Posts by ElReg!comments!Pierre

@cambsukguy Re: Take my money! Oh, you're too busy... @h4rm0ny

Yup, works pretty well for hard-discount shops around the world. It's the Online-shop-without-delivery model.

Good value for money usually. Also, fast service. No comment.

Re: Take my money! Oh, you're too busy...

" There's an app for that. Run up the Apple Store app, scan the barcode of the item you want to buy, fill in your Apple password, wait for confirmation and walk out of the store with it in hand."

Funny that, there's a tech store near my place that works like that (but better because they offer the same through a standard web interface, not just a silly app).

They do it to keep the costs down: it's a heavy-discount store. Glad to see Apple keeping up with the "premium" image...

Re: Take my money! Oh, you're too busy...

Same experience here. Both times I entered an Apple store to buy something I ended up leaving empty-handed, cursing them for the lost 45 minutes on my lunchtime, and buying the stuff in 10 minutes in a "regular" shop.

Re: theregister.co.UK

"When the ESA is monitoring these things and releasing press releases, they can (and presumably will be) Eurocentric. When JAXA does them, the maps will likely be centered on Asia. "

You'd think that, heh? Well, you'd be wrong. The "only us" mentality on that kind of subject is pretty much specific to the USA. Scientific reports on worldwide phenomena from that strange RestOfTheWorld country ALWAYS give data for the whole blue-orb-thinggie, because it's the sciencey thing to do. What's more, even NEWS REPORTS local to this strange RestOfTheWorld country almost always mentions the consequences on other RestOfTheWorld parts*. Not to mention the USA which always get prominent mentions as should be, The One Country That Matters and all that. So now, you know.

*I know, I know, it may come as a surprise for you, but RestOfTheWorldians sometimes feel different from each other. Fools the lot of them.

Re: theregister.co.UK

Most definitely south. Although not quite directly so.

Re: Climate Change

> don't see or hear any actual scientists claiming that solar phenomena have anything to do with Earth's atmospheric chemistry,

There's a rather huge pile of actual scientists claiming that solar phenomena and Earth atmospheric chemistry are closely linked actually. In fact, not a single real scientist would deny that. Ask them. Where do you think ozone comes from?

On a more controversial, banned-from-BBC-airtime note, there's also ample evidence that sun flares are the single major factor influencing Earth climate (and thus, as a consequence, CO2 and methane concentration in the atmosphere).Of course it's easier to prove on a small timescale as flares are temporally well-defined phenomena, so it may be just that.

Re: How long did it take the Editor to write that title?

Tech site. Pro'lly was faster to implement than to come up with.

Re: Nailed it

"Not everyone wants to wrestle with Windows, or become a Linux geek - in much the same way that many car drivers have no desire to learn how to be a mechanic."

In much the same way as you're not required to know what kind of gas goes in your tank, how to change a wheel, a bulb or similarly basic maintenance on your car to drive it. Oh wait, you ARE required by law to know how to do that on your car. Good thing Apple doesn't make cars. Your analogy sux salty balls by the dozen.

Re: not a Delivery?

"they do have to take it offline to update the inventory, that's why the refurbished store disappears every 24h."

Excuse me? Even brick-and-mortar shops (where inventory is _extremely_ more complicated to follow) usually only close for a day once a year for that. Online stores are basically just inventory management tools; why would they need to be taken offline to update inventory? None does, bar the Apple one.

Re: Did you read this?

And you joined just to post this comment?

Wow.

Re: are the change tracking features in ODF and DOCX compatible?

What do you mean by that? Compatible, how?

The software I use when dealing with MSOffice users can read and write ODF and DOCX, including change tracking features, so I can open a DOCX doc and save it as ODF and vice versa but that's a feature of the software not the documents. If what you want to do is copy/paste bits between the source XML, forget it: ODF is pretty clean but DOCX is a mess, trying to faff around with the source has always resulted in a corrupted document in my hands (Although I've only ever done it to try and get something from an already corrupted file so that may be the reason).

Re: Personally ... (@Primus...)

> But for a complex technical document with tables, illustrations, and captions, you may not have the time to faff around trying to remember the Latex directives.

If you only have tables, illustrations and captions (all quite simple) you can use something simple like aft or ReStructuredText.

For more complex stuff I prefer Lout to LaTeX, as the whole install is around 1 MB instead of 5-700 MB for a usable LaTeX setup. It is also a single piece of software, maintained coherently, which means that everything from the C code to all the high-level metacommands is coherent. Makes it very easy to remember the parameters you may want to faff around with.

Re: Personally ...

Why so? For simple things (text, the occasional title, table or image, regardless of length) rst markup is enough (usually I just rst2pdf it). For more complex stuff I use lout. Never a problem with putting half a word in italics or with randomly-shifting left alignments etc. That alone makes it worth trying... not to mention, the result is beautifully typeset.

For collaborative work, comments and corrections à la MSWord are a source of problem as often as a solution, so while I understand the reason people use them, I personally find inline corrections with comments markup (or a quick diff) more useful.

Matter of taste and work habits I suppose. There's something you can't argue against though: ressource usage. I typed entire sections of my last article on my Ben Nanonote.

Re: Infinite monkeys

"Nor does his estate earn anything, because the copyright has long since expired"

Not everyone gets to be W. Disney's estate...

Re: USENIX

On El Reg? Yes, you're probablly the only one.

People here are more likely to parse "I feel horny" as "please install FreeBSD on my laptop".

Re: Uhh flashing red would not be safe

> As title, it'd confuse the HELL out of anyone not in merika

What? No! Although it's not part of the standard sequence for traffic lights in most of the world, flashing lights (OK, usually orange, but red ain't very different) are the standard danger signal for contruction works, road obstructions etc., so I reckon pretty much anyone allowed to drive a car would instinctively understand that it means "caution".

And it will deplete the red toner.

Re: Motoring and Cooking Section

Oh, making fuel is not illegal but where I live any mod to the engine (such as supercharging the pre-heating system, required in order to run on pure vegetable oil) have to be rubberstamped by the appropriate authority before the vehicle can be considered road-legal. Perhaps it's not the case in the UK though.

Re: Motoring and Cooking Section

> vegetable oil in your turbo diesel

Why, that works perfectly well with almost any modern injection pump (up to 1/2 oil). With minor modifications you can run on pure oil (eg colza oil). All is needed is a serious boost to the pre-heating circuitry (once the engine is hot it runs on pure oil without a hitch). The torque is (reportedly) increased, too. But the exhaust smells of fries...

I've only seen the full mod on agricultural machines as it's illegal on public roads, but I do know a number of people who routinely run on 1/2 vegetable oil in their unmodified turboD car.

Well spotted

Vultures working on the WE seemed a bit odd. Now I understand: they'll be using the TARDIS to post WE stuff on weekdays.