* Posts by diodesign

3495 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Sep 2011

Getting with the 21st Century

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Getting with the 21st Century

"your authors seem to be using their own email accounts to respond to comments"

FWIW staff and selected freelancers use @thereg email addresses. The Ozemail.com.au domain you mentioned does work and is that particular writer's preferred address.

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So much noise on WinMob, but Microsoft's silent on lovely WinPhone

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Embarassingly naive

"Andrew, I'm shocked that you are only now waking up to the clusterfuck of the Windows 8 release"

Ahem, ahem. I guess you've not seen one of Andrew's previous articles about Windows 8 - in which he described the new OS as "a rather an elaborate kind of torture".

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McAfee dumps signatures and proclaims an (almost) end to botnets

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

"I do wish the moderators here would stop all this personalised bashing of individual posters"

The trouble with deleting comments that bash individuals is that it spirals into a "he started it!" nightmare. The general rule I like to see people follow is "play the ball, not the man". So if people stick to that then things work out.

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That Firefox OS mobe: The sorta phone left behind after a mugging

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Can I have Andrew's MWC ticket?

I thought it was pretty hilarious.

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Nexus 1 put in orbit to prove 'in space, no one can hear you scream'

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Scream

"It's not entirely clear from the wording this article"

Apologies - the meaning was slightly lost in the edit: the phone will try to record the screams from its own microphone. I've made that clear in the piece.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Mobile Twitter?

All right, calm down. Worst things have happened at sea. I've fixed the link.

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Absent without leave

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

BOFH returns

He's back! First episode of 2013.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Absent without leave

There's no ban on BOFH. We're looking forward to Simon's next piece as much as you are! But his output is no longer as regular as it used to be.

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That iPhone 5 review

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: iOS 6xx Audio Issues

"Why, aside from random posts on forums worldwide, have none of the big tech-geek sites mentioned the issue?"

It's news to me. Anyone else experienced this problem?

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Space station 'naut supplies Reg with overhead snap of Vulture Central

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: AMERICAN perspective

Welcome to the site.

"Vulture Central"

Our logo and mascot is a vulture (see the masthead) and thus Vulture Central is our HQ. A nod to readers who have been us for the past decade or so.

PS: We really do have a stuffed vulture in the office to greet visitors.

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Top tools for junior Linux admins

diodesign Silver badge

Top tools and tips for junior Linux admins

Our sysadmin blogger Trevor Pott wants your suggestions for utilities, tools, tips, tricks, IRC channels, resources and anything else to ease new Linux administrators into the job of keeping servers running smoothly. Fire away, please!

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Apple FINALLY fills gaping Java hole that pwned its own devs

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Can someone explain to me ....

"How a hole in the Java software ... is Apples fault???"

It's more than that people accuse Apple of being slow to roll out security patches, such as this one from Oracle. Ultimately, Apple was stung by its own schedule.

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Apple and world HACKED by Facebook plunderers

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Wouldn't have happened with Windows 8

Great to see someone sticking up for Windows 8. Except in this case, it was a Java 0-day. Or are you saying Win8 can block JVM holes?

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Mobe networks bag UK 4G for a steal - £1bn shy of Osborne's £3.5bn

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Freudian slip?

No, just an early draft. Everything should be spick-and-span now.

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Google misses privacy-policy deadline, incurs EU wrath

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Hmm, interesting...

Fair play.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Hmm, interesting...

FWIW, regarding that Marketing Land article accusing outlets of ignoring Microsoft's policy changes, we've reported on Microsoft's privacy updates over recent months.

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Ubuntu? Fedora? Mint? Debian? We'll find you the right Linux to swallow

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: All very well.

"I've been (almost) exclusively using Linux for years"

Perhaps you're overqualified for this article? :-) I believe Scott's aim was for newcomers.

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Nokia's Elopocalypse two years on: Has Microsoft kept its side of the bargain?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: N9

"the author never heard of the N9"

Rest assured, we have.

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USA sinks Atlantic cable plan over Huawei worries

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Last para, "Huwawei Marine"

Haha. I briefly cut my teeth on the Newcastle Chron & Journal, but no, that's not the reason for that typo.

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Micron glues DDR4 RAM to flash, animates the 256GB franken-DIMM

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Picture caption fixage.

You've given me a brainwave. Reload :-)

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3 million Freesat receivers now out there, and boxes to get YouTube

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Freesat is on a different frequency

"No, it isn't."

