Posts by Jon Thompson

Street View spycars need some TLC

Saw it in

the more ... shall we say, vibrant.... no, shitty is the word I'm after - parts of Worcester on Tuesday too. Unfortunately no pics, but if you see a silver car passing by the Chestnut, then that's us driving back to work at lunchtime.

Microsoft dispels rumors of stealth Windows updates

Re: EULA comments

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the law of the land override any contractual obligations, regardless of whether that contract claims you've signed away certain rights.

And anyway, stealth injections without your knowledge are still an unauthorised access - you haven't given your express permission for those files to be installed or executed on your machine.

Skype worm blows bubbles at victims

And yet again...

another worm dependant upon the seemingly endless hordes of idiots available to click it so that it can execute. FFS, when will these people learn?

Personally, if I were their ISPs, I'd just sandbox the muppets until they learned how to use an internet connection.

Or 419 them, if they're that stupid... sorry,, keen, to click on everything that comes into their email/IM/Skype inbox.

Cells 'react' to GSM signals claims research

Re: The Capitalist Argument

"By those who have no choice I mean people who currently rely on mobile communications to do their jobs.

Sales reps, service engineers, couriers, on-call medical professionals"

Sorry? RELY on mobiles to do their jobs? WTF did they use before the mobile then? Or were there no Sales reps et al pre-1980s?

Until there's hard evidence of mobiles causing cancer, people should just STFU.

And all the campaigners against masts - ok, if it were up to me, I'd remove all the masts from your area. See how long till you start bitching about no mobile coverage.

Please. Perspective. Get some.

Sony bundles rootkit-like software on USB drive

Do these people...

... ever learn? More malware disguised as "copy-protection is simply malware. If it can be exploited, then it will be.

It's the same with anything else that infects your system with crap like this - simply don't buy it. The only way that corporations will stop doing this is if their product doesn't sell, because all they're concerned about is the bottom line, and if a product doesn't make money, it'll be dropped, and the bosses will want to know why

El Reg protests North Korean internet domain

WTF?

It's called humour, guys. OK, so it may not be funny to some people, fair enough. Now move along. Nothing more to see heer.

Oh and whoever

is writing like

this without using any grammar in his struct

ure, please, for the love of god, stop it! Learn how

to punctuate, and how to structure sentences correctly. (And

possibly, the correct use of the return key as well)

;)

AOL ID thief faces 7 years

Dolan

TBH, he couldn't have done it without your typical AOL-user being a complete and utter muppet.

No matter how many times ISPs, security sites, AV vendors etc say "Don't open random attachments", Mr & Mrs AOL Fuckwit will always click open that file "Greetings.jpg.scr" file that came in their AOL Mail, because they think they know what they're doing.

What with this and the article about unsecured WiFi, or WEP encrypted (hah!) networks, it's just staggering the amount of people that use the internet that really don't have the first idea about even the most basic security principles.

VoIP glitch leaves users cut off

Re: The Pusher Man? Chill Time to Ponder Options in Paths ... Futures Markets

Heh. Taking gibberish to new levels. Does amanfromMars work in Marketing/PR?

Recent VoIP issues

First Skype, now VoIP. Can't see what all the fuss is about IP-telephony services.

The technology's here, but it's hardly reliable. Apparently BT's 21CN will provide the much-needed backbone for VoIP to run properly, but at the moment, BT's network has trouble handling PSTN and ADLS over copper, never mind adding VoIP into the mix.

The way VoIP is set up as well, with eg Skype running as a P2P service on your machine hardly fills me with confidence. Too much emphasis on the end user and their setup, and not enough redundancy from the provider, as these outages have shown.

What's wrong with just picking up the bog-standard telemephone, and mashing it with your dialling wand like we used to?

Tycoon abandons £80k Maserati in London car pound

@amanfromMars

Seriously dude, that['s 2 fucked-up comments you've left today. WTF are you on? If I were you I'd maybe have a lie down.

RIAA gets some class

Re:UK TV Licensing

Too true. I bought a new PC with MediaCentre installed, and a TV tuner, and got a threatening letter from UKTV Licensing a week later, saying that I didn't have a TV License and if I didn't buy one they'd see me in court.

Of course I don't have a TV license. My girlfriend, however, does, and it's for our house.

Rather than check their database and see if the address is listed with a license, they'd much rather threaten someone to try to get another £100+ out of them for no reason.

The sooner parasites like these get the boot the better.

Cut-price laptops coming forth

Buyer beware

This is reported on a lot of sites (engadget, gizmodo etc) with updates that it has all the hallmarks of a scam.

Give it a few weeks, see if the site disappears or of anyone can actually contact these guys, then maybe go for it.

It's like everything else; if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.