* Posts by Magilla

41 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2007

Terrafugia Transition flying car redesign - first analysis

Magilla
Thumb Up

Sportcopter is moving in a different direction

Sportcopter have designs on the Flying Car market, and appear to be testing prototypes based on gyroplanes. While gyroplanes need a runway (or a 25mph headwind) to take off, they can land virtually vertically.

Here's a link to a slideshow of designs and photos: http://www.sportcopter.com/FlyingCar/tabid/174/Default.aspx

Boobquake fails to destroy planet

Magilla
Alert

Maybe it works!

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, has the most notorious Red Light District on the Western side of Australia, and for the last week, has been rocked by daily earthquakes, from multiple epicentres - measuring from 2 to 5.8 on the Richter scale.

Savage roo mauls Oz man

Magilla
Go

Wild roos

Wild roos are well-known for this kind of behavior - that's why the dingos generally leave them alone, and take babies instead.

NASA: the world will not end in 2012

Magilla
FAIL

The Mayan calendar has been mis-read

According to numerous online sources, the Mayan calendar doesn't end in 2012 anyway - it ends in 2220, at which point it merely wraps around back to 0, like an unsigned int overflow.

Lets schedule armageddon for 2038, when the Unix timestamp wraps instead. Chances are that quite a few of us will still be alive then.

And maybe that's the point?

Muse eye Bond theme

Magilla
WTF?

Well, it couldn't possibly be worse than the Alica Keys / Jack White effort, right?

Please?

Another Way to Die was just too horrible for words.

My vote goes to Amy Lee from Evanescence, with orchestral backing.

Orange UK exiles Firefox from call centres

Magilla
Gates Horns

Here's a different idea

If they have access to the USB ports, they could run Firefox or Opera from U3 - no installation required, and leaves basically no traces.

McAfee false-positive glitch fells PCs worldwide

Magilla
Happy

Finally!

Someone at McAfee has decided to try to fix the root of the problem.

Microsoft bribes Oz to ditch Firefox

Magilla
Gates Horns

Dear Microsoft

Get stuffed.

No love,

Australia

Google, Microsoft plug teens into tech

Magilla
Gates Horns

I hate this sort of thing

There are far more male brickies than female brickies. Lets seem some affirmative action there, huh?

It's a radical thought, but maybe girls/women just don't want to be programmers? Who would have thought it?

There isn't enough money in the world to pay me to work at Microsoft (unless I'm given the power to fix some of the stupidity).

Too much sunshine makes you commit suicide

Magilla
Go

The Happening

So the REAL story isn't that plants are trying to kill us - what's actually happening is that with the onset of global warming, we'll be forced to live closer and closer to the poles where it's cooler, where we will eventually all just kill ourselves, thus solving the problem.

Brilliant!

Jackalope gets jaunty with Ubuntu nip and tuck

Magilla
Pirate

@James

You are welcome to take up the factual accuracy of that quote with Canonical, however IMHO, anyone who thinks including VBScript in /anything/ needs their head checked.

@Toastan Buttar: then I guess that that they are entirely compatible, given that neither works exactly as advertised...

Magilla
Dead Vulture

Fact checking?

"There aren't many application updates for this round of Ubuntu. The newer Basero CD/DVD authoring tool sees an update, but stalwarts such as OpenOffice, GIMP 2.6, and Firefox have seen no major updates since Ubuntu 8.10."

Point of order: according to Canonical punts Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/20/ubuntu_9_04_released/),

"The Linux stack also includes support for the OpenOffice 3.0 office application suite, which didn't make it into the Ubuntu 8.10 release last fall."

And before any of you smartasses say "that says SUPPORTED, not INCLUDED", this from the horses mouth:

"Ubuntu 9.04 features OpenOffice.org 3.0. This gives users a complete office suite that is entirely compatible with Microsoft Office. This free office software provides an immediate saving of at least $200 for users who need to create presentations, write documents or manage spreadsheets at work or at home."

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-desktop

Texas senator wants to ban Vista purchases

Magilla
Coat

Re: A Special Visit

He won't need to. The ICBC* system that Microsoft have been testing should sort it out sharpish.

*Inter-Continental Ballistic Chair

US judge bars teen 'sexting' charges

Magilla
Stop

Wait, what?!?

"A separate photo of the third girl, whose name was kept secret, showed her wrapped in a towel that extended to just below her breasts."

If the towel extended TO "just below her breasts", does this not mean that (1) she was using a very small towel and (2) her breasts were the only things that WEREN'T bared?

Scientology spokesman confirms Xenu story

Magilla
Stop

Atheism

Unfortunately, the idea of atheism has been watered down somewhat over the years. True atheism is not "I don't want to believe that there's a God", which is about the bounds of what most self-professed atheists reach.

A /real/ atheist is a scholar not only of Christianity, but of all deity-based religions, who, after careful study, has come to the conclusion that there is no God.

