* Posts by Dave 126

10643 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010

iBail: American Psycho actor Christian Bale rejects Steve Jobs role

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Jobs is not God, Apple is not heaven.

What disgruntled said. Films are more interesting if the protagonist isn't an unalloyed saint.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Beyond even Bales acting abilities....

Is Arctic Fox an American?

In the UK the word 'cunt' is used to insult mainly men. From what I have seen of US film and TV (Kill Bill part 2, The Wire, Weeds) it is only ever used to insult women.

Dave 126 Silver badge

>I strongly doubt the issue is the script. Maybe they're finding out what sort of chap Jobs was

So... you're saying Jobs was a 'baddie'. Actors enjoy playing baddies, don't they?

If you're suggesting that jobs was a 'baddie', but the script was portraying him as a 'goodie', then surely the issue, from your perspective, is with the script?

Maybe Jobs was neither a goodie or a baddie, but just an imperfect human being like the rest of us. Maybe the actors think it might be a redundant role, since there is video footage of the Steve Jobs presenting products. Maybe Christian Bale has just received a call about work from his old mate Christopher Nolan, since the latter has just wrapped up his latest film?

How Hollywood film-makers wove proper physics into Interstellar

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: though i feel there will chronic oversights still

>maybe they'll fix the ships computer with a iPhone from outside the ships hull

From the director who doesn't use email, writes his drafts on his fathers typewriter, and even used 35mm film for the 'Skype'-like video-chatting in the film?

Whatever you say.

Seriously, for real this time, the 12in MaxiPad is totally on the way ...

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Why an iPAD?

>If they are looking to make a "Professional" device then why would anyone believe this to be an iPAD architecture?

Are you conflating the underlying OS with the User Interface? The most professional UI is the one that is most fit for purpose - so an iPad like device with a fancy digitiser (see 'Modbook, or 'Wacom Hybrid') might be the better device for a graphic artist than a Macbook. A musician might find an iPad a better device to use as a control surface, and find it perfectly secure and reliable enough.

Currently we tend to associate ARM architecture with touch interfaces, and x86 architecture with keyboards and mice - but that is largely to do with the power constraints of mobile devices. It is not written in stone.

OSX, like NeXT before it, has run on different hardware architectures in the past. 3rd party applications might have to be rewritten for an ARM OSX, but they would have to be modified anyway in order to work well with a touch/stylus interface.

Microsoft too are dabbling with x86/ARM agnosticism.

Russians hear Tim Cook is gay, pull dead Steve Jobs' enormous erection

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: "Being gay is not a lifestyle choice"

>But being "gay" is a lifestyle choice.

No, it isn't. Being gay is just how someone feels about who they fancy - they don't 'choose' it, any more than I choose to find some women attractive. You might be able to make a weak argument for calling gay sexual relations as a lifestyle choice, but only if you say that having heterosexual relations outside of marriage is a 'lifestyle choice' - the latter is also disapproved of by some parts of society. You don't choose how you feel; you choose what you do.

Generally speaking, I'm not always fond of people being overtly sexual in public - be them straight or gay, but I that is just my taste... just as I might not find a brash or loud person to my taste. But hey, that's just the way they are. I don't like people bragging. I also don't like people forgetting to indicate at roundabouts, or playing music on their mobile phones in pubs.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Cheap dig

>We got much bigger problems in the world. You know, a raging closet homosexual with nukes who is invading countries.

That reminds me of an old Stephen Fry column... after citing examples such as Alexander the Great and Lawrence of Arabia, he arrives at the tongue-cheek-conclusion that ' yes, gays should be kept out of the military - because they are too bloody good at warfare!". His point being that whilst he was pro-gay, he was anti-war.

The Great Smartphone Massacre: Android bloodbath gathers pace

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Android OEMs are copying Apple in all the wrong ways

Weird. My midrange Xperia P was updated twice, first to ICS and then to Jelly Bean. There was some Sony software on it but it wasn't all rubbish, and they didn't mess the stock Android around very much (compae to Samsung).

One can take 'somthings' word for it, or one can check XDA to get an idea of how vendors release updates.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Dear Sony.

