Because Microsoft rely on preinstalled copies of Windows - since they are the only ones anyone pays for.

So when the vendors pointed out that it would be expensive to build machines that met Windows Vista system requirements - MSFT introduced the basic certification, allowing the makers to claim that the machine ran Vista, allowing MSFT to get paid - and the punter to get stuck with a machine that didn't work.

Google is what we call a VERY BIG COMPANY - this means it has lots of $$$ and so laws don't apply to it.

TPB is what we call a VERY SMALL COMPANY - it doesn't own any politicians but Hollywood does - so it's illegal.

Re: Hmmm

It's a cunning and subtle plan - if you look at all the expensive out of action technology and just give a slight shrug then you are obviously British.

If you stare at it saying, "how can all this not work in a modern technological western country" then you are obviously a foreigner.

Brilliant eh ?

Re: Banning distractions

Grey-import Jap bikes used to have this - a red light flashed on the speedo when you went over 100kph (IIRC)

Fancy German Cars (tm) have a camera that reads the speedlimit signs as you drive past them and warns you on the speed.

Re: Ban touchscreens

That's why BMW's Windows(TM) I-drive didn't catch on.

Right click -> preferences -> windscreen options -> wipers -> on -> apply -> OK

Re: but my Sat-Nat told me to go this way

Over here they are much better trained.

They are all able to work a Panasonic Toughbook - bolted to the dash - while driving.

The advanced ones can do this while drinking a coffee and eating a donut

I was more worried about the Lizard-Boffins.

Picturing T-Rex in a lab coat

Women's clothing is priced by 1/square foot

The less there is the more it costs - and may it ever be so!

That was the point - the airport, the police and security services didn't take the threat seriously - they declared it wasn't a credible threat, raised no security alert and did nothing at the airport.

The later prosecution was completely malicious.

Yes but even they don't rely on the opinions of a Big Brother loser to decide how thick to make the sheilding on a reactor.

That's the problem if Apple don't want to accept the % of the product FRAND that they were offered then who gets to decide what % of the 'value' of an iPhone is the phone part.

If it was on components then Apple could simply do a deal with their chip supplier that the GSM module costs 1c, so paying nothing in royalties, and then simply overpay for another part from the same supplier.

That's a common trick for avoiding paying tax, eg. Microsoft Windows includes a large payment to a Microsoft subsidiary in Reno that owns all their IP so that MSFT in Redmond doesn't make a profit and doesn't pay tax.

Remember that's in total - for ALL Blackberry users

You're new here aren't you ?

This only blocks Apple billboards and Apple stores

Tip - the verity ones are clever and funny

Probably similar to the logic that says 8 US troops in US uniforms with US weapons kill a bunch of civilians - but it wasn't a US military action.

Then the same US military that says it wasn't a US military action, and they don't approve, acquits most of those involved and punishes the ringleader in the same way as if he had turned up with dirty buttons on his uniform.

Fibre cable laying. The Canaries are a convenient place to split Africa-Europe-S America cables

The argument in that case was that they were wrongly convicted - because shell-shock/PTSD wasn't recognised at the time. Although that's just political weasling.

The 'correct' thing to do would be to say that; looking back, it was wrong to persecute gays, just as it was wrong to deny women the vote, or to prevent Jewish asylum seekers from Germany in the 30s - or a whole bunch of other stuff. BUT more important would be for the same politicians to consider this the next time they are reacting to a Daily Mail headline.

No, but if I was a security officer at GCHQ and I had a candidate with a conviction for smoking a joint or for hacking his school's computer, or some other criminal act - I might think twice about automatically rejecting them.

There is a theory that you can learn from the past.

Whether it's not invading Russia in winter or not hiring the best candidate because they are gay/female/muslim/black - it's worth remembering.

"Archbishop of Canterbury get censored"

Well to be fair, his website does include numerous pictures of a Jew being tortured to death

But he won - you can't be a terrorist if you won.

Same way that GarageBand (R)(TM)(ETC) attracted customers to iTunes.

There's no call for that sort of language - this is a family website

It's a bit complicated but (IIRC) you get taxed on them on the day of the IPO as if the difference between the option price (effectively nowt) and the launch price had been salary.

If you never sell the shares or the they become worthless, eg. the company goes bust, - you still owe that tax. Some friends got screwed by this in the first dot-com bubble 10 years ago.

Almost everything about SpaceX engineering ability is impressive.

It reminds you of the sort of stuff Lockheed skunkworks used to do in the old days.

There is a great interview with one of their engineers where he says: the trouble is that all the systems are designed for multiple cheap reuse for when we are eventually running like an airline - if we could just do good-enough for now the progress would be much more impressive.

It already seems pretty impressive by the standards of any government space agency !

Was abandoned long ago. On the desktop the push to move things like graphics into the kernel has made Windows a lot less portable.

In theory CLR technologies on .Net should make running any app on anything trivial but in practice they drop down to either very platform specific DirectX code or ancient GDI legacy as soon as you need to do anything useful.

Yes - but there is a little difference between telling security at an airport you have a gun.

And posting a comment on el'Reg that "take off and nuke the site from orbit" is the only way to improve LAX.

... shit I did post this as anonymous ??????

The US doesn't do Transit - everyone has to go through customs+immigration.

This is a growing market for Boeing's new 7E7 because it can fly a lot of S. America and S.E. Asia to Europe direct without having to go through the US. This is a big market for a lot of S American airlines

It's almost as if 75% of the worlds hard drive factories were under water and there was a massive global shortage of spinning rust.

They probably already do this. The advertising value of what new phone model you were Googling 6months ago is pretty low.

Google make more money by ensuring that they only sell data about you that is new.

It's only governments that are interested in what you where reading years ago.