* Posts by Gordon 10

3872 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jun 2009

Light, fast ... and pricey: Toshiba's Portégé Z30 – now THIS is an Ultrabook

Gordon 10

Re: Obligatory Macbook Air comparison

The MBA SSD is user replaceable - albeit for the average El Reg user. Proprietry connector & screws yes. Soldered in no. That was a nasty rumour about the 2011 MBA that never came true afaik.

The Ram of course is soldered.

Gordon 10
FAIL

Obligatory Macbook Air comparison

So for £40 more than the suggested rrp you can get the 256gb/8gb/i7 version of the 13" macbook air. Chuck in £30 more for usb3/thunderbolt extensions for the missing ports. You have an allround better laptop. MBA has a 1440x900 screen but slightly slower cpu. Same battery life too.

3? years on into the Ultrabook debacle it seems there's very few machines out there that beat the MBA - mores the pity - coz it shouldnt be that hard to build a MBA with a few more ports.

How much will the Tosh be discounted by?

Low power WON'T bag ARM the server crown. So here's how to upset Intel

Gordon 10

Re: ARM in the data centre is a certainty unless Intel can find a way to kill it.

Indeed - given that Intel have managed to mostly see-off AMD with their Tick-Tocks after a nasty fright from Athlon/Opteron I suspect their default approach will be the same with ARM, the difference being that that Venn Diagram of use cases is merely overlapping on Intel vs Arm and whereas AMD were a near total subset of Intels use cases.

If you look at it in cold revenue terms the battle is not Intel ($12bn) vs Arm Holdings ($500m) but its Intel vs Arm + Fabs + Oems which is a very disparate target to hit/buy. I suspect plans for either buying ARM and starting/buying an Xscale2 get mulitple repeated dust offs at Intel but in reality they aint actually hurting that much as yet.

Time will tell if they go the route of a declining Microsoft (desktop vs mobile) or if they are ultimately shielded from the Desktop vs Mobile effect and just go on churning out chips and cash. If indeed Microsoft are declining. Stupid Balmer inspired purchases to the contrary MS havent actually done a Nokia-like implosion yet........

Apple asks judge to axe ebook price-fixing watchdog

Gordon 10
Terminator

Re: *Sigh*

To be fair to apple its not likely a lawyer who charges $1100 is the shy and retiring, dragged himself up from the ghetto type.

Suspect its very much a case of Megashark vs Crocosarus. I'll get the popcorn in.....

Gordon 10
Big Brother

Watchdog or Auditor

It would be interesting to know whether by the terms of the court settlement he was tasked to be a watchdog or an auditor. The difference being a true watchdog would be justified in pro-actively chasing down "leads" whereas an auditors role is more like a review of whats been submitted, in which case any chasing down should be purely related to more information requests around the submission.

It has to be said though - how was this guy chosen? It sounds like a pretty sweet gig that he's milking for all its worth. I would love to understand the trail of influence application process that got him the job........

Linksys's über-hackable WRT wireless router REBORN with 802.11ac

Gordon 10

$300!

I was regretting my pre-Xmas splurge on a 802.11ac Time Capsule for a sec....

Although the styling does bring fond memories of my WRT-54G which as I recall was chucked when the PSU died as noted by another poster.

At least I get to stroke the white shiny shiny everytime I come home.

Block The Pirate Bay? Arrr, me hearties, new P2P client could sink that plan

Gordon 10

We need more of this.

I spent a semi frustrated Xmas working around the heavy handed Site level blocks on various torrent sites looking either for non-copyrighted/FOSS stuff that just happens to be torrented and bits and bobs I would claim under fair use (eg format shifted versions of stuff I already own).

Even on TPB there it stuff that is not copyrighted - these blocks are sledgehammers.

