* Posts by Rampant Spaniel

1813 publicly visible posts • joined 26 May 2011

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

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Or...

So ereaders are suffering the same fate as the English lawnmower industry. Building goods that won't need replacing is basically a fatal move in that kind of industry (sadly).

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Bollocks

plus I'm too tight to pay for a replacement bucket. They just don't make em like they used to!

Brit 2.5-tonne nuke calculator is World's Oldest Working Computer

Rampant Spaniel

and the suit from Apple will follow after a swift visit to the patent office. They'll be putting this new vacuum tubes tech in the iphone 6 to make it lighter ;-)

It's great to see it back up and running! I know it's very Beardy but theres something awesome about those old machines, they're not just beige boxes (ok Sun have made some nice kit in their time, but its all just boxes really), stuff with tubes and lights is just so 1970's scifi :-)

AMD alllllmost promises profitability by year end

Rampant Spaniel

I hope they do. A stronge AMD keeps intel on its toes which is great for us no matter which brand you choose.

Time Warner Cable to Netflix: We want your 3D films, not your network

Rampant Spaniel

Re: FFS why can't we edit our posts?

So just don't use your real name? I understand the anon thing to a degree but I think instead of anon it should be an alternate handle as frankly its damn confusing trying to read and reply to 20 or 30 anon posts from various or possibly the same person. Thankfully my parents gave me an appropriate name ;)

This week's BBC MELTDOWN: Savile puppet haunts kids' TV

Rampant Spaniel

It sees like everytime something significantly bad happens a mistake is made on a channel and an innapropriate rerun is shown. Thats life, it's not intentional. It's a mistake, people need to get a grip!

I bet not a single one of those complaining were abused by Saville. If 'Concerned of Snotting Cockbury' was really that affected they need professional help, preferably from a tug of war team to assist in removing their head from their arse.

TSA to pull backscatter perv scanners from US airports

Rampant Spaniel

Re: On the other side of the coin....

I agree completely. I think we do need to figure out how valid any health concerns are and we need to ensure that there is no way they become mandatory (I am fully aware this could be the thin end of the wedge). People sure do hate them though!

Flying 15 years ago was significantly easier, far more laid back. It would be nice to get some of that back!

Rampant Spaniel

I hope our local airport keeps theirs. I know they are unpopular (and support them only being voluntary) but as long as they keep us safe (which includes not harming our health, which is currently being looked at) and speed up those ridiculous lines I am ok with them. They make a huge difference in wait times and the TSA bods at the scanners said they make it a lot easier to spot things.

I would love to know once and for all about the possible health impacts and for them to remain optional. Unpopular views I know but damn I hate those huge lines. I absolutely love the new e-gates at some of the UK airports. 4-5 minutes to get through customs? I'll take that over 90 minutes at LAX. Throw in plenty of perv scanners and security might get to the same point. Flying might end up as less of a ballache!

Dotcom's Mega to launch with mini call centre

Rampant Spaniel

@rabidbader

Dangerous time to be a badger!!

Thanks for the suggestion! I went on a little google expedition and I found mediafire offer 50gb but with quite a few restrictions. 4sync also seem to offer 15gb? Just a couple to add to the list if folks are interested :)

Rampant Spaniel

Re: I'm not to sure...

Isn't 50gb a lot more than is currently offered for free? At least since skydrive dropped to 7GB (from 25Gb?). Most free accounts seem to be in the 2-7GB range.

I agree the service is probably going to attract a significant amount of illegal content and as such it is sensible to question how viable it will be as a long term service. I would be worried about it being taken offline I certainly wouldn't pay for it when google \ dropbox etc offer reasonably priced services which won't attract as much legal flak. I'm happy to be proven wrong however :)

Use your loaf, Europe! Eat more fibre - high-speed web lobbyists

Rampant Spaniel

@frank ly

Didn't the romans do all that?

BT would consider fttp if they didn't know they were at the mercy of a quango . BT pretty much has a monopoly, the market wouldn't sustain more than one fttp network, hell ntl went bankrupt and they didn't manage to do the whole country and they only really did fttc (although it's possible to argue their buying spree aided in their original demise).

So you have a monopoly, by default fttp will not be cheap to the consumer. Not only is it just expensive to do, but BT would want to charge a premium on top. This would piss off 'the public' who expect it to cost 7.95 a month. Not you or I or the majority of the people who read el reg, but 'the public' in general, the type of keep Jeremy Kyle and Bargain Booze in business.

So they bitch, politicians smell a chance to win some votes, they whip the quango staffed with their cousins who couldn't keep down a job in Argos and the quango demands BT sell it for whatever cost they magic up after a fact finding trip to Manilla. So BT is then left screwed because their lenders require them to keep their business within certain performance criteria as part of the loans but their selling cost is dictated by a publicly funded halfwit asylum and they have to maintain a sizeable company yet their competition can sell their products for less.

