* Posts by npupp 1

56 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Jun 2009

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Up to 25% of new builds still can't get superfast broadband – study

npupp 1

>Are the Swiss consuming significantly more digital services than households in the UK on >FTTC/FTTP/VM?

More digital services.... unclear, teleboxes are ubiquitous and no longer locally save, netflix don't officially serve us swiss yet....

We do have a more "forward thinking" attitude towards work from home (kids just don't have school Wednesday afternoon?!), but woe betide those whom do not have the capacity to perform their hired function while working at home (thinks corporate enterprises with minimal local hdd on lappy, world+dog+MyDocuments "on SharePoint").

Swisscom's not great (think you've had trouble with BT telephonic customer service, rofl, you've not been bounced around customer services in 4 languages), but this is nice.

Typical! Google's wonder-dongle is a solution looking for a problem

npupp 1

Re: rubbish!

I'd go so far as to state it has the possibility to go one solution further, I.e.

3) How do I show what's on this piddly laptop screen to the rest of the room (granted, said stuff must be in a chrome tab), with minimum fuss.

to make a distinction with your point 1), this needn't be consumable media, the relatively mundane internet sometimes needs escaping beyond the 15" screen. Groups of blokes drooling over DeWaalt's new powertools on screwfix (or equally a gaggle of women drooling over Jimmy Choos on zolando).

escaping beyond chrome tabs into desktop streaming would be far more useful... one hopes this arrives at some point...

Vietnamese high school kids can pass Google interview

npupp 1

Re: Nature/nurture: fight!

One could assume ditch diggers, or just more in the general population with a degree in biology (or even just a solid base in the sciences) would mean less quack medicine and crystal healing/cure autism/etc. peddlers

Chip daddy Mead: 'A bunch of big egos' are strangling science

npupp 1

Re: "A bunch of big egos"

Rofl

The Register Android App

npupp 1

could we not...

... perform the same basic function (well offline reading at least) through Google currents*?

Granted commenting isn't possible in-app, but for "train reading" etc. , where mobile network is too flaky to be useful, commenting wouldn't work anyways...

*disclaimer - I am NOT affiliated with the chocolate factory, but am:

For: having a multitude of offline articles to read from numerous sources

Against: separate apps for each website, each of the order 15mb and non installable on SD card

Japan hides anti-piracy warning on P2P networks

npupp 1
WTF?

Re: "which is known to be available for sale"

One could argue if the Big Boys Stores (Amazon, iTunes) don't sell it, then it's not available to buy... (but that is indeed a gross simplification, possibly won't hold up in court, unless one is willing to plead under the pretext of utter stupidity). Known by who and where is the main crux of this (2nd hand ebay betamax copies counts as "available for sale"? iTunes, but not readily available for <average consumer / your mum> on <insert cheaper generic/open device here>? )

Regardless, if it's not a major title you're less likely to be caught. I'd hazard a guess the "spoofed content" will be for 0day / cinema releases, or anything in the charts.

Also, if memory (and the fokelore of French netizens) is to be trusted, a similar caveat exists in France: If it's not available to buy, it's fair game to download (where available to buy *may* mean available to buy in French language / localised version).

Now Spanish sperm takes a kick to the cojones

npupp 1
Pint

Re: "The cause of the Spanish sperm crisis is equally obscure"

Plasticisers are a possible cause, although, at an initial guess there are too many other factors to conclusively attribute to a particular cause (more research required! :D )

Just be wary of each crazy froob using this to support their cause: Homeopaths will say BigPharma is to blame; tin-foil-hat crowd will say EM radiation (likely with a CIA conspiracy to control breeding); hippies will say is because weed is not legal yet; vegans will blame modern meat production; vegans may also blame GMOs; Charles will blame the nano particles/pollution/lack-of-fox-hunting.

Here's hoping Beers not the cause!

Boeing zaps PCs using CHAMP missile microwave attacks

npupp 1

Re: Faraday Cage

one could just have a sufficiently thick shielding, although not knowing the intensity or energy (wavelength, I'm a KeV kinda guy) of the radiation who knows how thick it'd need to be (or how much cooling would be required to prevent having molten metal covering valuable electronics) ....

aren't most servers housed in basements anyways?

Brighton marathon munchers banned from all-you-can-eat diner

npupp 1

fairy snuff

going to an all you can eat buffet one should play ball and purchase a token, overpriced, watered down coke.

British boffin builds cool maser after argument with wife

npupp 1

Re: Applications?

you sir made me laugh!

France backs away from Hadopi

npupp 1

Re: But, wait ...