Ahem. It's not always the case that Freesat and Sky frequencies are the same. I'm reliably informed that, for example, Sky carries Babestation Apprentice on a non-Freesat frequency. There's a full list here.

I've ever so slightly tweaked the article for the comfort of the more pedantic among us.

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'Let anyone be administrator' bug in VMware snapped shut

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: not a bug in the hypervisor

"the article is murky to me in that area"

Well only because VMware isn't exactly being forthcoming about the bug, but that's understandable. We're not the only ones scratching our heads.

You're right that it's not a hypervisor escape, if that's what you meant: presumably the vulnerable VMware .SYS is present on the host and guest Windows OSes and can be exploited to escalate local privileges. VMware's KB is down for me right now.

Of course, if anyone knows better, answers on a postcard etc.

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Ye Bug List

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: New site layout slightly knackered w/o jscript

Different parts of the site will have different widths; our web team opted to use JS to resize pics as required.

The print version of the page doesn't require JS TTBOMK

eg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/08/game_column_feb/print.html

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11-YEAR-OLD code wizard hacks Greedy RuneScape geeks

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Oliver Mayes

"Writing a fake program that asks stupid people to enter their login details != hacking"

Tut, I knew someone would say that. For the purposes of a short and snappy headline, it is. The article lays it all out. What do you think the kid had planned for those passwords?

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Psst, wanna block nuisance calls? BT'll do it... for a price

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

"suddenly it's acceptable to make personal insults to someone we've never met"

Ah, you've seen the contents of my inbox, then?

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Don't Menshn the snore: Chick-lit queen's jabber site killed in its sleep

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Why are dicks so successful?

"there are essentially three kinds of people..."

(c) T. Parker, M. Stone and P. Brady, 2004

What happened to the link to the Hardware site?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: and the print option?

"There used to be a 'print' button"

It's still there! Under the comments button and above the Twitter/Facebook likes.

"save having to do the next page, next page thing every few paragraphs"

We're having a bit of an internal ponder about pages. You'll notice that The Channel has done away with multi-page articles. But hardware reviews may be just too unwieldy with lots of text and pics.

As always, it's impossible to please everyone.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: dogged

"I defy anyone to find the 'Comment' link on the Raspberry Pi article."

That article, and a couple of others I've spotted, should have had comments enabled on them but there's no link. The gurus are meditating.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: What happened to the link to the Hardware site?

"Anyone notice the hardware link has disappeared?"

Yes, our sister site is being absorbed into The Register: the plan is to put all our tech content under one roof. It's also given us the chance to do a redesign and tidy up in places.

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Facebook glitch briefly crashes several sites

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Jan 8?

Most likely Feb 8.

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Could this be Google's slick new touchscreen Chromebook?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: 4 million pixels?

"That would be like releasing a new computer called RAM MONSTER with 1gb of ram."

Fark me, I need ANOTHER new keyboard.

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How to destroy a brand-new Samsung laptop: Boot Linux on it

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Clearly Samsungs fault

"This is clearly an issue with the firmware and not the kernel"

If the firmware returns a wild value to a parameter search shouldn't the kernel respond defensively rather than blat over the boot entries?

Let's say malloc() returns NULL and the app explodes when it tries to use that as a pointer. Whose fault, the app or the heap manager? Think about it before you call people idiots: nothing in this story is black and white.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Schadenfreude

"Life would be so much simpler if everybody embraced the brilliance that is Windows 8."

QOTW.

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Bug-hunters: They're coming outta the goddamn walls, aargh!

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: "Goddamn The Walls"

You guys are too quick to spot my screw-ups..

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Out of ARM's way, Brit chip juggernaut runs over analysts again

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: What is the difference between royalties & licences

"I'm guessing"

It actually says it in the article: ARM licenses its processor core designs to manufacturers and charges a royalty on each chip shipped using those designs.

I understand there are a few options for customers if you don't want a full-blown licence to customise your cores prior to fabrication.

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Fanbois rejoice: iPhone 5, iPad Mini finally jailbroken

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Scott 49

Apple has fanbois. Android has fandroids. Windows has normal people. Get with the programme, man.

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BlackBerry 10: Good news, there's still time to fix this disaster

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Get Facts Right!!!!!

"In your article you wrote about not having a home button, who cares"

You need to separate opinion from fact.

