* Posts by Keiran

27 publicly visible posts • joined 25 May 2007

El Reg space paper plane christened Vulture 1

Keiran
Thumb Up

@By Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 10th August 2009 11:34 GMT

Think thats the winner right there.... even did a diagram

Leaving PCs on costing UK business millions

Keiran

why, oh why

I currently work for a large multinational company. In our UK site I know that the machines all work the same way...when you turn them on all relevant patches and software updates required since last used are installed.

I think this was implemented on the desktop machines when they started having more and more laptop users. Makes sense to have the same software managment on both, although the virus scans can be a little annoying.

Unfortunately the rest of the IT support is put to shame by the charity I used to work for.

Google Street View hits UK streets

Keiran
Stop

Ermm, is it actually on?

I've just tried to find some street view for Newcastle and I can't find any evidence of it...anyone had any luck?

Retailer reveals Touch Diamond 2 launch

Keiran
Unhappy

hmmm, hope not a reflection of the Magic price

Here's hoping that the HTC Magic will be a little less pricey when it's released in April

Microsoft: Vista desktop key to life fulfillment

Keiran

Most obvious item missed by M$

since when did you have to have Vista to devise this??? 95, ME, NT, XP even lowly 3.1 (plus pretty much any graphical OS) allowed you to arrange your desktop neatly (if you wanted) and have a background pic.

Toshiba Portégé R600

Keiran
Alert

NOT a fanboy but....

It seems that for this price you'd be a fool to buy it. Heard of a MacBook Air, admittedly 500g heavier (than R600 with no drives) but has the drive, bigger screen same storage. Only thing it does not have is the 3G mobile connectivity.

Euro-style GM Volt design revealed

Keiran

Leaking photos in White?!?

Could not have been a worse colour. I don't think it's possible for any car to look good in white.

Today is not Hadron Collider Day

Keiran
Alien

You can't cross the streams with one stream

I've been trying to get people to understand exactly this point over the last few days. The best way is to liken this to the old Ghostbusters concept of crossing the streams of a proton pack.

i.e.

LHC- injects proton beams

GB - called a proton pack and creates a stream/beam

LHC- when fully active, will cause 2 proton beams to cross paths and potentially cause 'something' to happen.

GB - Crossing the streams was considered 'bad' (total protonic reversal I seem to remember??)

Today the LHC only has 1 Proton pack so it can't cause 'the end of the world'

Has anyone else managed to come up with a simple way to explain it?

(alien as no ghost)

Sony e-book reader to debut in UK tomorrow

Keiran
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Can use several file types according to sony website

Word, RTF, TXT and PDF all work apparently as well as the ability to use MP3 and ACC

Top right icon around image

http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/reader-ebook/block/2

Nintendo Wii 'like a virus', games boss sniffs

Keiran
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Bit of fun and cheapest way to play Guitar hero 3

I got the Wii as it was a way to get a console the wife may play on (hence I was allowed). In addtion I knew I wanted Guitar Hero 3 and don't have huge amouts of time to play games. Wii was the perfect one for me, relatively cheap and a few games I wanted.

p.s. (Under) thumb as had to get wifes permission to by one (but hey at least I've got a wife)

BOFH: Lift laughs

Keiran

David Tennant as PFY?

He's great at highspeed techno-babble, and he can certainly do that crazy 'I'm going to kill someone' look!

DAB: A very British failure

Keiran
Alert

Listen to radio via freeview!?! Do you hate the world?

Freeview box + TV (or integral) = XXX power

Freeview box + external sound = XX power

DAB radio = x power

Also I've found when living in a flat (or now a house with generally poor radio and mobile reception) you are much more likely to get a useable DAB signal than an FM signal

Apple applies to light up laptop touchpads, iPod clickwheels

Keiran
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Useless lights on portable devices

<RANT>

I thought we were supposed to be trying to save the environment these days. More lights etc shorten battery life so:

a) you have to charge it more often

b) the overall batery life is shortened (good for apple as you're more likely to replace the iPod as a whole than replace the battery)

I've a laptop which has a set of shortcuts above the keyboard which are lit with indapendent blue LEDs which you cannot turn off and have no functionallity, there is even a light which comes on when you mute sound.

It's time manufacturers started thinking if it is really a neccessary light

</RANT>

RIM sues LG over Chocolate, Shine brand

Keiran

Errmm, what about....

Carling Black Label??

MIT sues architect for crap computing-dept campus

Keiran

Cartoons?

Really they should have been able to anticipate problems. The buildings look like something out of a bad cartoon!

NASA gives jet-setting Googlers the presidential treatment

Keiran

Would have thought this X-prize may be a contributing factor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6993373.stm

Thats all....

Get a passport, enjoy casual sex with foreigners

Keiran

going to hit thier revenue

I'm sure the passport office has missed a trick here. They charge a fortune if you need to get a quick turnaround on a passport application. I'm surprised that they are not just sending a letter back on late applications with...

To guarantee delivery of your passport by the date you have specified a premium charge of £££££ will be required.

The idiots that these ads will appeal to would pay it rather than miss out on their holiday.

Girls prefer pink: official

Keiran

Why boys choose blue

They've completely missed the bleeding obvious reason...the study was carried out by Newcastle Uni. Anyone who's ever been out in Newcastle in the middle of the winter will know that that is the colour the boys turn when out wearing a t-shirt at -5 C.

El Reg protests North Korean internet domain

Keiran

Re: Seems okay to me.

Robert, which alphabet do you use??

'p' is 2 characters before 'r'

p...q...r

BBC Trust backs calls for Linux iPlayer

Keiran

Mac vs. Linux

Just a minor point, they should create a linux version before a Mac version. Although I'm about to hugley simplify this the guts should still hold.

If you have a working linux implementation of a product as modern Max OSX is based around BSD so the main issues would only then be cleaning up the interface and changing the installer for those who like to point and click.

Teens using M-rated games to vent anger

Keiran

And if you drive the M25 everyday....

Burnout is a god send! Used to do a 80 mile round trip to work (M25,M11) and the best way to not get road rage with the idiots who cut you up etc. is to go home and have a good few games.

Pedal to the metal: bike-friendly iPod dock launched

Keiran

What happened to 'Personal' music players

Once upon a time personal music players were just that...OK you could hear the bass and Hi-Hat somtimes.

With kids walking round playing mp3s through phones and now this I can see places like Cambridge and Oxford beginning to have noise pollution problems.

Catherine Tate to accompany Doctor Who

Keiran

Why?

OK, CT was entertaining in the Christmas special but I don't think I can cope with her every week!

Must admit that I've not been especially impressed with the last series, Blink and the season finale made me think that it was getting better but to move to CT!?!

I'm not sure I'll be watching next year and I'm really not sure about Kylie in the Christmas special.

MEP plans EU build ban on cars faster than 100mph

Keiran

Sick of the over inflated opinion of the Prius

<RANT ABOUT PRIUS>

The Toyota Prius is not the fantastically 'green' car that everyone keeps raving about (http://www.wintonsworld.com/cars/a-cars-2004/toyota-prius-road-test.html). A bog standard small 1.4 diesel (e.g. Citroen C2) give comparable and often better fuel consumption.

I have a diesel C2 with sensodrive transmission (kind of auto, so less efficient than a manual) and after 40,000 mile was getting an average of 67mpg...I'm young and don't drive like a granny.

My journey has recently changed from a 40 mile run to a more congested 20 mile journey and after ~5,000 miles of this I'm now holding steady at 64mpg.

</RANT ABOUT PRIUS>

This guy also needs to do a bit of research, most high performance cars get their strength from advanced lightweight materials (e.g carbon fibre), the weight required for safe handling at high speed is generally provided by aerodynamic engineering. I'm guessing he either

a) does not drive

b) only drives in a city centre (and the Prius would then need to use it's petrol engine as it would never get to charge on long speedy runs).

Eliminate stress at the touch of a button... literally

Keiran

Not that useful in the office

Bearing in mind that you can't install software on most Windows PC's in an office environment I rarley see the point of this type of device. If it flashed and made noises powered by USB but did not use the display it would be much more attractive.

Book publisher steals Google laptops

Keiran

Ever heard of mail merge

Would it really be soooo dificult for the publishers to mailmerge the titles of all their (c) materials and between them deliver all of the mail on the same day (probably not via the postal system, lots of big vans and a media circus). I would think that Google would have to then suspend all scanning until they had processed all of the mail.

For all future works all they would have to do is make sending this notice part of their publication pipeline.

Vista upgrade revisited

Keiran

Wireless problems after sleep...same on XP

I have exactly the same problem on WinXP after sleeping my HP laptop.

I've given up on 'repairing' the connection, only sure-fire way to make it work first time is to eject the wireless card and re-insert. I can only guess at the amount of swearing this would cause on the newer machines where the wireless adapter cannot be ejected easily via the 'Safely Remove Hardware' systray icon.