* Posts by Steven Roper

1832 publicly visible posts • joined 10 May 2011

Public/private Aus social networking site launches

Steven Roper
Meh

That's fine

as long as its userbase is in the thousands, not the millions. As it progresses, one of two things will happen: 1) It will ultimately fail to attract an audience, thus not making enough to cover the costs of running it, and it will fold; or 2) It will continue to grow until it becomes just another Facebook.

By that I mean that as the userbase expands into the millions, so too the costs of running the site and providing technical support will escalate, and so the site will need to make money somehow to cover that. Then the investors and shareholders will want their pound of flesh, so even more money has to come in for that. The only two ways for a SN site to make money are: Charge a periodic subscription fee (which people won't pay when there are so-called "free" alternatives) or provide theso-called "free" alternative, funded by privacy invading advertising. The more privacy-invading, the better.

Assuming this site succeeds to become the next Facebook rival, we will see the same thing: they might have high ideals about privacy now, but when the bills start rolling in those ideals will collapse like the house of cards they are, and the same forces that turned Google and Facebook from genuine services into soulless privacy vampires will simply turn this lot into just another invasive ad-pushing time-waster.

So no thanks. Been there, done that, read the book, seen the movie, bought the T-shirt. I'm not riding that merry-go-round again.

Facebook scammers exploit Steve Jobs' death

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

The way I generally put that

is "If an offer seems too good to be true - it IS." Or you can substitute "usually" with "always".

SpyEye banking trojan: now with SMS hijacking capability

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

Or...

Time to modify mobile phone cameras so they can do retina / iris scans.

Patent troll lawsuits may be on thin ice

Steven Roper

Either would be good

because once America collapses, the rest of the West follows suit. Once that happens, the whole bullshit concept of "intellectual property" goes out the window since the new superpowers, China and India, don't give a toss about the concept.

Intellectual property is simply the last gasp of a civilisation that has sold all its infrastructure and manufacturing base to third-world countries, trying to hold on to some semblance of economic significance.

Why grill Google over web dominance? It has none

Steven Roper

Actually

Wikipedia is pretty reliable on non-controversial topics, like physics, chemistry, mathematics, space science and so on. Where it falls over is on topics that are emotionally or politically charged, like climate change, religion, certain notable historical events and persons, evolution and creationism, and so forth. That's when its articles descend into the opinionated rants of whatever editor happens to have locked the article to themselves at a given time.

However, with such charged topics, it's often hard to find *any* authoritative source. The more politically charged the subject, the more fiercely its supporters and detractors argue and the worse the opinionated rants/actual facts ratio becomes. In that regard, the problem covers the entire Internet, not just Wikipedia.

While I would still not regard Wikipedia as an authoritative source by any means, it's a useful resource for quickly checking up mathematical equations and scientific facts (excluding political ones like climate science) as required, and you can always follow up the references if you aren't sure. In the latter regard, Wikipedia amounts to an effective fact-search engine, if nothing else.

Chrome browser 'is becoming Number Two'

Steven Roper

This is why Chrome is catching up

If Mozilla used the same malware-like, sneaky, underhanded distribution tactics with Firefox as Google are using to sneak Chrome onto people's computers, they'd have been the dominant browser in the market years ago.

Google have become no better than the fucking drive-by-download malware injectors because of this practice. Every second piece of "free" software now has this Trojan browser quietly embedded in its install file, waiting for unsuspecting users to miss the tickboxes. All so the big G can better spy on everyone's browsing habits.

There must be a way of suing them for deceptive trade practices or something.

Steven Roper
Go

I agree with you

That is indeed a good thing. I just wish Google didn't feel the need to behave like the Russian botnet Mafia in distributing it. Their existing marketing machine should have been sufficient.

Would you sue to keep your guilty ABBA habit a secret?

Steven Roper

The point AC is making, Bill, is that correlating Pink Floyd listeners with dope fiends is exactly the kind of stereotypical judgement prospective employers will make about you regardless of whether you are/were a stoner or not. This is exactly why all this privacy invasion, personal data collection and profiling is so dangerous - because of the unfounded assumptions those in power will make about people on the strength of it.

