Sign in / up

* Posts by M Gale

3500 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Apr 2007

Page:

A multitasking iPad? Let's bin the netbook

M Gale
Reply Icon

A toaster is an appliance..

..and yet, most toasters come with configurable options. You can decide how brown you would like your toast. More advanced toasters will take many sizes of bread, right up to self-baked, self-sliced doorsteps; the ultimate in home-brew. If the fuse goes pop, you can usually unscrew the plug (or flip the flap underneath if it's a crappy moulded thing) and fit a new fuse. You're not limited to what type of bread you put in, nor what manufacturer it comes from. You can even get third-party add-ons (ever hear of "toaster bags"?) that allow you to make things like cheese toasties, without getting an awful mess on the crumb tray.

Another appliance is a fridge freezer. Did you know a lot of fridges allow you to configure how much power they use? Many allow you to take the shelving out and reorganise it as you, rather than the manufacturer, wishes. Hell, if you don't want that whacking great meat drawer at the bottom taking up space, there's nothing in the EULA saying you have to have it there. You don't get Hoover or Smeg saying that you can only freeze approved water in the icecube maker, and I don't think they'd be too bothered if you used it to freeze non-food items.

If you don't care what your toast comes out looking like, and just simply plug the thing in, bung some bread in and depress the lever then good for you. Same if you're happy with the fridge shelves as they are. Some of us, however, would rather be able to manage our "appliances", especially when those appliances are computers, being sold as computers (sorry, "new computing paradigms"), with all of the configurability that this implies.

Trying to make this as not-a-flame as I can, but.. dammit, the "appliance" argument is a really shitty excuse to let Apple get away with selling locked-down crap.

2 3
M Gale
Reply Icon

Always Innovating's Touchbook

$400 with the keyboard, and runs Android. $300 without, though personally I'll stump up the extra $100 and get the keyboard even if it is US-layout. Nothing like a little sticky-back paper and some ingenuity to get a £ sign where there wasn't one previously and put the double-quote and @ symbols where I'm used to.

Oh, and it has USB ports. Three internally. I know it's a bit more than the $200 you're asking for but, Android pads and netbooks do exist, and they've been around for longer than the fruit company's "new computing paradigm".

As for why I won't buy an ipad.. well, "new computing paradigm" just about sums it up. Over-hyped, over-priced, under-powered and full of crap. It could have been so much more but it's a toy, with a touch screen. I already have a Nintendo DS, thankyouverymuch.

0 1
M Gale
Reply Icon
Thumb Down

USB?

Seriously, USB going to be replaced by wifi?

Have you ever tried to explain NAS to a "normal" computer user? I promise you won't get very far. Probably not much further than "Network". Even domestic NAT routers are oversimplified to the point of ridiculousness, just so that Joe Public can plug it in, and switch it on. What you're asking is for someone who would rather pull out their own eyelids than learn what DHCP, SMB or NFS stands for let alone what they do, to set up shared folders with access permissions. Even with the GUI wizards that every OS including Linux seem to possess, this is just not "normal user" territory.

Speaking of which, have you ever tried to explain shared folders to a "normal" computer user? I promise you won't get very far with that either. USB flash drives are as simple as "plug it in, drag your shit across". NAS.. isn't.

That and I don't see how you're going to plug a wifi device in, via wifi.

2 0

Labour manifesto: More ID cards, less NHS IT

M Gale
Reply Icon
Grenade

Two faced lying scumbags, the lot of them.

"instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands more police officers on the beat in our local communities."

--Tony Blair, 1995

"The petition calling for the Government to abandon plans for a National ID Scheme attracted almost 28,000 signatures - one of the largest responses since this e-petition service was set up. So I thought I would reply personally to those who signed up, to explain why the Government believes National ID cards, and the National Identity Register needed to make them effective, will help make Britain a safer place."

--Tony Blair, 2007

Boot these fuckers out. Less than a month to go, fellow Britards. Just put your X anywhere except Labour.

5 0

McKinnon's mum stands against Straw at general election

M Gale
Reply Icon
Alien

Plus One

The Martian, speaking more sense than anyone up for election.

As usual.

1 0

Seagate preloads FreeAgent Go with 20 Paramount movies

M Gale
Grenade

So how long..

..until some leet hacksaw finds out how to unlock the movies for free, and publishes the howto?

And what (encoding) quality are the movies? I've seen too many DVDs sold with a "and you can also get a digital download version FREE with this disk!" Hang on a minute.. I run OGMrip, and I have a "digital download" version for free, without having the end result look like I'm trying to watch a movie with binoculars across the street through someone's net curtains.

As for whatever shitty DRM got put on the Dark Knight DVDs that are out there.. hah. That took all of a single command-line switch in mencoder to defeat. Then I ripped it and copied it to a couple of friends just because the bastards tried.

Still. Cheap terabyte drive? That'll do me. Just format, and replace with "digital downloads" of the content I've already paid for tyvm.

0 0

Giant solar-powered aircraft takes to the skies

M Gale
Reply Icon
Coat

Re: That icon is..

..just goes to show. Can't really tell any difference between them these days.

Mine's the asbestos-lined one over there.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

Mummy, there's an aeroplane up in the sky..

..*splat*.

Goodbye blue skies, indeed.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Pirate

Trade winds?

Not unless it's a flying galleon. If they could get high enough to take a ride on the jetstream however, ~300mph would certainly help. Of course that would mean taking oxygen on board, and I've a feeling every ounce matters on an aeroplane like that.

Pirates because, well..

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

Earl Grey, Hot!

See title.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Remind me..

..of some old program with David Bellamy. He took a trip to the North Pole. Stuck his brolly in the floor on the pole, and walked around it. "There, I've just walked around the world!" ...and backward.. "And again!"

Love that guy and his distinctive accent.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

The point..

..is probably "to show we can". Think of it as being a more modern Wright Flyer. Totally useless in a practical sense, but demonstrated some very important concepts.

1 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

Obligatory ipad joke.

Insert here.

1 0

Labour unfriends Twitter rant candidate

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Welsh?

Isn't that like, English except run through a ROT13 filter?

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Flame

Title

"A very beautiful nowhere, but it's almost 'Here Be Dragons' country."

..presumably dragons with a Scottish accent and a distinctive lisp.

Fire because, well, duh.

0 0

Ten Essential Android Apps

M Gale
Badgers

ALK Copilot screenshot

Worsley Rd, on the junction to Vendale Ave. Near to Wallwork Opticians, United Norwest Cooperative, and Worsley Golf club. Somewhat close to "Ladies Workout Express".

I'm sure that's a Bastard article in the making...

0 0

Windows mobile Trojan poses as war game

M Gale
Reply Icon

I have to wonder..

..why someone hasn't done this for the iphone already. So many apps being made for the app store, I don't think whatever review service Apple have is going to cope with a determined effort to get malware in there.

Yeah, it'll get caught/blocked eventually. After how many premium rate calls/texts?

0 0

Austrian takes pickaxe to Street View spymobile

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

^^WTF?

But they'll be dead soon anyway.

Fucking kangaroos.

1 0

iPhone 4.0: iAds, multitasking, and 98 tweaks

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

More handsets and manufacturers...

...putting you off?

So you'd rather spend money on apps, that only work with one particular company's offering?

Windows may be a bunch of shite, all the best bits copied from *nixland, dumbed-down to the point of uselessness and offered by a psychopath.. however the one thing it has going for it is that you don't need to buy a Microsoft PC (yet) in order to use Windows applications.

Compare and contrast that with Apple. Sorry Steve-fans, but since that fateful year of 1984, your favourite fruit company has become as the Borg in a way Microsoft can only dream about.

Also, WTF am I doing saying something nice about Windows? Must stop smoking that plant fertilizer..

1 0

Google tweaks search results with mystery site speedometer

M Gale
Reply Icon

Yes and no.

Everything you've said so far is spot on. However, "Cruft like Flash and bloated fragmented objects (CSS/JS) cannot die quickly enough."

I'd much rather a site have all its styling in a nice neat little .css file that my proxy can cache and not bother downloading again for the rest of the day.

