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User: Don_dumb

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  1. Re:Math on European Parliament Blocks Copyright Reform With 113% Voter Turnout · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hold on fellas, you've got it all wrong. Math is different in Europe (they've got their commas and periods all backward in many places), especially when it's attorneys doing the counting. Folks just have to understand this, and fortunately there's a great instructional video available for those in need of further tutelage.

    Very true. For a start - we call it Maths

  2. Re:Standards couldn't be much worse on News Corp. Hacking Scandal Spreads To Government · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But yet, he researched his statement and provided several references for each assertion, exactly what is missing from journalism. Like I said, I wouldn't usually take his word for much. But I did read the entire statement and have to say that there is many a good point.

    Bear in mind, he knows more than almost everyone about the relationship between the press and the government. For better or worse.
    He didn't call for regulation by government but concluded that self paid regulation was pointless and self serving. Which I think is fair.

    If I am honest I think it has given me a small amount of new found respect for the man who sold the world a terrible war.

  3. Standards couldn't be much worse on News Corp. Hacking Scandal Spreads To Government · · Score: 4, Informative

    Alastair Campbell - (Press Secretary for Tony Blair) not someone who I would normally believe on anything. Wrote a pretty comprehensive witness statement outlining how far the problems goes and how much it affects the running of the country and to be fair he understands the media more than most. It is worth a read - http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Witness-Statement-of-Alastair-Campbell.pdf

  4. Re:Film on The Case For Surrealism In Games · · Score: 1

    I believe this is the problem perceived when viewing Michael Bay films.

    Well, it's one problem with Michael Bay films.

  5. Re:Muggles on Geocaching Shuts Down British Town · · Score: 5, Funny

    It didn't, and the police even said they have no real problem with it, but would appreciate being told about caches in urban areas so as to avoid this sort of misunderstanding in the future.

    It didn't, and the police even said they have no real problem with it, but would appreciate being told about caches in urban areas so as to avoid this sort of misunderstanding in the future.

    Either that or they just want to cheat

  6. No need on George W. Bush Live From Facebook · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I'd just ask him who *was* making the decisions.

    As I assume it was one of the grown-ups.

  7. Re:Apps? on HTTPS Everywhere Gets Firesheep Protection · · Score: 1

    Thanks but I am unclear do the apps use http or https to communicate?
    Is there any way of knowing what security the apps are using to communicate with the service.
    This is important to consider as I haven't seen an iPhone app have an option of securing their connection with remote services. Most people use apps for things like facebook and are entirely at the liberty of the apps' security. There is no 'use https' choice if it doesn't do so.

  8. Re:Also... on Adobe Warns of Critical Flash Bug, Already Being Exploited · · Score: 1

    I so wish the BBC would use something other than Adobe Air for their iPlayer, it's horrible and doesn't get recognised by my Mobile mouse iPhone apps and the videos aren't playable in the Air Video app either. The fact that it is a big security hole (and in the UK a popular one ripe for exploit) only concerns me more.

    And no, DRM protected WMV is not really a good alternative.

  9. Re:I need this on my iPhone on Adobe Warns of Critical Flash Bug, Already Being Exploited · · Score: 1

    I had this problem yesterday after i rebuilt my PC.
    I found it on Filehippo (sorry can't link from this machine) and that seems to be the place for many full installers. It actually made rebuilding much easier as I could very easily grab the most recent version of almost all the software I used.

  10. Mobile Apps on Firefox Extension Makes Social-Network ID Spoofing Trivial · · Score: 1

    It seems that this is most concerning for those loggining in while using public networks (such as accessing with a cafe's WiFi).

    So this leads me to ask if I am safer when using the Facebook/Amazon/eBay app rather than the mobile browser. Is the security of the iPhone or android apps better than the web security for Facebook?
    Or can I make my access of these sites more secure myself somehow?

  11. Re:East Texas on Webvention Demanding $80k For Rollover Images · · Score: 1

    Don't mention Texan courts to a Liverpool football fan right now - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9080946.stm

    Even if you don't care about football, you have to recognise that trying to overturn and undermine a British High Court ruling about a case in Britain, through applying an injunction in a Texan court, is a ridiculous contempt of a foreign judiciary system.

  12. Re:Ehm... on Software Evolution Storylines, Inspired By XKCD · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not the way I understand (or my organisation uses) swimlanes.

    As is implied by the word swimlane, the diagram shows several horizontal 'lanes', these represent individual people or organisations. Then a flowchart is overlayed onto the swimlanes. Whenever an action is performed by a organisation, the flowchart box for that action is in their lane.
    This shows for instance who is responsible for what in a process.

    I believe that if, say, LOTR was to be shown as a swimlane. You could have the characters that come into contact with The Ring as lanes across the diagram. And a line moving from one lane to the next as the ring passes ownership but going from left to right as it stays in their grasp.

    The diagrans in the article show, in many ways, the opposite. The lanes come together and separate over time showing who is in contact rather than who is doing what.

  13. Re:they only send 100 notices this first time on French ISP Refuses To Send Out Infringement Notices · · Score: 1

    And yes another provider urged the governement to act to make "Free" comply as they sensed "Free" was gaining a little bit more popularity with this trick.

    That's modern business, get the government to help you rather than doing the obvious thing of doing the same thing yourself.

  14. Re:good riddance on Microsoft IE Browser Share Dips Below 50% · · Score: 1

    I would imagine the figure is somewhat higher, as it won't be counting much of the corporate users (who will mainly be on Internal networks, occasionally venturing to the public network)
    I guessing most private users (even average Joe) will have had/been coerced/helped/tricked into an upgrade to IE7 or higher by now (even if just because they have brought something newer).
    So I'm guessing the stat isn't entirely accurate. This would also be true of the article's statistics. My opinion only of course.

  15. Optimistic on Microsoft IE Browser Share Dips Below 50% · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I doubt it.
    My large organisation (100,000+) will not use anything other than the minimum software. I imagine this is true of several similar orgs, the more locked down the software, the better, less holes and less to support (1000s of applications at the current moment) - or so the theory goes.
    My employer is running IE6 and will upgrade to IE7 next year. Considering how critical the browser is to the business, they would never even think of using (and having to support) anything other than what comes out of the box, which is MS, regardless of the functionality of Firefox or anything else.

    I can't say I agree with the principle but it certainly isn't in my power to influence.

  16. Re:Joystiq reckons it's a publicity stunt? on DRM-Free Games Site GOG.com Gone · · Score: 1

    I'm not at my home box at the moment, but I seem to remember that in Steam you could backup the game content for each game locally.
    Although presumably that still requires the Steam activation servers.

  17. NSFW on HDCP Master Key Revealed · · Score: 1

    As with many technologies in history, porn leads the way - brazzers for instance gives videos in 1080P, as well as lower quality.

    And as usual, if the adult industry can do it why can't the mainstream industries?

  18. Re:Mac Mini + Plex on Video Appliance For a Large Library On a Network? · · Score: 1

    I'd be interested to look at these boxes.
    When you say "WD" are you refering to Western Digital or some other company?
    I'd be grateful if you could post a link.

  19. Re:Good Example: GTA4 on Tensions Rise Between Gamers and Game Companies Over DRM · · Score: 1

    Did they remove the Games for Windows account bit as well?

    Unlike the unfortunate GP, I did read the reviews and wanted to play the game but baulked at the fact the Rockstar social and Games for Windows was required. I was quite happy for it to be a Steam game*, just not the other stuff (RSC & GFW) I don't have or want.


    * - For my part - I like Steam, yes there is DRM which I do not want but it isn't conspicuous (which is fine) and I can accept that devaluing feature because the service adds several valuable features - the ability to use different machines, no CD required, backing up of the game and the data, I can uninstall and reinstall as I wish. That's the key for me, DRM costs value to me the customer (moreso the worse the DRM gets), the companies simply need to make up that value with other features. As long as the DRM isn't apparent and compensating features have been included I will consider buying.
    It got to the point that recently I was playing an older game (that just had CD check protection) and actually found that I would rather have the game on Steam because of how easy the system makes things.

  20. Re:Typical cuts behaviour... on No iPhone Apps, Please — We're British · · Score: 1

    The BBc is not a government ministry, dipshit.

    RTFA or even the Summary - This story is not about the BBC but government ministries.

    Still feel superior now?

  21. Re:Obligatory on Japan Plans Moon Base Built By Robots For Robots · · Score: 1

    Nice but the funniest thing is the +1 Insightful moderation!

  22. Re:Silly Brits on UK Election Arcana, Explained By Software · · Score: 2, Informative

    The reason the Liberal Democrats lost seats is because their support geographically was diminished. They may have had more voters overall, but those voters were more concentrated in fewer districts than had been the case earlier.

    That sounds like a pretty fair system where it encourages those who would try to run the country to consider problems for the country as a whole and not to just a few places where the voters are concentrated.

    Please look again, as in fact it does the opposite.
    The Labour and Tory votes are concentrated in small areas (rich and poor respectively), hence they get lots of seats. Whereas the Lib Dem vote is spread across the entire country and thus they don't get many seats.
    Note also that the Tories don't get many votes in entire nations (Scotland), as opposed to the Lib Dems.

  23. Re:Risk? on UK Election Arcana, Explained By Software · · Score: 1

    The closest we got to that was 1605...and we still celebrate it every year to this day.

    By burning Mr Fawkes in effigy.

    Interestingly perhaps not. I had heard (later on in life) that historically the tradition is to burn the Pope in effigy. (Fawkes was a Catholic trying to restore a Catholic government)
    But obviously the historical reasons aren't important any more so we call it Guy Fawkes rather than inspire sectarianism sentiments. Wiki doesn't back me up, so beginning to doubt myself as I write.

  24. Re:Silly Brits on UK Election Arcana, Explained By Software · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The vast majority of britons looked at what the lib dems offered, said 'he looks nice but no thanks' and actually reduced their vote share - yet they could get cabinet seats.

    Wrong. The Lib Dems got 23% of the vote, an INCREASE of 1%. Citation - BBC Full election results.
    They had a reduction in the number of seats. - more votes, less power.

    It has to be a broken system that gives them less than 10% of the seats for almost a quarter of the vote. Especially when you consider that they increased their vote, yet decreased their number of MPs and that Labour got 29% (only 6 per cent more) of the vote somehow giving them 4 times as many seats. In fact both Labour and the Tories (Conservatives) got over 10% more power (seats) than their share of the vote.

  25. Re:wtf on Apple Approves Opera Mini For iPhone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How wouldn't they? There are already loads of browsers available from the App Store.

    Really?
    Do any if them do (Or make use of) ad blocking?
    Opera and Safari are okay but give me ablockplus for faster, more pleasant browsing.