Posts by John Dougald McCallum

Space junk at 'tipping point', now getting worse on its own

Space Pickup

Sorry the yanks have just scraped it.

HP's UK PC boss: We're going nowhere

Cheap prices

In the grocery trade this is known as a loss leader and is a favourate of most if not all supermarkets look at the price of beer (for instance) of any type and tell me that they or the brewers are making any money on it.

Logitech unwraps fold-away keyboard for iPad

Re:-( Boo Hiss

certainly looks like it although Logitecs version does have a double spiral

UK could have flooded world with iPods - Sir Humphrey

British elrctronics

The only thing keeping British electronic Co.s from developing any new and inovative product is British electronic Co.s the board does not or rather are desperate to be seen as" a safe pair of hands" on the corporate tiller.there are very few willing to bet the house on new products,and it is not just in the electronics arena.Who among you have heard of The Workmate(now there are several versions) if IRC offered to Black and Decker they told the inventer to take a hike same with Dyson and his new Vacuum cleaner there are probibly dozens more that the inventor just didnot have funds to make and take to market.Fail for the chicken hearted Manufacturers

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet goes on sale

another fondle slab

at £304+ tax going in the correct direction price wise but too much bloat ware an empty tablet (OS only) with the software on a DVD rom yes so one can load it IF wanted.

Bundled music newbie Boinc aims for year-end launch

BO

Just asked them in one of their blogs if they are the same BOINC as thBerkley BOINC we await their response!

COMET WILL DEFINITELY NOT HIT EARTH – NASA

Comet

strange I read almost the same response to this visitation in Starynight news letter some days back they even stated that it wasent even Naburu that plannet destroying behemoth that has our number on it.Hmmm strange.

Glaswegian arrested for pro-riot Facebook posts

Glasgow

I was in Glasgow last Saturday and you could hardly move down the main shopping streets. From the statue of Donald Dewar looking down the hill it seemed that the people were one solid mass,so a riot would only happen if it was a walking one,because I think if you started running you'd soon be coming to a grinding halt.

BlackBerry blog hacked with riot-related threats

Stupid is as stupid dose[sic]

all the more reason to help the fuzz.

Google points finger at human after robo car accident

"auto"automobiles

Just goes to show the most dangerous part of a car is the nut behind the wheel

10-year old hacker finds flaw in mobile games

D'frent

Yup only to get (w)hacked with a slipper behind the ear'ole for our trouble.

Aussie ALDI withdraws infected greybox offering

Title

Aldi sell alot of Tevion brand consummer goods so it may be that is who makes this

ICO won't investigate Tory minister

Surveys

Hmmmmm........not so if you read all the questions as they era written out on the question form usually the last five or six questions will give it away as the will often ask something like what do you think of,or do you like,use product "x" or company "y".

Just to be the devils advocate.

Rogue kangaroo floors broom-wielding 94-year-old

Re:what to do with the roo

I need a new set of leathers,next to horse hide Roo hide makes the best leather for this nice and supple.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo bow to Apple sales edict

Not using Pay Pal

A lot of the sales/auction pages that I have seen on eBay do give out Phone numbers to buy the item that is for sale especialy if that seller/dealer has a bricks and mortar site.

Chinese lecturer demands his students acquire iPads

dead right

The last time I wore a suit to an interview I was told I was over qualified (I din't have have any qualifications) Oh the job was factory supervisor.

Bill seeks to decriminalise pianos in pubs and schools

Re re: Psychopathic Beadleitis

Yes still want one?? Thought so.

MPs round on plans to offshore gov IT work

Offshore

Hmmmm......

more telephone calls from someone called Simon or Lewis etc. with the thickest Bombay or Culcutta accent that one could cut with a knife.

Portuguese hackers strike back at Moody's downgrade

Junk Bonds and the almighty Dollar

What will these rating agencies do when the US start to default on their debts when the so called debt ceiling is reached very soon will it be junk status or will it not .If not they will have to explain why.

Bloke pissing in reservoir prompts 8m gallon flush

Protection

Apparently this water company is struggling to comply with the relevant Federal regs.

Mink coat thief conceals booty down knickers

Yeah

......it's too Northern.

Nissan car secretly shares driver data with websites

So

the solution to that is to not buy the thing inthe first place,if you have a sensitive job or not use it for bussines or call your self some thing else.Simples.Where is the irritating mongoose so I can throttle it.

Feds turn one in four black-hat hackers into snitches

Boo Hoo

Tough sh1te

UK gov to create central procurement team

A Title

I do belive that this has been done before and was done away with as the gubmint at the time decided that the private sector was much better at this sort of thing the department was HMSO.

Robot air fleet can launch mid-air from cargo plane's ramp

Pods

Missle Pods that is as this reminds me of that idea from David Weber's Honor Harrington space opera books.

Google's Egypt hero: Tech biz, keep out of Arab politics

Western Politicians

......Being Western Politicians I think that there is about as much chance of a snowball suviving a close encounter with the Sun as there is of keeping out of this area and as far as W.Corps ?????

Supreme Court: DNA database retention regs are unlawful

Ball in Parliment

<Not a ball more like one of these

Australia cuts solar subsidies, and not before time

Re:- price still the blocker

Here in the UK, Solar is still not achieveable.

Quite simply - until full installs cost £20,000 not £2,000 (the uk climate makes this a risky proposition, compared to sunny climates), we're really not interested.

We - as a nation - would still rather fork that amount on extensions, patios and conservatories.

A shame - I've got £2k here for anyone that can fit me a grid-linked 1kw PV system, on a east coast, south-facing Central Belt Scotland home. Some sensible prices for vertically-drilled geo-therm would be nice too...

Fixed it for you.Good point though we are being ripped of as usual £20,000 is taking the piss.

Insurance firm pushes out iPhone app that rates driving ability

Pocket Rocket?

Even a venerable BSA Bantam would send this thing apoplectic

Is iPhone data collection legal?

Phonebooks

Actually you did by signing up for a telephone line at least here in the UK you also had the option to not have your details in the phonebook this is known as exdirectory,of course one does have the pain in the arse problem that if you run a buisness that no one knows your buisness exists.

End of the line for mechanical typewriters

Conglomerates

They do in India (think TaTa) and all over the World

Lasers set to replace spark plugs in car engines

Pure Oxygen & Petrol

"If you could run your car on petrol and pure oxygen you would be running more efficiently because you wouldn't be wasting energy compressing all that pointless nitrogen."

Doing this would certainly give you big bang followed by total silence unles you were running a gas turbine.

The best sci-fi film never made: Also-rans take a bow

A Canticle for Leibowitz

If I remember rightly this was made as a play by the BBC cant remember exactly when but it might have been in the Eighties.

Modern-day ninja in epic battle with riot police, robot

I wonder

what was the original Court Order for?

So, what's the best sci-fi film never made?

SF for films

Elizabeth Moon's Serano Legacy books (7 of)

or Remnant Population

or Gordon R.Dickson's Dorsai trilogy

There are so many good SF books out there that unfortunatly will never be turned into films

Wannabe baby-kisser lies on political honesty phone-in

Lying politician

well well well i'll be blowed if the good people of the Normanton ward in Derby vote for this idiot they will deserve every thing that they will_ not _get.

The Bayeux Tapestry archiving model

Oor Wullie....

Duke William The Bastard "and his defeat of the perfidious British ruler Harold Godwinson"

UMMM Harold Goodwinson was not King of Britain But he was King of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of England.

Five jailed for £140m VAT scam

The Green Eyed Monster

That is GREED.For some people 100% profit is just not enough

Bold as brass metal thieves disrupt rail, comms, electric

Metal theives

Or should I call them sabatours it is time and beyond time that the Courts got real with these scumbags three years is not long enough compaired to the ammount of disruption they cause.

Hand grenade cos its the only metal I'd trust them with.

Ombudsman slams DWP, HMRC data dumbnesses

Civil Servants?

Did you honestly expect to get a Civilservant to hold up their hand and say we are terribly sorry we cocked this up big time if so what planet are you on certainly not Earth.All a civil servant needs is a pencil and they can realy screw your life up give them a live computer and they can realy screw you not to mention a network.

Apple ditches Costco. Or vice versa. Or both

I think

....That Apple would not let them sell the iwhathaveyous at the usual ridiculous discount that Costco usually sell things at.The last time that I was in one of them,in Edinburgh,eg they were selling Ralph Lauren(Polo) denim jackets(embroidered) For £50 These normally sold for £100+ then( early 1990's).Would have bought one but for that bloody embroidery covered the whole back of the jacket.Pretty for a teenager or twenty something not a mid forty 's biker

Default judgement FAIL: ACS:Law muffs up in court

County Court

This may or may not be binding on other Courts but it will certainly point a huge finger in the direction that the rest will go.Also does one get the impresion that The beak are getting more tech savvy?

Sysadmin stole co-worker IDs for Amazon survey splurge

Paid surveys

any time that I have filled one of these I have been told that they already have enough replys in my age group.

Dead baby taunting troll feels wrath of law

Troll?

Is that the best that you can do?Pathetic!!!!!

Terry Pratchett computer sniper-scope deal inked

Sand>Arabs

"nice little earner for someone....who knows how to sell sand to the Arabs"

as a matter of fact there is a considerable amount of building sand sold to the middle east for concrete making,their desert sand is not course enough gets polished by being blown about a little bit

Flying gyrocopter jump-jeep gets $3m from DARPA

well...

...nice try but lets not get too excited about this as it will not be a great flyer probibly only do about 60MPH and unless it is ridiculusly wide it will roll over the first time that a jarhead or pongo asks it to do a rapid turn in ground effect mode.Bring on the BOLOS.

Flames cos this will only crash and burn.

Sharp outs little'n'large e-mag tablets

Iwantoneofthose

...or both if not too expensive,but,I am willing to bet that they will be in the same price range as the iPad.

Burglars used social network status updates to select victims

Lights Out

Leave a light on by all means but use a light sensor as well no one leaves a light on 24/7.

Rackspace claims credit for shushing Koran-burning 'pastor'

Book Burner

ANY one that burns books as a publicity stunt is a fucking BARBAIRIAN!!!

Ikea forecasts fluffy, fully teched kitchen of the future

Coputerised Kitchen

Didn't one of the big '80s computer corps(e) try that idea