Posts by Anonymous IV

Graphic designs: Six speedy 17-inch gaming laptops

Re: My son's Bargain Gaming Laptop ...

I think the "128TB SSD" is what we techies call "a typo".

These are often discerned and silently compensated-for by the intelligent mind.

Radio 4 and Dr K on programming languages: Full of Java Kool-Aid

Re: Functional languages

All this talk of "Haskell" made me wonder what on earth The Sweeney had to do with programming languages.

Then I remembered that the name I was ms-thinking of was "Haskins"...

Eyes on the prize: Ten 23-24-inch monitors for under £150

Re: New Year's resolution

There's the Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24 inch LCD TFT Monitor (16:10, 1920x1200, 300 cd/m2) for a smidgeon less than £200 from Amazon (other fine retailers are undoubtedly available...).

V&A Museum shows Guardian's destroyed MacBook as ART

Re: What makes art?

"Art is anything you can get away with" - Marshall McLuhan.

Dino-boffins discover ancient, TOOTHY-CLAWED, four-eyed MONSTER LOBSTER

An international crack team of palaeontologists

This sounds even more unusual than a monster lobster - and much more difficult to visualise.

SCARESTEROID of the week to miss Earth on Friday

Re: Help us out, El Reg

Just a BOFH, please!

‘Digital by default’ agricultural payments halted: Farmers start smirking

It seems that the so-called "Agile" methodology was first introduced as long ago as 2001.

The BBC's Digital Media Initiative, scrapped at a cost of nearly £100m, also used Agile.

This seems to be another "solves all possible problems" mechanism which would appear to work well on paper but whose implementation can be quite disastrous.

> "they've [sic]", "They're [sic]", "them [sic]", "them [sic]"

I assume that the attemptedly-pedantic author of the article thinks that the singular form should be used when referring to the Rural Payments Agency, not the plural. I would say that the point is moot. It is quite possible to refer to an organisation as an "it" or a "them".

Fanbois: We paid $2000 for full satisfaction but now we have SPREADING STAINS

In other news...

"A tablet device that can withstand being doused in chlorine has been developed to help doctors caring for patients with Ebola." (BBC website)

Oxford boffins publish fine-scale regional genetic map of UK

The Australian Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

No doubt this is an absolutely fine organisation, but my blood ran slightly cold when I read the name.

Internet Explorer LIVES ON, cackle sneaky Microsoft engineers

Re: Windows, your reign is over ....

Assuming that the original post is not a wind-up, one might observe that "even more tedious than a Zealot is a Convert".

Let's hope that the justifiably-Anonymous Coward hasn't also given up alcohol and/or smoking, or suddenly got religion, for he would then be even more insufferable...

Re: "even the name has been picked to suggest simplicity, speed and hardiness."

If Microsoft renamed IE as "Arthritic Sloth" then they would run the risk of people thinking that it was a new, non-alliterative, version of Ubuntu...

Re: Less is more, not

> Her company website said: "To log in use Internet Explorer 9 or less"

I hope you pointed out to their web[master|mistress] that the word should have been "fewer"?

</dubious-pedantry>

MOOCROSOFT tosses seven proper tech courses online at edX

Linux

I'm doing the free "Introduction to Linux" course with edX. No, I don't need any certificate.

It's interesting just how different are the three distributions about which they provide information.

<irony> Lucky all Windows versions are virtually identical! </irony>

Oi. APPLE fanboi! You with the $10k and pocket on fire! Fancy a WATCH?

Re: Why is iWatch battery so bad?

> I understand what you are saying, but there is 1 major problem: nothing on the iWatch is V1. Its all mature technology, its just a different package.

So the comment I heard on t' radio, that "the iWatch is the first piece of new technology that Apple has produced since the iPad" is untrue?

Re: Solid golf neklace

> El Reg - I want a Pedantic Spelling Nazi Icon.

Surely you mean Linguistic Purist icon?

Windows XP's market share grows AGAIN!

> Microsoft should learn from Samsung and Apple and just rename W10 to Windows XP 2 plus.:)

Or name Windows 10 as "Funky Gibbon" (Ubuntu-type animal alliteration and curved corners avoided to bypass litigation).

Your hard drives were riddled with NSA spyware for years

Re: Grzegorz Brzeczyszczykiewicz

So, basically, this is "Don't tell him, Pike" but in a Polish sketch?

Torvalds turns to Sir Mix-A-Lot for Linux versioning debate

What happened to the animals?

Why doesn't he call the new version Capricious Crocodile or something similar?

But probably Ubuntu has the copyright on fatuous names...

Hackers break the bank to the tune of $300 MEEELLION

Re: "fleeced $7.3 million through ATM withdrawals"

Perhaps the criminals were sufficiently sophisticated to use more than one ATM?

ATTENTION SETI scientists! It's TOO LATE: ALIENS will ATTACK in 2049

Principle

Whatever happened to "security by obscurity"?

Official: Single people need to LOWER their EXPECTATIONS

Re: Married people need to lower their expectations too

She probably wasn't expecting that, if she was your ex-wife!

Windows 7 MARKED for DEATH by Microsoft as of NOW

Re: What's with the numbering, guys?

What will happen about Windows 13, eh?

El Reg's festive dating app guide, Pt. 2: The FEMALE perspective

Prior art

It would have been nice if the cartoonist had acknowledged that Banksy, quite some months ago, did a picture named Mobile Lovers which is remarkably similar to the cartoonist's "Mobile Obsessed" cartoon...

German minister photo fingerprint 'theft' seemed far too EASY, wail securobods

Some day my prints will come

Fingers ain't wot they used ter be...

ASA slaps Ebuyer AGAIN - this time for ignoring regulator

What's the next level below Toothless Tiger?

Initially I thought this was the next version of Ubuntu, but the ASA is beyond even that and could thus be described as Utterly Useless.

REVEALED: Titsup flight plan mainframe borks UK air traffic control

Re: There's legacy, and there's legacy

I suppose most people know that JOVIAL is an acronym for "Jules' Own Version of the International Algorithmic Language", named in the heady days of the 1960s when such whimsy was quite acceptable.

In these more enlightened tennies, who would ever dream of giving a version of an operating system a ridiculous name such as Flatulent Ferret or Mangy Mongoose? It just couldn't happen, could it...

BOFH: Santa, bloody Santa

Part Two next week?

Too many matters left unresolved, I felt.

Or a too-abrupt ending.

Take your pick!

Outage STILL hitting Virgin Media Business broadband customers

Business customers don't get the option to run in modem mode! All you can do is a bodge by buying 5 or 6 "fixed" IP addresses and creating a dummy subnet.

Mmmmffll-CHOMP: I won? Reg reader to have CHOC-TASTIC YEAR

Tasting notes?

Something more complicated than:

1) remove wrapping

2) insert orally

3) savour

?

Tough Banana Pi: a Raspberry Pi for colour-blind diehards

Re: Is there a collective name for Raspberry Pi enthusiasts?

Surely Pi-oneers?

Re: "Gigabit Ethernet is also a very welcome edition"

Isn't it ironic that someone should misspell "misspelling" as "miss-spelling"!

If you wish to be marital-status-neutral, perhaps you should have used "ms-spelling"?

Mighty Blighty broadbanders beg: Let us lay cable in BT's, er, ducts

Re: BT: Over-Spec'd and out of date

> everyone has a sewer connection

Strictly-speaking yes, but you'd be surprised how many go only to the septic tank...

We have a winner! Fresh Linux Mint 17.1 – hands down the best

Upgrades

Does Mint still have the 'feature' (common to other Linux distributions?) where if you want to upgrade to a new version (every six months) then it's a complete reinstall from scratch, and thus a complete recustomisation of everything?

'Regin': The 'New Stuxnet' spook-grade SOFTWARE WEAPON described

Is the clue in the name?

"El Reg" and "Regin" - 60% of the letters are the same! Is there a connection? I think we should be told.

Oh, and has anyone seen mention of any scanner which would check for the presence of Regin (rather than plough through the information at the end of the PDF), and remove it? It may be early days, though.

Countdown contestant pays homage to IT Crowd's Moss

Re: Collins' definition - sort of

That's where I saw the Approval status: Rejected...

Word rejected by Collins' dictionary

Could someone please explain, for those who may well have thought that The IT Crowd was utter rubbish, whether TNETENNBA has any actual meaning, or is just a in-joke like Mornington Crescent (which may also be considered as a waste of time)?

Blackpool hotel 'fines' couple £100 for crap TripAdvisor review

Self-certified as 3-star

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but the Broadway Hotel self-certifies itself (tautology?) as being of a 3-star standard. The fact that this is possible says a lot about the tourist industry.

Also the fact that there are only ten hotels lower down in the ranking than that hotel, since those at the very bottom of the list are those whom nobody has ever rated.

There is a notorious guest-house in Beverley which self-certifies itself as 4-star, and has filched the 4-star logos from Visit England and stuck "Self Certified" at the top of each on its website. On a good day, it might be assessed as 2-star. Rather better than the Broadway Hotel, though!

Windows 8 or nowt: Consumer Win 7 fans are out of luck

Re: A year?

> Final release is likely to be either spring 2015, or roughly a year from now

I think that what we have here is an example of irony, where the author is rather sceptical of the claimed delivery dates provided by software manufacturers. (If you need to look up "irony", you are not British!)

'Urika': Cray unveils new 1,500-core big data crunching monster

Met Office

Does anyone know how this compares in power with the "IBM supercomputers" which the Met Office in Exeter boasts of using on their website, without them being any more specific?

Ofcom chief exec Ed Richards to step down in December

Purpose?

It doesn't really matter who is chosen to run Ofcom, since (to mix metaphors) it is a figurehead without any teeth. I think of Ofcom much like the IBM mainframe Assembler instruction NOP.

Microsoft on the Threshold of a new name for Windows next week

Windows Ukulele?

... for the new, cleaner Windows (apologies to George Formby).

Infosec geniuses hack a Canon PRINTER and install DOOM

I thought this was a function of the printer firmware...

"The proof-of-concept demo by security researchers at Context Information Security [...] allowed them to exhaust the ink of the printer by printing out hundreds of documents."

Now it seems that my printer may have been hacked, and it wasn't just Canon's rapacious ink cartridge greed.

Moto 360: Neat gizmo – if you're a rich nerd

Re: How about a watch that has the correct time?

"The killer app for a smartwatch is that it will have the correct time, automatically."

You mean like Network Time Protocol, available from a whole bunch of Time Servers in each country?

Go on, corporate drone, log in... We'd recognise your VEINS anywhere – Barclays

So they did not use artificially-coloured blood?

No, they did not dye in vein...

Data entry REAR-END SNAFU: Weighty ballsup leads to plane take-off flap

Wouldn't weighing them infringe the passengers' Human Rights?

And, most importantly for the check-in staff, Why Didn't They Think Of The Children?

No, thank you. I will not code for the Caliphate

Re: Funny?

Disappointing that the author didn't manage to crowbar in something about "a caliphate worse than death"...

Football legend Gary Lineker in TWITTER POO TROLL SCANDAL

Surprised you missed...

... calling the whole story "poo-erile". Must be a slow Friday at El Reg Towers?

Cops baffled by riddle of CHICKEN who crossed ROAD

Philosophical question

Why can't chickens just cross the road without having their motives questioned?

Password manager LastPass goes titsup: Users locked out

"Redundant data centre"?

"We have done everything we can to minimise impact and are working to get the redundant data centre up as soon as possible."

If the data centre was redundant, then why is there a problem? Have I missed something?