* Posts by Marcus Aurelius

521 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Sep 2009

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'iPhone 4G' loser outed

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Future employment???

"Still, with 'Apple' on his CV he won't have problems finding employment elsewhere"

I think that "If you want your sooper-sekret shiny prototype outed to the world, just give it to me with some beer money" will be a slight hindrance to employment prospects

School secretly snapped 1000s of students at home

Marcus Aurelius
Big Brother

Parents opposing

Parents and families are opposing the Robbins' suit against the school....

The simple answer is that igf the court awards Robbins several million bucks, guess which childrens education budget will be several million bucks short in the ensuing years,

Google and friends back bid to block warrantless email search

Marcus Aurelius
Thumb Up

Title is wrong

Google! and! friends! back! Yahoo! bid! to! block! warrantless! email! search!

There fixed it for you

Jesus Phone in shock Opera browser benediction

Marcus Aurelius
Big Brother

Irony

In 1984, Apple presented the Apple Macintosh as an escape from control and conformity; indeed they even did a legendary Superbowl advert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_%28advertisement%29) about it.

How ironic, that Apple now seems to resemble the pigs at the end of another George Orwell book - Animal Farm

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Tories put ID cards, Contactpoint on manifesto hit list

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Getting Rid of Human Rights may be impossible

The problem is that whilst the European Court of Human Rights is a separate entity from the European Union, any legislation which is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights will also fall into conflict with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, so if people are not satisfied by UK courts and legislation, they will still ask European courts to issue judgement against the UK.

Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over 'child porn'

Marcus Aurelius
Grenade

Gregory Kohs

One wonders if he is the same person who tried to set up a business posting paid entries to Wikipedia and got slapped down by Jimmy Wales for it.

The argument about the above isn't entirely black and white, but it does appear to have resulted in a long running campaign by Kohs v Wikipedia

Cocaine-hunting robot chopper in 60kg bust seizure

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Cost to Society

Drugs have a HUGE cost to society, and anyone who denies this is ignorant and deliberately obtuse and stupid.

Few on the "legalise drugs" side deny drugs have a cost to society; however the two deadliest drugs are alcohol and tobacco, and both are taxed and legal, meaning that the cost to society is recovered and the cost to law enforcement is limited to Customs activity and preventing under age drinking.

If you legalise, you eliminate a war, and reduce the cost of fighting to that of maintaining a "peacetime" force. If you're in any doubt about how expensive fighting a war is, just look over the cost of paying a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan has been for the US. Wars aren't profitable unless you can pillage (or tax) the conquered country, and this applies to drugs too.

A multitasking iPad? Let's bin the netbook

Marcus Aurelius
Pirate

Academics and Researchers.

could do all their journal reading on something like a Kindle, with longer battery life.

(Unless of course, you confess that academics do watch movies and play games occassionally)

Bloke threatens BT with giant plywood cheque

Marcus Aurelius
Stop

Holy financial cows, batman

The cow cheque is a story by A.P. Herbert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Inland_Revenue_v_Haddock

Marcus Aurelius
Grenade

Cheques, Legal Tender and Contracts

Cheques are not legal tender and BT are not legally obliged to accept anything except cash.

However, I'm not sure if this changes as BT accepts on its bills that cheques are a legitimate payment method, and this may therefore result in the contract being deemed as satisfied if a valid cheque of any size is offered as payment.

As long as it has all the components i.e. name, account number, signature etc, banks will accept cheques of any size, although they may charge a fee for non-standard versions.

Microsoft roasted for Office 2010 standards FAIL

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

And in other news

After discovering that Microsoft doesn't live up to its promises, Alex Brown makes the amazing discoveries that the Pope is a Catholic and bears do shit in woods.

Murdoch tells old media to 'stand up' to Google, Bing

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Charge of the Light Brigade

Except no one is following him into the valley

IBM tears up open source patent pledge, claims FOSS

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Patents and applicability

Only two of the 150 odd patents IBM have claimed are involved with z/OS are the ones they promised not to sue over; I think we can say that this is probably IBMs oversight. Never attribute to conspiracy what can be attributed to cock up

Secondly, it may be that none of IBMs patents are applicable to Hercules; for the simple reason that Hercules is software and IBMs patents are on the hardware of the z series. In Europe, I believe software is not patentable at the present time, and if it isn't patentable then you can't use patents against something implemented entirely in software.

Next, because Hercules is an emulation, it is entirely possible that the emulation uses different methods to achieve the same result, and if you use different methods you're no longer affected by the patent anyway.

