Posts by mad_dr
54 posts • joined Thursday 3rd March 2011 16:25 GMT
Blade Runner
Have I missed something or did the author spectacularly fumble the Tyrell quote from Blade Runner?
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy." is how I recall it from the script which I sadly know almost by heart having seen BR more times than my wife cares to remember!
Re: Camera watching me, watching them...
Next idea for Intel: dummy camera (with free Blu Tack) in the top of the bezel, in the centre. Real camera surreptitiously hidden elsewhere - perhaps in the centre of the 'e' of Intel.
There you go - you can have that one for free...
Further details emerge:
"French media suggest the haul could be worth up to £812,000."
Police have confirmed that an iPad and a 15" Retina Mac Book Pro are missing...
Re: It is a technological triumph
Prior art:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mail
Re: Depressing
The only thing worse than the 'food' served by Air Canada is the unbelievably rude and miserable flight attendants who throw it down in front of you.
Re: HAH, Americans
I didn't downvote you. But I wanted to. It's a Reliant Robin, not the other way round! ;)
I thought the restaurateur was a 'she' not a he. Or perhaps they really ARE transgender after all, as they claimed in their smear campaign!
Perhaps I'll be the first to admit...
... I want the best of both worlds: It angers me to think that the likes of google is not paying a fair rate of tax on its profits but at the same time, I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't buy a TV from Amazon if it was the cheapest place to shop.
However companies like Starbucks are on a different scale as far as I'm concerned: Not only are they not paying a fair rate of tax on their profits but they're raking it in AND gouging their customers at the same time.
So perhaps the main problem for me is that these aren't small, independent underdog companies working the tax system in order to stay afloat in a tricky market - these are vastly-profitiable multinationals who - in some cases - are screwing us twice: once when they rip off their customers at the till and then again when they don't pay tax.
I would, however, add that I'm completely absent of financial knowledge so may be oversimplifying things somewhat...
If only...
...the British guvmint had the balls to go after Starbucks, Amazon, eBay, Google, etc and close some of the piss-taking loopholes that they're all exploiting over here...
Re: "To Medal" - only slightly less offensive than "Winningest"...
I always assumed that winningest was used in a tongue-in-cheek fashion rather than seriously and therefore always makes me chuckle when I hear it. To "medal" on the other hand is extremely irritating. During the summer I heard more than one pundit on the BBC use the word podium as a verb. "I'm fully expecting her to podium this time round". Now perhaps that's a completely justifiable way of using the word podium but - to me - it just sounds plain wrong.
Wonder if...
... This has a free app that uses the rear camera as an aiming screen complete with crosshair
I guess
The only Jag in a Bond film that I can recall is the green XK from that terrible film "Die Another Day"... I prefer the Vanquish that Brosnan bombed around in in that outing though so he chose the right one.
"The Milgram experiment basically tells us this, too. If you lined up enough people who *were* enthusiastic about electrocuting people, or whatever else, then enough people would cheer and wave their arms to join the ranks of those encouraging without question and so propagate such actions."
I liken the nature of the behaviour of these crowds to the behaviour demonstrated by the participants of the Stanford Prison experiment; joining in with a situation that requires actions that are contrary to our normal senses, rather than the Milgram experiment which was more about our innate compulsion to obey orders from authority, regardless of our reluctance to do so or the consequences. All are fascinating scenarios to us saddo Psychologists though!
Oh Canada...
The birds known as robins in Canada are far larger than the British variety so probably hit with quite a thump. My in-laws house on one of the Gulf Islands just off the east coast of Vancouver Island regularly has bald eagles in the back garden - definitely not something you want hitting your window at speed.
Having said that, they had to start locking the front door at night a little while ago; they were finding that it would somehow open itself every night. It was only after a rainy spell that turned the front garden to mud that they came down one morning, found the front door open again and spotted hoof prints leading to the kitchen; turns out that the local deer had discovered a nice warm place to come and steal from the fruit bowl...
Re: typical for android
Well THAT should generate some interesting replies A/C...
Re: Kinda right...
Ah - makes sense - thanks for the informative reply!
