Posts by Martin Summers 1506 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Apr 2011
Well it's something like this: Two siblings are arguing and one isn't going to listen to the other let alone do anything they say, so the aggrieved sibling goes to an authority, let's say Mom, to try and make their sibling do what they want. Of course, Mom isn't going to do a damn thing and tells them both to bugger off and play nicely together cos she's busy watching her stories. Not that she'd have much chance either but that's a different matter.
"Yes, a spaceport should be near the equator, but a spacepork is best situated near a dense mass of potential votes."
Mmm... Spacepork
I would love to know what kind of words you've got stored in your auto correct. Anyway, maybe you're thinking subconsciously that Oz will get a space agency when pigs fly (in space)?
"I'm old enough to remember a time when El Reg wasn't trying to be the Daily Mail of IT news pages. When it didn't treat the readership as cash cows"
There are direct parallels with the milk farming industry and online publications. Milk from smaller farms used to be delivered in bottles to your door by a guy you used to know the name of. Supermarkets took that away by selling milk to a wider audience. We the humble readership are the cows being milked for a lesser yield than was available many years ago. More sites for those eyeballs mean this is how it is. There would be mutiny if this site compromised its integrity and whilst the Reg has come close to the boundaries they've never crossed them. As has been raised before by commentards including me (but never gone any further) they could introduce a subscription for no ads or even a paywall. Look how that's turned out for some well known publications. We have to accept that this is how they survive and recognise that it is in The Registers' own interest to make sure it keeps us on side with this arrangement.
"How many cat videos per second will fit down the inner-tube?"
I've just checked The Register Standard units page and there doesn't appear to be a measurement unit for data transfer. Which is surprising! I think CV/Ps should be considered for entry. You'd need the average length of a cat video though.
I agree. A percentage is a percentage and a flat rate still means those that earn more pay more. I think that should be the case for personal taxation too and I've never understood why just because you earn more you have to give up 45% of your earnings in tax (and I'm a basic rate tax payer so no bitterness here), that must sting so much seeing that much of your earnings disappear like that. It's no wonder companies and indeed wealthier individuals than I get up to the legal loophole tricks they do. Make it a level playing field and everyone wins.
Wasting battery capacity and holding it to ransom like that is a cheap trick. I'm amazed they do this. Can you imagine a pop up on a phone losing battery power saying you can unlock extra power to give you an hour longer for an extra £10? I just wouldn't buy it. We are all used to unlocking extra software features and that's fair enough, but hardware? Come on really? I hate to be cynical in the face of supposed altruism but Tesla owners are hardly poor and this just sounds like a sales trick to fleece them out of more cash when they've got used to the extra range.
Ultimately this wasn't really to benefit consumers it was to reduce overall energy consumption across the country. Not only that it paves the way for electricity companies to turn your smart appliances like your fridge or freezer (when they become widely used) down a notch when power demand is high. It also makes the army of meter readers mostly redundant. Saving money for consumers is the last thing on the energy companies' mind and £10 a year is throwing a small bone at them to make it look as if it's a benefit to them.
"I've never seen any Windows 10 reset any of my settings."
The bogus 'error' that comes up stating there was a problem with the default PDF reader so it is helpfully being reset to Microsoft Edge for you is just one of the incredibly agitating and support call inducing resets I can think of.
I have a UE49KS7000 and thankfully the recent update didn't brick my TV. It didn't stop some of the apps being a complete pile of crap either though. I'm sick of reinstalling the built in apps for Spotify YouTube and Netflix because they just crash for no apparent reason constantly. This is an expensive purchase, I really do not expect to have to be pissing about this way with a TV. They don't even tell you what these updates are for and they are set to auto install by default. It's a lesson learned but a replacement is a long long way off.
They used to be separate franchises until ntl swallowed them all up. All of those franchises were saddled with debt from their network rollout. If there was competition they'd have to do exactly the same and we'd have it all over again. It's an expensive game laying cables so actual competition on the scale of Virgin is just not going to happen.
Of course there's the argument to open their cable network up wholesale but I don't see why they should, private investment put that infrastructure there unlike BT who were nationalised. Besides, just like BT (in most cases) they'd be running the physical network anyway.
"I disagree.
tl;dr is that Nestlé are at best indirectly responsible for the deaths of babies in developing countries around the world"
Wow, and I was going to comment about how they've screwed over the KitKat with the new recipe. Glad I didn't now.
"He said the IS is urging any business which is contacted by cold-call and invited to sign up for a Google My Business listing to make full enquiries into the service being offered before entering into any agreement."
And that's all it takes really. I've not met many business owners who are ever happy to part with cash for anything, even if it is a benefit to them. So I think they can only have been struck dumb by the power of 'Google'.
General rule of thumb, don't just give money to people who ask for it over the phone.
I take a minor exception to your use of "these people" but I'm sure you didn't intend it in any mean way. People with suicidal thoughts could be anyone, even people you think have great and happy lives may be carrying a burden in their private lives that drives them to feelings of ending everything.
People who are willing to just listen are few and far between, and I mean actually just listen and not butt in with their opinion or question someone's thinking or motives. How often have you solved a problem just by talking through it out loud without needing a response from whomever you are venting to? Sometimes all people need to feel is that someone gives a shit and that they aren't just irrelevant and a nobody. That can make the difference between coping or just giving up. All of us should take the time to just listen to people more and value eachother rather than living our lives in a silo. One day we might need that person to listen ourselves.
Currently binge watching Yes Minister, never realised just how good it was. It's a paradox whether to laugh at it as you know just how near the mark it probably is even today or be frightened and pissed at how near the mark it probably is even today.
I'm also geeking out at the moment as I'm right next to GCHQ Bude and have an excuse to mention it.
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