Posts by Matt

US student planned to ice Chuck Norris

Re: Queue / Cue

could just be the end of an insult, as in '***k you'

mines the leotard on the peg.

Tolkien first edition goes for a bundle

BdT

Better to watch Pans Labyrinth as its a fabulously non-hollywood movie in the fantasy genre.

Best way to stream Sky HD content to multiple TVs?

Or try out Smart-E

www.smart-e.co.uk do solutions for switching single/multiple video signals over Cat5 network cable. Not sure on the cost, you have to email them for a brochure (usually this hints at expensive ;) ).

US tech support outfit seeks pocket sniffer

re what is...

yeah, its what you do when you want to troubleshoot your network. You pop down your datacentre, fish out the on-ste IT geek and get him/her to turn out their pockets for a bit of sniffing. Usually a 'wet' smell signifies a broken hand dryer in the toilets.

Technical problems mar Barclays' PINSentry roll-out

rsa keyfob anyone

something slightly less chunky and distinctly more secure, wouldn't this have been far better?

Researcher: 'Second wave' HD adopters favour HD DVD

I sometimes wonder

when joe public is asked, 'are you interested in purchasing a HDTV in the future?' and they say 'yes'; 'Are you interested in HD DVD in the future?' cue joe public thinking 'hmm sounds like it matches my HDTV' so, 'yes'. 'Blu Ray? Whats that? Will I need a Blu Ray TV?'

Not sure most of them know that Bluray and HD DVD are the same thing or that Blu Ray doesn't have the high def initials so they don't say yes. Believe me when I say even people 'with broadband', it doesn't make them tech savvy enough to know the difference to choose. Therefore makes the whole survey useless unless its all explained to them beforehand.

I know I made up the most dumb ass sounding person to be quoted, but I expect alot of response wouldn't be far off.

Plus, can't tell me there's no bias with it being funded by the HD DVD group.

Activision and Vivendi Games merge into Activision Blizzard

pah counter retort

I understand your obvious disappointment, I'm not saying Starcraft 2 will play awesome as i haven't personally had opportunity to play it (no-one has); but to be honest, if it sticks with the playability of the previous, thats all it needs. I've seen previews, and yes it looks very pretty, but there are a hell of a lot of new features going in, and its those that most are anticipating. So what if its re-inventing, if it works, stay with it. I don't hear anyone moaning about the current market's darling of the hour (Nintendo) constantly churning out the same guff (Mario) with added features and pretty new sets.

games to buy (or wait for) from blizzard

seriously amazed no-one has mentioned Starcraft, and the massively anticipated Starcraft 2.

Forget the sloth that is WoW, Starcraft is the future (and no bows and arrows to be seen) and utterly original. Just look at Korea and the SC fanatacism over there, man, those guys know how to game. (see youtube for some crazy starcraft tournament vids)

Is there a good HTPC remote control out there?

I've used the 895

but not on Windows MCE yet - very good design and setup tools, very customizable, works perfectly with every device i've used it on so far (big brand stuff). Your only other option is likely to be the Phillips Pronto range.

Motorcycle News in shot M40 biker ad gaffe

re: oh dear

yes, or like the article about the guy who cut off his penis in a restaurant, with an embedded advert for circumcision :)

http://www.dj909.com/googleads.JPG

Sony VAIO VGC-RM1N HD workstation

sony does it again

puts hardware in box, sells at astronomical price due to name tag.

"Sony's VAIO VGC-RM1N is an impressive system, but then again for £2,500 it should be"

I mean, when you can put the raw components of this system together for less than £900 it says alot for the price tag

Carphone Warehouse salesman dies in car boot

well i slept in the drivers seat once

but i think, had the police asked any questions, i could easily have proved i couldn't have been trying to drive the car anywhere - not inside a sleeping bag anyway!

Mum given young nympho's phone number

yes people are stupid

i worked for a tech support company a while back, and a local medical advice line printed the wrong number (only off by one digit) on the top of their newsletters. You wouldn't believe the laughs we had putting the speakerphone on listening to people spout on about where they had fungus growing from etc before you've barely had a chance to say hello how can i help you.

