Posts by John Smith 19

Well, well

The Odessa fire. I don't think I've seen that one.

@Neoc

"I have also seen too many contracts go past where there were no penalty clauses in case of vendor delays or failure to produce according to the requirements - and thus more money is spent on the project for no good reason."

At the end of the first decade of the 21st century I find this quiet *astonishing*.

@Ebeneser

"People go to Google.com/Google.co.uk etc to perform a search because they believe that its the best way to find something."

Establishing that "Trust" in the results you will get means that when you start biasing the results towards *your* customers people are less inclined to notice of it. Note this is *not* the same as using the one of the Google comparison services, where you *expect* to be looking at stuff sponsored by suppliers.

"Barriers to entry? Try pointing you web browser at another search engine... its not difficult."

This comment is either from someone who is *deeply* ignorant of Google's infrastructure (covered on several occasions by El Reg) or a shill. monopolists have *multiple* strategies to make barriers to entry.

"I fail to see how this case can have any merit. You visit a company's web site and surely that company can present you with information in any way it sees fit, if you don't like it, you go somewhere else, its hardly lockin."

Upton Sinclair commented that no man's ignorance is so great as that of a man whose livelihood depends on his ignorance.

When a supplier can *dictate* what their customers pay and when, they have a monopoly. When they can manipulate what people are *allowed* to see that they can destroy competitors (or customers who don't see their point of view) it's a monopoly.

If you're ignorant perhaps you have learned something. Otherwise I think Mr Sinclair's comment applies and I'll wish you happy ignorance.

Little Dunney on the Wold WI version

of Reservoir Dogs.

AC@11:20

"What about the European ATV, which has already made one visit and another is planned for later this year; goes up and navigates itself and automatically docks. Or the Japanese HTV, which flies past while someone has a go at catching it with a robotic arm (Very 80's video game!)."

Neither is *man* rated. There is *talk* by ESA of upgrading the ATV to do so. Bearing in mind it's currently *designed* to burn up on reentry rather than come down in 1 piece (quite an important design requirement for a crew return vehicle) this may be some time.

Soyuz and the COTS capsule Dragon and Cygnus are aiming at sample and (if NASA extracts its collective digit) crew return. This explains why Dragon has a window designed into its cargo loading door despite it being uncrewed (so far). BTW in true government con-tractor style Orbital Sciences Cygnus will mostly be based on the ATV design anyway (its structure is being designed in Italy IIRC) and most of the launcher structure in Russia. OSC seemed to have made *no* progress announcements and it's impossible to say what they have (or have not) built.

Not again

How long since that fire in Manchester took out most of the traffic to the US?

What is it with BT? Arsonists, smoking *inside* the building, soldering with blow torches?

No flame but really not a good show at all.

I think the word *partner* should clue the business

When you hire *any* professional they are here to give expert *advice*. But at the end of the day final decisions *must* be made by key people in the business (either directly knowledgeable or

under advice from internal staff with deep understanding).

If you don't you're not in control of your own business. They'll either sideline the work on that module or decide based on their experience. Might work, might be epic fail.

A little time now will save *years* of trouble later.

Your choice.

Some people *cannot* dry swallow pills

Although using the nearest convenient bottle of booze* to wash them down with was perhaps not the smartest decision miss has ever made.

It was very naughty of her and it's not really funny at all. Alright it was a little bit funny, but not right.

*Why there *was* a handy bottle of booze available is a whole other matter.

BTW I think this is the charge that Nicholas Cage would would get if he were arrested in "Kick Ass." Supplying loaded pistols to your 13 year old daughter is likely to be frowned upon even in an open carry state.

OMFG

How dumb/mad/stupid does this sound.

Sure, it *probably* was some random burglary and the burglar fenced it ASAP for some drugs (70% of all UK prison inmates are for drugs offenses. Play the odds). *Unless* freddo the peado has been looking to do some shopping.

Why does the phrase "Familiarity breeds contempt" keep coming to mind.

@Flocke Kroes

Nice summation. Is that just his name or is he *really* a judge? He does not sound exactly impartial.

Bad Billy as it's hard to believe that Redmond has *no* involvement in this.

Geneva==party capital of Europe

Hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha.

I'll take a hoegarden.

Subject to Labour still being in power of course.

Election bribe, what election bribe?

I hope whoever wins does implement it. Thumbs up (in principle).

who did bung the Lordship to get this included in the bill?

Note a few points

Analogue gas meters have an accuracy of +/- 2%. eMeters were -2/+3% with a 5 year battery life. so what accuracy these things will give (10yr battery life. Better electronics or bigger battery?)

Patent liabilities, security holes and demand management. This is little to do with consumers managing their *own* demand and about having it *managed* for them. Multiple interfaces (Zigbee & GPRS, which may be gone in 5 years) and as others have said whose going to pay for that storage space?

I hope this is another one which a new government would review but it's *so* seductive they may not.

Hardware compatibility, trolls, security, underinvestment in storage. Alert status FAIL.

You mean the doner is *not* the worlds sweatiest animal?

That can only be killed by a skewer in its bottom hole?

Mine will have a lovingly cherished copy of the Best of Spitting Image in the side pocket.

Unlike the US

HMG does not have the power to unilaterally cancel *any* contracts.

There is even (AFAIK) an "Unfair Contract Clauses Act" in UK law.

How often it's *used* OTOH is another matter.

BTW given the NI rise has *not* happened yet, *not* having it cannot really be called a cut.

@nsld

"Of course they wont go after google for the simple reason that the movie industry needs search engines to like it and index searches of its new releases.

If they went after google all google would do is block all searches related to content from MPAA members, pull trailers from you tube and effectively kill the market."

Interesting points. Why you make it sound like Google is virtually a monopoly.

Thumbs up for the point.

Good in principle

Practice is likely to be a different matter.

BTW despite it being called "The Home Civil Service" different UK govt dept have different rules for *lots* of things. Eg the date your holiday allowance is calculated differently depending on *which* government department you join. if you're transferred the rules *change*.

Why. Because they do. 100 computer centres. FFS.

Seriously taken as a whole the CS is *huge*. Unified payroll and personnel *should* give equally large savings. But this *won't* be easy. It will *demand* senior (Ministerial and PPS level) commitment backed up by experienced professionals. The 2nd question. In house or outsourced, given how much govt IT has been outsourced over the last 13 years there should be *more* than enough evidence to demonstrate the right approach.

Thumbs up for IMHO some good ideas.

I would guess that would be Dr Creamer

Handy name to remember for anyone writing a p()rn movie I think.

OMG Parent urges parents to actively parent their children

And not think of the internet as some kind of electronic babysitter.

AC@05:21

"Full disclosure - I've had 2 kids of my own, and they were never allowed to use the Internet unsupervised."

Now that sounds like a sensible, non hysterical, approach. Time consuming, but who said raising children was easy.

Respect.

Sounds like recidivism to me

Phorm

"It was too complex to explain what they would be opting out of, so we did not bother to give them an opt out"

Home broadband ad

Its harmless enough

Business broadband ad

See above.

BT Retail just *can't* help having a fiddle with peoples connections. It seems to be almost a compulsion with them.

In a criminal context (RIPA is the one which has come up) that's recidivistic behavior. IN fact that make 3 strikes. You may *have* to pay for their line, but you don't *have* to buy their broadband.

The "Brightcove Experience"

Grease cheeks.

Grab ankles.

Prepare for insertion.

Repeat indefinitely.

In perspective

7Tev is 1.12 micro Joules.

However that is per *particle*

there are a *lot* of particles in this thing.

OS supplier ready to support *next* generation of hardware

Rather than just hammering the current generation into the ground by bloating up.

Good grief. Apps could even get faster *above* the increase in the number of cores.

Astonishing.

Got to be with a view to auctioning the spectrum

Nothing else *really* explains the lemming like rush to introduce this frankly *obsolete* standard.

This hardware is not just inferior to what they want to replace, it is *massively* inferior. An FM radio (headphone only) can run for *days* not *hours* on a pair of AAA battery.

I think this is just a trick to get them closer to the magic cutoff portion.