Posts by Alan Donaly

Tesla hits ejector button on staff

@Collin

Thats classic I will have to remember that. Mike, all I can say is if this is a Moller production we should expect to see lawsuits soon.

Europe to probe state funding of new media

Not the BBC

As an American I need news that isn't completely biased and suspect the BBC has provided that for me through radio, and now the internet for a long time now most of my life. This means that those of you who have been paying those tv licenses have actually been subsidising my knowledge of the world I thank you. Oh yeah and for Doctor Who as well. Honestly if we had something as useful as the BBC is here I would tell those Euro guys to just fuck off.

Knock, knock: Cisco is banging at your door

@Bill he's not a bot

We thought he was for a while but interspersed between the bs is a fairly dry and cynical wit I don't get everything he says but once in a while the marslolspeak slips icanhasmartian.

Malware hitches a ride on digital devices

Autowreck

Why the hell should you have to worry about a fresh piece of hardware containing a trojan it would seem to me the least the manufacturer could do would be to make sure there wasn't any. I hate MS as much as anyone but I don't expect hardware to come with shit on it tell me I'm wrong to expect that. As far as I am concerned if you sell me a peripheral with preloaded malware it's your malware no matter what and it's your ass i'll sue.

Mass web infection leaves researcher scratching her head

Oh man, what now?

The only really common server platform vulnerability I can think of that may not not be patched for reasons of backwards compatibility belong to Python thats not to say there aren't any but that one stands out as many scripts are popular and will simply not run on the latest version. Don't go by what I say I am often wrong. Off to check the sites then.

IBM no comments way to optical Power7 confirmation

Kind of unfair

In the real world things like optical interconnects are hard to pull off only marketing (said with a sneer and a spit) would make statements about it without a working model so I take the silence for what it is caution.Meanwhile what is Intel doing I doubt they are sitting around waiting for IBM to kill them on the high end.

Excuse me sir: there's a rootkit in your master boot record

Seriously Joanna

I would like to hear more what design features, what hardware? I am sure EL Reg could get these answers somehow. If Joanna has real ideas I think the world would like to know I am not trying to be funny.

Second-gen Eee PC a CES no-show

I am so stupid for buying the first of these.

Beat me whip me make me do embarrassing things I bought the first of these devices never never never do that. Oh well I like it OK even if there is a couple of dead pixels and you can't see it in bright sunlight. Flame me to death I deserve it. The dead bird is for me to eat.

Wikia unsheathes antidote to 'unhealthy' Google

Uhh where is it?

I googled for it I can't find it.

Systemax saves CompUSA from knacker's yard

This sounds like a bad idea

Let them die the reason they are going is they are failing businesses build your own brand don't take on other companies old baggage. Oh well Systemax can only lose money. Retailers all over the US are dumping stores as fast as they can buying these crusty old things makes no sense.

CES moots move from expensive Las Vegas

Only the cheap

survive, cheap is the way the whole industry is going to have to go for a while here in the US.

Verizon sues Alltel over homicidal guinea pig

OK I saw the commercial

but I never heard anyone say anything about Verizon doing anything in particular what are they basing this on.

Macworld invites kiddies to 'Make Bouncy Bouncy'

My nipples explode with delight!

People who don't know this stuff should be fined for ignorance.

Firefox spoofing bug raises phishing fears

Since I never see this

Dialog except when trying to get into my own websites semi private areas I am going to ignore this. I also have other ways to spot phishing

sites silly Netcraft toolbar still works best for me.

Remembering the Cray-1

Thanks

you just gave me a great idea for a case mod.

Sony BMG to drop Custer stance on DRM

Congratulations Sony BMG

Might I suggest though it won't cure everything, that they might do better to keep up with industry trends rather than being last all the time. Agile these guys are not they are not going to stand a chance unless they get some people at the top who pay attention. People will

always buy crap, but they want their full measure of crap, not what they were selling.

IBM chases the little people with hardware re-org

@AC

you know I don't think I have ever read a comment on an article that just shot it down without a trace this is that comment thank you.

Emacs diet for Visual Studio?

Emacs

he he he, well it's as big as a Microsoft operating system.. oh good god what do those soulless drones want with gods IDE I hate to say it but I wish them well it's a terrible program they should love it.

AJAX wave evades vendors

Send more JS libraries

Every line of that code I don't have to write makes me feel more like living. I almost would rather develop in assembly no strike that I would rather develop in assembly language.

