Posts by ratfox

Senators chime in on employers’ Facebook snooping

Great

Not only this is violating the privacy of the prospective employee, it is also violating the privacy of everybody who ever sent them a private message...

El Reg Forums FAQ

Re: How do you know your post amount anyway ?

Just click on your own name next to any of your post.

Written in Perl? You masochists!

That aside, there is a slight inconsistency between pages "Posts by ratfox" and ""My Posts".

In the first one, each post comes with a link of type "Posted in Blizzard ponders World of Warcraft for iPad", which leads straight to this post in that forum.

In the second one, each post comes with a link of type "In forum Blizzard ponders World of Warcraft for iPad", which only leads to the top of the forum, which is less useful – you have to search for your own post. It is possible to click instead on the permalink Posted Tuesday 20th March 2012 15:37 GMT, and then click again on the link to this post in that forum, but it is a slight annoyance. And it is inconsistent.

Google patents mobile ads that sense noise, temp, light

"I'm sure there will be some evil intent but at the moment I just can't see what it is."

I mean, it can't be that they just want to make more money selling ads, right? That wouldn't be evil enough.

Moneybags Apple loses $1.2m Italian warranty fine scrap

They will appeal??

Whatever for? Do they really think they have a chance? Or that it will be worth the lawyers' fees?

...That's like 0.1% of their annual income, that must really smart...

Giant kangaroos wiped out by humans, not climate change

Cool story

It means we should be able to get rid of dingos, right? ...Right?

El Reg user forum opens to public, HTML for all (mostly)

Let's see

Thank you very much!

Here is a link to a really good tech site.

HP finally decides the future of the PC: It's a printer accessory

Is this the onion I am reading?

They already did a piece about Apple:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-apple-ceo-tim-cook-im-thinking-printers,21207/

Blizzard ponders World of Warcraft for iPad

Processing power??

I remember WoW being rather performance-hungry. Do fondleslabs have that much processing power nowadays? I must be behind the times...

Symbian smacked by Windows Phone

Re: Isn't this just cherrypicked news?

Pschhh, nobody cares about that. It's not as if that is happening in real countries with real people, now is it...

Samsung opens up the Ice Cream Sandwich

Welcome to Korea

Our websites allow both kinds of browser: IE 6, AND IE 8.

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

Eragon

Though arguably, that was the book's fault.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Star Wars prequels, so many people seem to hate them.

Also, the Piranha 3d movie... Do not watch it. You would regret it.

Anything from Uwe Boll.

FAA mulls scrapping in-flight iPad, Kindle ban

Re: Oh the old petrol station turn mobile phones off drama lama

In much of the US, gas stations close during the night, unless there is an employee inside. This was baffling to European me, considering petrol stations over here are regularly open all night. This is not a payment issue, every pump has its card reader. I was told it was for security reasons.

Surprise! Facebook, Twitter still not THAT important for news

Thank God!

That is all.

London Mayor Boris grilled on Virgin's Underground penetration

Thank you for the headline

A laugh is always welcome.

Apple to reveal plans on Monday for $97.6bn cash hoard

Re: Good to see

Especially the face of the shareholders!

Yahoo! Facebook! litigation! trips! patent! trigger!

Re: You're kidding, right?

Shakespeare was right:

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. — Henry VI, part 2, act 4, scene 2.

Enormous Apple market cap swells and swells ... like a bubble

Lack of dividend — so what?

I am always surprised by the people who consider that not paying a dividend means it is not possible to make money on the stock.

The point is: IF Apple ever wanted to give back a dividend — which they technically could at any time, even if they prefer not to — they would be able to pay a dividend corresponding to the current stock price. That is enough to justify the stock price.

You might as well wonder why people try to accumulate these little pieces of paper called "money", considering they do not give back a dividend either — and do not even give you a right to anything tangible like a piece of gold. What proves that the barman will be enough of a sucker to accept it in exchange of a beer?

Smartphone users sue Apple, Facebook over mobile app privacy

Not Google?

"Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Apple, Foursquare and 13 other prominent social media firms"

Google must be feeling lonely and ignored, they are trying so hard to get in social...

Samsung and LG hit with MASSIVE price fixing fine

Korea fining its own companies??

What is the world coming to!? Oh... £25 millions only? I guess that'll teach them, then.

Diablo III out on 15 May, pledges Blizzard

Re: Price...

Maintaining download servers is as expensive as a box with a bunch of CDs, ie 1-2 £... You are paying for the game, not the packaging.

Smartphone owners demand bigger screens

Galaxy Nexus is 4.65 inches

I will be curious to see if these numbers ever result in a bigger iPhone or not. Apple may be a little bit stuck in their strategy to have only one model. Perhaps they could offer a larger screen, with the same number of pixels so as to avoid fragmentation?

Android clobbers Siri in Japanese... and English

Re: Politically Correct R Not Us

I rather think that the Japanese feel that talking to Siri is very much like talking to an ass...

FTC subpoenas Apple in Google antitrust case

A billion a year?

I find the number highly doubtful... The analyst got this result by assuming that TWO THIRDS of what Google pays in traffic acquisition costs is for the iPhone. That would be a hell of a weight just for the iPhone... Considering Google pays $300 millions a year to Mozilla, that would mean about 90% of what Google pays in TAC is just for these two.

Apple iPad sales slip as cheap Android tablet tsunami looms

Predictions for 2015?

Bullshit research is bullshit.

Future car tech

Re: SaRtre

I just wish the article could spell the name properly.

Yahoo! fires! patent! lawsuit! at! Facebook!

Proud to be patent lawyers

H6242 — Kill all the (patent) lawyers.

PayPal slaps down Dr Who ‘charity book’

Oh boy

He ran afoul of PayPal's Byzantine processes? He's done for. Even Google has better customer service.

How a tiny leap-day miscalculation trashed Microsoft Azure

Not the first, not the last...

It is a rare software company that never had an embarrassing leap year bug... This one is still going to follow Microsoft for a while, though.

Apple iPad 3 'retina display' uses Sharp super-high aperture tech

Re: Is this only news because the iPad 3 has it?

Ad revenue depends on the number of readers, which depends on the number of times the iPad is mentioned in the article!

Which means that iPad iPad iPad iPad iPad. Also, iPad iPad.

Picture this: Photo-fiddling app Instagram on Google Android

27 million users and 9 employees?

Color me impressed.

Greenland melt threshold lower than thought

If this keeps going on...

Canada may one day become inhabitable!

Judge nixes Apple's bid to patent-bash bankrupt Kodak

Re: Put the patent lawyers in a big tombola,

H6242 — Kill all the lawyers.

Re: Preview pics on an LCD screen has a patent?

Welcome! You must be new on planet Earth.

Apple wants ebook price class action suit thrown out

No market power!

It is quite funny from Apple to claim they had no market power, and so could not have influenced the publishers. A bit like, when the iPhone came out, they clearly did not have any market power, since they were a new entrant and had never sold a phone; so they could not POSSIBLY have forced AT&T to sell the iPhone without carrier branding, and on terms vastly less advantageous than any other phone.

Yet, they clearly did. You have to admire them for that. But I do not think their "we are new entrants without market power" is going to convince anybody.

'Regrouping' Android tablet makers extend Apple reign

Re: being pedantic i know

The only problem is that now, we have an iPad which is newer than the iPad 2. They should come up with a generic way to call the iPad from last year, since they still sell it, only cheaper. I would suggest "the old iPad", but I doubt Apple would accept it.

Google to app devs: Use our pay system ... OR ELSE

Money, money...

Why 30%? Just because Apple asks for the same?

I would have demanded 20%, if only to claim to be cheaper...

Apple to Google Maps: ‘Get lost’

I hope Apple keeps Google maps for directions

Especially for public transport. Having accurate info about which train/bus combination is the best at each time of the day is a life saver.

3D: 10% of LCD TVs in 2011, 25% in 2012

So...

The industry is basically bumping prices by forcing people to buy a feature they don't want. Well played.

Hands on with the Apple iPad 3

Apple icon

This is the one you are looking for, I think. Seriously, I think that is the idea.

STUNNING NEW APPLE DEVICES that will follow the iPad 3 HD!

Re: or maybe laying on the chaise longue

Yeah, who's getting laid on the chaise longue?

Eric Schmidt flicks INTERSTELLAR TOWEL at top tech fair

Yeah, I think he blew it on the last paragraph.

Lego space shuttle hits 114,000ft

It will never descend...

It will fly away, free and unfettered, discover new worlds, strange dark planets under binary stars, off the shoulder of Orion...

FSF fandroids fight to 'free' Android from Google's forepaws

Stallman's definition of "truly free"...

Is the one that puts MORE constraints on the developer than Apache's definition. I have always thought this slightly strange.

They say "Free as in free speech, not as in free beer." Maybe this should be "free as in free love". That would better represent the fact that the code is never really yours.

Is Google liable for unlawful web graffiti on its walls?

Barking mad

There are official web sites that are legally mandated to display the information — and Google would be legally mandated to pretend these web sites do not exist.

It never ends: TV exposé tags new Android privacy howler

Re: I don't get it

...Or does it even mean these apps COULD BE doing it, who knows?

If they really found apps that played fast and loose with the user data, I'm sure Google would remove them from their app store, but somehow, Channel 4 have decided not say exactly what the apps do, or even name the apps that they found to be misbehaving. Can we get some DETAILS?

Now Apple opens fire on EPAD trademark in China

That would be difficult

...considering iRobot is the name of a company that sells vacuum cleaners, and is completely unrelated to Apple...

Top Gun 2: It's happening - and the choice of star is stirring controversy

Completely unrealistic

Hollywood would never allow the US flag to be shredded on camera.

MWC: Inscrutable slogans, Google toys and the invisible Apple

Reporter's opinion?

Apple is the biggest company in the world, in case you did not get the memo. Became bigger than Exxon a while ago. They also make more money than any company at the show, AND have more money in the bank than all these companies put together.

Inside Eric Schmidt's brain: Holodecks, robo-cars and jail bandwidth

Why Google is more criticised

Google is perceived as more powerful. Apart from privacy problems, Facebook still feels mostly harmless in comparison. I think the reason Microsoft used to be so hated was also related to the strength of its monopoly more than the faults of its products.