Two white dwarfs and superdense star. Yup, IDEAL for gravity lab in the sky - boffins

Gordon 10
Joke

Ransom Archibald and Stairs

Should set up in business as a Law firm or debt collection agency

Time travellers outsmart the NSA

Gordon 10
Pirate

Re: Personally I'd of hoped

@Keith

Or possibly they're just frightened that Capt Jack will try to shag them

Snapchat vows to shut its hole in wake of 4.6 million user data breach

Gordon 10
Pirate

Re: Worry more about google

There is a major difference between snapchat and google/Facebook in that they employ savvy managers and employees with top tier tech skills. It's a fair bet that they have some of the best penetration testers in the business. I wouldn't expect to see any major hacks against them at this point in time. Facebook especially seem to have matured in their outlook in the last couple of years.

Gordon 10

To paraphrase the CEO

If you spend your time protecting your users you're only going to kill yourself.

What an utter w*nker.

Acer cozies up to Google with new 'droid PCs and fondleslab, Chromebook

Gordon 10

Re: I tried one of their all-in-one Android systems at a store today

Think you misread the article - they are only used as touch displays for Win 8 - not tablets. So you would have to connect a win 8 desktop/laptop/tablet.

Now THAT'S a sunroof: Solar-powered family car emerges from Ford labs

Gordon 10

Re: Concentrator? Why bother? @ Charles 9

But why are you evaluating the fitness for purpose based on the far end of the usage curve? Thats the ending point not the starting point. If you get to a solution that works reasonably in summer but only partially well in winter - providing the econimics stack up its still a win.

Coca Cola slurps millions of MAC addresses

Gordon 10

Re: Thirsty!

oh really? A can of "fat" coke contains 139 calories ~ 7% of the lower female GA daily calorie allowance. Thats not counting those people who drink diet coke.

Whilst Im sure there are a few gluttons that guzzle many cans a day - I hardly think you can hold it up as a posterchild of bloateryness.

Care to restate your lazy post?

Disclaimer I think the stuff is vile - but felt the need to call out a commentard throwing up a lazy claim.

Now if he/she/it had conducted a rant about palm syrup they might have been on firmer ground.

ICO to focus only on 'serious, repeat' data-protection offenders

Gordon 10

There's a simple fix for this one

If they are genuinely still open for consultation the we start up a petition on the govt moan portal whatever it's called and lobby all our mates to sign up to it. Get the Reg to add it as a note to this story and it should for the ICO a fright.

Android, Chromebooks storm channel as Windows PC sales go flat

Gordon 10

Re: I don't get it

I would have thought so too. I suspect it's that the figure cover both the corporate and consumer market hence apples mostly consumer sales are dwarfed by Windows corporate sales. Would be interesting to see pure consumer market numbers.

Snowden to warn Brits on Xmas telly: Your children will NEVER have privacy

Gordon 10
FAIL

Re: Kids DON'T WANT privacy

I think you've missed the point somewhat - since twatbook is so new there are no social cautions about using it - hence people have dived into it willy nilly. As social media matures as a concept so will our treatment of it. I wouldn't be surprised to see managing your online identity taught alongside sex ed and home ec in schools some day.

It's not about a binary choice between using social media and not doing so - it's about giving everyone - kids included - enough information to make a conscious and informed choice over if and how they use it.

Click here to beat David Cameron's web porn ban

Gordon 10
Childcatcher

Indeed - ban these sick filthy programmers - sounds suspiciously like paedogrammers to me.

Gordon 10
Joke

Oh great

Now I have the choice of David Cameron or Eric Schmidt knowing my grot perusal habits.

Scilla and Charybdis.

Apple won't bag HUMUNGOUS 4G deal... 'cos China HATES plastic iPhone 5C – analyst

Gordon 10

Re: shocker!

I bet that so called analyst feels pretty dumb today (Mon) as Apples China Mobile deal is now all over the press.

Lets hope the morons gets his ass fired. Not that Im an apple fanboi just hate stoopid analysts.

How much did NSA pay to put a backdoor in RSA crypto? Try $10m – report

Gordon 10

Re: RSA sale?

Doubt it - don't forget this is the company who had all their seeds and algorithms stolen for their RAS tokens and still managed to bullshit their customers and keep 90% of them.

Andrew Fentem: Why I went to quango to fund pre-iPhone touch tech

Gordon 10

Re: So, Why did he go to an arts quango to fund his pre-iPhone multitouch?

