The cost
"So, if Google decides to withdraw from China, what's the cost?"
About $310m apparently, and a nasty little dip in the share price.
551 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
Surely the main point here is not that this procedure is quicker or more expensive than its human counterpart, but rather that the robot is performing it in the first place. Presumably, by pursuing such lines of research, we will eventually end up with a robot that is cheap, fast and less prone to error than a human being.
Seems like a really nice phone, apart from the lack of multitouch, which cripples it somewhat. But it really is crazy how much hype Google managed to drum up with virtually no effort whatsoever. Apple and Google both seem to have this skill, albeit in very different ways. It will be interesting to see how long Google retains the ability, if all of their launches turn out to be so underwhelming.
How on earth are pet adverts used by 419 scammers?
Do they hook their marks in by offering suspiciously cheap pets, send out photos of the cute fluffy little bastards, and then it's all "send me $3000 dollars or the hamster gets it"?
Or is it more "my client is the cousin of the crown prince of Nigeria, and he has 500 gerbils that we need to transfer out of the country..."?
"render standard definition content in HD with some very smart pixel generation that yields an image virtually indistinguishable from genuine 1080p material, Toshiba claimed"
Remarkable. Hardly worth broadcasting HD at all then I guess. May as well just send a single pixel and let the Cell upscale it to digital cinema quality - that'll save on the old bandwidth.
"He doesn't seem to be using it for anything in particular"
Well if you will link to www.nexusone.com/blank.html, it's hardly surprising you get a blank page. Pop over to www.nexusone.com itself and it directs you to one of a selection of slightly crappy looking sites (apparently via a service called urlsplit), so it's obvious that the owner of the site is making good use of all the bonus traffic flowing his way.
Looks great, but they seem to have forgotten to add integrated 3G, or increased screen resolution, or a multitouch screen... in fact, it seems they haven't made any real improvements over the first generation of netbooks. Still, at least it's still at that magic £200 netbook price point. What's that - they want £315 for it? Pass.
"we wouldn't be surprised if Google wooed the pair with a cut of its ad dollars."
Why? What does Google get in return for giving away it's revenue? Surely Google is doing these companies a favour by allowing them to join in the Googlestore fun?
"It is an expansion of the marketplace. But that expansion favors Google more than anyone else."
Well, obviously - it's Google doing the expanding, how would that favour anyone else?
If you're friends with unwanted people, that's your problem, nobody's forcing you. Just unfriend (ugh, I can't believe I just used that word) them. If your friends are posting inane attention-seeking updates or hitting on your partner, that says more about your friends than it does about the site.
Facebook is a handy little way of keeping in touch with people you like but don't see on a regular basis. If you're finding it annoying, you're doing it wrong.
"To be fair of course, given Google and other caches, there is a danger that anything you put online will never truly die."
Except if your account is set to be viewable only by your friends (the sensible option, which used to be the default until the recent changes) in which case Google can't even see your data, let alone cache it.
A quick random sampling from WWN brought to my attention a rather chilling article about one couple's close brush with death at the hands (fins?) of a horde of ravenous goldfish.
"In the light of the full moon, I glimpsed their soulless, little eyes rushing past me, felt their puckered lips sucking on my skin."
Classic.
Redact is a new word? I suppose its use to specifically mean the removal of sensitive information might be new. As far as I was aware, it simply meant the preparation of a document for publication.
"Snollygoster" is lovely, but it doesn't even begin to make up for "freemium" or "jeggings".
A point release over other phones? It's a major release over the G1 (1.6 to 2.1), which is what we were actually talking about.
The looks are totally different. Larger screen, no physical keyboard to bulk it out, much more modern looking.
The hardware is completely different: much faster processor, higher resolution screen, better camera.
I'm not saying this will necessarily be the smartphone everyone's been waiting for, but to say it's nothing new over the G1 is just bizarre.
"We look forward to finding out what Nottinghamshire councillors keep on their PCs."
So would I, but all we're going to find out is what they've *still* got on their PCs despite having been given plenty of warning they're about to be scanned - unlike their less important colleagues, who received no such warning.
I am a boffin for the agency
And I drive the oscilloscope
Lookin' in the lab for another infeasible artificial intelligence related breakthrough
With my skills in advanced robotics
I could work for Cyberdyne
But the Wichita Lineboffin
Still evaluates the spline
I know I've tried extensive weather control
And it don't look like rain
But if I can focus this microwave weaponry
You won't ever stand the pain
And I need a shark with a frickin laser beam attached to its head more than want it
And I want it to be capable of hovering in mid-air for extended periods whilst still maintaining its stealth capabilities
But the Wichita Lineboffin
Still evaluates the spline
Surely the point of food miles is simply to point out that we should be eating local produce - in this case, locally caught fish. Regardless of the relative merits of whisking fish half way around the world by air, or ferrying them around in bloody great freezer-ships, it can hardly be denied that eating a locally caught fresh fish is going to be the most efficient (and tasty) course of action.
When someone finally brings out a smartphone with a decent: camera (with flash), music player (with standard headphone socket), screen and web browser, I will buy it. I don't care if everyone else buys one too, or if I'm the only customer.
It's an electronic device, not a fashion accessory. It needs to do stuff, and if it looks cool that's a bonus. If I wanted to be a poser I'd buy something pointless like a Rolex or a Porsche, not a phone.