... that St. Patrick's day, to the Irish Catholics at least, required websites to run green decor.

Are the colorblind Irish Catholics upset, too?

"need to be vigilant in the current environment"

Well, glad to hear it's only temporary.

[[AMD's imminent "Mangy-Cours" Opteron]]

Surely this should be "Magny-Cours"? Thank goodness that "a" didn't get altered into the bargain...

What's the plan if it runs out of loiter? Check for lower-priority targets in the area?

Paris, because she can loiter practically forever.

I trust they fixed editing 64-bit code while debugging, too...

Surprised the government hasn't yet figured out that this unrefundable credit belongs to them.

... for sufficiently large values of 2.

... for someone in the community to learn how to post these notices and provide that service to these blogs for a reasonable fee.

Paris, because, ...

["arguably one of the public's favorite planetary objects". We'd argue that this is only true for some residents of Illinois, ]

I think Pluto's probably in the top-ten for most people in terms of local planetary objects.

"HATE the way it says iTablet on the front, totally ruins the look."

Electrical tape fix. I use it all the time for devices with blinding blue power lights apparently designed to keep aircraft from flying into them at night. Should work equally well for non-emissive display ugliness.

Paris, because she's easy on the eyes, isn't she?

Isn't email 98% spam? But for some reason we keep using it. It's almost as if the legitimate uses somehow, despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the crap, make it worth struggling on with. Sounds like torrents are in that same area.

Paris, because she's at least as good as email.

I agree - my mother smacks me with the Wiimote while playing tennis, and it's not at all clear whether it's accidental. (Not so bad we live so far away, then.)

Paris, because playing with her works out much better - I'm always the one doing the smacking with the Wiimote.

For all the readers here who understand security theater, I'm surprised to see multiple comments about how great it is having their water bottles taken away, put in a magical scanner with a beeper and a green light, and being returned to them. You have no idea what that scanner did or didn't do. The US TSA might, and that might be why they don't use that.

Paris, because I'm sure she approves.

Web 2.0 is highly ignorable to most of us... thank goodness.

Bummer if you're paid to care about what the mob says.

Paris, for that reason.

(erstwhile) TSA guy: "Haha, just kidding; relax - you can get on the plane, you aren't going to be detained in one of the hidden white rooms here in the airport where we'd strip you naked and cavity search you until the police arrive and handcuff you and take you back to the station where you'd be put in a cell and interrogated for thirty-six hours until they decide to assign you a lawyer who will convince you to plea-bargain for a shorter felony sentence to commence a few months from now during which you'd be intimidated, beaten, and possibly raped by fellow inmates, mercifully culminating in your release in upstate New York penniless, creditless, friendless, homeless, and as an ex-convict nobody will hire.

Yeah, this was just a little bag-of-powder joke me and the guys like to pull, heh."

Paris, because she'd never frighten someone like that just for fun.

[[[... does not yet support videos with ads, captions, or annotations, but Google says: "We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come."]]]

Sounds to me more like they mean "take this opportunity to enjoy a few months of videos unmarred by ads, captions, and annotations telling you about the other version of the video by the same poster with different also-unlicensed soundtracks". Because as these overlays became possible, I never once found them improving the quality of the video. (OK, except perhaps to tell you what song you are [Ed: might be] listening to on the video so you can go put it on your iPod.)

Paris, because she has fewer ads, captions, and annotations than YouTube.

" ... though it could make an impressive glider, the more so as its props would be able to act as turbines in forward flight, recharging the batteries as the Puffin glided down."

Running the props as turbines while gliding is _not_ going to make the glide more impressive. Unless your definition of impressive is "how steeply can I get to the ground".

Paris, because she has an impressive glide, due no doubt in part to her not running her props as turbines to recharge her etc. etc..

If surgery in general heads in the direction of robotic, then of course scrot repair surgery will end up going that way too.

Boffins, because I did Paris without interruption all of 2009 and I need a change. (Sorry, luv.)

