Posts by Eddy Ito

WTF is … the multiverse?

"the scales are off by a hundred orders of magnitude"...“If inflation exists, the vacuum energy is contained on a larger scale than in our 'own' universe,”

Wholly crap! Dood, inflation sucks!

Seriously though, aren't a universe and a multiverse mutually exclusive? I mean if a universe is "all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos" then how can you have, presumably, multiple instances of it as a multiverse would imply? At least it's comforting to know that it's beer o'clock somewhen.

Spend zero notes to take all notes with OneNote: Microsoft makes app free, builds it for OS X

Ok

So will I be able to get the notes directly from my phone to my PC directly without going through the cloud? Can I delete a note from my phone even if I'm unable to to sync to the cloud? Why, what is the point since I will get a warning that deleting a note removes it from both the phone and the cloud?

I'll keep using word as my note taking app on my phone even though I can't see files transferred directly from the PC to the Documents folder until my phone syncs with the cloud. Seriously, the stupid thing gets its directory information through the cloud, WTFIT?

Crap turnover, sucky margins: TV is a 'terrible business' – Steve Jobs

Re: Jobs was a genius

I've purchased exactly two TVs in my lifetime, one was in the '90s to replace my original TV which I inherited from an aunt and the last in 2011 after going without a few years because I couldn't be arsed with getting a digital tuner and only caved because it keeps the relatives entertained when it's my turn to host a holiday.

I still have the remote from the original set. I kept it seeing as it's ultrasonic and worked quite well for shooing the neighbors dog.

Wackadoo DIYers scissor-kick beatboxer

Re: Nothing to fear, it's been happening since we started howling at each other from the tree tops

I think it will be a while before folks have the brass to make Cu mainstream because while the resistance is low most people don't want to be the conduit for such a change. It just doesn't seem fitting that some don't see Cu as noble and are so galvanized against it. I fear that havoc will be wrought by a small group determined to cast it in bronze.

Apple patents the super-soaraway selfie system of the future

Re: Hang on...

As Yogi Berra said; "this is like deja vu all over again". I thought I'd seen something similar and wondered why Apple didn't go the magsafe plug route. The answer is photojojo ate their magnetic lunch.

NSA's TURBINE robot can pump 'malware into MILLIONS of PCs'

Plato was right. A democracy does denigrate into tyranny and it seems the democratic republic does as well.

Dear Uncle Sam,

"How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?"

-- Ike

YOINK! Toyota reveals – then DENIES – Apple CarPlay by 2015

I'd wager it's a legit mistake. Who at Toyota wants to put out a statement that essentially says, "Apple fans, don't buy a 2014 Toyota, wait until your shiny will plug-n-play in a 2015 Toy!"

We all owe our EXISTENCE to lovely VOLCANOES, say boffins

Re: Interesting map

Let me see if I'm clear, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light and the second is arbitrarily defined in terms of Cesium 133 ground state transitions so when speaking of the speed of light, presumably in a vacuum as opposed to a hoover, we mean it's nearly 1.8 linguine per Cesium tick. Now that that's settled, is Stonehenge the Norse Pole and the Eiffel Tower the Seine Pole or is it something else?

CIA hacked Senate PCs to delete torture reports. And Senator Feinstein is outraged

Huh

Who'da thunk it?

When folks cried about the wolves this is the lady who said they imagined it. When folks explained how the wolves ate all the chickens this lady called them whacko conspiracy theorists who couldn't be trusted. When someone provided chickens in the wolf shit and documented proof of the wolves she called him a traitor. So now that the wolves have taken a bite of her pie all I can say is "How's that gander sauce Mrs. Goose? The Uchan-su flows just for you."

Finally! Some actual, novel tech: Apple patent to revive geriatric gear

Re: Your power supply already adapts

It could be used to put a touch of crackle into Siri's voice along with dropping the gain on the mic so you have to talk louder for Siri to "hear" you. All of this acts as a reminder that the current shiny is getting old and dull and you should drop another paycheck or two on the latest shiny.