Now remove the halfwits altogether and BT go back to charging a fortune and innovating at the pace of a rock. What they need to do is sit down and work out a fair amount for BT to sell it for wholesale in advance that BT can live with without it being too high for other companies or consumers, then guarantee they won't shaft BT by cutting the rates in half 2 years later. That requires common sense which appears to be harder to find than the Higgs Boson.

Why no one wants to Joyn GSMA's Skype-killing expedition

Rampant Spaniel

So they gouge consumers on call pricing and people use calling cards and skype.

They gouge on video calling costs and people use skype.

They paid a fortune for 3g licences, killed video calling and accidentally fell into selling data pretty much at a loss.

Telcos created the environment for skype et al to thrive. If video calling had been sanely priced and there were pc clients so you could video call any computer or any mobile providers customers then perhaps telcos would be getting the money and not skype. If they continue to overcharge on calls and undercharge on data the situation won't improve any for them.

If they can reinvent video calling for a low fee, get all providers to agree to exchange video calls and get apple, skype (ms) etc to agree to allow calling in and out (in return for a cut of the charge) then maybe, just maybe they may become a player but I don't see the sums working out well enough to keep everyone happy.

Record numbers of you are reading this headline right now

Rampant Spaniel

Re: @lars

sorry :-) In my defence it is 4 am here ! and there is no real cheese!

Rampant Spaniel

@lars

Some of us are ex pats, so not technically fully American! Some of us event went to school, although given it was in North Yorkshire I'm not entirely sure it counts.

Google sinks millions into plush new £1bn London HQ

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Look at the bright side, will ya?

That is a good point. Although how much of that $650m will end up in our economy vs how much will end up buying foreign materials and paying for imported labour? I doubt the impact will be significant but I would truly love to be proven wrong.

Rampant Spaniel

Let me guess, the money is being provided by google [insert tax haven] at an apr that would make a loan shark blush and will be a nifty way to avoid paying tax. again.

Office 2013 now available for some home users

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Concur

That would be Ogburn :-) Not Gaius Petronius, but it's still so very true.

NASA snaps pics of China's 'Airpocalypse' pollution disaster

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Concur

I didn't downvote him but given I have mixed feelings on the matter I might be able to take a stab at an explanation.

Personally I hate but understand some limited need for overreach. Yes the EPA has gone a little too far and left unchecked would probably do even more. The problem as I see it is that companies will do the same. As witnessed recently in the UK and Ireland with horse burgers, western companies are not beyond 'pulling a China' and doing something ridiculous in the hopes of not being caught. Businesses compete, capitalism demands it, there are huge pressures on companies to not just sustain an exceptional level of efficency but to improve that year on year. Naturally some people have a few wonky moral genes and push this further and you end up with companies quietly dumping pollution, taking shortcuts on oil rigs, stuffing pork and horse into beef burgers etc. I'm not suggesing allowing the EPA to go all Stasi on companies is right and government agencies are subject to the same concepts of competition that companies are. The new EPA boss has to 'make his mark' and improve on the last boss, under him or her are thousands of minions all trying to get noticed by coming up with ever increasily mental policies which tend to grab headlines and swamp the good work that the EPA has done. One set of people don't like the EPA because it pushes too far, another don't like companies because they will usually sell their granny to the tesco burger factory to meet their q2 targets and another group of people wish they would all drown in a vat of snot and be replaced by one of the 6 or 7 sane, morally sound people left.

A balanced approach from all would be awesome, and call me a jaded old cynic but I don't see it happening.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: @Rampant Spaniel

No kidding! I'm just waiting for the bible belt to wake up and cludge the downvote buttons. I should have added something about making humor punishable by death.

The sad thing is the abolishing the EPA and dept of ed are actually something they planned to do. What we need is actually better education (or simply to give up and save the money for private schools) which usually won't happen with less oversight and less funding.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: natural sources would be classified as polluting

Living downwind of a volcano is not pretty, when the winds blowing the wrong way it's downright nasty and seriously screws up people with breathing issues like asthma. Luckily I'm not that close and it's only maybe 1 day in 3 we get it, but using 'natural sources' as a benchmark is not smart.

Rampant Spaniel

I think you are failing to understand the republicans argument, unregulated capitalism and the rampant polluting that would follow would not result in any deaths. The deaths would be gods damnation of us for allowing gay marriage and attempting to subvert their god given (as he wrote the bill of rights) right to carry fully automatic rifles down the high street. The polution would simply be gods chosen tool.

