Posts by Anonymous Bastard

Samsung slurps up full charge in 30 seconds with bio-battery

Battery?

"The crystals, short chains of amino acids called peptides, can store a charge..."

I am not a chemist but to this layperson it sounds more like a hyper-capacitor than a battery, which would be consistent with other capacitor technology. It would also go some way towards explaining why the waste heat doesn't cause an explosion.

Also, I did not see any explicit mention of just how much charge is stored. I understand that battery meters assume charge based on the output voltage, rather than measuring actual joules.

MI5 boss: Snowden leaks of GCHQ methods HELPED TERRORISTS

For now ignore the cost to our freedoms.

What is the monetary cost of all this surveillance and how many lives has it saved? MI5's state this year's budget was £1991M (https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/about-us/who-we-are/funding.html). They don't say which plots they have prevented so let's imagine a worst case scenario was stopped, one 9/11 type attack, the last of which accounted for 2996 deaths. This means counter-terrorism is costing us £644.5K per head!

Now compare that to the benefit of shelters for the homeless and abused, drug rehabilitation clinics, basic sanitation, flu vaccines, sexual health awareness, community policing, street lights (similarly more cost effective than CCTV), children's rights, ambulances and nuclear disarmament.

Wealthy London NIMBYs grit teeth, welcome 'ugly' fibre cabinets

LOUD NOISES!!!!

Mobile phones still failing to kill people – Nordic scientists

Heard in a pub

Don't you know if you have two phones and call one from the other, then hold them on either side of an egg the resulting super-position of microwaves can COOK THE EGG!!!

(Just an example of how a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, you get morons using terms like "super-position")

Crack GCHQ's code and become the next James Bond

So the solution page is

http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/soyoudidit.asp

which leads to an application page that says:

"...whether you've got a relevant technical degree or YOU'VE DEVELOPED YOUR OWN EXPERTISE [my emphasis], you could really make a difference..."

and then expects you to send a CV demonstrating a "graduate with a minimum 2:1 degree". Human Resources strikes again!

Mozilla slips 'Do Not Track' header into Firefox nightlies

Worse than useless

The unscrupulous advertisers won't ignore the header, they'll make sure to add it to their profiling software. Now they have an extra field to track you by, one that'll identify the technically minded sort of person.

Tablets be DRAMmed – 9 times as much

@magnetik

From your tone I take it you own a fleet of Ferarris and bought tablets as christmas presents for all your friends and family, only to find out they had already bought their own?

I predicted less than monumental sales rather than "nobody" buying any in the next year. I offered an anecdote of first hand experience, not "evidence". I did, however, see two Acer boxes carried out in the same time.

It's shameful to start a story like this

I was in Dixons earlier today and took a minute to watch the iPads. No one paid them any attention. None got bought. Despite being near the entrance everyone walked past them and went to the netbook/notebook section instead. There is simply not enough demand for tablets in the real world and I have seen it with my own eyes.

I surmise the initial rash of sales were from early adopters, apple fanbois and koolaid drinkers. Market watchers are keen to extrapolate the rate of growth to massive sales and profits but I can't see the average man on the street actually buying into it.

Matrix 4 and 5 in works, threatens Keanu

XKCD!

It's the new Farside and Randall Munroe is the new Gary Larson.

Wind turbine bonanza expected in Hull

Not an industry as such, but...

I'd rather jobs were created in expensive wind farms than expensive defence projects which build frigates without guns and carriers without catapults or planes that can't be launched from them.

ESA releases splendid new space-'scope pic of Andromeda

Have just been watching the DVDs

Lister: Fasten your belt.

Cat: Hey, I do not need fashion tips from you buddy!

Lister: "Safety belt", we're going in.

Microsoft 'maintenance' blocks Hotmail

Free, except when it isn't free

Even the article points out "Those forking out $19.95 a year for Hotmail Plus are also blocked."

Ad networks owned by Google, Microsoft serve malware

Not all ads

I too am a NoScript fan and that's good enough. Without scripting the worst offenders - and infections - are dealt a hefty kick to the virtual nuts. And yes the decrease in load times is very welcome too. I'm so used to the slimline version of the web that it has become shocking to see what other people have to put up with.

Particularly on the Reg I am fine with the text adverts and occasional animated GIF. They're not so garish as to be distracting and they do serve a purpose after all, to pay for my favourite periodical. Long live El Reg! Love live saint Paris!

