Posts by david mccormick

Craigslist founder defends 'erotic' listings

Really?

'*Conversely, having a disease named after you is an honor. Go figure.'

Mr & Mrs Gonorrhea must be so proud of their son's achievements.

HP packing workers seal bosses in conference room

they obviously don't read BOFH

They got left a water cooler. He'd have left them a bucket and had the camera's rolling with a book running on who cracked first.

Pirate Bay loses trial: defendants face prison time, hefty fines

Is something missing?

Does the ruling actually say the site must be 'taken down'? I've just tried thepiratebay.org and it is still there with new entries for dvd and high res quality movies and new music entries. doesn't that sort of put a damp squib on the 'victory' of the music and film industry bods.

Virgin puts 'legal P2P' plans on ice

Worried about illegal sharing?

I use I-tunes at home and can put the tracks/video I download onto a usb stick or copy them straight from my ipod onto the computers at work and listen/watch them in media player classic. If I can copy them this way then surely I would be able to torrent the music/video file, yet the music industry seems to love I-tunes. Perhaps it's worried that torrent files are often recorded at 320Kbs or in FLAC format and we may find out that they are ripping us off with low quality versions available on commercial sites.

CERN completes 'world’s largest jigsaw puzzle'

I normally...

... have to search around the house for the last piece of any jigsaw I do. I'd hate to see the size of the sofa they found that stuffed down.

Teen hacker re-unlocks Apple's iPhone

Why are they wasting the money?

I'm probably wrong (according to my girlfriend, I'm always wrong) but isn't selling a locked phone in europe going to be against eu rules in less than 18 months? Surely then spending time and money finding ways to relock the phone is a big waste.

Software pirates put sizeable dent in UK economy

The software industry does itself no favours

If the software industry wants to increase circulation of legal programs, perhaps not ripping the british public off would be a good idea. Adobe photoshop cs3 £569.99 in UK $649 (£330.83) in US :MS Office 2007 £405.98 UK $399 US (£203.74) and the list continues. If you are a small business with small margins, piracy looks good. If you make piracy less attractive, you reduce it. Doesn't seem particually difficult to me.

Lindsay Lohan nominated for multiple Razzies

Wow! The only American award ceremony of 2008

One award ceremony the writers guild won't want to be anywhere near.

New taskforce to discuss why more people aren't turning to digital

I want to work in government

All you do is sidle up to your friendly minister and mention how you are a bit short of work and would they mind awfully setting up a pointless taskforce/quango/comitee for you to sit on.

Surely the first few months will be used explaining what DAB is to the fossils who make up the 'taskforce'.

I only listen to radio at work and in the usual miserly fashion adopted by bosses worldwide, we only have a cheap analogue radio.This is good as we are in a valley and can only receive radio 1 or the local station and by common agreement we plump for radio 1. Unfortunately this may change. I work for merecedes and my boss has a new c-class company car which has a DAB radio. He has discovered Rock FM or some such name (Imagine K-DST from San Andreas) and we may soon be deluged with old folks rock. (Don't get me wrong, I love bands who know how to play their own instruments but they shouldn't be allowed to play songs when stoned as they forget when to stop. 'The End' by The Doors has to be the most ironically named song in history, 'Without End' maybe). Choices are only a good thing if you are the person who can make them.

Perhaps a new petition should be added to .gov 'Ban DAB'

Boeing guards its right to tail employees

Company policy

I'm stuck at work thirteen hours a day on the days I work so the internet is a useful distraction in the lulls. I'm not naive enough to think that the computer I'm using to write this goes direct to the internet without going through a company owned server first.That is why I don't surf porn, movies or music whilst I'm at work. (Hi to the IT people in there little office if you're reading this). Nor would I be stupid enough to use my works e-mail to send sensitive information to competitors. It's common sense and just in case I didn't have any, the company also makes you sign a policy on internet use so you are aware that inappropriate use will get you fired.

However once you leave work, whatever you do, as long as it's legal, is nobodies business but your own, and any company that thinks it has the right to follow you is morally wrong.

B3ta served DMCA notice for Photoshop Prince challenge

Why do you have to photoshop?

He's a weird looking little thing anyway. Surely an unedited picture is much funnier.

@@oi

those sound like the clerks in my local PCWorld :)

Blank media levy breaches should be criminal, say authors

Gordon Brown has (@ Fran Taylor)

As I understand it in the UK, the law would get you again. The first time for 'thinking' your copying media and then if they get proof you are, you'll be fined again. That's on top of the inflated prices we here in the UK already pay.