Software engineer demands source of his speeding collar

Marcus Aurelius
Paris Hilton

Who needs a V8 or V6?

Last I heard, the old 4 Cylinder 2.2litre Lotus Esprit SE (Series 3) got you 0-60 in 4.7 seconds.....I'm sure someone can find more modern examples.

Paris, because she really goes (allegedly)

Opera alerts EU to hidden Windows browser-ballot

Marcus Aurelius
WTF?

Speak for yourself, matey

I develop websites, and Opera has, whilst not always leading the field in terms of features, it has always been a highly standards conformant browser, and therefore useful for showing up problems that might only come out later when tested with other browsers.

Novell (not SCO) owns UNIX, says jury

Marcus Aurelius
Happy

Judge Edward N Cahn

..is (or more accurately was, since he retired) a real Judge.

http://www.blankrome.com/index.cfm?contentID=10&bioID=2010

Marcus Aurelius
Linux

Plus

5. The contract was with the Original SCO (Tarentella) and SCO have to prove there has been a transfer of the right to ask for copyrights.

I get the impression that the judge gave SCO every chance possible to minimise grounds for appeal.

Woman finds Romanian living in shed

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

Only three centuries of lineage

My family were some of the earliest shed invaders, coming over with the Normans.

Tinfoil Condition Red! LHC 7 TeV mega-blasts today

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

Is it me

...or is there an echo in here?

Apple director 'disgusted' by Jobsian health secrets

Marcus Aurelius
Boffin

Jobs has been absent for long periods

He' s had several bouts of illness since 2004 and Apple has thrived without him. He's also the largest single shareholder of Walt Disney, so I can bet that he doesn't spend all his time at Apple. He's not the product designer either, though he undoubtedly plays a role in product refinement and recognising how the products can be marketed.

What I'm trying to say is that long periods away from managing Apple can and have occurred since 2004, so he's not completely essential to Apple.

What he has undeniably done for Apple, is to make a series of good judgement calls and business decisions when it really matters, and to ensure that Apple is recognised as a quality brand, and to ensure there is little advance information about what Apple is doing next so other companies can't head him off at the pass.

Marcus Aurelius
Paris Hilton

(Risk and Success) EOR (Safety and Mediocrity)

I would say that most health issues are private matters, and companies are only get as much information from their employees as they need to plan for any inability to work.

I would also suspect that Jobs is perhaps a little paranoid and wants to hang on to the $40 billion just in case there's a period when the ideas fountain dries up for a while. Apple have historically been on the brink several times.

Finally it seems that companies do extremely well (or incredibly badly) when they have one leader with ambition and vision. Companies led by committee never seem to deliver stellar results. I think you have to choose between success (and the risk of failure) or safety and mediocrity.

Paris, for a "happy ending"

'Switch to Century Gothic to save the planet'

Marcus Aurelius
Thumb Down

Failed Eco analysis

You haven't figured in the economic cost of the production and transport of the magnifying glass to the end user, plus the extra calories which may (or may not) be consumed by the user wielding the magnifiying glass.

US Navy plans self-building floating fortresses

Marcus Aurelius
Go

No floating airstrips

But certainly Mulberry harbour units

Bill Gates goes (mini) nuclear

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Flux capacitor supply

I want my Mr Fusion box generating 1.21GW now please; waiting round for lightning is so passe....

Cray's midrange line big on Xeons, GPUs

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Disappointed

"Cray will not support the fastest Xeon 5600 parts in the CX1000-C blades - that would be the six-core 3.33 GHz Xeon X5680 and the four-core 3.46 GHz X5677 - because at 130 watts they are too hot for the blade chassis."

I always thought Seymour Cray said that Cray was really just good at plumbing (to dissipate heat). They're obviously not up to the challenge nowadays

Dell bars Win 7 refunds from Linux lovers

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

No surprise but

If Dell provided a machine without any OS whatsoever on it then you'd have a case. The Windows sign on EULA specifically allows you to not install and get a refund. Its the first opportunity you have to say "No" to Windows.

Game developer's lost electric buggy FOUND ON MOON

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Spirit News

XKCD on the subject:

Original:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png

Alternative:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/blag/spirit_rewrite_unknown_author.png

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

Have you seen?

How much dust accumulates in the fan of your average PC?

Fans attract dust, not dispel it!

Mole-cruiser planned to attack Iranian nuke bunkers

Marcus Aurelius

I always found

The big problem with moles is the damage they do to your lawn.

I got some cats.......

