* Posts by ChrisInAStrangeLand

165 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

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NASA firms up Space Launch System nanosat manifest

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

20kg payload on a 90,000kg rocket to nowhere.

It's been twelve years since project Constellation was launched by President George Bush Jr and NASA still has not been appropriated funding for any payloads other than a lunar flyby with a dummy capsule. And it's looking like they won't be before the test flights conclude and the rocket is cancelled.

What a collossal and criminal waste of $30B.

Standing desks have no effect on productivity, boffins find

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Paris Hilton

Well done boffins.

Hypothesis: Standing desks improve general health in later life, increasing lifetime workforce participation and national productivity.

Experiment: Test effect of standing desks on short term minute to minute productivity metrics.

Conclusion: We didn't measure anything worth measuring, give us more money.

NBN boss unleashes Australian Net Neutrality debate

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

CVC price gouging.

The key issue is that "CVC" or "backhaul" to an ISP owned DSLAM via leased or owned fiber is less than 1/10th the cost per Mbit that NBN is charging for connection to their last mile infrastructure. ISPs can't afford to allow ANY services to run at fiber speeds because CVC is just so ludicrous compared to what they are paying now. NBN's position on the matter of CVC charges is "fuck you we're a national telecoms monopoly".

There's only one way to solve this, it's for the ACCC to mandate that NBN provide wholesale access to the unlit local fiber loop. ISPs can colocate equipment at every POP so as to avoid ludicrous CVC and AVC charges and offer the world class service that NBN won't provide.

Attempted bank robber demands cash transfer ... to his own account

ChrisInAStrangeLand

"The mind boggles when attempting to understand how someone can be this stupid and yet manage to survive to 61."

The age is right for dementia. If he wasn't all there at court it would explain the ridiculously tiny sentence for committing two bank robberies.

No point wasting 50k per year incarcerating a man who isn't going to be able to tie his shoelaces in a few years.

If at first you don't succeed, you're probably Google: Android Pay arrives

ChrisInAStrangeLand

In Google's defense, everyone in the industry was deliberately obstructing them in an entirely misguided and ludditic attempt to prevent the evil Google empire from establishing a standard for mobile payments. And now that Tim Cook's fruit company is that standard everyone is panicking and rushing back to Google for help.

Rinse and repeat with local banks in every market that first Google, then ISIS, then Apple, and then Google will enter.

FBI probed SciFi author Ray Bradbury for plot to glum-down America

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Facepalm

Re: America

By Third World you mean to say that America is unaligned militarily with America or the Soviet Union?

Marvell-LESS! Chip giant slashes $1.5bn judgment in CMU patent fight

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: DRAM image.

The Reg has a collection of stock photography they cycle through in different stories. I'd guess that it was part of a set taken by an intern of "techy" objects lying around their office so as to avoid paying royalties.

If you do an image search you'll notice this one is reused on a few articles.

EU: Explain your tax affairs. Google, Amazon, Facebook: Mmm... nah

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Stop

Re: Can someone help me ...

"So ... what have I missed?"

European manufacturing and agricultural exporters.

If you're required to pay profits in the country of sale then Germany and France are going to get their budgets destroyed come tax time.

John McAfee cuffed by Tennessee cops, faces drug-driving, gun rap

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: Not buying it

It is a legal requirement to have a warning label, but this is only to shield the doctor or pharmacist from liability in the case of a motor vehicle / heavy machinery accident. If you are taking any prescribed medication as directed, with the exception of medical cannabis which is legislated seperately, you are not legally intoxicated regardless of impairment.

The cop most likely pulled him out of the car because he saw a bottle, made an ass of himself, and then tried to book him with everything under the sun to save face.

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: Perry Mason always gets you off...

"The law does not allow any drug/alcohol at all while in procession of an accessible firearm."

Unless that drug is prescribed and taken as directed, in which case you aren't legally intoxicated regardless of effects. Ask your doctor. And your lawyer.

McAfee is guilty of lots of things. But not intoxication while driving or carrying a firearm in the state of Tennessee.

Tesla still burning cash: each car loses $4,000

ChrisInAStrangeLand
IT Angle

Reg financial writers are talentless hacks

Tesla is pouring the foundations on a new multibillion dollar battery facility, building a global charger network from scratch, and two new mass market models for release in 2016 so of course they're spending money. You don't just divide quarterly cash flow by number of cars and "OMG $4K PER CAR LOSS".

Sony tells hacked gamer to pay for crooks' abuse of PlayStation account

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Small claims court.

Take Sony to small claims for all the content they stole. If they don't show you'll get a default judgement.

Want to hide your metadata? You probably can't

ChrisInAStrangeLand

"I do not speak to police without the presence of legal counsel. This conversation is recorded on my dashcam. Am I being detained or am I free to go?"

Microsoft's naughty Cortana NOT ALLOWED NEAR CHILDREN

ChrisInAStrangeLand

COPPA

The reason for this is COPPA. Specifically it requires creating an orwellian audit trail of all personal information, or anything that might be construed as personal, or deemed personal, or contain content that is personal, of a child's activities. Basically Microsoft has to log everything every child on it's service does and email it to parents if at some time in the future they ask for it. Like every other provider they just say it's too hard and demand you tick the 13+ checkbox.

COPPA is the opposite of child protection and should be abolished.

Microsoft: The MORE Surfaces it sells, the MORE money it loses

ChrisInAStrangeLand

How about building a tablet.

If Microsoft built a Surface Atom with a nice IPS 1080p screen they'd be raking in cash. None of the Windows competition is well made, it's poorly assembled plastic with netbook screens, and the Pro is just too heavy for a tablet.

Yes, Google can afford to lose $9bn in Motorola sale. But did it really?

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Stranded offshore income benefits.

The other benefit Google has is that they completed the sale using stranded offshore cash that would have to be repatriated to the US at a 35% tax rate. Asset sales to Arris and Lenovo do not incur a tax liability. That brings down the $12.5B purchase price to $8.1B.

So Google potentially made billions after tax.

Qualcomm chief: Why is China probing us? We haven't a clue

ChrisInAStrangeLand

What moved Qualcomm to "near monopoly" in the west wasn't "predatory pricing" it was "predatory competence". Everyone else failed to get an LTE chip to market in a timely manner.

Qualcomm has absolutely no leverage to bully other players out of the market. They build on the same foundries as everyone else and there are simply too many ARM licensees and radio manufacturers competing for business.

ABC finally brings iView to Android

ChrisInAStrangeLand

You want access to my what?

The permissions are a little crazy. They must be running a few little side-apps for the ASD and ASIO.

Gadget world's metals irreplaceable, say boffins

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: Tantalum

Tantalum is used in electrolytic capacitors, which will be very soon replaced with much cheaper and more plentiful laser scribed graphene. If you look at this list there are replacements for most of these elements. Despite being called a "rare earth", neodymium is in very very large supply, potentially millions of years, for permanent magnets.

Winner of Google's most wired Australian town award is...North Sydney?

ChrisInAStrangeLand

My guess is that they are collapsing the entire North Shore area into North Sydney as shorthand, for the benefit of people who don't live in Sydney and don't know the suburbs. There's a few interesting small companies in Neutral Bay and Cammeray too.

Mobile price competition stirs in Australia

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: Not that impressive

The point of 4G is latency. Vodafail 3G was over 2000 milliseconds when I flicked them.

Space hotelier Bigelow wants capitalists to FIGHT comm-MOON-ist takeover

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Coat

You and what mass driver?

Kinetic bombardment is 9/10ths of the law. Lets see the loonies hold their title when they're being shotgunned with ball bearings without the protective shield of an atmosphere.

Coroner suggests cars should block mobile phones

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Coroner suggest cars *could* block phones.

"Maybe the Coroner KNOWS the idea is stupid. But by suggesting something totally stupid and unworkable it sparks debate and brings the issue into the public eye for consideration and possible better suggestions."

The Coroner's job is to identify causes of death, and suggest and highlight mechanisms that would prevent or lower the incidence of death. In this case the coroner has identified on the basis of mobile phone records that malfunctioning software (in the drive by wire system) was likely not the cause of death. They have proposed a solution to the actual cause of death that would help prevent future deaths. This is the coroners job.

It is the job of the legislature to weigh the social costs of this recommendation if it is addressed at all.

Yet another business advisor told Labor NBN was a dud: reports

ChrisInAStrangeLand

I think Google style "active ethernet to the pole", with optional FTTH (with customer paying full on premises cost up front) for those who want it, and picocells for the oldies would solve the problem. Why blow $3,000 + financing costs per premises if fiber is not being used?

Also, could they hurry the frack up and deploy it. 2021 is way too long to rot on DOCSIS 2.0 now that Optus have stopped investing in their network.

We've invented the FONBLET, says Samsung

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Yes, Invented.

What's a better marketing word for "everyone in management is confused that this utterly ridiculous and moronic market segment exists, but it does so we're shipping product"?

I think Fonblet is fine.

Intel touts 2-in-1s, the 'new' reincarnation of convertibles

ChrisInAStrangeLand

I had a Toshiba Lifebook P1610 from 2006 for notetaking, it was an awesome 10" convertible with better build quality, processor, battery life and screen than any netbook trash on the market five years later.

If they could make one thinner and lighter, with a bay trail processor, I'd gladly pay Surface Pro money for it.

Why Teflon Ballmer had to go: He couldn't shift crud from Windows 8, Surface

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: I'm a MSFT Fan But.....

"2010.... lol Try ca~2006/7 whenever it was that the C2D Conroe hit."

Yeah, three years ago I upgraded my desktop 2.4Ghz C2D Conroe to an Overstock.com Yorkfield Q9550 C2Q. Overclocked it to 4Ghz, for a total cost of $45 including a new cooler and shipping.

I'm thinking it'll do fine for another few years.

Who did Apple LIE TO: Australia or America?

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

That's great mate, but what happens to your corrupt little banana republic when your trading partners slap retaliatory tariffs on Australian goods?

ACCC settles backhaul price regulation

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Facepalm

Re: Quills and parchment

That's still faster than Telstra ADSL. I would even suggest stone obelisks as a high speed alternative after heavy rain.

Nvidia Tesla bigwig: Why you REALLY won't need x86 chips soon

ChrisInAStrangeLand

Re: Negative marketing wont work

"IIRC the Atoms are made with more advanced process (3D FET) than the ARMs."

You do not remember correctly, the Atoms on Intel's 22LP process haven't yet launched. Intel SOCs currently lag the state of the art at 32nm.

'He's F**KED with the wrong nerd ... I warned I'd go public'

ChrisInAStrangeLand

elreg lost plot as per usual.

Let's put surveillance cameras and drones everywhere just to stick it to this arsehole. That will show these hypocritical google evildoers who's boss.

Google's 'power to switch off the lights in Europe' has 'chilling effect' - rivals

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Trollface

A better example would be Microsoft's Enterprise, Operating System, Office, and CE business units.

Australia's coalition launches new broadband policy

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

If no tax dollars have or will be spent on NBN, and we're ripping up the coax and copper to prevent competition, how is this boondoggle being funded? Reduced service quality and monopoly rents?

Oh that's it isn't it, NBN is the Telstra model. Reduced quality and monopoly rents.

How I nearly sold rocket windows to the crazy North Koreans

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Facepalm

Re: He is almost as stupid as Geoge W

Grenada was a "proxy action" against Reagan's poor polling.

Ronnie saw Maggie strutting around after shelling the Falklands and decided he needed to demonstrate his military might on a barely inhabited island in the middle of nowhere as well.

Australia to reveal tech giants' tax tricks

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Pint

"I am not evading tax in any way, shape or form. Now of course I am minimizing my tax and if anybody in this country doesn't minimize their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra. "

-Kerry Packer.

Competition watchdog seeks NBN forecast data

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

Re: NBNCo plan to grow ARPU steeply

"Worse than prices rises is the fact that NBNCo are building a fibre network, while at the same time predicting that 50% will connect at 12/1Mbps."

What's worse is that 90% of customers could be immediately (within 2 years) serviced by 100Mbit/100Mbit VDSL2, with fiber hooked up on an at request/need basis, ala Google Fiber.

Instead we have a decade of infrastructure stagnation for the majority of customers who sit on obsolete and abandoned ADSL/Cable and are not connected to NBN fiber. Meanwhile Labor delays the build out as it tries to massage the expenditure numbers in the budget.

Brussels reviews Google's plan for not being abusive and dominant

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Stop

Re: Maps

"Google sold their stuff in every country except France, in France they gave it away in order to eliminate the French company"

That is not a factually correct statement.

Meet قلب, the programming language that uses Arabic script

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Happy

I'm going to pronounce it as "squiggle".

Google v Microsoft mobile war: Who's REALLY to blame?

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

Re: Perhaps if Microsoft shared a little love around

The reason is that Google pays a per user license. They're not paying Microsoft to make email work on non-standards compliant Microsoft phones.

If Microsoft wanted the could offer Activesync royalty free to Win8 phones. Boom, problem solved. But what they really want a scapegoat in the antitrust trial they just lost.

FTC clears Google in anticompetitive probe

ChrisInAStrangeLand
Facepalm

Re: Dodgy logic

"So if everyone is doing it, it must be OK?"

If everyone is doing it, it's not a monopoly.

Microsoft says Google trying to undermine Windows Phone

ChrisInAStrangeLand
FAIL

We demand you pay us extortionate fees to make your free mail service work on our shitty non-standards compliant clusterfuck because Antitrust.

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