Posts by druck

Intel roadmap leak shows quad-core Atoms for 2014

2014?

Is that really 2014 and not 2013? The pace of Atom development is truly pathetic, the door is wide open for ARM to own this segment.

UK digital terrestrial TV turns 14 today

Re: Channel 5

If you could actually tell it was a grumble flick through the fuzz on the under powered analogue broadcast on most transmitters.

Ballmer comes not to praise Sinofsky but to bury him

Re: Nothing to see here

Sinofsky is off now to Elop some other poor company for a couple of years, and will be back to take over the CEO role when the board have finally had enough of Ballmer.

Liberator: the untold story of the first British laptop part 1

Re: Too much deference.. big waste of money

What the hell as the 1991 USSR coup got to do with the choice of electronic note taker in the early 80s?

Re: Too much deference.. big waste of money

Are you seriously advocating that the Civil Service should have rushed in to getting screwed over by Microsoft, even earlier?

Sinofsky OFFSKI: Is Windows 9 now codenamed 'Defenestrate'?

My Money's on...

...Ballmer seeing the writing on the wall and getting rid of Sinofsky before the board moves him in to the CEO role.

Expect Sinofsky to pop back up in a few months to Elop some poor Nokia like fading giant.

Sinclair BASIC comes to Raspberry Pi

Re: The Point?

Why would anyone want the inferior Spectrum BASIC on a Pi when you can have the full BBC BASIC experience via the RISC OS port. Unless its so Speccy owners can cry themselves to sleep all over again, because they parents couldn't afford a BBC Micro.

RISC OS comes to Raspberry Pi

Great News

I'll be rummaging through the drawers tonight to find a SD card to put the RISC OS image on, then firing up the Pi.

Arduino barebones board upgraded with 32-bit ARM

Re: w00t

I've got a Raspberry Pi and like the look of these boards for the digital and analogue I/O, however how do you hook them up to a network so the Raspberry Pi can monitor them?

Map law could see China confiscate mobes at Customs

Re: Could we try the same here?

We aren't that petty, the Argies can call them anything they like, but they aren't getting them as long as the Falklanders want to be British.

I can see the Spanish confiscating any maps which show Gibraltar, as leave it out of all theirs.

Apple to drop chip-baking partnership with Samsung?

Re: Here a Troll, there a Troll, everywhere a Troll Troll

It's time to and anonymous comments on smartphone stories. If people want to post crap about different platforms, they need to stand up and be counted.

Metric versus imperial: Reg readers weigh in

Re: oh please

As already mentioned, flying at altitude is in Flight Levels which are nominally 100's of feet, based on the standard sea level pressure of 1013.25mb. When the pressure at sea level is lower the actual is height is also lower, and when the pressure is higher the height is higher.

The only time the height in 1000's of feet is used, is when the crew make announcements to the passengers. If it was thought that the passengers would understand meters or even linguines better, then they are free to use that instead.

Re: Flight Level

Correct on flight levels and regional pressure heights above mean sea level (QNH), additional some air fields still use QFE which is height above the runway at the local pressure setting, which has the advantage of 0 being where the ground is.

It’s official: Google shrinks the world!

Re: Are you anti-European and anti SI?

I'm sorry but we will have no truck with the comma instead of decimal point nonsense around here.

Sarah Brightman plans International Space Station gig

<- It's her

In Space no one can hear you scream sing - THANK GAWD!

ARM upstart Calxeda pours $55m into server chip war chest

Re: 64-bit vs 32-bit

AC@17:42 writes: Have seen at least one web development contract where customer requirement dictates x86_64 but no reason whatsoever for that.

There are a number of reasons for specifying x86_64 instead of x86_32 over and above the 64bit memory handling, such as more registers and additional instructions.

40,000 sign petition to oust Rep. Paul 'pit of hell' Broun

Re: "Scientific beleifs" is an oxymoron

Flocke Kroes wrote: There are no "scientific beliefs". Science does not depend on faith

Climate 'science'?

Only buy Huawei or ZTE if you like being SPIED ON - US politicos

Re: Jesus christ...