Pirate Bay founders get post-Sweden election appeal date

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Why not in pokey? Same as UK Law

Whilst an appeal is in progress, unless said offender is a high risk to the public, they can remain at large.

Body of James Brown disappears from family tomb

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

According to Charlaine Harris

He's joined Elvis as a vampire

BOFH: The PFY Chronicles part 2

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

I keep waiting for the one

Where PFY wakes up in the shower and finds it's all been a dream.

Tories ask: Why BBC3, BBC4?

Marcus Aurelius
Go

BBC3 is what I watch when

"Being Human" is on.

Conservatives want big IT deals delayed

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Balanced view

Its fair and reasonable that the government should continue with governing, and that means awarding new contracts, until the day it is kicked out.

However, as elections are a foreseeable event, it is also reasonable that there should be a reasonable cancellation fee if a project is cancelled within 12 weeks from signing on the dotted line.

Maybe its time for one of those epetition thingies....

Mars Express skims past Phobos

Marcus Aurelius
Boffin

I wanna know

How does a rock be "enigmatic"?

Street View threatens to throw Eurostrop

Marcus Aurelius
Grenade

Legal Framework

In most countries you are allowed to take photographs from public areas, and what Google is doing is no different.

In UKia, we're having difficulty taking pictures and not getting arrested without some over enthusiastic plod claiming we might be a terrorist, so I don't

As someone else has said, if you're house hunting, it means you can see real pictures of a property and its surroundings, instead of the guff the estate agents hands out. Its also good for navigation, as you can see the place you're looking for in the context of its surroundings.

In short, it's perfectly legal and has many uses, so why are people moaning about it?

Brass necked suspect swallows USB evidence

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

Couldn't he have just stamped on it?

Maybe he was hoping to do his own "data recovery" rather than have the cops do it for him!

Argentinians invade Falkland Islands website

Marcus Aurelius
Coat

We have thought of wales

Why else do you think they have 500,000 sheep on the island?

I'll get my rubber mac and wellies.....

Marcus Aurelius
WTF?

International waters...

I don't think the oil rig is in international waters as far as mineral rights are concerned. I seem to recall that you had the mineral rights to everything on bit of continental shelf and if you bumped into the rights of another country you split down the middle (more or less).

Jobs: I'll decide what to do with Apple's $40bn cash pile

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Buy up Apple records

Certainly would prevent any future trademark issues.

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

Or...

Microsoft!

15 new suspects named in Hamas Dubai assassination

Marcus Aurelius
WTF?

26 people?

Mission: Impossible always managed to pull similar things off with only about 5 or 6.

If 26 were involved, I'd at least expect a full scale invasion

The myth of Britain's manufacturing decline

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Also of note

Assuming this graph is inflation adjusted, Manufacturing output rose quite sharply as a result of Maggie (1981 recession excepted, which you could attribute to the major change in policy) and seems to have flattened out during the reign of Tony and Gordon.

Vote Tory?

I shall now sit back and watch the missiles fly......

X2 triplex multicopter prototype suffers gearbox snag

Marcus Aurelius
Black Helicopters

Russians there first?

Don't some Russian choppers already have twin rotors in the same configuration as this?

Could not resist the black helicopter icon....

'McDonalds' burger-lers making millions

Marcus Aurelius
Happy

Sounds like

McDonalds have been well and truly burgered.....

Surely the phone numbers and email addresses and with some of the domain names have an audit trail, or were they set up with false info too.

PHPers prefer Windows desktop to Linux

Marcus Aurelius
Joke

vim?

emacs!!

US lab births flexy, stingy solar cells

Marcus Aurelius
Go

Power Management

You may need 70kW peak power, but your car spends most of its time stuck in traffic jams and idling. I'm sure 2.4kW in continually to a battery pack will give you a reasonable commuter car. If you can avoid the traffic wardens and leave it in a sunny car park, you'll have enough charge to get you home.

Doctor Who attempted to overthrow Thatcher

Marcus Aurelius
FAIL

Sylvester McCoy

Was one of the more disappointing Doctors - maybe this explains why

Big Blue boffins hatch dirt-cheap solar cells

Marcus Aurelius
WTF?

Cost

If the cost to produce is much less then you're not going to worry. A space based system (whilst it obviously has some budget constraints) does not have the same financial constraints as a domestic user.

If 9.6% is the rate immediately, then I'll be surprised if they aren't talking nearly 20 in a years time.

BOFH: The PFY Chronicles

Marcus Aurelius
Happy

It seems that PFY

is the master now.

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