* Posts by PReDiToR

33 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Mar 2008

Got a Netgear router from Virgin Media? Change your admin password NOW

PReDiToR

I just had one fitted.

The thing has a massive "put me into modem only mode" button right in your face.

Having your own router is something that geeks tell their mums and coworkers all the time along with "don't use Vista" and "don't use your AOL email account anymore" isn't it?

Only jailbroken iPhones, iPads can be safe from latest vuln

PReDiToR
Go

For those of us ...

Who aren't mindless of the risks, rooting your Android and jailbreaking your iDevice make them a whole ton nicer to use. In fact I consider it essential.

But if you act like an AOL user with Outlook Express on Windows Me you're going to get a pox.

Dodgy cracked apps and security holes like leaving the SSH password set to "alpine" aren't new problems, we've been trying to educate lusers for years. This is just another arena where we can play carefully with stuff that they shouldn't be let loose on.

CyanogenMod 7.0.3 on my ZTE Blade, iOS 4.3.3 with Cydia on my iPhone4.

I'm absolutely delighted with the capabilities and enhancements that rooting and jailbreaking have given my devices over the stock firmwares.

Now, if only someone could get SwiftKey and a microSD reader into the Apple I'd be in heaven.

Archos 70 Android 7in tablet

PReDiToR
FAIL

MOAR RAM!

And who is going to worry about rooted devices with Google's rental service?

You're rooted!

Load up your terminal

mv /usr/bin/su /usr/bin/su.tmp

Watch a movie

mv /usr/bin/su.tmp /usr/bin/su

[or /system/xbin/su or wherever your flavour puts it]

Voila.

Microsoft poised to make biggest ever buy – Skype

PReDiToR
Happy

stun.sipserver.domain

I've got Sipdroid, Linphone and CSipSimple on my Android all working fine behind my NAT router at home and over 3G.

My laptop running Arch Linux connects Linphone, Ekiga and Twinkle behind the same router.

Is it stun.ekiga.net that is missing from your config?

ICO wags finger at York council after data breach

PReDiToR
Headmaster

Slight correction

"York" isn't actually a logistical governement unit, "North Yorkshire County Council" has to give way to "City Of York Council" in matters that pertain to York itself, what with it being a Unitary Authority and all that.

Everyone here loves those smiley little buggers down at Saint Leonard's Place. They really do brighten up our lives with their fair minded decisions and enlightened policies. Ahem.

Virgin Media kills 20Mb broadband service

PReDiToR
FAIL

Phorm

No matter how nice you make your vomit look Virgin, you're still serving us something you've already chewed, swallowed and puked back up with extra bile in it.

Get rid of Phorm and you might just be the most attractive ISP out there. Your prices, traffic shaping and service reliability outweigh your terrible customer service reputation.

Middlesbrough cabbie relieves lad of iPhone

PReDiToR
Stop

Silly sod

Never flag down a Hackney Carriage or call a Private Hire Vehicle without sufficient funds to pay for the journey.

Please guys/gals, put a £20 note in your shoe, bra, locket, keyring, battery compartment or anywhere safe for the end of the night.

Enough money for a kebab/pizza and a cab home.

If you have to break into your shoe to buy a drink you know you're messed up and need to go home rather than have another beer, right?

Adobe (finally) makes it easier to delete Flash cookies

PReDiToR
Thumb Down

I usually

rm -r .adobe/ .macromedia/

And have done with it. Aside from running NoScript, Flashblock and AdBlock Plus that is.

Can't beat redundancy. Make sure nothing gets through and if it does, kill it with fire.

Worthless iPhone 'Wikileaks App' removed from Apple Store

PReDiToR
FAIL

Useless Apps

So all those apps that go to forums, radio stations, read RSS feeds, display pictures on your homescreen (maybe not in the Apple market) are all worthless? What about the fart apps or the hundreds that replicate the functions already available in the phone settings for wifi, bluetooth or data connections?

