I quote:

On Fri, 2007-04-27 at 16:31 +0100, wrote:
> Hopefully you men can handle this….

Real men don’t handle .pps files.

Oh, if I must, I will run a filter on it and convert it to something a
real operating system can read…

(comes back after reading)

See, why on earth does that need to even be a PowerPoint presentation atall? Honestly. 915k for something that is only (at most) 26k of text (I know, I tried it. And that was with the embedded image links. Take them
out, and we are single figures there. 9k at tops.) But I suppose if it was sent in email, it would warrant a flurry of top-posting, because the mail client that those who use the afore-un-mentioned operating system that generates all these .pps files doesn’t conform to any standard, and the users think that the way to involve in a conversation is to say what they mean outside of a chronological sequence.

Or is this some other women thing I don’t get?

m. Who is available for hire for ranting at parties, weddings, funerals…

Brilliant. Rant.

Here’s an excellent video detailing the different options open to you in claiming your money back:

 
As a personal aside, i think i’m one of the very few people who has no complaints regarding the bank service I receive. I find my bank both efficient and courteous. I think, like many recovering students, we couldn’t actually have gotten through university without the quite generous over-draft facilities available to under-graduates. However, unauthorised bank charges are unfair and need to be stamped out.

The 40 days for my bank to respond starts now…

Unfortunately, whilst the author Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols presents a good article, he lets down his entire article by stating that..

…without the advantage of having any of Unix’s source code, Linus Torvalds created an open operating system

I feel very depressed when I read this, completely inaccurate, assertion.

Let us be clear: Linus Torvalds did -not- create an Operating System. For a journalist with the experience of Mr. Vaughan-Nichols, he should know better.

Unfortunately, it is mis-information like the quoted paragraph above that leads to the devaluation of the visionary work done by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation in creating the GNU Operating System. Linus Torvalds managed to, brillianty, create a (monolithic) kernel which was integrated into the GNU system. This Operating System should be, correctly, referred to as the GNU/Linux Operating System.

Sorry to rant about this, but the (commonly held, but incorrect) belief that Linus created an Operating System and called it ‘Linux’ really needs clarification. Perhaps someone would be so kind to point Mr. Vaughan-Nichols at this article….?

…actually editing of the BIOS on the motherboard is done to make the motherboard appear to be from an OEM. It is a pretty labor-intensive process and quite risky. If you mess up editing the BIOS of any motherboard, you can quite easily render it permanently useless. So while this method works today, it’s potentially hazardous and really doesn’t scale well to large numbers of systems, which makes it less of a threat.

Alex then details the ’software emulation’ activation crack (this is the utility now widely circulating, involving one-click activation):

The second variant does not change anything in the BIOS itself, but uses a software-based approach to fool the OS into thinking it’s running on OA 2.0-enabled hardware. And while this method is easier to implement for the end user, it’s also easier to detect and respond to than a method that involves directly modifying the BIOS of the motherboard.

What is rather interesting is Microsoft then proceed to state that…

we focus on hacks that pose threats to our customers, partners and products. It’s worth noting we also prioritize our responses, because not every attempt deserves the same level of response. Our goal isn’t to stop every “mad scientist” that’s on a mission to hack Windows. Our first goal is to disrupt the business model of organized counterfeiters and protect users from becoming unknowing victims. This means focusing on responding to hacks that are scalable and can easily be commercialized, thereby making victims out of well-intentioned customers.

Well, this is confusing; it implies that Microsoft isn’t going to address this activation crack. Am I reading this wrongly? I don’t think so: other websites are reporting the same interpretation as well.

I simply do not understand Microsoft’s take on this. There are two implementations of the software hack:

• A grub-like boot-loader that loads the crack before the OS starts. This utility has become a one-click process.
• Software emulation of an OEM enabled BIOS. This crack is the most widely distributed and used. It, like the boot-loader process, is a one-click activation process. Microsoft assert this will be easier to defeat.

 

Both implementations of this activation crack are absolutely ’scalable and can be easily commercialized’. Am I the only one to suspect that the real reason Microsoft have taken this stance is because they are acutely aware that these cracks are not going to be at all easy to defeat. They would have to revoke Asus’ OEM Vista key for starters. This decision could not be taken lightly, and i’m sure ASUS and their customers’ would have something to say.

…did someone say ‘Genuine Advantage’? I think not. WGA is a menace, and a disadvantage to every legitimate user. Microsoft is reaping what it has sowed. The real loser in every instance is the genuine consumer.

I will resist the urge to write about free-software and the GPL in this blog post. GPLv3 cannot come soon enough.

In the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions. But the vast majority of people find that their life is more upset by people who make their life a misery in the inner cities because they can’t go out and feel safe and secure in a healthy, clean environment because of a minority of people.

Britain now has more CCTV surveillance cameras than any other nation on earth – yes, even more than China and N. Korea. Well, i don’t know about anyone else, but i’m scared. This is how democracies fall into autocracies; through the subversion of democracy by the democratically-elected political ruling elite.

Please, people of the UK, vote this government out at the next election. To not do so would be a reckless injustice to what little is left of Britain’s democratic process. Already the government is re-drawing political boundaries to give their candidates unfair advantage, after having spent years trying to (misguidedly) re-haul the House Of Lords (the voice of sanity recently).

Enough is enough! You have a vote on May 2nd – use it.

YES. IT. WAS.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

I wonder when the people responsible for controlling the A14 will finally realise the crashes have nothing to do with speed, but everything to do with lorries using the road day and night, driving in both lanes, getting every-one annoyed and causing accidents due to frustration. Indeed, the A14 is always too busy to ever get above 56 mph during the day!

Instead of widening the road and completing upgrades, our representatives (unelected mostly I might add) have rail-roaded SPECS on us all. Josef Stalin would be salivating if he could see the gantries of spy cameras across Britain right now – all in the name of ’safety’. The UK is currently not a very comfortable place to live if you remotely value your right to privacy and presumption of innocence.

UPDATE: Here below you can see the new cameras in operation.

I am very depressed about this. America, still clearly not yet over either ‘vietnam-syndrome’ or their back-ward facing Cold-War attitude, are pushing ahead with ICBM Missile Defence. I’ve written a Masters level essay that addresses my thoughts on G.W. Bush’s plans. I urge everyone to read it.

Blair is leading the UK down a road to complicitly authorising another arms race between world super-powers. Why did the UK electorate re-elect Blair and his mis-guided visions? Oxford University must be even more ashamed of this Prime Minister than they were of Thatcher after her attitude towards reducing university grants.

To the Americans: do not let your President mis-guide you down this path. ‘Terrorists’ (and I use the word loosely, as the word still doesn’t hold one authorative definition [the State Dept. come close, mind]) will not attack you by launching ICBM’s! They will attack you in exactly the same way they did on 9/11 – in a way that you will not be expecting. Stop living with Cold War mentality and move on, confront, and defeat, your new ‘enemy’ by more appropriate means. Hint: this does not mean holding people without any possibility of a trial.

We should all be ashamed of ourselves for letting America, and the UK, rip up hundreds of years of concensus towards respecting its citizens.

The grad student had created a web site capable of printing fake airline boarding passes. Soghoian is quoted: ‘If they fix the airport security problems… then this entire process has been worth it. If they don’t fix airport security, then… what was the purpose?’” Soghoian’s blog has insightful comments about the divide between security researchers and government officials on subjects such as TOR.

Rant over.