Posts by TS

Apple’s Mac turns 30: How Steve Jobs’ baby took its first steps

Re: "Such a simple, obvious idea"

"To get the maximum screen size on the minimum footprint..."

LoL... are you kidding? Have you ever actually seen an old laptop from that era?

There was *no* "maximum screen size", they all had small screens centered with 2"+ bezels around them. There's no need to "raise the screen", there was always plenty of room between the hinge and the screen.

I loved my PB140 despite the passive matrix screen, it was much more usable than any PC laptop at the time. Spare batteries also helped. And the Portable Stylewriter, that was amazing, loved being able to work anywhere, creating designs and printing them out immediately to show clients was a huge boost back then.

Clink! Terrorist jailed for refusing to tell police his encryption password

Re: Once more proof

"It seems that there is a new attack against Truecrypt."

This is not a new attack, just a new tool to make it easier to find what was always there.

"Since the police had physical access to the device it would appear that this makes all such devices vulnerable."

Access to the USB device itself isn't enough. The keys and file location information is cached in memory on the computer that the USB device was plugged into. It's possible they have the computer, but if it was powered down, then the chances of recovering the keys are low.

Leaked photos of iPhone 5C parts portend ugly Google legal battle

Where have I seen those colors before...

Hmmm... I kinda remember them on some sort of logo... maybe some fruit or something. Apple better sue that company as well, before Google sues them.

Elon Musk unveils Hyperloop – the subsonic tube of tomorrow

Recharge stations

He should also build recharge stations every 50 miles or so. Nice big banks of batteries to store energy for the hyperloop... but also allow people to recharge their electric vehicles on the road.

Can't get zoning from some town? Offer to build an electric vehicle recharge station there. Depending on how much the hyperloop requires, it could be free charging. Or maybe very cheap charging vs. plugging into the grid.

Could help get more electric vehicles on the road.

Google to offer 'same-day delivery' Amazon Prime killer - report

Re: Free delivery better

Not sure where you are, but in the States it started sucking two years ago.

I've been a prime member since it started. It was great for several years... until UPS and FedEdx decided to change the way they deliver packages.

Now both drop packages off at the local US Postal Service location, and then tell Amazon "it's been delivered". You check with UPS and FedEx tracking, and both will show the package has been "delivered"... but it's sitting in your local post office.

Who knows when the local post office will get around to actually getting it out the door. Could be the same day, or could be three. I've called UPS and FedEx fuming about a package that was suppose to arrive in two days but was still somewhere in the local mail after four.

Some things do arrive quickly; books, DVDs, some electronics shipped from the local Amazon warehouse always arrives in two days. But other stuff can take much longer even with two day shipping.

Oh, and more and more I see it says "order in the next 8 hours and select two day free shipping and have it Friday!" but after you've purchased it, it says to expect delivery next Tuesday! And Amazon says Delivered! but I won't get it from the USPS until Thursday!

Not really sure it's worth it... unless you use prime videos.

Canon debuts EOS M compact system camera

No custom settings?

No custom settings? I realize they don't want it cluttering the dial of consumer DSLRs... but if it's all software, and most people never leave the automatic... why not put in a few custom slots? It would be nice to carry one of these as a second body on trips... but setting everything via touchscreen, and not be able to save the changes... I'd probably just get frustrated working with it. Oh well, it would have been nice.

Darwin alarmed by six-legged mutant cane toad

Re: Just one question

"Stronger/longer legs in 80 years due to natural selection is entirely possible. If the conditions favour longer legged toads, then that is what you will get."

The toads aren't in a closed system, but expanding outwards. The longer/stronger legged toads can travel more than their short/weaker legged compatriots, meaning that each breeding cycle only breeds those with long/strong legs as they keep expanding out.

It would be interesting to find out how those left near the origin are fairing. Are they more muscular overall, having to compete with each other? Are they smaller, having to fight for the same resources? Any other advantages or disadvantages show up that aren't seen in those out on the perimeter?

Acer bigwig sees gloomy future for Ultrabooks in Europe

These are machines the executives want...

