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* Posts by Haku

723 posts • joined Friday 13th April 2007 07:13 GMT

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Haku
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I knew there was a lot of shit on twitter,

but I didn't realise it had gotten to such epidemic proportions that it was spilling out into the real world and fertilising gardens!

Haku
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Looks like the food from The Matrix

Just in time for our enslavement by the AI robot overlords we're naively striving to create...

Haku
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Re: Epic PR fail

Indeedy, they get free advertising from the walkthroughs being put online and viewable by potentially millions without them having to pay a single penny to anyone for hosting/bandwidth/taking the time to do the walkthroughs, but now they want to be paid for those free adverts for their products...

Haku
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Re: KISS

Yes you have to hand it to that guy for his sideways thinking...

Haku
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On the subject of ATMs

Does anyone else feel like they're Gulliver in Lilliput when using them? I'm only 6'2" and often have to bend right down to be able to see the screen because they appear to be designed for people who are four foot nothing, most cinemas appear to be designed for unusually short people too, where "legroom" is a taboo word (except The Screening Rooms in Cheltenham - highly highly reccomended!)

Haku
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I left BE end of last month - no way I'm getting foisted into Sky.

I was getting just under 5mbit down and 1mbit up on BE, now on BT Infinity 2 I'm getting 73mbit down and 18mbit up :)

I heard the BE helpline was pretty good, in my 3 years on BE I never had to call it.

Haku
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Re: the short term future is hybrid, no?

"Maybe I've missed something obvious, but where are the enterprise grade hybrid drives?"

Klingons stole them...

Haku
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So does this mean my two multimeters that can measure down to 0.00000001A are wrong?

The manufacturer better have a decent calibration service then...

Haku
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FAIL

Buttons that are only visable when you press them?

This laptop has those, a Vostro 1510 with a strip of capacitive touch sensitive media buttons above the keyboard that only light up when you press them - yes that's right, they only light up when your finger is covering the area that lights up!

And in low light conditions the brightness of the screen makes it difficult to see the faint outlines of the flat black non-tactile buttons, so for example instead of increasing the volume you could accidentally eject the DVD...

Haku
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Re: Its kind of funny...

I used to wear glasses from the age of 5 but in my late 20s I got to the point where I was so fed up of having to deal with those things on a daily basis along looking through two windows at the world which didn't help with peripheral vision I gave up wearing them.

I don't know if I would handle wearing Google Glass after the novelty wears off, I don't even wear sunglasses, but ironically I do own 7 different sets of LCD video glasses... :)

Haku
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Uh-oh

Does this mean that original creators of artworks etc. could end up in a situation where they're sued by 3rd party companies claiming copyright because they deem them to be orphaned works?

Haku
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Mushroom

Re: unintended f*c*i*g consequences.

I'm guessing that performing the "Mentos and Diet Coke" experiment will get you 10 years.

And stuffing dry ice into a plastic bottle then screwing the top on will get you life...

Haku
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I used to use a Lego 12v transformer to split water into hydrogen & oxygen when I was a kid, at home, collecting the hydrogen in a test tube and lighting it for the 'pop'. Even taking a corked test tube filled with the hydrogen into school once or twice, god knows what the reaction from teachers nowadays would be if a kid did that.

Haku
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FAIL

10 year old browsers needed for a 9 year old website - whodatthunkit?

They started noticing 'modern' browsers wouldn't work on the site back in 2006, yet haven't taken steps to resolve this. Well they technically they have, they've been telling everyone to use older browsers...

http://web.archive.org/web/20060427043739/http://www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice/need.asp

Haku
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Re: They bought a lot of smaller companies

This is what pisses me off about companies and thier data retention in relation to customer records and how they'll happily sell your info to other companies - you get situations like this where a company that you have never directly interacted with suddenly emails you out of the blue saying they got hacked and their customer records were copied and your info is in those records.

I am not a product, I am a human being FFS.

Haku
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I received an email from LivingSocial about the screwup yet I've never had direct dealings with them.

In the last line of the email it says "You are receiving this email because you have an existing relationship with http://www.livingsocial.com/", yet I've never heard of them before or visited their website or signed up to them.

Under-the-radar spamming?

Haku
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Haku
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Happy

Drone problem?

Then you need a Net Gun.

Haku
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Google - Another name for Skynet?

With so many people coming to depend on Google as it slowly seeps out of the digital world and right into the physical world (Android phones/tablets, Google Glass and whatever else they'll make next), will we eventually (centuries down the line) have a global vote to change our little blue marble's name to Planet Google or wil they just announce it one day...

Haku
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Tablets, phablets, slablets...

I've come up with yet another name for these toys that resemble Star Trek TNG pads:

Toylets

Because lets face it, the only stuff we ever fill these things with is crap :)

Haku
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I also have a Chronos eZ430 sitting on a shelf gathering dust, I did wear it as a normal watch for a while as it has a nice asthetic look to it but it kept randomly resetting and I never learned to program it properly too, kinda feel I shoulda persisted with it as I wanted to use its wireless features.

Haku
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I love digital wrist watches, but...

...I don't wear one anymore despite having a collection of over 40 game wrist watches (which includes Pac-Man, Tetris, Mario, Donkey Kong, Simpsons, Street Fighter II, Sonic The Hedgehog etc.) and various unusual gadget watches including a Casio one with a built-in IR temperature sensor and one shaped like a Sega Game Gear, because telling the time isn't such an important thing for me anymore plus I have a mobile phone with a clock on it ;)

Haku
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Re: Reality

"Exactly how are they going to swsitch off my washing machine?

