Posts by Idocrase

Doctor Who's The Girl Who Died ships in nasty Vikings floating atop a time-bending tidal wave

In the episode preview for next week... Was that Maisie Williams in a highwaymans mask?

I need to check IMDB on this.

Ad-blocking super-weapon axed by maker for being TOO effective

I'm not any ad person's target audience. I don't buy stuff from ads. If I click one, I get annoyed because I was aiming for something else and the ad got in my way. I don't want to see them, I rarely even look at the content of them, they have to be pretty obnoxious to even get my real attention, and at that point I add the company that the ad was created for to my spam lists and forget they exist, and if I can find a way to report them for unpleasant behaviour, I do that too. I'm pretty sure the reason I don't get my ebills from vodafone anymore is because one of their web ads got a little too in-my-face.

I approve of a nuclear option for dealing with ads. Then maybe more companies would actually still be able to get in touch with me.

Run Windows 10 on your existing PC you say, Microsoft? Hmmm.

Newest part in my computer is approaching 4 years old. Oldest part in it is approaching 8 years old.

Aside from needing new case fans, it all works fine and on windows 7 plays most of my games without quibbles, and photoshop well enough.

On windows 10, it boots twice as fast, runs on the same amount of ram and generally behaves better than it ever did on 7, including allowing a few games that were no-go on Win7 to actually function ('Tachyon: The Fringe' anyone?)

Now, I am working from an in place upgrade, having been with win10 since the low 9000's release, and been unwilling at the time to wipe everything and start over at the time and utterly unwilling to use that POS 8.x. Biggest problem I have turned out to have been caused by flashplayer...

When the final release comes along I will like-as-not do a clean install, but hell, this really is the least hassle ANY windows upgrade has ever been and I remember trying to use '95 at work...

US Navy's LOCUST DRONE CANNON is like death SWARMED up

http://homeworld.wikia.com/wiki/Puppeteer-class_Drone_Frigate

When they start mounting these on navy ships, I'll start considering them cool. Until then, meh, youtubers have been doing this for years already.

‪Obama criticises China's mandatory backdoor tech import rules

So, China is wanting what America and the UK do already, except they are being open about it instead of lying and hiding the truth.

Frontier promises it won't 'dumb down' Elite: Dangerous for Xbox

This... is a good damn thing. Assuming it's connected to the same server/peer system as the PC version, it will draw in a lot of people - friends of mine among them - who would LIKE to play Elite, but only own a console, or who don't want the hassle of buying stuff they can only play on the PC quietly gathering dust in a corner of the house they don't want to sit in.

I already play Elite with an Xbox gamepad, so control isn't an issue really.

BLOOD STAR of the NEANDERTHALS passed close to our Sun

Making careful note of the star here, will be off to track it down on Elite tonight after work.

Kill Facebook's creepy on-by-default Yelp 'killer' Place Tips – your guide

Gladder than ever that the first thing to go once I root a new phone, is the facebook app. Always on, data hogging, pest of a program that drains the battery and now bugs you to go places you probably already know about and don't want to go to.

Bad enough family pressure means I have to use the goddamn website at all. But at least you can log out of a website and it stops pestering you.

Anonymous vows to avenge Charlie Hebdo massacre by blitzing jihadist sites

Oh crap, I've walked in on a conversation from Deus Ex.

Just agree with whatever JC Denton says and everything will be fine.

Microsoft kills its Euro pane in the a**: The 'would you prefer Chrome?' window

The browser choice screen caused me SO many headaches. Profitable ones, because most people thought it was a virus.

I got a lot of work from removing 'that firefox thing that took over my internet' as well.

I just found it irritating as it usually popped up about an hour after I had installed firefox, synced my bookmarks and logged back into all the sites I usually use. IE is a decent browser these days, I just prefer firefox.

Flying cars, submarine cars – Elon Musk says NOTHING is beyond him

The dude might as well just go right ahead and change his name legally to Tony Stark.