A quick Amazon.com search shows 100 Blank DVD's for $28 (approx £14) Amazon.co.uk search shows 100 DVD's would have to be bought for £22 (approx $44)

Bend over everybody and think of England

TV giants lock horns with Microsoft and Google over white space wireless play

Made by God

The big 4 think the airwaves where made for them? Microsoft think the box running under the desk your reading this on was made for them. Pot, kettle, black.

How would this work in the UK? They have enough difficulty justifying the TV license as it is. A license that states if you have an item capable of receiving in these bandwiths you have to pay the fee. (I could be wrong, feel free to correct) so will you have to pay it for the devices in question? If not why would we have to pay it for the TV?

Fairly realistic flying car offered for 2009 delivery

I know you need to save weight...

.... and think about aerodynamics on an aircraft but come on, no wing mirrors?(there's a pun in there somewhere). I shiver at the thought of how you'd even get it onto the motorway in the picture. It must be a case of close your eyes, put your foot down and commend your soul to your deity of choice.

Ninja she-devils rob Pennsylvania gas station

where's the youtube

Gas stations have loads of cctv cameras so come on people share with the world.

Manhunt 2 banned by UK censor - again

@graham

You're right, the world doesn't need big brother. The last series was the latest lump of shite that is passed off as light entertainment these days. It's done more to effect my psychological state than playing manhunt would of I'm sure.

Jack Thompson sets about Halo 3

For once the right argument

Just the wrong guy to be making it and missing the point as usual.Minors shouldn't play games made for adults. My daughter already plays on my PC and when she's a little older will have her own. Not until she's much older will she be allowed to play on it unsupervised though. Governments and regulatory bodies shouldn't have to bring your children up.

The argument he uses that games lead to violence reminds me of the Jamie Bulger killing. The defence solicitor tried to imply that watching the 'Childs Play' movies affected the two young killers. This raises two points. First, at what point in the films does chucky kidnap a toddler and drag them across town before stoning and beating them to death on a railway line, must have been in the directors cut because I don't remember it. Secondly, (and more valid) why did their parents let them watch a clearly marked '18' rated movie in the first place. The same is true of Manhunt, et al. They all carry 18 ratings clearly shown on the packaging.

If you don't want your children to play violent (video) games, buy them non violent (video) games. Not difficult is it. Then they can get on with more imoportant things like wrestling and 'play fighting' like we used to.

RIAA hits paydirt: wins first music-sharing jury trial

Why are the innocent hiding?

Those exclaiming their innocence in not stealing artists hard earned pennies are posting annonymously. Is it a case of hiding secret guilty consciences?A dodgy Metallica mp3 hiding on the IPod is there :)

My tupennys worth

Although Jammie's gonna need a whole lot more:)

Fraser mentioned how the reduction of funds to small bands hurts them. I'm sure it may but I don't know anyone who shares the music of small bands. I also don't think the RIAA will be giving them any money.

The Artic Monkeys are a good example of how the internet helps people to choose. If the band are any good, people will want to pay for the music. Perhaps they should be looking at the model they created. People know good music when they hear it.

Personally, I can't see it as being a big deterent to file sharing. A quick scan of The Piratebay shows how much of a losing battle they are fighting. They need to reform the music and movie industry. The image of faceless money grabbing corporations who use bully boys is their biggest problem. People don't care about them. People won't think of piracy as stealing from the artists as long as the record companies act like idiots.

1720 songs = 170 cd's 170*£8.99=£1528.30

So thats about $3000 which the Artists and Record labels would have got and $217000 to the lawyers and the RIAA.

So, what's the first rule of Reg Club?

The first rule is ...

...surely that whatever is written in the article or posted in the comments, that YOU are always right and that everyone else is talking out of their arses (note proper spelling) otherwise why are you posting.

Sean - You're right, there is no excuse for i.e. There are other browsers out there people - use them. (damn, the second rule is that rules are made to be broken)

James - Apart from the fact it is a long way away, there is nothing nice to say about the USA

US teacher fired for non-literal bible reading

Told you my memory was patchy

I forgot about the flood. The bible has all angles covered when seeking evidence doesn't it. Then there is God leaving false clues like dinosaurs and geology. The CIA take note, this is how it should be done :)

Re: Danny

Current thinking by scientists is that our universe is part of a multi-verse, (Terry Pratchett fans rejoice) our universe being created in the 'big bang' from two universes colliding. Greater minds than mine are required to know where those universes came from though :) . The gist of the article is that the teacher thought the literal translation is wrong, not that God didn't create the universe(s). My memory at the ripe old age of 29 gets a little patchy but the bible says that Adam and Eve are exiled from the garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit. If creationism is right, can somebody tell me where it is then cos it'll be a hell of (or should that be heavenly) holiday destination.

re: EvilFairy

Jesus was declared to be one with God in 325AD (ish) by the first general council at Nicea. It was these theologians and there succesors who interpreted the meanings in the testaments and came up with the holy trinity. They also came up with Mary being the 'Mother of God'.

