Abacus?

Is is my imagination or does the diagram on their site look like an abacus? Admittedly it's a really small abacus, but still. Next they'll make a nanotube difference engine and compete with Intel with a tiny mechanical processor...

@Neil

Neil, static magnets don't affect hard drives. They don't affect floppy disks either. There was some research done a while ago where magnets were left on disks for days and had no effect whatsoever. You have to move the magnetic feild to change the disk, that's how the drive writes to it, and is basic physics.

Unfortunately due to the popularity of the myth I've been unable to find the research on Google, which is just full of people stating blindly that because disk is magnetic, magnet breaks disk.

Sorry for the lack of proof, I thought it was a reg story from the early naughties but couldn't find it here either.

Dave

Younger people

This is fine for those who are getting paid their worth, but for younger people, the pay rises are there to get them up to what they should already be earning, not as a "well done". A blanket statement of no rises seems a little unfair and will probably result in a lot of younger staff moving around to get their worth.

Thankfully I'm no longer one of the underpaid youth, and our company are doing rather well and still giving raises based on merit :o) I do feel sorry for those working at the globo mega corps though.

Dave

Ooh

to answer my own question, it would seem quite a lot!

a CD is 120mm in diameter, without the need to spin we can use the whole surface area so

60^2*Pi = 11310mm^2

I estimate the chip in my microSD to be around 8mmx8mm = 64mm^2

11310/64 = 177 chips on the CD

177 x 16GB = 2832GB

Obviously I've done a bit of rounding, and assumed that microSD can be somehow hooked up to create larger storage. CDs are thicker than microSD too so I'd say we're better off just making a 9TB SD card than mucking around with gold and lasers.

Now I've done that calculation, it's making the 128GB SSD hard drives look a little small for current technology, or is that just me? Ooh, a black helicopter, you don't see those eve..

I'm wondering

given the size of the chip on my microSD card and the fact that it holds 16GB of data (larger ones I believe are available). how much data would I be able to store on a card the size of a CD?

Lots I'd bet!

In case the scientists are reading, DVD will be my final optical format. There is no need to keep developing them.

SSLF

This is not news! it actually says on their website in the FAQ that it's just the SSLF policies which have been available from Microsoft for many years in the security guide. the NSA also publish guidelines on their SNAC site for various systems, the Redhat one they wrote themselves, the Microsoft one they simply republish the MS security guide.

I have a fair bit of experience using SSLF policy and would recommend everyone who does not work at a bank or security agency use the EC (Enterprise Client) one instead. If you use SSLF it will cost more than you'd imagine to adjust your servers!!

It seems the security guide is one that Bill got right :o)

yup

Force the good people of mexico into America to watch the film. That'll stop the problem spreading, force the people to travel. If only the WHO had thought of that we wouldn't be in this crazy mess!

genius

I could have saved them the trouble, http://lmgtfy.com/?q=fmd+disk would have turned up all the results required. are there any useful innovations today or will they all be people inventing existing kit, like the Somniloquy earlier?

and the Reg even did a couple of articles, in 1999!

http://search.theregister.co.uk/?q=fmd

Progress? or Sony holding back the boffins to slowly reap rewards and sell more boxes?

boffins?

not sure I'd use the word boffin on someone that just "dreamt up" the Windows Vista sideshow, a device which has been around for several years, and on the market too!

Well done lads. What's next, inventing a device with rows of buttons for text input?

Psion?

as if stealing the netbook trademark wasn't enough now they are having revo too?

Exchange - again?

Exchange 2003 support has also ended today. Surely business users will be far more affected by that than XP RTM support ending?

surprise!

is it a coincidence that they are the netbook maker selling the small cheap netbooks?

water?

yup, first thing I would do is put water on the lithium based battery. Lithium will definitely stop being a problem with water on it.

POSIX?

"It's a fully Posix compliant OS (just like Linux, just unlike Windows)"

Um, you sure about that? Windows has actually been POSIX compliant for ages.

No, I'm not joking.

back to glasses?

Why are we returning to using glasses? and what do they mean they might do TVs?

There are already 3D TV sets on the market, and they work very well indeed without glasses. There are loads on display at Xscape Milton Keynes, and they are a bit of a surprise when you first see them. If you don't know they are there you just think there's something a bit funky about the picture, then look closer, then stare like an idiot for a minute moving side to side to see how it works.

Polarised 3D has been around for a while too, at least since the 90s. Were Intel claiming anything new here?

This is a good thing

It should stop any madness with duo, quad, two, 2, x2.

I'd imagine most readers have, at some stage, had to explain the difference between a core duo and a core 2 processor to someone, only to have that someone nip off to PCworld and triumphantly return with a "bargain" "latest processor" "discount" core 1 chip.

Really?

"It’s also a shame that there is no image stabilisation system and the best Canon can suggest is using a tripod"

funny, I thought their suggestion was to use a lens with Image Stabilisation. This is an SLR, and they use optical stabilisation in the lens. My 450d came with an IS lens in the kit, and I assure you it is a very good system.

UMD?

Has anyone else noticed that this is a UMD from yesteryear? same capacity, same technology, but this time they may release it.

Of course it's now too late because we are all moving gradually away from optical media what with downloads being so easy and all. Hard drive backups are now cheaper and more reliable than any optical equivelant too, so I really don't see where this will fit in.

And Dennis, with your 10 hours to a terrabyte, what are you up to? HD tape camcorders use the same tapes with the same run times, because compression is standard these days. BDs were an excuse to change the DRM, not to increase capacity. A full length full def movie will hapily fit on a DVD, just as a full length DVD quality movie fits on a CD if compressed.

why not 8? the pattern!

6 cores will be a 3x2 pattern, 12 would be a 3x4.

8 cores would be 4x2, so why not go for 9 and have 3x3?

chips are square, so it makes no sense to have an 8 core chip, except that computer people are used to base 2 counting. AMD have proven this is not relevant here by releasing 3 core chips.

It may also cost less, the 12 core could be a 16 core 4x4 grid with the "broken" cores switched off. When creating that size of processor in one go I bet they will get errors, they may just be planning for that

3g, or latency

"meet the demands of Europeans, who have proved less satisfied by the iPhone's 2.5G download speeds"

I suspect "the europeans" will discover when they get 3g that it is not the speed that is slow, but rather latency. I have used 2.5g, 3g and 3.5g and for mobile browsing they all appear identical. This is not because they are identical, but because web pages are small, and the latency is high. How many people will download large files on a phone? I suspect most folk will be looking at facebook...

Re: Interesting why Sony were so late to play

Sony were "so late" because until very recently they still believed that minidisk was the future, and blindly kept trying to force their own standards such as atrac.

This is also the reason the entire industry is so stunned at the bluray victory, Sony have never before won a format war!

No no no no no STOP!!

The IT Industry does not need more women. The IT Industry requires more qualified people working in it.

Besides, has anyone considered that "the number of female graduates in relevant subjects continues to fall" bacause women aren't interested in those subjects? I've tried to convince women that computers are great, but the gods honest truth is, THEY PREFER SHOPPING AND CLOTHES. leave them alone. And leave us alone. People who are interested and talented in a subject will work in it and flourish. Those who are not will move along fine somewhere else

but

can the MP3 player handle more than 20 tracks? the e900 couldn't and that was pretty recent. Also, have they started supporting phones after sale yet? firmware update anyone? warranty voided, you lose!!

lol

"Other than the PS3 - who else is downloading firmware to update purchased hardware presently?"

Other than PS3, who needs to?!

pop?

"Emergency crews quickly deployed a tractor to attempt to lift the remains of the structure and "high-powered blowers" to clear the corn"

were these blowers heated? would have made the evening more pleasant for onlookers to have some popcorn. With the mark-up on popcorn, they could have funded a new home for the family too. 12000 tonnes would be worth more than BillG once popped!

Carbon footprint

Given that 2 out of every 3 Reg stories at the moment are about how amazing carbon nanotubes are, does this mean that we will end up having to somehow produce more carbon?

The memory could potentially be free as other companies pay to offset their emmissions to these guys who have negative footprints :o)

to Vodafone

"In Europe, revenue is up two per cent, despite price cuts averaging 19 per cent, as cheaper services are driving more usage. Calls are up 24 per cent and messaging up 8.6 per cent."

HINT if you drop prices to a reasonable level (not price per megebyte!!!) your revenues will continue to go up. It's not that we've not been wanting to use the data, it's that we were terrified of the bills that would follow!

even Paris could have worked out this little gem!

sideshow?

Surely this has been invented a little late, given that microsoft have already released Vista Sideshow, which will allow simple stuff to be used (check mail, calendar) without even switching on the big PC.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/microsoft/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-vistas-sideshow-232608.php

No no no no NO!!

Idiot!! who needs fibre indeed...I DO! Fibre can definitely give gigabit speeds now, and do it reliably. All this guy has done is give BT another reason not to start rolling out modern cables.

but hey, what do I know, the victorian copper will probably scale to gigabit speeds (falling off to 2kbps 20 yards from the exchange!)

wow

so...I have a pretty desktop, and it'll run slower while indexing files. I bet I STILL can't just connect to my WPA wireless though FFS.

I like Linux, I do, but the developers need to stop rushing for the "me-too" glitz and code things that are needed to take over the world. This is the simple truth of Microsoft's success, the programmers are paid, and sometimes work on boring stuff whether they want to or not. OSS programmers work on stuff they like so the useful stuff can take longer.

I realise Linux can connect to WPA, but there's no easy GUI way yet :o(

it's coming

This has been coming for years, and will continue to be the gold at the end of a rainbow.

At the end of the day, we need fibre into buildings for cheap, reliable, high speed access.

Mobile companies overcharge. they always have and always will, so mobile broadband will only become viable if the fixed lines keep putting up prices and reducing allowances.

The more people use mobile connections, the worse it gets. I remember when mobile telephones had a good call quality. These days I'm lucky to get one good call in 10.

Mobile high speed access sounds good, but in practice I neither need or want it. Fibre to the building, wifi to the device will be fine for me.