Posts by Paul Owen 1

Quantum computing in our lifetime - IBM breakthrough

As far as I can tell, we already have quantum computing: the things change their behaviour dependent on whether you're looking at them.

Interwebs stunned by musical atrocity

Death metal

Saw this on FB this morning and didn't know what it was parodying, as until about 10mins ago I hadn't suffered the indignity of hearing the 'original' - and I wish I still hadn't.

That said, I quite like the parody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi00ykRg_5c

Enjoy!

HP whips out iPad challenger Windows 7 fondle-slab

The point

I bought an HP TC1100 tablet many moons ago, and loved it. The ability to use Office OneNote to take hand written notes, draw diagrams, sketches, etc, - with a stylus - and then to be able to free text search those notes was incredibly useful for me in my job (and still would be today).

It was only its collapsing under the weight of Windows updates and the ever increasing load on the CPU that meant I had to abandon it, by which time similar form factors weren't available (only convertible, twisty screen laptops).

The current crop of tablets, that give you a virtual keyboard rather than accepting handwriting, seem completely pointless to me. If I've got to tap away at an onscreen keyboard, I'd rather just use a physical keyboard so I can type properly.

Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'

Meh, Meh, and thrice Meh

Big iPhone, no multitasking, no Flash support, backlit screen for reading ebooks (have Apple not heard how horrible an experience that is?), no proper OS.

I say once more: Meh!

W3C launches appeal to scupper Apple patent

Patent madness

Is it just me that thinks the whole patent business has gone barking mad in the past few years?

Surely the principle of auto updates shouldn't be patentable. Maybe a specific technical solution to the problem, but the principle in the frist place? Madness. Have Apple patented the on/off switch as well? How about 'the chair' - a means of plonking your backside on something whilst you use our patented on/off switch, so as to relieve the strain on your legs.

Or, if they want to sue a bunch of other manufacturers, the legtop computer: a small, portable computer that can be placed on the top surface of your legs whilst in a seated position. Then they can drag all the 'laptop' manufacturers through the courts for IP infringement.

The patenting of sections of the human genome was the start of it this bonkers practice - where will it end?

/rant_off