Posts by Dave Harris

Microsoft and Facebook's transatlantic cable completed

Not forgetting...

.. in West Africa, you have two cables landing at Contonou, on the Bight of Benin

"Beware, beware the Bight of Benin,

There's one comes out, for forty go in"

Stuff the movement of celestial spheres, let's sit down and watch Bonnie Tyler on TV

Re: Sheer Heart attack

Toy Dolls version?

Reg reader turns Geek's Guides to Britain into Geek's Map of Britain

Excellent Work

Have a Friday one -->>

M6 crowned crappiest motorway for 4G signal

No M2 or M20 either

There's no mention of the M2 or M20 either, although given that HS1 runs alongside either one or t'other, I can tell you it'll be crap

Customer data security is our highest priori- ha ha ha whatever, suckers

Re: UFO

Caitlin: I wonder what Ducky looked like when he was younger...

Gibbs: Ilya Kuryakin

Queen Lizzie awarded good behaviour medal

Re: "Queen Lizzie"?

"thought for a moment the surviving members of Queen were somehow teaming up with Thin Lizzy"

That actually happened in 1977: http://www.queenonline.com/en/the-band/interviews/queen-1/queen-thin-lizzy/

Bees bring down US stealth fighter

Re: "eight pounds, or in modern numbers, 3.6 kilos."

0.86Jb

That naked picture on my PC? Not mine. The IT guy put it there

Re: The pictures and videos in my head could get me arrested in some countries.

Wrong - there is no death penalty for atheists in Malaysia (I lived there as an atheist quite openly for nine years, with my muslim wife). Only PAS argues for the death penalty for apostates - it's not on the statute books at all.

Bacon as deadly as cigarettes and asbestos

Re: Three random observations

A quick youtube for Daily Mail gives you cancer turns up this, among many many others...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3chJN9DCGg

BORN to HURL: Man's shoulders are head and shoulders above apes, gorillas, chimps etc

Wonderful phrase: "bone-bothering boffins", Lewis, have one of these -->>

Re: Gorillas?

@Jagged Are you going to tell the gorilla that?

Trio of 'nauts thunder towards International Space Station

gaaah, forgot the link

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/01/lego-space-mission-denmark-first-astronaut-andreas-mogensen-toys-company

Lego?

No mention of the Lego-nauts?

UK spaceport, phase two: Now where do we PUT the bleeding thing?

Re: Manston ticks all boxes

I was just going to say the same thing, I still don't know why it wasn't up for consideration as London's next airport, certainly a better option the bloody Boris island

Lost WHITE CITY of the MONKEY GOD found after 500 years

Please no-one tell Lord Monkey Fist

Doctor Who's 50th year special: North American theater tix on sale Friday

UULLLLLLAAAAAAA!!!!

UULLLLLLAAAAAAA!!!!

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.

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.

.

(apologies if too clichéd)

Star Wars VII: The Disney Movie signs Toy Story III script genius

+1 for Joss Whedon

I'd go for Joss Whedon as director.

Also, my main interest is that they get the politics right, or at least plausible. I say that knowing nothing about the post RotJ canon, I'll admit, but the Republic to Senate scenario, mirroring Rome, was excellently done, even in the prequels.

Sandy takes out NYC colo facility

IBM Triangle Park

IBM's sites based at Triangle Park in North Carolina seem to be screwed somewhat (which is a bit of a bugger as I need some information from them)

James Bond doesn't do CGI: Inside 007's amazing real-world action

Re: Errata . . . just sayin'

Erm, Gerry Adams? I think he was busy doing something a bit less entertaing than Gerry Anderson in the sixties

<--- What Adams was doing

Samsung Galaxy S III

just had an SMS...

Just had an SMS from my telco, offering one of these for RM588 (malaysian ringgit, about GBP120). Should I pick one up?

Biennial boner blights Beemer biker

Re: Muphry strikes again

...the "The" in the definitive article is definitely pronounced with a capital "T"...

