Posts by Ilmarinen

Microsoft scares the bejesus out of Skype users with x12 price hike

Paying for what?

Their wee bit of software, generating trafic over someone else's network? Why's that a good deal?

More like a "Nice Little Earner"

Post-pub nosh neckfiller special: The WHO bacon sarnie of death

Shirly...

We should applaud our WHO prod-nose anti-cancer guardians. They carry out this important work, their salaries funded only by our hard earned cash, ignoring the danger that someone might give any one of them the punch on the nose that they so richly deserve.

(boot-note: It's a little known weird old trick - you can greatly reduce your chances of getting cancer by dying younger, cancer being much more common in the elderly)

Rosetta probe delivers jaw-to-the-floor find: Molecular oxygen

Ozone?

Isn't Ozone more reactive than diatomic Oxygen (so even less likely to be found on the loose)?

Balloon-lofted space podule hits 30,000m

Re: Helium balloons

Yes, hydrogen would be much better, and gives slightly better lift too - which will be worth a lot at the extremes of achievable altitude.

Funny how hydrogen is *Bad* in balloons (because "Zeppelin") but *good* in cars (because "Green").

(although hydrogen is actually used by the competition balloon folks)

EU urged to ignore net neutrality delusions, choose science instead

Re: This is not up to Registers usual standards

I agree.

Not my field, but the article did not pass a "smell" test and I see that more knowledgeable commentards have pointed out various reasons why.

Don't like Shill articles - 3/10.

Google can't hide behind Alphabet, EU competition commish warns

I don't think *I* fail to see this

"That comment may be obvious to EU antitrust nerds, but try explaining why this investigation is taking place to people who use Google's myriad of services and find them very useful. They often fail to see why the allegations against Google should stick at all."

I don't think that *I* often fail to see this, nor I suspect does anyone who understands why we have anti-trust laws. You guess you must be talking about other folks Kelly.

Personally, I find Google a bit creepy - especially that new pop up screen on Chrome when you try to do a web search. They can Fcuk Right Off about that one, I've changed the default search engine :-)

We can't all live by taking in each others' washing

All hail Comrade Stalin

@ x7 "vacuous bullshit is allowed to be published"

*allowed* - by whom? You?

Who do you think you are (other than a troll).

Re: TTFN

"Lewis still appears as 'Editor' on the contact page."

I was reporting info from Tim's blog last week, and suported by a comment from (someone using the same name as) another Reg colomist that "Lewis & Bob were the only staff casualties". Was then noted that they hadn't updated the editorial page yet.

'Spose time will tell...

TTFN

A strange descision by El Reg - but I gather that there's been a change at the top. I think that Lewis Page has got the push too.

A pity, both, and I'll value The Register less without their articles and so will "consume" less of it.

Without Tim though, there won't be anyone to explain to them how this consumer preference stuff works...

Lancashire Police warn of malware email impersonation scam

friendly???

"...emails purporting to be from your local friendly bobby"

As ours are neither friendly nor local that would be a major clue that the email was a scam.

Don't Panic: Even if asteroid showers cause mass extinctions ...

More worryingly...

What about the impending arival of the "unlucky" No. 13 bus? As a solipsist, I try my best - but you could all be doomed because of a single point of failure!

Now, where's my clean underwear?

A thousand mile Atom merci mission: Driving from Monaco to London in an open-topped motor

Re: lack of self cancelling indicators?

No self cancelling means you always have to cancel them. So you never forget. And you never get caught out by self-cancelling indicators that didn't cancel. 2CVs, Dyannes and CXs & early BXs for example - presumably before good French engineering was overruled by EU diktat.

That said, I had an SR500 once where the indicators timed out after a minute or so. That was neat.

Exposed Volkswagen 'n' pals get 2 more YEARS to sort out emissions

"deadly nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions"

Yes, we need a crackdown to stop these. The bodied of NOx Victims are already piling up in the streets and will soon cause traffic to grind to a halt.

Only a CNUT would hold back the waves of the sharing economy

Re: Stopping Uber is easy.

I've noticed in a couple of articles about Uber that a swarm of downvoters seems to descend. Who they?? Black Cab drivers? Didn't think they could read, let alone interwebs stuff. Maybe they hired some lobyist outfits?

Spirit of Steve Fosset lives on as glider is poised to soar to 90,000ft

There's a lot of it about

" first postulated by Perlan founder and NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson back in the 1990s"

Wave exploration goes back a lot further than that - I think wave lift was discovered in the '30s and the Siera Wave Project in the early '50s got to 30,000+ ft IIRC.

Wave lift is actually quite common - even in the flat lands of Cambridgeshire when it's blowing hard from the general direction of the Welsh mountains.

NOxious VW emissions scandal: Car maker warned of cheatware YEARS AGO – reports

Re: Magical Thinking

"well over the Euro 3 standards even"

IMO anything with a "Euro ..." prefix just deserves to be taken behind the (green, subsidised) bicycle shed and quietly strangled.

(your milage may vary)

Re: Today VW ...

Taking the p*ss, but: can you just add water?

or does it have to have a certain density/pH/conductivity??

(inquiring minds, etc.)

Get ready for a grim future where bees have shorter tongues

Oh no !

"... such a negative effect on the flowers has yet to be documented ... that is something [the bee scientists] plan to look at next."

Climate Change (tm) causes Policy Based Evidence Making!

Will nobody think of the larvae?

NOxious Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal: Chief falls on sword

Re: "even though I am not aware of any wrong doing on my part"

@ Pascal Monett

Don't be too hard on him.

If politicians, regulators, government agencies can all lie, cheat and falsify, with no punishment or bad consiquences, perhaps car manufacturers can be excused for thinking it's OK to do the same?

Volkswagen used software to CHEAT on AIR POLLUTION tests, alleges US gov

This is what you get...

...when Government decides that it should control everything, for your own good. And the more labyrinthine the regulations, the more inventive the victims become in working round them. Because, who wants a car that goes like the EPA thinks it ought to go?

The US still has the death penalty in quite a few states I understand. Sadly, this only ever seems to get used on criminals, never on bureaucrats or politicians.

Why the 'Dancing Baby' copyright case is just hi-tech victim shaming

I wish I had the wit and understanding to have written that.

jilocasin, I've put a beer in for you.

Wot??

I read all your article Andrew. I don't agree. Lots of verbage, seems to me it was fair use, and quite right.

If you are "little people" and don't want your stuff coppied then don't post it on 't interwebs, youtube, twatter, etc. If you are mega-corp-scum then tough titty if someone posts a video with distortted background barely audible music by someone-formerly-known-as-something who later dis-associated himself from your company.

I just looked at Chilling Effects and it looked like that private complainants were flagged [Private].

Not that I approve of Google (the new M$ ?) but we have to keep a sense of proportion IMO.

Hate noisy jets above you? What if they were charging your phone?

FFS

Sorry to pick on your comment - but FFS, Tony W (above) has posted the sums and anyone who thinks that this even asymptoticly approaches a sensible engineering proposal is either barking or just hard of thinking. Probably did PPS or Environmental Studies...

That said, I'm sure that a suitable level of Feed-In Tarrif can, and probably will, be set. It would need to be about 10^5 times the value of electricity produced to encourage development of this new (and recycled) green energy.

(doomed, we are)

Blood-crazy climate mosquitoes set to ground Santa's reindeer

Re: Modeling, schmodeling

<quote>

Abstract

Climate change is altering environmental temperature, a factor that influences ectothermic organisms by controlling rates of physiological processes.

</quote>

Still, I guess they had to say that:

Want to study bugs? No much money.

Want to study the effect of Climate Change (TM) on bugs? How much would you like??

Modeling, schmodeling

Reading the abstract, they did do *some* measurements (in Western Greenland) but the rest of the "results" are from a "parametrized" "demographic model" wot they developed ...

An old RF mate of mine had a nice incite into modeling (RF bods do modeling and simulation all the time), he said "the trouble with simulation is, like m*****bation, if you do it too much you start to believe it's the real thing".

Re: Make your mind up

Man-made Greenhouse emissions can make warming *and* cooling *and* stopping, and ALL AT THE SAME TIME - only Deniers claim otherwise

Arctic summer ice cover is 31st highest ever recorded

Hmm.

@ Sykobee

piomas-trnd2.png - why would you want to fit an *exponential* trend to only 35 years of data (unless you were just trying to make a scary point)?

And we know that ice comes and goes, unbidden, all by itself:

"The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot" - Monthly Weather Review, November 1922

You can see data at the "Cryosphere Today" site http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

Doesn't look very scary to my simple engineer's eye.

Yada yada yada

Still, in the overwhelming miasma of greenist propaganda leading up to the November Climate Jamboree, it is good to have a contrary view published.

I will soooo laugh if unseasonable snow disrupts their Paris scare-fest

Cue the swarm of cowardly anonymous doomsayers...

Burn all the coal, oil – No danger of sea level rise this century from Antarctic ice melt

Re: pacific islanders?

Thanks for the links.

I do note however that they are both green activist outfits.

The second link (written 2009) states "The island they call home will be completely underwater by 2015". This doesn't seem to have happened (as is the case with many other Global Warming doomsayings).

A bit of web searching suggests that the actual situation is a bit different from what you suggest...

pacific islanders?

"Try telling that to some pacific islanders who are already feeling the effects of sea level rise"

[citation needed]

I saw the one where greenpeace or similar had cut down that palm tree because it showed that the sea wasn't rising, and I know about how coral islands are dynamic structures that track sea level - but I'd be interested in any verifiable evidence of scaryness.

the "precautionary principle"

AKA doing expensive things with unpleasant unintended consequences, in the absence of evidence of benefit, because we like people to think that "something is being done" about the latest scare (and our scaremongering mates will make a nice little earner from doing those expensive things).

Also see: "some crimes, terrorism and paedophilia for example, are so serious that mere innocence, or simple want of evidence, should be no defence".

Sierra Nevada snow hasn't been this bad since 1500AD

Re: They could solve the drought...

I think that the greenies are pouring a fair bit down the gills of the Delta Smelt too.

(keep on growing the almonds though - we loves 'em)

Partially blind albino porn pirate nabbed for £300k bedroom streaming site

Re: @6x7=42

@ Graham Marsden "getting away with *massive* tax avoidance"

Avoiding tax is legal, simply doing what is allowed by law. And IMO to be encouraged as I hate to see money going to government, which will largely spaff it on stupid, useless and unwanted things.

If you think that it is wrong or bad to avoid tax, please feel free to buy the most expensive fuel, maybe a few packs of cigs (even if you don't smoke), and don't pay into any ISAs or pension funds. These simple steps will help to maximise the taxes you pay. You'll feel good, and maybe I'll have to pay less.

You know it makes (non)sense.

Back to school: Six of the smartest cheap 'n' cheerful laptops

Re: A quick search...

My thinking too.

And all these were Windows machines. I'd be much more interested in a review of the sub £200 machines (esp what's the trade off vs more expensive kit?), and the speed diference running Ubuntu or Mint vs Windows.

(particularly as I'm currently looking about for a friend with an aging Apple laptop but not much money to pay the £££ they want for a new one)

Manhattan-sized iceberg splits from glacier – and spotted FROM SPACE

Wot no Global Scaryness?

No mention of Warming, Ice Sheet Melting, Weather Wierding or Global (it's all our fault) DOOM !

And just a tiny mention of sea level rise doom-a-thon ...

Don't they know that there's a Climate $$$ Jamboree comming up?

At least we can hope the BBC will Big It Up...

Want Edward Snowden pardoned? You're in the minority, say pollsters

Re: I'd like to see a trial.

The problem is that none of them will suffer any significant consiquences. Only little people get a thrashing. The "reptilians" * get away with a gentle admonishment and full pension, "lessons" are "learned" (the better to hide future wrongdoing) and it all carries on as before.

* no, I'm not David Ike - but it is a good shorthand IMO :-)

Assange™ to SQUAT in Ecuadorian broom closet for ANOTHER FIVE YEARS (maybe)

"just lackeys" ?

Thinking aloud - could robot lackeys pass the Turing Test?

Anyone?

Yes, he's a bit of a knob..

...but so are you in writing a prat-ish article like this. And so is whoever did the sub-headline (count the fingers in the pic).

And let's not forget that, knob or no, he's exposed some rather unsavory doings by Uncle Sam and others, for which they will be rather upset and not adverse to all kind of dirty tricks...

'Sunspots drive climate change' theory is result of ancient error

"We are running out of fossil fuels"

Actually, we don't seem to be. Most of these scares seem to come from a confusion between reserves and resources.

