Posts by BoldMan

Brit fantasy artist sues James Cameron over Avatar world

Re: I was strongly reminded of World of Warcraft

Which just goes to show that there is next to nothing original in WoW

UK sitting on top of at least 50 years of shale gas – report

Re: But, but, but....

Well you obviously aren't thinking of the children unless you want them to grow up in a mediaeval-likeage where power is so expensive it has to be rationed!

I say again, using this gas won't INCREASE our CO2 output, it will just REPLACE the very expensive gas supplies that we currently export. Why don't you people ever seem to understand that?

Re: Pass the pack ice mother ...

You think this will increase our CO2 output? Think again! This is a REPLACEMENT STRATEGY!!! We will still burn this amount of fuel if we don't exploit these deposits but we'll just be paying for it through the nose from importers...

Finance CIOs sweat as regulators prepare to probe aging mainframes

Re: Falling for the old "bait and switch"

Sadly that really is what this sounds like

Pink Floyd blasts Pandora for 'tricking' artists with petition

Re: Have to agree with them

Then don't pay 10 times - nobody is FORCING you to keep buying the same album on different formats - you are choosing to do that because it is convenient for you.

That enough, folks? Starbucks tosses £5m into UK taxman's coffers

If I were Starbucks shareholders I'd now be looking into a class action against them for giving money away rather than funnelling it back into shareholder profit!

Oracle's Ellison outlines plans for Hawaiian Electriclarryland

Larry wants to be Tony Stark, hence the cringworthy Oracle product placements in the Iron Man movies... "We searched the Oracle Cloud and found this..." <silence>

MPs demand UK rates revamp after Google's 'extraordinary tax mismatch'

Re: So whos going to do business in England?

point 4 is irrelevant because the UK is a large enough market that they would hurt their own business by pulling out. This excuse has been used before by the City to try to justify leaving their enormous bonuses untapped, but its a straw horse as there are plenty of other reasons why the companies and people CHOOSE to stay in the UK even if they have to pay more tax.

Girls, beer and C++: How to choose the right Comp-Sci degree for you

Re: Agree on pre-degree IT exams

> proving that one can write Fortran in any language

My 30 year career in IT contains an element of proof for this assertion!

Reg hack prepares to live off wondergloop Soylent

Re: Thanks to the intrepid Reg reporter..

But not TOO detailed please...

Who's to be the next Dr Who? Sherlock beats Maurice - says you

Re: Time warp ..

John Hurt isn't the "next" Doctor - he's a previous one who "broke the promise". Current speculation is that he's actually the 9th Doctor between Paul McGann and Chris Ecclestone and was the one who "did" the Time War stuff,

Windows NT grandaddy OpenVMS taken out back, single gunshot heard

RIP indeed - spent many years working on VAX/VMS systems of all flavours in many jobs from the early 80s onwards. Anyone else remember VaxNotes - a bulletin board system that ran on the VAX? Any ex-BPers out there? :)

62,000 fewer shops: Welcome to the High Street of 2018

Re: Taxes strangling the high street

THis makes absolute sense to me and I might add a 3rd:

3. Cap greedy landlords rent increases

You constantly hear of shops closing because their lease comes up for renewal and the landlord hikes the rent by 30% or more.

Oh and another:

4. Enforce planning rules to stop the giant retail businesses (Tesco etc) swamping the town with their shops, driving up prices and driving out local small competitors who can't subsidize loss-making pricing models.

Anonymous 'plonks' names, addresses of far-right EDL types on web

Please include Theresa May, Ed Milliband and Boris Johnson oh hell and most of the other parasitical politicians who also jumped on the bandwagon taking "advantage of moments of fear and terror to spread hatred and animosity"' by promoting the snoopers charter in response...

Bill Gates: Corporate tax is not a moral issue

Thats exactly what needs to be done - along with fixing the tax loopholes in the first place.

Re: Corporate tax is not a moral issue

Total bollocks - a company has a legal obligation to maximise its profits for the benefit of shareholders. This means a company is obliged to game the tax system because if they didn't the shareholders could sue them for not providing the best shareholder value!

