* Posts by John

115 publicly visible posts • joined 23 May 2007

Page:

Google book scan plan raises European hackles

John

Er....

"For its part, Google maintains its line on copyright issues that it merely wants to make knowledge more widely available."

They maintain an exclusive right also to books who's author can't be traced..... By who's approval do they get to do that and noone else can ?

Isn't "make knowledge more widely available." what Pirate Bay is in trouble for doing, and PB at least don't have the audacity to try and claim an exclusive right to the shared torrent...

Pirate Bay do no evil </tongueincheek>

Undead deleted photos linger on social networking websites

John
Flame

@Michael...

Proof of the adage that an infinte number of monkeys banging on a typewriter will one day output Shakespeare...

Your the monkey sadly that one the face of it is banging out something intelligent and coherent... Wait... I lied..

Your orginal post about the way disks store images and the way the links worked in the story is complete and utter twaddle, I'm downright surprised that you poke your head back in to the same set of comments with yet another poorly conceived set of ideas..

Well, opinions and arseholes and all that.

UK gov squeezes 'best pricing' pledge from MS

John
Thumb Down

Wow, impressive spin.

Commit to buying microsoft products by the sounds of it for 5years, and sell it as supporting open source... o_O

If I wasn't so annoyed I would be impressed.

Blizzard: Game designers aren't Shakespeare

John

The STV pages quest wasn't so bad.

The pages could be traded which creates some player interaction, it gave me a chance to make a packet buying/reselling them on the AH.

Heck worst STV quest has to be the Ackris Reed quest, the drop rate was utterly abysmal, it was improved 10 fold last year or so, its not bad now at all though.

Sex crime 'lie detector' pilot could prompt wider use

John

Unreliable ?

I was under the impression the polygraph was pretty darned unreliable?

Or am I mistaken ?

John

apparenlty I recall right..

"There is little scientific evidence to support the reliability of polygraphs.[16][17] Despite claims of 90% - 95% reliability, critics charge that rather than a "test", the method amounts to an inherently unstandardizable interrogation technique whose accuracy cannot be established. A 1997 survey of 421 psychologists estimated the test's average accuracy at about 61%, a little better than chance."

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph

Stallman warns open-sourcers on Javascript-browser trap

John
Stop

Most commenters seem to be missing something...

Stallman has traditionally been very forward thinking, I prefer to use open source software, but I don't cut my nose off to spite my face.

Look which way the wind is blowing regarding the browser acting as a thin client with more computing taking place in the cloud (jesus I hate that phrase, but its trendy, lets anticipate what 5years or 10years may bring)... Stallman has perhaps considered which way this is heading and without being aware of it wethe people using these online apps are drifting more heavily back to closed source when there has been a good amount of ground covered making people more aware of open source.

While he is fairly extreme in his views I think he could be bang on the money, more and more applications are being run online, he is dead to rights to point out that we need to be aware of it.

I have suggested a ton of people use Open Office, and you know what they find it works a treat, they didn't need Microsoft Office, being open source aware doesn't have to be something just for beards to do, it benefits everyone.

Put down your pens: Cartoons next on censor block

John

Perfect..

Could someone show me to the door please, this party isn't fun any more and I want to go home... Or get the fuck out of England at least.

This govt is just intent on pissing all over its citizens, isn't there some way we can get rid of them sooner than later, push for a election or something, Peter Sunde for President!

How to backup and restore your netbook

John
Paris Hilton

To clarify

As pointed out with varying levels of politeness above dd should be run from a boot cd/usb stick and not from a live running OS. When I had used it previously it was from a USB stick as that was what I was told to do, the link I posted above didn't state that so I didn't either on this occasion,

I was aware running it on a live system wasn't ideal, but equally I didn't realise it was so diabolically bad as people have suggested. Lesson learned and all that.

This is precisely why I mentioned in my original comment that I don't normally comment on these kinds of guides, I'm not a linux guru nor a journalist.

@Tom ... A little less venom in your replies might be helpful rather than coming over as a complete righteous nob.

Paris because someone needs some love.

John

Alternatively..

