* Posts by It wasnt me

503 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Sep 2008

Page:

C and Unix pioneer Dennis Ritchie reported dead

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Whilst I largely agree with your first sentiment, I cannot agree with second. Firstly, the Reg mods doubtless have far, far better things to be doing with their time that acting as sentiment police or niceneess filters. Secondly can you even begin to imagine the uproar on these boards if people discovered that that sort of comment was being censored ?

You may not like what people have to say here, but if you need a nanny to prevent you from hearing it, then can I suggest China or Saudi Arabia?

New iPhone offered for sale via unauthorised outlets

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

"Apple did not respond to calls at the time of writing."

Hats off to you Reg Hacks for your tenacity. Did you really expect them to respond?

Microsoft milks Casio for using Linux

It wasnt me
Meh

Gee, you sound fun

You won't even help your own family without charging them - nice. And I seem to remember that your 'commercial' rates are based on pulling off horses????

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/user/4800/7

I still can't work out why you hang around on an IT website.

Hey Commentards! [This title is optional]

It wasnt me
Unhappy

I quite like the titles though.

Damn, now I've nothing to say here ....

Painters wrap Forth Bridge job after 121 years

It wasnt me
Happy

How about

"Like thinking of a 'get me coat' one liner that hasnt already been done."

"Like finding a previously unused 'paris' gag."

"Like waiting for for an Orlowski Article with comments."

"Like waiting for a Page Article without moaining about Brit-Kit".

Space junk at 'tipping point', now getting worse on its own

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

No so.

See my earlier post. If everything works well then its all on the same plane (nominally, but in reality +/- 3 ish degrees). However it doesn't all work well. See AM4 reports for that.

The old things getting pushed to a higher altitude is a convention that has been brought in amongst satellite operators for exactly this reason. It doesnt apply to old satellites and ones over which you have no control.

Finally the unpowered ones will as you say slowly drift to a stable orbit. Those stable points are approximately 75deg east and 105deg west. Over the indian ocean and in prime position to broadcast to the whole of the americas. To call them 'dead spots' is complete nonesense. The unpowered satellites don't just drift there either. Their orbital position slowly oscillates around the dead spot whilst decaying. As it does so the eccentricity of their orbit increases.

Commercial satellite operators routinely move their satellites out of the way of these rogue wondering junk satellites. Eventually 2 will collide, not at LEO velocities but still enough to make a mess up there.

Really, the notion that GEO satellites just stay put and don't move realtive to each other is just not true.

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

No so, Im afraid.

Just last week the AM4 satellite failed to enter GEO. The craft is now completely lost in a highly inclined geosynchronous transfer orbit.

In plain english, its now out of control, in an orbit varying in height between 1000 and 21000 km, inclined at 51 degrees.

In plainer english between now and the end of time it will cover the entire volume of space between those two heights, approximately between the latitudes of london and Buenos Aires.

It's not the only uncontrolled piece of junk in a similar orbit.

Don't you think it will be more impressive if it _doesn't_ hit anything?

The chinese were infinitely irresponsible with their satellite desctruction test and proved themselves to be an unworthy and immature space nation. If they really wanted to prove the technology they could have shot down a much lower satellite that would have re-entered earths atmosphere, as the Americans did.

Instead they took the first step towards shutting the gates completely on any desires to leave earths atmosphere. Not just for themselves but for all mankind, for a duration that is measured on the geological timescale.

Unless someone starts taking the problem seriously we will see that the Kessler Syndrome is real, and the Chinese have wilfully brought it on.

Disclaimer: my job is at stake if satellites become no longer commercially viable. A surprising amount of the UK GDP is also. In fact, with the support industries, your job is probably at stake.

Ofcom pilots paid-for voting and compo rules for broadcasters

It wasnt me
Meh

Fines

These fines are all well and good. Does anyone know where the money goes though? I'd like to think there was a way of recompensing those who were defrauded, but i'm not sure if that actually happens.

Anyone know what does happen ?

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

"What is behind the resignation?"

Ok, Im no clairvoyant so this is pure speculation. I'll allowmyself for a couple of minutes to imagine being in Steve Jobs shoes.

