That elevator looks suspiciously close to the propwash and a tad on the small side for me.
Rudder looks ok but elevator authority doesn't look great without armfuls of input. Those skinny little wings will probably be loaded quite high even with the rotor helping out. I wonder also if the rotor and the prop spin in opposite directions synchronised to iron out any annoying banking and oscillating tendencies.
I bet jump take-offs are fun transitioning between ground friction keeping you straight and aerodynamics. I think future versions will have a rear rotor.
Why don't they just put variable profile wings in; perhaps inflatable? Thick and cambered for high lift and a short take-off run then suck the air out for out cruise before inflating them again for a nice slow landing?
No one remembers Anchorman? Talladega Nights? Old School?
OK, American humour might not quite be in the same bracket as our beloved Monty Python or even like modern offerings from Simon Pegg but the above films made me laugh like a girl.
"Yes, and there was a man on fire and I think Brick killed someone with a trident..."
If you ask me Adam Sandler should be at the top of this list based on nothing more scientific than me thinking he's a boring formulaic slabbering arsehole. All his films follow the same routine:
Adam appears.
Adam is a little 'special' in one form or another.
The whole world conspires against Adam for something.
Adam meets a girl who likes him and can see past the badly scripted retardation.
Adam shouts a lot and maybe sings.
Adam get the girl and he and all his friend from every other film he's ever done ride off into the sunset.
*yawn*
(Beerfest and Super Troopers are also highly recommended)
When the time comes I want to ride it across Damnation Alley!
The shape of it looks kind of like the shape adopted by the South Africans when they developed a similar vehicle. Driving over a mine the main blast energy passes around rather than through the hull. OK, the wheels and drivetrain can get wrecked but crew survivability goes way up which can't be a bad thing.
Maybe they should give our boys some when there are A-10's running in the same kill-box...
I *do* like the automatic gun-slinger kit, though.
Reading this actually made me feel physically sick. Reading some of the comments made me feel even worse.
Some of you fuckwits are actually advocating the use of electro-torture on a little ten year old girl. If *anyone* crossed my threshold and attempted to use one of those things on my family they would need to send more cops with something a little more powerful than tasers. The one with the taser would, at least, never walk again. If he tried to use it on any kids in my family he would be going back to his own feet-first.
If you can't control your own daughter you're a shit parent. If you're a cop and your best call is to tase a child you aren't fit to be on the street. Both parent and cop, in my humble opinion, are arseholes.
So "...The Raptor is universally considered to be far and away the most capable air-to-air fighter jet in the world..."?
You forgot to add "...by the Americans and Lockheed Martin..."
Like someone else observed our Rapier system can lock it up. It's certainly next-gen but more in terms of manoeuvrability and weapons / platform integration. It has stealthy features also but it's far from invisible. You'll also know about the tactics employed at Red Flag and who took their ball home crying their little eyes out when the Typhoon got various locks at VR and BVR.
As for it's flippy high-alpha parlour tricks, one former RAF pilot said:
"I'd love it if I was dogfighting and the enemy stopped right in front of me"
F22 Raptor - Brought to you by the military who think all you need to fight a war are Coca-Cola and camcorders.
Less surprising still, there will still be halfwits queuing up for Apple to take their money, laugh at them then throw them swiftly under the bus before demanding more money to phone an ambulance.
When it comes to Apple there are two camps. Those who 'get' Apple and the rest of us who actively avoid them for precisely this sort of behaviour.
Looking at that photo[shop] I'm wondering how the two in the back can sit there. I think they're either hogtied or don't have any legs so it's the perfect runaround for environmentally conscious bondage fans or amputees. I wonder what they'll call it when and if it arrives on our shores.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Peugeot Little Britain
In one corner we have Apple. A search on this site for Apple and Patent is likely to throw up a good number of results as recently Apple have tried to patent everything from buttons to breathing. Witness also the current litigation against the makers of the Hackintosh and it's a fair assessment that Apple guard what they see as their IP pretty fervently.
Apple have long had form for taking standard kit, wrapping it up in a shiny box, sticking some proprietary software in it and doubling the price. Their argument and those of the fanboys who fork out for their shitty kit is frequently "Ooooh, but it's shiny!" or "But it just works!" Bollocks it just works. Have a look at the latest Time Capsule woes or the Snow Leopard debacle for stuff 'just working'.
In the other corner we have Nokia. Nokia have innovated where Apple pretended to. Nokia were instrumental in the bringing to market of mobile phones that were affordable to nearly everyone. They were at the forefront of the developing mobile technology and their phones could always be relied on to have the latest features with each new iteration of the tech. It's a much bandied-about term but Nokia kit is very frequently the 'state of the art'.
Now enter the Apple fanboys who think everything begins and ends with their poxy fucking phone. Look, people, it's a shitty phone with a shiny GUI. It's popular in the same way certain types of car are popular; not because they're good at what they do but because you want to be seen in it. Defending Apple for infringing the patents of another company or, worse still, trying to diminish the infringement 'because it's Apple' makes you look like what you are. Pathetic wankers.
Beer. For Nokia and anyone who doesn't own an iPhone.
Project Orion / NERVA (call it whatever you want) is go!
Let's hope they give it a suitably cool sounding Russian name with the obligatory black paint scheme and imperial red star. NATO will, of course, need to give a reporting codename...
I wonder who signed off on this. Maybe it was Ed "I employ who I want despite the unanimous reservations of an entire committee" Balls.
The sooner they get voted out the sooner they can stop pissing our money away on more pointless populist schemes designed to sound great on adverts but, on closer examination, contain the sum total of fuck-all.
Why not just invest in existing infrastructure and upgrade the lines we already have to cope with bigger faster trains? We don't need vacuum tunnels or expensive new-build underslung mag-lev beasties.
Air resistance isn't necessarily a bad thing; if you design your craft properly it actually aids stability and therefore means you're not totally reliant on magnets and other such gubbins.
Personally speaking I don't think that they should 'take the leap' into touchscreen technology. Why? Because it's bollocks. The control area off to the side should take care of functions pretty well without having fingerprints and scratches all over the display area. The same convention also dictates that my computers have keyboards and my TV's have buttons on the case and remote control.
Touchscreen isn't everything, which is why everything shouldn't be touchscreen. Seeing anyone touching a display makes me want to break their fingers and Philips evidently understand that control can be accomplished without having to make wanky gestures on the same thing you'll be watching your films on.
Why are the Americans so keen on nation building on the other side of the planet? Honestly.
My local hospital is older than their Country so why do they feel the need to export their particular brand of homegrown hypocrisy and bullshit to far flung corners of the globe? Places they often know absolutely fuck-all about. They have whole cities decaying and abandoned, monuments to where the American dream curled up and died, but think the world needs lessons on how to live from a 233 year-old nation whose citizens don't know where France is but who pride themselves on having fabulous teeth.
Afghanistan / Iraq / Iran isn't about terror. It's about bogeymen and the vested interests behind those put in place to fight them. Anyone remember just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coup in Moscow? No Red Army about to roll through Germany, no spectre of nuclear holocaust hanging over Europe and a whole generation of people all thinking "This is great, what shall we do now?" We couldn't have that, could we? Fuck no! No enemy to spy on? No money to be made building war machines? No one to be scared of? We couldn't possibly have a world where everyone just got on. Oh no. No money to be made you see.
As far as I'm concerned America should fuck off and fend for itself. By that I mean no more listening stations all over the globe, one-sided intelligence gathering arrangements, deals adhered to when it suits them and abandoned when it doesn't. No more 'coalitions of the willing' sending their young people off to fight for what, at best, can be described as questionable military objectives. Four of our top military people have now resigned because they're sick of seeing our soldiers giving their lives to gain a patch of land just so some redneck arsehole sitting in an air-conditioned trailer can give it back. If America wants peace on its' own terms it can have that peace but on one condition; it has to stay within its own borders.
There is no Secret to Helmand. Afghanistan is fucked because we fucked it. Iraq is fucked because we fucked it. We went to fight a war based on lies. We thought we could make an entirely different nation live like we live. They don't want to do that.
No one is going to think of these things as anything more than toys till they sort the range out. 75 miles on a charge? Who are they trying to kid?
It's not even as if the Focus is a town car only. It's a family hatchback. That 75 mile range is probably the absolute maximum they could realistically wring out of the thing so trips like Glasgow to Edinburgh and back might find you struggling to get home, especially if it's a cold day, the boot is full and you're running the heater.
Back to the drawing board, hippie Ford boffins. No more lentils for you until the car can do 200 miles on a single charge.
@LuMan - Are you dumber than a sack of wet hammers? The fossil fuel has been running out for decades according to the greenies but those pesky oil companies keep finding more. Hippies want us to live in mud huts, walk and cycle everywhere and un-invent every technology they disagree with. This is their socialist utopian dream and gives rise to the kind of hypocrisy that attends marches to defend the free speech of people halfway around the world but tries to silence anyone opposed to their views.
One contract is nearly £1400 at maturation and the other is nearly £900. That's assuming none of the limits are busted incurring even more cost. I paid less than that for some cars when I was in my early 20's!
It's on O2 as well; no chance I'll be buying this. A real shame because I admire Palm as a company. They should have done their homework before they agreed the deal with those clowns, though.
The only reason they want bridges made of plastic is so their own soldiers don't get hurt filming JDAM strikes from across the street to put on Youtube.
"Here it comes, here it..."
Whoooosh! Boooom!
*sound of clapping, cheering and Sweet Home Alabama*
"Dude! What the fuck was that?"
*UK voice*
"Shrapnel"
Will 22
This is a load of bollocks on a number of levels →#
If the audio quality is so great, and he's already admitted initial claims were overhyped, why do the most expensive standalone sets only have one speaker?
Price
I have a little wind-up autoscan FM radio / torch thing given to me for nothing as a corporate freebie. Yes, you can get a DAB radio for £20 but analogue FM radios are frequently given away, are the size of keyfobs and last forever even on tiny batteries. DAB and it's less than stellar power performance is already well documented. The extra cost of powering the damned things has to be factored into any buying decision also.
Multiplexes
This has to be addressed and soon. I'm fed up re-tuning my DAB set only to find stations vanishing / duplicating or playing adverts for 'local' businesses 550 miles away. The variation of output power is also hugely noticeable too. Some BBC stations have the signal meter bouncing off maximum while others (Kerrang, are you listening?) very frequently make Ozzy Osbourne sound like he's farting in a bath full of beans.
Equipment and Features
If DAB wants to get any kind of meaningful adoption they should stop marketing and pricing everything like it's a luxury brand. No one I know has a £200 DAB / iPod dock / WiFi dalek thing in their kitchen. Instead those people, myself included, have an FM stereo cassette player parked next to the microwave which is listened to in the morning over coffee and cornflakes. There is one radio on http://www.uk-dab.info/portables.php and it's £60.
