* Posts by markfiend

63 posts • joined 19 Jun 2009




There was the time that I typo'd "DELETE FROM table WHERE id=1" as ..."WHERE id-1"

Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to annihilation

Facepalm "no statistically significant warming" != "no significant warming" Again with the warming denailism by commentards on elreg?

Has UK gov lost the census to Lulzsec?


I'm fighting a losing battle I know...

...but I wish people would stop referring to script-kiddies and black-hats as "hackers".



Back to gaslight, coal and steam power - it's the future


Still produces CO2 though...

...what's REALLY needed is carbon-free energy.

Super-injunctions 'unfair' cos of Twitter gossip, says Cameron


Ken Clarke fails law...

IANAL but in my understanding "15yo girl and 17yo boy enjoying fully consensual sex" would not be rape at all.



Re: Gold and silver VHS

I thought one set was widescreen and the other set pan-and-scan?



If I were Colonel Gadaffi...

...I'd offer Assange political asylum.

Or has Gadaffi stopped with his policy of "let's piss off the Americans just for shits and giggles"?

New NASA model: Doubled CO2 means just 1.64°C warming


Do we really still have to put up with the denialism arguments?

So you think you've suddenly thought of a problem that the climate scientists haven't? OK, fine, get it published in a scientific journal and wait for the Nobel committee to come knocking.

At this stage of the game, trying to pretend that CO2 *isn't* driving anthropogenic climate-change is pretty much on a par with creationism: you're denying that the evidence exists because you don't like the conclusions.

"recently a leading climatologist ( one could hardly say scientist) claimed that the laws of thermodynamics ( a part of science more completely proved than any other) must be wrong because it did not tie in with the AGW theory." In the immortal words of wikipedia... [citation needed]


Modelling *is* Science


These testable explanations and predictions are also known as *models*.

Lost ancient civilisation's ruins lie beneath Gulf, says boffin


Our species is NOT 12,000,000 years old...

From wikipedia ("human" article) "Anatomically modern-appearing humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago, reaching full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago."

So you're out by a factor of 60...

ASSANGE ARRESTED in London - in court later today

Black Helicopters

What's the sweepstake...

...on how long it will be before Assange "falls down the stairs" or is "shot trying to escape from custody"?

They have already shown their contempt for rule of law, what difference does it make to have the blood of one more on their hands?

DDoS attack, sex warrant won't stop Assange's leaky discharge


Publishing information...

...embarrassing to the US government makes someone a terrorist now?

Well actually I see the point. The truth about the US govt's activities does inspire terror.

Sarah Palin calls for US to stand by North Korea



Sarah Palin looks like I need a drink...

Police to get greater web censorship powers


Goodbye web

It was nice while it lasted, but the authoritarians have taken over now.

Off to find another Temporary Autonomous Zone.

Most coders have sleep problems, need 'hygiene and care'


28-hour day


Christians vs metalheads in FB flame war


Genuine Satanists?

No such thing. There's only kids for whom "Mum, I don't believe in god" didn't have the expected impact.

Before I get downvoted, I'd like to point out that this is not intended as a slur against non-believers. I'm an atheist myself.

Has CERN made the VATICAN ANTIMATTER BOMB for real?*


pedancy (if that's a word)

I think the word you're looking for is pedantry.

And now I'm off for a lie-down as my head has exploded from the irony of my own meta-pedantry.

MS freebie anti-virus scanner auto-downloads provoke more anger


I fail reading comprehension.

I wasn't deliberately trolling. Honest.

Gates Horns

Is it just me...

...or is unwanted software which automatically downloads and installs pretty much the definition of malware?



You forgot a term...

B6 = the amount of bullshit you're willing to buy from Frank Drake.


Sony hits stop on Walkman tape players


Hearing loss predictions

...were not entirely unwarranted, as I can testify. Or at least I would if I heard you ask the question.

Quarter-past three.

Steve Jobs in iPhone bitchslap to creationists, Tea Party


"only a theory"

Well, so is gravity.

"Apple has taken a stance which will upset a lot of Americans"

It's hardly Apple's fault that the truth upsets people.

