Posts by b166er

Googlite explains PageRank tweak

@Dave & Nick

Or perhaps even better, http://www.scroogle.org

Another 'useful' site is http://www.gahooyoogle.com/

More gnashing of teeth after Microsoft update brings PCs to a standstill

Quinnum connundrum

LOL

So cavemen went hunting to make money?

So societies formed to make money?

All labour is undertaken from a desire to advance mankind.

Agreed, many companies (and their staff?!) appear to have forgotten that.

You really SHOULD get out more!

GMail shakes IMAP out of coma

Emoze v1.4

BTW Emoze now supports Push e-mail from gmail accounts!

visit m.emoze.com from your pda/smartphone

Hypersonic hydrogen airliner to bitchslap Concorde

LAPCAT

do a little dance for me ;)

@Frank Bough, and after public funding, sell it to BA for £1

TV-Links man was arrested under trademark laws

Acrimonious Acronym

Maybe FACT means False Accusations Cost Thousands

The Pirate Bay absconds with domain name of its nemesis

@dot org still works

won't matter when the dot com has a higher page rank ;p

@danny re root dns hacks

don't underestimate the pirates

Golden Rule #1: always AV scan anything you download before attempting to use it

Golden Rule #2: never ask pirates to censor anything (bad downloads included)

100Gbps Internet2 is ready

Turbo p2p

How else are we gonna seed those hi-def movies? ;p

A faster internet should also provide Andrew with plenty more fodder to carry on his trolling, hypocritical rhetoric, simultaneously appearing pro GonnaRIAA yet calling them conniving retarded bloggers, whilst closing his articles to comment. Down-playing one of the most interesting sociopolitical debates of our time and discouraging people from debating it, does nothing for his credibility, or that of this fine publication.

I request that his posts be flagged on the homepage so I can ignore them, as there is nothing to be gained from reading his opinions without the possibility of any discourse. Actually, there is nothing to be gained from reading his articles ;p

Sorry for the off-topic rant, I've been censored from expressing my opinion where it counts.

Could we also have a nice 'Flame' icon? :D And an 'Off-Topic Rant' one?

BT home router wide open to hijackers

Clues

Hiding or at least changing the name of your SSID, at least makes it a little bit harder for someone trying to get in. I mean, if you ID a sky router, you've only then got to try admin:sky and you're in. Then again, it wouldn't take long to try all the default user:pass combos that the manufacturers use.

Fair comment Bracken, although most broadband users now have wi-fi, whether they have a laptop or not, so your average thief is not getting any significant intel.

Hey car thief! Gonna shut you down

If only

Great idea in principle, right up until the moment car thieves work out how to jam the signal!

Or OnStar gets hacked and the slowdown command becomes the accelerate command. For now, I don't want anyone other than the driver of the vehicle to be able to make any changes to the vehicles direction or velocity.

"GM is promoting the service as a way to cut the 300 deaths arising every year from police car chases in the US". Alternatively of course, you could not chase them!

I bet the real thinking behind this, is that when enough cars have the technology built into them, they could be prevented from speeding (something I would welcome in built-up areas). However, this effort will fall flat on it's face when it comes to stopping car thieves.

Terrorists/pranksters could have a field day broadcasting the slowdown/accelerate command to a motorway full of traffic :(

The RIAA will come to regret its court win

Frontman

Now that's a different story! The frontman of my friends band did much better then he on the first album, I don't know about the second.

As you say, many bands will still need professional management and will be unwilling/unable to do that themselves, but hopefully with the market opening up, they will still get a fairer deal.

I hope your friend paid his mortgage!

Our 99p would go a lot further in your iTunes store, than ours!

Robert Hill

My friends and I had a little joke about that. I said, tell you what I'll give him a tenner and then I'll download it. At least that way I know he gets all of the money! In reality, he damn well owes me a signed copy for putting up with his learning to play guitar for years as we grew up ;p

They actually did produce the second album in the old mini-cab office, although I understand it had a bit of a dusting first :p

I agree with you entirely that artists should be recompensed for their work, everyone is entitled to make a living.

I'm trying to think of a good analogy here, but can't.

I don't think there are any other examples of the atrocious deals artists get.

There are two parts to this: the artist creates the work, and the industry promote it, horses for courses and it seems quite symbiotic. However usually, the artist is woefully under-rewarded for their efforts, while the industry seems to be highly over-rewarded for their efforts. So, not so much symbiotic as parasitic?

Yes artists have a choice, thankfully now, even more of a choice and the scene is changing. Modern promoters seem to be striking much fairer deals.

