* Posts by Shades

910 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Mar 2008

Get off the phone!! Seven out of ten US drivers put theirs and your lives at risk

Shades
Trollface

Re: equivalent

"happily ignored the very rare crash attributable to knob fiddling"

Is that not a different, but related, discussion?

AI pioneer reckons China's where the Rise of the Machines will start

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Translation

"He added China has been able to leapfrog other countries in terms of its tech developments, with the country's existing tech infrastructure being less of a "chore" to navigate."

Translation: China pretty much doesn't give two shits about Intellectual Property Rights.

Feds: Bloke 'HACKED PLANE controls' – from his PASSENGER seat

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Re: I am not an expert

Unnecessary obvious title is obviously unnecessary.

"I can modify the programming of my car door locks through the touchscreen"

You mean you can change a user changeable setting included in the cars design by the manufacturer? I realise you're trying to illustrate that some systems can be and are interconnected for convenience but what you are describing is far from "modifying the programming", you're simply changing a manufacturer included user changeable variable that tells the programming to perform a different, but predefined, function. What (allegedly) happened on the plane is, to continue the car theme, akin to hacking the cruise control via the USB port of the cars entertainment system and then making the car accelerate.

You can't put a price on LOVE, says Apple after court's Samsung payout slash

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You're obviously new here. You'll soon find out about El Regs relationship with Apple. If this were Farcebook they'd be in a relationship best described as "it's complicated".

Windows 10 to MELT YOUR BRAIN and TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE

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Rand Paul: I'll filibuster the hell outta the Patriot Act, fellow Americans

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Re: Non-Americans can sort themselves out. Sorry.

"If it weren't for that pesky bloody great fault that is the meeting-place of two tectonic plates, Iceland would be perfect!"

I guess geography isn't your strong point? Meeting place, as in the tectonic plates are coming together there? Actually Iceland would be the ideal place if you wanted to expand your data centre, but only if your expansion plans were VERY long term.

Shades

Or

For those of use where the above YouTube video is blocked:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lub20

Swedish Supreme Court keeps AssangeTM in Little Ecuador

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Paris Hilton

You do realise Assange isn't actually in Ecuador don't you, or were you trying to be funny?

Range Rover Sport: Like a cathedral on wheels, only with comfier pews

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Third Row Seat

"Buttons control the rise and fall of the seats for the little ones you’ll put in the back."

Cathedral on wheels or not, anyone who puts their kids (or anyone for that matter) on the third row of seats is a massive f*cking idiot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4nMXcB7ffI

MAYHEM in ORBIT: Russian cargo pod spins OUT OF CONTROL

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Thumb Up

Re: Allowed?

I'm glad that raised an eyebrow for someone else too.

This is what happens when a judge in New York orders an e-hit on a Chinese software biz

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"But the message is very clear from the United States"

And the message from the rest of us to the US should be very clear too: Go fuck yourselves!

Google creeps up on another sector: Adds car insurance to Compare

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Pretty Sure...

...Google have been doing this for at least 3 years! Either that or I've imagined getting insurance, multiple times and often cheaper with the same providers searched by GoCompare and CompareTheMarket, through it!

HOLY SEA SNAILS! Their TEETH are strong enough to build a plane

Shades

Re: Desperate Dan hair (that has the strength of 3000 bags of beanos.)

"Stop mixing units: Desperate Dan was not in the Beano! (but the Dandy)"

I think that was the point? Sounds like I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects was a Dandy person rather than Beano. Personally I preferred the Beano.

We don't need no steenkin' cabinet: Ericsson hangs base stations off masts

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Re: WTF?

I guess they mean the airflow improvements help keep the base station hardware cool in the small modules its now housed in behind the antennas.

Apple design don Jony Ive: Build-your-own phone is BOLLOCKS

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FAIL

@AC - Re: Alternatively

Your car analogy has to be the worst car analogy ever. I guess you've only ever bought a base model? What do you think an Options List/Catalogue is?

French plod can BAN access to any website – NO court order needed

Shades

Re: Re. Surpise, surprise

Have you been holding that rant in for a while and suddenly decided not to wait for a relevant article to be published? I'm struggling to fathom its pertinence to the post you replied to or the article in general?

$10,000 Ethernet cable promises BONKERS MP3 audio experience

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Mushroom

Re: WAT HiFi

@Barry Rueger: Thanks a bucking funch! I followed the link and found it amusing... then I made the mistake of following a link on that page, specifically: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm

I now find myself inexplicably raging at my laptops screen due to the complete and utter infuriating and unmitigated garbage that these people are spouting! So now I'd just like to let you know if you had of been on my Christmas card list, had I had a Christmas card list, you would now be struck of the Christmas card list I don't have! ;)

Shades

Re: So Stupid

Neither am I.