Projector on a smartphone? There's a chip for that

Re: Only two questions

I'm inclined to believe the current class of image stabilization used in cameras should be able to handle the required compensation for most people. Heck if a helicopter can paint a target a mile away long enough for the missile to arrive this should be fairly easy. Granted the allowed error bar is probably fairly large when using high explosives but they've been at this for quite some time.

Now then, can we up the power and do laser tattoo removal at a distance? What about micro etching unique identifiers on cars stopped at a traffic light? Drone spotting?

Dammit internet... you promised naked videos of my Facebook friends

Re: Am I the only one with attractive friends?

That depends, I'd wager that many are like myself and had attractive friends before gravity finally beat out skin elasticity. Now, my niece has lots of attractive friends but me? Not many at all.

Clearly the OP meant the smartphones for watching fake FB vids are as thick as a pig chute. Typing misteaks are common.

Court allows EFF to keep donor list secret from patent troll

FTFY

"At least, not one that the Supreme Court as currently constituted would ever consider."

You seem to think this batch of 9 high priced lawyers are different from any other 9 high priced lawyers.

Then again folks such as the Koch brothers and George Soros usually don't care who knows they are tossing about their monetary muscle.

I NEVER DONE BITCOIN, says bloke fingered by new Newsweek

At least 2 people deny it

Both Dorian Nakamoto and now Satoshi Nakamoto are both claiming Dorian didn't invent bitcoin.

Total speculation

What is known is that someone going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a paper on bitcoin. That person may or may not have been involved with its creation after writing the paper. The creator may have a bunch of bitcoins which he could easily have passed around way back when because they weren't worth anything or may have lost the codes to access those coins. There are literally billions in unclaimed property in the US alone and there is no reason to believe that bitcoins are any different.

Newsweek knocks on door of dad-of-six, tells him he invented Bitcoin

Re: The crator[sic] of bitcoin is a weeabo.

Such a wannabe that he changed his name to append Dorian Prentice on the front. Japanophobia much?

Newsweak - Newspeak

Reading the piece it seems clear that the "journalist" who wrote it was intent on harassing the guy and the article is merely a venue to exact revenge for not talking to her. After all, she spent two months stalking this guy, how dare he not capitulate and give her an exclusive.

Why is it that so many "journalists" such as her are such hemorrhoids?

So long, Samsung! TSMC is fabbing Apple's A8 chip, insiders claim

A8?

Shouldn't that be a 64 bit A7S and the unloved plastic 52 bit A7C?

Millions of unloved iPhone 5Cs gather dust in warehouses – report

Re: Don't overlook the bling factor.

He told me 'If people aren't complaining about the price you're not charging enough'. and that is absolutely true.

Spot on.

Facebook, Instagram give dodgy online gun sales the BULLET

I'd wager most, like >99%, of the transactions are perfectly legal now that everyone knows this stuff is undoubtedly monitored by the NSA, FBI and every other TLA in government. Heck, it could be the most legit weapons market going.

Roku flashes $50 HDMI TV web dongle at anyone sick of Google's stick

Re: Local content?

That is what I really want. A dongle that's a frontend to Myth TV or even simply VLC. The clever TVs are pretty sad since even though the H.264/MP4 codec is already on my TV as it's part of the ATSC standard it won't play a file from a USB stick but finds and plays it fine if it's served up from a PC with Windows Media Player.

HTML is a sexually transmitted disease, say many Americans

Re: OSI

To be fair, acronyms are largely ignored gobbledegook by the masses and if you aren't in the particular industry they are used it really doesn't matter. Lots of folks drive cars but how many know what RON or MON mean. How many know what the API, ACEA, JASO or ILSAC stands for on the oil label. You might find some who know what BOP means after the BP spill in the gulf but probably not many. Going on to plastics like PTFE or UHMW you might get a few to recognize that one of them is Teflon but I'd wager not many.

As for TWAIN, it sounds like half to Shakespeare.

Apple granted patent for two-faced iPhone with wraparound touchscreen

You all know what this means

The next patent will be for a cylindrical phone to match the Mac Pro. If they call it the iCan the advertisements will write themselves. "Can you?" "iCan!"

Re: Flattened oval?

Not just a flattened oval but, OMG, one with sharp corners!!!

So how long until the case made from toilet paper shows up?

