Posts by O

Fukushima reactor shell ruptured?

If the reactors aren't in a state of active meltdown ....

... Lewis certainly will be. He won't like people seeing this information or interpretation of it at all.

Not one bit.

US air force has new scramjet hypersonic plane plans

Con trails

Given that there have been lots of photos of con trails which could only be made by a pulse-wave detonation engine, for more than 10 years, I think it's a fairly safe bet that various US black aircraft with exotic propulsion are in fairly advanced stages.

The stuff described in this article is fairly tame.

The only 'interesting' stuff in the public realm at the moment is the tech being worked on by that British company (and funded partially by the ESA / EU) to make spaceplanes (for payload delivery and as replacements for long-haul jetliners).

Intel: Microsoft's ARM-on-Windows deal no threat

Moorestown has 'good power'.

This guy sounds just about as clueless as a PR berk could get, complete with his self-made terminology and technical words. The - clearly rattled - bluster might fool a few and comfort some nervous shareholders, but:

..... I doubt if even the most died-in-the-wool Intel fanbois will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on any Moorestown product (if any actually launch). Reports indicate that it has roughly 1/3 to 1/4 the performance per watt of the latest A9 cores @ 40nm. Awesome!

The newer GPUs included on the the A9 SoCs are also vastly more capable than the integrated graphics on the Moorestown platform. The tri-core and quad core A9s will just extend ARM's lead.

Whether it be Eagle or other as yet unnannounced products, ARM will then start a major push into the server, desktop and laptop market. People who doubt the capability of these future SoCs should take a look at what is widely touted as the very slowest A9 dual-core (Tegra 2) can do on the Motorola Atrix 4G.

The Ivy Bridge / AMD equivalent laptop I intend to buy at the end of this year should be my last x86 portable. The Bulldozer desktop I intend to build in Q2 will probably be my penultimate x86 desktop, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was my last.

I think x86's fall could be a great deal more swift than many realise. I also wonder if Windows 8 will mark a return to OpenGL for MS and the death-knell for DX. The latter made a lot of sense when OGL was very lacking and directionless and when they had nascent console platforms to push and define the boundaries of, but now that OGL has caught up, much less so.

Royal Wedding: Prince Charles is a ZX81, Wills is an iPad

I like Charles ...

... but William reminds me of Tim-Nice-But-Dim; his bride a female version of.

Oh, and Jobs can keep his filthy tablet to himself.

'Hippy' energy kingpin's electric Noddy-car in epic FAIL

Agree & Disagree

Agree that Lewis is a rabidly right wing anti-anything-green pseudo journo.

However, attacking Vince is fair game and I think Lewis is perfectly entitled to do so. He didn't pick up on the biggest scam with regard to the very misleadingly named Ecotricity. Yes all their OWN energy projects are green ..... -BUT- only ~30% of their power requirement is generated from renewables, the rest comes from purchasing credits from the big companies who burn fossil fuels / run nuclear power stations.

Good Energy is the ONLY green electricity company in the UK - 100% of their energy comes from renewables - and they're a damn site better than the preening shill (Vince).

Cameron cocks up UK's defences - and betrays Afghan troops

re

A good post and one I wholeheartedly agree with.

Lewis, on recent evidence, should be looking to get a job at the Mail or News of The World.

The only thing abysmal about the cuts ....

... was that they weren't considerably larger and didn't entirely rule out a replacement for Trident.

I know you like stuff designed for killing people, Lewis ... but this article was just silly. Major military spending is neither desirable nor affordable.

Being a good (world) citizen is much better, cheaper foreign policy than sending troops off in shiny metal boxes to kill people in far-off lands.

Apple rolls out two new MacBook Air models

re: ahahahha indeed

C2D processors in these things are within weeks of being 2 generations out of date, 320M graphics are nothing to write home about, HDDs & batteries can't be removed without costly and lengthy RTMs .... oh, and there's still no fecking ethernet port.

My sister has one of these. They're total and utter crap.

Intel preps ARM-to-x86 porting tool for iOS apps

What's that smell?

Why it's the smell of Intel collectively soiling themselves as ARM chips get more and more powerful and more and more widespread.

Whilst 'logical', this move smacks of desperation ... the vast majority of iphone apps are so cut down as for it to be non-sensical to port them. Others are ports of pre-existing apps on other platforms.

I really don't see any way for Intel to stem the tide at the moment, especially given that it looks like AMD will finally be VERY competitive in the low power and netbook / laptop segment from Q4 '10 / Q1 '11.

