* Posts by plrndl

487 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Feb 2010

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Amazon, ditch us? But they can't do without us – Oracle

plrndl

Re: Of course they're still spending...

"Sure, and when Amazon is the only retailer left, come and tell us how you are enjoying their prices, once they no longer have to undercut anyone."

In business, your profit margin is your competitor’s collateral. No-one could get backing to compete with Amazon, when it had 0% profit margin. If Amazon reaches a monopoly position and hikes its prices, competitors will rapidly emerge.

Select few to watch World Cup in 4K high dynamic range colour on BBC iPlayer

plrndl
FAIL

Re: Yeah...

Judging by current performance, Liberty will take F1 down-market until the sponsors quit, then sell it at a huge loss.

Ferrari and friends will start a new series.

Crypto-gurus: Which idiots told the FBI that Feds-only backdoors in encryption are possible?

plrndl

Re: Please also ask T May

The votes are in "being seen to do something about it". There are far fewer votes in "doing something effective".

plrndl
Facepalm

Phase 2

OK, so you've got your magic impossible encryption.

How do you propose to make the black hats use it?

Chrome adblockalypse will 'accelerate Google-Facebook duopoly'

plrndl
Thumb Up

Can Spam

Most advertisers are stuck in 1950's TV mode where you spam people as relentlessly as you can afford. This is no longer acceptable, and this is what Google is tackling. Advertisers need to recognise that targeted advertising is the only way forward. Facebook in particular has enormous capability to target ads, so that punters are unlikely to see ads for stuff in which they have no interest. Unfortunately for the advertising industry,this means sobering up and doing some work.

Basket case lawsuit: Fancy fruit florists flail Google over rotten ads, demand $200m damages

plrndl
Thumb Down

Pot? Meet Kettle

If you use generic English words as your trading name, in the hope of getting a free ride from Google, you should not be surprised when your competitors try to outrank you by paying Google for advertising their alternatives.

You can't find tech staff – wah, wah, wah. Start with your ridiculous job spec

plrndl
WTF?

"Skills Gap"

I once saw a modest IT job, at an extremely modest salary, advertised in the London Evening Standard. The list of requirments was so long, that literally no-one alive could possibly have ahcieved them.

Hate to break it to you, but billions of people can see Uranus tonight

plrndl
Pint

Re: Uranus's Moon

Bottoms up!

plrndl
FAIL

Avoirdupois

" 18.91 astronomical units"?

This is The Register. Let's have some proper el reg units.

'Don't Google Google, Googling Google is wrong', says Google

plrndl

Next up against the wall

...and gifting.

Sacre bleu! Apple's high price, marginal gain iPhone strategy leaves it stuck in the mud

plrndl

Documentation

It's a long time since I've used closed source software, but I seem to recall that if you wanted documentation you had to buy a book that cost almost as much as the software, and was probably two versions out of date. The last time I bought software with proper documentation is was, dare I say it, MS DOS.

plrndl
Pint

Re: £1,149 why do the stupid people have all the money goddamnit!!!

That's actually the wrong question. The smart question is "why don't the smart people have all the money?"

I think I'll go and ask around in the pub.

They say we're too mean to Microsoft. Well, how about this... Redmond just had a stonking year. And only 8% tax. Whee!

plrndl
Pint

Re: Thoughts on tax avoidance

I don't understand people who criticise companies for obeying tax law.

If you have a problem with the way tax law works, you should direct your ire at the people who created that law.

And the idiots who voted for them.

I'm off the the pub, which is the proper place to discuss these things.

BOFH: That's right. Turn it off. Turn it on

plrndl

And if it turns out he's on 7...or a non-Windows machine?

That's no reason to not blame Microsoft.

plrndl
Pint

Best BOFH ever.

Have a beer on me.

It's time for a long, hard mass debate over sex robots, experts conclude

plrndl

that's held up to recent research

Don't put too much faith in research. Most "research" is skewed to fit a pre-determined conclusion.

