Posts by The First Dave

Vote Lib Dem, doom humanity to extinction

@Lewis

This article runs completely counter to every other article he has ever written, so what have you done with the real Lewis Page?

Tories buy YouTube home page

@Llanfair

Fair?

Who cares about balanced, give me accurate any day.

Phillies fan tasered for field incursion

@Velv

The article clearly states that they thought it was funny, so not sure where you get ANGRY MEN from, and since the first thing you do in baseball when you start running is to THROW AWAY your bat, I don't really think your point is valid.

On a similar note - if the cop had only had a firearm, would it have been appropriate to use that? If not, then it wasn't appropriate to discharge a semi-lethal weapon either.

Solar Freeloader Pico solar-charged back-up power supply

Cost

Given that USB power (generally) comes from an already switched on power supply, exactly how much do you think it costs to charge via USB anyway?

The rule of thumb that most people seem to go by is that a continuous 1W for a year costs about £1 per year, so at a max rate of 500mA, you aren't looking at any more than 50p per year if this is connected 24/7 which it clearly won't be, and assuming that all of that extra power is actually an extra draw on the mains side, which it probably won't be.

EFF fights Facebook bid to outlaw one-stop social apps

@dave 93

Quite agree - this is nothing like the Apple app store situation. Apple's app store is an invitation-only situation, whereas Facebook is primarily publically available. As long as 'Power' are not abusing the HTTP protocol then they cannot be doing anything wrong - all they are doing is acting as a fancy proxy. Copyright violation might have been a valid avenue, but not hacking.

Apple-obsessed geeks launch fanboi dating site

@The_Police!

Had a look in the mirror lately?

Lost iPhone 4G vendor loaner outed

UK

I am pretty sure that the correct action is to hand it to the police, not to some oik in a retail store, so don't think this holds any water - his alleged attempts to hand it back to Apple directly show that he knew he wasn't entitled to keep it, yet he still ended up selling it on...

San Francisco's rogue BOFH is guilty

untitled

So, what exactly was he found guilty of tampering with?

California's 'Zero Energy House' is actually massive fossil hog

@Rippy

So, exactly how useful is it to pump electricity _into_ the grid when no-one needs it, and pull electricity _out_ when everyone else is doing the same?

I presume that everyone here is aware that there is only one method (pumped-storage) of effectively storing mains electricity, and that has VERY limited capacity.

EMC's Mozy saunters into the UK

Wuala

Sounds to me like most people would be better off buying a big hard disk, then trading that capacity for storage with WUALA - a one time fee for the local storage, and all your data in the cloud...

Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx stalks PC and Mac converts

untitled

"logging in and posting is seamless and combined, and you don't need to fire up yet another application."

No, No, No!

That is going completely the wrong way - the majority of users don't care about the OS itself - just give them a good browser and leave it at that. Probably the silliest thing you can do is take a web app and package it as a desktop download that is obsolete before you have even finished.

Google's ChromeOS is probably too far ahead of its time, but it isn't an intrinsically bad idea.

Security maven turns tables on fibbing police

@Gimbal

The beauty of programs like that is the ability to control what is seen - much like this case, the video only ever gets shown to the public when it is deemed that the 'criminals' are behaving worse than the cops.

Microsoft's 'record' quarter can't match Apple

@AC

If you read the article carefully, you will see that Apple have already passed Microsoft, dropping into position as the second most valuable company.

Nokia welcomes a slow 2010

DSLRs

I guess that the market for DSLR-replacing camera-phones isn't that great then, after all.

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses

Personal Info

Surely this is personally-identifying info - an IP address is often regarded that way, despite the issue of DHCP etc, so this has to be flat-out illegal under European data laws - no justification (so far) in collecting the data at all.

Marmite sends in the lawyers against BNP

@LinkOfHyrule

Well done, very mature; great way to hold the moral high-ground.

Nokia: digital SLRs are doomed

@AC

Actually, the reason why we all missed that point is because that _wasn't_ the point Mr. Nokia was making, partly because it is wrong. The most important factor in DSLR design is the lense. And that hasn't really changed much in the last century, so not much R&D spend required, unlike those trying to build tiny cameras, who are having to try and find ways to rewrite the laws of physics. Any real advancements that get made by the little guys are likely to benefit the DSLR boys as well, so no big crash.

Don't think anyone has mentioned Depth of Field yet? That's another one where the Physics is pretty clear - small lenses get you closer to being a pin-hole camera, where _everything_ is in focus automatically. By far the majority of great photos are great because they are able to isolate the subject from the background, something that requires _limited_ depth of field, which can only ever be delivered by a big lense.

C language inventor spurns Google's language exam

Assembler

Well done, you spotted that he can prove he is without doubt quite good at writing in Assembler.

That rather suggests that he _isn't_ going to be up to speed on modern coding standards and/or modern languages.

If, on the other hand, he is as much of a genius as some commentators suggest, then he should be able to ace the test in half the required time, and the failure to do so implies some character defect. Often it is not the test itself that people are interested in, it is how you approach it.

Mozilla blocks Firefox Java plugin

untitled

Any chance of a note telling us how to tell FireFox to go away and mind its own business?

Some of us are using Java for a good reason, (unlike Flash which it can block as much as it likes.)

PARIS hacked Canon: 108 minutes, 1,298 stills

Res

What resolution are you taking photos at? Might be worth dropping the res and/or quality to fit more stills into the available storage.

Other thing to look at is one of the cards that have a WiFi connection built in - some of these make the size of the card effectively infinite if you have a suitable storage target in range.

Newtonian Rock shop leaks iPad prices

Newton

The Newton was a large PDA, meant to rival the Palm Pilot etc

It was never a general-purpose PC, so it was only visually similar to a tablet.

Epic Fail: How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

untitled

Blaming the ORG for not offering a sensible middle ground is rather unfair, considering that the current legislation on copyright is rather more draconian than they can support - I simply don't see where there was any compromise available. Quite the reverse, by compromising now, they simply allow the same thing to be brought up again and again - if they always settle on a half-way house, then eventually the law ends up where Big Media wanted it all along. The only way to sort this out is to get some 'friendly' politicians who are able to push legislation the other way.

Broadband boss: 'The end of freeloading is nigh'

untitled

Hardly a new theory, of course, but does this mean that they have given up on trying to get the BBC to pay for all the traffic it sends out? (or rather pay for it twice over, since they already have to pay for the connection to the internet at their end.)

Not sure how accurate any of the maths is, either, what are those prices based on?

Mystic Met closed Europe with computer model

untitled

So, who wants to join me on a test flight to see if it is safe or not?

Anyone got an ash-density-measuring device left over from the last time this happened? (I have plenty of round-pin convertors, since it was a little while back...)

Apple backs down from Pulitzer putsch

Whats the point

Why would anyone bother to turn a perfectly normal website, that can easily be accessed by the iPhone, into a packaged application, that then gets downloaded for free?

A website stays up to date a lot more easily, and can carry advertising, so why bother?

Omegle invites you to show world+Facebook your bewbs

CEOP

Before we go any further, perhaps CEOP might like to provide some independant statistics on what effect the buttons they _have_ been able to bully sites into displaying have had? My guess is pretty much no effect, but there is always a chance that it has somehow actually been negative.

Jobs to iPad skeptic: 'Are you nuts?'

untitled

No, it is because the iPad has yet to be _offered_ for certification in Israel.

(NB Israel is not part of Europe, for those that weren't aware.)

Volcanic Eyjafjallajökull dirt-splurt space snap

@OZ

From the BBC:

"An Air Transat flight to Toronto took off from Glasgow Airport at 0800 BST. "

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8624306.stm

Travel

As I was driving into work this morning the radio was announcing that one or two flights into Glasgow/Prestwick were going ahead, so I don't think you put much research into this.

Online retailers cannot deduct delivery fee when making refunds

Rules

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't any returned goods need to be in saleable condition? ie as good as new?

Blighty's first home grown war robot takes to Welsh skies!

@Don't knock Soldiers

I don't think the last post was intending to denigrate our armed forces, but the facts remain - it is a short-term career for all but the lucky few, that does almost nothing to prepare them for what you and I would call the real world. Yes, they deserve more pay, but so do our Nurses, Police and teachers, and as a country we cannot afford to give pay rises to them all. We can afford to make sure that as much as possible of the MOD budget is invested in UK and european jobs - we are already far too reliant on the US, we don't want to be tied to a country that appears to be about to take a nose-dive.

Icelandic ash cloud to keep UK skies closed 'til Saturday

UK != England

There have been (some) flights in and out of Glasgow/Prestwick this morning, and I believe Northern Ireland as well.

Milkman skewers Google Street View over garage break-in

Angle

The point is not really whether or not this guy is correct, it is what is Google thinking?

Their argument is always that they are only showing things that are publically visible, yet they deliberately mount their camera about 9 feet up, which is rather taller than anyone I have ever met. This specifically defeats most peoples normal/reasonable attempts at privacy, ie 6 foot hedges/fences and allows the camera to see straight into peoples houses.

In my opinion Google is providing a useful service, but is being reckless in the way that it is doing it, and needs to be told to change.

Palm makes eyes at possible purchasers

Quote

"The company has developed a highly valuable asset in webOS. "

Presumably what that really means is: "Palm have spent shed loads of money on this new OS, and need to recoup it somehow. No-one wants to buy any hardware, but maybe we can still sell the software?"

I used to love the older Palm models, but once they tried to get into the smart-phone market they totally failed to impress, and their death is now almost inevitable.

Ocarina compresses Flash and MPEG2s

untitled

Doesn't sound lossless to me - more like a complete transcode to a different format, that just happens to keep the same file name.

The IT management impact of home working

Support

Who in their right mind is going to let a remote worker use their machine as anything other than a dumb terminal? That way there is no data/backup issue, and precious little security issue.

German cable operators told to tighten up

Responsibility

Actually, I think you will find that there is _joint_ responsibility: electronic devices must not cause damaging interference, and must also accept interference without a major malfunction (I'm paraphrasing slightly), but neither of these have anything to do with the frequency in use, purely the quality of equipment.

Microsoft, 'open' data, and the curse of open source

(untitled)

"Microsoft's decision to surrender on HTML5 and tear down its browser walled garden"

Sorry, but could you give some kind of reference for that line? There was never any doubt that MS would _pretend_ to support HTML5 eventually, and I see no evidence of any tearing-down at the moment - all of the 'good parts' will surely remain for ever and ever, as with IE8 that is effectively three or four different browsers all wrapped up in a single package.

Chip maker to take on iPad with $99 tablet

untitled

I'll believe it when I see it.

And now - new stealth jumpjet makes first hover landing

Exhaust

"**Jet engines lose thrust when sucking hotter air."

I know that a degree of mixing will occur, but most engines have a problem when forced to suck their own exhaust - lack of oxygen tends to make them a tad less efficient., and as for heat, it is actually the density of the air that matters most, which actually brings me back to point (a) lack of oxygen to mix with the fuel.

Loch Ness Stig blurred into oblivion

untitled

Could have been worse - am I the only to note that the Shetlander's jeans are un-belted?

LibDems drop net blocking, blame activists

Lilian Edwards

Anyone who is a regular reader of the PanGloss blog will already know that Lilian Edwards is never hysterical. As a qualified lawyer, she knows very well how far a law can and will be abused, and occasionally has to act as devils advocate, despite being generally one of the more centered commentators.

I think El Reg owes her an apology.

Street View plays spot the army numberplate

Format

If you are talking about the use of a square plate, then that is used by motorbikes amongst others.

If you are talking about the black/white lettering then that is used on older vehicles as standard.

If you are talking about the 2 letters/2 digits/ 2letters format then that is a very close match to certain Northern Ireland plates.

So, what's non-standard about Army plates? The only thing I am aware of is trailers legitimately having their own reg plate, unlike civvy trailers that have to wear the plate of the towing vehicle.

Top exorcist says Satan at work in Vatican

untitled

Of course, we all know what it means if the Pope tries to deny this - he must be in league with the devil himself!

<- Burn them all

Microsoft boffin scoops Turing Award

untitled

Not sure what they mean about inventing the tablet PC - did he build the Apple Newton, or the original Palm Pilot, or what?

Ballmer: One day, Bing will actually make money

Logic

"First, we've got to get to break even. And then we're got to get to profitability. And then we've got to grow share. That's how I do my math."

That says a lot.

In most situations, you need to grow your share of the market in order to increase revenue, not after.

Then, breaking even lives right slap-bang alongside profitability - if you get to break even, but never turn a profit then there is something extremely unusual happening; getting from one position to the other shouldn't take any great effort.

Vulcan kept airborne by £400k refuel

@paulc

Terrain-following radar? As a standard fit? From new?

Someone is getting a little confused...

MPs bash broadband tax

Geography

Firstly, the numbers already bandied about are very unclear - I don't think there is quite such a clear divide in England, but in Scotland around 95% of the population live on only 5% of the land, ie approx 90% live in the two biggest cities. On that basis, talking about "one third of the country" may mean 33% of the people, or it may mean about 3% of the people - which is it?

The Government seems to want to have it both ways as usual - the tax won't cost much (for now) which quite clearly means that it will barely raise enough money to cover the cost of administering the new tax, leaving nothing significant to actually spend on infrastructure.

No-one seems to be raising the issue of obligation: the post office are obliged to provide the same service to everyone, regardless of location, and I believe that BT are obliged to provide a landline phone service in much the same way, so why not internet access over much the same infrastructure?

Google digs 6-foot hole for Gears

Main

"many tech writers wet their pants over Gears, but in essence it was Google's lacklustre attempt to take on Microsoft."

Gears was only one single part of Google's attempt to take on Microsoft. The whole game has yet to play out, so it seems a little premature to call it lacklustre - I think everyone knows that Microsoft _will_ die, this questions are: when, and who will deliver the killer blow. My bet is that (like IE6) it will be a long lingering death, and that it will be MS itself who will eventually pull the trigger. In other words, it will be the combined strength of all other parties, not just a single clever idea.

Oh, and OGG may be good (it isn't) but as long as H264 is preferred by the content creators it could be 100 times better without having a chance of becoming the 'one and only' codec.

Open source - the once and future dream

FOSS

@Sean Timarco Baggaley

As with Closed-source, FOSS comes in many flavours, and projects range from one-man hobby projects to huge _commercial_ projects like MySQL and Mozilla - neither of those two would have a chance if it the majority of the code came from amateurs, however gifted - nothing to do with publicity, just about paying the bills. To my mind, it is the ability to run a large organisation that matters most, not the source of the money. I also think that the question of "too many licences" is a red-herring. It is largely a response to the different funding models in use, and also to the threat of software-patents in different legal jurisdictions. The number of different FOSS licences is nothing compared to the number of different commercial licences, which no-one bothers to read - for the vast majority of consumers, the particular flavour of licence is going to be pretty immaterial too.