Posts by J-Wick

@BD vs. upscaled DVD

This is all true. But content drives purchases (at least for me). When most of what's being released these days is utter pants, why bother? I'm not particularly impressed with special effects, primarily because they're so overused. I'd actually be more tempted to buy an upscaling DVD player which would squeeze more life out of my existing DVD collection, rather than buying a BD player and then having to buy new BD films to enjoy it...

I'm an old fart when it comes to films anyway...

@bored

...one generally can't surf porn at work.

@What's the problem here?

He'd been 'less than truthful' - that could mean anything. Since you've been been through the immigration process, you know how intrusive it is - and also how ambigious some of the requests can be. And in this case, we don't know whether the police actually found anything significant, or whether they went through his application with a fine tooth comb looking for a reason to throw him out...

What if he went on a cruise and forgot the mention one of the places that he stopped at along the way? Even it it was somewhere perfectly innocent, that's 'less than truthful'. Or if he didn't have his financial records from 10 years prior and estimated his income at £5,000 for the year, when it was really £6,200? Normally that wouldn't matter, but in this case it would just what the police are looking for...

Assume that the police statement is phrased in such a way as to allow them to do what they want, with minimum protest from the public, and perhaps even anger towards the accused. Healthy skepticism is a good place to start from, and you can bet that the choice of words in the statement wasn't accidental...

View from the colonies...

I'm sure that making the BBC complete with Sky et. al. would force them to use their funds more effiiciently, but I suspect that it would only acclerate a 'race to the bottom' with reality TV shows & celebrity gossip masquerading as news. Basically what America has right now. Which makes me want to thump people.

I am surprised that AC couldn't find anything to listen to on their radio stations - the range is pretty broad. Pop, Rock, Jazz, classical, world, urban, sports, even Radio 4... :) What do you listen to, and what doesn't the BBC provide?

Heart cos I do love the Beeb, though I know it's not perfect...

Ha ha ha!

I know I shouldn't be, but I am highly amused by this. Epic lulz all round...

Re: The title

Well, technically sales can only drop once they've started - trying to say that the ancient Egyptians bought fewer handsets than the cavemen isn't really true because zero isn't less than zero...

ok, ok, I'm leaving...

@eddiewrenn

No, eddie - it's a Vol*vo* :)

@Kevin

Kevin - try Opera. It allows you to toggle Java, Javascript & plugins from a top-level menu ('Quick Preferences'). I'm sure you can add those functions to a button bar, too.

You can also toggle images from the button bar. If you're used to Firefox, you of course may not want to change, but if quick toggle of plugins, etc is very important to you, it might be worth a look...

Pidgin vs. Trillian...

Hmm.. Trillian does look interesting - used it a while ago. Kopete looks ok. Horses for courses, I suppose, and you stick with what you're used to. I'm slowly moving to Ubuntu (cue collective eye-roll), hence I'd need a tux-friendly client.

Though what does make Pidgin suck, and how do the developers dictate how things should be rather than trying to be useful? Do you have any examples? What do your IM clients do better than Pidgin? I'd be interested to know - I may end up changing :)

Dead bird, obvious choice really :)

Re: Amazing...

Yeah, the big plus of PCs (and, if you think about it the reason that MS Dos/Windows was as much an incredible achievement as it is now a pain in the arse), is the ability to mix & match hardware. With a desktop, you can slowly upgrade, piece by piece, giving you great value for money on your original purchase.

I've tried to do the same with my Inspiron 8100, but have hit the wall (and would have hit it a lot sooner if they hadn't put a I394 port in it - it has USB 1.0 FFS!). Why buy a high end laptop for gaming - in two years it won't be top of the line any more, and it'll be hard to upgrade.

Plus those coffee-house chicks are going to be more impressed with the Mac user & his copy of Ulysses than your mad WoW skillz, anyway...

Googles gone wild?

How is she trying to cover her face? It just looks like a regular flash; caught at the wrong time...!

Not that I own any GGW videos...

Via my phone cos it's NSfW, and I'm at W right now...

@David Gosnell

So, she's not even an Eee PC user, then? That hussy! And why is she on the wine before the dinner's even in the oven? Put that glass down love, and get back to yer chopping board!

Re: Run over by the GTruck?

Have you *been* to New York? Let's not get carried away, here!

Subhead

I second Gruber's comment on the subhead. Genius.

Teegan...

I remember Teegan being an annoying American with a nice rack.

I *was* a teenager at the time though, so my standards were a lot lower.

Actually no, they're the same as they are now...

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

*sob*

@Secretgeek

Eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww......

@Marky W

"A Handbag?!!!!"

(My apologies, Mr. Wilde)

"Do What?"

I love that this was included in the quote. Closest thing in the UK would be a 'you wot?' response.

Re: Mark Ronson

Dan O'Donovan: I think 'Just' & 'Toxic' are very different from the originals - he definitely has creative input to the songs. His Radio 1 minimix was fantastic too. I think it depends on whether you think remixers or DJs (or perhaps conductors) are 'musicians' or not...

Gordon Pryra: Wot is this, 4chan?

dervheid: You're right, I'm off to read that article & have a look at the comments. I think the mod-baiting in here is what's encouraging the large number of posts, though...

You're all missing the point here...

... I thought 'Ashlee' was a bird's name?

@Don Mitchell

"pouring disinformation about Windows and Linux into ever(y) commentary they can find that has no editorial control"

Oh, the irony.

Started playing around with Linux because I don't want be forced into Vista when my aging laptop finally dies. Had a similar experience to the AC whose machine booted with max video resolution & sound immediately after the install. Still having problems (WPA not set up), but it took me ages to set up in Windows, too.

It's not perfect, but it's very impressive. Next machine will be a from system76 with Ubuntu pre-installed.

Epic win!

More so for the fact that the pic isn't *really* NSFW - I clicked on it despite myself & was scrambling for the 'back' button when it loaded. Phew!.

"One should be careful of any law named after a person"

I've always thought that, too. I find it a little cynical when names of children (always girls) are attached to anti-drinking or anti-drugs laws...

/wonders what 'Paris' Law' would be...

Do mobes(tm) actually interfere with 'aircraft operations'?

I always thought that it was a ruse along the lines of 'no outside food' in cinemas. How exactly would phones interfere with planes? I've always wondered... Links to New Scientist articles or Mythbuster youtube clips greatly appreciated...

IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER...

Or is this more relevant to the deathray jumbo story..?

BH cos it kinda looks like the laser warning sign...

I don't know if it's been mentioned already...

But the Amiga wasn't an 8-bit computer. You must mean the C=64...

/gets coat with straight face...

@JeffyPooh

Really?! Perhaps the daytime playlist is a little small, but (I think) Chris Moyles & Scott Mills are both hillarious (which of course makes me an idiot in the eyes of El Reg's readership). And the evening DJs do play a great cross section of new music.

Anyway, if you think it's bad, imagine even more repetition & 20 minutes of commercials an hour. That's what US radio is like...

Try 4chan...

I would, but I'm at work, and would like to remain so.

http://www.4chan.org

Only click the link if you're not faint of heart, and have no web filter (or can clean it out afterwards)...

Finally - an appropriate use for the Paris icon!

This is why we read El Reg...

Not just for Paris comments. Keep it up lads.

J-W

Coolwhip?

So, is an 'aspirated "wh"' what Stewie was using when he asked Brian for the 'CoolwHHHip'?

Enquiring (sic) minds want two (sic) no (sic)...

Late-night radio....

I know no-one likes the Beeb round here, but I've gotta lot of respect for their evening & late-night DJs as far as good music & new bands to check out...

May buy NIN just for the hell of it!

What about Grooverider?

No hope, I'm sure. Pity. What's Fabio going to do in the meantime, though?

The *other* Googirl...

Wasn't there a search engine called 'Googirl' a while back?

Don't know what it would be used for because of course I never visited it myself....

Paris cos well... y'know.

Re: First?

Is this El Reg or Fark.com?

@Tom

You didn't just sneak in a reference to *that* site, did you?

What people will do for money these days....

Paris cos she's a perfect example...

Hopeful...

I live in the US (ex-pat) and would love to be able to download BBC TV shows. I'd even pay for them.

Did you hear that, Auntie?

I WANT TO GIVE YOU MONEY!

@Freddie

"The meta materials are such that light is actually curved around the object, so the observer sees the light from behind the object"....

... sounds like optical camouflage to me. Bring on the Tachikomas!

Ooooooh.

Oh, the humanity!

Anyway,

describing DAPRA as the "warboffinry bureau with deep pockets and a revolving door to the mad scientists' asylum" is sheer brilliance. Congrats, Mr. Page.