Hey, guys; didn't you forget something...
...like your "I'll get me coat" icon?
"Possibly that was Apple's plan, but the tablet's display technology wasn't all it was cracked up to be."
Posts by Mike Flugennock
2068 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Nov 2007
Page:
Bad glass delayed Apple tablet?
They said what? Quotes of the Year
Top Gear tops iPlayer hit list
Monday 28th December 2009 23:48 GMT
what has the BBC done for us...?
Monty Python? Fawlty Towers?
OK, that was thirty-five, forty years ago, but, still...
Actually, I was also going to say Top Of The Pops, but I suppose that largely depends on the quality of popular music which, last I heard, was pretty much circling the drain.
Can't say about the BBC Micro, though, as I've never used one.
Google Chrome OS goes native (code)
Homemade airship prang closes highway in Oklahoma
Thursday 24th December 2009 00:31 GMT
re: history of aviation
...a big, wide-open area called the USA, sadly becoming Police State USA. We're right behind you, Britain.
Still, a big thumbs-up for old Marvin, for sure. Reminds me of my late father-in-law, who celebrated his 80th birthday with a parachute jump. Banzai, you crazy geezer.
Thursday 24th December 2009 00:26 GMT 
So, look...
...how is what this geezer did any different from what the Wright Brothers were doing over a century ago, or what Robert Goddard was doing in the 1930s?
Also, even allowing for traffic concerns... isn't this what every private light-aircraft pilot is trained to do, even if only informally -- if you're in trouble, and trying to get yourself down without killing yourself, look for an open stretch of highway? I'm sure that's happened many, many times.
Pint of beer icon, because, what the hell; here it is, Merry Christmas.
BOFH: Key performance undertakers
Thursday 24th December 2009 00:26 GMT
Yeah, but...
...since Friday is Christmas, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve, it pretty much works out that The Bastard's episode comes out today and, as is fitting, you get the Friday Thirst. Think of it as practice for the Big Day.
So, aaa-aaanyway, all together now: "...so here it is, Merry Christmas; everybody's having fun..."
A decade to forget - how Microsoft lost its mojo
Monday 21st December 2009 15:51 GMT
Hell, yeah, there was a Year Zero...
...and you wouldn't have believed the frickin' _panic_.
But, seriously, folks... while I'm sure it's technically correct that the century began on 01.01.01, and that the next decade begins on 01.01.11, I think part of the reason folks like to mark it on the year ending in zero is that we all seem to really like nice round numbers (no pun intended)... kind of like watching the odometer on your car turn over at 100,000 miles -- which was especially cool if you drove a car which was quite old, and only had a five-digit odometer, so when you hit 100,000 miles, it'd roll over to zero.
(d'ohhh, c'mon, you guys; _somebody_ else here has to be old enough to have driven their car 100,000 miles/km)
Boeing 787 Dreamliner set for first flight
Monday 21st December 2009 03:09 GMT
Cattle class...uh, that is, Coach class seating?
I just followed the link to the Boeing site, and I must say I really dig that Kubrick space-station look in the interior. About goddamn' time they dealt with the overhead bin issue, too.
Still, I've also noticed the emphasis on the improved first-class seating layout in the press-kit fotos. I think there's one image in there that offers a glimpse of what cattle-class seating will be like. From what I can make out, it doesn't look half bad. Of course, it doesn't look half-good, either, but it still looks like it beats the shit/e out of coach-class seating on a Super 80, or a 737 -- or the DC9 (or, as I like to call it, the Flying Slave Ship).
Monday 21st December 2009 03:09 GMT
Agreed!
I've done a flight home to Washington, DC from Paris on an Air France Airbus -- a 380, iirc -- and those damn' things were positively cavernous -- almost frighteningly so, especially considering my seat was in one of the "inside" blocks of seating, in between the aisles with absolutely no chance to check out the view. I was absolutely surrounded by people, and it felt really uncomfortable and disorienting somehow.
Still, it beat the hell out of my trip to Madrid on a Spanair DC9, which was the most absurdly cramped coach seating I'd ever ridden in. I could've sworn there was less space per person than in the old NASA Gemini capsule. At least the Gemini crewmen could almost fully extend their arms in front of them; good luck in coach aboard a DC9.
