Posts by mccp

Google accused of hard-coding own links in search

When does Google turn in to Big Brother?

There is a very interesting trend in these comments. They seem to split into roughly three groups.

The first set of commentards are those who are taking exception to the CSCO example, who mostly seem to have missed the main point of the article being about a defacto monopoly of search that could be used in an anti-competitive manner. After all, you could always go somewhere else, maybe AskJeeves. Oh. I see what you did there.

The second set seem to think that there is no problem with Google adjusting search results to suit its own ends. For most of the Western world's Internet users (maybe Eastern and Southern as well for all I know) Google is the Internet. Even well educated, politically astute, people of my acquaintance think that Google == Internet. The trouble is then, that these people can easily be directed to sites that Google wants them to go to, or away from other sites. This seems to be an obvious monopoly position that can be used in an anti-competitive way. AFAIK this is against the law in most Western capitalist countries. In fact it sounds a little like a totalitarian state trying to control the proles.

The third set of commentards, of which I count myself a member, are worried by the way in which Google has started to drift away from its original egalitarian search. Unfortunately we seem to be in a minority here.

Facebook engineer bashes Google for Gmail block

Email addresses

Mike Vernal makes a good point about email addresses. As a casual user of Facebook it seems to me that I can make friends with people without knowing their email addresses, or them knowing mine. If I want to unfriend someone I can easily do that, safe(ish) in the knowledge that they do not have any of my personal contact details.

I can agree with Google up to a point - FB should let me liberate any data that I have uploaded, but beyond that, I think I'm with FB.

196 nations open three week (!) telecoms congress

Eh?

"Yes, the ITU's logo is dated and arcane, as well"

Well that's a bit churlish. Perhaps it would be better if they spent a million quid on getting a new logo designed?

I think it's pretty appropriate actually, the globe goes well with the 'International' bit of ITU, and the spark pretty well with the 'Telecommunication' bit (as long as you recall the arcane fact that early transmitters used sparks to generate radio signals).

Microsoft assembles unlikely band of brothers against patent trolls

RTFA to the end before complaining...

"But Microsoft continues to dispute that claim, and it now has the backing of some big name tech firms, a couple of US trade groups, retail giant Walmart and even an endorsement from the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

And so on.

2 out of 3 Android apps use private data 'suspiciously'

FUD

"Not only will you be susceptible to badly written apps but infections as well."

And you base this assertion on what evidence exactly?

App steers cyclists away from traffic, upward inclines

You need the soon to be announced Escher version.

That is all.

Playboy centrefold freaks out at 10,000 feet

RTFA

"Livingston was briefly banged up and charges were looking likely, the Post reported."

1984's MacPaint source code hits web

Word

When MS ported Word to the Mac (83? 84?) people were able to see what WYSIWYG word processing could be like and Word took off.

Arguably, Word is what made MS the power it is today - after all, businesses buy computers for the applications, not primarily for the hardware architecture or operating system.

I'd say that the source for early versions of Word deserves a place in the history of computing. no matter what your prejudices are.

Distie thief gets 14 months despite CPS 'incompetence'

Eh? What are you trying to say...

32 in a 30 zone is OK? What about 33? 35? Did you friend get a speeding ticket? If not, plod pointing out that she was speeding does not seem unreasonable.

You want to try living next to a speed camera which is constantly flashing at berks who seem to think that the 30mph signs are advisory and not compulsory before you try and defend someone who can't keep below 30mph "between a roundabout and a chicane".

Euro mobile data best buys

What about texts?

At a rate of around 10p per 160 character SMS from continental Europe to UK, the equivalent data rate would be 64Kp per MB (where 1 MB == 1024 * 1024, and 64 Kp == £655.36).

There will no doubt be some argument from people who know more than I do that there is a routing overhead for SMS that doesn't exist for the data frames, but it seems pointless to complain about a £1/MB data rate when SMS is the equivalent of 600x more.

I only rant about this as O2 recently dropped their 1 SMS abroad == 4 SMS from your allowance rule, that used to give me free unlimited SMS from France, to join the snivelling ranks of all the other networks that charge between 10p and 18p per SMS.

The Reg guide to Linux, part 3

Back to school Ray 11

1.2% == 1.2 / 100 == 0.012

0.0012 == 1.2 / 1000 == 0.12%

You need a calculator.

Googlegate: Mapping a scandal of global proportions

Eh?

