* Posts by The Indomitable Gall

1657 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Multimillionaire hires ex-NASA 'naut to work on private spaceship

The Indomitable Gall

Martin Rees, you muppet....

Seriously, he should get out of his ivory tower.

Very few sciency things ever become profitable enough for private investors' liking until long after the initial research is done.

"Waiting" is not an option, because then the research that later investors freeload off will never be done...

Wales calls on ICANN to unleash .cymru

The Indomitable Gall

What is a country?

Wales was certainly a single kingdom at one point (under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn).

Wales is one of the "constituent countries" of the United Kingdom.

The word "nation" comes from the Latin from birth, and has nothing to do with kings or governments, which is why some groups (eastern European Roma and Native American/First Nation tribes) have their own nationality.

So Wales has been a kingdom, it is recognised as a country, and it's a nation if the people born there associate with each other in some way.

So I have to say I disagree with you.

Sheila's Fails? The statistics of biological risk

The Indomitable Gall

Really?

Just because they're not allowed to make an individual risk assessment based on gender, doesn't mean they're not going to track that information and know the overall aggregate risk.

Health experts flip over McD's burger-flip toy

The Indomitable Gall

Remember...

Kids don't get to choose their parents.

In cases of physical abuse, we intervene. Surely nutritional abuse should be prevented too?

The Indomitable Gall

It's the branding that's the issue.

Associating playtime with MacDonalds is a powerful brand-imprinting mechanism. Advertising to children needs drastically reduced.

Apple to Microsoft: 'App Store name is not generic'

The Indomitable Gall

Another flaw in Leonard's testimony...

'the predominant usage of the term APP STORE is as a proper noun to refer to Apple's online application marketplace.'

The predominant usage of the term COMPUTER is as a proper noun to refer to an electronic number-processing machine running Microsoft Windows.

Ergo a Mac is not a computer.

Except that's rubbish.

Basically, this argument taken to its logical conclusion says (paradoxically) that generic terms are the trademark of the biggest player in the market in question.

Euro court slaps down insurers over gender risks

The Indomitable Gall

Well there you go then.

If the insurance companies can identify boy racers from the insurance manifest, there's no reason to penalise a 20-year-old bank clerk who drives a Volvo as a potential high-risk boy racer, is there?

The Indomitable Gall

Boy racers...

Well, if they're not allowed to discriminate in terms of gender, expect insurance forms to find other ways to identify them. Bodykits and spoilers will have to be used to consider the cost of insurance. Heck, even things that don't effect the mechanical efficiency of the car (eg cold cathode tubes, overpowered speakers, chromaflare paint and decals) will be fair game in assessing a driver as high risk.

Julian Assange™ applies to trademark himself

The Indomitable Gall

Ee gads.

Does he have a company registration with Companies House too?!?

Traffic-light plague sweeps UK: Safety culture strangles Blighty

The Indomitable Gall

Benefits to wheeled traffic and pedestrians

"Approximately half of all UK traffic lights are at junctions, and thus potentially offer some benefits to wheeled traffic as well as pedestrians (though this may only be true at certain times of day, or in many instances not at any time for either motorists or pedestrians). The other 50 per cent of lights are purely for pedestrians' benefit, being situated at crossings."

I would say that pelican crossings are of vast benefit to vehicular traffic in busy urban areas, more so than to pedestrians

Why? Because the only real alternative is a zebra crossing, where pedestrians have priority 100% of the time. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been confounded by a constant stream of pedestrians leading to traffic being blocked for several minutes at a time.

Google Cloud Connect: The limits of a Microsoft makeover

The Indomitable Gall

And their installation engineers...

And their installation engineers ride in on airbourne pork factories.

Credit cards at the turnstile across London by 2013

The Indomitable Gall

Welcome to London 2012...

...home to the black hat hacker Olympics.

Thunderbolt: A new way to hack Macs

The Indomitable Gall

Not Apple...

It turns out Intel rebranded it when they decided to go electrical....

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2011/02/24/intel_thunderbolt/

Apple names iPad 2 reveal date

The Indomitable Gall

Why do people hate them?

Simple: Apple is really effective at skewing the market. Many people who want a portable media player go into a shop and ask for "an iPod", and people who want a tablet will now ask for "an iPad". The shops will sell them what they ask for.

It feels invasive to have entire product categories defined by a not-particularly-special example of the genre, and it's a threat to competition and choice.

The Indomitable Gall

I used to like Apple.

I used to like Apple. Their computers are good.

I no longer like Apple. Their consumer devices are designed to fragment the market leading to vendor lock-in. (Proprietary format, reliance on iTunes for file transfers etc.)

The Indomitable Gall

Square...?

