Posts by Gazman

If every PC is going to be an AI PC, they better be as good at all the things trad PCs can do

Re: Hamster wheels?

Yes, but it took O'Brien *months* to get Winston to that point.

Sam Altman's basic income experiment finds that money can indeed buy happiness

Nixon and UBI

In the weird but true file ...

https://thecorrespondent.com/4503/the-bizarre-tale-of-president-nixon-and-his-basic-income-bill/173117835-c34d6145

With users mostly happy to keep older kit, Macs just ain't selling like they used to

Re: Still using last gen Intel MacBook Pro

Similar issue here - time to leave Apple.

Judge snuffs man's quest to have AI-created art protected by copyright

Re: Different Place, Different Rules

Uk does not have copyright registration - many countries do not.

Different Place, Different Rules

The position in the US is one thing - the position elsewhere is quite another. For example, section 9(3) of the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides:

"In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computer-generated, the author shall be taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken."

Your AI-generated digital artwork may not be protected by US copyright

UK solution already available

Under s9(3), Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988:

"In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computer-generated, the author shall be taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken."

No defence for outdated defenders as consumer AV nears RIP

Get a Mac.

PayPal buys Japanese buy-now-pay-later player Paidy for $2.7bn

Great move ... PayPal's earlier M&A work was a little too New Wave for my taste

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

Magna Carta is largely defunct

In the UK, Magna Carta is subject to amendment and/or repeal by Acts of Parliament like any other law. As such, today, only four clauses remain in force: 1 (part of), 13, 39 and 40. The rest still looks very pretty on the parchment but has precisely zero legal effect.

Beige Against the Machine: The IBM PC turns 40

I can clearly remember reading the review ('Benchtest'?) a few months after launch in the late and still much missed UK magazine 'Personal Computer World' (1979-2009). But I absolutely refuse to believe it has been forty years.

Apple's iPad Pro on a stick, um, we mean M1 iMac scores 2 out of 10 for repairability

Re: right to repair (?)

Well, you are wrong about at least one Apple user - I'm out once my Intel mac Mini goes turtle.

I AM ERROR: Tired of chewing up your RAM? Razer tells gamers where to stick its special gum for the RGB crowd

Re: When I saw gum and RAM in the headline...

@ Simon Harris

Thanks muchly for making me feel a million bazillion years old with that reminder of home computing in the Model T era.

Tech ambitions said to lie at heart of Britain’s bonkers crash-and-burn Brexit plan

Re: Why is the reg being political?

Everything is politics - Thomas Mann

We read the Brexit copyright notices so you don't have to… No more IP freely, ta very much

Re: Sui Generis?

Yes, I’ll try. Sui generis = lit. “Of its own type”. Refers to special intellectual property rights that were created to protect database contents that could not be protected by copyright or author’s rights where those contents lacked the requisite originality.

Oz opposition backs the 'regulatory hallucinogen' of anti-piracy laws

Re: I thought better of the Aussies ...

It's a historical thing. When Labor (the party) was founded in Australia, the US was seen as a beacon of progress and social democratic values (as opposed to frumpy, conservative old Britain). The American spelling was adopted as shiny and modern accordingly (1912). Well that worked out just dandy, didn't it?

Blighty: If EU won't let us play at Galileo, we're going home and taking encryption tech with us

Re: Hypocrites

@Nick Ryan. Political suicide *for the Conservative Government of the time*. I would have hoped that would have been clear from the context of the rest of the post - apparently not.

Re: Hypocrites

Just for the record (and not that it really matters now), the statement you supplied was a statement of the Government's *political intent*. Original poster was right that the referendum was *not legally binding* - I refer you to the following sources among others:

House of Commons Library Briefing Paper, No 07212, 3 June 2015 (ed Uberoi, E), p25

Hansard, House of Lords, Second Reading (Continued), Lord Norton of Louth, 13 Oct 2015 : Column 147 (see also reply of Lord Higgins following).

So, while it would have been political suicide not to proceed with Brexit, there was no binding legal requirement to do it.

Samsung's Bixby totally isn't a Siri ripoff because look – it'll go in phones, TVs, fridges, air con...

Re: Bixby?

No, no, no - it's Bill Bixby playing in 'The Magician'.

WIPO punts Cambridge University over attempt to grab Cambridge.com

Re: Land grabbing by Cambridge University

@Dan Paul

"... A College or University is NOT a commercial entity."

As somebody in the sector all I can say is, "My goodness, where have you been hiding for the last thirty years".

WIPO chief trying to 'fix the composition of the Staff Council' – lawyer

Re: Bah!

@asdf

The story was about WIPO. Your description is of the EPO. Though, to be fair, somebody did mention the EPO further up the comments. And, indeed, there are reports of staff v management issues there as well.

Bloke flogs $40 B&W printer on Craigslist, gets $12,000 legal bill

Perfect example of Merton's Law

I.e. the law of unintended consequences.

Stuff like the 'default admissions in evidence' under Rule 36 was originally introduced to speed cases up and cut costs for parties. But once a litigation troll gets hold ...

