Posts by Dropper

Boffins build a NAZI AI – wait, let's check that... OK, it's a grammar nazi

Tip of the hat

For the deliberate attempts to antagonize the few on this site that past there English language exam's.

You want to know which is the best smartphone this season? Tbh, it's tricky to tell 'em apart

Phone Calls

Strangely nothing has been said about the ability to make a reliable phone call here.. because if it did the $1000 iPhone X would be slammed, followed closely by the iPhone 8. Can't tell you how often over the last month (since the last major iOS update) both mine and my wife's iPhone X have resulted in calls where the other person couldn't hear us - as though the front-side microphone just turns itself off, then back on, then off, randomly throughout calls. A quick search reveals the problem has been around since launch and has not been fixed. Oddly, I had no issues for the first couple months then after the last micro update, using the phone to make a call has been awful.

Official: AMD now stands for All the Money, Dudes!

Good

Always been a fan of ATI and AMD products, however the only game I've been playing for the last 5 or so years is WoW.

While pairing a decent Ryzen processor and Radeon card is viable for WoW, it's been more cost effective for me to stick with Intel / NVidia. WoW relies almost exclusively on single thread CPU processing power and Intel still leads AMD in this regard. With the video card, the cost of equivalent Radeons still seem heavily affected by the cypto currency "tax".

The good news on that particular idiocy is that both AMD and NVidia are going to release GFX cards with no video ports at slightly lower prices, which they hope will mitigate the price of regular cards.

If I played other games, I'd probably return to AMD for at least the processor. But I'm not paying a $100-$200 tax on a video card just because I like the manufacturer. Being brand loyal for the sake of it is idiocy - no corporate gives a crap about you, so you should always go for what gives you the best value for money.

Half of all Windows 10 users thought: BSOD it, let's get the latest build

Time to roll the dice

I live on the theory that computing is the ultimate gamble.

Since I bought my first BBC Micro thru Commodore Amiga thru various PCs I have always thrown the dice to see what will happen.

HDD meltdowns without adequate backups is just my way of performing a disk purge.. cleaning up all that wasted space cluttered by tax returns, family photos and contact information.

So sure.. new Windows update.. ahead full speed mate.

Microsoft returns to Valley of Death? Cheap Surface threatens the hardware show

Not a terrible idea

On the Surface (unforgivable.. I'll get my coat) it's not a terrible idea.

The problem is there's no way it will have sufficient performance to run even a scaled down version of Windows at that price. iPads have a huge advantage in performance because the OS is so simplistic and therefore has little overhead in comparison with a full blown OS.

The downside of course is that iOS doesn't offer enough to be viable in all business environments.

My wife is a teacher, the school she works at gives all students an iPad for the school year, which they get to take home but have to return in the summer. These iPads come with professionally created apps that are used to supplement (not replace) traditional education. The age of the kids is 8-12 and as such the restrictions and limited scope of the apps is fine for their purposes.

Once you get to a point where your users start needing professional applications with the features that you expect to find in a business environment, the limitations of iOS are very quickly found out.

Android, iOS and Windows RT are far too limited. So while I can see a cheap Windows tablet being useful, it wouldn't offer much more than a Chromebook. Simply.. would you buy a Chromebook for 500 quid just because it's flat?

Get over yourselves: Life in the multiverse could be commonplace

To assume

"the idea that the universe is the way it is today and can obviously support life because we exist"

That's a pretty big assumption.. we might equally all be the figment of each other's imaginations.

Airbus windscreen fell out at 32,000 feet

Scam

Next time they get a chipped windscreen they'll know now it's probably best not to go with the cheapest guy. Check the yelp reviews next time.

Apple to devs: Give us notch support or … you don't wanna know

Notch Support

If the rumour sites are to be believed.. and they usually get things at least 1/2 right.. then pretty much all new iOS models are going to follow the same design as the iPhone X.. which is probably why they are insisting on everyone support the thing.