Works in both potrait and landscape modes!!!

Ken's magnificent seven diagram

The Indomitable Gall

Of course...

Of course, the diagram rarely stands alone, and context aids or hinders comprehension.

So if a series of diagrams are presented after their descriptions, and then one appears *before* its description, this can lead to a great deal of confusion. See also "mindmaps" and "floorplans". ;-)

Steve Jobs clarifies 'Subscription Gate' confusion with more confusion

The Indomitable Gall

Quick summary

Apple isn't just demanding 30% for new business -- the subscription model is supposed to be an ongoing 30% for renewals.

Consider that an average magazine costs about £5 in a newsagent. The same magazine is often about half price when delivered as part of a subscription. The subscription is advertised in the magazine that you buy in the newsagent.

Now, the in-app purchasing guideline say that:

a) You're not allowed to offer the same service cheaper elsewhere (so that 30% comes out of your bottom line)

b) You're not allowed to encourage users to shift to using alternative subscription methods.

If Apple is a retailer, it's like telling magazines that subscriptions have to be the same as the cover price, and don't publish ads for your own subscriptions in the mag.

But in the world of IAP, Apple is *not* a retailer. The purchaser doesn't go to Apple real-estate, but simply connects to an Apple payment system. Visa, Paypal, Western Union, whoever... no other legitimate company demands such a high cut on what is essentially a cash transfer. *That's* the 1-2% comparitor: transaction handling fees.

Apple's problem is that they're not demanding cash when they deliver the app. If they made a distinction between truly-free apps (hobbyist produced vanity publishing) and free-with-strings-attached apps (including both commercially-sponsored advertising apps and free clients for subscription-based services), then they could charge a delivery cost for the latter, and that would be all fair and good.

But right now, Apple are happily giving away free ring binders and demanding a 30% cut of all paper that goes into it at a later date.

Apple 'greed' tax spreads beyond music, movies, magazines

The Indomitable Gall

@ThomH

"Likely outcomes are (i) dump iOS; (ii) introduce a higher subscription rate for all mobile customers. And the latter just adds weight to any consideration of the former further down the line."

Or (iii) introduce a "premium package" with near valueless "bonuses", and offer the basic subscription to Android phones, but only the premium for the iPhone.

Egyptian bloke dubs sprog 'Facebook'

The Indomitable Gall

On Facebook?

"Plus, if Facebook (the site) continues as it is, Facebook (the person) is presumably going to have to grow up dealing with "I'm on Facebook"; "all my friends are on Facebook"; and so on..."

Well, considering that these puns work in English, and Egypt isn't an English-speaking country...

People just don't think sometimes.

Google threatens Chrome address bar with death

The Indomitable Gall

Short of screen space...?

Remember that this is aimed at Chromium OS, which is specifically aimed at small screens (ie netbooks and tablets, although Android has already cannibalised most of that market).

The Indomitable Gall

Side tabs.

Side tabs don't need to be written left-to-right. If you look at any old-school organiser or dividers for ring binders, the convention is to write vertically. And by that I mean write as if the screen was 90 degrees round. It's not as quick to read as conventional left-to-right (assuming you are a left-to-right language user, that is!) but as it's just the tabs, that doesn't matter as you aren't going to need to read them very often or for very long.

Who needs 600 friends when you're a bride of Christ?

The Indomitable Gall

@Vladimir Plouzhnikov

"why can't you judge an organisation which claims its morality is based on teachings from 2000 to 5000 year old on events that happened merely 800 years ago?"

Because the hierarchy of the church is composed of human beings, and the corruption of the clergy during the so-called Holy Roman Empire is well documented and accepted both within and outside of the church.

Changes caused by the era include the introduction of celibacy for priests (to avoid dynastic empire building and misappropriation of funds), a ban on clergy taking most positions of public office (effectively separating church and state) and the reform of the doctrine of "papal infallibility" from "the pope's always right" to applicability in vastly more restricted circumstances.

If you're going to try to judge the catholic church "in its own terms", you need to know what those terms are first, otherwise no-one's going to give any serious consideration to your argument.

RoboCop statue fundraiser hits $50k

The Indomitable Gall

If there's a derelict city block going cheap....

If there's a derelict city block going cheap, there's no reason Robocop couldn't live in a wooded park. Space could be left to build an ED-209 later, too.

NO-SH*T CURE FOR BALDNESS discovered by accident

The Indomitable Gall

I've not heard that one for AGES.

THE mid-eighties post-haircut playground taunt of choice.

The Indomitable Gall

Chill...

Viagra was discovered by accident when trying to treat heart conditions, and a good commercial pharmaceutical goes a long way to covering the research costs of the whole lab. A little blue pill for baldness will be pricey, because it's cosmetic, and will help keep the costs of real medicine down.

One-third of Aussies 'are pirates'

The Indomitable Gall

Re: Subscribe to a US-based VPN

"Voila, you are now in the USA."

The poster specifically referred to *legal* VOD options.

iPhone 5 rumors: bigger, smaller, cloudy, keyboard-equipped

The Indomitable Gall

IPhone Shuffle?

Great idea. It's easier just to call someone at random than decide who to call anyway.

Boffins demand: Cull bogus A-Levels, hire brainier teachers

The Indomitable Gall

4 year degrees

Max allan,

The Scottish 4 year degree isn't because of an insufficiency in secondary school, it's because 3 years just isn't long enough for a degree. In fact, most students in Europe spend 5 years at uni, to get an undergraduate masters.

The Scottish higher/sixth year system is more flexible than the English A-levels.

In my day, you would typically do 5 Highers in fifth year (normally Maths and English with 3 free choices) and then in sixth year do 3 subjects at CSYS, with possibly a 6th Higher in addition to the CSYS. Nowadays, CSYS has been replaced with Advanced Higher, but I believe the pattern is broadly similar.

In this way, the Scottish system introduces specialisation by degrees, leaving to a broader academic foundation and reducing the pigeon-holing of teenagers when they're really still too young to know what they really want to do.

Many uni courses start with the assumption of study to highers only, but in specific areas may assume CSYS/Advanced Higher knowledge. On the whole it's a balanced system, but you can't please all the people all the time, so there has to be some retreading of ground in any course.

Apple suppliers: Child labor, bribery, suicides

The Indomitable Gall

A step in the right direction.

This is what the campaigners who uncover these problems aim for -- make a big enough fuss (see also Primark) and companies have to stop turning a blind eye. Apple is too big to get away with anything less, but right now we still don't seem to care enough to make ethical policies into a point of competitive advantage -- and the abuse of cheap labour confers a pretty obvious competitive advantage.

It would be good if we could at a regulatory level enforce a law stating that all overseas labour for our benefit must be held to domestic standards, but unfortunately it's impractical -- it would kill small importers.

The solution's still far off, but while the campaigners are willing to chip away at companies one by one, the problem is slowly improving, and other companies will hopefully take a few steps to reducing their exposure to bad press....

Wooden spaceship descends into Moscow sandpit

The Indomitable Gall

Illusion shattered.

If they really want to study what effect this length of isolation would have on humans, they should have had the observers behind one way glass. If you've ever been truly alone for any length of time, you'll know how good it feels to see a human face, even if you don't get a chance to say hi.

Muppets.

Channel Five reborn as Channel Five

The Indomitable Gall

Is it just me...?

Is it just me or does that logo look like non-descript "Channel 5 News" logos from a million and one US "TV movies"...?

Evil grain-speculating OVERLORDS will starve us ALL

The Indomitable Gall

Slightly simplistic

As an economist, Tim naturally speaks in terms of averages.

On average, speculation generally stabilises the price of resources. On average, but not always.

The example of "hungry weeks" is all well and good, but this is a predictable cycle. The future state of the world grain market is not predictable, thus there is no guarantees here. Speculation in the truest sense of the world.

Tim seems to be suggesting that value is determined by simplistic supply and demand. But isn't there also the notion of "perceived value" that we take from not only current prices, but future predictions as well?

OK, so the biggest factor in the high price of grain is overconsumption in rich countries, but that doesn't mean speculation has no effect whatsoever.

Apple's casual Xbox: Apple TV seeded for online gaming

The Indomitable Gall

iPhone as controller... Wii too?

If they're going to make AppleTV into a games machine with an iPod or iPhone as a controller, is the accelerometer sensitive enough to function like a Wiimote? Angry Birds II with a throwing action, anyone?

'Race against time' to find LOST TREES from the MOON

The Indomitable Gall

Re: The 250,000-mile-high club?

It's not 250,000 miles high once you're captured in the field of attraction of a heavenly body....

The Indomitable Gall

Golf balls...

Now, are the space golf balls back on Earth, or do they remain on the moon as a bizarre first prize for the next ex-terrestrial visitor...?

No new strings for Guitar Hero

The Indomitable Gall

"Development" cancelled.

How much development does GH need? Surely it just needs a new paint job and a few new tunes every couple of years to continue coining it in...?

Starbucks' iPhone barcode app easily scammed by screengrab

The Indomitable Gall

Right....

A) the barcode is viewed by MACHINE.

B) ever heard of cut-and-paste?

Kid spanks a grand on Xbox using Mum's bank card

The Indomitable Gall

Plastic bills?

