Riot Gear

So next time they riot they'll loot a bunch of Sat phones to keep in touch?

GPL anyone?

The netgear router they base the "Super" hub on uses GPL code. Netgear release the firmware (as required) under GPL, however, VM modify the code, and seem to think (judging by staff postings) this means their "hybrid" code is not covered by GPL, and they don't have to release it to end users.

I _really_ hope they get into trouble for this. For all I hear of people chasing pirates of films, music and games, it'd be refreshing to hear about someone going after corp's for their flaunting of GPL.

That being said, I hope the let me on the beta program because the current r26 release is useless!

Only the god die young.

A sad day. She will be missed.

Raw support

For which cameras?

@ Iggle Piggle

Here is a paper on environmental impact of ebooks:

http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS03-04.pdf

Overall, the conventional book system required more raw materials and water inputs,

consumed more energy, and produced more air and water emissions and solid wastes than

the e-reader system under baseline conditions. Major conclusions from the baseline LCI

are as follows:

• For the conventional book system, LCI results were largely driven by three

factors: (1) textbook paper production, (2) the relatively large amount of

electricity consumed during book printing operations, and (3) personal

transportation.

• For the e-reader system, LCI results were driven by the electricity generated

for on-screen viewing.

Password

Was easy enough to guess... not very good at security are they ;)

A bit dissapointing what comes next though :(

(assuming there is only one password).

@anon

Ok, I shouldn't really feed the trolls, but on the off-chance this guy isn't a troll, and is just totally clue-less and computer illiterate.

It takes time for patches to be released from all vendors for several good reasons.

1. They need to understand the bug. Fools rush in, etc...

2. They need to test the patch fixes the problem.

3. They need to confirm it doesn't affect the operation of the system adversely.

4. They need to confirm it doesn't introduce more bugs.

5. They need to package it, and submit the patch and installer for regression testing.

etc.

This actually takes some time, no matter how many people you throw at it.

@AC 04:31

Do you actually know what the purpose of a development beta is? God, imagine a dev beta release having things missing/not working, I'm shocked!

Can you get your mum to read through your posts before you make them please? I'm sure she could help you out with the basic concepts.

Not just Wales

Seems like they may have tried this in Scotland too...

judging by the group "ABERDEEN IS NOT IN ENGLAND!" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=80236509770&ref=search)

Hmm

I always thought that ISP's don't like P2P, it consumes a lot of bandwidth, which ultimately the ISP\s have to pay for.

Is the argument that people only join ISP's to download wares, hence ISP's are making revenue on people who otherwise wouldn't be on the internet (obviously they're not there for the other wonderful uses of the internet, Facebook, porn, email, wikipedia and myspace ;)?

I think the logic here is somewhat flawed, much like the argument that someone downloading an album they wouldn't buy is costing the record company money (there is still however a morality argument to be had for sure, and the fact that by downloading from p2p, they are perhaps facilitating someone who may have paid for it to download it that little bit faster). While it's dangerous to make assumptions, and generalisations. I'm sure ISP's would like to not pay for p2p traffic and people pay for internet connections for things other than wares.

@anon 17:05

Yes, so I can _use_ my computer, rather than spend all my time keeping it running. I'm not knocking Linux, I still run it, but there comes a time when you just want something that will work out of the box (I still like playing, but I have work to do as well!). Of course that makes me a "sheeple" (aren't you following the heard by saying that ;) ?).

What does the fact that at home I run XP, Linux (Ubuntu and Lineo), OSX, Solaris, Irix and NeXTStep, does that make me a someone following the herd too? You might notice that with the exception of Linux and XP, most of the other systems I run are manufactured by people who make the hardware and the OS (Sun, SGI, Apple and NeXT). I really don't see this as a bad thing. Again, not knocking Linux, but most of the real computers I end up using at work that don't run windows or linux generally run on a hardware and OS from a single vendor. It's how the big boys do things ;), and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

I have a choice of hardware as well, cause believe it or not, other people make hardware for Apple systems, at anyrate, this is straying off topic, I use a multitude of OS's, for fun and profit, so despite your "trendy, cool to slag off Apple" post, I feel it's likely I have used considerably more OS's than most (many that most people wouldn't have heard of), and I make my choice on other metrics than following the herd thanks.

No Comment

Unfortunately this is the norm for Apple. I like their products, I just hate the way the go quiet whenever there is an issue (like the AEBS disk sharing issue they had for a long time, or the keyboard freezing with MacBook Pro's).

Still wouldn't want to go back to using any other OS as my main machine though, when it works (which to be fair is most of the time) it's far better Windows (by a long shot), and it's less hassle than Linux to maintain with newer hardware (I've had too much hassle running linux on brand new kit and discovering what's supported, and what's not :( ).

Just wish they'd be more open when they are issues... is the litigation culture really that bad?

Pah

The Sony book store is US only. The UK is served by their tie in with Waterstones. Can anyone see them give away free books (considering their ebooks are often more expensive than hardback equivalents!).

