Posts by GitMeMyShootinIrons

Pluto's blushing complexion riddle solved by boffins

... and that ring is way too bling.

Apple wins skirmish in HTC-Google patent war

A cry from a user...

I'm an iPhone user and content with that choice.

However I'm sure I'm not alone in getting sick of these tit-for-tat court battles over tiny features. In the end, the only people it hurts are the consumers who end up with less choice on more expensive phones (the only winners being the lawyers).

We'll end up with phones where each manufacturer will end up with certain trivial, but useful tweaks but not others, in most cases hampering functionality. As no-one has all the ideas (even Apple!), all handsets will be limited in their potential. Ridiculous.

Please don't bother replying with the blame game. I've heard it all before. I'm not defending any of them - this foolishness just needs ending.

Homeland Sec., RIAA Torrent lists published

Well,

Maybe the downloads at RIAA etc were for *testing and investigation*.... (stifles laughter)...

Microsoft will beat Linux clouds at their own game - with open source

Terrible comparison.

A telephone network is essentially transient data - a conversation, or a data link. They don't retain, manage and process actual company information.

As someone who has seen a customer outsource everything from the desktop up and find themselves with an absolute mess, I too am something of a sceptic when it comes to public cloud for anything but very specific requirements (or very straight forward stuff like mail).

Even then, public cloud is more vulnerable than internal alternatives due to unreliable comms, as well as the the element of 'what goes on behind closed doors' at your cloud provider. What shortcuts, dodgy dealing etc goes on? So, yes, it comes down to trust.

US spy drone hijacked with GPS spoof hack, report says

It's the late 60s/70s all over again.

I recall the 60s fascination in the west that missiles would make manned aircraft irrelevant. Many fighter designs of the era initially omitted guns as a sign of progress.

Looks like reality is starting to dawn with UAVs. As remote operated vehicles, the link is a weak target - encryption can be broken, signals blocked.

Until AI is perfected (I for one welcome our future robotic masters), a human is still the only reliable(ish) control system.

2011's Best... HD TVs

Surely Carlsberg, if they made TVs, would be the best in the world... ;-)

Google promises 0.001 of revenue to free the slaves

Don't forget that the British are bought up on a diet of everything should be handled by the state (NHS, benefits, overseas aid...).

So when a wealthy company (who, not being the state, are evil) gives money, it is greeted with cynical responses. It's OK for a footballer to earn millions, but god help a director or owner of a business.

As a percentage, a £40m pot is chicken feed. Open source fanboyz may slag off MS, but they handed out £96m last year. Still not great, but twice as generous as 'not evil' Google.

UK is biggest nation of web shopaholics - Euro poll

When you have many devices, all bitching about updates, you have a half-meg connection and (if the download doesn't time out), the patches takes hours, then you'll understand the value of speed.

Or when you have kids who want to stream video and play online like their mates but can't.

2mb is fine if you're a little old lady, online shopping and picking up mail. Ofcom's demographic.

Laugh? Laugh? I nearly cried...

"That's according to Ofcom's latest International Communications Market study, which also determined that take-up in Blighty of broadband services with speeds of at least 25Mbit/s is lagging far behind other countries."

I'd love to have the choice of signing up to a 25Mb service. In fact, I'd even be happy with 2.5Mb (and I live in a city, not some back-of-beyond village- I'd probably get a better chance in the sticks...).

But while toothless Ofcom is busy carrying out Market Studies, BT and Virgin can pretty much get away with what they want, with the market essentially wrapped up between them (at least on the infrastructure/wholesale side)

FOI request turns up Carrier IQ surprise

Now that's scarily cost efficient...

A spy agency spies on a target and gets the target to provision and pay for the data.

I can imagine some beancounter sitting in his office smiling as he strokes his white hairy pussy...

Malicious apps infiltrate Google's Android Market

That's because...

Itards (as you put it) are scared of android-wielding psychopaths. They're a scary bunch, you know ;-)

Would that make them iphonophobes?

Push Androids choice and open architecture then slag off anyone who chooses something not Android. That makes sense....

BT fibre rollout reaches Scotland, Wales

I sympathise...

But 1.5Mb is three times faster than I get and I (allegedly) live in a city, where you'd expect at least *some* level of service.

Mind you, I'm not going to complain as I see my exchange on this list. Who knows, I may get to 2Mb yet...

Supermassive surprise: the biggest black holes EVER

Ouch.

Hole of Rasilon? Is there a cream for that?

Navy training mine washes ashore on Miami Beach

'Not as explosive as a regular mine'

Oh, that's alright then. Kids can play with it then...

Antarctic ice formed at CO2 levels much higher than today's

Agreed.

It can, following that argument, suggest that CO2 may not be as big a factor as the CO2 global warming lobby would have you believe.

The earth was at a particularly cool point when the caps formed (poles get less heat from the sun, so they're colder than the equator, of course) and has gradually warmed up since - which is interesting as the CO2 level has ended up as low as it is (or at least was).

As an aside, the problem with the debate is simple - scientists (both pro- or anti-) are struggling to keep opinion out of their analysis. It's almost as bad as religious dogma.

Falklands, Cardiff lie beneath track of rogue Phobos-Grunt

But...

How would we tell the difference?

Demon Currys iPad showered kids with HARD-CORE smut

Agreed...

I'd have added a more Daily Mail reader-esque rant - perhaps a 'THINK OF THE CHILDREN!' line, or would that be over doing it?

iPhone 4S is for failures who work in coffee shops - Samsung

Jeez, 'droid fans...

Bitching about whether this guy has signed in as AC or not isn't really the point. He tried Android, didn't like it and went for Apple.

His choice. Grow up and live with it, instead of sniping at the irrelevant. Droid fans insist on how wonderful an open platform is, harping on about choice and yet they can't handle someone going elsewhere.

It's like Linux vs Windows, Xbox vs. PS3, degenerating into childish rants, with little reason.

Water utility hackers destroy pump, expert says

Whatever happened to...

Good old fashioned point-to-point modems? Perhaps with a secured PC on the end to SSH onto the controller. No new-fangled Internet to worry about.

I doubt bandwidth is needed in this application - its a pump - not exactly streaming HD porn....

Politicians call for Modern Warfare 3 censure

Vaz is only whinging....

... Because the games manufacturers won't give him an envelope stuffed with cash to keep quiet. Wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him.

Freebie Android anti-malware scanners flunk tests

A different kind of closed.

The difference is architectural. Windows is a closed, proprietary platform, but you can install what you want on it. In an application sense, Windows as a platform is very 'open'.

iOS is a closed, proprietary platform with a walled-garden approach to apps. The AppStore is tightly policed, so massively reducing the likelihood of malware - on the flipside, the walled garden can be considered as 'closed'.

New claim: iPhone 5 was a goer until Jobs bottled it

Hmmmmm....

So, great, it fits in your pocket and looks like a massive, rectangular hernia. I can fit my phone in a shirt pocket if I want, or in a trouser pocket - with other stuff.

You can keep your cinema screen sized handsets.

Bigger is better? Really?

By that reckoning, Apple should just add a phone dialler to the 3G iPad. Dom Jolly was way ahead of his time.

On a more serious note, a good size is subjective. I don't want a massive screen because it means a massive phone. Personally, I'd like to see 4" or less, but going edge to edge on the handset, to keep it small and usable.

More attention needs to be paid on less cluttered interfaces, not masses of icons. Points for effort should go to MS in this regard. WinPho 7 might not be quite there, but the interface shows more effort than a page of icons.

World's only twin jet-engine bike drives onto eBay

For something more practical....

Let's say you have the better half and two kids, and you need to trade in your pulse-jet Harley, you could always go for a slightly more mundane mode of travel, like a VW Beetle.....

A Jet powered VW beetle. http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/

(Flame - as in out of the back of such jet powered monsters....)

Boozed-up ball-biting mum spared jail

Sounds like a balls-up to me....

Wouldn't meat and two veg be a tastier meal?

Apple posts 'battery fix' iOS update

You shouldn't have to....

You pay for a device, you should get support for a device for a reasonable period.

Not all folks have the skill/time to investigate how to do custom stuff like this. While it might be geeky fun to do these things, average people shouldn't have to.

This is what will put people off - and drive people towards brands with better support - like Apple.

Eurozone crisis: We're all dooomed! Here's why

I'll put it bluntly...

In brutal, Darwinian terms - to the victor, the spoils.

History is full of empires rising and falling. Look at Rome, Egypt, China and Britain. All had dark aspects, but all pushed the human race forward.

Let's face it, the third world has never been an icon of virtue, and while the left leaning liberals blame it all on imperialism, it's certainly not the case. Slavery in Africa started long before Rome and still goes on today (child soldiers etc).

Bill Gates drops $1m on laser-based malaria fighter

It has a market, just not the humanitarian one....

Could be useful for hotels etc - keep those pesky bugs out of lobbies and restaurants.

But for villager-in-mud-hut? Nah.

BBC iPlayer to require TV licence

The unique way they're funded......

Extortion.

Miley Cyrus cracker: 'I'm too short for the slammer!'

"I’m having these strong urges to start playing around and hacking shit again, there’s so much new stuff on the net. I can’t stop these urges. Am I a bad person?”

Yes. Bang the little sh*t up.

Ofcom to finally yank sat broadband biz off the air

Nice in theory....

Lots of wonderful technologies coming through, but how many will get deployed and where is dependent on government bureaucracy and whether the providers deem it economically viable. There are some glaring examples of urban/sub-urban black holes of coverage that are 'uneconomical to in-fill', while rural areas get services (often through government subsidy).