Brit prosecutors ask IT suppliers to fight over £3 USB cable tender

plrndl

Brexit from Amazon

Any chance it could get lost in the post?

Do we need Windows patch legislation?

plrndl
FAIL

Locking the Stable Door

What's the point of mandating the provision of patches when the users refuse to install then until after there is a problem?

Microsoft to spooks: WannaCrypt was inevitable, quit hoarding

plrndl
Linux

@ GingerOne

You obviously know absolutely nothing about operating systems.

plrndl
Boffin

Security Agency?

The NSA has produced a "tool" that has been used as a weapon against the people it is supposed to be defending.

The NSA has failed to protect itself from the inevitable hackers, enabling this tool to be released in the wild.

The agency is clearly unfit for purpose, and counter-productive, and should be dismantled ASAP.

This goes for GCHQ too.

(The icon is intended ironically.)

Ubuntu UNITY is GNOME-MORE: 'One Linux' dream of phone, slab, desktop UI axed

plrndl
Pint

Almost Right

Eureka!

A few more days of sackcloth and ashes, and he would have realised that what the world really wants is Ubuntu and Cinnamon (and no, I don't mean Mint).

PS Now that you've freed up some developer time, how about getting USB2 to work properly?

Blighty starts pumping out 12-sided quids

plrndl

Shame it's only worth 3d. There used to be 80 of these to the pound. Thank you for the inflation, chancellors of all parties.

Everything bad in the world can be traced to crap Wi-Fi

plrndl
FAIL

Pot/Kettle

What is "error #2035", on your video playback?

Nuclear waste spill: How a pro-organic push sparked $240m blunder

plrndl

Re: billions of tons of lard

It's called "America".

German music moguls slammed for 'wurst ever DMCA takedown spam'

plrndl

Re: die die die

Using an automated system to find possible copyright infringers is a sensible option. Using that system to initiate legal proceedings without the alleged infringement being checked by a competent human is a huge abuse of the legal process. They should be hit very hard in the wallet for this.

Hellooo, NSA? The US State Department can't kick hackers out of its networks – report

plrndl

G$500

Maybe they should outsource their IT to China.

For pity's sake, you fool! DON'T UPGRADE it will make it worse

plrndl

Alternative Technology

I've heard of a device called a "fountain pen" that allows one to draw any desired character directly onto the paper. Remarkably the ink for this amazing device can be purchased cheaply at most stationery stores. Worth investigating?

Are you ready to ditch the switchboard and move to IP telephony?

plrndl

Voice Quality

If you use the phone as part of your sales procedure, forget digital, unless you really are from Elbonia.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-02-18

Your hard drives were riddled with NSA spyware for years

plrndl
Mushroom

Goodbye

So that's the end of the US technology sector then. Good job NSA.

Violin-fiddling boffins learn that 'F-HOLES' are secret to Stradivarius' SUPERIOR sound

plrndl

Pleasing the ear?

Any such algorithm would produce results similar to those produced certain TV shows, where "music" that is pleasing to the masses is produced by a voting process that eradicates anything that would be pleasing to the musically literate. Such sounds are readily realised by generic mass-produced violins.

Regarding the Strad, the most sensible comment I have heard is by a user who said that it's not so much the sound which is exceptional, but the result from the player of the demands placed by such an instrument on its user, that he should be worthy of such a venerable instrument.

Reg hacks (and rest of 'Frisco) in LinkedIn measles contagion scare

plrndl

Mountains and Molehills

When I was a kid (UK 1950's) EVERY kid had measles. I have heard that there can be serious complications, but I have NEVER heard of anyone who has actually experienced this.

hive mind informs climate change believers and sceptics

plrndl
Holmes

As icon

Why Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2? Upton: 'I drank the Kool-Aid'

plrndl

Re: Embrace. Extend. Extinguish.

@ Suricou Raven

Netbooks and ultra books are at opposite ends of the market, and do not compete.

MS & Intel killed off netbooks to protect their fatter margins on fatter devices. Netbooks have been replaced by tablets, and the evil duo have lost out completely (PMSL).

Ultrabooks are Mac Airs for people who want to run Windows.

Scientific consensus that 2014 was record hottest year? No

plrndl
Happy

Re: Cut the sh*t!

It was pretty cool in the late 60's, but since then it's all gone to pot.

US and UK declare red-team cyber war – on each other

plrndl
Go

The Yanks will never break out (t)rusty valve mainframes.

Android gives Google a search monopoly? Not so fast, says judge

plrndl

Search for Search

If you don't know how to install an alternative search engine, just Google it!

Simples.

Fedora 21: Linux fans will LOVE it - after the install woes

plrndl

Re: Gave Gnome another go

Fedora + Cinnamon might be worth a look.

UK cops caught using 12 MILLION Brits' mugshots on pic database

plrndl
Big Brother

Deus Ex Machina

If the computer says “it's him” most people, plods included, will believe the computer against all other evidence, no matter how irrational that may appear to the knowledgeable outside observer. You'd have no chance ina jury trial.

'Turn to nuclear power to save planetary ecology from renewable BLIGHT'

plrndl
FAIL

Re: Dunno about warming

@ToddR

Can you read English? "Let's take Southern and South Eastern Europe, shall we? "

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

plrndl

We read El Reg for the content, not the presentation. Don't let the marketing morons get anywhere near. PLEASE!

Ten Linux freeware apps to feed your penguin

plrndl

Re: GIMP

In a world where everyone carries a camera phone, and "photoshop" has entered the dictionary, GIMP is hardly a niche app.

MEPs want 'unbiased search', whatever that is – they're not sure either

plrndl

Google is successful because it provides better results than its many rivals. “Better” as perceived by its users.

A key part of this is decoding the garbage that a typical user types, and converting it into something a computer can search for.

Another key part is downgrading the dross that arises from search engine optimisation.

If Google biased its results for any purpose other than that of the users, it would soon be replaced by a competitor that was providing the wanted results.

An unbiased search would simply turn up all 200 million sites that match your query, in random order. This would render the service, and the WWW, useless.

By the Rivers of Babylon, where the Antikythera Mechanism laid down

plrndl

Re: Been in the museum where they have this object

@ZanzibarRastapopulous

"Basically, there are some people who want to control all the other people."

They're called "politicians", or "religious leaders".

Euro Parliament VOTES to BREAK UP GOOGLE. Er, OK then

plrndl
FAIL

Re: How are they bundled?

@ sabroni

Google's success amongst a miriad of search engines is a result of providing the best answers to user's queries. If they didn't provide the answers that users want, Bing (is that still going?) and others are only a few clicks away.

Only a moron would fail to distinguish between the ads and the answers.

PROFESSORS! PROFESSORS! PROFESSORS!

plrndl

He always did like throwing chairs around.

Microsoft snorefest: For crying out loud, Nadella – just channel Ballmer!

plrndl
Linux

Re: "They gave us windows 8"

Can they please take it back now.

GOD particle MAY NOT BE GOD particle: Scientists in shock claim

plrndl

Re: While I agree with your post...

"Give us your forking money" (C) 1984 Bob Geldof

Droids - everywhere! Is Apple really even in the game any more?

plrndl

Re: Betamax v VHS

What killed Betamax was Sony trying to ban porn, which is always the first driver of new technology.

Spanish 'Google tax' could end up like Germany's everyone-but-Google tax

plrndl

Re: These sites just have to face reality

Google should start charging the publishers for promoting their wares.

NHS grows a NoSQL backbone and rips out its Oracle Spine

plrndl

Re: "80 million people in Britain"

So now we know the real number of illegal immigrants.

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