* Posts by jon 72

192 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jun 2009

Page:

US Congress proposal: National Park will be FOUND ON MOON

jon 72
FAIL

Remember..

Territorial claims are not official till somebody plants a flag in the chest of one of the locals

SimCity 3000

jon 72
Happy

Just like to say..

I've been so swayed by the hype I went out and bought a copy. Not the new one but the deluxe edition Sim City 4 from a charity shop for £2. Should keep me going for a few years yet till this new fangled all singing and dancing release turns up in the bargin bin.

Google offers limited data on National Security Letters

jon 72

Re: Google, Info Search or Intel Delivery Engine? .... Simple Virtual Machine or SMARTR Algorithm?

Have you considered de-caf?

Boffin shows pics of germs grown on SPOTTY STUDENTS' MOBES

jon 72
Coat

Freak Brother

Oh god I'm having flashbacks of Fat Freddy's sock fungus

Firefox to spit out third-party cookies

jon 72
Childcatcher

Ghostery != Privacy

" We collect some basic data in server logs, like your web request, the data sent in response to that request, the Internet Protocol address, the browser type, the browser language...." Ghostery Terms of service

Ghostery BTW is not some kids bedroom project funded by goodwill it's owned by a company called Evidon inc.. and their about us page makes interesting reading...

I just don't see how my privacy is protected when a third party is monitoring all my internet traffic.

jon 72
Childcatcher

Cookies are like Pokemon

You gotta get 'em all! - Just saying 'Cookies' is frankly misleading to most of the public.

There's a dozen different techniques for storing data inside a users browser and unless you are amongst the Uber paranoid who has javascript + Flash disabled then your at risk of having your browser footprint profiled for good measure as well. Not as specific as a cookie but often as good enough.

John Sweeney: Why Church of Scientology's gravest threat is the 'net

jon 72
Alien

Re: All you need to know about Scientology....

Scuttlebut is that later that drunken night in the bar night Larry Niven bet that Hubbard could not start a religion and it went from there.

BTW .. I've read Battlefield Earth and found it to be a real joy when compared to his sprawling ten book epic "The Invaders Plan".

Clarkson: 'I WILL find and KILL the spammers who hacked me'

jon 72
Coat

I'm going for the popcorn..

let me know if somebody cracks his email account.

Any storm in a port

jon 72

Re: I used to have the same problem

Sage words but a bit bloody difficult to implement when you're half under a desk in the dark reaching around trying to plug one in the back of a tower.

Eyes in the sky: UK.gov's CCTV code to IGNORE MILLIONS of cameras

jon 72
Terminator

Re: Watchdogs with teeth please

The sharks with lasers are a bit temperamental but there is a nice selection of robotic paintball guns.

Tracy brothers are back: Thunderbirds Are Go! again in 5... 4... 3...

jon 72
Devil

Mumblings of an old fart

Just keep those responsible for Terrahawks abomination as far away as possible.

Bring out your dead: Reg readers reveal filthy, filthy PCs...

jon 72
Boffin

re: Blow don't suck.

Wether you suck or blow don't let the fan on the CPU or graphics card spin up in the airflow, the voltages produced can & often do fry some hardware. Personally I use a dust-buster and 1" soft paintbrush. Newbies of course go for the can of compressed air and bitterly regret launching the subsequent cloud of toxic cr#p.

Sea Launch comsat rocket goes titsup 40 seconds into launch

jon 72
Boffin

Re: why not use a cat's brain in a vat?

Not as daft (or creepy) as it sounds, a few years back somebody had a teaspoon of rat neurons learning how to operate a basic flight simulator.

'Gaia' Lovelock: Wind turbines 'may become like Easter Island statues'

jon 72
Mushroom

Spin This

Give it ten years and the Greens will be clamoring for Fusion power as the only way to save the planet.

PayPal plugs SQL injection hole, tosses $3k to bug-hunter

jon 72

It's not fair..

A talented amateur who finds a hole like this would probably receive a one way ticket to gitmo!

Hackers on anti-Egypt spree bury Egyptology journal in the sand

jon 72
Devil

Re: Not to be outdone

Confusing the Metropolitan Museum of Art site with the infamous "Met Art" web site is an easy mistake for those blinded by religious zeal.

First Google wants to know all about you, now it wants a RING on your finger

jon 72
Windows

Re: Rev 13:16-17 a bit closer?

I don't have any faith in literal translations of that source document but...

The way society is presently organised if you don't have money in the hand you certainly have it on the brain.

Another new asteroid-mining firm: 'First commercial space fleet'

jon 72
Coat

Nothing new

I still take the old MKIII Cobra out to do some asteroid mining when nobody's watching.

Mines the grimy one with the Con Am 27 logo

Making MACH 1: Can we build a cranial computer today?

jon 72
Terminator

Much as I adore the early 2000AD stuff ..

The kudos of first secret agent with own in-body (electronic) computer goes to Colonel Steve Austin from the novel "Cyborg" circa 1972. If you cannot get an old copy then the "Cobra" trilogy by Timothy Zahn (1985-88) is an excellent Mil-Spec reboot of the concept.

Could we do something similar with today's technology? probably... The human brain is an adaptive and resilient organ with several volunteers already sporting basic implants into their audio & visual areas without serious side-effects. Micro-surgery has also come a long way with repairing peripheral nerve bundles so no great leap of faith or technology is required to augment the relatively slow chemical reflexes of the human nervous system with a layer of electronic communication.

Official science: High heels make you sexy

jon 72
Gimp

Fascinating stuff

but where are the results for blokes wearing heels?

Adobe demands 7,000 years a day from humankind

jon 72
Devil

Fess Up

Who here has slipped a joke clause into a Terms & Conditions web page to see if anybody noticed?

Japanese ultrasonic speakers fire out digital info rays

jon 72
Boffin

Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum

Internet Protocol over Xylophone Players (IPoXP)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCT7SisWh38

Ten badass brainy computers from science fiction

jon 72
Terminator

End of line bargin bin (Mostly Harmless)

Talkie Toaster - Red Dwarf

TIM - from "The Tomorrow People" Thames TV circa 1970

BOX - from "Starcops" BBC TV 1987

Small Soldiers - MilSpec AI chips put into toys 1998

PS: @Peter R. 1

The 'Hogfather' was done as a movie a few years back and yes you do get to see HEX in action having a chat with Death.

America planned to NUKE THE MOON

jon 72
Alien

I for one am glad they did not disturb our alien overlords

The post is required, and must contain letters.

Pirate cops bust LITTLE GIRL, take her Winnie-the-Pooh laptop

jon 72

Re: It's the Non-disclosure agreement that's the most worying

Yes disturbing indeed, whatever happened to Innocent until proven guilty?

Hexing MAC address reveals Wifi passwords

jon 72
Pirate

Your home broadband is probably shite because somebody has pwnd it.

As far as domestic routers go only the newer Sky boxes and third generation BT hubs are putting up any resistance in the UK.

Reg boffins blow lid on sheepsecs

jon 72
Boffin

Flawed Research

At sea level the velocity of a vacuum wrapped sheep is limited by the maximum speed of the supermarket truck carrying it.

ID providers signed for Blighty's One Dole To Rule Them All plan

jon 72
Coat

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

What do you mean "possibly" ?, it's a government IT project.

Mines the one with the BuSab id in the pocket.

UK prosecutors, cops ponder new probe into NASA hacker McKinnon

jon 72
Holmes

However you parse the arguement..

those employed to protect the networks demonstrated a level of incompetence far greater than McKinnon did trying to cover his tracks. If you want somebodies head on a chopping block start with the guards who were asleep at their post. Whilst crucifying an amateur investigator serves as an example to deter others but it does not fix the root of the americans problem.

Kick your computer... before it kicks you

jon 72
WTF?

Re: Why get mad at inanimate objects?

Am close to percussive instruction with the staff at a Mac authorised repair outfit in South Wales after they claimed the wife's Macbook that went in for a stuck power button (and would not turn OFF) was 'diagnosed' as a blown motherboard with a £500+ quote to restore her Appley goodness.

Save hefty Dr Who and Bond girl 'Flossie', pleads vintage computer man

jon 72
Terminator

Save Yes, Restore No

Give it a once over with some T-cut and put in the flashing Christmas lights I say.

Something retro for the weekend...

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/time-tunnel-computers-aka-ansf-q7-of-air-force-sage-radar-systems-today/

Hero police robot back on duty after 'unstable man' blasts it with shotgun

jon 72
Mushroom

Well one thing is for sure...

Us fleshy ones need more firepower come the ROTM

Young Frenchwoman desperate for fat pipe tumbles out of window

jon 72
Go

Re: We have all been there...

A 2 liter Coke bottle wrapped in tinfoil also works better than most expect.

The hoarder's dilemma, or 'Why can't I throw anything away?'

jon 72
Coat

Got to be worth a photo competition

The kudos of aging kit finding a home in a museum or a free skip/dumpster for those in dire need..

Not to mention the pure viewing pleasure of mocking some poor fool who has a box of centronics printer leads

Oh wait that's me..

'Hypersensitive' Wi-Fi hater loses case against fiendish DEVICES

jon 72
Black Helicopters

never mind the science..

does the dude wear tinfoil?

Vote NOW for the vilest Bond villain

jon 72
Thumb Up

I accept your reality

Sir Alan Sugar for role of Blofeld

It’s official: Google shrinks the world!

jon 72
Headmaster

Re: Are you anti-European and anti SI?

For future reference come the revolution when the geek shall inherit the Earth does anybody have the names of those responsible for that typographical disaster waiting to happen.

Is lightspeed really a limit?

jon 72
Alien

Imagine what you will know tomorrow

Couple of centuries ago the greatest minds of this planet were absolutely sure that human beings could not survive traveling at speeds of 30mph

eBay frets as right to resell comes under scrutiny

jon 72
Devil

At this rate..

Humming a tune is going to be considered piracy

WoW cities wiped out by 'exploit'

jon 72
Holmes

I suspect Chuck Norris

Genocide aside for moment.. what happened to all the gold?

Astroboffins to search for mega-massive alien power plants

jon 72
Boffin

Re: Reg Standard Units

I propose the MGK (Machine Gun Kelly), the volume of space theoretically occupied by the ego of minor celebrity should be sufficient when describing objects of this size.

Steve Jobs resurfaces in Hong Kong

jon 72
Devil

Behold the miracle!

Fanbois are urged to purchase new trinkets of worship and remain calm, resisting calls for the jihad to exterminate all the disciples of Micro$oft in preparation of his third coming.

Rapper rips up Microsoft's Atlanta store during performance

jon 72
Trollface

Where are the grammar nazis when the're needed?

The use of colourful often vulgar language to convey an imperative or gravitas to statement is not exactly a new concept, who can forget the Duke of Edinburgh's classic “Fuck off or I’ll have you shot.” during his 1976 Hong Kong tour.

IMHO this offering is not swearing but merely the deranged rambling of somebody in dire need of professional help. Good artists use such terms sparingly as spice for the content not as a substitute for content.

Top admen beg Microsoft to switch off 'Do Not Track' in IE 10

jon 72
Devil

Re: Low Down Cookies

The full horror of how far down the rabbit hole goes ...

- Standard HTTP Cookies

- Local Shared Objects (Flash Cookies)

- Silverlight Isolated Storage

- Storing cookies in RGB values of auto-generated, force-cached

PNGs using HTML5 Canvas tag to read pixels (cookies) back out

- Storing cookies in Web History (Browser History sniffing hack -> Now plugged in most new browser versions )

- Storing cookies in HTTP ETags

- Storing cookies in Web cache (CSS & Javascripts dynamically created with unique names)

- window.name caching

- Internet Explorer userData storage

- HTML5 Session Storage

- HTML5 Local Storage

- HTML5 Global Storage

- HTML5 Database Storage via SQLite

HTTP Authentication and Java also have possibilities according to some.

Then you have 'Cloudflare', used by many sites as free caching/ bandwidth boost that's basically Phorm in reverse so instead of the ISP doing the traffic slurping it's grafted onto the sites themselves. Not forgetting the iframes from Social Networking sites.

Liquefied-air silos touted as enormo green 'leccy batteries

jon 72
Coat

Not exactly new

Seem to recall they were toying with this idea in Sweden twenty years ago using salt caverns to store air under pressure during off peak hours. However the portable aspect does have some small merit.

Mines the one with a can of Perri-air in the pocket

Vote now for the ultimate bacon sandwich

jon 72
Windows

Nom and thrice Nom

The ultimate bacon sarnie is achieved when either ...

a: somebody else makes it the way you like

b: the wife does not go all CSI on you with grease & ketchup splatter analysis

c: the dogs don't want half

Everything else is just wishful thinking

Politico's locked room mystery Linux install crime solved

jon 72
Devil

Out of curiosity...

When installing a linux distro does that process actually overwrite all the old data that existed on the disk ?

Made for each other: liquid nitrogen and 1,500 ping-pong balls

jon 72
Devil

Thankyou all for coming..

before you go give us a hand to pick them up!

Hacker uses Kindle as Raspberry Pi screen

jon 72

Impressive

I think he's onto something, a laptop, notebook or tablet style device with a screen that's easily readable under full daylight conditions and uses very little electrical power. Imagine battery life measured in months not hours.

SHOCK: Brainwave readers work as advertised

jon 72
Windows

Re: Next stage of phishing attacks...

Synaptic Leakage from a faulty prosthesis seems even more plausible now.

Page: