Posts by frank ly
2120 posts • joined Wednesday 10th June 2009 09:17 GMT
Page:
Posted in Two fat atoms get the nod
A relevant question:
Were you standing in a zinc bucket full of pigshit when you took that picture?
We have a right to know! (Actually, we don't. I'm just saying stuff.)
You mean......
Typical response from a cut who ......
(They like to think they're a cut above the rest of us but really their all cut from the same cloth. That's enough cutting wit for now.)
When will El Reg review it?
See title.
That dog...
.. looks cute and funny at the same time. (So does the little canine creature.)
This is a tit.....
In Facebookland, breasts are obscene and it is harmful for young children to see them.
Did You...
identify her as a viable target and were you tempted to deploy your torpedo?
(I'm going, I'm going.)
Posted in Verity Stob and the super subjunction
Ponderingly ...
" ... which aimed to differentiate better between .."
I have a feeling that this should be ' ... which aimed to better differentiate between ... '
(It's arguable, I know.)
Actually...
"And any wrongdoing is in the downloading not the leaving around for others to see."
I'm not sure if the law changed, after Mandy had a nice holiday on a rich man's yacht, but it used to be that the downloading was not illegal. It was the provision or 'making available' that was against copyright legislation.
A legal eagle may be along in a minute.
Ah but.....
Not just pounds; the Irish euro symbol goes before the amount (as do others).
(H)mmmmm
In written articles, 'm' is often used as an abbreviation for 'million' after a number and the context should define it with no ambiguity (as it did here).
With money, the currency symbol comes before the number, so remembering that the scale prefix comes before the unit......
M£20(?) = £20m = £20,000,000
So why do job adverts say 'Up to £30k for the right candidate', etc ?
Posted in Folder Organizer
Because...
.... we all have our own ideas and personal preferences for how a UI 'works'. Also, some of us are set in our ways and would like to have the same UI paradigm (sorry) running on all our computing devices.
I've got Froyo on an HTC Wildfire and you can't put a folder inside another folder; which was a big disappointment for me (maybe I should get a life?). So, I'll be having a play with this because it's cheap enough to throw away and forget if it turns out that I don't like it.
Only for dummies.
The crash test dummy managed to hold itself rigid on landing. I suspect that a real 'pilot' would flop around and get their head scraped along the ground.
Cynics!
I can't think of anything nicer than wandering around beautifully furnished showhomes and looking at all kinds of different bathroom fittings and luminaires.
Not only could I see them and touch and operated them, I could read about them via linked data!
All that's needed now is for it to analyse my bank balance and do a few projections to see if I can afford something, monitor my heart rate and blood pressure to see which items give me most excitement; then it could make the buying recommendation for me and place an order after I press the 'Yes I Do!' button. If it then consults my calendar, it could book a time for the delivery and the fitting contractors to arrive. Ah, modern technology, if only it could give me a life as well.
Posted in Billionaire Zuckerberg kills to eat
Furthermore
I'll see your 'kill' and raise you 'find, chase and catch'. That would be interesting. (It would also mean I'd be limited to trout, mackerel, etc)
Weigh?
It doesn't really matter. You put the bluetooth earpiece in, then your PA carries the phone and operates it for you.
All in the mind
This only works if you have a dirty mind (mine is absolutely filthy); so what does this tell you about the people who complained?
How populous is the district?
I would be surprised if they didn't use some waste heat for baseload heating of the buildings there. For 'district heating', it would depend on how many people and potential 'customer' buildings there are in that area. Is the old mill in an isolated place or on the edge of a teeming metropolis?
Minimising Environmental Impact Is Only 'Local'
Mixing the waste heat water with some cooler 'tempering water' from the gulf, before discharge, will only minimise the thermal impact in the local discharge area. It will have no effect on the thermal impact on the gulf as a whole. They are still dumping a given amount of total heat energy into the gulf. However, kudos to them for making the effort to not stew local lobsters, etc.
I would assume that they and various Finnish researchers have calculated the thermal impact for various running scenarios and come to the conclusion that it will not be harmful to the gulf's natural inhabitants.
Money Talks ....
.... clearly and without semantic noise.
Then....
Find the politicians who get 'contributions' from US peering point hosts and tell them: 'You vote for these peering point take-down measures or we will, er, ........' Oh :(
Jaw... Drops
"... The social problems caused by the chatting and making of friends by young people on the Internet become more and more serious. ..."
Thank you for showing us that. That sort of behaviour never happened before the Internet of course.
Posted in Apple seeks anti-snoop display patent
Working Prototype Available?
This appears to be an electronically adjustable (or selectable) louvre filter. (Fixed louvre filters have been available for many years).
The method or technique seems to be the selection of one of two (or more) light pathways, that have different 'louvre' characteristics. Fine - but - anybody with a bit of experience of LCD type displays could have thought of that.
Have they actually developed these little switchable filter cells? I suspect not.
Isn't it the case that a patent application requires the existence of a working model or process?
I would like to patent a light filter cell (or sheet) that varies it's angle of light transmittance over a very wide range with the application of a small, variable d.c. voltage. No, of course I haven't made one. All I need to do is think about it and patent it then anybody who does manage to develop one has to pay me.
Posted in Endeavour 'nauts in epic ISS spacewalk
I was wondering
I was about to make points about the use of captive bolts and tethered covers, etc, but it does seem obvious (with hindsight) that the designers would have thought of that.
Will Qld Police pay his costs?
Any reasonable person would believe that the Qld police have placed spyware on his iPad (which is why it took ages for them to return it). Hence, it would be reasonable for the journalist (and his employers) to require that a professional computer security person give it a thorough check and 'cleaning'. The Qld police should pay for these services.
