Posts by Silverburn

Tablets aren't killing ereaders, it's clog-popping wrinklies - analyst

Do they honestly think younger people dont read?

If they've had a modern progressive education, it's more likely they can't than won't.

Remember to empty your bag, take out your teeth and find your reading glasses first, grandad...

Boffins baffled over pulsar with 'split personality'

"The behaviour of this pulsar is quite startling, it’s as if it has two distinct personalities,

I promised myself I wouldn't go there...but I will:

...does this behaviour appear to change regularly on an almost monthly basis...?

The brown one. Quickly. I have to run.

Facebook DIES ON THE VINE hours after Twitter tie-in

..and preferably just ignore the bit where I spunk 700m/1bn USD without any real board buy-in on an overpriced service that's heamoraging privacy-concerned users and almost designed to piss off twits ...bitches.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/18/instagram_zuckerberg_one_billion/

No UK date, no biz disties: Will Microsoft cock-up the Surface Pro too?

Re: It is the price, stupid!

Not sure i fully agree with all your points, but bugger me- take a +1 for the *longest post in world*.

A real shame

A potentially sound product with real USP's, ruined by its creators. Shame.

Oh, those crazy Frenchies: Facebook faces family photo tax in France

Google and Facebook have not yet responded to our request for comment on the report

..they were too busy laughing at the lunacy of it all...?

Boffins take the temperature of the cosmos

A query arises...

...is the restaurant at the end of the universe's location measured in distance or time?

And if entropy wins, does this mean my steak will be served rare?

Enquiring minds must know.

Microsoftie's tell-all on 'rival-flinging' Ballmer: The politics of disbelief

In other words...

Respect my Athoritaaah!

Apple shares dive after quarterly report disappoints Wall Street

Re: FAIL

Reality distortion field? I think it's yours...all my graphs are up.

- Revenue up

- units shipped up

- operating income up

- earnings per share up

Only thing Cook needs to explain is the 18% drop in profit on that revenue- it reeks of poor supplier management and cost creep; something he was formally head honcho of.

And much of this come from over analyst expectations, which apple can't control. eg: Apple management forecast $52.00 billion in total revenues, the analysts expected $54.69 billion, and the result was $54.51 billion.

My question is where the big products are coming from in 2013 - another year of incremental upgrades like 2012 will not get them back in front.

Afterall, 56.24% of sales came from the iphone alone, and given the 5 was not the big upgrade people were expecting, degredation of iphone sales volumes will have a big effect on bottom line.

UK 4G auction kicks off in total silence

Re: Oranges are not the only fruit.

A minor revision: New for old account swapping only really works when you move UP the pay scale. Try moving your account to a cheaper one, and they'll be less accomodating, unless you're at renewal stage - and even then, expect to get hosed-by-stealth on the T&C's.

Re: Anything to stop TV companies buying it?

Using TV bands for use as...TV? Common sense.

Selling TV bands for use as...TV? Money for old rope? Surprised ConLib didn't think of it earlier...they could even have called it a tax.

3G debt

..shouldn't the companies that put in massive bids for the 3G pay those off first before doing the same again for 4G?

Intel to leave desktop motherboard market

In order to focus on new and innovative areas in desktop computing, Intel has made the decision to ramp down the Desktop Motherboard Business

Are they implying there's no innovation left to be had doing MB's?

Or are they implying there's no profitable innovation left to be had doing MB's...

And re: comments on performance...remember the differences in performance between boards was often only a few percentage points. I'd happily trade a tiny performance loss for far better reliability - it's a no brainer.

UK way behind pack on broadband speed in Europe

Wake me up when these speeds are *guaranteed* at peak hours, not "maximum-speed-at-3am-on-an-non-contended-exchange-50m-from-the-backbone-marketing-fluff".

At the moment it's just a load of stats based on made up figures.

Wad of BlackBerry OS 10 pics 'leaks' from RIM's inner circle

"Allow access using a Wi-Fi network to personal files store don your device or media card"

Cue internal memo from IT Sec department:

"Storing personal files on your device or media card is not allowed. Accessing wifi networks from mobile phones is not allowed. Printing data to mobile phones is not allowed. etc etc..."

iPhone hangs on in US, Japan, but EVERYONE ELSE bought an Android

You do realise that your quoted statement can be recited - word for word - by the fandroids as well?

Fanboi-ism of any kind is toxic to any reasoned argument.

Re: my next phone...

Normally, people just hang up by pressing the button after they take it away from their head. Dropping it onto the floor seems a little extreme.

Missing "heartland"

fanboi/fandroid bickering aside, it should be noted that there is one bastion missing from Apple's heartlands - Switzerland. Apple have got it completely stitched up here - phones, tablets and the desktop.

The only one making any real inroads here is Samsung, with the S3, Note and Note 2. Even the Apple-loving Swiss know the feeble upgrade that is the iphone 5 is not worth the upgrade cost - lots of people here staying on 4/4S's or jumping the fence to samsung - the bigger screen and "something different" being the main reasons in my informal survey (ie I asked people in the office).

You'll note I make no reference to iOS or Android in post - because Joe Public buy phones, not OS'es.

Hackers on anti-Egypt spree bury Egyptology journal in the sand

Re: I got confused by the URL

Methinks the "send corrections" options should have been used for the sake of pedantry, but sometimes mistakes are worth leaving undeclared - purely for their amusement value.

Cautious Brits less likely than US firms to puff on clouds - survey

Re: Patriot Act

He's correct. Patriot act = bad news, if you have regulatory obligations re: confidential information.

"I think there is a more conservative approach towards, for instance, security risk," Park said. "The UK attitude is 'it is inherently less safe with a third party' whereas there is a strong argument the reverse is true, if you opt for a reputable supplier with industry-accredited security levels. The industry has generated a lot of hype, so caution, if not scepticism, is understandable."

I really get annoyed at this. Look...our data is more secure where it is, thanks very much. I do not *need* cloud, and I need no reason go through all the due diligence pain for a service that adds no real value where my data security is concerned. Why is this worded to make it look like cloud is something we *must" be using?

'The UK attitude is it is inherently less safe with a third party'

Wow, an outbreak of common sense at last!

APAC PC shipments FALL for first time ever in 2012

+1. With one minor addition: We've actually all had Desktops for many years - it just so happens that the upgrade cycle no longer has the necessity it used to. Joe Public now have more Ram, CPU cycles and storage than he can possibly use - this wasn't the case in the past, where software was outstripping what the hardware could do. Now it's the opposite way round - hardware has outstripped software.

Throw in 2 extra inhibitors - the recession and the borderline-unuseable-for-newbs Win8 hardly encouraging people to upgrade, and there we are.

Ignoring the now-traditional LarsG anti-apple dig, he has a point - Joe Public knows that 90% of his PC activities involve email, web, facebook, bookkeeping and letter writing, and he doesn't need 16gb of RAM and 3.9ghz of quad core magnificence to do this. His 4gb, 2ghz dual core is running just fine ta v much.

That, and a new machine will mean having to relearn how to use the OS again, now that the counter-intiuative, borderline-unuseable-for-newbs Win8 is out.

Phones 4U scrambles onto EE's back, flings out own virtual network

Re: EE Sucks

You have a lift at home? Does that come with a butler too?

Review: Infiniti M35h hybrid sports saloon

Re: RWD

"Would you mind awfully helping giving my Jaaaaaaag a tow out this snow-filled ditch? I appear to have left the AA card at home..."

What, no 'caddish jag owner' icon?

Re: More pretend brands

Ahem...Nissan Sunny (particularly from 1985 to current date)?

Re: RWD

News flash: RWD in the snow is actually ok....if you have the right winter tyres on. Which most UK drivers usually don't, and expect their summer tyres to perform miracles.

Re: Well lets put this way...

This post is wrong on so many levels.

Re: A pretty car...

Juke: Puke

The GTR-engined version looks fun though...

A pretty car...

...this is not. No sirree.

<-- That's not coffee this time...

Entire Reg readership would fill 205 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Re: All very well but

Hopefully it will get there in time to be slaughtered and served as chops at the restaurant there. It's quite good apparently.

