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User: Gurp

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Comments · 26

  1. Nothing can go wrong! on Hong Kong Using Children to Hunt for Piracy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ok, so we're going to:

    1) Force children, who no doubt understand teh intarwebs better than those in charge of this, to swear that they will search out piracy
    2) Encourage said children and young adults to spend time searching for movies and warez
    3) Wait for the reports to roll in.

    Whoever thought this up is brilliant. This plan has no flaws. Why didn't my government think of this?

  2. He used two out of three author's names! on Da Vinci Code Author Sued · · Score: 1

    Actually, Dan Brown used two out of three of HBHG's authors names in the character "Leigh Teabing". Didn't you think Teabing was a weird name?

    Richard Leigh
    Michael Baigent

    Leigh + Baigent = Leigh Teabing.

    Poor Henry Lincoln must feel left out.

  3. Re:Google's objective review page on Ebert Gives 'Sith' Positive Review · · Score: 1

    That's pretty hard to take comfort from. Let's compare the results of Google's review aggregator:

    Star Wars I: 3.6/5 (121 reviews)
    Star Wars II: 3.6/5 (235 reviews)
    Star Wars III: 3.9/5 (15 reviews)

    So... it's "only 0.3 better" (I know that makes no sense) than Episodes one or two, and that's based on many, many fewer reviews.

    I have a bad feeling about this.

  4. Same thing in NZ on Fair Use Review in Australia · · Score: 5, Interesting
    New Zealand has more or less the same law - it's illegal to convert music from CD to MP3. Not surprisingly our government is assessing the same ammendment to the law. Not quickly or anything, but they are thinking about it.

    Why not give people the right to format shift, the review panel says, we're all doing it anyway, and everyone assumes it's legal, not to mention that the recording industry is not out of pocket if someone format shifts.

    Also not surprisingly, RIANZ (NZ's RIAA) is opposing it like crazy because of some nonsensical argument about... well... I don't know... the end of the world occurring if someone makes a copy of a CD they already own for personal use.

    Read the government's web pages about it here. The relevant part is under "New Exceptions".

  5. Re:Let the ubiquitous RMS bashing begin... on Stallman Feeds Gates His Own Words · · Score: 1
    Free software is very much like a religion to RMS.

    Absolutely. He's even got a hymn..

    Listen to it and you'll see why I just cannot take the guy seriously.

  6. Re:Consultants with poor skills.... on So You Want To Be A Consultant · · Score: 1

    The funny thing is that the consultants with the poorest technical skills make the most money

    If you're saying what I think you're saying, then you missed the point of the article.

    You're right, but in my experience the lower technical skills are usually backed up by good communication skills. Expect those with good communication to continue to out-earn propellerheads throughout their career. As a rule, the guys who control the checkbooks prefer to have talker than a thinker as "their guy/girl".

    Why?

    No one likes to pay for something they don't understand. You can spend 12 hours a day writing the most elegant piece of code in the world, but unless you come up for air and talk to the guy who you're sending the invoice to, he doesn't know what you're doing and is going to freak out when he gets the invoice. Then he's going to talk to his 17 year old nephew who "knows about computers" who will tell him he could do the same thing in a third the time.

    You might get paid, but you won't get hired again.

    Consulting is about customer management as much as it is about delivery of services.

  7. Re:fast link to full version on Star Wars Episode III Teaser Trailer Today · · Score: 1

    5.0KB/s.

    You're using some new definition of 'very fast' that I wasn't previously aware of.

  8. Re:The Sarlacc on Return of the Jedi DVD Detailed Changes · · Score: 1
    "Here we have a shot of Luke Skywalker standing over the Great Pit of Carkoon, nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc. The creature is basically a gigantic mouth, with rows of inwardly facing teeth and a number of sticky tentacles that it uses to snare unsuspecting prey."

    Oh come on! It looks like an anus! You know it, and I know it!

    Anus?

    Teeth??

    Tentacles???

    And you think it looks like an anus?! Dude, seek medical help. Like, now.