Intelligence and common sense....

..aren't the same thing. The bible has many good points about how to live your life for the good of humanity but even Jesus taught using allegories. If you take take his words literally then the only good you'll get is that you shouldn't plant corn on rocky ground. Good if your a farmer, not so good in the IT profession. Perhaps the bloke who's suing God can add Jesus as well. Although the legal wrangling over how they are one and the same person should be fun.

BitTorrent-busters busted by BitTorrent

re David Wilkinson

I watch quite a lot of DVD's, and always listen to music, on my PC. This is due to my girlfriend confiscating the TV control between 7pm and 9pm everynight to watch soaps and dramas. I'm not a geek (well, not much, my teeth are still shiny(ish)), but recently I downloaded the Top Gear polar expedition from Bit Torrent as I'd missed it thanks to the situation above. If I'd had sky+ I would have recorded it and watched it at my leisure (meaning when she'd gone to bed). Unfortunately I can't afford it. This would have been completely acceptable to the production companies, regulatory bodies, etc. Instead as I've downloaded it I'm now open to civil prosecution for theft of copyright. Who says the law has to be fair or make sense.

F1 secrets left on the web

The reg provides answer to questions

I asked a question of how much the chief engineer gets paid at maclaren as he couldn't afford his own photocopier in an earlier article. Thanks to the reg (and the annonymous poster above) I now know. Thanks.

Mobile TV to reach 120 million users by 2012: report

Definetly Optimistic

Say £35 a month for the contract, a fiver per clip then a £1 per mb to download. Andy is right. Somebody is dreaming.

McLaren fined $100m for spying

How much is the chief designer at Mclaren paid?

He had to send his wife to the local shop to get it copied?!? You can buy budget copiers for £50 and you won't attract any stares, unlike standing in your local CO-OP asking if they can refill the paper tray again as it's run out for the third time and you've still got 200 pages to go.

PC superstore unhinged by Linux

Re: warranty

In order not to mis-quote the sale of goods act, here it is

"(1) In section 14 of the [1979 c. 54.] Sale of Goods Act 1979 (implied terms about quality or fitness) for subsection (2) there is substituted—

“(2) Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality.

(2A) For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances.

(2B) For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—

(a) fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,

(b) appearance and finish,

(c) freedom from minor defects,

(d) safety, and

(e) durability"

It seems reasonable that you can replace the OS on a computer as that is why there are different ones (and PC world once sold other ones). If durability is in question i.e the hinge is weak or faulty, then the warranty should be honoured.

PC World Staff

I bought my current graphics card at PC world (only because it is literally 400m from my front door.) If anybody would like a laugh, I can highly recommend asking questions of the sales staff, at one stage the guy was corrected by the security guard, as the salesman had said radeon 1950's supported dx10 because they had vista ready stickers on. After that I bought an 8800gts and left.

Attacking multicore CPUs

Re: Software Hackers

I think it's because the clever dicks have minds of their own whereas those working in cubes at M$ (just call me Rodney) have a corporate identity instead.

Sod robots, send people into space: report

50-70mill rubbish

Give a fraction of that to Top-gear. They'll buy some butties and tea for some odd looking folk in derby and build a rocket and give us laugh. Just don't let hammond into the cockpit.

Nepal fixes Boeing 757 with goat sacrifice

Caught on the hoof

Can you imagine the conversation beforehand,

Pilot 'The plane is due to fly in 10 minutes and the engines aren't working'

Engineer: 'Well mate, your out of luck. Left the tools at home today.'

Pilot ' What! Why?'

Engineer 'Well it's bring your pets to work day innit. Have you tried carrying a tool box and dragging two angry goats?'

Pilot 'Isn't there anything you can do?'

Engineer 'Weeeeellll. We could sacrifice the goats to the god of air. Only got em cos the wife likes the mangy things. Make a right mess of the house'

Pilot 'Will it work?'

Engineer 'Dunno. Lets give it a try. No harm in it'

Pilot (eyeing the queques of angry tourists) 'Ok, ok. Just be quick'

Cue two dead goats.

Yahoo! seeks dismissal of China human rights lawsuit

Re James

I thought Yahoo and google did monitor searches. I might just be being paranoid but I'm sure I read somewhere that some keywords (bomb making, etc) caused them to log certain searches. I'm sure the people here will tell me if this true.

Solar waves make Earth ring like a bell

re: vibrations in arizona

I think it's more likely to be a bunch of nuts with tinitus. :)

Microsoft delivers critical fixes for Windows, IE and Excel

Which is best

I hate M$ products and have looked into linux but my teeth are still white and shiny so i'll stick to xp. It sounds like a contradiction but I grew up with M$ from windows 3.1 for workgroups. Apparently it's the same with cars, if you get a beemer you'll always have one, Mercs the same, regardless of what they do to them, you'll have spent to much time saying why yours is better.

I'd like to see how linux kept up if it was as widely distributed as windows. At the moment no one writes viruses for it as it would be a pointless exercise. The few percent market share it has is hardly going to make any would be writers rich or famous. Then would come the problem of the mish mash of patches for the different distros and the confusion of which to download for what. At least M$ has a central point of update. 'The community' is all well and good, but only if it all pulls together in the same direction.

ISPs hijack BBC in tiered services push

Am I Missing the point?

I know the statement Mary Turner made is stupid and that the throttling of my traffic by Tiscali is the most annoying thing ever, (hurry up Be and enable my exchange), but surely the up take the BBC seems to be predicting is a little optimistic. Why would the average user want to watch TV on their computer monitors? It can't be multi tasking because the latest survey by steam suggests the average computer is barely powerful enough to run xp. On the other hand, in the corner of most rooms is a large 36" stereo TV with SKY or freeview and a big sofa in front of it. I know what I'll be watching.(And before anybody suggests it, running anymore cabling about our house has been forbidden on pain of death by my girlfriend so my computer can't be hooked up to the TV.)

If Mary wants to do something useful, she can explain why her eula describes peek times as " 6pm to 11pm" and that these are the times throttling would occur and yet my usage is still impaired after midnight?

Pirate Party invades Utah

Re: Corinne

It wasn't you who came up with the idea of 'New' Labour was it?

Hacker cracks Netflix copy restrictions

Copying a rental :)

I have to pay £3.90 to get a blockbuster DVD from my local store. It seems I'm paying over the odds even to pirate my copies :(

(Legal Disclaimer: This is obviously a joke. I don't really copy DVD's... It's much easier to download them overnight on Bittorrent :) )

I think that's what it comes down to. If you offered movies for download for a £1 without DRM somebody would still want it for free. The internet has shown people a way to get something for nothing. I don't know anybody who hasn't got at least some 'Illegal' mp3's on their hard drives. These people aren't hardened criminals or thugs but just normal people like you. I don't think this harms the record companies like they say. We all have large collections of CD's and full iTunes playlists we've purchased. It's just easier to get some songs of a friend's cd you've borrowed. (the same thing we used to do with tapes when we where kids (anybody remember putting sellotape over the little holes on the top so they could be copied on. RM hasn't ever worked))

As long as people want to have control over what they do with there own music, people will continue to bypass DRM.

Sony talks up PS3 TV tuner

How about giving us what we want?

Rather than adding what we've already got, everyone I know with a PS3 has digital TV already either in the form of sky or freeview, try selling it to UK gamers at a decent price and with the chips that allow us to play some more of our PS2 games whilst we wait for a few more games to trickle out.

The terrorists I party with

'Fear is the mind killer' extended

Perhaps president bush had Dune read to him and that lead him to fearing a Jihad from a desert people he has recently attacked :)

Microsoft grows despite Windows Vista

Why buy it when you don't 'own' it

I was considering upgrading to vista after sp1 as magazine reviews had been cautious but optimistic. What's changed my mind is an experience with XP. After a clean install of windows in a last desperate attempt to get my PC talking to my router (which worked obviously as I'm writing this) I went to activate MY windows only to be told I had exceeded my activation limit ? What is this? I have paid £149 for windows. I expect to be able to install and uninstall as many times as I want to on my own machine. (I format my hard drive regularly as I am a junkie for games demo's and often have pieces of uninstalled demo's all over my machine) Instead I am watching the the systray icon flash up every time I boot up my machine. To top it off. Microsoft are so thick that even selecting the 'No remind me to activate in a FEW DAYS' sees the reminder flashing up after the next reboot. Vista? No

Serious research into a Linux install? Yes

Ebuyer.com runs on a Commodore 64

God I'm old

" I vaguely remember it being an attempted ZX Spectrum knock off that was built and designed so badly that it started occasionally and when it did it just crashed for no reason at all. "

No Nick your remembering the speccy. I had the 48k rubber key and after spending 5 minutes at a time loading ghouls and goblins a level at a time it always crashed a level from the end forcing me to start again.

The decline of antivirus and the rise of whitelisting

Ahh Irony

I see Mcaffe have found a way to maintain some anti-virus market share by placing advertising in a whitelisting article. Clever :)

Amnesty's spy in the sky for Darfur

double standards?

Is it just me? It seems that google earth can be used to put pressure on 3rd world governments but must hide the embarrasement at the state of devestation still in New Orleans for the American government.