I'm sorry, would you be so kind as to run that past me again? The definite (not definitive) article is the general definition of the word "the", as I'm sure you're aware, so to refer to a particular instance of "the" in a given use of the word seems to go beyond tautology.

Furthermore, it should not, generally speaking, be capitalised except at the beginning of a sentence, even if it is attached to a proper noun, unless actually part of that proper noun (I refer you at this juncture to the Guardian Style Guide entry on the subject http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/t ).

Also, I'm curious as to how one enunciates "The" and "the" differently. Would you care to elaborate?

Dell sneaks out Ivy Bridge special edition Inspirons

Re: Nice Exchange Rate

Sing dollars - S$2.01:£1 seems about right to me

The seven types of online commenter

Re: Type 8: Nitpickers

"No, that is not quite it; egg vs foetus is the root here, since the feeding system is based on this."

Not quite: ornythorhynchus anatinus (platypus) and a few spiny anteaters are egg-laying, rather than live-birthers, but are still mammals. Feeding via mammaries is pretty much the main criterion.

Nokia Asha 201 Qwerty phone

Re: No USB charge... Grrr!

"It used to be that us Nokia users could charge their phone in any almost any location- odds were that there would be a (old size ) Nokia charger (or 6) to hand."

Still is the case - every bar near me (that isn't playing "thwup-thwup" music) has a Nokia charger behind the bar, normally next to the can of lighter gas or petrol.

ICANN snubs critics, opens domain extension floodgates

So how many internal networks will break once .lab, .loc, .local, etc get snapped up, then? Or are ICANN going to produce a list of gTLDs you can safely use internally (for a fee)?

Solicitors from hell website unplugged by libel judge

Sam Clemens again

"Anyone who represents themself in court has a fool for a client."

Not only that, he had a deal with his missus, that whoever was elected to Parliament first, the other would carry on with the law to bring the money in. Remember, Cherie Booth was selected as a PPC for the (old) Labour Party before her husband. He just won his election before she did.

You though wrong

I've known many honest and honourable solicitors, including the one who acted for my mother in my parents' divorce (and gave her a job ten years later), and the one who acted for me in a dispute with my landlord.

Many solicitors do actually believe strongly in the law and the rule of law, using it to help those who are in the shittiest of circumstances. This is why so many are vehemently opposed to the coming changes to Legal Aid (without which neither I nor my mum would have received representation), given it will strip assistance from some of the most disadvantaged in the UK.

Stipulated, many lawyers go into the profession with an eye on making money in any possible. The vast majority, however, do not.

Doctor Who girl Amy Pond axed in 'heartbreaking' exit

Slightly off topic...

... but I believe I said the same thing when Mr Nigel-Murray was killed in Bones.

ePlods charge man, 60, with chick-lit MP Twitter threats

Pen-name?

Bagshawe is La Mensch's maiden name, so given she was single when she was published, rather than "pen-name", wouldn't that be just "name"?

US nuclear aircraft carrier George Bush crippled by toilet outages

I see a plotline for NCIS coming up...

Labcoat for Abby

Electric plane-flinger for US and Royal navies doing well

Really?

Are you saying a minister lied (I note, outside the HoC) to defend a poor politically-based rather than evidence-based decision? Heaven forfend...

IBM loans SMBs $1bn to buy stuff

to loan

verb (used with object)

4. to make a loan of; lend: Will you loan me your umbrella?

5. to lend (money) at interest.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/loan

NotW accused of hacking Milly Dowler's voicemail

If you use twitter..

you might want to try this site: http://www.pint.org.uk/notw.html

Alpha.gov.uk – it's nearly a beta

Good start

The auto-location thing is working for me (FF4), but it did chuckle at this http://alpha.gov.uk/fail

Also, they've opted not to bother wasting a shedload of time coding around the various neuroses of IE6, which is a smart move

Nokia gets touchy-feely with two new Symbians

Oooo

I had been thinking of the E5 to replace my E63 in a few months, but the E6 definitely looks a more likely bet.

Looking forward to the release in AP, since it's likely to be my last Nokia...