Yes, I distinctly remember the mother-in-law stopping "pirating" ancient French movies, that she has on VHS, but are 1) no longer sold; 2) aired on TV yearly.

The fear of disconnection and being unable to Skype was too great for her.

So yes, that's one person scared by Hadoopi. Everyone else I knew carried on with a more typical French attitude (I'll stop at the 3rd notice, if they catch me)

Ebuyer on the naughty step for fondleslab promo cock-up

npupp 1
Trollface

well

they were harshly reprimanded for this transgression.

*slap on wrist* and "don't do it again"?

Japanese bank palms off customers with biometric ATMs

npupp 1

Re: Looks like you need their whole hand

I concur, safer than Switzerland!

Amusing anecdote: I left a laptop on an airport shuttle bus while visiting Osaka, realised the next day. Hotel concierge called the bus company, the laptop was returned that day (even though was literally brand-new top of the line, and it came with an origami flower taped to it! :D )

Braben sticks knife into secondhand games market

npupp 1

Re: Why not?

because that is precisely what people want isn't it, 5 episodic parts to a 20 hour game released 2 months apart. playing 6 games concurrently while content is released sparradically for each of the six.

cock.

replay value (perhaps alternate endings, perhaps non linearity), engaging content, hidden content; these would go a long way to keeping your games out of the 2nd hand rack a week after release EA (applies to others, but they are serial offender)

'Anon member' claims credit for WikiLeaks takedown

npupp 1

reply to your post

Who mentioned ddos against CoS?

My learned friend was referring to the legal "physical presence" protests of yester-year, all the rage with student types I hear...

Flickr thinks again about 4,000 pix loss

npupp 1

25 years....

... is that not life in the penal sense? ;)

ICO pays through the nose for 'website development'

npupp 1

good thing it didn't take longer than 5 minutes to make...

£ 585 for a 5 minute job... is ...er...7020£ per hour! Cripes.

Official: PhD in 'Essential Oils' or 'Natural Toiletries' = 'a Scientist'

npupp 1

*rolls eyes*

>>(The last stats I saw stated that something on the order of 70% of all scientific studies are later shown to be partially or wholly incorrect; for medical studies it's over 80%.)

This kind sir is what is known as the scientific method, science progresses through falsification. A body of work is done, a theory advances, more work is done which explores the limitations of the theory, holes are found, a modification/new theory is proposed, the cycle repeats, humanity reaps the benefits.

>>Conversely, the lack of an advanced degree (or any degree, for that matter) does not preclude someone from doing good scientific work; these folks tend to fall more into the tinkerer and inventor category, though, rather than theorist.

A degree does not prevent you from doing good science, it would however prevent access to labs, equipment and the like required to do lots of the interesting types of science. It also makes it less likely you will have an appreciation and understanding of the work done before, could preclude an accurate analysis of your data, and will likely prevent a full understanding of the results and their impact to the relevant scientific field.

Tinkering is not science. Inventing is not strictly science. If my cousin invents a knoon (knife-spoon, you can keep that one), that does not make him a scientist

>> Note that the main author of this work is an otherwise well-respected scientist with substantial credentials.

A Nobel prize is an award for a significant piece of research in a field. It is not a guarantee the person who won it is not a complete loon or hold some ideas so barmy they should be committed to Her Majesties finest pillow lined rooms. Think of it like an Oscar, for science. Now think of Tom Cruise, nominated for Oscars (won many other prizes, you could consider this as substantial credentials) ... do you think he is a respected commentator on religious matters (something outside of his field if you will)? Thought not.

HTC Desire Z Android Qwerty smartphone

npupp 1

800MHz

Anyone know if that's an under-clocked 1GHz SnapDragon or a true 800MHz processor?

2011 Games Preview

npupp 1

ookamiden! child of eden! last guardian!

the games to be released in the near future that i'll buy. unfortunately they're all sequels (albeit spiritual in 2 cases)

Credit cards get colour screens

npupp 1

yay!

just what i've been waiting for, the day when i cannot buy groceries because i forgot to charge my credit card the night before.

Screwpop Tool

npupp 1

Title

Drinking beer and (dis)assembling. A marriage made in heaven. What could possibly go wrong... -.-

Guardian super-blogger flames Reg boffinry desk

npupp 1
Heart

seconded.

(or nth'd depending on how the moderation queue is looking)

Las Vegas death ray roasts hotel guests

npupp 1
Flame

but...

...it looks so pretty!

"This is quite literally an astronomical challenge. We are dealing with a moving target." Technically true, but it's not like the path of the sun across the sky is an unknown, for any season. define a parabolic walled garden area, do something useful on it, solar cells or water heating, claim to be environmentally friendly, feature not flaw, etc.

