Brexit bias much?
Why the link to brexit here when Toblerone themselves said it had nothing to do with brexit?
El Reg is becoming the tech resource for snowflakes and leftards.
Posts by Mark Fenton
83 publicly visible posts • joined 31 May 2007
Toblerone's Brexit trim should be applied to bloatware
Apple hasn't announced the new iPhone 5SE and pundits already hate it
Thursday 25th February 2016 10:19 GMT
Re: I agree they need to keep a 4" phone in the lineup
I agree completely. The 5 I have at the moment is pretty much the max size that I want from a phone - for anything else I'll use a tablet or a PC. I could afford an iPhone 6 - budget isn't the issue. Size is. The 6 and all the new Android phones (of any decent spec) are all too big. Decent spec != big.
Give us lots of memory, decent CPU and battery in a smaller screen. I'd buy a 4S sized one if I could.
What would happen if Earth fell into a black hole?
Wednesday 17th February 2016 13:44 GMT
Spaghettification - not always
Being stretched out depends on the gravitational gradient - however for a given event horizon diameter the gradient could be pretty much any value.
A very dense mass being a small sphere at the centre of the event horizon would have a much steeper gradient than a less dense mass that was just very big.
Also - many people forget that escape velocity (and hence escaping from a black hole) only applies to projectiles.
You don't need to reach escape velocity to get to the moon - you could walk there if there was a staircase long enough - in that case you are under power. The reason why our rockets go so quickly has little to do with escape velocity and more to do with energy density.
You could drive a car to the moon (250,000 miles). But you need fuel. So you pull a fuel tanker. And your fuel consumption goes up. So you need more fuel...and so on.
So you get a kind of fuel that is more energy dense - until the payload to the moon isn't quite such a tiny percentage of the mass of the fuel/payload combination.
Trouble is, with the fuels that we currently use that are energy dense enough - they are hard to control - and go off, well, like a rocket.
Got off track there a bit I think.
How to build a starship - and why we should start thinking about it now
Thursday 28th January 2016 12:01 GMT 
Another science free article from the conversation
Why all the re-hashed science free/lite stuff from the conversation?
El Reg of old would have discussed things like the recent innovations and discoveries with regards impulse engines - giving us constant acceleration (ok, low acceleration - but still, it adds up pretty quickly) drives without a reaction mass.
Lets have some proper hard science in the science section of El Reg rather than a piece saying, essentially "wouldn't it be nice to go to another world".
Sena's multi-action camera monster, or Cardo's PackTalk club rider juggernaut?
Monday 25th January 2016 16:53 GMT
Technology has regressed
I find that I have little need or desire to listen to music on the bike and also I don't want to be disturbed mid-corner by a telephone call. What I want from bike intercoms is the ability to easily talk to others in the group.
20yrs ago I had a radio intercom system - easy to use and the 2xAA batteries would last forever. It was vox activated and you could easily set it up - range was good for a mile line-of-sight and may be 1/2 mile in built up areas. Great for "which way at the next turning" and "watch out for the idiot in the blue car" and so on.
Recently looked to buy a new set of intercoms and I couldn't find any VOX activated and the Bluetooth ones (whilst giving me functionality that I didn't want) only had a minimal range.
Went down the line of buying some radio walky-talkies and a pair of vox headsets which allowed me Velcro the mic and speakers inside my lid no problems. No connections to a PTT button. Total cost for the pair about £150 and a range of 5miles line-of-sight.
Why don't manufacturers make things we want instead of giving us inferior range and gadgets we don't need?
I guess that's like the smartphone debate though - lots of great gadgets - less good for using as a phone for any length of time. Thing is, on a motorbike you don't want distracting gadgets....
Blocking out the Sun won't fix climate change – but it could buy us time
Coding with dad on the Dragon 32
Talk revealing p0wnable surveillance cams pulled after legal threat
Thursday 8th October 2015 08:39 GMT
Or just put it behind a firewall?
Surely no-one puts a device directly onto the internet?
Put everything behind a firewall, open only the ports that *need* to be opened.
In the case of these cams - I think that I have a few of them, but they are secure behind my firewall and allow *no* ports to the outside world. I can access them via a .aspx page that in turn collates snapshots from the private network and turns that into a stream.
Yes, if someone gets access to my private network then all bets are off - but that is pretty much the case with everything.
Google dumps ISP email support. Virgin Media takes ball, stomps home
Elite:Dangerous goes TITSUP
Monday 5th January 2015 10:07 GMT
Agree with this
Played over the Christmas period - as guests and children and dogs would allow. Didn't notice any issues.
Having a great time with it.
Re the solo mode - it requires such low bandwidth that you can play it with your mobile phone (3G) as a WiFi hotspot on a train...
I think most of the +tive players will be just playing, and all the -tive ones will be whining about it.
Space Commanders lock missiles on Elite's Frontier Devs
Microsoft lathers up Windows 8.0 Surface RT for quick price shave
Fanbois get Outlook app for iOS, but only if they sign up for Office 365
Lego X-wing fighter touches down in New York's Times Square
Yay for iOS 6.1, grey Wi-Fi iPhone bug is fix- AWW, SNAP
Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:40 GMT 
Works for on my machine
...(I know I shouldn't say that...I slap testers for saying that...)....but still...I bought my iPhone 4s because it is the only modern device that works with my in car bluetooth. I'd rather be having a....that is a different story.
