back to article The Register's Top 20 Most-Commented Stories in 2016

Brexit and Windows 10 stories dominated reader discussions in 2016. It’s no surprise that the departure from the European Union of its second biggest economy should be a major talking point. It was the biggest political shock in the UK since 1945, few UK readers are unaffected, and it most likely terminates a political project …

  1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    To sum it all up

    In 2016

    We hated Windows 10 even more vocally, voted in two earth shattering polls. Well we voted with either [delete as appropriate] good , bad or F**k me results and finally mourned the untimely death amongst one of the good guys on the El Reg staff.

    Now what can we look forward to in 2017?

    The Cutting of the first sod in 'that wall'?

    HS2 Abandonded

    All Broadband Electrification projects stopped

    Heathrow Runway 3 delayed to 2050

    Inflation at 5%

    Southern Guards still in dispute this time next year.

    and not forgetting

    Article 50 triggered and the EU getting really uppity with Teresa May and BoJo.

    Merkel voted out of office and Le Pen winning in France.

    Some good, some bad then. You choose which.

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: To sum it all up

      Now what can we look forward to in 2017?

      2017:Lots of companies moving to "the cloud"

      2018: Lots of companies realizing why they moved off the cloud in the 1970s

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To sum it all up

      HS2, HR3, (and their satanic cousin, Hinkley Point C) are all infrastructure projects with big implications.

      Whilst I don't support any of them, they are going ahead regardless (and will do so, whoever wins the next general election). Of course, with more than a few Remainers in the Tory party, their realistic majority is wafer thin, so you might want to add a "UK general election" prediction to your list.

      How that will ACTUALLY turn out I can't say, other than to suggest that betting against the opinion polls is probably wise.

    3. phuzz Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: To sum it all up

      Charlie Stross has an interesting set of predictions for the start of next year, which will make you really, really hope he's wrong.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: To sum it all up

        Errrr France isn't a full member of NATO/OTAN. DeGaulle made sure of that.

        Otherwise Stross has only a few days to go before the first one of his predictions comes true or falls flat on its face.

        The next few years will be tough that is for soure.

        1. H in The Hague
          Pint

          Re: To sum it all up

          "Errrr France isn't a full member of NATO/OTAN. DeGaulle made sure of that."

          As far as I'm aware, France joined NATO as a full member when the organisation was founded in 1949. In 1966 De Gaulle withdrew the country from the integrated military structure but remaining a member of the political side of things. In the 1990s France became more involved in NATO again and has participated fully in the organisation since 2009.

          Source: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm?selectedLocale=en

          Here's a pint to welcome the new year.

      2. Dr Stephen Jones

        Re: To sum it all up

        Expected more effort from Charlie. It's what you'd expect to hear from mates in the pub and he runs out of gags by April. Houllebecq's Soumission is as plausible and if possible even more scary.

      3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: To sum it all up

        "which will make you really, really hope he's wrong."

        His prediction of a King George IX shows he's got a poor grasp of either C20th history or Roman numerals - or maybe both.

    4. TVU Silver badge

      Re: To sum it all up

      "Now what can we look forward to in 2017?"

      My 2017 prediction is this: Oracle's Larry will instigate yet another pointless and vexatious lawsuit (plural).

    5. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Inflation at 5%

      Looks like it's jumped a bit in the last 12 months but 5%?!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Inflation at 5%

        Is there a pool or any predictions on when the country's surfing habits -courtesy of the Snooper's Charter- gets published on Pastebin? I'll have a guess at August.

        Or sold to Google, of course, but it'll take a while for us to find out about that, probably.

    6. macjules
      Devil

      Re: To sum it all up

      One thing would help me this year: IoT to be subject to stringent web security checks to prevent 'clusterfucking' (large scale DDOS) attacks, as we saw in 2016.

      As Dabbsy wrote, "IoT simply can’t possibly go mainstream until cross-platform interconnectivity, data security and air noise issues are solved – and so far, no IoT product manufacturer seems remotely interested in doing anything about them."