Can't find a Nexus 5? Get an LG G2 for the much the same money. Still considered to be a good phone.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: No surprises

>why pay the prices Sony and Samsung charge for the handset (as good as they are compared to the TCO of a contract) when I can get something like the OnePlusOne for half the price?

Shop around mate.

The Z3 Compact's lst price is £450, but it can be had for around £350 - sometimes less.

Try looking at this 'deals' forum:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/mobiles/deals/hot

Intel: A tiny video drone? Disguised as a bracelet? Great! Take half a million dollars!

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Not cool enough...

Or look like a mosquito, like the drone found in Iain M Banks' Consider Phlebas.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Not small enough?

>(They aren't around today, but the fossil record shows that the dragonfly design works at much larger sizes).

There was once a lot more available oxygen in our atmosphere... it was this allowed very large insects to breathe. They don't have lungs, and rely on little tubes to take in oxygen, so its a surface area / volume thing.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: This is the winner?

>I can just see 10,000 people at a sporting event suddenly launching these things...

Well, that's still preferable to people launching water bottles full of piss, no?

Got a spare $600k? Then an ancient Apple-1 could be yours

Dave 126 Silver badge

>I know a collector and their money are often parted. But seriously.

That doesn't necessarily make the collector a fool - who knows if the value will go up or down? An example is included in this very article:

"It is currently owned by Robert Luther, a collector from Virginia. He bought the expensive machine during 2004 at a police auction" I don't expect he paid $600k for it.

You might compare it to art, antiques, vintage wine or commodities markets - some people lose money, sure, but others gain. If you, Indolent Wretch, are able to predict who is who with certainty, then I expect you've posted your comment from your private yacht moored off the Cayman Islands.

Pitchforks at dawn! UK gov's Verify ID service fail to verify ID

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Offline fallback required

The French have notaires in every small town - if a document needs to be signed by you and posted off, you can just pop in to the notaire with your proof of ID and they will stamp the document to say that you are who you say you are.

Snapper's decisions: Whatever happened to real photography?

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Good article

>All that's needed now is for a manufacturer to crack the problem of the fully electronic shutters on systems cameras

Yeah, I was quite naffed off once when attending an acoustic music gig, and a young person (well, my age, it was a few years ago) was taking shots with a big - and loud - DSLR. It was grating because she not seeing that she was placing her 'content creation' over that of the singer we has all come to hear play.

I believe some DSLRs have the option for a silent 'digital shutter', but I haven't the experience to know their disadvantages - other than the viewfinder is disabled and the camera has to use contrast detection autofocus as opposed to phase shift (except for those Sonys with the translucent mirrors).

Dave 126 Silver badge

>Decent control over the sensitivity (usually measured in ISO equivalence) is the major factor in allowing you to shoot high shutter speeds in lower lighting levels; although you'll get a trade off in noise.

Yep. How much noise at higher ISO settings depends upon the camera. Only the human operator can decide if the scene contains moving subjects (a noisier image is better than a blurred face), or if the camera will be kept still to better capture detail of a non-moving subject, and thus balance the trade-off accordingly. Play.

Whilst talking about instant feedback, cameras with higher resolution screens can aid the learning process, since soft-focus shots are easier to identify whilst reviewing.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Excellent

>It's very hard to find any Consumer Still or especially video camera with Manual everything.

Try the cameras listed here, or their forebears:

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/canon_powershot_g7_x_review/rivals/

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Digital photography isn't dead yet

>Claiming that there's a void between the iPhone and Medium Format digital is plain wrong.

There does seem to be more interest in the 'premium compact' market these days, with Sony and Fuji joining Panasonic and Canon in the fray. I'm talking about cameras that will just about fit in the inside pocket of a jacket, and have sensors larger than those normally found on compacts, large apertures and have an option of full manual control.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Many good points - however

The Canon G-series have lots of physical manual controls, but consider also the smaller Canon S95, S100 etc. They compete with the Lumix LX-5, LX-7 etc. More recently, the Sony RX100 MK2 - a similar size but bigger sensor - is said to trounce them for image quality but Sony's user interface is supposedly awkard at times. Its existance has caused Panasonic to up their game, and their LX-100 looks very interesting.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Enjoyed this

>I still have a couple of 35mm and wanted to know where a semi-decent place is to source and develop b+w film these days, along with a set of prints?

