Posts by Circadian

BOFH: Shove your project managementry up your mailbox!

Re: Hahahaaaa (@ac 12:56)

Really? Really??? Do you really, seriously, honestly-cross-that-shrivelled-thing-that-might-be-a-heart believe that Project Managers actually add anything (except time and misery) to a project. Wow. That's... touching. Really touching.

"...align anything like to PRINCE2" - and you claim to try to make things understandable?

"The PM doesnt write the business mandate or magic their own budget" - or, um, do anything useful?

Maybe I'm unlucky and have never worked under a decent project manager. Or the majority of PMs are genuinely crap at anything other than marketing doublespeak.

Behold: First look at Office 2013, with screenshots

Re: Microsoft in schools IS a GOOD thing

@Bugs R Us

Let's see. Student learns MSOffice. Then goes to 6th form,maybe even college. So say 5years between the learning and going into business. How relevant is knowledge of Office 2003 in 2008, or 2008 by 2013? Don't know if you have quite kept up with the changes that MS are making, but knowing only how to operate the specific version of an office suite is not going to help with the subsequent version released by MS let alone any other developer.

cloud security

Something that doesn't seem well covered yet is document security within the cloud. What encryption is implemented by default? What guarantee that MS will not parse through your document for advertising (or worse)?

Basically, what guarantees are there that the data uploaded is only readable by the people that are supposed to see it and no-one else. (I would expect that would be something that most British banks would like to know also!)

Pegatron named as Microsoft Surface fondleslab foundry

Re: cash cow

@Don Jefe

"Stupid is as stupid does."

The iPad was always designed primarily as a consumer consumption device - thinking otherwise suggests a lack of critical thought capability. Dropping $800 just as an experiment confirms it. Oh, I have a letter from Nigeria here with a wonderful offer for you - I think you are their target market.

Mad Apple patent: Cloneware to convince trackers you don't like porn

Obligatory xkcd

http://xkcd.com/576/

Windows Metro Maoist cadres reach desktop, pound it flat

Re: Oh sweet jesus...

"I guess it might be finger friendly" - where's the digitus impudicus icon when you need it?

'Scientists' seek to set world social, economic, tech policy at Rio+20

Re: What's so damn bloody annoying

There's a slight problem with your view on economists - they are not scientists. When you have a bunch of economists who completely screw up the world with their voodoo "science" and then just keep on using their pet theories (that have singularly failed to work) rather than try to fix them, you really cannot call them scientists. Until neo-classical economists admit that their pet theory has fundamental flaws and start using scientific method to fix them,we should certainly not be giving economists any control of anything. (A good place to start would be Steve Keen's book "Debunking Economics".)

People-powered Olympic shopping mall: A sign of utter tech illiteracy

Re: Hmm...

I think the part you are missing is that the "smart" meters have nothing to do with actually providing people with meaningful energy consumption information. If you really wanted to show customers what is consuming energy, then they would be provided with a gadget that goes between the consuming device and the mains, and which could clearly show the impact of each and every device measured. As opposed to a "smart" meter which shows that, well, you use electricity. Only dumb people think that smart meters have any benefit for them*.

*"them" being the average person, as opposed to politicians (who love having more power over people - in this case, to remotely shut off your electricity supply because they have screwed up the nation's power supply) and smart meter salespeople.

Re: Poor Siemens...

Maybe Siemens believe the adage that big things are made up of very small things, and so even small contributions are meaningful.

At least, they definitely believe that in their pricing models, where they charge extra for even the tiniest effing thing that you would expect to be included in the original quote (the weaselly bastards - "oh you wanted faceplates on your network ports rather than bare wires? That's extra then.").

UK milk wastage = 20,000 cars = actually completely unimportant

Breathe...

People need to breathe less to cut down on greenhouse gasses.

"I've got a little list... who never would be missed!" (Not naming names, but... ah, who am I kidding ;-)

Grab your L-plates, flying cars of sci-fi dreams have landed

Re: @loopy lou

Fair point - you didn't say anything about high speed. It's just that so often futurologists give the image of a "train" of vehicles travelling on motorways at high speed with practically no stopping-distance between the vehicles that I guess I jumped straight to that meme. Town-speed, less of an issue except that repair bills for any prang are huge on cars that are designed to crumple so as to protect occupants - so proper stopping-distance between vehicles would still be a good idea.

Re: his engineers have found batteries that could power a flight for 100km (62 miles).

yeh - there's a f'ing long cable to a swimming pool of chemicals to power it (please note icon!)

@loopy lou - pile-up waiting to happen

Getting tired of all those people wanting to computerise cars so that they travel as a train, with only a few feet between them. Yes, fine, when all the systems are synchronised so that all the systems brake and accelerate in the normal course of driving. However, when an accident happens e.g. tree falls on car, if there is no braking distance for the speed the vehicles are travelling at then you are going to have the mother of all pile-ups.

Computers may help resolve some of the problems caused by the meatbags travelling in them, but physics still rules (bitch).

Cameron's F-35 U-turn: BAE Systems still calls the shots at No 10

Re: Heard Lewis on BBC R4 this morning

Aye. Did notice that the presenter (Evan Davies? Not sure which) almost had an embolism at the stark frankness in Lewis' voice. Must have been having thoughts about getting sued to hell and back when Lewis casually dropped the bombshell about the number of lobbyists usually involved in the simplest "confidential" government meetings. Confidential as in, if you think you can get an FOI against what happens in those meetings, I have a (naval) bridge to sell you...

Nice interview Lewis ;-)

Queen unveils draft internet super-snoop bill - with clauses

Who has access to this?

From the article "...obtaining of communications data by authorised public authorities including law enforcement and intelligence agencies". Note the ""including* law enforcement and intelligence agencies" part. Who else are they giving access to on top of these? Local council? Government quangos? Anyone with an open purse?

Wonder how long until son-of-News-Of-The-World gets access to the complete list as and when they want? About the only thing we could hope for is that a bunch of the power-mad MPs end up being burned by what will end up being held under this proposed law.

Jolly rogered

Re: "Dick recognition software, perhaps?"

That's not sufficient - will also have to filter for twats

MP blasts 'ineffective' games regulation

Vaz - What a media-whore

Vaz always seems to be trying to splatter his face all over the media every opportunity that the ambulance-chasing politician can get.

If he wants to get on (yet another) bandwagon, here's one:

Do you realise that Breivik was complaining about politicians not representing his views? And most terrrrrrrrist atrocities I can think of in recent years (from Oklahoma bombing, the IRA campaign, Osama Bin Liner etc.), ALL were caused by politicans not representing people in the way they wanted. So it's obvious - ban politicians as they are obviously the cause of all the problems!

How politicians could end droughts forever But they don't want to

Re: Desalination will never work...

re Matt Bryant's comment 'I do know that it was advertised that the Beckton plant runs on "100% renewable energy"...'

So that's why the plant only runs 10% - 40% of the time (or off altogether)!

Pilots asking not to fly F-22 after oxygen problems

Re: It's unfortunate

"I thought CO was odourless :/" - no, it's the cover-up that stinks

Hold on, Booker prize judges - Stob's penned a steampunk hit

Yup - want more!

Nice one!

(And if anyone fancies a Victorian era magic-and-not-quite-steampunk thing, just finished Witch Watch by Shamus Young. Enjoyed it - and if you have some sort of e-reader, he's also done a book (Free Radical) based on the character from System Shock that's being distributed for free. Info at bottom of this page http://shamusyoung.com/author/?page_id=6)

Boffins boost fuel-cell future with 'nanowire forest'

Re: yes but (@LarsG)

OK, maybe I did wander over the edge when I said "smart arse" and I apologise, but the point still stands.

"I understand the need for invention, but to be realistic there has to be and end result that is of benefit. Invention for inventions sake goes nowhere." This clearly shows that you do not understand the need for invention. As shown in previous examples (electricity and lasers), the original inventions had zero known benefits until decades after the discoveries.

"If it take 20 tonnes of coal or 1000 cubic metres of gas to produce 1 cubic metre of hydrogen then they would be on to a loser." Well, yes. Obviously. Nice strawman there, as the device in the article is ultimately designed to use artificial photosynthesis to get us out of the problems associated with eventually running out of coal or (natural) gas. Whether it will be successful or not, only time and research (you know, that scientific thing that some people do with no guarantees for success, only accumulation of knowledge) will tell.

"Again I refer you to the batteries in the Prius." Um, what? Hate to admit this, but this suggests we may be arguing at cross purposes, as I do not see the link with the points I am trying to make. That marketers have managed to present a "green" image on a vehicle does not invalidate the science, and yes, the overall impact of mining/manufacture/recycling/disposal needs to be looked at. Also sustainability. Ultimately, a battery-powered car still has the potential to keep working as electricity can be sourced a number of ways that do not involve fossil fuels. The Ferrari will have problems when oil runs out - unless the research in the article (or some other lab-work) manages to overcome obstacles and become fully working and scalable technology. Yay, go science!

Re: yes but (@LarsG)

"...investment must have a return...", "Science is littered with great ideas that have no value or no application".

OK smart-arse - who knows IN ADVANCE of the science being done, and the technologists bringing the results into the practical realm WHICH science produces simply interesting results, and which brings the "monetary bacon" (hmmMMMmmm, bacon!). If you go the route of incremental improvements on already known processes (low risk financially), you will never achieve breakthroughs (high risk financially - but world-changing if something genuinely new is found).

How long was electricity known about as a "well, isn't that a weird little thing" before the commercial and large scale applications were found? Similarly, lasers. Two pretty major items that were originally just curiosities for decades until someone twigged that they may have a use somewhere.

If you base your decisions purely on low risk evolution of existing technology, then humanity will be doomed to ultimate stagnation. A world run by economists and bankers is a world devoid of vision and curiosity. I don't know about you, but that is a vision of hell to me.

Re: yes but (@LarsG)

Spoken like a true neo-classical economist - know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

If science were left to the economists, we would not have even got to the "banging rocks together" stage. (Pre-stone age scenario: "Where's the value in that? Can you show positively what benefits 'banging things together' brings to the swinging through trees and eating fruit before we waste time on such frivolous research when you could instead be scratching through my fur and removing my lice.")

Let the scientists get on with their stuff, finding new and interesting discoveries.

Let the technologists get on with their stuff, finding out new and interesting ways that the discoveries can actually be applied to the real world.

Let the developers do their stuff, finding ways on incrementally improving those discoveries, bringing the price down so that more people can benefit.

Let the economists do their stuff, finding ways to .. to... um, what the fuck do economists do anyway apart from completely bollox up the world economy through their stupidity and greed? Actually, let's *not* let the economists do their stuff - we will probably end up with a better planet.

RIP: Peak Oil - we won't be running out any time soon

@ John Smith 19

The site's author is fairly approachable, and if satellite solar power is likely to be able to provide significant power at reasonable efficiency and cost with minimal risk I am certain he would be interested - just leave a comment and link to some solid figures at his site and he is likely to take a look into it. In fact, that is the reason that fusion appears in the list at all. So many people following his series of articles expressed hope that fusion would solve many of the power problems, that he took that into account in preparing the table in the (earlier) linked article. Regarding artificial photosynthesis, a quick google provided this (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111219112010.htm), which, while it is regarding release of hydrogen via artificial photosynthesis rather than generating hydrocarbs, shows that research is at a further along stage than simply not existing "in any form".

I look forward to your future positive contribution to the discussions and debate at his site.

@ Andrew

Looks like there is a difference in world view here. I'll state my position.

I believe that science is generally a step-wise attempt to refine how things work, with the occasional big breakthrough/upheaval. If there is a wonderful new breakthrough that can give us centuries more resource, then great! However, to actually bet the world's future energy resources/requirements on scientists developing some major breakthrough just when we need it seems a little irresponsible to me.

This may be a little bit "out there" in terms of thought, but maybe - just maybe! - the world should start looking at finding a way to live within the means of *known* resources for a change, without depending purely on human inventiveness to get out of the mess we could very easily find ourselves in. If we find a wonderful new resource we can exploit, then obviously the standards of living and what we can achieve can also be increased. If, though, we do not look at living within our means, the potential crash is frightening.

Yes, it would be nice to live in a world of pure optimism assuming that scientists and engineers will come through and continue providing breakthrough after breakthrough (because, let's face it, politicians and economists are a totally busted flush), eventually even defeating the presently known laws of physics. But then, I'm not that much of an optimist.

In other news: the Earth isn't infinte.

@Adam

Re: "Some economists are actually intelligent, yet they don't realise their ideas don't always apply properly."

I've recently read a book by Steve Keen ("Debunking Economics"). It does a very thorough hatchet-job on present mainstream economic theory. He goes back to first principles within the neoclassical economists' theories and clearly shows that the underlying principles are either flawed or outright wrong. As a side-note, he is actually one of the few economists to go into print warning of the "Great Recession" prior to it happening, and with reasons for it.

Briefly, one of the main flaws is that neo-classical economics is strongly wedded to the idea that the market is in equilibrium, or will quickly tend to equilibrium. Also is a very marked lack of time involved in the theories, usually being handwaved away by stating that either the view taken is a snapshot, so time doesn't really matter, or that it is the long view where things have tended to find their natural equilibrium - so time doesn't matter.

Cutting large parts out - basically economists are still trying to (pretty much) use algebra, whereas the real equations lie in the differential equation domains and chaos theory. So if you want to challenge any neoclassical economist, ask them where in their theories can they show that booms and busts can occur without handwaving "external events". Booms and busts occur with such frequency and periodicity that those "external events" sure do seem to come fairly often...

Do The Math

Wow - no one has mentioned this site in the article yet - Do the Math "Using physics and estimation to assess energy, growth, options—by Tom Murphy"

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/

Written by a physicist using "back of fag packet" calculations to test the reasonableness of various fuel sources. If you have the time, a very fascinating read.

If you don't fancy reading up a few dozen articles by now, try one of the recent articles published giving a matrix comparing various fuel sources for abundancy, intermittency, difficulty etc, and is at http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/02/the-alternative-energy-matrix/

Anglo-French nuke pact blesses 4th-gen reactors

@Aaron Em

Ah, Minsc and Boo. Who can forget them!

Sites knocked offline by OpenDNS freeze on Google

downvotes?

What cupid stucking funts are downvoting this point? I'm guessing crappy web developers who should never be allowed to work in the industry.

Hidden Dragon: The Chinese cyber menace

Why the outrage?

A major nation is using hacking for industrial espionage. Wow, what a surprizzzzzzzz.....

At least the "talking heads" implicitly admit they are doing it themselves.

2016: Death of the wallet as NFC tap-cash arrives at last

Research???

'Forrester's research is based on conversations with 10 "senior executives"' - wow, how many thousands did they charge for a bit of executive lunch conversations? I'm sorry, I'm just feeling dirty that anyone could get away with chatting to 10 dicks and making out that it is statistically significant enough to charge money for.

Swearing fine quashed as teens have heard it all before

cops swearing

Guess you've not been out around chucking out time. Cops have pretty foul language themselves. Though considering what they are having to police, it's no wonder that they use the "language of the street".

Served him right....???

Let's see - a bunch of arseholes decided to give this guy grief, and when they didn't find any drugs they stitched him up for bad language?

Where's the outrage against a bunch of fucking cops who, just because they couldn't nail someone on one charge, still fucked him over on whatever they could use?

In this country with so many laws criminalising every one of us for something or other, I'm surprised that they had to make do with a pretty minor bad language charge.

PayPal's 'delightful' intrusion into meatspace: You wish

@Anonymous Coward's @Lars

OMFG - don't let any of the big retailers even think about that! Hotel California Tesco style, you can pay (and pay, and pay...) but you can never leave

CERN: 'Climate models will need to be substantially revised'

Interesting site for you all

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/

Recently started, with some interesting "back of a fag packet" calculations. From a physicist. So the fag packet may need to be more cigar-sized...

and one in particular from there that mentions climate change due to carbon emission (though recommend reading the earlier ones to get a flavour for the style)

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/08/recipe-for-climate-change/

Who needs a million NFC tags?

Debate...

...seems worthless with someone who thinks:

"I am Your Retarded.

"For the people."

makes any kind of sense.

My main concern is how easy it is to "skim" small amounts with this. 50p here, a pound there, it will all add up. And what chance do you have of disputing any amount that gets charged? Evidence from chip and pin is that the banks will insist that their security is wonderful, and it is up to you to prove that you were defrauded.

I wonder how long it will be before we find out how easily it will be scammed, and how many people get stung for how much. Still, glad to have canaries like you out there to test out how well the new stuff works!

please finish your name...

..."Your Retarded". Your retarded what? Your retarded uncle/nephew/aunt/hamster? Pedants want to know...

Still - seems an appropriate moniker for someone enjoying NFC :-)

End of an era: Atlantis hits the tarmac

obligatory xkcd link

http://xkcd.com/893/

Don't forget to take a look at the hover-text for it too

<sigh>

Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

Hugs!

Best wishes for whatever comes next! I know you'll miss us (especially since the sights got filed off your hunting-rifle*)

*with thanks to Emo Philips

UK operators band together for NFC revenue

"Innovation"?

Must be getting old - I remember when companies vied for your money by trying to offer better products. Now it seems that a large number of them only seem to be interested in trying to gouge a cut of any money you spend, and to make even more money selling the info on what you bought on to other companies.

Fuck 'em all - kash is king still.

El Reg pays by phone – mmmm, free cookies!

something for the weekend?

Er, do you really think that someone who thinks waving a mobile phone around to pay for something is exciting is ever going to get laid?*

*well, until professional ladies start investing in that technology. Until then, only the banks will be screwing you.

Big Brother man: TV viewers will swap privacy for content

wait what?

Scott Adams covered this the best - those people are the ones that advertisers would pay the most money for! Lets see - gullible <check>, don't care about privacy <check>, willing to part with almost anything for just a bit of tat <check>... Spammers are happy to get 1 in 10000 (or some such small number) and are willing to pay for lists to get that type of return. Can you imagine how much they would be willing to pay for the list of people who would be willing to give up their personal details just to watch Big Brother?

Lloyds TSB signs up to Olympic Phone pay-by-wave plan

luddites unite!

How much longer is cash going to be allowed? Seems to be that all the ones in charge want to be able to monitor who pays what to whom (and for what), with banks always taking a cut for the transaction. Don't know about you, but I really like the idea of being to pay for stuff without having everything being monitored on the off-chance that you can be marketed to for some other piece of tat.

Police ordered to disclose ANPR camera sites

To all those that think ANPR is to catch the uninsured

You really are a bunch of unimaginative fucking morons.

If someone is out there is determined to dodge the insurance or perform some more serious immediate crime, you *really* think they will not be above spending a one-off few quid to grab a licence plate number from someone with the same make/model/colour of car as them?

If someone *is* a criminal, they also generally have the nous to avoid the more obvious police traps (well, not all criminals, otherwise the odds and sods section here would be a lot emptier), so really this is just to keep tabs on the generally well-behaved and tax-paying part of society.Why? That I don't really know. There appears to be a section of humanity that is obsessed with control-freakery. They'd want to know the ins and outs of a gnats arse if they could get away with it.

So all this really does is provide a nice little earner for "Dave" down the pub who knows someone who can put you in touch with someone who get you a nice new set of plates if you don't really want to pop up on the ANPR system.

And if the new set of plates happen to match yours - good luck in proving it *wasn't* you at the time/place/whatever when the police decide to have you for something. After all - the technology never lies does it?

Virgin outsources techies, pulls plug on Trowbridge call centre

Mancunian adage...

...from a Mancunian I knew - "If you can see the Pennines, it's going to rain shortly. If you can't see them, it's already raining."

IE is tough on Flash cookies but ignores homegrown threat

Re: One problem here

If an application breaks if the cookie is removed, then it is a *very poorly* written application. A "proper web application" would not break on a missing cookie, and I certainly hope that you are not involved in web application development with the (lack of) knowledge displayed here.

'Real' JavaScript benchmark topped by...Microsoft

Consider the test...

"...does not benefit from the faster JavaScript engines because performance of those applications is limited by the DOM (Document Object Model, the browser's crap API)". So a test to see how well javascript performs pretty much *excludes* updating the web page? Any javascript test that does not include how it interacts with the stuff seen on screen is not much good as a web-browser test. Technically (please insert many lawyer-type weasel words here) it is a test of the *javascript* engine, but can hardly be called representative of what a user would experience sat in front of a browser.

Police head-cam TV show debuts in US

@Except losing it ...

Would be interesting if "losing evidence" and "misplacing or not revealing evidence to the defence" became serious crimes and actively prosecuted. Maybe it would be a step towards getting a decent, respected police farce. (Only a small step, but it would mark a change of direction from the present one.)

Pope says gravity proves technology can't supplant God

@Ivor 1

Oh, that old play on words.

"I believe that you are a self-important twat" - does that make me religious?

It seems that the religious and lawyers both make their careers out of twisting language so that words can be forced into meanings almost certainly not intended by the people who wrote them down. (Exception: recent UK Parliaments - I'm pretty sure that the weasel-words used in writing laws these days are deliberately designed to be as twisted and flexible as possible.)

Scientists, however polysyllabic and difficult to understand the vocabulary, at least try to make things open - they even have a process of vetting each others' papers to try to ensure integrity.

Religion - bringing intolerance and hatred to all those not of that faith for 2k+ years. Which is strange, as often some of the text in each of the holy writings for the various faiths talk about being nice to your fellow human beings. Or is that part of the stuff that gets twisted so that it can be ignored?

UK.gov signals weary welcome to Brussels' web cookies law

@Thomas 18

Strangely enough, sites that are well-programmed (oh I don't know - like The Register perhaps?) work perfectly well without cookies. And ask *explicitly* if you want to you use the facility of cookies to make your visit more convenient.

Yes, I know that most sites that require identity to work properly (e.g. banking, shopping, fora) are made more convenient by the use of cookies, but even *they* shouldn't require them (just that the customer would need to go through the process of logging on at least once every time that they use the site). However, for general web browsing/viewing, cookies should not be needed. Seems the primary use of cookies has changed from the customers' convenience, to be for advertisers use.

So how soon will we get the advertisers weaseling out of "do not track" settings in headings by saying they only apply to cookies and not to gifs/falsh-cookies/dom-storage/technology-X, so it's fine to track people...?