Posts by Martin
620 posts • joined Thursday 17th January 2008 11:18 GMT
Want to bet?
OK.
I bet you a virtual beer that the iPad mini is 16 x 9. It'll be following the shape of the new iPhone 5.
Re: 'Large marine animal', yes...
There's a little "R" on the side.
It's so uuuuugly....
Picked it up in Comet yesterday. That HUGE bezel around the edge is awful - it just makes the whole thing look too fat and wide.
Technically, it's fine, I guess. But I'll never buy one. I love my Kobo Touch, and I don't often read in the dark.
Must say, though, I like the look of the new Kindle Paperwhite...
Posted in Is lightspeed really a limit?
Re: Then divide by the number you first thought of
"The division by a number less than 1 is a multiplication, but for algebraic simplicity it is 'allowed'."
OK. Let's follow that through.
Can I multiply by a number less that one? Yes - but it's exactly the same as dividing by a number greater than one. So, by your argument, the multiplication by a number less than one is a division, but for algebraic simiplicity it is "allowed".
So, according to you, we can't multiply OR divide numbers less than one. Go figure.
Not quite sure...
Not sure I get it - is the idea to have your phone doing the actual handling of the book and the reader being a thin bluetooth client of the phone? If so, it seems quite elegant.
Posted in Is lightspeed really a limit?
Perhaps I have a strange head then....
...I found the mathematics of Maxwell's equations extremely hard, and never did quite convince myself of them. However, the maths of Special Relativity, and the concepts behind it, just seems quite straight-forward (albeit non-intuitive).
Recommendation - Relativity and Common Sense by Hermann Bondi - recommended to me when I was in the 6th form by my Physics teacher. Made it crystal clear to me.
What was before the big bang...?
The point is that as time was created as part of the big bang, it's not actually a meaningful question to ask "what was there before the big bang?" We just don't have the vocabulary or imagination to contemplate it in a meaningful manner - all we can do is see where the maths equations take us.
Re: But what about the books?
Really? OK, I'll take your word for it.
My only memory of a martini order in the new film was something like this:-
"Dry martini, please"
"Shaken or stirred?"
"Do I look as if I give a damn?"
But what about the books?
I think there should be at least a nod to the books on which the films were based. (Only the Ian Fleming ones, though - all the others - at least the two or three that I've read - are pale imitations of the real thing).
This is how Bond orders a martini in the first book, Casino Royale:-
“A dry martini," he said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet." ...
"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”
Posted in Facebook digs in over Jill Meagher page
Re: Another damn Nanny State
Sigh.
It's not a Nanny State issue. It's a matter of two freedoms (the right to freedom of speech and the right to a fair trial) being incompatible with each other.
Ordinarily, the right of free speech is secondary to the right of a fair trial. One is a temporary infringement of a right - the other may affect a temporary - or permanent - infringement of liberty.
A statement like "censorship of any kind, for any reason, is bad" is just an indication that the person who has made the statement has made no attempt to think it through.
Re: Is the love mutual?
Don't touch the Amazon mp3 downloader. Use Pymazon instead. Much neater.
Posted in iPad mini to go on sale in one month?
The really interesting thing will be...
...the screen ratio.
Is it going to be a large iPhone - so 16x9 ?
Or a small iPad - so 4x3 ?
My money's on the former.
If so, it'll be quite amusing watching Apple play catch-up and the iFans pretending that Apple are innovating.
Posted in Tablet and laptop sales neck and neck
Re: @Black Plague
Nexus 7 - a bigger version of your Android phone, but only £159.
Simples.
Posted in Apple MacBook Air 13in review
Re: Foul! @Martin
So...
You think that he is irritated because he thinks that I think that he cares that I dislike what he likes.
Is that right?
Posted in Apple MacBook Air 13in review
Re: Foul! @Martin
"I don't give a flying fuck about your puerile and envious "shiny shiny" comment though, and neither do Apple nor their customers."
