Posts by poopypants

Dr Wolfram touts coding language to revolutionise mankind ... just like Wolfram Alpha did

Language?

Seems to me like this thing translates hieroglyphics into a set of calls to an eclectic mountain of run time libraries, none of which are open to public inspection.

It would be interesting to see how many machine instructions result from a request to shift the bits in a variable left by one. My C compiler generates a single machine code instruction. I know that because the compiler will helpfully generate a mixed C/assembly language listing if i ask for it.

Sorry, but Wolfram Language requires more trust than I have available to give.

Coroner suggests cars should block mobile phones

Re: Hmm...

Technology has in the past proven quite useful in addressing the shortcomings of humanity.

Our inability to fly, for example, or to resist stealing other people's stuff.

Perhaps

the phone should refuse to make or receive SMS, email or phone calls while it is moving at more than 10 km/h.

Google SO CAN scan ALL BOOKS onto its sites - judge

Re: Wait...

More like two seconds, I would think. A paragraph here or there is only a very tiny percentage of an entire book.

WHAT!? Lenovo THIRD-largest smartmober - Chinese grab local kit

Perspective

"The winner of this quarter is Microsoft which grew 123 percent."

That's one way of looking at it.

Another way of looking at it is to say their smartphone market share has increased to 3.6% globally.

Somewhat less impressive.

Microsoft, Xamarin give Visual Studio a leg-up for... iOS and Android?

@M Gale (Re: Been done before)

So long as you're not developing for mobile.

No longer true. The free version now supports iOS and Android. (Since May, in fact.)

See: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/21/unity-game-engine-goes-free-for-ios-and-android-developers/

Been done before

Unity (used for Kerbal Space Program, Deus Ex: The Fall, Sir You Are Being Hunted, Kentucky Route Zero, etc...) has supported C# (and Javascript - your choice) for years. It targets Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows 8, Windows Desktop, Linux and the Web, amongst others.

Unity is well established, has a great reputation, and has a powerful version that is entirely free.

Oculus: 'Terrifying' virtual reality gaming 'will change the world', WE SWEAR IT

Not for consoles

Being so close to the face requires at a minimum dual 1080p displays. Avoiding motion sickness requires at least 60 fps. Those are currently high end PC gaming rig characteristics, and rules out consoles for the next 7-10 years.

Amazon unleashes Australian Kindle Store

Sill no movie rental

so thanks, but no thanks.

Anonymous threatens cyberwar with Anonymous

Good thing

they don't know about Karl's Kebabs. That project cost millions.

Google Chrome: Extensions now ONLY from the Company Store

@JoeF

Indeed. To prevent updates, in the registry set:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update\UpdateDefault

to the REG_DWORD value of "0".

Google's secret search offer to EU antitrust chief LEAKED by rivals

I know it is not easy when provoked

...but can we please try not to behave like children?

Thank you.

Thought you didn't need to show ID in the UK? Wrong

@tkiox

I don't know if they are still around, but you might want to check out http://www.keypass.com.au/

This is not a recommendation - merely the result of a quick Google search.

Microsoft's so keen on touch some mice FAIL under Windows 8.1

I have noticed this

Sometimes the mouse cursor pauses for a moment, then catches up in slow motion before returning to normal. Also the keyboard sometimes randomly auto repeats a character. This makes playing games like Battlefield 4 even more interesting, when added to the random sound distortions, "rubber banding" and crashes already provided by DICE/FROSTBITE.

Fun times.

Japanese boffins unveil INVINCIBLE robot rock, paper, scissors 'bot

For some reason

this story reminded me of Fisto, one of the robots in Fallout New Vegas.

Off your bikie laws: Anonymous to Queensland Premier Newman

There's always Adelaide

City of churches and disturbing sex crimes - and better than average civil liberties.

It's a bit boring though (apart from the sex crimes).

Australia's proto-NBN now decaying in the desert

Re: analogous

the relatively slight justification for the couple-hundred-thousand-pound spend

I imagine that you would not want to wait several months to discover things like war breaking out in Europe. You could lose a lot of ships in the meantime.

Malcolm Turnbull throws a bone to FTTP boosters

It's not that complicated

The NBN as implemented by the previous government was going to cost a lot more money than the current government considers prudent. They will therefore go with the cheapest solution that provides what they consider to be an acceptable result. Most people will be happy because the Turnbull NBN will let them stream Netflix at 1080p, but a lot of antipodean Reg readers will weep at the perceived injustice of it all, because it won't support 4K TV.

Dying HealthCare.gov bagged JUST SIX registrations on first day

@Moof (Re: Is this really an IT issue?)

Mine is free. Of course, I don't have the advantage of living in the US, so I have to put up with a meddling government that insists that I'm never hungry, homeless or unable to pay for medical treatment.

Fortunately everyone in the US is well off, so those problems simply don't arise where you live.

Here's what YOU WON'T be able to do with your PlayStation 4

Neither PS4 nor XBox One are state of the art

Neither has a hope in hell of ever rendering games at native 4K resolution. The XBox One in particular is rendering Battlefield 4 at 720p, while the PS4 is rendering the same game at 900p. The result in both cases is then upscaled to 1080p.

In fact, the only current setup that has been shown able to comfortably render games at 4K and a steady 60 fps is a PC with dual NVIDIA Titans installed. (The new top of the range card from AMD should also manage.)

As for the "massive" 300 MB download - most of the games in my steam account have sizes measured in Gigabytes. All were downloaded.

SR-71 Blackbird follow-up: A new TERRIFYING Mach 6 spy-drone bomber

If you plot speed against difficulty, then after a while it looks more exponential than linear. This will become even more obvious should mankind one day make machines that can travel at velocities approaching the speed of light.

Google RIPS aside curtain, exposes Nexus 5 phone, KitKat Android 4.4 coupling

Nah, it has to be candy/desert related

So if they keep with the commercial tie-ins, luscious Life Saver followed by mouthwatering Mars Bar.

Nice

Top range specifications, extremely good value for money.

If I wasn't happy with my Galaxy Nexus, I'd probably get one.

Bucket? Check. Toilet plunger? Check. El Reg's 50 years of Doctor Who

@Stevie (Re: Plumbing pedantry)

bog-standard sink plunger

Is that an oxymoron?

New Forum Wishlist - but read roadmap first

Re: New Forum Wishlist - but read roadmap first

Posted Wednesday 21st March 2012 10:00 GMT

This is very informative if you happen to live in the UK. Not so great if you live somewhere else. It would be nice if you could change it to something like

Posted Wednesday 21st March 2012 10:00 GMT (3:37 hours ago)

Pretty please?

Do+ you+ use+ Google+? Seemingly+ you+ DO+

How dare they

offer everyone free software and services. Must be some kind of commie plot.

You've spent $1,500 on Glass. Now Google wants you to sell more specs

Interesting psychology

The outrageously high price instantly identifies the wearer as someone who has a substantial disposable income. Making them obtainable by invitation only will of course serve to increase their desirability. People often want things that they cannot have - simply because they can't have them. Once the mindset is established that wearing Google Glass establishes membership of an exclusive elite*, Google will have to beat off the unwashed masses with a stick.

*See also Apple marketing strategy.

Mac OS X Mavericks 'upgrade' ruins iWorks

Finger painters

OPINION:

This is what happens when you dumb down your software to cater to tablet loving finger painters.

Both MS and Apple seem to be regressing to kindergarten style interfaces, which although pretty and distracting are not very productive.

Drone owners told: stay out of bushfire skies

Re: Let's be realistic here ...

I may be wrong, but I imagine the four electric motors in a quadcopter are not made of styrofoam, and that whatever they are made of (mostly metal would be my guess) might cause more trouble to a rotor than something that is more deformable (flesh and bone, for example).

A steam punk VDU ?

Logie Baird

Logie Baird's television used a rotating Nipkow disk, through which a modulated flashing light was shown.

A pneumatically activated mechanical shutter placed in front of the light source might be the only variation required on his original design.

Coalition to keep Digital Technologies curriculum

If the coalition do anything

then they would most likely increase the relevance of coursework to industry. That would be in keeping with their philosophical bias. Coincidentally, that would probably be the best outcome for students.

Finally! How to make Android USABLE: Install BlackBerry OS 10.2

That's nice

They should put it in a technology museum so that it isn't entirely forgotten.

