I read all the comments...

And no-one said the most obvious statement: all that matters in the way it looks is that it must be inoffensive. It achieves that simple goal.

And why should it be inoffensive? Because the vast majority of computer users/buyers have their OS chosen for them by someone else. And that 'someone' does not care about the quality of the brand logo. So it really really REALLY doesn't fecking matter.

Marketing? WGAFF?

Hmm...

For the record, I quite like most of the content listed here, for a variety of reasons.

[sarcasm] You know, I reckon that if I watched any of these films in normal DVD and then in BD my only possible response would be "Oh my god! What have I been watching all these years? I must replace all my collection now! Such a fool, a FOOL I have been to be wasting my time with this crap that I've subjecting my eyes to all this time!" What I certainly WON'T be saying is "Hmm... can't really notice the difference in average viewing conditions. Well, looks like I can continue with my current viewing and *ahem* SPENDING patterns without worrying or wasting disposable income then!" [/sarcasm]

And so on and so forth. BD is slightly better but this collection of best ten 'best' don't sway me that it's gob-smackingly different. I'll wait until there's no choice except BD (or its replacement).

Yay!

Just got a Galaxy S II after having a dog of a phone for 3 years and thought I'd be stuck with Honeycomb when everyone else had moved on.

But I'll be able to keep up for maybe another 6 months - yay for delayed forced obsolescence.

What the heck is...

..."minimal design"?

Acer designer:

"We thought a bit about putting an innovative keyboard on it and a multi-touch trackpad, but thought 'fuck it' and did the same as the previous model as per the 'minimal design' brief"

If they had written minimalist design, I'd give the PR department a bit more respect. But not much more.

I hate PR. And adverts. And marketing. And all that other crap peddled by fuckers who know knob all about the products concerned, but loads about spending a great deal of time and money talking about nothing.

Bastards.

What a...

...cock and bull story

Grammar fail?

for those deciding on compact EVIL shooter

Umm.. ahead of schedule? Really?

"The schedule called for the two companies to separate in the first quarter of 2011, so 4 January is actually ahead of schedule."

That actually seems like on schedule to me.

I quite liked all the Alien Quadrilogy

I really liked #2 the best though. Got bored at times with 1,3 & 4, but overall liked them. Cannot remember if I have seen either of the AVP ones - I'll probably watch them sometime...

Anyway, to the point. Hollywood would want to build upon the so-called 'touch points' of the franchise (forget AVP - that's a different franchise), so it's likely it'll be set in Nostromo-era outer space, with humans as the protagonists.

Also, they would have The Company there - so we can have big spaceships as either a set or as plot device. That would also help us to empathise with the victims (who doesn't know of a faceless, soulless company willing to do anything to get what it wants?)

But, would they use LV426? I think that the execs would find it good to include the set with the dead alien 'navigator' in it: (http://www.allmoviephoto.com/photo/1979_alien_006.html) That guy was huge!

It has opportunity in that it already had humans on there, and that we don't really know that much about their history (LV426 could have been quite populous for a time, but restricted to a particular area geographically. By the time Alien came around, the tech to colonise out to where the alien ship was is present, but interest in the planet itself has waned. Or something)

But it presents issues in that my explanation above is messy, and why make it that messy? I'm sure Hollywood has its best scriptwriting minds on that very subject RIGHT NOW.

So, using yet another spaceship (again, a touch point for the series) is more likely. But that just makes it into a Alien 'Shared World' movie. Not necessarily a prequel. Unless they put in it the date or something - but even then , I don't think just having it chronologically earlier than Alien would make it a prequel. It has to have an obvious connection IMNSHO.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. And if it's anything like the last time I posted a message to El Reg, I'll be the last person to post anyway, as everyone will have lost interest by now...

As an aside I think that John Square Posted Tuesday 4th August 2009 08:01 GMT was a good post on this. Thanks John.

I feel a quote coming on...

"Arguing on the internet is like competing in the special Olympics..."

