Posts by Mahatma Coat
880 posts • joined Thursday 11th June 2009 14:00 GMT
Comparing like with like
Another pioneering car, the Ford Model T, had a range of about 200-250 miles on a full tank. I would imagine that petrol stations back then were somewhat rarer than 13A sockets too.
Electric cars will improve and probably more rapidly than they did 100 years ago.
As for suitable power connectors, I'm truly surprised no one has mentioned the IEC 60309.
GB makes so much more sense than UK
When the House Of Windsor is finally made redundant* there will no longer be a kingdom, united or otherwise. It therefore makes good sense to use GB. Britain already uses GB for major sporting events such as the Olympics.
*It could be successfully argued that it already is.
Posted in UK.gov plans net censor service
Post editing
I've seen a few examples of post editing capability that works for a minute or two after posting. Long enough to catch typos but short enough to not worry the moderation queue.
Posted in UK.gov plans net censor service
Easy to implement
Just have a big [DELETE] button on every web page. Right next to the [I'M SCARED] button from CEOP.
Remember when the Angels were the 1%ers?
Now they are just another bunch of greedy, pseudo-corporate tosswits.
I bet they don't even piss on their own Levis any more.
Posted in Facebook comes down hard on Faceporn
Oh, Ms Streisand, you've done it again
I'd never heard of FacePorn until I read this.
Do we need a Barbra Streisand icon?
And, Google, don't forget...
...to empty the Recycle Bin once you have deleted the files.
Seriously, does anyone think this data hasn't been replicated over christ knows how many servers at Google? I bet Google don't even know how many copies they have of it.
Asking them to "delete" it is about as stupid as the US govt asking Wikileaks to send their data back.
God gave Rock and Roll to You
Note the operative word there: Gave not sold.
You have to admire his fortitude
It takes some seriously large balls to stand up in public with hair like that.
That's entirely the point of the FLOSS security model
Because the code is open - and can be examined for vulnerabilities - it can be fixed. Try that with a closed source system. The only thing that gets fixed with a closed source system is the result.
For once it's not entirely Apple's fault
Our TV guide was an hour out for a day and as much as I'd like to blame that on Apple it just wouldn't be fair.
The ABC (think BBC) managed to show the breakfast news programme on two channels but with one delayed by an hour. And no, this wasn't a conventional +1 hour channel as you have in Blighty, it's supposed to be broadcast on both simultaneously.
An enormous clock up.
Posted in Google punts url shortener to world+dog
The best URL shorteners are these two
http://stnx.at - It raises funds for Station X (Bletchley Park).
http://arseh.at - just for the lulz.
Oh no, not the domestic net appliance
Our glorious Leader of IT, Senator Stephen Conroy was using the net-enabled appliance scam to persuade Australia to sign up for the National Broadband Network. He claimed the benefits would include the ability of a net-enabled dishwasher to query competing electricity suppliers' price databases to find the cheapest source of power. Two problems for me with that:
1. To check a price list you don't need 1Gb/s.
2. We have a monopoly power provider around here.
It'll all end in tears, I tell you!
I guess you must live in a city
Those that live in Aussie cities have little understanding of how things are in the bush.
The case was escalated from a small hospital up to the third, a base hospital. They didn't have anyone there that could operate on this lady so they shipped her back down the coast to a better staffed place. That is no reflection on the hospitals or the people that work in them but it is a sad commentary on the funding.
Any Keystone Kopness in the system is amply demonstrated by this recent news story which, by no coincidence, features the third hospital above:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/16/3013407.htm
Care to apologise now?
Hell freezes over?
Microsoft endorses an open source competitor. Where's the catch?
Get your kicks...
...on Route 666.
Priorities
A friend here in Aus was recently taken to hospital with a burst stomach tumour. The local hospital had no blood of her type.
She was taken to the next nearest hospital - 55km away - but they only had one bag. They filled her up with that and then drove her for 90 minutes to the next nearest place.
They had ten bags and used them all on her. They then declared that they didn't have the know-how to do any more so transferred her to a fourth hospital, about 350km back in the opposite direction. She finally got the required treatment there.
I guess a fast network would be great but there are some things that may need a spare billion or so first.
Sumatra PDF Reader
Open source, free, no install required, no iffy browser toolbar options, portable. It just works.
Another Google non-story
Just wait, it will turn out to be just some software they forgot to remove
Posted in Is US prudishness ruining the internet?
Anglo-Saxon prudery?
Let's have a look at some of the most censorious countries:
The fascists that run and censor China; no Anglo-Saxons to be seen.
The Middle East, not many Anglo-Saxons running things there either.
Thailand is a heavy internet censor but I see no Anglo-Saxons involved.
Censorship in Aus is being championed by a Catholic Celt (Senator Conroy) and an atheist Celt (Prime Minister Gillard).
Vietnam...nup.
Central Asian republics...no Anglo-Saxons.
Burma, I see no Anglo-Saxons.
Maybe North Korea? Nada.
The way I see it is that the most censorship happens where the country is run by religious fascists and unelected dictators.
