* Posts by Monty Burns

306 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2008

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Windows Subsystem for Android: What's the point?

Monty Burns

Re: Maybe another OS2?

Better introduce DLSS and RTX drivers for Android then!

Yet again, Cream Finance skimmed by crooks: $130m in crypto assets stolen

Monty Burns

Re: "We apologize to our users and community for this unfortunate incident"

I'm sure that's what people said before the great financial sub-prime collapse.

Has this been fixed so as not to happen again? No.

All that has happened is "plasters" are now put over the damage to the value of $250k in the US, 50,000 GBP and probably some others. Many are above these limits and many countries still don't have such insurance schemes.

To imply the financial system is almost entirely safe is complete bollocks.

Now, instead of Fractional Banking crypto accounts 100% exist in their native currency. If I have 100 ETH I can withdraw 100 ETH (to a stablecoin or another token) when there is a "bank run" on ETH. Also, DeFi will lend out my tokens but instead of being at a ratio of 10:1 (lending out 10 for every one that exists) DeFi usually lends out at 1:1 or even 1:2!

Debt secures debt which secures other debt. Insurance is reinsured then reinsured then reinsured again and again. Fractional banking means the bank can lend out 100 USD when it only has physical $10 USD in it's vaults.

I'm not saying Crypto is perfect but, don't pretend the modern banking system is safe.

See that red spot on the chart? Sail over it and you'll find a Russian sub

Monty Burns

Re: Soviet carriers so small

It's actually a cruiser that can carry aircraft, USSR doctrine wouldn't allow aircraft carriers.

Samsung Note 7: Probably the best phone in the world. Yeah – you heard right

Monty Burns

Battery....?

So, bigger screen that an S7 but with a smaller battery..... interesting....

Are there any other flagship STYLUS phones available? All I can find is the LG Stylus but that's far from premium which is a shame as it ticks two big boxes for me (removable battery and SD cards).

Revive revived: Oculus DRM push shattered as DIY devs strike back

Monty Burns

WTF? Slow!

WTF? This story is over two weeks old, why have you only just picked up on it Reg?

Look! Up in the sky! It's letters on a plane read with a 250MP camera

Monty Burns

Pfft, 4k is sooooo last week, I want 30k in my living room.

Phabba-dabba-do: Samsung hypes up Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

Monty Burns

So, guess there are no 5" phones left running Android with removable battery and SD slot?

Monty Burns

Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

What are you guys on? My S5 is waterproof and IP rated and it's a normal version!

The new Falcon Heavy: MOST POWERFUL ROCKET since the Apollo moonshots

Monty Burns

Re: Or in English

I'd rather use the unit KiloJubblies, sounds much more fun.

So, these guys turn up with AK47s and offer me protection ...

Monty Burns

Loved it....

I lived for six months in Umhlanga, just outside of Durban, whilst we completed the new Durban airport. I lived in the Pearls and LOVED it. Umhlanga was so safe (private security on all the streets) that my wife could walk home at 3am on her own after being out with her girlfriends... you shouldn't even do that in London as a lady!

Of course, the highlight for me was the boxing day test match where England trounced South Africa by an innings and 100 runs (iirc) and then going to my local hotel, The Oyster Box, and bumping in to most the England team! I got to watch five glorious days of test match in fantastic sunshine, drinking cheap booze, paying something like £5 a day per ticket and THEN getting pissed with the England cricket team!.. who bought ME beer, thanks Wrighty, Broady & Jimmy!

Oh, the airport opened without a hitch too... bonus!

When algorithms ATTACK: Facebook sez soz for tacky 'Year in Review' FAIL

Monty Burns

Re: Blame the messenger.

@Gordon 10: It's not that you dislike the "post" it's that you dislike the subject i.e. you are showing that you are also "sad that x has died", not "sad that you've posted". This way, a query could then look for positive and negative votes and exclude negative votes.

Monty Burns

Re: Blame the messenger.

Doesn't this just add more weight to the argument that the "Dislike" button should be implemented?

No Santa, no Irish boozers and no regrets: life in Qatar

Monty Burns

A mate of mine arrived in Doha and thought he would treat himself to a car with leather seats..... whoops!

Btw, Crime is NOT low, you just don't hear about it as the news is suppressed. It's the same in all middle east countries.

We've created a big group of bikers (basically everything except Harleys) and we are constantly hearing about people attempting to steal bikes. Lucky for us, the only second hand parts market is for Harley parts so these are the primary targets. That said, a lot of bikes are stolen and then sold in Yemen where there is very little restriction on VIN and License plates. You also only have to go to your local Al-Fare (Spinneys/Waitrose) notice board to see adverts for people asking for information on stolen motocross bikes, boats, quad bikes and jet-ski's.

Oh... and that doesn't include friends who have been burgled, had phones stolen out of there hands etc. Or the fact that women are advised NOT to get taxi's alone, especially at night.

The middle east is not as safe as "they" would like you to believe, most expats live in ignorant bliss....

Monty Burns

Re: Not on the list of places I'd consider for a gig

It's changed, significantly then... and for the better! hehehe

Waitrose is Al-Fare... even has Waitrose branded good along with the "Non-Muslim" section, although I've never had to prove I'm not a Muslim. The housing complex I'm on also offers a full English fry up, as does a local golf course... although it's not on the menu, you have to ask for it. A lot of the bars also have pork on the menu.

Btw, you can even get a pork/alcohol license in Qatar and buy it from the Qatari Distribution Centre (QDC).

Monty Burns

Re: Not on the list of places I'd consider for a gig

"getting something to enjoy at home is pretty much impossible (though Oman and Dubai allow you to bring in duty free)"

If you mean Oman, no it's not, you've been fed bad info. I know of at least 8 off-licenses and my £160 a month alcohol license allows me to buy that for home consumption, not including the bars!

Anyway, must nip out to buy a joint of pork from Al-Fare for xmas dinner... cya!

Monty Burns

Driving...

Yes, it really is THAT bad! It's so bad that they often have police officers on roundabouts in rush hour, waiting for the accidents. I'm a motorcyclist, a well trained and very experienced one but, even I wouldn't ride there.

On the flip side, I now live in Muscat, Oman, a much nicer place ... the driving's not *quite* as bad but the motorcycling is AWESOME. Loads of off-road tracks and twisty tarmac (KTM 1190 Adventure R, so it's all good!). Also, lots more bars, plenty of places to chill and the locals are REALLY friendly (unlike Qatari's). Your opinions may be different.

Monty Burns

Re: The Irish bar is open again!

Excellent! So you can get pissed and then go upstairs for a hooker ... all in the same joint!

(Doha, really is a shit hole, full of double standards and BS. I lasted three months before I ran from the country)

When did the "beach" thing happen? I was there last year for the MotoGP and had a few at the beach bar in the Intercon.

Monty Burns

Re: Irish Bars

Actually, it's not as simple as that. It all changed last (?) year. Now based on five criteria that can be applied to you depending on how long you visit the UK ... BUT... you are in a VERY strong position if your contract of employment is for a Qatari (for example) company and you have a local housing contract.

I live in Muscat, Oman, and have had to research this... a LOT.

Sound and battery: 20 portable Bluetooth speakers

Monty Burns

Re: Bose soundlink mini

Hmmm.... I tried some of these and they were excellent but lacked the simple speaker phone facility... why!? Such a useful little item to add and makes talking to people very easy when you want to wander around, "hands free" as it were. Ended up buying the Trek, awesome bit of kit.

Four tuner frenzy: The all-you-can-EEat TV Freeview PVR

Monty Burns

Re: Mythtv

When I was doing this, XBMC couldn't use TV tuners, let alone CAD/CAM emulation.

Btw, the same decryption key and viewing card could also be used across the network with this solution.

As for "BTW Windows Media Center really?!? ' Cause that's an even harder fail .." it's a matter of choice. I think XBMC looks like a child's toy and is in no way as professional looking as MC but, that's MY opinion and is not everyone else's.

Monty Burns

Re: Mythtv

Not sure about MythTV but this little box doesn't come anywhere close to Windows Media Center, 4 tuners, CAD/CAM implementation decoding 4 channels of glorious Sky HD, which of course then also links through to ALL the online players via IE shortcuts within MCE. Let's also not forget the unlimited network sharing of a simple media file.

I'll gladly take the hit on a 450w PSU (and did!) for all that functionality... and in fact, all this functionality is about the ONLY thing I miss about living in the UK.

Anyone know how to get a Middle East OSN subscription in to MCE? :(

Such a shame it was a b*tch to setup the card emulation and decoding or, it might have become much more popular!

Google Glass: Even the people who stand to MAKE MONEY from it hate the techno-specs

Monty Burns

$1500

"The coders cited reasons such as a lack of customer interest"

Damn straight! At $1500 for a toy, I'm not interested....

Dubai to get huge climate-controlled domed city and giga-mall

Monty Burns

Re: or indeed that it is perfectly survivable anyway

I had no trouble riding from Muscat to Dubai a few times this summer. People over exaggerate the heat, or need to "man up".

Monty Burns

Re: The geopolitical equivalent of blowing your lottery money on drugs, booze, ciggies and sex

Which is odd Frankee, given that all are available in Dubai, even the last item ;)

PHABBA-DABBA-DOO! Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Edge, Gear VR – feast your eyes

Monty Burns

Gear S

FFS ... Tizen, give up already!

Give us access to Googles Wear eco-system.

No Apple fanbois here: Man United BANS iPads from Old Trafford

Monty Burns

Re: No reason to use a tablet

We aren't talking about a photography ban. We are talking about some nob-end in the row in front of you holding up a tablet the size of an A4 piece of paper at your head height, blocking your view.

NASA pulls FLYING SAUCER out of Pacific ocean

Monty Burns

Re: "a prefectly cromulent word"

Embiggen? First time I heard it used was on the Simpsons....

Globe grabbin,’ sphere slammin’, orb-tossin’, pill poppin’... Speedball

Monty Burns

Re: No, that's *not* how Amiga gradients were generated

@Michael Strorm - - Ahhh yes, good old fashioned Coper bars (Co-processor) bars. Used to love coding those... ahh the memories of a mis-spent youth (that and writing virus's, intercepting the disk I/O and playing with that tiny code in the boot block of a floppy disk)

EVE Online erects mashed-up memorial to biggest space fight in history

Monty Burns

Re: Looks really impressive

Itzman: "I wasn't aware that apart from submarines hunting each other in the dark there WAS any contemporary terrestrial naval warfare."

Look up the General Belgrano.

Apple loses sauce, BlackBerry squashed and Microsoft, er, WinsPhones (Nokia's)

Monty Burns

HTC Continue to Alienate

HTC Continue to alienate some power users (myself included) that have multiple MicroSD cards full of media. And without doubt, these same people also require multiple batteries (Although this can be augmented by a portable charger but it's still not as convenient). Note, this also becomes incredibly handy when you figure in that the same media and cards can also be used on my tablet.

Give me a MicroSD slot AND removable batteries and I'll be all over HTC like a rash. Until then? I'll be sticking with an S4 (5/6/7....?)

Samsung pulls Galaxy S3 update as users moan: It's PANTS

Monty Burns

Re: Battery life not a problem

No, but when we go out in to the desert exploring, running GPS mapping ... it is quite handy to have a spare battery or 2 for INSTANT 100% recharge. Much like it is to carry a can of extra gas!

I guess not everyone lives in the desert though. But then you could always just go camping...

Monty Burns

Re: I have an iPhone

"Anonymous just to make sure you carry on avoiding me."

That doesn't make sense.

Microsoft: Ha ha, my Wall Street friends - THIS time the victory is OURS

Monty Burns

Re: I nearly bought a Surface Pro 2 today.

"My previous tablet was a Samsung Series 7 Slate. WiFi took a full two minutes before connecting."

Dunno what happened with yours but mines been fine since day 1

Monty Burns

Re: why compare apple and ms?

"iPads and iPhones are used almost universally by SENIOR people in business (ie those who earn over £250,000 pa) on a BYOD basis "

what are you yapping on about?? just look at your own (pulled out of your arse) figures. That figure is well into the 1% earners so are you saying less than 1% of the population uses apple? Sales figures would disagree.

Oh and lots of my junior staff have iPhones and a lot of them are on about 10% of your mystical number. Btw, i'm well into that 1% and not an Apple product to be seen...not even Quicktime

Play Elite, Pitfall right now: Web TIME PORTAL opens to vintage games, apps

Monty Burns

Re: David Braben's supposed to be quite litigious, isn't he?

leave them in the past.... I watched Big Trouble In Little China recently, dreadfull

Who here needs to explain things to ELEPHANTS?

Monty Burns

Re: Something to point with?

"Dogs don't understand pointing. Point at something and a dog looks at your finger, not the object."

Maybe YOUR dog Jeeves but my black lab understands perfectly. I can point behind him and he will turn around, I can point to either side and he will look that way (not at my finger).

Sony Xperia Z Ultra: The quad-core 2.2GHz MEGA SCREEN PHONDLESLAB

Monty Burns

WTF...

Did you really waste all that lager? Madness.

F-16 fighter converted to drone

Monty Burns

Re: And the first step towards Skynet has been taken...

We Brit's created Skynet decades ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_%28satellite%29

Sony sets dates for US and Euro PS4 unleashment amid Xbox heckles

Monty Burns

Comparison?

I wonder how console gaming stacks up against PC gaming in terms of numbers (and maybe sales? But aren't the game prices different?)

I personally can't stand console gaming even though I have my X360 rigged up to a single VERY big screen. I'd much rather play WoT's or Eve on my tripple screen PC as I think the multi-player experience is better, imo.

USA reverses iPhone, iPad sales ban

Monty Burns

Re: Correct descision, even if the taint lingers

Sadly, I have to agree with you.

Apple were idiots to start all this but what's done, is done, and this could have been a real kick in the nuts for Apple that possibly could have costs jobs and affected real people. Financial compensation does seem to be the only sensible way to go.

And, let's be honest, competition is a good thing, even if some people do take it to the extreme and "hate" the other company (get a life people!!)

Egad! Could Samsung be cheating in Galaxy benchmark tests?

Monty Burns

Re: Proper mobile benchmarking

Agreed! And they usually do!

But his statement is still plainly wrong.

Monty Burns

Re: Proper mobile benchmarking

"These type of toy benchmarks were mostly exterminated from articles about PCs about 10 years ago..."

You must be reading VERY different webpages to me! Tomshardware, for example is often covered with them.

Samsung overtakes Apple as most profitable global handset maker

Monty Burns

"The HTC One has twice the capacity "

Not without an SD slot it doesn't.

The future of cinema and TV: It’s game over for the hi-res hype

Monty Burns

Re: Showscan

"Back to the Future ride at Universal studios"

Which is now, and has been for a few years, The Simpsons. I think I preferred the Back to the Future version.

Review: Samsung Galaxy S4

Monty Burns

Re: I've had mine since Friday

Because he can? ;)

£600 might be a lot to you, to some it's not.... and it also depends on your priorities. Some people value cars, some women, some tv systems, some ... phones.

Plans for fully 3D-printed gun go online next week

Monty Burns

David, you missed the point

I don't have a milling machine at home or the knowledge to use one.

This? Plug in to USB, file>open... Select plans and press Print!

Also your milled gun makes metal detectors go mental, this wouldn't.

Scottish SF master Iain M Banks reveals he has less than a year to live

Monty Burns

Re: "We Find Ghoulish Humour Helps"

lol - so true! Sounds to me like you could take up the "Culture" series and continue ;)

Mr Banks, I'm sure you google yourself and I'm sure you are roughly 1 trillion hits at the moment but, please enjoy the rest of your time. My mum is terminally ill and I get a limited incite to where you are. Do EVERYTHING you thought "yeah we must do that sometime....", get that bucket list going.

And thank you, for all the books, for all the hours reading them and re-reading them.... and re-reading them again! (Just finished Consider Phelbas for a 3rd time!)

I've just started "The Hydrogen Sonata" and so far, it's your usual exceptional talent. Thank you.

Review: HTC One

Monty Burns

Re: No SD card slot, no removable battery

Agreed!

I'm going on a long motorcycle ride today and need to swap my battery as I'll be using the phone as satnav and GPS tracking.

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