Identify the location of your system HD in this example lets use /dev/sda and lets say we plugged in a external USB drive/stick at /media/disk

open a terminal (OMGZ..he said TERMINAL) and enter:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/media/disk/image.img

To restore it ...

dd if=/media/disk/image.img of=/dev/sda

I don't normally comment on guides like these as they are written with a novice in mind, but I do feel that 'dd' can do a far simpler job and really isn't a complicated command to jot down (if you can't remember it). Its also far, far easier than the umpteen menu's covering 4 pages in the article.

A very nice and easy write can be found at:

http://www.backuphowto.info/linux-backup-hard-disk-clone-dd

Quick and simple backups get done, slow, confusing or time consuming ones don't in my experience.

FAST fingers another Cardiff biz over software compliance

John
Thumb Up

Excellent...

Stories like this just make it easier to suggest people use OSS rather than feed into Microsoft coffers and risk getting it wrong when they get raided.

BBC botnet investigation turns hacks into hackers

John

Your Honour....

I only installed that key logging software to survey how many people were using strong passwords and educate them if they weren't.... honestly!

If there isn't at the very least a criminal investigation into what the BBC did then that in itself will be criminal. I am also exceedingly Pro-BBC under normal circumstances too for the record.

Online attackers feed off Norton forum purge

John

Symantec excuse isn't really accurate...

Someone posted asking about pifts.exe, the thread then grew to a couple pages of other people basically saying they had recieved the warning message and asking what it was, all fairly normal and typical..

Symantec then deleted the thread.....

Then people who had posted orginally started making new threads, asking about pifts.exe and why had Symantec deleted a thread asking about, things got worse... /B/chan or whatever they are called then got wind of it and started 'raiding' the forum..

The question though is why did Symantec delete the original question asking what pifts.exe was that had caused the alert message... Once they did that of course everyone grew suspicious. Lots and lots of people have sworn off Norton over this, which isn't a bad thing in itself.. Its a hell of an own goal for Symantec, talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Concerted Linux-netbook effort needed to beat Microsoft

John

Or maybe...

Use the unique way that Linux can be customised to build on the interfaces in the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and maybe the Acer Aspire One interface, these simple interfaces that don't look like a conventional desktop open the market to people who don't want or need a 'proper' laptop or netbook.

I bought a couple Acer Aspires for the wife and I, and the Linpus interface is just perfect for her she didn't need the full capability of the machine, mine however was 'unlocked' in moments and openssh and other tools found there way on to it in minutes. Lets face it, 90% of users only want to IM, browse the web, email and maybe write up homework or letters, a attractive useable interface can sell it, and cheaply if the netbook makers will see sense and get the flipping price back down at least. These things were a success on price, some of them now are the price and 3/4 the size of a laptop.

Use netbooks to target a different audience, I fully expect to get my lad one in a couple years as a 'homework' machine, something small he can get out when needed and nicely sized for kid. Techncal minded folks will get a full blown linux distro or even *spit* XP if they want. Mine now currently sports Ubuntu 8.10 which works fast as hell with XFCE desktop on, smashing :]

Vista to XP 'downgrade' lawsuit revised

John

Ahhh ha....

quote

“Microsoft does not charge or receive any additional royalty if a customer exercises those [downgrade from Vista to XP] rights. Some customers may choose or need to obtain media or installation services from third parties to install the downgrade version."

/quote

Thats where the discrepancy is coming from, MS claim that it will cost nothing except for any install discs that the customer might need to buy. Now I haven't installed Windows for a long time due to being one of those Linux fanboi's , but doesn't the upgrade need a full retail or equivalent disk to install with, it asks for it when you start the upgrade?.... how many PC manufacturers now supply a full disk with their PC, pretty much none I believe (at least of the big manufacturers unless it changed in the last few years), all prefering so called recovery disks/partitions.

Hence customer suddenly needs to buy the disks to partake of the 'free' downgrade, Microsoft of course are fully aware of this and no doubt were at the time of the offer, I suspect it would have been felt to be an obstacle that would help reduce the numbers making use of the downgrade offer. After, the more steps you put in the way the more likely people won't bother.

Someone can politely correct me if I am wrong on this.

Home Office plans to force CCTV on shops and pubs

John

They are going to far...

.. so how do we go about saying so and getting them out ?

They aren't meant to be working for us, but clearly a lot of people do not feel this to be in the our interest at all. Lets show them we have had enough somehow.

