Posts by Hein Kruger

Ubuntu zoo preps for new arrival

K

hmm, I wonder if that means 9.10 will be a KDE only release. Although by that logic I guess 7.10 should have been GNOME only...

How to stop worrying and enjoy paying for incoming calls

depends on who's calling

The problem with paying to receive calls is that you don't have as much control. I have no problem with paying to receive a call from my girlfriend or my mom or my friends. I also have no problems with businesses paying to receive calls from customers, but to have to pay for every "sorry, wrong number" or telemarketing (phone spam) or phone survey call I receive, that's just too much.

Something like this would lead to me only answering the phone when know the person who's calling and I'm really sure I want to talk to them. I can see problems here due to ignoring (potentially important) calls from numbers not on my whitelist.

Another problem is that, say I need to call someone who has a prepaid account, I can't unless they actually have sufficient credit on their account to receive my call.

Hijacking huge chunks of the internet - a new How To

At last

someone found a way to turn off the internet.

they should hook this up to that big red button at turnofftheinternet.com

Apple slapped for dodgy ads

"all parts of the internet are on the iPhone"

that would take some rather impressive storage capacity...

El Reg salutes ultimate shed anthem

Jon "Three Sheds" Westbrook

Is he by any chance related to Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson?

Former top brass call for first-strike nuke option

@Dunstan Vavasour

> Which has more deterrent effect?

> a) "Will they nuke us sir?" "No, they won't so long as we don't nuke them."; or

> b) "Will they nuke us sir?" "They didn't rule it out."

Option a has more deterrent effect, I image those conversations might continue as follows:

a) "Will they nuke us sir?", "No, they won't so long as we don't nuke them."

"OK, well we'd better not nuke them then".

OR

b) "Will they nuke us sir?" "They didn't rule it out."

"Well, then we'd better make sure we nuke them first."

Terrorists...

If the propaganda that's been almost continuously pouring out of Washington (and Downing Street) over the last 7 years, is to be believed, then the greatest threat faced by western civilisation is from a terrorist with a WMD.

Now, do these military idiots seriously believe that these terrorists they've been warning us about, would be deterred by a first strike nuke option? Or are they hoping to nuke the terrorists before they get their hands a WMD? That's a rather worrying thought, considering they've already proved themselves pretty much incapable of finding terrorists or WMDs, are they just going to nuke everyone who looks Muslim, just to be sure?

Caught on camera: the Downfall of HD DVD

@Mark

I thought the final scene was where Hitler and Eva Braun doused themselves with petrol, put Blades of Glory in their HD-DVD player and lit a match.

Mass web infection leaves researcher scratching her head

Operating Systems

"The script looks for various vulnerabilities specific to the visiting OS"

Does this mean that non-Microsoft Operating Systems are also affected?

School-dodging Mexican lad glues self to bed

@Tony

"2.5- Feed him caffeinated sodas and chocolate Ex-Lax and let him stew in his own juices for awhile."

but who's going to clean up the mess?

Contest seeks the most diminutive XSS worm

@Anonymous Coward

"I would suggest that the banks and payment gateway services all invest in diverse technologies, requiring the users to download software that is bullet proof to enable transactions."

Interesting idea, it would probably improve security, but I think you would also lose

most of the benefits of online banking. My first objection is that the software would probably only be available for one operating system (read microshaft windoze). Also, you'd probably only be able to access your online bank/payment service from your own computer -- even if you were allowed to install the software from your bank at work, chances are there'd be a firewall blocking your banks protocol. Finally, any software more complex than "hello world" is extremely unlikely to be truly bullet proof.

Germans debut kitesurf-powered autonomous windjammer

Truly revolutionary!

"This is the start of a revolution for the way ships are powered"

Wind powered ships? Well I never! What will they think of next?

UK anthrax victim infected by drum skin

crystal gripping new age hippie bulshit

"was most likely infected while participating in a drumming session in the village hall in Smailholm"

I bet there were pamphlets advertising the drumming session, filled with nonsense about the wonderful healing power of drumming...

Rove investigator erases his PCs - to kill computer virus

Who knows?

"the data, which included medical information, messages to his personal attorney and pictures from his son's tours of duty in Iraq, don't involve his official work.

Bloch also says no documents relevant to any investigation have been purged"

He *might* be telling the truth. Maybe he just wanted to make sure nobody would discover his kiddie pr0n.

US woman fingered for Porky Pig drugs outrage

@Anonymous(?) Coward

"My name is not very common"

Now that is an unusual name!

Kindle, Eee PC top Amazon.com 'most wanted' list

call me a cynic...

but i wonder how much Asus paid to get their little toy to the top of the list?

15 years ago: the first mass-produced GSM phone

Old phones...

...they're still the best.

My first phone was a Nokia 2110, I didn't like it all that much - too heavy (it was a good self defence weapon on the streets of Johannesburg though). Later I upgraded to a 6110 (not the newer 6110 Navigator) which was quite a nice phone - although the screen went haywire after a few years. The best phone ever made though was the Nokia 3330 - I was rather upset when I lost that one (after more than 4 years of excellent service, it just disappeared one drunken night). Nowadays I use a 3510i which would be a wonderful phone if not for the polyphonic ringtones and annoying orange lights on sides.

Flying cow destroys minivan

Monty Python

"without warning"

I'm sure if they'd listened carefully they'd have heard a French sounding chap shouting "Fetchez la vache!" shortly before the cow hit them.

Satanic car key traps 12 motorists in car park of horror

Cover up

Bah! Do they really expect us to believe that? I'll bet that Ofcom was called in to blame it all on some innocent family car, in an effort to cover up what's really going on. They were obviously testing out some new top-secret kit for getting cars to spy on their owners.

Unfortunately for them (very fortunate for us) there was some glitch that caused the wireless network they set up for the cars to report on their owners' activities, to interfere with the locking mechanisms.

Reg Standards Soviet defines temperature and force

excuse my pedantry, but

We now seem to have two conflicting units of force (since weight is a force). To make matters worse, the definition of the Jub is given in terms of kilograms, which is a unit of mass. However since the Jub is defined as the weight required to crush an Australian beer can, it must be assumed that the Jub is indeed intended to be a unit of force (mass doesn't crush, force does).

Thus I would suggest redefining the Jub as equivalent to approximately 42 Newton or 0.42 Norrises.

Record labels to ditch CD singles for USB Flash drives

This is stupid

I already have enough USB sticks. I don't want to have to buy a new one each time I buy music. I'd much rather just download music.

Besides, the main attraction of physical media such as CD, DVD or vinyl is that it has some sort of permanence. You don't have the risk of accidentally erasing your music (unless you physically damage the disc).

Also, the article doesn't mention whether these USB stick releases will be DRMed. Sony rootkit anyone?

Kiwi brewery offers lifetime's beer for stolen laptop

Only 12 beers a month?!

If I was the bloke that stole the laptop, I'd hold out for a better deal. Perhaps their competitors might be willing to offer 12 beers a day...

Ubuntu goes 3-D

@shad

"WRT Gnu/Linux nomenclature. (GNU is a tool set, Linux is a kernel, they are not the same thing and distributions or users should not be forced to use GNU in the name... or perhaps should we call it Linux/GNU/Xorg/qt/gnome/Apache/Mysql.... ). Heck I use GNU in Windows, do I now call it GNU/Windows? GNU BSD?"

GNU is not a tool set, it's an operating system. Ubuntu, Debian, Redhat, SuSE, Mandriva, Slackware etc. all consist of the GNU operating system with a Linux kernel plus additional software (Xorg, GNOME, KDE, Apache, MySQL etc). I agree that no one should be forced to use GNU in the name, but I prefer to use the name GNU/Linux when not referring to some specific distro.

Strictly speaking, Xorg, Gnome, KDE, Appache, MySQL aren't part of the operating system, they are all examples of software running on top of the operating system (which could be GNU/Linux or some BSD derivative or Solaris or OSX or even Windows). Since they're not part of the operating system, it makes no sense to call it "Linux/GNU/Xorg/qt/gnome/Apache/Mysql...."

Similarly, when you you use "GNU in Windows", you're not running the GNU operating system with a Windows or BSD kernel. You're running some software (eg. GCC or GDB) originally created for (or as part of) the GNU operating system, on the Windows operating system. So no, it doesn't become GNU/Windows or Windows/GNU.

X11 != Linux

"It [Compiz] adds a contemporary feel to the often 1990s looking Linux desktop"

OK, I'm willing to ignore the references to Linux instead of GNU/Linux (I don't feel quite as strongly about that as RMS), but I can't ignore this.

Compiz is an X11 window manager. It runs on any Unix like operating system that "run an X Server that provides the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension" (quoted from http://wiki.compiz-fusion.org/FAQ). GNU/Linux just happens to be the (currently) most popular such operating system.

So, to summarise, that sentence should have read: "Compiz adds a contemporary feel to the often 1990s looking X11 desktop".

US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly

they've won

The terrorists have won. Even if team america succeeds in completely wiping out every terrorist organisation on the planet and erase Iran (and perhaps a few other Islamic countries) from the map, it won't make any difference.

Oh, and I agree with Brendan, amanfrommars is making sense today. perhaps because it's friday?

YouTube invades Google Earth

@Cormac

Have another look at those shadows.

The shadows in The Hague around the topless sunbather all point to the north, indicating that the picture was probably taken sometime in the afternoon (and if you look around you'll see several other topless sunbathers on nearby roofs).

The shadows at Scheveningen all point to the west, so that picture was taken early in the morning, which would explain the deserted beach.

Israelis offer 'British' pukka-lingo ware to Blighty

pukka

pukka comes from the Hindi word pakkā, which means cooked, ripe or mature.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pukka

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

first rule

surely the first rule must be "you do not talk about Reg Club", or perhaps "you do not blog about Reg Club".

