* Posts by Benchops

445 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Oct 2009

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Airline leaves customer on hold for 15 hours

Benchops
Black Helicopters

Re: Premium rate numbers

There are "new" 03* numbers which I've only just started seeing used (depite being announced in 2007)! They're quite good in that they're non-geographical and so allow the load-balancing and routing that most companies will claim is their reason for using 08* but the regulator says they must be treated as geographical numbers in terms of billing (so they'll be counted as credited minutes or free call time etc as if you'd called an 01/2 number). Revenue sharing is also banned. Of course we all trust the regulator to be able to enforce this ;)

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2007/02/13/ofcom-introduces-uk-wide-03-numbers/

Hubble spots ancient spiral galaxy that SHOULD NOT EXIST

Benchops
Holmes

What are the chances of that happening?

I'm too lazy to look up the numbers (and then learn statistics), but out of the (I assume) large number of galaxies that we have seen of around that age, what are the chances that one of those lumpy train-wrecks might just happen to look like a spiral galaxy? And why haven't we found one that looks like a Microsoft Surface? Oh wait, lumpy train-wreck.

Dell readies Linux Ultrabook for autumn release

Benchops
Facepalm

will only be "available in select geographies" ?

Like in a glacial valley or mountainous regions? Do they perhaps mean "countries"?

'Extreme' solar storm speeding straight towards Earth

Benchops
Big Brother

Re: X28 missed us mostly

> They say the chances are a million to one.

Ogilvy, the astronomer, says that.

Microsoft plots entry into tablet trade

Benchops
Mushroom

Re: Microsoft Hardware

Are we saying that Foxconn is behind the scenes, controlling the supply of "components" to two global rival camps, building up to a war that it cannot lose? When can we expect order 66?

Scots council: 9-yr-old lunch blogger was causing 'distress and harm'

Benchops
Holmes

Re: No photos in the canteen

Telescopic lens (paparazzzi style) to take a photo of dinner on plate whilst standing outside the canteen.

Updated MacBook Air sports tweaked SSD tech

Benchops
Boffin

But what I want to know is

How many SONGS can I fit on it (and how fast does the new interface allow me to listen to them)?

Space shuttle Enterprise makes final voyage – to New York

Benchops
Go

I saw it flying!

Around 1982. I was 10 and walking through town (Stockport) with a friend, who pointed up and said "Is that the space shuttle?". Sure enough it was (I later found out) the Enterprise strapped to the back of a Boeing 747 flying quite low. No-one ever believed us we saw the space shuttle flying overhead (including the man across the street we shouted at -- he refused to look up), but in more recent years I managed to track down that it had been at the Paris airshow, and had scheduled a fly-past at Manchester Airport. Still no-one believes me!

SpaceX Dragon SPLASHDOWN in Pacific! Private space triumph

Benchops
Thumb Up

I take your point -- the physical achievement has been done before, but it's who did it that's different.

Do you remember that awesome Pan-Am space clipper in the space-docking scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1m30s in to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpvOUnz4T7Q in case you don't)? That was the future of space travel as seen in 1968. 11 years late, but Dragon is the first one of those.

Space Station crew enter the Dragon

Benchops

What they really need

is a slogan on the side of the capsule. "We deliver to your door!" or similar.

Foxconn receives Apple smart TV order - report

Benchops
Thumb Up

It will only have one cable

A power lead (and probably a couple of thunderbolt sockets but you won't need to use them). The TV screen itself will be dedicated to showing a picture and thus won't need upgrading often (i.e. it's a very large but relatively low resolution monitor with viewing angles expected of a television). The little STB that sits in the cupboard and connects wirelessly will be doing all the connections, hard shifting and GUI. That will be on the 1-year release replacement cycle!

Just a guess, but they practically have all that already.

Not sure if it will have a Kinect stand on top.

New Brit nano-satellite to use Xbox Kinect for docking in space

Benchops

"I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours."

75,000 Raspberry Pi baked before August

Benchops
Devil

Re: “Pi sales have overtaken Arduino in an instant”

And don't all things that overtake do so "in an instant". I mean, there's one moment where they haven't overtaken, and the "next" moment they have.

Does anyone else thing that devil head looks more like a car (with a mouth) approaching?

Intelligence a genetic mistake

Benchops
Black Helicopters

Re: So I have to ask..

Event 1: Black monolith discovered by Moonwatcher and tribe in African desert.

(okay I know, if I'm going to call him Moonwatcher it should probably be a big crystal cube with lights in)

Ten... eight-bit classic games

Benchops
Headmaster

Ultimate Play The Game?

Any speccie geek (sinclair speccie, that is) knows that the company was called Ashby Computers and Graphics (A.C.G.). They just had a rather cool logo that said "Ultimate - Play the game"

Apple tells staff to 'capture' iPad 3s with Wi-Fi troubles

Benchops

What they will do is

slap a directable aerial on the side and send them back to the user. Jobs a good'n.

IT urine bandit fired and charged

Benchops
Facepalm

Re: What or who did he deem attractive?

A pedant? Reading the Register? Surely not.

Avoid flying next to blubberbeasts with seatmate-finding site

Benchops
Holmes

Re: Re: Ugh

> Interests: I love garlic and bean sandwiches

> Hobbies: Pig farming

> Which should guarantee ...

you get to sit next to a garlic and bean sandwich eating pig farmer

Japanese robot mirrors master’s movements

Benchops
Mushroom

Re: FTL/instant communication system

I believe CERN are working on it

Mars attacks! Morocco pelted with rocks from the Red Planet

Benchops
Mushroom

Expensive hardware lob tie-break resolved?

Okay, so it's not hardware (we think), but it /is/ expensive and it /is/ an interplanetary lob.

The current Earth-Mars scorecard (http://www.bio.aps.anl.gov/~dgore/fun/PSL/marsscorecard.html) doesn't have the Phobos-Grunt failure (maybe it was declared a no-ball?) but this might take Mars into the lead 21:20 !

Beeb rescues old Who episodes

Benchops
Mushroom

Reverse the polarity... etc.

We don't need time travel, just FTL travel (which may or may not mean the same thing). The original broadcasts are still dissipating out from the earth, all we need to do is overtake them and record /the original broadcast/ again.

Only problem will be when a ship finally makes it and picks up the signal, they won't know how to decode the analog UHF (VHF in early 60s?) signal to record it to their Domesday Project laser video disc. ;)

Steve Jobs' last design: New Apple HQ pics

Benchops
Go

That would be

the beta stargate. The alpha gate is in Cheltenham at GCHQ. Only three chevrons though -- gets as far as the moon.

Benchops
Trollface

Impressive spontaneous failure rate?

I believe you're thinking of the complex-curved toughened glass used in Redmond.

GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search

Benchops
Happy

6031769

(and obligatory letters)

Hero dev writes the CODE that COULD SAVE THE WORLD

Benchops

And how to destroy one...

As Arthur C Clarke famously said, The reasons the dinosaurs became extinct is because they didn't have an effective space programme.

Are we going to send up a Soyuz and hope it explodes nearby?

Neutrinos still FASTER THAN LIGHT in second test

Benchops
Mushroom

Going back in time?

Clearly the neutrinos that arrived too fast in the first experiment were actually the ones from this second experiment going back in time.

Have they tried reversing the polarity of the neutrino flow?

Think your CV is crap? Your interview skills are worse

Benchops

Easy

Just say "When I was a cat I found I *did* have the capability to become any animal so I chose to be a human, as you can clearly see." (optional: roll eyes)

Angry Bird rockets into spa-a-a-a-ce!

Benchops

Dangerous

Imagine if that thing hit anything delicate!

El Reg in email address blunder

Benchops

Lieutenant Data

data@theregister.co.uk... he would never make such a mistake.

The iPhone 4S in depth: More than just a vestigial 'S'

Benchops

A5 processor twice as powerful as the A4?

And presumably only half the size. Still, they must have had to fold it a bit more to fit it in an iPhone.

Ten reasons why you shouldn't buy an iPhone 5

Benchops

index

bloody C programmers

Ten... Androids to outshine the iPhone 4S

Benchops

Surely most of them will only be queuing for

the new micro USB converter?

Mac security update leaves users open to ugly Flashback

Benchops
Alert

If Steve Jobs was still in charge...

they'd fix it by disabling anything claiming to be a Flash installer

Mole says Apple A5 chip runs too hot for iPhone

Benchops
Meh

Size?

The reason the A5 chip is in the iPad and not the iPhone is obvious. iPads are bigger than A5 and iPhones are smaller than A5.

Adobe resuscitates 64-bit Flash for Linux

Benchops
Holmes

Redeployment

It'll be all the Adobe iOS developers suddenly having had nothing to do.

Atlantis computer goes down: Fixed by 'nauts

Benchops
Flame

What no astronaut wants to hear:

"I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours."

Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made

Benchops

Well crafted book

The (main) twist effectively happens on the ambiguity of one sentence in the middle of the book (I'm not going to say which one for spoiler's sake). I remember thinking "but wait! he said..." and going back and realising what it really meant!

I don't think the flashbacks would be too challenging these days (Lost had a recognisable incidental noise to alert you to flashbacks), and Slaughterhouse 5 is surely the daddy of all mixed chronology stories and still made a great (if odd) film.

Having said that, I'd prefer to see Matter or even Inversions as a film.

Recommendation for Culture entry point: Player of Games.

+1 for the hat special edition idea!

Apple sued over iPhone location tracking

Benchops
Jobs Horns

Have Apple sued Google

for copying their location tracking file idea?

Benchops

Dr

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

Koran-burning 'pastor' loses website

Benchops
WTF?

Hitler not religious?

Then why did he pursue with great passion both the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail?

Solar plasma aurora storm to hit Earth tomorrow today!

Benchops
Coat

You will see

clouds

Steve Ballmer's Windows 7 dance party

Benchops
FAIL

NT4 Server

"Faster reboots to deliver more uptime"

Broadsheet ad strapline I kid you not.

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