If the tax laws allow gaming, its a the tax authoritiy's responsibility to FIX the tax laws, not the company's duty to pay more than they legally need to.

Now it gets serious: Fracking could RUIN BEER

Re: Fracking needs to be fully controlled

"Not without the specialized equipment and trained experts that went WITH THE OIL COMPANIES they won't."

Who are usually subcontractors employed by the oil companies. Most Oil companies no longer "own" the expertise they used to have because lawyers and accountants reckon its cheaper to just stuff the ranks of oil companies with MBA trained middle management and leave the REAL work to subcontractors - one reason why BP fucked up in the Gulf of Mexico!

The Tomorrow People jaunt back to the airwaves

Re: Help my vague memory

"magical rick"???? Obviously the brother of Magical Trevor...

Re: Just wait for Space 1999...

There is talk of a Hollywoodised Space 2099 in development hell as well as an updated UFO... don't hold your breath!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/space-2099-television-remake-288601

http://www.ufo-themovie.com/shado/

Re: Help my vague memory

You are referring to the series "Changes" whereby a magical rick caused humanity to turn against technology in an effort to bring back the "Old Religion".

If memory serves it was Merlin stuck in the rock that was doing it and it fell to one English schoolgirl to have lots of adventures before persuade him to stop being a prat.

Peak Facebook: British users lose their Liking for Zuck's ad empire

There are adverts on Facebook?

I never realised there were ads on facebook, just thought there were blocks of whitespace... [innocent face]

Climate-cooling effect 'stronger than volcanoes' is looking solid

Excellent thumbnail photo

I would like to compliment El Reg on the excellent choice of thumbnail photo to illustrate this massive debate!

FBI on trial for warrantless Stingray mobile spying

Stand by for action!

So were they tapping the phone calls of Troy Tempest to Marina? I bet that was a bit of a one-sided conversation...

Facebook buys Dummly from outernet prodigy Dick D'Miner

Re: I rather liked it.

Somehow I read that as rogue sturgeon... hmmm something fishy going on...

Pirate Bay reports pirating anti-piracy group to police

Re: Karma's a bitch

But they already acknowledge they own TPB and have aleady been taken to court over it so whats your point?

FIFA stages shoot-out between British and German goal line tech

... and your point is?

Just because it is "sport" means we don't have to care about the accuracy judgements of the officials? That we don't want to spoil a match by allowing stupid mistakes to stand when there are ways of assisting the officials to make the correct decision?

Re: HawkEye

I that case they don't need more complex and expensive technology, then need extra linesman standing next to the goal to see what happens in those situations.

That example will ALWAYS be difficult to judge no matter what tech is used - whose to say that the studs in the keepers boots don't have a clever piece of magnetic field manipulation jiggery pokery? What this will stop is those ridiculous decisions when the ball was clearly over the line and the goal wasn't awarded.

Twitter row goes to court, beak says man must cough £17,500

What sort of racing? Horse, car, muse, cockroach?

BBC Vision and Audio tossed on bonfire, replaced by 'TV', 'Radio'

Re: Missing the point

mmm, bona!

Space station 'naut supplies Reg with overhead snap of Vulture Central

Re: maidenhead

Try finding a Maiden in that town though... more like Chavhead...

British games company says it owns the idea of space marines

Re: i HAVE YEARS OF PENT UP gw SPLEEN TO VENT

TSR were notorious bullies before they were owned by White Wolf. In the early days of the internet there were numerous cease and desist notices sent out by their lawyer to any site that mentioned Advanced (R) Dungeons(R) & Dragons(R). How do I know? I got one for a site I built for my gaming group to document our shared campaign. I had to remove all reference to AD&D(tm) and other phrases. I tried to point out to them that my site was in fact providing them with free advertising, but they didn't get it... and they they got bought out and everything changed! Don't forget, this was the company that had reg trade mark on the word "Dragon"!!

Harry Potter's Filch conjures Doctor Who's dead first time-lord

Re: Harry Potter's <actor>

She also did most of the dubbed female voice in The Water Margin!

I watched Excel meet 1-2-3, and beat it fair and square

Re: Excel < 1-2-3? Features!!?!

