Posts by thomas newton

Apple Watch fanbois suffer PAINFUL RASH after sweaty wristjob action

'you're wearing it wrong.'

any bets as to when someone from the company tries that on with the apple kool-aid drinkers?

Apple 'Genius': iPhone 6? We've had NO COMPLAINTS about our BENDY iThing

Re: So what's the actual problem?

I do hope no uncharitable type will suggest that 'apple user' and 'dickhead' go hand in hand.

I certainly wouldn't try and draw any inference like that.

Apple iPhone 6: Looking good, slim. AW... your battery died

ah, but this is special Apple flash. worth every penny.

well, it must be, surely, otherwise wouldn't that mean they were just ripping everyone off?

Apple takes blade to 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

ah, but this is a special Apple ssd that's been sprinkled with magic pixie dust. worth every penny and definitely not a ripoff.

Rockall pod-dweller braces for stormy weather

is anyone else thinking a week or two there would be a lovely opportunity to get away from it all?? I'm quite jealous.

LOHAN spaceplane's budget minicam punches well above its weight

re 'Heater?' - what about a couple of those disposable handwarmer pads next to the cameras? iirc they're only a couple of quid from outdoors shops and weigh next to nothing.

IBM was wrong to force UK workers off final salary pensions – judge

treating employees like s**t

seems to be an IBM trademark - I spent 18 months working for them between 2004-2006 and I can honestly say never again. productive, committed members of staff harried and hounded to the point where the majority of them would go and get better jobs somewhere else...leaving the managers that did the harrying sitting there, scratching their arses and wondering why they can't hang on to any decent staff. cretins all.

US-Russia Soyuz 'nauts STUCK IN SPACE after ISS dock fail

I wonder if the russian contingent are regretting their traditional 'no space nappies' approach to launches?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/books/22masl.html?_r=0

Ancient telly, check. Sonos sound system, check. OMG WOAH

er...where are the audio L&R inputs??

Frenchman eyes ocean domination with floating, mobile Bond villain lair

as noted above, Submariner in most of the early bond films, and an Oyster Perpetual in almost all the books iirc. this is an example of the same marketing that would have us believe he drank Gordon's a few years back.

iOS 7: Even if you don't jailbreak your iPhone, bugs STILL CREEP IN

'but have kept the threat to themselves since the beginning of the year.'

continuing to place a premium on treating their customers with respect, and not just on their pricing...

...and yet the user base will continue to drink the kool-aid...

Apple Mac Pro: It's a death star, not a nappy bin, OK?

£1040 for an extra 52gb of ram???

is it magic ram?? will it give my pc special powers??

or is it just ordinary 3rd party ram, and apple are having the kecks off people (again)????

Ghosts of Christmas Past: Ten tech treats from yesteryear

Re: Apple QuickTake 150

that was the Sony one wasnt it?? took one picture per disk iirc. I saw one in a s/hand camera shop in Jersey a few years ago - was tempted, but the bloke wanted (imho) silly money for it and it would have been another piece of kit to hoard.

ZTE's $80 Firefox OS mobe sells out on eBay

@ big nosed pengie

+1 for the Young Ones reference.

Goodbye Blighty: The alternative reality of Quatermass II

that might be a problem, as Mr. Kneale unfortunately passed away in 2006...

1,000 O2 staff chose redundancy over Capita

Re: 1,000 O2 staff chose redundancy ?

if NTL, IBM and Manpower (among others) are anything to go by, they'll be using it as an excuse to get rid of the intelligent staff who see all the middle manager bulls**t for what it is - but who also actually are the ones best capable at the job.

leaving the dregs there who don't have the temeritry to question management edicts, but who are also quite incapable of tying there own shoelaces without help. the same managers will then be, as has been said, lamenting the fact they have no decent staff.

a plague upon all their houses.

Hitchhikers' Guide was WRONG, Earth is not in a galactic backwater

what do we know?

we still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

six pints, please. and four packets of peanuts. keep the change.

Kobo strikes new match against Kindle: The Aura HD e-reader

Re: Sorry Kobo, I would like a Kindle version please

especially with the drm-removal plugin installed.

erm, allegedly.

El Reg acquires wildly dangerous laser cannon (with lightsabre option)

@ graham marsden

do you really think Stabby McChav is reading this, and would spend his hard-earned giro on one? they'll stick with the £5 jobbies from the local tat shop.

Bond's Walther PPK goes digital: A civilized gun updated

John Gardner

had some interesting choices for Bond's sidearms - the HK VP-70 and the ASP 9mm among others - the latter specifically made with the idea of being a concealable, but uncompromised performance handgun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASP_(handgun)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_VP70

Better luck next time Blofeld! Five Bond plot myths busted

@ dr strangelug

an equally big question is 'how could six space launches all go off within minutes of each other and no-one whatsoever on the ground notice?'