Yahoo! boffin scores pi's two quadrillionth bit


I am not a mathematician but

It can be proven that pi never repeats. Sorry to spoil your joke.

Although it's probably that there's a string of digits in there somewhere that would encode to Nelson's "Ha ha!"

Ubuntu man responds to GNOME 'coattail' claims


I know, DNFTT, but...

...if people wrote apps that were GUI-agnostic it might help.

How am I supposed to run KDE on (for example) an old machine with only 64MB of RAM? I'll run fluxbox on it if I need a GUI.

Diversity, not uniformity, is the strength of Linux.



Downvoting you

... for putting all the &amp;nbsp; characters in there and giving my browser a wide-on.


ASA: You can't say 'f**k'



As it happens, I believe that French Connection have been told off a number of times for FCUK and derivatives. But "told off" is pretty much all the ASA can do, so French Connection pretty much get away with it.

On the wider subject, there's very little advertising I don't find annoying. Can I claim offence at Direct Line's ads because I'm sick of the sound of Stephen Fry's voice?

Secret ancient code, basis of all modern civilisation, cracked


Re: Anonymous Coward, The pope, 29th June 2010 21:13 GMT

Why have people downvoted this hilarious parody? Come on, you've all fallen for a classic example of Poe's law!


Shorter Jay Kennedy

"I think that Plato believed in some kind of deity therefore you should too."

Hmm. Not exactly the most convincing of arguments.

The Reg guide to Linux, part 3


If you want ultimate noob-friendly Linux...

...you'd have done a guide to installing Mint.

Mint comes with mp3, flash, DVD support all preinstalled.



Dual- or multi-boot...

...is also an ideal setup for a dedicated distro-hopper.

My partition layout has swap first, then three partitions for the / (root) of three different distros (currently Mint, Arch, Debian sid), then a /home partition shared between all three, then a big f***-off data partition filling the rest of the drive.

The Reg guide to Linux, part 1: Picking a distro


Sorry, couldn't resist

Isn't the saying that Ubuntu is swahili for "can't install Debian"?

Pakistani lawyer petitions for death of Mark Zuckerberg


Thou shalt not kill

...unless you're killing:

* Egyptians (Exodus 13:15)

* Children of Belial (Deuteronomy 13: 15)

* Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (Deuteronomy 20:17)

And I'm bored of making this list now, not even got out of the Pentateuch...


Usual "atheism just as bad as religion" fail...

...but at least you didn't try to claim Hitler was an atheist.

Stalin and Mao: atheists maybe*, but humanists? You need a new dictionary mate.

Humanism is a secular ideology which espouses reason, ethics, and justice. Stalin and Mao fit this how?

* in so much as they suppressed rivals to the official state "religion" -- the cult of personality based on themselves.

South African Bill to block all porn


Reading comprehension fail

Daggersedge: did you actually bother to read my post before springing in with your "Aha! Gotcha!"?

I am very much in favour of free speech, and I am offended by your accusation that it's merely for appearance's sake. (But your freedom of speech is more important *to me* than any offence I might feel. If we were only to protect speech with which we agree, that's no freedom at all.)

I do not accept censorship. I accept *moderation* from the Reg because it's their site, their rules. The comparison between private entities and governments fails because *a government does not own its country*. If you refuse to understand this basic point then I see no point continuing the conversation.

Having said that, would you be happy if I came into your house and kept shouting in your face "Daggersedge believes in censorship! Nya nya nya!"? Or would you prefer to "censor" me? Your continued refrain is starting to sound like Dennis in Monty Python's Holy Grail: "Help, help! I'm being oppressed!"


Moderation is NOT a form of censorship

You are quite wrong.

Freedom of speech means that the government aren't (or oughtn't be) allowed to tell me what I may or may not say within their jurisdiction. It does NOT mean that the owners of this site aren't allowed to tell me what I may or may not say *on this site*.

There is a difference between the public sphere (of the internet in general) and private property (individual web sites). If you don't like what you're allowed to say (or not say) on this forum, you're quite FREE to go and set up your own. You're even free to set up the rules so that no-one is allowed to post dissenting opinions on your site.

It's a bit more tricky for South Africans to go off and set up their own country...

