Posts by druck

Why I downgraded from Vista to XP

Outlook, what a joke

Some anonymous Windows sycophant wrote:

"Does Outlook run on Ubunto? No, it fucking doesn't, therefore he's pretty bloody stuffed if he wanted to, god forbid, access his corporate mail."

Even if using Exchange server, you can access email via POP or IMAP with dozens of vastly superior and more secure email clients than Outlook, which run on Linux, Mac OS and even Windows. If that the only justification you can came up with for sticking with Windows in a business environment, salvation is at hand, you will be able to ditch Vista and XP, and then perhaps save yourself the heart attack you are rapidly building yourself up to.

Ban booze in supermarkets, says health adviser

Wrong way round

Booze isn't too cheap, and why should those who sensibly enjoy the odd pint a week be penalised by yet more indiscriminate taxes? The problem is the young have too much money and can afford to binge drink. Solution; get rid of the minimum wage, especially the younger band. That way employers don't have to pay good money to some piss head that spends half of every day nursing a crippling hangover and the other half waiting to knock off to get smashed again.

Air pollution driving midweek rain

Where's the frigging problem?

Wetter weekdays and dryer weekends, where's the frigging problem?

The question is; what can we do to enhance this beneficial effect?

Pentagon pundits demand sensible raygun research

Sci-Fi blink blindness

The problem is everyone born since the 1930s has been brought up on sci-fi where invariably every spacecraft uses a beam weapon, therefore it must be the way to go. For example phasers in Star Trek, but at least they also had photon torpedoes - now that's where it's at!

MiYahoo's future rests with open source and courage

Eating their own dog food

There is no way Yahoo will be allowed to continue with open source systems post merger, Microsoft has to eat its own dog food, anything else is admitting there is a better way of doing things - despite the fact everyone already knows this. Look at when they consumed HotMail, which at the time worked quite well on FreeBSD/Solaris, it only became a running joke when they forced it over to the completely inadequate Windows platform.

Yahoo! you! are! next!

Geeks fight the smelter with embedded processor-based box

Ditch x86

Just think of the power you'd save if you ditched the horrendous legacy x86 instruction set and the logic in every chip to turn it in to something that can actually be executed by a modern processor core.

Of course that would mean ditching a certain obscenely bloated and inefficient OS which is tied to x86, and using something you can recompile with gcc to any number of more energy efficient architectures.

There might be something in this green computing after all.

Security fears stymy online sales

Bad advice

"Look for a padlock symbol in the bottom right of the browser window and for the website address to begin with 'https://'"

No! Look for where your browser (which may not be Internet Explorer) normally puts the padlock symbol, it should be on part of the browsers toolbars and not in the web page itself. You've had article before about how people are fooled by a padlock symbol appearing anywhere.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/07/why_phishing_works/

Ofcom puts digital dividend on the auction block

Completely screwed over

So the viewing public has been completely screwed over, and we'll never have a decent free to air HD TV service. It will be entirely coincidental that Murdock's press continues to support the government come the next election.

Steve McClaren secures 2007 Foot in Mouth award

Leaves on the line

Don't know why the Translink one is in there, it sounds perfectly ok to me, despite being a bloody poor excuse.

The Nestle one is just crying out to say "it don't taste like what it orta".

Microsoft wireless keyboards crypto cracked

Re: Bottom Line: it's not secure, it's convenient

Brett Brennan writes: "Let's look at this realistically. You have a wireless transmission that has a range of 10 meters. So anyone that is trying to eavesdrop on it has to be close enough to get clear reception of the signal."

Just because your wireless keyboard wont work further away than 10 meters doesn't mean that someone with more sensitive equipment can't pick up the signal substantially further away, in surrounding buildings or out in the street.

Solwise DMP-1120w UPnP/DLNA network media player

Sixty Percent?

I would have expected review highlighting so many failings to garner a much lower score. Are half the marks just for the unit turning up and spelling its name correctly?

Biometrics won't fix data loss problems

Its not about the best biometric

People seem to be forgetting its not about the best biometric, it doesn't matter if palm vein patterns are better the fingerprints, you can't leave them behind at a crime scene so it doesn't fit in with the government's agenda of fingerprinting everyone so the police can consider everyone to be a criminal suspect.

All that waiting for someone to commit a crime, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, right to a fair trail, etc is so last millennium when you can just trawl a huge database and solve all the county's ills - as ID card advocates seem to beleive.

The more we push the view that fingers prints aren't sufficient, the greater reason they will have of moving on to stage 2, which is to require a DNA sample too. Assuming they haven't already managed it, by arrest the entire population over the next couple of years, as seems to be the current intent.

Iowa house swallowed in grain bin collapse

Stop talking the piss

<- Note

How HMRC gave away the UK's national identity

Physical size of data

"Even 25 years ago, who could have possibly thought this is a safe way to send private information about 25 million people?"

25 years ago, all you would have got in an envelope is a few sheets of paper. The physical storage medium able to contain 25 million records would be the size of a suitcase, and a few years before that the size of a room. Now you can put millions of records on a laptop, CD, DVD, or memory stick the size of your thumb, and lose it in an instant.

Systems should be designed so there is no way copying of vast amounts of data on to portable media. If it needs to be physically transported instead of transferred over secure encrypted comms links, there should only be one place it can be done, and whatever medium is used on should be contained in a lock box changed the arm of a security guard for every second of the journey.

Brown pledges to be greener than greens

Failed gambler

Like a failed gambler on a loosing streak Brown hasn't a hope of meeting the current targets, so is planning to stealing more money from the tax payer to play double or nothing on ever slimmer odds, by committing us to these ridiculous targets.

I am not prepared to see my job and lifestyle taxed out of existence, to reduce the emissions of this tiny country by a drastic amount, but which is only equivalent to China's increase in a couple of months. All on the basis of fundamentally flawed climate modelling techniques, and well funded bullshit.

BBC HD channel gets green light

Free to air HD is a right

I can't believe people are arguing against the provision of HD quality broadcasts over a free to air system. They either have their head buried firmly in the sand; "who needs HD, 405 line black and white was always good enough for me", or head buried firmly up the arse of Rupert Murdock; "I get HD from Sky for only the price of the annual licence free every two months".

Broadcast technology moves on and all TV sets are now HD ready, do you really want to either not take advantage of it, or have to pay through the nose for it? Don't let the government take away the possibility of free to air HD broadcasting, to make a few quid in a grubby spectrum action, because once done there is no possibility of going back.

BAE in South Coast mouse-click drone spy plan

NO

I strongly object to some poorly trained muppet on the ground flying around their Orwellian spy toys, and putting at risk the lives of those involved in general and commercial aviation.

Even in controlled airspace, we don't want to put an additional workload on our overstretched and overstressed air traffic controllers. Outside controlled airspace it is purely the responsibility of trained pilots to ensure everyone's safety, and not being in the cockpit drastically reduces that imperative.

Met Police guilty in de Menezes case

Health and Safety

Its a very small consolation that the it hasn't been a complete whitewash and the Met have been held legally responsible for running an out of control death squad on the streets of Britain. But how pathetic the only way it could be achieved was under the legislation that's designed to give a company a mild slap on the wrist for not putting up a sign saying lifting heavy objects may give you a bad back.

The individuals concerned in this chain of tragedy that need to be held to account, and not in the least Ian Blair for the outrageous lies and attempted cover up. He should be stripped of his job and his title immediately. Otherwise we can have no confidence in this country's police force, and the real victory goes to the terrorists.

NASA delays space station repair to ponder tear

Tricky

I wouldn't like to tackle that job without a bit of preparation - a buckled solar panel with sharp spacesuit puncturing edges and high voltage running through it. The astronauts will certainly be earning their money if they fix that one.

Irish man rescued after falling for 419 scam

Bungs

I bet he also had to bung the officials for entry/exit visa's, and again at customs, and leave rather a large tip for the police for recovering him too. If there's one thing more effective than the 419 boys, its the official corruption.

Likely Lib-Dem leader in 'no to ID card data' pledge

On the database

Practically everyone with a passport will be on the database to some extent, but they will only have limited information (i.e. only what has always been necessary) for those that renewed before the interrogation centres opened, and they wont have biometrics such as fingerprints.

I refuse to have my fingerprints taken like a common criminal, which of course is exactly what the government intends to make me if I refuse. Looks like they will have to release a few more foreign murderers to make room for me, and no doubt a few others like me, in prison.

Seagate to close Northern Ireland plant

10 years?

I don't suppose that coincides with the end of subsidies and tax breaks used to encourage the plant to set up there in the first place?

Modest reform efforts mask tough issues in gTLD reform

No more TLD

We don't need any more TLDs, they are just a licence to print money for the registrars and cybersquatters, and a waste of everyone else's time having to check countless thousands of similar names to your company across umpteen TLDs, most of which no one has ever heard of or will ever find any legitimate use for.

OLPC wants $200 for its $100 laptop, please

Re: To be honest about the $100

Mark, €120 - wash your mouth out. It would be the £100 laptop.

Which includes an extra Rip Off Britain surcharge of £9 at today's exchange rate.

Print beats net for fraud

TV phone in scams

I look forward to a similar survey in the UK, the TV phone in scams will have tricked far more of our home grown idiots than even the internet.

Europe grows more (and more) GM crops

Organic what?

Do the organic advocates really think that any crops grown today, organically or otherwise, are in any way natural? They are the result of thousands of generations of selective and cross breading experimentation, and are vastly different to the original wild varieties - far more so than some of the very modest changes made in the labs which are classified as GM.

Samsung to mass-produce 14in OLED TVs in 2010

Not even SD

"not-quite-HD 940 x 540"

You mean not even SD, given that PAL is 576 line.

Guardian launches Web 2.0 fix for Africa's problems

419ers

Its only fair that the whole of Africa is given the opportunity to get in on the 419 business.

LG launches 'world's smallest' plasma TV

Not even SD?

A quick search reveals some sites are quoting a resolution of 852x480 which isn't even SD PAL. There aren't many 1080 LCDs in that size but almost all claiming to be HD are 768p.

Judge orders football website to name 'libellous' posters

Re: title

Someone with numbers for a name wrote: "Doesn't it have to be believable for it to be libel: if I were to claim that Bill Gates was intent on taking over the universe then it would hardly be libel, since no-one in thier right minds would believe that."

..it wasn't the gods honest trueth?

Government denies road charging 'blackmail'

Privacy my arse

"In response the government said it is "determined" that privacy should be safeguarded in the design of road pricing schemes."

Which will probably involve having to 'non compulsorily' submit a DNA sample for the database before being allowed to drive anywhere.

Early Visual Studio 2008 to bolster Vista?

Buggered

Forget all the new features and .NET crap, have they fixed any of the vast quantities of bugs that makes VS2005 such a pain in the arse to use for native C++ on Win32 and WinMobile?

UK biz groups bemoan CGT reform

Re: Rember it's DOWN to 18% for most gains

"There will be a net LOSS of tax to the treasury because of this change IIRC."

Rubbish. Its the tax raise from this that is paying for the half a washing line of Tory clothes they stole, i.e. the inheritance tax changes, if you take them at their word that the tax on non doms is insignificant.

Plus the governments idea of a competitive rate doesn't seem to take in to any account the fact its higher than the US, France, Italy, etc.

Binary interfaces in component development

Screen shots

The examples shown in the scaled down screen shots are unreadable. Please just put the code in the article, but if you have to use screen shots, show a thumbnail and link to the full size image.

Fairly realistic flying car offered for 2009 delivery

My solution to driving, flying and everything.

I got my PPL just over a year ago, it was bloody hard work, but the most enjoyable thing I've ever done. So my solution to driving, flying and everything, would be to get rid of the driving licence and require everyone to get a pilots licence, after which they would be entitled to a free flying car.

This would mean the vast majority of drivers wouldn't be allowed behind the wheel ever again (and not before time), and forced to use the bus and the train, like the government wants, but without punitive motoring taxes, stupid reduced speed limits and other congestion making measures. As for the skies, there would probably be about double the number of aircraft, but only when the sun is out - the instrument rating is harder still!

Ohio docks official one week's holiday for data breach

Re: Cost

How about the cost of signing up all 130,000 potential fraud victims to credit monitoring agencys?

MPs praise e-passport roll out

Deliberately crap

They might not be patting themselves on the back when the new chip based passports all start failing due in a couple of years because the chip isn't guaranteed to last 10 years.

Or will they?

As this will then force all of us who've renewed early to try to avoid the ID card scheme for as long as possible, to have to come back in for the interrogation and fingerprinting like the common criminals we are all now deemed to be.

Admins accuse Microsoft of Draconian Hotmail cap

@SpitefulGOD

A typical hotmail user if there ever was one, and exactly why no one should give a frig if mail doesn't gets through to them. Now if only Microsoft would block them from sending any mail, the world would be a better place.

Please ignore the start-up stealing the OS from Microsoft

Re: Hmm

RISC OS (the evolution of the OS first featured in the BBC Micro) has always been in ROM and instantly available. It's the OS the PFY's Archimedes, although we are 5 generations on from those machines now.

