Posts by Barry Rueger110 posts • joined Tuesday 20th February 2007 14:56 GMT
Let's all back up a bout twenty paces and ask ourselves: Does anyone ever believe anything they're told about cellular telephone service?
Maybe life is different in Australia, but in Canada the working assumption is that all cel companies are populated by lying, dishonest, greedy scum. By extension, any claim by anyone that references cellular telephone service is assumed to be pure and unadulterated bullshit.
Every one of you is leaving a long, intertwined trail across the Internet, and if you think no-one else is watching it you're dreaming. It's too late. Unless you can somehow magically undo the last ten or fifteen years of life on the 'net (Usenet anyone?) you've already missed the privacy boat.
Yes, there are things that you can do to maintain some control of how much about you is known to the Inter-Corps, but really as long as you use Google, Facebook. Twitter, or even El Reg, you've already agreed to having really tidy profiles built up that tell more about you than you likely know yourself.
None of this is going to change. Corporations (who fund the politicians that govern us) like this. Governments sure as hell LOVE having that kind of data. And honestly, in terms of day to day ease of use we like it too. We may grumble and complain about privacy, but having our data stored at Amazon or in our browsers is sure handy.
And yes, if the pool of data about you is large enough and deep enough, there's no way government will keep their fingers out of it. We've reached the point where any intelligent person assumed that they're being watched, and behaves accordingly.
The good news, I guess, is that sooner or later someone will develop the privacy/crypto/anon equivalent to Bittorrent, and the more thoughtful among us will be able to hide muchof what we do. Tor is a start sure, but just the beginning I hope.
Sealed seventies construction. Fresh air intake for the entire building is located in the loading dock.
I love the smell of monoxide in the morning. Really helps productivity.
By God, PayPal alone is bad enough, and anyone who has ever had a problem with a PayPal transaction knows the nightmare that can ensue, and the likelihood that you'll eventually abandon all hope and curse them to Hell.
But PayPal running though a cel phone?
Yes kiddies, we've ARRESTED the BIGGEST BADDEST HACKER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!
This from the same people who arrest three guys with four pot plants and breathlessly exclaim that they had a A STREET VALUE OF SEVENTY GAZILLION DOLLARS!
My guess is that the War on Hackers® will be more or less as successful as the War on Drugs® and the War on Terror®.
I'm just damned glad that global warming is a left wing hippie myth. Or at least so all of our North American "leaders" tell me.
Hmm - I guess this means that I'm already here?? Or just that I can't start new topics?
me too! me too!
This nasty, evil bill gave me the kick in the pants to install Tor - wow was THAT easy - and begin investigating other tools that might keep Vic's grubby little hands off my life.
These bastards will pass this bill more or less unchanged, and it's up to each of us to do what we can to protect ourselves.
Methinks some folks didn't get the joke. Besides, you missed this: http://www.femalefirearms.com/
And especially this: http://ow.ly/90Thx Charter Arms Pink Lady Revolver...
If I were RIM I'd be looking at ways to rebuild the corporate and government reliance on their products by building on the existing reputation for security and reliability (outages notwithstanding).
Arguably the attempts to move into the consumer (read: teenaged girls) market is what did them in. They should be selling themselves as a rock solid, secure end-to-end communications tool. That kind of reputation allows for premium pricing and long term buy in by the corporate and government customers that built the company.
Sure, good browsing, a music player, and Angry Birds should also be there, but RIM has to define their own market instead of chasing Apple and Google.
Given the extreme level of corruption, nastiness, greed, and dishonesty that I see in pretty much every government today, and most corporations, I've come to really like Anonymous and related actions.
Mainstream media can't or won't break these stories, and sure as hell the government won't ever tell us the whole truth. Anyone who can drag this information out and provide a public airing is all right by me.
Without Anonymous, Wikileaks et al, we'll just keep sinking further and further into the dark.