Someone once pointed out, that when you pick up a paperback, inside it says Copyright:Name of Author, whereas, when you pick up a CD, inside it says Copyright:Name of Label.

And again you will reply, that artists have a choice.

I just think that the choice between 'making it' and being paid disproportionately to your efforts, versus not making it and depriving us of your art, sucks. We can't all be Oasis.

Traditionally those were your options. Now, thanks to the much needed shake-up, we should see many more talented bands coming to the fore. Promotion used to be a very expensive game. Look around you now, adverts are everywhere, the internet runs on ads. Example: I recently saw an ad on MTV for someones MySpace page, I forget the name, so it didn't work out for them (I don't watch MTV very often, maybe there were more), but it's a start.

It's been interesting to analyse how the industry works, through watching my friends band being promoted; appear on this show, appear on that show, have this much airtime on this, this and that radio station, do some interviews with MTV, sign some albums at tower records etc. Yes, all this costs money, but it's very much an I scratch your back kinda thing: the radio stations want listeners, so they need songs, the industry wants to promote songs so they need the radio stations, you get the picture. I would say the most expensive part of promoting a new band, would be the first few tours, something which many unsigned bands manage to do for themselves. (admittedly, usually at much smaller venues, but that is in part due to less advertising promotion)

It's almost getting to the point where a band could completely promote itself, which is great. Maybe they can then go to the bank manager for a 'promotion loan' to launch their business and get a favourable deal into the bargain!

So, yes, the RIAA are defending my friends x% of something, but at the same time defending THEIR X% of something which turns out to be a much larger X than my friends.

@Robert Hill

My bank manager wouldn't insist on having 99% of my income nor would he ever suggest it.

My friend and his band recently produced their own album on a dated pc in an old mini-cab office. They signed to Necessary/Warner on the strength of that album and have since produced a second album, both of which are doing OK.

I have no idea what deal they got, I hope my friend can at least pay his mortgage.

Quality, does not stem from having the financial clout of the record industry, quality comes from having a keen ear for music and a passion for making music. It's a shame you find it hard to believe that people can't make good music without a whole bunch of money...how sad.

Money buys promotion not good music.

www,xe,com

@Ian Michael Gumby

45p ~= 91c Sterling is strong, but not that strong ;p

You guys get iTunes for 99c and we get them for 99p(AFAIK), how's that for steep!

tipjar

@speculative, I think thepiratebay.org is an excellent example of the tipjar working. A lot of their revenue comes from donations and sales of t-shirts etc. Most advertisers won't touch them with a barge-pole.

I was considering starting a website for just that purpose. Tip your favourite artists. That way the artist gets 99% of any contribution a fan wants to give and my site gets 1% for making it possible. I could provide charts based on what people were tipping the most and providing the site was popular enough, could showcase new bands. I wouldn't even get involved in hosting the music, ala MySpace. Music distribution is taking care of itself.

@Ian Michael Gumby

I agree that any impartial juror would have found for the defendant, because that is the law. Maybe the law needs to change. If the RIAA were in the dock, I'm sure any impartial person could find them guilty on several charges too!

@Pffft

The reason most online music is encoded at low bitrates, is because when it all started, most people had slow internet connections. The music industry should have struck then, and signed an all-you-can-eat deal with the ISPs. They should have seen what was coming, and realised that if they provided high quality digital music on a subscription based model, they would have buried the pirates, instead they made them martyrs.

@Robert Hill

"a handful of "supergroups" dominate from their tour revenue, and everyone else starves, with no one to push and promote smaller bands just starting out, or get them competent producers and marketers, or support their tours. And it stays that way, with thousands of no-name bands providing one-hit wonders and then submersing back into obscurity, never able to get support to get better and known enough to become a supergroup."

That is the status quo and has been for a long time (Stock, Aiken and Waterman) and cannot be attributed to piracy. That is unless you are refering to the music industry ;p. Matthew, I concur!

Talent is successful by its own merit.

RIAA hits paydirt: wins first music-sharing jury trial

closed-to-comments rant

seconded

And why-oh-why is the El Reg triumphs in media battle of the wits item closed-for-comments too? What are you all afraid of today? ;p

Who's that clip-clopping over MY bridge?

95% of the responses so far are typical of the whiny entitled Me Generation. Gimme gimme gimme, because I want it and I shouldn't have to pay for it.