Toshiba packs NUMERIC KEYPAD onto self-bricking USB drive

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Big Brother

"And even at $95, what price freedom?"

"Freedom" could cost you 5 years in the UK.

Adobe and software pals haul Forever 21 to court over piracy allegations

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Stop

Re: Lol

Any use of "going forward" invalidates your argument no matter how valid it may be.

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

Shades

(who came up with that one BTW?)

Cortana is a character from the Halo series of XBox games (which Microsoft still own the rights to after buying and then selling the games developers). More specifically she (yes, she) is a computer AI that is visually represented by a human-like 3D hologram and can also transfer between devices (her own portable chip and other computers). If I had to hazard a guess I'd say the ability for Cortana to transfer between devices was the main impetus for "her" inclusion on the desktop as well as mobile phones... What is the betting that Microsoft will eventually, if they havent already, link Cortana on mobile phones and desktops so that you can ask her, via a Windows phone, to remind you of something when you're next using your desktop and vice-versa?

Telefónica to offload O2 to Three daddy Hutchison for £10.25bn

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Re: Giffgaff?

Thats exactly what I was wondering.

Free Windows 10 could mean the END for Microsoft and the PC biz

Shades

I have a feeling this means devices sanctioned by Microsoft either manufactured itself or in partnership with device manufacturers (think phones and tablets). I suppose it could also mean the supported lifetime of the device by ANY manufacturer... How many of those 10 year old devices are still supported by the manufacturer?

Shades

Sorry...

...I'm calling bullshit:

"New versions of Windows and sales of new PCs go hand in hand"

Anecdotally I know of no-one that rushes out to buy a new PC because there is a new version of Windows. Furthermore, nobody I know upgrades Windows purely because there is a new version of Windows. Granted there are some people out there that do - hardcore nerds - but certainly not enough to cause a spike of PC sales in any global significance. Businesses don't follow MS release cycles, so they won't cause a significant increase in new PC purchases upon a new release of Windows, and (most) consumers just by a new PC when theirs dies (or is so laden with crap that it becomes, to them, unusable). I dare say that most consumers couldn't give a monkeys about what version of Windows a new PC has unless they hear that its a lame duck (Vista or 8 for instance) and are savvy enough to downgrade.

What dataset are you using to pronounce that "New versions of Windows and sales of new PCs go hand in hand" and how does that breakdown? Basically, how many people buy a new PC because of a new version of Windows? Where is the proof of EXACTLY that?

If I'm wrong, and you can prove it, I'll gladly put my hands up and say I'm wrong... but until then I am, as I said, calling bullshit.

Cheer up UK mobile grumblers. It's about to get even pricier

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Facepalm

Seriously?

"And voters thanked her by embracing UKIP and far right fringe groups"

Is it seriously being suggested that people have embraced these groups because Steelie Neelie fiddled with roaming charges? I bet I could go out in my local town centre right now ask 100 random people if they know who Neelie Kroes is and not one of them would respond with a yes.

SpaceX in ROCKET HOVERSHIP PRANG: 'Close – but no cigar,' says Musk

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Re: Why land on a barge?

What is with all the apostrophes used as unnecessary quotation marks?

Yes, we need two million licences - DEFRA

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Thumb Up

Re: Weasle Wording?

Glad I'm not the only one to have noticed that.

Shades

Weasle Wording?

"an individual licence is required each time a new employee expense claim is processed"

This, at first glance, seems to suggest a new licence is required each time an expense claim, by a new employee, is processed - so only one is required per new employee. If, as I suspect, its the other way round - a new licence is required for every time an employee submits a new expense claim - then I'm lost for words!

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

Shades

Re: And here's what it does!

Shame that it's down to us to have to "fix" El Reg. At least others are finding my tweaks useful.

I'll post the code to remove the spotlight images in a bit.... Once I'm feeling a little less stuffed (and I've played a bit of CoD:AW)

Shades
Thumb Up

Re: And it looks like...

Glad I could help. I'm surprised El Reg have left the CSS up to be honest! Lol

I've got a couple of additional tweaks that need adding, or not depending upon your preference, which Ill post below, as a reply to this post, later.

Shades

Re: And it looks like...

I wonder if copying and pasting the CSS from above has introduced something to stop it from working? By the looks of it, for me at least, attempting to copy from this site is hampered by the sticky Navigation bar and it pulls in lots of extra stuff, without making it immediately obvious. Can you confirm that your userContent.css file has ONLY the CSS code in it?

Shades

And it looks like...

Screenshots

Shades

And here's what it does!

1) Changed body colour to be slightly darker to create slight contrast with footer

2) Removed Social Buttons from Masthead

3) Removed Top Banner and side pane adverts

4) Removed HUGE lead image/story and "top" stories section. (All stories still available in main links section)

5) Restored links to old El Reg colours

6) Fixed Navigation link colours to new colours after restoring original El Reg main link colours

7) Removed stories/images from Nav popup

8) Removed redundant navigation popup sub navigation boxes for sections WITHOUT sub navigation links!

