* Posts by Matthew

60 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

Page:

Apple takes Snow Leopard for walk

Matthew

@ Mac Phreak

Not bitching, just being cheap :D

Matthew

Time to look at ditching the G5 I guess

I wonder how long updates for non Intel apps and such will continue, might have to look at selling my trusty G5 machine whilst it still retains some value.

Virgin Galactic tests laughing-gas powered rocket motor

Matthew

@TeeCee

Isn't the long term goal of this project not to simply take a handful of people for a quick trip into space and back but to fly straight up in one continent and come back down in another with the whole trip taking a fraction of the time it would?

Final Hubble spacewalk done and dusted

Matthew

when can they test it?

Awesome stuff, looking forward to the new images Hubble will produce.

Linutop 2

Matthew

HDMI

As Apple don't seem to want to add HDMI onto their MacMini there has to be a market for machines of this size that can be turned into media hubs.

Shame this isn't one of them.

Gov 'smart meter' plans: Sky box in charge of your house

Matthew

they won't be that smart...

Surely these 'smart' meters will be no different from existing half-hour meters that are mandatory for large supplies to commercial/industrial buildings?

They're no different from normal ones other than they phone up the energy provider and inform them of how many KWH's you've used. They have no visibility of how you used the power only how much.

In order to gain visibility of what appliances you've been using and for how long would require substantial rewiring to folk's homes which would cost a fortune. Therefore all that could happen is the meter is changed to a half-hour type of unit (they look largely the same bar the phone cable).

The only savings the energy suppliers will have is that they won't need to employ meter-readers and it will eliminate usage estimates that may be too low.

Hollywood to totally recall Total Recall

Matthew
Thumb Down

Oh man, this sounds almost as bad...

As the proposed remake of Smokey And The Bandit (which is to use a Mustang instead of a Trans Am)!

Hacking the Apple TV

Matthew

As cool as ATV's are...

..as soon as the MacMini has HDMI they'll become pointless as they don't have enough horses to play HD content in the formats folk will want.

Parcelforce website cold-shoulders Linux lovers

Matthew

They don't support OSX either

It's because they insist on the Acrobat plug in to print the postage labels it doesn't work. If you set your browser to pretend to be Windows it fails as it can't find the plug-in. OSX has the same problem. I had to use them to send a parcel last week ended up phoning them as I couldn't get a machine that would talk to their system.

Boffin dubs global warming 'irreversible'

Matthew

Why don't people question anything anymore?

Once upon a time, the atmosphere of the Earth was almost entirely CO2, there was no Oxygen at all. Then, as bacteria came along it changed. The Earth didn't explode or melt, it was fine.

Before the last ice age kicked in, the level of CO2 was 17 times higher than it is now, and guess what, it didn't blow up then either.

If CO2 affected the temperature then the IPCC, NOAA or the BBC would be able to show a graph that illustrates this, but as it doesn't, they can't. Occasionally it follows a similar path but the CO2 level lags behind the temperature.

If man-made CO2 affected the temperature then again they'd be able to show a graph but they can't because it doesn't (10 years of cooling despite CO2 rising).

So it can be illustrated that our CO2 emissions have no affect and that CO2 doesn't cause catastrophe to the planet so there's no need to save it.

The IPCC warns that if we carry on for another 200 years (despite having run out of oil & coal long before that) then the sea level could rise 1M which would be terminally bad also (I'm sure it wouldn't take that long to build a wall in areas liable to flooding).

Essentially they've no evidence it's man made, no evidence it can be stopped, no evidence it's really a problem. You don't need to be a scientist, you just need to look at what these people are saying to see how it just doesn't add up.

I'm just glad that more and more scientists are distancing themselves from this.

Brand new Star Trek prequel pics and trailer

Matthew
Alert

It's a film by JJ Abrams

Why would anyone expect it to be anything other than awful?

NASA celebrates return of the Zeppelin

Matthew
Flame

Hydrogen

Burns with a blue flame, the Hindenburg was orange. Proving that it wasn't the hydrogen that caused the fire.