Did it handle UTF-8 csv files properly? Excel still can't do that after all these years!

'Like most convoluted theories, it was an incorrect one'

Re: I call bullshit...

There is a rather large difference between setting an explosion on a planet and blowing up a planet - by several orders of magnitude I reckon!

Record numbers of you are reading this headline right now

Re: Congratulations

Have a downvote for you trouble my good man! :)

Cheers El REeg, long may your pencils squeak and your keyboards click!

Up your wormhole: Star Trek Deep Space 9 turns 20

Re: B5

I'm glad someone brought up Babylon 5 - the first major genre TV series to extensively use the "Plot Arc" concept, which has since become commonplace and has subsequently considerably improved such TV shows.

ST:TNG is now an almost unwatchable tugid mess. Every week there was yet another technobabble solution to a spatial/temporal/incomprehensible paradox that inevitably required the deflector shield to be reconfigured. This very quickly got very tiresome. DN9 suffered from the same for the first few series until someone in the production office started watching Babylon 5 and suddenly DS9 discovered the Plot Arc!!!

Babylon 5 Ruled! Pity none of the subsequent spin offs rose to the same levels.

It will be a tough job to do better than Peter Jurassik and Andreas Katsulas as Mollari and G'Kar!

Bringing Iron Man to life: Exoskeletons, armour and jet packs

Re: Iron man calling his attacks

> Stark is an alcholic egomaniac, with a narsistic streek as big as the hulk buster

You say this as if it were a bad thing?

Polaroid plans retail Fotobars to print out your pics

Re: Prints are good...

There is lots to stopping me from printing out photos myself a) the faff of making sure the paper is the right type/side up/aligned perfectly to avoid jams b) the annoyance when the ink runs out or turns blobby and smeary c) the cost of replacing ridiculously expensive print cartridges d) the annoyance of paper jams e) the bloody mess when the knife slips while trimming the photos to size!

This is why NORMAL people can't be arsed to print out photos - its way too complicated and in the log run as expensive as getting them printed, since most high quality print cartridges (for photo printing) are a total rip-off and cost almost as much as the damn printer itself!!

Yes, hundreds upon hundreds of websites CAN all be wrong

Its The Police, not Sting (there is a difference you know) :)

and don't forget the classic "Massage in a Brothel"

Re: Oh

I always thought that line said "Military Freaks"

The 'Digital Economy' in 2012: A big noisy hole where money should be

Obviously you didn't read the article very well - its not just Google he has issues with but with most of the "content aggregators" like FB, Google, MySpace and so on that are the guilty parties in this debate. Try reading comprehension - its amazing what you get out of it!

US: We'll drag cyber-spies into COURT from their hideouts

Re: A Fools' Paradise is a Wise Man's Hell and that is never acceptable to Beings with Intelligence

This isn't' the REAL amanfromMars - this post almost made sense! I demand a recount!

Coming soon to a theme park near you: Shocking ANTI-PIRACY NAG ADS

Re: Oh great

If you were to bother to read the article you'd realise that Intellectual Property isn't JUST about record companies, but about all types of creative endeavour from books to inventions to movies to the photographs you take and post on Facebook.

Chinese spacecraft JUUUUST avoids smashing into Toutatis

Re: Micro gravitation changes?

I'm a time traveller so I'll let you know when I get there - it will sadly take 5000 years as I'm travelling into the future at one second every second which means it'll take me... um... 5000 years.

Frack me! UK shale gas bonanza 'bigger than North Sea oil'

Re: Here's a mad, crazy idea.

What complete and utter bollocks. How much uranium or thorium is there ready to exploit? What really needs to be done is increase the efforts to make fusion power generation work more efficiently and reliably. That will put an end to our concerns for power generation...

Internet Explorer tracks cursor even when minimised

Re: Oh, I love this!

Another tumbs up for SRWare iron

2012: A generation-spanning year for gaming

No mention of The Secret World?

London Blitz bomb web map a hit-and-miss affair

I used to live just round the corner from that bomb site in Shoreditch - I believe there is another one that is now used at an NCP car park just behind the houses Here

I also believe a large number of the smaller NCP car parks were using spaces cleared by bomb damage.