Posts by Sorry that handle is already taken.

Israeli activists tell Hawking to yank his Intel chips over Palestine

Re: Matt Bryant

And I thought we were talking about education.

I don't dispute that Islam is despicable, but I don't pretend that means Christianity, or Judaism, or any other belief systems that belittle human dignity and intelligence aren't.

Re: Let's get it right

"Mr.Hawkins"?

The correct spelling of his name is right there in the article headline!

Re: jonathanb Mr Hawking, you should listen to “Palestinian academics”

"one clear constant is the decline in academic standards Islam brings to all countries it dominates."

I didn't know the US was dominated by islam. Oh wait.

The issue with respect to declining education standards is religion in general, not islam specifically.

RTFM! NSA tome reveals THE TRUTH behind spooks on the web

The US authorities often appear not to have even made it as far as Wikipedia in their "research".

AT&T drops Facebook phone to 99 cents

Re: FFS

Indeed, the AT&T website shows the HTC First as being $250 upfront on a one year contract, or $350 upfront on a rolling monthly contract. All that's changed here is the "discount" incentive on the two year contract.

FFS

It's only "$1" if you sign up to a two year contract.

Hence, it is not $1.

San Francisco caves over mobile radiation warnings

I call that "dishonesty of the highest order."

Which is disappointing when it comes from an organisation that claims to be interested in protecting public health. They sound less like the scientists who demonstrated the link between smoking and cancer, and more like the tobacco companies, when they bluster and claim they don't need science to support their scaremongering.

Apple: You thought Google dodged taxes? Get a load of THIS

Re: Tom13

I have a mental image of you as a tax protester and/or hermit survivalist living in a hut at the top of a mountain in the remote wilderness.

How you can afford an internet connection up there without participating in society has me stumped though.

Re: Godwin's law invoked

Godwin's Law wasn't invoked here though.

Cat ladies turned brand-squatters poke fun at religious right

Re: Deities

I know I can't resist anyone who's eaten too much cabbage.

Re: And much hilarity ensued :-)

I too am easily amused by funny things.

You hear that, Mr Cook? Samsung's profits have gone UP

Re: Plain & Simple

Replace "company" with "country" wherever you like.

Korean electronics and cars today don't reflect their reputation of 20 years ago, for example. China's stepping in to that end of the market.

Re: Plain & Simple

It's not ironic, it's how a lot of markets operate.

A new company comes in at the low end, carves out a share of the market selling cheap and cheerful products, but over time improves quality and features as it makes a name for itself, and gradually moves upmarket.

A new company comes in at the low end...

Guess who PC-slaying tablets are killing next? Keyboard biz Logitech

I bought a Logitech keyboard recently. I will hopefully not make the same mistake again.

It's backlit, but the backlight needs to be on permanently or the visibility of the characters is poor. The backlights are not very bright in a lit room. The backlights are two colours only (GB), when based on the publicity material I thought I was getting RGB, so you are stuck with one or other end of the visible spectrum; this is ergonomically poor.

Notebook makers turn to Android in face of Windows woes

Re: Metro

Almost.

Bring back the classic theme too.

Actually, just backport the updated file transfer dialog. The new task manager's neat but Sysinternals already had that covered.

New poll says Assange could win Australian Senate seat

Re: Yay!

We've already got a mob of lunatics who form government every now and then. They're called the National Party.

And then there's Bob Katter...

I'm right at home in my home too.

Review: Disgo 8400G 7.9in Android tablet

That SoC...

The MSM8625 is a dual core Cortex-A5, although every other source suggests the SoC is actually an MSM 8225, which is 200Mhz slower.

THAT, in conjunction with the Adreno 203 mentioned in the article, is exactly why its performance is so weak.

Harassed Oracle employee wins case, cops huge legal bill

Re: Uhh... @Sorry

"What you mean the insane compensation culture free for all created under the current UK legislation is actually better?"

Please point out where I said that.

Cheers.

Re: Uhh...

Well yes, it seems that they want to encourage people to settle rather than take up the court's time, thought the sledgehammer of substantial financial punishment for not making that decision, as we've seen here.

But I'm more interested in the motivation of whoever wrote the (seemingly ridiculous, on the face of it) clause in law that led to this.

Uhh...

Can any legal eagles explain why the successful plaintiff has to pay a substantial (or even any) proportion of the defendant's costs?

PEAK APPLE: Fondleslab giant no longer world's biggest biz

Re: Let it go.

Slashdot? Pfft. It gained traction with Bill Bailey.

Review: Asus PadFone 2 phone-tablet combo

Re: Fantastic - except...

I think that "cheap and nasty phone resolution" hyperbole might have been aimed at the "station", rather than the phone component.

Re: Pretty pointless at that price.

As far as having to carry both around, if you're using the "padfone" as a phone as per its design and carrying the "station" around with you as well in case you might use it, that's no different to carrying around a separate phone and tablet.

As far as syncing, that would depend on whether you wanted to perform the same tasks on both the phone and tablet, i.e. it's down to the individual.

I was intrigued by the concept...