When tendering for infrastructure of national importance, if a vendor isn't willing to submit all firmware for analysis, such as by the CESG in the UK, then don't buy from them.

Skydiver sets date for 'supersonic' edge-of-space PLUNGE

Next stop...

...re-entry from orbit. Some type of personal aero-shell heat-shield, then pretty much as they are doing here but higher and a lot faster.

UK.gov squatting on £1bn IPv4 motherlode

Re: Yes, but look at it this way

A single /8 wastes just 3 potential IPv4 addresses. 65536 separate /24s would be wasting 196608 potential addresses; while 1048576 separate /28s would be wasting a whopping 3145728 addresses!

Or again; a non publicly routeable /8 wastes the full 16,777,216 potential addresses.

Microsoft announces Office 2013, Office 365 pricing

Re: Office 365 will be my first purchase

Zero marks for a blatant 1st post astro truf, run along back to Redmond.

In the meantime we'll get along fine with a copy of Libra Office and Dropbox for sharing between computers, at a cost of zilch.

VCs snaffle £200m of UK taxpayer gold ... to bet on high-risk biz

Re: Growing the state

Unfortunately the Conservatives are in coalition with certain Lib Dems who are very much of the left wing interventionist mould.

UK data-blurt cockups soared 1,000 PER CENT over last five years

Re: fines...

Criminal prosecutions are the only real deterrent.

Number-plate spycams riddled with flaws, top cop admits

Re: Probably just me but...

Kevin Johnston wrote:

I would rather have 20 or 100 ANPR cameras rather than one speed camera

You do know that at the push of a button the ANPR system could be turned in to the worlds biggest average speed camera system? Unlike SPECs systems which calculate average speeds between two points on one road, ANPR can calculate the average speed between any two cameras in the country. If that worked out faster than they thought was legally possible, you could be issued with a speeding ticket. They aren't doing that now, but could very easily in the future.

Only 3% of UK's TV oglers want more sex

Re: What about adverts

"Did you know pre-watershed nudity IS allowed?"

I do now; I was eating dinner so wasn't quick enough with the remote control to switch over before the pointless short slot the comes after Channel 4 news. There was a full frontal of some bloke on the screen, and it put me right off my sausage and mash.

Melb IT tells ICANN to clear up its clearinghouse act

Bleedin' obvious

And they've only just realised this now?

Deadly pussies kill more often than owners think

Re: Biggest thing my cat ever brought in...?

I've seen the rabbit through the cat flap technique. He knew with it being in his mouth barely able to straddle it to walk, there was no way it was going through the cat flap, so he turned around, reversed through the cat flap holding by its neck. The last thing I saw was a bunny sitting with its back to the flap, and suddenly jerking backwards inside - followed a few seconds later by a scream from the missus.

T-Mobile puts 'Full Monty' tariff on diet

Wont be switching from O2 then

I was considering switching from O2, but that has lost me.

LinkedIn tweaks API terms of use for itchy developers

API & Spam

Well the APIs are certainly working well, several of the open groups I'm subscribed are now deluged by auto-generated job spam.

Curiosity success 'paves way for Man on Mars by 2030s'

Re: Pre-programming required...

It wouldn't have had to wait, after dropping off it could either have followed a pre-set path until it ran out of fuel. But looking at the end of the simulation video, I'm not the crane is stable without the load of the lander underneath it, so a crash may have been the only option.

Re: I hope..

It's a shame they had to crash it at all. With 140kg of fuel left after dropping off the rover, it could have taken a bit of a flying tour around the crater looking for good places for the rover to visit - if it had been fitted with its own camera that is. Failing that, just performing a soft landing like the Vikings did, would have gained some data which could be useful to future (manned) missions.

Samsung lengthens Note phone-cum-tablet to 10 inches

Resolution Resolution Resolution

It's a shame they didn't double the resolution along with the screen size.

Humax YouView DTR-T1000 IPTV Freeview PVR review

I initially wondered if you wouldn't be able to put the YouView firmware in a HDR T2, but on reading the limitations it would be a retrograde step.

Olympic athletes compete in RAYGUN SHOOTING for the first time

Re: You could have your eye out with that!

Depleted Uranium perhaps?

Jury selection delays start of Apple/Samsung patent showdown

Shame...

...it will be another couple of years before there are enough Windows Phone users to allow a completely unbiased jury to be selected.

W3C names four new editors of HTML5 spec

Microsoft and standards?

Also, half of the new W3C HTML5 edit team hails from Redmond.

So we can expect HTML5 to become more like the OOXML faux-standard, containing definitions such as "works like in IE9"?

UK ISPs promise punters 'full' and 'open' internet 'access'

Phorm?

Where is the commitment to never impose a Phorm like system on users without their knowledge or using some ineffectual opt-out.

Microsoft posts first-ever quarterly loss

Re: Can't see what the fuss is all about...

It's not because of a trading loss in difficult times, it is the wholesale destruction of asset values.

Aquantive bought for £6.2bn, written down for $6.1bn - 98.4% of the value destroyed in five years.

That's faster than free-fall in a vacuum.

Nokia flogged 4m Lumias, still bled €826m this quarter

Elop and seppuku

Having read the Interim Report I just don't understand how the board and shareholders at Nokia could have let Elop completely and utterly destroy the the company. He's doing worse than his former (supposedly) employer Microsoft reducing the value of Aquantive from $6.3bn to $0.1bn in 5 years. If it were a Japanese company, every last one of them would have committed seppuku by now.

O2, GiffGaff network goes titsup for unlucky punters

Re: O2 Network problems

That didn't work yesterday, but does now.

I usually have my phone set to 3G only, as continually dropping to 2G on the train seems to confuse it, where as on 3G only it just waits for a signal to come back - which is quicker than attempting to do any data at 2G anyway.

Re: Business customers.

My business contract isn't working, the wife's consumer one is ok.

Burnt Samsung Galaxy S III singed by external source, probe reveals

Rehab

If you want to boil off the water without microwaves or heat damage, how about putting the phone in the Rehab vacuum chamber and lowering the pressure a bit?

CERN catches a glimpse of Higgs-like boson

Re: Or, in plain English...

That's over 17 years, and it is funded by "Europe", so for the sake of argument let's say 15 countries, to err on the conservative side.

It's funded by 20 countries, but the contributions are by no means equal. The top 3 contributors; Germany, Fance and Britain contribute over 50%, and the top 6 represent over 75%. See Cern 2010 budget.

Microsoft takes a $6.2bn bath with aQuantive web ads write-down

Re: How the hell does Ballmer keep his job?

He's managed to destroy 98.4% of the value of the company in 5 years, probably a record even for Microsoft. Although they may break it with Skpe; 2011 bought for $8.3bn, 2016 write down of $8.2bn.

LinkedIn inked out: Twitter cuts off jabberhose to suits

Re: Thank the maker

Great news, I no longer have to suffer the inane twitterings of some vaguely connected associate masquerading as LinkedIn updates.

Apple makes Cocoa with Porridge

Copyright?

Perhaps the writers of Porridge should consider suing apple for copyright infringement.

Tech fault at RBS and Natwest freezes millions of UK bank balances

It would only be reasonable to go through their terms and conditions to find every example of penalties and fees when you late with a payment, and charge them then the same.

Brutal web vice of the People's Republic crushes innovation, growth

“The last thing the internet community wants to see is China breaking away, so it has a lot of leverage,” he said.

Really? There would be hell of a lot of people in internet security who would be happier if the great firewall stopped state sponsored traffic getting out, rather than user content getting in.

Philips 46PFL9706T 46in 3D smart TV

Re: is it 3d

Technically active shutter will work when you are lying down, as the glasses will deliver a different image to each eye, but your brain wont be able to make any sense of it, as Haku says, because stereoscopic images are designed to be viewed with the head vertical. With passive glasses once you tilt your head by more than a few degrees the polarisation no longer prevents both images being seen by each eye, giving a very blurred image.