Sat comms kit riddled with backdoors for hackers – researcher

Robco Industries Unified Operating System

Copyright 2075-2077 Robco Industries

-Server 1-

>Enter New Positioning Data

>Decrypt Coordinates: Satcom Array NW--07

>Decrypt Coordinates: Satcom Array NN-03

>Upload 'Highwater Trousers' activation

...

...

...

X948KJ

L4IERU

ER32J7

...

...

...

Google lets wannabe Glass Explorers ADMIRE THEMSELVES in their own mirrors

Re: To imagine

A screwdriver?! Nah. I bet the ports were never damaged by Google at all, they just sent out sets that have been returned by the user as 'Not working for some reason, the charger doesn't fit right, I tried wiggling it but it just made a burning smell'.

'The Mystery of the Martian Doughnut' solved by NASA sleuths

What I don't understand is why they didn't include some sort of dry-wipe mechanism for the solar panels on Opportunity.

A swiffa cloth would have done the job!

Google, Foxconn team to build ROBOT ARMY

[C]ybernetic [L]ife-f[o]rm [N]ode

http://media.battlestarwiki.org/images/thumb/e/ef/U-87-Cyber-Combat-Unit.jpg/640px-U-87-Cyber-Combat-Unit.jpg

Just saying. Didn't Graystone start out as a network communications company that then developed a glasses/visor type VR device and then moved into robotics?

EVE Online erects mashed-up memorial to biggest space fight in history

Re: That was an epic fight????

Yeah, totally a virgin living in him Mums basement: http://kotaku.com/the-extraordinary-mischievous-too-short-life-of-sean-481060252

El Reg BuzzFelch: 10 Electrical Connectors You CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!

I prefer the line of FINE adapters and connectors marketed by these chaps. Best part is, thanks to the handy photos. they are easy to make yourself!

http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

Man sues NASA: Mystery Mars rock is a UFO – an unidentified 'FUNGUS' object

Re: Backfiring Logic

Aliens, conspiracies around microwave beams and chips in people's heads, were all invented by a cabal of tinfoil barons in order to sell more tinfoil.

A BBC-by-subscription 'would be richer', MPs told

Shut the BBC down, sell the assets to whoever wants them, refund the tax-payers what they've been extorted out of.

We don't need the BBC. If you think the BBC is the 'most wholesome' broadcaster for your children, then don't let your children watch TV. Teach them to read, or ride a bike, play outside, or heaven forbid, spend time with them as a parent instead of relying on TV to keep them quiet.

I deeply resent paying for a service I do not use and never intend to use. We don't even watch freeview, the ariel is not connected, my TV does not receive ANY channels over the air. And yet, because I own a decoder, I _must_ under UK law have a TV license?

Bollocks to that.

My TV is there to display content from DVD's, bluerays and computer games. *IF* there is something worth watching on some channel, guess what? It gets streamed. And no, not from iPlayer.

The News services are politically biased, the documentaries socially biased, the nature shows are 40 year old repeats that they used to show in Geography classes in school, and from what I can see, everything else is either about boring people in east london, or boring people in period costume.

The only things I might consider paying for (as in box-sets or one-off purchases) are Doctor Who and Top Gear. And really, those should be allowed to die anyway. The world would not be a worse off place without them.

If they want to go to ad-based then sure, that's cool, I don't mind. The running time of an advert break is around the length of time required to get a fresh cup of tea.

MPAA spots a Google Glass guy in cinema, calls HOMELAND SECURITY

Next thing you know, they're going to be confiscating watches at the door...

Devs write 'film my shag' sex app for Google Glass

So, from reading the comments, no-one seems to be aware at _all_ of the massive, pre-existing, cash-in-sweaty-hands market for EXACTLY this kind of thing?

People pay money for porn (hard to believe but true), and there is demand for: POV sex (where the viewer can then imagine they are the ones ploughing the stretch-marked, disease riddled whore the production crew picked up that morning), and an equally massive, and arguably growing, market for amateur porn.

Glass will bring the two together in one sweaty, sticky, groping, lube filled cojoining, which after a few months, will start to earn certain people a metric fuckton of money.

Laugh at the 'glassholes' if you will, the people writing this app are going to make themselves a fortune from this, and technologies like it.

Haribo gummy bears implicated in 'gastric exorcism'

Thorntons diabetic toffees are a favourite for this too. I've had stomach bugs that have caused less of a laxative effect than half a 50g bag of diabetic toffees.

Hopefuls rattle tin for customisable snap together 3D printer

Re: Wake Me Up

Or just port the existing 3d meshes from the videogame

Oi, bank manager. Only you've got my email address - where're these TROJANS coming from?

I really do NOT envy the person who has the legitimate version of [e-mail] email address. I use that for every bit of spam-bait nonsense I run across. Gmail's spam filters eat everything else.

Factories are too DULL for Google's robo-dreams: Behold the GATAMAMs

Google is a matter of a couple decades from producing a device very much akin to the Holoband... (http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Holoband) - If that's not an evolution of Google Glass I dunno what is.

Now it's buying up ROBOTICS companies?! Lets see, Robot butlers and omnidirectional wheels - http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Serge

Uh. Huh.

They're working on military contracts people. And bugger me, if it's not Terminators, it's gonna be frakkin' Cylons!

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/U-87_Cyber_Combat_Unit

US military's RAY-GUN truck BLASTS DRONES, mortars OUT OF THE SKY

Well, I don't see a military preparing to deploy new defense systems on a modern battlefield.

I see a military desperately trying to field test advanced point-defence systems for starships, because they know the invaders are coming.

Sky broadband goes TITSUP ALL DAY, thwarts Brits' Xmas web shopping

Wouldn't be the first time BT 'accidentally' buggered up Sky's services, bear in mind, it's Openreach that manage all of Sky's telephony hardware... And BT have been getting REAL aggressive lately towards Sky.

Payday loan firms are the WORST. Ugh, my mobe's FILLED with filthy SPAM

I just forward all spam messages to 7726, or 87726 for Vodafone. I don't get many as it is, and the spam numbers get blacklisted off the network.

Billionaire vows to turn 007's Lotus Esprit into actual submarine car

Okay, someone persuade this guy to buy a DeLorean already. I call dibs on the first hoverboard he brings back with him.

So, Linus Torvalds: Did US spooks demand a backdoor in Linux? 'Yes'

This is good, I like this.

How long until someone figures out, or leaks, the nature of these supposed backdoors? If there *IS* a backdoor in a piece of software, and someone is sufficiently determined to find it, it will be found, and exploited, and then the guns are no longer merely in the hands of law enforcement...

BBC releases MYSTERY RIDDLE poster for Doctor Who anniversary episode

Re: The science behind Doctor Who?

Spitfires in space formed the basis of around 98% of my childhood playground games. When that episode aired, my jaw hit the floor. Dr Who had READ MY MIND and put it onscreen and I was never happier.

The other stuff you mention, yeah, a bit naff.

But if ANY aircraft could stand up to Daleks, then you better f*cking BELIEVE it would be spitfires!

Want the latest Android version? Good luck with that

This is why everyone should learn to mod phone OS's. I've been on 4.3 since a few days after it was released thanks to the chaps at XDA developers.

Facebook strips away a bit more of your privacy – but won't say why

Let them tailor ads to me - I only 'like' news articles and humorous stuff, and my photos are cross-posted from Flickr (which has it's issues sure but at least doesn't try to assume my copyright).

I rarely see adverts online. When i do see them, I know it's time to update Adblock.

Google Glass: Would you pay a mere $299 to plop one on your brow?

Re: In the UK

At which point I tell you to move out the way of my teamviewer window, because, as I care nothing for you, I have in fact not recorded any video or even still images of you.