I have an iPhone X.. the notch is a necessary part of the phone. Doesn't look good, but I know why it's there. Could they have designed the thing differently? Probably, in the same way they could have waited a year and nailed down the behind-glass fingerprint sensor they were going to use.

I don't have an issue with being pushed to support the latest SDK, that's best practice anyway. I do have issues with their rushed design philosophy. This is new for Apple. In years past, for all the flaws in their over-priced products, they at least made good-looking stuff.

Apple and The Notched One: It can't hide the X-sized iPhone let-down

Sales reflect reality

First of all I have an iPhone X, because I wanted one.

But I fully understand why most people don't want one.

In terms of flaws, I don't really count the "notch" as one of them. It doesn't affect the way I use the phone. I don't watch videos or movies on a 5" screen.

The first deal-breaking flaw of this phone is its breakability. Dropping glass on the floor usually has one result. I've seen some awesomely expensive cases fully protected by their shatter-prone phones. The cases came through drop tests without a scratch. Unfortunately the same could not be said for their contents. Bottom line, don't drop an iPhone X. You might get away with one or two drops, I even seen it survive drops case-less, but all you're doing is weakening the phone to point where it will shatter.

The second deal-breaking flaw is that it's overpriced by about $300-$400. No phone should cost more than $600-$700. Carriers offering interest-free loans is just code for the re-introduction of contracts.

Finally that battery. A good battery will degrade to about 80% efficiency after two years - if you avoid unnecessary re-charging. Conventional wisdom says that it takes about 500 charge cycles for your average battery to reach 80% efficiency. The problem with the iPhone X and phones like it is they can make use of wireless charging, which is harmful to battery life. Unlike wired charging (modern cables place an almost negligible load on a battery at 100% charge), wireless charges continuously hit the phone's battery with charge cycles, speeding up its end of life.

So to fix problem 1, I won't drop it. Much. To fix problem 2, I got a discount then paid the rest in full. Saving up for a thing you want works. To fix problem 3.. well you can't, but avoiding wireless charging will lengthen the time I need to visit an Apple store to pay for an $80 battery.

There is no perceived IT generation gap: Young people really are thick

Thickos

I remember shortly after emigrating to Alaska, I was completely flabbergasted to find that not a single person understood the phrase "green cross code"...

Desktop PC shipments dip below 100m/year

They're too good.. for their own good

Trouble is, and I know the Reg has stated this themselves, PCs are just too good. Same goes for mobile computing really.

I looked at upgrading my 4 yr old PC with an equivalent model (i7, 16GB RAM, SSD, decent video card, etc) and found today's models benchmark maybe 10-15% faster than my own.

As my current machine boots up from POST to everything loaded in the system tray in under 2 minutes, it's difficult to justify the $1000+ required to purchase something better. Worse.. new games still run at decent settings at over 60 FPS. Not max settings for sure, but I don't have to move the performance "sliders" too much to the left. Photoshop and Premier still tick along at excellent speeds, 3D Studio churns out awful attempts at rendering at a brisk pace. Simply put, stuff today is too good.

Same goes for tablets and phones. Swap out the battery and if it isn't over 3 years old the chances are it will run the latest version of your mobile OS at a very respectable speed.

Moral of the story. Make sh!!tter stuff guys.

Super Cali's futuristic robo-cars in focus. Even though a watchdog says tech is quite atrocious

Driverless cars yes.. GPS apps no

So let me get this straight.. cars with no drivers are fine, but using your phone to give you directions is not.. well played California.

H-1B visa hopefuls, green card holders are feeling the wrath of 'America first' Trump

In-Person interviews

Actually when my conditional status was converted to permanent status, it was done without an interview.

The only "interview" I had - from the initial application in England to receiving my permanent status - was at the counter at the US Embassy after the doctor examination (all applicants have chest scans for TB and an AIDs test to make sure you're not emigrating for medical reasons). I handed over my supporting documentation to prove my sponsor (wife) could afford to support me in the event I couldn't get a job and that was it. The interview consisted of a few yes/no answers regarding the financial documents and tax returns.

When it came time to remove the conditional status from my residency, the documentation I used to support the fact I was in a real marriage was sufficient to bypass the interview process. It's hard to say a person isn't in a real marriage when they have joint bank accounts, credit card accounts, loans, mortgages, utility bills, tax returns and affidavits from friends of the family. That doesn't mean people aren't in real marriages if they don't have all those things, but when you do it's better proof than guessing what colour your wife's toothbrush is and what her favourite fast food might be.

GM crops are good for you and the planet, reckon boffins

Why

Are GM products limited to veggies? Where's my 100% bacon pig? There's an ongoing bacon drought in the US and not a single scientist is working on the solution.

I can't for the life of me imagine how the US is consuming more bacon than it produces what with portion sizes being a healthy 5-6 slices per breakfast, but if this continues we'll be reduced to rasher-ning.

Microsoft Surface Book 2: Electric Boogaloo. Bigger, badder, better

I'll pass

You can get a decent i7 light weight, slim laptop with 16 GB RAM and a 512 GByte SSD for less than the worst version of this "tablet". It'll even have a 360 degrees (fold behind the keyboard) HD touchscreen.

No way I'd pay for a glorified iPad ($320) + standard i5 ($150) plus cheapo GTX 1050 ($130) for $3000-$4500. Even if it does have a $150 SSD thrown in.

Save yourself at least two grand by buying a Dell or HP 13" touchscreen laptop with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and a 128GB iPad.

Apple bag-search class action sueball moves to Cali supreme court

But

Best policy is to take a bag filled various colours of crystal slime (it's a toy).

Throw in something lumpy to give it texture.

Personally my preference would be the blood clot version and something that resembles skin mixed in.

'My dream job at Oracle left me homeless!' – A techie's relocation horror tale

What?

"Relocation packages don't always cover things like rental deposits"

What exactly is it meant for? If you're offered 12K to relocate, that means 12K to move. Renting a new place is an obvious requirement for moving, along with travel expenses and moving your household items.

Sure he should have researched everything before agreeing to the move, but I would think it was a safe assumption that relocation funds could be used to relocate.

What should not have been a surprise is being sacked for taking time off work while on a probationary period at a company like Oracle. They are a US corporate. There is no "time off" during your probationary period if you want to keep the job, regardless of whether it's your fault or theirs that you need the time off. It's not right, it's immoral and should be illegal - but it isn't. I guarantee they have a clause written into every job contract that allows them to dismiss you immediately if you miss work during the first 90 days of employment, which is enough to satisfy the law in most countries.

Working for US corporates comes with huge risk. It's only worth doing if you know exactly what you're getting into and have a backup plan for when it all goes south.

Is your child a hacker? Liverpudlian parents get warning signs checklist

Forget the kids.. turns out I'm probably a hacker.. but I'm keeping calm, I've yet to find a smoking gun. I'll just keep monitoring my internet activity for suspicious behaviour.. be a bit of a bummer to have to turn myself in though.

Witness Apple's iPhone-iPad extravapalooza here in our no-hate zone

Can't believe they went with 16GB in the base model phone again.. Android phones can get away with this because they usually have SD card slots. If you're going to charge so much for what is basically a fast SD card imbedded in the phone, at least make it so the price difference between models is as negligible as the cost of said SD card.

If I can by a high speed 64GB SD card for under $50.. the cost of a 64GB iPhone 6whatever should be absolutely no more than $50 above the base model. I'm pretty sure that Apple can get better prices on SD RAM than I can.. but if not they should look at buying theirs from Walmart or Office Depot..

'Android on Windows': Microsoft tightens noose around neck, climbs on chair

It think they'll be okay

Microsoft are going to make their phones compatible with all apps.. so I think they might be ok.

I despise the Windows phone interface, but only a complete idiot would think making a phone compatible with all apps from all operating systems is a bad thing.

Android apps will run without the user having to do a thing. Download the app, run it. That's how it will work on a Windows 10 phone.

