* Posts by Armando 123

1116 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Aug 2011

Apple requires Mac App Store candidates to be sandboxed

Armando 123
Mushroom

Good point, because the Windows security model has been SO much better ...

Americans' right to hang fake balls on trucks left dangling

Armando 123

Meh

I once owned a pickup truck -- useful if you go hunting and fishing, which I no longer do, or if you own a house, which I do. However, I never put fake plums on it.

Personally, I think these people are idiots but I'd prefer to see them with these things if they desire to have them. I makes it easier for us to spot the kind of drivers who would do this, just like a Korean car makes it easier to spot the kind of driver who knows nothing about driving.

Armando 123

which explains smart cars ...

Apple was OK to fire man for private Facebook comments

Armando 123

Maybe not gross misconduct, but five will get you ten that this person was one of the more troublesome employees for that boss. It's very difficult to flat-out fire people these days, lawsuits being what they are, so often layoffs can act as a way to clear out people with much lower threat of legal action.

Armando 123

OTOH

This says nothing about FORMER employers ...

In fact, if I told you about one particular former boss being an incompetent Ivy League with the social skills of a honey badger and all the classic behavior of a poorly-endowed prison b*tch, my former employers could do nothing about it. The former boss, OTOH, could sue, but the moment he took the stand I'd be proven right. In fact, if you talk to former coworkers, you could quickly find out just which company and which boss I'm talking about.

I've generally liked my bosses -- it's part of how I weigh job offers -- but that one ...

Armando 123

And probably works in education or at a newspaper. Assuming anyone actually WORKS at a newspaper, ifyaknowwhatImean

Swiss boffins produce working cloth made of GOLD

Armando 123

Gold plated diapers? Great, the new latest status symbol in Hollywood.

India uncloaks new thorium nuke plants

Armando 123

"the Thorium cycle cannot be weaponized."

At the moment. Heck, trees can be weaponized, come to that.

Beeb measures Blighty in doormats

Armando 123

So what's the problum?

Airline strikes, unions outraged

Armando 123
Pint

Please disregard the part after the ellipsis. Apparently I'd had a Liquid Lunch, possibly a Liquid Breakfast as well.

Armando 123

Possibly, but perhaps it could be argued that the union was killing the company and that it HAD to be broken for the company to compete. Whether that's true or not I can't say, but I would but the lawyers would find evidence to support it ... just as the union lawyers would find a way to disprove it, of course.

Armando 123

"He's American (or illiterate): he thinks unions = communism."

Right, because as an American who grew up in a union town back when , I know that unions = fascism.

Seriously, this was back in the 70s when things were ... very similar to today, come to think of it. I remember my dad's union went on strike for nine months and finally agree to a raise of five cents an hour. And they only agreed then because the company made things for the military and supplies were getting low. And about half of the strikes we had to endure back then were union-union strikes. Another union, run by a different mob family, kept trying to muscle in.

Armando 123

Oh please

"Th unions for months now have been complaining, saying they want guaranteed jobs for life, plus pay rises."

Ridiculous! Just who do they think they are, incompetent education administrators?

HP systems group honcho bails after Meg flip-flops

Armando 123
Coat

You know what they say

When the ship is sinking, follow the rats.

Safe as Windows: Smartphones' security nightmare

Armando 123
Windows

Correction

"Unless you're on AT&T, of course, with its penchant for dropping calls."

No, they have a TALENT for dropping calls.

OpenBSD 5.0 reveals MAD-themed release

Armando 123

Apple runs a variation on the Mach microkernel (which can't really be called a microkernel at this point) with a BSD userland wrapper/layer/coating/etc around it.

And yes, this is not entirely accurate, but good enough for Punch.

Biden: The internet ain't broke, let's not fix it

Armando 123
Black Helicopters

That's a change

"if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

Odd, politicians usually take the view "if it ain't broke, we can fix that!"

The Silicon Valley mirror-tocracy

Armando 123

Oddly enough

"These things aren't going to sell well in Indonesia. Or Indiana."

Funny you should say that. More traditional companies -- retail, insurance, restaurants, etc -- will often try new products and services in places like Indiana or Iowa before rolling out nationwide. So however and wherever they come up with an idea, they test before doing a big national rollout. I wonder if Silicon Valley could learn from this, though obviously a web service is a bit different.

