Posts by poopypants

Vladimir Putin says internet is a 'CIA project'

Nope

It's a DARPA project. In fact it used to be called ARPANET.

Apple patent pokes at holographic iPhone screen

And here's one from Korea

http://www.google.st/patents/EP2400367A2?cl=en

Not to mention all the prior art:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_3D-enabled_mobile_phones

Sony Xperia Z2: 4K vid, great audio, waterproof ... Oh, and you can make a phone call

This the first phone I have seen that tempts me to upgrade from my Galaxy Nexus. The leap from 5 megapixels to 20.7 megapixels alone is very tempting, not to mention the other features, like being waterproof for example.

Apple patent LOCKS drivers out of their OWN PHONES

GPS/cell handshake/local WiFi are all ways of determining location, and are already used by Google with their turn by turn directions. Obviously if the location changes over time, then you must be moving. It is not a novel idea. If they allow a patent for this, they'll allow one for anything.

Feast your PUNY eyes on highest resolution phone display EVER

So, that's the same resolution as the screen that's currently sitting in front of me, squeezed down to a 5.7 inch size. The mind boggles. Being AMOLED, this is definitely destined for VR.

Windows 8.1, which you probably haven't upgraded to yet, Already obsolete

Re: why in the store

I have one machine that I cannot "upgrade" from 8.0 to 8.1 because of a mysterious problem, despite being a legitimate copy of Windows.

Report: Apple seeking to raise iPhone 6 price by a HUNDRED BUCKS

An extra $100? Sure, why not?

It's working really well for the XBox One.

Microsoft Research adds interactivity to Windows 8 Live Tiles

@Sandtitz Re: Some nice ideas @poopypants

I only mentioned that problem because I have experienced it personally. I have two PCs, both with Windows. The one with Windows 8.1 has USB problems, and the one with Windows 8 won't let me access the store - so I can't "upgrade" to 8.1. (I'm not the only one ). I do not have Linux installed on any desktop machines (although I'm sure it is embedded in several other devices, none of which have given me any trouble).

Some nice ideas

Let's hope they bother to test them thoroughly before introducing them.

Heartbleed vuln under ACTIVE ATTACK as hackers map soft spots

Obviously open source per se is not sufficient to avoid these problems. I would suggest that rigorous procedures and accountability are also required - things not normally associated with volunteer work.

Murdoch says Microsoft needs 'big clean out'

Re: Professional immigrant

Murdoch is a US citizen. He is no longer our problem, so no.

Also, didn't he buy MySpace at one stage? I'm not sure I'd be taking his advice.

Gimme a high S5: Samsung Galaxy S5 puts substance over style

I've reached the end of my contract

on my Galaxy Nexus, but none of the current crop really seems to have anything to justify the cost of an upgrade. I'll wait and see what reviewers say about the Sony offering. It certainly looks better than the S5, and I'm interested to see how their camera performs.

Come to Oz for sun, surf, ratting on co-workers and surveillance

Every day most of us happily accept the risk of travel to and from work

This despite the fact that in Australia there are over 1,000 road fatalities per year.

The government does not record how fast we are travelling at any given moment, how much time we spend travelling, or where we go.

Somehow, however, the mere possibility that terrorists may on some future occasion kill a handful of people is used as justification for the routine retention of meta-data, warrantless wiretapping, fingerprint and DNA collection and retention without conviction, restrictions on free association, etc.

Welcome to the future.

Apple to flush '£37bn' down the bog if it doesn't flog cheapo slabtops

Huh?

So Apple can make more money by convincing users to buy one cheap product instead of two expensive products. That's too subtle for me, I'm afraid.

Report mash-up: Apple to sell 65 million $269 iWatches in first year

You know they have reached market saturation

when they start selling us unnecessary crap like this.

Curiosity finds not-very-Australian-shaped rock on Mars

Little known fact: somewhere buried in the constant PI is a PNG image of the Mona Lisa. The catch is it may take longer than the lifetime of the universe to find it.