All these apps should be deleted because they take money from lazy and/or gullible fools?

"A foole and his money be soone at debate: which after with sorow repents him too late" - T. Tusser

"Parted soon; a fool and his money are" - Yoda

Über-zombie cookies give us the fear

PReDiToR
Pint

VMs might be a little overkill

So you have a /home/<user>/bin/<browser> that contains a script to delete /home/<user2> then copy /etc/skel to /home/<user2> and then su - <user2>; run <browser> and then at the end of the script rm -r /home/<user2>.

Nothing gets by that unless it can root your box. If that happens you have more problems than just cookies ...

Facebook Places checks in to UK

PReDiToR
FAIL

PLEASE BURGLE MY HOUSE

I'm currently in Starbucks, using my smartphone. My laptop is at home, my PS3, my desktop machine, the DVR, car keys, and my motorcycle and summer sports car are in the garage.

Here, look through my photos, you can see if you like the colour!

Only ever post stuff you would like to share with your local junkie/car thief/burgler. One of your friends might be friends with them and let them use their computer. I've seen it happen.

Porn and pirates hide Android's money maker

PReDiToR
FAIL

Isn't the answer ...

Stop developing for Android if you don't like it?

Whiny gits.

Home Office unveils new UK passport

PReDiToR
Grenade

I did that after ...

I got that stupid frickin chip in my passport. ZZZip. Nuked it for 5 seconds and killed it.

Getting back in from Tenergrief through Manchester was easy enough (as someone said they put it down to dodgy tech and some guy asking silly questions at the baggage carousel).

Then I needed to go to the US of bastard A.

Replaced the passport with a trip to Liverpool and a large payment, then I was all set.

Shitehawks on their borders still pulled me out of the queue to check laptops, wallets, clothes and even the sniffer machine.

Tinfoil holders is the way forward. Wallets for the CCs and holders for the passports.

Watchdog files complaint over Facebook 'privacy' settings

PReDiToR
FAIL

Lesson is ...

Don't put anything on the internet that you wouldn't want the world to read.

When will people learn?

Users howl as Fedora 12 gives root to unwashed masses

PReDiToR
WTF?

Big step backwards

This is the piss poor type of decision that lead to MS Windows' "everyone runs as root because it's easier". Vista (and Vista++) have just started addressing this issue and Red Hat ('s testing ground) are heading away from it.

Utter stupidity.

Security > Convenience

Facebook status bolsters alibi in armed robbery case

PReDiToR
Coffee/keyboard

Great news for anyone who can use a computer

Now if you can SSH/VPN into a computer you can get away with (probably) murder!

And as the above poster said, a small shell script could do all the work for you.

Steve Ballmer's Windows 7 dance party

PReDiToR
Linux

@VoodooTrucker

Posted to my spybook today -

Windows 7.

http://guffsturdpolish.com/

Come on Microsoft, hit us with another reason to switch to Linux!

Sky News goes free

PReDiToR
Paris Hilton

Murdoch doesn't realise

That we're not going to pay for news. It would be much easier to stop watching it. Who cares about the latest celebrity arse transplant? Oh and someone got killed somewhere doing something? And what, another corrupt official? And a war over oil?

My god, it's full of blather!

SSDD. The news isn't as important to a lot of people as Mr "I must peddle/invent this crap to maintain my business model" would like to believe.

<--- Pointless bint. Because she personifies all those morons' idea of what news is. FAIL.

OpenSUSE defaults to KDE

PReDiToR
Linux

As you say ...

SUSE was always a KDE focused distro. One of the reasons for it being a great way to get "into Linux" was the familiarity for converts from the proprietary OS world.

I started out on SUSE, and still recommend openSUSE to people as a first distro even though I'm a Gentoo guy these days.

Better than *buntu IMHO.

.RPM > .DEB.

People just not that into Blu-ray

PReDiToR
Pirate

Colour me surprised

Make the HiDef DVDs the same price as the already overpriced StandardDef DVDs and you might have a market.

