Posts by poopypants

Rosetta comet chaser due to wake up for final rendezvous on Monday

Harpoons, eh?

Is the comet white?

US Navy trials GIANT ROBOTIC SPYBIRD for coastal patrols

@Ledswinger Re: The UK should sign up now

That's OK, you can always count on your faithful colonies to come to your aid - oh wait...

No sign of Half-Life 3 but how about FOURTEEN Steam Machine makers?

The purpose of Steam machines is to attract console players

How well does a Steam machine compare to say, an XBox One?

Cost: Steam machine is same cost or higher.

Performance: Steam machine is as powerful or more powerful, depending on cost.

Upgrade path: XBox One not upgradeable. Steam machine wins hands down.

Number of games available: XBox One has a few, Steam machine has hundreds already ported.

Ease of use: The Steam interface is as easy to use as the XBox interface.

Cost of games: Steam sales make the Steam machine a clear winner.

Publisher friendly: Valve takes a much smaller slice of profit than Microsoft, and makes bug fix distribution cheaper and easier.

Leading AAA games: XBox One is currently a clear winner. For Steam Boxes to attract AAA titles, game engines will need to be ported. Some already have, but it remains to be seen how many more will do this. Probably they will, because the risk is small compared to the possible reward.

Conclusion: I think Valve will eventually succeed, but not until Steam machines attract more AAA titles, and are a clearly a superior product for the same price - probably 3 to 4 years from now.

Google and Apple in DRAG RACE: It's fanboi Mercs VS fandroid Audis

Who the hell cares?

I already have a mobile phone. I don't need another one with wheels.

Lyrics upstart Rap Genius blacklisted by Google for Justin Bieber SEO scam

SEO is harmful to society

The world wide web is incomprehensibly huge, and we all rely on it to some extent.

The purpose of a search engine is to allow ordinary people to find what they want in this vast forest of irrelevant crap. In so doing they assist commerce by enabling the natural forces of supply and demand to work their magic. This is good for the economy, and good for the consumer.

Anything that acts to deliberately pervert this process is on the same ethical level as false advertising, and deserves to be punished.

Feminist Software Foundation gets grumpy with GitHub … or does it?

This is obviously satire

written by men. The fact that many here can't see that is a reflection of the literal mindedness of the Asperger Syndrome* suffering male readership of this enormously popular publication.

*in good company:

Al Gore, 1948-, former US Vice President and presidential candidate

Bill Gates, 1955-, Entrepreneur and philanthropist. A key player in the personal computer revolution.

Bob Dylan, 1941-, US singer-songwriter

Charles Dickinson, 1951, US Writer

John Nash, 1928-, US mathematician (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, USA 2001)

Joseph Erber, 1985-, young English composer/musician who has Asperger's Syndrome, subject of a BBC TV documentary

Kevin Mitnick, 1963-, US "hacker"

Michael Palin, 1943-, English comedian and presenter

Oliver Sacks, 1933-, UK/US neurologist, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings

Robin Williams, 1951-, US Actor

etc...

Tube be or not tube be: Apple’s CYLINDRICAL Mac Pro is out tomorrow

Re: it has a market and is actually cheaper than current options

Cheaper? My PC has dual Titans. It cost less than this, and is more powerful.

Probably radiates less heat, too.

Of course, I only use mine to play games, so I guess it doesn't count.

Re: With those Xeon chips and ...

".... the option of 2 FirePros I would recommend not sitting this under your desk on the carpet."

It was 39 degrees C today where I live (102 Fahrenheit). That is why I choose NVIDIA.

Australia rebukes Apple for 'false or misleading representations'

It's a Christmas miracle!

I'm smiling!

No anon pr0n for you: BT's network-level 'smut' filters will catch proxy servers too

It's not all bad

You could always use it to filter out cricket results.

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

So, they want more data?

They should build their own Square Kilometre Array.

ABC finally brings iView to Android

Despite running Jelly Bean on both tablet and phone

"No eligible devices for your app to install"

Must try harder.

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

The Americans must love asymmetric warfare

Otherwise why would they build multi-million dollar weapons with a weak spot (lens) that can be rendered useless by a lone sniper.

Marketing told us: 'Justin Bieber is a fad. He’s not going to last.' – Company formerly known as RIM

So, do we still think

it's silly to suggest that the NSA will spy on people through their Kinects?

Cassini spots MEGA-METHANE SEAS on the north pole of Titan

Star Citizen

Well, now I know where to fly my Starfarer when I play Star Citizen.

Big goolies-grabbing black snake nips unlucky bloke's trouser snake

Probably thought

it was another snake, albeit one with an ocular deficiency.

Googlers devise DeViSE: A thing-recognising FRANKENBRAIN

The real inspector gadget?

If they hooked this up to London's CCTV cameras, would it be able to recognise criminal activity?

It's true, the START MENU is coming BACK to Windows 8, hiss sources

"For example, he claims, the so-called Windows 8.2 will allow users to run multiple Windows Store apps in windows on the desktop, rather than being forced to run them full screen even on high-resolution monitors, as they must do now."

I can do that already with Start8 (one of many third party fixes available). Why wait?

Boffins devise world's HARDEST tongue-twister

Always popular at the pub after a few

Mrs Puggy Wuggy has a square cut punt.

Not a punt cut square,

Just a square cut punt.

It's round in the stern and blunt in the front.

Mrs Puggy Wuggy has a square cut punt.

Australian State to sue IBM over $AUD1bn project blowout

Au contraire

I think the Queensland government would prefer a long, drawn out case that repeatedly airs the previous government's breathtaking incompetence.

Google unveils ten-year plan to build its ROBOT ARMY of the future

This cannot end well

I am reminded of "FISTO" from Fallout New Vegas.

Desperate MS flaunts UNDEAD SPLAT TALLY to pep Xbox One fans

They've both done very well

The PlayStation 4 and XBox One are tremendous advances on the previous generation, bringing much improved graphics and a more unified architecture. They are obviously both popular, and game studios are now able to explore things like better textures, wider field of view, higher frame rates, etc.

This all bodes well for an increase in the quality of games ported to PCs, which will make me happy.

Apple prepping 4K resolution 12.9-inch MaxiPad – report

WTF?

On my desk in front of me I have at the moment a 2560 x 1440 monitor. It is considerably larger than 12.9", and I am completely unable to distinguish individual pixels. Creating a 12.9" tablet with a resolution of 3072 x 2304 would be taking marketing masturbation to unprecedented levels.

Junior telcos tie knot in NBN Co copper plan

Re: why did governemnt businesses get sold off?

I must admit, the thought of compulsory nationalisation of copper and conduits is growing on me. But only because I have no great love for Telstra, whose infrastructure was mostly paid for by the taxpayer in the first place.

Online shopping tax slug not worth the effort: National Australia Bank

This is simplistic. Reducing or eliminating the tax threshold would shift a lot of purchases to local stores.

(This assumes that the local stores are not price gouging. That may not be a valid assumption.)

Assuming the same number of imports, they would shift from individual imports requiring a hight level of government effort to process, to fewer bulk imports requiring less effort.

Of course, any government that made this change would likely lose the next election, so there is that. :)

Aussie boffins can detect orbiting SPACE JUNK using rock gods' radiation

This is indeed serendipitous

Defence applications, perhaps?

Also, it allows me to use the word serendipitous, which is nice.

Anglo-Australian cricket brawl spills over into coding clash

Not really up to the task

Trickstar have tried to blame the game engine, but these developers didn't seem to have any problems using Unity. Seems the real reason for their failure is that those who were left after several walked out were out of their depth.

Microsoft hires Pawn Stars to shaft Google

The overwhelming message I get from these ads

is that Microsoft is both desperate and sleazy.

'You're BEAUTIFUL when you're angry' 'You SEXIST PIG!' Xbox One's fresh brouhaha

So big.

So clumsy.

Hey, boffins, Google wants you to train your AI on video games

Oh dear

I think they might draw some invalid conclusions if they watch too much Portal or Skyrim.

Thai man reportedly dies clutching his scorched iPhone 4S

@Voland's right hand (Re: The wonders of having a metal phone body)

So his death was a direct result of product design choice. Lucky for Apple this didn't happen in the USA.

Anyone remember the Ford Pinto?

BBC's 3D blunder BLASTED OUR BRAINS – Doctor Who fans

@DiViDeD (Re: Pint of Lager is almost unwatchable.)

The Doctor Who 50th anniversary broadcast was the first time I have watched Australian TV in over a year.

I don't expect to be around for the 100th, but that's OK because Australian TV won't be around either.

Valve pal iBuyPower touts cut-price Steam box as powerful as PS4 or Xbox

Greg J Preece is correct. Steam does indeed have a functional offline mode. I know because I have used it.

Microsoft bans XXXXBOX gamers for CURSING in online combat

@Katie Saucey (Re: That's nothing)

Gordon Freeman never swears.

Microsoft pockets a HUGE '$28' on an Xbox One: But NOT REALLY

Re: The true hardware guy's object is to...

The console makers (can you blame them) make it VERY hard to get Linux on the console where some real work can be done. (*SIGH*).

Fair enough for the XBox, but the PS4 already has BSD Unix on it. Why on earth would you overwrite that with Linux?

Undercover BBC man exposes Amazon worker drone's daily 11-mile trek

My favourite job of all time

was filling bags with blood and bone manure. By hand. Ah, that gentle aroma.

Little devil: Electric Imp is an Internet of Things Wi-Fi PC-ON-AN-SD-CARD

Re: Similar devices.

Imp’s connectors are electrical incompatible with a real SD card.

Unlike the FlashAir™ - SD Card with Embedded Wireless LAN:

http://www.toshiba-components.com/FlashAir/

Leaked MS ad video parodies Chrome as surveillance tech

This advertising campaign is succeeding

in convincing me that Microsoft is still as sleazy and disreputable as they have always been.

Those Xbox One first-day glitches: GREEN screens of DEATH, disc crunching

Serious gamers

probably have a PC, an Xbox One, a Playstation 4 and a Wii U. The rest of us are just doing it for fun.

'Fatal flaws' in Google's revised search antitrust overhaul, says Foundem

The best outcome for the general public

would be for horrible parasites like Foundem to disappear.

Richard Stallman decides Emacs should go WYSIWYG

All this vi and emacs talk

reminds me of the dispute between Lilliput and Blefuscu. Bizarre and irrelevant.

Bill Gates orders hitman to kill right-hand man Steve Ballmer

Re: XBox One vs. Playstation 4? Or...

next-gen introduces next-gen environments so its only logical that you can no longer play your old games (in all honesty; this has always been the case so far; PS3 also can hardly play PS2 games)

I can still play the original Half Life (released 1998) on my PC, which can also play Crysis 3 with all the settings maxed out.

Super-stealth FLYING CAR prototype seen outside GOOGLE HQ

Water, not air

That thing looks like it might work under water. In the air, not so much.

World's first selfie found on Wayback Machine

It is vital that we preserve our early selfies for posterity

Not to mention all our accumulated cat videos.

Google gives Glasshole devs a peek at new native software kit

Nobody cares much about augmented reality.

Virtual reality is much more fun.

Antidote for poisonous Aussie Red-Back Spider venom DOESN'T WORK

Re: Second most feared??

Huntsmen are not at all scary. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.

From Wikipedia: "They have been known to inflict defensive bites, but are not widely regarded as dangerous to healthy humans. Huntsman spiders are widely considered beneficial because they feed on insect pests such as cockroaches.

A real spiderbro, in my opinion.

Google deletes Maps satellite photos of 14-year-old's unsolved murder

@SeeingMole

It is your right to be paranoid if you so desire, but if you post something on this site you might want to first see if it passes the "Is this technologically achievable?" test.

Let's say you wanted to spy on everyone in the US. The surface area of the US is 9.827 million km². If we assume that each satellite used has a previously unheard of resolution camera that makes it possible to identify individuals when focussed on an entire square kilometer of surface, then only some 9.8 million satellites will be required. Assuming economies of scale, the cost of building and launching a single satellite could possibly be brought down to $100 million.

(Let's ignore running costs, or the time taken to launch almost ten million satellites.)

So far, the total cost of universal satellite surveillance looks to be around the $10,000,000,000,000.

That's ten trillion dollars

Now think about the data transmission bandwidth required to transmit that information from each satellite. In order to recognise people (who presumably spend most of their time looking up at the sky) you would want a resolution of at least 1 million pixels per square metre of observed surface (probably a lot more, but let's be generous). That's 1000 x 1000 x 1000000 pixels. Per frame. Let's be generous and assume monochrome with only 256 levels of greyscale. If the satellite interprets real time loosely, and only takes one snap per second, that's still 1 TB/second. That's pretty ambitious. Current state of the art is probably exemplified by the MUOS satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, that can transmit 348 kilobytes per second.

OK, so maybe they solve that with some amazing new laser comms device for satellites. One that has around 10 million satellites shining lasers at the ground. Seems reasonable. What do we do with all that data? We now have to store data that increased at the rate of 10 million TB / second.

Time to buy shares in Western Digital, I think.

Why not build a cluster out of WORKSTATIONS?

Re: Timely.

Looks like you need the Large Pixel Collider.

Sony's new PlayStation 4: Early faults ENRAGE some buyers

@AC 11:26 GMT (Re: Silly squabling)

finally as a PC gamer youre no longer hunched over a desk

Nope. I'm still hunched over a desk, and I like it that way. Besides, that's where my Titan GPU and 2560 x 1440 monitors are.

Silly squabling

Both the PS4 and XBox One are mediocre devices - equivalent to a mid range gaming PC.

Halfway through their lives they will be equivalent to a low end gaming PC - one with whatever Intel provides for graphics at that time.

Meanwhile, PC users will be buying games at 75% off on Steam sales, and downloading free mods for them, including enhanced textures (for their 4K displays), additional models and new quests for RPGs, etc.