I bought a Sony reader for the other half, and now buy all books for it from fictionwise.

Looks ugly!

Doesn't look very nice (IMHO), I'd rather have something that looks like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8utqgS7es7k

Much cooler (though seems to be yet another electric vehicle that never makes it to the production line :( ).

Just have to stick with my trusty Sinclair C5 for just now.

Good Luck!

I hope they succeed, if just to see Mr Clarkson having to report on it after the Beebs more than dodgy reporting on the Tesla! The fastest production car being an EV, he'd love that!

They only look young.

I remember in an episode (behind the laughter or something like that) it is revealed the children are given drugs to keep there youthful looks. Homer says something along the lines that "it would be impossible to get all 4 age reduction drugs into their breakfast every morning..." (in a manner which leaves even a judge viewing the clip to realize they are being drugged!).

Based on the shows own canon they are not kids!

@Rich Bryant

Nah, doesn't sound like there will be enough power for flashing on the bathroom wall.

@ Daniel

Sorta like a Dalek then? Cool....

Personally, I'll stick to my good old fashion Sinclair C5 (It hasn't got good brakes

either, but it does have lights...).

Another interpretation

"Mac users fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users, yet far fewer of them protect themselves with an anti-phishing toolbar. To make matters worse, the browser of choice for most Mac users, Apple’s Safari, has no phishing protection. We think it should," Consumer Reports said.

So, Wintards, who have a plethora of these toolbars are just as likely to be scammed as Mactards who, by default don't (same rate of scamming).

So are they saying these toolbars do feck all?

I think that soundbite might need some re-wording. :)

Well, they'll let him out Tomorrow

It is sysadmins appreciation day after-all (http://www.sysadminday.com/).

High noon comes and goes

The promised 12 o'clock activation has come and gone, I got a phone call just before 12, saying it may take another 24 hours!

O2 flatly refused any compensation saying "Technically you're not a customer yet, so we won't be compensating you."

Weasely words of the incompetent.

Latest I heard

I called this morning and was told they had set a deadline of 12 today (Tuesday), and all phones would be active by then... I'm not holding my breath though, as I've lost count of the number of lies O2 has told me already (yes, it'll be active in 72hrs/Today, yes we'll call you back by .... ). How many lies can a company seriously expect to tell new customers!?!? And the absolutely incredulous tone I was met with by customer "care" when I asked about compensation!

Still, I expect it'll be working... by next month... maybe...

they lied

I got a similar email saying that for security reasons it could not be delivered... To there own store! Obviously they are insecure, so we can only assume no-one should give them credit card, or any other personal information.

Lying scum.

10-20 phones per shop

The Carphone Whorehouse I went into today told me they are only receiving 15 phones come Friday (that's one in the centre of London, so I'd imagine people will be disappointed). It did make me wonder if, after the less than stellar reaction to the original iPhone launch, Apple were trying to artificially great a demand... Lot's of people complaining no 3g iPhone==Lots of publicity (and apparently even the bad stuff is seen as good by these marketing types).

Out in sympathy?

That'll be why the Docklands Light Railway (DLR, a Serco operated franchise London's Docklands - http://www.serco.com/markets/transport/news/pressrelease/2006/dlr.asp ) had a major systems failure this morning then...

Did they ask the wrong person to leave?

A new T-Shirt idea...

Let's all get t-shirts made with pictures of 101ml bottles of water!

I'm glad I don't have a phobia of flying!

It seems this tech (_if_ it works) would be great for people who are nervous of flying... Nervous of flying, don't worry, we'll just assume you're a terrorist... feeling better now?

Actually, if your way of dealing with these people is to administer a sedative, it might work. You could even use any spare stock on the inevitable noisy brat a few rows away...

"Free" Texts

Even the so called free texts bundled with most contracts exclude international usage (I remember when texting abroad was the same (free) as the UK :( ).

I'm on holiday at the moment, and I have the choice of "email on ridiculous data roaming charge" or "sms on ridiculous roaming charge". I guess someone is laughing all the way to the bank. Still it heartens me that we can send messages to space for cheaper than we can across Europe...

@AC

As it's already been pointed out, A _lot_ of IT/Computer innovations/inventions came from Europe. Yes, Windows came from the US, keep it, Linux came from Europe, I'd rather us it ;).

Anyway, The Register comes from Europe, so we'll use the European definition of cowboy thanks. I mean, it's not like you yanks can complain about a few misuses of your vocabulary, considering how much you've mangled ours!

@Jango

...or more likely they'll start seeing how crappy OSX is once it needs to run (or more likely crash) on other non-Apple hardware.

Actually, that is a good reason for shelling out the bucks for the half eaten fruit logo right there. The fact that the hardware is approved, and not "whatever I could buy cheap online" _hopefully_ means more stability. It means that Apple _should_ be able to maintain a more stable OS. On this point however, your mileage may vary. :-)

Is it just the end users that can sue?

