Posts by Phillip.

We got behind the wheel of a Tesla S electric car. We didn't hate it

Well laid out

Having taken one for a test drive, the screen is not distracting at all. It pretty much drives like a regular luxury car, everything where you would expect it. Performance is incredible. Love the extra large sunroof. Certainly one of the most amazing cars I've ever driven.

One thing not mentioned is the extra screen on the dash. For instance I program in my route. I then I hit the music button and the gmaps flips up to a small screen on my dash next to the speedo. I can then follow the map without having to look at the touchscreen. Everything is so well thought out.

Phillip.

WTF is... H.265 aka HEVC?

If tv manufacturers want it fine...

WebM is superior to H265 in that it's good enough, not that much difference in performance, but has a totally open license. westlake, every single person that wants to upload video to the web is into content production. Imagine if HTML had a license fee for anybody wanting to upload a web page? Would the WWW be the sucess it is today?

The patent-encumbered H265 certainly has its place. Television broadcasters and set makers are a nice little cartel of manufacturers and a patent pool prevents unnecessary law suits. Much like mobile manufacturers had until Apple came along and went nuts. The Internet is a fertile environment for disruptive innovation that the large established and dominent companies would like to get a strangle-hold on. There are far too many exciting things going on to want to cripple development with patents. Keep H265 away from the web and mobile.

Phillip.

Model S selling better than expected, says Tesla

Quiz answers

Martin, how about:

1. Create a vast distributed network of energy generators, each of which is easy to monitor for efficiency, from which more and more energy is becoming free from natural resources such as the sun, and which can distribute the energy around the country for a small amount of resistive loss

2. Create millions of miniture oil burners, of varying efficiency, and ironically need thousands more of these little oil burners to then transport more oil for the little oil burners to then pump in, ironically using electricity for those pumps that could be used to charge the vehicle itself.

In cold weather:

1. Use the massive inefficiency of the ICE to heat the car, might as well it was all waste energy anyway

2. Use electric heaters, pretty much like we do in our homes these days

To still be using petrol for cars is a bit of a joke, but it has proven hard to overcome inertia and vested interests. re: electric vs hydrogen, the answer is both. Most city people will buy electric as they will be cheap and efficient. People that have to travel larger distances (eg couriers), those carrying more weight (eg delivering to supermarkets), and fleets of hire cars catering to those who use electric 99% of the time but sometimes need to make larger trips, will require hydrogen.

The biggest joke is the Prius. Our home has more than enough solar energy to run the car 100% of the time with 0 petrol or electricity costs. However if you try and charge the car not via using petrol then you void your warranty.

The Tesla Sedan S is a game changer. A stunning car, both in looks in performance. The leaf can go 75 miles and was deliberately hit with the ugly stick, the Tesla can go 320 miles and looks are on a par with a Merc or BMW. Mark this day, ramp up will still be slow but history will show it was the day the market turned.

Phillip.

The year GNOMES, Ubuntu sufferers forked off to Mint Linux

Nobody likes Gnome Shell, that is the one thing people can agree on. Unity was making good progress, however, until it shot itself in the foot with the Amazon spyware. Really spat in the face of the users that gave it a go despite a pretty rough start. Like many other users, I won't be upgrading to 12.10 which I'm pretty sad about. The way forward appears to be KDE + Cairo Dock. No rush though, I am happy for now with 11.10.

Phillip.

Samsung says Apple lifted iPad from Kubrick's 2001

Well if you are going down that line of argument

Leonardo de Vinci produced the initial design for the helicopter in 1483. Took a while for technology to catch up to the point it was practical, cost-effective and profitable though.

Phillip.

Solar panel selling scam shown up by sting

Problem with the system?

So what you are saying, ApocalypseLater, is that the system is rigged to reward you for being more energy efficient?

Phillip.

Clegg'n'Cameron seek Director of Digital

Glad to see post is open rather than handed to crony

MountfordD, the post is being put up to the public and anybody can apply. If you think every person that can BS a bit on their CV is a "mate of Cameron and Clegg" you are deluded. The large consulting firms are full of them. And yes the applicant might be tempted at getting a paycheck for gong to work... as are the rest of us! Sure it's a healthy salary, but it is below the average wage for a CEO.

The key point is when this Director of Digital farms out projects the tender process must be transparent and the bar to entry low enough so that our young innovative firms have an equal chance to the large firms that always seem to get the contracts, go millions over budget, and then hand over a completely failed project.

Phillip.

European parliament loves the Tobin tax

Oh Noes

It seems to me that by the author's logic, the coffee shop opposite the bank shouldn't be allowed to increase the price of their Frappaccino Latte as this price rise will get passed on to the consumer and the cleaner will end up paying more for Mr Banker's coffee.

I also have to agree with clean_slate. After putting on my spam filter I get only a fraction of the email I used to, but I end up more rather than less productive. There is also the contradiction that if the volume drops so much then there is little of the 'heavy tax burden' spoken of by the author.

Phillip.

100 freetards an hour join Pirate Party UK

The Pirate Party raises important issues

"Wow, where to start with that one? there are many activities I dont agree should be illegal so I guess we should just make those legal?"

Of course. And if you get enough people to agree with you then they will be. Women voting was illegal until 1918 but enough people got together to turn it from illegal to legal. Male homosexuality was illegal until 1967 when it became legal.

The Register insinuates that may of its readers are 'retards' because they download fragments of their culture off the Internet, though don't hesitate to embed free trashy 'amusing' YouTube clips rather than carry out the proper journalism they used to.

Sometimes I look at my Nokia E71, with megapix camera, GPS navigation, WIFI Internet, etc, and remember how I envied Cpt Kirks communicator in Star Trek when I was a child. The mobile revolution has really changed society, and our expectations. However here the government has often been on the side of the consumer, stipulating investment requirements in exchange for frequencies, or capping roaming charges.

When I go online, I can nearly instantly access every movie, tv programme, song, and book ever produced. A lot of it free as the corporations that have locked up my children's heritage have tried to resist the social tide. Some people need to step back from the short-sighted "getting stuff for free" viewpoint and marvel at the technological and cultural achievement. A cultural utopia not found even in many science fiction books. Even if it persists then musicians will still make music, and money from gigs, and films will continue to be made with profits at the box office. Books and software, however, will be vulnerable and need to evolve either protection or business model.

The Pirate Party makes a number of valid points which I believe need to be addressed. I would vote for this single issue party as a way of raising the issues' priority with the main political parties. I wish them the best of luck.

Phillip.