Of mice and fish-brained morons

Subject: UN game challenges status quo
What a crock Hales. Forget about "oil for food" now its video games for food. Instead of the UN feeding anyone, a bunch of lefties and minds of mush are encouraged with the UN's blessing to feed their feel-good buisness. Like Koffie care's.
We need games based on reality. Like becoming a hero saving victims from being raped by UN "disaster" workers. Or learning law and justice convicting UN criminals of greed and allowing a tyrant to pocket billions intended to feed and cloth the needy.
You're still an idiot.
Steve

Subject: AP set to charge for web news
I've always been a fan of the 'inq, and making sure the facts are right is part of the deal. So in your story about The Associated Press (where I work as a programmer), this should be clarified:
Although we do accept significant content from some of our our members, we were founded over 150 years ago as a content _creation_ service - content (and costs) all our members could share. This remains our primary role today.
It may also be note-worthy that we are a not-for-profit corporation, owned by our larger members.
Kind regards,
Warren Spencer, Senior Software Engineer
The Associated Press

Subject: Company claims ability to wipe out file-sharing
I reckon that's a load of marketing tosh from them, Paul. In particular, it's not possible to intercept BitTorrent files.
I guess we'll see in time. Will the RIAA/MPAA stop suing people now? Bet they don't.
At what point will governments step in and realize all they have done to the music and movie industry is give them legal right to hack other people's machines. If it is no longer illegal for them to change files on your hard drive then a good defense team might be able to use that precident to defend any other hacker in essence saying if they can without recourse so can we. What if their tampering leads to your hard disk crashing and wiping out other very important information? Will you be able to hold them responsible? Will you even know they were on your computer tampering with your files? We are approaching a very dangerous area if we allow the desires of an industry to outweigh the rights to an individuals personal property with no accountability.

Subject: I think they've forgotten something
"It can wipe out file-sharing in an instant" - and of course they know how to differentiate between legitimate, personal video files (yes, they exist, no copywright from the majors), and Hollywood video copies illegally shared. Same for audio files - only the copyrighted ones will be corrupted, right ?
And they know how to read through compressed files and only corrupt those with copywrited content.
Or did they forget that legitimate content exists on file-sharing networks (application patches and game modifications) ?
I can almost believe they can destroy file-sharing in an instant. I most cetainly believe that in the following instant, they will be crushed by a raft of lawsuits from legitimate - and angry - file-sharers.
Besides, if their tech worked so well, all they really need to do is contact MPAA and RIAA and they'll make a fortune in seconds. A press release smacks of over-the-top effort to get known.
After all, the Finns also have the Bitboys, right ? Isn't it those guys who, when the GeForce 2 came out, made a claim that they were shortly going to make a better product ? All they really did was publish the wish-list of what they would like to have been able to make, but we never saw any product from those guys.
Maybe there are some Bitboys guys in this new venture. The PR has the same smell - fishy.
Pascal

Microsoft Intellipoint Mouse reviewed
Hey Mr. Hales,
I just read your article about the intellimouse explorer and wanted to share my experiences with you. I purchased an intellimouse explorer 4.0 for myself, and got one with a new computer at work.. BOTH of them started causing trouble about a month or two after I started using them. Both of them had left button problems and would require 2-3 clicks before it would actually work. This happened with both of them, both from different companies.. I guess the days of MS releasing quality mousing devices has come to a close. Pretty unfortunate, but at least we still have logitech :)
Thanks.

Subject: Company claims ability to wipe out file-sharing
Should be good for a load of law suits as this worm starts chewing through the various photo albums, wedding videos, and other public domain content on P2P. So who gets the bill? The software company, RIAA, MPAA, or the sorry sot that dumps this wonderkin onto a bittorrent network?

Subject: Brits pay through nose for domain names

Regarding your story: Brits pay through nose for domain names. I too noticed this a while back, and I also noticed that 1&1 wont let you use a UK address on their site either. They will, however, allow you to use a US address and a UK credit card.
Better still? Use GoDaddy () - Similar price, but they allow registration using a UK address and credit card. There is also an upside in that their DNS control panel is much better than 1&1's on a number of aspects, not least in that it allows the use of txt records.
Hope you find this informative.

Subject: 1&1
Hello Paul,
I had web hosting with 1 & 1 for one year but did not want to continue using them after that year, 1 & 1 tried to scam me for the cost of another year of web hosting. After a couple of letters from a fake collections agency and email correspondance, they tried to make a deal in which I paid less money, my solicitor sent them a letter and I never heard from them again.
Please inform your readers about their very dodgy business practices.
All the best.
Steven Lowry

Subject: Woman sues ISP for grassing her up to RIAA
Hopefully this dumb broad will get a $10,000 fine and be told that privacy laws do not prevent her details from being released for a criminal investigation, which they don't in the U.S. You steal you go to prison and I'd make DAMN SURE this Bitch spends several years in prison for trying to use privacy laws to hide her criminal activity. Maybe THEN she'll understand privacy AND copyright law and that crime don't pay???
I still like the idea of wiping out someone's hard drive for Piracy. Ya gotta admit that would be cool as Hell AND it would help the HD industry. If someone could come up with a way to just TOAST the HD big time with smoke and flames, that would be great! Sure as Hell would surprise a lot of criminals and get a lot of laughs and put a lot of criminals in prison and put P2P facilitators out-of-Biz. Now THAT, THAT would be poetic justice !
Randy

Subject: You retard
Your link to download pacman is infact a link to a spyware installer, you pathetic fish brained moron.
Paul

Subject: PCWORLD
Hah, gotta love those early morning rants, I know exactly how you feel mate, PCWORLD may as well employ a set of gibbons. Oh wait, doesn't it already...?
Regards and condolences for the deceased rodent,
Richard Waterhouse

Subject: Superior mice
Well, just get yourself a nice Logitech MX1000 laser wireless mouse, with about 1/30 the power of any laser pointer, I doubt it will harm anything anytime soon, but it is damned nice to use and it recharges...
Not to mention, 800 DPI and a scroll wheel that have fine increments that allows you to flip through a lot of the rather boring non-Inquirer crap with relative ease and speed.
Got one a few weeks ago, and was kept banging myself for not getting it sooner.

Subject: Unhappy but loyal user
pacman chews up the web...
the link you provided which i then downloaded, ran and executed, "chewed up" my computer, now I do feel that my grandmother can run faster than my computer...HELP!
ps: didnt spot the warning messages..

Apologies to those readers inundated with spyware along with Pac-man
- Fish-brained Hales

Subject: Superior mice
what a waste of time reading you whine about your mouse....order an new one online and get over yourself.....

Subject: Cheap mice
Hi Paul,
You said: 'and I prefer cheap mice'
Well, what are you complaining about? You got what you wanted. A a responsible adult, you should know by now that "cheap" and "good" do not mix.
The word 'cheap' is a value judgement, and has an implied 'rubbish' meaning. Your are not alone in your preference for "cheap". People are quite willing to spend vast amount of money on sqaundered taxes, or cars, clothes etc., but when they go to buy computer stuff, it has to be "cheap". So they buy Dell instead of HP or IBM, and then complain about the service and/or quality.
Stop whining or change your buying policy.
Cheers,
Maarten

Subject: Mice
Hello Paul,
I couldn't help but laugh when reading your article about cheap mouses.. sp?. I've been building peecees now for around 8 yrs now and have scrimped on some so called non-esential components. It never fails but the cheapest component always fails first. Lately I've used only so-called name brand products and had a much longer MTBF. Just quit been a cheapsake and buy the good stuff. As an aside a few years ago I bought 5 mice from Mickey Soft(they were Mac knock off's --all white)none have failed and they have very good battery life, they are wireless.
Best Regards
Joe Kern

Subject: Cheap Mice and Me, Who Buys Them
Try Mitsumi mice. They have a nice optical that I get for $8-9 almost anywhere and when I buy a whole box of them, the toll drops to $6.50 each.
Most of the Mitsumi mice have one of those third buttons that one either presses or wobbles to and fro to scroll. That's okay by me, but if you find that not to your tastes, you can find them with wheels, though they're much harder to come by. PS/2 is the most common interface (one reason they're so cheap) but USB can be found and there's always adapters. The price never seems to vary much.
I've owned/sold/given away several dozen of the little things and can say that by all accounts, you can't kill them or wear them out.
Give it a shot.
Jack

Subject: cheap mice
heh....serves you right for a) buying pcline... then b) buying microsoft! :-) buy logitech and spend the cash on a decent model. much better behaved rodents!
marty

Subject: Beastley wee beasties...
Can I recommend the excellent and inexpensive Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse that sells in Canada for about $8 ($6 US)?
I have a box full of defunct Microsoft mice, some originally selling for over $80! The wire fails where it passes through into the body of the mouse, the micro-switches don't and the electronics are massively marginal.
I have yet to have a Logitech mouse fail despite repeated droppings and my generally negligent attitude towards cheap hardware.
I do not work for nor am I in any way affiliated with Logitech except as a happy retail purchaser and user of their products.
Logitech keyboards are excellent quality as well although I get tired of all those useless Windows function keys that infest some models.
Best regards,
Bar

Subject: bitchin 'bout mice
Sounds like your ape-hands arn't qualified to operate a mouse. I've been buying the MS mice and keyboard bundle for a few years in our office, and havn't had any problems. We have about 10 of them now. They are dirt cheap, and work well for eejits, maybe not for apes, though. :)

Subject: You cheap bastage!
Do yourself a humungous favour: DO NOT BUY CRAP!
There - how simple can it be?
You are a power-user. You need a power-mouse!
Now, get your arse down to somewhere that sells Logitech mice, and don't EVER buy another MS mouse.
MX-300 = fantastic 5-button wired mouse.
MX-700 = amazing wireless with charging station.
MX-900 = wank value, laser mouse.

I'm sure you've had 188 mails just like this one. So make this 189...
Kind regards,
Chris Davies

Subject: don't be such a cheap-ass
maybe next time you should actually spend a couple of bucks and not have to worry about going back to the store, and wasting peoples time with crappy unnecessary reviews. Spend $50-$80 and you won't waste your time, or ours. I have a microsoft mouse that I've dropped countless times and it still works fine.

That's enough mice - ed. µ