      1. Mark 85

        Re: To sum it all up

        As Dabbsy wrote, "

        Speaking of Dabbsy.. where the hell is he? Last article was at the end of November and since then.... zilch.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    I'd love to see a top 20...

    Of most up/downvoted forum users...

    1. fruitoftheloon
      Pint

      @malle-herbert Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

      m-h,

      indeed, funnily enough re the Brexit 'debate' (stop sniggering at the back), I am still surprised how quickly I found many fellow commentards making enormous (and erroneous) assumptions about WHY I voted the way I did.

      All the more so as I tried to debate the points concerned from one or more viewpoints.

      I thought it was quite amazing re the ratios of +/- to each post made.

      Btw have one on me...

      Cheers,

      Jay

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @malle-herbert I'd love to see a top 20...

        Oddly, I couldn't find any post from you whatsoever where you made any attempt at all to explain why you voted Leave.

        Just that you werent racist or wanting Johnny Foreigner out.

        There is an implication that you don't approve of any mutually-agreed standards. Very odd position to take.

        If you did make such a post, would you be so kind as to direct interested parties towards it?

        1. fruitoftheloon
          Happy

          @AC: Re: @malle-herbert I'd love to see a top 20...

          AC,

          thanks for your input, not too sure what you mean re approval of mutually-agreed standards (if it's about useless kettles/toasters/hoovers, then I don't)

          I am not sure how to put links here to specific posts, some I have found:

          Paper mountain, hidden Brexit: How'd you say immigration control would work?

          4 months

          fruitoftheloon

          Silver badge

          FAIL

          Reply Icon

          @Richard: Re: @Charlie @AC 20-23 pages for EU citizens

          Richard,

          THE thrust, there weren't any other points at all?

          Do you genuinely think that most folk who voted exit did it because of the fairly shite campaign of the out crowd?

          Can you remind me of the POSITIVE elements of the remain pitch for why we shouldn't leave, because I sure as fk can't remember any....

          Over to you boyo!

          _________

          Doctor Syntax: Re: @Loyal Commenter: Parliamentary negligence

          Ds,

          I haven't told you anything, what I sought to do was to share my (I thought reasonable) opinions about the shenanigans so far...

          I doubt anyone who voted was 'sold a pup' by their fave group, i.e. in or out, I thought the BS quotient was quite high on both sides, of course the remain bunch had the in-built advantage of being able to guarantee the world would end if we didn't obey their sage thoughts, and for good measure they also thought it prudent to blackmail us in adavance lest we have our an opinion that differed from theirs!

          Re Mr. Gove MP being on the sidelines, I agree with you completely, may I suggest you point out the PM's error next time you are sharing a glass at Chequers, undoubtedly she will amend her omission sharpish.

          Cheers,

          Jay

          __________

          @Loyal Commenter: Re: Parliamentary negligence

          Lc,

          Will you please calm down a bit, take a few long, slow breaths eh?

          If I may correct some elements of your post and make a few pertinent observations:

          - we don't know what is going to happen yet re 'our rights'

          - you do realise that some of our brethren did work in Europe/marry foreigners/study in Europe before we joined the Common Market?

          - err, we aren't having a recession, would you be happier if we did?

          - the referendum may even have positive results, such as Heads of State pointing out that the EU fiddles with stuff that should not be its' concern (light bulbs, hoovers, now maybe kettles & toasters too),

          - The commission may finally figure out that the Euro isn't working out for many countries (that don't speak German), so perhaps they should think about changing course (don't laugh, it'll happen at some point)

          - the World Bank recently acknowledged that sacrificing Greece to save the Euro probably wasn't their finest hours (not a typo)

          - Mr Gove can't really have much involvement with 'making it happen', due to being not quite as clever as he thought he was, plus he's no longer a Minister of State

          - as to the 'if you voted Exit, you must be a thick, racist eejit', err f-off matey, you are painting with a very broad brush, ironically showing YOUR prejudices

          - I have no doubt some folk assumed that an 'exit' would mean foreigners should offski sooner rather than later, I believe such views to be fundamentally wrong, childish, stupid, inconsiderate and very UN-BRITISH

          Has it occured to you that many people who voted to leave the EU (not Europe) may have many reasons NOT related to EU citizens living here and immigration in general to vote as they did?