And I'm done.

(apologies to any Olympians reading these boards, but it's only a simile)

If I may change the statement ever so slightly...

Heini Schmitt, head of the Hessen branch of the German police union, wants sales of these sandwiches and crisps and other digestible foodstuffs to be blocked because, he claimed, “in every situation in which a violent rampage has occurred”, the perpetrator had a "meal sometime beforehand”.

Get cause and effect sorted, halfwit.

Damn! Missed it!

What is UTC anyway? Can't the whole world just use UK time?

pink

I think lots of these will be bought in the run up to Feb 14th...

And the users of these machines will hardly care about the specs as long as it has a 'Start' button and is shiny & pink.

My wife already wants one. Honestly, I despair sometimes.

Where's the IT angle merely because it hardly matters to my wife, and presumably others.

Proofreader anyone?

Linux is more expensive that Windows XP

Microsoft isn't exactly be subsidizing Windows

exclusion of all other operation systems

Again, the pedantic nitpicker in me comes to the fore.

Penguin just coz

@Re: @Sarah Bee (at Sarah Bee, I think)

"muy lame to start bleating"

I take it you have met at least one man. We're all like that. Surprised you hadn't noticed.

You were still wrong though weren't you? I don't think the 'OK' at the beginning of your retort qualifies as acknowledging this fully, do you?

All men have a tendency towards the pedantic too...

Why on earth is a title required? Can't it default to something obvious?

Well, that looks good. The Register didn't really do it justice with the scene by scene description. The neat stuff:

the believability of the universe (background detail, costumes, dialogue)

the quality of the action (cinematography, cgi, speed+clarity)

the sound effect at the end, and the font of the title

They've done a good job _on the trailer_

Let's see what the film is like now...

back to the point, almost

I once sent off for a FREE U2 ringtone via a service message received on my phone. The message was from orange and said "text STOP to 88888 (or some such) at any time to prevent reverse billing"

So I thought, fine, I'll get the ringtone and immediately text stop to prevent them charging me. I sent the message. I got the ringtone (not bad actually, but would never need to do this nowadays). Then, I started to write the 'STOP' message. Whilst doing this (four letters plus hitting 'send'), I received another TEN advert messages costing me £1.50, before I finally sent my termination message.

Needless to say, Orange got a very annoyed customer on their helpline after this and they refunded the cost of the texts, but only because "This service was offered by Orange". This meant that if it was a 3rd party I wouldn't have got my money back.

Just a warning...

This isn't bootnotes or odds & sods or entertainment so...

Where is the IT angle? Sarah is normally more on the ball as regards these things...

On a more positive/relevant note, it will allow more confiscation of animals because none of these bottom feeders can now say "I wasn't told I needed to care for the damn thing" or some such excuse. It's less about ensuring good care and more about removal of plausible deniability.

The is no such thing as empty space

The video maker shot it like that for a reason. Not to get some digital fly-poster using it to flog stuff.

Be the first to comment!

Just wanted to be first... Moderation notwithstanding of course...

Slightly more on-topic: I think the author has read Watchmen or seen The Hulk once too many times, and not The Fly.

Completely off-topic now: if Off Topic is abbr. OT, what is On Topic abbr. as?

Matt

"required"

All the discussion here is very interesting, but there's a very important point I think everyone's overlooked!

George Woltman was on holiday. So:

"the verification process didn't begin until the 26th. He estimates completion on September 12 and September 16."

ON September 12 AND September 16 - are they not sure on the first date? Or do they check again on the 16th? Or does it depend on some sort of fractal alternate universe timing because reality has been warped by the computing power of these connected machines? Shall our universe implode if the 2 answers don't agree?

Or is it a typo...? Naaah.

And for those asking "why not find a cure to cancer instead?" - I'm not an expert (obviously) but I'm not sure that loads of computer CPUs churning through a load of numbers is the way to find such a cure. In fact, they're only really useful for this kind of abstract stuff.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers!

Matt