Perhaps try asking around a local art college... they might be able to steer you in the right direction, or find a student who will use their darkroom on your behalf for beer money.

Dave 126 Silver badge

>Above all when you get your kit don't be afraid to experiment with it; go out there and take pictures to find out what the camera will do, what limitations or quirks it has, and to refine your techniques before you need them in anger.

Agreed. A lot of learning comes from the desire to mitigate the shortcomings of an imperfect camera.

An aid to learning is having the camera with you often.

I started with a 3MP phone camera - horribly noisy, low resolution... but it made me think about just what is was in the shot that I was trying to capture - what it was that had an emotional impact or interest, and trying to accentuate it in Photoshop. I wasn't going for realism, or print-quality.

I then used a cheap Samsung compact camera whilst travelling - but it did have manual controls, enough to get a feeling for shutter and aperture.

Then a Lumix LX-5, a 'premium compact' whose competitors are the Canon S95 and Sony RX100 and the like. Small enough for a jacket pocket, I carried it often, and played with it a lot. I could get away with low-light photography - parties, street scenes etc - if I was careful in my settings. I learnt more about which compromises to make for a particular situation. Bokeh was possible, but only at the widest zoom... filling the frame with someone's face without zooming would make their nose look too big.

Currently I have an LX-7. It builds upon the LX-5, and offers an aperature of f1.4 - albeit married to a relatively small sensor - bigger than most compacts, but smaller than a m4/3rds or DSLR. Portraits benefit, because I can zoom a little, yet still soften the background.

Play, play, play. The more you use it, the quicker you learn. If a compact camera means you carry it more often, so be it. You will learn its shortcomings, and if you decide to more money on a pricier, bigger camera, you will have a better idea of what you want from it.

Branson on Virgin Galactic fatal crash: 'Space is hard – but worth it'

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Is it really worth it IN THIS CASE, though?

>this is a rich man putting good men at risk in order to develop a sham space experience for other rich men (and women). Is he saying that it's worth killing off a few pilots for this?

A fair question. One assumes that these pilots asked it of themselves, as intelligent adults. The answer they, as individuals, arrived at is evident.

Though wages for commercial airline pilots in the US can be relatively low, I suspect these men had a more advanced skill set, one that would have allowed them a choice of employment to support them and their families. In this respect they differ from a disadvantaged young person who enlists the army for a foreign war because they perceive their employment options as limited.

There have been men and women who have signed up for this sort of risky activity, and have had their trust abused by the management of a contracting firm- see: Feynman, O-rings. There is no suggestion at this stage that this is this case in this sad incident -it is not in Virgin Galactic's business interests to cut corners.

EDIT: The management of the O-ring contractors was leant on by NASA management.

Report of the PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accidenthttp://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v1ch5.htm

Pixel mania: Apple 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display

Dave 126 Silver badge

>5k of pixels is a lot to push through the graphics shaders, and I would have liked to know how the game they tested ran at full resolution.

They couldn't test the Windows games at full resolution. They tried, but:

"From 5k to 4k

The first thing I noticed upon booting up in Windows 8.1 is that Windows does not run at the display’s native 5120x2880 resolution. When I logged on, I was greeted by a desktop running at 3840x2160, one of a number of different resolutions commonly lumped under the "4k" banner (this particular 4K flavor is usually referred to as "Ultra HD").

Interestingly, the non-native resolution didn’t exhibit any visible scaling artifacts. The high pixel density seems to more than make up for the loss of resolution from "5K," and the display blends the 8,294,400 points yielded by 3840x2160 into the native 14,745,600 pixels quite smartly. Even sitting with my nose an inch or so away from the screen—a distance my mother assured me when I was younger would ruin my eyes—I couldn’t see any feathering or blurring around edges and lines. Type remained sharp, and everything looked crisp."

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/the-retina-imac-and-its-5k-display-as-a-gaming-machine/

The above article was just a preliminary gaming test, and they will be updating it:

... just based on the performance of Alien: Isolation, any fears prospective Retina iMac owners might have had that the system’s high resolution will outstrip the GPU’s ability to keep it fed appear to be unfounded.

