Posts by Dave White

Happy new year, readers. Yes, we have threaded comments, an image-lite mode, and more...

Re: Width

And? Does it?

Which scientist should be on the new £50 note? El Reg weighs in – and you should vote, too

Why not all of them?

Is there a practical reason why they can't print several notes for the most prominent scientists? Why not have one with Turing, one with Hawking, one with Lovelace etc?

Apple might be 'collateral damage' in US and China trade dust-up

Bernstein

Who is this "Bernstein", referenced throughout the story? There's a "Wall Street analyst", mentioned once, but nothing more about him.

d'oh because I don't have a clue!

GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search

Active Server Pages

Of much more concern here is that this page was written in a language which microsoft made obsolete ten years ago. Why do people still use asp?

Mass ASP.NET attack causes websites to turn on visitors

--more--

This article contains absolutely zero information, and a whole lot of padding. Where's the information on the exploit? There's a link to the page, but no discussion about the exploit itself. There's a rather hysterical proclamation about ASP.Net, and then the linked page shows a piece of malicious JavaScript. Reporting standards seem to have taken a dive at El Reg Towers with this one.

WTF? because WTF?

Patent attack on Google open codec faces 'antitrust probe'

Patent-pool license?

"MPEG-LA chief executive Larry Horn said the organization was looking into the formation of a patent-pool license for VP8 and WebM".

Can anybody explain to me what that sentence means? Why would one group be looking for a license for a competing group's software?

Paris, because I'm dumb where IP law is concerned.

ASSANGE GRANTED BAIL

Maybe not

My understanding of the extradition process is that Sweden has to give notice to Britain if it is going to further extradite him to the USA. Britain would then be forced to decline, as a conviction of espionage carries the death penalty in the US. It may not all be as bleak as we think.

Apple MacBook Air 11.6in sub-notebook

I have one of these

I'm a Windows and Linux guy, and have long hated the Apple OS. Recently I found myself needing to buy a mac for work. The last time I touched a mac was about six years ago in a company I used to work for and having to localise software on it. I hated every minute of it.

As a freelancer I'm in the position of being able to chose my own hardware, and I opted for this model (the cheapest one they had). It was stylish enough for my liking, and not one of the cheaper white plastic macs that look like toys.

I haven't installed much on it, and I only use it for browsing, but I have to say that I love it. I believe that in a year I'll look back and wish I'd spent more and gotten a more powerful model, or a macbook pro. It works, and it works very well for what I need it for. In comparison to my other machines I find the quick boot up time of the SSD awesome, and the absolute silence of it is wonderful for some classes I take where I have brought it along.

I'm really not sure why all the nay-sayers are complaining. Yes, I'm sure it could be more powerful, but you aren't buying a powerful machine here. You are buying small. Yes I'm sure it could have more connectivity options, but you're not paying for those either. You are paying for the size of it, and sacrifices have to be made at that size. Don't like the network speed / SSD size / lack of X feature? Get a different machine.

Paris, because I feel like a tramp for buying Apple.

US college girls: Fatter roomie helps control 1st-year plumpening

What?

I've been reading the reg for many years now, and commented about three times. Once was in response to something I felt strongly enough to get off my arse and actually write out a comment.

The second was within the last week, and the last is now. What the hell is it with the increasingly irrelevant stories about crap that have nothing to do with IT? I can understand a segue into something related, and indeed encourage it. However, this has nothing at all to do with anything even remotely connected with the reason we read el reg.

Please stop with this bullshit.

'Unicorn' captured in remote Laos mountain forests

eh?

Isn't this The Register?

WTF 'cos... WTF???

Street View snooptrike stalks Siena

The thing that pisses me off..

... is that the Google camera car was seen in Munich as far back as early 2008, and the damn product STILL isn't available here.

Apple ships Air

Best thing about this review

"The other irritation most writers site - well, apart from the whole Apple hyperbole thing..."

Never was a truer word said. Why is it that when Steve Jobs says anything that most of the press treat it like Holy Writ?