" It is absurd to suggest that the development team would then create software outside the boundaries of those specifications."

If you really believe that that then you are truly uninformed.

I've been involved in commercial software development for over 30 years and it wouldn't surprise me if every project that I have been involved with had software written outside the boundaries of the specification. One of the main measures of the effectiveness of software development processes has to be the measure of its ability to prevent developers from following their own lead and going right out of scope, I don't think that there is a process that could be 100% effective at this.

Unfortunately, that comment put me off continuing to read what appeared to be quite a sensible article.

Robot cars can now do a Rockford into a parking space

Lewis Page probably has a bet on...

The Fanbois comment seems to be a trademark troll on LP's articles, I assume he has a wager along the lines of 'I bet I can upset an Apple commentard at least once every article for a year'. So far, it's been slightly amusing, but really, getting a rise out of an Apple evangelist is really too easy to be that much fun.

Exam board deletes C and PHP from CompSci A-levels

On the whole, quiet a sensible idea

Pascal has always been a good language for teaching programming fundamentals - data structures, pointers (for linked lists, etc) while remaining readable and manageable.

The scripting languages are hopeless for that, and I'd argue that OO and very high level languages such as C# obscure too much of the fundamentals.

Of course any new programmer should be quickly directed towards C to really learn how to do it properly.

Microsoft's Cambridge boffins to up sticks in 2012

Ex-dog food factory

Now demolished, to make space for a new office development. Which is presumable where MS are going.

Megan Fox not world's sexiest woman: Official

Here is our delightful mederatrix in her boudoir...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/16/moderatrix_boudoir/

Steve Jobs issues open letter on Flash

Well he isn't is he?

There are plenty of people who care what he thinks, maybe you aren't one of them but you could be arsed to write a comment about it so even you must care a teensy little bit.

Security maven turns tables on fibbing police

I think I missed your point

You were speeding and you were caught?

So don't speed - not that big of a deal.

Jobs to iPad skeptic: 'Are you nuts?'

Actually, let's not.

Steve Jobs' emails are great.

Apple pries iPad moniker from Fujitsu

iPad is someone else's property?

Just change the name - not that big of a deal.

Flat-pack plug designer wins top award

I want one now!

The post is required, and must contain letters.

Microsoft cuts out paste

Woot?

That's put me off for a start.

Nominet to release super-short domain names

hp.co.uk?

"The rules also forbid the registration of two-letter domain names in many of the domains that Nominet manages, though a letter and a number combined is allowed."

Or the letters h and p.

iPhone OS update sticks customers with premium call bills

Eh? This was Apple's fault?

So some ad company makes a bit of software that will call premium rate numbers;

then fails to apply their own policy of not accepting premium rate number ads;

then makes some excuses about it being hard to detect international premium rate numbers (i.e. they probably only check US numbers);

then fails to test said app when Apple release a new version of iPhone OS;

then a developer decides to add that code to his app to fund his work;

finally a freetard fanboi installs said app and clicks on a link to a premium rate number.

How exactly is this Apple's fault?

Google Chrome 4 lands (Windows) extensions on world+dog

Tangible - maybe not, but...

I use Chrome on a Mac just because I find it easier to use than Safari and I like the New Tab page on Chrome, better that than Safari's equivalent.

@ the fanbois at the top - the trouble is, although you don't like the term, you still can't help gushing about how great your Macs are; plus, the whole point about a wind up is to get a response - keep quiet if you want the term to go away.

HMRC warned on wrong tax codes

Read the letter

Your coding notice will tell you how it was calculated - that's what the notes are. If you don't understand it or it looks wrong you phone the number on the letter - it will only take you an hour or so to get through to someone, but they probably won't understand your problem any way. It's a great system.

My code was wrong - they set it at about 1700 - i.e. £17K tax free this year. That means I would have underpaid about £5K of tax, wrong to the tune of £500 or so a month. If I missed that, I would simply be handed a tax bill to pay in January 2012 of £5K. When I phoned HMRC (and waited an hour to get through) they couldn't understand how the mistake had been made as my tax return (electronically filed) was clear and simple.

The only answer is that you need to learn how to work out your own tax code and assume that HMRC will probably get it wrong - until they realise that you owe them loadsamoney.

Apple (finally) boot camps Windows 7

Works for me

I installed Win7 on Bootcamp 3.?? a couple of weeks ago on a new Macbook Pro 15 (the cheap one with only one graphics processor) and it worked perfectly - even across a hard disc upgrade where I cloned the Win and Mac partitions to a bigger drive.

