Posts by Alex Cooksey

Top adviser claims John McCain invented the BlackBerry

Really poor journalism here

Come on - your own article says that a spin doctor waved his own mobile about (in this case a blackberry) and said John McCain sat on the government committee that pushed through legislation that enabled modern comms technology to happen. That's a far cry from "John McCain invented the Blackberry."

Remove the article - its sensationalist and shoddy journalism and frankly you can do better.

I can't say I'm in favour of McCain or his views, or that modern American comms tech is anything to be bragging about. I'm just complaining about this awful article that will doubtless be all over the tabloids tomorrow because the Register is supposed to be good at technical issues.

Scientists unravel galactic spaghetti monster

Images of deities

This does rather put finding "the face of Jesus" on your toast to shame somewhat.

Beat that Abrahamic religions.

Naomi Campbell pleads guilty to assault

Sentence passed

200 hours community service according to the Beeb.

I pity whoever's in charge - hope they get a good battleaxe to look after her service to society.

Shuttle astronauts: Aliens are definitely out there

Time

The opportunity to meet (or be blasted by) exciting new aliens carries not just a space dimension but also a considerable time factor. I suspect that as we haul ourselves out of the gravity well and begin space exploration properly we may uncover long buried remains of civilisation - if it makes any sense to us and if we can be bothered with a dust strewn rock for long enough to investigate.

In turn we will leave behind surprisingly vague clues for civilisations to come after us. What would a race who don't hear and never felt the urge to develop optical media make of a Led Zepplin CD - remastered or otherwise?

Given the rates of change in human innovation over the last 100 years and the last millennium, if we are lucky/unlucky enough to have neighbours sufficiently close in time and space to have any impact on us whatsoever, for there to be an even remotely interesting struggle, we'd need to be on an effective technological par. Otherwise it'd be a bit like like a modern day Para regiment taking on a Cavalry brigade - abrupt and soggy.

Are 'they' out there? They probably are somewhere, and they almost certainly will be or were. For it to be a relevant question for the next 10 generations (to be relatively topical) is an unreasonably remote chance.

just my 2p...

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

Happy Birthday

Congratulations on 10 years of not taking yourselves too seriously.

I've been a Reg reader since you got hold of the BoFH and thank you for years of reasonably good articles.

Cheers

Alex

let me know where to send the cake and you might get one...

O2 to slash 8GB iPhone pricing tomorrow?

Re bad credit in an afternoon

I'm not certain this'll work, but you could pretend it was a gift for a teenage friend. Most kids have gotten a bad credit rating at one point or another - ask a kid to ask friends - you're bound to find someone fairly quickly. Throw in a bottle of cheap cider and you should have your dodgy credit report.

Area 51 drug test victim crashes flying car

hmmm

Is it just me or would this be the basis for a good pinball machine?

Lightsaber voted top movie weapon

@ TeeCee

quite right - though its hardly relevant I should point out that Play.com have just delivered Matter to me 2 weeks early...

Go on then

Other nominations include:

The various guitar cases from El Mariachi, Desperado and Once upon a time in Mexico

Sex Machine's codpiece in from Dusk Till Dawn

Some awesome other ones up there too.

From fiction I'd have to go with Iain M Bank's Lazy Gun

Vodafone sends Manchester back to the 90s

@ Sampler

Fair enough - I was just going on what I was told.

Certainly I've been out for 2 days, but it works if you have gsm turned on and displays the 3g logo. I only really noticed cos mobile TV wasn't working.

Not just Manchester

London too

Vodafone told me their whole 3g network is down, has been for 2 days and they have no resolution estimate.

Poor show.

Huge jellyfish pack slaughters 100,000 salmon

ah well never mind...

""Northern Salmon Co...now faces closure if it doesn't get emergency government aid"

Huh? Don't they insure their livestock against predators/storms/disease? It's not like the Govt ordered them culled..."

Spot on - but they needn't worry - Alistair Darling is chancellor and can be relied on to bail pretty much anyone out. Gord alone knows what his laissez faire attidude will do to the budget next time round. Thanks goodness the hospital trusts seem to have their houses in order finally.

Kung fu monks battle gobby net ninja

Real ultimate power

This ninja-loving troll didn't go by the name Hamburger did he?

From the Ninja's point of view Dr Hatsumi is probably the most likely contender for head ninja....