* Posts by Graham Marsden

6899 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jan 2007

United Nations: 'Overpopulated Earth? Time to EAT BUGS'

Graham Marsden
Boffin

Re: Nutritional

Perhaps you've not heard of Louis Pasteur? The guy who discovered that heating something to 70 degrees for 10 seconds (ie cooking it) killed harmful microbes...

Graham Marsden
Boffin

@RonWheeler - Re: Or...

"The overpopulation problem doesn't exist".

Of course it does, but you appear to be offering the solution of eliminating the breeders by some form or other instead of *educating* people which history has shown to be an effective way to be the way to reduce reproduction rates.

'Ring of fire' eclipse to burn Australia

Graham Marsden
Mushroom

Don't want a Ring of Fire?

Lay off those hot curries, then!

Secret UN 'ZOD' climate deliberations: UK battles to suppress details

Graham Marsden
FAIL

Re: And yet the warmologists will defend them

Just to let you know that I've downvoted you because you're being as arrogant as the people you're decrying.

For more details, please contact my solicitors, Messers Pott and Kettle-Black...

Self-assembling robot inches towards WORLD DOMINATION

Graham Marsden
Terminator

Soon, fleshy ones...

... soon!

TV gesture patent bombshell: El Reg punts tech into public domain

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

More gestures...

.... One palm on centre of chest, other above it, make rapid pressing motions: Find me a hospital drama.

Finger rotated in a cirdle next to temple: I want to watch a programme like Jackass or Mr T's Craziest Fools

Finger inserted into mouth, head bowed forward: I want to watch X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent or Big Brother

PS [Smug Mode]Thanks for the mention :-) [/Smug Mode]

Politically-correct 'Fairphone' goes on pre-sale next week

Graham Marsden
WTF?

What does this have to do with "political correctness"?

PC is simply mindless avoidance of "offensive" terms or, at least, in the view of some idiot, words which could conceivably cause offence to someone of a particular racial/ religious/ whatever group, and usually done without even *asking* people from that group whether or not they'd be offended.

I see nothing in this that has anything to do with PC.

Russian geologist claims finding chunks of Tunguska Event invader

Graham Marsden
Alien

I've been looking for that...

...everywhere!

Xrp!ltich the Rplatzian

Google Glass eye-cam to turn us all into right little winkers

Graham Marsden
Childcatcher

@AC - Re: @Crisp - Seriously? People think this is all going to be OK?

Right, because *no* cameras should be allowed anywhere in public for fear that they might capture the image of a child...

Graham Marsden

@Stevie - Re: @Graham Marsden @LinkOfHyrule - Seriously? People think this is all going to be OK?

If you are doing something in a public space you have *no* right to expectation of privacy!

However I do agree that there should be stronger penalties applied to people using any "distracting technology" whilst in control of a vehicle. If you do something stupid which hurts you, that's your problem. If it hurts someone else, that's a legal problem.

Graham Marsden
Boffin

@LinkOfHyrule - Re: Seriously? People think this is all going to be OK?

"Might as well just let David Cameron install a webcam in my toilet and be done with it"

No, the correct comparison would be *you* installing a webcam in your toilet. Nobody is forcing you to wear these glasses.

Scramjet X-51 finally goes to HYPER SPEED above Pacific

Graham Marsden
Boffin

Remember Lasers?

When they were first invented they were referred to as "A solution in search of a problem".

How did that work out?!

Star Trek: The original computer game

Graham Marsden

Re: I remember...

I don't recall animated phasers, but when you fired a photon torpedo a little blob did run across the screen and hit the Klingon with an asterisk shaped explosion :-)

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

I remember...

... playing this on an 8k Commodore Pet!

Anonymity ZUCKS: Facebook's Instagram to switch on face tagging

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

Well...

... here's a pic of John xxxxxx pi$$ing up against a wall. Oh and here's Jenny yyyyy throwing up into a rubbish bin after getting drunk.

And here's a picture of Terry zzzz and Andy aaaaaaa caught comparing the sizes of their cocks...

So when you said you wanted References for them, which company did you say you worked for?

No, I can't see anything that could go wrong with this.

Tiny fly-inspired RoboBee takes flight at Harvard

Graham Marsden
Black Helicopters

Prior art from Judge Dredd...

... Spy in the Sky microdrones

So long, Hotmail: Remaining users migrated to Outlook.com

Graham Marsden

@Trib Re: Hotmail - for El reg ID's

Or you can turn off the ads with NoScript and Adblock Plus.