95% of the responses so far are not trolling w*nkers

So, according to your (il)logic, providing we don't want to pay for it, we can either stop buying it or continue stealing it, either way, it's the end of their empire. So we may as well bitch-slap them on the way out the door for having taken the piss ;-p

I pay for many things, many, many things. In fact so many things it's difficult to save anything. This is the same for most people, it's how the economy is built. I don't subscribe to your trolling opinion that this is gimme,gimme,gimme. Faker, back under your bridge.

Donations

There really should be a way to donate some money toward this womans cause. It would be a fine way of telling RIAA to fuck off. For every 'case' they 'win', we can donate the amount of the fines between us, kinda like buying some of the songs we may download from p2p and the money going to a good cause.

To all those who are countering this with the fact that illegal filesharing is going on so therefore what's the problem, the majority of this thread and countless others across the net, share the same sentiment, the recording industry is behaving like a cartel, and we find it unacceptable. How would you propose that we stop these people from acting unacceptably? Perhaps you would front the money needed to take on these assholes? You are obviously such well-rounded(whatever that means) people, that everything in your life is fine and dandy and completely above board, sheep!

Computer glitch nixes death row appeal in Texas

ZOMG Rick Brasche

You just come right out and say it pal!

Presumably with god as your witness, you give yourself the right to take someone elses life, hypocrite.

Why did this man kill this woman? As horrible as these things are, exactly who is to blame? The man, the parents, society?

We can't answer that, and we don't know how to stop these things from happening, so we do the next best thing, remove them from society.

Perhaps one day, we will understand why these things happen, and maybe we'll be able to stop them happening.

Maybe you should be removed from society, you appear to be a psychopath.

Stunned!

DRM on steroids controls backfires on Blu-ray

Hardware hacked

Does this mean that a firmware upgrade from the manufacturer will be seen as a hardware hack? If not, surely all hardware hackers have to do is emulate the function by which a manufacturers firmware upgrade passes and bingo! Bit like the Vista BIOS hack? This cops'n'robbers game is getting a bit long in the tooth, eh?

BT aims to make UK a Wi-Fi kibbutz

great for us

if it becomes popular, all the mobile peeps will have to give us more data to compete. sounds good to me

Microsoft-loving (former) security czar calls for closed internet

Walled Eden

If we take the internet as being analogous to the worlds transport infrastructure, should we have armed guards on every street corner?

How like a government to try and convince it's people of the need for barriers, when the majority of people are quite happy for things to be open. If the US government want a closed internet, let them have one. I welcome all US citizens to live in a less oppressive part of the world while their governors play in the sandpit.

How insecure a government that says, we'll make you safe by removing the fears we told you exist. It's as if they realise that they are just a bunch of civil servants and without striking fear into the hearts of their electorate, they would only have policies to keep them in POWER.

Skype founder quits

Good!

Now what's needed, is for Google to set up a free ad supported online auction site and really kick those useless sons into touch

Microsoft punts web-based apps to the masses

Microsopoly

Microsoft said users of its new service can only create or edit online documents if they have Office software already installed on their machines.

Thereby ensuring that they also have Windows installed on their computers!

Wonder if they would even work with 'alternative' browsers?

One born every minute

SkypeIn goes out

Bad parents

Should come as no surprise after all, it is owned by eBay!

I've been waiting a year, A YEAR! for eBay to sort out my account, which was hijacked, a phreakin year!!!

It is my worst CS experience to date and I never thought anyone would top my experience with Pipex.

That comment about you pay peanuts...you are presumably comparing Skype with a traditional telco, however, Skype had no infrastructure to build or maintain (servers aside), so should therefore be able to supply a service for peanuts.

Fundy dunderheads make monkey of monkey man

@Fundamentalism

Bang on! (coincidentally, exactly what Dawkins does)

Microsoft shouts 'Long Live XP'

NT 4

I wish MS would release the source code under an open license. Then someone could code some proper USB/DX9 support, tidy up the file system a bit. I quite liked NT 4

Adopt this dog or we'll kill it

Did i translate this correctly

'Lets put the truth in front of the consumer - either do something about it, or at least realize you're a partner.'

I'm a partner how exactly? It's my responsibility somehow that these dogs have no home? Does that make me a partner too, to the homeless people that die each year?

Maybe in China, you could put the truth in front of the consumer, literally. Ew ;p

Best Buy adds disclaimer to 'secret website'

Price tagging

I think it should be a major crime to price-label things incorrectly.

Sainsburys favourite pricing trick is to label Product A(270g) as BOGOF, but put the price-label on the shelf in front of the VERY similar Product B(300g) which is right next to Product A. They do this regularly, and when confronted always have guilt written all over their faces but act all innocent.

