but not in this universe.

An afocal convertor is a multiple element design which could not be implemented like this, fresnel or whatever. In short, it is complete bollocks.

The "designer" hasn't implemented anything except some attractive but flawed drawings. While stylishly executed, they are not real, nor will they ever be. The designer does not understand what a fresnel lens is or does, or the optical requirements of acheiving his goal - the pictures might as well be of glasses that can see through walls or into the future, and, as I say, I am surprised this chaff made it through the BS dectectors.

designer of sunglasses, not optics

This is so stupid I'm surprised it made it through the Reg's usually fine bullshit filter. Be handy while riding a nuclear hoverboard. I have written a poem for it in the style of the great Wesley Willis.

fresnel glasses

These glasses would be like looking through the end of a bottle

Get that crazy-ass mother off your skull

Wearing these glasses can get you into a collision

It can also get you killed for the gravedigger

fresnel my ass

fresnel my ass

fresnel my ass

fresnel my ass

Aldi, it's the stock-up store

Infinite digit size?

> the digits in the numbers quickly become extremely large

Heyyy its the fonts!

View > Text Size > Decrease

Paris because she knows more about the size of digits than most.

Implausible deniability?

Apparently there's a new file system which encrypts your data until you threaten to lock it up for years, then it will show you where it is buried. Trouble is it doesn't decrypt exactly the same as when you last saw it.

@Steve Todd, @Roger Shone

These devices

(http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/17/cowon_iaudio_d2/ and

http://www.pure.com/products/product.asp?Product=VL-60799&Category=On%20The%20Move )

are both very tasty - but they are not equivalent to a cheap transistor radio that you could leave on the beach and expect to come back to. A splash of seawater, drop it on a rock or get it pinched; you'd be £100 down instead of something less than a fiver. But I might also refrain from buying one of them because it looked like the whole DAB thing was going down the pan.

Sure, you CAN get tiny and portable DAB players, but they are nowhere near as cheap, as economical to run, or as robust in form or function as a little FM radio, and never will be. I am sure there is a bright future for digital radio, but DAB looks pretty doomed to me - not enough, too soon, and this in itself will limit the market, even if there isn't any direct competitor as was the case with HD-DVD for instance. If it walks like a condemned duck, etc ...

And Steve Todd, I don't wish to accuse you of being a DAB apologist, and I am happy for you that your experience of mobile reception is unusually excellent, but there are plenty of other DAB users who find the situation unacceptable.

Ebay bargains of the future ...

Introduction of DAB is a classic case of technological determinism. It might help kill air-broadcast radio but it won't take over from FM in a million years.

DAB will never achieve the level of market share to replace the competition, because it does not address the needs of a significant proportion of listeners. It is not usefully mobile, and cannot service those who still listen to radio in preference to the plethora of alternative audio sources. In between things like high-bitrate mp3s, podcasts and internet streaming radio (DRM aside), DAB falls sadly short of two things FM excels at - being easy to tune into with a low-cost device and the potential for high quality sound.

There is not yet, and probably never will be, a tiny DAB receiver that will work on a beach, a bus or in your pocket, at all or for a reasonable length of time - not startling miniaturisation, after all there was all this for FM way back in the 1970s. DAB is apparently never going to work properly in the car, or at all for 10% of the population. The boxes won't get much smaller, or cheaper, or more economical, as potential sales won't justify the development and production costs. Do they have DAB in China?

Quite likely many people are tempted, even me, even now, to buy one: personally I quite like the idea and it's certainly an interesting gadget - blue LED displays and an audio transducer as well as radio 4 (sometimes). I am not overly concerned about the lack of sound quality, as I would mostly listen to talk and over ambient noise. However I would find it really difficult to justify the spend on what, with its dwindling market share, is rapidly becoming a niche for late/early adopters and curiosity collectors; as well as the evidence of the German experience it just seems fairly obvious by now that the whole DAB phenomenon is on a one-way trip along the way of 8-track, Betamax, HD-DVD et al.

Paris because she is dumb enough and rich enough to buy one.

@DS

That bike could easily exceed 189mph - seems it has a turbocharged engine producing 450bhp, also a lengthened swingarm which explains why it seems to go round corners like a pig on stilts. Look at the chap's other videos.