Posts by M7S

The Times used to sell for 10p as a promotion

It hasn't improved in line with the price

Sphericals

Next they'll be demanding that broadcast signals carry something to stop people using their own PVRs/DVRs (or whatever the term is this week).

Well if the "deniers" are wrong in thinking that things have been stable for a decade and a bit

Then I'm really looking forward to the "warmists" blaming them for partly relying on figures from the UEA who I seem to recall are not universally regarded as the most impartial parcipants in the debate.

"is Apple thinking of making iPod docks for hogs?"

They've been available on the Honda Goldwing for a while as aftermarket alternatives to the CD changer. Now they're an option from the manufacturer directly.

We've defence in depth to protect much of the rural UK

Rubbish broadband and no mobile signal.

And hopefully nothing of practical interest to our new masters. Let's just hope they never develop a liking for "field sports".

Number Games

I am always suspicious of potential empire building by people who are "sure" that there is under-reporting of occurences/crimes/illegal downloads etc. It may well be true but anything beyond the reported figures would seem to be speculation and often too much emphasis is given to estimated figures of this nature.

One has to give full credit to the (probably now ex-) civil servant who, when asked how many illegal immigrants were in the UK, answered honestly by saying that s/he hadn't a clue.

My word processor used to print using a daisy wheel

but what I'm really after is a golfball printer to connect to my PC. I know it's unoikely due to character limitations but does anyone know of any? Preferably USB or ethernet.

And some reel to reel tapes so I can make my office look like the opening credits of UFO

Congratulations to El Reg

on fitting the flying shark inside the cloaked shed.

Aerodynamics must have been a bitch though.

A love heart?

There's a huge amount of negativity going on here.

Thanks for the history lesson

I never dared look from work. I'd always assumed it was a rude picture that involved on or more goats.

Now I can appear to be more Trenneman than Moss when conversing with my peers.

Will it be available in the UK at a reasonable price

along the lines of the Rasberry Pi?

The apple (tm) never falls far from the tree.

It's appropriate to name this building after SJ. Apple (according to other stories currently on El Reg) ignore everyone else's IP but moan about people allegedly ignoring theirs.

Didn't Pixar get told off a while back over their film featuring a certain desk lamp, having lifted the design from some scandinavian company?

Keeping old tech going

The sheer waste of FM kit would be incredible, if they bring this in then everyone should take all their kit down to the tip at the same time as the neighbours do it, just to hammer home the message. That should get the greenies upset.

Also there are too many vehicles with kit effectively bonded into the dashboard as an anti-theft measure, i.e. not using radios that just fit into a DIN socket. Even some motorcycles have this and I've tried radio rebroadcasters. They're no good in North London where Ofcom dont give a monkeys about pirate stations and other interference. Where I live we get air traffic control on the little radio in the bathroom cutting over radio 4, I complained to Ofcom and they said they only deal with effects on installations with a fixed antenna, so that's all the portables stuffed.

The standard is no longer applicable and should be changed to join the rest of the world and the buying power that gives, espeically for vehicle based OEM kits. Some better sets that would allow scheduled recording and series link would also be nice for a bit of time shifting but I appreciate that's getting off this issue.

Lastly some staff in our office in New York recently lost their homes due to a spot of rain and wind. A couple of them had emergency kits with things like a battery FM radio to receive essential information on and found them helpful. Now technology might improve so that future digital sets don't require so much power but that's a way off yet. We may think that "it wouldn't happen here" but they thought the same. Given future predicted power supply issues, as well as the risk of adverse weather I'd hate for my wind up radio to be no longer of use when I needed it in the cold and the dark.

It might be that Comet's administrators also want this....

....as if they suggest to the staff that they'll only be made redundant after a date by which they'd need to have started working at Dixons, then staff have a dilemma:

-Stay at Comet, get redundancy but any positions at Dixons have likely been filled, so unemployment beckons, or

-Jump to Dixons, forego the redundancy payout (as they've resigned voluntarily), and have a new job with no protection until they've been there a couple of years or whatever the regulations are now.

Of course this is only speculation. I don't know if consultative periods affect things in any way. A canny administrator could save on some payouts which is partly their job after all.