I think the government should insist that all ombudsmen are obliged to employ 'mystery shoppers' to catch these thieving b*stards

French court says non to pre-loaded Windows on Acer laptop

i know, i know, spamming!

This post is just making me laugh, i'm almost in tears

Phill, just omit 'They have an unfair monopoly. Every time I buy a packed of' and 'they come preformatted with FAT' and you're staring to make sense. roflcopters

Er, Ned

'i can't ssay that i've ever seen a pc/laptop/palm for sale in the channel that does not state that the OS is included.'

'if the stupid man didn;t want that OS he should have gone elsewhere'

If you've never seen a pc/laptop/palm that does not include the OS, where exactly should the 'stupid' man have gone?

Show me

@ Dave Cumming

Please tell me where I can get a wide choice of completely clean retail laptops

@ Mr Clark

The reason for this is because Windows is the default operating system for new PC's and therefore, all the manufacturers have to do is provide drivers for Windows (in fact sometimes only drivers for that particular version of Windows (Philips!)), in doing so, netting themselves a great OEM support deal, whereby customers have to visit PC World and be insulted ;-o

@ Ian Ferguson

Or an iPhone without the network

I'm not pro-linux or windows, but I am pro-choice and against the thought that companies can muscle their way to the top rather than providing good product which sells itself

Adwalker awarded US patent

It's in the name

Adwalker, do they think we are morons, wait, are we morons???

I've got a few suggestions for the name of their first product; BrandSlut, PunchBag, MuggingVictim, TossPot.....

Hey everyone, look how rich Google is, lets do ads! Everyone's stealing our merchandise anyway, so at least with ads, we'll get paid something. What a bunch of Adwa*kers

Young hearts roam free on UK cellco network

should please the dealers

provided they don't accidentally txt the fuzz

maybe these phones are actually being provided by the secret service in order to track the whereabouts and behaviour of the youff

wonder if there is any data usage provisioned too, could be a new file-sharing movement.

Coke, McDonalds, Ford etc VS RIAA MPAA etc

Seriously, how long before someone writes a filesharing app for winmob/symbian?

Apple iPhone

O2 no way

The iPhone could interface directly with my neural pathways and there's still no way in the world I'd consent to that ridiculous O2 contract. Henry Blackman, you say you are a data user. If so, I sincerely hope you are on a Flext Web'n'Walk tariff, otherwise you are having your pants pulled down.

It's the VARIO 3 or AMEO for me, no contest. I agree the UI could do with some improvements, but all that needs is some innovative developers to create a third-party customization. You can't fault the hardware in these devices.

All of which reminds me of this quote “'You are clunky Windows Smartphone, you are disgustingly clunky. 'Yes, iPhone, I am clunky. But you, iPhone are an under-acheiver, and disgustingly expensive. But, tomorrow morning, I, Windows Smartphone could be prettier.”

Czech Olympic Committee annihilates English language

Come again

Perhaps MediaDefender should approach the Czech Olympic Comittee and ask to use their method of encryption for securing their communications

Pirate Bay sues media giants for 'sabotage'

So what is the possible outcome?

If the details regarding Swedish law are correct, and BTW they also have a function of their law called ministerstyre which makes it a very serious offence for any corporation to attempt to interfere with proceedings, which should prevent these companies from lobbying the process, surely The Pirate Bay have a legitimate case.

If so, there seems to be very little preventing them from prevailling.

Maybe this will at long last bring the whole question of 'fair use' and 'piracy' to a head.

Achieving critical mass?

I don't understand Swedish law, but it has been said that although the evidence may be inadmissable, it may be enough to indicate probable cause or something to that effect, resulting in the evidence being outed legally.

As someone else also spotted on TPB's blog, MediaDefender were using AVG Free on their e-mails, which is in contravention of their licence due to its being used commercially.

I had to laugh at the transcript of the conversation with the attorney where they are discussing how the breach occured, too ironic ;p

Welcome indeed to the billionaire toyshop

@Anton

You might like to check out the Mirabella V and her world's biggest single mast.

She was built by Vosper Thorneycroft in Southampton and cost a mere £40 million for the hull. Built for the former Avis owner, Joe Vittoria, her first business outing was apparently skippered by Tom Hanks, who reportedly paid £500,000 for the trip.

The mast uses an explosive charge to detach in the event of an emergency and the entire vessel is watertight.

I recall also, that BMW were investigating ekranoplan technology. It seems they were mulling over the possibility of a long range/fast personal water vehicle with the refinements of the BMW brand.

Peruvian 'meteorite' strike provokes noxious gas attack

Another virus

Could be a new virus from earth that's been hidden away in the Andes for millions of years and has all of a sudden been stirred up by the impact. I wonder where these virii come from, whether they were always there and have gradually been discovered as man explores more of earth (cuts down more trees), or whether they are extra-terrestrial or even whether they originated from the laboratories of our pharmaceutical companies....to get all serious ;p. Any biochemist/tinfoil hat-wearing types like to enlighten me?

Intel chief waves wafer full of 'world's first' 32nm chips

Looks mint

But monsieur, it's just a waffer!

Want a free iPod Shuffle? Ask Tesco

Depreciation

And the value of an iPod Shuffle in 4 1/2 months time? ((especially with the glut of now 'useless' Tesco iPod Shuffles on eBay) why do eBay and iPod have to begin with a lower case letter followed by a capital?). While you're at it, sign up for AOL and get a free laptop, or get a sit in bath with a free carriage clock ;)

Be kind to your stomach: eat chilies

Jiggin Ticker

good for your heart too it's been said.

I find that it's curry with chili powder rather than fresh chilies that gives the old sting-ring, if you're really game for a laugh, ask for a Phal

Flash memory makers propose common card

My compliments to the chef

Top marks for the smorgasbord/clusterfuck combination. Two of my favourite nouns ;)

Led Zeppelin reunion opens with Communication Breakdown

Ken & Hein

Ken, no e-mail yet!

Hein, ta much, downloading ;)

Communication Breakdown

People in glass houses ;)

Anyone else get long page waits while 'doubleclick' tries to serve pages to El Reg?

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

@anon coward

Page and Plant have both done credible 'joint' and solo albums fairly recently and old rockers 'The Who' were outstanding at Live8. However, that is entirely besides the point. Led Zeppelin are the cornerstones of any nutritious musical breakfast and could play well with their eyes shut in zimmer frames. They might not be throwing tele's out of windows or riding motorcycles through hotel corridors or even practising the occult up St. Anne's Hill anymore, but they are legends and I can only hope that my 6am registration is a lucky one.

Maybe you were lucky enough to see these bands live when they were in their prime, I have been lucky enough to see Page & Plant at Glastonbury, The Who and Pink Floyd at Live8 and Pink Floyd at Earls Court and I relished every minute....If only they could dig up Hendrix!

Retailer reveals new Palm is the Treo 500v

Erm...

Have you not just given the world a whole load of other personal details?

Maybe it's only spam that bothers you.

All that fun aside, haven't HTC given you the hardware you desire? Just port PalmOS and you've saved giving Steve that few million quid. Me? oh, a beer would be fine ;p

MusicStation arrives, but will we pay for digital music?

List of wishes (short)

See the music industry let me down by making me pay for a new license every time a new format came out.

Let me buy the LICENSE to a song I want to own, I'll pay £2 per license. Then let me do whatever the hell I like with that piece of music, be it download from P2P at 256kbps, buy as a single from iTunes, buy on a flash stick from HMV in FLAC format, whatever. Then new formats can come and go, but I still have the right to acquire that piece of music in any way I want, because I own the LICENSE to it, geddit?

Then we all get a fair deal and none of us have to be made to feel like criminals (labels included).

@Will Leamon, I really wish the LABELS would host a world forum and get on the level with their artists and fans, the solution is there, and 'the industry' has been slow on the uptake, fans and even artists have taken things into their own hands, they HAVE reacted.

I don't want music for free, I expect people to make a living from doing what they are good at, my friend has just been successful with his band Hard-Fi and I wish him all the luck. However, maybe, just maybe, the lavish lifestyle awarded to the likes of Bono, et al and certain executives within 'the industry', is unrealistic now. That doesn't mean we can't all make a living surely? Maybe if the money was spread around more evenly, and a larger number of new artists were promoted, there would be a new era of great music (that's not to say that there isn't great music about currently) and sales would be booming, as opposed to the manufactured and marketed to death music that is so prevalent.

Don't let music die please, my son needs as much muscial nourishment as I have had ;) (and not just from back catalogues).

Music is Art and to be adored, by the artists, fans AND producers, money is great too, but Music is Art.

Cops seek 179mph net vid biker

driving under the minimum speed will earn you a ticket

Two elements of US law we could well do with adopting, that and undertaking (alternatively fit buoys to our car, then we could gently persuade hapless middle lane hogs to move over, doubt they'd even realise ;)

Mr and Mrs Renault cannot name daughter Megane

Fishy pancakes

http://www.office-humour.co.uk/g/i/2574/