9) Changed sizes of headline divs to introduce a bit more seperation between main content area and side pane.

10) Fixed headline link bylines to remain black after restoring original El Reg Link colours (El Reg changed the entire div to a link so whole text changed to match default link colours)

11) Added a (very) slight hover colour change to headlines to indicate whole div is now treated as a link too

12) Removed thumbnail images from main page and sub-section headlines

13) Removed timestamp and comment count link (which doesn't actually go direct to comments!) from below headline links on main page.

14) Changed "spotlight" over-image text box background to black to help reduce the amount of white.

15) Removed article "Hero" images, rest of images in article unaffected.

16) Removed article author popup box.

17) Re-aligned article byline and social media buttons

18) Reduced verticle size of article "More from The Register" divs.

19) Removed LARGE Whitepapers links from certain articles

20) Removed "Sponsored Links"

21) Removed Right Pane "Related Topics" on article pages.

22) Removed ALL comment count overlays (until they actually start pointing to comments!).

23) Fixed various button text (back to white) which had inherited their colour from the standard El Reg link colours

24) Rejigged padding and margins of footer to enable colour change to add seperation (and reduce a little of the whiteness)

25) Hidden "scripting" div below of footer which caused uneccessary white box

Shades

My solution...

@-moz-document domain(theregister.co.uk) {

html {background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% #ddd!important}

#topbar {margin:0px 0px 0px 0px!important;margin-bottom:0px!important;}

#top_tease {display:none;}

#ad-ldr-spot {display:none;}

#follow_btns_top {display:none;}

#right-col {padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;}

a {color:#00d!important;}

a:hover {color:#f00!important;}

a:visited {color:#a00!important;}

a:visited:hover {color:#f00!important;}

#top_nav li a {color:#00f!important}

#top_nav li.on a, #top_nav li:hover {color:#fff!important}

div.bootnotes_nav {display:none!important}

div.sec_nav {display:none!important}

.glue #nav_pop > div {height:30px!important}

#nav_pop > div {height:30px!important}

.static #nav_pop > div {bottom:-31px!important}

#nav_pop .story_row {display:none!important}

a .standfirst, a:hover .standfirst, a:visited .standfirst, a:visited:hover .standfirst {color:#000!important;}

a.story_link:hover {background-color:#fafafa}

.headlines {padding:0px 0px 0px 0px!important;border-right:2px dotted #ddd}

.headline {width:190px!important}

.standfirst .trailer {color:#000!important; font-weight:bold}

.story_grid_img {display:none}

.toprot.large, .full_width_headline.block {width:633px!important}

.full_width_headline.block {height:265px!important}

.toprot.large #toprot_image, .toprot.large #top_story_image, .full_width_headline.block img {width:404px!important}

.image_above img {display:none!important}

.headlines .author_time_stamp, .headlines .comments .count{display:none!important}

.full_width_headline.block .comments {display:none!important}

.time_comments {display:none;}

.dont_miss {width:415px!important;}

.dont_miss.dcl .story_link .trailer {color:#000!important}

.more_content {padding:0px 15px 15px!important}

#nearby-index {padding: 10px 15px 10px!important}

#ad-mu1-spot, #ad-mu2-spot {display:none}

a.story {color:#fff!important}

#rh_reviews h5, #spotlight h5 {background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5)!important}

.headline.with_image .comments .count, .first_headline.with_image .comments .count, .full_width_headline.left .comments .count, .full_width_headline.right .comments .count, .promo_story .comments .count {display:none!important}

.article_img {display:none}

#social_btns {top:15px!important}

#article .byline {margin:28px 0px 0px!important}

#author_box {display:none!important}

#article_body_btm .comments a {color:#fff!important}

.wptl.btm {display:none}

#story_rhs_more {display:none}

#whitepapers {display:none}

#read_more_on .story {min-height: 150px!important}

#sponlinks {display:none}

#forums_page .heading .post a, #in_article_forums .heading .post a, #forums-nav .reg_btn.logout, #forums-nav .your_topics .more a, #forums-starred .your_topics .more a {color:#fff!important}

#footer {background-color:#eee;margin:0px!important;padding:15px!important}

#end_scripts {display:none!important}

}

The Shock of the New: The Register redesign update 4

Shades

User CSS

I've created a user CSS which restores some sanity to El Reg, there's well over 25 tweaks! Its currently aimed at FireFox but should be easily adaptable to other browsers that support user CSS overrides. You can find the code, a list of the main 25 changes and some screenshots over on the Reg Redesign forum thread (its currently on page 21(!)... For the moment!)

You can thank me later... Although I'm Almost certain the folks at El Reg won't! Lol

Android gives Google a search monopoly? Not so fast, says judge

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Ignoring the obvious...

The initiators of this class action seem to be ignoring the fact that most people probably just do not give a shit who the search provider is!

PlayStation Network blasted offline AGAIN. Just not Sony's decade

Shades

Re: El Reg Tombstone icon when?

The "hacking" bit raised my eyebrow too. And El Reg makes out that it took out the whole NETWORK, when in reality they just stood in front of the shop DOOR like a bunch of chavs in trackies, baseball caps, spitting all over the place and swearing unnecessarily.

Vodafone eyes up Liberty Global – report

Shades
Trollface

Re: Cable Cowboy?

I may be wrong but I seem to recall something about him hailing from Texas. I've heard they're fond of a Stetson there for some reason.

Facebook: Over half a BEELLION loyalists have SPURNED our Messenger app

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"half billion people relying on Messenger"

I doubt anybody relies on Messenger? What planet do these spokeswonks live on?

ISPs handbagged: BLOCK knock-off sites, rules beak

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Blocking the Pirate Bay Worked So Well...

Its still only 1 click, or 2 at most, away. Who advises the idiots in charge, more idiots?

Want a more fuel efficient car? Then redesign it – here's how

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Re: Advanced Motoring

"If you're not careful you'll have someone to close behind you running into you!"

Then the inconsiderate arseholes better have insurance or I'll hunt them down and they'll end up paying for it in other ways!

Good grief! Have you seen BlackBerry's square smartphone?

Shades
Trollface

Re: "keyboard doubles as a capacitive multitouch trackpad"

If only the article was accompanied by photos where you could see for yourself. One with the device in someones hand at a slight angle would have been especially useful. Sadly I guess we'll never know.

Boffins attempt to prove the universe is just a hologram

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Thumb Up

Re: Excellent

Its gems like this that make the slog trawling through the El Reg comments totally worth it! Bravo Firu Toddo.

Stand clear! Will HTC's One act as a defibrillator for Windows Phone?

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Re: The HTC One Android

Are you on about BlinkFeed, which is nothing more than essentially a fancy looking RSS reader and can be removed from the home screen? If so you really must try harder when trolling.

'Blow it up': Plods pop round for chat with Commonwealth Games tweeter

Shades

Re: Plods really are dumb

So there is no such thing as free WiFi in coffee shops, bars, fast food outlets and a myriad of other places, many of which can be used from outside the premises, where one can anonymously use the internet?

Bitcoin on ATM? Pfft! We play Doom on ours

Shades

As much as I hate to admit it...

...that was my first thought too.

Cabbies paralyze London in Uber rebellion

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Meters

From the article:

"The Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association argues that the mobile app is basically just a form of taxi meter, which private cars and minicabs aren’t legally allowed to have."
Is this just a London thing? All the private hire firms where I live (Staffordshire) have integrated meters in the little GPS enabled devices that the drivers can accept jobs and recieve short messages (amongst other things) through. The same firms now use automated telephone lines (which remembers the last few pickup points if you've used them before) or Apps with which you can book a taxi, then see where it is, and it tells you what the car is, its reg and the drivers name (or the same info is sent to your mobile as an SMS if you booked via a call).

Perhaps London cabbies should try moving with the times instead of bringing things to a standstill?

Hackers ZERO IN on ZOMBIE XP boxes: Get patching, Internet Explorer 8 users

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Next time...

...the plumber is around your house can you send him round mine? I'm sure you won't mind picking up the bill too would you?

SpaceX wins court injunction to block US Air Force buying Russian rockets

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Thumb Up

I like Elon.

He's got brains, big ideas and balls. He actually seems to want to improve our lot and is prepared to put his money and his name on the line in the pursuit of doing just that (and make a few quid for himself along the way of course).

I just hope to $deity that he doesn't decide that being an evil genius would be much more fun else I reckon we're all screwed!

Early! Do! Not! Track! Adopter! Yahoo! Says! It's! Rubbish, Bins! It!

Shades

Call me cynical...

...but I suspect that DNT is too successful, with more people opting in than expected, and, with Yahoo! not being what it once was, its buggering up their ability to maximise advertising revenue exactly when they need it. I'm guessing - not being in the advertising industry - that advertisers, in these cost concious times, want to know exactly where their money is going and its being spent hitting the correct eyeballs rather than just being splurted out willy-nilly. By choosing to obey a users wish to not be tracked Yahoo! are probably losing out compared to those services that couldn't care less about DNT and can offer more attractive and effective targetted advertising packages than the Purple Palace can. Its not like Yahoo! can afford let this happen, hence DNT - surprise, surprise - "does not work".

Of course, this is all conjecture and I may be way off base, but I can't see any other reason for Yahoo! to ditch DNT and resume following people around the interwebs in a dirty brown mac, notepad in hand, jotting down everywhere you go and everything you look at.