* Posts by Marvin the Martian

1513 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Mar 2007

Mio Spirit 687 satnav

Marvin the Martian
WTF?

Interesting math.

The first screenshot is a bit weird --- it suggests the "fastest route -- 1h16min" is slower than all but the easiest ("most economical -- 58min", "shortest -- 1h07min", "easiest -- 1h17min")!?

BlueStacks lets Android apps frolic on PCs

Marvin the Martian

What does this even mean?

What is "android app quality"? Their stability apparently not. Their visual design or underlying function? That doesn't make sense as there's nothing inherently android-only/windows-impossible except what's tied to being a phone-app (which is useless on a computer).

There must be something to it, otherwise you wouldn't get that many thumbs up, so what's the idea? Do you mean an emulator to run it on a WinPho (that's not in the article)?

Insider data theft costs Bank of America $10m

Marvin the Martian

Strange numbers.

$10G /300 customers = $33K stolen in liquidities, on average, from each account? That seems a bit steep... so the insider targeted the very top end of the customer grade.

And 95 scammers involved in it, how do you even do it? Short of a mob of hooligans, what single criminal operation can be undertaken effectively with such a quantity of people?

Total Recall rehash – exit Martians, enter Jessica Biel

Marvin the Martian
Alien

Quaid? Quail! Please come back, all is forgiven!

I think that's what's actually happening, that harkening. IIRC, there's the memories of Mars in PKD but no actual Mars trip --- and as I read it this movie will stick to that instead of what the 90s movie did.

The proof of the pudding will be in the name of the lead --- Quail (as per PKD) or Quaid (as per Verhoeven).

/"It will be difficult to beat Verhoeven" and there may be laws against it; but I think it's worth a try, he definitely deserves it for Showgirls. Years ago he said he'd like to film the life of Jesus; that I would definitely want to watch -- it'll probably become a facistoid movie like Starship Troopers; I'm sure the church will hate it even more than The Life of Brian! Let's go slaugter some holy cows!

How to... change sleep-screen pics on your Kindle

Marvin the Martian
Jobs Horns

I can see you there Mr. Jobs!

Go eat your lawsuit; it's an "appstore", not an "active content store".

Marvin the Martian
Pint

Hitchhiking!

Show your desired destination when hitching rides?

Your home address, either shame a thief in returning it or to say you're not home, to burglars?

Your phone number in the bar?

Or more usefully, "TWO MORE PINTS" to be waved regularly at the barman, on noisy fridays?

Marvin the Martian
IT Angle

Privacy, obviously.

Think about it.

Reindeer can see in ultraviolet, say boffins

Marvin the Martian
Badgers

It's because reindeer are steely-eyed heartless bastards.

Lee Marvin: "Snow can burn your eyes, but only love can make you cry"

(Reindeer: "Like Heck it will, you lamer")

Yanks officially recognise the word 'boffin'

Marvin the Martian
Stop

John Dee,

Please report to the INS for an interview. There seems to be some doubt about your residency status.

Marvin the Martian
Heart

Shufti.

+ many other words inherited from the Raj or the colonial armies; they help separate the UK and US unilinguals.

Fourth Euro star truck christened Albert Einstein

Marvin the Martian
Headmaster

Technically,

Einstein wasn't born in Germany, but in the Kingdom of Württemberg. That's the nationality he renounced in favour of becoming Swiss, to avoid military service.

New Mac scareware variant installs without password

Marvin the Martian
Pirate

@AC: He who laughs last, hasn't understood the punchline or is retarded.

chmod ug-x /Applications

That is all.

White Space competitors fight dirty

Marvin the Martian
FAIL

How is that gonna work?

BBC London's frequency would contain the "I'm here signal", still decodable in Birmingham. Which is exactly where & how the whitefi (!?) products would be operating, but now they can't because of the signal. Making the whole thing impossible.

See, maybe a few engineers have thought longer on this than you.

Asus teases with MacBook Air-esque Eee PC

Marvin the Martian
FAIL

Why don't you tweak your browser to do this?

