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* Posts by Thomas 4

1362 posts • joined Thursday 11th June 2009 12:46 GMT

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Thomas 4
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IT Angle

Re: If only..

Hash (n): A mixture of ingredients created by dicing, chopping or repeatedly slamming someone's head in a laminating printer.

Thomas 4
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Re: Wow-2

1) What exactly does an ethanol plant in Georgia have to do with an electric car company in San Francisco?

2) *All* technology is unproven at one point, from the wheel to the atomic bomb. We build them. It costs money to build them. Without building them we cannot tell whether they will be a proven technology or not.

3) A car that reduces the dependence on imported fossil fuels is bad thing? Whether its making any difference or not the climate is a moot point if it can also save a wad of cash for folks.

4) You are correct in this regard. It's quite plausible that a company that has managed to make a profit on electric cars will stop making them and redirect the money elsewhere, such as Elon Musk's Alpaca Ranch.

5) This is the bit that grinds my gears. You are complaining about what *might* have happened. It didn't happen. It is therefore irrelevant, at least as far as this specific company is concerned.

6) Why thank you, I think I will.

Thomas 4
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Happy

Re: Note that difference *loan* (with interest) versus old car maker (2nd or 3rd) bailout.

I tip my hat to you, Pirate Dave. At long last we have a strong challenger to Eadon for El Reg's "Tool of the Year" award. I have complete faith that you are up to the task.

Moving along, it is nice to see a big business actively giving something back to the economy. Between Tesla and Space X, Elon Musk may actually restore a little of my faith in capitalism.

Thomas 4
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Mrr

This chap sounds more than a little obsessive. I hope the police are keeping watch on his ex-wife in case he tries anything.

...and I've just realised how absurd that statement is, given the context. -.-

Thomas 4
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"We need to fight for privacy or we are going to lose it."

I can't help but feel some sort of spacial rift should have opened immediately after he made this statement.

Thomas 4
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Re: Older recipe (1962)

"To Serve Man".

Thomas 4
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Re: I just realised something

I'm not shocked, I just think it's really freaking cool. =D It gives me a tiny amount of hope that's there still good in humanity. =)

Thomas 4
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I just realised something

I'm looking at a photo of another world, taken by a nuclear powered robot and then beamed 225,000,000 km to a radio telescope dish almost 4000 m2 in size, where it travels along 5200 miles of copper and fibre optic cables at speeds up to 2/3rds the speed of light just so I can sit here and comment on it.

I am a god.

Thomas 4
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Facepalm

Re: Sims games should be assumed to be for innocents

Yes, because everyone knows "The Gay" is a highly contagious disease that will lead to the extinction of the human race.

In my darker moments, I've often felt that people being compassionate, understanding and accepting is a definite bug in homo sapiens. >:(

Thomas 4
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Re: Sims games should be assumed to be for innocents

Because some of us actually have friends that want to get married but can't because they are LGBT? Even *Microsoft* understands and rejects the concept of sexual discrimination (at least judging by their hiring procedures), so what does that say about you?

Thomas 4
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Hmmm

Read quite a few mentions of the Shield but no mentions of any launch titles....

Thomas 4
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Subtle my ass

Nothing subtle about having to fork out an extra £80 or more. >:(

Thomas 4
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Just goes to show

AVunit was the smart one. The best hackers are the ones that keep their traps shut and never brag about their exploits.

Thomas 4
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Re: I can see the future...

Easily solved. When people talk about proprietary shit for their phones, they could literally mean it in this case.

iShit.

Thomas 4
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What happened to HTC?

I remember a couple of years back world + dog was salivating over the HTC Desire range and they were stomping all over their rivals. What happened?

Thomas 4
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Thank God they were Star Wars geeks

Being on the receiving end of even a replica Bat'leth would be pretty ugly. oO

Thomas 4
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Re: Has it not occured to them...

^ A thousand times this.

I remember my IT lessons from school. I think only one of them covered any actual programming and only then if you class turning the turtle in Logo as such. (Which in fairness you should).

I remember one weekend I was looking through my dad's collection of 3.5 inch floppies for shareware games and found a "teach yourself DOS" program. That did more for me than 3 years of secondary school IT.

Thomas 4
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Headmaster

Don't be so quick to mock

I wonder why it is that so many people are laughing at this idea. Developing a new language is an extraordinary feat. It could have an enormous amount of application in encryption - remember how the Navajo language was used in WWII? In addition, creating a language also gives linguistics scholars insights into how ancient languages rose and evolved over time. Yes, a language that evolves from a fictional universe will never have as much day to day value as a language that evolved in the real world - but it's far from a frivolous exercise.

Thomas 4
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Re: AH HA!

This...would actually get me to upgrade to Windows 8. oO

Thomas 4
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So Applecare will cover all of your Apple products?

So this is basically Apple iNsurance?

Thomas 4
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Shoddy reporting

What was the steak like? Did it come with any sides?

Thomas 4
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Re: On course for UK - Oz in 30 minutes

Just out of curiosity, wouldn't the G-forces involved with hypersonic stuff end up laminating the pilot/passengers to the rear wall of the plane?

Not a troll, just a genuine question. =)

Thomas 4
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Nicely done Lester

I know you've probably had a lot of folks deriding your effort as being a sham and that it isn't a "real" view of what it's like to live below the breadline.

But they're missing the point.

The phrase "there's people worse off than you" is a really shit way to gain insight and empathy - it's like saying "unless you are this depressed/discriminated/disabled, your views don't mean jack and are therefore irrelevant". It doesn't help. All it does is breed resentment. If it has changed *your* view on the world and your view on others, that's all the matters.

Besides, even the most snarky person would have to agree that raising over a grand for charity can only be a good thing.

Thomas 4
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Mushroom

Re: Not playing their game

This. ^^

Why the hell do we have to wait best part of a frigging year for a new series to be released on DVD after the Yanks get it a couple of months after airing?

Thomas 4
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Re: Screw the iWatch

@AC - I fear you are missing the point. The point is that when someone comes up to you and says "Hello peasant, I have an iWatch" you are in a position to retort "Well, that's pretty cool but inside my watch, right now, a high power laser is firing at a radioactive isotope, keeping time accurate to a nanosecond. But yeah, I guess an iWatch is pretty cool as well."

Thomas 4
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Screw the iWatch

I want one of these babies. Oo

Thomas 4
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Re: What about all the large UK tech companies?

@breakfast

Probably because of all the money they have made from other people's images.

Thomas 4
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It's still better than Iceland's back up political model

...where everyone kills everyone else by flying around in spaceships.

Thomas 4
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"chans of communication"

Slip of the tongue there? =p

Thomas 4
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Re: "Coffee?"

Coffee is fine but there might be a little bit of haggling involved with the antidote.

Thomas 4
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Trollface

"Tuition fee rises...

"...won't happen while Lib Dems are in government."

Thomas 4
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Given the choice

I'd probably splash out on the tour of Space X. I think provided no-one mentioned electric cars or journalists it'd be pretty cool. Sounds a hell of a lot more fun than listening to Piers Morgan prattle on about himself or Tim Cook sitting in icy silence when you ask him about future Apple products.

Thomas 4
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WTF?

Gosh

Who'd have thought there would be more than one individual in the world with the initials "RVP"?

Thomas 4
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Agreed...

...but sadly unlikely. No-one has ever put an entire lynch mob on trial before, which is a shame because it really needs to be done sometimes. =/

Thomas 4
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The main problem with Apple's recent releases?

They're *boring*!

Think about it. When the iPod first became mainstream it had interesting new ideas for menu navigation plus a crapton of storage. Then they released iPod Minis then iPod Touches and then introduced the Great Unwashed to the concept of a touch screen smart phone. Then they brought out an iPad and world+dog wanted one.

All they've done in the past few years is tread water. The Macbook Air is just a slightly slimmer Macbook, there's no glaring changes between the iPhone 2 and iPhone 5, aside from screen and processor upgrades. They need someone that's prepared to make *changes* and venture on risky products.