Monday 21st December 2009 02:45 GMT
We say 'airplane', you say 'aeroplane'...
...you say 'aluminium', we say 'aluminum';
Airplane, aeroplane, aluminum, aluminium...
...d'ahh, lighten up, you guys. We're all speaking English here...sorta kinda.
Any Australians care to chime in? Or Canadians? (they spell like you, they sound like us)
Pint of lager icon, because... what the hell, it's getting to be Saturday night here, and I've been shoveling snow most of the afternoon.
Space 2010 - the future is fantastic!
Official: British telly really is almost all repeats
Friday 18th December 2009 01:19 GMT
re: Man can't just sit around
...waitaminnit, here's an idea: how about Viewer-Generated Content? You know, like YouTube, only on _real_ TV? And I don't mean "reality TV", either.
I mean... I don't know how bad it is over there, but over here there's so much crap on cable/satellite now -- three different shows involving chef competitions, at least three different shows involving fashion design/modeling competitions, at least four different shows involving fashion makeovers, and more goddamn' Law And Order reruns on as many channels as they can shoehorn it into -- that I've figured it couldn't be any worse if they just let people in the audience conceive and shoot their own shows and send them in... and I mean actual shows, too, not like America's Funniest Home Videos.
Hell, I've got FinalCut Pro, an HD camcorder, a DVD burner, a twisted sense of humor and some smart, arty friends who are game enough; I'll bet even _I_ could come up with enough stupid jokes to fill thirteen episodes of _something_.
(...because she went into reruns long ago.)
Friday 18th December 2009 01:19 GMT
We're choking on it over here, too...
The cable/satellite companies here in the Colonies like to go on about the huge number of channels available, but, to paraphrase Pink Floyd, "...I got two hundred channels of shit on the TV to choose from." To cite just a few:
The Learning Channel used to actually have educational(ish) programming, now it's almost wall-to-wall makeover/reality/makeover reality shows -- really trashy, annoying ones.
Arts & Entertainment Channel used to actually have highbrow(ish) arts programming; now it's almost wall-to-wall Law And Order reruns. Hell, I've even taken to calling it Law And Order Channel.
Comedy Central used to have a lot of interesting original comedy; now it's pretty much wall-to-wall Saturday Night Live reruns (the crappy, post-70s episodes) interspersed with Daily Show and Colbert Report (the same episode at least three times a day), South Park (the same episode maybe twice a day) and really mediocre movies.
HBO (Home Box Office) used to have lots of really good original series, really good edgy stand-up comedians, and halfway-decent movies; now, it's basically The Channel You're Allowed To Curse On, featuring episodes of beautifully-produced but trashy and lame serials rerun at least four times a day. (sorry, just couldn't dig The Sopranos)
At least we still have Turner Classic Movies channel -- old classic films, uncut, no commercials. You can't go wrong with Bogart or the Marx Brothers, I always say.
Thursday 17th December 2009 16:37 GMT
Granted, I'm watching "BBC America" via satellite...
...so it's like watching the BBC through the wrong end of a telescope, but, still...
...I'm starting to "get" a lot of British commenters' complaints here about the declining quality of BBC content (sadly, even the news), not to mention all the reruns. While one British commenter pointed out in another thread that it only seemed better because the BBC only exported the "good stuff" to the States, I'm still seeing your commenters' complaints being borne out over here. Our cable/satellite service includes "BBC America" which, from what I can see these days, is almost entirely make-over shows ("Ground Force" was the only one I really cared for), sensationalistic documentaries about really freakish people, warmed-over imitations of "Law And Order", and about half a dozen different variations of premises involving either antique sales or the auctioning off of peoples' old crap* -- and most of them are reruns. Hell, it wouldn't be quite so bad if they'd just telecast a soccer... uhh, sorry, _football_ game once in a while, and I don't mean "Match Of The Day" (which is, basically, a rerun, right?)
If it makes you feel any better over there, it's gotten just as bad over here -- so bad, in fact, that in network promos for any given series, they actually make a big deal out of it being "a brand new episode of (Insert Title)!"
-----
*Actually, I'm waiting for the BBC to debut "Swag In The Sitting Room: the show that sends a crack team of burglars to pillage your house, and then sells your stuff back to you at auction!"
