Posts by Esskay
500 posts • joined Tuesday 9th August 2011 10:52 GMT
Not convinced.
Whilst I can see that Microsoft is losing it's grip on the "computing" market as a whole, surely a lot of that is down to the decline in popularity of the desktop PC - not so much that people are switching their desktops away from Windows? (although OSX has undoubtedly taken a chunk of the desktop market in the last few years). I agree that Microsoft needs to move away from relying on desktops to survive in the future, but there's no doubt that in the sit-down-at-a-desk market (ie desktops, laptops, etc) they're still most definately winning.
Not only that, but I'd wager (on gut feel) that many of the people going out and buying Tablets already have a PC in the house - and quite often one that runs windows. Whilst they may not be going out and upgrading it as quickly as they would without the tablet market, I'd have to say that Microsoft isn't in as much trouble as Goldman Sachs would like to indicate - I wonder how many GS analysts are short selling MS stocks as we speak...
Lastly, I find it hard to believe that Blackberry's new OS launch & Windows Phone 8 moving out into the market will have no impact in the overall market - whilst I'll be using neither, I'm sure there will be many businesses out there will old fogeys up top in management who will leap at the chance, and plenty of more budget smartphone owners looking for something different - and the suggestion that Apple's market share will continue to grow I also find hard to believe - I honestly think they've had their time at the top, they're reached a point in market share where they're no longer the "cool, quirky" company that hipster-geeks want to be seen with, and people will start to look for something "different" (ie something without an Apple logo). Not to mention the post-Jobs issues Apple seem to be struggling with.
"More western technologies to corrupt their ways of living"
After everything else we've given them -
Weapons, disease, torture, brutal dictatorships, apartheid, colonisation, enslavement, segregation - you're complaining about giving them *this*?
So it is not suitable for...anyone else who wants to jump into the car and drive off immediately.
Perfect for the French then...
Although hydralastic had no body roll (due to the bags being linked front-to-rear), there was still a bit of dive and squat under acceleration and braking (due to the bags *not* being linked left-to-right) - Although obviously this wasn't too much of an issue in a standard, drum-braked, 998cc mini...
On the other hand, as already mentioned, this did mean that bumps were absorbed beautifully (compression at the front over a bump resulted in expansion at the rear, keeping the car level and not bouncing all over the place).
Re: I took the opportunity
Sounds like a beast! We've an engine builder here in Sydney who built a Clubby with a 1401 and a single SU* - built the engine about 20 years ago, only starts it up to drive it to dyno pulls and car shows - a few months ago managed 87 hp at the wheels... amazing what people can pull out of these engines.
Sadly Jack Knight gearboxes are horrendously pricey to get out to Australia, let alone the initial outlay...I think I've been born in the wrong country.
*Modified of course - but won't tell anyone what he's done ;)
I took the opportunity
to drive my '64 mini to work today - was converted to coilovers by the previous owner (horrendous, the whole car jumped over cats eyes, let alone any real bumps), converted back to "dry" rubber cones by me. Nothing comes close to the feeling of driving the mini - thanks to Alex Moulton. Without the slightly stiff, slightly bouncy cones, I doubt the mini would be anywhere near as characterful - either to look at, or to drive. And in what other car can you get height adjustable suspension for less than 100 pounds?* It's the sort of thing the yoof of today would die for...
Whilst hydrolastic gives a better ride, the simplicity of the dry rubber cones is unparallelled- and I've yet to see a more compact suspension system developed that provided both the ride and load carrying ability of the progressive Moulton rubber cone.
I'm now saving up for a Moulton bike - one of the few bikes I can actually get in the mini :)
RIP Alex Moulton; the world has one less genius in its ranks.
*referring to hi-lo's, of course - not only a way to make the car sit nice and low (or high for some off-road) but a great solution to possibly the only shortcoming of rubber cones - sag. And you gain/lose height *without* affecting spring rate - brilliant.
Better reception?
Finally a reason to *want* the white van to sit 5cm off your bumper.
Youtube without the offensive bits...
Really, what's the point?
Not that big of a deal?
Surely the iPhone user's fixie would break down before they got that far into the park?
Well thank fuck someone cleared that up
I can finally get on with my life - after all, this air traffic won't control itself
In other news...
The entire US congress has voted against giving free ice cream to Terrorists. Next week they'll be voting on whether Kim Il Jung should be invited to Obama's birthday party, and then they'll decide whether Iran should be allowed to wipe out Israel.
Because nothing drums up fear like having a vote on a ficticious issue.
Posted in China plans astro-farms on Mars
"China plans astro-farms on mars"
Makes sense to me - once people start building homes on Mars they'll obviously need astro-turf for their yards.
Re: Yes, but...
Whilst physical speed is nice for us impatient humans here on earth, when you're beaming delayed instructions across the solar system you don't want to suddenly have an "oh shit" moment as the rover rockets towards the martian equivalent of a tree or lamppost (probably a rock, lets be honest) at many mph. Also, the rover is effectively a laboratory on wheels - try analysing samples for signs of life whilst rocketing over sand dunes in the back of a van and it'll probably be a bit tough for us as well :)
As for the antiquated electronics, keep in mind the types of conditions that the chips have to put up with - they're being blasted into space, subjected to massive G's, heat, extreme cold, levels of radiation that even Lewis Page would admit are "a bit high" and after 6 months of being dormant, suddenly wake up and orchestrate a perfect sky puppet landing without munting into the martian surface. *Then* it has to actually start doing things, whilst still being subjected to radiation, cold, heat, etc and whilst not using too much power. And it needs to be able to deal with the situation as well as it possibly can should any errors pop up, or damage occur.
Overall, one of the most time consuming aspects is getting information back/sending instructions to the rover, so if it takes an extra few hours to get somewhere, or an extra few minutes to process information, it's really Not That Big Of A Deal (tm). As long as they don't try and run Crysis at the same as it tries to lick the dirt, it'll do the job.
Re: "...and not have to worry about an unproven design as a side benefit."
So NASA will become the spacefaring equivalent of SAAB.
Because I didn't have enough instant messaging services....
This sounds a lot like whatsApp, or a multitude of other services already in existence. Except obviously this one has the misery and shadiness of "Facebook" all over it.
Re: Appl$
^Not bad! Presumably you're referencing the city of Dum Dum, in Kolkata, India - unfortunately, that's actually a place! Not a currency! (FYI the currency is the Indian Rupee, which doesn't really work - "Rupeedroid" - see?)
Good effort though, keep trying!
Re: Hysteria from el Reg, who would have thunk it
Inductive coupling being out of patent means not only that anyone can use it, but that it can't be patented again y someone else (or even the same person). Thus whether or not it's out of patent is irrelevant to the article - the fact that it exists (and has existed for over 100 years) is enough. At it's core, I believe the "implementation" of inductive charging is more or less the same across the board - there isn't a set of "Apple Physics" (tm) that work better than "Standard Physics" (tm) - Their method of coupling/blocking devices may be their own, but that's not the issue with this patent application. If you're referring to the ability to transfer power from a device to another (instead of a charger to a device) they might be on to something - but whether that's patentable (or is just an extension of the use of the original patent) is debatable.
As for "a particular method of wireless charging to power a set of peripherals", I believe that's pretty well covered by the standards that already exist, which cover various methods and materials being used - simply because Apple's patent is slightly more specific in describing the devices doesn't mean it's covering new ground.
Re: Appl$
How about ¢rapple?
But, given their profit margin, the dollar sign would still be more appropriate...
Re: Healthy?
Yeah, I know what you mean! Although it could be worse - with all these visible light radiation emitting devices and contraptions in out pockets, attached to our ceilings, on the front of our cars - imagine how horrid it would be to have them all hitting our bodies as we walk around! It's a good job our eyes can't see all of those -
Hang on....
Posted in John McAfee 'captured'
not only that...
I'm no longer afraid to open the cardboard box sitting in the backyard...
Posted in John McAfee 'captured'
"requiring study of Bear Grylls' oeuvre"
You mean quaffing a few pints of your own urine before jumping in a helicopter and buggering off to a 5 star hotel?
In other news
Analysts are predicting that it is extremely likely that the sun will rise again tomorrow. Citing "people familiar with the matter", Bloomberg analysts have said that "looking at historical trends, and the waning interest the world currently has in being nighttime, we're predicting that very soon the sun will indeed rise again."
While World+Dog could come up with a "what will the sun do tomorrow" prediction, Bloomberg goes so far as to predict the direction in which it will rise. "In the East. Probably. However we can't rule out the possibility that the reveal will happen in the West." There was also some rather far-fetched speculation that the reveal would be a joint evet in conjunction with the moon, but that has been dismissed."It'll definately be a standalone event".
The sunrise hasn't been without some drama however, with early reports of low yields threatening to delay the rise.
"Our sources say that although there were rumours of some early production problems with sunlight, these will almost certainly be ironed out by around 7am, and things will get very bright very quickly from that point on."
"a core of people who are truly concerned"
I can only hope that NASA is maintaining a database of these people, and that when it comes time to ship people off to mars en masse, these are the first to get blasted off.
To somewhere else.
To be expected?
I'm not exactly sure what they were expecting when they came out and told everyone that they had amazing news from mars - I'm fairly certain "big news from mars" = "signs of life" for pretty much every mainstream media outlet; these (media outlets) are people who make a living out of jumping to conclusions so I don't know why this would be any different.
Re: Oh Dear. Another target for the Virus writers to go after
I'm sure there are plenty of politicians and CEOs who would find an "instant scramble" feature *very* appealing...
Posted in America planned to NUKE THE MOON
The moon's environment?!
I would have thought a massive rocket moving in a not-so-dissimilar-to-an-ICBM trajectory would cause somewhat unwanted disturbance to the political environment here on earth too...
Re: DigiTimes, seriously?
ummm...
http://allthingsd.com/20111216/digitimes-is-a-mini-ipad-on-the-way/
Everything is relative
Meanwhile, a colony of bacteria have come into contact with a group of higher organsims for the first time in 2,800 years who have somehow managed to survive in an extremely toxic atmoshere composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen, whilst simultaneously managing to endure boiling hot temeratures as high as 45 degrees celcius.
With all those lights and eco tech
fanbois really will be able to claim that the sun shines out of Job's ring.
Re: I wonder...
Also features a room with a big poster of Forstall, where staff can line up and yell and scream at the man for 2 minutes each day for deviating from the True Path (tm) and causing all of Apple's woes.
Possible explanation
Sandy Island is where Google's headquarters are located for tax purposes....
Fairly obvious
The mere fact that politicians are stumbling over each other in a mad rush to say "WE MADE A MISTAKE! WE SCREWED UP! WE'RE IDIOTS!" should be warning enough that something much more deadly than loss of the public's trust is standing in the shadows - the RIAA's purse-closers.
Re: Eh?
They just switch the tubes into reverse and suck the information back out with a vacuum cleaner.
(Sadly, I imagine if someone told them this we'd end up funding a study into which vacuum attachment is most suitable).
Whilst I love the idea
Having a giant statue that appears to have been made as inoffensive as humanly possible in order to cater to the types of prudes to whom this type of awareness is targeting seems to be a bit pointless.
A more life-like figure with a straining expression and a good book in its hands would be much more appropriate.
He's lucky he's with the Taliban, not Wikileaks
Otherwise the US would have him in prison by next tuesday.
Aliens was wrong
Weyland was an underachiever.
It'll be Musk Industries that do mental things in space.
Seriously, this guy has got incredible vision - and the drive to actually do things. Makes Donald Trump look like a busker.
Explains the existence of this guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXNppLFxeXY&feature=plcp
Re: I was waiting for it to tie itself in a knot.
only when they get completely legless.
No they're not.
They belong to Apple.
My god
What a pleasure this man must be to have at a party.
It's like ordering a beer and complaining that part of the glass is taken up by the head. The difference of course is that such a complaint is usually rewarded with a perfectly justifiable punch in the face.
What to do with all the leftovers (ie lawyers)
Perhaps someone could create a petition for a soylent solution to world hunger?
Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Posted in Samsung readies bendy smarties for 2013
I imagine
It'll be a design feature - a very slight curve in the screen, possibly as another stylistic point of difference to the fruity firm. Alternatively a grid of apps that really did curve around the edge of the phone would look pretty cool (if completely pointless).
It's uses as a "foldable" screen are dependent on the minimum curve radius that the screen can handle.