Apple sued in Texas troll territory for iMovie patent infringement

It's OK

Apple are strong crusaders when it comes to intellectual property. I'm sure they'll do the right thing.

Internet is a tool of Satan that destroys belief, study claims

You know what else was invented at the same time as the Internet?

The digital answering machine. Coincidence? I think not.

ACLU launches user-friendly database of every Snowden doc

"Untied" is right

"(1) Disseminations to the Governments of the Untied Kingdom, Canada, Australia, or New

Zealand may be made upon the approval of any person designated for such purpose by the

Director ofNSA. (S)

"

from https://www.aclu.org/files/natsec/nsa/ashcroft-new-dissemination-procedures.pdf

Microsoft: Hey, small biz devs – Windows Store apps are for you, too

What could be simpler?

I before e, except after c, where there's an "e" sound. Except species, science, sufficient, seize, weird, vein, their, foreign, feisty...

Got it!

I QUIT: Mozilla's anti-gay-marriage Brendan Eich leaps out of door

Re: Suddenly world became a sadder place :-(

Oh, don't worry, I detest him for inventing Javascript as well.

Is this photo PROOF a Windows 7 Start Menu is coming back?

This update is somewhat similar to Start8 + ModernMix

...except that Start8 + ModernMix does it much, much better. Hopefully Stardock Software will have an update that tuns it off.

'iPhone 6' with '4.7-inch' display 'coming soon', but '5.5-incher' 'delayed'

Re: Sounds like an April Fools to me

Android has been managing multiple screen resolutions for years. It's not that hard.

El Reg's Deep Outback XP upgrade almost foiled by KILLER ARACHNIDS

Don't use fly spray

It only pisses them off.

OkCupid falls out of love with 'anti-gay' Firefox, tells people to see other browsers

It is comforting

to have my abiding detestation of Javascript validated.

Australia's opposition backs warrantless metadata collection

About what I'd expect

from that lot. They have form.

Watch your brain LIVE in 3D, then train your mind from inside it

Oh dear, I'm 61

...but I have over 500 Steam games. (Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to finish them.)

Facebook Oculus VR buyout: IT WANTS your EYEBALLS

Zuckerberg is a fool

The thing that makes VR special is not just the 3D vision, it is the fact that head movement is tracked and reflected in changes to what you see. This can easily be done in games by mapping head movements to the position and orientation of the in-game virtual camera. No such feedback is possible in the real world, thus reducing VR to simple 3D - and we all know how popular that turned out to be.

Intel reinvents the PC as giant 'Black Brook' fondleslab

Eight cores looks interesting

...but the Black Brook demonstration makes me wonder why the people in the video weren't just using something cheaper and lighter like a 2560 x 1600 resolution Nexus 10 (AU$469).

Virtual reality? Two can play THAT GAME, says Sony: New headset revealed for the PS4

Correction

It is a single 1920 x 1080 physical display used to present two images of 960 x 1080 each.

This is at the bottom end of acceptable resolutions, and could result in a noticeable "screen door" effect'. Also the suggest 60 fps is less than the 95 fps recommended by Valve.

It remains to be seen whether the use of an LCD display will allow them to achieve a sufficiently low persistence - Oculus Rift switched to AMOLED for that reason.

MH370 airliner MYSTERY: The El Reg Pub/Dinner-party Guide

@Psyx Re: What if it was ditched and sunk intact?

"No volume of political spite can make cheap air defence systems work better, or over the horizon."

Except for Australia's JORN, which works over the horizon. (Although I must admit it is far from cheap.)

iPhone 6 FEELS your heat, wetness... and it'll TELL Apple – report

Re: Very Handy Indeed

Indeed.

Previously stable Greenland glaciers now rushing to the sea

"after more than a quarter of a century of stability."

Sounds so much more impressive than 25 years.

Scam emails tell people they have cancer to trick them into installing a money-stealing Trojan

If I'm at all undecided about it

I'll read it in Linux running on a virtual machine.

'Catastrophic' server disk-destroying glitch menaced Google cloud

Mixed feelings

-1 for having a serious, potentially data destroying bug

+1 for being open and honest about it, and keeping their customers informed

Fibre fanaticism overrode proper NBN planning says report

Re: which report is this?

"The audit will also investigate the choice of Labor-mandated fibre-to-the-premise technology."

"The other reviews included a strategy review already completed, a 90-day study of broadband availability and quality in Australia by the Department of Communications released last month, and a cost-benefit analysis by independent consultants also due in July."

I count four. I guess they skipped one.

William Thomson

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."

- William Thomson, Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" 3 May 1883.

Big Content wants Aussies blocked from Netflix

This sort of crap is why I no longer watch film or television, and instead spend my spare time working my way through my huge Steam sale backlog.

Beta tasting: The Elder Scrolls Online preview

I'm sure that making an MMO based on the popular Elder Scrolls franchise seemed like a really good idea, that would attract the huge number of people who loved Skyrim.

Unfortunately that ignores the huge differences between RPGs and MMOs.

In the former the player is totally immersed in the story, without distractions to break immersion. You are the lone hero around which everything revolves. Progress is measured by advancement through the plot.

In the latter, the player is surrounded by possibly hundreds of other characters. It is impossible to feel that you are the central character when there are several other players gathered around a quest giver, and impossible to maintain a sense of immersion. Progress is measured by grinding for levels.

While there are some who like both RPGs and MMOs, I suspect that number is not huge. Speaking for myself, I had never before tried an MMO when I signed up for the ESO Beta, and by the time I had reached level 8 I was firmly convinced that I would never experiment with MMOs again.

The lack of immersion, the auto aim bow (yuck!), the fact that some dungeons cannot be tackled alone, etc. meant that I was never going to pay money for this game. It was pointless trying to use the Elder Scrolls franchise to try and tempt this RPG player into paying money for an MMO.

Hell, I still wouldn't play it if they paid me.

AWA calls in administrators

I worked for AWA Defence Industries a long time ago, before they decided to abandon all that and concentrate on gambling. How anyone can fail in that "industry", especially in Australia, is something of a mystery.

Microsoft shunts top exec Julie Larson-Green sideways to make way for Stephen Elop

More popcorn, please

It will be interesting to see what happens to XBox under Elop.

SA Plods plonk boots on privacy principles with fingerprint scanners

@GrumpyOldBloke

Actually it is an election issue. I live in SA and I was wondering which party to vote for.

I now know which party to vote against, which works just as well.

RISE of the MACHINES and Bitcoin: Bill Gates' Reddit tech predictions

Re: Why?

If money is used to buy slaves or illegal arms or drugs, it would be useful to know where it came from.

HP to hire 400 people in Oz 'innovation centre'

Memories of Motorola

Motorola had a centre in Adelaide that lasted about as long as the state government subsidies. Then WA offered subsidies and they shifted over there.

I wonder what subsidies are being offered to HP? As for "innovation", that's probably a fancy word for contract software development for third parties. Just like Motorola.

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

Alternatives

Eve appeals to a particular kind of player, and is very successful at what it does.

If however you like immersion, there are better games. If, instead of your spaceship being your avatar, you would rather control a first person human avatar that can get up and walk around your spaceship, you might prefer Star Citizen.

New Doctor Who's new costume newly REVEALED by Beeb

Is this the start

of more product placement? Who knows.

New Zealand

Re: New Zealand

There are two user posts in the New Zealand section. At this time none in the Australian sections. This place is a comparative hive of activity.

Australia floats plan for national social media regulator

Let me solve that one for you

"the Government would consider how penalties might be applied to entities that lack the requisite Australian presence" - and conclude that they cannot in fact be applied.

We see ya, Ouya, you tasty Android games console gear

Not the best choice

In my opinion Mad Catz M.O.J.O. is a much better choice, despite being more expensive, because it provides access to the PlayStore, allows you to play Android games that you already own, and provides a pathway to stream games from your PC to your TV. It has better hardware, too.