Posts by Paul Webb

Sync'n'share firm Box secretly files for IPO

Re: 2m for 100m funding is not a good return on investment.

The Quartz article suggests a valuation of "more than $1 billion" in 2012. Other sources value the company at $2 billion as of December 2013.

Don't go away, IBM and SAP – Larry's not finished with you yet

"Each knows the other two has got it in them to beat it,..."

Competition actually spotted in the wild? It's been so long...

UK picks Open Document Format for all government files

Re: The Lawyer from Lima

I particularly like this paragraph:

In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state [my emphasis], and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.

So here we are, over a decade later, reaping the rewards of not thinking along similar lines.

Take off, nuke 'em from orbit: Kill patent trolls NOW, says FTC bigwig

Re: As far as I am concerned the lady is well named.

Still sounds a bit fishy to me.

Microsoft's next CEO: Who it WON'T be – Ford turn-around chief Mulally

Re: My money is still on Elop

It will be raining pink slips whoever gets the job.

Microsoft yanks Surface 2 DIM SCREEN of DEATH fix in update snafu

'With Surfaces potentially going on the Christmas fire this season'

Especially any self-immolating ones - won't be roasting my chestnuts near one though.

El Reg's contraptions confessional no.3: the Apple G4 Cube

Mine defected

And turned into an Ice Cream Sandwich maker:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15343/Cuisinart-Ice-Cream-De-Luxe

XBOX ONE owners rage as HDMI SNAFU 'judders' Brit and Euro tellies

"It worked until I tested it!"

A great phrase from an old work colleague (about his own code).

Obviously, the solution is to not test/use it - works perfectly!

Google shows off scanned-in Gettysburg Address drafts

Re: My favorite version of the Gettysburg Address ...

I love the Organizational Overview (slide 5 of 6) -utterly, utterly, useless!

SuperStride Me: Reg hack spends week working at 'treadmill desk'

Re: Bad precedent.

They (or anyone) could install electricity-generating flooring such as that provided by Pavegen (www.pavegen.com) which converts footsteps into electricity.

Bob Cratchit isn't so far off the mark

as Dickens wrote standing up at a desk as did many others such as Churchill, Hemmingway and Lewis Carroll.

Om-nom-nom-nom! Google's Cookie Monster DEVOURS MORE DRIVES

Re: Oi Google..

Some people are even still lusting after the old Logitech Trackman Marble FX (to go with their Model-M) although not, I suspect, at these prices:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Logitech-904257-0403-TrackMan-Marble-FX-Trackball-/171047795507?pt=Mice&hash=item27d33e3b33

Anonymous threatens cyberwar with Anonymous

Re: Anonymous vs Anyonymous?

Alan Moore and David Lloyd find this all very amusing and Time Warner supposedly feel very uncomfortable about the association (but not enough to stop taking the money).

Time for a homemade Spy vs Spy mask because it will be panto season soon enough...

Google's MYSTERY barges floating off US shores: The TRUTH

Stormy waters ahead

Sergey's Underwater Nexus KitKats! - BARGE Adrift Ruins Google Experience

MoJ fined £140K for EMAILING privates of 1,000 inmates

Re: Fine

Which means there's now no more money left for (re)training...

I used to do this floppynet thing between two machines for exactly the same supposed security reasons back in... 1988? Fortunately it was only a high security MoD site (ordnance factory) with highly restricted movements of chemicals and suchlike in, out and around the site. Not a care about me taking my work home every night though.

'Microsoft Word is a tyrant of the imagination'

Mircosoft makes 'Productivity Software' sound like an xymoron

And Charles Stross is not alone or the first, here's an 'oldie but goldie' from Edward Tufte on PowerPoint:

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint

Former Nokia boss Ollila: Stephen Elop was second-choice CEO

I still wish my phone was a Nokia

And judging by these comments I don't think I'm alone.

Google smacks Surface with free Quickoffice for Android, iOS

Works for me, and it's free.

BALLMER TO RETIRE FROM MICROSOFT

"Microsoft shares are already up nearly 9 per cent"

Says it all really - if it was a proper 'internetty' company then it would be 900%.

Battery-free e-ink screen grabs screenshots from smartphones

You won't get a shopping list on your fridge door

You'll get an advert for a special offer on an item you bought previously but have no intention of ever buying again.

Innovative solution to modern art found: Shoot it into space

Turner Contemporary gallery?

Contemptible Turd gallery more like.

Google seeks to calm facial recognition furor with app block for Glass

Time for the I'mGlass (tm) Burka of Invisibility

Where are the wearable computing countermeasures?

Or perhaps just update the etiquette about not punching people wearing glasses.

Google gives vendors seven-day bug disclosure deadline

The blog doesn't say Google will make the disclosure

It says, as you quote, that Google will support researchers in making that disclosure, not Google itself. You may think that being one step removed from the process is as good as makes no difference at all but Google will say it is just encouraging others to adopt its own position.

Ofcom to UK: Really - you're using the same password for everything?

Password length

It would help if some sites didn't limit the length of password to, for example, 10 characters. Why take security seriously when some companies so obviously don't?

Canadian cyborg says Google Glass design is cracked

Why would I want to wear glasses...

Just to watch adverts?

Apple to cough up $100m after kids rinse parents' credit cards on apps

Latest UK outbreak (Zombies v. Ninjas, £1700 bill run up by 5 year old)

This was just on the local news, featuring many of the issues already mentioned.

Apologies for the source, I can't find it anywhere else (at the time of posting):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285857/Zombies-vs-Ninjas-iPad-app-costs-parents-boy-1-700-extra-charges.html

New social network is for DEAD PEOPLE

Should be cats, not people

Have these people never been on teh interwebs?

4G in the UK? Why the smart money still says 'Meh'

4G means losing all that voice revenue

So it's not surprising that EE is charging so much or that the other networks are dragging their feet. If 4G voice works at all that is:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/02/feature_wtf_is_voice_over_lte_4g/

Beer, because that's all I will be downloading today and 4G won't make that any faster (or pay-by-bonk make me pay for it any more quickly either).

Tech firms face massive tax bill if Dutch vote to end loopholes

Re: politicos aren't clever at writing legislation

And here's the tax guide they use:

http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/book/

Ballmer now flings out work rivals, rather than chairs, claims ex-Microsoftie

Re: "Ballmer is the best person to lead Microsoft"

Actually, it was Analysis on Radio 4: "Just Deserts" and very good it was too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pzqx9

Dotcom's Mega to launch with mini call centre

Re: Trialing as we speak.

Managed to sign up without reading the T&Cs.

Clicking on the acceptance email opened a second tab (in Firefox 18.0.1) which promptly threw an error and displayed the hour glass (Windows XP). Closing that tab brought me back to the original tab so I started upload a text file (26.6MB). Estimated upload time soon climbed to 1:38:55 and has now been stuck at "Infinity:NaN:NaN" for the last six minutes or so. Looks like I'll be reading El Reg a little while longer...

Are your landlines buried in the stone age?

What time capsule did you dig up this article from?

Or have the telegraph poles fallen over in the flooding?

Search engines we have known ... before Google crushed them

Re: No Ink Tummy?

The one where I didn't realise I was turning into a marketroid scum... In my alternate universe 'marcomms' <spit> came under the remit of Technical Communications so it didn't feel so dirty, especially as we were all engineers first and foremost not fluffy bunny... marketroid scum. Quite amused by the fact that the seo/sem/neu meeja company that took over our old offices likes to promote how many of its' employees have a mathematical or science background, as if that gives their activity any more credence.

No Ink Tummy?

Inktomi results (or part of) seemed to be incorporated into many of the search engines of the time, not least HotBot.

I do seem to remember a fleeting moment in time when SEO was a noble art before it became infested with marketroid scum.

North Korea's satellite a dud, say US astroboffins

Re: Failure?

White Goods Annoy Red Army.

Adobe demands 7,000 years a day from humankind

Not enforcable anyway?

At lest that's my understanding but also that this has never been tested in court.

Ten badass brainy computers from science fiction

Re: The Machine Stops

Not a film but there's this BBC adaptation:

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

Microsoft tightens the scroos in search battle

Re: Scroogled?

Yes, especially as the article keeps referring to scroogle and not scroogled (even in the sub-head).

UPHEAVAL as Otellini retires: Will Intel look inside?

Newlyweds

Recent divorcees, Sinofsky and Otellini are now free to 'further cement their long-term relationship'.

Homework: Discuss the terms 'bitter divorce struggle' and 'amicable separation' with regards to Microsoft and Intel.

Ten four-bay NAS boxes

Re: What I'd be looking for in such a thing

I agree. A good postscript to this article would be similarly brief round-up of build-your-own options using freeNAS (and the rest). I'm happy with my HP ProLiant Microserver which I know many people have on here and cost a less than £150( (with cashback). No doubt the good burghers of this parish will be along soon enough with suggestions for the latest and greatest.

Another Microsoft Trojan? Sinofsky might just want a RIM job

Re: Guess you used the wrong similitude....

And it's a myth he made the trains run on time:

http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp

Long-suffering Virgin Media victims see no end to vid PURGATORY

iPlayer

It took me an extra 14 minutes to watch an hour long show on iPlayer last night. Still, at least it gave me time to put their relentless junkmail in the recycling.

Nazi Enigma encoding machine sells in London for over £80k

Re: Crysis

I for one, welcome our new rotor-spinning Obamalords.

China's Danger Maps highlight health hazards

Re: Having lived in China ...

"residential properties can end up surrounded by industry"

I didn't know Sheffield was in China...

Microsoft aims Windows Embedded 8 at $1.4 trillion market

Re: Meh

Yeah, nothing to address safety-critical or high-reliability systems so just the same as WinCE (and even NT Embedded). It might be used in cars or medical applications but not for anything you need to depend on.

Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs

Re: Oh what a whirled!

I now use 'kludge' or 'kluge' according to whether I mean a bodge or a clever work-around.

This is after being 'korrected' by an only-mildy-humourless Teutonic pedant who is old enough to have contributed to what became JARGON.TXT.

Nintendo Wii U set to out-sell predecessor at launch

What stock shortage?

5.5m units in stock.

3.5m sales up to Christmas.

Why does anyone have to wait until 2013?

Even £9.8m on consultants can't get UK.gov network push underway

I like "swarded"!

The following definitions are from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sward:

- Land covered with grassy turf.

- A lawn or meadow.

- The rind of bacon or pork.

I thought it was quite amusing, given the context.

Steelie Neelie admits laptop hack during IGF

Warning mesage from Apple

Not very helpful, being after the fact. I wonder what the Pentagon thinks?

Even US generals have realised BlackBerries are uncool

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/02/blackberry/

China's robot population to lead world by 2014

What's Chinese for...

Luddite?