Re: stuck in my head
Mahna mahna.
Posts by Swarthy
2412 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009
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It's a scientific fact: Online comment trolls are sadists
One good thing from the Flappy Birds crapp flap: It's a handy 'tech' media rating system
Friends don't do tech support for friends running Windows XP
Monday 10th February 2014 15:42 GMT
@David Cantrell
I'm a bit of the opposite. For Friends & family, I'll try to help with *NIX, Windows, set-top Boxes, phones, robotic sheep, etc. But Nothing with a fruity logo. Friends with Apple gear get picked on, family with apple gear get referred to my sister, who does work on Apple stuff professionally.
In a workplace environment I will give Apple support my best shot, but like with the Robotic sheep, I am not an expert and most of my efforts follow the XKCD Tech Support Cheat Sheet
Monday 10th February 2014 15:26 GMT
Assuming everyone here is like me (Big assumption, I know) When I am at work, or at a conference I wear my "Professional" hat. I don't slag off on companies or products. I will, at most, offer an opinion of features or aspects of a product.
With friends or on El Reg Fora, I am wearing my "informal" hat, and can vent spleen, wax hyperbolic, and condemn the developers of a product to the eternal flames for missing a trivial feature that I happen to like.
Renault unveils mini-SUV equipped with a QUADCOPTER DRONE
Snowden documents show British digital spies use viruses and 'honey traps'
Jean Michel Jarre: Je voudrais un MUSIC TAX sur VOTRE MOBE
Friday 7th February 2014 15:34 GMT
Re: You must be teabagger
Actually, this exchange here explains so much about why a lot of Americans hate "Socialism".
This kind of thought: "Tax everybody and funnel the funds into the hands of a few to distribute 'rightly'." is endemic to our Democrat party (the Republicans just want to tax everybody, without any pretense of Fairness). Sadly the distribution entity usually forgets the 'rightly', and occasionally forgets the 'distribute'.
The politicians call this practice Socialism when it goes wrong. They then say that it's evil and we shouldn't do that, and they would never stoop to 'Socialism'. They then kill (or rename) the program that was 'Socialist'... and do it again.
fWHoaR! Researcher crack eternal mystery of what women want in a man
Canadian spookhaus says airport Wi-Fi slurp didn't invade privacy
US feds want cars conversing by 2017
Tuesday 4th February 2014 13:26 GMT
Re: Privacy? Easy.
Also, your position and direction and speed are public knowledge already (to anyone who uses their eyes) so broadcasting this info digitally is no big deal.
Yes, but with a persistent (registered) ID broadcast along with your speed, the police would only need to set up 'listening posts': no need for speed cameras, just log the data flow and file the tickets.
That's the trick about "expectation of privacy in public" - Anybody can observe what you are doing, it gets creepy when they record what you are doing. It gets very creepy when they follow you around all day notating your activities at all times.
Bletchley Park spat 'halts work on rare German cipher machine'
This THREESOME is a HANDFUL: It’s the Asus Transformer Book Trio
Monday 3rd February 2014 14:33 GMT
Re: Linux
I am not a corporate whore; I am an Enterprise Courtesan.
As was said above, the really nifty thing about this is the integration 'twixt Windows and Android. I would love to see this done with Debian/Android, if the integration was as tight as (or tighter than) what was described in the review.
ISS astronauts to grow tomatoes and rice …. IN SPAAAAACE
Friday 31st January 2014 19:59 GMT
Re: Of course they are safe.
So you are an expert on botanical development, and you know that gravity plays no part in what substances end up in the root, versus the leaves, versus the stem?
I admit it's long odds that micro-gravity would cause a tomato fruit to be toxic, or a potato's tubers; but I think it would ruin any space-farer's day to find their ketchup & chips spiked with atropine.
Friday 31st January 2014 11:53 GMT
Re: Of course they are safe.
>>You have obviously never worked with any sort of space based plant research --- small variations in the concentrations of chemicals in the plants and their seeds/fruits can turn something which is perfectly harmless (and quite tasty) on Earth into something quite poisonous in space.
>Give me ONE single example of this.
Their next batch of test subjects: the Nightshade Family (Bell peppers and tomatoes) which grow some fairly interesting alkalies in the leaves & stems, if the micro-gravity causes them to produce the alkalies in the fruit, we may have a problem. If not, I'm guessing the next research plant will be potatoes; to see how micro-gravity affect tubers. Also to verify the Nightshade findings, as potatoes are also a member)
Tell us we're all doomed, MPs beg climate scientists
Snowden: Canadian spooks used free airport WiFi to track travellers
US government names new head of NSA and US Cyber Command
Sprint to buy T-Mobile US? Not so fast, says antitrust official
Friday 31st January 2014 11:39 GMT
NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!
