* Posts by Robert E A Harvey

3010 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Oct 2006

Only Samsung will challenge Apple's iPad in 2012

Robert E A Harvey
Stop

here we go again

Look, we don't know if there will be a Euro after christmas, or if some natural disaster will wipe out a vital manufacturing process. We don't know if our money will still work in a years time.

We don't know if Samsung will be /allowed/ to sell in certain markets, or perhaps if Apple will.

We don't know the price the new zoom will be offered at, or which eBooks will be offered in europe

So how can we know the individual market shares to this precision?

Sony Alpha SLT-A35 translucent mirror camera

Robert E A Harvey
Thumb Up

OK, smarty

The picture of St Michael in mid air is pretty good.

Robert E A Harvey

Why is that then?

The article says that the translucent mirror implies an electronic viewfinder.

Why is that? I can imagine a translucent mirror with a conventional prism and optical viewfinder, albeit with a reduced brightness.

(missing icon: big Question mark)

Robert E A Harvey

I have to agree. Some of the later Minolta glass was simply superb.

Gartner: Eurozone crisis will bash IT spending

Robert E A Harvey
Holmes

>Eurozone crisis will bash IT spending

NSS?

Why are Gartner's predictions either ludicrously over-precise or blindingly obvious?

Is the electromagnetic constant a constant?

Robert E A Harvey
Boffin

The /really/ interesting question is

"OK - certain fundamentals are not fixed after all. Can we /manipulate/ them?

Robert E A Harvey

Old Programmer's Lore

Constants aren't

Variables don't

Robert E A Harvey
Coat

>Apparently he is ok in Real Life though.

Most of us are, thank $DEITY

Robert E A Harvey

fine structure

This is the fine structure constant yes/no?

If so it is known (defined?) to be a ratio between electron charge, Planck constant, speed of light, & permativity/permeability of free space.

So which of these is also varying around the dipole? Seems like we only got half the story.

Sounds like a new type of michelson-morley to me.

Common brain parasite 'can affect host's actions'

Robert E A Harvey

Oldish news, although the Dopamine mechanism may be newly quantified. Have a look at:

Proc. R. Soc. B November 7, 2006 273:2749-2755 ; Kevin D Lafferty; "Can the common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, influence human culture?" -

"The latent prevalence of a long-lived and common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, explains a statistically significant portion of the variance in aggregate neuroticism among populations, as well as in the ‘neurotic’ cultural dimensions of sex roles and uncertainty avoidance. "

http://www.livescience.com/7019-mind-control-parasites.html

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/2/11 "The subjects with latent toxoplasmosis have significantly increased risk of traffic accidents than the noninfected subjects. "

Jaroslav Flegr, of Prague, have shown that widespread infection is associated with changing the sex ration from 104:100 boys:girls to 260:100.

Groupon's IPO: don't get too excited about 30% rise

Robert E A Harvey
FAIL

All the UK offers I have seen are things like fish foot massage or "£90 for one lap of an airport in a Lambo". All things that cost nothing much, so selling them at half price is still worthwhile, especially since you can then slot the customers into yer off days.

In have yet to see anything with a fungible value on sale. All the offers are for things I would not have as a free gift, let alone at the Groupon price (and certainly not at the alleged "full" price).

It isn't real, is it?

Open 'Facebook killer' survives on cash donations

Robert E A Harvey

Perhaps we need to name it facepalm?

Natwest net and phone banking goes titsup

Robert E A Harvey

yes, two in the same week does seem like enemy action

Shock movie upset - Daniel Craig still James Bond 007

Robert E A Harvey
Angel

@n4blue

Genius!

I'd watch that!

Robert E A Harvey

Please NO!

No John sodding Cleese, no Harry fucking Hill, and preferably not Russel shitbrains Brand either.

Why not a female Q? Someone like Joanna Lumley? or Zoë Wanamaker?

Robert E A Harvey

Delay

Surely most of the delay has been raising the money, cos Question of Sport was rubbish.

Robert E A Harvey
Coat

ooh, how about whotisface [1] orf the X factor? [2]

[1] I don't actually know any of their names, I've only seen it once.

[2] I'm only stirring, here.

Are we in the middle of a patent bubble?

Robert E A Harvey
Big Brother

Who told you about my pizza fusion process?

The Beeb is broken

Robert E A Harvey

... and now gpodder says that all the podcast rss feeds are missing.

Robert E A Harvey

You say that clicking things takes you to the normal pages, but trying to play radio or podcasts is coming up 502 here.

RIM is now worth less than its assets

Robert E A Harvey

So can google now top up their patent pot rather cheaply?

Kindle users can 'borrow' an extra book - forever

Robert E A Harvey

be fair, amazon don't get a slug of yer council tax.

Airbus brews Scandium smackdown for carbon Dreamliner

Robert E A Harvey

All true, but how cool would it be if people built new Dakotas? And Ford Trimotors?

Robert E A Harvey
Holmes

It can't be very difficult to find someone with 2 product lines, one of which is advertised as containing Scandium.

HP has another crack at fondleslab market

Robert E A Harvey
Headmaster

Well, quite.

here is Harvey's prediction.

At the end of 2012 windows tablets will make up <0.5% of the market

At the end of 2013 they will make up <1%

That will be their peak.

Robert E A Harvey

Well

Well, at last they are starting to think instead of shooting from the hip.

I hope its not too late for them.

I had waited a year for a webos device, and was badly let down with what they offered. They are going to have to do something truly remarkable now.

Bill Gates strangled Microsoft's 'tablet for creatives'

Robert E A Harvey

@petur

Right. And who was running the company? The Balrog.

Robert E A Harvey

>Gates reportedly asked Allard how Courier users would receive email on the device

See, much as I dislike him, this is why he got rich. He understands the real world, not some sort of fantasy like the RIM people have.

I still don't like his company, but he goes up in my estimation again.

Desperate RIM in 'buy two PlayBooks, get one free' offer

Robert E A Harvey

@James51: Whilst I might agree with you, it seems that the management at Rim aren't thinking like that. They've built a zebra, no-one wants a Zebra, so they are trying to convince people it's a racehorse. Doeasn't matter how good a Zebra it is, they are pretending they made something else.

Official: Kindles get heavier as you add e-books

Robert E A Harvey

"Yeth Marthter"

"Igor! the Kindles!"

Robert E A Harvey
Meh

Hard Disks

This idea surfaced (!) a couple of years ago for hard disks. There, IMHO, the refutation is easier: a magnetic domain weighs the same no matter what way up it is.

Now I know less about the structure of eeprom cells, and it is not impossible that there are more minority carriers trapped in a '1' than a '0'. Are they symmetrical, these days, or a single junction? That might represent a difference in mass: but as others have said the battery would have to be topped back up before making any measurements.

Farewell then, Sony Ericsson

Robert E A Harvey
Thumb Down

Yes, but Sony rootkitted my pc because I bought one of their CDs, not because I copied one. I never did that. All I did was play the damn thing, which is what I bought it for.

Last thing I ever bought from them.

Robert E A Harvey

Pedantry

Rotary telephone? or rotary dial?

Cheaper competition? Right, we're outta here

Robert E A Harvey

These unbrave CEOs will be the death of the west, you mark my words.

Google TV receives (much needed) upgrade

Robert E A Harvey

Neither the blog you link to, or the web page it links to, mention anything outside the USA.

Nor, come to think of it, does the article mention that this is a Leftpondian project.

How about World TV, anyone? I'd love to watch Australian cop series, and watch google translate subtitling Polish ones.

CERN boffins re-running neutrino speed test

Robert E A Harvey

I don't think you can persuade neutrinos to go round corners.

Robert E A Harvey

Igor!

Igor! The Swit...

Oh, you have already, already.

Applied Micro leaps ahead in ARM server race

Robert E A Harvey

@Ramazan

Yes, but admit it.

1. It would be cool

2. It would surprise the hell out of Intel

3. It would be cool.

Robert E A Harvey

Impressed.

LG LSM-100 Mouse Scanner

Robert E A Harvey

Just the ticket

my portable page scanner can't do till reciepts. This looks the dogs bollocks.

Miley Cyrus cracker: 'I'm too short for the slammer!'

Robert E A Harvey

The whole Smiley Virus thing is beyond odd. Are you sure she isn't Jeannette Krankey?

Robert E A Harvey
Headmaster

"am I a bad person?"

Yes.

AMD beats analysts' bets with profitable quarter

Robert E A Harvey

Yes, and There are relatively simple tabulations on wikilies too.

But surely I should be able to go to a chip makers wibble & find out what they make? what the architectures are? the instruction set & extensions? the interfaces, the memory types supported?

Not be subjected to hand waving & smoke and mirrors condescension?

Robert E A Harvey

I just wish they could explain their products on their web site. I can't find a simple tabulation of what the different processors available are.

All I can find are a page-per-product with things like "Edit really big movies!"

Back in the 80s I could get copies of the data sheets for things like CPUs and make informed decisions. Now I appear to be a moron.

Dell bundles Ubuntu Linux on PCs in China

Robert E A Harvey

I wonder how the chinese will take to unity?

Details of all internet traffic should be logged – MEP

Robert E A Harvey
Thumb Down

Oh well. Time to switch off.

Not because I have anything to hide, but because the cost of all that storage will fall on the ISP, and therefore on me.

If I had anything to hide, I could use an anoynymous vpn somewhere like latvia. I'm just fed up with being governed by complete morons.

Google Maps API now costs $4 per 1,000 requests

Robert E A Harvey
Unhappy

But there is nothing evil about giving free samples before selling things.

or if there is, we will have to exorcise Persil, Kenco, and garages that let you have a weekend-long test drive.

Oh hang on. At least one of those is evil, isn't it?

Windows XP and iPod: A tale of two birthdays

Robert E A Harvey

Can I point out that I have a rational Microsoft hatred?

Credit card companies plan to sell your purchase data to advertisers

Robert E A Harvey
Stop

Not sure what to think about this. I am, of course, against it on first principles.

But my buying history would almost certainly blow several fuses in the algorithm, so I would get my vengance that way.

‘Want to be more secure? Don’t be stupid’ redux

Robert E A Harvey

Easy. That's what Kesteven Consultants charge £2500 a day for. My phone number is...