Posts by Thomas Gray

That made oi laff

"Bring someone else's child into work day" made me laugh far more than it had any right to do.

Collaborative alternative?

My school sends out a weekly newsletter to parents which is written in a Google doc and then wxported as a PDF. Can anyone suggest an alternative? It needs to be editable by all staff (i.e. as easy as a word processor), read-only by the recipients, allow for interactive response (to avoid the “print this page, sign and return” issue), be not too expensive, and not look like arse.

Monochrome?

Assuming the problem of fovea focus could be dealt with, would it save processing power to place the surroundings in monochrome, since rods only detect light intensity rather than actual frequency?

Marvin the robot? Shurley Shome Mishtake

He was a Paranoid Android, not a robot.

I told you so

Computing Science (which existed as a GCSE for years before this "initiative" - heck, it was originally an O-Level) isn't for everyone. ICT is the gateway drug for most people, teaching as it did problem solving skills through 4th Gen tools. It should never have been dropped in the name of "progress" from (ironically) the Conservative party

Apple shouldn't have continued with the Lightning connector

I think Apple missed an opportunity with the 7 to switch to a USB C connector. Since they were mucking about anyway, it was the ideal time - and would have synced up nicely with the decision to go that way with the MacBook and MB Pro.

Does no-one remember Minix?

MS have been there, done that already.

Cut scenes?

If the narrative of the album/story is being interrupted by cut scenes of Roger gadding around Europe, I'll pass on this. The impact of The Wall is in the immersion: the only bit of the album I don't like is the middle stanza of "Hey You", when the fourth wall is broken by Roger singing "But it was only a fantasy/the wall was too high, as you can see/No matter how he tried he could not break free/And the worms ate into his brain". The story loses its immediacy and impact because suddenly the narrative voice has shifted to a third person, and I fear that telling "the story of The Wall" will take away from the the story of The Wall.

Perhaps it would have been better to have the documentary part as an opening film, before the main event?

Russian? Shurely Shome mishtake:

eComStation is owned by XEU.com, a Dutch company, and presumably the successor to Mensys BV who co-owned it with Serenity Systems, an American company set up by a former IBM-er. It has never been a Russian owned venture, as far as I know.

Going out on a limb here...

If 100% of Facebook's employers were homosexual, wouldn't they still be overwhelmingly white and male? IOW, the diversity rating of the company has nothing at all to do with celebrating gay rights and rainbow filters.

"all of whom get to see adds "

Which subtracts from the user experience, but presumably multiplies revenue. Divisive, eh?

New measures for the Reg Standards Soviet?

Just think, now you can convert monetary amounts into ml/pints/Churchills of blood, and value volumes in the same way...

Good video presentation available

Episode one of the rather good Ham Radio show TX Factor (http://www.txfilms.co.uk/txfactor/txfactor.shtml) contained a segment about Poldhu, well worth a watch if you are interested.

Faulty sensor?

Is it an AE-35 unit?

How long would a line made of all those baked beans make? Enquiring minds wish to know!

How about "Graph Grappling" as descriptor?

Would fit in with El Reg's penchant for alliteration.

The best way to learn photography - a dSLR

The author dismisses dSLRs as being too cheap, but then asks how can someone learn to move from a point 'n' shoot (or phone camera) to a "proper" camera. The answer is obvious: through the cheap dSLR. Yes, they all have full Auto mode and more Scene presets than you probably need, but they also all have the 'classic' PASM (Programme, Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Manual) modes, user-controllable ISO, off body flash - in fact, everything that we old farts were desperate to automate back in the day. The only reason most dSLR users don't get better photographs is because they don't learn to use the tool they have. And there are plenty of upgrade paths available from the "bargain basement" plastic dSLRs available in Currys.

I suspect

the event will be to announce a new Mac Mini, or even a new design of iMac - neither of which have really changed for several years.

The problem is Moffat

He claims to be a fan, and yet he does not seem to have watched any of the episodes, otherwise he wouldn't contradict the canon (and himself) so much. He also seems to think that the show is *about* the Doctor, rather than simply utilising the vehicle of the character to tell stories. Watch the classic series: the only time we have any exposition about the character of the Doctor and his past is during the "X Doctors" specials, perhaps at regeneration time, and when it was absolutely necessary for the story. Now it seems that every damn episode is about whether the Doctor is a good man or not. That isn't what the show is about.

At least Russel T. knew that much.

Old film reader?

Why would NASA need to help them find an "old film reader"? If the photographs were on 35mm, surely it would be trivial to scan them. All current film labs (yes, people still use 35mm!) will scan your film at the same time as processing and printing it.

Bring it on

Cloud cover reduced following the eruption of efefeofeoifjoeifjoeifoeifoeifjoeifoeifjoeifjoeifj (or something like that...) with an attendant drop in air temperatures of about 3°C, IIRC.

Keep the aeroplanes out of the sky for as long as possible. In fact, ban any air travel between two points that can physically be reached by train, which should simultaneously improve the climate, and remove such carbuncles as Easyjet and Ryanair.

Who is liable

in the event of a crash?

More tiring?

I'd have thought "more tiresome" would be a better phrase.

And what happens when the Galaxy S6 comes out?

Dual track is nothing new

One of the Monty Python albums (I think it was Another...) did the same thing - two completely different Side Ones. For some reason I didn't catch the "other" groove until the third time of playing - imagine my surprise!

Oooh Matron

I could go for a Carry On... inspired MMORPG. Perhaps it could also crowdsource a solution to the problems of the NHS, thus delivering a double whammy?

93 million miles

is roughly 149 million km. Not 1.49 billion.

Now that no-one is using Symbian...

Couldn't it be ported back to a Series 5mx-alike? Surely Motorola (the current owner of the erstwhile PDA maker) would accept a few shekels to licence the the hinge design from the 5 - after all, again they aren't using it.

Size nine chukka boots?

But will it offer you a jar of Anacondas?