UK.gov threatens to 'pull plug' on smart meter rollout

Armando 123
Thumb Up

Would you believe we need to use the Cone of Silence?

The Register Guide on how to stay anonymous (part 1)

Armando 123
Black Helicopters

Huhr

"Because of a peculiarity of how the Chrome AdBlock works, you need to tweak it to protect yourself from tracking."

Wait, something for Chrome (by Google) has to be fiddled with to protect your anonymity and keep people from tracking your web habits? I am shocked, *SHOCKED* I say, to read this.

Blogger freaks after airport lackey fondles checked-in vibrator

Armando 123
Devil

Huh

"a New York-based lawyer and blogger"

And my sympathy meter is now wedged firmly at 0.

All seriousness aside, a friend once played a joke on an unsuspecting (and unliked) roommate by sneaking an aluminum foil-wrapped dildo into her carry-on bag. Those wild, carefree days seem to be forever gone, alas.

BioWare Baldur's Gate

Armando 123
Windows

You know

Just last night we were talking about new computers and I was wondering what we would then do with that ten-year-old G4 iMac that is still in good shape. Now I know what to do. Baldur's Gate! Baldur's Gate II! Neverwinter Nights! Civilization III! Etc etc etc.

All the better, really, if the computer is "old and slow and uncool and NGKH, Dad!", as now *I'll* get a chance to play a game or two ...

Armando 123
Thumb Up

Good ol BG!

I loved this and BGII. Fantastic gaming for the day (still holds up surprisingly well), great plots and subplots, good graphics, and good NPC characters. Speaking of which, how in the name of all that is holy could you have a Baldur's Gate review and not mention Minsc and Boo?!?!

"Butts will be kicked liberally! Right, Boo?"

*squeak*!

Asus eyes Android, Windows 8 tablets in 2012

Armando 123

Excuse me?

"Thanksgiving gift-buying time in the US"

Americans do not give gifts at Thanksgiving, they give family members a reminder why they haven't seen each other in months.

China responds to satellite hack charge: 'Nuh-uh!'

Armando 123
Windows

Well, that's that then

Because heaven knows a communist dictatorship run by a grasping cabal with a deplorable history with respect to human rights would never do ANYTHING that would be deemed immoral, illegal, or foolish.

But enough about the Detroit city council ...

Canada founded on 'relentless pursuit of beaver'

Armando 123
Pint

Another image

"conjures an image of Silvio Berlusconi furiously paddling a kayak through white water rapids in pursuit of a fleeing supermodel."

Or an average Tuesday night in the Clinton White House.

Pete Townshend condemns Apple as 'digital vampire'

Armando 123
Devil

"He's been an irrelevance since the sixties." That is utter crap! "Who's Next", one of the great rock albums of all times, came out in 1971.

So there. Nyeh.

Android 'stands on Microsoft's shoulders', says MS lawyer

Armando 123

A minor point, but over at http://www.apple-history.com/ they have information on the Xerox/Apple/GUI thing, with accounts by Frank Ludolph, who worked at Xerox then worked on the Apple Lisa desktop. Xerox got there first, but Apple was working on a GUI as well and a lot of the shared ideas probably go back in time to another person/entity/etc. Bruce Horn's account (http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gui_horn1) is interesting, as is Jeff Raskin's response and corrections.

Armando 123
Windows

I disagree with this most strongly and will fight your claim that MS dropped the ball years ago! They never had a ball to drop ...

Armando 123
Coat

Well, ...

"Microsoft? Efficiency of the OS? I never thought I would ever see these two phrases in the same sentence!"

I've seen them together before, connected with "NOT"

Stallman: Did I say Jobs was evil? I meant really evil

Armando 123

@Rovindi

"Can someone decompile that for me? "

Sorry, it made cucumber crash.

Armando 123

@Giles Jones

"Just like socialists speak the truth too, we probably should spend less time working and more time enjoying life. Except it is pretty unworkable in reality."

Partly because more than half our money goes to taxes to fund socialism.