Anyways - upgraded through all the various OS incarnations through to 6.1 - and all is still well. WiFi can be switched on/off no problems. In fact I'd never even heard of this issue before.
That said, if it had happened to me - I'd be right royally ticked off. And yes - Apple are supposed to be about standard hardware/firmware - so this shouldn't ever happen!
Getting my coat for saying "it works on my machine"
Vauxhall Ampera hybrid e-car
The Register is rocking on Windows Phone 7
Microsoft mulls backside display for mobiles
Surprise: Neil Young still hates digital music
James Bond savages the Kardashians
Kindle Fire gets root access
Thursday 17th November 2011 12:14 GMT
Not only don't Amazon care about folks rooting their Kindles - they don't de-root them when they issue an upgrade. I had installed a screensaver hack on my Kindle - then the s/w updated itself and I was all prepared to have to sort out the screensaver again - but no - the update preserved the original hack for me.
Very different from "other" suppliers.
Agency sends contractors' day rates to 800 RBS staff
Apple iCloud pricing revealed
dabs.com says sorry for delivery debacle
Open source .NET mimic rises from Novell ashes
Bloke with hammer fixes London's Olympic clock
Home Office crime maps go to street-level detail
Cable vendor slapped for unproven claims
Thursday 13th January 2011 11:33 GMT
Actually...unlikely to be a kettle lead...
...more likely to be an IEC power lead - a kettle lead has a slightly different connector on the end.
And, I imagine the Russ Andrews would be charging £2k for one of those - due to its high power handling in extreme environments!
Mines the one with the bag full of snake oil in the pocket.
Windows Phone 7 gets unlocked
Tuesday 30th November 2010 16:22 GMT
Android...
You said <<Android tries to sidestep the problem by providing a tick box to switch off the security mechanisms that prevent rogue applications being installed, but what proportion of users have ticked it we don't know.>>
At least on my HTC Desire, you have to find the check box and select before you can install non signed apps. The default is to not allow it.
Phone 7: Another Vista or another XP?
Friday 22nd October 2010 18:18 GMT 
I was going to buy one...
...but no. I don't want a toy phone. I want to be able to mount as USB drive on any computer I go to, I want to sync with Exchange and I don't have a Facebook account. I don't want a "social phone" I want a smartphone that I can use to do the tasks that I want it to...
I had high hopes for Mobile 7, but this really blows.
Opera Mobile for Android: Nearly there!
RUSE
BBC chief acknowledges DAB flop & internet radio
Tuesday 6th July 2010 14:05 GMT
Radio 4 on internet is waste of bandwidth...
...I have internet radios all through my house. I listen to stations from all over the world, usually at 96Kbs - and this gives fine quality. However, why is BBC Radio 4 256Kbs?! It is only talking, and doesn't need the huge bandwidth required.
My neighbour has an internet radio similar to mine - where if you cycle the power it automatically starts playing the last station (Radio 4) - and there was a power cut when they were on holiday. 2 weeks later, they had used all their internet download allowance...
Whatever happened to the email app?
Sci-fi and fantasy authors wade into Amazon spat
Friday 5th February 2010 22:42 GMT
Also...Amazon wanted a monopoly on eBooks...
...they wanted to have a contract such that MacMillan couldn't charge less (through any other distributor) than whatever Amazon wanted to charge - and MacMillan would have no say over what Amazon charged - so they could effectively give the books away
Council saves quarter mil' from mobile bill
Tuesday 2nd February 2010 21:17 GMT
A lot of complainers here...
...seem to be bitching cos Derby saved £250,000 - surely we should be complaining when councils waste £250,000 rather than just assuming that the saving wasn't a good deal?
That kind of thinking leaves us with a government that spends money and spends and spends and any suggestion of money saving is all about cutting services...
Oh, wait.,...
Lightning catches up with Thunderbird
Brown says the 'C' word
Wednesday 16th September 2009 00:52 GMT 
I like how he has changed history...
...keep saying the lie long enough and everyone believes it.
"The 'downturn' is the fault of America".
Oh...so spending *way* beyond our means for the past umpteen years would have no impact at all...and didn't Northern Rock nearly fall before Lehman Brothers? The USA could even blame us for the start of it!
Clarkson was right in his description of Brown..."One eyed Scottish idiot".
Peugeot to offer in-car Wi-Fi in 2010
Microsoft cries foul over Google Outlookware
Thursday 18th June 2009 10:30 GMT 
Search on Outlook 2007...
..is hidden. The "advanced find" context menu option is no longer there. You can still use it though by press ctrl-shift-F. Why MS have hidden it I don't know.
I know this because I disabled Desktop Search on my vista installation (I have never had any problems finding my documents -so I don't need another service slowing my machine down) and then the search options went awol in Outlook 2007.
I've since gone back to Outlook 2003 because it is way faster...but that is another story.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
