Posts by Kelly Fiveash

The sound of silence: One excited atom is so quiet that the human ear cannot detect it

From the editor Lewis Page:

"Here on the pages of the Reg the word 'boffin' is a title of honour accorded only to researchers we respect - generally from the proper sciences and able to do hard sums. Lesser practitioners (for instance business-studies or psychology professors purveying dubious surveys and statistical analyses) are generally known as 'eggheads' or 'trick-cyclists', for instance.

We get a fair bit of positive mail from people we have dubbed boffins, so we're fairly sure most of them know this, but it never hurts to be sure."

Hunt's 'paperless', data-pimping NHS plan gets another £240m

Re: Not "sick Brits"

Get your point, but plenty of Brits - including ex-pat Scots - live in England.

BT engineers - missed appointments

BT engineers - missed appointments

Do tell us about your recent experiences with BT Openreach engineers and missed appointments.

Have you waited in all day for someone to come and repair busted broadband kit and/or connections only to discover hours later that the engineer allocated to the job is a total no-show? Do you think a pattern is emerging with BT struggling to keep up with demand, perhaps? Or, is it the case that service is simply superb? And how does the experience with BT compare with other telcos?

Fire away with your comments.

What would happen if Rupert Murdoch BOUGHT Twitter?

What would happen if Rupert Murdoch BOUGHT Twitter?

The Google-hating octogenarian media biz tycoon of all our hearts is apparently a big fan of Twitter. We know this cos he said so on the micro-blogging site earlier this month (https://twitter.com/#!/rupertmurdoch/status/182513752598515712). He's good friends with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and, while Rupe admitted mistakes with loss-making MySpace - which he unceremoniously dumped last year - it's not entirely in the realms of fantasy that Murdoch might once again get in on some hot Web2.0 action.

But what could such an audacious move actually mean for yet-to-go-public Twitter?

Punctured Google+ leaks bored users

Re: Hey, here's a genius idea:

Google has begun the API process. Story about that here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/16/google_plus_api/

Re:

Yes. Facebook currently claims to have 800 active million users.

Cabinet Office outlines gov-portal 'ID assurance' plans

Re: Beavering away on Martha Lane Fox...

I'll take that as a compliment ;)

Cute download Firefox, 'treat a cub' vid downed by IE glitch

Re: More likely

Don't ruin all our fun ;)

Radiohead goes out on a limb with 'newspaper album'

Re: Umm you should have paid more attention in your maths (and english) lessons

As my story makes clear, Radiohead are indeed asking fans to pay twice. First for the digital format, and second for the 'physical' version. But yes, if a fan buys the .wav or .mp3 formats first, they obviously won't be paying for the digital download twice when they lay out cash for the 'newspaper album', so that charge is rightly trimmed off the 30 quid price tag. However, they will still be paying for another format, which is a classic biz model employed by big name record companies since (disc spinning) time begun.

Internet Explorer 9 preview thinks inside box, outside browser

Re: Sunspider cheating

That's because it was a "slashdotted flamebait troll story" not worthy of our attention.

Steve Jobs no longer Eggman as Beatles hits iTunes

Re: Just to say...

thank you, dear

Mac Office 2011 allows only 'light edits' in Windows Web apps

Re: Cut down?

As the headline and subsequent story clearly points out, the 'light edits' apply to OfM 2011 files used in Windows Web apps and not OfM 2011 files used in OfM 2011 Web apps.

Firefox 4 beta 2 preaches tabs-on-top love to fanbois

Re: in reply to.

Good point. But then consider that Mozilla made this change to the interface only after Google's Chrome browser rocked up. That speaks volumes to me.

iPad alert: Are you a selfish elite or an independent geek?

Re: GWB Quote

Yes we know, dear. He was such a jester.

Torrent sites: Here today, gone tomorrow and no one even cares

Re: you basically copied their article.

shurely shome mishtake?

Eurovision website goes titsup, upsets handful of fans

Re: mr. god, calling mr. god

Yes, we know dear

Google gets happy-clappy with file transfer in talk widgets

Re: Author confused

I hear that, story's been updated.

Ordnance Survey consultation reaches end of line

Re: Now you tell me

I think we've done a good job of keeping our readers in the loop on this issue, actually.

http://search.theregister.co.uk/?q=ordnance+survey

EDS knits bigger net for voluntary redundancies

Number crunching

The 20 per cent figure specifically refers to claims that EDS plans to cut more jobs in its public sector unit, known internally as the HUB, and not to the entire UK workforce of 16,500 staff.

- Kelly

Irish distie DCC trims profit forecast

Surely all Reg readers know...

...that distie means distributor?

Kelly

Lenovo profits soar

13-fold does not relate to the 13 per cent figure

This should already be clear from the story, but just to repeat:

The 13 per cent figure refers to Lenovo's total Q1 revenue.

The 13-fold increase is the firm's net income which now stands at $66.8m, up from last year's $5.2m.