Posts by Scott Earle

The mod firing squad: Stack Exchange embroiled in 'he said, she said, they said' row

Re: Is this just an English thing ?

I hate to be pedantic (who am I kidding - I live for this shit), but the archaic equivalent of "your" is "thy", with "thine" being the archaic equivalent of "yours".

Facebook ditches HTML mobe future in favour of Zuck-style JavaScript

Re: Java != JavaScript

I was going to say the exact same thing. Java is to Javascript as Car is to Carpet, and all that ...

Australian dark matter hunter wins AU$1.75 million funding

Re: puzzled

That depends on the author. Mr Chirgwin is actually pretty good at responding. Some other people just update the article and remain silent.

Re: A new low

Also, by posting a 'correction', you don't get to mock the author publicly - an important consideration.

Re: A new low

Evidently not.

And don't call me Shirley.

A new low

You spell the name of your COUNTRY wrong? In the TITLE?

Austrailan?

POODLE vuln dogs Australian consumer modems

Poddle?

Mr Chirgwin, you have excelled yourself. Now your first typo is not only in the headline, but is in the first word of the headline, in ALL CAPS!

I expect that this will be fixed once a human has reviewed it, or the UK wakes up. But anyway - well done.

'Rowhammer' attack flips bits in memory to root Linux

Re: “On the software from” ?

Wait … they fired the unicorn?!?

“On the software from” ?

Have El Reg’s proofreaders all gone on holiday or something?

Iran hacks America where it hurts: Las Vegas casinos

Habor?

Harbor, surely. (And not Harbour, because Pearl Harbor is a proper noun).

But Habor?

Someone’s having a bad day for typos today ...

Alleged Aussie Anon hauled in for Indonesia phone tap hacking spat

Alledged?

Really?

There are no proof-readers or spell checkers Down Under?

Gangnam Style BREAKS YouTube

unsigned int, anybody?

Just over 2E09 is the maximum value that can be represented by a SIGNED 32-bit integer. Why would they not use an UNSIGNED integer (cos -1 views makes no sense, right?) and they could have delayed this by another couple of years, which would have given them plenty of time to increase it to a 64-bit unsigned integer instead.

Androids in celluloid – which machine deserves the ULTIMATE MOVIE ROBOT title?

How about Andromeda?

Andromeda ("Rommy"), the AI for the Andromeda Ascendant, also in a robot body played so well by Lexa Doig ...

OpenSUSE 13.2: Have your gecko and eat your rolling distro too

Gecko? Really?

Chameleon, no?

Apple's strap-on will set you back just '$5,000' – what a BARGAIN!

Re: Apple Watch Sport Edition

See, THIS is more like it. Criticise the watch all you like as long as it's with FACTS.

The sports edition of the Apple Watch is not water-resistant. This is insane, and completely negates the stated purpose of this device.

What were they thinking??

Gold-plated?

Why do you keep saying the Apple Edition Watch Edition (Edition) will be gold-plated? It has been stated by Apple that it will be made of gold. Just the raw materials for the case will cost several thousand dollars, so why try perpetuating the myth that it is going to be plated in 18k gold, when Tim Cook stood on stage and stated that their metallurgists have come up with a process to make the gold case harder?

Their own website states that the case is made from 18k gold: http://www.apple.com/watch/apple-watch-edition/

So please stop spreading the myth that it is gold plated. You've done it at least twice now.

Also - if you are going to compare the price against a Rolex, why pick a stainless steel one? They do make gold watches too, you know. Scared that people might see the $15,000 price tag of the Rolex and say "oh, that Apple watch might not actually be all that expensive when compared to other watches made of the same material, after all"?

(In other news: Apple has a team of metallurgists? That's pretty cool in itself)

Who's that sniffing around BlackBerry? Oh, is it YOU again, Lenovo?

"If it also bought BlackBerry, Lenovo would control two respected brands"

Well, one respected brand. And BlackBerry.

It's not always about you: Why the Apple Watch is all about China

Re: Please explain

Don't try to think too hard about it. He's an idiot.

Also - Apple Watch Edition edition is gold plated?!?

Where on Earth do you get your information from?