It's sad to think that these 'black holes' might actually be limited to a satellite service for bandwidth, even if the latency is horrendous.

Steve Jobs memorial brings out tech titans... and Bono

Jealous.....

"Something that works and looks great, just like my wife."

I wish.

Which actor should play Steve in upcoming biopic?

I believe...

..the word you're after is 'flexible', rather than 'versatile'. However, I'm sure that if there's a hole to be filled, Paris will probably be involved....

Microsoft gets trademark for retail store plans

If you build it, they will come.....

.... Then they'll see there's not much, turn around and leave.

Can general relativity explain the OPERA neutrino result?

But....

I'm sure that Kandi, 18, from Essex, our top heavy lovely would disagree - see page 3 for more!

What's not in the iPhone 4S ... and why

Eternal optimists - the LTE Glass is going to half full soon!

" These days it's more likely to be 24 months, by which time LTE will be much more widely available and the 4S distinctly dated."

I do love an optimist. In Blighty, there are a few decent sized holes in the GSM network, let alone the gaping holes of 3G and you think 4G/LTE will be more widely available in 2 years?

I suppose it depends on your definition of 'much more widely available'. If it means patchy coverage in the center of a few major cities, then I suppose you could be right...

Oracle to NetApp: 'I'm a faster, cheaper storage lover'

There's another problem....

You have to buy these boxes from Oracle. Not that they're eeevil or anything but.....

iPhone 5 a no-show at Apple's 'Let's talk iPhone' event

Does that mean....

The Galaxy S2 is twice as sad....?

Well....

Firstly, historically, you had the 3G followed by the 3GS that looked the same but was somewhat souped up, so it's hardly surprising (cutting through the usual rumours and hype) that we have a 4S following the 4 that looks the same but soups up the specs.

Personally, I'm not a fan of phones getting even bigger - it doesn't make them better, just bulkier, so I'm fine with the size remaining the same.

As for last years looks? Funny how many handsets look remarkably similar. I don't mean that in a bad way - there's only so many ways you can peel an apple.

Fibre up, broadband up, IPTV up in Europe

Sorry state of affairs....

"The people that really need sorting out in the UK are those on longer lines. Houses getting less than 10Mb/s. Those people need help."

That'll be me - stuck in the 90's on an over 2km long ADSL line that'll give me 1Mb if the wind is in the right direction, even though the road I'm on is surrounded on three sides by Virgin Cable (up to 50Mb). Apparently, infilling isn't economically viable for Virgin (in spite of the massive block of flats and 50 or so houses affected), while BT simply don't care as they've done *just* enough to give us some service.

It's all cabled according to wholesale pricing - so filling the smaller gaps or reaching to low population density areas simply doesn't happen.

Man who blasted five million text spams gets wrist slap

I agree....

But let's not forget the politicos 'funded' by unions to support their vested interests too. As much as corrupt business types have stuffed up, the unions are as much to blame - unrealistic demands, grabbing for power, demanding politicians doff their hats to them.

They're all as bad - what we need is politicians divorced from both sides of the coin.

Maybe Alien overlords should be given a go...

My sympathies....

The UK is similar. Too many do-gooder liberals in the legal profession, too much protection for the 'rights' of criminals, often to the detriment to the victims.

Star Trek TNG revamped for Blu-ray in 2012

I heard that.....

Worf randomly shouts 'NO....'

Leatherman style multifunctional network device offered

ooooooo - shiny!

Now, how much is the switch, HBAs.....

Stars say relativity still works

But...

What's the weight in Elephants/Bulgarian funbags/*insert appropriate measure*?

Virtualising your infrastructure? Get your numbers right

I'd extend that...

To the whole meaningless cloud terminology.

Ask ten vendor's sales-drones what 'the cloud' is, and you'll get ten self-serving answers.

Online government services would exclude many Welsh

Age is not a valid reason...

I hearily agree. My grandparents (both late now) started on a 2nd hand Windows 98 desktop while in their 70's. My grandma even went as far as borrowing books on Window 98 and MS Office from the library - and I'd get asked questions on pivot tables and macros!

A few years later, they bought a Windows XP laptop and signed up to a Virgin Media connection and frequently used it for emailing relatives in New Zealand. This went on right up until ill health stopped them. When I got asked to give the laptop (then a few years old), the once over before being handed to a niece, I found an immaculate machine, patched up to date, including AV - which I'd found they'd moved to AVG themselves!

So I agree - age is no reason, only health and mindset.

Neil Armstrong: US space program 'embarrassing'

Goes even further back....

It's a pretty concerted effort. Clinton cut the budget for NASA for several years running in the 90s. Neither Bush did that, but they did cancel projects.

The decline is largely down to NASA's own incompetence, bad management and bureaucracy.

Spanish boffins unwrap anti-magnetic cloak

Right!

Bring me the Unobtainium!