Posts by Dillon Pyron

Pirate pitches DVDs to Trading Standards

How dumb?

That's pretty good. How about the guy who put Order of the Phoenix on eBay last Sunday? The only reason I saw it was because I was looking for the book and didn't want to pay Amazon's price. By the time I showed it to Carol, it was gone.

US cons attempt copyright-based prison break

News of the Weird

This has got to make News of the Weird, even if I have to mail it in. Classic case of criminals too dumb for their own good.

"The RIAA will testify on their behalf at their next parole hearings"

And have job offers?

Microsoft Windows patent will spy for advertisers

A couple of solutions

a) I've been running XP since early 2002. In fact, it's SP1.

b) as has been pointed out, Linux, BSD and Mac OS

c) all you have to do is create a file and put a header at the top "Trade Secret, for Internal Use Only". The rest is self evident

d) it could be a defensive patent. Plenty of patents in the semiconductor industry are defensive. They may never use, but nobody else can, either. It may even be a "good" thing. Wait, what did I just say?

Google tells TV execs where they've gone wrong

Who gets what first? (Or is it who gets Who first?)

We the States may get some shows first, the UK gets others. The US, for instance, sees the first half season of Stargate. The UK catches up, then passes us. You get Torchwood, we get spoilers.

C&W says trading is sunny side up

ADRs or LSE?

I'd ask my broker this, but she's on vacation today. Does C&W trade ADRs on any of the US markets or am I going to have to buy in London? 16 to 18%? Those are great numbers. Those are Exxon numbers.

Domain name scammers target uk.biz

I still get them

I still get these "somebody wants to register mydomain.us" or .biz or .info. I even received one about a month ago with regard to .co.uk. Since I do security for a living, I knew better. But there are, I fear, those who will fall for this. Thanks for giving this some press. Too bad everyone here already knows not to fall for it. Right?

Behind the Apple vs Universal breakup

The artists get how much?

I'm in Austin, "The Live Music Capital of the World" (it says it as soon as you walk off the plane). I know a lot of musicians with some sort of recording contract. Most of them have to pay back all sorts of expenses to the label before they see a dime. And that's usually all they see.

iPhone 2.0 screen-maker rumour really points to video iPod?

Oh sure

I can hear the screams from hear to Cupertino. The mobs will line up outside the gates, pitch forks and torches (the kind with flames) in hand.

If they came out with iPhone 2.0 two years from now, the early adopters would shrug it off. But if the new model comes out before the end of the year, people who just popped $500-$600 for one will probably swear off Apple. Maybe not today, but I'll bet they won't buy a second iPhone.

Nintendo yanks Mario Party 8 - offensive language to blame?

Another classic example

This is another classic example of the Japanese taking random English words and stringing them together. I've seen young girls in Tokyo with some of the most bizzare t-shirts. I even saw one that read "tits be favored everywhere".

Fujitsu fetes world's slimmest waterproof mobile

60 ft?

Is it waterproof to 60 ft? I put my phone in my swim trunks, then forgot to take it out before putting on my wet suit. 20 minutes at 60 feet. The phone was toast (soggy toast). But the SIM survived. The guy at the AT&T store gave me a $50 discount for a funny story. He also said he was surprised at the number of people who said they dropped their's in the sink or bathtub. Which, he said, was code for "I dropped it in the toilet".

MPs call for British manned space flight

L5

Actually, you Brits should build an L5 colony. Read O'Neill's "The High Frontier" (as opposed to the SDI book by the same name). It shouldn't cost more than the UK's GDP. I'd move there. Except that I'll be long dead before that happens.

Google goes mobile, small biz

AdSense can be so lame.

I Google "cluster" and what do I get in the ads? "Find the lowest prices on cluster". I won't name the company, but you can find them.

Romanian cops cuff drunk, naked, handless driver

Cheech and Chong

Man, does this bring back memories

"Sign zee papers" "I cannot sign zee papers" "And why not can you sign zee papers" "Because I have no hands" (okay, it's supposed to be "Because you haf broken all of my finkers", but I'm adaptable.)

Ex-Broadcom CEO broadsided by cocaine and orgy torture charges

"parent-son bond"?

Wow, a "parent-son bond". I kind of wish my father had brought me plates of drugs at 3 am, instead of flushing them. I'd probably be a lot more fucked up than I am. Thanks Dad, for not ruining my life.

Oh yeah, and thanks for not getting me prostitutes.

Buffy and Neighbours thesps join Torchwood

SciFi channel

Please, SciFi channel, pick up Torchwood. Show it on Saturdays, instead of that horrendous crap you show. Who wants to see week after week of "who will the monster kill next"?

And you have me waiting until what, October, for BSG.

IT angle, the tardis has a steam powered computer, complete with pump and bicycle horn.

Pilots get electronic flight bag

Glass cockpit

As much as many ATPs love a glass cockpit, they also demand needle, ball and airspeed. Mechanical. I've seen pictures of the 787 cockpit. Look to the lower left of the pilot and the lower right of the co-pilot. The mechanical hydraulic pump for the landing gear is under a panel just behind the engine control console.

Strict copyright laws do not always benefit authors

Exclusive rights

In the mid 70s, Ben Bova's rag paid me more for exclusive rights. I still own the copyright, but I can't publish the sucker anywhere for money. I've thought about putting it on my website as a free e-book. A small e-book (it was a short story. Originally long enough to be a novella, but he didn't want to publish one by an unknown).

Iowa plans audacious Harry Potter butter sculpture

Butter? That's a lot of toast.

How much milk did it take to make that much butter? I'm sure all those milk maids, churning for hours on end, will be proud of the end result.

We get ours some time between 11 am and 2 pm, according to the USPS. Delivered to our doorstep. Which means Carol will be reading it some time between 11:01 am and 2:01 pm. The Houston dog show is this weekend. Second largest in the country, maybe even larger than Westminster this year (I haven't seen the final entry count for conformation, never mind the other exhibitions like agility and flyball). I'm handling a dog (Pembroke Welsh Corgi) on Saturday and Sunday, so I won't be missing her. Wish us well, I think there's 40 dogs showing on Saturday.

German bus driver objects to passenger's breasts

iPhone?

Did she have an iPhone jammed in there? Work is blocking it. "nudity" it says. But oddly, I can get to Page 3.

US: GPS-Galileo agreement to be inked this week

Desert Storm?

During Desert Storm, the US turned off the civilian degraded mode because there weren't enough MIL Spec GPS units. And it's never been turned on again. If Galileo uses different clocks, they'll need different freqs. But if they have the same clocks, it all becomes one big system. Of course, I'm sure the Pentagon would LOVE to share the clocks with a purely civilian system.

Hasn't the British MoD publicly tested a GPS jammer? And would anyone like to speculate on the chances that the DoD has already done so?

El Reg lobs iPhone at Genius Bar

Restocking fee

You paid 10% after you opened it? I paid 15% for a camera, and I never opened anything except the shipping box. And I had to have it back in their hands in 7 days, which meant I paid almost $30 in express shipping.

You're lucky.

Ask me privately, I'll tell you who.

Your boss could own your Facebook profile

re: employment contracts

Yeah, I've signed several. Most claim the rights to any "relevant" ideas, on or off the clock. I was laid off by one employer, who then sent me a letter for me to sign acknowledging that I had previously signed a contract which allowed them access to my IP I created for a period of one year after my termination as well as a stipulation that I not work for a competitor for a period of two years. I contacted lawyers in both Georgia and Texas, who both told me that my employer had terminated the contract when I was laid off and to not sign the letter. Never heard back, started a competitive consulting company a month later and beat them on two contracts.

Texas is a right to work state and an employ at will state. So is Georgia.

Night of the Living RegisterFly: Randy Travis concert in jeopardy

And what does this have to do with ...

... Paris Hilton and iPhones?

Iraq base plans left on open servers

Yes you can

Actually, if you know how to, you can Google up ftp servers.

Crazy cyber-jihadi emails planned death for Mayport, FL

Meanwhile, in the US

Here, FBI informants are buying all the materials. I suspect they'd be paying for the lap dances so the real "conspirators" could get a good idea of the layout of the clubs.

Mobile roaming. Do you care?

AT&T international roaming

The most I've been charged for international roaming is $1.75 a minute, in the Caymans. I pay $3.95 a month for that privilege. And my texting is standard rate (I don't have a text plan).

Hrmph, I've never called from sea. I know that Cellular @ Sea charges $2.95 a minute. I've seen people blighthly sitting by the pool, chatting on their mobile for an hour or more.

Martian ice swaps poles every 25,000 years

Not just bacteria

You also need the green stuff. Algae, lichen, etc.

Golf and Intel Inside China threaten life as we know it

Handicap

Hey, I have a 13 handicap and I've played at the ($550 green fees) Wynn. If it doesn't insult me, it shouldn't insult anybody.

At the rate wages are going up in China vs the US, in ten years Chinese Intel would be building fabs in the US.

El Reg seeks ultimate 'nom de sex'

NASCAR

Imagine growing up as Dick Trickle.

Student's suspension for IM buddy icon upheld by US court

He's actually lucky

He's lucky he wasn't/hasn't been busted for making a terrorist threat.

Many years ago the supremes ruled that "freedom of speech does not end at the school house door". Hmm.

75-year-old has world's fastest private internet connection

KO quote

It was DEC founder Ken Olson who stated that no one would ever need a computer in their house. That was in the late 70s. In 1986 DEC introduced their own, proprietary, PC. That flopped.

US ocelots on the brink

Ocelots in Tejas

Saw one a few years ago, there. By the time I got the camera up, it was gone. But it was a magical moment. Much like diving with dolphins off the coast of Belize.

Sony says no to Euro PS3 price cut

It's the economy, silly

The US economy is in the tank, Europe is shooting up. So you guys have more money to spend. OTOH, I bought Euros several years ago at .98 euros on the dollar.

The PS3 is over priced in the US.

'You're a f**king moron'

This and that

I've got real email addresses for several el Reg columnists. We've traded friendly emails. BTW, Lester, I still need to post those pix from the USGP, including the hat.

Cunt British? Bloody hell it is!

Now twat. I think that has a different meaning in the UK than it does in the US. And I know fanny does.

Skinkers to provide live TV over the net

I think not

Live TV via P2P? Not as long as the speed depends, not on my 6Mb down, but on my neighbor's 768Kb up. Not as long as carriers link TW, Comcast, AT&T and Verizon do packet shaping. Not when net neutrality goes down in flames and the carriers start suppling their own services.

Joost is going to have enough trouble as it is. Skinkers has even longer road to hoe.

Oz mayor stole cash for Darth Vader voice distorter

Just maybe

"*We assume the SMH means a thrift store in Darwin run by East Timorese, rather than a thrift shop run by East Timorese in East Timor. Mind you, stranger things have happened..."

Maybe it was a thrift store in East Timor run by Darwinians.

Parliament's sci-tech committee faces permanent recess

You silly Brits

The US government has gotten along quite well without any science oversight for quite a while. Who needs science when you have politics?

Lib Dems call for NPfIT review

Michael Moore

But Moore says that all is right and good with NHS. How can anyone question what he has to say? The American health system is all crap and the British system flawless.

Experian rejects ID theft notification proposal

In the first six months

In the first six months of the year, we have been notified by nine different companies that they have somehow or another leaked our information to an unauthorized third party. All of these were California companies, which were required to notify everyone, regardless of residence. I wonder how many other companies have lost our data.

I agree with Morely. My personal data belongs to me. I'm surprised Experian hasn't objected to the freeze. Nor the credit companies.

'Suspicious looking' man hauled off translatlantic flight

Historian

Historian = academic. Not a doer. When did Beard put everything on the line?

Oz watchdog accuses Google of misleading public

Motto

Of late, it seems that Google's motto has become "do a little evil and don't get caught". Of course they'll fight this one. a) it would be a major slap in the way they do business and b) they have more money.

Netgear Storage Central Turbo SC101T network storage box

iSCSI?

How long before we see iSCSI units out there? There are initiators from Microsoft and initiators for most flavors of Linux. There's even an initiator for Mac OS X. And work going on right now for one for OpenBSD. You can get by with SATA drives or, if you have the bucks/pounds/euros you can go with the much faster SAS drives. Now, unless your really do have a gigabit network, it's a waste, but have you looked at the price of gig switches and NICs?

South Dakota rejoins the execution club

too henious

Some crimes are too heinous for anything less than the death penalty. At least in this case the sentence was carried out in a "swift, sure and certain" manner. The death penalty, as a deterrent, needs that. The Supreme Court, in its last ruling, affirmed that the death penalty is a fit retribution for some crimes.

And the IT angle is obvious. It's because, umm, well, you know.

Greek mobile wiretap scandal unpicked

Inside job? Dry?

Inside job? I personally think so. I also think the network guy found hanged in his apartment wasn't feeling guilty and afraid the authorities were getting too close, I think his co-conspirators felt the authorities were getting too close and that he was a weak link. How's that for a conspiracy theory.

You want dry? Communications of the ACM. Although better than 20 years ago (which is, oddly enough, when I was published. Hmmm, pot, kettle).

MySpace succumbs to The Buttock

Comedy?

The French consider Jerry Lewis to be the epitome of comedy.

nuf sed

Reg hack hypnotised by bouncing boob samba

Hmmm

If you had this on your phone, how would you know when it went tango uniform

Google in Colorado safe cracking caper

Archvillians

Being the master criminals, I suppose they wore form fitting black clothes with matching black balaclavas and double latex gloves (or nitril, in case they were allergic to latex).

I'm also sure that the camera was of such great resolution and the zoom capabilities of the CSIs were so strong that the know the brand of pants they were wearing.

Or have I been watching too much TV?

Microsoft, Cisco, EMC team to plug government data hole

AD?

Did they say secure and Active Directory in the same sentence?

O2 lacking Apple focus

Not supported

RoadRunner doesn't support anything except Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP. And Outlook Express. When I called about a Eudora problem, the "tech" didn't have the foggiest idea what I was talking about. When a friend called with Linux problem, the "tech" said that Linux didn't work with RoadRunner. I don't even bother with Firefox.

Now one of my suppliers had a notice posted on the home page saying that they didn't currently support IE 7 and that the user should use IE 6, Firefox, Mozzilla, Opera or Safari. Really, that's what it said. And it worked under all of them.

Taser creates electric shotgun

Roomba guard

We bought a Roomba two years ago and love it. I recently bought a second one, along with iRobot's hacker's SDK. I wonder if I could mount my 1100 on one. I've already built an ultrasonic detector and ranger (from a 1981 Popular Electronics). Shouldn't take much to install a voice synthesizer. "Halt" boom "or I'll shoot". Sorry Mom, forgot that you were visiting.