Posts by ratfox

Facebook: 'We don't track logged-out users'

When caught, deny

Well, it might be that they do not actually USE these cookies to track you. But why do they exist, then? Is that a "bug"?

Drinking alcohol wards off asthma

I'll drink to that!

Cheers!

Google Wallet and PayPal in electro-purse war

My paypal account got locked

With my money inside. Needless to say, I was never able to get customer support to do anything about it.

If I ever use an NFC payment system, it sure as hell will not be paypal.

45% of Android users to upgrade to rival phone OSes

How about some source with your article?

The words "research shows" without precision on which research is another way to say "a guy at the pub told me".

Faster-than-light back with surprising CERN discovery

60 nanoseconds = 18 meters

It is easier for me to believe that their lab is 18 meters closer to Geneva than they thought. I believe they are measuring it with GPS.

Apple sued for iPhone, iPad chip 'patent rip-off'

When will it stop??

H6242 - Kill the lawyers

Facebook 'personal' news feed gets algorithm rejig

"Glasgow kiss chase"

Wonderful expression!

Samsung may try to block next iPhone in Europe too

The first thing we do

H2642 – Let's kill all the lawyers

Microsoft 'paid over £1m to silence UK exec over sexism'

Level 65??

They have 65 and more levels of hierarchy at Microsoft? PLEASE tell me this is a joke!

Royal rugby star bar snog CCTV upload - bouncer in court

Kissed on the head?

Which head?

Big Apple fake Apple stores agree to rat out suppliers

@Dobs

I wouldn't bet so easily if I were you. I am sure Apple has thought about it, and found a way to stop that... Like having some essential piece added only later.

PC World throws in free Bravia telly with Sony fondleslabs

They have it backwards

They should offer the fondleslab with every TV.

Groupon IPO back on the cards

An atmosphere that will see its shares drop irrespective of the company's worth...

It's okay, Groupon shares will drop irrespective of the atmosphere...

TouchPad sales doubled after it was discontinued

So they divided the price by three, and shipped only twice more? Hmm...

Google flight search engine lifts off

Wait a few months, you will have the option

Everything Google launches is in beta

Winklevoss twins: Zuck on our salty nuts

Leveraging their fame, huh?

I can't wait for their inevitable career in the adult entertainment.

Lincs bloke fined in deceased hedgehog outrage

Ha! It is well-known that...

The hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

Hacker defaces Irish Catholic paper: 'Gotta love false hope'

False religion...

As opposed to...?

Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 Windows 7 tablet

Good luck

Indeed, no consumer will go for something thicker, more heavy, AND more expensive than standard alternatives.

Would you be seen dead with a shopping computer?

So, Apple are assholes for having a closed system...

And Google is stupid for letting competitors use its kinda-open system (though they already get complaints about not being open enough)?

Apple's ex-cop and the case of the lost iPhone 5

So, an Apple engineer walks in a bar...

Oh you already knew that one?

WikiLeaks releases full searchable US secret cable files

So who leaked the encrypted archive?

That is the important thing isn't it? Was it Wikileaks, thinking that the Grauniad would keep the password secret? Or was it the Guardian, demonstrating how clueless they are?

The Wikileaks decision is arguably rational... But they are not helping either.

Fail all over this one.

Space junk at 'tipping point', now getting worse on its own

Call Disney

I remember an old Scrooge McDuck story where he went up in space to collect all that junk... And sell it to collectors back on earth.

Two UK suspects cuffed in Anonymous manhunt

So are these leaders?

Or are these part of the crowd that followed? All these arrests feel like arresting everybody in a 1000+ riot, except for the ringleaders.

Apple girds loins for 'obscene iPad sales surge'

^ not sure if serious

I *think* it is too much to ask... Cheap notebooks don't have 8 to 12 hours of operation, for one. Or half of what you asked.

Scary

How long did it take for Android phones to sell more than iPhones? Yet Android is more advanced than at the time; it should have been faster... Maybe there is only room for one successful tablet.

Judge kneecaps Oracle's $1.3bn triumph over SAP

Good!

The less money these lawsuits bring, the better... Even if it means that their will be a retrial.

H6242 - Kill the lawyers

Apple blasted for toxic waste spewed by iDevice suppliers

I wonder about the differences

Between what Apple claims, what it actually asks of its suppliers, what it actually expects from its suppliers, what its suppliers actually do...

Though of course, not a single manufacturer is doing any better than Apple, which is just the juiciest target.

All WikiLeaks' secret US cables are on BitTorrent in full

Who gives a passphrase to a journalist??

No seriously. WHY did anybody revealed this passphrase?

Apple's cloudy music streamer won't stream music

Er... is it not better?

In the sense, if I want to listen again to the song I just listened to five minutes ago, then I don't need to move bits all over the world again? What is the problem with that? Or are we so much in the future that "bandwidth" and "downloading caps" are no obstacles anymore?

About the fact you need an Apple device, well yeah, it IS Apple we are talking about, right?

Facebook Deals dumped

Read this excellent article about the subject

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/24/facebook_location_settings_places/

Kremlin green lights Siberia-Alaska tunnel

Why not use boats?

I thought they were more cost-efficient than trains over long distances?

New GPL licence touted as saviour of Linux, Android

H6242 - kill the lawyers

A plague on those who force us to pay attention to this drivel.

Facebook looks to gobble 7 more companies this year

Maybe they should buy HP

Or RIM, as you prefer

Apple MacBook Pro 17in 2011

@keyboard

You must be new here...

Apple has exactly the same keyboard on every single lap^H^H^Hnotebook. They want the user experience to be the same when you change to a different machine.

Amateur balloonists hit record 40,575m above East Anglia

Really cool title

No, not the article -- Hover your mouse over the white-on-black splasher for "The Register Special Projects Bureau" over the article, at the top of the page. Real nifty.

Celebrity Google+rs do need steenkin' badges

We apologize, there is already a user named Will Smith

We have contacted the authorities of your country, and you can choose to be renamed to either of:

- Will1432 Smith

- Octavius Smith

- Will Mangiafazulla

Here lies /^v.+b$/i

How about some spaghetti?

goto :end

iPhone 5 to include Japanese earthquake warning system

Hey look at my iPhone is telling me! Cool, huh?

Oh yeah, run for cover!

http://xkcd.com/723/

WikiLeaks admits insider deleted loads of its data

Oh my, how ridiculous

Seriously, no backups? In an organization that prides itself on its resiliency, I find that highly suspicious. But I am curious to hear what the guy himself will say. He seems to have been trying to raise funding with empty promises, according to the CCC.

National web-2.0 dogturd photo scheme goes live

How about cleaning it yourself?

Seriously. If you care enough to take a snap, you might as well just clean it yourself.

...Of course, removing graffiti is a different problem.

Free Ride: Disney, Fela Kuti and Google's war on copyright

Sorry, what?

Pay for stuff that is in the public domain? Why? The very definition of public domain is that it belongs to nobody. The reason that they make money with the ads is that they go to the hassle of putting up a web site. They are not exclusive inheritors of all the value of all humanity's cultural works and achievements; they are just the only people who actually work their ass off to make it available.

Apple augments reality, tells you where to go

Ah yes, but you see...

Those do not use some key feature of this patent... Like the accelerometer. Or the rounded corners.

Bottom line is, unless there is an existing app that does EXACTLY what is described in the submission, down to the last detail, then this can be patented.

...And after the patent is accepted, if a new app has ANY feature described here, then there is enough ground for a lawsuit. Or at least the lawyers will claim so.

Google's Moto move spells iPhone doom

There's only one linkbait side to climate change

But on this issue, both sides are linkbait, thus the two contradictory op-eds...

'Major' C++ revision receives standards blessing

Programmers needed

Is it me, or do all the new kids learn Java, Python, and some new stuff I can't remember right now?

Google SHOCK! Snaps up Motorola phone biz for $12.5bn

I don't see HTC etc leaving

Surely, it must be clear to everybody that Google is more interested to have everybody use Android than by making money selling phones. It would be plain daft of them to give advantages to Motorola... Considering that any money they make in that quarter will be a small fraction of what they make with ads.

Samsung's lovely illegal tablet: Why no one wants to know

No use case?

I thought "surfing the web from your couch" was the use case. Considering the way people use their home computer most of the time (or their laptop at home), that could be good enough.

Oh, yeah, maybe read an eBook, perhaps some games. And email. That's it... Few people want more (apart from Reg readers).

Jeff Bezos patents retro jets, and airbags, for telephones

Spark of ingenuity?

Really? No matter how small? No matter how trivial the difference?

This exists on many smartphones, but we can patent it on smartphones with rounded corners?

How about...

Putting it in a case?

Grow up, Google: You're threatening IT growth

What is REALLY the point of patent?

The point of patents is to encourage innovation. They do that by guaranteeing that those who invented something get rewarded for it. The society profits from the fact that more things get invented.

But when patents cover things that are so broad and thin that dozens of people work on the same ideas, and one of them patents it and sues everybody else, then patents become a barrier to innovation, because it becomes difficult to create anything without getting sued into oblivion.