Posts by Yet Another Commentard

Re: So less than 1% of stock will get you a seat on the board?

@Paul Crawford

It's not as if MS has been re-organised lately to align to an easier split either, is it?

A split may be good, may be bad. Even the renowned might of El Reg's commentards struggled to come up with a good unifying CEO so perhaps lots of "little" billion dollar businesses would work better. I always had the feeling that MS's biggest problem was itself, both in competing with earlier versions of software, and that each bit of it targeted other bits of it rather than what consumers wanted, or the opposition. A split could be a Good Thing™ for MS. Who knows.

Re: Highly sensitive UK documents? Really?

"Perhaps someone in the Westminster regime wants the Graun bringing to heel (or simply made to be history)."

Sadly given its recent financial performance and insistence on throwing more and more money at the loss making online edition it may well do this to itself.

Re: TDK SA90...

I went for the TDK Metal ones, for the embarrassing reason of the smell. Like a new car, or opening the shrink-wrap on some shiny gadget, the smell of a new Metal cassette was something special. Mind you, to buy a blank one was my paper-round for the week down the swanny.

Sure, sound quality isn't great, but the kids today do the same thing, compressed as heck digital versions not hissy analogue.

Sadly, having listened to Radio 1 recently I actually do believe that home taping did kill music.

Re: This is why I love Science!

and moreover self-corrects when evidence pops up that doesn't work with what you'd expect.

Re: Steven Sinofsky

I would assume that given mutual consent such a clause would be voided. Contracts work like that.

Personally, I think he'd be the wrong person, but my opinions count for very little in this game.

Re: So ..

In many contracts where there is currency changes involved the party open to risk (dealing in the other's currency) will have some form of risk management in place, hedging is particularly en-vogue at the moment. In that case you run a transaction opposite to the risky one, offsetting the risk.

An easy example, I expect a payment in US$ in a month and I deal in rupees. I could just wait, but that gives me uncertainty. So, instead I go to the bank today and borrow US$. The amount I borrow will be, plus interest in one month the same as the amount I will receive in US$.

Today I convert those dollars into rupees, so I have dealt with exchange rate uncertainty. When I get paid in US$ I pay off the loan I took out in US$, so don't mess about then.

(that's an oversimplification, but sets out sort of how hedging works).

Re: Ahhh bless.

Bit like a Porsche Boxster - you only buy one if you can't afford a 911. Doesn't make it a bad car though.

Mind you, I did like the optional use of keywords where you'd hold down an alt(?) key and the main letter keys would each insert a BASIC instruction (DEFPROC, PRINT or whatever). It was a nice halfway house between the BBC typing from a mag with associated errors and bizarre keyboard twister on the speccy to get the instruction.

Re: Radiation Superstition

Ahh yes, the usual "but that's natural radioactivity" claim that leaves me speechless, as if somehow it's magically different. I can only guess these people deal with blocked chakras and distance healing.

Nuclear is the sole viable option we have at the moment, but we need a stop-gap until the new stations are online - and that would seem to be shale gas (inter-alia).

All the protesters in Surrey also forget that their windmills kill 150 people per trillionkWh (Yottawatt?), solar 440, and nuclear (including all the disasters ever) a mere 90. So, not only do renewables fail in supplying power in a predictable and manageable way they kill more people too. But who'd let that get in the way of prejudice!

Re: sublimation?

I did think that. My thoughts were that he was saying could open a vent somewhere where the water had accumulated and the water would boil into the vacuum. Doing this would cause the water to drop in temperature, and probably freeze around the vent stopping further venting, and possibly locking the vent open. I then wondered if he meant that ice would sublime.

Having the helmet open a little for a short time wouldn't kill him as long as he didn't try and hold his breath which could cause lung over expansion. Mind you, it's desperate times indeed to be thinking it.

It also shows incredible presence of mind to be faced with death in several interesting ways and to think through how to deal with it. Having had a near underwater panic attack when (in training) someone turned off my air cylinder in space, alone, it would be on the next level (or ten).

romanes eunt domus

Re: maybe we should follow suit..

Google does have UK registered companies, it is just playing the same jurisdiction hopping game it plays with tax simply because it can.

Eventually people will wise up, I hope, to the crass invasion of their privacy that Google wants, and they will simply stop using it. Only I doubt it. For example today I saw a new popup thingy on Facebook asking me to put in my e-mail and e-mail password to see who in my contacts list was on Facebook so I could connect with them. It saddened me to see that apparently five of my "friends" had done just that, handing over to Zuckerberg their entire inbox.

I keep trying to stop using Google for searches, but the problem is it is simply the best engine there is. RIP Scroogle I miss you.

Re: If I don't need ...

