Posts by Aaron 10
99 posts • joined Monday 15th June 2009 20:15 GMT
Lost in translation
Kobo (kobou) is Japanese for "workshop". Does that mean this was just a work-in-progress?
Uranus
Sorry, not another "your anus" joke... but with Uranus' odd vertical rings, wouldn't that be a good choice for a potential rogue planet?
Posted in Paper PCs design rolled out
Re: "Grow more pot!" - Jello Biafra
Hmmm. Why NOT use hemp instead of paper? Interesting...
Posted in Asus UX21E Zenbook 11.6in Ultrabook
"Dump default image, slap on win7, instal codec pack."
Really? That doesn't sound intuitive to me. Yes, I am fully aware of how to do it, but why the hell should I HAVE to? While AC may have been trolling, some good points are there, and it has nothing to do with ASUS... it has to do with Microsoft. It is not the hardware that's holding PCs back, it's the software.
RE: Sports
I don't think the point of the article is to say "don't do sports". It's more like "be reasonable about what you want to be". It's not reasonable to expect to be a pro basketball player. The mathematical odds against that are pretty great. The odds against being a scientist are extraordinarily low -- an interest in things of science and a reasonable aptitude for science are pretty much all that's required.
That being said, talking sense into kids sometimes, especially when shattering their dreams of becoming the next Shaq, is completely useless.
€200?
Even if it's €200, the copy protection is still good. Without the leak of the key, there's no way a €200 FPGA could discover it on its own... at least within a reasonable amount of time. Intel isn't worried and neither should we be. This "flaw" isn't a big deal at all, just the basis of a thesis of a very smart PhD.
Posted in Fanboys find way to NFC an iPhone
Hong Kong
I keep my Octopus card in my wallet. Nothing would annoy me more than being on the phone, boarding the MTR, and having to say "hold on" and moving my phone to the NFC reader. That, or having to bend down in an odd fashion to put my phone and my entire head near the NFC reader...
Posted in Intel 320 SSD bug causes forum despair
Nothing to worry about
Notice the issue is when the drive loses power. Keep this in your notebook with its battery charged, or in your desktop with a UPS and you're fine.
I have a Intel 320-series 160GB SSD in my MacBook Pro and I'm not concerned one bit. First, it's a laptop so it's unlikely to lose power while writing. Second, I set up wireless Time Machine backups to my NAS. Even if I lose the entire contents of the SSD, restoring it is painless.
And now...
...Google's gone closed-source on their latest OS. Should have gone with an Openmoko.
Drive one!
I drove the Nissan Leaf at a free drive event. It's quiet -- almost too quiet (damn Tinnitus). We got to drive it on real roads at real city-driving speeds. The car is remarkable in that it is completely UN-remarkable. It feels like a real car (sans ICE noise). The switches feel good and are in the right places; the seats are comfortable and the interior feels "expensive" with good soft-touch surfaces, not hard plastic.
Round-trip for my daily commute is 18 miles. This, and the other electrics, are perfect for me. If they're not for you, that's fine, but don't go damning the electric cars or call me a tree-hugger. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I want my electric car because of a lack of maintenance and trouble.
Shrinks in the cold
A Mini-E driver reported that, when the temperature is below 30'F (-1'C), he lost around 5% of the battery power. Not too bad.
Redmond, start your copiers!
Now Google knows how Apple feels...
Posted in Cable vendor slapped for unproven claims
Joke alert?
"Some listeners are happy to push their iPhone speaker all the way to 11, while others won't consider using an audio cable without a "direction of flow" indicator."
Please tell me that's a joke... analogue audio cables carry AC voltages.
History...
"Those who don't know history are bound to repeat it..."
I'll stick with my EFI-BIOS system, thank you.
Costly?
Really? £499?
Mmmm...
Double-jointed Russian gymnast...
EFI
Then again, if PCs were using EFI BIOSes, this wouldn't be a problem. Macs, having EFI BIOS since the Intel switchover, have no problems using these 3TB drives internally.
