* Posts by Haku

1902 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Apr 2007

Blade Runner sequel might actually be good. Harrison Ford is in it

Haku

Stop the IoT revolution! We need to figure out packet sizes first

Haku

Battery-free piezo powered wireless lightswitches

I saw a sample switch module about 5 years ago, it wasn't wired to any wireless circuitry at the time, but the piezo inside did generate enough power to blink an LED when you pressed the switch down and then blinked another one when you let go.

Bond villains lament as Wicked Lasers withdraw death ray

Haku

Re: I like toys but...

"I'd much rather chance being zapped with a laser once on my way home than face the dozens of morons with their faulty headlights I pass every evening."

I'm with you on the hatred for the ever-increasing brightness of vehicle headlights, but I don't think you comprehend the permanent damage a Spyder III laser can easily do to your retinas.

Businessman takes Google to High Court to block online abuse from search results

Haku

You know that old dragged up phrase "the internet never forgets" ?

Well unfortunately it does sometimes, when nobody cares enough to create a backup or archive of it somehow and the website owner loses interest in the site so stops paying for hosting.

Two sites that I may want to gain information from in the future but have disappeared 'into the ether' and don't appear to have copies on archive.org are the forums on misticriver.net which dealt with iRiver products in their heyday (I still regularly use my H140 with 80gb HD) and forum.eeeuser.com which used to contain an absolute goldmine of information for the Asus Eee devices.

I need a password to BRAKE? What? No! STOP! Aaaargh!

Haku

Re: What GPS really needs

Yup, I can't agree more on having that option.

One time we came home to discover our drystone wall that's adjacent to the road had been almost completely knocked down, a neighbour told us that a 5-axle lorry had caused it and didn't even stop.

Over the years numerous chunks of stone have been chipped away from that wall by large lorries squeezing past because they blindly followed their satnav to get to a destination that 's more accessable if they got to our road from the other end.

Move the wall you say? Not possible, part of it is attached to our and our neighbours house. And unfortunately it's never going to stop because that section is perhaps the narrowest along the road.

Haku

Had a drive home from hell? Grab a glass of your favourite and listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i6OrOZwtmA

I'm also reminded of a joke I once read that went along the lines of:

Kid in back of car with mum driving: "Mummy, why don't you see any fucking bastards and bloody whores on the roads like daddy does?"

Beware Brit cops bearing battering rams. Four nabbed over Trojan claims

Haku

Re: Small beer in the grand scheme of things

Two weeks? Count yourself very lucky, some years ago it took 5 months of pestering to get my Barclaycard cancelled and my money returned when fraudulent charges started appearing. This was back when they had Stephen Fry (I think) doing their adverts saying it was ok to use online.

Then the very week I managed to finally cancel the card, the other two household members received Barclaycard pens in the post along with offers to join...

Download alert: Nearly ALL top 100 Android, iOS paid apps hacked

Haku

Freemium / In-app purchases / Microtransactions

I think some people are just trying to avoid paying microtransactions, which are anything but micro for a lot of the freemium stuff.

Could YOU identify these 10 cool vintage mobile phones?

Haku

When androids dream of baseball fields

Haku
Coat

Do robots have brothers?

No, they have transistors.

SO LONELY: Woman DARED to get rid of her iPHONE - Apple DUMPED all her TXTS

Haku

Re: Good luck finding a mobile phone not built/sold by a corporation

Ben Heck's DIY Cell Phone Part 1 (YouTube)

Mobile phone technology is so prevailant that you can now buy modules to roll your own.Though getting it to do more than initiate/receive phone calls needs a whole new level of tech know-how.

Haku

Re: Never buy

corporate

Virgin Media CUTS OFF weekend 'net surfers after embarrassing smut-filtering snafu

Haku

Sounds like they used the technology behind Zaphod Beeblebrox's favourite sunglasses

At the first hint of trouble they turn totally black to prevent you from seeing anything that might alarm you.

Got a STRAP-ON? Remember to TAKE IT OFF at WORK

Haku

I loved my Casio wrist watches as a kid.

The battery in one of them actually lasted 5 years, even more amazing was that the strap lasted that long too!

Now with screens everywhere telling me what time it is, along with a water powered desk clock, I don't wear a wristwatch anymore, but that hasn't stopped me collecting them, over 40 of the game types from the 80s/early 90s such as Donkey Kong, several Mario Bros, Pac-Man, Batman, Q*Bert etc. including ones that look like Game Boys and some really rare ones that look like Sega Game Gears.

UK superfast broadband? Not in my backyard – MP

Haku

Poor bastards.

I measure my download rates in megabytes/s so if I had to drop down to a 2 megabit connection I think I'd end up sitting in the corner rocking backwards & forwards murmuring "megabyte...megabyte...megabyte..."

Call of Duty, GTA V do not make youth more violent

Haku

I have this strange urge to hit anyone who tells me that because I play GTA V/Online it makes me violent...

Eye laser surgery campaigner burned by Facebook takedown

Haku

"We didn't notice the chef subtly changing the ingredients."

Yeah you take your eye off the ball for a few moments and suddenly you're Soylent Green!

Google Glassholes haven't achieved 'social acceptance' - report

Haku
Big Brother

Re: The bell end factor

Surveillance paranoia levels will undoubtedly increase when they're indistinguishable from ordinary specs, especially as the news media will relish writing numerous "is that person sitting opposite you on the tube / in the resturant / in the high street recording you without you realising?" stories.

At least this guy's not shy about his video recording activities:

Surveillance Camera Man

iBail: American Psycho actor Christian Bale rejects Steve Jobs role

Haku

He should play Steve Jobs in a parody version called

"How Do You Like Them Apples?"

Haku
Mushroom

I'll only watch it if Michael Bay directs it

Because icon ------------------->

Disney wins Mickey Mouse patent for torrent-excluding search engine

Haku
Coat

I'm sure there's a "Mickey Mouse search engine" joke in there somewhere, we just need someone to come up with an appropriate set of algorithms for finding said joke...

Apple CEO Tim Cook: My well-known gayness is 'a gift from God'

Haku

Re: 2014 and

Hence my *yawn* post above, which got a bunch of downvotes from people who probably feel that my indifference to the sexuality of someone who I don't know, don't particularly care about and won't ever meet, is a bad thing.

*shug*

Weirdos.

Haku

*yawn*

Must be a slow news day in the IT world.

No nudity, please, we're GAMING: Twitch asks players to cover up

Haku

Re: Why?

Some of the big YouTube gamers have literally millions of subscribers and can generate enough money to live from, those are the ones that often attract many realtime viewers on Twitch.

But I'm with you on why would anyone want to watch the actual person playing the game rather than the game itself, especially as the YT gamers are known more for their voice (game commentary) than what they look like.

I do enjoy the ramblings of Nerd³ on YouTube, he's even got his dad into playing games and uploading game-play vids! As well as many colaboration vids where they fight each other to the death, with plenty of laughter.

Haku
Coat

"No sex please, we're Twitch-ish"

Hey - who wants 4.8 terabyte almost as fast as memory?

Haku

So how many kidneys do I have to sell to get one?

BAE points electromagnetic projectile at US Army

Haku

He's probably already made his own railgun or two in his time. However he now has a new 20,000 Watt Power Supply...

FTDI yanks chip-bricking driver from Windows Update, vows to fight on

Haku

Agreed.

I don't have a problem with them putting up a notification to the user that they're trying to use a fake chip with official drivers and that it won't work anymore, but silently making the fake chip inert without telling the end user what was happening is just wrong.

Chipmaker FTDI bricking counterfeit kit

Haku
FAIL

Such a dick move.

Do they even have the right to destroy your hardware, wether you know the device you have contains a fake chip or not?

I thought FTDI were a reputable company that produced reliable hardware & software solutions, especially their USB-TTL/RS232 chips, but this is such a dick move, people who have heard of or experienced first hand what they did won't want to trust them again.

If you're in the market for a device that uses hardware of a type that FTDI manufacture, how can you be 100% sure it doesn't contain a fake FTDI chip before you hand over your money?

'Cowardly, venomous trolls' threatened with two-year sentences for menacing posts

Haku

Re: Whatever next...?

There's some weird psychology involved whereby if you tell people your goal you're less likely to go ahead and do it. Probably why so many governments are so poor at keeping up their promises to do things that benefit the public...

TED Talk - Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself (YouTube 3m45s)

Doctor Who's Flatline: Cool monsters, yes, but utterly limp subplots

Haku

Are they killing more people in Dr Who now or am I just being more observant?

Last week it was people getting wiped out by the Ghost Mummy and this week it was the Attack of the 2D Monsters.

It's a very death-happy event for a Saturday evening BBC tv show.

Aboard the GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP, there's a Mobe and a Slab and a TELLYBOX

Haku

Strange, the article title changed.

From

"Who wants to lick Google's Lollipop? Grab a new Android Nexus 6, 9 or TV Player"

To:

"Aboard the GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP, there's a Mobe and a Slab and a TELLYBOX"

Haku

Philip K. Dick

So did the Dick lawyers have no grounds for the Nexus name or did Google pay the estate an undisclosed sum?

Badges for Commentards

Haku
Happy

Just got upgraded to silver!

*struts around wearing shiny new badge*

Ada Lovelace Day: Meet the 6 women who gave you the 'computer'

Haku

"You can't employ somone who doesn't apply for a position and to employ someone *just* because they are female and not the best qualified/able will not improve male attutudes to women in IT."

The BBC are doing that with their comedy shows QI, Have I Got News For You & Mock The Week. Each time I a solitary token woman on those shows I wonder if they actually had a choice of female comedians to choose from or wether they just had to pick the only one available...

Reference: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26107011

Haku

There's one very important woman missing from that list.

My mum.

She gave me my first few computers - ZX81, ZX Spectrum+, BBC Master Compact, Amiga 1500.

10 Top Tips For PRs Considering Whether To Phone The Register

Haku
Coat

"This column is inspired by a particularly rash month of phonecalls."

You can probably get some cream for that.

Like a glass of Baileys.

Red Bull does NOT give you wings, $13.5m lawsuit says so

Haku

Mr Muscle has a lot to answer for, too.

My garden is still in a terrible state despite putting a bottle of Mr Muscle in front of the garden shed and telling it the gardening tools are inside now get to it.

WIN a CHANCE to RECORD your WORLD in 3D

Haku
Coat

"Name the 10 phones and your entry goes into the draw for the Poppy."

Ok, I choose:

1. Bob

2. Sarah

3. Steven

4. Sonny

5. Michael

6. John

7. Matilda

8. Adrian

9. Optimus Prime

10. Bob (nobody said I had to pick different names for the phones)

Uni boffins: 'Accurate' Android AV app outperforms most rivals

Haku

Re: Drebin?

Cigarette?

Man brings knife to a gun fight and WINS

Haku

Can't decide wether to go the knife or gun route?

Choose both, get a Knife Gun!

Doctor Who becomes an illogical, unscientific, silly soap opera in Kill The Moon

Haku

Can we have Matt back please?

Pretty please?

Best Buy preps for a Hero4 welcome just in time for Christmas

Haku
Coat

4k? Nah I'm not buying in to that.

They'll only come out with an 8k camera next year just to get everyone to re-buy their equipment all over again at nearly double the cost.

Our Vultures peck at new Doctor Who: Exterminate or, er ... carrion?

Haku

Wiffy waffy doddery old fool

Ok so that may be some what an extreme way to describe the new doctor, but that's sort of what he feels like now to me. Even when the past doctors didn't know what was going on or what to do next they still had strong conviction in their thoughts and actions, but this new one just seems to be 'floating about the place'.

I'll carry on watching because it's so different and far away from the usual sci-fi flung at us from across the pond, but I'll be hoping the next doctor has more 'substance'.

(yeah I'll probably get some flak from long time fans, but hey, isn't the show meant for everyone?)

Coming to a theater near you: the TETRIS MOVIE

Haku

Re: Still waiting for the Trilogy

But as soon as work on such a trilogy is announced then those cheap knock-off studios (like The Asylum) will bring out their own trilogy of the films called "Noughts and Crosses!". And when they've run out of ideas the next logical film to make would be "Connect 4"...

Haku

I want to see a big screen adaption of Jet Set Willy

Starring Martin Freeman trapped in a freaky bouse trying to tidy everything up so the housekeeper lets him into his room to get some sleep.

SLOSH! Cops dethrone suspect - by tipping over portaloo with him inside

Haku

Well, at least they didn't connect the portaloo up to two bungee cords attached to cranes...

Jackass 3 Poo Cocktail Supreme (YouTube) (Warning: Disgusting)

Special iPhone trousers will ease Apple into the fashion world

Haku

TEEN RAMPAGE: Kids in iPhone 6 'Will it bend' YouTube 'prank'

Haku

@conel

Please tell me you don't work for a postal delivery company, those packages marked "FRAGILE" and "DO NOT BEND" are not challenges!