Posts by Trollslayer

MPs rattle telcos to help kill extremist material online

Can we get ISPs to kill rubbish from MPs?

That would improve society more.

Boffins embed electronics into fibres

Southampton does it again

Differeing standards? Lockins? I have worked a little with fibre equipment and there is always a fibre in modules, this lowers the cost of that stage. It should also increase performance.

This is module level not system level. To connect a laser directly to a 2,000 km fibre would be risky at best.

You may also care to think about the all optical amplifier - invented at Southampton.

BTW it is called fusing not welding.

Child labour, lost wages uncloaked by Apple factories audit

I don't like a lot of things about Apple

but a big thumbs up for taking a real stand on this.

So many companies talk the talk but go quiet when money is involved.

Angry Brides lob stilettos in dowry shakedown takedown

To Velve

You have made the point - Shaadi are doing something to change the cultre and should be applauded for it.

India threatens to block Google, Facebook and chums

Milk

There was a report earleir this week that in India a government agency sampled milk in 33 states and found 68 percent were contaminated.

Detergent, filthy water etc.

Now that is obscene, particularly given the hunger strikes to get anti corruption legislation passed - or a watered down version which has nearly passed but not yet.

Bit-part actress slings sueball at IMDb over age gripe

Hollywood

It is simple. Hollywood doesn't let women get old.

Just like lack of a degree will get you dropped by the HR filters, her age will get her dropped before anything else is looked at.

US lawmakers claim Huawei sold censor tech to Iran

So only US companies are allowed to do this?

Xbox 720 to double-up as a DVR

Patent?

I want to patent inserting a plug into a socket - oh yes I have a lot of money so other people can't to it without paying me.

I wish I was joking.

Apple's TV killer 'on shelves by summer 2012'

Plus

Digital cable in Europe, satellite, Nordig DTT etc..

Software bug fingered as cause of Aussie A330 plunge

The 737 rudder issue was one of the most bizzare faults I've ever heard of plus the lack of evidence after the crashes. the NTSB didn't stand a chance.

Soft errors

It could have been a 'soft error' where there is a glitch under very specific conditions. I had this happen when deisgning equipment to evacuate airports where a subtract instruction didn't set the negative flag when executed at one memory location!

Still, the data from the faulty system shouldn't have prevented data from the other two being processed correctly, I would put that down as a design flaw.

Seriously, a cosmic particle can cause this kind of glitch so osftware erors should be allowed for when monitoring subsystems.

Commercial GPS is accurate to approx. 1m, smaller handheld to within 10m.

The moment a computer crash nearly caused my car crash

Not fixing the fault?

Sounds risky

2011's Best... HD TVs

Very good review

There are other places that do in depth reviews and go up to £4,000 on the models they choose, this is a very good 'man in the street' review.

As someone who is a member on AV Forums and an avid large plasma owner it's good to see something aimed at others.

Bill Gates discusses nuclear development deal with China

Now this is interesting

Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is a major headache so if it is possible to get power from it then this is a major advance - I really hope this works out.

Potential ALIEN LIFE habitats FOUND ON MOONS

The reason is

liquid water increases the number of chemical reactions that can take place and is, in some respects the 'universal solvent'. Have you seen the salt crytsal caves in China for example?

Flash prices FALL

One point of the article is to show the two markets are separate and not linked in the way people expected.

Not tricksy at all.

Does your smartphone run Carrier IQ? Find out here

"No hard proof"

Yes, that is in one line of the article.

There is something going on but when they guy cries wolf about a lot of it then what we need to know gets undermined.

Radiation TERROR on Scottish beach! Except it's quite safe

Thank you!

A good, honest and clear analysis.

Including showing the true colours of some self serving idiots.

Second water utility reportedly hit by hack attack

Not a surprise

The 'security' on a lot of these systems is lax - because people don't take it seriously at the outset and save money then won't admit it later.

Rambus tumbles in antitrust reversal

About time!

Rambus are the ones who sneaked patents into industry standards and then sued everyone in sight.

May they rot in Hell.

Go back to the future with Red Dwarf

Smoke me a kipper!

I enjoyed Back To Earth (you had to watch the last 30 seconds BTW) and have high hopes for this.

Compact Disc death foretold for 2012

Lossless?

FLAC has variable quality settigns so you cannot assum this.

If there is a guaranteed lossless format with mild DRM then I'm interested.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is dead at 56

RIP

Whether you liked or disliked him, he was a human being family and friends.

RIP Steve

Waterstone's to take on Kindle and Nook with own reader

Brave

Or maybe desperate?

A Farewell to Oates: Adios, El Reg

Good luck

I hope you had fun and glad you got out alive!

Thanks for making el Reg with visitng.

Woman in strop strip for Bermuda airport customs

George Orwell

And, as per the previous poster - the Standford experiment.

LightSquared blasts GPS naysayers in FCC letter

Agreed

I have worked on 3G testing and we test of ACLR (Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio) of 50dB.

Even if the new signals were at -50dBm (same as terrestrial TV) the ACLR for GPS would need to be more than double typical industry standard.

Yes, the change from satelite to terrestrial should never have been allowed and Lightsquared must have been aware of this problem at the beginning.

Not quite

If thigns were being created now then OK but because the adjacent bands were specified as being at satellite levels this is what the world has designed for.

Mr Bean prangs £650k McLaren

As long as the Metro was ok last time

I mean, that Metro was someone's only car where as he has a collection.

Government seeks public views on open data, PDC

Teeth

The ICO needs the ability to really prosecute offenders and the will carry it out, at the moment there could be another BT-Phorm and they would get away with it.

‘Pitstops’ can inhibit viruses

And we thought Excel was complex!

Seriously, the complexity of biology never ceases to amaze me, well done everyone on those teams.

This offers the possibility of wide spectrum anti viral products which has always been a big problem.

Cellular network hijacking for fun and profit

Ditto!

Thanks Mel.

Great article

A lot of technical and background information explained clearly, thanks!

Hmmm.... so I can set up a local phone network with a backpack...

Evil '666' auto-whaler tool is even eviler than it seems

Biter...

Bit!

Murdoch parliamentary pandemonium: Shock snap

Sheer class

If only the tabloids could raise their standards this high!

Heathrow to get new facial recognition scanners

Yeah right

They'll be slightly less wrong that the others.

not that a smart terrorist would be bothered by them, fortunately most of them are stupid.

RUPERT MURDOCH HIT BY PIE

Nice one

A direct hit with sardines mixed would have been perfect!

Ofcom ignores radio in annual report

DAB has failed

That's it in a nutshell - as Wize said, phones come with FM receivers and there is DAB and DAB+ and there are a couple of hundred FM radios.

Nice idea but the legacy issue has won.

Let DAB rest in peace and save us all money, digital stations are still available over Freeview, satellite and cable as well as the internet.

Coalition renames GCHQ internet spook-tech plans

Knowing the price of everything, the value of nothing?

So it will probably be £5 billion.

Spooks already drown in information and gathering it is no use unless it can be analysed effectively so if that isn't done then the money will be wasted at best, at worst taking money away from more effective strategies.

Burg 5 watch phone

Nice vulture!

And yes, very Dick Tracy.

News of the World TO CLOSE

Protectign the guilty?

Am I cynical or is this a ploy to try and halt the investigation?

If so then it is another reason to jail the guilty and those who were happy to go along profit from it.

Let us not forget a certain organisation got caught paying hackers a few years ago.

El Reg to unleash rocket-powered spaceplane

Yay!!!

PARIS is a great example to explain engineering to school children as well as fun, this promises to be even better!

How about contacting David Willet MP? This is getting into his area and a little publicity there wouldn't hurt.

Wommit - not a shed?

Apple users complain over MobileMe 'censorware'

OCP?

I've dealt with scary stuff where my designs are responsible for saving many lives, counselled people at risk and this scares me.

WikiLeaks sues Visa, Mastercard over 'financial blockade'

Free speech

US firms and the first amendment of the US constiution?

Or simply robber barons?

Panasonic TX-P65VT30 65in plasma 3D TV

A good end user review

I visit AV Forums for in depth technical reviews, el Reg provides good "barman's reviews" so together there is a balance. Nice one.

Aussie retailer accuses UK shops of HDMI 'scam'

Australian scams?

Do they say the same thing and make the same offer in Australia?

Just wondered.

BTW, 'audiophools' is perfect!

EU cloud data can be secretly accessed by US authorities

Security reasons only?

This would make a great fishing ground and Micrsoft must have been very unhappy in order to make a statement like this.

Atom smasher claims Hadoop cloud migration victory

Not ARM

It would require a major re-archecture by ARM, their cores are very good but even MIPS out run them.

Naturally where power is limited ARM win sicne they provide more speed when there is little power available.