Posts by kyza

Assange needs to get some sunlight and fresh air, say Ecuadoreans

Sweden...

...is even colder & darker than the UK at this time of year. His condition would worsen, requiring his immediate removal to somewhere hot & sunny, perhaps a Caribbean island resort.

Windows. Open them.

I've passed this building.

It has windows.

He could open one and lean out.

Sunshine? He's in the UK, not bloody Australia.

Far Cry 3 game review

Re: dubious

From the bottom of P2 of the review:

"Hunting game animals also leads to further expansion of Jason’s armoury as their hide is harvested to fashion larger wallets, backpacks and arrow quivers, like some cut-down version of Monster Hunter. Plants can be similarly harvested for healing and empowering drugs, while the game also sports some of the coolest drug trip sequences as Dr. Earnhardt helps you expand your horizons."

Android seven-inchers swipe rug from under Apple

Re: Size of market isn't mentioned

I've posted before about how I grew up - as many did - with the Spectrum vs C64 fanboi warz, and I find it depressing in the extreme that even people my own relatively venerable age are still at it, be it over XBox Vs PS3, Apple vs Everyone else and so on.

Re: Finally..

Because obviously every other tablet isn't shiny wankcandy, is it? They're all in matt grey and have awful looking displays.

Which is strange, because the last time I looked in the local PC World, there was a whole bank of beautiful shining things that made me feel like I was living in the future. A future full of shiny wankcandy.

Size of market isn't mentioned

With a couple of mis-starts (I've got an old HP tablet lying around somewhere), the modern tablet market was pretty much started by Apple.

What this article doesn't do is place that 55% market share in perspective of how much the market has grown, whether Apple's sales are pacing along with that growth, are behind it or ahead of it.

It's true to say they've lost 45% market share - but by the same token, they've maintained a 50%+ market share in a market that's exploded in the last 4 years, and against a wide range of other manufacturers.

What some people miss on this thread too is that it's not only 'fanbois' who buy products. They're just the ones who endlessly shout about shite on the web. I know 5 families in high income brackets who use iPhones & iPads and who will be getting iMinis because it's a hassle free extension to their existing setups. I also know families who are all Android and will be getting 7s or those Asus thingys, again simply because it makes intergrating the news stuff into their lives easy and trouble free.

Ten technology FAILS

PDAs

I was using a Palm right up until the moment I got an iPhone - my kit was iPod, Palm IV & Nokia 8810 (I'm not a big photographer). Worked perfectly well - in fact better in some ways because while it was sometimes a pain ensuring contacts between phone & PDA were synched, I didn't have to worry about changing one permission somewhere and suddenly seeing stuff appearing on some piece of social media that I don't want appearing. Not that this has happened, but I'm a worrier.

I also quite like the idea of OpenDocs, and don't see why, with yer new-fangled coding and super-stripped down apps, that it couldn't still have some legs at some point. It's not like the tech industry doesn't recycle old ideas in new ways or anything.

Bash Street bytes: Do UK schools really need the Raspberry Pi?

Treat it like a musical instrument...

Coding & programming at their best have all the same characteristics of arts & crafts - there are multiple ways to get someonwhere and it usually helps if you've got some passion & skill for what you're building/drawing/painting/whatever.

When I learned to play violin, it started in generic music lessons with my class, and when I decided I wanted to focus on playing it, I started having after-school lessons with one of the music teachers.

I reckon something similar would be appropriate for the Pi - use Scratch & other apps on a PC to get identify the kids who'll be interested, then offer them the chance to get a bit more serious about it in after school actvivity where they won't be distracted by endless natter about the X-Factor & One Direction.

VPN ban makes for nervy times behind Great Firewall

Orwellian sounding “Jinan City Internet Monitoring Team”

hMM. Orwellian would be something like:

'Jinan City Ministry for Digital Freedom'

Lawrence 'Empire Strikes Back' Kasdan to pen future Star Wars script

Admiral Daala

In dominatrix leathers, with a whip.

CERN rushes to install new anti-matter hunter

Re: How many KWH

My rough guesstimate at the total cost of the LHCs lifespan is around €20bn. This is money spent to investigate the foundations of matter & the universe, and represents a pinnacle of science, engineering and the strength of human curiousity.

