* Posts by stucs201

1293 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Feb 2010

Hey, glassholes: Google patents movement-sensing, shape-shifting specs

stucs201

"steampunk motors"

Clockwork, not motors!

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

stucs201

A quick game of Elite suddenly seemed a lot more Dangerous with a MKIII Cobra on the laptop.

stucs201

I know I'm always complaining about the cat sitting on the keyboard, but I don't think putting a snake there instead is the solution.

3D printer blueprints for TSA luggage-unlocking master keys leak online

stucs201

Or if they want to be subtle then most cases can be opened with a biro to undo the zip and then closed again by sliding the zip backwards and forwards - leaving no sign it's been opened.

Apple's iPad Pro: We're making a Surface Pro WITH A STYLUS over Steve Jobs' DEAD BODY

stucs201

A comic from 3 years ago...

http://hijinksensue.com/comic/surface-tension/

Laminate this: Inside Argos' ongoing online (r)evolution

stucs201

Re: Who remembers Green Shield Stamps?

I have (laminated) notices for the delivery muppets on the lids of my bins, they actually seem to work..

British killer robot takes out two Britons in Syria strike

stucs201

You might think Cameron is a dick, but Isis are assholes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32iCWzpDpKs

Feeling sweary? Don't tell Google Docs

stucs201

Re: "or the Austrian village "Fuck"."

There is also Slut in Sweden.

stucs201

Re: in a bit of a hole

Well it's rejection of faggot implies it's based on American swearing. So I'd be curious to see if wanker and bollocks are allowed.

Sorry, Californians, you can't have this: Asus to build WATER COOLED notebook

stucs201

Re: California?

Yes, listen to the whoosing noise as it flies over your head. They have a shortage of water at the moment...

stucs201

Not necessarily as silly as it sounds.

Not everyone uses their portable PCs while actually on the move, some use them mostly at a limited number of fixed locations - quite possibly involving a desk at each location and a car as transport. For this use just having one or two boxes and minimal cables is sufficient portability, it doesn't necessarily have to be light - what used to sometimes be called a luggable is enough.

A couple of example use cases:

1) LAN parties. Yes games can be played over the internet these days, but everyone in one room with beer and snacks is more fun.

2) My work laptop spends almost all of it's powered on time in a docking station at work connected to multiple external monitors. It does however get undocked most evenings in case there is a need to work from home the next day. Given everything except the laptop itself stays in the office I'd not turn down an extra bulky docking station that gave a performance boost (though I can't see work going for this particular model).

Return of the Pocket PC: Acer shows off Jade Primo PC Phone

stucs201

"Some Pocket PC devices featured a clamshell design with a keyboard"

Exactly what I was hoping for from the headline. Ah well, maybe one day.

US to stage F-35-versus-Warthog bake-off in 2018

stucs201

Re: versus?

The A-10 is not a plane...

...it's a cannon with wings.

BOFH: An architect and his own entirely avoidable downfall

stucs201
Facepalm

Re: Uh-oh...

Go read it again - the PFY is fine. Both the BOFH and PFY had the Suit who was interrogating them fall out of a window. The Boss is actually siding with the BOFH and PFY on this occasion in the face of a common enemy (probably not a long-term truce though).

Get whimsical and win a Western Digital Black 6TB hard drive

stucs201

Re: 2001 as remade today....

Don't be silly - that's the new pocket-sized monolith...

stucs201

The new iPhone just doesn't control body hair as effectively as the old Razr did.

Monster Scalextric Formula 1 circuit to go under the hammer

stucs201

Re: other, better brands... ...they usually caught fire

Well that's an interesting definition of 'better'.

First SPACE SALAD on Monday's menu for ISS astronauts

stucs201

Re: The Starship Enterprise did not grow its own food

Voyager however did have a have a hydroponics section...

All hail Ikabai-Sital! Destroyer of worlds and mender of toilets

stucs201

Re: waterproofing tape (whatever that thin white stuff is called)

PTFE - Plastic Tape For Engineers.

