Posts by Robert Long

Boffins: Antimatter comes from black holes, neutron stars

Black holes emit things all the time

A black hole has a region (the famous event horizon) below which nothing can escape, but AT the event horizon the virtual particles of space, which consist of pairs of particles - one normal and one anti-mater - instead of recombining and neutalising each other can have one member swept into the black hole while the other, being just outside, can escape. This happens all the time and the idea that it does happen is actually what bought Stephen Hawkings his place at the top table. In fact, it is called "Hawking Radiation".

If there is some reason why the anti-particle is the one that escapes more often then that would make a black hole a net emitter of anti-matter.

BTW, the black hole pays the price for all of this and if starved of new material, will eventually evaporate as a result.

Well, that's what they tell me anyway.

Oh, and anti-matter has mass just like normal matter so it experiences gravity, not anti-gravity.

Brighton professor bans Google

Well, fair enough

There's almost no information on the Web so it's not a big deal.

Seriously. People who think the web is a research tool are the ones who are out of touch. I've never seen a website which covered the same depth as even a small book on a subject and there are thousands of topics on which the web is silent. Or worse - try researching witchcraft or druidism on-line. It would take longer to find the small amount of useful information amongst the stream of tat than it would to order a book and have it delivered, and the book would contain 10-100 times more information.

The web is quite good for photographs, I have to say, but even then the resolution is normally far lower than even a cheap book.

Web research is to real research what Girls Aloud are to real music - it's popular with people who are too young to know better.

Bjork lays into NZ snapper

Welcome to Bangkok?! I'll give you "Welcome to Bangkok", my lad.

Perhaps it means something really insulting in Icelandic. Or whatever language it is that the little people in Bjork's head speak.

Mobe snap murderers face justice

@Aubry Thonon

"Which makes for a better deterrent in the UK Navy: a sailor being taken down below and given his lashes, or an assembly being called and all the other sailors being shown what happens to them if they break the maritime laws?"

Given that when lashing was still allowed it was used on every ship almost every week, it would seem that it wasn't much use as a deterrent really.

The problem with deterrent sentencing is that no one goes about breaking the law/rules thinking that they're going to be caught. If you think you're going to get away with it, what matters the punishment?

Nature sticks entire archive online

Big deal

If I wanted to browse the archive before I couldn't. Now, I still can't. If I wanted to have a particular article or issue to look at I would have had to pay for it. Now I have to pay for it.

What actually happened here that a secretary with a scanner could not have done before?

In short: this is crap.

Kid's 'new' MP3 player was preloaded with smut

How naive Reg readers are

The idea that there's no pornography out there that would cause a 10-year-old to cry is astoundingly innocent. There's porn out there that would give a 40-year-old the shakes if they weren't expecting it.

US switches off the incandescent lightbulb

Edison who?

Edison not only did not invent the light bulb but was forced to go into partnership with the man who did: a Brit called Joseph Swan. The Edison Swan Electric Light company has been airbrushed out of American history, but I would have thought the Reg would have stood up for the local lad!

Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain

@amanfromMars

"Mention something simple like the Truth is flexible and only an imagining acted upon"

It might be simple, but it's wrong. You're thinking of religion (or Wikipedia pages).

Vista vs XP performance: Some informal tests

@Steven Hewittt

In what way would that be fairer? If I buy a machine tomorrow it will be new hardware and I'll still have the choice of Vista or XP. If Vista sucks then it sucks; I'm not going to give it a by just because XP would have been slower 6 years ago on some machine I'm not buying!

Choice breeds complexity for Linux desktop

@Don Mitchell

I've been using Linux for all my Desktops for years now and I can assure you that Linux developers have a lot less contempt for users than Microsoft has.

Most Linux (and most Mac) developers at least do care about the quality of their output. I'd rather that than any number of empty, but oh-so-user-friendly, promises from Bill Gates.

When good software gets complicated

Quite logical, really

Simple code that does the job = elegant code. When you put it like that it's obvious why there's so much bad code about - elegance is HARD.

Its very easy to assume that complex code is difficult to write, but in fact it's usually easier to do than simple code, but it comes back to haunt you. Sadly, deadlines mean that rubbish gets out into the wild all too often.

Why is the iPlayer a multi million pound disaster?

Vlad the Idiot

"I disagree. AFAIK there are no laws anywhere in the world yet that mandate DRMs on anything."

Apart from all that contract law that says the Beeb has to honour its contractual commitments with the producers to use DRM.

Try to keep up.

Gamer takes Microsoft to court over Halo 3 'errors'

Refunds

"Surely it would be easier to take them back and get a refund, as they're not fit for purpose?"

In any other industry knowingly selling defective goods is a serious offense. It's well past the time when software vendors were treated like everyone else. So, yes, it would be easier but that's turning a blind eye to what is effectively fraud.

Inventor of revoked payment patent says UK system is a joke

Whinners

Where's the invention? Where's the prototype? Where's the original idea (copying normal non-electronic practise is not original)?

This is a junk patent which should never have been considered let alone revoked.

Charlie Sheen in upside-down iPhone outrage

"Lovely"

If by "lovely" you mean "injection-moulded plastic doll that's had her head caught in a vice at some point while suffering from 'hairline somewhere around top of head' syndrome", then fair enough. Personally, however, I prefer my sexual fantasies to resemble a human being rather more than that.

Brian May appointed university chancellor

An improvement

At least Brian May does something worthwhile for the millions he's paid, Cherie is a waste of skin.

What's Auntie for, exactly?

Oh, give it a rest

"but the theory of anthropogenic global warming is far from proven,"

Yeah, yeah. People have been saying that for 100 years now and for 100 years the evidence has piled up and up and up. The argument's over. Long over. All we have now is a bunch of hype generated by vested interests and superannuated scientists desperate for a grant to tide them over to pension age. It's getting warmer and we're responsible for a large chunk of it, so just get over it.

BBC HD channel gets green light

Re:What's the point

The point is that "New Media" has only one business model: sell people stuff they already have. Change the format, compress it, uncompress it, add a few "extras", offer a budget version without the extras. How about a 25th aniversary edition? How about an ultimate, final, collector's edition? Now how about all the same again at twice the resolution that your screen can display and at a level of audio sampling that you can't hear?

Bankrupt ideas from the industry that brought you Jeremy Kyle's performing ESNs.

US unleashes six bloggers in assault on Islamist propaganda

@Andy

"How about they stop acting like the evil empire?"

Well, the thing is, Andy. Can I call you Andy? All right, Andrew then. Have it your way. The thing is, Andrew, that we ARE an evil empire. So, just going the "stop acting like one" route really would be undermining our mission statement, you know?

Yes, sure, we kill people everyday. Thousands a week, probably (we don't bother counting the brown ones). And sure, many of them are children or women or even British troops from time to time. But you don't make an evil empire without breaking some evil eggs; you know what I'm saying here, Andy? Sure you do. You're all right, kid. I liked you the moment you walked in the door.

So, what I'm going to offer you is the same deal I offered Tony (Heeey, Tony!) and Gordon: You take this gun and shoot a few ragheads for me and the boys back home and I absolutely guarantee you that I'll make sure that nothing happens to your oil supply when China comes asking for their cut. It would be a shame if anything did happen, mind you. Because, you know - and I know you'll not mind me telling you this because, in all honesty, we're both in the same boat - without that oil flowing, your economy is down the shitter. And I ain't talking in no airy-fairy "long term" here, no. I'm talking overnight. I'm talking riots in the street before the month is out. I'm talking food shortages and blackouts. Pretty serious stuff - you know?

Now, you don't want to see that happen, do you Andy? No, of course not. You're a nice guy, sure. I can see this bothers you. I think it even bothered Tony and Gordon. But, you know, you probably have a family to support. The economy goes down and what'll they do? Scavange for coal on the beach? Beg? Worse?

Not a nice thought, Andy, is it?

So these Arab guys have the oil and some of them play ball and some of them don't. Guy's like us, Andy, we gotta take a stand with them that don't, y'know. 'Cause, really, it comes down to them or us. And then it's the survival of the fittest. They got oil. We got tanks. A few heads get cracked, but, hey, they ain't OUR heads, right? Am I right? Sure.

You an' me, Andy, we're on the same side 'cause, like I said, we're in the same boat. An' there's no sense in rocking that boat, now is there? We're in it together.

Brown announces new counter-terror plans

@Ross

"[URL removed by author due to local anti terror laws]

Does that mean what I thunk it means?"

Only if you think El Reg is the author of the message.

Court date for challenge to 'new' patent rules

Title

"Copyright protection only protects code against copying. In contrast, patent protection enables a company to monopolise an invention even if competitors independently come up with the same idea."

Which is why they should be scrapped.

Don't give booze to elephants, sobs Paris Hilton

@Ian Hunter

Right, that's it! You're barred.

Great War diary reveals original Captain Blackadder

@Eric Olso

"Just deal with the fact that we don't actually own anything, material or digital. We are renting it until it gives up the ghost. That might be 1 year, it might be 99. It might last 100 generations."

The fact is that how long it lasts depends on how long people are interested enough/able to copy it. Which is the distinction between renting and owning - the DRM rental method prevents the copying that an owner is allowed.

So get a grip and stop applying sixth-former debating society logic to the real world.

Remembering the Commodore PET 2001

Loved it

Had one (8K) and loved it. I learnt how to program from the manual, although assembler eluded me until the Speccy came along.

The motherboard had 5 6502s, I think, and at least one of them could be taken out with no visible effect on the machine's performance (I think it probably controled the edge-connector I/O which as a kid I didn't use much).

Mac OS X Leopard - Time Machine

@Steve Button

"I'd like to be able to get my Mac to backup to the external drive connected to my XP machine, which is out in the garage. Anyone know how I can do that easily?"

Could you not mount the XP's drive as a Samba/Windows/WhateverItsCalledThisWeek share and set Time Machine (or whatever you use) to back up to that?

Classic Mac idiots

Time Machine is a classic example of Apple getting themselves and their sad fans excited about something that the rest of the world finds trivial and has been doing for decades. I had a similar app running on an old Vax 15 years ago.

Meanwhile, Mac users have to put up with unmaintainable hardware and a selection of software that's second to all.

Dreadful company, dreadful products, deadful fans.

Camelot pulls scratchcard amid numerical anarchy

Volts

Voltage is potential *difference* and is therefore inherently absolute, when you say "-110V", the potential difference is 110V, the minus sign is just extra information about what direction the electrons are flowing in the circut, really.

Ballmer nails Founder to Windows mast

Ahh, the smell of the free market

You WILL take this operating system, no matter how much you say you prefer XP.

Microsoft can't even allow Microsoft to compete on an even playing field with Microsoft. How soon before the XP department calls in the DoJ to investigate the Vista department?

MIT sues architect for crap computing-dept campus

Architects

Gehry is a classic example of an architect who's work has only one function: impressing other architects. This is not difficult since most architects are impressed with shiny things like OS X (look: the IT angle!).

The rest of us just have to live with cityscapes that become dated as quickly as any Paris catwalk of similarly fashion-led self-indulgent twaddle (look: the Paris angle too; I'm smoking today!).

Knock the thing down and give the Scottish Parliament farce the same treatment.

Man wrongly detained for 50 days has ISP to thank

@Hmmmmm

"More to the point - Just what is that a picture of?"

If you mean your icon, it's the planet Mars, where the Home Office is now based.

Google's gives the world (another) Linux phone OS

Bollocks to that

I just want cheap phone calls. No camera, no mp3, no SMS even. Just cheap bloody phone calls.

No email privacy rights under Constitution, US gov claims

2nd amendment

Yeah, good luck using your hunting rifle against the government's tanks.

As to encryption in the UK: at least it forces them to tell you that they want to read your mail, and lets you decide if you'll let them

Gee

Next you'll be telling me that the US is run by and for corporate interests.

Even if warrents etc were required, the government would ignore them. The American Constitution is not worth the paper it's printed on. In fact, if you had an original copy it would probably be worth a great deal more than the empty words daubed on it.

Teflon top cop evades justice, responsibility

Cold truth time

This country needs to come to terms with a harsh reality that we've already learnt in respect of paedophiles and politicians: abusers get jobs where they can carry out their abuse.

We need to vet the police to stop people who get off on the idea of guns from being allowed to roam the streets shooting anyone who's the wrong shade of khaki.

The officers who carried out this murder knew the target was no threat. They gave themselves away when they made up all the crap about him acting strangely, jumping barriers, wearing heavy clothing, and refusing to stop when challenged.

Innocent men don't make up such detailed lies in their defence; they knew they'd killed an innocent man, and all the evidence since then points to them not giving a damn.

These people need to be taken off our streets as soon as possible.

Star formation? All a bit of a wind up

Bad Science Alert!

"Dr Phil Lucas, lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, commented: When we combine our observations with sophisticated computer modelling techniques, we were able to show that the shape of magnetic field that could reproduce our observations could only be helical."

That's not how it works, Phil. You can't possibly have checked very shape. What you meant to say was:

"When we combine our observations with sophisticated computer modelling techniques, we found that the only shape of magnetic field we could think of that reproduced our observations was helical."

"Could only be" is a classic sign of sloppy work in science.

Aspect-oriented programming and security

So, basically...

We're talking about sub-routines here. Common funcionality separated into sub-routines.

Is that exciting in 2007?

VoIP is Dead. It's just another feature, now

@Tim J

"here in the UK we've five competing cellular networks."

That is a temporary situation. Since Gordon is mad about free markets being allowed to implode in whatever way they see fit (AKA "ingenuity of the markets"), and the Tories are as usual exactly the same, we will eventually have one cellular network. That's just how Darwinian Capitalism (doesn't) work.

Man who urinated on dying woman for YouTube glory jailed

Why?

Because large parts of our society value celebrity and fame above all else. The tosser said why he was doing it: to be seen doing in on YouTube.

Let's face it: Jeremy Kyle is watched every morning as he's paid to piss on some bunch of unfortunate bastards and no one does anything about that either.

E-borders kills off UK-Ireland passport free travel

@Jason Croghan

I never saw a single security check on the NI/RoI border through the whole of the troubles.

