* Posts by diodesign

3533 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Sep 2011

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

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: article totally misses the point

"ITU resolutions are non-binding by definition"

Is there now some confusion here over ITU *resolutions* and ITU *regulations* (which were binding) http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Pages/default.aspx ?

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: article totally misses the point

"So the plea has not sunk at all."

Thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated. Regarding the sinking, that's in reference to any hopes that the ITU treaty could have led to the UK government being obliged to provide the link to the undersea stub. And even if the UK signed the treaty it couldn't be forced to fit the cabling anyway.

As for the funding, although the St Helena campaigners say DfID is still assessing the situation, FCO minister Henry Bellingham said in March that: "The provision of telecommunications within the Overseas Territories is an area of devolved responsibility. On St Helena, it is the responsibility of the St Helena Government."

Yes, we pump cash into the island. Exactly who will pick up the tab for the cable is unclear at the moment.

If it helps, I'll add a link to this effect to the article.

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No ElReg article on "Flag Day"?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: No ElReg article on "Flag Day"?

Ask and ye shall receive. We were aware of it, though, you'll be pleased to know.

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UK games market clutches chest, bleeds out sales in 2012

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

"Pretty sure you mean billion"

Yes. Whoops! That typo has been fixed.

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What's THAT, you say? Apple MIGHT be making a NEW iPHONE, iOS?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: Really?

"The sarcasm wasn't subtle but then neither was the irony"

Tough crowd.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: Really?

"what you are reporting on isn't actually news"

Apologies if the sarcasm was too subtle, but the point of Bill's story and the headline is that the web screaming that "Apple is making another iPhone" is akin to "Disney is making another movie".

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The amazing magical LED: Has it really been fifty years already?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Semiconductor diodes always confuse people

Whoops. The article's Semiconductor Physics 101 has been tweaked. Thanks for the feedback.

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From post-coital squid to high-res Playboy bunnies: The 2012 'IT angle?!' quiz

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Well Obviously...

"I'm not surprised this site is going down the Tubes."

Just to be clear: did you mean the Central line or the Northern line?

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The 'Digital Economy' in 2012: A big noisy hole where money should be

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

"What have you got against Google, Andrew?"

Every writer gravitates towards particular areas of tech to cover. Google is on Andrew's beat, so to speak, along with other corps and things.

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Apple supremo Tim Cook's pay packet slashed 99% in 2012

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Shark. Jumped.

Thanks for all the feedback. I usually copy-edit articles prior to publication, so it's nice to see what people think of my raw typings.

"Seriously? How old is this writer? Six?"

I'm seven and three quarters! Haha, just kidding. I'm 30.

"aimed at people with an IQ above that of a cabbage"

Actually, it's more that we appreciate that our readers' time is limited (you may be grabbing a look at the site during a lunch break) so we keep things punchy, entertaining but dead-on accurate. If you didn't like the headline and intro, the facts are all there in the next few pars. We don't lie to readers, we try always to fly true, but we're biting the hand that feeds IT.

"I can code in Z80 and 680x0"

I can do 6502, 8051, ARM and x86. Is.. is that still cool?

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Moderation gone mad?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: nichomach

"integrity, we've heard of it"

Haha. You're thinking of this Reg classic? Seriously, though, all changes were made to the article before the Xmas break; I can't offer any info until after the hols.

Merry Christmas,

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: nichomach

Rather than jump to conclusions, I'd rather wait to find out why. There's probably a good reason.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: nichomach

"what an egregiously worthless piece of crap it was"

Wow, it's surprising how much anger a product round-up can spark.

The article is a Reg Hardware piece, and those boys are off for the Xmas break so I can't walk over to them and ask what happened.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

"I've just seen a thread closed"

Which thread was that? Threads are closed automatically after a period of several days or manually for legal reasons.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Moderation gone mad?

"Can I ask what happened and if it was really intentional?"

A shedload of comments were legally unsafe and removed at the earliest opportunity. It's as simple as that. I should have posted a comment about it, admittedly.

Merry Christmas,

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It must be the end of the world... El Reg man thanks commentards

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Snowy banner?

"El. Reg staff have all buggered off"

We are out of the door and up and away. We'll be keeping an eye on proceedings over the week, but apologies in advance if there's a comment moderation queue backlog.

As for the top banner: whoops! I can only assume the snowfall this season has been so poor our art department has not been moved to set it up.

Anyhow, merry Christmas everyone. Thanks so much for the comments + love.

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Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Hate trip.

"We are the source of knowledge, the punters are clueless."

Hi Jim. I fear you've completely missed the point of the article. It's not about the accuracy of WP this time.

If The Reg asked readers for donations while making a tidy profit on advertising, then I'd expect some similar sharp poking as well. I can tell you're a fan of WP but I'm afraid that won't stop us being critical of the site.

Merry Christmas all the same.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: "A so called 'online' magazine"

"but not by the beak IIRC"

Close enough.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

"A so called 'online' magazine"

Pah! Described as a highly respected online magazine in the High Court, I think you'll find.

Merry Christmas,

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PGP, TrueCrypt-encrypted files CRACKED by £300 tool

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: So, this tool is not for cracking but for sniffing

But once successfully sniffed, you can crack on.

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Windows Firefox stiffs Adobe Flash, plays H.264 YouTube vids

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: h.264

It appears not; some wires were crossed. The wording's been rejigged.

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Kim Dotcom flashes his rack

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Mansion?

That line has been tidied up.

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VCDX: The elite certification just 105 people hold

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Apologies; the article was revised soon after publication to iron out any remaining typos.

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What did Capita ITS staff get for Xmas? Elf 'n' safety training

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: What???

No, the fault lies at our end. Apologies.

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Stephen Hawking pushes for posthumous pardon for Alan Turing

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: I've said it before and I'll say it again....

Indeed, more or less. See page 3 of this PDF for a chart of how long you have to wait until your conviction is "spent". If you're jailed for more than 30 months, it's never spent. This also affects libel cases in terms of dredging up spent convictions.

If you work with children, law enforcement and other sensitive roles, your convictions aren't spent - you must disclose them.

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Samsung mobes pwned by ANY APP, thanks to chip code hole

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Headline is flawed

We like to keep things lively and punchy, and sometimes headlines need to keep things simple to work. But I've tweaked it anyway.

I'd like to think the article quickly explains the location of the flaw, eradicating any doubt.

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Dutch script kiddie pwns 20,000 Twitter profiles

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Pown?

Perhaps you would have preferred "joyride" to "hijack", then? Thanks anyway for the feedback. We'll have to agree to disagree.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Definition of hijacking is to take over something and use it for a different purpose. The victims expected it to do one thing, it did another. If that's not hijacking them I'm a banana.

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Shiny new UK.gov stats website a 'disaster' - MPs

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: gov.uk or ons.gov.uk???

Yes, it's about ons.gov.uk.

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iPhone 5 launches in China, late and expensive. Chinese say 'meh'

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

"have a merry Xmas Mr/Ms moderator"

Bah humbug.

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Next IPCC climate assessment due 2014 now everywhere online

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

No, he's busy being editor.

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Big Data storage of the future: Fat spinning tubs smothered in NVRAM gravy

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Feel free to take this discussion to the forum! I've closed this thread so we don't end up forking the comments.

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FCC: Kids, here's 100MHz of radio spectrum - but you have to share

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

It is fixed...

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Sleepy North Yorkshire village is first to get gov-subsidised BT fibre

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Ah, I had a feeling it was the sub-head. Be assured it's all tongue in cheek; we try to be snarky about everybody. One day it'll be something that's a little too close to home, but we can't please everyone all of the time.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

What gave you that impression?

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Wait, what's that rumble in the storage jungle? Yes, it's Ceph

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Eh?

Thanks for the feedback. This isn't straight news as such, it's Matt's regular Open and Shut column, which is his opinion on what's going on in the open-source and startup worlds.

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Revealed: The Brit-built GRAVITY-powered light that costs $5

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: Nice idea but sack the sub-editor

Fine, point taken. I'll just take my P45.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

"And this light is not powered by gravity. It's powered by the human who lifts the weight onto its hook."

That much is obvious - but wouldn't fit in a headline. Smile, it's nearly Friday.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Well gosh

"Not really gravity powered. Muscle power has to hoist the weight"

Yes, but honestly, isn't gravity-powered a bit more interesting, surprising and still accurate? Muscle-powered could mean anything. A hamster on a spinning wheel is muscle power. This is something cooler.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Nice idea but sack the sub-editor

"er, since when has kerosene been considered biomass?"

Well, you can make biokerosene, which is what Andrew was driving at. And kerosene isn't particularly great for you, either. I've simplified the sentence for you.

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Parliament: Snoop Charter plan 'too sweeping', 'misleading', 'suspicious'

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: HTTPS and web accounts

It's confusing because... it is. If you see our earlier coverage, it's not clear exactly how encrypted HTTPS traffic can be intercepted without some major shenanigans going on.

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LOL: Twitter faces fines for late UK financial filings

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: £30 to file paperwork?

"It doesn't cost anything to file the accounts with Companies House."

Yes, apologies. I got my wires mixed in a too hasty edit and I hate it when that happens. It's been fixed.

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Behold ATLAS, the fastest computer of 50 years ago

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: Compute time was billed at around £750-800 per hour

"I'm finding it difficult to comprehend how the author can have got something so obvious so horribly wrong."

Don't worry, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

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RIP heroic SPB playmonaut

diodesign

RIP heroic SPB playmonaut

We're obliged to all those readers who've offered condolences at the loss of our heroic playmonaut, who disappeared in the English Channel last week during a Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission.

Feel free to share your thoughts here.

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Windows Phone 8 must be Microsoft's priority one, two AND three

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Promises?

Microsoft has been going on about it since 2011, but over time it's become clear the development platform is not that simple.

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UK climate expert warns of 3-5 degree warmer world by 2100

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: fortwivce ?

It's Christmas party-time. These things happen. Hit the corrections button, please, if you spot any more.

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Mighty 4 Terabyte whopper crashes down on the desktop

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: NOT 3 platters...

Sometimes, regrettably, cock ups do happen. The article has been amended. Thanks for the feedback.

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Schmidt: Microsoft will never be as cool as the Gang of Four

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Grammar

Technically, yes. You're right - I double-checked the spelling and for some reason used the plural. It's been fixed.

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Copying Wikipedia's lies is not just for hacks, right Lord Leveson?

diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Re: Basic Facts

Search for Straub [PDF]

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff)

Re: Ronnie Hazlehurst

You're both right! If you click on the link in Andrew's story, Ronnie was incorrectly credited with writing the hit for S Club 7.

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