@Danny 14

I was about to type the same. It's invisible, and gets it right.

Most of the motoring shows bang on about not being able to turn the traction control off, despite most drivers not being good enough to drive without all of the aids on and humming. It's the same here, for most situations I am not a good enough driver to thing "er, RWD, no FWD, ehhhh, AWD" and press buttons.

Can my XC70 do all I need? Could my old A4 Quattro do all I needed? Yes. And I live on a farm. Down a muddy track. Off a side road that never gets cleared unless we get a tractor out to do it. Could a proper SUV with more user-controlled-stuff do better, well, yes, but I don't need it.

I think I am one of the few AWD owners that actually drives on mud and slurry on a daily basis. The car just deals with it (as did the Audi beforehand), just as it deals with being on the motorway. I can deal with just doing the basics. It's all I am good for, again the meatsack is the weakpoint.

If you are a highly skilled driver that can think faster than the computer then yes, there's a point. But most drivers are nowhere near good enough to do that.

Re: Singularity?

They probably read the comments on youtube.

Reminded

I was reminded of Millennium 2.2 and Deuteros from the Amiga. Ian Bird, what happened to him?

It's weird just how fast something that big moves, it has an orbit just under 8 hours. Even at proper speed that's darn quick across the sky, horizon to horizon.

Re: Anyone remember BBC micro?

@Charles Manning

It saddens me in a way that today's children will never have the experience of holding a microphone to the hissy mono TV speaker and recording things like this, usually to discover it didn't work at about the three minute load point because you'd moved it and added a "pop" to the sound.

Or even doing the same during Top of The Pops. Did home taping like that really kill music?

Re: Fundamental error?

@AC 07:03

I see the "out of memory" point, but why not just tell the user that after [X] pages the pdf will be written (e-mailed, whatever) and a new one started? Thus freeing up the memory problem.

Surely even at compressed there must be a page limit the memory can take, it's just you'll reach it sooner with uncompressed.

The problem here is the action - to COPY, scanning has a different user mindset. A significant number of users will have grown up with old-style not-scanned-but-copied copies, and therefore have a reasonable expectation that the copy will be just that. In the good old days unclear copied numbers would be a mess (8,9,6 often being the culprits) I knew they were wrong because I couldn't read them, or I had doubts from the quality of the copied digit, so I'd go and look at the original. Now, I can't tell at a glance, as all the numbers look as clear as day because they have been OCRd and rendered in a nice, clear font.

Re: Good Luck

mmmm bacon...

Indeed

The quote to me reads that by definition the telco must know the number I dialed in order to make the connection, so I have no right to expect them not to know the number. It's a bit circular, but makes sense. It does not mean I dialed using their equipment, so they can eavesdrop on the call.

Your mail analogy is correct, I understand the post office needs to know the address to which a letter is sent. Often there's a return address outside the envelope, and by disclosing that I accept that they can link sender to recipient. I do not expect them to open all the letters, read them, insert appropriate advertising leaflets, make a note of some keywords "for my convenience" re seal them and then deliver them.

Google need to know how to route an outgoing mail, so I have every expectation they can see/read some form of address. Not the content. Of course, the T&C say otherwise (but I doubt it was shown in a big font in red underlined on the first line of the T&C and in plain English, but not using gmail I wouldn't know.).

Re: death and taxes

Which begs some questions:

1) why buy bullion? Why not put it in a bank, she's below the insurable limit. Or if she wants a commodity backed thing, buy a derivative which can't be fenced

2) Why put it in her own safe? With that much banks offer a pretty good and secure safety deposit box scheme which would be well protected and insured

3) Unless the safe was cut open, why tell her boyfriend the combination?

I realise the case is between her and the insurer, but she could equally well go after her (I assume ex) boyfriend and his cronies to recover the amount, if he has the funds to cough up.

The fear of the insurance company is partly "your boyfriend has hidden the gold. You'll get an insurance cheque, and then the gold back too."

The insurers are saying something like "you voided your policy by either conspiring in the theft or by being an idiot and telling nefarious characters how to access it, thereby not taking sufficient care."

Re: Chats with Cook

Not really, more the opposite.

The driver behind it is mostly about limitation of liability, and ease of transference of ownership. As a shareholder you have a barrier between you and the company's problems (so if the company were sued to oblivion, you pay no more in, for example). If you were a partner in an old-style partnership you are personally liable. As a partner if you want out, the partnership has to buy you out, which can be a pain in the neck. Likewise if you die it's a pain. With shares the name on a piece of paper changes and the two parties agree a price independent of the company.

It's a separation of ownership and control, which is fundamental to how this works.