Mr. and Mrs. Boring lose Google Street View tilt

John

Hang on a tooting minute

I only vaguely recall this story but Google trespassed down a private driveway snapped 360 degree photographs of the property with the intention of posting on the internet, and yet Google did nothing wrong ?

Odd because if you walk out with an SLR you are instantly a paedo or terrorist and thats without trespassing to carry out your nefarious task.

I need to upgrade my DSLR to a full Google style photo car so the law won't apply to me :]

Abba star slates 'lazy, stingy' Pirate Bay fans

John
Stop

Re: Piracy is not the same as copying.

Quote

Before I start, IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that in this country, the good old United Kingdom of whatever Labour say it is, it is not illegal to create a 'Backup copy' of any recording that you have bought or paid for. That backup copy is not limited by technology.

Therefore, if I have a tape of Aerosmiths album 'Big Ones' (Circa 1991) then it is entirely acceptable under UK law for me to download a copy of this to my PC as a backup.

/Quote

No, no, no and finally no.

The UK has NO provision for you to make a backup copy of anything, be it DVD, CD, vinyl or tape (or anything else), America I believe has under its "Fair Use" provision but we are not in America (While I'm here, America please also note your laws do not apply to other nations)

Hell, under UK copyright law you are NOT even allowed to legally record a TV show, there is not even provision to do that, but it has never stopped the sale of VCR's and more recently DVD recorders.

Good luck to Pirate Bay I wish them luck. I have used them on occasion and they haven't broken any laws from what I have heard of Swedish law so its pretty flipping interesting to see how far this goes, it would appear to be under very heavy pushing from America that this case is proceeding. In fact isn't PB now hosted out of Sweden anyway ?

Its going to be a scary thought to think that even linking to something that *may* be illegal somewhere on the internet might land you in court, despite your website/email etc not containing or hosting the data.

I do use a usenet index site a lot, and I can foresee that if PB don't win there case then those index sites will be held culpable even though they host nothing illegal.

Ok, I went off on one a bit there sorry,

Missed flight woman goes absolutely mental

John
Heart

Re: Ok folks...

I will pass on the biscuit thanks as we are just about to sit down to dinner of beef heart and cheesy mash (all homegrown/reared save the cheese), but thank you :]

I have of course noticed your hands on approach to moderating and 99.9% of the time its very welcome so keep it up,I think it actually helps readers feel a little more involved with when we sometimes get a response on comments from someone at Reg Towers.

/hug

John
Heart

Ok folks...

Jokes about womens hormones are off the table. Apparently ladies with potential oestrogen issues are just not funny.

Kinda funny though, when Sarah flipped out in the comments, I had visions of a middle aged asian lady in El Reg being filmed on a mobile phone as she moderates a certain comments section.

We can ridicule anything else we want as Sarah is ok about that, but for the love of god don't joke about PMS..... Or Tesco's selling beer to kids (apparently the legal dept at El Reg gets uppity about that too)

Group hug before we carry on?

Ps. Sarah, the original comment, I'm pretty sure it was a Joke (no please don't rip me a new one for stating that).. Or maybe I am doing it wrong and I should be going mental when people joke about northerners and take the piss out of me?

PPS. Yes I know this comment will never see the light of day. Oh well.

Icon because we need hugs all around.

Landmark copyright trial against Pirate Bay gets underway

John
Paris Hilton

Re:Pirate or not?

quote:

"Isn't the borrowing a CD the same as downloading? Either way you get to listen to the music and no money goes to the producer of the CD."

....

Yes, which is why the pigopolists have restrictions on the boxes telling you not to lend or resell.. Have you been pirating for so long you don't recall a dvd or cd case ;))

As for me, I download a lot, I also buy a lot. I only have a finite amount of money I can spend on movies and music as I have yet to consider it worthwhile to take out a loan for dvd's.

Most DVD's I have bought are movies I previously downloaded first. If a movie was tripe I don't buy it and have saved myself £10-£15 and I buy something else.

At no point does anyone "lose" a sale as I really won't spend any more than what I do already regardless of if I downloaded or not. What I do have however is a dvd collection of around 300+ titles which I have managed to keep to 90% *great* movies, ones I really like and watch time and again rather than the crap hollywood sometimes shovels out.

