Posts by Peter Simpson 1
487 posts • joined Wednesday 10th June 2009 14:14 GMT
$3.6 BILLION?
That sounds to me like more than a minor oversight. Almost as if there was rampant indentured servitude going on. Apple (and others) need to address this more aggressively, methinks.
Posted in Reg Hardware Awards 2011 Winners
Windows "ribbon"
Yes, I know, I'm about four years late to the party, but I have just had the "pleasure" of being "upgraded" to Office 2010 here at work (forced upgrade because I couldn't read the files being sent to me in the new default 2010 format, natch). What an unmitigated pile of $#!+! And I have been told I'm to get a Win7 PC this year as well. The thrills never stop!
Whose brilliant idea was it to make the user interface as different as possible from its predecessor and to require more clicks to do the same thing? In what world does that count as an improvement?
Wasit built on a Friday?
//bottle of Vodka in the pocket
Hate to sound like a commie, but...
Surely these folks deserve to make a decent living? They're working pretty hard to satisfy the West's craving for the latest fondleslabs, and the least Apple, Microsoft & Co could do is to make sure they get to share, even a little, in the profits.
NASA's aim
"NASA's aim was to preserve important artefacts so that they could be available for display to the American people."
Thus their complete disregard of this valuable item for over 40 years. And their overwriting of the high resolution videotapes of the first lunar landing.
Good job there, biys!
Metric vs Imperial units?
We made sure to use the same units throughout the project this time, didn't we?
Are we sure?
Last chance to double check...
Ho hum
Apple's products are shiny, white and attractively designed with some level of competence. Apple computers don't require anti-virus. Apple stores are full of teens trying out the latest iGadgets. Apple accessories start at $20 and go up, even for a plastic case for the iPhone.
Microsoft keeps trying, but they have failed with every hardware device they've tried to offer, with the possible exception of Xbox (and even that took two tries before they stopped cooking themselves).
Now, tell me again why I would want to spend my money on a "smart"-phone that runs *any* flavor of Windows? The brand is tarnished, and no matter how hard Microsoft tries, if it's a "Windows-anything", people are going to look towards the Apple store and say, "Ooooh! Shiny! I want one of those!"
Mine's in a holster on my belt (looks nerdier)
We won't really know the truth for another 20 years or so. Still, I'm playing it safe and giving the family jewels the benefit of the doubt.
//the copper mesh lined one, please
And satellites are usually located *above* the aircraft
while spoofer transmitters are almost always (unless airborne) located below it. I suspect the drone's GPS antenna pattern is optimized for reception of satellites, rather than ground transmitters...
Posted in Cops seek clues to $1.7m tablet snatch
Lacked tracking tech?
Company short of cash? Check. Insurance scam.
Right
LightSquared bought spectrum on the cheap...because it was reserved for satellite to earth comms. If used in that way, it would not have interfered with GPS. In spite of this, LightSquared has tried to game the system, by ignoring international spectrum allocations and attempting to build a terrestrial network in a frequency band reserved for another use entirely.
Of course they're interfering with GPS receivers. They were designed for use in a band where the only transmitters are supposed to be on satellites!
Posted in Cops bust den of text-spam spewers
The ones I get
Are almost exclusively "payday lenders" or "you have won". So the payoff is either a high-interest rate loan or your credit card info. Love to know what their response rate is.
Another possibility, is that they've already been paid "x" per SMS. If you Google for SMS bulk mailers, a number of "reputable firms" pop up. Perhaps the bursty nature of the problem is due to naive spammers trying out a new channel and discovering it doesn't pay?
Underside isn't shown
Because of the hay bales holding it all up. I seriously doubt it was recovered in one piece, else it would have been shown off the day they recovered it. Plenty of Bondo, duct tape and a paint job accounts for the several days between reported recovery and display...
Posted in Cops bust den of text-spam spewers
Been doing this
It seems to be having an effect, but they come in bursts every few months. The spammers are using what appear to be random phone numbers, which makes me think that they have figured out some way to use PAYG SIM cards. Hopefully the carriers will figure out a way to clamp down on these wankers.
The "Illustrated" Man?
Surely, The Invisible Man?
Obligatory
"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"
Must have been released
...or returned from a trip home to see Mum?
In all fairness...
If the carriers want to be able to plan for and provide appropriate amounts of bandwidth, now and in the future, they need to understand how users use their phones to create a model of current usage.
Yes, I realize the CIQ app goes much further than this by actually recording content, but perhaps it's merely a case of their thinking that "more info is better"?
That doesn't excuse the sneaky way the app is installed, or the lack of information from the carriers, and especially not CIQ's hamfisted tactics against the guy who shone the light on their handy little tool, but there's just a slight possibility that we're not dealing with malice here, but only a stunning level of organizational incompetence and/or misunderstanding of how users feel about their personal communications.
Are those arse-blocks special order?
Imagine a wall of them...do they have other celebutard arse castings available? Just to vary the "terrain", of course.
//Inquiring minds....
Ahh, VISIO!
The red-headed stepchild of the Office suite. Not included, costs extra, and the keyboard and mouse shortcuts are more classic Visio (which was originally, I think, a DOS copy of MacDraw?) than MS Office. Meaning that nothing works the way you expect it to in Visio...
Word and Excel
"For their shortcomings and challenges today... Simonyi maintains Word and Excel deserve their success. "It's hard to find fault with them realistically," he says."
One word: "ribbon".
I've just had the fortune to be "upgraded" from Office 2003 (which was working very well for me, thank you) to Office 2010 (finally met a file I couldn't read). I'm somewhat less than thrilled to have to re-learn the user interface, given that I thought there was nothing wrong with the prior version.
There seems to be a trend (Ubuntu has done this, too) of making massive changes to UI design for no apparent reason but to be able to claim "NEW! SHINY!", and damn the users who have to spend time feeling their way around the new one.
//copy of "Autobiography of Ned Ludd" in the pocket
Exploding whale video
Never gets old. Destined to enter video hall of fame along with "Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse".
//the one with the Oscar in the pocket, of course...
Python
Good for those who are too serious about religion.
//Life of Brian in one pocket and Meaning of Life in the other
Posted in Obama says his birthplace is 'in Asia'
Maybe
He's just giving the birthers a little tweak?
Maximizing shareholder value
When a company exec starts using that phrase, it's time to start looking for a new place to work.
Do any of you appreciate...
...just how hard it is to get a live bird into a bagged salad?
No, I thought you didn't.
Of course, they're dead by the time the salad gets served, but while alive and fluttering, they keep the salad well tossed,. You *are* supposed to remove them before serving, but the caution is in very small print, so I expect you could overlook it.
//like the worm in the tequila bottle
Either rustled or...
...date night.
//It's the shearling coat
Q would say:
Pay attention, 007!
(as he removes from Bond's hand some deadly toy or other that Bond was about to trigger)
//cloak....mind the dagger!
Oh, come on....
...they were just horseing around!
//nude, you say?
Not available in titanium?
America - land of the free!
//where good taste takes a holiday
Shock!
Dodgy and arcane accounting practices in the music industry work to deprive artists of payment?
//colour me amazed!
Zero tolerance
So, there'll be no more stealing stuff from checked luggage, then?
//yeah, right
From Google Group - it's RSA's
A recent posting on Google Groups indicates the cert was created by RSA:
<quote>
I have received email from official representatives of RSA confirming that RSA did indeed create the "RSA Security 1024 V3" root certificate that is currently included in NSS (Netscape/Mozilla) and also in Apple's root cert store.
Kathleen Wilson
</quote>
Will we see
Excess weight charges from the airlines?
"Excuse me sir, how many books do you have stored on that thing?"
//paperback in the pocket
Who controls the British Pound?
//Stomecutters' handbook
The continual switching of lawyers
Leads one to think that the suit may be without merit.
//so much more civilized than referring to Mr. Ceglia as a fraudster
"Forced" ???
Sounds like a terrible fate. Usually, the women in these films are carefully selected for their visual attributes. My sympathies to the gentleman involved for having to endure this terrible fate.
//who else but Paris?
Posted in Oz solar car race caught on camera
Nice video
Hope you guys were able to sample the local cuisine and liquids while you were down there. Thanks for the coverage.
Believe the folks in Oz have discovered it
http://www.lakecomm.com.au/hf.html
Posted in US radio evangelist: Apocalypse now
End for him?
Camping's recovering from a stroke...another failure in prediction may send him to his maker
Easy for you
First we have to straighten out the 8 inch cartel, then it's on to the 5.25 inch boys, and finally, we nail the 3.5 inch monopolists.
Say...has anyone looked into the suppliers of mouse balls?
//mine's the one with the strawberries in the pocket
Not Darwin...
...I think we may have a candidate for the 2012 igNobel Prize in Chemistry here!
There once was a man from Devizes
...
But the other won several prizes!
NOw
Does anyone thing that the same companies have wised up and are playing fair with LCD pricing?
...I thought not.
//mine's the one with the pricing agreement in the pocket
Wombats
Living in a hole in the ground in the outback!
Good on ya, boys. Thanks for the excellent coverage and photos!
Posted in ICANN rescues time zone database
Do they live in the Dark Ages?
They're *astrologers*.
//hope you don't weigh the same as a duck...
He doesn't even name them
They're counted and sent to market.
Draw your own conclusions...
Posted in ICANN rescues time zone database
It does really depend on how
If the attempted contact was by email or even regular postal mail, shame on Astrolabe! If it's this important, it should have been certified mail. That might explain why they received no response.
I have the reprint of that
Learned C and UNIX when I was at Data General. I was impressed by the apparent simplicity of the design (which is quite often a sign of carefully crafting) and its obvious power. I was lucky enough to have a co-worker who had been at MIT and returned waxing eloquently about how UNIX was the future.
All I needed to learn C was the K&R book. Later, I took a course in which I received the BSTJ reprint. Then I got a Sun workstation , discovered USENET and shortly thereafter, Linux. It was all "downhill" from there.
RIP, dmr.
//there seem to be an awful lot of coats here with a copy of K&R in the pocket...
Posted in BOFH: Where's my free fondleslab?
Register Management
should be very careful to insure that there is actually an elevator present when the doors open.
Perhaps it would be prudent to pass some of the swag on to Mr. Travaglia...who, I'm sure, would hate to hear of any unpleasant accidents...