(Technically polytetrafluoroethylene)

Epson: Cheap printers, expensive ink? Let's turn that upside down

stucs201

Are the real profits even in the frames? The optician I use seems to have a permanent 2-for-1 offer on glasses. However that doesn't include lens upgrades such thinner lens, anti-scratch anti-reflective coating, tint or light-reactive so the second pair can be sunglasses, etc. The 'free' second pair can work out quite expensive if you want anything other than the basics.

stucs201

Re: I want a cheap low volume printer

Definitely go for a cheap laser for low volume. I bought an entry level HP mono laser for about £60 quid in 2008. Even though my usage is even lower than yours (it's only on it's second toner cartridge) it still works flawlessly when it is switched on.

Windows 10 Start menu replacements shifting like hot cakes

stucs201

I actually use classic shell even on Win 7

I never even liked the Windows 7 version of the start menu. To me cramming it all into the bottom corner of the screen instead of the XP and earlier cascading style seemed a poor use of the available screen space.

When I first saw the Win 7 start menu I assummed it's design was to enable it to work on the smaller screens of mobile devices without space for the earlier cascading version. Windows 8 seemed to disprove that theory, so I've still no idea why they did it.

And on that bombshell: Top Gear's Clarkson to reappear on Amazon

stucs201

I was hoping Dave would sign them up, but I don't think that was ever a realistic hope.

Let's all binge on Blake’s 7 and help save the BBC ... from itself

stucs201

Re: Blakes 7

I've got a full set of physical (and still digital) DVDs on the shelf.

I do have one analogue Blakes 7 disk though : the theme tune on a 7" vinyl record.

Stephen Hawking to rattle off answers online for more than a week

stucs201

Not quite an AMA

It seems he's specifically wanting to talk about AI.

SPECTRE-tacular: New trailer out for Bond 24. But where's the pussy?

stucs201
Coat

Re: No cat...

No cat is so wrong for a Bond film. We used to get Pussy Galore.

SpaceX's blast shock delays world's MOST POWERFUL ROCKET

stucs201

Re: what would fit through rail tunnels

The Space Shuttle and the Horse's Rear End

What goes up, Musk comedown: Falcon rocket failed to strut its stuff

stucs201

So they lost an unmanned rocket, but gained a safety feature for the manned version...

...ie upgrading the software to deploy the capsule parachute under similar circumstances. Overall I'd call that a win.

German police ARREST SQUIRREL for stalking woman

stucs201
Pint

re: turn on the Caffrey's tap

So the owl finally loses that bet about squirrels drinking carling black label.

(this may not make sense to those who don't remember UK TV ads from the 80s)

Wake up, sheeple! If you ask Siri about 9/11 it will rat you out to the police!

stucs201
Facepalm

re: 2015-June-02 is pretty unambiguous

It's also not a "number-only date format".

Disk is dead, screeches Violin – and here's how it might happen

stucs201
Joke

To quote Tony P.

"Disk is not dead! Disk is LIFE! "

Ah, wait, that was disco. As you were.

Ready to go again, soldier? Final Fantasy VII remake revealed

stucs201

My own recollections are rather less nostalgic

Admittedly I never played more than a demo, but that was because that was enough to illustrate just how bad a console title lazily converted to the PC could be. I seem to recall my main gripes were:

1) Badly scaled console resolution backgrounds instead of re-doing the for the PC. Net result being that the real-time 3D models looked better than the pre-rendered backgrounds since they were at least at full pixel resolution.

2) Terrible user-interface, which may have been necessary on a console, but not on a PC with a mouse available.

Maybe I'll give it a second chance this time around, if they make a better job of it.

Future Range Rovers will report pot-holes directly to councils

stucs201
Joke

What if you mount it upside down?

Will it report speedbumps instead?

stucs201

Re: Signal to noise ratio

Maybe, maybe not. It'll probably have to suffer that indignity for a while, but even range-rovers sometimes get to enjoy themselves when they reach retirement age. I've seen plenty of old ones on off-road courses.

stucs201

Signal to noise ratio

They could get rather a lot of 'pot hole' reports if it's taken where vehicles with a Landrover badge are supposed to be driven...