As all the footage of the disaster was in black 'n' white this little bit of evidence was overlooked but all the newspapers described the fire as being orange.

Sun's solar wind hits 50-year low

Matthew

It's going to get colder

And windier.

The return of The Tempest.

You read it here first!

Blockbuster: DVD to Blu-ray shift slower than VHS to DVD

Matthew

No media

Not wanting to repeat everything already said but the biggest problem I've seen with BD is the lack of software, the average shop has nothing worth buying. There's still loads of great films that haven't had a proper DVD release yet so by the time there's a decent BD version of them the format will be obsolete.

Blu-ray to rule by 2011

Matthew

He's right but....

DVD was sufficiently better than VHS/LD/VCD to warrant replacing your entire library whereas BD isn't as with a decent upscaler DVD's still look good. So although I'll buy new films on BD I'm not going to replace my old discs any time soon.

NASA: The Moon is not enough

Matthew

@ Franklin

"Actually, the Apollo program was cancelled--with a couple more missions already slated and the Saturn rockets for them already built--in order to divert money into the Viet Nam war effort.

So, which expenditure would have benefited us more, do you think? Seems like a no-brainer to me..."

The Apollo program ended in 1975 shortly after Skylab, the same year the Vietnam war did so the money wasn't diverted to that.

Matthew

Has to be permanent

The $200Bn ISS, the marvellous, technological wonder it is will be ditched into the ocean in about 10 years time with little to show for it, and what then? Will they build yet another space station or is that a bit too 20th century now?

I've often tried to find out what actually goes on up there but I'm sure that all they've discovered is how to build a space station and how to live in one.

If they have another brief visit to the Moon or take an Apollo-esque trip to Mars it will be nothing more than a vast money spending exercise struggling to justify itself. The next big project has to be putting people, permanently into space, if building a Moon base puts them a step forward to achieving that then great, if not then no thanks.

It is worth noting that after the Apollo programme had been cancelled the money was simply absorbed into everything else, no-one had a tax cut or anything beneficial.

Boffins invent 42GB DVD

Matthew
Coat

I feel sorry for Sony

They invent a media type, call it Blueray Disc or BD for short and everyone calls it Blu-Ray. If you mention you bought something on BD folk look at you blank.

Still back on topic, who could have predicted the amount of storage possible on a 5" optical disc?

HD TV in the UK

Matthew

How do you have a 'set top box' on a flatscreen TV?

Sick of all these boxes, TV's always had integrated receivers all they needed was an antenna with at most a VCR underneath. Nowadays the space saved by moving to a flatscreen is lost by the massive stack of boxes underneath it (360, PS3, Xbox 1, ATV, Sky/Cable, DVR, BD, region-free DVD, AV Amp, Media Centre PC etc).

No wonder BitTorrent is so popular it's the easiest way to watch your programmes in HD.

Cobbler pieces together mass Red Hat Linux installations

Matthew

Why's this different to Kickstart/AutoYaST etc....

We've had auto-installers so you can build identical Linux boxen for years, why's this significant?

OpenSUSE 11 a redemptive OS with a Mactastic shine

Matthew

@Jay

How does SUSE force you to use YAST? It's a computer management tool that centralises every single config so you don't have to keep dotting about your system locating all the different bits in order to set up your system. However if you want to do that then you can, it doesn't break anything.

Every time I read negative comments about Suse it's usually based on an incorrect assumption or simply BS.

Although I prefer CentOS on the server I think OpenSUSE is by far the most polished distro for the desktop.

Nintendo Wii US sales 3x PS3, Xbox 360

Matthew

Game sales?

Given that the manufacturers are supposed to make a loss on the hardware and make it back on software sales which console is making the most money? The Wii is popular with parents buying the machine for their kids but I doubt it's as popular with folk who buy games machines for themselves and it's those people who have the larger library of games.

Hummer glummer on high oil price bummer

Matthew

Amazing that thes cars were so popular

they sold over 70,000 of them back in 2006 alone, curious that the market has changed in such a short space of time.

Can't say it will be a shame to see the back of this it never seemed to be particularly good at what it did, although weighing over 2 tons and still returning 16MPG is reasonable achievement but if fuel economy is a concern you shouldn't buy a big or powerful car. Never been one to get upset about someone else's car though.

Given the huge mileage cars generally do in the US a lot of the high revving little Euro/Jap cars we have over here just wouldn't go the distance. Anyone arguing that US engines/vehicles are generally less efficient than their Euro/Jap equivalents just hasn't looked at the figures.

Blu-ray movie sales gathering momentum

Matthew

Easy to see that this would happen

I did exactly this, I held off on HD-DVD/DB until there was a clear format, then bought a PS3 and now buy all my films on DB.

MS need to swallow their pride and bring out a DB equipped 360.

(preferably one that doesn't look like a toy with a nasty Fisher Price'esque interface that sounds like a Hoover which overheats for fun, but then I am picky).

The economy: A big Arab did it and ran away, claims PM

Matthew

We're still far from peak oil

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4793.html

Fedora 9 - an OS that even the Linux challenged can love

Matthew
Thumb Up

I'll be sure to give this a go

Have always found the installer a PITA on RH/FC If for what ever reason a package can't be found or doesn't install during the installation no matter how trivial it is the whole thing quits and you have to start from scratch, no skip option. I have always found it very feature-light as a desktop OS so improvements are welcome there. IMO openSUSE is a lot more intuitive. KDE4 is still very much a beta so despite looking nice I'd be selecting Gnome. Have always liked it on the server though, very logical and reliable and my default choice.

Ofcom confirms Freeview will get HD next year

Matthew

The TV I bought less than a year ago says it's HD Ready

But it obviously isn't, sure the screen can take an HD signal from an external device but it's not the same thing.

I'm sure theres a legitimate case for Trading Standards here, there has to be loads of people who've bought new digital HD sets in anticipation for HDTV broadcasts only to find that what they've bought it not compatible.

Blu-ray-for-Xbox 360 rumours restoked

Matthew

MS need to do this

360 sales are already starting to wobble. Physical media will be around for a good while yet. They'd be foolish to assume that all owners of HD TV's have sufficient broadband connections with which to view online HD content.

Astroboffins moot massive Moon-mirror heliograph

Matthew

Too slow

The message transmitted would be at the speed of light, we can already do that via radio. A far simpler alternative.

The missing five-minute Linux manual for morons

Matthew
Thumb Up

Only thing wrong with Linux..

is being able to read MS Visio .vsd files natively.

Other than that it does the job, is stable and easy to use. My workstation has run SUSE with KDE for over 8 years, although it used to be a little clumsy back then it's very polished this days. The home PC also runs it and the family haven't had any problems using it.

All this talk of recompiling kernels and struggling with drivers, packages & whatnot must refer to something else called Linux as it doesn't represent anything I've had to deal with.

NASA gets intimate with Phobos

Matthew

That's no moon!

You can clearly see the planet destroyer on the right hand side.

Al Gore's green job bonanza - can we afford it?

Matthew

By the time any of these Green schemes are set to happen

The temps will already be sufficiently down regardless of Co2 that even the true believers will start to doubt the whole thing.

Trend, Sophos and McAfee flunk Vista SP1 anti-virus tests

Matthew
Jobs Halo

If MS wrote their software properly

We wouldn't need these 3rd party apps anyway.

Mac is the first to fall in Pwn2Own hack contest

Matthew

How often does clicking a link in IE bring down your PC?

If the MS box didn't have any 3rd party virus/security apps then it would get owned pretty quick.

Safari wouldn't have been running as root so you shouldn't be able to pwn the OS.

If folk don't know how to use a FW then it's their own problem if something happens.

Still I run Firefox and this problem will be fixed so until I hear otherwise I'm not concerned. It's hardly going to make me sell my white box and buy a grey/silver one.

Send your loved one's ashes to the Moon for $10k

Matthew

There would be a risk of contamination

If there's bits of dead human lying around on the surface of the Moon and if any kind of bacteria or similar is subsequently found up there on future Luna missions how would we be 100% sure that it was native and not something that had been dumped there by this?

Also how would you be able to verify that they'd actually put the ashes up there?

I hope that the people with $10K to spare have something better to spend their money on.

Boffinry bigwig puts another boot into biofuels

Matthew

The process involved in making solar panels

Is about as far removed from anything 'green' as you can imagine.

No-one will be interested in an electric car until they can make one that sounds like a V8.

Endeavour space shuttle returns home

Matthew

Although post SS will be cheaper

The replacement can't bring things back, the final Shuttle mission is supposed to be to collect Hubble and return it home, couldn't do that with Ares.

My biggest concern is that the ISS is scheduled for decommission around 2016 - 2018, given that it won't be completed until 2010 that's a short shelf life for a $200Bn project that serves an ambiguous purpose.

BBC Micro creators meet to TRACE machine's legacy

Matthew
Thumb Down

BEEB=fail

C64 4TW.

Darling budget fails to paint Brown government green

Matthew

Why?

Should we 'ensure the UK continues to lead the climate change agenda internationally' when the UK only produces 2% of the total CO2 output?

Especially as that's 2% of the 3% humans make of the 0.04% that's currently in the air.

MIT plans to roll out 'folding' car

Matthew
Paris Hilton

If you own one of the grey buggys

How would you get it out?

Winamp blighted by bug brace

Matthew

Still the best media player there is

As only functioning as an MP3 player it's not the lightest but as a play everything media player then there's little to beat it on Windows IMO. Never found something it didn't know how to play.

What's the alternative, Windows Media Player, iTunes, Real Player? They're all hopeless by comparison.

Star Trek XI teaser trailer beams onto web

Matthew
Thumb Down

This'll be rubbish

ST fans won't stand the entire story being rewritten and all the previous TV shows and films being ignored.

Messenger reveals Mercury's hidden side

Matthew
Thumb Up

Awesome

Space exploration is a fantastic subject which in the grand scheme of things costs very little. Although Mercury isn't perhaps the most interesting place in the Solar System it should be studied, and for £200K it's not going to hurt.

Looking forward to seeing the close ups and the New Horizons pictures of Pluto a few years afterwards.

Scarlett Johansson to play Courtney Love?

Matthew

It's reading stories like this

That makes me glad there's a writers strike on!

Giant hydrogen cloud menaces Milky Way

Matthew

when it gets close

Put a match to it, it'll go bang and turn to rain.

Lindsay Lohan crowned 2007's worst actress

Matthew

They'd have to pay me $10 to seem

Best film of 2007 was Blade Runner - The Final Cut.

tired of all this popcorn crap that keeps coming out of Hollywood, why do they think that in order to be entertained you need to unplug your brain? It's the brain that's seeking the entertainment!

Greenpeace slams next-gen consoles

Matthew

Standby power

These greenies routinely exaggerate their figures in order to get their BS published. You can easily use a clip on ammeter just after the plug to see how many amps any device is pulling, times that by the voltage of your power supply (220-230Volts normally) and you'll get your wattage figure.

Without even looking, I'm 100% confident that the figures GP have come up with are nonsense.

NASA aims for 2 Jan Atlantis launch

Matthew

I had a similar problem

on my Vauxhall Nova, turned out to be a bad wire on the sender.

Maybe they should check there.

New 3D chip transistor may reach 50GHz

Matthew

Not bad but..

I'd put a big clock on it and overclock that sucker!

Auction watchdog says eBay is illegal in France

Matthew

But?

If ebay.fr was closed down what's stopping The French using ebay.co.uk or any of the others, it wouldn't' really make any difference to the service.

Every time something is uber successful there are green-eyed monsters wanting to close it down/ban it.

Page: