* Posts by Chris Purcell

24 publicly visible posts • joined 2 May 2007

Swiss insist file-sharers don't hurt copyright holders

Chris Purcell

Preventing copyright violation => more money?

So the industry which has most successfully defended against copyright violation* now gets the largest chunk of consumer's spare income, while those least able to defend themselves** see their income dwindle.

Wait, how does this match the conclusion?

* Dynamic content is easy to protect: just put enough of it on your servers that reproducing it all takes a lot of time and effort. Even a couple of weeks is long enough to make lots of money.

** Static content is nigh-on impossible to protect: if you can *see* it, you can rip it.

Profs: Eating Belgian truffles will make you buy a Mac

Chris Purcell

Re: Coincidences

"Apparently the real culprit was beef."

Which fact became apparent when they overlaid a chart of beef consumption / wealth.

Tikitag lets anyone become Big Brother

Chris Purcell

Find my keys?

I don't know how near "near" is, but if a locator for these unpowered tags could work at a range of, say, a few metres, such that I could tag my keys and find them in the morning when they've slipped behind the sofa cushions, that would be pretty killer...

Bloke crams 13 into Volvo S70

Chris Purcell
Joke

Gross?

Surely he's 131 shy of gross overloading?

Enraged devil dog lover locks on to Reg photo team

Chris Purcell
Thumb Up

Execution!

"Lester will indeed be executed in true police state style"

Now *that*, we need a picture of...

Social networking site bans oldies over sex offender fears

Chris Purcell

Re: Hmm...

...and would *never* lie about their age...

Naomi Campbell banned from BA flights

Chris Purcell
Coat

isa

The IT angle:

Airline <--- British Airways ---> Joke

Mac is the first to fall in Pwn2Own hack contest

Chris Purcell
Coat

Hulk?

"Trying to pretend otherwise is like making someone stand in front of you on a train track and thinking that, because the train will hit them first, it somehow means you'll be safe"

If they're The Hulk, you probably are...

Al-Qaeda seeks geek fanatics for Jihoo!

Chris Purcell
Dead Vulture

Impressive

Wow. That's impressively offensive. You've outdone yourself, Lester.

Icon being a prediction of the future...

Israel electric car project aims to wipe out oil

Chris Purcell
Coat

re: he failed to address one issue

@chris: and doesn't involve fossil fuels (scarce), nuclear (scary) or renewables (kill birds), and doesn't involve us not driving (scary again).

Yep, that's a pretty neat summary of all the discussions on this topic at El Reg.

Mine's the fleece.

El Reg fires up online standards converter

Chris Purcell
Coat

Error

Apparently, a Norris is only 0.1 kilonewtons - clearly false! Chuck could kill Newton a hundred times over.

What's that? Yes, that's mine. Ta.

Nano cancer-bombs and mini organs from MIT

Chris Purcell

So...

Is superparamagnetism exothermadocious?

Big fines and jail time for MS scammers

Chris Purcell
Gates Horns

MS scammers

Darn it! When I first read that title, I assumed the high-up MS executives were finally getting their comeuppance...

Technology is root of all evil, says IMF

Chris Purcell

Apparently sarcasm is only allowed on the Register

Because when an FT writer uses it, people take him literally and mock him.

Jeez.

BOFH: The bastard wants to know

Chris Purcell

"it's functionality"

Okay, Dan, I'm only gonna sing this one more time: Ohhhhhhh, If you want it to be possessive, it's just "I-T-S," but if it's supposed to be a contraction then it's "I-T-apostrophe-S." Scallywag.

Online car tax saves planet from carbon hell

Chris Purcell

CO2 is a gas...

...it expands to fill whatever volume you place it in. Now that's a neat way of allowing you to invent statistics. "By not driving to Cornwall, I saved sufficient CO2 to fill seven cubic parsecs of space!"

Better gadget battery-level readouts in pipeline

Chris Purcell

Current versus impedance?

Someone check my physics here. A battery gives direct, not alternating, current; hence, measuring impedance is just measuring resistance. The current flowing through a circuit is voltage divided by resistance.

So how is measuring the current and voltage any different from measuring the impedance and voltage? (Aside from the method you use, of course - I'm referring to the tangible benefits.)

Yahoo! tops! Google! on! customer! satisfaction! survey!

Chris Purcell

A survey?

Perhaps you should conduct a proper survey on use of exclamation marks? I'm thinking options like:

* I'm new here - only just turned up - and what are you guys talking about?

* I'm new here - only joined yesterday - and I think the exclamation marks are hi-larious!

* I'm an oldie - joined two days ago - and I'm already bored of that joke. Enough already.

* I've been here years, and I want to cry every time I see that same, worn-out joke being reused. I can't even escape, since it's on the front page. Please! I love your news. Have mercy!

* I've been here years, and I still laugh at that joke! I also crack up at Tom Jones every time I read it. I own twenty copies because every time I finish, I want to read it again! Unfortunately, the people at the home won't let me buy it any more, so I guess I'll never have another chance. So don't drop the exclamation marks, or I won't have anything to laugh at, ever again.

See how unbiased they are?

'Portable' CD player puts MP3 into a spin

Chris Purcell

Third use?

I wonder if it can serve a third purpose - as an angle grinder?

Yahoo! denies! China! claims!

Chris Purcell

Title

After five years, Luke and Andy still find the same joke funny. That explains syndicated cartoons.

Glad my fellow regulars are capable of detecting sarcasm, by the way.

Chris Purcell

What! A! Funny! Hack! You! Are!

Gosh, what a witty, insightful and original use of exclamation marks in the title of this post. I hope future articles on Yahoo! follow this convention, because otherwise I might forget this clever jape.

Mobile-mast danger is all in your head

Chris Purcell

@Lloyd

Couldn't you make lemonade by advertising "superb T-Mobile phone reception throughout the house and garden" or something? ;)

Yahoo! patch squashes messenger bug

Chris Purcell

re: Model?

"Bad Yahoo! Released a fix in 24 hrs"

No, they didn't. They released a fix 24 hours after a hacker had already exploited the bug. They had longer than that to fix it. Not that I'm claiming they're slow or anything. But not releasing a patch for months *and* not telling anyone what to exploit seems more responsible than quickly releasing a patch, but giving hackers a fighting chance at exploiting it first.

VeriSign will ship two-factor authentication for debit cards

Chris Purcell

Use domain as part of encryption?

Why not use the domain the interaction is with as part of the encryption key, as well as the temporary password? The bank will then reject any information sent via a man-in-the-middle, and the man-in-the-middle will not be able to decode said information (as they do not have the temporary password). Still not idiot-proof, but only requires browser support to get there.