Please do NOT let this happen. T-mobile(US) has already done wonderful things for the US cellular consumer. Sprint has been doing horrible things to the US cellular consumer.
Right now the 4 major celcos break down thusly:
- Verizon has mediocre customer service, but outstanding coverage, Price is a little high than the others (700 min/3GB/unlimited texts: ~$80/month)
- AT&T has mediocre customer service, mediocre coverage, and mediocre price (unlimited text/talk/4GB ~$110/Month)
- Sprint Has piss-poor customer service, mediocre coverage, and mediocre price(unlimited text/talk/5GB ~$110/Month)
- T-Mobile has outstanding customer service, poor (but improving) coverage and are trying their damnedest to break up the pricing, including getting the other three to acknowledge PAYG. (yes, those prices above are with a contract)
Boffins build electronic tongue that can distinguish between BEERS
Friday 31st January 2014 10:47 GMT
Re: American beer?
@ sisk: Oh, dear Bob! What state are you in, so I can make sure to avoid it. It sounds even worse than Maryland.
The Craft brewing in the states is taking off, and even the Coors/Miller/Bud "Big Boys" are getting craft-y, with small experimental batches. We are getting tired of being the country everyone picks on for beer. Having said that, over 50% of our beer consumption is the Crap CMB, love-in-a-canoe, horse piss.
HARD ONES: Three new PC games that are BLOODY DIFFICULT
Thursday 30th January 2014 17:29 GMT
ZOMBIE CRUSH SAGA STORY RUN CRAFT!
Behold the title to my million dollar making game! And I will sue the pants off of anybody who infringes on my hard work and intellectual property by using any part of it in any other game, even if they used it first! And I will sue them twice as hard if it comes out between now and whenever I get around to actually making the game, because obviously, they stole my IP and are trying to do an end-run so they can get the money.
David, being a El Reg Commentard, has the right to use it this once.
IT executive at JP Morgan dies in fall from bank's London HQ
UK internet filtering shouldn't rely on knee tappers, says Tory MP
This tool demands access to YOUR ENTIRE DIGITAL LIFE. Is it from GCHQ? No - it's by IKEA
WORLDWIDE SELFIE: Cosmonauts finally get ISS cameras working
Behold the world's first full-colour 3D printer
Tuesday 28th January 2014 20:21 GMT
Re: "...mixes materials..."
Movable Type printing is a wonderful niche technology, but the over-hype is deafening (to the point of being stupid). It takes so long to sort out all of the fiddly little tiles and put them in the right place, you could write the same page three times over. And they don't even do Illuminations!
Add to that that the tiles have to be re-aligned every so often, and I don't see this ever catching on.
Google bus protests are Kristallnacht against the rich – tech VC legend
Tuesday 28th January 2014 16:47 GMT 
Wow, So Reg readers come in two flavors: The Rich and The Poor? Are we are all either lighting cigars with 50 dollar/pound notes, or scavenging the next meal from the gutters and dumpsters? In all of the above comments there has not been one nod to the middle ground. Admittedly, the article glossed over anyone of median income, but the Commentards are usually better than this.
Here's a suggestion: If someone goes to work and gets a paycheck (even if it's signed by themselves) they are not a member of the 1%; they are not "Rich". Anyone (including the doddering old fool from the article) trying to equate the Google employees to "The One Percent" Is using a strawman.
If you are earning a paycheck, you are getting screwed; the paycheck is simply the lube. If you do not earn a paycheck, you are either getting shafted with no lube, or you are a shaft-er, the difference is obvious in how they walk.
CERN boffins fire ANTI-HYDROGEN BEAM
Microsoft empties a can of BUG SPRAY on Visual Studio 2013, hands sticky result to devs
Display tech based on EYEBALLS could reduce teens' mobe-fiddling
Hey, G20. Please knock it off with the whole tax loophole thing - we're good guys, really
Almost everyone read the Verizon v FCC net neutrality verdict WRONG
Wednesday 22nd January 2014 14:18 GMT
Re: An important point...@ Bob Camp
I also have Verizon FIOS, and am ~90% happy with them, but I have noticed that I cannot (reliably) run Netflix in HD, even on a 50Mb service. I frequently find myself setting it to non-HD to mitigate over-frequent buffering and lapses in play. I have also noticed when watching You-Tube videos on my cell phone that the 4G is faster than my WiFi. 4G should not be able to beat 50Mb.
File downloads and webpages are usually quite brisk, and I have no other complaints; but yeah, they throttle the Hell out of streaming video.
Microsoft buries Sinofsky Era... then jumps on the coffin lid
Friday 17th January 2014 14:39 GMT
Re: It's not difficult to _Learn_
Either way, I have to scroll past SQL Developer to get to Civ, and think "I could be doing work, and getting paid for this time" , or I have to scroll past Civ to get to SQL Dev, and risk not making it.
Yes, I know this is admitting poor impulse control, verging on ADD, but I have developed a system to work with it. Win 8 tiles break that system.
Thursday 16th January 2014 16:52 GMT
It's not difficult to _Learn_
It's difficult to use.
I do not have a touch screen on my laptop, or my desktop. I like hierarchical folder structures, especially for large collections that can be grouped thematically: Graphics, troubleshooting, IDEs, database 'stuff', and games. All of which I use on a fairly frequent basis, but scrolling thruo all of my games to get to SQL Developer... well, I might not make it. ("just a few minutes on SimCity...")
Also side-scrolling is widely held to be "Of the Devil"; and yet, that what the Start Screen uses for it's "menu".
It works on a tablet/touch screen, it fails on a non-touch device. so, yes, it is hard to use.
Cybercrooks slide fingers into TELLIES+FRIDGES, spam splurge ensues
Now we're cookin' on gas: Google crafts sugar-alert contact lens for diabetics
Mexican drink-driver shopped to cops - by his own gobby parakeet
Someone stole your phone? Now they'll have your STARBUCKS password – the horror!
Pint-glass-flashing FISHNAPPERS strike at Firefox daddy Mozilla
Thursday 16th January 2014 14:18 GMT
Re: Hmm sounds a bit fish flakey
It's obvious the fishnappers did it for the Halibut. That they were angling for better treatment for the fish is simple cod-swollop. Altho I do hope they feel mahi remoras-full about the fate of the wrappers in the news. Seeing the arrow of their ways, they will be beta behaved next time.
Optical filters head to Germany for Solar Orbiter build
Tech titan Bill Gates: Polio-free India one of the 'most impressive accomplishments' ever
Bloke hews plywood Raspberry Pi tablet
Dell staffers react to news of 1-in-3 axe dangling overhead
Monday 13th January 2014 18:51 GMT
I think these anecdotes are precisely what the bloodbath is all about. Micky Dell just got his company back from the Wall Street Money types, and is trying to return it to the high esteem it held while under his watch.
Boardroom practices of "increase profits by cutting down employees" has resulted in a sales team that is as useful as the Board Members were paying for, which is to say a chocolate teapot would have out-performed most of them. Now Dell needs to wield a machete, rather than a scalpel, to return to what we all remember.
Furtive ebook readers push Hitler's Mein Kampf up the charts
Microsoft to RIP THE SHEETS off Windows 9 aka 'Threshold' in April
Judge orders Yelp.com to unmask anonymous critics who tore into biz
Monday 13th January 2014 12:10 GMT
Re: Bit Backwards?
I read the article as them not offering the services that they were panned for. IE: Their window cleaning service was reviewed as shoddy, sub-standard work; but they don't do windows.
The other way, that they had no record of having the reviewers as clients does not make much sense, as I don't think you could supply an invoice to "Anonymous."
Don't panic! Japan to send nuke fuel rod into MELTDOWN in Fukushima probe
Friday 10th January 2014 16:05 GMT
Re: Expensive Renewables
"Nuclear is FAR from cheap, it costs a fortune to build, costs a lot to run(*) and costs a fortune to decommission once a site has reached EOL. The laughable part of this is that you and I are paying for all of this on the quiet via agreements between the government and the energy companies - and will continue paying long after the energy companies have trousered their profits and shut down old stations."
Well, let's break that down:
The "Fortune to build: yeah, they're not exactly cheap, heavy infrastructure, shielding, a bit more(say 5x) than your standard coal fired plant, but it produces 10x the power. However, the NIMBYs and "Greens" that sue nuke plants to delay them being built (so that it takes 40 years and counting of court time to simply respond to the never-ending onslaught, never mind actually any progress on building the damned thing) Make the plants rediculusly expensive.
Oh, and clean-up costs are paid, in advance during construction, into an escrow, managed by the Gov't. So yes, the Gov't is paying for the clean-up, much the way I paid for the coffee with the fiver my friend gave me for coffee.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
