Posts by User McUser 703 publicly visible posts • joined 6 May 2011
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"The attraction is not what you seem to think it is."
OK I'll bite, what is the attraction for you then?
"[...] so it isn't like you are going to talk anybody out of buying it before everybody knows how amazing it is."
Ummm, I wasn't trying to. I don't begrudge other people for buying a Chromecast nor do I wish to prevent them from doing so if they want, I just don't personally understand the attraction.
Chromecast seems like the latest thing people don't understand but desperately want for reasons they can't articulate. Usually this is Apple's line, but Google can play that game too apparently.
Myself, I don't see the attraction. But then again I've had an HTPC for about 8 years, so getting Internet things (web pages, streaming video, etc) on my TV isn't much of a novelty.
the first setting I turn off on a new browser install is "remember passwords" and why I won't log in to anything on a friend's browser outside of that browser's porn mode.
A password is a secret, and if two people know something, then it isn't a secret any longer. Especially when the second person is your web browser.
Obligatory related XKCD link: http://www.xkcd.com/1200/
"the terminator from T2 couldn't form complex shapes and machines [...] but the one in T3 could."
*pushes glasses up* Actually, T3's "T-X" is a hybrid of a Series 900 chassis surrounded with the mimetic-polyalloy of the T-1000. The advanced weapons are built into the base chassis and the polyalloy allows it to imitate human appearance for infiltration. (See also: http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Series_T-X)
It has rained many a time on Earth without the presence of lightning; same as well for snow fall.
Also, "lightening" is making something less dark or reducing its weight. Lightning is that which Mighty Zeus lets forth from the heavens and/or YHWH uses to smite the wicked. (Or so I am told.)
For an article titled "Forget Snowden: What have we learned about the NSA?" there sure was a whole lot of text talking about his activities and statements. The word "Snowden" appears 22 times in the article, but "NSA" only 14 times.
Still enjoyed the article, I'm just saying...
His name is Jasper Hamill, it's right up there in the slug line... Also I'm pretty sure that El Reg moderates articles, though they probably prefer to call it "Editorial Control" or something suitably newsy.
Where is the indignant eye-roll icon?
Mainly? Publishing breathless, gossipy headlines (like "Dog finds Bizarre Object in Colon?" or "There's A Monster at the End of this Article!") designed to cajole/trick you into clicking on the article and drive ad revenues.
Other than that, Email, Web search, postponing Google's anti-trust suit, and giving Bing users something to be smug about.
"There could and perhaps should be a Firefox plug-in to change the FFF7EC to something a bit more contrasty to the white FFFFFF."
There is such an add-on, it's called "Color That Site!"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/color-that-site/
I found it to be a little confusing to use at first but after a short while I was able to shift the Yahoo! advertising div layer background color from #FAFAFF to something much darker and more obvious.
Text to speech already exists, so prior art would invalidate your speaking machine patent. Similarly, speech to text also already exists so ditto on that.
Reading a work aloud is considered a "performance" of the work. A recording of said performance could be copyrighted separately from the original work, even if the original work is in the Public Domain. (This is how Disney owns the copyright on a number of works that are derived entirely from Public Domain fairy tales.) Should the original source material NOT be Public Domain then unless you obtained the performance rights, your derived work would violate copyright.
A better analogy might be carving a baseball bat out of a log. Nature made the tree branch the log came from, but you made the baseball bat by carving away the wood you didn't want. Arguably a baseball bat would be patentable if you were the first to come up with the idea.
It's also important to note that cDNA is merely patent *eligible* which means (in theory) that it still needs to be novel and useful before a patent is awarded. (I know, I know, US Patent office, etc... You can all stop sniggering now.)
"I think in America they call it 'Cheese toast', "
I have never heard that name used, though it could be a regional name, such as the various names for sandwiches on baguette-style bread (Sub, Grinder, Hoagie, and so-forth.)
Assuming "Cheese on Toast" (which sounds like it could be a little hamlet somewhere) is a literal description of the sandwich, we call this a "Grilled Cheese." Generally such a sandwich is "traditionally" made from white bread, buttered on the outside, one or two slices of cheese in the middle (most commonly American or Cheddar), and then heated on a griddle until properly colored (golden brown) and the cheese nicely melted. Often served with tomato soup.
If you stick a hamburger patty and grilled onions in there it's called a "Patty Melt."
Yes, now you can cram more adverts into every minute of broadcast TV and change them all again and again without having to re-record anything.
We'll swap the generic "cola" can in the first scene for a brand-name, replace the main character's sedan for the new sportier model (complete with glamor shots), and why not also change the location where the characters went on vacation to somewhere that needs a tourism boost?
Not being thick, no... Your point is absolutely correct that they don't know with 100% certainty who is actually talking on the line without eves-dropping on the call. But if a call came from my phone and went to the phone of a murder victim on the night they were murdered, getting the LUDs narrows the scope of who was on either end of that call from everyone with a phone down to a couple dozen people. I'm not exactly sure how this information could be abused, though I am keen to hear suggestions.
My point was that we've had a system that does this in the US for ages (at least since the late 70s that I'm aware) and so far the police haven't yet carted us all off to jail. Maybe the proposed non-legislation in this case *isn't* comparable to the US rule, in which case I will gladly STFU. But from the description I read it seems like exactly the same thing (note that I am inferring/assuming that there will be judicial oversight on the matter.)
"how exactly does plod propose to know _who_ made the call, without listening to the conversation?"
Because the phone company knows. Here in the US it's called a LUD (Line Usage Data) and it lists what phone called what other phone and for how long the call lasted. The police routinely subpoena this information as part of an investigation.
"The average user has to sign-on 39 times a day, and it takes them 2.3 seconds a time to do it each time"
Wow, it's a wonder we get anything else done, what with spending a whole 89.7 seconds logging into things each day. Hopefully someone will come up with a highly profitable way to solve this non-problem, perhaps something that stops working after two weeks so you have to constantly buy a new one?</sarcasm>
Where's the indignant eye-roll icon?
By my math, $74 Billion divided amongst the 4.8 million residents of Ireland is approximately $15.4 million each.
Now I'm not a tax lawyer (or any kind of lawyer), but I don't see how Apple can possibly claim that *none* of this revenue was from any other country in the world. And even if that's not illegal, it's certainly unethical (eg: lying).
BTW, for comparison, Ireland's GDP is $191.5 Billion.
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