Steven Roper
Happy

I'll go one better again

Like you, all my music is locally stored (and will be until I die) but I don't have iTunes - nothing Apple is permitted in my home. Especially not that iTunes shit.

I use an old version of Winamp, 2.1 (complete with "Winamp! It really whips the llama's arse!" demo mp3), installed from the original install file I downloaded in 1999, long before Nullsoft got bought out by AOL. No phone-home shit, no telling anyone what I'm listening to or what I've got, just a clean simple basic music player that does everything I need.

Amazon's Silk looks creepily Phorm-ulaic

Steven Roper
Stop

You, Tony, ARE susceptible, whether you know it or not

Ever watched a gentleman by the name of Derren Brown? Think you've got the Jedi cojones to beat masters like him at his own game?

Think again, buddy.

The people behind the advertising industry have been studying human behaviour for decades, with one only objective in mind: to get inside your head and make you want to buy what they're selling, by fair means or foul. This is an industry that lacks any semblance of morals or respect for human sovereignty and dignity; if there were a means of directly controlling your mind to make you go out and buy something, they'd use it without any compunction and with smiles on their sociopathic faces.

And these people know how to get inside your head. Why do you think all these companies are going to such incredible lengths to find out everything you do with your life? The better they know you, the better they can figure out what your weaknesses - your Achilles' heels - are, the better to exploit those weakness in ways you will not even be aware of.

Trust me, Tony. I've worked with such people professionally. I, too, once thought as you did - that I'm immune to the kind of psychological manipulation employed by them. One of them, after talking to me for a mere 5 minutes, was able to make accurate statements about my interests, personal life and even sexual preferences despite the fact that I had volunteered none of it. He then proceeded to demonstrate - and this was with full knowledge aforethought on my part - how the advertising industry uses that information to manipulate you. After a few minutes, he had me ready to actually buy his laptop off him, despite the fact that I neither needed one nor that buying it would have meant not eating that week. Only the fact that he didn't really want to sell it stopped him - and me.

Mate, I'm 45 years old and I didn't come down in the last shower. Those who know me describe me as intelligent, articulate, and observant, if a bit abrasive. I don't usually miss a trick. But this guy, with his years of training, ran rings around me. And it's people like him who work out how to get into your head with advertising, and make you do things you wouldn't normally do. And yes, Tony, he'd run rings around you too, whether you're prepared to admit it or not. That's not a reflection of your intelligence mate, it's simple honesty about what years of training and studying people can do. To think otherwise is deluding yourself.

So I, like many others who harbour no false illusions about what the advertising industry is and what it's capable of, don't want these bastards building detailed profiles on me. I don't want to be profiled and analysed and decompiled as if I were some computer program, for the mere purpose of emptying my wallet. When I do buy something, I'd like it to be my own decision, rather than the result of some mindbending marketroid pushing my buttons.

So I won't be using the Fire or Amazon's Silk service. But where I object to your stance is that if too many people approached privacy with your attitude, pretty soon those of us who still value it won't have any choice, because privacy-invasive companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and the rest, would then be the only way to get anything done, because they - and all their customers like you - will have subsumed any alternatives.

Veggies tricked into dating meat-gobbling escorts

Steven Roper
WTF?

It's really very simple

$sql = "SELECT * FROM customers WHERE flags & ".$is_vegan." AND sex = '".$sexual_preference."' AND age > ".$min_age." AND age < ".$max_age." ORDER BY enroldate";

I don't see why there's a problem here.

Aussie parrots hit the sauce and hit the deck

Steven Roper
Pint

It's common knowledge

in Adelaide as well that parrots get drunk on fermenting fruit each year. Which is where the common Aussie expression "pissed as a parrot" comes from!

