Posts by Bill B 287 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Jul 2009
Coal may not be as bad as salt, but I can remember when we mined coal in quantity in the UK that British Coal had quite a substantial sum set aside to provide compensation for subsidence. Travelling along the M1 in the North Notts area was a good illustration of coal settlement. All important buildings had to have a pillar of coal left under them to protect them. Ordinary house> .. Sorry, you're not important enough.
The guy annoys me, but he's an evangelist, and they're always annoying if you don't agree with them.
However, the idea that digital handcuffs are evil is misplaced. Anything that ties you in to a particular technology is a handcuff. The fact that i have to run software on a computer is a handcuff of sorts .. if computers disappear what do I run it on then? I'm handcuffed to electricity, I'm handcuffed to networks, I'm handcuffed to the technology that makes our present computer system work.
The handcuff question is more "if this technology disappears, then what will you do". So Apple's handcuffs come down to "if Apple disappeared, what happens to all your Apple protected and apple run content?". That's the handcuff.
What my content runs on is quite frankly irrelevant, as long as it can be moved. so lets have a look at this .. Apple fall down a great big hole tomorrow .. what happens?
a) My music is OK .. it's not protected and can be played elsewhere
b) Video content. The stuff bought off apple is toast (so that's er .. none). The stuff loaded or obtained from other sources is viewable. However, this is a content provider issue, not an apple issue. It's the same issue for any video .. content creators at the moment insist that their content is protected. If Mr Stallman can come up with a platform independent protection system, fine.
c) Books. Yup, my iBooks collection is gone (all one of them). My Kindle collection survives (until Kindle goes to the wall). Again, this is a content creation thing.
d) My documents. If I've created something in an Apple specific format then I've lost it. However, I am not sure how proprietary Apple's formats are and whether documents (notes, docs, spreadsheets, calendars, contact lists) can be translated or imported.
So I feel that talking about digital handcuffs is a bit overblown.
How the heck are you going to run a solar car in Manchester?
Anecdotal evidence is that Manchester is one of the homes of the Rain Gods (the others being the Lake District and Snowdon) .. either that or they go there to shop.
I thought this was a joke until I drove north up the M6 and it started raining as I passed Manchester .. and stopped shortly after.
Raincoat because .. well .. we are talking about Manchester
Spinning the ship on its axis might be a solution, but it is one that needs to be tested. This is because unless you get the design right the occupants can get nauseous .. see "Artificial Gravity and the Architecture of Orbital Habitats" by Theodore W. Hall.
The basic conclusion is that big radius, low RPM=good (for example, one study said that the comfort zone was achieved by 1rpm and 100m radius). The point is made that all our research habitats in space have been designed to test the effects of zero G. There haven't been any studies in space on the use of spinning habitats.
Basically .. most of the spinning ships envisaged in books and films have had too narrow a radius. The 2001 space station probably had it right, but this wasn't going anywhere. And I bet passengers were puking up as the shuttle spun up to enter the station.
You are obviously new here so first of all let me welcome you to the Reg, and secondly bring you up to speed.
Friday is bootnotes day. Friday Bootnotes are not necessarily technical. They may involve BOFH, LOHAN, Playmobil or (oh be still my beating heart) all three.
This is expected. If it doesn't happen then dozens, nay hundreds of beer starved/stuffed commentards will descend on elReg and demand what is theirs by rights.
Clear now?
I grovel and humbly apologise. I had not seen that one, probably had disappeared from the front page when i went for my daily fix.
In mitigation the link to the playmobil page doesn't include a link to that article
And I'm not an iPad user; unfortunately my company deems the site you use to host your videos as NSFW.
The comment is heavily Western-centric. The USA, Russia and Europe aren't the only civilisations on this planet. There's no need to think that just because the western economy collapses that other parts of the world won't continue to develop and surpass the 'old' empires.
"Clearly, in this arena, anyone with a well used browser has a headstart."
No it is *not* clear. I really disagree with this statement. It flies in the face of evidence. The first into the field is not necessarily the winner. There were search engines before Google came along, Tablets, MP3 players, smartphones before Apple, Office apps before MS Office ... the list goes on.
Sometimes it's pure luck. Sometimes it's letting someone else make the mistakes and then producing a better product. Sometimes it's just smoke and mirrors but successful all the same.
Pretty sure the Chines would be delighted to pick up the flag of manned exploration. Looks like they're well on the way. I wouldn't like to bet on who will be first to Mars.
I do find it rather ironic, though, that the States is now paying Russia to take people to the ISS and paying Europe to convey goods.
I very much agree with this. The US with its broken patents system is totally unprepared to take on the changes that are happening in the global market.
If a US company has to have a fighting fund so that it is protected against patent attack then that is money that could have been spent on research and innovation. Companies outside the US, selling to markets outside the US, don't have that problem.
There is a danger that the emerging economies (China, India et al) will out innovate and in the long term, out sell the US based companies when dealing with non US markets.
Even now there are some European companies that ignore the US as a market, and concentrate their resources on expanding elsewhere. They may have products that break so called US patents, but if they don't sell to the US, who cares?
You must remember that although Ms Brooks was Editor at the time of the incident, the duty of responsibility is different between an Editor and (say) a Minister.
So if there some fall out in a government department due to ethical shortcomings, newspaper editors will be calling for the appropriate Minister's head as the person with ultimate responsibility.
If, however, there are alleged shortcomings in a newspaper, the Editor would not see the need to resign, because its is 'inconceivable that she would have been involved'.
'One rule for them, another for us' could be a basic summary
I read this article with a bit of astonishment. I appreciate that it is a diverse world and that people's attitudes different, but I was somewhat taken aback by some of the concepts raised.
First of all a bit of context. Of the apps quoted, Conquest is £2.39. There isn't a 'Real Soccer' but he possibly means Real Football 2011 @ £2.99. These prices aren't back breaking, but I understand the author's attitude is that licencing should be on the basis of 'family and friends', so that one copy is bought and then shared. This attitude may not, of course, coincide with the developer's, but I'm not sure the author had the developer's interests at heart anyway. They are, after all, charging extortionate amounts for their games and deserve to be ripped off in any way possible.
Secondly, as has been suggested, the article is misplaced in my view. The author seems to think the vendor is Apple. I would disagree. If you can't buy an app for multiple platforms then it's the developer you should complain to. The author seems to have a distortion field associated with mobiles. If there's a lock in on a games console or PC it's not the console manufacturer that has locked you in. It's the creator of the app. Commentators have listed some apps/games where the developer has allowed multi platform use, but this is rare. Why the author believes the mobile world should be different is not clearly explained.
The author possibly makes money from writing articles. If he wrote an article for The Register which was then published by Wired, would he be pleased? Why he thinks he has a right to short change developers .. AND to broadcast the fact in an article .. seems a bit disconnected.
Flow batteries. Such as Vanadium redox battery. Go look it up. I think development on this is based on European Technology grants.
A lot of big infrastructure development work depends on Government grants so to complain about the tax payer subsidising research is a bit .. well I normally like Mr Page's articles but .. a bit ignorant.
(wonderful personality btw). I agree. I suspect the Reg's view of nurses is educated by TV and film, not reality.
Bare midriffs are fine if they are fit. If the person is somewhat overweight then the resultant flab bulges out from the constraints of upper and lower clothing.
I leave you with that thought.
Not neccessarily.
If your market is not in the states then the patent is unenforceable. I would suspect that if the US Patent system continues along this path then US business will find themselves excluded from the Asian and European markets as local manufacturers undercut them and out-innovate them. May not happen this year, or the next but sure as hell will eventually.
Not sure about this. I remember an atricle last year on Google's dispute with Android where Google basically said "We don't own Android. If you infringe something you're on your own, mate"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/12/google_accuses_oracle_of_code_doctoring_in_android_case/page2.html
This is a bit of a bugger, since my netbook uses Windows XP. As far as I remember Win XP was MS's salvation in the netbook market since it had a small enough footprint to allow it to run on the reduced resources of a netbook.
Netbooks started out as Linux devices but then (as far as I remember) got taken over by Win XP systems.
So does that mean that the iCloud won't run on such netbooks? Would Win 7 run on a Samsung NC10?
Umm ...
1) "two days ago" .. so that would be 29th? Whilst the conference was still in progress? and you are disappointed that she didn't reply to you? Surely you are not that important?
2) "No evidence that she presented the paper". Umm .. http://www.accute.ca/2011abstracts.html. Google is a useful tool.
3) "An administrative assistant at the conference also said that she would look into getting me the study report, and I'm still waiting.". see item 1. It is very possible the admin assistant was dealing with issues arising from a conference which only finished yesterday.
For sure her data needs reviewing but to post sour grapes because she hasn't IMMEDIATELY replied back to you seems weird. Perhaps you could wait a week and then repost?
As far as i can tell, Apple are the only ones to have licenced the technology. Their argument is that because they have licenced it that their developers are also covered by that licence.
Google haven't licenced the technology. If it was to defend Android developers (not something that Google tends to do anyway) then it would be to dispute the validity of the patent .. something a heap more difficult than Apple's position.
I think you are missing the point .. we're unlikely to go to a totally solar powered ship, but as a fuel saving measure this could prove useful. As lglethal pointed out, some ships have a massive deck area. Electric propulsion is increasingly used with a diesel gen providing the power. Offsetting the fuel cost with something alternative such a s solar could be useful, but before you can do that, you need to test out how the technology works in anger, which is what this 'demonstartor' does.
> Still, if you're the type who enjoys something going off in your pocket whenever you near another fag
For our American friends .. fag is slang for cigarette. The double entendre may be deliberate but not all our cross-the-pond friends will be aware of the 'english' meaning.
The request "Can I bum a fag off you, I've run out?" always caused confusion. Same as the suggestion to "frig a piece of equipment" to temporarily fix a fault.
I was a bit bemused by this article. One of the things Apple has demonstrated is that in PC, in music player, in mobile and in tablet that it can produce a product that people will want and which will make a profit. Usually its a premium product, but its a product that people will buy. Apple is rarely the first into the market (in all the items I've quoted there have been existing or previous products) but it tends to do something and do it well.
So when the authors say that Apple could be a 'one trick' on mobile .. are they talking about the same company? Apple isn't the first into the cloud? They weren't the first to create a tablet either .. or the smartphone .. or the music player. Not being first is not necessarily a problem for the company. It has a chance to study the market and then 'if' it is true to form provide something that does things sufficiently differently to make a product people will want and buy.
I read that article in the Metro and decided to dig a bit deeper.
Of the authors mentioned in the article:
David Hewson: Buy "The Fallen Angel " from amazon and it will cost you £7.19 for kindle, £5.11 in paperback
Jeffery Archer: "Only Time will tell" .. £9.59 for kindle, £5.39 for paperback
Amanda Craig: "Hearts and Minds" .. £4.49 (Kindle). £4.19 (paperback)
Hearts and Minds could be regarded as reasonable (an ebook should be 10% cheaper than its paperback version but then is subject to 20% VAT). The rest are just rip-offs.
Message to authors and publishers .. "if the customer thinks that you are ripping them off then they look for alternatives. Sometimes that alternative will lose you money"
I have an iPhone. I use the Kindle app on IOS and on PC. Sometimes I read on my phone (battery is adequate for the 2x40 minute train rides). Sometimes on my netbook.
Going for the Kindle app was a deliberate choice. I read about 3 books a month. Over a year that is a lot of money. If next year I go for an Android phone or I but an android tablet I don't want to have to throw all that money away. With the Kindle app I wouldn't have to. With Apple's ebook I would.
My other big regular purchase is music but at least that is no longer DRM.
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