Posts by Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware

The BBC Micro turns 30

Re: Ah !

6809, the only CPU, IIRC, with 'BRA' and 'SEX' as assembler mnemonics.

BRanch Always and Sign EXtended, since you ask.

Re: I remember the playground factions...

I had a Dragon, so there were at least a handful of us to the hordes of Beeb/Speccy boys, but I know where you're coming from.

Re: BBC Spectrum divide myth.

Nah. CBM 64 didn't arrive in the UK for a whole year after the Beeb's release. It didn't factor in my fellow comprehensive scholars as much as the BBC and Spectrum did.

Re: i'm off for a walk down memory lane...

Only shame is you can't go and do it in WHSmith, Boots, Laskey's, etc any longer

Acer, Samsung, Lenovo line up behind Nvidia Tegra 3

Re: A five core chip for mobile?

Fear not, 80 per cent of the cores will be powered down if you're not playing games. Most of the time only one core will be running.

Which, of course, begs the question why buy a Tegra 3 if four-fifths of it won't be used 99 per cent of the time?

CamScanner

Re: just to be clear

Sam, since you'd already said you'd be taking your page views elsewhere, there seemed little point in responding.

Since you ask, my view is that the use of swear words is entirely commensurate with the age, outlook and robustness of the vast majority of El Reg's readers.

FWIW, The Onion's comedy is hilarious - precisely because of the swearing. Could the author have used a tamer source? Certainly, but the review would have been less engaging and entertaining.

Personally, I also think it's important not to take offence when no offence is intended, as is the case here. One should feel more confident in one's beliefs when some else is seemingly rude about them. Turn the other cheek, etc.

Sorry to see you go, especially after staying with the site for so long.

Ten... top Xbox Live game downloads

Re: Hidden agenda

Easy to conclude, but utterly, utterly wrong.

Re: hmm

Doom has had plenty of coverage in this organ of late:

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/23/antique_code_show_id_software_doom/

Inside the BBC's R&D Labs

Re: incidental music volume control

Hear, hear.

(Pun not intended)

Amazon Kindle Fire

Re: Side-loaded Video works fine on the Fire

Erm, that's exactly what it says in the review...

Apple iPhone owners are the most loyal smartphone buyers

Re:

Indeed, and for all the folks out there who bizarrely don't appreciate having the choice of selecting whether they like iOS, Android or BlackBerry best, just imagine a world where there is Windows Mobile on handsets... and NOTHING ELSE.

UK retailers launch pre-Xmas sales Yank style

Re: "ape American traditions"

You don't think any of those really involve demanding confectionary with menaces, do you?

HP unwraps Ultrabook

Re: Ultrabook the new Centrino

For the record, Intel has said nothing about cash to vendors.

It doesn't need to pay them. Ultrabook is a trademark that Intel will spend millions advertising. Vendors know that, and Intel knows they will want to use the trademark on their products.

Use of the trademark requires adherence to Intel's (broad) spec, that's all.

Google serves up Ice Cream Sandwich code

Re: Something missing...

Go on, Barry, you know you really want to turn this thread into a pro-Sony rant.

Electric car crash leads to battery blaze

Re:

Also remember that the shit coming out of your average diesel's tailpipe is a major cause of respiratory disease in cities the world over.

Netflix signs Reservoir Dogs film firm for UK streaming

Re: You don't set up in opposition to Lovefilm without a comparable quantity of content

Indeed, but don't expect Netflix UK to offer the same range of content as Netflix US. Different market, different contracts.

Ten... best Blu-ray movies of 2011

Re: what a god awful selection of films

They're rated as Blu-ray Discs, not as films. That's another article entirely.

Eleven - if you will - rocktastic music movies

Re: My thoughts exactly.

Nah. Blues Brothers is only funny if you're off your head. And then *anything's* funny.

If you too went to university in the mid-1980s and got rapidly sick of students constantly saying they're on a mission from God, you'd know what I mean.

Re: Yellow Submarine

You're right we should have had Yellow Submarine in there.

Good call, sir.

Re: Yeah ye can

We ruled out Tommy because it's a musical and not actually about musicians.

Re:

Crikey, Slade's "Flame". I'd completely forgotten about that.

This is getting dangerously close to "From Russia with Elton" territory...

Hands on with the Sony PlayStation Vita

Re: Not allowed to comment it seems

Commentards are very welcome to slag each other off and call each other names, but I will reject comments that make personal attacks on the site and/or its staff.

Don't like that? Tough. This is not a democracy. There are no first amendment rights.

Anyone who dislikes this is very welcome to delete their El Reg and/or Reg Hardware bookmark(s), and no further correspondence will be entered into, etc, etc.

Re: Re: BUG

Normal service has been resumed.

Thanks for your patience, folks.

Re: BUG

You're right, some are missing - apologies for this. Sony sending us bloody CMYK images, which not all browsers support.

This is being fixed now.

Smartphones rocket past consoles for mobile game sales

Re:

Angry Birds isn't the only phone game around, you know. There are many that can match a good handheld console title, though not the best DS or PSP titles, I'll grant you.

Thing is though, the fact punters are voting with their wallets and buying the phone games shows phones are delivering the games they want to play.

Renault Fluence ZE

Re:

True. We have to get used to rising energy costs no matter what. Strewth, some of you lot might even have to turn a few of your computers off.

Re: Too expensive to run.

True, but if you think petrol will stay at £1.35 a litre when the economy (eventually) picks up, you're going to be in for a shock. *That's* when leccy becomes cost-effective, but you're right, it's not there yet.

Re: Range

Since you don't own the battery, it shouldn't matter what gets swapped with what, as long as it works.

Nokia's Windows comeback: Great but what's next?

Re: Must ... fight ... bias

I'm not buying one, either: judging from the Lumia 800 ads, I am completely the wrong demographic, ie. not a 20-something party animal living in the big city for the first time. Ditto most of the folk here, I suspect.

Ofcom boss warns of low interest in 'superfast' broadband

Re:

National Grid laid a gas man?

Not my cup of tea, but I know a lot of guys who'd pay a lot to see that video.

Chell clips Cant to top Play School presenter slot

Re: Brian Cant Exterminated!

You'd want to be exterminated too if they gave you such a daft name... Kurt Gantry indeed.

Ten... high-end Android tablets

Re: Bias alert

Hackers care about Micro SD and full USB support, ordinary punters do not. Ditto the 'walled garden'. Honeycomb, primarily aimed at the techies, should have had this technology; the iPad, aimed at the latter group, does not. As we clearly state in the next line, Android 3.1 fixes those 3.0 failings.

Re: Written by an iPad owner I think..

The writer does not own an iPad, and as much as you might achingly hope that Android has a higher market share than it does, all market data - vendor shipments and sell-through - suggests it does not.

Sorry to puncture your wee bubble, 'Barry'

Panasonic preps rubber-clad Android tablet

Re: Fondleslab -- HA HAAA HO HO HA HA HEE HO

Tough luck - we like it.

Elgato EyeTV Mobile

Re: "iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone"

Can't address the iPod Touch, but it works on my iPhone 4.

Sony Alpha SLT-A35 translucent mirror camera

Re: FPS - i/p?

The information you seek is in the Vital Stats box.

Modern Warfare 3 flogged on eBay for a grand

Re: Re: Don't like that clip

And thank feck it wasn't a dog that was blown up...

Re: Don't like that clip

FPS fun? Ah yes, blasting virtual humans into gib.

And the difference here is...? :-)

The Great Smartphone OS Shoot-out

Re: Opera on iOS has Reflow

True, but Opera doesn't come with iOS out of the box, which is the situation we're considering here.

Duke Nukem Forever dev slams unfair reviews

Re: Yes but it's true.

FWIW, our DNF reviewer is rather older than that.

Samsung Galaxy Note and Nexus rooted

Re:

Yes

Nokia CEO talks up Windows 8 tablet 'opportunity'

Re: Oh Microsoft

MS only Windows 8 advantage: Mac OS X Lion is worse.

Moto rolls out Xoom 2 Android fondleslabs

Re: The prices are already there

What, £380 is £100 less than £399?

PlayStation 3 sales catch up with Xbox 360 total

Re:

Because he's a Sony fanboi and has it beamed into his head straight from Sir Howard Stringer.

HTC Titan WinPho 7.5 smartphone

Re: Apple bias

Sim free, the 16GB Titan is £480. Sim free the 16GB iPhone 4S is £499.

That's a four per cent price premium for the Apple over the HTC.

Pete Townshend condemns Apple as 'digital vampire'

Re: Music is for sharing

That was a public live performance, and so covered by a whole mess of different regulations.

BBC iPlayer to require TV licence

Re: Yup, just add it to PAYE

If I don't have a telly, why should my tax money go to funding a TV service I don't use?

You can make a case for funding because it's for the public good if you're talking about the NHS, the cops and the fireservice, but the BBC? Hell, no.

Nokia celebrates milestone with nostalgic exhibition

Re:

Banged to rights - Caleb can't count.

Official: Kindles get heavier as you add e-books

Re: I am not a physicist

We like to chuck the odd metaphorical hand grenade into the commentard pit now and then.

Re: Eh?

I think you're taking this story far too seriously.