Posts by Matt Thornton

Hope so

This is a feature I really want and have been trying to avoid the jailbreak route.

hmm

guaranteed there's some smug little git sitting in Cupertino chuckling heartily to himself knowing full well that adding this to the firmware would have iPhoneTards everywhere literally creaming themselves at the very prospect.

instead of "third-gen apple iphone in development?" this should have been titled "men like blowjobs?" for true Digg-style "this from the state the bleeding obvious" department.

pah

What a load of bollocks.

Meh

I don't mind the wiki - it's useful for a quick reference. A lot of the tech / physics stuff is usually (in my experience) completely wrong, or so badly written that it's not helpful. It is worrying to think so many people will take it as being the gospel, helping to spread the misinformation.

But $6m dollars a year to run it? Really? Admittedly I didn't read their full break down (apparently I have to donate online in order to receive it or something) but does it really cost that much? How much of that is Jimbo's salary?

And frankly, I think most people have gotten so used to seeing adverts (and the likes of AdBlock Plus are so effective) that I wouldn't mind a few ads if it stops the "please help us!" messages that permanently plaster the site.

Slow news day?

Erm... so an Apple reseller bought another Apple reseller and both will continue to resell Apple stuff?

How is this news?

Well if we're doing Blackadder quotes...

... may I offer my utmost contrafibularities to El Reg for their continued diversification of the English vernacular.

Twatdangle indeed. (In fact, through typo, I just verbed it - "to twatdangle" - "Good day honey? No, I got twatdangled by that twunt in marketing."

Chesticles is an "epic win".

RSC

So first they're saying they want to create an ending to the Italian Job (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/30/italian_job_ending_solution_contest/) and now they're coming up with the perfect Yorkshire pudding.

Do these "scientists" ever actually do any real work?

Use?

Bearing in mind that Gmail is essentially a webmail service, that you are likely to check from a web cafe or work 'puter which is probably locked down, how useful is this if you have to install something?

I find it almost as pointless as Microsoft's message on MSN Webmessenger that says "Install Windows Live! Messenger now!" - don't they realise that if I could do that then I would and I have to use webmessnger out of necessity, not out of choice!?

Predecessor?

Windows 7 is the planned predecessor to Vista? Erm. What?

Who does the maths over there?

I can't think of anything more pointless than this tablet kajigga, but £1345 for one direct from them, or £1400 you paid for your laptop + £800 to convert it? Who would do that?

@Reg Skelton and ?legal way

Yeh there is - buy a Mac. And I'm not being flippant, when I was considering making the switch a few years back I just bought a Mac Mini (£350 ish at the time) reckoning I could experiment with OSx and if I didn't like it just Linux it or similar.

(Turns out I loved OSx and I've been a complete convert ever since.)

I can understand people doing this sort of stuff, as an experiment more than anything else, and 10 years ago I might have done it myself, but I dunno, nowadays I'm less interested in hacking about with stuff, I just want my stuff to work... and you defo get that with Mac, so I don't mind paying slightly through the nose for it.

(IYAM Apple has the right business model in only supporting approved hardware that they know will work properly, which is arguably the biggest problem Windows/Vista had - trying to support billions of different components, each requiring drivers etc. etc.)

OK pedants

Oh FFS... fine, I should have been more explicit. Normal implementation of solar panel technology incorporates the a) solar panel and b) something to store the electric in. Like I said - I didn't want to state the bleeding obvious, whereas you poor saps seem to need it spelled out in every last detail. If you actually thought that Sharp would consider building a TV that required it to be sunny, then it's time you stepped away from the 'puter and went outside for a while.

Great (not)

So Google buys a billion of them and bombards you with adverts everywhere you go. Well, I guess that's already pretty much true.

Having said that, I hate Bluetwats, so I might buy a beacon and record a message to that effect for anyone who walks past my house.

Kudos for trying to develop stuff for disabled people but this idea is far too sketchy for my liking (the commercial angle is too blatant). In fact, I don't see the point of the bluetooth beacon thingy. Lots of new phones nowadays have GPS on board, why not just have the same data georeferenced and as you wander about, you get told when there is some nearby info for you.

(Hmm. Wait. I didn't say that. I might go off and design that. Where's the lightbulb icon when you need it?)

Not to mention...

... this being a direct example of the way in which consumers are constantly ripped off by the big manufacturers. My rough calculations indicate the cost per unit is 3.30, Game were paying around 11 for them, and would have sold them for (depending on spec) about 15. That's a 450% ish markup.