Posted in Beeb creates new global iPlayer post
I can only assume you live in the UK...
...and have never seen what passes for television in the colonies.
Posted in Ranting Ohio Republican scares interwebs
He needs to learn his script
Because every time he walks away from the lectern he seems to be pulled back by invisible bungee cord.
Posted in Beeb creates new global iPlayer post
They've already mentioned overseas users
A year or so ago they floated the idea of pay-per-programme download for overseas viewers. A sum of around 15 quid was mentioned.
As that is the price of a DVD of an entire BBC series in Aus I'm not sure float is the correct word to use (unless in the context of a turd).
Posted in PARIS threatened by the bends
A pedant writes
The material isn't the real issue as paper can be made from many things. It's the process of making paper out of fibres that would preclude foil unless someone makes foil fibres.
Posted in PARIS threatened by the bends
Does Barnes Wallis have the answer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vickers_Wellington.svg
Or would a geodesic lattice be too heavy?
Posted in Oz pedestrians fall to 'Death by iPod'
A lot of things have bypassed Australia
In many ways it's still like the 19th century down here.
Posted in Porn-browsing Oz minister quits
Interesting...
I seem to recall NSW parliamentarians complaining about the filter that censors their office net connections being overly strict and obstructing genuine online research. Perhaps it has been relaxed somewhat or maybe the former minister is good at proxy-fu.
Posted in Scottish iSchool goes 100% iPad
The land of deep fried Mars bars and Irn Bru
How will their chubby little finger cope?
Posted in AMD to dump ATI brand
I was thinking of hardware rather than meatware
But you do have a point.
Posted in AMD to dump ATI brand
And Gravis too
There's was once a time when Canada was the place to get all the best multimedia stuff.
Tech destroyed big band music?
If you could ask Glenn Miller about dangerous tech he'd probably mention aviation.
Fiona was so close to a Senate seat
Short by 100 votes, apparently.
Posted in Are plasma TVs killing radio?
Oops
As well as upsetting the Google and Apple fanbois it seems I have now upset the Bearded Peoples' Front.
Posted in Are plasma TVs killing radio?
Excellent devices indeed
Great for catching unwanted food and an easily-seen indication of who has no mates.
Posted in New 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' demand £50 a day
Plus ça change,
Plus c'est la fucking même chose.
I sometimes wonder if the Large Hadron Collider is actually sending us back in time.
There's only one word for this
#rooty
Posted in Perseid meteors - brace for endazzlement
Was lucky enough to see the Leonids
In 2001 they were visible in clear skies in the desert in Aus from around 11pm to dawn and peaked at around one per minute. I wasn't aware until then that you could hear and see them explode. Words like spectacular and awesome should be reserved for such occasions. One of the best nights of my life.
Ahem
"outer suburbs, rural and remote places, where coincidentally, their political support is strongest"
Coincidentally where it's needed most
640k ought to be enough for anyone
"IPv6 gives us a truly crazy number of IP addresses to play with"
I bet someone said that about IPv4 too :)
Posted in Apathy kills Google's new-age Wave
Dear fanbois
Thanks for the huge list of great Google products. One problem: most of them seem to have come from companies that Google bought. See the difference there? Bought vs produced. Nice trick if you can get away with it.
Fanbois, got to love their blind faith.
Searching for booty?
A booty isn't that hard to find. Maybe he should have rolled her over first.
Posted in Apathy kills Google's new-age Wave
Oh dear
Looking at the amount of vote-downs it seems I have upset a few fanbois with a healthy dose of truth.
Posted in Apathy kills Google's new-age Wave
Lack of interest?
Or maybe it was just another badly thought-out, half-arsed piece of crap software. Same as all Google software.
Just say "meh"
Meh?
Meh.
And there now seems to be an Australian flag displayed on The Register's masthead. Thanks for reminding me where I live. Meh
Posted in Broadband advertising speed gap widens
How much of this is due to censorship filters?
The only credible tests carried out in Australia into the effects of net censorship systems showed speed reductions of over 70% in the worst cases. How much of the UK's speed problems are due to the actions of the IWF and colluding ISPs?
Posted in PARIS skins up with Rizlas and dope
Snue gliffers
"In my distant youth I used to build balsa wood planes skinned with tissue"
Same here.
"You skinned the plane, sprinkled a little water on the tissue to shrink it and then doped the skin. The result (most times) was a..."
A very stoned Mahatma. Glue-sniffing modellers. Gah.
<-- Flame because you couldn't dope tissue and smoke at the same time.
That's nothing...
I used to go out with a girl that favoured a mains-powered electric tooth brush. I just couldn't compete
I tried Chrome...
...and also the supposedly de-Googled SWiron version. I didn't like the way that whenever I logged in to sites both also made a call to Google via port 443.
The Google fanbois can play with Chrome all they want. I care about my privacy.
A thought for Matt Asay
Don't confuse alpha geeks with fanbois. Fanbois follow trends; Alpha geeks sniff packets.
Darwin was right
What were these 1800 people thinking?
