* Posts by Anomynous Coward

120 publicly visible posts • joined 9 May 2012

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Microsoft gets its hypervisor war face on, squares up to VMware

Anomynous Coward

Fight! Fight! Fight!

So Microsoft is taking on Apple (and Android) at tablets and VMWare at Virtualisation - and is probably too late in both arenas.

Will they be putting a 'soccer' side out to face Spain too?

Mac-based Trojan targets Uyghur activists

Anomynous Coward

Re: Silly

"You have to be a really silly user since OSX already warns"

As do other products and yet even non-silly users of those products who considered such silliness beneath them have fallen foul of these sort of attempts.

Think how you might react to that warning if the email came from address you know?

And if it happened to come from an address you know at a time when you were expecting something from that address?

Overconfidence in your own abilities or those of your chosen supplier is one of the things people bank on.

Anomynous Coward

Re: Seriously?

Anyone who is certain that they never ever would is setting themselves up for an embarrassing fall.

Jaw-jaw no more-more as calls fall down tally of phone tasks

Anomynous Coward

"There is still something to be said for the simplicity of a phone that only makes calls."

Yes, and that is "What do you mean I can't send a text?"

Chrome hits iPhone and iPad, storms to top of download chart

Anomynous Coward

Re: I'll get it.

"If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer. You're the product being sold."

Yes, I realise that Google is not providing this solely for my benefit but I don't value what they are taking and am pretty confident I won't come to any great harm so the deal works for me.

Should I be more timid? How much sky is going to fall on my head?

Anomynous Coward

I'll get it.

I am sure Google is taking all my hugely important personal data and doing something unspeakably evil with it but frankly the cross-platform synchronisation is worth it.

Ex-NASA group plans private, crowd-funded asteroid hunter

Anomynous Coward
Joke

Re: <40m

I am certain I am not alone amongst the Reg readership in not taking kindly to your negative stereotyping of the fat and hairy.

War On Standby: Do the figures actually stack up?

Anomynous Coward

Don't disagree but I have to say there's something satisfying about encouraging the lowest possible standby energy use - it feels like it takes good design to achieve and so is just a laudable aim in itself even if it serves no real purpose.

Anomynous Coward

Warm fuzzy feeling

I assume all this 'wasted' energy used by devices on standby is warming my house up and saving on my heating costs - so for about half the year it's doing even less harm (although if one ran air con in the warm weather, should such a thing ever occur again in the UK then perhaps there would be an additional cost during that time).

Nexus 7 and Surface: A bonanza for landfill miners

Anomynous Coward

Nexus

Google has always pushed out Nexus reference devices without ruining the Android market for the other manufacturers so they might think this will be the same but I do agree that at that low price it's looking like the best option and so might make more of an impact in the sales figures than previous Nexuses (Nexi?).

If they aren't ready to turn out the hardware themselves yet or if they had an existing agreement to give the next Nexus job to Asus then you can see why they bypassed Motorola but doing so does make one wonder why they bought it in the first place - seems crazy if patents alone made it worth it.

I don't understand though why you couldn't find a use for one of these devices - outside of the real-time audio issues is there any way they are notably inferior to the iPad? I'm equally happy with my iPod Touch and my Android phone for web browsing, media access etc

There a market there and these seem like plausible entrants to it (well, I have yet to have a go on one of the Microsoft slabs but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they actually do most of what they claim).

Brit global warming skeptics now outnumber believers

Anomynous Coward

@K

"The issue is how responsible is "man", the problem is most people are sick of being told we are 100% responsible."

No that's not nearly as relevant as "Is what is happening bad for us and can we do anything about it?"

Answering those questions might also provide the answer to how responsible we are but it doesn't matter.

I'm not sure people are being told we are 100% responsible [ for the problem if there is one ] but regardless, people might be sick of it but that does not make it any more or less true.

Anomynous Coward

"It would seem that the more people hear the arguments and study the policies, the less they like them."

I really doubt that the average person has studied anything.

It all just seems like two hideously biased entrenched positions hurling predictions of economic / social / environmental doom around and trying to grab followers wherever and however they can.

Panasonic chief says no to low-cost OLED TVs

Anomynous Coward

Telly upgrade

I'm still using a CRT TV so I am probably not well placed to comment but what is it about these expensive screens that they think will convince people to shell out in a recession?

I can see why they thought 3D might do it (and I can see why they were wrong) but what do these do that the last tellies didn't?

Google unveils Nexus 7 tablet, Android 4.1 and Nexus Q

Anomynous Coward

Re: Still no fix for Audio? WTF!?!

You pick the username Slabfondler but you have not yet bought a tablet of any kind?

Anomynous Coward

I think they did it to avoid the incompatibility / support problems they bring - Nexus devices are reference machines so the hardware has to be a mailed down known quantity.

Once you get to shove any old SD card in there this is no longer the case.

It is annoying though, and might stop me buying one of these - but no doubt one of the other systems builders will provide something with a similar spec plus the card slot we'd prefer.

Anomynous Coward

Re: Errr...

"That's only just occurred to them?"

Suspect it's only just become possible to guarantee that all the hardware was up to the required spec - early android was shifting on some pretty low-spec devices.

Google wingmen rain Project Glass on San Francisco

Anomynous Coward

Re: So.....

Augmented reality software on these will one day make your partner look (even more) like the woman / man / goat / melon / washing machine of your dreams - he's working for one of the ultimate geek goals, removing the power from the beautiful people.

Now back to my Mecha-Beckham football-suit blueprints . . .

Sysadmins: Your best tale of woe wins a PRIZE

Anomynous Coward

"I reckon the boys at RBS will have this competition in the bag"

They did but unfortunately they left the bag under a leaky sewage pipe and then threw it out when they noticed it smelled funny.

Mighty ROBOT achieves total SUPREMACY over feeble humans

Anomynous Coward

Re: Wanking

"Would you trust it not to mangle your man-hood in the event of an error..."

Blue Scream of Death?

Anomynous Coward

Re: Hmm...

Or some fairly ordinary scissors judiciously applied.

Probably find a piece of paper in the right place would scupper it.

But the rock would be most fun.

'Inexperienced' RBS tech operative's blunder led to banking meltdown

Anomynous Coward

Re: Yes, but

Disagree.

Each installation of this software will be unique but if left in the fresh-from-the-box state they may only differ from each other trivially.

If the uniqueness can be trivial it can also admit of other distinctions and if this instance is differs greatly from the possible trivially unique norm then there's an understandable sense to the phrase 'highly unique'.

It might have been preferable to use the word 'particular' so it may be a stretching of the language but I do not think it breaks any useful rule.

Microsoft says tablets will trump PCs in 2013

Anomynous Coward

Think it might be true that tablets will become the norm.

I doubt that will be tablets running Windows though.

We already have tablets in our business. They are nearly all Apple.

Most of the desks have a boxy tower PC under them - no reason for that to change.

Windows tablets might take over from one or two of the laptops people use, I suppose.

I'd be surprised if they amounted to even as much as one tenth of the devices people are using here by this time next year.

Mensch pal Bozier defends Menshn security, dubs critics 'snippy geeks'

Anomynous Coward

Re: Come 'n 'ave a go if you think y'er 'ard enuff

Doesn't appear to be online at present.

Still, never mind; I was only visiting to pick up SQL tips.

Google Nexus 7 price, details confirmed in pre-I/O leak

Anomynous Coward

You know that all looks okay to me

If it does hit that price point and battery life is respectable I will probably buy one.

(I'd still love to have an IR transmitter built in though).

Facebook loses face: Faced down in faceoff over face-placing

Anomynous Coward

Like buck

"to opt out or – better still – to earn a couple of bucks from the process"

That's the truth. Would not be hard to persuade people to whore themselves out pushing any old tat if there was a little something in it for them - at least that would seem to be the case looking at the advertising industry.

The Ribbon will come into its own in a touch interface.

Anomynous Coward

The Ribbon will come into its own in a touch interface.

Discuss.

So like everyone I don't get along with the ribbon in Office apps (yet).

But I doubt I'd get on with the old Office menus on a tablet. Is this where the ribbon will finally prove useful?

Has Microsoft done some forward planning that actually makes sense? Or have they accidentally got something partly right?

Or is it all just as sh*t as we first thought?

Samsung frees fanboys from iPhone with freeware

Anomynous Coward

"Do Google not realise that people upgrade their phones?"

They know and I am sure they would encourage it.

I've never had an easier upgrade than moving from my old Android phone to my new one - if you are a GMail user (and I accept there are arguments against but we're comparing Google lock-in to Apple lock-in here) then you start the phone up, sign in and all your contacts, mail, wireless settings etc are there, apps are waiting to download etc etc

If you are prepared to be a Googly an Android user as Apple insists you must be as an iPhone user there's all the convenience you could want, plus the opt-out if that is what you would rather.

Each is forcing the other into providing better and better products - I don't understand the partisanship; this is a good time, particularly for for geeks who have been waiting ages for affordable, powerful, portable, connected devices.

Anomynous Coward

"manufacturers and networks dump older phones - typically after just 12-18 months forcing you to upgrade"

Force how?

Sounds like your fear of being seen with an 'old' phone would be the only thing forcing anything there.

Anomynous Coward

Take a Note

too creative to own a samsung

Depends on the sort of creative you mean but my illustrator friend finds the Galaxy Note pretty handy - pressure sensitive pen, bit of painting software and away you go.