I think thats a bit unfair. He obviously approached Nesta in good faith and only realised it was Arts focused when it was too late.....

Calling all Spare Rib veterans: Sisters, don't lose your rights!

Gordon 10

Well Done El Reg

Though I suspect its more cockup than conspiracy on this one.

Brilliant Brit bloke builds breakfast-belching BACON DRONE

Gordon 10

Re: Resolve afghanistan war

Upvoted for a classic Friday afternoon post on a blustery monday morning.

Heart part more art than state-of-the-art: Shine wearable activity sensor

Gordon 10

Re: Nothing new

In fact for less than the £99 you can probably get a waterproof case for your phone and take it swimming.

Sky broadband goes TITSUP ALL DAY, thwarts Brits' Xmas web shopping

Gordon 10

Re: My BE broadband has been crap on uploads for weeks @Gordon 10

Anyone whose reading the register and who hasn't been through their own fault finding exercise beforehand shouldn't be on here.

I make no apologies for being more methodical than the average hell desk script.

Gordon 10
Mushroom

My BE broadband has been crap on uploads for weeks

Just about when I got unwillingly switched to Sky afaik.

Shows ok on speed tests but the minute you put any files of any decent size to upload it dies on its arse.

Rang the hell desk yesterday but got caught out telling porkies to hurry them through their fault finding list ;)

"Do you have only 1 pc connected on a wired cable"

"Me...yes yes" Looking at my ipad and wireless printer. (I had tested earlier with wifi on the router disabled)

"Him - just logging onto your router"

"Errr sir....."

Me<click>

Bjork, 500+ novelist pals ask UN for 1 bill of digital rights to RULE 'EM ALL

Gordon 10

Re: Same. Or Worse.

$100's millions of dollars profit? Care to post some proof of that?

No? Thought not.

Gordon 10

Re: To little to late

@frallan

Get over yourself.

4 years ago was way to late if you take that point of view. Do you think these are all recent developments? Marconi was probably tapped on his second long distance radio transmission. Spooks will be spooks and will have been adding capability incrementally since Marconi's time.

The key issue isnt one of legislation per se - but one of Spooks failing to comply with existing legislation or twisting it for their own purposes.

The piracy party has a massive image problem in that anything meaningful it has to say on digital rights is drowned out and invalidated by its blatantly freetardisd main agenda.

OMG, Andrex killed the puppey! Not quilty, exclaim bog roll boys

Gordon 10

Re: You're holding it wrong

Im reminded of the British army approved method of using your 3 allotted squares whilst on maneouvers.

Fold 1 square into quarters, tear off inner point, open square, place finger through resulting hole, wipe, use torn corner to clean finger nail......

Gordon 10
WTF?

Downvoter hang your head in shame.

Lantern lights the way to web freedom for Great Firewall prisoners

Gordon 10
Childcatcher

The funding will soon be withdrawn

When the State Department realises it will allow people to bypass the the western worlds own censorship regimes.

No doubt with an "Paedo/Terrorist/Criminal" excuse.

Anglo-Australian cricket brawl spills over into coding clash

Gordon 10

Re: What is the job of the publisher?

agreed 505 are at fault here for deliberately releasing a crap game in a cynical attempt to recoup some of their costs. Either they didnt have testing cycles and a QA process or they did and ignored the results.

Gordon 10

Re: Amazing

I think you mean Frontier : Elite 2? Or which version of Elite are you refering to? afaik there was only 1 bug in Elite on the Beeb which mean the last Thargon hunting mission wouldnt end if you took them out with a smart bomb.

/<Elite and proud of it>

Judge rules investors can sue Meg Whitman and HP over Autonomy

Gordon 10

Re: Sweet

Technically the money could have been used for a multitude of purposes. I suspect you meant that it would have been better used within the company rather than distributed to shareholders.

Cow flatulence, gas emissions much worse than thought - boffins

Gordon 10
FAIL

Define accuracy

Did you see the error bars on part of that article? 4.9 +/- 2.6 so an error margin of around 50% then.

That gives me great confidence in this research.

