Posts by All names Taken

Movie review: Star Trek Into Darkness

It is good to see Star Trek coming out of its midlife crisis (weren't those middle ones a bit of a s-t-r-a-i-n and d-r-a-i-n?) into creative flamboyance (and equally flamboyant turnover?)

We've done it - we've gone and made LONG-LIFE BEER

<polite applause to doodz dahn-oondah>

Google 'will be pulled back in front of MPs' on its UK tax affairs

and the moral is ...

... UK Treasury and HMR want your wealth now, immediately and forthwith.

This includes your personal wealth, corporate wealth and the HMRC and Benefits people might add on a bob or two (that is a shilling - dime/dollar to our cousins) (and not harley Davi Bob which although elegant and outstanding is another thing altogether innit)

Yep, UK civil servants wants your dish - all of it and it wants it now!

Apple: You thought Google dodged taxes? Get a load of THIS

Re: @reno79

It don't matter at all.

Life is but a dream - all is not what it seam.

But maybe the "innovation" theme with the big A is really and merely: we do what people want technology to do when they did not know it in the first place?

And then it inspired?

Is the IT industry short on Cobolers? This could be your lucky day

Yeh yeh yeh - I know, we all know.

The trouble with exams is that we answered questions that were not asked.

The answers were right but the questions, and the questioners, were wrong!

Picture this: Kodak could get out of bankruptcy as early as July

Had the dream-makers the creative talent of the bean counters perhaps this could have bean avoided?

On the other hand it has potential to be a great strengthening and invigorating cold bath for the big K?

Master Beats: Why doesn't audio quality matter these days?

Glad you brought attention to this - iTunes music quality seems pre-1960s.

Nvidia Tesla bigwig: Why you REALLY won't need x86 chips soon

Maybe ...

... in the daze of yore when baking chips was not quite as precise as it is now with lots of less than standard or sub-standard but working in a way cooked silicon it seemed optimal to go for a universal do-it-all chip that required quite a lot of stuff around it (let's call it a motherboard?) and other bits and pieces that can be plugged in or out of the said mobo.

Hmmm - we better formalise some partnership committees to set standards for all of those bits that can be added (maybe we can call 'em plug n play?)

Anyway, the stroll to universal computing machine continues.

Alternatively: don't want a universal solution that is capable of doing almost everything provided it has a suitably large framework of stuff that can be plugged in or plugged out. Nope.

This one is merely what can we do to optimise/maximise a bit of kit that does stuff very well with low energy requirements with minimal additional support on the circuit board(s)?

Google's teeny UK tax bill 'just not right', thunders senior MP

Daily Mail?

Morning Star?

Grnadian?

How about: biting the hand that feeds IT

?

Read all 'baht it!

Brit MP cobbled by Whitehall and Whitehall's lust for your cash.

With the economy the way it is senior UK civil servants are worried that there mitt not be enough cash in the Treasury's kitty to reward senior staff with the pension and pension package that they deserve.

It's okay for those former colleagues now seconded into "private" business (know wot I mean 'arry? TUPE n'all that) but the remaining staff still in place as senior civil servants might not be able to get comparable pension packages.

With a bit of influence exerted upon a vulnerable MP the Whitehall mandarin march to greater self-indulgence and jigger you mate continues unabated but slightly less well disguised no?

More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit

I am tempted away from the Apple to the Android but I like the idea of a closed shop - it just seems a more secure way of handling my data.

Are biofuels Europe's sh*ttiest idea ever?

6f or 6n? That is the question.

Whether it is nobler to be owner and user of a fast fairing job or should one aim for the rugged, raw, nakedness of a naked bike?

Is the struggle of nakedness in this wind torn land - and piloting rider were too many peas beaned or improbable tensing of one and all sphincters - or manage airflow with a bit more smoothness as the revolutions per minute increase gastronomically?

