Comment Re:369? (Score 0) 248
Whenever you read something like "more than 369 signatures" it really just means "370 signatures"
Comment Measuring speed from *where* exactly? (Score 5, Interesting) 230
Where are the measuring *from*?
I've moved a site from Linode New Jersey to Linode London, UK because the target audience are in London ( http://www.lfgss.com/ ).
However in Google Webmaster Tools the page load time increased, suggesting that the measurements are being calculated from US datacentres, even though for the target audience the speed increased and page load time decreased.
I would like to see Google use the geographic target preference and to have the nearest datacentre to the target be the one that performs the measurement... or better still to have both a local and remote datacentre perform every measurement and then find a weighted time between them that might reflect real-world usage.
Otherwise if I'm being sent the message that I am being penalised for not hosting close to a Google datacentre from where the measurements are calculated, then I will end up moving there in spite of the fact that this isn't the right thing for my users.
OpenBSD 4.7 Preorders Are Up 191
badger.foo writes "The OpenBSD 4.7 pre-orders are up. That means the release is done, sent off to CD production, and snapshots will turn -current again. Order now and you more likely than not will have your CD set, T-shirt or other cool stuff before the official release date. You get the chance to support the most important free software project on the planet, and get your hands on some cool playables and wearables early. The release page is still being filled in, but the changelog has detailed information about the goodies in this release."
Comment So all we need do is to change to shopping lists. (Score 1) 117
If you allow the user to have multiple shopping lists, and then take each list to the checkout rather than a basket... then one-click doesn't apply, right?
In the UK there is a chain of brick and mortar stores called Argos. You don't have a shopping trolley, cart or basket... you have a bit of paper on which you write the codes of the items you want and you take that to the checkout and then once paid someone gets them from the warehouse and brings them to the counter near the exit.
You can have multiple lists, and pay separately. Thus, this is not a shopping cart.
By taking the idea of shopping lists online it's feasible that the multiplicity of lists breaks the existing cart definition enough to allow one-click.
Actually one-click becomes even easier then... as it's just one of many lists that you have... a buy-now list, a buy-later list... a gift-list... etc.
Would this be enough?
Comment I can see how this would upset reporters (Score 1) 3
They wouldn't be able to use the phone as a recording device to automatically transcribe interviews:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/chair_chucking/
"Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy" - Steve Ballmer (allegedly)
If all you've got is:
"#### Eric Schmidt is a #### pussy. I'm going to #### bury that guy"
Well, it becomes a little harder to make an exact quote... "was it the f-word or was it the c-word?"
Submission + - Obama's Dir. of Citizen Participation Patents News
theodp writes: Ex-Googler and now White House Director of Citizen Participation Katie Stanton can be excused if she takes a break from promoting open public dialogues on Thursday. After all, she and Google might want to celebrate that they've just managed to snag a patent on displaying financial news. The patent for Interactive Financial Charting and Related News Correlation (as seen on Google Finance), which Google describes as techniques that 'facilitate and encourage the user's use and understanding of financial information,' expires in 2027. To loosely paraphrase JFK, 'Domestic policy can only defeat us; patent policy can kill us.'
Submission + - How Google's Nexus One censors cuss words (cnet.com) 3
tugfoigel writes: The built-in voice-to-text feature on Google's new Nexus One phone replaces rude utterances with hash marks.
Some of you who have been basking in the beauty of your new Nexus One Googlephone may not have tried out all of its delightful features.
And what I am about to tell you may lead you to utter some naughty words. Please, go ahead. I have heard them all, in several different languages. And I respect the vehemence of the vernacular.
However, your Nexus One will not be so charmed by the vigor of your tongue. It will, dare I utter the word when referring to a product from the newly emancipated Google, censor you.
You see, the pungently polite people at Reuters were playing with their Nexus One when they noticed something about its built-in voice-to-text feature.
Every time they said something naughty into the phone, the naughty word came out as "####"--and not just "f---." It even censored the "S" part of BS.
Reuters immediately called Google and screamed at them: "What the #### are you miserable ############# playing at?"
Some of you who have been basking in the beauty of your new Nexus One Googlephone may not have tried out all of its delightful features.
And what I am about to tell you may lead you to utter some naughty words. Please, go ahead. I have heard them all, in several different languages. And I respect the vehemence of the vernacular.
However, your Nexus One will not be so charmed by the vigor of your tongue. It will, dare I utter the word when referring to a product from the newly emancipated Google, censor you.
You see, the pungently polite people at Reuters were playing with their Nexus One when they noticed something about its built-in voice-to-text feature.
Every time they said something naughty into the phone, the naughty word came out as "####"--and not just "f---." It even censored the "S" part of BS.
Reuters immediately called Google and screamed at them: "What the #### are you miserable ############# playing at?"
PS3 Hacked? 296
Several readers have sent word that George Hotz (a.k.a. geohot), the hacker best known for unlocking Apple's iPhone, says he has now hacked the PlayStation 3. From his blog post:
"I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip. 3 years, 2 months, 11 days...that's a pretty secure system. ... As far as the exploit goes, I'm not revealing it yet. The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG."
Comment Re:Damn this would be a great business (Score 1) 334
And the bands.
Having worked in the industry for over a decade, the secret motto is "This would be a great business if wasn't for the bands".
The view is generally that they are prima-donnas that dislike selling their product and think they're artists.
Now they've updated it to be both the bands and consumers you have to wonder whether they've realised what they're admitting... that they're just an intermediary.
Comment As the owner of a website funded by adverts (Score 4, Informative) 90
I'm extremely concerned by Phorm.
Effectively it gives the ISP the ability to remove the adverts that fund 60% of our costs and replace them with adverts for which they would receive the entire revenue stream.
My site is funded by adverts (60%) merchandise (30%) and donations (10%).
I'm fairly sure that the community would step up and purchase more stuff and donate more, but I don't think it's realistic that this could be sustained, whereas the advertising revenue is reasonably constant.
I believe that if Phorm becomes ubiquitous that I would have to question seriously how to find the website, and would probably have to remove all adverts and to seek to have the costs covered exclusively through other means. As I'm unsure of the feasibility of this, I would have to say that in my case the loss of that revenue would threaten my ability to continue running the site, especially under the risk of redundancy in the near/mid future.
I've already implemented the Phorm opt-out cookies, and written to my local MP (who couldn't care less from the generic response I got), so it's great to see the EU step up where the UK seems to have failed.
Comment Re:Who the hell is drinking this cool-aid? (Score 1) 437
HSBC in the UK actually implement their in-bank kiosks using Internet Explorer.
I know this because one of them encountered a script error and showed me the debug dialog.
It would be a gross understatement to say I was unimpressed (and I now bank with someone else, and yes discovering IE powered kiosks was the reason).
Cisco CSO Says Antivirus Money "Completely Wasted" 503
mernil writes with an excerpt that kicks off a story at ZDNet Australia: "Companies are wasting money on security processes — such as applying patches and using antivirus software — which just don't work, according to Cisco's chief security officer John Stewart. Speaking at the AusCERT 2008 conference in the Gold Coast yesterday, Stewart said the malware industry is moving faster than the security industry, making it impossible for users to remain secure."
Video Game Actors Say They Don't Get Their Due 573
Dekortage writes "The New York Times reports today about Michael Hollick, the actor who provided the voice of Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. Although the game has made more than $600 million in sales for Rockstar Games, Hollick earns nothing beyond the original $100K he was paid. If this was television, film, or radio, Hollick and the other GTA actors could have made millions by now. Hollick says, 'I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it's the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies.' Is it time for video game actors to be treated as well as those in other mediums?"
The Military Plans To Regrow Body Parts 257
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Department of Defense has announced the creation of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine to 'harness stem cell research and technology... to reconstruct new skin, muscles and tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.' The government is budgeting $250 million in public and private money for the project's first five years, and the NIH and three universities will be on the team. The military has been working on regrowing lost body parts using extracellular matrices and scientists in labs have grown blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat and are already growing a new ear for a badly burned Marine using stem cells from his own body. Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker explained that our bodies systematically generate liver cells and bone marrow and that this ability can be redirected through 'the right kind of stimulation.' The general cited animals like salamanders that can regrow lost tails or limbs. 'Why can't a mammal do the same thing?' he asked."
Panic in Multicore Land 367
MOBE2001 writes "There is widespread disagreement among experts on how best to design and program multicore processors, according to the EE Times. Some, like senior AMD fellow, Chuck Moore, believe that the industry should move to a new model based on a multiplicity of cores optimized for various tasks. Others disagree on the ground that heterogeneous processors would be too hard to program. The only emerging consensus seems to be that multicore computing is facing a major crisis. In a recent EE Times article titled 'Multicore puts screws to parallel-programming models', AMD's Chuck Moore is reported to have said that 'the industry is in a little bit of a panic about how to program multicore processors, especially heterogeneous ones.'"
