* Posts by Mr Pedantic

18 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jan 2008

Cameron aims to bring LibDems into government

Mr Pedantic
WTF?

80/20

That's because Labour's Boundaries Commission moved the voting boundaries to ensure that they could win certain key seats with less votes. For instance, entire towns were moved from The Wirral to Merseyside, or from Warwickshire to West Midlands. And by moving a boundary a little bit to the North, South, East or West, they could make sure that seat had a majority of labour voters and far fewer Tory or LibDem voters to challenge them.

Why an embedded OS is like a mammal

Mr Pedantic
Gates Horns

Blue endoscope of death

You don't want a blue screen of death when using an endoscope pretty much sums up why Microsoft does so poorly in the embedded market.

Oregon profs plan giant robotic space cockroach warriors

Mr Pedantic
Headmaster

Gun counting giant robot cockroach, indeed!

@Mr Young: I would be scared of a gun counting giant robot cockroach too. Actually, come to think of it, I wouldn't. I can just imagine a rather camp robot cockroach with an inferiority complex, scuttling around counting its array of armaments and comparing its firepower to the big cock roaches. It would forever be accumulating more firepower in a bid to out-count the other robots, and wouldn't have time to shoot any humans.

US feds squeeze bloggers for posting TSA orders

Mr Pedantic
Headmaster

"Your" a buffoon, sir!

"...seen out of the window on the side of the plane your not seated on".

I applaud the feds in this directive as I've always found it frustating when the pilot mentions sights to be seen out of the window on the side of the plane "MY" not seated on.

I wonder if any other readers feel the same frustration when the pilot mentions sights to be seen out of the window on the side of the plane "their" not seated on? :)

Mr Pedantic

Ryanair

@AC 21:45 - I'll gladly charge Ryanair a quid every time I pee. In fact they can be charge(d) a tenner a pop. I'll just make sure I go a few times during the flight so it pays for itself.

@Andus - haha, well said!

Crypto snafu grounds 3D Avatar screenings in Germany

Mr Pedantic
FAIL

Vorsprung durch technik?

Whatever happened to German orderliness and precision? Das ist nicht in Ordnung!

Special Ops robots now do psychological warfare

Mr Pedantic
Paris Hilton

Robot fleshy slaves?

I'm sure there's a robot fetish / fleshy slave angle there somewhere. Can you guys do a playmobil reconstruction to provide some inspiration?

Paris, because she'd make the ideal robotic fleshy slave.

Googlephone facing 10m more Jobsian challengers?

Mr Pedantic
Joke

Where did the 0.03 go?

So, apparently Taiwanese smartphone chip makers shipped 116.97 units... what happened to the 0.03 unit? Was the chip slightly chipped?

Florida judges banned from 'friending' lawyers on Facebook

Mr Pedantic
Headmaster

Adjective indeed

That's funny. I thought "friending" was the present continuous of "to friend", which is a verb.

Shows you how much I know! Now where's my copy of "Far From The Friending Crowd"? :)

Dongles pricey and pointless, says Bluetooth SIG

Mr Pedantic
Welcome

T-Mobile, "tethering", and batteries

T-Mobile offer "Web'n'Walk Plus" for an additional £5 a month, and that allows using the handset as a modem (i.e. "thethering") and up to 3GB fair usage. Over that amount, they restrict your connections to http requests only at peak times.

The downside is that the latency is horrible. I don't know if other 3G networks are the same. Comparing 3G "broadband" with real broadband, it can sometimes take several seconds for a page to start loading, and sometimes for each element on the page.

Incidentally, I'm using a USB connection, even though I have a bluetooth modem profile set up. I just find that it feels that bit quicker.

As noted in the article, the worst side to using a handset as a modem is the drain on the battery. I find I have to keep my N95 on charge the whole time I use it as a modem, otherwise the battery goes after a disappointingly short time. What made Nokia choose not to use USB to charge the handset anyway?

Attack exploits just-patched Mac security bug

Mr Pedantic

But...

But will it run any faster?

Research: Wind power pricier, emits more CO2 than thought

Mr Pedantic
Alert

Noone has mentioned geothermal

Supposedly, the problem with wind power is the variability of the wind.

The answer is to drill a really deep bore hole into the ground and let the temperature gradient between the surface and the underground drive a fluid-driven turbine.

The great thing is, in the winter when demand is higher, the temperature gradient is higher. In other words, geothermal produces more power in the winter.

As the earth is constantly producing heat, you get constant power - and there are no complaints about spoiling the view or killing birds, and no CO2 produced once the construction is completed. To save on construction costs, they could use disused mineshafts and drill down further.

It is now even possible to use geothermal to heat your own home. You can choose to dig a deep bore, or if you have enough lawn, you can lay the pipes under the lawn.

Peers call for cybercrime shakeup (again)

Mr Pedantic
Alert

Lords want to increase CPS powers, according to Reg article

You say "Their Lordships' second report renews a call for the government to do more to protect the public cybercrimes such as identity theft scams and auction fraud."

So in other words the Lords want to extend the Criminal Protection Service's remit to include protecting cybercriminals, alongside burglars and muggers against law-abiding citizens who legitimately protect their persons and property.

If this goes ahead, report a cybercrime and you may find the CPS coming after you for slandering the cybercriminal.

Microsoft denies Lite-On Blu-ray rumour

Mr Pedantic
Gates Horns

Clever Semantics

If you read carefully, it says:

Microsoft said: “No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360”.

Note the use of the present tense. In other words, Lite-On is not *presently* manufacturing Blu-ray driver for Xbox 360. This doesn't preclude Lite-On (or even another manufacturer) making Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360 in the near future.

Of course, Microsoft will understandably deny the existence of a new model until current inventory has been sold.

Remember Microsoft denying that Windows 95 would run on top of MS-DOS? "Plus ca change..."

Vodafone USB Modem 7.2

Mr Pedantic
Flame

No Mention Of Fair usage?

I wonder, at 7.2Mbps, how quickly one could use up one's paltry 1GB monthly fair usage download limit?

Samsung YP-P2 personal media player

Mr Pedantic
Flame

Flash-alkalis? I think not!

Alun Taylor says "the P2 occupies something of a no-man's land between smaller and lighter Flash-bases players with a similar memory capacity".

Well, Alun, I assure you that there are no Flash-bases players on the market today. It is something you have entirely made up. I'm sorry, but you can't extrapolate that Flash-bases players are a larger version of Flash-acids players, just because they have a higher pH. In this case, chemistry and technology do not make salt + water.

How and why MySQL grabbed $1bn in five weeks

Mr Pedantic
Happy

Mmmmm! Candy

"It has been like walking around in a candy story"

Sounds like Mickos has been reading too many stories where the sherbet dip uncovers the liquorice allsort as the perpetrator of a gruesome crime.

Jobs: Blu-ray wins HD format war then loses to downloads

Mr Pedantic
Flame

proof by hat?

You say "hat's prove sufficient" - since when do belonging to hat prove sufficient for anything?

I thought english-speaking journalists were supposed to have a good knowledge of grammar?