Ex-SpaceX tech launches class action over unpaid overtime

Re: Ahh, lawsuit

@NoneSuch

Lawyers only ever act on the instructions of a client.

So let's k**l all the clients. Oh, wait ... hang on a minute ...

As US$12bn is wiped off Apple's value in one day, iOS 9, OS X 10.11 and Watch OS 2 dates set

Why Appearance v Reality Sometimes Matters

Steve Jobs made everything look new and exciting, even if it was just more of the same (e.g. bought-in technology like the original iPod).

Whereas...

Tim Cook makes everything look like more of the same, even if it is new and exciting (e.g. umm ... can't think of anything right now ... ).

Apple: Samsung ripped off our phone patent! USPTO: What patent?

Re: Taketh away

@Dave 126

Definitely on the right track but, strictly speaking, what the Yanks call a "Desgn Patent", the Poms call a "Registered Design".

SpaceX's blast shock delays world's MOST POWERFUL ROCKET

Cough ... Space Elevator ... Cough

I'll get me coat.

'Real' vampires reluctant to 'come out of the coffin' to social workers – barmy prof

That Survey In Full ...

One, one vampire, bwoah-ah-ah-ah-hah!!

Two, two vampires, bwoah-ah-ah-ah-hah!!

Three, three vampires, bwoah-ah-ah-ah-hah!!

(etc.)

Latest in long line of wannabes steps up to helm X-IO

If Bill Miller quits ...

then dibs my go, jinx, no returns.

Elite: Dangerous 'billionaire' gamers are being 'antisocial', moan players

When is the Mac version coming out...

so I can join in with all the whinging?

End well: this won't. European Copyright Society wants one EU law to rule 'em all

Harmonising the Unharmonisable

Here's the harmonisation problem in a nutshell...

a) Although people talk a lot about the split between copyright and author's right, the real problem for harmonisation is inside the author's right system.

b) Some countries (France and those following) have a 'dualist' system - this splits economic (property) rights in works, etc. from moral (personal) rights that relate to works (i.e. the right to be identified as author, etc.).

c) Other countries (Germany and those following) have a 'monist' tradition - this fuses the property and personal rights, thereby creating deep differences from both copyright *and* dualist author's right - for example, under German law, outright assignment (transfer of title) of rights in a work is not possible. It makes life very difficult from an economic perspective and is cumbersome from a practical business perspective (kudlgy workarounds with publishing contract terms - some mandated by law - exist).

d) Since there is no way of 'squaring the circle', one of these models will have to be abandoned for harmonisation to occur. On economic/business grounds, it should be the monist system but can you really imagine Germany giving up on a tradition as hallowed in legal terms as the 'Beer Laws' in food terms? But, equally, can you imagine the French or the British giving up on their traditions?

Keep your court orders to YOURSELF – human rights chief slaps US

Re: Gottalottaballs here...

Have to disagree:

1) 'Google' is, in effect, a cluster of companies set up in different jurisdictions.

2) Those Google companies set up inside EU Member States are subject to EU law.

So no contradiction at all.

Tough Banana Pi: a Raspberry Pi for colour-blind diehards

Re: Trademark Breach?

@AC (Pi a maths symbol, hard to trademark that)

Not necessarily.

When seeking to register trademarks (trade-marks (Can.), trade marks (UK, Aus., NZ)), the basic question is whether the mark is distinctive (a threshold test including being 'not descriptive') in relation to the goods/services* for which that trademark is applied for (and not just distinctive per se).

:.

BICYCLE would be 100% descriptive of bicycles, so 'no go' there.

But ...

BICYCLE would be distinctive for medical services (so we would then move on to whether anybody else was using/had registered it).

[*Strictly speaking, US law distinguishes between trademarks for goods and service marks for services but the substantive differences are not great.]

Bug fixes! Get your APPLE BUG FIXES! iOS and OS X updates right here!

Waiting until 10.10.2

Because third time lucky.

And besides, I like the old interface right down to its little raised and skeuomorphic buttons. Sigh ...

BTW, while I'm at it ... the skeuomorphic thing was always horsefeathers because of another Greek word - autopoesis (things taking on a UI 'life of their' own, in this context). See, it didn't actually matter that the kids didn't know, for example, what a floppy disk was, because, through exposure, they did know what the save icon was.

Ah well. Sad, flat modernity beckons.

Bona-fide science: Which forms of unusual sex are mainstream?

Re: Depressing...

@Arnaud

Fair point. But the methodology on this study really sucks (and that's no fantasy).

Ancient Brits 'set wealthy man's FANCY CHARIOT on FIRE' – boffins

A miracle of survival

I'm sure that it was torched.

One time I drove through Leicester (on the Fosse Way, previously an Iron Age trackway) and the thing that astonished me was a crowd of teenagers standing on top of a car in a park while chanting and pointing at another car they had set on fire.

So, clearly, the ritual has survived in Leicester folk memory.

The Geek Chorus: 'Give MARK ZUCKERBERG all the DATA he wants!'

Re: I refuse...

Yes, but until you surrender all your data, how can the Internet advertising become more relevant?

So just give in, yes, give in ... give us all your data, it won't hurt one bit. Promise*.