Anyway, what's it to Google if a site loads slow? If they want to be useful, rather than putting a site that may be good-but-slow right down in the search rankings, why can't a five or ten-star speed ranking appear next to the site name?

0 0

Google Checkout checks out

M Gale

Fly Eyes Kit (.co.uk)

I ditched Google Checkout as the payment option for a site I built/still maintain for someone, way back when they ditched Maestro. Quite a lot of people, including me, use Maestro cards.. anyone with Yorkshire Bank for one.

Boy am I glad I did that. Paypal are by no means perfect, but at least they support ALL cards. And, uhm, work.

1 1

iPad security broken in less than 24 hours

M Gale
Reply Icon

Bah

"No more support calls from a wannabe hacker ssh-ing into the iPhone and /accidentally/ running "rm -rf /" as root, thus turning their device into a brick."

..I've never understood, now phones are miniature computers, why there is never a recovery option? I mean, you "rm -rf /" a computer (or "format c: /y" or whatever), and you can bung the installation disk back in. Okay, you lose what was on it, but your computer is not a brick, shitty DRM notwithstanding.

Mind you, then the vendor wouldn't get the chance to sell you a brand new phone when the old one has nothing physically wrong with it.

Hey, suddenly I understand!

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Coat

Completely irrelevant rambling

Big up the CV/Gate posse?

Unfortunately, if god made 1V/1 octave, there are several other minor deities who decided on other meanings of what a volt does. Hence why MIDI got made.. it prevented a Microsoft of Synthesizers happening, you know! Still, there's a certain charm to rigging function generators and filters together with your own wiring.

And as for synthesizer "presets".. anyone noticed the big swing towards "digital analogue" synths that happened a few years ago? This was after various musicians decided that the 30 year old analogue Korgs with the big sliders and knobs were much more "giggable" than the newer models that wanted you to go through umpteen menus and button presses in order to change a sound. Now it's all gone to sliders and knobs and real-time twiddlability again.. albeit, with the digital advantage of being able to store said knobs' positions. ;)

What has this to do with the article? Not much! Oh well. Mine's the one with the Yamaha AN200, Novation K Station and Evolution X-session in the (very large) pockets.

0 0

North Korea mobilizes Red Star Linux rollout

M Gale
Reply Icon

Well...

..yaknow, the whole GPL ethos probably IS quite close to communism.

Difference is, unlike the governmental system, Linux actually works.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Sounds like a new 3D imaging tool.

"Extreme Rendition".

0 0

Apple understates iPad demand

M Gale
Reply Icon

Re: Then go buy it if it works for you.

I think I will.

And please, intentionally crippled just to piss me off? I don't think Jobs is necessarily spiteful. He's just a very shrewd businessman who knows how to milk his followers. Iphone OS is crippled. Intentionally. All part of the plan, methinks. Just look at version 4, "now with multi tasking, perhaps". Wow, really?

Iphone 3G "S". Now with a camera. Wow, really? Put a feature in that every other mobile phone has had for years? You mean it wasn't planned that way from the start to maximize revenue?

Maybe when Ipad 2 comes out, it'll have multi-tasking and maybe a keyboard option. And perhaps an SD card slot. And when it does come out, it'll be hailed as the all-singing all-dancing wonder-machine that it isn't, while the adverts all proclaim that Apple has invented "a new computing paradigm". Oh come on.

But don't let my pointing that out spoil your obvious joy.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

While I'm at it...

"Is it multi-touch? Is it 1/2" thick? Does it have apps galore that have been written specifically for a touch based OS?"

Actually, yes. It's called Android, don't you know? And it's 1.4 inches thick with the keyboard. Not sure without. I'm sure it'll fit in a satchel nicely, regardless.

Again, don't let my post spoil your joy, eh?

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

Re: And require all the resources that OSX requires

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Always-Innovating-Touch-Book/

(the link at https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ would have to keel over JUST now)

One tablet. With a "full on" (or at least, multitasking) operating system. Choice of operating systems in fact, including Android. Oh, and a keyboard if you want it. And a $300-$400 price tag depending on whether you want it with the keyboard or not. I'd be surprised if El Reg hasn't covered this machine at some stage, either. Hint, hint?