US Navy achieves '100 mile' hypersonic railgun test shot

Velocitas Eradico

Did you notice the logo at the end of the vid?

US Air Force studies fruit-flies to build killer insect swarm drones

And what then?

A robot bird to catch the spider? (That wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside 'er?)

Google speeds Chrome JavaScript engine with 'Crankshaft'

Am I the first?

"compared with the 2008 incarnation of Microsoft Internet Explorer, it's one hundred times faster." "Something that took a minute to execute two years ago takes a second to execute today,"

So that would be sixty times faster...

Anti-virus skulduggery - upgrade licence clock shock slammed

+1

Even though it's a tired cliche someone had to stick up for the penguins.

Plasma space-drive aces efficiency numbers: Set for ISS in 2014

"Ad Astra"

"To the stars"

I hope they didn't have to pay the strategy boutique too much for that name.

(Flame icon for plasma exhaust)

YES! It's the twists-in-midair FALLING GECKO ROBOT!

@BristolBachelor

I also read something like that where someone had done a load of research... Roughly speaking it has more to do with the height the toast is dropped from (about 5 ft for most people) than whether it is buttered or not.

Facebook unveils 'next-gen' messaging system

Facebook unveils 'next-gen' messaging system

And it shall be called "Facebook Wave". And it too shall flop.

Hitachi refrigerates rack rears

Aren't heat pipes the same principle?

Except heat pipes connect to the hot parts directly and use no fan.

I know I'm being naive - I just don't know how.

Group slams airport naked body scanners

What are the alternatives?

Even more invasive cavity search or refused entry to the 'plane with no ticket refund since you gave up your seat voluntarily?

Shut up, Spock! How Battlestar Galactica beat Trek babble

+1 for "religion-bable"

For me, that was the sole reason for turning off after only a few episodes. The article says "It didn't preach" (first page) but clearly it did, just not in scientific terms. I was even going to put up with the notable lack of a theme tune until the machines started claiming to have found God.

Thumbs up for the comment. Thumbs down for the show.

Microsoft's IE 8 'most widely used browser', rules ASA

"browser stats are notoriously inaccurate."

Not to mention w3schools is aimed exclusively at forward thinking webdevs who probably run Firefox just for the use of Firebug (I know I do). In fact I'm surprised their figures for Firefox and Chrome aren't much much higher...

New pocket-sized smartbomb - just for killer robots

Pocket sized?

At 13 pounds and 2 feet long it's not exactly like those in Runaway. We can but watch and wait.

X2 triplex super-copter to be offered as Army 'Raider' craft

Revolutionary?

-1 internets for that terrible pun.

YouTube clasps naked dancer to bosom

One syllable words

"Piece of art"

Hackers claim to pwn Conservative Party website

And as we know

B3ta has NEVER shown a faked picture in it's experience

TV numbers sink as iOS usage rises

Spelt with two D's

For a Double Dose of his "pimpin'"

Branson 'spaceship' successfully falls off mothership

Suborbital transport

So just how far can this thing go? And how fast? What I mean is, would $200K get me to Australia in an hour? Or (preferably) away from it?

Boffins build acme e-paper screen

e-paper

But is it flexible?

Flying gyrocopter jump-jeep gets $3m from DARPA

James May's Top Toys

That's the original artwork before the censors get their hands on it and sanitise out all the cool explosions and gunfire and shit.

Battle of the US super-soldier robot suits hots up with XOS 2.0

COOL!

Want one.

Mozilla Labs dreams of projected keyboard phone

I probably won't be the first to point this out

...but projected keyboards have been around for a few years already.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/techies/8193/

Overall the concept is a combination of existing ideas but I don't think I've seen so many bundled into one nerdgasm like this before.

Facebook on the blink for second time in two days

4chan 'tards

That ultimatum displays all the spelling ("becomming") and grammar ("We tried petitioning they.") that we've come to expect from 4chan. At least it's convincingly authentic.

Piracy threats lawyer mocks 4chan DDoS attack

The spelling on this page has become atrocious

Why is it the mere mention of 4chan brings out the illiterati in droves?

Intel trials downloadable CPU upgrades

Production cost

I was under the impression a major cost of each chip is it's design, the materials of nano-tech being - ahem - very small.

Designing fewer models means a greater run per photomask and hence lower costs overall. This *might* even mean the budget/slugged/nerfed version being even cheaper than before which is good for us.

Tinfoil 'radiation shield' maternity wear hits 'Frisco

"We all know that little kids are very sensitive to radiation"

We do???

Robot footballers 'will beat Human Race first eleven by 2050'

Cute!

So how long is it until ballet-bots are able to rival their equivalent human performers?

Apple Magic Trackpad

Why wireless?

The same argument could be said for wireless keyboards (and in fact, I do argue against them) but people do buy such keyboards for aesthetic reasons. Reasons that Apple have repeatedly proven they understand.

Batteries wouldn't be an issue if equipped with some form of near field power coupling. Of course that would need a specially constructed desk but any fanboi buying one of these would also be liable to buy certain fruit branded office furniture. Hmmm... I think I have an ambiguous and over-reaching patent idea.

Another upvote from a trackball user

I really don't see why mice are the de facto when trackballs are more comfortable, less strenuous, quicker to find without looking, etc...

Especially fun is seeing the attempts to convert by someone accustomed to mice.

VW to eliminate worst road hazard: drivers

Huhnke envisioned a blind curve, around which a car has broken down in your lane

"...Rather than merely speeding around the curve and plowing into the rear of that stopped vehicle..."

Rather obvious but what if something other than an intelligent car is in your path? A person for instance, one who hadn't yet signed all free choice over to the machines. Or a fallen tree or rock slide. To take this into consideration manufacturers will program their cars to slow down for blind corners and take other sensible, existing precautions - thereby eliminating the need for a hugely complex and vulnerable network of moving vehicles.

Also at fail is the very concept of sharing cars. Nobody wants to give up their favourite possession, we love our cars too much. Nobody will ever want to risk getting a car on saturday night with a puddle of someone else's sick in the back, or worse! Fleet companies will try to cut corners too by having only enough cars for average load, cue hour-long waits for your ride to find you.

Lastly how is a long stretch of open road supposed to be annoying? That's the perfect time to go really, really fast.

'Spintronic' computing gets closer with laser 'lectron discovery

Quantum cryptography

Since this is dealing with 'very small things' could electron spin (in a wire) replace polarised photons (in optic fibre) for secure communications and key exchange?

Would love a physicist to comment.

BT ad banned for 'misleading' customers over broadband speeds

I was thinking "average"

...but "typical" and "between" are even better suggestions.

Maybe in the future a canny advertiser will brag about low latency, that's another easily digestible metric which can be competed with, and has the added bonus of being useful.

Any "up to" advertising is misleading

So ban them all! There I feel better.

Electric mass-driver catapults to beat Royal Navy cuts?

Re: "it might help stabilise the ship..."

Carriers already have gyros for stabilisation. I saw it on five so it must be true!

Hackers spoof car warning system

Tomorrow's World

I seem to recall seeing a clever invention that would generate electricity when flexed. It was announced that a strip of this around the inside of a tyre would then be able to power a small wireless transmitter when the tyre started going flat. You see, although the flat bit is always at the bottom it doesn't stay in the same place relative to the rubber, so it is constantly bending as you drive. Measure how much electricity is being generated and you have a flat tyre warning.

Ten unlikely iPhone insurance claims

Does no one have a problem with...

4. Leaving phone on the car roof so it falls off when driving

I find this difficult to imagine how it would happen at all, let alone reach #4!

Man talking on phone walks to car, with his other hand gets out key to open door.... nope.

Man talking on phone and briefcase in other hand walks to car, needs to empty a hand to open the door, cannot be phone because that's in use so puts briefcase on the roof.... nope.

Man walks to car empty handed, opens door, gets in, takes phone out of pocket and through the window puts it on roof.... nope.

Man walks to car using two phones simultaneously (so he can 'tweet' and talk at the same time, he's clearly THAT important), puts one down to open the door.... ah so that's how it happens.

Nothing succeeds like XSS

Not downvoting

I think this is an excellent idea but one of the benefits of NoScript is it blocks downloading of js & swf files, obviously to hash a file it must be downloaded and that allows a user to be tracked.

Also scripts can change legitimately. I suppose in cases of extra-secure sites we would want legitimate changes to occur as seldom as possible.

First SMS Trojan for Android is in the wild

Trojans need to be manually installed

Having developed for Android I know that non-app-store .APK files can only be installed by first tapping the "Unknown Sources" checkbox in "Application Settings" and then agreeing to the following prompt:

"Your phone and personal data are more vulnerable to attack by applications from unknown sources. You agree that you are solely responsible for any damage to your phone or loss of data that may result from using these applications."