Posts by Terry Blay

Reg hack to starve on £1 a day for science

Spain - not cheap.

I've got some experience living in Spain, and food is generally more dear, and whilst UK supermarkets have their own brand, and then the cheapest-of-cheap 'white packet' brands, Spain knows not the latter. You'll be very hard pressed to find noodles for under 80 cents.

I did, however, spend a month or two, living (more like clinging on desperately) with about 10 euros a week, which isn't a lot more than a quid a day, but for sure, you can survive.

If you spend the whole 5 quid in one go, I'd recommend lentils, a couple of onions, rice, perhaps some eggs and bread, and maybe a little cheap chorizo - if it stretches.

You can whip up a big pan of lentils with rice and eat that + egg sarnies every day. Not very pleasant by day 4, but at least you won't go hungry. Drinking the tap water was a must as bottled water was unaffordable in my budget. that bad.

I got a lot of sympathy for anyone who has to live like this for an extended period of time.

Suicidal Foxconn workers talked down from factory roof

Whose fault is it anyway?

"The welfare of our employees is our top priority and we are committed to ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and that their rights are fully protected. The operational changes that were the basis for this incident are being carried out in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations."

If this is totally true, which I suspect it is, then the simple fact that Foxconn can drive employees to suicide, while still fully respecting their 'rights', and "in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations." - this doesn't say much about worker's rights in China.

So what was Communism supposed to be about? If I remember Marx and 'Das Kapital' - it was not this.

Microsoft pitching Kinect control tech to telly makers

Think outside the box

What about spacial awareness? With the main stumbling block for 3DTV is the need to wear glasses which manufacturers are now trying to overcome. (http://www.reghardware.com/2009/09/09/ifa_philips_3dtv/)

Microsoft is also pitching to PC's and improving it's near field of view capabilities, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/23/kinect_face_applications/ - it's clear it's clever tech with more potential than simple control, i.e. http://www.reghardware.com/2010/12/13/xbox_kinect_air_guitar/

I think it has very good potential for providing the necessary depth of field detection for 3D displays that adjust the parallax barrier to suit the viewers position. I might not be surprised to see it in laptops in place of the regular single camera. It's only a matter of time before they make the system much more compact. Even to provide 3D video recording as well.

I'm not a great fan of microsoft, but they did well to acquire the Kinect technology, just as they seem to have done well with WinPho8.

Apple posts dev-only iOS 4.3

As for the swipes...

Multitouch swipe is one of the few truly awesome features of my new macbook, and a real innovation. I'm looking forward to an iPhone featuring this.

Sony profits down, but PS3 sales up

Making money on PS3 was never the point.

Having thought about it for a bit I reckon it's pretty obvious why Sony deliberately sold each PS3 at a loss, I thought it was public knowledge?

They did it primarily to win the BD/HD format wars... just because HD-DVD is now dead, they can't RAISE prices, can they?

I reckon they expected it to take longer to win that fight. But they certainly factored in a loss for at least the life of the PS3.

They also sell the best machine out there, arguably. The Cell CPU is powerful and flexible, as is the PS3 (you can build hardcore Superclusters withem), and they're BD and HDTV ready....

I reckon they are planning for the future in a big way. Lose millions now, but get as many of these cut-price cutting edge boxes in homes that can afford them and you've got a damn loyal and moneyed market. The kind of people that buy Sony HD TVs and Sony games and watch Sony Movies on Sony's own BD discs.

After years of decline they've gambled a significant amount on this, and they've all but won, looking at the figures and HD-DVD.

They'll see a return on their investment for years to come but it won't be in the PS3 division.

SF's silent sysadmin pleads not guilty

I like it - but it's wrong.

If he wants to take the hard road, keep the passwd secret and screw SF city for fun, I'm already enjoying it..

After all, Sysadmins have above average IQ's, I trust he was probably stiffed by some corporate w4nk3r and took revenge - All BOFH wannabees can take pleasure from this.

On the other hand, IT IS WRONG. He was employed to manage, he doesn't own the equipment, and having complete control over the network isn't his right, it belongs to whoever SF City nominates. (they were stupid to let it get like this in the first place)

I reckon he should pony up now, get whatever leniency he can for cooperation and get on with his life.

