Posts by Steve Taylor

Opera 10 debuts with 'Turbo' boost

Many comments from non-NoScript users

For all those who claim Opera does the same as NoScript already, you've clearly not tried it.

I use Opera and Firefox daily, and last week installed NoScript (due to hype read on El Reg), which does far more, far more easily, than Opera does via the preferences.

I've turned NoScript off, however, because there are virtually no sites on the internal the are usable with it fully enabled, so the default action for every page had become "load page - enable scripts", and the only advantage left was blocking google ads.

PC-pwning infection hits 30,000 legit websites

Re: Alfazed

Luba kok antud lehel == Permission granted to No. page (using Google Estonian translation)

Getting real about Linux on the desktop

Real-life example

I bought a car recently from one of those massive car supermarkets in North West London. I noticed that the sales person was running a SuSe desktop, and when I commented on this, he had no idea what I was talking about.

He just sold cars, and used the web-based apps he was provided with.

The finance guy was using XP. Again, he was unaware that they had a mixed environment withint the same office.

The talk of PhotoShop, which is ALWAYS bought up by the wintards, is just so utterly irrelevant to the average desktop user (average? heck, I've never seen PS used in an office in 30years of computing).

Massed x86 ranks 'blowing away' supercomputer monoliths

@James

This wasn't an editorial piece - it was a report (that's what reporters do) of a Dell conference.

Why would you expect "balance"?

Wacky Jacqui spanked by husband

Missing the point?

Surely all this rant about porn is missing the serious absurdity that our leaders think it perfectly acceptable to get US to pay for their TV, internet, phone, etc, when for those of us who work from home cannot get away with even offsetting these for tax purposes!

Why the F**K should they get anything whatsoever for services that this same government considers essential requirements for everyone in the country?

Zero-G vanishing bone issue solved, says prof

Old ladies?

"Astronauts ... lose bone ... ten times faster than post-menopausal women do."

So stop sending astronauts, send up old ladies instead.

Seems obvious, really.

British International Motor Show cancelled

@ No real loss

No A/C ??? Rubbish - Alice Cooper was there and on great form!

Scottish Parliament pr0n law faces angry opposition

"non-consensual penetrative sexual activity"

Can a melon consent? Or a blow-up doll?

Obama releases Dubya's secret anti-terror memos

NCIS?

Don't the armed forces agencies already use deadly force within the bounds of the US?

Or is NCIS just fiction?

Apple sued over iPhone smooth scrolling

Remember the "blitter"?

On my old Dragon 32 sometime in the 80's, you achieved fast movements of on-screen thingumies using the "blitter" that mapped a screen buffer area to another nearby area, in hardware, then the software filled in the "uncovered" area. Sounds pretty similar.

Ubuntu shops believe in Ubuntu

If you have 1000 machines running Ubuntu, you need ZERO licences.

IDoh!

License counts?

Perhaps the reason that the don't give actual counts for installed Linux licenses is that there's no such thing!

Do you not quite get this free concept?

Geekerati brace for Unix timestamp milestone

Leap Seconds

dont effect the end date - they effect the start date. Every time one is added, Jan 1 1970 seems a teeny bit less far away that it really was!

BT puts the 'free' back into 'freephone'

Non-Sequitor

If as you say "the vast majority have no idea how much it costs" then how does it follow that "dropping the charge will be popular with users"?

Paris, as she might understand this strange logic.

Silverlight to follow Obama into US presidency

It was a u$oft announcement, guys!

Nobody is claiming that the inauguration is ONLY being streamed via Silverlight - just the u$oft has released a press statement saying it will be via Silverlight. So what? This wasn't in any way a decision by Obama or his bunch. It's a f-ing advert by u$soft, that's all! Jeeze!

SCO auctions Unix and mobile assets to continue fight

Doesn't time fly

"Last year a US judge declared Novell the owner of Unix properties that SCO had claimed" - nope, that was the year before last.

Vodafone knocks English cricket for six

Better coverage?

Perhaps restricting live cricket to the relatively tiny proportion with Sky isn't the best way to get the most from your advertising budget.

Daft list names Firefox, Adobe and VMWare as top threats

There is a Solution!

You failed to mention that anyone worried by these security holes can easy resolve the problem by deploying "Bit9 Global Software Registry" - so clearly Bit9 are performing a valuable public service by letting us know about these problems, and not just trying to sell something!

Rock-solid Fedora 10 brings salvation to Ubuntu weary

RPMS - Oo good.

"As a bonus you also get the always excellent RPM package system"

and

"simply head to the RPMs and install what you'd like"

would be lovely - if you can guarantee that the dreadful dependency hell that RPM's always seems to provoke has been finally solved.

After using Ubuntu for a couple of years, I'd forgotten what a nightmare RPM dependencies are until I tried (and failed) to install wine on a Centos 5.2 systems a fews days ago.

Has this really REALLY been fixed?

Hubble snaps planet orbiting distant star

First picture is the most dramatic

The 2nd one is just fuzzy - don't know why they bothered publishing it.

UK fraudster gang go PIN sniffing

Epoxy Foam

Yonks ago I worked on early ATM machines, and various security measures were being considered. One was to fill devices with epoxy after manufacturing. Any attempt to open them up makes the device inoperable.

This makes repairs impossible, but who repairs anyway? Overheating is a potential problem, but a keypad is almost power-free anyway, so I reckon this could still work.

Wonder if anyone patented the idea ...

HP packaging madness continues apace

HPUX Compiler Keys

Some years ago (around 2000) I ordered the HPUX development system software.

It arrived in a large box, around 24x18x8 inches.

Inside this box was a smaller box, perhaps 12x10x2, and inside this was an envelope.

Inside the envelope was a single sheet of A4 containing the license key, and an smaller sheet with instructions on how to download the software.

I now wish I'd a photo, 'cos it now seems hard to believe that it really happened.

PS. the download instructions were wrong.

'Suspicious comment' provokes LAX terminal evacuation

@Duncan Hothersall

While I totally agree with the sentiment, I think your memory is a bit suspect. Perhaps you never had to drive into the City of London during the IRA campaigns, past the road blocks, cameras, and armed police. Not really "business as usual".

Employee sacked for texting in sick

He DID phone in.

I bet the company procedure about phoning in does specify that you must use VOICE. So in what way does sending a text from a mobile not count as "phoning"?

Boeing trumpets 'relevant battlefield laser' raygun

Ray guns.....

can also be used to warm your pies for lunch, whereas a rifle makes a right mess.

Allen telescope array begins alien hunt

@graham Jordan and AC responder

Galaxies are NOT "sometimes thousands, or more, of lightyears away" but ALWAYS at least MILLIONS of lights years away, at which distance no artificial radio signal could ever be detected (sorry for shouting, but idiots make me cross).

There is zero chance of this detecting anything whatsoever, because aliens will not be using wasteful, no-directional, high-bandwidth signaling, and that's all that we could hope to detect. We won't be using it within 50 years, so why any moron expects that aliens will be is a complete mystery.

OK, so Mr. Allen is too rich to miss a few millions, but there are far better ways of spending it.

NASA to unleash 'mind meld' intelligent machines

Post-Apocalyse Map

http://www.m2mi.com/ shows a world map with most of France missing, and Britain reduced to two small islands!

This must be prevented while there is still time!