* Posts by James Pickett

1321 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2007

Apple fined $19m in 'Predictive Snooping' case

James Pickett
Jobs Horns

Moral hazard

Hmm. If the lawyer really thought that the tech existed before Opti claimed to have invented it, why did he think they would lose? I think I agree with the Ford Pinto argument (i.e. no moral component)..

Windows 7 and the Linux lesson

James Pickett
Gates Horns

Repeat

"Windows is far more complicated"

Isn't that the problem? I'm sure Win7 is better than Vista, but then how could it not be? I'm beginning to suspect that it's deliberate MS policy to produce a turkey every other release, so the next one seems like a greater improvement...

Edifier Luna 2 desktop speaker set

James Pickett

Competition

"it's difficult to come up with a direct competitor for them in order to judge their value for money"

Only because you haven't reviewed these:

http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/Product_range/Aego_series/Aego_M.asp

More power and half the price...

BTW, Class D is made for efficiency, not sound quality...

Zango goes titsup

James Pickett

Phailure

"Zango began life as 180 Solutions"

First rule of business - have nothing to do with any firm whose name includes the word 'solutions'

Phorm next - please?

Criminal Records Bureau launches e-disclosure service

James Pickett

Spread a little crappiness

Wonderful. Now they'll be able to get it wrong in bulk.

I wonder how many of the 12000 or so mistaken identities to date have been put right?

The CRB is a joint venture between the Home Office and Crapita. Can you imagine a more incompetent pairing?

Police, Cameras, Inaction!

James Pickett

Orwellian

Clearly the law is designed to prevent the police from being photographed under any circumstances. Some pigs are more equal than others...

No charges for terror arrest Tory

James Pickett

Quid pro quo

So, Is Mr Green going to sue the Met for harassment, wrongful arrest, etc? I do hope so!

Which zoo animals like artificial sweeteners: Facts at last

James Pickett

Diet

I always thought Pandas were stupid, but I hadn't realised quite how stupid!

Will Lynn Truss now have to re-title her seminal work: 'Eats, shoots and leaves real sugar'?

Balls saves history lessons from Facebook and Twitter

James Pickett
Happy

Essentials

I love the idea that children won't discover social sites or Google unless they're on the curriculum!

Photocops: Home Office concedes concern

James Pickett

Assumption

"officers have complained to us that it should not be in any way surprising if police occasionally stop individuals and ask them to explain their presence in an area"

So, guilty until proven innocent, then. Nice to have it confirmed...

PS3 back to haunt Wii in Japan

James Pickett

Profit or loss?

Are PS3's still sold at a loss?

Failed Nork rocket bits straddle Japan

James Pickett

Termination

It can't help NK rocket development if they have to engage a new band of scientists every time, to replace those whose failure was suitably rewarded...

Pink Floyd frontman backs McKinnon musical protest

James Pickett

@FFS

And if you downloaded some dodgy material from a Russian website, should you serve your term in Siberia? Perhaps you should... :-)

The Pentagon should be offering McKinnon a job as security expert. They certainly appear to need one.

Subsidized netbook model could sweep away 20 years of PC history

James Pickett
Happy

Fashion

"useless for almost all non internet browsing use"

Like WP or spreadsheets? So last season, I know...

Profs: Sex with oldies or youngsters will give you the clap

James Pickett
Paris Hilton

Experts

And what would a university professor know about sex? They're just jealous...

Paris, because she's far more authoritative.

Bucks village repels Street View spycar

James Pickett
Happy

Own goal

I look forward to seeing Broughton on the BBC news tonight...

Palm opens up, and goes back in time

James Pickett

Good news

"the Pre will ship with a PalmOS emulator"

If it can run Titrax, I shall be well pleased. This is simply the neatest, easiest to drive way to log hours to different jobs yet devised. It is an absolute Godsend to self-employed types like me, but I have yet to see anything nearly as smart on any other platform. I keep an old Palm m500 about me solely for the purpose. I know, I could buy a Treo, but - well, just but...