Can't really criticize the city for throwing the book, but I can't help but enjoy the fact that their ineptitude has been shown to the world for what it is.

.... Here's hoping for a lenient sentence. But no matter how good he is, who will trust him with their network now?

Mines the password protected one.

AMD confirms 'Atom-smasher' chip on its roadmap

@ waste of iinvestment resources

What the fsck are you on, boy, I want some.

AMD came from nowhere to whooping Intel's ass a few years ago with clever designs. While Intel kept on upping the GHz, AMD were coming up with novel ideas to make faster chips in different ways.

Intel make the better chips now, IMHO, but only just, and only because they realised that AMD designs were better and changed their tactics. They have the money to do this.

'Obviously AMD lack of creative telented people other than bunch of smart techno thieves follow what it competitor did and steal the ideal from it.'

.... you are deluded hombre.

Criminal record checks could hit over 14 million people

RE: British caste system

"Brown wants us all to be proud of our Britishness. Well, he can f*ck right off, because I see nothing to be proud of."

You summed it up nicely there. Pure gold.

BTW I quit the UK just in time to watch this police state develop from afar.

My advice: Come to Spain. Here the govt. seems to mind it's own f*cking business, and it works just nicely.

HP demonstrates mega-memory concept

I just had to say....

PH already has 2 MegaTits, methinks

:-D

Microsoft criticizes EU's 'unreasonable' judgement

I wonder...

...How keen the commission would be to bring MS to book, if it was originally a european company, than an American one...

I can kind of understand if Uncle Sam doesn't want to hurt one of it's world market leaders' businesses too much, although I'm glad the EU commission stands up against Ballmer & Co. ... at least they do for now...

3 calls foul on T-Mobile price promise

Easy solution

3.... put out an advert:

"No one gives you more minutes for 27 quid"

Then smile your cheesiest biggest grin at T-Mobile and see what happens next.

Pioneer proudly pitches 400GB Blu-ray optical disc

Green?

I know for a fact that there are terrible people in this world who, since the demise of the floppy, and in the absense of any other suitable medium, have happily burned a few hundred KB onto a blank DVD, and not worried about it at all.

I really can't see this changing, although if I personally saw someone throw away 399.9999GB of spare capacity like that I'd have to bitchslap them immediately. Saddest thing is maybe I wouldn't... I'd get used to it like everyone else eventually.

My point is... the whole green credential thing is a bit meaningless when it's only as good as the end user who is often as ignorant as many other end users on such matters. Why even mention it?

The technology is great though! I remember my first 1GB HDD and wondering how the hell I was ever going to fill it... this in the early 90's!

Mine's the one with 16 layers ;)

Daily Mail loses employee info

HA HA HA HA squared

It's hilarious... the first thing I thought was 'HAHAHAHA' and guess what the first comment is...

Damn! We're all so de-sensitized that some among us find it hilarious now when countless peoples personal, private information is pissed up the wall by the twats who give us no choice but to hand it over to them in the first place.

I don't know if people should be locked up for these kinds of breaches, but someone should definitely pay. Maybe their personal details (I mean ALL personal details) should be publicly posted?

I reckon most CEO's would hate the thought of everyone knowing all that stuff about them and perhaps institute good practices to try and ensure that the lesser mortals could expect the same?

Damn, this makes me SO angry.. but I'm still laughing!

AAArrrrGGG

/RANT

Prius hybrid to get rooftop solar panel

@ Rich.. and anyone who thinks hybrid tech is no good

The Prius also has a type of CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) gearbox, meaning that it effectively has an infinite number of gear ratios, and can therefore keep the engine running at optimum RPM's (for fuel economy etc) regardless of how fast the wheels are going round.

If the CVT is smooth enough in moving the car from a standstill I don't see any reason why it would need a secondary source at all.

In fact, we can pick lots of holes in the Prius et al.'s green credentials once manufacturing costs (to environment) etc etc have been taken under consideration, but many forget the following important facts:

A lot of these technologies are new to mass-produced cars and have great potential. Now these are becoming popular - And don't underestimate the importance of Prius et al in helping this to happen - I hope we can expect to see such tech refined, costs reduced and put into more cars.. like CVT, electric motor assist, etc. etc.

