Re: Trying hard not to upgrade my 4S

To quote Fry from Futurama

"Shut up and take my money!"

Re: Hide your stash!

With no bacon he lost the will to live

Re: Idea

"Instead of feeding cereals to pigs which then get slaughtered and eaten, why don't we just eat the food we grow directly? Would make sense in a world of 7 billion people and rising."

Bacon is concentrated cereal with extra flavor

Re: I do not like green (eggs and) ham.

"Six ingredients - two slices of bread, four slabs of bacon."

Wrong. Six slices of bacon

Re: AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!

Crowds of zombie like people eating police officers to stave off the withdrawal symptoms

Re: iPhone owners don't have the time to care...

"Not being able to replace the battery gives you better security? Are you sure?"

Yeah, nobody can steal your battery

Welcome to the United States of Apple

Re: The iPhone event horizon?

It was a iRan

Re: It's time the pirates bought a clue

"Copyright holders are not the problem, pirates are the problem and they will be punished accordingly. Hating copyright holders is wasted energy and foolish as most folks understand the need for copyright laws. Ignorance is not the answer and never a good legal defense."

What if I want something old? What if I want something not released in my country? What if I want to use it in a MP3 or MP4 player?

The copyright holders are the problem as they refuse to follow the customer wants and while they control the laws they will never change. The only hope the consumer has is wholesale ignoring of the "laws" convinces the copyright holders to change their ways.

Me personally, I wouldn't care to own any content if I could stream what I want, when I want. Now look at Doctor Who. The new series plays in the UK Saturday night. As soon as it finishes, it plays in Australia and can be streamed from the ABC website. Have I pirated a copy of it? No. I've already seen it so why bother.

Piracy solved and at no cost to me.

Commercial stations could be doing exactly the same thing but no they won't. Their licencing agreements and fear of technology won't let them. If the moron had half a brain, they'd work with Google to provide localised advertisments integrated that same a commercial TV does now and stream it on demand. They could then have a premium licencing where users can pay a yearly fee and remove the ads. Piracy dead overnight. Until then screw the copyright holders and their lawyers.

Re: Has reducing piracy increased sales?

"My question is: Has this reduction in piracy resulted in a corresponding increase in legitimate sales?"

The answer is no, infact stopping piracy has resulted in a drop in legit sales.

France has brought in a three strikes rule which has seen a drop in piracy and a subsequent drop in sales

Re: No shit

"Most of them aren't customers and don't want to be. They just want free content."

You can still make money from free content. Ok maybe not the $50 the bastards charge for a DVD but still plenty.

Re: let them reap what they sow

Those who live by the patent troll die by the patent troll

Re: The UK poverty line...

"It's always amusing to read of cable thieves. I've never been affected by one. I think it has to do with the poor. You've got to be pretty poor to steal cable."

Ummm no

Copper thieves are a problem everywhere. The poor nick small amounts and the better off use trucks and winches and nick a heap more.

Re: All I can think of is Idiocracy..

"I'd like the people in charge of health to be trained professionals, not a desktop support bod"

What people in charge? There will be a button on the machine that will put a call through to a tech support line in India.

Re: Retina Display?

"They will call it the iEye, (cap'in)"

Actually it's called Eye-fi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HQAsTBQVis

Re: @silverburn

"@AC 12:50 Perhpaps. But if something is not available in a format I want, you know what I do? Don't consume. I don't agree to a license, but it and then moan after the fact."

Or be like the other 90% of the population and just pirate it

Re: Fine and dandy until Big Pharma buys in and suddenly everything needs the latest drugs.

Yes but the big pharma has already bought a lot of flesh and blood doctors. Diagnose a kid as ADHA and proscribe Ritalin and get a free holiday.

Robot doctors will however be good at getting rid of time wasters. Give them their placebos and shove them back out the door.

Re: Upgrades

"Kryten will be pleased - human eyes just have the zoom (moving your head closer to the object)"

Nipple twisting tuning is next

Re: The point isn't the money..

"Its keeping them from pulling these collusion deals in the future. So even if we won't be getting hardly any money back this is still good, because now they will have to compete again instead of just signing backroom deals."

No it won't. They'll collude without talking to each other kinda like the banks do now. One ups their price and everyone else does too.

Re: There is absolutely no need to storm the embassy..

Personally I'd get MI6 to anonymously donate a heap of Ecuadorian secrets to Wikileaks and see if Julian publishes them. Now that would be the funnist way to see him get booted out.

Re: Surprise, controversial article from Orlowski

"Then there's the sick position of patents on medication, where people literally die because they can't afford to pay the steep price of medication"

At least medication patents require research which implies the companies have actually done the work to deserve the patent. The problem here is BS patents coving the bloody obvious (at least to the rest of us)

Why spend millions on researching a new drug when you can patent using two fingers on a touch screen and make more money?

My issues against medical patents is where they get patents on discoveries for instance genes which cause diseases. They use the patent to prevent research for a cure unless huge licencing fee are paid and they get a huge cut if a cure is found.

"Personally I rather like the idea of the rover trundling over the Martian surface with "Ride of the Valkyries" blasting out."