Where's the pictures?

I mean, "IT Angle?".

Paris, because I know where that is.

What if the syringe is mistaken about the drug it contains? This is how many health care personnel accidentally kill or maim people now.

Paris, because... well, let's just say she's smarter than a Smart Syringe.

"you'll obey its 'copyright' in an effort to avoid spending the rest of your life wallowing in guilt."

It was my understanding that if you wanted to avoid spending the rest of your life wallowing in guilt, you stopped being Catholic.

I think the actual threat here is you'll have to do penance. Unless violating the Pope's copyright is a Mortal sin...

Paris, because I assume she'll play ball and refrain from wearing counterfeit papal vestments.

No one design will win out; our new pitiless robotic overlords will use many of these designs for synergistic purpose: while sniper-copters are fine for gunning down fleshies wherever they may run and hide, and rubble-recovery tractors can drag the corpses out for later consumption (or alternative "processing"), one can see that as soon as the lot have developed a taste for fresher meat - and especially for _live_ humans for some purposes - they're going to find benefit in convincing (or tricking) the weakest-willed into entering a "Mono Tiltrotor"* for a quick trip back to robotic dark mass, fleshie-sushi honorable dinner, or to be plopped into the pen in the center of the "choose your own fleshie" robo-restaurant.

They have learned much from us, and part of what they've learned is that the wild ones have the best color, flavor, and energy-producing reagents.

(* see other Reg article.)

(P.S. Paris, because she's free-range. Killbots take note!)

... when you have electrical tape. Takes hardly any at all.

Paris, because when she gets too bright and annoying, electrical tape would be capable of helping although it would take quite a bit more.

One definition will be zero-based. It's right, but like most zero-based systems it seems odd to the average folk because they only understand the number zero as how many beers they have left when they've drunk them all.

The other definition will be one-based. It runs first in all this "best of the decade/century!" hooplah.

Win: this allows us the opportunity to run all the "best of the decade!" hooplahs twice, going forward. An asterisk on the one-based "decade" indicating the fine print "1-based decade counting; truer, 0-based decade counting will be run again next year" should appease all the twitchy nerd types (like me).

Paris, because she may not appease all the twitchy nerd types, but she'd certainly work for me.

P.S. I look forward to seeing all technical media the world over make my suggested change k thx bai

Is it me, or does that PETMAN look like he's got a funky walk going on?

Paris, because you should see her when she's got the iPod going...

[[So when this walker runs into an IED (which seem to be the bane of occupying troops), the troops will lose all their water, ammo, and supplies in one fell swoop.]]

I don't believe I'll ever encounter a soldier who has trod on a bomb who wouldn't wholeheartedly prefer a robot along with all his water, ammo, and supplies had hit it instead.

(Paris, because she's just as irreplaceable as a human foot / leg / life.)

Google "PETA Kill Rate".

Then ask about angels.

(Paris, natch.)

[[[it's important that we not hire these guys. It's better for the ecosystem to have an honest industry, as opposed to aggregating all this talent at Google.'"]]]

Setting aside the honesty-talk - because it seems _everyone_ usually points out how honest they are and you hear very little from people about what spinning cheats they are, have been, or are about to be - it makes perfect sense that you want successful people out in the industry that makes money without directly competing with you. Those are your customers, and you want them to be 1. dripping with cash and 2. thinking in ways that lead them to buy things from you.

Paris, because you bet she fits into something I just said...

We'd have gunned the kangaroo down immediately, in defense of our dog.

Of course, in some of these parts the dog would have outmassed the kangaroo. That's another reason we need the guns.

Paris, because in a situation like this the kangaroo would have been drowning her mobile and whatever else was in her purse along with the dog.

"We will not give the error rates or technical specifications of the gates for commercial and security reasons."

These are not the droids you're looking for.

(Paris, because she _is_ the droids I'm looking for.)