Wales says no to outing Wikipedia users on Facebook

Steven Roper
FAIL

Well, Mr Vociferous Time Waster

since you so casually dismiss the concerns of those of us who are actually concerned about the abuse of our private information, and since nobody cares about your little life, perhaps you'd care to put your money where your mouth is and share with us:

Your real name

Your address of residence

Your phone number

The name, address and phone number of your employer, and your position

Your credit card number, name, expiry date and CVV

Your date of birth

A link to a hi resolution (at least 360 dpi) image of your driver's licence, passport, and last tax return.

Sorry, what? That's none of our business you say? Then STFU and think about what you're saying next time.

Oz Territory terrorized by MUTANT CANE TOADS!

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

How much caused by the imported vermin

The imported vermin is by and large just a nuisance. Mice, rats, cats, foxes - even cane toads. While cane toads are poisonous to eat, they don't outright attack you.

The native wildlife is another matter entirely. For example redbacks and funnelweb spiders will attack you without provocation, just because they don't like the colour of the shirt you're wearing. Both will send you to hospital pretty fucking smartly, although there have been no deaths for a few decades because people here act on a bite right away.

Yellow-belly black snakes and brown snakes aren't quite so aggressive, but they'll definitely let you know if you've stepped on them, by sending you to the hospital with some choice neurotoxin in your veins. That their hunting method generally involves them looking like fallen branches until something steps on them doesn't help matters.

Cassowaries will simply gut you like a hogtied pig with the spurs on their feet if they don't like the look of you. There's usually no surviving a cassowary attack, because they're pretty efficient at removing all your innards.

Crocodiles: In Australia, these fucking 40-foot monsters are the last surviving remnants of the Jurassic. Want to see what dinosaurs looked like IRL? Take a trip to the Northern Territory.

Box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopi, cone snails, stonefish, stingrays, white pointers. Yeah, the sea ain't safe either. The first four of those will kill you in SECONDS, stingrays enjoy giving you open heart surgery a la Steve Irwin, and white pointers - well, Jaws is a pretty good indicator of what happens there.

Don't forget the drop-bears. Those bastards will kill you as soon as look at you. They might look cute and cuddly in the tourist mugshots, but those cute koalas you see in the petting zoos and national parks are the specially trained tame ones. Koalas in the wild are damn vicious beasts that will attack even a roo without hesitation. They've made bloody, mangled messes of more than a few unwary tourists out hiking the outback, who made the mistake of thinking that cute = friendly.

So yeah, most of our native wildlife is pretty nasty. It's probably what inspired Harry Harrison to write his "Deathworld" series. Just be careful what you step on, look up at the trees before you walk under them and always check the toilet seat before you sit down. ;)

Steven Roper

You're doing it wro - ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

Red Hat engineer renews attack on Windows 8-certified secure boot

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

Couldn't agree more

With all the control-freakery around, IT is starting to suck.

I remember back in the 70s and 80s you could repair your own car with a screwdriver, socket set and pair of multigrips if something went wrong with it. I've ridden in cars where the steering column was held on by a bent coat hanger and had a pair of pantyhose for a fan belt. Cars were simple enough that in a pinch you could cobble something together to at least get it to the nearest garage if things went pear-shaped while you were on the road. In the Australian outback, being able to do that often meant the difference between living and dying.

You can't do that any more. With all the computers, control chips and crap on cars these days, if anything is wrong with it the car simply won't start. Forget bent coat hangers and pantyhose, if a single wire in the convoluted mess that passes for an engine these days is even slightly misaligned, the car will bitch and moan about not being roadworthy. Too bloody bad if you're stuck out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere with no mobile coverage 300 k's from the next nearest human being. You can just roast to fucking death out there for all the car manufacturers care.

Now I see the same thing happening to computers now that happened to cars after the 80s. No user serviceable parts inside. Device must be used only as directed. So what if it's your fucking money? Give it to us and maybe we'll let you have temporary use of OUR device. Not YOUR device. OURS, even if you pay for it. We want to control everything you do with it.

Fuck this. IT is going in a direction I'm beginning to find unpalatable. Maybe I'll go in for carpentry. At least you can still use a hammer and nails the same way I could as a kid.

HideMyAss defends role in LulzSec hack arrest

Steven Roper
Stop

Not being in any hurry to do so?

