Posts by Simon Still

Police arrest MD of dowsing-rod 'bomb detector' firm

Gullible idiots on here too.

TimGreenwood - "I think the water has to be deionised and then exposed to materials in a specific manner to maintain effect or something." - please wake up and smell the quackery. In the words of Dara O'Brien -"Ancient herbal medicines: we tested them! The ones that worked became just "medicine". The rest is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri.."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16125589

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/iandouglas/100004514/the-workings-of-a-bsc-in-homeopathy/

http://www.badscience.net/2009/11/all-bow-before-the-mighty-power-of-the-nocebo-effect/

It was the MacBook Air sub-notebook

What is the issue with ports? It's a laptop

I'm currently using a Thinkpad X32 at work. It has, wait for it, no optical drive. I use it in it's docking station when at my desk when i plug in a monitor, power, and a usb hub - because it has limited ports and i need a mouse, keyboard, usb cable to charge my blackberry, a port to plug in my usb key. I tend to install apps when i'm at my desk and rarely use my optical drive.

When I'm working on the move I don't plug anything into it except my power cable and maybe a usb key. This is apple thinking smart and asking what you actually *need* from a laptop. Few people buying a 2kusd ultrasmall laptop are not going to have some other machine they can use for the rare time they need an optical drive and many of my app installs are downloads from the net anyway. As for ethernet - how often do you move a large enough volume of files that this is going to be an issue. Copying your music collection is a one time action so it can take a while without it being a problem.

On portability it's the weight i look at - that's why i have the X32. I'm carrying a bag that's big enough to take an A4 envelope, and usually have a file or sheaf of papers with me, so something with a bigger screen at the same weight as the X32 is no more effort to carry and better to work with.

I think they've got it right. It's not the one for me as a personal machine - given I rarely carry my personal laptop anywhere outside the house it's got no advantages over a Macbook - but if my employer switched to Apple i'd take this over a macbook or macbook pro.

'Portable' CD player puts MP3 into a spin

Safety and disc speed

As a load of people have said, there were no problems with the old Sony player. No reason the surface needs to be especially flat either.

IIRC the speed a CD spins at changes as the laser moves across during playback - 200rpm while it's reading the edge, 500rpm while reading the centre (to get sufficient data past the read laser).

Steve Jobs: struggling to redefine the TV paradigm

Forget to buy - this is about to rent.

That's the same problem as there is with iTunes music store and it's not stopped that from being considered a success.

In the short term this is competing with DVD rental services, in the long term with TV on demand services as well (and maybe even broadcast tv). If you want an 'archive' copy of a program you'll still buy a DVD of it.

Undercut LoveFilm by a small amount with the convenience of the film of your choice and none of the hassle of sending out physical copies and dealing with postal issues. Fantastic. Lovefilm can't compete becasue they lack the set top hardware

Palm reveals 'secret' smartphone buddy

might be interesting when picked up cheap when they drop the line....

This just has to bomb. It's as heavy and large as an small portable so why would you possibly carry this, crippled, device instead?

The real problem is that it won't replace a laptop so it will be an incremental expense whether you're a home or business user and the cost of it is more than the difference between a basic laptop and something small and light.

I've got a Nokia tablet and, whilst it's quite cool, it suffers the same problem - it's still a crippled web experience so I end up reaching for the laptop instead. I've thought a few times that the Nokia would be quite cool with a 10" or 12" screen and a faster processor, oh, and a keyboard but then suddenly i realise i've designed a laptop or tablet pc.

When the Foleo is on eBay for £100 or so they'll be a useful device but until then i'll leave it.

I still can't believe Palm have lost it so badly. In the Vx they had the perfect form factor. The original Tungsten with it's slider got thicker but was IMO the last great device they made and a great companion to a phone. When that broke i tried a T3 but by then processor speed and screen had been improved at the expense of battery life and the sync software had been downgraded so i dumped it. I still miss having a PDA with me but can't find a device that's as good as an old palm

Sky recruiting to fill Sky+ customisation gap

20gb Hard Disc

This may have been true for the very early boxes but the SD Sky+ boxes I've seen around for quite some time have "160" emblazoned across the top of the case.

That's enough for 50+ hours of SD content which is not bad at all.

(I'm another Tivo owner nursing a hacked, 240gb Tivo which i still consider irreplaceable)