I just downloaded and installed Bootcamp 3.1 - it updated my graphics driver, updated Bootcamp Services, made a couple of strange beeps and restarted Windows.

Alles gut so far.

British government ignores MS browser fears

Whoops

Given that I tend to agree with your sentiments,

> "more secure" is a completely subjective concept

seems to imply that the OP's opinion is just as valid as yours.

Rogue phishing app smuggled onto Android Marketplace

And that's a problem how exactly?

You seem to imply that Apple's 'tight, opaque and closed' app store is less likely to contain malware than a more open marketplace.

Is this a bad thing?

5-megapix 'iPhone 4' set for June?

Megapixels, shmegapixels

It's all complete marketing bullshit.

Go away and learn about resolution before grumbling about the lack of them and in the meantime look here for stunning pictures taken by a pro with a 3Mb iPhone camera:

http://www.chasejarvis.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=5&a=0&at=0

The year in tech lunacy - an El Reg guide

This title is intentionally blank

At least let us know who's post was considered unworthy - and perhaps you could have some categories for rejection, here are a few suggestions:

1. Pathetic attempt at humour, so abysmal as to be embarrassing for the poster so removed as an act of humanity.

2. Unimaginative use of curse words that disqualify this post from being considered a good enough turdspurt for publication.

3. The lawyers are frit and consider this post to be defamatory enough that we daren't give it house room.

4. Overly sycophantic post deleted by the Moderatrix as a punishment, you naughty little heel scraping.

2009's Top High-End Touchscreen Phones

La la la la - I can't hear you.

I really love my iPhone - it's the best phone I have ever had (c.f. ancient Nokia & SE, more recent WinMo & Symbian).

I really don't care about the downside as the upside is so good. Mmmmm, shiny and slick, come to daddy...

Apple preps adaptable gadget adapter

It's not the connector.

All iPods and iPhones use the same connector, it's because of differences in the shape of the devices that the dock adapter is required.

Icon design for dummies fanbois

Ironic? Not really.

You use the best tools for the job don't you?

I expect that the majority of devs happily use a variety of platforms. The vocal minority and trolls who insist that the platform that they use is the one and only true path to enlightenment are just that - a minority.

NASA to develop haptic air-typing spacesuit gloves

Hmm.

How exactly would the accelerometer know which way was up?

I'm assuming here that the astronaut is orbiting the earth so gravity is not likely to be much use to give a "down".

BBC storm cockup: Wrong day's shipping forecast read

@ AC

So they should rely on what exactly? Faxes? Internal mail?

Fanbois Apple buyers howl over crocked iMacs

@ sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

Meh.

That is all.

Weather balloons no longer a crazy idea for rural coverage

@AC 21:17

Bandwidth MHz does not equal bit rate Mbps.

Digital transmissions don't send bits, they send symbols, where each symbol can code for more than one bit. The number of bits coded for depends on the coding scheme and coding scheme parameters. (Don't forget that baud rate actually means symbol rate, not bit rate).

E.g. as I write this, the 8 MHz wide multiplex at 641.833 MHz containing BBC channels for Cambs, has a payload data rate of 18.1 Mbps. That's after removing all of the overhead in the transmission and forward error correction schemes. ITV use a less robust transmission scheme so their mux at 665.833 MHz contains 24.1 Mbps of payload.

Sony Reader PRS-600 Touch Edition

@ Paul 37

+1 COTW

Sputnik, spaghetti and the IBM SPACE machine

@AC 10:28

As is usual for people who work outside of the embedded world you have forgotten that, although your code to calculate the powers of 2 is brief, you will need many thousands of instructions in addition to produce an executable that will work with any current OS.

Man posed as teen lesbian to snare girl's nude photos

@ ElReg!comments!Pierre

And you are qualified to comment how exactly? Neither the victims or their parents are pathetic.

1. 12 year olds and younger and teenagers are going to get onto the Internet unsupervised whatever any parent tries to do. You may not have been a teenager, but most people I know managed to do things that their parents disapproved of between the age of 10 & 16.

2. Every parent I know (myself included), and also both primary and secondary schools, explain the dangers and try to educate children to use the Internet responsibly. Sometimes teenagers think they know better - how odd.

