* Posts by Andydude

14 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Sep 2011

It's Google's no-wheel car. OMG... there aren't any BRAKES

Andydude

Horse Law

I read an article talking about the legal aspects of owning a self driving car, ie who's at fault if it hits someone etc. There is a whole load of laws already in place for something very similar - a horse, of course!

Basically a horse and a self driving car are very similar in that they have some degree of intelligence, and people are expected to treat them in a certain way due to common sense. Jumping out in front of a horse and you take the risk of getting hurt as the owner is only partially in control. Stand behind one and you may get kicked, and if the horse is out of control you are expected to try and avoid it accordingly. Will be interesting to see when the first court cases come in, apparently lawyers are already drawing parallels between the two and rubbing their hands.

Are you being robbed of sleep by badly designed servers?

Andydude

Yeah that was annoying, but the "nice" thing about it is if you were really stuck you could get a trial and bung a key in and it could save your ass in a few minutes. And if you were naughty and the trial had run out there were keygens (not recommending/advocating their use!).

However, if you had a Dell equivalent without an iLO you were screwed. You'd have to pay for a hardware upgrade, get downtime on the server, unrack it etc. So in that instance the HP license was better. Be even nicer if it was free and standard though...

Nobody knows what to call Microsoft's ex-Metro UI

Andydude
Happy

I thought it was clever legal manouvering..?

Microsoft: Ok everyone checkout our new UI - it's called Metro *fanfare followed by disappointment*

Metro France: Hey you can't call it Metro without giving us lots of money

Microsoft: Fine. It's no longer called Metro then. We weren't even going to call it Metro anyway, so we're no longer going to say Metro. Metro.

Everyone: So what's it called now then?

Microsoft: ...Well it's not called Metro - that's for sure!

Everyone: Fine, we'll carry on calling it Metro then.

Metro France: ....Can we have some money now please?

Microsoft: But it's not even called Metro! *cue manic laughing and Balmer throws another iPhone*

Patent flame storm: Reg hack biteback in reader-pack sack attack

Andydude

Re: You know who else hated cheese sandwiches? Hitler

I like ham sandwiches like Winston Churchill so therefore I am both right and nice.

UK ISPs crippled by undersea cable snap

Andydude
Unhappy

Re: Mind made up then

Yeah me too - ever since they were bought out they've been a bit arse, and it's been years and still no fibre solution. I'm off elsewhere when my contracts up...

Apple 'offered Samsung $30-per-mobe' patent licence truce

Andydude

Re: And on the flip side

Check the link in my post - it's not my opinion it's Groklaws and they know "law and contract" a hell of a lot better than you and I: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120726121512518

They are providing some truly interesting analysis from a point of law. You should go have a read. Unless of course all their thinking is muddled due to a misunderstanding of the concepts and rules involved as well. Must be all that law stuff they keep reading.

Andydude

And on the flip side

Some nice El Reg commentard said to keep an eye on Groklaw for coverage of the trial as they really know their stuff when it comes to tech trials etc. I've found the coverage really interesting as it just looks at it from a law perspective. They had this interesting link: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120726121512518

Basically Apple are saying that if they *are* found guilty of any patent infringement of Samsung's patents (3G ones etc) then......

"To The Extent That Samsung Is Entitled To Any Remedy, its FRAND Damages Cannot Exceed $0.0049 Per Unit for Each Infringed Patent"

That doesn't really sound fair when they are asking for $30 per device in return...? Unless Samsung are infringing on 6122 and a half Apple patents? Can't they both just call it quits instead and spend their time and energy making new and better phones?

I'm still waiting for one outraged person who bought a Samsung product thinking it was made by Apple and/or vice versa.

Behold: First look at Office 2013, with screenshots

Andydude
Pint

Re: Toolbars that SCREAM at you

Exactly - a UI shouldn't SHOUT at you, especially first thing in the morning when you're still feeling a bit delicate.

Samsung S3 finally catches up with the Palm Pre - if modified

Andydude

September

I thought that the charging unit was just delayed until September...?

http://www.t3.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s3-wireless-charger-delayed-until-september

Ten... freeware gems for new PCs

Andydude
Happy

Dropbox alternative

I've been using Dropbox for ages, but then noticed if you have an old hotmail address you can upgrade skydrive free to 25GB! The app isn't as great IMHO as Dropbox, and there isn't an android app (although you can use it with browser apparently) but that's a lot of free space!

Want to be a better marksman? Play shooting games

Andydude

Re: Well bugger me sideways

Well he played Warcraft a lot. That must be relevant as all the papers reported it. Personally I'd like to know if he ate a lot of marmite and cheese sandwiches, that would speak volumes...

Hackers may be able to 'outwit' online banking security devices

Andydude
Go

@GettinSadda

Except for Barclays (at least) to make a payment/transfer into a new account you have to re-authenticate and put both your pin, the account number, and transfer amount into your pin sentry *after* you've logged in. So all a man in the middle hacker will see is how much money I spend on disreputable websites.

Solicitors from hell website unplugged by libel judge

Andydude
Joke

Surely the real story here is what were "Mr Justice Tugendhat"s parents thinking!? With a name like that he could only really be a lawyer, teacher, porn star or a character from South Park. Does he have children? Are there little Tugendhats? What are they called?

Virtual and real worlds collide in gamers' minds

Andydude
Stop

Oh no!

What's this? People using their imagination? This must be stopped immediately!