* Posts by Marvin the Martian

1513 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Mar 2007

Google indoor Streetview images go live

Marvin the Martian
Thumb Up

Next season's looters agree.

We like zombies… because we are zombies

Marvin the Martian

What's a bit rubbish in this is that words and concepts change meaning over time, and that's what's happened here. For example, "to stink" meant originally "to smell" [good/bad/sweet/strongly/faintly/...], but came to mean "to smell bad". The same is happening with "to smell" -- it can mean both, but without specification it's negative.

So here the zombie was taken from its voodoo context and changed. There was no zombie in western mythology, neither unguided nor voodoo-controlled, and modern mythologists (writers, directors, game designers) have filled that gap. There are many new creatures and concepts the last hundred years (especially in maths), does that mean that "humanity"'s mindset is changing in the same way (especially the maths)?

Apple plans big solar farm to clean dirty datacenter

Marvin the Martian
Linux

With a lot of computer activity peaking late afternoon / early evening, and no strong seasonal trend, maybe windfarms would be more obvious choices than solar?

Tho cloudy business computing would be mostly 9-to-6 [serving one timezone westwards from NC].

Killing trees for greenness (greenicity? greenage?) is a think different idea though. Sure it will help the local ecosystem.

Marvin the Martian
Alert

Greenpeace rant...

Think what you want, but in the 80s governments still thought it was a good idea to throw loose barrels of nuclear waste into the North Sea. It was only Greenpeace's suicidal zodiacs getting constantly in the news that put the pressure of public opinion onto legistlation to change this.

They may have run out of the more obvious, low-hanging-fruitcake insanely bad practice targets because of their earlier success, leaving them with more questionable aims now.

RIP greenpeace.

Man builds smartphone dock into arm

Marvin the Martian

eh... just reach up with the arm. Your forearm is within reach of your ear, try it sometime.

Larry Ellison takes a bath on San Fran mansion

Marvin the Martian

"He has a huge amount of money invested in property" the article says.

(and then lists houses that probably come to 100-200million.)

Union enraged by secret driverless Tube plan

Marvin the Martian

Anything done on three consecutive years is a tradition from then onwards.

Marvin the Martian

But is it losing *quality* jobs?

Yes, driving is a skilled job but no, it's not inspiring; it's driving circles under the ground with the occasional banter over the tannoy to relieve boredom. I'm sure the off-duty cameraderie is rewarding, but that can't be the aim of a job. You're mostly looking out for simple binary info (stop/go signals) that a machine can more reliably react to (push 'go'); the "human" task at hand is [1] gauging if too overcrowded, refusing to let on new passengers, and [2] seeing if all doors are clear, to drive off (or stop if the passengers suddenly shout), so within reach of computers by now, with a verify from central control if necessary.

That, and the unsociable hours --- with automatic trains there's essentially no reason not to run 24/7 if profitable, possibly over a reduced net like night buses. Yes, carrying out work on the track I suppose.

I'm guessing risk of strikes goes up: instead of balloting 1500 drivers, you have to just organise the 20 or so PFYs in the control room.

Apple shouldn't bother with TV...

Marvin the Martian
Trollface

The "biographer" hasn't checked up on the "bio" part recently.

Too soon?

Father-of-three attacked teen after Call of Duty jibes

Marvin the Martian
Windows

Don't forget the three little helpers.

Has the bairns for fetching his slippers, crips, and the remote too.

Incidentally, what's this "tennager" of which the first line speaks --- Tennant's drinking teenager or so? Sounds plausible for the neighbourhood, with people named after UK beauty spots.

Now where's my little Slough with my fish lunch? Bet he's been goading Preston to steal Bexley's g-strings again.

China punts free condoms at iPhone owners

Marvin the Martian

I'm mostly bemused about their believe in labels. They must have seen some chinese knockoffs in their time?

Linehan turns IT Crowd off but NOT on again

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

Move with the techie times!

My complete boxset lives on 4oD, so would re-complete itself if there'd be a 5th. Or when there's a one-of special.

Ceglia's latest lawyer bungled child porn lawsuit

Marvin the Martian
WTF?

The legal view is that fantasizing about violating minors is never a good idea, under any circumstances. I'd say that's a reasonable viewpoint, and would rather not hear your personal reasons to the contrary, as I'd like to sleep tonight.

