* Posts by Dave

50 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007

US team create carbon nanotube ultra-memory

Dave
Go

Abacus?

Is is my imagination or does the diagram on their site look like an abacus? Admittedly it's a really small abacus, but still. Next they'll make a nanotube difference engine and compete with Intel with a tiny mechanical processor...

Philips Streamium NP2900

Dave
Stop

@Neil

Neil, static magnets don't affect hard drives. They don't affect floppy disks either. There was some research done a while ago where magnets were left on disks for days and had no effect whatsoever. You have to move the magnetic feild to change the disk, that's how the drive writes to it, and is basic physics.

Unfortunately due to the popularity of the myth I've been unable to find the research on Google, which is just full of people stating blindly that because disk is magnetic, magnet breaks disk.

Sorry for the lack of proof, I thought it was a reg story from the early naughties but couldn't find it here either.

Dave

CSC freezes UK pay

Dave
Paris Hilton

Younger people

This is fine for those who are getting paid their worth, but for younger people, the pay rises are there to get them up to what they should already be earning, not as a "well done". A blanket statement of no rises seems a little unfair and will probably result in a lot of younger staff moving around to get their worth.

Thankfully I'm no longer one of the underpaid youth, and our company are doing rather well and still giving raises based on merit :o) I do feel sorry for those working at the globo mega corps though.

Dave

Boffins build basis for 9TB DVDs

Dave
Black Helicopters

Ooh

to answer my own question, it would seem quite a lot!

a CD is 120mm in diameter, without the need to spin we can use the whole surface area so

60^2*Pi = 11310mm^2

I estimate the chip in my microSD to be around 8mmx8mm = 64mm^2

11310/64 = 177 chips on the CD

177 x 16GB = 2832GB

Obviously I've done a bit of rounding, and assumed that microSD can be somehow hooked up to create larger storage. CDs are thicker than microSD too so I'd say we're better off just making a 9TB SD card than mucking around with gold and lasers.

Now I've done that calculation, it's making the 128GB SSD hard drives look a little small for current technology, or is that just me? Ooh, a black helicopter, you don't see those eve..

Dave
Boffin

I'm wondering

given the size of the chip on my microSD card and the fact that it holds 16GB of data (larger ones I believe are available). how much data would I be able to store on a card the size of a CD?

Lots I'd bet!

In case the scientists are reading, DVD will be my final optical format. There is no need to keep developing them.

Blu-ray brains create 3D taskforce

Dave

Glasses?

Why would I want glasses? XScape at Milton Keynes have 3d screens on the ceiling which don't require glasses and they've had them for a year or two. They look just like a plasma screen except the content is 3d. Surely this would be the way to go for home too?

Might be an idea for someone to start selling 3d SLR cameras,compacts, and camcorders so that we have the content ready for this revolution. All they need is to add a second lens a few cm from the first, and modern SLRs control the lens anyway so focusing wouldn't be an issue.

Microsoft teams up with US gov on double 'ard XP

Dave
Gates Halo

SSLF

This is not news! it actually says on their website in the FAQ that it's just the SSLF policies which have been available from Microsoft for many years in the security guide. the NSA also publish guidelines on their SNAC site for various systems, the Redhat one they wrote themselves, the Microsoft one they simply republish the MS security guide.

I have a fair bit of experience using SSLF policy and would recommend everyone who does not work at a bank or security agency use the EC (Enterprise Client) one instead. If you use SSLF it will cost more than you'd imagine to adjust your servers!!

It seems the security guide is one that Bill got right :o)

Star Trek halted by pig plague

Dave
Paris Hilton

yup

Force the good people of mexico into America to watch the film. That'll stop the problem spreading, force the people to travel. If only the WHO had thought of that we wouldn't be in this crazy mess!

GE talks up 500GB-per-disc optical storage tech

Dave
Boffin

genius

I could have saved them the trouble, http://lmgtfy.com/?q=fmd+disk would have turned up all the results required. are there any useful innovations today or will they all be people inventing existing kit, like the Somniloquy earlier?

Dave
Boffin

and the Reg even did a couple of articles, in 1999!

http://search.theregister.co.uk/?q=fmd

Progress? or Sony holding back the boffins to slowly reap rewards and sell more boxes?

Boffins dream up Sleeptalking PC standby-mode tech

Dave
Paris Hilton

boffins?

not sure I'd use the word boffin on someone that just "dreamt up" the Windows Vista sideshow, a device which has been around for several years, and on the market too!

Well done lads. What's next, inventing a device with rows of buttons for text input?

Acer Ubuntu nettop to get quiet storage switch

Dave
Stop

Psion?

as if stealing the netbook trademark wasn't enough now they are having revo too?

Microsoft ends mainstream XP, Office 2003 support

Dave
Paris Hilton

Exchange - again?

Exchange 2003 support has also ended today. Surely business users will be far more affected by that than XP RTM support ending?

Microsoft plays coy over iPhone Office

Dave

The iPhone is not special

Microsoft would be wasting their time making a special Office for iphone, after all the next version of Office will have a web interface anyway, as reported by the Reg recently.

Acer rides little netbooks to big profit

Dave
Go

surprise!

is it a coincidence that they are the netbook maker selling the small cheap netbooks?

iPod Touch torches tyke's trousers

Dave
Flame

water?

yup, first thing I would do is put water on the lithium based battery. Lithium will definitely stop being a problem with water on it.

Is Google's culture grab unstoppable?

Dave

opt in or out

I think the opt out is a necessary part of progress. When I upgraded people from windows 98 at work they all complained. same from 2000. now they love XP. people fear change because it is change. This allows Google to get the job done and finished, then we can improve it afterwards. I realise content owners will be upset, but I doubt that, initially at least, online books will detract from book sales. Heck, I even still buy my books from a shop, and that costs me more money than online!

Run Mac OS X on a PC

Dave
Stop

POSIX?

"It's a fully Posix compliant OS (just like Linux, just unlike Windows)"

Um, you sure about that? Windows has actually been POSIX compliant for ages.

No, I'm not joking.

Intel hands out rose tinted polarizing glasses to chip geeks

Dave
Stop

back to glasses?

Why are we returning to using glasses? and what do they mean they might do TVs?

There are already 3D TV sets on the market, and they work very well indeed without glasses. There are loads on display at Xscape Milton Keynes, and they are a bit of a surprise when you first see them. If you don't know they are there you just think there's something a bit funky about the picture, then look closer, then stare like an idiot for a minute moving side to side to see how it works.

Polarised 3D has been around for a while too, at least since the 90s. Were Intel claiming anything new here?

Intel to brand next-gen CPUs 'Core i7'

Dave
Go

This is a good thing

It should stop any madness with duo, quad, two, 2, x2.

I'd imagine most readers have, at some stage, had to explain the difference between a core duo and a core 2 processor to someone, only to have that someone nip off to PCworld and triumphantly return with a "bargain" "latest processor" "discount" core 1 chip.

Parallels slices and dices OS X with Server for Mac

Dave

re: apple servers

Oh Goat Jam, is it so hard to stay up to date with the industry?

Windows is not more expensive than Linux in a real environment.

Windows is no less secure if you actually check the stats and stop assuming.

Linux is not more stable than Windows, where on earth do you get that from? I forget the last time I saw a crash, but I don't think it was this millenium. If you knew how to configure it, and read the recommendations it might be less flaky. If you need help, ask, my rates are reasonable.

Windows is no more bloated than Linux these days. They are in fact slimming it down while Linux gets fatter with every release.

Good MCSEs are not cheap. Do you have an MCSE yourself? thought not :o)

Apple servers are indeed shiny and nice. I don't see why anyone would virtualise them because surely you would want more of them in the room :o) not sure what can be run on them though, I've only ever seen them used as Mac file stores myself.

Canon EOS 400D digital SLR

Dave
Stop

Really?

"It’s also a shame that there is no image stabilisation system and the best Canon can suggest is using a tripod"

funny, I thought their suggestion was to use a lens with Image Stabilisation. This is an SLR, and they use optical stabilisation in the lens. My 450d came with an IS lens in the kit, and I assure you it is a very good system.