"Apple may well have come up with a good way to index and search for TV shows"
I would assume it'll be a choice of iTunes or iTunes. Or perhaps iTunes.
C'mon folks - usually if someone doesn't know how to use a program or OS or website it's not because they're lazy or stupid, it's because they haven't had a particular need to know before.
Music? I've made my way from 45s to 33 1/3 to cassettes, and 8-tracks, and since then through probably a dozen computer programs at least. Choosing a record and plopping it on the turntable was easy and obvious.
Making your way through the interface of iTunes, or Banshee, or Rythmbox is an order of magnitude more complex. My fall back is still Winamp (or the linux variant) not because it's the most feature rich, but because I know it, and can make it do what I want without mucking about with submenus. help files, and "helpful" dreck like Geniuses.
From the website of Toreex, who provided the point of sale software:
"Torex ‘liberates Point of Sale’: Launches browser based POS"
You can't make this stuff up....
http://www.torex.com/global/news/2011/11/kachng
Until they change the EULA. Until they change the hardware. Until you move to a different country (remember iTunes?) Until some content owner complains. Until you die and try to pass your library to your kiddies.
The likelihood that you'll "own" what you buy in perpetuity is nearly zero.
What? That's it? THAT's so objectionable that YouTube pulled it?
My God! It's not like it's Janet Jackson's nipple or something!
(Paris becuase - well, need you ask?)
Oh Lord. people here are up in arms over the introduction of smart electric meters for fear that the radio waves that emanate from the devices will scramble their chromosomes or cause brain tumours or something.
Now you want to put magic electric charging pads into their furniture and cars!!
Until last year I really thought that nothing could replace MS Office for me - LibreOffice has done it. Somehow it seems to be just what OpenOffice never quite managed to be.
Admittedly I'm not doing anything overly complex, but for my Word processing and Spreadsheet uses Libreoffice works great - and thus far has imported all of my MS Office docs with no problems - something that Open office could never do.
I still miss the elegance of Wordperfect 5.1, but am very, very happy with LibreOffice.
OK, maybe I missed a memo, but if NASA can "order the satellite to burn its remaining fuel," couldn't they also order it to push off in some direction out of our gravity pool?
Not for technology, but for figuring out how to market household appliances in the same fashion as German luxury cars. Bloody genius that!
Wow. Just wow. After fighting with the clutter of Expedia or Travelocity over the years, Google does it again. So simple, so fast.
That's why I wound up with Gmail - it was better than what I had been using. That's why I'm really liking Google+ - it's better and easier than Facebook or Twitter.
Google's success isn't just because of monopolization, it's because they generally create products that work very, very well.
(Google - the Paris Hilton of vertical integration)
Nonsense @blodwyn. Here on the North Shore of Vancouver it's routine to have bears wander through the nieghbourhood, and the nearby forests are home to cougars of both the two and four legged varieties.
Being Canadians we don't immediately run out and start shooting varmints. Mostly we learn to understand the critters, keep the garbage securely locked down, and stay indoors until Yogi has passed on though.
Funny that - it's possible to coexist with other creatures.
'Course if you need an AKG to fight off the pack of marauding wolves eating the McDonald's wrappers in your trash can...
Imagine the poor fools at HB Gary. On one hand their brand is now known to hundreds of thousands of people who had never heard of them. What phenomenal publicity they have gained!
Except that it must be embarrassing to be a security company that is shown to be ludicrously insecure.
At this juncture I'd say that everyone above janitor level is flailing about in a panic trying to find something, anything that might have a positive effect on their shrinking client base.
Likely the best thing to be done is to just let them twist in the wind until they file for bankruptcy.
(Paris, coz, like, she was hacked too remember, and had all of HER proprietary data stolen, and like, she cried like a baby too!)
Seems pretty obvious that having no software on CD or DVD eliminates the need for CD/DVD drives on Mac hardware - send 'em the way of the floppy drive. Once you add a solid state hard drive, you've pretty much eliminated ALL moving parts (except possibly a fan).