Simply saying "there is no God" from a position of complete ignorance is lazy and stupid.

Drunk sorority girls quaff booze 'to impress boys'

Magilla
Stop

You're doing it wrong

Guys like girls really drunk when they want to get laid, because it increases the chances somewhat. It's not what they look for when they want to be "dating" - just "bonking".

"He now plans a survey in the other direction, to see if the boys are actually only drinking so much because it makes easy women more attractive."

There, fixed that for you.

For the record, I prefer women who don't drink at all...

Harry Potter hangs up wand in 2011

Magilla
Coat

Brings to mind...

... a bash quote ( http://bash.org/?111338 ), in which, in the name of science (apparently), JonJonB replaces the word "wand" with "wang" in sections of the first Harry Potter Book...

MS puts up $250K bounty for Conficker author

Magilla
Gates Horns

@Cameron Colley

Indeed. A better course of action would be to open the source and offer $100-$1000 for each bug that is found, depending on severity...

Seagate promises second fault fix in 24 hours

Magilla
Dead Vulture

English: do you speak it?

"This will be firmware to fix the firmware (SD1A) that was issued to fix the firmware (SD15) that caused some 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drives and others to stop working. The SD1A firmware caused 500GB Barracuda 7200.11s to stop working."

I think you the whole paragraph.

Story withdrawn

Magilla

Whoever keeps voting for "meh"...

... obviously fails to understand it properly.

Geeks whup Marine ass in Call Of Duty 5

Magilla
Unhappy

A little disappointed...

...that there was no reports of tea-bagging. What is this world coming to?

Who's got more cash? Apple or Microsoft?

Magilla
Alert

MS profit may be higher...

... but lets not forget that they probably ship 10x as many units to actually /get/ that profit. Which means that they make far less per item than Apple. They sell 1 Windows licence for nearly every computer sold. Then have a look at what percentage of people buy Office as well. And how many people have MS mouses, keyboards, consoles and games?

I'll stick to Linux, as I know what the profit margins /really/ are.

Ubuntu goes more mobile with 8.10 release

Magilla
Unhappy

Waitaminute...

"Network Manager is now at the 0.7 level (more on this below)"

Where below is the "more on this"? It's something I was actually interested in hearing about. That's just like people who (a) start ordered lists when they are speaking, but only make one point.

"...a Xen-compatible hypervisor that many suspect is itself heavily based on Xen if not simply Xen in Windows drag. (You decompile the code and get sued by Microsoft to prove it - I'll write the story.)"

Sounds like a job for us Aussies. According to one of my law lecturers, EULAs are invalid here, and that's the only thing that says you can't decompile / reverse engineer / modify etc etc etc

'Googlebomb' blows up in Daily Mail hack's face

Magilla
Black Helicopters

This story is a miserable failure?

I think you'll find that one of the best known googlebombing campaigns was "french military victories".

It even still works, 6 years later, despite bloggers predicting that the mockup google page would fall quickly in the ranks.

If you want a trip down memory lane, type "french military victories" into google and press "I'm Feeling Lucky".

gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum

Magilla
Thumb Down

Re: @AC, Steven Raith (Snake Plissken)

Very funny. Get Windows running, fully-featured, from a LiveCD (that is, 100% in RAM, no hard-drive), and then get back to us.

256MB of RAM is plenty for an installed light to medium distribution. The issue is trying to fit a CD of date (up to 700mb) in a quarter of a gig.

Magilla
Gates Horns

The answers you've been looking for:

Re: Now if only... (daniel)

vi is extremely fast, if you know how to use it. If you don't, there are plenty of other options, such as pico/nano.

And if compiling and dependencies are not your thing, use yum (RedHat-based distros), apt (Debian-based distros), emerge (gentoo-based distros) or YaST (SuSE-based distros) - all of which do a pretty good job of working it out for you.

Re:Just works? (Pete)

Pete, mate - you'll notice that the article states that this is a "beta" release. This is the software codeword for "we haven't finished development yet". The idea being that they can get feedback and make improvements before the official release.

Of course, were this actually "google OS" rather than "good OS", I wouldn't be expecting it to come out of beta for a very long time...

Besuited cubicle monkey trashes office

Magilla
Flame

Re: @Magilla (by AC)

Watch the movie again, and then you may hand your geek card in (humour fail).

You'll find that the full line is "PC LOAD LETTER? What the f**k does that mean?!?"

Magilla
Boffin

Re: PC LOAD LETTER!?!? (Temp)

What the frak does that mean??

Deadly Oz snake bites tourist's todger

Magilla
Alert

Australia FTW

Not only do we have between 7 and 10 of the top 10 worlds deadliest snakes (depending on ranking system), we also have two of the 3 worlds most toxic creatures - the box jellyfish and the blue-ringed octopus. The third is either the cone shell or Ms. Spears (still up for debate).

Add sharks, crocs, spiders, other snakes, and a variety of other bits and pieces, what's not to like?