Craig, Connery or ... Dalton? Vote now for the ultimate James Bond

pffft - Moore carried off the

'perfect english gent' type cool as shown by John Steed and Captan Picard (technically a frenchman, but he's played as English as they come by patrick stewart) - never blows his cool, always perfectly mannered - even when someone's trying to kill him (seen in The Spy Who Loved Me, when Caroline Munro's helicopter pilot is doing her best to machine gun him.) plus he could show a hard edge when he needed to (such as when he gave Locque's car a helping hand - or foot - off the cliff in For Your Eyes Only.)

Dalton second as he really did play the part as it was written - I read a good piece (I forget where unfortunately) on a 007 website a while ago where the case was made for his performance in Licence To Kill being the template for Craig's portrayal.

Brosnan a very close third - although his last outing broke any last bounds of believability.

Why James Bond's Aston Martin Top Trumps the rest

for an affordable 'Bond' car

why not a Saab 900 as he drives in the John Gardner books? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_beast#The_Silver_Beast

Inside the real-world Double-O section of Her Majesty's Secret Service

Re: Bondnote 3

the PPK was given to him by Q to replace his previous weapon of choice, a .25 Beretta automatic, which he dismissed as a 'lady's gun'.

Gamers bereft as Xbox Live takes a dive

first we have 'bath salts' turning people into flesh eating zombies

now this...I'm off to find a nice cosy bunker somewhere and wait it out...there's a storm coming in...quite literally, if the weather is anything to go by.

Aliens Blu-ray disc set

@ mike

you know the guardian offshore all of their financial affairs they can to minimise their tax hit?

not like a bunch of left wingers to be a load of 'do as I say, not as I do' hypocrites now is it?

@ shelluser - this is the best you've ever seen them. I've had at least 2 copies on both vhs and dvd of the first two films, and with both of them I was notincing colours and textures I'd never seen previously. for the prices you can pick up the 'full' box set with all the extras it's worth every penny IMHO if you're at all a fan.

@ c hill

Alien, grainy how? the BR release is crystal clear. Aliens yes, but I was under the impression that Cameron had to go with a grainy stock because the vast majority of the film is very dimly lit. and yes to everyone else, when the full BR set of all 4 is less than twenty quid, why bother getting this? I bought it for my brother for his birthday the other month and got it for £12 posted new, still shrinkwrapped.

Canon PowerShot S100 GPS compact camera

K- for a compact with a superzoom lens

have you considered a Panasonic? the Lumix TZ range will give you an excellent sensor, Leica optics and superb build quality. and the older models in the range still perform perfectly well while being excellent VFM.

Fresh Apple lawsuits target 15 Samsung gadgets

AC - 'Or am I the only one who is thinking that I'll never buy another apple product?'

I never even bought the first one.

typed on my Windows PC, with my Galaxy S2 being charged from it's USB port.

Ebuyer knocked out by own £1 deals site

'Ebuyer confirmed that traffic for the £1 deals was what sent their site into a tailspin and said that customers were able to start making orders now if they kept refreshing the page.'

er, how about 'no you cant - it still isnt working.' idiots.

Ten... best Blu-ray movies of 2011

after finding out the Star Wars parts iv-vi

were mastered from the 8 year old transfers from the last dvd release, are you having a laugh? or have you lot at el reg just been bunged by the beardy tit?

Apple's iPod: ten years old

@ lincard1000

any of the Cowon mp3 players - superb sound quality, completely drag and drop and solid build quality.

Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma gaming headset

yes, the soundblaster recon 3d

is on its way, thats cross platform - pcs and consoles apparently. I treated myself to a pair of the Alphas for christams and I've got to say I'm pretty happy with them.

details here -

http://digitalronyn.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/of-consoles-and-kings/

Ubisoft reveals rock game with REAL guitars

@ jay 28

I'm playing all the right notes...just not necessarily in the right order.

Discovery glides into history

@AC - as for the 'health and safety nuts'

if they really had hogtied it, then perhaps the Challenger and Columbia would still be flying now, without any loss of crews. I recall a commentator some time ago remarking that the three X-15's made almost two hundred flights between them, but were never regarded as more than experimental and quite dangerous aerospacecraft to operate - however with the Shuttle, a far more complicated and higher-performing piece of equipment, they made four test flights and declared it fully operational.

That;'s even before you get to the design compromises forced upon NASA in the 70s when they were having the thing approved by the US administration, making it the 'DC-1 1/2' of space rather than the DC-3 it was meant to be. And what are NASA replacing it with? essentially, the same concept as Apollo - disposable one-shot craft.

paris, because you have to wonder if there's any point to her at all as well.

First fondleslab found in 1970s kids TV sci-fi gem

what about

the flat-panel screens Bowman and Poole are watching during dinner in 2001?

Another huge ice discovery made in Asteroid Belt

Isaac Asimov

beat everyone to this in 1952 with his story 'The Martian Way'.

Keene USB FM Transmitter

hurrrrr

'...or the missus can twiddle her trusty Bush and listen to a podcast in the bath. '

I see what you did there. Paris, because I bet she knows a few things about having her Bush twiddled.

Creative World of Warcraft headphones

@ john naismith

they did consider making the battery user-serviceable...but then Creative realised that it would raise Elf and safety concerns...

...mine's the one that ISN'T an anorak.

Microsoft Xbox 360 250GB

* looks at 360 he's had for two and a half years *

* looks at disc library *

* fails to see any scratched ones *

* wonders why *

oh, yeah, thats because I dont pick my 360 up and shake the bloody thing when it's reading a disc. Same with my cd player, my pc, and my br player. it's very simple.

Ten Essential... Budget Compact Cameras

@ lou

completely agree, and you can see how Canon (off the top of my head) have responded to this with the G11 - however, would you not think at this level though, the kind of customer these will be aimed at is just going to think 'more MP = better pictures'?

and Pat 3 - let's face it, anyone who wants really good results from a compact is going to do a bit more research than just striding into the high street Currys and asking the spotty herbert behind the counter for his recommendation. the fact that Curry's are still in business show that there will always be a sector of the market for that type of buyer, imo.

Rom-coms, period dramas are rubbish: Mathematical proof

that doesnt explain

why most modern films suck.

what would you rather watch? the first two Alien films or the waste of celluloid that were the AVP films?

the first three Star Wars films or the most recent three?

the original Rollerball or the remake?

and as for these endless 'reboots'... get some original ideas you hollywood c**ts, and stop just looking at how much money you can make. if you make good films, people will want to watch them. it should be very simple.

Jobs, because he knows all about sucking and producing overpriced twaddle.

Voda goes ultra-cheap with handsets for the developing world

very handy

in a lot of respects, the best phone I've had up to now was my Motorola Graphite from 1997 - built like a tank, made calls when I wanted to, and had a ringer that sounded like a phone and not some silly bloody tune or something (are you listening Nokia??) and the menu's and choices made absolute sense.

I'[d definitely have one of these as a spare if they flogged them in the UK.

Panasonic DMC-GH1 Micro Four-Thirds camera

an £800 premium over the G1 for hd video?

I paid less for my D90 a year ago. The G1 is a lovely piece of kit, but why almost a triple hike in price on the GH1 just for adding the ability to take movies?

Paris, because she knows all about being overpriced and pointless.

'F-22 Raptor stealth coatings are crap' case goes to court

@ AC re the M16

Slipping a rubber johnnie over the rifle muzzle is a common enough practice with any weapon to keep dirt and water out of the mechanism.

the *real* problems with the M16 were due to the fact that it was issued with no cleaning kit and an unannounced change in the type of gunpowder used in the ammunition caused excessive fouling - exacerbated by the direct - impingement gas system's sensitivity to dirt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_AK-47_and_M16#M16

Morrissey tells netdepressives to boycott his re-releases

@ kaiser b

I dont think he does - he was moaning a while back about Joycey getting them all after losing his court case against him and andy rourke a while back ( I believe he went into some depth about it on the True To You website then).

however, I cant help but think if him and johnny marr have just played it straight with them in the first place, and then in the subsequent court case (where if memory serves, the judge described him as a 'deeply unreliable witness' or some such) he wouldnt be in this position now.

paris, 'cause I bet she knows a thing or two about uncomfortable positions...

Metallica sticksman gloats over Napster downfall

what about the study I recall some time ago

by MIT (or some such body ) that proved a satistical correlation in the amount of mp3's of your band being downloaded to your record sales - ie, the more popular you were in terms of downloads, the more records you sold as more people became fans, and fans tend to prefer to own original copies of the music in question.

lars (and the rest of the band, and not just for the napster thing either) are indeed complete cocks.

last word to dave gahan - 'if you aint being bootlegged, you aint happening.'

Toshiba to back Blu-ray Disc with player launch?

@ tony smith

'It's getting to the point where, for some people, the *way* something is presented is more important than *what* is presented. That's the wrong way to view, IHMO.'

absolutely - it's like the records What Hi Fi use for reviewing stereo gear - almost always turgid bollox that no bugger in their right mind would actually *want* to listen to.

however, for the films I like, a good BR presentation is well worth the money IMO - 2001 for example, is simply jaw-dropping in terms of the way it looks - I noticed colours and details and even sounds I never had before, between vhs and dvd copies of it. also John Carpenter's The Thing is a stunning example of what BR can be like.

what I do object to, though, as people have said, are the high street prices of the discs and that on a lot of occasions, the transfer is taken from a crappy source that doesnt really improve any on the dvd presentation - thus negating the point of it being a BR disc in the first place. and when will the studios pull their collective fingers out and release the genuine classics held in their archives on dvd rather than the rehashed remade crap that passes for 'new' releases these days?

Nikon D5000 digital SLR

every time I see this camera

it's price is quoted as the same as the D90 - so I cant really see why it's being described as an 'entry level' model. the only thing you get over the D90 is the tilting screen, and you lose the higher resolution LCD screen and the AF motor. so whats the point?

Paris, because I cant see the point of her either.