Posts by Andus McCoatThen

Explicit pics of glorious rounded globes snapped in festive Saturnalia

It's too big to be a space station.

Yea yea... But you know you heard it in your head too.

The life and times of Steven Paul Jobs, Part One

He changed the world of computing.

Thinner, lighter, faster. Your devices moved the world into a new age of ubiquitous computing.

Wherever you are now, may your code always compile and your devices "just work."

RIP Steve.

FLYING CAR, full hover, fairly quiet, offered to US Marines

Recon missions...

You - Coat - Door... NOW.

I can't believe you went there.

Game developer's lost electric buggy FOUND ON MOON

Come on now... Accuracy!

Obviously the radiator isn't clogged with dust, that would be too easy. In the ensuing struggle and wheel-spinning effort to dig itself out of the crater, those sharp wheels did the only thing they were originally designed for, before being pressed into lunar service as tires:

They grated the cheese and covered the heater in that. Once it melted into a mozzarella-thick coating, there was only one thing left to do - Find some pepperoni!

Mine's the one with the wedge of Lunar-Brie in the pocket.

German jugs pulled from iPhone

#title#

Apple obviously hasn't ever heard of Rule 34.

NASA develops spaceship work robot called 'R2'

Robonauts and the moon

There is just FAR too much logic to your post, that is a really great idea.

Until such point that the robonauts realize that the meat-bots are a very inefficient control system, and proceed to establish their own command center and colony on the lunar surface.

I for one welcome our lunar overdroids.

Obama scraps Constellation moon mission

Re: Is this such a bad thing?

I don't disagree about the limitations of human spaceflight you make, and the reality is nobody wants to be the one sending up the first person to die in outer space and not be brought back for a proper burial... Or be that first victim.

But at the same time, there are observation opportunities that really should be seen by human eyes directly. The application of reason and experience in directly evaluating a situation or environment is much more effective than trying to do the same through the glass and wireless transmissions of a remote camera with limited perceptive ability.

BTW: Hello Star Trek fan, Stone Fox. You gave yourself away with the M-type planet. Earth-class planets are only known as Class M because of Star Trek, and defined as "Minchara Class" by the Vulcans during the film First Contact.

Yea, I'm a Star Trek geek. Mines the one with the DATA PADD that looks suspiciously like a recent Apple product in the pocket.

Woman sues rail line for 'exploding' toilet

Myth Busted...

That was actually two different myths they tried involving toilets and ignition.

The first was the old gag of the wife using solvents to clean the bowl, and the husband launching himself using a match and 'flammable fumes' from the bowl he was seated on while smoking.

Thoroughly busted.

The second was a variation on that theme where (IIRC) the bowl at a gas station was cleaned (or had petrol disposed into) the bowl, and a punter ignited Dante's Inferno by answering his mobile while he wasn't.

Also quite busted.

On a moving train, it is possible that the plumbing system is designed poorly so that the sloshing in the holding tank could slosh back "upstream" and if the valve in the toilet is open at just the wrong moment... Bloosh. Most systems like that in buses or motorhomes are designed with a trap to prevent such unpleasantness. I have no information about rail carriage plumbing however.

Mine's the one with the magazine labeled "Best read in private" in the pocket.

Next from Apple: The Pocket iPad

*spews pint at keyboard and screen*

I'm practically passing out laughing at this article, then it gets better with so many who COMPLETELY miss the joke!

El Reg. Sarah, et al... Well played.

I'll be expecting the Fedex man with my new keyboard promptly for the damage this has wrought.

Keep up the good work!

eBay refiddles with auction fees

Ebay and Pay-UP-Pal can sod off.

I've had decent luck selling on Craigslist, although I am getting rather tired of the autobot postings that troll every new listing that goes up, pushing some scam website or another... Or our favorite Nigerian 419ers with their "let me pay you more by cheque and you just refund me the difference since I am off on <rnd> in the country of <rnd>"

Buying shat on Ebay and Paypal is a hassle these days, and the feedbacks are useless too. When you can ONLY say "positive" things about someone... Where is the honesty about a bad customer?

iPhone OS update sticks customers with premium call bills

Or you could just fix your phone to prevent this...