Having shares gives you ownership, but not control You grant control to the directors of the company, and every year get to vote on their continuance in office or otherwise. That is how you get your direction of the company.

The other way is to say "I don't like the direction CompanyX is going in, so I will sell my shares and invest in CompanyY whose direction I like".

Of course, if you own a lot of shares it's likely you'll get direct access to directors as they know you can have a big influence come AGM and director re-election time (or just dump shares and crash the share price, which causes them and other shareholders some pain).

Re: If they haven't removed anything it's a service patch...

@graeme leggett

It may well be that they are trying to catch the "don't buy until SP1" crowd, and trying to make it sound bigger than it is with ridiculous Apple-esque secrecy/hype.

The thing is, at least I think, is that MS is stuck in this October-or-bust mode to tie in with corporate accounting and budgeting, while trying to say this is all about consumers who in the main have no such constraints. The secrecy/non-technet rubbish is so they can continue to code the release up until release day, as it's likely most upgraders will download (no physical media to press) and those who haven't bought it yet will wait and see if it's going to be good enough for their needs.

Remember, it's only new sales Balmer cares about. Upgrades, no revenue stream there.

Re: Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Father Ted: “Well, we’re not all like that, Niamh. Say, if there’s two hundred million priests in the world, and five per cent of them are paedophiles, that’s still only ten million.”

Re: The Persys

Indeed, just checked the forecast - low level thick cloud until further notice, so sometime in 2017.

Re: I wonder

This was the premise of the clippers, such as the Cutty Sark, fresh, fast delivered tea was better. As it turns out, no there's no depreciation in quality so all that effort was merely misguided marketing.

Tea leaf taste does vary, so each tea manufacturer employs tasters and blenders that get samples of the tea from the ships, blend it all in clever ways until they get the mix that matches the taste of Tetleys, PG (insert brand here). Then that mix is sent back to the production line, and the leaves are mixed on a huge scale.

I'd always thought we were an equal-opportunities bunch of haters myself.

Re: I use CAPTCHAS

Can bots get around pictures?

So, for example rather than an obscured word I get a picture of a herd of cows and am asked to type in, in English, the singular of the animal/object in the picture. There could be quite a lot of pictures to pick from, and not necessarily animals.

Just a suggestion.

Re: DAB? I'll just get out of my car first...

I did consider getting an iPod sized one to plug into the car's audio "in" jack so I could get the cricket back while driving.

Even that is expensive - £50-£100 for one, and I don't know how good reception would be stuck in the glove box where it would live, tuned to its one lone station sipping power from the 9V socket.

There is a Pure one that rebroadcasts the Decoded DAB as FM for use in a car. How nuts is that? I need a radio to turn the radio broadcast into another radio broadcast so I can listen to it.

An aside, why have car makers dropped AM and LW from their receivers?

Re: Hang on there Cheetah...

"I think you will find that humans and chimpanzees shared the same ancestor at one point.

We didn't evolve from chimps, they are simply our closest living cousins. Humans share about 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees."

Yep, indeedy.

We share a common ancestor with modern day chimps (common and ever-shagging-but-still-endangered bonobos) about 6 million years ago (about 250,000 generations, giving rise to a whole new category yo great-great....great grandmother's so ugly jokes). It wasn't a chimp and it wasn't a human, its population split into the two genuses pan and homo.

We actually share a common ancestor with every living thing on the planet if you go back far enough.

Your 99%DNA quote may be correct; we share an incredible amount of DNA with most things, it's just how evolution works. You can see this in some proteins. I think one of the cytokines is identical (or near as dammit) in every living thing on the face of the planet.

Or even G. Hey, a signal would be something.

@GarethPN

"I would be tempted to switch, if I hadn't already bought apps for another platform."

An interesting observation. I wonder how many users of iOS/Android feel the same. If I had spent a serious amount on iOS apps I'd be reticent to switch away from iOS to any other OS for the same reason. As Apple was in there first in a big way, I wonder how Google has managed to overtake. Is it because it was hitting people who didn't have an iPhone already, or was there some "buy App X on iOS and you get it on Android too" licensing? Not owning either, and having little interest in such things, I wouldn't know.

But, the thinking for MSFT could be that it cuts a deal with developers to say that if a user bought (say) Angry Birds for iOS they could use the same license to download it to WindowsPhone, cancelling the iOS license. MSFT could pay the devs a subsidy for a while until it had a critical mass of users, which should encourage some positive feedback loop.

Re: Surprised...

@Minophis +1 for the Spaced reference.

Re: That Times article ...

Outright lies in quite an uncomfortable-to-read font (typeface? I have no idea what the difference is) at that.

I'm just happy to see we're not wasting money on this guff. Oh, wait.