*Terms and conditions may apply.

US team claims PARIS paper plane launch crown

Those Magnificent Plastic Figurines in Their Flying Machines

Now what we need is a German paper plane with a playmonaut reading from a teeny tiny manual during takeoff ...

Salesforce plan to rename London skyscraper 'Salesforce Tower' DEMOLISHED

Hilarious

In Australia, these problems are simply resolved by selling naming rights to buildings, landmarks, etc.

However, Telstra Queen Elizabeth II may be going a bit too far...

Oracle's MySQL buy a 'fiasco' says Dovecot man Mikko Linnanmäki

Re: fair enough

@Wensleydale Cheese

... or alternatively Jim Trott out of the Vicar of Dibley: "No, no, no, no, yes"

Pimp my lounge and pierce my ceiling: Home theatre goes OTT

Happy Dinosaur

Mission PCM4000 CD player (1987) (this cost me GBP399 as a first year Uni student and I am determined to get my money's worth)

Denon DRM-10 tape deck (1990)

Creek 4040S2 amp (1994)

Mordaunt-Short MS10 speakers (1999)

"Birdnest" including Telstra T-Box, Pioneer Blu Ray, Digitech A/v transmitter which also has 2(!!) HDMI inputs

Sony SMNICBR* TV 42" (2012)

Small Palsonic SMNICBR* TV in bedroom (A/v receiver attached)

*stupid model number I can't begin to remember

All in glorious STEREO thanks to RCA analogue connections as needed.

Sadly, the CD player may have to be retired in a year or so (Blu-Ray player doing double duty thereafter) as L channel getting a bit iffy. However, this would mean entering the 'bird nest'.

Also getting harder to find chrome/metal tapes for the Denon...

Galileo can't do the fandango: Two Euro GPS nav sats sent into WRONG ORBIT

Re: "Sometimes wish I never gone up at all"

@Pat Volk

Please ignore the 'Little Englanders' on spellings (and on most other things).

While it pains me to say it, the US spellings without the Frenchification are correct - Noah Webster (your original dictionary guy) stuck firmly to the basics.

Meanwhile, Dr Samuel Johnson (our original dictionary guy), great brainbox though he was, was a glutton for Frenchification and stuck in many of the surplus letters that we now see (e.g. 'color' was quite acceptable in British English until Johnson messed it up, 'ax' without the silent 'e' was also fine, etc., etc., etc.).

Also, while I think of it, the US has 'pants' correct - as an abbreviation of 'pantaloons', the reference is properly to outer leggings. The current British usage of 'pants' for undergarments (derived wholly improperly in this context from 'underpants') is a vile neologism to be roundly and robustly deprecated at all times.

In space no one can hear you scream, but Voyager 1 can hear A ROAR

Re: "That won't happen until it passes the last of the comets influenced by Sol's gravity. "

But can it check in any time it likes?

Wake up, grandad: All the techies use social media

As Dame Shirley Bassey once put it...

All just a little bit of history repeating.

Personally, I like to socially network with the aid of "beer" in a "pub" - anyone fancy a pint?

Yes. App that lets you say 'Yo' raises 1 MEEELLION DOLLARS

@Yugguy

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the global public"

After H L Mencken

DON'T PANIC: Facebook returns after 30-minute outage terror

As Professor Hubert J Farnsworth would say...

"Eh, wah?"

That is all.

Wedding tackle started out as PROTO-SHARKS' LEGS, boffins say

Re: Bony fish

Boner fish, surely?

Look, pal, it’s YOUR password so it’s YOUR fault that it's gone AWOL

Re: Website policy stupidity

Tokens seem like a good idea until you get the new HSBC calculator-style one for Australia.

Step 1) Turn on device with (stupid finger breaking) key press combination

Step 2) Enter PIN to activate device (!!!)

Step 3) Enter last eight digits of your account number (!!!)

If suitably annoyed, add:

Step 4) Run over device repeatedly with car before closing account.

Klingon and Maori roar into 'mutt's nuts' dictionary

Newspeak

Doubleplusgood.

IBM PCjr STRIPPED BARE: We tear down the machine Big Blue would rather you forgot

Re: Bit of a whimp

@Salts, agreed - the kid's chicken, bawk, bawk, bawk, chicken.

There are ways of discharging these things, you know.

Now back to repairing with that Mac SE/30...

BuzzGasm: 9 Incredible Things You Never Knew About PLIERS!

Re: Not correct!

But only in relation to rhythm sticks

Satisfy my scroll: El Reg gets claws on Windows 8.1 spring update

Re: Meanwhile in Redmondland...

Too true, Steve Davies 3. I used MS-DOS from v2 onwards, Windows from v3.00 onwards. By the need of it all, had set up everybody who wanted help from me with "all-MS" solutions. Then trialled Windows 8 and pretty promptly switched to OS X for desktop use (also allowing easier connection to iThings) and FreeBSD server-side. I will suggest the same to the others as Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 walk towards the Elephant's Graveyard. I am not likely to be coming back to Redmond for an OS any time soon (though I do still use MS Office on Mac so they got me there).