A nuclear powered, deathray wielding robot pumping out "Ride of the Valkyries".

Awesome!

(Plan B is Star Trekking. Less awesome but more funny)

Re: @ Fading

"Do Bears shit in front of the tree, or behind?"

Bears shit where ever they like and then eat the hiker with the camera

Re: cheap and relatively easy

"You do not have to be rich or powerful to get a patent approved. Patent filing does take a little paperwork but mostly that consists of describing your invention in detail. It is cheap to file, less cheap if you use a lawyer's assistance but still no barier to getting a patent. Actually getting the patent takes a while because of the backlog but everyone (corps and natural persons) are in the same queues."

Cheap? When are patents cheap? I have a couple and it's non stop filing fees for every damn country and you have to keep paying else you lose the patent and every cent you spent so far. Patents are anything but cheap.

"Don't be an ass. WYSIWYG has been around for decades and is not exclusive or magically brought to us by the wonders of OSX/iOS."

Slide bolts have been around for thousands of years yet Apple still have it patented. You have an existing idea and an existing device and you simply patent the idea of putting the two together

Re: patents = profits

"But if you are a "man/woman in a garage" type inventor who wants to build a business from a good idea then the patent system is the way to protect your idea. If you don't protect it then a huge company will just copy you and you'll end up bust before you've even started."

Patents don't stop people from stealing your ideas. They are nothing but a blunt club. You still have to have the financial muscle to swing the club and the more financial muscle you have the harder you can hit. If you don't have the money, you can't defend your patent.

Garage inventors usually have all their money in their invention so don't have the financial muscle to defend themselves from thieves or trolls and usually have to sell their soul to an investor/s if a court challange happens.

The way to fix patents is to make them harder to get and easier to defend. Apple is famous for it's BS patents such as "Slide to unlock", "rectangle with rounded corners" and "two or more fingers on a touch screen". The problem is now everyone is making BS patents to troll everyone else. The only defence is to have your own BS to troll the troll (which doesn't work for true patent trolls cause they make nothing)

Nobody wants true patents because that takes time and money in research when a simple broad concept is harder to get around and requires no research

"While that's a lovely idea, I fear there might be a substantial amount of prior art..."

Prior art never stopped Apple

Re: Note to copyright holders

5am is all wonderful for diehards but people who sleep in will still torrent it so they can watch it when it suits

Re: So they are livestock farmers?

"Ants are the real rulers of the planet."

They will be when the radios are upgraded to lasers

Re: WTF!?

Nobody seriously thinks cars will be driven by mobiles. It's useful enough as a portable computer for prototyping but you don't want angry birds taking control of your car and running over some pigs...

"Or even better. Will drive you home after a heavy session down the boozer, stopping off on the Kebab shop on the way home to pick up the Doner with chilli sauce it pre-ordered based on your preferences."

Bugger waiting for the kebab. The car will pick it up on the way to collect you

Re: "Sharing of cars would make things so much easier and modernized."

Realistically it's not going to make much difference to the number of cars and in fact may actually increase the number because people who currently cannot drive will be able to use a self drive vehicle.

Husband has his car. Wife has her car and a third car picks up and drops the kids at school / sport / swimming / grandma's house.

Where self drive will make a difference is cars will be able to drive faster, closer and safer than a human driver so the same roads will be able to carry more vehicles. Parking issues will also be solved as the vehicle can come and pick you up.

A lot of these vehicles refuling won't be an issue as they can be completely electric. After the vehicle drops you at work, it returns home and plugs itself back in for recharging.

Re: Full Bhutt Jolokia

"Oh and even if you wash your hands several time thoroughly, be careful when you go for a pee."

Wear gloves. No amount of washing is enough. Been there done that.

Re: "Apple must..."

Yes but mentioning Apple makes the story more news worthy

Re: Anders Breivik

"The justice system in Norway is generally aimed more at rehabilitation than punishment for punishment's sake, as I understand it. Interestingly enough, the reoffending rate in Norway is around 20%, compared to around 50% in the UK or around 60% in the USA. Now I'm not suggesting that there is a direct correlation between having nice prisons and not reoffending - there are many other factors involved - but still, makes you think."

He can be rehabilitated? The guy is a whackjob to the Nth degree. They should have sacked the police who arrested him for not accidently shooting him while trying to escape. He surrended just so he could stand up in front of the press and preach his message.

Re: "very serious charges"?

"I find it even stranger that people would call Assange a "douche", while blatantly ignoring the US military atrocities and government corruption this "douche" exposed to the world."

Assange is a douche bag but in the role he plays, a douche bag is perfect. His arrogance is perfect as he won't bend to threats or bullying and he will publish what he gets and doesn't edit it to make third parties look better.

If Wikileaks folded due to American/corperate pressure the stuff will never get published. As far as Assange is concerned, publishing this stuff is his God given right and no damn government will stop him. He thinks he's smarter than them and enjoys the publicity. It's just a game to him and he's winning.

Trouble is the US government is dumb. The only way to beat him is to ignore him. Drop the charges and pretend he doesn't exist. That will hurt his ego far more than martyring him.