...I’ll be playing the hell out of my Steam library on the thing over the next week before I have to send it back. Peter Bright is already spitting rage at me in the Ars staff IRC channel that I didn't benchmark with Battlefield 4 or Far Cry 3 (simple explanation: I don't own those games and don't play them, and I didn't have press Steam or Origin codes readily available), so I'll see about adding those to the mix before I drop the iMac back off at FedEx.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: The display

@AC - the figure of $2500 didn't come from Anandtech. It came from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2841732/why-5k-displays-matter-the-one-spec-that-tells-all.html and teh figure is in accordance with every other tech site out there... mainly because that is the figure that Dell announced.

Where Anandtech made a guess was supposing that the Dell used the same panel as the iMac.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Okay Tatsu, so the Reg review doesn't agree with your expectations... oh dear.

Here is a partial review of the 5K Mac as a Windows gaming machine:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/the-retina-imac-and-its-5k-display-as-a-gaming-machine/

You're welcome.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: "... 256GB will soon feel rather small for multimedia projects."

Thunderbolt, let alone Thunderbolt 2, can shunt 4 streams of uncompressed HD video... basically, it can supply it faster than you can edit it. And that is just a single Thunderbolt bus. The MacPro has three of 'em.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: The display

>Where can I buy the screen (preferably in black), with VGA, DVI and HDMI connections.

>Also should cost about 1/3rd of iMac price.

You will be able to buy it from Dell for 5/6ths of the price of the iMac. Anandtech reckon it's a fair bet that it is the same panel as the iMac, too.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2841732/why-5k-displays-matter-the-one-spec-that-tells-all.html

I doubt that your graphics card will output 5K through VGA.

Why do you want a 5K screen for "Email + Web "?

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: That is one hell of a nice monitor...

>And a machine of this class should have a pure SSD, not a "hybrid", which experience with these in an Enterprise environment has taught me are unreliable, finicky crap.

No Mac uses a hybrid drive. 'Fusion Drive' refers the combination of a Logical Volume Manager called CoreStorage (inspired by ZFS) baked into OSX, plus conventional SSD and HDD drives. OSX itself optimises what data is duplicated onto to the SSD for performance benefits. I can see why Apple calling it 'Fusion Drive' has confused you, but a 'hybrid drive' it isn't.

>My sausage-fingered friend uses Mac keyboards for his Windows PCs. Personally, I get on with Dell keyboards. Some people swear by mechanical keyboards.

I love by my Logitech MX Darkfield mouse on a Windows PC for CAD. I don't get on with SpaceNavigators - probably because I haven't persevered. My professional Mac-using friends use tablets and styli, even when video-editing.

Each to their taste.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: I work in PAL conversions

>Can anyone who does serious work in this area give us an idea of how much storage they need and of what form/location?

Short answer: Shitloads. Redundantly stored on external servers. Thunderbolt to the MacPro for editing.

My friend runs a video production company. Filmed footage is irreplaceable ( you can't return to your client and ask them to re-enact what you filmed in the first place), so all data is redundantly backed up as soon as possible - ideally as it is being shot, or at least whilst still on site.

Thunderbolt is happily fast enough to shunt it onto the editing Mac as required. There really isn't a need for large internal storage.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Wotta lotta pixels

Pixel-wide lines at anything other than vertical or horizontal (Think Illustrator or AutoCAD) would benefit.

'Retina' is based on the fallacy that 20/20 eysight is average, whereas people's average vision is actually better. If if this wasn't so, some scenarios, such as the one above, still benefit.

Multi Jet Fusion: THAT's HP's promised 3D printer, not crazy 'leccy invention

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: How to Sanity Test the over-hyped BS claims made by 3D Printer vendors

I guess 3D printing has evolved product design more subtly in the last few years, since the it has allowed smaller players to develop products. However, it should be taken into consideration with:

-Cheaper, more affordable and more mature CAD software and workstations.

-3D printing aiding the development of prototypes

- 3D printing reducing the cost of tooling for product manufacture

-Crowdrunding for start-ups.

-Cheaper SoCs, and near off-the-shelf electronic components.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: coming soon

HP and Stratasys were in bed together a few years back.

http://investors.stratasys.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=697147

"August 1, 2012

Stratasys and HP to Discontinue Manufacturing and Distribution Agreement"

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: How to Sanity Test the over-hyped BS claims made by 3D Printer vendors

Fair play Jeff - the "3D Printing will revolutionise manufacturing and change the world!!!" crowd do puzzle me too.