Rich beyond my wildest dreams. Have successfully helmed a company to the pinnacle of success. Accolades aplenty. Sounds good so far.

However, I'm only in my late 50's and my health is ailing. The future is unclear for my company, where do I take it now? History shows it is more difficult to keep a company at the top than to get it there.

You dont suppose he's just decided to take it easy and enjoy the more important things in life do you?

Best of luck to the man, love him or hate him, (or both) he's earnt it. I hope he gets to enjoy a few more years.

Mystery railway buys 80 terabytes of Flash

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

record fares?

Nah, It'll be deutche bahn I expect. Our network it still using punch tape, surely ?

Mac OS X Lion gets bug-squashing update

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Great

Doest fix the 2 bugs I have though. One I can live with (predictive search sometimes not working with safari in full screen mode). The other I can't. Every 2 minutes or so I get a popup appearing telling me "Could not connect to server, transfers of type file:/ are not supported". Apparently the fix is to de-register my time machine by connecting to another one, then re connecting. Thats all well and good, but I dont have another time machine, and Im not buying one just to fix an apple bug. Bastards.

Curved light drives boffin one-upmanship

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

Good article.

And very interesting. You've done a fairly good job of keeping the pedants at bay, but I must take issue with your assertion that the acceleration is "in the direction of the curve". Surely that would indeed cause the light to accelerate beyond C. Is the accelleration not towards the focus of the curve? Isn't it analagous to centripetal accelleration?

Or am I being too picky?

DARPA drops another HTV-2

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

No, not that good really.

Its similar speeds to the shuttle. Which they've been flying more or less successfully for 30 odd years. I guess the main difference here is that they dont want it to slow down. Thats the difficult bit.

As for Major Chris Schultz saying, "Were confident there is a solution," thats just cock waving. If he said anything else his funding would be cut.

Im not so sure that there is a defined problem, let alone a solution. Don't get me wrong, Im all for space exploration and tech funding, but DARPA just seem to be and out of control money burning operation.

Pacific island mints Star Wars coinage

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Why

By the time they've paid George Lucal his ridiculous royalties they wont make a penny.

Watchdog washes hands of Lush hack

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Too right

I genuinely struggle to breathe in their stores.

Microsoft skewers Google's anti-Android conspiracy claim

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

Google needed the patents???

Then they should have invented something.

Patents are issued to grant a limited term monopoly to an inventor. Wouldn't the world be a nicer place if they were non-transferrable? If the inventor failed to capitalise on their monopoly then the patents expire with them. Think how much more technologically advanced we would all be if money could go into R&D rather than legal fees.

I think we'd all enjoy watching the lawyers trying to figure out what to do with their time.

DIDO: snake oil or wireless salvation?

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Hmmm.

I thought beamforming, but on page 3 of his "white paper*" he suggests that beamforming is just another inadequate way to not acheive his goal. Im betting with the 'snake oil' camp from the moment.

*white paper is a bit much. Its more an homage to early 90's clip art.

HMRC strops its chopper, eyes £235m IT slash plan

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

HMRC? What are they for?

"It is making progress, but there is no contingency in its plans. To achieve value for money, it needs to better define the service it is aiming for, improve its understanding of costs and develop its implementation plan."

Allow me to help, if you will. Your job is collect taxes. You can start with Vodafone. Once you have the 6 billion they owe you then you will have more room to manoeuver.

Spending money chasing one big tax dodger will yield much better results than spending money chasing millions of small ones.

Russia’s space telescope in orbit

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Its an interesting sentiment...

.....but nonsense of course.

How do you explain the hundreds (thousands?) of societies on our planet that are doing just fine without science. As much as I hate to, you could even use the amish to counter your point.

Mole says Apple A5 chip runs too hot for iPhone

It wasnt me

What a load of bollocks.

Thats cherry picked data that is. Go to tesco. Iphone 4 is £325 for the phone, and then £25/month on a 12 month contract. Doesnt exactly add up to £1700 does it? Or if you want more minutes you can pay £35 a month for 12 months and £235 for the phone.

Interestingly those are both cheaper than your HTC.

I suspect you're just a mac hater.

