Posts by druck

Dropbox nukes bloke's file share in DMCA brouhaha – then admits it made a 'HASH OF IT'

Re: Hope they're using a good hash

Just append a zero byte to the file, and the hash collision is solved.

Sick of walking into things while gawping at your iPhone? Apple has a patent app. for that

Re: Prior Art

There was RoadSMS when I had my first Android phone, amusement value of at least 3 seconds.

Bletchley boffins go to battle again: You said WHAT about Colossus?

Re: Colossus is in H Block

Andy Taylor wrote:

Finally, the fence has been erected with gates which remain open at present. What happens when they are closed remains to be seen.

I saw we start a tunnel from underneath hut 11.

Intel reinvents the PC as giant 'Black Brook' fondleslab

AC wrote:

I'm guessing you haven't used a large touch screen display but like our MPs don't regard ignorance as a reason not to go out of your way to tell people your opinion.

You guess wrong, but thanks for hiding behind an AC so we can't see your history of posting such baseless accusations.

I hate to dismiss a form factory out of hand, but touch just doesn't work on a screen that big. It's fine to use with thumbs on a 4-5 inch smart-phone, its fine to use on a 7-10 inch tablet to browse with on your knee, but to have to swipe your entire arm across a 21" screen sitting on a table - that gets painful very quickly. And that's before we even talk about trying to use the Windows 8 desktop on such a system.

RIP Full Disclosure: Security world reacts to key mailing list's death

Whoever is making the delete request should be named, so they can be subjected to the wrath they so richly deserve.

Panasonic slaps Freetime EPG on 2014 smart tellies

No Ads

I hope the new EPG is ad free, unlike previous Panasonic aberrations.

BuzzGasm: 9 Incredible Things You Never Knew About PLIERS!

The Doctor

Sonic pliers would have been so much more useful than a screwdriver.

Health boffins say wind turbines don't make you sick

Plenty of ill affects

Maybe in the vast empty expanse of Austria they couldn't find anyone affected, but in the UK with the damn things springing up everywhere, there are thousands of people affected by the horrific noise they make, and many epilepsy suffers triggered by the flickering when the sun is low.

Then there are in the indirect effects, every wind turbine should come with an attached memorial plaque to a dead pensioner, who froze to death after not being able to pay energy bills pushed up by the huge subsidies paid to renewables.

And lastly there is my blood pressure pushed up by thinking of the sheer stupidity of wind power economics, with highly efficient gas plant being switched off when the wind blows and back on when it stops, which does of CO2 emissions exactly what start/stop driving does for your car's mpg.

It is an obscene green con, which we are all having to pay for through our energy bills.

'Wind power causes climate change' shown to be so much hot air

Re: Nope, this is all about getting rid of them because they're unsightly.

Nothing has been proved, all someone did was develop a model which gave them the answer they wanted - pretty much like the rest of the climate change research. It doesn't look like anyone has actually measured the affects on an area before and after a windfarm was built.

Samsung leaps out of volume PC game as UK market crashes

I agree in that for most users there isn't the performance improvement to make upgrading worthwhile, there also isn't a huge difference between laptop and desktop performance for real world tasks either. I have a very modest i3 laptop to which I added an SSD, and since then I really don't notice any difference between that my a i7 desktop for more things. In fact I'm having to run 4 Linux VMs on it, so the 8 threads and 16GB of memory have something to do.

Microsoft's new CEO: The technology isn't his problem

Re: More like a PR relkease then a serious review

fishman wrote:

It's amazing that it is that low. Considering that it is the default search engine for IE, and most users are too lazy/don't care/can't figure out how to change the search engine in IE, you would think that it would have a much greater market share.

That 20% is down to people typing "google" in to Bing, then using Google for the next 4 searches.

Plusnet is working on a network-level filter to block pirate sites

Or giving us secure email access?

BT-owned ISP Plusnet fails to plug security hole on its customer signup page

No secure email

Their email servers still offer no security after 4+ years of complaints, so is unsuitable for use from public networks.

Fasthosts goes titsup after storm-induced power outage

Re: Where were the generators?

We are talking a substation covering several acres, I don't think they come in portable versions.

Re: Where were the generators?

You need those generators to last 30 days if you are located in Gloucester.

North Gloucestershire came within 1 inch of loosing its main substation following the 2007 floods. The substation was unmanned and wasn't checked until 48 hours after the rainfall, at which point they found the control room starting to flood. The only reason it was saved is the flood barriers meant for Upton-upon(in)-Severn where stored elsewhere and couldn't be transported to the village in time with all the roads blocked, so were available to be redeployed to the substation. The army had to be called in to top it with sandbags before the spring tide arrived (the river Severn is tidal to south of Tewkesbury), and just kept it from going under.

As it was Gloucester was only without power for 3 or 4 days when it was shut down as a precaution, but it could have been weeks if not months if it had flooded when operational. But just as that crisis was averted, the water treatment plant at Tewkesbury flooded, and we were without mains water for 6 weeks - which wasn't pleasant.

Re: A bit amateur-ish and not entirely honest, it seems

This is cock-up just the latest instalment in a long long list of failures. Look for the many previous stories about this blight of Gloucestershire's IT reputation.

Panasonic will go Firefox OS for TVs

Please Mozilla, make sure there is something in the contract about not letting Panasonic plaster adverts over the EPG if they use Firefox OS.

Scientists discover supervolcano trigger that could herald humanity's doom

Re: Probability and Mathematics

We wont get 7 billion off the planet, so we'll need to cross off a few names. Lets start with all those who wont be able to get along in a tin can travelling through space, because they have arguments over who's flying spaghetti monster is best.

Windows Phone app developers: These games are made for you

Desperation

Nothing says desperation like paying for a promo for app development.

Nothing says desperation like accepting a promo for Windows phone.

I had hoped for better from The Register.

Excise Xmas prezzie indecision MISERY with El Reg’s gift guide²

Re: Parent present

Plenty of new hudls going on e-bay for a small mark up, if you are really desperate to get them before Christmas.

Camera for oldies

If you are getting a decent camera for oldies, or just anyone over 40, get one with a viewfinder and dioptre adjustment so they can use with or without glasses. With just a screen on the back, they'll either have to have to hold it at arms lengths to see, or find the correct pair of glasses for close up, and then wont be able to see what's going on around them.

Twitterers rally round #CensoredUK - to demand more porn

Re: Good luck with that

VPNs are then only available to registered business users on business tariffs.

US military's RAY-GUN truck BLASTS DRONES, mortars OUT OF THE SKY

Re: Not quite the first thing to take out...

Taking out a faster than light weapon just means throwing more conventional weapons at it than it can engage simultaneously, as is the case for any technology, or even just storming a machine gun post.

Teary-eyed snappers recall the golden age of film

Nigel Whitfield wrote:

Using film at least forces you to think "I only have 36 shots" and certainly I find that I spend more time looking round, taking in the splendour of somewhere, and deciding what might make a good shot, from a particular angle. And, when I do return home, I have the memory of actually drinking in a magnificent sight with my own eyes, rather then second hand.

It was like that for me with my first digital 2.1mpix camera, I went out to Australia for 3 weeks with only two 16MB cards, but luckily found an affordable 64MB card during the stop over at Singapore airport. That still only gave me a ration of 10 pictures a day, but I took a lot better shots than most of the ones now when I can fit a few thousand 12mpix shots on a 16GB card.

Googlers devise DeViSE: A thing-recognising FRANKENBRAIN

Re: The real inspector gadget? (classification of live video)

What would it make of this video?

When the lights went out: My 'leccy-induced, bog floor crawling HORROR

Re: @Peter Simpson

I bought 3 Cree 9W GUI10s for the bathroom to when one of the halogens blew after about 4 years of use. The first bulb failed after about 10 minutes, the second 5 minutes later tripping the breaker. They looked naff anyway, so back in went a sub £1 halogen rather than a £7 LED. Luckily Amazon gave a full refund.

Sensors and sensibility: Quirky’s Spotter multi-purpose monitor module

Re: Was briefly enthused...

If it did allow that, I'd buy a dozen of them right now. The hardware is just what I've been after, but the software needs a rethink.

On the matter of shooting down Amazon delivery drones with shotguns

Re: Guns won't work, so let's look at alternatives...

How about fighting kites?

Brit-boy Bates is Silicon Valley's pick for Microsoft's CEO

Re: As a techie

But who would he flog Microsoft off to for 10x it's real value?

Mass Effect: Ten lightweight laptops that won’t bust your back

Re: Asus X102BA Touch Laptop - £289?

A step up from that is the ASUS Vivobook S200e, 11.6" touchscreen, 4GB/500GB, 1.8GHz i3 for around 400 quid.

The Shoreditch STARTUP SCENE is a load of TRIPE: And that's why it's GREAT

Re: If only..

HSBC and Barclays are major UK banks, not bailed out by the treasury.

DON'T PANIC: No FM Death Date next month, minister confirms

I remember a little later on when Radio 2 had its own FM channel, but lent it to radio 1 for a couple of hours a week, one of which was on a Sunday morning. I used to wait to return to hear the music in wonderful clear stereo, rather than the dull mono of AM. When I heard that most DAB channels were in low bit rate mono, I swore never to adopt it. Think of the outrage if they switched of colour analogue TV, and digital was only in black and white.

Fancy knocking off early? Just run our fake computer crash 'virus', say admen

32GB

I populated all 4 slots of my Intel motherboard, and now I get that BSOD at no extra charge.

ROBOT SWARM positions itself over EARTH ... to probe our magnetic field

Magnetic variation twice over.

Four poles is going to make the compass navigation part of the pilots licence a lot more difficult.

Gift-laden Russian cargoship blasts off, heads for International Space Station

MPEG2

You'd think they would use a better codec.

HP’s ENORMO-SLAB: The Slate 21 MONSTER tablet

Why no TV tuner?

It's the size of a TV, so why no TV tuner?

Why Microsoft absolutely DOESN'T need its own Steve Jobs

Secure software, my arse!

Microsoft devoted itself to security and over the course of a decade became a world leader in secure software design and implementation

You forgot to flag that comment Doctor Who @ 50 and in an alternative universe...

SP Ausnet picks Ericsson for 3G smart meter rollout

In the dark

Do these ones have a remote kill switch?

Wintel must welcome Androitel and Chromtel into cosy menage – Intel

Re: Wintel irrelevance == x86 irrelevance

Nigel11 wrote:

Intel has nothing interesting to offer the ARM community.

Not true. Intel's process technology is second to none. If they process-shrank and fabbed ARM chips, they would be the best ARM chips on the planet anywhere in the power - performance envelope.

But not anywhere in the price/power/performance envelope, that state of the art fab process doesn't come cheap. Having a processor costing thousands of dollars rather than tens of dollars isn't going go down well, even in a top of the range phone or tablet.

If Intel has to reduce margins down to be comparable to other ARM licensees, their lead in fabs wont last long, as they wont be able to fund the next generation.

Google's Schmidt predicts end to global censorship in a DECADE

Re: Spam

Tell that to people spammed from gmail accounts, particularly on newsgroups.

GAH: Now it's INSTAGRAM and Windows Phone 8

Follow the money

Come on Reg, find out how much Microsoft had to pay them to port it.

Prime Minister David Cameron in Twitter gaffe

Re: How much????

AC wrote:

Just how beautiful a woman, how extreme a kink, can you get for ₤800 that you couldn't just as easily get for ₤100?

Not much as ₤100 is only £0.04, even ₤800 is only £0.35

(At 1999 exchange rates before the Italian Lire was replaced by the €)

The micro YOU used in school: The story of the Research Machines 380Z

Re: That’s changed my opinion of Research Machines

I too was surprised by the early innovation of the RM founders, compared to what it later became; selling under powered PC clones with obscenely expensive support contracts to schools.

Security researcher Cédric 'Sid' Blancher dead at 37

Re: You would think

You want nuts, try cave divers. Apparently every cave diver knows 3 other cave drivers that have died.

Is computer biz Viglen about to GET FIRED? Lord Sugar's firm in rumoured sell-off

Re: Viglen customer here

It's been downhill all the way since they stopped doing the green stripy bordered adverts for BBC Micro peripherals in Acorn User magazine.

REJOICE! Windows 7 users can get IE11 ... soon they'll have NO choice

John P wrote:

No digging out of product keys required. Open store, click on half page button for Windows 8.1 upgrade, go away for 2 hours, come back and its done,

Alternatively: "Something happened and Windows 8.1 couldn't be installed. Please try again. Error code: 0x8007004"

It's the Inter-THREAT of THINGS: Lightbulb ARMY could turn on HUMANITY

Re: What?

Nigel 11 wrote:

A more sensibly net-connected gadget is your fridge. It could be registered with the National Grid as a device that can be commanded "off" at a moment of critically high demand. A fridge will stay cold enough for at least half an hour without power.

You can already do that without any Internet of things or registering with the national grid. The device just watches the mains frequency and temporarily turns off when the frequency drops a fraction of a Hz under nominal, which is what happens when there is a demand spike. See this graph.

Vulture 2 spaceplane STRIPPED to the bone

Re: Dihedral

The Bell X-1 had a very experienced test pilot on board, and even then it wasn't an easy ride.

China funds devs to write smog-clearing vidcam code

Perv scanners

I'm sure they could adapt the airport perv scanners we are (hopefully) getting rid of. Would also help to spot anything disharmonious concealed under clothing.