I wonder if it'll be allowed to be touted as 4G when it comes to the UK? I thought Apple got into trouble with the new iPad for their claims that it was a 4G device in a country that at the time had no 4G network? Perhaps EE's awarding of the 4G spectrum will be considered enough of an intent to get 4G off the ground in the UK so as to permit Amazon to use the '4G' tag in their marketing and naming language.
Wonder if Apple will re-add the 4G bit to the iPad at that point too.
Posted in Apple eyes $$$ iDevice adapter bonanza
You only need...
...1 adapter and a bit of gaffer tape to attach it to the phone. Job done.
Re: Obligation to arrest.
Putting the moral questions around Assange's specific situation to one side for a moment, that does make you think though; if the Swedes want Assange but he's holed up in a building in London, shouldn't the Swedish police force (who, I know, don't have jurisdiction in the UK) be offered the option by Hague, to be seconded to London, drafted into the Met for an indeterminate period and given the chance to camp outside the embassy, ready to make an arrest, so that the Met police officers can get back to whatever they'd be doing if Assange hadn't graced the UK with his presence? If we've all signed up to the same EU rules that bound us, should it be so incomprehensible that a temporary partnership could be formed?
Alternatively, the Swedes could offer manpower from their police force to visit the UK to make themselves useful somehow by way of thanks for the doubtless hundreds of thousands of pounds this stalemate is costing?
Would be interesting to know how long the Swedes reckon the UK should fund this operation for and where they think the money should come from to pay for it. If the answers were "as long as it takes" and "from their own taxpayer's pockets", I wonder how reasonable that would be considered by most folks.
I have no opinion on whether JA did or didn't do anything to anyone at any time. All I know is that, judging by the way that this situation has polarised opinion, the UK seems to have been dragged into this and that the international image of the UK the would have been far better off if he'd decided to go to Belgium or somewhere other than the UK.
I expect that half of the population (or perhaps more) will consider me to be a heartless bastard for selfishly preferring that the UK isn't used as a stage upon which to play out a situation that will end up with no winners and plenty of losers. I know there will be a fair number of folks who think that as a civilised nation it's our duty to involve ourselves and ensure that justice is done but they're never going to actually agree with one another as to what justice actually IS in this case...
I see no good outcome to this.
Re: Makes no difference,
Happily, my cats love flies. They keep them entertained, tearing around the house for ages, until either the fly escapes or one of the cats gets a lucky snack. They love spiders and moths too. They particularly like woodlice but tend to play football with them rather than eat them. They're sisters and hunt in pairs which is pretty disconcerting when you see them in action.
Weirdest thing they've ever caught? Probably the bat that flew in through the landing window and started doing circuits of the bedroom one evening. I had a very brief "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" moment until I realised just what was flapping around the room.
Within about 5 seconds, the two snoozing cats on the bed had woken up, leapt in the air, snagged the poor little bugger and were about to tuck in. I managed to shoo them away and popped the bat back out the window whereby she/he flew off. My cats still haven't forgiven me for taking their prize... They're indoor cats with access to a netted garden so as long as the birds stay outside, they should be OK...
Mind you - I was staying with friends in rural Cornwall a few years ago when one of their (extremely independent) cats decided that it would be a good idea to jump in through the open bedroom window at 2 in the morning and release the completely unharmed rabbit it had found in one of the fields, onto the bed for us to admire... Cue plenty of screaming from the wife and me, bleary-eyed, standing in my boxers, trying to talk the poor bunny out from under the wardrobe...
Re: No 'slide'
"I love Apple bashing"
Kudos for the honesty. If only more folks on both sides of the fence were just a little bit more open about it.
Re: What more do people want from a pocket device?
I'm with you on that one but it appears that none of the major handset suppliers have you or I in mind as their target market...
"In my experience about food in French restaurant is either badly under-cooked, burned, tasteless or rubbery..."
Sounds like my wife would make a great French chef...
Status update on O2 website:
08:00 - We can confirm that our 2G network service has now been restored. Customers who were affected should now be able to make and receive calls.
Our 3G service is starting to restore and customers should expect to see a gradual return of data services as the day progresses.
Customers affected may wish to try switching their mobile phones off and on as service returns.
We are sorry again for the inconvenience this has caused some customers and can provide reassurance that we continue to deploy all possible resources, and will do so until full service is restored.
Still ZERO bars for me though...
Re: Door stickers are bad
"We're all odd down our little track"
Don't be so hard on yourself - I'm sure you're all really rather pleasant folks, really.
Re: Refreshing...
Bloody hell - who at Sony decided that the above is a sensible model number for a consumer laptop??
Re: For info - statement from Prentke Romich
Yeah, but on every level this is all about knee-jerk reactions and condemnations: PRC condemning Speak for Yourself, Apple doing the same and a selection of of us commentards condemning Apple for listening to its lawyers and PRC for bringing the lawsuit (whether justified or not), so the downvotes (whilst completely misdirected) are clearly par for the course in this thread. :)
Posted in Vote now for the worst movie NEVER made
Perhaps that was an admirable yet futile attempt to wish Highlander II out of existence...
Posted in LOHAN Playmonaut jets off to Blighty
Proper units please.
KM/H? Metres?
When you finally take the wraps off your measurements, can't you do things properly and give us the figures in proper units that we can all understand? I believe that we have an understanding that "linguine" and "% velocity of a sheep in a vacuum" are our standard preferences?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
Re: See my comment from above
OK, OK - as it's causing you so much disappointment, I'll do you a favour and take your MBP off your hands and won't charge you a penny.
Posted in LOHAN gasps at stiff and slippery tube
How about...
... Some kind of heated windscreen-based device for the rod? IE a very low electric current to keep it warm enough to resist condensation, droplets of ice, etc?
I should state that I'm extremely non-technical so am fully prepared for the numerous and obvious reasons why this would be impossible. Eg titanium being the best insulator known to man or titanium requiring something the size of a car battery to provide sufficient current to create a temperature-differential, etc.
Crikey!
I wonder if that needs to be filed under the "bad decision" category rather than the "disingenuous" one. I'm not usually naive (at least, I don't think I am!) but it amazes me that a bunch of business/tech folks could get around a table, mull over the options and implications and STILL think that slapping 4G on every AT&T iPhone screen is a good idea.
I wonder just HOW closely AT&T worked with Apple on that decision (the linked article doesn't say) - it seems to be pretty disingenuous on AT&T's part too, to encourage it.
Thankfully I'm firmly rooted in rural South West England's network coverage: "LOOK! LOOK! I've got a whole 1 bar on my mobile phone signal!!! Oh, wait - it's gone again..."
P.S. And before you ask, it's not an iPhone and I'm not holding it wrong. ;)
Hmm - consider the "slightly" from my second paragraph, removed...
If you're buying online or via another distance-selling method, I suspect, yes. I would have imagined that the ACCC would want an equally visible note alongside any online point of sale for the device too.
Not sure what I think about this one. Whilst it IS slightly misleading in the circumstances in the article for Apple to sell the new iPad with the "+ 4G" label, it's technically the same device as the one sold in the US where 4G IS available, so I can understand that Apple was telling the consumer what the product IS, not what you can do with it in the location of sale. Whether it could be argued that the focus should be on what YOU can do with it where you bought it or whether the focus should be on the spec of the product is open to debate.
Apple SHOULD make it clearer but I hope that they weren't being knowingly disingenuous with their labeling; they would have known that someone would be bound to notice, sooner or later...
I suppose the lesson for Apple here is that, despite their desire to provide a completely uniform product and service across the globe, they're likely to need to take local differences into greater consideration and tailor some of their products accordingly. (Another example being the difference between Siri's functionality in the US versus the rest of the world).
Posted in So, what IS the worst film ever made?
Re: Seconded on "Knowing"
Thirded for Knowing.
It's bizarre though - the plane-crash sequence early on in the film is (from what I can recall) spectacular and, I believe, shot in one continuous take (or at least made to appear so). I spotted it on the TV a couple of weeks ago and tuned in just as that scene was about to start and was impressed again. Needless to say, I tuned out again as soon as the scene was over...
Posted in SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD
Capacities
"Once formatted, the drive's capacity drops to 111GB"
I'm sure there's a very valid technical reason why you lose such a big chunk of storage space when formatting a drive but I wonder if there's reason why manufacturers tend not to provide an oversized drive so that - in this case for instance - a 128GB drive could be marketed as a 120Gb drive so that once it was formatted, you'd actually get the storage the box was claiming. My first thoughts are "bigger is better and therefore able to be sold for more dosh" but there's perhaps more to it than that.
I'm presuming, of course, that there's not some clever way to 'access' all 120Gb on this drive, thereby justifying its 120Gb description.
To my not-very-technical way of thinking, it feels a bit like buying a pint of beer, only to find that once it's placed into the glass, 10% of your pint will remain trapped at the bottom of the glass.
Icon for obvious reasons.
Re: Thumbs Down
Khaptain, I think a lot of us DID try to offer an explanation why we disagree with your view, on several occasions but it seems that, for whatever reason, we're not explaining ourselves in a way that overcomes your adamance of your views. This is not a problem but it doesn't mean that no one has tried to explain their views or offer alternatives when they run contrary to yours.
My opinion is that in this example, the subject matter - although contentious - is entirely irrelevant. The point is that someone who has not been convicted of any crime is, by definition, innocent. Moreover, enshrined in law is a right, shared by all, that determines that no one can be forced to give up information that could be used against them to secure a conviction, no matter how distasteful the crimes that they are accused of committing, are.
Whether you agree with this right or not, is also irrelevant: it's there to protect everyone (including YOU).
I don't thing you'll find a single person here, even us child-free ones, who would feel sorry for this John Doe if he's found guilty of child-pornography charges, however the folks who downvoted you probably simply feel that your apparent willingness to erode rights such as the 5th Amendment, for any reason, would be a dangerous precedent with potential far-reaching consequences. The phrase "Thin end of the wedge" has been used here and is quite apt. People have seen too many examples of legislation, rights and laws being tampered with and distorted to erode the rights of the public and so are increasingly resistant to any attempt to 'cheat' by the guvmint or associated bodies.
There have been a number of good examples and analogies provided in replies to your posts so I shan't try to improve on them but if you don't understand why people disagree with your views then I can't help you. If nothing else though, the downvotes show that you got people thinking. Feel free to downvote this if you like! :)
If the media is taking notice of random shipments...
I wonder if Samsung has thought of shipping a few random boxes of bricks from China to Apple in the US, labeled "top secret". Might slow down iPad 2 sales during the confusion/speculation...
No jokes required about how all of the boxes from China to Apple contain bricks anyway....
Wonder...
how long it'll be before someone on the prosecution claims that "If he's got nothing to hide, he's got nothing to fear"...
Black and White?
"According to the firm’s Chinese language website, it will be selling black and white versions of the iPhone 4S"
So will the colour version that's on sale in the rest of the world follow later?
"Probes Snickers"
Tee hee. I'm such a child... :)
Interesting...
It'll be interesting to see (if he's extradited) what crimes they'll charge him with. I don't have any opinion as to whether I agree with or disagree with what he enabled folks using his site to do, but I know personally of a couple of guys who got busted a few years ago (equipment seized, etc) for running a very similar high-profile site but they were never charged because no one seemed to be able to figure out where the crime is in hosting HTML pages with a bunch of plain old links.
I presume the laws have been tightened to cover the act of 'facilitating' copyright infringement rather than just the older laws against the act of infringement themselves. Interesting parallels with search engines though - I wonder if tvshack showed up in google listings and - if so - whether the only difference is that O'Dwyer did it wilfully...
Actually, my post was a tongue-in-cheek dig at the tendency of most people on this forum in particular to immediately and mindlessly blame the ills of the world on Apple, rather than about the issue itself. Sorry if you didn't get that - perhaps you're new here.
Foxconn??
Then this must be Apple's fault somehow, surely?
Posted in Mythbusters cannonball ‘myth-fires’
"perhaps with a new born?"
I'm glad someone's thinking of the children!
Posted in Man's phone burns, toasts trouser region
Should keep you warm...
... During the Canadian winter!
I was carved up at a roundabout this morning by a woman in a Mercedes with a 2-digit numberplate. At the time I thought that maybe she should have opted for C1JNT but perhaps her request was rejected by the DVLA...
