* Posts by Daniel

149 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Mar 2007

Apple slapped for dodgy ads

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Happy

@Bothwell

:-)

Hoist, petard etc

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Flame

Enough already

Ok, enough with calling it the Jesusphone. I'm not a God botherer but this kind of juvenile namecalling is really starting to get on my tits.

It reminds me of a 2nd grader who heard the big kids using naughty language and thought it would be cool to join in. Get over it and find something original to say.

Aussie school trials use of gadgets in exams

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Excellent idea

As long as it's managed correctly (and in the right subjects), this is the way exams should be held. I work in the education field for a large Fortune 500 company and one of the major challenges we face at the moment is 'closing the gap' between school-level education and real world requirements. There is a distinct gap between when schools or universities say somebody is ready for the world of business, and when they can be considered truly effective - any initiatives which aim to reduce this difference are fine by me.

Suicide squirrel knocks out Swiss TV

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Re: Irresponsible article

HAHA (he says, hoping sincerely that Wayne had his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek)

Asus' own Eee-beater spied on web

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Mmmmm

Yep, I'll have one of those.

And before peeps start banging on about how you could have "a 15.4" la di da for that money" IT'S FREAKING TINY, ALRIGHT? And as we all know, in electronics terms, less really does cost more.

Booze and breasts combined, finally

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Amy Winerack

<splutter>

You so owe me a new keyboard.

Fujitsu intros 5.6in bonsai laptop... with Vista

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Mouse

Maybe it has a resistive touchscreen (I dunno, couldn't be bothered to check) but it definitely has a wee mouse - check bottom right of the screen. My guess is it's one of those pad things like on the Libretto with two weeny little mouse buttons above it.

Physically possible - check

Can be made micro-size - check

Usable by human hands - we'll get back to you

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Dead Vulture

Amazing tech but ...

Incredible that they can pack all that tech into such a small chassis, but damn that thing's fugly.

You'd have to be a serious early adopter (or really really need it) to buy one at this stage, but once Sony get their act going and make a VAIO version I'll have it.

Vomiting vulture 'cuz I'd probably hurl chunks too after opening the box and seeing it 'in the flesh', so to speak.

Reg server and chip hack molested by Gray Lady

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Go

Oh well ...

Some things in life are bad,

They can really make you mad,

Other things just make you swear and curse,

When you're chewing life's gristle,

Don't grumble,

Give a whistle

And this'll help things turn out for the best.

And...

Always look on the bright side of life.

[whistle]

Always look on the light side of life.

[whistle]

If life seems jolly rotten,

There's something you've forgotten,

And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

When you're feeling in the dumps,

Don't be silly chumps.

Just purse your lips and whistle.

That's the thing.

And...

Always look on the bright side of life.

[whistle]

Always look on the right side of life,

[whistle]

For life is quite absurd

And death's the final word.

You must always face the curtain with a bow.

Forget about your sin.

Give the audience a grin.

Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow.

So,...

Always look on the bright side of death,

[whistle]

Just before you draw your terminal breath.

[whistle]

Life's a piece of shit,

When you look at it.

Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true.

You'll see it's all a show.

Keep 'em laughing as you go.

Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And...

Always look on the bright side of life.

Always look on the right side of life.

[whistle]

Always look on the bright side of life!

[whistle]

Repeat to fade...

So long Ashlee, it's been grand.

Twitter falls silent in the UK

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@ AC re: Typo?

You are Chris Young, and I claim my 5 pounds.

Apple faithful snared in phishing scam targeting Mac.com users

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Where's Webster...

when you need him?

<switches on huge searchlight with 'W' logo pointed at the sky>

Sub £200 mini laptop launched

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@AC, "SO MANY PEOPLE THAT OBVIOUSLY ..." etc

<cough>shill</cough>

Is Apple readying a MacBook redesign?

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One piece of aluminium

Going to be a bugger to open and close then.

Transition roadable-plane/flyable-car prototype on show

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Roadable-plane/flyable-car

Shouldn't that be "Driveable-plane/flyable car"? Or perhaps "roadable-plane/airable car"?

</pedant>

Dell's dinky designer desktop

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Re: Stability

The disk and stuff will probably survive ok, but you won't be able to see if it works because the Nvidia graphics chip will have been knocked off the motherboard:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/28/dell_nvidia_chipset_glitch/

Hummer glummer on high oil price bummer

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@Jason Harvey

"of course, it does help that I only drive about 5 miles (one way) to work so I don't have to fill up too often."

Why don't you get a bike.

Vista on your iPhone - almost 'perfection'

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@JayKay

Dude, chill. Take a deep breath or something.

BIOS stands for Basic Input-Output System, and pretty much every microprocessor-driven device these days uses one. Mobile phones, laptops, desktops, mainframes, yes even Macs, have a BIOS. EFI is simply a layer that sits on top of the BIOS to add or extend functionality. Much like the simple (but clearly not simple enough) diagram in the link you posted, where Firmware is equivalent to the BIOS.

Operating System > Extensible Firmware Interface > Firmware (BIOS) > Hardware

Let's tone it down a little now shall we - always a good move when you're wrong.

Revealed! The new face of the Eee PC

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Re: Can we have both of them

Can I watch?

Wikimedia Foundation muzzles Wikinews

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Wiki....?

Wikitards?

Mine's the one with the anti-Wikimedia pamphlet in the pocket - oh no wait, it's been vaporized.

RIAA ordered to shell out $100k for P2P witch hunt

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@AC, re "Too Small"

You make a good point, unfortunately comprehensively undermined by the fact that you couldn't string a coherent sentence together if somebody rammed a Speak 'n' Spell up your ass.

In your defence you're clearly blighted by the all too common disorder of MSNitis, defined as the "tndncy 2 wr8 words wiv the lst psbl l8rs in rdr 2 comunic8 wiv ur m8s ovr MSN", with the major symptom being a complete inability to spell even the most basic words correctly.

Who am I kidding, that's no defence.

Illiter8 plonkR.

Toshiba to ship laptops with Cell-based GPUs this year

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Upscaling vs. Blu Ray

Seems to me that if these upscaling algorithms get any better it'll completely obviate the need for Blu Ray - why bother encoding in HD when you can encode in SD and upscale it for the same result?

Actually to take that to it's logical conclusion - an upscaling algorithm of infinite power should be able to take a 1 x 1 pixel encoded image and upscale it to perfect hidef or beyond, meaning that we can store millions of hours of HD film on a 1MB memorystick.

</ramble>

Your personal data just got permanently cached at the US border

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Dead Vulture

Re: honey traps, malware, viruses etc

And you really think that won't earn you a free Cuban vacation? Much as I like the idea of taking these guys for a ride, that's probably not one of the better ways of doing it. Same goes for a file full of random crap - the way it's going, they'd be within their rights to detain you until you decrypted it, a tad difficult if it's just random.

A Google laptop with 32GB MicroSD is an excellent idea, but I believe the new bodyscan machines can be programmed with outlines of potentially suspicious objects - and they have a (theoretical) scanning resolution of <0.5cm. In other words they're potentially capable already of picking up that MicroSD sewn into your shirt cuff. Which might give you a few questions to answer about why it was there and not in plain view.

Welcome to Detention Camp USA, your exit visa has just been permanently revoked.

Asus Eee PC 900 Linux Edition

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Heart

Wha ....

Whu ..

... wha

... um ...

Where's the Friend on the Beach?

I feel lost and confused, disoriented, like somebody's just violated one of the sacred trusts I held so dear. All of a sudden life seems dreary and grey - it'll never be the same again.

Friend, we will miss you. RIP.

Oldham murders owl with whalesong

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Paris Hilton

@PH

Does PH stand for Paris Hilton? Just wondering because she'd probably use this kind of logic too.

It's like polishing a turd for 100k - of course the cost isn't just for the polished turd, it's for the polish, the cloth, the polisher's hourly rate, consultancy & focus groups to derive the optimum polish type etc. Doesn't change the fact that it's still polishing a turd.

Like a previous poster mentioned, the money would have been better spent getting the bins emptied on time, litter cleared, better policing and so on ad infinitum. Then the perceived value of the 'brand' might actually stand a chance of going up instead of hitting rock bottom and starting digging.

Yes! It's the sawed-off USB key!

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Manic

Mad as a box of frogs!

<runs off to make his own sawed-off USB key>

Asus launches second-gen Eee PC

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IT Angle

12GB for XP, 20GB for Linux?

"The 20GB model will come with Linux, Asus said, while the 12GB version will be pre-loaded with Windows XP Home Edition."

Does this strike anybody else as odd? Seems to me this should be the other way round, given Windows' propensity to gobble HD space. Or is it to keep the prices more or less equal?

Me I'd go for the 20GB and install XP Pro....

Icon because I don't understand IT...

O2: We didn't know we were capping 3G data speeds

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@Fred

Uh ...

Thanks.

UK.gov will force paedophiles to register email addresses

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Alert

Undecided

I don't know. Whilst this law is probably unworkable for the criminal elements, I tend to agree with the principle of making life as awkward as possible for genuine paedophiles. This is one more bit of ammunition for the police to lock these people up if they cross the line; of course they can register an anonymous address, but with this new law they might just be encouraged not to due to the risks outweighing the benefits.

One of the problems with the existing system is that paedophiles are very difficult to lock away. Not because they don't get caught, but because they're becoming increasingly adept at exploiting loopholes and getting away with a slapped wrist. If they have committed a crime for which the police want to prosecute, but they can't convict on the available evidence (or if the punishment is so small as to be risible) they can use this law to get a jail sentence anyway. Probably by raiding said paedo's computer and uncovering all the sneaky emails he/she has been sending from an unregistered address.

And yes I agree this is a slippery slope - making pretty much everything illegal so we're all criminals and they can lock us up at will.

This is why the people in charge need to be competent AND ethical, to balance justice and freedom.

Unfortunately I'm not convinced they're either (JACQUI) competent *or* (SMITH) ethical.

Creative climbs down over home brew Vista drivers

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Power to the Interweb thingy

This is just the latest example of the power of the Internet to organise and mobilise the community, and to achieve genuine results. As Clayton Caston once noted, "The proper response to an outrage, is to be outraged". So true, but most of the time people are 'outraged' to their spouse, friends, family etc in a spleen-venting but largely impotent manner.

The reach of the Internet has changed all that, if enough people are genuinely outraged, things can be changed. It's about time companies started taking careful note of what people are saying about them on the Internet.

Daniel_k has generated significant goodwill, he should now be gracious in victory. Kicking Creative while they're down will ruin the moral high ground he currently enjoys.

Naomi Campbell cuffed in Heathrow Terminal 5

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Naomi rules

Must admit up until now I just thought Ms. Campbell was an aimless overpaid drifter with a penchant for physical violence and no redeeming qualities.

I was wrong; she's an aimless overpaid drifter with one redeeming quality - a penchant for physical violence.

In this case, she dared to do what most of us only dream of - gave the incompetent buffoons running T5 a wakeup call. She should be congratulated, not collared.

Go Naomi, Go!

<THOUGHT POLICE DISCLAIMER>

The above text is intended to represent a satirical viewpoint and the author in no way condones acts of physical violence against the much respected and loved agents of the secret police who run this country in such an efficient and totally non intrusive way.

</THOUGHT POLICE DISCLAIMER>

Welsh couple cop Mosquito flak

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Re: Advice (by AC)

Whiny old git ?? You try exercising restraint when you're being terrorised by local ASBO candidates - here's hoping you get the opportunity.

Cock.

Wombat rape ordeal turns NZ man Australian

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@Wombats by AC

That's "Eats, roots, shoots and leaves"

Don't bother, I'll get it myself.

Geert Wilders faces legal threats over footage copyright

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@memomachine

Words fail me.

DIY satellite TV installer shoots wife dead

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@Edward Rose

"...they voted in GWB after all."

Um, no they didn't.

Mine's the one made from "Gore" Tex....

US auto-emissions cleansed in urine-tech shower

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@EJ

Diesel is not subsidised in the UK or Europe, quite the contrary. In fact taxes imposed by the government ("Fuel duty") constitute nearly 50% of the cost of diesel (around 50-55p per litre).

In the US the fuel duty on diesel is also rising, hence the higher prices. The solution is not to subsidise, but to stop increasing the taxes. The government will probably have to do this anyway as the baseline price of fuel rises.

Dell flees sinking US economy on quick boat to China

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Re: Thank you Dell

Amen brother.

Vista SP1 downloaders bite back

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@ Drinky

Love the way you describe a problem that would have most users getting in the car and driving over to Bill's place to kick his teeth in, then finish with not one smiley, but two!