GMail shakes IMAP out of coma

IMAP sucks

Actually, I've nothing more to say than the subject line. POP3 combined with a modern email client is so much better than IMAP that I can't imagine ever switching back. IMAP is a dog.

Ships pollute more than planes

Per what?

I'd love to see a comparison of CO2 per ton of cargo carried (passengers count as cargo, anyone that's traveled EasyJet will tell you). I don't think ships would do too badly in that context. Of course, it is the absolute amount that matters to the atmosphere but you just know figures like this will be used by the airlines to lobby for a right to pollute.

Met's de Menezes photo 'manipulated', says prosecution

@Graham Dawson

"Forget Lockerbie did we?"

No. Lockerbie was a Palistinian operation for which the US stiched up a couple of Islamonuts using the most transparently fake testimony in legal history.

"It isn't right to blame US foreign policy for islamic terrorism, regardless of what's happened here in the UK. Islamic terrorists started blowing things up on Carter's watch"

Not here they didn't.

US foreign policy for the last 100 years has revolved around one thing: control of the Middle East's oil reserves. That is the single solitary reason WTO, Kenya, and 7/7 and all the rest happened (and Lockerbie too). Militant Islam is entirely a product of US foreign policy.

America needs oil in huge quantities every day or it would collapse economically more or less overnight - that's a simple mathematical fact of life and every US administration has the simple task of deciding if they should allow it to happen or kill a few thousand ragheads. So far it has never been a dilema for them.

Or us, their so-called "allies". We're getting bombed because we're involved and we're involved because our wonderful ally has told us that if we're not involved it will go very badly for us. Our governments have not forgotten how our American pals screwed us over after we saved their lives in WWII, so there's little doubt that they'd do it again today.

Mike really is mad

"The difference is that they don't have a large amount of explosive strapped to their bodies and suicidal intent"

Rather like this man, who was wearing a t-shirt and calmly sitting reading the newspaper after having given no indication of any threat to anyone.

"Someone told me to shoot him" was no excuse at Nurnberg and it shouldn't be one here today.

The amount of effort the Met (hardly free of any past taint) has put into lying about what happened speaks volumes about how justified their execution of a passerby was.

"This was a very regretable event, but it will occur again as long as suicide bombers are around."

It will happen again as long as the sort of nutters who join the police firearms sections are allowed carte blanche to slaughter anyone they like with no fear of any consequences other than a rolled up trouser leg and a promotion.

"For whatever reason, we are at war with certain parties."

Yes. "For whatever reason". Because it's totally unclear how 50 years of US foreign policy, murders, and invasions could possibly have made our country a more dangerous place to live, isn't it?

Ofcom: no comeback for TV on analogue spectrum

Fortunately

HD is a waste of money. Crap programmes in HD are still crap and with the exceptions of some sports and porn, nothing actually benefits from higher resolution.

I would far rather have extra bandwidth employed to increasing the bit rate of existing resolution digital braodcasts so that they are brought closer to the quality of analogue images.

Red Hat, Novell sued for patent infringment

Damages

Since the company in question is not producing, nor has ever produced any product or service based on the patent, damages would appear to be nil.

I know that's not how it works, it's just how it should work.

Judge rules Gore's film an inconvenient catalogue of errors

Hmmm

If a person who defends themselves in court has a fool for a client, what does a person who goes to a judge for scientific knowledge have for a pupil?

The oncoming (and already started) Greenland melt IS a huge threat and the idea that it will take "millennia" is laughable.

Beijing's Olympian censorship machine laid bare

Pointless posturing

"With less than a year to go before the Beijing Olympics, there is an urgent need for the government to stop blocking thousands of websites, censoring online news, and imprisoning internet activists."

Yeah, right. I'm sure that the fascist government of China will be really worried about how urgent that is.

They're abusing their citizens, censoring every media and locking people up for speaking out of turn. And what has been their punishment? Billions and billions of dollars, euros and pounds, the massive propaganda-cum-drugsfest that is the olympics, and acceptance onto the world stage of politics. Oh, and a few pathetic whines like this ineffectual piece of crap article.

"Urgent"? Don't make me laugh.

Only Sky can save digital TV

Well, that was a load of crap

It's always worth remembering that SKY gets a huge subsidy from taxpayers too in the form of dodging their tax payments. The rest of us have to pick up the bill, so SKY can go jump as far as I'm concerned.

Their service and programmes suck and I see no reason to believe that they can save digital TV any more than Murdoch has saved quality journalism.

UK police can now force you to reveal decryption keys

Errr

"UK police can now force you to reveal decryption keys"

No, they can't.

Mr WebTV skewers US patent bill

Bullshit

Patents are a government-granted monopoly. Monopolies are bad full stop.

Scrap patents completly. They don't work anymore, if they ever did.