As far as dial up, do Macs still have modems and phone jacks? I'm not sure that my HP laptop does. Must look.
Considering that the U.S. train system is forty years behind more advanced nations' and that the last supersonic passenger jet was grounded a decade ago, I'd have to conclude that the HuffPo mistress will be the perfect person to run AOL!
"Apple machines - Macs particularly - are notoriously long-lived?"
Not my experience, My three year experiment with a G4 Powerbook surely ended when the hardware just died. And don't even ask about the extremely expensive and notoriously short lived power adapters.
Maybe Macs last longer for most fanbois because of the neoprene and lambswool condoms that are used to protect them from the big bad world.
Interesting to note that during WW1 (aka The War to End All Wars) Berlin, Ontario elected to change their name to Kitchener.
Unlike the town of Swastika which during WW2 (aka, the war that the Americans won :)) said "to hell with that!" and remains thus named to this day.
"During World War II the provincial government sought to change the town's name to Winston in honour of Winston Churchill, but the town refused, insisting that the town had held the name long before the Nazis co-opted the swastika symbol (卐). Residents of Swastika used to tell the story of how the Ontario Department of Highways would erect new signs on the roads at the edge of the town. At night the residents would tear these signs down and put up their own signs proclaiming the town to be "Swastika""
I used to love Motorola phones because they seemed rock solid and durable. That has changed since acquiring a Moto Charm this fall. I actually like the phone, but it has SERIOUS issues.
Like the Milestone above it can barely last one day on a charge. Worse though is its habit of randomly crashing, shutting down entirely, or losing track of it's SIM card and requiring you to log into Motoblur before it will work again. At least one of these happens every day.
And what, exactly, IS Motoblur? I have yet to find anyone who can tell me what it offers that isn't already well done by Android itself. (Especially with Opera Mini, which rocks!)
I'm fully on g-mail now, but resisted for a long time because their interface is, to be blunt, bizarre and arcane, resembling no other e-mail client.
Even now, xx years later, the process of setting up labels and filters is counterintuitive and I'm amazed that it hasn't been streamlined.
How come these paragons of beautiful design always wind up being wrapped in some usually ugly aftermarket plastic packaging? (and yes, I have seen someone using a iPhone inside a ZipLok brand sandwich bag)
Are Apple products really so delicate, or their cases so prone to damage that you can't just use them as purchased?
I've never had a case for a phone, even when working construction - I wouldn't buy something that needed that level of extra protection.
Sorry, but as any mechanically inclined Canadian knows, a screwdriver that lacks Robertson bits is only second rate.
How in God's name could any maker of tech gear "overlook" cut and paste? Has no-one in phone land ever had to copy over a phone number or name?
I don't where people got off on bitching about the Ribbon. I expected to hate it, but very quickly found it to be big improvement on what went before.
I've finally settled into Ubuntu after many, many failed attempts at leaving Windows - it's that good now - but OpenOffice has yet to replace MS Office for me. Open Office is still nowhere as good as MS Office. And on Ubuntu Office runs faster under WINE than it did on Vista. Go figure.
Powerpoint? How can one care strongly about anything that PowerPoint does? Why? It's one of the more drippy, minimally functional apps invented.
There's a reason why at least once of twice a year you hear about some tower rigger making his last climb. Way too much macho, and way too little safety consciousness.
There are regs, and equipment available, but some of these guys just refuse to show an iota of brains.
What impressed me were the climbers in Ottawa, Ontario who would climb the giant CBC (and everyone else) tower in the Gatineau hills. Because they were only allowed to climb when the power levels had been turned down they did it at 3 AM. In February. Wind chill minus 40C.
Did I mention ice? Lots and lots of ice?
Yup, one of the things that has kept me away from Facebook has been the inability to create Powerpoints between status updates and pokes.....
And I thought that Farmville was the most inane thing ever to hit Facebook....
Before I abandoned Apple products after three g4 laptop years, I had two of Apple's power supplies burn out. I replaced them with a non-apple PSU which not only outlasted both of them, but did so at a price that was HALF what Apple charged.
Dunno how it is in the magsafe era, but a few years ago Apple's units were notoriously short-lived and grossly overpriced.
Golly, I'm just glad that the free market system of capitalist competition is so effective at ensuring that the end consumer pays the lowest possible price!
Without The Invisible Hand surely we'd all be paying at least $763 a month for mobile service - BEFORE roaming charges!
(Paris, who can barely afford to use her Sidekick in Paris.)
If the goal is to find a player that an AVERAGE user could use to replace iTunes, it seems silly to suggest anything command-line. Likewise, if you're talking about an AVERAGE user, then codecs have to be installed right off the top. Lecturing them about the evils of MP3 serves no purpose.
On behalf all intelligent Canadians, allow me to apologize. I only wish that judges were allowed to say "Because you're stupid, that's why!"
(Paris, in remembrance of her lost Sidekick)
My first reaction to MS Office 2007 was ACK! Within a day or two though I actually came to really like the "ribbon." For me it just works fine.
Wish I could say the same about Windows 7, which steadfastly insists on changing my keyboard to French (usually in the middle of a sentence), and on which, apparently, it is now impossible to fix the NumLock key into a permanent ON position.
As far as Office pricing, I assumed that everyone knows enough to track down a student priced copy for well under $100. Last time I did so I found it on Amazon.com who neglected ask to actually see my student card.
OOH! I want an IBM Selectric version! What a blissful machine!
(Paris, 'cause she is still sad that she failed secretarial school)
Damn! Now I suppose they'll try to tell us that American, Asian, and European casinos, slot machines, roulette tables, poker games, and craps are all rigged so that the house wins!
Good thing that at least the public lotteries and pull-tabs have odds in my favour!
(Note lucky troll for Bingo!)
Even though Rogers are evil scum (as are the other two cel oligopolies in Canada) I will offer a hearty apology to the rest of the world for wasting your time on idiocy like this.
Besides - I suspect that she's an immigrant from south of the border...
"The clubbing of seal cubs is illegal even in Canada"
The seal hunt is still very much alive in Canada, and given the extreme neo-con government in power, will likely remain so for quite a while.
(http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2008/11/20/seal-hunt-shea.html)
(Paris coz she probably would love a pair of sealskin boots, and prob also like cods tongues!
I, and most people I know, have settled with Google's Chrome browser and are very happy with it. So simple, just does what you want.
Open Office gets installed on every computer I own, but honestly almost never gets used. The Real World runs on MS office, and MS Office file formats. If you want to get real work done, they're your only choice.
I would like to protest the complete lack of references to feminine hygiene products in this discussion thread. It is, isn't it, about the iPad?
Why buy a flashy shiny toy, then wrap it in a protective plastic sleeve to keep it from getting bunged up? Is that utility?
Or worse the guy I saw yesterday operating his iPhone which was sealed in a ZipLock sandwich bag!
Given the number of blinged out Hello Kitty iPhone sleeves that I see, I can't imagine what kind of junk will get wrapped around the iPad.
Rogers customers in Canada are being given the same lame excuse for a lack of updates even to v 1.6. Fortunately this is the standard level of service we expect from cel companies, so no-one is too surprised.
http://www.androidincanada.ca/rogersfido/confirmed-no-android-1-6-for-rogers-htc-dreammagic/
(Paris, coz she's surely an Android. And could use an update.
"Walking wears your knee and ankle joints too ... do you plan on stopping walking?"
Maybe IG is an American, in which case he probably already drives his SUV 150ft* to the gas station to buy his six pack of Bud.
* feet cause the Yanks of course don't "get" that crazy metric stuff.
