Posts by Hegghogg

'Larry and Sergey's HTML5 balls drained my resources'

Animation?

I quite like it, actually. Although I didn't realise it *was* an animation at first. I just figured the computer was busy doing some indeterminate-Windows-background-grindy-stuff. It was only after I glanced up and noticed it was a slightly different position I realised it was actually an odd sort of slideshow.

As for this latest thing about the exploding coloured spots, I decided it was probably better to use the toolbar search. Although the interactive animation does work prettily well on Ubuntu*.

---

* Yes, I know: *everything's* better in Linux...

Judge Dredd returns to the silver screen

Starlord

Starlord? Cool game, I thought. And very difficult to find these days, and even harder to run on a modern PC. But I always kind of liked it. Shame no-one remade it. That and Darklands in modern versions would be pretty awesome. And while we're at it, Covert Action, too.

All Microprose, now I think about it. Damn, they knew how to produce decent games, not like the sorry efforts you get these days...

No idea what Starlord was in 2000AD terms, mind. At first I thought you meant that weird alien guy with the skeletal face who went around doing... well, whatever it was he used to do, I can't really remember. But I think he was in Eagle anyway.

"I Am The Law"

Not great the first time he did it: standing in the street between two warring blocks and shouting "I Am The Law" as an opener. Moderately unconvincing.

But the second time, in the tribunal:

"I never broke the Law! I AM the Law!"

Now THAT worked. Although it was about the only part of that scene that did.

Street Judges

"Don't forget the "Chief Judge" and the council, who are NOT on the "street", ergo the "normal" judges could be said to be "street judges"."

Not to mention, as I recall, quite a few specialised departments. Wasn't there a unit of medically trained judges? I seem to recall Dredd being in hospital at one point and an alarm going off, and doctors and nurses all pulling out Lawgivers and running off to deal with it. I may be a given quantity of wrong.

Anderson? Finally...

"I'tll be around three hours of CGI, pretty much all of it black"

Apart from the bits that're orange and teal.

Still, I maintain Karl Urban did a pretty impressive job as McCoy in Star Trek. Never heard of Olivia Thirlby, though. All I can say is, in the name of all my childhood years of fancying the shiny shoulder-furniture and big boots off Cassandra Anderson, I might tend towards the (pardon me) judgemental on that performance... Frankly I always thought Cass was the real star of those stories, anyway. Argh. Did I type that out loud?

/runs for cover

Skeletal scanner would ID terrorists from 50 meters

Not All That Worried

Even aside the well-expressed objection based on the indiscriminate dosing of citizens with radiation, I can't say I'm all that worried.

I *used* to be worried about new ideas for government snooping; but Jacqui Smith solved that for me.

No, she didn't win me over with her seductive wiles and dupe me into accepting her point of view. What she did was simple: she said that she'd force paedophiles to register their email addresses so the police could keep tabs on them.

At that point I realised that no matter how lofty the government's surveillance schemes might be, they probably don't have the basic technical knowledge a) to implement them; or b) to know who to hire to implement them on their behalf.

As far as I can tell most contractors hired to carry out tech development/installation work for the government just bugger about until they've had their fill of Treasury pork, then slink off to play golf.

Ubuntu 'Maverick Meerkat' erects own App Store

It Don't Do Games, Though

"You want Linux but you want it compatible with Microsoft's latest secretions?"

Not me. I want Linux, but I want it to do what I want a computer to do: play games. There are some pretty decent titles on Linux, at least by shareware standards; but whatever else can be said in its favour, Linux (and the Mac, for that matter) simply doesn't (don't) do proper games like Windows does.

But still, I realise the age of the flashy, blockbuster, costs-millions-to-develop Windows game is fast coming to an end as developers switch to the more lucrative consoles; so I fully expect that we lowly players of simulation and strategy titles (i.e. the stuff that console companies tend not to be all that interested in) will soon have to look to what few indy games the remaining PC hobbyists come up with. In fact, that's already starting to happen as Windows gaming dies. And maybe at that point maybe Linux will catch up, at which point I'll do without my dual-boot.

Cyber-jihadists deface home of teddy bears' picnic

Actual Question @ Matt Bryant

"male shaheeds (martyrs or Islamic warriors that die for the cause of Islam)"

Actually that's something I've wondered from time to time. This word you mention, 'shaheed', presumably it has some sort of authority in Islamic scripture? If so, can it literally be translated as 'martyr'? I've always wondered exactly when and how fanatical jihadists came to misinterpret the word 'martyr' so as to be able to apply it to people who *murder* for their religion (supposedly), rather than people who simply die for it.

To me, a maniac exploding a bomb in a crowded city street and killing dozens or hundreds of people can't legitimately label himself a 'martyr' just because he happens to die - by his own hand - in the act. Whether I agree with their religion or not, I'll recognise someone who is killed for their beliefs as a martyr - but not someone who chooses to die in the process of killing others. They're just a dead murderer.

So, as someone who knows the word you may know the story behind it. Is Islamic scripture really this hazy on the definition of 'martyr'?

@ Sarah Bee

Ah, this could go round and round, couldn't it?

My point was that being an atheist -- even if you concede it means you're a more rational person (which I'd dispute) -- doesn't necessarily make you immune to those exact same *human* tendencies of which religion is so often accused of being the exclusive cause. Too often a person's atheism is offered, and accepted, as a sort of intellectual "get-out-of-jail-free" card: an excuse for narrow-mindedness, prejudice and hatred (or in this case straightforward generalisation) on the basis that this sort of thing is okay in that direction, because the person doing it is 'more rational'.

@ AC 2nd September 2010 12:33 GMT

"I know I've never seen proof of a god or gods (or goddesses my pagan friends)."

Hence you're not religious. Religious people *have* seen proof. But of course, what you're demanding is 'objective, empirical evidence' - meaning evidence that *you* would accept - and of course there isn't any. Just as there isn't any objective, empirical evidence for so many of the other things we take for granted in the world. Ultimately, we all just have to decide what we perceive in the world, and how we respond to it. Extremists, religious and otherwise, respond by trying to make everyone see things the way they do.

Extremism Right There

"If someone wants to distance themselves from the actions of "extremists" committed in the name of a religion then they should make a stand and become an atheist like many of us supposedly Christian westerners have done."

That's ridiculous. So if I were Muslim, you'd argue that because some barbarian idiot with a political axe to grind uses my religion as his excuse (and a pretty transparent excuse at that) you believe that I have no right to practice my religion which, as far as *I'm* concerned, doesn't involve blowing anyone up at all?

For that matter, your phrasing suggests that if a person uses *someone else's religion* as an excuse for violence, then I - as a believer in *another* religion - am responsible for the said violence because I don't swear off *my* religion and believe as you dictate I should?

I'm constantly told that atheism is the sign of a more rational mind...

Pronounced 'Beaver'?

Actually I just discovered this when dealing with someone with the surname 'Belvoir': apparently British people have pronounced it 'Beaver' since the time of the Anglo-Saxons. It seems the Anglo-Saxons couldn't pronounce the complicated Norman-French word and simplified it.

Personally, it's news to me. I've lived in the UK all my life and I've never known anyone -- up until the said surname-bearer -- pronounce it as anything other than 'belv-WAHR'. Of all the French words we've imported, this has got to be one of the easier ones.

'Croissant', on the other hand -- now *that's* tricky. 'Krwah-'? Madness, I tell you.

Drummers: Looking for a throbbing BumChum?

Maybe not a joke

At first I was going to react with something along the lines of "don't be silly - it must be a subtle joke that's got The Reg completely taken in". I thought a sort of September April Fool.

And then I read the linked 'What Is It' page, found this...

"It is rock solid: No need to be nervous about dickhead airport handlers or dodgy gear loads in the back of a Transit."

... and figured, no, it really is just a company trying to be funny and cool.

Or whatever the kids are saying for "cool" these days.

(Have we still not got a 'meh' icon?)

.XXX domain deal stripped bare

Why?

"Why does "child protection" always find itself labeled in with the adult industry. [...] So sick and tired of see'ing this label put on the adult industry. I've been looking at porn since i've been on the computer (not constantly) and i've never even as much of stumbled upon it."

Maybe it's because of the persistent use in the media of the term 'child porn' to describe images of the violent sexual abuse of children. This usage is rarely challenged, yet it conditions the public to believe that such acts somehow equate to, or are a form of, pornography. That in turn leads to the assumption that one will invariably lead to the other.

Whether or not we personally approve of the adult entertainment industry, we can look at this one in two ways: this casual mislabelling either tars that legal industry with shades of child abuse; or it excuses child abuse by applying to it a euphemism far more innocuous than it deserves.

Scottish iSchool goes 100% iPad

A 'Jennifer Government' Vibe

Putting aside the froth that invariably erupts all over The Reg the moment someone mentions "faith" or "religion", AC @ 09:17 01/09 made an important point. Technology has a place in education, sure: a very important place. But it must be introduced at appropriate times, and not used as an easy alternative to actual education.

I remember throwing a minor paddy as a v. small person because I hated maths and didn't see why I couldn't have a calculator. The parental units sat me down and patiently (really patiently) explained that being able to do maths with a calculator isn't really "being able to do maths". It's "knowing what buttons to press on a calculator". Once I'd proved that I understood the concepts behind the subject, then I'd be allowed to use a calculator.

I sulked a bit at the time but I have to admit that even then, when I thought about it, this kind of made sense to me. And as an adult I'm bloody grateful to the parents and teachers that they didn't just give in to my childish demands then. The odd thing is I actually find I really like maths now.

But that aside, what struck me about this story was the 'Jennifer Government' vibe it had. Yes, I know it's a private school, and therefore in theory it can do whatever it wants (and yes, it's run by religious people anyway -- cue aforementioned hysteria). Still, I can't help thinking that submitting an entire school's equipment supplies to one single multinational corporation is a step towards imposing a pseudo-education in which history, economics and other similarly... flexible... subjects are redefined to suit the corporation's own desires.