          Ooi I can get by in French and German, my wife is pretty good at Italian and Spanish, we had our recent honeymoon in Paris, I love French wine & food, German beer & wine. We have three cars, two built in Germany, one in Austria (with German oily bits). We hope to retire somewhere in Italy or southern France.

          Hopefully that gets the point across that we ARE NOT ANTI EUROPE.

          Europe is great, the EU ISN'T!

          Cheers,

          Jay

          _________________________

          Dr. Paul, Re: Parliamentary negligence

          Dr. Paul,

          I didn't miss that at all.

          Also one has a pretty good knowledge of stats and associated mathematics, with a general leaning in the direction of risk and probability.

          As to the voted for change being 'stupid' because it was a small margin, how so?

          Would you maintain your position re the stupidity of the vote if it had been to remain, by the same margin?

          It matters not if the margin was 5, 5k or 5m votes, it was a referendum, and folk voted as they pleased, that's how a democracy functions, for a given 'value' of democracy of course...

          As I have stated hereabouts before, I voted for out, but would have been perfectly happy if it went the other way, life goes on, the planet still rotates, politcians do what they do best (preserve their benefits, build empires, pretent to listen to the plebs...)

          The march for europe site isn't doing much from here at the moment, I'll check it out later.

          I wonder (half in jest), if it should have named 'pray for europe'...

          Thanks for your engagement here btw.

          Regards,

          Jay

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @AC: @malle-herbert I'd love to see a top 20...

            I am not sure how to put links here to specific posts

            The permalink is on the timestamp for each post. Right-click and "copy link location", or whatever your particular browser's version of that is.

            1. fruitoftheloon
              Happy

              @Moiety: Re: @AC: @malle-herbert I'd love to see a top 20...

              Moiety,

              AHA! thanks very much.

              Cheers,

              Jay

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @Moiety: @AC: @malle-herbert I'd love to see a top 20...

                Only found it by accident. Possibly a UX expert made it.

                I do enjoy subtlety, though. Wouldn't be El Reg if it was standard.

      2. TeeCee Gold badge
        WTF?

        Re: @malle-herbert I'd love to see a top 20...

        I have (and will continue to) made a point of avoiding any Brexit related forum like the plague.

        Mostly because the antis are that odd breed: A bunch of raving fascists ("WE WILL TELL YOU WHAT TO THINK, HOW YOU SHOULD VOTE AND WHAT SORT OF GOVERNMENT YOU SHOULD HAVE BECAUSE EVERYTHING WE SAY IS RIGHT!") who make a point of calling anyone who disagrees with them a Nazi.

        The obvious paradox is too likely to make my head explode.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

      2016 was my biggest year ever for downvotes, a few thousand,, I even lost my Silver Badge... And unlike Jake etc I don't intentionally troll....

      It just appears that people have different points of view, of which many seem to be more about " a false sense of poltical correctness" or ideals that stream from the typical mass concensus rather than from personal convinction.

      It's interesting to see how the Up/Down votes have changed the forum.. I get a feeling that far too many posts are just made to intentionally gain Upvotes rather than for adding anything that actually furthers discussion..

      Nowadays, I just read the main article and maybe the first couple of posts before the flamewars start.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

        You can lose a Silver badge? Was this a totting up thing or did you cross some threshold and perhaps receive a strongly worded email explaining what it was?

      2. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

        Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

        "2016 was my biggest year ever for downvotes, a few thousand,, I even lost my Silver Badge..."

        No, downvotes do not count towards anything, bar some minor ego bruises.

        You need to make 100 posts in a year to regain your badge. As explained here:

        m.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/01/register_comments_guidelines/

      3. Hans 1
        Happy

        Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

        > Nowadays, I just read the main article and maybe the first couple of posts before the flamewars start.