It's not like Samsung aren't making any effort to try and come up with things that are a bit different.

Vatican subtly shifts its position on The Blues Brothers

Anomynous Coward

Re: Sir

I think they would sanction your missionary position.

Turing Machine brought to life with Lego

Anomynous Coward

Playmonaut

Did we ever get a report on his / her / its well-being following the trip?

Is it now a bearded Playmomystic convinced it saw a god in the fragments of the bursting launch balloon?

Anomynous Coward

Cool.

Really cool.

Let's send one into space.

(What happens to Lego in space? Does anyone know? Does the air in the brick cavities break the model up? I think someone should be finding this sort of thing out.)

Nigerian scams are hyper-efficient idiot finders

Anomynous Coward

Re: Percentages of percentages of percentages of positives

No, I agree with the initial assertion.

They filter for people gullible enough to complete the process - the actual sums involved are less important than finding the few people involved you can lead through to the completion of the process so selecting for gullibility (the relevant form of idiocy) is the right thing to do even if it does also select for people who achieve less (and I do not subscribe to the view that idiocy and success are mutually exclusive in any way).

Greed works both ways, yes greedy people (is there another kind?) and to obtain all they can but also they are reluctant to let what they have go.

Sony taps bug peepers to kill gloss-screen glare

Anomynous Coward

Cool as der cucumber, Johnny

Who doesn't enjoy a 2000AD reference on a Thursday morning?

Microsoft's uncloaks Phone 8 developer preview

Anomynous Coward

Hmm...

All good things that he's saying but

a) They might just be too late to catch up on this one even if they get it all right

b) They won't have got it all right

Still, it's going to be interesting.

Chick-lit naughty girl MP Mensch starts own web-jabber service

Anomynous Coward

Unmensch

<al murray>Not news!</al murray>

'Kindness of America' snapper shot himself in 'act of self-promotion'

Anomynous Coward

"What a bell-end"

No sure who you are talking about but upvoted anyway.

Anomynous Coward

GLC

Guns don't kill people; rappers do, I seen it in a documentary on BBC 2.

Anomynous Coward

Shot to fame

As they ended up making an arrest is he even guilty of wasting police time?

Wonder who will play him in the film version of this story.

Crytek says future is free-to-play

Anomynous Coward

Re: AAAggghhhh!

I don't really have a problem with it - if I like the game enough I don't mind buying in, if it doesn't grab me then on to the next one instead of feeling obliged to stick with something I've paid for but am not really enjoying.

Anomynous Coward

@Greg

"Was barely interested in Crytek's stuff before"

So from their point of view you weren't a likely source of income anyway . . .

I've got no idea if they are right about this being the model to go for but one can't imagine it would be a decision taken lightly.

Facebook shells out $10m for using users faces in adverts

Anomynous Coward

Re: Nobody likes a grammar Nazi.

Incompetent Grammar Nazi - I'd always wondered what IGN stood for.

I reckon they're more fun than a lot of other Nazis.

Chinese 'nauts reach Heaven after 8-minute coupling

Anomynous Coward

Hype

The Chinese seem to be getting a lot less media attention (El Reg being an honourable exception) than the USA's space programme used to.

This is pretty good stuff - there's no mundane manned space trips.

BYOD: The great small biz security headache

Anomynous Coward

The great small ad headache

There's some truth in all this but it feels a lot like a set of "use my company" notices.

America's X-37B top-secret spaceplane returns to Earth

Anomynous Coward

Cool space toy.

This is almost as exciting as LOHAN.

Voyager ticks one box for interstellar arrival

Anomynous Coward

Yes, it's a really good reminder of how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big space is.

iOS was SO much more valuable to Google than Android - until Maps

Anomynous Coward

"Phones"

"how close are we to the point where the actual phone part of a phone becomes irrelevant and actually speaking to someone is the last thing anyone does with them"

That's pretty much me already. I make almost no phone calls but send a lot of texts and emails, and use apps'n'maps.

I probably wouldn't buy a phone that had no voice call capability at all but I'd consider one that only had VOIP options.

Apple-Moto patent punchup can come into court, says judge

Anomynous Coward

I have an interest in the subject matter. I am not a lawyer of any sort.

And I resent all the time and resources spent on bickering instead of getting stuff done.

Anomynous Coward

What a bloody waste of everyone's time

I'm fed up with this sort of nonsense.

Council chief overrules blackout on Scots 9-yr-old's school lunch blog!

Anomynous Coward

Re: Council in cahoots?

"If she can convince council officials to make a complete arse of themselves to raise £21k for charity, she's clearly a genius."

Well, the ban was implemented by some faceless, nameless official, whereas revoking the bans gets good headlines for the leader so who knows?

At least a local (locally run, global in scope) charity that seems to be pretty bloody awesome is getting a wedge.

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