Fantasise about what you whatever you can do with a type of individuals who can give their consent, but not without those who can never --- animals and children.

UK shamed in high-speed broadband study

Marvin the Martian

"moved out of London and had to come down"

There you go.

Strange that geography isn't mentioned at all: Holland is a flat roundish country where 75% of the population lives in a London-sized central area (with a london-sized population), so it's a no-brainer why they'd top this list.

Google dumps + from Boolean search tool

Marvin the Martian
FAIL

And the asymmetry? What a horrible horrible choice.

Nobody seems to object to the illogic of it all: + is a symmetric operator, in logic and maths of course --- [a + b] equals [b + a]. "" isn't even a known operator in those (quite familiar: logic-->computer language notations, maths-->GCSEs) fields, up to now used to define units that would otherwise be broken.

It makes no sense whatsoever that [a "b"] equals [b "a"] (and certainly ["a b"] doesn't equal ["b a"]). I thought Google was stuffed with mathsy geeks.

Massive study concludes: 'Global warming is real'

Marvin the Martian

A downvote for your first line.

"I thought that the battle on acceptance of climate change was a battle pretty much won." If you genuinely think that then you haven't really followed any news the last decade.

Well I thought religion and other superstitions were pretty much solidly debunked, too; quite a lot of people seem to interpret the evidence otherwise. And with evolution being genuinely unquestionable since several lifetimes, under overwhelming evidence, there's still a good quarter of Merricans solidly believing in being created.

Scientifically it's a no-brainer --- you pump out C02, it will trap heat, temperature will go up --- but proof of how fast and how much etc is far from solidly proven.

World Solar Challenge: Why the winners were so good

Marvin the Martian
Stop

All riders are 80kg.

Everybody gets "handicap" weights until they weigh 80kg. Otherwise the tall Dutch would never have won this race, eh, and it'd be full of italian an japanese riders, like motoGP.

Asus names Eee Slider release date

Marvin the Martian
Paris Hilton

So after decades of trying to protect the screen from damage,

... now it's the keyboard that's safely tucked away?

Why not have the sliding mechanism inverted, and have more like a clamshell? Ah, no, I see where I'm wrong.

Spamhaus and ISP spar over 'email DoS' blacklisting

Marvin the Martian
Thumb Up

"Curious that a director of such an outfit doesn't know this"

No, smart of him to softly fiddle the words to corroborate his (disingenuous) argument -- I read over it, and probably many or most would.

It's a bit strange that he's so happy to ruin the reputation of his company, starting a fight he cannot win (ask e360 or Austria's NIC).

Vegas man begs web for $1m to fix gigantic scrotum

Marvin the Martian
Linux

$1,000,000?

I'm sorry, but that's a ridiculous made-up number. I guess he'll need it to retire on after the say $20,000 operation which made him the world's laughing stock.

For £300K you can have a series of operations to separate conjoined/siamese twins --- from flying them in with parents and lodging those for many weeks in London, to several operations to separate circulation and blood/brain barriers and bone and other tissues, and so forth and so forth.

As if the problem wasn't worth snipping off at 10kg... Or is he so massively overweight that he didn't notice given the overhanging belly?

Gulf of California terrorized by ONE-EYED MUTANT SHARK!

Marvin the Martian

what simplistic explanation?

Google some shark eye pics: it's not about the white --- that's in every eye below the "not in use" part. It's that you have a black centre with a circular iris around it like in many mammals; shark eyes don't seem to look like that.

As for its location, it made me think they have a baby goblin shark, and they've plugged the fake eye between the nose and the extendible mandible. [e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_shark .]

Marvin the Martian
FAIL

There's that, yes.

Plus the hands carefully covering the placement of the "regular" eye.

Weak.

Robot resolves Rubik's Cube in record time

Marvin the Martian

20y?

As in, wait for youtube to come into existence and then watch one of many instructionals? It's a simple sequence / set of rules to learn by heart... not very interesting, once you know; its beauty lies in creating complexity in a simple way.

Apple slips, moneymen pounce

Marvin the Martian

Bit trivial, but "Sell Sell Sell" may be the right conclusion.

Half the predictions in general should be too optimistic, the other half overly pessimistic --- if the average was nonzero, you'd have to add/subtract that difference: nothing new here then.

