* Posts by evilbob thebob

16 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2009

The Register Lecture: Great gravitational waves! LIGO's next cosmic act

evilbob thebob

I remember as an astronomy undergrad in Cardiff 5 years ago always being so skeptical of the gravitational wave group, always saying "this year we'll make the detection!" Well, they've made me eat my words. Hats off to them!

Herschel Space Observatory spots galaxies merging

evilbob thebob
Go

I did my undergad project on this stuff

It's quite remarkable just how many galaxies are merging in the distant universe. The IR data from Herschel makes them really easy to spot, because all the dust gets heated by merger-induced star formation. ~20% of galaxies that have IR signatures are merging, which results in some really nice images in the optical region from Hubble.

Ten... PC games you may have missed

evilbob thebob

As someone who plays in a competitive Tribes: Ascend team, I can only recommend it. The UT feel is probably partly down to the engine (Unreal 3) and as far as I can tell...it's a Tribes game.

Virgin Media's latest throttling rules

evilbob thebob
Stop

Living in a house with four other students, this is almost certainly going to cause some problems. Does Virgin not understand that digital distribution for games exists? One download of a modern title and there goes the bandwidth for most of the evening.

Everything you thought you knew about cybercrims is WRONG

evilbob thebob

Re: Make IT security seem even worse

The point is that although the crims using the software aren't techies, the people who make the software ARE. The malware creators may commit crimes themselves or just facilitate it by providing easy to use tools.

Virtual and real worlds collide in gamers' minds

evilbob thebob
Meh

I suggest everyone reads this article about the findings: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/21/fantasy-and-reality-can-gamers-tell/ which picks it apart very carefully and sensibly refutes the claims.

Oxfam's 'Grow' world hunger plan: More peasants

evilbob thebob
Meh

To be completely cynical...

Isn't it in Oxfam's best interests that there are still peasants? Without peasants, why would we need such a charity?

Channel 4 4OD to hit PS3

evilbob thebob
Joke

Always playing catch up?

Isn't that the point of the service?

NSA: Secret 'Perfect Citizen' project does not spy on US

evilbob thebob
Big Brother

With a name like Perfect Citizen...

...they're really asking for this.

Computer grads can't even get jobs offering personal services

evilbob thebob
Go

"Personal Services"

Assuming the stats were using HMRC's definition of a Personal Services Company, that simply means that a lot of biologists have started or joined very very small companies. In fast, the only reliable definition of a "Personal Service Company" I could find was here: http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/what_is_a_personal_service_company.aspx

relating to contractors.

"And so the term personal service company began to be used by HMRC to describe businesses they considered as tax evaders and potentially the subject of tax investigations. "

And this is HMRC's take: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ir35/

Of course this is much more boring than assuming the statistics mean there are 165 prostitutes or escorts who could represent you in court.

Landmark ISP piracy case could kick thousands offline

evilbob thebob
Pirate

@Worldwide implications?

Well, the majority of the film companies that are taking iiNet to court will be multinational. This is a test case for them...notice it's against Australia's third largest ISP, not the actual largest. If the film companies win the case, their legal teams around the world will formulate similar cases to see if the case can be replicated.

Virgin Media in 'which Whitchurch' whoopsie

evilbob thebob
Heart

@ I wonder

I doubt it very much. I live in a village just outside of the Shropshire Whitchurch; mostly it seems that this area of the country doesn't exist as far as everyone else is concerned. Good on the Reg for pointing it out to the world though :)

IE icon too familiar for Microsoft EU settlement?

evilbob thebob
Stop

It's a LOGO

And the logo of EVERY OTHER WEB BROWSER is being displayed...seriously, what is the EU's problem with this. /rant

ESA lifts world's largest telecoms satellite

evilbob thebob
Happy

Thanks

For all the answers guys. I somehow knew that was the response I was going to get. Ah well...

evilbob thebob
Coat

All well and good

But what's an ESA satellite doing providing a service to the US and Canada for? Oh, right, the money.

It's the one with 'naive' on the back.

Broadband tax of £6 per year to fund rural fibre rollout

evilbob thebob
Stop

Rural areas...

are definitely not affluent. Here I am in Shropshire, look out of my window into a village that is mainly council housing. This village is less than 2 miles from a mid sized market town. My 'broadband' doesn't go beyond 1.5Mbps. People saying this is the city funding the rural areas are wrong. It's just everyone funding BT.