Have a look at some of Tim Worstall's stuff on this site for examples.

I also saw an interesting fag packet calculation (Philip Foster) which started from the observation that the earth's early atmosphere was very dense and mostly CO2 and that the O2 bit had largely gone to oxidize the iron in the crust. Which leaves a very large amount of carbon in there somewhere - not including C in carbonates (although this doesn't mean that it's easily accessible).

Re: Deniers?

Normally Trolls infest the comments, not write the article itself.

That said, I'll check out the source data because I'm interested in the subject.

But "climate deniers" - really?

Windows 10 Start menu replacements shifting like hot cakes

"You Sir, are an ignorant twerp..."

Tee hee, has one upset Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms./Whatever Cowardly Anonymouth creature???

Jolly good, carry on...

BTW: I once attended a lecture on design and marketing given by the MD of a Cambridge audio company. She identified three types of features in a new product...

1) Wow feature - great idea, why didn't anyone think of that before, realy great, etc.

2) Yehbut feature - ahhh - yeh - but where's the steering wheel? (or start menu, whatever)

3) Engineer thinks "what can we put in this empty bit of panel? - I know..."

The way to a good product was maximizing 1), ensuring you kept 2) and avoiding 3) like the plague.

Not sure if M$ think this way ;-)

Why don't we change the layout of the controls in cars???

How about putting the brake on the left and the gear change in the roof ??

And PCs - maybe change the layout of the keys on computer keyboards too - swap the top and middle row ???

Slightly different I know, but people could just get on with learning the new layout. And once they had learned it we could change it again to something else for a bit of a larf...

YOU! DEGRASSE! It's time to make Pluto a proper planet again, says NASA boffin

Re: not a dwarf, its a PORG

Just what I was going to post. Have an up-vote.

IMO, using the "D" word is just Dwarfist and unacceptable in the 21st centuary.

Minister for Fun opens consultation on future of the BBC

"The Public Purposes of the BBC are as follows — (a) bla bla bla"

When I read smug boll**ks like this, I wish that I had a revolver to reach for.

Why oh why oh why should we fund this bloated, PC, biased, agenda ridden, FOI avoiding propoganda machine?

Let people who want it pay for it and get rid of the telly tax for everyone else.

Horrifying MOCK BACON ABOMINATION grown in BUBBLING VATS as ALGAE

Re: The horror, the horror

"Ate it in China, most organics are considered foodstuffs there." -- Arthur the cat

In 3 trips I liked just about everything except "this is sea creature"

No idea which sea creature, but not a very nice one (IMHO anyway)

Soylent Pink ?

every part of the bubbling abomination is used, except for the gurgle.

(mine's the one with the packet of "Porkoid Itchings" in the pocket)

Security gurus deliver coup de grace to US govt's encryption backdoor demands

Might not be about "keeping people safe"

Maybe more about increasing the size of the fifedom/budget/prestige of the person in charge of "keeping people safe" ?

So it wouldn't matter whether the proposal was stupid or no, just as long as it needed more FBI to carry it out.

Dormant ALIEN SLIME LIFE frozen in SPEEDING comet will AWAKEN - boffins

"more hospitable to micro-life than our Arctic and Antarctic regions"

Err... apart from the hard vaccuum that is.

NHS IT failures mount as GP data system declared unfit for purpose

I know nothing of NHS IT systems, but what you write seems likely true.

As an involantary patron and sometimes user of this Soviet style monolith that seems to be the HNS, I don't actually want it to be spending money on "extracting" my data, whether to a "secure" data warehouse or anywhere else. If a doctor wants to engage the services of a surgeon/consultant/whatever on my behalf and send them information, let them make their own arrangement as they see fit, providing it's secure (same as if I send a report/PO/whatever to a supplier or client).

What I *would* like to see however is for the people responsible for this current mess (and assorted other messes) to be, in the words of a now sadly deseased school teacher "shot at dawn for a fortnight".

Or even just once, to encourage the others (and because they deserve it).

Microsoft: This Windows 10 build has 'NO significant known issues'

Yawn...

XP was OK, currently got Win 7 at work (a bit crap in comparison), hopefully we won't have this inflicted on us within my event horizon ;-)

Delighted with the Mint 13 that I've used at home since XP support stopped. Prob next OS will be Mint 17, certainly not anything MS.