Posts by Jimmy Floyd

Re-sell = death of an industry?

Every industry will suffer from resale. What's your point? Sure as hell General Motors would not be asking for another $n billion in bail-outs (update 'n' as necessary) if we never bought used cars?

I can understand that it dents sales, but pushing the view that resales should be outlawed rather undermines the campaign against piracy, which is easier to agree with. The public will now realise that if the war against piracy is ever won then reselling will be next in line; and that's not cool.

@Jason Togneri

Beats me. Perhaps quaint little laws based on timeless principles rather than temporary strict dictum are actually the best option? Fancy that...

Still, it wouldn't be the first time that I've considered the idea of a written constitution was just a fad and should now be considered out-of-date.

Ignoring the usual criticisms of PikeyAir...

"...raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel."

Umm, what?

No contradiction to see here, move along.

I've got an idea

Let's name and shame those who complained as being too stupid to raise children. Then confiscate their children for their own safety. Then admit we made a mistake but refuse to give them back. Then laugh about it. Mob rule!

No, I'm not serious. Instead, 22,000 versus 9 give me a nice warm glow to see the overwhelming majority of the great British public showing some common sense and decency.

Tricky

History doesn't repeat; it echoes.

We saw the understandable introduction of forms of internet censorship to combat child pornography. Fair enough. Trouble is, once you develop that power it's impossible to resist the temptation to apply it in other areas (as Eircom customers are finding out - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/irma_demands_irish_isps_block_access_to_piracy_sites/). So if you allow the state to spy on you for justifiable reasons, you unwittingly allow it the ability to conduct similar activities on a more dubious rationale.

Clearly, neither total censorship nor unrestrained communication is the answer. But in between the two lies a mass of double-bluff and vague promises. Without clear boundaries it's impossible to find, let alone maintain, a status-quo.

Tricky; very tricky.

Have I missed something?

Do Blu-Ray discs go to this ludicrous width? If not, how are you meant to get a true cinema picture without lopping the top off "widescreen" video?

And even if that works, everything else (and I mean EVERYTHING) is going to look ridiculous on it.

I smell a project that was started before the credit crunch when people still (thought they) had the money to spend on pointless goods.

@Gerry

Actually Gerry, I think YOU missed the point in that it was entirely about disproportionate responses.

The other aspects might include a teacher who wasn't able to handle the situation in an appropriate manner, excessive use of the law in the US and the specific need for electronic communication at that juncture. Discuss.

Hold on, just for a year

Look, we get the chance to vote out Wacky Jacqui, "Prudent" Gordon and the other deranged lunatics within the next 14 months or so. Neither of the other two realistic parties will keep the cards anyway.

Good on those who delay it just a little bit longer...

Pedant? Moi?

Actually it's "Vive LA France" - not "le" - the French republic being regarded as a feminine article. And why not...?

Paris. Can't think why.

Good plan

What a splendid plan by John Wells. If it wasn't for the ability to "free up" a language in this manner I couldn't call him a "fuckwit" - a word which, (in the style of Murray Walker) unless I'm very much mistaken, does not appear in the Oxford English dictionary.

John, you're a fuckwit.

And ... breathe.

Right, but...

...how is "pwn" actually pronounced? I'm going with "poon" for the moment but that might be 'cos the word looks vaguely Welsh (you know, lack of vowels - that sort of thing).

Paris, because I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon wondering what pwning her would entail.

Sssshhh......

Quiet down, Nigel. People will start thinking Jacqui Smith doesn't have a purpose.

Mine's the one with the Home Office tracking device sewn into the lining.

<sniff>

I'd like to take a moment to remember all those thousands of digital lives I've annihilated over the years in video games; from Horace (whilst skiing) through Quake (with rockets) to Call of Duty 4 (with swearing). May they rest in pixelated peace.

No flowers.

S'only fair

Most Brummies drop the "H" from "King's Heath" anyway...

@Stuart @AC

"...yet more victims of these stupid bankers..."

The bankers played their part, definitely. But if you blame them you also need to blame those who borrowed money up to their eyeballs, thought house prices could only ever go up and believed money could be free via the amazing medium of 're-financing.'

That would be Joe Public, then. Thee and me. Bugger.

Mr and Mrs British-Voter also put Gordon's party in charge - thrice! And as Anonymous Coward implied at 12:45, that's going to prove a poor choice in time.

Very confused

This whole saga is extremely vexing. Given all the Australians I know, and the experiences I have of their country, taking active censorship of this manner is just incredibly un-Australian.