Personally, I think a laser cutter - even a modest one only capable of cutting 12mm ply - in every garage/shed/den would be more likely a 3D printer, and a better fit for the scale of projects around the home - shelves, wine racks, stencils, jigs for routing work-surfaces etc,.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: How to Sanity Test the over-hyped BS claims made by 3D Printer vendors

Sanity Test?

FFS. You choose the method of manufacture that is most economical for the quantity of part you are producing. Injection moulding produces parts to incredible tolerances, and does so very cheaply - once you have invested in your tooling.

The major reasons one would use Additive manufacturing are:

1. Prototyping. Ten years ago, additive manufacturing was only ever referred to as 'Rapid Prototyping'.

2 Small production runs. CNC machining often sits in this space as well.

3. To produce parts that have a geometry that is difficult/impossible to manufacture by other means. Say you wanted a sponge-like shape made of aluminium - perhaps to use a catalyst substrate. You couldn't machine the inside, 'cos you couldn't get your cutting tool in there.

Your comments are akin to asking "How many components of your injection moulding machine are injection moulded?". Answer, next to sod-all. That doesn't invalidate injection moulding as a process.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: New Technology??

>So, how is HP's 'new' technology different from any currently available 3D printer???

Strewth.

Okay, normal Fused Deposition Modelling printers (almost all of the cheap RepRap, Makerbot etc machines) work by extruding plastic out of a nozzle. This plastic forms the model.

This HP method lays down a layer of powder across the entire bed, then selectively bonds it with 'glue'.

The bed shifts down a notch, another layer of powder is applied, the process repeats.

After all the layers have been 'printed', the loose material is removed and the model is cured with heat.

The use of powder is akin to Selective Laser Sintering, and the shared advantage is that one doesn't need to print a support structure for overhanging features. An additional advantage of this HP method is that the binding agent can be varied across the model, either to colour the powder or to adjust material properties such as elasticity.

Dave 126 Silver badge

Sprout

I'm sure the Reg is working on article about HP's 'Sprout' PC that was announced alongside the above 3D printer. One popular technology website completely missed the point in its coverage by describing it as merely a mouse and keyboard replacement, whereas it is a combination projector, virtual keyboard, 3D/2D scanner and 3D gesture interface... the devil is in the implementation, but the concept sounds very useful for blurring the line between hardcopy (take a newspaper and use your finger to select an article to scan, or trace an image with a stylus), or place a 3D object in front of it and scan it in.

Watch out, Samsung and Apple: Xiaomi's No 3 in smartphones now

Dave 126 Silver badge

@over the hill

>"and according to today's news Xiaomi have been caught sending IMEI numbers, phone numbers and text messages back to Beijing."

That was August's news, and today is in October. You raise a valid point, and if truth is on your side they why mislead us? http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2359714/chinese-android-smartphone-firm-xiaomi-caught-collecting-users-data

The issue - MIUI's cloud messenging service sending said data upon the start-up of the phone with an option for the user to opt-out - has been fixed. I'm not excusing them, but it is fair to put the claim in context. If you are referring to another, newer issue, please do supply a link.

[ I attempted to reply in-line, but was treated to this:

Gone

The requested resource

/post/reply/2343987

is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource.

Apache/2.2.22 (Debian) Server at forums.theregister.co.uk Port 80]

Big Retail's Apple Pay killer CurrentC HACKED, tester info nicked

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: @BasicChimpTheory

Thank you chr0m4t1c

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Concerns

>Apple Pay might struggle outside the US just because the rest of the world was already onto Chip & Pin, and now PayWave etc. anyway.

I dunno, but can the 'tap to pay' merchant terminals in the UK be adapted to work with Apple Pay - or a Google NFC system?

(A friend asked me why his Nexus5 phone was intermittently beeping but was displaying no notifications... it turned out his 'tap to pay' credit card was in his phone's wallet case, and he had accidentally turned its NFC a few days before whilst fumbling in the settings).

Making an entrance: Remote door-opening tech

Dave 126 Silver badge

More of this sort of article please!