Disclaimer: I am not a fanboi. I have a HTC phone. I couldn't really care who made my phone and its OS, so long as they do what I want. I just dont like people spouting shite on message boards.

Apple orders millions of iPhone 5s for September release

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

and...

..... its the only wifey you fanbois are ever likely to see

Mexican narco attempts suitcase jailbreak

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

RTFA

That is all.......

UK will obey Euro unisex-insurance rules from 2013

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Genius

Really, cant we get a little bick of our sovereignty back please? This is a ludicrous decision.

Please roll back the RU experiment to the EFTA, and allow as many people as you like to join. That was the only useful part of the EU.

Failing that though, can my wife take out a 10 year car insurance policy?

London Olympics shop in Union Jack outrage

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

No its not.

If the hoist is attached to the ring and the top is on the right its correct. If it is enamelled with a reflection on the other side it is also correct. with the top on the left. You cant tell without seeing the other side.

Draw and fold working circuitry with the silver-ink pen

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

A mistake in your post.

"Their triumph is in selling it to the world as a US invention."

No, their triumph will be patenting it, then suing the rest of the manufacturers for infringment. Even though there is demonstrably 30 years of prior art.

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

No we havent.

At least not on the fondleslab of choice, should that be the ipad. Apple wont let you near the I/O.

Would be a nice toy on the USB ports of Android slabs though.

Dixons reports huge losses of £224m

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

...indeed...

Im just staggered that there are enough unwary (stupid?) customers to rack up several billion in sales. Im amazed they are still going at the prices they charge for the sales experience they dont provide.

Has UK gov lost the census to Lulzsec?

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

The gov't have a lot of explaining to do anyway.

They cant start by answering: "Why the holy fuck is UK census data going anywhere near LM?" "Could the contract have been better awarded to a UK company to spend some tax pounds at home?" (And no, I dont mean you Crapita.)

Quantum crypto felled by 'Perfect Eavesdropper' exploit

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

@Use picture cryptography instead.

Yeah, brilliant. Been around for years, never seriously adopted as there is absolutely nothing theoretically uncrackable about it. You are suggesting abandoning cutting edge research and replacing it with tried and failed rubbish, with a bit of security through obscurity thrown in instead. Great.

Have I just fed a troll?

30,000 Shreks besmirch BeautifulPeople

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Really?

Thin != Beaftiful.

Peter Crouch.

Margaret becket.

Your move.

Kindle Store awash with auto-generated crap 'books'

It wasnt me

@AC

"is it reasonable to think that stopping book spam is economically possible?"

Yes it is. I agree with your sentiment that the email and comment spam is still there, just not visible. But that was a filtering solution, not an economic solution. I suspect that if you charged a penny a time for sending email then the general public would be happy to pay, but the spammers would disappear over night.

However, the contradicting eveidence can be seen on the iOS app store. Dont they charge an annual fee to publish and yet the store is still full of spam apps?

Creationists are infiltrating US geology circles

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

You have utterly missed the point.

I completely respect the rights of god botherers to hold their own opinions. However, I will never uphold their right to infiltrate science and put forward their waffle as fact. Especially when they are trying to teach it to children.

In exactly the same way, I will not be going into their church and trying to undermine their belief system.

Apple 'spaceship' awaits landing clearance in Cupertino

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

No ...

..... and don't tell foxconn either.

Hackers jailbreak iOS 5 in under 24 hours

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

They could do....

.....or they could continue the current game of cat and mouse. In the end the developments that come from it are good for all of us. I'm not saying that I agree that iDevices should be locked down, I don't think they should - I paid for the deive and i'll choose how to use it thaks very much. But security overall will improve faster when driven by need. The techniques developed / learnt as part of this silly game might be usefully employed elsewhere.

Britain mounted secret 2010 cyberwarfare attack on al-Q

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

Indeed.......

They could modify one of the ingredients to be bacon.

4G interference will knock out Freeview

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Or maybe.........

.....the money grabbing pointless shites at Ofcom could not be so fucking greedy and put a guard band between the two different spectrum users. Like every one else has to. The problem is arising because spectrum has been sold which isnt technically available. They acknowledge that there is not a square roll of at the top of an allocated frequency, yet they have sold thte next available hertz anyway. Ofcom (or whoever licences the spectrum these days) should pay for the mitigating equipment, not one of the frequency users, who have after all licensed their respective frequencies in good faith.