Having witnessed the process of a business being served a court order, I can tell you that you don't really have much choice about it. Although the case I saw was an order to seize hardcopy files and paperwork, the process would likely be similar for computer data.

In Australia (and I assume the process is probably similar in the UK), what happens is two police officers and a bailiff show up at the front door with a piece of paper signed and sealed by a judge, and inform you that you are required by law to produce the items listed as follows, blah blah blah. If you don't cooperate *immediately*, they start turning the place upside down until they find it. They'll literally bust open locked filing cabinets with crowbars and sledgehammers if it becomes necessary to do so. For computer data, I'd assume they'd simply start removing computers and storage media if you don't hand over the information pronto. Believe me, these guys don't piss around, and they won't stand about listening to your excuses.

So HideMyAss's staff probably didn't have a whole lot of choice about complying or not, or even taking their time about it. More likely, if they didn't instantly hand over the requested data, they would have been herded into an office while the police started carting stuff out the door. Nobody can reasonably expect anyone in a normal working situation to put up any kind of a fight against something like that.

Samsung preps anti-iPhone 5 lawsuit before it's even out

Steven Roper
FAIL

And who did Apple steal the GUI design from?

The WIMP interface (Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointer) or GUI, as I recall, was actually invented by a company called Xerox, I believe. And no, Xerox did not license the technology to Apple, they simply stole it. But I suppose what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander after all, hey, fanboy?

Steven Roper

Upvoted

because obvious troll is obvious... ;)

Prosecutor calls poker site 'global Ponzi scheme'

Steven Roper
Thumb Down

Still small fry

compared to the true master of Ponzi schemes - Bernie Madoff still by far and away holds his title with $65 billion to his name!

US survey: 1 in 5 telecommuters work an hour or less a day

Steven Roper
Stop

So what do you do?

Carpenter? Plumber? Electrician? Brickie's labourer? Transport driver? All these are the kinds of people who do "real" work, right?

As someone who works in an office I take exception to your remark, which illustrates a lack of understanding of the need for planning and project management. So let's say you're one of the above professions, and you have to help build a building. Without the the architects and engineers sitting in their offices "purely adding cost", how does the carpenter know exactly where to nail his planks? How much pipe does the plumber need, how big, and where is he to lay it? What cables does the electrician require, and where is he to lay them?

You seem not to realise this, but it's actually important that somebody sits at a desk and works out and writes down exactly what materials are required, how much of them are required, where they have to be put, to what standards, in order to have a project that doesn't bear a passing resemblance to a Jenga pile for all of the 30 seconds it can actually stand up.

Somebody also has to keep all of that paperwork organised, so tradies like you can actually find the relevant pieces you need to do your jobs. Others have to sit down and design the programs that assist with the organisation of said paperwork, keep people involved in the project in contact with each other and bring in the customers that the project was built to service in the first place. Yes, we office monkeys have a lot of real work to do that you seem not to appreciate.

Without people in offices "adding cost", you "hands-on" types wouldn't have any work to do, because you wouldn't have a clue about what you need or where to begin. Now I have a lot of respect for "hands-on" trades, because these are expert jobs requiring just as much skill, experience and mastery as any desk job, in some cases more so. I've posted elsewhere about the importance of such trades. But a little respect for us "pen-pushers" as well would go a long way towards eliminating the "them and us" syndrome that plagues many modern workplaces, no?

NASA releases asteroid flyby video from Dawn probe

Steven Roper

@ Ragarath

No, because the kind of compulsive whingers you're talking about will form the Society for the Preservation of Asteroids or something, insisting that these untouched marvels of nature should remain untouched.

Remember, these people are born to complain. They have to have something to whinge about.

Samsung fights back downunder

Steven Roper

Something stinks here

Apple claim Samsung violated their patents AND get the Galaxy yanked from the market while the case is still *sub judice*, but when Apple is accused of violating Samsung's patents why isn't the iPad/iPhone yanked off the market in the same way, for the same reason? Somebody high up in government is an Apple fan maybe?