Surely the owners of websites surfed to by the guinea pigs were also victims of interception? I guess you'd have a hard time proving (unless your logs go back that far), so just to make it easier, can we use the same formula's the recording industry uses to calculate damages to work out how much BT must pay ;-) ?

funny thing is....

Virgin used to advertise their speed in terms of how much music you could download. In fact, still on their about traffic shaping page they say for each package how much you could be affected, e.g.:

"Even if a Broadband Size: XL user has their speed temporarily traffic managed, they can still download over 25,000 music files per day."

(http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html)

I mean ffs, be consistent! I believe they have their own music sharing site, but alas, when I checked it was windoze only.

Oh, and lost can be legal purchased from iTunes, DRM (for your convenience ;) ) 'n' all... again if your box supports it....

Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier, why is his opinion relevant? The man is a senior security guy with a company in bed with Phorm. One would assume, given his position, he was responsible for okaying them! Not someone who's opinion I'd solicit!

Next time

He might realise he Best Buy something before the cops arrive...

@ Paul

I believe Mr Greenwood was referring to Panic Unison (http://www.panic.com/unison/), which is not made by Apple (hence not Apple's crippleware, Panic's crippleware perhaps, but not Apple's). Actually, I think it's not a bad newsreader, I certainly would describe it as crippleware (but I'm not even sure I know what that is, I'd have to guess by the name...). Never seen Apple claiming it was theirs. Much like Windows, where other developers (aside from MicroSoft) are allowed to produce and sell software for the OS, the same is true of OSX. If you insist of judging the OS by the quality (or lack of) of 3rd party software, you need to wait till day 3 of the competition ;)

@ Mectron

Are you old enough to post here? How can you possibly claim to know what people do when there alone? Grow up. Oh, and for the record, BSD, it stands for Berkley Software Distribution, it's a flavour of unix see (not a distribution)... like System V. Is it free... well some versions of it are, but not all, SunOS was BSD, and commercial, as was NeXTStep, etc, so apple are hardly new there in charging for a BSD based OS. Might as well say that Windows users are dumb for paying when they could use reactos. In fact they pay considerably more than these Mac users you like to slag off for their OS, 200+quid saved on the OS cost.. based on prices today on amazon.co.uk ...

Mac not perfect. Windows not perfect. Linux not perfect (seeing a patern here?). Be responsible, make sure you use firewalls (hardware and software), think before you click/download, etc.

One final point... Think on this: they guy that won... he was a smart guy. Hacked the iPhone as well according to the blurb. Is a respected security expert. What else does it say about him in the article: "As a Mac user, he added, he felt...". Oh, he's a smart guy, a security expert, probably knows a hell of a lot more than most of the posters here on the subject of security, and what computer does he choose to use...

To be fair

To all those saying how the Vista and Ubuntu are still running, just remember they still likely have exploits, just that by the rules of the competition you can't use known ones (and in the interests of balance, OS-X has known exploits too...). I think what we should be taking away from this, rather than a "My penis is longer than yours" debate, is that things like firewalls are a good thing. That as IT professionals, we should not rely on the security of any single piece of kit (this includes firewalls), but take a holistic approach.

Don't fall into the Mac fanboi trap of claiming your unhackable, just limit your exposure.

For the record, I'm an OS/X, Windows (XP), Linux (Fedora/Lineo), Solaris (2.8/10), irix (6.2 iirc) and NeXTStep (And in the past VMS, RT11 and NetBSD) user at home... And I don't trust any of them to be secure... I don't trust my firewalls either (hardware and software), but I believe I've done what I can, which is what we all should do. Anyone who believes the inbuilt security on their OS is enough is an idiot (IMHO).

@ xSc0de

I have to agree with MARCO, Firefox's "update in the background without permission" is much worse! On my laptop, when I'm not at home, I pay a premium for data transfer. I don't want to download large updates when I'm on a premium rate service, I'd much rather wait till I get home to my "all you can eat" (within our

FUP... but that's another rant) wired service. What with the ridiculous international roaming costs on 3g (yet another rant!), how much would an unasked for firefox upgrade cost an unsuspecting traveller (oh my network connections a bit slow... the internet must be slower in this country ;-) ).?

To be fair

Complaining it's only for apple does seem a bit unfair. A hell of a lot of product SDK's are initially only released under Windows, with Linux, OsX, etc coming later (if you are lucky, or some kind souls release a community version). It does seem to be the standard way for SDK's on new products.

I'm a little concerned about the whole pricing thing, sure, that's a real thing to bitch about, but (and I know this is in vain), please try not to bitch about apple because it's an easy target, and stick to the facts :)

@everyone say "but phone x has this"

Are you sure the companies manufacturing phone x haven't paid to use this patent?

Ok, I'll admit it's unlikely, and that it's a stupid patent... but where is the evidence that Nokia, Motorola et al. are not paying to use this "idea" (in the very loosest sense of the word!).