* Posts by Alastair Dodd

62 publicly visible posts • joined 9 May 2007

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German engineers punt 'open source' OLED-clad car

Alastair Dodd
Alert

considering the cost of the largest OLED tv

at the moment is around 2 grand for a 11 inch model, these guys have been smoking and a tokin' lots.. (not forgetting the abysmal MTBF for oleds)

LibDem cheeky boy rides to Segway's rescue

Alastair Dodd
Paris Hilton

Who voted for this

cock?

Apple patents map mobile future

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

agree that Apple are the biggest patent troll I've ever seen

but also - the Jesus phone camera is crap - why woukld you ever want to print out the poor res low quality 'photos' it takes??

Burned by Chrome - Fire put out

Alastair Dodd
Alert

Not clever Google

Due to this and the carpetbombing vulnerability that it has it's been banned from our work network already - but anyway you shouldn't test beta software in a work environment really anyway

An iPhone with a keyboard?

Alastair Dodd
Stop

It'll happen

(to the Author) one solution IS NOT FOR EVERYONE

"The market which buys these phones, wants QWERTY and they don't want to type on the screen. They "just know" that they wouldn't like it.

Arguably, they're wrong, of course. Quite conceivably, after a week of sending emails typed on the touch-screen of the iPhone, they'd "get it" and love it. But how will they ever find out?"

Tried the touch screen keyboard on the iPhone and used it lots.. I am MUCH more efficient and faster on my TyTN II proper keyboard. If one solution was always right we wouldn't have so many variants of literally everything. One size and most people know DOESN'T fit all so please PLEASE stop harping on assuming it does.

I appreciate having a choice in the matter and I'll go on preferring a button keyboard as for me it definitely does work better - I know other people find they prefer the iPhone touchscreen and good for them.

I'm sure Apple will go with a keyboard eventually, just like more than 1 button on the mouse and so many other things they have moved on from - it makes sense to appeal to more. Until they do I'll be checking out all they try and seeing if it works for me and rejecting what doesn't.

Gov claims 'password protection' OK for sensitive docs

Alastair Dodd
Unhappy

Bloody idiots

In government these days (well not just now, always have been) occasionally i think things might be getting better but no...

Ofcom swoops on caller ID-faking firm with... request for information

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Down

Outlaw it immediately

I cannot think of a legitimate use for this service outside of MI5 or 6, even then it's dodgy.

Pull your finger out Ofcom

Boffins build self-replicating replicating machine

Alastair Dodd
Boffin

Von Newmann

Clever but it can only fabricate the parts for another copy of itself surely? it doesn't assemble them into a new version? Still very cool but e won't be terraforming mars with repraps yet..

Oz cops sound iPod road cross death warning

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Up

Genius advert

and it's obvious that people using headphones have always been at risk and with such clear audio you get from a decent set of headphones (not the ones that come with an ipod obviously as those are rubbish) you have to have the volume up quite high to drown out other noises which means you don't notice the next set of pissed up wankers talking on their mobile phone coming up behind you until you bounce off the bonnet or bull bars...

Robot aircraft 'sense and avoid' gear in flight tests

Alastair Dodd
Go

we fear change

i wonder if the men paid to walk infront of cars waving a red flag were against the change in the law as they would lose their jobs?

Seriously this system will allow for more vehicles in the air but that will also mean many more humans to oversee this if flying cars ever happen - has the increase in car safety and automated traffic systems actually reduced the amount of people working in traffic control centers? I think not and automated phone systems haven't really reduced call center staff numbers appreciatively.

Embrace it and they'll keep their jobs and if they are overseeing more traffic most likely get paid more too.

30 years of Spam - and we ain't finished yet

Alastair Dodd
Flame

some people will always buy from spam

just like some f*ckwits will trust people like G.W.Bush, Tony Blair or organised religion.. There will always be idiots.