Supposedly iOS apps with have to be recompiled in Visual Studio - you load your project into VS then compile it as a Windows phone app. That's it, no changes, no modifications. We'll wait to see if that works (I predict issues).

Most people producing iOS apps aren't doing so on PCs and therefore don't have Visual Studio. Problem? Not really, Microsoft are about to distribute Visual Studio for Mac OS and Linux at a cost of zero dollars and zero cents. Because they want iOS app developers to put their stuff on Windows phones. Don't hold your breath Microsoft, Apple users tend to have a slight bias against your software.

So potentially, if you can get past the awful UI, Microsoft phones will be the most flexible phones on the market.

Here's a fun fact. Connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to a Windows 10 phone and it will ask you if you want to run Windows in desktop mode. Not sure why you'd want to run 6" Windows PC.. but you could.

NASA: We're gonna rip up an ASTEROID and make it ORBIT the MOON

Why?

"NASA has decided that putting a lump of rock from an asteroid into orbit around the Moon is better than trying to hook a whole asteroid."

Just trying to get my head around this.. someone decided that putting part of an asteroid in orbit around the moon is better than putting a whole one in orbit around the moon. Okay I get that part. It is better because maybe it's easier.

The part I don't get is why they haven't worked out that not putting an asteroid in orbit around the moon at all is an even better idea.

When you play pool you can either knock a ball down a hole, or you can get fancy and use a trick shot to knock two or three into various holes at the same time. This is like someone at NASA decided that they best way to save the planet in the advent of a planet-killing asteroid would be to get drunk and attempt a trick shot. Do they do all their recruiting from ACME, or just when they want to hire someone for the planet-saving division?

Ross Ulbricht, in the library, with the laptop: Silk Road boss found GUILTY of all charges

I am Spartacus

His defense seems to be "There are many Dread Pirate Roberts out there.. I was one of them, you know the one good one, who didn't sell one of the most addictive and soul destroying drugs available or hire contract killers to murder my co-workers. I was just 'aving some laughs with a few blokes on the interweb yer honor."

As much as I admire boundless optimism, I feel my Dread Pirate Roberts might have come up a bit short when presenting this argument.

ATTACK of the FLYING MOUNTAIN: 2004 BL86 goes by like a BULLET

Selfie Time

I wonder if Facebook and Twitter will fail under the weight of selfie posts should an Asteroid come a little closer to the planet.. after all who would miss the (last) opportunity to pron yourself on these websites with a post showing your gorgeous smile and an asteroid burning through the atmosphere in the background..

Free Windows 10 could mean the END for Microsoft and the PC biz

It won't work

No one really pays for Windows any more. Well they do, but it's built in to the price of the PC they purchase. Only a tiny percentage of users actually upgrades Windows on the PC they're using because too much can go wrong. Those that do inevitably suffer performance hits and application incompatibility.

It doesn't matter if upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is flawless. Previous experience tells people it will be painful and they just won't do it.

Businesses certainly won't do it unless they're forced to. And in most cases they will also do so via purchasing new PCs.

So being "free" isn't much of a lure, especially as the offer will probably run out before the first service pack hits. Even the most PC-illiterate of users knows that Windows is junk before SP1 is released.

FATTIES: Boffins say their miracle sunshine skin cream 'prevents obesity'

Mind Blowing

I also discovered that hitting your thumb with a hammer in the sunshine makes your thumb hurt. Also drinking water in the sunshine makes you less thirsty. So you can add those to the amazing discovery that you can lose weight by eating healthy and exercising outside when it's sunny.

YOU - NASA. Enough with the ROBOTS, get some PEOPLE to MARS

Deep Fried Humans

I thought the real issue (cost has never really been an obstacle to stupidity) was that anyone sent on a jaunt to Mars would like end up being fried by radiation once they exit Earth's protective shield. I would guess it will be a tad embarrassing if we spent x number of billion dollars on flying a multi-person coffin to Mars.

SCIENCE explains why you LOVE the smell of BACON

Re: Proper Bacon

http://www.ukgoods.com/british-english-irish-groceries/english-irish-british-meat-products.html#.U4qsHdJOWig

Spanish village of 'Kill the Jews' votes for rebrand

Postal Issues

I don't know about those that voted 'no', but it seems that "my post might go missing for a few months while the post office figure out where I live" is something that most people would be willing to risk if they no longer had to be embarrassed about the name of their town.

It's like changing your last name because your parents were too stupid to do it first. Sure that can cause the odd hiccup (ask any married woman that has decided to do so), but only for a short time.

Middle England's allotments become metric battlefield

Re: When Did We Go Metric?

"You did know that a pound sterling orginally referred to a pound of sterling silver? "

Yes.. which is why I asked "if we are a metric nation, why is our currency not called the 0.453592 Kilogram instead of the Pound (sterling silver)?" As silver, like gold, it's value does not go up or down. The reason it costs more today than it did yesterday is we devalue our own currency periodically in order to stay competitive. If we remained linked to the value of silver nothing we made could ever be sold overseas and our unemployment would be astronomical.

It's a common economic fallacy that the price of silver and gold rises or falls. It doesn't. The value of your currency rises and falls in relation to the product you're buying. Gold and silver have not gone up in value, what has really happened is governments have devalued their currencies as one crisis after another has hit their economies. As far as buying things goes, this amounts to the same thing. It doesn't matter if its the currency that lost value or the product has increased in value.. as far as you're concerned it still costs more than it used to. But the point is if currencies remained linked to something that has a fixed value because its a finite resource, then you'd never be able to compete with countries that devalue their currency as necessary when their economies tank.

When Did We Go Metric?

So if England is metric, how come our currency isn't called the British 0.453592 Kilogram now?

Beta tasting: The Elder Scrolls Online preview

MMOs

I personally this is going to be a great MMO, because they've remembered something most of the so-called WoW beaters forgot. A story keeps people entertained requires good writers. Whether it ends up free to play is another matter, because that will depend on the other thing game developers either ignore or forget.. which is if the story of the game ends with leveling, so will your subscription income.

To date there have been two differences between WoW and pretty much all the others. The first is an MMO is supposed to be a game in which people interact with each other, make friends (insomuch as you can make friends online) and form communities that play together. Some MMO developers understand this, most do not. If they don't then what you get is an MMO consisting of randomly spawning stuff that pits itself against dozens of silent players standing together in a big group around it. Yeah keep telling yourself how great that is. The second is that with WoW the endgame continues the story. You may not like the story, think it's stupid (cartoon dragons, pandas, etc) but it is what drives the game after you've reached max level.

If the story is well written, like WoW's Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, the number of subscribers increases. If it's badly written, like Cataclysm and Panda Express.. sorry Mists of Pandaria.. the number of subscribers falls. The environments, extra features, PvP etc can be great. The number of things to do can be beyond count. None of that matters if the story sucks donkey's balls.

But the debate over whether WoW is crap, boring or dying is irrelevant to this MMO. The Elder Scrolls has enough of a following and a rich enough history to last as long as the developers want it to, as long as they put the effort into keeping the subscriber base entertained and keep downtime to a minimum.

For those that think that MMOs need uptodate 3D engines driving photo-realistic scenery and effects.. yeah.. no. Every game that tried this is free to play for all of the obvious reasons.

Boffins say dark matter found with X-ray

Did they overlook the obvious here?

When I went to infant school, erroneously called elementary school across the pond, we were taught a thing in physics about opposites attracting. Magnets and all that right?

So sure the answer to finding dark matter is to put a bit of shiny matter in a room by itself and wait for some dark matter to appear..

Amazon fuses LoveFilm, subs service, calls it Prime Instant Video

Amazon or Netflix

It's the same thing they did in the US a few years back and if you're not a Netflix subscriber it's worth looking at. Downsides are instead of $8 / month you pay $80 up front and that each content provider has a slightly different set of exclusives. So you might not get one of your favourite TV shows when the latest season is released to either Netflix or Amazon, depending on who offers the most for it.

Personally I stuck with Netflix because it offered slightly more, doesn't come with in-built advertising for video-on-demand and other things. If I want a new movie I can still buy it through one of the many streaming services, such as Amazon Instant Video, and if I decide the content is crap I can simply cancel my subscription.

I no longer pay for cable TV simply because I don't watch it. I can't be bothered with waiting a week for another episode and don't want to have the inconvenience of not being able to pause or rewind at will. I know you can do that DVRs and on-demand programming that most cable/satellite TV providers offer, but it costs far too much money. I won't pay $50 - $100 a month for more or less the same thing I can get with Netflix and Hulu Plus (or even the free version if you don't mind using a PC hooked up to the TV). Network channels are provided HD over the air so I can watch normal TV if I get curious about what it was like to watch TV like my grand parents did.

Apple now spends more on chips than top three PC makers combined

Apologies in advance

"Apple now spends more on chips than top three PC makers combined"

Yes but what about fish?

-Apologies to all for not being able to stop myself posting this.

When ZOMBIES go shopping: 40m Target customer breach? That's NOTHING!

Re: I work for a major retailer.

"But just imagine if it was implemented on an ISP level."

The movie and recording industries would probably be the place to start.. they seem to have more than their fair share of clout when it comes to deciding all things internet. Shouldn't be too hard of a sell either, after all these are countries where copyright, patents and intellectual property are considered (to paraphrase) guidelines rather than rules.

Scientists discover supervolcano trigger that could herald humanity's doom

Hold This

What I love about humans is whenever they find something new, they absolutely have to poke a stick at it to see what happens. Giant pool of lava hiding under the earth? Great news!! Let's see what we need to do to make it explode..

Acer cozies up to Google with new 'droid PCs and fondleslab, Chromebook

Hmmm

I think rather than describing the all-in-one as a PC, it's more of a tablet that can also be used as a monitor for a traditional desktop system.

The trouble with Android "PCs" is the same as using any kind of tablet for non mobile-like tasks. They're great for entertainment, browsing, social media and email but not very useful for productivity. The gaming experience leaves a lot to be desired too.

Partly this is because they don't have windowing systems built into the gui and partly because their mouse/keyboard input is so rudimentary. Mostly, however, it's because no one will develop full versions of productivity applications to run on a tablet.

Software-by-interweb is slow, bug-ridden, painful and expensive, so that isn't much of an option either.

These are things that can be solved, but by the time you have fixed them you'll end up with an OS as bloated as Windows or Mac OS. Seems to me the better bet would simply to give Linux another spin and pouring development resources into producing Linux versions of traditional applications. It's as fully functioned as either of the industry standard desktop operating systems, it just needs some support from major software houses and some eye candy to keep the users blissfully unaware they're using something complicated. Oh and change the name too, to something like MacindowsAndriOS.

Boffins invent LUMINOUS PIGS again, glow-in-dark bacon sarnies presumably imminent

Glow in the Dark Dogs

Like I said the first time you gave us the news on GitD pigs.. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/12/fluorescent_pig/ ..

Forget medical research, green bacon or whatever it is they're trying to push onto us.. we want glow in the dark dogs. Most of us want flying cars, many would find amusement owning a gay flamingo.. but a glow in the dark dog would trump those shits that own a PS4, X-Box One and a diamond-encrusted gold iPhone. Yes you might have all the sparkly electronics the world can offer.. but my dog provides emission-free lighting on demand! Plus it's so fucking cool it will never be yesterday's tat.

WIN YOUR OWN HADRON COLLIDER pop-up book with El Reg

Complaint in Writing

Can I be the first to complain there is no kindle version of this popup book..

Santa brings Dixons £31m profits as ghost of Comet is laid to rest

CEO Speak

"CEO warns 'we remain cautious' despite festive cheer'".. ahh so no pay rises then for the poor plebs working the shop floor. The business world is the same no matter what country you work in, good news is always backed up with "proceed with caution" or "difficult times" speeches, just in case someone wants to point out the workforce could use a few extra quid to help pay for all the cost of living rises that have eaten away at the value of salaries.

'Disruptive, irritating' in-flight cellphone call ban mulled by US Senate

Stunned..

Congress is suggesting a bill that would actually benefit people rather than something that hands out more corporate welfare.. astonishing..

Bring it on, stream biz Aereo tells TV barons – see you in Supreme Court

Stream Your Own TV

If you don't have access to a service like this and can afford to get yourself a $200 laptop or PC you could build youself something similar. Most blu-ray players and consoles (except the PS4 apparently) can browse and play saved video files stored on a media server. Together with a cheap(ish) TV capture card and a digital antenna I record the shows I watch and store everything on an external HD.

My system cost me $500, including a 2TB external HD, antenna and TV capture card w/ software. I use Serviio (free) to stream data from the HD to my PS3 and blu-ray players. I admit that the $12/month is very tempting, but there's no Aereo-like service where I live.

French gov used fake Google certificate to read its workers' traffic

Re: how is this not illegal?

If you are using a work computer you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Why they would use such convoluted methods of monitoring network traffic and email is strange, but its common practice in many workplaces and pretty much guaranteed in every government agency on the planet.

Signing your own certificates is bad, no question there, but whether it's illegal or not is something that only French law can answer. What is definitely not illegal is spying on your employees' internet activity. If you work for someone and use a computer, you should be aware that they can read your email if someone with sufficient authority within the organisation approves it, and they almost certainly monitor your internet activity.

Wise people know pR0n belongs at home or on your phone..

Why a plain packaging U-turn from UK.gov could cost £3bn a year

Honest as..

Yeah, sure, I'm going to give up possibly the most addictive substance available legally or otherwise not because I'm worried about my health, not because I'm worried my kids will become smokers, not because I don't want to pass secondhand smoke to those around me, not because I despise paying the taxes.. after all let's face it, despite all these reasons I'm still lighting up 20 a day.

No I'm going to give up because I don't like white boxes.

FFS really? People who had even the slightest inclination in believing that plain boxes would convince smokers to give up have to be this stupid on purpose..

Indonesia raises volcanic Defcon level as Mount Sinabung rumbles

I have an idea..

“Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub”

Boffins baffled after Sun fails to fry satellites

Weak Power

I know this is obvious.. but did anyone try turning it off and on again?

Unbelievably RARE, two-horned 'UNICORN' SPOTTED in woods

Hmmm.

The most endangered species on the planet and yet no one can tell us what they taste like..

Sony's new PlayStation 4: Early faults ENRAGE some buyers

Re: Silly squabling

"Both the PS4 and XBox One are mediocre devices - equivalent to a mid range gaming PC."

And yet they are priced at a fraction of the cost and remain the standard news games are developed for until they are replaced 5 or 6 years later. Show me a PC that remains the standard all PC games are developed for 1/2 a decade after the model is released, priced at $200-$300 and can still play the latest games on the day it's successor is released.

Want to BUILD YOUR OWN Tardis? First, get a star and set it spinning...

*shrug*

My favourite theory, the one that cancels out the issue of paradox, is that if we did travel in time we'd do so by traveling to a parallel universe. So if you are a parent-killing psychotic with a desire to end your father's life before you were born, beyond the wrinkle of needing more energy and money than currently available, you'd be paradoxically safe. The father you end up murdering would belong to the "you" in the parallel universe and therefore your own existence would not be affected. Of course assuming parallel police forces remain a universal constant, you'd only be arrested if you broke the speed limit in a 30.

Microsoft advertises Surface, Excel with maths mistake

Hawaii for how much?

Not only can it not add up, but by the looks of things someone saw this guy coming. A week or so in Hawaii for a family of 4 should cost about a 1/3 of that.. including air fare from the US.

I only speak up because Hawaii has always been a favourite destination of mine since I moved to the US.