Posts by Daniel Snowden

Beagle Bashing

To all the Beagle bashers who think that the landers budget caused its failure (obviously they've all been to Mars and inspected the debris) you forget other lost landers.

NASA scientists have been known to refer to the Mars Curse because of the planets ability to devour landers. In fact, Mars has the highest failure rate for robotic missions. (18 out of 37 attempts)

I expect that NASA is planning on using another Beagle lander as a test due to the missions high chances of failure (In the same way that a Pioneer probe was used to test the effects of Jupiters magnetic field and high radiation levels on the probes electronics)

It's like a high tech version of a Canary

Perspective

"It cost me 35 quid and is on pay as you go. I can ring people up on it and people can ring me. I can text and recieve texts and when I get bored there's a game called Nature Park that's a bit like Tetris. Actually it's a bit more like Columns that Tetris.

My only problem with it is that the little rubber bit on the back has peeled off, so it slides off the dashboard in the car when I set off and forget it's there. It's so irritating when that happens.

Am I losing perspective?"

No, if anything you probably have more perspective than most gadget fans.

(What can I say, I have an obsolescent Sendo that does the bare necessities and nothing more - Strange that one so young as I forsakes advanced technology)

Title

"I'm pretty sure you're screwed, whatever airliner you're in, if it crashes. As can be seen by this weeks earlier events, an aluminium jet shatters and burns at landing speed - I'd be surprised if a plastic plane would be any more dangerous."

Not quite screwed Nick,

If I remember correctly, there were a few survivors of the Thai plane crash a few days ago.

just probably screwed

They love their P2P

The Kazaa CTO? Wow, the BBC must really love their P2P technology.

They use P2P to cut distribution costs, in other words passing bandwidth costs on to the consumer. At least they won't be able to use spiraling bandwidth costs as an excuse to raise the license fee, again

Finally!

The flim-flams got what was coming to them.

Did they honestly think that this trumped up lawsuit would work? I believe Linus Torvalds put it best: "They must be smoking crack!"

Are they serious?

2.5G, wow! What a giant leap, backwards!

All this shows is that the iPhone is not ready for the UK market. With all the investment in 3G (and not to mention ludicrous amounts of money they paid for licenses) there's now a device that would have the ability to take advantage of it. Would be able to, that is, if Apple actually took the time to enable 3G rather than using the inferior technology that US cellcos are restricted to.

Still, I'd laugh if Apple tried to market the iPhone (in its current state) to S.Korea!

Kudos to Nintendo

They've taken a cheaper console with terrible graphics (compared to XBox360 and PS3) and with the addition of an innovative controller, turned it in to a big seller.

Maybe Sony could learn a thing or two from Nintendo. Especially since Wii development can be carried out on a gamecube development kit (with the addition of a WiiMote)

Compare that with the Cell processor - even John Carmack thinks it's difficult to develop for! (And ID have no plans to develop for PS3)

Doesn't inspire everyone

I'm not particularly excited at the idea of the UK carrying out its own manned missions. (at best, it'll be another bus to the ISS. At worst, it'll be a glory mission of no scientific value, like Chinas launches) Nor am I excited at NASAs proposed manned mission to Mars.

New Horizons - the first probe to survey Pluto and it's satellites (along with the Kuiper belt) I am excited about.

Manned missions get the public interested in space but it always wanes in the end. Those who are truly interested in space follow the unmanned (and much more interesting) robotic missions. Especially ones that go to the places humans can't reach.

But then again I would have been the kind of person who would have been more excited about Voyager then Apollo. (Both before my time, but even to this day I'm amazed by the insight the probes provided in to the outer solar system)

Way to go!

It's good to see the market share of IE dipping. Now please bear in mind that I'm not saying this as a Microsoft hater. Anyone who'd ever tried to get web sites to render properly on FF and IE will probably share my sentiment.

W3C compliant XHTML/CSS tends to render fine on Firefox. IE on the other hand tends to do some strange things.

Of course, to be fair, IE isn't as bad as it used to be. Thankfully I didn't have to develop in the days of IE4 and the much loved IE workarounds that (fairly) complex pages needed.

If only Microsoft would create a browser that actually follows the (W3C) rules!

On a more positive note...

This could discourage iPhone users from using MP3s as ringtones, saving the public from being exposed to mind/tasteless tripe every time the users phone goes off.

Then again, I doubt many chavs will have an iPhone, so the worst culprits wont be affected.

A life free of TV

"A one-time supporter of the BBC and the licence fee, I am now happy at the prospect of the BBC being 'privatised' because they simply will not behave properly."

The sooner the better. I expect that the BBC will continue to lobby for broadband internet connections to be subject to the TV license because of the BBC online presence (and the iPlayer) at the next charter renewal.

As a Linux user I could face the prospect of having to pay the BBC "protection money" for a service I cannot use. (I live in a property with TV users, so I'm stuck with the license, but the day will come when I won't have to pay the infernal TV tax for that incessant blabberbox. Just a shame that TV licensing tend to act like the Mafia, and terrorise those of us who choose not to watch TV)

Title

@Typical Kneejerk reactions

Posted Thursday 6th September 2007 14:45 GMT

"Wot he said.

The rest of you sound like are a bunch of namby pamby liberal doormats. Remember, England is a Christian country and long may she stay so. Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’, and be proud when you do so."

What a load of bigoted, right wing clap trap. England is not an exclusively Christian country. There are many Christians in this country, but there are also those of other religious beliefs and those of no religious beliefs.

I will not cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ because I do not believe in a God and that is my right in England, a free country! I am under no obligation to venerate anyones God or Gods.

Who loses?

Content providers and distributors start fighting over money. Who loses?

Answer: The customer

I'm not much of an apple fan, but at least iTunes runs on Mac & Windows, more than can be said for unbox. The only solution to this problem (which affects Mac users who are unable to use the BBC iPlayer) is to stop relying on Microsoft or Apples DRM, but to develop a 3rd party, platform neutral, system

Stupidity

Unfortunately these types of attacks will never go away. Users will always click on links without checking the address (like the phishing links, but that's actually 2 kinds of stupidity rolled in to 1)

Wetware - the weak link

Surprised?

Is anyone actually surprised by this? All this proves is that a leopard doesn't change it's spots.

iPlayer - Not A Big Deal

I installed the iPlayer on my laptop a while ago (a 2-3 year old laptop) and I'm not too impressed. It's very sluggish (4oD runs fine on the same machine) and to be honest, it only got used a few times before being uninstalled.

Furthermore, the P2P service could go over peoples monthly usage limits without them realising. This is a piece of software that operates in a very underhand way. Shame on you Beeb!

Pun

It's all gone off the rails! (Sorry)

Thankyou!

It may be a temporary respite, but be thankful for what you've got (e.g. 1 year without micro-celebrity big brother)

Work, Home, Work, Home?

By Ashley Pomeroy:

But the story doesn't suggest that this "dangerous woman" was incompetent, merely that she was overzealous, and took her work home.

Wouldn't that be "She took home to work?" (Unless her husbands underpants (and her husband) live in the lab?)

The 100 Year War

Ok not that long, but we're not going to know the outcome for a very long time.

Yes, BD seem to be outselling HD in terms of sales - but are High Definition format sales really very high?

Personally I think that DVD is going to be the dominant format for quite some time. Once High Definition becomes the norm we'll see a market where a lot of people have already made an investment in terms of hardware and won't be willing to buy new hardware. As a result, it doesn't matter who wins the format war, there will be a (potentially long period) where both formats are on sale.

Doomed!

49p per minute for incoming calls? I believe the jargon file sums this up best: "deserves to lose"

Pure profiteering at the expense of a captive audience.

Small screen

Small mobile phone screen vs 32" HDTV - No contest really.

Still, it's funny that content providers like Sky spend so much time promoting HDTV and now they're promoting the worlds smallest TV.

SCO Stock

Check the SCO (SCOX on the NYSE) share price graph, compare closing (Friday) compared with opening (Today) - Looks like their shares jumped out of a plane, without a parachute. They've dropped from around $1.50 per share to around $0.50 (last time I checked)

Cue the worlds smallest violin for Darl McBride.

A little truth?

Simple, to the point and true. Now if only other software vendors would follow suit...

Why's it related to Paris Hilton?

"but I don't see any reference to Paris Hilton in the article."

No, but then again it's a fairly pointless waste of our time... Just like Paris Hilton.

Tasteless!

I can guess the standard ringtone: "Bling, Bling!"

Time to break up the RAF

I wouldn't say that the RAF should be disbanded, but its responsibilities should be scaled back to a few, well defined, roles.

Control over most of the rotary wing aircraft should be handed over to the Army, especially over their transport shortage.

The RN should be allowed to operate heavier, fixed wing, aircraft. But this should be balanced on expected deployments. If we're expecting to fight more wars away from RAF bases then the RN should have larger air groups capable of striking enemy targets and providing air support.

And forget STOVL for the carriers - we need real (CATOBAR) carriers! (Fortunately the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers have a long enough flight deck. Aan angled landing strip and catapults can be installed afterwards if needed. There's a little forward planning on the part of the Navy there)

Only their TV sucks

Not long after the Sky dispute I canceled the (expensive) TV package I had with Virgin. Did I switch to Sky? No! Went back to freeview, it's amazing how little I used the service. (Granted I miss Discovery and the Sci-Fi on SkyOne but I might just start watching through iTunes)

X00 channels of dross with a little good content thrown in. (And the less said about the Sci-Fi channel the better!)

I'm still using their phone and (Cable) broadband service though. Besides DNS problems (which I resolve by using OpenDNS) the service is OK. Then again, having used AOL at home and BT in my Halls at Uni (they had an exclusive deal so I couldn't use an ISP of choice) anything looks good. Well that and I no longer trust ANYTHING that comes down a BT line!

Just a few problems with the iPlayer

First: It seems really sluggish. Granted, I'm using it an a laptop that's a few years old (Celeron 2.6GHz, 512mb RAM, winXP) but 4oD runs fine on the same machine.

Secondly: After browsing the content, I suddenly remembered how much dross is on the BBC these days (just about the only thing I've found that's worth watching is a rerun of life on Mars) - I tend to use 4oD much more then iPlayer.

So the players not too bad, just a shame there's very little that's actually worth watching.

Justice!

Is served!

Perhaps

You might be right Jon, then again what are Apples sales like now? Chances are that Apples strong sales figures were only at the launch (i.e. the hardcore Apple fanboys who queued outside the stores)

(Remember the strong PS3 sales which fizzled out not long after the launch?)

Already obsolete?

So lets see, to use this marvelous application you need 1) An outdated version of IE, running on 2) an outdated version of Windows

Not supporting Vista (at the launch) is really going to come back to haunt them - what do you think is pre-installed on almost all new (home) PC's?

And in response to Rich's question, since they are porting it to OSX (at some point in the future) it could be possible to port to BSD as Darwin (the core of OSX) is a BSD variant. But chances are they've used Cocoa and all the other OSX specific technology so you may as well forget about it.

I don't normally support ideas like this, but maybe someone should write a Linux/UNIX based DRM system? (There's no technical reason why it shouldn't work - just a human one)

Who's money?

"Why bother? Isn't this just a waste of the licence fee for the 3 people that will use it?"

If that's the case, then as as Linux user, shouldn't I get some kind of rebate on the license fee? Given that I pay for my TV License and find that I'm paying for a service I can't use. (And no doubt the license fee will skyrocket along with the BBC bandwidth costs)

Every day, the BBC starts to look like a bigger and bigger waste of money.

Oh Joy

So O2 has the iPhone contract? Looks like I'll have to brace myself for another round of O2 cold calls <sarcasm>Which I love oh so much!</sarcasm>