  9. Re:Increased Linecing Fees ??? on Intel And AMD's Dual-Core CPUs Investigated · · Score: 4, Informative
    Oracle's current definition of processor is:

    Processor: shall be defined as all processors where the Oracle programs are installed and/or running. Programs licensed on a Processor basis may be accessed by your internal users (including agents and contractors) and by third party users. For the purposes of counting the number of processors which require licensing, a multicore chip with "n" processor cores shall be counted as "n" processors.

    This is from Oracle's "Licensing Definitions Document," the emphasis is mine. I found it on the partner web site, which I'm pretty sure is inaccessible to the general public.

    Of course, I expect this to change (esp. on Windows) p.d.q. given Microsoft's recent announcement.

  10. Re:The flagship... on D&D Is 30 · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's a certain "aura" around the D&D "lifers" that no video game, regardless of how close to the rules it sticks can ever match.

    A shower could probably deal to it, though.

  11. Re:It's all in the install program... on When Does Usability Become a Liability? · · Score: 2, Informative
    One of the biggest design flaws in Windows from a security perspective is that nearly every service that comes with the system is turned on by default.

    No longer true as of Windows 2003.

    IMO, the biggest flaw is Windows security is the legacy the crappy default file permissions Windows NT has left us with. These had everything R/W to everyone, more or less.

    Applications developers are still writing software that (a) assumes this is still true (only true if the user is an admin) and (b) writes files outside of the user's profile (requiring point (a)).

    Until this is fixed, dumb Windows admins will continue giving people local admin privileges as a matter of course, leaving the door wide open to whatever MalWare happens to arrive in their inbox.

  12. Re:Best IPO in a long while on Gator Files for IPO to Raise $150 Million · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I run nothing but OS X, IRIX and Redhat 9 (soon to be debian) at home and at my colo provider, so anything that makes Windows a nasty experience is A-OK by me.

    Yeah. And AIDS is fine by me, coz I'm in a steady monogamous relationship - hence reasonably safe.

    Honestly, what kind of sorry excuse for a human being are you? Actively wishing pain for other people because they don't share your taste in something as boring as an operating system?

    Congratulations. You've actually made me feel quite depressed about the world.

  13. Re:A bomb? What are you giving him a bomb for? on Always Look on the Bright Side of Life · · Score: 1

    It was Idle that sowed the seed for what became Life of Brian. When asked what the Python's next movie would be, he quiped "Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory".

  14. Supporting WP users on WordPerfect Back From the Wilderness · · Score: 2, Funny

    My mother loved Word Perfecct and was an absolute guru at it. Then her work forced her to change to Word.

    The result? Support calls to me.

    Problem is, she sucks at describing problems. I get phone calls that start with "How do I do Control-Alt-P in Word?"

  15. Re:People don't stand for it on Blockbuster Chief: End DVD Region Codes · · Score: 1

    Update to your post: The NZ govt listened to the NZ Motion Picture Association (NZified MPAA). They've accepted the story that movie piracy is effecting the box office.m Which it isn't, that's going up, even after the cinema's put prices up AGAIN.

    So they passed a new law and outlaws the importation of DVDs for six months after the cinema release of a movie. The exception to this is that importation for private use is allowed due to our parallel importing laws.

    And the public quietly accepted one more liberty being taken away. Again.

    Just like we did the "anti-terrorist" laws that force you to disclose what's on your computer, even if it's encrypted and/or incriminates you, despite the fact that this is against the Bill of Rights (part of which is our equivilent of the 5th Ammendment).

  16. Re:Quarantine Digests on U.S. Spam Law to Take Effect Jan. 1 · · Score: 1
    A socially accepted introduction mechanism which allows us to introduce ourselves to each other only if we have real, working email addresses. (C/R is one way to do this.)

    Socially acceptable to who? To you, that's who.

    Let me tell you, every time I receive a challenge when I send email to a new person, that challenge goes in the bin. No exceptions.

    (The closed-minded are going to be thinking "Fine, I didn't need your email anyway. You obviously aren't worth talking to or didn't have anything important to say." This really just strengthens my point.)

    Why? Because when I receive a challenge, that tells me you had a problem with spam, and your fix was to make it everyone else's problem.

    That to me is not socially acceptable.

  17. Re:Counter-example Typos explained? on Slashback: Card, Fortran, Legibility · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter if the counter example is realistic.