Mine's the platypus skin coat, thanks. And watch out for the spurs...

DIY satellite TV installer shoots wife dead

Magilla
Dead Vulture

When everyone idolises hammers...

...Everything looks like a nail?

'Freetard ? more like advert programmed PAYTARDS!'

Magilla
Thumb Down

Re: @ Leo Maxwell (By Trevor Watt)

Fail. BIG EPIC FAIL.

Firstly, ever heard of a cover band? If not, they are bands who play other peoples songs, often get paid for it, but don't pay royalties. In effect, there are your cheap MFIkea knock-offs.

Secondly, if Leo discovers that his design of chair is a hit, he can't just bung it on the photocopier to make more. It takes more skill, time, materials, and tools. He can't send the original away and get back a box a week later with 2000 more in it that are exactly the same. Every time he sells a chair, it represents more investment is what he does.

Musical artists, on the other hand, can spend a year writing an album, two weeks recording it, and then will get money every time a copy is sold for the rest of their lives.

I have spent two hours today writing code that could be used for the next five years or more. It's a creative, if not artistic work. I will get paid for two hours labour for it, and not a penny more. If that code is still running in 5 years, or has been shared with other companies worldwide, I won't get a cent more for it.

Disclaimer: I am also a non-recording musical artist.

Lightsaber voted top movie weapon

Magilla
IT Angle

A title is required.

Chuck Norris

Eraser - Railgun with xray scope

MiB - Noisy Cricket

Beverley Hills Cop 3 - gun with radio, microwave etc

Croc Dundee - The Knife

Johnny Mnemonic - hot wire

and I love the smell of Napalm in the morning...

'Dangerously alluring' Ukrainian joins Bond 22

Magilla
Paris Hilton

Boobies

Her bared breasts spent enough time on-screen in the movie Hitman that they qualified as characters in their own right for the credits. They are also both better actors than she is.

I guess she has something in common with Paris then, and that's the angle we're looking for...

Welcome to the El Reg bumper demographic survey

Magilla

Re: Back in the good old days... (AC)

IMO, a nice IBM model M keyboard would do the trick.

Re: the advertising section of the survey - where's the checkbox for "I use Adblock Plus, so I never see the ads"?

Hitachi 'collision avoidance' bot does a Ballmer at press do

Magilla
Alert

@ @ @Pete's

You must be new here.

Oops, wrong site...

eBayer punts Wii for £1m

Magilla

Seems entirely reasonable...

...after all, he'd only need to sell three or four to afford the base model PS3...

Macs seized by porn Trojan

Magilla
Flame

Abdul Omar (Relax)

You probably think you're very funny and clever, but you aren't.

1) It's called Boot CAMP, not Boot Cap

2) Vista is far less secure than OSX is.

If you want to know how secure Windows is, DO NOT ask Microsoft. Do you REALLY think they'd say "Vista is a piece of crap", even if it really is? Of course not.

Incidentally, Vista IS a piece of crap...

Jordan mulls mamtastic epitaph

Magilla
Coat

Here we go

Here I lie

Among the dead

With the biggest boobs

And the emptiest head

Ballmer again: AT&T and Verizon should rule the airwaves

Magilla
Gates Horns

Title

"[Microsoft] may be broader in what we do than almost any company out there, but we think we have a core competence..."

It's a shame that they haven't figured out what it is yet though.

Oscar Wilde voted top Brit wit

Magilla
Thumb Down

But but but...

...what about John Cleese? Rowan Atkinson?

After months of denial, Microsoft cops to IE vulnerability

Magilla
Gates Horns

Re: Why is John (Post 12/10/2007 @ 03:50 GMT) a complete cretin?

No browser is perfect, for sure - it's just that Internet Explorer is the least secure and least standards-compliant major web browser available. With out a doubt, the BEST ways to stop getting crapware from web pages are to (a) swap to *nix/*BSD/Apple or (b) swap to Firefox or Opera.

Remember:

1) Anti-[virus|crapware|malware|adware] makers are ALWAYS behind the ball. You can't make a fix for something until you find it, and you don't find it 'til it's in the wild, infecting computers. Prevention is better than cure.

2) Anti-[virus|crapware|malware|adware] makers don't always remove ALL traces of any given infection. Over time, Windows gets bogged down with all sorts of traces of crap, and this issue just adds to it. Prevention is better than cure.

3) No Anti-[virus|crapware|malware|adware] package is comprehensive. Most moderate infections require the use of 3-5 different scanner/removers, and then a final tidy-up by hand to get a machine clean. This can take up to a week to complete. Prevention is better than cure.

Simon, I honestly don't care if you decide to use IE for the rest of your life, and hang the consequences*. I, however, will continue to use Firefox, and browse [virus|crapware|malware|adware] free, and advertisement-free as well.

I recommend that everyone else do the same.

*Consequences that could be severe and unforgiving, given the rate that IE tends to pick up nasties. I hope you don't net-bank. Really.