* Posts by Jerome 0

551 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

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El Reg's contraptions confessional no.2: Tablet PC, CRT screen and more

Jerome 0

Model M

Prosaic though it may be by comparison, I just want to put in a word for the IBM Model M keyboard (I doubt I'll be alone in that either).

This particular beast has been serving me well for longer than I care to remember, and the mechanical keys are still a typist's delight. Cherry MX keyswitches are apparently all the rage with the kids these days in their fancy new mechanical keyboards, but have you seen the prices they charge for those things?! Besides, there's not a one of them that can hold a candle to either the build quality or the charm of the original.

Google Nexus 7 2013: Fondledroids, THE 7-inch slab has arrived

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Ugh, why no OTG? The lack of an SD card is needless and irritating, but at least it's not a deal breaker. :(

Samsung brings back clamshell phones with added Android

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Thin and light

I'm guessing we don't see more of it because "incredibly thin" seems to be an overriding design consideration, even to the extent of crippling battery life on devices in order to squeeze that extra millimetre off of them.

Google Chromecast: Here's why it's the most important smart TV tech ever

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I'm going to sound old-fashioned here, but maybe in some households not everyone can afford a fondleslab each, and some members of said household are glad when they can play Farmville while hubby streams Top Gear?

Hugs all round as Google relaunches Groups service

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Organisation by email?

Sounds like a terribly old-school way of going about things. Why not just use something far more modern and suited to the task, like Google Wave? Oh, wait...

Living with a 41-megapixel 808 PureView: Symbian's heroic last stand

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HDR

Minor point, but you can only argue that "what the 808 is doing with every photo is HDR" if the camera is "distilling lots of pixels into a few good ones" from shots taken at two or more different exposures. It's not my understanding that the camera does this by default (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Amazon launches own currency

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Re: Next step to nationhood

Certainly sir, we offer a 99.8% discount for paying taxes in Amazon currency.

Google's Schmidt calls for 'DELETE from INTERWEBS' button

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Re: I'm sorry?

Yes, but that would just result in new search engines springing up specialising in finding "deleted" information. At that point, have we really gained anything by adding this functionality to Google?

Would the fact that Google had some "missing" results end up meaning that people viewed Google as the less capable search engine? Would Google sit back and allow that to happen, or would they just put the "deleted" results back in?

Security audit finds dev outsourced his job to China to goof off at work

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Agreed. Bob's "typical work day" reads like a joke list of how a lazy employee would spend their time. The whole thing sounds like something you hear about from a mate of a mate. Plus the only source for this story appears to be a link to the Verizon blog, which is currently returning a database error.

Boffins spot planet that could support life... just 12 light years away

Jerome 0

Re: Ping Time

One would hope if they've got FTL, they can spot a primitive probe crawling towards them at subluminal speeds before it slams through their atmosphere.

Nominet mulls killing off the .co from .co.uk

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Re: Not very well thought-through.

Whoever pays up first.

Vote now for the ultimate bacon sandwich

Jerome 0

The bagels and muffins have given even a staunch traditionalist like myself ideas.

The Lipsmacking Lindsay gets my vote though - that thing sounds amazing. Although I have to concur with some of the other entries, in that an egg or two is a pretty much mandatory accompaniment to bacon.

Forty Canadian birds BONKING against windows EVERY MINUTE

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Devil

Are any of them bats?

"Feeders and bird friendly plants are unwittingly contributing to the problem," says Bayne, continuing "When you have flown head-first into my window, then you have my permission to die."

Nikon launches D600 lightweight full-frame DSLR

Jerome 0

Re: Not so heavy on the wallet either

Then you've not been looking at the prices of the nearest competition.

Ten iPhone 5 challengers

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Re: Nokia PureView 808

I think you've missed the point. This phone is all about the camera. It's a truly remarkable little imaging device, the most innovative thing to be seen on a phone in a long time. In many respects it's better than the vast majority of compact cameras, and it's certainly the best snapper on a mobile phone ever.

It's lamentable that they'll not be putting this to good use in an Android device, and that even the WP8 version is crippled by comparison, but that doesn't take anything away from their achievement in developing the thing in the first place.

