Posts by Callam McMillan

Apache man disables Internet Explorer 10 privacy setting

Re: What a prat...

"AIUI Apache will ignore the DNT setting if you are using IE10 regardless of how it's set."

That's how I read it too and what I fear. Reading through the comments on the code submission, something that interested me was the point that in the EU, if this patch overrides a users explicit choice, then the website operator could be held liable. Worse, if the website operator is on a shared hosting platform, then they may not even know this patch has been applied to the Apache config file.

What a prat...

So the Apache server will now ignore IEs privacy settings unless they're explicitly set by the user? How will it know, the DNT flag is either set or it isn't - so how can the web server tell whether it has been turned on by the user or not? If there is a way for the server to differentiate, then surely all IE10 has to do is set the default flag as if the user has opted out of tracking.

I know it's not the cool thing to do, but I am going to stick my head out here and congratulate Microsoft for this position. Yes, I know there are some self-serving interests, but even so, it provides us as end users additional benefits. As for the title, Ron Fielding has been a bit of a prat here, and he has surrendered his right to ever act as an advocate of user privacy should there be a development which he does not like.

Raspberry Pi 2.0 ready to ship

Re: Waiting for the PoE version

Not quite. This is what they have to say about it over at the Raspberry Pi website.

Is power over Ethernet (PoE) possible?

Not in the base device, but it’s been a very commonly requested feature, so we’re examining options for later releases.

I can imagine it would be useful in classroom environments where all the devices could be plugged into a signle PoE switch rather than having tonnes of phone chargers to runnall of them.

Voyager's 35th birthday gift: One-way INTERSTELLAR ticket

Yay!

I love reading about the Voyager missions, it is science and engineering at its very best without the politics and "mine's bigger than yours" that goes along with current science projects. Depending on what information they come back with, it'd be good to see a dedicated Interstellar mission planned.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 hands-on review

Don't like the screen...

I was all set to buy a Note 2 based on the rumoured specs which made it sound so much better then the original. Quad Core (Oh yeah!), 2GB of RAM (Excellent), 1680x1050 display (Sweet!). Then it is released and the reality is while the CPU and Memory rumours were correct, the screen is in fact Worse. It has a lower resolution than the original and it's apparently a worse type of panel. Sorry Samsung, you nearly had me, and then you blew it.

Please, can somebody made a 5.5 inch phone with a 1920x1080 screen?

Oracle in new bid to wring cash out of SAP in piracy spat

Oracle just don't get it

Take the easy wins and keep it simple. I understand why businesses like Oracle stuff, but when they go off on one of their sue-fests, they aren't trying to appeal to business, they have to appeal to the ordinary people who sit on juries, who must look at these guys and think "What a bunch of ******* chancers!" So I cannot for the life of me work out why they won't take the $426m when they have a less than even odds of winning an appeal, especially since it looks awfully like they're trying to game the system to avoid the cost of a retrial, something I am sure won't sit well with the judges.

Asus CEO sounds netbook death knell

Re: Shame

I have battery problems too, Ubuntu is constantly warning me that my battery now has just 40% of its original capacity. That said, after four years of abuse that isn't too bad and it still gives me nearly two hours of use between charges. I may attempt to prolong the life of it with a new battery, an upgrade to 2GB of ram (WOW!!!) and perhaps a 1.8" Hard disk to replace the creakingly slow thing they called an SSD.

I was thinking about tablets, and I was playing with an Asus Transformer we have at work, yet for what I want, it just doesn't work. It has a keyboard, but because it's designed to be a tablet, its top heavy and wobbles about as you use it. Also, because it's ARM based, you're stuck with Android, whereas I would say that the ability to run x86 based Linux is a crucial requirement - for Flash (As much as it sucks) and the ability to run a wide range of software (including some Windows stuff through Wine)

I am hoping some of the manufacturers have a go at making x86 tablets based on these new low power Intel chips. If I could get a Transformer that I could run Linux on, I would potentially consider changing over to it.

Shame

I currently have an Eee PC 901 running Linux - I bought it four years ago as a little machine that'd be good to use on the train while commuting and the like. I still use it daily for skype and the odd bit of web browsing, typing the odd document and generally doing stuff I don't need my big workstation for.