In order to do that, THEY will need to fit smart sockets in every part of the home"

Three little words for you to investigate: power line communication.

It would facilitate the ability for a power company to turn off appliances without needing to rewire the entire house or install special sockets. In fact the meter in my house was upgraded and they gave me this little monitoring box which uses power line communication to allow the monitoring of power consumption ANYWHERE in the house where there's an ordinary mains socket.

Haku
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Re: Rationing, rebranded.

"I wonder how popular that'll be once people realise what their 'smart' meters are up to."

Sounds like the beginning of a Doctor Who plotline...

Haku
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Next up, the Twitterfone

The perfect phone for the worlds narcissists - it runs 24/7 listening to your voice and automatically tweets every sentence you speak.

I wonder if Google Glass will have such a feature...

Haku
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Didn't Apple also invent gravity?

No wait, I was thinking of another apple...

Haku
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Go

Re: Shame...

Three words for you thesykes:

Double Fine Adventure

The kickstarter point'n'click adventure game from the people behind Monkey Island, Grim Fandango etc. that raised over $3 million a year ago now has a proper name and a trailer you can watch:

Broken Age

Haku
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Re: Nudity-free Playboy?

Or Garfield without Garfield.

No wait, that actually works - http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Haku
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Re: Range?

250m? Peanuts, I have some Texas Instruments RF transceivers that are solid at up to 1.7km and I managed to get talking to each other at 3.4km with the standard whip antenna, throw in some directional antennas and the signal becomes much stronger/reliable, change to an amplified RF transceiver and you're looking at 10s of kilometers.

Besides a decent UAV will have GPS capabilities so if it loses contact with the operator it goes into default 'fly-home' mode, or it goes on a pre-planned GPS navigated route meaning farmers would need some seriously powerful (and most likely illegal) GPS jamming equipment to electronically stop them.

Haku
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Unhappy

I'm glad I'm not alone in this.

Sometimes I have to look in a mirror just to see if I've got "FREE TECH HELP!" stamped on my fucking forehead.

Haku
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FAIL

"There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience."

Except of course those who are using Google Reader.

Haku
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Murder on the Moon

Brigitte Nielsen & Julian Sands investigating a murder on the moon!

How could could you possibly omit this tv masterpiece?

Also, Saturn 3

Haku
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Copy the Monopoly car

So everyone can use that piece, except now they'll fight over which colour car they want...

Haku
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If (when?) they're banned

What's to stop someone putting miniature spy cameras in tennis balls with built-in gyroscope stabilisation and firing them straight up (so they can be easily retrieved) for aerial shots?

And would tennis balls then be banned?

Haku
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Re: Can't come soon enough

Yeah, down to 16 meg?!?!? I've been stuck in 5 meg for years, which I've been ok with as the connection has been rock stable with no issues at all, but now BE sold their soul to the devil (Sky) it's time I took advantage of the new green fiber box on the street that's a stones throw from my front door...

Haku
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Agreed - the OS should be your computer 'butler' which quietly gets on with serving you your chosen software, not a 'circus' that gets all up in your face saying "look at me! look at meeee!"

Haku
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Big Brother

2004 film The Final Cut

Bit of a thought provoking one where Robin Williams plays a 'cutter', someone who takes people's recorded history (through memory implants that are implanted at birth) when they die and makes a video memorial for their loved ones from the dead person's perspective.

Worth checking out I'd say - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364343/

Haku
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Re: but why would anyone?

Because they were looking for the opticians next door.

Haku
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New social network? I heard people are just dying to get in.

Haku
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Re: Burn him!

Frankly, I would have him shot. I would have him taken outside and executed in front of his family.

Haku
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@Miek

100 meters? Nothing. Some of the FPV plane flyers can go a couple of miles with a live feed using equipment that doesn't break any laws regarding RF transmissions.

Haku
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Re: Flak

They have been, this was just one incedent a year ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZgk1cRqAfs

With a clip from the drone itself at the end of the video.

Haku
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I want to play a Russian copy of this game...

...for the vodka!

Haku
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Black Mirror - 15 Million Merits

Did the tv makers see that and think it was a solid idea to have a forced tv advertising system that can detect when you're not looking at the screen and penalize you for doing so?

Haku
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Re: My ulimate - long gone, sadly..

Doing a sort out of my old computer kit I found a 5.25" harddrive, I think it was 6GB.

Haku
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Happy

The Dialectizer - the original web translator

http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/

eg, this is what the article looks like in Swedish Chet or Hacker

Haku
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Font size

One reason I dislike apps that are a replacement for a web browser to view content on a certain site is that they almost always have a fixed font size, and no pinch-zoom.

Haku
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A hardware manufacturer changes its design without telling those who need to know.

Whodathunk?

I'm glad the real problem has been discovered, I really don't like the idea of hardware going into a coma because you put a different OS on it.

Haku
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Re: Please Jobs

If he actually does rise from the grave it would be absolute pandemonium, Apple would change its status from cult to religion, many current religious fanatics would start to wonder if they should switch over to Apple, current fanbois would be even more insufferable (as if that's even possible), and a lot of us would in unison say "Oh fuck..."

Haku
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"I shot myself in the foot"

That's the sort of video material YouTube is synonymous with, but nobody would pay to watch Google shooting themselves in the foot by adding a paywall, it would be ripped and dumped on a free site.

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