I've often thought it curious that we take central locking on cars almost for granted, yet houses are some way behind.

Imagine the peace of mind that people could take from remotely verifying that all the doors are locked, windows are closed, gas hob turned off and iron unplugged.... such doubts can plague a person as they head for the airport.

China set to be buried under mountain of surplus robots, warns biz chap

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Forced automation is going to create a bubble no matter what

Well, to zoom out a little.... if robots built the roofs over our heads and farmed all our food, what really would be the need of human labour?

Psychologically, we get restless if we have nothing to do. We invent past-times like sport that mirror the activities that we once had to do to survive. We enjoy working with other people, and exercising our bodies and brains.

The advent of industrialisation didn't mean that the workers could merely work half days... it meant the the mill owners got richer - or rather they stayed as rich, since they were competing with other producers to produce goods at a lower cost to the consumers.

The Amish seem a happy enough bunch... they don't work too hard in building a barn because the whole community turns up to lend a hand, and it becomes a social event. Everybody works, but nobody works too much.

In Brave New World, no new sport was allowed to be invented unless it used more resources than existing sports.

No nudity, please, we're GAMING: Twitch asks players to cover up

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Pasties

Sidewalk, pavement

soccer, football

elevator, lift

chips, crisps,

fries, chips

pasties, nipple tassels

trash, rubbish

1st floor, ground floor

etc, etc

Apple to PROTECT YOU from dreaded TROUSER EXPLOSIONS

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Bigger bums??

Agreed.

A lardy arse deforms more than a toned or boney arse - it would spread aroudn the phone to make contact with the seat - so less of a chubby user's weight would be bourne by their phone than would the phone of a skinny person. The chubby person's phone would also be subject to a more uniform load.

This is why we CAN have nice things: Samsung Galaxy Alpha

Dave 126 Silver badge

If you're willing to forego a fingerprint sensor AC, the Samsung S5 Active will fit your requirements:

http://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5_active-review-1093.php

Waterproof, removable battery, sdcard slot, other crazy Samsung stuff such as a heart rate monitor, barometer, ir sensor, eyeball tracking, kitchen sink etc

Dave 126 Silver badge

The Xperia Z3 / Z3 Compact seem to be the more relevant devices to compare this to than the iPhone.

So, do you want waterproofing, an SDCard slot and a very good battery, or do you want a fingerprint scanner and a removable - but only so-so - battery? Samsung's and Sony's varying degrees of Android skinning and bloatware might also be a consideration for some.

To be honest though, none of current flagship Android phones are bad...even the ones from a year ago, such as the LG G2, can still hold their own in the speed, battery life and camera stakes (and be found for a helluva lot less money)

iPad Air 2: Vulture chews on new Apple tablet

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Brighter screen, smaller battery?

>The iPads seem to get more fragile looking. The original iPad was a good solid device, when the contractors replaced the gas main in my road they visited each home and recorded some test details using an iPad. I doubt the current one would last a day.

Well, people who use the iPads in rougher environments have a range of cases to choose from- including some pretty rugged 3rd party designs. People who rarely remove their iPads from a plushly carpeted lounge may choose to keep their iPads unprotected.

It's up to the user.

UNCHAINING DEMONS which might DESTROY HUMANITY: Musk on AI

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."

Yowsers... references to the prehistory of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Sounds like Iain M. Bank's 'Outside Context Problem' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excession#Outside_Context_Problem

The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests.

Trips to Mars may be OFF: The SUN has changed in a way we've NEVER SEEN

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Why 400 days for men and 300 days for women?

>So it is not a population control issue. Long lived species eventually have to have a menopause or risk introducing so many flaky genes into the population, that the entire species suffers. Short lived mammals don't need menopause.

Exactly, but long life is not a given.

Natural Selection will only select for long life if it aids the survival chances of the descendents or family members of that individual. One can then assume that young whales benefit from having their grandmothers around, be it for protection and/or education.

Forget the $2499 5K iMac – today we reveal Apple's most expensive computer to date

Dave 126 Silver badge

Re: Cultism

>It was a fscking hobbyist thing!

So were the first bicycles - playthings of the wealthy. Over time though, they allowed almost anyone to travel over a greater distance.