Posts by Hayden Clark

41 Billion?

And why haven't the shareholders demanded some divvies? Apple is no longer a Silicon Valley startup, it's a megacorp like any other, and should be paying out as such.

Unfortunately, many SV companies seem to work on the principle of the Companies' share capital is the property of the company, not the shareholders, and see no need to provide any returns.

The value of any share is supposedly governed by the expectation of future profilts *for the shareholder*, so why people want to buy Apple shares when they perform as well as your mattress as an income sourece, I don't know.

It's huge

Too big for most car boots. Looks like it's bulkier than a bicycle as well, with the side-by-side wheels.

1.4Ghz dual core? 2GB RAM?

That would be ample to run, um, Windows XP :-)

TomTom also

TomTom had a problem a while back that new out-of-the-box satnavs sported USB storage auto-run malware. We were told it was all fixed up and solved. Then I sent mine away for repair, and it came back with a virus on it! So I guess the repair labs in Holland still had the infection knocking around.

Found their secred Earth base

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?layer=c&cbll=52.470818,-2.08665&cbp=13,177.82,,0,-22.5&ved=0CBUQ2wU&ei=w2GaS8j9Ode2sgbzop2-Aw&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cradley+Heath,+West+Midlands+B645BB,+United+Kingdom&t=h&panoid=0y2VSVcP3BWcWicQ-ITrPw&ll=52.470818,-2.08665&spn=0,359.999431&z=21

or

http://tinyurl.com/alienbase

Ludicrous ISO modes...

.. here seem to be useful. The ISO test shots show that the colour errors, instead of being random violently coloured splodges over the image, are a rather pleasing mosaic of colour - rather like very old-fashoned colour film. I can see some people shooting at 102400 ISO just to get that effect.

So it's ...

Wibbly-wobbly

timey-wimey...

...... stuff?

"Recode Word in .NET"?

You are kidding - much of the internals is unchanged from Word 97. As soon as you wander off the beaten track in the yukky ribbon thingy, up pops a dialog that I recognise from waaay back!

Has anybody looked at the Asus O!Play?

This claims a huge format compatability list. El Reg?

technology leaders != techies

Otherwise, what were "senior technology leaders that had access to core pieces of intellectual property, source code" be doing running IE?

Real programmers

have to make it work!

The challenge of making anything go at all is the greatest one in embedded developent - hence the focus on tools and emulators. Buggy compilers, crash-prone in-circuit emulators, invasive tethered debugging solutions are all part of the battle-scars of the experienced embedded software engineer.

There are still situations where the only tools you have are a PROM blower, an oscilloscope (or logic analyser - looxury!) and the most important tool of all, the big wobbly wet grey thing in your head.

So that's Hero 1 stuffed then..

... no Android 2.0 for you!

Good password tool

XYZZY makes "pronouncable passwords", which are much easier to type than random gobbledygook. It is thus easy to create and type 10 or even 12-character passwords.

e.g:

litfulportne

phreplewaint

cordantishus

Get it from http://www.brothersoft.com/xyzzy-for-windows-download-90643.html

The original Haxial.com link no longer works.

Ericsson T28 and T39

.. had a stubby sticky-out aerial at the top of the case. If you were on a call for a while, the earlobe in contact with the aerial would feel particularly hot. I wonder If my left ear will become a great cancerous cauliflower in later life?

Pressure from the GSMA/3GPP?

Maybe the Indian government had a little chat with the IP-holders for GSM technology, that have almost certainly not been paid for the chips in the phones? If the manufacturers were members of GSMA, they'd be able to get real IMEIs allocated.

Grr - fake "review" sites!

What the shopping comparison sites have utterly broken is the ability to type "<product I'm thinking of buying> review" into the search box, and actually turn up reviews of the product. All you get are page after page of shopping sites, each with either "review" in the title, or containing a link that says "no review - click here to write one. Worse, try "<obsolete product on eBay> review" and you turn up dead pages from the same shopping sites!

Capacitors to boost alkalines?