Navy Carriers: We want two or no votes for you, Tories

Scrap them please

If we must have killy things, we might as well share a smaller (and cheaper) number with the Frogs, which would also constrain both nations from taking part in megalomaniacal military operations somewhat.

While they're at it, they can scrap Trident and its replacement and make swingeing cuts to the NHS (has there ever been a more wasteful unfit-for-purpose public service?) and the ridiculous IT contracts signed by the previous government.

Don't be a Luddite, Lewis. Times are changing.

Sony Ericsson confirms Symbian spurning

Fail

Poor decision.

The Android pool is swimming with sharks and SE's phones have been very disappointing for a long time. There's no way they're going to win any wars in this segment unless there's a massive change.

Competing with just Nokia, Samsung and possibly LG (there've been rumours about them revisiting symbian) would be a lot easier, particularly with what looks like will be a resurgent symbian when SF^3 and then more importantly SF^4 hit.

Pope makes central London no-go zone for BT engineers

Another popularity boost for Catholicism

Maybe someone should start printing t-shirts like this. Or, even better, The Reg could add it to their collection of post pictures.

http://i44.tinypic.com/2dvl8wl.jpg

ARM flexes muscles with fivefold performance boost

@Tom7

You're in dream world. There's absolutely no way that MS could buy ARM. This was done to death at the time rumours began to circulate that Apple were to mount a takeover bid or take a large chunk of them. From a regulatory point of view, it's impossible. ARM CPUs and chipsets are by far the most numerous on the planet, and for ARM not to be independent would be completely disastrous for competition, also it'd be very bad for their business.

So, no.

Symbian Titanic heading for iceberg

Symbian Still the Best O/S by miles

... What lets it down is a dated GUI, and until we get to ^4 a difficult to develop for default platform API.

The actual O/S itself is lightyears ahead of Android, iOS or anything else on the market. Both multitasking and power management are vastly better than any other smartphone O/S on the market. It's also one of the most efficient in terms of extracting every last ounce of performance from hardware ... which sadly seems to have served as an excuse for Nokia to go cheapo on this front.

I, and thousands or millions more like me, won't be considering anything other than Symbian smartphones in the near future. Simply because of the incredible battery life, stability and multi-tasking. In these realms, particularly the former, they have no competitor. Bada is nearest, but miles off.

Vote Lib Dem, doom humanity to extinction

Lewis ought to be writing for another Red Top ....

Judging by the tenor of many of his articles, this one included, he'd be welcomed with open arms into the The Sun's family.

Most of what the article contains is utter rubbish.

Nuclear, whether as a 'deterrent' or for electricity, is a vastly expensive dead end, and the sooner we leave it behind the better. Lewis' scare-mongering sounds like it's being read from the crib-sheet of one of the far(ish) right, old guard Tory think tanks (whose influence is now greatly diminished).

I won't be voting Lib Dem, and most probably will be voting Tory (they're the only ones likely to aggressively target deficit reduction), but I sincerely hope that a Trident replacement is shelved and that Zac Goldsmith wins Richmond and is a major voice in the Tory Government's environmental and energy policy formation - the man knows his stuff.

How a Tory gov will be the most tech-savvy in history

This guy needs to educate himself in the ways of IT

If he's one of the more 'tech-minded' of the coming government, then he should at least spend every evening between now and May the 6th reading as many articles on Wikipedia on IT as possible.

I'm sure he, as with most of the rest of the Tory bunch, is less malign and wants to spend and tax less than the cabal of criminals that make up the current government. Beyond that, he appears to be clueless. Getting rid of vastly wasteful IT projects, ID cards and offering more contracts to small, domestic companies will be great ... but as for interesting or useful policies, I think it'll be some time before we see anything.

Just for the record, if the author reads this:

The iPod and iPhone are the very antithesis of Open Source. They're as closed as you get, hence the pathological hatred that some have for them, and why Apple is so frequently and widely condemned for policies relating to them.

How you could not know that Ducan Bannatyne is a very well-known Laboury toady is beyond me.

Do some research in future.

UK universities being broken by border control measures

1984 - Ignorance is strength!

Law of unintended consequences?

It's all part of the plan :)

Nothing to see here, move along.

Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'

Awful.

Judging by the posts on Engadget and Gizmodo (the favourite hang outs for Jobsian disciples), even the iSheep are baulking at this.

Expensive.

No multi-tasking (seriously?!?!?!?).

No support for Flash. At all.

No camera.

Ordinary battery life.

PA developed ARM SoC which looks like it'll end up slower than TI, Qualcomm, Samsung and particularly Marvell chips.

Why on earth would anyone want an enormous, heavy and expensive iPhone?