More woe for SCO as Nasdaq says 'go'

What I would like to know,

is why did SCO turn rabid dog in the first place when did they start using the Palantir to Redmond.

Game throws out bullish forecast

I don't have a horse in this race

but I am pretty happy to see Nintendo do so well and probably at the expense of both Sony and Microsoft (evil companies that deserve to fail).

UK shamed in world privacy league

suspected subversives

All you have to do is let them know you are definitely a subversive and they will avoid you like the plague after all there's no good investigating known subversives only those they suspect may be. Once their sure you join the ranks of the other 80% of the population who think they are worthless.

The protection's off, as Warner commits to Amazon

I like this sevice

I don't give a crap about downloading whole cd's so it works for me. I was actually surprised at how good the quality was mp3's just in general have always been noticeably poorer in quality than the cd tracks they are ripped from/

IBM to make massive Ubuntu server play?

I agree with Ashlee

IBM isn't that stupid it would mean no end of bad publicity, no end of legal problems, and issues with the community they would simply not know how to cope. Could we please have an explanation of the insect alien voices effect really interesting. Like many governments Google may have a great many very creepy ideas of how to rule the earth but their implementations seem a bit stillborn, I will worry when I see them actually do something.

Radiohead prep New Year's Eve net gig

I bet they made more

than if it had all been p2p which it would have is there someone assuming that those who paid nothing, would have paid under some other circumstance and if so why?

US air force, Boeing press on with alternative jet fuel tests

mechanical whales

harvesting algae seems familiar somehow.

Truth, anonymity and the Wikipedia Way

I have no real proof

but up until about a month ago Wikipedia came up top of the list on a lot of odd search terms in Google then it dropped like a rock 8th visited seems like it will end if this continues artificially inflated search ranking hey _if_ Google made them they can do them in. Just an observation it may be some other factor like people are starting to doubt Wikipedia has any trustworthy information. Google has a problem they need their results to actually have relevance so skewing in favour of a known source of information and not spam is understandable (not terribly honest but understandable) which is why they might do this if they did.

US surgeon snaps patient's tattooed todger

We need a moratorium

on the words "surgeon" "snaps" and "todger" in the same headline. I thought he'd snapped it off in some kind of freak liquid nitrogen accident. As for the real story this reminds me of the story a few years ago of the obgyn who carved his initials in his patients abdomen after a c-section. Not quite as nasty, but still the brass balls of some physicians are hard to believe, what else has he done while his patients were out cold.

Dutch regulator slaps spyware purveyors with €1m fine

I don't recall meeting this one,

but I have removed quite a few of these types of programs from others computers (and once my own, but only once) and it does not seem to me one hundred dollars worth of work, if you know windows well enough to check the obvious registry keys and system files the problem is that after such an edit you often end up with problems anyway and have to reinstall from backups. On the other hand trojans you never really get rid of you have to reinstall. Probably they should have all their money removed from them and have to serve a couple of years in jail. Possibly some community service removing malware for free would not be amiss either.

Turkish s'kiddies deface security forum

When security is your business

The skiddies will dog you they must know that I am sort of surprised they don't create a forum like this in-house I mean they do have the ability.

Surprise: Ohio's e-voting machines riddled with critical security flaws

Cheating was done before

without electronic voting some of the Mayoral elections in Chicago come to mind even the dead vote for Mayor Daily I think was the joke at the time.

Sysadmin admits trying to axe California power grid

Merry christmas

you're fired.

London PR outfit in sex-on-desk email shocker

something wrong

Probably the most productive thing that desk has been put to all year considering the firms business.

US woman launches 'Taserware' parties

They will kill

husbands with them and they will be outlawed I await the surprising headlines.

Dismantling a Religion: The EFF's Faith-Based Internet

EFF has problems,

ISP's have more they are overselling their bandwidth we know that they are lying to the consumer the p2p kerfuffle will end for technical reasons it's possible to "fix" this little inconvenience and will be soon. The real problem is they aren't prepared to deliver the full measure of their service to every customer and they aren't willing to pay to change this. The EFF are making too much of this it isn't religion it's an attempt to stay in the public eye, to stay relevant and I suppose has met with some success if it's too much so be it I think them going toe to toe with the NSA's little helpers has given them some credibility and shrillness notwithstanding this does warrant some support. It's not religion it's required for a free society it's freedom of the press and others thats not faith we all know it's needed it's been proven.

Americans can swear at toilets, judge rules

Toilet justice

well thats a relief I thought freedom of speech in your own abode was done for.

Brit workers: The Xmas skive starts today

nothing

IT related will get done till the middle of Jan. Happens every year oh well happy holidays everybody.

US gov silent robot white (?) helicopter prangs itself

Exscuse me it's white

for the same reason golf balls are white so you can find it in the trees when it goes astray. It makes perfect sense you wouldn't want to lose it now would you.

Shell in Hawaiian algae biofuel pilot

Hawaii

Last I checked some of the most expensive land on the planet you think maybe they could find a cheaper location you might as well put it in Manhattan or Tokyo. Seeing as Algae will grow anywhere (there is water) it seems a little silly.

Ministry of Defence leaks counter terrorism traffic

htaccess

Pretty easy to stop I don't know if people care or not there are hundreds of these things indexed on Google still it indicates a certain sloppiness.

Asus: memory upgrades will not void Eee PC warranty

So putting

that new stick of Patriot ddr2 800 2GB in their won't burn it up? OK I am on it.

Microsoft wins seven figure sum from distie

They are

perfectly well within their rights to destroy the market for their software any way they see fit, now shush.

Campaign to name US street after Douglas Adams

Good I am glad.

Nice to see someone is doing something in Douglases memory he was a very different sort of creative genius . I don't think we will ever see the like again. How many authors do you know who can make you think and laugh hard at the same time there can't be that many.

Novell, Red Hat and Gartner war with Facebook for PR flop award

Bout time.

Gartners fuzzy knowledge also impacts all their other numbers something that possibly escapes their customers and why they should really have them. RH has always been too damn quiet for their own good for an open source company they are less open than they should be, you aren't Google talk to us. Novell ...

Nice episode, happy to have you back, don't go away again.

Western Digital drive is DRM-crippled for your safety

I have solution for WD

Quick rewrite add an interface to change banned files list pretend it was there all along and we forgot to tell you about it. Since it really isn't part of hardware just stupid firmware anyway shouldn't be more than a momentary blip on their otherwise commonplace reputation. Their drives are still good but this is obviously a mistake of the first water.

'Swiss DMCA' fears overblown, says copyright authority

foreign corporations

Read this as American corporations usually, have this idea that they rule everywhere and that unless laws of all nations support their rights even over the people of those nations those nations are unlawful they are supported by their hirelings in the government of the United States these people are fully paid for both parties, all of them owe their jobs to these corporations, contributions to their campaigns, and without them and their support they are not in office. Even if the laws they want enacted are not utterly abusive it is the duty of all citizens of democratic countries to throw such legislation out it's pretty simple really follow the money around it's all there is to it. Hopefully with the balance of economic power shifting out of the US it will be easier to do this but vigilance is ever required in a democracy. One more thing it's fundamentally different for the people of the US to allow this to happen we benefit directly from the success of those same corporations, you do not and should not allow them this license.

The world's most fantastic, imaginary server start-up

Ashlee Vance

You do have a good article in you in fact I think you're the best they have at the moment keep it up. BTW servers are coming along fine, do you know where I can get a facebook application sharpish. Check is in the mail.

kthxbai

Newly-homeless kids get free iPod

@timmy

"These kids will be stealing music from the pirate bay for their free iPods in a European hotel during Christmas while most inner-city teens will probably just get a beating and carton of cigarettes."

Those kids are lucky we just got mildly scolded, and sent to bed without cigs.

Experts paint bleak picture of security in 2017

Bruce you did too

good at schooling us to see "security theater" and snake oil. To be honest it seems a half assed/arsed attempt at frightening children, they may be right the systems grow organically sometimes they will die back a bit that's normal and certainly not much fun if it's happening to you. As for making all software MS windows approved I think they will have a problem selling even one more OS version no matter what it does.As for Apple who cares their ability to limit the carrier of their phone seems to have hit a snag. I don't think any other locked down bullshit will remain either. Never underestimate the power of a marketplace however stupid the people in it are individually money talks. Meanwhile I will probably be dead by then so I don't care.

Dell moves 40,000 Ubuntu PCs

Not sure if this is good or not.

Considering the somewhat blunted nature of Ubuntu and Dell for that matter it's something I hope people find them useful.