The plan is simple, ban the EPA, abolish the department of education and have all the schools become little christian 'madrasa' style schools. Once everyone has forgotten all that pesky, heretical science stuff the world will be a much better place!

PR people 'put duty to the public ahead of employers' interests'

Rampant Spaniel

I volunteer to deal with the wine lakes. If there's any blind folks willing to take on the cayennes we will be a lot closer to not needing pr bods!

Orange boasts: We made Google PAY US for traffic

Rampant Spaniel

So how is this different from how any other data center operates? Google is a net creator of data, simply it sends more than it receives. Orange is a 'last mile' provider, virtually all companies in a similar position of being the last link in the chain charge. Large ISP's will peer with each other for no charge assuming a rough balance in traffic because it is in their interest to do so. There are also public peering exchanges which are used by a variety of companies (last mile providers and data centers) but virtually all dc's which are carrier independent pay for transit from isp's for at least some of their routes. It may not be direct to the last mile but at that level they are just pushing that further down the chain.

Google paying orange is nothing huge. Some isp's may take the position that it is more beneficial to invite google to peer directly or cache on network for a better user experience than risk scaring google off by charging to do so but paying for egress is hardly new.

British armed forces get first new pistol since World War II

Rampant Spaniel

@ Ian

I was referring to this :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_International_AW50

It's $13000 there's a couple of dealers have them here. Given the comments about taking out radar installations & lightly armored vehicles I assumed it would pack enough punch to do some serious damage to bambi. To be fair i am guessing as this isn't anywhere close to what I would use for hunting.

Rampant Spaniel

Ah right thanks. Personally I assume everyone on the mainland is carrying. Makes life easier. I haven't used pistols much, never tended to have a need, but they were usually wedged in a belt (unloaded). We have no concealed carry here (Hawai'i) which seems to work quite well but it does upset a lot of folks moving here who like to carry. Personally I don't care if its concealed or not, thats not really the point, it should be just whether or not you can carry (having lived in both carry and non carry places I can see the benefits of each). If it's concealed or not doesn't really make much of a difference to me.

Rampant Spaniel

@Matt

Whats the old adage about treating every gun like it's loaded? That's one thing I liked about side by sides, you would carry them broken so there were no accidents (plus you could easily tell how dangerous a friends gun was) and you damn well didn't point it at anybody or anything you didn't want dead. From the minute we went near guns we were always told every gun is loaded, even the ones you 'know' aren't.

Rampant Spaniel

sorry, I guess attraction was the wrong word, rationale?

Rampant Spaniel

Just curious but what is the attraction to concealing a weapon? Why not just carry it openly holstered? I'm not saying its wrong but I grew up in the countryside where people wandered around with their side by sides broken over their arm.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: shooting Glock 17 from a UK newbie.

The UK didn't ban guns? It restricted the type of guns you could own, where you could have them and got strict on loonies having them. I grew up around guns, they're a tool. In the wrong hands at the wrong time they're incredibly destructive. In the hands of a drunk farmer they're excellent for controlling vermin and keeping a chest freezer well stocked.

The argument for restricting guns to some degree isn't that it would stop crime but that it would make a dent in the many thousands of people who are shot and die each year either by reducing the number of incidents or the severity of them when they do happen. It's also one part of a very wide range of solutions that need to be looked at. They need to drown that idiot in charge of the nra, his BS is going to result in us having even less freedom to use guns for recreation, sport and protection.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: I don't understand.

No waist mounted 60 cal? :-)

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Enjoy it while it lasts

Wasn't that what they had to do at the navy training academy due to lack of funds?

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Don't Understand.

True, but whilst you are bouncing around in a vehicle with it pointing towards your leg \ your fellow soldier, a safety might be appreciated.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Suck my Glock..

having been to SA (and loved it) I can understand the OP's wish to be well armed, most of the wildlife and a good number of the locals are pretty deadly (or at least were then). The old Joburg domestic departure lounge was scary enough, driving round some parts had you white knuckled and doing meercat impressions at every intersection. Having said that I would go back in an instant, beautiful country, amazing wildlife and truly awesome people. They also play decent rugby when they aren't tearing northern hemisphere teams apart ;-)

Rampant Spaniel

Just out of curiosity (I prefer a bow) I checked to see if I could buy one. Apparently (and worryingly?) I can, they also make a 50cal version for 13k. Poor Bambi, there wouldn't be enough left for a sunday roast.

FCC to unleash unlicensed spectrum, relieve 'Wi-Fi traffic jam'

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Large bands lie empty, but massive amount of use is crammed into ISM bands!