Alternatively
Their attitude might be "how much fucking worse can it get?" If you've still got stock after this long you might as well hold on and hope... Of course the intelligent thing to do would be to get out while they're still worth something - but these are Facebook investors we're talking about...
Re: Divorce
Can't wait to see Google+ respond to this with "Google Relationship Analytics" - number of partners, amount of sexual intercourse with each one, average length of relationship, country of origin... All laid out in cute pie and line graphs.
(Although the "Audience Retention" graph might be somewhat depressing for some...)
They might be his books...
But they're Apple's books "on a mobile device".
It's part of their new range, soon to include:
A Tale of Two Cities On A Mobile Device
Pride, A Mobile Device & Predjudice
2001: On A Mobile Device
Re: Is this the Daily Mail or something?
"Airing dirty laundry in public is a big no no."
And I imagine publicly accusing people of "stealing" when they've paid legitimately will be seen as being massively more offensive in Japan than in the west - the sort of thing that a few dollars won't necessarily fix.
There's no question that Enfour have royally fucked themselves here. Letting a few people get away with it if it means no innocent people are caught in the net is *much* better from a PR point of view than getting all the guilty ones plus a few innocents - surely rule #1 is make sure you know people are guilty before taking the law into your own hands? the libel lawsuits will be coming thick and fast I imagine. No doubt there will be protest piracy as a result as well.
omnishambles [ˈɒmniʃamb(ə)lz]
noun [singular]
(UK, chiefly politics)
A situation that is bad or mismanaged in every way.
eg. Between the car accident, the food poisoning and the lost keys, the holiday was an omnishambles.
Synonyms:
-clusterfuck
-debacle
-fiasco
Re: Given Toyota's previous experience with failing brake systems in the USA ...
@Jaitch:
Whilst the wilds of the Ontario wastelands must be beyond the comprehension of us mere driving mortals, and requires the insight and knowledge of a True Driving God (tm), I believe the system being tested by Toyota is directed at urban environments (ie. not traversing a frozen lake in a truck whilst hauling half the forest next to an active volcano during a hurricane). Presumably for situations where you feel the need to traverse a ravine whilst being chased by bloodthirsty indigenous tribes and giving yourself a tattoo, Toyota will provide the option to turn the Pre-Collision system "off".
Also FWIW pretty much every manufacturer has had recalls dealing with an issue that could cause an accident - I detailed the issue Toyota has had with ABS (and it's had no other major recalls "in the millions" in the period from 2009-now involving inability to brake, or failing brakes, so not sure what you're referring to?). I'll take a Toyota over an American SUV any day - at least I won't have to worry about the car flipping out of control on the highway Ford Explorer-style, airbags in my Jeep going off, Sticking throttle in the Ford Escape, engine fire in the Ford Escape, the list goes on... If a recall is an indication that a manufacturer should stop doing something, perhaps the US should stop making cars altogether?
"[a] citizen from Athens... would be among the...most intellectually alive of our colleagues..."
...until a moment or two later, when he or she would presumably walk out in front of a moving bus.
How we measure "intellect" changes over the years - we're probably less intelligent in some areas, but have adapted to value skills that are more suited to the environment in which we live. Like bus avoidance.
I've often wondered how it would be to try the reverse hypothetical - to be plonked back in the ancient greeks time. And tell them about atoms, molecules, penicillin, internal combustion, etc... much of our knowledge has built on what the best and brightest have discovered over 1000's of years - whilst as individuals we may not have the same capacity as ancient greeks, we instead have the communication ability to work together with our neighbors and share advancements without instantly trying to kill each other (most of the time).
couple of ideas
-Bring back the Steve Jobs icon - but turn it horizontal, and make it appear as though it's rotating.
-A patent lawyer hanging from a noose.
-With Windows 8 and WP8 hitting the scene like mr creosote doing a bellyflop, how about a Ballmer icon? To express general loud noises mentalness (maybe replace the megaphone with him).
-a "here's an idea..." icon would be nice - maybe a lightbulb, Einstein, etc
-I rarely use the ROTM/foster parents icon, but that's mainly due to an unfortunate lack of stories that require it, rather than an innate dislike of it.
I'll admit I'm not as experienced as I'd like to be
But surely there are better things to hold in your hands during sex than a phone? Unless you're a fanboi, in which case I imagine the phone is an integral part of the experience...
