Posts by Jim_aka_Jim

Court throws out BT's plans to reduce pension rates

Re: Possible error?

I work in the industry of pensions and this all comes down to how the rules of the pension scheme where written (probably back in the 70s).

MANY schemes intended for RPI to always be used, but instead wrote, "pensions will increase by a measure of inflation as decided by the Trustees". CPI didn't exist back then, but by the scheme rules it can be used.

Also many schemes wrote, "pensions will increase in line with inflation of the Retail Price Index." This was intended to be the same thing as the paragraph above, but now by law they HAVE to use RPI.

So now any scheme that can switch to CPI has done, and BT tried to say, "well that's what we intended" and the court correctly said piss off.

BALLMER TO RETIRE FROM MICROSOFT

And on his last day...

... balck smoke comes pouring from his mouth as a devil exits his body.

Or I hope so anyway; only logical explanation for someone destroying profits so efficiently.

World's richest hobo (Apple) has worked 'tax-free' in Ireland since '80s

Why. is anyone. surprised?

I bet everything they are going is legal.

I bet they have a patent on smaller taxes with rounded corners.

It should be beer o'clock already.

Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief

Best trolling I've seen in days

Seriously. Thanks for restoring my faith.

NASA found filming August's Mars landing in California desert

Re: Ok, ok...

can we have a 'no vote' vote?

....Oh

DOH!

Nvidia drops veil on game-changing might of VGX

What happens when Diablo IX comes out? I have to worry about 2 different companies under estimating server load.

So for gaming, no thanks.

Sorry, correction:

So for Gaming, no thanks.

Apple drops 'thermonuclear' patent bombshell

Had me till the description of the patient: look at the date people.

Olympus goes retro with µFT snapper

Rename it OM-G and I'll buy two

Sony creates paper battery

I would give whole new meaning to the phrase 'flat coke'.

'....with the glucose coming directly from the juice.'

So you can tell if it's a diet drink or not by how loudly it tells you how fat you are, i love it!

Amazon accepts Kindle Fire will be rooted

Will people stop comparing the price in America!!! Do your research before complaining. It's so much cheaper in America because it's add supported: every time you switch the thing off an add will show on the display until you swtich is back on again.

It was still going to be about £79 in the UK, but there's no adds on the UK one, so it's £89 instead. And a good thing too: adds for the entire time you own a product? No thanks.

Philips GoGear Muse 3 PMP

65% for a "good player"?

For a tech site you do seem to have problem with math.

Rate items for how well they perform their funtion, not how they lack Apple accessories.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Blu-ray extended edition

An extra 44 mins...

... of additional credits for the millions of people thanked for helping put the movie on to BlueRay

Open barbarians poised to storm Apple's gate

Yawn

First prize for pointing out the obvious.

Noticing the number of sentences with 5 words or less and being appalled by the number of commas within the article had more of my attention than the content.

I feel ashamed I felt the need to comment that.

Apple confirms white iPhone 4 on sale tomorrow

cor blimey

blah blah blah, blah blah, Blahblahblah. Blah.

Sorry that was what I read when I saw the article. Is el Reg broken or has my Apple ifilter kick in again?

Sony buries hatchet with GeoHot in PS3 modding case

Interesting...

Hotz can not have "unauthorized access to any Sony product”.

Huh.

So if you in the 'I bought it, I own it and can fuck with the software too' camp, simply purchasing the console gives you that authorization, no?

Unless the want to ban him owning anything Sony but I'm pretty sure they can not do that.

Apple iPad 2

Not a review, a comparison...

It's fair to say that the iPad2 is a nice bit of kit, but no one has convinced me that there's a use for any slab.

To review a product don't you have to tell us how well it performs it's function? And I know I will be flamed for this but I don't understand it's function.

Early demand knocks back UK iPad 2 delivery dates

I know where will have them...

I've been told of this fantastic place situated in an out of the way location that will be perfect for all Apple fans that wish to buy an iPad2.

There's a hidden store right in the middle of Eyjafjallajökull, just turn up and head down the thing that looks like a volcano: it's actually an elaborate store front. Honest.

Prof debuts miniature laser diode for fast networking

title

I'm not sure hair removing goldfish is a good way to start a career in evil; try getting him a carniverous plant instead.

Apple suppliers: Child labor, bribery, suicides

Well done Apple.

I don't hate Steve Jobs. I certainly don't like him, but he can run the shop rather well.

I don't hate Apple. I have the choice if I buy and iSomething or not, and reserve the right to think what ever I like about the people that do.

To anyone that thinks that any company improving obvously terrible work conditions, for empolyees that may not have much choice about where they work, is some how bad: I bite my thumb at you sir.

Court orders seizure of PS3 hacker's computers

I blame advertising...

...because if the code was published on a page where there was any advertising, someone was making money from Sony's IP, and that's illegal (I Hate Ryan Air.com suit as precident).

No money being made = fair game.

Hotz is obv a talented guy with a non-illegal goal, I wish him the best of luck fighting this.

PSP 2 'as powerful as PS3'

60+ million...

AC, I didn't campare the PSP to the DS. PSP games were never good enough for the hardcore gamer, the only ones worth getting were the PSP versions of much larger console games (unless you're talking about locoroco, but please don't try telling me that's a hardcore gamers game)

Atleast 4 incarnations and 7 years. Easy hacks available. UMD which as aweful, they even scrapped it themselves making early adopters games useless on new versions.

So yeah, to me that says: try, fail, try, fail, half try, more fail = flop.

why oh why....

I'm sure the hardware will be great.

I'm sure the games will look amazing.

I'm sure that in trying to compete with the iThings & Nintendo, Sony will have another flop on their hands.

It'll be too expensive for the 'casual' gamer, it won't be backward compatable with anything, and tha games won't be good enough for 'hardcore' gamers.

But I do love the idea of it. Maybe it'll be good once it's hacked: I'll have to wait an extra week to find out.

Google Books spanked by Amazon Kindle

Seconded

But I do love the new Kindle. Calibre allows anything to be put on it so I really don't mind about this particular propietry wank.

ISPs under pressure to control online porn

Silly title

ISPs wouldn't be under pressure to control offlive porn now would they?

There's so much porn becuase it makes money. If govs could control the advertisers better (or at all) then by default you control certain content. Unless it's 100% free. Which is always nice.

LimeWire (finally) dies under judge's gavel

Mmm I kind of agree...

...and I do the same, but I will go to the cinema and pay to see a movie on the back of what I heard/read about it; why shouldn't it be the same for music?

Guardian super-blogger flames Reg boffinry desk

Shocking

Journoes from 2 different publications not liking each others work. What has the world come to?

Point 1) Martin Robbins needs to remove his head from his bottom

Point 2) Please don't make claims about not caring what someone else thinks after writing them a long response, it's embarrassing

Amazon Kindle 3 e-book reader

You were right, I was wrong

So who's paying for this then? Seems too good to be true, but it is. I can't help but feel they will block this after a while.

I tried Wiki and BBC news while in Hungary on 3G, both loaded fine with up to date pages. Still looked aweful, but it did work.

It's not free internet

It's only free browsing of the Amazon Kindle store and the ablility to download books/mags where ever you are. For internet and everything else you need to have a WiFi conection.

I've had one for 2 weeks now...

...and this review has it pretty much spot on. Buying books is so easy, I've had to resist building up a huge backlog!

This is my first e-reader and it's good enough that after the first book I forgot that I wasn't reading off paper. Being able to change through so many different text sizes made it very easy to read in any condition (i.e on a bumpy bus ride).

Music support: will anyone actually use this? I bet everyone who buys one of these already has a dedicated music player. This feature is available so it will support audio books, nothing else.

PDF support: is great.

No epub: not great. But threre's a handy little bit of software (not included) which converts epub to pdf if you want to.

Web browser: is rubbish. Connected to fast WiFi it's still slow and much easier to use my phone.

Oxford English Dictionary included: awesome. I'm not the most well read person in the world, my vocab range is good but I've already used this feature on a few occasions. In any book you can select any word and the deffinition appears at the top/bottom of the screen, depending on which is further from the highlighted text.

American dictionary is also included so you can switch between the two. I work with mainly forginers and after seeing this feature they've ordered a Kindle.

Cost of the dedicated case: a joke. Buy a 3rd party one. Or use a sock.

HABITABLE ALIEN WORLD discovered 20 light-years away!

</title>

Aliens are going to avoid us: all the drivel we've pumped in to space on various different wave lengths would make any intelegent life cringe and flee from fear of being infected by stupid.

It's just as likely that aliens have already taken steps to prevent humans from creating interstella travel so we leave them alone.

And then of course they may just blow us up, 'So long and thanks for all the fish'

Sex, lies, and botnets: the saga of Perverted Justice

10 years?

In the grand scheme of things, no amount of jail time is going to stop him from being a moron.

Standing at the airport with flowers for the first meeting? How can he not have been suspicious? Being so disconected from reality, he could probably go for the insanity plea.

Sony piques PS3 fans with PlayTV patch fee

I bet it's tax...

Digital devices get taxed more when they have certain functionality. The FM radio feature on the iPod Nano for example, increases it's cost by a tax percentage, not by the cost of the FM reciever.

I'm guessing 'somewhere' there's a tax for the functionality that Sony are adding. So someone has to pay the government for it. Why that has to be us, I have no idea.

I'm glad I didn't buy PlayTV in the first place!

WikiLeaks readies next release

So what you are saying is...