The Pirate Bay and its ilk have helped me to make informed buying choices (isn't that what we are told to do?), and as far as I am aware they haven't broken Swedish law have they so wtf are the yanks doing. Lets hope the judge in the case is legit or its all gonna go pete tong.

Paris Hilton as thats a nice download if your stuck for one :]

Amazon pulls Japanese rape simulator from shelves

John
Dead Vulture

You can't buy the kind of advertising.....

....an "outraged" politician gets you.

That title just went from obscure to very probably awesomely well seeded on PB....

And sure enough, after a quick look...

475 seeders with almost 1300 leechers, way to go politician guy, barely anyone would have touched it originally, now everyone will want to cheggit out and see what the fuss is about.

OpenDNS rolls out Conficker tracking, blocking

John

Re: Dear oh dear

Please enlighten me as to what OpenDNS has to do with Phorm ?

Teen accused of 'sinister' Facebook sex extortion plot

John
Thumb Down

The "victims" are going down...

...as appears to be the American way they innocent victims in this case distributed child porn and will no doubt be going on a sex offenders register post haste.

Or at least that is what happened to the kids in the other case that occured a few months ago and was updated recently (which rather worrying took the prosecutors a long time to consider, ponder and otherwise mull before deciding it was be awesome to prosecute them)

Do we next read about a deal where this evil predator is now going to be getting a lesser sentence after doing a deal because of the precedence that appears to be playing out in other case :[

Icon, out of respect for Justice, which died a long time ago..

Windows 7 UAC vuln not a vuln, MS repeats

John
Paris Hilton

Re: A third exploit, with video.

Hey Dopus buddy,

Nice to see you still around hacking away :]

Now convince Jon and Greg to write Directory Opus for Linux, I want to buy it along with a stink load of other people I bet.

Back on topic, would the programs replaced in Program Files run if replaced as if they were original as they are trusted from just being present where they are, or is there a sig/hash check or something similar also

SubBASS

Miliband refuses to release torture documents

John
Paris Hilton

Splitting hairs

I hate politicians and this is a good example why, they split hairs and try to talk around the truth.

Maybe if the UK stood up against the US and its world policing ways we might actually become less of a target and so be doing ourselves a favour. Instead of trying to snuggle up in bed with them which only seems to result in getting a good reaming anyway in the last few decades.

Icon because Paris enjoys a good reaming it seems. and the UK politicians seem to have that in common with her.

Woman jailed for texting while driving

John
Thumb Down

She probably should have got longer.

By the sounds of it she deserves what she got, and possibly more.

I tried finding a number in my phone once before the ban on using them while driving. I decided it was a damned bad idea pretty fast as I didn't want to talk to them more than I wanted to arrive at my destination still very much alive.

Texting that much (20 was it?) while driving as the report suggests is just ludicrous.

Netbooks: A bit popular

John
Linux

Bought the wife a natty pink Aspire One..

and was absolutely bowled over with its performance so much I have just placed an order for one of my own in Ubuntu Brown, both in the 16GB SSD format with 1GB of ram, the extra ram makes a world of difference to the performance.

'Unlocked' the Linpus lite on her's in 5mins of opening the box, mine will be getting the full Fedora 10 experience until Ubuntu gets all the bits working 100%.

Not happy to have been made to buy an XP one but the only Linux ones with the "right" spec have been pink, nowhere has had others for 2weeks and I am now officially bored of waiting.

Ordering mine now as an early b/day present (for June, lol) as I don't want to spend another £100 on the 10" model. Why is it that all these netbooks just get bigger and bigger, do they not realise *why* people are buying them, clue to the manufacturers... they are small!

UK.gov backs ISPs on charging content providers, throttling P2P

John
Thumb Down

Brown out...

Prime Minister Obama in please. The americans are talking sense and you can put that in your diary as its not often that statements comes from my lips.

Did the gov not notice that there is a credit crunch on, and I can't see that getting any better for quiet some time, this £20 a month he mentions, just wtf does he plan we pull it from... Surely not my arse as it is already chafed from the reaming the gov gives me now.