I invented this years ago :-). Put a low-leakage electrolytic across the cell of an analog quartz clock, and you get much more life out of the cell. The mechanism draws power in pulses once a second, and the cap provides the pulse instead of the cell.

Flak

It's FLAK, not flack! As in the anti-aircraft fire in WW2. WW1 Algy's called it ack-ack or archie.

So, "taking flak" is taking multiple shots from a wildly-spraying machine-gun operated by an enemy.

/pedant

Real reason will be revealed when it's turned on

The initial justification is anti-terror.

The anti-pervert justification will then get invoked.

In use? It will get used for what it's really for:

1) Sniffing out dissent, organised protest and investigative journalism amongst UK citizens, and

2) Copyright enforcement.

with 2) being the source of the bribes for voting it in.

Screen readers?

As soon as you dump the Windows standard UI resources, screen readers can't see the menus, making the program inaccessable for blind users, or users that have to use something else but a mounse and keyboard to interact with the app. It's just the usual arrogant eye-candy, in other words.

Relax...

... and enjoy your shoes!

NiMH is the way to go

See

http://jcwinnie.biz/wordpress/?p=2033

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

That's why everybody is pissing about with dangerous, expensive Lithium cells for e-cars. We should have been driving about in electric cars for years by now.

Lets outsource THEM not US...

.. is how management work. Instead of looking at the largest block of cost, they look to cut the department that a) doesn't contain their direct staff b) contains no "talent" c) contains none of their friends - i.e., none of US.

So, admin, HR, "corporate", they will be relatively untouched.

I bet IT is a relatively small part of the overall outgoings, but as the execs don't know what it does, they assume it isn't important.

Cable needs paying for?

It's already been paid for by the investors who were wiped out by the bank's debt-for-equity swaps that were used to keep NTL afloat. So VM doesn't actually have the vast cost of the cable network on its books, AIUI.

USB = useless for hard drives

The problem with USB is the Mass Storage mode. It requires a special driver (not always available in pre-boot and rescue disk environments) and the implemetation in the built-for-a-penny controllers can be pants. One I know of barfs after transferring a few 10's of Gigs.

eSata drives look like on-board drives to most rescue/recovery environments, either by directly using the SATA interrface in IDE mode, or using the BIOS.

Why is this important? Because portable drives are often used for backup, so need to reliably and quickly store BIG piles of data, and have to work in some kind of pre-boot environment to perform a restore.

Missing off eSata connectors on high-end or corporate machines is pretty criminal, really.

"Oh, look! We got caught!"

"The DVLA today said such use was "inappropriate" and it was "urgently investigating" ".

HA!

Lawsuit!

The investors who put up the money for the fund need to sue the managers for incompetence. After giving them a good going-over in an alley. A mutual fund, in particular, has no right to piss the member's money away just for dot-com bragging rights.

@unlimited

Oh, and for real Web2.0 cred, not only do you print out the screen shot and photograph it, but you post it on Flickr!

Printers

That's what kills Linux in the non-techy home. Printers. If you can't just plug the CanopsonMark multi-function that everybody has in to it, and print a page in a minute or so, it is "broken" for the domestic user and will get returned.

When's the last time you saw a manufacturer CD with .debs, .rpms and tgzs on it?

Adblock? NoScript?

No? Back to Firefox, then....

Time for the ISP to get involved

Since virtually all malware is internet-sourced in some way, most "internet security" packages are actually internet filters. There is no technical reasons preventing:

1) The ISP implenting malware detection in all inbound IP streams, and

2) Using simple heuristic detection methods to spot infected PCs.

No such thing as "free" classical music

1) Any performance you hear will be recent enough to be copyrighted. The *performance* has its own copyright.

2) Any sheet music you see will have been re-issued by a music publishing house, so the edition you have is copyrighted, and can't be copied even if the composer died centuries ago. (this is the music version of copytheft).

Only if you can find sheet music more than (70? 100?) years old, can you freely copy and perform. Really. Don't throw those old hymn-books out!

