Posts by James Pickett
1180 posts • joined Monday 23rd April 2007 13:12 GMT
If metadata (e.g. exif) can be automatically stripped, how can you prove that it was ever there in the first place? There must be some mileage in a subtle watermarking program (or digital signature) that is harder to remove...
Re: What about flats
..or the 2-stroke motorcycle, the goddess from Warhammer, or the symbolic name for Jerusalem?
I keep telling my teenager that spelling is still important!
Re: Reality
"the monitoring of power consumption ANYWHERE in the house where there's an ordinary mains socket"
Monitoring is not the same as controlling. For that you need a switch.
Also, power line communication is dirty and interferes with other sorts of communication. Scale it up to every household and it may even interfere with itself!
I'm a PAYG man myself, but I assume a lot of the profit with contract phones is in the unused minutes, messages and bandwidth. I don't suppose that's itemised...
"Smart metering will disrupt weather forecasts.."
How will we know?
"an idea overwhelmingly supported by all the companies planning to sell smart meters and RFID kit"
So who else was canvassed? Oh, I see...
As I recall, shortly before privatisation, BT offered to join up the whole county with fibre. In return, they wanted to distribute TV channels over it (the Web not yet having been invented) but Mrs T didn't like the idea of a nationalised industry doing something innovative and useful and so squashed the idea. We'd have had FO connections for decades otherwise, which rather negates the article...
91% to 38% brand recognition in a year. Is that a record..?
So how many hovercraft do they own - two?
"Starbucks, which sweats to ensure its coffee-like beverages taste exactly the same"
I suspect that most of the sweating is to do with making a similar beverage from the cheapest ingredients. Computers can't taste things yet, AFAIK.
Re: Not according to Beddington.
According to the Grauniad (and other warmology sites), the current cold is a result of the Arctic warming up. I'm not sure I follow this logic, but one flaw is that the Arctic is cooling quite rapidly at the moment, although I dare say it will warm by the summer and might even melt a bit. Like it usually does.
When "the climate is behaving normally" becomes newsworthy and is not a bar to research grants, we may get some sensible advice and policies...
Posted in Build a BONKERS gaming PC
Re: Tool-free? Stuff that.
I quite like thumbscrews (not that sort) for side panels, but the plastic pegs employed for drive bays are foul. No fine adjustment and far too breakable.
Slightly tangential, but I had the misfortune to replace a hard drive in an HP laptop where the base is one big plastic tub and everything is accessed via the top. This means removing the keyboard and both top panels to gain access, just so it can look smooth. What's with 'chiclet' keyboards, BTW? More style over content...
Posted in Build a BONKERS gaming PC
"GTX Titan is utterly bonkers"
Agreed, but why stick at one..?
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-launch-video-released-super-sleek-design-sexy-sli-bridge/
"Merlin rocket engine"
I remember when Merlin engines drove propellors...
Also, when did VTOL become VTVL?
@Jake
"according to my observation"
You're mistaking mere evidence for computer-enhanced pronouncements from the Church of Climatology. Don't you know that software models trump empirical data these days?
@FFS!
"anti-scientific nonsense"
You mean nonsense that undermines your currently held convictions?
(Huge) pot, meet (enormous) kettle...
@Psyx
"Munroe"
If you have that much trouble spelling names, how do you remember yours? :-)
"Microwave works in the rain"
I'm not sure mine does...
"You have old apps that only work on XP and/or you can't re-licence for a new OS."
Like some older (but perfectly usable) versions of Sage, for which the only upgrade path is to buy the whole thing again, at full price. Or use virtual XP (e.g. VMware).
If IE10 is the "final release", what will MS supply in future - Chrome?
"decades of climate alarmism have had basically no effect on people's attitude around the world"
If only politicians felt the same way. Sadly, they have spotted a gravy train and jumped aboard, forgetting to check how we (in the UK) can keep the lights on when major power stations are about to be decommissioned.
@Michael Wojcik
Thanks for the Lolcat Bible link. I have a passing acquaintance with the Authorised Version, but it's not nearly as funny.
Late thought - if the perps are nicked, will they be charged with scrumping?
@Lee
I was going to say something similar, if shorter. Why advertise the stuff when the shop is shut? Turn the lights off and fit reflective film, or perhaps leave them on and replace the kit with, say, bags of apples...