Why do you conclude the writers actually bother? There's an even chance that each time they write "thin" it gets automagically replaced by "MacBookAirEsque".

It's not that hard to implement the reverse in your own browser, with a variation on the KittenBlock plugin or whatnot.

Brit expats aghast as Denmark bans Marmite

Marvin the Martian
Flame

And what same day would that be?

All these articles appearing together? The singularity! Maybe on Oct 21. When the rapture will again fail to happen (or fail to involve a noticeable number of Xtians).

Next day, DM: "olive-skinned prophet J.C. (age 2016), of no fixed abode but formerly of Nazareth, AGAIN FAILS TO MAKE GOOD".

Marvin the Martian
Flame

Please don't invite me to your house!

Or actually, please give me your address so I can avoid the Cuisine of Misfortune.

Marvin the Martian

Daily Mail dislikes this then?

I didn't expect the Daily Fail to be against the rights of a state (Denmark, or the UK) to NOT follow a dictat from Brussels.

Engineering student cracks major riddle of the universe

Marvin the Martian
Unhappy

The correct title would be

"undergrad misses half the universe" if you read the article, supervisor pointed out the stuff.

"Whatever the missing mass of the universe is, I hope it's not cockroaches!" - mom

Google opens tiny window onto Baltic Sea-cooled data center

Marvin the Martian

Sounds like "hammam".

All that hot water, why not first have a giant jacuzzi/spa centre for employees and neighbours?

Ofcom pricks Shard's 'biggest erection' boast

Marvin the Martian
Boffin

And why care about the peak?

I'd be more interested in the "highest useful space": the Shard may top at 310m, but the highest occupied floor doesn't seem to be much above 250m. All the rest above is decoration (putting a gsm or tv mast above is just cheating).

3D fad fades for Yanks

Marvin the Martian
Flame

Franchise sickness --- "that may be part of it"?

No, that's the whole bleedin' story. What ones did well? Avatar, How to train, etc --- one-off films.

FYI, Jaws3D made less than half of Jaws2, and less than a quarter of Jaws1.

HPotter 3D would do great as well --- not just another film made out of leftover scenes and plotpoints of the last few films (with the preceding film already made with the same recipe so having used up the juiciest bits).

But maybe 3D IS to blame: Jaws4 ("Jaws: the revenge") made 2/3 of what Jaws3D made, despite being sometimes named in "10 worst" or "25 worst" all-time film lists.

Google borgs fledgling price comparison site

Marvin the Martian

Smartbuy? What Smartbuy?

In the middle of the article it suddenly talks about SmartBuy?

Office 15 steals OVERLARGE font, design vision from Windows PHO

Marvin the Martian
Pint

WinPhone popular? Not yet!

After everybody is used to the UI from Office, the WinPhone will suddenly become very popular because of familiarity.

That, followed by a (larger-scale than 21/05/2012) rapture on 21/05/2012.

Google slips open source JPEG killer into Gmail, Picasa

Marvin the Martian
Paris Hilton

So..

It's a wavelet compression technique? Like JPEG2000? (Then why not support that instead of adding a new type to the smorgasbord of image formats?)

Cybercrooks turn Eve Online into botnet battlefield

Marvin the Martian
Troll

Doesn't this add to the realism?

The game's supposed to be about this kind of futuristic distopic financial battles between organized crime syndicates. EVE's probably best known for an extremely well-planned robbery anyhow [e.g., http://www.computerandvideogames.com/180867/features/murder-incorporated/?site=pcg ]. So I don't see why this cannot be worked into the storyline.

I definitely like Dave Murray's comment above, "it hasn't happened to me so it clearly doesn't exist". File under: miscellaneous (cancer, house fires, rape, lottery-winning, and deep sea diving -- all figments of feverish imaginations, probably from underemployed hacks).

Apple iPhone 5 to sport CRT-style screen

Marvin the Martian
Coat

PResumably

Because people on the move already don't have to pick up a coat?

Here, have mine if you're that chilly.

Sony BMG Greece hacked

Marvin the Martian
Flame

Sony: 0, Hackers: 7

"7 Hackers Hacking,

[...]

and a partridge in a pear tree"

I know what Sony's top selling Xmas cd will sound like.

/flaming pear tree icon

Rapture postponed as world inexplicably fails to end

Marvin the Martian
Flame

"will most likely not be believed next time"

Eh... RTFA: He predicted the same in 1994, and more believed him now than first time round. Being 89yold he probably hasn't many more dates to extract digitally-rectally (the chance that *he* wouldn't be around anymore on 21/05 was relatively high of course).

What I find bizarre in this all is the well-known line in the bible on the same topic saying that NOBODY except the Big Yin knows the dates involved in the endtimes (note: there's no rapture in the bible whatsoever; that's a Merrikan invention). So proposing a date implies equating yourself with God; such hubris (deadly sins and whatnot) would disqualify anybody from preaching you'd think?

Comcast 'Tweetgate' apology thrown back in face

Marvin the Martian

Go talk to the LSE.

They'll be able to enlighten you how accepting money from Libya without strings still blows up in your face.

It's obviously nonsense that once received, it turns into ordinary money; same as donations from drugs money wpuldn't.

£1.1bn Royal Navy warship finally armed, sort of

Marvin the Martian
Flame

A possible party?

So... it's chief weapon is surprise?

/where's the spanish inquisition icon?!

LA Noire

Marvin the Martian
Stop

Where does the final E come from in the name?

By "intuition" that is needed, I presume "knowledge of pulp stereotypes" is meant? If not, what?

New Mac fake-defenders similar to Windows scareware

Marvin the Martian
Thumb Up

Think it through...

The only way to get this virus/malware is to believe in the real-world existence of a Mac virus/malware!

So disbelievers continue to disbelieve, and your type of pessimists (who install the malware themselves) feel justified; opinion splits and both feel right.

What this stuff also does is give the mac user a bite of the windows malware apple... I'd call it all irony, but it's more like bronzy.

Government hires Guardianista as digital chief

Marvin the Martian
Paris Hilton

What's the roadmap?

Is he a human shield like the Adlib Dems, or is he a marinading scapegoat? [The first one is meant to survive.]

German salesmen rewarded with meticulously organised orgy

Marvin the Martian
Dead Vulture

At least that incident provided a good band name.

"Joy Division" (Freude Abteil in the original parlance).

Remastered 4K, 3D Titanic steams towards cinemas

Marvin the Martian
Flame

Can't get much worse, can it?

Never in my life 4h79min felt as long as sitting through that film.

As I recall, I was excused [my mate, a merchant marine, couldn't stand to see sinking ships; our missuses would go together] but then someone ruined that excuse [he went to make up for forgetting an anniversary]... Agony.

The goggles, they weren't invented yet but they would have done nothing!

Marvin the Martian
Alien

If re-shot in 3D, yes.

But with this ad-hoc 3D sauce? Let's first see if it works.

I can imagine a process being reasonably successful on large structural shapes [such as ocean liners], I can't figure out how to do small dappled surfaces [like bony aliens].

US admiral reveals safety plan for Zombie Apocalypse

Marvin the Martian
Flame

I'm not worried about them there zombies.

I think moving off the grid is the most spectacularly suicidal move. You know, eventually those zombies show up (actually -- that's where they started, in the very first Romero movie!) and you are a sitting duck in a practically indefensible location full of windows and nearby trees, and far from any supplies/relief/whatever. Nothing beats a well-situated concrete apartment with empty surroundings.

But then I know that I'll be Raptured (not raptored) away tomorrow 21/05/2011. So long, suckerz! Good luck with the 1000years of Tribulations starting on 22/05!

Powerline network radio interference debated in Commons

Marvin the Martian
IT Angle

The needs of the many trump the rights of the individual.

That's the definition of a corporatistic dictatorship, i.e., fascism.

If you'd actually seen any Star Trek instead of read/heard about them, you'd know that almost every single episode goes out of its way to reconsile the two if not boldly defending the individual. Whatever one of their characters may every once in a while say --- that character is shown to be smart but not wise/human.

Now bite my shiny metal ass, let's see some decent SF instead.

Sleazy Aussie 'hot babes' network goes MIA

Marvin the Martian
Dead Vulture

Australonewzealand slang??

How come all action-starved Hollywood "buddy movies" are nowadays called "bromances"?

Was Andrew "Don't tase me bro" Meyer an aussie or kiwi?

Welshman attempts to board train with pony

Marvin the Martian

As a tech person

You may have heard of backups. This is his.

Intel rewrites 'inadequate' roadmap, 'reinvents' PC

Marvin the Martian
Flame

Intel and milliWatt in one sentence?

No problem of course, since they count in mW per transistor.

Dixons to flog off old 'brands' Miranda and Saisho

Marvin the Martian
WTF?

I've lived for 14y in the UK...

I've never registered the existence of these brands. I'm always a bit surprised by the UK's love for Mickey Mouse brands and/or rebadged random stuff --- Goodmans here, Morphy Richards there, what's the idea, making it sound like your maverick uncle bodged them together? --- but suggesting there's some brand/value/goodwill for Miranda (for Miranda Hart: yes!) really takes the biscuit.

In the end I tried to google it... "Miranda" -- nope; "Miranda electronics" -- nope; "Miranda brand" ["did you mean miranda bran?"] -- nope. Etc.

Sandy Bridge MacBook Air rumour restoked

Marvin the Martian

Please come to my emporium...

I'll sell you USB3 <-> Thunderbolt converters, doublecheap.

LinkedIn thinks it's worth $4bn on eve of IPO

Marvin the Martian

I still get weekly pokes to recognise connections.

I've once signed up, forgot login details, and still there's every week a few suggested (mostly correct) connection-inferences (read: someone in the same building a decade ago, and I indeed was on speaking terms). Sometimes I'm still in contact, and they turn out to be in much the same situation -- having once signed up.

Judging by my track record (I signed up with Friendster ages ago, used a week or two), this is not the one that'll make it.

Heavy coffee drinking wards off deadly cancer in men

Marvin the Martian
IT Angle

But more coffee is bad, says the anagrammologist.

As a certified anagrammologist (i.e., someone who is allowed to advise on everything based on anagram-derived knowledge), I have to warn you: using the plural "espressi" for "many coffees a day", we see that it's not a wonder drug...

Flipping the u around to an n: espressi cannot cure all

Bing to offer Facebook-slurping 'friend search'

Marvin the Martian
IT Angle

Just call it the alternate reality browser.

As your outlook mostly determines what type of friends you have around, conservatives will only see Faux News reports and softy lefties only the Huffington Post; and both will believe they have mainstream opinions.

"goldmine of data that is facebook" my foot. There's probably only 50 original posts on all of FB, the rest are like/dislikes.

I guess if you gather all data including photo analysis you will learn that white people have a relatively high number of white friends & children, and that in the UK many "poppy"s have a sister called "olivia" or a brother called "jack".

Boffin quests for, finds 'earphone Holy Grail'

Marvin the Martian
Megaphone

YEAH BUT NO BUT YEA BUT

I'd only wear earphones in public, and in public i play stuff even i dislike JUST TO P OFF OTHERS. So what use a volume-lowering socially responsible thing like this? NONE!

Death of laptop reports greatly exaggerated

Marvin the Martian

It's the death of desktops.

As desktops get replaced by laptops or the occasional iMac-style all-in-one, it's desktops that are on the way out.

GCHQ man: Powerline networks do interfere with radio

Marvin the Martian
Paris Hilton

Around since the 50s

Numbers Stations appeared around the same time as their brothers, the TV Detector Vans.

Both are crucial to the functioning of society, although both (alledgedly) exist only in the UK.

CATS to be saved by BLASPHEMERS after the RAPTURE

Marvin the Martian
Boffin

All can be there at god's right hand.

It's just not said how many others are stacked above or below you.