Posts by Jason 9 publicly visible posts • joined 15 May 2007
After all, DVD had several advantages over VHS:
Picture Quality
Form factor (smaller, more robust)
No need to fast forward or rewind like a VHS tape
More content available on a DVD than a tape
Blu-ray (by comparison) has only (in reality) a technical advantage over DVDs in picture quality and that is not enough to get consumers to move en-mass.
I live in Utah and have frequented that very area in my large, high ground clearance, fuel guzzling monstrosity required for actually getting in and out of that area alive.
The entire convoy was made up of standard, road-going vehicles including a Mercedes Wagon (Estate) and a people carrier. NOT ONLY THAT, but they kept driving down a dirt road that Sherpa Tensing would have thought twice about tackling on foot for several hours before almost running out of fuel! What class!
This quote is fantastic!
"Ryan then gave the example of a passenger who'd booked the day before, paid with cash and was due to spend just one day in the UK before a further connection. Four kilos of cocaine were found in his bags when he was stopped at Heathrow."
Clearly the numbskull who booked the ticket had an IQ roughly equivalent to his shoe size! It didn't take a hyper-advanced system to figure this one out, just some very basic data mining and then a "oi... heads up!" to customs when he landed.
I work for a US based corporation and a quite a few staff travel to the UK regularly. I've been looking to recommend a wireless broadband network for people to use rather than pay massively expensive hotel internet charges. I had debated O2 but given the coverage by El Reg, was having second thoughts.
Now I can see the insane way in which O2 are behaving and the fact that I personally don't like being labelled a 'nerd' (Geek would have been fine), I have just recommended 3 as the network of choice.
Way to go O2, you just lost several thousand pounds of revenue every quarter.
Perhaps the computers deliberately blocked increasing engine thrust as they either discovered or "thought" the engines had a problem. The quorum elected it was more dangerous to increase thrust than gliding given the proximity to the runway and the pilots were able to land the plane safely.
Interestingly enough, many years after the Airbus accident there STILL seems to be disagreement over the precise cause (witness the posts in this thread) and that was with both the black-box AND the pilot being alive.
Whatever the causes, I have visited the Boeing 777 factory floor (damned impressive) and was SERIOUSLY impressed with the dedication and professionalism displayed by the people there. The fact that everyone escaped unhurt is not just due the unquestioned skill of the flight-crew, it is also down the build-quality of the plane.
And I shall be telling myself that as I step onto a 777 bound for London on Wednesday!
Although an additional aggravation, this kind of backup is pretty damned useful. A number of sites insist on Verified by VISA (newegg for instance) and it is just a little piece of mind.
If EVERY site insisted on this second level of protection most online fraud would be stamped out.
Of course the simple expedient of having your OWN photo printed on the card would pretty much eliminate direct fraud too.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
