Posts by The Indomitable Gall

Transport Dept's answer to embarrassing, cancelled IT projects?

What's so disengenous...

Disingenuity is when it's Labour doing the criticising. When it's the SNP, I see nothing disinguenuous about it, and there's therefore an unnecessary (and incorrect) implication in the article.

Microsoft strolls into white space

White fi...

Considering the contention ratios and interference problems, it's only W that needs changed....

Naturist club objects to erection of five storey tower block

As the guy below says...

Once the flats are up, residents (who naturally won't be told about the nudey club in advance) will start complaining to the council about the nudey club.

In fact, going by some recent cases, the simple fact that flats potentially housing children overlook the site will automatically convert the consenting unclad adults into megaperv paedomonsters in the eyes of the law.

I'm not a nudist, but I do kind of feel for the members. F'nar.

(And I was trying so hard to be serious, too.)

Smartbook done to death by Apple iPad

But but but....

Isn't an Android tablet really just an ARM-powered smartbook + touchscreen - keyboard?

There's really very so little difference in the hardware or software layer that I think it's fairer to say that the iPad changed the shape of the smartbook.

Am I arguing semantics?

I don't think so. The smartbook's big challenge was always going to be convincing people that it wasn't just a second-rate computer that didn't run Windows. (Cf. Linux on 1st gen netbooks, vs virtual Windows hegemony now.)

If the modern tablets are just reworkings of smartbook architecture, then by giving the public a non-Windows referent, the iPad may actually have *saved* the smartbook, rather than killing it.

Every tech market loves a monopoly

We shall overcome.

"History shows time and again that a certain amount of monopoly is good for the development of a market, and that entrepreneurs and open-source developers cleverly adapt and overcome entrenched monopolies through technological innovation."

Yeah, cos like 2001 was the year of Linux on the desktop. And 2002. And 2003. And 2004.

Monopoly overcome.

Robots capable of 'deceiving humans' built by crazed boffins

Nononono

A Git Engineer engineers gits. Lying gits.

It's all logical.

Clegg's taking away Your Freedom

Irrelevant pedantry

You cannot power a lightbulb from a potato.

The majority of the energy generated in the famous "potato clock" mechanism is not generated by the potato itself, but is released by the corrosion of the anode. The potato acts merely as an electrolytic medium.

<-- Your GSCE General Science.

Death by iPod: beware the zombie trance

Several differences

People have been listening to music, yes, but not so many and not continuously. My personal stereo batteries kept running out and I kept forgetting to get new ones. My Minidisc player had an internal rechargable, but I kept forgetting where I'd left my charger. If I ever let my MP3 player run out of juice, it's plugged into my PC as soon as I arrive at the flat or in the office.

There's also the "fire and forget" thing. With physical media, you had a bulky device and you were always changing the tape/CD/MD. It was physical, it had presence. MP3 players just sort of blend into the background.

And finally, but most importantly:

Headphones.

Those naff over-the-head things with the orange foam on used to let in a lot of noise.

The original in-ear ones gave you more volume, but still let in a fair bit of background noise.

Now we have the "buds" that gum up your ear canal in order to block out almost all background noise. Your 1982 Sony Walkman couldn't do that.

Dismount thy haughty steed, sir.

"So where does it end when the last great liberty of 'the right to fuck-up' we have is taken away?"

Fining someone for an accident isn't taking away their "right to fuck-up" -- it's recognising the fact that no-one has the right to fuck anyone else's life up. When a drunk driver doing 50 in a built-up area and he hits a child crossing the road, is he simply exercising his "right to fuck up" or has he, through his own carelessness, caused suffering to others.

Judge Dredd returns to the silver screen

But you've GOT to watch it!

I mean, it even ends with Judge Dredd realising that one man can't be judge, jury and executioner. Sheer wonderful Hollywood feelgood.

Judge extends Oz PS3 mod dongle ban

The question is...

...is PSJailbreak just a flash drive, like the free alternative?

If so, I don't see why they would have to hand them over -- they should be ordered to wipe them and be left to recoup some of their losses by selling them as flash drives.

USB stick with anti-terror training found outside police station

cryptome.org, please

Let's not go feeding Assange's massive ego, and stick with the guys who do it for the cause, not for self-publicity.

Unity – iPhone code swap approved by Jobs (for now)

Really?

"When I run a Unity-authored app on an iPad, it's *Unity* I'm running, and that was indeed written using XCode and the relevant Apple-approved SDKs! The only difference between one Unity app and another is the *database* that's been nailed onto the Unity engine."

That would make Unity an app capable of running interpreted code, wouldn't it? Isn't that against the iRules and iRegs too...?

It's alive! Duke Nukem Forever breaks out of vapour trail

Yes, but...

Previously it was hyped by a development house run by geeks. Now it's being hyped by a published run by businessmen.

3D Realms never gave themselves deadlines, and a dev without a deadline will never finish.

Take Two will have set the deadlines and will be forcing the devs to finish on time.

Google's Schmidt satirised as privacy pervert

These Americans are sick!!!

I mean, public-square trafficking?

Just think about all those poor people, addicted to public-squares, selling themselves into prostitution to buy an eighth of public-square cut with supermarket car park and fragments of low-quality cul-de-sac.

Won't somebody think of the children?!?!?

Ex-spook jailed for selling secrets

Who did they tell?

MI5 or MI6?

Make up your mind, your time starts... now!

Cyber-jihadists deface home of teddy bears' picnic

no but

@william henderson 1

"muslims were at it long before the followers of jebus started"

Erm... Islam was founded in the 7th century. Quite a while *after* the followers of Jesus started....

Re: On the contrary

@AC

"I personally hold Christians responsible for the hate that is spouted in the name of their god. Muslims are no different."

...much in the same way that the Madrid train bombers and the London bus and underground bombers held all Spanish and British people for the violence visited by their countries in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander....

General Motors bitchslaps Tesla with Range Anxiety™

Trademarking criticism...?

I find it a bit odd that GM are getting away with trademarking something that they claim not to produce (range anxiety).

It seems to me that the point of the exercise is one of the most cynical tactics ever envisioned: trademark a term whose main purpose is to criticise your competitors so that they cannot answer your criticism.

That's screwed up; really, really screwed up.

New iPod crew: 'Phoney, futuristic, retro, doomed'

Nano... apps?

Will the Nano be open to app store developers?

If people carry reference cards and "cheat sheets" on their iPhones, I'm sure there's a market for the same sort of apps on something so teeny....

Apple Magic Trackpad

Multitouch is the next big thing...

Multitouch is the next big thing in RSI.

I keep seeing people's hands when they're using their iPhones and wonder how long it'll take before the constant contortions result in tendonitis....

Is Gordon the future of HPC?

Bad puns

I am embarassed to say that as soon as I saw Gordon in the headline, I knew this would be an SSD story.

Doc develops RSI-reducing rolling mouse

Ergonomic...?

Hang on -- the guys developed a "mouse" that encourages extension of the wrist and he calls it ergonomic? Last I knew, wrist flexion during dextrous tasks put excessive pressure on the tendons.

It also risks causing over-rotation of the wrist -- for a right-handed moving left, or a left-hander moving right, it means the palm moves beyond parallel to the desk, and parallel is the extreme of comfortable motion.

If you want an ergonomic mouse, buy a joystick.

Drunken employee pops cap in server

Ah no...

They don't let *every* bloody moron own a gun.

There are strict licensing laws that ensure that all gun owners are sane and competent. This ensures that no-one ever:

* flips and takes their guns into the office in order to massacre their co-workers;

* leaves their guns in flimsy cabinet that their kids can break into in order to massacre their classmates;

* shoots their cheating spouse, said spouse's lover and then turns the gun on themself;

* goes out drunk and shoots a server.

ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC!

Design flaw...

"Robot planes and choppers lacking instructions from their human masters will normally circle where they are when comms go down."

So... if the aircraft flies into a radio blackspot, it just *stays* there? That's clever....

Internet, China and Russia destroying US, rock and roll

Big band

"We're not sure exactly what technology put paid to big band music, though we understand Glen Miller had his doubts about valve powered amplification,"

3 guys with valve amps can fill a room with sound and will demand less money than a 30-piece band. This led to two things: a proliferation of mid-sized music venues, both building a new audience and discouraging people from travelling further to get to the big-band auditoriums and ball-rooms; big name small acts were able to be put on the bill in the big venues, squeezing the expensive big bands off the bill.

So yes, the valve amp did it.

Iron-on armpit BO stench-filters 'ideal for modern lifestyle'

Reusable or disposable?

Does the filter saturate and need replaced or do the odours wash out?

Undead Commodore 64 comes back for Christmas

Been there, done that.

The C64 DTV:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV

Curious legal situation

It's difficult to sell C64 emulators because of the system ROMs -- Commodore Licensing don't own the copyright on them, and no-one knows who does. A few people have sold emulators and no-one has sued yet, but if someone works out who actually owns the copyright a year or two down the line there may be a sudden demand for a thick royalty cheque....

BBC adopts El Reg units

Stuff the measurements...

Stuff the measurements, what I want to know is are they just going to throw this water away or are they going to do the sensible thing and bottle it for sale to rich mugs in posh restaurants at an ridiculous rate?

With glaciers now being something of an endangered species, it'd go down a bomb!

<-- Cos I'd rather have one of these to a similar quantity of Glacial meltwater...

Meego goes 3D

Prosumer...?

It's a misspelling of the portmanteau word "pr0nsumer", which I think is self-explanatory.

Energy-saving LEDs 'will not save energy', say boffins

Well, personally...

"I have a 12W LED that's supposedly equivalent to a 60W bulb, but is not noticeably darker than a 100W incandescent bulb and is certainly brighter than the sunlight through the window. If someone decided that they wanted the room to be lit with 5 of these to make the room painfully bright then that still only adds up to 60 W, 40% less than a single 100W bulb."

I've been waiting ages for cheap LEDs that I can string along behind the picture-rail in my living room in order to have an uplit ceiling with subtle differences in colour and intensity based on mood and time of day. I also have a fairly long L-shaped hall which has funny patterns of light and dark because of where the single light is located.

LEDs will probably end up being used in long strips rather than in single "bulbs".

Think the end of the "lamp post" and instead a great big row of LEDs stretching along the buildings at the side of the street casting uniform light on the pavement rather than a series of amber cones will dull patches in between.

Think aeroplane/cinema-aisle floor-lighting in most offices and public buildings, and think of that being considered a health and safety requirement, hence always on. Think of door-handles that glow constantly in a soft blue, and these being required by health and safety. Think of a stair that has all its edges lit up, and again think about how that ties in with health and safety.

Think of garden ornaments (although they'll probably have their own solar power).

Think of bicycles and motor vehicles with sidelights for added peace-of-mind.

Think of small lights inside all of your kitchen cupboards and appliances, rather than just the fridge and the oven.

Think of a keyboard with LEDs under each key so that the letter glows.

Think of beds with a string of LEDs in the headboard for reading.

Think of some other things that I'm not going to mention cos they might be patentable....

Firefox 4 beta gets Sync and Tab Candy Tab Panorama

You might say....

You might say that using a small bookshelf containing multiple ring binders, each divided into multiple themed sections by pieces of coloured card, with multiple poly-pockets in each section, each containing a number of individual pieces of paper is overkill when you can just leave the pieces of paper in a messy heap on your desk.

I would have to say that I normally do the later, but I'll admit that when other people do the former, they generally find the bit of paper they're looking for a lot quicker than I do.

The OS is designed to do certain general functions. Tab grouping and ordering is application-specific. The OS does not do this. It is not the OS's job.

True Utility Scarab and KeyTool micro multi-tools

Well, personally...

"As for the Scarab and KeyTool, wouldn't you just remove these from your keychain before travelling? I would."

As it's a put-on-your-keyring-and-forget-about-it type of thing, I'd probably put in on my keyring and forget about it.

If they'd pitched it in the den, Bannatyne would have told them this and called it useless. Then Theo Paphitis would have broken it.

Assange denies 'sexual assault' allegations

I hope...

I hope Assange offers due congratulations to the prosecutors for leaking the information. After all, he's the poster boy for full disclosure.

I don't believe the dirty tricks claims myself.

It's entirely possible that it was a genuine claim that was genuinely kicked out*, but that whoever leaked it just saw the opportunity for a bit of delicious irony.

* Thinking of another story (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/18/police_online_images_warning/), it's completely plausible that the victim had been raped by someone with a resemblance to Assange, and Assange's current press profile means she saw his face enough that she slowly convinced herself it was him.

MOON SHRINKING FAST - shock NASA discovery

Taking the piss...?

You've clearly not seen the document then.

The whole *reason* for the large black hole is to take the piss. Think about it -- with a massive black hole above our heads, we won't even be able to urinate downwards. Our hydrogen and oxygen will be slowly stolen, one toilet break at a time, until we have NONE LEFT!!!

PA school district avoids charges over webcam spy scandal

Criminal stupidity.

If they're not guilty of criminal intent, they're guilty of criminal stupidity. Presumably this "pill popping" involved multiple "pops". If they were anything other than sweets, he'd be in a post-overdose coma by now.

Muppets.

Police slam internet justice - then use it themselves

Re:,,, bit of a problem...

Your joke icon confuses me.

Anyway,

"are they trying to say that recignising anyone in any other way than a police controlled lineup does not count?"

No, they're trying to say staring at a picture for long enough will convince you you know the person in it.

If you see someone in the street and think "that was him", you phone the police and say "I think I saw the guy that did it."

Same with an on-line picture. You see it, you report it. You don't keep going back to the picture, or you overwrite your memory of the attacker with the memory of the picture. Clearly the person looks similar, which means that if it is the wrong person, you're going to end up forgetting what the actual perpetrator looked like.

And a Facebook mugshot is not generally of good enough quality to identify someone.

Even worse...

At least the Chinese stuck to *convicted* prostitutes.

Booze makes you clever, having none makes you stupid

This report was clearly written by a sober woman.

"Moderate wine consumption was independently associated with better performance on all cognitive tests in both men and women. [...] Alcohol abstention was associated with lower cognitive performance in women."

So drinking wine makes men and women smarter, but abstention only makes women thicker?

This does not compute.

Give that researcher a nice glass of beaujolais.

Android app secretly uploads GPS data, warns Symantec

@Lionel Badin

"He actually has a point though, sheeple do not have the knowledge or understanding of what is possible with a modern smartphone"

There's a slight problem with that statement, I shall try to explain it.

The smartphone was not designed for "the elite", it was designed for "the masses".

What is possible with a modern smartphone should have been led by what "the masses" know -- this is the single most important rule in product design.

Android was written by geeks, as a fork of an OS originally written by geeks, for geeks.

When you talk to these people about UX they only think UI -- they ignore that the whole system is user space, even though to them it is. They think they can hide the system, and that this will be good enough.

No, you need an OS designed ground up from the perspective of "dumb user" -- that really means one of the *proper* mobile OSes, not some hacked-up version of a mail-server OS with a colourful screen on top.

Think like a user...

The "access to resources" is pretty obscure, and people will always assume that this is what it needs.

If you want proof, just look at Facebook viruses. They only work because most users don't understand the importance of "send messages on your behalf".

Moreover, even though the program asks for permission, this is not enough to fulfill legal criteria for "informed consent". The permission was gained while withholding the recipient's intent.

And if that wasn't enough, reread the article -- the app doesn't close when you exit. Without warning, it continues running in the background. Even if a user is happy with the GPS information being collected for whatever reason, he still has a reasonable expectation to opt out by closing the app.

Google's Inventor gets short shrift

Don't be so quick to judge....

I quite often find that when they try to make computers "user friendly", they do so by hiding the underlying logic from the user. However, the end product still requires knowledge of that logic in order to be used efficiently.

The problem is that the guys who program computer programs are computer programmers, and they have a biased concept of what's natural and logical.

The biggest problem with graphical programming interfaces in particular is that rather than make relationships between items more clear, they tend to draw a simple connection and leave it to the user to work out what the connection *means* (see also database schemas in MS SQL Server!).

This is a problem we all faced as spotty undergrads when dealing with arbitrary orders of arguments in C, but by the time we get to develop our own systems, we're so used to it that we forget how much of a problem it was... and still is (incorrect argument order still accounts for a pretty high percentage of code bugs).

The challenge for "layman programming" is to work out a way to make the code logic clear and intuitive, rather than sweeping it under a shiny carpet and saying "ooooh... look at the pretty colours."...

Prototype semi-hovership delivered to Commandos

Sea State 2

"Sea State 2" sounds like something from a post-thermogeddon-sci-fi... wait... you made me think of Waterworld. Have you any idea how much hypnotherapy it took to forget that cinematic abomination?!?!?!?

Survey scammers exploit Facebook dislike lure

The point of "like"...

The point of "like" is to allow Facebook to maximise the "interesting quotient" of their feeds. A note with lots of "likes" and comments is clearly interesting, so gets more widely seen.

Now, posts you might want to "dislike" are interesting and newsworthy, and increase the "information benefit" of Facebook, and I don't think Facebook would be opposed in principle to using it as a measure of importance. Instead, I think that the problem is more likely to be that it makes the interface less clean and potentially more confusing.

So I reckon the "Dave has broken his leg" posts are more collateral damage to the Gods of Simplicity and Usability than targets for assassination.

Police told terror ads too terrifying offensive

I heard that one...

...and I thought "who has lots of storage space, looks at photographs of houses and buys things in cash." I realised it wasn't a sophisticated international terror cell, but a professional housebreaker.

Also...

Other demographics fit this profile. The one that springs to mind is illegal immigrants. Didn't they want us to grass them up a wee while ago? It wasn't popular. Another one is benefit cheats and tax dodgers. Didn't they want us to grass them up a wee while ago? That wasn't popular either. I'm sure lots of other criminals are the same.

There was a second advert that mentions a guy who's looking for a new house using Google Maps/Earth, has three lockups full of "his mother's stuff" and bought a flight with cash. Sounds a lot more like a housebreaker and/or fence to me.

So are they just using anti-terror as a way to catch people involved in standard domestic crime?

Would the police do such a thing? No, it's not like they've used anti-terror stop-and-search to catch domestic criminals or anything that bad....

Hotmail still not working? Use Chrome to fix it, says MS

Overengineered UI.

When world+dog are starting to browse by Wii, smartphone and netbook, what posessed Microsoft to decide to make the Hotmail UI more reliant on fancy features? It's getting harder and slower to use on a reasonably current desktop machine, but the internet is no longer simply for the desktop PC!!!!

Apple iPhone exec falls on sword

Re: Not worth..

You may have missed the reference there....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/26/foxconn_defacement_suicide_protest/