Nothing innovative about stinging your customers for a "new" service they already recieve, thats just the Nu Way

KDE hopes to fill boots with 4.2 release

John
Boffin

@all the "tard" comments By Alex Rose

I've been reading the reg daily since somewhere around 96 or 98, the newsletter part you refer to was prior to that I imagine but I do think it puts me on pretty much equal terms with regards to being a 'regular and long term reader'. The Nu Way of insulting wide tracts of their readership is a fairly new thing, I sure has hell don't recall feeling insulted pre-tard when reading an article.

This trend of randomly adding "tard" to everything has gotten old, and clearly a bunch of folks do feel that refering to linux users as 'freetards' is insulting, I don't presume to make the assumption that they are *all* new readers without a clue to El Reg;s humour.

If its a "joke" then it fails, when a number of your readership obviously "just don't get it" and consider it a personal attack, then its probably time to give it a miss.

Icon because I think I'll need flame proof goggles.

John
Thumb Down

I concur..

Its been happening more frequently, the expansion of 'freetard' to cover the legitimate use of linux rather than those who download copyright material.

I have never liked all the *tard names, its just so, I don't know, juvenile but I tolerated it. however now it has just getting too much. Please, just stop with it. Its old, its not clever and apparently quite a lot of other people (your readers) are in agreement on the subject.

Deviants, perverts, 'weirdos' - who's going down?

John

Silly law

There was already laws to deal with people with some material, I don't really see the need for a new one. Especially one which if my wife and I both decide to get kinky with some bondage or S&M type frolicking that we would be in danger of being prosecuted for taking photographs of. What manner of insanity is that we might legally act out these fantasies but get banged up for taking a photo or video of it to watch at a later date.

Just note that we aren't into this kind of thing, but we are young and who knows what we may enjoy as we mature, I would like to have the option of one day we might choose to try and video these things, without going to jail for it.

Someone once said, I might not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Clearly he hadn't heard of the Nu Labour way of criminalising every single person in England one way or another.

Linux to spend eternity in shadow of 'little blue E'

John

yeah but...

Didn't The Reg report a little while ago that Firefox was now at 20% market share... Oh yes they did:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/05/firefox_market_share_private_browsing/

The gap is slowly closing, lets hope is keeps going.

and in reply to "Agree 100%" by AC @ 13:23

The situation you describe with family that just want to browse, email and write the odd letter. That makes your desktop an ideal candidate for switching to linux. Its folks that are stuck into a rouutine of Adobe software for instance that are hardest to switch, and frankly they aren't worth the trouble of trying to convince. Life is certainly too short for that headache, your situation is perfect however ;)

Scotland's porn laws: Can we talk about this like grown-ups?

John

The movie Taken..

Just watched Taken (flipping great by the way) and there are a couple of scenes with drugged women being mauled by eastern european workers absolutely without consent, as they have been kidnapped and are being forcibly addicted to heroin to make them more compliant in their new life as a sex slave (not a spoiler as its made clear very soon into the movie)

Does the law mean now that it would be illegal to watch that movie, or is it ok to watch it, but any screenshots (still images) of it would be illegal but the movie itself is fine ?

I *think* its the latter, in whch case that is just plain crazy bonkers.

If the movie is ok, and the stills from the movie are ok, then why would other pictures showing an identical scene be less legal...jeez, its madness.

Either way, I'm off to set up Truecrypt with a double container for plausible denial, I don't have much that I think would fall foul of the law to be honest, but if the definations and logic is this flakey I am locking up every single file with so much as a boob on it.

Child porn in the age of teenage 'sexting'

John

Re: Assuming makes an ass of u and me...

@Xander

"Just something I've noticed here, both the author and the comments have jumped to a conclusion that everyone consented. If these were all consenting teens, how come the authorities found out? Who blew the whistle?"

According to the article I posted a link to previously, it was a teacher who confiscated a phone off one of the children and I suspect illegally searched through it, after all what right would a teacher have for going into a childs phone to look at the photographs on it, can we say "Expectation of privacy"

This certainly would appear to be a complete waste of time and money for what should be simply a misjudgement on the girls part. Did Psycho Girl get prosecuted or any others that have previously sent their pics/video over the internets (thats the only one I can think of top of my head), smack them on the wrist and move on, nothing more should be needed, just the embarrasment should be enough of a lesson.