Not so great while you are still eating your bacon butty, mind.

Sony says no to Euro PS3 price cut

Dillon, we don't all have euro's, mate

we still heft around bags of pounds and pennies over here :-)

Samsung to launch '€400' Blu-ray/HD DVD player next month

more great journalism

why can't you write something new and incisive on the subject instead of copying and pasting your own original article in to bush it out? Let me guess, you get paid per word, right....?

Dinner party guest makes gruesome discovery

hiding the body

"His plan to hide the disappearance of his wife and stepson had just fallen apart."

Obviously this was when he found out his invited guest was a vegetarian and couldn't serve the mixed grill(ed wife and child)

WD debuts DVR friendly add-on hard drive

Virgin HD box?

My Virgin Media TV Drive is a Scientic Atlanta 8300, any idea's if it will work with that? Presume there is some need to enable the external e-Sata port......

Body that spawned the internet wants to rebuild it

re: SMTP

"once you fix that, spam disappears"

what makes you think that any new mail protocol will stop the spammers from using it instead of SMTP? They'll find a way, they always do.

If its easy enough for 'everyone' to use, its easy enough for spammers to abuse.

Windows Live gets upgrade

re: Yves

Do people actually still use hotmail/live *for* mail? considering the number of free alternatives, it amazes me. gmail for your domain is one...including spam filters that acutally work

Voltage secures patents on identity-based encryption

a bit pedantic maybe...but

"a system where knowing someone's email address.....gives access to their public key and thus enables encrypted messages to be sent to that person"

surely you kind of need to know there email address simply to send them the mail whatever the encryption ;) quite possibly a bad example :)

Britney's new album title - can you help?

nice one Rick.

or perhaps,

Britney Spears: Cupid Stunt.

eBay jewellery store fined $400,000 for shill bidding

re: Spike

"The reason I don’t leave feedback for my customers until they have left feedback for me is so that I know they are completely satisfied before I consider the sale complete"

But what does your rating of the buyer have to do with THEIR satisfaction of your product/service? You are deluded if you think you have a valid reason for holding back your feedback other than a reason to give them bad feedback if they are unsatisfied with your product and give you bad feedback.

eBay has really taken a turn for the worst

From a buyers point of view, there are so many reasons to avoid eBay these days. Not only the aforementioned topic, but also the sellers, who list items for £1 and postage at £5 for something that weighs less than a stamp, promise first class postage, only for the item to turn up 2 weeks later with a 2nd class stamp on it, posted from a Uk location. On top of that, you have the now laughable feedback system, which is so abused in relation to shill bidding, with people leaving feedback for fake auctions all over the place, and now the fashion for 'power' (sic) sellers to completely abuse the system by attempting to avoid a bad rating by not leaving feedback until a user leaves the seller a positive, essentially bribing the buyer, 'if you leave good feedback for me, i'll leave it for you'. Even though the buyers part of the sale is complete when he/she has completed payment, this is when a seller should be rating them, but no, now you have to wait till you have received your (poorly packaged and under stamped) goods, and then leave glowing feedback in order to boost your own.

As far as the co. that got fined, I say hooray, but for christ sakes it would be nice to see eBay pull a finger out of its arse and do something about the small time crooks instead, who probably cause a humungous amount more grief on eBay with fake auctions etc.

/rant over

C of E blasts 'sacrilegious' Sony shoot-'em-up

"substantial" donation

that'll be one ps3 at current prices then...i wonder if they'll include the game.... :)

Virgin Media tech support goes premium rate

re: Oh No : By Gavin Hamer

"25p is a lot, in fact it takes the Michael, because the staff on the other end of the line are probably only on 10-15p per minute in wages."

You refer to the india call centre flunkies? 10p per minute, would equate to £6 per hour, and you realise thats higher than the basic rate in the UK!

I don't think so....consider the average salary for a computer call centre employee is approx £2500 per year, 48 weeks a year work, 5 days a week, 10 hours a day, I make that 1.7p per minute, no?

I agree however, if this is the case that their tech support department is in India and they charge 25p per minute, the service probably won't improve much. But from my experience, isn't the techie side of things based uk side and just the call centre numbnuts based offshore?