It's a debit card, you muppet. No "plastic bills" to pay.

The Indomitable Gall

Before the commentards start...

Some people are IT illiterate. The expected behaviour of a debit card is that it is presented for each new transaction. Storing credit/debit card details in accounts is against the basic principles of how the system works in the offline world. I think the mum's fighting a losing battle, but IMO, XBL are to blame. They want to make money, so they make it easy to spend money. They expose the consumer to additional risks in the name of profit.

Yes, the mum should have read the Ts&Cs more carefully.

Yes, the mum should have checked her bank statements (and the whole "online banking" thing is also partly to blame).

But no: XBox Live shouldn't have allowed this to happen in the first place.

Doner kebab saves bloke's life

The Indomitable Gall

Choyss ov wurds.

The Sun says

"He needed an op to open his windpipe so he could breathe "

Why did they say "op to open his windpipe", do Sun readers not know what a lobotomy is?

Texting teenager plunges to his death

The Indomitable Gall

Is that applicable?

The Working at Height regulations surely apply to trained staff -- in areas frequented by members of the public you can't assume the same degree of awareness and/or responsibility.

And besides, adhering to government minimum guidelines doesn't idemnify you against civil action -- a court can still rule something as inadequate or inherently unsafe.

The Indomitable Gall

Did it say what height his is?

The centre of gravity of a human is neutrally the navel. In guys it's slightly higher than ladies (more shoulder, less hip). If he was texting, he would have raised his arms. Each of these things raises his centre of gravity.

He may also have been wearing a backpack. If it had a laptop in it, that's a lot of added mass to raise the centre of gravity.

The grandmother says the rail was waist-high, so he was clearly a tall bloke.

A safety railing only prevents accidental falls if it is higher than the centre of gravity. The population is getting taller, so maybe it is time to raise the limit to account for this.

And as for tripping...

Well most car parks have kerbs, right? Even if not a full pavement kerb, those little ones to stop the wheels getting too close to the walls So it's possible he tripped on a kerb or other obstacle *before* hitting the rail? The article doesn't go into detail.

And, to be fair, it shouldn't HAVE to go into detail. What sort of person reads a news story about an accident and starts publically slagging off the person without full possession of the facts?

What sort of person?

I would tell you, but I think Sarah would be obliged to censor it.

Elon Musk's rocket booked by Google X-Prize moon robot

The Indomitable Gall

"Satisfaction"

" For fans of the internet, there may be some satisfaction in reflecting that the money behind the mission comes from the rise of Google and PayPal "

Yup, I'm sure fans of the internet will be glad to see their wrongly-seized PayPal accounts, interest on withheld payments etc burning off into the atmosphere.

And I for one am proud that my eyeballs have been assaulted by stalkerish ads in order to fund this nonsense.

Man stabbed to death by chicken

The Indomitable Gall

Law of cause and effect...

Seems like we're putting all our eggs in one basket and our problems are coming home to roost.

Ofcom okays Derren Brown psychic-baiting

The Indomitable Gall

Oi, Bee

Less of that. It's now a matter of public knowledge that it's a collaborative work. Get your people to call my people and we'll pitch it to them Holly-would types.

The Indomitable Gall

Don't be daft.

Brown provided evidence that this guy lied to him.

Even if the idea of a god/gods was demonstrably false (rather than simply not being supported by current evidence*) then you would still have to prove that the hierarchy of organised religions don't actually believe in their particular deity. I think you'll find that most do. As most ministers of religion in this part of the world are significantly worse-off financially than myself, I don't think they're in it for the money.

* Which is to say that I claim no authority to say it is either true or false. I, like everyone else, do not have that data.

The Indomitable Gall

Showed up?

"really showed up this "psychic" as a scam artist"

I'm not sure I'd put it like that. I'd say it wasn't the show that showed him up, but the guy himself. That was part of the beauty of the whole series.

Consider this: he made similar observations with both the medium and the taped voices guy, and every difference in the two episodes was instigated by the comportment of the subject of the episode. The medium tried to get one up on Brown at every turn, and was smug about it. He initiated all confrontation up until the final revelation on the neighbour. Meanwhile the tapes guy was genuinely cooperative and enthusiastic about trying to demonstrate his craft to a willing sceptic. There was no confrontation.

The Indomitable Gall

Die-fi

Oooh... cheap horror flick alert.

[mock American accent]

On spring break, 5 schoolkids find an unsecured hotspot. As they start downloading movies, strange things start to happen.

Will anyone survive?

Die-fi: Connection... terminated.

AOL buys Huffington Post

The Indomitable Gall

They also downvoted...

They downvoted my unary post too.

Too many non-geeks commenting here these days, methinks.