In 2010, the US Military spent $12bn a week on killing people now, and new shiny things to kill them in the future.

In the UK in 2011, the total spend on advertising was £17.6bn.

Where do you think the money to save the millions dying from starvation & disease should be diverted from?

BLAZING HEAVENLY gas BRIDGE filament links galactic clusters

Big gas cloud?

Remnant of the Dawn War

'Rare for tech not to be involved in child abuse cases'

Badly written or subbed story

Leaving aside the title, there's no differentiation given to the word 'gangs'. Since this could be referring to either 'gangs' in the 'street gangs' sense (which is where much of the stuff related to videos & BBM pins is from) and 'grooming gangs' of the kind seen in the recent cases in Rochdale.

Since the two represent a significant part of the report, a bit more clarity on the differences would have helped.

Also - the report doesn't blame technology for paedos, simply points out it's enabling role and how it's used, much as it points out that talking, alcohol & drugs are also used.

PGP Zimmermann teams with Navy SEALs, SAS techies in London

Re: Soldiers are geeky?

Presumably none of you read the footnote:

Perhaps actually from 18 Signals Regiment, the electronic warfare/SIGINT/ELINT/communications formation supporting the UK Special Forces. Though there are signaller specialists who are fully badged members of the SAS itself, 18 Regiment would probably have a higher level of corporate expertise.

I'm pretty certain that SIGINT types would qualify as 'geeks'...

Re: 3 questions

Thanking you kindly :)

Re: 3 questions

Pls forgive density in this question...is this the equivalent of, or similar to, a one-time pad?

Re: 3 questions

From their website:

https://silentcircle.com/web/law-compliance/

Basically they're saying that yes, we might have to comply with CALEA requests from the feds, but the effect this can have on our users will be minimised because we don't hold that much information on them at any one time, and will notify them prior to handing the data over so they can appeal against the decision.

Boffins biff over ‘twisted radio’

Re: This will only work for certain types of radio transmission

Kylie Minogue: I'm Spinning Around

Re: The fundamental things apply

'Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' as Mr Sagan (and others) have said.

Google Chrome app offers guided tour of known universe

Re: Missing planets

Try looking for Canopus if you're after Arrakis Dune.

Endor, as any fule no, is in a galaxy far, far away.

New flexible lens works like the one in your eye - and could replace it

Does this mean I'll be able to get superhero-style zoom vision in my contact lenses?

Peak Apple: Forstall was 'closest thing to Jobs they had left'

Didn't this happen to Apple the last time Jobs left the place? Went from $$$s to a basket case, Jobs comes back and *bang!* you've got the iMac, iPod and lotsa slimshiny things?

Goatse.cx opens up again - as an email provider

Re: He wont see that 10k

From the Gawker article...

He's been promoting Goatse email on the cult internet forum Something Awful and the social news site Reddit, and says more than 4,000 people have signed up for a Goatse email invite.

If half of them go on to pay the huge sum of $5, he's got his cash back.

Quarter of Brits don't believe that cell towers improve phone reception

3 masts coverage, yet still I have to go all Lion King...

My living room is an intersection point between 3 masts, so despite - according to Orange's customer service team - 'superb' coverage, holding my phone completely still it will, over any given 90 second period, go from 5 bars to 'Searching'.

Get the same result on Skoadfone & O2, altho in the bedroom rather than living room! We've reintroduced a telephone chair into our array of furnishings.

Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi only tablet review

I was trying to remember where I'd seen this kind of argument before...

...then I remembered my childhood and endless Spectrum vs Commodore vs Amstrad arguments.

Then I remembered Sega vs Nintendo for 2 generations of console

Then it was Sony vs Nintendo

Now it's Sony vs Nintendo vs X-box, MS vs Linux vs OS & Android vs iOS

And the arguments still sound like they're being made by 7 year olds arguing over a controversial Top Trump top score (probably the Rockets set between the Saturn V booster & the Titan VII)

Analyst slams Apple innovation FAIL

This guy has just watched Minority Report and gone 'OMG! That screen Cruise is using is soooooo cool!' without thinking that it would be awful to work with IRL

Fans' loyalty questioned as iPhone popularity plummets

Re: iphone 5 ... too many problems

OR...