The execs want ultrabooks so they can walk into meetings with clients and competitors, looking stylish and unencumbered. But obviously, the Acer exec can't walk into a meeting holding a Mac Air (unless it's to say "we need to build something like this"). So all the companies have ultrabooks and try to sell them to the average consumers. Who would rather do other things with their money, not having exec level salaries.

Once, 10 years ago or so, I had an ultra-portable Toshiba Portege (12" IIRC). Slow, underpowered, battery that could barely survive a short train ride... but it was really slick and light and super portable. Way overpriced, but at that time I was willing to give it a shot. Since then, I've had several laptops, but have stuck to 14" and 15.6" machines which are either 1/3rd the price, or have 3x the power, battery, storage, and features than the ultrabooks. I'm happy getting the same for less, or getting more for the same... but I'm over the need to spend more just to look stylish and unencumbered.

'Puzzling structures on surface' of YU55 spaceball

Mass of Aircraft carriers

@Chris244

"I would be interested in knowing how you would convert from a unit of mass into "football" fields."

Sorry, we Americans don't understand mass, only size. Bigger'n aircraft carrier, we understand. As massive as an aircraft carrier may get through. 3X the mass of an aircraft carrier will draw blank stares.

As for nuclear vs. non-nuclear, the JFK wasn't that much smaller than Nimitz class. It displaced less, but again, we don't understand mass, only football fields.

Lemmings

This level looks EASY!

This level looks EASY. I'll just walk out.... hey, WTH, something just ATE my lemming! Ok, I'll build a bridge over it. Oops, wrong lemming. Build another bridge to climb over the trap... HA! I got you now! Wait, don't turn around there. No, don't walk into the trap! Shoot I used my last bridge! GRRR.... 5 ... 4... 3 ... 2 ... 1...

Kingston Wi-Drive wireless flash storage

Because they have wireless on planes?

@TheRealRoland

You do know that they have wireless internet access on planes, right?

Ten... outdoor gadgets

Awesome camera!

We love the Limux TS2 and TS3. Awesome cameras!

The waterproofing is nice, not only in water, but in all outdoor conditions. Take pictures while snowshoeing and not worry about the snow getting in the lens... makes a huge difference! Taking pictures while kayaking, snorkeling, even just the extreme humidity in some areas.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s 14in Core i5 laptop

Nice, but...

What annoys me is that there's no disk activity LED. It's useful if you're shutting down or hibernating to know when it's safe to toss it into the bag, with the Edge you just have to wait.

The power LED is incorporated into the logo, which is nice, but if it's bright in the room, it's hard to see if the LED is on or off.

And then the charge LED is off on the side above the power socket. I'm not sure I like it or not, maybe I'll get used to it.

At least they're not all white LEDs like the Y series.

Microsoft to release Windows thin PC in late June

RE: More MS BS

"How can there be customers of an unreleased product?"

Just because it's "unreleased" doesn't mean customers can't access it. That's the whole point of BETA testing.

Windows *THIN*

"Is the Windows 7 Bloat that bad these days? Is the cost of a 40Gb HDD really so extortionate?"

It's not for OEMs building home machines with 500GB drives. It's for companies that have hundreds or thousands of legacy machines with 40GB drives that want to repurpose them from full user machines to thin client machines.

There's a lot going on with Citrix, VDI, cloud computing. Companies need to get rid of XP on those old machines due to all the security issues, and install something newer... without Win TPC, they might go with *nix or a bare-metal hypervisor like nxtop or xenclient.

FBI asks for help to crack mystery code in 12-year-old murder case

He was "encrypting" notes to himself

If I'm writing notes to myself, I don't really need to encrypt it... I just need to put stuff down that nobody can read, but I can still recognize.

I know that

"b" means "butter", so I write "brlerr"

"e" means "eggs", so I write "e343ffe"

"p" means "paper towels", so I write "p1"

"qfl" means "quaters for laundry, so I write "qfl".

brlerr e343ffe p1 qlf

Go ahead and try to decode that.

Student racks up £8000 mobile broadband bill

No, it isn't.

"Quite easy if you're using Windows - it constantly accesses your hard disc and network connection doing lord (and MS perhaps) only knows what."

No, many of us do know exactly what Windows is doing. And no, Windows is not going to download nearly 3GB in a month. JAN critical patches were about 25MB, FEB was half that.

Unless you install SP3 for both XP and Office, install ALL the Adobe Acrobat updates, update all the other random programs, THEN you might get close to 2GB. So if the guy just purchased and XP SP2 machine and it set to auto update everything, then yeah, it could hit 2GB.

But Windows is certainly NOT downloading 2.7GB on its own, nowhere close.

Melting ice sheets create new carbon sink, say boffins

Size of Wales?

Is that normal Wales or a ironed out Wales?

MS forensics tool leaks onto the web

RE: Decrypt passwords?

@anyonymous coward

----------------------------------------------------------

"...even decrypt passwords"

Excusame?? Is this an admission that Windows hashed passwords can actually be decrypted? Because if it is so, I wonder how Windows could be sold/proposed with any claim at security at all.

----------------------------------------------------------

Um, yeah, for quite a long time. Google "l0phtcrack".

There is no security when the attacker has physical access to your machine.

BT call centre staff snaffle £45m lottery win

No need to burn bridges...

Might as well be nice on the way out... you might need the job back after wasting all the money living the high life for a few months and then finding yourself with no money and $20K/month mortgage(s), $5K/month car payment(s), and friends that have suddenly disappeared into the woodwork from whence they came.

Seagate first with 1.5TB hard drives

Not everyone has fat pipes...

Not everyone has fat pipes to the 'net. I'm in a hotel in Brazil, and sometimes I see 1400ms in my pings to google. AV updates which takes seconds at home over cable can take 10 minutes here. Downloading a big word document from the "storage cloud" would take an agonizingly long time.

Even in the states, I've stayed at plenty of hotels that had measly little pipes to the web.

So no, I'm not going to be storing my files online.

US beak pecks at RIAA's 'making available' filesharing attack

Difference between prosecuted and sued

@Stu Reeves

"So can I be prosecuted if I throw an old cd in the Bin? After all anyone could get it and copy it."

There's a difference between getting prosecuted and being sued by the RIAA. The RIAA can't have you arrested for throwing out the CD, but they could sue you. Anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason. Of course, it would probably be dismissed, but you never know. Especially if it's a promotional CD, the studios claim those are still their property and throwing it out constitutes "illegal distribution".

Telco firm, Coke sponsor Filipino crucifixion festival

I hope at least...

The crucified get a hands-free headset and a straw...

Ten years old: the world's first MP3 player

Rio had problems

It had a horrible battery life. Not that it used a lot of power, but the battery door wouldn't stay closed and the battery would fall out. A lot of people had problems with that, and it just didn't look as sexy with a rubber band holding the door closed.

I used it for a long time, but eventually upgraded to something with more memory.

EU wants RFID tags turned off

It's not just about what you buy

RFIDs that are left in your clothes can track which stores you go into and even where you are in the store. By putting RFID readers in each rack of clothes, they can tell how long you were browsing, and later if you actually purchased it. That's great info for a retailer.

Now, if several retailers get together and link their databases, they now know that you spent 30 minutes in the coffee shop, 45 browsing for new jeans (but didn't buy any), 15 looking for new non-fiction books, 30 in the erotic novels section, 5 looking at hemorrhoid cremes... sure you can pay for cash, but if you've got one RFID connected to one credit card purchase, then they can track everything you do.

Nintendo patent profers wacky Wii add-ons

Now that's just stupid

A skateboard? OK, I can see the visor, helmet, and bicycle pedal as useful in some game or another. But a skateboard? That's just stupid.

There's no relative motion between the ground and the wheels, so what's the point? Unless you actually plan to ride the board around the room, which is ridiculous. If you put the controller on the deck, there is relative motion as you can move the deck while still stationary. But the wheels? Someone was asleep at Nintendo.

Text-to-pee service launched

Better put a bucket out back

Frankly I'd rather just pee behind the facility than pay to get in, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Line up for full-windscreen satnav

Paper maps are always too regional

The problem with a map is that you never have the area that you need in detail. When you get lost, it's usually in an unexpected place, due to traffic or construction detours. I rarely get lost since I have an uncanny sense of direction (which really annoys my GF), but when I do, the maps are useless because I'm on some local street that doesn't show up on the maps.