Spamhaus DDoS blamed on shady Russian hosts, not Anonymous

So much wrongness

I have never known Spamhaus to demand payment for a removal, and have always found them easy to deal with on the (very) odd occasion when I've needed to request one on behalf of a client.

Yes, there are organisations that require payment, organisations which I therefore refuse to use.

Spamhaus do not, which makes me wonder about your motivation for suggesting they do.

This year's comedy Xmas No. 1 contender: Silent song 4'33"

If it's a fight for the Christmas #1...

...surely someone will need their Fighting Trousers http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=108766165863029

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk&feature=channel

The campaign to propel Professor Elemental to the top spot.

Margaret Thatcher celebrates 85 years

Not just miners

As Gregg Roughley at the Guardian put it: "Liverpool fans might enjoy knowing that on Margaret Thatcher's 85th birthday she'll be watching nothing but celebrating scousers and miners all day on TV."

Headstone, soon please

Why is IBM declaring war on Cisco?

Aaaaarrrrrrggghhhh!!!!

"IBM still looses more than it gains"

Looses? LOOSES?

It's not a verb!!!

Makes me angry, shooty stabby angry!!!

BIS will name'n'shame Scrooge bosses

Name & Shame?

Prosecute the bastards, to the full extent

SCADA worm a 'nation state search-and-destroy weapon'

You need to ask?

Despite have reference to religion in its title (as it turn out, for admirable reasons), the Monitor is actually a very reputable publication and has been for quite a while. More here: http://www.csmonitor.com/About/The-Monitor-difference

Lock up your Crackberries

Actually, er, no.

Traveler is not necessarily open to everything. Sure you can have it open on port 80 if you want, but most companies would have their Traveler server at least using SSL with every other port except for sync blocked. Comms to the other Domino servers where the mail actually sits is easily encrypted using built in Domino encryption.

The Traveler server could be sat on the corporate VPN since iPhone, Symbian, WinMo handsets can all handle that, or use Lotus Mobile Connect, which is tailored for Traveler, Sametime, etc.

Ah yeah, you've then got to hack Domino itself. Good luck with that

Home Office unveils new UK passport

FCO

It was mainly down to the FCO. When the new EU standard format passports were introduced back in the early 1990s, it was also to bring in the machine-readable format.. However, at the time the FCO were worried that that would require the "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires..." page to be moved. Naturally, the FCO were not prepared to countenance this, being the FCO. A compromise was agreed whereby the personal details page would be in the equivalent position at the back.

Then they went on to fight about the colour of the passport (they didn't want to switch from the old dark blue to the European red), which was only resolved when someone from the Immigration Service group suggested referring to it Imperial Maroon.

Schoolmaster icon for the history lesson.

HMRC staff fired for racism over benefits

You are missing something.

It's not that the benefit levels vary according to ethnicity, they vary according to the level of tax and NI paid, and over how long. Change those figures, and you affect the level of benefits payable.

The article states fairly clearly that the scumbags were targeting people based on ethnicity and changing the details of tax/NI paid.

Ten Essential... Symbian Apps

Screenshots

@Dave Stephenson, what were you using to get the screenshots? The only app I've been able to find was reliant on a dedicated camera button, which the E63 conveniently doesn't have

UAE to cut off BlackBerry users

exchange only?

"This is BES (if you have an Exchange server...)"

Er, BES doesn't only work with Exchange. it sits very happily with Domino as well

Malaysia bans 'satanic' Man Utd kit

Quite moderate

It is actually very moderate, at least around KL & parts of Selangor. Most muslim mates of mine aren't too impressed by this sort of grandstanding, and just take it with a pinch of salt.

Up in Terengganu and Kelantan, it's a bit different. The dominant party there, PAS, is not so moderate at all, although they're still miles away from Saudi.

Beer - there's no decent native one, just locally brewed European beers and Thai, Laotian and Chinese beers

World Cup stars by the numbers

ElReg channelling 538

Are you Nate Silver in disguise?

NZ spider objects to Canadian's todger

Surely...

FANGarei is still worth appropriate then?