        Nowadays, I read the article, skip the first few posts to get directly into the flamewars ... the joy of upsetting "whoever" or getting fsck'd by others is priceless ... and I do not care about badges, up or downvotes ... I see it as a comment@rd game, sometimes you win, other times you lose ... who cares ... that is el'reg for me .... and I never stop learning thanks to you lot, thanks a million to all for that, BTW, Happy New Year ... and don't take my rants personal, they're not, remember, I don't know you ;-).

        PS: Please DON'T UPVOTE THIS - it is not meant to be a cheesy up-vote-generator.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

          " Please DON'T UPVOTE THIS - it is not meant to be a cheesy up-vote-generator."

          I always post as anonymous because that helps to avoid people's prejudgements based on your username. I want people to consider the merit, or otherwise, of that specific post - rather than being biased by one of mine they (dis)agreed with last week.

          It often surprises me how a post is received - both in (un)popularity or silence. It's almost like chaos theory that depends on a starting set of conditions that have too many unknowns.

          Obviously if you get in early you will tend to attract more reaction. Otherwise being the tail-ender starting a new thread when things have quietened down a bit gets it noticed.

          Like the days of usenet - the trick is to see who is making a reasonable debating reply that recognises the grey areas and helps widen everyone's education.

          1. Schultz

            The trick is.... (previous a. c. comment)

            "the trick is to see who is making a reasonable debating reply that recognises the grey areas and helps widen everyone's education."

            Take my upvote for this old-fashioned sentiment. There is gold in them hills (but you sometimes have to dig through a lot of dirt).

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. heyrick Silver badge

            Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

            "I always post as anonymous because that helps to avoid people's prejudgements based on your username."

            Not really. I tend to avoid anonymous posts as if a person isn't willing to put their "name" to what they write...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

              "Not really. I tend to avoid anonymous posts as if a person isn't willing to put their "name" to what they write..."

              A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

    3. inmypjs Silver badge

      Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

      Prompted me to look.

      Biggest upvotes for harshly criticising Microsoft, followed by criticising the government, followed by criticising Andrew Orlowski.

      Biggest downvote surprisingly not for support of brexit but for suggesting those wanting to travel to Mars where they would likely experience a very short and unpleasant rest of their lives were loons.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Megaphone

        Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

        A quick look at my 2016 posts:

        Most net upvotes A) calling the NSA nitwits for assuring Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public that their spytools (in this case Equation Group) would never get out into the wild for use against said honest citizens and B) pointing out that to avoid having their careers and assets run through a meatgrinder, the Virgin America air crew and airline had no other real choice than threatening to divert a flight over an alledged banned Galaxy Note 7 that was onboard.

        Net downvotes: A) Mentioning that McDonald's is actually France's best market per capita and the reasons why it is popular there, even though that country is famous for haute cuisine and B) The if the U.S. pulled its troops out of Europe, we'd probably be compelled to put them back in within 15-20 years

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'd love to see a top 20...

        Yup I tell you, life is hard being a Microsoft fanboy ('a' or 'the'?) here at the Reg.

  3. Androgynous Cow Herd

    It's not "Fake News"

    It is "disseminating misinformation"

    1. frank ly

      Re: It's not "Fake News"

      It's "dissenting information".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's not "Fake News"

        It's "dissenting information".

        Absolutely not. I have no problem with someone presenting a sane and reasoned argument supported by facts that support independent validation - that is information too. The Trump approach to reality, however, is not what I would call information because that was about as true as most of the assertions bandied around as facts by Brexit supporters which were quickly abandoned once they'd won.

        Fake News is quite simply lies, let's not give it a fancy name.

  4. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Coat

    100% certain

    that in 2017, The Register will not be receiving invitations to Apple events

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 100% certain

      that in 2017, The Register will not be receiving invitations to Apple events

      The full extent of Chinese subsidy of Apple assembly in China is now known, and it looks as if now the home grown industry is really taking off (Huawei, Xiaomi, for a start) the Chinese government may not be quite so keen on retaining their business.

      Which could mean that in 2017 Apple starts to need friends...so let's make that >99% certain and hedge our bets a bit shall we?