TERROR in ORBIT: Dodgy rocket burp biffs International Space Station off track

stucs201
Coat

Re: So what you mean...

With regard to that thing that got pushed out of orbit. That thing which for many years we thought was the moon...

"That's no moon, that's a space-station".

(Yes, the brown robe with the lightsaber in the pocket)

Bill Nye's bonkers LightSail spaceship unfurls solar sails at last

stucs201

Re: Let's use the right terms, eh?

Obligatory XKCD:

https://xkcd.com/1322/

Chips can kill: Official

stucs201

Re: Rubbish

Be fair, no-one every burned their house down washing lettuce.

Surely when done properly(*) the biggest risk in chips is the cooking method, provided you're careful about that you'll be fine.

* Properly means a proper pan, filled with proper fat (beef dripping).

Doom, Mario, Pac-Man level up to video gaming's Hall of Fame

stucs201

Wolfenstein wasn't bad, but it was Doom where people really seemed to take notice. As a PC game player since CGA 8086 machines I remember Doom as the game where people stopped laughing at the PC as a games platform.

stucs201

re: way more impact then Doom

Um, nope. Doom had multiple significant things which even if not unique or first were definitely unusual at the time, but became much more common subsequently:

1) User created content.

2) LAN multi-player

3) The PC no longer being a second-rate games machine compared to a much cheaper Amiga/ST/console - this was a game which benefited from raw processor speed and not assistance from 2D graphics acceleration.

Combine that lot and you've got something pretty significant, Doom was a definite milestone and turning point.

Virgin Galactic will get into space 'within 18 months to two years'

stucs201

Re: Being picky...

As long as a human has control over a vehicle they'll be able to crash it by operating the controls wrong.

Presumably in this case the chances of the pilot operating this control at the wrong time were judged to be sufficiently low, perhaps less than the chances of a lock-out failing to disengage (which would also cause a crash).

One USB plug to rule them all? That's sensible, but no...

stucs201

Re: The USB

1394.

I still have a port on my PC's front panel. I'm less sure if it's actually connected to the motherboard or not. I'm not opening the machine to check and have never owned either a device or cable to connect to it.

stucs201

Not just scart

Also RS232. Just because the cable fitted that really didn't mean it was going to work. Seems like they've re-invented some of the same problems, just at a smaller size.

KFC takes legal axe to eight-legged mutant chicken claims

stucs201

Re: If anything, any chicken mods would be to make them have bigger breasts.

Silicone implants? I think that may be taking artificial additives in food too far...

New kid on the blocks: Lego Worlds game challenges Minecraft

stucs201

Not really a direct Minecraft competitor.

Having downloaded it last night it's not the same game at all.

Yes they're both procedurally generated worlds with block based building. but they've as many differences as similarities. Whether they compete or not depends on what it is you like (or dislike) doing in Minecraft.

For MC players building purely cosmetic structures in creative mode this is definate alternative, especially for those who also use MCEdit in conjunction with the game itself.

For those more interested in the survival aspects of MC then LW doesn't (at least currently) seem to offer much. Although there are occasional mini-figs that you can punch there isn't really the same level of threat as in MC.Likewise there aren't really limits to resources - have as many basic bricks as you want. More complex models (flowers, oil wells, vehicles) you can have as many as you want too once you've found one (provided you have enough 'studs' to buy the first one - they're hardly in short supply).

For explorers LW might offer more. Rather than crafting things you need to find them in the world first (the exact thing, not a few multi-purpose general components), which means lots of travelling around. Time will tell if I'm right on this, it depends on how many things there are to find and how common they are.

For the more technical MC players who like redstone they're not going to find much of interest here. Building is (at least currently) limited to non-functional lego parts. Functional stuff like vehicles is found pre-built. I can see scope for this changing if the start including Technical Lego (aka Lego Technic) parts, but even that I'd expect to feel more like building contraptions in Besiege than MC.