    The original thesis was that the human brain could easily decipher any word where the first and last letters were in place, but the rset of the word was messed up. Typos and regular patterns had nothing to do with it.

    Thesis disproved, in my humble opinion.

  18. Re:Computer Security 101 on Reliance On MS A Danger To National Security · · Score: 2, Informative
    Oh for crying out loud. What a load of crap!

    even though Linux servers are the most attacked/breached or whatever, when mom and pop ISP #1231 gets '0WNZORD', it doesn't cause the gigantic ripple effect of every server on the 'net falling over, unlike a Windows box.

    --snip--

    Compare this with most Windows boxes, which, when one is cracked, it automatically turns and attacks more

    You're taking one example, and extrapolating that all worms are like that and, moreover, that the actions of the worm are a some sort of indication of the underlying operating system.

    1. You're conveniently forgetting the Morris worm (if you're allowed to delve into history, so am I) and the Lion worm.
    2. You say that people get the permission of the logged in user (if a Linux "box" gets compromised) - this is no different than Windows. It is only considered different because most people are admins of their own Windows PC. This is not the default, and shows how badly most Windows enviornments are run.
    3. You say Windows programs need to have the user logged in as admin. This is rarely the case, but when it is you can blame the programmer, not Windows.
    4. Besides, crackers generally get in by attacking Internet accessible services/daemons, not the underlying OS.
    Whoever modded this guy up needs to learn to think before they apply the "this comment says Linux is better than Windows" rule.
  19. Not really that interesting on The L0tR Motion Picture Trilogy Exhibition · · Score: 1

    We had a St4r Tr3k exhibition here not too long ago.

  20. Bomb humor on Building a Better Bomb · · Score: 1

    "Hey, I see that Iran and North Korea are teaming up to build weapons of mass destruction. You know, if they really want to make a huge bomb, they should involve Ben and J.Lo."

    Shamelessly stolen from Letterman.

  21. Not just networking on Getting Started in Network Security? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm seeing a lot of comments here that say "Set up your own firewall" or "Learn TCP".

    Repeat after me:
    Security != firewall
    Security != networking

    I see this misunderstanding all over the place, but you can't secure a system through the network only. And you certainly won't make it in the "security industry" if that's what you think.

    It's a cliche, but security is a process. It starts at the design of <whatever> and never really finishes. A security expert will know enough about each step of the plan that he/she can guide the team to the implementation a secure enough solution to their part of the problem, whether that solution is software or a business process doesn't matter.

    I say secure enough on purpose because a truly secure solution is not possible. And this is really another key part of the security experts arsenal - knowing when the cost of more security outweighs the cost of the risk/exposure you're covering up.

  22. Re:Originated in NZ then UK on Canadian Census: 20,000 Jedi Worshippers · · Score: 1

    The results from New Zealand have been published, but the Dept of Statistics have not officially stated how many wrote in "Jedi". They did discourage the populace from doing this, stating that it's a crime to lie on a census form.

    Results were as follows:=
    Other specified: 273,735
    Other response including no religion: 1,338,384
    So it seems there are very few Jedi in NZ.
    By comparison, there were ~160,000 "other specified"s ten years earlier.

  23. Re:Social Engineering on SANS/FBI Release Top 20 Security Vulnerabilities · · Score: 2, Insightful
    They forgot to list one of the most obvious ways of breaching computer security measures: social engineering.

    Not forgot, deliberately left out. This document is limited in scope to only Windows and Unix vulnerabilities.

    If they had tried to make this more encompassing (say, by including physical security or common weaknesses in operational processes) the document would be so long no one would read it.

  24. Re:An idea: UL/DL ratios on Closed Gnutella System to Prevent Bandwidth Hogs · · Score: 1

    Um, how exactly?

    This is a decentralised system. That means that an effective ratio system involves replicating the entire user database to each node or nominating a single user database server.

    You don't want to do the former because, frankly, there's already too much background chatter. You don't want to do the latter because suddenly there's something for someone to sue if they want to shut it down.

  25. The rumbling noise on Iowa College Goes Paperless · · Score: 1

    That rumbling noise you hear is the sound of thousands of trucks and U-Hauls delivering printer toner and repair(wo)men to Iowa College.