Only Sky can save digital TV

No HD on Freeview

I'm still on analogue, receiving 4 and a half channels (1 to 4 in perfect digital artefact free analogue, and slightly fuzzy 5) and not even watching all of those, there is mould growing on button 3 of my remote. The only real reason for me to switch to digital is if they offered HD content, but with the government committed to selling off the necessary spectrum for a quick buck, and Sky looking to buy it to prevent that happening, it doesn't look like we will ever get free to air HD content.

Pilot sacked for footie star on flightdeck shocker

Come fly with me

Long gone are the days when anyone who wanted was invited up to the cockpit for a tour by the friendly captain. These days travelling by commercial airlines is one of the worst experiences you can subject yourself too, from the ridiculous overbearing security at airports, massive invasions of privacy (passenger flight data sent god knows where, being finger printed in the US and soon to be Terminal 5), then spending hours stuck in cramped seats before going through it all again at the other end.

If you want to look out of the front of a plane and really enjoy the experience of flying, get yourself along to your nearest general aviation airfield, for a pleasure flight or a trial lesson. You'll never want to go near a spam can airliner again.

MPs call for ID theft czar

Responsibilities of the job

Responsibilities of the job will include:-

1) Artificially inflating ID fraud numbers by including all card holder not present fraud and various internet scams.

2) Selling the governments ID card scheme, despite having no answer on how it can tackle card holder not present fraud and various internet scams.

3) Making the case for further erosion of privacy by wholesale data sharing with in government and to unaccountable private firms with abysmal security records.

No previous experience of fraud prevention, civil liberties or data security required.

Apple to dial x86 for iPhone?

Why indeed

x86 in phones is a sick joke, just the decode unit to convert the worlds worst instruction set in to something remotely executable is larger than an entire ARM based system on chip. The only way it will ever be competitive for mips/watt is if Intel manage to prevent any ARM designs being made on fab plants newer than 2 generations ago.

Apple TV 160GB media player

160 lying marketing GB?

Leo Waldock writes: "We saw that the 160GB drive has 144.63GB available capacity which is considerably less than we'd expect, even allowing for formatting the drive and the cut-down version of Mac OS X that the Apple TV runs."

The size of the drive is likely to be quoted in lying marketing GB (10^9 bytes) where as the unit itself no doubt displays the free space in proper true GB (2^30 bytes). So in proper GB the drive has a true capacity of 149GB of which less than 4.4GB is used.

ICSTIS hits Opera for £250,000

Re: Crime Pays

No, £762,935.87 was just for one month, they've been doing it for over 2 years so the amount scammed is probably around £2m. Now, what idiot set a cap on the fine? It should be the amount scammed and then some, or its pointless even taking it to court.

IT risk becomes board-level issue

Oops the plug fell out.

IT systems may be of vital importance when you are retailer trying to sell things over the internet, or offering online banking services in normal times. But when tens of thousands of people are trying to get their money out, threatening to send the bank under, having the plug accidentally fall out the back of the web server so they have to go an queue up in the rain outside the branch, isn't such a bad thing. It would be a real pain in the arse if your disaster recover system kept everything going then.

Orange promises rethink on deleted email accounts

Dust off that old modem

If you still use your old dial up account's mailbox from your new broadband account, its only reasonable to dust off that old modem every so often and make a 10 second connection, to ensure the account is marked as active. At least you'll know then you have some sort of working backup should your ADSL/cable suddenly go down the tubes.

Novell fills Microsoft Silverlight hole

Re: ...a typically response

Quinnum from inside his own unique reality bubble writes:

"The MS developers are just ordinary hacks like you or I trying to work for a living, not deliberately setting out to destroy the world."

No, that's what Microsoft management are for.

Of course they are only only supporting Windows and a token Mac version just to pretend its cross platform, while deliberately ignoring anything that might be real competition to the desktop monopoly.

Virgin rocket-ship terminal revealed

Hardly progress

$200K for sub orbital jaunt back to where you started, hardly progress. A fraction of that used to buy a flight on Concorde which actually got you to somewhere, flying at a height on the "edge of space", and I'm sure they could have chucked in a bit of zero G if the passengers really wanted it.

Come back when you can make orbit - that's proper space.

O2 starts charging for calls to non-places

Rip off

I suggest everyone cancels their contract as matter of principle. Its a huge rip off charging a premium for these numbers which are often the only ones easily obtainable for many companies, and the calls on which you are likely to be kept on hold for the longest.

Let O2 beg you to remain with them, and don't accept until they've offered a substantially lower tariff, a new phone, and no excessive contract lock in.