"guess what appears the night stand mode"

Arguably it's not the same nightstand mode that stalwart BB users, such as Andrew, expect. As the article states, this is our first impression of the device. There'll be more to come.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: "the servers giving consumers end-to-end encrypted push email - aren't supported"

"If there's no advantage over Android, Android it is for me"

I played with Andrew's Z10 for a short while in the office, and it struck me as a Windows Phone-meets-Android-but-without-infringing-any-patents-please OS.

Imagine you were told to take an existing microkernel and build a platform + UI on top of it from a list of things users want, and a list of things you can't do because Apple will otherwise sue you, and that's what BB10 felt like. IMHO.

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Blobs that swarm spark ‘it’s alive’ hypegasm

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Headline over-hypes the article

"Headline over-hypes the article"

If I had a penny every time someone said that then I could probably afford to get onto the London property ladder.

"Is there any evidence for the "it's alive!" hypegasm?"

Searching Google News for "living crystal" brings in some choice examples.

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Brit boffins GANG-RESEARCH tiny LEDs for 1Gbps network

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: "1980s research attempting to predict the future of computing"

"The Xerox paper talks about 3G and bluetooth."

I fear you're confused - the page mentioning 3G and Bluetooth was written by this article's author in 2001 and isn't a Xerox paper. It's reviewing Xerox's 1980s tech.

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Ofcom ploughs up UK spectrum fields, reseeds them with 4G

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: 3dB

Monday morning. More coffee needed. Article fixed.

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Linux boot doesn't smash Samsung laptops any more

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Playing Devils Advocate!!

"Two downvotes and counting"

Thing is, bear in mind in that the comment section's monthly pageviews are into the seven-figures ballpark now. A handful of down or upvotes really isn't indicative of anything. IMHO.

So, comment away. PS: you won't get much love for saying "Micro$oft" around here, anyway.

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Plunging BT sales hit every branch of the biz on way down

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Mr Cross @ el reg

"Why does El Reg have it in for BT?"

We "have it in" for BT as much as any other telco. Go read our archives.

PS: Welcome to the website. As a new user, your last post was awaiting moderation; that's why it didn't immediately appear.

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Samsung's squillionaire supremo scuttles siblings' shares snatch

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

:-)

Good to see it's appreciated!

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Space Shuttle Columbia disaster remembered 10 years on

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Article typo - 12-18 *inches*

Thanks - it's fixed.

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Moderation gone mad?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: @diodesign (was: Re: Re: Interesting nix ...)

"legally responsible for all user generated content in the entire forum"

(Emphasis is mine) Not according to m'learned friends - we're responsible for the comments we've hand-moderated prior to going live, edited after they've gone live or had reported.

There may be an argument that once we dip into a thread then we should be aware of the contents of that discussion. But I'm not aware of any precedent, and in any case people appear well behaved.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Interesting nix ...

"kindly place the actual date/time that ElReg posted it on it"

Sure, we normally would (comments are so rarely edited; they're normally just rejected if bad) but there are only so many seconds in a minute.

"many of ElReg's strap lines have been far worse"

Perhaps, but that's our call. Besides, the production desk moderates thousands of comments a month, and edits scores of articles a week; not every decision is going to please everyone, but in this case it was made with all the right intentions.

Thank you for your patience.

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BBC: What YOU spent on our lawyers in Secret Climate 28 debacle

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: In criticising the BBC and their alleged agenda

"You're paranoid"

Guilty as charged.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: In criticising the BBC and their alleged agenda

"the conspiracy theorists!"

I feel I should point out that being defensive of the BBC is not a bad thing.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: In criticising the BBC and their alleged agenda

"I wasn't suggesting that"

Well, OK, but that's how I read your post anyway.

"Carpet bombing the BBC with negativity and snide remarks"

OK, once again we differ: there is no carpet bombing TTBOMK - when honestly was the last time we said anything about the other "journalists, camera people, broadcasters, editors technicians"?

We've gone into detail about the BBC News website and its triumphs, and link through to its journalism when it touches places we can't reach (fnar). Where the BBC does well, we'll say so; when it doesn't, we'll say something. It's no different to any other organisation.

I'm being led to believe you work for or are somehow linked to the BBC due to your defensiveness. FWIW Reg staffers are friends with and have close ties to BBC employees. Andrew has even a producer credit with the broadcaster!

But we can't mute criticism.

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