Biz Linux needs Office license to run MS web apps


Microsoft's fail not OOo's

> Open Office slightly messes the format of word docs

Only because MS Word doesn't conform to the standards -- standards, I could remind you, that MS was a big part of drafting.

Fedora 13 - Ubuntu's smart but less attractive cousin


Minor nitpick

Ironic that you can accuse people of having "holier-than-thou attitude with open source software" and "forcing everyone to install worlds of unwanted Mono programs". In my experience real FOSS evangelists want as little to do with Mono as possible.

So either (a) you're talking about two different sets of people and I've got confused.

(b) you're talking about one set of people and they're confused

(c) you're confused.

And now this post to confuse everyone even further. Hope that helps.

UK pol touts canine chip implants


Got to agree with most of the comments

Responsible dog owners, for the most part, already chip their animals. Irresponsible owners (and with "aggressive dogs" it's almost always the owner that's at fault, not the dog) will ignore any legal requirement. Just like they do with car insurance.

This government really isn't very good at joined-up thinking is it?

Intel: Just 3,000 employees run Windows 7


"Business computers left on 24/7"

I've seen the above in two comments. Do people not power off their machines at home-time? What a criminal waste of energy!

Open source - the once and future dream


Slight nitpick...

...but freedom of speech (in the USA's constitutional guarantee) only means that the government may not restrict your speech. It doesn't mean that corporations may not.

For instance, a cinema would be perfectly at liberty to have you removed from the building if you kept yelling "fire".

But like I say, it's only a nitpick.

UK.gov unmoved by Internet Explorer 6 security concerns


Crapita et. al. incompetence...

...not exactly a surprise. If you're one of these public sector contractors it seems you can get away with crap which would get you sacked in the private sector.

And they don't just get away with it, they have the government coming back for more.


MPs frozen out of super-secret copyright talks

Black Helicopters

Vote for change?

As far as I can see all the major parties are just offering more of the same.

If voting could change anything they'd ban it.

UK.gov moves to block Hamas kids site


Eh, yes.

By any reasonable definition, our last common ancestor would be classified as an ape. Modern cladistics don't you know. "Apes" is a group consisting of gibbons, chimpanzees, gorillas, humans and orangutans, and everything descended from the last common ancestor of all of them.

Humans *are* apes, and primates, and eutherian mammals, and tetrapods, and vertebrates, and animals, and metazoa, and eukaryotes.

Record labels seek DMCA-style UK takedowns

Black Helicopters

But who do we vote for?

All major parties (as far as I can see) support this crap. So who do we vote for to oppose it?

The old saying goes "if voting could truly change anything they'd make it illegal".

Paramount prepares to scale Dune


Lynch is the Emperor...

...wearing his new clothes.

I've not seen the miniseries but it's difficult to see how anyone can get a film more wrong than David Lynch can.

Monty's 'Save MySQL' mudsling gets 15,000 backers


Fork It!

'Nuff said.

Mine's the one with the Withnail script in the pocket.

Atheists smite online God poll



We'll stop poking the theists when they stop trying to make us all live by their rules.

Blasphemy laws (Blasphemy: the one truly victimless crime)

Anti-gay "defence of marriage" laws

Trying to fsck up science teaching for our kids

Need I go on?

Plods' 'extremist' sheet included BAE mole


RE: Yawning @ the repsonses...

...and ignoring the substance in favour of nitpicking the rhetorical flourish.


@Matt Bryant

Painting with a very broad brush aren't we? A lot of people are vegetarian for all sorts of reasons. Please don't associate us all with the ALF loonies.

Other than that your dismissal of anti-arms-trade protestors as "noisy morons" just sounds like you're yet another wannabe-authoritarian: "sit down, shut up, obey the police, it's for your own good." You'd have been on the side of the cavalry at Peterloo.

Historian slams 'absolutely crazy' UK time zone


Stick with GMT

Is it just me or does British Summer Time (and similar "daylight saving" schemes) strike anyone else as like trying to make a piece of rope longer by cutting off one end and tying it to the other?

Beer 'cos an extra hour in bed means more time for hangover recovery.



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