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User: rosbif

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  1. ..because, of course, the carriers do it so well.. on Google Faces Deluge of Nexus One Complaints · · Score: 1

    If I hear the phrase " your call is important to us" while waiting for my carrier to answer their helpdesk number for hours, I'll go even crazier......
    IME, most carriers run a bare-bones operation and expect callers to give up. That's of course if you can get through over the networks which seem to have unexplained outages. And when was the last time that you got a refund for lack of service...?

  2. Re:Remember... on Geek Travel To London From the US — Tips? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't forget, you can always get a passing ragged urchin (you'll recognise them from the bow legs due to rickets and the sooty covering from sweeping chiminees) to take your message to the nearest telegraph office for a farthing.
    One other thing - you must never mention the name Dick Van Dyke in London, otherwise you'll be hounded by a baying mob with pitchforks and faming torches

  3. A great step (hop) forward for robot comedians on Giant 'Leap' for Robotics · · Score: 1

    At last robots can do the Pete'n'Dud unidexter sketch - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Leg_Too_Few

  4. Re:Oblig Simpsons [ii] on Robotic Wellington Boot Thrower · · Score: 1

    ...I for one, welcome our new welly-chucking overlords.....

  5. Re:Always FOLLOWING Microsoft ! Think NEW ! on Red Hat Wants Xen In Linux Kernel · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Hardly - M$ are rehashing stuff thats been in VMWare for eons

  6. You mean the proper pronunication..... on Primer · · Score: 1

    There's no such thing as British pronunciation. There's English pronunciation which includes "received pronunciation" sometimes referred to as "BBC English" (think Wilfred Hyde White), but also includes "Estuary English" (think Madonna), cockney (on no account whatsoever think Dick Van Dyke), "Scouse English" (think the early Beatles), and so on. Then, in deference to our celtic compatriots, there's "Glasgow English" (think anyone with 12+ beers inside them), "Welsh English" (think Catherine Zeta Jones before she went Hollywood) etc.

  7. Re:Pronounced with a short "I" on Primer · · Score: 1

    Cor blimey guv, doncha kna that real cockneys are born within the sarnd 'f Bow Bells which are the bells of the church of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London (nowhere near Big Ben bell which is in Westminster). Garn, for' we chuck our rotten teeth at ya......

  8. Re:Not really on Colossus has been Rebuilt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ah, the Dick Van Dyke theory of England (for those not aware, DVD played a cockney chimney sweep in the film "Mary Poppins", thereby setting back UK-USA relations a few decades)
    1. Most people in England do not have computers based on 486s - I'd be surprised if it was more than 10%. I would suggest that low end P4s are in the majority
    2. Any PC with a serial port can read a paper tape with a suitable paper tape reader attached (I've done this in the recent past)
    3. Better than a kid whinging on about things that he doesn't understand.

    BTW, I think you'll find "mates" to be an Aussie soubriquet, rather than an English one.

  9. Re:only 15miles and 4mbps ? that's nothing on 15-Mile Wi-Fi Shot At 4 Mbps Up and Down · · Score: 1

    ...only in '99
    I was working on a project in '89 (yes I do mean the eighties) that did 13klicks with spread-spectrum radio boxes - admittedly, this was prior to 802.11 standardisation and the interface was the size of a house brick.....but still

  10. Obligatory heavy metal reference..... on UK Testing Wireless Broadband Via Airship · · Score: 1, Funny

    ....so if these things have status lights would they be LED Zeppelins.....?

  11. Ain't never gonna happen... on Buzz Advocates Lagrange Point Spaceport · · Score: 3, Funny

    Imagine the scene in the White House..

    NASAGuy: Mr President, we'd like to set up a station at one of the Lagrangian points.
    Dubya: Lagrangian - sounds like one them cheese-eating surrender monkeys - that in France?
    NASAGuy: No, Mr President, its in space
    Dubya: Oh, wherebouts?
    NASAGuy: Well, sir, its at an imaginary point between the Earth and the Moon
    Dubya: So it ain't real?
    NASAGuy: No sir, its a stable point determined by the relative gravitational attraction of ......oh, the hell with this...it's in Irag..sir
    Dubya: Well why didn't ya say so - let's go

  12. Look out for the black helicopters..... on Imagine A UN-Run Internet · · Score: 1

    ....tho' I can't see how they can fly them down those broadband pipes, no matter how fat they are...

  13. Re:Can't trash the opposition on Apple G5 Ads Banned In UK · · Score: 1

    Maybe back in the 1980's this was the case - I seem to remember a change in the rules on adverts about that time. Lots of examples in current UK advertising trashing the rest of the market - especially in "financial services" (is that an oxymoron or what...)

  14. Re:stupidity on The Case for the Moon · · Score: 1

    Running breeder nuclear reactors on the Earth's surface would be like inhaling tobacco smoke on purpose.....oh, wait....

  15. Re:Relative quantities on The Visual Display of Quantitative Information · · Score: 1

    You mean something like this - http://www.powersoften.com
    or this
    http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projec ts/how -much-info/datapowers.html

  16. Re:Rule Engine Frameworks on Jess in Action · · Score: 1

    Theres quite a bit out there using commercial software such as JRules (http://www.ilog.com) - big bucks tho'. I've done a couple of projects in the finacial sector using JRules and it is very good when you have a set of business rules that change frequently (yes, even faster than the build time of a slashdotter project....), or in the rare instances when your users are clueless..........

  17. Re:Good database design is still essential on Bitter EJB · · Score: 1

    No it isn't - not for EJB designers.
    RDBMS design should be done by DB experts, not by domain-level programmers, otherwise, you start getting bleed-through of either "proper" DB design into the domain ("we don' need no steenkin' normalisation") or domain structures into the DB (equally awful). What is needed is an clear architectural separation of the object and persistence designs from the start, with a suitable binding or mapping (choose your own flavour) between the two. Yes, this will not be as efficient as a stright-through design, but unless you building in a very constrained environment (and how many of those use full DBs?) you can just turn up the wick on the silicon.

  18. Non-Outlook mail clients? on E-Mail Controls in Office 2003 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So when will they release details of the encryption scheme used so that non-Outlook mail clients can be used......? I'm not holding my breath.

  19. Now lets see.... on The Step-By-Step DIY Approach To The X-Prize · · Score: 1

    Armadillo = bunch of ex-games developers who have managed to lift a couple of bits of scaffolding pipe to a couple of thousand feet.....
    Scaled Composites = bunch of aero engineers with 20 years plus experience, including round-the-world flight (Voyager) who have already test flown the actual vehicle to 46,000 ft ....

    Not to put the Armadillo guys down, but like writing software, you need a bit of experience in the field (...stands back in expectation of flames...)

  20. Re:Life Imitating Art? on NASA Flies First Laser-powered Aircraft · · Score: 1

    In exactly the same way - they turned the sail around so that it faced the sun of the system they were aiming for and used the solar radiation from that to brake (well, they would have if those pesky humans hadn't interfered....).
    BTW, is Niven due to release anything new soon? - he seems to have dried up a bit

  21. Re:Such a waste of money on Mars Sundials - True Colors, Ambiguous Hours · · Score: 1

    I think you'll find:
    Halley's Comet - rock around the Sun
    (Bill) Hailey's Comet - rock around the clock

  22. Re: Well, not releasing everything on Slashback: Bouncing, Taxing, Releasing · · Score: 1

    Can we say "the common good"?
    The BBC (leaving out any brand promotion issues) is providing content which may (or may not, depending upon your understanding of UK culture) improve the general availability of knowledge. This is in line with what MIT are doing by putting their curriculum on-line.
    (BTW, someone explain to me why non-Brits find Benny Hill so funny.........)

  23. Re:Where was this guy in 1944? on Skydiving Across the English Channel · · Score: 1

    ....It acutally turned into a rather big debacle as many of the gilders did not perform well.....

    Actually, old boy, the first crucial action of D-Day, the taking of Pegasus Bridge over the River Orne, was accomplished by a British glider force. Yes, some of the soldiers did get killed/injured on landing, but that's what tends to happen in war (despite what the Pentagon might tell you)

  24. Microsoft analogy.... on E.U. Agrees To Launch Galileo Satellite Location System · · Score: 1

    This would be like someone developing an alternative desktop operating system to the great and good one given to the world by Microsoft....wait a minute....d'oh...

  25. I know that Ant is a flexible build tool.... on Ant Farm PC · · Score: 1, Funny

    ....but this is taking things to a whole new level.....