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User: LordSnooty

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Comments · 1,149

  1. Re:They need advice, not security: Don't use webma on Google Uncovers China-Based Password Collection Campaign · · Score: 1

    These people need professional advice, or common sense: Don't store highly valuable (i.e., dangerous to people's lives), confidential information on a free public webmail service!

    What evidence is there that the victims stored such information on public servers? A personal account with no work mails could still give enough info to compromise accounts elsewhere.

  2. Re:Um...isn't this NEWS for nerds? on The Machines That Sparked the Beginning of the Computer Age · · Score: 2

    Just this weekend I learned via a BBC documentary that the only reason Hollywood exists was because of the desire of New York filmmakers to get as far away as possible from Edison's patent enforcement (often through the use of hired goons to smash up equipment).

    I found it interesting that in the history of two of the biggest forms of mass media, recorded sound and cinema, Edison was there at the outset, yet his aggressive pursuit of patent infringement meant that people were forced to look elsewhere and his products failed to become the dominant technology. A lesson for modern patent trolls.

  3. Re:I would tend to agree on Poole To Zuckerberg: You’re Doing It Wrong · · Score: 1

    "People censor themselves when they know their friends will read their comments" Have you read a common Facebook thread recently? Did you see all the comments about Japan? Try lamebook and see how much censorship the use of real names enforces.

  4. Ballmer supports Kinect hacking! on Kinect Hacked To Play Max Payne, Left 4 Dead 2 · · Score: 1

    Well very begrudgingly, he said they knew about the efforts of PC enthusiasts and didn't mind. UK users can see the short interview for Click at the CES here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m9ry

  5. Re:Think of the children too on Man Mines Facebook For Security Questions, Nabs Nude Photos From Email · · Score: 1

    In my country you can join the hired killers with your parents' consent at 16... but you can't vote against the political party which sends you on an unwinnable war until you are 18...

  6. Re:So.... on How a Guy Found 4 New Planets Without a Telescope · · Score: 1

    and of course being a Yorkshireman myself its always nice to see another do well!

    Just as long as you don't try and plant a flag there on behalf of the Republic of Yorkshire...

  7. Re:wikipedia - live dvd on Wikipedia Meets $16M Budget Goal · · Score: 1

    Given that WP is a constantly-edited and updated resource, freezing it at a point for optical storage is slightly problematic, as some articles will contain errors. Also as pointed out, the images are an essential part of the encyclopedia but to store those would ramp up storage costs considerably.

    A group in the UK tried this, with the Wikipedia for Schools project, where they chose a few thousand articles that covered the National Curriculum (the standard list of topics to be taught in school). From there they had to manually check and edit every single article, changing media and internal article links to make them available locally, checking for accuracy, and removing external links. As you can appreciate, a Herculean effort and not probably one that could be repeated easily, given that it was a charity behind the project, receiving no government funds. That's the sort of direction I think a local copy of WP should go, a fully-checked subset of the main body of work. Read more here: http://schools-wikipedia.org/

  8. Re:Not just them... on Android vs. iPhone — Who Wins In 2011? · · Score: 0

    I see quite a few teenagers with Blackberries. I reckon they care not too much about a wonderful web experience, nor a wide range of apps. But they are most certainly all about Facebook, Twitter updating and general communication. The niche for BB could be bigger in 2011. After all, web on a phone will never be a great experience.

  9. Re:Time to put PC Pro on a list like this... on The 10 Worst Tech Products of 2010 · · Score: 1

    I think it's pretty disgusting actually, as a lot of tech novices (mainly women) will trust the Next brand in terms of the clothes and home furnishing tat that they sell; by putting their name to this monstrosity they are essentially conning people. Sure 99GBP is too cheap to take seriously but novices will not view it that way - they'll think it's cheaper than the market leader and it has the Next brand, so it must be a good deal.

  10. Re:Yeah, 12 years since the hucksters came on Open Source After 12 Years · · Score: 2

    And if the prior 12 years should teach you anything, it's that branding and marketing is what sets nearly all widely-used software apart from the rest.

    Maybe the question should be, with 12 years of open source branding, and with well-marketed products like Ubuntu, why have we not advanced further?

  11. Re:Nothing to see... on Military Bans Removable Media After WikiLeaks Disclosures · · Score: 2

    Why does the SIPRNET client allow full export of data? The problem lies here, does it not? I'm presuming here that Manning did not use some kind of screen scrape technique. As an intelligence analyst it doesn't follow that he would have low-level access to the database.

  12. Re:Hype on PC Era Forecasted To End In 18 Months · · Score: 1

    "Shock as marketing proves to be key battleground in war between operating systems of equivalent abilities"

  13. Re:Really? on Explosive-Laden California Home To Be Destroyed · · Score: 1

    Fewer chance people die?

  14. Re:Backups on Ransomware Making a Comeback · · Score: 2

    The ONLY kind of calamity that such devices protect you from is accidental deletion or hardware failure.

    Fortunately these are by FAR the most common data loss ailments that will hit your average clueless user. Off-site is just overkill for most. Fire is not something that most people experience in their lives. A hard disk crash, however, is. And accidental deletion most certainly is.

  15. Re:Doubt it on Open-Source Social Network Diaspora Goes Live · · Score: 1

    I doubt the OSS community will ever "get" marketing. Do not underestimate how important a simple name like "Facebook" was in helping it become the king of social networks.

  16. Re:Old on Extra-Galactic Planet Discovered In Milky Way · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seems to me that quantifying decayed isotopes in rocks is actually more straightforward. With the added bonus of giving THE CORRECT ANSWER.

  17. Simple on Why Don't We Finish More Games? · · Score: 1

    I completed 60% of GTAIV before I got round to setting up multiplayer, now it's the only mode I play and I haven't returned to SP. That's one explanation.

    Indeed, what counts as 'complete', is it 100% progress, because this is very hard to achieve in many games.

  18. Register on Paper Airplane Touches Edge of Space, Glides Back · · Score: 1

    Ah, this 'story' is typical Register... overblown, late, with too large an idea of its own importance and not very funny. And haven't they gone to town on it, with reports on testing etc. Why so much focus? Ah, I see, sponsored by big web host and big space contractor...

  19. Re:As I recall on Palin E-Mail Snoop Gets Year In Prison · · Score: 1

    There's pretty much no way you can get away with that nowadays...

    I can think of one way - keep quiet about it. But that's not the Anonymous way.

  20. Re:LibreOffice will join the ranks of Linux... on 33 Developers Leave OpenOffice.org · · Score: 1

    The 'everybody' you speak of is not the same 'everybody' that is the big market for OpenOffice.

  21. Re:I like it on Inside Google's Anti-Malware Operation · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's much more preferable to the AV industry's blackmail tactics... give us your money every year and we'll try and squash these progs... but we might not... if we don't there's bugger all you can do about it.

    Much better is stopping the bad sites appearing in the first place. And all for free! Stuff like this is why Google can hold on to the "don't be evil" line for now.

  22. Re:What I find more interesting... on The First Photograph of a Human · · Score: 1

    But I've seen plenty of press snappers scanning through their pictures at the event and presumably deleting the ones they don't want. I think GP's point is that those not-so-desirable shots can be removed just minutes after they were taken, and never find their way back to the picture editor. In film days, every snap would be viewed by the editor, who may have liked one that the snapper thought was worthless.

    Of course this wouldn't apply to the amateur, who will purge their collection much later, if at all.

  23. Re:Authorities inform involved computer users on Bredolab Botnet Taken Down · · Score: 1

    Call a number advertised elsewhere in public, I guess. But yes it still undermines the central message that got them here in the first place. It should be ISP cutoff and you have to call them to restore service.

  24. File under on Are Consumer Hard Drives Headed Into History? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "if Apple are involved it must be news"

    Yeah, they're headed to history, but that might take another ten years.

  25. Re:I'm surprised they held out that long... on Sony Discontinues the Walkman · · Score: 1

    We traded in the lossless aspect of quality for the convenience of solid-state technology.