People aren't going to adopt a technology just because they're told they should. Nor are they going to shell out more than what they think that technology is worth. Digital TV was embraced because the set-top boxes were made with varying levels of expense and sophistication. When you need to sell the technology and no-one is listening perhaps it's time to listen to the concerns people have. Technology which is good enough very often sells itself.
For someone who drives a lot I think this watch is a good idea, especially if the Bluetooth can be used to pair with in-car systems. Some enterprising third-party vendor might do well partnering with LG to write software which can use the watch as a bridge to interface and control various things within the car. Done properly it would very quickly become intuitive and to my mind is a lot safer for a driver doing things by touch than fannying around on the centre console with their eyes off the road.
Battery life seems OK as does the list of features but it's let down a little on the memory side. According to the O2 website an iPhone 3GS 32Gb is about £40 more. I'd much rather have this watch phone but I do more driving than I do sitting on a train with my phone out hoping someone will notice I have a big shiny personality substitute on public view.
"Hey, you have an iPhone! You must be a better person than me. I'll go and hang myself immediately, shall I?"
The watch phone might not have immediate mass market appeal but I think it has it's uses which, with a little thought and development, could see it occupy a strong position in some specialist markets.
Motorola being a US operation they're probably hoping DARPA want to militarise it in the hope their fat useless friendly-killing warriors will get a little better. If nothing else it should give Lewis something to write about when they do.
On the other hand with the right interface it could prove invaluable for someone with impaired movement. I'm thinking stroke victims or badly disabled people.
I wonder how many read / write cycles the technology can manage before the cracks crack. I think graphite is somewhat resistant to EM fields, compared to transistors, so I bet the military are watching this develop with a distant interest.
I think this will be an interesting one to watch and / or invest in.
Some of us enjoy driving cars with a bit of heritage and which don't look like they were designed by an ADHD-riddled five year old. Not all of us want 87,000 different seat combinations so the spoiled illiterate bastards in the back can watch Disney's latest offering while simultaneously carting half of Ikea around.
"Oh, you have the new Renault Toddler? I hear it's made from 100% recycled sustainable yoghurt cardigans. We were going to get one but decided on the Vauxhall i-Minge. It was the advert that sold us; you know the one with the undercranked shots of a family driving along the Cote d'Azur with shit-eating grins and dad accidentally shoots himself in the face with a revolver"
Sorry, BMW haters but real people drive real cars. Pretend post-modern hipster ponces base their buying decisions on adverts which feature sock puppets and surfers.
Now fuck off. I'm going for a drive in my Beemer. You can run around like an arse all day in your plastic toy making sure Elizabetha, Chim-Chim, Grapefuit and Donkeywagon have ample quantities of moustache wax, ritalin and recently discovered learning difficulties. You're not a shit parent; just a Guardian-reading reactionary common-or-garden wanker.
They need to prove they aren't racially profiling 'anyone' so stopping a guy with two kids is the best way to do that even if it is absolute horseshit.
Universal truths for the fanbois just choking to say something...
Linux - Might be open-source but it's closed-world world shite not used outside the geek industry. Save all the "but my granny uses Linux" replies, please. Your granny only uses Linux because you, the geek, set it up for her.
OSX - <10% market share for good reason. Can you imagine how much fun a Snow Leopard party would be? I wonder if one of the freebies would be a representative from Apple.
"Hey, thanks for letting me come to your Snow Leopard party. I have one on the first Tuesday of every month. IT'S CALLED WINDOWS FUCKING UPDATE!"
90% market share, bitches! You not liking it won't change it.
"There is no obligation on local residents to use this card. However, some services, such as access to the local library or the Household Waste facilities, will only be made available on production of a card."
So it's not compulsory as long as you don't want things to change. I love this logic especially when it's spouted wholesale by halfwits pretending as hard as they can to convince you they believe it.
Just wondering how (A) The heat exchange works. Internal combustion cars pass the air over the hot exhaust unless they have air-con plants installed. Being a leccy car I'd assume that it's some form of electric fan heater which segues nicely into (B) What effect does running the heater have on range?
I'm thinking specifically of those quintessentially British mornings where frost and maybe snow have been forecasted for days but when it comes we're all unprepared, the country grinds to a halt and newspapers print photos of Day After Tomorrow style snowdrifts along with suitably apocalyptic headlines.
It's purely an engineering question. Here, have a Monday beer. I won't tell if you don't.
I know polo clubs have a that weird tradition where they step in all the divots. I must have missed the bit where the ladies tie their undies to balloons.
The problem isn't that of wages or pay gaps. The problem is with incompetent managers surrounding themselves by uneducated arsehole gobshites who know even less than they do but by virtue of that tend to question things less. This makes said manager feel vindicated and often becomes self-propagating.
Try having a proven track record in four separate Engineering disciplines along with a vocabulary of more than 20 words AND the intelligence to use them and then some halfwit who left school with no qualifications suddenly outranks you.
I'm not bitter or twisted and I remain philosophical about it. I have my self-respect. Others have brown noses and a working life where they'll taste nothing but shit. I hope they like the taste.
Thanks for the link, John. I remain sceptical however. I see this as a hop, skip and jump away from a proprietary AP-only news format perhaps with a special client which checks the VAN data (and your access rights) before unlocking the content. I'm thinking about the way certain PDF's can be locked down to inhibit functions like copy and paste.
Maybe calling it DRM is a bit strong but the line between protecting original content and locking it down with DRM is fine and blurry at the same time. At what point does information relaying copyright and authorship details get used to stop 'unauthorised' users accessing the content in the first place? I'm no freetard but a news agency trying to retain control over the news it publishes online seem not to understand how using the internet as a distribution channel works. The news only has to pass through one iteration before someone else can publish it via their own channel and so it goes.
Maybe they should just use Flash and serve the text as graphics. Again, good article. Maybe a good idea for a future workshop or survey thingymabob as it seems to have provoked reasonably level-headed discussion.
Samsung UN55B8000 55" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
LG Electronics 42LH30 42" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Samsung UN55B8500 55" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Sony BRAVIA KDL-40EX400 40" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Samsung UN40B6000 40" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
79 posts • joined Thursday 11th June 2009 07:40 GMT
Page:
Will 22
Here's a question → #
Posted Saturday 21st November 2009 20:33 GMT
In Triumph in Geneva! LHC beams up and running again
I wonder how boffins party?
I wonder if they had white coats with "CERN does it underground, at sub-zero and at nearly the speed of light" printed on them.
*strokes chin*
Will 22
Title → #
Posted Saturday 21st November 2009 18:02 GMT
In TomTom Start satnav
Have they been sniffing around 4Chan for idle screen inspiration?
Plan Route
Browse Map
DANCE HARD TECHNO
Will 22
Hmmm → #
Posted Saturday 21st November 2009 07:41 GMT
In VTOL gyro-copter flying car mates with killer robot
That elevator looks suspiciously close to the propwash and a tad on the small side for me.
Rudder looks ok but elevator authority doesn't look great without armfuls of input. Those skinny little wings will probably be loaded quite high even with the rotor helping out. I wonder also if the rotor and the prop spin in opposite directions synchronised to iron out any annoying banking and oscillating tendencies.
I bet jump take-offs are fun transitioning between ground friction keeping you straight and aerodynamics. I think future versions will have a rear rotor.
Why don't they just put variable profile wings in; perhaps inflatable? Thick and cambered for high lift and a short take-off run then suck the air out for out cruise before inflating them again for a nice slow landing?
Will 22
Not funny? → #
Posted Thursday 19th November 2009 23:52 GMT
In Will Ferrell is Hollywood's most
over-ratedoverpaid starNo one remembers Anchorman? Talladega Nights? Old School?
OK, American humour might not quite be in the same bracket as our beloved Monty Python or even like modern offerings from Simon Pegg but the above films made me laugh like a girl.
"Yes, and there was a man on fire and I think Brick killed someone with a trident..."
If you ask me Adam Sandler should be at the top of this list based on nothing more scientific than me thinking he's a boring formulaic slabbering arsehole. All his films follow the same routine:
Adam appears.
Adam is a little 'special' in one form or another.
The whole world conspires against Adam for something.
Adam meets a girl who likes him and can see past the badly scripted retardation.
Adam shouts a lot and maybe sings.
Adam get the girl and he and all his friend from every other film he's ever done ride off into the sunset.
*yawn*
(Beerfest and Super Troopers are also highly recommended)
Will 22
Can I have one? → #
Posted Thursday 19th November 2009 23:33 GMT
In US monster-truck roboguns to blast enemies autonomously
When the time comes I want to ride it across Damnation Alley!
The shape of it looks kind of like the shape adopted by the South Africans when they developed a similar vehicle. Driving over a mine the main blast energy passes around rather than through the hull. OK, the wheels and drivetrain can get wrecked but crew survivability goes way up which can't be a bad thing.
Maybe they should give our boys some when there are A-10's running in the same kill-box...
I *do* like the automatic gun-slinger kit, though.
Will 22
Form an orderly queue → #
Posted Thursday 19th November 2009 23:00 GMT
In New 'reversible' paralysis-ray turns victims blue, flaccid
Get your Swine Flu vaccine right here...
Tin hat and coat on.
Will 22
All kidding aside → #
Posted Thursday 19th November 2009 22:59 GMT
In Arkansas cop tasers 10-year-old girl
Reading this actually made me feel physically sick. Reading some of the comments made me feel even worse.
Some of you fuckwits are actually advocating the use of electro-torture on a little ten year old girl. If *anyone* crossed my threshold and attempted to use one of those things on my family they would need to send more cops with something a little more powerful than tasers. The one with the taser would, at least, never walk again. If he tried to use it on any kids in my family he would be going back to his own feet-first.
If you can't control your own daughter you're a shit parent. If you're a cop and your best call is to tase a child you aren't fit to be on the street. Both parent and cop, in my humble opinion, are arseholes.
Will 22
War is hell... → #
Posted Tuesday 17th November 2009 10:20 GMT
In 'F-22 Raptor stealth coatings are crap' case goes to court
So "...The Raptor is universally considered to be far and away the most capable air-to-air fighter jet in the world..."?
You forgot to add "...by the Americans and Lockheed Martin..."
Like someone else observed our Rapier system can lock it up. It's certainly next-gen but more in terms of manoeuvrability and weapons / platform integration. It has stealthy features also but it's far from invisible. You'll also know about the tactics employed at Red Flag and who took their ball home crying their little eyes out when the Typhoon got various locks at VR and BVR.
As for it's flippy high-alpha parlour tricks, one former RAF pilot said:
"I'd love it if I was dogfighting and the enemy stopped right in front of me"
F22 Raptor - Brought to you by the military who think all you need to fight a war are Coca-Cola and camcorders.
Will 22
Excuse me while I whip this out... → #
Posted Tuesday 17th November 2009 04:35 GMT
In Apple seeks OS-jacking advert patent
I'm a Mac*
*Or rather I'll get back to being one just as soon as you click on this non-blockable advert
It just works*
*As long as you click here, here aaaaaaaaaaand here
I'm Steve Jobs*
*I'm fucking insane. I want my company to be patronised by halfwits, occultists and masochists.
Will 22
Hot Damn! → #
Posted Tuesday 17th November 2009 01:09 GMT
In Cheerleaders in danger from cheerleading
Pictures, El Reg, I implore you!
PICTURES!
Will 22
Not really surprising → #
Posted Sunday 15th November 2009 06:31 GMT
In Apple snuffs iPhone app for too much Appleness
Less surprising still, there will still be halfwits queuing up for Apple to take their money, laugh at them then throw them swiftly under the bus before demanding more money to phone an ambulance.
When it comes to Apple there are two camps. Those who 'get' Apple and the rest of us who actively avoid them for precisely this sort of behaviour.
Will 22
What the fuck? → #
Posted Wednesday 4th November 2009 13:24 GMT
In Peugeot's bulbous BB1 e-car bound for Blighty
Looking at that photo[shop] I'm wondering how the two in the back can sit there. I think they're either hogtied or don't have any legs so it's the perfect runaround for environmentally conscious bondage fans or amputees. I wonder what they'll call it when and if it arrives on our shores.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Peugeot Little Britain
Will 22
Taut Title Tans Tubby Teutons → #
Posted Wednesday 4th November 2009 12:43 GMT
In Americans promised all you can eat Twittering for $99
That should make for some interesting hashtags...
#hello
#isthisthingon
#wheresmahmicrophone
#iboughtapeekandalligotwastwitterlol
Will 22
@Roger Pearse → #
Posted Wednesday 4th November 2009 12:07 GMT
In Turkey whacks Google with £28.7m fine, claims tax dodging
"...They'll get the message fairly quickly once no Turk can find anything online..."
You mean beyond paid for shit, dynamically generated ads and Wikipedia entries?
Will22 - A happy Bing user
Will 22
Trick or Treat? → #
Posted Friday 30th October 2009 03:49 GMT
In Giant iPhones invade Florida
How about just throw them down the fucking stairs?
Will 22
Deathmatch! → #
Posted Friday 30th October 2009 03:46 GMT
In Apple to 'vigorously' fight Nokia patent pout
In one corner we have Apple. A search on this site for Apple and Patent is likely to throw up a good number of results as recently Apple have tried to patent everything from buttons to breathing. Witness also the current litigation against the makers of the Hackintosh and it's a fair assessment that Apple guard what they see as their IP pretty fervently.
Apple have long had form for taking standard kit, wrapping it up in a shiny box, sticking some proprietary software in it and doubling the price. Their argument and those of the fanboys who fork out for their shitty kit is frequently "Ooooh, but it's shiny!" or "But it just works!" Bollocks it just works. Have a look at the latest Time Capsule woes or the Snow Leopard debacle for stuff 'just working'.
In the other corner we have Nokia. Nokia have innovated where Apple pretended to. Nokia were instrumental in the bringing to market of mobile phones that were affordable to nearly everyone. They were at the forefront of the developing mobile technology and their phones could always be relied on to have the latest features with each new iteration of the tech. It's a much bandied-about term but Nokia kit is very frequently the 'state of the art'.
Now enter the Apple fanboys who think everything begins and ends with their poxy fucking phone. Look, people, it's a shitty phone with a shiny GUI. It's popular in the same way certain types of car are popular; not because they're good at what they do but because you want to be seen in it. Defending Apple for infringing the patents of another company or, worse still, trying to diminish the infringement 'because it's Apple' makes you look like what you are. Pathetic wankers.
Beer. For Nokia and anyone who doesn't own an iPhone.
Will 22
YES! → #
Posted Friday 30th October 2009 00:19 GMT
In Russia planning nuclear-powered manned spaceship
Project Orion / NERVA (call it whatever you want) is go!
Let's hope they give it a suitably cool sounding Russian name with the obligatory black paint scheme and imperial red star. NATO will, of course, need to give a reporting codename...
Beer, for Mike Richards, for that description!
Will 22
Hardly a surprise → #
Posted Thursday 29th October 2009 09:35 GMT
In Government ads fail truthfulness exam
I wonder who signed off on this. Maybe it was Ed "I employ who I want despite the unanimous reservations of an entire committee" Balls.
The sooner they get voted out the sooner they can stop pissing our money away on more pointless populist schemes designed to sound great on adverts but, on closer examination, contain the sum total of fuck-all.
Will 22
Technowank → #
Posted Thursday 22nd October 2009 15:47 GMT
In Rigid sky-train to fly through magnetic rings on sticks
Why not just invest in existing infrastructure and upgrade the lines we already have to cope with bigger faster trains? We don't need vacuum tunnels or expensive new-build underslung mag-lev beasties.
Air resistance isn't necessarily a bad thing; if you design your craft properly it actually aids stability and therefore means you're not totally reliant on magnets and other such gubbins.
Will 22
That looks great → #
Posted Tuesday 20th October 2009 20:55 GMT
In Philips GoGear Muse
I like it. A lot.
Personally speaking I don't think that they should 'take the leap' into touchscreen technology. Why? Because it's bollocks. The control area off to the side should take care of functions pretty well without having fingerprints and scratches all over the display area. The same convention also dictates that my computers have keyboards and my TV's have buttons on the case and remote control.
Touchscreen isn't everything, which is why everything shouldn't be touchscreen. Seeing anyone touching a display makes me want to break their fingers and Philips evidently understand that control can be accomplished without having to make wanky gestures on the same thing you'll be watching your films on.
Will 22
Nation Building? More like Nation Fucking → #
Posted Tuesday 20th October 2009 16:45 GMT
In Adam Curtis uncovers the secrets of Helmand
Why are the Americans so keen on nation building on the other side of the planet? Honestly.
My local hospital is older than their Country so why do they feel the need to export their particular brand of homegrown hypocrisy and bullshit to far flung corners of the globe? Places they often know absolutely fuck-all about. They have whole cities decaying and abandoned, monuments to where the American dream curled up and died, but think the world needs lessons on how to live from a 233 year-old nation whose citizens don't know where France is but who pride themselves on having fabulous teeth.
Afghanistan / Iraq / Iran isn't about terror. It's about bogeymen and the vested interests behind those put in place to fight them. Anyone remember just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coup in Moscow? No Red Army about to roll through Germany, no spectre of nuclear holocaust hanging over Europe and a whole generation of people all thinking "This is great, what shall we do now?" We couldn't have that, could we? Fuck no! No enemy to spy on? No money to be made building war machines? No one to be scared of? We couldn't possibly have a world where everyone just got on. Oh no. No money to be made you see.
As far as I'm concerned America should fuck off and fend for itself. By that I mean no more listening stations all over the globe, one-sided intelligence gathering arrangements, deals adhered to when it suits them and abandoned when it doesn't. No more 'coalitions of the willing' sending their young people off to fight for what, at best, can be described as questionable military objectives. Four of our top military people have now resigned because they're sick of seeing our soldiers giving their lives to gain a patch of land just so some redneck arsehole sitting in an air-conditioned trailer can give it back. If America wants peace on its' own terms it can have that peace but on one condition; it has to stay within its own borders.
There is no Secret to Helmand. Afghanistan is fucked because we fucked it. Iraq is fucked because we fucked it. We went to fight a war based on lies. We thought we could make an entirely different nation live like we live. They don't want to do that.
Will 22
I'm a Mac* → #
Posted Tuesday 20th October 2009 15:59 GMT
In Apple Time Capsule catches plague
*Is it getting hot in h...
Will 22
Bring out the GIMP!!! → #
Posted Tuesday 20th October 2009 15:22 GMT
In Freecom Hard Drive XS
They missed a trick here.
A rubber hard drive enclosure...
Surely it should have come pre-loaded with a copy of a certain OSS image-manipulation program?
Will 22
93 Comments? → #
Posted Monday 28th September 2009 09:21 GMT
In Microsoft howls as Google turns IE into Chrome
According to counter at the bottom of the article, this story has 93 comments.
?
Will 22
Range again... → #
Posted Friday 25th September 2009 23:19 GMT
In Ford creates battery-powered Focus
No one is going to think of these things as anything more than toys till they sort the range out. 75 miles on a charge? Who are they trying to kid?
It's not even as if the Focus is a town car only. It's a family hatchback. That 75 mile range is probably the absolute maximum they could realistically wring out of the thing so trips like Glasgow to Edinburgh and back might find you struggling to get home, especially if it's a cold day, the boot is full and you're running the heater.
Back to the drawing board, hippie Ford boffins. No more lentils for you until the car can do 200 miles on a single charge.
@LuMan - Are you dumber than a sack of wet hammers? The fossil fuel has been running out for decades according to the greenies but those pesky oil companies keep finding more. Hippies want us to live in mud huts, walk and cycle everywhere and un-invent every technology they disagree with. This is their socialist utopian dream and gives rise to the kind of hypocrisy that attends marches to defend the free speech of people halfway around the world but tries to silence anyone opposed to their views.
Will 22
I have to ask... → #
Posted Thursday 24th September 2009 22:13 GMT
In iPhone + naked ladies = headline gold
What good is an app which delivers photos of naked ladies to iPhone users?
:)
Will 22
Are they fucking insane? → #
Posted Thursday 24th September 2009 20:15 GMT
In O2 confirms UK Pré launch date
One contract is nearly £1400 at maturation and the other is nearly £900. That's assuming none of the limits are busted incurring even more cost. I paid less than that for some cars when I was in my early 20's!
It's on O2 as well; no chance I'll be buying this. A real shame because I admire Palm as a company. They should have done their homework before they agreed the deal with those clowns, though.
Will 22
Affordable? → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 16:02 GMT
In Fisker wins big US govt e-car loan
Who is the final arbiter of what's affordable?
I'd say 24 grand is a little out of the reach of most people.
Will 22
Ulterior motive → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 15:46 GMT
In Bridge made of recycled plastic supports 70-ton tank
The only reason they want bridges made of plastic is so their own soldiers don't get hurt filming JDAM strikes from across the street to put on Youtube.
"Here it comes, here it..."
Whoooosh! Boooom!
*sound of clapping, cheering and Sweet Home Alabama*
"Dude! What the fuck was that?"
*UK voice*
"Shrapnel"
Will 22
This is a load of bollocks on a number of levels → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 15:06 GMT
In Talking DAB and the future of radio
Audio Quality
If the audio quality is so great, and he's already admitted initial claims were overhyped, why do the most expensive standalone sets only have one speaker?
Price
I have a little wind-up autoscan FM radio / torch thing given to me for nothing as a corporate freebie. Yes, you can get a DAB radio for £20 but analogue FM radios are frequently given away, are the size of keyfobs and last forever even on tiny batteries. DAB and it's less than stellar power performance is already well documented. The extra cost of powering the damned things has to be factored into any buying decision also.
Multiplexes
This has to be addressed and soon. I'm fed up re-tuning my DAB set only to find stations vanishing / duplicating or playing adverts for 'local' businesses 550 miles away. The variation of output power is also hugely noticeable too. Some BBC stations have the signal meter bouncing off maximum while others (Kerrang, are you listening?) very frequently make Ozzy Osbourne sound like he's farting in a bath full of beans.
Equipment and Features
If DAB wants to get any kind of meaningful adoption they should stop marketing and pricing everything like it's a luxury brand. No one I know has a £200 DAB / iPod dock / WiFi dalek thing in their kitchen. Instead those people, myself included, have an FM stereo cassette player parked next to the microwave which is listened to in the morning over coffee and cornflakes. There is one radio on http://www.uk-dab.info/portables.php and it's £60.
People aren't going to adopt a technology just because they're told they should. Nor are they going to shell out more than what they think that technology is worth. Digital TV was embraced because the set-top boxes were made with varying levels of expense and sophistication. When you need to sell the technology and no-one is listening perhaps it's time to listen to the concerns people have. Technology which is good enough very often sells itself.
Will 22
Think you guys missed a trick here... → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 09:02 GMT
In LG GD910 Watch Phone
For someone who drives a lot I think this watch is a good idea, especially if the Bluetooth can be used to pair with in-car systems. Some enterprising third-party vendor might do well partnering with LG to write software which can use the watch as a bridge to interface and control various things within the car. Done properly it would very quickly become intuitive and to my mind is a lot safer for a driver doing things by touch than fannying around on the centre console with their eyes off the road.
Battery life seems OK as does the list of features but it's let down a little on the memory side. According to the O2 website an iPhone 3GS 32Gb is about £40 more. I'd much rather have this watch phone but I do more driving than I do sitting on a train with my phone out hoping someone will notice I have a big shiny personality substitute on public view.
"Hey, you have an iPhone! You must be a better person than me. I'll go and hang myself immediately, shall I?"
The watch phone might not have immediate mass market appeal but I think it has it's uses which, with a little thought and development, could see it occupy a strong position in some specialist markets.
Will 22
Elon Musk? → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 06:16 GMT
In Elon Musk, Eberhard 'resolve' Tesla Motors wrangle
What kind of a fucking name is that anyway?
Does he have a cousin called Sex Panther?
Will 22
Shame Motorola are building it → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 00:21 GMT
In Futuristic head-mounted PC launching in 2010
Motorola being a US operation they're probably hoping DARPA want to militarise it in the hope their fat useless friendly-killing warriors will get a little better. If nothing else it should give Lewis something to write about when they do.
On the other hand with the right interface it could prove invaluable for someone with impaired movement. I'm thinking stroke victims or badly disabled people.
Will 22
The mighty crack → #
Posted Wednesday 23rd September 2009 00:09 GMT
In Boffins build Flash-like chip from graphite
I wonder how many read / write cycles the technology can manage before the cracks crack. I think graphite is somewhat resistant to EM fields, compared to transistors, so I bet the military are watching this develop with a distant interest.
I think this will be an interesting one to watch and / or invest in.
Will 22
Reminds me of an old joke... → #
Posted Monday 21st September 2009 10:29 GMT
In 'Do You Want To See My C*ck?' asks budding author
A hooker approached my window once and asked if I'd like Super Sex...
I replied if it was all the same to her I'd have the soup.
Will 22
BMW Drivers → #
Posted Thursday 17th September 2009 09:57 GMT
In Italian Job sat nav driver cops £900 fine
What's the problem with BMW drivers?
Some of us enjoy driving cars with a bit of heritage and which don't look like they were designed by an ADHD-riddled five year old. Not all of us want 87,000 different seat combinations so the spoiled illiterate bastards in the back can watch Disney's latest offering while simultaneously carting half of Ikea around.
"Oh, you have the new Renault Toddler? I hear it's made from 100% recycled sustainable yoghurt cardigans. We were going to get one but decided on the Vauxhall i-Minge. It was the advert that sold us; you know the one with the undercranked shots of a family driving along the Cote d'Azur with shit-eating grins and dad accidentally shoots himself in the face with a revolver"
Sorry, BMW haters but real people drive real cars. Pretend post-modern hipster ponces base their buying decisions on adverts which feature sock puppets and surfers.
Now fuck off. I'm going for a drive in my Beemer. You can run around like an arse all day in your plastic toy making sure Elizabetha, Chim-Chim, Grapefuit and Donkeywagon have ample quantities of moustache wax, ritalin and recently discovered learning difficulties. You're not a shit parent; just a Guardian-reading reactionary common-or-garden wanker.
Will 22
Mairzy Doats → #
Posted Friday 11th September 2009 13:42 GMT
In Met shops self to IPCC over terror toddlers
The reason for this is pretty obvious.
They need to prove they aren't racially profiling 'anyone' so stopping a guy with two kids is the best way to do that even if it is absolute horseshit.