You would have to jailbreak it, of course, but to prevent 'mistakes' like that or even the annoying adverts crashing your app like admob does on cycorder's video recorder. If you happen to stop recording a video just when the ad is refreshing from the server... Your video will not save b/c the app will just lock up. Since the ads refresh like every 5 seconds or so, this is a VERY high likelihood.

So simply search on 'admob' and 'hosts file' on your favorite not-bing search engine, and you have the solution. No more ads in free apps!

Apple's iPad - fat iPhone without the phone

Ziplock bag iphone case...

Considering that one of my iphones (yes, plural) managed to get knocked off a nightstand by the cat and fell DIAGONALLY to auto-magically direct itself into the cat's water bowl... almost 3 FEET from the nightstand...

It annoys the piss out of me that Apple (or most any phone maker) hasn't the foresight or ingenuity to simply POT THE BLOODY CIRCUIT BOARD in a thin layer of wax or silicone!

Damn phone was only in the water for about 3 seconds, and I immediately placed it in front of a hair dryer on low for a good hour.... The phone works great, but the bluetooth is now dead. Brilliant.

I can easily understand the sandwich bag case, and might have to do a similar thing with mine someday.

Evil Lord Steve b/c he didn't WANT to make it durable... Cuz when you break it with your not-fine-boned-lifestyle out in the real world... You get to give Lord Steve more money b/c he thought to "protect" your phone with a water detector slip of paper inside the top!

Apple to end AT&T's iPhone exclusive?

Maybe this means...

Maybe this means that in the USA, the announcement in June / July won't just be for i4phone, but for an iphone4 that actually supports Tmobile's different flavor of 3G service.

I've had a rocking time unlocking and helping people give two fingers (translated for you blighty blokes!) to BigPhone, as the Death Star's network is as shoddy as their customer dis-service droids.

But people have always been sad that their shiny i-brick couldn't run at the data speed of true 3G. I just consoled them with the logic that 115kb data that didn't crash was twice as valuable as 300kb data that spent 50% of the time searching for a tower.

Now if Verizon and Sprint actually ARE transitioning to GSM for their 4G networks... ABOUT BLOODY TIME! I'll believe it when I see it however.

Mine's the one with the venerable Motorola Brick Phone in the pocket. Turn that thing on, at 2 WATTS of power, and watch all your GSM phones INSTANTLY get jammed off the air from the interference! Muahahahahahahahahaha!

Too much sitting can kill: Official

In other news, Swedish Scientists discover...

That water is wet, Ikea makes the best combination food and furniture store, and that breathing oxygen is beneficial to continued health.

Mine's the one with the Captain Obvious logo on the back.

Google unveils GDrive that's 'not the GDrive'

1gb to start with?

Color me unimpressed. With 7 Tb of storage in 2 Guardian Maximus RAID and several individual external boxen... All packed within a single Pelican case... 1 gb does not mean much. I've got memory sticks that have more than that.

Come to think of it, I FOUND a 1-gb stick on the ground a few days ago and was wondering what I might put on it since it was so small.

I would hate to think of the time it would take to upload all the data I've got, but asking the Oompa-Loompas to scan it all and FINALLY root out all the duplicate files would be very nice... But not worth the loss of privacy.

Mine's the one with a 500gb ipod in the pocket that STILL isn't large enough for the whole collection.

El Reg sparks international incident with Olympics committee

Its the American Way

Always shoot the messenger, never the one that issued the bollixed press release in the first place. Big companies like Cisco and AT&T can't be arsed to fact-check every bit of drek their marketing wonks come out with, it is easier and cheaper to just vilify / act indignant toward anyone (usually the press) that happens onto their bit of stupidity.

Extra points to the stick-in-the-arse crowd of the IOC for building the mountain that the skiers will apparently be filming themselves racing down... Now, if the cameras were connected to their AT&T Iphones, would the public get to see this footage?