Obviously, you DO give a flying fuck about it. Or you wouldn't have bothered to say so.
I concede it was a slightly puerile comment. I emphatically deny that it was envious.
Posted in Apple MacBook Air 13in review
Re: Foul!
"so what if he likes apple stuff. He does list the shortcomings he finds...."
to wit - no wired network, no matt screen, lacking in memory and disk, and insanely expensive - and he still gives it 90%. Shiny-shiny counts for a lot, it seems.
Re: Accelerating
".....sort of a mathematical pint too many - the bar hasn't moved but its just a lot harder to get to."
Beautiful - have one on me!
Brobdingnagian?
That's a complicated way of saying "huge". I bet you had to check the spelling.
Posted in Toshiba AT300 10in Android tablet review
Re: Nice, but no banana
A micro-usb to USB adaptor costs a couple of quid from Amazon. Hardly a deal-breaker.
And adding a USB connector would DEFINITELY push up the manufacturing cost.
Posted in Toshiba AT300 10in Android tablet review
Well done, Toshiba!
Now that's more like it.
A reasonable 10" tablet by a well-known maker at less than three hundred notes. And an SD card expansion slot too.
I don't happen to have £300 spare at the moment, but if I did, I'd be looking at this with considerable interest.
Re: OMG They are talking to el'reg?
Since the Reg started publishing sycophantic reviews of their phones.
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/21/apple_iphone_5_review/
Posted in So many devices, so little policy
Re: Sailors
Arrgh, me hearties, 'tis Talk like a Pirate day!
"The only issues I have experienced lately..."???
Was this sarcasm?
The first doesn't matter, but the last two would be complete show-stoppers for me.
Which is why my box is set up in modem mode and I use a linux-based firewall/router instead.
Too expensive...
Four hundred quid is a reasonable price?
Seriously, in this day and age, when exceptional 7" tablets are available for significantly less than two hundred quid, 10" tablets should be a sight cheaper than four hundred quid.
Re: if it ain't broke
Which is why the Post Office was still using pulse-based dialling in the eighties...
My favourite Haynes text....
35 steps to do a procedure....
36. Reassembly is the reverse of the procedure.
Happy days. Glad I don't do my own car servicing any more.
Re: Coveted item
"If it had been an Android tablet the would never have been caught, he'd have left it behind and taken the telly instead."
I think several people above have had a serious sense of humour failure here.
It was a joke, and it made me smile, even though I own an Android table and really don't like anything to do with Apple.
(It was a joke, right?)
Re: More self-agrandizing nonesense
"My point is that debating the science, the statistics, is irrelevant now. People don't believe in AGW any more."
"Unfortunately for you, it's game over. You lost."
Belief in Darwinism is actually dropping in the US, as the creationists take hold. Are you honestly suggesting that we should just accept that?
Re: No Sony on the list
No - it's that they couldn't find a single person who had anything good to say about their Sony phone.
Oh, for heaven's sake....
It's a generally well known phenomenon that the more money people spend on their purchases, the more they are likely to convince themselves that they like them. (Citation:- the wonderful book "Mistakes were made (but not by me)" by Tavris and Aronson, which discusses the whole gamut of self-justification.)
iPhones cost more than the rest. Therefore, people are more likely to like them.
Apple? You've got competition.
A new genre appears - the Amazon fanboi.
Posted in Nokia apologizes for faking Lumia 920 ad
Re: Oh Dear!
If you're going to be pedantic, be correctly pedantic.
As has been pointed out, it's actually from King John. And it's actually "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily".
Re: The next generation
Or reading in the bath. I think this is a brilliant idea.
Posted in Third of iPad owners want smaller slabs
"...and if you don't like it, it's because you're holding it wrong."
blcollier - so it's OK to commit a little fraud...?
I didn't say that, or even imply it.
Nor, as far as I can see, did anyone who replied to my post.
So what are you referring to?
Oh, ffs...
I'm all in favour of trying to identify fraud, but honestly....
Why stop there? Why not insist we all write our claim forms by hand and employ graphologists? Or get us to send in photos of our heads and employ phrenologists?
Flapple?
Even if it was funny the first time (which it wasn't), it became pretty damn irritating by the eighth time it was used.
Re: Anyone fancy a Kindle Fire 2?
Hear hear.
What on earth is there to downvote about that post? (Unless you bought a Kindle Fire from the US just before the Nexus 7 came out...?)
Actually...
...it's xenophobia, not xenophobism.
Posted in Ten netbooks
Still too expensive...
When netbooks first came out three or four years ago, they were £229 or thereabouts. And they are STILL that sort of price. They've got slightly better specs - but that's all.
They seem to be the only form of computer life which doesn't go down in price. I cannot see any good reason why they shouldn't be sub-£150 these days.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if Asus or Acer were to produce a fairly minimal spec box for £149. I reckon it would fly off the shelves.
@Helena Handcart: If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...
Others have made similar points, but as I made the original post, I ought to reply to your comment.
I don't have a boss who is a puritan. I don't wear a tie at work, though I consider wearing a t-shirt to be unprofessional in my office. I love life, and I'm not afraid of authority. And I have no objection, in general, to the unclothed female (or male) form.
But I see no reason why I should offend other people in my office - particularly women - who may not actually WANT to look at a picture like this at work.
If you really work in an office where displaying this sort of picture is acceptable, I wonder how many women would find it comfortable to work there?
If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...
...would you please mark it as NSFW?
Re: I need three hands here
"Personally I think an age of consent of around 13-14 is about right..." is presumably what was meant.
Having a fourteen year old daughter, I totally and utterly disagree with you. She may THINK she's old enough to consent, but she isn't.
Posted in Barnes & Noble Nooks bound for Blighty
Re: The problem is...
Amazon may "lock you down" but (a) the Kindle ebooks are frequently cheaper than the ePub equivalents and (b) are frequently the only format available. Add to that the sheer ease of buying Kindle books (one click, and a minute later you start reading it on your Kindle) and it's no wonder that Kindles lead the market.
I have a Sony Reader, a Kobo Touch and a Kindle. I am not just being a Kindle fanboi here. I'd love it if buying books on the Kobo Touch were as easy as it is on the Kindle. (It claims to be, but it isn't really in the same class...)
If you really hate being locked down, I believe that there are ways of stripping the DRM from Kindle books and reading them on other readers. Not that I'd know how to do anything like that, or in any way endorse it, you understand.
And as usual...
...a figure is plucked from the air - in this case, AUD$1.37 billion - which is presumably based on the totally and utterly flawed assumption that every illegal download is a lost sale.
Re: Deliver to office/workplace?
Hmm.
That's fine, until someone abuses it. I heard a story (possibly here on el reg comments?) about someone who got four motor tyres delivered to his place of work. Unsurprisingly, the workplace clamped down on getting personal mail delivered to work.
And typically...
...when you point out an error in spelling or grammar, you'll make one yourself.
"Is that signing as in an a signature...."
Posted in US flags from the 1970s SEEN ON MOON
Re: Hubble
"The moon is a difficult target for Hubble because it moves across the sky faster than Hubble can track it and is very dim in ultraviolet light."
That's a quote from this interesting page. - http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/hubble_moon.html
Fantastic resource, the internet.
I keep my photos on my own drive...
...and back them up (a) locally, and (b) using Dropbox. If (when?) Dropbox dies, I'll switch to another cloud backup solution. If my own local drive or server dies, I'll buy another one.
I don't really understand what the problem is here.
Re: Conviction? Pah...
Jeffrey Archer went to prison for perjury.
Jonathan Aitken went to prison for perjury.
At least three MPs went to prison for fiddling their expenses.
And the CPS, you may be assured, will be paying their own hot lawyers too.
I think there is a very good chance they will go down.