In the backcountry, I love 7.5 minute maps. Drop me anywhere with a compass and I can locate myself. But while behind the wheel, the GPS navigation is much more convenient as well as safer to operate.

Barcode faking for fun and profit

Not worth the risk

Make fake UPC labels is considered forgery, which is a felony. Doesn't seem worth the risk to save a couple of bucks on DVDs.

How to be a failure at Guitar Hero III

Outdoors?

It's too wet and cold to be rock climbing. The ice isn't solid enough (at least for me) to climb yet. It's too expensive and way, way too crowded to snowboard this week. Also too crowded to be out climbing mountains. Really, this week sucks for doing things since there are so many people who are off and trying to do the same thing.

It's a good week to stay at home and play GHIII.

Nokia to turn cameraphones into foreign food finders

Do you know anything about Japanese?

@Andrew

Guess you don't know anything about Japanese, or even Chinese.

There are also another 73 characters for basic Japanese called Hiragana, and another 73 characters for English based words callled Katakana. Every kid learns those 146 characters in grade school. Beyond that, there is Kanji, where there's around 2000 common characters that most adults can read. And another 8000 uncommon characters, which sometimes includes subtext in Hiragana so people can read it. You can also use Chinese characters in Japanese, so add the 6000 common Chinese characters, and 30,000 uncommon Chinese characters. There are often characters you have to guess at from the context if there is no sub-text included.

So this feature would be helpful to not only to the relatively small group of business travelers and students, but to the huge number of native Japanese and Chinese speakers.

A great idea

While I was on business in Hong Kong and Tokyo on business, I rented phones with cameras built in so I could take pictures of things on menus and at the grocery store. I would email the picture to a co-worker in the local office who would call/mail me back and tell me what it was in English. The scanning helps a great deal since character input by keyboard is impossible if you don't know what the character is in the first place.

Yes, there are restaurants that don't have English and the hosts speak no English whatsoever; those little hole-in-the-wall places, they never see tourists so they don't bother with English.

It would be useful in NYC as well, there are often items in French and Italian menus I don't recognize, especially when chefs get creative and add obscure ingredients. Would be great to have a translator built into something I carry with me all the time.

US unleashes six bloggers in assault on Islamist propaganda

Not going to make any difference

Half of Americans reject evolution. They even speak English so there's no language barrier. There's little chance of convincing them to even consider the alternatives, much less getting them to accept that they were wrong.

I feel bad for the bloggers, I'm sure they would do all they can, but I'm afraid they're not going to accomplish anything and just end up frustrated and aggravated.

Best Buy sells 'last Wii' twice

It's just advertising.

I saw two sitting in a cabinet at Target the other day. I was tempted to buy both and ebay them, but decided just to let some lucky parent find it.

It's just that stores have been out of stock for so long, people have stopped looking for them. So when the store does have one in stock, they have to advertise they have them.

"Last one", that's a little sneaky, but really, with most stores OOS most of the time, it's not too far from the truth. I wouldn't get too upset, it's not like they're sitting on a cache of hundreds of machines.

Of course they still suck a retailer.

Punters call for laptops with built-in mobiles

US Punters...

It's not the availability of WiFi, but the lousy coverage of the networks. I've tested a few cellular network cards, and they vary in effectiveness depending on the region. One card works well here in NYC, but lousy in Boston. Another works well in the suburbs of CT but not in Florida. There are dead spots between NYC and Westchester where no one can get a signal.

Add to that the lackluster speed and high cost.

Another drawback is that you can't share the connection at home with the desktop, so it's yet another contract that you have to pay for. It's not going to replace your cell phone since you don't want to have to fire up the laptop every time you need to take a call.

You can use your existing cell phone to connect your laptop to the internet, but the rates are outrageous and the speed unspectacular.

We don't need GSM built in; they need to address coverage, speed and cost.

Bacteria to blame for global warming?

So where is

Where is the wikipedia article collaborating this article? It must be there and it must be true!

