Posts by diodesign 3496 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Sep 2011
Yes - I loved finding the easter eggs in Acorn's code. That particular one is a reference to an old novel that starts off with the protagonist squeezing some toothpaste onto his toothbrush and seeing a message in it that read:
"Help, I'm being held prisoner in a toothpaste factory!"
C.
It's possible to get a big team to write a huge piece of software that then doesn't do anything earth-shatteringly evil. Yes, it does bad things, but so does a lot of malware. It's not the weapon of annihilation first feared, although there is still a lot of code to get through.
C.
Ilsa Loving: Precisely. So nicknames like boydroid, Web 2.0 adman, Big Blue, chair-flinging biz tyrant, Channel bullyboy, and others assigned to tech personalities are all OK - but pointing out that Apple's ever-so-shiny "magical" kit comes from the Foxconn factories that churn out the rest of the world's tech is a step too far.
C.
All interesting stuff, and be as that may, the reference to the "disk space issue" is explained here: http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074114.html
Hope this helps.
C.
FWIW, any "censorship" of comments is because a) they are legally unsafe; b) witless insults - you've got to do better than call someone a nob: step up to the plate and flash us your wit; c) they simply (and exclusively) demand someone be fired. News flash: they won't. See (a).
An amusing and intelligent putdown will be accepted over a lame duck "u r all takin bribes lol" missive, that much is obvious. Apologies if you've been rejected. Maybe you tripped the above guidelines.
C.
Maybe you have to wonder why it bothers you. Do you want your news dictated by Apple - or by people who are completely independent? The reason why I like working for El Reg is that the editorial department is completely insulated from any commercial influence. Can our rivals say the same?
So we could be really nice and kiss up to a 600 billion dollar company. That would be easy. Or we could flippantly poke fun at their manufacturing empire.
The Reg is a broad church - you'll find reviews backing Apple's kit. You'll find editorial knocking their daftness.
Or we could just toe the corporate line. Who (other than Apple) benefits from that?
(Speaking personally.)
C.
Re: Al Jones.
"Rogue" has quite a wide definition; it's not as narrow as you imply although I appreciate that you've taken it in its strongest form. Given that Google said it was "mortified", described the traffic capture as an "error", deleted said data pretty quick, and that the whole thing has drawn widespread criticism, it's not an unreasonable word IMHO.
C.
Re: Al Jones.
No - Google said from the start it was one engineer working alone in a "careless error", see:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/22/google_acknowledges_street_views_wifi_data_contained_emails_urls_passwords/
There's a wealth of related links to look through.
C.
Right, that's it. I've had enough. The gloves are off. You can only comment on trials if you understand trials from now on.
Be aware that trials are 'he said, she said' affairs. One party argues their side. The opposition fires off their side. We can only fairly, accurately and contemporaneously report on proceedings as the trial progresses.
Thus accusing us of censorship or bias implies your inability to read previous coverage, or appreciate the above point.
tldr; No one's side has been omitted. It's an ongoing trial, if you can't keep up, be quiet.
C.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