I would at that point however, for the purposes of crime prevention, (and feeling justifiably threatened by some strange old guy ranting and mumbling about something he clearly has little understanding of) BEGIN recording in order to retain evidence which may be required, in the event you decide to get violent, to prosecute you. And as part of initiating such a recording I would be required to voice-activate the recording function, alerting you, and anyone else, that a recording was taking place. Such recording alerts are already required in smart devices, Glass merely makes that alert even more obvious.

Troglodyte.

Davros liable to criticism for huge STRAW DALEK he never built

I thought it was the Dals that were evil, the Kels were the humanoid ones hanging out in the petrified forest? Or am I misremembering the third episode?

Lost phone? Google's got an app for that, coming this month

Re: Avast and Lookout

Avast is designed to be able to survive a factory wipe, if you set it up right and use Cyanogen or one of it's derivatives.

Verizon offers Motorola mobe with 48-HOUR battery life

Back when I still had my very first Android phone (Xperia Mini Pro - the first one), I could easily get 3 days out of it, with moderate to heavy use. Of course this involved rooting, ripping out junk apps, downclocking and restricting the CPU to half it's normal power and speed, and shutting down all radios except basic GSM when not in use.

But the result? 3 days of use (switching on GPS and 3G as REQUIRED), and heavy text messaging, and a comfortable 4-5 days if I just left it the hell alone (I got really involved in a computer game that week, it only got used as an alarm clock the entire time).

And now? With my Galaxy S2, when it was new, I was lucky to squeeze 2 days of similar use with similar modifications. It once bounced off 3 days when I hadn't used it at all, but it was only 72 hours and 3 minutes. Just pulling up the battery monitor was enough to knock it out. And from what I can tell, it's getting WORSE. My average now with the S2 and a 2 year old battery is 12 hours normal use, although I got 24 hours out of it this week because I was stripping wallpaper and left it sitting in the other room untouched.

The newer the phone it seems the lower the battery life. I saw an advert not long ago BOASTING about a 10 hour battery life! WTF?

If Motorola are trying to get a handset out with a decent battery in it, I applaud them. I doubt real-world numbers will be as big, but it's a step in the right direction.

Laser-wielding boffins develop ETERNAL MEMORY from quartz

Re: Science Fiction is HAPPENING!

Which is why I qualified my statement.

Yesss! Science Fiction is HAPPENING!

Seriously, crystals have been part of Sci-fi for decades.

Adding this one to my list of cool sci-fi things that are on the brink of being real, or are so already, along with the Sabre engine, Google Glass, rail guns, Ion drives, energy shields (see the magnetic shielding systems Nasa wants for a Mars effort), power armor/loaders/exoskeletal suits, fusion power, autonomous robots, and neurally controlled artificial limbs...

So excited to be living in this century. This stuff has been hinted at in the past, but always 'Decades away' and now, we caught up. It's happening.

All we need now is a breakthrough in artificial gravity and we can get off this rock once and for all!

El Reg encounters mObi: R2-D2 for retailers

Ohh, oh no, nononono... I know where this is going and it is NOT going to end well...

"All this has happened before. All this will happen again." - It IS true. We are on the brink of having immersive virtual reality glasses (Oculus Rift, Google Glass etc), we have robots like this thing that look EXACTLY like Serge (http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/serge-housebot.jpg), and meantime there are projects underway to build spaceplanes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_%28spacecraft%29) whose engine technology resembles the engines of every sci-fi atmospheric craft, but mostly those of Vipers and X-Wings...

I am just waiting for Nasa to announce finding the wreck of a giant starship drifting out beyond the Sun, or some archeologist to find the rusted remnants of a dropship style craft buried under Antartica or something, which carbon dating shows to be around 150 millenia old.

Because trust me, we are going to NEED hyperdrives pretty soon, if we keep going the way we are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_L4RtU1iRg

Rest your head against a train window, hear VOICES in your SKULL

One vote for hacking the damn thing and setting up pirated music stations on every train. I despise adverts, partly because of the intrusiveness, but mainly because advertisers are assuming I'm stupid. And that REALLY rankles.

If I want to find something, I'll go look for it. I don't need to be informed of it every time I open a browser window, switch on the TV or fall asleep on a train! I know where to get stuff cheap, it's called 'Shipped from China', on Ebay, and if i want cheap television programs, I know where to find the Pirat... Um. The phone to purchase the appropriate TV service.

Windows 8.1: So it's, er, half-speed ahead for Microsoft's Plan A

Er no, I meant what i said. XP is an OS which has outlived it's time. 7 will now outlive it's time, because no-one wants 8 or 8.1 - It is in fact 8 and 8.1 which is the new Vista.

Uhh, Skydrive is INTEGRATED now?

No. Just no, feck RIGHT of M$.

I use Dropbox, for various reasons, mostly being that I can store my entire My Documents folder in there and sync my important stuff like game saves and my CV across any PC or laptop I use.

However, Dropbox is an inoffensive little bit of software that does what I want and doesn't mess with anything else.

Skydrive on the other hand, ACTIVELY interferes with random files and causes certain software to CTD with either no warning, or simply refuses to allow the software to run at all because it's screwing around with my files.

I had high hopes for 8.1, I thought maybe, just maybe, M$ had learned, restored the Start Menu to something useful, left off the crapware...

Bad enough when installing some piece of M$ software like Movie Maker foisted you with all the OTHER Live crap even when you told it not to install it all, now they expect me to take Skydrive, which I REALLY do not want, pre-installed, as well as a UI where Searching is the only practical way to find where your software went?

Congrats M$, you just turned Windows 7 into the new Windows XP. If Linux actually ran my games and did what I wanted without me needing to screw around for six hours with emulators just to play 10 year old games at half speed, I would switch to it. I really would...

Top Norks bone up on Hitler

So, North Korea, one of three or four possible candidates for kicking off World War 3, is studying Hitler's writings for inspiration... Incompetent leading the incompetent springs to mind.

Although...

I can't help but wonder if the Nazi fighting machine of the 1940's were to be suddenly brought forward in time... No question Nato alone could probably take them apart in a couple weeks, and that would mainly involve reloading. However...

Would 1940's Germany be able to take Modern Day North Korea in a stand up fight? Sure Norks have nukes, but the Nazis had jets that weren't just airfix models photoshopped into a dodgy background.

Oh my fucking god monkeyballs, I want to see that movie now. Someone needs to kickstarter this fucker, 'Nazis vs Norks!'

1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed

You find a lot of them on Amazon's ebook site. Fifty pages of self-insertionist, half pornographic, coverpage ripped from an MMO and shoved through a photoshop filter dross which must be waded through to find the odd nugget of gold.

Doctor Who? 12th incarnation sought after Matt Smith quits

Re: 12th?

More than 13 is POSSIBLE just inadvisable according to WHo lore. The master was up to 15 or 16 at least.

Finally – mind-controlled limbs without brain surgery

Stick google glass on him and...

build a sword into the thing... http://blackmannrobin.com/wp-content/uploads/image_2076.jpg

Film crew plans dig to find lost burial ground of Atari's E.T.

They would find the carts on day three, after two and a half days of Neolithic and Roman finds, and one anomalous Victorian coal cellar, despite being in the USA.

Industry execs: Network admins an endangered species

Re: Humans, the weak link.

As a long-term EvE Online player, 'Adapt or Die' is a personal mantra now. I'll adapt. It's the same thing that set off the Luddite movement, now we're facing the fact that as technology improves, certain skills will go by the wayside, and a neo-techno luddite movement could spawn.

The way to survive it is to learn new skills.

Boffins' brilliant plan: CONCRETE COMPUTERS

This could work. Cement is largely sand after all, and sand = silicon, and silicon is a semiconductor. I cannot fathom how they deal with the quicklime and other stuff that gets added, but hey, if it could be made to work...

Plus now, I want a concrete computer case. It would only be slightly heavier than my current one, and i could tuck it into a slot in the wall when I don't need it.