I agree with your sentiment but can you honestly see a situation where countries would submit to a central agency regulating spectrum usage? Leaving aside it would be hideously wasteful (like Brussels) and a giant bitch fight that achieves little (like the UN) you have to convince the merkins that the commies won't be after their precious bodily fluids.

(as an aside, why is my spell checker flagging 'merkins', it is actually a word! albeit an old one)

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Really?

I think this is more planning for the future than dealing with an immediate issue. 2.4G is crowded, especially in areas like condos, 5g is still pretty spartan but expect this to change as dual band or 5g only becomes more mainstream. My situation is similar to yours, 2.4g is crowded and 5g is pretty much me only, but I expect this will change rapidly over the next year or two.

Drop that can of sweet pop and grab a coffee - for your sanity's sake

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Correlation != causation

Well said John, until you have a proven mechanism all you have is an observation.

Razer uncages Core i7, GeForce megaslab for hardcore gamers

Rampant Spaniel

I'm tempted by a windows slate for tethered studio shooting, but not this for games. Theres possibly a limited market for rentals on flights and of course the more money than sense crowd might grab a few, but basically this is fecking useless. Apologies if I gave the impression I liked it in my above post, I don't, I was just attempted to explain the low res.

Rampant Spaniel

I thought much the same initially, but given it's primarily aimed at gaming I expect the screen res is low to give the gpu half a chance at coping. A 1080p screen would look good outside of games but that cpu (likely the ultrabook or slower kind) and gpu would roll over and die trying to run games at 1080p. The other option would be using a 1080p screen and running games non native res, but that would likely look pants.

'Leccy-starved Reg hack: 'How I survive on 1.5kW'

Rampant Spaniel

May I politely suggest making popcorn the old fashioned way? Might make movie time a little easier and it should be cheaper.

Mega-res telly demand to boom, say ball-gazers

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Do You

all my films? no, all my favorites, sure, probably 20-30 of them.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: You will have to wait...

There are quite a few companies with 4k displays \ projectors out there, some since 2007, I know of Chinese, Korean, Japanese companies etc, none of them Apple. However, I am sure when Apple does release a 4k set it will look awesome, their propaganda department will claim its made with pixie jizz , history will be rewritten and they will be the first to have done it. Then the lawsuits will start.

Rampant Spaniel

Sky and Cable could do 4k without too much chaos although it would likely need a new codec + stb, freeview\freesat would probably need more reworking due to how it is structured & regulated. Content will come from a variety of sourced, you mention cable, Virgin offers broadband that could stream 4k and BT is heading that way with its new network. Bluray as a physical medium can cope with 4k although it will need new hardware and a tweak in the standards if not a new codec but it won't need to be replaced altogether.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: content medium

BDXL should cope with 4k especially if theres a revamped codec. I can see a situation where in a few years you can rent movies on usb 3.0 flash drives from kiosks (or your own drive gets filled there and then).

As for bandwidth, 4k has 4x the pixels of 1080p, although this won't translate to 4x the bandwidth. I can see it needing between 25 and 40mbps for quality (i.e. movie not tv) streaming.

Soz, switch-fondlers: Doesn't look like 2013 is 10Gb Ethernet's year

Rampant Spaniel

Thank you! Great reply.

Lenovo, EA, Intel unite to DESTROY our childhood memories

Rampant Spaniel

Re: So you'd be forced to play by the actual rules then?

I'd forgotten th fines on free parking one, my gran used that one. It was a shock the first time I played at a friends house and they used the real rules.

Scrabble is worse than pool for random rules.

Rampant Spaniel

Re: So you'd be forced to play by the actual rules then?

Not to mention when playing with your kids you often have to tweak the rules to stop them loosing quickly (depending on their age). Special rules are part of the fun! It's one thing having the game on your phone for quick games but replacing the board game at home? not for me :)

Adobe offers free trip to PowerPC era

Rampant Spaniel

Given they have effectively released it to the wilds, why not just give it away and get the good pr? I guess there is probably a royalty issue over codecs etc (especially in premier pro) but maybe they could be stripped out? Unless this is basically them getting as close to giving it away as they legally can without stumping up money for the patents.

Intel uncloaks 'no excuses' smartphone for emerging markets

Rampant Spaniel

Re: Any money in emerging markets phones?

Perhaps 'emerging markets' is a bit too loose of a description? If they are pitching it at Ethiopia then it probably misses the mark, but if its aimed at India then perhaps it might stand a chance of gaining market share and intel 'mindshare' (****ing hate that term sorry) as the country develops. It will be tough going up against arm but intel in theory can do it. Their motives may not be immediate profit but rather future profit.

Tiny Brit island stranded after £10m undersea fibre plea sunk

Rampant Spaniel

Ledswinger for Supreme Ruler

You get my vote.