For a nation that prides itself on having a relaxed, matey, "good bloke" attitude this is a remarkable case of a runaway government out-of-touch with the people who elected them.

And the worse thing? They've only just been elected!

Crikey

What have you at El Reg been smoking...?

Eh! Eh! Calm down

My God - you lot are a bunch of miserable bar-stewards, aren't you?

Like Neil said, Chiltern Railways have been doing it for a couple of years for their advanced tickets and it works really well. Being advanced, you can't buy them over-the-air before the inspector reaches you. The bar-coding works, the ticket inspection works, the system just basically ... works.

Of course, Chiltern are a decent rail company where things generally do just work. I'd hate to see what a hash some of the other London-based railway cretins would make of it...

@Peter

Amiga owners would be vegetarian, claiming the digestive efficiencies of avoiding unnecessary meat. Sadly as a result they'd also be a bit blinkered and miss out on the required levels of protein, leading to quaint but deluded ramblings and a constant sense of nostalgia for better times.

[Which would include me. I miss my 'meega]

@Richard

Yep, that's exactly why Google have that (understandable) attitude. Hoover, Xerox, Kleenex and, to a certain extent, iPod already 'enjoy' weakened holds on their trademarks. The trade-off, of course, is getting free publicity every time sometime cleans, photocopies, sneezes or overpays for restricted-use music.

Mine's the one with the Durex in the pocket.

Not there yet...

If Microsoft really had confidence in Silverlight then they'd put it on the landing page of xbox.com. As it is, that bit of animation is all in Flash, and Silverlight is only required when you want to do interesting stuff like download direct to your Xbox.

Thin end of the wedge marketing? I never knew Jacqui 'ID Card' Smith used to work for Bill Gates.

Golly gee

As much as I really, really want to mouth off about nut-job Americans who pick and choose which aspects of Christianity they like (and invent to few more for good measure), my disdain is tempered somewhat by the irritation I find when playing 'adult' games (that's GTA IV, people - not Leisure Suit Larry).

CoD4 and GTA IV both have ratings that say you must be a fair way through puberty before you get in on this game. So why do I find myself being shot at by high-pitched voices on Xbox Live telling me to "freak off?"

Next time I think I may befriend these children (steady) and teach them a few choice words to say to their parents (like "Ma The Farquar"). That at least should get their Xboxs taken away for a bit.

The point still remains, however, that if parents are too retarded to read a simple label that says "For 16 year olds and above only" then a long report from a wannabe disciple of the Almighty won't help a jot.

Power is nothing without ... erm ... power

Like all great mobile apps at the moment, the main issue here is likely to be battery life. My Vario III has a fantastic on-board GPS system which is very useful (particularly when waking up in ... 'unfamiliar' surroundings!).

But ... battery life is significantly diminished. Yes, this probably has something to do with the likelihood of the screen being on at the same time. However, all these issues are going to be annoying if your whizz-bang gadget ends up with the battery life of a mid-90s brick.

Stevey J, because iPhones are annoying and have questionable battery life as well.

"Respectively"

"...the price of roamed data and text messages, to €0.11 and €1 per MB respectively"

I'd happily pay €1 for a megabyte of SMS!

Be warned

"Her view is that censorship of sexual material is more often than not followed by broader political censorship."

...whereas in Britain we do things the other way around:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/26/pr0n_ban_date/

Public vs private

In fairness to Jack Straw (never thought I'd say those words), I'm more concerned with the public sector's treatment of my data than the private's.

Of course, that leads to the obvious question about how far up the ICO would be allow to probe, for instance, Wacky Jacqui's shit-hole (of an ID-card scheme).

Mine's the one with the blatant sexual in-your-end-doh!

Awww, 'innit pretty?

To give Microsoft their due (not a regular habit of mine), I actually rather like the new interface. Sure, the avatars are a bit of fun and the whole "experience" spiel is a little overblown but it does improve what was a bit of a basic interface and give it more of a fun 'n fresh feel. It's almost, dare I say it, rather funky.

Yes, the avatars look like some kind of Nintendo reject. Yes, it does take up 100MB (didn't realise that). And yes, they'll doubtless charge for avatar clothing in future but then if people were willing to pay for a tiny gamerpic (seriously Austin, why?) then the same people will probably pay for e-clothing.

Overall, I'd give it 8/10. Bill Gates with a halo because it's probably the only chance I'll ever get to use it.