* Posts by Thomas 4

1519 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009

HP pets network-connected mouse

Thomas 4
IT Angle

I don't get it

Why-fi instead of a Bluetooth or proprietary connection?

Bin Laden's porn stash: Too good to be true?

Thomas 4

Uh huh

I bet the CIA operatives are busy analysing those videos in miniute detail, maybe even rewatching them several times to make sure they didnt miss anything

Porn found in Osama bin Laden compound

Thomas 4

Finally, the US found something they were looking for

Weapons of Masturbation.

EA reloads, aims at Activision, goes for headshot

Thomas 4

Who cares?

Bring on The Witcher 2.

Haumea: Mysterious radioactive rugby-ball world

Thomas 4

Damn

Really should get that rash checked out. Could be catching.

Student accused of posting bogus coupons to 4chan

Thomas 4

Oh please

I'm just surprised the vouchers can be used for anything other than extremely disturbing pornography, given where they're being posted.

Impatient punters trade PS3s for Xbox 360s

Thomas 4

Alternative theory

Maybe its nothing at all to do with the network downtime and people are simply jumping ship because they don't trust Sony with their data anymore?

Reg ed rattles the Red-Headed League

Thomas 4

As a red head myself

You should be thanking my species, after all, those red-haired hotties have to come from *somewhere* =p

NASA's asteroid hunter creeps up on Vesta

Thomas 4

Coming soon to a cinema near you....

Creepers....from SPACE!

David Cameron wants to push all of Blighty online

Thomas 4

We want to get the whole of Britain online!

Unless you live in a remote part of Wales or Scotland.

NASA restores Pluto to league of planets

Thomas 4

There's one other thing Pluto has going for it

A song by Johnathon Coulton called "I'm Your Moon". It's kind of a love song sung by Pluto's moon Charon. It's also awesome.

Scrabble friends Facebook, innit

Thomas 4

Oh ffs

Just wiki it.

Important breakthrough in mole-cruiser technology

Thomas 4

All well and good

...but what's the supervillan angle on this piece? I can't really see it unless these things are burrowing around in a tank of quicksand; each with lasers strapped to their heads, as a besuited spy is slowly lowered in.

Official: Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5bn

Thomas 4

Puzzling

I'm not entirely sure why Microsoft has done this, let alone splashed out 8.5 billion on this.

It's effectively obsoleting their Messenger and Lync services, given that Skype has a pretty robust text based talk system, in addition to the phone capabilities. It's also going to cause friction with carriers that Microsoft are trying to persuade to take up more Windows smartphones. Then there's the question of revenue as well - a relatively small percentage of Skype's users pay for the additional features of the service and while it could be argued that advertising will bring in some funds, it's also going to drive people away as well.

Sony’s sorry saga snowballs

Thomas 4

Offloaded my stuff already

Sold my almost new PSP-3000 to a local Game store. Got peanuts for it.

Thomas 4

The Playstation Fence.....

You're not allowed to put a gate in it but it has a hole big enough for next door's Rottweiller to get through.

Sony mulls hacker bounty offer

Thomas 4

Right film

Wrong candidate. I suspect that Sony would hire the wannabe samurai that keeps running around in his underpants and yelling.

Computers taught to sing using autotuning talent show

Thomas 4
Terminator

Nothing new...

"This was a triumph

I'm making a note here: huge success

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction

Aperture Science

We do what we must, because we can

For the good of all of us

Except the ones who are dead

But there's no point crying over every mistake

You just keep on trying til you run out of cake

And the science gets done

And you make a neat gun

For the people who are still alive....."

GLaDOS is a fantastic singer.

Ten... fantasy gadgets you wish you owned

Thomas 4
Terminator

Bad idea

Rad Bradbury pointed out the hazards in this in his short story "Marionettes Inc". End with a broken marriage and someone getting buried alive.

Bradley Manning now in nicer Army prison

Thomas 4

Oh good

And I was worried for a second there that an unconvicted, untried suspect didn't have rights any more.

Ubisoft to turn games into movies, TV shows

Thomas 4

LMAO

If they think they have trouble with PC piracy at the moment, wait until they start putting out DVDs.

I can see it now, a montage of clips that make the "You wouldn't steal a...." warning seem like an open invite to freetards everywhere. Or maybe they set off an EMP pulse at the end of each cinema screening, in order to fry anyone that might have recorded the film on their mobiles.

Boffins develop liquid crystal solid-state raygun turret

Thomas 4

And in next week's MacGuyver

He builds a working death ray from his crappy LCD watch.

Sony: 'PSN attacker exploited known vulnerability'

Thomas 4

Oh those poor fools....

If only their customer data centres were as well secured as their PS3s......

Thomas 4
IT Angle

I work in a hospital

So by the OP's logic, it's ok if critical patient information and medical details go missing because, hey, we're only human?

No. What happens when a hospital loses patient details is we get our bollocks nailed to the wall. When a multinational conglomerate does it, there's no accountability.

PSN hack triggers lawsuit

Thomas 4

Sony, Sony, Sony

Even if they beefed up security now, the horse has now bolted to the Bahamas and is now racking up hay margaritas on my credit card.

New double-barrelled Taser unveiled

Thomas 4

The new Taser X3W

...can vaporise a moose.

Red Dwarf to blast off on new adventure

Thomas 4

Still less annoying

...than the special it was advertising in.

Thomas 4
FAIL

Agreed

That "special" was f***ing atrocious. If Naylor had wanted to make an appalling Blade Runner/Corrie Street crossover then fine but why the hell did he have to bring Red Dwarf into it as well?

I will watch the first episode of this new series with a laser glare and if there's even the faintest whiff of turd about it I'm reaching for the remote.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Android smartphone

Thomas 4

The real deal decider for me

...is going to be game availability.

While there are a number of good Android games out there, I would expect near PSOne levels of gaming from this thing, given that it is almost double the cost of a PSP. But, as I learned before my PSP's ignomious departure to a second hand store, having a game store and having a *well-stocked* game store are two very, very different beasties.

Got a buck to send M Night Shyamalan to film school?

Thomas 4

At last, I have found my kindred spirits

Other people that agree with me that The Sixth Sense was a dire film. I remember when the wretched thing came out in the cinema and everyone was saying "Oooo, what a clever plot twist". Now, umpteen dire films later, I can cheerfully point my finger and say that you only have yourselves to blame for encouraging him.

So, what's the best sci-fi film never made?

Thomas 4

It's a real shame...

...that they never made the three prequels to Star Wars. I'm sure I would have remembered.

Fired-up eco-boffin gives it '180 per cent'

Thomas 4

A question

Are these vaccuum traversing sheep at a velocity of "x"?

Paramount to recount The Martian Chronicles

Thomas 4

Was anyone else

...praying really, *really* hard that the little brat in the War of the Worlds (the one CONSTANTLY screaming at the tiniest little thing) would end up getting roasted, vaporised or processed into alien Super-Gro?

NASA hands out second-hand shuttles

Thomas 4

I like a happy ending

I'm glad to see all the shuttles found homes in museums and institutions. The thought of one rusting away on a scrap heap somewhere would have been awful.

Google hits 'prove we killed no Afghans' – Assange™

Thomas 4

Wikileaks does make the world a safer place

....except for that bit of it currently sitting in a cell on suicide watch with all the rights of a convicted terrorist.

Sony buries hatchet with GeoHot in PS3 modding case

Thomas 4

Misread the title there for a second

Thought it said "Sony buries hatchet in GeoHot in PS3 modding case."

US Navy laser cannon used to set boat aflame

Thomas 4

You missed the key question

Is the current technology suitable for cranial implantation in sharks yet?

Facebook closes today ... NOT!

Thomas 4

If only Facebook were closing....

...then I'm sure the average intelligence of the average human being would rise a few notches.

Wind power: Even worse than you thought

Thomas 4

Mathematical conversions

All this stuff is no doubt interesting but I need it converted into units I can understand. Perhaps El Reg could calculate this stuff in terms of Hamsters or KiloHamsters:

Everyone knows the running joke about how slow servers are often the fault of hamster power (for those that don't a) get on the interwebs sometime and b) it is centred around the server drawing power from a hamster wheel).

When I get a chance, I'll have to look into some proper numbers for it.

Thomas 4
Thumb Up

Crackle Magic

I must now use this phrase in everyday conversation.

Thomas 4

One thought does occur

Well, if wind is unreliable as a means of feeding the grid continually, why not develop some form of storage for electricity generated through wind power and tap into it as needed? For example, on blustery days, wind power can charge up the storage facility and once the facility is full, divert to grid and on slower days, draw energy from the storage facility.

It probably won't be feasible but it worked for me when I was playing Total Annihilation the other day.

Commodore USA prices up revived C64, VICs

Thomas 4

Hmmm

I trust these things at least come with a Commodore emulator and a large set of game ROMs?

The Sun still not shining on Nintendo's 3DS

Thomas 4
IT Angle

Do not discount this so quickly

After all, The Sun is a bastion of knowledge and journalistic fact and The Register is just an IT website with scientific leanings.

Total War: Shogun 2

Thomas 4
Thumb Up

Well well..

This review is really impressive and a colossal improvement over your Rift review. Plenty of useful info and helped to give me a broad overview of the game despite having never played Total War before. Might even have to snag myself a copy from my local Game....

The X-Factor goes virtually mobile, expands voting

Thomas 4

Yeah, maybe

Not on a 10 year old Siemens SX1 he won't be. Haven't seen that side number pad for years.

The Register Guide to London's Silicon Roundabout Tech Startups

Thomas 4

Oo

I won't ask where you got those photos but more than one of them is going to keep me awake tonight. Brrr.

On a separate note, it dawned on me that April Fools day is in fact National Trolling Day, a chance for everyone to unleash their inner internet turdspurter.

Mobile operators ditch Tube plans

Thomas 4

Hurrah

Now I can jab people in the ribs with my huge fondleslab without being disturbed by mobile phones.

George Lucas 'very happy' with 3D Phantom Menace

Thomas 4
Unhappy

How could you, Sarah?!

Please, think of the ostriches!

Thomas 4
Stop

Are you fucking insane?

Did you not see Episodes 1, 2 & 3 and you want him to make more?!

Stop sexing up IT and give Civil Servants Macs, says gov tech boss

Thomas 4
WTF?

Huh?

I thought Samba was a lion. He almost got flattened by a heard of wildebeast and had to into exile or something.

All this newfangled technology confuses me sometimes.