Posts by Cool Hand Luke

Bloke clicks GitHub 'commit' button in Visual Studio, gets slapped with $6,500 AWS bill

I am not a developer...

...so, I've never used Github. To me it sounds like a place where a bunch of like minded people meet up to discuss how much of a bastard they can be that day.

Shadow of the Beast: Amiga classic returns from the darkness

Fancy a drink?

TEN PINTS

The Pirate Bay changes domain again … TWICE!

Ever heard of Netflix?

The, I can watch with ads is no excuse to pirate TV shows.

All of the ones mentioned above are readily available via Netflix or Love Film.

I managed to watch Breaking bad from start to finish in two months via netflix, so cost to me was a months sub. You could get through it all during the free trial should you not have anything else to do.

This isn't a "ooh you naughty pirates" rant as I do the odd download myself now and again, but really stop trying to make excuses and just admit you are a freeloading pirate who is too tight to spend your own money on anything.

People don't want tablets, they want iPads

Quite the opposite

Owned 2.

A 2006 3.0si Z4 and a 2008 320d Touring to go with my 2008 Merc C Class.

It's all about the badge

Everyone knows that it's all just about the name, the brand, the image and not what can or can't be done with it.

It's a premium consumer brand, like Audi or BMW, Dyson, etc.. There are other cars, that are just as good, sometimes better and also cost less, but people like a premium badge.

Unless you are in the know, you won't entertain anything but the perceived leading brand.

I have an iPad 1 that I got when Apple did the £100 off thing and I can't see what any of the new tablets would give me over it? Flash? Why do I need flash?

Apprentice runner-up becomes Greggs bigshot

Hatred for BMW is way off the mark.

Talk of BMW destroying the last British (volume) car manufacturer may be true if you had a fondness for bland, poorly built cars from Birmingham, but BMW have done a lot more for this economy with their MINI brand than they could have done with an ailing Rover brand.

MINI have just announced a £500,000,000 investment into the UK economy. They are expanding their Oxford plant, and safe guarding UK jobs, while pumping millions into the coffers.

Nissan are doing similar in Sunderland, although that's just a paltry £120,000,000.

So, UK car manufacturing is far from dead, it's thriving.

Bug-Byte Manic Miner

Yes I am.

Massive fail on my memory. Thanks for the correction.

More of a monty mole man myself. :-)

The Impossible Game

Lots of love of Manic Miner, yet it was the game you could never finish.

Banyan tree and the yaught stand out for me, for some reason. I never really got that far into the game, but I remember people at the time and in later years saying that the game couldn't be completed due to a bug or something.

Rockstar shoots LA Noire onto PC

DVD's

And it's really annoying. Especially when you are having to re-do a mission because you fell off a roof.

Better than Xbox?

Well, hopefully the PC will give better loading times than the Xbox. I've never had a game that is so frustraiting to play due to the loading times since the days of the Amiga.

I really want to love this game, but the very long loading times are keeping me from playing it. I love RDR and GTA series, but this game is over hyped in my opinion.

Elite UK police agency website downed by Lulzsec

For the lulz

A couple of things;

Doesn't a DDOS attack sometimes act as a distraction to what is really going on? Wasn't that what happened with Sony? They flooded one area and used it to cover their tracks whilst breaking in?

Also lulzsec are this months wikileaks. Where's all the wikileaks coverage gone? Where are all the supporters of Wikileads in the comments anymore? Yesterdays news that one, just like this will be in a month or two.

Alice: The Madness Returns

Not for me, but...

...at least you won't get comment after comment, after comment moaning about how you didn't test it on a PC and that you tested it on <insert console name here> and it's inferior to PC graphics.

Dell, HP badmouth Apple's iPad

Wow, just wow.

You would have thought that if you were going to slag off a product you would have at least researched what it's flaws were.

The iPad, like the iPhone comes with it's own mail app that you can set up to read any e-mail you like. It even has, shock horror, enterprise integration with exchange and lotus notes intergration.

And why would I need Flash?

Obviously the iPad will not replace the desktop, it was never intended to. I use mine for when the missus is watching corrie on the telly. I power it up lie on the sofa and I can check mails, browse the internet and even play a quick game or two of plants vs zombies.

What is so wrong with that?

