* Posts by Simon

9 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Apr 2007

Microsoft dumped after India PM's emails go AWOL

Simon

Outlook or Outlook Express?

Seems the Indian PMO was using Outlook Express, not Outlook (though El Reg doesnt seem to realise there is a difference).

Considering they obviously dont want to spend any money on IT, moving to an open source email solution is probably not going to fix the underlying issues they have...

Hackintosh maker bites back at Apple

Simon

Lunacy

I dont get Apples attitude...

The difference between Psystar and any MS-based OEM PC manufacturer is that while MS says "yes, buy our software and use it", Apple seems to be saying "yes, buy our software, but we will sue you if you try to use it"...

If Apple changed their minds and moved away from being a hardware supplier to a software development house only (or even opened up their hardware business to allow OEM developers a look-in), they would find that their marketshare would go up significantly...Unfortunately, little Stevie seems unlikely to want to share...

DVD smut malware blights US forces in Iraq

Simon

used to be a 24 hour service

"...a certain hotline during office hours only in DC...used to be a 24 hour service but the investigators assigned to the office were quite literally run off their feet by the huge volume of verifiable valid complaints..."

That'd be about right - Too many complaints, so instead of increasing capacity to deal with them, they restrict the hours complaints can be made...

Intel walks out of OLPC project

Simon

@ Stephen, AJ

That Greenstar article is great :)

"The OLPC machine is not intended for children without food and water."

I understand that and am not talking about children without food and water. I am talking about children that dont have access to basic education. I think the OLPC is an attempt at a shortcut approach to fixing that situation and I honestly dont believe it is going to work.

Looking at the Greenstar article Stephen pointed out shows that kids can indeed learn how to use a computer without becoming literate. However, without that literacy, without being able to communicate ideas in the same language as everyone around them, just how far can that knowledge be taken?

Who is going to employee someone that calls a mouse "a needle"?

It all comes back down to literacy. If you cant communicate what you know in language that everyone else understands, there is nothing legitimate you can do with your knowledge. And as far as I am aware, there are no online courses that teaches you how to read and write.

Simon

How do laptops help the poor?

Seriously, anyone thinking that selling luxury items to the underprivileged is a good idea needs to wake up.

The countries this is aimed at have basic education problems. Providing laptops to children who get less than barely adequate schooling is, IMO, a complete waste of time (If a child cant read or write, what do they do with the machine?).

Countries spending the millions necessary to buy enough machines to actually get any (I understand the minimum order of OLPC machines runs to the 100s of thousands) are probably taking that money out of their near non-existant education budget. How many teachers will no longer be employed because of this?

Ignoring the technical issues, this plan (whilst very catchy and popular) appears to be far from a humanitarian project and simply a way to divert funds better spent elsewhere.

Boeing guards its right to tail employees

Simon

6 of 1, half a dozen of the other...

Where do you draw the line?

Employees have a right to individual freedom and privacy...

Employers have a right to protect their IP and reputation...

I highly doubt Boeing sends out hordes of PI's to randomly follow their employees around, on the off-chance that someone is doing something to damage their business...And if the guy was fired over what the PI found out, then he more than likely signed a document saying that what he was doing is a sackable offence...In which case he can only bemoan the fact that he didnt have the foresight to work out how seriously his employer takes that particular digression...

Personally, I think any surveillance inside the workplace and on company property goes (with the obvious exception of cameras in bathrooms), however following employees around offsite is a bit over the top...People are more likely to be on their best behaviour when they know they may be watched...

Microsoft sells Windows twice

Simon

@ Chip Schweiss

MS havent changed anything on a whim...

It has always been against OEM licence restrictions to on-sell the licence...It has also always been against OEM licence restrictions to move the licence to another machine...Being the most restrictive licencing category, this should not surprise anyone...

What it seems most people have issue with is the fact OEM machines are being sold to businesses with an OEM copy of Windows, which is effectively worth/useless...Removing said copy of Windows is nothing more than a hassle for the OEM, as the machine is still sold for the same amount of money (and still costs the same amount of money to produce), which is the main reason that these machines still ship with OEM licences...

IBM: Dinosaurs were green

Simon

What will IBM Global Asset Recovery Services do with the old machines?

Seems to me that if the old machines are just going to be put into service elsewhere that IBM is really ADDING to global warming with this move...

Of course, if the machines are being dismantled and the components recycled, then good on them...:)

Safari zero-day exploit nets $10,000 prize

Simon

Mac more secure?

"The fact that there are no viruses or trojans for Macs is nothing to do with how many (or few) of them there are in the world. I bet there's more than a few dickwad hackers out there who'd love to rub dirt into smug Mac users faces by creating a virus or trojan, but just can't 'hack' it! (sorry)"

In a very real sense, hacking is about numbers - The bigger the number, the more money can potentially be made...Yes, there probably are "dickwad hackers" who would love to hack Macs and cant because they dont have the know-how...

Unfortunately, its not the "dickwad hackers" you have to worry about, its the professional hackers...And for those people, it makes sense to target the largest population base that you can (you make more money)...

If Apple were serious about proving how secure their OS is, they would setup a honeypot with a real reward...They would also advertise it widely, rather than just have a token act at a conference for the media to report on...However they wont do that, because the amount of effort people would have to put in to learn enough about the system to remotely hack it without input from a user, they're gonna put that knowledge to use to create more exploits in the future, which means Apple will find a lot more exploits coming out and more quickly...

If that happens, they lose just about the only thing they can market their PCs on...