Isn't the DPA a "law"

Meaning that breaking it is a "crime".

And when the police find out that a "crime" has been committted, doesn't the CPP get involved?

Leading to convictions, fines, jail time etc?

So why *is* the DPA never enforced?

So if customers have "no alternative office suite"...

... shouldn't the DoJ get involved? Price controls on MSOffice? enforced license-free interoperability docs?

Yeah.....

"increase anxiety about online services among customers"

There, That's the real, only reason for the secrecy.

USB power

Too many of these 2.5" drives take more than 500mA on spin-up, killing some laptop USB interfaces. Most people have no clue about this, and won't bother plugging in both cables.

A properly-designed unit would first check for sufficient power being available, or use a drive with modified firmware that would spin-up much more slowly.

Safety issues

It's a lovely idea - very ingenious. Being able to use it folded is brilliant. If they ever sold one, I'd buy it like a shot.

However. It would fail approval in the UK due to the finger access issues.

1) You can use it in a standard socket with the live and neutral pins in position, but with the finger shield still folded.

2) In "compact" mode, the live pin would be too accessable.

The pins are shrouded which might improve matters - someone nearer to the approvals process could say if this shrouding on modern plugs means that the minimum faceplate dimensions are now smaller.

Maybe if the shroud folded forwards it would be a goer?

You used to be able to get a plug with folding pins - but the manufacturer stopped making them.

Token, sticky label...

... PIN written on sticky label.....

Taxi/train/bus.

These people have no clue.

Battery Technology?

I wonder if they're stumping up for the licence for big NiMh cells?

"Automatic"

... er, only on a PC that has autorun enabled. Which, nowadays, should be relatively few.

Outsource the porting work

... this will ensure that

int getDataIntoBuffer(socket * src, void * buff)

WON'T get changed to

int getDataIntoBuffer(socket * src, void * buff, int bufLen)

and ALL the structures that contain buffer pointers WONT have corresponding buffer lengths added.

and whenever a buffer is reallocated ALL the buffer length values WON'T get updated.

If you've underquoted for the work - you'll just be memcpy_s(src,len,dst,len)'ing with the best of 'em.

Oh yes.

And then we download the new secure "patched" version.

Bent garages

... and don't forget the ready market in "reconditioned" cells, and a mysterious shortage of house bricks near replacement stations. After all, you can't drive back to the place to complain you ran out of juice too soon, can you?

however....

... the featured rant is the only useful comment in the code. Otherwise, it's "self-documenting"

Time is ticking on this one

Simply because the prior art is back from the Dawn Of Computing (tm), and the bright, young students and post-grads that invented it all are now getting on a bit. If Microsoft can spin this out for long enough, nobody who remembers working on this stuff will still be alive!

Real drivers

.. don't drive at a constant 56mph. They overtake, get caught behind trucks, get bored, are in a hurry. As a result, there's a deal of speeding-up and slowing-down being done all the time, even on the motorway. I think you'll find that a mid-size saloon uses less than 50HP to trundle along on the flat, so with a bit of regenerative braking and a small amount of surplus, the batteries should be being topped up even when cruising.

The efficiency gain is because a) the engine always runs at peak efficiency and b) you aren't wasting energy in a slushmatic when yoou accelerate.

The 40mile range means that 80% of us can get to work without starting the engine at all.

A new problem

To be fair - it's only in the last 5 years or so that professional digital SLRs have been high-enough res with sufficient sensitivity to catch 10pt Times New Roman from 15ft without a tripod ;-)

Intel still don't get embedded

... ever since they did a "low power" 386-based system-on-chip for the Nokia 9000. Embedded devices need the *latest* fabrication technology, with low-power, low leakage chips, with trinky-dink power management schemes. Not some desktop/laptop castoffs.

Rememer, the Atom's 4W TDP is over an amp out of a 3.6V Lithium cell!

Published ideas

Suurely, if an idea is "published" - and a presentation of the idea to a random group of people constitutes "published" - a patent is impossible? The instant of publication is the date of the prior art that invalidates the patent.