What do you mean by Enterprise?

The reason I ask is because I work with a big insurance company who use ipads and the ipads are very much integrated into the enterprise. They have cisco communicator/webex etc.. apps connected to their enterprise level callmanager system.

They are all fully intergrated with their enterprise level lotus notes e-mail system.

They have citrix app onto them to gain access to their enterprise level MS Terminal Servers.

So, just which part of the "Enterprise" can the iPad not integrate into?

Or do you actually mean the desk top?

In which case you may have a point as there is no version of Office for iPad and iWork doesn't really cut it compared to Word and Excel.

Carrier-sold iPad 2 Sim locks snag unwary buyers

Why bother with 3G iPads anyway?

The only reason I can see for paying the extra over a none 3G iPad is if you don't have a smartphone. There is always the exception to the rule, but I bet most people who would be interested in an iPad would also own some sort of smartphone.

I took advantage of the £100 discount and got myself an original iPad, 32GB wifi only. I figured that I would either be in the house, wifi available or if for some reason I was away from a wifi network then I would use my HTC desire as the 3G gateway as I always have my phone on me when I'm out and about.

This solution works like a dream for me. Like when we all buy a new shiney thing we want to start using it ASAP. Handily iPads come charged, so I was able to sit in the car with my new ipad linked over wifi to my HTC acting as a wireless hotspot. I was browsing and e-mailing like a happy little jobsian in no time.

Xbox 360, PS3 prices to fall this summer

There are lots of price cuts out there

Take a look next time you pop into your local big name supermarket they are all doing cut price deals on PS3 and Xbox 360. Sainburys are probably doing the most as they are also promoting the DS.

So, the anaysis that console prices have remained static for 18 months is wrong. At least for England it is. Can't comment on the USA.

Mumsnet backtracks support for net filter

I already have an internet filter and a TV filter, it's me.

Although my little darling is only 2 years old I'm mindful of what she is exposed to on tv, internet etc.. At the moment she's not old enough to work out how to switch on the PC and got to norks.org but I make sure that I don't have anything on the tv or PC that I deem unsuitable for her.

This includes when playing music, I keep away from those parental advisory tracks. I don't even watch movies when she's around, apart from guff like Ice Age or Shrek as she loves the colours.

I don't go writing to Universal, et al to censor their movies becuase my daughter may hear swearing when watching the latest explosion fest from dumb movies r us or blog about music needing censorship when listening to the likes of NWA..

As adults we have a choice. If I want to hear swearing and watch violence then I will chose to do so or not if it offends. Kids do need to be protected until the are old enough to understand and make their own minds up. That is down to the parents, no one else.

Assange relishes US banks 'squirming' over 'megaleak'

Am I the only one with a mortgage?

If we've learned anything from the past two or three years, it's that the banks essentially dictate the economy. If the info on the banks is so damaging it will cause banks to go under and more government bailouts to occur, I fail to see how that is good for anyone.

I assume that most people on here are paid in cash and not goats or potato's for the jobs they do. What do you do when the money dries up because the banks are in a mess?

Exaggeration? Perhaps. But I fail to see how attacking banks in order to cause siginificant damage can be for the good of man.

Kinect blamed for Red Ring of Death outbreak

Original Xbox 360 nothing wrong here

I have an original Xbox 360 and bought Kinetic in December. Been playing it loads and not had any issues. (touch wood).

I did have a RROD about 2 years ago, but sent it off and had it repaired. Video card after playing GTA IV, funny enough.

Judge puts Assange behind bars ahead of extradition hearing

At last!

Some sense prevails.

Oh noes!!

Is your phone ringing? It must be. Amazon, Google and Pay pal are really worried that you've decided to stop using them they are right now trying to personally call you to get you back on side.

I've heard Microsoft are on standby just in case you learn the governments are using windows based PC's.

UK cops have warrant to cuff Assange, talking to his lawyer

Couldn't agree more.

Exactly. The stuff that's been release is hardly Top Secret, hush hush, on the QT now is it?

The media have whipped this up into an almight frenzy as they always do and people buy it hook, line and sinker.

For a site that you need some semblence of intelligente to be interested in the subject matter, some of the comments posted on here smack of people who just want to read or hear what fits their agenda.

When this is all over somone should pay the people at snopes to go through wikileaks.

Facebook Places - why, and why not

You just have to know how to use it.

Facebook is just like everything else. Use it incorrectly and you can get into a world of hurt very quickly. However, learn to use it correctly and you can do away with bothersome spam.

Don't like seeing requests for Farmville? Then just click the button next to the post. Piff, paff, poof, all farmville announcements are not gone. It works for all the other games and apps that your "friends" use.

You can even stop individuals from spamming you without removing them as a friend. Just tick the "less from this person" button and guess what? Yep they've gone and you haven't insulted them by deleting them from your list.

Facebook isn't perfect by all means, but as long as you don't put up things like your DOB, home address, telephone number(s) then you can use it without much fear.

Wikileaks creaks under demand for Afghan war logs

Support the troops.

I downvoted AC@9:55 because I couldn't believe what they were saying.

I know this sounds trite, but I bet you wouldn't say that to someone who's son is currently serving over there or who has just watched their boy being buried because they've been blown up by an IED.

It's pathetic to wish death on a group of soldiers just to prove a point. They are over there doing a job. They aren't the ones manipulating figures, so lets lay off the bashing of the troops.

YouTube, iPlayer on a TV? Simples

PS3 region free now?

The problem with people saying "You have a PS3" then just use that for playing DVD's and bin your DVD player is the fact that the PS3, well at least my PS3 won't play anything that is not Region 2 or region 0. I have quite a few R1 and R3 DVD's from the days when you couldn't get a decent R2 release of a film and I've had to keep my modded DVD player for when I want to watch one of these. I'm in the process of ripping them all to my mac, but it's going to take a helluva long time.

Also @AC11:53, you cannot buy anything HD from the Playstation store, you can only rent. They only allow you to buy SD movies and TV shows, just like the Xbox and Apple online stores.

Nokia, Apple and Sudden Extinction Events

It's not all about the phones

Nokia, don't just make phones you know. Yes, that is probably their best consumer device, but they also make a lot of other electronic devices, but you'd be hard pushed to find any information on their corporate website.

Back in the late 90's early 2000's, I remember when Nokia was THE default choice for a phone for me and many others.

Back then it was either Nokia or Eriksson (pre Sony)

For me, it was a no brainer, especially with the metal 8850 and the small, but perfectly formed 8230? I owned both and the 8850 was very good. Eriksson were still producing mobiles with one or two line displays. No good for playing snake on. :-)

The last Nokia I owned was a N82 back in 2007/2008. I just couldn't get on with the interface at all. It's the same for my work phone a E71. The interface is slow and clunky and very un-intuative.

I haven't seen anything of their new OS, but it's got to be an improvement on what they currently have.

Beer, because it's Friday.

Apple spews Judas Phone signal bar 'fix' to world+dog

Forgot to say....(not that you're bothered!)

I've ditched the 3G anyway and gone to an HTC Desire. I was going for the default choice of iPhone 4, but all this nonsense just made me want to abandon it.

I'm no way anti-Apple I've got a 27" iMac and I'm one of the fools with an Apple TV, but you really don't realise how tied down the iPhone is until you use something else. Android handsets may take a bit of customisation to get them exactly how you want them, but at least you can customise them further than just setting a couple of background wallpapers.

So I've got a nice looking phone, it's lighter than my 3G, has a better screen and it's cheaper than the iPhone 4. With apps like iSync and doubletwist I can even sync my desire with my massive iTunes library, so the only functionality I've lost is the ability to control my iTunes library on my iMac from my phone for free. You can do it, but I'm not going to pay for the app when I have the remote that was bundled with my apple TV.

When Apple release the iPhone 5 I'll still evaluate it as I really liked my 3G.

Confused?

So, if I was to apply the update to my old 3G which ran like a dog on version 4 s/w anway, I used to get 2 bars of signal in the office, but it was sufficient to make calls. So, will my 3G now show 0 bars and I will be unable to make calls or will it show 0 bars and I will still be able to make a call?

From what I understand Apple have basically just changed their calculation code from

display.signal=(signal strength)

to

display.signal=(signal strength)-2.

Apologies to the coders it's been ten years since I've coded anything.

In my simplistic world this means that 5 bars now = 3 bars, etc.., etc..