Want a 1TB optical drive? Call/Recall me

Dave
Stop

UMD?

Has anyone else noticed that this is a UMD from yesteryear? same capacity, same technology, but this time they may release it.

Of course it's now too late because we are all moving gradually away from optical media what with downloads being so easy and all. Hard drive backups are now cheaper and more reliable than any optical equivelant too, so I really don't see where this will fit in.

And Dennis, with your 10 hours to a terrabyte, what are you up to? HD tape camcorders use the same tapes with the same run times, because compression is standard these days. BDs were an excuse to change the DRM, not to increase capacity. A full length full def movie will hapily fit on a DVD, just as a full length DVD quality movie fits on a CD if compressed.

AMD plans 12-core server chip for 2010

Dave
Go

why not 8? the pattern!

6 cores will be a 3x2 pattern, 12 would be a 3x4.

8 cores would be 4x2, so why not go for 9 and have 3x3?

chips are square, so it makes no sense to have an 8 core chip, except that computer people are used to base 2 counting. AMD have proven this is not relevant here by releasing 3 core chips.

It may also cost less, the 12 core could be a 16 core 4x4 grid with the "broken" cores switched off. When creating that size of processor in one go I bet they will get errors, they may just be planning for that

Scientist who named the black hole dies aged 96

Dave

'last of the physics superheroes'

I think mr Hawking might be a bit of a physics guru and he's still about

Apple orders 10m 3G iPhones - analyst

Dave
Stop

3g, or latency

"meet the demands of Europeans, who have proved less satisfied by the iPhone's 2.5G download speeds"

I suspect "the europeans" will discover when they get 3g that it is not the speed that is slow, but rather latency. I have used 2.5g, 3g and 3.5g and for mobile browsing they all appear identical. This is not because they are identical, but because web pages are small, and the latency is high. How many people will download large files on a phone? I suspect most folk will be looking at facebook...

Ten years old: the world's first MP3 player

Dave
Paris Hilton

Re: Interesting why Sony were so late to play

Sony were "so late" because until very recently they still believed that minidisk was the future, and blindly kept trying to force their own standards such as atrac.

This is also the reason the entire industry is so stunned at the bluray victory, Sony have never before won a format war!

IT industry needs more women

Dave
Stop

No no no no no STOP!!

The IT Industry does not need more women. The IT Industry requires more qualified people working in it.

Besides, has anyone considered that "the number of female graduates in relevant subjects continues to fall" bacause women aren't interested in those subjects? I've tried to convince women that computers are great, but the gods honest truth is, THEY PREFER SHOPPING AND CLOTHES. leave them alone. And leave us alone. People who are interested and talented in a subject will work in it and flourish. Those who are not will move along fine somewhere else

O2 may put iPhone on business rates

Dave

vodafone

horray, they've noticed GIGAbytes at last! Shame the service is so terrible really...

Samsung SGH-G800 5Mp cameraphone

Dave
Stop

but

can the MP3 player handle more than 20 tracks? the e900 couldn't and that was pretty recent. Also, have they started supporting phones after sale yet? firmware update anyone? warranty voided, you lose!!

Warner to back a single HD disc format?

Dave
Stop

lol

"Other than the PS3 - who else is downloading firmware to update purchased hardware presently?"

Other than PS3, who needs to?!

Iowa house swallowed in grain bin collapse

Dave
Joke

pop?

"Emergency crews quickly deployed a tractor to attempt to lift the remains of the structure and "high-powered blowers" to clear the corn"

were these blowers heated? would have made the evening more pleasant for onlookers to have some popcorn. With the mark-up on popcorn, they could have funded a new home for the family too. 12000 tonnes would be worth more than BillG once popped!

Start-up aims nanotube memory at iPods, phones and servers

Dave
Go

Carbon footprint

Given that 2 out of every 3 Reg stories at the moment are about how amazing carbon nanotubes are, does this mean that we will end up having to somehow produce more carbon?

The memory could potentially be free as other companies pay to offset their emmissions to these guys who have negative footprints :o)

Data makes the tills ring at Vodafone

Dave
Paris Hilton

to Vodafone

"In Europe, revenue is up two per cent, despite price cuts averaging 19 per cent, as cheaper services are driving more usage. Calls are up 24 per cent and messaging up 8.6 per cent."

HINT if you drop prices to a reasonable level (not price per megebyte!!!) your revenues will continue to go up. It's not that we've not been wanting to use the data, it's that we were terrified of the bills that would follow!

even Paris could have worked out this little gem!

Phoenix hijacks Windows boot with instant-on

Dave
Stop

sideshow?

Surely this has been invented a little late, given that microsoft have already released Vista Sideshow, which will allow simple stuff to be used (check mail, calendar) without even switching on the big PC.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/microsoft/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-vistas-sideshow-232608.php

Aussie boffin turbo charges copper broadband

Dave
Stop

No no no no NO!!

Idiot!! who needs fibre indeed...I DO! Fibre can definitely give gigabit speeds now, and do it reliably. All this guy has done is give BT another reason not to start rolling out modern cables.

but hey, what do I know, the victorian copper will probably scale to gigabit speeds (falling off to 2kbps 20 yards from the exchange!)

Ubuntu goes 3-D

Dave
Gates Halo

wow

so...I have a pretty desktop, and it'll run slower while indexing files. I bet I STILL can't just connect to my WPA wireless though FFS.

I like Linux, I do, but the developers need to stop rushing for the "me-too" glitz and code things that are needed to take over the world. This is the simple truth of Microsoft's success, the programmers are paid, and sometimes work on boring stuff whether they want to or not. OSS programmers work on stuff they like so the useful stuff can take longer.

I realise Linux can connect to WPA, but there's no easy GUI way yet :o(

Asian manufacturers race to ready iPhone-alikes

Dave

pretty...useless

Please please PLEASE send at least this bit of the story to some of these phone manufacturers:

"Whatever you think of the iPhone - you can read our view here - it has raised the bar for smoothly running, intuitive to use handset user interfaces."

I'm sick and tired of all of the r&d going into pretty boxes, and me-too feature lists.

Apple and the i-phone are successful because the phone works and is easy to use. The clones will look similar but I guarantee they won't work. For instance, the last Samsung I had, the MP3 player supported a 1GB memory card, but only 20 songs in a playlist. not so bad, but it only allowed 2 playlists!

I've just bought a nokia 6300, and am so chuffed, it has almost no features but works a treat on calls and messages :o)

Mobile broadband to dominate in 2011

Dave
Thumb Down

it's coming

This has been coming for years, and will continue to be the gold at the end of a rainbow.

At the end of the day, we need fibre into buildings for cheap, reliable, high speed access.

Mobile companies overcharge. they always have and always will, so mobile broadband will only become viable if the fixed lines keep putting up prices and reducing allowances.

The more people use mobile connections, the worse it gets. I remember when mobile telephones had a good call quality. These days I'm lucky to get one good call in 10.

Mobile high speed access sounds good, but in practice I neither need or want it. Fibre to the building, wifi to the device will be fine for me.

Samsung expands snapper series, again

Dave

have you tried it?

Samsung seem to release an aweful lot of products lately, all of which tick the right tech boxes.

I tried one of these recently and found the interface very difficult, and the features lacking (although I'm used to an Ixus).

Samsung need to spend some time listening to their users rather than bringing out ever newer and shinier products, maybe then some of them would live up to expectations. I notice one of the cameras has an MP3 player built in, I hope it's better than the one in my phone which supports ONE playlist of (MAX) 20 songs!

J, buying an SLR for a little more money would be pointless since these are compact cameras. SLR cameras are for photography, compacts are for memories and nights out.

University boffins squeeze 500GB onto a DVD

Dave

FMD

So whatever happened to FMD's? These were allegedly demonstrated in 2000 with capacities up to 1TB on a clear CD size disk.

Presumably Sony sent in the black helicopters, determined that some day it would win a format war, any format war, rather than having every single format it ever invented (superior though they may be) remembered as an also ran :o)

Netgear promises 3G femtocells by end of year

Dave

be careful!

With the phone companies coming out with such pathetic data tarrifs, I'd want to be absolutely certain that my phone doesn't silently swap back to the big 3g network while browsing at home!

