Posts by Geoff Thompson

KRAKOOM! iPad Air explose in fireball, terrified fanbois flee Apple store

I found it on serveral sites, including this one

http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/vodafone-store-evacuated-after-ipad-explodes/story-fn6vigfp-1226755945189

Plucky Swede glides spaceplane to Earth from edge of stratosphere

Excellent

Well done that man, very enjoyable video too!

Nipper's toy train enjoys journey to edge of SPAAAAACE

Seen it before but very much worth a look again. The animation was a terrific enhancement, a real feel good movie. Thanks!

'Perfect' INVISIBLE SHED stuns boffinry world

'Ello 'Ello

Move along now, nothing to see here.

Sellafield's nuclear waste measured in El Reg units

Fun

It was. That's all, thank you :-)

El Reg VULTURE logo FOUND ON MARS

Mad

You are. Love it.

Apple threatens to ruin peace worldwide with voice-controlled iMacs

Dragon

Does this and had done for a long time.

Alcohol DOUBLES LIFESPAN, helps resist stress

"a tablespoon of ethanol in a bathtub full of water or the alcohol in one beer diluted into a hundred gallons of water" - well, they are only diddy - 1mm long. I'm 17,500mm long so I reckon 6 pints is about right, being very conservative.

Record numbers of readers flock to The Register

Congratulations

Keep up the excellent work.

Chicken fillets: The affordable alternative to Bulgarian Airbags

?

What tells you she was not wearing a seatbelt? Anyway, I saw the headline, knew it would be silly but could not resist anyway. It is Friday, after all. Pint, because it is Friday.

Mobile industry needs Windows, handset vendors warn

MS will take market share

Apple and Blackberry have their devotees, Nokia lost the plot with smarphones (although they were very good indeed, in their day, until they were overtaken.) I like "generic" hardware because competition drives value for money. Android is doing a good job for smartphones (and tablets) but an alternative will be healthy. Microsoft are far from nimble, but they have learned. They will get it right, or near enough, and then improve. To me, that is healthy. Decent SatNav cost an arm and a leg once. It still would if there were only a couple of flavours. Pint, because it is Friday.

Steve Jobs' last words: 'OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.'

Saddened

This was reported elsewhere of course, so someone thought it was fair game to put a comical perspective on it. Sorry, no matter your views on the reported last minutes of Job's life, as reported by distraught family members, this is not a subject for sarcastic humour so soon after the event. It is an epic fail in taste and decency by a web publication I respect enormously, despite its juvanile tendancies at times. I have little respect for Apple and a very negative opinion of their business ethos, but a man is no more than flesh and blood in the end, and despite any opinion of Jobs as a CEO, he was far from a really cruel, let alone evil figure. I'm not usually so serious on here, but this very poor taste has annoyed me.

El Reg in email address blunder

Sue

I got the email and I was on the list. If I get any spam or phishing emails I intend to sue El Reg for every penny it has, because of the immeasurable stress and upset. I have heard of these horrors of course, but would be deeply traumatised to actually see one - in my own inbox!!! I'm sure I would need weeks of therapy. Even so, the Reg recipient who passed on the list it quite obviously sub human. Why does society provide internet access for swamp dwellers? The spawn of Satan indeed.

Intel, MS destined to remain tablet underdogs

Flawed

This seems quite flawed on the basis of current trends, as noted in previous comments, but with regard to Windows 8 tablets how can anyone predict how they will be received when hardly any potential purchases have a clue what they will offer or cost? Nor how much money M$ will be prepared to pay towards putting their OS into the public eye. Then there is the enterprise market. This has to be a huge guess. Trying to predict trends 8 years ahead in consumer IT seems like folly to me.

Printable transistors usher in 'internet of things'

Nagging

I can see everything I use, wear or consume nagging me. "this milk is passed its use by date" "your coat needs cleaning" etc. etc. probably via my mobile. It has to drive consumerism after all.

iPhone 4S: Our *hit list

Siri

followed that link - I want Siri on my HTC !!!

MIT boffin: Salted disks hold SIX TIMES more data

First Commercial

I bet the first commercial one is a sea-gate

Fetching coat

Dell signals Windows 8 fondleslab range

Work

Yes, work - and that will do nicely thank you. OK, lots of people might not buy a tablet because it reminds them of work, but lots of people might start to notice them too, and think, good enough for work, good enough for me. Hard to get inside other people's mindset. I will stick with my android tablet for a while though. Beer, because it is Friday.

The life and times of Steven Paul Jobs

Thank You

A very thoughtful and balanced article.

Chocolate weighed in Schwarzeneggers: Official

Oops

Thats all

millifortnight

Is about the time it would take Usain Bolt ro run 200M. A useful unit methinks.

Aussie parrots hit the sauce and hit the deck

Elephants

African elephants get p1$$ed on mulberries too. Best avoided.

Gutsy golf-club granny collars crim in Flying Squad bust

Always

Middle Aged is two years older than me.

Ancient auto: still running, up for sale

Nice

Never seen one running that old, but lots of Stanley steam cars still running in the UK. I love seeing them. IT angle? They are on Google ;-)

Yoof survey: 'Internet as vital as air'

Out More

They need to get out more. No doubt email is a very important business tool, and web access is very useful, but vital? Highly annoying when it isn't there, but hardly life or death. I will be off line for 48 hours tomorrow, in the wilds, and recently I was in Africa and manages web access twice in three weeks. The world continued to rotate, the sun shone and I ate and drank. Tweets were tweeted, FB pages were updated and my email inbox filled up slightly less quickly because the Outlook message told people I was away. If anything really important had happened I would have been contacted quite quickly via quite old technology. I love being connected, but I love escape too. The real world smells people. Try it.

Lancs shale to yield '15 years' of gas for UK

Blackpool

Brings a whole new meaning to Blackpool rock. (They were worried about the process causing mini earthquakes.)

Blighty's Android fans get British English voice control

Geordie?

Well, yes, but about a third of the UK will not be able to send a text to, navigate to or find anyone or thing with a name beggining with H.

Nigerians panic over killer calls

BBC Radio 4

Dead Ringers

Hey Commentards! [This title is optional]

Thank You

I never knew there were so many comments. Never thought about it before. Don't think I will try sorting, but nice to know I could.

Kingston Wi-Drive wireless flash storage

Not Odd

"it is rather odd that it imposes its own limitations. After all, Kingston has traditionally provided the means to upgrade equipment, but with the Wi-Drive, the company has made a device with its own storage limits. Undoubtedly, Kingston wants to sell its chips, but given the Wi-Drive's price, it is the lack of an SD-card slot to further extend its capacity that rather takes the shine off this compact and capable iOS storage expander." No. Just taking a leaf out of Apple'sbook.

Why modern music sounds rubbish

Little mono speaker

Forgot to add, years ago every production desk had a little mono speaker, which was used to check that the mix sounded at least something like the intended track, because hundreds of thousands of potential purchasers of the record would get their first exposure to it on one of the new fangles transistor radios. Often under the blankets, after official "lights out."

Very good article

Excellent illustration and an intelligent article with thoughtful comments. The effect is even worse on commercial radio where the recording is further compressed. Not listening to music on the radio much, my gripe is often the opposite with the BBC. I listen a lot in the car, which, despite being better than 20 years ago, it still not a quiet environment. The dynamic range for speech much loved by many BBC engineers has me constantly twiddling the volume as the presenter is too loud when I turn up the guest to hear what they are saying and vice versa. It would sound lovely at home but a huge percentage of radio is consumed in vehicles.

Domino's to serve pizzas on the Moon, apparently

Lunacy

Thats all

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 gets aired

HDMI

I reckon it will. It would be crazy not to.

Sony Android tablets in-bound

If the price is right...

Lots of people (I almost wrote punters) do buy what they know, but Sony has a very good reputation, and I think these could sell, particularly to the many who have yet to buy a tablet.

Tablet wars set for Apple vs Amazon head-to-head

Good?

Google "Android 2.3 capacitive tablet" and see what Amazon can come up with for less than £160. Is it good? I think mine is very good, but you can't easily measure or quantify "good" can you?

Brit men descend from mammoth hunters, not farmers

Fashion?

Are faded genes fashionalble again then?

iPhone users richer, brainier, more tasteful than Android-ers

Paid?

Someone got paid for doing this? Worth it for the laugh anyway, I'm still chuckling.

People don't want tablets, they want iPads

Yes, I'm stupid

I wanted a tablet. I wanted something that I could use to browse theb web, read email, watch YouTube and BBC iPlayer (and play on a TV screen sometimes.) I wanted it to connect to a PC and have removable storage, I wanted it more portable than a laptop (so I could use it on a train) and have a few hours battery life. I wanted it to cost less than a netbook / laptop. So I did not want an iPad, because I am interested in what it does, not what it "says about me." I found what I wanted for well under £200, and with a USB keyboard for office / home use at less than £12. Judging by the number of reviews of my tablet (and others) on Amazon, (where I am guessing the vast majority of buyers do not bother to write a review) I am far from being alone. So yes, people who want a "Pad" of some sort will buy an iPad. But people who know what they want a tablet device for might be stupid, like me.

Pierre Cardin joins tablet trend

£110

Is the cost of the case and branding. Check Amazon for Android 2.2 7" capacitive tablets.

They will sell though. Paris, because she would buy one.

Tablets will overtake consumer PCs, says Fujitsu CTO

Shifting ground

Affordable laptops have probably displaced desktop sales as much as they are likely to, so I don't see tablets making much inroad there. Business will continue to use PCs because they are cheap, ergonomic and secure (no, not IT secure, less nickable or droppable.) To date I would guess tablets have augmented desktop/laptop sales, but I can see that multi-laptop households might have fewer laptops/netbooks and more tablets. I also think tablets have an appeal even if someone owns a good netbook. My prediction is that 7" or 8" variants will become favourite, because they can be stached easily and used in a confined place, such as the tiny area modern trains cram people into.

Corporates love iPhone, iPad more than Android kit

Good grief

"Mostly US" is the telling phrase. That introduces a huge bias. Business is a conservative market too. Give it a few more months

The KILLER MUTANT FUNGUS in YOUR DISHWASHER

Crickey!

Bloody hell. thats all.

Waking to check mail? You're not alone

Common Sense

My job is not dealing with life and death situations, so I don't need to be on call 24/7. My phone is downstairs when I sleep upstairs. It is set to sync with work 07.30 to 17.00 Monday to Friday. My boss and 3 other people have my mobile number, and they only ring me outside of work hours if the situation is very important and very urgent. We send emails in the evening and weekends, but not with the expectation that they will be read outside of office hours. If I am expecting a very urgent call when I go to a meeting I will have the phone on silent and explain in advance that I might need to take a call. If I do get the call, I leave the room. We only use text when the message is urgent and brief, usually pre arranged e.g., visitor arrived, It is about not being addicted.

Planet with British weather found 20 light years away

25G? Hmm

25G is a bit of a drawback ;-)

BBC engineers see PLT knocking out DAB

Not simple it seems

I have PLT to connect my hub downstairs with one PC upstairs which has poor wifi connectivity. I have four DAB / FM radios, one of which is 2M from a PLT unit. No problem with DAB or FM. My neighbours likewise. Not sure what frequency the PLTs are using; they came free from BT internet a couple of years ago. The nearest HAM is about 750M away. I doubt if I am bothering him.

PARIS team raises pint to Yuri Gagarin

First Orbit

Glad El Reg marked the occasion. The film First Orbit (posted yesterday) has had 2 million hits on YouTube.

Dixons Advent Vega

market

I have the Archos 101 and put Market on it. No doubt it will be just as easy on this. Looks like a bargan to me.

Yanks outweigh Canucks: Official

Answer for AC

In 2009, almost a quarter of adults (22% of men and 24% of women aged 16 or over) in England were classified as obese (BMI 30kg/m2 or over).

Is videoconferencing reborn?

Skype

VC was available to the few who could afford the kit and ISDN6 Skype is used by many organisations, it is almost free and it works, up to a point. I'm interested to see where VC goes - fuel and green issues will play their part.