Although, can you actually tell the difference when you're watching it on a screen that isn't as clear as a CRT even?

Watching the telescreen isn't about wanting it to be as good as looking out the window, the content is supposed to be immersive by way of story and acting I thought.

The way films are these days I'm surprised anyone bothers with DVD collections.

Disney, Sony and others have crapped all over the DVD formats for years with DRM and now they can't shift the things.

I own a PS3 but there is no way I'm shelling out for HiDef DVDs. I'm perfectly happy downloading films to see if they are any good (I usually go for the 6-800MB version) then if I like them, go to the pictures. If they aren't worth the £9,000 that a cinema ticket costs these days I'll consider a rental but mostly I just wait for them to turn up on the TV and get played ad nauseum.

Worm breeds botnet from home routers, modems

PReDiToR
Alert

How novel

An attack vector that takes advantage of weak passwords? Who would have thought it?

SRSLY. When will people learn that "password" is not the same as "Pa$sW0rD, is ... $eCuRe" ?

Password Hasher (Firefox extension) makes seriously strong passwords. Up to 26 characters. Put "router" in as the site tag, your own unsalted phrase and out the other end you get a magnificent password that you don't actually have to remember; you can always recreate it from the two pieces of information you know.

Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook

PReDiToR
Linux

I know this is Asus policy, but ...

The whole point of getting a Linux netbook is not that Ubuntu is only a download away, it is that we're buying hardware without the Microsoft tax. I got a 701 when they first came out because it didn't have MS's software on it. I wanted to support a large company that was brave enough to jeopardise their relationship with the big red.

Do people remember that buying anything with MS software pre-installed costs them more money?

I know this marks me out as a "freetard" and that El Reg doesn't usually fall on the side of Free Operating Systems, but come on, this article forgets that if you buy this computer and then download Ubuntu (or any other OS) you're just setting fire to a four drink beer voucher at least.

Neil Young posts angry YouTube missive

PReDiToR

Why use YouTube for music ...

when Muzu.tv has better quality and you don't have all those rotten parodies jumbled up in the searches?

Buffer overflow bug bites Linux wireless component

PReDiToR

Or don't.

Just to clarify, you only need ndiswrapper if your card drivers are binary only, wrapped up drivers from other operating systems.

Let this be the jump off point for all Linux users doomed to binary-only drivers to shout at their NIC manufacturers (hey Broadcom, we're looking at you especially) to open their specs and let the community code better, more stable drivers, free of charge.

The GPL will create assurances that these drivers could be ported over to the leading brand OS with minimal effort.

More dodgy phone-ins cost BBC £400,000

PReDiToR
Alien

Stupidity knows no bounds

These phone-ins need to be banned.

They already have to instigate a limit on the number of times a single number can call up to vote on crap like "cum dancing" because a whole load of people in lower income brackets are spending major amounts of money on voting, leading to an even lower standard of living for them.

This abuse of the peasantry could only be worse if it was performed by the government in the name of taxation.

Ban this and raise the TV licence fee so that people can choose not to have a frigging TV, let them go out and talk to real people, communicate with each other and learn about the world they (purportedly) live in, rather than the media sanitised version of reality that exists on the idiot box.

Not only would this raise the level of education about the UK, it would also help quell the rise of chav culture by having more decent people with social standards on the street to set an example of behaviour for these degenerates.

Ignore me, I believe in Utopia.

UK and US agree biometric heavily vetted trusted traveller deal

PReDiToR
Stop

You know what this is ...

It isn't that far out to believe that this is the thin end of the wedge that will require us all to have this as mandatory ID. Once it is established that this form of ID is the new Portman proof of age, driving licence and passport all rolled into one, nearly everyone will think they need one to make their life easier. By the time a few million people have them the MPs won't have a lot of privacy concerns left to vote against a Bill to make them law.