Re: Well blended

I think I mentioned this in a reply to the original commentard post. However, they do mention the average volume of a reader, so that has, essentially been taken into effect. Except volume != actual volume in this case, given the general "blobby-ness" of the human shape.

Greedy Sky admits: We crippled broadband with TOO MANY users

Small print: Peak hours is now defined as 03:34am to 05:34am

Biz network shows HALF of Nimbus Data's staffers left in 1 year

Nimbus said it was a 30-person firm, with 95 per cent of staffers being engineers

Which poor non-tech and a tech are the ones getting cut in half then? And what are they doing with the leftover bits?

Global mercury ban to hit electronics, plastics, power prices

Re: If I were Japanese

@ LarsG

I wouldn't.

The amount of deadly radiation from Japan has been blown out of all proportion by the media; actual levels are magnitudes below safe levels for the general public. There are plenty article here on El Reg if you're interested. (Start here, and go through the related articles: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/12/fukushima_ffs/)

Whereas mercury in Tuna (and other higher food chain fish) is very definitely higher than recommended, and a very real threat to the general public.

Re: Just like lead

I only drink rainwater naturally, so no commie heavy metals in the groundwater to sap and impurify all of my precious bodily fluids.

Unlikely I'm afraid - most dentists are encouraged to go for the non-mercury , white versions these days.

The fact they're twice the price and have twice the margin of the mercury ones has nothing to do with it, of course.

The Convention will impact Reg readers in many ways. Some fluorescent lamps rely on the element, as do light switches.

That's funny...I never saw any questions about our love of lamps and light switches in the user survey. Did I miss out a section? Or does El Reg have greater inteligence collection methods we're not aware of - ie black helicopters?

RIM extends BB10 port-a-thon after dev stampede

Wow - risky strategy from RIM - throwing money at a problem, when you're heamoraging market share and turnover.

On ther other hand...damn, it's tempting. And clever. Guaranteed revenue, and assistance with porting? What's not to like, given the only cost implications from a dev point of view is time.

‘Anonymous’ hacks Oz Uni’s email to protest bulk iPad buy

Re: hard to argue with what the anon guy said

icon: for anybody arguing against the anon guy statement

All hail our benevolent, fault-free and glorious Anonymous Overlords! For they know all, and are wise beyond human comprehension!

How long before Chris goes the next step and actually registers Anon as a proper religion. He's got the dogma and blind faith right down to a tee.

..and this is the problem with vigilante groups, or those pretending to be them.

At first their causes are noble, standing up against injustice and defending basic human rights. But over time, they start to diversify into areas which - frankly - are hardly crimes against humanity.

Seriously Anon (if that is indeed you) - what the f* has this corporate IT spend decision got to do with you?

'End of passwords' predictions are premature - Cambridge boffin

Re: Biometrics?

Recent developments map the veins in the finger instead of the fingerprint. This is much better news...

- The user actually has no idea what his "code" is, since he can't see into his finger (unless he's superman)

- far less likely to be corrupted by scarring, dirt or sweat

- the action is easier; press and release, rather than press-drag-release

- the sensor is easier to clean, and less effected by build up

In a recent study of six million actual user-generated passwords, the 10,000 most common passwords would have accessed 98.1 percent of all accounts,

Ah, it appears we have found the final destination of all the hacked/uplifted user password files of late...Send in the gunships!

Martian 'lake' said to hint at 'deep biosphere'

*meh*

Best we'll get is some hydro-carbon sludge at the bottom.

Mars is either a billion years too early or too late for life I recon, and that's even before we take into consideration the non-ideal climate and atmospheric issues.

Now if we're looking for ideal conditions where we can grow our own when we get there, that's different. This could be a promising development.

Engineers are cold and dead inside, research shows

Alternatively....Engineers are normal human beings, and those entering the "caring" professions are actually more empathetic that the norm?

Not that I have any feelings about the whole thing anyway...apparently.

Record numbers of you are reading this headline right now

Re: Is it just me....

Hmmm. The idea of olympic pools filled with people has a slight ring of Soylent green about it, if you ask me.

Especially you consider it's more efficient to store them in liquidised form...

Re: greetings from Austria

Indeed Bill.

-9'C and 4" in some areas here in Switzerland. Everything is running normally...