The thing is, it's starting to show it's age now, and yet there is nothing I can replace it with. Its 9" form factor means that it will fit nicely, along with the charger in one half of my attache case when I travel. Now though, netbooks are pushing 11" and when they've gone, what's left are ultrabooks that are closer to 13", at which point I might as well just start carrying a full size laptop and pocket the difference in cost.

What I would really love someone to do is make a 9" device, with a 1366x768 screen, perhaps a small i3 processor, 4GB of ram and a small HDD at a price point of around £300. It wouldn't be anything fancy, but it would be extremely useful.

Thanks ever so much Java, for that biz-wide rootkit infection

At least there's the day rate.

It wasn't said in the opening paragraph, but I couldn't help thinking that it's alright work when you can bill the client for your time at some nice expensive day rate. Yet, on the other hand, having had the stress of malware removal for idiots who insist on not paying for decent AV, going on dodgy websites and not backing up their files I can attest that very quickly no matter how much money is involved, your sanity is worth more.

Re: Hmm

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Surely given this level of infection and the virulence of the malware a full re-build of the system from a known image would be both quicker and safer. Furthermore, if the organisation uses a half decent infrastructure, then all the users mail and files should be on the corresponding mail and file servers which if protected means the downtime is about 40 minutes per machine and the time to reconnect them to the network once everything is cleaned.

UKNova drops torrents after threats from FACT

Re: So our mission is clear

Is that the order in which they're electrocuted?

Apple: I love to hate, and hate to love thee

Re: Good customer service - Hah!

I'm not an Apple fan, however £100 to replace a PSU out of warranty isn't too harsh. Just because you can do it for £13 from Maplins doesn't mean you should. Hell I wouldn't use a £13 Maplin PSU for much more than a paperweight. If I need to replace a PC PSU then I would be looking to spend £70-90 for a standard desktop and for a high end machine £150-200 (Although the original drive would probably be replaced under the long warranties now offered)

Intel tries to wangle China crypto-standards deal

Re: Shoe ... other foot

I was thinking it's a case of the baby crying when someone steals its toys after it's thrown them out of the pram. The whining seems to be not because of what the Chinese have done but because an American company is seizing the initiative and supporting competing standards. Well done Intel!

RIP Neil Armstrong: The reluctant American hero

One of the greats who'll be missed

When you think of space, nobodies first thought is of say, the Voyager missions, which have arguably delivered more scientific knowledge than the Apollo missions. Everybody thinks of Neil Armstrong and his crew and their exploits on the moon. I thought it funny that he described himself as a "Nerdy Engineer" which isn't bad considering he ranks alongside footballers on the career wish-list of most six year olds!

Teflon slips smoothly over LOHAN's mighty rod

Datasheet

According to the datasheet for the grease at -73'C:

Initial Break-away Torque, (Nm): 130 x 10 -3 [This is copied and pasted, I know the number format is not correct]

I think you've earned your bank holiday beers thanks to "The grease and Teflon are more slippery than a lard-rubbed Spanish politico wallowing in a tub of eels".

Study: If your antivirus doesn't sniff 'new' malware in 6 days, it never will

Re: @Callam McMillan - What do you expect if you "run" Windows?

Actually, everywhere I have ever worked, the Unix systems have been run by Unix guys because the Windows lot (myself included) have little more than a rudimentary grasp of the command line and Unix administration. That is neither here nor there though - there is a small amount of malware for Linux which could still cause problems in a production environment - hence the reason for AV software. As for scanning for Windows viruses, if your Linux server provides mail or file server capabilities to Windows desktops then I'd damn well expect it to scan for Windows malware.

Oh, and yes, I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I love to argue!

Re: What do you expect if you "run" Windows?

Have you considered that many people don't get a choice of what system to run? Furthermore, it doesn't matter what O/S you run, you're at risk of malware, all that changes is the chance and likelihood of infection. That's why enterprise Linux servers will still run an AV program because it's better to do so than take on the additonal risk.

As for "MS have always left their products open to malware and other abuse (probably deliberately)", whether you like Microsoft or not, this is seriously venturing into Tin-Foil hat territory!

Everything Everywhere to be Nothing Nowhere in rebrand

Something Somewhere Somehow?

I know it's not the shortest or snappiest, but it describes what I think of them.

Merde! French Prez palace blueprints nicked from cable layer

Re: I still fail to understand.....

Actually to be fair, most encrypted sticks tie you to a rubbish windows only piece of software and the hardware-encryption based ones tend to be hideously expensive.

Apple accuses Samsung of abusing its 3G power

I'm beginning to like the BOFH solution

We take representatives from Apple and Samsung, and while we're at it, representatives from the Patent office and other litigious patent holders. We lock them in a room with a half brick each and declare the last man standing as the winner.

The sad thing is that the outcome would be no worse than the current situation.

China and Taiwan complete historic undersea cable

Re: Or alternatively

Relax. If China wanted to do something they would have done so decades ago before Taiwan became the centre of the global electronics industry. Now, for all their posturing, China is a capitalist country that relies on trading with the rest of the world, and upsetting all its customers by getting hostile with Taiwan isn't a good way to maintain economic growth.

BBC gives itself a gold in 700Gbit-a-second Olympic vid sprint

Re: ch 4

I'm actually really glad Channel 4 have got the olympics. That way, if (read: when) they make a massive cockup of it, like sticking an advert in at the most inopportune moment etc etc then everybody will realise the value that the BBC brings to television and perhaps this inane debate about the license fee will go away?

Kidney-for-iPad fanboi sues after illness strikes

Re: Yeah, let's have a laugh.

What can you say. He had bits of his body cut out in return for the money to buy pieces of consumer electronics. That is the kind of gross stupidity which the Darwin Awards celebrates. Can't help but think it would have been ironic if someone had nicked his iDevices as he walked out the shop?

Darwin Award candidate perhaps? He's worth at least a honourable mention!

Vodafone and pals can't kick the habit of cheap mobe prices

I look at phones on the numbers.

(Contract Price - Cheapest Sim Only Price) x Length of Contract

If it is less than the open market value of the phone then it makes sense to get it on contract. More often than not though, the phone is far cheaper to buy off contract, plus it isn't poisoned with the networks crapware

Apple Mountain Lion file points to Mac Pro update

No Optical Drive

I can understand why they want to scrap the optical drive from their portable products but to do so from their high-end workstation line seems like stupidity, unless of course they plan on squeezing a dual 8-core system into the tiniest of cases?

Make life easier on campus with a simpler LAN

Re: Somone think of the broadcast domain!

The Broadcast domain issue could be mitigated through the use of VLANs I suppose, but even so, it's not an elegant solution and seems more like a stab at punting new gear!

I can't decide whether this is an advert for switch gear or just a bad idea. From all the networks I have ever seen, none of them have been designed with the mentaility of "lets see how many devices we can use for the sake of it." Also, when it talks about removing a layer such as the distribution layer, it fails to consider that it may be far more cost effective to keep it than to do what the article proposes.

Take the university where I studied, each student room comes equipped with an ethernet port. A hall of residence may have 20 blocks, each containing 12 rooms. The way the blocks are laid out means it's not feasible to run the access cabling between blocks, so as a result, each block has a small switch such as a Cisco 2960 with uplinks to a distribution switch in an office (say avg. 70m per link), and then finally a main trunk back to the core switch in the university's server room. The distance between the distribution switch and the core switch is on the order of 500m. If you removed the distribution layer of this network, suddenly the core switch would need to handle 20 times the number of ports than before, and you would need to run over 10km of fibre to achieve the what was previously done with under 2km.

In short, even if you're clever with your cabling, surely the cost of moving away from the three layer model becomes prohibitative once all the extra costs are factored in?

Deadly pussies kill more often than owners think

Actually your cats would be most upset. I mean, they would HAVE to go and get their food rather than being able to when they aren't happy with what the "tin opener" provides them!

My cat's favourite is little mice, although he does tend to eat them, leaving just the tail and the claws. You wont get any complaint from me though, eaten mice cause no problems!

Software disaster zone Knight Capital bags $400m lifeline

Re: but what if...

Actually, it is relevant to the discussion. Say the company had made $440m, then we most likely wouldn't be having this disucssion as the news would be a small section on page 7 of the Financial Times. Yet the fact would still remain that they put a badly managed system into production and escaped by sheer good fortune!

What it serves to highlight is that win or lose, a mistake is still a mistake and given that the house usually wins, for every time you get lucky and benefit from a mistake, the house will win another nine times. So what this whole thing really proves is the need for solid configuration management and effective release processes that stop test applications getting released into production. Also the question has to be asked, if all this was done by a testing app, shouldn't that app have been making copious amounts of diagnostic output?

FaceTime in the dock

Because that would deprive lawyers of vast amounts of money.

As for why it takes so long to bring cases, could it not be because you have to prove they're infringing on your patent. Sure, in some cases this is obvious because there is no way the thing can do what it does without infringing. In other cases though, I imagine it would be quite an effort to prove your patent is being used and therefore infringed upon?

Radio hams unite to fight off new powerline comms standard

Re: Lazy government

I wonder how long it'll be before it is mandated that all electrical cables have to contain an earthed foil shield to stop this EM emission?

Re: Hmmm

To be fair that is the catch. In my house I managed to run the cables inside the wall voids and down a conveniently placed exterior drain pipe. I'm not sure if my wife knows yet that the first three months when we buy a new house will involve me taking out the walls, floors and ceilings and rewiring the place! ;)

PLT is for the lazy

While I couldn't be personally bothered with the whole HAM business they do have a point when they say that EM disturbances should be minimised whereever possible and that pumping out unnecessary high frequency noise is a bad idea.

Personally though I believe that PLT is for the lazy, if you can't meet your networking needs with wi-fi, then break out the roll of Cat 6 and do the job properly. Also, should PLT take off in a big way, what happens when you have multiple PLT networks on the same phase of the local power supply from the street transformer - how much noise will be created and how long will it be before some bright spark finds a way to snoop on your internet / get free internet?

France's biggest Apple reseller shuts up shop

Re: Common law employment?

I could see how such a case could be argued. As authorised resellers the company and the staff are effectively franchisees of the Apple brand. If Apple have acted unfairly in refusing to supply stock to the company so that they may act as a reseller, then a good lawyer would no doubt be able to argue that Apple are responsible for their resellers.

Scribe's mobe, MacBook pwned after hacker 'fast-talked Apple support'

Backups and Passwords

I really don't get this obsession for backing up to the cloud. Yes I use Dropbox for some of my data, but most of it resides on my mirrored drives in my machine. Every night an incremental backup gets made which is copied to a backup drive, then once per week this backup is copied to an external hard disk which is then locked in a fire safe. Yes it's overkill, but it means that should my machine be corrupted, damaged or stolen, my data will be safe.

As for his gmail being deleted, it sounds like he used the same password in multiple places, since gmail requires that you enter your password to make certain account changes, plus any really important mail should be backed up!

If this was some ordinary user I would have to feel a little sorry for them, and would perhaps offer them some helpful advice to avoid it happening again. As a tech journalist however, they should have known better than to rely on 3rd party services!

Daily Mail group in screeching U-turn on parody tweet persecution

Good news

While freedom of speech sometimes needs to have a limit, this is really good news. What this whole affair tells us is that because the Mail group lawyered up, UnSteveDorkland must have hit a nerve and may have therefore got closer to the truth than they care to admit!

Tesco in unencrypted password email reminder rumble

Re: So....

You missed the point, you shouldn't be able to recover your old password. If you forget your password, it should make you reset it to a new one.

Funny you should say this!

I had to order a replacement clubcard just the other night and I couldn't remember my password, so I was somewhat suprised after resetting it to find my password emailed directly to me... I then changed it to something secure but totally throwaway, because anyone who stores my password in plain text (Or as good as if it can be decrypted on demand) shouldn't be holding them in the first place.

In this case the fail icon is truely justified!

BOFH: Shove your project managementry up your mailbox!

Cricket bats are a bit unwieldy... Baseball bats on the other hand would be quite effective!

Mac malware Crisis as Apple lets slip its Mountain Lion

Re: A worrying development

You're half right, the security of the platform plays an important role in how quickly exploits can be, er, exploited. However all of these Malware vectors aren't just sat there with a neon light blinking away saying "HEY. THERE'S AN EXPLOIT HERE!" Somebody has to sit down and find them, then derive a practical attack using it. That takes time and effort, which isn't going to be much good if they're only going to infect a couple of hundred machines and make a few hundred quid.

As an alternative example: Take my Cisco 1921 router I have at home, the mechanics of it are unimportant here, but it has a cryptographically based licensing system. Now I am sure this could be overriden if somebody who knew what they were doing was to sit down with a copy of IDA and decompile the binary image and reverse engineer the software. However, what would be the point? There aren't that many people who use these routers that would want to enable all the features, so there isn't much reward for anyone to do it*.

*That's not to say there wouldn't be a lot of happy Cisco people if somebody was to manage it!

A worrying development

It would now appear that the Apple user community has reached a critical mass that it is worth the malware writers actively targeting OSX users. This means that security flaws which may have previously been ignored as "not worth it" are now valuable exploits, yet at the same time there is going to be resistance from the user community towards installing AV products meaning we may be in for a period of more announcements like this?

ITC was wrong: Apple, RIM owe us $1bn for that patent – Kodak

Not all patents are bad

While I hate software patents with a passion reserved only for lawyers and politicians (Although there is more than a passing association with the three!) I have no doubt that many of the patents Kodak own are the result of hard work and genuine innovation. When that is the case, I see no issue with them asserting the rights they have been granted.

If on the other hand they are exploiting a badly worded description of the end result of a process, rather than the process itself, then yes, they're as bad as all the others.

As promised, AMD posts disappointing financial results

Thingd I'd want to buy

Everyone is talking about AMD suffering problems as a result of politics and the economy, but has anybody considered that it may be becuase they aren't making things consumers want.

If I want a mid-range processor, my first thought is the Intel i5-2500K. While AMD offer the Bulldozer, which kind of competes, I can't say it really makes me want to go out and buy AMD. If I'm looking at high end stuff, you have the i7 Ivy Bridges and the six-core Sandy Bridge-E chips from Intel but nothing which really gives them a run for their money from AMD. It's the same with server stuff, I automatically think of E5 or E7 Xeons now, rather the the Opterons.

On the other hand, when I build my new workstation, AMD will be getting a nice wad of cash in return for a 7970 because nothing from NVidia can support the 6-monitor setup I want.

Expert: EU Microsoft competition fine could reach $7bn

I am aware of the history, I had a read up in preparing some of these arguments.

Lets put aside the issue of monopoly, since it's not something I will subscribe to.

On the issue of them making a computer, I have seen rumours that the Surface RT will force you to use the MS provided browser, and that the EU may take exception to this. Do you therefore feel that this would be unfair? Unless of course the rules were applied uniformly, meaning Apple and Google had to allow the same level of competition.

Don't get me started on Software patents, which I would say hold back innovation far more than Microsoft have ever done.

I have built many PCs, for both domestic and business. Some Windows and some Linux. My website runs on a Linux box, as does my home server and netbook, my desktop on the otherhand is W7Pro/IE9 (With Chrome as a 2nd browser.) There is plenty of competition between operating systems, and OSX does quite nicely (If Apple would allow it to be run on any PC it would probably give Microsoft a much greater run for its money.) The thing is that Windows and OSX are both very user friendly at the expense of being able to perform detailed configuration and having access to very low level functions of the OS. Conversely Linux allows a much greater level of control at the expense of the user experience.

You talk in terms of specifications being stagnant, have you considered that stable may be a better word. While at home running the latest and greatest of everything is fine, if it doesn't work properly then it's annoying but not the end of the world. In business though, constantly changing specifications would be a nightmare that is best avoided.

I can't really argue with you on cost, I have to agree with the previous posters who comment on how the Lawyers do quite nicely on this. I would however recount something I once heard in a previous job. Comparing the cost of licensing W2k3 vs Red Hat Linux, Microsoft was considerably cheaper than Linux once support costs were considered.

Re: fed up with this crap too

Nicely put!

Re: What a ridiculous situation

Couple of points of order before I respond to the subject. If you're going to address me by name, at least spell it correctly. Secondly, while you may disagree with me, I have kept the tone polite and on topic. I would prefer if you did the same rather than resorting to STFU...

Yes, a monopoly is defined legally, and the courts have never practiced bad law for other interests (Megaupload anyone?) Are Microsoft whiter than white? Of course not, and I wouldn't even try arguing that. That said, I thoroughly dispute that they harm consumers through their actions, I cannot think how I have been disadvantaged through Microsofts position?

Re: What a ridiculous situation

mo·nop·o·ly/məˈnäpəlē/

Noun:

1.The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

2.The exclusive possession, control, or exercise of something: "men don't have a monopoly on unrequited love".

I'm noticing the word Exclusive being used quite a lot which suggests to me that my previous point about MS not having a monopoly is actually correct.