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User: Rhodri+Mawr

Rhodri+Mawr's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 151

  1. Re:Something for the Atreides on Why Chilies Are Hot and Yogurt Puts Out the Fire · · Score: 1

    Of course it may not cause permanent tissue damage, but it does affect the circulation and cause dandruff. So it does cause you physical harm, even if it's only in a cosmetic sense. It also explains why the waiters at Indian Restaurants invariably have bad dandruff...

    I must not flake
    Dandruff is the scalp-killer
    Dandruff is the little-skin that brings total humiliation
    I will face my dandruff
    I will permit it to pass over me and off me
    And when it has gone past I will brush it off my shoulders
    Where the dandruff has gone there will be nothing
    Only I will remain

  2. Re:I refuse to pay Microsoft for an Android phone on Samsung Joins Ranks of Android Vendors Licensing Microsoft Patents · · Score: 1

    So shortly the wife and I will need 21st century phones. And apparently the only phone not involving payments to MS is the iphone. I refuse to buy an Samsung or HTC phone now and pay extortion even though I'd prefer Android.

    How bizarrely short-sighted and quaint. Buy the phone that does the best job for you and fulfils your requirements on features vs cost.

  3. Re:Here's the full details. on Aussie Researcher Cracks OS X Lion Passwords · · Score: 1

    Even better is the researchers' own blog post

    ...but don't visit it if you're using Mac OS X Lion...

  4. Re:Fetish? on PLAYterm: a New Way To Improve Command Line Skills · · Score: 1

    I'm no M$ apologist, but have you heard of Windows PowerShell?

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419

  5. Re:I thought that too, except .... on Julian Assange's Unauthorized Autobiography · · Score: 2

    The bbc article on it gives far more detail:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15009028

    ...particularly the comment: "After sitting with a ghost writer for more than 50 hours of taped interviews, he decided he wanted to cancel the contract. "

  6. Re:err, 'reported feeling' on Bejeweled Yields Cognitive Benefit In Older Adults · · Score: 1

    8 out of ten cats said their owners incorrectly spelt it 'bejewelled'.

  7. Quick fixes on Apache Fixes Range Header Flaw, Again · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would say that fixing the range header denial of service attack twice is nothing to be ashamed of. Firstly, you get a tested fix out quickly that protects sites that are likely to be under attack [targets]. These early adopters get the fix which stops the attack which is known in the wild. Two weeks later, you get the belt-and-braces fix which fixes the issue even for new variants of the known attack.
    Compare this to Microsoft's one patch day a month policy which is rarely if ever varied.

  8. Plagiarism... on Turnitin's Different Messages To Students, Teachers · · Score: 1

    ...is the first rule of scholarship. Of course you have to plagiarise from several different people and describe them as sources to be legitimate, but the point still stands.

  9. Try getting every lawyer and solicitor to change? on Why the Fax Machine Refuses To Die · · Score: 2

    In the UK we've recently seen the close of the Football (Soccer to the US) Transfer Window. Nearly all of the business done between clubs and agents is done by fax. Deals have to be confirmed by a fixed time at FA Headquarters. Want to guarantee it gets sent, arrives, is printed and seen before the deadline? You fax it.

    For legal purposes, fax (or secure snail mail) is required. The sender and receiver and date and time of transfer can be verified and can't easily be tampered with and there's one copy at each end. There's no copy somewhere on the internet cloud that can be hacked, lost, stolen or compromised by an exploit or poor password choice. Telephone wire tapping is degrees of magnitude more difficult in this sense as catching a single document would be a one-chance time sensitive opportunity. (That's not to say it's not possible, just much less likely)

    And finally it's cheaper and faster than implementing a truly secure online technology (which all solicitors would have to adopt - try getting the Law Society to push that through if you like nailing jelly to a tree) to communicate between solicitors.

  10. Re:Site wasn't hacked, DNS was on The Register Hacked · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mod parent up. This appears to be a case of DNS cache poisoning. Notably www.reghardware.com is unaffected.

  11. Re:Struggle with digital rights? on The UK Government's Struggle With Digital Rights · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's not accurate. The licence fee pays for the BBC (advert free), and some subsidy of Channel 4 and S4C (which are also funded by advertisments). You only need a television licence to receive live broadcasts. Non-live services like iPlayer do not require a licence. There is no requirement at all to have a licence to receive radio.

    Anyone thinking that the Pirate Party UK are in any way relevant to the debate are entirely mistaken. The leader of the party stood at the last election here in Worcester and lost his deposit. The real debate about digital rights should be about why the Labour Party were allowed to push through the Digital Economy Act 2010 (UK equivalent of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act) right at the end of the final Parliamentary session before the General Election without it receiving anything like the amount of scrutiny it needed or deserved in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats promised to repeal many parts of the act in their manifesto, however the act was not mentioned in the Coalition Agreement. The Conservative Party promised a 'bonfire' of bad legislation passed by the Labour Party; this has not yet materialised and the DEA 2010 appears to be off the political agenda at the moment.

