Posts by auburnman
522 posts • joined Thursday 28th July 2011 21:58 GMT
Re: Same article
I thought a few weeks back the news was that this was going to happen. Now that it has happened, it's news again.
Re: Here's a thought...
"Really - care to articulate one"
Theoretical company A has gone into administration with total debts of £10Million. Even split £5M each secured and unsecured. Theoretical administrator B has a potential buyer in theoretical consortium C who are willing to buy the majority of the assets for £8M, totally paying off the secured debt and leaving a good chunk for the unsecured portion if they can pull together the funding to buy.
Into this scenario comes Fatcat D who makes an offer of £5.1M for only the very best assets of the dead company - but he is willing to sign on the bottom line today. This deal will collapse the value of any remaining assets as the best have been stripped off, but it will settle all secured amounts while leaving the unsecured creditors scrapping over change. Both deals have merit, and although C does not currently have the funding it is not unrealistic that they could get it within say a week. Is there anything to stop B taking the immediate, less work option that screws over the unsecured creditors?
Here's a thought...
Isn't Deloitte's status as a preferred creditor a potential conflict of interest? It's not unreasonable to suppose there could be a situation where they are faced with a deal that offers a decent chance of paying off a large number of creditors vs. one with a slightly better chance of being able to pay off the preferred creditors only.
Obviously they do have to have preferred status or no-one would get paid for doing what I'm sure is a hard and skilled job, but are there any oversight safeguards to make sure they don't pull stunts like selling stores to friendly companies at below-market prices?
Re: Further marks down
Her too. Couldn't remember her name.
Further marks down
for dissing Home and Away. Isla Fisher got me through my 'formative years.'
I wonder what punishment...
... she would have received if she had shoplifted three albums?
Re: weird
Couldn't agree more. No-one likes it and mostly everyone thinks it's a sneaky thing to do, but they didn't break any laws so hounding them for legal conduct will only ensure less cooperation in the future. And it's the future we should be looking to by closing these loopholes. In the modern business world, no CEO or CFO REALLY has any choice in the matter - if word got out they were planning to pay millions more in tax than they could legally get away with, they would be booted out and replaced with someone else.
For my money the only long term workable plan is to have a mandatory percentage of tax applied in the jurisdiction of the consumer, before whatever tax haven Amagoog is in this week gets a look in. It's the only way tax revenues will have a hope of rising or falling proportional to the population the taxes are collected to support. The big problems with this are implementing such a shift without violating international agreements, the risk of corporations sneaking on a stealthy price rise when they can blame it on the government, and the risk of smaller businesses suffering from increased complexity/costs.
Re: One tiny little country
Sounds like I'm getting mixed up with some other privacy law. Thanks for the correction, and sorry to the good photographers out there for confusing the issue.
Re: One tiny little country
As I understand it you always have the right to not have photos of you published, unless there is a potential defence that publishing the photos is in the public interest (eg someone caught in the act of committing a crime).
The paparazzi and gutter press operate on a schedule that allows them to publish the photos before anyone can object to them, and once they're out there the damage is done. Celebrities put up with most of it partially because they need the attention of the public to further their career and because they are just as put off by the convoluted rigmarole of legal action as the rest of us.
You do see the odd lawsuit when the buggers go too far to let slide though, and it usually ends up going against the paps/redtops.
Re: Fine
Companies are only allowed a certain number of 'whoopsies' before incurring much more severe penalties. IIRC correctly they can be struck off the Companies House register until they get their house in order (which in turn makes them unable to legally trade under that name) so it's very rarely allowed to get that far by any company with finance bods who even vaguely know what they're doing.
Health insurance
They're currently allowed to set premiums based on your medical history, aren't they? What happens when your records show you have genes associated with a higher risk of cancer/stroke/diabetes/whatever? Will you have the right to withhold that information?
Proposed budget of £2Bn over ten years?
For catching criminals?
If that cash is genuinely available for law enforcement, SPEND IT ON BOBBIES ON THE BEAT ALREADY!
Sorry for shouting.
Posted in Are you ready for the 40-zettabyte year?
If only there were a simple software solution that could reliably tell you how much redundant, out-of-date, massively over-duplicated shite is cluttering up your drives that you could either delete or at least dump into an archive. Wonder how much storage we'd need then?
Posted in McAfee seeks asylum in Guatemala
"16 pages of the Royal Pregnancy in the daily papers, thank god for El Reg."
I upvoted because I reckon your prediction is spot on, although I was tempted to give you a red mark for depressing the shit out of me.
I think the next big thing for TV will be when the Youview box or one of it's competitors gains a proven track record of useability and the price becomes comparable to the up-front for a Sky box.
I'm glad the analog signal is finally off as hopefully this means I will never again have to repeatedly explain to my mum that she already has digital TV and it won't affect her.
Why not? Okay, not full BluRays obviously, but a few years back I had to endure a long bus commute twice a day for about 6 months. The only thing that kept me sane was my PSP. Long after I got bored with the games it continued to prove it's worth as I plowed my way through seasons of spooks, Battlestar Galactica etc which had been compressed down onto the card. I can't see why people wouldn't do the same with their phones now that the screen resolutions and available storage space allow it.
The other thing that makes people stick with removable cards? I can't overstate the convenience of just being able to pull the bloody thing out of the mobile device, whack it into the PC and drag and drop your files like you would any other drive or USB stick vs. Fannying around with proprietary connectors and/or terrible transfer software. Android used to do plug-in drag and drop quite well but they have knackered this a bit in recent updates. I'm sure things will eventually improve, but I'll still stick to a phone that has removable memory just in case.
The related question is, why don't we have proper domestic roaming over here yet?
If this turns out to be a smoke screen, do you think we'll see Mike Lynch turn round and sue the arse off HP for slander a little while down the line? Popcorn at the ready.
Maybe we should use passwords that sound like mildly embarrassing admissions. If my password was "Iamsobloodylonely" (for example) I would hesitate before writing it down or reusing it on multiple logins.
Where's the 'Lightbulb' icon?
Re: Double Fail
To quote the Oatmeal, " If I want to use 'Boobs' as my password that's my own shitty decision and you should just let me roll with it."
There's been a noticeable upwards trend in the visibility and popularity of smaller cheaper 'Indie' titles in recent years too... and with Kickstarter taking off I wouldn't be surprised if smaller cheaper downloadable games are a big part of the future. The only thing that worries me about the Ouya is the limited specs (8GB Internal flash memory and only 1 USB port specifically.) I'm having one just so I can experience the joy of having a Megadrive (emulator) in the living room again.
Re: Healthy?
He's just a shill for the egg-farming/Mobile telephony complex.
Posted in Smear campaign
Your midnight compatriot is obviously pawing at something he desires on the screen. Assuming the office is quiet at nighttime I'm going to presume it's naked ladies. The next obvious inference from there is that he's wanking.
In your chair.
Have fun at work next week!
Re: The pessimist in me
The pessimist in me says Staples will still try to charge for a 3D construct that one of the minimum wage monkeys has clearly put a foot through at some stage of the process. Assuming anyone in the store actually knows how their 3D printer works, which the realist in me says is unlikely based on past experience.
Re: Not helped by rip off unlock fees
You have a few options. The phone helldesks are useless, more interested in getting rid of you than helping you.
1) Try visiting an Orange store and asking for the unlock code, if you're still in a contract with Orange after your upgrade they'll probably not try to charge a fee (don't mention it if they don't!) They're less likely to not give you what you want if potential punters can overhear the kind of service you're getting. Plus a store assistant can't hang up on you if they don't want to talk to you*.
B) Try looking for an independent phone accessories shop in town or in the market. They'll likely charge, but they should do it then and there and you can probably haggle them down to about a tenner.
iii) Google around online a bit and see if you can get an unlock code. I'd pick this as a last resort option, as a fair few sites try to look like free help sites that describe all the steps you need to find your EMEI number etc but ask for money just before they give you a code. Add in the possibility of conflicting, misleading or just plain wrong information out there and you could brick your phone.
*Like they did to me last week. Grrr.
PS if you are still with Orange you'd do well to check your bill. I just discovered they've been massively overcharging me for data.
Re: This one change would be a good deterrant
I don't know if that'd be good idea. Great in principle, but I think a full front page "We are wrong and stupid and here's why" article would be the only thing on this Earth that could make me buy the Daily Mail. Depending on how many people feel the same way, their front page apology punishment could well turn out to be a record seller. Maybe an automatic fine with every retraction?
Posted in Far Cry 3 game review
Re: Do they really play this to review it?
There will likely be strict caveats on the press against publishing their own screenshots. It's probable a PR dept somewhere sends out a number of 'approved' screenshots for reviewers.
Anyone know if Ubisoft are still doing that atrocious 'constant net connection required to play' mince? I fancy getting this for PC, but I'll probably abort to PS3 if they're going to shut me down if my internet breaks.
It's been said above already, but decent phones from the pre-touchscreen era are kept as they are good rugged backups. My one old Android phone sits on my bedside cabinet as my alarm clock which also serves as a mini tablet if I can't sleep or need to look something up/make notes etc in the middle of the night. With no SIM in the card, I can leave it in flight mode and it lasts ages on one charge.
As spare droid handsets get more common I can foresee a growing number of people repurposing them for pet projects like media centres, mobile security cameras etc. Wired already have an article about some boffins who are using one as the brains of a DIY drone.
We might even see Google sponsoring a hacking competition for best re-purposing?
Re: BYOD
I reckon he'd say that's TSOY and apply CPPL (Cattle Prod on Persistent LUser) if you complained.
Re: A year in zero-gravity just to see how it messes you up?
In an ideal world, centrifugal gravity would definitely be worth exploring. Are you volunteering to fund the R&D and construction on the entirely new space station that would require?
Brave lads
Given what we already know about prolonged weightlessness boils down to "it effs you up a fair bit", big props to the men who are volunteering to knacker their bodies in the name of SCIENCE.
Beer 'cos they deserve several.
Top Notch
Would love to see more "I combined my Raspberry Pi and some keyboard hacking to do THIS" type stories on el reg.
Posted in Driverless trucks roam Australian mines
Re: Oh dear...
Hacking? All the joyriding is probably done from the remote control at the Perth facility. It's a good thing they don't have the remote(control) drive at the remote(isolated) site - I doubt it would take long for the few humans out in the middle of nowhere to start playing chicken with the trucks.
It's like lunchtime at the playground
Google and Microsoft have swapped round, it's now Google's turn to be the baddie and Microsoft gets to play the goodie for a change. Highly amusing even if it is lining the pockets of the legal elite and holding back tech development.
Re: version of Godwin's law
Newton's Fourth Law - stop banging on about that bloody Apple.
Ooh. Wouldn't this be sweet if it torpedoed the (latest) outsourcing fad? "We can't send the jobs to Elbonia, we'd have no oversight over their email. They could be up to anything behind our back!"
Just had a thought...
Won't most hotspots mandate manual login so they know that the user has deliberately ticked "I have agreed to the terms and conditions" (and their arse is therefore legally covered?)
I don't think it's fair to say Call of Duty didn't push any boundaries either; When Modern Warfare 4 came out it had the most photorealistic engine seen to date, with a Tom Clancy Russians/terrorists/nukes plot that stayed just on the right side of believability. It was also the first game I remember with a cinematic 'movie' style plot that went as far as two weave the storylines of two different groups together - I can't recall any other game where things were kept fresh by jumping the player between characters.
Unfortunately when it went massive it became something of a victim of it's own momentum; with Treyarch pumping out a COD title every other year that you could describe as not-as-good if you wanted to be very charitable, even the Infinity Ward follow ups weren't quite as good as the first Modern Warfare.
Posted in Sock-wielding movie pirates go to prison
Re: a porn film starring Jo Brand
Thanks for that mental image.
I seem to recall
that Douglas Adam's book The meaning of Liff had a word for gubbins that becomes essential as soon as you turf it out. Can't remember what the word was though.
I thought that was "Games must have a free to play version." Which to my knowledge meant you can sell your game on OUYA if you have a free demo available. I think they're aiming for plenty of content with minimal outlay ASAP to better the OUYA's chances of taking off, not gearing developers toward the freemium model. At least I hope not.
You forgot the inverted commas...
... around "tired and emotional".
Posted in Valve taps testers for Linux Steam
Surely they shouldn't be...
Looking for experienced Linux jockeys? At some point they'll need to see if Steam Linux can be installed by people who can just barely install Linux itself but will just stare blankly at you if you mention the terminals, sudo, man pages etc.
Unless they can't get Steam to run on Linux and are looking for help?[/joke]
People currently grudgingly tolerate ads online (or block them where possible) but the 'normal' state for being online usually implies you are sat somewhere comfy with a nice big screen. People using mobile browsing are going places and doing stuff, and the NFC is probably an important part of that (e.g. buying a travel ticket.) At best the ads will not be seen because the phone is hovering over a tap-to-pay, at worst people will become angry with the brands that get shoved in their face this way.
If the overhaul was done by the same team that did the current version, I'm not surprised it's crap. I wish they'd stop faffing about with the appearance and concentrate on making the underlying structure quick and responsive. I swear most days the waiting for screens to load in the store is like being on dialup.
Obvious to see
That overall we much prefer the pared-back 'violence and shagging' Bonds of Craig and Connery. Although I must admit I'm one of those that grew up in the Moore era - his appeal was that he made it look easy and effortless. You could picture him deactivating a bomb with one hand while unzipping a girl's dress with the spare fingers on the hand holding his Martini. Classic "author-insertion-fantasy-persona" stuff. I can see how he'd annoy those who were used to a 'proper' realistic Bond though.
Been wondering about that myself. Might be worth snagging one as a toy when the price crashes and trying to put a fully functional OS on it like others have suggested.
Troll the stats
I wonder if they keep a top ten list of searched for items through the lens? Might be worth seeing if "Windows XP/7" could be brought to the top of the most popular search list with a little gaming.
Re: They need to be careful here...
I have heard of them before, but what I'd like to see is a site like that being run as an official part of the government, with the appropriate funding and mandatory duties for accuracy and balance that kind of structure could impose. Not that I'm dissing the folks behind theyworkforyou, mind, I just think this sort of thing should have guaranteed funding rather than being a charity. It would allow them to 'advertise' the website detailing MP's actions when the voting bumf gets sent out too.
They need to be careful here...
Releasing all the data could just as easily have bad consequences as good consequences. Taking the cancer survival rates for different practices as an example, people will naturally want a simple story of 'poor rate bad, good rate good' and infer that from the information released. Suppose the place with the 'bad' rate is actually a world leading cancer clinic which has a bad rating because they have a high proportion of low-probability survivors coming from all over the country? I'm all for this, but I think there will be rocky times ahead before people/the press learn how to handle the data deluge.
What I would like is a single website that lists all councillors and MPs across the UK alongside their election promises and whether those promises were kept, what they voted for against in bills etc. maintained by the Office for National Statistics.
