Posts by Rob

can we have a tally?

i'm pretty sure there's at least 2 other rob's on here, i'd quite like to see a tally of the names in use, for no particular reason.

shiny != good

i'd just like to add that i think apple suck as well, for all the reasons pointed out above, plus itunes and the need to use it.

i have nothing against other people using/liking one, i just think they're idiots, a bit like the religious freaks really.

paris as she's vacuous enough to fall for the shiny lure

@tony smith

i thought you were being tongue in cheek for a bit but ultimately i do not think you were, this was a most disappointing stance for the reg to be taking.

will you in future be referrign to GTA as a "so called game" as it promotes actions that are far outside social norms?

and just in case anyone thinks i am condoning rape, i am not, nor do i condone murder, they are both terrible things, but we are talking about games here, not real life, i do hope you can not only tell the difference, but stop and think about it for a second in future.

folded!

wow, you can fold it 1000 times? we should make paper out of it..

i've been thinking about this religion thing

this might seem a little radical to some, but bear with me.. it occurred to me that we could solve a bunch of the worlds problems by simply killing anyone who claims to believe in god, world hunger, power supply, wars, overpopulation in general.. all solved in one fell swoop. we could use the grounds of removing mental instability from the human gene pool as well.

i think it would be fair because all one would have to do to get through unscathed would be to say you didn't believe in god, the result being that anyone who's willing to sacrifice their life for an unprovable concept can then do so and leave the rest of us in peace to eat their food and burn their portion of oil.

-as it would include all of us, there's no one part of the human population being targeted, so there need be no worrying about being accused of genocide or some sort of ethnic cleansing, equality for everyone, all have to answer the question.

the vatican might not give it up too easily, but we could assume the whole country is god-oriented, would say yes, and just carpet bomb the place with those giant MOABs.

now i think about it, we could even scatter automated sentry guns with voice recognition around the world, they would only ask the one question "do you believe in a god?", to everyone they met and take appropriate action depending on a simple yes or no answer.

also, once done, we can use the ex-religious people's stashes of gold & treasure to fund more space exploration, the wins just keep on coming with this plan.

how did this happen?

so does anyone actually know why cannabis and others are currently illegal, whereas the equally harmful tobacco and alcohol are not? -it's not like the weed is a new substance is it..

-i'm pretty sure it wasn't always the case, there were those opium dens in ye olde days, and i think i read somewhere that the 'merkins banned hemp initially because it was so useful and hence pissed of the big corps that manufactured similar things, but that all seems a bit far fetched really..

another eason i heard was that criminal cartels have so much money and power these days that the govt. pretty much has to try and keep them happy, not sure that's any more likely really..

hmm

that could be interesting, there would probably be a fair bit of stress generated in an airframe that might be harvestable.

age differences?

and there was me thinking that the only way to catch an std was to shag someone else who had one.

so presumably any couple with a 5+ year gap between them can now spontaneously generate an std?

i'd heard you can catch thrush from differences in yeast, pH, or something, but this one seems a whole step further on.

Paris, of course..

potatard

damnit John, you had to go spoiling a good little article by chucking in "mash-up" didn't you? -is there any potato involved? -no? then it's a fucking map isnt it?

swindon, really?

i actually live in swindon, and based on my knowledge of the place i am very dubious regarding the accuracy of this story, maybe it's actually taking place in one of the smaller villages or industrial parks just outside swindon?

-based on the fact that swindon's main features are the magic roundabout, and the steam museum, a veritable cultural and technological marvel </hint of sarcasm>

apathetic or idiotic?

it's not just that people don't care about computers, i keep running into to people who seem to have no interest in anything, and no curiosity at all about the world around them, whether it be languages, food or just generally wondering how something works, computer stupidity is pretty close to the old not being able to program the vcr issue i think.

How does one explain to these people that they may not be idiots as such, but if they're not going to use their brains they may as well be?

it doesn't take much research to figure out vaguely what an operating system is, what the green "x" actually is/does or that the monitor is not the computer.

it takes even less effort to not care and suck up whatever's dumped in front of you, but the more you do of either, the easier they get.

-by implication there must be people go to pieces when they get a new microwave/tv/washing machine/car that does exactly the same as the old one in a slightly different way? -i've never met one that i know of but i would call them idiots, or luddites if i were feeling generous.

it all depends on your definition of idiot i guess, personally i think someone who's unable or unwilling to learn is an idiot, with the latter being by far the worst of the 2.

paris, because even she likes learning new tricks.

damn the resolution

we need these in at least 1024x768, and both screens independently controllable please, then we can finally start getting some decent vr systems on the go by linking a pair of these to a wii controller maybe.

I've been waiting ages for vr, hopefully this is a good sign, or a step in the right direction at least.

nearly perpetual motion machine ahoy

nearly zero friction means you could build a machine that was in motion nearly perpetually doesn't it?

i can't think of any usefull applications for such a device but there might be some good toys in it.

im looking forward to getting a mouse & mat combo with zero friction though.

re: a little emf?

it's unbelievable!

re: small rulers

i read somewhere that they use dwarves with really small rulers to measure those tiny distances.

those uplaod speeds sound good to me

lucky bastards getting upload speeds, my virgin cable connection has been shafted the last 2 weekends despite their 'server status' page saying all is fine and dandy.

on top of the fact that downgrading from 20meg to 10 got me a faster connection in the end (still nowhere near 10 though) this is enough to send me to the shops for an adsl modem.

enough's enough, i'm going to try sky bb.

big magnets

couldn't we surround the entrances to our undergorund septic tank bunkers with big fat electro magnets that will degauss any attackers?

money saver

VbyV has actually saved me a fair bit of money lately as a result of not buying things from sheer frustration at the extra faffing.

it should either be optional or effective, not compulsory & pointless.

really that bad?

i was looking for a wire holding the saucer up in that video, but it looked quite convincing to me, i know you say he's been develloping it for a long time, but he's still got the best (only?) flying saucer/car about hasn't he?

does this not even warrant cautious optimism?

