* Posts by ratfox

3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

New 'iPhoD' can 'adjust the speed of light by turning a knob'

ratfox
Boffin

You phail physics phorever

Sorry, (2) was only ever true in space. Light is significantly slower in materials that are transparent but dense, such as water or glass. This is why light refracts when going from one medium to another.

That's how lenses work.

Ex-spook jailed for selling secrets

ratfox
WTF?

Only 12 months??

I'm really surprised here. Ok, so he would not have hurt anybody directly, and anyway he failed. But still, I would have assumed that such a breach of trust would be punished more severely in these circles.

- M doesn't mind you earning a little money on the side, Dryden. She'd just prefer it if it wasn't selling secrets.

- You have the wrong man, Bond. If M was so sure that I was bent, she'd have sent a double-0. Your file shows no kills, and it takes...

-Two.

Jobs moves to the heavens with Apple TV

ratfox
Jobs Halo

Eeeh... Now that I think of it, it does make sense in the long term

As the whole planet becomes wired, any logical observer would laugh at the idea of having millions of copies of the same movies stored all over the place in various formats, when it is much simpler to store them in data centers and stream them... If Apple's timing is correct, they will have a huge role in this. I feel awed, suddenly.

Sooner or later, people who want to have their own physical copy will sound out of touch. On the other hand, it will take a while. I'm not going to get rid of my 300+ books and replace them with eBooks anytime soon. Physical copies are here for at least 30 more years... But maybe not much more.

Cyber-jihadists deface home of teddy bears' picnic

ratfox
Thumb Up

@AC

Welcome to planet earth! This is called catharsis... Recommended by all psychiatrists!

.XXX domain deal stripped bare

ratfox
Thumb Down

Yeah, great idea

I propose the new TLD .usr, for all websites which have users.

I am the only one who can sell these domain names. Registration is $300, of which $100 will go to user protection organizations. I keep the rest, of course.

Game-addicted man scores rare win over software lawyers

ratfox
Thumb Up

good

The judge's argument is IMHO completely valid. The fact that the lawsuit is frivolous is irrelevant. Hopefully, the lawsuit will fail due to hilarity, but the power of EULA will fade...

Microsoft wins wants right to appeal Word patent ruling

ratfox
Troll

Patent troll

No sympathy for Microsoft, but this patent is ridiculous.

LG touts 'surprisingly productive' iPad killer

ratfox
Thumb Down

Useful... without a keyboard

I really doubt that a pad without a proper keyboard can ever be something people want to do serious work on.

The iPad was a SOMEWHAT logical move, after Apple noticed the way many people were using iPod Touches to surf the web or play games. Making it larger does make it better to surf, play, or watch videos.

But claims of a productive pad runs directly against all the comments found on this very web site: a laptop or a notebook is way more useful.

Short passwords 'hopelessly inadequate', say boffins

ratfox
Flame

My worst experience

I was lucky enough to use a web site of the French government that lets users choose a password. Considering this was a government web site, and for an important purpose, I chose carefully a rather high-level password.

The web site then happily sent me an email, with the line: "so that you do not forget it, this is the password you choose:" followed by the password, in clear, in a simple email.

Wankers.

Wikileaks double dares Pentagon hawks

ratfox
Thumb Down

"they refused"

Assange seemed to have a very particular way of asking for help checking the documents. He says that the Pentagon is "trying to bankrupt Wikileaks" by refusing to help checking the documents.

What I understand from this is that he basically told them:

"We will release the documents, filtered or not filtered. You want them filtered? The filtering will cost Wikileaks a lot of money, so please kindly send $$$ to the following bank account..."

It would be difficult to get closer to blackmail than this

HP boffin claims million-dollar maths prize

ratfox
Stop

Pure mathematics? Not quite

The question of P vs. NP stands quite firmly in the domain of APPLIED mathematics, thankyouverymuch. Pure mathematicians do not deal with this kind of dirty Turing machines-type questions. Why, it is almost computer science!

'PatentGate' allegations denied by Apple

ratfox
WTF?

I still don't get it

Isn't it that Apple is trying to get a patent on a certain type of apps, by giving as examples apps that ALREADY EXIST and have been created by OTHERS?

Is it not something called prior art? Supposedly not patentable?

Deadline for Germans to hide from Street View

ratfox

Do Germans really care that much?

I guess we are going to see... My hunch is that apart from a few vocal people, Germans give F... all, like the rest of the world.

Of course, the opposition already has an excuse ready: They all happened to be on holiday for the same exact month they were supposed to register.

Google experimenting with spy drones, says German maker

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Unfair competition

Shirley, this is unfair competition for the Reg's own PARIS?

Google, Verizon deny secret FCC end run

ratfox
Alert

Hair raising

I don't know if the New York Times story is true, but the idea of paying for giving priority to your data makes me really uncomfortable. This could easily lead to high-speed delivery for rich corporations web sites only, and 9600 baud modem speed for everybody else. Google can easily pay a million a week so as to offer a speedy youTube, but who else can? Especially among newcomers?

