* Posts by Matt W

61 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2007

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Police deny targeting kids for DNA

Matt W
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Wordless

<weeps>

Wolfram Alpha - a new kind of Fail

Matt W
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Not for the consumer

It can tell me how far it is London to Sydney, but when you try "Cheapest fare London to Sydney" the result is "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input".

I can see that mathematicians and some engineers may have a use for this, but the great steaming unwashed (such as myself) - No.

Per James Hughes's comment, I can't see that the audience is big enough to make money.

Failed Nork rocket bits straddle Japan

Matt W
IT Angle

@Alaska

How much of the US oil and gas reserves would be made radioactive ?

Workplace dispute laws change today

Matt W
Stop

IANAL

But before we get excited, it's worth pointing out that if you already get public holidays as paid days off, this does not increase your annual leave entitlement.

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/holidays/index.html

Isle of Man e-bike trial loses racers

Matt W
Boffin

Where's the hydrogen crew

Have Intelligent Energy gone titsup ?

Hmmmmm - 'Unable to load this page'

Third e-bike to line up for 'zero-emission' TT sprint

Matt W
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Bah

The hydrogen ENV looked a far better prospect of getting anywhere near the energy density required for real utility.

http://www.intelligent-energy.com/index_article.asp?SecID=5&secondlevel=76&artid=3949

Bloodhound supercar is 'recession beater', says promoter

Matt W
Stop

@Sam

Lumens per watt is highest from those sodium lamps. LED's are not as efficient.

For everyone though the key question is, who gets paid more ? A graduate accountant, or a graduate engineer ? Even that Kay bloke from Oxford got his degree in Chemistry, but is infact, working one of the Big 4 Accounting firms in Reading. There's a reason for that.

How the Feds shook hands with an internet pedophile

Matt W
Flame

@ AC 08:26, @ Lionel Baden

AC - They tried that way first.

Lionel - Are you an example of what we can expect at half-term ? Darkside of the internet ? Not black & white ? Bah !

Man robs convenience store with Klingon sword

Matt W

Paris Hilton Vs. Klingon

There's only one way to tell.....FIGHT !

Pinch Trojan lives on after authors' convictions

Matt W
Black Helicopters

Question

Does The Register have a policy of never naming names on AV ? It seems that there have been a few similar articles in which it is implied that some AV packages are not protecting the user.

Immortal Dr Who jellyfish poised to rule Earth

Matt W
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@Fluffykins

Genius.

Mine is on the other side of the planet. That's only just far enough.

ING cuts jobs as exhausted boss quits

Matt W

@AC 10:59GMT

True.

As there's no point in saving any money with rates so low, I'm blowing it while I can. That big screen represents my civic duty to Argos employees !

Windows 7 public beta end date named

Matt W
Joke

Obligatory

http://www.xkcd.com/528/

Fantasy author hired to pen Doom 4 plot

Matt W
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Duct tape

Makes Doom 3 the game it should have been. Still playing it now. With a 8800GT it looks marvellous and still makes me jump.

CPW's Dunstone admits 'dread' over state of the economy

Matt W

Hardly surprising

Sounds about right to me.

419ers take Canadian for $150,000

Matt W
Pirate

Pah ! Small potatoes

*Real* marks get taken for GBP 130k

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4047498.Hampshire_man_loses___130_000_in_internet_scam/

Attack of the quarter-ton, 'fridge-sized' killer jellyfish

Matt W

Simple really

All we need to do is breed some two tonne turtles to eat them.

</gamera>

CSC orders staff home in cost-cutting shutdown

Matt W
Alert

Where's the money ?

I can see that there may be some small savings in power and so forth, but the real costs of staff, kit and facilities are largely fixed. All I can see here is a possible productivity gain in 2009.

'Faith-based' investment firm fingers holiday's most sinful games

Matt W
Paris Hilton

My kids

Are always giving me helpful advice, before being chased away.

"You should've used the chain gun, Dad"

Brings a warm glow to my heart.

No mention of the 'Redeemer' as a nuclear-tipped cruise missile ? Bah.

Why is information delivery so bloody hard?

Matt W

We have all your data right here

But information requires undertsanding, and a knowldedge of business drivers and indicators. Anyone can do a simple project report, but realistic and useful reports, i.e. information, require people with knowledge and undertsanding to process the data.

It's hard because you need people who have those things, are articulate, and handy with query/report tools. They should have a deep knowledge of the business, some finance and IT literacy. Even then, they may get let down if management doesn't know what it wants.

DSGi profit plummets 30%

Matt W
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@ ACs - Other retailers

Just bought a new washing machine from Boots ! I never even knew they were in the business, and they were £63 cheaper than DSG.

DSG need to seriously work on their pricing, service, stock, staff ...well, the whole thing really.

Nvidia launches GTX 200 series GPUs

Matt W
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In other news

You can get an 8800GT for ~GBP100 now. Good value from where I'm sitting. (Railgun ahoy !)

Is Vista ready for Business?

Matt W
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@Neil Hoskins

Agreed. I'm not so concerned as I don't own a Wii, but Vista refuses to talk to the home router with WPA. It's WEP or WPA2 only. i.e. buy a new router.

Unimpressed.

Windows XP SP3 blame game begins

Matt W
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Works fine for me

As I was unable to get onto a WU server, I downloaded the full file (not the ISO), and manually updated. No probs at all for my venerable Evesham P4.

Id Dooms gamers to new shoot-'em-up sequel

Matt W
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@Mark and @Red

Enemy Territory:Quake Wars runs very well indeed on Linux. developed on the Doom3 engine by Splash Damage here in London. I cannot see why a Doom4 on linux wouldn't be possible.

Is the earth getting warmer, or cooler?

Matt W
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Hmmmmm

One statistician fighting another never impresses me. This is a troll article intended to set the pack baying.

Unfortunately, I can't resist....

If we are going to get into this then one point strikes me. Surely a long term trend (100 years) would be more useful to analyse than the last 10 years.

The trends in the first two graphs above agree on the long term trend.

<insert your favourite GW vs Conspiracy theory rant here>

Shell pulls out of Thames Estuary mega-windfarm

Matt W

We need a Troll icon

This is stolen I'm afraid.

Nuclear Power, Climate Change, Agrarian Society. Choose.

Slashdot website down

Matt W
Joke

Not terrible

Think of the 'First Post' opportunities when they come back up.

<ducks>

Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

Matt W
Happy

@ Batcat

Dammit ! I now have coffee on the keyboard.

I would pay to see that fight.

Fake subpoenas harpoon 2,100 corporate fat cats

Matt W
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@Stu Reeves

Those requests are not limited to IT by any means.

@James - Spot on. Management needs to talk to IT and vice versa. Hang on, I feel a song coming on....

Ofcom climbs on Byron bandwagon

Matt W
Paris Hilton

On the bright side

This attempt at content blocking would create the ideal motivation for kids to learn more about the technology in their homes. The next generation of IT professionals are on their way.

The fact that filtering has never worked is entirely moot.

Paris for obvious reasons.

Transgender man prepares to give birth

Matt W
IT Angle

If we are going to limit ourselves to gender prounouns

Then there's no winning this argument.

If you define gender by genetics = Female

By genitalia present = Female

By mind = Male

By law = Male

El Reg offers cut-and-paste comments service

Matt W
Happy

Marvellous

Now that's innovation. A true labour-saving device at last. Bookmarked.

MS bundles Vista SP1 and Server 2008 out the door

Matt W
Gates Horns

I can only hope

That they'll make Vista work with WPA now. Longest running issue ever.

http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?pageindex=1&siteid=17&postid=481371&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=1

AMD braces for financial mayhem from ATI acquisition

Matt W

@Mark Spooner

Goodwill = The premium that you paid for a comapny above the net value of it's assets. Impairment of the goodwill means that AMD is writing down the value of ATI

Newegg serves up Asus Eee PC to US buyers

Matt W
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Your Calcs are wrong

The 15" laptop will probably come with Windows and therefore will require an investment in AV and similar software. Plus hassle of maintenance. The Eee runs Xandros IIRC and comes pre loaded with FF, Open Office etc. It's a quick boot and go device with lower maintenance costs. Over the life of the product I would expect that it's much cheaper.

Sure, you could load Ubuntu on your 15" laptop, but how many people actually do ? Very few in the general population. I certainly wouldn't feel that confident in doing so. But the Eee is preloaded, pre-formatted and <grits teeth> it should 'just work'. This could be where Linux really first penetrates the desktop.

Public rejoices at new 'green' nukes

Matt W

Haven't we trolled/rahted this before ?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/07/greens_nuke_nuke_debate/comments/

Yes that is the most leading question I have seen in a long time...But in the absence of any alternative means of generating power in the quantities that we demand, it's either nuclear or sitting in the dark. Yes we can delay the inevitable with efficencies and some renewables but given the long lead times of construction we have to get serious now.

Greens walk out of nuclear debate

Matt W

Oh for goodness sake

<Basil>It's very simple. We need to start building for the future now. Our choices are,

(a) Further fossil fuel plants. Cheap and efficient but produce Gigatonnes of pollutants. Politically unacceptable.

(b) Renewables. Expensive, unreliable and low energy density. Politically acceptable however.

(c) Fission reactors. Expensive, reliable and efficient. Politically less acceptable.

(d) Other. Includes Fusion reactors, microwave solar sateillites et al.. Not a solution in the near future.

So what we to do ? Obviously, buy time with efficency, encourage micro-power generation by property holders and build fission plants. Renewables have a place, but it's never going to be huge with such low output. Plough savings into R&D on renewables and fusion. My money is fusion becoming cost effective long before a wind farm does.

Boy racer cuffed for 140mph YouTube jaunt

Matt W

If that's the video

I don't see how he could have been nicked.

Viral epidemic strikes Spain's Mediterranean dolphins

Matt W

Milli-cetacean

I like the sound of a nano-cetacean. Tricky counting the little swines at that size though.

Siphoning MySpace tunes using Safari

Matt W

AN Other media player

http://www.getmiro.com/

Storm Worm of a thousand faces

Matt W

@ I *am* an expert

Well, I'm reassured that experts, ostensibly with a doctorate, use terms like 'luser'. Go forth and multiply, troll.

Do IT chiefs lack vision?

Matt W

Re Re Troll fest

Completely agree - In fact I think a pint may be in order.

I was merely pointing out that even when you have all of those foundations laid, the business will still need the connection to real revenue displayed. This would then form the basis of the the ROI or NPV, and would then be reviewed post implementation.

As far as I can see these lurches from one management banana peel to the next are caused by the CIO trying desperately to meet subjective measures put in place without reference to business outcomes. That is to say - Cash.

Mac and iPod save Apple's quarter

Matt W

Math ?

Are you sure ? 225 million handsets in one quarter seems pretty impressive.

Cat senses impending death

Matt W

Dogs have been doing this for years

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060106002944.htm

Motorola signs up for tiny projectors

Matt W

Nice

When are we getting the phaser-phone ? I'd buy that...

Mobile-mast danger is all in your head

Matt W

Interesting discussion

at Ben Goldacre's Bad Science.net

http://www.badscience.net/?p=470

Including the following very heartening statement from Graham Phillips of the Powerwatch website. Who until recently was completely in denial over these studies, and made money by selling <cough>protective devices<cough> to those people who seem to suffer from Electro-sensitivity.

"Of course, the help might be entirely placebo, and in a lot of cases I suspect it is - but for some it might be very real, and I for one would have no idea which is the case.

I will certainly look at making sure we have psychological recommendations for treatment on the Powerwatch website, but beyond that I really cannot say for the time being."

Miss America calls for mandatory internet safety classes

Matt W

Ignorance is more the issue

Most kids really do have a better grasp of the functionalities of the family PC than their parents. (This readership is an eception, but is not representative of the general public).

I have been to many parents houses where their kids have full untrammelled access to a connected PC, often in their bedroom, simply because their parents don't have a clue. I have seen 13 yr old girls on two or three social sites, IM, email, IRC etc simultaneously, whilst broadcasting from their webcam to whomever. The parents just brusjed it all off as 'kids stuff' that they really didn't undertsand. Partly I think from being too proud to admit their ignorance.

I agree with the parent post - I think that there is a real market out there to educate the <i><b>parents</b></i> on how to keep your kids safe. As far as I can see most of them don't have a clue.

Brainless civil servant amazes doctors

Matt W

Nothing new here

Google John Lorber, a British neurologist, and his work on hydrocephaly. (sp?)

Microsoft Windows patent will spy for advertisers

Matt W

Smut filled ads ?!

Where ? Where ? Lead me to them...

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