Reference: http://www.christianriley.com/2010/09/3tb-internal-drive-on-mac-pro/
Posted in Steve Jobs no ninja, says Apple
Traitor!
If you were truly an Apple lover, you would NEVER say anything to defame Our Supreme Leader!
Malware
Make sure you don't download those malware applications on the Android app store. There ARE advantages to the "walled garden"...
How much CPU?
64-bit Ubuntu 10.04, 3.06GHz Core2Duo, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 2400HD (1280x1024@32-bit), Google Chrome... less than 4% CPU usage, even when herding the balls all across the screen.
What's wrong with your system?
Posted in Samsung gives sneak peak of iPad basher
Price, Price, Price
Why is everyone so fixated on price? Have you not noticed the absolute shite coming from China? Yes, it's cheaper than the iPad, but it has a terrible screen, old version of Android, a resistive touch surface, etc.
Samsung is a great company and won't likely make a crap-quality device. Just don't expect it to be significantly less (or less at all) than the iPad.
Posted in Oracle names self virtualization king
VirtualBox
Did they purposely ignore their own free product?
Paris, because she gives her product away for free too.
Flash Gordon
Unfortunately, many websites won't allow you to visit without Flash installed. I tried the whole "f--- Flash" and deleting the plugin, but found my browsing was severely hampered. Stick with FlashBlock.
The third envelope...
Ballmer needs to go. No, Ballmer HAS to go.
http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/05/30/ballmer-just-opened-the-second-envelope/
He completely lost focus of what the customer wants and is playing follow-the-leader with Apple -- after publicly poo-pooing everything Apple does.
Evil?
What people do to themselves is evil. Apple didn't do this to them.
Posted in Apple asks US gov to hide iPhone details
Hmmm?
"What have YOU done that's so great?"
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/05/steve_jobs_to_g.php
Posted in Apple bans competing ads from the iPhone
Misleading Title
Apple is not banning any company from advertising; they are banning them from collecting analytics if they're a competing company.
Posted in iPads in spa-a-a-a-ce!
Hot?
Not to mention, even after running all day (with no vent holes), the iPad is cool to the touch -- no perceptible amount of heat is being generated.
Paris because she's hot too...
Resolution
I doubt your eyes can resolve significantly better than 300 DPI on a display anyway. Anything higher and you're just pushing pixels with no benefit.
Banned
Even the Android App Store is constantly changing its policies in light of two approved apps that STOLE YOUR BANKING INFORMATION.
http://gizmodo.com/5445733/android-banking-scam-app-shoots-phish-in-googles-barrel
Before you guys go bashing Apple, realize the approval process is thorough for a reason. The "no desktops or widgets" rule seems a little less enforceable but for aesthetic and functionality reasons, I'm certain there is a cause.
My iPhone is jailbroken; I run several non-Apple-approved hacks. My iPhone's performance has decreased significantly. I am now starting to understand why these hacks were unapproved...
Posted in Apple MacBook Pro 15in
Benchmarks
If you're just buying (or not buying) a Mac based on benchmarks, this is NOT the computer for you. Simple as that.
Macs perform quite well, but that's not their primary selling point. That would be Mac OS X and the bundled software (which is quite powerful).
Honestly, can you tell the difference between a 1% performance improvement without a stopwatch or frame rate counter? What about 2%? 5%? Probably not. If you are, you are a savant and probably don't need a computer.
http://perian.org/
El Reg is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Perian
This free plug-in gives codec support to QuickTime for all major video formats, including OGG and MKV, as well as subtitle support. While it is a close second to VLC for its formats, the fact that it integrates into QuickTime and therefore exports videos is a huge boon.
Side note: The Squared 5 MPEG Streamclip download link is broken.
Evil Steve?
I find it interesting that most of the "I love Office" posts are accompanied with the Evil Steve icon rather than the Angel Bill icon... I wonder why that is...
Posted in BOFH: On the couch
Vet?
I love that the vet was called in to help the boss after ingesting the horse laxatives, not a GP.
HTML?
What makes me sad is that we get CS majors in our company that couldn't even code HTML without a WYSIWYG editor. What the hell are these colleges teaching? The Internet and Web 2.0 is the hot development area right now. Why aren't they teaching this?
Posted in Apple locks resellers out of iPad sales
Cheap?
Why is "cheap? definitely No."? The iPad caused other manufacturers to look again at their pricing structure, expecting the iPad to start around $1000. Let's change that "cheap" to "yes".
Puzzle piece
If Uncle Steve is so worried about people developing content for other devices, why would he support open standards like JavaScript at all? Wouldn't this mean that the same content would work on Android phones (with WebKit browsers)?
Interesting idea but...
Given the fact that Adobe didn't write Flash in the first place (remember Macromedia?) and that they have a difficult time making substantial changes to even their flagship products, I doubt they will do anything so radical... and intelligent.
Fan girl!
My wife is a HUGE Apple fan girl after I gave her an iBook several years ago. She is more of an evangelist than I am now!
Electricity Demand
Because of businesses, electricity demand is highest during the day. By putting solar panels on your house and feeding the excess energy into the grid, you're making up for the energy you're using at night -- no expensive batteries or UPS needed.
The downside of these systems is that, if the power is not flowing to your house, ironically you cannot run your house from your solar cells unless you install a special switch. This is a safety measure so you're not energizing power lines when workers are working on them.
Posted in Codeweavers CrossOver Mac
Parallels
I have very good success running 3D-accelerated games on Parallels -- at a decent frame rate too. Granted, Parallels is more expensive and requires a copy of Windows (assuming you want to run Windows applications), but the 3D acceleration works brilliantly.
Posted in Apple in shock public attack on Adobe
@vincent & @miek
Vincent: Open source ≠ free. Just because H.264 requires a licensing fee doesn't mean it's not open source.
Miek: If H.264 is giving you bad file sizes and bad quality, you're doing it wrong. Based on your post, you're obviously not a video compressionist. H.264 does a very good job at a wide variety of bit rates of compressing a wide range of video... if you know what you're doing.
Posted in 'Gossips' say Apple will acquire ARM
Huh?
[Citation Needed]
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10191525-94.html
And this is without the iPhone 4G coming out in a few months.
Bidet
I, for one, don't use (much) toilet paper at all, thanks to my Toto Washlet... and I don't subscribe to any paper magazines or newspapers either.
Posted in Adobe gives up on the iPhone
OS 4
I've read on several other tech blogs that, to allow multitasking, Apple has to pull some interesting tricks. These tricks don't work with non-standard applications (e.g., ones created in Flash or other languages). Second hand information, I know, but the best I have.
Mac
Apple uses their own PDF engine which does not have this vulnerability.
Posted in Microsoft slams coffin lid on Vista
Dell Hell
A co-worker of mine purchased a standard Dell laptop with a 15" screen and 160GB hard drive. It came with Vista Home Edition, which is fine, but Dell only saw fit to install 512MB RAM (with shared video memory!) on the default configuration. Control Panel took over 3 minutes to appear.
Fanbois?
Is the author a 12-year-old child? C'mon. I visit The Reg for tech news, not 1337 h@x0R 5p33k.
Posted in iPads sold out
What a negative article
"...people will have to pay $10 for their fart apps..."
Interesting that the screen shot directly below that line clearly shows apps at well below $10.
And about complaining about not knowing what apps suck and what apps are worth the money, that's what reviews are for. If one fart app gets one star and another fart app gets four stars (presumably for higher-quality flatulence), you know which to buy... and that doesn't even include the text reviews ("loved the juiciness of the fart sounds").
If The Reg wants to be considered a news source rather than troll-bait, they need to remove the bias in their articles.
IPv6
Damn it, man! If you're really concerned, expedite IPv6 implementation!