Ten movies inspired by video games

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Ironic?

I hate to be that guy, but still... How is it ironic that RE never reached the heights of a Romero flick, when Romero pulled out early on? On the contrary, surely it makes perfect sense?

Jerome 0

Re: Streetfighter

Sounds like a fantastic plot.

Beer mats to tout tat to mobiles over wireless NFC

Jerome 0

Pay-by-bonk?

Pay-by-bonk sounds like just the killer app this new technology needs. Cash seems so grubby, after all.

Tesco helps high flyers avoid actual shops

Jerome 0

Re: Not the biggest flaw in this idea, but...

It looks like they've allocated the same amount of space for each product regardless of size, probably to have a nice clean layout (or because their devs are lazy). Hence there's only one each of the larger items, but multiples of the smaller ones to fill up the space.

I expect some UX guru told them it looked more like a supermarket shelf that way, and took home six figures for the insight.

Jerome 0

Re: Any joined up thinking....

I'm not sure that an El Reg comment constitutes a patent. Although it would be pretty nifty if it did...

Hmmm, let this be a record of my dibs on that idea.

Beeb stuffs $21tn into Olympic-sized swimming pools

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Re: Don't forget Homo Heisenbergensis

Could be worse - when Homo Schrödingeris buried their dead, no-one one was sure if they were dead or alive.

Raspberry Pi rolls out speed surge Raspbian OS

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Re: Daft question

Yes, they're giving you the opportunity to buy it without the SD card (in case you already have one) and OS (which is freely downloadable). This is called freedom, it's the opposite of what you'll be used to from the computer industry, which is why it might be a little confusing at first. :)

Microsoft sets the price for a Windows 8 upgrade at $40

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Upgrade?

Anyone who doesn't treat a new version of Windows as a golden opportunity to buy a new hard drive, do a clean install to ditch all the crap, and hopefully get your computer booting up in under 5 minutes, is either an optimist or an idiot.

Nexus 7 and Surface: A bonanza for landfill miners

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In-ter-net?

Ah, the "increasingly bare public internet". I thought for a while it was going to catch on, but it turned out to be just another fad.

Sony SmartWatch Android remote

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Re: Dear Sony

And yet the phone took over from the wristwatch as a timekeeping device for many people, because everyone has different needs.

Screen idols: higher resolution means better laptops

Jerome 0

Re: @Chris19 re more pixels

@ Lord Elpuss - your diagram argues against your own point. Even with your thinner wires, there's still 10% more light blocked in the diagram of the high-res display. :)

William Shatner confirms Devon town actually prostitute free

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Re: Last time Shatner was involved in something like this he cheated

While every word of your post made sense on its own, it's hard to determine much meaning from the order in which you've arranged them. Having said that, I'm pretty sure there's a reference to Star Trek 4 in there somewhere.

Japan still in love with the fax

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Re: Fax.... machines?

@Wize - call it a faxer?

Plasma drive starts with pee

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Re: Could Richard Chirgwin kindly ask Professor Boswell

He's referring to the by-product that's left over in the reaction. If he was referring to the water itself, the poor astronauts would have to die of dehydration just to keep the plasma drive up and running, which seems a touch harsh.

Molyneux chisels away at social experiment

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Boffin

By a strange co-incidence...

I also am running a "test about the psychology of monetisation". Please send me £1,000. Thank you.

Windows 8: Not even Microsoft thinks businesses will use it

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Re: When does thing launch again?

More to the point, has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Diablo III

Jerome 0
WTF?

Dialogue

The review says the dialogue is "hammy and hilarious" yet also "immersive"? Are the graphics beautiful but ugly, and the gameplay enthralling yet tedious?

BBC shrinks Red Button: Loses 8 channels after the Olympics

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Re: I can't remember the last time...

On my Virgin box at least, it's "press the red button if you want to watch a 'please wait' screen for a minute or two".

Google+ dying on its arse – shock new poll

Jerome 0

Re: Personally

@ AdamWill - just add them, then block them so you don't see their posts and they don't see yours. No offence caused, no inconvenience suffered.