  12. Re:Thumbs? on Weak Typing — the Lost Art of the Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Who types with thumbs?

    Anyone with a slide out keyboard on a mobile device, that's who.

  13. Re:Fanboi rant on The iPhone's Role In Crippling T-Mobile · · Score: 0

    Oh dear. So your basic argument is Apple Crapware is much better than Google/Handset Maker Crapware? Please!

    Furthermore, your suggestion that Apple dominates parts of Europe and Australia and Android is nowhere in these places is absolute nonsense. Can you back it up with any statistics not provided by Apple's Marketing Department? Of course not. I can only suggest that the rose tinted spectacles that you're wearing should come with a complimentary white stick.

  14. Re:That they've gotten the message remains to be s on Is Tablet Success Bound To Their Crackability? · · Score: 1

    Mostly people are cringing at the number of consecutive 's'es in the URLs.

  15. Re:AGW on Michael Mann Vindicated (Again) Over Climategate · · Score: 1

    Oh dear. Brainwashed by the establishment. When did we start believing everything politicians and media outlets tell us?

    We simply haven't been measuring detailed information about out climate for long enough or accurately enough to say anything definitive about what's happening to the world's climate. Less than 30 years ago, scientists were telling us that we were about to enter a new ice age. The same long term data is apparently now telling us that we're going to burn. When the wind changes direction, the scientists certainly get blown along with it, don't they?

  16. Re:AGW on Michael Mann Vindicated (Again) Over Climategate · · Score: 1, Troll

    The whole rhetoric of environmental scientists is a problem. What most people object to is the use of weasel words and dubious statistics to justify another round of expensive research funding. In fact, even the genre's title is misleading. The Globe is not Warming. Yes, there is probably Climate Change, which may or may not be human activity driven, but the idea that the globe is warming and the net result is more deserts between the tropics (which seems to be the layman's view) is really rather preposterous and totally unjustifiable by facts.

  17. Let's put things in perspective... on More Photoshopped Evidence In Apple v. Samsung · · Score: 1
  18. Re:So on Teacher Cannot Be Sued For Denying Creationism · · Score: 1

    That's as maybe, but you wouldn't have seen teaching like that in the deep south either, so your point is moot.

  19. Re:And... on Accused Teen Bomber Finds FBI Surveillance Team's Wireless Network · · Score: 1

    Mine's been called "Martians" for years. It keeps the neighbours guessing...

  20. Re:I misunderstood on US and UK Zombies Demand Top Dollar · · Score: 1

    Valletta (Malta), Falmouth (Cornwall, England) and Glasgow (Scotland) appear to be the filming sites of World War Z (the Brad Pitt Zombie Movie). Source

    The film is set in Philadelphia, so it would appear that half of the headline is true - the US Zombies obviously demand top dollar, the UK ones less so, as Glasgow is being transformed into Philadelphia for the next fortnight.

  21. Re:So how do you know its trusted on Open Source Software Hijacked To Push Malware · · Score: 1

    Of course, if you've installed AdBlock Plus and search google for VLC then VideoLan.org is all of the top 4 results. www.vlcmediaplayer.org comes in 9th. That could be a clue...

  22. This news is 10 years old... on App Uses Facial Profiling To Identify Perps · · Score: 2

    Straight after 2001-09-11 there was a clamour for more CCTV. Britain was already riddled with the things and they're getting better and better at recognising "known" criminals. Big Brother really is watching you. This article from the New York Times nearly 10 years ago rings very true and is well worth the time taken to read in its entirety: http://www.daclarke.org/WTChit/Rosen.html
    I particularly shuddered at the quote:
    "But CCTV cameras have a mysterious knack for justifying themselves regardless of what happens to crime. When crime goes up the cameras get the credit for detecting it, and when crime goes down, they get the credit for preventing it."

  23. Re:No It doesn't on Open Source Software Hijacked To Push Malware · · Score: 2

    CNET is one of the safest places to download software from online. However, the author of the article, the suspiciously named Brian Proffitt, includes the following dubious paragraph on CNET:

    "But then there's sites like CNET Download, which also lists FLOSS software (among many other types of applications) for download, directly from CNET's servers. While CNET does not in any way represent that they "own" the software they're offering, nor do I seriously believe they are offering up malware, I can't be sure about the provenance of the Firefox 5 for Windows software they just offered me. Nor am I terribly sanguine about the "free scan for Windows errors" banner and box ads sitting on the download page."

    By making this comment on CNET, he undermines his credibility as an analyst and casts into doubt the legitimacy of the whole of his article, which is a shame, as there *are* some relevant points made.

  24. Re:Think harder... on The Cost Of Broadband In Every Rural Home · · Score: 1

    North Central South Dakota? Make your mind up!

  25. Donkey Kong or Monkey Kong? on 30th Anniversary of Donkey Kong · · Score: 1

    So, was the name Donkey Kong a classic translation error or not?