Posts by Chris Walton

Indian call centre scammers are targeting BT customers

Call from BT?

If you get a call from BT you can sure something is fishy as its absolutely impossible to speak to anyone at BT

Now THAT'S a sunroof: Solar-powered family car emerges from Ford labs

Re: So at last a usable hybrid for modern city living?

Park in the right place and you won't need to install a Fresnel lens;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23930675

Thai man reportedly dies clutching his scorched iPhone 4S

I watched a documentary on fake chargers where they took one apart, it had virtually nothing inside and was delivering 230 volts straight to the device (a Nintendo 3DS in this case). That's how a fake charger electrocutes you.

JESUS battery HEALS itself - might make electric cars more practical

Re: Off-topic: Electric cars?!?

Sokolik, when talking about emmisions you're missing one important fact, the generators used to supply electricity are considerably more efficient that an internal comustion engine - have a read here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_cycle#Efficiency_of_CCGT_plants

versus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_combustion_engine#Energy_efficiency

What a lot of people also don't realise is that it takes a fair bit of electricity to refine petrol or diesel so in effect fossil fuels are used twice over when you run your car.

Google Glassholes to be BANNED from UK roads

Incresaing Ad revenue stream

I can just picture driving with these glasses on when a popup ad appears "Have you been in an accident that wasn't your fault?"

(software waits for a spike from the accelerometer)

CRUNCH!

Second popup says "You have now, call nnnnn for compensation claims"

UN report says killer bots could fight WAR WITHOUT END

Without end?

Just as soon as someone invents the everlasting battery or the endless fuel supply...

Anonymous squirts all over NORKS in birthday surprise outrage

Re: Who is going to sort this mess out?

Good question, since the server admins would probably have been shot by now.

Don't like your cell network? Legal unlocking ends TONIGHT in US

time for another choice?

Mobile network operators are getting too greedy, telling you what you can and can't do with something which you own at the end of the contract or the renewal period.

Its time to seriously look at mesh networking for smart phones, with so many of these devices around this has got to be a viable alternative.

Boffins create quantum gas with temperature BELOW absolute zero

Alternative explanation

"The temperature scale simply does not end at infinity," Schneider explains, "but jumps to negative values instead."

This reminds me of how a signed integer is stored, for example in an 8 bit system values 0-127 are positive and values 128-254 are treated as negative - I knew it, we are all in the matrix!

Microsoft says Google trying to undermine Windows Phone

Re: Ooooh the irony

I'm thinking about the time when MSN served up a broken style sheet for the opera browser

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/02/06/msn_deliberately_breaks_operas_browser/

Vandals break into congressman's office, install Linux on PCs

Interesting

So reading from the villagevoice link above we can see that this politician has taken two unrelated and relatively minor incidents and spins it into some kind of terror attack on democracy and free speech.

All in the name of making new laws to "keep us safe" of course.

Battlefield Earth ruled worst film EVER

Titanic 2?

All of the films in the list are vastly better than Titanic 2 - I'm guessing not enough people have endured this stinker of a film to cast any votes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1640571/

Americans resort to padlocking their dumb meters

Subtle mind control

I can't help but think that the objections based on seemingly loony concerns about radio waves and health issues are being presented very vocally to make ANY objection to smart meters seem rediculous, rational people won't want to be associated with the loonies and so will accept smart meters without question.

Hollywood gathers to pick over Limewire’s corpse

Somehow this reminds me of the posthumous beheading of Oliver Cromwell.

Blue Screen of Death gets makeover for Windows 8

The smiley should have crosses for eyes and perhaps a sound track like this... beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

General Motors bitchslaps Tesla with Range Anxiety™

EV's are a pink elephant

there are so many problems with electric vehicles - limited range, slow recharge times, heavy batteries which lose there capacity and so on.

And don't worry about fossil fuels running out because you can make petrol out of fresh air and sunshine

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071208150135.htm

'Suspicious' Android wallpaper app nabs user data

@wang N Staines

"If there is no control and vetting of apps then stay away from the platform."

You mean like Windows, Linux, Mac and pretty much every platform going?

Google and Apple do vet the apps that appear on their market places but there will always be a chance something nasty slips through. Unlike Apple, Android gives a warning when installing every app about what it is allowed to access.

Of course I'm forgetting that Steve Jobs is actually the second coming of Jesus and can fix an iphone 4's reception with just a touch of his hand...

Council wins motorbike charges case

More charges?

Like a previous poster I am a car driver and a biker.

The £1 a day might not seem much but I already pay tax to the council, income tax, VAT on my car & bike, VAT and duty when I fill them up, VAT when I get them serviced or repaired, road tax every year, tax on the insurance.....

ENOUGH WITH THE TAXES!!!!

Tesla IPO successful: Stock up 40% on day one

re: Back to front

Battery swapping stations etc are not going to appear overnight and until they do the pure electric car just won't be practical for everyday use.

Thats not to mention that for power to weight chemical fuel is far better than battery storage - electric motors are lightweight but batteries are very heavy. Hybrid technology makes a lot more sense to me.

iPads in spa-a-a-a-ce!

Convection?

Convection won't work without gravity, it relies on the cooler air being denser and therefore heavier than warm air. An Ipad doesn't have its own gravitational pull (and no there isn't an app for that).

Siphon Wars: Pressurist weighs into Gravitite boffin

@/\/\j17

"Take away atmospheric pressure (seal the reservoir for example) and any liquid extracted via gravity will reduce pressure in the reservoir - and I doubt the syphon will keep going for long. Take gravity away (in space should do) and I doubt the liquid will have any inclination to go anywhere in particular."

That isn't a fair test as the air pressure would work against the siphoning action, the question is does it drive siphoning.

I am sure that the siphon won't work in a zero G environment though.

'Goodness, evilness makes you powerful' - like the Force

Another explanation?

could be that those who pocketed the money were more likely take the easy route in life and perhaps less like to do any sort of physical training or hard work?

Labour unfriends Twitter rant candidate

web 2.0 response

404 political career not found!

SSD tools crack passwords 100 times faster

@ Account lockout after x number of tries

you are reffering to brute forcing a password on a running system, rainbow crack is about taking the encrypted hash of a password - straight from disk and calculating the actual password - GPO can't help you here.

Underground mole-satnavs to work off lightning strikes

@Lair Nav

Sharks don't drown underwater they have gills. Also sharks are very sensitive to electricity - they can sense the nerve impulses of other creatures in the water so attaching 10KW electrical items would fry them. Sorry you can't have frickin lasers.

Sun's MySQL fork survival theory ripped

@Vincent Ballard

MYSQL doesnt strictly fit under the definition of an RDBMS because it lacks features such as referential constraints which enforce the relationship of data in one table to another and ensure the integrity of that data.

Historian slams 'absolutely crazy' UK time zone

Why not change our time zone?

Because its wrong.

Ever since we started measuring time 12 midday was supposed to be the time that the sun is highest in the sky. As Britain is further west than europe this going to happen at a different time (obviously).

Also as any boy scout knows that by using an analog watch you find out which way north and south is - imagine what would happen, lost scouts wandering all over the country!