@Peter
Don't you mean 'lowest common de moderator'? (Not that the Reg moderator is low or common, no, not at all, I would never suggest that!)
@Tom
It may be that Robin is a grocer. You need to show some cultural sensitivity here.
Posted in El Reg iPhone app rated a flaccid 12+
@Turtle_Fan
I read articles using the RSS feed via Google Reader, hence reading them in the browser, and the comments show just fine that way.
Posted (slowly) from my Wildfire running 2.2.
Politician out of touch again.
"... saying that some locals in the areas wore trousers held up by string ..."
It's not string, it's baling twine. The man's an ignoramus.
It could be worse
Does it have a ConDem government?
re. sonic equivalent of donner kebab
I've always found a good donner kebab to be a powerful and intensely moving experience.
An obvious consequence....
will be giant squids with frikin' lasers.
I have a sad feeling.....
.... that it was exactly that.
In later news, a 13 year old boy has been charged with the manufacture of terrorist devices.
Meep - Meep !
It's not clear in the video or the article; did he actually manage to catch the Road Runner?
@JasonW
You've probably got a fully working brain as well.
In a perfect world.......
I've always said that breaking the speed limit is fine, as long as everybody does it, does it sensibly and does it in the same way. The trouble is, that really can't happen.
Posted in Nutter preflames El Reg 'cockheads'
Sensible Precautions
"The Beast of Redmond has just coughed a cheque ..."
Did you thoroughly clean it and check it for viruses before you installed it in your bank account?
Mote.Beam - meaning
Are we sure that 'mote' refers to speck of (saw)dust and 'beam' refers to large plank of wood?
I've often considered the imagery as being a mote of light and a beam of (blinding) light which prevents one from seeing the truth.
Posted in Boffins herald end of stiff screens
Think Big
"Patentable? Probably not since ...."
That never stopped any of the big players. Go for it.
O2 (via Tesco) is ok for tethering it seems
I checked the Ts&Cs for my Tesco monthly SIM only contract on their website. It only says that I mustn't use VOIP or streaming services. (I assume VOIP because that is competition for voice traffic and streaming because that eats data at a high rate.)
So, I asked Tesco-mobile customer support and they told me that I can tether all I like since I have a 500MB data cap and they will charge me if I go over that. (I don't see how that argument doesn't apply to data streaming services as well, unless it's the instantaneous rate that is a problem for them.)
When my phone was upgraded OTA to Android 2.2, the WiFi hotspot appeared and I've been using it to link to my Advent Vega rooted with Modaco. All is fine :)
Laugh or Cry
"One data breach involved the theft of a doctor's personal unencrypted laptop, which contained patient information. The trust said that the laptop was password-protected."
.... the choice is yours.
Exciting Launcher Dock - Ooh, Shiny!
"The Unity UI lets you drag and drop icons into the launcher/dock, à la Apple's Mac OS X"
Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP (and Vista I think) let you have a separate pop-out 'dock' (called a taskbar) on each side of the screen and you can overlay more adjustable taskbars on top of them. An item in a taskbar can be any shortcut you have created and so you can have a folder full of other shortcuts as a 'docked' item, which when clicked effectively opens up a custom 'dashboard'.
I've been 'driving' my Windows computers for 12 years using pop-out taskbars and was well pissed off when these were removed in Windows 7.
At the moment, there's nothing I can do with Windows XP that I couldn't do with Windows 2000 Pro (which admittedly needed some extras installed to get full networking magic going), so I'm wondering what OS development is actually doing, at least for the end-user and ordinary domestic consumer.
I'm not a windows fanboi, I'm a fan of things that work and keep working, like my seven year old Acer laptop running XP.
Posted in Save the planet: Stop the Greens
Tautology Soup
It does in French. In modern English, it means 'a slight trace or hint', especially when used in culinary matters.
In-Car Displays
I notice they have an imitation faux-walnut veneer background; aiming for the discerning buyer in the luxury car market.
Sarah....
Please don't fudiate the situation any more than it is already. (We would all miss you.)
Let's make the best of it
How about we say 'fudiate': derived from the acronym FUD. Meaning to create a situation of FUD. Hence 'refudiate' = to cause to return to a situation of FUD.
Posted in Five amazing computers for under £100
re. Psion Love
The Psion 5MX can be had for less than £100 on e-bay. I remember linking via the IR port to my Nokia 6310i and then connecting to the internet (slowly) to read and send e-mails using webmail and the built in browser.
As I recall, this had to be done by calling a special number, provided by Psion support for their internet gateway. I have no idea if this is still supported.
(Needs an icon for vague memories bubbling up from the past.)
re. Boycott East Texas
Your suggestion is a reflex kick in the shins, which is understandable but you haven't thought it through (like all reflex actions).
This court is not deciding a criminal matter for criminal acts committed in its jurisdiction. It is deciding a civil suit brought by a plaintiff for actions carried out by the defendant anywhere in the USA. I think it also can decide regarding actions anywhere in the world, provided the defendant is resident in the USA.
I'd be happy to throw more wood on your fire but it won't do anyone any good.
Posted in Skype plugs Android privacy flaw
Skype over 3G in UK
"... allows US users to piggyback onto 3G networks when making calls over Skype. Previously this facility, which users outside the US would take for granted..."
Here in the UK, Tesco mobile (using the O2 network) T&C's specifically state that using the mobile data network to send VOIP data is not allowed and if they detect it then they will take measures to punish you (my wording). On the bright side, they don't care about tethering since they go by the amount of data you transfer and charge you if you go above your limit (500MB a month on my contract).
Like it or lump it, it's reality....
I fully agree with you. That's why I don't use my real name on any forums I make posts to and don't use my real name in any email addresses I use for that purpose. I know reality, it bites.