Flames because...well, stay in the deathray too long and burst into flames :D

IT engineer fights spider with improvised flamethrower

npupp 1
Flame

theres a joke in there...

About loo and backdraft...

I'll leave that one to the pros. Tis Pub'o'clock

BBC dumps Gulf oil spill on Middlesbrough

npupp 1
WTF?

typo!

Dimensions.

Also, I'd for one like to know what area/country/city would be covered by the 1.1Billion $1 coins that are needed to reach the ISS. and equivalent amount in pounds, then the equivalent number of pounds required to do the same. Inquiring minds and all....

Maybe after lunch break I'll acquire a calculator and work it out :D

Samsung woos developers with Bada book

npupp 1

They could woo me

... with a free phone :D

iRobot Roomba 581 robot cleaner

npupp 1
Flame

oO

:/ It's impressive how dirty your flat got in 2 months, in the name of science (well journalism i guess, but it's a test, so i say science), naturally ;)

I fear purifying with fire is the only way i'll get my place sanitary :S unless you want to give away the review robot :D

£99 iPhone stunt backfires

npupp 1

£320000

Where's the 320K from? ... "While Groupola may reckon £320,000 is money well spent"

Microsoft trumps Kinect with 'sleek, silent, sexy' Xbox

npupp 1

oh joy

any reduction in noise levels would be appreciated. Quiet nighttime gaming on an xbox 360, ROFL, not going to happen. Vacuum cleaners are quieter than it.

Tories declare students a burden on us all

npupp 1
Joke

Boo!

But hey, short of the party appearing elitist and banning degrees in football, bookbinding, women studies and reverting former poly-techs back to poly-techs, what can they do? Education for the wealthy (or rather the educable class, you know it's what they mean)

Not very Liberal policy I must add :( quite distinct from the reduce student debt mantra of old.

p.s. THEY STOLE MY MILK!

US boffins fashion quantum-computing bit out of SQUID

npupp 1

arf

it's not in the latest issue. boo.

Interestingly the 4th most cited paper from 2003 is titled "Phantom Energy: Dark Energy with wlt;-1 Causes a Cosmic Doomsday"

NFC? It might work says Department for Transport

npupp 1

*sighs*

How much?! *faints*

This strikes me as a rather nifty set of projects for masters students in buisness, computer science and engineering (rough examples, projects are all inter-disciplinary now anyway), who would be able to, at a fraction of the cost, make a damn sight better judgement on viability and security of the NFC payment system.

A student to work on testing security, a student for working on standards, etc. Gives academics funding, keeps kidlums in academia, one could probably spin this as "building a partnership between government and universities in working towards a high tech britain"

Old PS3s locked out of PlayStation Network

npupp 1
Unhappy

GAH!

great. i have a productive day in office (read a day without erading El Reg and gaming blogs), get home, turn on PS3, see date is wrong, change and start playing. Now i read PS3 Phats shouldn't be used, after i google to find cause of DLC not being found for Boderlands :/ a save happy game. woo. whats the bet those trophies and data have been lost to the aether. *sulks*

Retailers fooled by fake and borrowed IDs

npupp 1

Ah, that old trick

Borrowing someone else's Driving License.... in my day, all we needed was a photocopy of a birth certificate, I kid you not. It's proof of age, Not a photo ID mind, by paper driving licenses were still in circulation.

@The Original Ash, kiddies eh? Anyone saying they were 18/19 years old where I worked would automatically get asked for DOB, most not being able to give correct year. Ah. dimwitted fooled. Those that passed got asked for ID anyway, lol.

Brit kids failing to fall out of trees

npupp 1
FAIL

huh

So thumb blisters become the new scars? ROFL.

Interesting The Sun picks up on this story, bemoaning the lack of "a proper childhood" on one hand, while instilling fear of a paedogeddon in their readership. So what will The Sun do now, encourage parents to let their children play outside and fall, or keep them indoors safe from paedophiles but risking RSI (and psychotic tendencies if Daily Mail is to believed) from their video games.

Amateur CCTV sleuth site probed by privacy watchdog

npupp 1
Pint

o.O

And so, with the statement "However, it is not appropriate to disclose images of identifiable individuals for entertainment purposes" a genre of late night programs is instantly culled. Police Camera Action / CCTV Cities.

Sir, I raise my glass to you ;)

New inside out hover-magnet fusion reactor debuts at MIT

npupp 1
Boffin

re: What is the glow?