Of course there is an over-reaction in some quarters that leads to over-cautious schools banning cameras at school concerts, etc., but blame the media for that, not the parents and certainly not the children.

Coin-sized nuclear isotope battery minted

Who loves ya, baby?

OMFG I can't believe how many questions and answers about lollypops and nobody has mentioned Kojak.

To add to Skelband's definitive definitions:

"If it is a fruit-flavoured ice-based confection on a stick, it is "Ice Lolly".

If it is a fruit-flavoured ice-based confection completely enclosed in a plastic sheath, the end of which you bite off prior to consumption, then it is "Ice Pop"."

If it is a boiled sugar confection, normally spherical, on the end of a wound paper rod, as sucked by Kojak, then it is a lollypop.

(Smiley is the baldest and most lollypop-like icon)

Hubble back in form with stunning new images

@ 5 galaxy doubters

The galaxy in the centre is two galaxies - you can see two distinct bright areas which are the centre of each galaxy.

Whistleblower releases Skype snooping code

Windoze wtf??

Oh, for a moment there I thought I was reading the comments not the article.

Linux guru: interface innovation is the challenge

@ Goat Jam

OK, so clearly a version of IE that was released in 2001 (wikipedia) may not make the search and install quite as simple as I stated. Chrome is better, but as it won't allow you to execute a file without downloading it first there is an extra step - you just have to click on the downloaded file in Chrome's status bar, not search through your downloads.

You make some good points - especially about language selection - but these things are only there because the publisher of this installer decided to leave the default settings when creating the install package, they aren't intrinsic to Windows.

In general I'd agree that installing an app from a managed repository is very simple and often better than Windows, but only when the app (or version) you want is in the repo and that you don't get any incomprehensible errors. However, the Pidgin installation I did this morning is typical of well over 95% of my experience with Windows installs. Under Ubuntu I reckon at least a third of my installs can't be done by a simple apt-get.

@Goat Jam

"... I will point out that your trolling attempt was lame and not based in reality."

Neither is yours.

Empathy doesn't come in a Windows flavour, but Pidgin does. This is how you install it on Windows: type pidgin into the address bar of IE and press enter; the Pidgin site is the first result returned; select the download link that appears in your search results, click to download and execute the installer; answer some sensible questions about the components that you want and where they should be saved; job done.

Lunar orbiter beams back first Moon snaps

Politically correct units

I'm sure it would have been safe to edit NASA's prose to remove the unneccesarily distracting imperial conversion of metric measurements. And while you were at it, you could have corrected their spelling of the word metre (although your comment box spell checker also gets it wrong).

/pedantry

iPhone 3.1 code goes beta

@ Antidisestablishmentarianist

He probably bothered because - like many of us - he knows that you're pretty much guaranteed an amusing diatribe between the trolling and the ifan commentards.

iPhone v Pre - the celebrity smartphone deathmatch

@ Danny 14

I set up my iPhone with our Exchange server in 30 seconds, syncing works perfectly. My previous phone (Sony Ericsson w950i) took half a day to get working and still had trouble with the SSL certificates. IMAP with Google is even easier.

Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?

Megapixels, smegapixels...

We live in a world where marketeers like to reduce comparisons between devices to a list of tick boxes and numbers. Megapixels are a great example of a statistic that means pretty much nothing to picture quality, but is used by everyone as a measure of potential quality.

First, megapixels are used to denote an area. If you had a line of megapixels then it is true that 3MP would be 50% better than 2MP. However the megapixels are in a rectangle about 1200 x 1800 for 2MP or 1400 x 2100 for 3MP, this is a 17% linear increase. This doesn't look so good, which will be why the marketeers avoid telling you this. Resolution is usually very small print somewhere technical - BTW megapixels aren't a measure of resolution.

Second, the megapixel number tells you nothing about the actual size of the sensor - just how many pixels it has on it. It shouldn't take many brain cells to figure out that as each pixel gets smaller it will receive less light, so more amplification will be needed to get a good signal. This makes the signal noisier so it is cleaned up by software. This loses information and makes for softer images which are often then sharpened mercilessly.

I won't even start on the lenses.

Don't worry about the quality of the phone in your camera. They are all rubbish.

Oh, and AC 06:16 - funny that you slag off film and recommend Ken Rockwell in the same post when KR is a recent convert back to film from digital. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/free-digital-camera.htm

Mine's the one with a roll of Kodachrome in the pocket.