Will 22
I can see it now... → #
Posted Monday 7th September 2009 09:11 GMT
In Microsoft adds Ping to Bing, leaves Windows Live in dark
Facebook status:
Your friend Will just Bing'ed "Latex Space Hookers on Space Hoppers 9...with Guns"
click here to see more of his searches.
Yeah, fucking right!
Will 22
Bouncy Helen → #
Posted Monday 7th September 2009 09:06 GMT
In YouTube Lad from Lagos gets a bite
When did you start getting Catherine Tate's throwaways to perform for you?
Will 22
Oh look, Windows did something... → #
Posted Saturday 5th September 2009 19:39 GMT
In Microsoft pimps bogus Windows 7 'launch parties'
Universal truths for the fanbois just choking to say something...
Linux - Might be open-source but it's closed-world world shite not used outside the geek industry. Save all the "but my granny uses Linux" replies, please. Your granny only uses Linux because you, the geek, set it up for her.
OSX - <10% market share for good reason. Can you imagine how much fun a Snow Leopard party would be? I wonder if one of the freebies would be a representative from Apple.
"Hey, thanks for letting me come to your Snow Leopard party. I have one on the first Tuesday of every month. IT'S CALLED WINDOWS FUCKING UPDATE!"
90% market share, bitches! You not liking it won't change it.
Anyone want to come to a launch party? ;)
Will 22
Not compulsory? → #
Posted Monday 17th August 2009 10:18 GMT
In Pressure group aghast at Hillingdon ID card scheme
"There is no obligation on local residents to use this card. However, some services, such as access to the local library or the Household Waste facilities, will only be made available on production of a card."
So it's not compulsory as long as you don't want things to change. I love this logic especially when it's spouted wholesale by halfwits pretending as hard as they can to convince you they believe it.
PAPERS CITIZEN!
Paris...because...err...Totenkopfverbände...or something.
Will 22
@ Tony Smith → #
Posted Monday 17th August 2009 09:39 GMT
In Mitsubishi iMiEV five-door e-car
I'm not trying to be disingenuous.
Just wondering how (A) The heat exchange works. Internal combustion cars pass the air over the hot exhaust unless they have air-con plants installed. Being a leccy car I'd assume that it's some form of electric fan heater which segues nicely into (B) What effect does running the heater have on range?
I'm thinking specifically of those quintessentially British mornings where frost and maybe snow have been forecasted for days but when it comes we're all unprepared, the country grinds to a halt and newspapers print photos of Day After Tomorrow style snowdrifts along with suitably apocalyptic headlines.
It's purely an engineering question. Here, have a Monday beer. I won't tell if you don't.
Now, those round things at the corners...
Will 22
One question → #
Posted Monday 17th August 2009 08:47 GMT
In Mitsubishi iMiEV five-door e-car
Does it have a heater?
Will 22
@ Murray Pearson 1 → #
Posted Monday 17th August 2009 08:47 GMT
In World's first electric Chopper parks up
I dunno, their black-coloured traffic signal cabinets look OK.
Will 22
Polo Club → #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:31 GMT
In Villagers cut off as dripping thong sparks brown out
I know polo clubs have a that weird tradition where they step in all the divots. I must have missed the bit where the ladies tie their undies to balloons.
Gives a whole new meaning to Upper Class Twats...
Will 22
The real problem → #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:31 GMT
In CIOs get £170k but helpdesk staffers settle for £6/hr
The problem isn't that of wages or pay gaps. The problem is with incompetent managers surrounding themselves by uneducated arsehole gobshites who know even less than they do but by virtue of that tend to question things less. This makes said manager feel vindicated and often becomes self-propagating.
Try having a proven track record in four separate Engineering disciplines along with a vocabulary of more than 20 words AND the intelligence to use them and then some halfwit who left school with no qualifications suddenly outranks you.
I'm not bitter or twisted and I remain philosophical about it. I have my self-respect. Others have brown noses and a working life where they'll taste nothing but shit. I hope they like the taste.
Will 22
Queen Bee Falls From Grace → #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:19 GMT
In Vote now to name El Reg space plane
Black Vulture - it even sounds like the UK 'Rainbow Codes' we still use for developmental craft.
Will 22
@John Lettice → #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:16 GMT
In The Internet's most evil company?
Thanks for the link, John. I remain sceptical however. I see this as a hop, skip and jump away from a proprietary AP-only news format perhaps with a special client which checks the VAN data (and your access rights) before unlocking the content. I'm thinking about the way certain PDF's can be locked down to inhibit functions like copy and paste.
Maybe calling it DRM is a bit strong but the line between protecting original content and locking it down with DRM is fine and blurry at the same time. At what point does information relaying copyright and authorship details get used to stop 'unauthorised' users accessing the content in the first place? I'm no freetard but a news agency trying to retain control over the news it publishes online seem not to understand how using the internet as a distribution channel works. The news only has to pass through one iteration before someone else can publish it via their own channel and so it goes.
Maybe they should just use Flash and serve the text as graphics. Again, good article. Maybe a good idea for a future workshop or survey thingymabob as it seems to have provoked reasonably level-headed discussion.
Beer because...err....Paris...*hic*
Will 22
Tittle Tattle Tooting → #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 17:31 GMT
In 12 of the best... travel gadgets
"...However, if you do come over all Lord Lichfield..."
Then you're a better man than me, Gunga Din!
Will 22
It must be Friday → #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 16:08 GMT
In The Internet's most evil company?
Value Added News.
DRM for shitty current affairs coverage.
Friday beers for everyone. Good story again Mr Lettice.
Cheers.
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