John
Coat

Wait, the boys get..

prosecuted for opening a MMS (text message with media) that would have had no idea of the contents of prior to opening it ??

Someone should suggest those girls send a copy of said photographs to the prosecutor and judge.

And reading on another site: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090114-teens-send-nude-pics-to-one-other-face-kiddie-porn-charges.html

the photographs were discovered by a teacher who confiscated a phone and promptly started rooting through it invading her privacy without any right to do so at all? Surely he should face a charge of some kind for that, one for viewing the "porn" and then get the case thrown out as the images were the result of an 'illegal search'.. this is all assuming there is Justice in law, I can dream right?)

Its an insane case which if it goes to trial will just make America look even more retarded and insane than it does at times already (times being constantly ofc). What will be criminal is essentially destroying these kids lives for an indiscretion and a mistake they should learn from but not be destroyed by.

Icon because its what the prosecutor should be picking up on his way out from being fired.

Raid yields 2800 'illegal' DS games copying kits

John

Clarify please..

Devices used to copy DS carts, or devices used to play copies ?

The vast majority of people with a DS playing rom images e would have the latter, but not the former.

IP addresses in server logs not personal data: Ruling

John
Paris Hilton

I'd like to know..

Oh, so my static IP address that is locked onto my account and subsequently my landline's adsl isn't capable of identifying me personally or my shopping/browsing habits... I was worried for a minute...

Paris because her homemovie making bears a striking resemblance to my browsing habits. (I will download and take a look, or cheggit out .. wonder if anyone will 'get' that ;))

Revo Pico RadioStation DAB+ radio

John

@Tony Hoyle

It also functions as an internet radio through WiFi or wired lan.

Oh, and I don't think £170 for radio *is* great value for money, but that is probably just me out on that particular limb.

Blizzard awarded $6m in WoW bot case

John

Re: Call me melodramatic...

Ian,

They do also ban the user accounts heres a blizzard announcement on the subject:

"In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, we banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms."

Its finally good to see the writer of Glider taken down, some areas in some zones were just impossible to quest in due to bots (Burning Steppes east side for example), you may as well just abandon any quests for that location and move on, it wasn't worth the pain of trying to compete.

To Jay that thought 8million was excessive, no it wasn't, this really was a *good* case for punitive damages as it sens a nice big fat signal to anyone else thinking of writing a similar program, "Don't, or we will take more than you can earn from it.". Yes I feel sorry for him but he knew what he was doing and the grief that his program caused for profit.

Saves players years of hassle from having entire areas and quests unplayable while a court case is built and tried.

Hubble transmissions cease as computer fails

John
Paris Hilton

re: Technical support enquiry

'Before we can continue, can you read me your serial number? It should be on the underside of your space telescope.'

You sir owe me a new keyboard, mine now contains half a gob full of pomegranate herbal tea... well, it doesn't really, but it damned near did, very funny :]

Paris icon, because she can keep hot fluids in her mouth... not entirely my ambition to fully emulate any further than tea I must add.

Today be talk like a pirate day

John
Thumb Down

YArrrrgh....

...and not in a pirate type way..

"We're sure you don't really need reminding,"

Dammit I did need reminding but what use is it when its posted at 4pm, I'm reading this now when I'm at home rather than first thing this morning when I could make good use of it :[

Did the width move for you, darling?

John

Favicon and fixed width *pujke*

The width *is* too conservative there is no question about that from what I see on my screen and others have been saying all week.

I'll repeat a request from earlier in the wek I made that you return to the old favicon please, one or two others are also asking the same, this new one just doesn't make its presence known, the grey on grey really isn't working on the tab bar. If you simply must change, how about using the staff writer icon from the comments, that should stand out nicely (the red button with white vulture)

The other stuff is ok, the Top Stories box is nice, not a bad idea really so good job.

No icon as you don' t have one that suggests "I can live with most changes, but implement my suggestions now dammit, kthnx"

Linux desktop freaks out Ubuntu man

John

He's right ofc.

Not every situation or person is a prime candidate for switching their desktop to linux.

I have several relatives and friends who have gone the linux route and been incredibly happy with how much better their experience of using their PC has become. Conversely I have others who I wouldn't try to suggest they switch, they simply are not suitable either due to being gamers or using specific Windows apps for work and such.

There is little point converting a desktop to Linux if the user is going to become frustrated or unable to work with it, all you did was give someone a bad expereience who won't be as likely to try it in the future when in fact they may have been suitable.

Horses for courses, some people/businesses are better on linux, some on Windows.... I'm not sure about Macs but I guess same must apply.. maybe (only teasing I like the Macs, just I don't own one yet)

Thus passes to C&W

John

Oh Crap II

Been with them a bunch of years now, and yes I'm nudging 40 so I am certainly concerened about future prospects of the service I have enjoyed.

Really stinks as I had only just (6weeks ago) upgraded to one of their buisness line packages for (once more) truly unlimited and quota-less service. Maybe against all expectations and hopes they will keep Demon as a business/prestige brand... I can dream can't I ?

Houston, we have a virus

John

Is this a good defence if you...

... have a Wi-Fi network and you get nobbled for sharing dodgy files, I mean for Pete's sake, if N.A.S.A can't keep their systems secure and clean what chance do the rest of us. Surely it *has* to mean that literally no-one can be legally held responsible for their network and abuses of it when the military and N.A.S.A. can't secure theirs with supposedly highly trained administrators and security specialists.

No snapping: Photographers get collars felt

John

A handy pocket size guide...

The link Alex Threlfall linked above is very good and I too have long since kept a copy of it handy, but a much more pocket friendly 'guide' is this:

http://billythebrain.deviantart.com/art/Photographers-Rights-87482274

A kind soul scanned and uploaded theirs, it was originally supplied by the Association of Freelance Photographers as a guideline to their members. I understand it has been 'approved' by lawyers before it was issued and offers a good 'laymen' guide to what can and can't be done, and has proved useful to others when faced with a jobsworth security guard/police. Though clearly getting bolshy isn't going to help you at all, it can be used to clarify a situation. Thankfully so far I have never had cause to use mine, but I have one print out in the car, one in my jacket and one in my main camera bag. Hopefully the link will prove useful to others as I had a nightmare finding it after hearing about it.

MPs lambast BBFC over Batman

John
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Re: Sensitive kids == poor parenting by Tim

"If a child of 11 cannot deal with this level of violence, I am left quite concerned that they have been victims of over-protective parents."

I am left more than the "quite concerned" that you mention that you consider the film as suitable for 11yr olds, and in fact that they should by the sounds of your tone be watching it to 'ready' themselves for life.... at eleven??

Sweet Jesus I can't actually believe you really meant that, either you are one of the parents I normally just sigh and shake my head at as being clueless, or you haven't yet graced the human race with your progeny and I'm inclined to suggest that you don't.

John

Those blaming parents...

So, the parent is to pay to watch the movie prior to taking their kid to it? The whole point of the classification is to give parents a guideline to base their decisions on, it seems as though the BBFC got it wrong on this one big time.

A parent could well feel their 10 or 11 yr old is mature enough with their company to watch the movie which it sounds is exactly what is happening. Parents ARE parenting in this case, but the BBFC screwed up. Honestly by the sounds of it I wouldn't take my 13 or 14yr old to it given the use of knives and glorifying their use on victims (and yes I know its probably been blow up somewhat but still) let alone a 10yr old even in my company.

If I had been free this weekend I probably would have gone to see it myself, most likely with my wife and kid, by the sounds of it I too would have been vocal about its rating.

Seriously, do we want MORE kids taking a shine to knives, frankly I'm sick of reading about kids with knives as it is. Personally I think the BBFC was probably trying to play devils advocate and not upset anyone by giving it a 15 rating (such as the producers or something)

Ubisoft pirates game fix from pirates

John

@Yay and stuff, but my question is.. by Jon 13:42

They would have been able to decompile it it necessary, back into ASM or something.

As for getting rid of the Reloaded string, a simple Hexedit and overwrite those 8bytes with, Oh I don't know..... "Ubisoft!" would have obfuscated its origins in under 15secs ;)

Seems to me though roughly what you said is right, someone was trying to help the customers where the company he worked for couldn't give a flying fig and release a game update removing the CD check.

Its almost universal that CD/DVD checks inconvenience genuine customers and not the exact customer they are trying to target. I know I sure as hell ran all the games I bought with No-CD fixes!

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