>>Frankly if you are afraid that "the government" is going to "take your guns" you're probably a paranoid schizophrenic and probably shouldn't have gotten the gun in the first place.<<

* Citation needed. Please credibly establish the "probably" link between fear of government gun seizure and paranoid schizophrenia.

>>This is poor-quality logic. Either you overthrow the government with your gun-nut friends - in which case you "own" the gun (in your sense) - or you leave the country and be "truly free" on some island somewhere - in which case you can take the gun with you quite legally, which you could not do with a leased car, for instance. Difference between "lease" and "own", you see. Doesn't really depend on whether or not an item has to be registered in a specific country.<<

* I was talking about a "practical" right, not a legal or Constitutional one. Once a right is legally abolished, it's not actually gone until enforcement. (Nobody has the legal right to ride motorcycles without mufflers around town, but they do anyway, don't they?) My assertion was that guns whose ownership, serial numbers, and addresses of storage have been communicated to a partial overseer are far easier to seize than guns that are more or less unknown. Thus my logical argument is one of negation: the (practical) right to possess such guns is strengthened when these prerequisites to easy seizure are not performed because physical abrogation of the right remains more difficult. Criminals recognize this and refrain from registering their firearms even when directed to by law[1]. (And then the courts respect the criminals' position - U.S. v. Haynes [1968].)

I further claim that when those who disapprove of a right know that enforcement of the removal that right would be difficult, they are less likely to seek legal removal of that right. This is my "poor logic[al]" suggestion of registration being the "thin edge of the wedge" and causing lost sleep among some people - even without the mandatory spy kit installation suggested by El Reg.

Paris, because she's her own country, and I suppose I wouldn't mind living on her shores. She also doesn't use the second person in online posts thereby ambiguously implying things about other posters.

[1] Alas, citation needed for me here, also.

" spy modules required in every licensed weapon [...] would seem like a vaguely plausible bogeyman to disturb the sleep of many a righteous, free, gun-toting American."

Righteous, free, gun-toting 'Mer'kins lose sleep simply at the point of registering a firearm. This is because once a firearm is registered, the right to possess it is no longer practically enforced by the difficulty the government would have in proving the gun's existence, locating it, and removing it from you. A registered gun is effectively leased, not owned.

Paris, because next thing you know we'd have to register her.

Furthermore it assumes the person in question would get bred anyway.

Paris, because that's more of a valid assumption.

This is absolutely the solution, if they are at all nutritious and agreeable of flavor.

Paris, because of a reason someone else pointed out earlier.

... telling you which coat is OK to wear that day.

Paris, because she wouldn't put up with this crap.

I'm glad Apple is expanding the flash memory market. (Glad in part, of course, because I don't happen to need to buy a bunch of flash market _today_, but I'll be keen to see larger-and-cheaper flash devices for sale sooner into the future.)

Paris, because she also expands markets.

Braun also makes some coffee equipment. And everyone knows computers and coffee go together. So there, I've solved that mystery for you. Let me know when the cheque's ready.

Paris, because she also goes with coffee, I've no doubt.

"When you add up the coal plant emissions (times the loss in leccy transport, the poor efficiency of the motor under load etc) and the pollution caused by the huge batteries (both manufacturing and disposal), the 'leccy part of the thing was hardly as "green" as marketted [sic] to begin with..."

This is a mixing and matching of toxins / pollutants.

The coal plant emissions do contribute to global warming, but I should like to see some rigorous numbers regarding losses in electricity transmission, battery charging, and motor operation before deciding if the power plants aren't a net benefit over burning the fuel directly in the internal combustion engine bolted to the wheels. Also, not all power plants are coal; there are others and there will continue to be others - as e.g. windmills (yes, yes, destroying the planet one bird at a time) come online the electricity goes straight into the same batteries without any difficult work for the consumer, marketers, etc..

Coal plants also have the benefit of (in my country, anyway) polluting somewhere further than 15 feet in front of my face. Usually a lot further. And since they're not toting themselves around corners and up hills and parking in shopping malls, they have the option of having better pollution scrubbing attached to them.

Similar with battery manufacture and disposal. It may not presently be fair to developing nations, but for me personally having a battery made then disposed of is fairly cleaner on the air I breathe and the water I drink than the ICE alternative. And as in the coal plant output scrubber above, there's the option of paying more (i.e. internalizing the externalities) for manufacture and disposal so battery lifecycle is safer for everyone. (This option is again because the mines and recycling or destruction facilities are in general not stopping every block at a red light then accelerating to try and beat the next one in order to carry someone to the office.)

Paris, because her stop-and-go is perfectly safe for the environment.

It seems to me that the trick to coping with knife arches is for everyone to start getting absolutely innocuous bits of steel - I'm thinking a couple short bolts or a properly-constructed Texas belt buckle - and gladly walk through them.

Paris, because she's an innocuous bit.

My Economics textbook said that monopolies work to maximize marginal profit, not total profit. Bringing broadband to the boonies may make more money overall, or eventually, or in conjunction with these grants, but it's going to be more work.

To be fair, at some point any company that's doing pretty well for itself (and especially if it hasn't got a lot of bigger boys to worry about coming to eat their lunch) _can_ sit back and say it's got enough. In a way, that's almost non-greedy.

It's just that if people want something akin to a utility to be provided in these circumstances, they're out of luck.

Paris, because she knows when enough is enough.

If someone tries to ban it, I have to have a looky. Just one of my rules.

Paris, because she knows better than to try and cover things up.

Due to the way the BMI works, being told one group has a greater BMI doesn't convey any solid information if we don't know their height. It means they are fatter or taller or both.

Paris, because I know her BMI's all in those long legs.

"... the power gauge, which lets you know how much charge you have left in the battery."

That would be an energy gauge, wouldn't it?

"...dump the pig iron .... use aluminium and modern composites."

"Modern composites" (if the term isn't too vague) are expensive. Way more than stamped steel (on a per-car basis). Aluminum is only somewhat more expensive (on a per-car basis assuming equal stiffness, not equal mass or equal volume).

"Does it have a heater?"

Yeah, you're more or less sitting on the batteries, so you just drive it harder and things heat right up. (Not serious.)

Paris, because I just described how the heater works.

"When they ding you the price of a minute for each message, what does it matter if it takes an extra minute for voice mail?"

If you pay for each minute in whole-minute increments, then a 15-second voicemail prompt (vs. a 0-second, theoretically-perfect prompt) will 25% of the time push you over the next minute boundary if we assume a random distribution of the number of seconds within a minute you were going to end on naturally.

If you can guarantee your message-leaving plus the 15-second wait time will be under a whole minute, then this might not affect you. And if your message-leaving would typically take 46 to 59 seconds (or, say, 106 to 119 seconds) then you'll buy an extra minute much more often.

If we assume that voicemail-leaving calls are typically short calls, i.e. 1 or 2 minutes long, then adding an extra minute (even a quarter of the time) is a significant increase: a 25% or 12.5% increase in charge (assuming 25% of the time an extra minute is added to what would be either a 1-minute call or a 2-minute call).

At 12.5% extra taken for no particularly good reason, you'd think they were the government or something.

Paris, because I'd give her the extra 15 seconds for free.

Why is it disabled in the present VAIOs? Is this a black helicopter issue, or are there believable practical reasons?

Paris, because she'd have written _something_ on the reasoning behind this decision.

"Doesn't sound much different from motorsport telemetry with different radio gear attached."

Typically the Formula-One racetracks are less than a thousand miles from one end to the other, and do not include any traverses over oceans or trackless mountain ranges.

(Paris, because she's also less than a thousand miles from end to end.)

Has anyone seen the end to "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"? Disturbing. Matches parts of the description in this article perfectly.

Paris, because I assume she fancies going out to see a surreal movie.