Posts by captain kangaroo

AMD's 'Magny-Cours' Opterons surface on eBay

1 Pint Beer = Life being £1 better....

That's bad economics my friend. any excertion toward a better life needs positive outcomes.

£2.90 = 1 Beer...

1 Beer is therefore life - £2.90 + enjoyment....

uuurghghhh i can't be arsed....

Apple iPad spanked with Defective by Design protest

and another thing....

I am theoretically a fan of open source software, but the amount of times i have had to restort to CLI to get things to work on my Ubuntu machine is crazy. It makes my head spin to think that people think this half finished crap is a viable rival to Microsoft and Apple. Open source mobile phone, I wouldn't touch one with yours.

My FreeBSD box does everything on the CLI, so I expect that to be the case. Ubuntu is supposed to be the consumers open source choice. But it's largly unfinished, inconsistant and not really fit for purpose, if the purpose is to easily replace Apple or Microsoft.

So, to the freetards, get a good reliable GUI, no one really cares how it works, as long as it does, and stop beating Apple and Microsoft for their differences from your ideal.

Apple's strength is that they warrant their product by making sure the software and hardware work well together and provide a consistent easy to use GUI. They restrict the hardware to enhance reliability, keeping compatibility to a few motherboards and relying on open standards for periferals does this extremely well.

Miscrosoft's strength is that their software will work with almost any hardware, and they have to work hard with hardware people to make sure there are workable drivers for everything.

I haven't worked out what the stregth of open source actually is. Beyond being freee of charge in most cases, making cheap computing available to people on low or no income.

At a basic level though open source reliese heavily on there being closed source. There's probably no or very few significant contributers to open source who are not employed in some way by either a corporation or other organisation that reliese on closed source computing. In other words, Opensource is the free-time persuit of people otherwise involved in non opensource ways of earning a living (mainly). Conversly, closed source OSX relies heavily on these efforts, see Darwin, and BSD Kernal projects. OSX wouldn't exist if it wasn't for these open source products...

Microsoft, and Apple succeed because their stuff works, and is consistent. QED. Deal with it.

If you have lots of money, buy Apple, if you have a bit of money, buy Miscrosoft, if you have none, get Opensource and build your own, or buy into a project that supplies such kit at low prices. I am involved with one such project in Bristol and there are many of them. But, the biggest challenge is that the GUI is not consistant, and CLI is just baffaling.

OBviously none of you own a washing machine...

I don't understand why people are getting upset by this. Apple are in the business of creating devices for the masses... If you want to do things that the iPad doesn't do, and there isn't an app for it, then that device isn't for you. The washing machine i really like the look of won't fit in the space in my kitchen. Guess what, I HAVE THE CHOICE, widen the gap in my kitchen or buy something esle. Zannusi are under no obligation what ever to offer me a slightly smaller washing machine. Becko do offer one in the correct size, but it6 has a clear glass door, and i liked the orange tint on the Zanussi one. Is that bad?

I could go out and buy all the parts I like the look of and make my own washing machine if i felt that strongly about it... So what we have are choices. Apple have created a product which will do what it says it will. I have an iPhone, and am amazed at what it can do, what creative software writters have enabled it to do, and how reliably it does everything. If you're not happy with an iPhone it's not the product for you. simple as.

ntl:Telewest forgets who its customers are

Virgin, ntl Telewest confusion.

Once there were dozens of little cable companies, and for a while this was good...

Then came Cabletel, and Telewest, backed by big American banks, who between them acquired almost all of the cable companies, including the Independent Broadcasting Authority's privatised network - "National Transcommunications Limited" - Cabletel adopted their acronym as their new name ntl:).

The Broadcast network was sold off and turned into Arqiva. Telewest then bought ntl:, although they told the BBC, ntl: bought Telewest to avoid a contractual penalty, due to a change-of-ownership clause written into the agreement for UKTV, a joint venture with Telewest's Flextech content division. "ntl: Telewest" then bought into the Virgin brand, while acquiring virgin.net in the process. Thus creating the following:

Virgin Media - Internet, TV, Telephony, Mobile.

ntl:Telewest Business - Business data, and Telephony.

These two distinct entities are part of the "VirginMedia Group Of Companies".

As for this recent ADSL Radius issue, that's internal. The support is 3rd party vendor support, but that's common as hardware support partners are rarely internal unless the hardware was exclusively developed by the company.

Chinese Avatards go mad for Pandora

Hello Mum...

I haven't seen the film, and have no comment (for once) but have sent the link to my mother who loves it.

Hence HELLO MUM :)

West Country pagans tie horses in knots

Alt Headline...

Pesky Pagans Platting Ponies Perterbs Plod

Microsoft ordered to halt Win XP sales in China

Fuck off...

I only got as far as the first line.

CHINA, complaining about Copyright infringement?

Where shall we start... oh, lets see... try this google search

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=china+operating+systems+fake&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

That's "china operating systems fake"....

If China are so concerned about copyright infringement, are they about to roll back their economic progress by 20 years to offset the unfair advantage they gained by selling poisonous Milk, Lead painted Children's toys, reverse engineered network kit, copied Operating systems, faked Olympic ceremonies, and Tibet?.

are they heck...

Man jailed over air traffic control IT kit eBay scam

Typical

Working class, steels £58k of equipment and gets JAIL!

I'll bet you any money that there are MP's with bigger skeletons in their closets who are in parliament right now representing us.

In my opinion this guy is stupid, but also as much a victim of reckless lending as anyone else who's ever got over their head in debt. Indeed my company went the same way, then called in Chapter11 bankruptcy. IE, it was business as usual, but anyone that was owed money then had a bean with a nominal value that they could either cash in, or wait to mature into two beans somewhere in the future.

The way individuals and lower class people are treated in relation to this sort of crime is disgusting.

Faux Facebook 'friend' takes US woman for $4,000

I want this person as a friend....

She's clearly got a very loose relationship with money...

Come to think of it... no, that would be wrong...

(untraceable wire transfer hey!!!!)

Firefox 4.0 flashes lusty leg at Windows lovers

Looks like Safari and IE7/8...

Which isn't a bad thing, but it's a shame that FX is now following design cues from the big boys.

I have one thing to sayt though, TAB on top, TAB on bottom, as long as i can move them to where I want them. AND, Where is the bookmarks bar? That had better be customisable too, other wise I'm sticking to previous versions.

A pint, because FX/Mozilla have had too many of these by the looks.

Wheels come off O2's data network

Amazing

It's responses like these that make me think that a lot of NON TECHNICAL people read the register.

Because most of these responses are so short sighted and narrow minded.

Therse in particular.

1/ Refunds - Get a life, really. People like you suck

2/ Fail - That's so Lame [sic]

3/ Anyone knocking callcentre staff, seriously, you've seen Resevior Dogs, right...You really think they give a shit, paid what they are. MD complaint, now youre talking. Get in there...

4/ Upgrade the network - as was mentioned. There's a recession on, nothing's getting upgraded.

5/ Anyone knocking o2 - No i don't work for them. But Apple chose o2 for the stability of their network. Ask anyone in national networks. Whatever o2's network is, it's stable. V******* T-***** (haha), would have all suffered this yonks ago, multiple times.

Microsoft, Asus launch anti-Linuxbook campaign

transparent...

This is such an obviously biased web site I hope this backfires. I really do think that many people will see that M$ are actually scared of something, and wonder what they are scared off.

For me, i took the Pepsi challenge, I'd ordered tickets for a gig. and being the UK there was a postal strike, so the tickets didn't arrive. I got an email from the promoter saying that the email was may ticket, all i had to do was print it take it with me..

I'd just rebuilt 2 PCs, one with Ubuntu and one with XP, but had never connected up ther printer to either, and the gig was in 40 minutes, so i had to get a print out.

Connected printer to XP box.... waited, got a message saying something had happened to a USB port and it was going to look for drivers and stuff..... a few minuts later it still had no idea what had happened to the USB port and was asking me for help.. I wondered if Ubuntu would fare better as I was getting nowhere with XP.

Connected printer to Ubuntu box, got a message straight away saying "You have connected a HP 5250 Printer, please wait a moment". Then, literally a moment later i had the "device ready" message. 650 seconds later i was making my way out of the door with ticket in hand.

Now, I bought the XP box from eBay with a pre-installed XP for £45. and Ubuntu is free, although I did wait 3 weeks for the CD. (i could have downloaded it but decided to get the original disk for fun).... If i had paid full price for the PC and XP I would have immediately declared the purchase to be not fit for purpose. Ubuntu however, has been great with everything I've connected to it. It's occasionaly awkward, but nothing mind blowing. And it reads NTFS drives without a problem. Windows does not read anything else apart from FAT or NTFS without a big hoo har, and the last time I did try setting up XP to read ext3 it ruined the permissions on that drive and rendered it useless so I had to re-install it.

XP = £££ and is not great.

Ubuntu = Free and is wonderful

Conclusion, if Ubuntu was £££ i'd only be unhappy because the graphical layout looks like an amateur "My First PC" style... where as XP looks ace and is very slick looking, but is essentially shit for the money....

ammusing...

.. to see that they are demonstrating XP... the old familiar... not the massively unpopular Vista or the new 7...

I don't suppose they could carry on with the "trusted", "familiar", or "compatible" tags if they had show Vista or 7...

Ah well. I suppose the saddest thing about this is that Asus are involved. I have lots of their components and a Screen of theirs, and to be honest I'd rather hardware vendors kept out of the OS wars, as it doesn't really build trust when you see them getting into bed together in such a bitchy way.

P.S. The lady featured in the film is hot, so it does score on one level ;)

Next Ubuntu alpha reveals video change

Alpha Code....

,,,Not for newbies...

As for nasty surprises, that's part of the Linux experience surely ;)

Pirate Win 7 ruse used to build botnet

LOL

As has been said already, anyone downloading a hooky copy when MS where freely ditributing it anyway it an idiot of the highest order.

Blunkett to press for cyberwar probe of BT's Chinese kit

I'm more worried that...

China is being invited to manufacturer all manner of things for the 'western' world, when 10 years ago it was reported as having 85% counterfeit software running on their computers. They have built entire (now) legit [sic] companies on reverse engineering Cisco, and Nokia kit amongst others.

I reckon, that if you checked under the hood of any telco you'd find Huawei kit. Security is an issue, so is service stability, pirated hardware...Employee rights, freedom of speach and expression...

The mobile phone as self-inflicted surveillance

Breadcrumbs....

iRobot reference, very droll...

Apple bullish on iPhone refresh sales

Hello

Everyone is too busy playing frizbie with their families to care wether or not Apple have ordered a bunch of chips for their next generation of whatevers...

The lack of entries here reminds me of two things...

The song at the start of "Why Don't You?"....

And whay didn't i book the day off work today?

Ha, anyway, my Mrs is on er way to the lakes and I;m getting paid double time with a day in Leau to read this...

Paris, because i bet she's got better things to do than work for a living...

'Freakishly fast' Ruby coming to the Mac

First time in ages

I've read an article that i do not understand one sentence of...

But it's ok.. Don't do a BBC on me and dumb it down...

iPhone 3.0 beta reveals mixed blessing

Anyone remember Darwin....

OpenDarwin, the Open Source OS from Apple, that was 'officially' scrapped in 2006. "OpenDarwin was originally created with the goal of providing a development environment for building and developing Mac OS X "... as it happens it failed. But, OpenSuse, OpenSolaris etc all provide a blueprint for companies to create a device or OS, invite contribution from coders, and then adopt the idea's into future releases.

In fact, it makes a lot of sense, and it was how Gates et al all met up and got working together on their first and subsequent OS's...

The only time it stings is if Apple actually steel code. Steeling idea's is far to difficult to quantify, and that's how this is similar to companies using viral marketing, profiling etc in the never ending quest to find out what the people want, and how's the best way to deliver it.

Unfortunately, although it makes a good rabble rousing story, i don't think there's anything really wrong with it, as long as all parties go in with their eyes open.

UK censors revolt against 'pornalone' ordeal

surely...

the film companies pay into a pot to have the films classified and so money ought not be an issue... mind you, i suppose that would risk bias... there's got to be a way to sort out the funding issue without cutting jobs.

I can see why there is an outcry, it must be a difficult job in reality. At some point someone recommended that there be two people in a room at the same time. Now unless that argument is to be superseded then te 2 person rule should not be rescinded...

UFO ruled out of wind farm prang

I'm not usually this rude...

But anyone who though it was UFO related must be f***in retarded...

UK cybercrime unit to meet IT leaders

In my exeprience,

This funding will be going to specialist officers who already have a remit within the service. These funds will be extra to existing spends, aimed at focusing on, 'e' crime... You only need a small specialist team, lots of aspects of this group of cases are already dealt with under existing CPS and Police processes.

And to "amanfromMars"...

UK spend is no comparable to US since their structures are entirely different. Even if you tried you'd actually find that the FBI, CIA and MI units have separate funding and overlap in an inefficient manner, so more is not necessarily more if funds are wasted, duplicated etc..

'I HOPE YOUR HOUSE IS NEAR THE SEA HAHAHAHA!!!!'

LOL

A microsoft using anti Western-ite...

That's just comical in itself...

Come to think of it... are anti globalisationists all Linux users? Do none of them own Ipods, or clothes from PriMark... or use cheap shampoo from Aldi?

There's no class to rants these days, and no purity to the protaganists either...

Paris, because she doesn't pretent to stand for anything moralistic.

Orange mobile internet takes a lie down

I'm amazed,

...that my company don't get reported in these columns for the amount of outages we have.

or are you unable to publish when our service goes down ;)

STOP! Because my bread and butter is outages, and i laugh in the face of Orange who are not ALL THAT when it comes to actually knowing how their shit works, let alone how it breaks...

Seven Japanese poisoned by blowfish 'nads

LOL

And people say vegetarians are crackers...

Eating fish + Eating Gonads of any kind = plain stupid...

Nature fights back and wins... again...

Stop'n'search gets touchy-feely

Feel The Fear....

...and do IT anyway...

;)

Um, anyway... what these bafoons are doing is basically securing their jobs. They can't actually make an impact on terrorism with these new laws... And in any case, these new laws came about because of the new terrorist threat. But the only thing even slightly new about terrorism these days is that it's not from the Irish Nationalists. People have very short memories, and even shorter tempers... Anyone over 25 has got to remember the IRA and fear of bombings from that group.

New Labour, old stasi in the clothing of gentlemen. It Makes Me Sick that 1st worl d leaders are turning into a bunch of managers, dishing out fear and then saying they'll be the ones to save us. Trust me I'm a a Labour Government... It's wrong.

Pirate Flag, as that's what the New Labour flag ought to be...

Microsoft dishes dirt on IE8 'pr0n mode'

Safari does this already

.. not surprising really...

I do wonder what parents will do now, but having said that, any kid who wants to surf without her/his parents knowledge will find a way. Unless you've got an upto date standalone firewall that's locked down, you're not going to stop them.

Linspire CEO defends Xandros buy-out

Linux on the desktop is still the domain of software engineers and technical people.

I've been using various CLI Linux servers for years and tried Ubuntu Desktop 6.06 when it came out. I now realize the very good reason why Linux is a geeks platform. Dispite things like Compiz and it's revolving cube desktop, the structure of the applications, aesthetically is fairly clunky and reminded me of a Fischer Price "my first pc". That was my only real criticism though. Functionally I found it very easy to use, and a lot easier to network than windows... Wasted screen real estate is a real issue. Compare iTunes/Windows Media Player and RhythmBox...

iTunes - aesthetically efficient and clear and simple to use.

WMP - Aesthetically exciting and slick, although not that intuative, with weird options under buttons with symbols on them.

RhythmBox - large swathes of blank space, chunky buttons. Easy enough to use, (although i have not found a way to actually change the rip settings)... a bit basic, but fundamentally ugly.

It's the desktop.

Gnome - technically brilliant - aesthetically clunky. Nice on a 32" screen though i'd imagine.

KDE - technically brilliant - aesthetically archaic

Xfce - technically brilliant - a lot more efficient on screen space and quick...

I think it's the desktops that are letting the side down. I reckon when and Gnome, KDE pull their finger out and refine their appearance, and Xfce simply go further with what they seem to be aiming for, we'll see a lot more people adopting *nux systems...

As for the merger... who cares? Seriously, it's a company, companies merge!!! I've got no comment to make on that...

Paris, because she's "like school in July", a bit like Gnome and KDE...

Phorm admits 'over zealous' editing of Wikipedia article

they've left it unlocked too... he he..

Looks like you can edit this article without even logging in now...

What is the world coming too...

The Guardian ditches Phorm

VirginMedia...

are neither "sitting on the fence" or "silent" on the subject or Phorm...

http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/webwise.php

They talk of the Phorm partnership offering "new online protection and enhanced features", and "Phorm is the company providing this innovative solution, and it’s called Webwise. Webwise will help provide you with a safer and more relevant online experience by helping you avoid scam emails or websites, as well as making your online experience more relevant through advertising that matches your areas of interest."

Looks like they are far from neutral on the Phorm issue...

It won't stop it....

Phorm know that telco's/ISPs are suffering as much as anyone. The cables for sure have enormous debts, and so I think they can count on VM's support whatever happens.

Active use and configuration of AdBlock (FireFox Add-on) is the best defense. Apart from writing to the MD's of you ISP.

(Seriously, don't write to the call center or contact manager, your message WILL end up as the paper equivalent of Concord and hurtle straight toward De Din airport)..

I do hope Phorm a slow and painful death. There is too much of this profiling going on. Adam Curtis calls it the Big Lump Theory, were our habits are recorded and used to offer us stuff that is apparently relevant to us. The only end is profit for someone and less diversity in our own lives if we're daft enough to stop searching for our own truth and just accept that we must consume in predicatable patterns.

Mobile snap murderer jailed for life

urgh...

Murky business....

It's hard to know what the sentence is supposed to represent, further than the apparent overcrowding of the prison service.

Woman accuses RIAA of killing dolphins

Jonathan

I agree totally with your post.

I'd just like to add, that their sorry attempt to make people feel better about paying through the nose for music are simply patronizing and not even very well executed. I talk of course of Value added Extras. Those "Bonus" live video clips, framed in some awful application that stops ordinary users watching at full screen resolution, because if they did they'd realize it's crappy, extra tracks, exclusive "interactive" elements that are simply nothing more than a poor microsite.

The only DVD that I have ever not minded spending good money on is Orbital's Altogether. Loads of hidden tracks, angles, actually games, and mad shit that must have really taken some planning to get to work, it's an interactive piece of art.

BT preps 2000 per cent evening call price hike

What The Hell Is This...

The BT Broadband Basic service allows you the capability of

transferring up to about 1Gb of data per month.

We will charge you a one-off fee for every month that you

transfer in excess of this limit. Charges are outlined below;

Excess Price per

Usage Gb band £

Excess Usage Charge between

1Gb-3Gb – 1st Gb is inclusive 4.00

Excess Usage Charge, above 3Gb 8.00

Excess Usage Charge, above 6Gb 12.00

They've got to be mad. Is that what people with BT have to put up with?

pft.... lol, etc...

Confidential Home Office data turns up in laptop on eBay

eh!

Optical disk "under" the keyboard?

I can think of better palces to put one. What's that all about? How does a cd end up inside a laptop? That's just weird.

So was the auction for a Home Office CD-ROM with free laptop or vice versa...?

Mines the one with HOIT written on the back...

Logica admits outlook uncertain

RE: RE:Ah well

So i had an extra "i" in ocassion, a typo. At least i know how to use freakin ethereal.

You're not based at South Wales are you? Get a life, that mile long ethereal report you sent me 4 times without editing, actually shows that you CAN reach the "website" that I bet is not work related. There are massive http section that proves it. I point it out every time, and you still think it's our problem...

Here's your coat, I assume it's the one with the wrap around sleves with buckle fastners on the back.

Sun will swallow Earth: Official

That's a shame...

... virginmedia will only just have cleared it's amassed debt by then, and I'll miss out on my payrise.

The Current Bun

I got about 1/3 through that article and had to check the header to se weather I'd accidentally clicked on that red top nightmare's website by the same name as our mother star.

Generally I do like the style of theregister over it's crap rival /. and the over stiff silicon.com. But sometime, just sometimes, I think you go to far...

Anyway, at least in the light of Bellfields prosecution you didn't announce that this week is BLONDES WEEK...

Please avoid becoming too much like the current bun...

New York subpoenas Comcast 'reasonable network management' records

"I also am aware of the contention ratios that are imposed and at certain times of the day"

You're an idiot. you don't know what you are talking about. You can't vary contention ratios. Do you even know what they are?

See that Paris Hilton... That's your mum that is...

Disintegrating wind turbine caught on camera

Gordon Jahn + Engineering Talent...

Whoever gets any contract for the creation of new Nuclear Power plant will not use local engineering talent as you put it. They will, as they always have done, apply the template already used throughout their other installations. Some locals will work there, and some locals will help build it. The higher paid jobs, design and engineering management will not be local.

Scotland and the rest of the uk are hemoraging engineering people because the UAE, NZ, etc... have the money to pay for things, and UK engineers are regarded as the best in the world. That's why I'll be saying cheerio to my brother and family just as soon as he graduates.

Northern Rock FOI gag 'out of order' say Tories

Nationalisation is good...

But this isn't nationalisation...

It's possibly the biggest scam in my lifetime in this country. It's happening right under our noses, and if The Lords don't hit the brakes on this thing, (which they ought to - and are actually quite good at doing), then it's going to affect us badly.

At a time when the cost of Iraq, Afghanistan and Fuel, food, and chavs are all squeezing the pockets of the "average Brit', I say, round up the Chavs and the bankers and turn them into fuel :)

Ban booze in supermarkets, says health adviser

What A Bunch Of Sh1t

This is the same puile of horse shit that I'm realising is the product of an administration that has no idea about people at all...

Mozilla opens the doors on Messaging subsidiary

Automatic Configuration.

There should be a file created by the ISP that can be run on the host machine's email client to do this, I totally agree. You'd think that someone would have developed this sort of thing already.

DARPA continues military AI air-traffic project

That's a lot of money

If they'd put $22M into the ATC as-is, wouldn't that have improved efficiency and improved job security...

Scientists warn on climatic 'tipping points'

3x2

You've fallen for trap 1. Citing discredeted sources... There are so many complaints about that show that I wouldn't even admit to having seen it in. Even the people in the film have denounced it as wildly inaccurate and mi-representing.

http://flet.org/node/20

That was easy...

<--3x2, that's you that is... ;)

Iran fires rocket 'into space', plans satellite for '09

I'm bored already...

I may well be alone in asking this, but, why are the US so obsessed with Iran? Why don't thery just button it and wait and see...

They kept on for months inflaming rows over the arms program after their own spooks (as you call them) had declared the nuclear program as "dead as Disco" (as I call it)...

Lets face it, the US have a paranoid puerile administration who are belligerent and bungling to the extreme.

IFPI wins Danish block on Pirate Bay

Token guesture...

Looks like Tele2 have conceded to the request having read it carefully. By Blocking DNS they are not, as the article points out, really blocking anything. I suspect they agreed just to get the IFPI off their backs.

Amazon buys into Lovefilm

lovefilm

Can't fault them, they're impossibly quick to send the next DVD, courteous when dealing with and good value for money, because every 3 months I call them and tell them I don't want their service and they reduce the price by 50% for the next 3 months..

Local copper: Met secret police requested MP bugging

..off topic...

.. have you seen the film "The Lives Of Others"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

Did I say "Off Topic", sorry....