Temptation is 99% opportunity.
Re: Alternative title
Thank you for not using 'alternate title', absent apostrophes notwithstanding...
As it's America, there's presumably no problem in having a gun fitted instead (although I might argue for being able to see what you were shooting at).
"The SPIRE camera was built in Cardiff"
Now, that IS amazing.. :-)
Oxymoron?
"attractive Win 8-powered"
Not something you read every day.
Puppet Labs
I trust Dr Bunsen Honeydew is in charge...
French wonks
I already have a mental picture of Peter Sellers saying 'wernks' and failing to make himself understood...
I doubt that any 'usual scenario' applies to HP. I expect them to write off even more money trying to defend the indefensible and I certainly wouldn't bet against Mike Lynch. Another good Christmas for the lawyers...
I think anything that shows up lazy journalism/PR/excuses-to-start-wars is a Good Thing. Shame Leveson tripped over it, but if even he's not paying attention...
Posted in McAfee seeks asylum in Guatemala
"20-year old girlfriend"
Not sure whether to arrest or congratulate him. Mind you, I bet things haven't turned out quite the way she expected...
You're on a roll lately, Mr O!
Still not sure about John Birt - for an engineer, he used an awful lot of management-speak, but your article has brought him up a notch in my estimation.
Posted in Autonomy to HP: bollocks
I'm all for the removal of glass ceilings, but you have to wonder why HP has gone into a tailspin under both Carly and Meg.
It it was Paris, I could understand...
Re: Windows 8 launch hasn't gone as expected for the world's largest software maker.
An elderly lady acquaintance of mine is looking a new PC, but volunteered that she didn't want one with 'that Windows 8'. She'd seen it in PC World and instinctively didn't like it. Since PCW were unable to sell her anything different, they lost a sale there and then.
Re: Dinosaurs @hooksie
>the Vistaesque "I haven't used it but I'm told it's crap"
A curious example. Most of us have used it, and it still is.
"You’d be better walking away than trying to make this stick..."
Very prescient! Perhaps Sinofsky was paying attention after all.
Re: J.H.Christ!!!
"I had teething problems too"
Quite recently, I imagine.. :-)
"best possible person for this job"
In the same way that Ballmer is/was?
Personally, I enjoy schadenfreude...
"Oz boffin"
Blimey.
"Larson-Green is an ex-programme manager and an interface expert; she worked on Metro and was responsible for the introduction of the Office 2007 Ribbon"
Expert?
"These two looked like they were picked for an outcome...."
Grounds alone for an appeal. Have the judges not been watching the news and wondering whether the Beeb might not be quite as squeaky clean as they like to insist?
I suppose we'll need another tribunal to find out how much this concealment of a guest list has cost!
I'd contribute to a fighting fund, too, although there must be someone in the BBC who could accidentally leave the list in the photocopier...
Re: ????
"Maybe I was down-voted for spelling Brosnan's name wrong?"
You didn't just spell it wrong, you spelt another actor!
'length' = 'lengthy', of course.
I'm not sure why the ASA exists, since it only seems to be able to act after the fact. Advertisers can say what they like, in the full knowledge that by the time the ASA has waited for someone to point it out, thought about it, conferred with all parties, made some extra-strong coffee and finally reached a judgement, the campaign will be over and the message/damage will be complete.
I had a go at them over the government's 'turn the light off or your dog will drown' campaign against the Evil CO2, and that took weeks to resolve, ending up in a length 'statement' and no action whatever.
Tossers.
Re: here we go again...
"never willing to give anything a go"
Only with MS stuff. And largely because of experience.
Anyway, why pay money to carry on doing what you are already doing? What WP or SS task can you not do with current (or older) versions?
"Energy Secretary Ed Davey said that the Government would "consider carefully the implications" of the report, and publish a formal response before the end of the year."
Last week, Ed Davey was reported as saying that it was nothing to worry about and that there was still a 4% 'cushion', apparently ignoring the possibility of a large power station having to stop for maintenance and/or believing that wind power will always fill the gap.
Of course, we could ignore the EU and keep those slated for closure open while DECC gets its act together, but as Alan Bennett might say, they won't, will they?