Stop slagging this tech off. Unless you want a car-less future very soon, you should be supporting things like this - remember, car's like the Prius are part of the journey to a more sustainable system, not the destination.

Even if some ideas, like bolting solar panels on, seem a bit daft, people need to think of them and people need to try.

Mines the solar powered one...

ISO certifies Adobe's PDF

It does the job....

Just because the reader has acquired bloatware and become a pain in the arse, doesn't mean the format/concept is bad at all, in fact I think it's great to be able to recieve/download a document from any platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix etc. etc) and print it out exactly how it was meant to be printed.

I use a third party (not Adobe) app to read and even create PDF docs, and it always works well for me... so it's a worthy standard (it's already a de-facto standard anyway)

/two cents

Virgin warns 800 punters for file-sharing

Big up Carphone Warehouse!!

I'd like to highlight a point I haven't seen much of on this thred:

BIG RESPECT TO CARPHONE WAREHOUSE FOR SHOWING SOME BLOODY INTEGRITY and telling the BPI to shove it where the DRM don't shine.

That for me would be a good enough reason to switch to their service

They are a listed company though, and if pushed to it they'd comply, if their shareholder's interests were threatened....

Family visa sponsors face ID, credit and CRB checks

Big Bro UK

My motherland is turning into a Big Brother state, where more and more controls are placed on law abiding citizens whilst illegal people find it no harder to get around these controls now, than in the past.

The government rules from the top down, often ignores the will of its electorate, and makes mistake after mistake after mistake.

I left 3 months ago for a life in Spain. I look back with a sense of real pity, and sorrow. And happiness that I live in a country where political decisions and rules seem to follow common sense and logic.

I feel sorry for all the poor bastards living in the UK who will find themselves living under a very expensive police state in the near future. I for one, feel like I escaped just in time.

The system is a mess. Better to get out now before they make anal cavity searches compulsory on all flights.

PS: (just to smirk some!)

Spain - 504,780 km² and around 700 speed cameras

UK - 209,331 km², and more than 3000 speed cameras

If that doesn't make every driver in the country want to leave, what the hell would?

Intel says 'no' to Windows Vista

Nobody here seems to know anyone using pirated XP?

I'm sure there are thousands, if not millions of people using iffy 'Volume license' copies of XP.

However IMHO the low uptake of Vista has nothing to do with piratability.

Case in point: No doubt plenty of people (including XP pirates arrrrrrr) have since bought new PC's/hardware with legally licensed OEM Vista included... and swiftly wiped their licensed Vista off in favour of a XP install, some of these will be legit, others won't. So what?

If Vista was anywhere near as popular at launch as XP, these nice legal OEM installs would all still be there. But they're not. So: A significant number of people prefer Pirated copies of XP to legal copies of Vista, while others prefer legal copies of XP to legal copies of Vista.

Do you see the pattern?

IMHO, Vista simply fails because the user experience is worse than XP. XP works reasonably well with games, apps etc., Vista often don't. But it looks good.

Mines the warm and comfy old coat, next to the expensive looking one with leaky stitching and a zip that constantly sticks.

Computer system suspected in Heathrow 777 crash

Rise of The Machines....

I reckon it was taking it's orders from the Lizard Army.

Tag-a-lag: Chip implants mooted for UK prisoners

Easy solution:

Anyone seen 'Wedlock'?

Embed the RFID tags in an exploding collar. Weld to perp and tell them not to leave home, or try to remove collar.

Would they dare? I bet not. Most of 'em deserve nothing less.

> Coat

SCO faces financial crunch after Unix defeat

Ha. Ha. Ha.

After years of threats and IP terrorism,

SCO = Broke

So like it says above:

mwaHAAHAAHAAHA Just desserts I say

Borat's human rights restricted in Kazakhstan, US says

Deprivation of life??

Deprivation of life... typical american style phrase - why not just say 'killing' or 'murder'?

Sounds like another 'Precipitation Situation' to me. Do you think they talk like this at home with their families?