(un)fortunately not a dimensional gate opening, the glow is just visible light emitted from the plasma, the plasma is very hot dontchaknow

Air France offers two-seat deal for fatties

npupp 1

re: Not An Obligation

Perhaps they'll suggest to tall people an upgrade to business/first class, for comfort, refundable if not full ;)

Blu-ray Players

npupp 1

support for .mkv!

waw, i'm impressed at samsung adding mkv support, i have to say it's a feature I wish for from the PS3 (and no i can't transcode on the fly, not with subtitles and/or second audio track :( )

Digital River makes total hash of Windows 7 upgrade offer

npupp 1

grrr

some of us didn't get sent the license key :S still waiting on reply from Digital River :/

Eurocrat demands MP3 player volume limit mandate

npupp 1
FAIL

*sulks*

ah. fuck. time to build an Altoild tin headphone amp

Google Books opens French front in war with publishers

npupp 1
Grenade

@DavCrav

lolwut?

maybe google will (do some good?) set legal precedent for "digitising removes copyright" thus saving all those French teenieboppers who would otherwise get mum and dad threatened with disconnection (under HADOPI 2) for downloading cam-tastic screeners of the latest Teen-Sparkly-Vampire-Rom-Drama. It was an analogue to digital conversion, thats not copywritten, google proved so :D

Fraudsters add IM to phishing attacks

npupp 1
FAIL

oh great :/

What irks me is that people would likely fall prey to such calls because they have been conditioned by their banks to not expect any form of security over the phone. Anyone tried verifying the identity of a bank representative calling you? The logical paradigm that ensues is hilarious.

"Hi this is Barclays calling about a query you made, for security i need you to verify a few details with you"

"er...ok"

"This is for security, what is your mothers maiden name?"

"no, i need you to first prove you are from my bank, what is the last 4 digits of my account number?"

"I'm sorry i cannot do that sir, data protection laws forbid me to give out account details until you are verified, could you answer the question?"

"no. unless you prove to me you're from barclays, i'm not giving you anything"

"Of course i'm from barclays, I have your phone number"

"... "

"..."

*click*

Cracks show in music industry over P2P enforcement

npupp 1

@Glyn 2

She's one of the yoof, is down wid dat shit, connects with the young filesharing miscreants etc. And naturally is whiter than white ... i mean, has more holes than thou, ...er, she's a good girl, and wouldn't do or be involved in anything even slightly illegal, as evidenced from her backside, i mean back catalogue.

Todger-chop woman's sentence depends on hard evidence

npupp 1
Heart

Playmobil reconstruction

FTW!

Boffins: Stop trying to monetise us, you don't know how

npupp 1
Headmaster

wait what?

attract more students to university? won't they have to...erm... provide more places for that?

A phone in every car gains hard-won GSMA support

npupp 1
Black Helicopters

@Graham Marsden (1st comment)

I thought that it sounded alot like the M15 covert monitoring in every taxi in london during 2012 story i read a wee while back.

rozzers will love this, assuming of course they get access to position info (after obligatory uproar by Daily Fail/The Shun following child kidnap by paedophile)

on a side note... if it's mandated on new cars (initially, until pay-per-mile taxation catches on or old cars are deemed environmentally inept and banned/taxed to oblivion to allow govt to meet carbon reduction quotas), old 2nd hand cars will skyrocket in value ^^

...mines the 1960s Mini Cooper followed by black helicopters...

Japanese boffin boasts electrospray OLEDs

npupp 1
Headmaster

@ Kevin McMurtrie

DARPA is earmarking $1Billion for applications to stealth hovercars.

And no, the $50 is for a one off article purchase, educational institutions will pay a few $k to access a catalogue. $10 a page (and one of those is a 1/3rd filled! the cheek! lol) hardly good value for money.

Also, El' Reg' article overplays the intensity/voltage relation, while true that up until an applied voltage of 25V the spray deposited OLED films have higher intensity compared to traditional (spun) OLED displays. The Int / V quickly tails off for sprayed films, and breaks down completely at ~32V (Spun breaks down at 40V). So spun can achieve higher overall intensity. Article does note results are for a spray deposited monolayer, and future work will have multiple spray deposited layers (hell, why publish one paper, when you can have 2 eh?). Luminesence spectra not measured but " positive charges or hydrogen ions may have affected the electrical / electroluminescent characteristics of MEH-PPV,"

Hedgehog quip secures Fringe's top gag crown

npupp 1
Heart

IT angle!

Awww, you should have noted the other IT related honorable mention:

Edward Aczel - "Machiavelli said, 'It is better to be feared than to be loved, if you cannot be both.' Something to bear in mind when you embark on internet dating."

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