Anti Gmail data-mining lawsuit hits possible stumbling block

Re: Lucy Koh again

Perhaps she doesn't have enough judicial tenure and this is the way more senior judges haze the freshmen.

"Hey Noob, clean up in silicon valley! Hahahaha!"

Insecure hipsters with BEARD ENVY spur facial hair transplant craze

Re: I can't keep up

How did we get from baby-faced angst of hipsters to the rectal hygiene of baboons so fas.. oh, hang on, it makes sense now.

UK spies on MILLIONS of Yahoo! webcams, ogles sex vids - report

Re: "Undesirable nudity"...

That just means the remaining nudity was desirable. Apparently even spooks draw the line somewhere.

Samsung brandishes quad-core Galaxy S5, hopes nobody wants high specs

Re: Anyone know what it is using for water resistance?

"If you need water resistance you actually need water proof..."

There's no such thing as water proof. Water is pretty darn smart, given enough time and pressure it will find its way in almost anything.

Prez Obama cyber-guru: Think your data is safe in an EU cloud? The NSA will raid your servers

Re: Yes we know you...

Perfectly said. If I may sum up: "Dear NSA: Work for it, bitch!"

TONGUES OUT if you want to LICK Steve Jobs' BACKSIDE

Re: @ Eddy Ito

Sorry, I didn't realize the story was about UK stamps.

How do you send a parcel via the tinterweb? What's that? You can't?

Go here, select "Ship a Package" -> "Print a Label with Postage". Affix the label, schedule pickup, enjoy frosty beverage.

No, I don't consider a shipping label with a bar code to be a stamp and I'll wager most philatelists would agree.

I don't mean to be obtuse but if you really need one I'm pretty sure the IT angle is that most acute folks don't use stamps anymore because of the intarweb tubes.

Microsoft slaps fresh paint on code-free Windows Phone dev tool

Yeah

So it's sounding like another TouchDevelop environment where you either have to run the app through the "IDE" or pay up to submit it to the app store so it can be installed as a stand alone program.

Of course they could give us a developer mode that allows us to write and install, hahahahahahahaha, whatever we like. Damn, almost made it through that last bit with a straight face.

TV scraper Aereo pulled off air in six US states after tellyco court injunction victory

Re: Can't say that I understand the TV companies argument

Honest question, isn't that what they do to cable companies or are cable companies allowed to swap out the broadcaster's original commercials for their own? I've never had both cable and over the air broadcasts at the same time and so can't compare.

Facebook pays $19bn for WhatsApp. Yep. $45 for YOUR phone book

Re: Speak for yourself...

You are aware the whole point of all this is so they can assemble your social network from the outside, aren't you? It's pretty trivial for them to make some assumptions when you show up on the contact lists of Julie, Frank and Tom and so does Jill, Joey and Kate it will be a fairly safe bet that you also know Jill, Joey and Kate especially when they reference Julie's pictures and one has the caption "A night out with Kate, Joe and Ted" and Frank's feed that say "My buddy Ted just got this new car and I was surprised how well the Tata Nano rides".

You don't have to sell yourself out, others will happily do it for you. Thumbs up for trying, it's too late for me but I hope you succeed.

Facebook gobbles WhatsApp for SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS

Re: I may sound stupid but..

If it's the case of buying for users then there is perhaps one odd thing FB will find out. Most people I know here in SoCal have dropped WhatsApp for other services like Line, Viber and WeChat. The last of the three seems most popular with folks with ties to mainland China as it's quite popular there.

Personally I can't wait until the stories of sales calls start.

"Hello"

"Hi, are you having trouble inserting suppositories? Try our magic finger cots and say goodbye to scrapes caused by fingernails forever."

"No, I was complaining about FaceBook getting up my arse on WhatsApp."

Apple patents touch-sensitive controls for MacBook

Existing or not is completely irrelevant. Your ideas don't have to exist, ever.

Patents protect an IDEA, not a product.

Just who is misinformed, other than you?

