Posts by Timfy67

Odysseus probe moonwalking on the edge of battery life after landing on its side

Time to call Sigourney?

"...the lander has "efficiently sent payload science data and imagery in furtherance of the Company's mission objectives.""

Does anyone else get a whiff of the Weyland-Yutani Corp from that statement?

Scientists speak their brains: Please don’t call us boffins

Surely the "boffin" is female?

I live on Inishboffin and that translates from the Gaelic Inis Bó Finne meaning 'Island of the White Cow'

Just $10 to create an AI chatbot of a dead loved one

I think Asimov got there first...

as usual. The 1956 short story "The Dead Past" illustrates why this is a terrible idea!

Lights, camera, camera, camera, action: iPhone, iPad, Watch, chip biz in new iPhone, iPad, Watch, chip shocker

Re: Subscription services

All the streaming services play nice with the inexpensive Google Chromecast dongle ( regardless of whether the user is holding an Apple or Android device), with the exception of Amazon. Grrr.

Amazon Prime Video, at least on Android, now plays quite happily with Chromecast...

Only plebs use Office 2019 over Office 365, says Microsoft's weird new ad campaign

Surely WordWorth was the program of choice on the 'mig

Which scientist should be on the new £50 note? El Reg weighs in – and you should vote, too

Johnny Ball?

Surely Johnny Ball instilled more of an interest in mathematics and physics than any other person alive or dead!

Too young? American? see here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czmeDRWDg5E

LOOK OUT, Brits – is that a Facebook LASER-GUN drone above us?

Re: Thanjkfully...

That's a hell of a shotgun you have there if it has a range of a little over 17 miles!

STONER SHEEP get the MUNCHIES after feasting on £4k worth of cannabis plants

<Snigger>

Fannys Farm Pfft!

'Windows 9' LEAK: Microsoft's playing catchup with Linux

A little help required from somebody with a better memory ...

Didn't OS/2 have the whole multiple desktop thing going on?

It was certainly on AmigaOS, but may have been a third party add on.

Beer because......... why am I here again?

Apple 'fesses up: Rejected from the App Store, dev? THIS is why

Quality Over Quantity

I would happily settle for an app store that contained just a few hundred high quality and useful downloads than a million fart generators, crash magnets and blatantly falsely advertised crap... irrespective of platform.

Apple patent will see Siri remind you to keep taking your meds

Prior art in Proteus IV?

I've seen Demon Seed enough times to know that this can only end badly....

Wii got it WRONG: How do you solve a problem like Nintendo?

More than just a doorstop...

I have hacked (bit of a grand word... installed some software would cover it!) my Wii to run the Homebrew Channel.

It now has a second lease of life as a media server under my telly, a reasonable juke box and handles netflix, youtube etc reasonably well, albeit in SD. It will stream movies as well as playing them direct from a USB stick.

I think that if this functionality (yes, I know Netflix and YouTube are on there now) was baked in and available from the start, there would be a lot less dusty Wiis switched off and sat on top of the sky box under the TV.

This THREESOME is a HANDFUL: It’s the Asus Transformer Book Trio

Re: Just wish

Dear Top Gear

Just wish you had tried a Vauxhall Astra engine on the Ford Mondeo that you were previewing...Even just running it from a Ford Transit engine, to be able to give us an expectation on how well supported (or not) it could be ......................

The (rather weak) USP of this device is the integration of two operating systems, namely win and droid. It doesn't state "Linux ready" or "Linux capable" or indeed "this device has been stored in the same room as a copy of Linux" so why should the tester (testee???) want/need to try it out?

I am a happy multiple OS user, including Linux... just so's you know!

A BBC-by-subscription 'would be richer', MPs told

Re: "the finest broadcaster on the planet"

"How the fuckin fuck do you fuckin think she is feeling?!!!"

You are Peter Capaldi AICMFP...

Ancient carving of 'first human-built holy place' = Primitive Vulture Central

Prior art?

That slab appears to have rounded corners...?

Google's Nexus 5: Best smartphone bang for your buck. There, we said it

Re: Hangouts for SMS

My second post on this topic so before I go any further I better just say that I'm a happy WinPho8 user!

I believe that it is possible to "link" contacts ie once linked, a single contact shows address book details, G+ info, Facebook Messenger etc giving a choice of messaging options from one contact card.

Social media accounts can also be disabled from showing in the address book and so if, for instance, Hangouts annoys you, it can be kicked out of the contacts section...

Re: Undecided as yet

Umm... as a GED (Google Experience Device) surely it comes with a vanilla implementation of 4.4 aka KitKat? Therefore no overlays, launchers or other "branding" tat...

SEX CRAZED FISH keeping hapless Southamptonites awake

"It doesn't keep me awake..."

"...but it stops me getting back to sleep"

Not being able to sleep because of said thing meets my definition of said thing keeping me awake!

Internet Explorer 11 BREAKS Google, Outlook Web Access

Re: "This post best viewed in Netscape Navigator..."

Actually I have been running my own design company for a number of years... although I will tip my hat to my employees for knowing far more than me and keeping me in tea and biscuits! I just "encourage" them and buy *Ferrari's

*which is in fact an 11 year old Honda with a bungee cord holding the exhaust together...

Let me pass you your coat.

"This post best viewed in Netscape Navigator..."

I'm no Microsoft fanboy... I oversee an eclectic mix of machines and OS's.

I do however feel a teensy bit sorry for the Internet Explorer devs lately. For years they got it in the neck for not following standards and now they are being crucified for following standards too closely!

I am a satisfied user of a large swathe of Googles products, but even I have to admit that their response of "Download Chrome" to reports of bad rendering smacks a little of the "best viewed in Netscape Navigator" days and the archaic times of having to maintain two or three different browsers to use with various sites.

No browser should pander to proprietary code, just because one or two of the big players say this is how it's going to be done...

New use for old iPhones: Watch your house get robbed in REAL-TIME

Old tech...

For the past year I have been using three, no longer wanted, Sony Ericsson X10i android phones as IP cams, one of which is inside a Ferrero Rocher box and giving great service outside!

I don't understand why, when Apple run to catch up with everyone else, it has to be published as the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread!

UK mulls ban on tiny mobiles to block prison smugglers

Wouldn't it be easier...

Forgive my ignorance if there is a good reason not to but... wouldn't it be easier to simply block the mobile coverage rather than try to keep phones out?

http://www.signaljammerblocker.com/adjustable-cell-phone-gps-wifi-jammer-blocker-us-version-p-448.html

(not affiliated to the above link... first hit on google!)

Upgraded 3D printed rifle shoots 14 times before breaking

'Merica

Surely in the USA it is easier (and cheaper) to procure an actual, honest to goodness firearm than it is to get a decent 3D printer, design files and a prosthetic hand for when the barrel says "ENOUGH... BANG"

Peter Capaldi named as 12th Doctor Who

Anybody notice the clue with his previous roles on on imdb?

"World War Z

W.H.O. Doctor"

Lost phone? Google's got an app for that, coming this month

About time...

With my advancing years and predilection for fermented beverages, this is one of the most used features on my Windows 8 phone.

A baked in solution on my Android devices will save a lot of sofa lifting and publican interrogations...

Amazon yanks SimCity download from store

Re: Selling a game / Capacity planning

"Urge Surge"

I intend to work this phrase into every phonecall that I have to make today!

Twenty classic arcade games

Re: Can anyone remember...

I played this so much that I still hum the theme tune to this day!

Sir James Dyson slams gov's 'obsession' with Silicon Roundabout

Re: Unicorn

It proves that Dyson is a replicant...

War-Droid: Smartphone app 'that could CALL IN drone strikes'

First co-ords sent...

...Cupertino?

Ice Cream Sandwich still a no-show for most Android users

Re: Moto Xoom UK - still waiting

Google "Gedify".

It's a simple process to turn your UK Xoom into a Google Experience Device. Took my UK Xoom through ICS and then directly on to Jelly Bean with no issues. Very worthwhile, Jelly Bean really (and I mean REALLY) improves the Xoom.

(no link to the software authour, just a happy user)

"ICS rolled out in US, JB already started in US too.

EU ICS variant still in development according to their Android support page.

Now Google own Moto, hoped development would be quicker.

Come on Moto!"

Lenovo iPad-smiting Windows 8 slate slips out

Re: Seriously.

I think that the reference is more to do with the fact that it supports a pressure sensitive stylus rather than just a "finger substitute stick" ... not much use to me, but could be an important addition for some.

Judge: Apple must run ads saying Samsung DIDN'T copy the iPad

Re: Ian

"And just how old was Jobs when he died?"

V5.60

McDonalds staff 'rough up' prof with home-made techno-spectacles

Time to fit a frickin' laser to those specs!