Microsoft 'paid over £1m to silence UK exec over sexism'

Steven Roper

I think

one of the reasons a male-dominated board of directors might not want women in positions of power is precisely because so many women, like this one, will play the gender-discrimination card the moment they don't get their way. Was she passed over because she was female or because the new male incumbent had more experience, or was it because the board knew she would claim discrimination if she was passed over? What else would she claim discrimination about once she was promoted?

As long as women use political correctness to rise through the ranks, they'll always face that wall of opposition. I look at it from the perspective of, if a woman is willing to play the gender card to gain promotion, will she use the the same trick (or claims of sexual harassment or whatever) to get her own way once she is on the board? I wouldn't want to take a chance promoting anyone with that mentality, woman or man.

How gizmo maker's hack outflanked copyright trolls

Steven Roper

The corporate overlords

won't bother with this guy until/unless he starts to make serious money with it. Then they'll decide whether or not he's the kind of material they want in their echelon of power, and if not then they'll sue him into bankruptcy; if he is then they'll see to it that he becomes a multibillionaire like themselves.

After hack nightmare, Sony bars lawsuits with new TOS

Steven Roper
FAIL

This is unenforceable in Australia

since IIRC we have a constitutional clause here that prohibits us from signing away certain inalienable rights - including the right to legal redress in the event of another's negligence.

Hunt: We'll slightly inconvenience pirate sites

Steven Roper
FAIL

"A poem or a great movie is worth more than flushing a toilet"

Is it really? So if no plumbers made or repaired toilets so you would be living in your own shit and piss, most likely dying of disease, you wouldn't really be in any position to write your poems or great movies now, would you? Without trade services like plumbers and electricians, civilisation could not exist and your "artistic creativity" wouldn't be worth shit. Get some fucking perspective, idiot.

Steven Roper
Flame

"Fair reward for creativity"

Yes, of course. As a professional web developer I want my fair reward too, so every time someone visits a site I design for you I should be paid for the same work, over and over again. And my heirs, and their kids, and their kids' kids too - why should they have to do any work at all since their great-grandfather designed some websites a century ago?

What about electricians? Shouldn't they be rewarded for their creativity by making you pay every time you turn on a light? And how about the plumbers? They should be paid every time you flush the toilet - that's only fair reward, right? Don't forget their kids for the next 3 generations too - they've earned the right to be paid again and again for their ancestors' hard work.

Copyright law is a scam, plain and simple. There's no other logical way to look at it. If you spend a week writing and recording a song, you should get paid for a week's worth of work, and no more. Same as everyone else who does honest work for a living. And as long as these thieves and fraudsters have our governments in their pockets, justice remains impossible.

Lincs bloke fined in deceased hedgehog outrage

Steven Roper
Mushroom

I would a thousand times rather

live in a society of not-quite-right-in-the-head "scumbags" like Victor Ford, than live in constant peril of my life sharing a society with self-righteous bigots who think anyone whose sense of humour or outlook on life differs too much from their own should be hanged.

French officials: 'Don't worry about fatal nuclear explosion'

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

The problem is

what I've come to call the "Tug-o-war Effect." What I've observed is that usually, people generally do consider the pros and cons of something, because they have to in order to form an opinion on it - until that something turns into a fight.

The moment somebody cries "Oh noes! Ban it!", that something then devolves into a ban/don't ban argument, and in order to make their point, each side must extol, with all their might, the evils or benefits of said something.

Thus, like a Tug-o-war, in which both sides must pull back with all their might in order to have a chance of winning, the arguments become more and more polarised over time as each side tries to gain traction. Eventually there can be no middle ground, because what matters is no longer the central something the fight started over; instead, winning or losing becomes the only purpose of the fight.

I've observed this effect not only with nuclear energy, but also with climate change, left-right politics, religion and atheism, freedom and safety. As soon as there's a fight over it, the name-calling and hate-slinging begins; the polarisation of the arguments to support either side gets under way, and the first casualty of the war is the middle ground - usually the truth of the matter.

I know, because I'm often guilty of it myself. It seems to be a basic principle of human nature.