Critics aim to sink Titanic ice cubes
Tuesday 15th December 2009 21:04 GMT
WTC commemorative schwag?
If you ever make it over to this side of the Pond, you can buy all the goddamn' 9/11 commemorative schwag you can handle -- especially in New York City. However, most of it is the most exploitive, smarmy, treacly, melodramatic, overwrought, often flat-out racist/fascistic crap you've ever seen. If you're looking for something darkly humorous or sarcastic, though, you're pretty much SOL.
I've also just realized that the tenth anniversary is coming up in about a year and a half or so, meaning next year's probably going to be building up a crescendo of insufferable media hype. I'm absolutely dreading it.
Personally, I can't wait for the exploding 9/11 Commemorative Jenga set.
Tuesday 15th December 2009 20:59 GMT
Well said!
I'm an old space geek from way back -- was one of 99% of young American boys who wanted to be astronauts when they grew up, back in the '60s -- and it took me a long frickin' time to get over the Challenger tragedy, but here it is nearly a quarter-century later (already?) and the scars on my psyche have finally healed enough for me to appreciate the joke about the last words transmitted from the Challenger crew: "No, NO! I wanted a BUD LIGHT!"
Tuesday 15th December 2009 20:58 GMT
Whoaaa! Sweet!
I think that's frickin' _hysterical_, man! And, apparently, they're being sold in the States, also? Love 'em -- not so much because it makes sick fun of the tragedy itself, but because I hate James Cameron and Leonardo diCaprio and Celine Goddamn' Dion.
Too bad I probably can't have one deilvered in time for Christmas... but maybe there's still a chance I can order in time for New Year's Eve?
I eagerly await the Challenger Bottle Rocket Set for next Fourth Of July.
3 billion have suffered Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody'
Monday 14th December 2009 18:54 GMT
oh, yeah, that's absolutely a great one, but...
...it was another one I was trying to remember -- it was one where Anderson takes a mean shot at materialistic, drunken people at Christmas parties.
But, yeah, "Ring Out" is a really fine one -- especially if, like myself, you're not really a Christian and prefer to celebrate the Solstice instead. Something about a two-weeks-long party complete with dancing virgin maidens and homebrew that really does me good. Those Druids really knew how to do it up, huh?
Monday 14th December 2009 18:54 GMT
D'ahh ha ha ha ha hahhh
Oh, man; that's freakin' _rich_... especially considering that, iirc, they'd had one comeback around 1980ish, and finally hung it up around '91.
Ironic, though, as sadly, Hill and Powell were at last report still touring as "Slade" with a forgettable bass player and some other guitarist who's trying to fill Noddy's boots by simply playing really loud and howling like a maniac. Sorry, dude, there's more to it than that. I caught some footage of Dave, Don, and Two Other Guys on YouTube recently, and what a goddamn' loud, sloppy FAIL. I mean, jeez, it's not like Hill and Powell really need the money anymore, is it? I mean, c'mon, you guys; it was a blast, a helluva party for about twenty years, but it's finished. Why can't you just kick back and enjoy getting honorary doctorates and growing old gracefully, like Noddy'n'Jim?
Monday 14th December 2009 18:54 GMT
lifting-the-skirts Christmas song...?
...hmm. Could be the context. I'll bet you wouldn't have mis-read that quote if it had been anybody else but Noddy... especially considering that, given the reputation of British Christmas parties (damn, I'm jealous), there may well have been some serious skirt-lifting while that tune was playing.
Monday 14th December 2009 14:53 GMT
"Suffered"? Hey, c'mon, El Reg, it's not that bad...
...though I suppose it's just a story demanding to be written in that oh-so-loveable smartassed El Reg style. Still, I wouldn't have you any other way.
I'm an old Slade fan from back in my high-school days -- yeah, a Deadhead who digs Slade, go figure -- and I have to admit with embarassment that I only heard "Merry Christmas, Everybody" for the first time early this year; of course, Slade never got really huge here in the States (a lot of critics pissed and moaned about them being "too British"), so "Merry Christmas, Everybody" never made it over here. I'm totally down with Sam Tana on this one, though; what a sweet tune -- sweet, but not cloying; a great party tune, but not brazen about it (like "Mama Weer All Crazee Now").
Granted, I've heard very little of modern British Christmas music, but if "Merry Christmas, Everybody" is any indication, it's certainly a cut above the crap we're saddled with over here ever year. The only other one I recall right off is Jethro Tull's Christmas single from the mid '70s -- I forget the title -- which I also loved; a bit of classic Ian Anderson snark.
(pint of beer icon, because El Reg has no Noddy's Top Hat Icon)
Google contradicts self, confirms own Googlephone
ISS crew drops from 12 to 2
Saturday 12th December 2009 23:32 GMT
Y'know, I've been thinking about that, too...
A lot of us might point and laugh at Soyuz for looking like it was hammered together by a bunch of fat little old babushka-wearing women at the Heroic Peoples' Spacekraft Works, but, seriously... the Soyuz has been sort of like the Volkswagen Beetle of space... carefully, incrementally updated and improved; it may look clunky and ugly, but it's proven, and it works... even if the outer thermal blanket looks like the lining of an old Army sleeping bag. They've been flying the thing for over forty years now, and they've pretty much got it down pat.
Honestly, it makes me jealous as hell; iirc, we quit building Apollo spacecraft roundabout 1970ish, with just enough left in stock to fly the remaining lunar expeditions and three or four SkyLab missions. I can remember, as a young teenager, reading about the upcoming Shuttle program and thinking it was going to be cool as hell -- a spacegoing DC3 that can carry large cargo, satellites or space-station components to orbit, and glide back in and land on a runway like a regular airplane.
Thirty years of retrospect, though, makes me think it was the biggest mistake NASA ever made -- a spacegoing white elephant. Apollo could've been our Soyuz -- easily adaptable and dependable. By the time the SkyLab missions were flying, it had finally matured into a really sweet machine, and it would've been a relative piece of cake to replace the LM with a mission module -- like the one Soyuz uses -- that could be easily custom-outfitted depending on the mission, such as long-duration science flights, or ferrying cargo to a space station. Heat-shielding wasn't as big an issue, either -- an abalative coating on the bottom that burned away and carried the heat with it. Granted, the heat shield could only fly once, but it wasn't as big a pain in the ass as trying to heat-shield a winged boost-glide vehicle like the Shuttle. They don't call that goddamn' thing the Flying Brickyard for nothing.
I know a lot of folks like to bust on NASA for going back to a ballistic capsule design for their next-gen manned craft, and give them shit for building a craft whose command module outwardly resembles Apollo, but I think it's the best decision they could've made. I think if, after the lunar expeditions were finished, they'd stuck with the tried'n'true Apollo design, incrementally modifying and adapting it as the Russians did with Soyuz, we wouldn't be having the pissfight over the next-gen manned craft that we're having here now.
Saturday 12th December 2009 05:44 GMT
pasty Christmas dinner
Actually, they've come a long way since those old-skool paste/dehydrated food packets and tubes they used in Mercury and Gemini. Aboard Apollo, they had hot dogs, sliced bread, deviled ham (remember the video of Buzz Aldrin making a deviled ham sandwich aboard Apollo 11?), and a special beef stew made with an extra-thick broth to keep it from floating out of the cup. Much of the food aboard the Shuttle and ISS these days is actual Earth food -- some in cans, some in little plastic tubs. Things like soups and drinks still require special packaging, of course, but other than that, pretty much anything that won't float out of the can or bowl can be eaten normally, with a fork or spoon.
Hell, they even have shrimp cocktail and M&Ms out there, now, and ice cream -- although the ice cream isn't quite up to Earth standards, as I understand from friends who've actually tried the foil-packaged space ice-cream bars which one can actually buy in the gift shop at the National Air & Space Museum. They tell me it's fun to try once, just to say you've tried it, but it's not all that great. However, the shrimp cocktail is apparently quite popular with Shuttle crews, and is actually sometimes used as a trade medium ("hey, are you gonna finish that shrimp cocktail? I've got enough deviled ham left here for one more sandwich...")
Pint of lager, as they don't have beer in space yet, so I'm going to have another for the ISS skeleton crew.
Testimony spills messy details in eBay-Craigslist squabble
Saturday 12th December 2009 23:32 GMT
Oh, yeah, some choice...
...the choice between eBay (aka Scam Central) and Google (getting to know you, getting to know all about you -- whether you want us to or not).