      1. Dazed and Confused

        Re: 100% certain

        > The full extent of Chinese subsidy of Apple assembly in China is now known

        Hmmm, if China doesn't want to build them, and Samsung don't want supply critical parts might we have seen peak i-Thingy?

        (oh no, commenting about Apple, bang goes my up/down ratio :-)

      2. TVU Silver badge

        Re: 100% certain

        "Which could mean that in 2017 Apple starts to need friends.."

        Apple could start that process by not alienating their own customers with their latest product designs. Yes, the shiny new Macbook Pro can now do the party trick of sliding under a door by virtue of its thinness but it's a significantly less practical machine than its immediate predecessor (and don't get me started on the supposedly "courageous" decision to remove the universal headphone jack on the iPhone 7 - all is being sacrificed to the Cult of Thin).

        Hint: buy the 2015 Macbook Pro while you still can if you want to do serious design, development or music production work.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 100% certain

          What really gets my goat about the headphones is, I don't want to have to worry about CHARGING SODDING HEADPHONES. They're JUST HEADPHONES dagnabit. Give me a slightly inconvenient wire over a massively inconvenient chance of going FLAT, any day.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 100% certain. What's not to like about the new Macbook Pro?

      Let's be thankful for that.

      That no technical journo at El Reg has the ability through lying gritted teeth to say how wonderful the new Macbook Pro 2016 zero travel, stubbed fingers, clattery clack Keyboard is.

      How innovative that touchbar is for touch typists.

      How fcuking wonderful it is to have the SSD soldered/intergrated to the motherboard and if thats not bad enough, at a crucial flex point in the motherboard design, right below an ideal place for a coffee spill, to run through the keyboard and destroy it. Destroying even the remotest hope that the £200-£500 Appe Store charge to connect to Apple's proprietary in-house 'rescue' connector might work. All designed to make Applecare a compulsory add-on.

      Apple's 'Pro' £1750-£2500 Sealed up, 4 year shelf life devices - which have batteries glued in so well, Apple themselves will struggle to recycle the Aluminium machined bases.

      Each design having minute changes to connectors/its framework, so that no part of the last 4 iterations, fits an older model. Not even one USB 3.0 type A port. Magsafe gone.

      What's not to like? (without lying through gritted teeth). Thank God El Reg doesn't want or need an invite from Tim Cook. The quicker this current 'Pro' design dies the better.

  5. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
    Pint

    2016: The Movie (Trailer)

    Dear team at El Reg, fellow commentards: have a good 2017 anyway!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Difficult to understand how the M$ Win10 clusterfuck didn't affect more people...???

    No Hospitals / Clinics, Law firms, Politicians, golf club elites or their kids got hit???

    1. Dave Pickles

      Re: Difficult to understand how the M$ Win10 clusterfuck didn't affect more people...???

      All the hospitals I've visited in the last couple of years have been running XP, at least in the wards.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Difficult to understand how the M$ Win10 clusterfuck didn't affect more people...???

      Or they did get upgraded, it worked, and they didn't see the need to make a nonsensical drama about it.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Difficult to understand how the M$ Win10 clusterfuck didn't affect more people...???

        Weirdly ive seen terminals in shops running 2008 server. Waterstones (last week in trafford centre) had a machine (not running terminal services either) that had a 2008 server machine. Surprised me at time. Ive also seen xp all over the place. Build a bear window signs had updates balloons obscuring the bottom corner of their displays (w7).

  7. smartypants

    Can we have more technical articles?

    I don't know if they will feature in 2017's hot list, but I do love a piece of well researched geekery. I don't think you can have enough of them. (Imagine what we could do if all the energy that went into DevOps and IOT were harnessed for good!)

    The other thing I love on here is that beneath the cheeky headlines (don't stop) is a rare puddle of journalistic integrity and intelligence backed up by a commentard army which makes it just as rewarding to read below the story.

    Ta lots.

  8. Blofeld's Cat
    Pint

    Predictions ...

    Hopefully 2017 will be the year that LOHAN finally takes to the air.

    Some other predictions [Gives psychic octopus a stir]:

    • At least one government body will lose the personal details of their clients.
    • A telecom company will suffer a major outage.
    • A large corporation will expose the credit card details of their customers.
    In each case these events will only affect "a small number" of people and "lessons will be learned".

    Happy New Year!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Re: Predictions ...

      Have we even heard anything back fro the FAA about LOHAN, anything at all? At this pace, one can only thank God that the Wright Brothers never had to deal with the FAA, or we'd still be relying on trains and ocean liners.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Predictions ...

        At this pace, one can only thank God that the Wright Brothers never had to deal with the FAA, or we'd still be relying on trains and ocean liners.

        Not God but the Arrow of Time and entropy, because the Wright brothers were the effective cause of the FAA, and in any case the FAA has an awful lot more entropy than the Wrights.

    2. Wade Burchette

      Re: Predictions ...

      * Brexit will happen, for reals this time. And it won't be as good as the supporters said nor as bad as the dissenters said.

      * Donald Trump will not make America great nor will he make America terrible. The people who supported him will find new irrational ways to love him while the people who hate him will find new irrational ways to hate him.

      * 90% of the movies released in 2017 will be garbage.

      * The majority this year's Super Bowl commercials will be terrible, again.

      * Microsoft will still be too blind to realize how hated Windows 10 really is.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Predictions ...

        "The people who supported him will find new irrational ways to love him [..]"

        Alt-right commentators are already fearing a backlash when Trump fails to deliver to his hard core voters. They will possibly transfer their allegiance to an even more dangerous demagogue who will promise them a land of milk and honey and stoke their fears.

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/27/alt-right-donald-trump-white-supremacy-backlash

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Predictions ...

          "fearing a backlash when Trump fails to deliver to his hard core voters."

          Given his Bus remarks, are we talking a full f**ting here then?, not just a pu**y grab, to avoid disappointment.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Predictions ...

        "Brexit will happen, for reals this time. And it won't be as good as the supporters said nor as bad as the dissenters said."

        In 2017? Article 50 might be triggered then but the actual Brexit will take another 2 years. It's a slow motion train crash process. Just wait.

  9. John H Woods Silver badge

    Predictions for 2017

    a) You'll still be ables to garner a few downvotes every time you suggest that no-one in their right mind would choose to use RAID5

    b) Still no Brexit (I'm not saying that's good or bad, but I'm pretty sure the uncertainty and delay is worse than either leaving or remaining).

    c) It still won't be economically feasible to wall off Mexico.

    d) Less than 30 UK terrorism deaths and more than 1500 road deaths.

    e) We won't need another leap second.

    f) No UK government IT projects will come in on time or with a less than 10% overspend.

    g) I'll be proved wrong on at least one of the foregoing and subjected to the obloquy of the commentard community.

  10. Dr. G. Freeman

    my Predictions

    What I hope to see in 2017...

    1. BOFH more than one in a green moon.

    2. Sarah Bee, "The Moderatrix" re-hired.

    3. LOHAN to fly, with a playmobil Lester on board.

    4. Somebody presses the "Do not press" button at CERN, just to see what it does.

    5. The government find 20p down the back of a sofa, and put it into UK Science.

    6. El Reg launch that colouring book that was an April Fool.

    7. I finally find a working desktop printer.

    8. Some decent TV science programme on the BBC.

    OK, The last one pushed the boundaries of the possible there.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: my Predictions

      Somebody presses the "Do not press" button at CERN, just to see what it does.

      I can tell you - it's the one that unleashes the planet-eating black holes.

      Some decent TV science programme on the BBC

      I feel that television stopped being a medium for conveying science about the time CGI was developed.

      1. GrapeBunch

        Re: my Predictions

        Science programming: through the magic of Internet, I have been able to partake of world-wide TV science programming in English. The worst: USA. They leave out the interesting bits, because those might require an IQ of 80 to understand. Because commercials perhaps, they re-re-repeat everything so that at the end you have the attention span of a gnat. Not a gnu, a gnat. Hoping to be contradicted on this one. If you do contradict me, please include the name of the good USA-based TV science program(me) or I will downvote you. The best: Australia. My theory is that they know they only have half an hour for Science, so they bloody well give it fair dinkum. The programme's name is Catalyst. My own Canada "The Nature of Things" is still OK after almost 60 years. Great program on how beavers were tricked into building dams where the humans wanted them, eh.

        Finally, Britain. One of the best of 2016 was the four-part "Walking Through Time" with Tori Herridge. Her persona as a no-nonsense but kindly "head girl" worked pretty well. Since this was Channel 4 rather than BBC, I can see where the criticisms arise. BBC's "Trust Me, I'm A Doctor" isn't exactly a science programme, but it does invoke the Scientific Method. And despite the "I'm" in the title, it is actually presented by four MDs, and perhaps that's where the rub lies. I've noticed that when BBC has an hour-long science programme with just one presenter, it tends to become too much about the presenter, and not enough about the science. Goofy or gormless, regional accent or too much mascara, self-important or condescending, it just gets in the way of science. But in executive summary, if you're disappointed in BBC science programming, thank the many-headed pasta deity that you don't live to the west and a bit south. And I'm not being Scilly.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Still 12 hours to go

    If we all try hard enough, we can get this past 279 comments and bugger the "Top 20 Comments List".

    Batten down the hatches and start commentating.

    BTW, My top prediction for 2017 -

    Lots of well known people will die

    Other people will wonder if this is the worst year EVER for well known people dying.

    Sum pepl wil mayk u wonda if teh edukayzhun sistum is brok.

    World ends 3 minutes after Trump gets his finger on the button.

  12. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Big cloud crash caused by rogue IoT frippery, forcing world+dog to rethink cloudy things.

  13. Bob Rocket

    To Brexit or Not To Brexit

    I voted OUT because they wouldn't give us Boaty McBoatface

    1. Hans 1
      Happy

      Re: To Brexit or Not To Brexit

      >I voted OUT because they wouldn't give us Boaty McBoatface

      I did not vote, I was not registered because I do not care what you do over there ... I do not think I am alone, on this side of the Channel, to think that ... sérieusement, on s'en tape le coquillard, bon vent!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To Brexit or Not To Brexit

      I voted OUT because they wouldn't give us Boaty McBoatface

      Bloody élites giving us the illusion that voting makes a difference to anything.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To Brexit or Not To Brexit

      Boaty McBoatface was never going to happen, you honestly think the cave dwellers in London would allow a SCOTTISH name??!!

      Further predictions,

      Brexit and Brexitina will become top ten baby names during 2017, with Brexitine surpassing the current council sink estate's "fav babbi" name" of "Crystal Meth".

      1. GrapeBunch

        Re: To Brexit or Not To Brexit

        Brexitina? Hmm. Brexit has caused some people who didn't do their paperwork in time to become ex-Brit's, Brexit and exBrit are anagrams. The name Brit(t) seems to be Scandinavian, rather than British. Brex sounds good to me, unless you want not to be teased about shampoo. Call a girl Brix because she's so sweet?

        May we join the EU? We're in roughly the same direction as Iceland, only a bit further. Apocryphally, our country name comes from the Spanish "Aca nada." Nothing there. They knew nothing of snow.

    4. Rich 11

      Re: To Brexit or Not To Brexit

      I voted REMAIN because they wouldn't give us Boaty McBoatface

  14. GrapeBunch
    Facepalm

    OMG

    I tripped over a site: http://vogonline.planning-register.co.uk and, thinking, wow! this is a sub-site of El Reg with extra satire and irony! How will I be able to stand it? Will I explode with joy? Enabling Vogon planning poetry with Vulture Capital?

    Gosh, was I disappointed. It's the Vale of Glamorgan Online Planning site. Not amusing in its tiniest iota. There is no proper story under which to file this horrendous news, the broadest meta-story will have to do. And a Happy New Year to you all, if you can stand it. I know that I won't.

  15. CookieMonster999

    2017

    year of linux desktop ?

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