let the hackers get on with what they like doing while giving you peace of mind that your 3 year old won't cost you £40 when he inadvertantly destroys your copy of Black Ops..

Sony sues PlayStation 3 'hackers'

It's not logical

It appears Sony believe they can sue people who cracked a console because what they've done may be used by others for immoral/illegal purposes. Good job Einstein's dead then, or Japan might be suing him for his work that helped develop the nuclear bomb.

Also, if the fix is easy for Sony to implement, as some are suggesting, why are they going all out to to suppress any code or keys the hackers may release? Equally, why are't they using marketing as a heavy propoganda weapon to dissuade PSN users from running pirated software with the threat of expulsion from the online service? It doesn't quite add up.

The only thing that we can safely say at this point, is that a lot of bullshit is being spread around by the opinionated few. But that's why we read El Reg, isn't it? :)

Beware!

Of the dyslexic trolls.

George is 21, not 12.

Android phone sales up 1,309%

1039%? whoosh!

How'd ya like them Apples, er, Androids!

Yeah, alright. Mine's the one with the Cox's Pippin.

Texan smut baron spanked over UK schoolgirl snap

CEO, Robert Burge

“I’M SURE BY THE END OF THE MONTH YOUR FACE WILL BE HISTORY." etc. etc.

I know he's in the porn industry but even so, what a dick!

Tony Curtis goes to grave with iPhone

Convince St Peter to open the Pearly Gates? There's an App for that.

Actually, I thought he'd have been buried with his old MacBook. According to Apple, some like it hot...

Allegedly.

Earth's first all Klingon opera debuts

@Sooty

Quite right. There goes that blokes credibility.

Apple antenna guru 'warned Steve Jobs' over Judas Phone

On a scale of 1 to 10...

...how satisfying would it be to legitimately send His Steveness an email saying simply, "I told you so."

That would be worth getting fired for. Probably.

Mobile broadband: not up to the job?

Broadband Britain My Arse.

Where I live there is no ADSL availability at all and only one mobile carrier (Orange) who can provide a 3G setrvice. For a mere(!) £25 per month I get about 600-700Kb/s according to broadband speed testing sites.

Except I don't. Half the time, for no reason I can fathom, I can't connect at all these days and the signal strength has dropped so much so I'm lucky to get half a megabit per second.

No one knows or will admit what the problem is. No one has any inclination to fix it.

Martha Lane-Fox, start your 'get Britain online' campaign with the telcos or you're on a hiding to nothing, love.

Neuroscientist: iPhone 4's 'Retina display' not bullsh*t

Astonishing.

"We now await Soneira's rebuttal to Jones' rebuttal of Soneira's rebuttal of Discover's rebuttal to Soneria's assertion that Steve Jobs is a jive-ass mofo."

No, not the tear-inducing size of the icarumbaPhone 4's pixels. Astonishing that Apple are still not sending flowers, Christmas cards etc. Truly baffling. Really.

Firefoxers howl as privacy add-on auto updates with 'bloatware'

On the other hand

I see a lot of shouting about something new and unexpected arriving via the update but very little assessment on how well it helps Joe User resist the ploys of the marketing departments. I don't care about 3 measly MB and my perception is that FireFox runs at the same speed now as it did last week.

I agree that it's reasonable to be asked before installing significant updates, but please people, get some perspective.

If FireFox really is slower on your PC I suggest you spend the time constructively by picking up the toys you threw out of the pram.

Firefox comes over all cloudy

Re: Opera the innovators as usual.

<Can anyone name ANYTHING that Mozilla have come up with original, and not just ripping off others?>

I quite like their cheese.

Oh hang on...

Stephen Fry's truly terrible mistake

It's a small big world

I can forgive Stephen this DAB foolishness because of his fine work making us love SackBoy in Little Big Planet ("For every rude-shaped creation you make a little Sackboy dies.").

He does seem to have a unquenchable penchant for fiddling with male-oriented accessories. We should expect nothing less that a few comments on what's enveloping our aerials.

Also, is he gay?

Apple demands public apology for iPhone parody

@AC

"Sandi Toksvig towers above you!"

Now that's comedy!