How to spot a coders comment

Old school assembly language programmer

; Swap registers R1, R2

R1 XOR R2

R2 XOR R1

R1 XOR R2

Surface 2 and iPad Air: Prepare to meet YOUR DOOM under a 'Landfill Android' AVALANCHE

Re: Units!!!

I agree with FartingHippo.

It's NOT an iPad - but that's FINE: I learned to LOVE Microsoft's Surface 2

vexabibulus is a word

I should know, I just made it up. (It means the feeling that one experiences when one discovers that the toilet roll has been mounted incorrectly).

Google fires fresh salvo in war on FILTH: Chrome Supervised Users

@Robert Helpmann?? (Re: Misunderstanding)

Oops, you are correct. My mistake. BTW, I thought you were dead. Nice to see you are up and about again.

Misunderstanding

"Users daring enough to work with a beta browser are encouraged to try it out and submit feedback via Google's Chromebook forums."

This is not about Chrome (the browser). This is about the controlled environment provided by Chromebooks (the computer+browserOS*).

*It's a word. Trust me.

Reply-all email lightning storm STRIKES TWICE at Cisco

@AC 101

Upvoted because I like silly people.

It's the '90s all over again: Apple repeats mistakes as low-cost tablets pile up

Perspective

Apple is more profitable than companies that sell Android devices.

- Apple products are overpriced.

Apple phones are not made of crap plastic.

- Apple phones come with a Faraday cage to reduced signal strength.

Apple devices are fashionable.

- Apple purchasers are not critical thinkers.

etc...

Microsoft boffins test rival 'Google Glass' geek goggles, say insiders

Missed opportunity

Instead of "Go Glass..." they should have used "Go Go Gadget...".

You like iPads, you like things called 'Air'. You will LOVE this puppy

@SuccessCase (much enhanced gaming potential)

Sure, casual games on the iPad will get better. They will still only be casual games, however.

Tablets will always be a casual games ghetto, simply because the form factor will never allow for a GPU that comes anywhere near the performance of larger, mains powered dedicated games consoles.

Every increase in tablet GPU performance will be exceeded by a greater increase in contemporaneous console and gaming PC performance.

Yes, the casual games will get better. There will be no comparison however with the experience that will come from, say, using the Oculus Rift with dual 4K screens running at the required minimum 60fps on a high end gaming PC (http://gamerant.com/oculus-rift-4k-resolution/).

Comet ISON perhaps NOT GARBAGE after all - glows GREEN in latest snaps

Impressive

ISON's green glow may be due to the presence of carbon molecules (click to enlarge...

I knew technology was improving in leaps and bounds, but this is an incredible breakthrough!

Deploying Turing to see if we have free will

I was going to comment

but I decided not to.

Oh wait...

First Lavabit, now CryptoSeal pulls the plug: VPN service axed

Re: Good on Cryptoseal for doing the right thing

Internet Companies Like Facebook And Google Fight The NSA Harder Than Ever

from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/internet-companies-nsa_n_3896097.html

Perhaps you might consider the most cursory and elemental fact checking before you start expressing opinions that have no foundation in fact.

If there's somethin' strange in your network 'hood. Who y'gonna call? Google's DDoS-busters

Re: Set up a charity in a country that respects human rights for all humans

they should set up a charity in a country that respects human rights for all humans

Where is this amazing place?

11m Chinese engulfed by 'Airpocalypse' at 4000% of safe pollution levels

There's plenty of natural gas in Australia

In 2012 China purchased A$51 billion worth of iron ore, coal, and gold from Australia.

Perhaps they should be buying less coal and more natural gas.

HTC chief exec to focus on designing new mobes, sticks Wang in sales etc

HTC make nice phones (sometimes)

However I think the Nexus line provides better value.

FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS: Microsoft faces prising XP from Big Biz

@Ross K (Re: Oh come on...)

Actually I believe he wrote "industry", not "industrial".

I also believe there are such things as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (http://www.finra.org/) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (http://www.tiaonline.org/about/), which does rather support what he wrote.

I'm sure that was an honest mistake on your part, rather than a dishonest attempt to misrepresent someone's views in order to make an irrelevant point. I hope that clears things up for you.