(For the uninitiated:

Kawasaki ER 6f

Kawasaki ER 6n

the f is usually taken for fairing and n for naked)

It depends

If people want to put time, energy and resource into biofuels well that is fine.

If they want to believe that doing the above makes for savings and efficiencies well that is fine too.

In either case good, clear and precise evidence is required?

Eerie satnav boffinry claims it can predict THE FUTURE

Two wheels are better than four.

Two wheels are better than four.

...

Magic mystery malware menaces many UK machines - new claim

Har dee har har!

My guess is that it is HMRC (Her Majesties Revenues and Customs) and UK Treasury based on it being limited to UK businesses (and I guess individuals too).

Those tax collecting Whitehall bods need all the cash they can get their hands on and if that means granny with her empty bedrooms or one's pension then one's pension will always win!

(Sad innit?)

Foxconn must pay Microsoft for EVERY Android thing it makes

No apologies El Reg...

... and sorry for usurping this thread, but it has to be said somewhere in this astute journal.

This is a great day to be a US citizen.

It may not seem so especially for those front liners and first responders but you are a great nation and a great people.

God bless you all.

(no apologies offered for usurping this thread)

'Close to one in three - sorry, one in eight - SMEs are software pirates'

Maybe SMEs by their very nature form less of a corporate wealth model and more of a personal risk model.

Some SME owners really have to consider the bank and/or creditors seizing personal assets and wealth if the business goes bits up.

Add a dash of envy "We have to work damn hard to make a bit of money never mind profit and these are making billions. Of course it nots right to pirate their stuff but its also not right that they charge us so bl**dy much for using it!" ?

Gov report: Actually, evil City traders DIDN'T cause the banking crash

Strange ol' world innit?

The biggest financial turmoil in the history of the world and the people responsible were not responsible.

And while it easy acceptable for the state to bail out bankers with billions of monies, fantastic pensions and continued bonus peaking at eye-watering levels it is okay to tell granny that she has to do without because she has a bedroom or two spare.

Yes!

That is the way to do it!

(or maybe not?)

Gates and Allen reshoot historic 1981 Microsoft photo

Did they use a professional photographer opt was it more of an informal arrangement?

Tim Cook eats necessary crow, apologizes to China

I am given to understand that "greed" is not highly regarded in PRC.

After Leveson: The UK gets an Orwellian Ministry of Truth for real

Re: Ministry of Truth

It is a tricky area but reductio ad absurda might suggest something like:

expediency = fast track route to fascism (for fascism requires that decisions taken by state officials are not open to being challenged)

primary beneficiary - we receive money from guv'mint to do su'hing But the guv'mint wants some of that money to go to someone else (sometimes called end users). But why and how can the guv'mint do that koz we iz the primary beneficiary so we knows best and we wants all ov the dosh so there!)

Que?

Quote

"Ever wondered what a British coup d’état might look like?"

Unquote.

The UK already has had one.

Nobody noticed. Not a person, not a soul...

It happened when the civil service made politicians and governments redundant.

Governments can talk, make decisions, blah-de-blah, ... but the UK civil servantry just goes and does what it wants to do regardless.

Congress plans to make computer crime law much, much worse

UKIP

Here in the UK we have UKIP.

It is only a dream and UKIP will always be subject to the restrictions our civil service places upon it

Uh-ho - look out US.

Here in the UK draconian laws tend to suffer from unintended consequences.

For example, in the NHS, any naughtiness will mean end of career, full stop, period.

That is the law!

But the practice is that nobody will put their colleagues career at risk otherwise the action might be reciprocated and your career might be put at risk (this is an example of severe law making for even poorer practice and further intensifying risk within an organisation. Naive really)

You know how your energy bills are so much worse than they were?

UKIP? UKIP?

Know what - these guys are going to get my votes.

UKIP I mean

Watchdog warns UK.gov not to create 'them and us' digital divide

Them? Us? Us? Them?

Sirrah!

The UK would not exist were it not for an Us and Them culture.

Review: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2

Maybe it is a shame it cannot act as a tethered device allowing users to Photoshop stuff held on ... well you know IP and all that :-)

Rubbish IT means DEATH for UK Border Agency, announces May

Re: home office regardless

Maybe something along lines of:

Dear Minister

Give us the money NOW! and goodbye. Off you go.

?

No news here. Please move on ...

Okay so another publicly funded body makes a bit of a booboo.

But, dearest El Reg, Ministers and Governments merely set the framework, sign the authorisations and sign the cheques.

It is Whitehall and its mandarinery that makes for such gall stone troubling issues leading to irritable bowel syndrome (or was it Ian Duncan Smith?).

Yet the mandarins duck the flack and have well oiled procedures to ensure none is blamed, none suffers any impingement to pension or career status.

You have been had UK

Televisions in living rooms now the fastest-growing internet platform

Que?

Televisions or set top boxes?

Most of the set top boxes in this household have a network connect option but the tv's dont (with apologies for abusing apostrophe's :-) )

Social impact: moving modem from study or bedroom in to living room/lounge?

I can imagine this having potential to grow financially and technologically provided the price(s) is(are) right

GCHQ attempts to downplay amazing plaintext password blunder

No news here. Move on please ...

Okay so another publicly funded body makes a bit of a booboo.

Review: Renault Zoe electric car

Weather

How will an e-car perform in the type of weather presently experienced in the UK now?

That Osbo bloke - he's on your Twitters. 'What a c**k'

party stopper

nah

nah

na-na-naah

He has a tough job to do and besides, name calling is just so childish and not me tsk whatevuh!

BlackBerry CEO: iPhone past its prime

What? Me? Worry?

If the iPad UI looks dated I'd guess it is only because The Apple choose to give its competitors catch up time in order to avoid monopoly wrangles.

The bigger issue may be: does the new Apple still have power, command and authority to surprise us and the market with step-wise incremental improvements AND of the scale show stoppers?

Maybe OS is due for a revamp sometime soon with some slick desktops to reinvigorate an ailing sector?

Time will tell?

Britain's passport and ID service seeks facial recog tech suppliers

hee hee

Quote

In their view better 99 innocents go in the bag than 1 guilty person escapes.

unquote

My neighbour's dog is like that.

It barks at neighbours and keeps quiet when the burglars are about.

(Hmmm I wonder if there is an association?)

The trouble is that by the time discussions have taken place, security technologies will have moved on so swiftly that the specifications might be of historical importance?

Maybe a better way is to involve prospective bidders in a security arrangement that may be rolled out into other government departments and for the security arrangements to be reasonably robust at the time of implementation?

It may be an advantage to have the prospective bidders on the planning board to begin with rather than purchasing a service over the counter with non-involvement other than supplier? ('eerz yer software loov - were off nah)

Curiosity succeeds – Mars was wet enough for life!

Importance of base assumptions?

1 - there's is no life on Mars, never was and definitely not now unless we can prove otherwise (please give us lots of money to prove otherwise)

2 - there is thriving life on Mars unless we can prove otherwise (please give us lots of money to set up trading relations or prove otherwise)

Bacon sarnies can kill: Official

Don't vegetarians fart more?

I mean, have you ever seen a thin cow?

I feel sorry for you young things.

Gone are the days of leathery eggs that could be used to sole shoes and in are the days of egg pulp that finds it difficult not to slither through the prongs of a fork.

I could go on

Rise Of The Machines: What will become of box-watchers, delivery drivers?

:-) replies to all :-)

Yes, the revenues ... ah, the revenues.

Basically what that means has threefold implications:

a - the host nation

a sizeable reduction in some revenue streams will result in a sizeable increase in other revenue streams (eee-ewewew-oooooo doncha know our uncivil servantry require 3 trillion a year just (a in J-U-S-T) for their pensions maaan? I mean like get real dood - wake up n smell the coffee)

b - the source nations

a sizeable reduction in customer demand will result in a sizeable increase in price to those nations (eee-ewewew-oooo dood - we don't care how much yeeooo buy but we need 3 trillion plus a bit more for the wife's hair dryer)

c - interim nations

like guys, we let you ship stuff across our borders. We ain't really too fussy what you ship be it cloned warez, (BAR 3 - 0 ACM !!!), sex slaves, human beings, greasy-oily-sticky stuff but it will cost yeeooo 3 trillion of your shekels whatever and however you move it. OK?

Interim conclusion

An oil free, high energy using nation is not going to have its monetary problems solved by a thank of metal and bits that does 300 miles per gallon. Dream on dudes?

It is difficult?

Take, for instance, a newish motor car with batteries and electric motor supplemented by a diesel motor and doing a reported 300 mile trip for, say 4 GBP.

It assumes that electricity costs and fuel costs remain at the present levels.

Methinks if oil producers need to reduce output then the price consumer oil products will go up (the distribution network costs and non-productive costs and ... )

That is why mathematics is so lovely :-)

Czechs check cheques, reject £680m 4G auction

Polite applause dood - as in awesomely awesome!

The eastern side of Europe has a lot to teach the western side (provided the western side is able enough to see the beauty?)

This is very highly unlikely to play out in the UK.

The numpties that make up the system somehow think money flows from a tap somewhere (probably an affliction from years of an empire of abuse, pillage and rape?)

The only question now is: how good is a motorbike in a landmass like Europe with all the geology, geography, history, economies, borders and beauty that such a domain possesses?

BTW: people in easter side of europe please don't invest in the fridge-freezer-microwave technologies so heavily relied upon in the western side - just look at our obesities and heart issues

Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

You know, there are far more beautiful things in life.

For example, Barcelona v AC Milan

:-)

New evidence: Comets seeded life on Earth

Spookily - this has been predicted in the past with working methods of comets as "bringers of stuff" to human (and others?) cell activities.

Honk if the car in front is connected

Personal preference:

www.zeromotorcycles.com

I can appreciate the market potential of in-car connectivities and the potentials these bring - perhaps even silent and unobtrusive interventions to assist the driver.

On the other hand, creative chaos certainly has attractions?

Gnome cofounder: Desktop Linux is a CHERNOBYL of FAIL

Maybe more people think along lines of: linux is for people with nothing else better to do?

Farewell, Reg: This hack is hanging up her Apple jacket

All the best Anna!

Wikileaker Bradley Manning pleads not guilty to 'aiding the enemy'

So, does it all smell sweetly of roses?

Don't believe the IT hype: Ye cannae change the laws of physics

Que?

"But is a £90 bottle of wine 10 times nicer"

Doesn't really matter.

Perhaps a £9 bottle is a day to day purchase a bit like teabags or instant coffee but £90 is a statement of a different kind, no?

WE CAN still be BETTER than Germany on broadband, says Ofcom

Always look on the...

... bright side of life

Whew-oo

Whew-oo

Whew- oo-oo-oo-eh-oo

Look doodz, time for <cliche warning> reality check no?

Germany is very, very vastly becoming Grosser Germany and in the process lots of other 'lands want to be part of the Grosserland. Maybe several hundred meelleeonz of peeps already?

And when Europe (that is Gross Germany) emerges from the present economic woes (say 2018?) the Gross Germant is going to be strong.

It will be territorially strong (there have not been many wars lately apart from those prompted by UK and USA?)

It will be fiscally strong (why should a market of many billions of euros with many millions of people be weak, forever weak?)

It will be operationally strong.

On the other hand there is rapidly diminishing UK.

Once an empire, now fragmented and fragmenting and for jolly good reason too (what purpose for the Treasury but to impart employment to its bastard descendants of present employees?).

And where Germany is on the up-and-up, the UK is on the down-and-down.

Why do you think the banks are not investing in UK?

For ill manners or because better prospects exist elsewhere?

Yes UK millionaire - last one out switch off the lights?