Hmm.

Full marks for the Ghostbuster's reference, but why does El Reg insist on being so bloody cynical about absolutely everything?

I'm no physisisisisicist working on (possibly literally) ground-breaking new research (as tediously reminded to me on a daily basis as I drift in to my job) but it's nonetheless quite exciting what these bearded chaps are up to.

Or maybe it's just the thought that they might implode the very fabric of our existence and put me out of my misery.

Brilliant.

Well done that man. Went down quicker than a sack of shit. Or Amir Khan.

RE: Fist-happy Liam - if you watch closely, he only gets his macho act on after the security guards have secured the unidentified assailant and then does his "Yeh yeh yeh, I'm gonna twat you mate eh, yeh?" routine when there's actually little chance of him getting a punch in. If he was truly hard he wouldn't have nutted the bloke of the stage before security arrived.

Wrong way round

Why not just wrap earth in cling film and let the sun reflection wotsit move us out of the way of the asteroid?

Hmm

Presumably Bush & Co. could laugh off that whole pesky WMD mess because they'd played too much Desert Strike?

@Alan - you make an interesting point, because I must admit, I do get a perverse amount of pleasure in sitting on the roof of a building with a sniper rifle and picking of random people and trying to evade the cops for as long as poss. I like to indulge the fantasy BUT the distinction is that it's a fantasy and I know it, and when I go outside with the real people, I leave the sniper rifle at home*. Although do I have to sometimes remind myself that I can't drive on the wrongside of the road and randomly crash in to people and just scarper.

I'm perfectly well adjusted in real life and to me, the game is just some fun. I'm with all the people who thinks it bloody ridiculous to ban games 'cos one nutjob couldn't handle the fun (because you don't see all the millions of people who managed to buy GTA4 and NOT go on a rampage in the news) but I would be interested to see a proper psychological assessment of the effect of these games on people 'cos I think some people won't be able to maintain their grasp on the boundary with reality. But then I also think those sorts of people aren't going to blame it on the game, because they probably wouldn't realise.

But for anyone considering it, please, before finding out whether stealing cars or ramraiding lines of harry krishnas is really as easy, please find out whether jumping off a building or getting run over by a rubbish truck really results in waking up in hospital apparently injury-less.

Comments queue

I figure El Reg will have to take on extra staff just to cover the volume of people queueing up to laugh at Apple lusers.

But I agree with Matt above (great name btw) that if you're really that much of a fuckwit to follow a link from an email prompting you to enter billing details AND don't notice that the URL is totally bogus, then you're a moron.

I'm an Apple user and my life is far less stress free after making the switch a couple of years ago, but that's not to say I just tossed away all common sense when I became Stevie's latest bitch.

N95 it is then

I was all set - indeed waiting - for the new iPhone to become available where I am, mainly due to the perceived simplicity of having just one more Apple toy that would play nicely with my other Apple toys (he says, writing this on a MBP.)

But this stinks. My phone, I bought it, let me do with it what I will.

Whatever

You reckon your average iPod-sporting Basshunter-alistening audion00b is really going to care about dynamic range compression? Bearing in mind most people nab their music from <insert P2P client of choice> where you'll be lucky to get 128kb*, it seems a little harsh to single out Apple as the real culprit.

(Mine's the one with the iPod shuffle clipped to the lapel.)

* Let the flames begin.

Err what?

The most recent MBP refresh was March/April 2008. I think the author need to get his Macbooks and Macbook Pro's distinguished.

Am I missing something here?

Hang on a sec, this is an iPHONE, correct? As in, it makes phone calls? Yet there's zero mention in the article or any of the comments about its actual ability to make phone calls?

Curious.

Yeh right

"To achieve our ambition, we need to transform to a global organisation, able to serve the needs of our customers and clients who have operations around the world."

Isn't that just management speak for "we're moving to India 'cos it's cheaper" ?

@NIAK

"No single form of energy generation is without enviromental impact on some level, but using Wave Power especially in locations where we are already trying to limit waves would be about as negligible as possible, and regardless of where we do it a damn sight more enviromentally friendly than digging up thousands of tonnes of coal and throwing it in fires."

You're the idiot. I don't know why you're even commenting, let alone berating someone else, who actually raised sensible questions that must be answered. You've obviously never heard of the term "Environmental Impact Assessment".

Next time why not post only if you actually have something to contribute, even if it's just a willy joke or questionable Paris Hilton angle, which is preferable to spouting off on a subject you clearly have no clue about. Go get your coat.