As far as I can tell, Iphone OS is based on OS X then intentionally crippled anyway, so your comment is really a non-starter. If a company like Apple can't make an OS fit in the ipad's space, why the hell are they still in business? Why do people see fit to pay Applesque prices for what is essentially a crippled toy?

Oh yes. Smooth marketing and a personality cult. Forgot about that for a minute.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon

OSX isn't touch.

Because you couldn't possibly write a driver for that. I mean that might be a bit too "magical" and "revolutionary", even for Apple!

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Thumb Down

Buying a computer based on spec? How silly!

"Just wonder whether M GALE has a similar spec list for his boyfriend?"

...you know I might actually be gay. Or not.

"Did you see Jekyll & Hyde?"

So.. the ipad looks like a fairly innocent little device until you try and use it, then it turns out to be an ugly monster?

"or indeed anything else, people buying on perusing specs really make me laugh...Totally miss the point..."

Why yes. Absolutely. You shouldn't buy a computer based on its spec. What you should do, is ask the nice gentleman at PC World whether you can have that one over there because it's pink. You know, my old colleagues at the aforementioned big-box store would have LOVED you. Talk about a cash cow.

"Ah well at least some of us learn from our mistakes...."

Quite. I suppose if it's a troll, you succeeded in getting a response. If not, well.. you fail. Really, really hard.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Thumb Up

Fuck me (not literally, please)..

..someone who actually has a good point. Well done, sir!

0 1
M Gale
Badgers

Title

No multitasking

No USB

No SD card slot

Slightly concave back, that makes it spin on a flat surface when you type

High-gloss screen (seriously, what is with wanting a device that reflects more light than it transmits?)

Hardly any storage space, unless you get the uber-expensive model

No camera

No apps that are not blessed by the Holy App Store

No Flash (okay, so that could be a blessing in disguise, but still.. try playing a Flash game with no Flash)

...there are many things I could call the ipad. "Magical" or "revolutionary" is not any of them. Christ, even a self-confessed Mactard friend of mine refers to it as the "ipap". Why didn't you just put OS X on it and stop with the bloody vendor-lock already? Even this toy-unix-fanboi would have been semi-interested then.

2 2

Commodore 64 reincarnated as quad-core Ubuntu box

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Plus One to you

also:

"The cacophonous pinging of slot machines as hopeful players try another spin, the shouts of exuberant – and exasperated – gamblers as they court Lady Luck, mixed with the myriad conversations, laughter and the calls of dealers and pit bosses all may create the impression that a busy casino is truly a place of chaos. But the Silver Slipper Casino in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, demonstrates how managers in the multi-billion-dollar gaming industry impose order on the apparent madness through meticulous financial controls and state-of-the-art technology to monitor every game, every transaction and every player, win or lose. "

Did AManFromMars write this site?

0 0

Nicole Richie turns Twitter hacker on celeb chums

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

I for one...

...welcome our mayonnaise-gargling overlords.

0 0

Legal high fire sale starts now

M Gale
Reply Icon
Flame

Real work?

Get your arse to Tuffnells parcel express. Preferably the Haydock depot, where they handle anything up to 30,000 consignments per night. If you can survive six months there (let alone the year and a half I managed before a bust ankle and no sick pay while working with an agency put paid to that), then you can say you know what real work is.

Otherwise, stop tapping away on that computer and pretending you know what work is. Trust me, if you had any experience of "real work", you would probably love the chance to come home and forget about the night shift courtesy of some steaming hot marijuana tea. Or maybe just a spliff.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Boffin

Just so you know..

Model aircraft and car fuel is mostly methanol with some nitromethane and castor or synthetic oil thrown in for good measure. If you really wanted to get very high, then blind, then dead - it's about £20 a gallon for the really good stuff. Basic GX5 will set you back about half that.

Goggles, because even if you survive methylated body cells, your eyes won't.

0 0
M Gale
Reply Icon
Thumb Up

Title.

Kind of reminds me of one person who is now diabetic, and gets money (well, vouchers) for alcohol because if they were to suddenly stop, the withdrawal symptoms would kill them.

Fucking idiot, basically. All done to themselves legally, too.

But hey, don't let reality get in the way of a Tabloid-inspired witch hunt against any and every possible form of fun that doesn't come from what amounts to yeast-shit.

0 0

Software engineer demands source of his speeding collar

M Gale

I have to wonder..

..why public bodies DON'T demand open source software for any device like this. Yes I know, freetard, etc, etc. But really, of all things, you would think that making software like this viewable by all would be a GOOD thing. It would certainly remove any reasonable doubt, which is after all, how you're supposed to find someone guilty. Or is it?

0 0

Microsoft clutches open source to its corporate heart

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Or maybe not.

Well. Frankly I'd have believed Malcom Bertruger was in charge of the LHC and that hell knights had already started invading, before believing that Microsoft had 'embraced' open source with anything other than a desire to kill it.

That is still the case. This smells fishy, even if it's not an April Fool.

3 0
M Gale
Badgers

I vote April Fools

"..the release by Microsoft of 20,000 lines of Windows kernel code under GPLv2 to improve performance and manageability of Linux running insider the company's Hyper-V.."

Is this the code that Microsoft was compelled to release after someone found out that they were using GPL-licensed code? Yeah, I figure April Fool. Better luck next year, Gavin.

0 0

BOFH: The PFY Chronicles Part The Third

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Nice idea..

..however I don't know how eight £2k wodges of wonga would fit even in the space formerly occupied by an instruction manual containing 25 different languages excluding English.

Waiting for the next instalment though. Go, Simon!

0 0

iPhone, IE, Firefox, Safari get stomped at hacker contest

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

"or you still love in your mum's basement?"

Wrong on so many levels.

0 0

Novell (not SCO) owns UNIX, says jury

M Gale
Badgers

Interesting..

..so does this mean that Novell has the power to certify Suse as a 'real' Unix? Considering the whole thing about GNU not being, err, Unix.. this could prove entertaining.

1 1
M Gale
Reply Icon
Thumb Up

Re: It's only a flesh wound

..come back here, I'll bite your legs off!

0 0

Google mocks Steve Jobs with Chrome-Flash merger

M Gale
Reply Icon
Boffin

My.. gripe?

Read my post. Put your glasses on and read it again.

Then maybe you'll not fail as hard.

11 2
M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

No, thanks. You probably don't wipe properly.

Not so much "flash hater". "Flash in stupid places" hater, and "entire sites made from flash for no good reason" hater, yes.

http://clockworkradio.bravehost.com

Done by a relative of mine. Really nice content, funny as hell.. but god, I really do get tempted to rewrite the whole thing in XHTML and hand him a copy. Funny thing is, he's a complete Mactard. I remember him looking over my shoulder at an AMD-powered laptop running Ubuntu and going "oh, a shitty wintel box". I ...didn't say anything. Intrepid Birdman, indeed.

6 0
M Gale
Coat

Flash is a festoring boil on the anus of the Internet, but...

I suppose I can see one reason for Flash: Flash games developers not wanting you snarfing their source code or scripting in high-score cheats and such. With Javascript, that's relatively trivial to do. With a binary blob, less trivial.

Unless of course there's a deconstructor for SWF files that does the flashy equivalent of "view page source", in which case.. I'll go get me coat.

3 0

Apple uncloaks deep details of its 11 iPad apps

M Gale
Reply Icon
Badgers

Plus One

..simply for usage of the word "priapic".

0 0

Royal Navy starts work on new, pointless frigates

M Gale
Badgers

Nice ship names

Sounds like something straight out of an Iain M Banks novel.

0 0

iPads sold out

M Gale
Thumb Down

Wot?

I thought the whole point - and only reason - of getting an Ipad is that you can run all of the Iphone apps on it.

Now the "lucky" early adopters are about to be shafted for extra cash on exactly the same app but OMG IT RUNS ON A BIGGER SCREEN? Since when did the average PC application get sold by monitor size?

Oh well. The 'tards can be happy with their door stop. I'll be happy with something a little more useful, like maybe paper and a pen.

4 2

Page: