* Posts by Tony Barnes

255 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Sep 2007

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New Sony hack exposes more consumer passwords

Tony Barnes
Devil

You've got to laugh

I'm actually finding this whole situation pretty funny - given how disproportionate big firms can be against 'the little people', its really tickling me to see them fight back and give the big boys a kicking!

Sony sure must regret some of its decisions these past months...

NB - hackings bad, don't do it, mkay?

New Mac scareware variant installs without password

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Does seem a bit obvious..

..doesn't it? Who needs complicated exploits when you can just alter the save path!

Online tools to 'end the scandal of empty homes'

Tony Barnes
FAIL

Squatters paradise

lol - so all we need now is someone to hack said database, post online, et voila - squatters all over the country quickly re-homed!

35m Google Profiles dumped into private database

Tony Barnes

Agree with the above sentiments - its public information

This is not a security problem in any way, shape, or form. He collected information that people have happily allowed to be public. If you check out what your Google profile says about you, it will likely, like mine, say basically nothing bar my name. If you've added other information to it, there is probably a reason you have - as above for your work being one of them.

Though it is interesting that he managed to grab 35GB of info this way, I'm not sure that anyone in their right mind would have tried to put up security to prevent someone accessing public information? Sounds like a waste of time to me...

Student books Vegas trip with Twitter mood detection app

Tony Barnes

That was the BEST app created?

Without trying to be overtly harsh, were there any other entries?

Why would there be no search function in an application that doesn't allow for multiple searches of the same keywords? Is that single list of keywords the only ones that have been added to the app?

Function over form is fine and dandy, but 'search' is a pretty basic function IMO...

Pretty graphs though

Eight New Yorkers sue Baidu for $16m

Tony Barnes

I'm confused

Do people outside of China use Baidu? If not, I'm not sure what grounds breaching an American bit of paper has to do with a Chinese country operating within its own borders..??

Just had a quick look at bidu for the first time, I get the feeling they may have copy / pasted Google to an extreme degree!!

Renault readies sub-£7000 e-car for Blighty

Tony Barnes
FAIL

£40/m ??

Isn't that going to be more than most inner city dwellers would spend on fuel anyway?

Interesting idea, honestly, I don't think its a good end result, but an interesting idea.

Google unveils Android 'Honeycomb' update for fondleslabs

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Vegacomb

Yep - can't wait for them to iron out the remaining bugs. Honeycomb is a far better option for the Vega - the fact that you can now grab them for £200 really does make them a complete bargain. Been holding off sticking any newer roms on after the modaco r8, nearly went with the corvus one, til he strated releasing the HC stuff !!

Motorola Xoom

Tony Barnes

Well, sorta

Its all down to the licensing agreements I think, not sure to be honest. But honeycomb has been ported (early stages, slow, unusable, but on its way!), and all the other stuff you've mentioned is over as well.

I love my Vega, great pad for the money. Played with it side by side with a mates Xoom, and bar the fact the Xooms screen was a LOT better, it held up very well given it was about 50% cheaper.

I'll stick HC on when I can, and then likely wait until next year before looking at what is available, maybe the year after, so skip a generation or 2, as its great for now.

Nude gardener's arse hauled into court

Tony Barnes

IT angle

They used a digital camera...??

Latvian hack's hack story leads to hack-hacking

Tony Barnes

How fast?

Damn, Latvia's got it good on the 'net speed front!

Google donates a billion cores to boffins

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Fair play to them

That's a nice gesture

No doubt there will be a lot of cynicism in here any minute now, but this isn't something that they 'have' to do, so props!

Apple Digital AV Adapter

Tony Barnes
Jobs Horns

@ AC

Again, I was still talking manufacture cost, not sure how this is confusing?

Regarding the pricing, I'm going to side with the guy from China ;)

At the end of the day, they are charging very close to 10% of the RRP of the base iPad2 model so you can use it with your TV - one of the new big touted new features. That is simply not on. If you think it is a fair price, you are either off your rocker, or Steve Jobs trolling...

As per others - they have driven the iPad to a good base price, but then get you to shell out the same again in bits and bats that most users will want. More should come in that first box really

Tony Barnes

Idiot number two

Go on, I'll bite - read what I posted (and ironically what you quoted) '£1 worth of manufactured cost' - i.e. the cost to manufacture, not to sell, so no need for the Apple profit (think I'll quote you here) - idiot.

With regards to the HDMI chip - presumably what you are saying is that the HDCP aspect of things isn't controlled by the iPad itself, but the control cable? If so, that means said cable has a chip in it to push the price up? If so, fair play, I hadn't considered that, as it wasn't hugely apparent - a quick look about would indicate a cost of $2.60 (http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/News/Pages/iSuppli-Teardown-Reveals-Apple-TV-Inner-iPad.aspx - Apple TV costs, probably higher than that of the iPad connector here, given that it seems to have additional functions) - so I guess that could push the total cost up to maybe £3-4?

Yep, you're right, £35 = bargain.....

As for 'To Apple's credit they decided not to foist a HDMI chip and license into each and every iPad increasing they number of whining anti-apple idiots who would then complain about the iPad's increased price.' - no, I think they've actually just come up with a way of making something backwards compatible with the old tech, rather than making the new tech better in the first place.

Apple doesn't give me any of those things - I love Apple products, just typically can't afford them. This kind of absurd pricing for something I had actually presumed came as standard/free with the new iPad2 (no doubt making me an idiot I guess) underlines my point massively!!

Tony Barnes

Can't comment on the Sony aspect...

..but it works perfectly with my Toshiba, crappy Bush in the bedroom, and my mums fancy pants Philips.

The point is that this was one of the 'magical' new features that was being touted. Customers are being bent over to take advantage of this.

Interesting point on the HDMI licensing, that extra $0.10 needs clawing back somehow I guess...

Tony Barnes
Thumb Down

£35...??

'You could argue that an expensive gadget like the iPad should have HDMI as standard – but it doesn’t and that’s that.'

Erm, alternatively, you could mark it down for being a complete rip off?? £35 for what, £1 worth of manufactured cost cable?

I hook my Advent Vega up to my TV with a 3m flat HDMI cable that cost me all of a fiver.

£35 for a crappy cable is not value in any world I am aware of - 80% is absurdly generous given the price IMO, and that all it does is connect your iPad to your TV as expected, oh, except for when it doesn't work...

Samsung rolls out 22in see-through screens

Tony Barnes

Me likey

Very nice - though will probably only be great for the first year or 2, then when every high street shop is trying to grab your attention with some crazy visuals, piss annoying...!

iPad 2 tougher than iPad 1. True

Tony Barnes

Is flexibility relevant...

...when it is impact damaged that will cause breaks?

I'm not actually certain as I type this, but I'd of preferred the test to be hammer based, as it would reflect real life damage

Dixons Advent Vega

Tony Barnes
Alert

@ Tony Smith - higher score

"Had it all that functionality out of the box, the Vega would have scored a lot more highly."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How much more highly? Given the userbase here, I'd wager that most of us would happily stick a new ROM on to a device like this, especially given how clear the instructions appear to be. (.stu - agree on the Achos comparison!)

I toyed briefly with one of these in Currys on saturday - responsiveness seemed spot on, and viewing angle in landscape (i.e. the one I'd use most) also fine. It wasn't networked so couldn't test browsing/flash support.

For £250 it feels like a bargain. If they manage to port Honeycomb to it (no obvious reason why not IMO) then I will likely be grabbing one!

YouTube punts filth to shocked Reg readers

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Hahaha

I spotted that yesterday myself, had to check the link to make sure it wasn't some sort of spam/virus going on... ahem

Google preps YouTube movie service 'for UK'

Tony Barnes

Could be good

Routinely watch 1080p files on Youtube, quality is usually great, and no buffering issues at all on a 20meg line. Would be good to get films, so long as cheap, otherwise will continue getting by other methods...

Virgin Media to issue firmware update after Superhub slows to crawl

Tony Barnes

Think I'll stick with 20mb then

Only had VM for a few months, so can't actually upgrade yet, but when I heard they were rolling this out I did think there would likely be issues!!

As it stands, rock solid 19.5meg down, 19ms ping, all gravy. Only issue is airport sometimes throws a wobbly, so I have to turn modem & mac off, and on again, but its pretty rare

Wireless HD video sticks demoed

Tony Barnes

Would be perfect...

...for streaming Xbox to other rooms in the house! Have been looking for a decent solution to this for a while, moving it about = PITA.

lol, would obviously have to be cheaper than another xbox!

Jamie Oliver website offers graphic recipe for 'Pussy'

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Fair play

..that is pretty damn funny!!

BOFH: Who's been naughty and who's been nice?

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

'kin brilliant!

Excellent festive theme, nice work!

Plasma space-drive aces efficiency numbers: Set for ISS in 2014

Tony Barnes

@ JonW

"..no one can hear you scream. So why are the radiators(?) on that uber-rocket thing streamlined?

Grips my tits when spacecraft are made to look and manoeuvre like aircraft..."

Presumably because they need to be transported to space through the earths atmosphere before their interstellar jaunt. I agree, once up there, a ruddy great cube (ala Borg) would be fine and dandy (barring the sparse hydrogen getting draggy when travelling at silly speed*), just getting it there would be an arse

(*this thing seems fast, but I don't think it would be fast enough for this to be an actual issue)

Tony Barnes

So how fast..?

Some rough maths would point at a 55m km journey over 39 days meaning an average speed of about 36,000mph - given the acceleration/deceleration situation, what would this be topping out at...? 100,000mph+??

Samsung, Dixons herald huge tablet sales

Tony Barnes

I doubt mine will be the first to point it out....

...but the Advent Vega is a 10 inch device, not 7.

Early feedback on it seems to have a fair chunk of issues, the 1080p playback is dependent on the encoding to a greater degree than I hoped, has put me off one for now...

Calls for US nudie perv scanner 'opt-out day'

Tony Barnes

Thanks illiad!

lol, that made me chuckle!

For those who are failing to read what I am writing, I do agree with a lot of what is being said above regarding these measures probably being completely useless, I did say that in my last post - "lip service", etc. People who expect our government to do something radical and new to stop new, unknown threats are clearly not thinking that hard. They will be doing their best to stop new forms of attack, they aren't however, going to shout about it from the roofs, kinda a waste of time, dontcha think?

In the meantime using systems that could stop a known form of attack is a nice way to keep the nation feeling safer (arguably they probably aren't, that isn't the complete point here), whilst also being the best way of stopping that kind of attack again (agreed, unlikely to happen, but again, not the damn point).

Tony Barnes

No, I am not new here....

...I am simply of the belief that people really give far too much of a shit about some things.

Oh no, someone, somewhere, who I will never meet, and will never meet me (though may have seen me, oh heavens), will see me naked, and possibly later have a wank. How terrible.

Doctors not abuse their position? Hello - Harold Shipman ring a bell? Other "responsible" positions, like that kindergarten teacher? Hell, they were even going to start teaching them how to spot nonces - good way of letting folk know what things to avoid doing eh?

The situation we are currently in - i.e. mega rich governments shitting themselves over potential massive civilian casualties caused by simple methods - dictates that they have some sort of response. These "x-ray" (!) machines are a good solution for checking if someone is carrying something they shouldn't. In combination with other solutions, it has the potential to save lives. I do personally think it is a lip service to the problem at hand, however that is how governments respond, so not a shock. I don't see them as any sort of health threat, as per Michael C, not dangerous!

So again it currently falls down to options:

1. Have some random person see a crap, non-colour picture of your naked body

2. Have someone poke around you with their fingers to check for concealed bad things

I'd rather 1, as I've had both, many times, and 1 was an awful lot fecking quicker!!

If on the off chance one of these machines does stop some plum walking through with 1/2lb semtex gaffa taped to his belly, then bugger me, it really will have been worth it all, but in the meantime, it's not exactly much of an inconvenience, whilst at the same time is another good deterant.

[/rant]

Tony Barnes
WTF?

Give us a break

How do people actually get offended by this sort of thing? So someone can see a crappy, blurred image of your genitals, well, kinda. Do these people not visit the doctor? What happens when they need to have an investigation "down there" - do they cry, piss and moan about the depravement and violation that they feel? No, they say something along the lines of "doctors have seen it all" - why not extend that assumption of professionality to the airport crew? I couldn't give a rats ass who sees me in the buff, blurry monitor or not - and if it means reducing queuing time, not having to take metal objects off, or anything like that, all good IMO (the reduction in terror threat is by and large a moot point to me...)

As for the pat down scenario, oh no, someone is touching my clothed body, how horrible, what a sinful situation... Honestly, get over yourselves, for the 1 in 1000000 people in this world who are truly unbelievably stunning (or a-list celebs at a push), yes, you will likely give someone patting you down a nice thrill; but for the rest of the world, they are simply prodding at someone and doing their job. Think of it like an abbatoir worker handling a carcass. They want you to move on as quickly as you do.

Bunch. Of. Idiots.

BOFH: You just can't go around killing people

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Die Hard quote =

Icing on cake!

Startup promises money for fanbois

Tony Barnes

Ever tried taking photos in a supermarket?

They don't like it. The REALLY don't like it. I've seen people get escorted out for nothing more...

So this will be a complete fail if they rely on an intrusive methodology...

...and a win if they keep it simple.

Nice idea

Top Ten Retro PC Games

Tony Barnes

UFO - Enemy Unknown

A few other highlighted it above, but quite simply the best PC game ever conceived. I still remember playing the demo on my dad's work laptop - an IBM thinkpad who's rubbery plastic smell I still vividly remember and associate with the first time I played what turned into possibly my favourite game of all time.

Sure I was gutted when the laser animations had changed between the demo and full game, but it didn't lose any of its appeal.

One of those very rare games that upon completion, you couldn't wait to start all over again.

For shame that is missed your list!!!

DfT to install new motorway tech

Tony Barnes
Stop

Variable speed limits, yey!

Anyone else notice that 9/10 times the variable speed limits imposed on motorways does little more than cause a tailback? Go past the last stupid sign telling you to do 40mph, and lo and behold, the road ahead is clear.

They should only ever be turned on when there is an accident coming up, as otherwise, it makes people alter their driving habits to the point of making a problem worse - and also makes folk take their eyes off the road to read the sign, then check, recheck their speed, etc.

Funnily, humans can see other cars not moving fast in front of them, and adjust their speed without being told to do so. I'm fairly sure that it's an important part of your driving test, you know, not crashing into a slightly slower car ahead of you!

On which note, I wonder how much time and money is spent every year telling me "Fog, slow down", or "Spray, slow down" - again, it's almost as if I'm taking my eyes off the road to look at something that is telling me the bloody obvious....

So there goes another massive pile of cash that will do little more than make a situation worse. Great.

(all IMO obviously, I await "those in the know" to shoot me down!)

Twittering MP escapes with caution

Tony Barnes
Thumb Down

Politician breaks law, no charge brought

Shocker...

Crown Paint probed by ICO for 'possible' online data breach

Tony Barnes

Yes BT do

But you can choose to be ex directory.

Plus you don't put your email details up online for spambots to find

Plus you don't get the world to see that you are a plonker, as per quote above....!

Boffins build acme e-paper screen

Tony Barnes

Not sure if ideal for TVs?

Unless I'm missing something, this will only really work well in well lit environments? Similar to e-ink? So to replace an LCD screen, it would need some sort of light source, surely, otherwise contrast levels would be terrible in a dimly lit (i.e. movie night!) room.

Perhaps a merge of the two techs, so flicking between a backlit environment in the dark, and non in the light - hah, have fun sorting that one!!

Great bit of innovation though, reckon in handheld devices there are a lot of applications.

BOFH: Robot wars

Tony Barnes
Thumb Up

Spot on!!

Plenty of belly laughs in that one - nice work :)

Greenland ice loss rates 'one-third' of what was thought

Tony Barnes

2mm in 6 years?

So in 1000 year we can expect the oceans to have risen a little over 1 foot as a result of this.

Forgive me if this doesn't seem like a scary thought...

Microsoft buffs Silverlight for HTML5 video contest

Tony Barnes
WTF?

Surely they didn't actually say this?

*********************

Microsoft says that whereas HTLM5 and CSS3 "have traditionally had a lot of issues with variation between browsers,"

*********************

Yes, traditionally your site will look lovely on every web browser you test it with, except IE, which fucks it up and makes you have to go in and hack the crap out of what you've done.... I expect no different with these updated standards!

Viewsonic intros £350 7in Android tablet

Tony Barnes
WTF?

They could have at least tried...

..to make it look a bit like an iPad. I mean really, missed opportunity...

PARIS pumps up a Mk 2 release mechanism

Tony Barnes

GPS

Isn't this thing going to be GPS tracked? Can't you run a signal off that to check that altitude and then just use a simple solenoid?

Anyway, do like the mechanical way of solving things, all good fun!

Famous 'Invisible Gorilla' trick vid gets sequel

Tony Barnes
WTF?

@ Andy Fletcher

Arrogant? lol - do you not think that this "illusion" is arrogant? Having fooled people previously with the gorilla (I never saw that until after reading this link, so couldn't comment on it's effect, from link I found it seemed childlike) - he then tries to pull the wool over their eyes with what I see as incredibly obvious changes?

Ok, things he could have changed that would have been hard (i.e. not completely and utterly bleeding obvious) to spot:

1. Hair colour of one of the assistants, changing whilst they are facing you for minimum visibility

2. Writing on the balls

3. Shoes on on of the assistants

4. Jewelery on an assistant

5. Ratio of men to women

6. Age of assistants

etc, etc, etc

I'm terribly sorry but someone walking off camera is very, very obvious. So is the background colour changing (except as above for the colour blind, though red/green ought to still have spotted it? My understanding on that is fuzzy).

I meant no arrogance in saying what I said, that is simply how I saw it. If indeed I am some sort of super-human for being able to spot what I think is the bleeding obvious, then I can only apologise for my unintentional "arrogance", as I certainly wasn't patting myself on the back, if anything I was wondering why on earth I'd bothered finding it on youtube and watching it...

Tony Barnes
Paris Hilton

Erm.....

(on the assumption this is the right vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY - player didn't load in here)

Sorry, but that is just retarded. Do people seriously not see the person leaving nor the curtain change colour? I think that begs more questions over the intelligence of the observer than the intelligence of the test - and would certainly hope that anyone who did miss that doesn't hold a driving license!!!

I was expecting something clever or subtle....

HTML5-juiced mobile YouTube refresh dates iPhone

Tony Barnes

Sony W995

My SE came with a youtube widget, great I thought, until I used it. Could barely make out what was going on, terrible quality. Went straight to the youtube site, played from there, bingo, eminently watchable.

Google to buy flight data company for $700m

Tony Barnes

Cinema listing

Google already does this, for example:

http://www.google.co.uk/movies?hl=en&near=leeds&dq=vue+cinema+leeds&theater=vue&sa=X&ei=pMstTMT6CMPuOc-N2doB&ved=0CBUQxQMoAQ

Apple to sell unlocked iPhone 4

Tony Barnes

Spot on...

...well, my guess was. Been debating what the PAYG would go for, reckoned £500 and £600 for the 16 & 32 respectively. Barring pricing rhetoric I was on the money.

Almost a daft amount of money to pay, but given it's basically an iPad in a smaller package, with a camera, about "right"

Still WAY too rich for me though....

$11m jackpot just a 'reset' message, says casino

Tony Barnes

I'll play it next then...

...as apparently it will spit out $11m for the next winner!!

As for the "logic" of the machines, (certainly in the UK) there is a set payout %age - so a machine will pay out say 93% of the cash you put in. If you play for a long time, refusing any prize it offers you, it will tip over the threshold required to pay you the whole jackpot, and spit it out. In theory catching a machine at the right time = staying ahead. In practice it's still a gamble.

At least that's how things used to be, stopped regularly playing the damn things some years ago when I realised I was going for a night out just to stand next to a big flashing box rather than enjoy a drink with my mates....

How much coin you'd have to shunt in to activate a $11m jackpot doesn't even bear thinking about!

iPad apps may need to be disabled-accessible

Tony Barnes

Newspapers..?

Given the fact that good old fashioned newspapers do not need to exist in braile format, why should a website be enforced to display content in any fashion? They are both conveying information.

I know, not very "pc" and all, but it seems very hypocritical

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