Posts by Jolyon

No wonder CompSci grads are unemployed

Pub quiz

That's a general knowledge quiz not an aptitude test.

_̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡ ▫͡ ̲̲͡π̲̲͡ ̲͡▫̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡. Title lives here

I'm not for a moment suggesting that universities are not failing but having to train up new graduates for six minths before they are ready to start work is not in itself an indication of that - it is not the purpose of university to mould students to the needs of a particular business.

DARPA fashions miracle robotic attachment from balloon, coffee

♫ Please release me latte me go ♬ ♪

So *that's* what the Daleks' plunger attachment was all about.

Margaret Thatcher celebrates 85 years

Milk

I hated school milk.

If she had stopped there we'd still be on cordial terms. As it were.

Intel CEO: 'We will win in the tablet market'

Intel Oil

Anagramatically.

Coalition promises to kill three-quarters of its websites

I don't know

How much cheaper?

Philip Green discovers ugly truth of government incompetence

Do we care

that private sector companies are ripping off these govt departments or is that just sensible business practice?

Anyway good news that this is being exposed even if there won't be the punitive repercussions that might be fun.

Some things seem a little silly though, of course the cost of laptops, paper and cartridges vary - there's all sorts of different types - I would expect to see similar variations in the cost of fruit so it would be useful to have a breakdown by type.

Royal Navy running-jump method confirmed for F-35B

Single test article?

Sounds like a ball's up.

And other dropped a bollock / got the sack type ROFLCopterz.

'We Want Two' Navy carrier plan pondered by Cabinet

So long

David Lloyd George

How do you copy 60m files?

|-o-| <-O-> ( °) 8===8O8===8 |-o-|

Which of these methods preserves NTFS permissions?

World's first pedal-powered ornithopter takes flight in Canada

Gliding ̿ ̿ ̿̿'̿̿\̵͇̿̿\=(•̪●)=/̵͇̿̿/'̿̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ Flying

I suppose it is just possible that after all this time researching in the field they will be slapping themselves on the forehead about having neglected to consider the difference between flying and gliding.

In which case the commentards of El Reg can expect a hearty thank you for stopping them before they got too far down futility street with this project.

Facebook Places checks in to UK

(̅_̅_̅_̅(̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅̅_̅()ڪے

A cereal stalker might use sliced bread to camouflage himself amongst the toast.

Trident delay by the Coalition: Cunning plan, or bad idea?

(¯`·._.·(¯`·._.·(¯`·._.· TITLE ·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯)

I guess he has to put that in so we know he's just taking the mickey.

Linus Torvalds outs himself as US citizen

Dumb?

If only.

Koran-burning 'pastor' loses website

Baptits

Would have been a funnier typo.

Greenland ice loss rates 'one-third' of what was thought

Athropogenic

This isn't as important as those fillibustering the debate would have us think.

If it is happening and if it is undesirable then whether or not we are directly causing it is not urgently relevant - the primary concern is what we can do to slow / halt / reverse it.

-

Agree with the suggestion that The Register displays a tremendous lack of impartiality on these matters; I guess the biases on the various subjects that get the Vulture's goat are what gives it the particular character we all know.

Angry Birds take wing on Android

Happy bird

I like this game a lot. It's keeping my girlfriend very quiet.

Judge Dredd returns to the silver screen

Mid-quality trolling

You'll have to be subtler to get the 2000AD fans properly flaming.

Ex-spook jailed for selling secrets

This field left intentionally blank

Maybe he knows soemthing we don't know.

New iPod crew: 'Phoney, futuristic, retro, doomed'

Beeb

The BBC B was a much better featured machine than it's competition in the home market - the price premium was not just to pay for marketing or boost profits.

I am not sure that the same applies to the iPod Nano.

Undead Commodore 64 comes back for Christmas

BBC B

Could conenct to a TV out of the box - mine never saw an RGB monitor in all the years I was clocking up "Right on Commander!"s

Alleged bad Appler stashed $150,000 in shoeboxes

Nice anecdote

I feel much better informed!

Ten unlikely iPhone insurance claims

How?

Two links to the company, the logo of the company and a suggestion that the sort of product the company provides is a "good idea" - it might not meet your criteria for an advert but if I was promoting something it'd meet mine.

Report questions millions spent on NHS.crap

Turtle

It's fair to assume that by 'website' they mean 'publicly accessible website' rather than something available only on N3.

For a publicly funded organisation that has public service as its core principle it's then reasonable to assume that any expenditure that is not a business overhead should have have as an aim and a result some public utility.

Android surges past iPhone in smartphone sales

App investment lock-in?

If your app investment (in both money and time) exceeds the value of your phone you're going to stick with that platform - even if you don't upgrade every time.

And then there's perceived status and brand loyalty which is something Apple really understands.

It will take a lot to get iPhone users to switch to another platform - probably not worth trying at the moment when there's lower-hanging fruit elsewhere.

Not that I am calling iPhone users highly-strung fruits.

Boffins authenticate Apple 'Antennagate'

Who the hell ever heard of a "bumper" except on a car or a train?

Grace Jones.

Apple coughs to iPhone 3G IOS 4 upgrade problems

Capital.