...just use a good ole phono lead out of the headphone socket and cope with having to walk to your stereo to skip a track?

Apple have done what lots of bands do - they've got their formula, and are now afraid to change it (RHCP, Coldplay for example).

Still, 75% of users happy and will buy again? As mentioned above, you'd have to go a long, long way to find that level of brand loyalty anywhere else.

French gov 'plans to hand Google €1bn tax bill' - report

Re: Tax Rates

'company X makes more profit, employees more staff etc....

Should read:

'company x makes more profit which it gives to it's shareholders, meanwhile keeping a firm grip on employee compensation & ensuring minimum staffing levels to further increase it's profit margins.'

Your argument is fallacious - it's basically a variant on the trickle down theory that says as the rich get richer, the poor get richer too because of some magical cake crumb effect from the rich spending more on services. A quick look at the two countries that have practised this approach most closely - UK & US - and their Gini coefficients over that period reveals the theory to be a crock of shit.

Re: Fuck them all

Thanks for the reply.

How would you fix it, since it's always good when someone who says 'That won't work' has an idea of what would.

Re: Fuck them all

'but the services you mention are services for YOU not a business. The roads and sanitation make sense for the business but the rest is for you. '

Not true. Companies benefit directly from countries that have skilled workers because of free universal education systems. They benefit from decent public healthcare provision because they either don't have to directly pay medical insurance premiums (as in the US) and when someone is ill they can generally get fixed quickly.

Companies exist as part of society, and benefit from the services the state provides. That some make use of tax avoidance schemes isn't moral, but it's a direct result of both legislative failure, and the amoral nature of profit before anything else.

Easy way of sorting this out - stop all this nonsense about being able to register companies overseas. If you want to trade in Britain a company should have to have a UK base, not be able to set up an HQ in Dublin and move it's revenues around to end up in Bermuda.

Oak Ridge lab: Behold, I Am TITAN, hear my 20 petaflop ROAR

I'm more impressed that it takes this much computing power to simulate an internal combustion engine.

Mysterious galactic glow caused by Hitchhikers' Krikkit style stars

Re: Against a Dark Background

I might be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that the Goltarian solar system is actually marooned between galaxies - it's anorphaned solar system.

There is also a line of thinking that the whole of ...Dark Background is actually a Mind playing around in the Irreal...

That horrendous iPhone empurplement - you're holding it wrong

Re: Ban cameras on 'phones

'This is because the possessors of this technology haven't, by and large, the faintest idea about photography; not one jot.'

Yeah, they should be going to hell for wanting to just take simple snapshots of their family & friends doing people-type stuff and be forced to buy a DSLR prior to taking a picture of lunch to upload to Instagram.

There was me thinking this kind of po-faced arsery was limited to the Guardian forum!

WikiLeaks haters launch DDoS assault on Russia Today

*article

From the artciel:

'WikiLeaks condemned the attack on RT as an assault on free speech. "WikiLeaks condemns the attempt to censor RT. RT is an important alternative voice in the West," a tweet by the whistle-blowing group said.'

Wikileaks defending the Russian state-owned TV station - one that is relentlessly pro-Putin.

Looking glass, we are through you!

British boffin builds cool maser after argument with wife

Re: How many noted " mono-crystalline sapphire doughnut"

I was more intrigued by this line:

He then bought an old medical laser from a source in North London to set up the experiment.

I have an image of him buying a medical laser from a bloke in a pub in Stoke Newington 'Got it during the riots last year, mate. Couldn't shift it to anyone. Your's for a monkey.'

Wannabe media barons outed in UK local telly bid list

So we can expect live broadcasts from the following events:

http://apiln.blogspot.co.uk/

I did see an exciting story about a tree that had fallen across a public footpath, but had been successfully cleared away by the local council, the other day.

There's a reason local newspapers aren't viable to print anymore.

Apple, Microsoft reveal their Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Car...car...nage?

Car...t?

Car...d?

There's a word that starts with 'car' and ends in 'tel', but I just can't think if it right now.

BBC gives itself a gold in 700Gbit-a-second Olympic vid sprint

Re: BBC

Which unbiased international news sites would they be then?

All new channels are biased you muppet.

I suggest you look up the propaganda model of media content production.