Actually you have that backward. You can't patent an idea, it has to be a process, a machine, an "article of manufacture" (a.k.a. a product), composition of matter (such as a synthetic material, molecular structure, metal alloy, etc) or an improvement on the aforementioned. In fact while your invention doesn't have to currently exist, it has to be capable of existing which pretty much eliminates ideas since a flying pony is an idea but good luck patenting one since I'm quite certain, even as lax as they are, the USPTO will require proof that it can be made and does what you say. I know people who have initially been turned down for patents because the examiner didn't believe it was possible and so had to demonstrate the prototype to prove that it did do what they claimed.

It's Ok

My mother gets asked the same thing when people see her LG Prada so I'd tend to agree that many people have trouble distinguishing one rectangular slab with rounded corners from another. Then again if you covered the grills and badges of the current Camry, Accord and Impala, I'd wager a lot of people wouldn't be able to identify which was which and you could probably convince a good number that they were the last three model years of the same car.

Google, Apple pop a cap in that Flappy Birds crapp app flapp

Soon to be followed by the sequel Slap Happy Flappy Birds

Samsung flings sueball at Dyson for 'intolerable' IP copycat claim

Re: The picture ..

Pretty much all cyclonic separators look the same and have since 1945 when they were invented. Sure, you can play with diameters, height and flow velocities depending on what you're separating but you're going to get pretty much the same thing if the goal is to make something about the size of and with the functionality of existing vacuum cleaners.

Korean boffins launch K-Glass for hands-free Google Glass-ery

Re: Isn't normal reality good enough?

Yes, it seems we now have the next next big buzz word where 'augmented' is the new 'virtual'. It's comforting to know the definition is still the same as they are both marketing terms meaning 'not'.

Rotten to the core: Apple’s 10 greatest FAILS

Re: Antennagate affects everyone, not just apple

The biggest problem was that magic knock out point was right about where the thick fleshy bit at the base of the thumb normally contacts the phone when held in the left hand and about where the ring finger tip falls when held in the right hand. Sure, if you used your hands as a clam shell around other phones they would lose a few bars or drop out but not with an open three finger hold. Sure, if you have dry skin, it may not have been a problem but then you'd likely be complaining about the lack of sensitivity on the touch screen.

Imprisoned Norwegian mass murderer says PlayStation 2 is 'KILLING HIM'

You can lead a horse to water but I'm not going to cry him a river or something like that. I'm all in favor of his right to self determination and choosing to not eat. Once his needs are provided for, since I don't see how the state has a right to force feed him, the state's obligations are met. I'm sorry but video games don't fall under needs. If he wants intellectual stimulation let him read a book. I recommend he try the Iliad, Odyssey, Dao De Jing, Heart Sutra and maybe some Thoreau for starters. Who know, he might even find it more interesting than 541 laps of Super Mario Cart.

Samsung Gear splurge skews smartwatch market Google’s way

Wristicuffs!

Pebble needs to do some advertising (TV/radio) to start making big rocks out of small ones and grind Gears with Samsung. What does the Church of Scientology have against smart watches and how does it intend to give people a slap on the wrist?

Comcast Corp to merge with Time Warner Cable in MONSTER $45bn deal

Re: It should be blocked by the anti-trust authorities

Exactly, each cable company is already a regional monopoly so for the consumer it only matters in what to put on the check. I'll go ahead and guess that after the merger Comcast customers will notice poor TWC like customer service, former TWC customers notice Comcast's slower network speed and all get to pay about 10% more for the privilege. Oh, didn't mean to forget bonuses for everyone with a Cxx job title.

Rand Paul launches class-action lawsuit to end NSA phone spying

Re: Irony, we've heard of it....

Perhaps you're not clear on the US definition of "assault rifle". It means a Sauer S303 painted black with a ten round magazine. It's not exactly a missile firing drone or a nuke and your logical conclusion is anything but given how recklessly US Presidents have historically gone about their todger swinging diplomacy. But if you feel such tools are the work of the devil, you can always move to Colombia where you can feel safe since such things are illegal there (article 8 clause c).

FBI offers $10,000 bounty for arrest of laser-wielding idiots

Re: No reward necessary.

Speaking as a private pilot, there wouldn't be much of a shitbag left to report if I catch one.

¡Viva la Revolution! Geeksphone's new mobe to go on sale this month

Please?

Preload it with Xen.