I'm glad you're happy but clearly not everyone is - and these are people who have bought iPhones so presumably if they are haters at all it's born from experience not prejudice.

-

Admirable lack of ego in making sure the companies and products got their CAPS even though your own are neglected.

Or is it just that the iDevotion is too strong?

Before the iPad, there was the Newton

OMG! OMP!

Still got my OMP in the spare room - it really couldn't cope with my handwriting so it never got the used it deserved but I loved some of the pen interface ideas - same depth of thinking as the iPod Touch shows.

If anyone makes my ideal ebook device it'd have a lot of that in it for note-taking.

We'd had the Psion 5mx on the Reg, not the Newton so my vote for the next handheld hero of yore would be TapWave's excellent Zodiac.

IT council chiefs ditch Sadville after splurging £36k

And from which budget

If this is just replacing some other attempt to get uncaring residents involved with council services then it might be no more expensive and no more of a failure than any leafletting / poster scheme or whatever the money gets wasted on at other local authorities.

Cost

What do you think the cost would be of retaining all emails sent to, from and within a local authority?

Significantly more expensive than a Second Life white elephant would be my guess - local residents may not consider the expense worthwhile.

New Jersey car prang woman blames carjacking

Mirror?

I think not.

Couldn't see the trees

for the wood?

End of Microsoft NHS deal means mass deletions

Cuts

Go in and prove to them you can reduce their costs by switching to OpenOffice and they'll be very pleased to see you.

They have a lot of cost savings to make and would rather not lose staff.

Beeb reinstates teaboy in Pestogate scandal

Bite my blue touchpaper

It does link back to The Register from that image so . . .

How can UK.gov spend £35m on a website?

Obviously?

Obviously as in 'it's there in the figures' or obviously as in 'it's there in your head' ?

Do we have the information about which companies benefitted from this extravagant spending?

The Reg guide to Linux, part 1: Picking a distro

Either way

it's Lin/Lin, surely?

iPad beats BlackBerry for browsing

Flinging fanbois

Overreaction and misinterpretation like that, whether prompted by leaping to the defence of a loved one or not, will make them far less likely to hold back on fanboiing.

Dustgathering

I use my iPod Touch for most of my casual web browsing at home and the only way that'll change in the near future is if I get something that's similarly suited for the task with a bigger screen.

If only someone would make an oversized iPod Touch ... that wasn't stupidly expensive.

Lambeth Labour party in email tapping row

Thin end of the red wedge?

When local authorities finally get it into their fat heads that they really do need to make an awful lot of cuts we can expect council IT staff to be asked to carry out a lot more of this sort of snooping.

It is almost certainly a lot cheaper to get rid of someone if you can prove they have breached a code of conduct.

Stephen Fry's truly terrible mistake

I'm DABtacus

I'm also very happy with DAB.

Have a set in every room.

One of them also receives internet radio stations - nice to have the options.

£15 a month for legal P2P?

Problem for some

It may not be a problem for the industry and it probably isn't such a big deal for Bono or the Rolling Stones but for someone at the beginning of their career it might be crucial.

I know someone who used to buy a lot of music - always pirated plenty by recording off the radio, taping from mates etc but bought the stuff he really liked. Now he downloads it all without paying anyone.

Not all musicians can rely on income from live performances and fees from radio play, film soudtracks or use in adverts is not reliable - particularly for someone who is yet to establish themselves.

It's fine to look at record companies and think we could do without them just as easily as they can do without these small losses but if we want quality new acts coming to our attention then either they have to be able to run A&R operations or (preferably) the artists have to be funded directly by the people who enjoy their music.

Greatest Living Briton loses £30m

What I have noticed

is that people who use stupid puns for the names of politicians and political parties (and I.T. companies come to that) come over as so cretinous that any good point they might be making is lost in a tsunami of derision.

Windows 3.0 turns 20

Schmitle

I'm sure there's no need to remind Reg readers that this rhetorical device is called paralipsis.

2012 Olympic mascots cop a shoeing

Canard

Whine made from sour grapes?

DRAM makers fined €331m for euro cartel

Drat. DRAM not dram.

I was hoping for a cheap whisky ruling.

The iPad: Unsubsidised, unaffordable, unloved?

An oversized iPod Touch

Is exactly what I want. I do most of my domestic browsing on my iPod touch and it's my main interface to my media player - instant on, easy to carry around, great browser interface.

A bigger device of that sort would be perfect for me.

Too expensive as it stands but far from useless.

uTroll.

Debenhams wows shoppers with free delivery offer

Amazed

It has survived a decade without you.

Maybe the family has been sneaking in while you were sharpening your crayons.

RIM's BlackBerry OS 6 may be too late to fend off Apple

Don't use phones much myself

"I just like the fact it works very well as a phone - novel concept that one!!"

It'd be interesting to get the billing info trends and see whether there has been a decline in voice calls over time - I make about three minutes worth of them per month myself and spend much more time typing than talking on my 'phone'.

Are there phones out there that aren't good enough to use for voice?

Microsoft slings out Windows Home Server beta

Epic?

Is that pronounced 'vile' or 'fail'?

New ISS machine makes water from waste CO₂

Diamond squeezer

Other forms of pure carbon would be worse.