Sellers flogging vid games to underage kids face jail, unlimited fine

This isn't going to stop parents buying games for their spawn that are age-inappropriate so the Daily Mail & other frothers will still be able to get excorcised over violent & sexual content in games.

IT support bod? Whatever you earn, it's not enough

Ah yes, the physical location failure. Always a good one.

'I've moved PCs and now it won't let me log on to it, but I can do it at the one next to me.'

'Have you got your CAPSLOCK key on?'

'What's that?'

'See the little green lights above the F12 key? Is the middle one glowing.'

'Where's F12?'

and so on

It doesn't matter how easy you try and make things for them either...

About 18 months the support team I work for ran a massive user consultation process involving HR-mandated surveys, an IT skills test and a load of workshops based around the idea of how we could make things easier for the users, both in terms of improved training & awareness (basic stuff like 'If your keyboard doesn't work, here's how to look behind your PC and see if it's still plugged in') as well as accessing the servcedesk itself.

The main thing that came out was users were unsure where to go to get their queries answered by the most appropriate servicedesk staff. To this end we changed the telemessages & call options to three main issues - 'windows login error, hardware such as your PC or printer' and 'software, such as excel or clinical software', with sub-choices within those (e.g. select '3 for software, then 1 for Excel, Word and 2 for Emis Web, RiO or other clinical software'.

So this went in, was approved by the usergroup steering committee, and now we get complaints that 'it's too complex, I don't know what piece of software I'm having a problem with.' or 'I don't know which login I've got the problem with.'

We don't, however, tend to get unplugged keyboard calls anymore, so at least that bit worked.

Neal Stephenson on swordplay, space and depressing SF

For those who've read REAMDE

...does he actually write a proper ending? Massive Stephenson fanboi (I've read the Baroque cycle 3 times), and his endings have always left me a little flat, bar Anathem.

Was the Baroque cycle SF? Of a kind - 'pre-science' fiction maybe?

Darth Vader is a pansy

Re: "excuse me The Black Hole is an Awesome movie"

One of the influences in TBH was Faust - Maximillian represents Mephistopholes/the devil, Rheinhardt is Faust, which is why when he attempts to pass the secrets he's obtained over to Durant Maximillian kills him. When Rheinhardt whispers to Kate 'Protect me from Maximillian' he's asking her to save him from his own actions as Faust does

The bit at the end when they merge and you see Max on top of a mountain looking down over a desolate, red landscape is supposed to represent hell, and the merging is Max taking Rheinhardt's soul as payment for his knowledge.

Great movie that at least had the courage to have a degree of pretentiousness even if it did have robots named VINCent & B.O.B.

Hubble spots ancient spiral galaxy that SHOULD NOT EXIST

Re: Where's the science?

Rubbish troll.

Nearly 2 MILLION US Facebook users quit social network

Re: TV - right there with FB

Watching broadcast TV in isolation (as in not doing something on a tablet at the same time) might be in decline, but people are still watching telly.

'very few people actually listen to music'

What? Eh? Are you one of those weird unfortunate people who can't unscramble music so only hear a succession of tones without any overall structure or context?

Outrageously old galaxy spied birthing new stars at furious rate

Re: Tense is everything...

Willan on starbirth?

Pint cos if someone gets that references they deserve one...

Fans get date with Lara Croft

Re: Doubts...

Completely agree, as soon as I heard the first girly scream I thought 'WTF! That's not how Lara screamed even when you drowned her by diving off too high a ledge'

Have to say, doesn't look as good as Uncharted series, which the trailer suggests it resembles (the big hanging off the downed plane, for example).

Underwhelmed.

Strong ARM: The Acorn Archimedes is 25

Fractals, man...

I remember a friend's brother had an Archie, and aside from being completely blown away by Lander (it's reincarnations on ST & Amiga were good, but nothing like as smooth as the Archie version), but most impressively I got to play around with a realtime fractal tool which allowed me to create a fly-by landscape almost the same as the Genesis sequence in Wrath of Khan. On a home PC.

SpaceX signs deal to put its giant rocket to good use

What does 130t of cargo look like? How much does yer average satellite weigh in at, for example?

I need this in Reg units, so I'm expecting buses and elephants.