The Edition edition (seriously?) is made OF GOLD. It's not gold plated. Apple's own website says as much. See here : https://www.apple.com/watch/apple-watch-edition/

Expect it to sell for at least ten times what you are guessing. Maybe twenty times.

I'm going to stop talking to you - you haven't done ANY checking of the 'facts' in this 'story'.

Overgeneralisations much?

"China, and much of Asia, do not use letters; vowels and consonants"?

You do mean "China (and Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau) and Japan", don't you?

The rest of Asia DOES use alphabets, or abugidas, or something that is consonant-vowel based. Even Korea (at least in the South - not sure about the North) uses an alphabet, even though it does not look like one to Western eyes. Also, India has LOADS of alphabets, and is almost as populous as China.

Here's your chance to buy an ancient, working APPLE ONE

"So what can an original Mac do that the new ones can't?"

This is an Apple I, not a Mac. It predates the first Mac by a good eight years.

C'mon Jasper. If you're gonna hate, at least be factually correct about it.

'Bill Gates swallowing bike on a beach' is ideal password say boffins

Correct horse battery staple.

That is all.

Order an iPhone 6 from midnight PT – if Apple's web store holds up better than its livestream

0800 UTC?

That would be 0700 UTC no?

Unless you mean Pacific Standard Time (without the Daylight Savings Time that is currently in effect)?

Did you mean 0800 BST?

Sit tight, fanbois. Apple's '$400' wearable release slips into early 2015

Sigh

This is obviously from the "reporting rumors as fact" school of 'journalism'.

IT blokes: would you say that lewd comment to a man? Then don't say it to a woman

Re: This article's about the minority

You should not be offended, because she's not talking about you.

I also don't feel offended, as she was not talking about me.

Chinese Bitcoin farms: From scuzzy to sci-fi

I've often wondered

Why build such things in places like Hong Kong (which is just south of the Tropic of Cancer), when you probably don't need a great internet connection but heat is a problem?

I'd suggest Svalbard or Franz Josef Land. You aren't going to draw any attention to yourself out there, and can use satellite connections. Power might be more difficult, but you could use generators. It's not like the noise is going to disturb anyone.

Or at least somewhere where there is power but it's really cold, like Siberia, Alaska or Yorkshire (kidding!). Building something like that in a warm climate is insane.

New iGasm: Apple to unveil not one but TWO iPhone 6 models on 9 Sept

If El Reg gets an invite

They will be too shocked to do anything about it.

("Jagwyre", remember?)

BANGKOK-BLOCKED: Thailand's dictators 'ban dictator sim Tropico 5'

Yeah, thanks Youngone

poopypants is right - don't go making comments like that in public, Youngone. Last time it was YouTube that was blocked for many months. I don't want to be unable to read El Reg indefinitely just because of something YOU said.

Cheer up, Nokia fans. It can start making mobes again in 18 months

Europe's biggest tech company?

Did anyone tell SAP?

Japan makes Prius palatable with road map to hydrogen cars

Prius attracts ridicule?

Here in Thailand, a Prius costs less than a Honda Accord, and so I don’t see the ridicule aspect of it myself. It’s a perfectly cromulent car, and gets a genuine 24km per litre on a long journey.

My wife wanted an Accord, but I made her get the Prius as it’s totally better value for money. She has since conceded that it’s a great car.

Of course I recently bought a 3.2L Ford Ranger for myself (which is even cheaper than the Prius), to offset the Prius’ reduction in CO2 emissions.

French Hacker Legion is West's foremost snoop squad says Robert Gates

The French are a threat to the US?

In the same way as how the US are a threat to ... anyone who is not the US?

Google launches hacker game to train bug 'mercenaries'

The cake is a lie

100% driverless Wonka-wagon toy cars? Oh Google, you're having a laugh

Things I would like to see

I would LOVE to see one of these things trying to drive around Bangkok. It would be seriously hilarious :)

Pirate Party runs aground in European Parliamentary elections

Czechoslovakia?

Really?

Klingon and Maori roar into 'mutt's nuts' dictionary

What happened to the Thai one?

I know we just had a coup, but it seems churlish to leave it off just because of a little political instability.

App.net: 'Good news, we've made money; bad news, we're all fired'

Pay to post?

Wait - pay-to-post?

App.net was pay-to-join, but posting was free.

Be accurate with your glib throwaway comments, at least.

So, just how do you say 'the mutt's nuts' in French?

Re: How about in Thai?

And chillis!

How about in Thai?

Thai doesn't have any possessives (or plurals, singulars, tenses, articles [definite or indefinite], or pretty much any grammar at all - making the language a tad tricky to learn!), and so the phrase would be ไข่หมา - literally meaning 'egg dog', but in this context would be "the eggs of [a/some/the] dog(s)".

Eggs are used to refer to the male gonads, presumably for their fragility?

Because of the tonal nature of the language, the pronunciation is a little tricky, but it would be "khai maa" with the first word said with a low tone, and the second with a rising tone.

Ancient telly, check. Sonos sound system, check. OMG WOAH

Re: Nice advertising piece

Not well enough, obviously. He already said it had to go back ;)

Half of all mobes sold in South-East Asia are now smart

Lots of these 'smart' phones are just Chinese-manufactured crap

And yes, I know that the 'big boys' also manufacture all their stuff in China, but you know what I mean.

The market here in Thailand is full of the usual suspects (Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG, Asus, etc.), and then a few local brands whose main selling point is that the entire phone UI, the manual and the box are all in the Thai language - but then there is a mass of horrible super-cheap crap-phones and shit-tablets that cost a couple of thousand THB (say, 40 quid) and run some shonky version of Android that has been obsolete for at least a year with no prospect of ever being able to put a newer version on it.

Phones here are all sold without contracts, and so are sold SIM free. This means that the iPhone 5s starts at 23,900 THB (around 450 quid). So you can imagine that there is quite the market for the crap-phones ...

The legacy IE survivor's guide: Firefox, Chrome... more IE?

Re: Dear Business

You think they ever noticed the aforementioned banging-on? Unlikely.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it ... Win Phone 8? No, it's APPLE'S iOS 7

You think support is bad in the UK??

You should try it in Thailand ...

We only got the ability to buy music earlier this year. AppleTV went on sale a couple of months ago. iTunes Radio? I would suspect never.

And we have to wait until December before we can buy the new iPhones. Hopefully.

Galaxy S4 way faster than iPhone 5: Which?

Shocker

"Phone that was released last year is slower than other phones released this year" shocker.

Who should play the next Doctor? Nominations needed!

I vote for ...

David Threlfall

Spooky action at a distance is faster than light

Re: Well done ... again.

Yes, but only if we don't know how fast it isn't going ...

Review: Livin' in the cloud with Google's new Chromebook Pixel

Profitable because it's made in China?

Not because of the outrageous price tag, then?

Baby-boulder bowling burglar breaks Boulder Apple Store's $100k glass door

Moron thieves

My step-dad's BMW 635 Csi had its window broken to steal a stereo that probably got the moron who stole it 20 quid for a fix. Fucking idiots, the lot of them.

Ex-pats take note: China IT salaries set to jump 40 per cent

Wish it was the same in Thailand

I took a 75% pay cut in the last year. It would be seriously nice if salaries here shot up too.

The problem with China is that I'm not sure I could learn to read and write, which would drive me batty. At least Thai has an alphabet (44 consonants and 32 vowels enough for you?), so you've got a chance.

That, and my wife is Thai.

Living here is WAY better than living in the UK, though (I've been here over 9 years already). Being an ex-pat is an interesting life, to be honest :)

Recipe for a bad day: 'State-backed hackers are attacking your PC'

The Internet in Myanmar was always a bit shaky

The "government" always censored everything, and the only way to browse the web was to use a VPN. When I went there regularly in 2006/2007, I used to use Your Freedom (a tunnel service).

All web access had to go through "government" proxies, so the tunnel was the only way to go.

The biggest problems we had was actually with the power constantly going down. I can only hope that things have improved over the intervening years.

Don't be shy, vendors: Let's see those gorgeous figures

"Don't have these figures to hand"

This is absolutely correct. DO NOT believe a vendor that says they don't have these numbers. Of course they have the numbers.

If they say they don't have the numbers then they are OBVIOUSLY lying somewhere - because how can you claim to provide a certain measurable uptime figure, but not have the actual numbers to hand? It's ridiculous.

Vendors in "lying in order to win a sale" shocker ...