...until I saw the price. This device can be used as a phone or a tablet, never both at the same time, so it offers less functionality than if you simply bought a phone and a tablet. This is especially true of the recently announced padfone infinity. That you can buy a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 10 and still have hundreds in change before hitting the price of the padfone infinity is a bit ridiculous.

If this was two thirds of the price of a separate phone+tablet combo it might be compelling, because that would justify the reduced functionality.

Facebook Home gets SMACKDOWN from irate users

I wonder...

...what they were expecting?

Space elevators, vacuum chutes: What next for big rocket tech?

Re: just confirms what I suspected

What's your opinion of brain surgery?

... time machine. Iranian Dr Who claims he invented a ...

Re: Stop this faggotry worthwith

"Stop this faggotry"?

Iran's already trying pretty hard.

Australia's coalition reveals bits of broadband plan

Re: a small policy

It bothers me that one major party is too stupid to do the right thing, and the other simply isn't interested in doing the right thing.

And the more I think about it, the less certain I am of which one is which.

Pyongyang to unleash NUKULAR horsemen of the Norkocalypse?

Inhibited

The idea that something can be made safer through the addition of HF fills me with joy.

Steve Jobs' 'spaceship' threatened by massive cost overruns

Re: Looks suspiciously like ...

Thumbs up for typo.

(It was a typo right?)

Holden bakes Siri into Barinas

Re: Siri...

...remind me again why I bought a Barina.

USA's H-1B skilled worker visa applications open

Re: The USA, a nation of polar extremes

Certainly there are very good beers being produced in the UK but that looks like a list of 50 British beers, and is in poor agreement with what the online beer communities consider to be the best ones.

There's been a tremendous amount of experimentation and innovation by American microbreweries in the last few decades, which I don't believe could have happened in countries with a strong beer tradition such as those of the UK, or Germany etc.

And beer is better for it. There's an irony...

The USA, a nation of polar extremes

They may brew many of the worst beers in the world, but they also brew many of the best.

Second International Cat Video Festival coming to Oakland CA

They're not evil

They're just fulfilling their biological imperative. It's the owner that deserves and should attract the scorn.

Also I'm curious... are these cats Panthera, or was your fence made of balsa?

I am NOT a PC repair man. I will NOT get your iPad working

Re: I don't do Windows.

Does Mac know they're using his computers?

Re: Community?

Sure, but there are computer problems, and then there is simply not bothering to read the manual/knowledge base/first page of search engine results.

Re: Systems architect here

"Civil engineers don't get people asking advice on how to build garden sheds."

I have a feeling they might...

I used to get asked if I could sign off on some idiot's dodgy modified car all the time, even before I'd graduated from engineering school.

Oz states count cars using Bluetooth

Oh yeah

ACT, or Australian Capital Territory, as hinted by its name, is a territory, not a state.

"While RiotACT's reaction seems overblown"

Anyone who's spent time on The RiotACT will tell you this is par for the course.

Experts agree: Your next car will be smarter than you

Re: Do not want, and in fact this kind of thing is a fucking 'orrible idea.

Speaking as someone with a professional interest in the optimisation and rationalisation of traffic flow and performance, bring it on. Humans are pretty terrible at operating machinery, all things considered.

I'd be quite happy to drive a car that can drive itself in built-up areas, where most driving stress occurs, but which you can take control of, particularly when you're on an interesting road out in the mountains for example.

Self-driving cars can give significant improvements in congestion and safety, especially pedestrian safety, in built-up areas. Being forced into autonomous mode raises a few philosophical issues, but there are very good reasons to do it in areas such as city centres. I do worry about "big brother" getting mixed up in the equation though.

Furious Stephen Fry blasts 'evil' Reg and 'TW*T' Orlowski

Re: "you can still be a twat !!"

I like it too.

Richard Porter occasionally calls his @sniffpetrol twitter feed "sniff twat". I don't mind an immature giggle from time to time, and it seems neither does Richard Porter.

The gaming habits of Reg readers revealed

Re: No suprises in any of that.

"80% of all PC gaming is using a cracked copy according to recent studies."

Who says cracked = pirated? I routinely cracked legally purchased games in the days before digital distribution so that I didn't have to juggle discs all the time.

Review: HTC One

No really...

It's not that controversial!

For the same size sensor and the same level of sensor technology (i.e., "all other things being equal"), more pixels is preferable. Yes you get more pixel level noise, but the image level noise is the same, and the detail is higher. Furthermore, when you have smaller pixels, the noise is finer and you have more flexibility regarding the noise reduction techniques you can use. You can emulate a 4MP sensor by resampling a 16MP image down to 4MP, but you can't go the other way, and there are much better noise reduction techniques out there than simple block averaging, which is effectively what you're doing by using larger pixels.

Marketing nonsense

All other things being equal, image noise is a function of sensor size, not pixel size. Using fewer, larger pixels just makes the noise coarser and more difficult to deal with.

Amazon boss salvages Apollo engines from watery grave

Re: Ahem, numbers...

Indeed, after a collision with the surface of the sea at 5000 mi/hr the wreckage wouldn't be recognisable.