* Posts by Tim

182 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Sep 2007

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Ford shows off e-van concept

Tim

Zero emission?

It's only zero emission if the leccy comes from wind/solar/squirrel power, which most of it doesn't. And that's ignoring the energy use in manufacturing it in the first place too.

Surely a CEO should know better. Perhaps to make up for it he will publish how many kwh it took to make it, as that would be really interesting.

Tim#3

Etailer flogs signed Jade Goody biog for £1,000

Tim
IT Angle

Took me a while...

Couldn't spot the IT angle initially, presumably it is ebay. Though it is kinda stretching it.

If the site is going to have a "seen on ebay" feature perhaps other readers might be entertained by the listing for item 150323844720. Jolly rad indeed.

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Brit nuke subs exposed on Google Earth

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GCHQ

GCHQ looks rather nice. Perhpas somebody there who is reading this would like to invite me over for a tour.

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North East to get £30m e-vehicle re-charge network

Tim

More jobs for East Anglia too

Hopefully this increases the chances of Sizewell C being built.

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Dominican lad suffers six-day stiffy

Tim

@Naich

That reminded me that some years back a friend (honest) reported that he had suffered an unwanted, er, uprising during a hospital appointment and the nurse gave him a glass of very cold water. Moments later she very sternly said "you weren't meant to drink that".

Sony shows off wacky fuel cell designs

Tim

Interesting

Can anyone work out what size the "radio" ones are? I thought they were keyfobs for a moment but surely not.

A couple of other points- firstly the "scales" one appears to have an open dish of methanol on top; but methanol does tend to evaporate very quickly. Methanol also generally presents quite a fire risk, as not only is it rather flammable but it burns with a colorless flame, so you cannot see the fire too easily. On the positive side, these do look pretty cool, I wonder how much methanol they consume for each kwh? Oh, is methanol taxed?

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UK censors revolt against 'pornalone' ordeal

Tim

Reducing the chances

If they are genuinely concerned of this problem, er, arising, they should resort to the time honoured method of placing a couple of photos of smiling relatives on top of their be-grumble-flicked tv.

Out of curiosity, do they actually get paid for this job? And does anyone happen to know what job agency they use? A friend of mine may be interested, you see.

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Samsung unsheathes screaming phone

Tim

@ Teecee

Somehow I read that as Karaoke. I wonder if a Dunstable Blue Oyster Cult Karaoke Night would ever catch on?

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Lads from Lagos crack cabinet minister's webmail account

Tim

@ceedee

I like how they sent the plea for funds for his repatriation to "hundreds", and one replied. Maybe they should ebay him instead, it might get a few nonsense bids at least.

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Pro-Heathrow demo challenges Carbon Cult killjoys

Tim

Good for them

Tis good to see both sides of the argument being supported.

As for 3% or 6%; has anyone found the current stats for UK's CO2 output? They seem oddly hard to find- I did find some that showed transport at 18% but gave no breakdown of the other 82%. I also found some that, interestingly, showed our total CO2 output was much higher in the 1950s than it is now. Facts please! Oh, got any water vapour stats while you're at it?

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Irish cops tripped up by Prawo Jazdy dragnet

Tim

Oops

You can but imagine the Polish drivers trying to stop themselves grinning as PC Plod writes that down.

Though it looks like they needn't have worried anyway, going by this story:

http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED19%20Feb%202009%2008%3A55%3A04%3A220

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Fake server beats real server on Web test

Tim

Overhead

This provides an ideal means to calculate the overhead to run VMware; 10% better performance achieved by using 100% more ram and 800% more storage. Presumably that is what they are trying to tell us by publishing this.

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Satellite-hacking boffin sees the unseeable

Tim

@ feeds are good

My mate does that too, not only cos it is free (though the motorised dish & receiver was about £700 installed) but it means he can watch the games without any of the commentators or pundits crapping on ceaselessly. Co-incidentally, he can also get several free channels of bella 24/7 Italian porn in HD over the same system.

Brit, French nuke subs collide - fail to 'see' each other

Tim

Er,

Why don't they fit them with a bell?

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Rogue fishing skipper faked own death

Tim

How long???

Six-and-a-half years seems pretty strong for what appear to be a load of paperwork offences which nobody sappears to have suffered from, and is a sharp contrast to the 6-8 year sentences that were recently given to Rogel McMorris, Jason Brew and Hector Muaimba, the rapists and disfigurers of a teenager with learning difficulties.

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Hospital boss slams patient records system

Tim

Hmm

Another crap project deliver from the government, I wonder if this is down to them using the slow and cumbersome Prince2 methodology to deliver them. Moving over to PMP would fit in better with the rest of the world and create a saving by immediately closing down the OGC.

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Colonel: US Army has working electropulse grenades

Tim

Seems odd

If you're close enough to use a hand grenade, why would you need an EMP device anyway?

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IDC confirms PC chip sales have fallen off a cliff

Tim
Pirate

Unsurprising

I feel there are 2 reasons for the drop in; firstly (and obviously) the depression/recession/credit crunch is having an impact everywhere, secondly it is the price of PCs; I'm in the market for a new dual core PC at the minute but not even ebuyer have anything under about £250. Manufacturers keep upgrading models unnecessarily and trying to prop their prices up that way, while if they concentrated on dropping their prices they could sell more volume at a smaller profit and retain the overall level of profits. This is how supermarkets can do you a DVD player for about £10 and a digital tv recorder thing for £80.

Oh, if someone knows somewhere that's flogging dual core PCs for less then do let us know.

Pirate cos Paris like pieces of 8.

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Scotland to battle grey squirrel invaders

Tim

@ Robbie

Check the comments to this article

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/03/rip_playmobil_inventor/

hopefully, she doesn't shoot messengers

Tim

@ Pete James

May I point out that they are kind of cute and cuddly, indeed I have a stuffed one on the desk near my PC. Well it's cuter than a lettuce, or most veggies. Come to think of it, are there any cute veggies?

Howcome nobody has mentioned the danger that squirrels represent (I bet the Daily Mail has)... for instance if you are standing under a tree trying to shoot them (which believe me is not at all easy), when finally they get in the way of a small hail of lead that you were aiming in their general direction, they descend at a quite alarming rate and could probly cause a nasty injury, or at least a headache, if you didn't step aside smartish.

Yep, foxes then rabbits next, then cats after that.

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Wacky Jacqui Smith says whole country crusading against CCTV

Tim

Beyond hope

Is it really the case that the likes of Gordon, Alastair, Jacqui & Harriet (did you hear her on Monday on R4???) are the most intelligent and capable people to run the country?

So, how does one go about starting a revolution?

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Google faces post-Fleetwood Mac comedown

Tim

F..k me

I've read better things in the Guardian

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Parcelforce website cold-shoulders Linux lovers

Tim

Every cloud...

I tried to use their website last month on my XP/ Opera browser combo and discovered that they don't support that. So I tried Parcel2go and not only do they support it fine but they only wanted £8 for my shipping compared to Parcelforce's £25. Nice & quick too, they actually sent it DHL next day rather than than the 2-3 day service quoted.

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El Reg pays tribute to father of Playmobil

Tim

@Lloyd

Thats's an excellent find. Did you check out the reviews too? I particularly liked the sentiment expressed about the need for this product that "Sometimes it's a hard lesson for kids to learn because not all pigs carry billy clubs and wear body armor. "

Tim#3

Tim

Well done

An excellent tribute - got me giggling over my chicken sandwiches a treat. Thanks guys

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Swindon embraces 4th generation

Tim

Swindon?

Isn't that where Cable & Wireless are based. Spooky eh.

On a different note, howcome this story

http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39391135,00.htm

hasn't appeared yet... saving it for the Playmobil?

Amazon probed by US Mail

Tim

odd company

USPS lost a lot of business (well I stopped using them..) when they dropped offering surface mail, which used to be a well priced alternative for non-urgent items as well as being more environmentally sound than airmail.

@ Bo, would you kindly not remind us Brits of those gas prices. Diesel here has dropped from £1.25 a litre all the way to 99p, which is not quiet 60%, and our govt and oil companies are keeping the rest. The British public will not complain about this however.

Finally, may I congratulate somebody on the headline, that shoudl be awarded the Littleton Prize.

Blizzard of smut cuts off Council websites

Tim

Gutted...

Sadly, I can report that the Norfolk County Council website returns nothing interesting for porn and merely a tiny bit of scat. What do we pay our council taxes for?

Tim#3

Tories choose sub-prime beard for maths post

Tim

@ Martin

Del Boy as the new chancellor of the exchequer? By this time next year we'd all be millionaires.

Though frankly it would be hard for him to do a worse job than AD (hasn't that VAT cut refreshed the economy a treat?). Sad to see the Tories are scraping the barrel of cheap PR too, it's a shame that Gordon doesn't have a decent opposition. Could someone get a larger & more united party behind Nick Clegg maybe?

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American Stereotype™ walks Google's mean Street View

Tim

@ Bassey

Surely it hasn't been photoshopped... as if you follow the link to it direct on Google then there the gun is still. Unless I'm being dim & am unaware that people have write access to Streetview to enable them to photoshop stuff. Which would be a whole lot of fun, come to think of it.

Oh, have we had either (a) the roadsign hacking story which is doing the rounds (e.g. http://www.thevine.com.au/blog/tobler1/iz-in-yr-box-steeling-yr-worningz.aspx ) or (b) any playmobil?

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Extreme pron vigilantes are after you

Tim

link

Would it be possible to include some captures of that site? ... our webpolice are unlikely to take a friendly view of people trying to access extremeporn.org.

However, maybe it'll be ok if I do it during lunch. Ham n mozarella sarnies today, btw (possibly aka the last supper).

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Paris Hilton correctly identifies UK Prime Minister

Tim

Hmmm

Is TV really this desperate to fill airtime nowdays? May I suggest they would get better ratings by placing me with 11 cute girls (we'll skip the other chap) and I will give them various "tests" to perform too.

Oh, I suspect this, er, story will pop up again on Friday. It will be interesting to see where the Somali pirates come into it

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US mulls clicks for cameraphones

Tim

Nokia silenced

Following thorough investigations I can report that my Nokia 6070 has a option of camera sounds. These are now set to off so I'm heading out for an evening of upskirt thrills. However, I must hurry up and get to the skirt shop before it shuts.

Oh, has anyone else noticed their mobile pictures always have part of a thumb visible on them? I presume it is some sort of biometric feature.

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Gov announces Severn tide-energy scheme shortlist

Tim

Concrete & the environment

Would these barrages be made from concrete, by any chance, and has the cement industry resolved the problem it had yet with the creation of vast amounts of CO2 as part of its manufacturing processes? If not I feel its use is inappropriate.

However, is climate change blamed on water vapour instead of CO2 nowdays? If so the above is pretty irrelevant, oops.

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Facebook-based privacy campaign to spam Wacky Jacqui

Tim

C'mon, it is Friday

It is bad enough that for some reason it is impossible to post comments to the story "DABetamax shop boosters 'could break the law'" (unless I'm being particularly dozy, which is possible as lunch was an all you can eat job, with a sazzy polish waitess too, hubba hubba), so I turn to a Jacqui Smith story with all due expectation of a full blown Playmobil fest. What a disappointment. Surely it is not another credit crunch cutback infringing on our chortlespace?

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@1hr 26mins to go

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eBay revenue shrinks for first time in history

Tim
Paris Hilton

@ Repo

I think you are pretty much spot on there. The numerous changes and charges (and don't forget Paypal's involvement in that too) have really pushed away many sellers, resulting in it being left full of thousands of items of dreadful new tat. It is quite a shame, as the environmental benefits are very high of having a marketplace where unwanted items can be traded for reuse, instead of sending them for landfill.

Paris, cos she sheds a tear when the buyer pulls out.

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Suffolk braces for 300mph winds

Tim

Pah

Us Norfolk types can cope with a little rough weather. Though I will make sure that it is safe and warm indoors for my wife and sister. She does feel the cold after all.

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Scotland's porn laws: Can we talk about this like grown-ups?

Tim

Underground

The Scots do have strange approaches to legal issues; I was rather baffled that much of the evidence from the inquiry into the Dunblane killings had to be locked up under their

McSecrets Act for 100 years.

Hiding things & making them illegal only tends to make them go underground and become a more widespread and sinister problem.

Tim#3

Google AdWords: 11 herbs and spices revealed

Tim

Hmmm

Does Adwords reply to the main search results or the advert lines at the top and the rigthtframe? The nature of Google’s search results often seems rather odd to me; I always understood that results were primarily selected by the number of links pointing to them, however when searching for a given item or product the primary returns are often ebay items, which I can’t imagine many other sites would contain links to due to their temporary nature (ok, there are shites like ciao and dooyoo which just seem to act as link farms and would).

Personally, I try to use CUIL for searches nowdays, it seems to be improving well and has several things going for it. Shame it doesn’t have a “pages from the uk” function, but then Google’s one doesn’t work too great anyway,

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Belkin boss 'extremely sorry' for cash-for-good-reviews plan

Tim
Paris Hilton

@Nursing...

You'd probably be better off on the Angling Times website, you hooked a couple of beauties there.

Meanwhile, howcome Belkin came clean now- openness or they got caught? For bias-minimisation, my personal Belkin shopping score: Puchased 1, Broke down within warranty 1. Replacement still working 1. IIRC I had to pay the postage on the returned item though.

Paris, cos she got caught out & made a huge profit from it too

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The Vatican tempts the YouTube generation

Tim

Hmmm

This sounds like it'll be exciting. Maybe they'll include some footage of the young pope in his nazi uniform, that should increase the site's presence and, er, lebensraum.

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UFO wind turbine prang site: Exclusive photos

Tim

Excellent stuff

I can see some of these pictures being photoshopped & blurred then appearing on various ufo/conspiracy websites shortly.

Oh, those are chipboard screws, clearly the aliens are looking for a fresh supplier of cheap furniture following MFI going bust. Just stick a sign to the nearest Homebase on a 200' pole & they'll cease bothering us.

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Retired army generals: Spend Trident money on the army

Tim

@ Adam Foxton

Very well said sir.

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Pioneer calls a halt to LaserDisc hardware production

Tim

Domesday Project

Apparently the Domesday Project wasn't on LaserDiscs, but Philips Laservision; far more info about it here.

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/25.44.html#subj7.1

On a more interesting note, I was always of the impression that VHS won the battle from LaserDisc due not only to it's ability to be used to record things but also due to the availability of Pr0n on VHS. Does anyone have any evidence to the contrary; i.e. a vintage LaserDisc grumbleflick?

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First Windows 7 beta puts fresh face on Vista

Tim

Corporate use of Linux?

Out of curiosity, is anyone aware of a company which has actually moved away from MS to Linux for it's main corporate network? Not that I know much about Linux at all, I should add.

I wonder if this is now increasingly likely; say MS drops support for XP (and requires around £300/user for new W7000 licences). Businesses will have to do something, not least because auditors will require management to not have an "obsolete" OS in place. It would certainly be essential to explore all the options for replacing XP, after all any upgrade project from XP to W7000 will not be simple anyway, and would almost certainly require widespread hardware replacement.

p.s. what's the options instead of Exchange- Lotus Notes, Novell, er...

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UFO damages Lincolnshire wind turbine

Tim

Hurry along...

I'm eagerly awaiting amanfrommars' views on this.

Meanwhile, does anyone know what a overheating wind turbine brake looks like? Any chance it would appear as a "round, white light with a slight red edge to it that seemed to be over the wind turbines" ?

Oh, chicken sarnies for lunch today, with mozzarella & tomato pie. Very Islington.

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US smutmongers want big bucks bailout

Tim

Hmmm

Can't help admiring their cheek (fnarr fnarr, yack).

So, where's the UFO & wind turbine story got to, any chance it'll arrive before lunch?

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'First algae-fuelled airliner flight' takes off tomorrow

Tim

Carbon?

Howcome we're still banging on about carbon, I thought I read that atmospheric water vapour was more to blame for global warming.

BTW, could we have a couple of obsessive green nutters to contribute to this discussion, I need some post lunch entertainment. Ham n pickle sarnies & steak pie today, BTW.

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Council to crack down on Cracknuts Lane

Tim

Some don't even need defacing...

Sluts Hole Lane, in Besthorpe, Norfolk for one

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Happy New Year y'all

BT to be freed from service obligations

Tim

VDSL

Hmm, If BT are less involved then maybe there's the chance we will get VDSL at last. Though it will be obsolete by then I guess.

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