If you want a limited tablet without a fully-fledged O/S, Chrome O/S tablets will be far more capable, open, less bloated and cheaper.

HP Envy 15 'Lynnfield' Core i7 laptop

Crap screen resolution isn't the only problem ...

As well as trying to pass off the low-res screen on the UK market (it's not even a lower cost option in the US), the SATA controller is crippled / doesn't work properly ....

I'd thought it funny that it didn't score higher in the hard disk benchmarks ... it's got a fast 7200rpm drive which ought to be way quicker than the other laptops listed. Also, reviews in the US of ones with an SSD have suspiciously low HDD benchmarks scores ....

I went fishing on the HP forums and found this - http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=Hardware&thread.id=19036

It seems that the SATA controller is crippled by (presumably) poorly written BIOS / drivers.

Quelle surprise ...

Pesticides fingered in UK honeybee wipeout

This has been known for the better part of a decade

Yet, still the UK Government feverishly resist any calls to outlaw or curb the use of neonicotinoids (or any of the other most dangerous or damaging agrichemicals). The reason is obvious, they're in bed with the National Farmers Union, Monsanto, Bayer and their ilk.

Bayer and Monsanto representatives, who are repeatedly called in as safety, health & environmental experts (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to the select committees in the UK, have repeatedly testified that bees do not (ever) feed on corn flowers. Corn being the crop most widely sprayed with neonicotinoids. The MPs / Lords on the select committees for the most part refuse to hear anything which disagrees with the agribusiness representatives. I use this particular example because anyone who knows anything about bees knows that they do feed on them. It may not be what they prefer, but when practically the only flowers for miles around are corn flowers, that's what they go for. The UK Government has repeatedly been told that the advice they've been given is absolute rubbish, but their official position remains "bees do not feed on corn flowers". They've also criticised France, Germany & Slovenia heavily for banning this class of pesticides and tried to initiate resolutions at European level to have them rescinded, and put pressure on other countries not to follow suit.

@CORNZ1

You're a shill - plain and simple.

The bee only dies immediately if exposed to a dose above a certain threshold. Frequently they'll be exposed to levels which will seriously damage them but allow them to survive for long enough to make it back to the hive .... if enough of them make it back, that can either directly kill off bees back at the hive or damage them enough to seriously impair the function of the hive - ultimately killing it / making it prone to infection with fungi / mites / attacks by predators. This scenario also applies when they carry back tainted pollen or are routinely exposed to low levels and enough workers become non-functional / diseased / damaged over time.

Toxicologists think that levels of neonicotinoids in the environment lower than we can reliably detect with our most accurate tests are enough to cause minor to moderate nervous system damage in bees and massively increase mortality.

The only safe amount of neonicotinoids (for bees or practically any other carbon based lifeform) is zero, as is sadly the case with so many pesticides.

Also, nice try re: it not seriously impairing immune function :-D

---- In future, before you and your colleagues burn them, you should read the studies which show people or other animals exposed to nerve agents exhibit major increases in disease and chronic ailments. Having said that, you probably know all of this and would much rather that people thought the nice poisons which you work with weren't to blame.

Intel rejects Pine Trail delay claim

Does anyone really care?

It's just going to be more of the same, with a very small incremental increase in performance and reduction power draw.

I'm waiting for the dual-core ARM Cortex A8 (and A9, ideally) based netbooks. They should be super fast and have enormous battery life with a 6 cell, with something like Ubuntu Netbook Remix :-)

Rumor rubberizes iPhone 3.0

Light up logo?

Ooohhhhhh, fanboys rejoice! No doubt it will be touted as a major feature of the phone.

And what is the point of a '50% increase in power' if there's still no proper multitasking? The iPhone O/S is beginning to look like a dinosaur, in the face of Palm's WebOs.

'Better IT could have stopped 7/7 bombings'

IT?

I think not waging illegal wars might have been a bit more effective ....

Fox terminates The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Best Sci-Fi / Drama / Thriller on TV

Damn you, Fox :(

Express your displeasure at [e-mail]

Eurofighter Tranche 3: Oh please, God, no

Reason to be angry ....

... isn't it because we don't need more jets and don't need a bunch of nuke carrying barges? Unless Brown is planning a major invasion (in Labour's fictional 4th, 5th and 6th terms) and full-scale nuclear war, what ever they cost and what ever the alternatives may cost, they will NEVER EVER represent value!

It's just insane that we try to cling to being a major military power. It is totally unrealistic in global political and economic terms, and completely impossible given the burning wreckage that's left of our own economy. What's more, it's a pretty dubious and, some would say, malevolent aspiration in the first place!

As the shouting guy on Trailer Park Boys screams, "F**k off with the guns!"

Kebabs pose 'no danger whatsoever', Russians claim

@ AC - Re: Helped me lose weight!

I seriously think you need to sit down and evaluate why you're taking your kids to McDonald's ...

You were morbidly obese and unhealthy and have turned your life around, and yet you take your kids to the veritable Mecca of unhealthiness, obesity and horrible, horrible food. Why would you want to indoctrinate the next generation (especially your own kids)? Why would you want them to eat anything less than healthy / excellent food? You don't have to turn them vegetarian overnight, but don't feed them junk! If they're going to eat meat, give it to them sparingly and let it be free-range / organic. For goodness sake don't live vicariously through them!

I don't mean to be offensive in any way, and hopefully you'll read it.

I just can't understand why parents - willfully and knowingly - feed their kids crap.

Honda executes 180° turn on plug-in e-cars

Yay

Good to see that they've finally stopped shilling for the oil industry.

Chinese e-car makers show wares

Eula / Kulla

.... is quite aesthetically pleasing, if ones ignores the garish colour scheme, and has excellent performance and range for a city car.

Two thumbs up!

Revealed: Mega City One's top e-car - according to Peugeot

Silly concept. But ....

... aside from Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota, Peugoet had by far the most interesting and numerous electric / hybrid car (and scooter) concepts at the Geneva Motor Show.

They're putting the rest of the European industry to shame.

Which zoo animals like artificial sweeteners: Facts at last

It does massively increase the likelihood of brain tumours

Also .....

@ Rich, the guy who hooked the company up with the right people at the FDA (i.e. ones who were willing to be bribed) was none other than the esteemed Donald Rumsfeld. The guy made an absolute fortune out of it .. in fact, he still receives royalties from sales of Aspartame.

One more reason to hate Aspartame (or Rumsfeld).

Govt powers up electric cars with £5k subsidy

Timeline...

And why the hell didn't they do this 5 years ago, as everyone has been imploring them to do? And why have they decided that this will come into being in 2011?

1) Because they're desperate to do the oil and car industry's bidding.

2) They'll be out of office in 2011 and won't have to keep any promises they make now, thus delaying any potential introduction of subsidies even further.

3) Brown's desperate for good PR, and is copying the 'Obama message' as much as he possibly can. Coincidence that it's $7500 in both countries.

New e-waste rules may be too much for UK business, warns Gov

This government stinks.

I'm absolutely sick of them championing environmental causes in their PR line and rhetoric, and then torpedoing absolutely any local, national or transnational legislation / directives / initiatives which aim to clean up the filthy mess that their friends in industry, or we the public, are making.

Renewable energy - no funding or support, and do their best to undermine wind. Instead, they try to force through new nuclear power stations, at the behest of the power industry.

Build as many new roads as possible and deliberately underfund rail improvements.

Try to push through as many airport expansions as possible, on the basis of fixed and completely erroneous fears about our business environment becoming less competitive if we don't expand capacity massively. In doing so, consistently lie about environmental implications and deliberately mislead the public.

Recycling. Whine and cry to the EU, and provide little or no support to local authorities in the form of national recycling infrastructure (it's non-existant).

GMO & herbicides / pesticides. Rely on Monsanto, Bayer and their ilk for 'impartial' advice. On the basis of this advice, decide that everything is hunky-dory and that we must proceed with GM and use even more agrichemicals ....... and we absolutely mustn't ban any of the really nasty chemicals, as other countries in Europe are beginning to do - even go as far as to set up some institute to 'get to the bottom' of the bee colony collapse disorders - saying that it might be parasites, a virus, or fungal infections ....... of course, this is merely a diversion - the cause is known, and it's pesticides.

Gordo's mobe interrupts economic summit

eyesight

He's practically blind, he probably can't see when he's successfully engaged silent mode.

Tories put toes on Linux bandwagon

Excellent

Not only should it speed the downfall of the protected software monopolies (M$ et al), increase compeition, reduce cost and deliver increased functionality, but it should ensure that many smaller and often more innovative firms get a slice of the pie. Our economy stands to benefit far more from such an approach than by offering huge, bloated IT contracts to huge, bloated IT multinationals (almost none of which are UK based).

Gov stumps £4.3m bee health funding

Save the bees? You must be joking!

France, Germany, Slovenia and several others countries in Europe have already banned the extraordinarily toxic class of pesticides which is killing off all the bees. The Commons Select Committees in the UK are stuffed with 'eminent' environmental experts (corporate shills) from, er .... biotech and agrichemical companies. They, unsurprisingly, boldy claim that pesticides have absolutely nothing to do with bee deaths. They do, and the class of neonicotinoid pesticides - even in miniscule quantities - are deadly to or seriously interfere with bees' normal funcion. Bayer are the main culprit, with 'clothianidin'.

As usual, we lead the world in protecting vested corporate interests, and bring up the rear when it comes to environmental protection and safeguarding public health.

This measure is simply a diversionary tactic.

Pret customers get free Wi-Fi

Not McPret anymore.

As another poster hinted at, a management buyout was effected in February. Neither the original founders nor McDonalds are involved any longer. The buyout is backed by GS and Bridgepoint.

Also, may I add that anyone who provides Starbucks with custom is an absolute c*#@.

Fiat shows solar-panel wrapped 'Panda of the future'

Great

I want one, albeit possibly not in green and white - except during Wimbledon.

Mandelson's dept mulls UK internet power grab

This has got to stop .....

... the Government are completely out of control. By the time the election rolls around in 2010, the Tories or Lib Dems will be inheriting what was the charred wreckage of the UK.

Das überdatabase: Inside Wacky Jacqui's motherbrain

Depressing

I only wish the election would come sooner, this Government are an absolute disaster on all fronts :-(

Labour minister says 14 year olds should get ID cards

Voting record

Both she and Zanu-Labour are an absolute disgrace.

Few surprises here:

Voting record (from PublicWhip)

How Meg Hillier voted on key issues since 2001:

* Has never voted on a transparent Parliament. votes, speeches

* Voted very strongly for introducing a smoking ban. votes, speeches

* Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards. votes, speeches

* Voted very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws. votes, speeches

* Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war. votes, speeches

* Voted very strongly for replacing Trident. votes, speeches

Voting record ...

Not that I oppose her opposition to smoking .... everything else - yuck.

Mitsubishi electric car to get Iceland test run in 2009

iMIEV

This will be the first truly practical and mass-market electric city-car, at the leading edge of a coming wave of them. It's cheap to buy and cheap to run.

I want one. Now.

Ubuntu trumpets aromatic pistou of borage

You may sneer ....

... but have you been there?

I have.

From the reports I'd heard, I thought it'd be pretty reasonable ... in fact, it was genuinely excellent.

Apple iPhone 3G

Awful review & a diabolical presenter.

Honestly, can the Reg really not do any better? You seem to plumb new depths with each passing day, with a Fox News-like editorial policy on environmental issues & grossly simplified coverage of anything tech related. This review exemplifies the latter problem; the clueless geek in the video would be more suited to CBBC than here.

Please, please arrest this decline before it becomes terminal :-(

NGO attacks Apple's lack of action on climate change

Nokia?

If one is to ignore the frothing babble of the neanderthals above, the most surprising thing about this survery is that Nokia are placed near the bottom of the pile. They are widely recognised as doing more than any other large electronics company to reduce their ecological impact, and continue to pour large sums into research and development in this field. The fact that they're quieter than other companies means that they're poorly thought of in this benchmark, whereas those who shout loudest and green-wash are ranked most highly.

PETA offers $1m for test tube chicken

Lunatics ...

While I agree with many or most of the sentiments shared across the animal rights movement, I've long suspected that PETA might be more than a little mad. I think this confirms it.

In order to stop the suffering of animals, they want people to eat 'meat' made by huge biotech companies in labs - not organic free-range meat for those who are desperate to eat it, and a plant based diet for the rest. Good call, guys.

I strongly suspect that this insane idea will alienate 90% of their supporters.

Dave Cameron pledges to Open Source UK.gov

correction to my previous post

should read -

"... the Labour government have been fighting tooth and nail to keep Open Source software out ever since they came to power."

re: Labour's pledges on Open Source

I wouldn't believe a word of it, the Labour government have been fighting tooth and nail to keep Open Source software tooth and nail ever since they came to power. At every turn, they chose in favour of M$ or something completely proprietary.

Boffins battle over oldest European woman

re: let me guess

"Until archaeologists look at the facts as they exist and not as they wish them to be, archaeology will continue to be a joke. Until they don't simply follow the lead of the most well funded researcher, archaeology will not deserve to have the term "science" applied to it in any form.

In other words, they don't have a fucking clue, and it is unlikely they ever will. They're guessing, pure and simple, and simply discard "anomalous" facts as unimportant. Archaeologists today don't fit their theories to the facts, they fit their facts to their theories."

Isn't this exactly what 99% of scientists do, not just archaeologists?