And if it's something his system, it's something with mine as well (running Firefox) because when I first try going into it and try to click on anything it's "oops, no, not going to do anything yet, still loading lots of crap, wait five seconds and then try again and maybe the whole page will have loaded..."

UK.gov's love affair with ID cards: Curse or farce?

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

@Caff Re: Will be forced on us

No, that's not a *need*, that's an excuse.

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

@william 10 Re: ID cards - good, database - bad

Do I need to produce ID to travel in a taxi? No.

Do I have to pay for my train ticket with a card (or produce a card to get permission to buy one)? No.

Do I have to purchase a non-anonymous Oyster Card to travel in London? No.

I *can* do these, if I wish, but that's my *choice*, it's not an obligation.

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

@I think so I am? Re: Bad ideas never die...

You are not required to carry a passport or National Insurance card simply to prove that you have the right to walk down the street.

It has long been a principle of English Common Law that you have the right to "Go about your lawful business without let or hindrence" ("let" meaning needing permission).

ID cards could (and very probably would) be used to infringe this right.

Want to know what CIA spooks really think of spy movies and books?

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

"it simply doesn't portray the shadowy world of intelligence effectively"

And if it did, do you think they'd *say* so?

"Oh, yes, that's a perfectly accurate depiction of the way we do XYZ, so all our enemies will now know what we do and be able to develop ways to stop us..."!

Gaming app ENSLAVES punter PCs in Bitcoin mining ring

Graham Marsden
Holmes

"unauthorized actions of this unauthorized individual"

The cynical part of me reads that as "fall guy"...

EFF report identifies which internet firms 'have your back' on data

Graham Marsden
Trollface

"gold stars...

"...(a curiously child-like scoring system, in this hack's opinion)"

Points at the Michelin Guide: "They started it!!"

Oz volcano's lava lake spills from crater

Graham Marsden
Pirate

What a perfect place...

... for my secret underground base from which I will rule the world!

Mwahahahaaa!

One of the world's oldest experiments crawls towards a fall

Graham Marsden
Unhappy

Re: Worlds Oldest Experiment?

Damnit, I know i've seen a programme featuring the experiment you mention, but I *cannot* find a reference for it!

IIRC it's an experiment in the diffusion of liquids using two 10' long (or some such size) vertical tubes, I think the top one had copper sulphate in and the bottom one was water. The experiment is to see how long it will take before both tubes are an identlcal colour and it had been running since the 19th century.

My recollection was that it was in a chemistry lab at Oxford or Cambridge but my google-fu has let me down :-(

Anyone else remember this?

Budweiser's bonkable Buddy Cup brings Facebook to the pub

Graham Marsden
Pint

Shay...

... yer my besht mate, buddy, knowatimean...

Malwarebytes declares Windows 'malicious', nukes 1,000s of PCs

Graham Marsden
WTF?

@Ledswinger - Re: This is not rocket science...!

"Quite seriously, if they aren't charging, is it reasonable to expect much in the way of testing (or development, or anything, really)?"

I would ask "Are you serious?" but you appear to be...!

If someone is offering a product which is designed to protect your computer from software which may damage it, but which has been inadequately tested and so *causes* damage to your system, then they cannot simply disclaim liability for that failure by saying "well, it was free, so people shouldn't expect it to work properly"!

More importantly, the idea of the "free product" is to get people to sign up for the paid product, so making such a monumental cock-up as this is liable to damage confidence in your business and mean they go to another, more reliable, supplier.

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

This is not rocket science...!

How can any anti-virus company release an update without comprehensive testing on a range of machines with various generally expected software configurations to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen?

US House of Representatives passes CISPA by 288-127

Graham Marsden
Facepalm

Warning - Red Herring Alert!!! Re: What I don't understand...

Brilliant: Any discussion about the actual subject of this article is now liable to be dragged off-topic by pointless ranting about America's Gun Laws!

Please Do Not Feed The Troll!

UK's first copyright swap-shop for cat pics (etc) still yonks away

Graham Marsden

@AC Re: BBC

"I'd be negotiating the rights properly rather than just sending it in free."

The problem is that most people don't realise that, by sending stuff into the BBC, they're effectively giving it to them for free in perpetuity, let alone have any idea *how* to negotiate the rights properly.

Of course it's not in the BBC's interests to tell them about this...

Apple branded porno-peddling perverts by Chinese Pravda

Graham Marsden
Alert

I must immediately...

... check out these 198 sites to see *just* how disgusting they are...!

US Justice Department pushes for fairer spectrum auctions

Graham Marsden
Thumb Down

"the highest bidder will make the greatest use"

Unless (for reasons best known to itself) the regulator decides that the highest bidder has bid *too* high, won't be able to keep up their payments and declares the second highest bidder the winner!

This happened way back in 1990 when TVS (who held the ITV franchise for the south of England) massively outbid the competition but the ITC decided that they wouldn't be able to pay that amount and gave it to Meridian!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_South#Loss_of_Franchise

Are biofuels Europe's sh*ttiest idea ever?

Graham Marsden
Coat

"more efficient cars which use turbo boost"

You mean like the Knight Industries Two Thousand?

Hands up who wants 3D finger-controlled fridges? That's the spirit

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

Prior art from the Hitch-Hiker's Guide...

"A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program."

Graham Marsden

Re: Don't worry, the porn industry will kill it...

And how will they tell the difference between what someone may be doing when watching porn and a gesture used when, say, Peter Mandelson appears on screen?

Firefox 'death sentence' threat to TeliaSonera over gov spy claims

Graham Marsden
Big Brother

"it will be seen as a tough stance against corporations...

"...that trade with authoritarian states."

And what about governments who trade with authoritarian states? Can you name any, boys and girls...?

Smart metering will disrupt weather forecasts, warns Met Office

Graham Marsden
Boffin

Re: Owl?

I got given a "clamp round the mains cable" meter by Scottish Power when I switched to them a couple of years ago.

After a week or so of checking, I found that, unsurprisingly, I was already using pretty much the minimum amount of electricity I needed because I do incredibly clever things like *switching stuff off* when I'm not using it!

PS @ AC, you'd let the electriicty company remotely switch off your fridge? I hope you enjoy food poisoning...

Will Google's rivals swallow the 'labelling remedy' pill?

Graham Marsden
Thumb Up

'BEUC called for an alternative remedy -

'an "even-handed" principle, in which Google "must hold all services including its own to exactly the same crawling indexing ranking display and penalty algorithms".'

I do believe that this was what I was talking about in the recent comments thread about Google Maps.

If you're going to offer your search results as if they're "fair and balanced", that should be the same for *all* results, not "all results except ours". Otherwise it should at the least be made clear that some results are being prioritised above others the way that they already do with ads and sponsored results and they should provide a link to alternative mapping services.

PS And this is *not* the same as expecting Tesco to advertise ASDA's products, see the previous comment thread for details.

British designer builds $15m iPhone for Hong Kong mogul

Graham Marsden
Coat

I bet...

... that voided his warranty...!

Cutting CO2 too difficult? Try these 4 simple tricks instead

Graham Marsden
Holmes

"Climate Central openly confesses to being engaged in social engineering...

"as much as anything else. The organisation states: We use proven social science methods to determine what messages resonate with our viewers"

Well damn them! What a sneaky and underhanded method of getting their point across.

Isn't it incredible that nobody has ever thought of this before...?

Remember Streetmap? It's suing Google in a UK court

Graham Marsden

@obnoxiousGit

In your desperate hurry to show how clever you are by lecturing me about what the law says (not to mention creating ridiculous Straw Man arguments), you appear to have overlooked such things as anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws which are intended to prevent anti-competitive behaviour by abuse of a monopoly (or near-monopoly) position.

It seems that you're in favour of totally unregulated free market capitalism which doesn't operate for the good of the customer, but only for the good of the shareholders and directors (aka "fuck you, I'm alright Jack") but I prefer to look at the slightly bigger picture.

In any case (not least given that you've implied that I'm a "nazi" for wanting to do this) I see little point in trying to carry on a reasonable discussion with you, so feel free to enjoy the last word. (Try not to sprain your arm patting yourself on the back...)

Graham Marsden
Boffin

Re: obnoxiousgit @JetSetJim - I remember streetmap...

Oh dear, obnoxiousGit, you're really trying to live up to your self-chosen moniker, aren't you?

I had a bet with myself that you'd try to pick nits by claiming "Haha! You said 'map'" not "map of somewhere" and claim a pedantic victory point, so congratulations on living down to my expectations. And calling me names is just sad.