Seagate pulls out the biggest hard one in the industry

Steven Roper
Go

About Seagate drives being crap

I agree with you - every single one I ever bought went bad within 6 months. I personally swear by WD drives, since I've yet to have one fail on me.

You know what's really interesting? A good friend of mine swears by Seagate drives. When he buys them, they last for donkey's years. Likewise, he detests WD because every time he's bought a WD drive, it's gone bad on him within 6 months.

Explain that anomaly!

Lost memory stick had 87 NHS patients' info unencrypted

Steven Roper
Facepalm

This is happening so often

that El Reg should really set up a new article category like RoTM and BOFH specifically dealing with cases of inept government droids losing confidential data.

StreetView gets the willies in Victoria

Steven Roper

Well, there's nothing remotely resembling a dick that I can see

Perhaps Google have fixed it now that you've published it. Maybe you should have posted a screenshot instead of the Flash map where Google can change things.

Google feeds patents to HTC for assault on Apple

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

Awesome

Now we get to see some of the biggest and most powerful corps on the planet banding together to flatten this pathetic, litigious parasite of a company into the dirt where they belong. More popcorn please!

Early Earth’s ‘golden shower’

Steven Roper

A.C. Clarke beat you to it

In 3001, he describes how people have been engaged in a search for the fabled "golden asteroid", which had become an urban legend of the day.

Three in ten Americans urge feds to read their email

Steven Roper
Facepalm

Well, it seems the brainwashing is working then

Baaaa. Baa-Baa. Baaaaaaa. Baa. Baaaaaa. Baaa-Baaa.

Jesus appears, acquires vast following, bitchslaps Justin Bieber

Steven Roper
Joke

How DARE you...

...put legends like Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath and Marilyn Manson in with that pissant little manufactured boy-band twerp! Now go and wash your mouth out with soap! No, make that caustic soda! Bad Marketing Hack! Bad!

DNS hijack hits The Register: All well

Steven Roper

One thing I've noticed

is that as of this morning Australian time, and still as of this post, theregister.co.uk now gives me a DNS error. Interestingly, if I connect to the VPN service I subscribe to (VyprVPN), I can reach the site (which is why your logs for this post would show me as coming from Amsterdam instead of Australia.) Most likely my ISP has cached the error and hasn't caught up yet. So it's also a good test of the censorship-bypassing abilities of the VPN, since a DNS failure at the local level is similar to the effect that the Great Aussie Firewall would have if it were in place, which is the reason I subscribed to the VPN service in the first place.

London Olympics journey planner crash effort launched

Steven Roper

Good, fast, cheap

Pick any two.

My guess is they'll go for fast and cheap...

Domino's to serve pizzas on the Moon, apparently

Steven Roper
Joke

They'll have to fight McDonalds for the privilege

Back in the early 80s I remember a story doing the rounds (it later proved to be an urban myth) that McDonalds had bought the rights to be the first fast-food franchise to open on the moon from NASA or some such. So the thought occurred to me that had that been true, Domino's would have been receiving a call from McD's lawyers in response...

Sea eagles menace Scottish children

Steven Roper
FAIL

@sonicmonkey

Looking at the votes I'd say most beg to differ. You see, unlike Daily-Mail-reading do-gooders such as yourself, most Scots (that I've encountered) have this ability called a "sense of humour", which enables them to laugh off disparaging jokes and even come back with a few of their own. Unfortunately the proliferation of PC hand-wringers in recent years means that this wonderful ability is sadly becoming increasingly rare.

Microsoft delivers 'copy Apple' Windows 8 message

Steven Roper

I just don't understand

why people have a problem with Windows 7 on tablets. I've had a Hanvon TouchPad with Windows 7 for over a year now and I've never had a problem using it. The onscreen keyboard is quick and responsive, and I make no more typos on it than on a normal keyboard. The menu interface also works without a hitch - I've never experienced the "you need to be pixel-precise" issue people keep chuntering on about. And the beauty of it is I can install the XAMPP webserver stack on it for demoing websites to clients, Photoshop and Cinema4D for design work, OpenOffice for docs and spreadsheets, and Eclipse for coding. I can use all my favourite programs on the tablet, which you can't do with Android or iOS, and I have no problems using any of them.