Excellent

Great read there Mr Page, you brightened up an otherwise dull day, thanks.

'art'

I have to agree with most of the so called moaners here, modern/minimalist art goes right over my head, i suspect because i know very little about art, but mostly i just want it to be pleasing to look at in some way.

I also feel that if i'm going to take the time & effort to see someone else's work, they could at least have the courtesy to put a bit of time & effort into it and produce something that i, as a non-artist, could not.

i recently went to the tate modern, and frankly most of it looked like it could have been produced at a special needs primary school, for blinds kids. -i mean, a whole wall devoted to an 8 sided piece of paper!? -seriously, it was apparently from the "artist's" octagonal period.

Excellent

Not only a top article, but it has shown me where i have been going wrong, i'm off to learn how to fix dishwashers.

mines the one with the copy of the idiots guide to fixing household appliances in the pocket

well i never

that first premise doesn't seem to make any sense, he says cars on roads are the biggest problem roads have, well what the hell does he think roads are for if not for cars to move about on??

Paris, she's crying because Guy Fawkes failed.

@skyraker

Thanks for your words of support, we need more good people like you to join the movement.

Paris,as she also gets yodaboned from time to time

what's the point?!?

I can't believe I'm seeing people on the register of all places saying what's the point to more bandwidth, games already struggle with 64 people in one server, not to mention a decent VR world. there's a whole bunch of cool things we could do with a shed load more bandwith.

Paris, as she also wants a bigger pipe

I agree with Rob

There's got to be some potential there, i mean think how much more pissed you could get if all you had to do to refill your glass was push a button on a usb device linked to, maybe a box rather than a bottle, but still, i'd get one.

personal pronouns

why do people who want to be seen as non-sexist not realise that using "she" or "s/he" instead of "them" "they" & "their" makes them look like twats?

going to follow logica's example then?!

who the hell thought he was a good idea to put in that position? logica are hardly a shining example of how to do IT are they, maybe one of his first recommendations will be "avoid logica"

another top move by uk.gov

paris for prime minister, she couldn't do much worse..

@Lewis Page

Don't let 'em get you down MrPage, even if you did report on Sikorsky having developed a hyperdrive, I'm sure somebody would still be whinging about it one way or another.

Just wanted to add that I enjoyed reading this article, it was interesting, ta.

malls? in the uk?

I thought we had shops, leave the made up words bastardising the english language to the 'merkins.

I know they are just trying to conjure up some sort of cultural identity, but please don't pander to it, they'll just play up even more.

noise?

looks like a very interesting bit of kit, especially at that price, anyone have an idea as to what sort of noise it makes? -should be nice and quiet if it has a brick-type psu, fingers crossed..

@JonB

so is alcohol, just wondering if you had a point?

Paris, as she does.

sonicstage/itunes

apple's equivalent of sonistage is itunes, which they are still using, and whilst i would agree that SS is worse than itunes, they both still suck, there is just no need to have 3rd party apps required to use a device like this, as sony are now, finally, realising.

I got given an ipod mini a while ago, and whilst the shiny factor was enough to make me load it up with tunes once, & carry it around for a few days, it's just too much of a pain to use on a regular basis, unlike one with drag 'n drop support. -and that's not to mention the non-standard charger, what's wrong with charging over mini usb, which is pretty much available everywhere these days, unlike a proprietry apple cable, which isn't?

Paris, as she would prefer usb mass storage standards to be adhered to.

@ImaGnuber

reminds me of that flymo scene in peter jackson's classic film, braindead

Paris, as she'd want to start a "save the sumatran rat-monkey" fund

goddamn adverts

i hate adverts, i really do, who are those fuckers to tell me what i want or need anyway?

the bbc is license funded, no ads, ITV, C4, not funded, have ads, so far that makes sense, but I'm paying sky for their channels, so why are there adverts on them? (i'm guessing because they can & are greedy)

-don't even get me started on those atrocious 'brand' adverts that are not even trying to make me buy something, i mean do people sit there and go "oo, audi cars eh, never heard of them before, i think i'll get one because someone told me to"

surely these idiots will have enough cars or run out of money at some point?

I've been giving serious thought to getting out of IT and into politics, my main point would be to ban all advertising, no billboards, no ad breaks in the middle of films, no 60% of a magazine full of crap, and especially no radio adverts... -there might be an exception for non-animated text adverts, that take up no more than 0.5% of the viewing area, or somesuch thing.

it's almost too glorious to imagine

(oh, and compulsory sterilization for all criminals)

Paris, as she probably believes everything she gets told, by anyone (and would vote for me)

ooh, shiny

I get the impression that mac's are for non-technical people who think they are, and people who value form over function.

Paris, as her form and function are both worth checking out. (& she'd use apple stuff)