Demand for Ruby, Hadoop and HTML5 rockets, C devs still best paid

Armando 123
Pint

Seriously? Those are the salaries?

£80k for the top listing and £57k in banking IT? In London? Suddenly life in the Midwest of the US of A is looking quite ducky.

Boss leaves robot in charge of office

Armando 123
Pint

Ya know

... that robot still seems more warm and humane than some of my previous bosses.

Job-seeking university bods panic over incriminating online info

Armando 123

Bit of a problem for me, though.

Sincerely,

Saddam Hitler of Akron

Binned PCs were stuffed with MoD and Sun staffers' privates

Armando 123

No, it's double ROT-13 encryption, sitting over a Pig Latin encoding algorithm.

German boffins BREAK LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS!

Armando 123

And he only understands French, so tell him loudly!

Google exec: 'Corporations ignore human rights'

Armando 123

No, it''s HP's standard policy for anything they do. Honestly, they're about the last chance for employment before you get so incompetent that you get hired into government school bureaucracy.

Apple gets patent for ‘unlock gesture’

Armando 123

As stupid as this is

would people waste time, money, and effort on this if the legal climate were different? I think we're railing against the symptom, not the disease.

Father-of-three attacked teen after Call of Duty jibes

Armando 123

Mere words that would be allowed on the internet cannot describe it. Let's just say I doubt Heaven, because nothing can be better

Armando 123

My hero

Let's face it, 13 year olds probably need a beating, and those who mock older, bigger guys in spite of warnings to stop probably need a life lesson in restraint.

Seriously, who has dealt with teenagers and NOT felt like doinking them in the eyes, like Moe did to Larry and Curly? Hell, I felt like doing this to teenagers when *I* was a teenager.

Alas, our nimminy-pimminy laws, written by bleeding heart lawyers with no grip on reality and no marketable job skills, make this a legal minefield. Also, the concept of "the jerk needed hangin'" doesn't float with most judges these days. Usually I just drink sourmash, light a stogie, and tell the little wankers what it's like to get a b______ from a Polish lingerie model while driving a Maserati at 150MPH on the Nurburgring.

Jaguar recalls over 17,600 X-types in the UK

Armando 123

@kevin 3

"its BRAKES not BREAKS"

If you drive a Toyota, same thing.

Armando 123
Thumb Up

@SuperTim

[STANDING OVATION FROM ALL MY CO-WORKERS, EXCEPT THE GUY WHO DRIVES A Z-4]

Intel, MS destined to remain tablet underdogs

Armando 123

"Do these analysts ever report on how accurate their future predictions turn out to be? Probably not."

I think they do so about as often as politicians and lawyers who advertise (if you'll pardon the redundancy).

Armando 123
Coat

"Anyone who thinks they can predict the future is kidding themselves."

I knew you were going to say that.

US carrier smartphone sales slip

Armando 123

Let's keep in mind

the iPhone 4gs just shipped, so some people were probably waiting for this. Plus, if some people are okay with the phone they have and don't see a replacement worth the cash, why get one? Non-story here.

Apple flat-screen TV rumor rises yet again

Armando 123

Worse, when your babbling idiotic mother-in-law walks into the room as your favorite NFL team starts a two-minute drive down by four, will all her inanity be translated to "UTTER BS" and the whole TV system will only show things involving Simon Cowell and MSNBC?

Just seven solar cars reach Adelaide alive

Armando 123

Y'Know, ...

That's still a higher success rate than you'd get with Hyundais ....

Cable employee admits replacing Superbowl feed with porn

Armando 123

It might have been Patti Porks Pittsburgh, but have you SEEN the women in Pittsburgh? They make Cleveland chicks look HHHHHHOOoooottttttt.

Jobs was 'working on future product day before he died'

Armando 123

Keep in mind that Apple may have more money than the US government, but they've earned it. They create products and service that people want and are willing to pay for. Whereas the US government, like all governments, create things that are either unwanted or would be better done by the private sector. Honestly, if they didn't hold a loaded IRS to your head, would you pay for 85% of this stuff?

Or, to quote the excellent documentary Yes Prime Minister, budgets are not about what's needed, it's about how much you can get and then figuring out what to do with it.