Miss Universe pops into Guantánamo Bay

James Pickett

Detention

"All the guys from the army were amazing with us"

All of them? How long were they there for..?

Detroit does mass-market e-car deal with Proton

James Pickett

Sue!

"nothing at all to do with Detroit, Michigan"

Can't see American lawyers leaving that one alone!

Moderatrix quits El Reg: Latest

James Pickett

CV

"CVs" doesn't require an apostrophe

Yes it does - to indicate the missing letters between the V and s. As in doesn't.

Glad to hear the Sarah is donning her moderatrix gear again, though. I hope the straps are nice and tight... ;-)

(not a wink - it's an eye watering)

BBC Trust moots new licence laws to cope with net

James Pickett
Happy

Grey areas

"watching live TV via the internet requires a licence"

What about watching recorded TV via an aerial? I don't mind running my PVR in 'catch-up' mode if necessary...

Competition Commission scuppers Capita takeover

James Pickett
Thumb Down

About time

Crapita has the most appalling record, yet (like EDS) remains the darling of the public sector. Their efforts to run the criminal records bureau has resulted in thousands of false positives (God knows how you correct one of those) and they won a £60m contract to run an NHS website! Who else was asked to tender for that - Croesus?

Playboy TV offers 'Jacq off' special package

James Pickett

Mind's eye

"links between porn and the acting out of sexual fantasy"

Perhaps it's the only way she can get Mr Timney to co-operate... :-)

Women's lust for shopping linked to periods

James Pickett

@Charles Manning

Good point. Perhaps the research could be re-run when all our MP's expenses get published?

It shouldn't be long now...

James Pickett

Research

"appalling waste of money that could er, build some much-needed cheap housing, etc."

But it wouldn't though, would it? So I think I'd rather it kept some students occupied (heaven knows what they'd get up to otherwise) and us amused!

WRT hormones, I think the dependence of females on theirs is as nothing to the blokes'. It's just that most doctors are men and on this subject they are in permanent denial. I mean, how many women use subscription TV for porn films? Put them on expenses, maybe... :-)

James Pickett

A pedant writes

>Women like to buy things to make them themselves "feel more attractive" at the time of ovulation.

But that's not during the luteal phase (which comes afterwards)! A good time not to have babies, in fact - so go shopping instead, perhaps...

Irish boffins tackle cow-fart ecopocalypse with fish oil

James Pickett

@AC (Mad fish disease)

"They've been farting methane for thousands of years!"

Fair comment. Where was global warming when the US was covered in bison? (The good old days.)

I wanted to suggest something about sea cows, but I see I'm far too late. I like Lewis's 'ecopocalypse' though.. :-)

Wacky Jacqui spanked by husband

James Pickett

More joy

http://oldrightie.blogspot.com/2009/03/home-secretary-does-expenses.html

BTW, is this the most rapidly commented El Reg item ever? Must be in the running...

James Pickett
Happy

No confidence

I see that Uncle Gordon couldn't even bring himself to say that she had his full confidence - just that she was doing a 'good job'. In comparison to whom, I wonder?

I love the 'expenses logic' though. Internet access is 'communications', so when TV comes from the same provider, that's an allowed expense too! Only in Westminsterland...

James Pickett
Paris Hilton

Deep, er, joy

"Spending your money on smut"

I think the point is that it was our money!

Still, this offers so much schadenfreude that I think it's probably worth it. I mean, if you were married to her...

Paris because - well, we could watch them together then.

BT network 'vulnerable to Chinese attack'

James Pickett

Screwed

So, what price Phorm when none of the exchanges works? That's what comes of being cheap, BT.

Blighty orders first 3 supersonic stealth jumpjets

James Pickett

Over here

Looks like we're going to be Beta testers again...

BTW, how are we going to pay for these, exactly?

Lies, damned lies and inflation statistics

James Pickett

A pedant writes

"some of us are feeling poorer: none of us are average"

None of us IS average (none = not one). Unless you're in Lake Wobegon, of course, where everyone is above average...

Fresh tech hiccup for V-22 tiltrotor fleet

James Pickett
Happy

Catch-up

Give 'em time - they'll get there in the end..

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

Budvar beats Anheuser-Busch in latest Budweiser battle

James Pickett

Labelling

Never mind the name 'Budweiser' - should they be allowed to call it 'beer'?

El Reg Street View snappers caught on camera

James Pickett

Pots and Kettles

I find the general reaction of the tabloids very amusing. Invasion of privacy? That's our job!

Philips 42in Ambilight LED array TV

James Pickett

Maintenance

So what do you do when an LED needs replacing..?

Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook

James Pickett

Hyperbole

"Using the Wi-Fi and backlight judiciously"

You mean turning it off from time to time? That would improve the battery life, although you'd have to be doing something else for around 4 hours to get the life up from 5 1/2 (actual) to the claimed 9 1/2 hours!

I'm not going to believe hyperbolic claims like that unless/until somebody succeeds in making it do useful work for that length of time. A less power-sapping OS would probably help - I wonder if they've thought of using Linux..?

DARPA orders hypersonic Nazi Doodlebug engine

James Pickett

Petty cash

"A $2m contract "

Is that all? DARPA must be feeling the pinch - I thought they didn't get out of bed for anything without the 'bn' suffix...

James Pickett

@Admit it

Agree with every word. I saw an SR-71 at Farnborough 20-something years ago, where it had flown over from its base in the US, having set off when we were coming through the turnstiles an hour and a half earlier. Not having room to land, it did a few circuits and tootled back home...

Ministers spending billions on unlawful databases

James Pickett

Quid pro quo

"the benefits outweighed any illegality"

I must remember that, the next time I get caught speeding or, if the downturn gets much worse, I have to resort to stealing some refreshment: " Shorry, occifer, but the benefish outwaysh the illy.. illegalnesh, innit"

Microsoft promises 'lessons learned' on IE 8 download day

James Pickett
Gates Horns

Doh!

"problems that Microsoft assumed were faults inherent in web sites but that turned out to be bugs in IE 8"

"the outreach is not working"

Any connection?

BBC botnet 'public interest' defence rubbished by top IT lawyer

James Pickett

Advice

"it had cleared the exercise with its lawyers"

Just like Phorm did, not to mention Tony Blair before the Iraq War, all of which doubtless involved a bit of arm-twisting of the lawyers concerned.

In any case, why was it necessary to duplicate a set of circumstances that is everywhere already? I thought the Beeb was supposed to be hard up!

Phorm CEO clashes with Berners-Lee at Parliament

James Pickett

Trial

So, has anyone direct experience of the BT trials and were they asked to opt-in? Or has every savvy Register reader ditched them already...?

Good to know that Ertugrul reads El Reg, though!

Slash your way inside Apple's Mac Mini

James Pickett
Jobs Horns

Shame

"oh yeah. greed"

Which is why I won't be buying one. Or an iPhone (can't change the battery). Closed architecture is one thing, but making owner maintenance difficult or impossible rules them out for me, so it's a bit counterproductive...

ICO raids and shuts builder blacklist firm

James Pickett

Home Orifice

Has anyone got a comment from Ms Smith yet?

Cold-water treatment for Ballmer on Windows Mobile

James Pickett
Happy

Spin

"a team that's going to be able to accelerate"

Real Soon Now...

---

Isn't it time we had a chair icon?

Obama releases Dubya's secret anti-terror memos

James Pickett

Gander sauce

"transparency and openness."

Your move, Jack Straw.

Gartner: PC sales, except netbooks, to slump in 2009

James Pickett

Guesswork

So is this because of Vista, or because the replacement is round the corner, or because everyone who has got a computer (mostly with XP) sees no good reason to replace it? I think I know...

Psion countersues Intel in not-netbook spat

James Pickett
Thumb Down

Confused

"is now causing severe and irreparable harm to Psion"

How's that then? A word nobody associates with them is being used to describe a different product, and it's hurting their business, which no longer makes what it used to use the word for..? Still, I'm sure some American legal firm will help make them poor...