* Posts by ratfox

3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

Lumia sales fail to set world alight

ratfox
WTF?

Lumia top-selling phone?

[citation needed]

Ofcom maps out what 'psychics' are allowed to do on TV

ratfox
Trollface

It is how still fine...

To show a Christian mass on TV.

Neighbours not Liking Facebook's new campus

ratfox
Trollface

There goes the neighborhood! etc.

Maybe they should install a toll charge for transit vehicles?

Oracle hammered as hardware sales soften

ratfox
Joke

It's okay

The legal department is going to be more and more profitable going forward.

Tempt tech talent without Googlesque mega perks

ratfox

I would like to point a difference between Google and JP Morgan

Google and Facebook do not ask applicants to already have 5 years experience in Hadoop. They know that people can learn.

Google needs a very thorough frisking, say antitrust senators

ratfox
Angel

They have a point

As much as I like Google, and as much as I think they are not unduly pushing their good products over other people's crap, they certainly are in a position that could allow them to do so.

Samsung hauls Apple into court over emoticon patent :-(

ratfox
Facepalm

That would be patent EP1215867

There cannot be many patents that contain a table with examples such as (^3^)-* or (o)(o).

It does seem that the iPhone's emoticon keyboard (yes, there is one) does something very similar to what is described in the patent (for once quite easy to read).

Of course, maybe the discussion should rather be about why a patent was granted on such a system. /sarcasm

BT's gift to Google: A patent war over ads and Android

ratfox
Stop

They check? I doubt it

In the US, over 100'000 patents are granted each year. That is roughly 400 patents per work day. Assuming you can read a patent in five minutes, that is eight people who do nothing but check patents. And somehow they have to know what the whole company is doing and find out if this particular patent is breached ­– which should take days of work to a patent lawyer to have an opinion on. Now tell me again that there are companies who check for all possible patents they might infringe upon.

It does not help that patents are generally written in a language that engineers do not understand:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/13/microsoft_employee_patent_ignorance_is_bliss/

So realistically, it is impossible to both have the engineering knowledge to create a new product, and the legal knowledge to find out on what patents you are infringing; even though you can be almost certain that no matter what you do, you are infringing on some of them.

Zombie Microsoft antitrust case shuffles to retrial

ratfox
Facepalm

Oh God

The system needs to change. I don't see how it can keep working if juries are expected to make a call on things that happened FIFTEEN years ago.

Nearest supernova since 1986 blasts boffin off her chair

ratfox
Angel

It's a miracle we exist, innit?

See title.

The Google Review: Now Speak Your Brains

ratfox
Stop

Producing a product

You cannot ask for that, especially with pharmaceutical companies. Very often, small companies can develop a new product, but do not have the infrastructure to produce and sell it in any profitable way.

Nokia lightens Dark Knight with Batman blower

ratfox
Trollface

Q: Why were only 40 produced?

A: They did a study of the market demand for Nokia WinPhones beforehand...

Woz's key to success: Burn the tie, wear T-shirts to work

ratfox
Trollface

Sports team?

An anti-creative force?

...I am smelling bad memories from college.

Wikipedia simplifies article editing for world+dog

ratfox
Boffin

What about equations?

The current use of LaTeX practically ensures that the contributor has to have a university education in a hard science...

Windows Phones message hub hit by killer SMS

ratfox
Trollface

Exclusivity?

You feel that having a rare phone makes you special?

...Sorry, but it feels like you are compensating for something. What are you trying to prove to yourself?

Higgs boson hunters have god particle in their sights

ratfox
Joke

@You mean: Obligatory reference

"One million electron-volts is not cool. You know what's cool? One billion electron-volts."

Nokia exec: Young fashonistas 'fed up' with iPhone

ratfox
Trollface

This is called the Coué method

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."

Man fights felony hacking charge for accessing wife's email

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Intellectual property? *snort*

I guess married couple cannot claim invasion of privacy, so they went to the next level. I'm surprised they are not charging him with infringing the copyright of her password.

Tablets to outship regular notebooks by 2016

ratfox
WTF?

Ultra... book...?

What is this new species?

Secrets of the asteroid belt: Vesta actually more like a planet

ratfox
Boffin

Whatever

I would prefer not to be marooned off of it.

Boffing boffins create 3D map of orgasmic female brain

ratfox
Happy

That was hot

Best tagline ever

Google set to begin appeal against Italian guilty verdicts

ratfox

If it comes to that...

It will be far easier for the company to leave the country altogether. After leaving China, I doubt that they would hesitate for Italy.

Swiss insist file-sharers don't hurt copyright holders

ratfox
Angel

Yes, as long as...

You manage to steal food AND live it where it was at the same time.

RIM swallows $485m charge to clear PlayBook tablet mountain

ratfox
Unhappy

Poor RIM

I wish them well, but I don't have much hope.

RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook rooted

ratfox
Coat

"unleash tool to penetrate tablet"?

That's all you can find? Come on, I'm sure you can do better than that!

Apple files avatar automation, emotion patents

ratfox
Mushroom

Here we go: Prior art! Not novel! Stupid USPTO!

Yadda yadda yadda

PayPal founder helps steer super geek cruiser

ratfox
Meh

This article would be better with a link, and if possible a picture of the cruiser

Yes, I know Google exists, but I would like the journalist to do the effort for me. I'm selfish that way.

FCC slams AT&T and T-Mobile union

ratfox
Joke

Seriously?

The merger was not going to create jobs after all? Colour me surprised!

Mars rover Curiosity autographed by Obama

ratfox
Alien

Is this really a good idea?

DEAR CLARA MA,

I AM THE WIDOW OF DICEASED LAAAPR14, RULER OF VICTORIA CRATER. I AM CONTACTING YOU ABOUT A SUM OF 1,000,000,000 (BILLION) ZPTS LEFT TO ME BY MY HUSBAND BEFORE THE REBELS INVADED OUR GIANT CAVE....

Yahoo! and! Sony! tuck! into! interactive! multimedia! ads!

ratfox
Unhappy

Paying people to watch ads

Somehow, this feels wrong in all kinds of way...

China overtakes US as world’s biggest smartphone market

ratfox

"People know what is smartphone and how to use it thanks to Apple"

"The iPhone is kind of a catalyst for the Chinese smartphone market."

Honestly, I would say it happened the same way in US when the iPhone first came out.

iPhone 4S is for failures who work in coffee shops - Samsung

ratfox
Go

Beat me to it

I hope to see more ads like this one — in both directions!

Russian diplomat caught driving while 15 TIMES over booze limit

ratfox
Pint

Your data is too old

Switzerland went down to 0.5% years ago.

ratfox
Pint

Well, obviously...

We need a new unit: One Russian diplomat = 3g/l.

For instance, Guinness has an alcohol rating of 14 Russian diplomats.

FCC slips dagger into AT&T, T-Mobile merger

ratfox
Stop

I have yet to hear...

Of a merger that created jobs.

Rumoured iPhone 5 'will have 4in screen' against Jobs' wish

ratfox
Devil

£50 says it is bullcrap.

Any takers?

Microsoft and Samsung uncloak slimmer Surface

ratfox

I started reading, thinking this was about a tablet

...Until my eyes fell on "45kg". Quite a shock. That said, it looks cool. I want it to work like that thing in the last James Bond, though.

Oi! BBX is ours, software biz tells RIM

ratfox
Facepalm

BASIS International? Who?

Actually, the name of their product is BBx, not BBX, according to its Wikipedia page that has been updated like 20 pages since its creation five years ago. Real famous product. We can assume this lawsuit will only benefit a handful of lawyers.

H6242 – Kill all the lawyers

Google adds 24/7 support for business Apps buyers

ratfox
Go

Good, good

The less money in the pockets of M$, the better.

Mystery radioisotopes in Czech air are not from Fukushima

ratfox

"did not think that the amount of radioisotope in the atmosphere could harm people."

AIIIEEEE! RUN FOR THE HILLS! THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVITY!!

Five years of open-source Java: Freedom isn't (quite) free

ratfox
Flame

Java is free and you can use it as you want

But if you are successful with it, expect a call from our lawyers.

Yelp update ridicules Republican (ex)-hopeful Rick Perry

ratfox
FAIL

Easy to understand

Merkins Republicans are desperate to find a candidate — any candidate — that is not Mitt Romney. So they acclaim every newcomer, put them in front of the polls, then realize it is an even worse evil, and let them disappear.

So far they have done this with Michelle Bachmann, Donald Trump, Rick Perry and now Hermann Cain.

AND everybody knows the whole circus is useless since Obama will get reelected.

Now Russians can't even contact their busted Mars probe

ratfox
WTF?

The craft is INSURED?

You can INSURE something that you send to Mars and will never come back? Insure against what?

If I was the insurance company, I would be crying foul on this one. "Oh, sorry, all the expensive insured equipment on the probe is going to burn in the atmosphere now. Why yes, of course it was really in the probe. No, sorry, you can't go there and check."

US doctors demand right to advise on gun ownership

ratfox
WTF?

Why would doctors advise people on guns??

It's like having the mechanic at the garage advising you on kitchen recipes... Guns are a safety issue, not a health issue. Do they also give tips on how to drive safely?

...I take it these doctors are paid to the minute? And much more expensively than a gun safety instructor?

Apple agrees to replace dodgy MacBook power cords

ratfox

So the problem exists

I was going to ask, because I had never witnessed it. I guess you must start your own lawsuit in your own country, then...

Results in on why life, the universe and everything exists

ratfox
Coat

42

Duh.

Barnes & Noble complain to DoJ over Redmond nobbling

ratfox
Go

Good for Barnes&Nobles

I hope we finally get to check how many of these patents stand up in court.

Adobe confirms mobile Flash Player's race is run

ratfox
Thumb Up

Flash is dead

And Apple killed it. Go Apple!

By the way, an image search for "apple killed flash" returns a cool result.

Apple trains store bosses to ignore deal with unions

ratfox
Trollface

Apple must be quaking

I'm sure it's going to be hard to find other employees if those threaten to leave... What with the low unemployment and all...

A tenth of Chinese farmland polluted by heavy metals

ratfox

Isn't rather the point...

That once they are junked, the damage will be lesser?