Still, if the Craigslist guys really didn't know how to use PowerPoint, then I'd give 'em kudos for that alone -- even if Craigslist _has_ turned into Fake'n'Flake Central.
LHC smashes Tevatron record: Humanity enters the unknown
Saturday 12th December 2009 23:32 GMT
Dimensional portal by Christmas?
Well, hell; that oughta make things way easier for Santa Claus, then.
Not only that, but all those parents will finally have a ready answer for when their kids ask how Santa's able to bring toys to children all over the world in one night: "...well, Johnny, Santa uses the interdimensional portal at the LHC, that's how!"
Uh, yeah; that one there, with the sonic screwdriver in the inside pocket...
Privacy furore forces partial climb-down from Facebook
James Cameron poised to make Fantastic Voyage
National space agency for Blighty, says Drayson
Felony fugitive found working for DHS for 2 years
AT&T to choke your iPhone
Friday 11th December 2009 00:31 GMT
amen to that...
McMoo writes:
-> El Reg is a British website, so it kinda narks me to see a headline like "AT&T to chocke your
-> iPhone" - AT&T won't be doing anything of the sort to *my* iPhone.
Right on there, pal. You British Jesus Phone users are slightly luckier than us -- even if you _do_ have a Jesus Phone (snicker)
-> Please, keep American issues catered for, but not written as though they are primary issues. The
-> Register is British - there are may American websites where we can read things from an
-> American viewpoint.
Y'mean, from the viewpoint of corporations and marketeers? That's why I log on from across the pond, to The Register, to find out what the real IT news is in the States. That's why I'm thankful for El Reg, but that's kinda' sad, really...
Thursday 10th December 2009 22:10 GMT
Myslewski?
True, you can't get a more American name than that... a name passed on from European immigrants. (;^> Of course, the real irony is in the number of Americans going around with British surnames, such as our esteemed new Attorney General, Eric Holder (no relation).
Oh, and please do send more decent beer over here. Some _real_ Guinness Stout would be a good start, instead of the legally-mandated slightly-weakened version we're stuck with over here now.
LHC pulverises previous record: 2.36 TeV surprise collision!
Google sues alleged work-at-home scammers
Wednesday 9th December 2009 01:05 GMT
surfing for rips
Well, I'm running a Mac, so I don't have that problem quite so much. It's the huge-assed popups and interstitials that gunk things up. RapidShare's not so bad, but MegaUpload and MediaFire are the total worst. MediaFire even has one of those banners that offers to scan your computer for viruses; I clicked it one time, just for cheap laffs, and watched the little Flash animation run as it pretended to scan my Mac, and then announced that I had a virus via a fake Windows dialog. Frickin' sad, I tell ya'.
Tuesday 8th December 2009 22:42 GMT
Well, FIII-IInally...
...finally, they're getting down to dealing with this.
I spend a lot of my free time surfing the record-collectors' blogs to download obscure old out-of-print vinyl rips, and of all the remote-hosting sites, MegaUpload has to be the absolute worst for this. When I click the "download" button, the first thing I get is a full-page popup for one of those goddamn' "Make Money Posting Ads To Google" scams, complete with voice-narration soundtrack. Assholes.
Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy
Wednesday 9th December 2009 00:05 GMT
and Barack Obama...
...voted to extend the Patriot Act while in the Senate, and he supports its further extension now that he's in the White House -- not to mention trying to suppress lawsuits on behalf of Guantanamo detainees, or trying to suppress the further release of images of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib.
Y'know, I really wish GWBush would wipe that goddamn' burnt cork off his face.
eBay wanted to buy Craigslist, Whitman tells judge
Gervais pic used in amusingly rubbish failed bank fraud
Google flirts with new-look home page
New York to beam disaster alerts to Xbox gamers
Wednesday 25th November 2009 21:30 GMT 
Jesus. H. CHRIST.
I'm sorry, it may be well-intentioned, but that's got to be the stupidest crap I've ever heard of in my life -- but then, again, I'm only 52.
So, if this trial goes well, does this mean not only XBox, but Wii and PS users will be subject to this harassment if they make the mistake of gaming over the net? And does this mean they'll also be clobbered with push advertising somewhere along the line?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