The only downside is the battery life - 3-4 hours under normal use. The thing does run an Intel Celeron Mobile so I can understand that its power consumption is fairly greedy. I solved this problem by buying a car cigarette lighter adapter for it, so when I take it with me on the road I just run it off the car's power, and in day-to-day use if I'm out of the office I'm rarely away from the car for more than a couple of hours anyway. Nevertheless, I'd like to see an improvement in this area - a 6-8 hour battery run would be perfect.

VCE goes for Zaphod Beeblebrox management style

Steven Roper

Nope

It most definitely was an adjective. Think about it - WTF is a "hoopy" as an object? The word was describing a situation, meaning excellent, cool, awesome or a plethora of other superlatives. Frood is the noun (as in "Ford Prefect is a hoopy frood"), although it did have an adjectival form, froody, as in the line from the books, "That would not be cool and froody."

Antitrust nemesis accuses Google of 'WMD program'

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

I haven't seen this feature yet

but I hope they roll it out in Australia soon, because I've wanted the ability to block sites from appearing in my search results for years. For exactly the same reason as you - that fucking site e-e (I refuse to name them fully because it drives up their rankings)

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

Exactly

Few things piss me off more than clicking on a promising-looking result only to find another fucking search engine pushing results that are nothing to do with what I clicked on. See, these spamming fuckers show one thing to Google, and another to us. So say, for example, I'm searching for "javascript DOM methods" and I click a result that appears to show a list of DOM methods, but when I click it all I see is a page full of "results" that are merely ads for javascript design services who have paid the spammer to push their results up. That's because the spam search engine has shown the Googlebot a page that matches the search terms, but what they serve up to me is a page of paid adverts. As far as I'm concerned, that's bait-and-switch tactics, and those that do it are as bad as the penis-pill pushers and deserve the same treatment.

So while I generally don't think much of Google in some areas, they've done the right thing here, pushing these spamming fucks to the bottom.

Biofuel boffins pimp panda poo

Steven Roper
Joke

The problem is

that PETA, WWF and other animal-rights activists would all start jumping up and down when some biofuel-corp starts farming battery-cage pandas in huge factories, feeding off of conveyor belts and shitting through tubes shoved up their arses to streamline the production process - so maybe using pandas as a fuel source isn't so "green" after all...

New UK 'leccy meters remotely run via Voda 2G

Steven Roper

@Ken Hagan

"...your decision whether you buy remotely controllable devices..."

The problem with that is, once the new infrastructure is in place, we will start to see more and more "remote-control-compatible" (RCC) devices in the stores, which will edge out and ultimately replace the old ones. A good example is CRT monitors - you try and buy one now. They're only available in specialist shops and they now cost an arm and a leg. Eventually you won't be able to buy them at all. Things like freezers and washing machines will go the same way - all new available models will come with RCC built in.

It doesn't even have to be legislated: the common interests of the corporations and governments in micromanaging our private lives will simply see the RCC devices replace non-RCC ones on the shop shelves until you have no choice left once your old one fails.

World ostracizes firm that issued bogus Google credential

Steven Roper
Thumb Up

Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry...

Thumbs up because I haven't heard that song in decades, and since I'm currently engaged in tracking down all the songs I can remember from my childhood, you just reminded me that I'd forgotten that one, and several others associated with it in my memory, like "Manah-manah" and "You are my sunshine". Thanks for the memory jog! ;)

Beyonce's belly: Most important thing ever, on Twitter

Steven Roper
Meh

And

Giveafuck Bay has been dredged completely clear of Care.

Steven Roper
Big Brother

For those

who are concerned about people's obsession with celeb goss and trivia marginalising important issues, I direct you to the following interesting comic strip:

http://www.egodialogues.com/words-language/huxley-orwell.php

TL;DR Compares Huxley and Orwell and finds Huxley was more spot on with his predictions...