That you want someone to filter all the inputs you get from the world so you only get the interesting ones? An un biased filter of course. One that would never hide any information that may be of interest. You realise that such a filter can never exist? It's all or subjective: deal with it.

Ads watchdog: PS3 graphics 'discernibly' better than Xbox

Another misleading title...

but the larger point is: is this the start of MILLIONS of disclaimers spoiling decent trailers?

You can watch a movie trailer in HD, 'available on DVD and BlueRay', then buy it on DVD and complain that the quality isn't as good as the trailer?

False advertising is bad, I completely agree. Idiotic consumers spoiling it for everyone else: worse.

Google Slides away from Wave FAIL with social network buy

I completely agree

There are 2 reasons I'd move 'social networking' site to a Goole one:

1)Facebook does something stupid like create a service called 'Buzz' that destroys the flimsy privacy settings it currently provides (or does something equally dumb).

2)Google pays me the money it makes off advertising when I look at it: fractions of pence add up you know.

Chance of either of these? I imagine it involves a googolplex

Win 7 up, Mac OS X down in market share wars

(you don't have to spend the best part of a grand to use it)

that's very true. But it does help.

Polaroid 300 instant print camera

pound for pound

Only if you're only talking the price of the camera.

Decent 35mm film gets expensive and developing costs add up quickly (lets ignore prints as that's a different debait).

You're telling me that after 10,000 shots 35mm is more cost effective than digital? If so you need to tell us how.

Apple coughs to iPhone 3G IOS 4 upgrade problems

title

Has it got to the point where you're happy when things don't go wrong, as opposed to miffed when things do go wrong?

Steve's plan is genius!!

Apple sued over hot iPad shutdowns

Temps

"Operate iPad in a place where the temperature is between 0° and 35° C (32° to 95° F). Low- or high-temperature conditions might temporarily shorten battery life or cause iPad to temporarily stop working properly."

Here in Hungary with blazing hot summers and freezing cold winters, that would mean I couldn't use the iWhatever outside for 4 months of the year. And if I didn't own aircon I couldn't use it at all during the summer months.

That doesn't sound fit for use to me. Infact, it sounds crap. Can I sue Apple if I don't own an iPad?

Blizzard exposes real names on WoW forums

And the MMORPG rifts expand...

Yes you can moderate, you can not post on the forums, you can protect your name in WoW from everyone (except from the RealID bug currently but they'll fix that).

You'll NEVER get the same thing in EVE, which lets players rip each other off, have moles in corps and scamming people is all within game rules.

WoW will become the safe 'family' MMORPG where the forums are clean and the game is filled with good clean 'American' values. EVE will continue to be a more mature, more player 'dangerous' MMORPG.

Personally I hope that players do leave WoW in their droves: I have the feeling it may have had it's day.

Revealed: Government blows thousands on iPhone apps

So what you're saying is...

If you're unemployed you must buy and iPhone.

I'm guessing with the some of the money the government has given you. Because you're unemployed.

Then you have to buy the app for job seeking.

Again I'm guessing with the some of the money the government has given you. But don't worry, becuase you're 'seeking emplyment' the government will give you more money.

All this will save you looking at the website that costs too much. (I bet you can't even look at the website on the iWhatever anyway because it uses flash)

Did anyone see the lastest episode of Futurama? About the eyePhone? enough said.

iPad queues worldwide

I say let them be...

It's better them be standing outside an Apple store all night rather than pestering the general public.

I say Apple is doing us a favour by rounding them all up in one place: at least we know where not to be.

Google '99.9%' certain to pull China search plug

so Google will push things through courts in the rest of the world...

except for China. This does not bode well for the future.

3D TV: Minority interest for years to come

I wanna be the minority

I must admit that I would love a 3D HD tele for some types of games: I reckon a 3D FPS would give me motion sickness will all the running around corridors etc. RPGs, RTS' and driving games are a big appeal for me.

Avatar made all kinds of fun things happen in the trouser department, not sure I could watch that in 2D.

But 3D TV programs in the home? Can we please deal with the bigger problem first: so many channels already and nothing to watch, 98% of it is rubbish. Of the other 2% alot of people will want to do something else at the same time as watching TV and not want to wear dorky specs.

I'll be getting a 3D TV when I can, becuase I can, and hold my head up high when people point and shout, 'GEEK!' But only for DVDs and games. TV broardcast can suck my chocolate salties

SD movies fine for Wii, hints Nintendo

Don't think so

Doing so would only make it more expensive thanks to the tax man. I doubt there's a house hold with a Wii and no DVD player so I don't think it's that essential.

Yank objects to Reg cherry-popping headline

Think of the kiddies!

I wish I'd had over protective parents like that, then I too could have avoided having to discover things for myself and not grown up in to a happy, free thinking human being. Oh how I long for deep seeded psychological problems....

Retailers start PSP Go price war

Guess what?

You could save yourself even more money/hassel by not buying it in the first place.