Jerome 0

Re: " ram-it-down-your-throat approach with a 'f**k-you' response"

@Mr. Shitpeas - no, the point is that they are TRYING to force people into using it, and people are ignoring them. Just like I have to ignore the in-your-face "use Google Chrome" ad that's foisted on me every time I visit google.com these days.

Jerome 0

Re: Personality Datastructure

Sure, monopoly holder Facebook haven't implemented an open standard for social networking. It's a good job Google came along, with their "do no evil" mantra, and implemented a full open solution to the problem. That's why everyone flocked to the more open G+, right?

Sony NEX-7 24.3Mp APS-C compact system camera

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Lenses

Truly a beautiful piece of kit, but sadly not a truly pocketable camera due to the huge lenses. The NEX lens range is sadly lacking in decent pancake prime lenses, unlike mirrorless systems from other camera makers (Samsung & m4/3)

Mobile fee dodgers will get away with enough cash to bail out Greece

Jerome 0

Whilst I know little more about the global telecommunications business than I've just read in that article, I can't help but wonder if the vast sums of money quoted are really valid. Are these "estimates" perhaps as baseless as the hilarious figures which are bandied around by the press regarding piracy, and the amount it supposedly costs the economy every year?

HTC One S Android smartphone

Jerome 0

Re: ouch

You must stay in posher hotels than me if the TVs have HDMI ports.

You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

Jerome 0
Coffee/keyboard

It's not every day you get to read a line like "the time I was punched at IBM’s labs was my own fault".

El Reg user forum opens to public, HTML for all (mostly)

Jerome 0

That all sounds pretty reasonable... so reasonable, in fact, that it makes me wonder why bbcode was invented in the first place.

Yahoo! Facebook! litigation! trips! patent! trigger!

Jerome 0
Stop

Re: You're kidding, right?

You do know that's how mad cow disease started, right?

Atari Pong at 40: Alcorn talks plastics, pirates and square balls

Jerome 0

Well if yours still works, they don't need to.

Quantum computing in our lifetime - IBM breakthrough

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Boffin

If we can't think of anything to ask them, we just need to ask them what the question should be. Once they've had a good think and come up with a question, we can set them to work on the answer. Because doing it the other way around would be crazy.

Motorola Motoluxe Android smartphone

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Re: Re: Review scores

Jeez, calm down Jim! I happen to agree with you, review scores all bunched up together are pretty silly. I was just pointing out that you'll find the same thing virtually everywhere, it's not solely El Reg that's at fault.

Scores in reviews are generally pointless anyway. There's no such thing as the "best" smartphone, everyone has different requirements. Just read the review, decide on the basis of the features whether the phone suits your needs, and ignore the ultimately arbitrary percentage tacked onto the end.

Jerome 0

Review scores

To be fair to El Reg, I think you'll find that sort of skewed distribution on any review site. Anything under 60-70% these days is reserved for stuff that's truly dire.

Flood-hit Thai disk fabs to pour out 140m drives

Jerome 0

"Digitimes’ source predicted that HDD prices would probably rise from 30 to 40 per cent from pre-flood levels"

I'm not sure I understand this statement. As far as I can see, prices already seem to have come back down, well below a 40% premium above the original price level. Are they saying they'll go back up again? This seems unlikely.

Ubuntu for Android: Penguins peck at Nokia's core problem

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Re: Re: 640K is enough for anyone

To clear up the QDOS confusion, the QDOS that was the predecessor to MS-DOS was first written for 8086, and was later renamed to 86-DOS. Both Atari and Sinclair had entirely separate QDOSes of their own, but neither of these were written for Z80 (6502 and 68008 respectively).

Airbrushed Rachel Weisz gets watchdog hot under the collar

Jerome 0

@Spandy - So Photoshop is banned only for the face cream ads? Then all the celebs and models in the magazine look young, beautiful and photoshopped, except for the ones in the face cream ads, who all look as old and haggard as they really are. Fine by me, but I can't imagine this is the effect the advertisers are aiming for.

System Shock

Jerome 0

Too true - Bioshock was atmospheric and beautiful, but in terms of gameplay it was massively dumbed down in comparison with its predecessors.

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