Mel Gibson to star in Edge of Darkness

Alastair Dodd
Stop

hmm one part trepidation

The other part anticipation.

Mel Godson = very bad

Martin Campbell = good

Mind you he wants to go back and do his series again? WHY??

Not just Bob Peck but who will play Jedburg? Joe Don Baker is a very very very hard act to follow.

Lets just hope this raises the profile of the original so thats sells more and gets to a wider audience and the Mel version sinks off the radar.

Hellboy helmsman to direct The Hobbit

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Up

@Chris Simmons

Del Toro only directed Blade 2 which has many good aspects - the final fight is amazing and how superhuman vampire characters should fight (he had nothing to do with the abortion that is Blade 3)

He also directed The Devils Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth and Chronos which are all excellent. It's an inspired choice.

BBC vs ISPs: Bandwidth row escalates as Tiscali wades in

Alastair Dodd
Flame

Tiscali should get their own house in order

and sort out their really shoddy broadband service and especially their excessively rubbish backend hauls before wading into this battle.

Google lets users take Apps files offline

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Up

Agree with P Henry

That will make it excellent - now build a simple version that'll work on my smartphone too and I'm sold. Documnets editable anywhere but stored on my phone is what I'd like (with optional backup)

Vista SP1 kills and maims security apps, utilities

Alastair Dodd
Alert

Activate smug mode part 2

Zone Alarm is horrible so deactivating it will actually give you less problems and a faster system...

I don't see this to be too much of a problem, I hope they or the makers of these products get fixes out quickly - tbh Trend's products still have problems with Vista so that wasn't a surprise.

It wouldn't shock me that the real reason these products stop working is their poor programming considering so many other products now work perfectly with Vista, the security improvements alone have 'broken' lots of bad old products and thats good.

Doctors back more tax on booze

Alastair Dodd
Pirate

The closing time issue

is not a factor or is very very minor.

Drink driving - no limit, you drink NO drive, instant ban.

Warning labels on booze - good idea.

More social awareness, also good - advertising the dangers would be a good idea.

Increased Tax on Alcopops or similar a very very good idea since one of the reasons these were created was to get round duty.

Most important right now I would say is more controls on underage drinking - too many 12 year olds on the streets pissed. Increased fines for parents of underage drinkers and especially closing down for 24 hours any place that sells booze to someone under 18 - no ID no drink, everyone at age 18 has at least one form of decent ID ffs.

Taxing across the board is stupid though, this needs a measured targeted approach

AMD ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 dual-GPU graphics card

Alastair Dodd
Alert

nvidia fan review then

"The problem is that CrossFire can be erratic"

Just like SLi.. and the dual chip Nvidia cards? STILL NOT SUPPORTED in vista properly even though they have been out for 2 years..

£150 quid for a PSU to do 6pin and 8pin for graphics? Err no - more like £60 quid and ALL decent sli or morderm PSU's have these connectors and if they don't they have the power with the always included adaptor.

Oh and to answer Rob - Yes, yes you can run 2 X2's together for quad GPU power.

El Reg can you please up the quality of your hardware reviews they need a bit more work to be top notch.

Brits can't distinguish history from the TV listings

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Down

what idiots did they survey?

The usual morons who think that Only fools and Horses is the ultimate in original comedy?

All blue-eyed people share one common ancestor

Alastair Dodd
Joke

so

does the mean all people with blue eyes are inbred?

UK gov issued 250k snoop licences in nine months

Alastair Dodd
Stop

so 1/4 of a million people have ben suspected of a crime

flipping heck we are a bunch of corrupt people arn't we?

Anyone else think that is MASSIVELY too high and overreaching?

Apple applies to light up laptop touchpads, iPod clickwheels

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

Yet another

pointless patent as devices have been doing that sort of thing to a limited extent for ages. US patent clerks should throw it out as it may have some innovation but also sucks in trying to get the rights to a load of prior art too.

Winamp blighted by bug brace

Alastair Dodd
Coat

hmmm

"These boundary errors can be exploited to cause stack-based buffer overflows via overly long '<artist>' and '<name>' tag values in the <metadata> section,"

This means nothing to me...

Seriously we know AOL are rubbish but can they just cut Nullsoft loose so then can fix the totally broken Winamp we have these days? Its rubbish (like everything AOL have ever done), which is a shame as it used to be brilliant.

O2 misses iPhone targets

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

3G is only one of the features needed

I'd say the main one is not being totally ripped off as 270 plus one of the poorest 30 quid 18 month contacts seen in years is just a joke and makes me laugh at anyone who has bothered to be ripped off like that.

Jobs: Blu-ray wins HD format war then loses to downloads

Alastair Dodd
Alert

360 also supports Divx

and a wider standard of codecs there included - PS3 only pretty much supports about 10% of Divx

Oh and Bay is an idiot

Dell tells customer 'Mac is good option'

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Down

whoever sent that email

should be sacked.

Only one thing worse than rubbish dell non standard systems (one of the most likely reasons he can't upgrade is because it's a dell who make it as hard as possible with non standard mobos, PSU's and cases) is buying an even more proprietary system like a Mac. Even worse.

Apple tells iPhone vendors not to reveal sales figures

Alastair Dodd
Thumb Down

@supermeerkat & the coward

it's a fashion item - I think paying 4-10x the actual worth for any "label" is bending over and taking from that company and I sensible not to let that happen to me.

The interface is nice but that it (and that now been copied and done just as well on cheaper BETTER all round products

The iPhone is overpriced and subsequently underliked over here.

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

Comforting

I'm glad that less people in the UK are being financially bumraped by Job(bie)s

Microsoft demos Surface multi-touch user interface

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

ARRGH

"Microsoft's multi-touch finger-controlled UI that sports some rather iPhone-like gesture controls..."

gestures have been around for ages. the iphone and apple DID NOT INVENT multitouch controls FFS. Stop promoting the hype, what you are saying there is like Claiming Logitech invented the mouse!

Guitar Hero gets true air axe

Alastair Dodd
Paris Hilton

poor

they could've managed to get a fit woman with a some sense of rhythm couldn't they?

Aussies whip out their a*se antlers

Alastair Dodd
Stop

Flunge

should be it as it' a much better word than "muffintop" to describe the rolls of fat that hang out over too tight trousers

YouTube biker clocked at 189mph

Alastair Dodd
Stop

at the idiot kerr (and Andy)

"That's just an artifact of the speedo and the frame rate. During the change from 139 to 140 the change from 3 to 4 looks like an 8, and the 9 persists."

and who gives a fig - the guy is still an complete idiot, dangerous to himself and others at that speed. I don't mind a little over the limit, thats okay but 190(140) is just MORONIC

NetFlix sics troops on Apple TV

Alastair Dodd
Stop

@Eric Dolson

No mac or Linux - still it did offer it to 95% of US PCs and laptops... which is pretty much MOST of them.

Milton Keynes council embraces WiMAX

Alastair Dodd
Pirate

New town

"In Milton Keynes, it allows us to provide the reach and the coverage which DSL couldn't because of the area's poor infrastructure."

God help the rest of us in old towns and cities if such a planned town has poor infrastructure

Campaign to name US street after Douglas Adams

Alastair Dodd
Alert

Re: Wikiesque

Not just around alot longer than Wikipedia, the idea that the actual Guide originally was written by a bunch or ordinary people travelling round the universe quite possibly inspired the whole ideas of Wikis in the first place.

Europe too cynical for iPhone

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

either that

or we realise that it's an overpriced, feature lacking, fashion item and not a serious item at all.

That and all the fanboys have imported one before of course.

BitTorrent site Demonoid.com downed by Canadian record industry

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

Does any RIA

pay any notice to surveys or event facts? Of course not if they did that they wouldn't be able to keep raking the money to pay all the lawyers deserve - oops I mean artists.. sorry

Docklands train runs off without operator

Alastair Dodd

They run fine without operators anyway

Wasn't it the union that forced them to use the operator instead of sensible things like automatic barriers and the like? Tubes don't have anybody in the carriages and don't need em - Neither does the DLR so they could save money. Great system - hobbled by humans stupidly.

Cathedral gun battle game not blessed with gaming award

Alastair Dodd
Coat

Well a PS3 game

is hardly going to do well in the PC world award was it? I mean thats typical of PC World to be so clueless that they'd select a PS3 title for a PC award ;)

Finger-chopping jihadis derail MPs scanner system, claims MoS

Alastair Dodd
Stop

Warm bodies and fingerprint scanners

Mythbusters have managed to bypass laptop scanners and a top of the line door type scanner with a photocopy that was moistened by licking. Your finger provides the warmth and the licking makes it conduct just enough to fool the electric difference testing.

It's not rocket science at all to beat them - they are fundamentally rubbish and not good security at all.

BOFH: The bastard wants to know

Alastair Dodd

Strangely enough

as I started replying the shredder started working on it's own and ran for a couple on minutes...

Did MoD chopper buzz sunbathing au pair?

Alastair Dodd
Black Helicopters

500ft?

That is still way too high for any significant downdraught - it will dissipate to a light breeze at that distance - unless the award winning atrium was badly build/designed a helicopter at 200ft would be no more damage it than a strong wind would.

And the Au pair isn't a witness? not a shock. Throw it out of court - stupid case.

Fire service may charge for shifting fat people

Alastair Dodd
Alert

hmm just like Airline seats

"The service stressed that the charge will be levied on "hospitals, nursing homes, the police or other agencies", and that individuals will not be expected to foot the bill."

The lard lad should pay for being FAT. Why should the already strapped NHS pay out for obesity (when it's not for genetic reasons). I for one don't want to pay for another's gluttony, that just make it more acceptable to be grossly fat, and we are talking about extremes here arn't we ? You can't argue that will make more people anorexic.

Hackers unlock iPhone - again

Alastair Dodd
Jobs Horns

bug in safari?

never, it's a genius work of web browsing software that work with every proper standard out there

Simon Pegg to play Scotty

Alastair Dodd
Dead Vulture

Agreed

He's a great actor and seriously funny bloke but NO.

Admins accuse Microsoft of Draconian Hotmail cap

Alastair Dodd

Hotmail for a mailling list?

Using that is just moronic. Mind you Hotmail is rubbish and has been for years - use a decent mail provider.

IT risk becomes board-level issue

Alastair Dodd

errr that paper has a stupid title

"IT risk is too important to be left to IT departments,"

So the Beancounters and al the people who have no clue about it should have control? BAD IDEA.

Be sensible and put the head of IT on the Board. My company has a very strong business risk factor with our IT as it's the core of the business, hence we have a IT director on the board. Shame he won;t spend any money so our systems seems to be held together with sellotape and gum, but at least he's on the board.

Report: Steve Jobs gets SEC subpoena

Alastair Dodd

Don't hate Apple - hate Jobs

I'll bet he did know and is just covering his own arse.

Flash memory makers propose common card

Alastair Dodd

Won't work

As Sony will always want their own format, thereby screwing everything up.

Top judge: put everyone in UK on the DNA database

Alastair Dodd

Looks like he knows bugger all about DNA testing

As it's quite likely that this sort of database would end up having people totally innocent being arrested and maybe convicted because their DNA matches - it's not the unique or at least the results from testing are not. Every matchup would produce 1 match for every 7000 comparisons.. how many people will that bring up with a national (and visitors too) that then need to be checked? I know profiling is bad, but you have to admit that someone previously convicted is much more likely to commit another crime.

See http://dna-view.com/profile.htm

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