Oh the Irony

At the bottom of the article is an offer as follows

"WIN - A free one year, 25 user licence of Microsoft Office 365!"

Would that be the version with or without the Sality Botnet included ?

Mind your language

Just out of pure interest, does the Chinese App Store contain the same apps as the US app store ?

I ask the question because most apps are probably written in English and I "presume" that they have not been translated into Chinese, ( I could definately be wrong here). If they have not been translated then how are the Chinese managing to use them ?

Are there really that many Chinese that can read English ?

These are all serious questions, please don't try and read them any other way.. ( I do profess to my complete ignorance with almost everything related to China)

15 Inch != Ultra

Personally I would put the limit at 14" for anything to be called Ultra. 15 inch starts to become difficult to put into a certains bags/briefcases, which already have papers/notepads/books in them. 15" is a large piece of equipement, 14" just passes the mark.

Even if the thickness were reduced down to 1cm for a 17" its sheer area stops it from looking portable, 17" remains in the transportable range.

15" is the same it doesn't belong in the Ultra range, it will always belong in the portable range due to its surface area

[I wont bother moving into the Ultra/Ultra range or the Ultra Netbook as I am sure that you have already caught the drift ]

Up for election

As mentioned above, Sarko is running for president again and is currently in the "bring out anything that might possibly catch an elector or two" mode. He is desperately trying to prove that he actually managed to do something positive during the last five years and that is by no means an easy task.

Hadopi like all the other legislations are basically futile in respect to the fact that they would have to monitor the internet to such an extent that it would no longer be financially viable.

Has anyone ever seen a serious study that proves unequivicollay that stopping illegal downloading would actually increase "real" sales anyway ?

If the governments or media moguls ever managed to control illegal activity on the web I am convinced that people would simply take up other hobbies. The web would lose a lot of its interest and would eventually be relegated to same level of couch potatoeness ™ as the television. Who would gain from this, no-one except for Google, Amazon and Facebook. Now that’s a sad thought.

First the smut sites

Here gos for the knee jerk reaction.

After they have removed access to smut sites, will they also ask all women to wear head-scarves and/or long robes ? Will they then segregate women and men followed by a strict implementation of sharia law ?

They can then ban tourism and foreign trade and when they have successfully walled of the country just how they will feed the population ?

I think the Egyptians have already had their fair share of "difficulty" in the last few years without having to impose even further draconian measures on an already weakened society.

What is it about religious ardor that always seemed to generate such infuriating results.

Language Barrier

It would be interesting to see how they would deal with articles written in other languages. There are a lot of people in Britain that speak a lot more than just English.

Can you imagine trying to develop an algorithm that must block out given keywords, within a given context, that could be written in a multitude of languages, that arrive endlessly from a multitude of dynamically changing websites, blogs, news-feeds, social media chatter etc....... .

The Internet is a living, breathing, invisible, metamorphic animal that does not want to be caught. It knows about stealth, it knows how to replicate, it speaks all languages, cutting of one its legs does not affect its running speed, it is kept fed on an infinite basis and the list goes on.........Even the governments can't contain that beast.

Sitting down is for a reason

* We only sit down all day because it is easier than typing when lying down.......

* Coffee/tea mugs remain upright for longer on a desk..

* The boss doesn't feel comfortable in delegating to someone wearing nothing but underwear.

* Clients generally dont accept invitations in bedrooms.

There is a also a statistic somewhere that proves that the more we breath the closer we are to death......

Fundamental flaw

* Twitter is full of "social media" users.

* Cinema are usually full of Cinema goers. ( Is "goers" a real word ?)....

How do they truly expect to correlate between the two.

Or are they correlating the fact that the cinema often has a dozen or so twats using their "very bright" smart phones in the audience.

I seem to remember that being called a "Twit" was akin to being called an idiot, on a minor scale...... I suppose therefore that being a Twitter user is therefore akin to Collective Idiotism

One good idea, one bad

Bad Idea:

Since these Email boxes are run by the postal service does that mean that the Government have access when they please ? Yeah , yeah tell me that there is no backdoor built into the system...

Good Idea:

Since most adult people in a household are obliged to work and the fact that the postman always rings when you are out working, I think that this is a good idea to allow people to choose the time and place. It saves times for all involved.... Where I live we have almost the same choice of having your parcels dropped of at local newsagents, small supermarkets etc which are usually open until at least 20:00.

Double Usage

Chrome is the only application that users are currently allowed to instal on their desktops. They are using IE for our companies principal application, due to required ActiveX components, and they are using Chrome in unison as the "Search Browser" for Web information.

RDP in the open

What does not make sense to me is that anyone would allow RDP to run directly on a public link.

I presume that if you are clever enough to do NAT/PAT then you should also be clever enough to realise that to create/provide a VPN as the first layer of protection and that RDP should NEVER be available publically.

Unless of course we are talking about internal LANS being hacked, thats another ball game..

Stats Please

Does anyone know if Apple has ever released stats showing the percentages of return users in comparison to new users.

Passive not active

I have always been of the understanding that the majority of publicity was of a passive nature. Surely the idea has been that we subconciously register the images and that this eventually affects our thoughts when we are shopping: ie we will buy the article that we have seen rather the article that we need. Obviously the publicity has to have been well thought out in the first place.

Are people really ready to move from passive to active ? I can't see many situations where someone would intentionally go up to a publicity and "bonk" it with a smart phone in order to obtain further information.. Ok for bus timetables and other informative billboards, but perfume and Macdonalds, I fail to see the attraction.

I see this more as trying desperately to use technology to fill a role that does not need filled.

Sack Boy Game Pad

Is it just me or does this game pad look like it was made by the same team as LBP.

Metric would be welcomed.

Dear El Reg,

Not everone speaks "Imperial", how about providing the rather more "metric" values of Litres per 100Km. ( There are other people in the world who live outside of the GB and the US )......

I understand that Kamel Hooves per Valley (KH/V) or Mule Paces per Field (MP/F) might also be interesting values but they are a lot less common when speaking about vehicule consumption....

Cheers

For the PC Brigade - Continuation

It is becoming impossible to express ones opinions without harming the sensebility of someone somewhere on the planet. For fuck sake people grow up, the PC Brigade will never provide anything but superficial support.

Am I unhappy about the situation,of course I am , conversation is becoming stifled, communication is becoming impossible. It appears as though the masses are adopting the PC mode of thinking without realising whether or not the impact they are having is positive or negative.

If you are a meat eater and I am a vegetarian, I cannot agree or accept that you eat dead animals. That does not mean that I would not sit down at the same tabel and eat with you it just simply means that I do not agree with one aspect of your life.

Because of my non acceptance of one of your choices in life The PC Brigade would be happy to brandish me a zealot of some kind or other when this is simply not the case. It is impossible to agree or accept everything and everyone, this then makes it impossible to be Politically Correct.

The PC crowd need to sit down, think for "theselves for a while" and let people get on with their own lifes.

As for the Aussie Soldiers, they have done nothing more than everyone single one of us has done at some point in our lifes, the subjects and the conditions are irrelevant.