African human-powered lighting plan announced

There's no irony in the cost of bulbs.

@Norman

You forget that florescent bulbs, while costing 10x the cost of a incandescent bulb, last 10x as well, so in the long run they don't cost any more.

LED bulbs currently run some 50x the cost of an incandescent bulb, but they are said to last 100x as long. Which would make them cheaper than your standard bulb.

Not to mention the 70% electricity savings by using the LED bulbs.

I converted to florescent a couple years ago. I haven't converted to LED yet since the energy savings aren't that much greater, but I expect that the prices of the bulbs will drop significantly in the next couple of years.

California teen offers GPS challenge to speeding rap

The GPS is not checking every 30 seconds...

The GPS is not checking location every 30 seconds, it is continually monitoring its own location. The device UPLOADS data every 30 seconds, which INCLUDES the average speed across that 30 second interval. You guys are assuming that the average speed is calculated using a location every 30 seconds, which could lead to inaccurate readings. However, the average recorded by the device is accurate since it is a continual reading of the position in fractions of a second.

Random inaccuracies every 30 seconds could lead to a 60m range difference from point A to B. But if the readings are every 1/10th of a second, then you have 300 readings from point A to B, and thus those inaccuracies average out to nothing. Because it's being monitored continually, there's no chance that the kid can speed up between points A and B without the device monitoring it.

Transformers sets hi-def format sales record

So what's the *real* number?

How many of those were purchased by Toshiba and Paramount agents and employees to boost sales figures? 50%? 75%?

Cassini reveals two faces of Iapetus

Should have named it Lokai

It's probably been hiding in our solar system for 50,000 years. We need to keep a lookout in case a white and black moon comes looking for it.

Warner Bros to remake Enter the Dragon

Awaken the Dragon???

What, are they bringing Bruce back from the dead?

There is only one Dragon, and he's gone. Remake the movie, I don't care, just call it something else. Get some new jeet kune do expert, find out his nickname and call it "Enter the {nickname}".

Little Dragon is gone, let him go...

Dutch police arrest six in 419 scam

It's not *his* money.

It's not his personal cash. As the article says, they were promising him a lucrative business contract, so the cash most likely came from the coffers of the business where he works (or at least where he used to work).

Most of the reports of people getting scammed for big $$$$$ have gotten the money embezzling it. There are always reports of some grandma losing her retirement money, but they never lose that much money. Not like the Michigan law office bookkeeper who embezzled $2.1M of the firms cash.

That's gotta suck, finding out your business is bankrupt because an ASSociate lost all the cash to a 419 scam...

Samsung S1030 and S850 digital cameras

"Intelligent Face" recognition

It's not the camera's fault. The camera knows there's no "intelligent face" to recognize, just a dummy...

Google searches for computer dealers

And how much

How much did they pay for this ad?

Man barely survives hamster attack

RE: WTF

Just because he had allergies and had an Epi pen doesn't mean he knew he was allergic to chemicals in a hamster's saliva. It probably never crossed his mind.

He's probably allergic to bee stings or peanuts and had the epi handy. As soon as he started having a reaction, he didn't have to know what caused it, only that he had to use the epi pen.

Nothing "wtf" about it at all.

Google's search dominance continues to grow

More searches because more useless results?

Maybe the number of searches has increased because people are having to do more searches to get the results they need?

You're trying to find out why your laptop has a problem, so you type in the model number, and all you get are those "deals" websites. So you refine your search and again, the top 200 results are sales sites, some from the other side of the world. Completely and utterly useless. So you revise the search again, and again, and again... until you get lucky and the query appears verbatim on some website which is all you really wanted in the first place. But instead you had to do a half dozen searches. I don't remember it being as bad a few years ago, good results were easier to find.

Space shuttle crashes in Alabama

What is this, the SUN?

Come on. We expect some eye-catching headlines, but that's going too far.

Cruise missile streaks across Google Earth

Reflection, not paint

The wings are not painted black, but the shiny aluminum wings are reflecting the sky above.

When on the ground, the aluminum reflects the blue sky above. As it climbs higher, the air above gets thinner and at some point (not sure where) the wings reflect only the darkness of space.