Posts by Qneiform

Living, biological raygun produced in lab

no LP no comment

phew! I saw this story accreting on google news without any sign of El Reg joining the party and thought (with an inner John Thaw growl) "Lewis!"

Feminist org declines nude calendar cash

title

There are complicated and interesting issues here, and I don't propose to address them. But I do agree with the lady from Zero Tolerance: I think there should be charity calendars showcasing (in brief but brilliant essays by twelve victims) the braininess of women who have suffered domestic abuse.

Gmail turns into label junkie

@AC "Gmail Auto-Tag Tip"

Thanks, AC.

-- Q.

Pirate Bay sells out to Swedish software firm for $7.7m

@ M Neligan

The fact that His Lordship hasn't got a nose just adds to the inexpressible horror of it. Thanks for the heads up re. insurance, though.

Israeli army develops one-eyed robot trouser snake

Lewis Page algorithm

Nice try, but did you really think his loyal fans would be fooled by a bot? Can we have the real thing back please?

Greece grounds Google's Street View fleet

@ClitizenKaned&DavidWiernicki

We are all tools of the corporate greedheads.

There is nothing much wrong with Google Streetview, except that it is something done by a company rather than a human, which makes it inherently an act of incalculable evil and horror (like Cthulhu blowing his nose).

Failed probation system 'masterclass in sloppy management'

"In partnership with EDS"

Funnily enough, the "partnering" agreements by which private-sector motherfuchsias like EDS screw over the taxpayer ALWAYS have a clause expressly excluding the creation of a relationship of partnership between the private-sector motherfuchsia and the agency of state. They also contain clauses whereby the private-sector motherfuchsia promises to work with the agency of state in a spirit of like-minded woolly helpfulness so as to achieve the objectives of the agency of state quickly and cheaply, and these clauses are _actually expressed in the contract to be not intended as binding obligations_. I have seen this nonsense with my own eyes. What is more, agencies of the UK state are encouraged by their own internal guidelines to enter into these sorts of nonsensical agreements INSTEAD OF ordinary contracts with nice binding obligations on the part of the supplier to do a decent job. Gah!

'No Office 14 this year,' says Ballmer

@Paul M

It's not really about when the Christian era began, it's about how counting works. If you place two hundred beans in a row and number them, the second hundred beans begins with bean 101, and the eleventh set of ten beans runs from bean 101 to bean 110. Try it -- it works every time!

"this decade"?

Is it just me or is there a general groundswell of feeling to the effect that 2010 is actually in this decade? This would be correct if decades only get brought forward a year once you can start referring to them by reference to the number in the tens column (i.e. once you get to the twenties), so that in each century

(i) the first decade is the years '01 to '10 and the second is the years '11 to '20, in accordance with the general principle that things that come in tens get numbered 1 to 10 rather than the bonkers "0 to 9" idea propounded by all those charmingly impatient people who celebrated the turn of the millennium a year early,

(ii) the year ending 20 is both the last year of the second decade in accordance with (i) above and also the first year of the third decade (being the twenties), and

(iii) the year ending 00 inhabits no decade at all because the last decade of the previous century was the nineties and the first decade of the centruy at hand comprises the years '01 to '10 in accordance with (i) above.

EU threatens 'formal action' against UK.gov on Phorm

Attack that, libertarian EU-haters

Come on Tim ... give it your best shot!

Lots of love,

Qneiform

Net-stock fraudster Moller offers flying saucer on eBay

Panamarenko

Should have made it beautiful and called it art - the wonderful Panamarenko has made a respectable career building elegant full-size mock-ups of schoolboy fantasy vehicles:

http://www.mathsyear2000.org/museum/gallery3/gal4_2p1.html

'You can't use Google' - EU Parliament

Like I said ...

I second the point about this being the same author who gave us that excruciating nonsense about EU law and sub-contractors the other day. I commented on that article too but the moderator saw fit to ignore my views. Reg, keep this author on by all means, because he rootles out stuff that is worth thinking about, but please either edit out his opinions or don't put his articles in the "Law" section. I promise you (as a lawyer) he really doesn't have a clue what he is talking about.

Lots of love,

--Q.

Hmmmmm

Which is more likely

(i) The EU is banning the use of Google, or

(ii) a UK Independence Party MEP and a rabidly anti-EU "fellow" of a libertarian think-tank are peddling scaremongering nonsense about how EU law works?

Too close to call, I'd say ....

Blame game over United Airlines stock crash rumbles on

@Tom

"clearly sucker punching the price of an innocent airline (at least with respect to its current financial status) is evil"

This is not at all clear to me my friend.

Limited liability companies exist to do capital's dirty work. If you want me to feel sorry for your capital, take moral and legal responsibility for what it does.

45th Mersenne prime discovered (possibly)

"You can see why finding these numbers have such a cult following."

While you are all being awesomely impressive mathmopedants, may I ask why "finding these numbers" is plural? Drop the "e" from "have" and it would be like Molesworth. And I don't mean the engineering formulae guy. And yes I can start a sentence with a conjunction. [Implodes.]

Sumerians cracked world's oldest joke

What's red and invisible?

no tomatoes