Boffins develop Terminator-vision goggles

Acid trip

"If you've ever wondered what it's like to trip on acid"

I'm sure it would be cheaper and a lot more fun (if somewhat less legal) to just drop a tab of acid.

I suppose this does have the advantage that you could "trip" for half an hour during your lunch break and then go back to work without any adverse effects, but that's not "what it's like to trip on acid".

Led Zeppelin reunion opens with Communication Breakdown

@b166er

"I know this is lazy, but isn there a way to tell firefox to ignore certain sites?"

it's called Adblock Plus

;)

Dell's Linux sleight of hand

£20 more?!

"just £20 more than the same machine with Vista inside."

Somehow that doesn't sound right. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop is available from the redhat.com for US$80 for the basic option. According to google's currency converter that is equivalent to about £40.

Looks like it's more expensive to buy a machine with Linux preinstalled than just buying a machine with windows and installing Linux yourself.

Slave kids working UK cannabis farms

RE: "nasty withdrawal symptom"

strange, i've never experienced this withdrawal symptom and I've gone without many times (often for up to 3-4 months, once for 2 years).

Why oh why do rock stars die young?

Rock'n'Roll

"Public health consideration needs to be given to preventing music icons promoting health-damaging behaviour among their emulators and fans. Stars could do more to actively promote positive health messages, but these need to be backed up by example."

Utter bollocks!

Surely it wouldn't be rock'n'roll without the all the sex, drugs, alcohol and "health-damaging" behaviour?

Plants will make greenhouse effect flooding worse

@guess what

Even if less water evaporates from plants, an increase in average global temperature would most likely lead to more evaporation of ground and sea water, so a decrease in rain clouds seems unlikely.

Wrinkly, faulty geology uncovered on the moon

geology?

On the moon? Surely the word geology only makes sense in reference to Earth.

What about calling it lunology instead?

Germany enacts 'anti-hacker' law

remind me

... not to take my laptop with me next time I go to Germany.

Ozervize I might end up in ze prison cell, ja.

How green is my V-word?

fix it in software...

"It seems slightly ironic that a software solution (virtualisation) may play the largest part in solving what is essentially a hardware problem."

reminds me of the old lightbulb joke:

How many hardware engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

None. "We'll fix it in software."

Chinese netizens prevent 800-cat stir-fry

why?

I don't quite understand why people have a problem with eating cats or dogs but don't think twice about that nice tender piece of veal or lamb.

I'm quite willing to eat any animal -- mammal, reptile, bird, fish, crustacean, insect, it doesn't matter. As long as it is properly prepared, any meat can be quite tasty.

(I would even eat human if it was on the menu...)

Security flaw marketplace lays out its wares

how secure is secure?

"Personal data along with the full details of vulnerabilities will be held on a separate and secure system."

I imagine every black hat between here and Timbuktu will want a crack at finding out just how secure that separate system really is...

Oracle sends bloke cardboard laptop

RE: Breaking Rank and Files

could amanfromMars please send me some of whatever he's been smoking?

Old timer ices crazed squirrel with zimmer frame

splitters!

As chairsquirrel of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Squirrels I would like to take this opportunity to warn Herr Mittelbaum that we shall be avenging the death of our brother Brian. As soon as we've dealt with the SLF and the SLM that is....

Paris Hilton dragged back into court

throw away the key too

"Lets hope he sends her right back to jail, where she should be."

agreed, and lets also hope someone then "loses" the key...

Germany declares hacking tools 'verboten'

usb stick

hmm, given that virii and trojans can be distributed on usb sticks (or cd's for that matter) do they also count as hacking tools?

what about The Internet?

Father of LCD dies at 74

Newton?

All respect to prof. De Gennes, but surely calling him a modern day Isaac Newton is a bit excessive. After all, ground breaking work on liquid crystals is not quite the same as inventing Calculus and developing a model of force and motion that dominated scientific thinking for over 200 years!

Woman smuggles live budgie into Irish prison

jailbird

hehe, this gives new meaning to the term jailbird

Jesus appears in Samsung Flash memory chip

call the CIA

That's clearly an image of Osama Bin Laden.

Top scientists list favourite gizmos

C2H4OH

ethanol, particularly in its many diluted, drinkable forms is clearly the greatest invention/discover ever.

Who star to make beautiful music with girlfriend's dog

Douglas Adams?

"You can put data in and get a piece of music out. It's as simple as that."

Sounds a lot like "Anthem" from "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

World's biggest tiger stages a clawback

and feet?

OK, but how long is 10ft? about 3m?

Mexican cops offer Xboxes for guns

why give up the gun?

It doesn't make sense. Surely a gangster with a machine gun would be able to help himself to as many PCs and Xboxes as he wants, without having to give up the machine gun. I thought that's why criminals have guns in the first place?