My passport says:

"Her Britannic Majesty's

Secretary of State

Requests and requires in the

Name of Her Majesty

all those whom it may concern

to allow the bearer to pass freely

without let or hindrance,

and to offer the bearer

such assistance and protection

as may be necessary"

How do TSA and CBP fulfill that request?

Shouldn't either Liz herself, or the SecState be having a little word with those people who do exactly the opposite of her request?

OpenSUSE 11 a redemptive OS with a Mactastic shine

PReDiToR
Thumb Up

Thank you

Wow, for a site that likes to call us open sauce weenies and freetards, I was rather pleased to see this fair, interesting and unbiased review of the operating system that I will be installing tomorrow when it is released. I'm on 10.3 now.

Can we have more articles that don't treat us like scum-sucking bottom feeders? After all, we're not journalists ...

I read El Reg daily, but I imagine a lot of people don't because of the bias of most of the contributors against FOSS.

Phorm in phormulaic logo phorm storm

PReDiToR
Thumb Down

Nissan Computers

Nissan Computers vs Nissan Motors

http://www.nissan.com/Digest/The_Story.php

Not the first time someone big has tried to steal the little guy's logo/name.

This has been going on just about forever.

Sky One to resurrect Blake's 7?

PReDiToR
Thumb Up

Avon calling

I thought Paul Darrow owned the rights to B7 these days?

Further, I also believe that this has been his intent since acquiring them; to put it back on the TV and wipe the floor with Star Trek (which shouldn't be hard considering how weak Enterprise is).

Phorm admits 'over zealous' editing of Wikipedia article

PReDiToR

Don't you delete my article!

That's why I had to make the damn page.

The last one Had been deleted under the advert guideline, I wrote it in on the Talk page. If they keep doing this, the article will never stay up.

Use the Talk, Luke! Let the admins know that it isn't right to delete it.

Majority of NHSmail accounts are inactive

PReDiToR
IT Angle

Are these actually unused?

There has been a lot of Gerrymandering with the PCTs and mergers between different departments under the continued remastering of the whole Health Service. Everyone getting their old job as their new job, but working for a different part of the business and getting a new email address to boot. This means that millions of emails have to be received at the new address that were sent to the old address for continuity of support and communication. Why bother using the new fangled address when all your email is available in the old mailbox and your stationary and cards (not to mention the building you work in and the posters on the wall there) still have the old details on?

And what mother-of-satan did the deal with MS that led to the problem with this system being the death-knell for email that is the Outlook 2GB PST bug? Try reading this week's email crop when reams of useless jibber-jabber is archived from over 10 years ago. People stay in the NHS for life (if they like working for them) and some of those consultations and mails could save your arse one of these days, you don't want to delete them. Try asking IT to dump them onto a DVD to take home ... Can't do that, this could be sensitive customer data. I'll keep it at work then? No, I don't have an office, I hotdesk when I need a computer to work at. Give me NHS login over VPN from home so that I don't have to spend an hour looking for a desk to work at? Sorry, we can't do that until our IT contract is signed for the time it would take to install that ability in your area.

NHS IT is wank. There is no other way to say it.

Half the people using this system are people-people and have no clue what the inter-tubes do, the other half are too busy navigating the FUBAR mess just to do their jobs. Who has the time to explain the question "what do you need from IT" before interpreting their answer?

Committees decide who to contract to without taking into account the needs of their staff, based on advice from the bean counters.

SP1 drops, iPlayer falls over and Phorm is less than legal

PReDiToR
Alert

RE Phorm

Of course the .GOV wants Phorm; BigBrother needs to know what you're looking at without having all the hassles of asking a judge for a wiretap, either before or during the investigation. Phorm data will be available after the event, and for up to 5 years, if other records-keeping laws are anything to go by.

BBC races away with five-year F1 rights deal

PReDiToR
Happy

No more ads!

And those awful titles that ITV brought in a couple of years back.

I always think of the "back from the break" tune as 3 blind mice.

The mute button is your friend.