* Posts by M Gale

3500 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Apr 2007

Apple strangleholds worldwide battery output

M Gale
Flame

So where do the flying-models suppliers get their stuff from?

Smaller market, granted. However I've no problem with nipping over to the shop in the next village and grabbing myself a hundred quid handful of lithium polymer goodness (asides me not being made of money). What about the e-car manufacturers as well? Toyota (and e-flite) could perhaps be doing a roaring trade to laptop suppliers, if the IT industry is that hard-up.

Fire because shorting a LiPo can get exothermic veeeeery quickly.

Man battles police siege with Facebook

M Gale

“not sure yet how to deal with it."

So what would happen if one of his "homies" was parked nearby with a CB radio?

How is this different?

MeeGo and the Great Betrayal Myths of tech history

M Gale

*nix is almost as silly with its messages.

"You don't exist. Go away."

Seriously?

M Gale

"Y'all need a license from google for an API key."

For the app, yes. The developer signs that, not the hardware manufacturer nor the OS vendor.

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html

Nowhere in there do I see "you can use this on Android, but not on Meego, and definitely not on iOS or that Microsoft thing." Now, if you were on about Android Market or the Maps app (as opposed to API), then yes I would agree. Google would be most upset about those things running anywhere other than approved platforms. However, nothing there stops developers releasing their own apps for Ovi, Bada, Amazon App Store or whatever else they like.

The whole point of Google's APIs is that anybody on any platform can access them, shirley?

M Gale

Was about to say a similar thing.

I mean on one of the first lectures at uni, the prof said something like "say what you like about Microsoft, they have been the one company that has achieved Bill Gates' dream of putting a PC in every home."

I just had to put my hand up and mention "uhm, wasn't that Compaq, who first reverse-engineered the PC BIOS, thus opening up a simple product into an entire industry made of many different manufacturers all wanting us to spend money on their products, thus enabling the rapid explosion of the PC as a platform, the success of which Microsoft simply rode the coat tails of and claimed responsibility for?"

His response was "Shh, we don't mention the war."

Funny guy.

M Gale

"Spawn of satin."

Silk?

Velvet?

Corduroy?

Velcro?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

M Gale

Indeed.

What the hell is with these cross-site-login things anyway?

Want to keep Android apps from spying on you?

M Gale

After Angry Birds' latest permissions hike?

This can't come too soon. Angry Birds is just one example of apps that seem to start with just "Internet Access" and then with later updates, expand their permissions requirements into location and other such lovelies. Presumably the developer and/or advertisers think you can't live without some toy that involves flinging birds about like a sparkly version of GORILLAS.BAS.

Yeah. Watch me.

Server admin kit spans heaven and data center

M Gale

With a name like that...

...am I the only one who at first glance, thought this was about someone running a toy racing car track around, between and over a bunch of racking?

Back to gaslight, coal and steam power - it's the future

M Gale

Heat powered fridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

Going from propane to coal gas needs but a change of gas jets.

LulzSec disavows alleged Census hack

M Gale

Given that the 2001 UK census data is over 30 terabytes...

...methinks they'd probably still be downloading it now.

Now that'd be one hell of a torrent.

M Gale

"A recent Twat from LulzSec's Twitter feed"

Typo or humour?

LightSquared shuffles away from GPS bands

M Gale

Not even bell shaped.

Looks more like trying to scale the Pennines, after you throw harmonics into the mix. Fun all round!

Boy am I glad I'm not a radio engineer having to deal with this.

Sony preps refreshed PS3 and talks down PS4

M Gale

When Sega did this with the 16 bit consoles...

...everyone said how shit it was. Same machine but just made smaller and cheaper to manufacture. But sold at the same price.

Just saying.

Samsung to refresh 7in Galaxy Tab this September

M Gale

Update:

New firmware. Few hundred megabytes of shite downloaded.

...and the Tab tells me I'm still running 2.2. Hang on?

M Gale

Spoke too soon!

Just tried today. "New Firmware Available".

Will give it a go shortly. Time to see whether it works or bricks, I guess!

M Gale

Not for me it isn't.

Kies is either not working, or Samsung are just being arses. Mind you, it might be because I bought the thing from PC World. In any case, it's a 3G-equipped model GT-P1000, takes any SIM, isn't locked to any particular carrier...

...and still doesn't have Gingerbread.

Baseband version P1000XXJK5, build number FROYO.XWJJ7, if that helps any. Running Ubuntu right now so can't be arsed rebooting into Win7 to run Kies, but I remember the last three digits that Kies reports being CPW, which others seem to reckon means "Carphone Warehouse". Wut?

M Gale

Eww, 3.0 UI

It's awful. Really. Why does it suit a tablet better than 2.x?

Plus the 3G version IS a phone, or at least contains the chipset for it. Right now I have a dialler that lets me make calls. As I understand it, Honeycomb has no dialler.

So a reduced functionality, and a UI that just reminds me of Microsoft when they went all Fisher Price. No thanks.

M Gale
Thumb Down

What about the update for existing 3G Tab owners?

You know, the Gingerbread update we were promised for late May? Mine is the carrier-free GT-1000 model, bought and paid for without a contract so there's nobody to delay things while they add their own useless trinkets. The supposed update is the only reason I'm currently tolerating that godawful shite known as Kies on my system, so can I please get a firmware upgrade so I can uninstall that bloatware post-haste?

Or are we going to be told "you want new firmware, buy a new Tab" like so many other Samsung device owners in the past?

SpaceX goes to court as US rocket wars begin

M Gale
Facepalm

First stage blowing up AFTER separation?

..what, when it's got no fuel left?

Oz alkie gets hammered on hospital hand sanitiser

M Gale

Bitrex

Isn't that stuff denatured? You know, made so foul that even an alkie with a cast iron stomach would have no choice but to throw it all back up again?

Obviously not, in this case.

Brit CompSci student faces extradition to US over link site

M Gale
Mushroom

UK.gov needs to grow a pair.

This treaty is already stupidly lop-sided. It should be torn up and US.gov told that it can go suck its own cock for a while until it's willing to come back and renegotiate. Even the American spin machine can't successfully paint the entire UK as a rogue state, so what are they going to do about it?

Hopefully a few more cases like this becoming public and that's just what will happen.

M Gale

For linking to torrents?

Seriously?

Google: Our rapid load won't give you anything nasty

M Gale
Trollface

If all it does is HTML..

...then fine.

If it even thinks of allowing Javascript or Flash into the mix, including inline things like onload="javascript:lulzYouGotTheHack();", then there's no way Google can claim "no additional risk".

Mind you, it could be a funny way of launching a browser forkbomb or GNAA's Last Measure or similar. Nimping people who just type in a search term? Oh Google, I like this idea already!

NAME that DONKEY: Bella bests Barbarella

M Gale

So how long...

...before you wake up and find stencilled rats all over the wall, and two adorable kids blaming the donkey?

Microsoft launches official Windows code kit for Kinect

M Gale

I can see that being useful...

...right up until Microsoft sues them into the ground and rips off their best ideas. That or uses them as an advertisement as to why they are more "interoperable" than anyone else.

Why can't they make a library that works with a few cheap webcams instead?

Creationists are infiltrating US geology circles

M Gale

"Far more problematic for Creationism is continental drift."

You forget that at the root of creationism is "God Did It."

You think God can't hit the fast forward button on a bunch of rock?

Etc, etc, ad nauseum. Amazing what you can "prove" when you have an omnipotent sky daddy,

M Gale

What?

I said "The Internet", not Anonymous? Christ, sorry I used the wrong icon.

Err, pardon the expression.

M Gale
Trollface

Nothing to worry about.

Especially not once the Internet sinks its teeth into this.

Boffins brew up formula for consummate cuppa

M Gale

Scald?

That's crappy instant coffee, not the sort of "builder's tea" you get from Typhoo et all. A good cup of tea as drunk by many a plumber, joiner or decorator demands boiling water and, as others here have suggested, using the teaspoon to squeeze every last drop of potential out of the bag.

Or use a teapot, if you like being archaic and using a tea strainer for straining tea.

M Gale
Mushroom

Re: Re: Cash n' Carrion

Well. Will we be seeing an article tomorrow along the lines of "Fake Cafepress shop paid visit by BOFH, detonation audible from France"?

M Gale
Thumb Up

Sage tea

Unexpectedly gorgeous.

M Gale

Cash n' Carrion

The Reg used to have something of a merchandising arm, though it's kind of got a bit fractured these days by the looks of it. Try this link:

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/cashncarrion

There's another "Spreadshirt" shop still active but that only seems to do T Shirts. www.cashncarrion.co.uk seems to just redirect to the Reg main page these days.

At £15 for a large mug though, you'd have to be one to buy one.

LulzSec hacks EVE Online as rampage goes on

M Gale

"...a game were griefing and scamming are tolerated..."

"Tolerated" is not the word you are looking for. "Tolerated" implies that it is disliked but allowed to exist.

I think perhaps a better term would be "integral". As in "griefing, scamming and gate camping are integral to EVE."

Not that this is a bad thing. It gives the trolls a sandbox to play in, and keeps them out of the more care-beary games like WoW. I'm kinda thinking of getting onto EVE meself, what with knowing two or three friends that also play it. I'm just under no illusions as to what my grievance rights are if some bunch of small-dicked children decide to sit behind a jump gate with with a whole load of battleships.

All part of the game. Just get a bigger bunch of small-dicked children or put a bounty on their head!

EA angers fans over Battlefield 3 pre-order exclusives

M Gale

Insert Title Here

Having to create online accounts for single player games, having to install bloated malware because of the guilty-until-proven-innocent assumptions of shit like Steam and EA's awful downloader, destroying the second hand market by making half the game in the form of "super extra free exclusive DLC" that can only be licensed to one person...

Plenty of reason I stopped buying most PC games some time ago, and this is just an extra one.

Cloud iTunes DESTROYS music business FOREVER!

M Gale

It's all about the licensing.

"3 out of the 14 friends I've spoken with about this seriously consider suscribing to iCloud and START pirating again."

But if by subscribing to iCloud means you obtain licenses for your unauthorised downloads, then it is de facto and de jure NOT piracy. Those downloads are neither illegitimate, nor obtained by plundering of the high seas.

Though I still want to know what happens to those licenses once you stop paying the yearly subscription fee.

M Gale

"chewed up and spat out"

Is AAC a lossless format?

No?

Then transcoding to AAC will result in a loss of quality, regardless of how much research went into it. Besides, read up and you'll see Orlowski admitting his error about things being transcoded.

Anyway, I'd like to know what happens to the "legitimacy" of your music collection if you decide to pay $25 one year and then sack it off the next. Not that I have a huge collection of unauthorised copies (and I'll use iTunes on the day that Satan ice skates to work), but it's something worth considering. Nice pre-populated list of potential copyright offenders for the music industry mafia to go after?

Twitter goes after born-again typosquatter

M Gale

This subject is simples.

Indeed. It's like that pesky insurance company, typosquatting so I end up being bombarded with sales talk about cheap car insurance when what I really wanted to do was compare meerkats!

Shame that Aleksandr Orlov likely doesn't have the money to file a complaint.

iCloud Communications sues Apple for 'irreparable injury' to trademark

M Gale

If I remember rightly...

...Apple were once told by a certain Apple Corps that they had no problem with the "Apple" brand so long as they didn't break into the music business. This particular Apple Corps being around since, oh, the 1960s at least?

Yeah, look at what happened there.

Mole: iPhone 5 in testing now, on sale in September

M Gale

Maybe...

...they've made it so you can hold it and use it like a phone?

</cheapshot>

Cabinet Office talks to Facebook & co about new ID system

M Gale

Facebook to verify benefits claims

This happens anyway. I'd paste you a specific URL but there seem to be a ton to choose from. So, I'll give you this instead:

http://www.google.com/search?q=benefits+cheat+facebook

Although why stripping all of the "&client=ubuntu" extraneous crap from the URL should swap results 2 & 3 around, who knows?

Intel teaches machines to build own device drivers

M Gale
Mushroom

A strange game.

The only winning move is not to play. So why don't we get some termites to do it for us?

Nuclear explosion because, well... if you don't know, your geek credentials are hereby revoked.

Apple backs down (a bit) on iOS subscription rules

M Gale

Oh ouch.

Seems like a pretty major issue. Team Reg, you wanna verify this and, errr, "bug" Google into doing something about it? I think being able to bollox any Android device up by setting a date is an embarrassing enough news story!

Blu-ray sales to overtake DVD... next year

M Gale

My eyesight is fine.

And on a 50" screen I'll say HD does make a difference. Not a massive difference, but it is there. Mostly, tellies like this are best for computer games where on-screen text is getting ridiculously small these days and barely readable on standard def screens.

Now try the same trick on a 25" to 27" 4:3 screen viewed from the other end of a living room (say 3.5 to 4 metres away). Not so much difference now? We don't all buy fifty inch gargantuan monsters, and believe it or not most people stuff their tellies in the corner of the room, defying all the hideous squeals of the audiophiles about speaker placement and sweet spots. It's a telly, not a way of life.

Anyway, for broadcast telly the bandwidth makes a hell of a lot more difference than the resolution. Try getting a high-def broadcast and mixing it back down through a SCART lead or something. Then compare it with the same broadcast in standard def and, despite both pictures having the same resolution, you'll see what I mean.

M Gale

/me shoots a big rubber sucker dart

"Movie studios have different region coding policies. Among major U.S. studios, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios have released all of their titles region-free.[115][116] Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. have released most of their titles region-free.[117][118][119] Lionsgate and Walt Disney Pictures have released a mix of region-free and region-coded titles.[120][121] 20th Century Fox and MGM have released most of their titles region-coded.[122][123]"

Just a little wiki-quoting there. Of course Wikipedia is not an academic source.

Hannspree Hannspad 10.1in Android tablet

M Gale

Exactly this:

"- It has their own app market, does this mean it *doesn't* have the Android one?"

The review really needs to state whether the device comes with Android Market, or whether the app store it does come with is any good. Otherwise you might as well buy a cheapo resistive-screen iRobot from China for all the use it'll be.

Though I could really do without 3.x. Seriously, the 2.x UI is absolutely fine and people need to get over this Jobsian hatred of physical buttons. I still don't see how the 3.x UI is so much better for tablets. Or even better at all.

Explosion at Intel's 'Fab 32' Arizona chip plant

M Gale
Mushroom

Oh indeedy.

I used to work for a parcel service (they rhyme with 'Ruffnells') that has the dubious honour of taking materials that few or no other couriers will touch. Sofas? Not a problem. Televisions? Also no problem. Gigantic barrels of food flavouring that is so concentrated it needs a 'WARNING: CORROSIVE" sticker on the side? All part of the business. Five foot high LEAKY dewars of liquid nitrogen going between medical facilities? Well I can verify the leidenfrost effect personally. Bleaches, acids, alkali, various other flammable/oxidizing/explosive industrial chemicals being used in all sorts of places that you wouldn't think of. Even more fun when Septemper/October rolls around again and you're rolling around in enough 40 foot loads of fireworks to blow the entire facility and probably the rest of the industrial estate sky high. Don't light a match!

By the way, Taurine has an incredibly long chemical name and comes as a very dense powder in small cardboard barrels that are a bugger to lift if you're not expecting it. I know this because I've probably hauled enough of the stuff around to give the entire world the jitters five times over.

Manufacturing? Pfft, have a thought for the poor buggers who have to ship you the raw ingredients!

Farting death camels must die to save the world!

M Gale
Mushroom

Badger badger badger badger

Mushroom Mushroom?

Oh come on, that must be more damaging to sanity than any amount of camels. Die, I say. Die!

BBC to serve Wimbledon finals in 3D

M Gale

Odd place to start.

I mean take Avatar or How To Train Your Dragon as film examples. These both have plenty of footage designed to make you go "ooooh things coming out of the screen". That floating water droplet from the beginning of avatar or the vapour trails on the dropship wings, or that awesome falling sequence in HTTYD for instance.

Tennis? A flat playing pitch with a ball being knocked up and down it?

Like I say, odd place to start.

Apple iCloud: Steve Jobs' own private internet

M Gale

Well.

It's more a "Fat Client", in that the terminals can do a little more than just render teletype these days.

However essentially yes, it does seem part of a big push to put the "personal" computer back behind the glass doors. No thankyou very fucking much. Scalable virtual computing does have its uses, but my personal computing is not one of those uses.