Carphone Warehouse coffers hit by broadband rollout

yeah i know i'm starting that 'unlimited' argument again

but how do you use 60Gb or more a month on joost and youtube? Joost uses about 1Gb every 10 hours, so are you watching it 20 hours a day for a month? Youtube uses a very negligable amount of b/w, and unless you download the same linux iso's 3 times a day and delete them again, I still fail to see how you get to 60Gb p/m.

Please note, i'm not making the accusation (that most people seem to jump to) that you are using torrents or p2p etc illegally, in fact i think i'm a fairly heavy user of my bandwidth, but i don't justify that any of it is legal. I'm just curious to know how people come to justify that quantity themselves.

BBC shows Olympic logo the door

re: other suggestions

rather phallic imagery, number 8.

855,000 new phones end up in the bog

re: they don't make 'em like they used to

i dropped my old nokia 5110 out of a 2nd story window (don't ask) which bounced off a roof gutter, hit the pavement and slid into a muddy puddle. Still works to this day. (no its not still my current phone :) )

El Reg 'buys' acre of Brazilian rainforest

re: preserve the sahara?

does the sahara need preservation? whats causing damage to the sahara (except perhaps wind erosion, which I can't see a way around) ?

Sony cuts price of Blu-ray player

Pioneer are not exclusively supporting Blu-Ray

They also have plans for dual format players.

Hot babes cruise planet Google

google entrance, in mountain view

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&view=map&q=google&near=mountain+view&ie=UTF8&ll=37.425593,-122.08349&spn=0.005564,0.014334&z=17&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.423202,-122.08525&cbp=1,139.882927834857,0.53156377696798,2

even the cones are in google order (starting from o, red yellow blue green)

Fraudsters feast on credit card scam

i think thats what Gav was getting at....

...that just saying 'look for a padlock' in order to make the average noob online consumer be sure their transaction is safe isn't enough, you do indeed need to get them to look in the right places. As pointed out, its not always in the same place, depending on your browser.

Microsoft and The Reg team up to make exam prep easy

the Register does sell stuff online too...

but i agree, its hardly something for the articles section.

Xoro HSD 7510 DVD player-equipped LCD TV

region free

also in the amazon review, it's mentioned as 'Multiregion' DVD. Also that getting the digital freeview to work when portable is nigh on impossible *surprise*

about the Xvid bit...

might have spoken too soon, but a review on Amazon.co.uk puts that it does have DivX/XviD support, but doesn't specify whether this is via the card reader, or DVD drive.

Most important playback feature missed

It doesn't play DivX or XviD codecs, or its not listed as supported anywhere I could find on the manufacturers and re-sellers website. Without it, this is useless to most looking for a portable media player.

Sky customers spending more than £400 a year

and I thought I had it bad with Virgin HD...

At least we get a reasonable HD on-demand content to boot....just sucks not being able to watch Sky Sports in HD. I guess after the last fight with Sky, they aren't going to be falling over themselves to sell Sports/Movies HD to Virgin any time :(

Net does its part to bring down American Idol

Sad to say, but its true

I only watch the auditions, but only for the arse-clenchingly bad ones.

Virgin Media chucks rocks in 'unlimited' debate

'Fair' use of your bandwidth

And those who download 90-100Gb a month are downloading legitimate data? Not warez DVDr's, tv episodes and pirated games, that some of the aforementioned media companies are also offering as part of their services? I think sometimes people lose track of where they stand in what is 'fair'. Complaining you can't use your broadband for illegal purposes is like complaining the police arrested you while you were robbing the bank.

I do agree with the comments about not letting commercial entities make the decision on what the usage of the internet should be, and also aware of the fact that bandwidth demands are going to rise dramatically as more services are available on demand, but i can't see how a home user can legitimately use 100Gb of bandwidth in a month in the here and now.

Boffins brew up ideal Bond e-fit

Dax Sheperd

Has a resemblance of Dax Sheperd, from Without a Paddle

http://imdb.com/name/nm1009277/

Sky goes dark for Virgin Media

Sky HD channels

I wonder how this will affect the negotiations for the HD channels. I guess we won't see them for a while now.... :(