As for "users who have all choosen Google as a search provider", that's like Microsoft claiming that people "chose" to use Internet Explorer, so please stop with that tedious nonsense.

If you want a better example than the tired old ones that you're repeating, consider this: What if you ran a butchers or a green grocers in a town centre and then Tescos or some other large chain decide to try to get planning permission to build their supermarket on the main road coming into town. Are they offering customers a better product? No. What they're doing is making sure that anyone who comes to that town is presented with TESCO right up front so other businesses are much less likely to get a look in.

This is not ridiculous, this *has happened* such that many shops who were offering higher quality products have been put out of business because most people don't bother to look any further than the first big shop they come to.

That is what Google are doing.

Graham Marsden
Boffin

obnoxiousgit Re: @JetSetJim - I remember streetmap...

"Post us all up a picture of what Google shows you when you type map into Google search engine, then make that claim again."

Certainly. I searched for "Map of Portsmouth" and this is what I got...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=map+of+portsmouth&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

What is right at the top of the search results? A nice big map from, oh, look, it's google. Sure, there are other ones "below the fold", but which one is the average user most likely to click on?

Please feel free to downvote me anyway...

Graham Marsden

Re: @JetSetJim - I remember streetmap...

Sigh, I knew I should have written the rest of this in my post, but I was in a hurry, so, unsurprisingly, people came out with the same tired old "why shouldn't google prioritise its own products" and "I can't buy ASDA products in Tescos" nonsense which, as usual, completely misses the point.

Imagine you come up with *the best* online mapping service ever. It's fast, it's accurate, it shows everything down to the nearest pillar box, it's the most wonderful map in the whole world.

What do you think your chances of getting it to the first place on the most widely used search engine in the world? What do you think your chances are of it immediately showing your map at the top of a search page? Even if loads of people link to it, will it ever come above Google's Map? What do you think?

So you're always going to be forced into second place by a product which is second rate to yours because *Google* holds the keys and most people aren't going to bother looking below the first result which is presented to them and clicking on that.

Google claim to "do no evil" and say that they rank sites according to popularity and how useful they are, but when they exploit their power to prioritise themselves no matter how good any other product will be then they are abusing a monopoly position.

What they *should* do, just as Microsoft was forced to do with browser choice, is, when someone searches for "map", take them to a page which shows them *all* the online mapping services and then let the *consumer* decide which one they want.

Graham Marsden

@JetSetJim - Re: I remember streetmap...

"Not sure when Google last prevented me from viewing Streetmap, though"

Once again I have to point out that if you search for a map of a town on Google, at the top of the page, prioritised before any other results, is Google's own offering. That will immediately stop most people from every looking for another mapping service.

There are many other online mapping services, but they are simply not getting a look in because of Google's anti-competitive behaviour.

Facebook Home gets SMACKDOWN from irate users

Graham Marsden
Devil

All your smartphone...

... are belong to us...

... bitch!

Dubai splurges on 700hp, 217mph Lamborghini police cruiser

Graham Marsden

Well...

... IIRC one UK force did try a Sierra Cosworth, but that's not really as cool...

Anons torn over naming 'n' shaming of 17yo's gang-rape suspects

Graham Marsden
Boffin

Those accused of rape and similar crimes...

... should be given anonymity unless and until they are proven guilty, otherwise this just panders to the lynch mob mentality of the readers of certain Tabloids amongst others and they will most likely be "tried in the media", have their lives torn apart and their (potential) careers destroyed such that even if or when they are found not guilty, they'll find it incredibly difficult to recover.

"Naming and Shaming" like this will have the same sort of effect from those who think that "there's no smoke without fire" because if you throw enough mud, some of it will stick.

Imagine if you were one of those people but were innocent, yet every time someone looks for your name (such as a prospective employer!) it came up "suspected rapist"...

Windows 7 'security' patch knocks out PCs, knackers antivirus tools

Graham Marsden

Re: I'm confused.

Good question.

I had more problems with the latest update to Skype which caused the machine to freeze (but not BSOD) after booting.

Eventually after restarting in Safe Mode and stopping Skype trying to run on startup I was able to uninstall it and roll back to an earlier version which fixed the problem.

Geolocation tech to save 60 Londoners from being run over next year

Graham Marsden
WTF?

@Nuke - Re: @Madra - Harsh but fair...

"Many a time I could have pulled out of a junction if only I had known that an approaching car was going to turn into it."

You mean you actually *trust* people to do what they're indicating?!