Money grabbing cocks.

HP issues annual exploding battery recall

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

What complete nonsense.

How is the 31st May "right after" Q2 results, giving them "longest possible time to die away before the next financial quarter news is reported"? Its closer to the end of the quarter. You're seeing a pattern where there just simply isn't one, and using the pattern to justify calling them "amoral self-interested Narcissistic corporate bastards".

Take your straw man elsewhere.

Using your own figures for US fiscal reporting, these dates show absolutely nothing at all.

Next-gen Atom CPU price halved to push netbooks

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Aaaaarrgghhhhh.......

You don't need a netbook. You need a dictionary and an education. What on earth is 'Already' doing in the above sentence. 'Already' is NOT a punctuation mark. When will you imbeciles stop butchering the English language.

Zuckerberg: Give me your children

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

I partly understand what youre saying.

Youre giving Zuckerberg the benefit of the doubt, and assuming he want to educate children, not profit from them.

Perhaps we should listen a little more to him when he:

(a) Guarantees there will be no advertising of clickthroughs or other attempts to extort on under-13s pages.

(b) Puts forward a proper set of security controls to enable parental supervision.

Until then he just wants more money, and he can fuck off.

French spooks have access to UK forces' travel data

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

Errrr...

Regardless of the security implications of storing the data abroad, wouldn't it show better judgement by the government to spend the money in the U.K. Especially as the country is going to shit with no jobs anywhere (or so we are told). Is there really not a british firm that can offer these services?

Huge fat pipe squirts mighty streams

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

and why.......

..... are the BBC using an American unit of bandiwth? WTF is wrong with British National Libraries per second? WTF is the library of congress, for that matter?

Hollywood to 'retell' Carrie

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Beg to disagree

Piracy isnt the problem, but its more than producing shite. Even when there is something good on, going to the cinema is just ridiculously expensive.

Big Brother man: TV viewers will swap privacy for content

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Wow

Thats blue sky out of the box thinking from a media luvvie that is. Or utter horseshit to the rest of us.

Comet cuts jobs as sales fall

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Competition

Competition is a great leveller of the playing field. Its a very, very simply business rule that the likes of Comet / DSG still dont understand. Unless you compete you will die. Whilst you are still trying to sell USB / Network / HDMI cables for £20 you are not competing.

It is also a great insult to the now internet savvy customers that they think they can get away with it.

Its a shame really, I would like some of these stores to survive. But every time I enter one and see the prices of commodities I end up wishing them nothing but failure. A shame for the employees, and a shame that corporate greed seems to over-ridden such a basic premise of doing business.

Plague of US preachers falsely claim to be Navy SEALs

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

@Naughtyhorse

Genius. New keyboard please.

Chinese iPad 2 fanboiz in frenzied fight

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Pot, kettle, black

Some us readers probably make perfectly sensible comments. And some uk readers are probably quite capable of personal attacks. I find your unsubstantiated slur un us readers quite offensive.

Assange: Facebook a ‘spying machine’

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

Venn......

"Where they intersect a hole in space/time has been created by the power of sheer, illogical confusion and conflict."

Thats where IMG and Scorchio live, that is.

Nikon image authentication system cracked

It wasnt me
Thumb Up

Ahh.....

But my difficulty dial goes up to 11. I just tried it, and although quite difficult, it is possible.

On an aside, what on earth are you talking about ?

Top-secret US lab infiltrated by spear phishers – again

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

@Team Reg

"Representatives didn't return emails and calls seeking comment." - Oh really ?

Try again today. It says in your own article that their email is being reconnected on Wednesday.

They also may well have IP phones, which might explain your calls not being returned.

Samsung threatens Apple in response to patent lawsuit

It wasnt me
Thumb Down

Be realistic

You don't suppose that Apple have a contract with Samsung, with massive penalties for late deliveries do you ? It would be a foolish business that didn't protect its supply chain through legally enforceable contracts.

The best Samsung could do would be to not enter into any further contracts, but then, why would they bite the hand that feeds them?

This legal spat is a completely different issue.

Page: