* Posts by Jon Brindley

50 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Feb 2007

No, it's NOT Half-Life 3 – it's Valve's lean, mean STEAM MACHINE

Jon Brindley

RE: Quad 33

Oooh, I've got one of them in my loft!

Cambridge boffins build laser 'unprinter' to burn pages clean

Jon Brindley

Journalists

"The Cambridge team figures it has cracked the problem, and its unprinter can work with any laser printed or photocopied paper, with no need for special toner that's more expensive gram-for-gram than cocaine."

Ah, journalists .. making analogies with things they really know about.

Boffins fix dead satellite using 'dirty hack' in space

Jon Brindley
Coat

Dirty Hack

I thought a "dirty hack" was an unwash journalist ..

Cloud gaming storms into the UK

Jon Brindley
FAIL

Bandwidth

I have a 50mb connection with Virgin and I don't meet the criteria.

One reason might be that I'm too far from a server so my latency is too high.

Bit disappointed I can't try this though.

Average UK broadband just over half advertised speed

Jon Brindley
Flame

VM

I'm on Virgin's 50meg package. And it flies. So ner ner ner ner! ;)

Bloke uses nail clippers to go roundhead

Jon Brindley
WTF?

Nothing

There is nothing remotely good about this story :-/

Pirate Bay sells out to Swedish software firm for $7.7m

Jon Brindley
Unhappy

RiP

RiP TPB x

BOFH: Defiling the profile

Jon Brindley
Happy

I'm glad

.. that it's not just me that's fallen for those devious scoundrels on facebook

WAG sues CPW for phone pic nick

Jon Brindley
Unhappy

So..

.. no chance of finding said pics on google then?

Forget Google rationing: Only lighting farts can save the planet

Jon Brindley
Happy

Has anyone else...

..been doing ridiculous google searches a lot more now, just to see if the earth does melt faster? I mean, surely the only way to see if this is right is to do it?

Freesat gets Five

Jon Brindley
Paris Hilton

Freesat gets fibe?

Anyone else notice that...?

Windows 7 early promise: Passes the Vista test

Jon Brindley

WinFS

Will WinFS be in this one, or did they just scrap it altogether when it went belly-up during the Vista re-writes?

... Which icon shows my feelings of "meh"?

Hawkeye technology turns tennis into a cartoon

Jon Brindley
Stop

"Wimbledon being more or less an anomalous joke"

Despite it apparently being considered by some to be a "joke", Wimbledon is still the most prestigious Open in the entire tennis season.

I'm by no means a tennis fan, but I don't think you can call the main event in a season a joke. It'd be like calling something a "World Series" when one nation (and one team from another nation) play it...

Quantum crypto targeted in attack of the clones

Jon Brindley
Unhappy

Ouch

I've read this and now my brain is dribbling out of my ears.

But you can't measure what comes out of one ear, because it changes what comes out of the other.

Firefox record breaker sets the date

Jon Brindley
Flame

Um..

Anyone else think that "firesux" is really grasping at straws for ways of saying

"I don't like this product for no reason other than I took a dislike to it over some arbitrary thing it did differently from how I would've done, were I able, so I'll add some kind of insult to the application into its name and round it off with a nice fat, ultra-cool 'x' so that everyone knows how cool and hip I am"

Granted, it's shorter.

Manchester's congestion charge: pay-to-leave

Jon Brindley
Paris Hilton

Just a thought..

After the recent hoo-hah about MP's expenses and the fact that London has a Congestion Charge already - which they can claim back as part of expenses - does that apply to the councillors and local MPs of Manchester? Can they claim back their C-Charge as part of an expense of being a part of the local government? Cause if so, surely that means anyone who works in Manchester (or, for that matter, London) should have a legal precedent for claiming theirs back.

Plus it just fans the flames of all those who say that MPs don't live in the real world any more. Try paying for things yourselves when you put taxes up.

Of course, I could have the whole situation completely wrong and be making a spectacular ass of myself.

(Oh, and Paris. Cause she's got a spectacular ass too.)

Heaviest Virgin Media downloaders face new daytime go-slow

Jon Brindley
Unhappy

To all these people saying switch to BE/O2/ADSL of another flavour..

It's kinda hard when you don't have a BT line. Cue £150+ installation fee, £15ish a month line rental on top of your ADSL bill. Now see why I'm stuck with Virgin.

Jon Brindley
Thumb Down

RE: Assholes!

I've noticed similar restrictions kicking into place about 5pm every day myself. No matter what traffic we've done that day, come the early evening and our connection can be worse than dial-up. I've tried to get it sorted with Virgin, but as they're still charging premium rate for net support line - till June - I've not wanted to spend the money.

Oh, and they took more money than my bill said it was going to be earlier today. Do I get offered compensation? No.

Microsoft urges developers to tag sites for IE8

Jon Brindley
Flame

MS Bashing

So many people are bashing MS, which is of course fine by me. Others are leaping to the defense of IE, which is kinda ok .. only when you say "stop bashing MS, they're doing you a favour by adding this new tag in" it's kinda not seeing the bigger picture. They wouldn't have to have done this if they'd simply written their browser properly from the very beginning. MS caused more headaches for web developers than any other company on the planet. They forced people into writing things that only work with their broken browser by bundling it with an OS that comes pre-installed on 99% of home and work computers.