I'm sure there are more cautionary tales such as this

http://bestsciencefictionstories.com/2008/05/22/the-first-men-by-howard-fast/

Does the term "consumer" in all this cover businesses?

If I purchase something for my small company and it doesn't work as advertised, can I go back to my supplier or is this "personal" purchases only?

As '70's DJs are in the news again, and much of this gear comes from that era

how about we revive Noel Edmons and Swap Shop.

Not necessarily, of course, in that order.

Deal or.....

Oh Dear Me, sorry everyone

Why cut out the eye and not decapitate the beast?

There's no point retro-fitting the targetting system is something that's then immobile.

Sensible to mount the laser on a swordfish as when the main power source fails, if you can still direct the fish, you've a backup weapon. Or it can be used for ninja style approaches to take out enemy organic underwater sentries before letting rip with the energy weapons when the alarm is finally raised.

Three strikes law

It's a shame that there isn't something applying to companies like the 3 strikes law (Hadopi?) which IIRC applies to ISP customers in France. That's two shots now, for Apple (assuming the lady wins). One more and the entire company gets disconnected from the Internet for 6 months. That could be a laugh. Certainly it would get them to behave better.

It's like a power I think the UK Information Commissioner should have, if you don't look after data properly or process it within legal boundaries and the terms under which it was obtained from consumer etc, then your registrations is revoked and your computers (assuming it's electronic) or other appropriate filing systems should be confiscated.

Food for thought.

About a decade or so ago in Berkshire, when the memsahib was an eye surgeon working there, there was a spate of lasers being used to dazzle the rozzers in the street from distances of no more than a few hundred metres. They (and some of the public) would frequently come in wanting some kind of treatment but to be frank there isn't any as no damage was done. Yes, lasers are used in eye surgery and do have an effect but you really need to be close up, althought the eye does assist by automatically focussing on the light and cncentrating it on a point of the retina, which in this case does not help. The situation got to the point where all such cases were turned away at the door. Yes, doctors refused to see them. As a considered response having examined the facts. Basically you've been dazzled by a strong light, and just need to rest the eye for a bit. This is the real danger for pilots (also motorists etc), particularly at night where they might be acclimatised to darkness outside the cockpit and dimmed instrumentation inside.

Laser power has undoubtedly increased over time but there are still no documented cases where such idiocy has been the direct cause of ocular trauma. It might distract a pilot so that s/he has an accident which would probably be significant in it's own right but you could acheive the same effect with a decent searchlight.

One question the police would, however, never answer is why it was still acceptable in the circumstances for them to be firing their laser speed devices directly at the front of motor vehicles. Whilst they aim at the number plate, a slight movement of the hand would be enough to place the laser spot on the windscreen/visor of the motorist/motorcyclist. I don't know much about the frequency/visibility of their lasers but if there was dust or some factor in the transparent material that made the beam more visible, would this not be hypocritical? One trusts that greater minds than mine have considered and addressed this issue but I'd appreciate any informed comment in return.

There's still time for them not to have been wrong

and (genuine question) does the date given allow for the change in Western calendars from the Julian to the Gregorian dates, and suchlike? If not we could all be prematurely relieved* a dozen or so days early.

*Stop it.

How far up the food chain will this go?

WIll predators be affected in the same way, i.e. a reduction in size as the size of the food pyramid shrinks? If this is the case, rather than there simply being fewer of them, then those lasers are going to have to be miniarurised further.

On the upside I might finally be able to keep a laser equipped shark in the bath. That should peturb the (white, obligatory colour) cat.

What is this warp 10 of which you speak?

Could we have that translated into UK sci-fi units please? For those of us brought up on the first couple of series of Blake's 7 it would probably need to be "standard by [integer]"

Confirm.

Would this plan make the UK the Hawaii of a United States of Europe?

Rocky Island, off to the left a bit (as you look at the map).

Where would they film our equivalent of Lost?

A question on renewables relating to the UK

I know that this doesn't relate to the article directly. There's mention in comments above about pumped/stored hydro.

If we actually had the drought predicted (sore joke I know at the moment for some) and for which I am at least still subject to hosepipe restrictions as my local water company uses water lower down than the surface, then would our ability to use stored hydro not literally evaporate?