But given that the current stock value is based on the assumption that the prediction was right, it is correct that the value goes down as fast as the correct data is shown (or up if it proved pessimistic)... So what is your point?

Whether "sell" or "hold" depends on how you see it --- will there be a great new computer soon? There's little marrow to be sucked from the bones of the iPod, iPhones are in a crowded market and not making technological leaps forward, ... : how do you justify predicting another say 40%-80% higher profits next year? Ifyou don't actually expect shrinking turnover? Ah, you don't see an explanation? Well, "sell" it is then.

Groupon IPO could be as soon as Monday

Marvin the Martian

Too late I'd say, it was ready for a "pump&dump" IPO.

There was a buzz about it a few months ago, it was going to be bigger than Google and MS combined --- but the last few months most reports have been negative, pointing to the unsustainability of the discounts and so forth. Momentum lost, game over; it can happily persist as a bunch of local clubs but that's it.

Intel mocks PC slowdown, laughs at skittish economy

Marvin the Martian
Linux

Otellini following a course from Ballmer's "GoodWeather School of Market Predictions"?

Nipples and teen lesbians sexy even when ironic, ASA rules

Marvin the Martian
WTF?

I don't see why kissing schoolchildren should even be mentioned.

It's not like its depiction is anywhere near breaking any law. Or am I missing an obvious point?

Ballmer disses Android as cheap and complex

Marvin the Martian
Thumb Up

I think most upvotes are for your quite brilliant neologism/portmanteau of buffoon+balloon. I for one will regularly be using "hot air buffoon" as a putdown from now on.

DeLorean goes electric for 2013 roll-out

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

Speaking of time travel,

It's like being back in 2000 when people thought it a good idea to get a built-in GPS.

I remember my sister around 2003 spending about 1000quid on one that was hilariously outdated after 2y or so, low res/ stupid+slow/ monocolour/ limited. And the maps didn't really update themselves either.

Winning new UK pylon design may never be used

Marvin the Martian
FAIL

Yes, because you were there when they designed the thing.

What an eejit.

Marvin the Martian
IT Angle

The same as what's wrong with cast-iron bridges.

They're fine, just cost a lot of material and a lot of maintenance, while having been drawn up for an outdated spec sheet.

As for the suggestion that the public with a set of crayons can come up with a better design (especially the sackful of colourblind hedgehogs that constitutes ElReg's readership), that's just idiotic.

What scarring of the landscape? There's no deeper scars than those stone walls all through wales & england, visible from miles (where barb wire would have been visible only from say 500m)! Oh, they're "natural" or somewhat? No they're not, they were both built by man as the best tech they could lay their hands on.

I for one salute the new 50% lighter 40% shorter T-pylons.

Hard-up OpenOffice whips out begging-cap website

Marvin the Martian
Stop

Why?

People need something that can make head & tails of unstable .doc and .docx files, so that basically fills the work schedule up with reverse-engineering. For a lot of people, the only time they need Word is to fill in .doc job application forms or periodic report forms; say a science student will be using LaTeX for their actual work.

What original thing you need in what is essentially a runaway typewriter? Integration with another program in the suite -- ah no that's the same as Office.

Solarcars are hot!

Marvin the Martian
Pint

"a race Observer – who is fed and watered by the team"

As in "...including spiked drinks, so he won't notice they're actually towing the electric vehicle."

[Which would be spectacular anyhow, at 120+kmh.]

Which actor should play Steve in upcoming biopic?

Marvin the Martian
Paris Hilton

Malcolm Tucker would be epic.

Hmm... Allan Rickman we can settle for.

Homeland Security bungles 'pre-crime' tech test docs

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

Although here the settings will be different.

It's not so much going to trip on "emotional" than on "shifty-eyed" and "olive-skinned".

Scientists break card that secures homes, offices, transit

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

"Root labs"?

Root, as in Enoch Root? Hardly a surprise then.

Storage is ending in tiers

Marvin the Martian

The bin IS quickest-access storage in the house.

Where cupboard requires first to open door then reach in, the pedal-bin is foot-operated so opens while reaching in... shaves off fractions of a second!

This Dianamania is a slur on Jobs

Marvin the Martian
WTF?

I'm a quite bit shocked by the upvotes.

What a bunch of clowns; even wikipedia is closer to the truth.

Lightsabres to illuminate Christmas dinner

Marvin the Martian
Pint

I can hear my true love now.

(loudly) "... and an ewok in a pear tree"

Amazon to whup Apple rivals when Kindle Fire hits UK

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

Want to, want to, ...

I want to pay £250 for our family holidays too, but it's not really going to happen is it?

There's a difference between "preferred pricepoint" and "will refuse to shell out anything above".

UK punters happy to pay £3 to top up e-wallets

Marvin the Martian
Paris Hilton

Where do they find these people?

I'm sure that, if asked, this lot would tell you they don't want no stinkin' free cash withdrawals, they go to the cornershop machines taking £1.70 regardless of transaction size. "Support your local cornershop" or somesuch.

Oracle accuses Autonomy chief of telling 'whopper'

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

"company sale banker Frank Quattrone of Qatalyst Partners"

I'd have written that backgrounding sentence as "... of Credit Suisse's IPO-fraud fame", but then I guess that's why TheRegister are the professionals.

Microsoft's Android patent ransom to 'total $444m' next year

Marvin the Martian
Holmes

"the mathematics used in the calculations were Goldman’s own"

So they patented some special new operation on numbers, and didn't licence it to MicroS**t? Lemmeguess, it's a function that blows up small numbers to very very big?

Computer sim explains why hippies became extinct

Marvin the Martian
Mushroom

"Evolutionary psychologist"

There's never been a more successful scientific wastebin than that. Thousands of psychologist do valid evolutionary studies, but only a small sect calls themselves that... It's a field inspired by Kipling's Just So Stories.

Apotheker severance outrage: $2.4m 'bonus'

Marvin the Martian
Megaphone

What are you babbling?

He was FIRED. F-I-R-E-D. My mate got made redundant last week and he didn't get into a week-long negotiation with his employers/golfbuddies to end up with 2-3y worth of pay, he got a months' pay. And my mate didn't halve the company's value while he worked there, he just got laid off with 10% of his colleagues.

Giving one-man losing streak any cent not strictly legally necessary is not doing any good for the company (he's gone, forever, no goodwill to bank on); it's just stealing from your reserves and/or shareholders.

ISPs get flimsy self-help leaflet on net speed ads

Marvin the Martian
Pint

Wot?

So you accept 20% of your public getting LESS than 1/5th of the advertised speed as "good"?

Alternative: How about scaling cost with speed? Say £10/month is base cost, and the rest of the bill is speed-related: [any average below 5% of advertized = reimbursement of base cost,] any average below 25% of advertized speed is free, 25% costs £10/month, 50% costs £15/month, 75% £20/month, 100% £25/month so max is £35/month --- all these numbers to be scaled in function of maximum monthly price.

Or easing the price function so that 75% costs about as much as 100% --- for diminishing returns: in the end, as long as streaming HD works, whether your new Lucid Linx downloads 20% faster or not, what does it matter. Of course theres will be few people between 75% and 100%: your local top speed is not achievable on late afternoon/early evening due to crowding.

HP recruits Goldman Sachs to grapple activist investors

Marvin the Martian
Meh

There's no danger to your boat being rocked if it's been stuck fast on a sandbar since many a tide; it might actually be good. (Although they got washed onto the sandbank from the dangerous Fiorina Reefs.)

Acer Timeline X 5830T

Marvin the Martian
Facepalm

Are you suggesting it wouldn't work out of the box?

You mean all this Ubuntu userfriendliness is a lie?! Heretic!!

Journo register gaffe a boon for media overlords

Marvin the Martian
Big Brother

No, no, no, you see it the wrong way.

It's a positive thing: if you're photographing on the street and you can show you're on the list to the bobby that immediately pops up, then you can go on with your business. (Otherwise, it's buy-bye to the camera.) So it's for journalists own good, really.

Now, let me get on the board of the quango that administers the list, letting people on for only £8/year ("citizen journalists/bloggers"), or £80/year ("professional journalists"). Cheap even at twice the price, and remember, for in own interest.

PlayBook stock mountain: RIM slashes prices

Marvin the Martian
Facepalm

If it were so difficult as to be babyproof, I'd buy it.

But it seems it's just so hopelessly unintuitive to make random actions possible but voluntary ones not.