WTF is the Internet of Things and how insurers will use it against you

Gordon 10

Indeed

I really dont get wireless light bulbs - they have no need to be. Infact if you wanted a light bulb that could turn itself on and off when reacting to your prescense all it needs is a IR sensor and a light sensor. Both of which have been around for donkeys years. The fact that no-one has made a killing selling them already suggests the market doesnt exist......

Verizon, BT, Vodafone, Level 3 'let NSA jack into Google, Yahoo! fiber'

Gordon 10

Huh?

BT, Voda, etc - please tell me which law forces you to comply with a request to apply a wholesale tap to a piece of fibre?

Failing that show me the court order.

Failing that release the emails showing what the quid pro quo / threats were.

Supermodel Lily Cole in Impossible partnership with Jimbo Wales, YOU

Gordon 10
Mushroom

NSFW

I just knew Googling Juergen Teller on Google images was a bad idea - but I did it anyway.

The IT police are coming for me......

Chairman grabs CEO's chair at British Airways' IT and comms supplier

Gordon 10

Was it really necessary to put in a tortuous reference to BA?

When just putting Kingston Telecoms or KCom would have done?

You DON'T need a new MacBook! Reg man fiddles with Fusion, pimps out vintage Pro

Gordon 10
Flame

And did the fairies come along and partition the new drive and install Win 8 onto it for you? No? Perhaps you shouldnt make pointless comparisions then.

Gordon 10

Last time I checked apple controlled neither the price of RAM or the prices of SSD's. So your point was exactly???

Angela Merkel's phone was being listened in on by FIVE foreign powers

Gordon 10
Black Helicopters

The Norks as well?

Hang your head in shame german security services. Maybe shortstuff wanted a date?

Four teachers indicted in Steubenville social media rape case

Gordon 10
Childcatcher

Re: Aha it's the "Mfg, possesion, distribution of CP" that gets them.

In fairness some thought seems to have been given to these laws - well more than in the UK at any rate. The fact that in general (ignoring this case for a sec) a lot of this is treated as juvenile "crime" at least offers a way out without the horrors of permanent attachment to a sex offenders register - suggests that there was a modicome of sanity and common sense present when they were written.

Not to say its perfect, and of course in this case could be abused to get the Jocks off, but at least in general someone had the bravery to say - lets not permanently criminalise kids for sexual exploration.

What's wrong with Britain's computer scientists?

Gordon 10
Unhappy

Re: Not just the young graduates

No offense but my predjudices around a Phd would suggest you are far too academically inclined to deal with the insane vagaries of UK.plc. I'd respect you but I wouldnt employ you.

Now if you were in Germany you would be laughing - most of my colleagues over there are Phd's.

Double standards - probably - but unfortunately true.

Luckily the chances of my doing any interviews in my current job are slim to none, and in the past its been 90% offshore workers.

Gordon 10

Re: Some IT Co.'s based in Ireland.

You must have a very narrow definition of programmer. Even if there is little product development in the UK (and I think there is some). Nearly all the Pre-Sale's consultants at Oracle would fall under programmer/developer in my definitions.

Gordon 10

Re: Some IT Co.'s based in Ireland.

Good point but you need to be careful with that list. Many of those are small "Emea HQ's" for tax purposes.

For instance afaik the Oracle site in Ireland is smaller that the one in Reading Berks. A quick glance suggests many of them also have UK offices. Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon are all big employers in the Thames Valley, as are Intel are in Swindon and Winnersh. Symantec at Oxford.

And those are just the ones I have driven past.

Gold meddler: Doctor Who is 50 years old TODAY

Gordon 10

Re: But, but...

And too be fair - by the end of the classic series it was crap - johnathan Nathan turner has to take a lot of the blame.

Lead ONTO your pencil: Bill Gates pours cash into graphene condoms

Gordon 10
Pint

I spat cake - have an upvote!

Doctor Who writers Neil Gaiman and Terrance Dicks talk to The Reg

Gordon 10

Re: @Mahat And his biggest writing influence is...

Downvoted for not checking your facts - he broke with them years ago.

Plus on his worst day he's a better writer than Hubbard ever was.