B&O Beoplay A3

Will there be enough room to accommodate the adaptor that will have to be used with future ipads considering their imminent change of connector?

iPhone doc will detect cancer, diabetes - boffins

Been around for years

google coaguchek, I've been using one for years. Tiny thumb pinprick sample and Roberts your close relative!

Still worth popping into your local Phleb once every couple of months to keep calibration but my older model has never skipped a beat. You may have to buy the unit yourself but I believe the test strips are available on the NHS

Laptop display pixel counts to quadruple in 2012

Just out of interest...

At what point does resolution cease to matter? My bog standard monitor looks fine to me, no jaggies and even if I put my nose to the screen, I can't make out the individual pixels (my eyes admittedly date back to when man first stood on the moon!)

This isn't an anti technology rant, I just seem to be missing the point of having to shuffle four times as many pixels for very little gain?

Apple vanishes MySQL from Mac OS X Lion Server

Maybe...

Apple could throw a few quid from the squillion that they have in the bank and design their own Db? Ah, that would mean actually innovating, not exactly their strong point.

Sony Ericsson signals Xperia X10 Gingerbread update

Son - I am dissapoint.

No mention on the SE site and my X10 reports no new upgrades available.

Belkin Pleat Sleeve for Kindle

Are you paid for these "ads"?

Seriously, this format is a bit pants. And 65% for an item that does exactly what it is supposed to do? I don't understand that rating scale, it sounds like it has been marked down for being too feminine with all that purse and wallet guff.

New Sony hack exposes more consumer passwords

Hack Proof...

So far no 1337 hax0rs have managed to crack my Sony MSX... although I must admit to keeping the cassette tapes hidden under my bed!

NASA kills comms with deceased Mars rover

re: OBLIGATORY XKCD STRIP

You sir, have made me sad...

Dixons to flog off old 'brands' Miranda and Saisho

Miranda

I still use a Miranda flash unit from around 1984 on my dSLR. It hasn't failed a shot in some 27 years on a myriad of different film and digital cameras. I also have a fully functioning Saisho 14" telly that was purchased to hook up with my new (at the time) ZX Spectrum!

I'm a cheap date!!!

BBC engineers see PLT knocking out DAB

Why is it...

after sitting exams, paying for licenses, calibrating my equipment to 5 decimal places of a MHz and reporting every contact I make via my legally required log book... if I cause the slightest bit of rf interference ofcom can come in and confiscate my entire multi thousand pound set up.

And yet when my local "I know everything about networking", PC world loving neighbour wipes out everything within a 50 MHz range with broadband radio interference it's called progress?

And by the way, there is a hell of a lot more radio traffic below 50MHz than just amateur radio. http://www.fcc.gov/oet/spectrum/table/fcctable.pdf

Yuri Gagarin in triumphant return to London

Excellent...

An unpretentious statue commemorating, from what I've read, a very unpretentious man. I love the design. From what is a very simple sculpture, you get a real feeling of excitement from the way Gagarin is posed.

Cheers Russia... you're back on the christmas card list!

Dig deep! Radio asks taxpayers for blank cheque

Coverage...

My problem with DAB is that they use the same terminology as the phone companies... ie 99% coverage of the population, NOT the country.

Over here in Ireland for instance, that means that the phone companies smugly quote 99% coverage, when probably only some 50% of the actual land mass is covered. It'll be the same with DAB radio in the UK

Anonymous DoS attacks thwarted with Aikido hip throw

@Robert Heffernan

Have another read...

"...the researchers released (the software in question) this week as an open-source tool for warding off DoS attacks and similar kinds of automated assaults..."

No secrets in open source land!

Japanese nuke meltdown may be underway

No one is ever smug...

...about nuclear power generation. However, due to the design of this generation of reactors, we are still only looking at a minor release of caesium, well within limits to dissipate completely within the atmosphere and a reactor that is never going to work again.

Maybe an explosive event if they cannot release the pressure, but no Chernobyl style "kaboom", the fuel rods will just melt and then cool to ambient temperatures.

An earthquake is a fairly difficult event to contingency plan for.

I would say that far more environmental damage has been done where the tsunami washed through the industrial centres and then pulled back it's cargo of toxins, heavy metals etc back into the sea / dumped it on the surrounding land.

Android and iOS get a little Minecraft love

You owe me....

For the unsolicited bandwidth sucked out by the autoplaying shitfest of an advert.......