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@ Jamie

Genius :-)

Never realised it before but now you mention it ....

Nokia passes buck over Greenpeace eco rating reduction

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Dead Vulture

Shurely shome mishtake?

Correct me if I'm wrong here but are Nokia seriously hoping that consumers will simply drop their old mobiles into a recycling bin when they buy a new one?

Me, I whack 'em straight on eBay - I mean I paid good money for it and most mobiles are worth significant amounts of cash second hand. Ok fair enough if it's 15 years old and worth about 20p, but how many mobiles fit that category?

In addition when a mobile is sold second hand and then used, isn't that more environmentally friendly than "recycling" it, in whichever form?

Sick as a bird 'cos I would be if I threw away a perfectly good mobile!

Dell gets in a state over SSD claims

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Lies, damn lies and ....

Surely this is an easy one to prove or disprove? An analyst quoting a statistic like "20-30% return rate" can either back it up with fact or not - same goes for Dell. Me, I'd tend to believe the analyst ...

Arthur C. Clarke dead at 90

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Last space journey; a fitting tribute

RIP sir, you will be missed. An inspiration to myself and, judging by these comments, to many others.

As a final tribute we should send his ashes into space, maybe onboard a communications satellite. The great Arthur C. Clarke, circling the Earth forever in a Clarke Orbit. What could be more fitting?

Cassini survives 'in your face' Enceladus flypast

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Maybe it's just me ...

...but did anybody else think it might not be wise to try to switch programs at such a crucial moment?

Darling budget fails to paint Brown government green

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Heart

@ @ Sarah

Sarah I think I like you. Are you fit as well as witty?

Or maybe you're a bloke posting under a girl's name in order to stand out ... </shudder>

Yahoo! unveils third leg for managing mobile content

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@aManFromMars

Yep, couldn't agree more.

Essex youth's cop headbutt heads for YouTube

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Re: makes you glad to be English...

That's because when you were young mobiles didn't have cameras. I'm never sure if the reason why we see more of this sort of thing now is because it's easier to make it accessible (through technology but also due to an ambulance-chasing media) or because it's genuinely worse.

Discuss.

Security boffins unveil BitUnlocker

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Gates Horns

Strewth

That's MY laptop in the video!!

That's a pretty damn big hole in encryption security, not your usual "Oh only a serious h4XX0R could execute that" job.

Makes me glad I didn't pay for BitLocker!

Evil Bill, and if I could choose more than one icon I'd have Evil Steve and Evil Penguin up there as well considering this affects all three OSes equally.

US cruiser nails crippled spy-sat on first shot

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New theory

The 'sat' was definitely extraterrestrial in origin.

I reckon ET was on his way home, but forgot his sandwiches and phoned the SecDef to ask if he could send them up to him. "Kinetic Kill Vehicle" my arse, it was a Buzz Lightyear lunchbox with two rounds of ham n cheese and a chocolate milk.

ET's now gone on his way with a full tummy and will hopefully say nice things about us to his galactic overlord.

Mine's the one with the bicycle/moon picture on the back, ta

Restored Vulcan hits financial turbulence

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@ChessGeek

Not nitpicking at all - 'Expected' vs 'Anticipated' is an important distinction in the sales world which, let's be honest, this is.

Commenting on a comment which itself commented on a discutable statement, now THAT's nitpicking.

Guilty as charged thus; I'll get me coat. Mine's the black bomberjacket with fleece lining...

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Expected funds

"potential sponsors [who] have drawn in their purse strings and are not making available the expected funds".

Bearing in mind this may be taken out of context, if the good Doctor actually said this it smacks of enormous arrogance. POTENTIAL sponsors, and yet EXPECTED funds? Funds must never be considered 'expected' if a sponsor is only 'potential'. "Hoped-for", or possibly even "Anticipated", but not "Expected".

If I were a potential sponsor, I'd be turned off by this statement.

US satellite-shoot effort seeds conspiracy theory storm

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Re: it's not a satellite

Oh come on, that is sooooo ridiculous. I can't believe anybody would come up with that alien rubbish. It's clearly just...

...um

Hang on, that's actually quite a good theory. Would kinda make all the fuss worthwhile, which the other theories tend to be sorely lacking. Can anybody dig up any evidence to prove/disprove?