I expect there will be lots of people ranting about unexpected huge bills when this hits the high street!

Byrne explains the UK's wondrous, biometric, ID card future

Dave

ok but...

I'll accept that I must have an ID card. fair enough, proof of age wouldn't be a bad idea, and a national standard would be fine (Driving licence does this just fine, and everyone can get one without passing a driving test).

If we are to add any other functionality, I would like a SPECIFIC example of how it will help. my finger prints on record will not stop a bomb, nor will they magically lock up the "terrorists". My DNA may well prove that it was me that exploded next to a terrorist during an attack, so my family would know I was a victim. Of course, some of my squidgy exploded mass might stick to the bomb, making me a suspect.

ID Cards will not speed up airports, the computer will crash and no-one will remember how to use the old paper stuff. We pay the airport to check us in, so they should bloody well hire enough staff to do so.

We will be handing out ID Cards to immigrants as they cross the border. again this will not help as the ones we see cross the border now are usually legitimately here, so again the problem will not be in the database.

If I need a plumber, builder, baker, candlestick maker I will not ask for ID I'll just pay the man, so there will be plenty of jobs.

PLEASE can the reg interview someone in government and push them into specifics. If they don't know the answer they probably have a mobile phone and know who does, so don't let the buggers out of your sight until you get real specific answers. thanks guys :o)

Post Office loses Amazon contract

Dave

let me guess

3 weeks time the government gives the "poor old" post office some money to modernise, which they give to staff (AGAIN) as a bonus.

I don't think I'm alone in saying if there was a blue postbox for a different company next to the standard red ones, I'd put my letter in the blue one.

I'm usually not a praying man, but with royal mail I can't help but ask the lord to watch over my mail!

Japanese offered USB bum-cooling cushion

Dave

clever

great idea, today I plug in this gadget and cool my bits by a couple of degrees, then in a few years time they can sell me a bigger one because all the power I used warmed the planet by a few degrees :o(

pointless, just like air conditioning.

Hitachi ships Travelstar 7K200 encrypted hard drive

Dave

eh?

SO let me get this straight...my laptop sends unencrypted data down the sata cable to the drive, which then encrypts it and stores it. I request the data and the drive unencrypts it and sends the unencrypted data back up the sata cable.

Have they offered any proof that this is actually happening? If not I have a flying car you may be interested in. It will only take off when you're inside and flies at an altitude of about a foot ;o)

Orange simplifies data by capping at 30MB

Dave

article request

Could someone at el reg please do an article outlining good/bad data rates? I think I speak for a few people when I say we'd like to know who offers the best rates so we can move. I suspect it'll be T-Mobile, but an article may point out to the others that people are starting to be bothered by this.

cheers

Dave

Google Gears up for offline web apps

Dave

really?

an offline word processor that works without the internet?! blimey! and a calendar? this must be some fancy jiggery pokery on a Potteresque scale to accomplish offline data!

Is is just me that remembers all those years ago (the 90s) when data was always offline? it's flippin google that made it online and inaccessible in the first place.

for the record, word has ALWAYS been offline. outlook has pretty much always managed offline email and calendar, and most good rss readers have offline mode too.

well done google, you've "invented" the cache!

Vodafone data bundle pricing slips out

Dave

MB?

you know for a minute there I thought you said MB..MegaBytes..in 2007 LOL.

oh wait...you did. do Vodafone want customers using their network or not? if not then surely they should stop selling contracts rather that trying to put us off of buying them.

Broadband Britain risks life in slow lane - report

Dave

an idea

How about we start this revolution by offering users the option of paying for a fibre into their homes? £1000 for a TV, £1500 for a PC, £1000 for a fibre? why not? I'd pay a fair bit to have good reliable broadband, assuming nobody uttered the word "Contention"

Why argue about who foots the bill without asking consumers if we'd like to in order to get this moving? After all, if we don't pay for fibre we'll be drip fed 17 more versions of ADSL, all offering 512kbps speed at rush hour, but the new version offers 200Gbps for ten minutes between 3.12am and 3.22am!