Show us something *new* and I might show you some of my money again, Apple.

Thomas 4
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Stop

Re: My Z10

"...and the first thing the sales assistant said about it was that it was a difficult interface..."

The sales assistant isn't a freaking mind reader. They don't know whether you've had 10 billion years experience and can tell the difference between a 9320 and 9360 by smell or whether you're someone that has trouble finding the "call" button.

It *is* a big change going from the old OS to the new one and it is better for the assistant to assume a lack of knowledge and issue a warning than mindlessly flog a Z10, only to put up with a barrage of abuse and questions later.

Thomas 4
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Re: I like it !

I actually wrote an article about something similar for All About Symbian a few years back. I'd bought a second hand Panasonic phone off ebay and when i received it it had someone's bank account details on it. I called one of the numbers on the phone and it turned out it had been stolen in Manchester a few weeks back. Contacted eBay - they didn't want anything to do with it. Contacted Paypal - they didn't want anything to do with it. Went to the police station with a complete record of all emails between me, the seller, ebay, the works - nothing came of it. I returned the phone to the young lady it had been stolen from but wasn't able to get a refund from either Paypal or eBay.

Thomas 4
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@Spoddy

I feel that if Microsoft allowed its hardware developers a little more flexibility when it comes to designing the phones, they'd be a lot more successful. A WP8 with a good, solid keyboard would be delightful - think 9300 or 9210 with WP8.

As for Eadon, everyone knows he has his own unique keyboard that he uses for posting on here. It comprises of two very large keys - one saying "Microsoft", the other saying "Fail" and he repeatedly slams his face onto it before clicking the "Submit" button.

Thomas 4
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WTF?

Hell has officially frozen over

A Government IT project......*that wasn't a complete fuck up*.

Thomas 4
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Re: Domain names

Weird. I'd have thought they'd have used .kim instead.

Thomas 4
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Hmmm

Schmidt: "Officer, I wish to make a complaint. Someone was flying a drone around my house this afternoon. It is a shameless violation of my privacy!"

Officer: "Sir, how do you know this? Wouldn't you have been at work?"

Schmidt: "I saw it on a Streetview photo."

Thomas 4
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Meh

Re: Man...

Kinda 50/50 I think. My morbid side can see the amusement in some of the phrases used but my more human side feels sorry for the guy. Doesn't help that some of the later comments are pointing stuff I wasn't even aware of, like the bends.

Thomas 4
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Man...

...that's a really shitty way to go. Poor bastard. =/

Thomas 4
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Now be fair...

It's very difficult to freeze salaries while ensuring the same or a greater amount of work from your employees. The small bonus just helps to offset the insurance rise when the tyres on your Bentley are repeatedly slashed by hacked off plebeians.

Thomas 4
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Re: It IS rocket science...

Probably the biggest place at risk is South Korea. A missile could easily be intercepted if they tried to hit somewhere like Guam, Japan or the US but if the got them close enough to the border and let rip, they might actually have a chance of hitting something.

Also, even if they can't do a full nuke, what about the potential for a dirty warhead? Is that a possibility?

Thomas 4
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Re: Missile fuels and testing

@Spartacus

I agree. Even the most rabid dictator is aware that rocket scientists don't grow on trees and I imagine that successful ones are treated like royalty. If for no other reason, KJ knows that without decent scientists, he is royally boned.

....but then again, Western Civilsations are royally boned without decent scientists and we don't exactly pay ours well.

Also, can we get a "royally boned" icon please?

Thomas 4
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Stop

Re: Topic? What's a topic?

We don't need peasants like you in The Silver Badge Club. You're also not allowed in our treehouse. Nyer-nyer.

Thomas 4
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Re: yes, but

The Twitter Toaster!

#MakingToastRightNow

Thomas 4
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Trollface

North Korea playing games...

I think it's some kind of Hacker bingo. All they need is Gary McKinnon and they'll have a full house.

Thomas 4
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Re: "Middle managers suffer more stress than anyone else"

Middle managers believed to suffer more stress. Also noted - monkeys shit in the woods.

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