At least, Google is denying any such plans... for now. But I'm going to be jumping at shadows for a long while.

And I did see at least one article (Henry Blodget on Business Insider, may he rot) stating that "of course ISPs Should Be Able To Charge Higher Rates For Premium Traffic", on the lines that "pipe companies" have spent billions on infrastructure, they should be allowed to charge anyway they want. Lovely.

Feds admit storing pervscanner pics

ratfox
FAIL

Funny how this keep happening

Google street, and now this...

Though in this case, they can at least plead incompetence and clicking the wrong option. Google would have more problems.

Want to use WD diagnostics? Buy Windows

ratfox

That is honest

I understand that a company would want to simplify drastically their support to windows only, it undoubtedly saves a lot of money. They also lose customers, but they probably decided it was not worth the investment and effort. AND they are honest and straightforward about it.

Hotmail upgrade finally reaches 350m users

ratfox
Thumb Down

350 millions *accounts*

But how many are used?

As in, not just to register on web sites you don't want to give your real email to?

Or just to be able to use Microsoft Messenger?

I have two hotmail accounts that I use for these very purposes... And I never read the inbox.

I never could forgive hotmail for regularly sending me spam emails about its "features". The messages precised they were "part of the service", and that I could not turn them off (!)

Liberal Google, Yahoo!, Apple hurting America claims Reagan

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Wow

For everybody who prefers giving $34.95 to a true republican, rather than $0 to a pinko commie company like Google.

Wikileaks publishes encrypted 'insurance' file

ratfox
Happy

password is...

SWORDFISH

It always is SWORDFISH.

Street View spooked by 10 Rillington Place?

ratfox
Black Helicopters

Most probably...

The current owners asked that the picture be removed...

Ah, who I am kidding. OF COURSE there is an international conspiracy behind this!

'Death to browsers!' cries Apple mobile-app patent

ratfox
Flame

I want to scream

Yet, I like Apple.

This is an attempt to take something that has been done for years on the web, put an extra-thin layer of originality on it, and patent it as an app. Why not go ahead and patent "everything that has been done on the web, but not yet on a cell phone app" while they're at it?

Considering so many apps are a simple copy of a website, I really hope the patent office decides that processes that exist on the web cannot be patented as an app. But anyway, Apple will be able to scare off developers for years with the words "patent pending", even if the patent are ultimately rejected. And who knows, they might even be granted...

Insert long list of swear words.

US carrier tailors 3G jacket for iPod touch?

ratfox
Jobs Horns

Will that really work?

Without an app that would be automatically disallowed by Apple?

Apple fanbois not as data hungry as Big Phone says

ratfox

Dogbert

"My market research indicates that 50% of your customers are above the median age. But the shocking discovery was that 50% were below the median age."

This could be one for the tautology club...

Apple releases multi-touch 'magic' trackpad

ratfox
Thumb Up

Might be nice

When I had a Dell laptop, I used to plug in a mouse whenever I could.

Now that I have a MacBook, I am happy using the multi-touch trackpad.

It does make a difference.

I am not sure the Bluetooth part is useful, though. How often do you need to recharge?

I already have too many gadgets to recharge.

US legalizes jailbroken iPhones

ratfox
Pint

telephone handsets?

So it is still forbidden to jailbreak the iPad, then?

But my thanks to the Librarian, may he receive a cartload of bananas!

ratfox

Yep

That made me blink for a while, too

Canadian flyboy prangs CF-18 Hornet

ratfox
Unhappy

Video blocked

Youtube says: This video contains content from CNN (Europe), who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

Huh. What is it exactly that makes CNN block a video in some countries, but not others?

London bike hire scheme suffers pre-launch wobbles

ratfox
Thumb Up

Works fine in Montreal too

And they are expanding to Washington DC

In the beginning, they had trouble with chavs destroying the docking stations to get the bike, but that seems to have stopped. Either they got sturdier docking stations, or chavs got tired...

Possibly the world's most pointless review

ratfox
Pint

Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz

121 pages of reviews on Amazon so far.

Apple, Google, NASA, and the Rainbow connection

ratfox
Thumb Down

"Nationalism is an Infantile Disease"

Good to know that we will soon get rid of egoism, since it is also a mere infantile disease... Will Apple start licensing its patents for free, too?

Always nice to see that people with so much money are so high-minded about the moral failings of others...

Zuckerberg admits working for man claiming Facebook ownership

ratfox
Thumb Down

Fake

Who would imagine a contract with 50% plus 1% per day after due date?

The guy had Zuckerberg's signature, he figured he could just photocopy it on something else.

Phonemakers cry foul on Steve Jobs 'We're all alike' attack

ratfox
Jobs Halo

experts... pah

I would be extremely careful before saying Jobs is wrong on PR. Apple controls its PR to insane levels, and people usually beg for it (remember the iPad wait?)

Steve Jobs death-grips iPhone 4 reality

ratfox
Jobs Halo

Steve Jobs is dead??

"Steve Jobs death grips iPhone 4 reality"

I tried to make sense of this title, but I could only come up with "his death grips the reality of the iPhone 4". Subject, verb, complement?

Gay teen mag closure sparks privacy fears

ratfox
Joke

Nah, that's all right

It was delivered with a fake cover titled "Horny bondage girls"

'Russian spy' was MS software tester

ratfox
WTF?

Hang on...

How do they know he was a spy? The fact that he was a Russian, and illegally in the US?

If so, I believe the US have a very large number of spies in their country... mostly, Mexican spies.

Consumer Reports: 'We were wrong about the iPhone 4'

ratfox
Gates Halo

They still say it is the best

The iPhone 4 is still the highest rated cell phone, according to Consumer Reports. Even if they do not recommend buying it.

A theory is that Consumer Report has found that Apple bashing attracts a lot of readers...

Famous 'Invisible Gorilla' trick vid gets sequel

ratfox
Happy

Did not see the gorilla

It might help that I did not read the article before looking at the video...

Life on Earth gets wiped out every 27 million years, say boffins

ratfox
FAIL

Statistics

I doubt any statistician was involved in the publication of this factoid. A statistician would have pointed out the existence of the Poisson process.

Blizzard climbs down on real names for WoW forums

ratfox
Thumb Up

Good for them

Not that I have the time to play any more, much less post in forums, but I do want to keep my gamer life as little obvious as possible, thankyouverymuch. I find perfectly normal that most people want the same.

Miniature Apple display spotted in the wild

ratfox

I would say a back screen

The kind you can use on Nokia(?) phones to know if you are taking a picture of yourself or of the ceiling with the phone camera.

...Except that now that the iPhone has a front camera, it seems kind of useless. For taking high-quality pictures of you, maybe? (the back camera is better than the front one, right?)

Of course, it is also more useful on flip-open phones, because it acts as an outside screen when the phone is closed. Maybe Apple will have flip-open iPhones, now?

A touch pad might just be possible, but not a track pad - way too small for the appletastic pinch-and-sweep moves.

There is also a good chance that it is a prototype that will never see the day.

Apple bars radiation nanny from App Store

ratfox
Paris Hilton

Holy...

Excuse me, I need to code a few apps as soon as possible...

...cosmic rays... hartmann network... dowsing... hmmm... natural waves...

There. Four apps for these people who are born every minute!

Apple patent seeks to reinvent retail

ratfox
Flame

The hell you do

"We give examples (which may or may not have prior art), but the list is not complete. Which means: any idea that has not explicitly been used or patented yet belongs to us."

I will put a patent on "cool stuff like personal space ships and time travel." The list is not exclusive. From now on, anybody with a new cool idea will have to pay me royalties.

And THIS is what patent lawyer use to sue companies??

Blizzard exposes real names on WoW forums

ratfox
Thumb Down

No posting for me, thanks

Well, it does not matter to me anymore, since I have not played WoW for about two years, and never used the forum anyway... But I certainly would not want my future employers to Google me and find 1000+ posts on the WoW forums.

Fusion reactor eats Euro science budgets

ratfox
Pint

Wow

Makes the LHC look cheap, with only 7 billions Euros or so...

But what wouldn't we do to support the economy?

iRobot Roomba 581 robot cleaner

ratfox
Terminator

Is this the Reg or what?

No mention of the Roomba open interface?

Of the Roomba-controlling hamster?

Of the Roomba with an airsoft gun?

Apple, AT&T slapped with iPhone 4 lawsuit

ratfox
Flame

Bloody trolls

I believe it is the first time a telco is sued for failing to provide appropriate coverage...

But I am sure they have already legal words in their contracts to deny any responsibility or liability when you cannot make a phone call.

I am not a fanboy, but some lawyers belong to the flames.

The long and the short-term of it: Apple's future

ratfox
FAIL

Oh really?

"This isn't to say that the markets are right in these valuations, but to point out that they can only be explained by people being long term in their estimations of these values...."

That is the ONLY explanation? Wow. And here I was thinking that it could be a bubble, or that people could be buying because they are fanboys, or because they hope it will go up in the next month (and it likely will)... Good to know that the market always acts rational!

Beware of people who say there is only one explanation for anything in the stock market...

Obama Twitter hacker avoids jail

ratfox
Thumb Up

Lucky guy

If he had been in US he would have been convicted for high treason, I assume...

Venus home to lost cities left by long-dead aliens, says ESA

ratfox
Happy

Well, if Al Gore is right...

At 2 degrees higher temperature per century, earth will be like Venus in only 20'000 years