It's all very well and good saying that this new meta tag is useful or not useful, but personally I just think it's astonishing it's taken _8_ versions for MS to realise that there are web standards out there, and people like to use them.

Wii controller lawsuit costs Nintendo $21m

Jon Brindley

Ambiguous Patent Law Strikes Again!

"a patent for a regular-looking game controller with analogue pressure sensors."

You mean .. with .. buttons?

Sony: world PS3 sales pass 12.8m consoles

Jon Brindley
Alert

Blah Blah Blah

Bill Gates sucks. I love my 360. I hate Sony. My PS3 rocks. Nintendo make consoles for kids. I play on my Wii more than anything else.

All in all, makes about as much sense as the usual flames wars over the consoles. Personally, I wonder why people spend so much time and vehemence over the matter when they could be using said consoles for fun.

Numptys.

PC World, Currys staff to be dumped in DSGi rescue plan?

Jon Brindley
Alert

Something struck me..

Can't help but notice that all the people who claim to work for PCW have all posted anonymously..

Freesat launches in UK

Jon Brindley
Stop

Hang on a sec..

I thought we already had a Freesat service in this country. My dad ditched Sky a while back (about 2 years or more now, I think) and bought a Freesat card for about £15 and has been using that for some time. So I'm a little intrigued about how the service is only just launching...

GTA IV PS3 fights off resolution woes in the UK

Jon Brindley
Flame

Delays

Wasn't GTA4 delayed for quite a while cause they struggled to get the performance out of the the PS3? As far as I recall, the 360 version had been ready to go since about June 2007, but the PS3 just couldn't cope with what was being asked of it. I suppose that in lowering the resolution they overcame that .. as well as asking you to install stuff to your PS3 HDD, without a choice apparently.

That, coupled with the ridiculous bundle price for the PS3 version (£320 for PS3, £200 for 360), means that the 360 version is far superior.

Cue flames.

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

Jon Brindley
Heart

OK, two things ...

Firstly .. did anyone else think the bloke claiming to be el Reg's editor looked remarkably like Phil Tuffnell?

And secondly .. it doesn't matter how inappropriate it is, Sarah Bee is really pretty. There, I said it.

Only Ubuntu left standing, as Flash vuln fells Vista in Pwn2Own hacking contest

Jon Brindley
Flame

Interesting Comments

Two comments apparently made by Webster Phreaky .. and both are completely contrasting. I've only been reading the comments about Pwn2Own for Webster's, frankly genius*, remarks.

I'm now starting to wonder if he has multiple personalities or something .. each one a fanboi of each platform.

* For a given value of genius, of course. And that value is 'i'.

Nintendo scores zero on e-waste responsibility

Jon Brindley

Greenpeace

Why on earth do Greenpeace think they know how the world of computing and technology should be run? Surely an important criterion for being a member of Greenpeace isn't to be a world leader in technology, is it?

Hippy tree-huggers. Bah.

MS axes Xbox 360 HD DVD drive

Jon Brindley
Flame

@ doubting it's silent

Is your PS3 silent because it's off? It's the only way I've ever known them to be silent.

Calls to ban hoodie-busting sonic weapon

Jon Brindley
Unhappy

Effing Mossies

I personally hate the mosquito noise. McDonalds in my city have had it for a while and it does my head in - they're positioned down the main street and I'm 22 so can still hear the stupid thing.

It would've put me off eating there if I wasn't so addicted to burgers, but it does give me a headache for about 20 mins every time I have to go past.

Former beauty queen cuffed for torturing ex

Jon Brindley
Coat

Miss Arizona

I totally misread it as "Miss Amazonia"

Firefox version 3 makes beta

Jon Brindley

Minefield

I've been using this for most of the year. It's had some ups and downs along the way, with some features being removed about an hour or two after being put in. Still seems to take up a lot of memory though.

Oh, and it's gone onto second beta.

US downplays Gitmo manual leak

Jon Brindley
Thumb Up

Am I the only person thinking ..

"Anarchist!"

"Cleaner!"

"So you've had a bath!"

Crack a puzzle, win a WWII Enigma machine

Jon Brindley
Coat

RE: Dumb it Down

I am the only one who thought "Enigma was for ENcrypting not DEcrypting"?

Fake smut codec ruse used to punt Google Pack

Jon Brindley
Flame

@usefull aps (sic)

How can anyone who is sane of mind and not an MS employee possibly advocate the usage of IE?

Your reasonings are terrible:

1) Bugs being found is surely a good thing? It means they get fixed, as opposed to the developers sitting with their fingers in their ears going "lalalalala" and not wanting to admit that there might be flaws. Also, can you not see that the speed in which bugs are found means there's a good following for Firefox and the users report things quickly. Also, the speed in which bugs get fixed and new version is released speaks volumes about the developers being on the ball.

2) Firefox is only incompatible with websites that don't adhere to web standards properly. It's far stricter that IE with code, which should really ensure that people write sites properly in the first place and don't just leave it with rubbish code that only IE can display correctly (generally cause it was written in Frontpage, but that's beside the point). If more people used FF whilst developing websites, we'd have better, stronger code and less crap.

3) Yeah, OK, FF is kinda bulky. Still, it runs better than IE for me (x86 and x64) so really can't see a downside. There aren't that many people using systems that can't handle it nowadays. A quick glance at system requirements for both browsers shows that the latest version of FF runs on lower versions of Windows than MS's own IE, and the rest of the base system requirements are the same.

And so, to my conclusion:

You sir, are wrong.

Xbox 360 outsells PS3 in Japan

Jon Brindley
Go

Microsoft

Some people are so blinded by an automatic hatred of MS and their products, they can't see when something is actually good!

I've had my issues with just about every MS software package I've ever used (mostly their insistence on doing everything their way and that it is the best way and everyone else's method is wrong) but the 360 is a really good piece of kit. I'm currently part way through Orange Box - despite already owning and having completed HL2 on PC.

People .. please .. stop hating and start using! The only way to know if something is good or not is to use it yourself - don't just assume you know everything cause you read a magazine about it.

Paris Hilton exits missionary position to save Universe

Jon Brindley

Headline

Paris Hilton Cures Cancer and Ends Third-World Debt: World + Dog Shocked

Hilton: "I was just like, you know, walking, you know, and it, like, you know, came to me, in like, you know, one big go."

UK boffins ID three new exo-planets

Jon Brindley

WASP

I always thought WASP stood for "World Aquanaut Security Patrol"

Cops crash invite-only BitTorrent network

Jon Brindley
Coat

Intelligent, tolerant society

Did someone actually honestly and really post a link to the Daily Mail site?

Did they do it ironically?

UK fast food peppered with salt

Jon Brindley
Pirate

Death by eating

I'm surprised that junk food doesn't give you cancer. Everything else does.

Suicide website creator arrested for murder

Jon Brindley
Thumb Down

@Danny

No

German police raid home of man who operated Tor server

Jon Brindley

RE: Tor & Fraud

"If he had nothing to fear he would not have taken down his node"

Sorry? What planet are you on? And what story did you just read?

The guy wasn't worried that activities that he may or may not have been up to would be found out; he wanted to make sure that his family never went through that terrifying situation again. I completely understand that.

And have you been outside in the real world recently? Just about everyone suspects just about everyone else of pretty much everything nowadays. Not to mention that the various powers being imbued upon police forces mean that you can be innocent of anything and they can get you for something.

Personally, I think it's the governments and police that people need to fear most.

Coming Tuesday: 5 Microsoft patches

Jon Brindley

@ f@#king disgraceful

I love how you say Apple nicked the point-and-click interface from Windows.

Who invented the mouse? Apple. Kinda useful for point-and-click.

Incidentally, before you flame me into a charred heap of RegReader, I have a Linux (Arch) box, a Windows (XP64) box and an Apple (OSX) box. I'm using the x64 box right now, as it's my main box.

Pentagon: Chinese military hacked us

Jon Brindley

Trending ..

Since when has "trending" been a word?

Sounds like another example of US officials using words that sound important but either don't exist or are out of context.

And don't argue with me, you all know they do it ..

Xbox 360 Elite games console

Jon Brindley

Shock! Horror!

Who'd have thought that a review of the 360 Elite would turn into a debate about whether the 360 or the PS is better?

Microsoft delivers critical fixes for Windows, IE and Excel

Jon Brindley

Just my 2p ..

I have 3 boxes .. a Mac, a Linux box and a Windows box. Guess which one I'm using now and use most of the time ..

Windows! I bemoan Windows/Microsoft/Bill Gates constantly when things don't quite work as I want them, but still I come back to it and use it as my main box. Why? It supports the most games easily, software is easier to find and install for it if I need it, and most of the files I work with or deal with in relation to family and friends are in formats easily recognised by Windows.

I know that this kinda sounds like "everyone else uses it, so I do too" and that is true to a certain extent. Why make things harder for yourself?

Yahoo! fixes bug that gave free rein to user accounts

Jon Brindley

Title

Randy, your a genius ;)

Google Maps aids terrorists, NY lawmaker warns

Jon Brindley

Title

Surely MSN's Live Maps (or whatever it's actually called) aids terrorists far more as it has better satellite imagery than Google - at least it has for every place I've ever looked.

Virgin downloaders hit by AllofMP3.com fault

Jon Brindley

piratebay?

Since when is piratebay blocked on Virgin?

About that TV service, Mr Branson...

Jon Brindley

How much?

£90? What on earth are you paying that for? We get the top broadband package, 3 set-top boxes with the top TV package and a phoneline with free weekend calls for £60 a month.

That's why we ditched Sky to be with Virgin.

Web mobilises to honour Anna Nicole Smith

Jon Brindley

...

Mmmmm .. coffee death ...