Probably not... The signal would be less reliable than an AT&T call in New York.

Mines the one with the laptop-tethered Tmobile iphone in the pocket.

Masses marvel at 'Most Useless Machine'

Thou shalt not poke the bear holding the ban hammer...

Or thou shall feel the thump of an unhappy Mod.

FCC eyes 'over' 150MHz of TV airwaves for broadband

Getting the spectrum back...

Yea, this is a REALLY bad idea. Have any of these fools taken the time to look through the MOUNTAINS of responses from the AUDIO INDUSTRY about the analog-to-digital swap that BUTCHERED our available spectrum for wireless microphones?

Doubt it.

I just attended a huge conference on lighting for the theatre and film industries. The newest and shiniest kit was ALL designed to use wireless data signaling for the various functions. Thats all well and good... But what if this wireless-internet-for-all shite happens? All that kit may be useless.

I DO think I know how the fools at the FCC intend to 'recover' that spectrum which they sold for 1995 dollars ($$), and now will buy back for 2010 dollars ($$$$$$$$$$$). Compression. If the different TV stations of a given region all were to broadcast from the same tower, the signals could be all sent on the same digital frequency... And the individual channels could be digitally compressed so they would all fit within a current 6mhz band of a single TV channel.

That is a great idea... IF you don't give a rip about the quality of the picture, or that the individual stations are ALREADY putting multiple signals down an existing channel for 'extra services' like 15 languages of the same program.

This just proves that the FCC has no real idea of how the tech is being used... And they are simply being dazzled by the shiny money waved at them from the AT&T group that wants even more monopoly of the air. But listen to the howling from the public when they won't be able to hear their favorite show or even their preacher on Sunday b/c the wireless microphone no longer works. Its all been sold to AT&T for the internet.

Intel lampooned by Nvidia toons

Sauce for the goose.

I seem to remember a big little company that made a winning graphics chip... Called themselves 3dFX. Nvidia was a small competitor (barely competing on 3dFX's level) that for SOME reason, 3dFX decided to become Xerox to their Apple. Ever so kindly 'helped' them make off with the market share until eventually nVidia killed off their benefactors.

At the time, Intel wasn't making anything graphics-related... So now it would seem that nVidia are about to get theirs. I just can't admire the survivors - ATI and Intel graphics? Ick. CGA almost sounds like a better option.

Facebook, MySpace backdoor exposed user accounts

Shut the door but left a FLASHing red light on...

Yet another reason why Adobe Flash should NOT be the underlying software on so many websites. Putting all your security eggs in their leaky basket is just ASKING for trouble.

What happened to the days where Flash was merely a single plugin element on a site instead of the ENTIRE FARKING SITE?

Besides... It makes it more annoying to download the *ahem* pictures that should be saved for offline viewing. Not impossible of course... Just more annoying.

NASA iceberg-finder prangs into Moon's south pole

@Annihilator RE: Moon Juice

Firstly, got to love the highly technical term. Its not moon juice, its the liquid that comes from a tub of cottage cheese.

Anyway, the fuel canister would have to be reusable, but there is one *tiny* flaw in the plan of using the Moon as the neighborhood petrol quickee-mart. Satellites aren't generally fueled up with Liquid Hydrogen / Liquid Oxygen like the Shuttle is. The on-orbit engines are powered by hydrazine, for both the shuttle and satellites.

If you plan on filling a single-tank vehicle with a binary fuel that has a nasty explosive relationship when mixed... The results will be most entertaining for everyone except the blighter with that petrol can. Will they send up a mechanic to add a second tank to all these orbiting birds? Doubtful.

Pirate Bay buyer admits doubts over deal

Designed to kill TPB?

Arrrrr! Heave-to and prepare ta be boarded! Ye canna sink wot is unsinkable! And bring me more RUM!

The name of the server may change, but the story will continue. Witness the death of Napster and all that have come since... Has it truly stopped anything, or has instead, the Hydra grown 4 new heads for each one that is lopped off?